Thanks to the increase in my abilities I was allowed to accompany the 2nd army alongside Alph to reclaim the fallen cities and purge the undead from their streets.
The entire army was geared up with fully body suits, designed to be hermetically sealed and a filtered air supply in case the infection itself could be spread Airbourne.
The first target for us was Blackpool.
This port city had only existed for about 30 years before the fall of the apocalypse but it's location is still a great lake side option, with river routes leading all the way in to Preston.
But on our arrival at the city, or rather I guess it should be called a town instead.
The towns development was still in it's infancy so there wasn't really a whole lot here, judging by the density of housing the population was around 35,000 since the number was much lower than we were expecting we continued the advance the simple unmaintained asphalt street cracking under the weight of our tanks.
The soldiers working in teams to scour every building hunting for the undead.
When we got all the way through the town and had reached the port, it as well was in serious disrepair, not a single boat remained afloat in the harbor either.
Thankfully since the town was within range of my radar I could deploy an Allied Naval Yard, and a Soviet Sub Pen, but with the current state of the town this position would not be easily defended should an attack come from the sea that our navy could not handle.
We could create a Sea wall with a couple of gates to defend against the open water, and compared to Liver pool which had much more surface area in contact with the open waters this site was more defensible, however going all the way to the hamlets like Flint would be better since the terrain would be naturally like a bottleneck but would limit the number of ship's that could dock.
Well, it doesn't matter we'd need something to do about our citizen anyway.
So in a flash a 20ft Steel sea wall was created with Turrets and Pill boxes was formed.
A naval yard and subpen was next constructed.
While a few barracks were created in the new Military district.
The remainder of the town was then also encompassed in walls and fortified.
A new division of Conscripts, GI's, and Engineers was created to defend this new town and begin the reconstruction efforts.
But first they'd need to clear away the edifice of the old world first.
Using their tanks to tear down walls, and act like bulldozers.
The work had only just begun but already the town was coming back to life, we passed along word to Alex as well who'd put out a mission looking for settlers from the outposts, and thanks to the initiates we could also begin to release some of our encamped slaves who'd had a change of mind regarding the base and their loyalty to their own cities.
As these works started the 2nd army move on, throughout all of Blackpool we didn't find a single Zombie, not even one corpse.
So off we set the army itself split up to scour the land combing it's way through all the small villas, hamlets, and villages on our way east to Liverpool.
The fact that towns held no signs of the undead was questionable, we knew they were out there but perhaps they had 'died' off in the last 100 years since the mass outbreak happened due to a limited food supply, or maybe while humanity hid in their walled cities the mutant beasts had cleaned the cities.
While riding along sitting on a cushion atop a Mammoth tank enjoying the view I got to see what the world looks like without humanity.
Back on my earth they always theorized that if Humanity disappeared the earth would die since we had intervened in the natural order so much that everything would fall apart without us, or that nature would surge forth without the meddling of humanity to reclaim the conquered areas back into the domain of Gaia (the earth herself).
Well it's not like humanity disappeared here, but it seems the second belief was nearer to the mark, after a hundred years the countryside simply seemed more wild, plant life was growing excessively, while the formed sprawling crop fields had mostly returned themselves to expanses of green grass since the crops had failed to grow without someone to care for them.
After a not so brief ride the 2nd army regroups on the outskirts of Liverpool.
All captains provided me with an update on their findings.
Along the way they had not found any undead however the smallest of the human dwellings did still have some contents.
They had scavenged what they could.
Metals and the like to be sent back for processing at one of the bases, while books that had surprisingly been preserved well enough to survive or survive enough to restore them were sent back to create the foundation of a library to be housed in the Tech Centers so our Engineer's could learn possible different techniques from this world filled with Awakened, Mutants, and Zombies.
As our forces had assembled overlooking Liverpool it felt like an icy hand had reached into my chest as I stared down at the city.
Even from this distance we could see a shifting mass within.
This city would be our first true encounter with the undead it seems.
The state of the city was like all the others, in shambles, but on the open areas and city streets shadowy figures could be seen swaying back and forth moving about slowly.
Since this site was one of potential conflict I was required to remain here, atop my personal mammoth tank, surrounded by my own personal black guard.
8 RA soldiers who'd reached Elite status, comprised of 4 GI's, 2 Conscripts, 1 Sniper, and 1 Tesla Trooper.
Not to say they were the only ones, an assortment of tanks and vehicles also stayed behind to protect me as well.
The battleplan was pretty simple.
Since their were 6 main roads into the city, the army would split into 6 different companies each setting course for one of these main entrances, while a 7th would take up an encirclement to take down anything fleeing from the smaller streets.
