Welcome again to The Will of Revenge! Last time, we've seen Ester and a team travel to the surface of the planet and run into the local Erecan populace, who turned out to be in conflict with local aliens. Feeling an opportunity, Ester managed to get a meeting with the commander of the defending forces and after a short round of negotiations, he agreed to rake their help. Now, preparations to push back the beasts and stabilize the situation on the surface.
But before that, reviews.
To Supreme Supra: Even if it was, it was an unintended one.
Also, a bit of information I forgot to mention last chapter. Firstly, it took me so long to put it out due to a writer's block that I experienced and general need of a break. For that, I'm sorry. Secondly, for this Summer, chapters might come out even more rarely, since I will use most of my time for internship.
Alright, with that done, let us begin.
Chapter 8
February 5, 2169
0🕘9:43
Praetor City Spaceport
Dora stood on the side of the tarmac of the Erecan spaceport, observing as more and more equipment gets unloaded. It's been two days since the mission Ester was sent on and quite a bit happened in that time.
For one, the scout missions returned from other systems they were sent to and discovered two things. One was a completely empty system, with only a red dwarf in it, not even an asteroid belt. Second system was even worse, since it was nothing but a giant black hole.
Secondly, Ester managed to open a channel between colonel Perija and admiral Richards. The two negotiated an alliance, even though both knew that Erecan planet allying to them was basically a treason. They knew what consequences would be, but as Perija said, Erecans were desperate and were willing to do anything to get any form of help in their struggle. The terms of the alliance were the same as Ester negotiated. Erecans get weapons, manpower and supplies, while Task Force gets information they require. With that, the next day, small flotilla from Task Force arrived around the Markia IV, as the planet was called, carrying the supplies. Even though still weary, Task Force troops were welcomed with open arms by Erecan populace.
Now, that the supplies in form of food and medicaments were brought in, the heavy equipment was being delivered. Tanks, APCs, IFVs and much more would reinforce Markian Militia Force. Not to mention thousands of troops that were brought with them. Most equipment was getting to Praetor City, but some was getting delivered directly to the most important points of resistance that were under constant attacks by the Jia'akai, alongside personnel to man them. All in all, the first contact with the locals went relatively smoothly.
Dora knew that the only reason it worked was because these people were desperate. But it was still a good start.
"How does it look?"she asked her adjutant.
The mercenary looked at her datapad.
"Around 80% of equipment has been unloaded, ma'am."she said.
'Very good. I guess the rest can be done without us."Dora stated and spun on her heel.
Her adjutant followed as they got into the Erecan armored car given to them as transport. Erecan driver took the driver's seat and turned on the engine. He was ordered to drive them between the spaceport and Militia Operations HQ, so he didn't need to be told where to go.
As she took her seat, Dora pulled her sword off of her back and laid it across her knee.
"I have to admit, colonel Barkhorn worked efficiently on this one."adjutant stated.
"She always does."Dora replied."And I'm not saying that only because I'm her wife."
"I know ma'am."adjutant replied and returned to her datapad.
As they left the premises of the spaceport, they got onto the streets of the city. They passed by the same pictures as Ester did when she arrived for the first time. It was honestly hard for Dora to imagine three billion people in a single city. If it was a city planet, like Domini Prime, she could understand that. But this was a simple colony, frontier one at that. If there were so many people here, how many lived on Erecan core worlds or their homeworld?
Her thoughts wandered. There were many things that were still not known to them. They had to learn a lot if they wanted to bring down the Erecans and Sons of Sadera, wherever they are. Everyone knew this operation won't be short. The most positive estimates said that it would take at least a year for them to finish. Dora knew that the most positive option was rarely the one that took place.
Suddenly, she realized that her adjutant was speaking.
"What was that again?"she asked.
"I was just wondering, how many of these three billion don't like us being here?"the adjutant replied.
