"This is Bravo-Leader Bluejay, reporting in."
{We hear you loud and clear, Bluejay. What's the status?}
"We are at the sight now. Preparing to breach."
{Got it, Bluejay. Report back when you breach}
"Copy that, Overwatch."
I looked at the big garage door that stood in our way. It belonged to research station Thirteen. Thirteen was one of the biggest strongholds for seventy-five years. One the seventy-six year, the base went dark and soon afterward, it became infested with Zenars. It was a Zenar stronghold until two years ago when most of the Zenars in the area dispersed. Now we were trying to reclaim some valuable data and hopefully find out what caused the fall of Thirteen all those years ago.
While the Zenars took over the base two years after its fall, they weren't there two years ago when it fell. Something or someone else took the base down. The chances of pirates or outside forces were low as during the heat of the war, there was no time for petty fights between ourselves. The Zenars made the world a more crime-free place, I'll give them that. But between crimes and wars versus the near extermination of every sentient race, I think I would have preferred the first option.
"So, Chang. How many do you think is in there?"
I looked at my second in command. His name was Henry Bengal, an engineer that rose up the ranks to become my lieutenant. I didn't like him at first but he grew on me quickly.
"Well most of them have cleared out but we don't know the-"
Henry cut me off, something that for anyone else on my squad would have to serve some time in the brig.
"Give it to me straight, Chang."
"...Twelve confirmed Zenars with at least one of them being a Brute Zenar and one Winged Zenar."
Henry let out a tsk. Even with fifty of us in our squad alone and three other squads of fifty breaching at the same time as us, our chances of surviving with more than twenty percent is low. One Zenar pissed off enough, can punch a planet the size of Earth into oblivion. While Zenars rarely show that power, their held-back strength is enough to take out armies. My father and uncle were in the very first war and my uncle told me how one Zenar came upon their squad of seven hundred and just tore them to shreds in less than a minute. By the time they hit the bloody thing, only three hundred or so remained. The Zenar was hit pretty hard and crashed into a metal barrier used for cover, breaking it, before jumping up and dodging all of their bullets and another one joined in, followed by a third and fourth. My father was pounced on and eaten by the second one that came, a boy Zenar that looked like he was no younger than six. My uncle survived when some super soldiers the Yentars made arrived and killed three of the Zenars. There were seventeen of them and the last remaining one just came out and killed them and the rest of uncle's squad, leaving him and the person flying the dropship they dropped from the only ones alive. It also turned out that the Zenar who first attacked was still alive and damaged the dropship, crashing it into a nearby asteroid and inevitably saving my uncle and the piolet.
Needless to say, even if we have the knowledge to kill Zenars and better weapons, twelve is a deadly number. We were going to have to do this stealthy. Especially since a Winged Zenar will just spit out the liquid form of the Zenar Virus at the entrances, blocking us in before destroying our escape vehicles. It takes a lot of planning to fight Zenars.
"Hey, Samantha! Are the charges set?"
A pink armored woman gave the thumbs up.
"Yep. Just teaching the rookies a thing or two in case they are in my position one day."
Ah. That is a good thing to do.
I turned and pressed a button on my interface, gathering everyone's attention besides the people setting up the charges.
"LISTEN UP, ROOKIES! This Isn't No Simulation No More. In real life, Zenars are two to our times as scary and deadly as they are in a simulation. One slip-up could mean a lot more than your death and even our squad's death, but all the others as well. We go in, stealthy, find what we are looking for, stealthy, and get out, and hopefully, we don't alert the Zenars in there. Do you understand me!?"
After a loud sir yes sir, they went back to what they were doing. Thomas walked up to me. He was a heavy weapon handler and despite being a relatively new soldier, he proved himself to be reliable and coolheaded when under pressure.
"Let's hope the Zenars didn't hear that."
I shook my head.
"If they did, we'd already be dead."
Zenars, despite being impossible to sneak up one, are almost laughable when they are in a sleeping/resting state. Normally when they sleep, they can wake up at the slightest noise. Yet when they don't expect any combat, they go into a resting state where they are practically like an NPC in games. Unless you go into their direct line of sight, make noise right next to them, or attack them, they are extremely easy to sneak past. But once awoken, they are still as deadly as ever.
