Day 12, Month 3, Year 3433 of the Universal Calendar.
12:36 PM UST
The Arrejaunt - Designated Flagship of Hammer&Anvil Mercenary Company
STATUS: Leading H&A Mercenary Fleet. On route towards Deronia, Planetary Designation: LHT/ROR5.1040000
MISSION: -//CLASSIFIED//- Requester: -//DATA EXPUNGED// VVIP CONTACT-
ETA: 1 day, 12 hours, 34 minutes, 40 seconds-
Inside the Arrejaunt. In a certain hallway leading to the munitions bay. There were two people guarding a door that lead to Common Munitions Bay One, a vital room keeping about 70% of the weapons ammo onboard the Arrejaunt.
"So- what do you think?" The soldier-like mercenary clad in tactical gear spoke to his partner.
"About what?"
"Y'know, the mission."
"Oh..." His partner paused a bit, his eyes looking at the ceiling of the hallway. "Well I think its bullshit?" He quipped.
"Why the question mark?"
His partner chuckles lightly.
"Holy shit man, I'm stating the obvious here. Don't you know? This request's a goddamn death trap. And everyone here knows it. Well I thought everyone knew it. I can't believe it, man. James, did you knock your head on the floor or something? Was it that OP on Demuz that got you? You did bang your dome pretty hard, after tripping on a stair." James' partner made a snide remark.
Taking it lightly, James responded.
"Fuck you, Charles. Don't bring that shit up again. And you know that wasn't what I was asking you. I was asking about the reason why the boss bothered taking this request."
"Riiiiight- Of course. Well should've specified, then." Charles acting as if he had been enlightened replied. "You've been here for only about a year right?"
"Mhm." James just ignored the double meaning of Charles first sentence.
Charles, who had been with H&A for 5 years, felt a bit of pride after hearing that.
"What do you think of our leaders? Like, our platoon leaders and Command." Charles said.
"Logical, reasonable, smart, witty, capable... Cunning. None of them are inept."
James was a little confused as to why Charles would ask him this question, but still answered him nonetheless.
"Which is why you're so confused at why we're taking this request?"
"It should be obvious that this 'request' was just meant for fodder."
"Well, shit man- I don't blame you. You're from the 3rd right? Which platoon?"
"5th Support Tactical Platoon. Recon."
Charles thought a bit about James' position. Makes sense why he would think that. As a unit in Recon, placed in a support platoon, James had probably never seen what the boss of H&A was like. Most likely his only reference was through radio chatter, or seeing him on deck or planetside. But never in a battle.
"Riiiight... You've never really seen the boss fight before."
"Is there anything about him that, well stands out other than his strength?"
"Well... Uh, man- How should I say this... Let's just say he has a bit of a... character."
"A character?"
"He's a thrill-seeker, y'know? He's that kind of person that swings around and rages in a battlefield.
Our boss is a blood-headed person. He just likes combat. Nothing more simple than that. Which is why his Adjutants usually take care of organizational matters..."
Charles explained in a manner as if he was bestowing a great secret. James looked at his cocky face, seemingly getting more cocky, with him saying things with an "enlightened elder" attitude.
'Let me see what that face looks like after I kick it sky high into that metal frame.'
The thought was, a bit appealing to him... No, actually, James really wanted to do it. It took him nearly everything in his mind to hold back from sending a kick under his chin.
James and Charles were, believe or not, actually friends. They had gone through life and death together through many operations, and coincidentally, were given the same shift of guarding the same place. It had been like that for a whole month, and James considered Charles as a good friend. This was just part of their daily banter for the past month.
Would they be suprised if they knew that there was that had been listening in to their conversations for the past month?
Beyond the door on the edge of the hallway, I was currently standing and listening to them.
Now don't get me wrong, this isn't a weird habit, it's something thats crucial for me.
Usually I would just spend 2 minutes listening in on them.
I swear its not anything weird.
Beep.
The door opened as I swiped my ID card on the keycard reader. It was a smooth slide to the right, with a small and quiet, but high pitched beeping sound. Before the door even slightly opened, those two guards were already at-ready, showing a serious and steady gaze- It's as if they weren't goofing around just a second ago.
Seeing the person who just entered the hallway, the two guards saluted.
"Good afternoon, Lieutenant!" Charles said in respect.
"Good afternoon, Charles. How's it going?" I gave him a casual reply.
"All clear, sir!"
Even though I gave him a casual reply, he still responded as if I was his training instructor or something...
This was the guy who was goofing around earlier. And by the way, if the Chief heard that? He'd be sent straight to PE Hell.
"Is it the same as usual, Sir?" The one who spoke was James.
Given that they were guards who had been in this shift for the past month, they knew what I usually was up to in the Munitions Bay.
Ah, I just remembered. This should be the end of their shift right? Well, I'm gonna miss these guys.
"Yes. Open the door for me."
"Aye sir." James then swiped his ID card on a keycard reader. The thing they were guarding, a small metal gate which was 4 meters tall and 6 meters wide slowly parted its doors to reveal a large open area with stacks upon stacks of crates filled with ammunition, the lifeblood of the company.
I took a couple of steps forward, entering the Munitions Bay. Usually, this place would only open once a day so the non-combative personnel could do their work here. That would be in 5 hours later though.
Right now, only a couple of drones were here, sorting out some ammunition crates. Aside from that, There was nobody. I had this place to my own.
Its not like I was going to do anything nefarious here. I wasn't going to plant a bomb or somehow sabotage the entire place. And even if I did that the alarms would immediately blare out. Its not like there weren't any cameras here.
Walking around the bay, I went to a spot that I knew a specific type of bullet was stored in large amounts.
