Cerk-Ly War, Second Ters-Ly War (12)

  Fox and the rest were getting out of the vehicle, when he lifted his eyebrows and relaxed them before jumping them again. Nala gave him a side glance, wondering what caught his attention, before seeing him respond quietly to a possible message with his left arm. Esmeralda was too cajoled hugging his arm to notice. Her slimmer figure in the high NUA made it more lifelike to look at despite their all-armor bodies.

  They walked into the HQ, which the soldiers at the sides saluted at them, and more so at Fox, until they were several meters away.

  It was no mistake that Fox’s presence in the war was something the entire Lymocan forces knew about. Be it air, navy, or land forces. They were all aware he was doing his part, moving like crazy, and having even madder methods. All representing their country, and they knew him.

  Fox’s images, videos, and more so the ‘unedited’ small parts of his tasks in the mission to secure Torka’s air routes, were what motivated the army throughout the war in these 3 months. At the beginning, they only knew they were being sent to another war, and 2 for that matter.

  Their enemy was of the same caliber as Terka was back then, when they were less, and didn’t have their renewed technology to aid them from the get-go. But the enemy this time was prepared, had aid, technological and even strategical, and had enough reasons to hate them.

  Any of the last few situations would be enough to turn any force morally detrimental, especially when the major goal was to take over after. And then, Luis’s announcement happened. They weren’t alone, unlike in the First Ters-Ly War.

  Not only that, those who were with him; with them, whom they defended and saw the destruction that other traitorous political entities caused to sisterly nations, just like Terka of its cities. It reminded them what happened then, and what would happen now.

  Luis was like an exemplary honor to follow. Someone the Lymocan forces wanted to follow. He wasn’t fighting with them, but he was giving them all reasons to do so. Without speaking of the never beautiful intricacies of war, he was giving them that purpose to keep doing it. They weren’t defending their home, but those of other people, and even those who hated them now.

  Fox was their ‘heart guide instructor’. He wasn’t there with them, and only some remembered they received overall, general tips to deal with Terka faster, even if it meant suffering in the process. They definitely remembered the thing they heard of him before the First Ters-Ly War.

  But those weren’t significant anymore. Only when they thought of his service during that war did they look at his back moving, arching, twisting, sometimes spectacular and others inhumanely. It was no longer the body of a person, but of someone whose capabilities were becoming more than they could ever think possible.

  Whether he was that brilliant or would do incredible things in the future didn’t matter. Fox was, in some ways, the forces’ anchor. What mattered was what he was doing now. Besides, orchestrating the last Terkan government’s assassination was anything but ugly in Lys’ minds.

  Bypassing the guards and some other special soldiers, Fox and Nala’s team went to the central post, where a certain someone was busy checking the systems he semi-created for the umpteenth time.

  Walking to the side of the central post, Fox and the others were met with Miros. He checked the command box, a gigantic one, of an anti-aircraft/projectiles turret. There was a team with him, revising what he was doing and taking notes. Their hands furiously moved when Miros talked.

  Fox grinned and placed his hands on his hips, observing for a while before Akina and Lyan walked away shoulder to shoulder, wanting to celebrate with some drinks. Nala nodded to them before holding Fox’s elbow on the opposite side from where Esmeralda continued to hold him.

  Feeling Esmeralda’s hug on his left, and Nala’s hand around his elbow on his right, Fox walked to Miros. The technicians and engineers immediately noticed them. One of them notified Miros, who stopped checking, while the others walked away with heavy nods towards them.

  Miros turned around after a few seconds, smiling somewhat ceremoniously when seeing how cozy and spoiled Fox was. Before he could say a thing, wondering why Fox was still saying nothing, he heard rustling from a tree on the side, which he hadn’t identified yet.

  “!” Miros looked to his left, when a wild, robotic-mask-wearing figure with a shape that shouldn’t exist lunged towards him in the air. His sapphire eyes opened before spreading his arms and letting the figure smash downwards to him, having no scruples about ‘death’.

  But the figure didn’t attack him, merely straddling him, smacking him down to the ground before heavily breathing on top of him. Miros was breathless, and a little hurt, but his previous months working his ass off showed its efficiency now. Miros was only breathless for a couple of seconds.

  “When did you- ahhm…” Miros lifted his head, wanting to ask with a smile, but Colmillo had already motioned to take her mask off from her chin. She didn’t take it off, but the area around her mouth slid upwards, revealing it lusting for some snacks.

  Miros was shut with his mouth full, emotions and longing mixed in between their moving tongues, which he closed his eyes to accept them all.

