Author's Notes
Hi to everyone!^_^
It took more than expected, but finally the new chapter is ready.
Things are starting moving, and you can be sure that this time things will evolve quite fast, especially during the first chapters.
Stay tuned. During the next one, the time of the Falcon-9 will come.
See you soon!^_^
Cj Spencer
2
Once out of the enemy camp, Parna and Tassoni ran across the plains for hours, but at the end, they had no choice but stop to rest a bit, finding a temporary refuge in a narrow opening among a rock formation.
«We cannot stay here too much.» Parna said, carefully surveying the plains outside and seeing no signs of a threat anywhere. «We're still way too close to the city.»
«Yes… I suppose you're right.»
«We'll wait for the night to move again. For now, try and rest a bit.»
Then, Parna sat on a nearby stone, and for a long time the fugitives stayed face to face without speaking, and trying as well to avoid looking at themselves. But when Tassoni tried yet another time to look away from Parna, a small pebble hit him right on the nose.
«Why did you do that, you idiot?» Parna suddenly said.
«W… what!?»
«I heard the guards of the city. They said you are Kleytos' murder. Is it true?»
«What!? Of course not! You did it!»
«Me!? Are you crazy?»
«But you wrote that letter. They told me you confessed before vanishing.»
«Of course I wrote that letter. But it was just to save you from the gallows. I had decided to disappear since the beginning. But then I'd heard that they had captured you, so…» but she had to stop, her heart beating way too fast.
«So you did it… to save me?»
«As I said… I owed you a couple of favors. Don't… don't get NY ideas.»
«Thank you, Parna.»
«What!?»
«After all those things I said TO you, you still tried to help me. I don't think i deserve something like that.»
«D… don't say anything more.» Parna fired back, blushing furiously, but eventually she calmed down, and started talking again. «After you left, I felt like some other times in my life. When I heard the guards approaching, at first I thought you had squealed on me to save your life. So I hid in the sewers, and for many days I tried to leave the city, but for some reasons, something was forcing me to stay. Your words were like an earthworm digging in my head. All of a sudden, all those memories I thought I left behind came back to haunt me.»
Then, Parna raised her eyes again, and Tassoni was stunned to see innocence and kindness inside them.
«I couldn't do it. I refused to make the same mistake again. I left my companions alone because I was too weak to fight, and even today I have no idea if my choice cost them their lives or not. I didn't want to be so weak again.»
In that moment, Tassoni's hand gently caressed her cheek, and the Warrior Bunny's heart skipped a beat again.
«How many times do I have to say you, Parna? You're not weak. And I'll never be able to thank you enough for what you did.»
Meanwhile their faces were significantly closer, and for a brief moment, it almost seemed that everything around them had frozen in time.
«What's that?» said Parna when they both started hearing a strange noise, fast approaching
«Wait a minute!» Tassoni said, his eyes widening. «Don't tell me it's…»
«Wait, no! Where are you going?»
But Simone didn't listen her, and in two steps he went outside, trying to turn his eyes towardthe noise; a confused Parna followed him, leaving the refuge right on time to see some sort of giant metal dragon appearing from a cloud.
«I knew it! It's an helicopter!» Tassoni said, and when the vehicle was close enough he was also able to see a cockade painted on the fuselage. «They're Italians!» and he immediately started to shake his arms in the most visibly he could. «Here! We're here!»
Verri and his squad, together with the Chinook's crew, were still trying to accept what had just happened in front of them, when all of a sudden the leader of the Falcon-4, while yrying to look outside, noted a couple of figures furiously gesturing towards them, clearly wishing to be noticed.
«Ehi, wait! Someone's there!»
Immediately Verri took out his binoculars and pointed them, revealing that the two distant figures were a human young man and a warrior bunny, and when he saw how the man was dressed, he almost had a stroke.
«He's one of ours! There's an Italian down there!» then he turned to the pilot. «Bring us down, Mario!»
«Are you crazy? Those beasts are probably still chasing us!»
«Jesus H. Christ, Mario, I said bring us down! We cannot abandon them here!»
The pilot hesitated for a long time, but in the end he had no choice but to obey.
«Fuck!» he angrily protested while pointing the cloche toward the ground.
