Marcus took a drag of his cigarette and checked the time. ‘They should be close now’, he thought to himself as he flicked the butt into the corner of the janitor’s closet. It being deep inside the building they were hiding in with no ventilation or windows allowed for a safe place to smoke, which Marcus capitalized on in case something went down. He didn’t need the shakes to come up when he’s busy holding a rifle.

“They’re here.” Ylenka declared, peeking her head into the room.

“Coming.” Marcus replied, following Ylenka as she led the way toward one of the rooms overlooking the streets. It was empty. Distant gunfire echoed in the distance and Marcus could see smoke trailing up further north amidst the smokestacks of the industrial district, with drab flat concrete buildings and tall chain-linked fences.

“There. In the alley between the two garages.” Ylenka said, lowering a pair of binoculars and pointing towards the location.

Marcus raised his newly acquired VSK-94 suppressed sniper rifle and peeked through his PSO-1M2-1 4x24 scope he bought off Stoner and measured the distance between them using the built in rangefinder in the scope to find that they were 200 meters away, according to the lines. Marcus did some quick mental math, converting the meters to around 220 yards. He was still getting used to shooting in meters, which the scope was dialed in for and could use any practice he could get. “I see them.”

“I’m signaling.” Ylenka replied, pointing a flashlight in their direction and pulsing it on and off.

“They see you.” Marcus said, watching as heads snapped towards their direction and he could easily recognize the familiar faces of Ylenka’s team.

“Okay.” she said, pausing as she listened on the radio. Deep into the north, they were surrounded by SRT clan members and so observed strict radio discipline. Even with encrypted radios, there was still a chance of them being listened on by a high leveled radio operator on the enemy side. “They said they should be clear.”

“Get them in here then.” Marcus replied and watched as the transmission was received on the other side and the team moved through the streets with their lone hanger-on in tow. The man was part of the TAS, which meant for Track, Assault, and Squat, ‘whatever that meant.’ Marcus thought.

Marcus followed the team as they weaved through buildings and wreckage until they crossed the streets separating them and went out of sight. Marcus gave a low whistle, which called the two goblins under his employ. Unlike the thin rags and barely operable shotguns they had equipped earlier in the day, Marcus had them fitted out with two Romanian Guard AKs and a couple of Flecktarn pattern ponchos.

Seeing the green coloration of their covers against the gray backdrop of the ruined city, Marcus thought the color scheme might get them killed and decided to get them Urban digitals once he got back on the ship. It was an oversight, with him mainly thinking that they would be keeping to the underground. Turns out, he was wrong.

With hoods up and rifles hidden under the folds, they could easily be mistaken for kids, which was one of the reasons Marcus chose the get-up. A second of hesitation could always save the smaller NPCs from catching a bullet.

“You two stay here and watch for enemies with Ylenka. I’ll watch the doors for our guests.” Marcus said to everyone. With the team having not seen the goblins, there was a good chance of them shooting first, which is something Marcus wanted to avoid as he walked down the halls and waited by the steps.

A while later, Marcus heard footsteps crushing loose dirt under concrete and could feel his skin crawl, as he had to be the person to call in the challenge for the coming team to come up with the countersign. “Thunder.” Marcus challenged in a loud whisper. Whoever came up with the idea among these history nerds was not being coy or clever, but a total idiot.

“Flash.” came the response, almost eagerly. Marcus peeked around the corner to see their medic, holding the HK-MP5 tap one of the boys on the shoulder, wearing a proud smile on his face.

“Get up here, leave one of you to guard the entrance.” Marcus ordered, then went up to the floors. The TAS representative followed close behind. He was armed with a stock M4 rifle with a fixed front sight and a carry handle slung on his shoulder. He was the first one Marcus ever saw to rock a bare bones M4 despite his likelihood of being high leveled.

“The brothers up in base told me you’re all here to help.” The man said as he followed, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend type of situation.”

“Exactly that. They’re not exactly being the best neighbors in our neck of the woods too.” Marcus said, being as vague as he could. He didn’t know what kind of information Ylenka’s team told the TAS guild, but it was still better if he made sure that any leak did not come from him. “Since we got ourselves some breathing room, we thought we would make friends while killing our enemies.”

The man nodded. “That’s right. There’s a lot of killing that needs to be done . The brothers sent me because I can point you in the right direction. Also, don’t worry about taking care of me, I can take care of myself and it doesn't matter if I die as long as we take more of the SRT out in the end. “

“That’s not really inspiring much confidence in me, young man.” Marcus said, “But since you said you can find the SRTs, we’ll figure something out.” He said, then turned to the rest. “Okay, everyone, make sure your hands are away from your weapons. I don’t want any of you pulling something stupid out of your asses and cost me a lot of credits.”

