Patrolling The Academy

"This is Alpha 1, Joker, we have passed waypoint Echo," Dean reported through his radio.

"Copy that, Alpha 1, continue as planned, Joker out."

Orion and Dean were patrolling the hallway of classrooms. It didn't look like the place held an important significance, but several things in the classroom might be worth thousands of dollars such as the holographic projectors. That thing was about 5,000$ each.

Still, the most important room was at the end of the hallway. It was the armory. The armory contained many weapons, either civilian-grade or military-grade, or ballistics or non-ballistics. It also includes several outdated anti-tank guided missiles on it.

"Orion, did you see anything suspicious yet?" Dean asked.

"No, why do you even ask?" Orion asked, still didn't know why he was assigned to a different team alongside Dean.

"Nah, just checking out with you."

To be honest, Dean wanted to know whether Orion noticed something odd or not. Truth be told, there was radio silence from the Bravo team for about five minutes before they went back online. They reported a radio problem, but Dean was suspicious of it. Still, it could be a real radio problem.

"Bzzt… Bravo team, radio check. Bzzt…"

"Bravo team. It's weak, but readable, over."

"Alpha team, Bzztt…, Bzttt."

"Bravo team, this is Alpha, your signal becomes distorted, over."

"Bzzt. Bztttt. Bzttttt."

"Joker, this is Alpha 1, Bravo team's radio signal has become distorted, should we check it out, over?"

"Alpha 1, this is Joker, continue with the usual route, out."

Corporal Lirza didn't allow Dean to check them out. It had been multiple times since their radio became distorted, it worried Dean a lot. It was rare for a piece of military communication equipment to be jammed, especially in a military installation.

"Joker, this is Alpha 1, requesting permission to check bravo team. Alpha 2 will take over."

"Copy that, Alpha 1. Permission granted, Joker out."

Dean sighed as he walked in the opposite direction of Orion. He checked the magazine on his S12-AR and put it back into the magazine weld. The last position of the Bravo team was checkpoint Alpha. It was right at the entrance of the school. It suggested that something happened there.

The hallway was eerily quiet with only a CCTV camera watching the hallway. The camera operator's room was where Corporal Linza monitored the whole perimeter of the school. However, there were more than ten ways to disable a civilian-grade security camera, if this was the work of a professional, it would pose a significant challenge.

Dean peeked through one of the corners leading to the entrance of the academy building. There was no visual on the Bravo team, but he didn't want to give up. They should be around this area.

Dean commenced a radio check, "Alpha 2, Joker, this is Alpha 1. Radio check."

"Alpha 1, Bzzt… bzzttt. Out."

"Alpha 1, ......…."

"Alpha 2, Joker, this is Alpha 1, radio's bad. It seemed to be jammed, out."

The jamming subsided later after some time had passed while Dean checked the entrance of the academy. Dean walked towards checkpoint Bravo afterward, it was the hallway leading to the administration office. As Dean walked, he saw a rifle flashlight shining on the floor.

Besides the rifle was a body of two students. Dean immediately ran towards the body to check their pulse. Students' patrol was pretty much unarmored, and bullets would be more than enough to deter them from moving. They were alive, but their heads were smacked pretty hard.

Dean pushed on his radio, but the static from the jammer was pretty much too strong for basic radio communication to enter in the first place. It was just a loud white noise in the background. Dean wouldn't be able to wake the Bravo team either. It was either finding the infiltrator or finding the jammer.

One thing about the civilian jammer is it wasn't too effective in masking its signal. The louder the statics, the closer Dean was. Dean turned on the voice of his radio and walked towards the direction where the white noise became much louder.

Dean followed the voice until he came across an opened door in the admin room. He didn't need to be a soldier to know that an open administration room would be a bad thing to have. His guess? Someone was there.

Dean aimed his rifle at the door of the room. He expected someone to be there. His semi-automatic rifle should kill any intruder easily enough. Dean walked slowly towards the admin room.

Inside the admin room, someone in military uniform was opening the cabinet inside of the office. Dean wasn't sure what he would be looking for, but he shouldn't even be in there in the first place.

"HEY!" Dean shouted as he aimed his rifle at the person.

The person then looked at Dean. He stopped checking on the documents in the office. His hand immediately grabbed into his pocket. Dean pulled the trigger twice from his rifle as two bullets flew in the direction of his legs. The person fell to the ground.

Dean dashed to the person and turned the light on in the office. He recognized that it was a student in the 120th, but he couldn't figure out who. He stepped on top of that person's back and aimed his rifle right at his head.

"You move. You die."

"Motherfucker, you shot me," The boy retaliated.

The boy might be carrying the jammer. The radio interference was pretty strong there. Dean searched the body for anything with an antenna. There was one inside of his pocket. It was a radio jammer, not an MSAE one. Dean turned the jammer off.

"Joker, this is Alpha 1, I neutralized a hostile in the admin room, how should I proceed, over?"

"Copy that, Alpha 1, Alpha 2 will be heading towards your position, out."

Now, who was this boy in the first place? Dean didn't recognize him. He was not in the first year, that was for sure. If he was in the first year in the first place, Dean would have recognized him. He might be one of the Menkaid allies. Still, he might be stealing something from the documents and the archive.

The footsteps of someone running came from the hallway. It must be Orion. He immediately dashed towards the administration office. Dean aimed his rifle at the doorway in case it wasn't Orion.

"Dean, what the hell is going on with the others?" Orion referred to the bodies in the hallway.

"Man, can you bring a first-aid kit from the infirmary? And call the law enforcement, we need to arrest this guy," Dean added.

"On it."

Dean checked the body as Orion headed for the infirmary. He wouldn't be bleeding out from the gunshots in his legs, that was for sure. Dean shot him deliberately there so he wouldn't die. Dean grabbed a wallet from his pocket and checked the ID.

[Name: Farrel Arleon]

[Rank: Private First Class]

[Combat Power: 8,000 | D]

[Unit: 24th Infantry Division, 2nd Brigade, 120th Training Battalion, 2B Combat Platoon/Class]

[Room: #101 | Abardeeen Street 10]

"So, you are Farrel, huh? What are you doing in here, trying to kill me the second time?" Dean put the end of his gun barrel harder on Farrel's neck.

"Man, who are you? I haven't even seen you in here. Where's the fucking usual?" Farrel asked.

"Your usual? Akena & Sirena? Gone, they're gone. It's just you and me, friend. Now, where the hell is Mick?" Dean asked.

"I don't know."

"Then what the hell are you doing in here? Give me a valid reason or I swear to god that my finger will slip," Dean basically just threteaned to kill him.

"Man, please, I don't know where he is, but I know where he would be."

"When and where?" Dean asked.

"Next Friday midnight, in this same place. He wanted to get something from the archive. I'm just here for a piece of paper, man, please."

"What piece of paper? Forged letter?"

"Please, man, don't kill me. I tell you what you want to know, right?"

Dean put his rifle away. He wouldn't want to kill him either. He just wanted to scare Farrel into submission. He now just had to wait until the law enforcement to come. Dean had to intercept before Mick got the news again. If Farrel capture would put him on the edge, the plan would go into ruins.

Orion arrived at the room with a box filled with first-aid kit. Dean patched the bullet wound, but not applying any healing spell to that hole. He wanted to make sure that being shot hurt. And it would probably keep him in check in case he wanted to do something stupid later.