Logbook #006 - The Silent Night
After training for a few months, William managed to understand the basics of his role as a hybrid rifleman. Though having difficulty in understanding orders and easily losing his head, he is rather potent when it comes to infiltrating and switching between his guardian and normal weapons in exercise.
Though with his rather offensive style of fighting, he can lose himself when outnumbered, specially shown through virtual exercises. His aim is precise, considering that, I, General Ferdunov, wish to teach him how to use a sniper rifle.
Maybe with a little more strictness, he can learn to be more calm and composed. With that said, I deduce that he is ready to attend official skirmishes and missions. His mental health seems to be pretty normal but it does shows signs of adrenaline poisoning and a slight paradox of paranoia, maybe just a side effect of joining Continuum and training harshly and vigorously.
His guardian also reported that he is quite cooperative and careful when using her weapon which is a good sign of a balanced guardian wavelength, the probability of guardian-human corruption is null for now.
On checkup with Miss Demonia Friedrich, he seems fit when it comes to training alongside her. She may not be able to do much due to her demolition and shielding exercises but she could help him in understanding the factors of standing down and defending as a whole. And with this, he would be temporary partnered alongside his buddies to cooperate among each other for their vast different kits.
Signed,
Gen. Ferdunov The 2nd.
As Mary read the letter that was badly folded into a black lathered notebook, she takes a few peeks into the next few pages before closing it and strapping it back with its golden laced strap. Hiding it under her pillow, Mary wakes up from her creaky wooden bed and heads outside. A late evening and a resting weekend.
'What shall I do now? There's nothing much to do today. The kids are are asleep and mom probably is too. Maybe I shall take a wa- No. Not at this time, it's late. Maybe I will just listen to another tape, it's been a few days since I did. Where was the last one I listened to?' She asks herself as she reached to her bed, pulling up her pillow and picking up the sound recorder.
'Just one for today, just one...' She mutters.
Pressing play on the sound recorder, the tape started whirring.
---Tape Start---
The typical sound of a trumpet-playing could be heard outside in the world light of dawn. Finally, it's outside of the range of hurting someone's ears.
"Morning already!?" William got up and immediately puts on his uniform. There was a package there ready for him on top of his cabin box. "Huh? What is this...?"
He picked up a note that was laying on top of the package. It was written:
Dear Mr.Endicrite,
"This is Demonia. I am sorry for being a busy body but I actually watched your fight yesterday. Due to that, I was also to sort out your befitting uniform fit for your role in the operation. "
Best Regards,
Demonia Friedrich
William opened the package. It had a whole kit just perfect for winter and mud environments. "Thank you, Miss Demonia, I was hoping that I could have gotten my armor earlier from the generals but now it is a perfect time." He spoke to himself while writing a quick note. Chucking it into his drawer for later use.
He wore the uniform as quickly as he could. As obvious, it was rather heavy but not too heavy. It came pre-prepared with a Kevlar vest, a rucksack for keeping multiple amounts of ammunition or other kinds of stuff, like rations or support items and a holster for the front, to store an extra handgun or a sub-machine gun.
Though not having one yet, he kept it just in case.
Sherrinford was also changing into her uniform, she didn't mind William watching her change but she did feel a little annoyed. Her uniform was rather light. Barely having heavy armor and only a vest that she strapped onto herself. She strapped a helmet, per-attached with NiVis goggles in case for dark areas.
Chau-Min, being a medic mostly wore a light armor suit and had tons of pockets fitted in with painkillers and other medical equipment, to cut small wounds or to pull out shrapnel out of body parts. It was what they called a 'medic's fatigue'.
Captain Shanina who was nowhere to be found, dumbfounded everyone, as per she is the one to gather the troops once they are ready.
"Hey, guys! I think we have to head to the armory. Perhaps the Captain is waiting for us there." William shouted throughout the barrack.
"Yeah, it is possible." The tall soldier replied back. "Since our weapons and other equipment's are there so it makes sense. She always leaves her vest in her locker so I guess it is worth a try."
William strapped on his Trekking Boots and combed his hair with his hands, putting on a cap and his goggles to protect him from the sun and terrain. He didn't want his long hair to block his vision during a fight.
"Aren't they like suppose to regulate us and cut down our hair?" He asks a quick question.
"Well, they usually do, but, since this is not a strict Military Base, it is more of a "What Gives"situation." Sherrinford replied. "Anyway hurry up! We have to hurry or time's a waste." As Sherrinford said that, she sprinted towards the door and disappeared.
