America Stranded in a Fantasy World

Chapter 12 "Knights In Ceramic Armor"

CHAPTER 12

"Knights In Ceramic Armor"

June 24th, 2040, 1:21AM: Proximity 9 miles outside Hoffen City

Special Forces Section Whiskey 0-1 - Callsign 'Dagger'

About a foot above the treeline, three Back-Hawk helicopters made their way towards Hoffen City. Inside the right Black-Hawk, the Green Berets were again going over their weapons with their squad leader. Commander of the other two teams, Captain Mason, was looking at a digital map of The White Palace on his wrist. As usual, Mason wanted to cross every 'T' and dot his 'I's.

"Question commander." A Green Beret spoke up. One of the younger men, easily identified by his full black balaclava and opaque goggles.

"What's up Ghost?" Mason broke his gaze from the map to face him.

"Just so I'm one-hundred percent correct here. If we run into weaponized magic, we are to immediately disengage?" Ghost asked while tilting his head slightly, seemingly still confused by the odd detail.

"That's correct Ghost, word from our friends in the CIA and siblings in the field is that there is magic capable of blocking small arms fire. The only person here who has a chance is Rose with that M107." Mason pointed to the woman near the helicopter's right door who returned a sly smirk.

"Finally enjoying what you see?" Rose replied, posing suggestively with the anti-material rifle. Ghost and Mason chuckled, leaving their fourth member to silently stare out the door window, his MK48 machine gun sitting between his legs.

"Raccoon shit in your bed again Leo?" Using her right foot, Rose bumped Leo's, making him jump slightly.

"No, it's just... I've been thinking about a good friend of mine in the SAS, even now I still send a few texts his way--and yeah I know we aren't on Earth, but a part of me just... doesn't want to accept it." Leo stared at his boots dejectedly, causing the mood inside the chopper to take on an even more depressive atmosphere.

"We've all lost someone because of the transfer Leo, and I'm willing to bet my life that whatever brought us here can return us back to Earth. But right now I need to know if your head is in the game; The future of America literally depends on it." Mason watched as Leo seemed to shake himself back into reality. "Oh I'm ready to kick ass Captain." Leo returned a smile.

Before Mason could say anything else, his right wrist buzzed. Twisting his wrist, he saw the device had notified him that they had just passed their second-to-last waypoint.

"Alright team, from the top!" Mason raised his voice by a few decibels, causing everyone to look his way. "We are tasked with finding and extracting American ambassador Aaron Bloomfield, First Princess Wiess Keitel and Second Princess Leyna Keitel; they have gone dark for just over fifteen minutes. The assumption is that they went underground. There are marines on the ground already but they can't reach their Black-Hawks due to exposure and unconfirmed reports of damage. Reports of magic have been confirmed, with top brass stressing to use extreme caution when engaging. We also received a priority message directly from the Joint Chiefs of Staff stating that the ROE (Rules of Engagement) book has been thrown out the window for this operation. 'Hammer' will be hitting the front door of The White Palace to pull attention away from us and 'Saber' as we flank the sides. Once we secure our targets, we will be moving to 'Extraction Zone Alpha', the rear garden. Should that zone be too contested we are to move to 'Zone Beta', an archery training area directly south of the main palace garden. If all zones are compromised, we are to initiate case-plan-Zulu where we will lay low in the city until extraction is plausible. Questions?" Mason relayed the mission once again. His teammates remained silent. "Outstanding." He smiled while grabbing his MK17 SCAR that was resting against his seat.