Justin arrived at Hood Hill shortly after Eric and walked the convoy. He had changed from his traveler’s attire into OCPs. A soldier saluted him as he approached, and Justin stared blankly at the soldier before shaking his head and nodding. He returned the salute. "Good morning, Specialist. Hey, do you know where Master Sergeant Dryer is?"

"Yes, sir. He should be at the front of the line."

"Thank you."

Justin walked to the front, finding Eric talking to Michael.

"I’m telling ya man. Ayeolla is gonna wear me down talking about all this statescraft bullshit." Michael said. He was on his fourth cigarette of the day. "She wants me to be noble like, and I’m just like ’I’m a farm boy from Texas’. I don’t know shit about which noble to greet at a goddamn ball."

Eric laughed, patting the man on his back. "You married the princess of a goddamn country bud. What did you expect."

He turned to his right and saw Justin approaching. "The kid’s coming."

Michael turned toward Justin.

"Good morning Sir, Master Sergeant." Justin said, standing at attention and saluting Michael.

Eric sighed, and Michael shook his head.

"Cut that out, bud. We don’t do that here."

Justin stared at Michael.

"But a specialist just..."

Eric laughed. "The Joes know you’re new, so they’re probably gonna fuck with you."

Justin nodded, looking around. Two E-4’s sat against their humvees, laughing.

"I see."

Eric checked his watch. "Alright, get the NCO’s and officers together. We move out in twenty minutes, I need to speak with them first."

Justin left with Michael, and Hammond walked up to the truck. He sat against the hood and pulled out a can of chew.

"Aren’t you a little too old for that?" 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Hammond chuckled. "I’ve been blown up, and now you’re worried about me doing chew still? What are you, my mother?"

"Technically."

"When you were in diapers, I was in Iraq." Hammond said, putting his can away.

"Damn, you’re old."

Justin and Michael returned, a group of officers and NCO’s behind them.

"Alright, check it out. We have three villages to evacuate. We do this in one day. You are to make contact and inform the locals. Offer them to get in the trucks. If they don’t want to leave, that is their choice. When your trucks are loaded, you come back to Freedom town and put them in the hotel. We will pay for their stay. Any questions?"

A sergeant in the back walked forward. "What do we do if there are more villagers that want to leave than our vehicles can hold?"

Eric rubbed his chin. "If that does happen, you unload at Freedom town, then head back."

"Team Alpha, you will head out with Captain Stryer to Hevelton village. Bravo, you’re with me and Lieutenant Hewitt. We’re hitting Diarya Village."

Eric heard a few groans and glared at the parties responsible. "I don’t give a fuck that you sorry saps got rejected by all the fox girls there, we’re still going."

Disgruntled murmurs answered him back.

Eric ignored them. "Charlie, you’re with First Sergeant Hammond. You will head to the Nuclear Facility. Let the personnel there know about what is coming. Gunnery Sergeant Light should be able to take care of the rest."

Eric checked his watch again.

"Move out."

Justin followed Eric to his truck.

"What was that about Diarya village?"

Eric sighed as he drove onto the main road.

"A few months after we arrived, we started setting up trade routes. Soldiers were able to get passes once we started getting fuel deliveries from Jonny."

His eyes flickered in annoyance when he mentioned Jonny.

"Well, apparently a large portion of the formation had one destination in mind. ’The fox girl village’. We had no clue it had an actual name until Kamer told Mia and I about it one day. Well, the joes go there every chance they get trying to woo the fox girls. I’d say maybe three or four of them have succeeded."

Justin looked out the window as they passed a Orange and White sign for a burger place. "You’re not fucking with me, right?"

Eric sighed. "I wish I was, kid. I wish I was."

Justin shook his head as they cleared the outskirts of Washington D.C. "In school they told us that we would evacuate villages ahead of large battles in Iraq. A lot of the locals would have pushback and either be captured or killed because they made contact with us. Are we doing something similar? Like, will we actually leave people behind?"

Eric gripped the wheel firmly.

"That is unfortunately the nature of the beast. I am sure that in the Empire they will force people to evacuate, but here? We have to leave people to do what they want."

Justin looked up. "So, we leave them to die?"

Eric nodded. "All we can do is give them a choice. What they do with that choice is up to them. Will we have to come back and clean up the mess? Probably. We have to let the people decide for themselves. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink."

Justin sat in silence for the rest of the drive.

They arrived within view of the village, and Justin narrowed his eyes. "That doesn’t look like any of the villages I saw in the empire."

Eric laughed. "Well, yeah. About half a year ago, a construction company began to do work in all of the villages and towns around Riemskin. If a family could afford it, they would get better houses for dirt cheap prices compared to Earth."

Eric turned the truck off, getting serious. "Now, the village chief is an older man like Kamer. His name is Freliet. He is pretty polite and friendly, but do not bring up the Empire. He lost his daughter to the slave trade twenty years ago."

Justin nodded, grabbing his weapon.

"Roger."

Eric got out of the truck, seeing Freliet approaching. The man towered over Eric, his red tail whipping behind him, and his ears pointing up. "Eric! How are you, my friend! I hope Mia and the baby are doing well, how old is Liara now? Six months? Seven?"

Eric smiled, shaking the older man’s hand. "Thank you for the roses. Mia loved them. And yeah, Liara is seven months old now. Can you believe she is already crawling?"

Freliet smiled, clapping Eric on the back. "Good to hear, my friend. Come, come. Julia has been wanting to hear baby stories. You must come inside and have tea."

Eric shook his head. "I’m afraid that won’t be possible, Freliet. We have news, and it isn’t good."

Freliet narrowed his eyes. A crowd was starting to gather around him. Soldiers stood at parade rest besides their vehicles, and a fox girl glared at one of them.

"Is it related to that gold rope we saw in the sky a few days ago?"

Eric nodded.

Freliet dropped the smile and looked around. "Come inside. I assume we have much to discuss."

Eric turned to Justin. "Have the soldiers stand by their vehicles. No one moves until I come back and give the order."

"Roger."

Eric followed the Foxkin elder into his house. A slim woman was at the kitchen, brewing stew as they entered. She turned around, her ears perked as she recognized Eric.

"Eric! You are so skinny! What has Mia been feeding you!" She said with a frown after giving him a hug. She then noticed the look on her husband’s face. "I see you are not coming to visit." She murmured, taking her apron off.

"I’m afraid not, Julia." Eric responded as he sat down with Frielet.

The woman sighed after pouring tea for Eric and Frielet.

"And here I was hoping to see more baby pictures! Little Liara is so beautiful."

Eric smiled. "Thank you. If all goes well, you can visit our house sometime. Mia has been dying to ask you the recipe for your Treska stew."

Julia smiled and gave him one more hug before leaving the room.

Frielet sipped his tea before folding his arms across his chest. "Now, tell me. What is going on? Why have you come with so many vehicles? If it wasn’t you, I would have had my men at the ready."

Eric took his own sip, closing his eyes as the tea seemed to warm his body.

"A mana storm is coming, my friend. Mithrael used his power to bring someone personally from my old world to Brishan. Dragon King Tryasche said that this mana storm would be worst than all the others because it will be caused by divine mana."

Frielet put his tea down, staring at Eric.

"So you have come to ask us to evacuate?"

"Yes."

The foxkin stood, walking over to the window. "Your people have helped us greatly, my friend. We have better houses, and more food now. We also don’t worry about Cartharic coming to take us any longer. I haven’t left this village since my daughter was taken." Frielet grasped the counter top.

"I will do my best to convince the villagers to come with us, but I am sure there will be many who will not wish to leave."

Eric nodded. "That is the unfortunate reality of it."