The missile struck the building right of the one Lewis was in, and being higher, part of it collapsed down onto it. Soldiers ran around taking shooting positions, but Turana from her aerial point knew there would be no Vanguard soldiers, at least not yet.

The Vanguard army, if they were to use their air force sent the basic jets first. They rained down destruction until the enemy was too broken to set up a proper stand. Then the ground force came in to sweep, and they didn't take prisoners in these kinds of assaults.

Now certain that the M48 wasn't a threat to her Turana grabbed it firmly and leapt over the edge. It was three storeys high but that distance wouldn't bother her much. She dropped into a roll and ran forward immediately, ready for any sort of obstacle.

The mercenaries were however too focused on the much bigger problem that was dropping bombs on them. The jet flew across again, but this time the attack was aimed at the mercenary tents further to the left. Turana ignored the noise and sprinted forward towards the gate.

They saw her coming, hesitated for a bit as they contemplated on whether to keep their heavy artillery aimed at the threat above or the threat below.

They chose her.

And she had expected them to. The priority after all was to keep Lewis in their hands. The main point of the Vanguard attack was to get him, and so was hers but she was the much closer threat.

The moment Turana pulled the M48 trigger for the first time she almost lost her balance. Despite being the same size as ordinary hand help weapons it had been modified to inflict heavier damage so its recoil packed a punch too. Immediately she adjusted the position of the barrel slightly to her centre so it wouldn't have as much effect on her body's motion. The bullet itself was heavy armor piercing, and it tore through the mercenary's helmet as though it was tissue paper. Turana had aimed lower for his chest and she once again had to adjust her hold so she would get her aim right.

The next one on seeing what she had done turned his weapon on her. The same weapon he had been aiming at the jet before. A steady warning ping from the gun alarmed her but she already knew what was coming. Turana dived out of the way and the RPG missed her entirely, destroying a corner of the building she had been in before.

Her next two bullets were accurate, the first to his sternum and the other to the gate lock. Headshots were fatal and the preferred method for most highly trained professionals but Turana found that it was muscle memory for her to aim lower, to the the sternum of her target. A weapon like the M48's bullets would rip through the bone and shatter the entire rib cage along with it, and the most probable cause of death would be perforation of the lungs from the broken bones, or if her victim got lucky and she hit their heart a quick death. The bones damaging the heart too would be part of the equation in some situations. However if the target somehow stayed alive after the bullet went through their sternum, they wouldn't survive the extensive damage to the spine.

She kicked open the gate, taking in the compound and where all her targets were. Those that mattered and those who didn't.

Those that mattered were the ones that were so desperately trying to shoot down the jets overhead. Those that didn't were the ones that were trying to shoot her. The compound was clear of all hostiles by the time she got to the door. She stopped to weigh the situation on the outside.

There was only one jet, wreaking havoc over the entire dark route and no one had managed to take it down yet. Turana sighed and took aim.

There were tiny red digits in percentage format in the corner of the scope when she looked through it, and Turana only had a mild idea of what they meant. If what she thought they meant was what they did, she had to get the number much higher to be able to hit the jet.

The i-tech in the M48 was designed with adaptation software. Unless fully shifted to manual, its semi automated system considered several variables in relation to a stationary target and as long as the user's aim was eighty five percent accurate the system corrected that accuracy up to ninety percent.

On a moving target however the user accuracy had to be up to ninety five percent for the system to correct it the maximum threshold; ninety nine percent.

The lower the accuracy of the user, the lower the accuracy correction and vice versa. This made it so that if the M48 was used by someone with little or no knowledge of weaponry the chances that they would hit even a stationary target were slim,  unless the target was close which made the M48 almost useless to anyone who wasn't good with their aim.

Turana took a position and looked through the scope, trying to follow the jet's swift movement through the sky. The accuracy correction system put her aim to 87%, hence she found it more difficult to get a proper lock onto the jet.

She decided to get closer. Distance was inversely proportional to accuracy. It was the first thing you were taught in sniper school. The closer you were to your target the easier it would be to take them down.

