Springfield, California, USA.

Mike groaned as an alarm awoke him. He turned and grabbed his phone. Even with his groggy eyes, he made out the code.

"OH SHIT," he yelled fallout out of bed awaking his wife.

"Hon…yawn… what is it?" she half yawned.

"Got the code, getting deployed," he said grabbing what he could on before running out of the room and house and into the street. Barefoot and topless, but wearing his trousers.

It was still dark out, but even he could see others running out of their houses and getting into their cars. Mike's car, however, was in the shop.

"Hey Mike!" someone called getting his attention.

One of his squamates, David, leaned out of his truck as he slowly drove up to Mike's house. In the back of his truck, several EDF reserve troopers' in various stages of being dressed. Mike didn't waste any time as he ran and jumped into the back of the truck. He was helped by a few of the men as well, as soon as he was in, one of them slapped the roof of the driver's cabin.

The truck drove off at a safe speed and soon met up with other trucks and cars with people who had the same idea. EDF bases were designed to be large top of the line military complexes able to take in thousands of people and deploy them within 6 hours. Today was no exception. One by one troopers were logged in and lined up at the supply depot and armoury. As soon as they got their kit, those who weren't 'properly dressed' took their time to get their uniform's on before they received their marching orders.

Mike, along with his friends, took their wait in the mess hall where chefs cooked up what they could. Nothing 5 stars, but something enough to wake them up and get them ready for combat. It was mostly pizza's, noodles, chips and other fast-food staples. But few complained and were just glad to get some breakfast. The minimum wait for every trooper was about 3-4 hours, so there was enough time for them to eat their food before their marching orders came though.

The group chatted and laughed as one of the pulled out a deck of cards. A ping sounded and one of them got up to look at a nearby screen. The deployment screen was updated every half hour with names and number of troopers, their flight number and the pad it is on. He didn't see his or his friends' names or number on so returned as a poker game began. Occasionally, they looked out of the window and watched as the planes took off.

Unlike the Hawk heavy lift transports, these were based on the Boeing Pelican U.L.T.R.A. plane. This one was of a similar design, but the differences were minor and internal so there was little to no telling the two apart. One plane could carry 3000 troops to anywhere in the world in 24 hours. Most of this was thanks to aggressor tech that gave the EDF a massive boost in how their troopers were deployed.

Rapid response was what worked for the EDF's combat doctrine during the aggressor wars. It was no different now. Rapid deployment, secure territory, establish heavy beachheads and defences. It worked for them, and continued to work since the wars.

An hour and a half later Mikes and his friends' numbers came up. After saying their goodbye's, they made their way to their respective flights. It was another half hour before they boarded. 3000 troopers along with 7,300 tonnes of equipment were loaded onto the plane. Within the hour it would take off headed for Japan. Within the day, the troopers abord would be heading though the gate to the other world.

OOOOO

The convoy moved across the countryside making its way to Rondel as fast as it could. From what Leiei had told them, they should be open for negotiations especially if there was a threat. But she had made it clear that, while they were willing to listen, there was some arrogance with the high wizards so a show of how real the threat is maybe the best idea. But as they approached smoke could be seen rising up from the city.

"Shit," Itami muttered as he barked orders down the radio.

Three jet troopers, jumped out of the transports and flew over to the city. Kyon along with Davies and an Arabian trooper called Nadia flew at speed towards the magic city. It didn't take them long to reach the area and see what was going on. As the three got closer the situation became clear. The city was under attack by the unidentified aliens. The Wizards, mages and magicians were holding them off, but the numbers of the numbers and toughness of the aliens were greater than what they could handle.

Even with magic, there is a limit to what they could do. As the team approached some of the Wizards pointed up and began to talk amongst themselves.

"Look up there," one called out. "Wyverns," but that earned him a slap on the head.

"They aren't Wyverns," another said. "I don't know what they are,"

As the three came around for another pass, Kyon tapped her radio. "Bombing run, no incendiaries, ripper rounds,"

"Rodger," the two responded as they loaded their 25mm grenade launchers with the designated rounds.

As they flew over the aliens, they fired their weapons which landed before exploding sending sharpened shrapnel flying upwards cutting the aliens to bits. It forced them to pull back, but not a lot. However, it did allow the Wizards to set up defences. Some of them erected walls around the main library where most of the civilians and non-combatants were. The three landed before using their grenade launches as improvised mortars, lobbing grenades over the walls before the rest of the convoy rolled up.

Itami climbed out of the lead truck and walked up to the nearest Wizard. "Who's in charge here?"

