“It shouldn’t be long now.”

“Oh, finally,” Captain Travis exclaimed in relief. “We’ve been trapped in this car all day!”

“What are you complaining about, Captain?” Hackett replied, “you aren’t even the one who’s going to have to sneak over several kilometers under the cover of night!”

“Ha! True, true.”

As Hackett and Travis continued bantering in the back seats of the hovercar over MacTavish between them, Ralak — who was driving — offered a wary side-glance toward Saito, in the passenger seat. “…We’re about to be scoutin’ out a Bleeder base. Is your team not wary?” she questioned.

“This is just their typical pre-mission bluster,” Saito responded, returning Ralak’s glance before looking out over the passing wastelands; nothing but dusty sands could be seen for kilometers in every direction. “This won’t be the first time we’ve faced off against Chaotics. And the Bleeders don’t strike me as the most capable of opponents.”

“You might be surprised…”

“Maybe. I’m not saying that we’re going to be reckless, of course. While we’re on the topic — just how many of the Bleeders are Chaotics?”

“…I’m not sure,” Ralak said, after a moment of thought. “Most Bleeders ain’t Chaotics at all. Most groups will only have a couple with ‘em. With this base, though… hard to say.”

“Where would you expect the Chaotics to be? In the center of the base? Standing guard?”

“The boss of the base will be in the center, for sure. And maybe one or two of his lackeys. The rest of the Chaotics will be standin’ guard, along with the non-Chaotic Bleeders.”

“Alright. That should make this easy.”

“Easy?” Ralak echoed incredulously, “Bleeders put Chaotics on guard duty ‘cause they’re better at it than non-Chaotics. Mixin’ ‘em with non-Chaotic guards also makes it impossible to tell who’s a Chaotic and who ain’t until they actually attack you. I don’t see what’s easy about any of this.”

“What makes it easy is that we have CENT fields,” Saito replied. “That, and a skilled sniper. The Bleeders won’t know what hit them.”

“…Portable CENT fields ain’t that common around here, so I guess you’re right. Still… we’ll need to be careful.”

“Oh, we’ll be plenty careful, don’t you worry,” Travis interjected from the back.

“I have to ask, though,” Hackett spoke up, “what’s the likelihood that we run into Strén or his two lieutenants?”

“I don’t know…” Ralak admitted. “If this base is their main base, then I’d say it’s likely. But we don’t know if it is. I didn’t even know it existed until hearin’ from Olkath…”

“How reliable is this intel?”

“Olkath never checks out this kinda info on his own, so it might be flawed. But I know him, and he doesn’t hand out lies on purpose — it’d be ‘bad for business’, he always says. I don’t doubt there’s a Bleeder base where we’re headed. I just don’t know how big it’ll be.”

“So you’ve worked with Olkath before?” Saito questioned. “How often?”

“We go back pretty far…” Ralak said, and then fell silent for a moment, her brow furrowed — as though deciding whether or not to continue speaking. A second later, she slowly added, “…we both led small groups of Bleeders. We heard of each other long before we ever saw each other, which first happened… …when we joined up under Strén, 20 years ago.”

“…You worked for Strén?” Hackett repeated, her voice growing tense.

“It was a stupid, terrible idea, and I did stupid, terrible things when I was with the Bleeders,” Ralak replied. “I’ve since seen how much of a stupid bitch I was, but I won’t make excuses for the me of the past. I know I can’t ever be forgiven, not completely.”

“Does this have to do with your nickname?” Saito asked. “Or Olkath’s?”

A pained expression crossed Ralak’s face, only for her to take a deep breath. “…I suppose you deserve to know my past, if we’re gonna be workin’ together like this.”

All four members of CSF-1 responded with silence, cautiously eying Ralak as they patiently waited for her to continue.

“…Those nicknames you heard…” she commented, passing Saito a quick glance before returning her attention to driving. “…It ain’t uncommon for Bleeders or people livin’ in the wastes to come up with those kinds of names for notorious people. Like how Davídrius is the Sentry, ‘cause he’s one of the most important Compound Guardians Treséd has seen; and Selind is the Ghost of Light, since you never know she’s watchin’ you ‘til a laser blows someone’s head off — and then she’s gone before you can catch her. Well… Olkath was the Butcher of Rek since he led a raid on an old Compound named Rek. Killed all the people inside, and took the place over as his own base. Was the first time a Compound had been completely wiped out by Bleeders in a long time… some even say Olkath’s raid on Rek inspired Strén.”

“And now, he’s just an information broker?” Hackett frowned. “You’ll have to excuse me if I find that suspicious.”

