Battle For The Centralized Parliament (3)
BOOOOOM…!
“What the…?” Diego voiced, baffled. Everyone, not just the assault troop, or just pronas, but even those preis and preqs in conflict, looked in the southwest direction. Hellcat frowned the harder. His sensitive ear hurt a little, and his feet, even through his thick boots, felt the tremor throughout the floor.
“That sounded like a tank.” Maria spoke, walking to stand beside Hellcat. They looked into the same direction, as Hellcat couldn’t help wondering, “What kind?”
“The kind that Preut could have never acquired or built… modern.” Maria’s somber voice expressed her distress. Hellcat frowned a little before relaxing his light black eyes. Turning around, he walked to a group of scared refugees, mostly skinny and without clothes.
Hellcat grabbed a woman by the shoulder and half knelt after turning her around to check she didn’t have anything dangerous on her. The paramilitary groups could’ve given them clothes but didn’t and kept them like that, and some showed obvious signs of rape. Male or female. Nevertheless, the pronas weren’t giving them something to cover themselves, either.
“What have you seen around here?” Hellcat asked ‘impatiently’, slightly squeezing the refugee’s shoulder with Maria and Edwin standing behind him, looking down ‘indifferently’ through their helmets. The woman dryly gulped, “There…there… many parts… we helped, ah…”
“For- gulp, water. We… moved things… cannon parts… a lot, and…bombs… cone… shaped.” The woman looked at Hellcat, begging with her silent, trembling lips and eyes. He let go of her, nearly like letting a rag doll fall, before standing up.
“Refugees here, bring the humanitarian support and some soldiers to write them on the records.” Hellcat pressed his helmet’s left side before ignoring the refugees, he looked at Maria and Edwin in silence. Edwin felt preoccupied to talk, but Maria crossed her arms and said, “We should return. A report like this might save lives and… sigh, let’s just go.”
Hellcat just nodded and looked at Edwin. He stopped and waited for him to say something. Edwin remained silent for several seconds, making Maria look back at them, before finally speaking up. “How do I convince Karla I’m responsible and can be cute? She keeps saying no to my advances…”
Hellcat: (˚ㄥ_˚).
“Pfft…” Maria restrained a laugh before Hellcat tapped Edwin’s left shoulder. He wasn’t the person to ask that. Even if he ‘banged the boss’ and everyone just accepted it. All he could say to Ed was, “I think she’s playing with you. Teasing you until… hmm, dunno. It’s your problem.”
Edwin was left baffled, blinking and thinking of many things…
… After securing the zones they now owned from the paramilitary groups, Hellcat brought his platoon to the meeting where the refugees were found. After the meeting, with some ambitious platoon leaders remaining behind until soldiers came, the gem troop prepared to leave.
“Hey, a moment?”
A voice stopped Hellcat from reuniting with his platoon, already waiting for him a few meters ahead, 39 soldiers instead of 40. He turned around to face a man without his helmet on. The man immediately bowed his head, “I was just behind your platoon. I think… my soldiers committed a mistake and fired at your soldier. He must’ve forgotten the signal, because we didn’t receive it. Fortunately, he gave us enough information before passing away.”
“It was you?” Hellcat didn’t take his helmet after the man bowed his head. The man nodded again, feeling a bit exposed despite the darkness. “I apologize. It was something unavoidable. I feel embarrassed, and deeply apologize for my platoon, too.”
“…” Hellcat stared at him, unresponsive. The man straightened his head and slightly lifted his chin. Then, Hellcat quietly inquired, “Have you brought his body back to the tents?”
“…?” The man looked at Hellcat, perplexed. Hellcat took his helmet off, showing a deep frown, and a slight pout. Maria’s crossed arms loosened as she turned her body towards him, feeling something wasn’t right.
“Anyways, can you fill it in for me in the report?” The man’s attitude changed, he ogled Hellcat’s platoon before smirking, “I’d like to know your gem troop, too. They have many famo-”
Punch! Hellcat directly dove his right fist into the man’s face. He could feel his knuckles moving something, even though nothing broke, before the man fell on his back. The platoon leader looked up, held his jaw, and hurried to stand up with his feet stomping on the floor.
“Uwummff…?” However, he tripped back down after he realized his jaw wasn’t moving. Not only that, it wasn’t positioned correctly. The notion made his eyes painted with fury scarce, replaced with fear and startlement. “Weet! Weet, weet, weet!”
While the man voiced, or tried to, Hellcat walked towards him, tightening his hands into fists, Maria stepped quicker towards him and yelled in a low volume with a warning tone. “He’s 2 ranks above you! Pipe down if you don’t want that kind of trouble!”
