- Newly established Forwards Operating Base, codename: [Hornet Nest]. 8 kilometres away from the Ersten near a village, Kingdom of Apollyon –

- two days later -

- 0200hrs, local time -

“Damn… I can’t believe we could build this FOB in under two days and holy crap those beds do be looking high class” one of the mercenaries remarked as he looked around in awe at the barracks his newly assigned team were put into. The barracks itself weren’t like how regular Army or special forces would be as it could be categorized as luxurious. The bunk beds weren’t made of steel frames but reinforced wood instead, it even got proper beds with its soft yet fluffy-looking blankets and pillow that were neatly arranged on top of it.

He’s currently carrying his backpack on his shoulders and a duffle bag on his left arm, on the other hand, he’s also carrying his new and pimped-up service rifle that was given by the armoury guy at the Yukikaze a day ago. From his experience handling the weapon, it could be said that he liked how it handles. Though, the man beside him grumbled, “You know we’re thousands of lightyears away from Earth right? How are you so carefree about this?”

“It’s not that I’m neglecting that fact. I’m just excited about how WE’RE LITERALLY ON ANOTHER PLANET THAT HAS A FREAKING INTELLIGENT LIFE! Can’t you see how interesting the concept of meeting another lifeform that’s not from Earth is?”

“For f*ck sake! no need to shout about that. But anyway…” he looked around, noticing that there was one more person already there, fiddling with the MFD to his desire on one of the beds. all of them got as those were mandatory gadgets to be used in deployment, especially the experimental Phalanx Exoskeleton that was first used by Lt. Col Wolfenford himself, though, they didn’t bring it with them as it’s still classified for most people. The man didn’t want to make eye contact with the other man that’s minding his own business, but the two accidentally did it anyway.

“uhh… yo”

“’sup mate”

The two had some awkward silence after their greetings, “so uhh… Australian?” the word he could only mutter is asking his nationality, which is quite rude in all honesty, but he needs to keep the conversation going. “Nah, I’m half Irish-half Brit, and bloody hell this place is quite fancy isn’t it for a barrack in another world”.

“Eyy! Someone got the same idea as me!” the cheerful guy jumped into their conversation. “Bet we got some fancy breakfast later on, goddamn I really want to eat bacon and eggs again rather than stupid ass corned beef rations”.

“Oi, the corned beef on the ship isn’t that rubbish-” he stopped his word as he saw the Commanding Officer of the FOB walk in with someone with him. “Sir!” he shouted, right after he quickly stood up from his bed, throwing the MFD to the pillow so as to not break it, saluting the CO too in the process. The two that were still standing turned 180 degrees and saluted in sync right after they put down their luggage.

“At ease” the CO said, after he replied to their salute with one, “Gentlemen, as you know, this is just a temporary forward operating base, though, we do have in plan to make a proper base at some point.” He stopped for a moment, looking at the three, “But that’s not the case for now, Lt. Col Wolfenford will be your squad lead and you’re assigned to element [Alpha]. Further questions are to be asked to him, I’ll take my leave”. As the CO left, the three has a look that says, “Ah sh*t, it’s him… in the flesh”, Which Jaeger took notice of.

“Looks like we’re already not in a good terms, are we? Even though I never assigned with each of one of you at all.” His remark smack them in the face as they thought they didn’t express their thoughts about him.

Jaeger is well known to be a great strategist and soldier in most of his career record, even though he’s a high-ranking officer, he rather go down to the field and fight his way to become the victor. Though, one thing is for sure there’s always be casualties under his command, whether it’s a massive troop or a 4-man team and people in the mercenary world rather not team up with him as superstition rumours clouded him as the grim reaper himself, for both the enemies and his comrades. “How about we introduce each other first? Maybe we could get on good terms, should I start?”

“No need, we know who you are, sir,” the grumbling guy said, a small frown grew on his face. The other two nodded in agreement, no one didn’t know the flight lead of the infamous [Sky Reaper] squadron that wreak havoc and nearly got wiped during the Battle of Kiel Bay back around 2039. “Though, we still question how did you become a pilot? Aren’t you’re a SOCCOM graduate?”

“Good question” he then leaned himself to the nearby shoe locker, crossing his arms. “You know I was part of the [Project Omega] super soldier experiment right? That “super soldier” part flipped the switch inside my father’s head and the next thing I knew that I’m training in a combat flight simulator and also gravity accelerator training. Which I surprisingly passed and could withstand around 28 Gs for 30 seconds. And, because of my training, the G accel training machine back at Grunner Defence HQ broke and can’t be used anymore”.

“Holy sh*t! 28 Gs!? That’s inhuman!”

