Chapter 7: Rescue Op

It was not long before Legate Calais began to receive reports from his commanders and from what he was hearing, it was not looking good. His wyvern armies were being ignited into flames by the iron birds that roar through the skies and his soldier were heavily wounded during a recent ambush.

Very soon more and more of his messengers have finally reported back to him but there was no good news.

"Duke Roma and his men were wiped out near a stone river by the barbarians! They used some vile magic to push them back"

"Legate Darran is missing and his men are in full retreat!"

"Count Galdious and his men are wiped out near camp, the survives to say they were attacked by demons!"

These reports and more were beginning to take their toll on Calais' garrison at the Gate. Stories of these Demons near the camp were getting out of hand and it was not long before some of the soldiers began to retreat into the Gate without being ordered. This was a heavy blow to his men's morale and now even his cleverest speech couldn't put his mean back to shape.

"Sir, we have to retreat!" one of his junior officers yelled as his scout arrives, "Our frontlines are crumbling to dust and the enemy is advancing faster than imagine! We have to retreat at once or we face destruction!"

"Cowards!" Calais replied angrily. "We imperial soldiers are the most battle-hardened and are some of the best fighting forces the world has to offer! We will hold the line until reinforcements arrive! Even if it means death!"

Soon a massive explosion erupted and violent shaking of the grow was followed.

"What was that?!"

"Sir!" another soldier ran up to the Legate, his uniform dirtied and his face bruised. "The... supplies have been destroyed by... DEMONS"

"What?!" Calais exclaimed as he looked in the direction of the soldier

****

Tej and his bands of operators manage to sneak past most of the guard. Tej could help to laugh in pure joy as the planted explosion was heard. Many guards rushed out for their tents and hastily tried their best to put out the fire. which was spreading from tent to tent, hopefully, those tents do not contain any civilians or He and his Squad would be facing major punishment from his higher up.

Emerging from cover Tej, Scarlet, and the Twins rushed out into the nearby wagon, "Looks like the distraction work." Theo chuckle.

"The Russians really did came prepared," Tom added.

Scarlet was about to make the first move but was quickly stopped by her Nepali partner as he spotted several guards were heading in their direction. In response, they both entered an empty wagon to avoid detection and waited until the guard passed by. The operators waited inside the empty until the group of soldiers rushes past them, "It amazing what one C4 could do. Come let keep moving."

Their luck struck when they found a wagon that was filled with people on the opposite side of the camp. They could obviously tell that is the people they're looking for as most of them are wearing clothing that fits their time period. And then he saw jackpot, he saw a young Asian female with black hair and light brown eyes among the prisoners.

'Jackpot.' the operators thought.

Swiftly, the Operators dash forward, checking each corner of the camp. They both silently made their way closer and closer to the carriage. But this would soon come to a halt as Tej suddenly felt an unholy amount of pain coming from his eyes.

Then a voice echoed through his head. 'Nova... Era...'

"Thapa?... what wrong?" Theo asked but the Nepali Sergent stayed silent whiles holding his head in pain.

Scarlet saw her Nepali partner face leaning on the wooden structure of the camp with his hand covering his eyes. She didn't know what is wrong and was curious to find out.

"Hey Thapa, you good?" she curiously asked her partner. Tej's pain suddenly disappeared to his surprise, he briefly took his hands out from his face and faced his Scottish partner. Only to see his team's face looked pale as if she saw a ghost.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

Scarlet nor the twins didn't say a word. they only watch as he took off his glasses to reveal a glowing green eye and two curve line running down his eyes.

"Well shit. Here we fucking go again." Tej puts back his glasses on. His eyes lightly glowed green for a brief seconds before returning to normal.

Scarlet sigh. "What the hell is going on with you now Tej?" She called him by his first name, which is a sign of worry and confusion.

"This is what usually happens when you have a long hiatus in your ability." Tej cheekily smiles.

