"The Sixth Squadron, as your alias in the camp's database suggests." He seeked to be corrected, passing through the bridge and into the building as he followed the remnants of his soldiers, "It's been an honor watching your fruitful attempts at gaining an upper hand against us." He continued, entering the barracks and kneeling to examine the corpses. "My name is Vidar." He introduced himself, his voice blustering with each closing step, "I know that wherever you are, every word I say is clear to you.. And to your friends watching us." He reveals, "Your strategy is one of such brilliance, something that I myself have never bore to witness among the many bivouac's we've come to tear down." He paused afterward, looking up from his crouched position to scan the area for biological traces.
Dropping down to the floor, they ensure their hidden from any visibility over the lockers from the corridor. The four were completely unseen from any of the cameras in the building. Of which kept the others to only watch the mercenary as he single handedly searched the floor. Katherine knew that there was only an individual escape and entry route from their position, which wasn't quintessential. Strapping the quiver to her back, she darkened the jade lights in her visor while the rest stayed absent in glimmer. She gestured to Miles to move through the narrow corridor and for the rest of them to follow behind him.
Rising to their feet, they began traversing toward the exit of the armory, Clea following right behind him with Katherine travelling the rear with Vaughn. Guardedly edging their way toward the gate, the other Strider considered moving up behind Miles. Vidar's armor was impenetrable, but not unshakable. A simple charged arrow that burst out on impact should disorientate him for a couple of seconds. After his final scan, he got up from the perished body and continued his path to the armory.
Vidar walked towards the Fifth's bunker, his rifle in hand and his armor as immaculate as a black rose lacking the embrasures that Cody's bullet should've left not long ago. "I know what all of you are like. Sanguine without limits, a confidence that exceeded even men who knew their strength and devoured organizations that stood no chance against their tyranny." He voiced to them, Miles reaching the edge of the corridor and listened on, "You think you can outsmart us with you cheap play to tear the power of the generators from the tower will raise your chances? I've slaughtered your entire battalion and all it takes for me to kill nine more souls is a pint of effort to be given!" He clamored threateningly, the Sixth unblemished by his words.
As they paid a close ear to each step he took, Katherine faced her underarm upward to her sight as she held onto her bow. The downsized LED screen gleamed faintly in the darkness, producing almost little to no visible light. Its connection with the A.Q. attachment was resolute and would react instantly to given instructions. Two fingers from her drawing hand scrolled through the arrowheads that was open to her choosing. Stopping at the flat ended spherical tip, she tapped onto it and the attachment went to work. The upper plate removed the original tips from the shaft of its chosen arrow while the lower plate raised the concussive arrowhead upward, allowing the upper plate to attach the unique tip to the shaft. As easily as that, Katherine was given a new arrow to play with.
Thereupon, Vidar's words were sounded closer than ever as he slowly trekked alongside the walls of the Fifth and crossing into the armory's. "Do you want to know what happened to the last group that we happened to eliminate?" He asked rhetorically, referencing the Ninth and appealing to Miles' worst interest.
Budging uncomfortably as he heard his startling words, Clea left her downsized rifle to her right hand and extended her bare palm to his. Holding onto him firmly, she hoped to soften his intentions. "Don't." She whispered with lucidity, Miles heeding to her suggestion in the meanwhile. He held held onto her hand in return, her being the only source of reassurance for him. What he was about to hear could pull him from his promise to not let his emotional judgement fight for him.
"They were a group of eight. Bleak and hubristic fools who could've survived as long as you all have if they weren't so senseless and naive." Vidar mocked without any respect for his opponents, "We watched as they gathered round their little hideout somewhere in this very building. Every step they took, another step to their decimation." He added on, salting the wound in the Sixth even more. "Freedom was within their horizon and they chose not to lavish their odds, so far as to not even equip themselves with the gear necessary to endure combat." He laughed. "As they barely scrapped the tip of their objective, we finished them off at their final frontier." Vidar drew closer to his conclusion, "All but one of them lasted the onslaught." He reminded himself, Lily's suffering materializing into all their heads. "Word by word I could repeat everything she said when I made sure she suffered through what her friends did." He taunted, pausing for a moment as he turned to the open gate of the armory and stood still. His right bracer lit up with a multitude of diminutive lights, a weapon that none of them had seen before.
Miles' hand parted from Clea's, returning to the grip of his rifle as he toughened up with torment. What he told himself now was far from what mattered in his own mind. This bastard deserved to pay, but he knew he couldn't pierce his armor. His rage would come to no use, even if he were to simply vent it all out in a flurry of bullets. In a sudden change of thought, he realized that even if it didn't hurt him, Vidar would still feel the force of the impacts. His promise stayed and his mind stayed in focus. Both his hands were at trigger ready; his soul was ready for the reminded Vidar was to give. He turned over to gain Katherine's attention to inform her that after he spoke what he would, he was going to lunge out for a strike. She returned the favor and nocked the concussive arrow.
