Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Of course, something like having a Neighbour from Aftokrator in the Border could not pass without a media circus show. In order to handle the rumors, Commander Kido was forced to call a media conference, much like the one that had revealed the Away Mission – except now, himself, Agent Silveri and Hyuse would be in the center of attention. And the topic would be the one that may affect the Border as a whole.

And journalists came swarming like flies.

"Mr Kido, what do you say about having a Neighbour at the Border?"

"Mr Kido, is the away mission endangered?"

"Mr Kido, what safety precautions do you have in place?"

Kido let the reporters ask their questions, and when they had quieted down, he started to speak.

"I cannot pretend that having Agent Hyuse serve as a guide to the Aftokrator is an ideal solution. Yes, there are risks involved. But we have negotiated terms with him, and moreover, we do have reason to believe that he will stay true to his word. Therefore, I do not believe that the mission is seriously endangered by his presence."

Kido took a breath before continuing.

"That being said, there are precautions being taken against the threat which Hyuse represents to the mission. I cannot discuss all of them in detail, but among other measures, he will be given an escort. Specifically, Agent Silveri here."

Orlok, who had nearly fallen asleep, perked up at being mentioned. Journalists, of course, had immediately taken him into the crosshairs.

"Do you think Agent Silveri is capable of handling Agent Hyuse, considering Agent Hyuse's strength?"

"What other security measures do you have in place?"

Orlok took a look at Hyuse, before taking a breath and turning to the journalists. "I believe I can do it. But not that it will be necessary to do so."

Of course, journalists did not let this slide.

"How can you say it will not be necessary? Agent Hyuse is an enemy agent of Aftokrator, and may seek to sabotage the mission."

Orlok looked back up. "Hyuse is not an enemy agent right now. As for later, I will handle it."

Commander Kido took the word again. "While Agent Hyuse used to be part of the enemy force, right now he has personal interests and goals which diverge from those of Aftokrator's leadership as such. As the situation currently stands, his goals are aligned far more closely to those of the Border than to those of the Aftokrator's leadership. We have no reason to believe that Agent Hyuse would betray us at any point as the mission is organized right now."

"What are these goals?"

Commander Kido took a look at Hyuse before answering. "Agent Hyuse's loyalty is to his master. Person in question is being threatened by Aftokrator's leadership right now, and the only way Agent Hyuse can save him is by cooperating with the Border."

"Agent Silveri mentioned 'later'. How exactly do you plan to prevent Agent Hyuse from betraying the mission in the period just prior to reaching the Aftokrator?"

Orlok answered this time. "It is a stealth mission. Me and Hyuse will leave the ship before it reaches Aftokrator. Then we will go to rescue Hyuse's master."

Commander Kido jumped in at that point. "Hopefully, doing so will also provide a distraction to Aftokrator, thus improving the possibility of success of the overall mission. Timing will have to be worked out well, but two of them, or even a small team, running amok on Aftokrator should make things significantly easier for the rest of the away team, in spite of the significant loss of fighting power their absence will create."

"One more thing. Do you have any evidence of Agent Silveri's fighting capabilities? Could you provide it?"

"We are well aware of his abilities and flaws both. But as for evidence, the only way would be an exhibition match. Which would also train our other agents, so yes, we will do it."

And so it had happened. In order to showcase Orlok's skills, Tamakoma-2 would face off against other teams in an exhibition match against three other high-ranked teams. Specifically, opponents would be Azuma squad, Ikoma squad and Ninomiya squad.

Map itself was a moderately-sized port area. Several large cranes dominated the dock, with large containers separating the dock into five zones. Beyond the dock area was located the hangar, divided into three halls, each filled with containers in a rather labyrinthine manner.

In Tamakoma-2s meeting, Osamu took the word. "Since capturing Chika is one of Aftokrator's priorities, she will not be a combatant during the mission itself. Rather, she will be staying on the ship as an engineer. With Silveri joining us under agreement with Commander Kido, he will be replacing Chika in battle as our fourth member."

Orlok looked up. "I could have also joined as an individual member, but..."

"...since Chika will not be joining us in combat, it is better if we work out some squad tactics involving Orlok now, rather than on the mission itself. Hence the exhibition match."

Elsewhere, Azuma was having his own meeting with his squad. "It appears that Tamakoma-2 has gotten another major reinforcement just now."

Koarai winced. "Yikes. They are really going all out. But wait, weren't they at full strength already?"

