CHAPTER 19 FOLLOWERS

...

"So, could you explain to us why you called us the Ghosts of Chernobog?" A cold, straining voice said, carrying with it an undoubtedly authoritative tone. But even it was met with contempt.

"Why would I do that?! By your movements and your rotten stench, I already recognized you as the corrupt rats of Lungmen!"

The captive snarled like a rabid dog stuck in a cage. Barking and boiling red with anger. "Honestly, what do you think you're doing here! We are as ready to kill as we have ever been! One wrong move here, in this city, and you'll get caught! Killed then paraded as the hypocrites of Lungmen you all ar-"

A swift kick that still carried the strength of a train met his stomach. He stumbled over to the cold hard concrete, clutching himself, casting a glare to the one who sent him to the ground. A black mask shadowed her face, yet two elegant horns still sprouted to her head's sides.

"Toffee-1, are you-"

Nine immediately cut off Swire's surprised reaction.

"I'll take care of it." Her voice steeled as she went closer to the captive.

"Y-You think, mere pai-"

Another blow came, this time aimed somewhere in-between his legs.

...

"I'll ask this again, why did you call us the Ghosts of Chernobog?"

"..."

"Oh? So you're asking for it again?"

"N-No! I'll talk! I'll talk!"

The members of the LGD team all gathered around their now cooperative captive. They all glared at him with stares equal to blades pointed, directed straight at his heart.

He blinked. "You see, uhh- Some time ago, r-right after we took umm, Chernobog-" He glanced at his captors, swallowing his breath.

"Right after we took Chernobog, we celebrated, but we were still wary. So countless patrol squads still roamed around, guarding every sector. Everyone thought all was good, until in the morning- Well, it was discovered that countless squads of patrolmen were killed mysteriously. I've heard that even Talulah was puzzled by their deaths- B-But remember, those are all rumors! Last time I heard, everyone from the high command was concerning themselves with Commander Mephisto after the battle, making the patrolmen go lax, then that just happened."

Swire placed a hand on her chin, moving to a thinking pose. "Mysterious killings?"

"Y-Yeah?"

"Wait, why did they concern themselves with Mephisto?" Asked Nine, realizing the implications.

"Oh! I'm not supposed to say anything abou-"

Nine, who was simply standing still suddenly moved, no more than an inch towards his location then he immediately gave up.

"Wait! I'm kidding! What happened was Commander Mephisto's grand legion was somehow eviscerated! Somehow, this scarred the young commander deep down to the point that he was unfit for combat!" He shouted out loud, leaving the rest of the LGD team stunned.

...

"He's loud, maybe he's trying to call out for some buddies?"

Whispered Michael, observing the whole interrogation with a sniper scope. They were situated on a rooftop of a building they managed to climb, overlooking the entire interrogation which was situated in a fair distance away, inside a broken warehouse, with half of its roof broken and walls cracked, providing outsiders like them to watch in secret, even if they really couldn't hear what they were talking about.

"Maybe." Winters answered.

"Sir, what do you think they are talking about right now?"

"I don't know."

Winters cautiously gazed at them, his night vision goggles turned up in favor of the more specialized binoculars. They were interrogating a Reunion grunt, that much was obvious, hiding themselves in some warehouse at the outskirts of the city, and that brought nothing but suspicions. His eyes narrowed as one thought occupied his mind.

"What are they here for?" Murmured Winters, almost as if his thoughts spilled out.

"Hmm, I don't know. But I don't think they like the Reunion, poor guy."

Winters' mind thought of a possibility, one that only came from his past experiences, an educated guess based on everything he'd observed so far. He then suddenly took out his radio, connecting to the eye above.

"1-6 to Skyfather-1, Can you confirm that the unknowns came from BFMC-2? Over."

"1-6, this is Skyfather-1, We're unsure of that. Consider confirming that with command. Out."

Michael looked over to Winters, with his eyes widening as his head also connected the same dots. "Wait, you think they're-"

But he was interrupted by the other connection that was established.

