Out of Sight (Closed, Tyran Only)

[Vyrsar]

Over the state of Kravola, Eastern Shalum

The skies over Shalum were relatively clear. A small amount of thin cloud coverage, but otherwise the stars were burning bright against the dark skies. The moon was at a crescent, somewhat obscuring what other illumination there might have been. The three aircraft in the formation, two K-21V stealth fighters and a Kh-3 stealth reconnaissance aircraft were flying with their wing and tail lights off- for obvious reason. Their engine throttles were not full, as putting the aircraft into supercruise would have made the engines light up like beacons in the skies. Overall, the mission had been going as routine as others before had been.

The only difference now was that the Shalumites were on full alert. Not just because of the Azurlavaians, but because they were so paranoid as to expect the Acreans to leap onto the opportunity of their attention being drawn west to launch their own inevitable attack from the east. The stealth pilots of IE 71's first Gruppa had been on alert all day and night, waiting for a short transmission from the Kh-3 for a return escort.

Most of the pilots had been sleeping on shifts, their planes fueled and armed and ready to be launched from the forward airstrip near the border. Unfortunately, because of some cock-up with the ground crew, one of the pilots that launched was not one on shift because her's had been the only other plane ready to launch. And so it left said pilot, who went by the name of Lila Aron, to be cursing the ground crew.

After boosting her last few hours of alertness with some artificial supplements, the long hours led her to almost miss the warning that popped up on her avionics screen. Engine malfunction, left. Then the sirens went blaring in her headset, and the orange warning turned red and blared with the words 'Otkaz Dvigatelya'. Engine failure. On the right side of the screen, which showed a diagram of the aircraft, the left engine was outlined in a deep, angry red. Immediately performing the emergency procedure to shut the engine off, Lila reminded herself that she wasn't worried. Their aircraft were designed to fly with one engine out. Though the systems of her aircraft would have relayed the damage information to the other systems it recognised as being part of the flight- those of her wingman and the Kh-3, she began relaying the information over her comms.

"Prioritet. Opyt otkaz levogo dvigatelya. Avariynoye otklyucheniye vniz provodili-"

And then the fucking engine went off. To this day, Lila wouldn't be able to explain what happened to it that caused it to do that, and the state of the wreckage afterwards rendered it unable to provide much of any evidence, but it did. The engine seemed to combust internally, doing the worst thing possible and also causing a failure of the right engine. With both engines on fire, the aircraft basically dead in the air and too far away from friendly airspace, Lila did the first thing they were trained to do in a situation like this. She put her hand on the seat ejection, set the fuel to pour into the engine to ensure that they would be destroyed (along with the aircraft, hopefully), set the future fireball on a collision course with the ground, announced 'Polnyy otkaz dvigatelya, vybros!', and jettisoned herself from the aircraft. Over not-so-friendly territory.

[Shalum]

Near Karlsruhe, Kravola
Eastern Shalum

For several weeks, the Shalumite Armed Forces had remained in a state of full mobilization, and it did not appear that the situation would change anytime soon, due to the fact that the United Republic was still maintaining their own aggressive stance against the Empire and its neighbors as well. The military had been caught with its proverbial pants down during the short-lived Iron Island incident, and the High Kommand harbored no intentions of repeating such an embarrassing and damaging event again. The people would have probably demanded the general’s heads on a platter if it happened. It had been hard enough convincing the general public that a war in retaliation was not the answer.

So far, tensions along the eastern border had not been nearly intense as they had been along the western one. While many locals were wary of the Vyrsarian agressions, given the opportunity that laid before them with the majority of the Shalumite military’s attention focused elsewhere, no one really believed that the Germans had the gall to conduct overly aggressive actions. And if they did try something, well, Shalum did have friends. The Common Territories, Nalaya, and Schottia being the most notable of them. They were relationships that had been built up over time, and the Privy Council was confident that they would receive help from those nations if there ever was a great amount of trouble. Support from them might not have come in a military manner, necessarily, but things like sanctions were a weapon in all of their arsenals. Not to mention the simple fact that the Shalumite military had years of experience under its belt when it came to combating foreign powers.

The defenses along the border could have been better, admittedly. Stretched along the entirety of it, were only a couple divisions of regular Imperial Army units that were mostly infantry by nature, and were supported by a couple heavier armored units that fielded Gladiator series main battle tanks as well as T-62F medium battle tanks. On the ground, they were supplemented by a number of Imperial Defense Force (National Guard) units as well as Internal Security Officers that acted as border patrol. High Kommand considered the airspace to be secure, thanks to the wings that the air force maintained in the area. They were backed up by mobile anti-air systems that had been imported from the Common Territories. They were known for their good kill rates, at least against Azzie aircraft, anyways.

Initially, when word had come in from locals about mysterious fireballs crashing through the sky it had been written off as little more than a meteor shower or something similar, however that belief had not stayed popular for long, as more and more reports from those living and working in the local area began to come in. By morning, news of it had reached the hands of the media, first local, and then national; an amateur video of admittedly poor quality quickly going viral online in the Empire. Soon enough, a ‘formal investigation’ regarding the matter had been launched by the Province of Kravola, to confirm that it had been little more than a cosmic event. The Highway Patrol had been the first on scene, but by midday, several sports utility vehicles bearing the markings of the STG’s Berkut had rushed out from the capital of Olympus to the area on the eastern border when the incident had occurred.

The woman tasked with leading the teams that had been sent out was Agent-in-charge Dara Jaworski, an eight year veteran in the intelligence field, who had been shifted around to different postings four times in her career already. She had joined up shortly after her twentieth birthday, recruited straight out of the University of Frankfurt by one of the many scouts that the STG had roaming college campuses across the country. They needed properly educated folks in their ranks, after all, and younger people guaranteed higher individual productivity -- assuming they lived anyways. Over the last few years, Azzie and Shalumite intelligence forces had gone toe-to-toe, and casualties had steadily happened on both sides.

Appearance wise, Agent Jaworski was an attractive woman, by most standards anyways. She stood at an average height for Shalumite standards, at five-foot-and-ten inches tall. Her build was an athletic one, her muscles toned from many hours of exercising, her favorite activity being running. She was fair skinned, though she could tan well enough, thanks to her visits to southern nations like Gylias and Nalaya. Her eyes and hair were both chocolatey brown in color, and freckles were splattered across her cheeks. At any given time while she was on the job, her eyes were framed by a pair of sunglasses, and she often could be seen chewing and smacking on a piece of spearmint gum.

At the moment, she found herself among an assortment of law enforcement officers and Imperial Guard troopers. They were a few miles out from the nearest city, at a logging company that looked like it had seen better years, if the aged buildings said anything. The most modern looking thing around the establishment, people included, were the four or five tractor trailer trucks that were often used to ship product. As Dara glanced around at her surroundings, her plump lips pressed into a thin line. “So these were the first people to call in about the incident?” She asked, crossing her arms under her breasts.

Her second-in-command, Adrian Raczkiewicz, nodded and scratched at his short red stubble. “Yes ma’am, that is correct.” He replied. “They called early this morning, about four or so, but we wrote it off as some meteor shower shit. Radars picked it up for a moment or two, and poof, it was over.” He explained with a small shrug. “Honestly, ma’am, this is a goddamn waste of time and resources if you’re asking me. Just some cosmic rubble.”

Dara shrugged. “You’re probably right, but Director Beckmen sent us out here herself to confirm that. The capitol is getting more paranoid by the day.” She huffed indignantly. “Go ahead and tell everyone to get ready, we’re moving out soon to take a look around. When are those dogs and helos getting here?”

Adrian shrugged. “By the end of the day, probably. Dogs will take longer than the helo. Local airbase is going to loan us some as long as we need them.” He explained as they clambered into their SUV. It was his turn to drive.

“Good, good, let's get this shit done.” She sighed, running a hand through her hair once she freed it from its ponytail. And with that the group of: federal agents, local police officers, and state militiamen began to move out. None of them knew where to start looking, or even -what- they were looking for, but they had orders, and they were getting paid for this.

Miles away at Marian Airbase, operations continued as normal for the most part. On the runway, JAS 39 Gripens and Bartgeier Multirole Fighters could be seen, being tended to by their pilots and flight crews. Since they were on alert, technically, they needed to be ‘ready’ to repel an enemy attack, in the very unlikely event that one happened in their area. Elsewhere, air force personnel manned radar stations that monitored areas along the border. It was probably going to be a rather uneventful day, given that they usually were in this part of the country.

[Vyrsar]

Dnepr Military Operating Base
1 Hour After Ejection of Maj. Aron

"I still can't believe they pulled that fucking goal off. Un-fucking-believable."

"Well, believe it."

Downed pilots were the last thing on the mind of Alex Pierce that night. A 22 year-old from the Occupied Territories, his aptitude during training in the ADF had garnered the attention of the Arcadians' Acrean overseers, and thus he had been plucked out from service in the ADF to be re-trained for service in the VSAF. With his 'consent', of course. He had only willing signed himself to service with the Wehrmacht on the grounds that he be stationed in Arcadia. Of course, life plans didn't always go according to plan, and he quickly found that his physical strength and uncanny soldiering abilities had earned him an offer to skip immediate service and instead go through the elite Spetsgruppe Alfa selection course. And so here he was, walking through the corridor of a VSAF base far from home next to a person who back home would have been the strangest friend. She was only slightly shorter than him- 5'10 to his 6 foot even, with shoulder-length light brunette hair that was currently pulled into a loose ponytail.

Like Alex, Natalya Vedeneyeva was not the usual citizen of the Federation. She had been born to refugee Karelian parents in the small town of Voronetsk. Affectionately called 'Kay Vee' by the rest of the team, she had a spirit comparative to the might of the old superheavy tank for which she had been nicknamed. She and Alex had become close friends after she showed him just how to fit in with the rest. Something he was unaccustomed to, especially around Acreans. There was something that had clicked between them. That they both shared, in their upbringings and in their cultural history. They were both raised under the propaganda-filled Acrean education specifically designed for non-native Acrean citizens that taught them to despise the Azurlavaians and, to a smaller degree, the Shalumites. The Acreans had promised both their cultures their lands back. To the Arcadians, in return for faithful service to the Federation, they had promised to restore the Arcadian Kingdom. To the Karelians, they promised to return them to their land. They were big promises, and ones made with no other choice, but with the Shalumites and Azurlavaians a hair away from war they seemed further in reach than ever.

When they walked into the mission room, the dead silence that surrounded their conversation stopped it in its tracks. They looked around at the faces of the rest of the team. They'd seen those faces before. It meant something was not right.

"Chto ne tak? (What's wrong?)," Alex asked. Natalya's eyebrows furrowed as she looked around.

"Sbityy letchik. My zhdem Medveyev . (Downed Pilot. We're waiting for Medveyev.)," said Viktor, Alex and Natalya's fireteam leader. He was a gruff man, a pale and faded scar across his left cheek and a rough trimmed beard and goatee. A veteran soldier. Almost immediately after he said that, the aforementioned Medveyev burst through the double doors of the mission room and right past Alex and Natalya. The attractive brunette woman was the SSR operations liaison for their unit. After the team settled in for the briefing, the went over it in quick but intricate detail.

Their mission, quite simply, had three objectives. First, find the downed aircraft and confirm its destruction. If it was not completely destroyed, then they were to ensure that it was to keep it out of Shalumite hands. Second, recover Maj. Aron and extract her from hostile territory. Third, evade capture and detection. The first objective would be the easiest. The aircraft had a beacon attached to it that would allow them to find it quickly. The second would be potentially more difficult, if only because of the third objective. Aron had a beacon on her as well, but the inevitable presence of Shalumite forces in the area and the depth with which they would be within Shalumite territory would make it difficult.

