CHAPTER 18 TRIGON

...

Hour 1

The heavy thudding sound of wind being slashed and torn apart continuously and rapidly was starting to make Crownslayer's sensitive ears shiver.

Holding her ears and trying to cover them with her hands was only slightly effective. She looked to the pilots In front of her, seated at the front seats of the flying machine to which she now known is called a Valor helicopter, they were wearing some sort of headsets, with thick padding to remove the unpleasant noise of the endlessly repeating slashing of the helicopter’s long and sharp blades, but unfortunately, they only had headphones for her lower set of ears, and none were build for her top, animalia ones.

Alberto and some of the others were surprised, looking like they just saw something extremely uncanny by the large-eyed reaction that she observed on their faces when they realized she had 2 sets of ears, but besides that, they were now making their way to Chernobog, or at least that's what they said. She really couldn't see anything at night, and she wondered if they were even going in the correct direction, but that somehow only occupied a little portion of her mind.

The thing that occupied the rest of her mind, or at least a major portion of it, was the simple fact that she was hundreds of meters above the ground.

She was never scared of heights in her entire life, as she had plenty of experiences in high rooftop combat, and looking down at the masses while standing on top of a tall skyscraper was something that she liked to do, but this flying thing? It was not at all similar, it was extremely different, a new type of anxiousness enveloped her heart as she looked at Alberto, seated next to her.

“Umm, what would happen- if for example, the engine suddenly stops working?”

Her worried glance made Alberto pat her shoulders.

“Don't worry, very rarely do engine failures happen. And this helicopter was double checked, maybe even triple checked by our mechanics to confirm that everything is in working order.”

“Y-Yeah I get that but, just what if the engine fails?”

Alberto looked at her with a most reassuring smile.

“If the engine fails slightly, then the pilots would make an emergency landing, if it fails catastrophically, we would all die.”

Streaks of freezing fear ran through her spine as she imagined dying in such a completely helpless way if the flying machine were to crash.

“As I've said, it's extremely rare. And also, our pilots here are skilled, I'm sure they're in control of every wiring, cog or more of this machine.”

Alberto's word managed to calm down Crownslayer, but still, she chose to be as away from the doors as possible.

“Maybe you'd like flying if it wasn't night, just imagine that view.”

“Hmm.”

Crownslayer grumbled, not really wanting to imagine going on another flight that wasn't necessary. She wanted to say something to Alberto, but that thought quickly vanished as the Pilots announced something through the Helicopter’s built in speaker systems.

“Alright! We're almost there everyone! I repeat we're now 700 meters near the city! 700 meters near the city and 1300 meters to our landing zone! Ready up! Ready up!”

…

The outskirts of Chernobog had proven to be a difficult maze to navigate in, houses that all look the same. Broken streets that lead to countless dead-ends and the important aspect of sight, dead on arrival as the shine of the ever-ethereal twin moons being the only natural path lighter and sight giver to those who dare stalk or wander in it's complexes of streets, roads and dark hidden alleyways that can only be revealed by the most vigilant eyes.

“Damn! Another dead-end!”

Silently screamed a fully masked operative equipped with darkened goggles and a tactical, yet fancy looking black field jacket filled to the brim with random equipment. Useful or not.

The figure turned to the rest of the group, a single strand of warm golden orange hair escaping her balaclava, exposing her obvious identity to those who are familiar with her features.

“Swire-! I mean, Toffee-6, the maps are now determined to be unreliable with all the broken debris and building blocking roads! We need to find a different way to navigate through this city!”

A tall woman said, wearing the same night black-gear as Swire, but less fashionable and minimalist. Though her attire’s intent of making its wearer anonymous may in fact fail due to the fact that one long protruding horn that came from the wearer’s head was shamelessly showing like a sore thumb.

“But, how do we do that? Toffee-2?”

Toffee-2, or Hoshiguma seemed to smirk behind her balaclava, forming stretches of clothing only visible to those near her.

“How about, let's go find someone to talk to? There's gotta be isolated patrols here.”

“Wait, you mean we're going to forcefully interrogate someone, right?’

“What else could I be implying? It's our best bet with all the darkness severely limiting our vision.”

“Hmm, that's true. The only important part is to try not to alert the rest of them. We've managed to get here undetected because of Rhodes, and we shall leave here undetected.”

