A/N: Oh you know you were waiting for this... I know you were.

Well... time to pick back up where I left off in Chapter 42, with Tyuule and the Coalition Special Forces Teams riding towards Zorzal's palace. I don't really have much to say beyond that, so on to the story!

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{ Chapter 42: Knight of the Blitz...}

Sadera...

01:22 hrs...

It had been two days since the great shake had occurred and the Imperial Capitol of Sadera was still trying to deal with the effects of the event. Many buildings had either been damaged or destroyed by the viloent shaking and as a result, there were many still who were in need of assistance, need it be in the form of food or even shelter. Even those who lived in the "Upper" districts of the Capitol, areas that had survived the shaking mostly intact, the noble families that called home for centuries, were too afraid to return to their homes after the shaking came to an end and demanded that they be given places to stay until they were certain their luxuious mansions were safe to re-enter.

As a result of this chaos, the Saderan Garrisons and members of Pina's Marigold Knights did what they could to assist the distressed population. But with so many members of Sadera's protective force busy with relief efforts in and around the Imperial city, there were now many of Sadera's important buildings and palaces that now had weakened defenses and security Normally... this would not be an issue for many in the noble houses and even with the current war going on, the general concensus among the population was that the Enemy from beyond the Gate was still too far away to pose a serious threat...

If they only knew just how wrong they were...

It was a moonless night over the Imperial Capitol, as a lone MQ-9 Reaper flew quietly above the Imperial capitol. Its small profile and high altitude making it next to impossible for anyone on the ground to know it was even there. Its normal payload of Hellfire missiles were switched out for external fuel tanks, as to allow the drone to remain on station for a much longer period of time. Onboard the unmanned aircraft, the turret mounted camera system swivelled to life and switched to infrared. As it zoomed in on a somewhat massive palace and trasmitted what it saw back to Fort Ginza.

At said fort, General Hazama and the rest of the Coalition commanders had gathered in the base Command an Control center and watched the black and white images being shown on the large video monitors. All the while the C&C staff began to relay information among themselves and the base commanders. This was probably going to be one of the more important missions the Coalition had undertaken in months and failure was not an option

Suddenly, the very familiar shapes of helicopters came into view on the monitors. Signaling that Operation Black Knight had begun.

The six MH-6 "Little Bird" helicopters flew close to the ground and in formation, as they approached the residence of a one Crown Prince Zorzal. An individual who had single handedly manage to place any peace talks between the warring faction in jeopardy by his own actions. His confession that he was holding a number of Ginza hostages in his personal palace, had not gone over well with the Coalition member nations. As a result, a plan was hatched to rescue those who were being held.

This was going to be an joint operation between a number of Coalition partners. U.S. Navy SEALs and Japanese SFG would raid the Prince's palace itself, after being airlifted in by the Nightstalkers. They would be joined by Filipino Scout Rangers,who had been monitoring the palace grounds for weeks by this point and would act as back up in case things got serious.

This would be a three tier plan of attack:

1) The Scout Rangers would secure the main guarden and eliminate any and all imperial soldiers they found on the palace grounds. Thus providing both a safe landing zone for the Chinooks and extra security for the units inside the palace.

2) One Inside, the Navy SEALs would secure the upper levels of said palace and secure any and all inportant documents they found. As well as neutralize any resistance they encountered.

3) The Japanese SFG with Tyuule, would locate the cells in which the slaves were being held. Tyuule was all too familiar with the build's layout and would lead the Japanese to their objective.

Once the hostages were located, they would be lead back to the surface and airlifted out by the three Chinook helicopters currently on the ground at Battan station. The Slaves would first be taken to Camp Formal in Italica for medical treatment, before finally returning to Fort Ginza itself.

If things got serious and the Imperial garrisons were to launch a counter attack, support would come from "Snake Pitt" which would be orbiting the palace during the operation. As well a number of amphibious vehicles that had originally taken part in the demonstration for the Imperial Senators, just days ago. They would be the "Plan B" just in case extraction by helicopter was impossible.

Clearly... the Coalition commanders were not leaving anything to chance.

Soon, the Little Birds broke off into groups as they flew over the Palace and began to hover above the marble and stone structure. Moments later, ropes dropped from each aircraft and the Special Forces operators fast roped to the building below. No sooner had the teams made it onto the building, the helicopters flew off to a secondary location to await further orders. Leaving the SEALs and SFG to enter the building via the many widows and balconies that existed.

"Nightmare 1 to Oni 1, have entered palace. How copy?" Lt. Cmdr. Grisson radioed his Japanese counterpart, as his SEAL team made their way down the darkened Palace hallway.

"Oni 1 to Nightmare lead, have breached palace and making way to objective. White Queen in leading the way." The Japanese SFG commander replied, as his team followed the White Quuen. AKA, Tyuule.

"Copy, Conducting sweep of upper levels." Grisson finished his transmission. Leaving the SFG leader to focus on his objective.

