TF Amethyst

TFA1 1.6 - Second Rescue

Grassland 26 km northwest of the settlement.

Every time he saw his wife who walked like a living corpse, Tulla felt as if his heart was crushed into pieces. Tulla and his wife had survived many unbearable hardships throughout their life, but this time his wife hit her limit.

This morning mount bandits came to their settlement. At first, they thought the bandits were only targeting valuables and foodstuffs. Unfortunately, they were also slave hunters. The first thing they did after gathering the villagers was executed elderly and toddlers who were deemed would be hindering their journey.

Tulla and his wife were desperately trying to protect their two-year-old son, but their efforts were in vain. The bandits deliberately beheaded their crying toddler right in front of them. The light of life instantly vanished from his wife's eyes, and Tulla could only curse the gods in heaven who were silent when misfortune befell his family and all the villagers.

'I hope Reem and the other kids manage to find a way to survive.' Tulla prayed inwardly while awaiting an opportunity to seize one of the bandits' weapons. 'I should send my wife first before killing these bastards as many as I can.'

The life of a slave was much lower than animal, so Tulla had to make sure his wife avoided that fate. After calming his heart, Tulla then looked at the rope at his wrists. The bandits took positions in front and behind the villagers who were tied and connected to each other, so he could untie his hands unnoticed if he did it carefully.

"Tulla, use this."

Donda, one of Tulla's colleagues when he was serving in the military, whispered as he handed over a small knife. Donda also pointed out that the knots on his wrist were already broken, but he covered them by tightly grasping it.

"Nun will attract some of bandits' attention. Then, we will kill them, grab their weapons, and attack the bandits on the rear while the women run in all directions. After that, we can only pray some of the women will escape and catch up with the kids who ran to Desolate Land."

Tulla nodded slightly, but inwardly he felt bitter. Currently, it was impossible for his wife's to escape. So Tulla could only strengthen his resolve to kill her and then fought to the death.

Before long, a signal was given that the men were ready to act. However, just a moment before they started, a group of people in green clothes suddenly appeared from their left and brandished odd-shaped sticks at the bandits.

Ra-tatar… ratatar…  ratatar!!

As flames burst out from the odd sticks and deafening sounds rang out to all direction, the bandits tumbled and fell to the ground like sandbags. With a neat and coordinated movement, the people in green then separated the bandits from the villagers.

"Tulla who are they?" Donda asked in a half-whispered while his face looked very worried.

"I also do not know."

Tulla replied shortly while his gaze was fixed on the two bandits who managed to escape and spur their horses with all their might. At the same time, a person with a smaller fire stick whistled and pointed at them.

Two people in green immediately stood side by side and pointed their fire sticks towards the two escaping bandits. Then, a short streak was heard and the two bandits in the distance fell to the ground.

"A very powerful weapon and they combined it with a neat coordination."

Tulla murmured while trying to calculate if he had to fight the people in green, and his face instantly turned pale because the result would be much worse compared to the fight against the bandits.

While Tulla was immersed in contemplation, the men in green casually finished off the bandits who were moaning or crawling, regardless of their cries of surrender. It didn't need a smart brain to realize that they were familiar with killing and fighting. A few seconds later, the vicinity was clear of living bandits. Every single of the bandits had lied motionlessly on their own pools of blood.

"Is anyone hurt?"

With a loud but casual voice, the man in green with shortest fire stick asked the villagers, who answered by shaking their heads rapidly.

"The honorable Ser Benefactor, may we know who are you?"

With a respectful tone Tulla asked, and the answer he got was,

"My name is Lieutenant Lambert, I cannot provide further information without authorization from my superiors, but I can tell you that my unit has order to hunt down bandits who attacked a small settlement 20 km southeast of this place this morning."

"That’s our settlements."

"Yes, one of my squads already eliminated six bandits hiding in the settlement and six others hiding in the small forest west of the settlement. They also found a pair of sibling, Sith and Ruth, the two were hiding under a horse stable."

"Ah...!"

A woman shrieked under her breath before walking forward with hasty steps, along with a middle-age man.

"Are our children all right?"

"At first they kept crying while calling out to you, but the personnel who found them managed to calm them down. So you don't have to worry, Ma'am."

"Praise the gods in heaven, praise the gods in heaven...." said the woman before sobbing on her husband's chest.

"Sun will down soon, and Gray Wolf will be active shortly after. We must return to the settlement."

