A/N: I do apologize for the slow updates, finally got some work and a surprise promotion meant that I haven't had time to write. Chapters are going to come out slower, but to make up for that, I'll try to make them longer.
Chapter 17: Four-to-One
The group couldn't close distance with the dragon, the wounded animal still thrashed in its dying throes, craving massive tracks in the dirt. The mass amount of victims inundated the two combat medics, forcing most of the troops to assist with the triage, only the vehicle's weapons systems stayed manned to watch over the beast. The men and women worked tirelessly to aid the wounded, the medical supplies on hand dried up almost immediately. Open and closed fractures, flailed chests, massive blood loss, and of course, large tracts of blackened, reddened, and blistered skin, only cries of agony and pain could be heard. The sheer amount of injured Saderans meant that anyone too far gone were to be abandoned in favour of those who stood a better chance of surviving.
Itami placed his radio headset down back into its slot with a heavy heart. Standing up and stepping out the open Humvee door, he paused, digesting the information he was just given. There would be no mass CASEVAC, no more medical supplies, and there would definitely not be an evacuation for refugees into the UN's care. The Lieutenant was barely able to negotiate for a convoy of trucks to retrieve the wounded and leftover personnel. He walked back to the triage area, still slightly zoned out on the idea of having to leave hurt people behind if they didn't fit aboard the incoming transports. He looked out into the lines of wounded, his troops rushing back and forth in hopes of keeping the civilians alive for more help to arrive. Even the LAV crewmen had jumped out and were stretcher-bearing, moving casualties closer to the medics. And now, a lot of their effort would be in vain.
Mari looked up from a young girl she was packing for transport, the child's small chest caved in and pushed back out as she breathed, her eyes clenched shut in pain and fear. All the ribs had broken upon impact with the ground, the broken rib segments moving as the lungs filled and emptied, forming a flailing chest.
" Lieutenant, when is help getting here? We are barely keeping the ones here alive, not to mention the injured the stretcher-bearers are still bringing in," Mari spoke quickly in Japanese as she finished tying off the bandages and stood up to shift onto the next casualty.
Itami could only reply with " soon" as he continued to walk along the lines, counting the life-threatening injuries as he did. Mari had already forgotten about him, focusing on a new casualty a team of Canadian soldiers had just scrambled in.
Glints sparkled over a far mountain, catching the attention of the men still on guard. The dots grew into helicopters as they drew near. The soft thumping sound echoed off the passes, the soldiers looking up from their work as they recognized what it was and what it meant. QRF finally arrived in the form of a USMC "Brown Package" and a Russian utility escort. 2 AH-1Z Vipers, 4 UH-1Y Venoms, and 4 Mi-24V Hinds flew directly overhead making two passes before the Venoms and a pair of Hinds came in low for a landing. Both Vipers and the other pair of Hinds lined themselves up upon the dragon, scrutinizing the bleeding beast. All of the helicopters had hastily painted white circles on their fuselages with massive "UN" letters painted in the centre, the aircraft's old paints and markings still adorned the rest of its body.
The Salderans panicked immediately after the rotorcrafts made their first pass. They either ran from the remaining carts or broke down and cried in hopelessness, screaming " VESPA, VESPA, VESPA!" Even the wounded rolled around in a panic, moaning in pain, the soldiers trying to hold them down to stop them from aggravating their wounds. Only when men dislodged themselves from these " Giant Wasps'' and saluted Itami did they calm down. The American Marine corpsmen and Russian lifesavers got to work immediately, the other Marines and VDV soldiers providing aid to the best of their knowledge. As the information trickled to the helicopter crews and airborne infantry, it was quickly decided for the Russian Mi-24 Vs still in the air to land and disembark their troops to assist the wounded.
Triage was completed quickly as the newly arrived medics and soldiers finished gathering the dead and injured. Of the 334 Saderans, 84 were confirmed dead on the scene, men, women, and children all either torn to pieces or burnt to twisted carbon constructs and ash. Of the 127 wounded, 57 were in critical condition, needing modern medical assistance immediately. Another 10 lives were forfeit, injuries too far gone for even modern medicine to help.
The village elder walked slowly up to Itami, the man hesitating with every step he took. Itami was on his radio, watching the dragon as he coordinated with the two Vipers over watching the beast. He noticed the man closing on him, discreetly waving his translating Canadian over, the soldier jogging over.
