Disclaimer: I own neither of the character from Arknights, Electronic Arts games, and Ubisoft games. The work is fictional for all to enjoy expressing ideas of their own.
Chapter 4 Part 1 Operation Red Tape
Operation Red Tape
0035 Hours ( Day 1 )
12th December, the Year 1096
50 000 feet above sea level.
The calm and atmosphere flow throughout the men currently sitting on their seats within the Starlifter. The silent night outside the aircraft gave a soothing feeling of peace for them to sleep or do any activities to pass the time before their flight reached FOB Redwood. The supplies especially fuels for ground and air units were carried separately within the pallets where one Starlifter carry only aircraft fuel tanks while the other two of its brother carried men and equipment needed for field units stationed on the Forward Operation.
Other new cargoes that were carried into the two transports were the newly produced but dismantled Rottweiler Sentry Drone, Repair drones, and even Mule Drones neatly arranged within the cargo bays. The prior engagement gave the necessity of extra firepower for frontline units thus Alex with the advice of his command staff and officers carried ground combat drones instead of Humvees when stop at FOB Redwood.
Sentry Drones carried extra firepower via .50 cal M2HB Machine guns and with the presence of active sensors built within the drone, hostile forces stealth capabilities units would be negated. This course of action may be overkill but with the superhuman strength and abilities of Terran people, Alex would not take any chances to sacrifice his men's lives just to test the theory.
Furthermore, Alex would enter Great Lungmen via air instead of land as there were some reports of border skirmishes between Yan Border Guard and Reunion forces near the Western border. The reports from the scouts gave an impression that the Reunion was testing the waters as of now and possibly made another strike upon Lungmen City.
Alex stopped reading the reports before him and turned down the interface floating in front of him. He stretched his hands above to quell the stiffness of sitting for a prolonged time and breathed out after stretching.
He turned his gaze around and observed his surrounding, the men accompanying him were resting on their seats, reading and even browsing their smartphones for entertainment. Loadmaster was conducting another check on the cargo behind them to make sure everything was strapped properly.
The tranquility and peace within the aircraft nearly made Alex forget that they were going to another battle, both mentally and physically as they were heading to Lungmen to meet with Chief Wei and possibly Rhodes Island representatives.
Three days after Operation Jailbreak, he requested a formal meeting with the executive and the pharmaceutical organization. The request sent was to ask for assistance in treating the Infected currently under his care and secure a deal with Lungmen in procuring supplies needed for his men. To add more value to his request, Alex had provided a basic agreement of joint operations between the newly established Axiom and Lungmen Guard Department.
The offer was Axiom would provide new defense technologies and tactics for LGD to learn and adapt which would increase the combat effectiveness of the city's defenders. Such an offer also included that Axiom will act as an equal partner to Lungmen in providing security and stability in the city without the administration paying much more money for the security services provided as he had offered a tempting service discount to compensate for their stay in the city.
Should Lungmen, Chief Wei himself accept the offer, which is a goldmine for Lungmen, and by extension, the Kingdom of Yan would benefit more compared to Axiom itself. It may be a one-sided deal, but with such obstacles cleared without much fuss, Axiom would penetrate its services in the regional market while extending HUMIT operations within the region. His primary objective would be gained as he would be able to conduct search and possible rescue missions on the Players that he may meet in this region.
Rhodes Island on the other hand is much simple as he only wants to learn more about the organization and gain more knowledge in Terran medical expertise especially in Oripathy treatment including treatment of various races on Terra. Should RI provide what he wanted, he may provide future support to them as long as it is possible.
Fortunately for him, both organizations accepted his request thus setting a time and place to have a meeting to iron the agreement out. Three weeks later, here he was with his men and representatives of the survivors to have a first-time meeting with these organizations.
He did not forget that food, tools, seeds, and even local vehicles had become top priorities to be obtained as the R&D teams were requesting more research materials for them to conduct new tests and provide more accurate technological assessments of Terran civilizations. If needed, his faction would provide its technology to Terra as an exchange in the Terran global trade market.
'I wonder, if they got animal ears and tails, should their outfits be affected by them?' Alex wondered.
He turned his head to the right and watched the individual currently sleeping next to him. Miss Rostova along with the Three Stooges as his mind just made them up, which consisted of the lively member of USSG, Miss Rada, the cute nerd with silent treatment, Miss Morozova, and finally, the fiery leader, Miss Sonya.
One particular coincidence he noticed that the last one was awake and currently in a bad mood.
His eyes made contact with the blue-eyed leader of the USSG. Miss Sonya now glaring at the man two seats left of her. One thing for sure, she was annoyed at the leader of the organization was also awake in the middle of the night.
"What the hell you're looking at? Idiot." She whispered to him.
