I slammed my shoulder into a blocked door, forcing it open with a resounding crack.
“Are we heading back to the base?” I asked, wiping the sweat from my brow.
“No. We’re here to finish the job,” Elene replied, her voice unwavering.
I shot her a glance. “Seriously? Three targets in one day? Isn’t that a little much?”
She didn’t hesitate, her expression hardening as we moved forward. “When the job’s this important, you don’t stop until it’s done. And the SOCOM demanded us to finish it before tomorrow, or else, a consequence would apply.”
“A consequence?” I asked.
“It doesn’t concern you, Ain. It’s between us and the special operation command,” Elene added.
“Fine,” I replied.
We stepped out of the building. The quiet night of the town introduced itself again. The street was as empty as before with no husks or vehicles in sight. It was not eerie, in fact, it was peaceful. Then, a notification popped up.
[Exiting Combat: +10,000 EXP]
[Level Up: 13 → 14]
[96 Stats Points Available]
[19 Skill&Perks Points Available]
“Why don’t you distribute your status point first?” Elene asked.
“That’s a good idea,” I replied.
I opened my interface menu to look at my status menu and distribute each status point. Weirdly enough, or not, I suppose? The snarky comments disappeared. The intensity of the current situation might warrant that. I knew I didn’t have to be worried about dying, but I still had the urge to complete the mission with Elene.
Name: Ain
Class: Adept Guardian Healer
Race: Fallen Angel
Strength: 45 → 70
Agility: 40 → 40
Vitality: 65 → 100
Aptitude: 60 → 100
[19 Skill&Perks Points Available]
I distributed the status points to my vitality and aptitude since they fit my combat style the most. I preferred a loud approach with a shitton of healing spells in my armaments. Plus, most of my buff required me to use a lot of psionic energy, which aptitude depended on.
The strength was a nice bonus to have, especially when I carried a shitton of things. Now, to distribute the skill and perk points. The active skill was nice to have, that was for sure, but usually, I used the passive buff the most often.
I then glanced through the list of available skills, each one more complex than the last. The sheer number of options was overwhelming, but as I scrolled down, none of them stood out as particularly useful for the situation at hand.
- Idle Patience — Reduce Fatigue When Standing Still
- Minimal Weapon Handling — Increase Recoil Control, Slightly
- Food Appreciation — Increase The Taste Of Food
- Unfamiliar Terrain Adaptation — Increase Movement Speed In Non-Urban Environment
With that in mind, I decided to focus on upgrading my existing skills. While my skill set was already powerful, I figured that improving what I had could unlock even more potential. Maybe by enhancing these abilities or perks, I could extract something new from them.
Healing Hands +2 → +10: Your ability to heal has significantly improved. Now, by touching an ally, you can rapidly accelerate the healing process, not only mending injuries but also restoring stamina and vitality to those near death. You also remove their pain in the process.
Dark Psionic Imbuing → +5: The imbued weapon now can instinctively anticipate enemy movements and adjust its attacks for maximum lethality. Dark energy pulses from the bullets fired by the weapons, causing devastating damage on impact and distorting reality around the target, making it harder for enemies to target you. Your weapon dealt 20% more damage and flew 20% faster.
Demonic Enhancement: Activate your fallen angel rage, double all of your skill effects in the whole duration, and reduce your pain resistance, but be aware that you’ll be more reckless and take far more significant damage.
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Focus → +6: With the upgrade, the time-slowing effect lasts longer and offers even greater control over your movements and decisions, making your reactions nearly instantaneous even in chaotic situations. Your perception of time is further slowed. The psionic cost also has been decreased.
Yeah, that was about it.
I closed the interface menu. Elene was already waiting for me to move further to the next target. She checked on her M4 Assault Rifle, making sure that every nook and cranny still functioned properly after the carnage. The NLAW on her back was still intact as well.
“Do you have a vehicle?” Elene asked, flipping her night-vision goggles down.
“I have,” I said.
“Great, time to do some of your contractor’s miracles,” Elene said.
I opened the menu and summoned the Hilux. The pickup truck appeared in the middle of the street, the engine already turned on, with its gas filled to the brim. Elene entered the driver’s seat while signaling me to go to the passenger’s side.
I immediately ran. Reaching the passenger side, I yanked the door open and jumped in, slamming it shut behind me. The car then roared as Elene slammed her foot into the gas pedal, accelerating the pickup truck far away from the apartment building.
“For the next target, we have Belikov,” Elene added.
“Ok. Anything that I should know about this persona?” I asked.
“Yeah. He’s probably inside a vehicle,” Elene continued, her gaze narrowing as she processed the information. “That’s where your NLAW would be useful. He might be inside of a T-72 main battle tank if I have to guess.”
I knew I had six of them. "A tank, huh? I wasn’t expecting that," I said, tapping my fingers against the seat. “So, he’s really that well-prepared?”
