"I'm firing" Marve slowly pulled the trigger and the Silverline silently shoots its bullet. It traveled at greater speed, breaking the window almost instantly despite the distance.
The window shattered, making a loud bang and its shards falling. As they have planned, the soldiers were distracted to the headquarters and the two advanced towards the depot. "Hurry up you two...!" Marve said.
The soldiers' full attention is on the headquarters, it was enough for Sterling and Terra to rush ahead without being attracted.
"Good! They left it open!" Sterling sounded relieved. They went inside the depot and quickly searched for weapons. Numerous Narukh'za battle rifles are fixed on the walls, and the spaces are filled with crates that have numbers. "We need to find bigger weapons, bombs, or machine guns!" Sterling instructed Terra.
"Okay! Umm..." Terra looked around. The walls only contained rifles to long-range rifles. "T-they must be in the crates!" Terra pointed at the crates. "Hold on..." Sterling walked ahead and disappeared into a small room. "Ahah!" Sterling let out a joyful sound. She walked out of the room carrying a small beam cannon. Its structure is similar to a minigun, long barrel, and its grip on the other side.
"That looks scary, Sterling!" Terra shivered just looking at the weapon. "You should be scared!" Sterling grinned wide. "Just by its appearance, you already assume it causes disaster!" Terra looked at her expression. "You... change when you hold a weapon, huh?" "Yeah! My Narukh'za blood is awakening!" Sterling then went out, Terra followed behind her.
"Let's fire you up!" Sterling pressed some of the buttons randomly and the beam cannon charges loudly. "W-wait!" Terra noticed the cannon shaking, its body lighting up brightly with immense dark power. The soldiers were quick to notice their presence behind them. "Hey, hey! What do you think you're doing?!" One of them shouted and was about to run towards them.
"Wait! She's holding a Ravager!" One of them noticed the beam cannon charging in Sterling's hands. Ravager is a beam cannon developed by the Narukh'za. Despite its large profile, it is considered as the Narukh'za's smallest beam cannon. It has a long and thick barrel, traced by black lines for its energy to flow through. It has a steel handle for gripping and its buttons lie at the very back of the weapon. Reports from the Arkulan scientists indicate that the Narukh'za uses an unknown crystal as its ammunition that rests inside the operating part of the weapon. The cannon is commonly carried among higher-ranking troopers of the Narukh'za, mostly demolition units.
"Stay back and you might live for a while!" Sterling felt the cannon fully charged. "It's firing! Move out of the way!" The soldiers scurry away from its firing direction. However, Sterling quickly fired the cannon. It let out a deafening noise as it fires out a straight bright beam towards the headquarters, melting away some of the unfortunate soldiers. "So much... power!" Sterling can barely hold the cannon and carefully laid it to the ground without letting its beam go around.
"Sterling! The headquarters is already destroyed! Point its beam somewhere else!" Terra shouted behind the loud roar of the cannon.
"Good gracious!" Marve watched the beam goes off from his scope. Its bright mixture of red, black, and white energy greatly lights up its path. "How long...?" He followed the beam, and it extends until the end of the outpost. "To think they carry these kinds of weapons every day is absolutely crazy!" He mumbled as he stared at the beam.
Meanwhile, the remaining soldiers recover from the sudden attack. One of the officers commands the soldiers. "Sound the alarm! The outpost is under attack! Arm yourselves and man any available armors!" He shouted against the beam's noises. Terra heard them barely. "Miss Kirin! They're heading in your direction now!" Terra shouted. "Roger!" Kirin quickly replied.
"We're almost done! Move back and take cover behind that tower!" Kirin pointed at the tower without looking. She was making the final bomb with her eyes. "Alright! Be quick!" Niela nodded and ran away with Chirlin. "Here we go..." Kirin finished producing the final bomb and sticks it to the side of a tank.
Kirin ran back to the tower and hid with the sisters. "How will the bombs explode?" Niela asked. "My eyes" Kirin pointed at her eyes. A few seconds later, the soldiers arrived at the tanks. Kirin heard them climbing up the tanks and starting up the engines. Wanting to know how many were there, Kirin faced the tower and scanned with her eyes.
"Lots of tankmen in this outpost!" Kirin counted up to ten until she gave up. "Alright, you two, you're ready for this? Once I detonate the bombs we will advance ahead" She said while still scanning. "Chirlin?" Niela looked at her sister. Chirlin readies her Resolver. "I-I'm ready..." Despite her response, Niela looked worried. "Just stay behind, alright?" She said and Chirlin nodded.
"How about you try your skills from your games?" Kirin grinned. "Miss Kirin..." Niela sighed. One of the tanks started to drive ahead. "Here we go!" Kirin's pupils shrink with a long beep and an explosion followed after. The tanks blew up together, leaving no one alive. "They're gone! Let's go!" Kirin gestured to them and quickly ran.