The 7th company had the hardest task since the encircle the entire city they had to spread out enough that they were gaps in the net, but that's where the radar came in.
If anything escaped Zoe back at command would inform the mobile corp who would run them down.
So there I sat on my mobile command post, watching the battle unfold through a pair of binoculars.
After the initial insertions had been conducted I couldn't really make out what was happening through sight any longer, but the resounding sounds of gunfire and even cannon fire reverberated through the air.
Letting us know that the operation was still underway.
But the thought of not knowing was driving me insane.
I had ordered these men and women to charge in, potentially to their death.
How many had fallen already, only to be turned into the undead forcing their own friends to kill them a second time lest they become a victim of being killed themselves by their former comrade.
"Haaaa."
"Don't worry commander, we the 2nd army would never let you down."
"No Alph it's not that, I was just thinking about those who might fall in this operation, how can we honor their sacrifice, they might give everything for us to gain security. But… is it really worth the trade?"
"Sir… we are born of the system, if any of us fall we know we can be reborn through the system, so for you to worry about us like this… please just don't sir. We want to make your dreams come true and if that means we need to die once or a million times ever member of your forces is ready to lay down their lives to make it happen."
"Do we really know that reincarnation happens though? To date have any of our members ever fallen?"
"Eh well… no but as products of the system it is something all of us feel, so it must be true"
All the members of my Black Guard nodded their heads at his words.
"I see… well still nothing I'd want to test out, but regardless on if you all can be reincarnated just by my redeploying you, we'll still create a monument honoring your sacrifice even if it mean you can come back, surely their would be something lost be it your awakening rank, or your experience, maybe even your memories but with that being said I know the perfect monument."
This was one from my old world but it would fit perfectly here.
When we return I would work with the Engineers to work on creating our rendition of The Tomb of The Unknown Soldier.
Since in combat with zombies and beasts discovering who had actually fallen might be near impossible.
We continued to watch from the hill while Zoe ever the diligent assistant provided us with updates on the battles progress from what she could see on the Radar.
It was only 2 hours since the forces had entered Liverpool and they'd already cleared out more than half the city on this side of the river.
There were a couple wounded as a result to undead ambushes and because of this they were quarantined outside the city in our created Medical center, which was just a series of tents setup with a Medical Corp serving within.
They quickly took in these injured and began to run a full battery of tests and taking samples to see if they had become infected, at the same time a number of undead bodies were also brought back for experimentation.
The Soldiers attempted to bring in an assortment from what they viewed to be different forms of the undead but really these were just undead missing limbs or other body parts or pieces of their faces.
All unselected undead were grouped together and set ablaze in great piles.
By pre-war reckoning Liverpool had a population of around 800,000 people.
And while it is unknown how many managed to flee to the countryside at the outset but given the number of pyres being lit up, the majority of the city had fallen to the outbreak.
It was only when the sun was setting that the operation into Liverpool came to a close.
All hostiles on this side of the river had been eliminated.
But we did learn one thing regrettably.
And that was, the infection was real, those who'd suffered bites or even scratches that managed to break the skin had become infected and well, under the diligence of the medical corp their transformation was prevented however in the end after four hours of struggle ever soldier who became infected fell to the infection and died, only to return 10 minutes later as an undead.
Judging by what we saw, they retained all the power they had when they were alive, however their intelligence was lost to them.
So after giving up a light prayer to the system for their reincarnation, we put these soldiers out of their misery.
Additionally I had Zoe work with Alex to setup a new monitor within the Radar alongside our Engineers to track the population of Humans, Mutant Beasts, and Zombies.
Thanks to the Radar we could make educated guess's when it came to this.
And thanks to the Radar, we could make the educated guess that all Zombies within this side of Liverpool had been dealt with and since the bridges had long since collapsed without maintenance the other side remained separated unless a water landing was made, or you detoured around the river to use the land route.
Since the sun was already setting we quickly got to work deploying new Fortress Walls, covering the entire city.
Next up we used our cannons to demolish some of the buildings, and after cleaning up the rubble a series of barrack could be created, giving us a place to rest for the night and also homes for the future garrison.
With this done we bedded down getting food cooked up, and served to the soldiers.
Due to the size of our numbers the total number of barrack we had to deploy was quite a few, but with the soon to be created Garrison and Engineer force the city can be revitalized.
But they would not be deployed until morning, and it would be up to the garrison force to conduct a thourough investigation to look for anything that can actually be used, the 2nd army cannot linger we need to be off to our next destination the closeby city of Manchester however this time it would be more difficult since the city had no natural barrier which meant our security next would be even more stretch to capture any possible escapes' and well learning from Liverpool these do in fact happen.
Most would think the undead are drawn to the living, however this seems only to the case for most of them.
