A/N:The chapter will be rewritten,as part of the rewriting project
The Ether Conflict
Chapter 14: A Fateful Encounter
Underground Lab S-18
Third Level
Central Operations Room
26th of May, 2 Y.A.
Inside a white room are a series of tables with computers and monitors set on them, the characteristic sound of keys being pressed on a keyboard echoing in the room, as people furiously typed lines of code. There was a figure that walked in each monitor and watched the progress of the people, indicating to them mistakes that they might have made. As he is walking, a transmission is heard through his futuristic looking helmet. "Sir, we have prepared Odin, it is ready to fire at your command", a heavily synthesized voice is heard.
"Good, be on standby for now, we will wait for the Blackout forces to converge on grid point Delta. Have the jet squadrons made their way on their base?". Of note, his voice isn't synthesized, but sounds normal.
"Yes sir, they are maintaining high altitude to avoid detection. Also, the helicopter squadron is on standby about 2km away from the base. The quadcopter units seem to be working as intended."
"Good. The moment the Blackout forces are hit, have the Jets bombard the base and let the angel and phantom units to clear the place. The administrative building is out of bounds, the HVTs are in there with our spy."
"Understood Overseer. For the glory of the Institute!", the man with the heavily synthesized voice exclaims, before terminating the transmission. Looking at a tablet screen, the Overseer presses a button that has a white microphone painted on it. "To all ground units, the moment the Blackout forces are dealt with, you are to proceed to their base and exterminate any opposition,but you are not to harm the HVTs. Glory to the Institute!"
"Glory to the Institute!", a chorus of voices can be heard exclaiming. Pressing the red button to stop the broadcast, he turns his attention to one of the screens that are in the room.
Looking at the live feed from a UAV, the moment he sees the Blackout forces entering grid point Delta, he says, "Fire Odin."
Above Grid Point Delta
Altitude: 160.000 (one hundred and sixty thousand) m
Low-Orbit Weapons Platform "Odin"
A huge satellite can be seen orbiting above Japan, more specifically grid point Delta. It had the shape of a cylinder. On the body of the satellite was printed the logo of JAXA. It also had a circular solar panel that extended for about 20 meters from the satellite, providing it with the necessary power. At the side that looked towards the stars was an ion thruster that was used to calibrate the satellite's orbit now and then. At its body perimeter were many smaller thrusters that were used to fine tune the weapon's aim. At the side of the body that faced the Earth, there were multiple tungsten rods of at least 5 meters long and 0.3 meters wide. Odin was fully automated, needing only the target's coordinates and speed, doing any calculations with its own computational power, from the experimental computers that were installed in it. Suddenly, its thrusters started firing, changing where the rods were facing. Aiming directly at the Blackout forces, a short puff is heard as one of the rods starts to gently move out of its position inside the satellite. After reaching about 20 meters away from the satellite, its rocket engine fires up, pushing the tungsten rod down to Earth at an alarming speed, gravity also helping it achieve speeds that are easily over 10 Mach.
Grid Point Delta
A force of over 40 vehicles is moving through the grasslands, crushing the small blades of grass under their treads and tires. The forces were consisted of multiple AFVs, IFVs and APCs. There were also jeeps and normal transport trucks that were filled with soldiers. They were traveling in a box formation, with the AFVs and IFVs on the front lines, followed by the APCs and the transport trucks. Arriving at the designated point, the vehicles came to a stop, their engines still on in case they needed to escape or pursuit an enemy. Opening the commander's hatch in one of the IFVs, the commander of that vehicle grabs the radio to speak. "HQ, this is Alpha actual, we have a situation, how copy?"
"We copy you Alpha actual, what's your status?"
"We are at the designated point, but there are no enemies on sight. Are you sure Murata gave you the right coordinates?", the commander asks in an uneasy tone, not liking the turn of events.
"Yes Alpha actual, the coordinates have been checked and are pointing at the location you are currently."
"OK HQ, we will remain here until further noti-Hm?" Hearing a rather weak whistling that gets louder by the second, the commander looks up in the sky and the last thing he sees is a flaming rod descending from the sky at incredible speed. The tungsten rod collides at the middle of the Blackout formation, lodging itself deep within the ground. Immediately, the rod's kinetic energy is transfered into the ground, which cracks and gets thrown along with the Blackout forces at a height of at least 10 meters and at distances of more than 40 meters. The powerful shockwave shakes the ground, pushing dust everywhere. After the dust settles down, a crater which is 20 meters in diameter and 10 meters in depth, can be seen on the point where the rod crashed. Moreover, the ground around the crater is cracked for another 30 meters and littered with twisted metal wrecks, torn bodies that are missing limbs at best and pools of blood forming around anything that is fleshy. One of the soldiers crawls out of his flipped transport truck, which was at the edge of the shockwave, the only one to survive from the whole force. Getting up, he surveys the carnage that has unfolded right in front of him. Grabbing a rifle from inside the transport truck, he makes his way to one of the less damaged AFVs, which is only missing a couple of wheels, has caved in on its roof somewhat and its engine is smoking.
