Ascendants Records Mankind Saga (A.R.M.S.)

Somewhere in SouthEast Asia, a group of three armed men and a woman with two childrens, each a boy and a girl are wandering through the dense forest. The brown trees around them are all tall and wide with branches intertwining with each other, forming a dome-like emerald colored cover made with billions of lush green leaves blocking most of the sunlight. With only a few and small uncovered holes allowing it to enter, the group walked toward the east direction with the guide of the sunlight while drenching in sweat due to hot humidity.

Other than wild beast growling and birds chirping sound can be heard clearly in the forest, the annoying sound that they heard the most are the sounds of the mosquitoes buzzing around them. Their sweaty scents had attracted countless of them to land on their body just to suck their warm blood to replenish their hunger. The group always swing their hands to chase away the mosquitoes while also quickly slap them to death when noticing they had landed on their skin, feasting on their blood.

Each step on the fresh green grass and scattered dried brown leaves on the ground had created a rustling sound. To avoid making more unwanted noise, they tread lightly in the forest because there could be lethal traps for them to face. With the adults on constant alert, their eyes are scanning in every direction while gripping firmly of their firearms in front of their chest. From the cautious look on their face, it seems that they are in a dangerous situation.

The adults are mercenaries that were hired by a wealthy businessman. They are tasked with a mission to save, protect and extract his only twelve year old son who was kidnapped by a human trafficking organization from them and currently, they are inside the hostile zone. The nine year old girl is also a victim of child trafficking and has no relations to the son but he demanded the mercenaries to bring her along since he already views her as his little sister. The reason is during the hard times when the boy was kidnapped, it was the little girl that took care of him so he could survive. 

The four adults move in a diamond formation with the two children in the middle. With the primary target extracted from the enemies and another liability to take care of, they need to be fully aware of any danger approaching them as the battle earlier to rescue the kids has them almost use up their ammunition. Fortunately, they also radioed in their success to their forward operating bases and a helicopter had been dispatched to the rendezvous location.

The one with a tall and lean muscular body physique in the back protecting his teammates and the assets is of a Chinese descendant named Zhong WuYan. The leader of the team and also in charge of coordinating any attack and defense strategy. He has shining black hair with an undercut style that is short on sides but long on the top. With a pair of black-onyx eyes but amber irises on the inside like a tiger's eyes, along with a matching stubble beard makes him quite a handsome guy.

In his arms is a black painted Benelli M4 semi-automatic shotgun. With extended stock equipped and loaded with seven rounds of 12 gauge caliber, this shotgun could send any enemies to meet their maker or screams in agonizing pain with their chest badly bruised and rib cages shattered even if they wear any body armor.

On his left is a young caucasian woman with tied up long maple colored hair. She has a slim physique yet with a visible muscular line and is carrying a submachine gun. She wears a pair of spectacles but it still couldn't hide her attractive light blue crystal-like eyes. Her name is Audrey Claude and her role is to provide recon and intel to the team through the provided sophisticated communication device given by their private military corporation. 

With her left hand carrying a global positioning system (GPS) tactical pad to ensure they stay on the right track to the rendezvous point, Joan's right hand is wielding a black coloured Heckler & Koch MP5K. Weighing only around five pounds with rates of fire of nine hundred 10 millimeter rounds per minute, the MP5K remains her favorite in every operation that she participated. To reduce the burst from the recoil, a synthetic folded stock is equipped onto it to provide a stable firing platform. 

On WuYan right is a middle aged latin guy with dark brown hair and a red bandana on his forehead. He is a bit shorter but more muscular than the leader but has a pair of amber eyes and a chevron beard on his face. He prefers to be called as Julian and his role is to provide extra firepower to cover his teammates and the assets.

His hands are carrying a gray painted SIG-Sauer SIG556 assault rifle loaded with 5.56 rounds. This rifle allows select fire versions ranging from semi-auto, burst and full auto to gain advantages in tight or wide situations. But Julian fire mode will always be the full auto as he's addicted to the unstoppable recoils and loud sounds coming from his beloved weapon.

The other guy further away from WuYan back is an African American descendant who goes by the name Robert Kent. He is the tallest among the team with a massive and muscular body physique that could win in a Mr.Olympia contest. He has a pair of sharp yet wide black eyes and short afro hair. Wielding a grenade launcher and an assault carbine, his role is to eliminate any armed vehicles or sweep a large group of enemies with his firepower.

