Chapter 208 – Updated Later

After looking at the prototypes, they concluded that the ballistic plates were the only serviceable one. The ballistic visor, albeit impressive, was still deemed impractical until further improvement could be made to the hinges that attached the visor to the helmet itself. 

Even though it was rigid, further report from the documents showed that the hinge still had the tendency of breaking down after being hit from a .308 round. To make its worse, the bullet had the tendency to ricochet from the ballistic visor itself. It was still in its experimental states, after all. As for the radio, it was just a soldier’s radio left there. 

They replaced the ballistic plates that they were currently wearing with the new plates. It felt lighter, and it was a little bit thinner than the boron carbide plates that they usually wore. Still, Del preferred this new plate over the old one, although it had saved him many times from bullets, or at worst, laser. 

“Hmm, it felt lighter, I’m not going to lie about it,” Mira commented. 

“Yeah, I feel the same way. It seems that the thickness of the plates are thinner than the boron carbide plates. Still, you mentioned that this thing is rated to stop heavy machine gun rounds, right? How viable is that?” Del was skeptical. 

“It only gave you a chance to survive. It’s not like it’s advised for you to run against a heavy machine gun,” Anna said. “The objective of the new plate is to give a chance for personnel to survive a single hit from the standard anti-materiel round used by Ilbistirum military.”

“Hmm? The 7.92x95mm round?” Mira asked for confirmation.

“Yup, that round. The round that always somehow wounded us at the end of the day. Either by spalling from our armor, or by direct penetration. Still, that big giant rifle only appears on certain condition,” Del said. 

“Yeah, never attack during the day, it’s an almost certain way of death. That rifle is always used during the day. During the night, it is rarely used. No matter how thick your armor is, that thing always penetrates it. Juggernaut suit is the only thing that can stop it,” Mira said. 

“Because that thing had triple the thickness of our armor plates. I only used it once, though. That thing is heavy as hell and the fact that there’s a limit on how much I can carry at the same time,” Del said. 

“Yeah, anyway, do we got an airflift out of here?” Del asked. 

“Yup, we have that. A C-17 will depart in 20 minutes.”

“Wait, another plane?” Mira was still airsick. 

“Yup.”

===================

Four and half an hour later, they arrived at Sneggor airspace. Mira was still unaware on what she had entered while Anna was strapped to her. Basically, if Anna used her magical spell, Mira would be slowed down too. They didn’t need a chute, their own flying spell would be enough to slow their descend. 

The C-17 was flying at high altitude, undetectable by the radar employed by the current air force in Ilbistirum. Due to the lack of parachute, they would immediately jumped down to the ground with high velocity. 

“Check your oxygen mask.” 

With such high altitude, an oxygen mask was a necessity. There was a jump commander on the plane. They were not the only one that was going to jump from the plane. It seemed that there would be an airdrop in the area of operation. 

The door on the side of the plane opened. The jump commander commanded them to jump outside. Mira was scared, but Anna forced her to jump out of the aircraft. They immediately jumped out of the aircraft and the cold breeze of Sneggor hit their face. 

“SHIIIIIIITTTTT!” 

Even beyond the heavy breathing, the scream coming out of Mira’s mouth was way louder than that. The scream died down as they went faster towards the ground. Her head was hanging on her neck. Yup, she passed out. 

Del kept an eye on the altimeter on his hand. 200 meters from the ground and he must start slow down their descend to the ground. The cabin started to appear on the ground. Time to slow the descend. 

With a little bit of mechanism, the descend slowed down its approach and they eventually arrived at the cabin. Del landed smoothly, but Anna was slamming the ground a little bit hard. Well, a little bit was an understatement, the slam was loud enough that the person that guarded the cabin came out. 

“What in the actual.” He then saw the crater created by those two falling from the sky. “Holy shit. Are you two ok?” He approached Anna and  Mira. 

Anna stood up from the ground, unharmed. “Yeah, I’m fine, and Mira probably is fine too.”

Mira was standing straight too. It was like she regained her consciusness back once she hit the ground and the snow. Well, that was something to be proud of, to be honest. Still, it meant that the flying spell wouldn’t be able to lift a weight of another person. 

Well, the armor was intact, that was a good thing, right? With Mira back in where she should be in the first place, albeit the way she was walking indicated that she had some sort of disorientation. 

The person that guarded the cabin approached Del. “It looks like I have done my part. There’s nobody approaching the cabin, you are probably in the clear for now. However, be careful, alright? I saw a thick military presence in the area since last night. There is supposed to be a terrorist accident last night, but I hope you have nothing to do with it.”

“Did I get that much attention last night?” Del asked. 

“Not really. It seems that there was quite a ruckus, but well, nobody approaches this cabin as far as I know. It’s a good thing, to be honest,” he said. 

“I agree. Well, what are you going to do now?” Del asked. 

“I’m going to return to Lullin. See you around, Moore,” he said. 

He failed to notice it at first, but that person seemed to be planning for leaving since Del landed on the cabin. He was wearing a thick winter coat after all. He wanted to leave, it seemed. 

He walked downhill towards the city center, probably going to catch a bus or something. Well, thanks for the help, Del guessed? Mira and Anna were inside of the command center, probably treating Mira’s bruises if there was any. 

Del entered the command center. Mira was drinking hot coffee while Anna was sitting down in front of the computer, analyzing the retrieved data just like what Del usually did. Del stood up right next to the computer. 

“What are you looking for?” Del asked. 

“Something.” She was searching the computer for one particular data. The data of someone called “Lenza Inboer”, one of the students in the academy. If Del recalled, he was the current head of security division. Yup, the same person that put a crosshair on top of his head. 

“Lenz, huh? I do agree that he needs to be dealt with, but why now of all times?” Del asked. 

“With our assignment with Salve Group is basically over, we might need to focus on the next big thing, and that’s dealing with Bosch, but to do that, we need to take a significant amount of heat from you,” Anna said. 

“And how we should even do it?” Del asked. 

“VIOLENCE!” Mira suggested from the comfy of her couch. 

“Emm, no,” Anna said. 

“So what then?” Del asked. 

“You know, Del, you might not be a transfer student, but most of the TMV member seems to be respecting you, why don’t you fill the status quo in the organization, especially after Daniel disappear.”

“I do agree, but won’t it put more heat to him?” Mira asked. 

“Not really. TMV leader is usually quite untouchable due to their nature of volunteering activity. This is what Lenz said to us. So, we are using their guidelines to work against him,” Anna said. 

“Subtle, but how will we convince Hubert? I meant, technically, it should be me to fill the status quo, but since you’re more popular than me, you might be able to fulfill the role, Del,” Mira said. 

“Yeah, you’re still their co-leader, but I’m indeed more popular.”

“Still, we still need to do voting. What would you do then?” Mira asked. 

“Voting is only done between the 12th grade, right? If you vouch for me, we can bypass that and I know that the method works in the academy. So, will you vouch for me?” Del asked. 

“You’re forcing me here, but sure. If there’s a voting, you’ll be against an empty box. Besides, being the leader of TMV is too much of a hassle, so, yeah, I’ll put my words for you, boss.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it, Mira.”

“No sweat.. If you’re the leader of TMV, getting resources shouldn’t even be hard.”