In case you haven't read chapter two again, I went back and fixed the description for the Cryo-Legionnaires, as well as fixing the name thing for the IFV.
Itami looked out at the window, trying to cure his boredom by looking out the window of the Sudden Transport he rode in.
iPhone games can only entertain one for so long before they yearn to do something else.
Luckily, Kurata decided to break the silence.
"Hey lieutenant, you'd think that there would be fairies and elves everywhere, right?"
"..."
"Hey, you think we'll see any catgirls before we see any dragons?
"Eh, I don't know. I'm more into magical girls."
"Oh? Then who's your waifu? Oh, lemme guess, it's Emyru from Mei-com, isn't it?"
"Hey man, if you're gonna badmouth my waifu..."
"Whoa, whoa, dude, calm down. I can sing the intro song!"
"What?! Really!?"
"Yeah!" And that's when Kurata started to break inside song, with Itami joining in, singing the anime intro to Mei-Company. (A/N: Please note that Mei-Com, at this point, does not have an anime.)
Meanwhile, Shino facepalmed, hearing them on the radio.
And to her dismay, some of the Peacekeepers joined in as well!
"Mei-com~! Mei-com~!"
Never before did she so desperately wish she could disappear from existence.
"Alright guys," Itami spoke over the radio. "We've found what appears to be a village of the natives. Be on your best behavior, and try not to scare anyone. That means you too, Kelvin. Just let Dr. Zelinsky and the Engineers do most of the talking, but if you wanna try, there's some translation books in the back."
Exiting out of the Sudden Transport, Itami and Kurata pulled off their helmets, so as to look hopefully look less intimidating.
At first, the locals were afraid of these newcomers and their strange vehicles, however, they quickly warmed up to them after Dr. Zelinsky told the village elder that they were't here to conquer them, and learned the name of the current location; Coda Village. The locals absolutely mesmerized by the sights of the vehicles, and even more fascinated at the concept of female soldiers such as the Rocket Angels.
Although, it took a while for them to get used to Kelvin's intimidating looks and his cold (pun intended) aura. When asked, he shrugged and said "It's a special kind of magic."
They were able to learn that the enemy they were fighting was known as the Empire of Falmar, and that the hill, Alnus Hill, was considered to be holy grounds.
Eventually, they were informed of a elven village in the forest to the north, so they left to find this village. Itami leaned out the window as the locals waved goodbye to the "men in orange and blue."
However, this wasn't the last time they'd meet.
Some time later, during the early hours of the night, they came across a strange sight. The cloudy night sky had a strange orange glow. However, when they rode to the top of a hill, they were both amazed and horrified to see a dragon about the size of a King Oni, shooting its fiery breath upon a patch of forest.
"Good god, it's like a one-headed Ghidorah!"
"Hey, do dragons start random forest fires?" Itami asked nobody in particular.
"Hah, why don't you ask it and find out?" Shino smarted off, still kinda miffed about the whole Mei-Com thing.
"Calm it, Shino. The village elder told us that there was a civilization in the forest!" The ex-Soviet scientist interrupted.
The implications set in immediately.
[Next morning..]
After driving for a few hours through the forest, they came upon a gruesome scene.
Piles of ash lay everywhere in what used to be a thriving town, small fires still raged, and the air around them felt even hotter than usual. (The latter didn't bother Kelvin, for obvious reasons.)
To make it worse, Itami and his team could smell burnt flesh in the air. But they managed to keep their minds off of it, looking for survivors.
"Lieutenant Itami! We've got one over here! Faint pulse, third degree burns!" One of the Mistoids suddenly yelled out, pulling what could easily be mistaken for ash-covered debris.
Meanwhile, Kelvin stumbled upon a hollow tree log that had miraculously remained uncharred, and decided to look inside. He came face to face with a group of frightened Elven children.
After throwing a bucket on a rope down a well, simply because she could, the sound of a bucket hitting something rather than water, another survivor was confirmed by Shino, this one being female.
All in all, they found a total of seven survivors, meaning that some soldiers had to cram themselves inside a Sudden Transport to make room, or had to sit in the gunner's seat of the IFVs.
