A girl with a black skateboarder helmet and ponytail observes the artillery show through her binoculars. Houses and neighborhoods are blown into bits. A once thriving village is torn apart by the explosive barrage into a mess carnage and debris. It’s a hellish scene for those observing and for the squad being bombarded within the village. But the girl observing from her vantage point on an eastern lookout point isn’t horrified by the destruction of her squad’s artillery. She lowers her binoculars and looks back to her sister, another brunette but with a quiet aura, who is laying on a beach chair, reading a book. “Hey Sis. You’re seriously missing out on the fireworks.”
”I had my fair share of fireworks, Bernadette.” The girl on the beach chair says nonchalantly. “It’s your first battle in Mil-Sim. You’ll get over the excitement pretty soon. This is just all business as usual for me.”
”Hmph. You’re no fun, Sis.” Bernadette walks over to her sister who barely looks like she’s paying attention. “So we’re just going to sit around and do nothing. Why can’t we go down there with the rest of our squad, our tank, and finish the fight?”
”That would just make us vulnerable to an ambush. Assuming our artillery didn’t take out most of their squad after this.” The shelling continues as the sisters communicate with each other. “Besides, I’m going to make our PMC partners go in and get their hands dirty for us.”
Should we seriously put our victory in the hands of a bunch of mercs, Cheyenne?” Her sister frowns. “Wouldn’t it be nice if we could snatch the victory to ourselves. Your old squad almost had it during the summer tournament.”
”No...I was foolish and reckless going up against Raptor Squad in the summer tournament. I’m not making that mistake again. Our ammo and resources are expensive. Especially our tank which we cannot risk losing.”
”That’s so lame.” Bernadette groans.
”Our tank crew did their job. They scared off Armadillo squad and scattered them. Kraken PMC is leaving their specialist behind to finish the job while they’ll come here to the village to put an end to the match once and for all.” Cheyenne puts her book down and gets up from her beach chair. She takes a hold of her M16A2 with a M203 grenade launcher. The same rifle she used with Flamingo Squad. “I have one 40mm grenade left. I don’t want to waste it again. Not until Zander and his squad can hurry up and get here on time.” At last the artillery barrage finishes and the village is nearly completely wiped off the map save for a few building which are in a terrible state of repairs.
”Hey Sis. Zander is approaching.” Bernadette sees him coming up from the hill. Once Zander and his two squad mates meet up with the twins, he gives a quick salute before overlooking the village.
”Bloody Hell. You left us quite the mess here. Surely there’s going to be some collateral damage from all this.”
”I’m not worried about collateral damage Zander. We’ll be more than happy to pay for any infrastructure damage. It pales in comparison to what we spent hiring you and funding our tank, so listen up so I don’t feel like I wasted my investment.” Cheyenne points over to the village ruins. “My sister spotted a squad of four in the area. Your task is to take your squad into the village and wipe out whatever resistance the enemy squad has left.”
”You’re making us fight them room to room? Well...that's something my mercenaries and I can handle.”
”Do you still have any AI squad mates left?”
”Only two left. We used three of them to bait what I presume to be Armadillo Squad and lost them in the firefight. I’ll order them to block the road leading out of the village to prevent them from escaping.”
”Good. Don’t waste them recklessly anymore Zander. We better hope your sniper can destroy Armadillo Squad, before they catch wind of our plan.”
”Pfft. No worries. I’m quite confident our scout will bring them to their knees.” Zander then turns to address his squad. “Alright boys. We’re going to be doing a bit of janitorial work on that village. Wipe them out, come out alive, and we’ll get our paycheck from the twins. Don’t screw it up.”
Zander and his mercenaries descend down the slope and head for the ruined village. Once they are out of earshot, Bernadette whispers to her sister: “Psst...are you sure we can trust them to clear the village?”
”Zander and his squad know what they are doing. They are all gamers of some form. One of them is a former arena shooter champion, the youngest one a former battle royal expert, and their scout has played numerous survival horror games in VR.” Cheyenne joins her sister to overlook the battlefield. She doesn’t bother with binoculars and just watches with her arms crossed and her rifle slung by her side. “Zander can be a bit of a hot head. A lot of his previous mercenaries in his squad had quit because of his strict standards. He’ll take anyone in but fail him once and he’ll be upfront about it.”