"Stay behind me!" Niela ran, glancing over her sister. "Go, go! I will follow you!" Chirlin swayed her hand, telling her to look ahead. Kirin was waiting for them behind a burning tank. "Enemies ahead! Keep your-!" A bullet flew by, shocking Niela and ducking quickly. "Whoa!" She began breathing rapidly. "In here!" Kirin shouted. "Come on!" Chirlin pulled up her sister and ran together towards the tank.
"Stay alert when you're advancing! Stay low! Eyes peeled!!" Kirin shouted. "There are about five of them!" She then briefly scanned ahead.
At the depot, the beam cannon is depleted and needed a recharge. The two hid behind a barrack, with Terra exchanging fire with some enemies. "I-I-I can't look up even for a bit!" Terra stutters. "I will drop this here, it can recharge by itself..." Sterling placed the Ravager to the ground and grabbed a grenade, and removed the pin. "You remember their positions?" She looked at Terra.
"I...I guess!" Terra looked confused. "I will throw this grenade, you will have little time to pick them off" Sterling then rested her thumb on the top of the grenade. "Sure!" Terra nodded with confidence. "Alright..." Sterling armed the grenade with her thumb, emitting a single beep. "Ready up..." She waited for a second before throwing it towards the enemies. "Grenade!" The soldiers screamed.
"Now!" Sterling shouted, and Terra jumped slightly and stood up. From the broken window she uses to fire back, she saw some soldiers still guarding their direction. Terra quickly open fire, the grenade went off as she continuously fire at the soldiers. "Aim! That one on the right!" Sterling peeked and designated a target for Terra. "Hey, why are you not firing?!" Terra shouted. "I have a goddamn shotgun!" Sterling still took her Purifier, and shoot a soldier. The gun's recoil was strong, Sterling slightly loses grip. It hits the soldier, falling to their back.
"What the..." Sterling quickly measured the distance. Between her and the soldier was around 91 to 109 meters. "This thing is still effective at distances!" She then quickly set her amazement aside and focused ahead. The two noticed some of the soldiers are dropping dead, the shots were coming from dunes.
At the dunes, Marve is now busy providing sniper support to the teams below. "Hey, Miss Kirin! Can you open all of our voice radio?!" He shouted. "I have it open now! You're our eyes, Marve! Give us any information and try to lead us!" Kirin responded. "Hey guys, we can hear you! We're pinned down!" Sterling's voice reached out. "I'm firing at them!" Marve proceeded to snipe.
"Marve, keep yourself hidden! They still don't know that you're there!" Kirin said. "Roger that!" Marve then carefully observes the soldiers every time he fires.
At the depot, the Ravager finishes up its charging. "Miss Kirin! Are we going to destroy their equipment or kill them all?" Terra asked on the voice feed. "Both!" Sterling answered instead. She picked the Ravager up and readied. "Miss Kirin, I'm firing this beast again! Watch your heads!" Sterling activates the Ravager and it began to shake with power once more. "Eat... THIS!!!" Sterling went out of cover and fires the Ravager.
This time, she directed the beam to the right. "Damn! Get down!" Kirin pushed Niela down with her on the ground. Chirlin shrieks and hurried down. The beam went above them, melting the burning tank in half and the buildings around them. "Careful with that thing, Sterling! You could have got us killed!" Kirin shouted.
"Huh?! I thought I warned you!" Sterling grins widely. "I purposely raise it up so it won't reach you!" She added. "You idiot!" Kirin angrily shouted, scaring her. She then diverted the beam to the left. Burning away every building it touches. "Looks like it's going to run out!" After a while, Sterling noticed the cannon weakening. "Terra! Down on the ground!" She shouted.
Terra quickly ducked on the ground and looked at her. Sterling stepped away from the barrack, and slowly turn to it. Terra hurriedly crawled towards Sterling. "Come on, the depot!" The beam burned the barrack in half, and slowly make its way to another depot ahead. "Total damage!" The beam destroyed both depots before fading away.
"Yes!" Sterling cheered, and Terra happily laughed. "This outpost is done for, Miss Kirin!" Sterling cheered. Meanwhile, Kirin scanned the area and no enemy signatures are present. "They have evaporated!" Kirin's brows furrowed in surprise. "Huh? That's all of them?" Sterling looked around. "Are you expecting someone to live after all that?" Marve asked.
"They are all in the center! And I saw them get hit by that beam! Even the ones in the hiding get hit!" He added. "Alright, it's safe to come out. Marve, get over here" Kirin tells the whole squad and went to the road.
Some of the corpses consist of bodies cut in half, mostly with missing upper bodies. "The Narukh'za will surely retaliate for this..." Niela said. "Won't be enough for a war declaration. It's always been like this, many of our people die almost every day due to territorial conflicts. Neither side doesn't want total war, not when we are this close" Kirin scratched her head. "Or I don't know, Narukh'za won't give a damn about any situations, they will start attacking if they wanted to" She added.
"Look around, search for anything useful" Kirin ordered the squad. "Can we keep this?" Sterling approached her and asked, carrying the Ravager. "No. We are not supposed to carry heavy equipment" Kirin shook her head. "Or... we can send it back to the base and have it delivered to our best engineers and scientists. We have yet to study the crystals used in these weapons" She winked. "If we can make a smaller variant of this weapon, I would like to carry one" Sterling handed the Ravager to Kirin.