"It appears that Tamakoma's Chika will be going onto the mission as an engineer. She will not be a combatant since she is specifically targeted by Aftokrator due to her high Trion levels. So she will be staying on the ship, while a new agent is joining the team to keep an eye on Hyuse. At any rate, it was always planned to take several individual B-rank agents onto the away mission in addition to the two B-rank squads."

"Crap. That guy must be something to keep an eye on Hyuse. I mean, Hyuse's a Trion monster, and his Afto Trigger must be helluva dangerous."

"Indeed. While it is unclear how strong this new guy exactly is, he appears to be a solo combat optimized attacker. So we can expect him to be similar to Yuma in some ways. What this means is that the only person on Tamakoma 2 that either of you can take out solo is Mikumo. You should be extremely wary when engaging either Orlok or Kuga, and Hyuse you shouldn't engage at all due to his high defensive abilities. We should prioritize taking out Ninomiya squad, perhaps alongside Tamakoma, and then take out Tamakoma-2 as well."

Okudera made an expression as if he had just bitten a lemon. "Man, I really don't like doing that to Tamakoma, but I guess we really don't have a choice."

And then it was the time to start. Tamakoma-2 got deployed to the port itself, at the point where cranes and the containers served as concealment – but there was open space between the loading area and the hangar bays that would be difficult to cross against a squad with sniper support. Tamakoma-2 had spawned right at one end of this open space, with the Ikoma squad spawning at the other end. Without Amatori in the squad, Tamakoma had no sniper to counter Ikoma's Oki, and thus resorted to using cover provided by the containers to close the range as quickly as possible.

Apparently, however, Ikoma squad's Minamisawa had decided to rush out in front. Orlok had opted for a Bagworm, while Mikumo nearby did not – using himself as a bait for the enemy players. Realizing what Mikumo was doing, both Kuga and Hyuse moved away from him, leaving only the Bagwormed Orlok near Mikumo.

This paid off even sooner than expected. Minasawa quickly rushed to attack the seemingly-unprotected Mikumo before he could deploy the wires – only to get ambushed by Orlok and quickly dispatched, courtesy of a Scorpion meeting his Trion supply system. Orlok then quickly jumped away – and not too soon, as Ikoma Senku almost immediately crashed right through the place he had been standing barely a moment before. "Seriously, this guy is bad news.".

Ikoma and Mizukami were now left in the immediate area, facing all four members of Tamakoma-2. Mizakumi jumped up onto the boxes, launching a Hound which, despite not doing any damage, ended up revealing positions of all four members of Tamakoma-2. While all four were moving in an attempt to avoid attacks, next attack caught Mikumo in the arm, leading to a significant Trion loss.

But this was bad news for Ikoma as well. All four Tamakoma-2 members had taken the note of the direction Senku had come from, and the distance it had travelled. Hyuse, Orlok and Yuma closed in from three sides. Hyuse suppressed Ikoma himself with Viper barrages, moving after each volley to prevent Ikoma from taking him out with Senku, while Mikumo delayed Mizukami. But Ikoma soon had bigger problems, as Yuma engaged him head-on. Ikoma managed to block the initial strike and several following strikes. Yuma was only a distraction. Orlok, using Bagworm, proceeded to ambush Ikoma, pushing a Scorpion dagger right through Ikoma's chest before quickly jumping away to avoid any counterattack from other members of Ikoma squad.

With this, only enemies left in the immediate area were Mizukami and Oki. This time Orlok engaged Mizukami directly with Viper, while Hyuse suppressed Oki with his own Viper barrages, forcing the sniper to keep moving. Orlok was having a hard time – while his Viper allowed him to theoretically avoid Mizukami's shields, Mizukami was making good use of full containers to block lines of fire, and his own more varied shooter loadout had left Orlok at a disadvantage. Orlok was forced to give ground, using combination of shields and cover from containers to defend himself against Mizukami.

But Mizukami failed to notice a Viper cube Orlok had left tucked in between the containers, near the ground where it would be difficult to notice. Orlok's strike took off Mizukami's legs at the knees, and as he fell, Kuga jumped in, cutting off Mizukami's head. Yet this victory did not come without a cost – between the already incurred damage and new damage inflicted by Mizukami, Mikumo himself was forced to bail out.

This left Oki. Oki himself had moved to a high ground that allowed him to cover the entire loading area. But said high ground – railings and platforms that ran above the entrances to the hangar area – gave him some concealment, but very little actual cover. So when Hyuse and Orlok decided to make the entire area into Viper nesting grounds, Oki was forced to quickly abandon his high ground and retreat inside, where he was caught and shot by Captain Azuma.