With a whistle, Marcus called the two goblins to come out of their hiding. The sight of their small forms coming around the corner first aroused curiosity but then guardedness as they finally recognized what was in front of them. Ylenka’s team was fine, simply standing back at the sight of the goblins, but the TAS representative went for his gun.

With a practiced motion, the kid’s hand reached for the rifle’s pistol grip and was already raising his rifle when Marcus’ hand shot towards his sidearm. Muscle memory took over, his thumb unclipping the pistol from his holster just as he pulled it out and disengaged the safety while raising it to point towards his head. Cocked and unlocked, the barrel of a pistol pressed on the kid’s head stopped him from doing exactly what Marcus considered to be incredibly stupid.

“You should listen to your elders, kid.” Marcus warned. “I told you to keep away from your weapons.”

“You’re fast, brother.” He smiled. “Can I know your name?”

“Hartdegen.” Marcus said, putting the safety back on and holstering it. “Yours?”

“Razer,” the kid replied, “Say, your name is familiar.”

“Probably heard it in a storybook.” Marcus muttered, then turned towards his goblins. “Gabs, Fleex. Head west and scout out the buildings. Hey MP5 guy, go escort them down to the ground floor. I don’t want them getting shot by the guy waiting out front.”

The MP5 guy nodded and left, followed quickly by the two goblins, who glanced back at him and gave a small nod. Marcus nodded back, watching them disappear into the corner before turning back to Razer, who was watching the goblins with wonder.

“You know, the MP5 guy’s name is Seidel.” Ylenka chuckled, pulling out a roughly drawn map of the area she had been working on for a while. Marcus had been surprised to find out that maps of the area around the ship were pretty much nonexistent. There was nothing sold and anyone with a functional map would rather keep it to themselves than sell them. The void in the market might open up to an opportunity, but it was not something to be busying himself with at the moment.

Razer hunched over the map and easily understood the landmarks. He pointed at their besieged base, tracing their route through the city and stopping over at the exact building they were in now. All Marcus knew about their base was that it was a factory that had been taken over by their clan, maintained, and was being defended against the SRT. So far, it’s been holding out with both sides locked in a deadly and costly stalemate.

“This. Here.” Razer declared, pointing at a spot on the map. “The roads around this area have been kept clear for their trucks to use this little avenue on the regular. It always has players patrolling it but we couldn’t keep it closed since they always have a QRF ready to clear out any ambushes. Their cars are heavily armed and armored. They have urban survival kits installed on all their vehicles paired with vehicle borne Energy weapons, making them impervious to RPGs. Trust us, we tried knocking them out, but the only good news was that there are only a few of them available to the clan since they cost a lot to maintain.”

“Here,” he said again, pointing to another spot on the map, “is where they always post up their snipers to try to harass us. Our counter snipers take care of them, but the effect is minimal. We can only get them to stop for an hour if we happen to get their sniper.”

Another spot. Farther north into the city where a river ran through the city and connected to the nearby lake. “Here is where the brothers think the next attack will take place. They have been probing at this location for a while, looking for weaknesses in the line. We only have a general idea of when it’ll happen. Save for a spy or precognition, we won’t know until they commit to it. As for direct support, we can tie up their QRF by attacking one of their positions. We can try to make it as convincing as we can, but they’ll realize soon enough that it’s just a diversion.”

Marcus nodded and looked down at the markers on the map. He could feel the gazes of everyone in the room as he did his best to ignore them and focus on the choices at hand. The choices all had their advantages along with the associated risks. If they tried to hit their logistics, they could hurt them hard by taking out expensive materiel and might even take some for themselves, but it also risked the chance of getting caught up with their roving patrols. If they went for the sniper, he’ll most likely have his own protection detail and they would end up in a firefight. Lastly, catching the suspected attack bore minimal risk but was dependent on the attack happening as they predicted in the first place.

Marcus had to decide. Delaying now would only muddle his decisions, as doubts would creep in. He knew they could do this. Honest Scribe, Ylenka’s team, was capable enough. The only thing left now was which approach to pick. Or if he should even pick one of those three, they could try to find another SRT’s vulnerability to exploit too.

Checking the map once more, Marcus noticed one of the locations was near an underground station. “Alright.” Marcus grunted. “This one. We’ll do this.”