With Scarlet taking point along with a crate of fruits and vegetables, welding their AS Val. The two carefully observed the carriage before taking action. There were five people around their carriage, one was wearing a Galea whiles the other just a Norman-style metal helmet. All were around the prison carriage, taunting the prisoners.

"Look at these pitiful barbarians right here. Half of the girls aren't half bad, maybe we'll make some fortune with some of them." One of the soldiers said.

This comment made Tej blood started to boil. His hand started to shake in this uncontrollable rage that he's slowly started to develop as the second passed. "And as for the men. They could just go the mines, I can't wait to have a harem of my own."

With that sentence finished, the Imperial commander gave out a loud but joyful laugh that echoes through the grey sky. He went to the carriage and unchained one female prisoner and forcefully dragged one of the women out of the carriage. The one with the Galea then started laughing. "No... Let's keep them to ourselves, why do you need to buy your own whore when you have one for yourselves."

But his mood would then suddenly came to an abrupt stop as the lantern glass shattered and the fire of the light turned green. He then felt an aura of Rage that is slowly getting closer and closer towards him. He turned around to see a male figure with green glowing eyes walking towards him.

His men were as still as a statue and as pale as the marbles. They all dropped their weapons and slowly back away from the monster who was slowly approaching them. One of the imperial soldiers was so frighten that he causes an unfortunate 'Accident'. Many of the men would run off to the camp screaming to the other guards.

But before they could run a few meters away the Green-eyed monster snapped his finger and the men who ran would drop lifelessly to the floor, both soldier eyes and mouths were pouring out with blood. Petrified from the figure in front a soldier took out his knife and attempted to stab the figure, only for the green-eyed monster to grabbed his wrist and yank the knife away from him.

The monster then grabbed his neck and lifted him with his back on the cage do the prison carriage. The commander struggled to breathe as more pressure was applied to his throat by the second until there was nothing but black.

Tej stoically look into the face of the soldier 'Finish him.... do it...' the voice said in Tej mind and immediately the Nepali Sergent thrust the knife into the soldier's stomach multiple time to the point that his body looks as if it was about to split into two.

"Woah! Tej! Stop, he's dead! Scarlet shouted as she and the twins forcefully moved Tej away from the body.

Tej shook his head, not knowing what he did but answered his Scottish partner anyways, "Sorry... I got carried away." He let go knife and looked at the prisoner who looked at Tej with a terrified look.

"Don't worry We're part of the British military. You all safe now." Scarlet informs them. She also spotted a familiar face behind the group of people near the back of the carriage, it was the Japanese girl that was the man from earlier was talking about.

The operators swiftly broke the lock off the carriage and hastily freed all of the Civilians one by one. "Quickly and quietly ladies and gentlemen,"

"So what now Thapa?" His Scottish partner asked.

"Get them to the rendezvous point."

***

The exhausted palace defenders were looking at the enemy massing in front of them. The defenders had repelled waves of enemy attacks but were starting to run low on ammunition.

A tired Itami was checking how much ammo they had left and it didn't look good at all.

"Damn it, we've only got two mags each left!" a British Embassy guard cried.

"I only have one Mag left!" Itami cried.

"So do I!" a SWAT officer added

"I have two!"

"I've got one more!"

"This is not good at all... we'll be fighting these guys hand to hand if we don't get reinforcements," stated Itami. "Shit, we won't last long against them! not without any kind of support"

Suddenly, a sound of a loud horn could be heard from the distance and immediately a large army was slowly approaching the imperial palace. This was the larges wave Itami had seen all day and it's unlikely that they'll have enough ammunition for the fight. Even worse than this medieval force was supported by dragon riders and many large Orges and trolls. By this point, Itami was praying mentally for a miracle to happen as he and the rest of the defenders prepare to fire.

But before anyone has a chance to fire, a familiar whistling came through the air...

'Mortar shells?' Itami thought

A barrage of them crashed into the invading army's ranks as the familiar sound of helicopters came over the Imperial Palace. Itami looked to see attack helicopters from the JGSDF and US military protecting transport helicopters bearing American and Japanese insignia. Men from the three armies fast roped into the palace gardens before taking up positions on the walls whilst other helicopters landed, bringing in reinforcements, ammunition and first aid for the embattled defenders.