The sight of the helicopter coming down not far from them was enough for Tassoni to launch an exclamation of joy, but before Parna, once she understood that the newcomers were not enemies, tried to run towards them, he immediately stopped her.
«No, wait!»
«Why? You said they're friends!»
«If they see you running towards them, they'll shoot you without thinking twice. Listen to me, hands in the air and stay put.»
In fact, when the helicopter finally touched the ground, Verri and his men came out with their weapons at the ready, and carefully approached the two survivors while keeping them in their gunsights.
«Identify yourself!» Verri ordered
«Soldier Simone Tassoni, Falcon-1!»
«Who's she?»
Since they were speaking Italian Parna was unable to understand their words, but Simone's eyes when he turned were enough for her to understand that the newcomers had probably asked about her.
«She's a friend!»
Verri wanted to ask more questions, but before he could even begin, a small platoon of Reichian equestrians suddenly appeared from a hill, threateningly heading against the group.
«Shit, they followed us!» everyone said
«This way, quickly!» said at that point Verri.
Without further hesitation, Tassoni and Parna ran to the helicopter, well protected by Verri, his men and the crew of the vehicle; they kept on shooting everything they had, and when even the Falcon-4 managed to came back, the Chinook took off right on time before the remaining equestrians could reach it.
«Don't worry, we're safe.» Tassoni said to Parna while noting her fear at seeing the ground move away below them.
«HQ, do you read me? This is Recon-1.» Verri said at the radio. «We found a survivor of the Falcon-1. We're coming back.»
«Roger that, Recon-1. We're waiting for you.»
«So.» the Captain said after that, while turning towards Tassoni. «Could you please explain to me what the fuck is happening here?»
Prime Minister Rigamonti had been forced to interrupt a public visit in a famous wine exhibition to answer the emergency call from the Special Region, but not even in his worst nightmares he could have imagined what General Pedersoli had to tell him.
«What does it mean that Calibria has fallen?» he shouted, almost overturning the table of that small office in the back of the pavillion. «I hope you're joking!»
«Unfortunately not, Prime Minister. Reich has conquered the city. They even shot down one of our helicopters.»
«And what about the Falcon-1? The search?»
«Right now, we're considering the Falcon-1 as missing in action. We found one of its members. I'll question him myself when they'll have brought him back here. Maybe he'll be able to tell us what happened exactly.»
«You goddamn idiot! Do you have an idea about the consequences of this mess?»
«I'm terribly sorry, Sir. We had no idea that Reich was planning something like that.»
«Consider yourself lucky there's no one able to replace you! I want to receive reports for everything going on! Keep me informed at all times!»
Rigamonti was so enraged that instead of hanging up the phone he launched it it the wall, missing a seemingly impassive Ivana in front of him for a matter of centimeters.
«Shit! Shit! Shit!» he kept on shouting while pounding on the desk, until he stopped, exhausted. «Those fucking lost Nazis! If only that spineless Mancuso had given me the authorization to sweep them away when we could!»
«Our entire operation in the Special Region was strictly connected with that mission.» the woman said calmly. «If the unit is dead, any proof they might have found has probably followed them.»
«Not everything is lost, yet. The Falcon units are the best of our army. They may be still alive somewhere.»
«Maybe. But we can't be sure that they truly did find something, and even if they succeeded, there's no guarantee that they managed to save it from Reich.»
But despite all this, Rigamonti had no intention to surrender: not yet.
«I put my entire career at stake in this operation. I will not surrender without a fight.» he said with fire in his eyes
«What do we say to the other parties?»
«Nothing, for now. Absolutely nothing. First of all, just try and see if something's good came out of this hot stinking mess.»
As predicted, the blitzstorm hit that part of the Plains in less than half an hour, covering the moon with thick and dark clouds and unleashing rivers of rain.
Lunardi and the rest of the Falcon-1 had barely managed to reach the cave, well aware that the storm was powerful enough that being caught in the open meant certain death, even without considering the abundance of lightings.
Then, it was time to take stock of what the squad had been able to take away from Calibria; given the circumstances everything was valuable, especially food, ammo and anything necessary to survive in such a dramatic situation.
While most of the unit was consuming a rationed dinner, grouped around the fire, and Tymlin was keeping watch near the entrance, Lunardi reached Amato, who was controlling the truck in search of any sign of damage.
