5 Hours has passed since they called in a massive airstrike on the Fire Dragon, the battalion is once again on the move, it seems like they've moved out of the dangerous and treacherous part of the plains, now, their area of operation seems peaceful. The view of nearby forest is beautiful, it's tranquility, was broken up by the roars of the gas turbine engine of Centurion 1-3, an Abrams under Centurion-1, a tank platoon, comprising of 4 M1A1 tanks and 1 M88 ARVs leading the Battalion's eighty vehicle convoy.
There's no dead body on the road for the first time since the battalion began their road march 29 hours ago, which came as a relief for the men of Hitman-2 and units under it. For now, they can enjoy the views of the woods, the tranquility and how beautiful is it. Overall, their current area of operation just gave off peaceful vibes.
For Sergeant Simon Williams, he doesn't have the luxury to enjoy the beautiful scenery outside him, he's trying to make sure the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion is using the correct road in their journey to seize the Appia Highway.
"Hitman 2-1, this is Hitman 2, interrogative, where is the turn? Over." It's the voice of their platoon commander, Lt Frederick Mistral, asking him if he's using the correct road.
"Hitman 2, this is 2-1, it's coming right up, at around 1 klicks in front of us." Simon replies, reassuring him.
"2-1 it better be, I assure you Godfather is watching, out."
"Dude, I'm so lost right now, like really." The silence is broken up by the upper-class southern accent of their team leader.
"Don't worry buddy! I know where we are heading." Evan said cheerfully, his hand tapping on Simon's shoulder.
Gulping down a pack of MRE M&Ms, like it's a drink, he continues assuring his team leader that he knows the route.
"We passed the burned and destroyed Coda Village, 2 other intersection, next is Koan Elven Village." Evan grinned excitedly, for the first time, he's going to see an elf, an honest to god elf, in his life.
"Well let's just hope your fucking white-trash daughter-fucking testicle-faced cowboy are right." Simon just replies, with a mix of mocking and genuine 'thank you' in his voice, for these guys, trading insults is like a normal, everyday thing.
At the back, Doc Clancy is sleeping, the reporter is cleaning himself up with baby-wipes that he borrowed from Doc Clancy, most of the people in the unit haven't took a bath since they stepped off Alnus.
"Hey Simon, do you remember that episode of Filthy Frank, where they pimped up the guy's wheelchair." Evan continues the conversation, referring to the Pimp My Wheelchair video of Filthy Frank.
"Yes Evan, I do remember that fucking video very well, I don't see any relevance it had to do with our present situation." Simon replies, his green eyes staring at the fields and plains outside the vehicle, it's beautiful, if it weren't for Evan's constant, energy drink induced conversation.
"Hey Sai! That's our turn." Evan calls for his team leader, pointing his hand at the route leading to a massive forest that gives off feeling of tranquility.
"Good job, Evan, thank you for your driving." Simon smiles slightly, despite his driver's non-stop talking, he's also good at his job of driving and operating radios.
"No problem buddy!" Evan responds by flashing a smile to his team leader, he's still excited to see some Elven girls, he's gonna take pictures of them, and use it as visual help during jerking off session. Although he still has interest in their culture and ways of life. He's not gonna date them though, knowing the dangers of STDs.
"What's the channel for Centurion-1?" Simon asks Evan, Evan knows a lot of things about how radios work, what channels for which unit and so on.
"Channel 17." Without missing a beat, he replied.
Now that they knew how to communicate with the tanks in front of them, Simon immediately went to work.
"Centurion-1, this is Hitman 2-1 Actual, be advised, make the turn now, it's near us over." Simon pressed the 'push to talk button' on his radio to contact the tanks in front of the convoy to let them know that they need to turn their tanks into the forest.
"Roger that Hitman 2-1." The voice from the other side replies, immediately, the M1A1 Abrams in front of the 1st Recon's eighty vehicle convoy swerved to the right into the forest road, followed by other tanks, Humvees and MTVR trucks of the rest of the convoy.
Changing the radio channel for Lt Mistral, Simon immediately informs him that they're making the turn now.
"Hitman 2, this is 2-1, we are making that turn now, over." Simon informs their Lieutenant that they're making the turn now, sounding a bit smug in the process.
"Nice job 2-1, over." Lt Mistral responds, sounding almost impressed by how fast they found the correct route.