”And what about us sis?”
”We’ll wait until Zander calls us in. Hopefully when the village is clear and not for reinforcements. Until then, put on a cassette tape for me. Battlefield ambiance isn’t my groove right now.”
Emi and her squad had hunkered down by the gas station. It’s awfully quiet. The barrage from the north where Tomio and his squad were taking fire have been silenced. Emi picks up her radio to check on Tomio when suddenly, the girls hear nearby gunfire coming from the woods. It sounds like a sub-machinegun going off against a full size rifle caliber.
”That can’t be Chiara. Her submachine gun is suppressed.” Mai remarks as she aims her rifle towards the direction of the gunfire.”
”Yeah...it’s coming north from where Tomio should be...but this gunfire is very close. Stay sharp girls.”
Emi’s radio starts to crackle as the gunfire continues. She can hear Kimberly’s voice calling in. “Armadillo Squad, Come in! I need a medic! I’ve been shot at by a enemy sniper north of your position.” Emi can hear the exchange of fire still ongoing. “I can still fire back but not for long. The sniper has got my shoulder, but I won’t last long without a medic.”
”Understood! I’ll get Hikari over there ASAP! Hang on Kimberly!” Emi then points to Hikari who’s in a small trench next to Mai at the gas station. “Hikari, I need you to find Kimberly up north and take out that sniper if you can.”
”I’ll do my best Emi.” Hikari gets up from the trench, charges her AN-94 and heads for the dense woodlands up north.
”Mai. Can you construct an emergency sled and follow Hikari?”
”Can do. Will you be alright here by yourself?”
”I hope so Mai.” Mai looks out towards the north. “I just hope that tank doesn’t come at us again. At least you’ll be in the woods where it won’t be able to traverse.”
Kimberly is barely taking cover behind a tree as she exchanges blind fire with the sniper. Every time she exposes herself from cover, the sniper takes close shots at her, barely missing. She does not have a visual of what she’s being shot at but she can only assume it’s a rifle caliber and semi-auto. Her vision is pulsing red from her shoulder wound. As she reloads her MAT-49, She takes a shot in the leg. “Crap….not good!” She attempt to pull herself closer behind the tree to make herself a small target. She can’t move from her position. She blind fires her MAT-49 once more before her mag is empty. She no longer has the strength as her vision and stamina begin to drain. She hear the the enemy’s footstep slowly approaching. Kimberly grabs a flash bang from her chest rig and is ready to blind the enemy before going out. A new burst of gunfire, one which sounds like a two round burst approaches her. She recognizes that gunfire. The enemy returns sniper fire but it’s directed towards the new shooter.
“Hikari! Close your eyes!” Kimberly throws her flash-bang behind her cover which flashes and exploded. Kimberly cannot look over and see if she successfully blinded the enemy but hearing another burst of two rounds from Hikari followed by a subtle thump on the ground makes her sigh in relief.
”I’m here Kimberly! Just hang on for me.” Hikari dashes over to Kimberly and begins to address her wounds with her medical supplies.
”Ha….you made it. I thought I was done for.” Kimberly’s blood lose is stabilized but she’s clearly in no condition to fight anymore.
”Sorry Kimberly, this is the best I could do for you. I’ll have you evacuated from the battlefield at the gas station, alongside the girl I just took out?”
”The enemy sniper?”
”Yeah. I wounded her. Let me go nurse her wounds.” Hikari gets up to check on the sniper she just shot at. She’s on the ground, still trying to recover her vision from that flash-bang. Her right sleeve has two bullet holes in close proximity and is red in hue from where Hikari shot her. “You’re coming along too. There. All patched up. Don’t try anything stupid you hear?” She aims her AN-94 after patching the wounded sniper and makes her stand up. The girl doesn’t say anything but looks irritated that she’s being held captive. Hikari pats her to check for any weapons or intel. She retrieves her Zastava M9 sniper rifle which was laying on the ground, a Makarov PM pistol, a radio not too different from her own, a paper map of the area with hand drawn markings indicating her trail, a camping knife, and a gold orthodox cross necklace. The girl’s radio comes on as an Afrikaner’s voice comes through.
