She cannot believe she made it to the second branch. It was a given that her team would lose the first matchup against Scorpion PMC, but they pulled it off at the last minute. She was able to pull off an amazing shot with her C7 Rifle, instantly eliminating Scorpion PMC’s squad leader. Her eyes dart up to the shade of branches and leaves above. There’s no room for vehicles in this match. Infantry combat will be the star of the show. Their opponents, Raptor Squad. One of the many squads participating in Mil-Sim Story’s first tournament in the game’s history. Rules were established 4v4. Unlike some of the major battle events in casual matches, these matches are a testament to small squad tactics and abilities with the occasional vehicle for support. If a team takes some losses, they can usually call in AI backup squadmates but for this particular match, that has been disabled. The rules are simple, eliminate the opposing team and win. Easier said than done in this mist of this thick jungle.
”Hey, Asura. You’re alright, bud?” Asura looks up from the floor and sees her dear friend, Ana. She’s a ginger girl with light skin, freckles, and gorgeous blue eyes. Unlike the others in her squad, she’s wielding a Magpul PDR Carbine. A relatively obscure bullpup weapon well suited to her role as the squad scout. She places her hand on Asura’s head, fluffing her black hair with gentleness.
”She’s always being quiet and weird, Ana.” Another girl from her squad comments and laughs. She’s a blonde with a PASGT helmet and a MRR C8 rifle completely decked out with an optic and laser sighting module and speaks with a hint of a posh attitude.
”Please cut it out. You’re embarrassing me, Ana’s” Asura’s quiet protest doesn’t stop Ana from continuing to play with her hair. “I was…just thinking...that’s all.”
Ana rolls her eyes. “Don’t listen to Diedra. She thinks she’s too good for everyone.” Her hand moves away from Asura’s hair. “You don’t have to be nervous right now. We’ve practiced for weeks for this day, Asura. We’re in the second bracket now.”
Asura’s eyes meet with Ana’s before darting off to the ground. “Do you really think we can pull it off again?”
”Listen, Asura…” She crouches down to be level with Asura. Ana is a short girl compared to her but something about Ana gives Asura comfort being around her compared to her other squadmates. “You just have to believe in yourself, just as you did last time. Those fools at Scorpion PMC thought they could out maneuver us with their technicals but you shot out the squad leader and the rest was history.”
”Careful Ana, You’re going to make her cry again.”
”Oh shut it, Diedra.” She lowers her tone after scolding her squad mate with a raised fist. “You have nothing to worry about. You’re our best scout. We couldn’t have a better squadmate, Asura.”
”Ana…” Asura’s voice murmurs despite her best attempt to smile.
Suddenly, a short ginger girl hops onto a fallen tree next to the other girls. Her name is Lise. She may be short and 18, the youngest member of her squad, but she’s an extremely vulgar Quebecoise, with a L1A1 FAL battle rifle. She’s dressed like the rest of her squadmates in their CADPAT digital camo fatigues but she dawns a bright red beret indicating her status as a squad leader. She speaks with a cute but aggressive accent. “Oye! Enough fucking pep talks! The match is going to start real soon.” Despite standing on the tree, Lise is hardly taller than the other girls. Nevertheless, she likes to make her authority visible to the rest; waving her rifle up in the air with her right hand and making dramatic movements with the other. “I don’t want to see any bullshit from anyone today. I don’t like Dinosaurs. Especially not Raptors, so we’re going to extinct the fuck out of them today. Am I clear?”
”Oui, Madame!” The girls answer; afraid to disappoint their short tempered squad leader who shouldn’t be mistaken by her youthful appearance. She’s even more unhinged than Drill Sgt Perry.
”You, Persian!” Lise snaps her finger at Asura. “You tag with me. We're scouting ahead. You better not slow me down!.”
“Yes, Madame.” Asura affirms with uncertainty and fear.
”You two stay behind us and split up when we make contact. We’re going to squeeze them and deprive them from escaping if we spot them. Pincer maneuver. Snibbity snappity”. She demonstrates with her left hand which is hooked like a crab claw.
”Genius as always Madame!” Diedre laughs, cocking her carbine like a slingshot. “They’ll never see us coming.”
“Let’s go. Allez, on y va or I’ll take all of your rifles and make popsicles out of all of you! Show those Raptors how Candians fight!”
”Whiz!”
Several minutes had passed since the start of the match. Asura and her squad leader are under fire. The enemy is taking pot shots at the two who are ducked under a makeshift trench. Lise returns fire at the enemy soldier hiding behind the dense jungle foliage. She notices Asura is not firing back after her first shot. “Asura, what the fuck are you doing?! Kill him!”
”Madame! My rifle is stuck! I can’t chamber the round!” She cries in frustration as she tries to pull the stuck round from the receiver while ducking behind some fallen foliage with her squad leader.
