It was a normal day for Hughie. He had been steadily practising and improving himself. Maybe that was why he had managed to get such a good rank in E.V.R. battle simulations. He did not let it get to his head and continued with his training. Six weeks later, the Abomination Wave happened. He was positioned in one of the exits near the hangar, and his task was to bring in the wounded. When he was returning with a soldier near death, one of the Abominations broke through the defence line and dashed towards him. Under the killing intent of a Rank 3 Abomination, he felt small. So small that he would die if the Abomination had just puffed at him. His legs gave up and he dropped down to the ground. The Abomination was barely three metres away when it opened its mouth to swallow him whole. What saved him was the soldier he was bringing back. Seeing the Abomination get past the defence line and attack the trainee, she got up from the gurney and took on the blow of the Abomination. She did not only take the blow but also attacked it with her bare hands afterwards, a suicidal attack in her current condition. It bought enough time for a Corporal to come to their aid, and finish off the Abomination. Hughie was saved. The woman who defended him, however, couldn't make it. She had died in front of Hughie, still defending him to her last moments.
Hughie carved that moment into his memory, and would never forget. Since that day, he was determined to do whatever it took to get stronger. To not be in the same position as then. To be able to do the same thing she did back then. And it started with his infiltration into enemy ranks. Although he had a high ranking, he was a solitary person, thus not many knew him. He easily blended in with them, making sure to not get any attention. Yes, it would be a normal day for Hughie.
—
Next week, at the basement of Barrack A, team leaders of the defending side were having a meeting. They had detailed info on the main leading figures of the attacker side. The leader was someone named Griffin Blake, one of those who had formed a string in the seven weeks since the Ether Manipulation lessons started. Meanwhile, Sean and the others had finally formed their fourth string, and Tyson was still working on the last one. Sean was sure that a few others had formed their third too, they just hadn't had the time to cap out their increased limits.
"We have 10 potential targets." Sherryl took the lead. "According to our info, these 10 will each be leading a battalion of about one thousand and a half trainees."
-"What are they planning with the remaining five thousand?" one of the team leaders asked.
"We don't know yet. We also don't know who are those five thousand. For all we know, they could be an elite brigade of stringed trainees to attack where they deem our defence is weak, or five thousand useless wastes that can't do anything other than weapon maintenance."
"Anyway," Sean continued. "These 10 battalion commanders are our primary targets, which the sharpshooters will take out." He gave three booklets to the three sharpshooters who were specially called to the meeting and were sitting at the front. Where had this guy found their pictures and a printer to print these out?
"Jayden will be handling four of them while you two will be taking on three." They were about to protest as this meant that Jayden could potentially receive better evaluations than them. Their service in the Arctic front was just around the corner and they didn't want to be deployed in a bad location. Sean knew what they were thinking and hushed them before they could raise a word.
"Do you have four strings like he does? You will have to successfully escape and infiltrate their ranks three times in what, eight hours? Do you think you will be able to with two strings?"
Although the strongest on their side was at least 50% stronger than the other side's strongest, this only mattered much in a 1v1. Even if the trend continued like that with to their weakest, which it didn't, the enemy was still nearly 7 times their number, which was enough to cover any differences in personal strength. They had given themselves around eight hours before the enemy could overwhelm them and capture their flag. This estimation didn't include any tactics whatsoever, only the brute strength of the sides. The real time they would have would be even lower than that. This was why in those eight hours, the sharpshooters had to take out enemy commanders. This was a must independent of what the enemy side was cooking in their planning table.
""Understood.""
They continued with the discussion of formations and where to put the flag. They couldn't reach a consensus in a measly four hours, but they had ruled out some ideas at the least. After the meeting was over, everyone went back to their rooms to sleep as it was way past midnight. Back in their room, Sean was rebelling.
"Why is it always my job to iron out these guys? I really don't like doing that. I'm the friendly big brother, not a stern boss."
"Did no one told you that you look quite intimidating when you frown?" Jayden took on a fake surprised tone.
"I don't frown!" Sean said, frowning.
"There! See, I was right! You are made for this, beating everyone out of line blue, a real stern boss!"
Sean snorted and lied down on his bed. He wouldn't humour this clown anymore, he was sleepy.
—
"Any Ether activity around the camp?"
"Not anything out of the norm, sir."
Captain Henry left the control room with a frown on his face. Now that was a real stern boss! He wasn't in the best mood since the incident, and there were no signs of the Aberration past week. Tomorrow, he and Dylan would leave the camp for a quick search.
{CROAK.}
He turned to his side, where he thought he heard something. 'Huh, I guess I was too hard on myself the past week.' He had already forgotten about what he was thinking about, but he had a feeling that that he was missing something.