With the briefing complete, and their kits already loaded into the helicopters, the first 12-man Alfa team made quickly for Shalumite territory.

[Shalum]

City of Karlsruhe
Fire Station 2

The city of Karlsruhe was not an especially large one, with a population of thirty-thousand or so denizens that lived off the land for the most part, logging in government approved zones, or even working at the local military bases and border patrol stations. Part of the town’s economy was invested in accommodating tourists and business people that may have been coming through the area, due to the fact that there was an International Port of Entry between Shalum and Vyrsar further east, beyond the city’s limits. As it turned out, Karlsruhe was the easternmost city in the Empire, the first or last stop for many people that were travelling.

Because of its size, there was not an especially large need for civil service in the town. The local police force was small, and happened to be supplemented by Internal Security Service troops that operated a small base in the western part of the city, and acted as one of the units that patrolled along the border. The local hospital, one of the largest employers in the area as well, only encompassed a couple city blocks on the south part of the city. There were three fire department stations as well, that were spread out to cover the community as much as possible.

At fire station two, the mood was rather lethargic, as the fire firefighters on duty busied themselves or killed time. Some polished their gear, checked their air tanks and respirators, or made sure that the tanker truck was properly filled with water. Others were content to simply lounge in the second story of the station, choosing to watch a movie on the flatscreen that they had managed to sneak into the budget a few years earlier. None of them seem especially concerned about actually being called up, due to the fact that they had not had to combat a fire in weeks. And even then, it had been a small car fire that had been dealt with in the span of a hour half or so.

So when the station alarm abruptly began to blare, many of the men were caught off guard, as they fell out of their chairs in surprise or dropped what they were holding on accident. For a long moment, many of them simply looked at each other in surprise, before one of the team leaders finally began to holler at them to gear up and get to their vehicles. There was plenty of shuffling to be heard, as the firemen got ready in a boisterous manner, none of them quite sure what to expect. Among them was Rick Polanski, the chief of the station. As he made his way out of his office, he was greeted by a dispatcher.

“What the hell is going on?” He asked bluntly, looking at the shorter woman. Normally, he got some sort of warning before his boys were called up, but not this time.

“Sorry sir.” The middle aged dispatcher apologized, smoothing her brown hair as she made her way into his office without asking permission. He followed her of course, lips pressed into a tight line. “But we have what appears to be a emergency, I didn’t want to waste time.” She explained as she walked over to a map of the local area that was pinned up against his office wall. Taking a marker off an adjacent desk, she reached up and scribbled a somewhat neat circle on the map. “It appears that we have a forest fire here. Hikers reported it, said that it looked pretty large from the hill that they were on.” She explained.

The chief grunted, eyeing the map. “And why are we supposed to respond to that? Isn’t that the federal park service’s problem?” He replied.

“Technically, it is, but we’re also the closest group that can respond to the scene right now. They called us and asked for assistance with combating it.”

“I doubt there are any water hydrants we can use, we’re going to have to rely on our tanker truck.” He sighed.

She nodded. “Aye, that is true sir. Thankfully, station one is sparing us their tanker as well, hopefully that can help us until air assets from the park services, which are equipped to properly combat the fire, arrive on scene.”

“Ah good, at least the bastards will be doing some of the job they’re supposed to be.” He said, reaching over to pick up his coffee cup and take a sip of the lukewarm liquid. “Please tell me there are some access roads. That looks off the beaten path.”

“Of course sir, though they’re not all paved. They’re usually used by forestry officials and internal security soldiers. I am sure if their SUVs can handle it, that our trucks can to.” She said confidently. “Oh, there go the boys now.” SHe commented, looking out a nearby window.

Down in the street, the first lumbering truck made its way out of the station, followed by another, and so on. They formed a convoy of five, and had a crew of twenty equipped men in total, probably not enough to efficiently combat the fire, but they would have to make do with what they had. It would take them twenty minutes or so to get out of the city, and even close to where the fire was supposed to be. Thankfully, people made way for them on the roads, so there was less need to slow down.

Little did they know that the fire they were supposed to respond to was the result of the plane crash. When the pilot had flooded the engine with fuel, she had set herself up to exacerbate the problem that would arise when the plane finally crashed. Already, there was going to be a fire because of it, but the extra fuel only made it burn hotter and spread faster.

---

Near Karlsruhe, Kravola
Eastern Shalum

Agent-in-charge Dara Jaworski yawned quietly as she leaned against the door of the SUV, wishing that time would pass faster, or that something would at least happen. A couple hours had passed, and so far, all they had yet to meet any sort of result when it came to finding...whatever the hell that they were looking for. She was convinced that this was really a wild goose chase, and that all that had been reported was some damn meteor, but no, the higher ups wanted her to look into the matter.

Up front in the government marked SUV, agent Raczkiewicz kept his eyes forward, navigating the unpaved access road that they were on. The vehicle was silent, other than the sound of rock and dirt being crushed under the run flat tires. That was until a phone began to ring. Glancing over, Adrian eyed agent Daniel Piechotka, who brought the phone to his ear.

“Yes? Hello?” He answered, tucking the phone against his shoulders. For a few moments, he was silent, as he listened to the caller, before he finally replied. “Alright, thank you very much for your help. Have a good day.” He said, before abruptly ending the call. He looked over at Adrian quickly. “That was the Agent Swanson.”

“What did he say?” Adrian replied curiously. He knew that Swanson had been tasked with calling up the local airports and military air bases to get an idea of what planes may have been in the air during the time of the reported fireball.

“Apparently there weren't any planes in the air last night.” Daniel replied, in a mixed tone of unsettled and intrigued. “The military didn’t have any patrols running that time, not even helos doing training runs. Same goes for the local airports, but with civvie and private planes, of course. Last recorded flight came in around six in the evening. That’s like...eight or more before the incident.” He explained.

“Well shit.” Adrian replied, not really knowing what to make of that particular explanation. That ruled out any aircraft...that could have been theirs, anyways. From the beginning, he had been skeptical of the meteor idea, because that was something that just wasn’t common, at least as far as he knew.

Once again, Daniel’s phone rang again, and the agent quickly fumbled to answer it. “Yes hello?” He answered quickly. Rarely did he get calls, and when he did, they were usually important and work related. He had never been the most popular guy around the water cool at headquarters. “Oh, ah, alright. Yeah. We’ll go check that out right away.” He replied, before ending the call. He looked over at Adrian. “We’ve got a forest fire apparently, in our search area.”

Both of Adrian's ginger eyebrows shot up in surprise. When they had headed out earlier, there had been no word of any sort of fire. “Oh yeah?”

“Yessir. Fire department has already been dispatched, and forest services have deployed a couple of helicopters to help combat it.” He replied. There were a moment or two of silence before he added. “I think we should go check it out. Just may be related to whatever the hell we’re looking for.”

“Might be.” Adrian replied shortly.

Daniel looked down at his phone, before reaching over to fiddle with the GPS, until a new set of coordinates had been set. “That should be it, the location where EMS is heading, anyways.”

“Get us moving, Adrian, I want to see this.” Dara said suddenly from the backseat, looking much more alert as she leaned forwards. “How long do you think it will take us?”

“Probably a half hour, maybe a bit less. We’re actually further away than those fire boys.” Daniel explained.

“All the more reason to speed up.” Dara said, nudging the back of Adrian’s chair. The driver just snorted and pushed a bit harder on the gas pedal. For the first time in the day, it looked like they might have a real lead, or at least something to do.

[Acrea]

Kravola
Eastern Shalum

12:00 AM

The countryside of Kravola state was known for being particularly plentiful in trees and rolling hills, that often times ended up on the cover of travel brochures produced by various groups within Shalum, and even by the government run tourism board. Here and there, rivers and lakes could be found, and several of the more isolated communities profited from renting out lake houses and hotels to the type that enjoyed spending time out in nature. Hiking was a popular activity for those on vacation, and a number of trails had been established as well as areas cleared out for campsites.

On one particular trail, a pair of tents had been set up, a bit off from the path so that those present would not be disturbed by passersby. Not much could be done to ward off animals, other than a campfire, with the only consolation being that bears were not exactly plentiful in the area. In total, there were four people between the two tents, a pair of couples that had decided to head to the countryside for a group vacation. They were middle class people, all of who worked in an accounting firm together.

At this hour, three of the four were asleep. The last who was awake, a middle aged man by the name of Eric, glanced around blearily, absently reaching for the rifle that he had brought along in case they ran into a wild animal. Honestly, he had no idea what had woken him, but whatever it was, sounded too close, and had apparently been courteous enough to make enough noise to rouse him. An accountant he may have been, but like every able bodied citizen, he had done his four mandatory years in the military -- albeit as a fueling specialist.

-

As with every mission, there were unexpected obstacles. For Alex’s team, the unexpected obstacle right now was a pair of tents right in the middle of their path. Viktor would have likely opted to go around it, if it weren’t for the fact that to both of their sides were known patrol paths for Shalumite soldiers. How did they know? Sitting and watching. Visual confirmation was sometimes the best form of confirmation, and so they’d made the decision to go right in between the patrols.

Viktor made wordless signals, ordering six of the team to go and ‘secure’ the tents while the other six set up a perimeter. The definition of ‘secure’ was a tentative term for them. Generally, it could be assumed as making sure that an area was safe. That was what it generally meant in most situations such as this. However, as Alex had observed, with the Spetsgruppa it usually meant neutralise whatever what was there and make sure there was nothing left that they didn’t want. The meaning of neutralise? Again tentative, but again, experience told Alex that there was a 99% chance that it was a kill order.

And so him, Natalya, and four others advanced cautiously towards the tents, making barely a sound. They had suppressors affixed to their AK-21 and AK-21u rifles in place of the usual definitive flash hiders, all of them equipped with expensive but effective four-lense NV/IR goggles attached to their helmets. As they approached the tent, Alex made the mistake of brushing aside a cloth. A quiet noise, but one that stood out from the noise of the forest around them and thus one that could have compromised them. He paused, as did the other five, before slowly making his way forward again.

-

For a few moments, Eric glanced around, lips pressed into a tight line, annoying clear on his features as he took in his surroundings. Other than the expansive trees and the sounds of insects filling the night, nothing seem out of the ordinary, really. He relaxed slightly, grip on his M47 hunting rifle loosing as he lowered it, though he did not sling it over his shoulder either. “Probably just a squirrel,” he mumbled to himself, wishing that he was still asleep. He would have gone back to his tent too, if not for the fact that nature was calling his name.

With an annoyed, half-asleep grunt, he turned and began to make his way to the perimeter of the camp, inadvertently heading towards the commandos that were nearby. He paused for a brief moment, as the sounds of jingling caught his attention. Looking down, his dog, a mutt as it turned out to be, looked up at him with a toothy smile, apparently wanting to follow. “You too?” He asked. The dog just continued to look at him.

With a shrug, he continued his trek once more, the light cast by the still ongoing campfire fading as he got away from the camp. His wife had bitched about all of this, and he felt no need to give her more ammunition. As he neared a tree, he froze.

’Grr’. His dog looked off beyond the trees, tail up and eyes suddenly intense. Its lips were pulled back, and four rows of yellow, sharp teeth were apparent in what light was to be had. It had apparently seen something.

When Eric looked over, his own green eyes widened in surprise. Even in the dark, and with his sleep affected vision, the five silhouettes no more than fifteen feet away were apparent to him. It only took him a moment to figure out what they were, he had seen these types before, back in the military. Acreans, it looked like, due to the make of their weapons and gear. That was never a good sign, given that Shalum and Acrea weren’t exactly buddies, though they shared something of a common enemy in the way of Azurlavai. Surely, whatever they were doing here boded nothing well.

