The Middle East Mission

The Middle East Mission

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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 d’état; 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 d’état. Shugerg’s 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 Shugerg’s 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 Man’s stealth assault did not catch Fast Reload unprepared and the girl’s 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 master’s 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 Cammy’s 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 Shugerg’s 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 opponent’s limbs and a knife touching the other’s face. Shugerg’s face prolonged the scar that Ogami began, while Cammy’s 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…

Last Stand

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