Chapter 14: Operation: Raid

Kartel Supply Camp. It was time to raid. Supplies will be destroyed or taken. They will not have food, water, ammo, or medkits. No, they will die. There will also be many Kartels there. They shall die in battle.

The vehicles brought what was left of my squad and many other Ghent Army people as well. Dungeon Fighters were in other vehicles heading to the same location. Of course, this would be a big battle. I doubt the Kartels are stupid. They have most of their supplies there, they have a bunch of soldiers there, surely they know that we would strike. It would be nice if we could take them by surprise, but life doesn't give you breaks. For now, we can only hope to storm them all, outnumbering them and destroying them.

Once we got off, we checked our weapons to make sure they were all okay. Knife was set and sharp. Grenades were there. Submachine gun and sniper rifle were fine. Everything was ready.

"Charge!" I yelled and we all stormed forward.

There were some new interesting opponents. We fought some fast guard dogs, but we found out that there were even stronger dogs. I had a feeling it was Gizel's doing. They were faster, they were stronger, I think they caused some troops to fall asleep. It was a terrible fate for those who did fall asleep. They were chewed on like food. Their skins flew off. Body parts, organs, also eaten or thrown away. Bloody bones laid where their bodies used to be. Toxins or something, that was what I was assuming. They didn't last long though, with the amount of bullets that were shot and the Dungeon Fighters that were there. We headed into the tents, and to be honest, it once again brought me back to the nightmares. It looked exactly like it was in my dream. But I couldn't focus on those thoughts right now.

There were clowns even here. They must be scraping the bottom of the barrel. Some fat clowns were there, but nothing like the fire-breathing one we fought before. And then we met one of the craziest ones I've ever seen. He must have been a psycho or something. He spun around and around the rooms like a twister, all the while throwing bombs out at us. I don't know whether to be impressed by this or scared. Casualties were running quite high though. Right now, I expected it to be at least 250 dead, Ghent Army people and Dungeon Fighters. I noticed that the same squad we fought before was there again, Charles Miller and his two soldiers. They were putting up a good fight. They had a look of determination. They were going down fighting, whether anyone liked it or not. After a while, they retreated. We tried to catch up to them, and I had my sights on one of Charles's friends. He was amazing with his sniper rifle. I saw him pluck heads earlier. I tried to snipe him, I missed. He tried to counter-snipe, he also missed. We had a little bit of a mini-duel with our snipers. But as they were retreating back, I was able to scope in on his head. Pulling the trigger, he was dead. The bullet zoomed through the air and pierced his skull. Some blood came out of the other end. That's revenge, Charles.

Continuing to chase the Kartels, we fought another fat clown that had a chef's hat. He was just as ugly as the rest of them. He threw knives and the like. Even tried to flatten us with his weight. He was gunned down fast. We'd let the dogs take care of him.

Running and running, clowns and soldiers got shot down and were forgotten. However, I estimated our casualties to be at least 550 by this point. When we got to a room farther ahead, there was only one soldier there. I recognized him as another one of Charle's friends. He was the only squad member besides Charles that was alive. Clearly he's going down fighting. The look in his eyes had a burning desire, the desire to kill as many of us as possible. If he was determined before, then the determination he has now courses all over his body and through his veins. I was in the very far back of the group, but I heard him and someone else talked. I could see just a little bit of the man.

"Surrender now!" a lieutenant said.

"Well, it looks like it's down to just you guys and me, surely I won't win due to fate favoring good guys, but I'm going to spit at Lady Luck and lick as many of you people as I can." the man said after tossing his cigar.

He then shot all the lights in the room. Everything was dark. There was a hole on the ceiling, however, and moonlight pierced the darkness. It shone on the man, like a spotlight of sorts.

"Hah, do you really think the Lunar gods are blessing you today, you pathetic wretch?" The lieutenant asked.

"I may die here, but I'm not falling to you guys that easily. Now then, can you Ghent Army men and women along with these Dungeon Fighters best this mere mortal?" He asked while casually taking a grenade, uncorking it, and kicking it towards the crowd.

He really was serious about this. But surely he will go down soon. He's heavily outnumbered! Even if he tries his best, I doubt we would lose more than 10 people. But you know, determination can do miraculous things. After the grenade exploded, gunfire could be heard. I saw the flashes and I knew people died already. Screams could be heard.

"Don't just stand there! Shoot him down!" Another lieutenant shouted.

Men and women started firing at him. I looked through my scope to see if I could get him. Bill was his name. He was extremely fast though, I couldn't aim at him for fear of shooting others. Some bullets got to him in his knee and arm, but this didn't slow him down at all. Dungeon Fighters did not fare any better against him. I saw two Grapplers try to hold him down, but Bill was able to shoot them through the eyes before evading even more bullets. I couldn't help but think of it as revenge since he was wearing an eye patch. He must have been trying to inflict the same damage that someone else inflicted on him. He was unstoppable. Everything that was being thrown at him was easily dodged or he shrugged it off. Some bullets nicked him in the shoulders, others in the arms and legs, but he just kept on going. He reminded me of something I read in a book once. It was on the Guerillas of Rangelus. Those were the toughest Kartels to ever live. The soldiers there were extremely skilled. Even Dungeon Fighters had an extremely hard time fighting those. This Bill reminded of those Guerillas. His skill definitely matches them.