“The rise and fall of Strén — the first time ‘round — left a lot of Bleeders thinkin’ about the way they live,” Ralak explained. “A lot of ‘em realized that what the Bleeders do really is fucked up… I was one of those. Others just decided that they didn’t wanna go out like Strén, and that the best way to do that was to turn to ‘legit’ jobs. That’s Olkath.”

“Alright. But you’ve only been talking about Olkath. What about you?”

“…People called me the Willthief. Long story short, I used my Imperator Psychotechnism to toy with people. To… break them. …See, my own Imperator powers seem more, uh… ‘fine’ than most. When I take control of a person, I can control their movements just as easily as if I were in their body, while keepin’ full control of my own body. That kind of control was like I was stealin’ folks’ free will, so… Willthief.”

“And what, exactly, did you force people to do?” Hackett pressed.

“Major…” Travis quietly said, glancing uneasily between Hackett and Ralak.

“It’s fine…” Ralak stated. “…But, at the same time, I try not to think too hard about what I actually did to people. The me who enjoyed doin’ that shit is still inside me, somewhere. I’ve buried her… but dwellin’ too much can bring her back, sometimes. Just know that what I did to people… it was humiliatin’. Degradin’. And sometimes… lethal.”

“So you still get the urge to act out?” Hackett questioned. “Do Davídrius and Selind know that?”

“Of course they know that, I don’t hide anythin’ from ‘em. They’re the only reasons I got a second chance at life,” Ralak shot back. “…To be honest, I still don’t know why they trust me. But as long as they do, I’ll try my damnedest to live up to their expectations. It’s the least I can do.”

“That attitude is probably why they trust you,” Saito said. “But your… ‘urges’, I guess we’re calling them. How often do you get those?”

“…Rarely. Very rarely. These gloves…” Ralak nodded down at her arms, at the black gloves that fully covered her hands and forearms. “…They do a surprisin’ly good job of keepin’ myself in check. I’ve never lost myself while wearin’ ‘em.”

“I’ve always wondered about your gloves…” Travis said. “Is there some kind of tech in them, or something? Or a sedative?”

Ralak shook her head. “No. They’re just regular gloves.”

“Huh? How do they help, then?”

“Imperators, like me — I’m sure you know how our Chaotic ability works. If somethin’ touches us, then we can take total control of that thing for a short time. I can use my ability no matter where on my body I’m touched, so long as there’s skin contact… but that doesn’t change the fact that the easiest way for me to touch somethin’ myself, is to reach out with my own hands. These gloves stop that. Make me think twice before I try to control somethin’.”

“…I see…” Travis responded uneasily.

“This would’ve been nice to know before embarking on a mission with you,” Hackett said.

“I’m sorry…” Ralak’s brow furrowed, though she kept her attention on the drive in front of her. “…You’re right. I should’ve told you earlier. I guess you can’t trust me, now, can you?”

“Well, Davídrius and Selind trust you,” Saito pointed out. “For now, that’s enough. Besides, even if you did turn on us, your Imperator powers won’t work on us through our energy shielding.”

“…I guess you’re right.”

“I won’t deny that I would’ve liked to have heard this earlier, but I’m glad you told us, anyways,” Saito continued. “If you really are able to take fine control over people, then that could be very useful for raiding the Bleeder base.”

“I’d… really rather not,” Ralak responded with a grimace. “I can use my powers in a fight just fine. But takin’ full control of a person is… no good.”

“…I see. Alright, then. It doesn’t change our plans either way.”

“Speaking of plans…” Travis spoke up, turning around in his seat while using his binoculars to peer through the hovercar’s rear window. “…What do we do if we see Liask or Obra? They don’t seem to have been following us today, but you never know…”

“If we happen to see them, then we’ll subdue them with CENT fields, just like we plan to do with the Bleeders,” Saito replied. “Just, without the bullet to the head afterward.”

“…I’m sorry again, Colonel,” Ralak apologized. “If we here in Treséd were better on top of our own issues, then you wouldn’t need to go through all this effort for us…”

“Don’t worry about that. After all, the entire point of having allies is helping each other in times of need, isn’t it?”

Ralak glanced at Saito in surprise, but the Colonel continued staring forward, as if what he had just said was the most obvious thing in the world. “…Guess so, Colonel,” Ralak eventually replied.

A brief moment of silence fell over the car as Ralak continued driving over the sandy wastes, with the sun already low on the western horizon. In the silence, Travis turned to look through his binoculars at the distant horizon in front of the hovercar, at which point he tapped the back of Ralak’s seat.