"Charges are set, commander!"
"Good. Everyone get back! Samantha, blow them on my command."
Samantha nodded and grabbed the detonator and retreat a safe distance. Once everyone was ready, I started counting down from five. Just as I put my third finger down, a loud furious roar went out. I felt myself shiver slightly when hearing it and shiver again knowing what that roar belongs to. Zenars.
"Overwatch! What happened!?"
{Charlie was discovered. Your squad is compromised with the others. Get in and get out as fast as you can. Don't go looking for anyone from Charlie. They are considered K.I.A}
"Understood."
I turned back to my squad. I could see they were scared.
"New Orders! Get in and out and don't go seeking out Charlie Squad! They are to be considered K.I.A. We Move Now!"
I hope they get it. I felt sad knowing that everyone from Charlie Squad is going to be considered K.I.A without anyone at least trying to find or save them, but if we go over, the entire mission is in jeopardy. Charlie Squad being discovered is already jeopardizing the mission. I have been a commander for twenty years, serving the military for forty, and I know that this is a bad situation to be in. We need to more, Now!
"Samantha!"
"On it!"
She pressed the button and the charges exploded, blowing open a nice-sized hole for us to enter. Despite the need to hurry, I stayed still and raised my hand, signaling to the others to stop as well. After a few seconds, a smaller snarling roar came from inside the building. The next second, a pair of glowing red eyes came into view.
"Stealth mode on."
I didn't dare to turn around. If anyone of our suits failed now then we are dead.
The Zenar jumped up out of view with a slight whooshing sound before smashing through the ceiling and landing right in front of us. Another Zenar leaped from the darkness to join it. The one that jumped out of the ceiling was the Winged Zenar. Out of its back were massively large black speckled white wings with black and red claws and spikes running down the wings. Most of the skin was black and it had fewer spikes than other Zenars. It was female, having black and white short hair and pale skin. The other Zenar was a normal one. Zenars have black spikes on their arms that, despite being around eight inches long, did not affect their movement. Two sharp long glowing red eyes, or pupils, looked around from the darkness with a pair of backward-facing horns on the back of their head just above their ears. This normal Zenar was also a female as most of them were, but unlike the flyer, this one had pink hair with two tiny pigtails. A gold star was tattooed above her left eye. I recognized that Zenar. She was one of the top scientists here. She was around thirty years old when I last saw her when I was seven. This confirms that Zenars can revert dead bodies back to children just so they can turn them. If I die, would I one day wake up as a Zenar? I hope that my body is burned before that ever happened. No wait, they can bring back people even if they are nothing but ashes, can't they? I just hope that by the time I am next in line to be brought back that the Zenars are already dead and the virus is gone for good.
Amella, the pink-haired Zenar, started walking towards us, snarling and sniffing the air. Her red eyes were glossed over, showing that she and the Winged Zenar were still in their resting state. If they weren't, our stealth suits won't have done shit and we'd be dead within an instant. The Winged Zenar shuffled its wings and sat down, its eyes scanning the area but not finding anything. Amella too, after searching the area, stopped just sort of touching someone and turned around, her tail almost catching a person. Just as Amella was almost back in the station was when I heard a buzzing sound to my right. Amella paused and spun around while the Winged Zenar slowly looked up from playing with a loose rock. Both of their eyes locked onto someone. It was a rookie, his suit sparking. His stealth mode was malfunctioning. He took one look at me, his eyes wide with fear. He looked young, maybe twenty-one or nineteen. His brown eyes remained me of my father's.
In the next second half of his body was ripped off, leaving his legs behind. His top half was in the claws of the Winged Zenar, who was in the air faster than anyone here could blink. Amella lunged forward and in two seconds, destroyed the legs completely, leaving only a bloody puddle behind. I could only watch in horror as the Winged Zenar tossed the rookie into the air and opened her mouth, revealing two rows of sharp teeth. Her jaw expanded to nearly three times its normal size and the rookie's head went right in. With a crunch, the top half of the torso was bitten off. The rest was caught in her claws which shredded the torso to bits with one smooth movement.
