Location: Kikwit, Congo Region

The C-130J Super Hercules flew over the vast and untamed jungles that covered the Congo region. The area had been in chaos ever since the Third World War, with famine wracking the continent due to the lack of fertilizer. The chaos and ethnic clashes have been going on for decades without end, with there being no sign of it stopping anytime soon. Terra had elected to not try and govern such a vast and unstable region, however that did not mean they had no interest in ensuring their interests in the region.

Katherine Cataline Khan looked over her LMG and exosuit; her jumpback read as 'optimal'. Her ginger-red hair blew against the wind as she looked down at her helmet, her face being reflected from it (with light freckles and fair skin to boot). The helmet itself had a robust but sleek design, the face guard reflecting the jungle that she looked over. "You ever wonder why the pencil pushers even bother with this place?" Khan said in a thick Irish accent to her teammates who were also running down their final checks.

"Ah, something-something 'terror threat', you know, the usual, they care about it enough to dump money on these new suits," One of her teammates said; Cortez was his name, she didn't know him well beyond that she drank him under the table last week. She did that to all her teammates now that she thought about it, good times. "You know how the boys in Cape Town are."

"Fuckin General Dynamics…" Khan said to herself.

Sighing to herself, Khan began to speak up. "Alright, mission details are clear, when signals are sent, we jump, other planes will blow their load over the city, capture the old airport and let the army come in to do its thing." She had said what was essentially the same thing several times already from previous missions. It was always essentially to clear a zone and make the army come to handle it.

Before putting her helmet on, she took a quick swig of a bottle of whisky. Her tolerance for alcohol had grown so immense at this point that vodka was essentially water for her at this point. The only reason that she was still standing and not on the floor suffering a complete liver failure was that she had gotten her liver replaced by a cybernetic replacement organ a long time ago. A perk of being in one of the most elite groups in the Terran Military, especially when the Terran military had recruitment problems as is, so they do a lot to keep up retention. It's actually one of the reasons why she hasn't been discharged for her severe alcoholism.

"Stand up!" The plane's jumpmaster declared, and everyone in the craft did. Khan would throw away the bottle of Whiskey- cracking against the wall of the plane as its contents would seep to the floor.

"Sound up for equipment check!" The sound of final checks being made to the jump packs filled the Fuselage, as everyone made sure the pack gave the 'all clear' light. "Sound off for equipment check!"

"Thrusters Ready!" The sound of the jump jets in the packs being powered on echoing in the plane.

The doors of the Hercules opened as the soldiers stood lined up, Khan was at the front on her side. The light next to the door was still red, signaling it wasn't time to Jump, not yet at least. The anticipation would be killing her for the next few moments, until the light suddenly turned green.

"Green light! Go!" Yelled the Jumpmaster, and Khan didn't waste a moment, and flung herself out of the plane with great enthusiasm.

She fell through the air, arms and legs outstretched like she was making a snow angel in the sky. Falling, falling, falling Khan went, until the alert in her helmet went off. Khan hit the thrust, her momentum immediately slowing, but not stopping, she would turn her thrusters on and off, to keep momentum.

She got closer and closer to the ground, some rebel- was rebel the right word? She didn't know, she didn't care, some rebels started to fire their rifles at her, as even without a parachute she was close enough to be visible, none were able to hit her though. She landed meteorically onto one of said rebels, their bones cracked as she slammed into them.

Despite the crash, Khan was quickly back on her feet, LMG at the ready and started running and gunning through the landing zone. Bullets flew across the field, some glancing off her armor as the rebels or whatever classification they fell under fired haphazardly and undisciplined at her. With professional precision rebels fell left and right. Khan stormed towards one of the haphazardly constructed pillboxes the rebels were using, and hurled a frag grenade through the gunner holes, before running off again. There was a loud BANG and parts of the pillbox came flying off, the rest of it just collapsed.

It wasn't long until the teams from the other craft finally finished their descent, landing much less 'dramatically' than Khan. Soon, the unit began to descend onto the position- swiftly performing their duties without much resistance. Their zone was clear, they had a few more points to take control of, and then the Army could land the main force.

One of her teammates ran up to her "You know, you could have dropped the dramatics, just this once."

