Chapter 27 – Delia

“5 minutes till jump point,” a pilot shouts out through the p.a system upon the plane, above its own static.

Holding her helmet in her left hand and an ear piece in her right, Delia puts the ear piece in her right ear then proceeds to wear the helmet. The glass of the helmet is first seen to be like any other glass, but after a few seconds it flickers and loads.

A radar like circle presents itself in the bottom right corner and a three dimensional blueprint layout appears in the top left. The eleven others in her newly updated Alpha Unit 01 appear as green dots with their names next to it in the bottom left and the top right corner is occupied by a black circle, one that would change to an arrow when they jump.

Getting to her feet whilst holding one of the many, many bars that run across the ceiling of the plane, she moves between the eleven sitting down, five on her left and six on her right.

“Why do we get the parachutes instead of the nets?” one of those in her squad asks as she presses a button that opens the back of the plane.

Turning around and tapping the side of her helmet, she waits as the rest of those in her squad puts theirs on.

“Those nets are in high demand and small,” grabbing the bars with both hands, she holds on tightly as the plane does a sudden vertical dive.

“Contact made!” the pilot yells into the p.a system, sending the plane into a spin, “You guys better get out now!”

“We’re not at the drop point yet!” Delia voices calmly despite the fact that she was holding on for dear life.

“Go!” the pilot yells again pulling the plane up into a sharp ascent.

“Damn it,” Delia grits her teeth, knowing that it is pointless to argue, she lets her grip upon the bars go and falls out the back of the plane.

Seeing the plane from the outside, three figures blurred in black surround the head of it, with one clawing at the wing, “Bats,” she mutters acknowledging why the pilot was so resolute in his yell.

Seeing her unit jumping out from the back, she spins around to see what’s below her. Being 5 000 feet high in the air, her view is rather spectacular, well it would have been if it were not currently being ravaged by the monsters. Countless numbers of transport planes were also being hit, majority by the blurry blacked creatures and some from acidic projectiles being fired from the ground.

“Slugs,” Delia mutters calmly understanding the situation immediately.

“I still don’t understand why we didn’t get the nets!” the soldier that had originally asked shouts, sounding excited.

Ignoring him, “Clearing to the east!” she replies tapping the device on her arm, making the circle upon the top right of her helmet change into an arrow.

Not waiting for a response she tilts right to go into an abrupt horizontal spin and nods back to a pilot through the windscreen of a plane, narrowly avoiding it, as it along with many others rise up. Witnessing none of the soldiers jumping out of smoking planes panic, she smiles as she balances off, stopping the spin and goes into straight a dive.

The original plan was to fly above the eastern base and jump directly into it. To jump and land directly in the middle of conflict. That way those in the base would get some immediate relief, a second wave of air units would arrive in an hours’ time than a third and if more was needed, Beta units would arrive via land in 12 hours’ time.

But given the fact that a battle is forever changing, in the four hours that took to get here, air units that have never been this far in friendly territory and ground units that were thought to only ever be used defensively had shown up.

With only 200 feet till ground Delia pulls her chute, she feels her shoulders receive an immense jolt upwards as the ropes stiffen and slows down dramatically; to land on all fours with a loud thud in tall wheat. Looking left as she takes her parachute off she spots a woman in a different unit fire her net and crash land safely into a jelly like substance.

“Status” she speaks unbuckling the assault rifle on her thigh and staying low as she runs for the woman.

Hearing no reply, she looks at the bottom left of her screen. Out of the starting eleven dots, five were black, four were red and only two remained its original green.

Shoving her hand into the jelly like substance, Delia helps hrt out. “Dev Serg,” she gets pushed to the ground forcefully onto her back and sees her fire her pistol on top of her at an approaching six limbed enemy.

Rolling off her and getting into a crouched position she drops the pistol, unbuckles hrt assault rifle and creates a mini wall of dirt, all in one fluid motion. “Merm Sergeant Ex,” she speaks breathing heavily, “Alpha Unit Zero Six.”

Nodding she rolls and pushes up against the improvised dirt wall, “Dev Sergeant Delia,” she looks at her radar to find enemies spread out systematically all around them but not in visual sight, “Alpha Unit Zero One.”

Picking up her pistol and reloading it, “My unit didn’t make it,” she says with a tinge of regret, “patch me into your unit’s network.”

Getting a startle as a body lands with a thud and a crack, just a few metres away from her, chute riddled with holes, “Status” she calls out again as she patches Ex in.

“On the way.” Two report.

“Immobile, under fire.” Four report.

Checking the top left of her helmet, the blueprint of the base that was previously shown had now changed to a map of the land, showing the topography of their location.

Coming to a quick understanding of the situation, “I’ve marked your location on the companies map,” she sets another rally point east of her location, and at one of the many Slugs

“Good luck,” four people grunt, understanding what she means before cutting themselves out of the units network.

