"Team one, three hostiles ahead" spoke Lara.

Derek and his team moved forward, ahead were three armoured men talking and drinking by a fire, they were human and had weapons placed beside them with their backs turned on the team.

Derek, Harlan, and Wein went after them while Mace was their cover with his gun pointed at them. The team as if powerwalking caught up to the men and pulled out their blades. Before the enemies could realize it, they were all stabbed in the neck with great force.

There was no struggle, and before long the men lost strength and collapsed.

Wein pulled the body of his kill down and laid it, hidden from view at the nearby cover.

"Their weapons and ammunition are incompatible to us and far lacking" noted Harlan after the group searched the disposed bodies.

"Move out" ordered Derek.

Under the quiet hum of the night only broken by the rustling of leaves and dirt made by the group, Derek and his team ventured deeper toward the settlement. The group was paired with each backing another, so their backs were not exposed.

Wein as a rookie was paired with Derek and Mace with Harlan. They went over the narrow passages of the base, moving as best as they could in the paths available to them.

They moved searching each house from one side to the middle, the other side was left to their comrades, Angela's side. Their mission was not only infiltration but hostage rescue, so they needed to be certain no one was left behind.

The team had long crossed enemy territory lines, and they knew the danger would increase but they were competent and thorough in their work.

…

"Two guards on the ridge," Harlan whispered into the comms, his eyes scanning the area ahead.

"One across" added Mace, facing a different direction.

Derek and the two aimed their rifles at the enemies while Wein surveyed the area for any hidden threat.

"We go in…" spoke Derek, his finger over the trigger. "Three…two…one…"

Silent beams of energy flew across the air, two for the ridge and one for the lone insurgent walking towards them. The two beams hit with perfect precision the enemy's heads causing them to be stunned and die immediately, only to descend slowly.

"Two down"

The other beam was followed by another and hit the enemy in the head forcing off the helmet he was wearing, he faced upwards. What followed was a direct hit to his throat exploding it and killing him.

"…three down"

The two men who were falling caused a sound that was heard by another man who was across from the ridge, sitting and drinking something from a cup. Alerted he wanted to raise the alarm and warn everyone but almost as soon as he heard the sound he was sent back down.

He was still sitting with perfect posture, the only difference was that on his head was a hole from a rifle.

"…make that four" replied Lara who was lying marvelling at her work with a smirk.

The man was away from view so no one other than Lara could have spotted him thankfully. She moved the scope of her sniper to the other team which like this team was also engaged in combat with insurgents.

Angela was holding a blade in her left hand and a blaster in her right, with her MA-25 tucked into her backpack, she ran across the battlefield and engaged in physical combat.

She slit the throats of two men before her and proceeded to fire two shots of the blaster that was customised into a silent weapon.

The enemy numbering six did not have enough time to act, as soon as Angela slit the throats of the two men who were more preoccupied with stopping the blood from flowing than to call for help, the rest of the team followed up with shots at their heads at point blank.

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They all fell like poles.

The two shots Angela shot were fast and killed two enemies who followed the other two almost as soon as they came into view. This did not stop there as Sienna who was right behind Angela and also had a silencer of his blaster followed with two shots at the heads of the enemies.

"Six down here," said Angela. She searched for more enemies but could not find any while her team disposed of the dead bodies.

"Team two, you are cleared."

Team, one found themselves in front of an entrance inside a broad and huge settlement, they were at a distance from it but knew they would have to approach it if they wanted to pass.

The thing was, there was a watchtower with lights that exposed the entrance, up ahead were two scouts monitoring and there was one standing on the tower.

If they ventured in, they would be discovered and if Lara took one down, the others would notice and ring the bell. The team was not in a position to get clean shots, it was a gamble to take one.

"Angela what's your status?" asked Derek.

"We will be able to move around the settlement without detection" replied Angela.

"Scans show there is an entrance on the side, we can rendezvous inside" noted Kol.