“Who the fuck are you guys?!” He holled, quickly moving towards the nearest tree, grip tightening on his rifle as he readied it. He hadn’t shot a gun in a while, honestly, but he wouldn’t simply go down if they tried anything. If he got lucky, the 7.62 x 39mm rounds he had loaded would scare them off, or at least get them to leave him alone.

-

Natalya and another member of the team, Dmitry, had been sent around to the side. And for good measure, evidently, as the man had walked nearly right into them after the damned dog alerted him. The four froze, slowly moving towards the only cover they had- the trees- in the darkness. They didn’t respond to his challenge, and the fact that they didn’t have a clear shot was an issue.

To their right, behind where Eric was, Natalya and Dmitry had their rifles trained on him and the dog, which was focused on Alex and the rest of the fireteam to their left. Dmitry tapped Natalya on the shoulder, signalling to her that he would get the dog and she was to take the man and disarm him- or kill him. She nodded, readying herself to move quickly. She was no more than seven feet behind Eric, hidden behind some light brush and shadows. The second she heard the suppressed discharge of Dmitry’s rifle she ran forward. While Eric was still readying his weapon, she hit him hard on the side of the head with the solid butt of her rifle, then allowing it to fall to her chest on the sling as she chopped at his wrist, causing him to release the grip of the rifle and removing his hand from near the trigger. The force of the blow to the head was enough to stun him alone, evidently, as he fell back against the tree, the rifle quickly wrenched out of his hands. Throwing it to the dirt, Natalya drew the closest weapon to her trigger hand- her handgun- and trained it on Eric’s forehead.

Anger boiled in Eric’s chest as he heard his companion go down with a suddenly pitiful whimper, and he knew that the animal was dead before it hit the ground. Livid would not properly describe how he felt, and as irrational as it may have been, he made motions to raise his weapon and fire. Of course, he didn’t manage to actually pull it off, as he was taken to the ground before it ever could happen. Suddenly, everything was blurry again, due to the force of the hit that he had taken. A groan escaped his lips as he rested against the tree, seemingly unable to do much more due to the pure amount of force that had been generated during the surprise attack.

When he finally looked up at the handgun pointed at his head, some irrational part of him caused his eyes to narrow. Fucking bitch, she and her comrades had killed his dog, and he was surely next, probably to be followed by his wife and friends. The movies would have told him to try and work this out, but the world was a much crueler place. “Ye fucking witch.” He grunted, seemingly still stubborn, even in death. “Damn Acreans, always pulling this stuff. What is this, an invasion?” He grumbled. “I would try and give you some ‘spare me’ speech, but you and I both know this is my end.” He finished roughly, in a rather matter-of-fact tone.

Natalya spared a glance towards Dmitry, though he wouldn’t be able to see the amused look in her eyes.

“Be quiet,” she told Eric, as the rest began advancing quickly over the tents and the campsite, going gun barrels first in opening the tents as they began to secure the rest of everyone else and drag them out in the open. Dmitry gave a quick statement to Natalya as he passed.

"Prosto izbavit'sya ot nego (Just get rid of him).”

Eric glanced up at her, eyes still narrowed, but confusion now present in his orbs as well. What the hell kind of game that she was playing, he really didn’t know. Maybe they were going to round them all up, and kill them together, for all he knew. There was nothing that he could really do to resist at this point.

At the campsite itself, several squeals and noises of surprise were heard as the rest of the group was rounded up. There was little resistance among the two women and one man. The later had reached for his 357. magnum that he had been sleeping next to, but the AKs in his face that caused him to stop short. At least they had not shot him for it.

“What the hell, dude?” The young man, named Justin asked in a mix of surprise and annoyance as he looked around. The other two women did not look especially happy either, but they were probably smarter than their husbands in the sense that they were at least compliant.

Christie, the wife of Eric, looked over at her husband with fear in her eyes as she saw him against a tree, his damn prized rifle at his side. “Are w-we going to die?” She asked the nearest commando, not really sure why she was speaking at all.

Having been signalled, Viktor walked in cautiously with Dmitry at his side. He looked at the four in the campsite, guns trained on them all. He looked over at Eric, the rifle on the ground next to him, Natalya’s handgun in his face. He had clearly been the first, judging from his distance from the campsite and the rifle, and he had been told that Natalya had taken him down.

“Vy ne ubit’ yego (You didn’t kill him)?” he said in a bit of surprise. He knew that if it had been him or Dmitry, the man would have been dead by now.

“Mne bylo prikazano obezvredit' (I was ordered to neutralise). On neytralizuyetsya (He is neutralised).” Natalya’s young female voice in stark contrast to Viktor’s deep baritone.

“Ochen' khorosho (Very well).” Viktor then addressed the rest of the team present. “Izbav'sya ot nikh. (Get rid of them).”

“Podozhdi (Wait)!” Natalya found her cursing herself after she let the outburst out. Viktor paused and looked at the young girl. Dmitriy nodded, training his rifle on Eric and taking Natalya’s place as she stepped away towards Viktor, raising her goggles so as to look him in the eyes as he did the same.

“Yesli my ub'yem ikh, to prichinoy dlya voyny. Eto ser'yeznyy risk, tak kak my ne mozhem izbavit'sya ot nikh (If we kill them, it is a cause for war. It is a serious risk, especially since we can’t dispose of them),” Natalya explained.


As he leaned against the tree, Eric could only watch the two Acreans go back and forth curiously, wondering what the two subhumans were bickering about. Probably about how to get rid of the bodies, or something similar to that. They were probably too far gone by this point to be saved. The pragmatic part of him knew that he had witnessed too much now. The enemy was at the gates, well past them really, but not in any sort of invasion numbers yet. In any case, the commandos probably knew the risk. If his people were left alive, it would only be a matter of time before someone contacted the local authorities, unless their satellite phones were taken. Eric liked to think of himself as a patriot, even if he hadn’t reenlisted, and alerting Internal Security was the least that he could do.

Nearby, Justin was sweating bullets as he looked around at the enemy commandos, fearing that his life was about to end. He didn’t want to die, hell he didn’t even want to go on this bloody camping trip on the first place, it just so happened that his wife was one of those nature people. At twenty-nine, he considered himself to be too young to go to the grave, especially with the fact that there was a child in his wife’s still taut stomach. Next to him, she whimpered and nuzzled against him, probably thinking something similar. They were not warriors, no, they were accountants that had met at college and had served in the reserves.

Kneeling alone, eyes locked on her husband, Christie nibbled on her bottom lip nervously, glancing at Viktor, the apparent leader of the group. She loved that man, she really did, but he could be stubborn as a mule, and a xenophobic bastard when he wanted to be. If anyone was going to get them killed, it was probably going to be him, even if he had good intentions. But alas, she could not find it within herself to speak, not that it would have done any good. If anything, these Acreans probably didn’t want to hear anything she might have had to say.

Viktor carefully weighed the options. They were a risk to detain, a risk to leave, and a risk to kill- unless it were with a weapon that could not be traced back. He looked at Natalya, shaking his head with an actual sincere look of apology.

“Slishkom mnogo riskov. Mne zhal (Too much of a risk. I’m sorry.),” he said. He then once again addressed the rest of the team, drawing his knife. “Nozhi tol'ko (Knives only).”

Dmitry drew his knife while keeping his weapon on him, the other two who drew their knives turning towards the three huddled together. Natalya only cursed rather loudly and angrily as Viktor grabbed the other man.

Annie, the pregnant woman, cried out and reached for her husband, though she knew it was in vain as she saw him drug off. Tears that had been in her eyes now began to fell, as her hands fell to her stomach, which was noticeably round, though not necessarily large enough to say that her due date was any time soon. “Please don’t do this,” she pleaded in a beginning tone. “I’m pregnant, he-he-he is the father. Please.” She begged. Some dark part of her knew that things were far too gone already, if they were going for their weapons.

The pleading escaped Viktor’s ears, but not Natalya’s or Alex’s as they both said ‘Podozhdite!’ at the same time. This time Viktor only looked at them, but he was intuitive enough that when his eyes saw Annie’s hands on her stomach he told the rest of the team to stop as well. He cursed, dragging Justin and throwing him back with the two women while Dmitriy threw Eric with them as well. Viktor looked at his watch. Even he and Dmitry were not cold-hearted enough to kill a pregnant woman or orphan an unborn child where it wasn’t necessarily needed.

“Zaderzhite ikh (Detain them),” he ordered. The team quickly set upon securing all of them with zip-ties, tying their feet together with paracord. Viktor crouched down in front of them all, his voice thick with an accent.

“Listen to me carefully. I am going to leave two of my men with you. If you scream, if you try and call out for help, they will kill each and every one of you. If someone comes by here, they will hide you, and the same rules will apply. Remember that they have automatic rifles, and your lives are expendable. If not for yourselves, then remain quiet for your unborn child. Am I understood?”

There was no resistance among the group, and more than a few looks of relief were present as they were bound. It at least meant that they would not die today. They all did as told, and listened carefully, even Eric, who harbored no sort of sympathy for these men and women before him. Surely, they held no good intentions if they were here, and he would have loved a chance to take a shot at them, even if he was going to die. But he also had to take into account his pregnant friend, who didn’t deserve any of this. Funnily enough, this was supposed to be her last ‘big trip’ before the she was too big to do anything overly physical for months.

The group all looked at each other, and a series of nods were exchanged. It was more than acceptable to them, not like they were able to dictate the terms anyways. “Yessir. Perfectly understood.” Justin said quickly, looking much lighter as he glanced at his wife, wishing he could do nothing more than give her a hug. They weren’t going to be slayed, it was more than he could have asked for.

Viktor nodded, standing. He motioned for Natalya and Dmitry to stay and guard them. Natalya, because he knew that she would take proper care of them. Dmitry, because he knew Dmitry would kill them without a second thought if necessary for the preservation of his life and Natalya’s. The two nodded.

“Poydem. Vyydi!” Viktor said, and the rest of the team once again disappeared into the night. Natalya and Dmitry both removed their helmets for the moment, removing their masks to breathe the crisp night air, their faces illuminated in the shadows by the campfire that was there Dmitry crouched next to the tree while Natalya sat, her eyes scanning the others.

The campers tried to relax, which was about as easy as it sounded, given the fact that they were still being watched by commandos that were going to kill them no more than two minutes prior. When the two finally removed their masks, a few eyebrows rose up. Natalya looked, well, much younger than they had been expecting to see. Thirties is what Justin had mentally placed her at, but in person, she looked no more than twenty if he had to guess. Of course, he was probably wrong, but it was still interesting to see.

On the other hand, Dmitry seemed to fit the role of evil, Acrean killer with no heart to be found, even if he had spared their lives. He looked just as intimidating to them all, with the scars and facial hair, almost as if he had been born for this line of work. No one would have minded if you left the mask on, Eric thought in only a half joking way. Still, he was in no position to actually talk, especially when it was as insulting as that particular thought.

Looking around, none of the group moved to speak, for that matter. What was there to be said? ‘Thank you for not killing us?’

Natalya scanned their surroundings, eyeing the body of the dog. She looked up at Dmitry.

“Nakroyte telo, ne tak li (Cover the body, would you)?” she asked. Dmitry sighed, but otherwise complied, going to retrieve a blanket from one of the tents. Taking it over to the body of the dog, he carefully and gently wrapped it in the blanket, taking it back over to the campsite and setting it down. He then looked over and nodded at Natalya. She reached behind her, pulling out her canteen and then into Dmitry’s pack which lay on the ground, pulling out a straw from one of the MRE packs. She placed the straw in the canteen still full of water, walking over and crouching in front of Annie.

“Water?” she questioned.

