Rescue the Sergeant

"Shit! The sarge fainted." Amelia accompanied by the rest of D-Squad saw Chain faint from his exhaustion. "What kind of bullshit are we even looking at?" The whole squad looked in astonishment at the carnage from a safe distance in the forest as they watched their squad leader being dragged away by what it seems to be medieval knights and bodies of weird-looking creatures surrounding them. When they were heading to Chain, command was in cofusion when they reported to them they heard an explosion. Amelia, Kretschmer and Sophia huddled around each other to come up with a plan to rescue their squad leader.

"We need to get our Sergeant back quick before anything worse happens." Corporal Kretschmer takes initiative as it was his role as 2nd in command to lead the squad if the current squad leader was absent.

"Yeah. Looks like we found us some aliens." Amelia recalls Kretschmer eager to find some aliens when they first landed.

"Come on, there's no time to be joking here," Kretschmer tells Amelia off for joking around in a pressing situation.

"I'm actually being serious here. So what, we found ourselves some cosplayers ON ANOTHER PLANET! How else can you explain the situation here and I'm pretty sure those things lying on the ground aren't props either." Amelia reinforces her judgement with the undeniable proof lying in front of them. Sophia nods in agreement with Amelia.

They were indeed in a situation where regular military protocol couldn't dictate what they should and shouldn't do. Neither of their training would prepare them for this. Kretschmer wanted to believe it but was still trying to comprehend the situation.

"Didn't Chain radio us to tell us to not hurt the 'knights' or something before he cut out?" Amelia recollects when they were running to their squad leader's position, they suddenly received a call from Chain talking about saving someone but they didn't understand what he meant at the moment. Looking at the scene now, they finally knew what he was trying to say to them earlier.

"I remember that now too... Alright, we can't waste any more time here. Hear me out, I got a plan, and it doesn't involve hurting the knights. As we can tell, there are four guarding that carriage behind them and one keeping an eye on Sergeant Chain. The one inspecting Sergeant Chain looks to be their commander. I suggest a quick hit and run, grabbing Sergeant Chain and the knight lady during our distraction. Putting away our rifles. We limit ourselves to physical attacks. Our battle armour should give us an edge over them in terms of strength and speed. Now you might be wondering why I suggested we take the knight too. We need information from her about what this world is and where better can we get this knowledge is by 'borrowing' her for some simple questions. " Kretschmer explains his plan to the rest of the squad. The other two female members look at Kretschmer with disgust as he phrased the word 'borrowing' the lady knight where they were actually just kidnapping her but orders are orders.

Without time to spare, D-squad agrees with Kretschmer plan. They take up their positions. Kretschmer will deal with the lady knight and carry the both of them away. Meanwhile, Amelia and Sophia will take care of the rest of the other knights to buy Kretschmer sometime.

"Operation Rescue Sergeant Chain is a go!" Kretschmer initiates the so-called 'operation'.

"Hey, I didn't agree to that name. I was thinking more of Operation Rescue the Dumbass Who Got Himself Captured in the First Place." Amelia butts in at Kretschmer's naming of the operation.

They run out of the forest at full force, splitting into two groups. The exhausted knights caught off guard hastily draw out their swords. By the time they did, Amelia and Sophia were able to get close enough to see their faces. The knights appeared to them looking very much like humans with indistinguishable features. Compared to the IFU soldiers, their faces were hidden under their helmets.

It was now a full-blown fistfight. The knights were unable to keep up with Amelia and Sophia's enhanced speed and strength thanks to their LS4 battle armour. While the four knights were distracted, Kretschmer confronts the knight commander. She pulls out her sword and puts up an impressive sword stance. Her eyes look at Kretschmer with fear yet she was able to keep her composure. This impresses Kretschmer. Taking a closer look at her, she seemed to be around 19 to him. This didn't dissuade Kretschmer to go easy on her.

Kretschmer aims to disarm her sword first. She puts up a fierce resistance avoiding his attacks. Emeryn's position as knight commander proves it wasn't for show. She parries his metal punch away with her sword. She returns with a few swings and slashes at him.

