(Commissioned art is comment)
April 7, 2050 - 00:45
Da Nang, Vietnam - Tien Sa Port
Pvt. Chisato Sakamoto
Chisato crouched behind cover, her weapons mounted against the rocky surface, aimed at one of the enemies. She and the rest of Heaven's Hounds were waiting for the blackout from the forward team.
She'd been doing fine so far, only needing a moment during the first half of the shootout in the warehouse to adjust herself to the fact that she was actually doing the killing. She didn't know if she was fast to adapt to the violence due to being desensitized by pop culture and gaming, but now was not the time to wonder about such things. The fact that she got to see firsthand how horrible these criminals could get really helped her cope with the fact that she was doing the killing.
She glanced away from her target for a moment and looked at the forward team. My, her girlfriend, and Kasim, the team's combat engineer, were sneaking toward the generator to shut it down, giving them the advantage of darkness.
Chisato and My had been dating for more than a month now, and it was going quite well, as far as Chisato could tell, not like she had any experience dating anyone before My. She was a sweet but energetic girl with a happy-go-lucky attitude most of the time, something Chisato found quite fond of. My's love language was physical, Chisato could tell, since the girl would constantly make physical touch, whether it was full-on hugging and cuddling, or something as simple as hand-holding.
Their relationship was still in the budding phase, and Chisato wanted to go on more dates with her partner and get to know her better. Maybe once they get a break after the operation, Chisato and My could go out for another date.
Chisato almost drifted into a daydreaming state. She had to consciously reel herself back to the present and focus back on the forward team.
They made their way down the path undetected and slowly approached an unsuspecting guard who was facing away from them. Chisato was wondering what they'd do to that guard when My slung her weapon away and pulled out a knife. She sneaked by the guard, grabbed him from behind, and brutally stabbed the man until he went limp.
Chisato cringed and recoiled slightly from the brutal kill, not because it was unnecessary or that she suddenly had empathy for a bunch of psychopaths, but more so from the way My took care of that man. Repeatedly stabbed in the neck until he was dead, that was one hell of a way to die, Chisato thought. She also found it strangely alluring, the way My wrapped her hand around that guy's mouth to gag him. Her thought wandered again as she began thinking about how My could be playing rough with her in bed, wrapping her arms around Chisato's neck and doing her rough from behind.
…
'What the hell was I thinking?' Chisato shook her head to clear her mind of her own dirty thoughts. Her face was flushed hot.
"What's wrong?" Edric asked.
"Oh, nothing, just had some thoughts I need to shake away," Chisato replied.
"Oh yeah, I understand. That was quite an unnecessary kill. I totally didn't expect that at all."
Chisato glanced at Edric for a moment before nodding, not even trying to correct the misunderstanding.
"Charge planted. We're ready to give them a party," Kasim reported.
"Good. Alright people, it's show time," Peter signaled for everyone to aim.
Chisato cleared her head and aimed her M4 rifle at one of the stationary guards. She switched the safety off.
"Hit the charge on my countdown. Five!"
"Four."
"Three."
"Two."
"One."
Chisato was expecting sparks and blue sparkling electricity to spew from the EMP charge on the generator, but alas, all it did was fry the electrical components in the boring old way, with no fancy blue electrical sparks or anything fancy as she had seen in movies and fiction.
As soon as the light went out, a wave of confusion washed over the bandits. Those who were working and carrying stuff immediately dropped what they were doing, while the guards grew cautious and readied their weapons as they looked around.
"Fire!"
At Peter's command, everyone in the squad fired their weapons. The cacophony of suppressed explosions echoed in the cavern chamber, coupled with the supersonic cracks of the bullets, as well as the sound of bodies hitting the ground, shocked the gang of bandits. However, the shock tactic did not last long, as the bandits shook out of their stupor and grabbed their weapons from nearby and returned fire at the team. Bullets ripped through the air and impacted all around Heaven's Hounds squad, none of them hitting their marks, as the mercenaries were still firing their guns, methodically picking targets that exposed themselves out of cover.
Chisato, despite being suppressed by bullets landing around her, steeled herself and kept aiming her rifle at enemies. One of the few female bandits was mag-dumping her AK at the squad with little to no aim, seemingly aiming to suppress the mercenaries rather than to kill, which makes sense since none of the bandits had any optical or thermal equipment and were only shooting in the direction of muzzle flashes. Chisato aimed at the female goon and pulled the trigger three times.
The female bandit was hit in her abdomen, chest, and shoulder. She dropped her weapons and fell to the ground, slamming her head against the cold and wet rocky surface.
Chisato looked for a new target and saw one of the men running in the open. She aimed and fired multiple times at the running man. She only managed to hit the man once in his thighs, letting him stumble his way to cover behind one of the stacks of cargo.
"Tch." She clicked her tongue at her own inaccuracy. No time to dwell on that. She had to keep focus on taking out enemies and providing cover for the forward team.
Glancing around, she saw that My and Kasim had already advanced along the maze of cargo and boxes. The bandits, whittled down to just 20, organized themselves and retaliated with more ferocity than before. They alternated between taking cover and providing covering fire, forcing some of the Heaven's Hounds members to take cover.
"Enzi, put some concussion grenades on their positions. Katya, use your drone to suppress or distract the enemies." Peter forwent the technical lingo and addressed more directly.
"Copy that," they both replied as they ducked behind cover and took out their equipment.
Enzi grabbed the PGS-30 from his back and mounted it against the cover. He didn't need to change the ammo type, since all the 30mm rounds he brought were concussion rounds. He aimed at where the enemy concentrated the most and fired.
