Chapter 51
Specialist Justin Wallace walked forward, piloting his upgraded exo-mecha with the others, following Lieutenant Soto’s lead. One of the most advanced weapons humanity had invented, maneuvered their way through the forest, intent on positioning themselves for maximum effect.
The plan was to have the two tank companies roll up on the main gate and attack there, creating a bit of a diversion while the exo-mecha pilots and infantry flanked from the southwest If needed the tanks could retreat a bit, but the exo-mecha pilots had to hold the line, at least long enough for the infantry teams to go in and lay explosives in certain key areas and buildings.
The idea of having to hold so much open ground against anything the system-enhanced elves could throw at them was a bit ludicrous, but that’s what the mission called for. As he marched through the forest, he wondered about SFC Ming.
It seemed the Chinese national was somewhat more of a decent person than Justin had expected, going so far as to Joke with him and some of the other lower enlisted now that the ice had been broken a little.
Most of the foreign service people that’d joined Savage Company as part of the Iron Man Project were stand-up soldiers, just as capable as the Americans he was familiar with, but they hadn’t really figured out the culture of American service members, either because they had no interest, or because they had no idea how to start interacting.
That wasn’t the case for Ming. She seemed comfortable with Justin and the others, which was probably why Captain Williams and First Sergeant Cabral had entrusted her to lead a platoon as its senior NCO with very little oversight.
All that having been said, Justin found himself slightly attracted to her as a person. He wondered if someday the situations she’d described might happen. If the world weren’t falling apart, where would he take her on a date? Or would they have ever met if not for the Iron Man Project and Savage Company?
Justin quickly rolled these thoughts in, focusing again on the surroundings. Word was that SSG Davis and 1SG Cabral had both gone missing near the base and to keep an eye out for enemy patrols.
In preemptive response to the general fuckery the ice elves had shown before, Justin triggered his new [Cybernetic Hardpoint Skill Tracker], but nothing showed up. Apparently, he was the only one using any kind of system abilities or spells. But wasn’t that a good thing?
Justin decided to leave the skill running. By his best estimation, it only drew slightly more stamina than he regenerated currently, and if he caught something happening in time to warn the others, it’d be stamina well spent. If the elves didn’t pull anything, it’d be mana wasted, but the possibility they didn’t try any tricks was probably next to nil.
Justin bounded forward, finding himself close to Lieutenant Soto, and he made an expansive ‘lead the way’ gesture to her, before following behind. Soon they were nearing the edge of the base, an area likely to be heavily patrolled. Justin and the other pilots fanned out across a 2-mile line, maintaining eye contact with each other through the suit’s optics, but staying between trees so that any prying elvan eyes were unlikely to notice the distinctive metal frames.
Lyndis waited for the infantry to join them, and take up positions to cut through the outer chain link fence that surrounded the base. Of course, the fence was more a formality, as there were all kinds of other sensors that would have alerted any human forces in the area to the detachment’s presence, but since they had maps of these sensors, and specialists who knew how to disable them, the elves should be blind to their presence.
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When everyone was in position, Lyndis sent a comms transmission to the tanks, letting them know everything was ready. “All units this net, this is Savage 6 actual. Commence operation spork. I say again, commence operation spork.” Justin’s radio crackled with the XO’s now vaguely familiar voice.
The Commanders' council had decided to name the operation “spork” in the hopes that it would utterly confuse any elves that might be listening. As operation names went, Justin hoped this one didn’t go down in the history books, or he might not be able to deal with the humiliation.
Instead of thinking about future accolades and the possible embarrassment involved, Justin watched as the infantry quickly cut through the links of fence. They’d debated simply stepping on it with a mecha, or using explosives, but it was decided that they would be trying to retake the base, at least at the outset, and would cut the fence so it could be repaired in the future if needed.
As soon as the two teams of cutters finished their task, other soldiers moved forward, taking the section of fencing and laying it down to one side of the still intact fence. The rest of the infantry began pouring through the cleared section and onto the base.
In the distance, Justin could just make out the sounds of tank rounds impacting. He hoped the elves were sufficiently distracted. The area they were making their entry into was basically a nature preserve and a shooting range, so it wasn’t likely to get much traffic, even if the base’s occupants had been human, but it never hurt to be extra sure.
Justin’s vision filled with a system notification, alerting him that his makeshift detection skill had picked up something.
Congrats!
Due to an ability you are channeling, you have detected an enemy you otherwise wouldn’t be able to see.
Justin’s eyes flicked over the message before he closed the message and scanned his field of view. There, in a tree, some kind of bird-hybrid monster.
“Stealth monster to the right, I’ll light 'em up” Justin whispered over his external speaker.
He triggered the golden ammunition from his class, hoping to deal additional damage without needing to trigger an actual ability or spell. He wasn’t entirely sure what the weapon designation was for his system-enhanced exo-mecha, but the promise that it would scale up to level 25 with him had been more than enough to justify the cost in his mind.
Spectral golden rounds shredded the tree the monster had been punched in, and the thing’s stealth ability must have been defeated because some infantry fired on the creature. Justin took a moment to analyze exactly what he was seeing.
The thing seemed to mostly be an extremely oversized Robin, with red breast feathers, and brown-gray wings. The differences were mainly in the size and in the bird’s lower half. Instead of clawed bird feet, the creature bore a pair of semi-humanoid arms covered in fur, probably from some kind of monkey. The arms ended in humanoid hands with a bare skin palm, and 4 fingers plus an opposable thumb. Below the bird’s tail feathers, a similarly simian prehensile tail had been wrapped around a tree branch, helping to keep the monster in place.
Justin triggered another burst of gunfire, tracing across the creature as it attempted to take flight, and focusing rounds into the wings, hoping to snap bone or break feathers, hampering its ability to fly. He couldn’t take the unnecessary risk of the bird somehow alerting other enemy forces in the area.
However, Justin and the infantry soldiers with him were in for a surprise. The bird’s form blurred slightly, splitting and shrinking into two man-sized animals, a robin and a monkey. Then the animals blurred again, and two identical copies of an older elf man wearing a leather tunic and carrying a staff adorned with various animal teeth and other animalistic fetishes stood before them.
“I am Ventius, the twinned druid, a level 20 member of the Frozen Legion. I will not allow you humans to pass this point!” The copies’ voices warned in tandem.
Justin responded by triggering a blast of gunfire, sweeping the gun across both targets. However no damage seemed to be done, and the twin images laughed.
“You have much to learn about fighting the living forests it seems. Let me educate you. The cost of the lesson will be your death!” The images’ voices echoed out.