With their Carbine rifles drawn and pointed into the darkness, Grisson and his men made their way through the palace corridors. Night vision goggles bathing everything in an eerie green glow, as the SEALs searched every single room they came across. If it looked improtant, the SEALs grabbed it and placed it in a bag for transport back to Ginza. At one point, the team came across a pair of Imperial Soldiers stumbling around in the darkness. But they were quickly dispatched with a burst of suppressed gunfire from the SEALs' weapons.

Eventually, Grisson and his men came upon what they believed to be the Prince's main bedroom. The rather large and ornate wooden doors may have tipped them off to that fact, as well as the over sized and equally ornate bed in the center of the room.

"Well someone is over compensating for somethin." one of the SEALs muttered, causing some of his team mates to chuckle.

"Cut the chatter, start searching." Grisson ordered, as his team began to tear the the room apart.

"Sir, you better come see this." Another SEAL called out, as he stood in front what looked like a dressing table.

"What you found?" the older SEAL asked the man, as he walked up to where he was standing. Without saying a word, the younger SEAL turnned around to reveal a small yet ornate box he held in his hands. But what really had the man shaken up, was the fact that the box itself had numerous locks of hair within it.

"What the fuck is this shit?" Grisson asked in disgust, his face twisting under his balaclava mask.

"If I had to guess, sir." the young man replied, "I think this might be his trophies."

"Bag and tag it." Grisson said quickly. "I want to ge the hell out of this place as soon as possible."

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Meanwhile, with the Japanese SFG...

Unlike her companions, Tyuule had little need for their night vision goggles. As the Bunny Warrior lead the other worlder soldiers through the corridoors of her former prison. The queen had many memories of this place, all of which were not exactly pleasant. But the former queen was able to fight back those awful memories and focus on the mission at hand.

Tyuule had to admit though, that there other worlders were quite an efficient bunch. As they were able to organize a raid on the Crown Prince's palace in such a short period of time. Then again, she was assisting these Jah-pan-ese and A-mere-ri-cans in their mission and from what they had told the warrior, her knowledge of said palace was indeed quite helpful to them. But what really surprised the Battle Queen, was the fact the Coalition leaders agreeded to her rather... unique request when it came to Prince Zorzal himself.

They never said it directly, but what ever plans this Coalition had for the Empire after the war, it did not include Zorzal becoming Emperor. Then again, anyone which a brain could see that he was not exactly fit to lead a nation and Tyuule was certain that the Coalition could care less if that monster lived or died.

Coming upon the door that lead down to the Prince's dungeon, two of the SFG soldiers took point and slowly opened the entrance. Which revealed a flight of stairs that lead down into the darkness.

"They are down there." Tyuule explained, as she took back her position in the lead. "Zorzal liked to keep us in down here. He said it was to remind of just where our place was when compared to him."

"Sounds like a real prince charming." Oni 1 muttered, before motioning his ment to advanced down the stone stairs. Tyuule lead the way, as she drew her MK 3 Combat Knife that had been given to her by the SEALs. It was much smaller than what she was use to carrying, but the Warrior Bunny guess it would have to do for now.

The air was cold and pungent with the sent of stale, earthy air. Suggesting that they were now below ground surface, as Tyuule's ears twitched every so often as she scanned for any sounds. Suddenly, the Bunny Woman shot forward at an increadable speed and towards the bottom. Not knowing what to make of the situation, the SFG team followed her with their weapons at the ready.

Suddenly, a female scream filled the air followed by the sounds of metal slicing through flesh and med crying out in pain. Just as the SFG made it to the bottom of the stairway, they saw several dead Imperial soldires on the stone floor with some rather horriffic wound about their bodies. Moments later, another horrific scream filled the air and when the SFG soldiers looked in the direction of the sound, they saw another Imperial soldier stagger out of one of the cells. He had a look af absolute horror on his weathered face, as he clenched his bleeding throat before collapsing on the floor dead. No sooner had he done so, a blood covered Tyuule came out of the cell with her Combat Knife still in hand.

Despite the grizzly sight, the blood was not Tyuule's own.

"You need to get your people out of here now!" the the bunny woman said sternly. "These sons of whores were about to kill them!"

Still rather shocked by the scene, Oni 1 made his way into the cell and what he saw both shocked and angered the Japanese officer

( A/N: Okay, I have to interject here for a bit. I originally wanted to describe the scene here, but I am too afraid that people might get triggered by what I write. So I gonna leave it up to how to imagine just what the SFG saw in Zorzal's dungeon. Just imagine a seriously messed up dungeon with equally as bad conditions and you are there. There are just some lines not even I want to cross.)

"Get them out of here!" the Japanese officer barked. Before reaching for his radio and contacting his American counterpart.

'Oni 1 to Nightmare 1, we have located the hostages and are bringing them to the surface. Contact Battan and have our birds pic us up!'