"Reinforce has arrived!" A SWAT officer joyfully shouted

The dragon-like creatures were torn apart by six Cobra attack helicopters coloured in a brown and green camo with JSDF ensign on the tail.

They were joined by four apache attack helicopters.

On the ground, dozens of soldiers wearing type II flecktarn camouflage uniforms with Kevlar body armour and the Webïrúian flag as a patch on their shoulders rushed out of light armoured vehicles and other armoured vehicles. Soon a platoon of American Marines entre the area with its M1A2 leading the way.

These new forces began firing into the attackers who have torn apart in the furry of gunfire and explosions. It was only a matter of minutes before the entire attacking force was decimated.

Inside the gate, Itami let out a relieved breath before he noticed a little girl left behind. She looked scared as she shook by a tree while crying. The young man came over to her, kneeling and taking her hand.

"Let's find your parents."

****

Waiting anxiously outside the camp at the back of the commandeered bus, Sergent Dima and his men readied their weapons as they all hear footsteps coming toward them.

"Who's there?!" Dima shouted in an authoritarian tone.

"It's us!" Shouted an English voice.

Dima and his men stood down as they saw the four British operators with a group of people. The Russian operators could clearly tell that these civilians went through some kind of rough treatment due to the fresh-looking wound and gash marks on some of their faces.

With the civilians' now in their protection, they were ordered into the bus. Tej was confused about where the Russian got their hands on a bus to which the Russian operator replies with "We happen to find this." But all of that did really matters when all of the civilians are now safe. Dima hastily got into the driver's seat and switches on the engine of the vehicle but the engine keeps shutting off.

"Shit." Dima continuously presses the button to start the engine to which the machine constantly refuses to create loud noises from the exhaust.

"Dima come on! I could see Hostiles hearing our way!" Corporal Boykov shouted.

The Imperial troops were confused about what's causing the loud noise and decided to investigate in General Calais orders. What they found was a large metal carriage that holds the barbarians inside of it. Suddenly one of the glass on the carriage was broken by one of the barbarians inside and a thunderous noise was heard, one soldier's head was pierced by an unknown force and his head was pouring with blood.

Tej and the rest o the British operators open fired at the Medieval soldiers to hold them back whiles they wait for Dima to start the engine.

Frustrated at the lack of progress the Russian operator smashes his fist into the string wheel, "Come you unless shit" Dima press the button once more and the engine roared to life.

"Yes," He cried.

He drove as fast a possible the position, ignoring some of the watchmen that have been a station at the camp. The Russian even goes as far as to ram some legionaries over as he made his way out of the camp. But the Operators weren't safe yet, as a horn was sounded, groups of Horsemen armed with bows and arrows exited the camp and chased the lone bus down the streets of Ginza. One arrow smashes one rear window and manages to land on an empty chair, but that lucky shot made the unarmed civilians panic.

"Everybody keep your heads down and don't move!" the Nepali Seragent orders before focusing back on the horsemen.

"Calvary! 3 o'clock!" Tom shouted. All operators then shifted their fire to the right side of the bus and engage the threat. Every operator accurately took out all of the horsemen with ease, especially Scarlet, to the long-range specialist this was nothing but target practice.

As more and more men were lost to the sorcery of the mysterious iron carriage, the horsemen immediately withdrew to the camp.

Both the Russian and British operators were relieved to see the horsemen retreated towards their camp. Thankfully, this means the coast is clear and with ammunition almost depleted, the operators was lucky.

"Hopefully this will be the last of them," Dima announced through the bus speaker in fluent English, chuckling.

Tej was about to comment on the possibility of Dima being wrong but something wasn't quite right. Tej constantly felt that something was coming since the start of the chase and the feeling keeps getting more intense, almost like his adrenaline was about to rain all over his body.