”Andjela. We’ve made contact with the twins. They had finished their bombardment and now we’re going into the village to clear out the hostiles. Rendezvous with us at the village when you’re down with your hunting expedition. Don’t leave a single member of Armadillo Squad alive.” When the call ends, Hikari can see the frustration growing as she shakes her head vigorously and almost looks like she wants to scream but doesn’t say anything.
”Ah...sounds like they are going to attack Tomio’s squad. You have to tell Emi, Hikari.” Kimberly groans as Hikari brings the sniper with her.
”We’re still at full strength, but we’re missing Chiara. I’ll make sure to let Emi know once we can get you both to safety.”
”Ah man...I missed out on something intense didn’t I?” Mai’s voice calls from the south as she drags a makeshift sled behind her. “Look at that! Hikari saved the day, and got us a prisoner too. Impressive.”
”We can’t waste time, Mai. Tomio’s squad is about be assaulted by the mercenaries, we have to tell Emi about our intel.” Mai helps puts Kimberly on the sled as Hikari keeps her AN-94 rifle pointed at the sniper. “Let’s get moving.” Mai and Hikari traverse back to the gas station with their wounded.
A male soldier wearing M81 woodland camo, a grease gun in .45 ACP and a bandanna stands in the center of the logging camp alongside his squad mate who is sitting on the tank, taking pot shots at some empty ammo cans from their position using his compact GAU-5 carbine. “I can’t believe the twins left us here to do nothing for the rest of the match.” The soldier complains as he throws a pebble at one of the sheds in the camp. “If I knew we were barely going to see any action, I would had joined another squad.”
The soldier taking pot shots at the empty ammo cans lowers his rifle once all the cans have been knocked out. “Tell me about it. We’re supposed to be one of the more promising squads with a member from Flamingo Squad. We seriously won this skirmish without a single casualty other than our mercenaries’ ai units.” He moves up and sits on the turret of the M1A1 Abrams with his eyes directed towards the west. “We could had easily brought our tank towards the gas station and straight for the airport.”
”The twins were worried about them laying land minds or something. As if.” The soldier hears what sounds like a tree branch cracking but doesn’t seem alerted as he continues to speak. “Those girls we went up against didn’t put up much a fight. They didn’t even have anti-tank warheads for crying out loud. Isn’t that just sad?” He looks up at his squad mate who is laying on his back. “And now you’re slacking off too.” He knocks on his legs to wake him up. “Come on. This is no time to nap. We’re still in a match! Hey get up!” He notices his squad mate is completely unconscious. “Oh shit….” He quickly lifts his M3 Grease Gun and starts aiming around him. “Come on, show yourself you coward!’
THUNK! The soldier drops his submachine gun as he feels a heavy mass hitting his back. His head and sees a large bolt with a heavy string attached to the bolt. He tries to pull it off but he can’t reach and falls to the ground, still alive but injured. He attempts to reach for his M3 but a boot kicks it away from him. He looks up and sees a girl with pale skin, reddish hair, holding him at gunpoint with an silenced submachine gun.
”Y...You’re my prisoner now….don’t resist….or I’ll shoot!” The girl’s voice is shaky and it looks like she’s been crying.
Hikari and Mai approach the fortified gas station with Kimberly laying on the makeshift sled stretcher. The enemy sniper with a bandaged right arm is being held by gunpoint by Hikari as they walk towards Mai who is sitting outside of the makeshift trench. Emi is relieved to see Hikari and Mai return safely but frowns when she notices Kimberly is injured.
”Oh hi, Emi! Good to see you again right? Oh...don’t mind me, I’m just crippled.”
”You sound awfully cheerful for someone who’s just been shot, Kimberly.”
Kimberly chuckles but her coughing interrupts her before speaking again. “Your squad managed to subdue the enemy sniper. I think she’s was trying to ambush you and wipe you out. But I was able to intercept her. She’s quite the good shot as you can tell.”
”Uh huh…” Emi looks over at the enemy sniper. She’s a girl with dark brown hair, tied into a side pony tail with a bright red bow. She’s not necessarily wearing a uniform as she wears a plate carrier over a dark gray plaid shirt tucked into a multi-cam skirt. She does appear to be enthusiastic about being captured. “You there. What’s your name, mercenary?” Emi waits for the girl to respond but she says nothing.