"1-6 to Intervention, The intel established to us was that these unknowns first originally came from BFMC-2, is this correct? Over."

"1-6, This is Intervention speaking. The unknown's aircraft's origin is the small platform, Rhodes Island, as briefed by you Intel, but they did stop by BFMC-2 for a time. Do you have more questions 1-6?"

"No, not anymore."

Winters stared at the unknowns, wearing similar dark clothing to them, all heavily armed with various melee weapons he thought was impractical to use, yet they still held them with skill he couldn't deny while acting like a professional force. They entered the cover of the dark, captured and now were interrogating a soldier of Reunion. Suffice to say, he got a general idea on what they are, since he had done something similar in the past.

He continued.

"I think the unknowns may possibly be a government or company controlled professional military unit from BFMC-2, , Over."

Silence responded, but only for an extra split second.

"Intervention to 1-6, Your thoughts stand only as a theory, but we have thought about this as well. Either way, exercise caution nonetheless and find out who they are. Don't lose an eye on them, and don't get seen. Out."

Command cut off comms, leaving behind Michael and Winters alone in their wild conjectures to what this force might be.

...

Area 555 Command Center

Tonight was the night of nights.

It would be their proper first contact. Their first formal interaction and communication with the species of this world. It was planned to be a talk, rather than the ignition of gunpowder.

But even with all the precautions, Oswald couldn't help but feel the weight of expectations placed on his shoulders. Should this fail, they would lose one of their most important assets and waste invaluable resources. But that was only if it failed.

"Sir!"

Oswald turned around.

"Is it done?"

"Yes sir! It's done."

Oswald took the paper document from the officer that called his attention. It was the third message Snafu sent them that night. All of Snafu's messages were encrypted of course, sent from his specialized phone and received by the UAVs above then sent back to base, all in a clean and secure process.

Oswald took hold of the newly decrypted message that Snafu sent, a genuine smile growing at each piece of vital information that was revealed.

His messages that night were more than invaluable, containing multiple ranges of topics and subjects that he had learned so far while interacting with the natives and reading books accessible to him. All of which bolstered their knowledge to the high heavens.

This time, he sent a summary of the little landship he was on, and the city nearby it

"Rhodes Island, now doesn't that sound familiar?" He muttered out loud before continuing to read the rest. Rhodes Island, Chernobog, arts, the different races and most importantly Lungmen and the LGD.

Rhodes Island, the organization I'm in right now, is a Pharmaceutical Organization that mainly researches potential cures of Oripathy, but they also act as a private military with their own purpose of furthering their goals. They do not agree with the methods of the reunion, yet they fight for the plea of the Infected. This separates them from the simple mercenary. They're idealistic, that much I can confidently say, and this idealism I believe we can use.

The Lungmen Guard Department is Chernobog's official law enforcement and military branch. Occupied with the situation in the slums, they are severely understaffed and short on materials, but they're putting up a good fight, so I've heard.

As you already know from my past messages, I have an amicable relationship with RI, especially with the Doctor. She's smart, but not sharp, at least not yet. I managed to extract some notable info from her. There's a joint operation between RI and LGD, I do not know when it shall occur or what it is about, but I have heard that an extremely high-ranking officer of the LGD would take part in the operation. Do with this information what you will.

Oswald narrowed his eyes. ""A high ranking officer?"" He thought.

A rare devilish grin made manifest in his mouth at the thought of a potential opportunity.

...

"To be honest, I didn't expect that to happen at all." Said Swire, communicating with her team as their captive was currently tied and knocked out, planned later as a hostage for extraction, as Nine requested.

"This may be the reason why they've been acting so rabidly lately, 2 major commanders suddenly being out of action would have instilled some amount of outrage inside the Reunion, and especially Talulah."

Hoshiguma concluded, making sense of all the previously unknown info in her head.

"You're saying that her rage made The Reunion act so rash?"

"Yes, from what we observed in Chernobog, they took it over quickly, and the Intel Rhodes Island sent us agreed that they'll do the same tactic to Lungmen at a much earlier date, but look at what happened." The oni said, recalling what had happened before.

