Low Guruk

Secret Nexus Base,

1440 Hours, July 31st, 3039.

Boom!

A loud gunshot tore through the quiet town. The culprit, Raines, wore a tense smile as she ejected, and then cocked the next cartridge into place with practiced ease. Before a second passed, she trained the rifle at the second coordinate and then squeezed the trigger.

Boom!

Two shots. Two bullets.

Raines looked up at the illusion her rounds disappeared into. Three terse seconds passed, and just when it seemed she missed, she muttered, "Zero."

BOOM!

The sound of a giant explosion emanated from behind the holograms. Raines then grinned as she watched the hologram directly facing her disappear. The illusion's disappearance revealed the Nexus base and dozens of stunned Nexus bots who stared at the exploding holo-projector in shock.

However, before the bots could begin processing that information, BOOM, the western holo-projector also exploded, exposing even more of the base to the naked eye.

This, the bots did respond to. Alarms blared in the compound, and the Nexus bots rapidly exchanged their cargo for weapons. Unlike humans, every Nexus bot was a war asset which could be repurposed with a simple switch of parameters and protocols. This meant that every bot in a Nexus bot posed a significant threat, and it was why humans always treated any quest involving the Nexus with the utmost respect.

[Be advised. Sniper located at Lat. XXX, Long. XXX]

The Nexus's superior calculating abilities quickly surmised Raines' location using the mass, impact, and trajectory of the bullet in relation to wind and atmospheric pressure. The Nexus, enraged by Raines' audacity to reveal their painstakingly hidden base, immediately went on the offensive.

[Readying anti-sniper measures.]

"My God!" Arthur's eyes widened in shock, when what appeared to be an anti-aircraft missile launcher suddenly swiveled and pointed in their direction. "Raines! Run!"

"Where!?" Raines gritted her teeth and once again raised her rifle. Those missiles had the power to obliterate the entire building. They had a better chance of trying to shoot them down than attempting to outrun the explosion.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Unfortunately, Raines' eyes lost focus when over fifty missiles flew out in wide parabolic arcs. The missiles flew far enough from each other to prevent a chain explosion in the event one was shot down. Clearly, the Nexus were not idiots. They had fought enough battles against humans to have learned many of their tricks.

"Hold on!"

Suddenly, Raines felt Arthur's arm wrap around her waist. Years of built-up trust allowed her to surrender her body to the young man as he jumped through the window. Raines stared in shock as Arthur placed a door frame under his feet like he was about to go surfing. "What the hell?"

"[Pull]!" Since it was Arthur's first time trying out the skill in the field, he could not help but call out the name. To his delight, the telekinetic force pulled the door towards him. The counteracting force forcibly slowed their descent, but before he could relax, the missiles struck their target above.

BOOM!

The explosive force smashed into Arthur and Raines like a ten tonne truck. Arthur, new to his abilities, lost control and toppled over. Luckily, by the time the explosion happened, they were only a few meters from the ground. "Brace yourself!" Arthur shouted as he spun around so his back faced the ground.

Bam!

"Oof!" Arthur let out a guttural cough as he struck the concrete pavement. He, however, did not even have the luxury of processing the pain. A massive section of the wall broke loose during the explosion and was now falling toward them. Once again, Arthur gritted his teeth and then raised his right arm. "[Lift!]"

Arthur's meager level 2 Lift failed to raise the heavy wall, but it did pause its descent for a brief second. Arthur utilized that brief second to roll out of the way with Raines. Boom! Rumblee. Arthur coughed as a cloud of dust stormed out of the crash site and then enveloped them.

Obscured from sight, Arthur finally released Raines. Unfortunately, neither had the time to express thanks as ominous footsteps and shouting reached their ears.

"Targets presumed living. Search the surrounding structures and eliminate on sight!"

Evidently, the Nexus never hinged success on the missile barrage, and already sent footsoldiers to storm the building. As a result, by the time Arthur struck the ground, they were only a few meters away.

"We've got to move." Arthur groaned as he got to his feet. He ignored the searing pain on his back, and instead, focused on getting out of there.

"This way." Raines patted Arthur's shoulder, and then guided him out of the dust cloud. They came out in front of a parking lot adjacent to their building. Raines, recalling Dayle's plan, headed west, hoping to loop through the parking lot, and then the apartment buildings on the west wing.

Unfortunately, the Nexus had seemingly expected this and sent their forces to scour through the nearby buildings to weed out any enemy force. However, they prioritized the south and west wings as those were the areas that lost their holograms. It stood to reason that any invading force would come in through the zones with no illusions.