It was actually a good question. It was true that most Erecans saw them as savior from their predicament, with which they were left to fight for themselves basically. But at the same time, they were the same people who gave weapons and shelter to Sons of Sadera and supported their invasion on Andromeda Branch in 2166. She wouldn't be surprised if there were numerous propaganda-fed morons who would risk everything to kill at least some of Task Force's troops. She knew how many times things like that happened in history.
Dora let out a sigh.
"We have to keep a lookout on every suspicious behavior."she stated."Relay the message to the others."
"Yes, ma'am."
Sharkline was tasked with security duties for the SOF and Task Force in Praetor City, although Dora planned to take some of her mercenaries to go and see how the situation on the frontline looks. There were nearly 300,000 of her mercenaries with the Task Force, most spread across their and SOF ships, but the company negotiated several Transports to also accommodate numerous mercenaries. They had nearly ¾ of their forces here. Remaining 100,000 stayed in Milky Way in various Sharkline facilities across Alpha Centauri as a mean to defend them or were sent to Andromeda and were performing duties in Flareian System.
Still, she doubted even 300,000 battle-hardened mercenary veterans were enough to keep peace in a city as big as this.
The rest of the way was spent in silence, as the car reached the Militia Operations HQ. Dora and her adjutant left the vehicle which drove away and started climbing the stairs. They saluted the sentries at the door, which saluted them back in Erecan fashion, which meant putting their fists to their chests. Which was a nice salute, if Dora had to say herself.
She entered the building and went past more guards who just looked as she went by. The deeper she got into the building, the more Task Force troops she met. They were mainly non-combat personnel meant to come and support Erecan analysts in their job. There were, of course, translators helping too.
Dora spotted Belle and Henri standing by the wall, talking to an Erecan soldier as she went by. She came up to them and waved.
"Sup?"Bell asked.
"Just looking around."Dora replied."I was wondering where you two were. Didn't see you since I arrived yesterday."
They scratched the backs of their heads.
"Yeah, we were kinda busy."Henri replied.
"Piaro here was showing us around town."Belle said, pointing at the Erecan militiaman.
He nodded.
"Major."he said.
Dora risen an eyebrow.
"You taught him English so fast?"she asked.
"No, ma'am."Hejet replied."I have a microchip in my head. It deciphers your language in real time."
Dora nodded.
"You guys have some nice tech."she admitted.
"Wow, we expected a more lively reaction."Belle stated.
"We almost shat ourselves when he started talking English."Henri added.
"Eh, I've seen so many weird things in my time, that not much surprises me anymore."Major shrugged.
Belle sighed.
"Now I feel like I missed a bunch of adventures after our time at the academy."she pouted.
Dora just smirked, tapping the hilt of her sword.
"Where's Ester?"she asked.
"Still in the command room."Hejet said."Talking with Perija."
"Thanks."
Dora waved to them and then went in that direction. She told her adjutant to leave her for now. Mercenary saluted and followed the order. Major quickly made the distance between the command room and was let in by two Erecan guards. She couldn't help but notice several glances they were shooting her.
In the command room, Dora immediately went to Ester, who was talking with Perija at the holo-table, at the same time glancing around. She saw the mix of technicians and analysts, Human, Erecan, Nashini and others. She then focused back at the middle of the room.
Ester heard her approach and looked towards her.
"Hey."she said.
Dora approached and kissed her briefly on the lips.
"Hey."she replied.
"How's unloading looking?"Ester asked.
"Smoothly and easily."Dora replied."The Erecan ground crews are really helpful."
"Good."
They both then glanced at colonel Perija, who coughed get their attention and pulled on his collar.
"Something wrong, colonel?"Ester asked.
Sarekh, who was standing beside them, translated.
"We're just…not used to seeing such an open show of feelings in the military."he explained."Our rules on that are pretty strict."
"Technically, colonel, I'm not part of the military."Dora said."Not anymore, at least."
