Author's Notes:
Behind on work, going to studies now. Edit later.
The world surrounding him turned bright yellow, almost as if the sun had set and cast its last rays upon his immediate vicinity. The feeling of something rushing into his body, a burning hot sensation rushing through his bloodstream. It was a feeling he always had before blacking out and waking to the calamity that the demon wrought upon the place.
Except this time, he felt full control over his body. His vision seemed to improve dramatically to the point that night seemed like a bright sunny afternoon. Some primodial spectrum of sight. He felt the weight of his gear almost disappear off him and the kukri that Vasu used to push him to his knees he flung it in the air causing it to impale into concrete. Vasu threw a punch while he caught out of reflex, stunning the former with the sight of his strength being countered.
His clench crushed Vasu's knuckles until he the later lost the ability to use his left hand briefly until it recovered. It gave Ajay the advantage when Vasu went hand to hand with him in a fist fight with the absence of his blade. Little did Vasu know, that fist fights were Ajay's specialty, he learnt it too late. As whatever punches or kicks he dished out were countered and followed with a bruise from a punch or chop to a part of his body. He couldn't measure the pain he experienced with fighting Ajay on his own. Pain that echoed in his memory though his body healed, it caused a scar in his psyche.
(Bang) (Crunch) This was the third time his fist struck his jaw and sent some teeth flying out. Vasu swayed from left to right like an exhausted boxer for Ajay to deliver the finishing blow.
Ajay launched a kick to his gut which sent him flying into the wall and breaking it with his body molded into the concrete, shrapnel of broken concrete flew from where he impacted. The sudden shift in that balance of power caused the Golden Path fighters to worry, if Vasu and Jason failed then he would be upon them next.
In this moment, he turned towards Jason and proceeded to attack him. "Oh shit-." He felt a deadly crisis hang over him as he blocked out of reflex to a swing that would have decapitated him that instant. Instead, he escaped death at the cost of his hand. (Crack) "Arrgh! Damn…" And begun retreating but was cornered when Ajay disappeared from his view entire. He quickly scanned the surroundings to look for him but a blow struck him on the back and he fell face flat into the dirt. Apparently knocked out.
"Phanish, status." Ajay called out to the Captain who was sitting on the floor stunned. The visage of the blood tearing demon crushing the deva and snow white in such a brief time was all too new. A sight which Phanish would commit to memory long after he retired from the army.
"U-uh-…. Multiple casualties and depleted air defense munition! The ammo will hold out but we're experiencing shortage of men to protect every sector!"
"And the PDF?"
"Held up at Bastion three, I've kept a platoon of- Look out!" Ajay neatly dodged a swing from Vasu whilst bringing up his kukri pommel on the former's wrist, sending a sharp crack that resounded the compound."
"Aaaarrrrgghh!" He wailed before dropping to his knees the same way he did to Ajay just moments before. Ajay slammed his fist into Vasu's jaw to drop him, some teeth were shattered again. But knowing the devas, they'd recover from almost anything in an instant.
Ajay grabbed the nape of his neck and brought him towards him.
"Tell me, Vasu. Have you ever thought of dying?"
Vasu's response was a jab with a hidden blade towards the artery in Ajay's neck, now that their proximity was close. (Cling) A set of teeth clamped onto the tang of the knife and wrenched it from his grasp. He spat it away, and sent a solid punch to his temple. Vasu's head toppled and bounced against the harden floor, shattering the brick.
Now, he had captured himself two of the most wanted men in Kyrat. Yet Ajay was isolated from the authorities and facilities to incarcerate them.
"GOLDEN PATH!" Ajay roared to the top of his lungs. Suddenly, all of the offensive forces stopped their attack and looked in his direction. The Golden Path had successfully entered the premise of the central keep and even lowered the draw bridge to allow for their troops outside to enter.
"How much do you treasure your Deva to piss off?"
Ajay raised an unconscious Vasu by the hair of his head for all to see. IT was clear that he had overpowered the Deva and Jason Brody who was next to him lying on the floor next to him out cold.
"Badala you coward!"
"Demon spawn! Don't you dare!"
"Let him go!" The frantic fighters shouted to discourage him from killing him.
Ajay placed his kukri and ran it across Vasu's face causing a line of blood to appear. Although it instantly healed, but to the fighters he was disfiguring him.
