11-18-2017, 10:40 AM
They had been simply milling around outside the building as they waited for each of the teams to converge, occasionally performing inspections of passing vehicles in order to pass the time and avoid making it look obvious that they were unwilling to enter alone.
The second team back to base was the one consisting of Brandon Windvale, Trevor Dodson, and their one accompanying, standard-issue stormtrooper. It wasn't until around the time of the return of the third team (Kroll vor Iechtelsteir and his two noobs), though, that they realised the intruders' vehicles were all still present... and nearby, at that. They had parked just half the street away.
There were two grimy vans, a battered pickup and, for some reason, a worn down, black Bentley S2 Continental, which presumably had had a retractable roof at some point, though now had none at all... it may well have been worth a small fortune back on Earth, if it weren't such a wreck. That said, none of those present at that point realised this, due to having not originated on that world. It was only later, when Hijiri arrived, that he mentioned it. The Bentley was a four-seater, and between them the other vehicles probably could have accommodated another few dozen or so people, if they didn't mind a bit of a squeeze.
Assuming that they actually had been packed that full, it would seem that the squad was in a rather unfortunate situation... not only were they seemingly being baited into entering the base (as no one had yet to come up and challenge them whilst they waited) but they could easily find themselves drastically outnumbered when they did. It was almost worrying enough to convince Kroll to allow them to call for reinforcements from elsewhere in Tier Five...
That said, even the nearest Northside station was a fair distance away, and with roads this congested – as usual for the tier – making it here would not be a quick process for them, either by foot or by transport. Sooner or later, the public would start to realise that something was going on around the 'racks and would wonder why the 'troopers were simply waiting, rather than doing anything about it. If they could take back the barracks themselves, it would do much for their reputations, but if they had to call on help... all that talk of being 'elite' would seem to the citizens as nothing more than empty bragging.
Worse still, if it turned out that those vehicles were simply stolen and abandoned there in order to make them all think that their unknown adversaries still lurked inside, they may end up going in only to find the place abandoned. If they were to request help only for that to then happen, not only would they look foolish, but they could easily be seen as cowards as well... begging for help at every shadow.
No, it wasn't a chance they could afford to take if the plan was to have any chance at all of continuing to move forward smoothly.
Whilst they waited on the last teams to arrive, they inspected the vehicles more thoroughly... as there was little else for them to do just then. The vans and pickup held nothing of note; all they really learned was that at least a few of their foes must have smoked, judging by the number of cigarette butts lying around. The Bentley, however, had traces of gunpowder on its carpet and all of its seats, and they even found a couple shotgun shells underneath those seats as well, which had presumably been missed when removing whatever ammunition had been stored here.
It was strange, they agreed, for the enemy to have apparently decided to use a car like this to store their weapons and ammo, when any of their other transports would have been more suited to the task... not that it really mattered. There were no identifying marks on any of the vehicles, unfortunately; they wouldn't be getting any indication as to who these people were until they actually encountered them.
Once the final team (Priya Singh's one) had arrived, they left the street once more, heading down the short, paved pathway which led up to the ruined entrance of their barracks. No one fired on them as they approached. There were no signs of life at all, in fact.
And so they entered.
***
As soon as they began rounding the first corner, the silence was broken.
“Ah.” Hijiri said calmly, as he ducked back in order to avoid the hail of bullets and lasers. He turned to look at Kroll, who had been just about to follow him round, before the gunfire had begun, “It seems we've found them.”
“Y'don't say?” Kroll asked, his tone deadpan.
That was as far as the conversation got, as they had only a second before the brainless goons chased after them, around the corner. It was a dumb move. They had simply been standing in the middle of their corridor when the Rabbit saw them and had seemingly assumed that the same would hold true for the stormtroopers as well... though, of course, it did not. They stood pressed up against the wall nearest the corner, in order to keep them hidden from the vision of anyone approaching from that direction for the longest time possible.
Whilst their opponents came rushing through, casting their eyes about wildly in search of targets, Hijiri dropped into a crouch, so as to leave the others with a clearer line of fire.
The thugs were mown down like blades of grass.
In mere seconds, it was over. Five men and two women lay dead on the ground, none of them having managed more than a few steps after entering the squad's line of sight.
