NIKKE, when the stars bloom

"Commander! Let Pepper accompany..."

"Time is running out, everyone hurry up!" Phoenix interrupted what Anis wanted to say, urged again, and then said to Pepper who had just taken over the sniper:

"Pepper, hurry up."

"I, I understand! Commander!"

With a flushed face, Pepper hurriedly took the anti-material sniper cannon from Anis.

However, letting a pink-haired dwarf who is less than 1.6 meters tall hold a sniper rifle that is nearly 1.6 meters long is indeed a bit troublesome.

"Commander! Wait wait wait..."

After finally carrying the sniper rifle diagonally behind her, Pepper realized that the commander was no longer by her side. Only the sound of footsteps coming from the dark passage kept reminding her that the commander had run to the east entrance of the underground passage alone.

"Wait! Wait for me! Commander!"

"..."

"Let's go, Anis."

Because Sugar had her own motorcycle, she was not in a hurry to get going. Instead, she leaned against the motorcycle with her shotgun on her shoulder. Through her night vision and the motorcycle lights, she patiently looked at Anis's angry expression and said,

"Instead of standing here and wasting time, why not finish the mission and go back to the commander?"

"Are you in a hurry to finish the mission?"

"?"

Under Sugar's surprised eyes, Anis glanced coldly at the white-haired motorcycle girl and said nothing more. She held the gun in both hands and kept a subtle distance from her.

Christine and Merry, the Commander and Pepper, herself and Sugar.

Anis is not stupid, but it can be said that she is the most suspicious person in the entire team.

The Commander's allocation of personnel was totally inconsistent with his previous shrewdness and cunning in his negotiations with the Central Command.

A human and a medical Nikki were sent to guard the entrance to the underground passage. Even those idiot commanders who only knew how to say "for the central government" all day long knew that this behavior was not much different from suicide.

Therefore, the problem must be with the support troops.

This also explains why the order Rabbi received at the time was not "stop Letcher" but "do not allow any threats to enter or leave."

only……

What was the commander's intention in separating Sugar and the other two?

……

"commander."

"Ok?"

"Do you really want me to guard this entrance with the Commander?"

"Why? You want to explore the subway tracks?"

Phoenix stood behind Pepper, carefully lifted the sniper rifle over the girl's head, and explained with a smile:

“There are many corners below the entrance. Even if the number of Letchers exceeds our limit, we only need to run down two steps to find a cover to hide in. Your shotgun can also play its powerful characteristic at close range.

However, the subway track is a straight path. Once you encounter Letcher, it is impossible to rush forward and fight under fire. The best way is to retreat as soon as possible.

Pepper, do you think you can run as fast as Merry?"

"Oh——!" The pink-haired dwarf's eyes lit up when he heard it, "That makes sense! You are worthy of being the commander!"

Click--click--

Phoenix pulled the bolt of the sniper rifle forcefully. The charming sound of pulling the bolt was like the delicate hand of a beauty, soothing his slightly anxious mood.

After all, the calm before the storm is the most unbearable time.

Drip, drip, drip, drip——

Dozens of red dots on the consciousness radar flashed and moved towards the direction of the subway station from all directions. The man lay on the ground and quietly set up a sniper rifle, with most of his attention focused on the radar screen.

Where will the Letchers gather?

north?

south?

Or east of where Pepper is?

Drip, drip, drip, drip——

The red dot was getting closer.

Finally, when the red dots on the east and west sides clearly showed a trend of moving diagonally to the south, even though Phoenix was mentally prepared, he still found it difficult to contain his excitement.

"Anis! You two, go to the north subway track now, immediately! Christine, you two, meet up with Lapi! Lapi, if there are too many Letchers on your side, just retreat underground and wait for Christine and the others to come!"

"Understood! Commander!"

Pepper, who was closest to Phoenix, saluted in a military manner. She was about to bend down to help the commander carry the sniper rifle away, but she heard the man helplessly say:

"No, you don't understand."

"what?"

"The two of us have to fight our way out from the east first."

"what???"

Chapter 9 Fire Support from the Commander

The broken and rugged walls of the building and the exposed twisted steel bars, everything reminded Pepper that this was the ground. There was not only the brilliant starry sky, but also Letcher's deadly artillery fire.

At first, when the commander said that he wanted to take her around by ground and go around to the south to support Lavi and the others, Pepper thought her commander was probably crazy.

Because it is impossible for a normal human being to speak of such a fantastic suicide plan in such a calm manner and with such a firm tone.

However, in less than three minutes, Phoenix disproved Pepper's naive guess with practical actions.

The commander is not crazy, how could he be crazy?

Crazy,

It was either Letcher or herself.

In the silent ruins of the building, Pepper, holding a sniper rifle, nervously hid behind a broken wall, her cherry-colored eyes staring motionlessly at the commander crouching beside her, her mind confused by the noise made by the Letcher next door.