"Right, so far their chaos has been trapped only in the outskirts, only in the slums for a few days now, without any outside support it would seem. No signs of a rapid rebellion that aimed to burn the LGD headquarters like our spies suggested. Huh, so you think someone threw a wrench in their plans?"

Hoshiguma nodded. "A mysterious force killed their forces right after their victory at Chernobog. Tell me, what else happened that day?"

Swire took the information in, simmered her thoughts in it to try to figure out what Hoshiguma meant by that.

"Wait, you mean the elusive mystery picture?"

"Yup, the same picture was taken that same day wasn't it?"

Swire tried to make sense about this, but all roads of thought seem to arrive at one obvious destination.

"Does Rhodes Island have anything to do with this?"

"Nope. Remember they shared the intel they gathered with us, we've even asked them if they saw something in the sky that day. No was their answer, and they seem pretty genuine about it."

"So, do you also think, uhh, y'know?"

"Yes, the possibility is high. A third party, unknown to both The Reunion and Rhodes Island was involved that day."

Hoshiguma said, her voice was low so as not to let the other operators inside hear their conspiracies quickly stack up.

Swire's tail slowly waved left and right as she buried her brain with countless thoughts.

"Maybe, Ursus special operation units?"

"Possibly." Grimly replied Hoshiguma.

"But what about that flying thing? Was that of Ursus origin?"

"We can't jump into conclusions here, Swire. But I have to say, this is deeper than I thought, something feels really off about all this."

"Hmm? What do you mean by that?"

Hoshiguma stared back to the high heaven, now just a dark abyss that carried the twin moons.

"Do you feel it? Or is it just me?"

"Feel what?" Swire said, her tail curling on her leg in a rare show of anxiousness.

"Hmm. Nevermind, it's nothing."

The massive doors of the abandoned warehouse then flung open. Nine and the other operators then approached them, their steps silen even with no one else near them.

"Is it done?" Asked Hoshiguma.

Nine nodded. "Bare-bones info, but enough to figure out some locations and paths. I've also updated our map routes and have general info on their posts."

"Good work, Toffee-1. Lead the way then!'

...

"They're moving again."

"Did they leave the hostage?"

"They did, still alive. Tied and sleeping."

"Alright, let's give him a quick visit."

The 2 quickly made their way down the rooftop, touching their boots to the streets of the torn city once more. Making their way to the abandoned warehouse, they then looked for an alternate entrance other than the frontal doors, circling the building, they discovered a back door.

"Any traps?"

Winters whispered as Michael investigated the door edges, then carefully opened it to check the hinges.

"None."

Michael then slowly entered the room, now covered in dark as the lights were left turned off.

"Hidden cameras? Recorders?"

"My RF detector is not picking up anything, but at the same time they use a completely alien type of technology. So I don't know."

Winters nodded his head as he entered, knowing full well of the risks. The two cautiously navigate the back parts of the warehouse, with every corner sighted and leaving no shadow unchecked.

"There he is."

Winters announced. His voice is a mix of amusement and intrigue upon discovering the location of the hostage.

"Big guy." Michael joked as Winters held his radio. "Reminds me of Pavel. Wonder what happened to him."

Winters, too focused on the mission to be reminiscing, activated his comms. "Archon 1-6 to Intervention, we've found the location of their hostage, any further instructions? Over."

"Good job 1-6. The second squad is already en route to the City. They'll take care of him. Send us the exact coordinates and continue tracking the unknowns. Out."

Winters turned to Michael, also communicating using his own devices.

"I'm done. Co-ords sent."

A simple nod from Winters communicated everything.

The two immediately resumed their night's hunt.

...

"There, see that outpost?" Nine said, holding a binocular to her eyes.

"It's heavily guarded." Responded the oni.

"This was a major armory for the Chernobogians before the invasion, and as we expected, its purpose is still the same even after a new name."

"There's so many guards though..." Nine tuned to Swire, handing her the binocular.

