Chapter 5: Chapter 5: Briefing and Borrowing

"Our intelligence division has tracked the origin of the Honkai horde, and have confirmed that they have moved in from our neighbor's territory." The holographic projection of Westinghouse stated as she waved her hands, willing the appearance of a digital map that floated in front of the podium.

The map pertained to the Eastern Siberian region within Russia, several red lines ran along the terrain seemingly at random, delimiting each PMC's 'territory'. A simple animation played out, showing the face of a Honkai Beast moving from a small sector with the name Rowan stamped in its center, the animated Honkai was shown crossing the red line and directly entering Red Dawn's territory, which was much bigger.

The revelation raised some eyebrows among the Red Dawn commanders, but none of them seemed surprised. 

"Rowan PMC, is it?" The Major of the 20th unit asked.

"Correct." Answered the Marshal, brows furrowing in irritation once again. "Their company suffered quite a bit with the recent increase in Honkai activity in the Tundra since last year, it only got worse when insurgents attacked them from behind while their main force fought the beasts, the end result was rather ugly for everyone involved."

"However," Started Lewis, the Captain from the 17th unit. "There has been no warning of the existence of Honkai Beasts, while the info we got before departure from HQ suggests that their numbers are too big to miss. Could it be that Rowan let them be once once they realize that the Beasts were en route to us?"

Hearing her subordinate's words, Westinghouse's brows furrowed even further, "Worse." She scowled. "We have reasons to believe that they are in the process of completely pulling back their forces."

This brought a scoff from Major Helena, "Good riddance!"

"We lost an entire unit because of this trash..." Echoed Captain Davis from the 15th, his beard almost successfully hiding his gritted teeth.

"In any case," Marshal Westinghouse brought the discussion back on track. "The crux of the matter is that an entire sector is left unguarded, allowing the Honkai to wreak havoc in human territory. The Russian government was informed and sent us a task to take back control of the battlefield, talks on the division of territory will start the next day. Our mission now is to recapture Volk Village, the settlement under our protection that has been conquered by the Honkai, and await further reinforcements for following operations."

Suddenly, red snowflakes were added to the map, titled according to the 4 units that would partake in the following operation.

"As I've said before, the 15th unit will take over local defenses and set up a grid of deployable turrets in the case of a stronger Honkai force bypassing the vanguard." At her words, blue lines formed in the borders of the village they were currently in, images of machine gun turrets were pinned along the new lines. 

"The 37th unit will scout ahead for Honkai stragglers, snowmobiles have been stored in the Pelicans to ensure the mobility of the entire unit when added to the ones you are keeping now." The screen kept on changing as she spoke, blue arrows formed and moved out, the snowflakes following their path in order to illustrate the Marshal's speech.

"Unit 17 will be in charge of heavy weaponry and the protection of the Pelicans, which will be moving on land to avoid a crash via Archangel swarm, the 15th will install temporary wheel add-ons for the trip."

The Marshal stopped for a moment, her brows twitching ever so slightly before she continued with the briefing as if nothing had happened. "... And finally, the 20th unit is equipped with LMGs, anti-materiel rifles, and ATGWs to deal with Honkai Beasts, and shall serve as the main infantry force. Overall command of the in-field decisions of the three vanguard units shall be taken over by Major Helena. More specific details of the mission have been transferred to your tablet devices."

Once Westinghouse finished speaking, the four unit commanders immediately saluted, barking out a loud "Understood!", before the attention went back to Lucius, who had stayed quiet throughout the meeting.

"Well then," Spoke out Lewis, almost successfully preventing a grin from surfacing. "I suppose you could share a few secrets and skills with the corp?"

The Watcher nodded at that. "First to note would be superhuman strength and Honkai resistance. Aside from that, I can augment my attacks and have some level of ranged firepower even without a weapon."

To show what he meant, Lucius raised his hand and allowed a fire to form on his palm, then he extinguished the flame and formed small ice cubes in the air that fell on top of his hand. The feat produced an impressed hum from Dinara and the two male Captains, while Helena and Westinghouse seemed to be hiding a certain amount of shock.

"It almost looks like magic..." Dinara finally said, bringing the rest of the room from their thoughts.

After Dinara, it was Davis who spoke out. "Comms informed of your situation beforehand, so we brought a weapon that could be useful. It's being kept in the cargo of this Pelican, I'll let you borrow it later."

"Thanks for the trust."

"It's a bet on you actually helping us out." Davis simply shook his head.

"What he meant to say," Helena butted in, holding back a sigh. "Is that in case something happens, you might just save us from a massacre, so think nothing of it."

"That works too." Davis said as he shrugged.

Seeing that the situation was devolving from a serious military discussion into a friendly banter, Marshal Westinghouse loudly clapped her hands, bringing everyone's attention back to her. "Weather forecast warns of another snowstorm incoming in five days time, the 15th is estimated to need two days to set up enough turrets to protect the village, this means that you have three days to complete this mission before you are beset by the storm. Aside from that, the commanders are to prepare a briefing for the rest of the soldiers. This is the end of the briefing, good luck, everyone."

Westinghouse shut down her hologram as soon as she heard her subordinate's acknowledgement, leaving just the five of them on the room, taring at one another in absolute silence.

