I shut down the alarm I had set for seven thirty in the morning, though I wish I didn't, woke up in the middle of my sleep cycle and I slept for six hours, this is gonna bite me in the butt soon enough. I stretched myself and did my morning rituals, washing myself, my teeth, saying a prayer of thanks to the Creator, after that I put on a spare grey and blue uniform of the Rim Combine alongside the Executor pin, a small pin in the form of a dragon, I holstered the gauss pistol and vibro-blade and went outside my room. My room wasn't in any of the upper floors, nor was it for the others as a matter of fact, they were in the basement, next to each other as if it was part of a barrack, this made our basement kind of like the living room, where we had breakfast, chatted, rested, all kinds of stuff, but today was my first day of work and I didn't want it to begin with me lazing around.

Devoid as I was of the currency of the land, much to my chagrin and pride as Executor, I was very thankful that the basement had a fridge and a freezer with some food on it already, alongside some cereals and other sweets in the cupboards next to it in case you had a sweet tooth, Kassadari training for Knight Errants also included a nutritional regime and even fasts so I was accustomed to eating healthy and frugally, that doesn't mean however that I don't like cookies and the like, saying a small prayer I drank the coffee and ate the cereal with milk I made for myself, just as I began to eat I heard a door open and a long feminine yawn, Maki came out on her night gown still on, not caring in the least that someone not her husband was watching her.

"Do we have coffee here?" she asked, her eyes still halfway closed.

"I'll make some for you but put on the clothes that Arona made for you, I'm not your husband, don't walk out while looking like that".

"Geez, fine" complained the scientist woman shutting the door behind her, I went over to the coffee machine and made an expresso with two spoons of sugar. Before you ask, yes, the machine had text written in old Japanese, a language dating back to old Earth since its very beginnings, before humans invented the gun, a fascinating language I might add, it had three alphabets, each one more complex than the last, a bit similar to some languages in the Persean League, what surprised me even more was the fact that I could read it, one thing I can thank that President for, I guess I wouldn't be of much use if I couldn't read the language.

But that wasn't the only thing that surprised me, there was also the case of the building itself, while doing a small break from my research I was aghast at how well supplied SCHALE was, from some classrooms meant for supplemental lessons for the students we would conscript to a gymnasium and even a hangar that stored some sort of VTOL aircraft albeit more primitive and an APC, all connected to a garage and an elevator that would lift the VTOL to the pad in the roof, but that wasn't everything nor the most surprising thing yet, impressive as it was all of that was tech readily available in any carrier and troop transport worth its name, no, what was surprising was the fabricator sitting in the middle of the basement right now as it was just decoration. The obelisk was a nanoforge that could somehow convert energy into matter in a perfect ratio, which meant that as long as Arona had energy she could make pretty much anything, testing such a thing when I was about to sleep I ordered her to make me a set of pyjamas and she did, in front of everyone, naturally I asked her to make me spares of everything, vibro-blade power packs, ammo for the gauss pistol, everything I would need, she also said that any schematics she scanned and stored could be used, the idea of having her replicate the arsenal I had in my estate in New Eire or in the Orphan of Earth was very tempting but seeing that such a thing would take time I relented and instead asked her to replicate a light gauss rifle for me and everyone else with its ammunition, said rifles were in a locker under the stairs alongside its ammunition that was stored in a box, good thing I decided to store my schematics on the Tri Pad.

"Hey captain, I'm wondering, there is a penthouse in the uppermost storey for each of the advisors, why don't you sleep there?" asked a voice coming from in front of me, looking up I saw a woman in her mid-twenties with purple hair and a black and purple office suit with fox ears and a bushy tail coming out of her tailbone.

"Security and privacy reasons, when everyone and their mother has access to a rocket launcher any pissed off kid can end my life whenever they want, being here I make sure they can't do it in the morning, speaking off I think I will also move my office to the basement and advise everyone do the same" Sierra shrugged.

