Battle For The Centralized Parliament (1)

“The artillery isn't to give cover, they're just to kill each other.” The officer said. Phesx Caolia looked at him with trepidation building inside him. If only he didn't have a pin, and Maria reminding him of its worth every day at night. The staff sergeant ignored him, not noticing Phesx's state, and continued, “Our platoon will act like a spearhead, but thousands will be behind us. It will be like a curtain, we'll just 'pull it' until we can safely run forward.”

“That’s a long kilometer,” Phesx Caolia commented. The officer remained silent before sighing, “Sigh, indeed, it is.”

“Prequa’s 2 towers are very useless, but the preis have too many people. When we enter, we’ll ignore preqs and go after criminals and paramilitary groups. If you see preis distanced from others, kill on sight. Other preqs might not do that until we’ve driven the bastards out.”

“But no matter what, take advantage of every chance at eliminating prei.” The officer reminded Phesx. He lowered his head and caressed his submachine gun, while his rifle was on his back in his new military backpack. “I won’t hesitate, sir.”

“Mn, that’s nice.” The officer looked ahead with binoculars before facing Phesx Caolia, “In case I do die, bring everyone ahead. You’re allowed to flee into the tower if that happens. Just know you need to clear it out before anyone else. There are no friendlies inside, so be careful.”

“Yes, sir.” Phesx Caolia looked up at his superior and calmly reaffirmed. The officer nodded and squeezed his left shoulder for a moment. “Every prona will go after the territory inside the parliament. Our jobs are to help until we can go through a quick path to the other towers. Ignore preis after driving the scum and fanatics out. Go after the southeastern tower first.”

“And then, sir?” Phesx Caolia asked, frowning a little… but also feeling… excited? The officer blew air out of his mouth and looked at the sky, “Survive.”

“…” Phesx Caolia’s eyes contents shook a little. He faced the Centralized Parliament, the tallest structure in Preut with a superficial height of nearly 400 meters. There was only 1 floor, the main floor, and some underground compartments. Although it was lavish and unnecessary at best, it was a resilient, lasting structure from its foundation’s construction.

It isn’t just the center of Preut, but like a third symbol, and dedicated to its people, it is the house of the ruling hand, previously hands, in Preut. It was necessary to declare a ‘winner’.

The sky turned even grayer, with the light rain starting to pour a little faster, and the amount of water entering the ground also increased. But no more delays could be made. Phesx Caolia and the officer walked back to the platoon, which the officer left to Phesx Caolia before going elsewhere to meet his equals.

Phesx walked by the other squads, the 2 sections, before arriving where Maria’s squad was waiting, practically ignoring the rest while looking down. His submachine was held in his hands because he wanted to bring Paul with him to the battle he could never accompany and protect him in. And because inside the parliament there are no lights, and night vision en masse was impossible.

“You already know?” Phesx Caolia asked the squad after he closed in on them. They looked at him as if expecting something. They were all the people he trained with during these days, and who didn’t treat him like a child, but just another fella who might die beside them. However…

Now that the time has come to enter a sure-death location, where they could only rely on their very own people, as it is with the other military camps, a connection was brewing.

These 6 people in the squad were his mates. Maria was the leader, and he was the newbie. The other 6 were all quite something in the platoon, just as is Maria, the ‘strongest soldier’, in the platoon. Only such a highly esteemed squad is fitting of her, and Phesx liked to think of that of himself, too.

Gustavo, Maria’s second-in-command in the squad. A white young man, with short, curly brown hair, honey brown eyes, and tall. He was very bulky, but still somewhat agile. He was quite a rigid soldier, but only when ‘in service’. When relaxing, he was just another pal the squad wouldn’t want to do without.

Jonathan, a somewhat short, brown young man with curly black hair and small black eyes. He was a little overweight, and his status in the squad was a brick that relaxed the atmosphere. With those like Maria and Gustavo around, he was pretty chill, and very easygoing.

Ulises, a very tall, young man with light brown skin whose body was thin, but also very efficient overall. An allrounder in the squad. He has very short black hair and small eyes. A ‘dude’ who is very ordinary, and most of the time, the source of laughter around their bonfires.

Edwin, the young fella who is the cruelest whenever there was training or sparring at melee with other squads or teams, but the most energetic in the squad. He is dark brown, with small pitch-black eyes and a very thin afro. He has a regular height, which let his sparring partners suffer the most at the start of each bout.

Then, there was Diego, the indispensable technician, who was as valuable as Adams.

Lastly, it was Karla. She was a very precious member in the squad, but overall, she was known as the precious ‘little’ gem in the platoon. A young woman with pale, tender white skin. She’s very tall, with raven long black hair and large eyes of the same.