Opening the back door of the AFV, he scans the inside with his, for now, rifle. There are at least five bodies, horribly mangled, with broken arms and legs and twisted in a very unnatural way. Looking a bit further, he spots the radio, somehow still in one piece. Getting close and grabbing it, he tunes it a bit before speaking with a very impatient tone, "HQ, do you copy?"
"This is HQ, identify yourself."
"I-I'm private Sojiro Miyazaki, 3rd infantry division, squad Alpha. We...we were hit by an unknown weapon, pr-probably a WMD. It...it just fell from the sky and threw us everywhere, it created a 20-meter crater!", he starts to yell as panic starts overtaking him.
"We will have a UAV over the area in about 30 seconds, you are advised to exhilarate from the area as soon as possible."
The soldier would have responded, if he wasn't lying on the ground with a slit throat. A soldier with a white uniform that has red lines all over it, stands in front of the now dead man and the radio, a knife in his hand with a bloodied blade. Slashing the radio, he seathes his military knife and proceeds out of the vehicle."This is Angel unit 05. All enemies eliminated, the ground forces can move out.", he says in a heavily synthesized voice, under his helmet.
"Copy unit 05, you are clear to return back to base."
"Aknowledged Overseer, returning to base." His helmet is the same futuristic helmet that the normal soldiers use, but in the areas where the eyes should have been, there are blue lights instead of orange. On the back section of his uniform is a metal section attached, that has two thrusters on its bottom. Two metal wings deploy themselves from the sides of the metal section and the thrusters fire up, lifting him in the air, before starting to head to the secret laboratory base.
As he flies back to base, he can see the main force moving out, picking up dust clouds as the tanks and transports race towards their objective.
Blackout Main Base
Administrative Building
Conference Room 2C
5 minutes before Odin fires
The negotiations between Blackout and the commanders of the school ships had been going for two hours, each side trying to gain the best possible results for them.
"Miporin, do you know why they still keep talking? Two hours have passed and they are still negotiating. I'm actually starting to get bored, we just sit here and listen.", Saori whispers to Miho, leaning in front of Yukari to do so.
"I hope we can have a break to eat lunch at least. I'm starting to feel hungry.", Hana whispers, sitting next to Saori.
"You just ate two bowls of rice three hours ago, how are you getting hungry again?", Saori whispered incredulously.
"Miss Nishizumi, are you okay?", Yukari asks, seeing Miho having a thoughtful gaze on her eyes, looking at the closed door from where they had entered the room.
"Eh? Ah, yeah, I'm fine Yukari, I was just thinking about a dream I had this morning", she says, forcing a smile on her face.
"If you say so Miss Nishizumi", Yukari whispers reluctantly, eyeing Miho for any signs that she is lying. Having snapped out of her thoughts, she quickly glanced around the room to see what the others were doing. Mako was sleeping, having buried her face on her arms on top of the conference table. Hana was conversing quietly with Saori and Yukari was thinking about tanks. Annabelle, like Mako, is sleeping, Reiji and Tyler are actually paying attention at the negotiations and Odysseus...looks quite serious for some reason. It must have been the first time Miho had seen Odysseus with such a serious expression. Maybe she was focusing on the negotiations, though it seemed like she was focusing on Murata and the uniformed woman that was on his right.
The school commanders were participating on the negotiations, that weren't going too good. "I believe that what you are offering is simply not enough", Darjeeling says with a calm voice.
"I can assure you that what we are offering is more than that should be offered. In your position I would be glad that such an offer was made to me.", Murata responds with professionalism back at Darjeeling.
"Commander, this going nowhere. I think we should leave.", Erika whispers to Maho, who simply nods in response. Pushing the chair a bit backwards, she says, "Since we can't reach an agreement, Kuromorimine will be withdrawing from the negotiations."
"Are you sure about this, you might regret it later. ", he says in an emotionless tone.
