Battle For The Centralized Parliament (5— Last Part)
A week later.
Arriving at the central tent, now healed, with not many doctors allowed near him, Phesx Caolia presented himself to the same officer as before. This time, he went into the tent alone, but the cheering and clamor he created from just showing his presence showed. Inside, the officer welcomed him in warmly and spoke in a positive tone.
“You have come. It’s good to see you in good state, soldier.” The officer lifted his arms to the side, contented. Phesx saluted and reported, “I’m just filling in, sir. I’ve already presented my expedition form. I’m here to announce my departure to go on my task.”
“…” The officer opened his mouth with a silent ‘ah’ before closing it down. “Are you sure about it? You wouldn’t be willing to do something else?”
‘Is that preoccupation or lust? Should I not die for some soldiers’ morale, or am I just going to be used again?’ Phesx Caolia thought to himself before politely replying, “Reporting to sir, I am willing to go on an expedition. My assault troop is more than ready, and we need it now that all sides are against each other.”
“Very well,” the officer sighed and gave up his attempts. However, he still had a card beneath all those tight, elegant sleeves and few medals gained during Preut’s peaceful times. “This is your ticket. Take it and just help with whatever you can. Many avoid this place, but it’s yours to begin your task, soldier.”
The officer passed Phesx a small document. Reading it, Phesx found he had to search near the southeastern tower, where the preqs have amassed their people to try retaking the tower. He also had to rescue the platoons of soldiers trapped inside.
‘So much for victory.’ Phesx Caolia looked up at the officer and saluted, slowly saying, “Will do, sir.”
“Mn,” the officer nodded, wearing indifferent eyes. “Now go, and good luck.”
Walking outside the tent with a bit of a long face, Phesx met with Maria and her squad, with the crowd from earlier long dispersed. Maria frowned, asking with her helmet under her left armpit. “What is it? Were more troops not available?”
“Ooh, no. Forget about that.” Phesx cocked his head, sarcastically commenting before putting his helmet on. Maria asked, concerned, and put her helmet on. “Are you sure we can safely move with 20?”
“Oh yes. It might even be easier this way.” Phesx said, but the squad was still a little concerned, let alone the rest of the section. Then, he paused to think about something else before asking them. “Why am I leading still? Shouldn’t we let Maria take charge? What do you guys think?”
“Mm.” - “Eh, why not.” - “Sure, right?” - “Ey, that sounds nice.” - “You can take turns, no? You’re already not bad, and a good learner.” - “We trust you both, and after mingling, it’s like it just doubled.” - “Edwin!” - “Qué? Heh heh.”
With that, the squad put their helmets on and reunited with the rest of the platoon. But, to be fair, now they were only a section. Thus, the section leadership changed. Maria took charge of the section, while still leading her squad. Meanwhile, Hellcat became vice leader of the section, just a member of Maria’s squad.
… The section set out into the dark. Even with the holes the tank made to the southwest, southeast, northeast, and northwestern ceiling, darkness occupied more than 99% inside the parliament. It would have been different if the last assassination groups hadn’t activated the security protocols and the windows weren’t armored, but that didn’t matter anymore.
The rest of the section was slightly morally hit from not getting new troopers, but it wouldn’t change anything. Although Hellcat was no longer the official leader, after battling together a few times, and going through life and death, they trusted him now. Even if not blindly.
The parliament hadn’t welcomed too much death, and even though weeks have passed, there were now forces who used their flashlights. Thinking it wouldn’t matter anymore, and that others would, too, they lowered their guard and showed themselves in the ‘eternal night’.
Because of that, with the gem section’s advantage of having Hellcat’s vision, they ventured through the dark, following him while watching their every step. At first, the section wasn’t going to the little task the officer gave them, but then, it was decided to check around.
Moving towards the loneliest paths, with the leas people Hellcat could see, they still found some groups. 2 groups were paramilitary, which the section took out with some assassination and gunshots. They were a platoon, and while they were more, they were only fanatics with weapons, no armor, and no discipline at the level of a soldier.
Furthermore, prona assault troops were the best ‘ordinary’ soldiers in their military, something not even other military camp soldiers could deal with, let alone those rogue parties. After taking care of those 2 paramilitary groups, the gem section found a prei squad.
