Chapter 12
The Georgian summer sun rose to it’s apex, golden rays illuminating Savage Companies' gun emplacements, and slowly melting away the low bank of mist that shrouded the forest on the Alabama side of the Chattahoochee River.
'Somewhere out there the Captain is slinking through the trees, eliminating enemy scouts and slitting throats' SFC Ming thought.
The captain had passed along that they were clear to engage anything trying to cross the river, and third platoon had gotten to their position just in time for the sun to reach it’s apex. Any moment elves, or their newly discovered allies would appear on the other side of the river, and Savage Company would give them a nasty surprise of the best kind. Overlapping fields of automatic high caliber rifle fire, plenty of high explosives, and a healthy dose of artillery and mortar support.
The Chinese national had finally gotten the go ahead to engage the enemy in hand to hand combat if anything made it across the river, and she gripped the hilt of the ancient straight sword that’d been passed down for generations in her family in anticipation.
The class she’d received had been almost perfect for her, and she was glad she’d convinced her father to part with the family sword. [Swordswoman] seemed like it’d been made for her, but one of her abilities turned out to be a slight divergence from the base class Abilities.
[Heirloom weapon mastery] give her a slight buff while using a weapon that’d belonged to at least three generations of her family. Based on the numbers, Ming figured the stories were true, and the weapon actually had been passed down since the great dynasties era of Chinese history.
Ming was the youngest of 4, her Parents having been devout converts to the ideals the CCP preached after the Pacific Unification War. Large families could provide the party with soldiers, and were something to be celebrated. It didn’t help Jennet connect with her grandparents, who were products of the “one child” era of communism, and that started a down hill cycle of self doubt.
Jennet had finally found purpose by joining the military. The PLA had welcomed her with open arms, promising to make her a warrior, so she could bring honor and prestige back to her family and her country.
And make her a warrior they did. She’d trained in several kinds of martial arts, almost every weapons system she could get her hands on, and she’d even grown to like the full gear ruck marches that were a typical part of soldier life, if only for the opportunity to overcome the challenge.
The only problem was that the PLA hadn’t been able to provide anything for her to fight against. China was busy nursing it’s wounds, taking the same defensive stance that the US had, reinforcing bases and developing new tech rather than pushing to reclaim lost territory.
Project Iron Man had been SFC Jennet Ming’s sole chance at proving her life was worth living. A top secret program that promised it’s pilot trainees a spot on some future battlefield, Ming had pulled every string she could reach to get transferred. When the project had culminated with a completely unexpected transfer to US Army Command, she’d nearly called it quits via toaster bath.
The grainy footage of men and women pulling off incredible feats during the returnee briefing had turned things around. Things started to click into place as she realized why she’d been transferred to the US, and she studied the various tower monsters with almost the same determination she’d had when learning to throw a proper punch.
If anyone could help the captain on his single man mission to eliminate the enemy, it was her, and she wouldn’t let politics or sexism get in her way, any more than it had previously. This was her chance to prove that.
Jennet noticed movement at the top of the hill to her immediate right as she came out of her revere. SFC Jose Flores, call sign Savage 1 was probably the other platoon leader she knew the least about. Rumor had it that Jose had followed first sergeant Cabral from some special forces group or another, and while Ming had trouble understanding the American’s complicated NCO ranking system, Flores obviously knew his way around a battlefield.
The man was about Jennet’s size, so short for an american. While they shared the same hazel coloration, the shape of their eyes was perhaps their most contrasting feature. At least if you discounted skin color.
Jose’s senses picked up on the attention, and he turned toward SFC Jennet, waving in greeting. She nodded in return, briefly wondering how cute their babies would be before focusing back on the objective. A modernized HUMMWV sped down the road toward the position her group of melee QRF had been assigned to stage out of.
First Sargent Cabral stepped out of the vehicle, and it sped back the way it’d come. The first Sargent wore an archaic looking slicked up plate carrier, a battle belt hosting more magazines than Jennet had ever seen one man carry, and an absolutely battle worn SOPMOD 2 M-4 rifle.
Pointing, she asked “didn’t the US quit using that rifle way back in the 2020’s? What are you doing with that relic? I almost didn’t recognize it.”