“I think I see the base…” he commented, while still peering through his binoculars. “…Yeah, that’s definitely a base.”

“Alright, then…” Ralak muttered, quickly bringing the hovercar to a stop and shutting it down.

“So we’re finally here,” Saito remarked, and then turned to address everyone in the car. “Alright, everyone. Double-check your equipment. Once the sun is down, we’ll proceed stealthily — without the car — toward that base, just like we planned. Travis, MacTavish, the two of you will stop two kilos out of the base, while the Major, Ralak, and I will continue on. Everything after that will go as we discussed, earlier. The moment we leave this car, comms become mission-critical, only. Everyone got that?”

“Yes sir,” replied Hacket, Travis, and MacTavish.

“I’ll follow your lead,” Ralak said.

“Good to hear,” Saito replied. “…Now… let’s get ready.”

---

Several Hours Later

“…On Charlie, set.”

«Roger. Spotting Charlie.»

“Roger. Three…”

Speaking so softly as to be nearly imperceptible, Saito cautiously eyed a lone guard standing within a mere few meters of him — yet utterly unaware of his presence. The dark of night, combined with Saito’s desert camouflage, masked his position against the walls of the Bleeder base while he grasped a small device in front of him.

“Two—“

As soon as he spoke the number, Saito activated the device. To him, the device seemed to do nothing at all, but as soon as he activated it, the guard nearby began looking around — as though surprised by something.

“—One.”

And then, before the guard ever had the chance to lay eyes on Saito, a bullet from afar found its mark on the guard’s forehead, instantly killing him. As his body collapsed backwards, Saito quickly reached up to grab it and quietly guide its descent to the ground, where he quickly laid it in such a way to hide the blood pooling out of its head. “Charlie down,” Saito whispered into his comms, and then deactivated his portable CENT field and began quietly making his way toward the next guard as Hackett took her turn on the comms.

«On Golf, set,» came the Major’s voice.

«Roger. Spotting Golf,» Travis replied.

«Roger. Three, two, one…» Hackett spoke, followed by a second of silence. And then, «Golf down.»

Only four more left, the Colonel thought to himself as he slowly crawled over the sands surrounding the Bleeder base. Captain Travis’s initial binocular inspection of the base, backed up by Ralak’s own knowledge of Bleeder security precautions, suggested that there actually wasn’t much in terms of security at all — aside from the posted guards. There were no security cameras, and each guard seemed to only carry with them a single flashlight to dispel the nighttime darkness. Such dismal security made it a trivial matter for Saito, Hackett, and Ralak to stealthily approach the walled Bleeder base under the cover of night, even considering the fact that the wastelands all around were flat.

Nonetheless, it had taken almost two hours for Saito, Hackett, and Ralak to crawl over the 4 kilometers or so in between the base’s walls and where Ralak had parked the car. Even then, however, they were able to approach the walls without being detected, at which point Saito and Hackett had fanned out to begin inspecting the base’s exterior. They each did one lap of the base, utilizing their AR implants to tag and label each patrolling guard for easier identification, allowing Travis to know exactly what guard Saito or Hackett was referring to even from multiple kilometers away.

During this visual inspection, Saito was able to tell that the guards didn’t even have any comms equipment on them; additionally, Hackett managed to eavesdrop on a short conversation between two passing guards, verifying that they were indeed Bleeders. Armed with that information, the Colonel decided that an active raid of the base was more than possible, instead of simple recon. After quietly indicating as much to the rest of the team, Saito and Hackett then began to sneak up on each guard and activate a CENT field on top of them, while Travis sniped them from two kilometers out — so as to prevent the guards from hearing the sound of gunfire. Ralak remained hidden by the front gates, poised to take out any guards that left the base, while MacTavish stayed with Travis to prepare for hacking into what few computer systems the base could have.

Of the ten guards patrolling the base’s exterior, CSF-1 had already eliminated six in as many minutes, without any sign of having alerted the Bleeders to their presence.

This almost seems too easy… Saito thought to himself as he quietly crawled on his stomach toward the next guard. …But, these ARE untrained criminals we’re talking about. Ralak didn’t seem surprised to see this kind of security, at all. …I’m not quite sure how much we can trust her, but I can scarcely believe that a group like the Bleeders would be willing to sacrifice up to ten of their own Chaotics just to lure in a handful of outsiders. It’s always possible, of course, but for now… “…On Delta, set,” he whispered into his comms, having just now reached CENT field range of the next guard.

«Roger. …Spotting Delta,» replied Travis.

