Chapter 2

7 MINUTES BEFORE STORM

"We're in position. Give us the go sign and we'll finish them in less than 5 minutes."

The village of Caux was a key foothold to the Stalkers. It opened up hundreds of trade routes and its ore-filled mountains. Added to that it could also serve as a excellent forward operating base since due to its high mountains, giving the defenders a height advantage. However, taking the village will not be an easy task. The village becomes a ant hill during wartimes. Soldiers swarm the village center and streets. Groups goes out and new ones comes in to replace them. To take over such immense amount of soldiers would require a decent size army. But here the Directors only sent a team of Specters. Only 7 of them. And hundreds of hostile soldiers.

"Sir? Are we seriously going down there? 7 of us and shit ton of them?"

The leader of the group was a stern but powerful man. Highly decorated at such a young age, he was awarded with Lapis Heart after being wounded in the second day of the Great War. He was dragged from the battlefield to the triage tent before being sent to a hospital for further treatment. After that, he was never seen on the battlefield again. Not because he gave up fighting but rather after he was hospitalized, he was conscripted to join the Specters as one of the founding members. A brilliant tactician and commander, he now serves on the field with the Specter Division 2. Specter Division 2 has the elite and also the rookies. But why have elites and rookies on the same team? This idea was thought up by Specter Division 2 Leader himself. After being asked why mix the ranks, he casually said, "In my book, experience outranks everything."

"WE have the advantage, rookie. The storm is about to arrive. The rain and thunder will cover any sound we might accidently make. "

Black mist suddenly appeared next to the Team Leader. The swirling blackness soon solidify into a person. A black-clad, masked Specter stood tall next to the Team Leader. The mask depicted an image of distorted pain and agony. The Specter bowed and put their arm across the chest and said with a feminine voice :

"Sir. The team is in position. We're ready to begin the raid."

And with a wave of a hand from the Team Leader, the female Specter disappeared, leaving a small black mist. Unclipping the mask from the hook on his armor, he flipped it to look at the mask. The mask had an image of a skull. Just the face of the skull and there was a cut in the middle of the skull. The paint on the mask was worn and scratched due to years of missions. Exhaling a deep breath, the Team Leader flipped the mask to its backside and attached it to his face. He adjusted the mask until he heard the familiar click sound of the mask locking to the hood.

"Alright rookie. Time for your first action. And time to make the first kill of the war."

The hazelnut colored Specter had his mask already on. His mask was the same across all rookie. It was a white mask with two eye slits for the wearer's eyes. Emotionless and featureless, new recruits have to earn their own mask through their own actions. Every veteran Specter each has different unique masks. No Specter is like the other. The recruit jumped down the mountain until he became a silhouette in the darkness. With that, the Team Leader stood at the edge of a cliff on a mountain. Drawing his sword, he slid his hand across the sharp knife's blade. The blade reflected the image of himself. A masked assassin, drawn in a penumbra cloak, equipped with a deadly blade. Experienced and trained, he was ready once more. Before he jumped off the edge, he whispered:

"Time for the name Sergio Tacchini to be feared once more."

A human scream distorted with pain rattled into my brain. Who the hell is screaming in the dead middle of the night, I thought. Taking a deep breath, I shoved the covers aside and walked across the icy wooden flooring, toward the kitchen window. The window was barely transparent since the storm splashed droplets of water onto the window panes. I should really clean these wind-

There was a body outside.

A soldier's body.

"Shit," I said to myself, "what the hell is going on.."

I quickly spun around and headed for the front door. Grasping the doorknob, I felt a sudden chill down my spine. A rasp of a blade sliding out of its scabbard whispered to my ear. I slowly turned the knob to the right as I heard the sound of footsteps. The squeaking of the floor slowly got louder and closer until it was right next to me. Not taking any changes, I slammed into the door, opening it and sending me flying out to the freezing, wet gravel street head first. A dark boot came forth from the darkness inside the door. Then a body and attached to it, arms. All dressed in black. From the toe and up the chest. All black.

"WHO ARE YOU!" I screamed from the top of my lungs, "SOMEBODY HELP -!" Before I could finished my plead for help, a black leather glove covered my mouth. My eyes tried to look at the face of the man who was doing this. My arms flailed around helplessly as I try to defend myself but to no avail. With no energy left in me, my entire body went limp. The arms that once were attacking me felt comforting. The hands tilted my head toward my right side. A voice whispered in the air:

"Sssshhhhhhh...Time to go to sleep."

Before my sight went dim, I saw the face of the assailant. But it wasn't even close to a face. It was a mask. It was a mask of a ghost.

"A...spec...ter...?" I mumbled weakly. Then everything went dark.

"CAPTAIN! We got a problem!"

7th Platoon was half way to the outpost. Light reconnaissance work, the outpost needed some backup since the base itself has barely any defense mechanism. All it had was two stationary cannons and its stone wall. Besides that, it had a garrison of only 27 men. One cannon took three to four people to operate it efficiently. If an invasion occurred, this base would also be under attacked and with 27 people, it will need to use everything in its arsenal to defend the fort. With eight people operating the cannons, 19 people are left defending the walls. And its unheard of when 19 people successfully defended a fort that hasn't seen any repairs since the last war.

49th Engineers was already at the outpost. It consisted of 17 men which are mostly all engineers. Trained most in building and repairs, they were equipped for construction and not for combat. Nevertheless, they can still fight. Basics were taught to all recruits. Block and counter, block and counter. They were more of a defensive unit rather than offensive but they are defending a fort and that is what they specialize in anyway.

"What's the problem, private? And don't tell me that the rooks are tired again." Captain Arnfried said nonchalantly.

"No sir. It's not that. But reports are being said that casualties are popping up out of the blue. And I confirmed it with the station list that all the casualties are all from soldiers stationed in Caux."

The Captain stopped suddenly in his tracks. All the other soldier moved up for a couple of steps before stopping in their own steps. Making a hand motion in the air, a gray, square menu digitalized in the air. Selecting the contacts tab, he scroll down the list before halting at a name. DEREK NIGHTWOOD. He tapped on the name and a sub category appeared on the side, CALL, MESSAGE, EDIT, and DELETE. The message tab was tapped and a message box appeared.

"Message start."

With that, the message box started flashing lightly.

New problem arose. Will be late for the rendezvous. Arnfried."

The square message box was filled with words as Arnfried said them. After reviewing the message is complete, he tapped the lower square button with the word SEND. And with another swipe of his hand, the square menu disappeared. The Captain then turned around and firmly grabbed his sword which was still in its scabbard, hanging from the right side of his belt.

"7TH PLATOON! CAUX IS UNDER ATTACK AND WE ARE THE CLOSEST UNIT AVAILABLE! AND WE ARE GOING TO HELP THEM WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT! HOORAH?!"

"HOORAH, SIR!"

The group of soldiers made an u-turn and followed the dirt road towards the village. A dark glooming cloud darkened the entire village area and heavy thunderstorm made it look like hell mountain.