The powerfully built man just shrugged and nodded, eyes locking on the opposite bank of the river.
“If I’m not careful, you’re going to give my family's sword a run for it’s money.” She joked.
The First Sargent snorted and then responded “This was my father’s rifle before he passed it to me. It's likely responsible for killing more of your countrymen during the Pacific Unification War that either of us can comprehend accurately. If it was good enough for him, it’s good enough for me, no offense. And the elves can learn to fear it as much as any other weapon system we’re rocking. The M-2 machine gun designs are even older you know.”
That certainly stung her a bit, and Jennet had to calm down somewhat before she could trust herself to carry on the conversation.
“I didn’t mean to insult your choice of weapon. Even I have heard some of the stories about you. I respect your warrior spirit. What class did you end up with?” she acknowledged.
In response the First Sargent made a few sweeping gestures in the air, and a system box appeared in front of her.
First Sargent Dirk Cabral would like to share portions of his character sheet.
Accept?
[Yes / No]
“I wasn’t even aware you could share things like this.” Ming replied, mentally selecting “Yes”.
Another system box appeared before her eyes, and she briefly wondered if now was really the best time to be doing this, but nobody had spotted anything yet, otherwise the would be hearing the consistent ‘pop-pop-pop’ of nearby gunfire.
Aggregate Stats
HP: 373
Stamina: 120
Mana: 108
Vitality: 21
Resistance: 37
Soul Storage
Skill Tokens (1)
Gear Tokens(1)
Attribute Points
Upgrade Points
Currency ($1.2M USD)
($50 USC)
Other
SKILLS
ABILITIES
SPELLS
Stealth (I)
High Speed, Low Drag
Intimidating Presence
Mental Fortitude (I)
As Above, So Below
Bullet Hell
Weapons Mastery (II)
Secure the Objective
Tactical Mastery (I)
Ming noticed two things almost immediately. Cabral had money, and he had almost double the skills, abilities, and spell that she had. Something seemed off with his aggregate stats as well. They were somewhat higher than her own, but not enough to account for additional levels. She decided to review her own character sheet quickly for reference.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Attribute
Score
Modifiers
Strength
7
+1
Dexterity
6
0
Constitution
8
-1
Intelligence
7
+1
Wisdom
7
0
Charisma
7
+1
Luck
3
0
Aggregate Stats
HP: 224
Stamina: 63
Mana: 98
Vitality: 28
Resistance: 26
Soul Storage
Skill Tokens
Gear Tokens
Attribute Points
Upgrade Points
Currency ($5,000 USD)
($10 USC)
Other
SKILLS
ABILITIES
SPELLS
Swordsmanship (I)
Heirloom Weapon Mastery
Spectral Blade Storm
Footwork (I)
Class
Advanced Class
Mastery
Swordswoman
Levels
2
Class Features
Swordswoman
A student traveling the path of sword mastery who identifies as female
Something was for sure funny with the First Sargent’s stats assuming he was a level 2. Before Ming could consider it further, the sound she’d been waiting for erupted around her.
The absolutely wonderful sound of gunfire. Jennet quickly closed the system windows and trained her vision on the river. Mortar and Artillery shells began whistling their deadly trajectories as far off crews began ranging their guns. The far treeline exploded under the onslaught, turning trees into wood splinters traveling at high speed.
The enhancements from the system meant that most members of Savage company could shrug off the wounds they might receive from flying bits of wood, and command wasn’t planning on secondary kills from the wood. Hopefully the opposition would still be wounded from metal fragments, but the river provided enough distance to shield Savage company from that. Besides, the main idea was to trap the enemy by laying down a heavy barrage behind their back line, forcing the elves to advance into the machine gun fire.
The realities of war were often more brutal that most cared to admit, and Jennet almost felt sorry for the invaders. They had no chance now that Captain Williams had discovered their reinforcements and provided grid coordinates for the artillery teams.
Suddenly a group of silver clad figures emerged on the far side of the river, now that the artillery had shifted much further away. The nearby M-2 machine gun, lovingly referred to as the ‘Ma Deuce’ sent a steady stream of .50 BAR rounds to chew into the enemy line, and the figures went down, some spurting bright red blood into the air, others seemingly disappearing in a pink haze.