Taken aback by the sudden insult to him, Alex took his time to think before replying to her.
'Man, Miss Rostova did not kid when she said their leader is very blunt and straightforward.'
It has been a month after the survivors' arrival on his base. At first the tension was high but a few days after with no complications of any kind other than Miss Rostova's request for direct communication with their loved ones, they slowly interacted with his men especially the medical and logistical staff stationed next to their new dorm.
Alex was concerned about their distrust of the unknown element such as him and his men, particularly the incident in Chernobog that involved Reunion and their treatment of prisoners. Thanks to a certain happy-go-lucky member of USSG, the wall between them crumbled bit by bit to the point they had comfortable interactions between them.
All but this one girl before him, Miss Sonya.
She detached herself from the staff and always stick to the USSG members at all times. Distrust permeates her whole being and she only replies with short and direct answers during the interview. As the leader of USSG, she shared many vital information which gave much testimonial needed to build court cases against Reunion should they be pacified. That was the only moment he had experienced with her talking in full sentences. The trauma lingers in her head and on one of a few occasions, she nearly had a panic attack during the meeting with him. Distrustful and quick to anger, she only calms down when there are USSG members with her during the session.
The medical assessment of her psych concluded Miss Sonya had encountered too much trauma and used her friends as the pillar of support. Fortunately, her condition improved throughout her stay on the base with her only glaring at anyone who is not the members of her group instead of outright hostility on them.
Thus, remembering the evaluation of her, Alex politely replied, "One, this 'idiot' has a name. Two, I'm just checking on you guys. Still awake, huh?"
Sonya sighed and leaned back in her seat. "Yeah, and you?"
"Same, got some work for me to be awake for a while."
"This is about us, isn't it?" She asked.
Alex paused his work on the interface in front of him and replied, "Yes and no."
He continued, "Yes, I'm thinking about how to proceed after sending you guys back to Ursus Government and No, I just need to learn more about Lungmen before we get there."
Alex continued his research with his interface by arranging the data provided by the intel staff and also reading the appropriate materials that contain the basic analysis of the cultures and traditions of Lungmen City and by extension, Yan. He interacted with his interface, choosing the right materials for his future work. Sonya just sit silently observing the man when he was working.
"Why saving us?"
"Pardon?" Alex was puzzled by the unexpected question from her.
"Why did you guys save us from the Chernobog?" Sonya asked again. "Is it about our status or do you just want publicity for saving us?"
Baffled by the questions thrown at him, he pauses on what he was doing.
"Miss Sonya, what with this question?" Alex was concerned about why she gave such an accusation.
Her glare intensified, "Don't bullshit me, General" She hissed. "There is no way people like you would do this just to save us. You have your agenda too, just like those bastards in Chernobog."
Alex withholds his response for a while thinking of a better response for a blunt individual like her. After forming proper words for him to use, he responded to her demand.
"I'll be straight, Miss Sonya. There is a reason why we did that. Do you really want to know why we saved you from that hellhole?"
"Yes! Just cut to the chase and spill it out."
"It's because we can. " Alex bluntly answered her demand.
"Huh?" Her mind ground to a halt. She expected some fancy ways of words from the man that have serious power and agendas. There is no way that this man just answered that simple as that.
"That's it? Just because you can?" Her glare hardened toward the man, "What kind of bullshit is that? Then why you-"
"Miss Sonya," Alex cut her off. "I'm not yet finished with my explanation." His voice lowered and held bits of anger and authority when he address her near outburst.
She was immediately silenced by the sudden change of tone and authority imposed on her. Their eyes met as both were trying to understand what just happened. Realizing her mistake, she was ashamed of her attitude to the man before her.
She was the first to break, "Sorry…"
Alex took a deep breath and exhaled, adjusting himself for another explanation. "This may be absurd to you but by all rights and means, we should leave you guys then and there while continuing our primary objective at the time, observing the Reunion undetected."
"After the Fall, we managed to infiltrate the city with a handful of scout elements via the city's internal tunnel system. We exploited the chaos in the following weeks and installed our observation posts to observe any activities in and out of Chernobog. Bear in mind, we have no idea what the hell is going on inside the city other than rumors of violence from the Reunion towards their 'oppressors'."
"We barely have direct communication lines that week. Two days after that, we managed to take control of a comms tower a few blocks from the school you guys were trapped in."
"Then….you have gotten our radio call that day, right?"
Alex nodded his head, "Yes, the second week of the fall, we received your distress call. We heard it but barely have any available resources to conduct another mission other than forward reconnaissance."
He continued, "Your call gave us no time to rest you know?" He recalled the event. It was chaotic throughout the command center. "The moment we finally secured and established our communication lines with our recon forces, Reunion got through you first. That was the moment we have the first direct visual of one of the Reunion higher-ups involved in the insurrection."