"Whatever obstacle we may face, we will keep pushing forwards. That is the essence of Kuromorimine". Turning her back to Murata, she starts walking towards the double doors to exit the conference room, followed by Erika. Opening the doors, she finds two uniformed soldiers with futuristic looking helmets, aiming their weapons at her. Behind them lay two Blackout soldiers, the ones that had saluted Miho earlier. Their throats are slit, with blood pouring to their vests and guns. Her eyes widen, but before she can even think to move, she feels something pushing her to her left, losing her balance and falling to the ground. Two gun reports are heard and a loud thud. Sitting up and looking at were she was standing, she sees Erika on the ground, grunting from the pain she is feeling and holding her left side, blood flowing fast, painting her uniform and the carpeted floor red. "Erika!", Maho yells, rushing to Erika's side to inspect the wound. Seeing the blood that is flowing, she quickly presses the wound to stop the blood from seeping out. Everyone stands up when they hear the gunshots, except for Odysseus who leans back at her chair, putting her feet on top of the table.
"I warned you that you might regret it. Units 01and 02, just observe them for now. If they make any sudden movements, kill them." Turning to face the woman that is still standing on his right, he orders her, "Unit 05, if you would bring our guests back here."
"Aknowledged.", the woman simply says, before going towards Maho and Erika, while the other two soldiers still stand at the door, aiming their weapons at the girls that lay on the floor.
"What's the meaning of this?!", Darjeeling demands angrily, covering both Assam and Orange Pekoe by standing in front of them.
Odysseus stomps her legs on top of the wooden table hard, producing an extremely loud sound. "We shall answer your questions! Welcome to our first ever Q&A, made by none other than your friendly PMC Blackout! Reiji, if you would kindly", she gestures towards her gunner.
"They are not affiliated with Blackout.", Reiji says, having seen these uniforms in the past.
"They are from an organization named 'The Institute'. We have fought them before, when we were sent to retrieve some pretty confidential information. I always wondered why the enemy knew that we were coming. Ain't that right...Murata?", Odysseus says calmly, looking at the ceiling and fidgeting with a lock from her hair.
"Seems that you aren't as childish as you seem miss Elpida. Indeed, we are spies sent from the Institute to infiltrate Blackout. We were searching for Miss Nishizumi Miho. Let's just say that she possesses something...special. Even you have it", Murata says with a wide grin.
"So it's the Serum, right? Or more specifically, how to control them.", Odysseus says in a bored tone.
"How do you know about them? You aren't supposed to know any of this stuff", he says with slight hostility, his grin instantly vanishing.
"I know a lot of things that I am not supposed to know. You think that after the experiment was disbanded, I would just sit and cry in a corner somewhere? I did my own research on what this damn thing was about. Admittedly, I didn't find anything useful, but I did learn about the Serums and that they were supposed to give us some kind of powers. Though it seems I gained nothing of that sorts.", Odysseus says with a slight grin on her face. Everyone inside the room looks at her with a confused expression, trying to understand what she is talking about.
"It seems you know a lot of things you shouldn't. Unit 03, kill her."
"I think your little brainwashed friend is out of order.", she says softly.
Looking on his right, he sees the woman lying on the ground, a hole in her head and a blood pool forming around it.
"What?! How is this possible?!", he says loudly, panicking at what has happened.
"You should pay closer attention at what people hold, Murata." Having a grin that would make Joker proud, she slowly lifts her left hand, which holds a silenced pistol, aiming directly at him. "I guess old habits never die." Pulling the trigger of her Glock 42, time slows down as the 9x19mm subsonic bullet exits the silencer with a quiet puff, propelling itself towards his head, striking his forehead. The uniformed soldiers that stand on the door raise their assault rifles to fire at Odysseus, who is already arching her right hand backwards, a knife on it. Throwing the knife, it strikes the man that is on the left side of the doors, piercing his carotid and causing blood to fly everywhere. A really loud gun report is heard and the last soldier's head explodes in meat, blood, brain bits, bone chunks and metal fragments from his helmet, the .60 Cal bullet passing straight through the head and lodging itself to the wall.
The school ship commanders are still processing what has happened, since everything happened really fast.
"Is everyone alright? We got your emergency signal Odysseus.", Luminous says, as she and the rest of her squad walk towards the conference room.
Seeing Erika down on the floor, with Maho still applying pressure to the wound, her hands being covered in blood, Vin immediately kneels and picks her on his arms. "Rika, you are with me, we need to get her on the infirmary ASAP!", he says quickly. Rika nods and they both start heading to the infirmary as fast as they can, Maho following them.
"So, tell me again what happened.", Luminous says to Odysseus, who is still leaning back on her chair.
"Oh you know, bad guys infiltrating and good guys kicking their asses."
"What kind of lame answer is this?"
"Basically, Murata was a spy of the guys with the weird uniforms and wanted to abduct Miho and me for some reason."
"Was it difficult to say it from the beginning? Anyway, we better inf-" Before she can finish her sentence, a loud alarm starts ringing, before the base starts shaking from explosions.
