***

--- Above Romas Highway ---

May 10th, 2025

Colonel Thomas Anderson is in his UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. He is leading a company size unit of airborne infantry with three AH-64 Apache escorting the two CH-47 Chinook and other Blackhawks carrying the rest of the company.

The sun has just risen, which allows them to see the city that is under attack. One of the escorts saw a massive beast that is identified as a 'troll' charging towards the city wall.

"Target destroyed," One of the female Apache pilots said over the radio.

He grabs his radio. "Alright everyone, target all contacts outside the wall and clear the area, once complete, proceed to land, and begin cleanup operations. First and second platoon land outside, third platoon, retake the wall and secure the city."

Everyone acknowledges the orders, and they all begin to fly over the engagement zone.

"Alright boys, there are a bunch of them," One of the Apache pilots said over the radio. All three of them begin forming up around the ground force. "Alright, light them up."

The three Apaches opens fire at the bandits down below that are outside the wall. The helicopters begin firing their anti-personnel Hydra-70 missiles and their 30mm chain gun into the enemy ground forces. The other helicopters are providing support fire as the soldiers inside are firing down on the bandits.

As the missiles hit their targets, explosions begin to appear all over the battlefield as the attack helicopters do their strafing runs.

The Apache, the United States' main attack helicopter, the king of the helicopters. It has been the workhorse and one of the most feared weapons of war. Just one of these could kill hundreds back on Earth. And today, these bandits are learning that same lesson.

His task force begins raining hell down on the enemy with their superior firepower. He looks to his left and sees his Black Hawk providing support fire on the wall, protecting two of the Rangers that seem to be pinned down.

"Angel three, do you see those five bandits," He said over the radio.

"Roger that, we got contacts on the wall going after that AA battery. Take it out." One of the Apaches said.

He then sees one of the Apaches fly over to it. These bandits are trying to load what looks like a spear into what seems to be a ballista.

One of the Apaches flies over to it and then fires on one of its missiles at it, obliterating the ballista and all the men around it.

He sees this bright light out of the corner of his eye. He sees a lightning bolt coming from the ground, most likely one of the mages he has read reports about.

"Be advised, we have a magic-user shooting lighting from the ground," A pilot said.

"I see that," he said. "Take it out."

"Roger that," a female Apache pilot said. "Ma'am making fried chicken tonight boys"

He sees Angel-2 fly over, dodging an Ice Spear magic attack.

The Apache fires a Hellfire missile at the magic-user position, killing him and the surrounding warriors.

Once the threat is gone and seeing the ground forces unable to fight against their helicopters, he starts to see the enemy retreating.

"Alright, begin phase two, begin to clean up."

---

Everyone on the ground is looking on in pure horror. All trying to understand what these 'things' are and watching as they just slaughter the enemy. Most do not know what is happening.

Sharpe and Randy ignore their allies' air support and continue to engage the enemy that is within the walls.

He can hear the Apaches giving them enemy hell on the other side of the wall. He wishes he could witness the fight, but he is needed here.

However, Sharpe notices the bandits inside the city are not retreating. He does not know if they feel forced to continue the attack or if they do not know what is happening to their comrades.

"They're not retreating!?" Randy shouts confused by that sight. It seems like the men inside the city are still committed to the fight.

"Don't think about it, just-" he said before being interrupted by his radio.

"Vanguard-7, this is Angel-2. We are beginning clean-up operations. You have ten seconds to clear the courtyard." The pilot of the Apache attack helicopter said over the radio.

He hears what the pilot said and then looks up to see the situation. The Apache flies over and then hovers above him. He sees the chain gun under it getting ready to fire.

He grabs his radio. "Alicia, Rory, fall back."

He hears nothing. He can see them still fighting. They are too engaged in the fight to see what is happening around them.

"We have to get them out of there!" he tells Randy.

Both rushes into the enemy and forcibly grab Rory and Alicia.

"What are you doing?!" Alicia yells as Randy flips her over his shoulder and then begins running back to the barricade.

Rory looks confused as she gets picked up in Sharpe's arms. She looks up at him, shocked that a mere mortal would rush over to 'save' her. "What are you doing?"

"Air support," he replied.

Once they get back to the barricade. They all stop and look over to the bandits that are on the wall. They reformed their lines and are marching forward, all behind their shields.

That is when they all watch as the Apache above them opens fire. In one strafing run, the chain gun lay's waste to over two hundred bandits. Their shields prove to be worthless; all being shredded into pieces by the chain gun.

As Rory lays in Sharpe's arms, she watches in pure shock as the bandits just tore apart. Watching hundreds of them get slaughtered within seconds, their armor being completely useless. This is the first time she witnesses the true power of these Americans.

"Courtyard clear. Begin perimeter patrol." The Apache pilot said.

---

Princess Pina and her long-time servant friend Hamilton are standing there on the balcony. Since the beginning of the battle, they have been here watching.

They are looking at this strange flying thing just hovering there, witnessing it killing hundreds of men in seconds. Her brain wants to tell her that it is a metal dragon, but it is not.

"It's a monster...!" Hamilton said, terrified. Her body is shaking at the sight of it.

"What is that?" Myui asked in a horrific voice.

She is unable to find any words to express what she is seeing. As the flying monster flies away, she watches as the other of these flying beasts fly all around the city.

She sees another one hovers over the eastern gate. She can see people inside them, either coming out of them once they landed or sliding down on ropes.