Hoshiguma nodded, before suddenly looking away in the dark sky, and although she couldn't see anything, her eyes narrowed. For some reason, her instincts were telling her they were being watched. Was she just anxious? She didn't know, but it was hard to deny these incomprehensible feelings sometimes.

“By the way, did they go on their way already?”

Swire said, breaking Hoshiguma's mind away from her current thoughts, but before she could reply, the sounds of someone walking interrupted her.

The clanking of something heavy reached both of their ears, their heads then turning to the other operative, that somehow agreed to join in with them.

“Oh! Nine! Your her-”

The angry tigress suddenly shuts down the oni’s sentence with a sudden roar.

“Her codename! Toffee-2!”

“Ah, right what is it again? Was it Toffee-3?”

“It's Toffee-1.”

Said the new arrival in a calm, indifferent voice. Her face was also covered by the same balaclava, yet her eyes were cold, stagnant as an unmoving lake.

“R-Right! Toffee-1, report!”

Stuttered Swire, still unsure on how to interact with the former Special Inspection Unit Chief.

““H-How did Che’n even manage to convince her to join?”” Thought Swire, screaming internally.

Nine simply nodded her head in reply.

“The Rhodes Island team had separated, setting out on their own objectives within the city.”

She then raised her arms, showing a black sack.

“They said that these new explosives are easy to use, so it's up to us to perform Search & Destroy.”

…

Hour 2

“Archon 1-1, in position, Over.”

“1-6 to 1-1, What exactly do you see? Over.”

“1-6, We got a clear view of the meeting place. Orange ran off, said she'd be looking for their leaders. Colosseum and the Lunar team are at the negotiation point waiting still. Over.”

“Copy that 1-1, Stay there unless I said so, 1-5 and I will split and investigate the ‘Unknowns’. So keep still and be good guests, we're on their territory now. Stay sharp, Out.”

Winters put his radio back to his pocket, sighing before exchanging a glance to Michael Vining, all dressed in the same gear they used when they first conducted their first mission in this absolutely absurd world, however they swapped out the combat headsets to the easily recognizable GPNVG type night vision goggles, its extending four lenses granting more potent night vision capabilities while having the side effect of making them look like urban monsters, even more so with the skull-like design etched into their balaclavas.

The folks at the inventory team said that looking scary might make your opponents flinch, giving yourself some extra time to shoot time while they're dazed. Winters heavily doubted that claim, but didn't have any time to argue with them. Besides, sometimes it's fun playing the boogeyman.

“Any second now.”

Michael said, fiddling with some device while rhythmically tapping the floor with his shoe. Winters merely replied with a grunt, then his radio vibrated again.

“There it is.”

Michael said, loading his rifle and standing up from the floor of the broken apartment they were hiding in. Winters took his radio again, breaking away from watching Michael doing last minute preparations and instead observed the dark night sky.

“SkyFather to Archon 1-6, We've found the location of the Unknowns, they're at map grid X-Ray, Yankee 56-217. They are armed and are mobile. However, they seemed to have separated into two groups. We'll update you regularly on both of their positions. Over.”

“Copy that SkyFather-1, We're on our way, Out.”

Winters cut communications, and took hold of his gun.

“Let’s go.”

The duo jumped off the second story building they were at, and into the dark alleys and forgotten streets of Chernobog. Their mission was redirected to investigate the Unknowns. Such is the name that command gave them, to the other set of mysterious operatives that landed on the city.

“You've been through a mission similar to this one, Sir?”

Michael suddenly said, shattering the silence of their hunt.

“Why do you ask?”

“You seem, I don't know, experienced? I myself never really felt that confident in urban missions like these…”

Winters shrugged.

“Well, I worked in a similar environment in the past.”

“Cities like these?”

“Yes, you'd have to make sure you won't be waking up anybody while you move, but here, most of the buildings are empty. So that's some luck.”

“Huh, urban warfare has never really been to my taste.”

“You'd better get used to it. It's way more dangerous here.”

“What? Is it the magic shit, Sir?”

“That too, but remember what they told us? The fuckers born in this world got different genes than us, somehow making their physical capabilities surpass ours.”

“Hah, not worried about that. I'll just not let them get 5 meters anywhere close to me.” Michael said, brushing his gun with care.

“Agreed. Let's stop the chattering, focus on the mission.”

“Aye, Sir.”

…

“Quiet! There's a patrol nearby!”

