Chapter 8: The Start of A New Era

Immediately, they are forced and pulled aside from the convoy, the two mages look up to the sight of three ominous faceless men, casting a dark silhouette over them. Kato doesn't like the treatment and situation he's going through based on the grimace on his face, but he knew not to do anything out of the line just yet. Lelei stared indifferently, her face cold with no emotion, and focused on the three men trying to find what is the problem that needs such harsh treatment.

The three looked at each other, speaking in a language they can hardly understand but a sort of Latin-greek by some of the words spoken like "Magic". Either way, they understand each other and need to do what the men say because maybe if they don't, it would be the end of their magic career.

The three men looked back at the two magic users, one speaks clearly in their language. "Explain who you are" The voice sounded deep and may be forced to be intimidating, either way, it did not scare the two experienced mages as Kato stood up to answer the question that has been asked of them, it's also surprising to see how they do not know about Master Kato or sorcerers at all.

Clearing his throat and grooming his long flowing white beard, Kato took a step forward to get closer so they all can listen to him clearly, his old age has taken away his ability to speak loudly, sadly. But as he took the step the three men took a step back in response, and handled the black staves they seem so fond of. Lelei concludes that they are the otherworld's main weapons, and she remembers the power one of these staves holds, able to take down a fully-grown adult horse in several bangs of light and fire. It could not be magic because if they are powered by magic, then Lelei or Kato can sense it and perhaps control them as well.

Kato grunted from seeing the otherworlder's reactions, shaking his old and wrinkled head before staying in place. "My name is Kato El Altestan" Then he gestured to his Pupil, Lelei. "And this is my student, Lelei la Lelena" Then he finished answering the question, perhaps that was enough to release some tension, but that doesn't appear to be the case.

The three of them looked at one another once more, conversing between themselves as one leaves this interrogation scene, and the two that are still here looked back at the mages. "What do you teach Sir Kato?" One of them asked again, as another pulled out some sort of device that lets out low but rapid beeping. This group is one of the strangest and weirdest they have ever met and spoken to, this is far from any beastmen or sages they have come across.

Lelei stepped up, taking the place of her teacher as Kato yelped from her sudden move, the girl loves to do sudden things. "We study and practice magic" She answered with a firm tone, hopefully sending the message to these otherworlders that the two do not like being pushed around and asked questions on the side of the road. She remembers that she had left her stave in their wagon, so if they are asked for proof she couldn't show them her full potential, but hopefully, a simple spell is enough if it comes to that.

The two men seemed to understand from Lelei's tone and attitude that being harsh won't bring them anywhere, instead, it could injure one of them. They gestured for the mages over. "Follow" One of them ordered.

Walking back onto the road, the situation appears to be under control. The otherworldly doctor is speaking to the girl's parents, saying she will be alright and need a couple of days resting.

They followed the two men, walking down the road towards the front of the convoy, and as Lelei glanced to the left they saw a group of rowdy but excited children running to the front of the convoy. Not much, just three to four children. Maybe the otherworlders saw how unstable the wagons are, and to prevent further injuries, especially to children they allowed them to ride on their vehicles, Lelei could only analyze and piece together events for the conclusion.

Continuing to follow the two men, they arrived at the front of the convoy and were met with yet another strange sight, a horseless carriage that let out a low rumble as it lightly shook, and nearly invisible smoke coming out from a tube on the back of the vehicle. They are told to stay as the two otherworlders disappear around the front of it, Kato looks back at Lelei. "What do these otherworlders want!?" The master asked his pupil, knowing that she's the brighter one and might have pieced it all together.

Lelei looked back at Kato and answered. "Perhaps they detected something within us, remember the beeping device?" Kato wondered, looking up at the sky stroking his beard before remembering with an audible 'Oh!' "That might be the reason, perhaps our magic is a threat to them."

"What do we do Lieutenant? We have three reality bends on our hands!" Josh complained to his CO outside of the passenger seat with Larry standing beside him, confirming all the young corporal is saying with simple nods and shrugs, the old man decided to let the young Corporal have a little fun.

Richard sighed and leaned back in his seat, looking down the road. "Well it's better than actual scips, but… yeah, I have no idea what to do as well" He looked to the back of the humvee, several children hopping on and an elderly woman as well. Richard pulls down his mask to give them a friendly smile and a nod, before pulling them back up and talking back to Josh. "But I bet Bright's gonna love them, and I mean not in that way" He clarified.

Josh held in his laugh, Larry karate chopped the young Corporal's head as punishment for laughing at such a dumb joke. Josh let out a sarcastic, 'owiee' because of the chop, it doesn't hurt but a little bit of joking around doesn't hurt their sanity right?