In total there were about 500 who almost completely ignored the living until they were close enough and at the start of their extermination these Undead had quickly shambled themselves out of the city in an attempt at what looked like an escape.
From this single conflict a proper assumption could not be made.
Could some of the undead have retained their intelligence even after being turned, if so could these intelligent undead possibly be returned to life?
Our next move against Manchester would try to answer these questions as any seemingly intelligent undead would attemptedly be captured.
If they resisted well we'd have to put them down of course, and think of a way to maybe use one of the robot tanks or other mechanized units to be the collection units for acquiring these undead for experimentation.
It was during the expedition to Manchester that we also received a report from the 1st army in the west.
They had also begun their assault on Glasgow taking on the Scottish undead, thanks to our initial conflicts in Black and Liverpool, they already were apprised of our suspicions regarding intelligent undead along with the cause of our only casualties.
And hearing the success of the 2nd army witnessed by the Commander their spirits were ignited and they went all out in reclaiming the city, and just to show off that the Commander should have accompanied them instead they retook the city without a single loss of life, well living life since they purged the city of all it's undead inhabitants.
Even while positioned far away outside Manchester, I could still operate the system to deploy new walls and defenses creating a template fortification around the city, and while I was doing that the army had started tear down and clear out of area's of the city under Zoe's instruction so that we could create their lodgings for the night, in the morning when they set out for Edinburgh I'd be deploying the new local Garrison force, along with another Engineering squad.
Rinse and repeat for all other fallen cities until the area under our immediate control was cleared out effectively from the undead with the stragglers being hunted down by mobile squad on patrol and under the direction of the support staff back at the command center watching the map through radar.
The advantage from clearing out these millions of Undead was revealed after the clearing of Manchester as from the 2nd army almost every member had attained a higher rank of veterancy and quite a few had also increased to elite status.
The other advantage was that every single undead had within them a soul gem, sure they were only 1st – 3rd rank but this surplus was certainly not unneeded since these could help the natives to cultivate their own powers, and even if we don't give access to them their credit conversion rate was pretty nice.
Well maybe not the 1st tier gems but everything over that was fine by me.
Zombies were pretty poor in terms of gem acquisitions sure you were guaranteed to get at least one gem for every undead, but compared to beasts that was worthless.
Beasts had greater chances of being 3rd tier and above and also could have 2 or more gems within their bodies, which from a greedy human perspective made them a much more lucrative target probably the reason why even after all this time the zombie's populations hadn't really been dealt with like at all.
Selfish lazy humans is what it is.
The greatest threat to the outposts might be the beasts but if they instead cleared out the cities they could turn them into far better outposts for the commonfolk to live in.
But noooooo they don't do that.
Since our armed forces can increase their powers by culling the undead we'd be setting up a rotation so that any unit who reaches Elite status would be responsible for Axioms defense along with becoming a member of my Elite unit responsible for the Commanders direct orders and defense.
This made spots available for the existing defenders and Garrison staff to rotate in to gain experience and veterancy.
Which would allow us to have an overall stable force since having only a single well trained unit would be great but overall that would mean either this force would have to constantly be in motion solving all our problems or we'd run the risk of the others being too weak, which long run would make the nation weaker.
Once we'd mopped up the zombies within our borders we could then worry about the remaining beast domains.
But since this world is different who knows how much time we have until winter sets in, from that while we could still operate, our pace would surely slow down, and getting to have a completely fresh year with an open field for growth would be for the best to boost the overall morale of the citizenry, for their morale and opinion would help when we expand further and take others into our ranks.
Public opinion is always something to look out for, even if we setup our government to be in the style of an Autocratic dictatorship, or perhaps we were really a Military dictatorship at least to the public, while in reality we are more of a Despotic nation since at the moment total control was entirely in my hands not Alex's and certainly not the military since they are obey me absolutely.
But using a Autocratic governing style will mean what we say goes, and the public under their own worlds history and growth might oppose our style of rule.
Since the age of nations had passed and with it the fall of many royal families and other autocratic regime, but from what we know from Trent, the current governing system at least locally is Either close to Autocratic if not Oligarchic, since Trent itself is run by the City manager and his council of Elders so by definition power is with the one or the few certainly not with the many like a democracy but well democracy's have their own problem when the public are given too much power, so for now and as long as we're in charge remaining Autocratic using the Military to hold out our place in power before maybe shifting to a more Oligarchic standing by allowing maybe just some of the power to be returned to the people since we can't really be expected to manage everything about the peoples lives, sure their defense and general industry but I don't want to be in charge of schools, education, trades etc.
Not my bag, I'm a gamer I'd rather focus on what I know, and if there's nothing for me to do, great more time for me to spend with Zoe!