Inside, Ninomiya and Azuma squads were at a stalemate. Azuma was reluctant to abandon his superior position which allowed him to cover the approaches, while Ninomiya knew that any attack against the holed-up Azuma in such a situation meant certain death. And now both squads were waiting for Tamakoma's move.

Hyuse soon made a decision. "Let's attack Ninomiya squad first. Azuma, by his squad's very composition, is less likely to come after us immediately if we are fighting the Ninomiya squad. By contrast, if Azuma squad mauls us, we will be defenseless against Ninomiya."

"There is also the position to consider", added Hyuse after a short pause. "Room that Azuma is in has only two entrances and relatively little cover, which makes it a perfect defensive position. By contrast, as long as we manage to reach the hangar, we can hope to split the Ninomiya squad among all the containers. And if I can force one-on-one against Ninomiya, either Orlok or Kuga can take him out while he is focused on me."

Kuga and Orlok nodded in unison. "Got it."

Hyuse opened last phase of the battle by launching a Viper against Ninomiya. Between restricted area and Ninomiya's defense, this failed. But in a sudden change of events, Tamakoma got help: Okudera and Koarai of Azuma squad engaged Ninomiya squad, and Inukai and Tsuji were slowly drawn away from Ninomiya. Ninomiya himself did not seem to mind, and turned to engage the Tamakoma-2, or rather, Hyuse who was the only one in the immediate line of fire.

Hyuse and Ninomiya engaged each other, but Ninomiya's greater weight of fire soon forced Hyuse fully on the defensive. While he held out well at first, Hyuse soon began to take damage as Ninomiya gradually whittled down his shields. But his perserverence paid off: with Ninomiya focused on Hyuse himself, Orlok found it relatively easy to sneak up on Ninomiya by using Bagworm. Peeking out from behind a crate, Orlok shot a Viper barrage right at Ninomiya. Ninomiya managed to block it, but in doing so he opened himself to attack by Hyuse, who heavily damaged Ninomiya before he could switch his attention again. And while Ninomiya was defending himself from Hyuse, Orlok launched himself at Ninomiya. He pushed a dagger through Ninomiya's Trion heart, forcing a bail-out, though the kill went to Hyuse.

Hyuse himself had taken heavy damage and was slowly leaking Trion, however. He wouldn't have much time left in a match, and so Hyuse and Orlok went to get more points before Hyuse was forced to bail out.

They do manage to catch up to Inukai and Tsuji of Ninomiya squad before this happens. Inukai got perforated by Hyuse's barrage, and Tsuji's attempt to save him gets him sniped by Azuma, and both Hyuse and Orlok fall back, with Hyuse himself soon bailing out due to damage inflicted by Ninomiya.

With Azuma being in an extremely good defensive position, rest of the match was spent simply waiting for the timer to run out.

Final results were as follows:

And as split by characters:

"So, any comments?"

Arashiyama took the word. "It is interesting to see how Tamakoma-2 and Azuma squads had basically shaped this entire match. Azuma squad held Ninomiya squad at a stalemate, while outside the Tamakoma-2 had eliminated Ikoma squad with minimal losses. This will have been likely impossible if Ninomiya wasn't worried about Azuma taking him in the rear if he went to attack Tamakoma. But once Ikoma squad had fallen, Ninomiya squad was caught in what was essentially a crossfire between Tamakoma-2 and Azuma, wiping them out."

Tachikawa then added his own input. "It is also important to note that Tamakoma-2 clearly has a healthy dose of respect for the Azuma squad. At no point did they attempt to attack Azuma in his hiding spot, despite the fact that three out of four people in Tamakoma could be aces in most B-ranked squads."

Arashiyama took up the word again. "Tamakoma's changed formation is also interesting. It appears that, with Orlok replacing their sniper, Hyuse has taken up the role of medium-range fire support while Orlok acts as a frontline attacker alongside Kuga. This does leave them without a sniper, which is unusual, though, and may be a big weakness moving forward."

Tachikawa tacked on. "It definitely is a weakness, but a lot of other B-rank squads do not have a sniper either. Ninomiya squad most prominently, but also Oji, Nasu, Katori, Suwa and Kakizaki squads are without a sniper as well. So if the goal is to keep Amatori safe by leaving her on the ship, they will simply have to adapt. And it is not all bad news. New formation also allows them to suppress entire enemy squads with Hyuse's mid-range firepower while two close-range attackers do the killing. Properly utilized, this formation can be extremely powerful, especially if Hyuse decides to specialize in providing said firepower."

"And now we are finished here!"