The Ghost Army had been trained to kill. Now Miguel was training them to save.
The reformist allies he had carefully gathered — Cruz in Iloilo, Alcantara in Bicol, Vergara in the Senate, Santos in Davao, Alonzo in Cotabato — were glowing sparks in a sea of rot. But sparks were fragile. A single bullet, a single car bomb, a single staged "accident," and they could be snuffed out before the network could take root.
Miguel knew the dynasties would move soon. So he moved first.
[New Task: Protect the Alliance.]
[Objective: Foil at least three assassination attempts on allied politicians.]
[Reward: Enhanced Counter-Intel Protocols — access to enemy communications and pre-emptive strike options.]
Iloilo
Mayor Isabel Cruz was first. Her small city hall was underfunded, her guards undertrained. A dynasty clan she had defeated in elections planned to take her life during a charity event.
Miguel's surveillance drones intercepted chatter: a sniper team hired from Mindanao had crossed into Iloilo, planning to strike from a rooftop as she spoke on stage.
In the shadows of the event, Alpha Squad blended into the crowd, disguised as utility workers. The sniper team never even got to set up. As soon as they reached the rooftop, a silent pair of Ghost operatives neutralized them, their weapons quietly collected.
The crowd cheered Cruz's speech, oblivious to the death that had stalked her. She never knew why her event ended without incident. But the dynasty plotting her death woke up to a message: "Your hunters won't return. The Ghost is watching."
Bicol
Governor Tomas Alcantara was harder to intimidate. A former colonel, he carried himself like a battlefield never left him. Still, the dynasties hated him.
They arranged for a convoy "accident" on the highway — a truck loaded with sand set to ram his vehicle.
But Alcantara's motorcade had new escorts, unmarked vans driven by Ghost operators. As the truck accelerated toward his SUV, one of the vans swerved violently, slamming the truck off the road. Explosives hidden in its cargo ignited, consuming the vehicle in fire.
To the public, it was a tragic crash. To Alcantara, it was a reminder that invisible hands were steering fate. He called his driver afterward, voice calm but shaken: "Someone saved us today. And it wasn't luck."
Manila
Senator Leah Vergara was the loudest of them all. Her speeches cut through corruption with surgical fury. That made her the most dangerous to dynasties.
They chose the simplest method: a bomb under her car.
But by then, Miguel's cyber team had hacked into the cartel's comms. They intercepted the detonation code, traced the signal to the man hiding two streets away, finger on the trigger.
A Ghost sharpshooter put him down before he ever pressed the button. The bomb was defused within minutes.
The news reported only that Vergara's staff had "discovered suspicious wiring under her car." She laughed it off to reporters, but deep inside she knew — no ordinary staffer could have caught that in time.
By the end of the week, three assassination attempts had failed. To the public, they looked like chance. To the dynasties, it looked like an invisible shield.
In their private gatherings, the question turned sharper: "Who protects them? Who is this Ghost?"
To Miguel's allies, the feeling was stranger still. None had proof. None had names. Yet each began to sense that something larger was moving in the dark something that wanted them alive.
The System pulsed again.
[Task Complete: Three Assassinations Foiled.]
[Reward Unlocked: Enhanced Counter-Intel Protocols.]
[New Ability: Intercept and decrypt hostile communications. Real-time prediction of enemy strikes.]
On Miguel's map, red warning signals lit up days before attacks could even happen. He no longer had to wait for the enemy to strike he could predict their moves, choke them before they drew blood.
But victory never came without cost.
That night, Miguel received a report from Davao. Councilor Arnel Santos's car had been riddled with bullets. He had survived, saved only by the reinforced plating quietly installed by the Ghost Army — but his driver and aide were dead.
Miguel stared at the report in silence, jaw clenched.
Even with shields, the dynasties were not stopping. They would escalate, strike harder, cut deeper.
The Ghost Army had saved three lives. But now, the war was spilling blood directly connected to Miguel's allies.
And Miguel knew what the next move had to be.
Not just protection. Punishment.