"Hey wait, for me!" The childish soldier shouted as she was trying to put on her boots, slowly pacing towards the others who were leaving off.
William was kind enough to wait for that short while the others all caught up ahead "Don't worry, I will wait."
William and the young soldier walked towards the Armory. Being curious of the obviously underage female, he asks. "What's your name anyway? You always look alone."
"My name is Rika! Alone? Who says I'm alone, I have my Drones! This is Winnie and this is Poldra!" She pressed her wrist band which causes the drones to go around him and making an odd beeping noise.
"Are you an engineer or some sort of prodigy?" William asked as he opened the armory's door for her.
"No, no. I am just a crafty girl. My older sister is also in-part charge of Continuum now. I just stay here temporarily." She explains.
"Wait?! Then how come are you in uniform and following us?" He walked towards his locker to retrieve his weapons, she did the same.
"I am just learning to be a journalist, to record what's going on but since... I want to be useful, I made my drones have some upgrades with the help of General Mia!"
William holsters his HK33 and Tanto Blade. ("Wow, General Mia does love helping people... Even if it's her first time seeing them")
"We need to go to the conference room now, our orders will be given there."She was walking towards the door, William tagged along.
"See, that's my sister there! She is the Operations Master for Continuum and a substitute General in case something goes bad or General Ferdunov joins for battle." She jumped and opened the door for William.
"Thank you ." He smiled as he then slowly shut the door.
"There you guys are, you should have hurried up!" The Operations Master said.
"Rika, you are always slow. You need to be fast if you want to stay here." The Operations Master said. "You too Mr.Endicrite, but you are excused, I am pretty sure you were just keeping her company. ALL COME OVER HERE NOW~" She shouted in a very monotonic way similar to Shanina.
Everyone gathered and looked at a map which was brightened by the table's light. Small holograms were shown in positions.
"Ok, so you will be separated into three groups, including the Phantoms who would be scouting the area. Captain Shanina, pick five men of your choosing depending if they fit in your current role while General Ferdunov will guide the rest. Remember, Safe Live, Stay alive. Be vary of traps or enemy Snipers and don't go running ahead unless you're a lunatic nutcase like Mr.Endicrite here. "
William was surprised to be called out.
"Mr.William, you are given the codename Rampage due to your unique CQC style and approach of attack. It also fits for your Guardian's role. You will team up and have a private radio station with the Miss Demonia, she will be working alongside you. Just, don't end up onto one of her traps and end up risking a limb or two. Ok? " She ordered William.
"Yes, Ma'am!" He nodded.
"Today, we will be infiltrating a terrorist base at Alfriston, a somewhat abandoned town in East Sussex. Most of you already know that place. From a tourist attraction, it became a populated base for the Axis Company to do secret Military hidings, now, it is used as a Cloning Plant for their corrupted allies. I want you to be able to enter the building and at least shut down those machines by force. Another team, try to recover the bio-bombs and also recover the Guardian Weapons/Crystals whether Corrupted or not, Search and destroy and fend to cover! Dismiss!" The operation master shouted.
"Yes, Ma'am!" Everyone agreed and rallied up near the transport van.
"William since you will be Miss Demonia, you have to meet up with the Phantoms. It's only a short walk from here, enter that door at 6 O'clock. They are already waiting for you!" She added.
"Yes, Ma'am!!!" William screamed and opened and reached the handle of the door, entering it.
"Yo!" William greeted.
"Hah~ it's about time! Glad to finally see you Mr.William." a short-haired blonde came to him and reached for his hands. It felt a little cold like metal, she was wearing an exo-type of the glove and had a very Tomboyish look.
"Nice to meet you too." He smiled.
"We should get going now, we will introduce ourselves to the transport van. I'm Faltina by the way." She pats William's back she guides him towards the van.
Demonia and another figure were already waiting in the van. Demonia smiled at William as she was rustling her equipment.
"I guess you already know Demonia, she is the Demolitionist. The other chick there is Silvenna, she is our Navigator.". The lady who had slight silver hair which was braided nodded at him, as she waves in an odd way.
"Hey Silvenna, you saw Rose?" Faltina asked her. William got into the truck and sat Infront of Demonia as they had a chat.
"I have no idea Falt, she is probably wasting her time picking out her pieces of equipment," Silvenna replied back.
