As time went by, Shugerg
never ceased perfectly training his soldiers, nor did he choose for a more authoritarian
politic for the group, understanding that it would have been better to scheme once again
in the dark, trying to keep alive the "Fight for Zooanthropic ideals" façade.
After some time, Shugerg was presented with the opportunity that he waited so long to
definitively assert his total dominion over the squad and over wealth: in a little
middle-east country, an enlightened monarchy was menaced by a military dictatorship lead
by a merciless man; catching the common ambitions, Shugerg schemed with this man secretly
to offer him the services of the Scarlet Cobras
at a ridiculous cost for the quality of the service, but, obiouvsly, Shugerg schemed
something of his own. To the squad, the operation was explained as a series of lightning
quick and lethal strikes to the dictatorship in order to avoid the danger of a coup
détat; the missions required top discretion and total lack of errors, for this
reason, the chosen members where the Scarlet Cobras élite, the cream of the crop trained
by Shugerg himself, Gado and Ogami. The
mission proceeded in rapid succession with lightning speed, preventing even the very
mission teams to understand what exactly was happening, they were termination missions, in
which it was required not to take any prisoner nor make any question; in truth,
unknowingly to the squad, the objectives that they were striking with such surgical
accuracy were the key point of the monarchic front, this way preparing the perfect
condition for a perfect coup détat. Shugergs intentions were very cruel and
calculatory, he planned to betray the dictator in the end to substitute him in the lead of
the military regimen, gaining a whole country with petrochemical resources as Headquarters
for his future dominion; as he knew well, however, never the true heart of the squad,
those that were grown up next to the idealistic Gado and Ogami, would have permitted such
an action and, although he was to all them superior, Shugerg understood that a widespread
hostility could easily result in his death. For this reason, he schemed to betray his
"sons" too, killing them in order to have them substituted with men fanatically
loyal to him. With this thought in mind, he set up the last action of those series of
Middle East Missions.
Upon its arrival, the squad, which was ordered to terminate the very
rebellious general in this last action, just found smoking ruins and a devastated home
base; suspecting something, the mission coordinator (Shugerg himself) ordered to disperse
and inspect on eventual survivors or impending danger. Fanatically loyal to their
commander, everyone obeyed and divided hunting an invisible foe. Shugerg, hidden few yards
away, ordered radio silence not be intercepted and set on the hunt; one by one the squad
members found themselves facing their commander and his betrayal and, disoriented by the
situation and surpassed in ability, met their fall one after the other. The last member of
the élite squad, however, was a girl named by convention "Cammy"
among the squad, she was know by the battle name of "Fast Reload". Cammy was
Shugergs direct disciple and he grew and trained her personally in all the arts that
he knew perfectly, someone also said that her skills equaled those of her master: the time
of truth was upon them. The Mans stealth assault did not catch Fast Reload
unprepared and the girls coolness made her understand and evaluate the situation in
the blink of an eye, preparing her for the clash; pleased that his personal student showed
such good results, Shugerg challenged her in duel, but Cammy, that knew well her
masters lethality and experience, immediately understood that a direct confrontation
would have been fatal: it was instead primary to go back to the rest of the squad and warn
them of the betrayal, at that point defeating Shugerg would have been easy. This way began
Cammys run across the jungle, interrupted by short outbursts of gunfights and traps
set on the spot to kill each other, finally, Cammy understood that it was impossible to
reach a safe spot before being killed by Shugergs wits and, in the middle of a river
with shallow waters, she turned to face Shugerg on the ground that always marked his
expertise coupled with the double guns: Combat Knives Fighting. The martial art fighting
that followed was an awe-inspiring display of power and skill that the world would never
have witnessed, in the end, the lack of experience in the girl and the excessive Shugerg's
self-confidence revealed the impossibility to end the fight with a winner: the challengers
clinched themselves with an arm grappling one of the opponents limbs and a knife
touching the others face. Shugergs face prolonged the scar that Ogami began,
while Cammys one knew a cut on its side. Amused by the balance reached in the fight,
Shugerg felt like giving the chance to escape to the other, but he revealed that his
victory was anyway complete: upon returning to the squad he would have pointed at her as
the traitor that killed all of her comrades and would have forced her not to interfere
with his plans anymore. Chilled by the man icy resolve, Cammy accepted the stall,
understanding that her destiny was already decided and that she would never get more than
that crossing of blades.
So Cammy vanished in the deep of the jungle, leaving Shugerg to his
victory
Only a few of the old guard were spared: the few that were already on
duty on other missions far away before the carnage and the intrigues began
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