Bent Fate (An Arknights Fanfiction)

Chapter 65

A hooded Reunion soldier, with an additional cloak over him lies prone on top of a building directly in front of the junction of three roads.

He holds out a radio close to his masked face. "Faust... They got away."

Mantlet style fortifications have closed all vulnerable access roads into the center of Nansei's east side, with skirmishes rampant across the streets, fought between the combined forces of Nansei and Rhodes Island, and Reunion's mixed army of sarkaz mercenaries and infected.

Talulah stands in the middle of a road, built on a high hill, and from there, holds a steady gaze at the city below as it fights numerous battles against her forces.

"Report!" an infected fighter shouts, running with haste.

The draco faces him. "Go ahead."

Standing straight, the infected reports to her, "Rhodes Island's elite squad escaped Faust's ambush."

"The one with?"

"Hui-chieh? The policewoman from Lungmen."

"Ah..." she relaxes, as if she wasn't already relaxed even as she heard some bad news. "The squad with the infamous Doctor."

"Yes, he's there too, though he changed his appearance."

Talulah goes back to watching over the city. "Where are they?"

"At this moment, our second plan seems to be doing well."

The draco looks over her shoulder. "She hasn't noticed yet?"

"That's... good, right?"

Talulah turns her head back, facing forward. "It is. They shouldn't interfere with our plans. You all heard the tragic news, of how they brought down the mighty Patriot, without a single casualty on their side."

The soldier gulps at his own imagination of the Rhodes Island squad's capabilities.

"But fear not. We should instead use the late Patriot's death as an instrument, to fuel our hatred for the monsters who thought of nothing but to slaughter the infected."

"O-of course."

Talulah smiles, though the soldier can't see it. "Keep tracking them, hunt them down, until they reach the square."

"Yes, Leader!"

The soldier runs away as soon as he got his new orders, leaving Talulah and a band of soldiers and mercenaries surrounding her.

She looks up at the far skies, beyond the eastern plates. Now a nightly blue, and a fiery red at the same time, the brightest star can already be seen.

"It won't be long, before we lead the sheep into the slaughterhouse." she says while gazing at the near end of a sunset.

"Talulah, the towers, we need to keep moving." one of her escort soldiers reminds her.

She lowers her head just a little, and she can already see the top of both towers of the eastern district, indistinguishable from normal skyscrapers.

"I have somewhere else I wanted to go." she tells her guards before walking away, followed by them, down the urbanized hill.

Somewhere at the base of the hill, W walks with a bored look on her face.

She and a squad of mercenaries, only one of the many patrolling the streets, have been quiet for a while now.

"Boring." she sighs.

She turns around and keeps walking backwards, looking at her squad. "You feel the same?"