Offensive Operations

Chapter 4

4

One Day before the school assembly,

Marine Scout Sniper School, Camp Pendleton California.

"I see him," he said as he tossed a rock was tossed and a sniper was nailed in the head.

"Son of a B--" Blake stopped the sniper in training at once with a rather loud "Language, soldier" as he tossed another rock, another hidden sniper revealed his position, another one down, it was the same routine as yesterday. He was not impressed with any of these people and even though this was his first session as a teacher, he was already frustrated.

Blake was a teacher of the most brutal kind. He was a dangerous kind of perfectionist and expected the same out of his students but almost no one passed his tests. No matter how good the person was or how good they could hide, it was never good enough.

"Have any of you learned anything I taught you. If it was legal to kill you, I would do so. Stop thinking of me as your teacher and more like your God. I don't like you. I don't need you. If you fail again I will fall all of you and you'll go back to your units and be labeled the failures you’re turning out to be," he shouted out to the open field, his was one of his good days.

Blake was more than aware that war was beyond brutal and if they ever had to fight in real combat this would feel like heaven in comparison. Leaning back in his chair he could easily see all of the snipers. He knew that even if he knew where they were, they were good enough for what they would be used for. His thoughts were interrupted when that special phone on his side rang, he answered it. The last time this phone rang he ended up saving the world. It was a year ago now since it last turned on. He did not expect this thing to ring again, or not so soon at least. The voice on the other end of the phone was one he knew.

“You can’t be serious about this. You owe me too many favors already,” Blake said, annoyed and listened as he rolled his eyes

“Alright fine, but you owe me. See you tomorrow, I was personally hoping for at least ten years before I saw you again but a few days works too, I guess,” he said and hung up the phone and got back to his class.

“Alright, hide better this time. First person I find gets to mop the barracks,” Blake said with a smile.

The Razor’s Edge.

Providence, Rhode Island.

Wyatt was blindfolded again, dressed in traditional black and gold kendo garb. He was fighting seven people at the same time. All his students, all of them were being trained by one of the greatest masters of the sword to ever live in their time but still they had no idea of his true identity.

“Alright, now attack me all at once. The first person to score a hit gets a free month,” he said with a smile and prepared for their attack. He was going to be demonstrating the importance of the ability to change directions in a fight.

Then his phone rang. The special one he always kept on his side at all times.

His students never questioned him about it anymore, every time they did he challenged them to a fight and was less than nice about it, so questions about the phone died out in a hurry and most of them were sure it didn’t even work at all.

Wyatt took off the blindfold as he stepped forward and swung his blade with more force than usual. The sword, despite being made out of wood was very dangerous. The attack hit all the blades and the force was enough to knock them all down to the ground at the same time.

“Sorry about that, guys, but I need to take this,” Wyatt said to his students, they were all in shock and still trying to figure out what happened and how he did it. Wyatt picked up the phone.

"Yeah, are you serious?” Wyatt asked as he put his wooden blade over his shoulder. “Why in the world would we do that? That makes no sense,” Wyatt said and was shaking his head in disapproval. “This is why I should have been in charge but fine, I’ll be there, I guess. This doesn’t make you any less of a jerk," Wyatt said as he hung up.

"Class dismissed, something has come up and I won’t be here tomorrow so ladies and gentlemen, you get the day off,” he said with a smile. Then he walked away, hanging up the phone.

Sparky’s

Dustin’s Bar.

Just outside New Orleans, Louisiana

The place was a success from the first day, most of that was hard work but some of this was due to the owner himself. He was also the main bouncer too, people came to see some nut job drink too much and start trouble just to watch the owner in action. The place was a place made legendary by the locals in an amazingly short amount of time.

"She's coming with me and that’s the end of it, if anyone has anything to say about it we can talk outside or inside I don’t care," the man said way too loud to apparently, nobody. He was off balance and clearly had drank too much, but still a reasonable threat. He held some lady in dressed in green by the left wrist and was causing a scene. No one seemed too worried about it.

This guy was a big guy, he looked like a wanna be biker though, still not exactly the kind of person people said no to very often.

The server was new and didn’t cut him off when she was supposed to. Dustin was watching the situation from a distance and didn’t like it and the woman he was going to take with him didn’t seem too interested in leaving, not with this guy anyway.

Dustin walked over to the two of them and people separated as he moved through the crowd.

"Guy. You can still walk out of here; maybe you should keep it that way,” Dustin said and never liked these situations, but when he took matters into his own hands, he knew it was good for business. People always liked a good show.

"You can't even--" Then the guy threw a lazy lop sided punch that Dustin was able to catch easily. He hated being interrupted by anyone, especially trash like this. A twist of the arm and the drunk guy was on the floor. "I‘ll kill you for this," the big man screamed in a fit of rage as the phone on Dustin’s belt rang.

"Hold that thought guy," Dustin said as he answered it with his other hand.

"What do you want?” Dustin asked and waited for a few seconds. “A favor, what is it?" he asked again as the guy started to get up but Dustin twisted his arm more and held him in place with ease. "What, that’s the stupidest idea I've ever heard…no really. This time it is really stupid. I don’t know who thought it was a good idea to put you in charge of anything," Dustin said, his frustration increased the pressure without him realizing it.