"I guess it makes sense" she replied, Sierra took to her new form quickly once she found out she could make her own avatar, she also learned how Arona went from my tablet to the wider network of SCHALE and used it to project herself to my Tri Pad whenever she wanted to, she also learned how to enter Arona's space so she has almost the same abilities as her. The knowledge she could just leave scared me at first considering how Sierra is an AI that could hack an alpha core in seconds, then I calmed down when I realized the whimsical, impish, and casual AI that was part of the Dustkeepers would never do that. Speaking of childishness, Mikey and Therese were also back, we had a little talk before they went to sleep, opting for the penthouse room despite my protests, Arona reassured me the penthouse was safe, reinforced with a special type of glass that was explosive proof, I reluctantly acceded into ceding my penthouse apartment to them.

The opening of doors shook me from my musings, I saw Maki come out, now with proper clothes in the form of her lab coat with blue pants and a brown sweater underneath the coat, her glasses back on, I also saw Adam without his combat armour, he looked only a bit older than me, probably in his early thirties, he had black hair with a scar on his left green eye, wearing the standard uniform set for us in SCHALE, optional by the way.

"Here" I gave Maki her coffee, "I hope you like it with milk".

"Thanks kid" she took a sip and plopped on the sofa "haaa, much better."

"You want something too, Adam?" I asked.

"Black coffee, with one sugar and no milk"

"Coming right up".

By the time I finished everyone was awake, including my two siblings who decided to visit us, earning coos from Maki's side.

"What? I like kids, I was always called when my cous needed to be taken care of, and these ones are so cute" she explained, "its only a shame that ass left me before we could seal the deal".

"Your husband?" I asked.

"My ex-boyfriend, left me for a party girl when he found out I wanted to get serious, now I know not to go for boys I meet in a bar or a matchup app" she replied with no small amount of poison, surprisingly enough she was good with kids as per her word, managing to calm down Therese and Mikey with but a few words and settling them on the couch, we had breakfast together and as soon as we were done they left, not before I talked to them however.

"Take this week as a week off, because by next week I'll try to have you enrolled in a school" I told them.

Breakfast was finished soon with some small talk, mainly some comments about our current situation and complaints about the work as we entered the elevator to the third fourth storey.

"Man, I thought I was free of paperwork as a captain" complained Adam with a sigh.

"Even field officers have to do their fair share of paperwork, captain Adam" replied Baikal.

"Damn it all" he complained, he received a pat in the back from Maki.

"Hey man, at least you will share with four other people, otherwise you would have to do it all by yourself, I've seen people get hooked on meth just to catch up on a huge backlog they need to finish in a day." She tried to reassure.

"That doesn't make it any better, oh well".

"Don't worry, I'm sure Rinny will take it easy on us on the first day, let's hope anyways, in any case, lets start with the meeting" I said as I opened the door for everyone to the meeting room, a bigger version of what I have in my office, with a table that spans almost half of the room, a projector and a screen, alongside a window giving us a view of the city, some cases, cupboards and the works, "Arona" I called out, her avatar flickering in immediately "from now on transcribe everything said in this meeting, we will use it as a basis for our reports to the GSC, warn us only when something important happens or when someone needs to meet us urgently or any other emergency, anything less than that tell them to stay put until the meeting ends"

"Yes, Livesey-sensei"

"Everyone, sit down" I called, everyone sat down wherever they wanted, as I did, "with this I inaugurate the first meeting of the advisors of SCHALE, it is currently 8:30 AM of the 22nd of February, 220 years after the collapse of the Domain of Man and 2630 years since the birth of the First Precursor" I announced "As you all know we are part of an extrajudicial organization that will be tasked not only to solve emergency situations and teach students when they need it but also to help in the governance of the city of Kivotos alongside the GSC, as such I took the liberty to look what type of academies we would most likely deal with" I paused "I found that there are several mayor academies whose student bodies supposedly have more than two hundred thousand students at the minimum, those are the academies of; Gehenna, Trinity, Red Winter, Millenium, Valkyrie, Shanghaiing and Hyakkiako, all of these are the academies with the most students enrolled and the best military forces barring the GSC itself" I saw a hand raised, "uh, yes?"

