Joint Strike Force Headquarters
12.6 miles from Tarra, Itailia
The sky boomed with thunder, the chests of the grey water soaked clouds surging as the skies cannons rang off warnings to the wordly inhabitants below that the warriors of the skies were ready to let loose their munitions on the world below. In the darkening horizion, Fort Augustus Caesar's large and ornate walls loomed in the distance from the dirt road that led to the Fort. The Joint Strike Force flag flew over the battlements as well as the Itailian flag, both flapping in the moderate winds that were beginning to pick up. A large creaking is heard and one can hear the playing of drums coming form inside the courtyard, a sad and desolate tune being played as the gates of the great fortress opened up, revealing a casket with the Strykla flag drapped over it with four casket bearers, all of them Strykla nationals except the man at the front left. The man stuck out among the rest of the procession, is age worn features were the most visible difference amongst the crowd of relatively young soldiers. The tan dress uniform of the Itailian Army was heavily decorated with ribbons and one purple medal had four pins on the cloth part of the medal while a large one with a blue and white cloth was around his neck. For the soldiers, he was their leader, friend and mentor. For an outsider, he was General John Lynch, former Commander in Chief of the Itailian Armed Forces, Commander of Joint Strike Force and a legend to the people of the Empire and the few close allies who still might recognize him. Inside the casket was former JSF-1 member and long time comrade, Jeff Shepard who was killed when he returned to his home and died in a SpecOps operation overseas. While he had not been on a JSF mission at the time, the Strykla government consented to letting the JSF burying him. The procession moved out of the large gates and onto the dirt road, down the long windy path headed for the graveyard two miles down the road.