|PMC VS NATURE|

The power of the holy one's blessing flows through us. 

We are unstoppable. 

The vile humans shall pay for their sacrilege. 

For the great holy one.

For my people.

For my Brother.

—

Silence deafens everything. 

The battlefield smog starts to settle. 

Smoke starts clearing away, revealing the carnage beneath it. 

The faint rumble in the distance above reminding them of who delivered such devastation. 

"CALL OFF!" Olive yells as he slowly gets up from his foxhole. 

As his men start calling out their status, he takes a headcount as he surveys his surroundings. 

Stuffing another magazine into his rifle, he looks to the drone operator for a update on their surroundings. 

"Just a few stragglers running back to the tree line sir." The operator responds after conducting a couple scans with the drone. 

"Let them go." Olive orders, "Return back to the camp and help rebuild for now."

Watching everyone shuffle back to camp, he took one last look around the devastation around them. 

(Looks like those ap mines are useless now, think all of them blew up in the earthquake.) Olive observed as he looked at the mass amount of shallow holes that surrounded the camp. (Thankfully, the incendiary charges didn't go off in all the chaos.)

Taking one last look at the tree line where the remnant elves had run off to, he returned to camp after making sure no one was left behind. 

Olive met up with the supply officer to get an update on their stockpiles. 

"How's our supplies looking?" 

"Not great." The supply officer gave him a small glare. "After your group came back and resupplied themselves, we got nothing left other than the stuff that's buried under rubble."

"Don't worry." Olive reassured him. "The elves won't be back anytime soon."

Giving him another pointed stare, the supply officer shooed him away and got back to helping others dig out the supplies. 

As Olive sheepishly left the area, he went around to get a general damage assessment of the camp.

Majority of the tents have collapsed, all of the watchtowers are demolished, all fortifications are basically nothing but dirt walls, and the mortar pit was buried as well. 

Luckily on that area, the mortar men managed to escape with a couple small caliber mortars and a few boxes of shells. 

All in all, it wasn't the worst case scenario. 

Only minor injuries have been reported, with only two twisted ankles being reported by the medic squad. 

Compiling everything in his small notepad, Olive got up and found the same drone operator who was at the fight. Dragged him along to take watch around the perimeter, since he was shooed away by everyone every time he tried to help out.

After a period of silence as they watched the tree line, the drone operator made a comment. 

"Dawn is about to break, can see some sunlight from the drone."

"Man, this was a long night. Kinda makes me miss paperwork." Olive responded as he stretched his tired body. "But I would still take this over anything else."

"You know sir, this kinda defeats the purpose of us being a recon unit." The drone operator complained to him. 

"Well that's we have you train in everything before specializing." Olive responded with a knowing smile. "Manpower is limited for us, there is only so much we can do. Thus, we must be flexible and be able to do anything and everything. Doesn't have to be perfect, just has to work."

"Meh, still going to complain, I didn't sign up to fortify an area and withstand coming under siege. I wanted to find things on my drones."

"Well, you still did, didn't you?"

"...Yes..."

As the two bantered without regards to rank, the light of dawn gave slight reprieve to the recon team. 

—

THEY MUST PAY!!!

Chief! Please! Calm down! We don't have anymore men!

CURSE THEM!

CHIEF!

I know. I KNOW!

...

What kind of demonic power have those damned humans signed a contract with? Such destruction. 

And those dragons. Why have we not been warned about those dragons? Since when have those proud beings lowered themselves to be used by those damned humans?

They must pay.

But chief, we are all that's left!

The holy one will bless us.

Do we not already carry the holy one's blessing?

I must pray for more.

How? The only way is to sacrifice... no... NO!

Do not worry. I will avenge everyone. 

CHIEF DO NOT DO THIS!

I must.

WHO WILL LEAD US THEN!?! WE NEED YOU!!!

If I cannot pacify the dead today, then I am no leader.

...

Farewell.

—

The sun has reached it's peak. 

Approximately 60 hours left until the main force arrives. 

Half of the buried supplies have been reclaimed. 70% of the fallen tents have been set back up. 

Many soldiers have caught some shut eye for a couple hours to recover. 

At this point, Olive has been awake for over 24 hours, with no signs of stopping for rest. 

Rage team has returned from refueling and resupplying their payload.