  Fox rolled his eyes until Colmillo stopped abusing the poor boy, who was now a young man, brand-new and all. Elega took her mask off and stood off Miros, helping him up before facing Fox. Nala and Esmeralda studied Colmillo for a bit.

  “You knew she was coming?” Miros, now with an enormous smile plastered on his stupid, still boyish face, asked Fox. The latter nodded, gesturing with his right hand as his arms were crossed. “Get together as much as you can, but we’re leaving in 50 minutes.”

  “Back to Lymoca!?” Miros widened his eyes, stretching his neck. Elega held his hand and smirked. Her light, water-clear brown eyes now looking at him from their sideways corners. They surely had a lot to catch up to, and they had so little time. Knowing Miros…

  “Damn it. I think we’ll only have… like 13 minutes to-” Miros spouted, sure enough. Elega rolled her eyes before cupping his cheeks as Fox departed. “You can just tell any of those nerds following you around. I am going to ‘chat you up’, and you think there’s something or someone that can stop me? Me?”

  “Oh dear…” Miros felt a bit of terror. But excitement was present there. Looking at Fox’s back with a smile, Miros flushed before hugging Elega. Only he knew how much he thought of this cougar. Elega was startled for half a second before tightly hugging him, all too cute.

  … Almost 45 minutes later. Fox was in the plane he’s used in these wars so far. Only he and Nala’s team were returning. He wasn’t paid extra for whatever he did, which kind of made sense now, especially with his earnings in Lymoca with his Snowfall Enterprise and as Raging Blood.

  Fox sat on a seat by the hatch, reading a book with a serious, deep frown. It might seem it was too much, but Fox was used to frown like this whenever he got into reading this book. He analyzed the same section of each page for about 10 minutes each before going to the next.

  Never has Fox been able to understand any bit of this, not even the simplest and shortest sentences, once. Every time, it was like other people say when they’re drugged. Be it visual deformations or things, colors, or filters that are all illusions, swept through the strange writing.

  There weren’t letters, so to speak. It was more like a waving, barren smear of welding. There were tiny, small ones, and extremely long ones. The latter were more frequent, extending over 2 or even more lines, confusing the living hell out of Fox.

  Still, he was able to read them out. But the things he could describe out of them… too much nothing.

  Step, step, step… Miros walked around the plane and peeked inside, finding Fox just outside with his left foot hanging off the equipment hangar’s hatch. Looking down out of instinct, Miros raised his eyebrows. “Oh. How are you doing with that relic?”

  “Sigh…” Fox sighed, reading a bit more for a few minutes before lifting his head and closing the book. He shut his eyes and pressed them a bit before glaring at Miros, no longer a young boy, ah. “Rather. When this was cleaned up, did they say anything to you?”

  Miros shook his head, completely useless to decipher this thing for Fox, even a little. He shrugged, remembering what they said, “Other than this being a story told by one or more sources, nothing. As for the title, it’s supposed to be a fantastical one, or so they said.”

  “Ah, that.” Fox nodded upwards, considering that possibility. It was all a guess. After all, while there were similar small languages with this writing, it was never exactly like this.

  “So, what do you have?” Miros looked at the book, a little interested. Fox waved the book a bit, closed and unable to give him more headaches. “I can tell that, whatever is in this story, there are several bands. It’s something like a long, almost perpetual face-off between these.”

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  “Oh, now it does seem like it would be an entertainment story, doesn’t it?” Miros cocked his head. Fox shook his a bit. “It doesn’t feel like that to me. But no matter what, I won’t decipher it any time soon. Get ready to leave, we’re not returning, mm?”

  Seeing Fox nod at him suggestively, Miros grinned, feeling a bit of dependence before returning the nod. “I have everything, boss. Oh! I gave my drones a bit of art, like the other soldiers do. Look, this is a black one, and this one is white. What do you think?”

  Knowing Miros didn’t like seeing his Viper and Insect Snake get those ‘graffities’ and similar first, Fox smiled, giving the small and big drones a few looks. Miros brought them on a cargo trolley, pulling it without much difficulty. The boy was ever nearer to a 1st Grade special agent basis.

  Fox asked while returning his polycoria eyes to the sapphire, little young man. “They are nice. But why foxes? And the colors?”

  “Oh, that…” Miros felt glad to hear praise, with his face falling right after, thinking he didn’t like something. When searching the answer to those questions, Miros smirked embarrassingly.

  The Insect Snake had a small white fox with a snowfall in the distance. It was quite elaborated, for a drone. The Viper, the larger drone, had a black fox, which was almost imperceptible. It blended well with the black shadow paint over the drone.

