Appia Highway, 1530, 1st April, 2021

1st Reconnaissance Battalion, after their surprisingly friendly encounter with the elves, continues their journey.

With Centurion-1 and Hitman-2 in the lead, they're leaving the forest and are planning to seize the Appia Highway near Italica, establish a blocking position and prevent any enemy elements from approaching 1st Marine Division's lines.

The plains outside the forest extend as far as the eye could see, with no trees in sight, occasionally, 1st Recon would pass by confused, but friendly locals using the highway.

For the men of Hitman 2-1, the spirits couldn't be higher, especially after the encounter earlier with the elves. For some unknown reason, everyone is singing "Everytime We Touch" by Cascada at the tops of their lungs.

I still hear your voice, when you sleep next to me.

I still feel your touch in my dream.

(in my dream)

Forgive me my weakness, but I don't know why,

Without you, it's hard to survive.

'Cause every time we touch, I get this feeling.

And every time we kiss, I swear I could fly.

Can't you feel my heart beat fast?

I want this to last.

Need you by my side.

'Cause every time we touch, I feel the static.

And every time we kiss, I reach for the sky.

Can't you hear my heart beat so?

I can't let you go.

Want you in my life.

Only to be interrupted by Kirito's voice, his gloved hands pointing towards the front.

"Sergeant! I see a crossroads in front of us!" Kirito yelled, hoping for it to get past all the singing and shenanigans.

"That's our objective! We'll cross that thing, we are gonna cut the empire in half!" Simon answered, his heads leaning near the turret position, his face grinning, ecstatic that they're finally going to do something useful.

"Fuck yeah!" Evan says, his hands still gripping on the steering.

"I see footmobiles in the distance, maybe 3 o'clock?" Kirito sees something in the distance, but he's unsure what is it, which makes Simon use his ACOG to get a better view of the footmobiles.

Peeking through his ACOG scope, he can see the figures Kirito was talking about, although they're not hostiles, they're civilians. Seeing this, he immediately relaxed his hands, which are still gripping on his M4A1's M203 grenade launcher.

Turning his face at Kirito, he then says

"Don't shoot them Kirito! They're just kids playing, don't worry." He immediately reassures his gunner that it's nothing.

"Roger that, Sergeant!" A reply came from the Humvee's turret position.

"Aw, how adorable these guys are." Simon mutters under his breath, waving at the kids playing in the plains, far from the horrors of war in front of them.

"What the fuck? Simon we got a couple of dead bodies ahead!" Evan interrupted the conversation, pointing his hands towards the road in front of them, littered with dead bodies.

Seeing this, Simon simply orders,

"Do not run it over Evan, these guys are fleeing Imperial targets, it's legit."

The convoy swerved left and right in a zig-zag pattern, avoiding the dead bodies, one of them missing their whole guts, with his intestines being eaten by vultures.

"Man, those guys in the Artillery and Air Force must've had some fucking fun last night!" Evan cheerfully said, referring to the artillery and aerial bombardment they saw earlier last night.

"Yup, they sure do." His team leader just nodded, amazed by how much destruction he's seeing, at least this time, it's an actual military target, not civilians. Still, the amount of dead bodies along the road is too much and too gory, which makes Simon gags.

The Traveler, takes a couple of pictures of the aftermath of the airstrikes, his face, horrified by the horrors of war, above him, Kirito can be heard trying to hold in his MREs, which are trying to escape at the sight of the dead mutilated bodies.

"How many bombs did they dropped last night? This is some serious fucking shit!" Doc Clancy joins in, curious about the details of the air and artillery strikes that they saw in the distance last night.

"30000 pounds, artillery and bombs." Simon coldly replied, his green eyes staring at a dead body, with almost no recognizable features left, blood gushing out of every place in its body.

Hearing this, the Traveler whistled, noting it into his notebook. The scenery has changed, from peaceful and tranquil to chaotic and full of destruction.