"Commander, this is Lieutenant Itami speaking. We've found...something, and now we have some refugees."
"Hm? Oh. Do explain." The Imperial Commander responded. Itami gave him a brief summary of yesterday's events, describing how they came across Coda Village, and told him about how they witnessed a massive dragon burning down a village.
"Alright. I'll send reinforcements and additional Sudden Transports to this 'Coda Village'. The Allies have been notified, and luckily, they have their Chronospheres all set up, and we have our Nanoswarm Hives. They have reinforcements on standby, including the air force. Just give us the signal."
"Roger that."
[Later, at Coda Village]
Sure enough, around six more Sudden Transports, two of which were loaded with Archer Maidens, as well as VX-Strikers, were waiting for them at the village.
After informing the village elder about what had happened, and if they could help with their elven refugees, they declined, because one, they themselves knew too little about this particular race of elves, and two, that they had no choice but to evacuate immediately, for "when a Flame Dragon has tasted the blood of humans or elves, it will continue to burn villages in search of more."
And so, it was decided that the Imperial Japanese and the Allied would be their escorts.
Initially, there was some issues, for a horse had collapsed on the ground after the axle of their carriage broke, injuring it and it's owner. A young blue-haired mage named Lelei had come over to investigate, only to be confronted by the horse, frothing at the mouth, preparing to attack her.
Fortunately, Lieutenant Itami was there, and unfortunately, the horse had to be put down with a double tap of his kinetic auto-rifle.
Soon, they were off, following the dirt road towards Alnus Hill.
[Somewhere..]
A group of bandits sat around a campfire, discussing how the evacuees of Coda Village would be easy prey.
"Haha! They'll be sitting ducks!"
That's when one of them noticed a young female, scavenging through their latest "reward pile."
"Hey there, pipsqueak..."
The young female in question wore tattered clothes, yet the oversized jacket was relatively intact, almost undamaged, apart from the somewhat colorful stains that covered it, as well as loose threads. She apparently had four fluffy yet thin fox tails, as well as three physically identical "tendrils" protruding from the back of her head, all of which had a colorful neon orb of light at the tip of each...uh...limb..? She also had a pair of fox ears.
On her neck hung a strange necklace, with a somewhat oversized arrowhead-shaped object that shone like jewelry.
"...Myuu?"
"C'mere, little child..." The bandit tried to lure her over, hiding a dagger behind his back.
The aforementioned necklace began to glow faintly.
LEVEL 5 THREAT DETECTED.
WEAPONS HOT.
RESUME MONITORING PROCEDURE.
The bandit, however, was interrupted when he heard a yelling behind him.
"RUN! IT'S RORY! THE APOSTLE OF EMROY!"
He looked back over his shoulder to see another young lady, except this one was slaughtering his comrades with ease with a giant halberd.
When she turned towards him, he grabbed the young "fox"-girl, putting the dagger to her neck.
"D-Don't come a-any closer! O-Or she gets it!"
"..Myuh."
"Oh, you wouldn't..."
Now, Rory had dealt with this kind situation more times than you'd think.
But she didn't expect to sense a surge of energy building up within the hostage, when the said hostage suddenly bit her captor's hand...knife included.
"GUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! YOU LITTLE BRAT!" He screamed in agony, grasping his hand, which was now missing both a knife, and a sizeable chunk of the hand itself.
Rory swung her giant halberd, ending the poor man's misery. Turning around to face the young child, see saw that she was standing tiptoed, arms stretched out, as were her tails/tendrils, trying to make herself more "intimidating."
It's quite the opposite, as rather, it made her more adorable, notably where the oversized sleeves covered up her hands.
Instead, Rory walked over, patting her on the head to calm her down.
And immediately regretted it, as when she pulled her hand back, there was a visibly a thick layer of greasy oily substances on the palm of her hand.
Ew. Someone REALLY needed a bath.
Noticing she was being watched, she looked at nearby Sunburst Drone dead in the eyes, and smiled.
Meanwhile back at the Alnus Base, a certain Commander was feeling unnerved.