”Don’t do that! "Criss de calvaire! Use the forward assist! Do it! Do it NOW!” Lise barks furiously at Asura. “I’m out I’m out! Je recharge! FIX YOUR FUCKING RIFLE NOW, ASURA or I’m going Leoniadas on YOUR ASS!” Lise attaches a grenade launcher device on her muzzle of her L1A1. She loads a grenade and a blank fire cartridge into her rifle. Plonk! She launches a grenade in the general direction of where they were being shot at. The palms burn and branches are blown apart where the shooter could have been hiding behind. He must have made his escape. They could have easily taken him out if Asura could have provided covering fire. Lise is made more furious after loading a new magazine into her rifle when she sees that Asura has not fixed her jam. “YOU FUCKING IDIOT! YOU STILL HAVEN’T FIXED YOUR RIFLE! I DON’T THINK YOUR RIFLE ISN’T THE ONLY THING MALFUNCTIONING! THEY FUCKING GOT AWAY BECAUSE OF YOU!”
”Wait! It’s almost there! I’m trying!” Asura is slamming her palm into the forward assist. Her squad leader isn’t making it easy with her yelling but the forward assist seems to be pushing the round into the chamber.
”HEY HEY! Finger off that trigger!” Her squad leader shouts at Asura who isn’t keeping an eye on where she’s aiming.
BANG!
”MADAME!” Asura watches Lise drop like a brick onto the ground. Her angry ranting and raving was cut into a complete silence. Asura’s eyes start to gush with tears and her mouth trembles as she hesitates to call for help.”
”Your Highness! Asura lifts her eyes up from her desk. She was dozing off at her desk and didn’t notice one of her minions standing before her. Vlad has been one of her more talented squad members. He’s been training recruits like Chiara and making them into effective night fighting monsters. But out of all of her elite teammates, he’s the most outspoken.
“The squad is done with their training. Lucius and the others zeroed their rifles. We have our flight suits inspected and tested from our last jump. Everyone says they’re confident with their equipment.”
“Of course I know that.” Asura scoffs, waving her hand. “I didn’t need to hear that again. I have my eyes and ears all over this fortress. I know everything I have to know.”
“I don’t think so, your highness.” Vlad narrows his eyes.
“So you’re here to tell me something else. I should have expected that. She sits back on her leather chair with her arms crossed. “What is it now?”
“Your highness.” Vlad clears his throat to ready himself and speak his mind. “I think you’re making a grave mistake with this Chiara girl.”
“Well that’s just your opinion, Vlad.” Asura shoots down his concerns. “Chiara is a blank slate that I was able to manipulate and mold into the perfect vampire. She’s lost just like the rest of us in this team. She understands our position and will be useful in our match against Team Lonestar.”
“Your highness.” Vlad interjects boldly. “We took this girl from her former friends that we’re going up against. What makes you think she won’t have second thoughts during the match? Ridiculous! She’s a liability, your highness! She should not be leading the remnants of JarPig Squad!” He protests frantically.
“Vlad, calm down. I know what I am doing. I was the one who molded her into the perfect squad leader.”
“What are you talking about? I trained her!” Vlad throws his arms up in frustration. “I’ve trained her and all of the recruits in our squad! I’m telling you as a matter of fact that the recruits are starting to take a liking to her. Some are saying that she should replace you!”
“That’s ridiculous, Vlad.” Asura scoffs, tapping her finger nail on her desk. “Vampire soldiers answer to nobody but myself. That includes you Vlad. That also includes Chiara. Don’t think I’m letting my guard down with her. If she does something against my orders, I’ll make an example of her and her followers.”
“Your highness…you’re making a mistake! The recruits look up to her and…!”
“Enough.” Asura throws a pen from her desk at Vlad. He ducks instinctively as the pen strikes the bookshelf behind him. “I don’t want to hear anymore of it. I’m the squad leader around here. You follow my orders or I’ll have you demoted and force you to do janitorial work around this fortress. We do things my way. The right way. Following my orders on the day of the match just as I planned. Chiara is now under our influence. My influence. Is that understood?” Asura narrows her eyes with contempt. “I’m being very generous…too generous with all of you. If you tried pulling something like this in the old squad I was in, you would be berated till the end of it.”
Vlad sighs through his respirator. “Sure…as you wish your highness.”
"Careful, Vlad. You’re mistaking my patience for indecision.” Asura leans back on her chair and smirks. “The last thing I need is a mutiny in my squad. So cut it out or I'll cut you out.”
“Your highness, I’m only trying to help…”
”And you’re not helping. What are you doing talking to me for? Focus on the upcoming match, zero your rifle, do what you have to do, but stay out of my way when it comes to my strategy. Am I clear?”