«Well?»
«Only arrows and burns. The right front wheel has chipped, but the superglue I put should keep it in good conditions for the time being.»
«What about the fuel?»
«Most of the barrels remained behind when we left.» said an aggrieved Amato «We have just the standard supplements for the vehicle. Together with what's still in the tank, we should have more or less six hundreds kilometers of range.»
That was a nasty shock to everyone; that was by and large not nearly enough to return to Castria, more than twice the distance their fuel could give them.
«Maybe we can still try to go back.» said Rocco. «Arlea's borders are just five hundred kilometers far from here at most. If we reach them, we can find cover in the forest and remain hidden long enough to be saved.»
«We're not going back.»
«What!?»
«Arlea's disturb is probably still active, but even if they were able to solve that, it's highly probable that the forest will still remain isolated. Which means that we'll not be in condition to call Castria for evacuation, if the Reichians don't kill us first.»
«Then what do you think should we do?» Rocco replied, respect clearly fading from his words.
«The sergeant is right.» Amato said. «We cannot reach Castria with the fuel we have, and the radio is still mute.»
At that point Lunardi opened a map of the region over a rock, and the others veterans of the squad, Stefanini and Amato, joined him in a circle.
«We should be here, more or less.» the Captain said, tapping a finger on a point around thirty kilometers south of Calibria. «By now, probably all roads heading north are already under Reich's control, and now that all the other cities of the plains have sided with them, it will be impossible to travel unnoticed.»
«So what do you say we should do?» Stefanini asked.
Lunardi reflected for a long time, seemingly because he was the most worried among them about the consequences of that it had to be done.
«We must stay alive until able to call Castria. And right now, the only possible way to survive is to leave the Plains, or at least to reach a place where Reich will be not able to hunt us.» Then his fingers skidded on the map. «The Vardenia Pass is less than seven hundred kilometers from here. From there, there are just a few more miles to reach the northern border.»
Everyone's face dropped, and their expressions clearly showed that they hoped they had misunderstood something along the road.
«The northern border!?» Rocco exclaimed. «Do you wanna go to the Empire!?»
«It's the only route we can take. Maybe Reich has conquered Calibria, but they still took heavy losses. They won't risk provoking the Empire while they're still trying to recover from that. Probably they'll follow us for a while, but they'll never dare to cross the border. As long as we stay close to the border we'll be still in the range of the antennas, and we'll manage to avoid detection.»
«Bullshit.» Rocco curtly commented. «Did you forget? Should we cross almost a quarter of the Plains only to pass from an hostile territory to another, moving away even more from Castria? The Empire is Japanese territory! They'll never send someone to save us if they think that this could put the entire operation at risk!»
«The Alnus gate is more than three thousands kilometers far from the northern border. It'd be almost impossible that the Japanese were able to go so far. At this moment, the Empire is the only place where we can hope to remain safe long enough to receive support from Castria.»
«You said it.» said again Rocco. «We're surrounded, and it's likely they're also hunting us. How do you think we can manage to remain hidden all along the road?»
«Do you have a better idea in mind?» asked an irritated Lunardi
«I say we stay here. We're far from the most known routes. There's a nearby hill from which we can keep the surrounding land under control, and we have enough food to last for a while and to reestablish communications with Castria. If we stay put and avoid attracting attention, they'll never find us.»
«There's no way to remain unnoticed, fool. We left a trace behind us that even a kid would be able to follow. The blitzstorm right now is stopping them as it does with us, but when it'll be over, they'll start hunting us again. And they'll find us.»
«You said these storms are incredibly powerful. They'll destroy any trace we might have left behind.»
«Maybe. Or maybe not. Even a small sign in the mud is enough for a good scout. You should know it better than anyone else, being a scout yourself.»
«We still have a lot of ammunitions, and this place is easily defensible. They can try to fight us if they want. Sooner or later, that goddamn radio will work.»
Lunardi remained silent for a while, then he pointed his torch toward the roof of the cave, and the moment the light touched the stone, part of it began to shine blue.
«What the…» said a stunned Valenti
«You see it? It's enthium. A mineral that reacts to magic. If there's even a single mage among the units that are surely following us right now, all he has to do is to launch a spell inside, and this entire place will turn to dust all around us.» then he threateningly turned to his squad. «And what do you think we can do if they bring their Apostle with them?»
