The Great Expanse
21:23
"Fantine X, what are your coordinates?"
From the bay of the Laevus troop carrier, Skandar, dressed in green and orange combat fatigues, grabbed his transponder and gave in his location to Zayda, who was stationed back in HQ, giving them directives as well as serving as their eye in the sky. As soon as Heinrich and Ari reported their coordinates, Mikhail joined up on the chatter.
"Alright, now that we are all in position, I want to brief you on a few things. Keep your primary objective in mind. We are ordered to extract Mr. Bartleby and take him to safety back to HQ before having him transferred to the Capital. We will be facing resistance from SFF, but only engage them enough to keep them at bay. We will launch an operation against them after we've gathered useful intel from our source. Until then, don't waste material and troops on needless combat escapades. Do I make myself clear?"
"Copy!" Skandar stated. The others affirmed their responses.
"Good, now the next time we chat, it is when you have secured our source. Best of luck."
Skandar gazed outside of the port window of the hulking air carrier at the Great Expanse with its green vegetation dotting the landscape. The darkening sky was covered with patches of gray and wispy clouds, not enough to hide the presence of numerous UAVS and some aircraft. Skandar wasn't sure his armor columns or troops would be necessary as Heinrich's shocktroopers would do an airdrop and secure the Kithar as Ari and his aviators would provide air support. Still, it was necessary to take the appropriate precautions.
Although there is no obvious storm looming on the horizon, I feel that we will run into one of fire like really soon.
The heavy forces commander ran a hand through his dirty blonde hair as his grey eyes searched the ground below for any sign of their extract. Suddenly, two gray and green flashes whooshed by, the force of their thrusters shaking the windows of the Laevus. Skandar chuckled as he held onto a metal pole to keep his balance steady.
It appears Ari and his crew are itching for a battle.
---
A few minutes earlier
Northeastern Great Expanse region.
"How far can you go?"
Bartleby glanced back to see his companion, Calykko, hurry alongside him as she held the hand of her daughter while clutching her toddler son close to her chest. Twigs cracked as the two Kithars trudged through the brown sturdy grounds of the forest in the Northeastern half of the Great Expanse. It wasn't even an half an hour since they had escaped their occupied homeland and Bartleby suspected that the enemy was tracking them down at that moment.
"I'll be fine," the female Kithar stated. She scurried through several dead leaves and broken trees before she and her former military consort exited the dense forest. "I hope you know where you are taking us."
"Relax, I know help is on the way." The male Kithan smiled reassuringly. "I need you to trust me."
The sound of cracking twigs captured the attention of the two escapees. Then, a distinct snarling made Bartleby's blood run cold.
Dear Felidae, they are using Stalkers! I haven't encountered those since the last war with the Kaneens. Are they involved in one way or another in this whole ordeal? I wouldn't put it past those stinking slobberbags to join forces with a dastardly group such as these invaders.
"We need to make haste!" Bartleby grabbed Calykko's hand. "They are using genetically-enhanced canines to track us. "
"What?" The woman's eyes grew wide. "You aren't suggesting that the Kaneen were behind this unwarranted attack on our homes?"
"It is very possible they orchestrated this with a proxy army. " Bartleby then spotted glowing green eyes in the bushes nearby. "We really need to book it out of here as the Stalkers have located our location."
As the snarling beasts slinked out of the reeds, the youngest Kithar in his mother's grasp began to wail. Bartleby let out a quick breath as he started to flee the smelly trackers, tugging his companion with him.
---
At that same time
45 miles east of the fleeing Kithars
SFF Mobile Makeshift Base of Operations
"General Mithros, we have successfully wrested control of Kithan and are now securing the borders from the last pockets of resistance. Thankfully, they are few in number."
The blue holographic image of the General flickered as he took in the news from Sergeant Devolle. The General's scarred face then twisted into a smirk as he gazed upon the junior officer.
"Very good, I knew you'd pull through. It seems that the Kaneen were actually reliable informants. They knew where our targets were the most vulnerable and gave the exact location of their defenses and barracks, along with the number of troops. We will reward them once time time has come."
Then, the Skymarian human girl ran over to Sergeant Devolle and whispered in his ear. Delighted, the Dathurian turned and motioned to one of the technicians, who summoned a footage of two humanoid felines fleeing through a field.
