The Crows were getting too comfortable.
Vega watched them from a distance, her expression unreadable.
They joked, repaired their aircraft, and even cried over a stray dog.
To anyone else, they might seem like just another squad. Human.
But Vega knew better.
They weren’t soldiers.
They weren’t heroes.
They were a problem.
Digging into Shadows
She started with the simple stuff.
Military records? No official service history.
Birth certificates? Missing.
Bank transactions? Scattered, untraceable, and under fake names.
Satellite footage? Redacted or mysteriously erased.
It was as if they had never existed.
The more she dug, the worse it got. Every mission report was doctored. The Crows had fought in wars that weren’t even supposed to exist. They had killed people that weren’t even officially born.
Even the aircraft they loved so much—the AC-Crow—wasn’t in any military database.
Vega’s hands trembled as she closed the last file.
They were phantoms.
A force that wasn’t bound by any laws, any morals, any nation.
And yet, they ate together, drank together, laughed together.
Her stomach turned.
She knew what she had to do.
But first—a test.
The Suicide Mission
She pulled the Crows into a briefing room, her expression blank.
“Command has requested a special operation. It’s urgent.”
The commander leaned forward. His squad lived for this kind of thing.
Vega slid a file across the table.
“A weapons facility. Remote. Well-fortified. Intelligence says it’s running black-market nuclear trade."
Her voice remained neutral.
"The mission is high-risk. No reinforcements. Extraction is unlikely. Proceed at your own discretion.”
Silence.
Then, the commander grinned.
“Well, shit,” he chuckled. “Sounds like a normal Tuesday.”
Vega clenched her fists under the table. He didn’t even hesitate.
Mission Briefing – The Calm Before the Chaos
The Crows weren’t exactly known for discipline.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
So, when it came time for a “serious mission briefing,” the hangar looked like a college dorm after finals week.
Half the squad was shirtless, sitting in folding chairs.
One guy was asleep on a crate of grenades.
Another was chewing on a ration bar like it owed him money.
Someone had somehow found a stray cat and was feeding it beef jerky.
At the front, their commander rubbed his temples. “Alright, listen up, you drunk rejects. Drowing in general borks memory's"
A Crow yawned. “Commander, we’re not drunk.”
The commander shot him a look. “…Yet.”
A low chuckle spread through the room.
Then, he pointed to a holographic map.
The target: An underground fortress, deep in enemy territory.
Heavy security.
No easy exits.
And worst of all? The payout was dogshit.
One Crow raised a hand. “Uh… permission to ask why we’re taking a mission that looks like a suicide run?”
The commander sighed. “Because it builds character.”
A few groans. Someone threw a crumpled napkin at him.
But deep down, they all knew the truth.
The Crows weren’t just soldiers.
They were myths.
And myths didn’t run from danger.
They became the danger.
The next morning, they deployed.
The Suicide Mission – A Death Sentence
The AC-Crow soared through the dark sky, its engines humming a deep, familiar growl. Inside, the squad was eerily silent.
No jokes. No drinking games. No bets on who’d screw up first.
Even the usual idiot—the one who once accidentally blew up a chicken coop—was quiet.
This wasn’t like their past missions.
This time, Vega wasn’t flying with them.
Instead, she sat in a control room miles away, watching them through a live satellite feed.
Waiting.
Watching.
Testing them.
---
Landing in Hell
The facility was an industrial nightmare.
Towers with mounted .50 cals.
Guard patrols every sixty seconds.
Thermal scanners that would fry anyone dumb enough to breathe too hard.
An entire underground sector—its purpose unknown, its security overwhelming.
It was the kind of place you nuked from orbit, not walked into.
And yet, the Crows were already moving.
---
Infiltration – The Phantom Approach
The moment the AC-Crow touched down a mile out, the squad split up.
The sniper team stayed back, setting up at an abandoned radio tower.
The demolition crew took the sewers, slipping through maintenance tunnels.
The assault team—the crazies—went straight through the main entrance.
Like ghosts, they weaved through the defenses.
One Crow snapped a guard’s neck before he could exhale his last breath.
Another deactivated the thermal grid with a stolen keycard—because of course he pickpocketed it mid-fight.
The demolitions team planted charges under a fuel depot—just in case.
