CHAPTER 5 :- The Consequences of my Action

After crying and blaming himself for what happened for half an hour looking at the lifeless eyes of Serena and the sad expression on her face, Dale began to realise the consequences of his action. Dale filled with grief came to accept the reality that his dear Serena is no more with him anymore. He realised what he had to do, To stop any more of this ever happening and to stop the monster he created. He decided to face the punishment for all his sins to stop all this once and for all.

At that time He heard a static voice from Serena's radio comm. That's when Dale realised that Serena had some sort of communication device on her body.

He took the radio comm, 'What?! A Higher grade.....??'

He was surprised by what he had seen but suddenly he heard the static voice once more

"(Static noise)D...Dal.....Dale...Dale...DALE!"

"Hello? Who are you? I can't hear you..." He replied to the voice

"DALE! Can you hear me???"

The static noise lowered and Dale began to hear the concerned voice enough for him to realise who the caller is. It was Adrien, the Co-researcher who worked with Serena.

"Yes, I can hear you barely." Not knowing what else to say to her, he decided to tell Adrien about Serena and the incident.

"I'm very sorry, Adrien. Serena was..." But then suddenly Dale was interrupted by Adrien and he was shocked by what Adrien said to him. "Run, Dale! RUN!! The Military has decided to brand you as a traitor!!! Wherever you are, Dale. Please RUN! Don't let them catch you!!"

Before he can say something else suddenly the signal got cut out.

"Hey, What happened?! Adrien? ADRIEN??"

Dale was dumbfounded. He wasn't sure what to do anymore. Suddenly his radio comm began to call out his name.

"CAPTAIN DALE WINSTON! CAPTAIN DALE WINSTON! THIS IS GENERAL SAMUEL ROBERTS SPEAKING, I ORDER YOU TO SURRENDER YOURSELVES TO THE MILITARY OF UNAF FOR YOUR HEINOUS CRIMES!!

I REPEAT I ORDER YOU TO SURRENDER YOURSELVES TO THE MILITARY!!"

After hearing this order, Dale realised that Adrien was not lying nor she was pulling a prank on him. Heeding her words Dale began to run. Before he began to ran, he looked at Serena once more and took her comm with him. Then he turned his radio comm off and ran towards the stables hoping for the best. To his surprise, his horse was alive.

"I'm so glad. You're okay, Tucker", Dale sighed with relied on and untied his horse from the stables and began to ride on horseback towards the Downhill region. Due to his rush, he didn't notice that all other horses except Tucker were dead in the stables.

As soon as Dale left the town on horseback, it was swarmed by military personnel deployed to capture Dale.

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The Great UNAF was formed by the alliances of Many small countries ruled by nobles to form today's behemoth of an Empire during the First War against the Kingdom of Germayie.

The Kingdom of Germayie was the biggest empire before the first world war, when they began attacking their neighbouring countries in the name of world domination, The Second biggest empire UNAF was formed.

Even though Germayie was the biggest Empire in the world at that time, their knowledge in warfare and the technology they used were primitive and pathetic. Their blind unrealistic dream of world domination Ultimately led to their defeat.

But the Great empire that is UNAF took mercy on them by only imposing a high tax on them for the war expenses and stopped trading with them. But ever since that eventful day, the whole country had a bad stigma attached to it and it isolated the whole country from the rest of the world.

After the war had ended, the social structure of UNAF became more extreme as the empire itself grew exponential to its original size.

Now the UNAF regions were separated by the status of the people that lived there, At the central hilly region where all rich nobles, politicians and everyone influentials lived were called the [Uphill region]

The region at the foot of the hills was lived by govt. officers and workers called [Uphill District]

The Valley that surrounds the hilly regions were protected by govt. The military personnel keep anyone without the entry pass who can't prove their status quo or the name of their noble bloodline banned from entering the region.

The small-town region that comes after the valley was resided by tourists, the middle class and nobles who lost their titles were lived. Here sometimes even the poor come to work and to trade their commodities. Only the nobles who were titleless were allowed temporary pass in the uphill district as a middleman between the very poor and the rich noble, usually to conduct business with each other and any manual workers whose work required can also come to do work under the supervision of Titleless nobles too. One such small town called [St. Alban's] was known for its huge catholic influence and its trade centre. That was the same town that got destroyed by the cereals recently.

