Observing the arrangement of the buildings their Captains and Majors planned to surround the whole settlement. Pressed against one another the cylinder shaped, square shaped, dome shaped buildings reminded him of his mother's pantry. Canned vegetables, tomatoes, meats, boxes of crackers, sugar, mixes, and other condiments would be shoved in there just the way these buildings were arranged. With a few cans or boxes isolated on the five shelves of the pantry installed at the end of the kitchen furthest away from the entrance. His parents would work against him and his siblings out of love so they would be forced to get through one of them or walk across the loud creaky floor boards of the kitchen. Having his thoughts on home made things here easier to cope with. Dimitri did not think about home very often while he was in the Marines. Serving this newly formed Vestrisian Republics was new to people. This VUVR was still a young nation even if it was formed by the unification of old kingdoms and empires. Only difference in this newly formed nations was no one tried seceding from other states. Two alien races just invaded their planet half a century ago. Each nation fighting these aliens would likely fall if they did not form an alliance. Despite being from another world or the stars, these aliens did not poses overwhelming advantages. Thanks to engineers, inventers, gunsmiths, and scientists they crafted weapons that held the invaders at bay. Now they had the means to face them head on, and the numbers.
As they approached the close nit structures several doors opened up causing the marines to stop. Forced to stop in their tracks the Marines in the front rows knelt down while the rest raised their weapons above their heads. Those situated in the back or flanks covered the outer flanks. Keeping an eye on the sliding doors the Marines held their ground with their weapons ready to fire. Out of these structures a group of seventy-two aliens exited. Dressed in different uniforms, jumpsuits, lab coats, combat armor, fatigues, traditional clothing, modern styles, and a mixture of fashions. At the lead of this group stood a scantily clad female figure. Wearing a cut up silver gray suit vest decorated in chain links, and tight rubber trousers. Her head was completely shaven. For footwear she had on red laced knee high boots one would see a noble lady or aristocrat don during the day. Checking her out Greigorsson could tell she was thin and fit looking. She appeared flat up top, curvy at the hips, and strong in the legs. Whoever this figure was she was once a prisoner, held hostage by someone.
"Thank you, Skogers for getting rid of those zombies and mutated monsters. Those um, twenty-four aircraft belong to me. If you don't mind we will be getting out of here." the female figure said with an upraised voice. She smiled at them with her hands up as a gesture not to shoot her. Others aliens and humanoids did the same thing after taking off strange looking handcuffs from their wrists. Without checking Greigorsson recalled the twenty-four parked craft now behind them. Some appeared like crescent moons, double edged axes, headless sparrows in a diving position, and a stingray with no tail.
"Look lady we are just exploring these islands. We will pass through this 34 mile long island, clear it of hostiles, and be on our way! Now either get out of our way or help!" One of the Majors barked at her revealing some estimations on the island were off in Greigorsson's head.
"Easy now. You can come and go if you please. We were held prisoner until you showed up. We can-" she was cut off by the same Major who barked at her.
"Who are you?" She demanded from the alien female.
"The name is Ataxeen Punchen, yet I also go by the name of The Wretched Mercenary. I am for sale and seeking employment. Aside from my crew of 40 mercenary fighter pilots we have 31 others with us. Let' see who do we have." She introduced herself to the Vestrisian Marines who sort of lowered their guard a little.
"We are all ears, Ms. Punchen who do we have here?" one of the Majors offered the floor to her.
This Punchen "Wretched Mercenary" introduced them to the 40 crew members whose names were lost in translation. Among the others was a mixture of different races with a variety of occupations. One Pyrotechnician from Nazdar held Estoras named Bannz went rogue on the invaders. Some Mutation scientist working with her named Dr. Veeze held a goblin-bull dog appearance with blue skin. An elf Emergency Responder named Luke Greenspears with a Life Support Engineer called Helper. Both were abducted from Damis much like a Vorcadam Doctor known as Okura Naoki. A DNA Surgeon of the CSO found their way among Punchen's group. Under false names two aliens from a planet called Nerdinn held occupations such as Inventor, and Programmer. One was a half Gnome half Goblin, and the other a Chromatic Dwarf. Next to them stood a Blue Skinned Audiologist raised by another race, and a Cyborg Triclops Cyberneticist held captive then freed. In torn up clothes a monkey humanoid Chemist folded his arms when they were mentioned. On the other side of the group to her left stood a voluptuous looking female Dhampir Hologram Designer in a yellow jumpsuit named Osanna Dawn. Next to her was a purple skinned Disaster Analyst workaholic called Xeff 97. Toward the center stood a Pigloid Machinist, an Elf Memory Surgeon, a half-elf Zoologist, a female triclops AI Developer, Triclops AI supervisor, and Tan skinned Translator. In the far back was an alien humanoid sniper who chose not to shoot them, a Draconic humanoid assassin who was stuck with them, and a Mutated Lion humanoid with a missing arm. At the front of the group stood a Gnome Astronomer, a female snake lamia acting as a bodyguard, a pair of Mahadi Catfolk warriors, some Jackal Warrior, and some Satyr armed with a long sword. The rest of them included a tattooed Oni Warrior, a Bulldog warrior acting as a captive, a hybrid troll showing above average intelligence, and a Rogue Demonologist of Nazdar-Elf descent. When she was finished introducing the group of aliens and native Calornese she blurted out a word in another language.