He's currently carrying a black 40 millimeter six-shot revolver-type Milkor Multiple Grenade Launcher attached with extended stock. Loaded with six rounds of grenade cartridge and able to fire rapidly with three rounds per seconds in a four hundred meter range, this portable and lightweight monster is able to clean groups of enemies in seconds.

On his back is a silver colored FN S.C.A.R.-H STD or in full name- Special Operations Forces Combat Assault Rifle with 'H' means heavy version and is loaded with a larger 7.62 millimeter round while STD is the rifle equipped with Standard Mod 0 grenade launcher module that allow Robert to fire 40 millimeter grenade rounds for extra firepower or switch to firing bullets with a maximum 650 rounds per minute in a six hundred meter range to decimate multiple enemies in a swift. 

"Damn them, the info that they give us is completely wrong! LIGHT RESISTANCE, MY ASS! Those bandits are packed with heavy firearms and armed armored trucks!" Robert complained with a deep but breathy voice. 

His body is drenching in sweat, the droplets on his face can be seen clearly as if he just took a shower. In frustration, he complains about how the intel they got from the command center is wrong which led them into this dangerous situation.

"Heh! Oh….our most packed firepower boy is shitting himself. Such a poor boy, big brother will definitely ask for more pay for this operation to buy you a pair of new undies." Julian responded to Robert whining. 

With a playful behavior and tone, Julian sneers at Robert's whining attitude with a laugh. Robert responds to his words by pointing the launcher at him and Julian aims his rifle at him.

"Oh, keep making fun of that and the last thing you will see is a grenade flying towards you." Robert is pissed off at Julian's attitude and warns him not to poke his anger again.

"Cut it out, boys. The battle earlier almost exhausted all of our ammunition so don't waste it anymore."

Seeing them still arguing in this critical situation, WuYan is fed up with Robert and Julian's attitude and orders them to stop their childish act. Both listened to their leader's order and resumed their duty after moving their aim away from each other. 

"Audrey, how much longer till we reach the extraction point." Reon asked. 

 "Fifteen minutes till the helicopter arrives. Wait, I got the incoming transmission from the command."

Audrey replied to WuYan's questions but soon raised her hand in a fist when her pad received a communication request from the command. The rest saw her holding her hand in a fist knowing it's the signal to hold their position and they stopped advancing. Watching the adults halt their steps, the kids also stop theirs as well.

"This is Audrey Claude of the Vanguard team on the comm, over." Audrey clarified her identity through the pad. 

In the blue sky above the team, an white colored unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) used the clouds as camouflage while performing reconnaissance to provide intel for the team. An armless, without any munitions, the MQ-9 Reaper was remotely controlled by a friendly male operator from the forward operating base (F.O.B.). 

"Vanguards, Reaper drones sighted three large groups of hostiles approaching quickly. Possible forty bandits and five armed vehicles. All of you need to run, NOW!" The male operator warned them of the impending danger while still trying to maintain his seriousness. 

"WHAT? HOW? We didn't leave any tracks for them to trace." 

After hearing the intel from the operator, Audrey flinched. WuYan listened to her replies and through his many years of experience in the battlefield, he assessed the situation. If the enemies were still able to trace and close in, there must be hidden enemies around them, spying on them. He quickly searched his surroundings for any potential threats such as enemy scouts and found something abnormal on the trees.

WuYan looked up and found a light reflection suddenly shining on his eyes. He had found the enemy scouts that camouflage themselves with ghillie made of green and brown leaves.

"ENEMIES ON THE TREES!"

WuYan shouted to alert his team and fired at the scout. The scout using a binocular knows that his spot is revealed and tries to run but was shot at the head by WuYan's precise aim. The slug rounds from the shotgun instantly blasted the enemy's head into pieces. The enemy headless body falling from the tall tree branches to the ground had shocked both the adults and the childrens.

"OH HELL NAW! I AIN'T READY FOR FOREST NINJAS!"

Robert quickly switched to his secondary weapon and aimed high to continuously shoot at all the trees around them without holding back. The other enemy scouts on the trees immediately leave their spot to avoid getting shot. Suddenly the team hears chatters, shouts, engine sounds becoming louder and clearer. Robert's loud firing sounds from the guns had alerted the enemies and had led them getting closer to their location.

"Robert, grab the boy and clear a way out for us, I will take the girl. Audrey, Julian, cover us."

The situation had become worse and WuYan immediately gave his orders to the team. Robert nodded to acknowledge the order, he immediately grabbed the boy and placed him over his shoulder. With Audrey and Julian behind to provide cover fire for them, WuYan carries the little girl to his chest and she clinged tightly onto him like a baby koala bear hugging its parent. Without looking back, they immediately sprint toward the extraction point.