"Arch-mage Talos," the man stuttered after a moment. "This way," he was about to lead Itami away, but the commander turned to his men, barked a few orders before following the mage followed by the three girls.

EDF troopers then jumped out of the trucks and began to set up a perimeter around the library. Some of the wizards who didn't understand, helped and together the two groups took down several buildings and established a kill-zone around the library.

The mage who led Itami soon found Talos. Despite his rank, the man wasn't old. But that was likely due to the fact he was an elf. He was looking over a younger mage who had taken a nasty cut to the gut. Talos was trying to heal him, but it was clear that his magic reserves were failing him. Itami moved up and lightly pushed the man aside.

"Who…what?" Talos muttered but he just watched as Itami took out a vial of clear green liquid.

He slid a needle into the young man's body and the liquid entered man. The man's rapid heart rate helped the liquid to circulate his body and his wound healed up, but left a notable scar. But it wasn't fast or painless as during the process he moaned in pain for a good five minutes before the wound turned into a scar. Once it was done, Talos looked over the young man before turning to Itami.

"How did you do that? What magic is this?" he asked.

"Not magic," Itami answered. "It's something we acquired. We need to talk; is there anywhere we can go in private?"

The mage nodded. "This way," he led them to a small side room that had been hastily converted into his office.

As soon as all five where in, Talos grabbed a bottle of wine and poured himself a generous portion and took a sip. "So, you must be the mercenaries in green we've been hearing about. The ones who took out a flame dragon,"

Itami rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, that was us," he admitted.

"And now you're here, telling us to evacuate," Itami blinked in shock. "Then you plunder our knowledge and take it…." before he could continue Rory stepped forward.

"If that was the case, I wouldn't be standing here," she said causing Talos to blink and look at her as if this was the first time, he saw her.

He blinked a few more as he registered Pina, Leiei and the Oracle. He fell back into his chair as if something similar to the weight of the world weight him down.

"Princess and Oracle?" he muttered with surprise. "I'm sorry I….

"Arch-mage," Leiei began. "We haven't come here to take the knowledge from you. We are here to help you,"

Talos' eyes widened as all four explained what had been going on. The Gate, the EDF, the aggressor war and the new threat that the aliens posed to the planet. By the time they finished Talos looked at his wine and set it aside before rubbing his eyes.

"I would call you crazy, delusional and more but from what I have seen, I have no choice but to believe it," he gave a small laugh. "Hell, maybe I'm the crazy one, but right now I need all the help I can get,"

Itami smiled and sighed. "Fuuu, I thought it was going to take more to convince you," he then tapped his radio.

OOOOO

Riza waited for the radio signal to come in. When it did, she gave the order and watched as hawk and overlord assault helicopters to the city of magic. She sighed as she wanted to join, but she was designated as his second. That mean that if he was in the field, she couldn't be so that the chain of command couldn't be severed with one strike. Instead, she focused on building up the defences in the capital.

After she gave out the orders for the day she pulled back and cracked her limbs and neck. Standing she made her way to the mess hall, but found herself corners by a few of the Imperial Guards with Zorzal standing in front of them. Riza sighed, it didn't take an intelligence expert or mind reader to know what he was thinking.

"You will give me back my slaves," he said in a cold authoritative tone.

"No," was all she said and the soldiers took a step towards her.

"You will, or I'll be taking you as my slave,"

"I would love to see you try," she said.

"I thought you might," as he spoke two armoured ogres approached.

"Really?" she scoffed as she pulled up a small metal ball. "In my world there was a specialised unit called Ninja. They could disappear in an instant, almost like magic,"

"You're not a mage,"

"Wanna bet?" she threw the ball down and a cloud of smoke erupted from it covering the corridor.

The prince and guards coughed and looked to see that EDF intel officer wasn't there.

"Search for her!" Zorzal yelled while Riza silently lighted from the top of the corridor.

Notes:

Overlord Assault Helicopter.

A quad rotor behemoth of an aircraft, the Overlord was made with one thing in mind: mass destruction. Its armour was the equivalent of tank armour with similar armament. It is a flying fortress.

Unlike the Hawk, which is a tilt rotor helicopter, the Overlord is a fix one with more advanced rotors that allows it to carry its weight plus the weight of its cargo. It can carry 100 troopers and 2 gorilla tanks or 1 railgun tank. Despite its slow speed, it's more than makes up for it with its armament.

A/N: It's the same helicopter from Metal Wolf Chaos called Olajiwon on the Huston level.