A moment passed in silence, as they waited to see if any others would show up. Their Prime noticed it first; the sound of heavy, panicked breathing from around the corner. He sprang into action immediately. Reducing his body's weight to a negligible level, he jumped straight at the opposite wall and flipped over in mid-air to land upon it feet-first and almost instantaneously, before the force of that first leap had even had the time to fade and allow gravity to reassert itself, he had kicked off again, this time angling into the corridor.
He saw the two gangsters as he sped past them. They looked more afraid than threatening, yet both opened fire nonetheless. He struck the next wall at almost ceiling level and bounced off again, the katana flashing out from its sheathe as he spun 360°, the edge of the blade running across one man's throat.
The Battle Rabbit landed in a crouch, pausing only a second to assess the damage dealt. The men both stumbled back, the injured one dropping the heater he had wielded and clutching at his throat... though barely a drop of blood spilled down past his hands. It was not enough. As light as Hijiri had made himself, even with the blade's keen edge, there was only so much he could do. His strike had failed to sever the jugular.
He surged straight up, before the man still armed could recover from his surprise. Flipping again, so that his feet hit the ceiling this time. Even if he had hesitated then, as light as he now was he would have fallen no faster than a feather; he had plenty of time to look before he leapt. Or rather, he would have, if not for the rifle-armed thug currently swinging around to face him.
He bounced. Again. Again. Again. The thin steel of the corridor's walls, floor and ceiling was soon filled with bullet holes. This man held only a regular rifle, with just physical ammunition... which meant limited ammunition.
The Rabbit, as he jumped and flipped around – moving faster than his foe could keep up – began building up energy in his katana and the arm in which he held it.
'Click' went the weapon, noticeably failing to spew forth any more lead.
He struck.
The petrified thug, caught whilst fumbling to reload, was borne to the ground with such force that the sword – which now was buried up to its hilt in his chest – actually penetrated the thin layer of steel flooring and embedded its first couple inches in the cement beneath. Eyes bulging in horrified disbelief, the criminal scum coughed up a gout of blood all down the Rabbit's front. Slowly, the weight of his body dislodged him from the blade's base and he sunk down its length until his corpse touched down on solid ground.
Hijiri knelt by his victim, breathing heavily. That had taken far more out of him than he had expected, or cared to admit, and it wasn't even over yet. Despite all the jumping around, it really ought not to have been so bad, since his entire body had been practically weightless at the time, meaning that those jumps required only minimal effort. No, the problem he had was all that time spent building energy; he ought to have waited longer before beginning to charge it up, but had not expected the gun's ammo to last as long as it had and hadn't wanted the strike to be too weak when he finally got his opportunity... so he had tried to play it safe, and was now completely out of breath as a result.
The fact that he hadn't slept in over twenty-four hours probably didn't help either.
Deciding to aim for a little intimidation tactic, since he wasn't sure how well he could actually fight right this minute, Hijiri grinned sadistically and turned to the other gangster, who was by now a quivering wreck, sitting with his back pressed against the opposite wall and staring at him in abject terror. He made no effort to subdue his breathless panting, thinking that, being as consumed by fear as he was, the gangster just might assume that this panting was the result of something other than sheer exhaustion... something rather more perverse.
The big, muscular man actually sobbed, tears forming in his eyes and his lower lip quivering. Apparently, he was buying it. Between the violence of his friend's demise, that expression and all the blood running down the Rabbit's face right now, he must have painted quite the convincing picture.
Slowly, he got back to his feet. Hauling on the sword, he dragged it free of its prison... but could barely keep it aloft more than a second. He had been focused more on moving quickly enough to avoid the near-constant stream of bullets than on keeping track of exactly how long he'd been gathering energy and so it came as a slight surprise to him to find that that one arm now weighed more than his entire total bodyweight normally would have.
It struck the ground once more, with a clang that made the goon visibly flinch. He normally would have simply discarded the additional weight after it had served its purpose, but in this case it seemed to be intimidating their foe, so he didn't bother.
He gradually made his way over there, the katana dragging behind him and making a horrible screeching noise as its great weight forced it down into the steel-panel flooring. He loomed over the gangster as he came to a stop, that cruel smirk still plastered to his face. Tears now flowed freely from his whimpering victim's eyes and he could smell urine. It seemed that 'plan: look scary' was working perfectly.
