[center][b]Sector A - City Outskirts, Near the Wall[/b][/center]

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The base was crawling with soldiers - the usual, rhythmic commotion of training and routine replaced by a chaotic rise to action. Squads of soldiers dashed from spot to spot, giving the fort-like encampment a nearly animated image. The encampment began at the wall, where a large, four hundred foot long semicircle worth of barricade closed off an isolated base of operations. Here, various makeshift guard towers, tents, and training grounds were built. The barricade stretched about thirty feet in height, and was made of barbed wire fencing and concrete roadblocks. A constant patrol of about thirty soldiers patrolled the perimeter while about five squads of ten each patrolled around a larger perimeter a bit farther off. At the point at which the center of the half-circle-shaped camp met the wall, a large, square-shaped border resonated and shined a bright purple. It was a large square, about thirty square feet. At each corner of this square was a circular core slot, each containing a single purple core the size of a volley ball. 

On the outside of the wall, along the same point at which the inner base connected, lay a base about five times the size of the one located within. It had no fencing or any other defined border. No, outside, there were about five hundred soldiers, twenty carriages, and five shuttles, all slowly coming to life as the military officials began shouting out orders. Amid all the commotion, a sixth shuttle entered the premises and landed in the center of the outer camp. A squad of six soldiers and Commander Lide stepped out of the shuttle and made their way to an identical square pattern engraved onto the outside of the wall. The Commander stopped right in front of the square-shaped engraving and nodded to a lone soldier standing at the left-bottom corner of the square. The soldier saluted before turning to a nearby lever and pulling it. Immediately, the large square began to glow purple and emit a warped, metallic churning sound. Commander Lide nodded and stepped forward and into the square...

...and out of the same square on inner side of the wall. 

At the sight of the Commander, many soldiers and their squads halted to salute him, but he called them to ease and focused on a group of eight situated at the back of the base.

---

Ghost panted as he looked left and right, unable to see where the real Zerox was among his clones. Seven copies of the same man charged at him, wielding steel gloves from which 3 sharp claws protruded. Ghost took a deep breath and dashed back at them. He wore no armor, exposing his bare, muscular body (save for the iconic hunter black cargo pants) which was now covered in a few scars. He jumped and immediately turned sideways, turning like a rolling pin as he threw two daggers at the heads of two of the Zerox copies. They instantly vanished, and as Ghost landed, he ducked under the first claw swipe. As another copy tried to jab at him with its claws, he warped his torso. It looked exactly the same, and anyone watching would not notice any sort of difference, except for the fact that the arm that jabbed at it went right through. Ghost then grabbed the arm and bent it until it snapped, causing that clone to vanish as well. He shot his right arm to his right side, deflecting another swipe while rapidly spinning to kick away another Zerox copy. As he followed up his kick, he drew a dagger from a sheathe on the opposite leg and stabbed the copy that attempted to flank him. Before he could charge the last few copies, however, the Commander called the men to attention. Zerox's clones vanished, exposing the real one to have been sitting among the other hunters the entire time. Ghost rolled his necks and shoulders before turning to the commander. 

"You guys seemed to have adapted to each other's abilities. I'm sure your time training will be worth it soon enough," he said as he stood there before them, hands clasped behind his back and head held high. 

Ghost looked to the rest of the hunters before turning back to Lide, "That Victor bastard shook up the city pretty damn well. But I think that your soldiers are more frightened than they are encouraged." 

Commander Lide shook his head, "Nonsense, Ghost. It's just been a long time since we've gotten any action. Keep in mind, it'll be hard for some of these younger soldiers to quell the rebels. When someone charges at you under the words of a false prophet, it doesn't leave enough time to debate whether engaging them is ethical or not. Do remember these are citizens that are out our throats now, not just mutants." 

Lide then looked to the hooded figure who leaned against the barricade, his scythe resting on his shoulder. "Nekros... you are prepared, correct? You will be leading the charge, as we all know, and you'll need to make sure those targets are wiped out A.S.A.P"

Nekros stood silent and lifeless. Fang looked at him then back at Lide, "So, we are charging them? What exactly is the plan? You don't expect us to start killing innocent civilian, now do you?" 

Lide chuckled, "Victor thinks he's clever. His little message to the people may have caused some citizens to get all fired up and rebellious, but it was not nearly enough to encourage any significant number of citizens to rise up against us. He knows this. His message was meant to scare [i]us][/i] into unnecessarily send out our forces to quell this so called 'rebellion'. But fact of the matter is that, the rebellion doesn't start until Hector fires the first shot from inside."

Ghost nodded, "So what then, are we gonna hole up here and try to fight Victor off?"

Lide tilted his head to the side with a slight nod, as if to say "yes and no". "One thing we can't assume is that Victor's confidence in bringing down this wall was also a bluff. No, he's already mobilized so he does plan on assaulting. What this means is that he does have some sort of weapon that could tear a hole in this wall. If that were to happen-"

Lizard interrupted him, "Khhhh, it won't happen. We won't let him," he said as he sniffed at the air. Lide held up a finger, "We don't know that, if it DOES happe-"

This time Pyrus interrupted him, "Yer not sure, then? Yer sayin' the lad's figured out how to burn through the wall?"

Lide sighed, "Would you let me finish? Sheesh. Victor's a man of many resources. If he wants something, he'll work endlessly to get it. I believe he may have come across an ancien- ... a [i]weapon[/i] of mass destruction, ok? Now focus. We're going to fortify our base on the outside and cut off all movement near the inside of our base. It takes one stray civilian to creep in here and mess everything up, got me? In the mean time, you eight are gonna be out there, hunting down those targets that you [i]should have downed a long time ago.[/i] If I know anything for sure about Victor's plan, it's that he's contacted Hector about it, and I know for a fact Hector has a little army of mutants on his side as well. If we can eliminate them, we've won half the battle."

The eight nodded and looked to each other. Lide then looked behind him at the base-wide chaos that was going on. "Remember Hunters. You're doing this for the greater good. Stay focused, don't fuck up."