"How many Devas do you have left? I haven't being keeping track. Vasu might become my number two kill to mount on a wall after this." He pressed the knife against Vasu's neck.
"You devil-." A random fighter shouted but was cut off by Ajay.
"I AM THE ONLY DEVIL HERE! So you'd better be reasonable with the next words that come out of your flapper or you'll find another reason to rethink your actions!" His words were for them to chose their next words wisely, but for them to shut up mostly.
They took a few steps back and waited for some higher authority to negotiate. And one such person appeared, one that Ajay was familiar and yet unfamiliar with. The Golden Path and Yinke Commando sea parted for their messiah. Walking forward gallantly and calm, it gave the fighters some hope in the dire situation that could cost them the strongest strategic asset to their force, a man worth a thousand.
"Badala, demon of the north, duke of Lakshman. The demon of Lanka. The titles go on and on, yet we've never met even once. Despite our line of work." Mohan spoke in a friendly way.
"And I to you. Although, you're wrong about having not met before, you just wouldn't remember. But then again, you hardly resemble any of the qualities of the former Mohan Ghale of Golden Path. You're just a hollow will of the former." The Golden Path and Royal Army soldiers were baffled with what he said. He claimed that Mohan wasn't Mohan?
"Is that your interpretation of me? I don't blame you. So much has happened since my absence, my only surprise is that the Golden Path endured for so long. It is a relief." Mohan cancelled out their anxiety by passing it off as his assumption only.
"Is it?"
"So what can I do to get back my general which you've take hostage."
"Not the response I expected, I would have pictured everyone that didn't belong here to get out." Mohan chuckled at his response.
"This fortress can no longer be called yours with the current situation."
"Then it'll belong to no one if that's the case." It meant that he would demolish it and everyone to prevent its use, Mohan understood that as well.
"Truly. But then, you'll be faced with the dire situation of having to repel our might and that of our younger brothers-in-arms at King's Bridge, which would be the last line of defense to the North."
"So I've heard, when did the People's Democratic of Yinke decide to butt into this civil war of ours?" Ajay said as he glared hostilily at the Yinke soldiers who backed off when his sharp eyes landed on them.
"When they adopted the ideals of the Shining Way, a derivative of our Golden Path Swara and Ved passed on to be our legacy in case Golden Path truly failed." Mohan figured it didn't matter at this point to reveal it.
-Shining Way? Sunnova-…..-
Ajay could picture the entire country of Yinke in the image of a governed Golden Path committee, and now backing up their older cousins. It wasn't just the rebel Golden Path they had to deal with but the entire country of Yinke. Mohan saw the emotions from his expression and smiled as he saw that Ajay understood the gravity of the situation.
But it was a custom for Ajay to shake his opponents with the most unbelievable things.
A grin appeared on his mouth and created a second crescent moon above the night sky.
"ahahahaha…..ahahaAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA!" It wasn't maddened laughter to reside to one's fate, it was something more sinister. Like he was looking at pitiful sheep trying to stand up against a wolf.
"Thank you, Mohan."
"Thank you?" A frown appeared on his brows. The Yinke soldiers and Golden Path fighters were equally confused.
"Thank you for giving Kyrat a chance to expand its borders! You have no idea what a great service you've done for your country even though you're a traitor. And thank you, witless soldiers of Yinke! You've just given the Royal Army justification to march into your homeland. I promise you, that for every one of you, your sons and daughters, your wives and parents, your descendants will forever curse your names for bringing the calamity we are about to reign upon your land! Yinke will lose its sovereignty for as long as there is a Kyrati Kingdom to rule over it!" His declaration sent shockwaves through everyone. Royal Army, Golden Path and most of all the Yinke troops whom had a knot tied in their heart at the mention of such an audacious thing. Yet they couldn't shake in their hearts that they had done something truly unforgivable.
"You've gone mad." Mohan replied still calm but not entertained by the words he'd just said.
"Have I? Whatever, you want your brother back, right? I'll make things accommodative for you then. We'll have a ceasefire. Fall back and wait for two hours to pass, then you can continue on with the siege. That should give you enough time to rethink and withdraw if that option ever occurred to you. My word of advise, leave this fortress while you still have strength. But who am I kidding, my words are worth shit to you, so say your prayers while you still have a chance. Whatever areas you've fully secured are your boundaries, you can try your luck at taking more than you should but be warned that my men are rather on the edge today. You've killed a good amount of their comrades and you've also killed some civilians who were their families."