Someone coughed.
The whole squad was standing watching him, completely relaxed.
“Hold it, Takanomiya... now, do you see the futility of facing us?” Kroll spoke the first half of that sentence to the Rabbit, before turning his gaze upon their prisoner to ask his question, “Your people can't possibly win this fight, not while we've got the corporal. Quite impressive, huh?”
“M-monster...” the sobbing thug stammered, shaking his head.
“Yeah, that's right, we've got ourselves a real monster here... so now, let me tell you how this is gonna go down.” Kroll strode over to them, the heavily breathing, wickedly grinning Prime and the cowering, weeping Secondary. He crouched down next to the gangster, “You're going to leave here now, alive. You'll then do absolutely everything in your power to spread your story. Let all the criminal scum know not to mess with us and our psychotic Ace in the Hole. Do that and we'll overlook past transgressions. Fail to do so, and we'll track you down. You don't want to know what'll happen after that. Do I make myself clear?”
“Y-y-yes.”
Kroll paused, his gaze drilling into the thug, as though estimating his trustworthiness. After a couple seconds, he nodded. “Alright. Get up and go.”
Stumbling and almost falling multiple times in his haste to comply, the Wolfpack's minion fled without another word. The squad parted before him, letting him through their ranks.
No sooner was he gone than Hijiri reduced the gravity around his right arm and focused on building up the weight in the rest of his body. When he was back to more or less his normal level, he cancelled the gravity manipulation's effect and stumbled back to the other side of the corridor until he reached the wall, before sinking down into a sitting position, now even more worn down than before.
“Well, that was dumb.” Kroll told him after a moment of silence.
“You all... took out... most... of them. I couldn't... just hang around... doing nothing.” Hijiri managed to say, his words interspersed between laboured breaths.
“Uh-huh... I bet as soon as we started fighting you totally forgot you hadn't slept, right?”
“No... of course not... I just-”
“Didn't think we were competent enough to take down two more goons after the first seven posed no problem?”
Hijiri didn't reply to this one. In truth, he had worried that perhaps the remaining NSW men would attempt the same tactic which they had seen used against them to such great effect and might even succeed in gunning down one or two of his fellows as they rounded the corner. It was unlikely, of course, given their unimpressive performance thus far, but the possibility had been there.
“Anyway, you'd better get back up soon, there are sure to be more of them about...”
“Yeah, speaking of,” Brandon said, “anyone have any idea why there were only nine of these goons around? Why not just all group up and go after us together?”
“Ah, well, where'd be the fun in that?” asked a voice, seeming to come from above them in every direction, crackling very slightly as it spoke. The announcement system. It was a feature imperial bases were generally built with, in case the base's commanding officer needed to get their orders out quickly, especially in times of emergency. This was Hijiri's first time actually hearing it in use.
Kroll frowned, yet didn't question the criminal's access to the system... presumably having anticipated something like this might happen, “You think it's fun to watch us slaughter your own underlings?”
“More or less.” the disembodied voice responded casually. It was male, that much was clear, “This way I get to pick up info about your Prime, and they're only Secondaries, after all. It's not like they matter. This way I can learn all his weaknesses now, so that if he dares show his face again after I kill him this time around, I'll already know how to deal with him. 'Course, given what I've seen so far, this is all probably a total waste of time.”
“So you're a Prime then, I take it?” their 'sergeant' asked, his voice cold.
“Hell yeah I am, and a damn sight better one than that loser you lot have. I mean, really? There weren't even ten of them, any decent Prime could have wiped the floor with a band like that as easily as I'm gonna take care of you dumbasses soon as you get the hell over here... yet that guy gets worn out dealing with two? I guess I should be happy, since it means you aren't nearly as big a threat as I thought you might be after you fucked up my casino like that... but still... it's just disappointing, y'know?”
“Big talk from a guy hiding behind a bunch of speakers.” Priya taunted loudly, “It seems to me you're just sitting in the back, safe and sound, hoping these goons of yours can take us down before we reach you. My guess is you can't hold a candle to the corporal here.”