"How are we supposed to teach all of them?" asked Maki.

"Apparently, they mostly do lessons virtually through the use of discs and supplementary materiel like books, with a special emphasis placed on gun use and military or semi military training, with each academy required to make a military doctrine according to their students abilities, before you say it yes such an approach is chaotic at best, you try to catch a kid's attention for more than ten minutes and I'll give you one thousand credits right now, but as you saw yesterday it has its uses, other than that the curriculums of each academy vary greatly. For example, Trinity, one of the largest and oldest academy, aside from general courses like mathematics and the sciences, places an emphasis on forming their students philosophically and morally, they have an entire club dedicated to interpreting religious texts from the past and traditions and it's also a sort of ecclesial organization that holds a ceremony every Sunday that involves prayer and a sermon, they are basically a religious academy with emphasis in the humanities and the liberal arts. By contrast their 'adversary' is Gehenna, this academy places more emphasis on freedom of expression under bare minimum limits, their curriculum places much emphasis on what we would traditionally know as art, so chaotic they are in fact that one of the clubs is a peacekeeping organization fanatically dedicated to enforcing the bare minimum of decency and order and keeping them from butting heads with Trinity, funnily enough their ruling body, the Pandemonium Society has a feud with said peacekeeping force, the Prefect Team"

"Well, it seems they do live up to their name" commented Francis, causing a few snickers, I cracked a smile, recognizing the joke for what it was.

"Yes, very much so, anyways, there are a few academies that are unaccounted for in maps or appear in past records and somehow stopped being major academies recently from a few days ago to about ten years ago, namely, the SRT, Abydos and Arius academies, the SRT building is scheduled to be demolished and their students enrolled in other academies by the end of the week, mostly the Valkyrie police school who functions as a peacekeeping organization between other academies, they are the ones called when an inter-academy feud happens, in any case there are a few students there who are apparently protesting the closure of the academy, stating that Kivotos still had a need for them even when SCHALE has officially been opened"

"Wait, why would us being here make their academy close down?" asked Adam.

"Because their area of responsibility clashes with ours, it seems, they were the special forces of the GSC, us being here and being able to recruit students to fill that role makes the point moot, or so it would seem for them" I said with a bit of a smile, "naturally I don't plan on letting those students rot on the streets if I can help it, I think we could use their talents, even though the ones protesting have only recently joined it, the academy only accepted those students that surpassed a rigorous exam that tested the students in a range of skills, from mathematics to marksmanship and squad tactics, they would make for fine first recruits for SCHALE. This is my first proposal, convince those students protesting the closure of the SRT to enter the service of SCHALE".

"Agreed" replied Baikal, "it would be a good way to gather recruits and of good quality at that, if they want the standards of a good military school that will train them well then SCHALE is their best bet".

"Seconded, it wouldn't be the first time I trained newbies, it will be like back at boot camp, I'll even volunteer to convince the girls to come" seconded Adam.

"Anyone wants to voice any complaints?" I asked, nobody did "then there is only the case of who wants to go with Adam?"

"I can go" said Baikal "you mentioned them being the equivalent of special forces recruits, perhaps they will respect someone with a military background".

"Good, so we are in agreement, the recruitment of the SRT protesters will be enacted, I advise you gentlemen start after the meeting and finish preferably by the end of the week" the two men nodded "good, now on to Abydos".

"Speak of the devil" said Sierra "Arona was about to say you have an urgent message from one Abydos High School".

"Heeey, I was supposed to warn him, Sierra-san, Sensei, you have an urgent message from Abydos High School, also President Rin wants to see you" I sighed.

"Tell her to come in, and leave the message on the table, I will read it shortly".

