(Italica, 2057 hrs. SRST)
Minutes earlier, a battle between the city defenders led by Princess Piña and the bandit army unfolded as bloodshed took hold of the city for the second time in a day. Desperate for an effective counter-attack, the militia tried to hold out until reinforcements from the Empire could arrive.
"DIIIEEE!" A bandit shouted at Piña while attempting to deal a leathal blow.
"Not today!" She rebuked as her sword pierced the bandit's body, giving him a painful death.
"Your highness, are you alright?" Hamilton asked her.
"I'm fine." She replied. "Any word from the others?
"There are more men coming. The other knights are doing their best to fend them off. Princess, shall I inform the UNF for help?"
The moment Hamilton mentioned 'UNF' to Piña, she was referring to Sgt. Snow and Reaper's team, who agreed to help her with the defense of Italica.
"Yes, Hamilton." Piña responded. "Tell them the situation."
"On my way, your highness."
The brown-haired page hurriedly went to the green men to report on their progress. As she ran towards the north, Rory, who was with the green men, began to shout in agony and move strangely as if something took hold of her. This promped a nearby mechanic to come to her aid.
"What's wrong?" He asked her. "Uhh..are you alright?!"
"No!" She replied. "Whenever a battle happens, I act as a bridge for the souls!"
"Wha..?!"
"It's true! I'll get crazy, hungry for blood! Get some help, please!"
The mechanic nodded and began to look for help.
(Alnus Hill, 2101 hrs. SRST)
In a room, a drone operator was busy checking the landscape, looking for anything that could catch the eye of military officials, including General Stoner, who is stopping by in the room for any progress on exploration. In his post, he spotted Italica under siege.
"Sir, I found something on my monitor." The operator promptly informed General Stoner.
"What is it?" Stoner asked him. "Don't tell me we have another settlement to check out."
"Negative sir. It appears to be Italica, the city where Snow's team and the Infinite Team are guarding for the night."
"Get a closer look at the area."
"Yes sir."
As the UAV zoomed in, it showed a great amount of corpses, broken weapons and armor scattered around the outskirts. It also showed some men attempting to climb the walls of the city.
"Oh my..." Stoner said in shock.
A radio signal then got his attention. He then began to answer.
"This is Sgt. Snow, the city is currently under attack by bandit forces!" He reported.
"We are seeing what is going on right now." Stoner responded. "Any composition within their ranks?"
"Yes sir. They are once part of the force that tried to retake Alnus days ago. They are hungry for blood and are massacring civilians! Requesting reinforcements!"
"Hold on! I'll check."
He began to check the papers and notices for any available units on stand-by. When he found out that there is a single helicopter and platoon unit available, he decided that it is enough for Snow to receive since air support is with the latter.
"We can send a platoon to your location." Stoner informed Snow on the radio. "Try to hold out for about 60 minutes."
"We'll do, sir." Snow replied. "Over and out."
(Italica, 2109 hrs. SRST)
On the ground, the bandits that went up the wall began to slowly rout the resistance out of the gate mechanism.
"Barricade the doors!" One militiaman ordered the others in the gate to keep the bandits away from the mechanism.
"Are you sure about this?" Another asked with doubt.
"I'm not sure, but we have to try."
When they did barricade the doors, they hoped that it could buy the city more time to keep the bandits from killing more civilians. As they are anxiously wait, they hear the moaning and screaming of their fellow militia being killed or beaten by their enemies inching closer to the mechanism.
"Get ready." One of them said. "They're coming."
The militiamen pointed their swords while the bandits began to push the door hard in order for them to take control of the mechanism. The door broke and a fight ensued. However, after a few short minutes, the militia guarding the mechanism were either killed or routed, resulting in the gate being captured.
"Tell the men we have the gate." A bandit said.
"As you wish." Another replied.
At the landing pad, Itami was waiting for a response from Piña when Kuribayashi turned on her engine. Believing that she will try to move without permission, he tried to radio her.
"Dagger, what are you doing?"
"I'm trying to give them some cover." She replied. "I can't just sit here doing nothing."
"We have to wait. The princess didn't asked help yet."
The nosie of her engine prompted Reaper to radio her as well.
"What is going on?" Reaper asked. "Don't tell me you are doing this head on without permission."
"Sorry, sir. I had no choice."
She took off and went to single-handedly help the east gate defenders. Reaper then noticed the young page who led them to the manor earlier.
"Uh?"
As if on cue, Hamilton reached out to Reaper and tried to called him in their cockpits.
"HEEEYYY!" She shouted and Reaper opened his cockpit to hear and signal her.
"What is going on?" He asked.