Even with Phesx, an outsider and a newbie, she was dorky adorable, the fucker. Furthermore, she lectured him lots when he obviously failed to utilize his body’s natural disposition towards agility and reaction. While she isn’t too fast, she’s super agile that she and Maria often compete to improve with each other.

Of course, after training the monster, the monster surpassed them. Now, the top agile soldier was no longer Karla. Yet, everyone protects her, although she is quite decisive and quick to enter or initiate a brawl from an adverse person… or people.

Once, someone tried to hit her up in the canteen, when she landed an upper punch on someone’s jaw before Edwin could even stand up from his seat with his typical, cruel frown. The entire squad summed up and had a moment with another squad, where even Phesx joined in out of instinct.

Nothing went overboard, but the other squad’s platoon leader arrived and demanded apologies from Karla, and that’ll be it. No trouble would be allowed to continue when the battle was so close. Yet, that’s when the staff sergeant arrived and dueled the other officer.

In the end, bloody from their noses, the staff sergeant forced the other officer to surrender. Thus, gaining the ‘gem troop’ more recognition.

“Hey, Phesx.” Edwin stood between the 6. “You have that pin, and we respect that. But you better listen to mommy Maria if you know what’s good for you, eh?”

“Hahaha…” - “Kekeke…” The squad laughed it off. Phesx Caolia inadvertently smirked from his mouth’s corners before Maria, who was behind Edwin, placed her left hand on his right shoulder. Edwin stepped to the side and let her walk out. Maria stood before Phesx before extending her right hand. They looked at each other’s eyes within reason.

“Don’t care about the pin, now or later. I’ll be there to aid you in case you need help. There’s no relieving here before death, understood? And you may be the platoon’s second-in-command, but you’re my soldier. Let’s work together, private.” Maria offered.

Phesx Caolia blinked and slightly smiled before lifting his right hand, “It’s… it will be an honor to cooperate. With you all.”

“Good. Because now, you have other people to shake hands with. Hurry it up, you only got a few minutes,” Maria coolly said before walking off. Phesx Caolia couldn’t help looking at her back, baffled, before looking at the ground. He shook his head and looked up, mentally preparing.

‘Uoogh…’ However, Phesx Caolia stared at the squad only to realize the rest of the platoon walked over and stood side by side with them. Their faces were obvious, including those of his squad. He was the platoon’s second-in-command, nothing less.

Feeling the pressure now, pretty heavy. Phesx Caolia got to work. He was glad he wore thick gauntlets, requesting them to the administration as soon as Maria let him into her new squad.

… A few minutes later, the officer returned and put them into position, with the section Phesx is in behind his. Maria’s squad was also the first in line after the 1st section, letting the rest know shit was getting real, making their scalp numb and heads cold.

“Advance!” The staff sergeant shouted. The 20 people marched forth, with the squad leaders gave their soldiers a glare or nod before jogging forward. The 2nd section almost immediately acted after his order, following about 4 meters behind them.

When the 3rd section’s footsteps rang in Phesx’s ears, the ground trembled as the whole army of dozens of thousands of soldiers marched forth. The military vehicles carried those artillery guns forth, moving just 300 meters before the ‘hooks’ that was every force with the best equipment below the special forces’, and modern weapons, mostly.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Phesx Caolia walked beside Maria and Gustavo, while Karla was protected by 2 at her sides and the rest of the section behind her. After a few seconds, the marching speed became faster, and the sound of the army moving forward louder.

If he looked behind, he’d see everyone move, or the strange effect of nobody moving, as they were all at the same pace, more or less. Even the helicopters above, from either side, could see the armies move forwards like waves, fluctuating in speed and pacing between each other. The hooks at the front of Prona’s side also begun receiving shelling.

But Phesx Caolia couldn’t look behind, not unless they were in immediate danger. Either way, if he did and lost his cool, he’d become useless. However, not looking back and feeling the tremor of the earth cost him some sanity. He wondered what it looked like, and what he would also look like from the sky, or in front of everyone else.

‘March, just go forward.’ Phesx Caolia breathed in and out before beginning to run slightly. His submachine swung side to side as he kept his pace and velocity, matching Maria and Gustavo. Then, looking at the sides, he saw the other military camps moving onwards to the towers.

They were the only ones with such a tactic. The others simply moved forth with their sub-sub units, or subunits. Meanwhile, criminal scum and paramilitary groups were quite disorganized. Prona was the only one with ‘hooks’ pulling the mantles of green military uniforms and vehicles.

“Incoming!” PUM!