Soon enough Rin came with what seemed to be a blonde-haired secretary wearing a white suit with raven wings protruding from her back, Rin looked almost dead, she was a bit pale, and her eyes had more bags under them.

"Tough night?" I asked.

"Like you wouldn't believe, Livesey-sensei, the GSC had an emergency meeting to discuss your conditions, they reluctantly agreed on the condition that SCHALE helps on managing the workload appropriate to its current status" she said as she plopped the papers, "is it okay if I leave them here?"

"Peachy, we will divide it among ourselves after the current meeting, thank you Rin" the girl left, leaving us with Arona, Sierra and everyone else looking at the stack of papers that looked half a person in height, Adam whistled.

"Good thing this is going to be the work of five other people".

"Quiet, now, Arona, give me that letter".

"Yes, Sensei" Arona ran and gave me the letter that supposedly came from the Abydos High School.

"I'll read it out loud for the people in the back" I cleared my voice.

To the Advisors of the Independent Federal Investigation Club

Hello, my name is Okusura Ayane, I write on behalf of the whole of the Abydos High School.

Our school has come under the attack of a prominent delinquent gang.

We believe they plan on kicking us out of the school building and taking it for ourselves, we are running out of ammunition and supplies to drive them out.

Please, help us.

I frowned, in my research I did yesterday it mentioned that Abydos has a debt problem, the exact figure was unknown, but it must be bad if they can't defend themselves against a band of delinquents.

"I think they answer is obvious, we go and help them" I said, "I will go there myself if I have to".

"Would you like me to go with you too?" asked Francis.

"Eeeh, no need, I know that as a priest you can't really hurt anyone even if it saves your life, I won't put you in such a position, though do keep that offer open in case I need help and Baikal and Adam are not available, well, that takes care of what I wanted to talk about for now, oh, and I thought of having these meetings every week, with the next one being next Tuesday and everyone taking turns on presiding it, the next guy would be Baikal, then Francis, Adam and then Maki then it loops back to me"

"I concur"

"No argument here"

"It will be a good way to organize ourselves".

Seeing as how everyone pretty much agreed I smiled, having nothing else to add.

"Good, then this meeting is closed, oh, and Baikal, before you leave, try and arrange a meeting with Rin on how to convert Standard Credits to the local currency, I want SCHALE to have a common fund with part of my deposit as a foundation for it".

"Got it, but for now we will have to make do with our share of Angel 24's profits plus whatever fees we can get from the students using the public facilities".

"Alright, I will head out in fifteen minutes, Arona, arrange for supplies for Abydos for the next week or so, and prepare the helicopter, once that's done open the facilities meant for the public at large, Sierra, come back to the Tri Pad".

I opened the door and began to prepare myself to leave.

"SCHALE's work begins now."

The helicopter had an autopilot functionality that would lead me straight to the high school, so I did not have to worry about carting the supplies by myself, as much as I didn't mind, I doubted the students had that much time. Looking at the windows of the helicopter from the passenger's seat I saw what would have been Abydos's district, it looked like a luddic settlement in the middle of an arid planet precisely on the place with the least amount of water, sand was present in every single street I could see from above, even from here, having a short sleeved suit made out of linen, specifically made for hotter climates, I could feel the desert heat. Unfortunately for me I wouldn't be enjoying the air con for longer since Arona already warned me that we were approaching the school, looking from outside I saw the schoolyard with the building itself, a white, three storey building with two wings, a courtyard and some annexes for whatever purpose they needed them for, there were also five figure standing outside looking at the helicopter, armed as it seemed, I instinctively gripped my grey gauss rifle but calmed myself, these were students and the fact that the minigun wasn't shooting at me meant they probably knew I wasn't an enemy.

"Sensei, we have arrived" announced Arona.

"Prepare for touchdown, captain, thank you for flying with Sierra Flights, we hope you enjoyed your stay with us" 'announced' Sierra.