"Hey Kretschmer, we don't have all day here. Hurry it up!" Amelia screams out to him. Securing her has proven much more difficult than he had anticipated.

At that moment, Kretschmer remembers this one scene from an anime he watched where the main character caught a sword that was swung at him between his hands. He decides to try it as he has no options left. He waits for the right second to time it perfectly with her swing.

Emeryn swung her sword downwards excepting to slice the demon in half. She notices it doesn't make contact with her target and that Kretschmer's caught it between both his hand. Before she had any time to react, he grabbed her sword, tossing it away. Now left defenceless, he takes the opportunity with one decisive chop at her, knocking her out.

"Alright squad, I've grabbed the knight. Let's get out of here." Kretschmer says to his other squad members.

Kretschmer and the rest of D-squad run away with the knight and their squad leader back into the forest.

As they are running away, Amelia asks Kretschmer about how he blocked the knight's sword " Yo Kretsch, I saw how you blocked the knight's sword earlier. Where did you learn how to do that?"

Kretschmer hears Amelia's question but was reluctant to reply. Embarrassed to say that he saw it from an anime once.

"Ugh... An anime I watched when I was a kid." He says to her with a lack of confidence in that statement.

"Hahaha, that's so cool! I never watched anime before but that looked pretty awesome what he did back there." Amelia says.

Kretschmer was taken by how she just accepted what he said, expecting her to make fun of him. He guesses there's also that other kinder side to Amelia he has yet to see.

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D-Squad managed to lose their knight pursuers in the forest and made it back to their newly built outpost. A double-storey building with a military design. The second floor is equipped with reinforced windows, giving them a view of the outside.

They arrive at the front entrance and the door slides open for them

"Welcome back D-squad." The outpost's AI greets them as they walk in.

They place the knight in Kretschmer's room. He was not happy when he found out. For their squad leader Chain, they put him in his room.

When everyone sits down in the lounge area, exhausted from all the running and fighting, the AI tells them they are receiving a call from command. They all look at each other with worried faces. Kretschmer takes responsibility and answers the call.

"WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU GUYS BEEN DOING!" General Sherman with a loud voice yells through the speaker and startles them. He had been trying to contact them earlier but they didn't pick up.

"Ss...sorry sir, we were busy rescuing Sergeant and we um... took a knight too." Kretschmer studders as he tries to regain his confidence.

"... I see." General Sherman returns to his normal voice. " I heard from your reports that your squad heard a loud explosion nearby and your squad leader, Sergeant Chain, was the first to arrive at the scene. Am I correct?"

"Yes sir."

"Can you care to explain what happened when you arrived at the scene and from what I just heard you told me, you took a knight? For all my 26 years in service, this is the first time I have ever heard anyone say this to me. "

"While on our way to meet with squad leader Chain, he radioed us telling us to 'not harm the knights'. At first, we were confused about what he meant. When we arrived at the scene, we witnessed Chain faint from exhaustion in front of what is seems to be five medieval knights while surrounded by strange dead creatures. By the looks of it, he defended them before passing out. Not knowing what the knights would do to him, I took responsibility and decided with my squad to rush in and rescue Chain, while honouring his word to not harm any of the knights. We avoided using our rifles and used our fists instead. Our LS4's gave us the upper hand. I also decided it was to be a good idea to grab what seems to be their commander. Hoping to gain any information from her. In the end, we managed to escape the scene with both of them without leaving a trace of where we were headed, not leading them back to our outpost. Chain is currently is in his room and the lady knight is in my room with the both of them unconscious for now. To be honest general, the knights we fought looked just exactly like humans."

"Did you just say the knight was a woman?"

"Yes general, she looks around 19 sir. She put up a good fight with me."

"Hmmm, interesting. To think that Orgon-4c would have alien life, let alone them looking so similar to us. *Sigh* Why couldn't this be an ordinary planet. The rest of the other senior members are going to have a difficult time deciding what to do now. The rest of the colony ships are already on their way and we can't just tell them to go back after we've discovered this planet is inhabited. Well, that's for us senior councilmen to decide. You guys did a good job in handling the situation."

"Thank you, sir." Kretschmer didn't expect the general to compliment his squad. Rather he was expecting some harsh words from him.