Tapping Ex’s shoulder, “let’s move,” She tells her as she breaks cover and runs to the tree lines.

Though the enemies were systematically spread all around them, they were not on the move. Instead they were staying still at what seemed to be evenly spaced out intervals of 500 metres.

Hitting the tree line she slows down and lets Ex pass her, making her take the lead. Tapping on her arm device as she hooks her rifle over her shoulder, she opens a channel to all unit heads within 2km of her, “We need to take out the slugs.”

“Agreed” she receives a unanimous reply from 20 different people all at once.

Only 20, she thinks and sees fifteen units mark fifteen different locations on the top left three dimensional map.

“We’re gathering the injured,” the remaining five state before cutting out and setting up their own network.

Tapping upon her arm again she switches back to her unit’s network.

“Coming at your rear,” she hears over the comm and continues to run forward, not looking back, “If we had those nets…”

“Shut up jay.” Delia tells him off, “Keep the waves clear if you aren’t using it properly.”

“Yes sarge,” she gets a response followed by silence.

Passing through the trees, they run in silence and quickly approach another clearing, one much smaller than the drop point, but occupied by the enemy. Ex being in the forefront jumps down low and creates another wall of dirt, higher, stronger and less conspicuous than the last one made out of instinct.

“Location.” Delia whispers into her headset.

“Holding position, opposite your location.” She gets a reply.

“One slug, Eight Bats, Twelve Tri-Legs.” Delia states without even looking over the wall.

“Two Six-arms!” jay shouts in a hush tone.

Concentrating, “Four Six-arms,” Delia corrects, concerned.

“What are Six-arms doing here?!” Ex states in hushed alarm.

Checking the situation of the other units, she taps her arm-device and connects with the closest unit not yet in combat, “Unit One Eight, this is Dev Sergeant Delia Zero One”

“Zero One, Aet Sergeant Rexus One Eight,” a pained reply comes back, “Situation?”

“Member count four, request help at location.” She pings her currently location on his map, “One slug, Eight Bats, Twelve Tri-legs and Four Six-arms”

“FOUR SIX-ARMS!” Rexus replies back shocked, forgetting to follow procedure.

“Four six-arms,” Delia replies back calmly, “Confirmation on back up?”

“Member count nine, ETA 10 minutes.” He replies than cuts out.

Tapping her arm device, “They’ll be here in ten minutes,” setting another rally point “Grey circle left, we’ll meet you there.”

“Yes Sarge.”

“Move.” Delia states nudging Jay to the right.

“Slugs have never slid with in a hundred miles of the border!” he speaks as he leads them to circle around, “And the Six-arms,” sliding under a log, “they’ve”

“It’s an invasion force,” Delia cuts him off, “If they get the base, we will lose two thirds of the country in a matter of months.”

“It makes no sense though,” Ex speaks up, “The border bases report no increase in hostile engagements and the dead zones can’t occupy this many troops without us noticing.”

With the ground shaking from a natural earthquake, the three stumble but do not fall. Noticing the green dot that represented Grey turn black, “Stop,” Delia states whilst diving to the ground immediately followed by Ex creating cover and Jay jumping into it.

“This is stupid,” Jay comments, “We need to get out and come back with a more organised force.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Ex replies agitatedly working on getting their cover less obvious to the naked eye, “The next wave would have seen our planes fall, they’ll come back by air and drop a few miles out of here to avoid this.”

“Well out of range for us to hook up with them.” Delia mentions seeing friendly units approach on her radar.

“Zero One, This is One Eight,” Rexus speaks over the Comm, “Patch us into ur unit’s network”

Doing as instructed, “Five sergeants in one unit,” Ex comments seeing the dots change names and colours, “Don’t see that too often.”

“Five Merms, four Devs and three Aets,” Delia states the number of different species, “One slug, Eight Bats, Twelve Tri-legs and Four Six-arms,” stating the number of enemies, “25 kills with 12 people.”

“We need to separate them.” Ex says, “Draw out the Six-arms.”

“They won’t move unless we take out all twelve Tri-Legs,” Rexus speaks, “and the bats, think that’s what transported the slugs here. They won’t move away from it without reason.”

“Equipment count.” Delia asks quickly forming a plan.

“5 assault, 3 shotgun and 1 sniper we left a hundred metres back.” Rexus replies, “we have 10 grenades spread between us.”

“You guys had the nets didn’t you?” Jay asks.

“We don’t need to draw out the Six-arms,” Delia say whilst giving Jay a knock on the head, “Our objective is to take down the slug and move to another,” marking a pathway on the three dimensional map, “Given enough luck we’ll meet up with other units as we approach the base walls,” playing a video feed from one of the base’s cameras, “If we get that far we’ll have cover from the those on the wall.”

“I don’t think the base will be able to help us.” A different sergeant says, “They’re too busy with their own troubles.”

