"The organics have destroyed the three tripods that were dropped onto them lord."
"Interesting, have the ground troops that landed around them gotten into position yet?"
"Yes, but there is a complication."
"And that is?"
"the landscape near where two of the infantry swarms landed is very gouged out with cliffs and harsh terrain, they will take longer to reach the battlefield dessert here the two organic groups squabble."
The shadowy being looked at the monitor before him and chuckled. "then the two infantry swarms shall both follow the landscape and meet at the larger eastern organic armies controlled area. We shall give them a challenge, and see what they do when dealing with two infantry swarms, and see what the smaller organic group does."
"Very well lord, may I make a suggestions however?"
"Go ahead; it is one of the few things you are good for."
"Direction is relative, so I suggest that designation be given to the various organic groups on this planet, which will allow our forces to follow their received orders faster without having to connect to the drone platforms to gain directional assistance."
"hmm very well, you bring up a valid point. You may choose designations for all of the organic groups, but these two groups I am interested in, they shall have their own . . . special, designations."
"Such as lord?"
" hmmm, they armour their primitive vehicles in specific patterns of ocular light, let us designate them according to that patter. Cerulean and Crimson. Yes that will do for their designations."
"very well lord, I shall put it into the drone platform systems so all forces understand the various designations."
"see that you do, and don't mishear me again. . . . . . let's see how they do with our infantry forces. For squabbling organics to join forces, I wonder if such a delicious thing shall come to pass, or if they shall follow the actions of organics of other worlds. Let us see!"
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Welkin Gunther steppe out of the Gallian militias medical tent to find Rosie, largo and the rest of squad seven all sitting, standing, and hanging around, obviously waiting for him.
"yo boss, is Alicia alright?" Largo asked immediately upon seeing him, his lance leaning against a nearby tree stump, one of the few in the area.
Welkin nodded, "the medics say that she is fine, all she needs is rest."
Everyone around let out sighs of relief as Rosie stood up and walked up. "well that's a relief, now we just need to deal with the other problem?"
Welkin looked at Rosie, confusion painting his face. "other problem?"
"yeah, those things that fell on Alicia and the imperial Valkyria, what the heck were they!?"
"We don't know what they were." Captain Varrot stated as she walked from around a nearby tent and into the little clearing in front of the medical tent that all of squad seven was currently covering. Captain Varrot's was in full uniform, but her hat was ajar on her head, and both the sleeves of her jacket and the knees of her pants were covered in dirt.
"Captain!" Welkin exclaimed, surprised to be seeing Varrot at that time, as he saluted to the captain, An act that everyone in squad seven quickly did as well.
Varrot lifted her hand, telling everyone to stop saluting as she spoke. "Now is not the time for formality, we've got a serious situation here, and no one is sure how to react to it. Welkin how is she?"
Welkin nodded, knowing that captain Varrot was referring to Alicia. "Alicia is fine, but . . . . . . . Have we found anything about the bullet yet?" Welkin asked Varrot, keeping his voice down so only she could hear him. He didn't like keeping anything from his squad, but considering the situation, he had too.
Captain Varrot nodded. "Yes, I asked the quartermaster about it and-" captain Varrot began, before being drowned out by the sound of distant screams and gunfire from across the battlefield, over by the imperial lines. "What the hell was that?"
"Nothing good" Welkin said as he pulled out his binoculars and looked out across the battlefield. "you're not going to believe this, but it looks like the imperial soldiers are attacking, a silver mist that is glowing purple, it kind of looks like a swarm of fireflies."
"You sure you're okay boss, that doesn't make any sense." Largo commented as he walked over and grabbed his lance, just in case.
"Well that's what I can see and-, oh gods. Everyone get their weapons out, now!" Welkin suddenly called causing all of squad seven to do as he said, though many were slightly confused, as was captain Varrot.
"what, why? What is going on welkin?" Varrot insisted to know as she stepped closer to him.
Welkin turned to Varrot, his face hollowed and morbid. " the mist was killing the imperial soldiers, slicing them into pieces like a knife through warm butter, and I just saw another creature alongside the mists."
"what do you mean a creature?" Rosie butted in as she picked up her rifle and made sure it's attached flamethrower was in good shape.
"It looked insectile, but not like any insect I've seen, and it was attacking imperial soldiers as well." Welkin stated as he pulled out the small pistol he almost never took out but carried with him.
"Well that doesn't sound too bad, a little gruesome, but as long as it's just the imperials its attacking." Largo said casually, not really understanding what welkin was getting at.
"That's not it largo," Welkin said as he loaded his pistol and put it back on his pocket before grabbing a rifle from beside the tent. "It was colored exactly like those three legged things that landed on top of Alicia and the other valyria." Welkin explained, causing every person in squad seven to suddenly understand what he was saying.