"The east gate has fallen to the enemy!" She told him. "We need your help!"
"I'm on it!" He assured her as he began to radio the others on the ground.
"Reaper to Infinite Team, take-off and protect the east gate perimeter."
"Copy, sir!" Itami responded first.
"Roger, captain." Takeo said next.
"This is Raven, roger." Akira then followed last. "Ready for take-off."
The team then turned on their engines, sending heat and thrust towards the ground as Hamilton witnessed the 'iron eagles' roar to life and fly up.
"So that's the power of the iron eagles." She murmured.
Over at the east gate, Kuribayashi began to arm her cannon as she spotted the bandits entering the city. She then descend to low altitude to begin her run.
"Firing guns!" She shouted as she pulled the trigger.
Nearby, Piña and some of the men were witnessing gunfire from the plane as they saw light heading straight for the bandits.
"The light is killing them?" A surprised Piña wondered. "Wow."
When the bullets hit a couple of bandits, they were initially scared as they saw their men dying at the mercy of the plane. However, many began to pay attention to the jet.
"We will not sit idly by while that 'thing' is pushing us back!" A bandit declared. "Take that beast down!"
Their archers began to fire arrows at Kuribayashi's plane though she easily evaded them.
Suddenly, she felt a loud bang within the plane. The alarm sounded as well.
"Am I hit or somethimg?" She wondered as she saw began to look for the problem. When she noticed that an engine failure was detected, she was shocked.
"Damn, I'm hit!" She shouted. "Mayday, mayday! I'm hit!"
The plane started to lose thrust as she tries to find a safe spot to land the crippled plane.
"Dagger, sitrep!" Reaper radioed her.
"This is Dagger, my engine is damaged!" She reported. "I need support!"
"Copy, Dagger."
In the air, Itami and Takeo was shocked by what happened.
"Why would she run off like that?!" Takeo asked Itami. "That's insane!"
"Not insane to me." Itami replied. "Besides, she had to give relief to the city."
"At least Piña has our support. And the fate of the people here is in our hands."
"Yeah. Let's get them."
The two began to launch their attack run as Kuribayashi armed her pistol should enemies try to get her. When she noticed some bandits getting closer to her, Takeo fired his gun at them, killing most of the soldiers in the process. Then he radioed her.
"All clear, Dagger!" He informed. "Get out of here. We'll handle this."
"Thanks for the help." She said in gratitude. "I'll be out."
Rory was still mentally unstable when the mechanics began to comfort her.
"You think she'll be alright?" One asked.
"I don't know." The other replied. "Hope she'll be fine after a while."
Suddenly, her mood changed which made the mechanics shocked.
"Did she...?"
In an instant, she jumped high away from the mechanics with her halberd. She was heading for the east gate.
"Great! Now where is she running off to?"
When she reached the east gate, Rory started gleefully killing the bandits in a frenzy. Kuribayashi then met up with her and began to fight together against one common foe. As they fight side by side, the Infinite Team began to launch ground attacks of their own, slowly decimating the bandit army in the process. At the walls, Snow and his team began to clear out any resistance including those below.
"Get to the east gate and secure the mechanism!" Snow ordered. "Let's send them packing!"
"Copy, sir!" One of his subordinates responded.
As some of his soldiers were reloading their weapons, they began to use a breach charge at the door being barricaded by the bandits. After a moment, it exploded, sending men back with a large force to knock them down. The soldiers began to surpress hostiles at the gate. Shortly after, they closed the gate and began to help the militia in the city.
"East gate, clear!" One of Snow's men declared. "Moving to surpress enemies!"
Not far from the city, a two-ship helicopter formation consisting of MH-60 Blackhawks were carrying the men of Bravo Team led by Colonel Collins, a veteran of the war against USEA.
"This is Viking 31, we're approaching Italica." The pilot told the men.
"Roger that, Viking." Collins replied as he began to order his men. "All units, stand by."
They armed their weapon as they are closing in on Italica.
"Hey, Collins. I have a song that I just downloaded a few days ago." The pilot said to Collins.
"What is it?" He asked.
"This one is one hell of a tune. Here, see the title."
"Wow!" He said with a surprised expression. "You got this, 'The Unsung War'?"
"Yeah. It's nice actually. I might share it to you when we have the time."
"Thanks for that. Let's save this for later."
Back in the city, Hamilton was running back to the fight when she heard an unfamiliar sound.
"What is that?"
This even caught the attention of the fighters and the princess.
"What is that?" She asked Grey.
"Look, your highness!" He replied while pointing to the direction of two bright lights.
"No! This can't be...!"