The preis were taken down easily, but from then on, Hellcat found a plethora of preqs taking camp and waiting at the side, preparing to barge into the tower. They avoided that place, not wanting to find themselves facing hundreds, if not a few thousand, of preqs.
They carefully toured around and avoided any possible battle or assassination, not wanting to leave a trail, as the pronas would only make an assault in 3 days, not before. When they neared the southeastern entrance, they waited, as it was still daytime.
When night fell, Hellcat lead them outside, assassinating the small quantity of guards at the side before heading directly into the tower. With the other military camps, and even the criminal scum owning artillery, chased by preqs, anyone outside the towers was the easiest target to massacre.
It was empty around the tower, letting the gem section cross through and infiltrate it, whose gates were loose, but everything was also deadly silent. As soon as the section entered the main floor, they noticed why.
Corpses of preqs and pronas were everywhere, with preqs crediting most of them. None had weapons littering around, all taken by the pronas, supposedly. The gem section searched every room in squads of 10, careful and keeping each other alive, just in case. They also transmitted the 2-0-1-1 sharp whistling through few tens of meters in the surroundings before entering the rooms.
There was nothing, so the gem section went up a floor. One by one, they arrived at higher floors. On each floor, there were less and less corpses. The magazines and cartridges were empty or blasted, which also became fewer as they continued climbing the tower.
The odor was as expected, a disgusting stench, but it got better the more one went up, although not that much. When they arrived at the top, Hellcat led the rest inside as he could see better. He advanced quickly, checking ahead as his comrades checked his sides before supporting his front as well.
However, the crouching Hellcat slowly stopped moving before raising to his feet. He lowered his submachine gun before just walking ahead. A few soldiers accompanied his sides as they heard sobbing in front, to protect him. Their vice leader had just ‘healed’, after all.
“Who goes there? Waaaaaah! Who goes there?!” A soldier sat surrounded by corpses, with his back to the pillar at the bottom of the hall. He held a weapon, but he dared not shoot around aimlessly. Then, he saw Hellcat’s figure before him, so close and in the dark.
Hellcat didn’t light up his flashlight, and when the soldier was lifting his weapon, he spoke through the communications. “Did you not hear? Whiiiiiistlee~…”
“Ah, ah… waaaah!” The soldier was stunned, before his eyes widened in realization. He cried as Hellcat crouched before him, analyzing the traumatized young man, maybe twice as old as him. “What occurred?”
Picking the soldier up, with Prona’s symbol of Preut’s small, simplified map, Hellcat brought him over his shoulder, glad that the gem section couldn’t see through the dark like him. The soldier wept, elaborating amidst wails, “It’s… the preqs sent so many… this morning, waah… We ended up killing each other, man. Awh… I could see everywhere around me… so many flashes… We just opened fire and everyone… just started killing each other. Wooo, why were we sent here?”
“Alright,” Hellcat walked back to the others, with the soldiers around him frowning when seeing too many corpses lying beside each other, with some parts unrecognizable. They couldn’t tell if this was because of the dark, or the bodies.
The section brought the young man down, with Adams injecting him to send him to sleep. Then, with more caution, and advancing more slowly, as the full moon lighted the night, they re-entered the parliament. However, just when they were near the gates, they were met with a swarm of preqs coming out.
“!” The gem section was surprised, falling into disorder, when Hellcat advanced forth, passing the young man to another. Just in time, a preq came forward and stopped them with a team. “Stop! Who the hell are you?!”
“Sorry sir, we had to go there. We left our post, but we’ve confirmed the situation inside. We were just bringing a survivor from the tower, sir.” Hellcat lifted his hands, showing his rifle strapped with a strap of awful quality hanging from his left.
After seeing the side it was hung to, and the submachine gun in his right hand, the preq frowned but didn’t insist anymore. He looked around, now knowing why there was no response from the entrance before, and returned to stare at Hellcat.
“Aw shit. You went in? How was it?”
“All dead… everyone. Those pronas massacred everyone and took our weapons to the top, but we killed them still. This rat is proof of that.” Hellcat responded, pointing at the sleeping soldier over Edwin’s shoulder with his thumb. The officer nodded before asking Hellcat, “What’s your rank? And alias? I won’t report you, it’s just safety measures, kid.”