Sonya clenched her fists tight to the point they turned white. The terror began to seep into her mind on the pain she and the others had endured before the rescue. There was no way she would forget what happened thanks to the bastards that set them up there.
"That white hair bastard." Sonya cursed at the memory. Remembering what kind of hell they went through inside the school thanks to that son of a bitch and his men.
Alex nodded his head in confirmation, "We did not know his identity at that time and labeled him as Whiteout. After some recon, we found out his name from the Reunion units near your area."
He pulled out a file from his gamer interface, "Mephisto".
"Mephisto….the bastard's name, huh." She calmly replied, yet her tone filled with malice at the name she had heard.
"Yes, fortunately for us, Reunion leaderships suck at their callsigns which gave them away just by the name they choose for themselves."
"Mephisto was the name of the demon who made a pact with a researcher in an old record of Leithanian lore. And guess what? We also got his partner's name which is also involved in the same lore."
"Who?" Sonya tilted her head a bit, interested more in the info he shared with her.
"Faust, his personal bodyguard and leader of the elite crossbowmen that you guys had encountered during the Jailbreak. The researcher in the old lore was also named Faust. To be fair, they are not that creative in the secret name department and all the hilly jibbies."
Alex continued his talk with Sonya throughout midnight with Miss Sonya attentively listening to his previous operation, and his faction perspective during the Fall of Chernobog. He shared more about the Reunion and their activities in the city especially the day the ops began. The distress call from the school radio was intercepted by Alex's forces. After some persuasion from field officers including his self-consciousness, he authorized the rescue mission and thus planned the elements needed for the op.
The vehicles involved were procured just for the rescue effort and Alex did not spare any chances of surprises awaiting them in the city. He even ordered his men to jury-rig the trucks they had into makeshift gun trucks for extra firepower.
After the recon teams secured the entrance point into Chernobog, his men had secured nearly three city blocks from the insertion and exfiltration point.
There, Sonya found out who the hooded men encountered during the stop.
Pathfinders, Alex's recon troops that initially infiltrated the city. These men had provided sniper support during the battle and one of the teams was responsible for the artillery strikes on the Reunion reinforcements.
Unknown to Alex, Sonya had her distrust begin to recede during the first week of their stay in Odyssey, the name of the base they were brought to by Alex's forces. Instead of being treated with the same cruelty by the Reunion, they were provided with proper food, safety, and shelter. The clothes provided by the medical officers were utilitarian and militaristic, yet the survivors graciously accepted the aid with gratitude.
Day after day living on the base, bit by bit her distrust decreased as the survivors began to interact with the members of the base. Thanks to Rada's quirky and cheerful personality, the atmosphere of the barracks provided by Alex became more bearable with the survivors slowly but surely creating new bonds with the soldiers and workers around the base.
Rada was the first one to volunteer to help the logistical members by assisting the cooking staff in meal preparations. She may be a middle school student, but her love of food gave her the knowledge on safer food preparations had saved the survivors for two weeks before the food eventually ran out.
Her skill in culinary and home economics garners the favor of the base's staff especially the infantries as they began to hunt wild games on the island to reduce the dependence on MREs in their diet, which even Alex detested some of the MREs with a passion. The wild beasts that bear similarity with up-sized deer were hunted and the venisons were properly served through her advice on how to prepare the food.
One thing was for sure, Alex appreciates her skill in cooking as she can cook delicious food from raw materials from the wild to the point he was tempted to hire her on the spot as a chief cook should she become of legal age.
Anna, the silent 'nerd' of the group, took the opportunity to rest by reading the books available in the library and most of them were surprised that she had got authorization to read some of the non-restricted books within the base's library. Educational literature possibly from Columbia and Victoria to the more fantasy-like lore that came from Leithania and Kazimeierz, she had read all the books that has been given to her during their stay there. Even the young general was impressed with her intellect especially her ability to dissect more complex literature and shared them with the officers within the base when they have spare time.
When Alex and Sonya's conversation started, the ones next to them were awakened because of Sonya's sudden outburst. The other three members were also listening to Alex's tale of his forces' discovery of Chernoborg while pretending to sleep throughout the flight. Rada's ears twitched and went unnoticed by both Alex and Sonya as he shared more information on what going on before the breakout from the city.
The night passed as Alex began to build bonds with the survivors, especially with their current leader. That night was the first time in his whole months on Terra to interact with the local Terran informally and even share some ideas on how he would interact with other races that he would meet in the future.
It was an impressionable talk as unbeknown to Alex, he had gathered the attention and respect of the survivors under his care. His actions today will surely help him in the future as most of them swore to themselves to repay his kindness to him, one way or another.