Khan turned to her teammate, grabbing a bottle of beer that had survived the battle.

"When your kill count exceeds mine, then you can bitch on my jump jetting!" She said as she poured the beer down the IV Bag in her suit.

Looking up, she could already see the additional Hercules craft making their way to them, and it wouldn't be long before they dropped in more men on the position. Still not quite sure why they bothered so much in places like this, what in the middle of the African Anarchy could be so important?

It was then she received a call on phone- connected by her suit's interface.

At first, it was nothing out of ordinary. It was Base Commander Adebimpe congratulating her and her unit for another successful raid on a rebel cell group. She heard it all too much already. She was about to halfly compliment the commander and ransacking the local bar before this talk soon stopped being ordinary.

"LA!?" she yelled out, shouting curses. This pencil pusher just sent her a notice that they were dragging her ass back to LA after this… FOR WHAT! VIP ESCORT!? SHE WAS A SHOCK TROOPER! Khan sighed.

"They better have some fucking bars over there." She groaned to herself, as she threw the empty bottle of beer as hard as she could.

Location: Astra Damnatorum Legionary Encampment

Stolas walked between the assembled demons of his 26 legions. 260,000 demons stood shoulder to shoulder… er… or whatever analogues to shoulders they had. They were armed with various hell based weapons, and some Earth based ones. They even had something on an air force at their disposal. That being noted, it consisted of some armored blimps and older jet designs- but it was still an air force (something that many in hell couldn't even dream of getting.) The legions were a hodgepodge of different uniforms, weapons, demon types, and equipment. There was very little uniformity in them, he had never really invested much time into the build up of his legions, he never thought he'd have to. However now, they were the only thing that he could think of that could help get him, his Daughter and Grimoire back.

The legionaries notably tensed up when he walked past them, the aura of the Demon Prince so close had that effect on others. Many demons couldn't think of being in the presence of one of these beings- let alone be right next to them and being in their minds. However, what was on the minds of the Legionnaires was the fact that Stolas was actually there! They hadn't seen the Goetia in what seemed like years upon years. And for a good reason, they hadn't been dispatched at that time. At that point, they were mostly there for show- not conducting much combat operations of any kind. Hell- most of the people who were in the Legion was there for the health insurance. Something must have really pissed off him to make him come to his army that he hadn't used in who knows how long.

Stolas walked towards the front, onto a stage that had a microphone hooked up to a speaker system that extended across the whole encampment. Everyone in the legion would be able to hear Stolas' words.

"My faithful Legionaries!" A good chunk of the demons seemed to be startled out of a stupor, only to go back to zoning off.

"Today we strike back against the hubris of humanity! And the injustices it has done against the Goetia nAmE!-" Stolas' voice cracked, he was unused to yelling so loudly, even during the divorce talks.

"Ehem" Stolas awkwardly chuckled, trying to brush off the voice crack. "Right, so, TERRA! Terra has seen fit to imprison my Daughter Octava!" That got the attention of the various demons, kidnapping the daughter of a demon prince? You didn't do that unless you had some kind of death wish.

"In time you will MARCH on their cesspit 'City of Angels'! And if they do not meet our demands! We will turn it into naught but ash and cinder!" This elicited a cheer from some in the Legions, some out of hype, others out of being inebriated. "We will burn their city into ashes, and move to the next city! And then the next! And we will not stop until our demands are met! If not- we will burn the west coast to the ground!"

Stolas put a hand to his face, he was starting to regret neglecting his Legion. They only had to hold Los Angeles for a little while, and Terra would surely concede. They wouldn't risk severe damage to LA, one of their largest cities. All they had to do was take it from whatever constabulary was there, and then block reinforcements with the right arrangement of spells. Taking the city with 260,000, as uniform and undisciplined as they are, should be no problem. Despite the bluster, he knew that we probably didn't have much capacity to move out of the city, much less the whole West Coast, but hey, it made him look tough and in control.

"No problem, no problem, no problem" Stolas said to himself as he walked off the stage. It'd be simple, in and out, and he'd have his daughter back like nothing ever happened. Perhaps he'd finally be able to repair relations with her after this. I mean saving her from the clutches of Humans would at least be a good place to start right?