While the combatants were shocked by what they saw, the pilot of Viking 31 played the song he showed to Collins earlier as the latter began to signal the men to fire.
"Open fire!" He ordered as the men started shooting.
The bandits were no match for the helicopters as they began to use their minguns at them. Then, they hover at a safe area.
"All right, men! Lock and load!" One of Collins' men shouted as they began their descend.
Piña was horrified by what she saw. The men were powerful even if they are lacking in numbers thanks to their guns and the work of a hovering machine aside from the 'iron eagles' that they used.
"An iron pegasus?!" She murmured.
The fight began to turn under Italica's favor.
(September 30, 2025, 0600 hrs. SRST)
The next day, the fight was over. Italica won. The bandits were defeated and a handful of survivors were under custody.
"Look at this place." Collins described what he saw. "It looks like Tokyo back in 2019."
"Wait!" Takeo told him. "You participated in the liberation of Tokyo?"
"Yes I did, son." He replied. "I lost a fellow friend that day. It feels horrible for some like me. He just encouraged us to fight on."
"Lieutenant Bertz, I presume?'
"Yeah. I think he's watching over us and the people here right now. He may be glad that the city is still intact."
"Maybe we are being protected from all that fire that rained down on the city last night." Takeo continued.
"Guess you are right." Collins responded.
While they are remembering the fallen commander, Itami came by to call the two.
"Hey, the princess needs you two at the manor." He told them. "We don't want her to get mad."
"All right, we're on our way." Takeo responded.
At a shop, Tuka and Lelei were duscussing with the merchant the dragon scales they collected.
"I am surprised you people have collected that much scales during your trip." He said to the girls.
"Yes we did." Tuka replied. "That's fine for us. We just need to keep ourselves fine for a while."
"Oh, so that's why you are selling the scales." He continued.
"Can you determine how much those scales are worth?" Lelei asked him.
"Let me see." The merchant began to inspect the scales.
(Manor, 0701 hrs. SRST)
At the manor, the Infinite Team, Sgt. Snow, Col. Collins, Princess Piña and Hamilton were in a banquet hall discussing the fate of the prisoners as well as a possible treaty.
"It is in my proposal that we will surrender custody of the prisoners to Princess Piña." Snow said. "However, this will be done under one condition."
"What is your 'condition' that you would like to enact?" Piña asked.
"All prisoners shall be treated humanely." Snow continued.
"Uh, 'humanely'?"
"Yes, humanely." Reaper explained to her. "It means that you treat them like you treat your friends or allies in a way that little suffering is done."
She nodded and Hamilton began to say her part.
"The next thing is the treaty between us and the United Nations Forces. Once signed, all hostilities will cease."
"Agreed." Collins said. "If anything bad happened between the two factions, I'm sure that we can determine if this is a violation or not."
Itami, Takeo and Akira began to quietly express some doubts regarding the effect of the treaty.
"I hope we can get clear of any misunderstanding." Itami said. "I'm not sure if they can ever do such feat of handling this kind of treaty."
"That's why we have to help them." Akira replied. "They may be our enemy, but still..."
"...we have to give all the support we can." Takeo continued. "Just like what we did back in Italica."
"Agreed. That's all we can do."
Kuribayashi came by to join in.
"So, we have another crisis averted? She asked even though it wasn't meant to be taken seriously.
"Yep." Itami replied.
"Good. Now, one thing we have to think of is the recall order. I would say that command is going to let us take on something that is dangerous. There is also the princess and the refugees we have to be concerned of also."
"I'll ask someone to take care of the others." Takeo assured. "Don't worry about it."
While they are discussing, the leaders began to shake their hands as a sign that the treaty was in effect. Suddenly, a soldier from Collins' team arrived with urgent news for Reaper.
"Sir, command is requesting the Infinite Team to report to Yokota!"
"You're sure?" Reaper asked.
"Affirmative! They need support for the defense of Japan!"
This made the knights concerned.
"Uh, is there anything wrong?" Piña asked them.
"Yes, your highness." Kuribayashi responded. "Our squadron is being recalled for operations back on our world."
"You never felt tired after what you did for us? I'm just worried about you. Get something to eat."
"We're fine, your highness. That's all we can tell you."
Hamilton came closer to Piña to talk. Shortly after, Grey came inside the room to report to her any updates. He also joined in with Hamilton to talk.
"Princess, maybe this can be an opportunity to get us a look at Alnus." She suggested. "We could convince the senate to stop fighting."
"You're sure about this?" Piña asked. "We saw what they did to the bandits last night."
"It's fine, your highness." Grey assured her. "If you can show to us what you saw, maybe the senate could reconsider sending our nation to war. That way, we will not suffer any more casualties."