Last comes the [Downhill Region] where all poor, unprivileged people resided, The contrast between the Uphill and Downhill region is as clear as the difference between black and white. Downhill region was filled with slums, beggars and homeless people

At last, the whole country border was surrounded by big walls which are under the constant supervision of military officers that were placed to protect their citizens from any outside threats. The walls were erected there after the devastating blow by the Kingdom of Germayie during the first world war and the second world war. The remnants of the destruction still exist in the Downhill region.

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On his way to the Downhill region, Dale began to reminisce about his first meeting with Serena. It was during his first year in the military. During those times, he was very weak and cowardly. Due to that, he got picked upon constantly. Seniors constantly bullied him, even his batchmates too.
Even though, Dale used to be cowardly. He always had a sense of Justice that was deeply rooted in him and he always kept his ideals intact even if it means getting into trouble.

One day, A Mysterious young lady came into the training field alone and walked towards the tired Dale who was trying to catch his breath after his tiring training regiment.

She asked "Hi, Are you okay?? You are breathing very heavily. Was the training too tough?"

Dale looked at her and he was instantly captured by her beauty. Her blond straight hair fluttering in the wind, Her blue eyes that looked like diamonds and the fair skin that made her glow all made him left with no words.

After shoving her face near to his, She asked
"Umm....? Are you okay?? You are turning red. Is the heat getting to you??"

"I'm perfectly fine! No problem!" Dale replied with his eyes closed embarrassed.

"I see, I see. I thought you...." As she was talking to Dale. Suddenly two muscular figures came towards both of them. One went near the girl and the other walked towards Dale.

"Who is this chick, Toothpick?" one of them asked while resting his arms on the shoulder of Dale.

Dale didn't reply, he suddenly got silent. He wanted to say something, but his cowardly nature prevented him from doing so.

"Hey babe, let us have some fun too" The one near the girl began to extend his tongue towards her face and his hands over her butt.

"Hey stop it!! Don't you dare to touch her!!" Dale lunged towards the one near the girl but he got his hands locked by the other one and it made him immobilised.

After failing to rescue her miserably, he began to feel down but he was greeted with the smiling face of the girl. She suddenly caught the hands of the pervert that tried to touch her butt with her left hand and twisted it in an anti-clockwise direction and he began to shout in pain. In that short interval, she changed the direction she facing to that of against the pervert, while he was struggling to maintain his balance. He also tried to hit her face with his other hand but she immediately dodged his hands and kicked his crotch with all her might. The pervert's leg gave up and he fell onto the ground shouting with pain and agony.

The other punk angrily threw Dale out of his way and began to run towards the girl swearing at her but she suddenly took some strange device from her lab coat and instantly immobilized him by tasing him with electricity and he fell to the ground unconscious.

The girl tidied her coat by running her arms through her body and sighed in relief. Suddenly few armed military personnel ran towards her and with concern on their faces, they asked "Are you okay, miss??"

"Don't worry about me, I'm fine. Let's take these gentlemen to give them some life advice, ok?

And after the session, don't forget to bring them to my Lab too. I also want to have some chat with them too"

"Yes, miss!" They all said in unison and started to drag both away from her.

"Ow ow ow"

"Are you okay?!" She ran towards Dale with concern on her face and helped him stand up.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't help you. I'm worthless
I couldn't even protect a girl from danger" Dale said shamefully with his head down.

"No, you are wrong! Even though you are weak, You showed enough courage to stand against those bullies.

That takes more courage, even when faced with mighty adversaries you faced them head-on without any reluctance that shows your strong sense of Justice and that is your strength.

Still, though I am very glad that you stood against them for my sake." She said bashfully.

Suddenly Dale's face became bright red and he kept looking down the ground.

"Anyways, My name is Serena. What's yours?"
Trying to change the awkward mood, She changed the subject

"My name is Dale, and thank you for your kind words. I'll never forget them as long as I am alive"


[ END OF CHAPTER 5 ]