CHAPTER 23 God's Work ...

On the other side of the night Chernobog, another small team was investigating their own interests.

"Are you done?" A well-aged Sankta, donning a type of hat that was similar to a tipped fedora, said, tapping her shoes while looking at a heavily armored man wearing a helmet with a thick visor of hard yellow covering his eyes. "Yes... The Sarcophagus doesn't look like it was messed with, or at least not much." "The others?" "The crashed car outside doesn't match any brand we know. The engine, it's strange, I would love taking that apart. It seems that Kal'tsit knew something strange was happening here. It's very intriguing."

A woman, face shaded by a hood, appeared from the void of the dark, purple-tipped horns on her top and thin hair flowing to her chest. "Mechanist, Outcast, we have to go, now." The helmeted man flinched. "Ascalon, can you stop appearing out of nowhere?" The veiled woman, Ascalon merely looked away. "Red had found the photos." "That's nice. But my work here is far from finished." "Mechanist, the situation has changed, I heard the echoes of gunshots and battle, and worst of all, I couldn't contact the Lungmen operators at all." The heavy helmeted one, named Mechanist, raised his head. "Oh? Can I see your radio?" Ascalon handed him the radio.

It didn't even take a single minute for it to be dismantled and unscrewed for its inner systems to be laid out and displayed, and for Mechanist to suddenly grow increasingly shaky, with his gloves visibly trembling. His head snapped to look back at Ascalon. "These are the radios that the LGD folks insisted that we use to contact them, right?" "Yes, what's wrong with it?" There was a dreadful silence, and then Mechanist spoke. "I think they've been tampered with, it's designed to deactivate, or destroy itself after a few hours." Mechanist stood up, hurriedly packing his equipment, he heard a heavy sigh coming from Outcast. "Then, a sabotage?" "Likely, but unlikely for LGD themselves to plan against us."

"A traitor on their side, now that's a pain." Ascalon frowned. "The more we stay here, the more we put ourselves at risk. Get everything you need, we're leaving." "Aye, aye. Outcast, can you help me out here?" Outcast smiled and nodded to Mechanist's words, then he turned his head to Ascalon. "What about our wolf?" He said. "Red? She wanted to investigate the battle herself. Our own comms still work, and I'm sure she'll be fine on her own, so you don't have to worry." A dry chuckle came from Mechanist. "I already miss my workbench."

...

The metal was hot, barrel iron slowly turning into a warm sunny glow. The air was torn with the fire of gunshots and the night was lit with the flashes of igniting gunpowder, but the battle did not go as expected.

"All units! Be advised, an unknown number of armed drones are closing in on your position!"

The radio crackled with its message barely comprehensible from all the war noise overtopping it. "Loaded!" Conner heard Ivan shout, then forced his finger to pull the trigger once more. The machine gun, a specialized XM250, equipped with AP rounds, erupted like a tiny volcano, lines of lead aimed at the sky filled with The Reunion's mini armed drones.

"Arts attack!" Conner heard, he gritted his teeth and kicked his body up, and lunged himself away from the window he was stationed at, and in just a short moment the window expanded into an entire hole that bore through the wall, shaking the building as if some missile targeted them. "Ivan!"

The sound of coughing echoed as the dust started the fall. "I'm fine! Keep shooting!" Conner felt his lips turn upwards. He looked out the massive wall, and the first thing his visors reflected upon was a black-robed figure with red glowing eyes and shards of unknown material floating around him, looking like some sort of satanic cultist, which just made it easier for him to return fire.

"Conner! Drones on your 10!" The shout that came from his comrade pointed him to more flying drones, his sight left the punctured body of the elite caster and blasted more beams of steel to the flying pests as new orders came to his headphones.

"All Units! An exit is made in the south! Everybody retreat while the Reaper will provide covering CAS!"

The machine gun stopped, leaving a light grey wisp leaving the tip, Conner felt a hand grab and pull his shoulder. "Let's go!" Conner nodded to Ivan's words, the two soldiers quickly made their way to the back of the building, then from the fifth floor to the second, then they jumped out a window into the comfort of two convenient dumpsters, while explosions rocked from behind.

"1-2 to 1-3, where the fuck are you?!" Screamed Ivan as they jogged around the urban jungle that they barely even remembered the layout of. "This is 1-3! We regrouped behind the big street! You're the only ones out there, make it quick or we'll be forced to leave you!" Then the radio cut.

