Months ago, when Rose, Finn and Shelby first arrived in Egypt, they expected to see a more war torn country. Somehow, Egypt seemed to be prospering while other countries all around the Mediterranean were warring. Egypt, Cairo especially, had many plantations of trees of all kinds growing around cities and managed by government workers. Inside the city of Cairo was well lit, with a power station well maintained within the city that also acted as the climate control system for the whole city. Though, something seemed off about the vibe of Cairo. For some reason, there was a lasting presence of Israeli military within the country. The citizens seemed calm going about their daily lives, regardless of the perpetual night, but their mood all seemed to shift at the sight of the Israeli military. It almost reminded Rose of when she grew up with the Ly'Lum occupying her country. Wanting to avoid a repeat of history, Rose first convinced the group to confront the Israelis verbally. "What's going on in Cairo?" Rose tries to ask politely. "The Ly'Lum isn't here anymore. I didn't think we'd see Israel still in Egypt."
"Ah, The Six Guns are here." A Sayeret soldier replies in an unamused tone.
"I came because I heard there was a conflict and I was worried about my home." Rose replies, getting annoyed.
"Yes." The soldier replies. "Israel is currently using the Egyptian Naval base as a joint facility between our two countries. Considering our country helped pull Egypt out of the conflict with the Ly'Lum, no thanks to The Six Guns, I think your leader came to his senses and allowed us to help joint train your growing military service that only just recently was instated again after removing all occupancy of the Ly'Lum. Egypt hasn't had a military for a very long time, you know."
Rose grits her teeth and says in an angered and annoyed tone, "I know."
"Israel needs as many allies to stave off the enemy forces." The soldier continues. "We didn't start this war, but we need as much defense as we can get, and as much... contingency as possible."
"Tch." Rose scoffs before storming off.
"A-ah!" Finn panics as he catches up. "Wait! Where are you going?"
The three of them stop in a tavern just to sit down and talk, without ordering anything to drink. "What did you guys talk about?" Finn asks.
"The Israeli military is using Egypt as another base just like the Ly'Lum did!" Rose says as she slams her fists on the table. A few people stop and stare after Rose slams her fists on the table, but eventually go back to their individual conversations. "They're trying to pull Egypt into another conflict that it's not ready to handle. All for this... this... contingency!"
"I understand using another country as a forefront to attack other neighboring enemies is an asshole move." Shelby adds. "What I don't understand is, why not a country that already has an active military?"
"Debt?" Finn proposes.
"Debt?" Shelby asks.
"They did help us long ago drive the Ly'Lum out of here." Finn answers. "Omnia used to occupy this place and spent years defanging Egypt, until Egypt no longer had a military of it's own."
"I used to be a member of a group of rebels who fought back, tooth and nail, to stop the Ly'Lum's abuse of our people!" Rose says, stopping herself from pounding her fists on the table again. "I am now the last surviving member of that group! It's not fair! We've already lost so much! Why is it that we have to go through all of that... again? Does the bloodshed we already suffered mean nothing to the world?..."
Finn was silent and Shelby looked down, feeling empathetic for Rose, and feeling a little bit more respect for her. "Y'know." Shelby says. "Where I grew up, our city was separated by three major gangs. We had to live by their rules. They were too powerful to be controlled by the government and essentially became our government. There was constant violence; mugging, robbing, burning and stabbing; and we could do nothing about it. My family died in a gang war, and I was crushed by an out of control car when the driver got shot in the crossfire of a shootout. That's why I have all of these mechanical parts on my body. Most of my body had to be replaced over a long period of time. Bit by bit, I became a mostly cybernetic human. By the time I finally escaped Romania, and tried to find a future elsewhere, people didn't see a girl that needed help, was hungry, saw enough blood and had already suffered many times. They just saw a monster. Everywhere I went, I'd be attacked, shot at, thrown rocks at. I guess your situation isn't all that different. People aren't seeing the scars, they're seeing their own personal comfort here, at the expense of someone who's already down."
"But... if what we had already suffered doesn't matter to anyone, how do we stop it?" Rose asks.