ALL THREATS NEUTRALIZED.
WEAPONS ON STANDBY.
[New objective received: Protect the refugees]
As Itami leaned back in his seat, he took a moment to pull out his phone. In the back of the Sudden Transport sat Dr. Zelinksy, reviewing the notes with the two Allied Engineers.
Then, Kurata sat up, pulling out a pair of binoculars.
"Gothic lolita and chibi monster girl, at our Twelve o' clock!"
"What?!"
That is how Itami and co. encountered Rory Mercury and "Myuu", the former whom was immediately swarmed by young children, which, despite her massive halberd, proved that she wasn't here to attack them. In fact, she showed interest in them, and decides to take a seat...
...in Itami's lap.
"H-Hey! W-What are you doing?!"
"Oh, this really is comfy."
Sexual innuendos ensued, as Kurata grew quite jealous. Eventually, Itami had convinced her that they could at least share the seat in between, with "Myuu" sitting in the back.
However, danger lurked, one that will show this world how powerful they truly were.
As Itami looked out the window at the sky, he noticed a small object flying towards them. Upon closer inspection, he could see that it was a lone dragon.
"All units, we have a lone dragon, on our five o' clock..."
Only for said dragon to be ripped in half with a single bite by a certain big red dragon.
"ALL UNITS, FLAME DRAGON AT OUR FIVE O' CLOCK! COMMANDER, REQUESTING AIR SUPPORT!"
"Copy that. ETA 15 minutes."
[New objective: Defeat the Flame Dragon.]
"All units, open fire! Hold out until air support arrives!"
Rockets flew, as did Tankbuster beams. Itami shot at the oversized lizard with his own auto-rifle, leaving scratches on the dragon's scales.
The IFVs lined up in front of the Archer Maidens, before launching their arrows and homing missiles, striking the dragon's sides.
Unfortunately, they were unable to stop the dragon from killing a fourth of their refugees, but when the Mirage Tank ("See? I knew it'd come in handy!") inverted its cloak generator, the refugees seemed to disappear. Being unable to find them, and not being intelligent enough to realize the villagers were still there, the dragon focused its efforts on its attackers.
Peacekeepers held up their shields, ready to defend.
The dragon landed, prompting the Rocket Angels and VX-Choppers to take off into the air, pelting it with homing missiles, chipping away the scales.
"ETA, 5 minutes!"
The dragon was starting get annoyed at this point, so it decided to charge up another stream of fire, and go for area of effect.
Kelvin wasn't having any of that.
He uses jump-jets to position himself in front of the IFVs, and when the dragon unleashed its breath, he unleashed the power of liquid Nitrogen, both the fire and it's opposite canceling each other out. He could mental picture the elven children (whom had grown attached to him) cheering him on, further reinforcing his resolve.
The dragon felt that the puny metal human was giving him a bad time, resulting in it focusing all of its fire on him, since Kelvin's weapon was designed for a wider area of effect, which put the odds against him, despite the continuous onslaught of missiles and anti-armor beam weapons.
That was when Lelei calmly walked over and cast a wind-based spell, creating a vortex of air that pooled the liquid nitrogen into a compacted stream of coldness that not only pushed the flames away, but outright went into the dragon's mouth, freezing a piece of its jaw.
"ETA, 10 seconds!"
Another roar was heard in the distance, however, this one was more of a godsend.
A group of four of the Allie's latest in what was originally a anti-Kirov weapon; the A-10 Thunderhog, were visibly flying towards them, and even though the refugees felt kinda scared, they were awed by what happened next.
"Begin strafing run!"
-BRRRRRRRRRT-
The Fire Dragon stood no chance, as 30mm rounds dug into its skin and wings, forcing it to fly away in retreat. Now with only one arm, and missing pieces of its jaw, it roared in defiance, soaring (somewhat clumsily) towards the horizon.
"Now that's how ya' do it!"
That night, they had to burned the dead, or at least what remained of them.
As they all silently mourned, an eerie, yet beautiful purple glow had covered the landscape, a natural phenomenon in this world. The Allied Engineers had set up their medical tents, and were currently aiding the the wounded.
