"Sam, how is it looking?"
"They're still up ahead, we're going to start chanting in a few minutes."
Stifling a yawn, Marco would be pissed working at this ungodly hour if it wasn't for the hefty payment he and the other adventurers would receive from the Randall family upon the success of their mission. Of course they had all gotten a lump sum in advance payment, but the real meal ticket still waited after the mission was done, hence Marco's and the other adventurer's willingness to jump through whatever hoops needed.
(Light and heat, bless me.)
Grasping his staff, Marco focused on reciting the spell that helped him stay warm in the middle of the night, and in a matter of a few seconds warmth spread throughout his body. The ability to form this spell at such ease was what gave Marco's life a new trajectory, from the moment he was 10 years old and went through the national magic aptitude test. Although his aptitude wasn't high enough to join the griffon knights or other elite kingdom forces, Marco's aptitude was high enough to make him a combat level mage, earning him a comfortable place in the upper middle class of the kingdom.
"Still, these noble's are on another level…"
"Yeah, yeah, you keep saying that."
Sam was Marco's childhood friend and another high level mage he had been working with for years, so he was quite used to Marco's fawning over the upper class.
"But think about it, you could buy a mansion for the price of just a single one of these battle groups, and we're 5 just standing by outside this city."
While Sam didn't want to admit it, Marco had a point. With the countless battle groups that had been recruited and trained by the Randall family over the last few months, their pockets had to be insanely deep.
"Enough of all this, we're getting close. Team 1 to 4, start preparations for bombardment!"
Finding they had gotten close enough to strike their target through the artefact they had been supplied by the Randall family, Sam commanded the rest of the adventurers to set up and prepare for battle. While team 5 and 6 set up ramparts and coordinated with the few non-mages of the battle group, team 1 to 4 worked together to create the massive fireballs they would use to bombard their target with. As the teams started working, Sam made the unfortunate mistake of glancing out in the darkness in front of him, as he wondered who they were even attacking he suddenly lost his eyesight as it felt like someone had just forced him to stare into the sun.
"ARGH! What the fuck!?"
"Sam! What happened?"
"I don't know! Something just fucking blinded me! FUCK! It hurts!"
It seemed like Sam had been intentionally targeted by someone, as Marco or the other mages nearby hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary, but before they could find out what was going on, someone started shooting at them.
"FUCK! COVER!"
Realising they were under attack and Sam was out of action for the moment, Marco took over command and ducked behind a compressed stone rampart as red tracers flew over his head.
"Return fire!"
Luckily Marco and the other members of the strike group had learned about their opponents way of fighting from their instructors from the Randall family, so the skilled adventurers had set into action immediately. While one team immediately started medical treatment of the unfortunate few people hit in the opening volley, the rest created and reinforced their rampart covers while another group started preparing to return fire with formations of 4 mages who worked together to produce a sustained burst of rock shards.
"It's working! Hit them now!"
As the enemy fire had stopped, Marco judged they had suppressed the enemy and pinned them down, so he ordered one of the mage teams to stick them with the fireball spell which they immediately started preparing.
That's when another enemy revealed themselves and started firing, this time from their left side, catching quite a few adventures in the crossfire as they hadn't prepared any defences in that direction.
"ARGH!"
"FUCK!"
"MY LEG!"
"Reinforce our defences! QUICKLY!"
With the sudden surprise attack, the suppression of their first contact faltered, and the enemy immediately opened fire again; only it didn't keep the same position, but instead started rapidly flanking Marco and the other adventures, all while still continuing fully automatic suppressive fire that was remarkably accurate for how fast they were moving.
"Sam! We need yo-"
As he wasn't equipped to get their group out of this pickle, Marco turned to his life-long friend for guidance, only to find his unmoving corpse as Sam had been hit by the flanking enemy multiple times in the torso and head.
"-... SHIT! I didn't sign up for-"
Joining his friend in the afterlife, Marco was in the head as his cover was suddenly pierced, and soon the entire formation fell into disarray right as a third and a fourth opponent opened fire on their position, all from different locations.
"... Cease fire, we got them all. Including that surveillance sphere."
[Roger, I'm coming back to you.]
Checking his M-909X, Tom could vaguely see the outline of the muzzle break that had heated up quite a bit from sustained fire. Keying up his radio again as he noticed someone was still shooting, Tom realised he hadn't told 'everyone' to stop shooting.
"Boar 1, Boar 2, cease fire. Secure AO and return to ROE #3 under code yellow and return to escort duties."
[ORDER(S) RECEIVED. ROE ALTERED.]
Receiving a synthetic report in return, Tom breathed a sigh as he wasn't really used to being this specific with his orders.
Only he needed to do that, now that he had incorporated unmanned ground vehicles (UGV's) in his forces.
(These tin cans are smart, but not that smart… I need to get used to them again, I can't be getting rusty at this ripe old age.)
"Those things take no prisoners…"
Walking out of the shadows with both her eyes glowing, Lisa commended on the ruthless efficiency of their new allies.
