When Adam chose the Interdimensional Contract, he expect to be sent directly to the battlefield but this time he didn't.
"Where am I? Where is this?" Adam asks while looking at the futuristic room filled with panels, boards and gadgets he would rather not touch.
[This is the Host's Orbital Fortress.]
"Orbital Fortress?" Adam was surprised. The sound of it was impressive. Maybe a space station from the SAS 4 universe since they supposedly already existed in the 4th Millennium and figured out interstellar travel. So, a space station sounds very probable.
[Yes. The Orbital Fortress will be working to provide support to the Host when performing the contract.]
"I see… So, what is the mission?" Adam relaxed a little while waiting to be briefed about his mission.
[The city of Belgrade is currently being overrun by the local Infected called Elid while simultaneously facing a rebellion against the rebel forces. Host's task is to fend off both the Elid and rebel forces. Host's success rating is rated based on the number of survivors and the state of the city after the battle ended.]
"Is that all? No enemies composition, number, anything else?"
[Host has to find out for himself.]
The System gestured to the control panel in the room.
Adam noticed the large holographic screen on the room and a live view of the ground. He can see a thick wall separating the zombies from the city. Most zombies are just shriveled up corpses, corpses with guns and bigger corpses that remind him of Tank from L4D.
"This is all I have?" Adam frowned because the only information he obtained was just the view of the enemies and there sure were a lot of zombies outside the wall.
[Yes.]
[During this Contract, Host can hire up to three additional operators with the Private rank Host currently has to fight alongside the Host.]
"3 extra operators?" Adam was reminded of the team he partnered up in the normal Contract.
[Host will be deployed through Orbital Insertion in another 10 minutes. Please get ready and wait at the deployment bay.]
A green arrow appeared on his HUD pointing the direction to the bay. Adam sighs tiredly knowing he is basically going in blind and resigned to his fate. Not only does he have zombies to fight, he also has to fend off the rebel forces.
On his way to the bay, hangar whatever, Adam doing a last check on his gears. Making sure he is well prepared.
Adam found out about the augments function for guns and armors. It basically allows him to add special upgrades to either guns or armors but he soon realized it's a money sink but he does make some augmentations to his gun, mainly the Ronson 5X5 to extend its clip size from 5 to 8.
Mind you, Ronson 5X5 is a single barrel breech loaded shotgun. How the heck it can load up to 5 rounds is beyond his mortal comprehension. Whatever that augment witchcraft did, it magically expanded the clip size to 8.
When he arrived at the bay, he saw close to the wall numerous rows of pods that he would like to call metal coffins rather than pods with how it looks oddly similar to a cannon shell but can fit a human.
[Please choose the operators Class.]
Adam just went with one of each to balance out the squad before he entered the pod and prayed for the best.
Will he even survive dropping from orbit down to the ground?
Adam believed his System wouldn't purposely kill him. So, yes. He has some faith in his System.
———
"What is the status of the unknown spacecraft, Kalina?" The pinkette asks while sitting in front of a large screen nursing her growing headache.
"Still no response. None of our comms manage to hail the spacecraft." The blond assistant replied, equally frustrated as the former.
"Let's just hope they aren't enemies. We already have enough on our plate dealing with the ELIDs, SF and potential rebels." The pinkette sighed.
"How is the situation over the city?"
"We are trying to suppress the rebel forces but…" Kalina trailed and she didn't really need to say because Gentiane already understood.
"What's the status with our deployed echelons?"
"Still under fire by SF and suppressing the rebel forces."
"Dammit!" Gentiane hit the terminal in anger. An already unfavorable battle on two fronts and now the rebels are trying to stir up trouble.
Kalina also emphasized with the commander. It's an arduous task to fight against three different enemies on multiple fonts with already limited personnel and resources to deploy.
[We can offer our help. But are you able to afford the price?]
"Who?" The pinkette and blond turn their head around looking for the source of the voice but to no avail.
