…
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…
Doctors and nurses briefly shoo Ollie Kureiji out of the hospital room to tend to Altare and check up on him. Their batteries of tests go swiftly enough. So, when the medical staff filter out, Ollie returns to Altare's room. This time, she's not alone.
One by one, the crew of the Tempest saunter in.
Axel hobbles in after Ollie first. The fiery-haired man holds onto a makeshift cane to support himself. Bandages on his right thigh wrapped over his olive drab trousers, but he still manages to wear a smile.
"My leg ain't what it used to be, but I'm still kicking, Leader." Axel boasts with a grin.
"Save the kicking for the Pavolian 101st." Altare chuckles.
Magni follows behind Axel and waves to Altare, but he only shows four fingers. His right hand is missing the ring finger. A small bandaged stump remains where it once was.
"Magni…" Altare remarks, "Your hand…"
"Ah, don't sweat it, Leader." Magni shakes his head. He raises his middle finger and smirks, "I can still give the Imperial Pavie salute, see?"
"Classy as always, Dez." Altare laughs.
Finally, Vesper walks in with his usual, esteemed gait. He holds his head high, showing the bandaged burn marks on his face and neck. He turns towards Altare with an inquisitive eye.
"Have your thoughts on the War and the Pavolians changed now, Leader?" Vesper asks, speaking like a university professor quizzing his pupil.
"I still don't bear any ill will for the Pavolians." Altare starts, but he lowers his head, "As for the war… I guess we're all about to find out, huh?"
"Indeed." Vesper adjusts his glasses.
The three men pull up seats and sit by Altare's bedside. Ollie, meanwhile, lays her hands on the men's shoulders, squeezes them firmly and then faces Altare squarely to speak to him.
"These three men and I are alive here today because you challenged me and stood up to me in the snow plains."
Axel, Magni and Vesper nod in agreement, so Ollie continues.
"If we had stayed in that hellhole any longer, we would have stood to lose so much more than what we already have. Because of this, I would like to thank you - and apologize to you for being so stubborn."
On that note, Ollie gets down on her knees and bows down to Altare - a Pavolian gesture of true and utter shame.
Altare shakes his head.
"Please don't do that." Altare reassures her, "Everyone in MONTFOR wanted to end the war that day. We thought we were close. I thought we were close…"
"So did I." Ollie interjects, "But Zeta Vestia had us right where she wanted us. She'll know that she didn't kill us in the snowfields - if she hasn't already. When she does, I'm sure she's itching to get her chance."
Altare and his crew fall silent. Then, Altare turns to Ollie.
"Speaking of the snowfields… how exactly did we make it out of there?"
Ollie's lips twist into a frown and she recounts the events.
"Captain Mori and her Charon Company sent their horses down to us. Kiara Takanashi rode ahead, rounded up the horses and got anyone who hadn't bitten the dust on horseback out of there."
"Captain Mori…?" Altare furrows his brow. "But the Pavolians counterbatteried her positions."
"Their barrage didn't get most of the pack horses." Ollie explains, "Captain Mori herself, however, was already knocking on heaven's door. Kiara…"
Ollie pauses.
"Let me tell you what Kiara told me."
…
…
…
A few days ago, at the devastated batteries of Charon Company at the Monteazulas, Captain Calliope Mori clutched onto her side. Her face was covered in soot and drenched in sweat despite the wintry cold. Crimson red blood dripped down the sides of her lips and the seams of her leather jacket. Her labored breaths fogged up before her, rising up along with smoke from a blast crater and the smoldering wreck of a smashed up mountain gun. The three-man crew of the gun were sprawled out beside their broken weapon.
Calli had watched them all burn to a crisp before her eyes. She tried to rise up to her feet to put out the fires that still licked through her dead artillerymen, but her legs wouldn't move. As a matter of fact, she couldn't feel anything below her waist.
"Fuck… this…!" Calli cursed, slapping at her lame, bloody legs. She struck them, but she didn't feel a thing!
The captain gritted her teeth and cried out over the residual blasts of Pavolian artillery, "CHARON COMPANY!"
Less than a dozen haggard, shellshocked artillerymen rushed towards her, ducking as Pavolian shells kept bursting around them. Their faces went pale when they saw their captain in such a state, but Calli looked into their eyes and gave them her orders.
