Intruder (1/3)

[DAY 81]

After the speech, Neos Myriad and Legion prepared to meet Hector in the recently conquered city which is the nearest to Safezone 9.

Meanwhile, Neo plans to set out towards the south of Abeus in order to secure for himself the Separatist Hideouts reported by his Soulless, where differerent weapons that his Myriad needs, are stored.

However, it's been more than two months now since the Apocalypse happened, so the condition of the weapons and vehicles isn't entirely clear, but Neo just can't pass up such a chance to make his army stronger. He needs the weapons to take Safezone 9, at any cost!

He can't use the one Starfighter alone for this, especially since the Safezone certainly owns a few more and will definitely use them during the fight.

Neo may be a good pilot, but his combat experience is limited to a few missions and he's not omnipotent beyond that. A properly aimed shot of a experienced pilot is enough to destroy him and he will die just like everyone else.

Furthermore, with the few Mechs and Hovertanks his Myriad has so far, they won't be able to do any significant damage to the reinforced walls of the Safezone.

Additionally, has the Safezone significantly more firepower than his Myriad does.

A long-lasting siege is therefore out of the question, especially since time, a large number of Legionnaires and siege weapons are required to make this possible.

With Neo's army outnumbered and inferior in armament, Neo and his Legates speculate that his army cannot withstand more than 5 days of siege.

The number of Legionnaires still present on the 6th day would simply be too few to take the Safezone.

So it's all or nothing for Neo and his Legion in this battle.

Either they will be able to conquer Safezone 9 within the time limit of 5 days or they will be destroyed beforehand and thus seal the end of Neo.

However, not everything is to Neo's disadvantage.

According to reports, there are more than 8 million people in Safezone 9, most of whom are simple civilians who were lucky enough to be rescued and evacuated by the military.

Although Neo doesn't exactly know the situation in the Safezone 9, many civilians seem unhappy with the way the military is handling them.

It is typical of people of the former world that when a problem arises that they need to confront, rather than solving it themselves or coming up with alternative ideas, they blame it on a scapegoat on whom they assign any and all responsibility for all the bad in their lives.

Of course, this behavior also shows itself in the security of the Safezone.

In this case, it's the military that couldn't stop the Asteorids. The same military that couldn't destroy the Undead and the military that did the orbital bombardment of the Earth that killed millions of people and will soon take the remaining people's home.

Furthermore, the civillianz blame the military to have double standards which enables them to collaborate with terrorists at the first opportunity. The separatists have carried out countless attacks on the civilian population, thousands lost their lives in these attacks and now everything is supposed to be fine again and the separatists who were terrorists and murderers before are now accepted?

Of course, the civilians don't see it that way, so there is a high level of instability in Safezone 9.

Most people there certainly don't understand that the world isn't all black and white. The military and the separatists try everything to save as many people as possible, they share the same interests and have to protect themselves because of the huge Undead Hordes that exist all over the world.

One of the Soulless reports that the region north of here, which should normally be full of Seperatists, has already been completely overrun by the Undead. It is reported that there is said to be a gigantic Horde of up to 1 billion Undead that roam the country and destroy everything that gets in their way.

The ground forces of the EDF has no chance to face such gigantic Hordes alone on Earth, they need the separatists and the volunteers just as they need the military.

Well, let people think what they want. What is important for Neo is that he can use this doubt and anger towards the military and the government for himself.

If the Myraid starts the fight and exert enough pressure on the population with artillery weapons, this could lead to an attempted rebellion in Safezone 9, which Neo can use to his advantage.

Therefore, Neo did not hesitate and made his way to his Starfighter at the same time, while his Myraid and Legion advanced towards Hector his ne Legate and the conquered city.

To be safe, some Soulless and Undead remain to protect Abeus. But Neo is certain that should a battle break out in Abeus, the Miasma Tower will be more than enough to crush any small force with ease.

...

"Emily how are you? How does it feel to be a Starfighter?" asked Neo as he gets into the Starfighter.

"Host, everything feels new to Emily. Although Emily's system has already been ported to a hovertank, it's not the same. Emily feels a lot more thanks to the neural system in the Starfighter, these are entirely new experiences that are difficult to define." said Emily with a lightly excited voice.

"Enjoy it Emily, I didn't forget you in the time I was away just because I am not connect with you like I am with the others. I know that you monitor and direct the production of weapons and ammunition. Without you, the Myraid could have never expanded so quickly to today's strength. Hence see the Starfighter and the new feelings and impression it brings you, as a gift from me." Neo said with a slight smile as he donned the pilot's mask.

"Emily will do that! Emily will obey Host's commands." responded Emily excited.

Meanwhile, Neo bonded with the Starfighter's neural system and also with Emily at the same time, which felt a bit strange to both of them, but shouldn't cause any damage, especially since using AI in combat ships is actually perfectly normal.

The only difference with Emily is that she was an AI built with an originally different purpose which has adapted to the new System. Emily can simply integrate the data and algorithms of the system AI in the Starfighter and can therefore operate the Starfighter. However if the System is too complex to integrate or the required memory is not available, then the integration will fail.

After the conversation, the Starfighter took to the skies over Abeus and the Legion which was marching towards Safezone 9 and flew in the opposite direction.

Behind Neo followed some trucks that are supposed to transport the weapons in the hiding places. They are significantly slower than Neo in his Starfighter and will take several hours to arrive at the Separatist Hideout.

..

After half an hour, Neo arrived over the place where the Separatists Hideouts are supposed to be.

The place is an old amusement park, rusting away abandoned in one of the few remote and rural areas that still exists on Earth.