"But you work with the military. Our rules clearly state, that mercenary groups operating alongside regular military are expected to follow military protocol as well."
"Our rules on that are more loose."Ester replied.
Perija nodded.
"Now, let's talk about what's important."Dora said, looking at the map.
"Of course."Perija said and returned to the topic from before Dora arrived."As I was saying, reports already came from several frontline outposts and towns that promised support already arrived. Fortunately, there were no incidents and everything is going smoothly as well. Some of your forces have even already engaged the Jia'akai. Their support already shows it's effects."
"What about the humanitarian support?"Ester asked.
"The results are already showing. Fortunately, the remedies and foods you brought turned out to be mostly suitable for us to consume."
"What didn't?"
Perija winced.
"The spicy ones."
Dora nodded. She actually heard some reports saying that of all the supplies brought in by the Task Force, spicy food was the one Erecans didn't like at all. Apparently, their organisms were not suited for this kind of thing. Which was another surprising thing.
"But other than that, your supplies work for us."colonel finished.
"Good. We wouldn't want anyone to die because of a stupid mistake."Dora stated.
She glanced at the map again and the situation. Everything may have started to stabilize, but the amount of red on it still showed that the situation was bad.
"And since the whole situation seems to be getting better already, I want to inquire, what's your plan for the future?"
"I was about to go into that."Perija stated."Once we manage to stabilize the frontline and regroup our troops, we plan to launch a counterattack. Not only that, but we're also planning on finding the High-Queen and ending the war by eliminating her."
Ester risen an eyebrow.
"High-Queen?"she asked.
Colonel nodded. She pressed a button on the table and a hologram of Jia'akai appeared in the air in place of the map.
"Years of research on local wildlife gave us some basic knowledge on Jia'akai."he explained."These creatures operate on a simple hierarchy. There are numerous different types of them. What you see here, are warriors, which can be met in several sub-variants. We have spikers, which can shoot spikes from their tails. There are also chargers, characterized by boney structures growing out of their bodies and which can form a nearly unbreakable shield in front of them. There also exist worker variants."
All three creatures appeared next to the warrior. The spiker looked almost identical to a standard warrior, except of rows of spikes on their tails. Chargers were slightly larger than warriors and on their backs, they had several long, angular bone structures, which soon reached forward a part of an animation and formed a shell before the main head. And workers were were smaller than the three, lacking sharp talons, spiked tails or boney shields, instead with sack-like pockets on their bodies.
"As you can expect, workers mainly take care of things like gathering food, resources and everything else needed for the hives to survive. Both warriors and workers fall under orders of larger overseers."
Third creature appeared. This one was clearly larger and looked like a mix between a worker and a warrior. It had several appendages growing out of it's back as well.
"However, the overseers are not the highest command structure. They are more like frontline officers of their armies. All overseers fall under what we call generals."
The next creature that appeared was nearly the size of a tank, as a hologram of Erecan tank appeared next to it for comparison. They were more bulky and had several long antennae growing from their heads.
"From what we spotted, each general is also protected by specialized variants we call guardians."
The next creature was almost the same size as the general, but it was still slightly smaller. It had long, sharp talons and had visible boney armor along their limbs and bodies, unlike other variants, even the chargers.
"And of course, the generals have someone over them. These are the queens."
This time, no holograms appeared.
"Uh, where's the hologram?"Dora asked.
"That's the problem."Perija sighed."In all the years of research, no queens were ever observed out in the open. The researchers assume that the queens spend their entire lives underground, as they are too important for them to risk their lives outside."
"So…where did the idea of High-Queen even come from, if you never even seen her?"Ester asked.
"That's another theory. Relatively new one. It's assumed, that following the massacre that started it all, one queen rose above the others and united them against us, as before, we've experienced enormous armies of these beasts traversing the planet and fighting other armies."
Ester and Dora glanced at each other.
"They must have a singular commander that leads the charge. Unfortunately, we don't know where she is."Perija stated.