"I need eyes on the snowfields. The Pavies are surely gonna go after Kureiji and her boys and girls!" Calli started, breathing through her teeth as she struggled to sit upright, "And if we still have guns, man them and get ready to fire! We won't be getting any more orders from BatCom, so I'm taking control here. We have to delay the enemy forces! No matter what it takes!"
The artillerymen hesitate. They turn to each other, shuddering
"ARE MY ORDERS CLEAR!?" Calli shouted, wincing from pain without turning away from her men.
"Ma'am, yes, ma'am!" The artillerymen finally answered.
Most of them rushed back to their posts and disappeared behind the soot and the smoke. One of them, meanwhile, brought out binoculars and scanned through the snowfields. That spotter turned back towards Calli and gave his report.
"The Pavies have got an armored spearhead! It's a wall of steel! Tanks and troop carriers are coming out of the forests."
"And what about BatCom and her forces?" Calli snapped.
"They've only just started retreating." The artilleryman reported again, "They're abandoning their tanks, but the Pavies are pounding them with mortars and artillery! They're going on horseback… but there's not enough horses down there!"
"Tell the battery to fire their guns! Suppressing fire!" Calli hissed, clutching her wound, "Don't let the Hakugrenadiers catch up to Kureiji. Buy. Them. Time!"
Sporadic shots of Charon Company's last few mountain guns went off, answering the Pavolians' overwhelming firepower.
BOOM! … BOOM! … BOOM! … BOOM!
Calli gnashed her teeth.
"Mother Kanata, that's pathetic…" Calli grunted, "Is that all we've really got left? RELOAD AND FIRE AGA-!"
Before she could speak, another Pavolian artillery barrage struck Calli's position, forcing Calli to shield herself. The blast blew off her her ten-gallon hat, but she caught it in her hand before it could fly away.
Charon Company answered again, albeit with fewer shots than before.
BOOM! … BOOM! … BOOM!
"This is how we're gonna go, huh?" Calli gritted her teeth and lamented, gripping her dusty hat, "With a fucking whimper…? How can I face gramps like this?"
It was at around this time, however, that the frantic gallop of horses reached Calli's ears. Her vision blurred for a moment, but she saw an unmistakable head of fiery orange hair fluttering in the snow, hopping off a horse - followed by an unmistakable force.
"CAPITANA! CALLI!" It called.
"... Kiara." Calli croaked.
She wiped her eyes and squinted until she saw the Xenokunian rush to her side.
"Calli!" Kiara grabbed her hands and urged, "Your wounds look terrible - you've got to get out of here! I'm taking Lieutenant Kureiji with me." She whipped her head around desperately, "I'll… I'll find a horse for you! Just you wait!"
"I can't leave this position. Charon Company can't leave this position." Calli answered, shaking her head weakly, "Not until MONTFOR gets the hell out of this god-forsaken place."
"But Calli…!" Tears started to form at the sides of Kiara's eyes.
Calli couldn't see Kiara's face well anymore. A tinge of red hue obstructed her vision, but she took a deep breath and steeled herself. Then, she put her ten-gallon hat on Kiara's head.
"... C-Calli?" Kiara's voice trembled.
"Charon Company still has pack horses." Calli urged, looking into Kiara's trembling eyes, "Take them down… to the snowfields. Save anyone you can find. Make sure they make it… through the mountain pass safely."
"But I…!" Kiara tried to protest.
"You're their ferryman now." Calli insisted, fitting her ten-gallon hat firmly on Kiara's head, "Don't let them down… and don't worry about me."
"There's gotta be something I can do for you!" Kiara wailed.
Calli's eyes started to go unfocused, but she still croaked out one last reply.
"You're by my side. What more… can I ask for?"
Then, Calli fell silent. Her head drooped low and she breathed her last.
…
…
…
Back in the Exclave, Altare shudders in his hospital bed. Axel, Magni and Vesper hang their heads low, weighed down by Ollie's recollection. All of them pay silent reverence to Captain Mori and her Charon Company.
Ollie paces around the small room and looks out the window to the Exclave's docks.
"Thanks to Charon Company's sacrifice, and Kiara Takanashi's guidance through the mountains, MONTFOR actually had survivors. We paid a steep price in equipment, officers and loyal soldiers. If Zeta's plan was to murder the best and the brightest of Elysium, then she succeeded overwhelmingly. Her masterstroke now has Elysium on the run."
"How bad is it?" Altare dares to ask.
