Raid 2

Adura went toward the Rank 4s and greeted the leaders of the other teams. The three Rank 4 teams involved were Pentagon; Mira's team, Fox; Deji's team, and Diamonds; a team that worked under one of the Rank 5s that didn't work for Jola.

A man that looked as old as Mira and Funmi, wearing a weird crossbow, that had a large cylinder, on his back as well as armor that resembled Funmi's in shape but not in color, being all brown, made a loud clap with his hands and the murmurs in the room stopped.

Mira asked for his information and her IP said 'Rank 4 (Superior) High Human'. She was surprised 'There's more than one in this city? Just how many Superiors are there?'

The man said "Hello, my name is Deji, if you didn't know that already and I am the leader of this raid. We will be raiding the undead horde south-southeast of here. The horde is located in a city scape with many high rises, I'm sure all of us have raided this place before and know the procedures… but I'll say it again"

The crowd groaned in discomfort and Deji continued "The Rank 3s are to split into groups of 3 to monitor from the high, middle and low ground. Our aim is to kill minds, when you spot a mind, inform the command center and wait for backup... I repeat wait for backup I know you Rank 3s are eager for En-code and often just go in solo, don't do it, the mind could be bait!

When a low Rank is in trouble and you want to save the person, tell the person on the lower ground first. This isn't an action movie; the person below you will get to the person faster even with the time lag caused by communication. You should only go and save someone when the person below you is busy. One Rank 4 is to be with 4 trios of Rank 3s.

We proceed as one group, when a Rank 4 undead is spotted, we will retreat for a while and commence the raid at a different time and place. That's all, you'll get the fine details from Animasawun" he said as he pointed to a man in his group who was holding a stack of papers.

He left afterwards and the man with the stack of papers, Animasawun, called out names of Rank 4s and the Rank 3s they would be with. Samira thought 'We're not doing this as a team?!' but didn't say anything.

The members of her team were used to this so they didn't really think much about how she would feel about being with strangers for a raid.

Her name was called and like the other Rank 4s before her, she went to the podium and the people she would be supervising came forward as they were called.

The Rank 3s that were under her didn't hide their excitement; they felt lucky that they had gotten a chance to make a connection with the person who had skilled weapons.

She was in charge of 7 men and 2 women. She was given a map that showed the details of the formation and where she would be in it.

She walked out of the building with her group and lined up beside the other groups; they were to wait for the low Ranks to come to them.

A woman in her group introduced herself "Hi, my name is Simi" extending her hand for a shake. Mira took the hand and said with a smile "My name is Mira, nice to meet you" Mira's nice reply had reduced Simi's nervousness.

The other group members, seeing the warm reception, introduced themselves. The groups around were also having introductions. Mira told her group "This is my first time doing this so ironically, I will be in your care"

Simi said in reply "This type of raid isn't so complex, Deji is just making it more than it should be. All you have to do is follow orders and protocol and it'll be fine. The job of a Rank 4 is to scout and secure the retreat, it's not very complex"

Mira asked "How long does a raid usually last?" Simi answered "2 days minimum and 1 week maximum depending on the daily casualties and injuries". Mira nodded and kept quiet.

The low Ranks arranged their selves in front of the high Ranks, carrying bag packs filled with various supplies unlike the high Ranks who carried nothing but their battle equipment.

The March began with Deji and his group of Rank 3s at the forefront, the Rank 4s and 3s behind him and the low Ranks behind them. Mira had been given a radio phone, same with her Rank 3s.

The marched for a few hours and stopped a few kilometers from the horde's territory. The high Ranks were to assume their formation and go ahead of the low Ranks in stealth.

When the high Ranks were in position the low Ranks would be signaled to move. Mira did as was required, she climbed a tall building. A trio climbed the building she was in and the other three trios climbed the buildings around the one she was on forming a triangle centered around her building, a distance of about 200 meters separating them from her building, with 2 of the vertices facing the territory of the undead and one directly behind her building a few buildings away.

They searched the building they were in and the ones around them for undead before assuming their positions. The other groups were arranged beside each other in the same triangle formation.

When the preparations were done the low Ranks arranged themselves in a long 3 row line within the formation of the high Ranks.

When the lines were formed Mira looked at the faces of the low Ranks from the top of her building. Some of them were nervous, probably Rank 1s, while others were calm.

A person went out of the formation, a Rank 2, one per triangle. It was the person's job to lure the undead, only those with the best running speed had this job.

The person under Mira stealthily approached the territory of the undead. The person was spotted by a group of undead after moving about 2 kilometers away from the formation.

The undead began to chase the person and the person ran, very fast, towards the formation. By the time the person made it to the formation the undead were a few meters from him, when he entered the formation, the shield bearers at the front raised their shields and started hacking at the undead with their weapons while those at the back, shot their guns.

The shooters mostly had gunpowder weapons, few had new gen weapons, the shooters stood on objects that gave them an unobstructed view and they were mostly shooting at the undead at the back of the charge. Directly behind the shield bearers were people with spears who stabbed at undead through the space between groups of shield bearers. The shield bearer stood in groups of 10 side by side with spear wielders behind them at the edge of their lines.

Behind the group of undead that charged another group of undead was coming, like the currently fighting undead the coming group of undead only had Rank 1 and 2 undead. By the time the undead reinforcements made it to their comrades the undead that were fighting had been reduced by three quarters.

The new group of undead was 5 times the size of the previous one, they fought the low Ranks and the formation of the low Ranks shook but still held. Some shield bearers were injured and were quickly escorted away by the paramedics and replaced by one of the people that were kept in reserve at the back of the line.

The battle continued for 3 hours with wave after wave of undead rushing at the low Ranks. Mira had watched the fight for some minutes and latter started searching for minds. Mira knew that minds needed to be able to see the battle field in order to control it, they could sense the death of some of their subordinates but could not see through them, at least at low levels. So she watched the undead charge while looking out for undead in hiding.

She found nothing as this horde had been raided many times and the minds had been wiped out, this horde had been greatly weakened. The battle and her search had gone on for 3 hours. It was now high afternoon; the low Ranks were tired of the constant fighting so it was time for a retreat.