With the moonlight shining down on the soldiers, the late February night on this typical weekend didn't feel as lonely to them as ever. The Youden forces were on the lookout surrounding the Port-O-Bea airport, as a few of them watched the last Ariocaster of the night fly back towards the capital after the latest shipment. Despite their numbers of around a thousand, the local force could expect around fifty thousand of the Reserve Guard to make their way to the city by midweek.
One of the soldiers outside the airfield looked towards the city's gate, seeing a few of the usual militia patrols watching for anything to come towards them. If only they knew what would come to them, the solider couldn't help to chuckle as he heard a whistle behind him. Turning around, he saw one of his commanders waving for him to enter the airport, to which he followed suit. Greeted by the sight of the unused terminal, one could see piles of military equipment and supplies lying about, as the soldier continued his way to the break room.
Inside, were only five other people, all of them smoking cigarettes. Turns out, from this far away from Youden or any real authority did laws and rules not exactly apply to them.
"You want one, Sal?" one of the soldiers nearest to him asked.
"Yeah," Sal held his hand out, as the other man gave him one.
Pulling out a lighter, Sal put the cigarette in his mouth, before taking a good drag once it was lit. Man, did it relieve all that unnecessary stress.
"So, what game are we doing today?" another soldier asked, as Sal took an open seat. "Slapjack?"
With them all nodding, one of the members took out a pack of cards and started the pile. Within a few minutes, the men were rowdy with joy, as the games got more intense with each new round. Such excitement couldn't be contained, as during the eighth round, Sal was eying the cards with all intent waiting for his chance. Just as one of the men was putting down his card, the man could see the outline of the Jack's face. Without hesitation, Sal slammed his hand down so hard the pile, that a loud crack was heard in the room.
"Damn, it's just a game!" one of the soldiers laughed, as Sal grabbed his cards. "We still got plenty more to go around.
"Yeah, I hope so." Sal laughed, as he was about to go for another cigarette before another crack interrupted the group again.
"Uh, what was that?" another soldier questioned, as they got quiet quickly.
It was for a brief moment, silent as a calm breeze, until the cracks got louder and more rapid. In a bit of shock, the man looked at each other before figuring out what was going on.
"We're under attack!" Sal roared first, as everyone got up in a hurry, splashing cards around the table and floor, and moving towards their taboons and weapons.
.....
The city's soldiers had waited all week for this moment to come. The push for Saputa would begin in a few more moments, and for the hope that everyone would live in a just democracy would be a true reality once again. All they had to do was wait for the signal.
The thousands of soldiers behind the gates could only hope the recon team found their opening, as many of them looked to the top of the gates. Standing above them were most of the Vilgantes of Power, with the exception of Ula who stayed behind. The group of some of the most powerful people on the planet, with the possible exception of Youden, were among them, as Jamal stood in front of everyone, arms crossed and looking towards the airfield on the hill.
"Once we start, there's no going back, we all understand that right?" Leon looked at everyone.
"Yeah, let's do this." Jamal looked ahead, as the first shot rang out. "It's showtime."
With the first shot ringing out, the gates were open for the carnage to come, as thousands of soldiers yelled with passion, as they charged towards the hill. Jamal himself disappeared in a wisp, as he was already the first person to make it across the distance in a few seconds. In front of the large terminal, he could see a few dead bodies of Youden's forces, but there was a vast regrouping of them exiting the building to see the charging forces down below.
Wasting little time, Jamal aimed both hands at the nearest group, and laid destruction with his fireballs, screams echoing in agony and burning pain. Several of the soldiers moved out of the way and started to fire upon Jamal, while it appeared other soldiers would go move to more defensive positions to hold him and the city's group down.
"Wow, this is some carnage I got to say." Jamal turned to see Hops above him, already leaping into the air. "I hope you understood the objectives you set about."
Of course, Jamal nodded without saying, as he returned focus to the runway itself. The paved strip was long, around two thousand meters long, as there were crates and boxes filled with supplies and new weaponry that could be used. Once they took it, obviously, as Jamal began to pace his way toward them.
