Joint Base Alnus

"Major Tavaris Mulligan. First out, last in. A reverse wild weasel if you will." General Victor, Commander of the New Anea Forces, had called Tavaris into his office, following the teams late return from their mission.

"Yet they call me Taurus, sir."

"Oh, I know exactly what they call you, Major. And judging by this mission report, which was so graciously given to me, you lost a tank." Tavaris went cold, awaiting to be berated, but it never came. "As much as I want to rip your head off for that, I can't. You sacrificed your tank to save many civilians, who I heard you brought back here."

"Sir, they were going to be abandoned and left for dead. I wasn't just going to leave them there." Tavaris spoke. The General turned to face the window behind him, which overlooked the staging area.

"Well looks like in addition to taking charge of your new team, you'll also be in charge of overseeing our refugees." He stated. "Not only that, but other mission reports are stating that our current APC is inadequate for this terrain."

"Sir?"

"Your unit, as well as the other divisions will be equipped with the M3 Bradley." Before the Lighthouse War, Osea and Emmeria had negotiated the sale of its older generation M2 and M3 infantry fighting vehicles. Emmeria had received about 100 of them before the war, which were used to train tank crews. The other 125 vehicles were delivered after the war. "I'm sure you still remember your training on that vehicle."

"I'm sure once I get back in the saddle, it'll come back to me, sir." Tavaris replied.

"Very good. Dismissed. Oh, and just to remind you, you're about to get a lot of freedom. Enough to where you'll be begging for order, so don't do anything stupid, Major."

Tavaris exited the building and made his way over to where his team was. Steven and Delilah were talking amongst themselves while watching the children play. Jacobi was talking with the elders, explaining and showing off the innovations of the modern world. Some of the other members of Recon Team One were waiting for Tavaris to get back, but someone from the crowd was missing. Tavaris couldn't shake it, but he could feel that he was being watched. Like someone was piercing his soul with their gaze.

"So, how was the reprimanding?" Montey asked him. "Looks like you got the soul ripped out of you."

"Not from him. I did a head count of the refugees and saw we were missing one." Tavaris stated. He had heard the name of the missing person only a couple of times, but it never stuck with him.

"Ah, that Lolita chick. Rory Mercury, I believe was the name." Montey said. "She said she was some sort of apostle for a war God."

"She's somewhere nearby, I can feel it." Tavaris's eyes scanned the area, looking for somewhere Rory could possibly be. Montey, along with a few others just sort of shrugged and went about their business.

"Well, I assume all was well with the meeting. Hopefully they weren't too mad about the tank." He said with a chuckle. Tavaris was a bit glad Montey was the more levelheaded out of the bunch. But even still, he would be a bit skeptical about their surroundings. Even in the base walls.

Tavaris pulled a flask from his pocket, in it was a bit of water. "A man like yourself simply doesn't forget." A voice said from behind him, which caused the man to chock on the water.

"Wh-what?" He turned to face the voice, and to his shock, there was the missing person. The Apostle to Emloy, Rory Mercury, giant halberd and all. The two had met briefly during their journey with the evacuating civilians and shortly before the battle with the Dragon. But he had barely spoke more than a few sentences. She approached the Major gingerly, halberd behind he back. Tavaris could only just sit there and wait till she was done.

"It seems like you were purposely trying to avoid me, and that's a bit rude, don't you think?" Tavaris could look her in the face, on the inside, he knew she was bang on, but he didn't want to just overtly say that. He didn't know what kind of damage a demigod could do, nor did he want to find out.

"I was just…busy with other things at the time. You know, commanding a half-damaged tank back to base and all that." He said, as if she'd be able to understand. She just sighed and planted her halberd into the ground.

"I've heard a lot about you, Tavaris. Or do you prefer Taurus?" The look on his face made Rory giggle a bit. "From what I heard, you're quite the warrior. You've struck fear into your enemies and made them suffer! I love it!" Tavaris just grunted and turned away from her. He knew what she was mentioning, which he thought was sworn to secrecy.

"Well, we all have a story to tell. Some of us have more blood on their hands than others. What I did was justified." Tavaris said, sternly.

"You should watch your tongue, boy. You wouldn't want to upset me." She got close to the Major. Standing at 6'1", he towered over her. She could, however, see right through his tough facade, just gave wink, and walked away, halberd in hand.

"What the hell was that?" he asked himself. His heart was racing, mostly out of fear. That same adrenaline that was rushing through him earlier was coursing through his veins once again. And when Delilah grabbed him by the shoulders he nearly jumped out of his skin.

"You ok dude?" She asked. "Didn't startle you I hope."

"Nope, all good here." He took a long drink from his flask. Looking over the refugees from the village was now on his mind, and the first thing he thought of doing was finding them a place to sleep.

