While the pair of Vipers hunt and destroy opposing ground force, four Venoms calmly flew above Makai Royal Palace. They flew very smoothly. It was a sign they knew the layout of Makai Royal Palace like their own backyard.

And finally, Makai Royal Hall was visible in the distance. If you looked at it from above, Makai Royal Hall was flanked by two grass fields. One was on the east and the other one was on the west. The size of each grass field was not big, but it spacious enough for two Venoms to land on it.

Without delay the four Venoms separated and then made an attempt to land, one pair on each grass field. At the same time, M240 Gunner on each door launched suppressing fire to every opposing ground force who entered their line of sight.

Ra-tatar Ra-tatar Ra-tatatatatarrrr!!

Well placed short burst repeatedly rained down palace guard who were guarding the perimeter around Makai Royal Hall. Dozens of them immediately met with their end, but about a hundred managed to escape and most of them took cover in Makai Royal Hall.

However, it was not a problem for M240 Gunners. Their job was only to secure the landing zone and they had completed it.

With ease, all Venoms landed without facing opposition. The assault squads immediately jumped out of cabin. Their first objective was to reach the hallway on the edge of grass field, and then closing in to Makai Royal Hall from four directions simultaneously.

On the west grass field, Captain Mullen and his squad easily completed their first objective. Then, a radio call suddenly came in.

[Command to all spears, be advised, primary target has a means to escape.]

“…”

[I say again, primary target has a means to escape. You have to hurry.]

Wasting no time, Captain Mullen ordered his squad to form defensive position while he making a call. “God Father to Command, received and understood. Can you tell us about his mean to escape?”

[Negative, we sniff it from eavesdropping ops and have no visual.]

“Copy, we will try our best to prevent his escape, God Father over and out.”

After taking a deep breath, Captain Mullen then turned his gaze towards assault team on the other side of west grass field. As he expected, they also halt their advance and formed a defensive position.

The reason for the stop was simple. Even if both assault squads would use two different hallways to approach Makai Royal Hall, they would walk it side by side. Therefore, if the opposing force tried to circle one of them, the other assault squad could help them to break it.

Wasting no time, Captain Mullen pressed PTT button. “Alpha to Bravo, are you set?”

[Bravo to Alpha, we are set and full house.]

“Let’s snatch our prize then.”

[Receive and understood.]

Captain Mullen then turned his gaze towards his squad. “Let’s move out.”

“”“Aye Sir.”””

The whole squad replied in casual but determined tone. Then, they swiftly walked the hallway. Their formation was three men in the right, three men in the left, and the last three as rear guard.

Slowly but surely the door to Makai Royal Hall became bigger. Then, at a distance of ten meters suddenly it burst out open, followed by a flood of Palace Guard. They ran towards Captain Mullen and his squad at full speed while pointing their swords forward. It was a very intimidating charge, but the assault squad didn’t flinch in the slightest.

‘Too early, you should wait until we arrive just before the door,’ Captain Mullen calmly muttered.

At the same time, both pointmen shifted the safety lever on their primary weapon into full auto. Then, they opened fire on incoming Palace Guard without waiting for Captain Mullen to order them.

From behind Eotech 553 on top of his Scorpion Evo, pointman on the left took aim and launched a well-controlled short burst. Palace Guard in the leading position in an instant tumbled to the ground, but the rest kept charging forward.

The rain of 9 mm round was clearly not enough to stop the Palace Guard. Not to mention, a hundred of Palace Guard who previously retreated to Makai Royal Hall now concentrated their effort only on Captain Mullen’s squad.

Fortunately, the pointman on the right carried MG416 with double-drum magazine as his primary weapon. He also didn’t bother to take aim from behind do-it-all rifle scope on top his MG416. He just aligned his line of fire to the incoming palace guard, and then pressed the trigger.

Ta-tar! Ra-ta-tar! Ra-ta-tar!!

BRRRRRRRRTTTT! BRRRRRRRRTTTT!!!

Ra-ta-tar! Ra-ta-tar! Ra-ta-tar!!