"General, what you are seeing now are two fugitives, one with 2 kids in her arms, fleeing from our forces. It will appear to the general public that the male is kidnapping the female and her two children and we will be the heroes who will swoop in and rescue her, bringing her captor to justice. This is a live feed from one of our UAVs deployed in the area."
Mithros, with eyes the color of coal, took out his transponder and viewed the feed being sent to him. His curious expression then turned into a frown.
"Is something wrong, sir?" Devolle's pointed brown ears perked up.
"I believe you have some company. Check your radar."
Devolle's eyes flicked over to the large screen on the wall to see several blips bearing down on the position of their targets from the south. Startled about who would send aircraft to their position, he ordered a scan to discern the identity of the unknown aircraft. Soon, the images of the fast-moving blips came into focus, revealing them as not belonging to their forces.
"Sir, I have a positive identification on the warplanes." A dark-skinned technician with a crew cut turned to the Sergeant. "They appear to have the designs of Thunderbolts, used mainly by Fantine X."
"Those blasted peacekeepers want to meddle in our affairs?"Devolle seethed. "I have a surprise planned for them."
"Oh, I bet you will have."Mithros chuckled. "I am going to contact SIN and report to her that you have succeeded in our objective. I don't want to regret that now, do I?"
Devolle smirked. "Of course not, sir. I'll turn these meddling crows into ash once they are in range."
---
"Bearing down at 150 Parhertz!"
Ari pushed the throttle of is Double Eagle warplane as he flew through the wispy gray clouds in the darkening sky. Behind him, his squad of Thunderbolt wingmen followed suit, heading for their objective. His lieutenants, Adlan and Strygar flew their Lightning fighter-bombers as they spread their own wingmen in V formation.
"Ari! Mikhail said for you not to engage the enemy unless you absolutely have to," Zayda scolded him from the radio.
"Oh, we aren't engaging." A sly grin formed upon Ari's lips. "We only want to probe the area around our extraction point for threats."
"Be careful, Ari." Mikhail warned. "I don't want this to turn into a major battle. Don't forget that I am supervising this in the field rather than from a desk."
"Oh right!" Ari chuckled. "The great Mikhail actually gets his hands dirty rather than sit behind a desk in an air-regulated room. Kudos to you, sir!"
The sounds of chuckling came from the radios as everyone heard Ari's quip, Mikhail himself included.
"I'm honored you acknowledge my commitment to the field rather than being pinned to a desk job away from the action, but let's focus on the mission at hand or we'll never get an edge on our old enemy. "
"Perhaps we should have made sure the Survies were wiped out fully," Zayda suggested. "Then, we wouldn't have to deal them as of now."
Ari smirked as he banked his warplane to the right, taking cover in a small cloud formation. His lieutenants and their wingmen followed suit as they neared the extraction point. Bright red, blue, and green lights lit up the control panel as he scanned the area for potential threats. After all, there is nothing like providing air support during search and rescue missions.
"Well, would that make us any different than our enemies if we slaughter them to the last man?" Adlan voiced through the radio.
"Guys, we are picking up unidentified objects to your 10'00 clock!" Zayda patched through. "It's hard to discern if they are airborne or land-based from our data."
"Send our Gnat drone over," Heinrich urged.
As they chatted, Ari peered at the graying ground and try to get a visual of the objects. His radar only showed the three Laevus air carriers to his east and the extraction point to his northeast.
"Adlan, Strygar, tell your wingmen to visually spot either the unidentified threat or our target." Ari's plane banked a bit through a but if rough wind.
"Copy!"
"Roger!"
"Alright flyers, be vigilant!" Ari ordered his own wingmen, handpicked through previous militaries of either the Capital, main Kingdoms, or countries.
---
Hidden SFF Missile Defense Base
24 miles northeast of the extraction point and 30 miles southeast of the Kithan border
"Official Sythe! We have enemy forces inbound from the southwest."
The Hylian SFF officer turned his attention to the radar as several blips of all sizes converged onto their location. The officer stroked his whitish goatee on his alabaster skin as he studied the data on the large screen in front of the technician. A dastardly smirk formed upon his face.
"Very good. Send the decoys and once they are within the range, we will unleash the Hydra missiles as Devolle had commanded. This will be their undoing as they can't keep their noses out of where they don't belong."
As the technicians and engineers complied, Sythe was filled with glee. If this went well, maybe he'd get a promotion for once. He was overdue on that. All it would take was several downed warplanes.
---
It looks like things are heating up now!
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