Raines tracked the Nexus' movements and instantly knew this would not be an easy escape.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Raines froze and then crouched behind a broken-down car. She peeked through the cracked windows and spotted a group of five Nexus bots combing through the parking lot. This was Raines and Arthur's first encounter with the Nexus, and they carefully observed their future enemies.

Three of the five Nexus bots retained a humanoid figure. Their small, lithe frames were protected by thin, but strong bronze-colored armor plating. These bots held rifles which they expertly trained around them as they combed through.

The other nexus bots were a pair of dog-like robots called stalkers. Stalkers were about 3 meters long from head to tail and sported heavy-armor plating and sharp claws for ripping targets apart. They were extremely agile and strong, able to leap several meters in the air and tear through steel doors. Perhaps most terrifying, however, were the gatling guns strapped to their backs that shredded enemies with extreme prejudice.

Stalkers were the best unit to chase down enemies as they could keep up with many sprites.

Raines' eyes narrowed as she studied the five enemies. There was no way to the next building except through them. However, if possible, she wanted to avoid drawing every bot to their location with loud gunshots. With the objective in mind, she carefully observed the bots.

Raines watched as a bot walked toward a location another had already explored. At that moment, the latter looked up. The bot suddenly stopped and then turned away to search somewhere else. From the looks of things, the bots did not need speech to communicate.

Raines gritted her teeth. As things stood, being quiet wouldn't do much good either. Once a bot was under attack, it could easily send out a distress signal to warn the others. If that was the case, then they needed to switch strategies. Rather than a silent infiltration, Raines and Arthur would need to employ guerrilla tactics to whittle down the Nexus bots.

At least until the main force arrived.

Having come to a decision, Raines swallowed a deep breath, and then connected to her team leader, "Dayle, the diversion is a success, but we have a problem."

"What's wrong?" - Dayle.

"The bots use wireless communication. If my guess is right, taking down one bot will instantly alert the others, so be careful while you're in there."

At the other end, Dayle went silent. Raines knew that the gears in Dayle's head were currently turning at full speed, trying to find a way out for her and Arthur with the least amount of risk.

Eventually, Dayle came to the same conclusion. "Alright. The mission is still a go but scrap the west wing. You two focus on disrupting the enemy forces. But, don't forget. Your number one priority is your lives. Under no circumstances do you jeopardize that, do you understand?"

Arthur chuckled under his breath. Dayle and his contradictory orders. How could he tell them to disrupt the enemy, then also instruct them not to jeopardize their lives? However, despite thinking this, Arthur chuckled and drew out the rod he got from the VOK facility. He 'broke' the rod in half, slid out the blades and then nodded at Raines.

Raines, having received Arthur's confirmation, smiled and then said. "Understood. Commencing diversion. We're Going Dark. See you in a few, Dayle. "

"Likewise."

With those words, Raines turned off her connection to Dayle and Queen. She then looked at Arthur. "[Overlord] is fully charged. I'll take down one stalker, and provide covering fire. Think you can handle the rest?"

Arthur thumped his chest. "On your go."

Raines smiled and then shot up. She raised her rifle, balanced it on the car and then trained it at a stalker in one smooth motion. By the time a Nexus bot spotted her, it was too late. [Overload] was a techno-skill that overcharged an electrical device with a massive surge of electricity. Typically, to use [Overload], one had to either touch the target or be within a few feet from the target. Hence, it was vastly considered to be a close combat skill.

In Raines' hands, however, [Overload] took on a new form. Raines contained the charge from Overload into specially designed bullets by Dee. Dee's modifications allowed Raines to either fill up a single bullet with the full charge or share it equally amongst an entire cartridge.

In the future, Raines hoped she could control the individual charge per bullet, but for a beginner, this much was already excellent.

This time, because Raines was using a bolt-action sniper rifle, she sunk the entire charge into a single bullet and then squeezed the trigger.

BANG!
At the same time, Raines fired, Arthur, burst out from cover, wielding a car door as a makeshift shield.

Before the Nexus bot could issue a warning, Raines' shot struck one of the stalkers in the chest. Boom! Bzzt! The oblivious machine exploded in fireworks of electric sparks and flying metal.

The remaining Nexus bots were enraged and immediately trained their weapons at Raines.

"RAAAH!"

Arthur's roar had the intended effect of drawing their attention over to him as Raines once more ducked under cover. Arthur, meanwhile, took stock of the enemies' position relative to his.

The destroyed stalker was just a few meters ahead of him, and the other stalker was about ten meters behind that one. The closest enemy was a Nexus bot roughly ten meters to the northwest that had taken cover behind an abandoned SUV, while the remaining two were about thirty meters to the northeast.

