Revamped: Fall of Italica & The Riskiest Rescue That Was Expensive

The Empress

"This shit looks just like chicken scratch," I argued with Reagan.

"Yeah, but do you know what this is?" she asked me.

"No, I do not."

I read through the paper and just saw lines arranged at different angles. I asked:

"Do you know what it actually says?"

"It says that these are transfer orders for the Empress," she explained.

"Empress?"

"That's their structure of government. An empire to say the least with an empress and everyone else under them, but they do have a senate."

"You know a lot about politics."

"They made me take classes for their language and politics."

She started to mouth the message while staring at the paper intensely. She was translating it on the fly. She mentioned:

"It looks like they moved her out on a convoy to Rondel this morning."

She went back to the paper and continued:

"There's an airfield there being used by the enemy. It says that she's going to be flown over to their country's capital for some sort of public event."

"More like a political hostage. Fuck, they might even execute her. We gotta tell the base of this. If we can recapture the Empress, we might make this a huge deal."

Reagan grabbed a spare piece of paper and quickly scribbled down everything important. She handed it over to me and I ran outside. In front of the palace, I saw Howie fiddling with the radio so he could call back to the American base. He caught a glimpse of me and asked:

"What's got you so worked up?"

"I need you to get a message over to Alnus Base right now."

"Yeah, just a second."

He fiddled with a couple of dials and arranged the antenna in a different direction. He handed me the handpiece and said:

"The connection is sort of unstable. I'll try to keep you online for as long as I can."

I placed the handpiece to my ear and heard whirring. I asked, "This is Pratt McConnell of US Navy SEALs. This is a message to all of the nations of the world."

There was a moment of silence before I heard an American radio operator on the other end reply:

"We hear you loud and clear Pratt. Send your traffic over."

"We have confirmed intel about a prisoner transfer involving the Empress of the Rose Empire. They're moving her to the city of Rondel. The ETA of that convoy is 1900 hours. She will be moved out of the continent by the end of tomorrow."

"Off of the continent?"

"They're going to use her as a political hostage most likely."

I heard scribbling over the line and the radio operator answered, "Are there any details about the convoy?"

I took a glance at the paper. "It seems to be like a truck of their sorts. A SAM system. Then, maybe a couple of APCs."

I heard more scribbling and the radio operator stated:

"I'll give this information to the war room as soon as possible."

The line died and Howie was still fiddling with the dials. The whirring of the static became louder. Howie messed with the dials in frustration. He cursed under his breath while trying to re-establish a connection. The whirring only got worse.