"What?"
"Families?"
"….. (Puke)"
Ajay looked at their baffled expressions and laughed sinisterly again.
"Truly, Golden Path. You cease to amaze me with your blockheadedness. You were lucky to attack early before the scheduled fuel-air bombing of Banapur that would have turned your town into ash." Ajay didn't mind since Mohan did the same in revealing a bit of intel. He evened it out by handing some critical information as well. But his intel was shocking to say the least. It caused them to tremble and some scorn, but mostly they couldn't erase the fear that Ajay had sown amongst them. He stated he was going to annihilate them, and their families from Kyrat. It was words he'd mentioned many times but never acted on, until now.
Ajay kicked the unconscious body of Vasu down the wall to where some men reached out to catch him.
"And what of Jason Brody, our friend?" He asked.
"What about him?" Ajay responded.
"Nevermind. Then its an agreement. We'll wait till the appointed time then." He wasn't sure why Mohan gave up on pursuing Jason's release. Mohan called for all forces to withdraw.
"By the way… when you said we've met before….. I did have the feeling we did." Mohan left him with a close call to identifying him.
Ajay snorted and looked at Jason who was held in a lock by two soldiers.
-So that's how much you mean to them.-
He waved for the two soldiers to escort him into the remaining prison for the time being. They gave him a tranquilizer shot to keep him dormant for as long as possible.
When the last of the enemy forces were out of sight, Ajay collapsed to his knee. The sight caused the remaining soldiers to run towards him in concern.
"Your Grace!"
(Cough) A stream of fresh blood poured out of his mouth through his mask.
He had long exceeded the tolerance level of this new ability to control the wild power in his body. His body couldn't naturally cope with such exerting forces he put it through after it had reverted.
Ajay thanked himself that he could at least hold out long enough to show a fearsome presence to the Golden Path to put pressure on them from invading any further.
Phanish placed his hand around his shoulder in an attempt to support him but Ajay pushed him aside gently to say it wasn't needed.
"I'm fine. What's the status of the evacuation?" That was still their primary concern.
"Seventy percent complete."
"Only seventy?"
"We had trouble initially when they attacked our evacuation trail from Bastion two. We rerouted them to go through bastion three were the PDF battalion has been stationed."
"Alright. Good job at keeping things in check."
"It's only natural, your grace." Ajay nodded in understanding.
"What are our orders, your grace?" The remaining fifty soldiers out of the one thousand five hundred troops stationed in Lanka looked to him expectantly and eager.
Ajay took a look around the battered fort of the central keep grounds and made an analysis in his head.
"We'll withdraw to Bastion three to make our stand."
"But your grace-."
'I know that the central keep is important, soldier. Don't forget who built this place."
"F-Forgive me, my lord." Phanish backed out.
He didn't have a choice, though he repelled Jason, Vasu and the full-on assault from their vanguard. His trait was a one-off at a price that he still couldn't find out what he'd actually lost for full control. With the number of soldiers left, it would be a very short Alamo that would end with a Golden Path victory over Lanka. In fact, they had already won three of the four bastions which were equivalent to three strongholds with internal support systems to go with it. They could replenish their ammo and supplies if they could breach the blast-proof doors to the armories which wouldn't be difficult with the equipment the Yinke Forces had.
"Withdraw your men, I need to get a few things from the armory here."
"Yes, sir! You heard him, let's move out!" Phanish called out to the platoon size strength remaining to get their wounded and any gear they could salvage for their stand at bastion three.
"Permission to speak, sir? Phanish stayed behind for a query.
"What is it? You've earned more than I could possibly compensate."
"Is- Is it true what your grace said… about going to Yinke I mean.-."
Ajay just smiled at him and patted his shoulder.
"Food for thought, not something to be dwelling on right now. You better get going, your men need you and so do the PDF."
Phanish saluted and left.
Ajay didn't dally and went towards the villa where he left the one-way transceiver directly to high command for that one thing he wanted them to do. The Central Keep Armory would have to be visited along the way.
He sprinted to his villa with the little time he had.
-I just hope that Puru and Daya-.- (Skid)
He came to a deadstop in front of his villa and stared at the steps towards the front door.
