บท 3: Chapter 3 - Dead End
The Echelon 3 is made up of MP5, Sten Mk II, M1919A4, M1918 and M9. Quite a balanced line up and well equipped to deal with the ELID as they are made in mind to fight against those infected in the first place compared to Echelon 1 & 2 that is tasked to take care of the SF and Rebels.
At first, they were tasked to assist Echelon 1 & 2 due to lack of manpower against the SF and Rebels forces but the sudden reinforcement from the local garrison units manage to push back the SF and Rebels.
"MP5 relocated your Echelon to the eastern wall. Our reinforcements are having trouble with the Smashers."
"Affirmative, commander!" MP5 replied quickly. Then she stops firing at the SF forces. "Let's move, ladies." She called the others and they quickly moved to the eastern wall, weaving through the garrison troops that were taking over their place.
"Hey, have any of you know about this reinforcement? I didn't think we had any during the briefing." M9 asked curiously.
"Beat me. I'm not the one attending the briefing." M1919 shrugs disinterested with the topic.
"I didn't remember there was any reinforcement either." MP5 answered and put an end to the conversation as they approached the inner wall facing the eastern quarantine wall that was breached.
Corpses strewn around, mangled or torn into bits. Only four soldiers in military gears and wielding unknown guns were holding their ground against the seemingly endless hordes of Undead.
"They are very impressive… No, they are amazing. I can't even imagine Elite Dolls achieving what they did." M1918 praised as she watched in awe the four soldiers mowing down ELIDs without much issue except when a Smasher emerged.
"This is MP5 from Echelon 3. We will arrive in 20 seconds." MP5 informed the soldiers and quickly went down the wall along with her Echelon following close behind.
"This is operator Adam White to Echelon 3. Just focus on those that slipped in." Someone replied to MP5.
———
"They are endless." Adam sighed as he reloaded his rifle.
He remembers seeing the number of zombies outside the wall prior to deployment. This will not end even if they spend day and night fighting. He must figure out a way to plug this wall or at least to prevent them from harming the citizens. But plugging the wall is impossible. There is nothing he can plug it with.
He figures the zombies keep pouring in because they are attracted to noise from his and the others gun's. Nothing will change if they keep killing those zombies that poured in because their numbers are too great.
"MP5 can you connect me to your commander?" Adam called the girl with a red beret on her head.
"Eh, Ah! Of course." The girl nods and halts for a moment as she contacts her commander. "He wished to speak with you commander."
"Is there anything I can help, operator Adam White?" The Commander asked.
"Yes, as you know. It's futile to keep killing these zombies unless we can repair or plug this wall. So, I wonder if you have ways to do it." Adam forward his plan.
"Give me a moment." The Commander silenced the radio for a brief moment before she replied. "Yes. We could patch the wall but the shipment of material and engineers would take at least half an hour from the base."
"Alright. Better than nothing." Adam felt relieved it's possible and returned his attention to battle.
Half an hour later, a fleet of 3 helicopters landed behind them with a dozen soldiers unloading the cargo while one of them approached Adam.
"Sir, we are from the combat engineers sent by Commander Gentiane." The soldier saluted and awaiting for order.
"Good. I will lead my squad outside the breach and impede the zombies from entering while you patch up the wall." Adam ordered.
The combat engineer said nothing and simply replied with a salute on his hardened face. Knowing what Adam trying to do is basically suicidal. Blocking the horde with just four of them. Even Adam isn't sure if he would be successful or not. He simply didn't entertain that thought fearing he would have cold feet.
"We will do our best, sir."
"Wait! Shouldn't you let us dolls to take care of this? The ELIDs are very contagious to humans." MP5 wanted to dissuade Adam from bringing his squad to a suicide mission.
Adam didn't respond to the girl as he saw their firepower. It's too lacking for the job. Outside the breach is swarmed with zombies on all sides. They will be torn into pieces the moment they get surrounded, unlike inside the breach that has a narrow path to limit the number of zombies coming in.
"Squad on me, let's move outside the wall." Adam ordered. 001, 002 and 003 made no refusal as they obeyed without hesitation and marched out through the breach.
