Mercenary Empire

"Patrol team 10, I repeat respond. Patrol team 10 please respond!"

"What's going on!" Eric yelled out

"Sir, I've just lost contact with patrol team 10. They were in the middle of reporting of what they were seeing and then all of a sudden, I lost contact with them."

The person at one the radio stations replied back.

"Do you think it's just a radio failure on their side?" I asked Eric.

"I doubt it, the soldiers are all equipped with the latest communication equipment and we've never had an issue until now." Eric replied. He then started spewing out commands the next second.

"West, change the map's focus to where we lost contact with patrol team 10. Natalie, get in contact with the a patrol team that was closest to patrol team 10 last position. Raven, send a recon drone out and show us what it's seeing on the big screen."

I watched as Eric's subordinates followed his commands and started working fast yet efficiently and accurately to get the job done. Moments later on the big screen an image could be seen. It was the image from the recon drone Eric commanded to be sent out.

The image showed us a grassy field with trees here and there. At the same time Eric's other patrol team could be seen walking cautiously towards patrol team 10's last known position.

"Natalie give me a sitrep"

Natalie turned to Eric and replied.

"Sir, right now patrol team 13 is on its way to patrol teams 10 last known position. From the incoming reports I've been getting from them, they don't see anything out of the ordinary right now. They still are 300 ft away from patrol team 10's last known position so I don't find it surprising."

"Ok, tell me immediately if patrol team 13 finds something."

"Got it"

Natalie then turned back to her monitor and started talking to patrol team 10.

"West, how long till the recon drone will get sight on patrol team 10's last known position."

West replied back as he controlled the joystick that was controlling the recon drone.

"Anytime now sir."

It was only a matter of second before the screen showed the position of patrol team 10.

"Oh god, the Red Dragon Army!" West shouted in fright seeing the numbers. From what I can see on the big screens there were at least more than 20,000 soldiers alongside military vehicles. They were moving at speed not fast nor slow towards Natsu City. No wonder Natalie lost contact with patrol team 10 all of a sudden. It was because they got annihilated.

"Damn they never had a chance" someone in the room said as they looked at the image. The room became deadly silent. The only sound that could be heard were the people breathing in the room. Seeing such a threat that is not the far away from Natsu City he started to command everyone in the room to prepare for an invasion.

"Natalie, order patrol team 10 and all other patrol teams on duty to come back to base. West, keep on surveying, try not to get caught doing so. Arnold, send a message to nearby friendly cities to request for reinforcements. And Holden turn on the alarm and set it to the highest level. Everyone else keep on doing and await further orders."

After everyone heard Eric's orders, the room became loud as people started talking on their headsets and everyone started moving everywhere in the room.

"Is there anything I can do?" I ask Eric. Seeing that the plan we made to deal with the Red Dragon is useless now. I wanted see if there was anything I could do.

"As of right now, no. Just sit tight and I'm pretty sure that there will be something you can do."

Eric turned to me and replied before turning back to me the big screen. He then asked West,

"West, give a count of all the Red Dragon Soldiers and what arsenal they're bringing."

"Sir, from the scanning I've done with the drone, it counted up to 23 thousands soldiers, 300 Red Dragon tanks, and 100 artillery."

"Damn, they brought more firepower than I thought they did. We can't face them head on, we can only play on the defensive as we only number to 15 thousand soldiers with about 200 tanks and few artillery. If were to hold up behind our walls, we can at least last for at least 2 hours before the walls fall. Arnold how long before we get our we get our reinforcements?"

"Sir I got reply from Novus City and Reggie City, They said it'll take at least four hours until they reach our position"

Arnold said with a frown on his face. It seems like the city will fall before the reinforcements will be able to come.

"Tell them to hurry up! If it's gonna take them four hours, we'll be all dead before they even get here!"

"Yes sir!"

"Natalie, how's the army organization going on?"

"All personnel are all accounted for. They're right now awaiting for further orders"

Natalie replied.