“Hellcat, sir.” Phesx Caolia didn’t even hesitate. He lowered his hands and looked at the officer directly, the helmets were suddenly not important anymore to the preq suspecting them when he took it out. The officer reacted, “Ah? I think I’ve heard it before.”
“I was in Medina’s encampment,” Hellcat responded, looking tough. The officer fell silent before nodding. “Alright, I’ll see that your bravery is seen… again, kid. You go rest, let me see what hell you found inside.”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“Thank you, sir.” Hellcat said, bowing his head before cocking it towards the section. The preq nodded, satisfied, before moving his team ahead. The other preqs behind that team looked at them, but since they weren’t stopped, they ignored the gem section.
Hellcat slightly nodded towards them. The section moved into the parliament. Before entering the dark, they looked at the bulges of corpses hidden by dirt and grass on top of the dirt below the walls, glad of their vice leader’s unnecessary methods so far.
After returning to the dark, no longer feeling naked and vulnerable, the gem section rapidly fled from the preqs, returning to the northeast, where they met another prona force. They delivered the soldier, and with him, the credit of the task, and the information of the preqs entering the tower, but gem section couldn’t care.
At last, they could venture further in and swim like fish in the water, unstrapped by any hooks or bonds. Now, just like a few others, the gem section went dark.
… During the following days, some weeks, the Centralized Parliament was disputed from within. That didn’t mean the outside was devoid of any conflict. For starters, after the criminal scum took the artillery guns, now with something in their sights, the prei and pronas opened negotiations with the preqs.
In the end, they allied to deal with the scum, recuperating the stolen artillery guns, and distributing them between each other. The pronas and prei now had an equal number of artillery as the preqs, and the criminal scum, after long days with extra forces joining the fray, have been routed across all Preut. They were at the center, so the scum could flee anywhere. The only bad news were that they managed to sneak some artillery guns away, in large trucks.
That was troublesome for everyone, but it was tens of times more faceable than letting them have dozens of such dangerous arsenal. Furthermore, having tasted the power of unification, the 3 military camps joined hands, this time with artillery included, to destroy all paramilitary actions.
At first, the paramilitary groups encamped around the Centralized Parliament remained calm, not afraid of being seen, as they could flee the moment their scouts heard choppers in the sky. However, before they could hear those, shells and explosive death rained upon them from the sky. Only after they were forced to flee exactly where military units awaited them, who executed them, did the helicopters show up in the sky.
As for the spies in the paramilitary groups, what better than to ensure history only knew about the military camps’ exceptional sixth sense to figure out where such fanatic were hidden? A master plan.
Inside, the preis, pronas, and preqs were all out against each other, having suffocated criminals and paramilitaries everywhere else. Whatever happened inside stayed inside. Such was the decision the 3 military camps took, and it was healthy, no matter the cost it would have afterwards with their armies. Because that afterwards only existed when one side took over the parliament.
The preqs received the worst blows after they recuperated their tower, seconded only by the prei. Just a couple of days later, they were surrounded by pronas, who starved them to death for a week before entering. Pronas expected a small fight to win, but they only executed preqs.
When the preis wanted to join in, half of pronas’ assault troops interjected them southeast of the core, forcing them to stay inside the core while massacring several hundred in under a minute. It was a bloody time for both preqs and preis.
After it happened, the 2 hurt military camps had talks of alliance, but with previous antagonizing led by preqs with pronas to ally against preis, the latter didn’t want to. And with one encampment massacred, and basically pillaged by Prei in the past, the preqs were dissatisfied with their commander in charge.
In the end, no alliances happened, keeping it a 3-way conflict. Nevertheless, that day the pronas ambushed the preis, those preis trapped inside the core, at least from moving into the southeast, were further assaulted. Pronas from everywhere barged into the core hall and surprised the already panicked preis, who were mowed for the rest of the day. Only then was it bloody. A fifth of the core’s floor turned into a small poodle of blood, making many looting pronas trip and get sick.
Unavoidable, and as a surprise for all 3 remaining sides, the pronas kept the core hall as their command post inside the parliament. Although the blood and corpses at the side were dangerous, they were slowly taken care of.
However, it did affect them through time, only getting worse as the command post realized their shortage of medicine. Rations? Many. Ammunition or explosives? Many, too. Medicine? Preut was often recognized for lacking in that regard even after separating from Lýmoca, let alone now.
