章 33: - The Hellbound Hounds
Quickly forcing his way past the squad, Frencian moved to the top of the stairs that led down to the basement and peered out through the doorway that led to the basement and into the main hall of the library.
"Hellbound Hounds…" he muttered. "You all willing to fight?"
Gus glanced at the faces of his squad. Those, like Joel and Teala, looked as though the idea of a fight excited them. Others, like Connor and Faye, looked rather apprehensive, but willing to do whatever they could to defeat them.
Then, there was Krista. Compared to everyone else, she looked downright terrified. Even those who Gus would assume were unwilling to fight looked as bloodlusted as Joel and Teala when compared to her.
Gus moved to give the box to Joel for a moment, but was stopped by a warning from the system.
*Note: Handing the mission objective to anyone, for any reason, is grounds for failure of the Legend Mission.*
Gus sighed as he read the message, before pulling his arms back to himself. 'Can I at least put it down for a moment?' he thought.
*Correct.*
With some effort, he placed the box on a step three up from his own. "Don't touch that. Anyone," he warned them in a hushed voice, before leading Krista back down the stairs.
"Hey, you alright?" he asked her.
"I think so," she said through deep breaths. "Or, I will be. I am just… I do not think I was ready for this."
"But, you were fine the other night, weren't you? And you've been performing decently in class, at least from what I've seen of you."
"I do not mean physically ready. I hate violence, but I understand that it is sometimes necessary to do to protect those you love. The only issue is, I had pictured that violence being done light years away from here, on a world that I had never seen before, to a race that is not human. Not hundreds of miles away from the region I was born in. And… I am scared. I know that is stupid, like why would I join the military if I am going to be scared of conflict? But, I am scared."
'She must have a reason to be here,' Gus thought. 'What sane person would join the military if they were just going to be too afraid to fight?' He breathed in deeply as he took in the situation.
Her hands trembled as fear spread like a disease through her body. Her head shone with a light layer of sweat as she became more and more agitated. Her eyes, often referred to as windows to the soul, proved to Gus that these were her true feelings.
Dorrian's words rang through his head as he looked at her. While he would have liked to have all of his squad in the fight, he knew that it would be better to keep her out of it for now. Even if it provided no immediate benefit, it would eventually prove to be the best choice.
"Listen, stay down here, for now. We don't need you for the fight, but we probably need you for what comes after. If anyone gets hurt, bring them to safety. Can you do that?" he asked, receiving a nod in response.
Picking the box back up, he approached the top of the stairs where Frencian was stood, peering out into the room.
"There's about fifteen of them," he quietly said upon seeing Gus approach. "But they're fairly deep in the room. We'll have the space to get out of here and catch them off guard."
Gus nodded in agreement, before turning back down the stairs and addressing the others.
"We're slightly outnumbered, but we hold some advantages. They don't know we're here, and the mess in this place will do well to hide us. Quickly and quietly, we spread out through the room and catch them off guard. Use the comm devices when you're there, to let the rest of us know."
He let the others move ahead of him, as he moved slowly from cover to cover, slowed by the weight of the box. Now out of the room, he could see the people Frencian called the 'Hellbound Hounds' more clearly.
They wore black jackets of various length. From their bulk, it was clear that there was some sort of padding contained within the fabric of the jackets. On their backs was a symbol of a flaming canine heading towards a red gate that also burned.
'They must really like that name.' Gus thought.
Of the various types of people that frequent the area that they had been told about, it made sense that these were mercenaries. Although they thought that they were safe, they still kept their weapons within arm's reach. From his position, Gus could see small sidearms and what seemed to be a type of hunting rifle, along with an assortment of closer ranged, blunt weapons. Judging from the wires that poked out of the cheap looking case of the weapons, it seemed that the weapons were hastily made by those who used them. Overall, their weapons looked cheap, unprofessional, and unbecoming of a mercenary group. Gus figured they were little more than a local group, and that was why their equipment was so strangely shoddy.
They also had plenty of different cybernetic implants. From optics, designed to increase their accuracy, to arms containing hidden weapons that they could easily bring to bear at a moment's notice if the situation called for it.
One by one, his device pinged that the others were ready and, to his surprise, he could actually see their positions in relation to his, thanks to a map of the surroundings found on the device. Unsurprisingly, Joel and Teala had taken positions much closer to that of their opponents.
From Gus's position, he could see the main bulk of the mercenaries, and judging from the positions of his squad, the rest could be seen by them. He quickly spoke orders into his device before placing the box down and drawing his weapon.
"On my mark…
… Mark!"
A swarm of nanomachines flew over the location of the mercenaries, blinding their vision with their mass of bodies. Taking advantage of the chaos they caused, Gus and the others rushed forwards, their guns raised.
*Reactive Mission: Defeat the Hellbound Hounds.*
Within moments, the fight was over. Gus only managed to actually fire off his weapon three times before none of the mercenaries were left standing. On the edges of his vision, he saw both Joel and Teala engaged close with the mercenaries, their cybernetic upgrades proving to be useful through the fight. He dropped his weapon and relaxed as he looked around the room.
Suddenly, calls from the others alerted him to the danger. He quickly turned his head right just in time to see an axe swinging down towards him. He dropped his gun and pulled out the blade as he ducked low, avoiding the attack.
He kicked out towards the hand that held the axe, causing the Hound to lose his grip on the handle. Gus quickly followed up by driving the blade down, tip first, into the torso of the Hound. As he pulled it out, he received a system message.
*Reactive Mission: Defeat the Hellbound Hounds: Complete.*
*Reward: 500 EXP*
*Enemies Killed: [4]*
*Reward: [400] EXP*
*Level Up!!!*
*Reward: [100] System Points.*
*Reward: Level Up Crate.*
*Enemies Killed by Allies: [6]*
*Reward: [6] Leadership Points.*
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