“I know, which is why the planes I use don’t have any limiter at all, I could pull more than 18 Gs at supersonic speeds with ease. Having an adaptive body sure is handy.” He then looked at the man that asked him, the grumbling man earlier. “So, now that’s done, how about you introduce yourself? We’re going for re-briefing in 3 hours you know?”

“Oh, ya must be serious?! What’s the mission initiation time?” the Irish guy groaned since he just took a rest from helping to build the FOB and lifting cargo here and there. “Around 0500hrs, no worries, when we arrive at the AO, we won’t instantly start the investigation as we’ll do it in shifts” Jaeger added, reassuring the man.

“Oh bloody thank you! I can get some sleep then.”

“Indeed mate, though… you already fancied that bed innit? Can say the quality is an absolute wonder” Jaeger changed his accent, which quite surprise the three. “Ya can use brit accent?”

“Quite, I went to a lot of places, I do indeed need to learn each of every nation’s distinguishable accent and language. Though I can’t do Russian and Korean, bloody language is just a tad bit annoying to learn for me”.

The man nodded, with a look that says, “I see…”. The atmosphere eased up as Jaeger tried to become less than what he was rumoured as, especially about the cloud of bad rumours about him. “So… the introductions??”

“Oh yea! Kinda forgot about that” the cheerful guy said while chuckling sheepishly. “2nd Lt. Danny “60k” Suarez, Combat engineer and CQB specialist” he continued, saluting in the process. The man himself is the shortest amongst the four, standing around 168cm. though, regardless of his height, he’s well built just like the average military personnel.

“’60k’? what’s the origin of your callsign? Also, aren’t you the ones that shouted ‘free pizza’ during the briefing two days ago?”

“ya bet! We do get free pizza later on though and about my callsign…”

“He bet 60k US dollars and lost to the girl he had crushed on back then in poker” interjected the man beside Danny, who took a hard nudge from Danny’s elbow. “don’t just blabber my dark past!” he cried in embarrassment.

“Damn… 60k? what did you bet on anyway?”

“It was whether I could beat her under 4 minutes or so, I can’t believe I lost to that chick…” Jaeger whistled at his misfortune, “Your savings?”

“Yeah”

“must’ve been rough”.

“you’re quite sympathetic sir” 60k’s statement slightly surprised him in a manner that he never knew someone could say something positive about him frontally aside from his family and someone he once knew. “Am I?”

“I’m sure about it, no wonder that big-tittied princess had eyes on you”. Jaeger’s leg that’s currently suspending him on the shoe locker slightly slipped at his statement, “Did he saw me yesterday?!” is the thought he could think at that moment, while he regains his composure back. And yes, Danny did saw him walking around with Aurora along at the pier, he knew about her title since he’s one of Jeanne’s escorts to the castle, some might think of them as a lover since she was holding Jaeger’s arms closely, but no, they weren’t, it was their disguise to walk around the market freely without her getting swarmed by the residents around as she’s known for her beauty. She was trying to get some materials for her research and asked Jaeger to accompany her, weirdly enough without any knight escorts at all. It was a mere coincidence that Danny saw them when he was helping on getting some cargo down.

“…. Look here ya horny bastard, don’t mention things like that in front of her, she’s still this Kingdom’s royalty, and we’re not like that… yet.”

“He said it boys! he said the “yet” word!” he continued to tease him, “so you’re not denying that you have a thing for her?” Danny’s grin grew wide in a sense to tease his squad leader, who knew the guy that cold-hearted on the battlefield could fall for someone soft and sweet.

“I won’t deny that fact, but I won’t get involved in romance again… I already have my fair share of problems. Anyway, how about you two?” he changed the topic as he was starting to get slightly gloomy. The rest then introduced themselves. The first one is Major Jonathan K. Anderson, Callsign “Coyote”, he’s the one that came with 60k, an ex-Navy SEAL operative specializing in heavy weapons.

While the other one, First Lieutenant James Edington, callsign “Point”, he’s also an ex-special operative from the SAS who specializes in marksmanship and sniping. All of them are quite talkative, which is great for Jeager since he rather has a team like so rather than a team that’s way too focused on the objective and has temper issues. “So Coyote, Point, what’s the origin of your callsign?” Jaeger asked, curiosity got the better of him.

The two of them looked at each other at first, with Jonathan chuckling nervously after they break their glances. Taking the opportunity for payback, 60k explained, “Oh, Coyote got his callsign because he got caught eating the rations back when we’re still in the SEALs at midnight. Man, you should’ve seen his face that’s half asleep yet chowing down like a Coyote. Our CO got mad, and he was told to buy us food after he did a 40-lap run around the base haha!”