The 3 military camps entered a stalemate, one that led to only small scale operations. Be it assaults, taking, defending, or retaking positions in the parliament. Slowly, very little by little, through endless losses and gains from all parties, a victor was being decided.
The preis and preqs never stopped fighting each other, always massacring the other. Prona made use of that since they took the core, fortifying it and making it impenetrable. Maybe if the others joined, pronas’ command would be overtaken, but that just wouldn’t happen.
Whenever the other 2 fought, in small or large scales, pronas would be present. Prona made quick work of the others’ conflict, always arriving like rats, even when they seemed too late, or uninterested. They always took the loot and lives of the winners, but only when the other 2 fought to the bitter end, and with intentions to exterminate.
From the many hidden small forces of all 3 military camps, one of them, the gem section, quietly took the enemies down. Hearing gunshots and screams was the usual, but nobody would go towards the sounds, habitually.
It was too spacious and silent, making one hear sounds that would’ve been impossible to listen to back in the day. When they followed a sound, it might be several times or even 10 times farther away than one originally thought. By then, the winning side either left with the loot, or prepared to lure another fly into their greedy trap.
The gem section also moved like a snake from one end to the other during the day, and prepared gifts for all military camps during the night before resting. The preis and preqs were helpless, receiving news of several dozens of their teams exploded to death in their sleep. Meanwhile, the pronas couldn’t stop getting new weapons and pieces of armor every new day in points only pronas knew to get there to receive support or for meet ups.
Hellcat and Maria rapidly moved their section. Even though they were very few to ensure their survival in a conflict, with Hellcat’s sight, they avoided any direct confrontation. These methods went just perfect with Maria, who instructed everyone with what she knew, practically training special forces’ seeds. However, after days nonstop taking out enemies in the dark with such specialty, any superior would’ve agreed to such actions. So she felt no guilt.
Even Hellcat had a lot to learn. Things such as wildlife survival were taught. Right now, they could go on stealing provisions from corpses, but if this was the world outside, the soldiers they killed wouldn’t pack more than enough rations by military rule.
Here, everyone worried they may get lost, even with memorizing the Centralized Parliament’s map. This saved those hidden small forces’ lives. In short, this was the perfect place to stand out and gain merit for them. However, for Hellcat… this was a great place to train himself.
He could train everything he knew and… as Maria stated a couple of times already, hone his skills and unique body ‘features’ to become a slaughter machine.
To the section, Hellcat wore unique nail-knives at times, brought to Preut via contraband from the outside. For Maria, it was a little different. This was especially so after knowing his strange healing body, and right after, when Hellcat spit saliva on a cream he uses on himself before giving it to Adams. Karla had gotten scrapped by a bullet, saved by Daniel, who received a shot to his left shoulder.
10 days after they went dark, they found carts, and went underground to charge them. However, they were too noisy and shouldn’t be used. Daniel still taught Hellcat while being able to only move his right arm. Hellcat failed many times to repair the slightly damaged batteries, and other stuff he was brand-new to. However, afterwards, it was suddenly like he was injected with chicken blood, becoming well-versed in the basics before getting to the intermediate stuff.
However, that couldn’t be brought up in the parliament, so it was left alone.
… After hundreds of kills each member amounted to the gem section’s war effort, during the last 5 weeks, finding more than 5 enemy forces at least a day, they were growing mindlessly numb. Hellcat seemed fine, and Maria, but the rest were ordinary soldiers. Their training was only so much about their willpower and mindset.
This made them worry a little. They could desert, which seemed a normal thought now, but with all eyes on the parliament… This led to less conversations among the section, even when 1 or 2 of their members died in a day, lowering their numbers, and their kill count. But then, one day…
Step…
“?” Hellcat frowned, hearing something about 100 meters to his right, through many walls near the northeast of the parliament. According to the helmet radio’s last communication, all pronas were situated either in the core, or the northeastern corner.
They were still a few hundred meters from the latter. Thus, Hellcat warned Maria, who was leading, before deciding to go after whoever that was. They moved with light taps from their feet, hidden even to Hellcat’s ears, pressing their backs against any structure, waiting for the leaders’ instructions before moving again.
