Tunnel Vision

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[[module Rate]]
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Four pairs of armored boots crushed the leaves underneath; the sounds of their passing coincided with the whoosh of a cool breeze, which sent the branches of the treetops swaying, and the nearby bonfires dancing in a certain direction.

Silhouettes of slender humanoids passed through between tree trunks, scattering a few night birds along the way and causing dust to rise up in geysers. The embers of the nearby flames slightly illuminated the ghostly visitors in the dark.

Steel and flesh melded together; demi-gods built for war, but their allegiance were sworn to the Ravens of the Slain, and to indicate this, they bore their insignia, a stylized "V" on the forehead of their beaked raven-like helmets.

They sped across the Malaysian jungle, with orders from their superiors to "protect Valravn interests" in the contested island of Sabah. They charged through the thick foilage of the jungles, their heads up display links notifying them that the area-of-operation, a desolate village which was a home to a population of eighty five, is approaching.

One of them suddenly broke rank. Göndul made a sharp turn to the right and halted behind a group of bushes and crouched, her suit flickered once before fading out of view. Göndul retrieved a small handheld computer from her utility belt. Upon contact with her gloved fingertips, an additional interface appeared in the left side of her screen.

"I got eyes in the sky," Göndul said. "The fuckers don't have any air support for us to worry, and as for their Vulture Drones, they don't seemed to have one right now."

"That is because the Vultures can't operate outside of the Philippine airspace. Unless they found a way to annex this island, though that is highly unlikely." Brynhilde said. "What about the village? Any expendable tangos?"

Göndul glanced at the minimap of her heads-up display link and studied the image sent by the R.U.N.N.E.S. network, captured from Valravn's private satellite. She studied the men and women in olive combat gears, the optical devices attached to their helmet's faceplates glowed in green lights. A quick scan of the patch attached on their right shoulders revealed that they are members of the Anomalous Warfare Battalion's OVOPCOM [[footnote]] Overseas Operations Command [[/footnote]], X-Ray Company.

The Philippine Marines were scattered loosely in the village, some were still setting up encampments in a nearby foilage, while others were patrolling its and the village's vicnity. A handful, which Göndul deduces as officers, were interrogating a few Malaysians in the open, some were bleeding, others were crawling with a scream. She ignored it.

"The target building is just up ahead, northside in the village. The thaumaturgic disguise is still intact, otherwise we would be seeing a ten-storey building by now." Göndul said. "And about your question, I'm seeing around fifty boots, but that's just counting those in the village itself. There's possibly thirty more in a nearby encampment three kilometers northwest of the village."

"Copy that." Brynhilde halted in her tracks and glanced at the two incoming Valkyries behind her. "Sigrun, Herja, you know what to do."

"Acknowledged." Sigrun and Herja replied in unison as they drew their weapons and veered off towards the obscured encampment currently being established by the AWBn Marines.

-----

Private Nikolas struggled to balance the four foldable tables over his head as he walked across the beaten path flanked by olive tents. A gang of corporals walking the opposite way and approached, each giving him a jab in the stomach before walking away. He gasped and simply smiled it off as he continued to his destination.

Overhead, two shadows slunk from branches to branches. The flimsy private did not noticed it as he set the foldable tables beside the base's command tent currently occupied by a Lieutenant and a Master Sergeant, their conversation was a low whisper in the dark. He wiped his forehead with the back of his fist when he heard something thump behind him.

"Who's there-?!" Before he could complete his sentence, Sigrun drove her left forearm blade at his neck and yanked it upwards. A gurgling scream was heard.

"What the fuck was that?!" The Marine officer and his noncom subordinate came marching out of the command tent. Upon unzipping it, they saw the writhing corpse of Private Nikolas, and its killer, a humanoid raven sprinkled with blood.

"Enemy contact-ugh!" Before the Master Sergeant could pull out his sidearm loaded with PES [[footnote]] Para-Energy Seeker [[/footnote]] 9mm rounds, Sigrun moved with a wind-like speed and decapitated the noncom with her drawn chakram.

She turned at the Lieutenant, who managed to raise his sidearm at her direction, and gave his wrist a turning kick which broke his hand upon impact.

