Suprise, suprise. I am not dead yet. Longest one yet
Pahria was hurt. Her left hand was bleeding and useless. Her right hand was cluthing her broken ribs. She was running as fast as she could but her legs were giving away. She ran to tree, braced and was trying to catch a breath. She glanced behind her back. Mistake, she saw them running after her. She desperately willed her sore legs to move. There were at least four and all of them were chasing her. She was lightheaded from all the blood she lost and was slowly losing consciousness. Her legs moved slower and slower until she tripped over tree-root and fell to most soft forest ground. She was hurting but she couldn't let them catch her. She started crawling away. They caught up with her and were laughing at her desperate attempts. They surrounded her and she was looking at them with wide terrified eyes.
"You, stupid demi-human filth, need to learn your place." mocked one of them as he was standing over her.
"Slave." he said as he grabbed her head and jerked it backwards so she was looking at him.
She saw him. Young man with blonde hair and brown eyes dressed in ornamented armour. They all laughed as they closed on her…
*THUD*
Pahria jerked upward and looked around herself. Where was she? She was confused. Suddenly she remembered where she was. She was in her room at military base of army from another world and that was only nightmare. Her own room, she liked the sound of that. Her ears perked. She heard something.
*CRASH* "Goddamnit." cursed someone.
"Watch your step, you stupid. You'll wake her." chastised someone else.
"Ugh. Too late. I may have already discovered table." said first one.
"Moron." sighted second one.
Pahria grabbed knife she was given by Pavel when he had been teaching her his world's way of fighting. She crept up to the doors to living room she shared with Pavel and Catherine's room. Lights in her room was off. When she was opening doors, someone switched on lights in kitchen.
"Oh, hello Pahria. Sorry, we tried not to wake you but my dear husband discovered table with his foot." said Catherine switching on the lights and seeing her in doorway. Pavel just smiled at her and limped away to their room cursing the table as he went.
Confused why they were up so late Pahria questioned "Is something wrong? Something happened?"
Catherine shook her head "No we just had a meeting in Prague."
"Ah…" was all Pahria could say before Pavel chimmed in with his head sticking through door"Casualty reports were finished. We had meeting with team leader there to discuss minor details."
"I see… Is it bad?" asked Pahria worried.
"No need to worry about that now, little'un. Off your pops and go to sleep. Tomorrow will be a long day." Pavel declared. Pahria was fidgeting and both Catherine and Pavel noticed it.
"Something wrong?" inquired Catherine.
"Could I stay with you? I don't feel like staying alone right now." whispered Pahria still shaking off effects of her nightmare. For some reason she didn't quite get she found herself relaxed and feeling safe around them.
Catherine and Pavel simply looked between themselves in silence for a while as if in some wordless communication. Then Catherine simply smiled, grabbed Pahria by the shoulders, hugged her and said, "Of course you can."
"Come, I'll make myself comfortable on the couch." added Pavel.
Pahria wanted to protest against Pavel's statement but was quickly silenced and ushered into bed by the pair. Pavel lied down on the couch and Catherine got comfortable on her side of the double bed. Pahria quickly dozed off and slept till the morning.
Morning, Alnus hill military base, Codename: "White Mountain", Three days after Last battle for Gateway
Pavel was walking across the tarmac with clear purpose. He was due to report to office of Colonel Přibyl who oversaw all intel-gathering and related operations. He knew that time has come for him to lead one of the prepared recon teams but he wasn't sure of his exact mission. Yes, he had his assumptions but nothing concrete. Saluting to several passer-by soldiers he quickly made his way to main headquarters located at the heart of the base near Gateway itself. Saluting MPs and entering HQ proper he navigated the corridors until he found correct office. Everything was shiny new and it smelled like it. No minor damage and scratches on the walls, no scents and other sings of lived-in building. Well, they would appear eventually, it just needed its time.
Pavel knocked and after a while entered colonel's office. He walked into the office, nodded in greeting towards colonel's assistant and saluting stood at the attention near the work desk behind which colonel was sitting.
"At ease major. Take a seat." saluted colonel without getting up and pointed towards empty chair.
"Thank you, sir." said Pavel
"You are here to receive your team's mission, if I am correct." said colonel whilst searching something among the pile of papers on his desk. He was handed file by his assistant which he thanked for by nod.
"Ah, here it is. You and your team are to search for our lost people by any means you deem necessary." announced colonel reading the file.
"Establish relationships with local populace and enlist their aid if you need. For that case you are given this." continued colonel and motioned to his assistant who handed Pavel box of golden coins.
"Try not to waste it in one go, please." urged the assistant before she returned back to where she was standing.
Before Pavel could reply, colonel went on "You will take two of the native girls with you, Pahria with whom you are well acquainted and Fehriss, fox-girl who arrived with her. They will act as guides and advisors."
"You are being given free hand in solving any problems that may arise. Simply follow our standard rules of engagement and you won't have to fear any investigations." Finished colonel.
Pavel nodded and said, "Understood sir, I will do my best."
Satisfied, colonel asked, "Good, any questions?"
Pavel replied, "No sir."
Colonel stood and saluted, "Terrific. Well then, Major, bring our people home."