Nearing where Hellcat heard footsteps, they prepared to take whatever they saw out. They were each on a different location, nearby, but widely spread, and some at elevated spots. Hellcat crouched forth, nearing a door leading into this hall, when the door opened with a rough kick.
Hellcat tensed his muscles, keeping silence along the section, which they learned to keep even in situations like these. But the other party had flashlights on, Hellcat’s eyes widened. He stood up quickly, moving backwards while shouting as lights moved onto his body one after another.
“Stop!” No time to whistle, Hellcat fired once at the ceiling, but this made the other soldiers alarmed. “Shit!” - “Enemy sighted!” - “What about the whistle?” - “Fire!” - “No! Stop! That’s our armor!”- “Tell that fucker to put his weapon down, then!” - “Down with it, idiot!”
“Put it down, brutes!” Maria showed up from the side, leading half the lights onto her. The soldiers were startled, before moving their lights around and finding the rest of the gem section aiming at them. “They’ve got more!” - “The fuck…” - “Alright, alright- put your fucking weapons down!”
“You put them down!” Edwin hollered from the other side.
The other side were also pronas, but they were quite pushy after seeing they were all in the same side. Furthermore, their clean uniforms and relaxed voices exposed how little they’ve fought compared to gem section.
“I said put them down!” Hellcat roared again, firing at the ceiling again before aiming at their leader’s head. Those flashlights were pure danger. The gem section wasn’t alive just because they knew how to assassinate in the dark without being previously seen by accidents or unluckiness.
“You down! Fucking listen to what we tell you, morons!” - “Get on the ground already! Fucking fags!” - “Shut up and quiet! Listen to our command!” - “Lower your weapons! Enough of this nonsense!”
“Who the fuck do you think you are? Fuck off, ah!” - “Fucking shoot, then! It’ll be a new sensation for my itchy fingers! Come on fuckers! Don’t you want to fight? Feeling bored? Huh?!” - “Fuck! Even Gem is enraged, hahaha!”
Hellcat’s breathing evened out, and as he felt everything slow down, he saw the other soldiers’ aim better at the gem section. His eyes fully opened, and he pulled the trigger.
Bang! Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang! Trrrr rrrrrrrrr rrrrrrr rrrrrrr rrrrrrrr- bang! Bang bang bang bang bang bang! Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang…!
“Huff, huff…” Hellcat breathed roughly. His helmet, which had avoided any headshot so far, was filled with slit and webbed cracks on its visor and sides. He took it off before looking behind his right. Rifles, submachine guns, and pistols were fired.
The gem section instantly reacted when he fired away, but the enemy still had enough time to fire at them. More than 5 were down, including Adams and his girlfriend. Looking behind Edwin, he saw Adams dead with 2 shots in his forehead and more in his neck and below. His girlfriend lied to his side, grasping his hand and choking in her blood, also shot at the neck. Only, her body was saved by Adams, but not fast enough to save her life.
“Eek… cough…” A groan escaped from a survivor in front of him. Hellcat looked at the prona soldier choking in his blood, also shot at the neck once by him, and elsewhere by his gem section. Maria walked up to him and grabbed his left hand, soothing him.
‘Again, I was too fucking late!’ Visible by the flashlights, Hellcat’s eyes fiercely narrowed, and his nose scrunched up.
Karla sobbed, hugging both Adams and his girl, while Edwin stood at their feet, crying. Gustavo brought the other sole survivors, Jonathan, Ulises, and Diego to bag and carry their corpses. Phesx Caolia looked at Maria, whose eyes narrowed in grief, looking at the now dead girl whose grip didn’t loosen on Adams’s hand.
“I’m sorr-” Phesx Caolia voiced, but before he could, the radio on everyone’s helmets, including the dying ‘enemy’ prona soldier’s, sounded.
“Huff, huff. Eh? Is it on now? Alright, listen up! Whoever it might be!” A voice from someone who was clearly running, trying to find others, not caring for their safety, sounded. “Prei, Prona, and Prequa have signed a safety passage with Lýmoca! All civilians and military can move towards the border between both countries. Lýmoca has sent many envoys to ensure the safety of everyone, including soldiers and high-ranked officers!”
After hearing it, Hellcat grabbed Maria’s large pistol, which destroyed many prona soldiers’ bodies to uselessness early on, and aimed at the surviving ‘enemy’s’ head.
Bang!!
…