The helicopter touched down and I began carting out the supplies, when I left the helicopter it was only then that I saw what a sad state the school was in, sand covered the entrance, the pool it had was dried up and covered in sand, the buildings were in varying degrees of disrepair, its as if it was abandoned some months ago, in front of me were the students, but when my eyes went to one of them I suddenly had a severe feeling of nausea, I suddenly saw a woman pointing a gun at me, crying as she did.

"Captain is something wrong?" asked Sierra from the Tri Pad's speaker.

"No, nothing, Sierra" I replied, shaking my head, "apologies, it's been some time since I went in a helicopter" I said to everyone, one of the students, a short haired brunette with elven ears, wearing a black school uniform with the blazer unbuttoned revealing a yellow sweater and wearing red glasses too, came forward.

"Sensei? Are you from SCHALE?" she asked in a hopeful voice.

"I received your message, sorry for not responding, I was in a meeting and decided to come right away, advisor Martin Livesey, one of the advisors of SCHALE and also a teacher, what you girls would know as a Sensei, and here are your supplies" I announced, patting one of the boxes in the big cart.

"It really is him, one of the teachers who saved the city?" asked another of the students, this one had cat features, tail and ears and long black hair styled into two twin tails, and wore exclusively the school uniform, she came forward and started inspecting me with narrowed eyes, "he looks like a bureaucrat from the GSC, way too shady, the GSC wouldn't come unless they wanted something" while I couldn't blame her for making that mistake given that the uniform I had with me wasn't the one I used as Executor of the Combine but the one that portrayed me as an advisor of SCHALE, with it and the GSC having similar colour schemes, it still hurt my pride as Executor that she confused me for a mere desk clerk.

"Ouch, what a way to hurt my pride as an advisor" I replied dryly.

"Now, now, Serika, this is clearly Sensei, and look, he even brought supplies, we shouldn't judge too harshly" spoke softly another girl from the back, she had long blonde hair loosely wearing a yellow cardigan and forgoing the black blazer, she was also big in all respects, mature looking and towering over the other students.

"Mmh, Nonomi's right" said another student from behind, inspecting the supplies, "all the ammo matches our weapons, he clearly did some research".

"You are right" I trailed off.

"Shiroko, Shiroko Sunaookami" she replied with a small smile, I frowned at her name, Shiroko the sand wolf? I guess she doesn't have wolf ears for nothing, still, what family has the name 'sand wolf'? Shaking my head, I turned to her.

"You are right miss Sunaookami, I did some research on your academy and was about to propose a way to help you girls out before miss Okusura's letter came in, I know about your gang problem as well as for your current erm" I chose my words carefully, the debt issue must be rather sensitive considering I can only see them and no one else in the school "money problems".

"ueeeh, you don't have to mince words, sensei" called a lazy-sounding voice from behind, a short girl with long pink hair and heterochromatic eyes was the owner of the voice, she, like the blonde girl, was only wearing the white shirt instead of the full uniform, and while she looked lazy I could notice how she was looking at my gauss rifle holstered on my back, "we know how bad we have it here, the mere fact you brought supplies is already a weight of our backs, now we can kick those Kata-Kata jerks where it hurts the most" she said, I wasn't fooled by her take-it-easy attitude, Griselda did just that and she was one of my most competent subordinates right behind Jen, its just that whenever I see her she seems to be taking a nap, this girl, was almost the same, she has seen some stuff and did some stuff she would rather keep hidden

"Takahashi Hoshino, sensei, and the rest are Kuromi Serika and Izayoi Nonomi, alongside Shiroko and Ayane we form the Foreclosure Task force." Just then I heard gunshots, making everyone tense.

"That must be them, everyone, resupply and get your buts in gear" cried the black-haired girl, Serika, as she went to the crate to grab more ammunition.

"Uugh, just as I thought we could get some time to relax, well, at least we have the supplies to kick them out, thanks for that by the way" complained Hoshino.

"Are you willing to do more than that?"

