Mission Briefing
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The video starts up with Jack turning on the video camera. As he walks away from it, the bright daylight becomes visible, revealing the village folk going about their daily business.
"So, you're not gonna believe what just happened. We just fought a goddamn fictional creature. I still find it hard to believe it myself, but it happened!"
Jack holds up a large curved tooth about the size of his forearm.
"This one's my personal trophy. It was a hectic ride, but we did it!"
Jack was sweating from his paranoia as he crouch-walked alongside a slow-moving Humvee, which was flanked by another Ranger on the other side, as well as two Missile Defenders, each one taking a side.
It was dark enough by now to limit their sight, the sun at the very edge of leaving the sky.
The sound of deep growling accompanied by rather disturbing sloshing sound grew louder and louder as they approached the village center. A nasty, unpleasant odor pervaded the air.
"Get ready, boys, whatever it is, it's gonna be ugly."
And boy, ugly it was. The Humvee's headlights revealed a massive dragon-like beast. A rounded head with menacing red forward-facing eyes and rodent-like jaws snarled in response to being interrupted. It turned to face the intruder, bringing its extremely long finger-like claws into the light. Coarse bits of hair hung down from its mostly scale-less body, about nearly one and a half times taller than their vehicle.
It was a fucking Jabberwock!
"'O frabjous day' my ass! It's even worse up close!"
The Jabberwock screeched loudly as it began to charge them, claws outstretched like a bat outta hell, hungry for human flesh.
"Fuck! Run!" The troops, realizing that they were possibly outmatched in terms of size, hopped into the Humvee, where the driver floored it in reverse. The wretched beast gave chase, screeching loudly.
"This is Rush-1, we're pulling back, we've got a fucking wonderland creature here trying to eat us!" The driver yelled into the radio, while trying to drive backwards at the same time.
[{COMMS} Mike: A what now?}]
"A fucking creature from a Lewis Caroll story!"
[{COMMS} Mike:...Gotcha. Lure it out of the village, we need to get it at an angle at which we can fire without potentially harming anyone who might be in there.]
"Roger!"
"Wait, didn't the land dip downwards around this point?" The other Ranger, a brunette woman named Jane, remarked.
The occupants all looked at each other in a moment of "oh shit."
The Humvee suddenly went airborne as it sped a little too fast down a slope, spinning out until it came to a stop.
"Fuck! Everyone okay?!"
-SKREEEEE-
"Shut up and drive!" Jane screamed, before the occupants of the vehicle were knocked around as the Jabberwock's wretched teeth tore through the roof. "Oh shit!" Saliva, bits of hair, and other body fluids, blood from past victims included, splattered across the windows.
The beast struggled to lift the heavy military vehicle, its elongated neck only being strong enough to hold up its own head, giving Jack enough time to grab onto the controls for the mounted gun.
"I hope you're hungry, because lead is great for assholes like you!" He yelled, holding down on the trigger, spraying the creature across the face with bullets. The Jabberwock thrashed around in pain as its left eye became riddled with holes, until the big red eye simply burst like a water balloon, splashing a warm, gooey red fluid which caked a large portion of the jeep's roof.
The upper teeth, firmly embedded in the roof, broke away from the jaw as they were dropped back on the ground. The driver wasted no time in speeding away towards the village's entrance, his foot pressing down hard on the pedal even before they hit the ground. The Jabberwock stumbled around half-blind, before spotting the outline of the escaping jeep with its remaining eye and running after it once more like a bat outta hell.
"We're almost out of this place! Hold onto your butts!" The driver called out as the open field came into sight.
The jeep sped out of the village, the Jabberwock in hot pursuit.
-HONK HOOONK-
The hungry beast was completely unprepared for the GLA Battle Bus to ram into it at full speed, smashing it against a nearby stone wall of a plateau. As the armored transport vehicle backed away from the dazed Jabberwock, Mike called out orders on the radio.