Pavel rose and returned salute, "Will do sir."
With that he left the office and beelined it to motor pool where his squad was standing around and waiting for him.
They have assembled with their vehicles on a plaza in front of motor pool. Team members mingled around vehicles, checking their equipment and talking among themselves. He looked two natives who would be travelling with him. They were both dressed in combat fatigues that prevented them from being too easy to spot. With Pahria and her chestnut-brown fur and jet-black hair it wasn't too bad but Fehriss with her auburn fur and silver hair was too easy to spot anywhere she went. For her the camouflaged fatigues were more than necessary. Pavel coughed to get their attention and announced
"Greetings. We know each other thanks to our preparations before the invasion so I will skip formalities. I have just received our final orders. It seems like it will be our mission to find our lost people. Thus, I want you to check our supplies and vehicles again. It may take us a while to get back here."
Everyone agreed and went to their vehicles to check his or her assigned equipment. Catherine walked up to Pavel and asked "I heard that we will get Pahria and that fox-girl, don't know the name, as our advisors and guides. Am I wrong?"
Pavel looked at two girls in question and replied "No you are not. We are getting Pahria and Fehriss assigned to us. It seems that finding our people is highest priority as it should be."
Catherine could only agree "Yes it should. Come on let's get going." and walked back to her vehicle.
Pavel once again looked at the small force he would command. 25 people in total. Mostly Czechoslovakians with strong Yugoslavian back-up complemented by few Russians and soldiers from other European nations supporting them. He agreed with his superiors that it was better to form mixed teams rather than separate national teams. Differences in their training were diminished thanks to intense training regime they went through before deployment.
Next, he checked the vehicles. Each recon team commander had been given a choice and in the end, it was their decision which vehicles they would operate. The idea was that each commander had different approach and as long as their selection wasn't overly ludicrous they were given free hand.
Pavel opted for speed and mobility. That is why his team's motor pool was compromised of two IVECO LMVs and two Defender 130 Cayman LAVs along with two OT-64AM2 APCs where one would haul their supplies and long-range radio whereas the other would carry additional fuel. The fact that APCs were carrying bulk of their supplies didn't mean that rest of the vehicles didn't look like pack mules overloaded with cargo. Cayman LAVs had additional fuel canisters strapped onto their front and back along with some supplies jury-rigged to the sides. IVECO LMVs were carrying rest of supplies. Ammunition was mostly carried by first OT-64 much to the displeasure of crew who had sinking feeling of a fireworks truck driver whose car was on fire.
Pavel briefly thought whether or not he could add tank to his unit but he quickly dismissed that notion. Tanks weren't the stealthiest vehicles in existence and he didn't exactly plan for head-on engagements. If it were to come to blows he would use mobility of his vehicles to get out of trouble and they weren't exactly toothless.
Seeing that his unit was done with their preparations he got their attention and gave last order
"I see that we are all ready. As you know lieutenant Vortel is my second in command and if something happens to me, you will listen to him. Now if you don't have any questions we will set out."
Looking around he didn't see anyone who would want to ask anything
"Very well then, man your vehicles. Operation This-is-gonna-end-badly is a go."
With some murmurs and whispers among themselves, soldiers boarded their vehicles. Pavel walked to his Cayman and sat down at the position of front gunner, next to his wife who was driving. Behind them young British soldier, Sarah Lyons was her name, manned the upper machine gun. Pahria and Fehriss sat down in the back. Pavel tested the radio and called for readiness check.
"Status check."
"Cayman two, ready and waiting."
"IVECO one, standing by."
"IVECO two, ready.
"Mule one, supplies strapped in and radio working. Ready to go."
"Mule two, fuel barrels loaded. Tell us if we start leaking. Otherwise ready as ever."
Everyone was ready and eager to go. Pavel was glad that his unit seemed to be looking forward to their mission. He had to admit that giving their OT-64s call sing Mule was good idea, it was fitting.
"Good to hear that. Now let's go." Pavel ordered.
With that Catherine ignited the engine and shifted in first gear. She looked up to him and when he nodded she dropped her foot on gas pedal and slowly released clutch setting the car into motion. Column quickly formed behind them. They went first, followed by second Cayman. OT-64AM2s drove in the middle and IVECO LMVs formed up the rear. They slowed down a bit when they left the base and as soon as they were out on uneven Falmartian road they settled for constant tempo of 70km/h.
HOUR LATER
So far, their mission went flawlessly. Mostly. Roads in Falmart weren't exactly marked correctly. A fact which was found out about twenty minutes into their journey. This forced them to backtrack few times and sometimes they had to slow down into crawl to pass through sharp turns. They were driving through open area when they spotted someone travelling in opposite direction. Simple carriage pulled by brown horse. On top were sitting two men, one squat looking old man and a boy who couldn't be older than twelve.
Pavel ordered all vehicles to pull to the side and turn of the engines. He tried not to terrify whoever was going towards them. Taking Pahria and Sarah with him they walked a short distance ahead. Behind them rest of the team braced for the worst and spread out so that they could cover the trio, gunners aimed mounted machineguns and waited.