But Hellcat wasn’t paying attention, he bent his back and, under the platoon leader’s platoon watchful eyes, he folded his right arm before punching down at that face again. It was sharp, making the man’s other side of his face slap against the floor. Hellcat folded his left arm next.
Punch, punch, punch, punch, punch, punch!
After 5 direct hits to the man’s face, Hellcat straightened his back, looked down, and moved the soldier’s body with his left foot so he could face the ceiling. Then, with his right boot’s hindfoot first, he began stomping the man’s face, particularly aiming at his lips. A good mouth-washing.
“AAh- pffflt! Stop it-pfflt!” The man spoke after a few good hits made him dizzy. Hellcat stopped, but only after interrupting him. Then, he looked down, with his frown the same, only his pout disappeared. He had to separate his lips a bit so the shape of his sharpened teeth weren’t seen.
Even though it was all dark, he doesn’t lower his guard. Hellcat looked at the man, bleeding more from his broken lips and kicked off teeth than his nose or cheek. Hellcat softly voiced, “You know, it wouldn’t have costed you anything to shut your trap. Don’t touch my people.”
“!” Hellcat lifted his right foot, standing with his feet beside the man’s torso, when the latter’s right leg was raised and side-kicked his waist to the right. Hellcat was pushed to the ground, sliding half a meter before stopping. He was still not a strength, muscle guy.
‘Ugh, time to calm things down.’ Hellcat supported his body off the floor with his hands before rapidly standing up, as the man hurried his steps towards him. Hellcat held his right wrist, covertly taking his gauntlet off before receiving the man’s following attack.
Dodging a direct collision with the man’s right arm, Hellcat hugged it with his left arm after the punching motion before scratching his left cheek, from where the man already bled. At the same time, he was kicked away like a stuffed animal.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?! Cut those nails!” The platoon leader felt the large amounts of blood escaping his face. He exclaimed before hurrying to his platoon, ignoring Hellcat, who gasped for air and felt glad his ribs remained unbroken thanks to the armor.
Hellcat was aided by Maria and Edwin. The latter was like a robot as he stared at the platoon leader’s back. Maria only gave Hellcat a brief glance before placing his left arm above her shoulders. Then, as the platoon leader suddenly plopped to the floor with a ‘thud’, Hellcat smiled.
… Back at the camp, after a brief, solid berating from his squad leader, in front of the whole platoon, which Phesx Caolia took well; inside his small tent.
Bump, bump, bump, bump…
Having pitched his tent near a piece of furniture, he pushed Maria’s sweaty, bare back against it as they cuddled towards one of its corners, gasping and breaking each other’s breaths with their mouths. The thin rolls around her stomach and his incessant stamina were all in each other’s senses, their pleasure.
“I’ve checked… umnf… tomorrow’s assignments. We’ll surely be sent to deal with the tank. The southeastern tower was destroyed, and preqs were forced to move near us. If another tower is destroyed… angh!” Maria gasped, talked, restrained a few little moans, and gasped again.
Phesx Caolia listened to her, but he was also focused directly on her. Maria held his neck with a soft grasp, calmly taking him. Her body rocketed on the furniture as she went, “But there’s another path the platoon can take. It is either to continue moving where we left it, or go in an expedition to distract any enemy’s attention. The truce with preqs will break and- annngh…”
“You’re… talking too much…” Phesx Caolia said through his teeth. Maria flashed a smirk before saying, “Think about it. There’s been more events of friendly fire. Besides, even those refugees were separated…”
“I get it.” Phesx Caolia shut her mouth before speaking with their saliva falling around her mouth and nose, thickly amassed during their last exchange. Maria smiled before playfully whispering, learning from him after a few beddings. “You hit him faster and harder than you do me.”
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“…” Phesx Caolia looked at her, perplexed and in disbelief. Then… Bump! Bump! Bump! Bump! Bump! Bump! Bump!
… The next day, at the central tent. Phesx Caolia was brought inside by Maria, who checked his clothes just before entering. When he went inside, there were only a few officers. One of them was the person who signed his form.
“Hellcat, you come timely-” The officer’s eyes expanded a little, glad to see his face. But Hellcat saluted and said, not giving him a chance to order him. “Yes, sir. I’ve come to ask for permission to bring my platoon in an expedition. It is an important risk that we must take.”
“…” The officer halted his intentions, pressing his chin on his left backhand before saying in a low voice, “Is this… about lying low for now?”
“Affirmative, sir,” Hellcat slowly responded. The officer nibbled his lower lip and nodded. He slapped his sides before presenting him a small document already signed, extending his hand for gem platoon’s expedition task. “You’ll still have to go to the core and look for that tank, at least for today. There’s enough explosives and equipment to deal with one, no matter what it is.”