The old man started, partially drawing Itami's attention from the radio, the lieutenant still listening to the pilot's chatter.
" K-kind s-sir, m-may I ask what you intend to do with the injured people?"
Itami gave his answer in English, directing it to Jeremy, who repeated it in Latin, his eyes flickering back and forth between the hovering vehicles and the nervous man.
" We will bring them to a hospital and take care of them."
" Hospitium? What is that, good sir?" The humble elder was completely confused by this new word, a word never used in his year of life.
" It is a place where we treat the injured," Jeremy explained.
The man's face scrunched up further in thought, " you mean a temple? And YOU treat injured people? Do you not pray to the Gods and Apostles or ask mages for healing?"
This time it was Jeremy's turn to be confused, at this point Itami had already reverted his attention back to the AH-1Zs hovering in the air, " Gods, apostles? What do you-"
The sound of air ripping cut him off, a flash of fire flared up, followed by an explosion. One of the Vipers had unleashed an AGM-114K Hellfire missile from its weapon's pylon, the $65,000 weapon system racing to the dragon.
The first stage of the tandem charge of the anti-tank weapon struck near the back of the beast's head, just behind the eyes, the reactive armour defeating charge only weakening the scales as it detonated. However, the second stage immediately followed the first, the HEAT portion of the weapon burned its way through the armour before spewing liquid fire into the skull cavity. The brain cooked from inside out, smoke wafting out of openings in the skull as the explosion died away.
Jeremy turned back to the elder, already disinterested by the American air demonstration, Itami wandering away to organize the evacuation. The same could not be said about the Saderans, it wasn't often they were able to see an army that could wield the powers equivalent to Gods. Dragons had not been seen for two hundred years and the last one had wreaked havoc across the lands before the Gods agreed to work together to put it down. A dragon's death marked a new era for the continent, the previous one birthed the Saderan Empire that ruled the land. The elderly man's wide eyes and O-shaped mouth mirrored those under his care, completely gobsmacked by the sheer amount of raw power hovering in the air above their heads, manipulating the winds as its prey smoldered below it.
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THUMP THUMP
Mari bashed the bottom of her fist against the fuselage of the Hind, the two Isotov TV3-117s ramping up in power before the helicopter took off as it hurried back to base with its time-sensitive cargo. She ducked down as she ran back to the trucks, the wind tossing her black hair into her face. Climbing into the back of the Humvee, she stepped around the 2 stretchers as she took her seat. The ground vehicles then began to forge their own way home, rolling at a snail's pace as infantry and refugees marched alongside them. They crawled out of the pass, glancing back now and then at the ninety-one crudely made crosses planted in the dirt in rows. Another 7 of the 57 critically wounded, all burn casualties, did not last long enough for transport. The remaining fifty were patched up and packed into the helicopters. The Hinds each were fitted with four stretchers with the Russian medics hovering over their charges, the Venoms had to jury-strap the wounded into the crash-worthy seats, the corpsmen forced to lean back and forth to reach the wounded in their seats.
Seven wooden wagons, also filled to the brim with refugees, were surrounded by Russian, Canadian, Japanese, and American infantry back on the ground. Another two wagons were tied to the LAV 6.0 and the TAPV, allowing carts to travel with the group without the dead horses. The Canadian vehicles were spaced evenly within the convoy, the Japanese Komatsu stood guard in the front with its M2 .50 machine gun while Itami's Toyota pulled up the rear. The vehicles themselves operated with skeleton crews, only drivers and gunners, all available space allocated for the children or the elderly who couldn't possibly walk the long stretch to Alnus Hill. The remaining wounded, bound in stretchers or gone without, laid all over the roofs of the military wagons or walked alongside them.
There were another three wagons, but around 50 of the survivors had wanted to continue onto Italica. Of course, that meant leaving the more seriously wounded to die, so Itami had to make the hard decision of insubordination.
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-Flashback-
The village elder clutched his hat as he spoke, wringing at it with his head bowed down. Three of the remaining wagons sat behind him, 2 of which were blackened from fire damage, were loaded and waiting. Able-bodied villagers who intended to go with him milled around, waiting for the elder to finish his conversation.
" I'm sorry, but we can not take the hurt with us. There are no temples at Italica to help them anyways."
Itami could only nod slowly as he frantically tried to think of a solution. He could no longer escort the survivors to Italica nor did he have the supplies for the trip to reach the city-state with the additional 32 American and 28 Russian soldiers.