Pavel stood in middle of the road, Pahria was standing on his left side with her rifle hanging on her chest. Sarah, who stood on his right side, wasn't relaxed that much. Fact that was clearly given away by the way she was gripping her rifle. Pavel looked at Sarah and smiled
"Relax sergeant, it is clear that they are farmers. Probably returning from market where they sold their harvest."
"With respect. How can you know that sir?"
"Simple. The way they and their carriage look. Also, the horse doesn't look very good. Probably just old."
"Uh-Huh." was all Sarah could voice out before the carriage closed distance.
"Prrr." wagoner stopped the horse. He slowly stepped down from carriage and carefully walked towards trio
"Who are you? What do you want?" asked guarded.
Pavel put on a smile and introduced himself "Greetings. My name is Pavel. Me and my companions are travellers from far away land. We seek to learn more about these lands and learn their customs."
"Hmm… aren't you from beyond the holy Gate" asked farmer glancing on their vehicles.
"I am not sure. We might be. Would that be a problem?" replied Pavel quizzically.
"No, neither I nor my son care much for the Emperor or his Empire." said farmer with a shrug.
"If what you say is true then you are welcome to come to our village with us. My name is Veturius." he followed after moment of silence.
"Aren't you afraid of us?" asked Pavel astonished at hospitality of farmer.
"You don't look like brute and even if I was wrong, then the cat and fox-girls here wouldn't like you so much." farmer simply stated, looking at Pahria and Fehriss who was listening in the distance.
Pavel smirked and raised eyebrow, "So you wouldn't have problem with them joining us?"
"No, I am not some savage and have no qualms with them." replied farmer looking almost insulted
Pavel nodded, turned to Sarah and Pahria and sent them to inform rest of the column. He turned back and asked, "Why did you say they liked me?"
Old man laughed and said "It is plain as day. Cat-girl was constantly glancing at you and her ears were slightly twitching every time you moved away. Her tail was dead giveaway about her feelings."
"Poor girls" he added thinking about Pavel's cluelessness.
After brief discussion it was agreed that recon team would accept farmer's invitation and follow him back to his house. It was believed that it would enable them to learn much more about the local life and customs. Pavel would ride on the cart with the farmer and his son while the rest of the team would follow close behind. This fact allowed team to calm the local duo down after the convoy ignited their engines, especially the two OT-64s. Even with reassurances that neither he nor his son are in any danger, the pair still glanced every few minutes at the vehicles for the rest of the journey back to the village. Old farmer looked with distrust and bit of fear whilst his son had nothing but look of pure admiration and curiosity when looking at the benefits of 21st century travelling.
With Pavel riding cart with farmer, Pahria shifted her position to where Pavel was sitting before, next to Catherine and manning forward mg. Seeing that both Pahria and Fehriss were nervous, Catherine tried to calm them down
"Don't worry. He is perfectly safe, he can take care of himself."
Her words seemed to work a bit.
"But shouldn't there be someone with him? What if the farmer tries something?" asked Fehriss and even Sarah voiced her agreement while rotating upper mg and aiming it in general direction of the cart.
Catherine sighted "Well for starters I don't see a way how we could cramp any more people on that cart without destroying it. The damn thing looks like it is ready to fall apart any moment."
Briefly pausing to draw a breath she continued "It is not like he had CQC training like any other paratrooper. Also, he knows that if he gets himself injured in some stupid way then I will strangle him."
Last remark was clearly unforeseen by the girls. Sarah did her research on all three highest ranking Czechoslovakians that were in her team and wasn't surprised that much by the remark. From what she read she summarized that her commander and his wife along with his second in command, lieutenant Vortel, had a long career and even longer tendency to say less than appropriate things if they believed so. Pahria and Fehriss were dumbfounded by Catherine who until this point seemed almost carefree, kind and cheerful. Feeling two pairs of eyes boring into her skull, Catherine turned around and looked at her passengers. Sarah simply shrugged and once more rotated her machinegun around as she scanned the horizon. Pahria and Fehriss were trying not to stare at her and failing. Catherine found it amusing and asked
"What? You looked like you have seen a ghost."
"Uhm… I thought he was your husband and that you… cared for each other." Fehriss finally managed to say.
"And that is why. … I am sorry. I forgot that you have different mindset than we do. We sometimes exaggerate words we say in order to make a point. In this case I was trying to say that I would be very angry with him if he were to do something stupid." explained Catherine after realizing that she misled the girls and made a mental note for the future. On second thought she created another note to try to avoid sarcasm and words with dual meaning as much as she possibly could.
Her explanation put both girls at ease. For the rest of their journey they chatted idly or in case of Fehriss and Pahria sometimes tried to catch what Pavel and farmer were talking about. Listening proved impossible much to the displeasure of the pair thanks to the sound of the engine and the fact that Pavel's microphone was switched off.
After what seemed like eternity of crawl the convoy came to halt near small rural village surrounded by small patches of separated farms. They pulled their vehicles over and stopped by the road a little distance from entrance to the village. Entrance was marked by simple wooden gate with name of the village written in the arch over the road.