"Zeta's decoys baited Bae's BORFOR units to attack prematurely." Ollie reveals grimly, "They were completely out of position by the time Zeta's division arrived to sweep up. BORFOR lost a lot of tanks and folded quickly. Bae signaled the retreat and we haven't looked back since. Nine days… and we've lost just about everything we fought for and more." She clicks her tongue and hisses, "We even lost the Manor House."
"And now we're about to lose the Exclave." Altare deduces.
"So it seems." Ollie admits, "But we do have the slightest sliver of a silver lining. Xenokuni City got cut off from the Elysian front line, but her defenses still hold."
"Xenokuni City?" Altare asks.
"Shinri Josuiji and the bulk of the Xenokunians refused to leave their capital." Ollie explains, "We were trying to get him to evacuate the city but he refused. He said that his soul - and the soul of his people - couldn't bear to take dishonor upon dishonor."
"They fought hard for their homeland. They're not about to give it up that easily." Altare muses.
"They're putting up a good fight and they've forced a stalemate that's tying up Zeta's reserves." Ollie hums with a hint of pride, but her expression deflates immediately, "Lieutenants Gawr and Watson say that OSS reports from inside the City aren't looking good. They won't have the supplies to last until the Spring."
"Two tragedies waiting to happen." Altare growls.
When Altare says this, the door of the hospital room opens once more. The sullen figure of Kiara Takanashi enters with the ten-gallon hat in her hands, but not on her head.
She glances at Ollie and the Tempest crew gathered around Altare's bed.
"I see you've already told him the story." Kiara deduces.
"You chose to go with us instead of staying with Sir Josuiji?" Altare asks.
Kiara wears a small, defeated smile and holds up the ten-gallon hat. She clutches it tightly and answers weakly.
"I'm your ferryman now, remember? I saw my mission through and made good on my promise to Calli. Now I…"
Kiara tries to continue, but she chokes up on her own words. The ten-gallon hat crumples in her grasp. She then shakes her head and turns away from everyone to wipe her tears.
"Lieutenant Kureiji." Kiara clears her throat and finally speaks, "Lt. Colonel Hakos ordered me to fetch you."
Ollie's face sours. She heaves a sigh and nods to Kiara.
"Understood. Take me to her office, Miss Takanashi."
Kiara nods back and escorts Ollie out of the hospital room. On her way out, though, Ollie turns to the Tempest crew and salutes them.
"Gentlemen." Ollie greets.
The four men salute in turn and see her off.
…
"Lieutenant Kureiji wasn't kidding, huh? We really do have our backs to the sea." Magni Dezmond peers out the sole window of Altare's hospital room, "Look at all those transport ships coming in. Think they're coming to bring us goods from the mainland?"
"Nah. Those transports are empty." Axel corrects him, joining Magni by the window. He sits on the windowsill and crossed his legs, "My buddies from the Correctional Infantry gave me the scoop. Those boats are here to bring out the civvies and anything valuable that isn't nailed or bolted down first."
"Hoh, you're right." Magni comments, pointing out to the docks and the trucks parked at the quays, "I can see… portraits of Prime Minister Ceres… oh, and that's the Mother Kanata statue from the Navy Chapel, isn't it?"
Vesper grumbles and looks out the window too. He eyes the Kanata statue and shakes his head.
"We're ransacking our own lands before the Pavolians can ransack us." Vesper laments, "It's not hard to guess what the Top Brass are thinking at the moment."
"The Exclave is a lost cause. Xenokuni City is encircled." Altare chimes in. He shifts on his bed and sighs, "I want to believe that the Brass is wrong, but… look at us now."
"We're tankers without a tank." Magni grumbles.
"We ain't getting that freedom we were promised." Axel snorts.
"But we're still here." Vesper interjects, "We still have a chance to make a difference."
Altare, Axel and Magni all turn towards the older gentleman.
"There's a reason we haven't surrendered just yet - why we're fighting a fight that the Brass thinks we're doomed to lose." Vesper answers the curious looks that are turned his way firmly, "If we raise the white flag now, Zeta Vestia will show no mercy. Not to us. Not to the civilians. Not to the Pavolian Garrison soldiers we have locked up in the Exclave Prison."
Altare folds his arms.
"If Zeta can have Moona Hoshinova, an old friend of hers, killed in cold blood - what more would she do to everyone here in the Exclave?" Altare shakes his head, "I don't want to think about it."
Vesper nods. He adjusts his glasses and faces his crewmates.