"They are bombarding us! And are these... Jets?!", Annabelle exclaims as she sees one of the Jets firing a missile on the Boys dormitory building. The explosion rips a huge hole on the building's side, chunks of concrete and steel beams flying everywhere. Missiles can be heard being fired, the SAM sites the base having been activated. Most of them miss, since the Jets are equipped with flares, but a Jet gets hit, instantly exploding in a fireball, the remaining pieces of it's metal body falling to the ground.
"Everyone listen up, we will escort you to the emergency shelter, you should be safe there!", Theodore yells as to be heard over the sound of constant explosions and missiles being fired. Facing the school commanders, he yells at them, so as to bring them back to reality, still trying to understand what's going on around them.
"Unless you want to die, you better come back to reality ladies!"
Snapping out of their frozen states, the girls start following Luminous and Theodore, with the two tank teams right behind them. As they go down the stairs, they meet up with Vin and Rika, the former holding an unconscious and bandaged Erika with a very concerned Maho on her side."Are you going to the shelter?", Vin asks quickly as everyone descends the stairs on the ground floor.
"Yeah, we also need to inform the Coordinator of Murata's treason. And I bet he won't be happy.", Luminous says. Everywhere they can see are people with guns running, while anyone who can't fight heads for the shelter. Entering a room that says 'Emergency Shelter' above its doorframe, they descent a very narrow flight of stairs that leads to a huge underground room made of concrete. There are desks everywhere, with people watching laptop screens and speaking on microphones, presumably coordinating the different squads and analyzing the different casualty reports. The Coordinator, Shimanuki Tenuo, is speaking with a man, conversing about something they see at a tablet screen. Seeing who have entered he says something to the man and sends him away, facing the girls. Vin goes immediately to the area that has been labeled as the infirmary, gently placing Erika in one of the medical beds, nurses checking her wound and connecting her to various medical equipment. Vin returns to the rest of his squad and at that moment a man with grey hair and black eyes enter the room and everyone stops what they are doing to salute him. Only the school commanders and Odysseus don't salute, the former because they don't know who that man is."At ease everyone", he says and everyone continues his job. "Tenuo, status report."
"Yes Director. About seven minutes ago, the main Blackout forces were annihilated by an unknown weapon. We got a transmission from a survivor, though he talked about something falling from the sky. We lost radio contact shortly after, he is presumed to be dead." Looking at the UAV feed, he sees a large crater and around it, the remains of the Blackout forces. "It seems like an orbital weapon. If you look carefully at the center of the crater, you can see a deformed mass of metal.", Odysseus pipes in, standing on the left of the Director and staring at the UAV feed. "I see you are as unprofessional as ever Miss Papaioannou.", the Director says, chuckling a bit at her behavior.
"Never was good with the hierarchy and anyone that has more power than me.", she says nonchalantly, like nothing is going on. "I can only imagine. Anyway, resume with the status report Tenuo."
"Yes sir. As of now, we have about 50 dead and around 200 wounded from the air bombardment. Also, we have detected helicopters and what seems to be quadcopters entering our air space and heading here. Moreover, we detected a significant ground force heading this way at a speed of 40 km/h. Thankfully, the Jets that were bombarding the base retreated, due to heavy losses from the SAM sites".
"I see. Have everyone form a defense perimeter just outside the base and have the Jets and helicopters take off, we need to stop them as soon as possible." Turning to face Odysseus, he says, "Also, you have to report what happened during the meeting. I see that one of our guests got wounded. The rest of you, go and get geared, this battle is gonna be a bloody one." Both tank teams and the spec ops team salute, before heading towards the dormitory armories to get their weapons. Odysseus debrief the Director, while all the commanders from the school carriers are near the medical bed where Erika lies, with Maho at her side, a very concerned expression on her face.
"A-are we gonna be safe down here?", a very scared Orange Pekoe says.
"I certainly hope so, or I'm gonna rip Elpida to shreds", Assam says with a grumpy face, glaring daggers at the tall blonde.
"Who is Elpida?", Katyusha asks with a confused expression, still sitting on Nonna's shoulders.
"Odysseus is Elpida", Assam says with an irritating look, pointing at the girl that speaks with the Director.
"Why do you hate her so much, Assam? Is it because she tried to modify a tank?", Kay pipes in, somehow being cheerful despite the predicament she is in.
"She just hates her childish behavior. And Elpida, or rather, Odysseus, isn't the best when it comes to arguing. She can really make you lose your temper.", Darjeeling says, seeping a cup of tea that has appeared seemingly out of nowhere.
"Darjeeling, she has even influenced badly lady Annabelle", Assam says back.
"Wait, who is this lady Annabelle? She sounds like nobility", Anchovy pipes up, wanting to participate in the conversation.
"Remember the girl with red hair and emerald green eyes? She is Annabelle Morris, a noble from England.",Darjeeling answers back.