Such an hypothesis was enough to scare almost everyone to death; however, it looked like someone still disagreed with the idea.
«What's the difference between risking our lives out there or here?» Rocco demanded pointedly. «If that hellish girl is truly behind us, there's only one fate awaiting us. If that's the case, what's better, to die fighting or die running like rats?»
At this, an outright angered Lunardi violently grabbed Rocco's collar.
«Don't dare saying something like this. I wont' tolerate such words. We're not here to die. And since I'm still your commander, you'll follow my orders. And my orders are that we'll leave this place as soon as the storm is over.»
«What makes you so sure that this is the best choice?» the sergeant replied without fear. «You think that just having been here from the beginning as a proud and oustanding member means you know everything?»
«I know the best thing to do for the simple fact that I'm an officer, and your direct superior. My job is to bring you home.»
«And how you think to do it?» Rocco shouted angrily. «Forcing us to stay put and watch our companions being butchered?»
At that, everyone's memories came back to the desperate last stand of Niang, and to all the other ones they had seen die since that nightmare had begun. It was already difficult to accept that some of their friends were dead, but having to see them slaughtered right under their eyes by that kind of demon was more than most of them, just simple soldiers with limited experience in war scenarios, were able to bear.
And there was one more devastating truth: they hadn't simply seen Niang die, they had abandoned him out there in that hell on earth, as they had done with Sadee, Radika, Tassoni and everyone else, whose fate they didn't even know.
For a moment, even Lunardi looked troubled by these towrds, but then, he tried as well as he could to switch back to the same rational and cold leader he had forced himself to be.
«Do you really believe I liked it?» Lunardi said while letting Rocco go. «That I felt good leaving behind Sadee and the others without knowing if they were still alive or able to leave the city? Or being forced to stay put while a comrade and a friend was killed right in front of my eyes?» Then anger flared again in his eyes. «But I'm the Commander! The sake of my command is my most important duty! And I cannot allow you to throw away your lives in an hopeless battle!»
At that point, Flavio turned to the rest of the squad.
«Your fates lie in my hand. And get in your heads that I'll do anything in my power to make sure that all of you will return home safely.» But then his glance changed, becoming quite dark and scary. «But if a day should come when I'll be forced to choose between the life of one of you and the squad's safety, then you can stand assured that once more I'll have no doubts about the choice. And that goes for me, as well.»
Everyone's gazes went to the ground: on one hand, they knew that the Captain war right, and that objectively there was nothing they could have done to save Niang and the others. However, in that moment, each of them silently prayed to not being forced to find himself one day in their companion's place.
«Is there someone else here that wants to say something about my role as a leader?» Lunardi said , almost growling.
No one spoke, and even Rocco remained silent, even if the flames in his soul were far from extinguish.
«Very well. There'll be no more discussion about this. Now, everyone go to sleep. If the storm will have passed, we'll depart before dawn. Tymlin, can you keep watch for us?»
«Y… yes, of course.» said the little girl, as shocked as the rest of the squad
«Thanks. That's all. Dismissed. We have a long way to go.»
Like wolves attracted by the smell of a prey, Donzark and his unit of equestrians kept on following the traces of the Falcon-1 for days. The blitzstorm had forced them to stop in a village, but fortunately, the rain hadn't completely destroyed the signs left behind by the Singing People's strange chariot.
A couple of days after the storm, the General and his unit finally reached the cave, but all they found were the rests of a campsite.
«It's two days old.» one of the scouts said, tasting the ashes
«Considering how fast they travel, they're probably quite far already.» said Johan, Donzark's young but skillful personal attendant
A second scout was sent to look for more traces outside, and he returned soon with very important news.
«There are other traces heading south, General.»
«South!?» said Johan. «It's madness. Why don't they try to go back?»
«They know we're behind them.» Donzark said while looking at the extinguished fire.
«If they keep going south, they could reach the Empire. And then…»
But before Johan could finish, Donzark threateningly grabbed his neck, scaring him to death with his eyes filled with blood.
«Don't say it. I swore to make them pay, and I'll do it.» then he immediately returned to his horse. «Come on, let's move!»