The Russian looked at the American. "What the fuck is the big street?" Conner only raised both his shoulders, but after a short pause of Ivan staring him down with a glare, he thankfully spoke after. "I think that's the road to the park earlier." "What?" He raised his shoulders again, Ivan sighed. "If that's true, then we're very separated!" "Or in other words, we're fucked." Said Conner, Ivan slightly chuckled. "We're fucked." Agreed Ivan.

The duo quickly hid behind some buildings, the explosions finally dying down, leaving them in silence. "Who would've thought that they had an army of drones?" Conner whispered. "No, we knew that. But the Arts, it was the damned magic that we underestimated." "We're fighting against magicians, fucking wizards, man." Ivan nudged Conner with his shoulder. "Yes, witches as well. Now stop complaining." "Yeah, yeah." Commented Conner as he linked back to their channels. "Archon 1-1 to 1-3, we're over 800 meters away from your position, I repeat, we're over 800 meters away from your position, how long are you willing to wait? Over." Static responded before Bull's voice came over. "Copy that 1-1, we've regrouped with the 2nd, and our position is currently absolutely unstable, we're leaving now. Keep your heads hidden while we find ways to get you back. Over." "Copy, keeping our heads hidden for the time being, Out."

Conner cut comms, then turned to face Ivan. "Hear that? He said to keep your head hidden." He said. "What? You're saying I have a big head?' "No, I'm saying you're smart." "Thanks for the compliment. Let's get out of here, asap." Ivan responded, looking out to see if the night streets were clear, then after a second, he tapped Connor's shoulder. Ivan swiftly strode out of the cover with Connor following after. The two walked the streets of the foreign city before the screams of a megaphone amplifying an unknown voice spread throughout the streets.

"Find them! They can't be far! Whoever catches them dead or alive will get a personal promotion from Talulah!" The megaphone echoed more than twice in the streets of the night, leading the two to slide into deeper and darker alleys. "Rotors, I hear rotors." Whispered Ivan, immediately breaking into a house door and pulling Connor's back with him. Soon after, lights from the sky flooded the streets with the army of tiny drones surveying every nook and cranny, looking for any signs of the intruders. Conner looked outside the windows of the house, observing the swerving lights sweep the streets. "Why don't we have our own army of armed tiny drones?"

The two waited for several heartbeats, then the lights disappeared, moonlight returning. "Because grouping them up like that would probably be impractical in our world, but we're not in our world." Replied Ivan, looking out the window to see if the coast was clear. "See, you're smart." "I'm glad you know-" Ivan suddenly stopped speaking and then immediately ducked under the window. Connor followed and hid himself behind a country and aimed his LMG at the entrance of the house. "What did you see?" "I don't fucking know, my thermals picked something red but it disappeared in an instant." Conner heard the click on Ivan's rifle, its barrel trained at the window. "You saw someone?" "I have no idea, Comrade. It moved like a blur."

Ivan stayed silent, they both did, until half a minute passed. "This is creeping me out, let's move." "Aye." Conner slowly moved out of his cover, but with his barrel still pointed to the door they used to enter in. Ivan also slowly stood up, looking at the streets outside, walking backwards to Connor's location while still watching the window. "I'll kick it open, cover me." Ivan grunted, finally looking away from the window, and backed Conner up from behind.

The American moved towards the door, then pushed his leg to the wood, the creaking turn echoing in the silent alleys. He surveyed his right while Ivan went to his side and surveyed his left. "Clear." Said Connor before setting foot outside the house, Ivan followed shortly after. The two walked silently without a word on the streets again, but the gut feeling of something watching them never left their conscience. "We're not alone here." Whispered Ivan.

The both of them finally found an exit from the small alleyway, leading to a larger road to the city. Chancing the opportunity for escape, the two moved. Conner fastened his pace, arriving at the exit and checking both sides. He turned around to speak to Ivan but almost froze as his thermals saw the figure of red on the rooftop of one of the houses behind them.

Connor dashed to the nearest dumpster as cover as he raised his gun while Ivan immediately separated himself from being too close to Conner and also turned around, frantically turning his head. "At your 3, on the roof." Ivan looked up, then immediately placed his finger trigger on the figure of red that his thermals were picking up. There was a humanoid figure standing on the rooftops, watching them. "Hands in the air or we'll be forced to fire!" He shouted, and yet the figure in the dark didn't even flinch. "This is your second warning! Hands in the air!"

After his voice hung in the air, the figure suddenly jolted at speeds none thought possible, then jumped down at street level, now staring directly eye to eye at the two CIA operators. "How did you see me?" said the figure, now staring directly at them from the distance. Ivan almost used the given opportunity to set ablaze a whole magazine upon their stalker until a rare moment of hesitation grabbed a hold of his mental state, the hesitation coming from the unexpectedly young female voice of the now more visible figure of the undoubtedly short person.

