July 10th, Year 714 A.G.

[08:23pm]

Just like Major Roshfield feared, the chaos and killing in the city didn't stop with the veil of night. Instead, it escalated.

The martial law in the city was driving civilians insane and with Lucian's masterminded instigation with his video, more and more civilians let their emotions take over as the casualties kept on ballooning into the night.

While all this happened, the elite squad convened in the secret facility that few soldiers knew about in Megabase 023.

Major Roshfield stood before her soldiers with a solemn look on her face.

"Unfortunately, due to certain reasons, we no longer have the buffer time of 5 days to prepare for the assault against the terrorists".

'Unfortunately?' Leon stared at the Major, feeling that she was no longer as rigid and annoying. 'Fortunately!' He thought with anticipation.

Major Roshfield continued. "The attack shall commence tonight".

Unlike Leon, some of the soldiers in the elite squad were clearly caught off-guard by the sudden news but they didn't show much of a reaction.

They were all veteran soldiers and they were used to following orders.

"The attack shall officially commence at 11pm tonight," she said in a serious voice. "Because of this, there shall be no training today".

"I want you to try out the Suzuki C19 stealth gear and get used to it".

"Take this time to lock in, put yourself in the zone because you'll need it". She continued seriously. "The Demon of Ozempic and his direct subordinates are proven warriors, survivors".

"If you want to kill them, you'll have to dig in more than you've ever done before".

"Make no mistakes, this is not going to be an easy mission but I still expect you to succeed".

"Before 11, I expect you all to be mentally prepared".

She looked at Ariande. "Captain Ariande shall be my liaison during this mission. Like I promised, even though I won't personally be there with you, I'll remotely follow this mission and give you insights if there's anything wrong".

"Stay sharp, stay alert".

She looked at her wristwatch, then she said. "I'll see you all by 10:30".

After that, she left, leaving the 9 of them alone as they processed the sudden information from the Major in different ways.

Lieutenant Johnmark leaned towards Leon and whispered. "What do you think?"

Leon rubbed his palms together, his black eyes deep and unfathomable. "Oh, I've been ready since Day 1". He said coldly.

Lieutenant Johnmark smirked. "The Major has really put a lot of effort into this. Hopefully, everything happens smoothly without any major upsets".

"Nothing will happen, trust me". Leon said confidently. "I didn't come this far to die to terrorists".

In that moment while they still processed the sudden information, Captain Ravemen walked out and faced his 8 teammates.

His face was solemn as he said. "This is what we've been training and preparing for since the past 2 days".

"All I want to remind you is that once we're underground, I want us to keep trust in each other and maintain togetherness".

"This is not a mission for glory or valor, this is not a mission where individual brilliance is the priority".

"Trust me, in missions like this, teamwork trumps individual power".

"I want you all to remember this when we're down there". He tapped the left side of his chest with his right fist. "Goodluck to us".

After that, they went to different corners of the combat arena to prepare mentally for the assault in their different ways.

Sitting on a chair in a corner of the combat arena, Leon put on the special black stealth gear and attire that the Major procured for this mission.

As he put it on, he referenced his System.

DING!

The familiar HUD screen instantly lit up in front of him.

~----~

[Ascended Counter: 1,128/2000]

~----~

This was what his Ascended Counter looked like now; it was steady progress and Leon was satisfied with it.

One at a time, he methodically filled up the slots and buckles in his gear with hidden weapons even as he kept the others in his black backpack.

Once he was done, he leaned back on the chair and waited.

He could not wait for 11 o'clock.

…

10:30pm, Major Roshfield returned to the secret facility and addressed the soldiers one last time.

"Soldiers, this is the moment of truth".

"You're not just going on a mission but you're carrying the weight of a whole city behind you".

"There's no room for error," she said solemnly, but then she smiled. "Still I believe that you will execute it perfectly".

"Goodluck out there," she said, then, "For the Geneforge Clans!" She saluted.

They also saluted. "For the Geneforge Clans!"

After that, they left the secret facility, ascending to the isolated helipad in the Megabase through the elevator.