"Wake up, Doc." Simon tries waking Doc Clancy up, his eyes still on the road, looking for any signs of ambush by bandits or the Imperial Army itself
"You're missing the elven girls~" He continues with a teasing voice, trying to annoy Doc Clancy sleeping behind the driver's seat, his M4A1 with M203 firmly in his hands as he tries waking up, not having slept in 29 hours straight, with couples of 10 minutes nap in between.
"Aghhh, fuck!" A tired but angry voice comes out from behind Evan's seat, it's Doc Clancy.
"Fuck man, every time I tried sleeping, somebody always wakes me up, for fuck sakes." He continues.
"Aw come on Doc, don't be mad, we are gonna go see some fuckin' elves man!" Evan tries to cheer him up, taking a sip from his energy drinks in the process.
Offering his energy drinks to Clancy through his right hand, whilst also keeping his left hand on the wheels, Doc Clancy, seeing this, can't just refuse the offer by his best friend, so he decided to take a sip, almost immediately, he gulped it all down, making a mess in the process, which makes everyone in the Humvee, including Traveler, the reporter next to him, laugh.
"What the fuck was that for!?" Doc Clancy asked, seemingly confused by all the laughters targeting him.
"You make a mess of yourself Doc! You now look like a fucking cum dragon!" Evan said, his face grinning and snickering at the scene.
"Oh. . ." He immediately responds, taking a peek at his LBV Vests, strapped on top of his MTV protective vest, it's full of liquid from the drink making him a bit wet.
The Traveler just shakes his head at the scene, smiling slightly.
While 2-1 Alpha is having fun, 2-1 Bravo behind them is discussing what happened to the American citizens kidnapped by the invading Imperial Forces.
"I got a buddy in Fox Company, 2/5 that said when they rescued those girls in that wagon near Appia Highway. . ."
Everyone is listening closely to the driver, Corporal Alexandro Moraes, aka Allie, about what his friends found when they rescued captured American girls from a wagon in Appia Highway, just 100 km south of Italica. Even Sergeant Lund is listening, while also scanning the nearby forest for any signs of enemy forces.
"They said they found one of the girl's crotch rotting, with maggots and shit, it's fucked up, to say the least." He tried telling the story, with Herculean effort trying not to puke.
Hearing this, everyone in the team looked away, disgusted and trying to process what they just heard.
"I know that they crucified her, before putting her on a wagon to dump her body, she's recovering in a Navy Hospital off San Diego." Allie continues the tale of the girl, the Marines, breathe a sigh of relief, at least she got a happy ending. Only to be interrupted by 22 years old Corporal Nathan Watson.
"On a cross?" Nathan asked, not knowing much about crucifixion. He tilted his head, waiting for an answer, the sunlight glinting off his golden blonde hair.
"Yeah it has to be, did you even read the fucking bible?" A voice comes from above, Nathan immediately glanced behind him, trying to find the guy who said it, finding out who said it, it's Corporal Edward Cortez, the glass-wearing, dark-haired M2 Machine Gun gunner for their Humvee.
"No? I'm a fucking atheist you fucknuts!" He responded with a kick to Cortez, who just avoids it.
"Can you two stop fighting, every time I take my eyes off you white boys, you start fighting." Sergeant Lund, joins in their conversation, his black accent bellowing across the vehicle. Just shaking his head at the conversation behind him, trying not to laugh.
"Dow! I'm not a white boy! I'm a Mexican" Cortez responded, not liking the fact that his team leader just called him 'white boy', calling Sergeant Lund by his Dow nickname.
"Dawg, you looked like white boy, you just happens to have a Mexican name bruh." Dow immediately shot back.
Allie just shakes his head at the scene, smiling slightly, the team went into a friendly insult throwing contest after that.
"Shut yo bitch-ass mouth motherfucker, go cast in a Thug Hunter porn video." Cortez shot back at Dow, telling him to go star in a gay porn video, hearing this, Dow responded with,
"Bro, at least I'm making more money getting freaky with gay white boys back in the hood when we EAS, than your 'Mexican' ass at some shitty-ass McDonalds in Phoenix, Arizona"
The friendly insult went on for a while, everyone in 2-1 Bravo is grinning, trying desperately not to laugh.