He opens the door and steps out onto the dirt once again. "Bring them over to me, I'll have a talk with them" Josh saluted and took the order to heart, grinning from side to side like a madman before walking back around the back of the humvee to the two mages. Josh is quite flabbergasted when he hears the word 'sorcerers', looks like his suspicions were true. It does wake his inner child being very excited to learn about actual magic, but he needs to hold the urge of coming out of the closet and asking the mages a million questions.

Thinking about it, it is a rare opportunity. Most of the scips and reality benders he met are either trying to kill him or not wanting to spill the beans, and plenty doesn't even know how or why their powers and bodies are like that or how it came into being. But now? With actual two mages that are probably willing to share their knowledge, he wants to know how everything works, maybe he'll even be a mage himself and cast a no-horny spell on Bright, but that dream might be impossible to achieve.

Giggling to himself as he walked back to the mages, he cleared his throat as deep as he could, trying to act professionally and somewhat intimidating while gesturing for them to walk to the front of the Humvee. "Our leader wants to speak with you, come," He says with a wave, gesturing to the two sorcerers to follow and they began walking back to the front of the Humvee.

Josh introduced Lelei and Kato to Richard as he turned around to face them, Richard waved Josh off to go do something else. "Go help Cassie, Josh." Josh nodded and walked off, Richard then looked at Larry. "You too Sarge." And he walked past the three people to help with other things in the convoy. Richard is finally in front of the two presumed sorcerers, face-to-face beside the Humvee. Taking the red translation book from his pouch, he opens it just as a backup in case he forgets words or wants to check whether what he just said is right or not. He clears his throat and begins to speak. "My name is First Lieutenant Richard Vulcan, the leader of the group of men and women you foresaw, tell me and explain what you do" Richard spoke slowly and steadily, not wanting to go too fast and mess up a word.

Kato spoke first, not wanting his pupil to take all of his glory while he fixed his pointy wizard hat. "We practice and learn magic, Lieutenant sir, we harness the power of nature's elements and bend it to our will"

[-]

Lambda 3-8 - Isolated Village

Two of the squad's humvees have driven down the dirt road for over an hour, on their way to a village that has been marked for recon and intel gathering by Gamma. Silence is mostly the noise they hear, trekking in between hills east of the FOB is a vulnerable position to be in as a group could ambush them from above but so far they have not received any hostile contact. One decides to lighten up the mood by whistling the melody of a song, familiarly 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home' as some remember the song and starts bobbing their head left and right, some contributed to the melody and start whistling as well. This is only happening in one of the humvees though, while the other is as silent as an abandoned house with the occasional whispering.

After climbing up one of the hills, they are in sight of the village and from a first glance it appears to be a normal village, and they keep advancing. Checking their weapons and equipment, they prepare themselves to see if there will be an ambush or not. Driving up to the entrance, the drivers and Commanding Officer of the recon group takes a look at the village outside the gate, it wasn't a nice and calming village in the countryside, it isn't an authentic medieval village, it's a graveyard with corpses scattered everywhere on the grass, children, women, men.

And when their eyes widened in a bit of shock, that's when the smell hit them hard like a truck. Some gagged and some coughed, others recoiled back and very few nearly threw up their breakfast, it was a massacre. Steeling their minds and body while putting on gas masks, they exit their vehicles and lightly push open the slightly ajar gate as it creaks loudly. Gripping tightly onto their weapons, safety's off, they entered the courtyard of the village, and the group spread out in search of survivors. Now that they are near and having a closer look at the bodies, they find out about the source of the smell, the bodies, they have been rotting for days.

A door to one of the houses suddenly opens with a long, wailing creak. Even with the door wide open, the inside of the house is pitch black, and the group aimed their weapons at the doorway, slowly stepping closer. "Ah, finally" That voice, that echoing, dreaded voice. "I was starting to wonder when all of you will come" A foot, steps out of the house. A long black heavy robe and a beak move into the sunlight and the figure reveals itself. "The doctor is here, and he is ready to operate"

[-]

Just by glancing out the window his eyes immediately get flash banged. Flincing and looking away with his arm covering his eyes from the hurtful rays, and fanning himself by pulling on the collar of his under-uniform sweating his ass off from the scorching heat. They did not expect to go through an arid desert to get to this city the villagers will be taking refuge in, not only the raging hot sun, the burning air, and the red sand, there's also no signs of living life out here, just several tumbleweeds and cactus that thrives in this environment. Larry is even sweating profusely, and he has been to Afghanistan before but he described this heat as even hotter than an A-10 Warthog's Vulcan cannon after a strafing run.