His cries were silenced with a downward strike from her chakram that ripped his throat open. Saliva and blood sprayed in the air, which was soon followed by sputtering as air attempted to escape the throat wound.

"The head of the serpent is decapitated. Óðinn á yðr alla!" Sigrun announced her achievement in the helmet's in-built radio system.

"We feast on the battlefield," Brynhilde replied.

At the other side of the camp, Herja stalked a pair of Marines patrolling a group of tents where their fellow //mego//s were sleeping. The Valkyrie switched her vision to 'thermal' and saw that the bulk of the detachment were sleeping in the tents. Her mouth stretched in a grin behind her beaked faceplate.

She drew out her sword and sprinted towards the patrolling Marines. She decapitated the unsuspecting AWBn troops in a single swing. Their heads rolled across the ground as their bodies hit the floor.

She detached a canister of her "Dumah" grenade, an odorless chemical agent named after the angel of destruction, engineered to cause a silent death, although whether it was peaceful or not, only the dead could tell, if they can tell tales.

Herja pulled the pin of the canister and unflapped the tent. Beyond, the unsuspecting Marines were peaceful in their sleep. She tossed the grenade inside and zipped the flap back to place.

She repeated the same action to the four other tents.

Herja watched from the plastic screens of the tents that acted as its windows the chaotic scene taking place inside. The men and women in green were clawing at the flaps with crumbling fingers; their skins were peeling backwards, revealing red blistering tissues; eyeballs popping out of sockets; and lung tissues were coughed out by cracked lips. Soon enough, they stopped moving.

"Let us clean up the rest." Herja said.

-----

"The encampment was scuttled." Sigrun reported. "We've destroyed any usable radio equipment and killed anyone who could potentially reinforce their numbers. We had them isolated now."

"Good," Brynhilde said as she nodded at the direction of the disguised building. "Remember, kill if we have to. But if it's not necessary, don't." She ran ahead of them.

Sigrun and Herja followed their superior. The leading Valkyrie approached a tall hut that casted a dark shadow over its surrounding area. She pressed her back against its wall before beckoning her subordinates to her position.

As they hid themselves, they began to navigate around the village, hiding from plain sight with the aid of the huts and the darkness of both the shadows and the night.

Sigrun halted as she heard a sound; her teammates were moving farther up ahead, leaving her behind. She picked up the sound of the bonfire burning, which was followed by a crying sound that occasionally rose in volume.

Curiosity piqued as she slunk around the corner and peeked around the hut covering her. There, she saw an adolescent female in hijab being picked on by three armored Marines, each cackling a demonic laugh, thanks to their voice filtration device.

"Sigrun,"

The Valkyrie's hand slowly went to one of her chakrams, rage slowly building up in her mind as flashbacks of Ukraine appeared in her head.

"Sigrun,"

She glanced from left to right, searching for any exploitable angle of attacks that would incapacitate the three of them. Upon finding one, she moved out of cover and-

"Sigrun!" A strong hand grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her back in the shadows. "The mission, dammit!"

Sigrun silently stared at her superior before pulling her shoulder away from Brynhilde's grip. The Valkyrie team leader knew that Sigrun would find a way to return to the AWBn Marines anyway.

They continued towards the building, which simply looked like a mound of rock. As the building detected Valravn technology within the vicinity, it revealed its true form, but not in the eyes of outsiders who possessed no optical devices manufactured by the Ravens.

"Göndul, doors." Brynhilde ordered.

"Copy," Göndul replied as she began to work. "This may take a minute. The building's seemed to be under lockdown. I need to access its security features to pry the thing open."

Brynhilde did not reply. The team remained tense as seconds bled by. Paranoia slowly grew in the Valkyrie's mind, fearing that some patrolling Marine might spot them and it could spell the end of their mission. Every second they waited, the possibility of being discovered grew in chance.

A rustling noise was heard; the three snapped towards its direction with weapons drawn. The spy hit the ground in shock, hand raised in fear at the sight of the three //"shayatin"// standing in front of him.

"Allah save me," the man knelt in fear. "W-what are you? The //kafir// have brought you here, haven't they?"

Brynhilde lowered her weapon, unsure how to react. The Valkyries turned to her for immediate instruction, but she simply looked at the villager, contemplating her next choice of actions.

