Chapter 2

Once the glasses man and Rathal had finally made it to where the Gramor were attacking they found that all of their soldiers and tanks were absolutely destroyed, there were no signs of any survivors

"Search the field, find anything that can tell us where the Gramor went." the glasses man said and the soldiers saluted then started their search while Rathal sat on the ground and watched then one of the soldiers ran back over to them

"Commander Vexx, we think we found something but it's stuck under one of our tanks." the soldier said

Vezz nodded then he turned to Rathal "Esper." he said and Rathal instantly lifted the tank and sent it flying miles away "There, let me see what it is you've found." he said then he made his way to where the tank was to see one of the Gramor soldiers underneath and he knew this since the Gramor flew black colors on their soldiers and tanks

"Oh, what's this?" Vexx said then he picked up a piece of paper that was stuffed into the soldiers pocket and one he opened it he found that it was a map which pointed at a town out in the middle of nowhere "Strange, this town is called Lindow and the last time I checked, it was nothing but a ghost town, no one lives there anymore so why would the Gramor head there." he said

as one of the other soldiers were looking around he suddenly spotted something shining from far away and once he lifted his head to look he was suddenly shot and all of the other soldiers and Vexx, as well as Rathal, quickly turned to the soldier then another gunshot rang out and just barely missed one of the other soldiers

"SNIPER, GET DOWN!" another soldier said then they all ran behind cover whether it be a tank or rocks while Rathal stayed where he was and simply turned to where the sniper was

Vexx looked at his soldiers "Can any of you see him?" he asked

one soldier peeked around his cover but as soon as he did another shot rang out and missed him "We can't even see where he is, he seems to know exactly where we are and our moves, we won't be able to get close like this." he said

Vexx turned to Rathal "Esper do something." he ordered and Rathal just looked around

Rathal shrugged "What do you want me to do? I can't exactly kill something that's so far away and I can't even see them either so that makes it extra difficult." he said

Vexx facepalmed "What I want you to do is use the tanks as cover and get us closer to the sniper." he said then another gunshot rang out which made Vexx duck but once he looked back at Rathal he saw that the bullet was sitting right next to his face

Rathal looked at the bullet "Nice try but it looks like I'm faster." he said then he turned the bullet around and sent right back where it came from but he wasn't sure if it hit the sniper or not then he turned back to Vexx

"Alright, I'll give you your damn cover." Rathal said then he lifted the tanks that were behind them and ones they weren't hiding under then he mashed them together and made a giant shield of cover "Get behind this." he said

Vexx adjusted his glasses "I don't take orders from you esper, I'll look this over this once but don't forget who's in charge." he said then he made his way to the shield as the soldiers did the same and Rathal rolled his eyes then he began moving it forward and multiple shots rang out and hit the shield but none of them were getting through "Keep moving forward, we'll find out what that sniper knows then get rid of him." he said

Once they had finally made it a few meters away from their starting point Rathal stopped the shield and Vexx took the hint then he and the soldiers ran out and found an alone building in the middle of nowhere so they made their way inside and saw that it was barren on the inside, there wasn't a single piece of furniture or anything else

'Why is this building here? there's nothing here, did anyone ever live here?' Vexx thought as he and the others moved through the house then one of the soldiers made their way up the stairs and found a door that seemed to lead to the roof and it was wide open

"Sir, I think the sniper le-GAH!" the soldier was shot in the back then he was kicked down the stairs and all the other soldiers were about to rush up the stairs until the sniper walked down holding two machine guns

"TAKE COVER!" another one of the soldiers yelled but since there wasn't a single thing in the building to hide behind they tried to make their way outside but once the sniper man had finally made it to the bottom he immediately opened fire on the soldiers and got two of them before they could make it out leaving only Vexx and one soldier remaining

"This guy, he was prepared for us, he's way more experienced than most snipers I've fought." the soldier said

Vexx sighed "Esper, you know what to do so get to it." he said and Rathal rolled his eyes then he stepped in front of the doorway and saw the sniper standing away from it with his guns pointed at him

"You've got one chance, put your guns down and give up." Rathal said then the sniper opened fire on him but all of the bullets were stopped right in front of Rathal "Can't say I didn't try." he said then he turned all of them around and sent them at the sniped but made sure only some of them hit him and didn't kill him which knocked him down and made him let go of his guns as he laid on the ground then Vexx and the last soldier walked into the room

"it's about time, you should have just crushed his limbs esper, you play around too much, take these things more seriously." Vexx said and Rathal rolled his eyes again "Roll those eyes again and you'll be sent back to the box." he said

"Yes sir, sorry sir." Rathal said then Vexx walked forward to the sniper and crouched down

"Now, you tell us, why are the Gramor heading to an abandoned town in Thetis territory?" Vexx asked but the sniper didn't say a word and Vexx just barely caught onto a quick glance away from him ad back to the stairs so he quickly pulled out his pistol and shot up the stairs and hit a hidden man who fell down the stairs then Vexx pointed his gun to the man again and shot at him again making sure he was dead "Now with no more distractions." he said then he pointed his gun at the sniper