"Wait, if she is a noble, what is she doing as a mercenary here?", Katyusha pipes in, not wanting to be left outside.
"About 20 days after we beached our school carrier, Odysseus and Annabelle left it. Odysseus had written a letter saying she wanted to go on an adventure and Annabelle had written she was going to watch after her. I guess they somehow met with the other two boys they are and then joined Blackout as mercenaries."
"Annabelle told me they met the boys about three days after leaving the carrier, though she didn't tell me how.", Assam says, having calmed down a bit.
"If I am honest, Odysseus seems like a very dangerous individual. And with her unstable mental state, I don't know how much we can trust her.", Klara says in a low voice, making sure she won't be heard by Odysseus.
"I agree with Klara on this one, she is really scary", Katyusha says, shivering when she remembers how she looked at her in the battle.
"Come on, you can't be serious. Just because she had a not-so-great past and might have done some very questionable things, doesn't mean you should fear her", Kay interjects, not appreciating how Klara speaks of her.
"But you all have seen how easily she can take a life. Both during the battle, when she killed that man who called himself General and Murata in the conference room.", Klara says back, not changing her opinion.
"Then what about the Anglerfish team?", Odysseus says, standing behind Klara. Everyone gets startled, taking a small step away from Odysseus, except for Nonna and Darjeeling.
"H-How l-long have you been standing behind me?", Klara says in a surprised tone.
"Long enough. So you know, I don't care if your opinion for me is the worst, I know I am just a little broken doll, but it really irritates me when someone does it behind my back", Odysseus says in perfect Russian, which takes by surprise both Nonna and Klara. "Anyway, I have a job to do. See you later girls.", she says before dashing out of the room and up the stairs,heading for the Armory in the Girls dormitory.
"You will have to excuse her, she is normally like that.", the man that was speaking with the Coordinator says, as he is making his way to the commanders. "I'm the Director. Sorry for what has happened to your friend, we didn't expect they would have a spy amongst our ranks."
"May I ask something Director?", Klara says nervously.
"Of course. As long as it isn't anything sensitive towards Blackout, I'll be happy to answer."
"Thank you sir. It's about Odysseus. If she is so "unprofessional", as you told her a few minutes ago, why do you keep her in Blackout? You are a PMC, so you have a hierarchy, even if it is very basic. Shouldn't her behavior be punished? And should she even fight with how her mental state is? She could go rogue at any given moment.", Klara says, her curiosity overwhelming her.
"It is her way of not collapsing mentally. I had three different psychologists surveying her and they all told me the same thing. Her mind is too broken and her only way of coping with it and not sinking into absolute insanity, is her childish behavior. If for any reason she is pushed mentally, she will become quiet and unemotional, another coping mechanism for her mental state not to deteriorate, but if she is pushed too far, she reverts into a broken state."
"What do you mean?", Klara asks hesitantly, her brain screaming not to utter these words.
"You all know her past right? Since it is a very delicate matter for her, only I know it from Blackout."
"Yes, she told us about her past yesterday."
"Good,then you won't have any problem to understand what I mean. She shows her true self, and you don't want to be on the receiving end of her lunacy. Let me put it this way. One soldier had the stupidity to flirt with one of her friends, the red haired girl and he got a bit forceful, because he got rejected. We found him with both arms and legs broken. It took three guards and a tazer to put her down. Of note, the man was a spec ops soldier. Normally we would have put her in a holding cell, but she has too much potential to do something like that. Just make sure to not anger her, because if you do manage to incur her wrath, not even Blackout can save you."
Having finished his answer, the Director goes back to the Coordinator to discuss about the defense plans. Everyone is silent and are looking at Klara, who is sweating at what might happen to her if she says anything worse for Odysseus.
Girls dormitory
Armory, Ground floor
The armory was full of girls, grabbing their weapons and equipment, putting bulletproof vests and heading towards the defense perimeter. The girls from both the Anglerfish team and the Antelope team were gearing up, having already put their vests on and grabbed their weapons, filling the vest pockets with magazines. "Is everyone ready?", Miho asks, glancing at her friends who have just checked their weapons.
"Yes, but are the guns really necessary? If we will be on our tank, won't the sidearms do?", Hana asks.
"It is in case we need to abandon our vehicles."
"I really miss the days when we were just highschool girls.", Saori says with a saddened expression.
"I don't. At least the days before joining St. Gloriana as a transfer student.", Annabelle says, loading her sidearm and putting the safety on.
"You mean you prefer killing people, with not knowing where your family is and if they are alive, over being with them?", Saori says, a bit dumbfounded at what Annabelle has told her.
"Yep, I have more freedom now than I ever had in my life."
