Major Jenkins was cleaning up his gear as he was reading over the new orders sent down by the Divison commander. His battalion had been hammered in the last exchange with the Demonic army and they still needed time to recover their strength. His new replacements had just arrived giving him a few fresh platoons to bolster one of his companies that had taken the most losses in the last battle. He looked at the orders and frowned, they expected him to hold a location against three divisions of hostiles with his one battalion. They sent him plenty of ammo but it was impossible to expect a battalion to hold against such an overwhelming force. Not to mention that most of the replacements that were sent were fresh out of basic training.
He was starting to get a headache when he heard one of his captains pushing past the soldier guarding his tent. "Major Jenkins, I don't need them." He looked up and saw the beautiful fiery red-headed woman that was in command of his alpha company. "They sent me recruits instead of soldiers. The Lieutenant in charge hasn't ever seen real combat. He's a fucking training officer. How can I use these assholes? The moment they see a Demon, they are gonna lose their shit and run. You know we can't use them here."
"Rei, they sent the troops they had available to send us. Things are getting that bad. There was no other reserve unit left to send. We are expected to hold this line against three divisions. HQ is afraid that if things get much worse, Command might order the Apocolypse here." He sighed and rubbed his shoulder, "I don't expect you to turn them into soldiers before the next wave. Just point them at the enemy and tell them to shoot."
"This is bullshit Major, you didn't give Hooper a recruit platoon." She angrily replied.
"Hooper lost his entire company. I had to take a platoon from everyone else to give him a company. Rei, your situation isn't nearly as bad, you have an entire platoon of veterans. Stick the rookies in a couple of the bunkers and let them help. After this next wave, they'll be veterans too." He stretched out and picked up his helmet and rifle. "Get them in position and get ready. We might not survive this, so it's not time to worry about the quality of our replacements."
A soldier came running up, "Major, Demonic forces approaching. They brought Trolls this time."
"Fuck me, Captain Hanaka get back to your company, have your veteran platoon man the rockets and stick the rookies in the boxes." Major Jenkins ran outside and grabbed the com unit. Captain Hanaka ran at a sprint back to her company swearing the whole way. "HQ, this is Viper, can we get air support, we've got green nasties inbound."
"Negative Viper, hold them with ground fire." Came the quick reply over the com unit.
Major Jenkins took a deep breath and then said, "Hooper you and Bol are mobile, get into ambush position delta. Fall back to the Yankee and Zulu bunkers after your attack. Hanaka you have the Bravo bunkers and rockets. We have plenty of ammo so light them up once they get in firing range. We are negative for air support."
Captain Hanaka ran to the Bravo bunkers and ordered her new replacement platoon into position. She was afraid that once they saw the demons, they would try to run so she stayed with them in the bunkers. When she got into the bunker with one of the squads she felt like she was standing in a group of seasoned veterans. She almost thought she was in the wrong bunker. Sergeant Xian nodded Captain as he gave out the orders to his men, "Long, I want you on the 50. Fatty you have the ammo. Everyone else, get in position."
Captain Hanaka's eyes opened wide as the soldiers spread out perfectly and had their rifles at the ready. They didn't even flinch as the monstrous trolls approached. Sergeant Xian spoke out, "Long, we have plenty of ammo, you can work on the archers until the trolls get in range."
"Target the archers until the Trolls are in range, Sergeant!" Long Shen replied.
Captain Hanaka suddenly got angry and blurted out, "Sergeant, I don't care what you teach them in basic training but we are not wasting ammo on the trolls. If the rockets can't take out a troll we retreat."
Everyone in the squad chuckled and then started to open fire as the Demonic army came into firing range. Captain Hanaka was furious she was going to have this Lieutenant's ass if these men didn't follow her orders. The sound of the rockets being fired sounded behind them but the trolls only seemed angered as the rockets struck them. Long Shen called out, "Taking out the trolls. Keep the archers down!" He swung the huge Railgun up and started to fire into the faces of the trolls. One after another they fell down crushing the advancing Demonic army underneath of them. He called out, "Reload!" Fatty quickly swapped out the ammo can. Long Shen went right back to work dropping the last of the trolls.
Sergeant Xian called out, "Rifles on the Minotaurs, Long suppress the archers." Captain Hanaka wanted to refute what she was seeing as it flew in the face of everything her battlefield instincts said was the right thing to do. These men seemed to be as experienced as special forces soldiers. She noticed that every rifleman in the squad would fire a single shot to kill a single target as if this was a practice drill at the shooting range.