"Isn't it the queen that controlled the hive your people were dropped on?"Ester asked.
"We think so. But there is no complete certainty."colonel replied."Even if we destroyed it, we can't be certain if it solved things out. Besides…"
He went silent.
"What?"Dora asked.
"We don't wanna start hitting every single hive randomly until we hit the right one. It can end up filling the atmosphere with dust and other materials, making it hard to breath and covering the sun."
They nodded. It was a sensible conclusion.
"No, how are you planning on finding where that theoretical High Queen resides?"Dora asked, putting her hands behind her head.
"For that, we plan to use part of their biology against them."Perija stated.
"Explain."Ester said.
Colonel cleared his throat.
"The Jia'akai have an ability to communicate at large distances. Our research showed that at times, they emit stronger or weaker electromagnetic fields, similar to long-range communication devices. We checked and it's possible for us to actually listen to their communications. But all we can do is simply listen to their growls and snarling, without getting anything out of it, which was expected. But maybe, just maybe, if we achieved the capability of achieving high enough waveband transmission capabilities, we would be able to find source of that communication radiation that's different that others."
"That does…make some sense."Ester stated."Sounds a bit complicated, but maybe it could be done with just our ships in the orbit?"
"They will definitely be a great addition. But to get the best and most accurate results, we will also need the help of five major radar stations on the planet's surface."
As he said that, the map of the planet appeared again. This time, five purple dots appeared on various continents, one of which stood not far from Praetor City. The problem was…
"The other four are controlled by the creatures…"Dora noticed.
Perija nodded.
"Unfortunately. Before we came up with all these plans, these stations were already lost."he said with a long face."We wanted to retake them and use them, but our forces were spread so thin, that this was basically impossible. But with you around now…"
Ester nodded.
"Understood, colonel."she said."I will make sure to relay everything to my commanders."
"Thank you. We will appreciate it."Perija said.
"Now excuse us, we need to discuss some things."
Saying that, Ester turned and walked away, with Dora following. They stepped out of the command center and stopped not far from it.
"What do you think about all this?"Ester asked.
"He gave us some useful info."Dora replied."For this situation, at least."
"You think we can trust him?"
"Perija? He seems reasonable. But the governor guy? Not at all."
It was a sentiment shared by everyone from the Task Force. While Perija and Colonial Militia did enthusiastically approach the cooperation with them, the governor holed up in his tower with his personal guard and didn't leave it at all. For now, everyone decided to ignore it. At least until the resolution of the crisis.
Dora continued:
"Not to mention that from what he told us, it seems like they're operating on nothing but theories and assumptions, with not enough evidence to confirm any of them. That High Queen is equally likely to exist and be just a made up thing."
"True."colonel agreed.
Looking at Dora, Ester noticed some kind of ponder on her face.
"Is something the matter?"she asked.
"I'm just thinking about what he said. About the Jia'akai armies fighting each other and such…"
"Yeah?"
Dora looked at her.
"You don't think that…these things are sentient?"
UNSA had a clear rules set up when it came to sentient species inhabiting colonized worlds. The most important rule was, of course, Rule No.1 of United Nations Colonial Charter: 'In case of colonizing already inhabited world, local civilization is to be treated as possible allies and trading partners, unless they show hostility first.'
Rules No. 2 and 3 called for seeking peaceful resolution with locals in case hostilities erupt and if that wasn't possible, for abandoning the colonization efforts. In case colonizers were working in contradiction to these rules and waged an open warfare against local populations, especially less advanced, they were to be arrested and accused of genocide. Until this day, there were only three cases of people not operating against the rules.
Ester started rubbing her chin and thinking about it.
"Now that you say it…"she said."I see what you mean."Ester glanced down the corridor, where she saw Belle and Henri with Hejet."They said they couldn't translate. And yet, they have a guy with a chip that translates English in real time. Something doesn't add up here…"
"Exactly. And the whole army thing, such an organized command structure…That doesn't scream mindless animals to me."