"Well, Israel is likely getting away with this because of the conflict." Finn suggests. "Instead of making another rebels group to fight back against them, why not end the conflict so they don't have a reason to do what Omnia did?"
"That's certainly one way to go on about it." Shelby says. "I've noticed with some of the news I've picked up from my old hunters group that most of the warring going on in the Middle-East is scattered attacks and more often than not, a cold war of threats without action. The conflict is rapidly tipping out of balance, but it can be avoided to have total wat break out. Most of the world is worried about a World War 3, but that may be avoidable."
"How do we avoid it?" Rose asks.
"Unfortunately, we'd have to pick a side and stop the other from progressing." Shelby adds. "Or at least remove leverage from one side. As long as someone surrenders, the rest of the conflict should eventually drop off. Now, I don't see Israel surrendering anytime soon. They are known for the best defense systems in the world currently. So, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em?"
"I don't like how that sounds." Finn says. "We were already pushed out of Israel before. We'd be lucky if they'll even listen to us."
"Then don't ask them for permission." Shelby says. "Sometimes it is easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission."
"That doesn't sound like a good motto." Finn argues.
"Well, it's my motto." Shelby argues.
"And you're not exactly hunter of the year either, are you?" Finn retorts.
"What can I say?" Shelby says as she shrugs. "I may have a bad reputation, but I'm living free without having to bend to tyrants, gangsters or the misconceived notions of the commonfolk. Besides, aren't you Six Guns in the same exact boat as me?"
Finn opens his mouth, excited to retort, but stops. "Alright, yeah. That may be true, but we haven't been going around stealing and killing people for money."
"Neither have we." Shelby says. "We turned in some people, but mostly alive. We only defended ourselves when necessary. Demetri was the only one I had previously planned to kill."
"Hrmm..." Rose pouts as she looks at Shelby.
"I'm not gonna!" Shelby replies. "I said planned, as in past-tense! I gave up that vendetta!"
"So, where do we learn where to start?" Finn asks.
"Come on, don't you two share any brains between the two of you?" Shelby asks. Finn and Rose both stare in disapproval. "Look, we do what I always used to do. We go into a place where we know the enemy will be. In this case, we're looking for a whole country. You can't miss it. We enter there, sabotage their frontlines, create leverage for the guys we wanna help; in this case, Israel; and then we get the hell out of there."
"This better work out." Rose pouts.
The three of them use money from Shelby to rent a car and drive across the north-east of Egypt. Eventually, they cross the Gulf of Aqaba, into Jordan. Avoiding entering Israel, as they were told to leave Israel long before. Jordan is an ally of Israel, and to this extent, not their target. It was, however, a safe place to travel to a place that Israel has been having direct conflict with recently. The target this time was some of the forward defenses in Syria, one of the two bordering neighbors that Israel was having direct confrontation with. Ideally, the group wanted to attack in Lebanon since it was smaller and at this time already in a weakened state. However, they'd first have to make it through Syria. Coming through south of Daraa, outside of the city where there were lines of armored anti-air tanks packing canons capable of firing harpoon like projectiles that not only were heavy and large, but can use computer prediction technology to essentially lock-on to target and pierce straight through them. These harpoons would fly at twice the speed of sound. Even without the use of any explosives, any planes hit by these harpoons will be shredded if not explode from the force alone. These anti-air tanks were able to be remote operated, but routinely guarded by assigned soldiers from a nearby outpost. "So, here's the plan." Shelby says as they hide. "The Israeli Air Force often tries to scale nearby threats, but can't if their drones are always being shot down. We want Israel to see when the threat is withdrawing. Due to this, we need to make sure these anti-air tanks are taken offline. But we have to make it look either voluntary or make it look like a different ally already took out their biggest advantage."
"But what about all the guards around?" Rose asks.
"You're The Six Guns!" Shelby answers. "What are you worried about!?"
"We don't enjoy fighting!" Rose argues. "We tried to retire after the Omnia war!"
"You can handle it, no?" Shelby asks as her razor like tail unravels from underneath her coat. "Because I don't wanna handle all the work for ya!"
As Shelby dashes in, Finn says "We should probably go help her before she dies..."
"Why should we?" Rose pouts. "If she dies, she dies."