Pavel dismounted the cart before it entered village and re-joined crew of his LAV. He briefly made sure via radio that everyone would put up their best behaviour. Pavel, Fehriss, Pahria and his second-in-command Petr gathered and slowly approached the village entrance. A group of curious villagers was warily looking at the strangers as they approached their village. They had their suspicions and were fearing the strangers a bit, only because they came with one of their own they relaxed a bit.
Pavel and his entourage slowly walked to the village while rest of his team stayed behind them. Pavel carefully looked around the village and then noticed what was probably village name on the arch. He turned to Fehriss who was walking next to him and asked her about it. She promptly read the name "CODA" and then asked why didn't he read it himself since he know how to read and understands the language. Pavel simply smiled at her and explained that while he could speak her language, his reading was far worse and kept silent about his writing skills in that wretched language.
After brief introductions the recon team was invited to village. Pavel along with his entourage went to town house in order to learn as much as possible. Rest of the team tried to form friendly relations with locals. Adults were still guarder but children swarmed the strangers even through their parents were strongly opposed. Everyone was surprised when their resident Finnish marksman Raimo displayed ability to gain great affection from the kids. He gave them chocolate and performed simple tricks to amuse them, like pulling a coin from behind ear and so on. This was 180 degrees turn from his usual cold-nose approach much to the astonishment of all team members who witnessed it.
Pavel, Petr and the two girls spend several hours in town house deep in discussion with village elder in attempt to learn as much about inner workings of this world as possible. When they came out Pavel ordered his team to put their vehicles into circular defensive position and that they would stay overnight here rather than to travel the few remaining hours of daylight and search for campsite.
Team prepared their makeshift camp outside the village with their vehicles serving as an improvised wall in a fashion similar to old hussite defensive tactics. Act more than fitting given the enemy they were facing in this world. The problem with modern military tactics was that they were designed against enemy that possessed at least some level of modern equipment. Thus, it was decided that the task force would neglect more modern styles of waging war in favour of several more fitting tactics and strategies of the past. Prime example of this would be de facto use of trench warfare and strategy of overwhelming firepower, once heavily used by Soviet Union during WW2. One last tactic that was chosen for this campaign and would be the main underlaying aspect of it was strategy of Shock and Awe.
Pavel along with Petr, Catherine and Fehriss took the first watch. While Fehriss used her exceptional hearing and night-vision to watch over the camp, rest made themselves comfortable on top of one OT-64. Once they took seats they began discussing events of the day. At first sight it was apparent that their earlier assumptions about this world's political structure were correct. The so-called empire was ruled by select few and ordinary folk had little to no impact on their decisions. By this it was confirmed that earlier decision not to hold anyone but imperial nobility accountable for the crimes committed was correct one.
Furthermore, the elder provided invaluable intel concerning the search for kidnapped people. While no one from the village and common folk in general participated in slave trade they all knew to some degree how it worked. In this case the piece of information provided was that the slave markets were usually set up in major trade hubs. When asked about the largest trading post in area the elder named, after a while of thought, city named Italica. But he stressed the fact that nor he neither most of the villagers travelled much and most of what he knew were rumours. After exchanging all gathered information and processing it they turned to planning the following day.
"Well, that would be all we have gathered here today." mused Pavel.
"Yes, it is. I don't recall anything else." agreed Petr.
"As if we haven't learned enough for one day. As far as intel gathering goes I think we have made quite the progress given the situation we find ourselves in." Catherine added her opinion.
"Yes, now for our plans. The elder told us about settlement it this forest here. According to him some sort of long-lived species live there, non-humans, but he said that they are friendly more or less." said Pavel pointing to crudely made map of the surrounding area.
While the helicopters already made aerial photos of land around their main base, by the time recon team departed they still lacked ability to launch reconnaissance planes because the runway was still being finished.
"Hmm. Long-lived, eh. Yeah, that could help us a lot. Given their long lifespans they should know a lot more than these farmers." Catherine thought out loud and Petr agreed with her.
"So, we are in agreement? Tomorrow morning, we set course to this settlement whoever lives there in order to learn as much as we can." asked Pavel. He received two agreements. After their planning finished they spread to the perimeter and for the rest of their watch-duty they idly spoke through radio. After what seemed like eternity they were exchanged by second watch and went to blissful sleep.
Nothing happened for the rest of the night and in the early morning the team gathered all their equipment they managed to misplace in the evening. With high chances that they woke up everyone in the village they turned their vehicles around and promptly left heading in direction of the forest settlement.
As they set out they kept their scheduled contact with main base. For the entirety of the journey nothing happened for good or bad. That is until they arrived to small overlook near the forest. When they stopped for a while in order to look around the landscape all seemed quiet and serene. Nothing was disrupting the calmness of the nature but few pillars of smoke in approximate area where the settlement should be but no one was alarmed by this as it could have been simply few fires in heart of the settlement. This world was still mostly undiscovered so it was believed to be part of some sort of tradition.