Varrot understood as soon as the words left welkins lips, and she quickly pulled out her own handgun as she spoke. "I'll go alert the main army and other squads, make sure that you are prepared for anything. we don't know if those things are-" Varrot was going to finish her sentence with the word hostile, but didn't get the chance as a massive explosion ripped through the militia camp from the direction of the main army camp.
Before anyone could even comment or ask what had happened clouds of silver mist poured over the nearby cliffs and toward their camp, some of the mist coming out from in-between, and inside tents. One nearby militia courier from squad five was closest to the mist, and began firing at it in sudden fear. His bullets ripped into the mist, causing some small splats of green liquid to appear in it, but it didn't stop it. The mist reached him in seconds and almost instantly he began screaming, small silver and glowing purple elongated disk like objects plunging into his body and out the other side. Within a second his body was pulp falling to the ground, and the mist continued moving forward.
Upon seeing the couriers unseemly demise all of squad seven leapt behind the nearest pile of sandbags and opened fire on the mist, their combined storm of bullets tearing into it and slowing the mists advance, but only slowing it.
" were only slowing it, it's like attacking a swarm of flies with . . . it is like that!" Welkin muttered to himself as he turned away from the mist and looked toward his squad. " Shocktroopers, use your flamethrowers! Don't let them surround us!" Welkin called.
Answering his reply was the instantaneous reaction of every shocktrooper in squad seven, as all of them lit their flamethrowers and let loose toward the veritable wall of silver mists. Within seconds of their flamethrowers being lit the area around them exploded with the sounds of inhuman shrieks and small popping sounds that accompanied them. A moment after the shrieks stopped everyone shut their flamethrowers off, and found that there was no silver mist anywhere around them.
"Holy, how'd you know that'd work boss?" Rosie asked as she propped her rifle on her shoulder, impressed with how effective it was.
Welkin took a moment to catch his breath before he looked to Rosie. "The mist was just a cloud of dust or something that those, things inside let off, they were like bugs, and the only way to deal with a cloud of bugs is to spray them with pesticide. I just figured the flame would be most effective, though I wasn't sure since they obviously were hard enough to burst through a person."
"Well I am grateful for that fast thinking welkin, I think that mist would have got to us, not for it and . . . . .please tell me you have more of that wit." Varrot suddenly pleaded as he pointed toward the cliff beside their camp.
On the cliff were dozens of creatures that looked to be of two kinds. The first had four legs and a very small body that was elongated and pointed forward, its long body having a hole and looking almost like the barrel of a gun, the second kind had four legs like the first, but instead had a massive large bulbous body that looked almost like that of a beetles abdomen sticking straight up. The two kinds of creatures both jumped off of the cliff in droves and scurried toward squad sevens position. Without needing to say so every member including welkin and Varrot began firing at the aliens. Though they seemed to be able to take many bullets before falling, some of the creatures did indeed fall, but the rest got into their own firing range. The small ones with the thin long barrel like body began firing thin blueish beams out of their snouts, beams that tore into the environment around the squad with arguable accuracy, though they cut into the sandbags effectively. The large bulbous creature though began arching their bodies forward, sending pulses of white energy toward the squad that acted like grenades, knocking people from where they stood and hitting them kinetic force.
"The smaller ones have shorter range, but have an inaccurate attack, but the larger ones are slow firing but accurate. Lancers take out the larger ones, everyone else focus on the smaller ones!" Welkin called after muttering to himself.
Welkins word proved true almost instantly. The smaller could not take a focused fire and fell to literal pieces that spurted green liquid, and the larger ones were of a size that lancers attacks struk them without miss, blowing them to pieces.
"Good call welkin, but more of them are coming from over the cliff, and the rest of the camp is likely in chaos as well!" Varrot called as she pointed to the cliff where more of the creatures were indeed jumping down from.
"we can't just let them into the camp, especially when Alicia is in the medical tent!" welkin yelled just before the roar of an engine nearly deafened them as the shamrock pulled out from where it had been parked and drove up beside some sandbags, it's flamethrower equipped turret letting loose a jet of flame directly toward the creatures.
"don't worry, we'll hold them here!" Came Zaka's voice across the radio.
"Let you're squad protect Alicia welkin, I need you with me to get the rest of the camp out of this mess!" Varrot said, knowing that welkins strategies would be what would save or break the entire army camp.
Welkin nodded and turned to his squad, all of them firing toward the unknown hostile creatures but keeping their ears open for is orders. " Rosie, Jane, you two are with me and Varrot, everyone else hold those creatures back. And stay alive!"
Everyone gave an affirmative response as Jane and Rosie ran up to welkin and Varrot, rushing further away from their own cap and toward the main army's camp.