Swire hurriedly said to her team, hiding behind some of the still broken buildings of the Reunion occupied Chernobog.

“Toffee-2!”

She said, looking for Hoshiguma.

“Can you see their numbers?”

Hoshiguma took a quick glance, then ducked down again.

“Only four, they seem alone. Probably not even a patrol group. Honestly, they're probably random soldiers who wanted to laze around, ignoring their post, seeing as they're so far away from their main camps.”

“I see.”

A determined smile grew in Swire’s face. Turning to her squad and stared at them with the confidence and zeal of a tiger while her hand reached for her weapon of choice, a specialized meteor hammer with brutal spiked blades as sharp as a freshly forged katana, such a weapon mismatched with her personality and yet she handled it with unparalleled skill.

“Everyone! Prepare an ambush! Leave one alive for questioning!”

The LGD team, composed of experts and even some members of the Special Inspection unit nodded without a word. All went to their respective positions, waiting for the four poor souls to walk in range, and to their doom.

But one seemed a bit apprehensive. Hoshiguma went to the side of Nine, her face clearly in a deep frown, visible even in the mask of her balaclava. “Are you alright?”

Whispered Hoshiguma, a look of concern visible in her eyes.

“It's nothing. Don't mind it.”

Hoshiguma sighed.

“Apologies. I just wanted to ask.”

Nine turned her head, directly staring at Hoshiguma.

“Hmm. You're interested in why I chose to join this, mission. Right?”

“Heh, you're very perceptive. I would be lying if I wasn't.”

“Then save your questions when we're done.”

“Yes, Miss Nine.”

“Hmph. You know that I'm not really a part of the LGD anymore, right?”

“Yet you still work as an undercover agent for us.”

“That's what you believe.”

“Hmm?”

“Shhh, they're near. Get ready, Hoshiguma.”

Hoshiguma readied her shield, hearing the blabbering of the four walking Reunion grunts.

“H-Hey, should we be wandering off this far?” “What? Are you scared?” “Haha! C'mon it's fine! There's a good spot here to get away from the little commander!” “Huh, you're still thinking about the ghosts, right?” “You mean the Ghosts of Chernobog? N-No, I mean- yeah, but-” “Cmon! Those ghost guys probably aren't even real! Let's just relax, I've made a deal with the guy managing our food, and I hustled us a few bottles!” “Damn! My man!”

The four men continued to walk in the darkness, flashing their flashlight into what they thought was a clear road, walking like giddy friends not aware the next few steps would be their last.

Swire silently observed them using a drone’s camera placed on top of an overlooking pillar, taking a glance at her small controller screen, then she raised three fingers up, signaling her team ready.

“So where are we supposed to hide? Y’know someone would come looking for us sooner or later.”

Two fingers up.

“Eh, you really think they care about us? Four random grunts?”

One finger up.

“Maybe, but as of right now that white haired brat is still cooped inside his room, gotta enjoy that!”

Snap.

“Really? I thi-”

Blood spilled as an arrow entrenched itself deep within the neck of one of the grunts.

One of them tried pulling his sword in utter panic, and failing as his friend, now just a corpse fell on his side, making him stagger and trip onto the floor, sword out of reach as he tried to push the corpse away from him, only to be horrified to see all the others laying silently on the ground.

He tried to stand again, shivering and hyperventilating as he tried to back off, to run away, the instinct to save himself screaming, urging him to pick himself up and just get out, to live and to see another day, but in his panic and fear he tripped again, and now he could hear footsteps, steady yet terrifying footsteps.

“T-The G-Ghosts of C-Chernobog…”

He muttered to himself, terrified of what was about to come. He closed his eyes, tears flowing and dripping, he knew he reached his end of the road. Then unexpectedly, a high pitched voice spoke to him.

“The Ghosts of Chernobog? What do you mean by that?”

…

A hooded figure moved across the streets of Chernobog, swift and resolute, determined to achieve her goal. Passing by numerous patrols unseen, undetected and uncompromised, until she came by a guarded camp, with constructed walls and installed sniper towers. The Reunion's preparation in the case that the Ursus army might want to retaliate.

Seeing that it would be too much of a hassle to pass this guarded fort, she decided instead to simply walk to the gates.

“Identity yourself!”

The guards screamed, seeing the hooded figure walk with such a gall towards the closed gates. Flashlight and floodlights circled her, never leaving her movement as she steadily advanced without hesitation.