Preparing to engage his unidentifiable weapon into the armory, Vidar scorned the Ninth one last time. "Nothing, all she did was scream." He derided as Miles pulled himself away from cover and knelt down to his knees. Firing at Vidar's shin guards with a couplet of bullets to each one, his partnering Strider followed his lead and stood behind him with her aim true. Katherine drew her shot as the brute was befallen to his knees, she loosened her hold of the string and set the arrow free. Colliding with the metal of his helmet, the spherical head was sentenced to a bevy of miniature fireworks and further driving him against the wall.
Vidar stumbled onto his ass and was left dazed as he readjusted his helmet, trying to realign his focus. The bigger they were, the harder they indeed fell. The Striders gestured for the others to follow behind as they exited the armory and went the opposite direction of where the previous four had navigated. Without knowing, they protected themselves from a potentially fatal attack. Turning right as they left the room, they rushed for the left corner that would lead them back through the glass bridge. Katherine, presuming there would be a similar group waiting for them at the end, stopped, before they were out of cover and halted. Instead of peeking like someone normally would have, she reached out her drawing arm and received a fusillade of pellets attempting to disarm her. Keen eyes, she thought, though none of them had hit their target.
Being reminded of Vidar, she knew he wasn't going to stay down for long. The others waited for her next choice of action as she selected another arrowhead. Another charged arrow wasn't going to cut it this time, she needed something that would ensure he stayed down longer. An shocker arrowhead. It was at a base voltage of fifty-thousand and could be continually charged through the converter flaps on the frontal lobe of the arrowhead. It was designed to be lethal at incredible speeds, but judging on how close they were to Vidar and the insulation of his armor, it was only going to stun him till they managed to get out of their dilemma. Her arrows were going to be their prime method of escape from this point onwards it seemed.
Katherine drew the arrow, swiveling backwards and firing it onto the mercenary. The volts instantly bypassed his armor's insulation and sent shocks that would paralyze him for the moment. Instantly following her initial tip selection, she chose her third arrowhead. This time, something non-lethal and impairing was needed to bring the soldier's attention away from them as they retrieved a grenade and flung it to them. But then she visualized what would happen if they did. It wasn't going to matter if the only entrance into the camp was where they were trying to return to. Even if they could kill the oncoming soldiers after the ones that guarded the bridge, there were the other mercenaries than Vidar that stood.
In this moment, the lives of her quartet meant more than the mission. "Damn it." She said with a fuzzy tone, slightly worrying the others after hearing their best soldier contemplate on what to do. Katherine's frustration continued to build as she felt the weight of what her actions would potentially lead to if she forced them to push through the bridge or stayed there with the brute.
"That doesn't sound good." Vaughn spoke for them, turning behind to watch Vidar still in complete shock by the arrow. That was a lot of electricity, even if it was just the normal voltage for tasers.
A decision had to be made. She analyzed the surroundings and thought briefly of any other exits that they could use to get out of their location. The stairs were one option, but the entrance had been sealed at Aiden's command and even if he were to unlock them, they would only be out in the open with no where to run or hide from their eventual capture. Locking themselves in the Fifth's bunker was another alternative, but their location would be disclosed to everyone that watched them and they'd simply find a way to break in like they already did with the entry doors. Their final option was through bridge to the library. They could request for Aiden to liberate the blast doors and the quartet could run through to buy themselves time. The absolute best option was for them to sprint straight for the First and Eleventh's barracks.
Chances were that Vidar would chase them himself, leaving only one target for them to focus on. The layout of the barracks was unique from the one they were in and their own. It would be an excellent aspect of the building to use against the mercenary. Running about and hiding in the various corners while hearing for his footsteps and hiding till he either got fed up or they found a way to pierce his armor. If he indeed followed them recklessly, it would result in a potential elimination of a large obstacle.
Her choice was final. Katherine selected her third arrowhead and nocked the blinding projectile. Having a genuine feel for the weight and fletching of the arrow, she turned to the rest to share her approach with them, "After I blind them, we need to run to the First's barracks. You fire at anyone you see in front of us. Understand?" She ordered, knowing that the camera caught her voice in the silence between gunfire. The three gave their obedience and held their rifles tightly. Then, she revolved back and took a deep breath. She couldn't afford to lose them, she didn't know why it mattered so much. "Aiden! Keep it open!" Katherine exclaimed toward the camera in the top righthand corner.