Ivan ignored her question. "Last warning hands in the-!" The figure dashed herself with one foot, air swooshed and she bridged the gap in what felt like a second. Ivan slammed the trigger, making his rifle roar a volley of lead. Unfortunately, his aim was thrown off by a flying knife that was directed straight to his chest. He silently screamed and took a step back after it struck straight to his vest, but with the damage minimized, he heard Conner scream. "On the wall!" Ivan refocused his gaze, the short figure was a charging blur on his thermals, and she was running faster than an Olympic athlete on a thousand stimulants while her feet were running on the side of the wall. He thought he was dreaming, she was running on the walls. Conner's machine gun blasted, but his aim failed to catch her as the figure jumped down, crashing into the middle of the both of them.

Ivan attacked first, pushing his rifle's barrel downwards to the shoulder of the figure, his eyes raised as the figure caught the barrel with her hand with an iron grip. Conner let his sling LMG drop, going gloved, and threw his fist to the back of the figure, but she somehow dodged and slightly turned her head to look behind. Conner caught sight of her sharp stare for a split second, before feeling a blunt force equivalent of a falling dumbbell hit his lower waist.

"Conner!" Ivan fired his rifle, the sudden jolt of power made the figure let go of the gun. Ivan found this as his only opportunity and re-aimed without even checking his sights and pulled his trigger from the hip. Click, then air came out. He shouted a swear in Russian, then his leg was pushed out of balance from a kick that felt like it carried a horse's rage from underneath.

Conner recovered from the stagger, grunting through the pain as he extended his arm to swing down upon the figure, but she blocked it, instantly turning around and facing Conner with a gaze so sharp that it felt like a knife was already cutting him. Conner ignored the feeling and stared down his opponent, his arms and legs formed into a familiar posture that one would find in the ring. Conner whispered to himself. "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."

He backed away with a step, both hands low, then suddenly bent his legs and charged low with a jab in what seemed like an instant. The girl managed to catch his fist with her hand, throwing it away and threw a punch of her own, but Conner already slid out of range, out of reach. The girl followed, charging at him, then halting her body in the perfect range to throw a lightning-heavy kick aimed straight at Conner's chin. The soldier couldn't react fast enough, his head spun, but as he did he already moved, Conner slid his foot forward, arm pointed upwards and he put his strength to a punch that struck hard and straight like a piston.

It managed to connect, but to little effect as the girl immediately brushed it off, leaping back at him with aggressive fury, a flurry of hits and punches tore through Conner's defenses as he felt like he was facing a tornado. He dashed backwards and stopped trying to defend, instead evading and using range and dashing away in the small breaks the girl gave him. Then after a moment, he switched in an instant and dashed forward instead. A right hook arched, making the girl step sidewards to dodge, but the punch stopped prematurely and instead Conner followed her sidestep and weaved below in bullet speed with a left jab straight to her chest. He heard the girl slightly grunt, before being sent flying from a kick.

"The fuck's your problem!" He shouted while recovering his feet, a small glance thrown at something behind the girl before he made use of his swift yet unorthodox footwork to bend sidewards, enduring the heavy punishments against him, and threw a straight jab forward. The girl simply dodged again, and the moment she did, light and sound flared behind her.

"Go to hell!' Ivan cursed as he threw bullets of retribution with his now reloaded rifle, but his eyes grew as he saw zero percent of his bullets reach their target. He thought he was dreaming when his eyes saw the girl fly. "How could someone jump that high?" He muttered to himself, both in confusion and awe. He watched the girl connect her feet to the side of the building and take another jump to reach the rooftops, now staring at both of them with a form and body that didn't even seem like it was affected by the fighting.

"Hmm. You two fought fine, but my hunt does not include you both." Ivan stared upwards at the short figure, thinking about raising his rifle once more but decided not to as he heard her voice speak. "You're not Reunion, not to be hunted. Not now. You two are tired, Rhodes Island is on their way. Trust them if you want to live." She then started to turn away, but before she completely disappeared, Conner stood and stared at her. "W-What?" His breath was ragged, and his hand was placed on the walls of the streets to support his trembling legs. The girl looked back at Conner. "Even without using my blades, you fought well. Next time, I'll find out how you saw me in the dark." And with her parting words, she disappeared into the darkness of the night.

Conner stared back at Ivan with a blank stare, and his comrade did the same.

...