The Separatists chose to built a total of three Hideouts inside the abandoned amusement park because of its remoteness and therefore there were no Undead or humans in the vicinity.

However, something was strange about this place.

It was like there was an Aura in the air that you could neither see nor really feel and describe, something completely alien.

Neo decided to only land the Starfighter after Emily had done some scans of the ground and the strage Aura beforehand, which showed that there was no strange occurrence or radiation on the ground.

Afterwards the Starfighter landed and Neo exited the cockpit and examined the surroundings.

The strange Aura was even more intense on the ground and Neo was sure something or someone was emitting that Aura. But he didn't know where this Aura originated from and therefore decided to search the Separatists' hiding places first.

The nearest hiding spot was in a small cave, under an old carousel that Neo was walking towards. Arriving there, Neo opened a small hatch on the floor and was afterwards greeted by some bats that flew out of the cave where they apparently had their sleeping place.

After the bats flew away, Neo headed into the narrow cave and quickly found some crates below.

These crates were filled with explosives, grenades, ammo, and some heavy weapons.

Otherwise there were some small mortars and more ammunition in the cave.

Satisfied, Neo decided to leave the transport of the crates and mortars to his Soulless in the trucks that will arrive here in a few hours.

Following this, Neo made his way to one of the other hiding spots, which was supposed to be under the ferris wheel.

But after he walked towards the ferris wheel Neo noticed something strange. The earth and the paving stone, which was completely covered by plants, had some giant cracks and were destroyed.

Thsi was nothing unusual, especially since earth deformations are normal to occur after a few years. But what was strange is that the plants were completely red and yellow threads could be seen running through them.

Neo last saw plants like this when he fought the Stage 2 Undead Tree, so he knows very well how the Undead virus affects plants.

With more caution, Neo crept closer and closer to one of the bigger cracks and looked inside.

With his enhanced senses he could see that the holes lead into a huge gorge.

Neo hesitated a bit but decided to investigate the gorge anyway, especially since he couldn't do enough experiments the last time he fought an undead plant, thanks to Luma interfering.

Therefore he was rather interested in finding another one.

With his wings extended, Neo floated down the hole into the canyon, noticing that the rock walls were also crisscrossed with yellow threads that went everywhere.

Neo decided to follow the threads further into the depths of the canyon and was always ready to engage in a fight.

After about one hour in the pure darkness of the cave, Neo finally arrived at his destination. But it was not an undead plant or a creature that awaited him there, but rather a facility built of red metal, from which the yellow threads that are everywhere come from.

'A building down here? How did it get here and why are the threads starting from it? And what does all this have to do with the virus?' Neo wondered as he looked at the building.

Then he noticed it, dark little rocks that seemed a faint purple when examined more closely, that were all around the alien building.

'Those are asteroid pieces! But how did they get here?' Neo wondered as he approached the alien building.

The alien building was relatively large and was jutting out of a wall, so Neo couldn't really estimate the overall size.

After some hesitation, Neo decided to approach the construct and touch it.

Nothing happened when he touched the strage metal like structure of the building, but after Neo took his hand off the wall, he inadvertently cut a small wound in his hand, which left some blood on the wall.

Suddenly the dark red wall began to lighten and deform into a kind of entrance that led into a room.

A little hesitantly, Neo decided to enter the room and after he went through the door, the wall´behind him deformed again and closed.

...

The entire room was so dark that even Neo with his enhanced senses could barely see.

Furthermore, the room seemed to be completely empty and leads nowhere, so Neo decided to put some of his blood on the next wall and as expected parts of the wall again formed into a door leading to another room.

Neo walked through the door and found a room similar to the one before.

Afterwards, Neo did the same again a few times and always arrived in a new empty room.

"Is that a bloody maze?" Neo said, annoyed by all the empty rooms he had traversed so far.

However, he decided to drip his blood on a wall one more time and a door formed again and he decided to go through it, but this time the room wasn't empty, instead there were some giant alien beings in the room.

These beings were all three meters tall and had a demonic appearence. They were made out of a strage black substance and built like humans. They had two arms and two legs, but where their face should be were countless cracks that glowed with a red and yellow light.

These creatures also all had curved horns on their heads, and the creatures black skin seemed to be alive and in constant motion.

There were a total of three of these beings in the room, just standing around, with a few hundred cable-like arms extending from their heads to the ceiling, connecting to it and glowing yellow.

'What the hell? Did these beings come here with the Asteorids? Could these beings be the ones behind the Undead Virus? Why aren't they responding to my presence?' Neo thought to himself as he looked at the beings.

But before he knew it, the cable-like arms on the head of one of the beings went away and the being suddenly began to move.

Neo could also sense a weak Soul from these beings, but there was something odd about these Souls.

Where the Souls of humans and undead are at a standstill and rarely move, the Souls of these beings seem to be in an abstract and chaotic whirlwind. Moreover Neo could not long look at the Souls of the beings, especially since the longer he looked inside, more of his Soul Energy was exponentially consumed.

After a short time he could already feel his headache and took a few steps back.

The demonic being that was moving meanwhile strangly turned its head towards Neo and it seemed like it was looking straight at his Soul.

"Intruder" said the creature in a harsh and demonic voice as it suddenly anash and the creature's head started to glow yellow...

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UNDEAD LEGION & SOULLESS MYRIAD STRENGTH:

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LEGIONNAIRES: 1,891,476

UNDEAD LEGION COUNT: 581,925

SOULLESS COUNT: 1,309,551

COHORTS: 560

CENTURIONS : 373

LEGATES: 22

PREFECT: 1 (Aaron)

BATTLE EQUIPMENT:

MECHS: 50

HOVERTANKS: 55

STARFIGHTER: 1

HOWITZER: 3