The guy's wrist broke with a sickening c***k that and everyone heard it some of them cringed in sympathetic pain, others cheered. Dustin barely noticed any of it.

This guy started screaming in pain instantly. "You suck, you know that? This one time I'll do it for you. Pay no attention to that screaming. Oh, don‘t worry about it. I got everything under control here, more than you do anyways," Dustin said and the phone conversation was over. He put the phone back where it came from. The guy was screaming in pain and making the end of the conversation hard to hear.

"Now I'm pissed, today is turning out to be a mildly bad day,” Dustin said as he reached down and took the man's wallet and pulled out his information as he let the guy go as an afterthought. The guy got up and ran out the front door. The crowd cheered and the woman he was threatening seemed to be in a much better mood.

He nodded to her and the bar scene returned to normal in short order.

Dustin walked to and sat down at his computer. He got to work taking his frustration out on this random trouble maker. This guy's life was about to get very difficult now that he had Dustin‘s attention. He began to systematically use the information to empty the guy’s bank accounts. It didn’t take very long when you had access to Syndicate programs he may, or may not have stolen when he left.

That would teach him to spend too much money from here on out, he hoped. He was sure he was being rather nice about the whole thing, usually he liked to make people erased from the system to make them suffer, sure it was illegal but he didn’t care.

The cops got called to Sparky’s many times due to reports of assault from people but none of the cameras ever seemed to catch the alleged assault and there were never any witnesses to it either. Dustin made sure to give a couple of free rounds to everyone after each event like this and it kept the people quiet enough.

Chicago

The Streets

You can take the world out of the war, but not the war out of the world. Even before the war with 188 was over, something new hit the streets, a new d**g in a time of great crisis. It was perfect for the new chemical to take hold. Josh didn't know where it came from but he did know what it was called and who had the most of it, at least right now.

The new d**g was called the Crimson Eye. It was too addictive and spreading throughout the country like the virus it was. Everywhere that it went the d**g brought death and destruction with it. Josh had an uzi in each hand, for him the war had never really ended.

As soon as he left Blackfire Island, he went right back to work. The streets were the same, but the people on them were different. Josh was closing in on a group of Eye addicted maniacs who he knew were selling the stuff. Josh had tangled with these types twice before and hoped that his guns would be enough to deal with this situation.

This d**g was like an enhanced version of PCP, it made people nearly invincible. Last time Josh put an entire thirty round clip into a drugged out junkie and she didn’t die until he smashed her head in with a car. Josh was nervous about what he was going to do next. Stepping out of the darkness, both guns pointed at the group of four people who didn’t see him coming.

“Hey. We need to talk about your d**g habit, mostly like where you get them. We don’t have to end up killing one another here,” Josh said, waiting for a response.

“It looks like we got ourselves a hero, heroes make great stress relief and they taste great too,” the taller man said and the others turned. Two women, two guys. All of them had clearly used this poison before, their bodies were already changing.

They were all dressed in black leather, it was cheap though. Hand me down and torn to shreds in a lot of places.

Josh wasn’t shocked by this. He’d seen the aftermath of d**g dens before. The Crimson eye seemed to create a strange cannibalistic psychosis in who ever used it too long. It was never a pretty sight.

“If you eat me I promise you’ll choke,” Josh said back to them as they started to walk towards him. Josh could tell they had used their own product.

They had the look about them. Bulky and their eyes were red, even at night like this it was easy to tell but the addiction wasn’t that strong yet, they were only level one users for now.

“I get his arms. I really want his arms,” one of them said, some girl who couldn’t have been more than twenty years old. Josh took it seriously, he’d seen what happens when Eye users had a feast after they got high.

“Fine, you can have my arms after you take them,” Josh replied to them and started to squeeze the triggers, before he did, his phone rang. Josh said and put one of his guns in his holster. The four of them seemed confused by this as well.

“Hold on a minute, guys, I need to take this,” Josh said to them, hoping they were as dumb as they looked and didn’t attack him.

“Why does this thing always ring at the worst times?“ he asked as he answered the call. "What do you want? I am busy, here,” he said and looked around, frustrated.

"You want me to do what? That's insane, even for us," Josh continued, listening to the other end. “Will you hold on a minute?” Josh asked as he used his Uzi and put bullets into all of them in one sweeping arc without a second thought on the matter.

He really didn’t need to do that but if he didn‘t do it now they would kill some eight year old kid‘s parents in some alleyway somewhere. He couldn‘t have that thought running through his head.

"You are annoying,” he said as one last gunshot rang out striking the one on the far right in the head, the fight was over before it started. "I'll be there. I guess, yeah," he said and hung up the phone He moved up to the last one alive.

"Hey. We need to talk, buddy," he said as he stood over him with the g*n barrel in the face of the injured and scared man lying on the ground. Josh knew his night was just getting started and he was sure now that he had to go to some event, he would get plenty of good leads he wouldn’t have time to follow up on. It was how his luck worked.