Project Red, or simply Red continued her investigation on the barrage of explosions and echoes of bullets right after her short detour observing and testing the other outsiders that infiltrated Chernobog. She had just finished contacting her squad with Rhodes Island's own devices, now she had to find out what had happened to the LGD. She leaped from edge to edge, building to building, night shading her form into a shadow.

Then, her invincible-like form unexpectedly staggered, and she stopped for a second. "Tch." She reluctantly halted, choosing to install a wrap of bandage on the bleeding on one of her calves. Stabbing her thigh with one of Kal'tsit's syringes, she recovered her strength and went back to her hunt.

...

Winters idly checked his rifle, whispering a prayer of some sort to himself. The battle earlier was successful, the small team managed to support the other operators into a swift retreat from the encroaching army. But God didn't bless them with a complete victory, Winters looked to his side. "Bull?" "Here." Winters accepted the magazine, placing it in his many pockets. "That's it?" Bull shrugged. "Took an entire mag dump to kill those massive shield guys, we're now running short." Winters nodded silently. "How many of our men are here?' "Uhh, Winters Sir, Conner, and Ivan are separated from us, Michael won't fucking respond. It's just me, you, and Roe for the first squad. Second squad has all their men, but two are injured." Winters breathed heavily. "So you're saying only seven able-bodied men?" "No, only six. Speirs ordered one of his men to evacuate their two injured earlier." "That's just perfect."

Winters held his radio, silently waiting for the channel to clear itself from distorted audio. "1-6 to Intervention, give me a general layout of the enemy forces, can you hear me?" The radio crackled a shaky frequency before a male voice responded through the unclear channel. "This is Intervention. We copy. Reunion seems to have activated their jammers, but we should still be able to get through. Reaper had left for refueling and cannot provide assistance of any kind. Colosseum and his team have already extracted. Your goal is to negotiate a deal with Lungmen. Work under their name, and let the Reunion know that. Over." "1-6 copies. An entire army is hunting for us, what then? Over." "Birds are coming, ETA 30 minutes. The extraction point stays the same. Over." "Copy. 1-6 out."

Bull stares at Winters, and a silent chuckle washes over the mostly silent room. "What did they say? Make friends? What have we been doing here?" "We're here to do God's work. Don't ask questions, just think of it that way." Winters said, half laughing while he did. "But if you're that curious, I'm guessing they don't want Reunion to think we're involved with Colosseum's team, because shit just hit the fan. I don't even know if our deal with them will even go through." Bull tapped his boots impatiently. "But now we're the ones doing the talking?" Winters glanced at Bull. "You think we're in the army? We're tasked with more than just shooting. Where are you from?" "RRC Sir, only entered the agency's doors last year." "Ah, then you need to learn how to talk. This ain't the rangers no more."

Winters opened a door and left the room he was in. They were hiding at a safe house, following their escape from the marching army of the Reunion. He walked to another room and saw a soldier from the second squad. "How are they?" "Sir, they look at us weird. But I'd say they're rather amicable." "They have to be, Roe's treating their injured, but I wonder how he'd treat their animal parts. Don't think they hired vets in our programs." The soldier laughed. Stepping away to let Winters pass through.

Winters walked through hallways and rooms, then walked into a room with a rather interesting group that consisted of second squad men, Roe Gunner, and the Lungmen people. He felt slightly amused at the situation, second squad men stood guard as still as statues while Roe was currently bandaging a horned woman's arm while being under the scrutiny of suspicious glares cast by the animal people. Winters somehow felt sorry for their medic.

One with thin strands of yellow hair escaping her mask with a lengthy tail looked at him as he entered. "So, how are you?" said Winters. It is a simple conversation starter that one would use when reconnecting with an old friend, but in this case, he was talking to complete strangers or even an alien. The yellow-tailed one, with what he recognized as the one he watched earlier, took a step forward. She sighed. "Unfortunately, one of ours didn't make it." Winters stopped, pushing his NODs upwards, using his natural senses to see the vision and revealing his eyes to his new friends. "My condolences." He bent his head down. "But without your help, none of us would've been able to get away with our lives. So, thank you." Winters looked back. "I'm glad to hear that."

The yellow-tailed one stepped forward. "You're the one who hijacked who entered our radio channel earlier, right?" "Correct." She sighed, then removed her mask. Winters suppressed his surprise. "Since you already know us as LGD operators, then I might as well give you a proper introduction. Beatrix Schwire, LGD officer, you?"

... A/N Deeply apologize for the late uploads, November had been my busiest of busiest months this year But December is coming in a few hours, i dont like making promises as I realize im bad at keeping them but Christmas break should give me enough time to write more, so yeah

Thanks!