"Well yeah, they don't have a conscience, or the ability to feel guilt for that matter."
"... They're not going to start shooting after me, are they?"
Still not that comfortable working with the pair of M9X Boarhounds Tom had summoned a week ago, Lisa glanced around the dark forest to try and spot them.
"Nope, as I said, they're even smarter than the Wasp's, even if I tried to make them attack you, which I won't ever do, they wouldn't."
"If you say so…"
Not entirely confident in Tom's words, Lisa visibly flinched when she heard the pair of Boarhounds approach. Walking on 4 mechanical legs, the horse-sized UGV was a modified version of the unarmed 'pack mule' M9 Boar, and instead of carrying cargo it was crowned with a remote weapon station which housed a targeting sensor pod and a 4.22mm M-221 belt-fed LMG.
A boarhound was in essence, a machine gun turret on legs
"Do they have to do… That."
Watching the boarhounds' turrets snap and move around as they scanned the surroundings, Lisa felt increasingly uncomfortable at the sight.
"Yeah they do… Boar 1, Boar 2, increase cordon, displace 200 metres."
With Lisa still visibly uncomfortable at the sight of them, Tom addressed the pair of boarhounds and commanded them to give some space, In turn the boarhound's turrets snapped to Tom where they scanned his face before responding through speakers in perfect sync.
[[ORDER(S) RECEIVED, EXTENDING CORDON, DISPLACING.]]
"... Ew."
Shuttering at the synthetic sounding voice they used, Lisa finally felt a bit more at ease when the UGV's left.
"Even as much as you hate them you have to admit, they're impressive to watch in action."
"Well yeah, but that doesn't mean I have to like them."
Even if she hated to admit it, what Lisa had seen of the Boarhounds in action just now was very impressive, especially when one of them continued to suppress the mages with accurate automatic fire while it ran through the forest faster than any horse she had ever seen. If their mobility on legs wasn't enough, the M9X Boarhound, and the M9 boar it was based on could move even faster in open terrain using tracks underneath their main bodies.
"You don't need to like them, but they'll be imperative in our next operations, so I need you to adjust your attitude… At least until we free your mom."
The second Tom said those words he started thinking about how his life would be after he freed Clair and reunited her with Lisa.
(Fuck… It's going to get lonely again.)
Even if he had willingly taken on this job of 'fixing' the world, Tom realised he was going to miss having company along the way after his little adventure with Lisa ended. Without realising it, he had grown very attached to Lisa, he loved seeing her grow and learn, challenging whatever Tom threw in front of her with a steadfast determination, even if she was complaining about it all the while. Even now, Lisa was diligently inspecting her rifle like Tom had taught her to do after use, but noticing his stare Lisa stopped and spoke up.
"... What's up?"
"Nothing, let's head to point #4 and get some rest, I'm beat."
"Sleep does sound great, yeah, let's do that."
-
"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN THEY'RE ALL DEAD!?"
Tossing his half full wine glass across the room, Adam Randall shouted in disbelief at his butler who had just reported on the state of the Yalha city defence after it had suffered a night raid.
"As I said, young master; about 500 members of the city guard are dead, with 600 injured and all our adventurer teams have been wiped out. Most of them came under attack from those flying bombs, but-"
"Yeah I fucking heard that!..."
Rubbing the bridge of his nose as he took a deep breath, Adam finally calmed down and sat back down in his chair.
"Give me a moment."
"Yes, master."
Wiping his face in an attempt to face reality as his butler left the office, Adam started thinking critically again.
(Almost 400 mages down the drain… Even if I try it'll be hard to hide that from the other nobles. Fuck, what a pain this world is.)
It was now abundantly clear that whatever shitstain PMC or operative Adam was facing didn't have any sort of limitation on the equipment he could bring into this world, while Adam himself was forced to bribe, blackmail and strong-arm serval medieval fucking nobles to just get a handfull of useless forces at his disposal, and he had just lost a significant faction of those forces in a single battle.
"Shit…"
Reflexively reaching for his wine glass, Adam remembered he had just tossed it across the room and wiped his face again, this time with both hands. At this point he had to admit it; Adam couldn't keep throwing these cheap forces at the problem, it wasn't going to solve anything and would only mean he had to bribe and strongarm the other nobles even more.
"Wilfred."
"At your service, master."
Calling for his butler again, Adam was handed a fresh glass of wine before he relayed his orders.
"Relay what we've taught the adventures to the griffon knights and gather our own fighting groups, Bravo-3 though Delta-9. We need to nip this thing now before it becomes more of an issue."
"As you wish, young master Randall."
(With all the complaining that the old fart has done the last few weeks he'll be whipped into a frenzy by now, so giving him a target should at least give us some time to organise a real attack… But if he manages to actually kill that shitstain PMC, then that's fine as well…)
Learning back in his chair and sipping some wine to calm his nerves, Adam was well past the point where would care if the griffon knights 'stole' his kill.
At this point he just needed results.