Adam swapped his Sub-light COM2 Assault Rifle for Ronson 5X5 Shotgun that shoots a special shell containing thermite and white phosphorus along with the 5 tungsten tetrahedra pellet. How does all that thing fit in a shotgun shell? Not even Adam knew what witchcraft the 4th Millennium science did to firearm technology because last time he remembered, 127mm rounds his Assault Rifle shot is the same round used by naval artillery on a ship.
Adam shot with his shotgun which spewed out a white trail of fire like a dragon breath shell and the white hot pellet tore through the crowd with ease before setting them on fire.
But the horde is too overwhelming as there are only four people fighting against an ocean of zombies.
"003, Necro Bomb."
The Medic nods and magically produces a grenade with purple label before throwing it in the horde ahead before bursting into a cloud of purple smoke.
Any zombies inside or entering the purple cloud suddenly have bulges all over their body. Some even bursting out with gore spilling on the ground as they fell in swathes.
001 activate his skill, Hold The Line as his body and minigun surrounded with orange aura as his shots suddenly become more powerful, packing more lunch and pierce harder through the enemies and creating holes as the bullet bore into the zombie's body. Each shot it made accompanied with loud explosion that left others with ringing noise on their ears. But thankfully, the operators all have some degree of hearing protection built-in to their helmet. The Dolls however were left wincing at the noise.
Adam and 002 activate Adrenaline Shot which increases their firing speed to absurd degree, especially 002 who have more points on the skill than Adam. The shotgun in Adam's hand and sniper rifle in 002 were no different than machine guns with that firing rate as the hordes were reduced into bits with their effort.
Not just the Dolls were impressed. Even Gentiane, watching through the Doll's eyes with her mouth agape, was surprised at the borderline magic Adam and his squad performed.
"How long does the engineer need to patch the wall?" Adam shouted at MP5 standing close at his right, firing at the incoming zombies.
"6 more minutes, they just need to put a frame in place before filling in the bakelites, sir."
'Fuck' Adam cursed under his breath as he saw six more Tanks marching toward them. His shotgun pellets will just bounce off the skin, not enough power to chip off any layer.
"001, Aerial Bombardment on the Variants!"
"Affirmative."
Adam pops off another Adrenaline Shot as the Orbital Artillery strike lays waste to the Tanks. Unfortunately, two of them survived the artillery strike. He quickly swaps to his Assault Rifle and rapidly gun down the two Tanks before they can be relaxed.
The normal zombies were of no threat to them. But the Tanks are annoying because of their ridiculously hard skin.
Suddenly, he saw a bullet hit 001 and bounce off his Hardplate armor.
"Huh?" He looked around to find where the bullet was coming from but it's impossible to look for it in the horde, it's like finding a needle in the haystack.
He put the matter aside and continued mowing down the relentless horde of undead. When suddenly he heard a call from the engineers.
"Sir, the frame had been put down and ready to be filled. Please retreat quickly."
"MP5 take your Echelon and retreat now." Adam ordered.
"But what about you, sir?" MP5 saw Adam and his squad not preparing to retreat at all.
"We will pull the horde's attention elsewhere. If we retreat here, they will break the patched up wall again." He explained. "We will move around the wall and retreat to another location." Adam said as he had no delusion that a hastily patched up wall will hold against Variant like Tank if it decides to break it.
Adam didn't give her time to retort his order despite not having the authority to order the girls.
"Squad follow me."
"Yes, sir." The operators respond and quickly follow behind Adam while they make as much noise as possible to aggro the horde along them.
After Echelon 3 and the engineers safely retreated from the wall, Adam and his squad no longer linger and move around the wall. Their goal is to move up north and jump in directly on the rebels. Against humans, the weapon he and his squad use is very effective and deadly, their armors also shrugs most of the bullets they use anyway, especially the Heavy Class operator's Hardplate armor that can shrug off a shot from an actual battle tank but not the shockwave.