With nothing better to do, the group watched the burly Acrean lumber over and cover the deceased animal. Yet again, the baddies had managed to surprise the group, by showing at least a small amount of caring, and covering up the canine friend that had fallen in the line of duty. He had lived a good, long life, something that was only a small condolence to them, but one nonetheless. Secretly, Justin at least had to give the man some credit for being gentle with it.

Meanwhile, Annie looked up at Natalya and the briefest hints of a smile formed on her lips. Sure, she was very much wary of these people, but it seemed like the woman was at least trustable for now. “Yes please, thank you. Sorry, I am a bit tied up, so I can’t handle it myself.” She tried to joke. Leaning forwards, she carefully sipped on the drink, relishing in its coolness as it went down. When she was done, she leaned back. “Thank you. You’re very kind.”

Meanwhile, Dmitry went about securing the rest of the campsite. He noted what resources were there in terms of food and water, and also secured the weapons and ammunition. With the .357, he threw it into the woods after removing the ammunition. He then picked up Eric’s rifle, and went about disassembling it in the form of removing the bolt completely and placing that in his pack, before throwing the rest of the rifle onto the ground. As Annie drank, Natalya sang quietly to herself.

“Prosto v etoy zhizni net smisla bez tebya, i moya melodiya uzhe ne moya, i svobodi net, kak i, net prichin, ya ne' odnoy, ya ne' odnim…”

Dmitry looked down at Natalya, noting the song as one of her favourites. He then placed his helmet on his head, flipping the goggles down. “Ya voz'mu pervyye chasy (I’ll take first watch).”

Natalya merely nodded, not breaking the song.

The smile on Annie’s lips grew as she listened to the young girl before her sing. Honestly, she didn’t speak even a word of the girl’s language, which was a shame, given the fact that she had done better than her husband when it came to the language courses the army reserve had forced them to take back in the day. Admittedly, a decade was more than enough time to forget.

Beside Annie, Justin glanced at Natalya, his features softened. He had been expecting the girl to be more of a killer than this behind her mask. “You have a really beautiful voice.” He complimented, leaning back a bit, trying to make himself as comfortable as he could given the circumstances.

Off to the side, Eric just watched the things happening, not exactly pleased that the enemy had taken apart his rifle, which had cost him a little over a thousand dollars, not to mention ammunition and taxes. Thankfully, there was nothing else for Dmitry to really mess up or wreck if he wanted to. They were simply civilians, that had packed for a camping trip. There was plenty of water and food, the later more than the four of them probably needed.

Natalya smiled at Justin. She could understand English, but as per her training she was not inclined to let them on to that. She looked at them both and cocked her head.

“Akaski?” she questioned.

Annie bit her lip, a sheepish look crossing her face. “Nyet,” she replied with a shake of the head. “Shalumite by birth, both of us, though he has some Pole in him.” She said, nudging her husband with her hip. “We were both in the Imperial Army Reserve, they taught us some Acrean...but I kinda forgot it all.” She chuckled. “They said I was good at it too, could have been a translator or something like that.”

Natalya only gave a small smile. She then crouched into a more comfortable position in front of them. She motioned to herself.

“Menya zovut Natalya (My name is Natalya),” she said.

Annie nodded and motioned to herself with her bound hands. “I am Annie, and this is Justin.” She replied, taking the liberty of introducing her better half.

“Its, ah, nice to meet you, ma’am.” He added with a nod. Normally he would have said it was a ‘pleasure’, and maybe in another life, meeting Natalya would have been enjoyable, but due to circumstances, it was clear why it was not. “Over there is Eric and Christie, I think you know the former already.” He said, inclining his head towards the other married couple.

Natalya nodded. “Annie, Justin, Eric, Christie,” she repeated. Behind her, Dmitry gave a sound of disapproval.

“Vy ne dolzhny byt' obshcheniye s nimi (You should not be socializing with them),” he said in a low voice and disapproving tone.

“Eto ne obshcheniye (It isn’t socializing),” Natalya replied, shooting a glance back at him with a frown. Dmitry only repeated what she said in a muttering, sarcastic tone, shaking his head.

“Beremennaya (Pregnant),” Natalya chuckled, looking at Annie. She then decided to switch to English with her rather heavy accent. “How many months?”

Annie smiled, looking down at her stomach with pride in her eyes, as well as love. “Four, close to five, if I remember correctly anyways. Amazing how time flies.” She laughed, feeling as if the tension had passed from earlier, replaced by a less intense resignation to the fact that they would have company for a while. “It was unexpected, but not unwelcome either. It’s a boy.” She explained.

“Congratulations,” Natalya replied. Her own eyes were imbued with a hint of sadness that she herself would likely never have children, particularly if the day they were all dreading would come. If the war came, then there was a very real possibility she wouldn’t live to see 25. She quickly blinked the emotion out of her eyes. “So, Army. How was that for you?”

“Thank you,” Annie replied with a small smile. The look that crossed Natalya’s face did not go unnoticed to Annie, but it was gone before she could mention anything about it. There were a couple reason she quickly thought of as to why she may have looked that way, but she didn’t want to bring them up. With the new subject, Annie quickly nodded. “It was interesting I suppose. It was worse for him then me.” She said, looking over at her husband. “I was in logistics, driving trucks and running a few times wasn’t so bad, especially when it was just reserve stuff.”

“A lot of tense moments for me, since I was infantry.” Justin added. “With all the tensions going on, and since Shalum -is- a buffer state, it seemed like we were always a step away from being put to full mobilization.” He said, not daring to call out Natalya’s nation for being part of the problem. He was sure that she would understand.

Natalya nodded when the radio crackled. She and Dmitry both listened, before quickly moving into action. She snapped up her weapon and affixed her helmet while Dmitry grabbed more paracord. Natalya kept her weapon trained on them while Dmitry untied all of their feet, and proceeded to tie together in a line. None of them would be able to run without dragging the others.

“On your feet,” Dmitry growled as Natalya lowered her weapon.

“Easy, easy.” Justin mumbled, though it was more for Annie’s benefit than anyone else's, given she was slower to her feet with the little one in her tummy. They showed no resistance as they were tied together, all of them knowing better than to try anything by this point. “I take it we’re moving out?” Justin asked, a bit sadly, as he looked over at Natalya. It could either mean good news or bad, or so he believed.

[Acrea]

Natalya only nodded as Dmitry began leading the way. They traversed through the forest as quick as they could while guarding the four with them. Then suddenly Dmitry, in the front, held up his fist. Natalya grabbed Justin, at the rear, causing the four of them tied together to stop. Not wanting to shoot either of her newfound acquaintances, she trained her weapon on Eric in the front. Through his goggles, Dmitry watched two figures walking with cigarettes in hand. He noted weapons on both of them, and what looked like either combat vests or body armour.

Annie bit her lip as they suddenly found themselves at a halt, and glanced over at Natalya, looking more curious than fearful. She didn’t really dare to lean forward and try to inspect the people that were ahead of them, but she could easily tell who they were. Both were members of the Internal State Security, the numerous paramilitary branch of the STG. Early on during their trip, before they had gotten to their campsite, they had happened to run across a squad of them on patrol. They seemed like nice enough fellows, even if they were armed to the teeth, with a mix of SAR 21 assault rifles and Forelis battle rifles.

“State security guys, looks like they’re on patrol.” Justin whispered as he looked over at Natalya. His arm was tense under her grip, out of reaction to the unexpected. He was glad that she wasn’t pointing a gun at him though. He wasn’t sure what to say exactly, since he wasn’t on her side by any means, but he did know that where there were two, surely more were nearby.

Off in the distance, the two soldiers did not look to be in any hurry, as they lumbered down the otherwise deserted path, puffing away as they chatted. They were well armed, packing the same gear as the Imperial Army did, though they did not look to be especially alert at the moment either. At one point, the taller of the two slowed for a moment, glancing in the general direction of the group, before tilting his head back and continuing on, apparently not spotting them.

In front of Natalya, Dmitry crouched, his rifle still trained. With his non-trigger hand, he put up one finger, signalling her, and then motioned to the right. Natalya gave her radio transmitter a click for confirmation before crouching herself, pushing the group down with her. She steadied her breathing, her rifle steady on her left arm.

Dmitry gave a click over the radio, and in a stunning display of discipline they both breathed in deeply at the same time and exhaled. In the brief pause before his next breathe, Dmitry fired, hitting his man directly in the forehead under his helmet. A split-second after that, Natalya fired, hitting her man in the throat right under his chin. Dmitry advanced forward towards her man, who was now on the ground grasping at his throat and suffocating. Without a second thought, he placed a second round into the man’s head.

When they had been forced down, Annie had been unable to bite back a hiss of discomfort. At her stage in the pregnancy, there was no easy way of moving around, especially quickly in the up and down fashion that was required of the current situation. She quickly tried to get her breathing under control, and thankfully it did not appear that her captors intended to be overly stiff about any noise that she may have made. When she saw the two soldiers ready their weapons, her face went pale as she looked away, she knew what was about to happen.

Justin cursed under his breath and didn’t dare to look up as Dmirty ran off to finish the job. There had been no resistance from the two soldiers, simply because of the shock and awe that came with surprise. So there it was, the first two casualties of what would probably end up being a war, if word of any of this was to ever get out. He had probably just witnessed a very real casus belli. “Shit,” was all he could mutter as he finally looked up, eyes glancing over at Natalya.

Further in the distance, there was the sounds of rumbling, heavy and powerful, that could have been associated to construction equipment...or a military vehicle. While this place may not have been the Azzie border, there were still soldiers out and about doing patrols, as the two dead men exemplified. If they were to have gone and investigated the source, they would have run across more than two commandos could have probably handled, regardless of skill. Natalya stood, motioning for the four to stand up once more. Dmitri had quickly covered the bodies, using broken brush and leaves. He then chuckled, walking about four metres behind where the men had been. He pushed aside some brush, revealing something that looked like a big shadow in the distance and then reached, pulling off a camo net that was covering a VDV buggy. The small vehicle, meant to be airdropped alongside paratroopers, looked rather generic as a military vehicle, and a notable addition was the fact that it was armed with nondescript weapons- and possessed a Shalumite flag hanging off the back. Dmitry whistled to himself, picking the Shalumite weapons and equipment off the ground while Natalya lead the four to the buggy. Drawing her knife, she cut only Annie loose, tying Justin to Christie’s back. She opened up the back of the buggy, revealing the small rear compartment of the small vehicle. She motioned for the three to get in.

Annie blinked in surprise, as she had not been expecting to see the vehicle appear out of thin air, much less to see her bindings cut free. She gently rubbed her wrist, that were red with irritation, and cast a grateful smile over Natalya. Unsure of what to do, she waited for the Acrean woman to handle the rest of the group.

Eric did not look especially pleased about the whole thing, being kidnapped by enemies of the state, and especially being shoved in the too small looking rear compartment. He seriously doubted they would be able to fit comfortable, if at all, but given the look that he received from from bastard, er, Dmitry, he knew that it was better to stay silent and simply get in. Slowly, he stepped up and into the vehicle, followed by his wife and then Justin.

“Hey! Watch your hands.” Christie grumbled as she looked over at Justin. The man mumbled an apology, looking sheepish as he tried to settle into the rear compartment the best he could. It was easier said than done, given his height. Natalya shook her head and closed the compartment. Dmitry then walked past her, shoving something into her chest. Looking down, she noticed it was one of the SAR-21 rifles from the dead men. Taking her AK from her sling, she handed it to Dmitry, who placed it in a bag with his that was strapped to the side of the buggy. Leading Annie to the other side, Natalya allowed her to take the passenger seat, trusting her that far. Dmitry once again shook his head, climbing up and over the other three to get into the main gun on top. Starting the engine, Natalya backed up in an impressively straight line directly onto a dirt path about 20 metres from where they started. And with placing it in drive, Annie, Eric, Justin, and Christie began what was likely to be the strangest road trip of their life.

