Chapter 2: Slaughtering Of The Masses
Every day...every night, they all worked endlessly, almost collapsing every now and then but they all got the job done one way or another.
All of the ground troops patrolling and exploring the ground while all of the air troops worked hard patrolling the skies.
Despite all of their efforts, there was always arguments amongst them about whether or not they are taking the necessary precautions to make sure all of them are safe and secure when operating in these dangerous environments.
"Those fuckers are at it again." Said one of the ground forces. "They keep ignoring the updated safety protocols and won't listen to a goddamn thing we tell them."
"Let me guess? They're wearing the AMP suits again? I thought the new protocol was to ditch those things." One soldier said.
"We told those idiots to switch suits for a reason, The AMP suits might have more armor, but they're also a larger target. It's basically like tossing a giant jar into a Lion's Den thinking it'll protect the food on the inside but in reality it's not. They're just making the damn things more of a target and putting themselves in danger for no good reason, and if they die from whatever is out there, then that's on them man."
"Hell, I agree with them, I'm tired of bailing those idiots out every time they start gettin' caught and killed out there, you know what they say man, the bigger they are, the harder they fall, and just means the bigger they are, the easier they get killed as well, you know what I mean man?"
"Exactly."
"My question is this; time and time again those damn suits have been proven to be stronger, but complete failures in terms of speed, agility and overall combat capabilities, why haven't they been canned and replaced by something smaller and more efficient? I mean, the statistics show that the damn suits become less popular and more hated by the minute. I was for sure they'd have been canceled ages ago."
This particular statement caused all of the troops that were present to talk about it in agreement. They had a firm stance on being anti-suits and proudly stood on that stance and because of that, they were paid less money than the guys who were bold enough to wear the suits. Although they got less money, it was far better for them to be paid less and prioritize their safety over greed, arrogance and danger.
It was a war between the overconfident and arrogant vs the genuine and sincere people. And sadly, the arrogance and greed usually won in the end.
"What are you gonna do later today man?" One of the various troops asked.
The soldier lit up a cigarette. "I'm gonna put some good food in my stomach and then probably crash out for the night, what about you man?"
"Same, I've had about enough of working other people's patrols."
"Amen brother, amen. But don't worry, this'll all be over soon enough." Another one of the ground troops came up to the group with an apparent urgent announcement.
"I've got an announcement from the base man; rumor has it that an entire squad of thirty men in AMP suits got fucking wiped out on a patrol!" The troops was alarmed. Some were concerned while some weren't as worried or surprised for that matter. They began arguing and discussing the possibility of this alleged rumor.
"So what exactly the hell are we supposed to do about this? I mean we don't even know if this is true."
"We've got orders to check out any and all possible leads in regard to possible attacks, rumored or otherwise. I say we go down there, see what these idiots are up against, and if it's a fluke, we curse em out and go on about our lives. If it's true, we bail their asses out and then demand that the boss pays us as much money as the other guys."
"I don't know man, first off, where do we even begin to look, there's multiple territories that we need to check out. Where should we even start?"
Before any of the battalion/ground troops could answer they suddenly heard loud explosions coming from a distance away from them. The explosions were followed by apparent sounds of gunfire as well. They battalion immediately were alarmed.
"Holy shit!" One ground troop exclaimed. "What the hell was that about?!"
"I don't know, but whatever that was about, we'd better go investigate." The troop who last spoke readied his weapon and continued to hand out weapons to his fellow brethren. He made sure that they all have the proper amount of ammunition to carry with them. Whenever these types of things happen, it's always good to have as much firepower as possible, and they damn sure had enough of that. The Ground Forces began moving towards the source of the alleged chaos.
"How far away are we man? I don't like being this deep out in the woods, especially this fucking late."
Another troop scoffed. "According to the radar's report and its coordinates we should be there shortly."
The ground troop were trekking through the forest to find out what the problem was. Some of them were generally curious about what they would discover while the others were more reluctant and wanted to get it over with. Some even considered quitting or retiring altogether after this entire operation was over with.
Along the way, the large unit would take occasional five minute breaks to sip some water and eat some fruit to stay hydrated and energized. Along the way, the unit had even caught a glimpse of some sort of blue monkey like creature, but the animal was too fast for them to get a clear vision of it. Besides that, they've got far more important things to worry about rather than an odd creature.
"What the hell?" One of the troops tripped over a discarded item on the ground. As he got up, he saw exactly what it was. A troop's discarded rifle; covered in blood. This naturally made the nerves of the Ground Troops Sky rocket. Whatever the noise they heard earlier was, it definitely came from the squad of whoever this weapon belonged to.