“Tch. As if being insulted by a Secondary isn't bad enough... I actually think you honestly believe that crap, don't you, you dumb bitch? Tell you what, since I'm such a sporting guy, I'll even tell you all right where I am. Come to this, uh, gym-looking place. With all this training gear and stuff. I'll be waiting.”
“You're in the indoor training section...? Not the security room... where all the CCTV monitors and the announcement system are located?” Kroll asked sceptically.
“You don't need to believe me. Go there if you want, it doesn't bother me. Just don't be whining about how I'm hiding from you if you aren't gonna come fight me even when I let you know exactly where I am. Anyway, that's enough stalling. Get a move on already or I'll get bored and then I will just have everyone gang up on you all at once.”
"You're the one who wiped out the third squad, aren't you? On the day of that raid?" Brandon asked suddenly, completely out of the blue. In reply, the voice laughed.
"Ah, finally, someone catches on. Yeah. With barely any help from any useless Secondaries, I wiped out a whole squad of sortmtroopers. So there. I hate you bastards for making me look like a fool when you took my Base, and I bet you all hate me for killing all those nobodies. So get over here already! I'm sick of waiting."
"Alright then, I guess we will." Kroll told him, "Just make sure not to run off before we get there... if you your reputation was hurt by losing a Base you weren't even guarding at the time then I'd guess that'd be nothing in comparison to actually running away from our little squad, huh?"
"Run? Don't make me laugh." the Wolfpack's Prime spat, before they heard a light click as the broadcast cut off. It seemed he'd grown tired of talking, for now.
With that out of the way, Kroll turned to the Battle Rabbit and asked dryly, "You well enough to walk now, or do you need someone to carry you?"
“I'm just fine.” Hijiri got to his feet, “I only needed a breather.”
“Good. This guy doesn't strike me as being the type to go for cheap shots; if he'd wanted to take us all out without getting involved himself then he could easily have kept all his people together and left them in a more strategic location than just hiding around the very first corner we were due to come across. I expect he really does actually think he can take us all on himself. So let's just head over to the training section and find out how honest he actually is."
"Sir, yes, sir!" the squad chorused as they set off.
The second team back to base was the one consisting of Brandon Windvale, Trevor Dodson, and their one accompanying, standard-issue stormtrooper. It wasn't until around the time of the return of the third team (Kroll vor Iechtelsteir and his two noobs), though, that they realised the intruders' vehicles were all still present... and nearby, at that. They had parked just half the street away.
There were two grimy vans, a battered pickup and, for some reason, a worn down, black Bentley S2 Continental, which presumably had had a retractable roof at some point, though now had none at all... it may well have been worth a small fortune back on Earth, if it weren't such a wreck. That said, none of those present at that point realised this, due to having not originated on that world. It was only later, when Hijiri arrived, that he mentioned it. The Bentley was a four-seater, and between them the other vehicles probably could have accommodated another few dozen or so people, if they didn't mind a bit of a squeeze.
Assuming that they actually had been packed that full, it would seem that the squad was in a rather unfortunate situation... not only were they seemingly being baited into entering the base (as no one had yet to come up and challenge them whilst they waited) but they could easily find themselves drastically outnumbered when they did. It was almost worrying enough to convince Kroll to allow them to call for reinforcements from elsewhere in Tier Five...
That said, even the nearest Northside station was a fair distance away, and with roads this congested – as usual for the tier – making it here would not be a quick process for them, either by foot or by transport. Sooner or later, the public would start to realise that something was going on around the 'racks and would wonder why the 'troopers were simply waiting, rather than doing anything about it. If they could take back the barracks themselves, it would do much for their reputations, but if they had to call on help... all that talk of being 'elite' would seem to the citizens as nothing more than empty bragging.
Worse still, if it turned out that those vehicles were simply stolen and abandoned there in order to make them all think that their unknown adversaries still lurked inside, they may end up going in only to find the place abandoned. If they were to request help only for that to then happen, not only would they look foolish, but they could easily be seen as cowards as well... begging for help at every shadow.
No, it wasn't a chance they could afford to take if the plan was to have any chance at all of continuing to move forward smoothly.