At this point, the refugees told the soldiers that they no longer needed protection, as they knew where to go, for some had relatives. It was decided that the elderly, children, and those who had nowhere to go, would be escorted to Alnus Hill.
And thus, the first stories of the "Men in Orange and Blue" and their "beasts" would be told.
In the legends of old, there are many about the Gate.
However, the most perplexing legend of them all is the myth of the Bulwark.
It is said that during the first few openings of the Gates, that a group came forward, wielding unmatched power that rivaled those of the Celestials. They called themselves the "Embodiments". Instead of attempting to claim this land for themselves, however, they simply decided to leave.
But, they left something behind.
A towering metal behemoth whose giant eye seemed to see all. A multitude of strange tubes, that seemed to launch thunder, and a pair of arms with strange appendages that roared when they shot out nearly unthinkable amounts of metal and hellfire.
This was the Bulwark.
There was a way to harness its power, but despite all known attempts, nobody has been able to even provide evidence, other than the sightings reported by ancestors of ancient times, that the beast even exists.
[Database]
* = OC/custom unit
King Oni- Imperial anti-armor mech. It shoots eye lasers, what more could you want?
Chronosphere- Allied Superweapon. Creates a hole in time and space to transport units across vast distances. Deadly to infantry.
Nanoswarm Hive- Imperial Superweapon. Creates a massive dome made of nanobots, that keeps things out, or whatever's inside, inside.
*10-Thunderhog- Multi-role fighter jet. Originally meant for taking down Kirovs with ease, it was found that the GAU-8 rotary cannon shredded the armor of anything short of an airborne Giga-Fortress like like it was nothing, so the body was modified to make it fit for both air-to-air and air-to-ground combat. It's quite popular for the iconic "BRRRRRRRRRT" noise. Unlike the Apollo, and very much like the Century bomber; the Thunderhog's VTOL systems are strictly used for takeoff and landing procedures, making direct jet-to-jet combat highly unfavorable.
{The following is from the journal of someone who was a former Soviet Flak Trooper.}
So today, they got the manmade gate to stay open for a few minutes before it ran out of power. I was offered the chance to investigate, since i'm probably gonna either die there, die in a war, or probably die by getting shanked in prison, so I didn't really have much to live for.
I found myself on another battlefield in Russia. It took place on a large lake, one that was completely frozen. I recognized the accents of soldiers, some Russian, and some American. They drove around in strange tanks that resembled Guardian Tanks, except some had strange camouflage patterns, others just looked pretty dull.
But then, I saw the strangest thing of all.
It was a tank, yes.
But it was a HOVERING tank.
Long story short, I managed to hijack one and drive it back through the gate. Just in time, as the portal connection closed.
I was handsomely rewarded for my efforts, I was given a fully furnished mansion, and my own private army of conscripts.
I love my life.
Author's notes
Haha, Tuka's not the only survivor!
But seriously, I kinda want to see more stories where Tuka isn't the only one who survived. Just sayin'.
Trivia:
-Command and Conquer: Generals was originally intended to have a tank with an upgrade that would turn it into a hovering amphibious tank, which is currently known as the Leopard Tank. Not to be confused with any possible real-life versions.
-President Ackerman is voiced by the same person to voiced-acted Cave Johnson from Portal 2.
-Originally, Kelvin was going to drop kick the Dragon's mouth shut. Also, there would've been Jet Tengu and Apollos that accompanied the A-10s, one of which would've been "shot" down by the dragon, forcing the pilot to make one last stand that cost the dragon its arm, only to for former to be saved by Lelei's magic. Honestly, the first one didn't make sense, and the latter felt kinda out of place. Which is why the chapter was delayed.
-From what I hear, the gods and goddesses actually keep Falmar in a medieval stasis.
Can anyone guess the name of the tank the flak trooper brought through the artificial gate?
Also, how does making an FOB (Forward Operating Base) at Italica sound?
Another question; If Rory or Lelei sat in the gunner's seat of a Multigunner IFV, what would their weapons be?