For the mages, they appeared to not be of any real threat for now. The Kant counters assign them as level-blue reality benders and that's quite reassuring, and command ordered the two teams to leave them be for now but keep a close eye on them. The day has been stressful and exhausting, pushing carts out of mud puddles, fixing broken axels, and help the villagers have been a tiring task, not to mention they have not slept so the condition of Lambda 3-4 doesn't look so good on the morale side.

Already, they miss the lush green plains and the dense dark forests they have been in before, at least there they were not sweating their asses off. Good news is the elf girl is conscious and in great condition, Lambda 3-5 gave her water and checked her vitals once again, overall she's in good shape and is no longer suffering from hypothermia and fever but still pretty shook up by what happened, she woke up in cold sweat and distressed, so Lambda 3-5 gives her some room to breathe and calm down.

Roomy stayed quiet, not wanting to get berated or kicked at the back of the head by his superiors and just drove the humvee, foot not even touching the pedal and leaning forward against the wheel with a somber look on his face. Richard is walking alongside the humvee, just looking off at the miles upon miles of red sand with the sun slowly lowering down to the horizon. Josh volunteered to watch the two mages and is now walking alongside with their wagon, full of books and things he doesn't understand.

The radio in all the radios crackles to life, and one of the most demoralizing news came through. "All units this is Lambda 3-8, we've been engaged with SCP-049 but don't have the necessary means to suppress it, we are in full retreat back to the FOB. Command has been informed as well, the fucker's building an army!" The frantic voice of their Commanding officer came through, and Rimmy spoke afterward.

"Roger that Lambda 3-8 retreat back to base and regroup, can you give us more info over."

"Full village dead, one operative KIA"

Roomy had grabbed Richard's attention and the two of them had listened to the entire report, all they could react to was a collective sigh. Richard got out of the vehicle after reassuring the villagers in the back of the humvee that nothing was wrong and not to mind the talking black box inside the vehicle. Richard takes hold of the walky-talky he has on him. "Larry, Cassie, Josh, drop what you're doing and get back to the front" This is looking grim and he needed the entire team to be together and briefed.

After everyone is gathered on the side of the road right under the scorching sun aside from Roomy, the team is then briefed on what went through the radio. "049 is confirmed here and is building an army of 049-2s. Lambda 3-8 engaged with them and sadly, an entire village dead and an operative KIA." Josh cursed under his breath, things couldn't go more into the shitter. Larry nods indifferently while Cassie lets out a sigh pushing her hair aside and behind her ear.

Cassie speaks up. "So what do we do now sir? Tuck our tails between our legs and run?" Cassie replied to the grim news and thought of the worse.

"Like hell we would" Larry firmly asserted his response to Cassie's suggestion of the Foundation being a coward. "I've been with the Foundation for almost a decade and sure as hell won't give those monsters an entire world to themselves." He gestured at the lines of wagons moving past them while having this conversation. "These people may not be related to Earth, but they're still people, and if we don't protect them we'll be abandoning one of our motives, Protecting innocent people"

Richard chuckled and nodded his head to Larry's firing and pious speech. "The old man is right, you two might be new to the Foundation" He mentioned Josh and Cassie. "But we both know better, we've done some questionable and awful shit in the past, this might be the chance to redeem our humanity back and help people without torturing or killing senselessly." Richard faced Larry and held up his hand for a high-five, and Larry returned the gesture by high-fiving him. "Let's get back to work, people" And just when the group starts to disperse, John called Richard.

"Uhhh…. Sir" Josh called Richard and Richard turned around to face Josh. "We might have a bigger problem…" Josh then pointed over at the horizon, Richard squinted his eyes and walked to Josh's side. That's when he sees it, a large silhouette, a beast with massive wings and a long neck flying straight their way, the flame dragon.

Everyone practically cursed under their breath, the team immediately moving back to the Humvee while Richard ran to the back while fiddling with his radio, calling Turbo the leader of Lambda 3-5. "Turbo! Turbo come in! We got a huge problem! that huge flame dragon I told you about it's coming this way!" Richard screamed into the radio while rushing past confused villagers, bumping, and sometimes pushing them over. He changed the frequency to Lambda 3-4's. "All of you get the civilians in the humvee out now! We're heading into battle so pull up your goddamn underwear!"

The villagers started to understand what was going on, and just as quickly start descending into chaos and panic. Turbo ordered the APC with its autocannon to move into position behind Lambda 3-4's Humvee as they are positioned just off the road, while the last squad in the last humvee tries to coordinate the panicking villagers and guide them into a safe place.