" What of the orphans and the elderly? Will you be taking them?"
The old man sighed, " No, we can not. We can barely take care of our own families, we can't care for them. I am sorry."
The native turned away, sulking back to a wagon. The small line of wagons rolled away, slowly making their way away from the armoured cars, and towards the horizon.
One of the teenagers walking alongside a wagon looked back at the soldiers watching their departure. A sense of gratitude filled the lad, causing him to wave back to the modern vehicles.
" GRATIAS TIBI, GRATIAS!"
The rest of the group soon joined in, craning their heads and bodies around to give a final farewell.
" GRATIAS, GRATIAS TIBI, GRATIAS!"
The UN troops could only look on, waving back to the leaving civilians, teary-eyed and touched.
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The next 10 kilometres passed on quietly, only the swapping of seats between the ambulatory casualties and children punctuated the constant travel. Mari, eyeing the injured men shuffling alongside them, spoke up first.
" Sir, why couldn't we wait for reinforcement? We decided to pick up refugees already, why couldn't we hunker down somewhere? The wounded are only aggravating their injuries with all this walking. This isn't good for them." A slight bite traveled along with her words, her eyes lighting up with a righteous fury to the suffering of her charges.
Itami blew out a breath as he lowered his helmet over his closed eyes. Kurata peered over to look at his face before turning back to the road, he too was invested in the medics' question.
" Well, sergeant, did you hear the rockets and munitions we fired off to kill the dragon?"
The medic answered with a nod.
" We fought for 38 minutes with the beast, blasting away with .50 cal and 25mm rounds. We finally brought it down with the Canadian Carl Gustav and the Panzerfaust. That was followed by the helicopter and triage that took..." he raised his watch and calculated the time, " a touch over an hour. Now, pretty much 2 hours with loud sounds of combat and the massive amount of activities from the helicopters, don't you think someone would alert the lord or whoever is in charge of the area of our battle?"
This time, he got a slower, more thoughtful nod.
" Now because this is Imperial land, do you think we will be welcomed after taking such hostile actions and creating such noise? It was best to distance us from the site, better for us to not engage local forces, and best for the wounded not to be stuck in another battle."
With this, he laid back and tried to sleep, the driver nodding in understanding and the medic sitting back in thought.
The vehicles rocked along the road, the loose dirt roads formed an inconsistent ride only a soldier could fall asleep on. However, a large braking and forward force would wake the officer up not long after he had fallen asleep.
Kurata called out as the vehicle came to a full stop, squinting at the encounter in front of the convoy, " Contact down the road!"
Itami raised his optic up to his face, squinting his eyes as he made out what was down the road. In shock, he blurted out the first thing he saw.
" LOLITA GOTH GIRL!"
Kurata instantly brought his own binoculars up and peered in the direction of the black silhouettes in front, his breathing rate picking up to a rather rapid speed.
A young girl, dressed from head to toe in black with red frills, squatted facing away from them. A halberd stood embedded vertically beside her, shining in the sun. The little girl was silhouetted by 4 MSVS logistic trucks and surrounded by Canadian soldiers, all with C7 rifles pointed directly at her.
Faltering as he reached for the radio, failing over and over again as his eyes were glued to his binoculars, Itami brought up the Canadian's behind them on the net.
" H-hey Dom, do you see what's going on … around 200 metres in front of us?"
His answer came moments later, " Wait one."
The TAPV's door pushed open and the Canadian lieutenant stepped out, raising his rifle to his shoulder as he peered through his scope.
" What in the-! Let's get over there! Take something fast, we'll leave the civies here!" Dom turned to his gunner, his voice clearly sounding through the radio, " eyes up, she might be armed or set up with some kind of explosives or magic shit."
Itami then followed suit, " Komatsu, I'm jumping on, follow the TAPV."
The TAPV dropped the lines connecting it to the wooden wagon it was pulling, racing off towards its comrades. Itami jumped out of the Humvee, grasping one hand on the back rail and a foot of the rear step of the Japanese LAV before the Komatsu gunned after the other armoured vehicle.