“I repeat! Identify yourself now!”

The figure now stopped in her tracks, looking at the direction of the guard on top of the wall. Her arms moved towards her hood, slowly unraveling her red-orange hair and lupo features. Gaze unperturbed, unbothered by the gasps, the bellowing screams of shock and surprise with widened eyes, she spoke with the authority, the authority of superiority and spirit of command she had. She was, and still is a commander of Reunion after all, and now she has returned.

“Tell Talulah, Crownslayer has returned.”

The guards gulped, unsure, hesitant of what to do until she spoke her piece again.

“Do I need to beat you all back to discipline?”

“N-No Commander Crownslayer!”

The leader of the group immediately turned to his men, with a stern glare and a newly lit vigor in his eyes he ordered the gates to open.

“You heard what she said! Open the gates! Crownslayer has returned!”

…

Hours before the operation Rhodes Island

“Snafu, are you willing to disclose your actual name?”

“I won't. You'd know why.”

“Actually, I don't. So do you mind telling me why?”

A short, white haired feline locked her cold, calculating gaze to Snafu's eyes. Stern eyes in combat with Snafu's neutral, even seemingly careless eyes. Snafu maintained a slight grin, a small poker face to present to this high-executive of Rhodes Island. But to be honest to himself, Snafu was trying his best not to act confused, for all the info dumps he had gotten in the past days, and at the same time trying his best to take this actual cat girl seriously without his eyes gravitating to her upper ears.

“I don't have to tell you.”

Kal’tsit sighed as a frown formed in her face. She then took a tablet from her desk, then showed something peculiar to Snafu.

“These are the results of your blood samples.”

Snafu sat back with mouth blank, confused on what that was supposed to mean. Kal'tsit however, narrowed her eyes even more.

“Yup, that's my blood alright.”

“You don't see anything wrong with your blood?”

“My blood? No, sorry. Looks red to me.”

Kal'tsit closed her eyes, seemingly trying to struggle with something deep within, then after a calming sigh, she gazed back at Snafu. The sternness was gone, replaced with a somewhat serene calmness.

“Mr Snafu, I won't beat around the bush here, as I believe we both have something we wish to be doing, but I have to say, you're not from this planet, correct?”

Snafu's eyes slightly widened. His thoughts went into a slight rumble.

“Hah? Are you serious? Those stories about teleportation and reincarnation are for kids Miss, so why are you yapp-”

“Don't try to deny it Mr Snafu. I'll keep it a secret, and don't let me show you all the times you've demonstrated your lack of knowledge of this world, its countries and culture in the numerous interrogations Amiya did on you.”

Snafu coughed.

“So all that time, Amiya was playing me in her little interrogation, huh?”

“She’s just an innocent kid, I told her to do it for the good of Rhodes Island.”

Snafu sighed, yet smiled in his defeat. Something like this was honestly guaranteed, but he did not expect for this feline to so easily announce to him that he was an alien, he thought that they wouldn't even consider that probability, because it was absolutely ridiculous as it was true.

“Alright, I admit. I'm not from here, so what now?”

The feline face slightly jumped, showing some small emotion of shock for the first time.

““Well? I guess she really didn't expect her guess to be correct?””

“Would I be a test subject for you then? Be some lab rat?” Snafu said, slowly reaching for something he hid on his pants.

“W-Well, Mr Snafu, I want you to stay with us, help us and we'll help you. Does that work with you?”

Kal'tsit said, trying to maintain her appearance even though she still couldn't really grapple with the reality in front of her.

“Yes, that's fine by me.”

Snafu's mind sighed in relief. His tensions eased and his hand relaxed, no longer clutching his concealed weapon. In terms of being found out, this is exactly what he wanted, he's been known as a good guy in the time he's been in this company, with all the massive thanks given to him by all the people who owed their lives to him, now he simply just has to keep playing that role. He has a new mission now anyways.

Operation Trigon. As they assigned it, a genuine smile resurfaced for a brief second before it disappeared, as now he now knows he isn't alone in this insane world.

___

A/N

My apologies for being late again, this had been a running theme with me huh? Aha well I've started writing another project, but idk when it'll come out really,

Anyways got my ifwit figure (She was on sale so i had to)















Idk when I'll get another 1/7 official figure, but if i will, it would be a wolf (either the precious one or the other precious one)