"Damn! That's some serious shock and awe!" Evan remarked sarcastically, as if to mock people who likes to see death and destruction, his eyes meanwhile, are still on the road, his hands moving the steering to avoid the dead bodies.

"You know, I have a buddy in 1/7 that found something similar to this when he cleaned a Humvee that got hit by a IED back in Afghanistan, they said they found the driver's lower jaw in the engine compartment." Evan continues his story, still running on energy drinks, his story causes everyone in the Humvee to turn their heads towards him, snorting and shaking their heads at what happened.

"How did they know it was the driver's jaw?" The Traveler asks, his mouth full of MRE Pound Cake he's eating.

"Through dental records you fucknuts!" Evan immediately answers, shaking his head at how the Traveler didn't even see the most obvious way to identify the jaw.

Just then, their conversation was interrupted by the voice of their platoon commander, First Lt Frederick Mistral.

"All Hitman-2 Victors, halt, we have reached the objective, I saw again, we have reached the objective." Lt Mistral informed his men that they've arrived at the highway.

Hearing the orders, Simon mechanically orders Evan to halt the Humvee,

"Evan, halt the vehicle." Simon said, his head facing towards the front, scanning the area, while his right elbows are resting on the door of their Humvee. He tapped multiple times on the Humvee's dashboard with his left hand, signaling his driver to stop.

"Aye aye, Sergeant~" Evan immediately follows his orders with a mocking voice, he swerved the Humvee left, off the road, before finally stopping.

Now that the convoy has stopped, everyone gets out of the vehicle, they've reached and completed their objective of seizing the highway, they have now effectively cut the Empire in half.

Just then, Lt Mistral appears, holding a map, followed by Gunnery Sergeant Alex Mays, the Platoon Sergeant.

They both walked over to the hood of Simon's Humvee, seeing this, every Team Leader in the platoon followed behind, including Simon and Dow. Doc Clancy also joins the meeting, as he is the platoon's medical support.

"Alright everyone, Team Leaders! Listen up!" Lt Mistral orders all team leaders to report to Simon's Humvee, as he is holding a meeting. Unlike Lt Superman, who screams most of the time, his orders are barely loud, although loud enough for every team leaders to hear, not the whole platoon.

Pulling out his map, he immediately pointed at their position.

"This is us." He said, in a voice soft enough for everyone to hear, but not to the whole platoon, he radiates a calm, controlled energy, which what makes most of the Marines in the unit respects him, despite being younger than all of the Team Leaders, at 22 years old, he's even younger than the youngest Team Leader at 23 years old.

He then moves his fingers to the left, drawing a circle, naming it "1 MARDIV".

"This is the main advancing forces, the 1st Marine Division with a couple of JGSDF units attached, they're moving through MSR Tijuana, they're using the main highway. We are 20 klicks ahead of them, to say the least, we are alone here." He continues his briefing, stopping for a couple of seconds for his words to sink in, before continuing.

"Any questions?" Lt Mistral continues, taking a bite from a MRE Cracker.

"Sir, our orders are still the same right?" Simon asks, trying to make sure their orders still stay the same. Sometimes, orders would change without being passed down to them.

"Yes, our original mission is to establish a roadblock here, and prevent the Imperials from reinforcing Italica." Lt Mistral immediately reassures his team leaders that the orders hasn't changed. While the 1st MARDIV is in the main highway, they're road-blocking the important crossroads in front of them.

Joining the meeting was Second Lt Nick Connolly, the leader of Centurion-1, his M1A1 Abrams tank, "Cum Eater", is parked 100 meters away from their position, facing the highway's crossroad with 3 other Abrams of his platoon.

Turning to Lt Mistral, he immediately asks,

"Will we be getting any artillery or air support?"

"I'm not sure, but I think the answer is likely yes, we are still within the firing range of 1st Marine Division's M777 Howitzers, air support are available too." Hearing this, his team leaders and Lt Connolly breathe a sigh of relief, at least they will get artillery and air support if they're attacked.