Whilst they waited on the last teams to arrive, they inspected the vehicles more thoroughly... as there was little else for them to do just then. The vans and pickup held nothing of note; all they really learned was that at least a few of their foes must have smoked, judging by the number of cigarette butts lying around. The Bentley, however, had traces of gunpowder on its carpet and all of its seats, and they even found a couple shotgun shells underneath those seats as well, which had presumably been missed when removing whatever ammunition had been stored here.
It was strange, they agreed, for the enemy to have apparently decided to use a car like this to store their weapons and ammo, when any of their other transports would have been more suited to the task... not that it really mattered. There were no identifying marks on any of the vehicles, unfortunately; they wouldn't be getting any indication as to who these people were until they actually encountered them.
Once the final team (Priya Singh's one) had arrived, they left the street once more, heading down the short, paved pathway which led up to the ruined entrance of their barracks. No one fired on them as they approached. There were no signs of life at all, in fact.
And so they entered.
***
As soon as they began rounding the first corner, the silence was broken.
“Ah.” Hijiri said calmly, as he ducked back in order to avoid the hail of bullets and lasers. He turned to look at Kroll, who had been just about to follow him round, before the gunfire had begun, “It seems we've found them.”
“Y'don't say?” Kroll asked, his tone deadpan.
That was as far as the conversation got, as they had only a second before the brainless goons chased after them, around the corner. It was a dumb move. They had simply been standing in the middle of their corridor when the Rabbit saw them and had seemingly assumed that the same would hold true for the stormtroopers as well... though, of course, it did not. They stood pressed up against the wall nearest the corner, in order to keep them hidden from the vision of anyone approaching from that direction for the longest time possible.
Whilst their opponents came rushing through, casting their eyes about wildly in search of targets, Hijiri dropped into a crouch, so as to leave the others with a clearer line of fire.
The thugs were mown down like blades of grass.
In mere seconds, it was over. Five men and two women lay dead on the ground, none of them having managed more than a few steps after entering the squad's line of sight.
A moment passed in silence, as they waited to see if any others would show up. Their Prime noticed it first; the sound of heavy, panicked breathing from around the corner. He sprang into action immediately. Reducing his body's weight to a negligible level, he jumped straight at the opposite wall and flipped over in mid-air to land upon it feet-first and almost instantaneously, before the force of that first leap had even had the time to fade and allow gravity to reassert itself, he had kicked off again, this time angling into the corridor.
He saw the two gangsters as he sped past them. They looked more afraid than threatening, yet both opened fire nonetheless. He struck the next wall at almost ceiling level and bounced off again, the katana flashing out from its sheathe as he spun 360°, the edge of the blade running across one man's throat.
The Battle Rabbit landed in a crouch, pausing only a second to assess the damage dealt. The men both stumbled back, the injured one dropping the heater he had wielded and clutching at his throat... though barely a drop of blood spilled down past his hands. It was not enough. As light as Hijiri had made himself, even with the blade's keen edge, there was only so much he could do. His strike had failed to sever the jugular.
He surged straight up, before the man still armed could recover from his surprise. Flipping again, so that his feet hit the ceiling this time. Even if he had hesitated then, as light as he now was he would have fallen no faster than a feather; he had plenty of time to look before he leapt. Or rather, he would have, if not for the rifle-armed thug currently swinging around to face him.
He bounced. Again. Again. Again. The thin steel of the corridor's walls, floor and ceiling was soon filled with bullet holes. This man held only a regular rifle, with just physical ammunition... which meant limited ammunition.
The Rabbit, as he jumped and flipped around – moving faster than his foe could keep up – began building up energy in his katana and the arm in which he held it.
'Click' went the weapon, noticeably failing to spew forth any more lead.
He struck.
The petrified thug, caught whilst fumbling to reload, was borne to the ground with such force that the sword – which now was buried up to its hilt in his chest – actually penetrated the thin layer of steel flooring and embedded its first couple inches in the cement beneath. Eyes bulging in horrified disbelief, the criminal scum coughed up a gout of blood all down the Rabbit's front. Slowly, the weight of his body dislodged him from the blade's base and he sunk down its length until his corpse touched down on solid ground.