"Our mission is sabotage not elimination. See those trucks over there? At the parking lot near the warehouse? It's our target, less guards, less light and way easier to infiltrate."

Che'n narrowed her eyes, a smile forming under her balaclava.

"Everyone! Gather around me, I have an idea!"

...

"They're quite good at this, huh?" Winters observed the LGD squad secretly infiltrate the mass parking lot, his face unreadable behind the masks. They were now in another building, this time a small skyscraper. Scoping out the events occurring in the parking lot from the view of a massive, broken window.

"Good?" Michael scoffed. "More like they injected themselves with super soldier serum. Did you see that? Captain America level stunts, no normal person should be able to scale down that building that fast without making a noise."

Winters shrugged. "Oh well, we just keep being reminded that we're not on earth anymore. Honestly, all this ridiculousness is kinda intriguing isn't it? Like a fantasy novel come to life."

"I wouldn't want to live in this fantasy novel, it looks pretty bad."

"Half of the boys back in base seem to disagree. Cat girls, Dog girls, Tardigrade girls or whatever, their rambling seems to never end. I've been considering looking for another place to eat other than the mess hall."

Michael chuckled, relating to Winters' experience. As they were the older ones in the crew, not giving a single shit about Connor's thesis about waifus or some, as they already have their special someone back home.

"Hey wait, they scattered."

Both immediately snapped out their conversation, with Michael now more focused on his telescopic sniper scope.

"Michael, where's my glasses?"

"My bag, left side, second compartment."

Winters nodded, hastily taking out the pair of binoculars. Though his highly modified GPNVGs provided some magnification capabilities, it fell short of a dedicated tool for far sight such as the trusty binoculars. Pushing his night vision up and switching to the already night adjusted binoculars, he watched them without a word, turning into a silent sentinel.

He focused his sights on the unknown with a tiger-like tail, holding an exotic looking bludgeoning weapon tied to a chain. He wonders how this team even can sneak around with their fantastically impractical weapons on their person, surely their mere weight and size produces noise, but somehow, they aren't? He only shook his head at the thought.

The unknown entered the parking compound with a cut open portion of the barbed wire wall. He didn't get the chance to see how they managed to cut the barbed wires that fast, but he chalked it up to some other magic bullshit these natives seem to be fond of. Often the unknowns disappeared behind obstacles, buildings and more, but he never failed to sight them after minutes, never losing track of them.

The observation lasted for a while, as they made it through patrols and separated into individual teams, and then he saw it. Two poor Reunion grunts, taking a quick smoke break at a secluded part of the facility, seeking calm and quiet, get taken down in a manner he had not quite seen before, something his brain could not even imagine.

The tiger tailed unknown, leaped from a higher platform hidden in dark, coming down on them like a fantasy assassin, immediately bludgeoning one to the ground and quickly redirecting her grounded chained weapon with unexpected strength comparable to a strongman straight to the other Reunion member torso, dealing death in moments faster than the grunt could even react to. The unknown then quickly hid the corpses behind or in large dumpsters, eventually making her form invincible as she went behind a building, hidden from his sight once more and disappearing in the darkness.

"Interesting." He thought out loud, his voice reaching the ears of the combat engineer still manning the reasonably lightweight sniper rifle, a simple silenced MK22, using its scope to observe the situation himself.

"Single Horned one took out 4 guys, four fucking guys with a fucking shield, near the guard tower next to the yellow cargo compartments. A fucking shield." Michael said with his voice drawn back in total disbelief.

Winters said nothing more, only replying with a chuckle. Whether it was of amusement or apprehensive alarm, Michael didn't know. Weirded out by the chuckle, Michael decided to ask another question.

"Sir, what do you think is their objective?"

"Sabotage." Winters responded almost immediately. "They're aiming to dismantle the trucks, since the main warehouse is too guarded for their numbers. They're behind enemy territory after all."

"I don't see this working out how they want it to be, unless they've got destructive enough explosives." Michael continued observing through his scope, even while talking to Winters. "But even then, there's too much of the Reunion, it's only a matter of time, a matter of a simple unchecked attendance check for them to notice that they've been breached. Then it's game over."