Vega watched, her nails digging into her palm.
How the hell were they doing this?
It should have been a disaster by now.
But they flowed like a machine.
No wasted movement. No hesitation. No fear.
She wasn’t watching soldiers.
She was watching something else.
---
All Hell Breaks Loose
The moment they reached the main control room, a mistake happened.
A guard turned too quickly.
A Crow was just a second too slow.
A gun went off.
The alarms screamed.
And in an instant, the entire base woke up.
---
The Storm
From every direction—footsteps thundered.
Snipers locked in from rooftops.
Gunships roared to life on helipads.
Hundreds of guards poured out, their rifles flashing like lightning.
A normal squad would retreat.
A smart squad would surrender.
The Crows?
They started laughing.
“Alright, boys,” the captain grinned, cocking his rifle. “Let’s go to work.”
And then—chaos.
A Crow slid across the floor, dual-wielding pistols like an action movie reject.
Another grabbed a fallen enemy’s rocket launcher and screamed ‘YOLO’ before firing.
A sniper casually shot a pilot through a cockpit window, sending the gunship spiraling.
The battle wasn’t even a fight.
It was a slaughter.
---
The Underground Revelation
As the fight raged, Vega saw something on the satellite feed.
An underground entrance.
Sealed. Hidden. But active.
She patched into their comms.
“Check below the main complex. There’s something there.”
A Crow, panting from the chaos, wiped blood from his visor. “You sure? We’re kinda busy dying here.”
Vega’s voice was cold. “Go.”
And so, they went.
---
The Final Room
Inside, they found it.
A chamber, untouched by dust. Pristine.
Files. Maps. Coordinates.
And at the center—a data drive.
One of the Crows picked it up. “What the hell is this?”
Another whistled. “This doesn’t look like nuke schematics.”
Vega’s screen flickered as the drive forcefully connected to her systems.
And for the first time in her life—she felt true fear.
Because the files weren’t about nuclear trade.
They were about the Crows.
Every mission. Every assassination. Every war crime erased from history.
The Crows weren’t just mercenaries.
They were a secret. A ghost unit.
One that was never supposed to exist.
And now—she had the proof.
---
The Escape – A Blood-Soaked Sky
Before she could react, the facility self-destruct sequence began.
The Crows raced to the surface.
The AC-Crow swooped in, guns blazing.
One by one, they jumped onto the ramp—dodging explosions, gunfire, and flaming debris.
One barely made it, his hand slipping—before another Crow grabbed him mid-air.
They didn’t just survive.
They won.
And as they flew into the night, singing a victory song, Vega made her final decision.
---
The Unspoken Verdict
They were too strong.
Too dangerous.
Too untouchable.
And worst of all?
They were still smiling.
---
The Enemy Among Them
The barracks were alive with laughter.
Through the open window, Vega could hear them—drinking, joking, completely unaware.
Crow 1: “I swear to god, if our plane needs another repair, I’m selling your organs on the black market.”
Crow 2: “Joke’s on you—I already sold one.”
More laughter. Someone threw a half-eaten ration pack. A small, chaotic brawl broke out.
They were so… normal.
Vega had spent months digging into their pasts. Cross-referencing names, missions, records.
And she’d found nothing.
No files. No birth records. No military logs.
It was like the Crows never existed.
And yet… here they were.
Living. Laughing.
For a moment—just one moment—Vega felt something crack inside her.
Were they really monsters?
Or just soldiers who had nowhere else to go?
She took a step back into the shadows, fingers trembling at her side.
She had one last chance to turn away.
One last chance to stop this.
But then—she heard the Captain’s voice.
---
The Words That Doomed Them
Captain: “We made it through another mission, boys.”
The squad cheered.
Captain: “And you know what? I don’t care what the world says. We ain’t heroes, we ain’t villains… But we take care of our own.”
Vega froze.
The words should have felt hollow.
But for some reason, they didn’t.
She turned, just in time to see them raise their drinks together.
The air buzzed with warmth. These men—these ghosts—had built a family out of nothing.
And Vega?
She was going to burn it all down.
Her throat tightened.
No. This was necessary.
Her voice was barely a whisper as she made the call.
“It’s time.”
Then she disappeared into the night.
And the countdown to the massacre began.