“Roger. Three, two—“ Saito activated his CENT field. “—one.”

Before the guard had even the slightest chance to realize his fate, Captain Travis’s excellent marksmanship created a new hole clear through the guard’s head. The body promptly slumped to the ground, where Saito caught it and let it down gingerly, to reduce any noise produced. “Delta, down,” he quietly reported before shutting down his CENT field and moving on to the last guard on his side of the base.

«…On Hotel, set,» came Hackett’s call just a few seconds later.

«Roger. Spotting Hotel,» Travis declared.

«Roger. Three, two, one… …Hotel down.»

Only two more… Saito mused as he steadily crawled across the sands. Infiltrating a desert base wasn’t high on the things he expected to do as part of CSF-1, but thankfully, the team’s training had covered a wide variety of scenarios. As SERRCom’s first — and so far, only — Chaotic Support Fireteam, SERRCom hadn’t been sure exactly what skills would be useful to CSF-1; as such, they sought to ensure that CSF-1 knew as many field skills as practically possible. That training had been useful many times over, but the Colonel still couldn’t help but be amused that his job would keep finding new things for him to do. Not to mention, we’re barely ‘supporting’ any Chaotics right now, anyways. We’re just killing them. Just goes to show that Chaotics aren’t the answer to every problem, I suppose — not poorly trained or poorly outfitted ones, anyways. Poor bastards… or at least they would be, if they weren’t busy killing, kidnapping, or otherwise humiliating the locals. Either way…

The Colonel cut short his idle thoughts as he approached the final guard he was responsible for. Just as with the previous four, he quietly approached the guard, and then whispered into his comms, “on Echo, set—?”

As soon as Saito uttered the words, and while Travis was responding with «Roger. Spotting Echo,» the guard snapped her attention toward Saito. Realizing that she had heard him, somehow, the Colonel immediately activated his portable CENT field while urgently whispering, “Roger! Three, two, one!” While he spoke, the guard made a gesture toward him — a gesture that he recognized as her trying to use her Chaotic ability. When nothing happened, however, she suddenly drew back… just in time to inadvertently evade Travis’s bullet, which instead slammed into the nearby wall and blew out a decent chunk of the stone. The guard turned her attention to the new hole in surprise before quickly backing away — but not quickly enough to evade Travis’s follow up bullet.

Shit. Saito scowled as he eyed the hole in the wall. The sound of a bullet slamming into the stone had been clearly audible, though not particularly loud. Nevertheless, the Colonel froze where he was, listening intently for any sounds of activity. One second passed, two seconds passed, then three…

«…Report?» came Hackett’s voice over the comms. While her tone was just as calm and level as before, Saito knew well enough that both her and Travis were waiting with bated breath for his all-clear. Still, he remained silent, attempting to discern if the brief altercation had been heard.

“…Echo, down,” Saito eventually reported after ten seconds of complete silence. “…Possible alert,” he then added.

«Copy,» replied Hackett. «…On India, set.»

«Roger. Spotting India…» came Travis’s voice, though slightly more uneven than before.

Nevertheless, Hackett immediately carried on. «Roger. Three, two, one… …India down. All clear.»

“Copy. All clear,” Saito echoed. “Move on to Romeo.”

«Roger,» came Hackett’s one word reply.

The comms then fell silent as Saito continued crawling around the base’s walls. They may have taken out all ten of the initially spotted guards, but they needed to be sure that there were no additional guards to worry about before moving on to the next phase of the raid. As such, Saito and Hackett were to continue moving along the perimeter of the base in the direction that they had been crawling before, allowing them to investigate the entire perimeter before meeting back up with Ralak at the gates — or “Romeo”, over the comms.

After dealing with the final guards, Saito and Hackett both were already almost halfway around the entire base. Several minutes passed in silence as the two carefully crawled the rest of the way around, but after they both rendezvoused with Ralak almost ten minutes after taking out the final guard, there were still no signs of any other guards, or any kind of Bleeder alert.

Upon returning to Ralak, Saito greeted her with a single nod before silently gesturing toward the base’s main gate.

“Locked,” Ralak replied with a whisper. “No one’s come through. Likely won’t for hours.”

Saito acknowledged her with another nod before passing Hackett a quick glance. He then ordered into his comms, “alright, ground all clear.”

«Copy,» came Captain Travis’s reply, followed a second later with, «…walltops, all clear.»

“Copy,” Saito responded. “Phase two is a go.”

«Roger!»