Suddenly, a massive roar was heard by everyone on the bus, the voice sounded like a wild predator calling out its prey. Theo faces the direction of the voice only to spot a terrifying but yet majesty sight.

"DRAGON!" he cried.

With extreme speed and deadly precision, a wyvern rider launched a fireball at the bus only to miss by a few meters but the shockwave was enough to flip the bus to its sides. Everyone braced for impact as the fireball landed close to them, the bus flipped the right and manages to violently slide along the streets and only came to a halt thanks to the debris that litters the road. Tej slowly got back onto his feet and hastily check everyone for any injuries, miraculously only a few as hurt but fortunately of the injuries were fatal.

"Come one, we need to get the Civs out of the bus" Tej shouted at his team as they all got back to their feet. Immediately, the British operators began to one by one remove each civilian out of the bus.

"Blyat..." Dima undoes his seatbelt and began to climb out of the bus alongside the rest of his operator's whiles helping the civilians getting out of the bus.

A roar echoes through the empty street as a winged creature landed.

The Wyvern was back...

"Theo! Tom! Stall that lizard as much as you can. We still need to get more people off this bus!" Tej orders

"Copy Thapa!" They replied.

Theo and Tom position themselves near a wrecked car not too far from the bus and laid down some fire at the Wyvern which was back to finish its mission. The rounds of their rifles did nothing to the reptile's iron-like skin but its rider was completely exposed. The twins took their best shots in a single burst at the rider only to missed him by a centimetre. In retaliation, the Wyvern fires a fireball at their position causing the two to retreat.

"Shit..." Tej mutters. "Macmillan with me, now!"

Seeing the Twins in trouble, Tej and Scarlet rushed towards the Wyvern and fire at the reptile just so it could draw its attention away from the twins. Scarlet spotted the rider commanding the Wyvern's every moves and quickly took a shot.

With deadly precision, the Scottish marksman killed the rider with a bullet to the head.

"That's a crack shot, Macmillian!" Tej cried.

With bullets now being concentrated at the Wyvern, the winged- reptile flew up into the skies. A small cheer was made by the civilians and some of the operators as the Wyvern started to fly away.

"Yeah! That's right! Runaway, you fat lizard!" Theo taunted.

Analysing his surroundings, Tej sighed relief as he found no more threats in the area, they might live to see another day once again. But with all the celebration out of the way, the Nepali Sergent redirected his focus to the bus. It's not good, now they have no transport to get them out of the area and walking back to the Imperial Palace is just too risky.

Tej thought and thought of all the options he has in his head before he heard a familiar sound of rotor blades echoing through the sky.

It was a JSDF Chinook.

The civilian cried and cheered in joy as the helicopter touch down to the ground and started to deploy Japanese troops into the streets and immediately escorted the civilians into the helicopter. Among the JSDF personnel was a Caucasian man in Russian military uniform who walked up to the Russian spec ops to which they gave a salute, suggesting that this man was Dima's and his men's superior.

"Dima." The Russian superior started.

"Sir. We've located the source of the attack." Dima handed a pocket camera that contains multiple images of the site. "We also brought captured civilians in as well sir."

That's good to see." he then faces towards the British spec ops. "So you're the British team? On behave of the GRU, we thank you for your assistance."

Tej chuckles. "Never thought I'll hear that in my life."

The superior locks his eyes on Tej, "Sergent Thapa, It been a long time."

"Sorry, I can't remember your face too well but do I know you?" Tej asked in curiosity.

The Russian laugh in amusement. "I'm Lieutenant General Aleksei Morozov, but many know me as 'Akula'.

"Akula?" Tej parroted in surprise. That's right that was the name of the Spetnaz leader he met in Syria when he hunted down a corrupt Russian General. Tej manages to beat the Spetnaz to the race and killed the general first. "Wow, small world."

"Indeed" the general grinned.

The operators would board the Chinook and quickly the rotors would bring up the aircraft to the air.

"One hell of a day boys... and girl" Tej grinned at his Scottish partner to which he was rewarded with a friendly chuckle.