7.62x66BR. It was a commonly used cartridge amongst several sniper rifles. While not exactly rare, it wouldn't be wrong to say that it was less common than rifle ammo.
The Common Munitions Bay is, well, a place holding ammo for H&A soldiers to use. This bay holds nearly every kind of cartridge that can fit on pistols, SMG's, rifles, machine guns, snipers, as long as its the correct caliber.
Here it is.
I walked up to a small crate, or more like a case with a collection of 5 cans. I opened one of the cans and looked at the bullets inside.
Mhm. I nodded. Its 7.62x66BR, or also known as .300 Winchester Magnum.
This was the cartride my sniper rifle, a Millington K30A2 commonly used.
I was a bit low on "special ammunition", so with another operation just on the horizon, I thought it wouldn't be so bad to refill.
Now I'd probably hear you asking... Isn't it a breach of protocol to just take bullets like that?
'Pft. I'm part of Command here. Who would bat an eye if the Captain doesn't care?'
H&A Command was a tight-knit group, and each of us knew our dark sides. As long as it isn't too serious, my compatriots won't care.
Smiling, I took 3 of the cans, which had 100 bullets each.
'Sorry Logi dudes, your all cool and stuff but... Just allow me to do this, okay?'
I ignored the fact that I had done this ever since I joined Command, and will continue to do so until the end of H&A.
'Hmm...'
I took a look around, and subsequently remembered that conveniently, I was also running out of submachinegun ammo.
It won't be that much this time...
10 minutes later, I had arrived in my own private room on the flagship.
I sat on a chair, facing a table which had the 3 cans of 7.62x66BR and an additional 5 cans of 5.7×28mm SMG ammo.
The room was quite spacious, with a luxury-sized bed, a small personal bathroom, a kitchen, a spacious area that had one sofa, a table, and a holo TV. It was akin to a luxurious apartment room in my previous life. No windows, of course. We're in space.
H&A, being a small yet renowned mercenary group operating in the Raleigh Arm of the Outer Rim, had garnered a large amount of profit from all the successful missions that they did. Affording all of this for a command personnel was easy, and necessary to keep morale up. Of course, all the grunts have to sleep together in a 6 person room. You have to be atleast an officer to get a personal room of your own.
'Alright. Here we go.'
Aside from the ammunition I temporarily borrowed from Logistics for an indefinite time period, there was a certain tool lying on the table. It looked like a calligraphy pen, except a bit longer and more jagged, with futuristic looking parts sticking out of one end. The tip was a narrow piece of metal that extended quite a bit from the body, and had its foremost end looking like a pyramid pointing down.
This is what's commonly known as a magic pen. Its used by blacksmiths and rune mages to carve or graft spells onto a certain object. Be it weapons likes swords, axes, hammers, spears, bows, and armor like chestplates, chainmail, helmets, and boots, all of these are applicable to be given a spell, usually known as inscribing. Inscribing is a slightly advanced technique that most people who use magic don't really learn. Its usually overlooked unless the person is a craftsman or a runic mage.
Of course, since its the future, Inscribing spells onto bullets is a thing.
Focusing, I put the tip of the pen on the bullet itself.
A small magic circle was inscribed onto the bullet. And another one. And then another one.
After 30 seconds and with careful concentration and focus, I moved on to the next bullet.
Rinse and repeat.
The process of inscribing spells onto bullets can be, quite boring and repetitive. But something like this needs to be done to increase survival chances in a battlefield.
Those 3 magic circles had the effects of 'Speed Up', 'Harden', and 'Delayed Explosion'. They basically turned my sniper rifle into the equivalent of an AMR with explosive magazine.
The results? Practically great. Against heavily armored targets, these work like a charm. Which is why im usually deployed as a solo sniper on the battlefield. If there's no important heavy target, then I just usually followed the Captain's back and covered him.
'35th round.'
That was enough for 5 magazines for my K20A2.
After about 2 hours had passed in my room, a certain tablet like device suddenly lit up on the wall besides me. I had already finished inscribing all of the bullets. Currently, I was just playing around with a bullet on my nose.
I put the bullet on the table and walked up to the device. It was a tablet that acted like a luxury communication device, which connected to the ships command comms. Every personnel in Command had one in their room, and it also connected to various rooms like the Bridge.
I took it from its frame, and activated it. It prompted a fingerprint scan, which I did.
The tablet flashed, and then showed its contents. It was literally just a mail device made by our in-house techie.
Inbox (1)
New - Adjutant Newells: you there? (unread)
- Lieutenant Lorin: Right, see you soon. (you)
- Lieutenant Kors: Ok, I'll give you the rocket rounds, just wait a b- (read)
- Lieutenant Cobo: HOT AND SEXY GIRLS NEAR YOU! JUST SIGN U- (unread)
- Adjutant Leide: K. (you)
- Captain Kerox: You. Me. Training. Now. (read)
- Lieutenant Mers: Snipers when a super gets close to them: you.PNG (read)
VVV
I tapped on the person highest in the list.
Adjutant Newells: you there?
Lieutenant Cerr: yes
I replied, and just a second later-
Adjutant Newells: good, captain wants to meet you and cobo at his office, 22:00 PM sharp.
Adjutant Newells: a small briefing for you two for next op
Lieutenant Cerr: why him
Adjutant Newells: just deal with it man
Lieutenant Cerr: god no, can i switch or something
Adjutant Newells: you want me to die or something you mfecker?
Lieutenant Cerr: fine...
Adjutant Newells: good boy, just accept your fate
Lieutenant Cerr: fuck you, Bitch
Adjutant Newells: fuck you too, Cunt
And with that, my I exited the comms app and shut down the tablet.