  Their design was cartoonish and like a dream, disappearing yet solid. Miros looked at them and shyly shrugged. “Well, I thought of honoring you, boss. Then, I thought of the stories you’ve almost spoken about to us… and well, your enterprise’s name. It all fits, no?”

  “Hm. Cheeky little man.” Fox harshly rubbed Miros’s hair for a bit, letting go of the pouty grown fella rapidly. Fox gave the book another glance, feeling there was a lot he had to go through, before storing it in a careful-specific bag.

  “Get your stuff on. See you inside.” Fox tousled Miros’s hair before getting off the hangar floor. Miros pouted before shrugging, putting his things inside and noticing everyone else had already stored their equipment. He hurried and went into the plane, where he saw everyone seated.

  ***

  During the past 3 months, the wars in Cerka and Torka had only maintained tension and complexity, never decreasing, and some days increasing.

  Fox didn’t stay on Torka forever. He went off to Cerka for 3 weeks, spending almost a month there after the invasions began. Lymoca didn’t need his help with their forces, but the special agents, and the cooperation of both, were something of vital importance.

  With the enemy hoog practically falling under PSD’s terror, remnants here or there, but all killed even if they were close to achieving a successful mission. The only thing the army and Piya Sanctum District had to worry about were the possible foreign hoogs.

  The Cerk lagjs were dealt with rapidly. On the first days, they were massacred by the District, surrendering more easily and faster because of such results. This left the hoog helpless, which never before attempted to familiarize itself with the country’s ‘lower’ secret organizations.

  They weren’t at fault for that. Little to no one has such self-integrated ‘community’ within the secret world. Only Knight Assembly Association has such rigorous, united system of lagjs under their only hoog. Zyckevele was another, but they weren’t successful to a complete degree.

  Regardless, even Lymoca wasn’t there, with those lagjs being secretly handled after the First Ters-Ly War. Now that such an opportunity was being used after massacring some lagjs, with the others surrendering… One could imagine PSD’s opportunistic side nowadays.

  Of course, that was only for PSD SAs, while the rest of the world, including Lys, knew nothing about it. All they knew in the military forces was that the enemy ‘lagjs’, a known term, were being taken care of, while ‘hoog’ wasn’t publicly known yet. Yet.

  Fox thus served for several purposes, but not so much about Cerk lagjs. The organized crime in Cerka was even less of an issue. What he went there for was to ‘train’ the collaboration between army, or any military force, with Piya Sanctum District.

  As a Preutian, survivor and combatant, Fox would know what he lacked the most back then, and what would be the best things next to top-notch technology that he would’ve wanted. He wasn’t the only one, but he was the only person with such experience from both.

  Furthermore, if the District wanted to be proficient in carrying out assassinations without him, and in the middle of a war, they needed the army’s help. Vice versa, the army could do without PSD’s intelligence… but when such a thing was ‘legal’, why bother not using it? It was stupid.

  After doing some tasks as well, showing how smooth it could be, even when the enemy didn’t violate HLS regulations, and PSD could only help with intelligence, Fox returned to Torka.

  Nevertheless, for as small Fox’s participation seemed, with Nala’s elite team doing the larger part of demonstrating the insane usefulness, eyes were on them everywhere; anytime. Ly eyes burning with the desire to follow, not similar to Luis… because it was to battle!

  The war didn’t stop to see how Fox and Nala’s team would do. While this happened on the 2nd month of the war, the first month carried a train of massive destruction, reaching far and wide through some routes. Cerka became a never-ending symphony of explosions, while Torka remained a silent overall situation, with its conflict sparking sudden fear in nearby settlements.

  Piya Sanctum District had to be more proficient in Torka, while the special forces were demanded a more careful and exhausting deliberation when and before battling. It was only after that came the rewards, bringing the special forces reminders that they were Lys’ best.

  However, one thing to make everything a couple of times more difficult was Torkans’ directed hatred towards them. That propaganda at the beginning wasn’t for nothing. Cerka was the same, but not as terrible as in Torka.

  Cerka could be considered a civil unrest whenever they saw the Lymocan symbol and its forces. When their warplanes passed, Cerks were silent and looked up from the ground, wondering why wasn’t it them who had those.

  When soldiers marched near their cities, they looked on with sad expressions but challenging eyes. At times, the Cerks went out of their cities or their houses in rural settlements to throw garbage and any object, from kitchen tools to food, at them.

  Cerk civilians sometimes formed blockades, wanting to force the Lymocan forces to stop moving. If any of their moves could give their army a chance, they wanted to take it.

  These were easily solvable, but equally dangerous. Especially when some civilians might hide a gun to use when they deemed fit. However, Lymoca was no war-enriching army that didn’t treat much with civilians before. Hell, it was even their own country’s civilians who sometimes raised their arms just to defend their family in the organized crime.