My question confused everyone, making them stop what they are doing, everyone save for Hoshino who immediately widened her eyes at the implication of my question, I unholstered my gauss rifle and switched it on, the lights on it shinning ominously signifying that the magnets were on, "you are probably outnumbered but you just got fresh supplies, you kick those scoundrels out of your school, you are now resupplied and have an officer to lead you and are at full strength, want to finish them off?" I said with a grin, the pink haired girl immediately matched my grin with one of her own.

"Heh, here that Serika, this is no desk clerk, well Martin-sensei, if you are willing to put the extra effort then little ol' Hoshino will have to grease her shoulder a bit more than normal too".

I stand by my assessment that this was a girl that wasn't what she looked like, like Griselda she had far too much responsibility for her to be lazy. Takahashi Hoshino, I hope you don't disappoint.

"Be careful everyone, they are right by the wall!" warned Ayane, using drones remotely controlled using a portable terminal she was using inside the school building, "they are around thirty helmet gangers".

"Not a problem" I replied, "everyone, follow what I said earlier" I said through an intercom provided by wireless ear buds we all put in before heading out, thirty enemies, I dealt with far worse odds, I wasn't a Kassadari Knight Errant for nothing and these girls obviously knew how to work as a squad, resupplied as they were, against a band of jumped up delinquents, we could kick them back home and then ransack their home, take what they had and leave without them being able to do anything about it.

"Shiroko" I called to the girl right behind me, leaning on the wall opposite to said helmet gangers.

"mmh" she said simply as she took a grenade and with the pin pulled, threw it over the fence, not waiting for an explosion I left immediately with Nonomi in tow, just as I passed through the gate the grenade exploded in the middle of a group of girls wearing biker helmets, standing right by a car with Nonomi climbing on top of it I let hell loose upon the poor devils, the soft daka daka noises made by my gauss cannon contrasting with the constant aggressive buzzing of the powder machine gun of Nonomi, lifting that gun like its nothing and swaying it from left to right with a smile on her face.

"Here goes Nonomi!" she cried, between the both of us we cut down about sixteen contacts, but here came the kicker, while Nonomi had to recharge I was still firing on the gangers that had taken cover for a few seconds before I had to dive back to cover to recharge. Gauss guns, unlike powder guns, don't have to deal with case ammunition, ammo being rid of the case meant that the bullet was rid of more than half its mass and size, effectively doubling the amount of bullets you could fit in a magazine without sacrificing firepower and turning even a light gauss rifle like I was using, albeit modified with extra magnets and bullets made out of special alloys, into a veritable machine gun that could pierce even military vehicles without appropriate plating.

"They are going for us, go!" I cried.

Just as I slotted a mag, Hoshino and the rest of the girls came to the fray right when I called them, Serika and Shiroko laying down a heavy and accurate barrage of lead and gunpowder on the gangers that were advancing on Nonomi and my position, when I rose another five had been taken down.

"How, how are we getting our asses kicked? We outnumbered them five to one" cried a red-helmeted girl, then one of her subordinates pointed at me.

"I saw that guy in the news, he is the one that fought Wakamo, one of the Seven prisoners, with an invisible sword!"

"Really? Oh boy, we are so screwed" the girl couldn't continue relating her impending doom when she received a buckshot point blank from Hoshino. The whole engagement barely lasted a minute.

"Incredible, barely any ammunition wasted and no casualties!"

"Its because of Sensei, he handled tactics and support while also leading from the front" enumerated Shiroko the 'sand wolf' with no small amount of awe, I can't get over that name honestly.

"Heh, you almost sound like a schoolgirl with a crush, Shiroko" giggled Hoshino, nudging her on the side with her elbow and making the former hide her mouth with the scarf, isn't she hot?

"Now, now, Hoshino-sempai, Shiroko is right, Sensei was amazing today, he even fired longer than my mini NÂș 5.

"Right, yeah, that was awesome, what's that gun about and can I get one?" asked Hoshino, I chuckled.

"I'll tell you later when we're done, for now loot them for anything valuable".