Jaeger let out a small laugh as he tried to image the description he gave, whilst 60k’s head got elbow locked and ruffled by Coyote, “damn you… why did you tell them!?”

“That’s my payback mothafoka!”

“You sonova-…!”

As they were busy with each other, Jaeger looked at James, who was also letting out a small laugh at the two’s shenanigans. He then called out about the thing he asked before, to which then James replied, “Ah, me callsign? It was when I was in the academy, my accuracy was astonishingly perfect that the instructor went out and said ‘Your shots are quite on point’ and there you have it.”

“Huh, it surprisingly nothing comical like these two”

“Quite normal innit? Slightly badass if you think”.

The four of them then chatted and joke around, easing up their mind as they know they were going to combat in an unknown territory that they don’t even know of. What lies ahead maybe far more dangerous than they think as the enemies they’re facing have an unknown force of power that has yet to be researched. It’s a good thing that the three were already informed beforehand that the residents of this planet could use magic, they were awed by the example that was given yesterday as one of the representatives from Apollyon just made a blaze of fire out of thin air on his palm while having a glowing red sigil in between the fire and his palm. What yet they don’t know is the existence of [Status panel] also existed which the same representative showed to them, which 60k got even more excited as he’s quite into RPG games even in his mercenary days.

Two and a half hours passed, and as they were casually chatting around, the speakers from the makeshift control tower blared, screaming, “All members of the next operation are to gather at the briefing barracks at section D-5! Repeat, all members of the next op are to gather at the briefing barracks! As for the pilots…” the announcer continued, Jaeger and his team quickly grabbed their stuff that’s needed and headed towards the aforementioned area. Their faces were painted the expression that says, “It’s time huh?” yet kept their composure. On their walk there, 60k noticed something on Jaeger’s back, which he questioned.

“Oh this? It’s the Phalanx Exoskeleton that we’re going to be equipped with. Though… I advise you to prepare your mentality when you’re going to wear this” he shuddered, giving slight anxiety to 60k as he looked at Coyote with a questioning look who just shrugs it off, doesn’t know about anything regarding it and not wanting to know about further details of the procedure when wearing it. The group were guided by someone that’s waiting for them, probably one of the secretary or something. 60k tried to hit on her with some jokes but she shrugged all of it, he could be only disappointed while being

Later on, as they arrived, right after Jaeger opened the door. To their surprise, two people whom he wasn’t expecting were waiting. it was Aurora and Conrad, who were looking around the makeshift briefing room as they were intrigued by everything about it, especially about the projector. Jaeger didn’t want to speak up at first but his mouth subconsciously moved along with his thoughts, “Why are you two here? Aren't you supposed to be back at the castle?”

“Oh, hey, yeah… about that… she got interested in how you would do a briefing and especially about the technology around this encampment” Conrad explained, sighing. Her shenanigans are always a handful, and he still thinks that their father is too lax with her attitude. On the other hand, the aforementioned girl, in her curiosity, tried to flick several buttons on the projector, which Jaeger stopped by grabbing her right hand firmly yet softly as he knew that if he go with his frustration, his pressure would hurt her arm. “don’t. you’re pressing the wrong one”

“oh, really? My, my, thank you for telling me. Ah, are those your subordinates??”

“yes, your highness. They are”

“Oh come on Jaeger… don’t be formal with me, didn’t I tell you that yesterday?”

“fine, fine… so I need to call you by your name huh?”

“yes sir!~”

The three looked in slight awe at their squad leader casually talking to the most beautiful girl that they have ever seen, 60k especially as he only saw her in her hoods on her head yesterday. The way she talks mesmerized them, and everything she does looks graceful even though it’s quirky. Though, unknown to them, Aurora’s succubus power was subconsciously activated. And Conrad took notice of it.

“hey sis, I think you need to control your powers slightly,” he said and pointed at the three that were standing nearby the aluminium door, dazed at her. “Oh my… my apologies”

She then chanted a spell and shone briefly, it didn’t take long for them to regain their thoughts with them questioning what in the world happened to their sudden weird train of thoughts, and they were even more surprised when Aurora suddenly bowed to apologize. In the midst of confusion, Coyote is the only one that could speak up, slightly stuttering “Ah- eh? Your highness?! What are you-“

“I apologize… to think my [skill] subconsciously activated and nearly cause you harm…”

“no no! it’s fine! It’s just a little mishap anyway”

Jaeger cleared his throat, gaining their attention again his face changed into more of a stoic one. He disregards what they were about to say as their time to do the briefing is being cut short as they were only given 10 minutes to do it, or the operation won’t start at all. “right, we’re done with the shenanigans? Good, take your seats everyone, briefing is starting…”