There, a stealth vessel was already waiting for them- a lean bug-shaped black transport that blended perfectly with the night sky, rendering it partially invisible.

It was a 10-seater capacity transport.

Without exchanging a word with the pilot, the 9 soldiers garbed in black stealth gear with black half-face masks entered the stealth vessel, and then it lifted up and left the Megabase.

The stealth gear procured by Major Roshfield also came with hybrid infrared and night vision googles, but for now it was not needed so they kept it.

…

Inside Megabase 023, Major Roshfield sat in Captain Ariande's office where she watched from the bodycam of the E Rank NetRunner.

Tonight, Captain Ariande was her eyes.

She looked calm in front of her soldiers but she was anything but calm. She clenched her teeth and leaned forward, placing her elbows on the table while interlocking her fingers as she stared at the 8 screens, watching for any trouble.

Nothing happened through the trip in the sky.

The stealth vessel quietly flew to a slightly dilapidated area in a Lower District where homeless civilians were housed in government houses.

There was a large scrapyard a few dozen meters from the last government house where scavengers frequented every day.

Unknown to the scavengers though, there was a secret tunnel here that led to the secret lair of the Extremist Movement in Leviathan Quay.

The stealth vessel didn't touch down.

Instead, silently hovering about 10 meters from the ground, the 9 soldiers came down through drop ropes.

The moment they touched down and the stealth vessel retreated, their movement was seamless and synchronized as with Captain Raveman leading the way, they quickly located the entrance of the secret tunnel.

They didn't communicate with words. Instead, they communicated with special hand signs that they came up with and already familiarized themselves with within the past 2 days.

As for how they could distinguish themselves, they were already familiar with each other's body shape and movement in the past 2 days.

Aside that, they didn't wear hoods for a reason.

Despite the half-face masks, they could recognize each other through their hair.

Captain Raveman made a hand sign and Lieutenant Piper and Levi silently approached the vent leading into the tunnel. Piper pulled at the vent.

Clank!

With a muffled sound, the vent opened and instantly Levi who was beside her dove inside the tunnel.

He landed perfectly with a roll without making a single sound.

Inside the tunnel, Levi with the help of his enhanced Ascended perception instantly scanned the tunnel then he made a hand sign to his teammates who were above, telling them that the area was clear.

Raveman dove in next, then Jones, then Ariande, then Johnmark, then Leon, then Cormier who made a slight thudding sound when he landed, then Ryan, and finally Lieutenant Piper entered last, quietly closing the vent.

Once they were all inside, Captain Raveman took the lead ahead of all of them then he led the way straight through the underground tunnel.

It was a long trek.

For almost 40 minutes, they walked in absolute quiet and in that moment, Leon realized that this mission was harder than he expected.

Staying quiet and walking monotonously for 40 minutes was harder than he expected it to be.

At some point, he felt that the walls of the tunnel started contracting, the squeaking sound of rats underground became unnerving yet he managed to stay disciplined and keep his calm through it all.

Unlike the inexperienced Leon, the others were not unused to missions like this and they managed to keep their calm through the lonesome trek.

At exactly the 40 minute mark, they finally reached their target, another vent that led to the surface.

Captain Raveman silently gave the order and the nimble Lieutenant Levi jumped like a monkey, sticking to the vent as with a subtle application of force, he moved the vent aside without making a single noise.

He slowly raised his body and stuck his head out to observe the surroundings. Finding no immediate danger, he pulled himself to the surface.

On the surface, he observed for a few seconds before using a hand sign to tell his teammates that they were not alone but it was safe.

Seeing the hand sign, Captain Raveman looked at his teammates and quickly decided on the order in which they were to ascend to the surface.

The leaner members of the squad ascended first with Lieutenant Cormier going last due to how big he was.

With his teammates covering for him though, no one saw him.

Once they ascended to the surface, Leon finally understood what Levi meant when he used the hand sign to say they were not alone.

At this moment, they were inside a compound with a small dome-shaped building. There were similar compounds like this around them with similar small dome-shaped buildings.