“Have any other ideas?” Delia asks not expecting them to.

“You’re asking as to start suiciding into these slugs,” the fifth sergeant voices out, “Am I right?”

“…Yes” Delia answers

“…We know what’s at stake here,” the same Sarge replies, “This base was built at a stupid location.”

“You might want to call your sniper here, he is too far out for as to start.”

“That won’t work,” Rexus answers, as they start to separate and create a four point rectangle.

“I broke an ankle as I landed,” the sniper says over the comm, “I have a clear shot at your current location…Won’t be much use to you guys after.”

“Once you fire, the bats will come to you,” Delia says, ensuring she understands.

“I know,” an annoyed laugh comes back, “But what else can be done?”

“We’re in position,” Rexus states, “Ready when you are.”

“Merms, create a fog around the clearing.” Delia commands, “Snipes when you believe there to be enough cover, open fire.”

“Yes Sarge and…Good luck,” she mutes herself.

Peering over the dirt wall and getting ready to fire, fog slowly start to settle in their surroundings, “Remember,” she says, “Once we start firing we need to constantly move backwards, pulling them away and diverting their attention.”

“Good luck,” two reply muting themselves.

Now waiting, the comms go silent. The fog slowly becomes thicker and thicker, and it also becomes colder and colder. The ground shakes, but this time not from a natural earthquake, the slug has fired another shot.

“Did the central base not see what happened to the last drop?” Ex whispers over the comm, still trying to make the fog thicker, “don’t they know that it’s suicide to bring planes this close?!”

“It helps us,” Rexus says back, “The bats have flown off.”

With the ground shaking again from the acid projectiles being released by the slug, a sniper round goes of hitting the projectile as it flew only 50 feet into the air. Making acid rain fall down all around the clearing.

Opening fire, “That was an impressive shot” Delia comments under her breath falling back as screams and heavy feet can be heard running towards them.

Shooting and running, they keep it up and continue to pull majority of the forces away from the slug. “I think we’ve gathered all of the tri-legs to us!” jay shouts with a heavy breathe, “Think they chickened out?”

“Shut up jay,” Delia commands again, as the ground shakes from another projectile being released by the slug.

Emptying a third clip of her rifle, “Stop firing,” she commands, “We’ve drawn them far enough,” turning around she along with the others sprint away.

A large explosion sounds as they do, causing those that chased them to turn back and two lights blink black. Tapping her arm as she runs, “Situation!” she calls out into the open network.

Hearing silence on it, “Situation!” she calls out again, extremely concerned about her own circumstances. Being over 3km away from the walls to the eastern base, she knows that things were now looking grim.

“Eastern Base,” a reply comes through from the open comms, “your unit is the last active unit on site.”

Static sounds out and heavy engine noises come from above. “Bombardment of your location has been authorized by Central Base, Danger close.”

Slowly down to a stop, Delia looks up into the smoking black sky. “Confirmation on incoming Bombardment?”

“Confirmed.”

“They’ve written us of as dead,” Ex states, taking off her helmet and puking out blood.

“They want to turn this place into another dead zone,” Rexus says through the comm at a good hundred metres away, “better that then giving the base over to the beasts.”

“Dig,” Delia states calmly

“What?” the three other sergeants responds simultaneity

“Dig,” Delia says again looking at Ex, “We may survive that way.”

Understanding what she means, Ex begins moulding her surroundings as the other Mermanus do so as well. First throwing up slanting walls as temporary barriers then digging diagonally downwards.

The sound of whistling fall and planes overhead can be seen smoking and dropping their cargo. Pushing Jay into the improvised hole that was still being dug, Delia stays the most exposed.

“Use this.” Jay says passing a fist sized ball of metal.

“You had a shield on you the whole time?” Delia asks

Shrugging, “There was no need for it,” he says as Delia activates it, “It won’t save us from the bombardment though.”

“No,” Nodding in agreement, “It won’t”

Map i use when i write, extremely rough but as we've past the 50k word mark i thought you guys may as well get to see what the country looks like.

Note - this is only one country of 12 that have a major influence of the world...so yeah Long story ahead

Note - it is subject to change depending on how the story unfolds

Note - Just cause it has that many landmarks doesn't mean the M.C will visit everywhere

A/N

Didn't know there was a Line thing, ill be using that from now on.

@AMP - Four is brain dead, but her body is fine. But she is brain dead, meaning that the brain is gone, Does that mean she is dead? Technically she is still clinically alive i guess, as the chamber she is in keeps her body alive. But she is brain dead.

Uni is starting up again for me, updates will slow down now because of that. Just because it coincidentally times with the time i got a donation button does not mean i am holding this story "hostage" -.- I'll try to do at least one chapter a week, though no guarantees

That being said, any donations i get will go to food, books for uni and uni fee (HAHAHA LIVING IS EXPENSIVE!)

And as always, Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it ^.^