"So, whether we choose to fight or ultimately withdraw from the continent altogether, we cannot surrender on Zeta Vestia's terms. Only catastrophe awaits us if we do."
"I'm sure the civvies feel that awfully well, gramps." Axel hummed, "Look at them rushing to get onto those transport ships. They're holding up their passports too."
"They can't fit everyone in those boats, though." Magni notes, "Look - the Military Police are stepping in. The bastards are drawing batons on the civvies."
"They are…!?" Vesper's face contorts sourly.
"That's not gonna stop them." Magni gasps.
Whistles start to blow left and right on the quay, but the crowds of civilians drown it out with even louder shouting. Altare shifts in his bed and tries to look out the window, but he can only imagine the scene.
"This isn't going to end well." Vesper assesses.
But then, something even louder than the crowds blasted from the Exclave's speakers. Its shrill strains bounced and echoed off of the city's many walls and ramparts.
Altare furrows his brow.
'An air raid siren.'
Altare, Axel, Magni and Vesper all fall silent. The feuding crowds and military police on the docks follow suit. All of them look up to the late afternoon sky and see dozens upon dozens of Pavolian Angkat Udara warplanes. Their large formations threaten to blot out the setting sun.
The Pavolian planes draw close. Everyone on the docks, civilian and military, disperse in a hurry. Their cries are quickly overshadowed by the bark of Elysian machine guns and the rhythmic bursts of anti-aircraft guns.
RATATATATATATATATATAT!
BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM!
RATATATATATATATATATAT!
"Fucking hell!" Axel curses. He watches tracer rounds streaking towards t he sky, "They're not gonna let us out of here peacefully, are they!?"
"Not a chance." Magni's jaw drops.
Vesper pulls Axel and Magni away from the window and closes it shut. He draws the curtains over the window and hisses, "Don't show yourselves to the enemy aircraft, dumbass - and shut the lights!"
"O-On it!" Magni rushes towards the light switch and flicks it off.
Darkness falls quickly upon the room, leaving Altare and the Tempest crew practically blind - just like in a buttoned-up tank.
Axel and Magni huddle close to Altare at first, but Altare shoos them off.
"Spread out from each other." Altare urges, taking command from his hospital bed, "Hide under anything solid you can find!"
The Tempest crew do as they're told. They take shelter under tables and desks and chairs. Altare, meanwhile, stumbles off his bed and crawls underneath it. From that dark nook, Altare cannot see his crew - but he can hear their frantic breathing.
And if Altare listens closely enough, he feels as if he could hear their hearts pounding against their chests.
Or maybe that was his own heart?
In the darkness, Altare couldn't tell.
Beyond the walls of the hospital, Altare and his crew could only guess what was going on outside.
RATATATATATATATATATAT!
BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM!
RATATATATATATATATATAT!
And then…
BOOM! BOOM! BRA-BA-BOOM!
Bombs crash around the hospital complex, shaking the building's foundations like earthquake aftershocks.
"FUCK! FUCK THIS!" Axel curses over the deafening blasts.
"YOU'RE FINE. JUST BRACE YOURSELVES!" Altare shouts back over the cacophony.
Then, warplanes buzz overhead. Their rumbling engines reverberate in the dark hospital room.
"ARE THOSE THEIRS OR OURS!?" Magni cries.
"IT DOESN'T MATTER! STAY PUT!" Vesper lashes out.
Altare lays down on the musty hospital floor beneath his bed with his hands over the back of his head. There, neither he nor his crew has a weapon to point towards the enemy. They have no choice but to listen to the fierce battle that they cannot see.
"Hah… hah…" Altare's breaths are short.
He curls up into a ball, praying to Mother Kanata - wondering if She is listening. Or if She is there at all.
The Pavolians answer for her.
BOOM! BOOM! BRA-BA-BOOM!
Altare grits his teeth and braces himself for what seems inevitable.
But then, the buzzing of warplanes dissipates. Bombs stop falling upon the Exclave. Then, the machine guns, anti-aircraft guns and the air-raid sirens start falling silent.
Eerie silence falls upon the town.
Altare and his crew crawl out from their hiding places. Magni switches the lights of the room back on and Vesper helps Altare back up to his feet. Axel parts the window curtains slightly and peers out to the bombarded Exclave.
"Is… is it over now?" Axel asks tepidly.
Altare shakes his head and furrows his brow.
"No." Altare says, "This nightmare has only just begun."
