Crimson Squad: Squad Jam 2

In The Dome

"Rei, I'm up 100 meters now. Only Llenn is in sight to my right, 25 meters away. No enemies."

"Okay, Master. Lead me to you." I move my left arm back and aim the pistol in my left hand backward in the field of grass toward Rei's most likely location. "I see your Bullet Line, Master. Coming forward."

I keep my right pistol facing forward in case something happens while waiting on Rei. "Llenn, Zeliska, you two see anything?"

"Nothing but grass brushing against me. I got Kureha moving forward."

"Same with Fuka. I never imagined there be a savannah inside the dome."

"I feel like a cockroach crawling through a kitchen. Though there aren't cockroaches in Hokkaido."

"Probably not a whole lot of half that word, either."

"And what would you know about that, you pink-haired bimbo?"

I sigh as Rei shuffles up to me. "Kureha, Fuka, please stop arguing. Even whispering, we can still be heard if we're not careful. Llenn, where are we?"

"Almost halfway there."

"That's all?"

"Still, we're using Bullet Lines to keep going straight ahead. And it would be dangerous to take a detour. Going around to the north would put us in the formidable MMTM's path and to the south would make us run into SHINC. The fastest way to get to Pito is going through the dome."

"I agree," I say as I look at Rei's scanner, 'but there are still three teams here in the dome. We still have lots of ground to cover once we get out the savannah."

Llenn snickers. "Maybe this is where we lose our reputation as a lucky person."

"Hmm, that's all Jaymes has going for him."

While my beloved Arfa-Sys laughs at Zeliska's joke, I swear under my breath. "Maybe I'll show you how much more I am than that."

"You must have forgotten our earlier... You hear that?"

Still prone on the ground, I see Llenn's hooded head pop up. "Gunfire, ahead on the left. About 200 meters from here. I can't see any Bullet Lines."

"Then they're fighting each other! Wipe each other out! That helps us!"

"No," Kureha denies, "and this is not just being against Fuka. There's something off about it."

"I agree."

Rei taps my shoulder and shows me the map. "Master, assuming no one else has moved, the dots are nowhere near each other."

"So either one team is trying to dupe the others into showing up, hoping to disguise the fact the scanner information is outdated..."

"Or, just like the teams that teamed up to target Pito, the teams here are working with each other. Maybe they thought there was a chance we'd come to the dome."

"Ooooh, the previous SJ winner is popular! Or is it all of us as one of the strongest squads? But how do you know that?"

"All that gunfire is coming from the same direction at the same distance," Llenn explains."It's too unnatural. The only thing I can come up with is that they're firing from the same position."

"You sure do have sharp ears. But I don't understand how Kureha heard all that with her pretentious inner voices rambling in her head."

"Is friendly fire legal?"