"Hey boss?" Another called. "Get a load of all this shit." The eager young soldier brought over some members of his squad to show them his discovery. To no one's surprise, they find more disturbing and discarded weapons and equipment.
To their horror, some of the weapons were even covered in blood. The soldiers were starting to get an idea of what exactly went down prior to their arrival hours later. And whatever happened here, could not have been a good thing.
"Holy shit..." one troop exclaimed.
"Do we see any bodies?"
Some of the troops looked around for bodies or any other signs of life that could've been in the area. They tried everything from calling out the names of the soldiers unit to launching a flair in the air to give out a message. And they received all but nothing.
One soldier's discovery would soon change the entire perspective of the situation. "Yo guys, take a look at this shit over here!" The young man sounded like he was almost in disbelief about what he was seeing.
"What the...?"
"Holy shit!"
"How in the hell?"
All of the ground troops were shocked. They were looking at a pile of destroyed aircrafts, AMP Suits and among other items and equipment that were currently set ablaze. The magnitude of such a disaster was completely unreal.
"Ahh damn it, I'm just gonna assume the worst, like I said before we came out here, these idiots must've worn those damn suits and got torn apart by whatever the hell is out there!"
Another troop had a bold suggestion. "I say we check out the carnage and see if we can find anything that might be useful."
Some of the soldiers were more fearful and reluctant. "No way man, I say we get the hell out of here while the getting's good. We report back to base and say we didn't find anything. No one will know...or would you all rather we become part of the food chain! There's no way any of the guys that were out here could possibly be alive right now."
"Enough!" The Ground Unit turned over to the leader of their unit. He looked annoyed and apparently Indecisive about what to do. He thought about all of the possibilities. What exactly went down here? Who, or what could manage to destroy an entire nation's worth of weapons, aircraft and military hardware like they were cheap plastic toys to thrown away after a while. He needed answers, and that's exactly what he was going to get. "We're going to investigate this whole area, to see if we can find anything useful here that could help us figure out what the hell happened here. Here's how we're gonna do this. We're gonna divide into three different groups. You boys on the left will check out those damn suits over there."
The assigned soldiers nodded before taking off to go check out the suits.
"And you boys will go patrol the area to make sure there isn't any funny business going on, the rest of you are with m-"
He was suddenly cut off by a very loud roaring sound that scared the hell out of everyone that was in the area. "What the hell was that?!" One of the soldiers yelled out of fear.
"I don't know! Whatever it was, it did not sound pretty, we need to haul ass while the hauling is still good!"
"Shut up! Don't make a sound!" The Lieutenant of the unit ordered all of the men with him to immediately be quiet. In all of his years of service, he easily learned that when faced with a dangerous situation, particularly an enemy you could not see nor have the strength to fight against, it's best to be smart and take the less scenic route to avoid being attacked or killed.
The Lieutenant could hear the heavy stomping of the beast nearby, but he could not see it due to the heavily rainfall and how pitch-black it was outside at the moment. And he knew for one thing that the rain would make it extremely difficult to see as the night progressed.
As he and his crew hid, he looked for a safe way to escape or hide from whomever this enraged animalistic beast was. That's when he found it;
A mostly destroyed, but intact plane. Seeing the, he took this chance and tried to get his men to safety. "Follow me, don't make a single sound. Stick to the shadows, stay out of sight." The Lieutenant began stealthy making his way towards the plane with the remainder of his unit. He did not know if the others he had sent off to examine the destroyed mech suits were alive and had escaped the area safely, or whether they had been murdered by whatever was out here stalking them.
One by one, all of the current known ground troops made their way onto the plane with some helping each other get on quietly while others only seemed to care about themselves and their own safety and survival.
Once he was sure everyone was hidden on the plane, the Lieutenant looked out of the window to see if the danger was still there, although the rain made it hard to see.
"Now what?!" One of the troops said. "We're trapped on a useless plane with some sort of monster out there, the entire unit that was here before us are dead, and some of our guys are dead and we're likely to join them What are WE-"
The soldier's ranting was cut off when the airplane almost suddenly was violently flipped upside down following by it beginning to be violently rolled over and pushed repeatedly. The Ground Force began screaming for their lives as they too were rolling, turning and twisting alongside the partially destroyed aircraft. The roaring of the beast could be heard outside of the aircraft as it violently continued attacking the plane.
The creature then decided to violently push the plane down a deep cliff in the forest, now beginning the sealing of the fates of these brave men...