Normally, she would have ordered the witness' death, but something within her compels to let the villager live. Perhaps she could use him as a source of information as a HUMINT.

"No," Brynhilde said as she stepped forward, causing the villager to inch backward. "We're here to save you." She lied. "And before we could do that, I need to know what happened here." She paused as she tried to look as friendly as possible. "Why are //they// here?" She thumbed at the direction of the village center, referring to the AWBn Marines in the area.

"The //kafir//? They come regularly like wolves in the night. We do not know what they want in this place, but they are asking us weird questions we know nothing about. It has been frequent." The villager finally gained the strength to stand. Brynhilde let him. "I heard from my other my //akhi// that they were looking for a 'creature' of some sort, a terrible creature that we think it is the //Dābbat al-Arḍ//!"

"So you do have an idea of what they are trying to find here?" Brynhilde asked.

"No," the villager replied. "We just had the slightest of idea that they are looking for the //naga// living somewhere between the coast and Mount Kinabalu. It's a known folklore here, told by mothers to their children before the word of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be unto him, reached our forefathers."

"Interesting." Brynhilde said. "And what else are they doing here aside from that?"

"They're just being a nuisance and a bully. We tried to ask the authorities but they disappear whenever they arrive, and those who notified the authorities ended up dead."

Brynhilde nodded slowly. The door behind them suddenly opened, causing the villager to crane his neck over the //shaitan//, but the Valkyrie blocked his line of sight.

"Doors opened." Göndul's voice said.

"Warn as many of your people as you could. I advise that you lead them to evacuation." Brynhilde said. She turned her back to the villager and began walking inside the building.

The villager doesn't know how to react. The encounter left him shaken. He was unsure whether to bow or not, since the creatures before him are definitely demons and paying them homage would make him a //kafir// himself. He instead turned and ran.

The circular building's entrance parted in the middle. The trio entered, the darkness of the interior swallowing them. Beams of light from their eye lenses cut through the dust and shadows, revealing and office complex in disarray.

Papers, clipboards, chairs and empty coffee cups were strewn around. Tables, some of which were crushed by blunt trauma, were scattered everywhere. There was no receptionist table nor a lobby. At the end of the first floor was an elevator that ascends up to the higher floor.

"We're looking for a safety vault in the fifth floor. Not sure what its contents were, not that it matters anyway." Brynhilde said as Sigrun glanced outside the doorway.

"Another day at work where Valravn protects its secrets." Herja said as Sigrun turned away from the door.

"Yes," Brynhilde replied as they walked towards the elevator. "Göndul, elevator."

The panel chimed as the still-functioning elevators opened. Brynhilde wondered how much power the structure still stores.

"If they are so paranoid about foreign powers finding this place as to send us to 'protect corporate interests', why not scuttle the entire building?" Herja asked as they stepped inside the lift.

"Valravn probably have other uses for this building," Brynhilde jabbed her index finger at the button displaying the number '5'. "But I am more concerned about what we have just learned tonight."

"The Anomalous Warfare Battalion," Herja whispered. "When we waged a battle in their land, they have never employed an anomalous object against us, with the exception of enchanted ammunition. I heard from many briefings that they eschewed the use of it, correct?"

"That's what I know too." Brynhilde replied as the lift shuddered slightly. "Perhaps Valravn's operation in Mindanao had made them think twice, which forced them to keep up with the anomalous community and began stocking up on ano-weapons."

"Couldn't they just develop weapons capable of counter-acting anomalous entities and weapons, like the GOC?" Sigrun asked.

"We don't know," Brynhilde replied. "But something tells me that the Dróttning would be interested on this one."

The lift ascended to its destination. They arrived at the fifth floor with a groan rather than a chime; the doors opened, revealing another office complex ravaged by time and stagnancy. At the far end of the wall was an embedded safe.

The team approached it; Brynhilde pulled out one of her tomahawk axes and tore the safe's door, which clattered on the ground. Brynhilde reached for the folders inside, which was labelled: "PROJECT TYR: WEKUFE MODEL", and placed it inside one of her ziplock bags.

"We've secured the target, we're going back to the extraction, Göndul."