"Who are you? Show yourself immediately!" The pinkette draws her pistol and is ready to shoot at the unknown person.
[Who I am does not matter. What matters is that I can offer you something you need. Very direly.]
The screen of the terminal turned off and on again before showing a red glitched screen with the emblem of a skull appeared.
[We are the Interdimensional Mercenaries. That should be enough to tell what we can offer right?]
While Kalina quickly runs, check on why their system had been compromised. Gentiane start converse with this unknown representative.
"You can offer soldiers? But unfortunately I don't think I can afford to hire your group." She answered honestly as she herself is a PMC employee and she is aware how expensive it can get.
[Worry not, what we seek isn't your local money. It is worthless for us. You don't need to worry about the price at all since it's free.]
"Free?" Gentiane sputtered in disbelief.
[Well, not exactly. But we will collect the payment ourselves and I can promise we will not harm you or the organizations behind you. All we need is your verbal agreement and we can immediately send our support.]
Gentiane is extremely suspicious of this mysterious group offering free mercenary service. But at the same time, she is also desperate for help.
"Commander! The local garrison reported that the rebel forces blew up a hole on the wall. The ELIDs are breaching into the city!" A transmission from the deployed echelons suddenly alerted the two.
[So? How is it? Your Dolls and the people are dying.]
The voice said with a hint of sarcasm behind it. As Gentiane still mull over her choice indecisively.
*Bzzt*
"BROADCASTING TO ALL CHANNELS. THIS IS THE ACTING COMMANDER LIEUTENANT DRAGOVICH OF THE EASTERN GARRISON. THE QUARANTINE WALL HAD BEEN BREACHED. I REPEAT. THE QUARANTINE WALL HAD BEEN BREACHED."
[The time is ticking, Commander Gentiane.]
The voice mercilessly reminded her of the consequence for their indecisiveness.
"Fine. I accept." Gentiane relented and fell to her seat exhaustedly.
[It's a pleasure. I hope the agent we deliver would be adequate for his task.]
The voice along with the glitched screen vanished before an alert started blaring and the screen immediately showed an unidentified spacecraft appeared directly above the Serbian space, up in the orbit. Four giant shells, 3 meters in length and 1 meter in width, heading directly to Belgrade.
"Is that…" Gentiane were speechless. As she figures, those are the supposed 'agents' she hired.
Quickly snapping out from her daze, Gentiane contacted the garrison commander.
"This is Commander Gentiane from the Statesec. Be advised, reinforcement ETA in 8 minutes."
"Statesec? Those bastards are on time for once." The garrison commander grumbles for a moment. "Great. We will hold on until reinforcements arrive."
———
Adam waiting inside his pod nerve-wrackingly suddenly felt like he was ejected with such great force as if he was shot from a cannon.
[Host is indeed sent down via a cannon.]
"..." He stared wordlessly at his HUD before hesitantly opening his mouth and asking. "It's safe, right?"
[Yes]
"Good then." Adam replied and banished the negative thoughts from his mind as he was preparing himself to fight upon landing.
03:00
02:00
01:00
00:05
00:01
00:00
*Crash*
The pod shook violently as it impacted the ground. But surprisingly, he felt no pain at all. The door depressurised and fling open as he found himself facing a breached wall with hordes of undead pouring in.
[Mission started. Defend the Eastern Wall.]
Adam pulled the charging handle of his Sub-light COM2 Assault Rifle before he aimed it forward at the undead.
*Thump*
*Thump*
He shoots his rifle which mows through the horde although not as easy as before. The zombies here seem to be more durable.
The other three operators also joined Adam and exited their pods to combat the undead head on without fear of being infected.
"Wooh! The reinforcement arrived!" The garrison above another wall behind Adam's squad cheered in high spirits.
"This is the Garrison Commander, Lieutenant Dragovic of the Eastern Garrison." The voice on the other side of the comms sounded nervous. "We are very thankful for the reinforcement but is this all you have to offer?"