“Yes, your highness.” Vlad bows, feeling his fist clenching as he does it. “I’ll see to it.”
“Good. Now get out of my sight. I want to be left alone.” Asura shoos him off with her hand dismissively.” Vlad makes his way out of Asura's office and into the hallway. The other two of his squadmates are waiting for him downstairs. He looks over at Lucius and Lilith and just shakes his head.
“Her highness is being foolish, I’m telling you!” Vlad complains to his squad members in the amory while he loads ammo into his magazines. His OTs-14-1A is field stripped on the armory table. His assault rifle is an outlier among his squadmates as being the only com-bloc weapon in the squad. Lilith hands him a .30 caliber bore snake to clean out the barrel after the three of them finished zeroing their sights at the range.
“You're getting too worked up about it, Brother.” Lilith comments as she watches Vlad do some maintenance on his rifle and magazines. “Chiara reminds me of how I used to be when I first joined Vampire Squad. She’s adapting better than I did.” She chuckles to herself. “She’s got a lot of promise and talent you know.”
“Well, she’s going to be off on her own, leading those clowns of JarPig squad for us.” Lucius reminds them. “If it makes you feel better, I think she might be eliminated with the rest of JarPig squad before we even start our own maneuvers in the mansion. They are going to be a distraction while our squad focuses on capturing the client or taking out Team Lonestar.”
”I don’t think she’s that inexperienced, brother. Chiara dooesn't come off as a push over. We saw how she handled leading the recruits against Raptor Squad. Our match is going to be easy with her on our side!”
“More easy than it already was, sister.” Lucius laughs. “The only thing after that is to deal with whoever wins the third bracket and then we can finally deal with Raptor and Lion squad, just as Asura foretold us”
“You both are too lax." Vlad rolls his eyes in disbelief. "Chiara is an outsider. She’s not one of us.”
“Strange. You said the same thing about me when I was just a recruit.” Lilith reminds Vlad. “We were all just as broken as her highness, brought together under her wing to do something wonderful with our lives. Lucius is a deadbeat soldier, I’m a failed artist and you were a delinquent for years.”
“Vlad, this squad is like a family.” Lucius adds. “We don’t have anywhere to go. Everything we accomplished so far was because we all stuck together. Who’s to say Chiara can’t be part of this too if she feels at home with us.”
”That may be true, but we didn’t have a good life like this girl….” Vlad starts to assemble his rifle together. “She had friends, she’s in college, and she’s better off than any of us were in our lives. Chiara had it better than her highness. All we’re doing is ruining her friendships and her life to be part of our cliche. It doesn’t seem right.”
“But her highness said her so-called friends were keeping her from her potential.”
“That’s nonsense, sister.” Vlad scoffs. “She always had that potential to be a great soldier. She didn’t need me or our squad to figure that out. All we’re doing is taking advantage of her. It’s going to bite us in the ass eventually.”
”So what do you propose then?”
“Lucius, if Chiara turns out to be a liability…” Vlad considers his words carefully. “Then by all accounts, her highness has to be a liability too for causing our plans to go kaput. We’ll have to do away with Asura and let her know she’s not viable to lead Vampire Squad.”
”Brother, that’s madness! We can’t just…”
“I’ll be glad to be wrong, Lucius.” Vlad finally puts his rifle together and slings it over his body; inspecting it for an empty chamber before letting it rest with the sling. “But my gut feeling says otherwise. Please. You both have to be committed to victory no matter what. We shouldn’t put all our faith into her highness if she can’t see our failure coming from a kilometer away.”
“Are you suggesting we kept that dork, Kael?”
“Well, he was kind of stupid.” Vlad shrugs. “Stupid enough to think he’ll have a chance with her highness. Chiara isn’t stupid enough to exploit. I don’t know what her highness thinks using her is a good idea. She’d be better off doing something small like that last guy she recruited from The Agency.”
“John Smith?” Lucius recalls.
“Yeah. The check point guard we recently booted for failing to keep those intruders from breaking into our fortress with a stolen transport truck. last time”
“Vlad, you realize if her highness catches wind of our conversation, the three of us will be in deep shit.” Lilith mentions with a whisper.
“We’ll be in a bigger slump if we lose the match. It makes no difference. If we can win this match without her highness’ control, then we could have a better future for Vampire Squad.”
“Which would involve fragging her highness?” Lilith's eyes dart off as if she’s pretending not to care or listen. “I don’t like where this is heading, brother.”
“Listen, it’s simple. We trust her highness and Chiara for now. If any of us see a slight hint of Chiara breaking loyalty or showing any hesitation. We act on our own accord.” He gives a glare of certainty towards Lilith and Lucius in the armory. “And if her highness is part of the problem, then leave her to me.”