Hijiri knelt by his victim, breathing heavily. That had taken far more out of him than he had expected, or cared to admit, and it wasn't even over yet. Despite all the jumping around, it really ought not to have been so bad, since his entire body had been practically weightless at the time, meaning that those jumps required only minimal effort. No, the problem he had was all that time spent building energy; he ought to have waited longer before beginning to charge it up, but had not expected the gun's ammo to last as long as it had and hadn't wanted the strike to be too weak when he finally got his opportunity... so he had tried to play it safe, and was now completely out of breath as a result.
The fact that he hadn't slept in over twenty-four hours probably didn't help either.
Deciding to aim for a little intimidation tactic, since he wasn't sure how well he could actually fight right this minute, Hijiri grinned sadistically and turned to the other gangster, who was by now a quivering wreck, sitting with his back pressed against the opposite wall and staring at him in abject terror. He made no effort to subdue his breathless panting, thinking that, being as consumed by fear as he was, the gangster just might assume that this panting was the result of something other than sheer exhaustion... something rather more perverse.
The big, muscular man actually sobbed, tears forming in his eyes and his lower lip quivering. Apparently, he was buying it. Between the violence of his friend's demise, that expression and all the blood running down the Rabbit's face right now, he must have painted quite the convincing picture.
Slowly, he got back to his feet. Hauling on the sword, he dragged it free of its prison... but could barely keep it aloft more than a second. He had been focused more on moving quickly enough to avoid the near-constant stream of bullets than on keeping track of exactly how long he'd been gathering energy and so it came as a slight surprise to him to find that that one arm now weighed more than his entire total bodyweight normally would have.
It struck the ground once more, with a clang that made the goon visibly flinch. He normally would have simply discarded the additional weight after it had served its purpose, but in this case it seemed to be intimidating their foe, so he didn't bother.
He gradually made his way over there, the katana dragging behind him and making a horrible screeching noise as its great weight forced it down into the steel-panel flooring. He loomed over the gangster as he came to a stop, that cruel smirk still plastered to his face. Tears now flowed freely from his whimpering victim's eyes and he could smell urine. It seemed that 'plan: look scary' was working perfectly.
Someone coughed.
The whole squad was standing watching him, completely relaxed.
“Hold it, Takanomiya... now, do you see the futility of facing us?” Kroll spoke the first half of that sentence to the Rabbit, before turning his gaze upon their prisoner to ask his question, “Your people can't possibly win this fight, not while we've got the corporal. Quite impressive, huh?”
“M-monster...” the sobbing thug stammered, shaking his head.
“Yeah, that's right, we've got ourselves a real monster here... so now, let me tell you how this is gonna go down.” Kroll strode over to them, the heavily breathing, wickedly grinning Prime and the cowering, weeping Secondary. He crouched down next to the gangster, “You're going to leave here now, alive. You'll then do absolutely everything in your power to spread your story. Let all the criminal scum know not to mess with us and our psychotic Ace in the Hole. Do that and we'll overlook past transgressions. Fail to do so, and we'll track you down. You don't want to know what'll happen after that. Do I make myself clear?”
“Y-y-yes.”
Kroll paused, his gaze drilling into the thug, as though estimating his trustworthiness. After a couple seconds, he nodded. “Alright. Get up and go.”
Stumbling and almost falling multiple times in his haste to comply, the Wolfpack's minion fled without another word. The squad parted before him, letting him through their ranks.
No sooner was he gone than Hijiri reduced the gravity around his right arm and focused on building up the weight in the rest of his body. When he was back to more or less his normal level, he cancelled the gravity manipulation's effect and stumbled back to the other side of the corridor until he reached the wall, before sinking down into a sitting position, now even more worn down than before.
“Well, that was dumb.” Kroll told him after a moment of silence.
“You all... took out... most... of them. I couldn't... just hang around... doing nothing.” Hijiri managed to say, his words interspersed between laboured breaths.
“Uh-huh... I bet as soon as we started fighting you totally forgot you hadn't slept, right?”
“No... of course not... I just-”
“Didn't think we were competent enough to take down two more goons after the first seven posed no problem?”
Hijiri didn't reply to this one. In truth, he had worried that perhaps the remaining NSW men would attempt the same tactic which they had seen used against them to such great effect and might even succeed in gunning down one or two of his fellows as they rounded the corner. It was unlikely, of course, given their unimpressive performance thus far, but the possibility had been there.
