• The Mission


    The room exploded in one giant “What?!”
    The Colonel held his hands up in front of his face and the room quieted itself. “The Narathian Military is looking for new recruits so we rounded up you twenty-eight for your particular talents,”
    Yenek raised an eyebrow “What do you mean `talents’?”
    “I’m not at liberty to say, now on to the mission,” the Colonel replied “You will spilt into seven teams of four, each team will be given an orb to protect, then you will be taken to a location in Cameo Desert, you will be given supplies to build a fort and defend yourselves in anyway you choose, the object is to capture the other six orbs and then return to base.” the Colonel explained.
    Yenek again had a question “How will we know how to get back?”
    The Colonel shrugged “That’s for you to figure out once you have all seven orbs,” he said “Now form into teams of four, once you have your teammates go to a truck and you will be taken to your location,”
    Yenek looked at Nhoj “Well we’re definitely together,” he said “Is Belac around here Kyo should be,”
    Nhoj easily looked over the crowd and saw Belac and Kyo coming towards them “Seems they’ve found me,”
    Belac and Kyo worked their way through the crowd and met up with Yenek and Nhoj, the four smirked “We’ve got our team,” they said in unison.
    Yenek nodded “Alright, lets go get a truck,” he said and led the group over to a truck where a soldier was waiting.
    “This is your group?” the solider asked.
    Yenek nodded “That’s right,”
    The soldier opened the back of the truck revealing seats and supplies “Get in.”
    Yenek climbed in first followed by Kyo, Nhoj and finally Belac. Once all four were inside the soldier closed the door behind them and then went up to the cab. The engine sounded and the truck was off to its location within the desert. Within the trailer Yenek had taken off his shirt and was pulling on a tan Tabard. Belac looked to his smaller friend “So what happens if we lose this game?” he asked.
    Yenek looked back to Belac as he got into the Tabard “We die,” he said blankly
    Kyo looked turned his attention to Yenek “What?!” he demanded
    Yenek thought about how to explain the situation “Well the Colonel didn’t limit the amount of force we were to use to obtain the orbs, he drafted us into the army before sending us out so there’s no liability if we die out there, and even if a team is merciful and leaves us unconscious; the beasts that live in Cameo Desert wouldn’t hesitate to make a meal of us,” he explained “But I have a plan for the six teams we defeat to keep them safe,” he added “I’m not falling into this scheme of theirs,”
    The four gathered supplies for themselves: Nhoj kept his normal clothes and packed a backpack of rations and utensils to cook with along with brass knuckles and steel-toed boots, Belac also kept his normal clothes and filed his pockets with snacks, Kyo didn’t touch anything, Yenek strapped War and Peace to his hips so the two sheathes crossed behind his rear, he had taken a cache of grenades that was strapped diagonally across his torso and one empty gallon bottle.
    The truck stopped and Yenek looked to the others, “Alright you guys hop out I’m gonna see if I can’t get some information outta the driver.”
    Nhoj nodded “Need some more persuasion?”
    Yenek shook his head “I got it,”
    The other three got out of the truck and shut the back doors, they looked at the area surrounding them, and Kameo Desert was a barren wasteland expanded by Kluth’s Neutrality Explosion. The remaining energy from Kluth’s final attack attracted many demons and monsters making it a very deadly place to hold this mission. After a few moments Yenek emerged from the truck and attracted attention to himself, now wearing a large backpack “Hope everyone’s ready,”
    Nhoj, Belac and, Kyo turned “Why?” Nhoj asked
    “’Cause everything else is on the truck,”
    “What about the fort?!” Kyo demanded
    Yenek shook his head “Forts can’t move. If we build one and place our orb in it at least one of us will have to stay behind to guard it, which brings us down to three scouts. If a team doesn’t build a fort they can carry the small orb and hunt down the three-man scout squads and then simply overrun the fort once they have information enough to find it,” he explained “So we’ll be that four man hunter squad, and when we find the trios-”
    “We kick their asses,”
    “Well put Belac,”
    “Sounds like a plan,” Nhoj said
    Yenek and company began to move out into the desert and started looking for other groups. It wasn’t long before they found their first victims, the group was three guys and one girl, the girl was guarding the fort, Yenek and Nhoj were all that was needed to defeat the scouts and Belac easily disposed of the girl in the fort. Yenek smiled as Belac brought the girl out, Yenek pulled out a very large tan colored sheet and laid it over the four-person squad. “Okay now we need to find a big monster Kyo,” he said
    Nhoj looked at Yenek “Why?” he asked
    “So we can beat the hell out of it and get some of its musk to keep other monsters away,” Yenek explained.