Lying on it were the bodies of his butler and housekeeper. Puru with Daya in his arms, riddled with holes from where they were made to stand as they were given a firing squad style execution. It was all too clear from the brass casing on the floor and what the two of them were trying to do.
Looters wanted to ransack his posh looking establishment but Puru and Daya stood between them. He told them that if things went to shit, their first priority should have been to evacuate, yet here they were defending their master's home to the death.
He walked over to their bodies and knelt next to them, placing his hand over their faces to close their eyes. All that he felt now was grief and hatred, as his lips bled from where he bit down hard.
"Idiots….. I told you to leave did I?" He said in a sullen tone.
There was little time left after he collected what he needed and visited the armory to take the item which would help in the narrow street-fighting, Kamran had airdropped the bike there as well. But this late in the fight it was of little use than assisting him in carrying the bulky item from the armory. The cranky armorer was grieviously wounded and lying at death's door, handed him the key to his prized item and asking him to swear he at least sent fifth Golden Path fighters his way into the afterlife before departing. Another soul out of the thousands he'd already failed to safeguard in what should have been the most secure facility in Kyrat next to the Royal Fortress.
By the time he arrived in Bastion Three, the PDF were scurrying about to make preparations for their stand.
"Your grace, bad news."
"Go on."
"The Golden Path have blockaded our exit and there are still over three thousand civilians we could not evacuate and are taking shelter in the barrack compounds."
It seemed that Golden Path were truly being pricks, not even allowing non-combatants to leave in this kind of situation. They had become impatient, Mohan had reeled them in from a total victory. But they themselves were unwilling to sacrifice the strongest Deva, Vasu for that victory. It was that kind of hesitating resolve that Ajay would make them pay dearly for.
He'd already made the call to High Command and Arjun to initiate his directive. It was now a matter of how quickly they could send them over. Although the armored battalions were on their way, it was a two-hour journey to arrive. But that was not what Ajay called them to bring over, but he was sure that when it came the Golden Path had only two options. Flee or die on the spot. He could already imagine Arjun complaining and having doubts about following through with his orders due to the nature of its completion and the time taken to get them ready.
Two-hours was their limit, he hoped they'd be here soon to end this.
"Understood, gather your men and the PDF battalions. I'd like to inform them of our current status. We'll talk within the presence of the evacuees to ease their tension just to kill two birds with one stone."
"Yes, my lord." Phanish went his way to gather his men and call in the PDF.
At this moment, Biraj of all people came to him.
"Hey, how was things?" Ajay asked in a friendly tone.
"How was things? Look around you!"
"….."
"Damnit! Why did it have to be today of all days?! I was just two days shy of passing out!" He slammed the wall of the warehouse next to him.
Ajay didn't really have words for the boy. He sympathized with him, he should not have been called out to serve in this kind of conflict or any kind at all.
"I'm sorry."
"Why're you the one apologizing?" He said back with a frown.
"I'm the one who-."
"It's our job as PDF. This was the risk we had to accept would happen one of these days. (Sigh) Forgive my earlier rantings, its just that-."
"Have you finished it?" Ajay asked.
"Only just hours ago. I was about to have a goodnight's rest too when this shit happened!" He took out the canvas rolled up from his jacket. Ajay unscrolled it and had a look.
"Well?" After a moment of looking at it, Biraj was eager for feedback.
"If I were a girl I'd fall for you instantly."
"Ehehe!" He blushed shyly.
"It's good, but I wonder…. If it's enough to break through Bhadra's stubbornness."
"That's not very assuring." He took back the picture. Ajay chuckled a bit.
"Nothing ever is with her. But that's the beauty about her, it's a quality everyone admires, perhaps even you."
"….."
"Why did you fall for her in the first place? It wasn't her looks was it?"
"Of course not! It was-… No. I mean yes! It was those piercing eyes that caught my soul at first. But then it was her attitude towards her life goals that I fell in love with."
"See, if you could just be a little more honest with yourself there's really little not to like about you." Ajay said smiling causing Biraj to scratch his head in embarrassment.
"I'll be rooting for you when we get back. But for now, I need you and you friends in the game for what's about to happen." Ajay said going back to the seriousness of the situation.
"And what's about to happen?" His expression became serious again.
