Chapter 13: Liberation

The present:

"This one is my favorite part of the story…"

"Why? What happened?"

"It happened on September 28, 1935… The liberation of Riverwood"

"Riverwood? You mean your squad finally liberated Riverwood?"

"Yes… After losing it on March, we were finally ready to take back what was ours!"

Flashback:

Let me start at the beginning… We were gathered at the usual meeting room.

"Alright guys!" Croix said

Oh right. By that time, Croix was back to his old self… Well somewhat, at least...

"I have some good news!" he said

"What is it?" Cooper asked

"We'll be returning to Riverwood!" he replied

"What!?" Cooper said "We're finally going to liberate Riverwood!?"

"Yes…" Croix replied "… While most of the militia and the regular army are attacking the Imperial HQ in Ghirlandaio fortress, we were given the honor of liberating our hometown!"

"Yes!" Cooper said "Finally!"

Everyone was clearly happy with the mission… I think if Flunky and Morris were alive, they'd be happy to hear about this mission too…

"Now then…" Croix said "Let's make this mission a success! Let's free Riverwood! For Flunky and Morris!"

"YEAH!" we shouted

Back in the present:

"With our morale high, we began our long march to Riverwood"

"Did the mission go smoothly?"

"… We…uh… ran into an obstacle in the way…"

"What do mean?"

Flashback:

We reached the outskirts of town within a few hours. Last time, we were powerless to stop the Imperials from taking our town…

Me, Paul and Croix volunteered to scout out the town.

"Several troopers by the bridge… 2 tanks by the riverbank…" Paul said as he continues to observe the Imperial soldiers

One Imperial soldier in particular caught our attention.

"That's…!" Croix said "Tulius…"

That's right… Lt. Tulius was in Riverwood and we were willing to bet that he was the commanding officer of the Imperial forces occupying it.

"Croix…" Paul said in a worried tone

"Don't worry…" Croix replied "I won't go berserk… We gotta make sure that everything goes well here in Riverwood… This is for Flunky and Morris after all…"

"I hope you're gonna live up to your words…" Paul said

"I will" Croix replied

We later returned to our base camp by the hill to report what we've seen.

"Should we go with a full-on assault?" Croix asked "With most of the Imperial forces focusing in defending Ghirlandaio fortress, the enemy presence in Riverwood is thin"

"Yeah…" Emilia said "But… Don't forget Lt. Tulius is there. I know just what kind of commander that man is… He's ruthless and cunning. Even if the enemy presence is thin, Prince Maximilian wouldn't have put him in charge for nothing. Lt. Tulius is someone we must never underestimate…"

"You got a point…" Paul said "…This man has outsmarted us twice already… A third one may be our last…"

"So what do you guys propose we do?" Croix asked

"How about the underground tunnels?" I suggested

"The tunnels?" Croix said "That's right! The tunnels! We can do the same surprise attack we did back in March!"

"But will it work the second time?" Cooper wondered

"We'll see…" Croix said "So here's the plan: Elena, Rick, Emilia, Sonia and Cooper will create a distraction by the bridge and attract as many of those Imperials bastards as they could. In the meantime, me, Aster, and Paul will use the tunnels to enter the town. We'll emerge near the orphanage. Paul will take a sniping position by the bell tower while me and Aster raise hell from behind. You guys ok with the plan?"

"Yeah!" We all said in unison

"Right then! We strike in 10 minutes!"

At about 2pm, we executed our plan, Me, Croix and Paul entered the tunnels through the hidden entrance near the hill while the rest created a diversion. As we traversed the tunnels, we could hear the fighting ensuing on top of us and just like before, the Earth was shaking all around us.

"Just like in March eh?" Croix said

"Yeah… Tell me about it" I replied

But traversing the tunnels didn't go as planned. As we reached an intersection, we encountered an Imperial squad. It was quite a surprise. We never expected the Imperials to discover these tunnels. Nonetheless, we had no choice but to engage the enemy squad before they could alert their allies. It was taking longer than expected as the close quarters made it difficult to shoot but we managed to eliminate the squad before they could alert their allies about our plan. Just then, Emilia called us via the radio.

"Where are you guys?" she asked

"We encountered an Imperial squad in the tunnels…" Croix replied "We got delayed a bit but we're back on track…"

"I hope so…" she said "because we're taking a lot of fire! Enemy forces are thin, my ass! Looks like there's an entire battalion over here!"

"Stay calm! We'll provide support shortly!" Croix said

"Come on!" Paul said "We better hurry!"

We quickly made our way to the exit and emerged near the orphanage. I took a quick peek at it and I saw that all that's left of our old home was nothing more than a pile of burned wood and twisted metal… But I had no time to be sympathetic… Paul quickly made his way to the bell tower while me and Croix began our assault from behind. It went according to plan. We managed to surprise the Imperials and completely decimated them. We gathered by the town square to analyze the situation.