”Oh so that’s the game we’re going to play huh?” Mai snarls at the POW sniper. “You know I have ways of making people talk.” She pops her knuckles with her hands in a very unconvincing manner as if to appear menacing.
”You aren’t punching anyone today Mai.” Hikari sighs. “I don’t think she’s capable of speaking.”
The sniper girls nods reluctantly. She tries to point to the ground but all of the girls aim their weapons at her, which makes her raise her hands up again.
”Wait, hold your fire! I think she’s trying to do something harmless.” Emi commands her squad mates. “She’s disarmed anyways.” The sniper girl lowers her hands before kneeling on the ground. She uses her finger to write on the dirt. Emi looks over the writing which states “Mic broke, no speak.” Seems like her english isn’t all that great either.
”Oh...you’re hardware isn’t working. I’m sorry to hear that…” Emi notes as she eyes her name tag patch located just right the Kraken patch on her plate carrier. “Andjela is your name? I’m Emi. I’m the squad leader of Armadillo Squad. You were trying to hunt us out weren’t you?” Andjela confirms Emi’s question with a nod. “Well you can forget about that. Your time on this battlefield is over.” Emi looks over to Hikari who is making a call on her radio for a medical evacuation.
”Oh Emi...just a heads up, Tomio and the rest are holding up just fine after the barrage. Although they are going to get an assault from the rest of Kraken PMC.” Kimberly mentioned as she lays on her makeshift stretcher. “I have no idea what Glam squad is up to unfortunately, but they issued the barrage back in the village.”
”Then we have no choice but to go and support Tomio. He’ll be outnumbered and outgunned if both squads go in for the assault.
”If we strike at the right moment, we might be able to flank them by a surprise attack, Emi.” Mai suggested. “They would not expect us to support Longhorn’s defense.”
”Still, we can’t just abandon this gas station. This outpost is the only thing preventing that tank from the logging camp from getting access to our spawn at the airstrip. We lose that airstrip and the match is over for us.”
”Oh. You mean that tank over there.” Kimberly points and mentions casually as up the horizon, the M1A1 tank from earlier pulls up from the east, coming down the same road Armadillo squad drove through in their UTV transport vehicle.
”Aw...crap...Look alive Armadillo Squad. We got company.” Emi shouts as everyone takes cover into the trenches. Mai holds the sniper and shoves her down into the trench. Hikari looks over at Kimberly.
”Kimberly, let me get you to cover.” She tries to pick up the makeshift stretcher.
”Go on without me. I can’t really help you all anymore. Sorry.” Kimberly informs Hikari much to her dismay. “Whatever happens, I’ll see you at the end of the match. Just try to win this match without me, okay?
”We’ll do what we can...thank you Kimberly.” Hikari runs to the trench and hops into cover next to Mai and the Sniper. Emi peaks over the trench to observe the tank which is slowly approaching.
”Can we do anything to stop that tank, Mai?!” Emi calls over to Mai in the trench.
”I’m afraid we don’t have anything other than our Molotov cocktails. Let’s hope our barbwire and ditches hinder it to buy us some time.”
”We’ll have to make our stand here. Get ready girls. Here it comes.” Emi sees the tank pull up right at the barbed wire perimeter before coming to a stop. Her heart feels like it could stop the moment that tank open fires on them. This could be the end of Armadillo Squad. This match might have to be carried by Tomio, Fio, and Ramirez. She wishes she could just call in Tomio to provide her some artillery support but he’s probably going to need it for his defense of the village real soon. Her emergency airborne infantry support won’t do her any good against that tank. It’s start to feel hopeless to Emi but she’s not planning on running away like last time. Her squad will make their stand and they won’t lose without giving that tank a good fight with whatever they have. Though reality will play out differently than what Emi expected.
The M1A1 tank did not proceed past the barbed wire defenses. In fact, the turret has not fired upon the girls at all. It just sits there, the engine is rumbling before finally being cut off. Something catches Emi’s eyes on the exterior of the tank. There are C4 charges placed along the gaps of the turret and the tracks. The hatch of the tank opens from the top. Emi readies her M4A1 by aiming her red dot sight towards the hatch. “Steady…..steady girls.”
A guy in woodland camo comes out with his hands up. He’s visibly shaking, and appears to have a crossbow dart embedded onto his back. He’s completely unarmed. “Don’t shoot! I surrender!” The guy in the woodland camo shouts while getting out of the hatch.