Back to 2-1 Alpha, they've been moving in a straight line for quite some time, the silence is only broken up by Evan, who decided to rant on why this continent lacks tight high-quality pussy.
"Dude, you ever wonder how this world is so fucked up? I'll tell you why, it's because lack of pussy! Lack of pussy, is the root fucking cause of global instability, if more fucking Saderans were getting high quality pussy instead of some STD-ridden whore pussy with rotten maggot mixed with dripping cum, then all of this wouldn't have happened, because a nut busted fucking Saderan, is a happy Saderan!" Before he could continue, Simon immediately cuts him off, asking,
"How much fucking Rip-Its have you drunk?" Simon asked, his face exasperated, he's referring to the name of the energy drink, hearing Evan's new rant, a side effect of drinking Rip-Its energy drink.
"I'm high on it like a motherfucker yo! Come on man, lighten the fuck up! We're gonna go see some Elven girls!" Evan cheerfully responds, ignoring his friend's exasperated face.
"Please, no more of that shit. When you drink too much Rip-Its, you can't shut up."
Hearing this, Evan immediately shuts up, at the back, Doc Clancy is trying not to laugh, even after he stopped his rant, that is until, Lane, aka Traveler, the reporter riding with them, says,
"That's an interesting theory though." He said bluntly, with a slight smile creeping.
"Yeah, you know what? You should quote me on this! Look, if you took the Imperial Legion, put them in fucking Thailand or Bulgaria for a week, there'll be no fucking war? Why? Because like what I said earlier, a nut-busted Saderan, is a happy Saderan!" Evan continues, responding to Lane's remark.
Simon can only shakes his head with an exasperated face, he's trying to stay focused on the trees outside his Humvee. The Traveler is making Evan rant by asking him questions for shits and giggles.
"So the war's not about resource-grabbing, conquest, or getting back our citizens?" Lane asks for Evan's input, while writing his rants on his notebook with a shit-eating grin, knowing it's gonna make one hell of an article when he goes home.
"No, in the opinion of this Marine, it's about fucking sex, pussy and cock." Evan immediately answers his question, not missing a single beat.
"Not even about Emperor Molt and his war-crimes?" Lane continues asking him, desperately trying to hold in his laughter.
"No, look, Molt's just part of the problem alright? If he invested more in the pussy infrastructure of Falmart than he did on his fucking gay-ass Roman knock-off Army, then this whole fucking place wouldn't be as fucked up as for example, Iraq or Afghanista-"
Before Evan could wrap up his theory, Simon cut his rant off, staring at him with a face that looks like it's trying to hold in a laughter.
"What?!" Evan asks.
"Please shut up, thank you." Simon immediately tells him his simple request, shut the fuck up.
At the back, Doc Clancy is suppressing his laughter by burying his head into his rucksack, the laughter being audible every moment, soon enough, he breaks out laughing.
Evan meanwhile, immediately stops his rant, satisfied that he got his point across to Traveler.
1300, Koda Elven Settlement.
It was a nice day, the sun is shining high in the sky, while the children are playing around the fields, climbing trees, chasing each other without care to what's happening around them. The tranquil forest meanwhile, provides food source for the elves that has been living her for hundreds of years.
Tuka Luna Marceau, is busy picking flowers for her mom's grave, every year, she make sure to replace the flowers at her mother's grave, who died in childbirth.
She was raised by her single father, Hodor, which she looked up to as a great man and a source of inspiration.
"Ah, what a beautiful day!" She mutters under her breath, picking out the flowers for her mother's grave.
For the past few days, she has been seeing multiple weird-looking wyverns, flying without flapping their wings higher than usual height for normal wyverns, she would also occasionally hear, although she ignored them and continued with her usual life.
Just then, she felt a sense of coldness on her shoulder, like someone was touching her, she immediately glanced at the back of her body, seeing her father.
"Father! You scared me!" Tuka said, in a surprised tone, not expecting to see her father.
"Haha, come on Tuka, you're all big and tall now, you're still scared of being surprised like this?" Her father just laughs it off, smiling, proud of seeing his daughter all big and tall, maybe a bit mature.
"I just thought that a bandit tried sneaking up on me! That's why I got scared!" She counters, her cheeks flushed red from embarrassment for mistaking her father for someone trying to do some questionable things to her.
"If that's so, then I'm sorry." Hodor apologizes for surprising her daughter.