…
Outside the walls of the Naval Hospital, Lt. Colonel Baelz Hakos and Lieutenant Ollie Kureiji emerge from an air-raid shelter. Dozens of Military Police armed with M1 Garand rifles accompany them around the smoldering rubble and the frightened rabble. The MP's clear a path towards the quay.
"So this is where the MP's clashed with the civvies earlier, huh?" Bae grumbles.
"Yes, ma'am." Ollie confirms, "They were trying to force their way into one of the transport ships… but well…"
Ollie, Bae and their MP's turn a corner and find the moored transport ship lit ablaze. The vessel, loaded with the treasures that the Top Brass were trying to evacuate, is now starting to sink to the bottom of the ocean before Bae's eyes.
Bae joins her hands behind her back and watches the burning, sinking ship with a frown.
"If I were to guess Zeta Vestia's motives… she wants to encircle us by land, sea and air. Do you concur, Kureiji?"
"I do." Ollie nods grimly, "She is the Grand Marshall of Pavolia now. That takes Imperial assent. That means that their Army, their Air Corps and the Navy are now at her beck and call."
Bae scoffs and shakes her head.
"On the other hand, our Navy and Air Corps are being withdrawn from this hellhole." Bae speaks frankly. She turns towards Ollie and reveals, "This is the last transmission I got from the mainland before the air raid. The Brass wants all elements on the Continent, and I quote, to assist the Armed Forces in conducting a swift and orderly evacuation of the Exclave. Operation Bitter Spring."
Ollie glares at the burning ship.
"Bitter Spring? Appropriate name." She hisses, "The Angkat Udaran can do bombing runs now. It won't be long before the heavy artillery of Zeta's division will start shelling us."
Bae nods and continues her account.
"The Air Corps will withdraw their bombers first. Their transport planes will bring key personnel and VIP's back to Metro Elysium to prepare for 'what comes next'. My name is on the list - and so is yours. Sergeant Regis and Miss Takanashi are in there too."
"We're needed here! Why does the Brass want us there?" Ollie asks.
Bae takes a deep breath and sighs, "The bill to lower the draft age to sixteen years old is on the Prime Minister's desk. You, Sergeant Regis and Miss Takanashi will be in charge of training the new conscripts."
Ollie's expression sours immediately. She clenches her hands, crumpling her gloves.
Ollie glances at Bae and makes a guess.
"You don't want to comply, do you, ma'am?"
Bae snorts.
"Do you?" She asks Ollie.
"With all due respect to Elysium, ma'am. Hell no!" Ollie snaps.
"I don't like it either, Kureiji. The question is… how do we defy an order from Colonel Ravencroft? How do we stand up to the Prime Minister herself?" Bae looks up to the cloudy night sky, "Colonel Ravencroft hasn't given the formal order to execute Operation Bitter Spring yet… but it's only a matter of time."
"Is there a way to convince her to change the plan?" Ollie asks, "Doesn't she have forces of her own?"
"She should have some forces, but they're not here. It'll take time for them to get here - and they'll be hunted down by the Pavolian submarines. The Navy would stretch itself thin protecting the convoys." Bae explains grimly, "Plus… even if the Navy fights its way through and brings Colonel Ravencroft's forces here… we might not be alive to welcome them here by the time they arrive."
While Bae speaks, the burning transport ship creaks and groans violently. The vessel splits in half and sinks before Bae's and Ollie's eyes.
Disheartened, neither of the two say a word.
…
A cannon shot away from the quay, from behind the bars of the fortified cell blocks of the Exclave Prison, the Pavolian prisoners of war look out to the bombarded walled city that holds them.
Some prisoners, former Hakugrenadiers from Zeta's 101st Division, cheer. They bang their fists on their wooden benches or rattle the bars of their cells, sneering at the terrified Elysian prison guards. Many others, soldiers from Moona Hoshinova's Xenokuni City Garrison, watch with disbelief and anxiety.
In the midst of that crowd, Anya Melfissa sits alone in her cell under the moonlight flowing in through her barred cell window. Unlike the other Pavolian POW's, Anya sits in contemplative silence.
Envelopes of mail from Xenokuni City sit on her lap. The names of their senders, Risu Ayunda and Iofi Airani, are illuminated by the moonlight.
Anya holds the small stack of letters close to her heart. She stands up and looks out to the chaos beyond her window. Then, she turns her eyes to the moon peeking through the clouds and whispers beneath her breath.
"What would you do in a situation like this, Moona Hoshinova?"
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TEMPEST
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