"Gentlemen it has been a honor" Joseph said aloud to Henry and Rex, as he started to mimic the sound of a violin playing to the best of his abilities. Herny simply held onto the bars besides him as he pressed himself firmly on the backseat of the Pelican.
"Shut the hell up! I bet this is your fault somehow!" Shouted Rex as he worked tirelessly, trying his best to turn the pelican back on. He did not want to die a second time, with a growl of frustration he would hit the pelican controls hard with his fist.
Which actually worked as all the pelican controls turned back on. Rex quickly maneuvered the controls so that it would stop its violent desent to the earth below the trio, Herny didn't even realized yet that they stopped falling. He was still gripping the bars besides jim tightly as his heart pounded loudly on his ears.
What nearly gave Henry a heart attack and almost made Rex resume their desent in shock was the sudden appearance of a screen appearing before the trio. It was a basic blue looking screen with text on it
'Welcome to your gift system! This system goal is to reward you three on jobs well done. For example completing missions for Xcom and the resistance nets you rewards, or just generally helping those in need also gets you rewards. The rewards vary, the tougher the enemies and encounters/missions the more better the reward.
Simple to understand? Good! And before you ask, no you don't have gamer body nor gamers mind. Nor do you have any hp bar, you do not have that kind of system, if you get stabbed through the heart you will die. Anything that can kill you like your head exploding will kill you.' The gift system wrote this all on the screen before the trio, Henry was a bit disappointed as was Rex but then again all three was essentially super soldiers with two of them being Joseph and Rex demigods for what they was simply are.
Joseph being a space marine was simply overpowered so much so normal humans in warhammer considered them Demigods, they wasn't invincible but your average space marine was going to ruin the enemies day. Except for the Orks, they would love a good krump against a space marine.
Rex being a destiny guardian was a whole other Demigod matter, being able to be resurrected upon death or healed by their ghost. Guardians are so crazy in terms of power that they can turn some enemies like literal gods into guns, it's a thing they do. A motivated guardian is a terrifying one especially if you pissed them off.
And Henry was a death trooper, inhabiting a body of a death trooper but with his own face. Death troopers was the best of the best in the empire and modified like Spartans and space marines with enhancements to make them overall physically and mentally better than the average trooper.
In summary while it was disappointing that they didn't have a usual isekai system that would make them OP, they didn't need one considering they wasn't normal humans with their privous bodies that was overall just worse compared to their current ones.
"Huh, well I suppose this is good right? Getting rewards in some form would help our journey through other fandoms besides Xcom. Lord knows we're going to need every advantage we can" Joseph said to his friends who expressed words of agreement. "We're almost out of Gas by the way"
Rex exclaimed suddenly and calmly, it took Joseph and Henry a moment to process what he said until they both looked at where Rex sat. "How are we almost outta gas?! We just started flying this thing!" Henry shouted, which just came out as "kfkfkfkfkfk!" "Yeah what he said!" Joseph said as he moved towards where Rex sat in the pilot seat, there was hardly anymore for Joseph to squeeze through as Joseph peaked at Rex who just shrugged.
"Well, I don't know what well to tell you man, this thing wasn't refilled. What else you want me to say? Goodnews is I can land this thing, bad news is this bird almost out of fuel so we might have a bit of a rough landing but I'm sure it'll be fine." Rex said calmly as Henry gripped the bars besides him on both sides tightly in fear of him dying in this pelican because they crashed landed.
-somewhere else-
An intense gunfight was taking place in the wilderness, advent found a resistance camp and attacked it with no mercy. They was actively blocking coms ensuring no one would receive the distress call, no one would know of the attack, even then the resistance camp kept trying to send out a message in hopes someone would come to there aid.
The resistance troopers fought back with everything they had, having the civilians in the Tristian's camp hide behind whatever covere they could find. Especially the children who couldn't even fight, they had to be protected at all costs. "More Advent incoming!" Shouted a resistance trooper too his fellows, four of them was using a fallen down tree as cover as Advent troopers fired upon their position.
The resistance was greatly outmatch in terms of equipment and numbers, Advent troopers had better armor and even better guns which was a Magnetic Rifle, being an automatic Gauss rifle that fires electromagnetically accelerated projectiles. Or in other words, pew pew deadly lasers that easily break through Kevlar armor.
Which was much more stronger than the resistance bullets by a large margin, it didn't help that the advent trooper was made genetically superior a regular human in that they was able to take a hit without flinching. And didn't need training unlike a normal person when given a gun.
Seeing as the four resistance troopers wouldn't be moving any time soon with due to the Advent troopers firing upon the resistance troops hiding spot an Advent officer would step forward and say something in advent. Even if the resistance members heard whay the Advent officer said it wouldn't matter in the slightest, the language wasn't something they could understand.
The officer ordered one of his men to prime a grenade and let it cook for a few moments all the while the rest of the squad fired upon the enemy, this was to ensure the enemy would remain pinned down so that when the grenade was thrown itll take them all out in one shot.
The officer thinking was that if the enemy flees if the grenade thrown early the enemy could potentially throw it back which could harm his squad, that was a risk that shouldn't be taken. Additionally if he allows the grenade to be thrown early then the grenade can be thrown back, putting his squad in disarray as they'll definitely run for cover which risks also them getting fired upon when his scatter.
Therefore his current plan was best to use as ensure his squad safety with no risks and the defeat of the enemy. With a second order given as his soldier primed a grenade long enough the soldier would throw his grenade.
It sailed through the air with a rapid fast beep, it landed before the enemy of advent. "GRENADE!" Shouted a resistance trooper who immediately with no hesitation leapt onto the grenade in hopes his body would shield most of the blast to save his squad .