The combination of 5.56 mm and 9 mm round hit the incoming Palace Guard like a heavy rain, and it halt their advance. Not to mention the four strikers immediately stepped forward, stood by next to their pointman and joined the fun. At the same time, assault team on the other side of grass field sending assistance by hit the Palace Guard’s formation on the flank.

In less than two minutes, the pincer fire from both assault squads wiped out the Palace Guard to the last men. Both squads then continued their movement. Before long, they entered main audience room on Makai Royal Hall from two different doors simultaneously, and found out that assault squads from east grass field had been waiting for them.

The two assault squads form east grass field had just raided the small meeting room, and from their gloomily expression it was easy to tell that they failed to capture the primary target.

Wasting no time, Captain Mullen came over to Lieutenant Costa and asked, “LT, do we fail?”

“Yes Sir,” Lieutenant Costa replied as his expression became darker. “The room is already empty when we arrive. Sergeant Serrano and Private Barnett are still trying to figure out their escape route.”

“I see.” After taking a glance at the door to the small meeting room, Captain Mullen pressed PTT button. “God Father to Command, do you copy?”

[Command to God Father, we read you, go ahead.]

“Command, we have Son Tay.”

[…]

“I say again, we have Son Tay, and requesting permission for quick pursuit.”

After a moment of silence, a reply finally came in.

[Negative. God Father, you have hundreds inbound hostiles, and Vipers are low in ammo. Retreat now, this is direct order.]

“Received and understood, God Father over and out.” After taking a deep breath Captain Mullen said, “Quick retreat. Now.”

“Aye Sir,” Lieutenant Costa firmly replied, even though bitterness gripped his heart tightly.

Before long, all assault squads had boarded their Venom. Then, all Venoms took off and climbed to maximum altitude as they flew to east in single file formation. Meanwhile, the pair of Vipers tried to neutralize the remaining opposing air defense.

Even if they had annihilated ballista and fire spear on top of palace wall, Makai Guard was still had some spares unit and they had deployed it on every open field on the west bank of Makai Royal City.

And because there was a possibility Jack Sparrow had to conduct another air assault in near future, the pair of Vipers took initiative to lessen the potential threat when opportunity presents itself.

From the leading Venom, Captain Mullen observed how the pair of Vipers conducted their hunt. In paper, it would be easy hunt. In open field infantry would became easy prey for machine gun, while inside a building with windows rocket and hellfire would annihilate them. In short, without manpads or heavy machine gun, fighting an attack hello was suicide.

However, battlefield was unpredictable and full of nasty surprise in nature. And as if it was to proof its nasty nature, without prior warning a fire spear suddenly came out from one of windows on a third floor of a mansion.

The fire spears flew directly to the leading Viper that was on a dive to take out a ballista. It missed the first Viper, but hit the second Viper on the tail rotor. Without its tail rotor, the second Viper immediately spun uncontrollably while losing altitude. At the same time, emergency call came in.

[Mayday, mayday, mayday! This is Red Duck to all callsign. We are being hit!!]

“…”

[I say again, Red Duck is being hit. I’m losing control and altitude.]

A moment later, Red Duck crashed on rooftop of two story building. Debris and tile flew all over the place, while Viper’s body deeply stuck on the rooftop. With ease Captain Mullen concluded that the force at the impact was at least 9G. In common English, its mean the weight of Viper and its passenger became nine times heavier.

Fortunately, the pilot managed to land the Viper on its landing skids, and prevent it from flipping over and slammed the Viper in full force. Therefore, the shock-absorption mechanism on the Viper’s cockpit could work at maximum. Otherwise, the aftershock would kill both pilot and co-pilot or at least destroyed their spine.

At the same time, another emergency call came in.

[Command to all callsign, we have Viper down.]

“…”

[I say again, we have Viper down, proceed to emergency rescue. Remember, leave no one behind, dead or alive.]

‘What a nasty day!’ After heaving a deep sigh Captain Mullen immediately pressed PTT button, “God Father to all spears, you know the drill, let’s get it done.”

*****