Sounds of neverending gunshots can be heard in their run. Audrey and Julian endlessly search their surroundings for any incoming enemies and immediately shoot on sight to provide cover for Robert and WuYan. After minutes of non-stop runs, the team finally escaped the forest and found themselves at the edge of a cliff.

The team looked back and found hordes of armed bandits and vehicles coming at them. WuYan and Robert put the kids down and the mercenaries checked their remaining ammunition. 

"Shit! I only got a cartridge of ammo left." Julian reported in a worrying manner.

"Bad, I ran out of explosives." Audrey also answered with the same tone as Julian

Julian is annoyed after checking that he only has a cartridge left for him to use and puts the magazine back to his rifle. Audrey also explained that she is in the same situation with Julian and there's no more throwable explosives for them to use. 

"I still got a spare full magazine for my rifles but only two shots left for the launcher. Any ideas left to get us out of here, WuYan?"

After hearing Robert report his ammunition count, the rest looked at WuYan and waited for his next order. 

*WHOOP~ WHOOP~ WHOOP~*

Suddenly, they heard a familiar sound as if blades were chopping the air at high speed. Together, they looked back and saw a dark green colored Bell UH-1N Twin Huey helicopter had ascended from the cliff below. A male crew in the helicopter pulled the slide door open for them to enter 

"QUICK! VANGUARD, GET IN!" The crewman shouted at them

The team were delighted when they saw their extraction had arrived. With the current distance between them being approximately fifty meters left, they sprinted toward the helicopter. 

"GET TO THE CHOPPA!" Robert shouted.

Julian and Audrey grab the kids again, switching the roles with WuYan and Robert providing cover fire for them as the team make the final sprint towards the helicopter. The enemies fire their rounds at them and the helicopter, causing the pilots to constantly need to pull and push the control stick to move the helicopter to avoid the incoming bullets damaging any important parts and crash. 

Noticing their only transport is under danger, WuYan immediately turns back and fires his shotgun slugs rounds toward the enemies while stepping backwards one step at a time to get closer to the helicopter. He is taking the risk to increase their chance of survival by pressuring the enemies into fear and taking cover from his shot as the shotgun is still quite deadly even at a distance.

"WUYAN! COME ON! WE ALREADY IN THE CHOPPER!"

Julian shouted to let WuYan know that they were already on-board in the helicopter and urged him to quickly come in. The three of them in the helicopter provide cover fire for their leader by firing their remaining ammo at their enemies. Robert used his last two 40mm grenades and shot at the bandits' armed vehicles with his launcher, causing a chain explosion that killed many of them. Seeing the explosion had temporarily stalled the enemies, WuYan immediately resumed his sprint to the helicopter.

On the other side in the forest, a bandit in a leaf-covered ghillie suit is lying down on the forest ground with his abdomen. He aimed the helicopter landing skids with a ArmaLite AR30 bolt action sniper rifle. Loaded with a .338 Magnum cartridge, he fires at the skids part that is attached to the helicopter, breaking it and causing it to fall but still hang in mid air. 

"SNIPER!" Julian shouted to alert the rest. 

Just when the gunshots went silent for a while due to the enemies still trying to recover from the chain explosion, a sudden bullet came out of nowhere and had precisely hit their ride had shocked everyone. With such a precise shot, the team were only getting more worried and immediately tried to find the sniper location to secure their leader's safety. The pilot was shocked by the sneak attack, triggering his instinct to make him move the helicopter away a bit further from the cliff. With a medium gap in between, WuYan needs to leap through it to enter the helicopter or he will fall to his death.

The bandit then shifted his aim from the helicopter towards WuYan. Predicting his movement and judging the distance and speed, he targeted the empty space gap between him and the helicopter then pulled the trigger to fire another shot from his sniper. Seeing the bullet fly, he smiled and was eager to see the death of his target. 

Seeing that their leader is sprinting towards them without slowing down so he could make a long jump, the teammates extend their hands out from the helicopter and are ready to catch him. Just when they are still in a hopeful state to see their leader make his jump and then secure him into the cabin, blood suddenly splashes on their face. They were stunned and shocked at first until they snapped back to reality after hearing the little girl high pitched scream.

*AAAAAH!*

When WuYan successfully leaped from the cliff and almost reached the helicopter, the bullet fired from the sniper had pierced through his heart. His teammates had just witnessed their leader WuYan was shot in the heart just right in front of them.