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Rory Mercury had heard that the Saderan Empire had fielded a massive force, an army to rival a force needed to put one of the Gods down, to annihilate the otherworlders. She, of course, saw the opportunity to collect souls of the hard-fought and the battle-hardened, as well as a chance to see who had passed through the Gate this time. Unexpectedly, she had run into a group of large supply wagons of alien origin on her trip to Alnus hill. The 6 wheeled wagons were traveling rather fast for their size, a horse with just a rider would have had a hard time keeping up with it. They came to a halt as soon as they saw her, a dust cloud wafted up from the dirt kicked up by the intense braking. The mounts screeched in protest at the maneuver. The riders were covered in a hodge-podge of squares, coloured in mostly different shades of green. They had stepped out, raising their misshapen green and black 'things' to their shoulders, and shouted at the 5' girl.
At first, she had no clue what they were saying, the language was never spoken on this continent. Twirling her halberd upright, she slammed it into the dirt, pinning it in place as she squatted down. A thin layer of dirt flew up into the air as the force of the shaft buried it 3 inches into the ground. The 'things', she now surmised as weapons, instantly shifted to point at her as she manipulated her own weapon. A quick prayer to Emroy and the gibberish shifted to words.
" LIE DOWN ON YOUR STOMACH AND PLACE YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEAD!"
" No."
The soldiers were taken back, the sudden bout of English in a foreign land shocking the leader out of his professionalism.
"What?!"
Rory just repeated herself, " I said no."
The men began exchanging awe looks with each other as Rory continued to inspect the soldiers. They were an oddly mixed group of humans, several looked like they came from the Empire, fair-skinned and tall. A couple had skin as dark as dark elves, some even darker with more pronounced lips. And the last few were the most peculiar, sporting the Italican flat broad nose, yet skin of a golden complexion.
The growling of more mounts sounded behind her, growing louder as they got closer. She threw her head over her shoulder to see two smaller beasts rolled to a halt twenty metres behind her. These ones were different, smaller and boxier, yet faster than their 6 wheeled brethren. More men stepped out, more of the same diverse soldiers disembarking the larger of the pair. The smaller, however, was only filled with the golden skinned humans.
These soldiers raised their weapons too, their stances identical all around. And yet, Rory still noticed that they were different. Sure, the larger of the two mounts behind her had the same pattern and the same weapons as riders of the transports, but the Italican like men's weapons were pure black and their uniforms a tan and brown pattern of squares.
Three men approached her slowly from the newly arrived mounts, one trailing behind the other two, all had weapons lowered. However with Rory's experienced eyes, she could easily see that their muscles were tense like a predator, ready to spring their weapons up. They were moving in from an angle, clearing a friendly fire incident between the two groups of otherworlders, instantly alerting her of the ranged attribute the unknown weapons possessed.
She watched on as both groups exchanged nods before the leader of the smaller group, the only one wearing the separate tan uniform, motioned for the man trailing behind to step forward. Her eyes flicked over to the new person, noting he was another fair skinned man.
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CHOTTOMATTE!
A voice sounded out from behind them as Itami motioned Jeremy forward. A quick glance behind them showed Tomita hauling at his German Shepherds leash as Hana strained to chase after two children sprinting to the lolita girl. Two children who were in the Komatsu and were not disembarked before the soldiers raced here.
Dominic caught the girl before she could get past the three men, Jeremy missing the boy as the kid dashed past him and skittered to a halt in front of the well-dressed woman.
"ORACLE!"
Immediately, a dainty hand reached out and grasped onto the halberd beside it. A flash of steel and the halberd twirled lithely before settling itself horizontally, the end point directed at the Canadian captain's face, the man still clutching onto a struggling little girl. The other hand pushed the village boy behind her away from the second group of men.
" RELEASE HER AT ONCE!"
" LOWER YOUR WEAPON NOW!"
The Canadian soldiers and the so-called "Oracle" shouted at the same time.
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The little boy, now terrified by the shouting and the raised weapons, started tugging at the short woman's sleeve.
" Oracle?" he whispered, Rory almost missed his voice.
She glanced over at him out of the corner of her eyes.
"Yes?"
He replied slightly louder now, " They saved us from the Fire Dragon and are taking us somewhere safe."
" Were they now?"
He nodded jerkingly, his head bobbing back and forth.
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I apologize for the long wait, being busy and procrastinating. Next one shouldn't be this long, so hopefully anyone who is actually following and waiting for chapters doesn't all leave. I also need to spend more time updating and fixing a lot of the older chapters. Once again, thanks for reading and we shall see how long I take for the next chapter.