"Gather all their phones and weapons".

"Do as she say, we're moving out as soon as you're done".

The girls did all that and then we moved out, passing through the sandblasted streets after sandblasted street, oh my word, this was worse than I thought, maybe I'd understand a bit if there had been a raid or a recent invasion that barely got repelled, but I didn't get that, what I saw resembled more a natural disaster than anything else, the streets were deserted and there was sand creeping through every nook and cranny, there was even sand in the concrete cracks and you could tell who still lived inside the streets by looking at which porches had sand and which ones didn't. This wasn't normal, I've heard of planets that lost their stellar mirrors or reflectors become even worse, with entire megacities collapsing into chaos in a matter of hours and the planet as whole needing outside assistance just to survive. The state of the district resembled that, what happened here? A failed terraforming experiment? It certainly looked unnatural, and I refuse to believe that the planners built in the middle of a desert with no resources to speak off.

"Yeah, it doesn't look pretty, does it?" asked Hoshino, noticing me looking around the streets we were walking through.

"It looks like it was made intentionally" I thought out loud, making Hoshino's eyes widen in surprise for a second.

Soon enough we reached their territory, we pretty much ambushed small groups and tore them apart piecemeal, figuratively speaking of course. Reason for such a tactic was to make sure that we would only have to deal with whatever was in the base with no hopes of reinforcements for them. It would have been time consuming had it not been for Ayane spotting the squads before we could, it still took three day and by the time we reached their base, or rather 'base', we were entering the afternoon, their base was dreadful, it wasn't even a building, they just set up shop around a park and used whatever they could get their hands on as barricades and fortifications, tires, sandbags, cinder blocks, flimsy looking chain-link fences plus a poor excuse of a sentry tower with a sniper on top. The girls didn't have anything to deal with the sniper, but I did, fiddling, flipping the safety switch two times up and my gauss rifle's LEDs started to glow red instead of blue, this was its sniper mode, doubling its range and firepower while making it effectively semi-automatic due to the extra strain on the magnets.

"Shiroko, when I headshot that sniper, throw a grenade at the people at the entrance, Nonomi, at the same time, start suppressing them, the rest of you" I said as I took aim, while a scope would have been nice its not like I needed it, iron sights were good enough for the distance I was in, I settled the rifle on the car wreck we were hiding under and with a shot I hit the girl, the shot was powerful enough to not only knock her out instantly but also stagger her and make her fall down the tower, in that same instant Shiroko and Nonomi came out of cover, the former throwing her grenade and the latter spinning up her machine gun, in a perfect example of coordination, they did it in such a way that the explosion and the machine gun fire started at the same time, dropping a few girls and making the other ones flee for more robust cover as Nonomi's fire tore throw the more flimsy barricades.

"Hoshino, show me what you're made of" I said.

"Heee, time to move forward then" the briefcase she had turned out to be a compactable shield with extra ammo and grenades, laying her shotgun on the shield she moved out, blasting accurate fire on the dazed enemies, I swear her shotgun was firing more powerful shots than normal, is this part of the mysterious powers these girls had?

"Your time in our district ends now, jerks!" announced Serika as blue flames that somehow didn't burn her flared around her, lending her increased strength to her bullets and reflexes, enough that she recharged and fired almost as fast as Nonomi, between her and Shiroko's modified drone that shoot micro missiles, Serika whizzing past and shooting at stragglers point blank and Hoshino being an overall unstoppable force, the gangers had no chance.

"All contacts down, we did it, we can take their supplies and say we finished them off!" happily announced our elven operator, while the girls had their celebrations, suddenly I had an idea, a cheeky one, and what an idea it was. I walked up to the girls and cleared my throat.

"Say, I want to join in on the fun, so how about this? We take a group photo showing off some of our loot, even better if they have a banner or something, I'll post it on my official account, that way maybe you get to attract attention from the right people" I proposed, grinning like a madman, Nonomi pretty much beamed.