"Hun... I know that's not really how you feel." Finn says as he puts a hand on her shoulder.
Rose takes a deep breath, then sighs. "Alright, fine." Rose replies. "But only because she's helping us try to prevent another rebellion in Egypt..."
The fighting didn't take long, and shortly after, the tanks were taken offline and immediately sabotaged. Using reactive endo on two of her throwing knives, Rose cut even the thick armor plating of the tank after a long period of swiping at the same spot several times. Repeating this process for each tank, where Shelby then melts some of the insides of the tank using elemental magic on vulnerable parts inside the armor. Clearing the guards out ended up being the easy part. Sabotaging the tanks without actual military equipment proved to be a difficult task. Luckily for them, Rose and Finn were both proficient with reactive endo at this point. Moving onward to Lebanon, the crew ran into a conflict already underway between Israel and Lebanon. Lebanon had more of the same kind of tanks that were in Syria. Israel, however, had deployed two large combat mechs equipped with rods that utilized elemental magic. More specifically, these mechs utilized lightning magic from the users piloting within the mech. The mechs were around 5 meters tall. Rather than arms or canons, there were forward facing arm-like rails. Rectangular shaped rods covered in rails that were conductive to electricity and inside were several rounded rods wrapped together by strong coils of a metal conductive of endo. The weapons of the mech were adjustable like arms but had no hands. Rather than feet, there were triangular tank treads, and the body could fit two pilots inside of the cockpit. The cockpit took up most of the body and was almost entirely metal with sensors around to capture a full 360 degree angle around the tank and project that to screens inside. These mechs could charge so much lightning magic and electricity into the anti-air tanks that the tanks were going up in smoke and then fire after being attacked several times by the lightning. "What the hell kind of military vehicle is that!?" Finn asks.
"Looks like Israel has really been trying to stack up all the leverage it can get... but why?" Shelby asks.
"Why did this war even begin?" Rose asks.
"Some of the news propagated in media all around the world is religious conflict." Shelby answers. "However, I am really doubting that."
"What makes you say that?" Finn asks.
"Tech like that isn't made overnight." Shelby says. "They had to have been working on this since Omnia was still around. Whether it had only just recently been finished or what, I'm not sure. Hell, this could even be their prototype. Not a clue! But I do know that I haven't heard about this tech before now. Our group is very good at getting information like that, so we know who to avoid."
"You think they were developing it since the conflict with the Ly'Lum?" Rose asks.
"There's no way they started developing this kinda thing just on the fly when this current conflict began." Shelby says. "Either they've been planning on this war, or they had a really lucky call to solidify their defenses. A really really lucky call. And if you ask me, luck is not that abundant in this world."
"Agreed." Finn says.
"Then, Israel started this?" Rose asks in anger.
"Don't know." Shelby replies. "But they likely weren't going to try to avoid the war if they didn't start it. What puzzles me is, why do they still need Egypt for a contingency?"
Another mech shoots an arc of lightning at a tank and some of the lightning trails off and strikes close to the crew. The crew managed to avoid injury, but they felt a strong surge of energy pass by them like a wave of static when it happened. "Whew!" Finn sighs in relief. "That could've ended up worse!"
Shelby rubs her upper arms as if dusting off the static. "I don't like this. Enough energy could mess with my body really easily, with all this cybernetics stuff I have now."
"You're telling me..." Rose agrees as she gently pats the side of her goggles as if to give it percussive maintenance. "That wave of electricity made my vision go all static-y." After a short moment, Rose suddenly panics and reaches into her back pocket. She takes out her phone and tries to turn it on. The phone doesn't come on and nothing seems to respond. She hits the side of her phone and tries again, but nothing. She tried over and over, but the phone was fried and the circuitry would never work again from the stimulation of the static wave reacting with the endo powered battery and causing some of the electronics inside to melt. "Shit! Shit! Shit!"
"Oh no. We've only been here for about a month!" Finn says. "We only reported in like once!"
"Not only that, but the last thing we hear is Zia is missing." Shelby adds. "I'm sure HQ would not take it very well that we also just drop off the radar without warning."
Rose sighs, then says "Holly is gonna be soooo mad!"