Just as Jamal was about to get past the fence leading to the airfield, a large figure appeared behind the terminal wall, causing him to crash into it and back into the ground. Looking up while scratching his head, Jamal could see that it was actually one of those brutes, with it strangely having a muzzle of some type over its face. He hadn't seen one of those in a while, just as the brute's weapon of choice, a warhammer, slammed right across his dome. Jamal cried out in agony, as he crashed through the terminal wall, and slid several feet.
That power was definitely not what he expected from such a creature, as the man was slow to get up, the brute slowly moving through the hole he created.
"Ugh, uh, Lada!' the brute spoke in a garbled manner, as the being charged toward Jamal.
Holding his head, Jamal managed to move towards one of the conveyor belts, shut off since the retreat of Youden's forces and managed to leap across just before the brute slammed the hammer again, causing dust to leap into the air.
"Me want mugha!" the brute began to mumble off again, although somewhat more coherent.
Jamal was wasting no time, as the gunshots from outside were getting closer to him, as the man sidestepped the brute and exited through the hole. Firing a quick round of fireballs to slow the thing down, Jamal took a quick peek at the ongoing fight to see more dead people from both sides in front of the terminal entrance. While the good news did appear that the main center was managing to push forward, and a few other assigned divisions were attempting to flank and move around, they couldn't afford any more unnecessary losses. Taking deep breaths, he charged above the fenced perimeter and was officially on the runway.
The good news now with a better view was that there were no Ariocaster from the looks of things, as Jamal could see about ten large unopened containers, and several dozen more crates laying sporadically across the space. This was good, he smiled, as he quickly moved towards the first container. Protected by a lock, Jamal sliced it with his fire blades with ease, as he opened the container to see what he hoped for. There was a large stash of weapons in this one alone, with a massive concentration of modern taboons and rifles for their disposal. Yes, they could work with this, Jamal almost wished to leap for joy, just as a shot rang out, causing him to crouch down.
Turning around, he could see a group of six guys slowly approaching him with taboons or powers in hand, aiming at him.
"If you come quietly, we don't have to kill you." the guy in the middle shouted, "Do not resist!"
"Oh come on guys, is this really necessary?" Jamal got up quickly, as he stared them down. "I've been through enough today."
"Yeah, you're not the one getting invaded on this wonderful evening, huh? Like you really thought this was going to go well?" the middle man said, causing the group to laugh. "Who even are you anyway? I'm surprised you've gotten this far without getting caught."
"Jamal. Jamal Wrint."
"Sure, buddy. I think we can take a joke when we see one." they took a quick chuckle, before aiming their weapons or abilities at the man.
"You guys sure?" Jamal said quickly, before lighting himself on fire. "If this is what you want."
"Oh shit!" one of the other soldiers gasped in shock. "It actually is him!"
"Yeah, so let's do this the easy way or the hard way." Jamal looked behind them, to see many of the city's forces breaking their way into the airport's terminal and beyond. This was going as well as Youden could have likely hoped for. Such fools.
"To be honest, and I don't usually do this, but I think you guys could be useful in saving Saputa. Don't you remember the good times?" Jamal added, buying as much time as possible.
"We surely get better times with Youden. Why should anyone want to go back into the past and live in such poverty?" another one of the soldiers questioned.
"To be fair, at least in the past you could actually do what you really wanted and not live in a state of war every single literal day." Jamal shrugged, just as a large explosion rocked the area around them, and a blast of dust, debris, and shards of metal was launched from the roof of the terminal. "Looks like you guys better pick wisely, or I'll do it for you. What's it going to be?"
.....
Huffing with exhaustion, Leon held his darkened fist towards the sky, as the body of a burned brute, excluding his head, was laid on the ground. His expanded power was truly something not to be messed with, as he could only have wished for Jamal to have finished this thing for him, based on the burn marks he could see in the first encounter. Although strangely enough, it attempted to talk to him in some weird gibberish. That was something he needed to ask Jamal about as well, just as Hops slammed the iron door in front of them down.
"Good job." Heskins patted Leon's shoulder, only to look at the sight inside. "Oh, that's not what I expected."