All humanoids except the two Mahadi, the Jackal Warrior, and the armed Satyr, dropped down. All four of these humanoids attacked the Vestrisian Marines only to be gunned down by one of the Majors. Uncertain if these others could be trusted the Marines left fifty men to keep watch over them. The rest of the battalion moved past them to search the rest of the island for more hostiles. In between two of the towers on the island they discovered an old ship. Covered in overgrowth, and completely shut down, this ship sat between an old relay tower, and an observation tower. Investigating or exploring this abandoned ship would take some time, which Colonel Gleichers forbade over the radio. Their goal here was to clear any islands of hostiles until superiors ordered them to move north. Going to the very end of the 34 mile long island brought them to their mission limit. Five other structures rested at the end of this island. A metal wall half submerged in the sea flanked four other buildings. A cone shaped building, a cube shaped bunker, a sphere shaped home raised above the ground, and cylinder shaped tower standing at eight stories high. Quickly searching each building, and finding nothing of interest, the Marines prepared to move east.
In full force eight hundred fifty two marines sped their way to another island, north east of the airbase island. Their path took them past Yvonne's claimed island. On the way to this other island they spotted a Gantronese craft speeding away from it. Greigorsson felt the urge to shoot at them. He would be shooting over the heads of his fellow Marines. That would not go over well with them as their craft bobbed up and down in the sea. Landing on this next island revealed five other islands close by. Finding this one abandoned except for treaded alien vehicles, site of a shoot out they discovered this island was connected by bridges. One to the north, one in the center and the last in the south. On this island they found a map to some "Shrine of the Old One". Not interested in searching for religious shrines, or cults the Majors divided their forces into companies. Company one went for the north island, Company two went for the middle, Company three went to the southern one, and Company four stayed put. Greigorsson found himself in the middle Company, which went to a platform on this central island. Getting inside this platform wasn't easy as it was barricaded on the outside. It was not the only platform on this island, but it was marked for some reason. Managing to get inside the Marines found over a hundred zombies inside this one platform. Forced to waste ammunition on the undead they cleared one five story platform of 151 zombies that wore a variety of uniforms. Not bothering to clean up they returned to the landing site. Here the other two companies returned with reports and company. In the northern island, Company one took out 272 undead humanoids on the biggest platform. Company three found a smaller company of 78 IGA paratroopers whom seized the island and its platforms after a long fight.
According to their commanding officer, a purple skinned elf, most of the islands to the south lay empty. Each of those islands were sites to heavy fighting between them, the CSO, Order of the Beast, Toceanids, Aquanne Hitto, and Mercenaries. Not too far to the east lay seven islands past another island inhabited by automaton sentries holding some platform. To the north of this island lay two other islands with automatons and droids. Giving their name as Captain Carrus they explained there was another unit of IGA soldiers on the other side of those islands. It was a unit of 146 Marines who seized a platform island from the Gantronese. Without authorization this company was launching an attack on another island platform taken from the Gantronese by mutant monsters. Carrus offered to help them fight the Gantronese if they could help them with the Order of the Beast and CSO. Having another alien faction help out would give them an edge against the invaders. Greigorsson was in no position to make decisions. That rested on the shoulders of their commanding officers. He looked around seeing it was getting dark. This would not really stop them from moving forward, however they did need to rest.
Pushing the decisions and mission off for tomorrow they chose to rest. Splitting up their forces they slept in a different platform on the connected islands. Aside from the usual chatter of his fellow Marines, Greigorsson listened to the sounds of the ocean waves hitting the beach. That salty smell of the ocean wafted into his nose as the cold night air blew through the open parts of the structures. Laying his head down he thought he heard rain coming down lightly on the metal structures. Adjusting himself, Greigorsson ignored all the noise while closing his eyes. Expecting everyone else to shut up and sleep he went on to his dreams. A mish mash of events was all he received as a dream until he was jolted awake by a loud engine of some craft roaring past their location. Forced to wake up around morning they got up to see what woke them up. Running outside like curious schoolboys seeing an airplane for the first time doing stunts they witnessed an alien bomber doing circles in the air. Getting a good look at this bomber Greigorsson noticed its shape resembled an elongated aspis shield connected to a legless scarab with its wings spread out. Its bomb bay doors rested in the center of the craft. With three engines powering it, this craft also possessed four turrets. A pair of rotating turrets on the bottom, and another pair on top of an aspis shield crab shell shape. Its pilot revealed all these aspects of the air craft while making circles around each island as though it was hunting for targets.
This new unidentified flying craft stopped making circles and dove for the seven islands further away. Eager to catch a glimpse of what it was targeting they raced across the bridges. Sporadic fire emerged from two of the islands Captain Carrus mentioned. They could see the islands lay nine miles away from their location. From the tops of the highest points and the platform towers the marines, and new found allies spotted tracer rounds from whatever was shooting at this alien bomber. Whichever faction it belonged to it had instructions to bomb two of these seven islands. Above the cheering, jeering, heckling, carousal Greigorsson thought he heard one IGA paratrooper point out an island their 146 marines took, and another island they could spot. That island was where their fellow IGA personnel attacked these mutant invaders. According to one he happened to be next to, the Gantronese were at war with them, the IGA, these CSO monsters, and the Order of the Beast. When the bomber made another dive to bomb the targets a trio of Zeykos fighters were spotted in the sky to the north. All the cheers turned to jeers, boos, and cries of disappointment.
Watching the three Gantronese air fighters go after the alien bomber made the air tense. Everyone's eyes stuck to the skies as the bomber engaged the three Zeykos fighters. Evasions, and angel strikes were performed in the air as the four air craft fought. Each rotating turret let loose a hail of fire on the attacking Zeykos. One of the Zeykos goes down. After a few more passes a second one gets hit and is forced to disengage. The third Zeykos evaded going down in the fourth pass. Prolonging the engagement in the air the Zeykos and alien bomber performed a dance in the air. Two more circles of evasion successfully kept the bomber in the air as its turrets gunned down the last Zeykos. Seeing the dogfight was over the Captains and Majors herded their Marines back in formation. Making another round through the islands the Marines, and IGA paratroopers prepared to move on to the seven islands east of their position.
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