Following her command, the sound of the doors parting whistled in the air. Her signal to fire was clear. Katherine drew her bow, cutting round the corner for a split second and loosening the arrow onto the surface of the glass bridge. They all turned their eyes away from the corner and shut them tight. Barely moments after, a brazen and angelic white light sparked with a shriek. The next split second, the quartet moved out in unison. Making a mad dash for the opened bridge and rushed into the open library, they never looked back and kept moving forward.
Simultaneously, the arrow had finally completed its charge and detached from Vidar's armor. He got up in the moments subsequently, shaking the fifty-thousand volts off his chest. His eyes returned to cynosure, recalibrating his helmet to better his sight and utilities. He raised his right arm to his face and deactivated the micro-missiles. Lifting his other hand over his back, he detached the rifle and powered it on with the other. Shorty after, he fired a round at the wall in front of him and leaving a heated blue imprint to ensure it had been working. Then, he continued his pursuit for the Sixth, following the sound of hurried steps.
Their rifles were raised as they scampered through the library. The glass panel that took up the entire left wall gave a luminescence from the environment that was unlike any other. Red and white mixed with the moonlight that was ever disparate from when they saw it from the bridge initially. It resembled that of an augmented reality screen, which allowed for a perfect view of the entire camp. From the tower, to their barracks, to the shooting ranges. But it wasn't the Heaven that it used to echo from. It was a moribund, bleeding Hell with debris all over the place and bodies scattered among the grass. It's prior beautiful and lively green being painted with a sinister red that blighted the fields.
"You know, Miles." Clea spoke to him as they ran through with her remaining breath, "Out of all the first requests you could make as Strider," She puzzled, stowing her rifle after they set foot on the entrance of the barracks and looked back across the library and to the other building, "I did not expect you to choose for Vaughn and I to come and die with you." She complained half-heartedly, using the jest to lighten the moment.
With a foreboding presence, Katherine hoped for Vidar to be on their tail on his own. Asked, and she received. He was coming. It was exactly what she had in mind. Before any chance to him could be given to send off some rounds, they moved inward to conceal themselves for the following seconds. Ignoring her remark against him, Miles queried as if he read his fellow Strider's mind, "Split up?" He asked with Katherine giving her agreement, "You two stay together and listen out when we strike him for your turn." He suggested with haste. Hearing his stomps grow louder which each passing second, Vidar began striding casually as he approached the building. (For visualization, the closest square to the entrance is the bottom left) They all separated into groups of two, Vaughn and Clea moving back to the rear and hiding behind the wall of the top left square with Miles and Katherine hidden at the bottom right, faced away from the entrance.
"You're unlike any of the other children we've murdered, that's one adulation I can give you." Vidar chuckled as he slowly made his way into the building, "At least now we can talk in a place where all my words are heard." He mentioned with a malevolent smile, "I know each of your names in order of rank," He revealed as he turned right toward where the Striders stayed, "Katherine Adair.. Cody Castellan.. Miles Anderson.. Clea Byrne.. Aiden Parish.. Trevor Lynch.. Aspen Levesque.. And Vaughn Nephele." He listed, intending to intimidate them. At least he pronounced Aspen's name correctly.
Miles turned to Katherine for options, the other Strider doing the same. Now they were truly screwed. Vidar's voice was channeled toward their location and moving to a different position would be wise. They stayed in silence, waiting for him to close the gap between them before shifting about. Miles stood the edge closest the corridor that Vidar was walking down on. Shattered glass laced the floor, torn pictures and broken cement befallen in a melting point of debris. A thought then lit up to him. He searched for any reflections to his right that viewed the brute clearly, finding splintered pieces of glass that he magnified with his visor and saw Vidar as he gently treaded step by step toward them.
Nudging Katherine's shoulders, he signed with the signals he was trained with that they were going to move to the top right square on his command. The others in the bunker heard and watched every step that the quartet and Vidar took carefully with angst. It was like a game of chess where one side that lacked numbers in their pieces was still able to threaten his opponent with only himself. There was nothing they could do to interfere with how this played out and could simply watch. That's what they did, they simply watched.
"There is no escape from this, unless you kill me.. Or I kill you." He gave them their ultimatum and their objective, "And while that's going on, you can listen like the little lab rats for Never that you are." He aggrieved, powering on the technology on his bracers again.