While they do have the technological superiority over the Imperials, 400 men of the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, won't do much against 400,000 if they're attacked, they might kill 2/3 of them before running out of ammo, which is why they have air support on standby and a tank platoon attached.

"At least they don't fuck this one up." Dow casually says, mocking the higher ups for sending them 20 km ahead of 1st Marine Division with almost no support, besides 4 tanks and 1 M88 ARV of Centurion-1.

Just then, the radio spoke up, it's Hitman-3, everyone braced themselves for some bullshit incoherent screaming.

"This is idiotic sending us here, we are 400 men here alone and they have hundreds of thousands out there! This is suicide!" While his concerns are valid, he is panicking over the radio, which is something you will not do in the Marines.

Everyone immediately frowns at the transmission.

"THEY NEED TO GET US OUT OF THIS PLACE NOW! THEY DON'T KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THE WAR!" Lt Richman screamed on the radio, trying to convince everyone that the mission is a suicide mission.

Evan, hearing the radio, just says

"Man, I'm so fucking sick of Lt Superman's autistic ramblings, they need to get that asshole off the radio, I feel bad for Sergeant Hunts." Evan said in an exasperated tone, he's referring to Sergeant John Hunts, a friend who's under Lt Richman's command, which means he has to deal with his bullshit almost everyday.

He turned off the channel for Hitman-3/Lt Richman for the Humvee's SINCGARS Radio, before giving the radio telephone to Traveler, who just sits there amazed at how annoying Lt Richman are, he immediately takes notes of his behavior. Evan then gets out of the vehicle, intending to take a piss.

Back at the team leader's meeting, everyone is frowning and suppressing their snickers after hearing the radio.

"Sir, it seems the behavior of the commander of our sister platoon, is starting to concern us." Simon calmly says, with a frowning face.

"Yeah, Lt Richman is pretty fucking unprofessional and incompetent." Doc Clancy joins in the conversation, voicing his disapproval of Hitman-3's Commander behavior. Scratching his red hair, in frustration.

"Officers are trained to throw water into fire, not throw gasoline into fire, this nigga is trying to throw fuckin' napalm liquid into the fire." Dow speaks up, the leader of 2-1 Bravo, showing he too is fed up of Lt Richman's ramblings, while it is allowed for officers to scream on radio in movies, it's not the case in real life, as they're trained to keep calm in all situation, not scream, screaming will make their men panic and lower their morale. His deep black accent just reinforces how fed up he is.

"If you have any complaints about any of the officers, please don't voice it too openly, I don't want to hear it.." Lt Mistral tells his team leaders, subty implying that he's protecting them from being chewed out for criticizing higher ups and their decision.

"Anyways, have any of you been getting some sleep?" Doc Clancy changes the topic, asking if everyone in the platoon if they have slept or not, as the platoon medical support, he's obliged to make sure that everyone in the unit is healthy.

From far away at his pissing location, Evan just yells casually at Clancy's question.

"No! But thank you for being such a caring guy Doc!" Genuinely complimenting Clancy for his caring personality, before going on with his business having a pissing contest with Allie. Doc Clancy just smiled at the remark. He then turns back to the team leaders, waiting for an answer.

Seeing this, Lt Mistral repeated his question,

"Has anyone in your team been getting any sleep?" He said, looking at all of the team leaders.

"Besides 10 minutes to maybe 1 hour naps, we haven't slept ever since we stepped off Alnus." Sergeant Christopher Sutherby, team leader of Hitman 2-2 spoke up, with an urgent tone, worried about his men's combat effectiveness.

"We seriously need to get some rest, now that we have stopped at our objective" Gunny Mays joins the conversation.

"Anyways, that'll end our meeti-" Lt Mistral said, before being cut off.

Just as their meeting ends, a loud voice interrupt them wrapping up the meeting, it's Evan, once again, singing "Stereo Hearts" in a nightcore fashion, purposely butchering the song for shits and giggles. A side effect of all the energy drinks he's been drinking, trying to stay awake due to combat fatigue.