"Don't worry, it's fine, just don't do it again, alright?" Tuka responds, Hodor nodded in response, she immediately picked up her flowers, and head back home, along the way, she admires the tranquil and peaceful scenery of her village, the children, playing in the nearby stream, while their mothers and daughters cleaned their clothes with the water from the stream.
The tranquil scenery is interrupted by a strange, almost alien noise of a something roaring, everyone in the village notices it, the children has stopped playing, running back to their homes, scared by the noises, the men, immediately picked up anything that can be used as a weapon, fearing it might be some unknown wyvern.
Some that has bows immediately begin aiming it at the source, while others begin chanting magic spells to defend the village, her father immediately went into combat mode, pulling out his bows, in a heartbeat, while also telling Tuka to go back to their home.
"Go back to the house, block the doors with furnitures, now go!" Her father tells Tuka in a stern voice, which she immediately obeyed, picking up her steps, running to her house to hide.
Just then, a strange metal elephant, appears from the dirt road leading up to the settlement it seems to ignore the villagers, making everyone ease up a bit, but still holding their weapons.
Following behind the metal elephant is a convoy of metal wagons, with what seems to look like black axles, instead of the usual wooden axles.
There's men in the wagons, instead of going outside and pillaging the village, raping the women, they too ignored them, although they waved at some elves that are brave enough to get near their vehicles, they continued on their journey through the forest through the dirt road, paying the elves no mind, besides the occasional waving by the men using the strange wagon. In strange dirty camouflage with weird looking sticks, some of them even genuinely smiled, not in a sinister way, just your average nice, genuine smile.
Seeing this, Tuka tried challenging her luck, waving back at them even approaching them. The men responds by throwing a pink colored bag and waving at her, with the Elven language written on them, Tuka immediately picked one up, it said it was a gift from the people of "yew-nai-ted stai-tes of ay-me-reca", she never heard of this country before. The bag looks like it contained some sort of food inside, based on the impossibly-accurate drawings on the side, showing how to eat it.
Tuka is amazed, how rich were they to throw away such good drawings? Even the bag is high quality, it didn't even break open, even after being thrown into the dirt towards her by the men in the strange wagon.
Hodor runs to Tuka, checking if she's alright.
"TUKA! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!" Her father screamed, still running towards her, Tuka responds by giving him a nod, which calms him a bit.
"Who are these people?" Tuka wondered, her minds thinking where might these men from "yew-nai-ted stai-tes of ay-me-reca" came from geographically.
1st Reconnaissance Battalion, 1300, April 1st 2021
The battalion has been on the road for quite a while, with Hitman-2 and Centurion-1 leading the convoy, inside Hitman 2-1's Humvee, everyone is minding their own business, Evan and Simon are singing the song "Old Town Road" by Lil Nas X, Doc Clancy is eating MRE M&Ms, the Traveler is enjoying the tranquil view of the forest from his seat. Kirito too is enjoying the view, while chewing on a gum.
Yeah, I'm gonna take my horse,
To the old town road,
I'm gonna ride 'til I can't no more,
I'm gonna take my horse to the old town road,
I'm gonna ride 'til I can't no more!
Today seems like it's going to be uneventful, that is until Hitman 2-2 Actual, 26-years old Sergeant Christopher Sutherby, leading the vehicle behind 2-1 Bravo, spoke up on the radio.
"Hitman 2-1 this is 2-2, be advised, we seemed to spot couple of footmobiles, upfront, can you see them? Over." Christopher asks, his voice seems tense.
Everyone in the Humvee tensed up after hearing the radio, they're moving through a dirt forest road, a perfect place for ambush, Doc Clancy immediately put his M&Ms away and clutched his M4A1, pointing it outside, scanning the trees. Traveler meanwhile, braced himself for a firefight.
Hearing this, Simon stopped singing with Evan, and immediately spoke up to Kirito, who's on the turret manning the Humvee's Mark-19.
"Kirito! Do you see any footmobiles up front?" Simon ask Kirito, who immediately responded by pulling out his binoculars, and pointing it up-front, peering through it.
"Uhh, those are not footmobiles, I say again, those aren't footmobiles." Kirito corrects Simon.