The concussion rounds impacted all around the maze, letting out ear-piercing noises as well as small shockwaves, knocking the goons off balance and out of their covers. Chisato and the others didn't miss the chance and quickly finished off those enemies.
Katya also released her two larger portable drones from her backpack and let the autonomous drones do their own thing. They flew out of cover, zipping across the cavern, and toward the enemies.
One of the bandits, who was hiding behind cover, suddenly heard a buzzing noise from his side and turned his head toward the noise. That turned out to be the wrong move, as he was immediately flashed by a 175,000-lumen flash from the nearby hovering drone, making him drop his weapon and stagger out of cover. He was quickly taken out with two shots to his side and one to his eyes.
'Oh heaven.' Chisato witnessed that bandit's death, and damn, she was glad that she wasn't on the receiving end.
"Edric, Max, Katya, you three continue providing cover. My, Kasem, keep pushing forward and locate that HVT. Everyone else, follow me down."
Everyone acknowledged the command.
Chisato got back to cover and checked her magazine. Just from the feeling alone, it felt lighter than before. She turned the Pmag to the side and checked the window. The spring of the magazine indicated that there were only a few rounds left in the magazine.
Training had taught her to have a full magazine before going into a firefight. She did just that, stowing the near-empty mag and shoving a new full one into the M4.
She was ready to go.
April 7, 2050 - 00:45
Da Nang, Vietnam - Tien Sa Port
Pvt. My Phan
My repeatedly fired her weapon to suppress the enemies from popping out of corners; the Krysis Vector's two-shot burst was doing a fantastic job at scaring the bandits.
She reached another corner in the maze of cargo and took cover behind it. Kasem, who was following behind My, also got behind the corner, but was still peeking out to suppress the enemy.
"Give me a moment, I'm reloading." My asked.
She dropped the empty magazine, put a new one in, pressed the bolt release, and watched the bolt travel forward, pushing a new round into the chamber.
"Gonna throw a 9-bang at them." My stated.
"Go for it, I'll top my gun, then we can push up," Kasem replied, getting back behind cover. It didn't take long before the corner where he was was belted with automatic fire.
Kasem calmly reloaded his gun while My took out another 9-bang from her pouches. She held the safety lever tight and pulled out the pin.
"GET EARRAPED, FUCKERS!" My intentionally yelled out loud before throwing the grenade around the corner.
"No you, you who-AAAAH!"
The flashbang went off from underneath his feet repeatedly, deafening and blinding the bandit and his cohorts standing near him. My and Kasim immediately bolted out of our cover and closed the distance between them and the enemies, unafraid of flashbang as their visors and headsets completely filtered out the blinding light and deafening sound.
My turned left at the intersection while Kasim covered her six. My saw two men groveling on the ground with their arms covering their heads and their faces in pain. Without any hesitation, My put the bandits out of their misery with a point-blank burst into their heads. She also heard a clear shot behind her. It seemed like Kasim did the same thing as her.
They both focused back to the front and advanced down the line. At the end of the maze of cargo was a right turn into a short walk to the open area near where the hostages were kept.
My got near the corner and pressed her back against the cargo on the right side while Kasim stuck to the left. They were going to pie around the corridor, watching each other's backs.
"Now."
On her signal, they both swung out of the corner, facing their own directions while having their back against the other and moving at a parallel pace. They were greeted with an almost empty space with no hostiles in sight. There were still boxes scattered all over the place, with packages of all types of drugs knocked over. White powdered cocaine, blue crystal meth, angel dust, speed, fentanyl, all types of drugs, lay haphazardly all around when bandits dropped them during the initial chaos.
"Left side is clear," Kasim reported.
"Right side's clear too, though it's a fucking mess over here. This place is seven shades of Barney's asshole if it were filled with drugs." My replied.
"A literal gangster's paradise."
"More like addicts' paradise."
"Yeah… alright, I'll go and check those submersibles. You go and get those hostages out."
My nodded at Kasim's call and headed toward the holding cells where the hostages were kept. As she got closer to the cells, she noticed the stench growing worse with each step. An unholy combination of all the hostages' horrible hygiene, blood, sweat, and other types of bodily waste, like piss and shit, all combined to create a soul-shattering smell.
My, however, was not bothered by the stench, not any more than her disgusted feeling toward the conditions of the hostages. Young girls, around her age, stripped of their clothes and forced into cramped spaces, some with signs of physical abuse and others sexually assaulted. Their faces were those of husks drained of their soul, leaving only the physical bodies behind. The men weren't in any better conditions, with similar signs of abuse as the girls. The barbarians didn't spare these men, physically or sexually.
'Fucking animal… all of them.' My kept a neutral face, but inside, she was seething with rage.
One of the women noticed that there was a person outside of their cells and looked up at My.
"Who… Who are you?" Her voice was weak and hopeless.
My put her weapon away and crouched down next to the girl and held her skinny hand.
"I'm a mercenary. My group was hired to get you out. Don't worry, you'll be out of this shithole soon enough. Just hold onto it for a bit more." My replied with her calming and soothing voice.
There was a glint of hope and life returning to the girl's eyes as her heard My's reply, and so did all the other girls and guys. They all shuffled around in their cells, trying to look at My.
"Alright, don't move around too much. I'll try to open the cell."
My stood up and walked to the metal door. It was locked with a simple latch and a metal lock, nothing that couldn't be solved with a simple bolt cutter. Even if it was something more secure, My still has a plasma cutter.
She took the bolt cutter from her backpack and was about to cut the bolt when she noticed the look on the hostages' faces. It was a horrified look, like that of a bunch of prey when they encountered a predator, and all of them were looking behind her. Not only that, My could feel a presence behind her, a dangerous and intimidating one.
"Oh for fu-"