    Yenek and Kyo walked away together, Yenek looked at Kyo “So we’ve known each other for two days and now we’re in battle together,” he said “Any reason I shouldn’t trust you?” he asked
    Kyo looked at Yenek with a surprised expression “I was wondering why you didn’t ask the others to come,” he said “Time for interrogations?”
    Yenek nodded “That’s about the size of it, so you’re an admitted thief, ever killed to get your prize,”
    Kyo shook his head “I steal from the Irokotokian military, if I tried to kill one of them I’d wind up six feet under,” he said “You don’t peg me as he overly noble type that refuses to kill why don’t you just kill the others when they try to kill you?”
    Yenek had a serious expression on his face “They aren’t real soldiers killing them here would be murder,” he said “If we make it back alive without winning and the military has to cover this operation up then I don’t want to be responsible for anything illegal,” he said “Asking me to kill them just makes you all the more untrustworthy by the way,”
    Kyo laughed “I don’t think so, I think it means I’m honest, that’s my opinion, fight with equal force,” he said kindly “If you wanna distrust me there’s not much I can do about it but prove myself in battle again and again so lets go find that monster,”
    The pair continued onward looking for a beast to fight; Kyo finally spotted a beast large enough to impose on other monsters, a Manticore. Kyo activated his weapon and Yenek drew War and Peace, the two charged and jumped. Kyo slashed and the beast howled in agony, Yenek deepened the wound and added another, it fell and began to bleed out, “Find the musk glands,” he said.
    Kyo and Yenek both searched and Kyo finally found the right area “They’re back here,” he said from behind the monster’s tail. Yenek came over and quickly removed the glands, then put them into his empty gallon jug and back into the book bag. The pair returned to Nhoj and Belac and Yenek pulled out the glands and squeezed some of the liquid from them to keep other beasts away from the unconscious teens “Alright shall we continue?” he asked his friends.
    “Sure thing,” Nhoj said with a nod and the group moved out.
    They moved through the desert at an ever slowing pace, the sun was not being kind to them, Belac pulled at the collar of his hoodie as he sweated like a pig “Man it’s hot out here,”
    “It’s a desert, you probably shouldn’t have worn a jacket,” Nhoj growled as he to sweat, so much that his trench coat was showing his perspiration.
    “Hey! You’re wearing a jacket to,”
    “Yes, but I’m not whining about the heat,”
    “Oh forget it I’m too tired to keep going!” Belac whined
    Yenek looked around through his sweat sodden hair “This place is to open to set up camp,” he said “We need to find a better place to sleep,”
    Kyo pointed to their left “Looks like a lake over there,” he said “An oasis should make for decent cover, though another group may already be there,”
    Yenek nodded “Alright then lets move out and be ready to take a camp site by force.” he said and the group moved toward the oasis.
    As the group neared the oasis Nhoj took the lead, he pushed through the brush around the pool and kept an eye out for other groups. The giant held out an arm to silently tell the others to stop, which they did. Once the group was together Nhoj reached out and pulled in a squirming teen.
    “Ju-Just take the orb and leave me alone,” he whined as Nhoj held onto him.
    Yenek shook his head “Oh no it’s not that simple,” he said coldly “First you’re going to tell us where the rest of your group is,”
    The smaller teen gulped “They went to go get some water,” he gasped “Now lemme go!” he demanded.
    Nhoj tightened his grip for a second and the kid fell unconscious. Once they got the orb off the kid they smirked and went over to the lake. They found three girls bathing; Yenek and company went back to the sole male member of the team and waited it out. The girls came back, now fully dressed, to meet their guard to find four others waiting with his unconscious body. Nhoj stood and shook his head “Sorry ladies,” he said and then smashed their heads together, knocking all three of them out. Yenek went through his things and found a green sheet and draped it over the group and musked it.
    “Time to set up camp,” Nhoj said “Who’s got a tent?”
    Yenek raised his hand and opened his book bag “Got one right-s**t,” he growled “Gonna need all these tarps later,” he said “Used the only green one,” he added “Looks like a night under the stars, who wants first watch?”
    Belac raised his hand “I’ll do it,” he said cheerfully.
    Nhoj nodded “Alright but you have to stay awake Belac, no sleeping until one of us comes to relief you.”
