PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

“Be careful rookie, if you drop those warheads you’ll blow us all to pieces”

“Damn, who was in charge of maintaining the armored vehicles? there is one with a flat tire”

“Everyone to your defense posts, any deserter will be treated in the most brutal way possible”

The orders kept coming, with soldiers running desperately trying to carry these out, barely maintaining any degree of order within the headquarters, quite an achievement considering that almost half of the commanding officers were missing.

Desmond on his own had already left that chaos behind, now heading to rejoin his squad. As a lieutenant in the Esper section, Desmond’s responsibilities were a bit different, especially since he did not have an assignment that fits with the standard chain of command.

Arriving at the logistics and transportation department yard, Desmond found his squad getting all the equipment ready as these were loaded into an armored vehicle; Seeing the scene Desmond couldn’t help but frown.

“Morales, what the hell are you doing?” Desmond asked with clear annoyance in his voice.

Confused by Desmond’s tone of voice, Morales responded, “Lieutenant, we’re loading equipment to be transported to the north defensive wall.”

.....

Knowing that neither Morales nor the rest of his squad including Silvia and Claire was aware of the problem, Desmond explained: “You said it yourself, we’re going to the northern defensive wall, we’ll be in an elevated position with a field of view of 900m before it reaches the forest and expects both incursions of mutated beasts from the ground and the air. So why are you loading up-close combat submachine guns with 200m effective firing range, go back and swap these for modified M14 assault rifles with 850m firing range.”

It was only now that Morales and the rest realized how stupid it was to carry weapons intended for close urban combat when going into a defensive battle, it was due to the habit of using such weapons most of the time that the squad did not think about it carefully and just started loading the truck.

Seeing Morales run back with a bag full of weapons, Desmond turned to the rest of the squad and began issuing orders: “Selenski tag along with the idiot Morales and make sure he brings the proper ammunition, also remember to bring at least a portion of ammunition in special anti-armor ammunition”

“Trevstone, bring two sniper rifles, you know the model, don’t even bother taking anything other than armor-piercing ammo for these; we’ll use them to take down big guys.”

“Colins return those hand grenades and come back with a 40mm grenade launcher, don’t bother with the model there’s only one model in stock, get someone to help you with the ammo bags”

“The rest of you take care of your equipment and I swear to god if one of you fucking idiots runs out of ammunition or your weapons fail due to lack of maintenance I’ll beat you up so bad your mothers won’t be able to recognize you, I specifically ordered you keep your armory so I don’t want excuses.”

“Yes, sir.” Fearing that Desmond would carry out his threats, his entire squad, Claire included, ran back to load the entire team without daring to delay for a single moment.

Desmond, for his part, went to his locker in the armory and withdrew his Haenel Mk 556 assault rifle, although perhaps it was not entirely appropriate to continue calling the weapon he carried that way since during his two-week stay in the city of Kars Desmond had taken his assault rifle to an expert gunsmith for massive upgrades.

The gas piston system had been modified and part of the internal structure of the weapon had been reinforced giving the weapon greater firing power, increasing the speed of the projectiles, and thus increasing the effective firing range of the weapon to 1200m. Although this led to the assault rifle has a slightly lower rate of fire, this was offset by the extended range, penetration force, and the ability to fire heavier ammunition with less drawback; which was ideal since Desmond used to use only tungsten anti-armor ammunition.

Whatever the case, the gun still retained the general appearance of the Haenel Mk566 only being slightly sturdier and significantly heavier, something difficult to notice given the large number of attachments fitted to the gun.

In addition to the assault rifle, Desmond picked up a late-model Barrett anti-materiel rifle which Desmond spent a small fortune on, as the small gun fanatic that Desmond was, he couldn’t help but ask for the model when he saw it in a catalog of military equipment some weeks ago; though he never got a chance to use it.

All specs on the weapon aside, that thing was no different from a small armor-piercing destruction tool, Desmond did not doubt that this rifle could kill a two-star class powerhouse no matter the level as long as this person didn’t see it coming

After taking his weapons, Desmond also changed his uniform, following the same design the new uniform was just a little less formal than the previous one and it was still a bit ostentatious for the battlefield but the reason why Desmond changed his uniform in the first place it wasn’t because of fashion but because this new uniform was something that he had asked for along with the barret anti-materiel rifle; It was a uniform with a super-advanced Kevlar double lining system.

Clearly, Desmond was still a bit traumatized by the experience of being shot, as during Katya’s premonition he had still experienced every last ounce of pain.

With all the preparations on his part ready for him, Desmond returned to the logistics yard to find the vehicle fully loaded and his squad getting ready to leave.

With a calm smile on his face, Desmond approached the vehicle and nonchalantly climbed into the driver’s seat before telling his team, “Alright little rookies today will be a tough battle, don’t you dare die or I’ll get you out of hell myself to kill you again”

Hearing the lieutenant’s weird and aggressive pep talk, the squad didn’t know whether to laugh or cry in response and opted to just keep quiet and remember to be careful.

Morales, who used to drive, was the first to comment: “Lieutenant, did you learn to drive?”

Desmond replied with a proud smile, “Of course, I was in a special course recently; let me show you how it’s done”

Three minutes later, a record time for a journey that normally takes five minutes at full throttle, the armored car made an aggressive drift before coming to rest, parked almost perfectly beside the city’s north wall.

As soon as the vehicle stopped, the entire squad jumped out of it clutching the ground as if their lives depended on it before giving their lieutenant who had a calm appearance a death glare.

To tell the truth, even Desmond wasn’t shameless enough to remain calm at the look his squad was giving him so he coughed uncomfortably and said with a calm face, “At the end of the day I guess being the squad driver isn’t something that a lieutenant should do so Morales will be the one in charge of driving ”

Only then did Desmond’s squad heave a sigh of relief, but they couldn’t bring themselves to relax as they began to unload all the equipment from the vehicle and load it onto the top of the defensive wall.

Even Desmond who usually has very high standards found himself quite pleased with the mettle of his squad although he remained to be seen what they were made of.

By the time Desmond and his squad had finished moving all the equipment to the top of the wall, the alert alarm sounded again this time with a slightly different rhythm signaling that the tide of beasts was already in the 2km range.

“Quick take up a position, remember we’re not here to throw our ammo at cannon fodder, we’re here primarily to defend the defense forces from flying mutant beast attacks and target any particularly strong ground mutant beasts; understood?”

“Sir, yes sir”

“Okay, remember, don’t waste your ammunition, wait until the artillery breaks ground, and pick your targets carefully. In the case of flying mutant beasts, I will be the main long-range offensive, once the beasts reach medium-range Lynwood will try to slow them while you shoot them down; in case the flying beasts get too close Trevnstone will be in charge of the defense with her ice skills while Lynwood does her best to restrict their mobility with her telekinesis and Morales that will be your moment to shine...understood?”

“Sir, yes sir”

“Alright ladies and gentlemen the show is about to start, I won’t forgive any carelessness, keep your eyes on that damned forest up north, nasty things will catch us off guard if we became pleasant”

Finishing his speech, Desmond fixed his gaze on the northern forest, with a worried gleam in his eyes, Athena was in that forest, and Desmond was worried about her but there was nothing he could do about it at the moment so he could only hope that she was okay and stayed away from this mess.

Although considering how lazy Athena had become after winter came, there was a real possibility that she would just sleep the entire day without noticing anything at all.