I entered the map room, dropping our bags on the table, heavy as well as full.
The man unzipped one of the bags, his eyes strafed along the contents of it, staring at every file and readable paper inside. After skimming, he took out a single piece of paper, reading it.
"This looks quite valuable. I'll notify him that you got some vital intel." The man dropped the piece of paper back inside the bag, pulling out a cellphone.
"How did the mine operation go?" The man asked.
"We managed to get alot of information, but the mine blew up." Sebastian replied.
"Blew up?" The man looked at Sebastian with shock on his face.
"Yes, they might have rigged the mine and set it to detonate."
"Well, i guess i'll see what i can do for expansion there. Hope the damage didn't mess up the forest as well."
We stood around, awaiting another task he might give us, looking around the room.
"Yeah, they got the bags...." The man promptly placed his phone down, unzipping the other bags, peering at their contents. A few seconds of checking the other bags, the man puts the phone back to his ear.
"Yeah, bags worth of it. Look i can't look at all these individual files. Just come see it for yourself...Already departed since earlier? Ohhhhh i see, in about 6 hours, alright." The man ended the call, pocketing his cellphone. "Fortunately the person from your mercenary academy was nearby, he'll arrive in 6 hours so best rest in this room for a while."
A knock from the metal door alerted the man, swinging open, one of the guards entered inside.
"Sir, we shot some sort of drone outside." The guard announced to him.
With the man, me as well as the team went to investigate for ourselves.
Back outside, a group of guards stood in a circle, surrounding something. The man ordered them to move away, revealing a drone, fizzling & sparking.
He approached it's dying corpse, crouching near it.
"SHIT!" A guard loudly exclaimed from the gate area. In this snowy twilight we couldn't see what he was exclaiming at.
In only seconds, a wall of yellow flashes illuminated the night sky on the front, snow flies high on the ground as sparks quickly near the gate spreading out all around, as guards ran ripples of snow followed behind them.
"SIR GET BACK INSIDE!" A guard yells.
"Mercs, help the guards protect the building." The man ordered us before running back inside, escorted by 2 guards.
Guards all around opened fire fruitlessly at the darkness, firing where the flashes came from hoping to hit whatever caused it.
"Disperse and find cover, make your shots count." Sebastian commanded us.
We dispersed, nearby were crates, i dashed behind it quickly aiming up to the dark sky at the gate.
Flashes kept on coming, never ceasing, this time ripples came to the brown dirt ground of the inner area. So many sources of the flashes, are these also drones? and why are there so many of em?
Bursting through the shadows into the lit up inner area, drones moved around continuing their assault of firing at anything in sight. Some drones began firing at the front of the house, hitting the structure itself.
Focusing in on my sights, i aimed at one of the drones, firing a single shot. The shot met its mark on the drone, but it didn't go down, the bullet slammed into the drone only making it stumble around the air for a second then making itself stable again.
I fired a 2nd round, the bullet slammed into it again, doing the same effect. This one is quite durable.
I fired more and more on it, at the 9th or 10th shot it finally went down.
The fight intensified, the gunshots became louder and louder as more drones swarmed the lit up inner area as more left the curtains of twilight. I dumped bullets into more drones, emptying magazines i still have, all around i can see members of my team firing at the drones, now above us.
The swarm fired into all directions, some seeing me from cover, i ducked down as a bombardment of rounds shredded my wooden crate cover. Shit, do i call in my teammates for support? Or they're too preoccupied fighting other drones. I'm seconds away from becoming a needle puppet filled with bullets, i gotta get help.
"Guys im pinned behind a wooden crate, drones are shredding it fast, i need help to divert the fire or take out the drones!" I spoke into the mic, a mix of fear and uncertainty in my voice as the crate became weaker second by second.
"I think i see your location, Luna, Marcel, Stephen concentrate fire on the drones hitting that crate over there." Sebastian ordered in the comms.
The hail of bullets slowly began getting weaker and weaker as less rounds were hitting my crate.
"Damon, your area's cleared of any attacking drones, focus now."
I aimed my rifle once again on the broken but still standing crate, firing every last round i had at the drones in the sky. I shot at one drone, as it flew down from the damage it flew at my direction until hitting the dirt. It's size is quite large, probably the size of my whole torso or even my whole upper body.
Emptying round after round, i didn't stop, expecting more to fall. I felt the ground below me just disappear, my body flew into the air, in a few moments i was in the air, i could feel numerous sharp stabbing pains in my abdomen, is this shrapnel? In just a short amount of time, my body hit the ground again.
"Shit that thing just blew up." Lennox spoke in the middle of battle. In succesion still on the ground, drones that fell dead detonated leaving a cloud of black smoke. Rifle still in hand, tightly gripped, i get up from the ground. I can feel the pain in my abdomen worsening from moving, i don't have much ammunition, but i'm emptying everything i got at em.
More drones fell down, detonating in thick black smoke, falling down dead like flies.
I continued firing till my rifle no longer fired another round, empty. With my long range rifle, fully loaded with bullets, I continued shooting at the remaining drones.
The last drone fell to the ground, blowing up into smoke. The battle is over. The building became damaged by the gunfire, bullet holes on many sections of the base.
On the ground, there were no broken parts from the drones scattered around, only circular black marks being left in their place. Odd, did all the parts disintegrate from the explosion? Just black marks scattered around with no shards or drone parts in this whole area.
"Let's meet the man inside again." Sebastian said after the battle. Inside, papers scattered across the floor, nobody in sight, furniture shredded and riddled in bullet holes.
Inside the map room the man stood.
"All gone?" The man asked us.
"Yeah" Sebastian simply replied.
"Were there any insurgents?"
"No, all just drones."
"Oh good, for now just wait for your ship to arrive, and bring your bags onto the ship, i'll assess the damages and casualties i got outside." The man walked out the room, leaving us standing around. Now we'll just wait for our ship to arrive.