GATE (Thus the JSDF fought there): Breakthrough

Chapter 19: Regroup and Recover

The sun shined on the city of Italica. The bodies still littered the fields and the flooded farmlands, thousands of soldiers or what remained of them still floated in the water as Pina's soldiers dragged the bodies out and started to pile them on the dry land.

The outcome of the battle could've been worse, it turns out the LAVs barely had any ammo left, only a dozen or so bullets left.

Aiden stood at the northern wall, the bodies of Pina's soldiers and the Empire's soldiers were long gone. He could only do so much, yes he was an officer in the army as his past time before he joined the CIA, but he was never a frontline officer. He mainly allowed Mike and the other Marine sergeants to do their leadership work as it suited them more than him.

"Agent Hall. I'm glad to hear that you've survived." A voice peers from his phone, it was his employers.

"Barely." Aiden responded, relaxing on the wall.

"It's nice to know that Operation Breakthrough was a success. US forces are now running combined operations with the JSDF with the help of you and that task force." The voice speaks on the phone.

"It wasn't without sacrifice." Aiden remarked, taking a deep breath from Markus's death.

"I heard about the Sergeant. I'm sorry to hear about his passing." The voice replies. "But I assure you he will be remembered for his sacrifice. New intel just showed up as well."

Aiden kicks himself off the wall. "You have my ears open. Shoot."

"We suspect another gate has opened in Europe, specifically Russia. We don't know where their gate leads, but we have US Air Force pilots scouting around as well as drones to try and find the gate. If the gate is found, it will surely cause problems between our nation and Russia. You are our closest asset, meaning that it will be up to you to stop a war if tensions rise yet again." The voice explained.

"You can't send anyone else to help?" Aiden replied, a part of him was really annoyed, how was he supposed to stop a whole war? He doesn't even know Russian.

"All assets are currently in investigation on Earth, we're trying to contact Russia and see if we can try diplomacy so you don't have to be the one to stop a war. This takes time Hall." The voice replies, with Aiden only sighing.

"Could've tried that before you sent operatives into Japan also..." Aiden mutters to himself before speaking into the phone. "I understand. Keep me updated if all else fails."

"Will do. Stay safe." The voice says before ending the call.

Aiden takes a deep breath, pocketing his phone before leaning on the wall once again and rubbing his eyes. "Can't catch a break..."

*--*

An escort of JSDF and U.S Marines all ride in the west gate, with the civilians of Italica all riding in behind the convoy in trucks and horse carriages.

Jason sat on a bench on the side of the street, his eyes were tired and his body was almost begging for more sleep. But he's been through worse, and throughout the night he couldn't sleep for this one moment.

U.S. Marine Humvees and JLTVs start to stroll up into the base, with JSDF vehicles soon following behind. Trucks carrying civilians followed by carriages of other civilians soon strolled in, of course, this was the first wave of people, as having all of them come in at once would be way too troublesome for the city and extremely hard to organize.

Jason hoped that maybe Druilla caught a ride on the first one, he did teach her some English, so maybe her words might've convinced a Marine to have her follow.