*Booom*
Whilst the explosions were bombing the floor, I was scanning the skies.
*Boom* *BOoooooM*
As I thought, there is a spy-drone barely within scanning range, the idiots in charge of information ignored surveilling the sky, just because there are no aerial Old Beasts in Neuro’s horde, I should have realized that this might happen. I should have checked...
*booom* *Ungodly screams* *BOooooM*
*Ratatatat* *Booom* *screams*
*Boooom*
Soon the choir of explosions and chaos properly took off..
-’Choir of death’ Comeback stage.-
That's what it all was.
“LT, signal forward! All squad members. Convene to the sides and retreat from the artillery range whilst avoiding the center, It's a slaughterhouse! Regroup on Coordinates X-34 Y-35! Maintain radio silence after extraction!”
I yelled into the comms as I ran towards the side myself with alicia, dodging artillery shells all the while.
“But sir! What about our orders? We have to help the line!” A foolish response came back
“FUCK THE ORDERS, that line will NOT hold. If you want to protect your city. You cannot do it dead! Now tell the men to get the fuck out of- *BOOOM* ” I answered as I barely dodged a shell that struck around 2 meters from me, blocking most of the shockwave with my shield, but still getting blasted to the floor.
Behind me, I could hear the guns blazing and the young screaming in the trenches, as they took enemy lives and had theirs taken. With a quick glance I could see the enemy charge get ever closer to the front line, they had already reached our first line of landmines, they did little to stop any of the hundreds of Heavies included. Something warm was getting into my eyes, making it difficult to see.
“...You heard me Tolstoj... Get them safe.” I spoke into the mic as the worried Alicia ran over to try to help me.
A few seconds later a response came through the comms.
“...Sir yes sir…” and soon after I could hear him begin guiding them out.
“...Heh..” Slightly chuckling to myself and thinking: ‘I just might make a soldier out of that one yet’ ….I lost consciousness.
…
..
.
..
…
….
‘Stand at ready and wait for orders.’
“As you can see, ever since we isolated the common factor between sample 42 and the late success of sample 225, we have managed to increase the odds of success tremendously, we are running at near 80% success rate. These 150 military units are all fully programmed and ready to serve,”
*Gestures at our even-lined formation*
“With the advancements we have made with integrating flesh and technology together we could pursue marvelous inventions! Bio-computers! Self healing structures!-
“Yes, I am perfectly aware of their specs and the continuation plans you have presented. I have just one question… why do they all have cyan eyes?”
"...Well, we have been keeping it as a sort of a symbolic insider joke, that our weapons are the “flames” of our military-flag." He gestured at the military flag that is placed towards the far end of the hall next to the national flag.
A black flag with a red flower, burning in cyan flames.
The national flag Is white with a red flower growing on a cyan stalk with cyan leaves.
"Now more importantly, with additional fundi-”
“-Yes yes. Funding is tight. Isn’t it always? I am more than sure you will manage. Much more importantly, I wish to see how well they work in practice. Pick your best 3, and we will put them into active service. It is time to see how well these…”Weapons” of yours can integrate into a real military, if they do well. We will revisit your funding.”
“...Yes, sir Redwood…”
.
..
…
….
…..I place the pack full of clothing from the depot into the storage-closet.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
“Hey! You aren't gonna unpack them in your locker? Just gonna leave em in the sack? *Sigh* This is why you men are oh so hopeless~.”
A brightly smiling well-muscled girl said from the adjacent bunk. She got up and walked over to me.
“We were assigned to work together, so it seems we will be stuck together for the time being!” She slapped my back…
“The name is Lily! What’s yours?”
…”Name?”...I take a look at a nearby mirror. In it I see myself. A smooth skin and cyan eyes. With my lab designation tattoo still visible. R42 MU2 ….
“...I am-”
…
..
.
..
…
….
“-Rasmus? Are you there?”
…Ugh… My head hurts…
Groggily I open my eyes to look around. We are in a cave… Alicia is next to me, wrapping something around my head.
“Dont move... You cracked your skull” she said… Ah I see, that's why I blacked out… Hah, my Walker could take the impact but I couldn’t
“Umm… ...Do you remember your name?... How many fingers am I holding?” She asked with 4 fingers up, looking at her face she seemed pale and her eyes were slightly red.
“...Don't worry Alicia, I am alright. 4 fingers.” I responded, trying to muster a reassuring smile.
“….Thank goodness!” Alicia said as she gave me one of her deathly dive hugs.
…’Thank god I don’t have a stomach wound’ I thought as I slowly patted her head…
“...How long was I out… Where are we? ” I finally asked after letting her calm down a bit.