"Good, West give me an ETA on the incoming Red Dragon Army"

"Sir it'll take at least 30 minutes before the Red Dragon Army reaches us."

West replied back to Eric.

"30 minutes huh." Eric talked to himself as he held a thinking position. He then turned to Lina and I and said.

"Dom, I'm gonna need your help."

I reply with a confident tone,

"Just ask anything and I'll do it."

"Thank you Dom, I owe you one" Eric said with a smile. I'll do anything for a close friend. I'm not one to not help someone in the need of help. One good thing the old man taught me was to help others in need of help, but only if I know that they are good people for sure that is. It would be bad if I helped someone cause a massacre.

"Don't worry about it, I'll do anything for a friend such as yourself. So what do you need me to do?"

"I'm gonna need you to leave the city and get behind the enemy lines. If you can kill everyone at their command post, the soldiers at the front lines will lose communication with those at the top not knowing what to do. This would lead to confusion and allow us to attack back and maybe cause them all to retreat"

"Even though it doesn't sound easy, I'll do it." The plan itself is solid. Chopping off the head of the chicken will makes it body run around amok and into a wall.

"On this mission you'll be joined in with one other person since he's perfect for this mission and having a large group will only be detrimental. His name is Daniel Lake, but he goes by the name of Ticker. You'll immediately know why he's called Ticker so you can ask him when you meet him at the debriefing room."

"Got it." I have a feeling that he calls himself Ticker because he loves blowing stuff up. Well I only hope we can work together easily. I then look to Lina and asked.

"You gonna come with me?"

She replied back with a smile on herface,

"Of course, I can't leave you behind to die can I?"

I have never saw Lina in combat so I was worried for her but at the same time, seeing her so confident in herself, I couldn't help but think that she would be fine during the whole entire operation and that she would easily have my back.

After finishing up our talk with Eric, we were then lead out by one of Eric's subordinates and was brought to the debriefing room. The room was empty but we were told that Ticker would come at any given time. So Lina and I sat sat down on a chair and waited for his arrival.

A minute later two soldiers in uniform walked in. Lina and I shook their hands and greeted them. The man who was standing on the left was Ticker. He looked young and was skinny yet had a firm build and had short blonde hair. The man right next to him on the right was wearing a military cap and looked to be around 40 years old. His name was Reagan and he was going to be our debriefer

Ticker sat down on a chair beside us and looked at Reagan. Seeing that everyone was quiet and situated, Reagan started to speak.

"I'm gonna keep this short and sweet" Reagan then takes out a controller and clicks something on it causing the room to become dark and the big screen in front of us to light up. Showing us the details of the mission. He then kept on talking.

"Your mission is to get behind enemy lines and destroy the enemy's command center. To do that, we planned for you guys to be sent out early and wear camouflage suits to hide yourself in the green plains and prevent yourself getting caught. This part will be the hardest part since if your caught, you're most likely to die. But once they pass you, it'll be the easy part.

For the command center to stay in contact with the all the troops in the front line, they would have to be in a two mile radius. Finding the command center will be hard so you'll be given a signal tracer to have an easier time to find it. After finding the command center, Ticker will blow it up with the bombs that will be given to him later. Once you guys accomplish the mission, all you need to do is report it and leave everything to us. Any questions?

After Reagan finished speaking the room lit up as it did before. Seeing that he asked if any of us wanted to ask a question, I spoke up.

"It's going to be a command center, so there will be soldiers protecting it. Do you guys have a count of how many there are?" It was always best know as much as you can before you start something. Having missing information can easily get you or your team killed.

Reagan shook his head as an no answer and said

"We don't have any information on how many troops there will be at the command center protecting it. But at least expect 20 people. As long as you deal with them silently, you should still accomplish the mission."

I nodded my head and said nothing else. Reagan looked around to be sure if anyone else wanted to ask any question. Seeing that no one else wanted to speak, he then said.

"Seeing that on one has no more questions to ask, the debriefing is over. Let the operation commence!