บท 65: Ironclad against Flesh

Squeezing my rifle while prone down, i was ready, ready for the onslaught that's gonna come any second now.

"NOW!" Sebastian yelled. We opened fire, i aimed for the drones first, every few rounds a drone from the pack fell down, i can see their explosions from the grey foggy distance.

We unleashed whatever we had, firing at the figures, in the distance the shadows fell down. From the drones to the insurgents, my arms felt fixed to my rifle, as if they were now programmed to only fire and reload.

While we fired, bolts of yellow past us in quick succession. The hail of bright small rods intensified as the force that was once moving towards us halted in it's path, through the grey curtain of the snowfall i can see flashes of their muzzles, so much flashes in varying directions in front of me.

"There's too many of em!" Mary yelled.

While in the firefight, a muzzle flash bigger in size than the others caught my attention, in just a second, the wall of the ship behind us let out a loud vibrating ding with a noticeable hole now pierced into it.

"Use the launchers now! Shit!" Sebastian ordered us, in the heat of the firefight.

I couldn't believe it, so much yellow bolts directly aimed at me and my teammates, unlike the forest battle and the mines, this was open field with more units fighting us. The bullets hit the ship's wall or hit the dirt next to me. Many missing, i don't even know if i was shot and the adrenaline just dulled my pain.

It only intensified, i fired my rifle so much, i can no longer feel myself in control, as if my mind once again took control. Firing my weapon for me, constantly moving my eyes and arms repositioning my aim towards the next live targets.

While the insurgents and vehicles fired fruitlessly at our direction, the drones continued charging directly at us.

The grey curtain of the snowfall slowly dissipated, revealing the force were up against. Despite snow though still falling, the strength of the fall quickly got less and less strong as our vision became more clear with the enemy in front of us.

I can clearly see the vehicles now, some look to be normal civilian cars with armor while one of em looks to be a military grade one. They moved onwards, this time at a slower pace attempting to pin us down with their huge numbers and gunfire.

Remembering Sebastian's order earlier, i held onto the launcher. Staying as low as i could, i stood up now in a crouched position, the launcher on my shoulder.

Aiming at one of the vehicles, the launcher began pinging.

A sudden sharp pain hit my arm, i fell back from the pain dropping the launcher to the ground.

I need to take out the weaker vehicles first. The screen showed "Target locked" after a few seconds of aiming it, with a squeeze of a trigger. The rocket flew, flew through the air hitting it's target, one of the civilian armored cars. The hatch promptly opened, ejecting something out. I repeated the same process, taking out other armored cars. Each of them blew up in a brilliant red orange glow with fires starting on their steel carcasses. Lastly, the military vehicle was left. One trigger squeeze, another rocket flew fast into it.

Meeting it's mark, the rocket blew up. As the smoke clears, the vehicle was still working, not stopping, did it even do damage?

"Damon hit it again, we'll take care of the insurgents and drones." Nora assured me.

Inserting another rocket, I released another warhead at the vehicle. By this time, the ammo box was close to empty with only 4 rockets left.

4 Rockets, after the 4th rocket, the vehicle blew up in the similar red orange hue as the other vehicles.

"That's the vehicles down, now it's the insurgents as well as drones left." Nora said.

I went back to prone, with the ammunition i had left, i returned to targeting and shooting insurgents.

"The drones are getting closer, try taking out as much as you can." Nora added. We aimed upwards at the drones charging at the ship, firing at each of them until they fell.

A few drones got past us and further destroyed the side of the ship, revealing more and more of the internal components of it. But it seems they were the last drones left.

Back down, it's time to finish this battle.

I focused even more, shifting my aim became quicker than normal, some hid behind the wreckage of the blown up vehicles, but something was odd with the military vehicle, it looked like bits and pieces of it were melting off of it and disappearing, does it have the same capabilities of the drones?

The rifle's rounds sent the insurgents down to the ground quick, alot easier than the drones. Shifting target to target, witnessing their bodies fall flat with blood coming out after firing, the battlefield became littered with more corpses than combatants.

Silence soon followed, with no more gunfire exchange, it all became silent, soon the whistling noise of cold wind came by.

There was a long pause, none of us talked, i stood up from my snow cover, in front of me, the vehicles kept on burning and the corpses of the insurgents littered the battlefield, snow already starting to slowly bury them.

Snow started becoming red near the corpses as time went on, slowly growing like a flower on each of the bodies.

"I think that's all of em." Stephen broke the silence, speaking in comms.

We survived what could be a last stand or holdout.

"Alright, i hope that's all of em, check their bodies. See if they're dead." Sebastian ordered us.

A pile of magazines rested next to the launcher with bullets scattered everywhere.

I approached the military vehicle, fire continued on it.

Walking nearer to it, a bright flash blinded my eyes, i felt weightless again, with a deafening sound of an explosion in my ears.

I slammed hard back onto the snow, Nora rushed to me on the ground. She extended her hand to me, grabbing it, i hoisted myself back up. The vehicle that was once there, is now clouded in thick black smoke. Is it gonna disappear like the drones as well?