Piña initially resisted but she decided to go with the idea.
"Fine. I'll check." She agreed.
She then went to the UNF commanders to tell them what she decided to do.
"I...uhm..."
"Is there anything you need?" Snow asked her.
"Well...um..."
"Just tell us." Reaper said.
"I'm going to your world!" She said her answer quickly.
This surprised everyone.
"Are you sure about this?" Collins asked Reaper.
"If she wants to then, we may have to honor it."
"Best if she would have to be flown out of Japan due to the current situation there." Itami said to Reaper.
"No doubt about it. That's what worries me."
The words he said made Piña nervous.
(1000 hrs. SRST)
Back outside, a CH-47 began to lift the badly crippled Harrier of Kuribayashi back to base for repairs as the pilots prepare their return back to Alnus. Snow went to Itami to tell him what his team will be doing for the next few weeks.
"Listen, Itami." Snow said. "We'll be guarding Italica for the time being until the city can finally defend itself. Also we might be doing rotational defense if necessary."
"Glad to hear." Itami replied. "I appreciate it."
"Thanks. Tell your squadron and friends I wish them good luck."
Itami nodded and Snow left to do his objectives. Shortly after, Tuka, Lelei and Rory came to him to tell them what they got.
"Hey!" Lelei shouted.
"You got something?"
"Yes. We have the gold coins we need for Alnus." Tuka explained. "Maybe, we can help the others later if you have some time."
"I sure wish." He replied. "But I may not come back here for a while."
He then turned his attention to Rory.
"Uh, hey Rory. What happened last night? The mechanics told me you just ran off after you shouted for a while as if you have some pain."
"This is a long story." Rory responded. "Anyway, you are supposed to be heading back to your world for now."
"Yeah, we had to."
"If that's the case, I'll be tagging along with you." Lelei said.
"So do I." Tuka continued.
"I'm pretty sure we might see something new that we can't." Rory said to Itami. "We are just curious."
Reaper then came to them.
"All ready to go?" He asked Itami.
"Yes, we are." Itami responded. "But we may have to carry more people to our world."
"I was afraid you're about to say that."
Just then, Princess Piña came wearing a formal set of clothing.
"You will also need me for this." She explained. "I don't want our nation to fall to ruins because of a mistake."
"Then welcome aboard, princess." Reaper replied. "We'll try to help you as well."
Hamilton and Grey came to say goodbye, knowing that it will take a while before she will come back.
"May the gods and goddesses bless your journey." Grey said first.
"Take care of yourself back there." Hamilton followed. "Come back safe."
"I will." Piña replied.
"Infinite Team, is it?" Hamilton asked the pilots. "Thank you for helping us. On behalf of thr city and us, we are grateful."
They nodded and a soldier then took Piña to a waiting Black Hawk that will fly back to Alnus. As the helicopter lifted off, she can see the pilots heading for their planes. The girls were also riding another helicopter model as well. She can see Kuribayashi beside her.
"Princess, I hope you'll be fine back in our world." Kuribayashi said to her.
"Thanks." Piña replied.
For a few minutes, the helicopter flew past some waypoints. On the way to Alnus, Piña can see the planes with the Infinite logo on the tail flashing by. When they are near Alnus, she was surprised to see the vehicles and the equipment the UNF has.
"Iron elephants? Iron pegasus? Wow!"
The helicopter then hovered above a landing pad as the ground crew began to guide the aircraft to land. As she stepped foot on the fortress, she can see the pilots heading back to their quarters.
"Princess, just stay calm." Kuribayashi told here. "Everything will be fine."
They followed the remaining pilots back to their quarters as they prepare for a trip to the unknown.
(Alnus Hill 1203 hrs. SRST)
Few hours later, they are near the gate that they will be using.
"Alright then." Reaper said to everyone. "There are a few thing that we have to consider."
He then began to tell them what they will be doing.
"One, the ladies from the Special Region will be having a hard time the moment we set foot back on Earth, so we must help them if we can. Two, due to the current military situation, it is possible that we may have to move to an area far from the battlefield for our safety. Lastly, they are curious about our world, so we may as well tell them what it is and how it works."
Itami turned his attention to Tuka.
"Tuka, you're ready for this?" Itami asked her.
"Yeah." She replied. "I'll be seeing what you have in store for us."
Then, Takeo then got Itami's attention.
"Itami, we'll get them." Takeo said to him, referring to USEA.
"This time, it will be their last." Itami replied.
As the gate opened, they entered a convoy of vehicles that will take them to Yokota Air Base, where a new set of planes are waiting. They moved inside the tunnel, knowing that at the other side is a totally different world.