'Aswag lead to Blitz!' A new voice called over the com system. ' Be advised, Snake Pit is detcting a large convoy of enemy troops are moving toward the Palace. I repeat, large enemy force is moving towards the palace!'

As this was going on, a heavily bandaged and bruised Prince Zorzal sat within the confines of the horse drawn carriage and silently brooded. Such had been his mood ever since he was savagely beaten by that demon disguised as a other worlder soldier. His face was still heavily bruised and his left eye has been swollen shut, as his bandages were stained with is own blood from the many cuts he had received.

To say Zorzal had been absolutly humiliated by the assault, would have been correct. How dare these barbarians come in his father's home and make demands! How dare they soil him with their filth! Him! The Son of the Emperor and the destroyer of the Warrior Bunny clans. The Crown Prince of the Saderan Empire and soon to be the greatest Emperor Sadera had ever seen. They had commited a great sin by resting their hands on his devine body and all because of that whore who warned him about the Earthshakes. Why was she so special anyway, she was just another one if his many trophies. Even more so, why did they feel the need to risk their lives for some insignificant slut like her?

To add insult to injury, these other worlders had even taken his most prized possession when they stole Tyuule from him. Why didn't she fight back for her prince, after all he had done for her? He gave her shelter, food and the honor of being his personal/favorite torphy and how did she repay him? By doing nothing to save his life and allowing herself to be taking by those savages. But it did not matter if she went willingly or not, that bitch would pay. As well as those other worlders once he had healed.

He would personally lead the Imperial army against the Other Worlders and crush them under his might. He would drive them back through the gate, to their own world and destroy their kingdoms one by one. He would kill all the men ans enslave all the women, he would make the other worlders regret ever crossing paths with Crown Prince Zorzal. But before the bruised prince could continue with his destructive fantasy revolving around revenge, a loud chopping sound began to fill the air and it only got louder and louder as seconds passed.

"What's going on!" The Crown prince barked through his pain, as his men began to feel a uneasy sense of dread. Some of the horse began to panic at the sounds and their riders desperately tried to calm down the beasts, but the noise just got louder and louder as if it were right on top of them. Suddenly, the three Chinooks belonging to Task Force Blitz roared low over head as they took off from Zorzal's palace. On board reach one were a number of hostages that had been taken from Ginza and were being used by the prince as his personal sex slaves.

Many of whom showed signs of malnutrition and extreme abuse, yet they were the lucky one as they would be going home soon. There were still those who never left Zorzal's palace, their last days spent filled with pain and were subjected to unspeakable horrors by the Prince and his many... "Firends."

Friends who would soon receive a visit from one of the Sprcial Forces Teams currently in Sadera.

But 90 souls had been rescued with the aid of Tyuule and the Coalition would be sure to trust her in the future. No sooner had the Chinnoks passed, all six of the Little Birds with their cargo of Special Forces teams screamed off into the night and back to their base. But the operation was not yet over.

With the hostages secured and on their way to safety, the Coalition leaders would have been quite content with the successful rescue of their people. But after seeing the conditions in which they were kept via the body cameras the Special Forces soldiers wore, it was obvios that Crown Prince Zorzal needed to be reminded of just who was really in control of Falmart.

"Hammer Down, Danger Close."

The AC-130 Pilot radioed to Aswang, just moment before A 105 mm shell slammed into the marble sturcture. A massive explosion following the violent impact, just as several 40mm bofors rounds and a string of 22mm rotory cannon fire followed up the initial assault. This was a process that was repeated for the next ten minutes, as Snake Pit continued its attack on the Crown Prince's home. What took many years and thousands of slaves many years to build, the Ghost Rider gunship only took minutes to destroy. The high explosive rounds making short work of the massive stone and marble structure, as flames began to engulf what ever flamable materials existed in the now shattered structure.

It was only at this point did Zorzal and his entourage arrived at his now destroyed home. The Crown prince could only look on helplessly in horror, as his magnificent home was destroyed by fire and damnation that fell from the sky. Just what kind of magic was this? Zorzal knew that the other worlders were responsible for the dstruction of his home, but just how in the name of Hardy were they doing it?

But after what felt like an eternity, Snake Pitt finally expended its ammunition and began its long flight back to Alnus Air Field. Leaving what had been one of Sadera's most beautiful homes in ruins , as it slowly consumed itself in flames. But yet on one of the few walls that remained standing, a message was sprayed painted on by one of the retreating SEALs. A message that simply read...

Nemo mi Inpune Lacessit

"No one attacks me with Impunity"

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A/N: Yea... sorry if you expected to see Tyuule gut Zorzal in this chapter but lets be honest, he does have a major role in the GATE saga and to kill him off so early just would not seem right, now would it?

Anyway, as always please leave a review or Snake Pit will destroy your house. Until next time, Nightstalker out.

And yes, Zorzal is that full of himself.

Trivia!: Aswang refers to several shape shifting evil sprits in Filipino Folklore and it usually a very bad idea to encounter one. So why not give the Scout Rangers that callsign?