"Hey girls!", Odysseus yells, nearly crashing on Annabelle, who with extreme agility moves out of the way, causing Odysseus to crash in her locker, face first.
"That is gonna leave a mark", Mako comments, as Annabelle is helping Odysseus to stand up.
"You should be more careful Odysseus, you might get hurt really bad.", Annabelle says in a concerned voice.
"Oh, how sweet. You actually care about me. You'll make me fall for you", Odysseus says with a seductive voice, making every girl that heard her to blush or even avert their eyes from them.
"Shut up, troll face, you are making everyone feel awkward", Annabelle scolds Odysseus, hitting her lightly on the head.
"Ow, you are a meanie Annabelle", Odysseus says with a pouty face, while grabbing her gear.
"Karma's a bitch, ain't she Odysseus?", Annabelle smirks at her friend.
"Whatever, I don't care. See you at the Garage depot!", Odysseus dashes out of the room, with Annabelle chasing behind her with her bulletproof vest that Odysseus forgot to wear.
"They are really great friends, aren't they?", Hana says with a bright smile.
"Mm, they care for each other a lot. Let's get going to the Garage depot too, we need to see if there is any damage to the tank.", Miho says, looking at her friends.
"Yes!", everyone responds, before exiting the armory and heading to the Garage depot.
The inside of the Garage depot was a mess with parts of the roof having caved in, crushing tanks and personnel alike. But no one had time to mourn for the dead, as tank engines started and tanks exited the half-destroyed building, heading to the defense perimeter to join their comrades. Finding their tank, the Anglerfish team quickly man it, Mako starting its engine. Standing up from the commander's seat, Miho surveys her surroundings. Spotting the Panther S passing in front of them, she waves at Odysseus who waves back, before ordering Mako to follow them. Exiting the garage, Miho looks at the surrounding buildings. They all have various degrees of damage, from some cracks to whole sections missing. Surprisingly, the administrating building was untouched, having no damage whatsoever. Exiting the front gate, there was a line of vehicles at about one hundred meters from it. There were AFVs, IFVs, some modified Type 10s, tanks that were produced by Blackout, such as the Annihilator or the Boomstick AA vehicle. The first one was a tank with really frail armor, but had a 152mm autoloading cannon, meaning it could kill anything instantly. The second was a tank chassis with an unmanned turret that had two Gatlin cannons placed on it. It was mainly used for shooting down helicopters or missiles, since it had an astonishing rate of fire. Behind the tanks were squads of soldiers taking cover, getting ready for the upcoming assault. The base was located on a plain, making it easy to organize large numbers of vehicles or even escape quickly if the need arises, but in return making the base a very easy target and giving the infantry little to no cover. There was a small forest on their right however, at a distance of about 300 meters, which could provide them ample cover. Taking place on an empty spot that was on the front line, Miho ducks inside the tank to avoid the blazing sun and enjoy some shade.
"Sure is hot today. And all these things we have to wear don't make it any easier", Saori complains.
"At least these new uniforms keep our body temperature at a steady level, so it's not that bad.", Yukari says, having opened her hatch, since the tank didn't have any ventilation and it could become really hot.
"Indeed, though it feels a bit weird, feeling your body just fine, but your head hot.", Hana says.
"At least it is better than the previous uniforms. And the new vests are really strong and flexible.", Miho says, thankful for the vests, since it saved her life.
Static comes from Miho's headset and a male voice is heard, "To all units, the enemy has appeared on the horizon. Everyone is to hold fire until the helicopters are down. AA units, you are clear to fire the moment they enter your weapons range"
On the horizon, five helicopters and 2 quadcopters can be seen making their way towards the base. Entering the 1 km maximum firing range, the Gatlin guns on the four Boomsticks start spooling and after a second, start spewing bullets to the airborne vehicles. Two helicopters and one quadcopter get hit, the helicopters becoming wrecks filled with bullet holes and erupting in flames, before falling to the ground. The quadcopter loses both of its right rotors, making it roll on its right and plunge into the ground, anyone inside it getting crushed. Reaching the 500m mark, the helicopters start making evasive maneuvers to avoid the fire of the Boomsticks, also firing their Rocket Pods. Rockets impact everywhere, as the line of vehicles and soldiers gets drowned in fiery domes. Two Type 10s go up in flames, an Annihilator gets ammoracked and at least 10 soldiers perish from shrapnel or the explosions themselves. The barrels of the Gatlin cannons glow red, as they try to shoot down the missiles, but the volume is too great. The soldiers scatter around, trying to avoid the explosions. The tanks just stand motionless in line, praying they will not get hit. From the quadcopter fall 10 uniformed men. Their uniforms are the standard white with red lines, but five of them have metal wings and their helmets have blue lights instead of the classic orange. The other five have six green led lights, three on each side of their helmet.
