Book 3 - Stars
Part 2
This post is intended to be paired with Voyage of the Homebound (3.2)
CW: Violence, death
Callsigns:
Mik - Ethan Kaminski
Kak - Khosrov Barsamian
Sohn - AJ Kaminski
Lay - Salah Ali
Khaamza - Sally
Sunday, March 19th, 2023
Shuruq, Daabab 60th, 412
01:12
By now, the mines that the ADF had strewn all over the seafront had mostly stopped going off, although some of the very few mines placed within the city itself still popped every few minutes. Thank the deities they had made a map of them beforehand. Luckily, though, the mines had done their job: the forces from Mirhaime had been ground to a screeching halt as they were still too paranoid to move their armor at full speed. In addition, Yuraab Squad and the other teams like them dotted around Mukarras were still peppering the Fefsen and AVG forces with mortar fire. Enemy air support wasn’t an issue, at least not in the city, as the Federation’s anti-air was doing the job of deterrence. Or maybe WEGEC’s allies in Ymirodraeth hadn’t managed to get any air support for their operation. Both were distinct possibilities. Even still, though, Ethan Kaminski’s team was constantly on the move just in case enemy artillery were able to pin down their position.
Ethan, of course, was the one to jinx it. They had been in a building about a mile southwest of where they had started when Ethan realized that, despite the fact that they and their opponents were advancing towards each other, they hadn’t spotted each other yet. And then, of course, his radio crackled.
“Hey Mik, we got ADF forces on the way, over,” came AJ’s voice. Gods damn it, that couldn’t have been timed better if he was the character in a story and the author needed a semi-compelling way to start the conflict. But that, of course, was absurd. Ethan shook off his brief existential crisis and looked out the window. Sure enough, there were a couple of enemy soldiers headed up the road from the west. Using his binoculars to get a better view, he relayed what he saw to his squad.
“I’m looking at two engineers and three infantry. Lay and Kak, you keep working on the gun. Sohn, I want scopes on those soldiers. Over.” He turned to Sally. “Let’s get down to ground level. We need them taken out, stat,” to which the ursine girl nodded. Ethan grabbed his fed-issue SB15S5 from where it was resting, slung it over his shoulder, and headed down the stairs, with Sally close behind.
As they exited the building, Ethan hugged the wall and took cover behind a pillar, motioning for his compatriot to do the same. Just as he was about to risk a tap code to AJ, an explosion sounded from the distance, and he took the chance to dart across the narrow intersection, and hide in a market stall not far from the ADF soldiers.
“Damn,” said one of them in a deep voice, taking a drag off their cigar. “Glad that wasn’t us.”
“Will you be quiet, Rakiim?” another one piped up with a heavy twinge of paranoia. “We haven’t run into any rebels yet. You know there’s going to be one right around the corner, any second now!” The first one sighed heavily.
“Fine, I’ll keep it down, mom.” As this exchange was going on, Ethan looked up from his stall at the building that he and Sally had just come from. Checking that none of the ADF soldiers could see him, and hoping AJ could, he gave a countdown on his fingers.
3.
2.
1.
Suddenly, Rakiim’s head exploded, and he began to crumple. Not waiting another second, Ethan vaulted over the front of the market stall while drawing his combat knives, and swiftly and deftly sliced one soldier’s achilles tendon and slit another’s throat. On the other side of the narrow street, Sally simply grabbed the remaining two soldiers by the heads and slammed them together, knocking them both out. Suddenly, Ethan was deafened by a gunshot, his vision started to blur, and his head felt like it was about to split open. Luckily, he had heard the shot, which meant he was still alive, but none of his senses were having a particularly good time. He spun around and forcefully threw his knife directly into the soldier’s skull, but it was too late. Any other soldiers nearby would’ve for sure heard that, and they’d be running to investigate. Run, he tried to say, but no sound came out. As Sally just stared at him, he grabbed his own pistol and finished off both of the soldiers she had knocked out. What felt like 30 minutes later, but in reality was only about 10 seconds, the ringing left his ears, and he could finally
“Run!” He shouted, louder than he meant to. He tore his combat knife out of the body, and started running to the east, as Sally nodded and followed close behind. Energetically grabbing his radio, he pressed down the button and yelled into it. “Sohn, our position’s been compromised. What’s the ETA on that mortar, over?”
“ETA is approximately… now,” his sister’s voice crackled back. And sure enough, right as she said that, Ethan saw the smoke of the mortar from the top of the building, and heard the explosion from about a mile and a half west.
“Roger that. Make your way down however you can and rendezvous at Site D.”
“Understood.” Ethan clipped his radio back to his belt and looked over at Sally. “Let’s get moving. We should be able to outpace them, but we should take the alleys just in case.”
“Got it. Should we prep for a firefight?”
“Not yet. But… be on guard.”
“Sure thing, Kamma.” And with that, they kept running to the north.
Those were the first shots of the war, but unfortunately for everybody involved, they would not be the last.