"Jeez, damn... I'm going to go drag her! You guys can go ahead, I will come by my bike." She smacks the driver's door to go on ahead.
As they got further away from the base's garage, they only saw small dots similar to ants.
"So William, why is your code-name Rampage?" Silvenna laughed at his Bio-data chart.
"I have no idea, I think it is because of my approach in fighting Captain Shanina yesterday, haha~." He was curious about himself.
"I see you are wearing the armour I got you..." Demonia told William. "It fits you well!" The sound of rubble slowly started to increase. "This ride is going to take a while so hold on tight !!" She shouted to William.
"Alright!!" William shouted back as a reply. "Also, thank you..."
With wrong timing, Silvenna mentions about her code-name. "Well, my codename is Agua, which literally stands for Water in my country!"
"That sounds great! But why water? Is it because of your guardian!?" William was shouting at the top of his lungs.
"No, it's because I always take a philosophical approach in interrogating Hahaha!~" she laughs.
"You interrogate in kindness?" He asked slightly in confusion.
"Yes, in a way, it's too soothe the Corrupted Guardians or the recovering turned Axis soldiers!" Silvenna shouted.
"That sounds quite an interesting task, mind if I one day watch you do it ?" William asked.
"Sure, but, you have to stay outside of the room so you won't make the captured panic. Unless you want to help soothe the Corrupted Guardians that's fine. You're a fine man after all and who doesn't like one !" She complimented William.
"I am really pleased with the compliment! How long more is the drive !?" He asked.
"It's usually around 2 hrs but since our Vans are equipped with special machines, it can cross the water so it would take an hour instead, take in your arms, the door is about the close. "
Sound of water splashing and a sheet of metal winding up the back could be heard, the feeling of increased pressure could also be felt, ears started to get blocked but sucking some air could help to unblock it.
"Ahhh finally, peace of mind," Silvenna said as she unclogged her ears with her fingers.
"Not a noise type of person? Huh." William asked, finally relaxed since he doesn't need to shout anymore.
"Yeah, I really prefer quiet environments but since I was taught from a small age to fight, I had to get used to it. See here, this is a special blade my family owns, it's called a Navaja. My family are a type of Spanish gypsies known as the Gitanos. Not the usual, gypsies you know around here who are constantly singing and dancing, this one is more of blood rituals and goat scarification, hahaha"
"That sounds gruesome, why did you join the Military then?" William asked. "You speak quite English too."
"Well, the British Military kind of saved my village a long time ago from decultivation groups who were corrupted. They killed nearby villages and was going to head to my village's direction. As per our family are a warrior family, we teamed up and fought against the decultivators.
In peace, my family originally giving me away as a prize to one of the original Major's in Continuum has made me into his current original rank.
"They just gave you away, just like that? Wow." He was surprised.
"Yeah, my family are still rather backwards. They are like native Indians. But now most of the men dead including the chief. My aunt is now the leader of the village. She teaches the children how to fight whatever the age.
"As I heard..." He nods, slightly understanding her situations.
A slight feeling of deep pressure could be felt. "We are already nearby, this odd feeling of pressure is happening because the vehicle is now diving to do a force-out" Silvenna explained.
"Alright, that makes sense. Wait, I just realized how are Faltina and Miss Rose getting here with just a bike?" He was in worry.
"AHH, no worries, the bike is custom made by Faltina, it could go on any types of surfaces, she will probably make it like some sort of jet ski and get here. " Silvenna told William.
Suddenly the feeling of bumpiness happened again, water dripped onto the ground as the sheet of metal started to slowly open again.
"We are here in our destination, please exit if you may, Mr.William," Silvenna told William as the truck halted.
He exited the van and stretched himself. General Ferdunov nods to him as the other group was heading to their positions.
"We will wait for them, here catch!" She throws a pair of small white sticks similar to Tic Tacs. "Stick it to your ear or glasses, those are technically our walkie-talkies, our way of communicating."
"Alright, damn, technology has advanced crazily for the past 4 years." William was surprised.
"Yeah, a lot of things had advanced since the Guardians introduced themselves." Demonia finally spoke a word of a sentence. She was quite the shy girl.
A sound of a speeding bike could be heard, it was Faltina and probably Miss Rose.
Faltina skids the bike as she brakes and lowers the side-hold. " Heya guys, how are you doing. I got Rose here."
