Bent Fate (An Arknights Fanfiction)

Chapter 85

Smoke rises up from the middle of the sidewalk, at the heart of the city, where there used to be a couple of public toilets, nothing much is left but the mark of burnt concrete.

Convoys of armored vehicles, varying from having four wheels to six wheels, rushes into the area.

They distanced themselves from each other before stopping at the middle of the road where cars have been abandoned.

"CLEAR THE AREA!!" a man clad in ballistic armor declares while his colleagues poured out of the vehicles and into the sides of the road and the place of the explosion.

A group of them surrounded the mark on the floor, some squatting, some standing.

They observed the markings, and some glanced around to try and find any other traces.

Not far from the explosion site, another team converses with the civilians.

— "Officer, I swear I have seen a man inside that cubicle before it went off." a man in an office attire tells the soldiers, having a hand on his sweaty forehead. "And I never saw him having left the toilet before the bomb went off!"

The soldiers with dark visors shared a glance.

"Suicide bombing...?"

The second soldier nods to his colleague holding a tablet.

"... could you recall how the man looked like?" the soldier with the tablet asks.

"Er... I didn't see his face, but he's a sarkaz wearing tattered robes."

"Robes...?"

"Yes.. leather ones..."

"This could be Reunion." the soldier turns to his colleagues.

"It has to be them..." a third soldier agrees.

"So they're inside the city now...?" the second questions his squadmate.

"Considering how poorly militiamen and others performed against those more seasoned veterans of infected fighters, I can't see any difficulties believing it."

The first soldier faces his squadmates. "Then I shall report it that this incident is linked to Reunion..."

"W-wait..." the civilian interrupts him, "... you mean to tell us that those cursed infected have broken through your defensive lines??"

The soldier with the tablet eyed him for a second, behind the visor of his helmet.

The man steps back as the dark emotionless headwear stared at him. "I-I didn't mean to be rude!"

He bows his head, his body experiencing as much tension as when an explosion rocked the very street he was just strolling on earlier.

"I hate to say it, but yes." the soldier then answered him. "For the most part, most of what we have are fresh rookies, or haven't had any real experience prior to Reunion's infiltration. It all comes down to experience"—

"But sir!!"— the man immediately stops himself, though it is useless now as he had already cut him off, the soldier that instantly stopped speaking as well. "... Does that mean that they're simply slip into all the districts as they wished? What with these tanks and armored trucks? Why aren't you using them? The army's doing nothing but let the scourge in!"

"I'm really sorry for what may seem like utter incompetence to you, sir."

The man gasped in shock as he heard the words come out of the soldier.

That is all there is to it, it seems.

A distant boom turns their heads in the west direction.

The office worker gaped as he heard it.