Ch3: Forced Landing
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Forced Landing

Oslo, Norway     
10:30 AM

The helicopter ride was a bit boring, but as we got closer to landing, my nerves got more and more shaky. As the city came into view, we could once again see columns of smoke and fire, signals that the battle had already begun. On the ground, we could see the soldiers disembarking at the opera house, and while most of my passengers were nervous about the impending battle, I was much more concerned about when the mechanical failure the angel had warned me about would occur.

One soldier suddenly reported sighting soldiers of the empire in the nearby mountains, just a couple of kilometers away. He also identified an Igla anti-aircraft rocket launcher in the area. Immediately after his report, the helicopter's computer alerted me that it had been targeted by infrared. It was clear that I was the intended target of that weapon.

 

I then immediately yell for hold, launch the flares, and spin the helicopter violently in a desperate attempt to survive. In an event that could only be described as a miracle, I saw the missile pass so dangerously close that I really thought that would be my end. Unfortunately, that was not the only thing the Empire had in store for me. Almost as soon as I regained control of the vehicle, a stream of flashes began coming from the ground in my direction. It was anti-aircraft fire from a C-Ram, an anti-aircraft machine gun. It had noticed my helicopter for some reason and was trying to shoot me down again. Not wanting to give them the opportunity to kill me, I turned violently, but this time a couple of bullets hit the top of the helicopter. Although normally such minor damage would not have been a problem, the helicopter's main rotor began to lose power. Despite the damage inflicted by Stella, I remained in control and made the best of the situation, safely landing the vehicle. Unfortunately, due to the extent of the damage, the helicopter ultimately crashed in the train station behind the Opera house.

The Phoenix team is effectively securing the perimeter around the helicopter, while the Arkadia team is conducting a thorough assessment of any injuries caused by the landing. As for myself, I am currently attempting to repair the rotor with a tool that I am not familiar with. However, after five minutes of attempting to fix it, I will confidently acknowledge that it is impossible to repair and proceed with my plan.

However, you will wonder why I am here fighting for a blue crystal unlike the others here. Well, that's a long story to tell right now especially with all the guns ringing in the background and such, but I have two reasons: The first one is that I already had it once and saw what it was capable of. It is capable of making a wish true, but at a really high price, that's why I can't let anyone know about it or have it. But even so, it's not the real reason why I’m here risking my life like this. The real reason why is my younger sister, Maria. She was quite sick during her early years, then she was fine for a while with no more problems. But a few years ago, the disease returned with more force. And so in exchange for helping the Angels with this, they assured me of her health. Normally they don't give help like this, but they need to go to someone with experience with the Codex, and they owe me a favor from one of my past adventures.

So that the sacrifice my father made to save Maria would not be in vain. My father worked as a police officer, but when she got sick, he tried to do the impossible to save her as well, which ended up killing him. Because in his secondary job as a bodyguard, according to what they told me, he was saving his employer's daughter from the initial invasion of the empire.

Don't get distracted, there, that shadow moved, there is someone!!!

*BANG!*

Another has been killed. He was the third to be killed by a sniper in the last 15 minutes. We have made a lot of progress despite the situation, normally it would take longer to move in the middle of a battle, we are still far from the research center, but it is going well. But as always, no plan survives intact when it meets the enemy.

*BANG!*

A loud explosion shook the earth, it sounded close. Shit, that was where team Arkadia was.

We managed to make our way through the city to investigate what happened. We were all prepared for the worst, after all, if something happened to the Arkadia squad It would be worse for us. I was only a block away, but from here I could see the situation better. The truth is that we would have preferred to have to face something nice, but what we were seeing was not comforting us at all.

"Are you really an elite squad?" said one of my squad mates.

"This is just one more burden" added another.

They were right, this only confirms what we suspected when the commander said newly formed. The outlook was grim, half of the Arcadia squad was in pieces and the other was staring at what had just happened. They were a squad of special forces, the best that we had and the hopes of thousands of soldiers were with them, they had just come out of training without a doubt.

It was a trap, a landmine just right below a dead man, which in turn had a speaker that would play a help sound. An unsuspecting soldier would run to help and moments later they would be two dead soldiers. Normally you learn to confirm if it is not a boobytrap, but newbies are the ones who are more likely to skip procedures on their nerves, and with that, a simple mine managed to kill 4 Arksuits. I am not an expert in what special things these teams have. But I have seen and fought alongside several users before, though, they would have to be useless to allow themselves to die so easily like that. They sure will blame us for their incompetence, now we have to fix this situation and adapt to the now lack of personnel and rescue them.

"Very well, the Rider team will bring an APC to transport the wounded out of here."
"They will pick us up in an hour near the research center"
"Until then we will have to take them with us and tend to the injured"

It was Captain Cedric who saw the situation and quickly decided to re-establish order and help, he clearly knew what to do thanks to the experience he had acquired.

"I'm so sorry for the trouble we've caused." Akane apologized addressing the captain.

Why is she so calm despite losing half of her team with a single mine? This is not at all normal. This is her first mission and people have died because of her bad decisions.

"There is little to go to the laboratory, we need all the people we can get" 
"Remember that" Cedric reminded her.

"Yes, I understand" she answered.

"Focus on getting out alive and everything else will work out" The captain stressed more.

After that Akane went to check on the wounded, but just as she left. One from our team approached Cedric to warn him.

"Sir, got a call from HQ." said the soldier.

"All right, who has the phone?"

He asked before leaving to find who had the long-range communication system. I thought that would be all, but the soldier did not retreat, in fact, he approached me and spoke.

"Cesar right?" the soldier said to me.
"Stella gave us instructions to take you to a shelter so you can hide until your time".
"It seems that soon it will "rain", so much that the I.S.C, will be forced to wait a bit for things to calm down, that is your moment to act."

"You're with them? Ok, received" I answered.

"We will leave an armored truck inside the I.S.C offices for your escape from the complex."
"You must try to reach the convoy to the north to hide between the vehicles"
"For the extraction, you must reach the town of Bergen to the northwest."
"The vehicle has no fuel to get there though so you will have to find another way halfway or you could maybe find more gasoline if you’re lucky."
"We believe that the Empire will take 4 days to get there so you have until then to get there first." he told me.

"Nothing more?" 
"Do you also want me to build a wall and win the war singlehanded??"
"Yes, of course, no pressure at all haha, almost nothing, too easy."

"Excellent, as expected from Special Forces!" He replied back.

"It was sarcasm, idiot" I yelled.
"I know that people like you are used to the fact that everyone is a superhero and that anybody can achieve impossible things."
"But in the real world that does not happen, be prepared for what may happen, it may end up needing even more help"
"We better move on before I get angrier."

After this setback, we managed to resume our way to the Laboratory. As planned, the Phoenix team will make sure they are around protecting it from the Empire's soldiers. I stayed a little further behind, after all, I was still a pilot, not a soldier. Since they knew me as a good shooter, I stayed supporting as a sniper in a good place. The soldier who was with Stella prepared it for me, it was a good place to protect the entrance and exit from where the codex was. It was a building of about 6 floors, not very tall compared to the ones around it but that makes it even better since it would not be the first place to look for a shooter, it also looked particularly resistant, so I think I’ll be able to take at least one or two hits, well, as long as I keep a distance from the windows I think nobody will spot me from here. But the command only allowed the Arkadia team to enter there. They certainly don't want us to know what’s out there.

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