From space to the skies, all the way down to the very ground and seas of the planet, battle ensues as both sides throw everything they had at each other. Fighters skirmishing for Aerial dominance as the ground forces below engage one another for strategic positions. Illuminating the planet in flashes of smoke, dust, lasers, and bullets regardless of its rotational position to the two suns in the center of its respective galaxy. For Lock and his team, it is no different from the millions if not more similar to other operator teams' situations.
" Alex, watch that right flank, I spotted three riflemen heading that way,"
[Understood, they aren't going to be an issue here in a bit!]
"Mye, can you control your shots?"
"Trying…"
Due to circumstances, Lock is finding himself in the midst of a predicament. He was hoping for the team to make a surgical and precise execution on the quarry that they initially decided to investigate for their target. Though, it seems like nothing ever goes to plan when it comes to this type of work. As the ghosts are majority-wise filled with mercenaries and ex-soldiers, the results pretty much are as follows.
Firing his pistol from behind a container filled with rocks, he makes three successful shots on three Cryptid soldiers who tried to give suppressive fire at their location. Alex can be seen causing massive mayhem over on the left side where several small sheds laid as the soldiers are trying to coordinate in killing the elusive knife wielder. At one point, he notices a soldier trying to back away through a small opening between the sheds while firing in Alex's last known direction. However, Alex darts into view behind the soldier and slices their throat wide open with a gut knife before slipping off as the remaining riflemen try to land a killing shot.
"Looks like Alex got us covered there…Mye, what is the-"
An explosion sends Lock sprawling to the ground as debris and dust flew up into the air. He rolls over as his vision glitches a bit as his old system tries to recalibrate itself back to normal. Slowly sitting up, he realizes his cover has been demolished. Lock rolls up behind what little is left of his cover as he is forced to lay down as the hail of bullets flies in his direction. Glancing over, he realizes that Mye is cowering behind her cover. Her pistol laid on the ground beside her as she gripped her right wrist trembling. Yet, it doesn't look like she is doing it out of fear. Pressing two fingers to his comms device in his ear, Lock tries to call out to her for support.
"Mye! Give me covering fire, pick up your pistol!"
He watches as she doesn't even reply to him as she seemingly is focusing on something else bothering her. Her expression shows strain as her hand seems to emanate some sort of energy as the glove begins to resonate.
" What even-"
A sudden yell snaps Lock back to his current situation. He whips his pistol up and fires a shot just as a Cryptid soldier steps over the crumbled cover. The body flops to the ground as a shattered visor can be seen where the bullet penetrated. Seeing as he can't just hunker down here anymore, Lock looks around before noticing a piece of excavating machinery near his location. He proceeds to get up and move towards it when he suddenly feels a forceful tackle sending him to the ground. Recovering, he just barely manages to prevent a knife plunging into his throat as he can hear the sizzling sound of the blade that is also slightly glowing orange on the edge.
" Damn it! Die you hunk of scrap!"
"Tch,"
Lock gives him an annoyed look as the two continue to try and gain the advantage. Over in the distance, he also noticed for a split second Alex retreating as they looked injured. Lock grits his teeth as he slowly pushes back against the soldier on top of him trying to twist the knife around with little succession. As the knife slowly turns, Lock thinks he has it under control.
" There's one of them! Drop him!"
Lock's eyes sweep over his opponent's shoulder to find four other riflemen coming up to support their brethren. Time seemingly begins to slow around him as he could only watch their rifles slowly raise up to aim at him while the other sounds of battle in the quarry seemingly echoes through his audio module.
Guess this is it…
"MY HEAD!"
"WHAT THE HELL?!"
The soldiers suddenly convulse as they drop their weapons and begin to clutch or claw at their own heads. One soldier rips their helmet off revealing a grey humanoid being with small pointed ears as their beady black eyes showed a look of intense pain. Hearing cries in the distance, Lock looks over to see Alex grabbing their left arm with their right hand which looks like a dark stain of brownish green can be seen staining their sleeve. However, they stood up as the Cryptid soldiers around them look like they are going through a similar pain to the soldiers that are on Lock. Speaking of which, Lock just remembered that he has a Cryptid on top of him.
Looking back, he realizes that the Cryptid is seemingly shivering violently as they froze in place. Seeing how he may not have a chance with this weird phenomenon happening, he quickly turns the knife around and shoves it into the soldier's throat. The soldier coughs as a deep dark red fluid drips down from under the helmet as well as the fatal wound. Soon, the body slumps over with the aid from Lock pushing the soldier off of him and he picks up his pistol with a bit of caution. His processor tries to understand what is happening as he looks over to see Alex casually killing off their threats one by one, yet with a bit of haste. Eye widening a bit upon the realization, Lock's head turns over to where Mye was prior.
Mye is standing there, with one hand outstretched with her other hand supporting it. Lock's eyes notice a strong, yet very abnormal energy signature emitting from that outstretched hand. He has seen magic only a few times in his entire lifespan, but this…
"I…I can't keep this up…"
Snapping out of his short daze after her words, Lock brings his pistol up towards the remaining soldiers that they were dealing with. After a quick ammo count in the magazine, he fires one bullet for each of the Cryptids near him and also Mye. After the last bullet leaves the barrel, the slide locks back as he slowly lowers it to a ready position. As he loads in a full magazine to replace the spent one, Lock does a quick sweep scan to check on their situation. Once he is sure they are clear, he turns his head to look at Mye. However, that quickly changed as he ran over and caught her before she nearly fell forward
"You okay?"
Lock asks as he does a quick analysis on her wellbeing. It looks like she wasn't hit, but at the same time, he noticed that her body's temperature decreased significantly as well as a very mixed result of exhaustion and energy regeneration. Mye, on the other hand, shakes her head holding it with a bit of pain in her face. Lock felt her push herself away from him as she stood up. Pulling his hand back, he hears footsteps causing him to turn his head to see Alex walking over while wrapping their bleeding arm with some medical gauze.
"She is fine, just a bit spent,"
Alex stepped in between the two, though more of just guarding Mye as they continued to bandage themselve. Lock narrows his eyes at this action, but doesn't push it as he just nods.
" I'll trust you on that, how are your injuries?"
"Nothing too severe, I got some unlucky hits, but nothing vital, can't say the same for those Ningens, on top of that, we shouldn't worry about civilian casualties, maybe,"
Alex gives a small thumbs up to Lock with their hand from their injured side just as they finish wrapping the gauze.
"Alright, think you can keep fighting?"
Lock checks his own body for any possible injuries, but besides debris and a few torn fabrics on his gear, he doesn't seem to have any critical damages to his system. As for their little magic user, with whatever she used, it seems like she is fine except for a bit of exhaustion.
"I should be fine, I just hope that the other two are still alive-"
A massive dust cloud bursts into the air above the buildings and machinery that obscure their perception towards the quarry entrance. Following that massive dust explosion, a scream can be heard as a Cryptid soldier flew towards the three before he crashed onto the ground several feet in front of them. The soldier groans as they weakly tried to crawl back up.
"That answers your question?"
"...Yeah,"
Lock walks up to the Cryptid and aims his pistol towards the soldier's head. Pulling the trigger, the Cryptid's head violently slams to the ground, twitching a bit as he puts another round to cease any further movements. Looking back towards the two, he gestures to them with his head towards the scuffle that is still happening up ahead.
"Let's move,"
Alex nods as they pull out a few throwing knives into their good hand. Mye, however, stares towards the body that Lock shot before she stares back ahead. Not wanting to waste any more valuable time, Lock sprints off towards the scuffle with his pistol in hand.