"Alright, move be careful. Harlan, take care of the one in the watchtower and provide Lara with assistance in taking down those two monitors."

"Sir" replied Harlan.

He put his MA-25 in his backpack retrieved his blaster and ran towards the watch tower. He was nimble and fast and before long he was at the base hidden in the shadow away from the light source.

"Lara, do you have a clear shot on the one over me?"

"Negative, he is hidden behind a pole and in line of view of the two."

Harlan looked up, climbing would take time and there was a chance he would be exposed to the light. What he had to do was take him down and then take out at least one on the roof while Lara took on the other.

"As soon as I fell the one on the roof, take out the next. I will finish the one on the watch tower."

"Got it" replied Lara.

Harlan took out his blaster and stretched his arm out aiming at the patrolling men on the roof. He was hidden and had clear shot to take out the men, but it would raise the danger level.

He took a deep breath and without word, he emerged from the shadows aiming at the men who had not taken note of him. His arm stretched up, he pulled the trigger and two shots were sent.

The silent energy went straight for the head and immobilised the man instantly, before the shots even hit, Harlan changed target for the one on the watch tower and released five shots continuously.

He was certain four hit the mark, the fifth missed but he was fine with that. He had to be certain to take him down before he could alert the others.

Behind him the gun of the other men fell on the ground, felled by Lara.

"Three targets down"

He returned to the team.

"There is no sign of enemies anymore, I'll keep watch, be careful" added Lara.

Harlan returned to the team who were huddled at a mechanic door, there was a button that would open it. Thankfully, it did not require biometric scanning, or they would be found out.

"Entering the base"

They pressed the button and pulled open the metallic door, it slid perfectly open, and they all safely entered paying mind to their environment and dangers.

The inside was vastly different from the homes and the outside environment, it was metallic and had foreign technology to that world.

There were no windows showing the outside nothing, but walls of metal and crates of essentials used by the insurgents. The room itself was dim with the only source of light being a flickering bulb that was almost dead.

The team searched the whole room for clues about the base and the hostages for a while, finally they saw another door leading further in. They carefully opened it and ventured in.

"Sir" spoke Mace.

The team stopped. "Look, it's their schedule. It looks like they send the natives to mine at 06:00 in the morning."

Ahead was a document pinned on the wall with the schedule for the operations. Not too far from the document was a table with map of the area. On that map were markers, the base, and the mine not too far off.

"What time is it now?" asked Derek.

"04:45, sir" replied Wein.

"We need to hurry and find the hostages before it is time for them to go to work. Let's go."

They wandered through the base, and when they came upon enemies, they stabbed them in their throats not leaving room for noise and as quickly as possible. Then they hid the bodies carefully moving on to the next target.

The base settlement was huge with many corridors and rooms, they searched them all meticulously and carefully to cover the backs of their partners.

One time they entered a room with some of the insurgents sleeping without worry in their bunk beds.

There were about eight of them and all snoring as loud as they did. The team entered stealthily and positioned themselves ahead of the sleeping men. Each crouching on the bottom bunk bed, they took out their blasters with silencers and their blades.

They went over the sleeping heads stretching their knives over the necks of the helpless victims, ready to thrust and kill them.

Wein stood over his target, he could hear the irritating snore and wanted to end him soon. He raised his blade and as he was about to thrust, the man opened his eyes and saw round purple eyes staring back at him behind the darkness.

Wein thrust the blade into his neck as did the others and the men struggled with blood gushing out of their necks unable to call for help. Tears streaming from their red eyes as they realised, they were being killed.

The team as they watched their targets crying to death raised their blasters directly up to the other sleeping members in the top of the bunk beds and they released each five shots, to make sure they killed them all.

Now only blood was dripping to the floor of the dead corpse and the heat from the energy blast could still be felt overhead.

"Let's move on to the next room" suggested Derek, the purple-eyed monsters stained in the blood of their enemies nodded in agreement.