Then the worst thing happened. The eyes of the Zenars slowly unclouded and the Winged Zenar slowly looked at us, a piece of flesh hanging out of her mouth.
"RU-"
Thomas didn't even get to finish when the Winged Zenar tackled him. It was only a black flash, and only blood remained. I looked up and saw nothing of him. He was hit so hard that he was obliterated. The Winged Zenar landed on top of a nearby shipping crate and perched on top of it, looking down at us, the piece of flesh disappearing into her...its mouth. That was when Amella attacked. I ran forward with the others and turned around only to see what had to be ten dead bodies, all torn and horribly gorged. Amella was on top of one of the rookies that were with Samantha, ripping out her throat before casually batting her head with her left hand, smashing it into nothing but bloody bits.
"GET INSIDE AND FOAM!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, hoping that at least some of the rookies would listen. I knew the experienced soldiers here would.
A shadow came overhead and I looked to my left only to catch Samantha's bloody torn-off head. All the soldiers next to me on the left were dead, all torn to pieces. I ducked just as a yellow light flashed on my hud, signaling an attack. Of course, I already dodged said attack. The tail of the Winged Zenar caused a meter deep crack in the gound from wind pressure alone. One of the soldiers tripped in it, breaking his leg. Amella came up from behind him and casually ripped out his spine with a flick of her fingers. She stood up and jumped onto a soldier right behind me, crushing him into nothing but a bloody pulp before jumping on another soldier, purposely not using the strength she used on the other one. She pinned her down and raised her left arm back, her claws flexing. The soldier managed to take out her pistol and fire at the Zenar, landing four shots in her head, before Amella's claw came down, slashing the soldier in two. Amella jumped off the body and let out a roar. A Zenar's roar is a terrifying sound. Hearing one when you're scared and panicking is normally a death wish. Most of the few remaining rookies stood still or clutched their heads and fell to the ground. One of them, a young female, was grabbed by the Winged Zenar who ripped off her helmet and pried open her mouth with two tiny black tendrils that came out of her tail. The Winged Zenar then opened its mouth and black liquid came out and into the soldier's open mouth. The soldier choked then fell down, convulsing before staying still. The Winged Zenar shot off into the sky before picking up the fastest soldier in the lead. His screams were quickly cut short and a rain of blood shortly followed.
The female soldier from before suddenly shot up, her clothes around her arms and legs disappearing and black liquid coating her arms and legs. Her eyes turned black and glowing red pupils locked onto an injured soldier. With a roar, her teeth turned sharp and she grew another row of sharp teeth. Two black horns sprouted out of her head, facing backward, and a long black segmented tail sprouts out of her butt. Black spines came out of her back and her limbs fully transformed. She disappeared, causing a minor sonic boom. I saw her holding the bloody crushed head of the soldier she targeted, part of his spine still intact. The rest of his body was nothing but blood and bones. With another roar, she threw the head away and lunged at me. I jumped back but her claws still caught me, slashing my face and blinding me temporarily. She sliced another soldier as she landed and spun around, facing me. With a hiss, she lunged forward. Grabbing an AZ-045, I shoved it in her mouth when she stood over me. It went off and she leaped backward, going on two legs as her hands clawed at her mouth and the blue gas coming from it. Gotta love those Anti-Zenar grenades. Always handy.
Another soldier was napped by the Winged Zenar but finally, we made it to the station. The soldiers with the foam guns pulled them out and a blue foam shot out and expanded on the garage door, closing the hole we made and stopping the Zenars from making any other holes.
"THE CEILING!" I yelled, remembering to look up. They started firing another round just as the Winged Zenar came into view, folding its wings and diving towards us with a roar. The foam closed just in the nick of time and the Winged Zenar stopped its dive and did another jump, defying physics as it stopped itself from falling on the foam.
As everyone finally took a breather, a distant Zenar roar still remained us that we were not out of the clear yet. I let out a sigh and looked at our numbers. Only sixteen left. And things are now only going to get even more dangerous.