147 The Cavalry has Arrived! (1/2)
Skies over Uncharted Forest
”Alright! Everyone listen up!” First Lieutenant Joesph spoke over the intercom linking to both Valkyries' passenger holds. ”We will be dropped into the Uncharted Forest in support of the distress call from the Hundred and First. Our objective is to find and support their mission which is to escort a large group of freed slaves back to Hell's Gate.”
”Intel has it that they are doing a fighting withdrawal with Empire forces and also the Hero and his party,” Joesph announced, which the Marines started mumbling among themselves when they heard the Hero was involved.
”I know most of you had heard of the Hero's exploits, but this time the Hero is with the Empire side,” Joesph added, ”Our mission is to prevent the freed people from being captured or killed by the enemy, simple as that. There is no point thinking of why the Hero is helping the Empire or who is attacking. Just know one simple thing, that is to ensure the safety of the civilians!”
”Sir, yes sir!” The Marines cried out.
”Good!” Joseph grinned at the hotblooded Marines, ”We will be dropping in at the nearest emergency rendezvous point and work our way towards their last known location. Following that, Eagle Company, Platoon 2, 3 and 4 will be dropping in at intervals with extra supplies depending on the local situation.”
”Alright, ETA is 49 minutes to the LZ (landing zone), grab some shut-eye while you can, its gonna be a long walk home!”
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Uncharted Forest, 467 km from Sawtooth Mouth Pass
”Come on!” Young whispered to the faltering slave, reaching out and helping haul the weaken slave into a hollow in the tree. ”Stay quiet,” He passed out his last bottle of water and carefully climbed his way over the tree root.
”Boss,” Young lowered himself down onto the ground, ”We are running out of food and water, the survivors are all spent both physically and mentally.” The food and water scavenged from the dead empire soldiers were mostly spent and the original supplies and wagons were mostly abandoned when they were attacked suddenly, while others were lost along the frantic escape.
Tyrier looked up from Doth's cold body and gently covered his face with a dirty cloth and sighed, ”I know, we managed to keep ahead of the Hero so far, I think with our wards up, we should be able to hide from him for a while.”
”We should be roughly two to three hours away from the rendezvous point,” Altied said, as he kept the compass stone back into his pocket. Regular compass does not work properly in the Uncharted forest, requiring instead the use of a 'compass stone', a magic rune imprinted with a host location and it will point to the correct direction when magic is used on it.
”Young, gather some people that still have energy, see if you can find some water source to refill our water,” Tyrier ordered, ”Loke, take a few men with you too, go see if you can forage some food up.”
Loke nodded, looking depressed as they couldn't even find any traces of Hitsu at the aftermath of the battlefield. He turned silently and Young followed behind, patting his shoulder as both of them went to gather volunteers.
Tyrier gave out a long breath and continued his task of wrapping Doth's body up securely. During his training, they were taught never to leave a man behind, and he wasn't going to left Doth's body behind. Finally finishing, what remained was a shrouded body wrapped in cloth and secured tightly with vines collected from the forest.
He looked up to see the two bound captives staring wide-eyed at him. The younger girl mage was glaring at him, if glaring could kill, those eyes will be stabbing him to death. She gave a muffled mmm! from her gagged mouth and struggled against the bounds that prevented her hands and legs from moving. Even her fingers were tied up to prevent her from drawing runes or magic seals.
The other female archer or huntress was similarily bounded and gagged. But she just sat there calmly and watching everything that was happening calmly and to Tyrier, he felt that she was just waiting for the Hero to come anytime. Her belief in the Hero was very strong, that she felt it was just a matter of time only.
Tyrier and Tavel had drawn a magic seal around the two girls, in case there was some magical tracking that the Hero can use to track them. So far, fighting the Hero has cost them two members of Claymore One. Doth had suffered serious internal injuries, that even healing spells, potions nor even the super magical technology of the hooman's could even save him, while Hitsu was MIA (missing in action) fighting the girl mage, but looking at the end results of the devastated battlefield, there was a very high chance Hitsu was dead, blown to pieces.
Capturing two of the Hero's party members in exchange for two deaths in the team, Tyrier clenched his fists angrily, wishing that he rather have two of his men back then having such an exchange. Now he plans to use the two girls as a hostage against the Hero. hoping to use them to force the Hero off their backs.
He gave a last pat on improvised bodybag and left, unwilling to spend another minute more in front of the people who cause the deaths of his men.
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Uncharted Forest, Rendevous Point Red
The tilt rotors of Valkyrie One whined loudly as the craft hovered slightly off the riverbed, the rotor wash sending sprays of ice cold water into the air as the tail ramp splashed open. ”Go kick butt, dumb Ma-nees!”
”It's kick ass!” The Marines hollered back at the goblin who rolled his eyes dramatically behind his aviator glasses. ”Move move move!”
The men of 2nd Battalion, Eagle Company, Platoon 1, leaped down the ramp and fanned out, forming a security cordon as the goblin rolled the crates of supplies off the bird. A mightly splashed and a digital camo coated four-legged creature landed. It looked like a crab with only four legs and two stubby arms ending with a four finger claws and a tiny round head mounted at the area while a crab will have its 'head'.