This was the first time she had observed the back of a Letcher from a distance of less than thirty meters.

The familiar spider-like shape, the terrifying large-caliber machine gun on top, and the metal shell that gleamed coldly in the moonlight all stirred the fear of death in Pepper's brain.

This is Letcher.

This is the same Letcher who massacred billions of humans and forced the remaining humans to live underground.

If it weren't for a nanomachine called "NIMPH" trying to suppress Pepper's negative emotions, she might have fled from this horrible place at all costs.

What should she do?

While Letcher didn't notice her, she picked up a shotgun and rushed over to blow up the opponent's core like the combat-type Nikki?

still is……

Just when Pepper felt that she was about to fall into a quagmire of thought, suddenly, a rough big hand gently placed on the back of her hand holding the gun.

The warm palms, the calloused lines on the hands, and the feeling of being wrapped completely around the backs of the hands were like a warm quilt on a winter night, which gradually relaxed Pepper's body and mind.

She is so stupid. The commander is right next to her, why does she have to think about so many things that she shouldn't think about?

Rusty rustling——

The subtle sound of hard rubber soles rubbing against the concrete floor suddenly rustled.

Under the moon, at the same moment when the Letcher turned the corner, Phoenix immediately tugged at Pepper's clothes, motioning her to follow him closely, and then he transformed into a nimble mountain lynx and continued to shuttle through this "architectural forest" made of steel and concrete.

Although he did clearly say at the beginning that he wanted to break out from the east, that was just an exaggerated rhetoric. If he really had such unparalleled ability, why did he lead everyone to run away before?

Cluck, cluck, cluck——

The footsteps continued to wander firmly among the ruins, and the underground entrances to the south and east were not far away. If Pepper had the same observation skills as Anis and the others, she would have discovered that the commander had actually taken her too far with just a little attention.

Of course, this is also good, it can save someone a lot of saliva.

"gun."

After turning a corner, Phoenix, who was already familiar with the terrain, immediately stopped, turned his head, and quickly stretched out his right hand to the sniper rifle in Pepper's arms. With the other party's considerate support, he easily placed the sniper rifle on the top of the trash can on the street.

Click!

All that was heard was a cry of joy from the safety piece, and then the expected roar of the sniper rifle broke through the sky again.

……

……

Bang bang bang bang bang! ! !

Gunshots continued at the underground entrance on the south side.

Among them were Lavi's rifles and Christine's submachine guns, but the majority must be Letcher's machine guns.

"Ravi! Aren't we going to retreat yet?!"

Christine, who was hiding behind a bunker and reloading, had lost her former elegance. Her eyes were bloodshot as she roared at Lapi:

"That man ran away! Are we going to stay here and attract fire and wait for death?!!"

"Calm down. Don't forget that the commander specifically told us to retreat."

Rabbi, who was hiding behind the bunker on the other side, still maintained a serious expression and said:

“There is no shelter inside the underground passage other than the load-bearing walls that can withstand Letcher’s weapons.

Once the load-bearing wall is broken by Letcher, the entire underground passage will collapse."

"Then..."

The red-eyed woman wanted to say something, but was interrupted by Lavi with a frown.

"Christine, are you questioning the commander's orders and actions?"

"..."

This sentence, which seemed like a question but was actually a pressure, successfully shut Christine up.

On the side, Lolfe, who was on standby at any time, saw her mortal enemy was so defeated, how could she miss such a good opportunity? She snorted and said sarcastically:

"A deserter who wants to run away when he encounters danger must wish that everyone else is a deserter, right, Rabbi?"

Bang bang bang bang bang! ! !

Christine gritted her teeth and leaned out from behind the cover. A burst of submachine gun bullets successfully broke the mechanical leg of a Letcher that was trying to go underground, forcing the Letcher to tumble down the stairs and crash into the wall at the end of the elevator.

Then, Lolfe and Merry, who were holding shotguns, raised their guns without thinking and started shooting at Letcher.

The violent special bullets immediately dented the trunk of the mechanical monster, causing the chips inside to squeeze each other and eventually short-circuit due to damage.

"When did I run away!" Christine, whose shoulder was bleeding, finally couldn't hold back her anger and threw the empty submachine gun magazine directly at Lolph.

"Speak clearly to me, you bitch!"

How could Lolfu have thought that this woman would really go crazy at such a critical moment? She dodged hastily, but still couldn't escape the fate of being hit by the magazine.

pat!

In a flash,

The originally hot atmosphere of gunfire and hail of bullets suddenly cooled down after this sound that sounded like a slap in the face.

"Everyone... everyone please calm down. Um, Letcher is still above us."

Although Nikki couldn't shoot Nikki without the commander's permission, Merry was still afraid that the two would become too emotional and fight each other uncontrollably.

So, she squinted her eyes in sorrow and waved her hands repeatedly:

"You two, it wouldn't be good if the commander saw you doing this, right?"