Arthur gripped the rods in his left hand, which also held the shield, and then pulled out a pistol. Bang! Bang! He peppered the closest Nexus bot, forcing it to retreat behind the car, even as he blocked a barrage of shots from the bots to the east.

"Arthur!"

Arthur knew from Raines' shout that the real threat had arrived. He peeked from the corner and saw the stalker charging directly at him. His gaze narrowed as he glared at the gun's nozzle which began to turn. In less than two seconds, he would be swiss cheese! That car door definitely could not block that amount of force.

Faced with these odds, Arthur did not panic.

BANG!

Arthur grinned when he spotted the bot hiding behind the SUV explode. 'Nice shot, Raines!' Since he didn't have to worry about his right side anymore, Arthur holstered his pistol and then drew his right arm back.

Vwooom!

Arthur gritted his teeth as dark blue energy gathered around his arm. "[Singularity]!" With an explosive yell, the young man punched out. The dense energy shot out and then crashed into the incoming stalker.

Dwuom!

Rather, than an explosion, the energy exploded into a strange gravitational field akin to a black hole that pulled in everything in a 4-meter radius. Two nearby cars, abandoned rebar, and pieces of junk floated up into the air and then bound themselves to the stalker as it suspended in the air.

"15, 14..." Arthur started counting down as he twisted on his heels and then charged at the Nexus bots. Singularity, at level 2, lasted for fifteen seconds and had a cooldown time of fifty seconds. Arthur mentally kept track of the remaining time as he rapidly closed the distance, zigzagging between cars to make himself as small a target as possible.

The Nexus bots, fully enraged, stepped out of cover and relentlessly shot at the approaching soldier. Without care for their safety, their aim dramatically improved. Within half a second, Arthur's makeshift shield almost disintegrated from the concentrated fire.

However, rather than panic, Arthur grinned as he had finally entered range. Once he was within ten meters, he reached out and shouted in quick succession, "[Lift], [Slam]!"

Clamps shot out of the Nexus' feet to stabilize their footing. This was the Nexus' countermeasure against the humans' telekinetic abilities. Normally, a human would be stunned after seeing their abilities fail.

Unfortunately, these Nexus were dealing with an avid anime fan.

Arthur, who had watched enough sci-fi films to guess that the Nexus would have developed countermeasures, never targeted the Nexus.

BANG!

One of the Nexus was stunned when the car it had been hiding behind, flew into the air, and then subsequently crushed it underneath. It wanted to escape, but unfortunately sealed its own fate when it secured the footing.

"Oh," Arthur exclaimed in happy surprise. He'd been going for a distraction. Never, in his wildest dreams did he think he would deal a fatal blow with that move. However, he did not waste the opportunity.

Whoosh!

The young man flung one-half of the rod with all his might. It sped through the lot and knocked the second Nexus' gun out of its hand in the split-second it was distracted. He then charged at the bot and drove the second rod through its exposed chest.

BZZT!

Sparks scattered as the bot's light dimmed, signifying the end of its life.

GRRR!

Arthur turned around just in time to see the stalker break out of the singularity by ejecting, and then exploding the gun on its back.

Stronger singularities definitely could not be broken this easily. Unfortunately, Arthur was still too low-leveled. It would take a while before he could really pull out the true power of the skill.

Bzzt!

Arthur pulled out the rod, picked up the second, and then joined them to form a long spear. Arthur then crouched low and steadied his breath as the stalker charged at him. With a loud battle cry, he prepared for the epic battle, "Come!"

Bang! Bang!Bang!

One shot. A pause, and then two consecutive shots.

Arthur watched as the first shot blew away the stalker's right leg. This caused the machine to miss its footing, and it consequently tumbled toward Arthur. The second and third shots tore through the hole where the gun had been mounted and decimated several internal wiring.

However, as if to prove its tenacity, the stalker still had enough energy left to growl at Arthur as it slid towards him.

Bam.

Arthur stopped the stalker's slow momentum with his foot. Without ceremony, he stabbed the beast with his spear, finally snuffing its light. The young man then looked up to see Raines near the second building, waving while putting away her rifle.

Arthur quickly put the bots' corpses in his inventory and then chased after Raines. What a pity. The stalker's gatling gun would have come in handy, but beggars could not be choosers.

Arthur and Raines, knowing that the bots would definitely converge on their location, stole into the next building through a window, and then prepared to begin an epic game of cat and mouse.

Arthur sneaked a peek at the Nexus base, wondering how Dayle and Queen's mission was going.

Hopefully, better than his.