I let out a breath, I have never faced a tank in my entire life. The idea of facing a heavily armored convoy wasn’t exactly my idea of fun. Tanks were tough enough to deal with on their own, but a small army of them? That was a whole new level of challenge. Still, it could be fun.
Elene and I were situated in one of the three-story high flats. We overlooked where Belikov was located. It was around a kilometer away from our main point of attack. We parked our pickup truck from far away, and we were rather… disturbed.
“Man, it’s going to take more than a mere NLAW to disable all of them,” I sighed, looking through the night-vision binoculars that I borrowed from Elene. I was no longer in the juggernaut suit since it was too heavy for moving around across distance.
Long story short, we saw no way of dealing with him effectively. He was situated in the middle of a small hill, a tent or an outpost, totally surrounded by APCs, IFVs, and tanks. If we were going to take them down, we would need more than a mere anti-tank missile.
“We couldn’t attack them from an apartment building, could we?” I asked Elene, giving her back the binoculars.
“With our ATGM being the way it is, no,” Elene answered, her answer mirroring the minuscule range of the NLAW.
There was no building where we could fire the missile from because the small hill they were on was not surrounded by any building whatsoever. It also had a clear line of sight to the entire town, making a sneaky approach rather questionable.
I doubted my juggernaut suit would survive a barrage of 30mm autocannons fired from those BMPs. The thought alone made me second-guess our approach.
“Should we ask for support?” I asked, trying to weigh the risks.
Elene gave me a sharp glance, her eyes narrowed as she focused on the road. “Support? Girl, we’re on our own.”
I snorted, frustration creeping into my voice. “Are the feds crazy, or do they have a habit of sending their special ops into a meat grinder?”
Elene smirked a hint of dark humor in her tone. “Maybe the latter. But well, our team’s a bit... special in that sector. We’re practically a suicide squad.”
I raised an eyebrow, the weight of her words settling in. “Suicide squad?”
She nodded. “Yeah. It’s part of the job. We get the missions that no one else can handle, and we’re not exactly expecting to come back in one piece most of the time. But hey, you, a level-14 contractor, are somehow insane enough to take this job. You’re either insane or incredibly capable of jumping in with us.”
I let out a dry laugh, leaning back in the seat. “Maybe both. But seriously, we’re going up against armored vehicles, and I’m not sure even my juggernaut suit’s going to survive a full-on 30mm barrage. Do you have a plan?”
“For now, not really,” she said, her voice steady despite the tension.
I sighed, exhaling deeply. “Okay…”
Elene’s eyes scanned the area, her mind working quickly. “My plan is to attack them vertically. We need to find a mortar or something heavy to hit them from above.” She continued to survey the surroundings, looking for anything we could use to attack Belikov’s position. Then, with a sharp movement, she pointed towards something on the far side of the city. “See that?”
I took the binoculars from her hand, bringing them to my eyes. I zoomed in on the object she indicated. At first, I had a hard time spotting it—it was well-hidden, tucked away on the far side of a block of buildings. But after a moment, the outline of a missile launcher platform became clear. The truck carrying it was parked, with a handful of soldiers standing guard around it, seemingly unaware of our presence.
“That’s a missile launcher,” I muttered under my breath.
Elene nodded. “Exactly. It’s not the most ideal option, but it’s our best bet for getting the job done. The only problem is—” she hesitated for a moment, “—those two BMP-3s are still stationed around it.”
I took another long look through the binoculars. The BMPs were strategically placed, and while I knew we could probably take them down, the risk was high. We would be exposed the moment we moved in, and there was no guarantee we could take them out before they retaliated.
“It’s risky,” I said, lowering the binoculars. “We could handle the BMPs, but it’s not a guarantee we’ll be able to hit that launcher before they notice us.”
“Still, it’s not like our option is open. That Uragan launcher is our best chance,”
Then, from Elene’s radio, a comms came up to life, “This is Bravo team, we have a visual on an abandoned Hind, request immediate assistance, commander, should we take that heli?”
“Stand by, Bravo team,” Elene answered. “Well, there’s always a plan B after all.”
“Is it a good idea?” I asked.
“Well, we can take our chance with the Uragan, but personally, I prefer the attack helicopter,” Elene answered.
“Alright, you’re the boss.”
Elene then replied to her radio, “Bravo team, acknowledged. We’re on our way.”
I felt nervous. Usually, when something looked too easy, there would be a caveat, and for this helicopter, the caveat might be something that I wouldn’t be able to handle. My biggest fear was that we chew more than we could bite.
As I followed Elene from behind, I prepared myself for the incoming battle. I doubted that the caveat would be light. I pulled my IFAK from my inventory and attached it to my tactical rig. I put away my M249 and returned to the usual G36 and MRAD that I usually used.
A new waypoint appeared on my map, at a location twenty-five kilometers away from our assassination target. The helicopter was outside of the town. Were they that eager to get the helicopter? Possibly. Elene entered the driver’s seat and I entered the passenger seat and we rolled away.