With the Viligantes of Power being informed prior in the briefing of a special room that was being used by the leadership of the divisions here, they weren't exactly expecting this bloodbath. Inside were several of those in charge laid against their chairs or on the ground, pistols or revolvers laying around, and blood splattered against the wall.
"There's no way they just decided to off themselves after all the work we put in." Alice fumed, "Wow, is this just ridiculous."
"We best do a quick search, and see what we get out of it." Hops moved in front, just to peer down the window. "Oh, they are truly holding it down. I got to give Youden some props for what ideas he must have forced down their throats."
Joining his side, Leon stared at what appeared to be a parking lot of some type, although the vast majority of it, was either destroyed or littered with bodies or destroyed carrs, with Youden's military holding around a fourth of the remaining bit. From that position, they could see them gunning down the Port-O-Bea's forces to a few using mortars to blow up stragglers behind and prevent reinforcements from coming through. This was full-on desperation.
"We got to end this." Brat looked with worry, holding a few papers.
"I'll take care of it." Alice said, as Hops moved into position. "Just continue doing what needs to be done."
With Leon watching, Hops awaited by the created hole that the former himself made, with Alice grabbing onto him, before being thrown above to the remains of the roof. Not needing to watch what the woman was going to do, Leon looked toward the papers Brat was holding, ignoring the screams suddenly coming from outdoors.
"My powers," he could hear Fonda mumble in shock, "Alice."
"Leon, we may be in trouble." Brat pointed towards the first paper. "It's a report of incoming reinforcements."
Reading with him, Leon took a quick sigh of relief once the entire thing was as he hoped for. While the hiding leadership did send out an emergency alert of the ongoing attack, the nearest divisions moving towards the city were still four days away. That was relieving.
"So we have time to defend and hold. I don't think those incoming divisions know what we have in store for them." Leon couldn't help but laugh, as he noticed the silence in the air, indoors and outside. Looking with the rest of the group, all the man could see was a large crater were the majority of Youden's forces were, and not a sign of any bodies or equipment being used by their enemies.
"Uh, what happened?" Leon asked the group, just as Alice reentered.
"Let's just say, the threat has been removed," she replied, with not a single word being said by anyone inside. "What, I did as I was told?"
"Alice, you quite literally created a sinkhole from the ground, and covered them up and the rest of their equipment, with those soldiers alive!" Hops answered for her. "That was insane!"
"Someone had to do something." she mumbled off, as she left the room, "I'm going to see if anyone is alive."
Jamal was surely missing out on this action, and Leon couldn't help but notice. Where was this man?
.....
Passing past the six charred bodies, Jamal could only hear silence in the battle that had been ongoing for at least an hour. Usually, his persuasion worked, but these guys were as stubborn as mules. They deserved what they had coming, as Jamal could finally see how small this airport really was. Excluding the large terminal itself, there appeared to be three gates for Ariocasters to gain passengers and fly off across the country. In the very back, Jamal could see the parking lot of the place, as some type of large hole appeared to take place of around a fourth of the space. What did he miss during his failed interrogation?
"Jamal!" a female voice cried across the distance by the parking lot. "We did it!"
Confused as to who it even was, Jamal squinted to get a better view. Although he knew many, Jamal could tell that it was the resistance leader, simply based on her walk and determination, holding onto her rifle as if it was a trophy.
"It's all over?" Jamal said, once the woman was close enough to him.
"There may be a few more holdouts and remenants among the hills, but the airfield is essentially free of occupants. All enemy forces are either dead or captured." she shot him a quick salute.
"No need for that. I'm just like the rest of you." Jamal waved her to stop, "Just finish the assigned objectives. Because we've reached the point of no return."
Nodding, Beai hurried back towards her assigned division she was leading, as Jamal took a quick look around. The airfield was really under the city's control again, and now they could have the advantage of bringing in aircraft to supply the city with food. Although they would have to answer and deal with a lot of new issues, including how to even get one in the first place, as well as move on from here. As now for sure, Youden would respond in aggression, and the ship had been passed the calm waters. The waters would get rougher and chopper from this point onward until they reached their destination. Or sink before then.