「 Girls' Frontline 」Nikolay's Journey

Chapter 18: Starring the puppeteer

Yet as soon as they passed by a big pile of rubble X95 felt like she stepped on something tense, freezing instantly as she looked down not moving, to her luck it wasn't any kind of explosives but the bad thing was it was more of an alarm than anything else as several empty cans and crystal bottles suddenly made noise by either braking or wiggling around hitting each other.

Negev: Agh, quickly

Negev let out taking the lead of the team and making her way out of the alley, looking around the street seemenigly to be still empty but it was just a matter of minutes till the "swarm" made its way here, her eyes snapped from side to side as they quickly found the entrance into the building they wanted to inspect, making her way there she jumped over a broken sofa and rammed the door with her shoulder, the door flinched but didn't open, it was closed with key like the one in the front entrance, IWS and X95 were close behind her and saw how she failed to open the door, Negev gritted her teeth and backed off before unfolding her bipod and using it as a foregrip unleashing a burst of around 5 to 7 bullets into the lock, ramming the door again afterward it finally opened letting the group in, the hardware store was quite big inside but they couldn't waste time searching for tools now that they had imminent combat.

Negev: Take a defensive position IWS, X95 cover the front flank

Said Negev recovering from the ramming of the door and making her way inside the store's many shelves and sections.

The two dolls followed her instructions and made their way quickly to the front of the shop, as per Negev she quickly walked up to some shelves and dropped them with all their hardware, and after that another one, and another one till she made and improvised barricade out of tools, construction materials, and metal shelves. Sliding behind it she quickly positioned herself and deployed the bipod on her machinegun pivoting it on top of one of the shelves, whoever dared to enter through that spot would be meet with a storm of 7.62 mm bullets, making herself more comfortable she let her cheek rest on the comb of the stock and aimed her sights onto the middle of the door they just broke through, taking a sharp breath before relaxing her whole body to properly manage the machinegun.

As for her teammates, IWS made her way towards the middle of the store where she also knocked off some shelves but just to make space for her anti-material rifle setting up the bipod of it she now aimed in a concealed position towards the front entrance, which was also guarded by X95 who took cover behind the counters, ready to spring into action if needed, the group now waited silently inside the dark of the hardware shop as they could already hear their enemies moving through the outside rubble quickly.

The three of them patiently waited seeing the movements of their enemies thanks to the shadows reflected by the setting sun. Then they finally appeared, Negev silently followed with her iron sights the group of dolls that entered by the back entrance, the griffon soldier waiting for the right time to unleash hell, and then she had the opportunity seeing how a lot of them pilled up on the door almost in a conga line, opening fire the belt of bullets started to vanish in a quick pace as muzzle flash of the machinegun illuminated Negev's smile who didn't let a single one live, the puppets dropped as flies tore by the 7,62mm lead, and she didn't stop firing even when the enemies inside were neutralized as she started shooting blindly through the wall, coolant and small pieces of metal splattering all around inside and outside of the building.

Then the roar of the machinegun died out, it was complete silence, which was new as previously they didn't kill so few. Their numbers were out of place.

Negev: Hm... They didn't even shoot back...

With narrowed eyes, she kept observing the scene through her iron sights, no signs of a second wave from the back, then something caught her ear. Shotgun fire, and pistol caliber rounds wheezing in the distance, it was almost like a soft rumbling on her ear.