My hearts a stereo,

It beats for you, so listen close,

Hear my thoughts in every note, oh oh,

Make me your radio,

Turn me up when you feel low,

This melody was meant for you,

Just sing along to my stereo,

Gym Class Hero, baby!

If I was just another dusty record on the shelf,

Would you blow me off and play me like everybody else?

If I asked you to scratch my back, could you manage that?

Like it read well, check it Travie, I can handle that. . . . .

Hearing this, the team leaders just shake their heads, instead of chewing him out for interrupting the meeting, they just let them go, all of them smiling slightly, going back to their team. Lt Mistral is suppressing the urge to laugh, smiling while walking back to his command Humvee.

35 km ahead of them is Italica, which are under attack by American and Japanese combat aircrafts, from fighter jets, strike fighters to bombers.

Italica, 1645

Several strange metal birds, differing in size and heights, fly over the city, they'd made unholy shrieking sounds when flying low, while some stays above the clouds, dropping weird rocks that explodes on contact, everybody runs for cover. Yesterday, they just destroyed Count Formal's mansion, killing almost all of the maids. Myui is taking a refuge inside an abandoned house, with Princess Pina Co Lada, and Delilah, others meanwhile, perished in the massive explosion that leveled and vaporized Count Formal's mansion.

"Lady Myui? Are you alright!" Delilah yelled from the other side of the house, trying to find Myui, who is hiding under the table in the kitchen with Pina.

"I-I'm here! Delilah! I-I'm he-here!" Myui said, stuttering, due to the constant shockwave by the explosions.

Immediately, Delilah arrives and sees Myui, she immediately hugs her, and comforts her.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine, you'll be fine Myui, I will protect you." Delilah comforts her, trying not to cry, she just lost most of her friends in the explosions, she doesn't even want to have revenge, she just wants to make sure Myui lives.

Pina meanwhile, is looking at the table, on it lays a map of Italica, she is with her servants, Hamilton Uno Ror and Grey Co Aldo, who is trying to plan the defense of Italica from the other-worlder armies. The only person missing is Norma, he was killed by a shrapnel from one of the attacks, impaling him.

"How many days will it take for the rest of the Rose Knights to arrive here?" Pina asks both of her servant, her voice tired from several days from moving house to house, trying to not get killed by other-worlder's strange metal wyverns.

Hamilton and Grey exchange looks at each other, finally, Hamilton spoke up,

"2 or maybe 3 days, Milady!" Hamilton informed Pina, hearing this, Pina snapped.

"DAMN IT!" She raged, screaming at the table, and banging on the wooden table multiple times, freaking Hamilton out and making Grey sigh, before calming down.

"Grey, we need to resort to desperate measures, conscript all able-bodied males into the Italican militia, Count Formal has a massive collection bows and arrows, take it and give it to the militias." She ordered, her voice sounding urgent.

"Bu-" Before Grey could protests, Pina cut him off.

"NO BUTS! IT'S AN ORDER!" She screamed again, stressed out from days of non-stop explosions. Not wanting to make Pina mad, Grey and Hamilton immediately went outside to do his duties.

Pina meanwhile, breaks down crying after they both left, ever since she's little, she was thought that the Empire is invincible, no one could defeat her beloved country, people kept bringing up Arctic War, where Empire suffered heavy losses in the early stages of the war, only to come out victorious in the end, she reassures herself, that Empire will prevail against these other-worlders barbarian too this time, right?

Right?

Notes :

MSR - Military Supply Route, basically, military way of saying a highway or a road.

For example, an Iraqi Highway during OIF 2003 is referred to as MSR Tampa, rather than it's original name, Appia Highway is named MSR Tijuana in my story.

1/7 - 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, in my previous side story, there's a mention of 2/5, it being 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, both of them being part of 1st MARDIV.