Watching as he energized the weapon in the reflection, Miles knew this was the time. Vidar raised his arm toward the corner. They were unaware what it could do and that meant it was dangerous. Vaughn and Clea paced their breaths as they listened. He never fired anything yet, waiting for the confirmation that he wasn't going to waste his opportunity to set off his rounds. Then, silence. Vidar failed to uphold his promise of letting them listen to him speak and captivated Clea a little. She peeked out of her side, inward the cross and watched him approach them with one hand on his rifle facing downward and the other raised up. Returning to her position, she unlatched her rifle from the other holster on her waist.
"After I shoot him, we move left." Clea proposed, the Carrier heeding to her wisdom and preparing to move at her go. She unclipped her magazine and snapped it back in with a click after ensuring her ammo was in pristine condition. Bravely turning round the corner, her rifle's sights lined with Vidar's head and her shot was fired off. His head was thrusted from his position by the bullet which disoriented the brute again and turned his attention to them.
The pair does as she advised and moved to the leftward wall of the square. A shrewd decision which led to their refuge since momentarily after her shot ricocheted on his helm, the mercenary turned and let loose the weapon he'd refrained from using till he got a confirmed target. A volley of dart-like rockets were propelled toward the both of them and struck the wall in miniscule sparks, some unfortunate fletchettes incising into the thinned layers of Clea's kote inspired armor. Her arm clenched up at the darts fell to the ground from their contact point. Refraining from voicing out the pain of fire searing into her flesh, she breathed slowly and shook it off.
"You okay?" Vaughn assuaged, admiring her audacity. Clea simply nodded and hoped that it drew his attention away from Miles and Katherine, giving them the opportunity to relocate. Though now he was advancing towards them.
In the interval of which she fired her rifle at Vidar, Miles' gestured for Katherine to move out while he stayed a little while longer to get anything. "Did you like that?" The brute achingly asked, tapping something on the side of his head, recalibrating his helm as Miles watched him from the reflection. There, he thought. There was a possibility that his helmet wasn't fitted by a glass or plastic visor but was completely obstructed and only saw through miniature cameras on his head. Vidar then turned to face the center of the crosswalk and refocused his view. "I call them the Whistling Birds," He referenced, most of them knowing to what his weapon was similar towards, "because.. Well, you kids know what I'm referring to." He chuckled hauntingly as his sharpened senses returned to him.
Before Vidar could get anywhere near the center of the floor, Miles shifted over with Katherine on the top right square with his newfound knowledge. A potential weakness that could lead to Vidar's eventual downfall. Her shivered breaths were clearly discerned and a disquieting notion for Miles to hear, but she chose to hide it underneath her skin to showcase her dying fortitude. "Just stay calm and breathe slowly, I might've found a way to hurt him." Miles whispered to her, insulting her bravery unknowingly.
"I'm not afraid, Anderson" Katherine chided, making it clear to him as she took his notation.
"They're lying to you, you know?" Vidar continued, over their voices as he took a closer step toward the center of the floor.
"But I am." Miles admitted as he thought of what Vidar did to Lily. Beginning to shake his emotions away and refocusing his mind to eliminating Vidar from their list of predicaments, he toughened himself up. "When Vaughn or Clea shot him in the head, he had to fix something on his helmet." He spoke as quietly he could with Vidar's voice booming towards the center, "He's not getting stunned, his sight is being torn from his helmet." He predicted, "His helmet isn't meant to just take in electric currents, or explosives and that's what we use."
"Never. Not just about your genetics but about what they do with it afterward." He unveiled, his words closing to a reality that none of them were prepared to know.
"You're suggesting we shoot him till he can't see.. And then what?" Katherine, too, preserved her rising emotions for the future, "It'll just be a waste of bullets if we can't pierce his armor." She added in return, "Where's the hurting part?"
"After six years of complete and utter reconstruction," He began.
Miles listened to Vidar as he continued to explain to the Strider, "Then we don't use our ammunition yet." He stated, gesturing to the debris firstly and to her arrows secondly. "We dirty him up, throw the rubble at face to smudge what he sees through." Miles stated their first option, "We use your flashbangs." He added referring to her blinding arrowheads, "Once we overload his receptors, he has to remove his helmet or we continue to do it. That's when we kill him." He concluded as silently he could. Katherine gave no reply and instead agreed to his suggestions with a sigh, followed by a nod. She began selecting the same tip and nocked it into her bow in preparation.
"they turn you against what you are." His words ominously left a mystery in their minds, "I'm doing you a favor by letting your lives end as the humans you all so choose to be, rather than dying a hypocrite to your own kind." Vidar spoke out with a black truth, facing the square that Clea and Vaughn previously stood behind as another volley of his Whistling Birds were prepared. "Would you choose to either die embracing your advancements, or be a slave to the world who does?" He concluded with a question, energizing the Birds to a maximum and aiming his arm away from where the pair once was, and to where they were now. "That isn't even where the story ends, but I'll make sure you won't be here to read it."