"Who are you guys?" She found herself asking out loud.
"Squad 48. My blood, my body, my soul, long live the squad!" Sergeant Xian called out. The entire squad repeated the chant as one. It caused shivers to run down Captain Hanaka's spine for some reason.
Captain Hanaka was lost in thought as her com chime sounded and her other Lieutenant called out, "Captain, great work with the rookies, they cleared the right flank. I brought my platoon over to support the other bunker, but those guys were solid too. What are my orders?"
Captain Hanaka realized she wasn't using her veterans correctly and called out, "Get into the alpha bunkers and suppress the Snakes with the 50. Have your riflemen put down the Cattle."
Captain Hanaka walked up close to Sergeant Xian and asked him, "Where did you learn these new tactics?"
Sergeant Xian pointed to Long Shen and then replied, "He led this squad to victory over the battle of Fruit Ridge on the VR sim."
Captain Hanaka smirked and said, "Bullshit, even the Angels call that scenario unwinnable."
Sergeant Xian grinned and then said, "They beat it on the first try. As their second battle sim. Without help from me or the Lieutenant."
Captain Hanaka looked at Long Shen again. She paid attention to how he used the big railgun. He didn't waste shots at all. He would kill each target he aimed at as the long gun barrel swung left and right always managing to hit dense pockets of enemy fighters. Just before the ammo belt was done, he would call out for a reload at the perfect moment so that the gun almost never stopped being fired. She watched as the riflemen likewise never wasted shots. Each time they would pull the trigger a Demon died. Even her best platoon couldn't match this squad of raw recruits. Just before the fight, she noticed that each of them had set out spare magazines as if they knew exactly how to prepare for a siege. A skill that took normal soldiers a few battles to acquire. Captain Hanaka spoke over the com, "Hernandez, what's your situation?"
"Hooper and Bol are wasted. Yankee and Zulu are down. The left flank seems to have an expert. The Major headed that way." The reply came in gasping breaths.
A sound like a huge bomb sounded in the distance and a bright red glow filled the sky. A few of the squad tried to see what was happening but it was too far away. Long Shen was busy keeping the Demons suppressed but he too noticed the red glow. He remembered his fight with Lieutenant Dan and questioned out loud, "Energy Gathering?"
Captain Hanaka shook her head and said, "Core formation. That's the Major fighting."
A few moments later the glow disappeared and the major spoke over the com channel, "Left flank is clear, the enemy commander is down. Rei, how are you holding up there?"
"Right flank is currently in mop-up, negative casualties." She replied emotionlessly.
A moment later Major Jenkins asked again, "I'm sorry, how many casualties did you report? I didn't copy."
"None Sir, all bunkers remain and so far no signs of officers." She replied the same way.
Long Shen spoke up, "Captain, we killed two enemy officers during the fight. Hoa got a clean headshot on the Snake and I downed the Minotaur."
Captain Hanaka looked at him like he was an idiot, "Officers are at the energy gathering stage, we have to kill them in hand to hand. They can put up a defensive field to protect themselves."
Hoa spoke up and nodded, "Yes Captain, but we found that you can put a bullet in their head if you fire three consecutive shots at the same spot."
Captain Hanaka started to laugh, "What soldier can do that?"
The entire squad looked back and forth between each other. Sergeant Xian chuckled and said, "You're looking at the only squad that's able to brag it."
In the other bunker, squad 47 and Lieutenant Dan were all shaking still after a battle in which they felt they were certainly going to die. The Lieutenant walked around and pat everyone on the back and said, "Good work, you all did well."
Sergeant Tang shook his head and whispered to the Lieutenant, "Most of these guys fired wildly only a few of them managed to use an entire clip. They were shaken up by that horde. If those monsters in the other bunker weren't here we'd all be dead. They almost single-handedly killed that entire division and its reinforcements."
Lieutenant Dan nodded, "Whoever was on the 50 killed most if not all of them."
Sergeant Tang nodded and said, "Did you see how they killed the trolls? It wasn't the rockets. They managed to kill the trolls by firing into their eyes."
Lieutenant Dan shook his head and touched the com and asked, "Captain, do we need to assist Bravo Company? We are all clear here."
"Bravo company is gone, Major Jenkins cleared the left flank. Standby until further orders." Captain Hanaka stared at the men of Squad 48, her eyes kept landing on Long Shen. Even though he was just the Corporal she couldn't help notice that while they respected Sergeant Xian and followed his orders, Long Shen was the man they all really followed. Even the Sergeant seemed to look for his lead. As she looked at him she started to think he looked very handsome. It wasn't because of his appearance so much, it was more like he had an aura of invincibility around him. As if all of this was just another day to him.
