Fargason had gotten the troops assembled, but from the looks of things they needed a big victory, and they needed it soon. The loss of Johnson weight heavily on them. Some threw glares at Matthew, while others actually came up to him and thanked him for his efforts. Having already given his briefing, Fargason ordered the troops into transports soon after the arrival of Seras and Matthew.

It was a long, quite trip. This time, as it was daylight, there was something to see. Matthew was able to get his eyes to a viewport and watch the city and later country go by. When he sat, soon before their arrival, Seras chuckled at his behavior. He shrugged. 'Eh,' he thought to her, 'it helps the headache.' His headache from the last night's mission was actually already gone, his still new vampire abilities allowing him to heal more quickly and ignore pain more easily. It just seemed like a good excuse at the time.

The transports stopped a kilometer from the building pegged at the data storage facility. From that distance, it looked like little more then a farmhouse, but a lucky glance through a window caught a vampire in the eyes of Seras and Matthew. "This is the place," Fargason said. "Move out."

The troops moved within a couple hundred meters of the house with great stealth. On the way, Matthew fed five shells into the Spitfire, its maximum load. He then grabbed a thirty round magazine and loaded it. Yanking back the bolt, he set the rifle's safety and snapped it back in place. Once in position near the farmhouse, Harison took a final look at the situation, then ordered a charge. The troops of Hellsing got up in a run, sprinting for the front and back doors of the house. Seras charged ahead to take point, with Matthew hot on her heels. He yanked the Spitfire out of its holder and brought it back around, landing its shotgun slide in his waiting right hand and grabbing the trigger group with his left. He would bring it to his shoulder later. Seras barely stopped to kick open the door. A few feet in, she took aim and fired her cannon. Its recoil slid her back a few inches and sent a trio of ghouls to the ground. Seras moved to find a firing position as Matthew moved up to fire.

He brought the Spitfire to his shoulder, aimed, and fired at what he figured to be an enhanced ghoul. With a loud 'braaap' from the Spitfire, the ghoul dropped. He cycled the shotgun, pulling the slide back to grab a shell then pushing it forward to load it. Matthew took aim at a nearby pack of ghouls and pushed the button. The shotgun fired, sending the ghouls to the floor. Without a thought, he started into the house, taking aim at another ghoul and firing off a quick burst of fire. The vampire he'd spotted before attacked from Matthew's left. He swiveled out of the vampire's way, then took aim and fired a long burst of fire. The bullets penetrated the vampire's heart, and the vampire turned to ash.

As with the other major battles, Matthew lost track of himself. He simply aimed at a target, fired, and moved on. And, just like all the other battles, he suddenly found himself aiming at air. The floor was littered with ash and ghoul remains. Holding his breath a moment to regain control, he looked around at the Hellsing troops. They were going to clean up mode. As Seras walked over to him, he released his breath. "Are you all right, Matthew?"

He struggled with the answer for a moment. "Uhh... Yeah. I'm fine. Why?"

"You look like you just snapped out of a trance, or something."

"I... Uhh... Kinda did..." He described his 'combat mode' to her. "It works, so I haven't stopped. Messed with my sense of time, though. That seemed like a really short battle."

She nodded. "It was a really short battle. You took out the only vampire and there weren't very many ghouls."

Matthew paused. "And I'm pretty sure that vampire wasn't a greater fledgling like the one last night." Seras nodded again. "Well, this can only mean a few things. One: the rest are hiding. Unlikely. Two: reinforcements are on the way. Possible. Three: Shalrik has called the rest of the troops to him. That itself can mean two things. One: Shalrik's figured we're gonna find him eventually, so why bother defending this place. Better to work on his on defense. Two: Shalrik has decided he can take us, so he wants us to find him. If that's the case, things aren't that good."

"Why not?"

"'Cause if he figures he's ready, he might be. He probably knows our forces pretty well at this point."

"Well," Seras replied, "Fargason figured all that out too. The computer teams are working now. They're just going to download the data and worry about decrypting it back at HQ, just in case reinforcements are coming."

Matthew nodded his reply. "Good. I would hope Fargason would get it if I did." He sighed. "Well, now that my brain is working again, wanna go run some security?"

"That's what we're being asked to do, actually."

"All right." Matthew yanked the almost empty magazine from the Spitfire and loaded a new one. "Let's go." The two started for the door.