"Tell us everything you know or I'll kill you right here and now." Vexx said and right before the sniper opened his mouth Vexx put the barrel of his gon right on his head "And don't think I won't, If you were left behind then I'm sure there's some sort of scout nearby as well, all we have to do is pinpoint his position then once we find him we'll capture him and do the same, you Gramor would like to have two informants just in case one of you were either captured or killed, I've fought your types enough to know how you work so go ahead and try me." he said and he could see that the sniper was getting nervous

"I give you to the count of three, if you don't say a word then I'll go after the scout, one." Vexx started counting and he could see the sniper starting to sweat "Two." he said

"WAIT!" the sniper said and Vexx smirked "Fine, if you want to know then the Gramor are heading there because they gained intel that something powerful was hiding there, on the way they encountered your soldiers and a fight broke out, you can see the aftermath right outside, they probably made it to the town by now." he said

Vexx raised an eyebrow "Hold on, I noticed that you're talking about the Gramor as if they are separate from you, aren't you part of them?" he asked

the sniper smirked "What made you think that? with how sharp you are I'm surprised that you didn't notice that I don't have any Gramor colors on me." he said and once Vexx looked he noticed that he really didn't have any Gramor colors on him nor any other colors then he put his gun under his chin

"Who are you and who do you work for?" Vexx asked but the sniper just kept smirking

"Sorry, can't say." he said then Vexx hit him in the head with his gun

"Tell me or I'll kill you." Vexx said

the sniper chuckled "Sadly in all truth, that threat does nothing to me, what I did before was just an act, go ahead and kill me. it's not like I'll survive what happens after even if you let me go." he said

Vexx growled "Fine then, I'll just have to take you with us and find out that way." he said but then another gunshot rang out and it hit the sniper in the head and killed him which made Vexx turn around and run out of the building along with the soldier and even Rathal ran out and they all looked around only to find that there was no one nearby and Vexx stomped his foot in anger

"DAMN IT!" Vexx yelled as he turned and looked at the man "I don't know who they were or where they came from but from what I can tell, they fight on no side and only for themselves, we need to tell our general about this but for now we need to catch up with those Gramor and find out about this weapon, lets head back to the vehicle and use the communicator to send reinforcements." he said then he and the others walked back to their armored vehicle unaware of a couple of people watching them from afar

"Did he get the message through first?" the man asked and the woman nodded "Good, come we shouldn't keep the doctor waiting, we'll report our progress then see what the Thetis will do with their new weapon." he said then he and the woman walked off

once Rathal, Vexx, and the last soldier had finally made it to their vehicle they contacted their general and told them about the Gramor heading to Lindow so the General agreed to send men to intercept them so they also made their way to the battlefield to join their soldiers in the fight but once they got there they saw that the Gramor soldiers were all dead just like their soldiers were before, men and women dead and their tanks destroyed so they decided to pick up some soldiers and head to Lindow to see what the Gramor were heading over there to look for and once they got there it was just as described, a ghost town with abandoned buildings everywhere so the soldiers and Rathal all left the vehicle to search while Vexx stayed with it

"You three, search over there in the northeast, you three will look over here in the south, the rest of you come with me." the soldier said and they all nodded then made their way around the town while Rathal went his own way to search

the three soldiers that went south were going building from building looking for something that wasn't there before until they had come across a building that had a clean blanket hanging in front of it's broken window

"Over here, that blanket is clean." the soldier said then the other two looked over

"Yeah, what about it?" the second soldier asked

the first soldier sighed "tell me, when was the last time you've seen a perfectly clean blanket over a window of a house that's been abandoned for years?" he asked and the second soldier gasped and nodded

"I get it now, let's go take a look." the second soldier said then they all made their way into the house and started to look around "It doesn't look like there's anything here either, it sucks that we don't even know what we're looking for." he said

the third soldier just sighed "We'll just have to hope that we find something, there's no way we can just go home empty-handed when even those Gramor were interested in whatever is here, we need to find it or else this will be for nothing and maybe some other nation gets it." she said then she heard a noise coming from another room and made her way over

"Hello, is there anyone here?" the thrid soldier asked then she saw something behind an old dresser and made her way over "Who are you?" she said but then her eyes seemed to go blank and she stood straight up

the second soldier walked into the room "Hey, did you find anything?" he asked but she didn't respond "Hey, you alright?" he asked then the thrid soldier slowly took their gun off their shoulder and turned around and pointed it at him "Hey, what are you doing?" he said then he heard a whisepr behind her but before he looked he was shot multiple times in the chest and killed

the first soldier quickly turned around and ran into the room to see the second soldier laying on the ground dead and once he looked forward he saw the thrid soldier pointing her gun at him then she shot him before he could get his own gun out and killed as well and once both of them were dead another whisper came from behind the dresser and the thrid soldier pointed the gun at them and shot themselves then the person who was behind the dresser came out with their own hooded clothes then they quickly ran out of the building before more people came

Rathal heard the gunshots and quickly made his own way to where they came from and once he reached the building he saw all three soldiers dead 'three soldiers killed, what kind of enemy could do something like this and get away with it?' he thought then he heard some noises come from outside and quickly ran to join the others