Another day, another mission.

This one is particularly standard as far as expeditions go- recon had discovered a building in the Abandoned Town with Infected activity, and they were being sent to clear it out. Usually, the town in general is left alone by the military; it's filled with drifters and grifters, non-citizens that are not to be concerned with- but the Infected are another story. One nest here means the formation of another nest in a matter of weeks, closer to Stronghold's limits, and if left alone they'd have a horde knocking down their walls.

Thus, Ananke and her team had been sent to pull out the problem by the roots.

Their target this time is Hudson Highschool, one of the larger buildings in surrounding area. Though from the outside the place looked abandoned, any Nest Elimination officer would know better. The bigger a structure, the more places for shadows to collect, and the more Infected that can hide in their depths. If fully infested, there'd be upwards of ten Ferals, and possibly a Reaper to boot.

"All units in position?" her squad leader's voice buzzes through the radio just as she and her team take their agreed upon places.

"Roger," she phones in. Over the rustle of tactical uniforms and the adjusting of firearms, she hears the command to being operations. "Let's go."

The inside is dark as expected, poorly lit except for the hallways somewhat illuminated through broken windows. Ananke treads carefully through the hallways as she and her teammates clear room after room. They would have to methodically comb through the entire facility to find them, but already she can hear the scratching of claws on tile, the soft snarls of Ferals stalking about somewhere in the building.

And then...

"Hold." There's another sound mixed in. Heavy footfalls from someone clearly not trained in infiltrating Infected nests. "...there may be a civilian here." Protocol states that if for whatever reason the squad finds another human in or near an Infected nest to escort them away if safe to do so, but that's provided that they survive long enough to the soldiers to find them...

With the way the building is structured, with its twisting halls and half stair-cases and floors, part by design and part because of natural decay, it's difficult to decipher exactly where each sound is echoing from. However, with experience and intuition, the specialist can tell- deep within, Infected are crawling about, but deeper still, there's a person, a human, running for their life.

Ananke freezes. Stay in the formation, and break off and find the civilian? The mission is important, but so is protocol...

Her squad leader makes the decision for her. For a second, she had forgotten that it hadn't been up to her to decide in the first place. "Specialist Drakos," the tinny voice commands via radio. "Leave formation and track down the civilian. The rest of you, proceed with the sweep." There's a brief feeling of rest, having been relieved of the burden of choice, but the soldier tenses again when she realizes that she's been instructed to go alone. They don't quite have enough manpower to justify more than one person pursuing this task, it seems.

"...yes sir," Ananke murmurs, before darting off to track down the source of the errant footfalls.

She moves quicker now, no longer required to march in step with a group, but that doesn't guarantee survival for her or the civilian. At this point, it depends who meets first- her and an infected, her and the civilian, or God forbid...

The civilian gets caught and knocked off his feet by a Reaper.

The specialist moves by instinct. "Stay down!"

The boy hears her, and actually listens. Good. He'd be surprised by how many people outright refuse commands from a soldier, even one that's trying to save their life. Be it a lack of faith in the military or fear ruling over thought, there have been plenty of endangered civilians who didn't know how to follow even the simplest of instructions and then subsequently got eaten.

He stays still long enough for Ananke to get close, catching the attention of the infected for a brief moment. With two viable prey in front of it, the animal seems a little conflicted, and it's that moment of hesitation that lets Ananke line up her shot just right-

At least, that's what she thinks, before the boy tries to run. "Wh- no!" It's too late to intervene; soon enough, Ares is pinned down and the center of attention again.

Fool. There's no way to get a clean shot anymore, which means she has to go in up close an personal. Not an impossible task, but never easy, and definitely never clean. It's too much to ask, she supposes, to end one mission not covered in grime, filth, and Infected blood and intestines.

Grabbing one of her combat knives, Ananke breaks into a running sprint and launches herself at the creature from behind. Let's see if she still remembers how to do this.

One arm hooks around the neck, the other curls around near the wrist in a modified headlock. Caught off guard, the Reaper thrashes from side to side in an attempt to throw her off. She uses her legs to gain purchase instead. "I told you," she says through grit teeth, struggling to maintain her grip as the creatures claws scratch and claw at her armor. "To stay. Down." In a moment of weakness, the Reaper gives Ananke enough purchase to jam the knife through the side of its throat, and with each punctuating word, the Specialist yanks the blade sideways. It takes two heaving strokes to decapitate the thing, blood and sinew and bone spattering everywhere. The corpse sways and jerks for longer than a corpse should, before falling on its side.

Ananke sighs. One mission. Is that too much to ask?

The specialist doesn't get up right away, even as the beast goes down. After all, Infected are still hard to kill, even for those specially trained for it. The possibility of the monster playing dead only to bite back at the worst possible time is too real for her not to be careful. It's only when the spasming fades, the breathing stops, and Ananke can confirm that the thing is dead that she finally picks herself off the ground and wipes the viscera off of her knife. There's not much of a point in trying to wipe off the rest of her, but at this point she's used to being covered in grime and various Infected... fluids. Thank God for the helmet and full coverage uniform.

Unfortunately, it looks like her job isn't done yet; there's still a civilian to escort out of the way of danger, and unlike most, he's not content to curl up and cower in the fact of the infected like so many others. She can't help but wince at the piercing noise- usually missions don't involve the sound of enthusiastic children yelling at you. "I am a specialist of the Nest Elimination branch," she announces, both answering his question and reminding him that she is in a place of authority that he should probably respect. Or at least, be less... friendly with. "And my orders are to escort you out of the premises so that you don't interfere with the rest of the mission."

His reasons for being here don't matter. She's not here to question him or even learn his name... But while he's still in this building, Ananke's team can't consider their mission completed. "So if you want to live, you'll do what I say and come with me."

Ugh.

He's young, enthusiastic, and worst of all, admiring. It might make him one of the easier types of civilians to deal with (the rebellious and violent ones are worse), but it does make him one of the more annoying ones. Ananke doesn't like being looked at like a hero. It only reminds her that she is anything but, and that she doesn't particularly want to be one either.

With the Infected dead, the two are safe (for now), and so Ananke takes a few seconds to get her bearings. They're on the third floor of the building, and there'll likely be more crawling around the staircases... They'll have to either scout for an alternate exit or find a way to draw their attention away...

Her concentration is broken by some movement in the corner of her eye- the uneasy shifting of someone trying to reach for a weapon. So he's naive and easily frightened. Perfect.

The soldier saunters up to the boy with as little care as she can muster. "Relax." If Ares could see through the visor of her helmet he'd realize how hard the Specialist had rolled her eyes. "If you're human, we're not here for you. Our only concern is exterminating the Infected that have nested in this building with as little collateral damage possible. That's you. You're the collateral damage." A stiff finger pokes into his chest. "Which we're trying to prevent. So get your toy out and be ready to follow any orders like 'run', 'hide', and 'stay down', and I can better guarantee your survival. Understood?"

Civilians.