"Get down!" Talia told her crew, and the lot of them crouched low, their hands over their heads.

There was a lot of screaming and yelling and shooting on all sides, and then all of a sudden, a total silence. It was punctuated by a groan, and then the Aurian troops marched into what was left of the camp…

"Can we go now?" Talia asked.

Seeing the group of prisoners without uniforms, they asked, "Where are you from?"

"We were working for Itarim…" Talia tried to explain.

"Itarim?! They just switched sides this morning!" the Aurians growled. "You're not going anywhere!"

Switched sides? Was that even possible?!

And why, of all times, did it have to happen this morning!? Couldn't they wait just another day… just one more day…?!

But no. Talia and her crew were brought into an Aurian bunker hastily set up in a rocky area...

Actually none of that mattered. Fifteen minutes after arriving at the bunker, the Aurians were attacked by a contingent from Ashdale.

While it sounded rather dismal, the Aurian bunker was by no means properly fortified; it was hastily put together and resembled a heap of recycled junk than a defense structure. Also, the contingent from Ashdale had roughly five hundred troops in orderly formations. They were highly disciplined, their formation lines were clear and their movements crisp and precise…

Basically, the Aurians were burned out of their bunker and shot dead on sight. Talia and her crew waited with baited breath for rescue, but then a Germat patrol arrived and engaged the Ashdalians from afar with artillery fire.

Now, while the Ashdalians were indeed well-disciplined, and wouldn't even balk at being fired upon, the Germat patrol was a very well equipped, highly organized and motivated military force. They not only had magic weapons the likes of fireball wands and mana s.h.i.+elds, they had a trio of armored carriages equipped with fire-elemental cannons made of Fire Copper bought from the Frontier…

"What are the odds that we sold them the materials for that cannon?" Talia asked her crew as they crouched low again.

The Ashdalians returned fire with runic rifles, but that level of firepower barely made dents in the Germat armored carriages. In return, the Germat heavy armor rained fire on the Ashdalian lines.

The Ashdalians pulled back. Despite vastly superior numbers, their weapons simply weren't able to do anything to the Germat armored carriages. Rather, they spread out and surrounded the Germat patrol from all sides, and then an Ashdalian airs.h.i.+p arrived and started dropping explosive barrels on the Germat patrol…

The Germat troops pulled back, but not before losing two armored carriages to the airstrike.

Meanwhile, Talia and crew were just crouching low, hands either over their heads or covering their ears, as the war raged on all around them. They didn't so much as poke a head outside the Aurian bunker which by them were almost in ruins.

"Just how many countries are involved in this war?!" Talia groaned. At this point, she couldn't even tell who were her friends or foes any more.

Right about that time, three squads of Bulraki Heavy Cavalry came charging in on the Ashdalian flank. They came out of nowhere, and coming down over the hill, they had a good deal of momentum on their side. The Ashdalians didn't even have time to respond before the Bulraki cavalry crashed through their orderly lines, completely tearing up their formations.

The Ashdalian airs.h.i.+ps switched targets and started blasting at the Bulraki instead, letting the Germat forces retreat as they engaged this new threat.

"Uh… which side were we cheering for again?" one of Talia's crew asked.

"Don't cheer! Just keep your head down!" Talia barked.

Just as quickly as they appeared, the Bulraki cavalry left. They rode around the corner and simply disappeared. The Ashdalians re-formed their lines, and waited in defensive formations, but after about ten long minutes of waiting, their airs.h.i.+ps reported an all-clear, and then they finally relaxed.

"Who are you guys?" the Ashdalians asked Talia and her crew.

"We work for Itarim…" Talia began.

"Show us some proof."

"What kind of proof do you want?"

"Where are your orders?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"The order papers! Show them to us!"

"What are order papers…? You mean, written instructions from Itarim? We have no such thing. We simply did as we were asked."

"If you cannot confirm your ident.i.ty, then, we must hold you as prisoners!"

Great! Now even those guys supposedly on their own side were holding them prisoner!

"Will no one help us?" Talia wailed. "Will no one just send us home?"

But no. It seems everyone was much too busy with the war to take care of this suspicious crew that appeared out of nowhere.

***

"What happened?"

Two days, two hours, and twelve minutes later, Remian arrived at the warfront and asked a question of First Centurion Tiberius.

Tiberius cleared his throat. "A great deal has been happening, Remian, you'll need to be a bit more specific."

"What happened to Talia and my people?" Remian asked.

"That... I'm not entirely sure." Tiberius rubbed his chin. "They were out on a resupply run to one of our badly hit outposts, and never returned. The entire outpost has gone dark. Everything we have in that region has been silenced. No word, no signals, no survivors, nothing. We have no idea what happened."

"Do you have any enemies in that area?" Remian queried.

Tiberius burst out laughing. "We have enemies everywhere! That area especially, is one of the heaviest combat zones!"

"Well, of the enemies in the area, who would have the power to do something like this?"

Tiberius thought about that. "Just about everybody. Our forces seem to be quite badly outmatched in this war."

"Forget this. Just send me their last known position." Remian growled. "I'm going to get them back myself!"

Five minutes later, the Red Fang took off and headed into the deepest part of the war zone.

***

By that time, Talia was hiding in a cave with the last nine survivors of her crew.

She'd been captured sixteen times, 'rescued' into another sort of captivity nine times, survived attacks that wiped out their captors five times, broke out of jail and fought their way out thrice, and sneaked out during the night while their captors were asleep twice.

They'd been held captive by forces from Germat, Auria, Otta, Bulrak, Kuasa Besar, the Ira Caliphate, Mendev, La Vive, Ashdale, Bellas, a squad of nine magi from the Nine Mountains, a band of Sea People mercenaries, an observation unit from Libertaria, a curious lord from the Dragon Empire, and even some suspicious Centurion commanding the 10th cohort of the 9th Legion of the Iron Legion! The Iron Legion! Talia couldn't even believe it when their own allies held them captive for questioning.

Roughly two thirds of those forces were now dead. All survivors had been hit by some hostile force or the other and had scattered and fled to goodness knows where. Twice now, Talia found herself a fellow prisoner of someone who had been her captor just the day before. It was all very confusing, and every few hours, Talia lost another friend, another member of her crew to everything from honest mistakes to stray shots to deliberate cruelty...

By this time she'd almost gotten numb to losing people. By this morning, she'd gotten numb to everything. She didn't even duck when she heard the shrill sound of artillery flying through the air any more. She didn't even flinch when explosions took place all around her yet again. All she felt was the pain of yet another shock, and tasted stone dust in the air...

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At that point, she just walked out. Who was it holding her people captive this time? Talia wasn't even sure any more. But she didn't care. She just walked away, and whoever held her currently was too busy trying to save their own people. Her crew followed her out, and n.o.body even shot at them.

They still lost two people to stray shots. A random blast of artillery fire took out the cook and the rear second-s.h.i.+ft gunner in a flash, and there was nothing left of them. Now who was going to prepare their meals?

Then again, there was no telling if any of them would survive till dinner time. Talia and her crew wandered the battlefield until they found a cave and huddled inside. It was too small to have held her entire crew back when they first got shot down, but now, they were few enough to fit.

Twenty-two adventurers had left KarGoth with Talia. Only nine huddled here with her, and there was no telling if any of them would ever make it back.

Talia would have cried if she could.