It wouldn’t be that simple though, as more silvery figures charged into view, some shrugging off the high energy rounds. It looked like Ming would get to use her sword after all.
*******
Specialist Justin Wallace did his best to ignore the thoughts trying to intrude on his focus. ‘Can’t worry about that now’ he reminded himself, shrugging off the feeling of impending danger. Justin’s pilot training had been going well, but there were only so many exo-mecha, so he’d ended up on the firing line with the rest of 3rd Platoon.
As soon as the silvery figures had appeared in the distance, he’d had to focus almost as much on his mindset as he did on his shooting fundamentals. As the fight progressed, he found it easier to focus on the fight. That changed when some of the elves made it across the river. Fortunately the international transfer, SFC Ming, who led second platoon was there to meet them, engaging the elvan warriors in extreme CQB.
He knew that ultimately she was responsible for his survival, but he hadn’t quite decided how he felt about that. He was glad to be alive, but a lot of the men and women he knew had died that day, and he wasn’t sure he deserved to be the one to survive.
Justin’s squad sergeant, who he hardly knew, tapped his shoulder.
“I need you to get your head in the game Justin. You need to be manning your sector of fire, or the enemy might recognize this as a weak sector and make a concerted push. I need you to be honest with me, can you do that, or do I need to get someone else in to pull the trigger?” The man asked.
Justin felt his face get a bit red before he responded. “I’ve got this sar’nt. I won’t let the team down.”
As soon as the NCO backed away, Justin re-focused on the sight picture through the optic on his M7 rifle and got back to shooting the enemy. If there was one thing he had in common with the other members of Savage Company, it was his hatred of the enemy.
After a few minutes, a system message appeared in his vision, and he somehow managed to read the damn thing and keep shooting at the same time.
You’ve Leveled Up!
Congratulations!
You are now a level 2 [Gunsworn Guard].
You’ve gained a new skill [Gunslinger (I)]
You’ve Gained a new ability [Focus on the Fight]
Justin instinctively knew the new ability was what allowed him to keep going while the blue box filled his view. He quickly closed the notification, hoping his accuracy hadn’t slipped.
Half an hour later, another message popped up, this one fairly similar.
You’ve Leveled Up!
Congratulations!
You are now a level 3 [Gunsworn Guard].
Note: Don’t forget to spend your [Attribute Points]
The damn system almost seemed like it wanted him to miss, constantly shoving notification in front him. Somehow the thing probably hadn’t been designed by an experienced warfighter. Probably a bunch of egg heads in some lab thousands of years ago, on a planet so far away the light from earth’s sun had only just reached it, if the briefing videos were to be believed.
Another window popped up, but somehow Justin was able to ignore it. Level 4 had brought the mastery necessary to focus on the battle. Something tickled the edge of his memory about that, but it was just out of remembering, and he didn’t dare let his focus slip. Not when he’d finally managed to banish the dark thoughts and finally pull his own weight.
The enemy advance was finally starting to slow, corpses laying where they’d fallen on both sides of the riverbank. Justin was fairly sure none of them were human, as the order to shift fire had come every time Ming brought her melee fighters through his area, and he hadn’t seen any of them go down.
Just as the last couple elves went down under the slowing fire from Savage Company, another system box filled his view, this one he couldn’t avoid focusing on. As he read the message, a cold feeling gripped his gut and he remembered the orders about getting close to level 5.
Level 5 Attained!
You have built up a pool of unspent Attribute Points allowing you to have the max base number for your race. Unspent Attribute Points will be randomly assigned!
Your species' natural urge to mate and pass on your DNA has been activated.
Your Body has become overloaded with (Life) energy!
For the next 24 hours you will experience a significantly enhanced sex drive.
Quest Chain Awarded: Dual Cultivation!
Seek out a suitable partner within the next 24 hours and practice dual cultivation, exchanging your Yang for their Yin. Alternatively erect a containment barrier around your Yang core.
Warning: Failure to complete this quest will result in death.
Rewards: [system initiates guidebook], Access to system shop
Possible additional rewards: [Yang core] [dual cultivators bond] +1 level, offspring
Countdown timer [23:32:47]