"Yeah! I can confirm it looks like, multiple Elven girls, maybe 6-7, near the stream." Doc Clancy confirms what Kirito saw, he's scanning the stream for any hostile forces through his ACOG scope strapped on his M4A1, instead of finding enemy preparing to ambush them, it's bunch of Elven girls and boys, playing in the stream washing up, seeing this, he can't help but smile, seeing how happy these people are.
"All Hitman Victors, this is Hitman 2-1, false alarm, those are civilians, hold your fire, I say again hold your fire, over." Evan immediately gets on the radio telephone, which has longer range than Simon's normal radio headset, trying to tell the rest of company that there's civilians on the roadside.
"Roger that 2-1, Hitman Actual out." The voice of their company commander, Captain Stephen Walt, replied to Evan's message, before ending the conversation.
Just then, Lt Tom Richman of Hitman-3 spoke up.
"THIS IS NUTS USING THIS ROAD! THEY COULD BE COMING FROM ALL SIDES, THEY COULD BE DISGUISING AS NORMAL EVERYDAY CIVILIANS! OVER!" He said on the radio, almost immediately, everyone in Simon's, Dow's and Sutherby's team, together with other units in the battalion, scoffs at the transmission, shaking their head at how paranoid the commander of Hitman-3 is.
"Jesus, Lieutenant Superman's a fucking autistic retard, they need to keep that fucknuts off Company-wide radio net!" Evan responds to Hitman-3's transmission by calling him a retard off the radio.
"Lieutenant Superman?" Traveler asks in a puzzled tone.
"It's the nickname we gave to that fucking retard, due to how reckless and incompetent he is." Evan answers his question whilst keeping an eye on the road too.
"Uhh, I got Elven girls, to my 9!" Doc Clancy informs Simon of what he saw.
Hearing this, Evan got excited, he has been itching to see some elf girls ever since they stepped off Alnus to lead the 1st Marine Division's charge to Sadera.
"Elven girls!? Fuck yeah." Evan says cheerfully, smiling all the way to his ears.
Seeing the girls up front, he immediately took off his LWH helmet, and immediately picked up and wears his sunglasses, grinning.
"Hey ladies~" He said, greeting the girls with a wave, coupled with broken Imperial. Seeing this, the girls, who before, were scared of the M1A1 Abrams of Centurion-1 infront of them, began waving back, finally gathering courage to wave back and smile, now knowing that the Marines aren't going to hurt them.
The mood in the battalion has changed from 'kill everything they see' mode to friendly, liberating heroes mode. After spending 29 hours on the road, seeing dead bodies, mutilated children, bleeding to death along the highway leading up to the forest, the sight of this peaceful Elven settlement waving at them is refreshing to the Marines and Sailors of 1st Recon.
"Yes, we are the conquering heroes." Simon sarcastically said, waving at the kids outside with a genuine smile despite his remarks earlier.
"Man, this place is like 100% better than fucking Afghanistan, there's honest to god elven girls, nice scenery and we even got to slay a whole fucking dragon!" Evan smugly remarked, the memory of when they called in a JDAM airstrike on Fire Dragon still fresh on their mind.
"Hey Traveler, Doc, break open the Humrats, give these people some food." Simon orders Doc Clancy and Traveler to break open the Humrats, which are stored behind their seats.
Immediately following the orders, both of them took couple of pink bags, with "humanitarian rations" marked on it, they immediately threw them towards a girl walking towards their position, smiling.
Traveler meanwhile, is taking pictures of the happy elves, smiling at them, turning off the flash mode to not surprise and scare the elves, who has never seen a camera before.
Dow and his team, seeing this, orders his team to break open the Humrats too.
"Yo Nate! Get the Humrats out, these niggas probably haven't eaten anything besides fruits, show them what vegan food are!" Dow orders Nathan, who immediately went into action and starts picking up the vegan Humrats, assuming that these elves are like the one in fantasy games, they might be vegan.
Finally finding it, Nathan throws the meal toward the kids, steadily rising in number. For the first time, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion finally meets actual people, the continent's natives, instead of dead bodies along the roads, mutilated and missing their organs, bloods spilled all over the road.
Note :
Humrats - Humanitarian Rations
EAS - End of Active Service, basically when troops retires
FLC and MTV Vest - FLC [Fighting Load Carrier] is the one that carries stuff, like rucksacks or some shit like MOLLE, MTV [Medium Tactical Vest] is the one that actually protects the wearer.