Suddenly, the Striders exposed themselves from their cover and carried out his suggestions, turning it into the best engagement possible. Miles grabbed a thick sheet of cement that was light enough to be carried easily from the ground and hurled it towards him as Katherine drew her bow and let it fly into the sheet that burst into his face. Within the same second, they returned to the cover their square provided before the arrow burst into a flurry of lights and encapsulated the room. The brute hollered out in anguish as the arrow filled his helm with a white blaze. In an almost instant reaction, Vidar separated his helm from his armor and squinted his eyes together so that he wouldn't be blinded.
The other two saw this occurrence as their time to follow up an attack, without being able to know what to do. Vaughn and Clea both conformed after the light had glaringly reflected off the blank walls, a show of how intense the light truly was. He set his rifle on his back while she holstered her meager rifle on the other side of her waist and charged with their blades to strike the mercenary at his knees and kill him while he was stunned by the actions of the Striders. To their fortune and uplifting faith, his helm was taken away and revealed a weak point for the both of their blades.
But rather than being able to land a blow, Vidar swiveled round with his rifle aimed and fired it with Vaughn barely at his reach. The energized round propelled the Carrier upon impact, forcing him backward and dropping him as he collided with the wall.
Continuing her charge at him after he'd shot Vaughn, the Medicant wrapped her hand round the shoto's hilt and saw the surface of his neck as clear as day. It was her target. Hardly being able to unsheathe her blade, Vidar used her momentum to drive her forward and trip her before she had the chance to retaliate. All done within mere seconds from the Striders blinding him to their choice in choosing this moment to attack. An act of courage and coordination that could've been carried out better.
Vidar dropped his rifle and forced Clea's hand away from her blade as he wrapped his right arm round her neck and lifted her up to face where the Striders hid. He took his sidearm into his hands and positioned it at the base of her her shikoro before speaking. "That was well executed, might I add." He laughed without the alteration of his voice, feeling her struggle to wriggle her way out of his grasp, "Too bad your friends underestimated my recovery." He sighed to the other two, Clea mumbling swears under her breath at him.
These revealing words were what prompted the Striders to leave their cover once again and into the open corridor that faced down the center of the building. Miles and Katherine were met with Vaughn hardly being able to get up while Clea struggled in Vidar's hold of her. Bad coordination that they should have discussed with them if they had time, though it was partly the other duo's fault for striking unknowingly. "That was really stupid guys." Miles remarked to them with his hands and rifle up in the air, the same being done by Katherine. Clea said nothing but instead looked to him worryingly. Her body tensed up as she felt the muzzle of the pistol pressing down against her helm. Similar thoughts that ran through his head ran in hers. But then, she stopped struggling. There was completely nothing to worry about.
"Is there any negotiation you want to make for the survival of one of your friends?" Vidar questioned rhetorically with the two of them knowing that. All he wanted was for them to suffer; To watch them suffer emotionally, which was what the Enhanced were prone to losing against. "Lower your weapons, and maybe I'll give you all a painless death." He suggested, unaware of what was against him at the moment. The Striders lowered their arms but not their weapons. They held onto them with a strong stubbornness, restraining themselves from laughing at the checkmate he placed himself in. Vidar laughed again, shaking his exposed head as his face was shown to them for the first time. The murderer of the Ninth and everyone else here, standing in the midst of his defeat. "That's unfortunate." He smiled, placing his finger against the trigger and firing the pistol into Clea's shikoro.
The bullet ricocheted back into its chamber and broke through the weapon as a whole, scraping and blistering the skin of his hand as the pistol burst. Her shikoro was barely damaged, receiving a mere dent from the bullet it deflected at point blank range and shook her head to the side a little after having suppressed the force created by the impact. Clea kicked herself away from his clasp and kept one hand on her back. She swiveled back round to face Vidar, unsheathing her shoto and slitting his throat open with a single backhand slash.
His neck bled out, the parting making it easy for the blood to quench through and flow like water. Vidar choked, gurgling on his own blood as he wrapped both his palms to try and keep it all in, but it was of no use. "Good night." Clea taunted him as she cleansed her blade with her inner elbow and sheathing it.
Their bodies loosened up, the intensity and anxiety that clouded them all fading away in a gust of wind which was the death of Vidar. A justice that was well deserved. For the Ninth, for the camp. They weren't weakened nor troubled by the battle he gave them, they were only strengthened. Their morale was only strengthened by this victory. It was one mercenary. If they killed him, they were going to kill the rest.. And win this war.