“!” Phesx Caolia’s light black eyes expanded, and its contents insanely constricted when an artillery shell exploded just 100 meters before the staff sergeant. His sensitivity immediately enhanced, with his eyes able to see the other sides’ soldier faces, and his ears stunned at the explosion. He barely broke away from a ‘lock’, impeding his body from stopping moving.

Maria checked on him before staring ahead, satisfied. Meanwhile, Phesx Caolia returned to observe and hear the world as usual, only enhanced, after the second artillery shell dropped farther to the right.

PUM, PUM, PUM, PUM~!

Dirty clouds of grass and pebbles flew into the air, making a slightly powerful shockwave around the epicenter, with dangerous shrapnel and stones flying a few meters outwards. Seeing it from so up-close, Phesx Caolia felt the danger, alright.

Although he was trained not to, Phesx looked up, trying to identify the fired shells and calculate their trajectory. He could see barely visible, blurry black-brown ‘pigeons’ sharply cut the air several hundred meters away and dozens of meters in the sky. After seeing many, careful to follow silent instructions, Phesx Caolia frowned.

He confirmed his sight again before looking down, searching the officer’s back. Seeing him move to the left, trying to detour a wide elevation on the plains, Phesx flashed his eyes upwards before frowning even harder.

“Sir, move away from there! The shells are going exactly in that direction!!” Phesx Caolia pressed his helmet’s left ear area to communicate to the staff sergeant. However, he was loud enough to be heard by the squad, who looked at him, wordless.

“We’re already moving away from shelling zones! Keep moving!!” The officer responded, very loudly. Thankfully, this uniform model at least had audio leveling, or they both would’ve deafened each other with such audio quality.

‘There’s still more than 400 meters for safety…’ Phesx Caolia thought, looking at the tower ahead before looking at the ground. Whether he was right or wrong depended on his tough luck. He insisted, “Sir, it’s not enough time for the others. Our mantle will suffer many attacks-”

“Shut up and follow! This isn’t a table to debate! You wouldn’t even get inside a room with that in your entire fucking life! Follow me, soldier!!” The officer shouted back, more than clearly wanting to expose Phesx Caolia’s real rank and authority.

“…” Running forwards, sweating a little at last, Phesx looked at Maria, who was already looking at him. Without making the visor transparent, he wordlessly begged her to let him lead. Maria looked at him for a few seconds before looking ahead, slowing down just enough so he was half a step further ahead. The manipulation of one’s body to do this without losing pace was shown on her.

Looking at Gustavo, who nodded at him, Phesx Caolia felt his chest sunk a little as he moved to the right, slowly but surely. The mantle changed directions, gaining a few commanders’ heads to rotate from the rear, and other hooks to frown. What in the fuck…?

“What the FUCK do you think you’re doing? You little traitorous shit-” The officer noticed this, of course. One of his section’s soldier realized their mantle had separated from them, the spearhead. The reason was the second section, of which someone who shouldn’t lead was leading. Before even addressing the mantle’s leading officers, he shouted to the top of his lungs in Phesx Caolia’s helmet.

Even then, a small, thin fraction of the left flank of the mantle followed the staff sergeant’s hook, while the rest blindly followed Phesx Caolia’s intervention.

Before the officer could continue screaming the life out of himself towards Hellcat, from the sky, several whistling sounds sounded for 2 short seconds like the longest projectiles in the world before falling down.

PUM PUM PUM PUM PUM PUM PUM PUM…!!

The officer’s section was engulfed in who knew how many shells, along with the fraction of the left flank, slaughtered in under a few moments by Prequa shelling. However, they were only at the climax of the preemptively prepared bombardment zone.

“Aaaah!” - “Hold! Fast!” - “What the fuck are we walking into?!” - “Shit! They got Salinas’s platoon!” - “That's another troop!”

Soldiers behind Phesx Caolia’s platoon, and further to the back of the mantle, screamed and hollered as they ran away, trying to keep their pace that inevitably slowed down.

The left flank of what Phesx Caolia led was still reached by the shelling. Dirt and grass flew everywhere, with some projectiles flying off the ground towards those charging onwards outside the perimeter. The intense bombarding spread into their ranks, taking away lives and slowing them, but the soldiers still moved forward.

However, of the dozens of shells that reached the mantle, just 2 of them managed to mow more than 100 soldiers down. Who knew how many shells were too close to the mantle? Even the current spearhead was bathed in dirt and nearly stopped, with a wave of dirt rushing at them.

This image, no matter from which angle it was looked upon, was very ugly. After exiting the bombarded zone and continuing ahead, Phesx Caolia didn’t think twice before moving to the left in a semicircle, immediate turn. They gained speed, and so did the alerted mantle.