-----

They were hiding again.

Sigrun lagged behind as she carefully traversed the shadows casted by the huts. The sound of malicious laughter and the cries of men, women and child made her blood boil. She was struggling to focus in their escape when she found her legs suddenly refusing to move.

Sigrun glanced at the oppression not far from her and saw a group of Marines brutally interrogating an aged man in front of his family.

Sigrun snatched the chakrams from her back, still frozen in place, distracted, as her mind went back to a not so distant past similar to the scene she is currently witnessing.

"Look, just tell us what we want to hear, and we will let you and your family go." The Marine Sergeant said coldly as he puffed the cigarette in his mouth. His faceplate was detached, allowing him to smoke. Behind the interogatee was a pair of AWBn Marines with bloodied gauntlets.

"I-I told you, we don't support those infidels. We are not a part of that cult, and we certainly don't worship t-that serpent monster." The man coughed. "I don't even know what you are talking about!"

The Marine Sergeant glanced at his subordinates and nodded. As the AWBn Marines were about to brutalize their quarry, a passing Marine suddenly yelled nearby.

"Who the fuck are you supposed to be?!"

All eyes turned to the alley where Sigrun is hiding. A sound of struggle was heard followed by a muffled scream and a gurgling cry. The AWBn Marines began to reach for their weapon when a ring-shaped blade sailed through the air and decapitated the Marine Sergeant.

"Sigrun!" Brynhilde yelled as she saw a spike in Sigrun's vital signs in her HUD link, indicating distress or combat. "Fuck, we're compromised! We'll move to plan B." The Valkyrie leader turned to Sigrun's direction.

"And that is?" Herja asked.

"We'll kill them all." Brynhilde replied. "Göndul, you know what to do."

The cyber Valkyrie worked in her computer quickly, accessing the AWBn's device firewalls. As soon as she penetrated its operating system, she injected it with a trojan horse that affected the gadgets of every Marine present that were connected to the internet. "Done."

The optical devices of the two Marines in front of Sigrun suddenly deactivated. The Valkyrie attacked them with a disemboweling strike, their intestines spilled on the ground with a wet splash.

Not only did it blinded them, it also rendered them mute as their helmets' voice filtration devices were deactivated by the virus.

Sigrun searched for more prey in a blind rage. She sprinted across the village and chanced upon a quartet resting, who were attempting to pry out their helmets from their faces. Even the suit has also shut down on them that deactivation is currently impossible unless a skilled technician would be able to put it back online and safely remove the suit.

Sigrun attacked the nearest one with a strike to the neck. She spun in a counter clockwise rotation before landing a kick at a Marine doubling over, sending their chest against the ground with a crack. She killed them with a thrust to the back of their neck.

She drove her left chakram at the faceplate of another Marine. When the faceplate broke, her agonizing scream was heard. Sigrun felt excitement at the sound of it. She tackled her to the ground and continuously drove the chakram against her already damaged face until the head splits into two.

The last one was running away blindly in an opposing direction. Sigrun cocked back and threw her chakram at the direction of the fleeing Marine, the circular blade embedded itself in his spine, killing him.

To her misfortune, several Marines managed to pry out the faceplate of their helmets and are now an active threat to her. Gunfire erupted from behind; some of the bullets ricocheted against her backplate.

She glanced behind and saw five AWBn Marines with pissed off facial expressions. Just in time, Herja came into her aid, deflecting the bullets coming at her direction with her long sword.

"I got you, Little Raven, but what the fuck was that?!" Herja yelled angrily as they moved towards cover.

The Marines did not noticed Brynhilde, who were approaching them from their blindsides with drawn tomahawks. The nearest one to the Valkyrie fell down with a split skull.

The second one lost a nose and an eye from Brynhilde with a horizontal chop. The Valkyrie kicked the third one in the back of her knee before driving the sharp axe on her neck.

"Oorah!" Shouted the fourth one as he rushed the Valkyrie with gunfire.

Brynhilde threw the axe and hit Marine squarely in the face. She quickly retrieved the axe from the fallen corpse and proceeded to dismember the fifth Marine by cutting off his legs.

The injured Marine yelled out a cry, only to be silenced by Herja's long sword.