"Come on, is that the best you got?" He mocked while killing some more.

At this point, the Army was throwing everything. Rockets, grenades, incendiary grenades, everything. Even the Dungeon Fighters were bombing him. Elementalist attacks, lava spots, acid rain, Gatling guns, flamethrowers, but all to no avail. Sure he was getting damaged, but he was still alive and able to kill even more. He killed at least 100 by now, raising our casualties to more than 650.

O'Reilly tapped me on the shoulder. "Alright Ed, I'm going in. I have enough of this nonsense."

"What? You can't be serious! Look, he looks like he's about to go down. Give it a few more and he'll surely be dead." I said.

"That's the thing. We don't have 'a few more.' If he continues like this, we'll be down a lot more people than we could ever have lost. There's also no time. Every second we waste on this guy means another second that the Kartels can use to escape."

"But..but he's a monster! If you go, then you'll be killed!"

"Then I'll die trying!"

"No no no. O'Reilly, you can't do this. I had a nightmare some days ago that you died in here. You can't leave us now. We already lost Terres and Friesly. We don't need to lose you too."

O'Reilly looked at Bill and then at me. "Ed, I appreciate the thought. But you know that life's not fair for anyone. I've decided that I'm gonna take care of that guy. Or if not take care of, at least help you guys take him down. My girl already knows that there's a big chance I wouldn't come back. In fact, that Christmas we spent, I tried to make it the best. I had a feeling that I wouldn't come back, so we tried to make it the best Christmas possible. And you know, it was. We had fun, our squad that is, on that day. And then I spent the rest of the day with my girl. It was a good day."

"...You're not joking anymore, huh?" I asked.

"No, Ed. Not today. Well, maybe I do have one. Get a girl sometime in your life, Ed. Hey, maybe you can go out with the princess." He laughed and readied his knife.

I laughed a bit too. But it wasn't even a real laugh. Another one dies tonight.

"Ed. It's been good. It's been real good." O'Reilly said.

I nodded. "It's been real good, buddy." He already made up his mind that he was going to die here. I was hoping that he would make it out alive. Maybe he would indeed take care of Bill.

He charged forward towards Bill. With a lunge, he tried his best to stab Bill in the chest, in the heart. Unfortunately, he didn't get the heart. He still got the chest, and Bill was slowed down by this, but that was the end for him. Bill took the knife and stabbed O'Reilly back, followed by a gunshot to the eye.

Something erupted in me. I knew that O'Reilly would not live. I knew it. Yet, a furious and bloodthirsty anger exploded inside me so hard that I quickly readied my sniper rifle. Taking aim, I knew that it was time to shoot. There were many people still around, but I was going to take my chances. Determination was fueling my accuracy and precision, it was time for Bill to die.

Ready.

Steady.

Aim.

...Fire.

The bullet got to him, hitting him right in the chest. He fell down, crouching on one knee. I walked up to him, still holding my sniper with a knife handy.

"Heh, you guys won, then." He said after fighting off so many forces.

We were not pleased. A man like this, with the skill of a Rangelus Guerrilla, taking down so many people. But I knew one thing. I shall bury him. He was strong, he was brave. I damn well had better give him a grave. Charles, you're a lucky man.

He laughed and then fell backwards, dying then and there. All the others went ahead. Westheld and I stayed behind.

But at the sight of O'Reilly's dead body, something in me snapped. I took my helmet and threw it against the wall. I took the supplies and threw them everywhere.

"FUCK THIS SHIT! DAMN IT ALL! FUCK!"

To the ground, to the walls, it didn't matter. I was just throwing them as hard as I could. While I was kicking boxes down, Westheld was trying to calm me down. I took my knife out and started to slash at the cloths all around. Tearing them up, making huge holes.

"GOD DAMN! THIS FUCKING WAR! A BUNCH OF SHIT!"

I took the knife and stabbed at the wall. I stopped, panting heavily.

"Ed, come on! You can't act like this!" Westheld said. "Look, I know it's unfortunate, but you can't be like this. You're a leader!"

I looked at O'Reilly, then Bill, and then Westheld. "I know..." I was still panting. "Something in me snapped. It might just...might just be because I've been here for so long and haven't released that kind of steam." I walked over to Bill's body. "Westheld, we're burying O'Reilly's body as well as Bill's body. Don't question why we have to bury Bill's. He was a tremendous fighter. He'll be honored by at least me."

We buried them both and headed forward. We fought the UM-7 Blasto that Gizel created and then the UM-0 Ultimatum. They were defeated, but the Kartels escaped. We went back to prepare for one final showdown. But before we did, I also buried Charles's other friend that I sniped earlier. This war is taking a heavy toll.