Maria took her spot back, but Phesx still looked up to confirm. When he did, he sweated coldly, feeling his feet warm. Then, he looked where the bombardment occurred, with smoke everywhere. His eyes were madly focused, nearly reddening.

‘If I didn’t… just a bit late… even I would’ve been reached…’ Phesx Caolia coldly sweat more, shivering from deep inside before the next shelling fell 200 meters straight to their right, where the mantle would have been led to if he hadn’t rapidly turned left after the bombardment.

PUM PUM PUM PUM PUM PUM PUM…!!

As the second bombardment reached them, the mantle that had just begun recovering was surprised with more shelling. A couple battalions momentarily stopped before following the wide path left behind by the spearhead, and the in between the first bombardment and the new one.

“Sir, what do we do?! It’s too many bombardments! We’ll get killed for sure at this point-” Leading officers felt their scalps numbing to the point of not even feeling them anymore. Calling to their commanders, the latter responded simply. “Follow your spearhead! If you’re not sure, just go after them! Leave your mantle behind!”

After Phesx Caolia’s mantle’s second bombardment, of which the soldiers followed his path to the letter, with some subunits even stopping and controlling the situation to let the rest go through in a thinner path between bombardment zones. The rest of the prona mantles were targeted by both the preis and preqs’ artillery.

Without much choice, unable to deal with such matters out of their hands, unless they were gods or devils, the commanders ordered some of their soldiers to follow ‘that’ mantle. Others gave as much good advice as they could, but they had nothing to read the enemy’s aiming, other than patterns. But by now, hundreds had fallen from each mantle…

“Only 30 seconds ahead! Lead the path, sir!” Maria shouted after the second bombardment nearly finished, and their mantle further closed in onto the tower. Phesx Caolia gulped down. This time, he did not want to look back, nor did he dare to.

“Soldiers to the-” Phesx Caolia opened his mouth, ordering with gasping breaths, not out of tiredness, though. But Maria berated him, “To the mantle, sir! Not me!”

“…” Phesx Caolia side wide-eyed his little playmate lover before communicating with the leading officers, whose ranks vastly surpassed his even in the encampment. He ordered, sounding equivocally breathless, “Mantle onwards! Secure a wide area and wait, quiet, before the tower is cleared! Assault forces, to the tower! Follow me!”

“…” Maria looked at him as they headed into the tower, while the rest of the mantle was to move into the Centralized Parliament’s entrance at the corner near the tower. Looking at the sight of nigh instantaneous death, she wondered. ‘How did he do it… just how?’

…SLAM!

Phesx Caolia kicked the tower’s entrance door down, using the force he was taught to control, and was seconded by Maria and others in the squad, quickly stepping in. Phesx Caolia then entered with Gustavo and the rest of the squad behind them. The section followed after them.

His rifle up, Phesx rapidly advanced with his presence lowered before touching Maria’s shoulder. She moved her head towards him before nodding while still staring ahead, before loosening her body language. Phesx walked towards one of the rooms. Every floor was circular, with several rooms in each, and a reception desk in the middle.

Maria divided the squad into 3 to check them before other squads went further up to do the same. As the other assault forces went into the tower, going further up with Phesx Caolia’s instructions, and as he received their rapid reports, they went higher and higher to secure it from anyone’s hands or explosives.

Whenever he went a floor higher, Phesx Caolia looked outside the windows to check the influx of pronas into the parliament, receiving positive reports of not finding enemies immediately. Confirming they were quietly guarding and occupying more space in the pitch-black parliament, Phesx Caolia cleared the tower.

When he was on its highest floor, and he checked with the squads who cleared it, he was genuinely breathless and a little exhausted. Phesx checked with Maria before ordering the assault forces to move down. The other forces outside the tower, guarding it and scouting the possibility of an enemy trying to surround them, waited for them outside. Then, Phesx Caolia led them all into the Centralized Parliament.

Phesx Caolia moved towards the entrance, with the gates wide opened and several assault forces guarding them. They would be replaced by soldiers later on, but for now, the assault forces were working packed together. Phesx Caolia wasn’t the leader of the operation, but still in the mantle step, he was the figure they ought to listen to. Later on, they would go on their own to achieve their tasks however they wanted and could.

Going inside, walking abreast with Maria, with most assault forces following after him, Phesx Caolia’s light black eyes shone one last time before entering the black, life-empty, death-carving maze.

Maria tapped his shoulder after entering the darkness. They waited at the side of a hall to wait for their trained eyes to get used to the darkness. Once they had achieved it, Maria led them further inside, where they could rest as the heavy rain outside and the sound of artillery fired ad nauseam.

Sleeping and resting were part of the operation.

…