The residents nodded, while in the distance several flying objects with windmills were approaching fast. The largest flying object was long and had two large windmills on top of it. While the other was shaped like a dragonfly or wagon, and had a large windmill on top and a small one on its tail.

The residents stuttered and some of them panicked, but Lieutenant Lambert managed to calm them down. Not long after that, the three largest flying objects lined up on the meadow 25 meters apart, while the smaller ones remained in the air with their noses pointed in all directions, like sentries who formed security perimeter.

Even though they were a little hesitant at first, the residents in the end were willing to enter the flying objects through the ramp door. Meanwhile, a few men took the bandits' weapons, and then rushed over to Lieutenant Lambert.

"We don't mean to deny Ser Benefactor good intentions, but some children managed to escape the Bandits raid and were highly likely heading east. We will go to pick them up," Tulla explained.

"Don't worry, our main unit is looking after them. Right now the most important thing is to return to the settlement as soon as possible."

In an instant, a big question mark appeared in Tulla’s forehead, but then he chose to comply with Lieutenant Lamber’s request. "We understand."

Actually, Tulla and the other men still had some suspicion on their helper. However, their suspicion was eased a little after they were allowed to board the flying objects while carrying the looted weapons.

"Can we trust them?" Donda asked in a whisper, to Tulla who was standing next to him.

"For now we have no other choice," Tulla replied softly.

--- 

Grassland 500 meters east of the settlement.

04:15, 31 Jan 2025

"Why is this happening to me?"

While looking up at the evening sun, Private Keane firmly held his HK416D at his chest. It was a posture that would have looked very dignified, if only on his left and right he had no two 3-4 year old kids who held the hem of his shirt tightly, one of them even happily sucked on her thumb.

Private Keane was not an animal lover, let alone a human child. He was the type of human who avoided complex and troublesome matters as much as possible.

For example, when his first girlfriend called in the middle of the night to pour out her heart, he didn't hesitate to break her up right away. While for his second girlfriend he left her because she forcibly asked him to go to the beach on a holiday where he intended to spend all day sleeping.

When he, Corporal Twig, and a colleague found two children hiding under the stables shivering with fear, all he did was give them two MRE Choco candies that happened to be in his pocket.

He did not give the candy out of affection or concern for the frightened children, but because he did not know what he had to do while his colleague and Corporal Twig desperately tried to calm the children down, who without warning started sobbing heavily.

Also, the candy he gave was actually the candy he didn't eat because he didn't like it.

Miraculously, the two frightened children immediately stopped their sob after they chewed the chocolate candy from Private Keane. They even looked at Private Keane with a happy, innocent, and clear gaze.

After that, the two kids followed Private Keane like a puppy follows its mother. They didn't even mind when Private Keane didn't stretch out his hand to hold theirs. Instead, they both took the initiative to grab the hem of his shirt.

Corporal Twig, who realized that Private Keane was not a human who could be relied on to look after two children, tried to prevent the tragedy that might occur, but the two children cried loudly when he tried to separate them from Private Keane.

In the end, Corporal Twig could only stop his intention. As for Private Keane, he wanted to cry a river but no tears came out. When Sergeant Heins and the rest of the squad saw Private Keane return with two kids on either side of him, they struggled to hold back their laughter. However, they then collectively round-up crackers, chocolates, candy, or snack-bars they had for the two kids who clinging tightly to Private Keane.

When he finally heard that the two toddler's parents would return soon, Private Keane immediately took the initiative to go to the landing site.

'Finally, freedom will return to me,' Private Keane muttered as he saw a helicopter formation approaching fast.

"Whoaaaah ...!"

Seeing the two children in his left and right staring at the helicopter in amazement, Private Keane took the initiative to explain, "The flying object is called Chopper."

"Chooo-ppper."

The youngest kid repeated Private Keane's words while her brother nodded his head.

Not long after the Chinooks landed, a husband and wife came out from one of the Chinooks and immediately ran towards Private Keane, or to be precise towards the two children who were flanking him.

The two children were stunned for a moment before running towards their parents, but both of them stopped at the third step, turning around and came back to tightly hug Private Keane's thighs before resuming their run towards their parents.

Both parents kept bowing and thanking Private Keane, while the young soldier couldn't help but felt awkward.

Sith and Ruth then followed their parents to the settlement, on the way the two took the time to turn to Private Keane and wave their little hands.

For some reason, Private Keane felt a deep longing for his parents when he saw this.

'Mum, Dad… I hope you are doing well on earth.’

*****