“Understood… sir,” Hellcat voiced while Maria lowered her head and tightened her fists. Hellcat asked after storing the small document and giving his to the officer. “What tank is it, sir? Is our equipment enough?”
“It’s enough. It’s just a tank. You might not even see it. Either way, you’ll be on your own and onwards to your new requested task. By the way…” The officer suddenly added at the end of his words, just when he was already hurrying Hellcat away.
“?” Hellcat stopped in his tracks and looked at the officer. The latter laid it out carefully, “The reason you fought with that other platoon leader wasn’t specified.”
“…” Hellcat’s eyes went vacant. He blinked them, but they remained the same. “I understand, sir.”
With those casual words, Hellcat turned around and walked out, not bothering with any more courtesies. Once outside, Maria sighed and elbowed his left side. They were about to get into a problematic situation. With luck, that tank really won’t appear.
They met with the platoon a few minutes later before embarking on the path to the core. It was similar to the one they took yesterday, but they won’t stop and make a turn to a rogue party’s territory this time. Today, they had to make a run for their lives into the core. With luck, the preqs wouldn’t have gone mad.
There was one thing that wasn’t reliant on luck, and was positive for the squad. Karla blushed and pouted cutely whenever Edwin threw her a glance for particularly no reason.
Onwards to their task, Hellcat went back into the battle zones, but today was a little quieter. When he arrived at the long defensive line the pronas built in just 2 days, he saw other soldiers not belonging to the same side a little farther from it.
“Hey, troopers.” A soldier caught their attention before briefing them at the side, “Preqs have come to us, just to cooperate. It’s the preis who have the tank, not the scum or paramilitaries. We’d be all fucked if they knew how to drive one, let alone shoot it.”
Hellcat continued listening as he looked at the rows of preqs tens of meters behind the pronas’ defensive barricade. He could also see that the criminals were intimidated into turtling in their territory, and the paramilitaries felt more so, even without the tank rumors.
“Have other assault platoons gone into the core?” Hellcat asked after hearing the soldier. The latter nodded, “About 240 elements, at least from those who passed by this path. Either way, we’re all ready to intercept those prei bastards.”
Tap, tap. Hellcat tapped the soldier’s shoulder before walking away. He waited for his platoon to catch up into a ball before instructing them to do the same as always. However, this time, if the tank appeared, they had to take it down no matter what. Not for patriotism alone, but survival.
The tank changed all sides’ plans, underhanded or public, to take the Centralized Parliament.
Hellcat wasn’t stupid. Maybe still a young boy with errors, but his age was long overcome by his experience and maturity by now. Did a soldier that could become an assault trooper really not remember or know the signal the superiors emphasized everyone to know about? Why would the generals send their armies into the Centralized Parliament when most of their numbers remained outside, and they could dispute each other’s territory instead?
It was like opening a slaughterhouse for all parties. Even after taking the parliament, if the other 2 military camps remained, what did it matter if the population chose to follow Prona? They would still need to exterminate or make the other 2 surrender.
Hellcat brought those thoughts into smoke and out of his mind as he entered the core. He was the first to step into an ordinary door, which he checked for 1 minute with his hearing before going in. Maria didn’t say anything, still trusting his ‘gut’, but followed him inside right after.
With submachine guns aiming ahead, the platoon went in, not spreading too far from each other before clearing up with beeping noises. Just as Hellcat reunited his platoon and prepared to choose a location to hide in waiting from a map of the parliament, sounds came from where they just came from.
They lifted their guns and aimed at the door, which the other side didn’t even wait and just entered. Hellcat frowned as they stepped in, observed them, and didn’t give any signal for identification. With the little truce, preqs and pronas had a sole signal to identify each other, but these people didn’t even use that.
“Stop! Weapons down!” Hellcat shouted. His platoon spread wide, preparing to shoot. A person walked in, raising his palms and spreading them sideways, “Stop! You! I’m a staff sergeant, lower your weapons. Lower them!”
“Shut the fuck up! Down or you get dropped. Weapons down!” Hellcat raged out, rasping his throat. The preq officer looked at him and tilted his head before severely counter-threatening, “We are allies. We just watched you get in. It’s fine now, just tell us where you were going and we can hole up together. Nobody wants to be left alone in the open when a tank might come at any moment, no?”
Hellcat kept his rifle aiming at the chest of the preqs, but after hearing their officer’s words, he thought for a couple of moments before lifting his rifle, aiming at the preq officer’s head. The officer was scared shitless, he grabbed towards his pistol to aim at Hellcat.
“!?” But suddenly, Hellcat turned around, making his soldiers widen their eyes in shock, including Maria. She seemed to think of something before looking at him with attention as her body trembled. Then, the platoon saw their leader make a signal before letting go of the submachine gun, with its strap hanging from his neck, before rushing to the side.