The Colonel turned back to Hackett and Ralak as the former crawled a little ways out to begin watching the walls. Phase two of the plan called for Travis and MacTavish to approach the base themselves; MacTavish needed physical access to hack any equipment, and Travis’s sniping position two kilometers out wasn’t very useful for taking care of enemies within the walls. And now that the guards along the exterior of the base were all taken care of, Travis and MacTavish were free to approach at a run, instead of the stealthy crawl that Saito, Hackett, and Ralak were forced to use earlier. As such, instead of needing to wait for over an hour, Travis and MacTavish arrived at Saito’s position within ten minutes.

Saito briefly eyed the two; Travis looked perfectly fine after the brief run, and MacTavish — while still clearly somewhat out of breath — had nonetheless managed to keep up with him. In fact, she was already preparing her laptop for accessing the Bleeders’ tech.

At that point, Saito passed a cautious glance toward Ralak. By her words, Bleeders — as well as Tresédians in general — were worse at tech security than they were at physical security, and that even the outward-facing control panel for the front gate would have at least some network access to systems within the base. Saito was initially skeptical, but as he watched MacTavish jury-rig a connection with the front gate’s control panel and then stare down at her laptop screen in surprise, the Colonel couldn’t help but admit that Ralak may have been right after all. This is unbelievable. If Bleeder security is THIS lax, then it would be utterly trivial for the NSD to clear them out. Why the hell haven’t they bothered?

Those questions were for another time, however. Focusing on the now, Saito shoved those thoughts out of mind and turned to MacTavish. “What access do you have?” he whispered to her.

“Um… a-a lot…” she responded quietly. “Th-there’s… not even a, um, password prompt. O-or, encryption. I just have, um… d-direct access…”

“I’m not surprised,” Ralak stated. “Most Bleeders don’t have the patience for passwords. Hell, most Tresédians don’t.”

“B-but, th-this is a jury-rigged connection! I-I shouldn’t be able to—!”

“Focus, MacTavish,” Saito insisted. “What can you disable?”

“Um…” The Researcher sheepishly returned her attention to her laptop, her eyes rapidly flicking back and forth as she interfaced with the Bleeder systems. “…I-I think I can… shut down the autodefenses, a-and, um… o-open every locked door…”

“Let’s leave most of the doors locked. We don’t want to arouse suspicion too early. Just unlock the main gate. As for the autodefenses — what kind of defenses?”

“Um… t-turrets, mostly. Th-they, um… l-look kinda advanced. I think they’re, um… Black Suns…”

“The Suns again?” Hackett questioned while passing Saito a wary look.

The Colonel, meanwhile, simply shook his head. Ignoring Hackett’s question, he quietly ordered, “shut down all the defenses, and unlock the main gate. Be ready to unlock other doors on my command. We can take care of the rest.”

“O-okay…” MacTavish responded, her hands flying across the keyboard to comply with Saito’s command. A mere few seconds later, a soft thunk sounded from the main gate, signaling the opening of its lock; just a couple seconds after that, the Researcher looked back to Saito. “Um… d-done.”

“Alright.” Saito turned to address Hackett, Travis, and Ralak. “…The hard part starts now. Ralak, I want you to lead us to the base commander’s room, or where you think it would be. We’ll stay quiet for as long as we can, but the moment we’re spotted, we’re going loud. Try to take captives if you can, but if we have to, we’ll kill every damn bastard here.”

“Understood,” Hackett and Travis replied in unison, the latter having already switched to his sidearm.

“Let’s go—“ Ralak began, but just as she stepped toward the main gate, the thundering rumble of a massive impact on stone filled the air.

“The hell was that? Were we spotted?!” Hackett questioned in hushed tones.

“No, that was from the other side of the base…” Travis muttered.

“I’ll check,” Ralak declared, and then crossed her arms in front of her to tap together the exposed skin on her upper forearms. She then shot into the air, using her Imperator powers to grant herself flight and investigate the sounds of battle that now emanated from the far side of the base. And then, just as quickly as she had shot up, she returned to the ground — though with a frustrated scowl on her face. “It’s Liask and Obra!”

“What? But I thought we lost them?!” Travis exclaimed in surprise.

“Clearly, we didn’t!” Saito retorted, already standing and preparing to storm the base. “Our plans have changed — we’re starting loud! We’ll fight our way to the students and secure them before finding the base commander! MacTavish, stay out here and monitor their systems for us!”

“Understood!” Hackett and Travis readily replied, with MacTavish chiming in a second later.

“Good!” Saito nodded and then turned to charge through the gate, Hackett and Travis hot on his heels. “Now let’s move out!”