Manifest Fantasy

8:00 A.M.

Month 6, Day 11

"The enemy has proven to be formidable. We have lost all five detachments milord…"

"WWHAAATTT!?!?"

"W-we have lost all-"

"I don"t want you to REPEAT WHAT YOU JUST SAID, IMBECILE!"

"S-sorry milord…"

"Only eleven survivors… how many of them did we kill?"

"Uh… four, Your Majesty."

The Dark Shadow squad leader, Tempos, who had escaped from Fort Washington feared he had escaped only to face death once more. He looked meekly at the floor, trying to maintain his composition.

"FFOOUURRR?!??"

Tempos felt sweat run down his back. If he couldn"t find a way to calm the emperor down, he would end up headless.

"Ah, well on the bright side our attack diverted a large portion of the Sonaran Army… We can sneak into their capital with greater ease and land a decisive blow to their leadership!"

"Hmm… The Sonarans are getting bold because of the American victory. I need you to make them fear the n.o.bian Empire again. Ah, I just remembered… Our spies in the city of Sofius have reported the emergence of a magical artifact, from the ancient Axon Empire. They say it is a scepter that allows the wielder to command a near infinite mana pool and grant magical powers upon even the magically inept. I want you to retrieve it for me. If you can"t do this discreetly, you may take as much a.s.sistance as is necessary from our armies."

"Yes, Your Majesty." (Holy s.h.i.t, I thought he would have my head… I should probably just call upon the armies so I am guaranteed to retrieve the item!)

—

20 miles from Fort Washington

12:00 P.M.

Month 6, Day 12

Three Humvees are traveling in a convoy as part of Alpha Team. The objective of this mission was to investigate the mysterious signals coming from the town of Sofius, about 160 miles south of Fort Washington. The signal began its emission about a week ago, but the mission was put on hold due to the concerns regarding the n.o.bian troops. With these concerns gone for the time being, this adventure was authorized. Kelmithus surmised that the signal may originate from a magical artifact, and thus he was added into the group. Captain Henry Donnager sat in the lead Humvee, driving with the two physicists and Kelmithus.

Kelmithus on the other hand, was busy pondering the mathematics of constructing such a vehicle. Over the past couple of weeks, Kelmithus and the two physicists have come to grow close as friends, which makes sense because of their academic backgrounds and similar senses of humor. Currently, the academics were sharing anecdotes about their students.

"And there was this one kid, Abraham Johnson - I will never forget his name, haha; well anyway his project was a powerful electromagnet, but the thing is, he forgot that he had metal keys in his pocket!"

Kelmithus and Nikita listened on, smiling in antic.i.p.ation.

"So when he turned on his machine, he went flying! And in order to get unstuck, he had to slide his pants off! I was trying so hard not to laugh that I turned red! aahahahaha! Oh my gosh I"m tearing up!"

The rest of the group found this hilarious as well, and Kelmithus began with his story.

"You remember Aranmithus?"

"Yeah."

"Yes."

"Yesteryear, he was in the midst of an experiment while working with me. He was working on a new potion that can disguise people into different types of animals and sentient races, and he was quite confident in his abilities. When he began testing, he tried it on himself and lo and behold, he had turned bright pink for a week! No amount of bathing could wash it off and he turned out to be pink AND wrinkly from all his time in the bath!"

The scholars continued their storytelling, periodically earning laughs out of their driver.

Meanwhile, in the second vehicle, Master Sergeant Ron Owens drove with Dr. Lacey Darwin and Dr. Illinois Jones. Jones was in the middle of describing his adventures in the forests of Brazil, searching for El Dorado, the lost city of gold.

"And then, boom! I accidentally activated a trap, which sent a large boulder hurtling after me! Luckily, I remembered the pathways of the labyrinth and I saw the locked door from earlier. Apparently the trap also opened the doorway, so I went in, a second before the boulder crushed the ground where I was! So here I am, in this mysterious room, and what do I see? Gold! Everywhere! And that"s how I became a multi-millionaire!"

"Wow, just like the Indiana Jones movies!" Lacey remarked.

"Haha, well, those movies are actually loosely based on true stories," Jones bragged, pointing a thumb at himself while smirking.

Lacey blushed at this action. (Wow, what a hero!)

Jones continued to tell tales of his past adventures as they forged along.

The third vehicle was occupied by four new members of the group, Sergeants Ryan Williams, Richard Yu, Alex Gutierrez, and Sarah Hayes. Ryan was the team"s original leader before being transferred to Alpha Team; Richard was the medic; Alex was the sniper; and Sarah was the mysterious newcomer and communications expert. The boys of this group were attempting to guess Sarah"s origins, but she remained elusive.

"Hmm, maybe she"s special forces!" Ryan proposed.

Sarah simply smiled, giving a cla.s.sic reply. "I cannot confirm nor deny that."

"Ohh secret agent?" Richard guessed.

"Haha." Sarah smirked and gave a wink to that guess. "Maybe one day I"ll tell you boys."

