Chapter 2

Stalking the convoy the two soldier quickly separated with one staying in the depths of the foliage and the other moving closer to the convoy as it slowed down for the slaves lagging behind as they were being dragged in chains.

The soldier approaching the side of the convoy crawled across a dirt ditch which trailed along the road carefully taking out a smooth sphere, once he reached the head of the hovercraft leading the group of smaller hover trucks he placed his thumb on a small divot causing it to glow a dim red beam, he then leaned up the ditch and rolled the sphere under the leading vehicle. As soon as the sphere was under one of the thrusters, the air pressure keeping it of the ground caused the grenade to concentrate it's force in the once spot consequently causing the hovercraft to burst into flames from the inside as shrapnel from the outer armour of the vehicle flew backwards penetrating the following vehicles. The Vrax soldiers began to panic, many of them freshly assigned warriors were not yet accustomed to their cowardly sneak attacks and to those who were already prepared they knew the odds were not in their favour as the soldiers of earth had been becoming increasingly more barbaric and stealthy that even their most admired commanders had retreated to the safety of orbit. 

Taking advantage of the confusion the soldier in the ditch quickly shuffled back across the convoy activating grenades around them causing more confusion and a sense of being outnumbered, while this happened the sniper still positioned looking down from the forest hill began picking off the rear soldiers guarding the slaves.

Each Vrax soldier that fell caused their once prideful and fearless minds to waver, as doubt set in two of the fresher Vrax warriors attempted to reach the communications vehicle however as they opened the door expecting to find their commanding officer calling for reinforcements they were met with a gruesome scene. Somehow without anyone noticing during the chaos the commander had been assassinated, his blade still in it's sheathe and his head missing. The scene terrified the the pair as they stepped back and doing so revealed an even more frightening image, as they moved back the figure stepped out of the vehicle. It was a single human and in it's hand was the commanders head, in the other was a large pulsating energy coated blade. This human was like no other they had heard of, it's armour was like no other they had faced and the faceplate it wore made it seem more like a machine, it's emotions and facial expressions seemingly replaced with a menacing, calculative look of a predator as it stared at it's prey.

The soldiers raised their guns however before they could even get a shot out both of them felt an excruciating pain as the human moved it's hand causing the blade to completely vanish leaving only a blur. When they realised the strike was directed at them they could only watch in horror as their limbs one after another were cleaved from their body. After breaking apart the convoy the soldier on the ground placed his finger on a button located at his suits neck. 

"076 data has been retrieved."

"Affirmative 099 onto the next target, south." the sniper providing overwatch responded and quickly the red eyes staring down at the road disappeared.

As 099 began to move he was halted by the slaves still bound by their chains as they desperately begged to be released, although it was not his job he momentarily stopped for a moment before shooting the piece of metal holding the chains together and as it shattered he began jogging towards the direction of his next target leaving the freed slaves lost and alone. Knowing that forces would soon turn up he knew that the Vrax would be slowed down either killing or enslaving the escaped slaves as a form of regaining their honour which would buy time for his mission. After all a few lives lost in the grand scheme of accomplishing his mission were definitely worth it. Picking up the pace 099 caught up to 076 as he leapt through the forests making sure he remained unseen to any passing aircrafts. 

"Command to November." a voice chimed to their helmets.

"November copy." 076 responded while still keeping his pace alongside 099.

"You're to change route and regroup with grey squadron, mission briefing will be provided on arrival." 

The two halted abruptly and after a few seconds each had their visors updated with new co-ordinates, they now were heading directly towards the coast. After an hour of running they finally arrived at a small hidden encampment looking down at a Vrax landing pad, upon entering the encampment they were waved over by two soldiers wearing identical gear to their own. 

"November, good to have you." one of the soldiers from Grey Squad said lifting his face plating which revealed a young looking man in his early twenties.

"105, 034, long time no see." 076 said lifting his face plating with a friendly smile to greet his close friends.

099 and 105 refrained from revealing their face and simply greeted each other with a nod.

"019 and 022 are waiting down below, said they needed to get closer to pick up a better signal." 034 stated after glancing at the pairs non verbal exchange.

"What's the mission anyway, we suddenly got redirected here from command."

"Right, we got the order that a HVT will be landing here escorted by some high ranking targets. Our mission is to capture the HVT unharmed and get rid of the rest. That second parts why you're here but well... I didn't think it'd just be the two of you." 

"You sound disappointed" 076 said while lowering his visor.

"I just got a feeling we're gonna have it rough with this one that's all." he replied before lowering his visor as well.

The group bunkered down a distance away from the landing pad waiting for the arrival of the HVT, activating their camo they blended into the landscape around them as they await their target...