"What are these guys? They look different from the ones we saw at the conference room.", Saori says, looking at the strange enemies that are in front of them.
"Probably they are another type of enemy. Like how we have snipers, scouts and normal infantry", Mako adds.
Suddenly, the soldiers with the green led lights dissappear from view and the soldiers with the blue lights propel themselves in the air, hovering about 10 to 20 meters above ground. By now the helicopters and the quadcopter have retreated from the defensive line.
"Miss Nishizumi, did you that?! They just disappeared from plain sight!", Yukari exclaims in a surprised tone.
"Everyone, seal your hatches! Yukari, load the Napalm shells. Hana, fire about 10 meters in front of where the enemy landed.", Miho orders and the girls do as they are told.
The sound of the Gatlin cannons spooling can be heard, as the Boomsticks target the flying soldiers, who easily evade the fire, due to their small size.
Hana aims at where she was told and fires, the Napalm shell exiting the barrel of the cannon and flying through the air. Hitting the ground, the shell explodes and spreads Napalm at a five meter radius. One of the enemy soldiers that had vanished appears, covered in liquid fire. Normally, aa human would try to put out the fire, but this soldier just keeps walking, before collapsing from the damage his body has received. This disturbs the girls slightly. Ordering Saori to change frequencies to the open channel, Miho puts her left hand on her neck to speak. "To all units, the enemy has some type of advanced optical camouflage, we have designated them as Phantoms. They are the soldiers with the green lights on their helmets."
" Roger! ", voices are heard saying, but the warning came a bit too late, as the Phantoms are already killing soldiers here and there, popping into view behind the soldiers and stabbing them with blades that come out from the top of the uniforms, in the area just below the wrists.
As chaos consumes the defensive line, some of the soldiers manage to hit the airborne enemies, which fall to the ground, loud thuds marking their contact with it.
The last soldier gets hit in his jet pack, the bullet entering one of the thrusters and causing it to malfuction, resulting in him spinning in endless circles, until he hits the ground, a loud splash sounding, accompanied by blood and broken limbs flying everywhere.
One of the Phantoms climbs on the Panther S and rips the cupola's hatch from its hinges. Popping out of the ripped hatch, Odysseus uses her knife and thrusts it in the man's throat, piercing his carotid. Twisting it, she slits the rest of his throat, leaving the body to fall on the engine deck.
"Odysseus, what the hell was that noise?", Tyler yells, hearing the sound of steel getting ripped.
"One of the guys that can use optical camouflage just ripped the the hatch of its hinges."
"He did what?!", both Tyler and Annabelle yell at Odysseus
"Don't worry, I killed him."
"Thats not the problem here Odysseus, he just ripped a hatch of its hinges! That are made of steel!", Annabelle screams at Odysseus.
"They might be enhanced somehow, allowing them to have superhuman strength.", Reiji thinks aloud.
"HQ, this Antelope team. The Houdini guys...eh,the Phantoms have superhuman strength, one of them just ripped our tank's hatch of its hinges.", Odysseus speaks to her radio.
"We copy you Antelope, we will relay the information to the rest of the units", a woman responds. By now, the rest of the Phantoms have been killed, but not before a lot of casualties have incurred.
"HQ, this is Leader of Epsilon Squad, the enemy forces have been eliminated, but we have suffered lots of casualties, at least 20 dead and 10 heavily wounded.", a man that is around his 30s speak to his radio.
"We will send medics to your position right away. Be advised that the enemy forces will be in visual range on about 5 minutes. Our Jets and helicopters need about 7 more minutes to be ready for take-off."
"Roger that HQ, over and out". Terminating the transmission, he starts ordering people around, trying to organize the defense line, or rather what has been left of it. People run all around the place, moving the heavily wounded closer to the base, so that the medics can take care of them.
In the horizon, a force consisting of tanks, APCs, helicopters and transport trucks approach, followed by a fairly big dust cloud.
"Everyone get ready, the enemy is about to enter our firing range. You are clear to fire at will!", the leader of the Epsilon squad says in his radio to everyone at the defense line. Entering their effective firing range, every vehicle fires its cannon, the shells propelling themselves to the enemy targets. Several APCs and MBTs go up in flames, fireballs consuming them. Tracer rounds illuminate the sky as the Boomsticks try to eliminate the enemy helicopters, which swerve left and right fiercely, trying to throw off the aiming of the Gatlin cannons.
"To all armor elements, after the enemy fires, move forwards to confront them, we must not allow them to get near the base.", Tenuo says, monitoring the situation from the emergency shelter.