No one seemed to be inside the building though so they hid beside its walls, staying in the shadows.

The compounds were all surrounded by an interconnected fence of chain-link and razor wire.

The fence was surrounded by surveillance cameras that hummed like insects which meant they had to be careful, and pasted on the fence were red neon warning signs.

[MILITARY ZONE]

[NO ENTRY, AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY]

Outside the fence were stationed soldiers of the Gene Army while patrol trucks with powerful headlights patrolled at intervals.

This was clearly a restricted military zone of the Gene Army.

"?" Leon instantly had question marks in his head but he didn't say a single word, the priority was still completing the mission.

Captain Raveman stayed calm as he observed his surroundings even as Levi stealthily covered the vent back.

Within a few seconds, Raveman came up with an approach plan.

With hand signs, he relayed his instructions to his teammates and then in tandem, they moved like ghosts.

They evaded the surveillance cameras, moving through the blind spot of the patrol soldiers and then they arrived at the other side of the small dome-shaped building where there was a stairwell that led underground.

The stairwell had old and rusted handrails with flickering yellow lightbulbs that illuminated the handrails.

They stopped in front of the stairwell.

The problem was that surveillance cameras directly faced the entrance to the stairwell!

Facing this problem, Captain Ariande calmly squatted and brought out a computer from her bag as neon green ADE flared around her hands.

Ghost Line!

Firewall Bypass!

She directed brute-forced her way into the digital security system of the underground base while hiding her tracks with Ghost Line, hacking the cameras.

The cameras squeaked and turned to face the wall.

Seeing this, Captain Raveman made a hand gesture and quietly, they quickly scaled the stairwell down before arriving at the entrance of an underground complex with a reinforced metal door.

Captain Raveman looked at Captain Ariande who nodded at him.

With her computer and Firewall Bypass, having already hacked into the digital security system of the underground complex, she used an electronic algorithm to unlock the reinforced metal door.

Click!

The door was unlocked.

Captain Raveman gestured fast with his hands and instantly, they snuck into the underground complex one after the other.

After they were in, the door locked behind them with a subtle hiss.

They were inside!

Past the reinforced metal door, there was a large corridor leading through the underground complex, and on both sides there were doors leading into multiple vast chambers.

The target was the Demon of Ozempic, everything else was secondary.

Once Captain Raveman gave the other, the 2 assassins in the squad, Piper and Levi stealthily approached the multiple doors on both sides even as Ariande hacked the cameras inside the corridor to focus on the wall.

Both assassins quickly ascertained that the chambers behind the doors were subterranean gene labs where doctors and scientists worked.

The Demon of Ozempic was unlikely to be here.

Just to be thorough, Captain Raveman had them stealthily open each door and glimpse inside as they proceeded forward at a brisk pace through the corridor.

A few minutes later, they arrived at a point where the corridor widened into a large subterranean chamber housing rows of cylindrical capsules, each one filled with glowing green fluid.

Inside them floated humanoid figures.

Their heads drooped and their limbs hung slack while their bodies were wired into the capsule walls with cables and needles that pulsed softly with light.

Scientists in light green robes wearing respirators and mirrored visors attended to the capsules while guards in familiar black paramilitary armor and full-face insectile masks stood at the edges of this large subterranean chamber, protecting the scientists.

"…!"

The moment the soldiers saw the armed guards in black paramilitary armor, they didn't need Captain Raveman to give the order first as they instantly pulled their silenced pistols and aimed.

Pu! Pu! Pu!

Silenced gunshots reverberated, eliminating all 11 guards in this chamber within seconds as the scientists instantly raised their hands in surrender, fear clearly etched on their faces.

Captain Raveman paused, wondering what he should do with the scientists when suddenly something changed.

HISS!

From behind them and ahead of them, hissing sounds reverberated as thick gray reinforced barriers instantly descended, blocking their entrance and exit, boxing them inside this subterranean chamber!

'What?' Captain Raveman was alarmed as his eyes narrowed. 'An ambush?!'

BZZZT!

The world turned dark!

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