The Old World, UN Forward Base, Fort Anchorage

The dull grey walls of the sea cliff suddenly flickered and a pair of sword shaped bows emerged seemingly from out of nowhere. The objects continued to come out of the cliff wall, growing longer and larger until the entire mass of the ship had exited and the grey cliff wall gave a last flicker.

The tri hull ship continued its way out to the open sea before it swung to the starboard side, leaving trails of white wake behind. Overhead like a flock of sea wyverns, two patrols of fixed winged aircraft escorted the massive carrier.

Unlike when the first time, the UNS Vengeance arrived in the Old World, its decks were no longer cluttered with cargo containers and crates instead of aircraft. Now, with its decks cleared, the flight decks were once again operational and ready for combat. A huge blue white flag was hoisted up as the UNS Vengeance proudly displayed its colours and it sailed towards their objective.

-----

The Old World, The Iron Kingdom, Border between the Protectorate and the Iron Kingdom

As the sun set over the horizon, hundreds of glowing lamps and fires appeared, dotting the mountain range. If one were to view the landscape from the skies, one could easily differentiate the lands of the Protectorate and the Iron Kingdom.

On the side of the Iron Kingdoms, one could see hundreds and hundreds of lamps or firelight centred around towns and cities across the landscape, while on the Protectorate side, there were only a few pinpricks of light to be seen.

Sited over the mountain range were several forts built into the mountains and one of them was larger than all others, serving as the border defences central command headquarters. A door banged as the angry officer stormed off and the Commandant of the border defence shook his head as he heard the curses outside his office.

"Lord General," An aide quickly fawned over the unhappy general. "How can the Protectorate move so many ships and troops without us even finding out?"

"The Third Prince must be plotting something I think," Another aide spoke up. "He must be thinking of moving the fleets away so that he can take over the Capital easily."

"We should not worry," The aides quickly reassured their general. "The Protectorate won't invade us, if they dare to, our forces are more than enough to destroy those fanatics easily!"

"Hmm..." The general stood up and looked out of the window carved out from the side of the mountain. "Double the guards... Just in case."

The door to the office suddenly banged open and the general turned around with anger, wondering if everyone has started to disrespect him. But froze in his actions when the soldier that came in panting and shouted, "T- The Protectorate! Th- They are attacking!"

"What?" The general and his aides were shocked by the news. "The Third Prince was right?"

"Lo- Lord General! All the defence bastions are reporting sightings of a massive Protectorate force!" The messenger reported. "

"All the bastions?" The general was even more shocked as his face paled. Each bastion typically held two squadrons of fast attack airships and had dozens and dozens of heavy steam cannons. There were a total of fourteen Bastions along the border and the three military border towns housed heavier classes of airships in reserve. "How many ships do they have?"

"Each bastion reported at least a fleet or more!" The messenger nervously replied. The general took a moment to recover himself before he pushed his aides aside and rushed towards the command centre just as the base siren wailed.

Along the way, another messenger came rushing over and gave another report. "General! We lost contact with Bastions Four, Seven and Eight! One, Two, Five and Nine are requesting immediate reinforcements!"

The enemy must have at least fourteen fleets or more which meant roughly four hundred hulls! The general thought to himself in fear. It would mean that the Protectorate must have thrown all their forces in this attack! He barely has a hundred three ships and most of them were small destroyers or frigates classes, good for patrols and against raiders but against a stand up fleet battle, they were like throwing eggs against rocks!

And the three reserve fleets each consisting of a mix of light and heavy cruisers and a single battleship had a portion of their ships transferred away to support the battle against the Tri State which meant he barely has another fifty ships in reserve.

"Have the reserve fleet mobilized?" He called out as he entered the command centre. Two rows of magic apprentices who were groomed by the military to operate the few magical artefacts were each seated before a shard of pink white crystal the size of a person's palm. The magic apprentices had their eyes closed with their hands touching the crystal shard that had a magical array draw on the table. A magic crystal sat in a specific slot of the array and powered the communication tool.

Such a magical tool allowed an almost instantaneous transfer of messages between paired crystals. It was very costly to operate for sending messages would burn up thousands of gold worth of magic crystals. Hence only the Iron Kingdom military and some other important families with ancient lineages could afford the cost uses such a system but there was a restriction to its uses as the communication crystal could only transfer messages between paired crystals and once paired, it will not function with any other communication crystals.

The general already saw three of the communication crystals had gone dark, their once vibrant pinkish white glow had disappeared and he knew that they must have been destroyed. One of the apprentices opened his eyes and scribbled something down on a piece of parchment before one of the staff took the parchment and handed it to the general.

The general frowned as he read the message before crumpling it into a ball. "Order all the Bastions' airships that are able to, to fall back here!"

"Tell the reserve fleets to assemble here once they are underway!" The general paused for a moment before he made a hard decision. "And order the troops... to hold... the Bastions as long as possible..."