--

The drive over the border itself was uneventful. They had encountered one other patrol, but their makeshift disguise with the Shalumite flag and the rifles was enough to gain them entrance. Once they were over the border, though, 20 kilometres away from where they started, Dmitry ripped the flag off and threw it into the dirt. The change from Shalum to Acrea was as stark as day and night. They went from woods to a clear field, open and rolling ground, from a bumpy ride to a relatively smoother one.

Throughout the whole ride, the Shalumite passengers stayed silent for obvious reasons, intent on either staring at the cool metal floor that they were sitting upon, or gazing out at the passing countryside. None of them had ever ventured outside of the Empire, much less into the country known as Acrea, and the notion of entering it under these particular circumstances could have been considered worrisome. No one had told them what their future held, or where they were even going for that matter.

In the passenger seat, Annie interlaced her fingers and rested her hands in her lap the best she could, wanting to look as nonthreatening as possible. During the ride through the woods, she had gripped the safety handle of the vehicle for dear life, just because of how bumpy it had gotten a couple of times. The child in her stomach had no agreed with the rough ride, to say the least, but at least things were levelling out for now. “Where...where are we going, if I am allowed to ask?” She queried quietly, looking over at Natalya. It was almost funny, or she was already beginning to suffer from Stockholm syndrome, because she mused that in a different life, that the woman driving was someone that she could have considered a friend. Considered being the key word.

“Temporary detention,” Dmitry answered from his place on the gun. “Until what we are doing here is complete. Then you will be released back.”

He didn’t elaborate past that, tapping Natalya on the shoulder. When she stopped and cut the engine, the sounds of rapid thumping became evident in the air. Pulling something from his vest, Dmitry pressed a button on it and tossed it into the open grass. He then leaned back and waited, while a light from the sky illuminated them and the buggy.


The Ka-60 descended rather leisurely, it’s wheels touching down smoothly. The cargo doors slid open, and four men leaped out, weapons raised. By the red star on its side and cyrillic markings, it was obvious the aircraft was Acrean, as were the men. Dmitry climbed out of his gun, and Natalya pressed the headlights to illuminate the field. He greeted one of the men with a handshake, and the two began speaking as Dmitry led him back to the buggy.

Upon coming into sight, the man with Dmitry- his face without a mask or helmet, nodded at Natalya.

“Y vsegda znal, chto ty odin s serdtsem (I always knew you’d be the one with a heart).”


Natalya only rolled her eyes, stepping out of the buggy. Two of the other men from the helicopter, their faces covered by balaclavas, opened up the rear compartment and were less gentle with their captives than Natalya was.

“Davaite!” they shouted, grabbing Eric roughly and pulling him out with the others. With no threat of them really being able to run and alert anyone, they were cut loose of each other, though their hands were still bound.

As the group was unloaded from the vehicle, more than a few sets of eyes were wide in a mix of uncertainty and downright fear, the only person looking even somewhat confident being Annie, and that was only because of how she had been treated by Natalya so far. Eric grunted as he was hauled out in a less than gentle manner, and his eyes were narrowed even after his hands were set free. Christie looked relieved, and a bit annoyed with her husband, while Justin looked somewhat neutral. Reaching up, he gently pulled Annie into a hug, feeling nervousness settle in his stomach. They were anything but out of the woods yet.

“So...welcome to Acrea?” Annie muttered as she looked around, eyes darting between Natalya and the rest of the men around them. She wondered where they were going to be taken, if it was to be temporary detention.

Taking off her helmet, Natalya clasped hands with Dmitry, who climbed into the buggy after handing her back her rifle alongside his new companion from the helicopter.

“Udachi (Good luck),” she said, and he nodded, placing another hand over hers.

“Tebe tozhe,” he replied, before starting the engine and slowly driving out of the group and away. Natalya watched him drive away before turning around to see the other three guards standing around Eric, Christie, and Justin. She frowned at them.

“Davaite! Chego ty zhdesh'! (Hurry up! What are you waiting for!)” she yelled, and they started, quickly motioning Eric, Christie, and Justin into the back compartment of the helicopter, with Natalya gently guiding Annie in. The doors shut, and the helicopter lifted off.

Justin gulped as he eyed his captors. They did not look like kind fellows, if anything, he could have expected them to open up the doors and shove him out if they didn’t like him. Thankfully, he knew that it would not happen. If they hadn’t killed them by now, then it probably was not going to happen anyways. “Spasibo” he said gratefully as he looked over at Natalya, a small smile on his lips for a moment. He gently wrapped his arms around his wife’s shoulders and pulled her into his chest.

“So...temporary detention?” Annie asked curiously, head tilted slightly to the side in a manner that could have been considered cute. “Is that, like, a gulag?” She asked.

“We don’t have gulags.” Anymore. Natalya shook her head. She pulled the band out of her hair, letting it down where it framed her face, and leaned back against the seat. “You will be staying in Spetsgruppa camp.”

“Oh, alright.” Annie replied, not really sure what to make of that information, though it did not sound ideal. “Should we expect anything?” She asked as she reached up and ran a hand through her own hair without really thinking about it.

“Net.” Natalya shook her head. “Rasslab'tes (Relax).”

--

Dnepr Military Forward Base

The helicopter landed on its designated helipad in Dnepr, the cargo doors opening and unloading its passengers.

In terms of relative scale, Dnepr MFB was one of the largest forward bases on the Shalumite border, the motorpool occupied by what seemed like an endless sea of T-103 and T-102 tanks and other armoured vehicles. Helicopters were taking off and landing on a semi-routine basis, and personnel were everywhere. If there were ever a place for the four Shalumites to stand out, it was here. Their three-man (and one woman) escort kept them in a close pack, away from the eyes of other personnel, and directly into one of the larger buildings. It was labeled, and there was clearly a sign outside, but as it was all written in cyrillic and Acrean there was no way that any of them could read it. They were met inside immediately by two larger men, the bigger at least 6’6”, who towered over Natalya’s lithe form.

“Eto im?” he questioned Natalya. She nodded.

“Chetyre (Four). Oni vzorvali nashe prikrytiye (They would have blown our cover),” she replied.

“Viktor dolzhen byl ubit' ikh (Viktor should have killed them),” the larger man said. Natalya shrugged. He sighed and turned to the man with him.

“Voz'mite ikh v kayut komnate (Take them to the mess),” he told him, before turning back to Natalya. “Some so mnoy (Come with me).”

Natalya nodded, turning to Annie and the others. “Listen to him,” she told them, motioning to the man who would be escorting them, before leaving with the largest man.

When they arrived at the base, Eric gazed out at the scene before him and bit his inner cheek, not exactly to see this amount of military buildup so close to his homeland, though he knew it was to be expected. Shalum maintained similar bases along the border as well, though he wasn’t sure which were were comparable in size to the one that he found himself on now. “Nice place y’all got yourselves here.” He commented as he gazed around.

Annie nodded and gave Natalya a small smile. “Okay. Thank you for...everything, really.” She said quietly. “Take care.” She then turned to the largest of the men and nodded, waiting for him to lead them onwards. She knew that everyone else would follow, after all, what choice did they have otherwise?

The four were lead to what was essentially a cafeteria- except smaller, and with wire in the windows. There was a large counter with a coffee machine, all the necessary items for it, as well as a refrigerator and a microwave. Various electronics were scattered around, presumably personal items, including a few laptops plugged in. Two flatscreen televisions were mounted on the walls, both tuned in to two separate news channels, and a large flag hung on the far wall.

Natalya came back not five minutes after they had been sat down. A cup of water had been provided specifically for Annie. Natalya looked vastly different from where she was in the woods. Now devoid of any armour or real equipment, the last of her combat equipment still worn was her handgun strapped to her thigh. Otherwise, she had stripped down to only a cropped version of the regular VSAF tank top that was commonly seen, and the cropping of it was evidently not a design thought as it appeared that the lower half had simply been cut away with a combat knife. Her hair, previously mostly hidden, was now shining bright and blonde under the light and let down and her features were now fully visible. She looked tired, more than anything, and it showed in the way that she pulled out a chair to a table, in front of a laptop, and sat down, letting out a deep sight.

As the group took in their surroundings, they were surprised by how comfortable it was, at least compared to some of the military standards that they had seen in the past. Normally, things were generic and utilitarian in nature. As they made their way to the table, more than a few mouths water at the simple sight of coffee. They had been roused in the wee hours of the morning, and none of them had gotten any decent sleep, so caffeine seemed like a damn good idea to them all at the moment. Of course, they weren’t able to break away and get it themselves, but they could dream at least. That was the duty of prisoners, was it not?

Annie at least had the benefit of a cup of water, which she quietly nursed as she sat there, eyeing the rest of the group. Eric looked disgruntled, as he silently brooded in his chair, certainly wishing that he was anything but there. The self-proclaimed patriot was probably thinking about a number of very impossible ways that he could do harm to his captors, but that was about the extent of it. He was really harmless, though he had plenty of talk to put out and was stubborn. Christie looked shaken about the whole matter, as she scooted over next to him, apparently finding comfort in his presence.

Glancing over at her husband, Annie smiled proudly. He looked the most calm of the three, though his eyes still had that nervous tinge to them that probably wouldn’t leave until they were free -- assuming that ever actually happened. He looked tired, with mussed hair and eyelids that seemed to droop every so often, though he did his best to stay alert anyways. Her gaze was torn away from him when Natalya stepped in, and the group’s collective gaze followed her own. “Watch your eyes, Just,” she muttered as she took in the sight of the female commando. Looking back over at him, he looked like a child that had been caught trying to snatch a cookie from the jar, given his sheepish expression. She knew her husband all too well, and his preference of light haired women, and she self-consciously smoothed her reddish hair.

“Are you alright, Natalya?” Annie asked as she looked over at the woman who had saved their lives, noting how tired she looked.

“Ustalyy (Tired),” she said rather quietly. The door opened, and another uniformed man popped his head in. He looked at their guests and then at Natalya.

“Kapitan khochet-”

“Skazhite kapitanu, chto eti zaderzhanie yavlyayutsya sobstvennosti spetsgruppa i MVD,” Natalya said, her voice louder and authoritative. The younger soldier looked rather taken aback at her quick and sudden change in attitude. “Yesli u nego yest' problemy s etim, on mozhet priyti syuda i skazat' mne eto v litso.”

”Tell the captain that these detainees are the property of the Spetsgruppa and the MVD. If he has a problem with that, he can come here and say it to my face.”

The young soldier stammered out an apology and left quickly, leaving the guards in the room chuckling. Natalya sat back and offered a smile towards their guests. “I apologise for that.”

Annie quirked an eyebrow at the short exchange between the two, not sure whether she should have been amused by that, and secretly regretting that she hadn’t paid as much attention as she should have during the government provided classes. The only thing that she was sure of was that she was glad to have Natalya on their side, and what had just happened was apparently one more reason to add to the list. God, she really was going to have Stockholm syndrome by the end of this, wasn’t she? “Don’t worry about that. What exactly happened,” she asked curiously.

“Nothing. Administration issues,” Natalya answered as she opened the laptop, presumably her’s. There was a nametag on the top cover of the black device, but as it was written in cyrillic none of the Shalumites would have been able to know whether it was actually her name. “Do you need anything?”

“Ah,” Annie replied with a small inclination of the head. “Those are never fun. Back in the army, I got to do some of that administration stuff, I never really liked it.” She explained to make conversation. She watched the younger woman crack open the laptop, and as she glanced over her shoulder, she caught her husband eyeing her too. The look that surely flashed in her green eyes was enough to get him to glance down. Pregnancy and a pretty, younger woman certainly drew out the more protective side of her. “No, I don’t need anything. Thank you for asking though.” She smiled.

