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[color=silver]December 30th, Frontline trench
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Unlike other soldiers and shocktroopers, who more often than not were advocates of 'the bigger, the better' mindset regarding weapons and equipment, Emmerich's equipment was kept to the bare minimum. Wielding only the standard federation sidearm and his trench knife as his weapons and only taking the most basic tools, even his shocktrooper armor seemed to be less 'bulky' and have less protection overall than the others. While he knew very well how effective rifles could be on the right hands, when the combat happened in such a close range, a pistol and a knife would often show themselves to be way more effective and less cumbersome than a long weapon. After all, be it a pistol a shotgun or a rifle, a bullet was a bullet. When well placed, just one was enough to end a life.

Cpt. Middleton's explanation was kept short and simple. Every soldier there knew what they had to... or so Emmerich hoped. That mission could be quick and fast if they pulled their cards right. Being an Imperial himself, he knew very well how the empire liked to build their trenches. While they may appear confusing to those who weren't familiar with their layout, if one paid enough attention, they would realize that they were all designed and built in a very similar manner, with a very similar logic behind it, so every soldier could quickly memorize their layout and knew how to navigate through them even when being transferred to another battlefield. With that knowledge, it should take him only a few minutes to situate himself and know exactly where they should go to raise their chances of finding an NCO.

Unfortunately, no matter how efficient Emmerich's plans were on his own head, they proved to be useless when the gunner, Mehetabel, ran ahead of the rest of the group, throwing herself into the trenches without any support or plan.

[color=gray]"Shit..."[/color] Emmerich said to himself, cursing as he watched Mehetabel rushing in.

It didn't take much for the first gunshot to alert the imperials of their presence. With the element of surprise gone as Alex rushed behind Mehetabel, shooting the first imperial in the head while Victoria used her bayonet, brutally impaling the second soldier. If being silence wouldn't work anymore, they would have to be as fast as possible and get out before the imperials could call for reinforcements.

With fast and agile movements, Emmerich rushed inside the trench just to see an imperial soldier a few meters away, recovering from the sudden shock of seeing the two other soldiers suddenly killed in such a brutal manner. The very moment he started raising his rifle to aim at them, Emmerich was already close. With experienced movemends and a cold efficiency, Emmerich knocked the soldier down with a knee to the stomach, making his rifle fly away from his hands before he buried his knife on the soldier's throat.