“You were hit by the bombardment, I think you were out only for an hour or two, I wasn’t sure what to do so I dragged you out of your Walker and brought you to a nearby bunker, the entranceway collapsed and I was really quiet so I think they missed us… I was so worried...” She said as she kept hugging me.
“…It’s alright. You did good, do you know what happened to the others?” I asked.
She only shook her head a little.
Well, if Tolstoj is any good as an LT they just might be alive.
“...We have to get moving” I said, as I started to get up.
“...But your head…”
“I am fine,”
“But…”
“Alicia.” I took alicia by the shoulders and made her look at me. “I am fine.”
She finally gave a small nod, to which I added.
“And besides. If I wasn't, I am sure you will take care of me. That's what fellow squadmates do right?” I said, giving my best attempts at a smile.
She smiled brightly and nodded.
I continued. “It’s the same with this. They belong to my squad. We can't leave them behind.”
….
WHAT?
…
WHY ARE YOU SUPRISED!?
Is it so weird that I wish to make sure my squad is alright!?
Eh? ‘Didn't you kill one of them before?’ he wasn’t a member, he was a dissident. A broken weapon.
The least we owe to our fellow Weapon is to make sure to take care of them.
...
…Fine. I want them to feel like they owe me and start relying on me more. Perhaps I can get some of them to stay under my command when this is all over…
… Shut it.
“...Ok ...how do we get out?” Alicia asked.
I look around as I get up, spotting one of the installed gun emplacements of the turret.
Walking over (carefully, getting up made me feel a bit woozy…) I said “Help me open the bolts on this.”
Soon, we climbed out of the bunker and back in the open.
What was once a beautiful defence line was now a sea of carnage. Half eaten corpses, craters across the fields, torn open Walkers and huge flesh-horror looking Old Beast corpses. Just as eaten as the human corpses.
There is a certain… uniqueness to experiencing a battlefield where the Old Beasts punched through.. A strange smell-mixture of early-decomposing flesh, the smell of plasma and gunpowder still in the air and that unique smell of stomach acid that wafts off of the torn open stomach-bags left on the partially eaten corpses.
Honestly, it's no surprise the first thing Alicia did was puke her stomach empty.
After helping Alicia calm down and muster herself again, we searched through the vicinity. The Drone was still there, fine and pristine save for a few stray bullet holes and dirt blown into the air by the explosions. I suppose the Old Beasts didn't bother trying to break an empty Walker which is built by their eh… “friendlies” originally.
(...If a Drone is built by the same government as the Old Beasts… are Old Beasts and Drones siblings? That's a weird thought. Alicia inside my brother… wow, that is a weird thought… My head hurts… what was I on about again?)
After we found the Drone it was quite easy to locate Fea by using the Drone’s sensors. It was still there on the ground and mostly unhurt, save for a corpse of a Berserker that had fell on it. In a way we were quite lucky.
After using the drone to drag the Berserker’s corpse away, I got into Fea, I was going to let Alicia come along in her Drone but she refused. Demanding to come with me inside Fea’s cockpit to make sure my head won’t bleed.
...Slowly rising mutiny in the ranks?
...Nah.
After making sure the Drone is in cover, we took off.
Destination: X-34 Y-35. since It has not been long I am quite certain that the horde is still nearby. So I don't dare use the comms to try to contact my squad. The comms signal is too strong and would be picked up. Hence we march.
Honestly I was worried that they had moved on, I had not exactly gotten around to fostering loyalty yet after all. But when we reached within viewing distance of the regroup location. There they waited.
‘I really might just make a soldier out of that Tolstoj yet’. I thought in my mind, as I traversed to their camp.
As I slowly reached closer to the camp I could see Tolstoj argue with someone else from the squad outside their walkers, half of them were outside their walkers at the time. But as soon as they noticed us they broke up their argument and scrambled to their walkers, meeting us midway.
“Sir! You survived!” the comms officer chimed through the comms.
“...Yeah, how many squad members did we lose?”
“ Elisah and Felix didn't make it out. Others are mostly fine, just a few bruises.” Tolstoj chimed in, so we are mostly on full force. Good… now I suppose it is time to get back to work...
“Ok, get ready to move. We have to reach the support camp. We have to check what happened to them.”
“Yes sir.” Hm, Tolstoj seems more obedient now. good...
Moving onwards towards the support camp in silence, a strange worry was nagging my mind, one that I couldn’t quite place until we reached it.
Burning temporary hangars. corpses of civilians in the streets.
Suddenly, something clicked in my mind, as I realized what the worry was.
Lee was in the camp, somewhere.
Searching the camp systemically, we found him.
He was sitting leaning on a doorway, a gun in his hand and bullet hole in his gut. There were 2 dead Lessers nearby.
He just weakly smiled towards me.
A single thought resounded in my mind.
‘…No…’