"You've put us in trouble, Sigrun!" Brynhilde yelled. "Now we're leaving the hard way!"

"You sounded like it's a bad thing." Sigrun said as she heard a hundred footfalls marching towards their position.

"Well, it IS a bad thing! If these Marine bastards get the word out, they might launch operations after another against the Corporation. We just ended a [[[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/operation-berberoka-after-action-report|conflict]]] with them and it's not even a fucking happy ending!"

Sigrun simply grinned.

"I'll kill them all."

"Tell that to the Malaysian Government if they find out that these Filipinos are operating in Sabah, of all fucking places! The last thing we want is the Corporation getting caught up in a crossfire between these two countries." Brynhilde yelled as she picked up an M60 from the ground. "Let's do this quick before some Marine commander checks up on them."

The Valkyries watched as the AWBn Marines surrounded them from all sides, each of them are obviously angry. The Valkyries readied their blades for the final battle. Silence suddenly settled...

....before hell broke loose.

The Valkyries charged at their enemies as soon as the bullets start flying. Sigrun struck at a Marine in the neck with her chakram before planting a kick at the Marine's companion and crushing his ribcage with a second kick. She faced the third Marine, who emptied a clip at her.

Sigrun stepped out of the way, but her left breastplate was damaged beyond recognition that a plate fell to the ground. She retaliated by extending her left forearm blade and impaling her assailant.

The fourth Marine attempted to move to a safe distance, only to have his head fall off when the Valkyrie threw one of her chakrams at him.

Herja deflected the bullets coming at her. Her targets screamed both in anger and confusion before the Marine nearest to Herja was decapitated. She thrust her sword at the second Marine, ripping him apart after an upward stroke. She faced the third one and cut him down with a vertical strike.

An explosion erupted behind Herja as Sigrun detonated a pair of stolen grenades, though the Valkyrie simply ignored it as she engaged the fourth Marine in front of her. She slammed the Marine's face with the pommel of her sword, which penetrated through her eye socket. Herja grinned as she pressed the button in her long sword, sending a current at the incapacitated Marine, frying her nerves until she ceased moving.

Footsteps was heard behind; Herja swung her back fist against the Marine's face, crushing it like a watermelon.

Brynhilde emptied her stolen M60 at the AWBn Marines in front of her, cutting down the nearest ones while the rest scrambled for cover. As soon as her weapon clicked empty, she charged at their hiding positions, hacking the first one gruesomely while decapitating the second one with a sideward strike. The third one fell victim to her thrown tomahawk while the fourth one received a steel knuckle to their guts.

"Shit, there's too many of them!" Herja yelled as she found herself backing up while deflecting bullets mid air. Brynhilde was doing the same, her Kinetic Shielding pulsating every time a bullet hit it. Sigrun was still among the Marines, engaging them in pointblank range. Bullet holes pockmarked her armor, which oozes out of blood and oil.

As Brynhilde was about to speak, one of the huts exploded. A Marine Corps-issued Harley-Davidson amphibious bike broke through one of the huts. Aboard it was Göndul, whose back was flaming.

"Out of the way!" She yelled as she jumped out of the burning bike. The vehicle sped towards the congregated Marines and exploded in a bright flash. However, the surviving ones regrouped and renewed their assault.

Göndul landed with a roll, her hands aimed at the direction of the charging Marines. Dust around her rose up as bullets widely miss her. Some managed to hit her armor while others ricocheted safely.

Her wrist mounts came firing; the Gauss Cannon mount fired semi-automatically while her Arc Thrower mount dispensed a streak of lightning in the crowd until they fell.

The last of the Marines attempted to crawl away when Göndul killed him with a strike of her naginata.

The battle soon ended.

"Management got a lot of explaining to do to the Malaysian Government." Herja said with concern in her voice.

"If there's someone who needs to explain, it's that dumbass politician or officer who sent them here. Those Filipinos have no reason to operate in Malaysia in the first place." Brynhilde said. "Let the Malaysian military bury them forgotten." She cocked her head to the side.

The team walked away from the village. The residents, now appearing from the trees, watched as their heroes leave with the fire from a burning hut blazing behind them.
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Tunnel Vision

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