———
Gentiane was surprised when she tore her eyes off the northern wall for a moment as the battle in the city got heated. When her attention returned, she was informed by MP5 about Adam and his plan to pull away the ELIDs outside the wall where they will have a great chance to be overwhelmed and killed.
She is sure Adam is a human and so does his squad. What he proposed is basically suicidal. Yet, when she got a live feed on Adam and his squad, they were doing great and able to reach up north and scaled up a wall by literally jumping up over a dozen meters!
But that was not the main concern because what came after that was hordes of rebels. They literally just landed deep behind the enemy lines. She thought they were done for until they saw the effectiveness of the squad against the units and mechs deployed by Paradeus.
Armored suits worn by Paradeus' unit were pierced like wet paper using the white futuristic rifle used by Adam himself. His squad members although didn't have that much ease on dispatching the Paradeus units, their guns still pack much more punch than what her Elite Dolls were outfitted.
"Just who are they?" She frowned deeply.
Gentiane cannot imagine any faction having equipment this advanced on Earth and she rather not. Having a hidden faction with this much power is a recipe for disaster just like Sangvis Ferri once did.
———
Inside the city of Belgrade, the entire city almost turned into a warzone except the quarantine area on the lower southern section which most of the garrison troops and G & K Dolls are fighting to defend until they felt the rebel forces suddenly fell back along with the Paradeus units on the right flank.
They felt something was amiss, especially when an artillery strike suddenly fell deep behind the enemy lines.
*Bzzt*
Lieutenant Dragovic suddenly heard his radio buzzing.
"Hello, this is operator Adam White to all friendly units." Dragovic immediately recognised it's his benefactor, the reinforcement squad. "We are currently deep behind the- *bzzt* enemy linescreating distraction. Do what you can with this opportunity." Adam said with loud gunfire and explosion going off in the background before the transmission ended.
True to Adam's words. Once the transmission ended, multiple loud explosions took place behind the enemy linesforcing the enemies to temporarily divert their troops away, lessening the burden on the quarantine area.
"Just how much explosive went off over there?" Someone asked as the sound of the explosion just kept on going like fireworks over at Adam's location.
———
Back to Adam.
They were pinned and surrounded by enemy forces surrounding every inch outside the building. They climb up to the roof and barricade themselves up there and thankfully the enemies didn't have Air unit ot they are toast as fuck.
Suddenly, a swarm of white drones with a halo-like propeller appeared and aimed at them.
"I fucking jinxed it!" Adam cursed and still under Adrenaline effect, his perception of time slowed as he quickly aimed at the drones and dispatched them. Thankfully his gambit to aim at the propeller worked as the moment it broke, the drone went out of control and fell to the ground.
"001, Aerial Bombardment!"
"Affirmative!"
Volley of artillery strikes fell down and carpet bombed the unit below swarming on to them like ants.
"001, hold the entrance. 002, 003 focus on any Air units."
A chorus of "Affirmative" heard by Adam through his comm as he looked at his money on his HUD that didn't have much. Only around 13k and he scolds himself to not prepare more. With this much money, he can buy 60 HE grenades. Adding to his existing 20, he has a total of 80 and Adam starts chucking them down at the swarm of enemies below the building without reservation.
A symphony of explosion erupts from all the grenades he throws and it lasts a full five minutes.
"Now what?" Adam asks himself as the enemies continue to swarm in without sign of end.
"Also… is that a spider tank with an energy cannon?" Adam stared at the four legged tank with its cannon flashing blue as if it was charging its cannon.
"It's fucking is!" Adam quickly called for an Aerial Bombardment himself.
"Everyone dodge!" Adam barked on the comm as 002 and 003 obeyed and retreated away from the edge of the building. As a blue beam evaporated a straight path through the spot 002 last stood on and narrowly missed his arm.
Then Adam saw two more of the four legged tanks walk out behind a building and aimed at them. His Aerial Bombardment is still on cooldown and so is 001. No more place to run to and trapped while their enemies have their big gun aimed at them.
They are on a dead end like cornered rats.
—————
(How is it? A little boring? Lacking interaction with the local characters? I need some feedback.)
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