Dashing through and past the camps of other militia squads they could see the horror that they themselves had been spared. Bodies torn to pieces, cut open, burned into unrecognizable masses, and worst of all, the wounds on those that had been left alive. Of the few that still lived only a handful were uninjured, and most would never fight again and some would never be able to live without assistance for the rest of their life. "This is rather morbid." Jane said casually s they dashed through the camps.
"These people are dead, or dying, we cannot let it happen to the main army!" Varrot said in reply, keeping pace with everyone else without a problem.
"So, it's not like the main army has ever cared about us In the militia." Jane said, voicing what everyone already knew in a tone that made it sound like she'd prefer to be the one killing them.
"That may be, but if the main army falls we'll have no chance at stopping these things, and no chance should the imperials decide to attack us either." Varrot replied.
"Yeah, if the imperials survive either." Welkin said, causing Rosie to force herself to run a bit faster to be beside welkin.
"What do you mean?" Rosie asked, her gun clinking against her belt and the grenades hanging from it.
"The mist I saw at the imperial camp earlier through my binoculars looked thicker than what we dealt with, it also looked like there were more of these creatures too."
"So we won't have to worry about the imperials then," Varrot stated as she cocked her pistol, "the main army camp is just in front of us, be ready for anything."
Everyone nodded as they reached the wooden gate that had been put up to separate the militia and main army forces. The gate was just made of simple flimsy timbers and had been put up on general damon's order to, in his words,' show the militia they were below the main army, and to keep them in their places'. Now it served as the last barrier between them and the potential horror on the other side.
With Rosie and Jane ready and staring at the gate, welkin and captain Varrot pushed on both sides of the gate, allowing hem entry into the main army's camp. Immediately Jane and Rosie had to let loose streams of bullets as the strange creatures came into view standing right in front of them, but with their backs turned. As the creatures died they could see the center of the main camp and were both relived and terrified. Relieved because it looked like the majority of the main army was around the camp in small groups, fighting off the creatures and had not died, but terrified that there were also more bodies than they could count on the ground.
Running and firing between groups of creatures the four of them leapt behind the sandbags that surrounded the main army camps main flag and began firing at any creatures they could see, while captain Varrot walked over and grabbed a soldier by the collar. "what has happened her soldier, where are the other captains? Where is the general!" Varrot demanded to know as she shook the soldier who had moments before been sitting on the ground in the fetal position.
The solider looked to Varrot and only shook his head. "their dead. Their all dead. Every one of them. Officer, lieutenant, captain, the generals. Their all dead, every single one of them. All dead." The soldier said in a monotone while his eyes betrayed how dead he really was.
Varrot dropped the soldier to the ground and picked his rifle off of the ground, leaning against a sand bag as she began firing beside another soldier. "who's your commanding officer soldier!?"
The soldier turned and looked at Varrot, scanning her entire uniform for a few moments before swallowing hard. "You sir, all of the other captains are dead, I think all of the lieutenants as well." The soldier said as his rifle let out a spray of fire, killing a thin nearby creature in a hail of bullets.
" what about general damon?" Varrot asked.
The soldier let out chuckle. "The general was one of the first to die. That silver mist flew through the camp and by passed most of us; it went directly for the command tent and killed everyone inside. The last lieutenant ordered us to grenade the tent to kill the creatures, and it worked well enough, until he was killed by one of those bulbous things." The soldier explained calmly, his experience and age doing him well In the situation.
"No one is alive?" Varrot asked as the sound of Jane and Rosie's rifles echoed around them, drowning out the screams of dying creatures, if temporarily.
The soldier shook his head," no. we honestly thought that all of the militia would be dead so no one tried to go over there, but if you're alive then I guess you're in charge."
Varrot heard those words and almost froze up, until welkins voice brought her back.
"they're retreating! The last of them are retreating!" Welkin said with a heavy sigh of relief.
Varrot stood there for a moment before allowing herself a sigh as well, and then turned to welkin. "lieutenant Gunther, get your squad, check all of the militia camps for survivors and bring them here. Wounded have top priority. Get to it!
Varrot turned away from welkin, not expecting an answer as she walked toward the nearest tent and then noticed a group of army soldiers following her. "sir, your orders." One of the soldiers said to her.
Varrot cringed as she began to fully realize the situation. She had always wanted to rise in rank and stop people like Damon from sending good people to meaningless deaths, but she never wanted it to be like this. "same orders, gather everyone up and gather any equipment, vehicles and equipment you can. Wounded have priority, we need to see just how many people we have. Get to it.
"Sir!" a soldier replied as all of them ran off, leaving Varrot alone at the edge of a small personnel tent. As she looked up at the cloudy sky Varrot could hear the sounds of distant gunfire and screaming from the imperial line, and they caused her bones to grow cold.
"This is so wrong. This is so wrong. I just hope the capitol was spared this horror."