Oslo, Norway
10:30 AM

The helicopter flight was a bit boring, but as we got closer to land my nerves got bigger and bigger. When the city appeared in our sight we could see once again pillars of smoke and fire, signals that the battle had already begun. On the ground, we could see the soldiers disembarking at the Opera House, while most of my passengers were nervous about the imminent battle, I was much more thinking about when that mechanical failure would occur that the angel warned me that I would have.

Suddenly one of the soldiers shouted that he could see soldiers of the empire in the mountains, just a couple of kilometers from where we were. He also began to shout even more, announcing that he had seen a soldier with an Igla, an anti-aircraft rocket launcher. As soon she finished speaking, the helicopter's computer warned me at the same time that it had been marked by infrared. I was the target of that weapon. Immediately yell for hold, launch the flares, and spin the helicopter violently in a desperate attempt to survive. In an act that I could only be described as a miracle, I saw that missile pass so dangerously close that I really thought that would be my end. But unfortunately, that was not the only thing the Empire had in store for me. Almost as I regained control of the vehicle, a stream of flashes began to come out of the ground in my direction. It was anti-aircraft fire from a C-Ram, an anti-aircraft machine gun. It had noticed my helicopter for some reason and was trying to shoot me down Once again, not wanting to give them the opportunity to kill me, I turned violently, but this time a couple of bullets hit the top of the helicopter. Although normally minor damage like that would not have been a problem, the helicopter's main rotor began to lose power. And suddenly at that moment, I remembered Stella's words again, that she would try to make it real by damaging the helicopter beforehand. Knowing that the vehicle would not go up again, I did my best to at least land in a safe place, but the lack of power made me lose control in the last moments and we ended up crashing in the train station behind the house of Opera.

The first is the first. Phoenix team is currently securing the perimeter near the helicopter, the Arkadia team is checking no one is injured by the landing and I pretend that I am trying to fix the rotor with a tool that I have no idea what it is called. In 5 minutes I will say that it is impossible and I will continue with my plan.

However, you will wonder why I am here fighting for a blue crystal unlike the others here. Well, that's a long story to tell right now with guns ringing in the background, but I have two reasons: The first one is that I already had it once and saw what it was capable of, we can say that is capable of making a wish true, at a really high price, that's why I can't let anyone know about her or have it. But even with those, it's not enough for me to be here. The real reason why is my younger sister, Maria. She was quite sick during her early years, then she was for a while with no more problems. But a few years ago the disease returned with more force. In exchange for helping the Angels with this, they are assured of their health. Normally they don't give help like this, but they need to go to someone with experience with the Codex, and by the way, they should have a favor for my past adventure.

So I would make the sacrifice that my father made to save Maria, not in vain. My father worked as a police officer, but when she got sick, he tried to do the impossible to save her too, which ended up killing him, when he did her secondary job as a bodyguard. According to what they told me, he was saving her employer's daughter from of the initial invasion of the empire.

Don't get distracted, there, that shadow moved, there is someone !!!

*BANG!*

He was the third sniper to kill in these 15 minutes.

It was sad to know what I just did and at the same time, I was glad that it wasn't me the one that had a new hole on the head. I find it terrifying that the angels manipulated the conflict just to get a chance to get the codex. But I also understand that they are also just as concerned with what may happen. They're just doing the best they can with what they have or maybe it was going to happen anyway and they just directed them to this place. We have advanced a lot despite the situation, normally moving in the middle of combat would take longer, we are still far from the research center, but it is going well. But as always no plan survives intact when it meets the enemy.

*BANG!*

A loud explosion shook the earth, it seemed it was close! Shit, that was where team Arkadia was.

We managed to make our way through the city to see what happened. We were all prepared for the worst, after all, if something happened to the Arkadia squad It would be worse for us. I was only a block away, but from here I could see the situation better. The truth is that we would have preferred to have to face something, but what we were seeing was not comforting us at all.

"Are you really an elite squad?" said one of my squadmates.

"This is just one more burden" added another.

They were right, this only confirms what we suspected when the commander said newly formed. The outlook was grim, half of the Arcadia squad was in pieces and the other was staring at what had just happened. They were a squad of special forces, the best that we had and the hopes of thousands of soldiers were with them, they had just come out of training without a doubt.

A landmine just below a dead man, which in turn had a speaker that would play a help sound. Some unsuspecting soldiers would run to help and moments later they would be two dead soldiers. Normally you learn to confirm if it is not a boobytrap, but newbies are the ones who are more likely to skip procedures on their nerves, and with that, a simple mine managed to kill 4 Arksuits. I am not an expert in what special things these teams have. But I have seen and fought alongside several users before but of course, it would have to be useless enough to allow themselves to die like that. Although now I have managed to see four. They sure will blame us for their incompetence, now we had to fix this situation and adapt to the now lack of personnel and rescue them.

"Very well the Rider team will bring an APC to transport the wounded out of here."
"They will pick us up in an hour near the research center"
"Until then we will have to take them with us and tend to the injured"

It was Captain Cedric, who saw the situation and quickly decided to re-establish order and help, he clearly knew what to do thanks to the experience he had acquired.

"I'm so sorry for the trouble we've caused" Akane apologized addressing the Captain.

Why is she so calm despite losing half of her team with a single mine? It is not at all normal if we take into account that her first mission, is that she was hysterical. People have died because of her bad decisions.

"There is little to go to the laboratory, we need all the people we can"
"Remember that" Cedric reminded her.

"Yes, I understand" she answered.

"Focus on getting out alive and everything else will work out" he stressed more.

After that Akane went to check on the wounded, but just as she left. One of our team approached Cedric to warn him.

"Sir, got a call from HQ" said the soldier.

"All right, who has the phone?"

He said before leaving to find who had the long-range communication system, I thought that would be all, but the soldier did not retreat, in fact, he approached me to speak too.

"Cesar right?" the soldier said to me.
"Stella gave us instructions to take you to a shelter so you can hide until your time".
"It seems that soon it will "rain" so much that the I.S.C will be forced to wait for a bit of calm to return, that is your moment to act".

"You're with them? Ok, received" I answered.

"We will leave an armored truck inside the I.S.C offices for your escape from the complex"
"You must try to reach the cowboy to the north to hide between the vehicles"
"For the extraction, you must reach the town of Bergen to the northwest, the vehicle has no fuel to get there, you will have to find another way halfway or get more gasoline. We believe that the Empire will take 4 days to get there so you have until then to get there" he told me.

"Nothing more?"
"You also don't want me to build a wall and win singlehanded all the war"
"Yes, of course, no pressure at all, almost nothing, too easy".

"Excellent as expected from a Special Forces!"

"It was sarcasm, idiot" I yelled.
"I know that people like you are used to the fact that everyone is a superhero and that anybody can achieve impossible things"
"But in the real world that does not happen, be prepared for what may happen, it may end up needing even more help"
"We better move on before I get angrier"

After this setback, we managed to resume our way to the Laboratory. As planned, the Phoenix team will make sure they are around protecting it from the Empire's soldiers. I stayed a little further behind, after all, I was still a pilot, not a soldier. Since they knew me as a good shooter, I stayed supporting as a sniper in a good place. The soldier who was with Stella prepared it for me, it was a good place to protect the entrance and exit from where the codex was It was a building of about 6 floors, not very tall compared to the ones around it but that makes it even better, since it will not be the first place to look for a shooter, it also looked particularly resistant, so I think that I would take one or two hits well, as long as I keep a distance from the windows I think nobody will get me out of here. But the command only allowed the Arkadia team to enter there. They certainly don't want you to know what is out there.