"Yay, Sensei will take a photo with us!".

"I suppose we do deserve some bragging rights, especially when we made such a 180, right, Shiroko, look in the base and see if there is a flag or something they used as a symbol, worst-case scenario we just take one of their helmets." Ordered Hoshino, Shiroko nodded and went inside the base.

"Ugh, do we really have to do this?" complained Serika.

"Yes, we just kicked the buts of the Helmet Gang, I think we deserve to feel a bit good about ourselves, don't underestimate how bragging about a job well done can make you feel Serika" replied Hoshino sagely.

"Oh, and I hope you don't mind, but after this is over, I'm taking the red girl over to SCHALE, there are a few questions I want to ask her" I piped up pointing at an unconscious girl right by the entrance of the 'base'.

"I'll pile up some blocks so Sensei's phone can take a good photo" said Nonomi running towards a few cinder blocks.

"Make sure to add another to support the phone, I'll have to time it!" I called back, Hoshino then turned to me.

"Well, Sensei, not gonna lie, that was some fine leadership you did there" she commented, still with that sleepy smile of hers as if she didn't just plough through an entire mob of gangers.

"Nah, I did almost nothing, its just you girls are good, I've given less orders to you than in a normal operation made by the space marines I contracted".

"What, like marines but in space?" I smiled at her question.

"Oh, my student, you have no idea what type of place I come from" Serika raised an eyebrow.

"What, are you some sort of alien?" she asked in a tone of scepticism. I grinned, my inner joker coming to the fore.

"Yes, I am what you terrestrial organisms would call an alien, this body that resembles yours is simply the result of quick and temporary genetic therapy, I have helped you now, please take me to the highest authority of this planet" I said in a monotone voice, earning snickers from Hoshino and making Serika's eyes twitch.

"Sensei, that was horrible" commented the pink-haired narcoleptic.

"Your junior started it, I've made far worse wisecracks, quips and jokes for far less, be glad I held back for being my student".

"Gee, thanks, little green man" replied the cat girl.

"No problem, earthling" I replied, "now, are you done being moody? Because Shiroko and Nonomi are almost done it seems" I said looking at both girls, Shiroko brought in a banner.

"Here, it was on a wooden post that was broken by my grenades" she said, unfurling it revealed a black biker helmet crossed over with two assault rifles I could recognize the katakana for 'Kata-Kata Helmet Gang' at the top in big red letters, wow, talk about being edgy.

"Sensei, I'm done, we cane make the photo whenever!" called Nonomi.

"Perfect, I'll come here and unblock my phone".

I did just that and gave her my phone, she set it on the ad hoc tower leaning on a cinder block, fiddled with it for a moment and then ran back.

"I set the timer to fifteen seconds, unfurl the banner!"

"Argh, get off me, I'm the shortest one, I should be at the front" complained Serika, a bit of shuffling and we finally had the perfected set up, the phone flashed us, and I went to look at it, Hoshino and Serika were holding the banner, Nonomi and Shiroko were at my sides, I smiled.

"How do we look; how do we look?" asked the blonde-haired machine gun user.

"Like utter badasses" I replied, "I'm sending this to you all and posting it on my official account, phenomenal work today, girls, if my money was convertible to yens right now, I'd treat you all to dinner."

"You can do that whenever you get money Sensei, its not like we are starving, now, we're burning daylight we don't have, lets get back to school, girls!" announced Hoshino, we walked back in good spirits, while we were walking, I opened the Momotalk social media program.

"You were amazing back there, Sensei, its almost like you did this before" cried Arona in awe, I snorted softly.

"I in fact did".

"Will you tell me where you did it all?"

"Tomorrow, Arona, I will tomorrow, when everyone else hears it," I replied.

On my account I posted the group photo and a message.

"Had a call of help from Abydos, I arrived as fast as I could and lead these girls to kick out the Helmet Gang, this is what victory looks like" I typed and clicked post, yeah, SCHALE's work had just begun.