Chapter 198: Meeting the ESF
Under the cover of darkness, six heavily armed helicopters lifted off from one of the well-lit military bases in Esparia. Each helicopter carried two pilots and four soldiers who had been armed to the max, heading in two directions for executing a dangerous mission that was handed to them, one was headed towards the land border and the other to the water border close to the first, where a great massacre was already expected to have happened.
Although Athena deliberately called through the secure line from their land base and only talked about having some prisoners of war, she didn't specify where the prisoners originated from, as she wanted Esparia to still want to continue the war.
Because if the war were to end this way, Esparia would still have the delusion that they had lost merely because the other side turned out to be lucky and had hit them back in surprise, believing that they could win with enough preparations from their side.
She wanted to solve the problem from the very root and prevent it from ever raising again.
The helicopters heading to the land war theater were the first to arrive after a forty-five minutes long flight. At first, they were expecting to be able to see the ongoing fight with the barter trade of bullets taking place, however, nothing of such sort could be seen which in itself was weird and scary.
In fact, the whole scene before them looked deserted.
"Ground Base, this is Recon-1. Over!" The leading helicopter pilot tried to establish communication with the ground base.
"Ground Base, Recon-1 on approach. Requesting radio check. Over." The pilot repeated his attempt to establish communications with them once again.
"Ground Base, this is Recon-1. We are within visual range. Requesting immediate contact. Over." He repeated the communication establishment request for the third time and when he received no reply after waiting for a short period, he immediately said, "All Recon units, this is Alpha 1. Standby in a holding pattern above the vicinity of the base. Maintain radio silence until further notice. I'm going to establish communication with the Home Base to inform them about this. Over."
Beta: "Copy, Alpha 1. Holding in position and maintaining radio silence. Over."
Gama: "Roger that, Alpha 1. Standing by and ready to support. Over."
Delta: "Affirmative, Alpha 1. Holding pattern and radio silence in effect. Over."
Alpha 1: "Good. Maintain visual contact with the landing zone and keep your sensors on high alert. We need to be prepared for any potential threats. Over." He reminded the pilots of the other helicopters to be careful, while immediately started to establish communication with the home base and informed them about what they had seen.
"Home Base, this is Recon 1, we're at the designated recon zone, but we've been unable to establish communication with Ground Base so far. It seems deserted. We've spotted unusual holes that should be the result of a large explosion. Over." He informed them at once.
"Copy that, Recon-1. Can you provide visual and photographic evidence of your discoveries? Over." The home base responded at once, asking for more information.
"Affirmative, Home Base. Activating the onboard cameras for documentation. Sending images now. Over." He responded, immediately starting the process of establishing data transfer with the Home base.
"Received the images, Recon-1. Excellent work. Maintain position until further notice and still remain cautious. We will analyze the data and advise your next steps. Over." The home base reported that they have received the images and ordered the pilots to remain on standby.
"Understood, Home Base. Standing by until fur........" he had just said till then, when...
"BRRRRRRRRRRRRR"
They were attacked by bullets that started raining on the helicopter all of a sudden, out of nowhere, hitting only the non-threatening part of the helicopter that was enough to make it incapable of continuing its flight but not bad enough to cause them to explode.
"MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY" All the pilots in the three helicopters entered an emergency response, controlling their helicopter they tried their best to make their landings as smooth as possible and reduce the amount of injuries they would be sustaining after the crash landing.
They started their emergency landing by detaching all the bombs and rockets that they had brought in preparation for an attack and ditching their external fuel tanks which they had brought in preparation for long operations, however, now they were nothing more than additional firewood that would cook them if it exploded upon their emergency landing.
And thanks to them taking that measure and their expertise that was honed over a long period of time, they managed to land alive, albeit not completely unharmed, the injuries were light enough as they survived and managed to get off the helicopter with nothing threateningly harmful.
"Welcome!" That was the first word they heard after they had finished thanking god for keeping them alive.
The soldiers among the group immediately raised their guns, pointing them in the direction where the sound had come from.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," came a response as they noticed that about fifteen people, who from head to toe were completely donned in futuristic-looking gear, had their guns pointed at them, at the same time, the opponents fired their guns in unison without any further warning, resulting in their bullets to break the guns in the hands of the soldier, causing them to have a mini heart attack as they were both scared for their lives and at the same time impressed with the coordination among these soldiers.
The situation grew tense as the two sides faced each other, uncertain as to what lay ahead.
However, after a moment, the pilots and the few soldiers immediately raised their hands in surrender while the afraid Alpha 1 asked, "Who are you guys?" having trouble remembering any country to have such futuristic-looking gears.
"(ESF) Eden's special forces," one of them answered and then they immediately started handing each of the survivors a black zip tie-looking device and at the same time instructed, "Put them on or you will be forced to do so."
Following the instructions, the Esparian soldiers put their hands at the center of the ziptie-looking device which automatically closed themselves, fitting to the size of their hands at the same time, giving them a sensation as if they had lost all the strength from their bodies, scaring the shit out of them.
This sudden loss of strength had more to do with the zip ties using the nervous system in their hands to force the brain into putting a limiter on the strength of the people wearing them.
Following that, they were immediately escorted to a military truck that had arrived a few moments ago, indicating that it was specifically brought for carrying these new prisoners.
As for the those in the helicopters that had headed to the waterfront, they were met with the same fate, the only difference being that they had to swim for a few meters before a boat came to rescue them, it was at that time that they were handed the zip tie 2.0 before they were even offered blankets to shield themselves from the freezing breeze in the ocean.