Chapter ten JOINED FORCES

All of the soldiers in the 47th battalion squad gathered in the HQ. The army general stood infront of them and told them the reason of the sudden call. "I have high expectations with this battalion. Our kingdom and civilian's safety depends on the outcome of the operation. The one who will leading you is a man I just give respect yesterday. Come on out, Major Ranga Valhalla from the Aerial squad!", General Zacharov said. Ranga went beside him and saluted. He faced the astonished crowd, "Do not fret after seeing me. I may be a man who just graduated as a soldier few months ago but you can trust me. I may not be worthy of respect but I didn't need that anyway. I just need you to lend me a hand on protecting our dear kingdom from exploding. Please, help me and let us all win this together", Ranga said and bowed at them. The Garrison squad saluted and yelled, "We'll be in your care, Major Valhalla!". The Aerial squad also did the actions and the Medic squad followed. It took some time before the Frontliner squad and the Naval squad did the same thing. Ranga smiled, "Thank you, for the trust you gave me...". The operation has begun and the formation plan went smoothly. The Naval squad was in charge of the coast while the Garrison squad will be protecting the borders because the Frontliner squad will be the ones to deactivate the bomb if it was found by the Aerial squad. Some of the medic soldiers will be going with them in case of ambush. While locating where the bomb is, Ryleigh noticed a Vastia soldier wandering the woods alone. He went down and followed the guy. The man looked around to see if someone followed him and didn't seem to notice Ryleigh. The he entered a cave that made Ryleigh suspicious of what's inside and decided to go inside and take a peek. The thing that they have been locating was there surrounded by the enemies so he hid inside a barrel that's beside him to look for more information. Two men passed by him while discussing something, "With these bullets, we can finally take down the real enemy... ". That was the words that he heard from those man. 'Real enemy? So they have other enemies beside us... these vastians really love war', Ryleigh thought. He couldn't get any info so he went back to the others reporting to Ranga what he saw. The temporary aerial major commanded the Frontliner squad to surround the cave. "Can we outnumber them? ",Ranga asked Ryleigh. "Yeah, I'm sure we can. There are only a few of them. They didn't seem to pay attention on the security. How dumb of them...", Ryleigh replied. They all went inside and killed their foes and then tried to deactivate the bomb but not a single one of them has ever seen or touched an atomic bomb before since it's been banned by the king. "What are we going to do now? If the Vastia soldiers notices that no one came back to their base then they'll come here with reinforcements", Yasui said to their leader. Ranga looked all over the place finding the blueprint and he found it in one of the dead soldier's pocket. The problem is that they couldn't understand a thing at all. Ranging with anger, Liezel was about to kick the bomb when somebody stopped her,"Don't kick it unless you want to explode to pieces...". The Ephitalia soldiers turned their backs to look at the one who saved them from near death. It was the major, Parrish who was trying to catch her breath. "Major! What are you doing here?!", Ranga said concerned of the girl who knew about her condition. "I came here after knowing about the operation. You are dumb to say that it will succeed without having the knowledge of deactivating an atomic bomb", the girl said heading towards the bomb. She punched it hard making the cave vibrate and put her hands inside the bomb. She then took them out holding ripped wires. "The bomb is now inactive. Do the rest...", Parrish said before fainting. Luckily, Conrad was quick enough to catch her. The others planted bombs all around the cave and went away from the cave. The cave soon exploded making rocks fall everywhere making Eiel and Erix create a barrier for protection from the rocks. After that, they all raised their hands shouting for the victory they had. Conrad tried to do that too but he was carrying the major in bridal style. They all went back to the HQ to announce the successful operation. "Err... What is major Parrish doing here? I thought she was injured? ", the army general asked as he saw the major in Conrad's arms. "She came to deactivate the bomb. I forgot about that part so we nearly made a mistake but the major came to us on the right time. I apologize for the mistake that happened, sire! I swear that it'll not happened again. I'll accept punishments for that", Ranga said saluting to the army general. The old man patted the boy's shoulders, "There's no need for punishments, boy. The most important thing is that your plan led us to succeed without the tactician's help. The kingdom is now saved and the civilians will not worry anymore. You made me respect you even more. There will be a celebration tonight at the HQ and the whole 47th battalion is invited. Thank you for your hard works", the army general said and bowed at Ranga making the boy startle at his actions and the others grasp in surprise. The commander and Medic squad major came running towards them in panick. Sorano grabbed the unconcious girl and shaked her hard that made the girl wake up. "Sora...stop that. I'm trying to sleep here", Parrish said closing her eyes again. "You made us worry, little girl! You suddenly disappeared from my side and we had to look all over the kingdom just to find you here with an unconcious state. We also thought you fell and landed somewhere so we had to go back. You're going to die a few days if you keep doing that! ", Sorano said angrily scolding at the unbothered girl. "I don't fear death. Don't worry about me and let me die in peace. Staying away from me would be a great help...", she replied looking at Sorano straight in the eyes. Sorano continued scolding at her while the others are just watching at the scene infront of them. Sorano grabbed Parrish's right hand and dragged her towards the gate. "Um, major Sorano, I think it will be good for her if she will be carried regarding her condition", Ranga suggested. "Don't worry, Rang. Sora knows what she's doing. She was helping me die a painful death. ", Parrish said glancing at him. They all sweatdropped while the commander facepalmed. "Stop having dark thoughts! You always do that and its been giving me nightmares", Gilbert said at the girl. "Anyway, we have to take you to another mage doctor since Sorano can't help you. Let's go back now..", Gilbert said and walked beside the mage doctor. They were ready to leave when Parrish stopped walking and froze. "What's wrong, Parrish?", Sorano asked. She then coughed up blood and gripped her chest. "Ow...so this is what pain feels. I hate this feeling....", the bluish-white haired girl said while fainting again.