Ester nodded. They decided to help the Erecans under the assumption that they were fighting mindless beasts that just destroyed everything they came in contact with. However, if it turned out they were fighting not animals but, in fact, a sapient race…then the whole situation would get much, MUCH more complicated.
"What do we do?"Dora asked.
Ester sighed.
"For now, we observe."she stated."If something actually happens that points at Jia'akai being sentient, we will make sure ours will intervene."
"I have no doubt you'll make it happen."Dora nodded."You know, I think I might actually go and visit one of those frontline villages."
"You sure?"
"Yeah. I wanna see how it looks from the very first line."
Ester nodded.
"I can't stop you from that."she said."Just be careful, alright?"
Saying that, Ester grabbed Dora's hand and squeezed it.
"I will, don't worry."Dora replied, placing a kiss on Ester's cheek."And you keep an eye on the Erecans. Make sure they don't drop a nuke on us or anything."
"I will."
With that, Dora nodded and let go of Ester. She hoped that she'll find a dropship that would take her right where she wanted to be.
February 5
12:47
Xa'har Hive, 100km from the town of Bezit
Hive Queen Wiiziera of the Xa'har Hive sat in her Throne Chamber and wept. Wept for countless lives lost in the war that waged on the surface. Not only lives lost by the countless children of Shaa'r, but also on the side of Sky People.
She lost the count of time since all of this madness begun. When a killing spiral completely consumed her world. In comparison to what was happening right now, the occasional conflicts between Hive Queens, which were considered apocalyptic among her people, seemed like a child's play. The number of children that were killed in the fighting every day was astronomical. And why did it come to this?
Because one Hive Queen had to be so short tempered.
If Tariiva didn't take the Sky People landing on her hive so seriously and just made them leave, everything could've gone differently. Instead, her response was to send her children to massacre them. In response, the Sky People did the same to them and destroyed one of the sub-hives. At this point, the Hive Queen Mother Uviissa decided to respond. Thus, she sent mental message to all Hive Queens and ordered to to sweep the Sky People from the surface of the world. She lost count of time since that happened.
Since then, every day she heard screams of countless children dying under the long-range attacks of Sky People. They were winning the war, but the cost…The cost was just too great for them to handle. If Wiiziera had any influence on Hive Queen Mother, she may have managed to get her to stop. Unfortunately, her hive was too far from the Mother Hive and she didn't have any meaningful connection among the Hive Queens from Mother Hive's vicinity.
So as long as Sky People won't be eliminated or until they will gain some kind of advantage over them, the killing will continue.
As she laid there, on a stone outcropping serving as her throne, one of her Hive Guards approached her. It's antennae started shaking rapidly as it transmitted the message into her mind.
"My Queen."it said."Our troops on the frontlines are reporting."
Wiiziera looked at him.
"What is it?"she asked.
Hive Guard waited for a few seconds, not sure what to say.
"They've observed…some new sort of Sky People."he finally stated.
Hive Queen perked up on her front legs.
"What?"
"Allow me to explain. These Sky People…they're not like the ones we've known so far. Their flying beasts, their bodies…they look completely different."
"Do you think that…?"
He nodded.
"Definitely, my Queen. They're definitely here to support their kin. Their troops seemed fresh and more numerous than the enemy forces we faces before."
"Have we already engaged them?"
"Not yet, but we definitely will soon."
Hive Queen nodded.
"Report everything you learn to me."
"Yes, my Queen."
Hive Guard made a bow and turned to leave, leaving Wiiziera with her thoughts. New Sky People…What did that mean to her and her children?"
"Death. That what it means."
February 5
15:42
Bezit
The dropship slowly came to landing. Dora left the confines of Erecan machine and, accompanied by five of her mercenaries, she stepped into the town of Bezit.