This assumption was shattered when unnatural shriek echoed in the air and massive dragon flew up from middle of the smoke. This put everyone in state of frenzy as everyone scrambled to their large calibre weapons. Those who did not have assigned heavy weapons immediately readied either RPGs or IGLA AA missiles. They almost fired, only thanks to Pavel's last-minute order they didn't. Few team members voiced their disapproval. Before Pavel could explain his reasoning, the team was rebuked by Petr who explained that they lacked sufficient firepower to take down beast that size. It pained him but his main priority was to ensure that his subordinates would return home safely. Ordering them to attack beast this size without proper equipment would result in many unnecessary death.
Pavel ordered to create camp. They would wait for the dragon to leave. Something it seemed it wanted to do any moment. And wait out until the fires died out. Thankfully it seemed like the weather was changing and sooner or later it would start to rain. Hopefully it would rain long enough to extinguish fire. Right now, it would be suicide to attempt to enter the forest thanks to several new fires courtesy of now leaving dragon.
As soon as the camp was set up and dragon safely away they contacted base and apprised about this new development and that they intended to enter the settlement the moment fires would die out in order to conduct search and rescue operation. High command agreed with their course of action and informed them that medivac Mi-171 would be standing by should they need it. Furthermore, after a while they have been contacted by base again and informed that several aerial helicopter groups were prepared to comb the area around their holdings and any unit was allowed to call upon them should the need arise.
Prediction soon proved to be true and for the whole night it rained. Density could match the fiercest British rains. This provided ample opportunity for team to make fun of Sarah Lyons. Teams combat medic and only British soldier on team. Pavel didn't stop it for it functioned as stress relief for the team.
As soon as the sun rose and provided enough sunlight they saw that fires indeed died out. Setting out instantly they soon arrived at the settlement. Sheer amount of destruction and evident loss of life exceeded even their worst expectations. Once wooden settlement stood no chance against dragon's fiery breath. Few soldiers ran to the nearest remains of a building and searched for any miraculous survivors. As the search continued soldiers became more and more disheartened. They felt guilt and shame that they could not prevent this massacre.
Pavel slowly walked on ash covered ground through what was once heart of the settlement and now was only graveyard. Burnt bodies were scattered around. It looked like the inhabitants attempted to fight back. Pity that they stood no chance against the beast. As he walked he was thinking of ways how could any inhabitants survive. First idea that came to mind was to hide in body of water. Unfortunately, there was no visible stream of any kind. But thankfully he soon spotted well, tucked away behind the wreckage of one building. He jogged to the well and peered into it. He saw something at the bottom but he was not sure.
Pavel called out to his team and soon he was tethered by tow rope, clipped to his harness, to the Cajman. His memory concerning roping were more than shady but as soon as he began his instincts took over and almost instantly he was up to his waist in freezing water. He used his torchlight and looked around himself and truly, he found curled up girl. She seemed to have lost consciousness because of the freezing water. He believed that she spent the night there and it was almost miraculous that he found her pulse. It was weak but it was there. He took her to his arms and cradled her on his chest. His actions seemed to wake her up but she quickly fell back into unconsciousness. With her safely in his arms he called to his team to tow him up and they slowly did. Once he was at the lip of the well he handed her to Sarah and Catherine who began their ministrations. He was helped out of the well by Petr.
She was indeed alive and all uninjured. Water must have softened her fall into the well. A bit of warming up and she would be good as new. But her mental state gave the team great worries. How would she react to death of all her friends and even family.
Once they checked that there were no other survivors. Team gathered and mounted their vehicles. The girl was put into back of Pavel's Cayman and under careful watch of Sarah. She was stabilised and there was no visible danger to her life. All she needed was rest. Sarah's place was occupied by Fehriss who looked more than prepared for any assault.
They informed high command about the situation and that they would try to leave the girl with the villagers. It looked like better idea than practically kidnapping her and taking her to base. Way back to village would be uneventful. This allowed Pavel to take a second look at the girl. He didn't scrutinize her that much before and knew only what the resident medics told him. That she was, for lack of better terms, elf. Now he looked at her again. She had long straight blond hair that reached up to her mid-thigh. She was relatively small. He estimated that she was still teenager around 17 years of age but no older than 19. She was beautiful to say the least. She was cute. And from what medics told him she had blue eyes but those were shut tight right now. Of course, there was one thing that was standing out on her were her pointed ears. She indeed looked like fantasy elf straight from the books. Her clothes were ruined, they were cut by Sarah and Catherine to get her from them fast and into blanker to warm up. Only thing that remained was her jewellery. It was apparently golden so they just dried it. It was masterfully crafted necklace. Undoubtedly expensive.
Road back was indeed uneventful and thankfully fast. Villagers were more than surprised to see them again. They were no doubt thinking that it was one-time meeting. Catherine as per Pavel's instruction drove the Cayman straight into main square while the remaining vehicles remained outside village. Given the ruckus they made it was unsurprising that elder marched up to Pavel's car almost instantly.
At first, he seemed confused and not understanding so Pavel enlisted aid of Pahria who took his role and explained the situation. All about the dragon and that they were asking them if they could take care of the girl. Elder looked rattled when he heard it and asked what kind of dragon did what they were saying. Pahria wasn't sure herself and looked at Pavel. He pulled out his smartphone from his pocket and opened gallery. He showed photo he has taken and said "This."