Just past the wall, she sees these massive explosions happening in the distance, slaughtering the retreating bandits. The Empire has artillery that fires pots which can explode into flames. She has seen explosions before from their fire pots and flame magic however this is on a far greater scale.

"This is the cavalry Sharpe was talking about?" Hamilton asked, making that connection.

This is the 'American' military she heard of; this is who we attacked the other side of the Gate. This is who killed hundreds of thousands of our soldiers at Alnus Hill. In only a matter of minutes, the bandit force was wiped out by just a couple of these 'Americans'. This is who we went to war with. That soldier from the tavern was completely right.

She realizes Myui made the right choice and most likely she will be spared by these people. She sees the battle coming to an end. Only minutes ago, all hope looked lost, and now it is a massive victory for the Americans.

She can feel her bones shaking, unable to process what she is seeing. "We are finished."

---

Rory Mercury stands there and watches the American reinforcements start to land and attack the bandits.

While American troops start to offload from their helicopters and begin to secure the area. Once the soldiers land, they form a circle to protect the Chinooks and Blackhawks. They open fire at the bandits, picking them off with ease.

She has never seen anything like this before. She has seen large battles before, sometimes in the hundreds of thousands. However, she has never seen a smaller force be able to easily wipe out a larger force like this.

Watching the Airborne soldiers landing wherever they want and attacking where the enemy least expects. This is the first time she has seen the American military fight outside of Vanguard-7 and she is not disappointed.

She watched as all those bandits died from the rain of bullets. Their body armor was completely useless. As if they were standing there naked

She looks back up at Sharpe as he looks around, making sure his people are ok. She smiles at him, enjoying that he ran into danger to get her out of the line of fire. Not many would do that, especially for an apostle.

She knows she would not have died from their attack and she knows he knows that. If she was still there, she would have been full of bullet holes however she would have regenerated within minutes. Maybe longer because of how much damage these 'helicopters' do.

But that is when she realizes that even though he knew she could not die from such an attack, he still wanted to protect her from unnecessary harm. The first man to ever do that in an awfully long time.

That is when she feels his hand in an interesting position. She then looks down and realizes his hand is on her breasts. She can see it is not intentional, just the position she is in when he went to 'save' her from the battle.

She knows it is an accident, however she cannot help it.

She looks up at him and sees the sweat coming from his helmet. The grey eyes and the shine of the sun bouncing off his sunglasses. She cannot believe this man just went out there, into danger to get her. She told him that she cannot die until her one thousand years is up. She cannot believe he would ‘save’ her even though she explained that she could not lie. She could recover through her regeneration abilities.

While she cannot read his mind, she believes they could have escaped when they learned the city was about to be attacked. But their escape would have resulted in the slaughter of this city. He could have ordered them to leave, since it would have been the safest and correct decision, and the thing is that she could not have judged him less if he did.

That is war, but it is not their war. Italica is an Imperial city, not an American city, they have no responsibility to protect these people, but she can see he wanted to. She is the Apostle of love, and she can see in his eyes he loves life and war. The question is, which one does he loves more?

Then Sharpe looks down at her. "Are you ok Rory? You’re not hurt, right?"

She looks at him, enjoying that he asked her that. She then giggles and then smacks him on the head.

--- 35 minutes later ---

Sharpe is outside the wall with his team. The airborne soldiers are policing the bodies for any intelligence and gathering any prisoners or wounded.

There are a lot of dead bodies littered everywhere. He wonders if this was anything like back in the old days of Earth after a battle.

Some airborne soldiers bring over some prisoners and set them down. To his surprise, some of them are women, though the vast majority are still men. While most of them are Humans, he sees some Elves, Orcs, and some other races he has yet to see.

This one female looks like a hybrid of a female Human with bird legs and feathers. He begins to wonder how many different kinds of hybrids there are in this world. It is interesting how many different hybrid species are there.

That is when Alicia walks up to him. "Does your face still hurt?" She asked, chuckling. She is not alone, two others of his Rangers are with her, checking out the prisoners.

"...yes..." he mumbles, slowly.

"Why did she hit you?" Alicia asked, enjoying the subject.

"...I have no idea. But who knew a 75-pound girl could hit so hard?" he said.

"That is what happens when you mess with a demi-goddess, boss," Andrew replied.

"Indeed," he responds. He then looks over to the prisoners. Colonel Anderson asked him to find some prisoners to bring back to base.

"Hey, soldier," he yells. One of the Airborne soldiers rushes up to him.

"I want those four there. Those three there and those two I guess," he orders.

"Sir." The soldier acknowledges the order and then he would gather a few more to take the prisoners he picked to the Chinook helicopter.

He then hears Alicia talking again, with an interesting tone.

"Hmm... Boss, why are they mostly women? Got some evening plans?" Alicia said, implying something more, but also in a joking tone. Still, kind of weird hearing her imply that.

"Excuse me Sergeant?" he responds in his regimental tone.

"Oh, nothing," Alicia said, walking away chuckling. "I know why, but I couldn’t resist."

He looks away. "Rory said she knows the bird one, so I am doing her a favor."

Randy walks with four other soldiers. "Major, the Colonel wants you at the palace. Meeting with the Princess."

"Roger that. Everyone! Continue cleaning up operations. Gather supplies too, we are pretty low." And with that, Sharpe starts walking away back into Italica, being escorted by three airborne soldiers.