Justin coughed lightly. “Would it be alright if I, uh, raided the coffee machine over there?” He asked, nodding over towards the device in question.

Natalya looked over at the two other Spetsgruppa at the far end of the room playing cards, both large men with their AKs at their sides. They shrugged, and Natalya nodded, looking at Justin. “Sure.”

“Thank you.” Justin replied, rising up from his seat after a moment, not trying to look too eager. That was easier said than done, given his craving for caffeine at the moment. Trotting over to it, he was pleased to find that it already had some of the warm stuff prepared. He would have hated to ask how to work the machine, due to the language that was written on it. He found a styrofoam cup and poured some for himself, before casting a glance at the tired looking, rather attractive commando. “Do you want any, ma’am?” He asked out of courtesy.

“That would be appreciated,” Natalya answered, her accent twisting the words. She was typing something on the laptop, then scrolling, a smirk or a smile popping up every now and then,

Justin was quick about pouring Natalya a cup of the black stuff, though he didn’t wait to hear if the boys in the back playing cards may have wanted any. He was trying to be nice, not play the role of server. He walked over to the table and set the cup down near her, within her arms reach, purposely not getting any closer, out of respect for privacy. If she wanted to have her fun, who was he to snoop. “Thank you, ma’am.” He said as he slid into the seat next to his wife.

Natalya nodded in thanks, but didn’t touch the coffee immediately. The silence in the room was only broken by the news on the flatscreens, the occasional click from Natalya’s laptop, and the cursing of the two soldiers playing cards. Eventually they left, leaving only one guard and Natalya alone with the four Shalumites.

For the most part, the Shalumites were silent as they sat there, occasionally sipping their drinks or glancing around the room, with nothing better to actually do. Being a prisoner was actually rather boring, as it turned out, a far cry from whatever they had planned to do at this hour of the day. Surely, no one was looking for them back home, but the Internal State Security troopers that had been killed were another story. Their lack of presence had certainly been noticed by now, and maybe the dogs had been brought out to hunt for them. Annie tried not to think too hard about whatever was going on, as she sipped on her water and leaned against her husband, wishing the time would go faster.

Natalya, evidently, was bored as well, as she suddenly closed the laptop a bit and made to stand up.

Annie glanced at Natalya and nibbled her lip. She was probably asking for too much here, but it was worth a shot. “Hey, uh Naty, would you mind if I like, used your computer? I promise I won’t do anything you guys wouldn’t want me to, I just wanna see what’s going on in my homeland. I think Dresden is playing Aragon today…” She trailed off, looking up at the Acrean woman with warmth in her green eyes.

Natalya was actually a bit stunned, but her immediate instincts and lowered guard betrayed her. After thinking it over for a minute, she nodded, picking up the laptop and placing it in front of Annie on her way out the door. Before leaving, she tapped the guard on the shoulder and, in her own language, told him to watch the screen and make sure she wasn’t doing anything malicious. And with the guard’s nod of approval, Natalya left the room.

The redheaded Shalumite girl was genuinely surprised when they handed over the laptop to her. “Thank you, Nattie,” she said with a smile. Secretly, she was pleased that she had won at least some sort of trust from the woman. It was something that she intended to nurture, not to use and try and take advantage with. it was better to be loved than feared. She glanced up at the guard, and shrugged, before swiveling in her seat to look at the screen. She paused for a brief moment, as he baby wasn’t quite happy about that sudden movement, but before long, the discomfort had subsided.

When she opened up the screen, she blinked in surprise at the number of pictures that were displayed. Apparently, Natalya had a thriving social life, if the social media account that was open meant anything. For a few moments, she studied the pictures. “Stop looking so closely, you’re breathing on my neck and it's annoying.” Annie grumbled, as she swatted at her husband, who had taken an interest in the photos as well. Justin just shrugged and leaned back.

When she went to open a new tab and search for sports scores in Shalum, she was greeted by a rather large flaw in her plan. Everything was in Acrean. Everything. And she happened to not speak the language needed to navigate the computer. Her lips pressed into a tight as she tried to recall anything from her past courses, to no avail. As she turned to face the guard, her eyes widened in horror.

Behind the guard, who apparently hadn’t paid enough attention, Eric was standing, holding a rather solid looking coffee mug. In an instant, it had been brought down on top of the Acrean man’s head. While it had not knocked him out, the subsequent punches and elbows surely did. In an instant, the man was on the ground, and his weapons had been taken away by an angry looking Eric. Annie’s screams of shock and horror filled the air.

“Shut the fuck up and move. Now.” Eric said in a deadly serious tone as he set the AK off to the side. He didn’t have it in him to actually shove the girl out of the way, but he looked impatient the whole time as she got up as quickly as she could. “You guys are fucking cowards, you know that? Here we’ve got a chance to call for help, alert the damn Empire that we’ve been taken...and you guys go to look at soccer scores? Ridiculous.” He shook his head as he fell down into the seat. “Oh fuck…” He said, eyes going wide in horror as he found himself stuck wit the same problem as Annie.

“You. Just. Signed. Our. Death. Warrants.” Justin hissed in a very deliberate way, all hope draining from him, along with any color in his face.

Justin’s statement was punctuated by a loud crash that was the door flying open, and the screaming. Eric was quickly grabbed from where sat, thrown against the wall with the butt of a rifle slammed directly into his gut. Justin was shoved facedown onto the table, the barrel of an AK to the back of his head. A third soldier kept Annie and Christie where they sat merely by training his rifle in their general direction. The situation was incredibly tense, and the only sound now was the heavy breathing of everyone.

Behind the three soldiers, Natalya and another Spetsgruppa operative walked in, handguns drawn. Natalya surveyed the scene before her, noting the man on the ground who was being checked on, and the broken mug, and namely Eric against the wall. The expression on her face was no longer friendly, or kind, or anything even resembling that. For the aura that she gave off, she might as well be Dmitry standing there.

“What. Happened,” she hissed.

If the Acreans would have paid attention, they would have noticed that Justin had been trying to surrender...before he had been taken down harshly, anyways. He offered no resistance, and groaned in genuine pain when he was taken to the tabletop. “Please don’t shoot, I am not resisting.” He pleaded, barely able to speak, much less breath as they held him down. His ribs burned in protest, and he had the feeling the room would get fuzzy really soon if they kept him like this.

Annie looked panicked as she stayed where she was, hands up where they could be seen. Christie held the same posture, though pure fear was apparent on her features. Her husband, the man that she loved, the father of her children...was a dead man walking. He had the chance at wife, but he had practically committed suicide at that very instant.

“E-E-Eric jumped the guard,” she stuttered nervously, green eyes darting between Nattie and Eric, who was against the wall, the resistance apparently gone now. For a brief moment, nothing could be heard except breathing...at least until a pop song that had been buffering in the background tab of the laptop finally finished loading, and chose to kick in.

Natalya nodded slowly, placing her handgun back in its holster. She reached into her pocket, pulling out a piece of gum still in the wrapper. She put the gum in her mouth and chewed quietly as she thought for a moment. She walked slowly over to where one of the soldiers had Eric backed up against the wall, humming along to the song. She stood in front of Eric, shorter than him still, but with a pensive expression.

Eric refused to show weakness, his eyes alert as he spared an awkward glance at the bitch that thought she was doing some sort of good by sparing their lives earlier. To him, it had been apparent that, regardless of what happened, that they would end up either dead, or tortured and wishing they were dead. It was to be expected with these Acrean types. His father had been correct during his childhood when he said that they were all monsters, or something of the like. He might not have put up a physical fight, but if they were going to kill him, he didn’t want to die looking like a calf led to slaughter. In the time that they had been there, the pop song had ended, and changed to one that everyone in the room knew.

“We Were At War” rang throughout the room, setting the tone almost comedically. Natalya cocked her head for a moment at Eric, before driving her fist directly into his side, above where his liver would roughly be located. For such a small girl, she had a lot of force in her hits. More than most men.

Try as his might, Eric could not help but grunt in pain as the shot connected, pain shooting out in all direction. The girl could swing, he had to give her that, and she knew just where to put it too. More resolve than he would have liked crumbled there, and the cry of discomfort that escaped his lips was one that he regretted. He still tried to look tough, though the way his lips pressed together might has said other.

Nearby, the rest of the group cringed, wondering what would come next...and if they would receive anything themselves.

Natalya allowed the guard to release Eric from being physically held up, before hitting him again directly in the same spot, combining it this time with a second strong hit to the other side.

The initial shot had left Eric’s legs shaking, though his pants had helped conceal that to a degree. When the guard let go, he had the bad feeling that his limbs would give out completely, but there wasn’t time for that, as he was assaulted twice more from both sides. Before he knew it, he was on the ground, groaning in pain as he looked up at the ceiling...and his very cold captors. So this is how I die…

Natalya looked down at Eric, nudging him with her boot. She looked at the two men beside her.

“Vzyat' yego v kletku,” she ordered. They picked up Eric by his shoulders, and dragged the groaning man out of the room, the double door shutting loudly behind them. Natalya rubbed her knuckles, turning around. She didn’t spare the others so much as a look before she picked up her laptop, placing it where it originated. She pulled out a chair, sitting down, placing her feet on table and leaning back in the chair looking at them with an expression that could be defined as devoid of any care at all. Justin had since been released, the heavily armed guard posting up next to the door behind him.

Justin was slow to rise when he finally did, his ribs burning in protest of the punishment they had just endured. The Acreans, being the rough sort, were also a lot stronger than they looked. Reaching up, he gently rubbed circles through the fabric of his shirt onto his rib cage, finding only minute amounts of relif there. He didn’t dare move more than he had to, he had just watched one friend be taken off to slaughter, he had no intentions of joining him.

Annie looked rather guilty as she stood off to the side, not quite able to meet Nattie’s eyes. By no means did she support Eric’s choice of rebellion, but the Acrean woman didn’t know that necessarily, nor did it look like she cared anyways. Some part of her felt bad really. If she hadn’t asked to use the laptop, than this wouldn’t have happened.

Natalya took a sip from her cold coffee, staring at them, as the last words of the song rang out from the still-running laptop.

No vidno smert' ne dlja menja
I snova kon' moj voronoj
Menja vynosit iz ognja

But it looks like death it's not for me
and my black horse
carries me away from the fire again

[Acrea]

Kravola
Eastern Shalum

Major Aron's landing could have gone better. Her parachute getting stuck in a tree, she used her knife in her boot to first cut her survival pack free and then herself. Falling five feet to the ground, she hit the dirt with an 'oomph'. Shaking herself, she quickly got her orientation. It was dark. Too fucking dark, and she had nothing that she would prefer to help her navigate her way through the forest. Only her flashlight, and the red IR lamp on her survival vest. She quickly drew her map from her vest, and turned on the red lamp.

Fortunately she still remembered her rough location when the aircraft went down, and mentally marked it on the map.

"Der'mo (Shit)," she cursed. She was a lot, lot further away than she would have liked to be. She reached behind her, and blinked her GPS beacon on. She waited ten seconds, and then turned it off. She had no doubt that they were already watching for her beacon, as well as the aircraft's. The aircraft's would be gone by now, burned out if the glow of a fire in the distance was any indication. No avionics would survive a fire raging like that. Which was the goal. She intended to continually blink it on and off until she reached the border, in order to inform command of her ongoing progress in evading and retreating.

She shakily got to her feet after turning off the lamp and folding her map back up. She carefully stepped over to her survival pack, reaching down and opening it. She withdrew a PP-19, the stock folded. She chambered a round and unfolded the stock, zipping the pack back up and slinging it over her shoulder. It was going to be a long walk home.