If the elder was rattled before, now he was panicking. For a while he was muttering incoherently and franticly pacing around. After he compromised himself he said firmly that they have to flee to bigger cities. Staying in small village without defences would be suicide. Pavel half-expected this when he saw the destruction and then elder's reaction. He offered safe haven and protection should they come with them to their base on Alnus hill. Elder thanked him but refused. They didn't do anything wrong but he still didn't fully trust their intentions. Pavel understood his reasoning and countered with offer of protection for a while. Elder accepted this and turned to inform his village.
Pavel turned likewise and told his team via radio what was agreed. He once more asked Sarah what was the status of the girl. "Unchanged" was her answer. He decided to contact high command and request reinforcements. He couldn't fully protect fleeing villagers with forces on hand. High command acknowledged his request and after while contacted him back. They approved his actions and informed him that reinforcements were dispatched to the location given by him. They would arrive very soon. Team took long because it took very roundabout way and practically returning back.
In meantime team parked their vehicles by the side of the road leading out from the village and entered it to help with the evacuations. This proved to be wise because the villagers were panicking lot. Team managed to put into effect some form of order and quite soon villagers were ready to go. Even before that happened the promised reinforcements arrived. Impressive display of power. Four T55-AM2 tanks with infantry support of two squads (14) of motorized infantry with their two transport BMP-2s they also brought two T815 Colossus trucks. When he walked to talk to commanding officer of the reinforcements he was elder talking to strangely dressed blueishly-haired girl and old man.
He found out that the reinforcements were commanded by captain who promptly asked about his orders. He told him and was in middle of discussion with him about the best way to provide cover for convoy when they heard gunshot. They both briefly looked at each other and then bolted to the source. When they ran Pavel was worrying about his subordinates, luckily, he heard no following gunshots.
When he arrived on the scene he had his Vz. 58 ready and swung it left and right. When he saw that no one posed any form of danger he lowered it. Few members of his team were standing in a group near the column and more were arriving every second. All heard the gunshot and ran to the rescue.
Gunshot apparently originated from Catherine who along with Sarah and the blue-haired girl stood over little girl lying on the ground next to dead horse tethered to overturned cart. Catherine was holding her CZ-75 with her Vz. 58 was still on her back. This seemed to imply that she drew quickly and had no time to unshoulder her rifle. He quickly made his way to her and when he did she has returned to checking the little girl on the ground along with Sarah as if nothing happened. She was calm as night but Sarah still seemed bit rattled but was recovering fast. Blue-haired girl just stared, shifting her gaze between the horse and Catherine who has already holstered her weapon.
"What happened here?" Pavel asked when he came close.
"Cart overloaded, axle broke, overturned, girl fell and got concussion." she bluntly stated without even looking up at him.
"O-Okey, and what about that dead horse behind you?" he pointed to it.
"That? It went berserk so it had to be shot lest it injure someone, so I did." she answered.
He knew her well and situation didn't need further explaining so he left it at that. He ordered everyone to get back to work and they did. They moved the assembled column to the side and used one T-55 to carefully push the overturned cart from the village. This awed the villagers a lot. Soon they were on the way and moving at steady pace away from the abandoned village. Little girl and her parents were ferried in one of the T815 trucks.
IMPERIAL CAPITAL, SAME TIME,
/INSERT "DICKISH EMPEROR SCENE"
/ERROR SCENE NOT FOUND, DATA CORRUPTED
/IMPROVISE
Emperor sits on his royal futon in his big cliché royal living room. His slimy and greasy servant informs him about losing entire army sent to Alnus hill. After a while he orders to mislead and sacrifice armies of allied kingdoms so that they will not pose a threat to him. He also orders to put unruly senators calling for his head under surveillance and if possible to remove them from power.
When he finished his scheming, doors are flung apart and princess Pina Co Lada and her moon-sized ego enter. After yelling at him and asking what he would do. Being bothered with her, he decides to get rid of her. He manipulates her and sends her with her wanna-be soldiers to "scout" positions of enemy who without effort wiped out several imperial legions instantly.
/IMPROVISATION ENDS HERE
SORRY FOR THAT. DIDN'T WANT YET ANOTHER CHEESY EMPEROR-FUTON SCENE VER. 386. NOW LET'S CONTINUE
SOMEWHERE BETWEEN ITALICA AND ALNUS, BANDIT CAMP, SAME DAY, 1600
She was terrified. Bandits already killed her husband and her son. Then they dragged them behind their own cart to camp. Right now, she was lying on the ground in fetal position cluthing her aching stomach with her bound hands. It hurt so much. One bandit kicked her when she tried to stop them and protect her poor seventeen-year-old daughter from them. She couldn't stop them and now they were tearing her dress apart and trying to force themselves on her. She wanted to protect her daughter to the core of her bones but right now she couldn't do anything.
Suddenly she and everyone else in campsite heard strange never-before-heard sound and it was getting stronger. Thankfully they stopped forcing themselves on her daughter and dropped her on the ground and she was slowly crawling back to her mother. Scraps of her dress trailing behind her.