The grenade went off with a loud boom and everything went black for the resistance trooper who dived onto the grenade, the same for the other troopers near him as they was sent flying back a bit from the sheer force of the explosion. It was mostly absorbed by the trooper who dived on the grenade but enough of the shockwave went through.
-POV Markus-
Everything was ringing, everything was spinning as I tried to get my barings. I laid there on the forest floor as I opened my eyes to see my squad sprawled out on the floor, I turned my head while pushing against the floor trying to get up but only resulted in weakly falling back down.
Laying on the floor still getting my barings I would see Sarah standing wobbly on her legs equally dazed as I was, only for her head to jerk back as her body crumbled to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut as a laser went clean through her head.
I couldn't even let out a shout as I watched her life get taken from her by the alien bastards, I turned my head to see blurry figures in black slowly approach my squad position without a care in the world. They wasn't in a rush to finish us off as I can see a figure in red, the advent officer step over our ruin makeshift cover that was the fall down tree we used.
I turned my head once more to see Dom laying on his side, his hand clutching it as an Advent trooper approached him. The trooper forced Dom onto his back with a kick from the trooper leg and aimed at Dom face.
I would try to save him even if it wouldn't amount to much….i tried to reach for my pistol that was before me, crawling to it but it was no use as the officer kicked my pistol towards Johnny…..or what's left of him.
Johnny was the one who quickly leapt onto the grenade, the rest of us was too slow to react but he fearlessly dived onto it. I was forced to lay on my back because of the officer foot, as he pressed his foot onto my chest making it hard to breathe.
"I'm sorry Johnny….your sacrifice was for nothing." I said weakly, glaring at the Advent officer face. The part of their face that's not covered by the helmet showed no facial expressions, it was impossible to tell what the bastard was thinking. It didn't matter, I was going to die here with Dom.
I watched as the officer finger presses on the trigger and closed my eyes for the inevitable moment of my demise. Only to heard a loud boom of sorts, followed by the sound of something going through the air at high velocity like that of an arrow and a laser sound.
As soon I heard those sounds my eyes snapped open as I watched the officer with a gaping hole in his chest collapse onto me, his blood getting all over my chest. With a grunt I weakly shoved him off of me and turned to see Dim still alive as he too was shoving an Advent trooper corpse off his body.
The entire advent squad was dead around is both, some with large holes in their chest while others had a hole that was smaller than the bigger wounds, it was as if something hot went through them leaving a burn mark. A few corpses also had arrows deeply embedded into the troopers heads.
It wasn't your typical arrows either, they looked out of this world leaving me confused greatly. Turning on my back I watched in stunned silence as the largest person I ever seen in yellow armor approached me and Dom position. Flanked by a tall trooper in black with something on its shoulder, on the other side of the large figure in yellow armor was a strange looking humanoid man holding a black bow of strange design foreign to me.
The figure with the strange outfit and bow would set his bow aside onto his back, somehow it's sticking to his back as the figure holds his hand out for Dom to grab. Dom glanced at me unsuringly then to the figure and accepts the person hand who helped him to his feet.
The large imposing figure in yellow armor would crouch to one knee and hold his hand out to me to grab, I took it unsuringly as his hand gently enveloped mine. With an act of strength the person pulled me to my feet with ease with a simple yank of their hand. I couldn't help but let out a loud wince from the pain as it felt like he almost pulled my arm off.
"Ah my apologies, I forget my own strength. I hope I didn't cause you any harm" he said as I could see in the corner of my eye the trooper in black was fire once upon the corpses of the advent bastards, I couldn't help but feel a bit greatful for it. The voice of the imposing man before me drew my focus on him and drew Dom attention as well, it was the aura the man gave off that screamed at me to give him my attention, to listen what he had to say.
"I-I- who…are you guys?" I asked softly in growing awe at the people who saved me and Dom, I was unable to help but ask not answering his question because of it. The figures before me who all looked at each other then at me and Dom who was in stunned silence.
"Who we are? I am guardian and my name is Rex. A pleasure to meet you" the figure with the bow now identified as Rex said with a nod towards me and Dom. That was when the giant in yellow raised his fist to his chest and tapped it.* "and I am Brother Joseph of the Lamentors, I am relieved that me and my companions was here on time to come to your aid even as we had a rough landing far away."
Said the large figure in yellow, his voice coming out a bit deep and muffled by the helmet but it was also imposing in its own right because of the speakers built into it. "Kfkfkfkfk- apologies, I am Henry of the death troopers. I am glad we was able to reach you both in time, we're sorry we wasn't fast enough to save your other friends." The man in black spoke strangely at first, his voice coming out strange and scrambled until it changed into something better and more easily understandable.
"It's fine…..we can't all be fortunate can we? But why are you three here?" Dom asked picking up his machine gun, he wasn't speaking out of suspicion or out of hostility. I know Dom not stupid and most likely came to the same conclusion as me, these three if they was with advent would've just helped them instead of kill there own men. Dom was simply curious, these three was unknown to us, with weapons and gear neither of us ever seen before.
It was the giant named Joseph who spoke as he stood tall before me and Dom, exuding an air of confidence and reassurance to us both. "We heard your distress call and so came to help you in hour of need, save any further questions for later as we are wasting time saving your other friends and civilians from the Xenos filith. Please lead the way"
That would would snap both me and Dom out of our awe, we was filled with reassurance. We couldn't help but believe Joseph words that they was here to help. And remind us that we have a duty to finish.
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Hope you guys liked this chapter! Please stay safe!^^