Seeing that everyone was just standing there like idiots, Helena sighed before speaking out.

"Alright, let's get busy! Davis, get Lucius his weapon. After that you will join us in preparing the briefing for the rest of the soldiers."

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"Understood!" Davis nodded before signaling with his head for Lucius to follow him. On the way out, the short Captain took out a tablet from under one of the benches and unlocked it with his fingerprint, after a few taps on the screen, he passed it to Lucius.

The Red Dawn newcomer was met with a screen asking to register his fingerprint. After the procedure was done, he had gained access to the info pertaining to the current mission. 

The two left the room, the metal door automatically sliding close behind them, while the Major turned to the others that remained and together they immediately went on to study whatever they needed to pass to their subordinates.

In the corridor that served as the passage for most rooms in the Pelican, Lucius and Davis walked to the far end door, and upon passing through the door, found themselves back in the cargo bay of the aircraft. Davis directly walked towards a black military chest with the Red Dawn logo, almost three meters in length, and after inputting a specific code on the numpad installed on the chest, he easily opened it.

Resting within the container was a black colored greatsword with purple highlights, the blade was two meters long, around 15 centimeters wide, the handle was long enough to comfortably hold the sword with both hands.

"Energy Greatsword," Davis named the weapon, looking at it with complicated eyes. "They were made by adding higher density of Honkai Energy to standard-issue Valkyrie greatswords, this is one of the Schicksal weapons we managed to recover up North, close to the Tundra. When we found it, the weapon was quite beaten up, though thankfully there were no signs of Honkai Energy leaking from it."

"What happened to the previous owner?" Lucius asked calmly, one hand stretching out to caress the blade.

"No idea, we didn't find any corpses in the vicinity. Whether the corpse was buried in the snow, taken in such a hurry that they forgot the weapon, or the Valkyrie had simply lost it after a fierce fight, we will never know. What we do know, though, is that now we can finally get field data on anti-Honkai weaponry through you. With this, our means of fighting those monsters will soon see a dramatic increase." The Captain spoke unhurriedly, though it was easy to feel the blazing embers in his tone, there was a suppressed anger that fed from the excitement the man currently radiated.

Lucius finally lifted the sword with a single hand, holding it as casually as if it were a simple knife. He gave the weapon in his hand another look-over before turning back to Davis. 

"Do you have a room to test it?"

 

---

 

Perhaps it was to be expected of a VSTOL that could hold several snowmobiles, a hundred soldiers, however many of whatever turrets the Major spoke of that could fend off a small horde of Honkai, and the necessary supplies to keep all of that operating for a week, but the aircraft really had a training room.

It wasn't anything amazing, its only purpose was to keep soldiers in form during missions, so all they had were basic dumbbells, barbells, treadmills, and the like. The equipment in the center of the room was moved to the side, giving Lucius ample space to practice with the borrowed greatsword.

As Lucius stood there while holding the Energy Greatsword with both hands, Davis watched from the side, dozens of meters away. "We have installed a monitoring device in the... guard." The Captain looked at the place where handle and blade met before shaking his head. "It won't give much info without any actual enemy, but now you know it's there, so avoid getting hit in that area. Also, don't hit the floor, please."

"Understood." The Watcher nodded before swinging the sword.

By design, the Valkyrie Greatsword was quite hefty and taxing to wield, instead of having a balanced center of gravity like normal swords, most of the weight was concentrated on the blade, making it work more like a hammer or a mace for smashing despite having the sharp edges of a sword. Basically, Schicksal greatswords are sharp war hammers with much shorter handles.

The result was a rather unwieldy slab of metal for the common human, and an exhausting weapon to wield by superhumans. If the wielder swung the weapon, they would need to follow the momentum of the swing or bear the entire force of the attack on their hands, it also made it much more difficult to change stances, this is the main culprit of the slow handling of the weapon by Valkyries who can lift much heavier things with more ease than this.

Lucius though, was capable of cheating his way through this problem by virtue of his perks as a Watcher.

As he performed a mighty horizontal slash that sent a wave of wind through the training room, three faint blue colored circles with random geometric drawings inside formed throughout the blade's length. Instead of following after the swing or forcefully stopping the sword's trajectory, Lucius changed his stance for a thrusting motion. 

Suddenly, one of the circles constructs on the greatsword broke down, sending the weapon forward with the same force of the previous attack. At the same time, the Watcher thrusted with the greatsword, adding the power of his own attack on top of that. 

Once again, another circle faded, the power of the thrust was directed to the right, with Lucius following along with the momentum this time. He spun in place, the greatsword followed and buffeted the training with heavy winds that hurt the eyes. Before he could complete a full circle, the last construct on the blade disappeared.

The last attack was a vertical slash that aimed upwards, it ripped at the air and tuned the already dangerous wind into blunt blades that indiscriminately hammered at the surroundings. Had Davis been closer to him, he would without a doubt been sent flying back by the aftermath.

Even at dozens of meters away, the man somewhat struggled to bring the rebellious air into his lungs, eyes narrowed in a slit from the hostile wind.

Seeing the results of a superhuman performing superhuman feats, the Captain reacted with a single sentence.

"Remind me to bring my safety glasses next time."