"Golden Path and the YLA (Yinke Liberation Army) are going to attack this place with full force once they've organised. They're going to leave no survivors this time, they want this fortress badly. They've probably realized by now that they need the authenticator keys from each bastion to access the mainframes and all our logistic supplies from the central keep."
Biraj wasn't sure what he meant but it pointed out that the enemy wanted to take this place as well. Ajay was glad that their was such a security measure in place to prevent Lanka's facilities from falling in the wrong hands. Saras had truly outdone her peers when designing such a place.
"Get your platoon sorted out. And follow the rest to the barracks."
"Right." Biraj left with a contented smile on his face from the things that Ajay said about his prospects with Bhadra. He was really looking forward to his new future. He turned around for one more look to find Ajay discussing with Phanish.
Biraj reflected on the events that brought him here. What was his initial relations with Ajay and how it had turned out on its own. He had to admit, he was still a child for thinking of him as a rival for Bhadra. Yet it was as Ajay told him, he should have been more honest about his feelings.
-Ajay Ghale, I'll never forget what you've done for me for as long as I live.-
The assimilation of the central keep was underway with the joint forces of Golden Path and YLA task forces. The scouts reported Badala and the soldiers leave it so they assumed control as it was no longer in the Royal Army's control.
Vasu was placed in the care of the infirmary and in the hands of Vel who had yet to deploy. Vasu came back with wounds that even his physique was struggling to recover from, Badala not only broke his bones but when he cut him he tore through the arteries and veins. If it were a normal person, he would have died from shock. But this was Vasu, unyielding, dauntless, and fearless. As much as he loathed being around her, she promised Vasu would be back to normal after a brief rest. Then she would take his place in contending with the demon in the coming assault on the last bastion.
Mohan stood by the engineering team who were working on the door to the command centre that gave them exclusive power over the features of the fortress. Including the arsenal that was currently empty. Unfortunately, it had been separated from them by a blast resistant door that could probably resist a nuclear explosion or bunker buster bomb.
They fiddled with the console for a good hour already.
"What's the status now?" Mohan asked the chief engineer.
"It's some serious failsafe electronics, if damaged will forever isolate us from the command centre."
"Can it be opened?"
"Not even with our level of expertise, but…."
"But?"
"We've managed to identify a circuit to open it. It requires five keycards."
"Five keycards."
"Probably a safekeep of the Commanding officers of this fortress and one for the demon." His theory made sense, four cards for the four existing bastions to their commanding officers and one to the demon who reigned over Lanka.
"It was likely why Badala felt confident we would come to him to get the last key." Mohan chuckled as he understood the strategy behind his move and found that his negotiation for ceasefire had actually benefited Badala more than it did of them. They were still one step away from gaining full control, but time was of the essence. They needed to establish control before the Royal Army regiments arrived fully mobilized which could be any second, Badala had successfully delayed them this long. He was surprised that only a single helicopter had come to deliver the demon and not the heli-bourne regiments. Perhaps they were experiencing a logistical difficulty in sorties for their choppers.
"I suppose." The head engineer left it to his analysis, he was just a grunt.
As he had time to himself till the appointed time to the end of the ceasefire, he took the time to reflect on what Badala had said. What disturbed him the most was what Badala said to the Yinke comrades, that they would soon march into Yinke. Where did Badala get that sort of confidence that the Royal Army was capable of invading Yinke and contending with several regiments of professional soldiers, tens of thousands of home guard militia and their famous armored battalion, the Republican Guard which had state-of-the-art equipment as was described by Commander Namdak.
Even he felt something cataclysmic could occur. It was like Willis's warning that something was going on in the Uttar Region, something so secretive that the security was high and the Royal Army units would have no choice but to limit their attacks on Golden Path. Which explained why there was almost no attacks from Royal Army harassing their camps and why they'd made so much improvement unhindered. There was no point in thinking about it, he should seek the right people to help him find out.
"Call for Agent Huntley and Lynch over."
"Yes, brother. Um- what should I tell them you need?"
"There's tons of paper documentation in any of the bastion commander's offices. I want them to scurry around and tap the phonelines as well to track record on anything that might appear abnormal."
"Yes, brother. Right away." The head engineer dashed off to call them from dispatch.
Mohan looked in the direction of where the final bastion under Badala's control. He did have a feeling as if he'd met him somewhere, not including the time at the Battle of Lanka where he appeared tearing his brother in half. His mistress failed to give him an explanation on it other than his patron being the very icon of dread in Kyrat.