Everyone is ready in case of another attack. 

"Sir, heavy cloud cover is on the way." An observer reported. "According to my estimation, rain will arrive in about two hours."

"That's fast." Olive commented, as he looked through his binoculars at the particular cloud formation. 

"This could be the average for this world." The observer replied. "Also when are we going to give this world a name?"

"That's something for old man Vardan to announce."

"I hope he's taking suggestions, I'm thinking super earth, since this is a supersized planet."

"Are you trying to get us killed in a galactic war?!?" Olive told off the observer as they returned to watching their surroundings. 

...

"Say, those clouds are getting bigger and bigger aren't they?" Olive commented as he glanced up. 

At this point, everyone in the camp has suited up their wet gear and were waiting for rainfall. 

"Woah, that looks like an incoming hurricane." A passing soldier remarked. 

"..!" As soon as Olive heard that remark, he ran back to the rebuilt command tent and connected with Rage team.

"Pillar camp to Rage team, come in."

"Rage 2-2 receives, go ahead."

"On your way back to the landing point, have you noticed any large cloud formations? Anything resembling a hurricane or typhoon?"

"Uhh... That is a negative. Relatively clear skies all the way here. Only see big cloud formations around the camp. Over."

"Understood, continue air patrol, Out."

Looking at the concerned general, the old officer calls out in concern. 

"What's wrong?"

"Something feels off, like warning bells going off, but just as a precaution."

"Hmm, that is a weird feeling. Do you know what caused it?"

"Yeah, the clouds that are converging on us. These tents don't happen to be rated for hurricanes are they?"

"A couple are..."

"..."

The two stare at each other before scrambling off in different directions. 

"SECURE EVERYTHING! INCOMING HURRICANE! GET EVERYTHING ABOVE GROUND AND SECURED!"

The two ran across the camp shouting the same message, causing minor chaos to ensue. 

"Forget the rest of the supplies, get your butt over here!" Olive yelled at the supply officer who was coming out of a pit with yet another box. 

"We're almost finished, the storms not here yet." He complained. 

"Is every thing secured? No? Then get your ass over and secure them!" Olive retorted before running off to warn others. 

As he arrived at the medic tent, he noticed that it was next to the quarantine tent, the old officer arrived at the same time.

"Everyone! Get this tent secured! We got a incoming hurricane!"

At that order, everyone bolted into action. 

A couple soldiers soon arrived with wooden stakes created from the remains of the treants. They noted that the wood was much more harder and lighter than before. 

Glossing over the fact that they came from the treants, Olive had them used to reinforce the tent. 

When they finished reinforcing the tent as much as possible, Olive took a few men from rover squad and sent them around camp as messengers, telling everyone to shelter as soon as they finished securing everything. 

"Man I'm tired of natural disasters, can't we get actual magic instead." A soldier grumbled as he tightened his poncho, glaring at the hurricane that was fast approaching. "First an earthquake, now a hurricane? What's next, a blizzard?"

"Don't jinx it!" His partner slapped his helmet. 

...

"This wasn't as bad as I thought." The old officer commented as he stood in the rain. 

"..." At a loss for words, Olive just stared from the medic tent. "This isn't bad?"

"Nah, at most its a cat 3 hurricane from where I'm from, good weather for a barbecue." He shouted back. "I'm going to check on the others!"

"Stay alert!" Olive shouted back as he nearly fell from the wind. 

The old officer strolled along in his poncho, checking in on soldiers that have bunkered down, and grabbing others that also felt that this hurricane was nothing but a breeze.

He soon had a sizeable group following him around as he moved across the camp. 

Reaching the outskirts, he relieved the men holding watch.

"The storm doesn't look like its going to let up anytime soon huh." The old officer comments as he settles down in the lookout position. 

"Rain is starting to pool up around camp." One of the soldiers who followed commented. "Seems that our recent engagement stopped the water from flowing out, a couple areas are flooded out."

"At least the elves don't seem keen on attacking again."

"After that last engagement? No f*cking way."

As the men talk throughout the day, the remaining faint light coming through the clouds start fading and the cover of night falls once more. 

Flashes of lightning and the rumble of thunder echo through the night, interrupting whatever little sleep the soldiers could get. 

Another sleepless night arrives in miserable conditions.

Only two days remain until the main force arrives.