Suddenly the voice got even louder and massive beast jumped over the nearest hill. It was all black and terrifying. It had two bulbous eyes one behind another on top of its snout. Two short stubby wings with strange looking eggs underneath and long claws that were very thin. It had long tail and on the end fin with some black halo on one side, bigger halo was above it with the middle of it directly above strange protuberance on its back. Belly was flat with bones showing through. It had black skin all over and on the tail, were numbers 3366. She didn't know what it meant.
If flew right towards them and stopped when it was directly above her and her daughter, whom she was tightly hugging, in front of the bandits. She was scared stiff. Then it spew fire with thundering noise and every time that fire touched something it exploded in hail of fragments no matter what it was. Head, leg, torso, horse and bandit, boulder no matter. Everything exploded. Surviving bandits turned tail and run. She was still underneath in scared stiff. Then it moved back a bit and she thought it looked at her. It waddled, swaying from side to side as if waving at her. She slowly raised her arm and reluctantly waved back at it. When she did it stopped and after second or two sped forwards in the direction of fleeing bandits. Soon she heard the thunder again.
She looked around the camp, no living bandit was there anymore. She grabbed her daughter's hand and the both ran all they could in opposite direction than bandits not believing that the monster saved them.
NEXT DAY, CONVOY OF REFUGEES FROM CODA VILLAGE
It was second day of their convoy protection and frankly it was getting in on everyone. The monotony of moving at the pace of half-dead snail was bad and the multiplying problems with villager's wagons were quite bad too. But all that paled with the strain that the overwhelming scorching sun and heat was putting on. Everyone who could opened every panel and every cranny of his vehicle and tried to hide in shade with what little comfort their AC units could provide. The villagers looked bit used to it but even they suffered and those that could were hiding underneath tarps of their carts. Few of those who lost their carts were riding in one of the two T815 trucks but this was only offered to injured, small children, ill, and elderly. Surprisingly there was also quite large number of pregnant ladies.
Pavel was better off than some others when it came to the heat. By design Cayman is and open-top vehicle and as such he was occasionally cooled down by wind gusts. He knew he couldn't keep his soldiers alarmed for the entirety of escort duty that would probably last few days until the farmers were away from immediate danger or they reached bigger city with walls. So, he allowed them to relax and created several groups that would always respond to any problem villagers had and kept watch. The rest could recuperate in meantime. As such he saw that Pahria and Fehriss were sitting close to each other and both had one earpiece of headphones connected to his phone which Pahria borrowed. He taught her how to operate it and right now they were watching something. They both were transfixed by the screen and were almost forgetting to breathe.
"What are you watching?" inquired Pavel. Curious as to what was drawing them in so much.
"The Famous Days" replied Fehriss who stopped video.
It was series of short, 10-minute max, videos that talked objectively about important historical events with authentic footage in background if possible, each published on the day of the year it happened. It had almost every aspect of history in its well over 300 episodes. The good and bad.
"Ah, I see you like it. I am happy that you are so vigorous in learning about the history of your new home. After all, those who do not read history are doomed to repeat it." he smiled at them.
The part about new home was right. They were both given citizenship and both expressed their wish to be part of Czechoslovakia rather than Falmart. Given their past they received no objections and after passing language tests they were welcomed under restriction that select few members of task force would take care of their continuing tutorship and that of their friends.
"So, tell me. Which episode is it?" he asked curious as to what captivated them so much.
He received answer he didn't expect "The day the Battle of Verdun began"
Pavel only grimaced and Catherine who was listening in simply said "Oh."
"Well, I was kind of hoping you were watching one of the more cheerful episodes. But yeah sooner or later you had to learn about it and other." he stated.
"I have only one question." said Pahria
"Fire away dear." answered Catherine
"The casualty numbers are unfathomable, are they correct?" asked Pahria with worried look.
"I am afraid they are." Bluntly stated Pavel who had seen every episode at least twice.
This killed any conversational mood for next several minutes. Pavel and Catherine returned to gazing at endless nothing around them and girls back to the phone.
The problems were always the same. Villagers have overloaded their carts when they left their houses and the strained construction would give in after a while making it immobile. Solution was always the same. The convoy couldn't stop so the unlucky were told to take their most prized possessions that they could carry and one of the T-55s pushed it aside. The half-baked crews whined about scratching their rides but ultimately didn't hesitate when the need arose. The sooner convoy would move the sooner they could get somewhere cooler than their tanks that were slowly turning into ovens.
In the morning there were also few cases of carts stuck in a mud after night rain. This was remedied as the day went by heat that effectively dried everything. The response to this was same, horses would be disconnected and cart itself would be carefully towed out of the but the either T-55 or BMP-2.
Everything went smoothly considering the situation. Until noon when everything went nuts.
Dragon appeared from the sun and in first flyby incinerated several carts and poor villagers in middle of convoy. The villagers were stunned and unable to move, frozen by pure unadulterated dread. Soldiers went into frenzy. On orders from Pavel, Motorized Infantry soldiers scrambled and by any means were trying to get villagers away from convoy to nearby overlooking cliff that would protect them at least from one side.