Closing that distance for Turana meant she place herself atop the roof of the building, not only exposing herself but risking being seen by the cameras attached to the underbelly of the jet which would prompt a direct drop on the building. Especially if they noticed the kind of weapon she was using.

She took aim once more and this time the tiny digits in the corner of the scope rotated till they stopped at a green 93%. Turana tracked the motion of the jet and surprisingly it slowed down and hobbled for a full three seconds after which the number rose to a 99%.

She pulled the trigger.

*********

Pearl Harbor Air Force War Room 7

General Eric Reece watched the proceedings of the dark route raid from the large screen in the room. There were some other soldiers in there too, but none of them came even close to him in rank. Being a General in the Vanguard army didn't come easy, and he had to work his butt off for seventeen years before he was deemed worthy of the title.

V169 just had to finish her training to get it.

He knew she was special, for he had seen the F.O.X experiment file. He was one of those that had considered the mad scientist's work impossible, but after he saw the video report of her first mission he became a believer. Not in her but in technology.

It was why he supported the use of A.I in the Great War and was also one of those who pushed the President to purchase the A.I base code from Mainstream Tech, but it was only to satiate his inner hunger for the wonders of technology. Things fell apart with the A.I's but with the discovery of old programs they dubbed i-tech things had just gotten better.

I-tech was the most supreme combination of man and machine and Vanguard's war statistics  were proof of that. As long as they the humans made the right calls, everything else would be done by the machines.

To his right was one the latest Vanguard war technology; the VR chambers that allowed for remote control of even the largest aircraft within a small space. The jet that was laying waste to the dark route mercenaries was being piloted just to his right. He kept a keen eye on the video feed, watching out for her.

 He knew the widespread damage they were doing wouldn't get to her, no. She was too smart and well trained to be killed by a plane dropping bombs. They had to see her and attack her directly. It didn't help that she had a very overpowered healing ability, but he had, always wanted to know if she could fix herself after a bomb went off right on her head.

Then he would be convinced.

The pilot's voice came through the speakers.

"General there is  motion on the roof of one of the buildings. Looks like a woman, and she has got a pretty sinister looking gun. Could be her."

Exposure on a rooftop in the middle of an area raid. No one was that else was that stupid.

Or that confident.

He could order the pilot to blast the roof and the person to smithereens, but the Presidential order had been clear. She wanted the chip and if possible her asset alive.

"Can you get any closer?"

"Any closer will put the jet in danger of being shot down. But I could scan the target, lock onto it and use bullets."

"Well what are you waiting for!"

 I-tech. General Eric once again marvelled at how effective it was as the pilot tried to get his accuracy percentage to ninety five. He wasn't that good though and had to slow down the jet for the digits to rise steadily and they touched ninety two percent.

 Still not enough to put the accuracy correction system into play. He had to do it himself.

"Get out, now. Let me do it myself."

The pilot resisted.
"Sir the system just finished the scan of the target. The gun in use is-"

The General wrestled and yanked the pilot out of the seat, and the camera shook for a while as the jet systems on realising the absence of a pilot switched to auto pilot.

By then the General had sat in the control hub. A red flashing light warned on the screen before him.

Incoming.

The screens went black before the General and he would have smashed his fist through the delicate glass if it didn't cost billions of credits to manufacture and program.

He looked out to the pilot who lay on the floor looking up to the fuming General in utter fear.

"You, get me an F360 control code and tell hangar 9E to get me three of them in the sky."

"But Sir the F360 is still under testing."

"Disobey a direct order one more time and you'll be in cleanup the rest of your career. Now go!"

He exhaled and rebooted the control hub. The message on the screen kept him focused.

Insert Aircraft I-Code.

If she wanted a war with the Vanguard air force, she had just got herself one.

*********
Well there you go. This one was a bit longer though.
We'll catch up with Vivian soon. I mean it's obvious she needs some time after that last encounter. She left this message for you guys.

"I'll be back."

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Haize