-----

The Old World, Iron Kingdom, Iron Palace

The ride in the CH - 1 Griffin was surprisingly quiet. Mills constantly force a yawn and blew his nose to clear his ears as the noise suppression spell blocked his ears. He glanced at the Iron Kingdom adjutant who was buckled in and staring around with curiosity.

"Relax," Mills grinned at the adjutant. "We will be reaching soon."

The adjutant gave a nod before he returned to gawking at his surroundings. Mills turned and checked on his men who were all dressed in black uniforms and wearing black armour similar to the locals. "Alright, boys! You know the mission! We go in grab the Prince and get out. No fuss no mess! Clear?"

"Sir, Yes, Sir!" The section of Marines cried out, their voices sounding strangely muffled under the spell.

"Two minutes!" The goblin crew chief cried out, the noise suppression spell making him sound like a squeaky toy. "Mek ready!"

Aeguil turned his head and frowned at the goblin who just spoke. He did not knew of any goblins being domesticated or tame enough to be even able to take servile roles. Suddenly before he could pay any more attention to the goblin, he felt the floor behind him disappear and his stomach seem to fly up to his mouth as everything turned weightless, in his shock, he let out a cry of panic.

Mills grin turned evil and while the Marines controlled their laughter. Only the goblin snickered loudly and hollered excitedly as the helicopter went into a steep dive. "One minute!"

"Gek up!" The goblin cried out as the helicopter came to a sudden hover and slapped the rear hatch controls. With the rear hatch opened, the goblin crew chief leaned out of the rear and looked down. "Aw clear!"

Mills helped Aeguil out of his restraints and patted him on his shoulder and lined him up behind his men who were already at the rear jumping off. "Just as we practised!"

Aeguil nervously followed behind his men, watching them disappear one by one out of the gaping hole of the wondrous flyer. Finally, it was his turn, he paused and peered over the edge, seeing darkness below. The goblin giggled as it called out a challenge, "Girly boy scared? hehe!"

"Come on! It's just a short jump!" Mills encouraged the elf. "We need to hurry!"

"Wait! Give me som-" Aeguil started to have doubts about this but Mills just shook his head and pushed him out.

"Ya bastard!" The goblin peeked over the edge and shook his head. "But I likey! Hehe!"

"Hahaha!" Mills leapt off the hatch and landed with a thud on the hard stone. Once on the ground, he checked around his surroundings, seeing the adjutant had been helped up by one of his men while the rest had fanned out on the balcony. The helicopter powered away and the gale from the rotors disappeared and blended into the darkness of the night sky.

"You good?" Mills checked on the adjutant whose face was white as a sheet. "Come on! We got a Prince to save!"

Aeguil took a deep calming breath as pressed a hand at his chest armour, trying to calm his frantic heartbeat. He cursed silently under his breath at the tall soldier called Mills for pushing him off the flying machine without any warning.

The balcony doors were jimmied open and the Marines stepped through on alert, their night vision goggles down and scanning the room. Aeguil and Mills followed behind once the all clear was given. Aeguil hurried over to the Prince Herod's chambers and woke the sleeping Prince whose reflexes nearly sliced open the throat of his adjutant. "Aeguil? Wh- What are you doing here?"

Prince Herod put away the dagger and rubbed his eyes as his mind cleared. "I nearly killed you! You shouldn't sneak up on me this way!"

"Shhh!" Aeguil hushed his Prince. "Your Highness, please keep your voice down!"

"What is going on?" Prince Herod suddenly noticed several more people in his chamber, speaking in a lower volume. "Whose are these people?"

"They are Captain Blake's soldiers, here to help you," Aeguil replied. "We must go now before they notice something is wrong!"

"How are we escaping?" Prince Herod asked as he quickly grabbed some clothes for travel and dressed.

"This way, your Highness!" Aeguil led the Prince to the balcony where Mills was waiting.

Mills gave a short bow to the Prince and called in the helicopter for extraction while a couple of Marines carried a large chest over and set it against the railing of the balcony. Mills gave an explanation at the looks of the two Iron Kingdomites. "Makes it easier to climb up."

"What are we waiting here for?" Prince Herod asked as he peered over the balcony. "Are we going to climb down?"

"No, something even better," Mills grinned as a dark shape suddenly appeared. A muffled growl could be heard coming from the dark shape that came with a frightening gale of wind. There was a soft clank of metal on stone and a squeak come from the strange dimly lit red interior. "Quickie! Quickie! Ya making ma late for ma game with ma gang!"

"After you, your Highness," Mills gestured to the ramp. Prince Herod nodded and used the chest as a step and climbed into the helo under the urging of the goblin.

In barely five minutes, everyone was back on board and the rear hatch clammed shut. The commotion caused by the downwash of the rotors and the strangely muffled growl of engines finally caught the attention of the guards.

They rush out to the garden and looked around in confusion and even in the dark, they could see the once beautiful and meticulously tended garden in a huge mess. But no matter how they search the surroundings, they found no clue of what had happened.