BMPs immediately started creating smoke screen between the civilians and dragon who was circling back. They achieved that even before the dragon returned, hiding their proteges from it. The rest moved their vehicles into open terrain with smoke behind their backs. Those who were on foot stayed as last-line of defence behind the smoke.
Dragon was quickly coming back. The fact that he couldn't see hey pray didn't deter him and was opening his ghastly jaw to breath fire. In that moment he was struck from the sky by eating 9K116 Bastion ATGM to the face.
Missile, fired from now rapidly accelerating T-55AM2, impacted inner cheek of the beast. The damage was only superficial. Entire cheek was gone and its jaw was displayed for all to see. But the shock the dragon had was enough to confuse it long enough for it to crash. It impacted with tremendous force and very soon found itself on receiving end of soldier's fury.
Every vehicle and in instance of Caymans, every crew member except driver, were firing everything they had. Several RPG rockets were already flying to it and its skin glittered with impacts of machine gun fire. And T-55s didn't hesitate to fire all their weapons. BMP-2s joined in suit with their 30mm cannons.
The cannon fire was tearing large chunks of scales and muscle away from the beast that was trying with all its might to swat its assailants into bloody puddle. Using the fiery breath proved naught. Without cheek it was unable to focus it and it dissipated after few meters. Few times it bathed two T-55s but it never inflicted any damage whatsoever.
The fight was not one-sided however. At one-point dragon managed to hit one T-55 with massive paw. The impact and claws made number on the tank. Top-mounted large calibre DShK mg was torn off along with half of the addon armour on the left side of the turret. Heavy-duty pins holding it in place gave way and deep claw marks now adorned the turret. Fortunately, the crew was not hurt and both propulsion and main weapon were working. Same couldn't be said for most of the delicate optics. Tremendous force of impact shattered the lenses and the tank couldn't guide its ATGM anymore.
The torn-off armour was sent flying and the half ton of steel nearly hit Pavel's Cayman. It didn't only because Catherine swerved the car to the left at last possible second and it flew past them, grazing their side and tearing off supplies strapped there.
The beast was slowly losing the fight. More and more grievous wounds were covering it, caused by 100mm cannons of the tanks. Right arm was nothing more than stump and left one ended at wrist with shattered and torn remains of its fist hanging freely. Several vertebrae at the end of its tail were blasted completely off. It also sported serious injury on left thing from another Bastion impact.
Suddenly, in two waves of four, eight air-to-air missiles struck the beast. One embedded itself deep in the left eye socket before exploding and taking out its already non-functioning eye.
Two Mi-35 helicopters swung over the vehicles zig-zagging on the ground and with continuous fire from their mgs flew by the dragon. Before flying by it they fired eighty S-8 rockets. Half was with fragmentation warheads and half was illuminating. This temporarily blinded the dragon. With the dragon blind at the moment the vehicles pulled back and Mi-171 moved into position unforeseen.
Smoke screen was blown away and allowed the villagers to witness the grand finale. The overburdened Mi-171 was carrying six S-13 122mm rocket pods, thirty rockets in total. It hovered some 200m from the recovering dragon. It let loose with very explosive results. Dragon wailed in pain.
Just as the Hinds were coming for second fly-by it spread its massive wings and took air. Wind lash from this action nearly resulted in crash of the Hinds. One was suddenly propelled several meters upward and the other found the air underneath it gone and sucked downward. Only thanks to the instinctive action of the pilot who throttled engines to maximum it recovered few centimetres above ground.
The dragon flew away and everyone was ecstatic. The villagers and soldiers were all more than relieved to be still in the land of living. Soldiers took no casualties, only the crew of the clawed T-55AM2 sported few light injuries. But the dragon still managed to claim victims with its first strike. Some 83 people were gone, number could have been higher if not for rapid response of Pavel's team and reinforcements.
Four critically injured villagers but still alive were loaded into Mi-171 along with three of their relatives and quickly taken to hospital in base, under protection of Hinds. Pavel and the others helped villagers to bury their dead and, after Pavel had conversation with elder, promised to take care of number of orphans, elderly and those who had no relatives they could call upon for help. The girl from the forest was among them and was by now awake. She woke during the dragon attack and had to be held tightly by Pahria during Catherine's almost nut-job zig-zagging. She was covered in blanked and along with others in question was intently staring at Pavel. He simply waved, smiled and told them not to worry and that they would be fine.
As the villagers were leaving on their own, Czechoslovakians and their allies waved them goodbye. When the last cart disappeared in the distance they gathered themselves, loaded refugees in trucks and set off back to the White Mountain (Alnus) base having more than enough excitement for the day. Some agreed that even for a week.
Without the horse-towed carts the journey was much faster and quite soon they were safely back at base. What they didn't know was that the dragon survived thanks to its immense size and exceptional regenerative abilities but because of injuries it sustained it went mad. The implications of that would be learnt only much later.
AN: I hope you have enjoyed that. Had some to-dos and couldnt work on it for a while but in the end i managed to progress the story. The scene put in is instead of rory who will come into story later. If you are curious and didn't get it from the description it was Mi-35 assault helicopter. Alien Tiger to be exact. nice camo. seriously google it, it is real thing.