  Dealing with the Cerks wasn’t dangerous, but it did bring some bad image to Lymoca, which couldn’t be avoided for the moment. Yet, Lymoca was still as careful as ever possible, never entering the cities. The Cerks were also respectful enough with this, never using cities as cover.

  Such things only continued to happen, while Lymoca’s image in the Cerks’ hearts couldn’t improve. Things were simple the first month, but they continued later on.

  In comparison, Torka was much worse. At first, the Ters civilians weren’t keen on wanting to watch. But after a couple of weeks, as Lymocan special forces started getting used to warring Torka, they came out of their houses and prepared traps.

  It was thought the enemy had planted them, and that Lymoca only discovered them after. But PSD immediately noticed it was the people who were coming out of their houses, faking attending to their daily lives, and planting those traps to slow the Lymocan soldiers and vehicles.

  Their ‘technology’ wasn’t anything fancy, but it worked most of the time. While it wasn’t ‘powerful’, they either dealt considerable damage or injury to the vehicles and soldiers. The special forces had no other choice but to slow their speed to take territory after destroying the enemy. It was tiring to do so, and now they had to slow down.

  There was a semi martial law, where the civilians had to exchange their kitchenware and cleaning products, be it for the house or themselves, with those Lymoca offered. Whoever didn’t wouldn’t be allowed freedom to go out of their houses most of the day.

  With this, still slowing down, they became more careful since they wouldn’t receive reinforcements until enemy air-defenses were too far away, and enough territory was secured. The special forces still suffered quite some difficulties.

  The Ters civilians would engage in brawls, often wasting medical supplies to heal either soldier or civilian, or both sometimes. Even then, the situations were under control, except when the civilians aided the enemy to hide and help ambushes, which ended with dirty Lymocan victories.

  As time passed, the civilians started leaving on a 30% ratio to join the Ters army, but not as soldiers. Ters used them as ‘civs shields’, only to form mud barricades and throw dirt, sacks of dirt, sand, and even flour amidst battle. The soldiers wouldn’t fire at them, however.

  The actions of both sides always contradicted each other’s desires and goals, always making them tense each time. Still, Lymoca kept their soldiers at bay. No matter how obnoxious the Ters became, those who aided the Ters army were only arrested if nothing too serious occurred.

  The world was watching, and they were the Lymocan special forces. Furthermore, the District was always helping, bringing those who were actual troublemakers away first things first. Some disappeared and were never seen again.

  Torka was more of a savage nature, treating the special forces horrible, as much as possible, and as often as imaginable. Despite Torka’s small size, it was more difficult than Cerka. The dangers were even worse, with some of its topography appearing like jungles next to mountains.

  Even then, after 3 months, Cerka had about 28% of its territory taken by Lymoca. 3 of its 7 most influential cities were under Lymocan forces. Of these 3, 2 were at the south, around the golf, which was under Lymoca nowadays. Cerka, like their beloved ally, Torka, was no longer a country with coastal borders. The other was at the central west, close to the Melenon border, where the 30,000 Lymocan soldiers had eaten Cerk territory from up to down in the first month.

  Cerka had 5 major circles that were now under Lymoca’s occupation. There were 2 at the south, surrounding those 2 cities. Another was a bit northwest from the former, followed by another around the other influential city, and another behind the current, harsh frontline in the northeast.

  For a month and 2 weeks, Lymoca’s 30,000 soldiers begun a battle with one of Cerka’s armies, forming a line where the enemy couldn’t cross without suffering hundreds out of every 1,000 soldiers. Lymoca was all-out, and there was nothing stopping this arguably small unit.

  From Argopolas to Melenon, and then advancing by land into Cerka. They aided the Avican forces at the borders a bit before heading northeast. Like beasts in a stampede, when the over 100,000-big Cerk army saw them come, they thought not much of it.

  After a month battling the Lymocan unit, they’ve lost a major number of their troops, well over 27,000 soldiers, while Lymoca lost only close to 3,000. The rest of the war in Cerka might be just as active, but the world centered their attention in Cerka’s northeast.

  Furthermore, this Lymocan Division had less equipment and vehicles than any other in Cerka, making them an underdog despite being on the side that is anything but the underdog anymore.

  The rest of Cerka became a choke in its west, where the Melenon border was still guarded by their soldiers, with the enemy scared to attack them too often. Lymoca sent forces to the west from the 2 circles in the central west, while defending from the eastern front.

  Lymoca both: didn’t let Cerka’s counteroffensives work, and slowly chocked those behind the 2 circles.

  …