Immediately she felt the atmosphere that was hanging in the air of this relatively small town. They called it small, but from what she knew, it had nearly one hundred thousand inhabitants. A colonial town in Milky Way or Andromeda Branch's space was already a great achievement. Here, it seemed to be an average size.
Looking around, she saw soldiers of the Militia working on their equipment. There wasn't a lot of that here, but slowly, more and more arrived. Some of which was UNSA, like a tank and few armored cars she saw standing nearby. There was one Skyraven dropship nearby as well. It had Sharkline markings on it's side. She did remember some of her mercenaries came here as help and that's why she chose this place.
She didn't wait long until one of the mercenaries sent here earlier approached her out of nowhere.
"Commander Hiedel."He saluted."Glad to see you here."
"Captain Solzani."Dora replied."Likewise. How's the situation?"
"Follow me, please."
They started walking away from the dropship. On the way, captain started explaining:
"Definitely better than when we arrived here first. The Militia here were scraping the barrel when it came to ammo and men. They said they're grateful for out support, even though we're supposed to be enemies."
"Hey, at least they have some common courtesy."Dora stated.
"Very true, ma'am."
They entered the main street of the town and walked past several groups of people. Looking at them, Dora could notice that many must've been in similar situation like the refugees she saw in Praetor City. Relief was sure needed here.
"Had any incursions from the enemy?"she asked.
"Not many. We spotted some scouts in the distance, but not too many. They're probably making sure the ground is safe for them."
"For attack?"
"What else?"
Dora nodded. Reports she saw said that this town was attacked pretty often. Perija explained, that it was one of the towns that guarded the way leading straight to Praetor City. If it fell and the way was open…Praetor City would be open for enemy attack and swarmed by all Jia'akai from the continent, it would be a matter of time before the three billion people would be handed to the creatures on a silver platter.
"Be sure to have everything ready whenever that happens."
"Already ahead of you, ma'am. Our men are manning the walls and ammo distributed, alongside weapons, is already in use by the Militia. These guys learned relatively fast."
"Good for them. Who's in charge here, by the way?"
They stopped in front of one of the buildings.
"You'll see, ma'am. We've arrived at their HQ."Solzani said.
Dora nodded.
"Lead us then."she said.
"Follow me."
Solzani led her into the building, while she told her guard to go and find other mercenaries to recon the situation from them. They passed by Erecan militiamen guarding the door. She spotted, that they were armed with new AR7 assault riffles, which were a standard issue weapon for all UNSA troops, replacing the old AR4. Dora could never get used to the new gun though. Too many fond memories with AR4 from GGW.
The Militia HQ building wasn't as big as the one in Praetor City, nor was it as ornate as that one, but it was still bustling with activity, as Erecan analysts and troops moved around, talking and making reports, analyzing data and making sure the whole place ran smoothly.
"The commander here, though, is a pretty swell guy."Solzani said."Cooperating with him was pretty easy so far."
"We don't know how will it be in an actual battle."Dora pointed out.
Solzani frowned.
"True."he admitted."We agreed to share command over our forces here, but we can't be sure he honors the agreement."
"Exactly."Dora nodded her head."Also, we have to keep an eye out for anything that might be out of the ordinary."
Solzani risen an eyebrow.
"What do you mean, ma'am?"
"We have a suspicion, that maybe Erecans aren't telling us everything."Dora explained."And that the 'beasts' as they call them might be smarter than we think."
Mercenary captain risen an eyebrow even higher but nodded.
"Understood, ma'am. It Will be done."
Dora nodded.
"Good. Now, let's meet that commander."
"Follow me."
Solzani led her down the corridor until they reached the door which was, surprisingly, on hinges. Seeing Solzani, two Erecan guards opened the door and let them inside. The command room was relatively small, but that was enough. Solzani then pointed Dora in the direction of a young-looking Erecan in a uniform that stood by a holo-table, he was accompanied by a former Son translator.
Noticing them approach, the commander looked towards them.