The preq officer was confused, wondering if he should still aim a pistol at the pronas, but the power trip got to him. He smiled and prepared to shout a few words, when a wall 500 meters in front broke apart, followed up by the flashing light of a projectile flying straight into his head. More specifically, entering his mouth.
CRASSH… BANG- BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG- BOOOOOOOOOM…!
The projectile crashed past where the preq soldiers were, destroying the wall behind them, the wall further behind them, and the walls further behind those. Countless walls after, it continued flying until it met an extensive row of thousands of soldiers hiding in the defensive line. But it did not stop there. Continuing on its trajectory, it reached the pronas’ headquarters, and then, its target: the tower.
The projectile was only about half a tall adult person’s height long, and as thick as an adult’s torso. But it ignored any living being or structure it touched, melting the material it shot through afterwards, and exploding to bits any lifeform, regardless of the armor they wore.
Scorched and charcoaled limbs laid on its path, leaving only unimaginable terror before their demise, with only torsos remaining mostly untouched but rapidly igniting with a bright orange flame that dissipated a few seconds later.
It was destruction in its perfect example, but the tank didn’t stop there. It was easily 10 meters tall, with 3 cannons, one atop the other, and 2 multidirectional antennas at the sides. It recalibrated, seemingly knowing the exact position of things, as it aimed southeast with 2 of its cannons and the other remained aimed at the northeast.
BANG- BANG, BANG BANG BANG BANG- BANG- BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG…
As the tank began firing away, Hellcat stood up after the projectile was shot way too close to him and his platoon. He was stunned, and with his senses becoming hyper sensitive, he felt it more than others, but he recuperated first.
Hellcat limped to Maria, who only barely didn’t take her helmet off from the discomfort. He helped her up before confirming she was recuperating. Bringing her rifle to her hands, he went to check on the others, ignoring the legs or halves of heads and arms and hands littering on the ground from his platoon.
“Get up,” Hellcat’s soft, semi-broken voice sounded enraged. The remaining 20 soldiers under his command sobered up and looked at the firing tank, which seemed to ignore them, but not for long.
Just as they sobered up, one of the machine guns behind its cannon rotated towards them. Hellcat and Maria rapidly aimed at its barrel and barraged it, steering it away before it shot.
Prtrrrrrrr rrrrrrrr ptrrrrr!
The other small machine gun further behind aimed at them. Hellcat didn’t care about countering 1 machine gun anymore and hollered before bringing Maria up some stairs nearby, as she kept firing the first machine gun. “Mooove! To the upper floor! Surround it!”
After that, there was only silence, with just their harsh stomps, ragged breathing, machine guns’ firing, and cannons blasting things several hundred meters away with near-perfect accuracy. And nothing to stop each of its shots.
The core didn’t have more floors, but it had a library with countless books at the walls. There was a platform to walk around them so they wouldn’t take space for the people working coming and going. These platforms weren’t connected all around the core hall, but there were dozens. Now, they were becoming beehives under the machine guns’ aiming and ceaseless ammunition.
The platoon had their equipment on their backs, the explosives were there. Even if it meant going slower, or growing tired more rapidly when fleeing from brutal death, they could only do something with them. They couldn’t leave those behind. That was just a delayed death.
When arriving at the platform’s end, where the next was 2 meters away, they had to bash their nerves away and rely on their fear to perfectly jump from railing to railing. Their bodies rolled, jolted, or tripped afterwards, but they didn’t dare stop. Maria and Hellcat were the fastest 2 who ran atop them the earliest.
After the machine guns aimed at the others, to at least kill something, they stopped and checked their equipment. Despite the dashing lights from the cannons, it was difficult to see. The machine guns were also too small to light up the enormous, 10 meters tall tank.
Maria looked for the explosives while Hellcat inspected the tank. With 3 cannons, it was impossible for it to not be affected by such firepower. And indeed, there was a pincer-like limb exiting from the tank on each corner, digging into the floor before retracting like a hook underneath. The ground trembled whenever it shoot once, let alone thrice every 4 seconds.
“It’s its legs, and the cannons… I think I can time it…” Hellcat murmured. Maria placed an explosive in his left palm, dispiriting him. It was an adhesive bomb that was powerful if placed directly against flat surfaces, it looked like a white bag, tightly packed with tiny dot-sized balls.
Then, she passed him another. It was an anti-armor grenade, heavy and supposed to attack the bellies of some vehicles, but tanks nowadays were even protected from inner heat. Only getting into their road wheels before exploding would help immobilize it, but here, that clearly wouldn’t be a problem for it.
“It can work…” Hellcat said with a sigh, then, he looked at Maria, who just stared at him, saying and expressing nothing. Then, he expressed, ignoring her tightened fists, “I’m faster.”
…