Inside the Westminster Palace, Alexander was watching the crown ceremony, listening to the choir singing an uplifting melody. He suddenly felt a force tackling him from the side.
Soon after, an ear-deafening explosion erupted outside Westminster Palace.
The attendees in the cathedral instinctively ducked and covered their heads.
Seconds later, a series of explosions erupted, making the ground quake momentarily, which made the chandeliers hanging on the ceiling sway and clank loudly against each other.
After several seconds of deafening chaos, they finally settled down.
The people near him whimpered, some were gasping, while others were straight up panicking, worsening the situation.
"Rolan…what the hell was that?!" Alexander demanded an answer as he lurched to his feet.
"Your Majesty…there were multiple suicide bombers outside.
The Imperial Guards and the FIS are doing the best they can to know more but it's pandemonium outside."
"I knew this would happen.."
The heads of states around him were thrown into a state of confusion until their own personal guards got to them and evacuated them out of the cathedral. It's everyone for themselves.
"Your Majesty, we are enacting the escape plan. We need to vacate the premises," Rolan said and started dragging him out of the palace along with the twelve Imperial Guards who were surrounding him with their weapons trained.
"This is Eagle, we are now exiting Westminster Abbey, executing escape plan Alpha. Get the car here ASAP!" Rolan commanded through his earpiece.
"Copy that Eagle, Beast is now en route to your position. ETA, thirty seconds."
"Your Majesty, keep your head down!" Rolan ordered Alexander. To make sure that he is complying, he placed a hand over his head, pushing it down as they made their way to the exit.
Although the crown ceremony started amicably and turned into pandemonium, he tried his best to get a gist of what was going on by peering out through the gaps of encircled formation of the Imperial Guards.
There, he saw the members of the clergy, the archbishops, and the royal family leaving Westminster Abbey through a back door. Everyone was panicking except for one, Her Royal Highness Anne Edinburgh.
Her expression didn't change, not even a little. Until her facade broke and caused the corners of her lips to curl upward.
"That bitch…" Alexander mumbled a curse inwardly.
"Your Majesty, we are outside, keep your head low. All of you, keep the formation tight!" Rolan barked out orders as he swiveled his head around the scene.
There could be Black Hand snipers lurking on one of the buildings. It's best that he keeps his head low and be surrounded by Imperial Guards so that they can't get a clear shot of His Majesty.
"We are exposed outside! Where the hell is the Beast?" Rolan asked in a loud voice, clearly frustrated.
Alexander understood the emotion swirling inside of Rolan, they anticipated the attack of the Black Hand. But to think they'll also drag civilians to their petty cause is too much. He knew he could have prevented this from happening by not attending, but that will only show the world that the Ruthenian Emperor is a coward who bubbled himself up inside his palace.
He has the promise to keep, that is to eliminate Black Hand so that his family can live safely outside the Winter Palace. If making himself vulnerable to the Black Hand was one of the ways to pull out the Black Hand, then he'll gladly do it.
And now, they are attacking him and he just has the lead as to who orchestrated this.
Ten seconds later. The tires of the beast screeched to a halt as it stopped in front of the defensive formation of the Ruthenian Imperial Guards.
"Your Majesty, transport has arrived. Get inside immediately," Rolan dragged him into the Beast while the Imperial Guards maintained their close formation.
"Your Majesty, wait!" Sevastian shouted as he dashed towards the Beast with his head under the cover of his arms.
"Get inside Sevastian!" Rolan yelled as the Imperial Guards made way for the incoming National Security Advisor. He almost forgot about him. Well, he's not the main priority in the first place so it's natural.
Sevastian dived into the Beast, followed by Rolan—
"Long Live the Black Hand!" a woman shouted across the street as she sprinted towards the Beast.
The Imperial Guards pulled the trigger of their Heckler and Koch MP5, riddling her body with holes and thwarting her plan of suicide near the Beast.
"Go!" Rolan shouted and the driver of the Beast pushed the gas pedal to its limit, causing the car to lunge forward into the distance, away from the carnage unfolding outside the cathedral.
Once they had left the scene, they all breathed a sigh of relief.
"The Black Hand bastards really did it!" Alexander cursed. "Well now that I'm inside the Beast, their games are over. Have you already contacted the helicopter that will take us out of here?"
"Yes Your Majesty, a Black Stork helicopter just landed on Somerset House. It's a secure ground guarded by our Imperial Guards. We'll get there in four minutes—"
Suddenly, an armored car broadsided the Beast, causing Alexander's head to hit the reinforced window.
"Your Majesty? Are you okay?!" Sevastian asked worryingly.
"What the fuck is it now?" Alexander roared.
Rolan looked over his shoulders and saw two Vickers armored cars chasing them. They opened fire, unleashing a hail of bullets onto the rear windshield of the Beast. But, none pierced through. The Beast is modeled after the real Beast in his original world, a vehicle that can take anything be it chemical, nuclear, or conventional arms.
"Ignore them and keep going!" Rolan said to the driver and shunted Alexander's head down. "Your Majesty…I'm sorry but I'm going to need you to lower your head for a while. The glass may be bulletproof but it has its limit."
"Fine by me," Alexander replied, hearing the metal vibrating from his seat as the Beast takes on a deluge of bullets.
"This is Eagle, we are on our way to Somerset House, do you copy?" Rolan said.
"We copy you Eagle, we will take care of your pursuers as soon as you reach the exfiltration point. Keep tight."
Four minutes later, after getting gunned down by Vickers' armored car, a rocket flew past them, hitting the two, and turning them into a blazing fireball.
"Thanks for the assists, we are coming hot!" Rolan said and continued. "Your Majesty, we are almost there."
The Beast took a right turn into the Somerset House where Imperial Guards guarded the entrance and as well as a sea variant of the Black Stork, the SH-60 Seahawk. Its main rotors are already spinning atop it so that it can lift up into the sky once Alexander boards it.
The Beast stopped and Alexander, Sevastian, and Rolan stepped out. They ran towards the Black Stork and boarded it. Phase two of the evacuation process is complete. Now they only need to get to the battleship and sail home.
***
"This is the captain...Copy that!" The captain of the battleship hung up the phone and barked his orders. "Sound the general alarm! Battle station stage 3! I want this ship going as soon as His Majesty lands."
As the crew of the battleships spurred towards their stations, one of the officers on the bridge deck noticed something on the river.
"Captain…a barge is going straight at us!"
The captain looked out of the window and saw that the barge was indeed on the collision course. "Shit everyone for impact!"
Ten seconds later, the barge collided with the bow of the battleship and ground to the hull.
The captain of the barge pressed a button, igniting the 5,000 kilograms of explosives, causing a huge explosion that completely demolished the hull Battleship, killing everyone who was on the port side of the battleship.