Stolas signed, rubbing his lower two eyes. The presence of the Wanderer complicated things. And now that he was helping Terra? Troubling to say the least. Still, he was only one man and he couldn't be everywhere. After all, if individuals were able to totally make regular forces irrelevant, there would be no need for Princely Legions right?

No, no he was sure of it. His stature straightened and began walking more confidently. He had this down, he WOULD get his Daughter and Grimoire back.

"Im coming Octavia… only a little bit longer my owlette" the Demon Prince whispered to himself.

Location: Wanderer's Abode

Octavia was assembling a photo album of all the pictures she has taken of the Tears of Azathoth. She still can't believe she got to see the event on a tower that rose above the clouds, nothing like that was in Hell.

"Tea?"

Octavia jumped a bit at the voice that came from behind her, dropping the photo album.

"Geez" Octavia clutched her chest, heart racing a bit, "You gotta stop sneaking up on me-" Wait, that voice wasn't the Wanderers. She turned to see …..AN ANGEL?! , a signature near permanent mile wide smile on her face!... With a platter of biscuits and tea?

The angel chuckled a bit "I apologize, our charge, despite even my sisters best efforts has never been startled by either of us before"

Octavia tried backing away, but the table behind her stopped her.

The angel set the platter down on an empty table, pouring a cup of maple tea. "I am just so used to to his unshakable nature that I forget others are not so difficult to startle"

Octavia was shaking in fear, there was what looked to be a guardian angel right in front of her. The angel was able to pick up on her obvious distress, tilting her head, and doing what she assumed to be her equivalent of cocking an eyebrow in… confusion?

The angel's eyes widened briefly in what seemed to be a revelation.

"OH!" The angel said laughing "Oh i'm so sorry, this is your first time meeting an angel isn't it?"

Octavia gulped, and mustered the courage to speak "Y-yea," she said shakily.

"Oh my apologies, you must be wondering why I don't try and smite you or some other hospital behavior" The Angel bent over on the ground and collected the photo album off the ground, offering it to Octavia, who seemed reluctant to take it.

"Hmm" The angel placed the album next to the platter. "I assure you I mean no harm, my charge made it quite clear you're welcome here."

"W-well, I didn't, I mean I thought, but you're an angel! And i'm from hell! So-" Octavia sputtered.

The angel raised a hand, Octavia quieting herself, but still shaking.

"Child, you're just a teenager with parental issues, you've done nothing to make me hate you."

"But I thought angels were… y'know… supposed to… y'know,"

The angel sighed "Well, we guardian angels tend to be a bit more grounded, we interact with humanity on a daily basis. I like to think that makes us more understanding than your average angel, but I understand your fear."

Octavia nodded, she was shaking less now, the angel's friendly demeanor, despite her fear of angels, just seemed so… welcoming.

"Say, would you like help organizing this" The angel said point at the Album "It reminds me of the days when the camera just was invented, me and my sisters would spend hours helping our charge develop film"

The angel passed the volume to Octavia, who opened it to some of the empty slots.

"So you've… I take it you've been with your charge for a long time?"

"Oh millennia at least, ever since he picked up the Sword of Kenaz my sister and I are bound to"

Octavia's eyes widened, "Wait?! You're Zeroel! Aren't you!"

The angel's smile somehow widened even further "Ah, I see you know that part of my history, and before you ask, yes the story of that battle is… mostly accurate"

"Well uhh, you're kind of famous in some circle at the school I attend"

"I was unaware I had a… what was the term? A… fan? Base? Yes, a fanbase, I did not know I had one of those."

"Yea, a lot of the more famous angels are talked about a lot by them, the interest really kicked off with the ehh, exterminations."

"Ah…" Zeroel sounded displeased, her smile getting smaller "I… am not sure I am comfortable having my name associated with that… event."

"Oh I… I meant no offense it's just-"

Zeroel raised her hands again "No no, it's not your fault or theirs. It's just the extermination is… well… I'd rather not discuss it right now. Shall we get back to finishing you album?" She said with her smile returning to its normal size.

"Yes, I… I think i'd like that"

Zeroel offered Octavia the maple tea which she took, and started organizing the photos on the table in front of her. "Ah, I love this one" Zeroel pointed to one of the photos "Reminds me of the first time we took our charge to see the stars."