Despite our successful flanking strategy, I had this feeling that something was wrong. No, it was more like I knew something was wrong… The victory was too easy… not to mention that Tulius is missing.

Just then, we heard Lt. Tulius speak through the speakers placed around town.

"Well…well…" he said "The 'brave' Gallians from Malberry are here! Oh and it looks like, Major Lualdi has betrayed the Imperial army… Did you really think that taking this town would be so easy? Well… you're about to be proven wrong…"

Just then, I saw Shadow emerge from a destroyed building. He threw a couple of grenades at us. Acting quickly, we scrambled and took cover. Elena tried to cover us with her tank but Shadow managedto damage the Ragnite generator, disabling her tank

There was a moment of silence… No shots, no explosions… nothing… It was quiet… I decided to take a peek and as I slowly raised my head to check the surroundings, a sniper narrowly missed landing a bullet on my head. I quickly collapsed behind cover.

"There's a sniper!" I shouted

Then, another shot narrowly missed my left arm

"Make that two!" I shouted

"What do we do?" Cooper said

Before Croix could think of a plan, the enemy began throwing grenades near our position. It was clear they were trying to flush us out so the snipers have a clear shot at us.

"We have to move!" Croix said

"Are you insane?" Cooper replied "There are snipers here!"

"You got a better idea?" Croix said "They're throwing grenades at us! We'll be blown to kingdom come if we stay here!"

"I got an idea" Paul said "Someone, try to get the sniper's attention, once they're focused on you, I'll find em and kill em!"

"That's a good idea" Croix said "I'll be the bait!"

Before any of us could react, Croix quickly stood up and began to draw the sniper's attention towards him. The snipers began to open fire on Croix and luckily, he was able to evade most of the shots and this gave Paul enough time to spot and kill both snipers.

After neutralizing the snipers, Shadow emerged from his hiding spot and engaged the entire squad in hand-to-hand combat. It was a fierce fight as he was even able to dodge our bullets. Shadow then drew two knives and charged towards me.

Acting quickly, Emilia acted as a human shield and he stabbed her left shoulder. Wasting no time, I drew my pistol and shot at the man. I managed to graze part of his mask. With that, the man retreated, disappearing into the dark alleys. I quickly drew my attention towards Emilia whose shoulder was bleeding.

"Rick!" I said "We got an injury!"

Rick began to treat Emilia's wound

"Don't worry…" he said "The wound is not that serious…"

"Emilia are you ok?" I asked

"You idiot…" She replied "I'm not dying!"

"I'm glad you're alright too…" I said in a sarcastic tone

"Hate to break your little love fest..." Cooper interrupted "But we're in the middle of a battle right?"

"WHAT!?" Emilia said as her face turns red "I-it's not like that!"

"Sure it is..." Elena said in a playful tone over the radio

"I'm telling you it's not like that!" Emilia shouted

Before the weird conversation continued any further, the sound of whistling bullets shocked us back into reality. Luckily, Elena was able to somehow repair her tank and we continued on our mission.

With Shadow gone, we began our push towards town hall. Taking town hall proved to be another difficult task as the Imperial forces were properly entrenched in their sandbags. Not to mention that there were more snipers in the area…

Back in the present:

"Were you able to recapture the town?"

"Of course we did… It took a while, but we managed to overpower the Imperial defenders."

"Did you find Lt. Tulius?"

"Unfortunately, he wasn't in town hall… He must've escaped sometime during the fight…"

"How about Shadow?"

"After grazing part of his face, he never showed up again; I'd presume that he left town after that…"

Flashback:

At sunset, me, Croix, Cooper and Paul were at the hill facing the town.

"We finally did it…" Croix said "…Riverwood's free"

"Yeah…" Paul replied "…Flunky and Morris would be really proud…"

"Although they would have wanted to see the town liberated themselves…" Cooper said

"…It's ok" I said "… We honored their memory by fulfilling our promise"

As we watched the sun set over our little town, our attention was suddenly turned towards the West… A blue pillar appeared to where Ghirlandaio Fortress should be.

"What the hell is that blue light?" Cooper wondered

"Isn't it coming from the where Ghirlandaio Fortress should be?" Paul said "The militia and the army were supposed to capture that place right?"

"I have a bad feeling about this…" Croix said

Despite the fact that we finally liberated our hometown, we had no time to celebrate. We later found out that the Imperial Valkyrur created a huge explosion that destroyed Ghirlandaio Fortress and its surrounding areas… Hardly anyone survived…

After reports of the blast came to HQ, we were quickly recalled back to Randgriz.

Maximilian had one last card to play and the next battle would have decided Gallia's fate…