How strange is it for the tank operator to even surrender like this without putting up a fight, but Emi is starting to realize what’s really going on. “Are you the only in that tank?!” She demands directly towards the soldier.
”N...no.” The guy stutters as he’s finally out of the tank. Emi motions Mai to hop out of the trench and address the new POW. Emi looks over to the hatch again and sees an MP5SD6 plopped over the hatch before a familiar pale face peaks out of the hatch.
”Chiara!” Emi shouts as she vaults over the trench to run up and hug Chiara as she hops out of the tank. She embraces her tightly once she’s reunited with Chiara, planting a kiss on her forehead as she hugs her best friend. “I...I thought we lost you...what happened?”
”My radio broke Emi...I couldn’t communicate with you all.” Chiara murmured though her tears. “I...I was almost caught by Kraken Squad. I over heard them. They...They are going to attack the village.”
”We know that. We caught one of their snipers.” Hikari noted to Chiara. “We’re so glad you’re okay Chiara. How the heck did you capture their tank? That’s some insane stunt you pulled off you know.”
”I got lucky...that was it. I managed to take out one of their guys and capture that one over there.”
”Y...Yeah...my squad mate and I let our guard down...our squad leaders were keeping up static when we could had easily wiped you out.” The POW mentioned as Mai sits him over next to the mercenary sniper.
”That was really dumb of you to lose your guard like that.” Mai commented. “Who are your squad leaders anyways? I know Zander is leading his mercenaries...”
”They are twins. Bernadette and Cheyenne. The latter was a former member of Flamingo Squad.”
”Well...no shit. We’re going up against some serious competition this early.” Mai explains surprised but with a smirk on her lips.
”So it looks like you’re getting the hang of your scouting role Chiara.” Kimberly’s voice rings out to Chiara which catches her attention.
”Kimberly! You’re here too?” Chiara lets go of Emi and notices the injured state she’s in. “W...what happened?”
”Oh this...just got into a little firefight with that sniper over there. Nothing too crazy, but I’m pretty much done for the match.” She looks over at Chiara’s sadden expression. “Hey, cheer up. I didn’t get killed in action. The medical evacuation I’m getting is going to benefit our teams credit income at the end of the match. Not to mention the POWs you captured.”
”Yeah...yeah..that’s good you aren’t executing us on sight.” The woodland soldier interjects. “Please don’t damage our M1A1 Abrams. That thing cost our squads a fortune!”
”So did our UTV which you blew up!” Mai snarls back. “But I suppose we’ll make good use of your tank. Be glad we didn’t start throwing our makeshift Molotov cocktails."
Up in the horizon, a MH-6 Little Bird is approaching the girl’s position.
”That should be the medical evacuation. I’m going to need to help with the wounded and prisoners.” Hikari tells the girls as she takes the stretcher where Kimberly is laying on. Chiara comes over to help lift the stretcher with Hikari as Mai and Emi wrangle the prisoners over to where the Little Bird is landing. Some NPC helicopter crew help Hikari and Chiara lift Kimberly onto the helicopter. The POWs are handcuffed and sat upon the helicopter.
”We’ll let Tomio know you have been evacuated safely.” Emi informs Kimberly before backing away from the helicopter.
”Thanks Emi. Send Ramirez my regards too. I’ll see you all at the post match gathering. Farewell my sisters and keep on fighting the good fight!” With those last words, Kimberly and the POWs are airlifted in the helicopter and are flown out of the battlefield. Emi looks over to Chiara, Mai, and Hikari who are still with her, unharmed and ready for action. It’s a miracle they have managed to stuck around this long into the match. “Alright girls. Looks like we’re done camping here at the gas station. Our new objective is to support Tomio’s defense of the village and ambush Kraken squad and potentially the twins of Glam squad if they can stop being cowards this entire match.”
”We’re going to see more action aren’t we?” Hikari asked with uncertainty in her voice.
”Unfortunately so, but we have the upper hand now. We’re going to show them everything we got. They’ll regret ever going up against Armadillo Squad or Longhorn Squad.” Emi says confidentially as she picks up her radio to call Tomio about her plan. “Tomio…you’re still alive? Great! We have some news for you and your squad. Don’t worry, it’ll all work out if we pull this off.”