--

After leaving Natalya and Dmitri with their captives, Viktor kept running the issue through his mind. They moved systematically and quietly through the woods, avoiding enemy patrols that they came across and hiding when necessary.

He knew that if they stayed there, with all these troops, they would eventually be found. Natalya and Dmitry were sitting ducks. A firefight would not bode well for them, and he also had to admit to himself that killing a pregnant woman did not bode well for him. But he couldn't kill the others and leave one alive. That would defeat the purpose of killing the others in the first place. He sighed, signalling his team to stop, clicking on his radio.

"Vikov 1 ne Vikov 3, vzyat' dzhip i dvigat'sya zaderzhannykh na granitse. Voz'mite ikh v Dnepr. Kamov nakhoditsya v rezhime ozhidaniya, chtoby poluchit'. Ostavit' Vikov 6 s zaderzhannymi, Vikov 3, chtoby vernut'sya obratno v oblast' raboty s zameny."

"Vikov 1 to Vikov 3, take the jeep and move the detainees over the border. Take them to Dnepr. Kamov is on standby to receive. Leave Vikov 6 with the detainees, Vikov 3 is to return back to the area of operation with a replacement."

"Ponyal."

Viktor nodded at the acknowledgement of his order, and flipped open his tracker. A bright blue dot caught his eye before disappearing, and he smirked. He noted the location, and their location. They were still far away from her, but if they moved quickly they might have been able to reach her before the Shalumites did. They had the fortunate advantage of knowing the Major's general location. Nodding in confidence and putting his GPS monitor back into its pouch, he raised his hand and signalled his team forward.

[Shalum]

Near Zoppot, Kravola
Eastern Shalum

The night air was crisp and clear, with not a cloud in the sky, as the full moon overhead illuminated the forest of Shalum’s most eastern province below. It was silent for the most part out in the forests of the province, as diurnal animals slumbered and their nocturnal counterparts carried out their regular activities of hunting for food and calling out into the night. If one were to stay out here long enough, it would become apparent why it was a popular place for tourists to visit. Here, things were untouched for the most part, and nature was allowed to run its course, making it a nice place for the nature oriented type.

In some areas of the expansive woodlands, however, there was a lot more noise to be heard, as Internal Security and Imperial Guard troopers rucked their way through the woods. They were accompanied by the more powerful forms of IFVs and MRAPs, who announced their presence long before they were ever seen, thanks to the loud diesel engines that propelled them. Even though they were in friendly lands, their weapons systems were manned by vigilant gunners, that rotated their guns from side-to-side now and then, as they sought out nonexistent targets among the trees.

Along one particular access road, a group of twenty-eight soldiers and five vehicles had ground to a halt. All around, the troopers had begun to spread out, as they broke into small groups and established something of a perimeter. Unlike their comrades in other units, these men actually looked to be on alert, as they braced their weapons against their shoulders, or at least kept the safeties of their rifles in the off position as they went. The reason for this? Two of their own had been missing gone missing about a half-hour ago, possibly even more than that, and had not even radioed in. Something did not feel right with any of them, really.

“It's been too long, we need to send people out to look for them.” A sergeant declared as he leaned against an armored vehicle, one hand rested on the receiver of his rifle, which he kept firmly gripped with one hand. All around him, soldiers under his command nodded in agreement. “Maybe we need to even call in some dog handler teams.”


The captain of the unit sighed quietly, a dour look on his face. He hated to think that his men were in any sort of danger, or even worse, injured or even deceased. Glancing down at his watch, his look only deepened. It had been too long. “You’re right. Call up other units and see if they’ve heard anything, or if they can spare us some assistance.” He said to the sergeant, before looking over at a lance corporal. “And you, call up the local authorities, and see if they can send out a couple of dogs. Cadaver or IED preferably. We’ll start the search once y’all do that.” He finally decided.

Contacting all the necessary local law enforcement and security groups took ten minutes, give or take. No one had heard from the missing men, which was unsettling, and only increased the want among their comrades to begin hunting. Thankfully, the local highway patrol had several dog handlers at their disposal, and they were capable of offering a few for the sake of the search. It would take them a good twenty minutes to arrive, a time that they would be wasted by not searching.

As it turned out, finding the missing men would not be an especially difficult task, due to the fact that they had gotten far from their unit. Unfortunately, both men were found dead where they laid, their blood soaking their ground and their weapons apparently looted. The young private that found them looked rather ashen as he holled for others to come to him.

Neither of the two men had especially notable records. The older of the two at thirty-one, Isaac Abrams, had served in Internal Security for several years now, ever since had completed his four years of mandatory service in the armed forces. The young of the two, Lucas Klock, was still ‘wet behind the ears’ according to his squadmates, due to his relatively young age of twenty-three. He had never been keen on fighting in war, but he had always wanted to be a police officer, so Internal Security had seemed like a good fit to him when he had signed up a year earlier. He was survived by his fiancee, and two young children.

As the captain gazed down at the two dead men whom he had gotten to know, and a feeling of dread spread through him. Never before had men died under his command, much less because of gunshot wounds to the head. This was no accident, obviously, which could only mean that there were people out in their neck of the woods with no good intentions, that were apparently willing to kill in order to further whatever goals they may have harbored.

“Call this in, now. We’ve got a problem out here.” The captain growled as he looked over at one of the men under his command, doing his best to not look over as the placed the two dead soldiers n body bags. “We need to find whoever the hell did this.” He declared with narrowed and a deadly tinge to his tone.

With more radio communications, it would be done as well, at least when it came to launching a manhunt. Two dead soldiers were not a good thing by any means, and it was not a crime that could be allowed to happen unpunished, if at all possible. Because of that, the local military and paramilitary units were willing to spare the troops to help search, admittedly, for a person or group of persons that they knew nothing about.

The upside was that they had resources, and many of them, ranging from boots on the ground en force to eyes in the sky thanks to helicopters and even a couple of drones. While not all of the resources could simply be spared, of course, they were much more liberal with distribution now. Soldiers began to arrive by soft shelled truck, and were ordered to spread out and comb the forests, often times supported by those equipped with night-vision equipment or search dogs. In the sky, helicopters could be heard flying over, their pilots equipped with FLIR systems, and carrying a few troops that could perform air assault operations if need by. The later were regular troops from the army, meaning that they were well equipped, and even had some combat experience among them.

Among them all, there was a will to hunt, and to find who had killed their brothers in arms. Shalum was known for its siege mentality, meaning that when it came down to it, the people would stick together to weather out the storm. They had all grown up in a time of being bullied, and they knew they had to stand together.

The killers would be found, or they would die trying...or that was what their commanders liked to think, anyways.

[Acrea]

Kravola
Eastern Shalum

The floor of the forest was a blue under Lila's feet. She had always been a fast runner, but none of that really mattered until now. That is, until she saw flashlights in between the trees and the brush. She immediately hit the ground, rolling into the roots of a tree and bringing her weapon to bear. A part of her had had a dash of hope that it would be the team looking for her, but then her mind immediately got rid of that, reminding her that they wouldn't be using flashlights. She counted six lights. At least half a squad, if not more without their lights on.

She slowly inched herself back into the brush, pulling broken leaves and branches over her. She dared not move until they passed, her heart beating so loud she could swear that they could hear it. Then she heard a helicopter fly overhead.

Shit.

Helicopters meant lights. Meant that they were searching. And above all, it meant that they had night sights and thermal sights.

And even worse for her, she knew that their command would not risk an entire special forces team.

So now Lila had to survive, evade, and escape on the assumption that she was alone.

---

//: Dnepr Komanda Maykl, komanda Maykl, voydite.
//: Dnepr komandovat' eto Maykl, otpravlyat' trafik na.
//: Nastoyashchim vy prikazali otstupit' cherez granitsu. Spasatel'nyye operatsii vremenno prekratili iz-za slishkom vysokogo riska komprometatsii, za.
//: Tverdyye kopii, komanda. Maykl budet sootvetstvovat'. Iz.

Viktor handed the radio back to their operator and silently cursed. They were ordered to pull back. And for what? Because there was too high of a risk of being found? In his rational mind he could understand why they were being called back. There was no point in risking an entire special forces team for a single pilot that was, for all intents and purposes, replaceable. Still. He could not help but be irritated.

Nonetheless, he signaled his team to start heading back the way they had come.

[Shalum]

Kravola
Eastern Shalum

While it may have been the dead of night, the woods were very much alive at this hour, though it was not filled with the sounds of nature. No, the boisterous noises that could be heard seemingly everywhere originated from the soldiers that were romping through the area with impunity, scouring every nook and cranny that they could, while both armored vehicles on the ground and helicopters in the sky provided additional support.

For a wild goose chase, this was probably a lot more resources than were needed, but it was not often that Shalumites reacted to the deaths of their people in a pleasant manner. It probably had to do with the infamous Shalumite siege mentality. Years of being surrounded on all sides by hostile nations, essentially meant that they had grown accustom to looking after their own kind, and that they reacted without mercy when they were under threat. Any less could lead to death, or such was the popular thought anyways.

For Private Poleski, the whole situation felt surreal as he moved through the forest, his faithful canine at his heels. He had been asleep when the call for him and his dog to report at the headquarters at once, and when he had finally arrived only to learn that two border patrol agents were dead because of unidentified gunmen, he had only become more perplexed and disturbed. Apparently his dog, a well trained, four year old Gallagher shepherd, had picked up on his feelings, because it had began to pant and pace nervously before they ever made it out of the briefing room.

For the last ten minutes or so, Poleski had been busy trying to keep up with his dog, as it sniffed at some sort of trail. He had a hard time believing that it was even picking up a scent at all, with how fast its four legs carried it down a path. Before long, sweat was beading on his forehead and running down the back of his neck.

He did not normally go out into the field with more than a pistol and a light jacket, but his boss had insisted that he bring along something heavier. In this case, he had been assigned an older G1 assault rifle from the eighties, which weighed almost five kilograms when loaded, not to mention plenty of ammunition to go along with it. Along with this, he found himself with a lot of equipment he normally didn’t dare to touch, such as heavier bullet resistant vest and non-lethal takedown equipment.

Suddenly, his dog ground to a halt, and began to growl as it looked further down the path, eyes narrowed dangerously as it leaned back, prepared to charge ahead. The young private whipped around to face whatever it was, bringing the flashlight attached to his rifle to bear. It was then that his eyes went wide in surprise.

While the darkness may have made it harder to see, it was not a difficult task to make out the form of someone low to the ground, appearing to be hiding in the underbrush. The squad romping by probably didn’t notice her, but the K-9 handler surely did, and his flashlight definitely gave him away now, if the growling beast beside him did not.

With shaking hands up, he braced his rifle against his shoulder,, not aiming directly at whoever was hiding, but close. “Hey you,” he called out. “I see you, yeah! Come out with your hands up now!” He ordered. God...had his voice just cracked? It really sounded to him like it just had. Hopefully this figure would take the easy way out and just surrender.

He really would have hated to unleash Schultz on it. He had seen dog takedowns before, they were rarely pretty.

[Acrea]

Kravola
Eastern Shalum

Lila's first instincts were usually the ones she acted on. Not nearly the best policy, and it had gotten her in trouble on more than one occasion. And in that moment, as soon as she heard footsteps cracking branches and dry leaves, she had her weapon trained in the general direction. And when the flashlight hit her, though it mostly blinded her, she let loose a long burst at around knee level, raking her weapon back and forth, before rolling back through the bush she had been hiding next to and getting to her feet, breaking into an immediate sprint.

All she could think now was that she was completely fucked. There was no way in hell that nobody else didn't hear a long burst of 7.62x25mm rounds going off.