[{COMMS} Mike: Now's our chance! I want everything thrown at it!]
-Ratakakakakaakak!-
-Fwoooooosh!-
-Boomboomboomboomboom!-
The ground seemed to tremble from the sheer amount of firepower being thrown at the Jabberwock, the noise drowning out any other sound.
Rockets, missiles, bullets and shells. Everyone pitched in to do their share of the carnage.
After a short period of time, their onslaught stopped, all headlights peering into the cloud of smoke. The previously foul odor was replaced with the smell of burnt flesh.
The smoke cleared, revealing a smoking pile of bloodied ash in a crater where the beast once stood moments before.
"We did it...guys, we fuckin' did it!"
They all begun to cheer, whooping and hollering.
"Woo!"
" U-S-A! U-S-A!"
"Yeeeaah!"
"Hold up!" Mike called out, as the cheering died down. Standing at the village entrance were the villagers who lived there, a mixture of amazement and fear on their faces.
"So somebody is home after all..."
An elderly man, presumably the village's chieftain, walked forwards, and began to speak.
"Warriors who have defeated the great beast...we are in your debt."
[Several hours later...]
beep...beep...
The fox woman's eyes slowly fluttered open to the sound of mysterious and repetitive beeps.
"M...muh...?"
Her vision was drowsy as her pupils adjusted to the light cascading into the sunlit room.
She was in the hospital bed from one of the Ambulance units, covered in a blanket for warmth.
"Oh, good morning!" The foxgirl looked up to see a woman with short brown-colored hair; Susan Mays, one of the Ambulance jeep drivers, who served as an extra medic when she wasn't behind the wheel.
"Wh...Where am I?" She mumbled loudly, still feeling exhausted.
"You're in the village of Iani. The last owner of this house moved out, so the elder allowed us to use it as well as some of their land since we took out that Jabberwocky."
"..." She remained silent, before meekly replying.
"Iani...we're in father's territory."
"Eh?"
Outside, the small village of Iani was full of activity, as villagers went about their daily business under the watchful eye of their new protectors.
In the elder's cottage, several US Rangers were also hard at work.
Logistics was one of core components of any military. You can't fight a war without the weapons or munitions to fight with, after all.
According to their Logistics Officer, Jonathan Brown, also known as the "Designated Weaboo" amongst their group, they had about only $500 worth of resources, which wasn't enough to build anything they needed at the moment.
However, taking inspiration from a manga he'd once read, he knew the perfect solution.
"Mayonnaise? You serious?"
"Yeah. It's easy to make, plus it's tasty when you put it together with certain other foods."
"...You're just really hungry, aren't you?"
"That too. I mean, we've got plenty of potatoes."
"Couldn't we also have our guys do some convoy work? I bet some merchants would like some high end protection."
"Not at this point, we're already strained for personnel as it is."
"Well that's a bummer." Jack replied, looking up at the various maps that covered the room's walls.
Several men, donning suits of armor consisting of metal plates and leather, watched the village from afar, one of which held a spyglass as he sat upon his horse.
"See anything?"
"Only some strange carriages and men carrying iron rods. There's no sign of the Jabberwocky, and it still hasn't returned to its cave either."
"You don't think that the villagers actually killed it, do you?"
"Nonsense! The Lord of this territory is too much of a pacifist! He spends more money on the peasants than his does on his army! Judging from their similar appearances, those must be his troops! Look how underfunded they are! They don't even have proper armor and only have rods for weapons!"
The man with the spyglass gasped, upon spotting Myuu playing happily with several other children.
"We're in luck!"
"Huh?!"
"It's one of Lord Nyx's kin! A young one at that!"
"Hahaha!"
"Our Lord will be pleased with this!"
"Have the troops disguise themselves as bandits! We're raiding this village so that our lord can extort this foul excuse of a noble!"
They laughed loudly, unaware of Jarmen Kell, who was watching through the scope of his sniper rifle.