The teams in the vehicles continued their bantering and storytelling for two more hours until they arrived at their destination.

160 miles from Fort Washington

City of Sofius, City Gates

3:00 P.M.

"Man, that was a long drive," Alan complained.

"Indeed; my a.s.s is currently sore!" Nikita agreed.

Henry laughed, as he was used to riding hours in uncomfortable vehicles as part of his time in the Army.

"Hey, what is all that smoke coming from the city?"

"Where are the guards?"

"I don"t know; I"ve visited Sofius many times, but I have never sensed a feeling like this before… I hope Sari is safe."

"You three stay put. There are some recon drones in the third vehicle. We"re gonna check it out."

The soldiers of Alpha Team got out, greeting their commanding officer.

"Sir!"

"At ease. Gutierrez, grab a recon drone from the back and check out the situation!"

Complying with the order, Alex flew a drone over the city walls.

"Holy s.h.i.t!"

The scene he witnessed was terrible; the city had been attacked, with the Western and Southern walls almost completely destroyed, and multiple buildings burning.

"What the h.e.l.l happened?"

"Sir, it looks like the city was attacked! Judging from the fires it seems like it happened not too long ago, perhaps yesterday!"

"Alright, let"s move in to investigate."

As the convoy carefully navigated the city streets, they encountered a group of people piling some bodies.

The convoy stopped, allowing Kelmithus and Henry to step out of their vehicle and inspect the situation.

"What happened here?" Kelmithus inquired.

A ragged man from the group, his eyes devoid of light. He introduced himself as the governor"s a.s.sistant.

"The n.o.bians attacked us; we had no warning and our defenses were overwhelmed by their ma.s.sive army. Almost all of our defenders were killed, and the n.o.bians went to the Academy of Sofius."

Kelmithus" eyes widened. He then turned to Henry. "Quickly, Captain! We must get to the Academy! I have heard that this artifact is the Scepter of Axnial!"

As the convoy quickly sped off toward the academy, about a mile into the city, Kelmithus explained the properties of this scepter. The further they traveled, the more carnage they saw. Additional bodies littered the grounds, mostly guards. It seems that the n.o.bians had a deadline, and thus spared the civilians of this city from their wrath in order to capture the artifact.

"The Academy is just around this corner, to the right!"

As the convoy turned the corner, they saw dozens of guards outside, catching their attention.

"Aw s.h.i.t. All units, we"ve got hostiles inbound, 60 meters out. Get someone on the .50 Cals!"

Not antic.i.p.ating any combat, the Alpha Team was organized into weird groups. As such, Tesla and Jones had to operate their respective vehicles so that the professionals could man the gunner turrets.

"Back up the vehicles to that open field over there! We"re going to set up a concave there, using the city streets as a choke point!"

As the vehicles backed up, Henry sprayed at the incoming enemy soldiers, targeting the knights first. At last, the group backed up to Sofius Park. As n.o.bian troops emerged from the street from which the Humvees came, they were ripped apart by .50 and 5.56 rounds.

"Concentrate fire on the street! Gutierrez, get a bird in the air and watch our flanks!"

"Hayes, contact command and update them about our situation. Request reinforcements if possible; we need to get the artifact before the n.o.bians do!"

TATATATATATA!

"Aaagggghhh!"

"What the h.e.l.l?"

"So our defeat wasn"t just a rumor!"

"So powerful!"

Curious residents, shocked by the strange noise erupting from the .50 Cal mounted guns, went to their windows to investigate. Witnessing the n.o.bians getting gunned down, they cheered.

"Moons d.a.m.nit! We need to fall back to the Academy! We cannot stay in this choke point any longer; we will use the close quarters environment of the Academy to our advantage!"

The security personnel of Alpha Team managed to eliminate 43 n.o.bian hostiles before they retreated back to the Academy.

Despite their overwhelming firepower, they were still vulnerable to ambushes and surprise attacks. Due to this, Henry ordered the unit to wait for reinforcements.

Kelmithus voiced his concerns. "The presence of guards most likely means they are still attempting to crack whatever vault the Scepter is kept in. Most likely, it is a matter of time before they do so. They will bring more wizards in order to overpower the magical safeguards of the vault, so we need to get your reinforcements as soon as possible. Tell your commanders that the Scepter is a powerful artifact that can destroy entire cities if used by an enemy who is able to pair with it."

"Pair?"

"Yes, the Scepter and other magical artifacts have minds of their own, and usually pair with those they deem worthy or powerful enough. The Scepter in particular is known to prefer adventurous individuals, pure in their intentions."

"Okay. Hayes, inform Command. Tell them we may have additional hostile reinforcements inbound, numbering in the thousands, alongside a hundred possibly holed up within the Academy."

—

"Request granted. We will be dispatching 6 Apaches from the 49th Airborne Division, alongside 3 platoons for defense against hostile reinforcements. We will send Luna and Terra Squads to support your team with the extraction. ETA, 90 minutes."