Days passed by quick as more recon teams started returning from their expeditions. The refugees soon had their own place to sleep, with the help of Recon One, and all through those days, the sound of construction and helicopters kept the locals on edge. One day after a kid asked one of the pilots if they could see one up close, they learned to become accustomed to the noise. Throughout the construction of their new homes, the force also grew close to the refugees, trading stories about their lives before the Estovakian war. On the other side of the base, the airfield itself was complete. The runways were nothing more than asphalt strips, but it was better than nothing. The taxiways and ramp area were nothing more than packed together dirt that was flattened. The helicopter portion was fully refurbish with large hangars and ammo and fuel stores.

Talisman walked along his now complete A-10. Dressed in full combat gear, he was about to take flight in wartime for the first time since the Estovakian War. A few military press members were there to document the occasion. The Angel of Emmeria was about to get his wings back.

"Its really happening…" he said to himself. "Hopefully I won't have to do anything too crazy. Although… I wouldn't mind flying through a tunnel or two." He said.

"Any thoughts on the task at hand?" One of the press asked.

"No, not really. I trust my abilities in the air and in the end, that's what I have to rely on." His task was to patrol the mountain range for the Dragon and assess the capabilities within it's subsonic envelope. As well as perform some aerial recon to the east of the mountains. Even still his jet was loaded with 1000 rounds of ammunition and four air to air missiles, as well as two external tanks. Once inside the jet he gave a wave and began the startup sequence. It wouldn't be long before he was airborne, seeing at there wasn't any aircraft in the air. With a map strapped to his knee, he turned towards the first area where the dragon was thought to nest. Newly installed radio towers allowed for transmissions to be heard from around 200 miles, but after that, he was on his own. Cruising at around 15,000 feet, the mountain range slowly gave way to flatlands that extended for miles. One stretch even had a river. He noted as such and began following it. An hour later, as his flight training had dictated, a massive city came into view.

Sardera

"Massive settlement below me, I'm gonna descend and take a closer look." He pushed the stick forward, diving down through some thin clouds and eventually leveling off at around 4,000 feet. He began to circle the city, He knew what the A-10 sounded like flying overhead, and he could only imagine what the residents below were experiencing.

"if I had to take a guess, this is their Capitol city. There's huge castle in the Center of it, many homes and streets." He decided to have a little fun. He flew as low as he could , following a large wall that encircled the city. As he did, he noticed soldiers on the ground and along the wall scrambling to, what assumed, get their weapons. He could see slight glints of metal tipped arrows and swords being flung at him as he flew by, but he was too high and fast for them to be effective. Once he finished his circuit, he began to climb, only to see a couple of dots about two miles away. He could just about make out the shape of a dragon, but with a person mounting each one.

"Looks like I pissed off their air force. Let's see what these things can do." He pushed the throttle to full and began to close with the airborne soldiers and their steeds. That's when he saw something fly right him. He dodged it, now determined to shoot them down. "Alright, time for you to dance with the angels. Engaging." Talisman threw his A-10 into a hard turn, splitting the formation of four. The Angle of Attack warning sounded off as he pulled hard on the stick. Selecting the gun, he looked forward into his HUD and lined up a dragon. Lets see what a GAU-8 does to a Dragon. "Firing guns!" The aircraft shuddered as the gun sounded off, spewing out it's own fire in contrast to the target in front of him. The dragon took about 30 rounds, punching through it and into it's rider. Those round basically cut the dragon in half, and it fell as such. Talisman had to bank hard to avoid hitting the now dead dragon. A quick glance behind him revealed the two dragons chasing him, having turned extremely tight.

"Splash one Dragon, I'm gonna try to get a missile shot on the others. Dragons can turn tightly, make a note." The AoA alarm was going off once again. Diving to regain speed, he came back around. Streams of fire gushed from the dragon, which made for the perfect heat source. "Fox-2, Fox-2!" The sidewinder on his right wing left it's launcher and streaked for the dragon's mouth. The missile detonated right in front of it, and the two fell to the ground. One dragon, probably realizing this wasn't his fight, began to flee, but the other decided it was going to take this new beast head on. It was a big mistake, and nearly his last. The last thing that dragon rider saw as he fell from his now non-existent dragon, was the bird emblem of Garuda Squadron.

"Well that about does it," he circled the city one last time, making sure no one else was gonna challenge him. "This force we're fighting has air power. Don't know how effective it will be against our fixed or rotor wing aviation." A short cruise later he was back within radar and radio range of Joint Base Alnus. He gave a short report of the air battle over the city.

"You were to look for the big dragon, not look for trouble!"

"Sir, I was engaged. They attempted to bring me down." There was a pause in the response.

"Roger, proceed directly to base, out." Talisman chuckled to himself. He knew he was in a bit of trouble.

Joint Base Alnus

Upon landing, he was greeted by a large crowd of personnel. Word had spread quick about the downing of three dragons, and Talisman was met with thunderous cheers. Their angel had returned. Of course the footage was immediately pulled and the justification was there, clear as day.

Later that day, on the nose of his aircraft, three dragons were painted on it, signifying the first air-to-air victories for the Emmerian Air Force. It wouldn't be their last.