Arknights: When Hunters Meet (A Tacet x Projekt Red novel)

Chapter 14 - Landship Days

I had a tiresome morning ahead of me, having two sets of courses that I had to give to an attending class. Having barely slept the previous night didn't help. Just one of those nights when nightmares both of dreams and thought decided to pay a visit.

As a now senior member after barely a year in my employment had passed I had extra responsibilities. One such responsibility was giving courses, both in general and advanced combat tactics as well as spacial awareness in zones of conflict.

Knowledge that I well learned and earned during my ten year ''combat tour'' of my fucked up life back in the day. It was valuable if not priceless experience that I was giving to the attending operators. Even if the nature of the war was different than the struggles of today so many things remained the same. War never really changed much.

-As you may know, there are many factors that one can rely on during a combat operation to better ensure the chances of survival and the chances of operational success.

-Who can tell me one of them?...

-Jessica?

-''Uhh, drone support?'' She said apprehensively.

-Correct. Drone support as you know can be very versatile.

-It can provide you with up-to-date tactical information of the battlefield as well as providing either fire support or assisting in resupplies.

-Who can tell me of another factor?

-Exusiai?

-Teammates!

-Correct. Versatility in experienced team members can vastly improve your chances of survival.

-Either by ensuring that they will extract your sorry-ass out of a hostile zone if you are wounded.

-Or bringing the versatility that one such coordinated team of individuals will ensure by prevention of the worst of combat situations.

I had started with the basic course since there were many uninitiated so to speak. Some were young, very young. I knew Rhodes Island employed children as ''cadets''. I had no definite opinion on it. All had to earn their bread one way or another, but a measure of a line was not drawn so to speak. On one side I also considered it hypocritical and saw it for what it was, child labour and child soldiers.

Yet this was the world they were living in. One had to learn, one had to earn, but they were given proper conditions at least. And I have to admit they were growing with proper care, education and field experience. My job through these courses was to ensure that the worst of the worst was avoided on the unpredictable battlefields. Though all the experience in the world wouldn't stop the unpredictable claws of war and conflict reaching and traumatising them forever if fate saw fit. And after all they weren't simple humans. They were different I had to remind myself. Some had strange or incredible powers, and yet children they still were.

A flashback came back to me.

A hidden Authority bunker door was opening to me. I was there in front of my heavily augmented team of cyborgs clad in heavy powered armour and gatling guns. The naive bastards, they truly didn't know who we really were. The heavy bunker door finally opened and there stood what seamed to be a high official if not an actual and rare Authority leader, put in charge of the bunker complex. Along with a single underwhelming looking security officer, a mature motherly looking woman and two children of various ages.

I transmitted the order via neurolink impulse and all four of my squad opened fire. Shredding the group into a cloud of meat and sprayed blood. We advanced inside with several more teams of cyborgs following me. They would clear out the complex of any living beings while I extracted valuable data. Permanently disabling the life support systems of both their bunker and the present sarcophagi complex.