With an entire desert as their battlefield, this should be easy. The team hopped back on the Humvee, Josh manning the .50 cal up top with autocannon support on its way. Richard cocks his gun and nudges Roomy. "Get us up close and personal with that big bitch" Richard looked back at Cassie and Larry. "You two help Josh suppressing the thing, I'm gonna call for air support" Then he fixed himself in the seat, starting to operate the long-range radio that's inside the Humvee.

"Pedal to the metal Roomy! Let's kill this 682 wannabe!" Josh screamed excitedly and Roomy smirked, stepping on the gas fully and gaining speed as a trail of dust, sand, and smoke treks behind the vehicle. Cassie and Larry leaned out of the windows and aimed at the encroaching beast.

The humvee bumped up and down making aiming a difficult job than it already is, and Larry growls audibly to express his frustration. "Drive right you yank!" He yelled at Roomy which sent back with a thrilling laugh. Both Josh and Roomy seem to be having fun and have adrenaline pumping in their blood already made obvious by their nearly autistic yelling and screaming.

Josh is a bit trigger happy at the moment so he fired early at the towering beast. "Right! Don't get near its feet!" Josh yelled again at Roomy and moments later the Humvee makes a sharp right turn which disoriented pretty much everyone in the vehicle. Grunts and growls later from Larry and Cassie, they opened fire with their rifles. 5.56 and .50 Cal rounds raining down at the beast who's now disturbed and looked down at the speeding car and opened its maul.

What greeted Lambda 3-4 was hell itself as they stared down the dragon's mouth as it's charging up a fiery death for the unit. They kept firing and continue to catch the dragon's attention but looks like the bullets barely do any damage, only the .50 Cal could dent its crimson red scales. Turning around and start driving back towards the road the beast has charged up its fire breath. "Do something or we're toast! Literally!" Josh screamed yet again at Roomy and when they think it's over for them, the sound of the autocannon of the APC booms across the landscape, and its rounds hit the dragon straight in the face, and it seems to be working on doing some damage!

The beast let out a mighty roar of pain as it turned and shields itself with its wings to protect it from the autocannon fire, but the wings do not fare better as the stretchy membrane of the wings gets completely penetrated by the autocannon rounds, creating holes in the mighty wings and angers the dragon even further, Josh and Roomy cheered but then silenced by Cassie by scolding them. Richard turned to the rest of his unit. "Air support's 30 klicks out, we're on our own for now boys" He turned and looked at Cassie. "And girls"

Josh leans down and looked at Richard through the hatch, in the background the huge beast is getting pounded by the autocannon as it took off into the sky. "Hey! Didn't we bring that RPG? With the flashlight glued onto it?" The unit turned and stared at Josh for a few seconds, they all completely forgot about that.

"Huh… well looks like your goofiness brought us some good!" Richard turned and on his way slapped Roomy on the arm. "Slow down, let's get that RPG" Slowing the Humvee down quite a lot so that no one bumps their heads, Larry reached onto the back compartment of the Humvee and slowly brought out the RPG to the front. The best the Foundation brought across the gate, they didn't expect to be fighting huge things that can fly with impenetrable scales and armors, a Javelin would be very useful right about now.

Larry passed it over to the adrenaline-run Josh that's eager to take hold of the RPG, resting it atop one of his shoulders. "Move us back around, keep it steady too" Richard ordered Roomy, and the Humvee turned around once again and towards the flame dragon. The APC had to back off as it's slowly running out of ammunition and that the dragon had been trying to stomp the vehicle into a pancake, nearly doing so several times. Larry, with a massive grin and the face of a maniac, aimed the RPG towards the flame dragon and pressed the trigger.

First the backblast, then the roaring sound of the rocket as it flew through the air and make its way towards the beast. In a panic, the flame dragon tried to fly away from the rocket that's barreling through the air straight to its chest, instead, it hits the beast's left shoulder. The ensuing explosion was massive, and the air around them was replaced by the ear-piercing roaring of pain from the Flame Dragon. Seconds later it's left arm fell off and dropped with a huge thud on the ground. The beast promptly fell back onto the Earth due to the blast but shortly after attempted to take off again using it's battered wings, flapping them frantically. That's when two F-22s of the Thunderbolt Air Squadron arrived and commits a bombing run on the beast. Three Hellfire missiles were all that it took to take down the beast and it crashed down onto the ground throwing up dust and dirt onto the air. The recon teams cheered, the villagers stood in shock with their mouth agape.

This is the start of a new era.