[Shalum]

Kravola
Eastern Shalum

Incredible pain. That was the first thing that registered in private Poleski’s mind. It had all happened so quickly, that he hadn’t had proper time to react before things spiraled out of control. One moment, he had the apparent troublemaker in his sights, and the next, she was opening up on him with her weapon.

In response, his body jerked erratically, as round after round tore into him, and blood sprayed out from his body. His body armor had protected him from a shot to the heart, but the rest of his form was not so lucky. Bullets tore through his arms and legs, or were absorbed by his steel plates. As he collapsed to the ground, a strangled cry escaped his lips, his eyes wide with a mix of fear and pain.

And that was when all hell broke loose.

The Gallagher shepherd that Poleski had been handling, that was identified as ‘Schultz’ by the name of his vest, let out a piercing growl of anger, mixed with anguish for his wounded companion. Its animalistic began to kick in then. The pack leader had been attacked, and it was his job, above all else, to protect him and do everything that it took to take down their opponent.

Without a hint of fear in his dark eyes, he took off after the woman, fully prepared to take her down. She may have been fast, but he had a spare set of legs, not to mention the fact that he was in his element. Navigating the forests was something he had been doing for years. She would not beat him in his own territory.

If Lila, for some reason, was able to outrun the dog hot on her heels, it was not like she had gone undetected now. By firing her weapon, she had given away her position to everyone in the local area, and already radio reports were being sent out of shots fired. Already, soldiers were were converging upon her current position. There were shouts and orders everywhere, flashlights in all directions, and the stomp of boots accompanied by the rumble of vehicles.

“I’ve got eyes on target!” One boisterous sergeant yelled out as he led a squad after her, falling short behind Schultz the shepherd.

Any chance of escaping that Lila may have harbored evaporated at this second.

[Acrea]

Kravola
Eastern Shalum

Lila heard the bark of the dog, and she spun around and trained her weapon towards the ground in front of her, raking it with rounds from her weapon before sprinting off again. She knew she was shit out of options now, but she'd had no real expectation of making it out without getting found. The only thing left for her to do was to make it as difficult for them as possible.

She figured that she'd probably hit the dog somehow, mostly due to the fact that it hadn't taken her down by now. Pausing once more, she turned and fired her weapon behind her, the rounds slicing through the trees and the brush towards her pursuers before taking back off.

Nothing registered with her right now, for she had the sort-of benefit of not having a family left. Few friends, her life was devoted to her job and what was symbolised by the flag that used to occupy the space on her upper uniform sleeve, removed prior to her flight as a precaution in the event she were to go down. It was amusing, almost. She had never actually expected to go down- ever. But yet here she was, racing through the wilderness with her heart practically beating through her chest, her lungs working on overdrive to pump oxygen to her muscles which had not yet started to burn.

[Shalum]

Kravola
Eastern Shalum

Poleski let out a growl of frustration as he stormed through across the forest floor, with only the moon above and the flashlights attached to his rifle and helmet to illuminate his rugged path. This girl was faster than he could ever dream of being, especially when he was weighed down by the unfamiliar combat gear that he rarely wore while on duty. He was already turning into a sweaty bastard, as he panted and grunted, forcing himself to keep moving. Each step was quickly becoming a challenge, as he forced his legs up and down as he ran.

God, he -really- needed to work on his cardio.

As the sounds of gunfire ripped through the woods, and trees began to explode around him, Poleski ducked down into a crouch. Even moments after he knew it was safe to rise again, he found himself gripped with fear as he gaze forward, but not because he was worried of being shot. Mere feet away, he saw his dog lying on the ground, whimpering in pain. The animal was lucky enough to be wearing canine armor, that protected its torso, but the legs and paws were another matter. While she had not managed to shoot it in the head, a few rounds had found home, punching through its legs. As the animal let out a pitiful whimper, Poleski crawled forward so that he could kneel next to the wounded beast.

Since he was not a veterinarian, there wasn’t much that he knew he could do for Schultz, but he refused to abandon the dog in any case. It was practically family to him, and he would not leave it behind. Looking off into the distance for a moment, he had the strong feeling that the bitch that had shot his dog wouldn’t be on the run much longer. Between the choppers overhead, and the legions of soldiers combing the woods, it would have taken a veteran special operations unit to properly extract her now.

Further down the path, the Shalumites had finally caught up with the pilot. Discharging her weapon had given her away, and had only shortened the time that she could run. So as she sprinted down a fact, a group of six soldiers appeared before her, not hidden in the least because of their bright flashlights. They brought their weapons to bear, and trained them on her.

“Freeze! Now!” One of them bellowed at her.

“You are ordered to surrender! Failure to comply -will- be met with force!” The commander of the squad growled. He was not brandishing an assault rifle, but a taser which he trained on her chest. He wanted to take her alive, not have another body to clean up.

Behind Lila, four more soldiers emerged from the underbrush, effectively cutting her off from any chance of escape. They too readied their weapons, though they hoped to take her alive. She was a lot more valuable that way.

[Acrea]

Kravola
Eastern Shalum

As soon as she saw the flashlights, Lila knew the game was up. Still far from tired, she had enough common sense and reasoning to know that running for it would not be a feasible move now, if the red lasers trained on her chest from what she presumed was a taser were indicative of anything. And she really, really, really did not feel like getting tased again. Multiple times during training had been enough. So much for all that SERE training now.

She let her weapon drop on its sling, bouncing against her chest as she rolled her eyes and held her hands up. Removing the markings on her uniform didn't seem like they would do much good now, as the PP-19 alone was a dead giveaway.

"Sorry about your dog," she called out behind her. She didn't know if she had shot the handler, but if she hadn't and he was still up and about she knew he'd be pretty pissed. She would be if someone shot her dog, if she were to have one.

[Shalum]

Kravola
Eastern Shalum

Very slowly, the sergeant pointing the taser at the pilot, removed his finger from the trigger of the taser, though he didn’t cease in pointing it at her, allowing the red dot sight to stay trained on her chest as his finger lingered on the trigger guard. It was apparent that this girl was at least smart enough to know when she was caught, given the way that she had dropped her weapon and now had her hands up in a surrendering fashion, but he still didn’t put any sort faith in her. She was responsible for the deaths of at least two Shalumite servicemen, and as far as he was concerned, the dog she had shot at was just as much a member of the Imperial Armed Forces as anyone else serving under the flag of the Empire.

Looking past the surrendering woman, the Sergeant nodded at private standing behind her, whose name patch identified him as Furman. Slowly, the younger man stepped forward. “Place your hands behind your back slowly.” He said, waiting for her to comply. Once she had done so, he snapped the handcuffs onto her wrists tightly, so that she couldn’t resist any longer if she wanted to. Any tighter, and he knew that it would have been painful for her. “At this time, I am placing you under arrest for the murders of two Shalumite servicemen, and the assault on several more. As an illegal combatant, the rights normally afforded to prisoners of war have been temporary suspended until further notice.” He told her in a stern tone as he gripped onto her arm, so that he could lead them away.

“You fucking bitch,” Poleski growled as he stepped into the small clearing, which was illuminated by the many flashlights. In his arms, he clutched his wounded canine companion, now lacking the vest that he had been wearing earlier. The animal’s front legs were wrapped in medical gauze that had turned from the color white to red. “You-you-you shot him!” He angry continued as he stared her down, his brown eyes dark and unyielding. Had he not been carrying his wounded friend, he had the strong feeling that he would have taken a couple swings at her. And judging by the way the other soldiers watched the scene, it was unlikely that they would have stopped him, at least right away. They all knew about the bonds handlers and dogs formed.

“Come on, let's get her out of here, she’ll have her time in court to pay if she’s lucky. Lord knows what else is lurking out here, she may not be alone.” The sergeant with the taser ordered, slipping the non-lethal device into a holster. His strong arm wrapped around her other arm, so that she was held firmly between two soldiers, while the rest formed up around them so that they could escort her out. When they finally got to a nearby road, they found a number of other soldiers and law enforcement officers standing around, along with a number of idling security and armored vehicles.

The next hour or so was very much a blur for the soldiers involved, and the prisoner as well, as they were all ushered into a Puma Wheeled APC with Internal Security Markings. Once the prisoner had been properly strapped in, the vehicle began to move towards the nearby city of Karlsruhe. It was unlikely that they would stay there long term, given that it didn’t have the proper holding facilities for a high value prisoner such as she, but it would pass for the time being, given how many security forces there were in the area.

When they arrived at the local police station, that was practically a State Security FOB by this point, they were quick to rush the prisoner inside, before any of the curious locals got too close. The process they went through next was pretty normal all things considered, as they took her fingerprints and a photo of her for a file. “You have a name girl?” The picture taker asked when they had finished with her mugshots.

When that was done, they walked her into a holding cell, with a security camera placed in the top corner to observe her. They uncuffed her here, but there were two guards posted outside at all times, to make sure that she didn’t pull anything. Of course, they had patted her down earlier, and the police officer that found himself assigned with the task was rather thorough about it. The only upside, if she wanted to consider it one, was that he didn’t make her change into an orange jumpsuit, as much as he would have loved to watch her do so. Honestly, he wasn’t the kind of man that would try and take advantage of her, but they had been told to mess with her about it, given the reputation Shalumite soldiers had earned for themselves seventy-or-so years earlier.

In her holding cell, she was offered a bit of food by a guard at one point. On the metal tray were a few pieces of ham, mash potatoes, green beans, corn, and a cup of vanilla pudding. She was also offered water, or a cup of soda. She may have been a prisoner, that was being held responsible for the deaths of at least two officers, but they still afforded her the right to food and drink. Granted, more than a few officers would have been happy to let her go without anything, but the order had come from the STG Agent-in-charge herself, someone no one wanted to mess with.

Another hour passed before Agent-in-charge Dara Jaworski stepped into the holding cell that Lila was in. They had made her wait so long in order to ice her and observe. They expected her to be trained in resisting interrogation, and gave her some time to think about her situation she found herself in.

The female agent was cleaner dressed than when she had been out in the field. She now wore a short-sleeve brown shirt, white pants that hugged her hips well, and a pair of cowboy boots. On belt was a pistol and ID badge. It was apparent here that she was an attractive woman, between her lightly tanned skin, brown hair flowing freely, and her well maintained body. She sat across from Lila and eyed her curiously. The woman was obviously Acrean, if the weapon she had surrendered was any indication.

“Good morning,” Dara greeted the pilot as she sat down, crossing one leg over the other. She smiled kindly, or that was the intent, as she sat her Ipad on the metal table between them. “I’m agent-in-charge Jaworski, from the STG, and I’ll be handling your case.” She introduced herself. “If I may ask, how are you doing? Are you alright? Hungry, thirsty, would you like anything like a cigarette?” She offered with a tilted head. Honestly, she didn’t care about any of it, but it was procedure to ask those questions first. She was -much- more interested in what role this pilot had played over the last few hours.

Off to the side of the cell, her much larger male partner watched the two with crossed arms. He was the intimidating one for very good reason, he simply didn’t look like the kind of person you would have wanted to mess with. If it came down to it, he would play the ‘bad cop’ of the two, but for now he would stay silent and stony.

[Acrea]

Kravola
Eastern Shalum

Lila remained silent, paying more attention to her fingernails than the female agent in front of her. She seemed careless, as though nothing mattered to her. She leaned back into the chair, crossing her arms and finally looking at Dara. She said nothing, shaking her head no in response to the questions and smiling at the agent. Lila's demeanor was very nonchalant, as though she had been in that exact situation many times before. She wasn't going to lie to herself and say that she wasn't concerned. She was, of course, very concerned for her well being in that situation. But she would not let that show. Only keep up the facade that she was successfully putting forward. Her ankles crossed, she leaned forward and rested her head on her hands, elbows on the table.