Sergeant Xian asked a second time, "Captain? Do we have orders?"
Captain Hanaka looked at Sergeant Xian, "Sorry, yes, we are to standby here for further orders."
Major Jenkins spoke over the com to the entire battalion, "I have an order from HQ to prepare for a second assault, they spotted a large troop movement headed for our position. We have been ordered to delay them until the Angel of Light arrives. I need all remaining officers with me, Sergeants you have your squads. Each squad needs to be in a bunker with all the ammo we have left. I am not going to sugar coat it, we are being used as a meat shield to protect the left flank of our main force. We are going to be outnumbered a thousand to one here. Just hold out."
Captain Hanaka looked at the squad in her bunker and realized not a single one of them looked afraid. It was business as usual for them. One of the men called out, "Hey Fatty, how many cans do we have left for the 50?"
Fatty Lai looked over and started to count, "Twenty five, plus the half can we have on it now. We have ten magazine crates for the rifles."
One of them whistled, "This is easier than last time."
Captain Hanaka shook her head and then raced out of the bunker to meet the other remaining officers. When she got to the meeting location she was shocked that there were only five of them in total, with only two being captains at the peak of the energy gathering stage like her. The three lieutenants were all at the first level of the energy gathering stage. Once they were all accounted for the Major walked over and said, "They want us to hold out against an army of one hundred thousand. That means there will be a couple of Succubus and most likely an archdemon. Not to mention the usual Snakes, Cattle and pigs."
"Will there be trolls this time?" Captain Hanaka asked.
"No trolls, they were sent with that probing force. But we might have furies this time. We have no rockets and no air support until the Angel of Light descends so make sure that the squads stay in this bunkers." The Major looked out in the distance. "We have half an hour, make sure you gather your strength. We'll be acting as decoys for their officers. Get them to chase us so the men in the bunkers won't need to worry about them."
Long Shen decided to use the downtime to cultivate. As he found himself sitting by the lake the voice boomed out, "A dragon's mind is as powerful as his body." Long Shen suddenly felt like his brain was on fire. All of his senses became much sharper. He could feel more of his body than ever before. It caused him to open his eyes.
Sergeant Xian growled out, "Long, get your ass on that 50, we've got incoming!"
Long Shen stretched out and grinned. The fire in his brain receded and now he could see things like never before. When he took control of the large railgun he could clearly see the faces of the army that was still fifteen hundred meters away. He squeezed the trigger and shot a short burst of fire and managed to hit a single target with every bullet. The front line of the Demonic Army looked shocked as they were still too far away from the bunkers to even see where the shots were coming from. The sound of the shots not even reaching them until the heads of their soldiers were exploding like watermelons being blown up with dynamite.
Sergeant Xian looked at Long Shen and asked, "What the fuck are you shooting at? They aren't in range yet!" He grabbed his binoculars and looked out where Long Shen was shooting and watched as the Demonic Army soldiers were dropping in droves. "Never mind, keep shooting."
Long Shen managed to kill hundreds of Demonic Soldiers before they were even visible to the others in the bunker. They were still out of range and yet Long Shen was killing a single demon with a single bullet each time. He would call out, "Reload," periodically as he swept the barrel of the railgun left and right. By the time the Demonic Army was finally in range of the majority of them to fire accurately, Long Shen had already killed over a thousand of them.
He looked over the army that was approaching and saw a couple of the officers staring back at him so he sent a few shots at them. One of the officers lost his head the other one roared at him and a golden light flickered around him as he shrugged off the attack. Long Shen started to kill all the demons around him causing him to be enraged. He roared out an order and the slow march of the Demonic Army became a mad dash. Everyone started to fire at will. The Demonic army rapidly began to shrink under the accurate fire of the defenders.
Major Jenkins looked over at Captain Hanaka, "How many squads are in that bunker?"
"Just squad 48. The new replacements." She felt her face turning red as he stared at her.
Major Jenkins frowned and then said, "Shit, this is bad. Dahak is leading them. No wonder the Angel of Light is descending. He's at the peak of the Origin stage. I can't fight him. I am not seeing the junior officers and the Demons on the front lines are fighting chaotically. How is that possible?"
Captain Hanaka looked over at Lieutenant Dan who smiled back at her and nodded, "Sir, Lieutenant Dan's platoon figured out how to shoot officers. They fire three shots at the same point."