“Anyway, you'd better get back up soon, there are sure to be more of them about...”
“Yeah, speaking of,” Brandon said, “anyone have any idea why there were only nine of these goons around? Why not just all group up and go after us together?”
“Ah, well, where'd be the fun in that?” asked a voice, seeming to come from above them in every direction, crackling very slightly as it spoke. The announcement system. It was a feature imperial bases were generally built with, in case the base's commanding officer needed to get their orders out quickly, especially in times of emergency. This was Hijiri's first time actually hearing it in use.
Kroll frowned, yet didn't question the criminal's access to the system... presumably having anticipated something like this might happen, “You think it's fun to watch us slaughter your own underlings?”
“More or less.” the disembodied voice responded casually. It was male, that much was clear, “This way I get to pick up info about your Prime, and they're only Secondaries, after all. It's not like they matter. This way I can learn all his weaknesses now, so that if he dares show his face again after I kill him this time around, I'll already know how to deal with him. 'Course, given what I've seen so far, this is all probably a total waste of time.”
“So you're a Prime then, I take it?” their 'sergeant' asked, his voice cold.
“Hell yeah I am, and a damn sight better one than that loser you lot have. I mean, really? There weren't even ten of them, any decent Prime could have wiped the floor with a band like that as easily as I'm gonna take care of you dumbasses soon as you get the hell over here... yet that guy gets worn out dealing with two? I guess I should be happy, since it means you aren't nearly as big a threat as I thought you might be after you fucked up my casino like that... but still... it's just disappointing, y'know?”
“Big talk from a guy hiding behind a bunch of speakers.” Priya taunted loudly, “It seems to me you're just sitting in the back, safe and sound, hoping these goons of yours can take us down before we reach you. My guess is you can't hold a candle to the corporal here.”
“Tch. As if being insulted by a Secondary isn't bad enough... I actually think you honestly believe that crap, don't you, you dumb bitch? Tell you what, since I'm such a sporting guy, I'll even tell you all right where I am. Come to this, uh, gym-looking place. With all this training gear and stuff. I'll be waiting.”
“You're in the indoor training section...? Not the security room... where all the CCTV monitors and the announcement system are located?” Kroll asked sceptically.
“You don't need to believe me. Go there if you want, it doesn't bother me. Just don't be whining about how I'm hiding from you if you aren't gonna come fight me even when I let you know exactly where I am. Anyway, that's enough stalling. Get a move on already or I'll get bored and then I will just have everyone gang up on you all at once.”
"You're the one who wiped out the third squad, aren't you? On the day of that raid?" Brandon asked suddenly, completely out of the blue. In reply, the voice laughed.
"Ah, finally, someone catches on. Yeah. With barely any help from any useless Secondaries, I wiped out a whole squad of sortmtroopers. So there. I hate you bastards for making me look like a fool when you took my Base, and I bet you all hate me for killing all those nobodies. So get over here already! I'm sick of waiting."
"Alright then, I guess we will." Kroll told him, "Just make sure not to run off before we get there... if you your reputation was hurt by losing a Base you weren't even guarding at the time then I'd guess that'd be nothing in comparison to actually running away from our little squad, huh?"
"Run? Don't make me laugh." the Wolfpack's Prime spat, before they heard a light click as the broadcast cut off. It seemed he'd grown tired of talking, for now.
With that out of the way, Kroll turned to the Battle Rabbit and asked dryly, "You well enough to walk now, or do you need someone to carry you?"
“I'm just fine.” Hijiri got to his feet, “I only needed a breather.”
“Good. This guy doesn't strike me as being the type to go for cheap shots; if he'd wanted to take us all out without getting involved himself then he could easily have kept all his people together and left them in a more strategic location than just hiding around the very first corner we were due to come across. I expect he really does actually think he can take us all on himself. So let's just head over to the training section and find out how honest he actually is."
"Sir, yes, sir!" the squad chorused as they set off.
![[Image: Hijiri_Name_Sig.png]](https://image.ibb.co/k1H7Hd/Hijiri_Name_Sig.png)