Adam focused on his comms for a moment and understood why the question was asked. He only arrived with a squad of four against an entire horde of undead encroaching on the breached wall.
"Yes. Don't worry about us. Please focus on suppressing the rebel forces." Adam replied as he is more worried about the rebellion that could potentially jeopardize his mission if they took down the city.
"Are you sure uh…" The garrison commander paused for a moment after realizing he still didn't know the name of the person he was talking with.
"It's Adam White and don't worry, we are unit specialized against these zombies." Adam tries to convince the garrison commander.
Clearly the other side isn't convinced. So, Adam has to put on some show to convince him.
"001, Aerial Bombardment. 002, Reinforcement. 003, smoke those Infected." He ordered his comms.
"Roger." x3
The Assault Class operator and Adam simultaneously activated Reinforcement that summoned six extra Assault Class operators. Then the Medic operator throws two types of grenade one with green label and another is purple which bursts into respective coloured clouds. At this point, the zombies are already dropping like flies. They managed to push back the undead out from the breached wall. Then the Aerial Bombardment arrived and pulverized the zombies around the outer breach like cherry on top for his little demonstration.
"Are you believing our capability now, Lieutenant Dragovic?" Adam asks the speechless garrison commander.
"Ah… My apologies for doubting you. I will now divert my forces to suppress the rebel forces." Dragovic replied. Adam heard him voiced his surprise and the mention of the operators ability especially the sudden appearance of six extra Assault Class operators. But that didn't matter for now.
With the garrison forces focusing on the rebels. Adam would only need to focus on the zombies.
"Sir! Variant incoming!" 002 relayed through the comms and Adam noticed a very bulky and tall zombie moving quite slow compared to others. Like a tank, it shrugged the LMG firing at its body from 001 like it was BB pellets.
Two of the reinforcement operators were wielding rocket launchers and fired their rockets at the Tank. When the plume of black smoke disappeared, the Tank was left relatively unharmed except a small indent on its body.
"Its flesh is as tough as stone! Changing to Energy weapon." 002 said and replaced his current rifle for another rifle with a red body and when he fired it, two bolts of high energy plasma hit and melted the Tank's rock-like flesh.
"More Variant incoming!" 001 shouted.
Adam already saw those Tanks crawling their way in through the breached wall. He lined up his rifle at the target and the view directly from the rifle's scope appeared on his HUD. This allows him to perform hip fire without losing accuracy and gain better control on the recoil. That's the 4th Millennium technology for you.
Thankfully, his Assault Rifle has great penetrating power to pierce through the stone-like skin of these Variants. Sub-light COM2 has great penetration power because it uses the 'Center of Mass Displacement' technology that allows the bullet to travel its last few meters in speed, a fraction of the speed of light, approximately 100,000 meter per second. The sheer kinetic force it carries will penetrate even steel plates like wet tissue. Hence the name Sub-light.
But, it's still difficult to kill them. It takes on average half of his 30 rounds magazine to kill each by slowly chipping away their head. Meanwhile there are more and more of these Variants pouring in and pushing back Adam and his squad.
He glanced at the bottom left corner of this HUD. Both Reinforcement and Aerial Bombardment still have 3 minutes till cooldown end.
*Bzzt*
"Hello, this is Commander Gentiane to operator Adam White. Echelon 3 enrouting to your position to provide assistance."
"Huh? Oh, thanks." Adam was surprised that someone suddenly called his name but he shrugged it off. He didn't have time to question it.
"This is MP5 from Echelon 3. We will arrive in 20 seconds."
MP5? Adam felt odd why would someone name herself after a SMG gun. When the Echelon 3 arrived, he was left even more speechless. Little girls and a couple more, each with identical clones marching toward his squad and immediately assist to eliminate the Zombies pouring in from the breached wall.
"Definitely an anime shit right there." Adam huffed. He didn't recognise what world he is in but having cute girls in battle or doing wacky things is definitely something straight from the anime.
—————
(AN: Writing speed will be slow. But I try to write as fast as I can.)
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