    Belac found a nice rock to sit on and keep watch while Yenek went around the camp site and dug holes. Kyo looked at Nhoj “So what do ya think’s gonna happen when this is over?” he asked.
    Nhoj shrugged “I dunno,” he replied “I guess we’ll be in the military for a while after we win,”
    Yenek returned, no longer wearing his cache of grenades “Well then we’ll move up the ranks and then we’ll make sue no one has to do this sort of s**t again.” he told the other two.
    I wasn’t long before the three fell asleep, leaving Belac to watch for a while. He sat on his rock and kept an eye on the tarp where he knew the other group was covered. He then scanned the rest of the area when a gunshot found his ears. Belac looked off into the distance but couldn’t see where it was coming from. He decided it was some distance away, the sound just carried well in this wasteland.
    Meanwhile elsewhere in the desert another group was in serious trouble. One of their own had taken his shotgun and blasted another of the group into oblivion. The murderer stood tall over the other two, one of which spoke up, he wore all black, his outfit consisting mainly of fishnet and leather “Du-Dude we should be killing the other teams not each other,” he pleaded.
    The murderer responded by blowing off the pleader’s arm. The pleader howled in pain but managed to speak again “C.H. take the orb and run!” he shouted.
    The other of the group, a very pale young man with no shirt, tight black jeans and a Mohawk that curled towards the top, took their orb and ran for his life. The murderer was quickly on his tail and once C.H. fell he turned around to see the barrel of the murderer’s shotgun in his face. “Smile,” the murderer said in a cold tone.
    However the one-arm member of the team has also given chase and leveled a handgun behind the murderer’s head and spoke out “Drop your weapon and kneel,”
    The murder kneeled.
    “Drop your weapon!”
    “No,” right as the murderer spoke he fell to his left, at the same moment the one-armed teen pulled the trigger, putting a bullet right into C.H.’s forehead. The murderer then quickly turned and put the shotgun barrel in the one-armed teen’s mouth “Now there’s a smile,” he coaxed and then pulled his trigger.
    The murderer wiped the blood from his shotgun, making sure the yellow smile-face above the trigger guard shined in the moonlight. Wings sprouted from his back and he took off into the night.
    Meanwhile back at Narathian Headquarters, the lead officers from each branch of the military gathered. The group all looked down upon the young colonel who had explained the mission to the teens taking part in the desert mission. “How is the mission advancing?” asked one of the commanders.
    “Everything seems to be going smoothly, some teams have already been evacuated by the stealth corps, and many were well hidden and protected from monsters. However it seems a demon has infiltrated the mission and is killing off some of the soldiers.” reported the colonel.
    “A few casualties in an effort to restore the greatest fighting force in the history of Narathu,” replied the Commander in Chief.
    The colonel nodded “Shall I increase Stealth Corps activity to protect the losers?”
    “So ordered,” replied one of the other commanders.
    The colonel saluted the commanders and then left the room to fill out his orders, though he decided he would go out with the next group.
    The next morning Yenek woke to relieve Belac of the watch, it was still very early, the sun had just started to rise; he found Belac snoozing and was about to smack him to wake him up when he noticed a red light in between his eyes. Yenek acted quickly, he tackled his friend just as the sound of a rifle cracked through the air and a bullet hole in the cliff face were Belac’s head had been resting. “Guys wake up!” Yenek shouted “We’re under attack!” he added to hasten his friends.
    Nhoj and Kyo awoke and immediate stood with their friends to find the source of the attack. Yenek belly crawled back to the rock they had been using as a chair for the watchman and pulled one of two strings, four grenades went off kicking up a large amount of sand to create a smokescreen. Yenek then looked to his friends through the sand “When I say so run to my left,” he said quickly grasping the other string “Now!” he shouted and pulled the second string to his right another explosion went off as his friends ran.
    The shooter’s attention was immediately drawn to the second explosion “A cover smokescreen, “The shooter mumbled “This team is clever,”
    Yenek waited a second and threw his last grenade toward the second set of grenades, creating a foe path before he went off to follow his friends.
    The shooter saw the third smokescreen and frowned “That’s not anywhere near large en-” the shooter immediately focused the scope on the area opposite the third explosion “s**t!” the shooter hissed and grabbed a hand-held radio “They got away from me take care them,”
    Yenek caught up to his group without a shot being fired in his direction “Well that was interesting,” he panted as he caught his breath “But it looks like we got away,”
    “Let’s not let our guard down, there’s still three more of them,” Kyo advised.