I Have Returned, but I Cannot Lay down My Gun

"Rookie, I don’t think you’ve actually done this kind of mission before, have you?"

"...No. Everything I’ve done so far has been... well, the kind where you just smash everything, you know?"

"We specialize in this kind of thing. Strictly speaking, this is a bit of a different approach... but when it comes to causing chaos through rear infiltration, it’s pretty much the same."

At the end of September, with the sky clear and the air crisp, somewhere in the northeastern U.S.

There were no people around, and the light pollution was zero. The Milky Way glittered in the night sky, an overwhelming sight that couldn’t be described by anything other than ‘beautiful.’ It was a view beyond words.

However, below that, in some desolate outskirts of the city where only stillness and darkness reigned, the Dagger team was busy at work. They were typing furiously on their keyboards, manipulating something on the floating screen in the living room.

Next to them, I watched Logan and Laurentina manipulate some analog joysticks and a pad, as they were working on something.

"There are various ways to breach the enemy’s defenses. Shooting a sentry in the head is the simplest, but handling the bodies is a hassle, and the longer you wait, the higher the chances of getting caught."

"So that’s why you’re going with the option of sabotaging their equipment."@@novelbin@@

"With the number of enemies here, just killing all the sentries to get in would be a bit too much. That’s something you’d only do if you’re prepared for a full-scale war… and if they have tactical missiles, they’d definitely have at least a brigade stationed nearby."

As expected.

Logan, who often gets painted as a bloodthirsty character, was surprisingly… reasonable, a trait that was easy to overlook but still noteworthy. According to the reconnaissance we did before the rear team arrived, this was the best approach.

The current mission objectives were as follows: First, determine the infiltration route through precise reconnaissance, and create gaps in all the enemy defenses in between.

The optical reconnaissance equipment, which was more accurate than the human eye and capable of operating 24/7, needed to be disabled, all while checking enemy response methods and the intervals between sentry shifts.

It would be great if we could do everything remotely, but since that wasn’t possible, someone would eventually need to go in directly.

That’s why making holes in the defense line beforehand would make things much easier later on.

"As always, it feels like we’re bending the rules here. I knew unmanned reconnaissance drone technology was pretty advanced, but it’s almost cheating being able to observe from above like this, especially since there’s no UAV interception."

"Is it just UAVs? Even oil companies have had satellites in space for over ten years. If they couldn’t do this much, we’d be in trouble. Did you know?"

• "I feel like I’ve seen this situation before. Whether it’s Artemis or here... I’ve never seen a server room not in the basement. Looks like this place is the same."

• "This shouldn’t be too difficult."

• "They’re sleeping soundly. I don’t think taking a keycard is going to be a problem."

• "Yeah, tell me about it."