"Whassup~" Rose took off her helmet, revealing her brown hair which was slightly dyed in a blend of red and maroon. She was holding a specially customised Sako TRG, but its model number was unknown as it looks way more futuristic with a glowing beam and an odd barrel.
"What are you doing staring at me for?" She shouted at William as she kicks him on the crotch.
"Aghhh, gun ." He held his crotch in pain.
"That isn't how you introduce yourself, Rose," Demonia said in a very soft yet angry voice.
"Yeah yeah, well I haven't seen a guy for a long time so I decided to tease him instead. " She snickered.
"One more word Rose and I will shoot you in the head. " Silvenna gave an innocent-looking smile before making the evil intent.
"I know you can't do that, it breaks protocols, you will be sent to jail." She showed off her intelligence.
"Come on girls, can we just get going?" Faltina chilled everyone out.
"Yeah, great idea." William roughly said it out of his mouth while still holding on to his crotch.
"Come on bruv, let me help you up!" Faltina places her hand onto William's shoulder and guides him towards their positions. He limps slowly.
"Ok Rose, do what you do best, scout and shoot down the unnoticed ones. Silvenna, you can do the tracking and tagging, while I prepare the traps. Demonia and William, you can go bait the enemies by crashing into their base. Go soil their party." She said excitedly to them as William and Demonia nodded.
The two ran from tree to tree making sure they didn't get caught as they prepared their weapons. "A sledgehammer? That is your main weapon?" William asked.
Demonia giggled and nods. "Yes... It had always been like that. I usually use my flare and grenade launchers to do the higher firepower, this sledgehammer is enough for me to crash through anything, whether bones or brick walls."
"I see, well I trust you because I am probably sure you know what you are doing. I will just activate my guardian weapon in case you need help. Alright." William replied to her, as they were nearing a metallic building.
Rose, Faltina and Silvenna were back at the campsite. It was slowly getting dark.
Rose gave Intel of nearby axis troops scouting around the forest.
William and Demonia hid nearby a bush, waiting to ambush them.
"I can sense some aura pressure." William told Demonia.
"They are nearby then...I will wait for your call or if I hear sounds nearby." Demonia replied as she took a peek from a nearby tree.
William noticed an axis soldier falling behind, he silently grabbed her neck and pulled her towards the bush, putting the Psionic Blade near her neck.
"Rawgh Ra ....grahh~" Since they were rotting, William was given info that the Axis couldn't really speak as of their voice box melted off. So they communicated through grunts or a slight grumble of words. He palms her mouth to avoid her from alerting the others.
Attaching a device to her neck, as he pinned her to a faint. He activated the device which gave a hologram of the brain's memory. He searched for the history of the building's places of interest.
"I found some interesting things. They have a couple of military-grade explosives and rifles packed at a nearby shed, it is covered by metal lockers however, so it's best if someone had a torch." William explained through the Walkie Talkie.
"That sounds great, we will loot there once we finish the machine, Faltina has a torch, so we are all good," Rose said. "Hope they have some actual good shit. I'm looking for an Intervention or AUPR."
"You meant an AWP." William gave her the correct abbreviation of it.
"Yeah yeah, that .. I got attachments for it but I don't have the gun which sucks." A sound of a whistling cry could be heard through the Walkie. It was probably Rose taking a shot.
"Got a dumb one staring at a thrash can for odd reasons why," Rose said.
"She was probably hungry." William made a joke as he heard Demonia bashing the other soldiers to a pulp. She was covered in blood and had a strange look in her eye. A rather gloomy look.
William grinned, he was a little scared by her face. "Good job?" Did he give her a compliment?
Demonia turned back into her normal face and smiled, thank you.
"Watch out..." William shot a few bursts into one of the axis soldier's head as it was trying to strike Demonia.
The soldier moaned in pain and reached out her hand. Demonia gave a reply by smashing her face with her foot. Causing it to burst like a busted open watermelon.
"Eeghh...." William replied as he held his urge to vomit. "You didn't really have to do that..."
Demonia gave a smile before heading to the building's side. William followed.
"Do what William?" Rose asked through the Walkie talkie.
"Demonia smashed one of the soldier's face with her boot and she busted open," William replied.
"Ahh, that's normal of her. Her bloodlust is immensely high. It's disgusting, yes but you will get used to it. Anyway, your blade can do clean cuts without even needing serration, that's great you know, barely need the pressure."
"But the blade cannot cut everything you know... Pretty sure even a diamond will barely chip." William replied back as he gunned down 3 soldier's who were having a chat of grunts.