"Hey, you carry that" But she pushed it away. "That looks heavy" She said, annoying Sterling a bit. "You look like you can carry it better than I do" She sighed. "Ehh, you're the one who took that, take responsibility" Kirin walked past her, slapping her shoulder as she does. "Take responsibility?" Sterling turned around, and saw Kirin crouching and scanning the ground. "Well, I will take a look around if there's still any weapons lying around" Sterling took off towards the depot she got it from.
Later, Marve arrived at the center. "Miss Kirin" He called out. Kirin turned to look. "Marve" She called. "Are we going to deal with all of the outposts we saw around here?" He said as he sat near Kirin. "Only we can pull off these attacks. Most of the special forces that operate like our squad are not here at Kryok. They're mostly operating on active battlegrounds" Kirin responded. "Um... the soldiers at our base?" Marve asked. "They're not trained to infiltrate outposts or anything like that, they are trained to fight at the frontlines, hence we are called special forces. We conduct operations that common troopers aren't supposed to do" Kirin explained.
"But we are just clearing outposts, can't we make that an exception?" He asked. "No. That's why I decided to form this squad. We only have frontline soldiers stationed at the base in this region, we can't risk them leaving the base, we need as many soldiers as possible ready to respond to any attack. Especially that we have Zakanas beneath the sands around here" Kirin shook her head. "Then why didn't Miss Lonara make the recruits to special forces then?" He asked. "She was mad not only because you guys are inexperienced at combat, you know. By the rules of rankings, a soldier has to have at least a ten-year service in the military and outstanding performance at combat strategies to apply for special forces. With higher ranks above sergeant, You can always change to become a special force captain and pick and lead your own unique soldiers" Kirin grinned. "A fresh special forces have to go through several years of being ordered around by the army before they can freely operate on their own. Our squad doesn't have to go through that because I'm a boss" She laughed a bit.
Marve was taken aback by her explanation. "Then you had us out here with little to no special forces training..." He lowered his head in disappointment. "As I told you, the battles are your training" Kirin winked. She stood up and looked around. "Guys, you have one minute. Then we're leaving, we can't stay here any longer" She opened her feed and talked. "Look what Sterling did. I don't think that's even appropriate for a soldier to act" Marve complained. "Gladly she knew what she was doing, but don't worry. I won't allow anyone to be rash like that" Kirin smiled.
"Remember that I will be the one punishing you, not Lonara, not the military commanders, not anyone but me" She winked. "So do your jobs properly and you won't get anything from me that will ruin your entire week" She added. "Especially you, Marve. You're holding a sniper rifle. You will always be away from us, watching us from afar. If any of us weren't informed properly about the combat situation and get shot, you will be in a lot of trouble" She scared him. "R-roger... damn I shouldn't have chosen this" He mumbled.
"Don't worry. I believe in you. I know you won't let us down" Kirin pats his shoulder. "Thanks, I will do my best" Marve's mood went up a little. A minute has passed and Kirin gathered everyone back to the road. "Alright, what have you found?" Kirin looked at them. Niela, Chirlin, and Terra weren't carrying anything, but Sterling showed a dark pistol. Everything burnt the three said. "Surprisingly, I found one of their pistols, it still works" Sterling said. "Ooh!" Chirlin saw the pistol and quickly took her Resolver to compare.
"Hey, the Resolver might look bigger, but that pistol is still formidable" Kirin took the pistol. "They call this Von, its name is as short as it's small. This thing can fire faster than our Resolvers, even with single shots. An experienced soldier can outplay our Resolvers in combat"
Von is a mass-produced pistol from the Narukh'za. All of the Narukh'za soldiers carry one and often prove better sidearm than the Arkulan Resolvers, even the Arkulan engineers agree. It has a smaller body compared to Resolvers, making it a compact handgun. In exchange for reduced firepower, the Von can shoot continuous single fires almost similar to a submachine gun and can be changed into full-auto, which acts almost like a rifle.
"Normally, we would bring this back to base and convert it into our own, but I will let you keep it as it is" Kirin gave the gun back to Sterling, who was really happy. "Thank you...!" Sterling started to admire its look. "I... want one too" Chirlin pouts. Her sister just pats her head. "Now just hide it from Lonara, she's very, very strict about this stuff! The others won't mind, but they will often make a topic out of you" Kirin said. "We all need a sidearm by the way" Marve spoke.
"No, you don't" Kirin replied. "L-let me at least get one! I don't have anything to fight on close-combat!" Marve persisted and Kirin agreed. The squad checked the outpost one more time before heading back to their Lancers and driving away.
The outpost was left completely devastated. Not a single life remained after the attack, and its structures are in ruin. A Demon Eagle uncloaked, appearing near the outpost. "They have wiped out one of our outposts, Lord Karuga" Its pilot reported. "I watched them the whole time. They burned everything down, no mercy, no survivors".