"An apostle of Yalung? The vengeful asura." His opponent had a demi-god backing him, it almost made him worried of the current circumstances. But his mistress told him that it had been sealed for eternity under the mountain. The only way for the seal to break is if its anger subsides, as if it would ever happen in its case.
Badala was on his own, he was his only defense against their organisations' Devas, him and two individuals who were masters in witchcraft that exceeded human boundaries. But then, there was Darshan, the last inheritor of the Demon Banisher Order. Herald in a bygone era for sealing the every Asura under the mountain. Where was he now? It too was his mistresses only concern to their plan being jeopardized.
"Yo, you rang."
"Lynch, where's Willis."
"He went to the frontlines, after your engineer told us the story he wanted to access their mainframe as soon as possible."
"….." Lynch gazed around and whistled.
"I have to say, this is pretty impressive." He said admiring the structure and layout of the fortress.
"And we were taught that fortresses were obsolete in the age of asymmetric warfare."
"And yet here it was, stopping our army, causing our logistics hell and damaging my mens' morale."
"That's because you lacked the one thing that made fortresses and trenches obsolete all the way back in the first world war."
Mohan cocked his head thinking and then realized what he meant. Why Lynch had asked Sanjeev to organise the destruction of the Air Defense batteries.
"I called in a favour with some pals of mine at Shahbaz. You better tell your boys to bring umbrellas 'cause its raining shrapnel and gravel."
The Command staff were busy dispatching orders to their secretaries and subordinates, Arjun was no different.
Then that dispatch from the comms centre came. And the entire room quieten to not a single word said. Arjun read the script and the codes being keyed in.
It was the message passed via transceiver by Badala. In its encoding was the authorization to launch the Agni initiative. It was read by Layak to the personnel in the centre before Arjun took it to confirm.
He knew that the situation wasn't looking good in Lanka, Kamran had sent a brief summary of his findings. But that was over an hour ago, things had changed. And Badala of all people was the one that called for it. He of all people knew of the effects it had. But it also meant that Lanka was at the verge of fall or worse.
"It's his authentication codes, so why delay?" One of his brigadiers asked anxiously.
"It isn't ready."
"It'll never be ready so long as you say it isn't. This is Badala who called for it, and you're going to withhold it now in the direst of situations because it can't operate at full capa-."
"Don't lecture me on what I already know! Don't forget who was the one who drafted it!" Arjun yelled at him to quiet him down.
"Then send in the orders."
"…." Despite the persuasion, Arjun was having doubts about enacting with the initiative.
Mostly because with the appearance of the YLA forces in Kyrat, and that he was unsure of it wasn't just Yinke that was on it. Perhaps it was an alliance of their neighbours, Papir Republic and the Kumsa Kingdom. Then he would have no cards left to show in the coming fight with Yinke.
"Arjun….. my boy is in Lanka." The Brigadier looked at him with pleading eyes. Arjun had met the young officer during his routine trip to Lanka. An exemplimary officer that showed courage and promise, qualities that would prove useful in their defense no doubt.
"Layak."
"Sir?" Arjun sighed, it had come to this point where it couldn't be kept a secret any longer.
"Send Commander Rohan the dispatch. Proceed with the Agni Initiative, be in Lanka by twenty and no less."
"Thank, Arjun." The brigadier thanked him.
"No worries. I just hope they reach there in time before Lanka is truly lost."
"Don't worry yourself, Arjun." The Brigadier patted him on the shoulder, his mood brightened considerably.
"My boy won't damage the Kul household name. And with Badala there, the Golden Path can only stare at the walls."
Arjun nodded in understanding. With good soldiers and officers and the demon there, it should not pose so much of a problem to hold them off.
"Sir, immediate dispatch from SADEC!"
The air defense department had something to report.
"What is it?"
"A single air target, IFF are US markings, radar blimp gave a signature about the size of a cargo plane."
"Where did it come from?"
"West, from the Pakistan border."
"Them again."
"They're not responding to our hails when they were out in the open. Unfortunately, they've gotten behind the mountains so none of our surface to air missile can target it again."
Arjun was confused, what was the cargo plane doing all the way out here. But what if it wasn't a cargo plane that was coming over.