Stopping their advance, the enemy vehicles fire in retaliation and the defensive line goes up in explosions, several light armored vehicles getting ammoracked and exploding. The explosions also throw shrapnel and soldiers everywhere, dealing huge amounts of damage to the infantry. One HE shell lands square on the Panzer's front, the explosion rocking the tank backwards, but only managing to dent a little the 80mm steel plate it had bolted on its front. After the enemy seizes firing, every tank starts charging the enemy, that is about 500 meters from the defensive lines. The APCs start unloading uniformed soldiers, which stand next to the tanks, aiming their various weapons at the steel wall that comes closer to them with each second that passes.
Firing on the move, Miho's tank manages to land a Napalm shell in the center of an enemy squad, burning them to ashes. The other tanks also started firing, the shell exchange intensifying between the two forces as they closed the distance. Spotting a really weird tank going towards the small forested area, Miho orders Mako to follow it, and so the Panzer IV breaks from the formation and starts hunting the lone enemy tank that had entered the woods. Firing a shell, it grazes the enemy's turret, before bouncing and hitting the ground. The enemy tank rotates its turret and fires back, the shell landing some 20 meters away from its target.
The Panther S was in line with the rest of the vehicles, firing at the enemies, the shells either bouncing or missing. They weren't in the best position, with Annabelle moving the tank backwards and forwards, trying to confuse the enemies as to where the tank is going, earning a lot of bounces on the frontal plate and the gun mantle.
"Odysseus, we are sitting ducks here, why are we not moving?!", Annabelle yells, frantically pulling and pushing levers.
"Something's not right, I have this feeling that something bad is going to happen", Odysseus says in a quiet tone, very uncharacteristic of her. Suddenly, she hears a gun report that she is too familiar with. Looking over the cupola, she sees on her left three Cerberus tanks escorting a lone APC, breaking through the defensive line.
"Annabelle, follow that three tanks that just broke through our lines! Reiji, try to keep one of them intact, just disable it!", Odysseus yells with extreme ferocity.
"Something wrong Odysseus? Why are you so hostile suddenly?", Tyler remarks, seeing the sudden mood swing Odysseus had.
"These tanks are from my homeland, they are the Cerberus tanks. Which means that the bastard is here.", she says in a very dark tone, her eyes filled with intense killing intent.
"You mean the man you referred to as the 'Major'?", Reiji inquires in a calm voice, as he is zeroing in one of the Cerberus tanks.
"Yes", she says simply, having grown quiet. Firing, the shell hits the first Cerberus tank on its engine block, instantly catching fire.
"Hey Odysseus, are you going to be fine?", Annabelle asks in a soft voice.
"Yeah, don't worry", Odysseus responds back in a low voice.
Firing again, the second tank gets ammoracked, its turret going for a brief flight, before hitting the ground.
Aiming at the third tank, Reiji fires and hits with an HE shell the left tread, destroying it and forcing the tank to halt. As the Panther S passes next to the Cerberus, Odysseus jumps from her tank into the enemy's, the Panther S continuing to chase the APC.
Chasing the enemy tank between the trees, the Panzer IV fired shell after shell, either hitting the trees near the tank, or bouncing on its sides. Reaching a clearing, the enemy vehicle enters it and makes a U-turn, facing the Panzer. Miho orders Mako to stop, but before Hana can fire, a figure pops out of the commander's hatch on the enemy tank, holding a bag of dried sweet potatoes. Everyone freezes at what they are seeing. Miho immediately shoots out of the cupola, her eyes wide open. "P-President?", is the only thing that escapes her lips.
"It's been two years Miho. We don't have too much time, so I will make it brief.", Anzu says with a serious expression as her tank stops next to Miho's. "Take this tablet and read everything it has in it. You need to learn the truth behind some things." Tossing the tablet at Miho, who reflexively catches it, her tank enters the woods and dissappearing, before Miho can utter any words. Taking the tablet, she ducks inside and boots it, starting reading aloud what it has written, so the rest of the girls can hear it. And with each new sentence that is read, their eyes keep getting wider and wider.
A/N: Yay, a new chapter and a really long one at that. So, I know it seems rushed in some points, but I really wanted to get it out. Plus, its word count IS OVER 7000! Horrible references aside, in the next chapter, we will finally learn what are these mysterious Serums exactly and what happened to the rest of Ooarai. We will also have our first "magical" battle. Also, after the next chapter, I will probably rewrite chapters 1,2,4 and make some micro changes on the rest of the chapters. And I'm changing the title of the story, need something flashier. So, for the brave warriors that have made it until here without bleaching their eyes too much because of this story, if you want suggest a title! You will be credited for it of course. If you need any information for the ploy just PM me and if you want to suggest a title, just post it in the reviews or PM me, or send it via carrier pigeon, I accept all forms of communications. Anyway, as always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!