"Captain Solzani."he said, with translator's translation."I see you've brought us a guest?"
"Indeed."Solzani nodded."Allow me to introduce. Commander Dora Hiedel, one of our company's founders and our commander. She decided to visit and see how does the situation look on the frontline."
Erecan nodded and extended his hand. Dora took and shook it.
"Pleasure to meet you."Erecan said."Lieutenant colonel Baharj. I command the local Militia."
"So I've heard. It's a pleasure to meet you, sir."
"Likewise, ma'am."He smiled.
The smile did seem a bit forced. But Dora let that slide. After all, he probably still didn't know what to say about working with someone who was supposed to be their enemy.
Dora let out his hand.
"Captain Solzani gave me a basic rundown of the situation."she said."But I would like a more detailed report."
Baharj nodded.
"Of course. I will make sure my adjutant prepares everything you need, ma'am. For now, you can inspect your troops, if that's what you came here to do."
"I might do just that."Dora nodded."Thank you, lieutenant colonel. I…"
Before she finished, the room suddenly turned red and alarm sounded in it. Everyone looked at each other and then, Erecans scrambled to their positions.
"Forward position reports incoming enemy attack!"someone exclaimed.
Dora looked at Baharj, who immediately turned to his holo-table.
"Excuse me, ma'am, but I need to take care of this."he stated.
"No worries. Seems like I have something to take care of too."Dora replied, turning to leave with Solzani in tow.
Colonel looked at her, but quickly returned to his table.
Dora and Solzani left the command building and saw militiamen rushing for the walls.
"Do you have any spare guns?"Dora asked.
"We should have some in the armories on the walls."Solzani replied.
"Good. Lead me there."
Solzani saluted and started running. Dora followed and her guards, who were left outside, followed as well. On the way towards the walls, Dora spotted an Erecan tank moving through the streets towards the main gate. But it was only a single one, so even if Militia had some heavy equipment, it was definitely in limited numbers.
They reached the walls and started climbing up the stairs on the side. There was a small building at the top of the stairs. They ran inside and saw several gun racks filled with both Erecan and Task Force guns.
"You filled up their armories fast, didn't you?"Dora asked.
"Efficiency, ma'am, haha!"Solzani replied."You taught us that!"
"Indeed I did."She smirked.
She snatched an AR4 and quickly joined the mixed force of Erecans and Sharks on the walls. Several heavy machine guns and automatic turrets accompanied them and scanned the area. Under them, the main gate opened and the tank drove outside.
The area before them was mostly flat with several hills many kilometers away, giving them a relatively easy field of fire. Glancing at the Erecans around, Dora spotted that they were stressed. Their hands were shaking and sweat was pouring down their lizard-like faces. She didn't even know lizard-like species could sweat.
Dora focused back on the field before them. She reached back and touched the hilt of her sword. It has become a calming ritual for her every time before battle. And it worked. She was actually surprised no Erecans commented on that.
As she thought about that, suddenly a loud roar pierced the sky. Everyone looked towards the hill, right as a massive force of the Jia'akai crested it. A literal sea of thousands of creatures was coming straight at the town and it's merely three hundred defenders.
That reminded her of something.
"Thermopylae."she whispered.
Solzani looked at her.
"What, ma'am?"he asked.
"Three hundred defenders against thousands of enemies."she said."Don't tell me you don't see it?"
Solzani frowned, before smiling and laughing.
"Oh yeah!"He turned on his radio."Alright people!"he exclaimed to the mercenaries."It's time for us to put the Spartans to shame!"
"Yessir!"the other Sharks replied and laughed, much to the Erecans' confusion.
Dora then looked back towards the approaching army.
"Fire!"she ordered.
Like a singular entity, the defenders opened fire at their enemies.
XXX
And this is where we're gonna end for today! As always, feel free to leave a review, follow and favorite. It will be highly appreciated!
See you next time!