Demonia and William met up with General Ferdunov and her troops. "How did it go, boy?" Ferdunov asked William.
"So far so good General...Demonia, could you smash in the door please, I am going to ambush."
Demonia nods and raises her sledge, "Sure!"
Crash~
The door was obliterated as William charges in with his Psionic Blade which glowed in the dimmed darkness of dust and splinters.
The axis soldiers were coughing as they realized they were getting attacked, they shouted to alert the others as they themselves ended up a victim to William's blade.
Some shots were fired among the Axis and Continuum. William and Demonia recovered the relic weapons that were looted from the dead soldiers and went in deeper to search for the bombs and Corrupted Guardian Crystals.
"Whatever you do, don't use your launchers alright..." William calmed Demonia who was currently smashing multiple soldiers with the brick of the hammer and her fist.
"Yes, yes..." She spoke rather melodically as she slowed stopped to take a few breaths.
William sliced the chain to the room of the items stored in there. There were mini explosive devices and some dusty old boxes. There were dark colored crystals slightly cracked and chipped on the table.
William using his pocket placed the crystals into it.
"I got the crystals...Demonia take this explosive, you could use it to demolish the building after this. " William pointed before he started running towards the broken down entrance.
Demonia in her third fit of bloodlust started bashing the last few incoming soldiers.
General Ferdunov and her troops had no choice but to watch her smash all of them to bits.
One of them vomited due to the horrific sight and bad smell of rotting flesh and/or bad blood.
Captain Shanina declined herself and pulled out the socket of the building, causing the electric to deactivate, turning the place dark. This was the time that the Night Vision was made into good use. Captain Shanina and her troop, Sherrinford, Chau-min and another soldier of our echelon were searching for special footprints that were left from the excess of toxic material oozing out of the cloning machines that were destroyed to bits by self-destruction. The liquid glows under a certain type of ray and there were footprints left by a soldier who his herself.
Finding out where she was, Captain Shanina snared her and pinned her down. Trying to resist arrest, the soldier squirmed by fighting back. Failing, she was heavily cuffed with a special zip-lock and dragged as fast as possible. They left the scene by then.
William and Demonia ran back to their Echelon as they were already ready to evacuate.
"Rampage and Demo leaving the scene, prepare for evacuation!" William shouted to her group as they prepared the vehicle.
As Demonia entered the van with Rose and Silvenna inside, the driver proceeded to shut the back and dive underwater.
William hopped onto Fal's bike, behind her back and quickly put on his helmet. "Go go go! It's going to explode any time longer.' From afar, the base exploded, black smoke and soot-covered the town. A flame lingered from the building as it rained shrapnel. 'Well I said too soon.'
Noticing and realizing the urge of death has been removed, William and Faltina laughed together and made silly jokes on their ride back to the base.
...
[Back at the base]
"Good job you two!" Faltina pats Demonia's and William's back.
Silvenna was drinking tea as Rose was busy reading some sort of odd book.
"Let's celebrate for William's first operation and also coming back alive!" She raised her glass of distilled Bordeaux wine as William and Demonia did the same.
"Cheers!" They clanked their glasses softly before taking a sip.
"Oi Will, wanna join me for pool?" Faltina asked William.
"They have a Pool Table here ?" William questioned.
"Yeah! It's in the South Wing's recreation room. Come on!" Faltina drags William.
William waves goodbye to the others as they headed to the south wing. (She really does act like a tomboy, jee.)
William and Faltina hung together talking about "guy" stuffs and their recent hobbies. William loss once or twice to Faltina the first few times as he never really played it for a long time. Soon after, he was beating her constantly when he got used it.
After a day gone by, William and Silvenna helped to cleanse and soothe the Corrupted Guardian. Gaining trust, William was given permission to freely enter the Guardian Realm by The Lady of the Beast, Miss Shimaya.
The poor Axis Soldier, however, was being interrogated in her cell, getting tortured for information in amidst of her rotten demise.
---Tape End---
'Well, that isn't a happy ending at all.' Mary sighs out as she turns off the sound recorder. Placing it under her pillow. She shrugged herself and stared at the ceiling. A dry and hard wooden roof for a ceiling, ready to collapse anytime soon. Reinforcements? Few sheets of metal of various kinds.
Clearing her throat, she sips some water from the water flask she has hung by her bed. 'Maybe a nap will just do it good.' She says as she slowly dozes herself off to sleep.