Winters stayed silent, seemingly obsessed with watching the unknown warriors in the distance to even reply with a simple sentence. In fact he was hyper focused on one single detail. One of them. The one with two elegant curved horns protruding from each side of her head. He saw what she did, and it was, very intriguing.

She also met her own foes to eliminate, to take care of, and she did so swimmingly. Until, for some reason, she left one alive, crawling on the ground bleeding, but alive nonetheless. One Reunion Grunt alive. Winters knew that she did this intentionally, as she took one last look at the grunt laying on the ground in pain after leaving into the darkness. Then instinct hit him.

"Michael, aim your rifle at the bleeding Reunion soldier on the ground behind the small outpost at the east, near the two trees and blinking streetlight."

Michael complied. "I've got eyes on him."

"Good, stay on him. Tell me if he moves."

Michael could only obey, not knowing what his superior was going with this. Meanwhile Winters continued watching, he couldn't see much of the unknowns team anymore, as they were well hidden in the shadows of the parking lot or behind numerous objects, but he did see glimpses of them, on the darkest corners, planting ominous looking devices everywhere using his binoculars' thermal imaging to effectively locate any living person with a warm enough body temperature.

"Sir, the Reunion soldier is crawling, he's trying to get close to what seems to be a communication device, it looks like a handheld radio."

"Is he now?"

"It seems to me that their whole operation here is done for, the moment he can get his hands on that... Well, y'know what will happen."

"..."

"Hmm, I wonder how this guy survived? All the others I've seen made sure their enemies were killed, even hid their bodies too."

"How close is he now to the walkie talkie?"

"Pretty close, he'll pick it up any second now." Michael said, the barrel of his sniper still trained on the reunion grunt.

"How about now?" Winters said, still trying to observe the actions of the unknowns while his mind is drifting to reasons why one of them undoubtedly and intentionally sabotaged their own sabotage mission.

"He picked it up- Oh, he accidentally dropped it again. Buttery fingers."

A series of thoughts ran through Winters' mind. In the case that the alarms were to ring, there was no way these unknowns could escape. Not with these numbers of Reunion at every street. He thought about the other squad that separated from them, and wondered what they were doing now.

"There, he has it in his hands again. He'd probably alarm the rest of camp, let's see how these unknowns fare to an entire army hunting for them." Michael said, seemingly indifferent to the whole situation.

Suddenly Winters' own radio rang too, the familiar vibration on his pocket indicating its activation.

"Intervention to 1-6, Be advised, recent intel had suggested that a relatively important governmental higher-up is in your area, seek to make friendly contact wi-"

He didn't hear the rest of what the command had to say. He didn't need to. To Winters, this was enough confirmation. He finally broke free from his watch, and stared at Michael.

"Shoot him."

...

The rest of the LGD team had regrouped after their little escapade in the truck parking lot. They had more to do in this burned city after all. Now retreated to a little secluded area far from any reunion occupied sectors, Swire made sure to celebrate their little success.

"I told you my plan would work!" She said, with enthusiasm straining her professionalism.

"Right, it did."

Replied Hoshiguma, a visible smile under her mask, and the rest of the members seemed to be in cheers too. Except for Nine, who stayed silent. Looking like she was waiting for something to happen, but never was.

But now Swire was validated on her abilities. They didn't explode anything, not yet at least. As the planted time bombs would only explode when they are scheduled to be extracted, guaranteeing their safety. Swire was only happy at the fact that they managed to get away with no red alarms blaring from the facility, and not a single one of their members failed in keeping their advantage in stealth.

She then gathered the rest of her team to strategize another sabotage run. They had spare bombs, and that wasn't the only warehouse hoarding that many trucks after all. Swire was determined that she would break The Reunion's logistical capabilities in a single night. The photos and the flying thing investigation was the Rhodes Island squad's goal, and this was theirs. And so they shall succeed no matter what.

... (A/N) Hi, sorry for the late update, Anyways feel free to write your thoughts or opinions/suggestions!