"Send your findings to Rohan to dispatch the appropriate units to deal with it. Destroy it on sight."
"Yes, sir!" The Comms officer dialled in on his phone to inform Commander Rohan
The Golden Path had forced their hand in revealing the workings of over half a year. Worth Billions of dollars in spending and requisitioning of equipment from foreign suppliers by the tonnage. His daughter did him proud in building the site in less than three months to reach operational capacity and another two to get the support facilities up and running. How Badala was able to pay for most of the subsystems with money not from Pagan's pocket was beyond him. He did hear that he had several private enterprises and bank accounts in Switzerland to manage his funds. This was what Longinus told him over a cup of tea one day during their discussion about the arms flow from the Jackal his associate.
And now, it was time for Golden Path and the Himalayas to know why the Kyrati kingdom would reign over it and its neighbours.
Arjun had just declassified the S-program.
After enduring three days through the cold of the mountains. They'd finally reached the warmth or rather coolness of the lowlands. They were now in the Northern Lands, for the marines it was their second time here. Sergeant Grilles led them through the quickest route to their destinated location. Truth be told, they'd never been to that region. The last time it was in the Southern Areas that was now marked Lakshman by the local signboards. Dominic took with him only the stalker personnel and himself that represented the CNS operatives.
Their views towards the marines and they to them were considered neutral, no one was getting on eachothers nerves. Especially with the situation at present for both of them, in fact it was mutual disaster so they could understand one another. The marines broke off from their unit and the CNS operatives were nearly stranded in this area by the day one attack by Badala.
That man might not be a military genius but he knew the fragility of the human mind. His moves were always terror inducing, in the hopes to break his opponents' spirit and discourage him from making moves due to hesitance. Fortunately, Dominic was quite familiar with this tactic from previous excursions to Africa, there was only one other person that used it. The category L individual known as Jackal. He might not have seen him fight, but he saw the mess he made.
Badala's fighting could probably come close to what it would have been like, that's why it reminded him of the Jackal.
"We've reached, let's take those photos and GTFO." Dane told him.
"Right." They traversed down the mountain side they made camp so as not to alert anyone to their presence. To be caught here behind enemy lines was bad.
"You have that satellite phone ready?" Grilles asked.
Dominic took it out to show him.
"Keep it with you, Willis and Lynch will need to know about it as soon as possible."
"Since when were Jarheads now the CIAs pets."
"Since never, actually that's not true. We're always involved in black-ops, those damn white collars use lives to further their careers."
"So why work with them?"
"Because my superior tells me so, because those shits are the only ones with the authorization to act overseas. The list goes on."
The conversation was going nowhere so they stopped and proceeded on through the checkpoints on the GPS and avoided the patrols that passed every minute. Whatever was in there was something serious big and they didn't want snooping around. Thankfully with their therma-optic camo, they could sneak pass the armed guards and avoid their thermal cameras. Dominic was surprise that thermals were a troop implementation around the Royal Army. Whoever was funding it was really procuring serious hardware for the grunts.
They lay at the ridge to the site after the passing through multiple layers of barbwire and checkpoints. What lay before them when climbing the ridge and taking out their binoculars was a sight that made them totally reevaluate the Royal Army all together.
"Jesus Christ!"
"Oh fuck! The Golden Paths had it now."
Both Fredrick and Dominic confirmed the sight and took their photos without hesitation and packed their bags.
"Can you call Willis now?"
Dominic tampered with the phone.
"Negative, the mountains are interfering with the signal we'll need to get up and se-(siren blaring)"
Klaxxons went off from the checkpoint near them. Their cover was compromised.
"Shit!"
"But how?"
Grilles tapped the ridge and dug a bit with his hands to find disks under them on the ridge.
"Ground sensors. They know where we are so let's split!" They moved in an orderly fashion to get out of the area which had been flagged since they sat down. Kudos to whomever built this place with such scrutiny.
As they were running through the forest with the Royal Army guards hot on their trail with what appeared to be hooded warriors. Grilles was familiar with who they were and pushed them to keep going instead of fighting with the Royal Army Hunters. Their trail and scent had been locked on to and they would never let go of it once found.
Just then shadows roared over their heads but not after them. The silhoettes disappeared over the mountains with their noise trailing behind them.
"We're so fucked!" It was a sentiment for the second time, Dominic shared with Fredrick.
