27 A Storm is Brewing
-Earth Plane-
"Colonel Bao, our radar picked up groups of unidentified troops with unusually large activity coming from the direction of Jing Bai River Town. There are also reports of enemy scouts in the vicinity of Hongshan from the patrols. The Red Sun communications personnel gave his daily day report in Colonel's office.
"To date, no contact with the enemies and we believed they are here to survey our defences." the personnel ended his report.
Colonel Bao took his time to read the report gathered by his intelligence team and thank him for it. "Corporal, fetch our team leaders here and the Village Guard leader." The corporal saluted and swiftly relayed Colonel Bao's message to the Sun Foxes team leaders. Within half an hour, Colonel Bao briefed them on the situation and started to pass down precise instructions to each one.
"Fox One, keep the look out of the ongoing enemy scouts. Kill on sight if they come within 500m of Fort perimeters. Fox Comms, keep up the good work gathering the intelligence. I want accurate numbers on the incoming troops from Jing Bai River Town. If there is any priority one chatter and send to me immediately be it I am in the toilet or sleeping in the quarters. You have the right to disturb me. "
Bao looked at the map and started gave instructions to the combat platoons.
"Fox Two, coordinate the evacuation of the Hongshan village with the Village Guards. Get the conscripts to guard them as well, we do not want any morale breaking troops in the upcoming battle. Once completed, rally at the east of Hongshan Village and await instructions. "
"Fox Three, expect the fort walls to fall, I demarcated potential choke points in the map so prepare barricades and traps. Fox Four, prepare booby traps in the sewers so we know if they are coming from the sewers. After that, ensure that the town's Fate Crystal Dome Barrier is working."
"Lastly, Fox Five, position your mobile walkers to these vantage points, hide them with the surroundings if possible. The remaining walkers to station at the side of the fort walls as reinforcement."
Bao drank a sip of his coffee and continued. "Gentlemen, reports indicated that there might be two Black Monarchs company attacking Hongshan Village. One of them confirmed to be the Black Jackals and they are leading the attack. We cannot let Hongshan Village fall else it will be difficult to win the North War theater. We have to win the battle of attrition here so the Centre War theater will have some respite."
The team leaders acknowledged and proceeded to perform their individual orders. The Village Guard knew that sooner or later the village evacuation had to be done. Hence their directive placed various plans to do so during in an emergency of an attack or peacetime.
The villagers were informed of the evacuation and they started to pack their essentials with them. They are being escorted in an orderly fashion by the Fox Two platoon with three tonner military trucks to the various village.
There were people shouting, wanting to volunteer for the fight against the Black Monarch. But as per Colonel's orders, they were refused. The soldiers recommended them to seek the nearest volunteer recruit center once they were evacuated to the nearest village.
In five hours, the village was void with life. The Sun Fox troops were busy compelling their orders and took whatever was necessary from homes for the barricades. The night was quiet and those who were not on duty were ordered to report to the Village Hall. At the center of the hall, a humble feast was specially prepared by the cooks on duty. Colonel Bao even let them have some wine.
"Tonight we will toast for our fallen comrades, our people who kept their faith in us, our future kids. I am glad that I am able to command a group of dedicated soldiers. Have a good meal tonight and here's a toast for even more." Colonel Bao solemnly declared to his Sun Fox troops and he raised his glass.
Others start to follow suit and toasted. They knew what they are against. They have confidence to beat the overwhelming odds. However, they are only humans. Deaths were inevitable in any fight. To celebrate in the name of life. The Sun Fox troops ate their fill and gave their prayers in the name of their individual religions.
"Survive. Do not die. If you have to, defy it." This was Colonel Bao's only order.
The soldiers saluted to acknowledge Colonel Bao's order and the respect they have for him. After the feast, the soldiers went to their allocated positions. The ones on duty stood guard while the rest stayed in their positions in repose. A storm is brewing.
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-Mehar Desert Plane-
Kura felt a streaking pain from the side of her head. She tried to move her right hand to support her head but she realised her hand was too heavy. She felt something was restraining her movement.
She slowly opened her eyes and it took some time for her eyes to adjust to the surroundings again. She was no longer in the jeep but in a grey empty spacious room with Kari staring at her. There were no windows no doors.
They were enclosed in a large box and the walls were glowing with a dull light. Kari was wearing a weird looking red feathered gown. Kura had no recollection that she was in possession of such a dress before. Kura later noticed she was wearing the same red feathered gown.
"Where are we?" Kura telepathically said to Kari. Kari did not reply back and Kura can sense her fear growing exponentially...
"...One of the reason they have such high magical Potential index was due to them having telepathic bonds." Raizan was started to recreate suspension and wheels suitable for desert travel. The lightning engine redesign was a success and he decided to work with Feng to create a proper off-road four wheel jeep.
Sen caught up with the duo after the salvage hunt. He also told them the information that he "kindly" received from the bison mages.
"From the personal health records and various observer's reports, I believed they have long awakened to magic. They were able to communicate telepathically without saying a word to each other." Raizan flick his pen and the ball sized drone started to create the wheels.
"To a certain extent, they are able to know what the other twin was feeling. Hence Kari is Kura, Kura is Kari. They are two as one and will never be two separate individuals. Whatever Kari excels in, Kura can too. However, this is a double edged sword. They can feel double the joy as well as double the fear." Raizan continued to observed his drone
"We labelled such unique individuals as Sensatus Linkers. They are not exactly psychics since they are only linked to one individual in their lifetime. The irony of this is the evidence of twins being linkers are more rare than random strangers linking with each other. With Linkers being a rare occurrence, to have a case of twins as Sensatus Linkers equates to winning a lottery."
"Perhaps, I can now understand why their God Agni chose them as the prophesied children." Sen folded his arms as he leans on the jeep.
"Why so? Their high magical potential index and being linkers?" Feng sat on the jeep's hood and waited for the drone to complete its production of the wheels.
"Partially. Based on the information I received from the...erm.. interrogation, Agni is a god with two heads. Their personality for each face differs due to the duty and responsibility of the God of Fire. One head was kind while the other was vicious. I guess that could possibly be the reason why Agni decides to get Sensatus Linkers as the prophesied children." Sen started to help Feng to carry the wheels to the jeep.
"I guess they took children because they are spiritually more sensitive?" Feng questioned as he used a jack to lift the jeep.
"Definitely the case. That is also why we took children at the age of 10 for the magic assessment." Raizan started to review the cooling cloak that Sen acquired for them.
"Regardless, we need a plan to go against the Fire Clan of Agni. We are not able to go guns blazing like what we did in the Middle Age Plane. The Strider mobile walker is broken." Sen removed the wheels after the jack is up.
"Can't I try reconstructing it like what I did for this jeep?" Feng and Sen worked together to put the newly designed off road wheel together.
"You can give it a go, but I feel that it will strain you more than this jeep. You remembered how complicatedly modern those system consoles were." Sen started to remove the other three wheels.
"Heh, why worry? With my new powers bestowed by our only lord and saviour Haruyuki Sen, all we need is a small strike team to get back those girls while kicking the bison mages asses." Raizan had a tinge of sarcasm but a cup full of confidence to back his words.
"Then I will list out what I can do at the moment. We can share our abilities with each other so we can understand each other better." Sen knew most of their abilities via the character sheet the System gave but he still gave such a suggestion out for both of them to learn more about them.
"Why not?" Both Feng and Raizan became excited like kids waiting for their ice cream to be served. Sen started to speak first while fixing up the jeep with Feng. Raizan was at the side scribbling his notes electronically on his gauntlet.
