บท 15: C14

"F*ck!"

Hans cursed once again while watching his mech's fuel reserves hit rock bottom as he maneuvered his mech to enter the large hole inside the bitch black without any signs of life because of the Briaan's years of orbital bombardment ground.

Which was just big enough for his mech while countless reports from other units filled his ears.

...

Boom!Boom!Boom!

How long has it been already? One day, a week, a month, a year, two, or 6 years? I can't remember anymore.

2nd Leutenenant Hope mused in her mind as dust fell on her battle-damaged fully-enclosed obsolete model helmet from the cracked cement reinforced ceiling that continued to tremble nonstop because of the Briaans fleet's 24/7 indiscriminate orbital bombardment.

Only for the sound of solid warheads fired by railguns hitting land and trembling to stop all of a sudden.

Upon noticing this Hope's bloodshot eyes almost popped out of her sockets while her heart started beating like a madman as her body broke out in cold sweat because she knew what this meant.

They're coming I have to get out of here! Now!

Hope turned around and was about to start sprinting deeper into the underground electrical train tunnel which connected to countless others.

Which was the only reason why the Briaans still didn't manage to exterminate all of humanity in the alpha centaury prime.

After all, it was like a death maze spread out through the whole planet.

Only to freeze in place after seeing the wounded human civilians wrapped up in bloody bandages wearing worn down and filthy environmental suits with fully enclosed helmets.

Holding their crying children in their arms as they tried to comfort them even though they were scared shitless themselves.

"Mommy, I'm scared I want to go home!"

"Shhhh. Don't worry sweetheart everything is going to be okay the soldiers will protect us from those evil Briaans."

A malnourished and filthy woman dressed in an environmental suit because alpha century was practically uninhabitable for humans, she was nothing but bones and meat at this point comforted her child clad in an environmental suit while looking at Hope with hope-filled eyes.

"Fuck..."

Hope cursed out under her breath as she turned around and assumed cover behind a pile of rubble while dialing up her helmet's loudspeakers volume in her mind.

"The reptiles are coming everyone run deeper into the bunker I'll buy you as much time as I can!"

After saying this with her dead tired voice she switched to her platoons communication channel.

"Everyone who is incapable of holding and shooting their weapon or too scared to do their duty retreat with civies as for those who aren't, dig in and say your prayers to the Gods you believe in."

Upon hearing this the 20 wounded to various degrees soldiers wearing battle-damaged filthy different color patterns camouflaged fully sealed dust-covered field uniforms and only an obsolete armored vest with fully enclosed helmets to protect them raised their heads in unison but not one chose to run away from their fates.

On the contrary, Hope watched both mentally and physically exhausted soldiers wordlessly crawl, limp, and walk to piles of rubble one step at a time.

Hope turned around and started taking out her magazines from her armored vests pouches, placed them on the ground, and started reloading them with her trembling hands with the spare ammo she had.

As Hope finished reloading her magazines she looked at her two full magazines connected together with duct tape which was a soldier's best friend that contained obsolete 30 6.8 ×43 mm rounds each.

With this, I can hopefully kill one before I run out of ammunition if I get lucky? No who am I trying to fool these pussy rounds won't even be able to deplete their shields.

Hope debated in her mind as she inserted her jungle magazine with her right gloved hand into her modular smart rifle and pulled back the bolt with her left hand and released it making a fresh round enter the firing chamber.

Boom!

Without warning, the rubble in front of her blocking the large round electrical train tunnel exploded inwards making Hope fly back a couple of meters backward because she was too close.

Bang!Bang!Bang!

Phew!Phew!Phew!

Tratatatatatata!

"Urghhh..."

Hope opened her eyes as she groaned painfully only to see 8 feet tall humanoid Briaan soldier with two normal and two smaller T-rex-like hands and two bent legs geared up in power armor with spikes covering its vent back and head firing its laser assault rifle left and right.

"Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you!"

Hope watched a soldier with a missing left arm stand up from behind his cover and hip-fire his modular smart machine gun at the damn lizard while cursing at the top of his lungs who completely ignored it because the 12.7 ×108 mm bullets just bounced off from its round blue shields.

Hope switched her selector to full auto fire mode while pressing the stock of her rifle against her right shoulder, crossed her holographic crosshairs in her cracked and bloody HUD helmet screen, and fired at the damn lizard.

Bang!Bang!Bang!...

Somehow that managed to deplete the lizard's shield but to her horror, she saw the dented bullets ricochet off from the soldier's chest plate armor leaving nothing but scratches.

"Die!Die!Die!"

Hope screamed as she watched the lizard gun down her platoons machine gunner while completely ignoring her.

"Eat this you fucker!"

Hope cursed out as she took out her last 40 mm HE shell from her armored vest and inserted it into her rifle's under-barrel grenade launcher and pulled the trigger.

Boom!

"Arghhh!"

Hope screamed out in pain as she felt a red-hot shrapnel pierce her obsolete alloy front armor plate.

"We got wounded! Cover me!"

A paramedic screamed into their cc as he released his rifle making it automatically retract to his right side while taking out a syringe with morphine and sprinting to Hope.

"Covering!"

The paramedic heard a sniper reply as he plunged the syringe into Hope's field uniform's syringe injection spot in her neck which was specifically made for situations like these.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Why don't you fucking die?!"

As the morphine spread out through her body numbing her pain receptors Hope heard the sniper roar into their cc as he watched his armor-piercing 12.7 mm bullets fired from his 50 cal sniper rifle ricochet as they left only small dents.

"Use your feet!"

The paramedic roared out as he grabbed Hope's armored vests emergency grip strap behind her neck with his left hand and started pulling her back while firing his own rifle at the lizard.

Hope kicked her heels as fast as she could to scramble back as she took out her double mag and inserted it back into her rifle, released her bolt which was stuck in a backward position, and pulled the trigger again.

Only for the paramedic's headless body to fall onto her.

Hope tried to push the dead body off of her but she couldn't muster the strength because her overloaded nervous system started to shut down.

So this is it huh?

Hope asked herself in her mind as she watched her comrade's life signals one by one turn red on her HUD screen as her vision slowly turned dark.

Only for a pitch black over 20 feet tall mech to pierce the ceiling.

What the?

Hope thought in bewilderment as she watched the mech raise his mass accelerator battle rifle and fire a single shot of a 30 mm solid warhead round made out of a nanocomposite alloy that left only bloody pieces out of the briaan soldier.

"Hahahaha..."

Hope couldn't help but laugh maniacally after recognizing the UNOE emblem on the mech's shoulder.

...

"Holy shit this thing packs a punch! Back in my days, we didn't have these kinds of toys!"

Hans couldn't help but exclaim as he looked at the bloody spot only to hear Lilith's voice full of interruptions.

"All un... ren... I... rep..."

F*ck it's this goddamn maze.

Hans cursed in his mind only for an entire platoon of briaan soldiers to storm in as he did he raised his mech's right arm and pressed the fixed to his arm Gatling gun's trigger.

Tratrataratartratra...

He saw the 20 mm APHE shells tear through the briaans shields, armor and flesh like hot knife slices through butter.

Even though it was just a normal Gatling gun, not a mass acceleration based hundreds of bullets were still enough to turn the briaans into meat paste.