Tactical Annihilation: Commanding The Apocalypse

It had been days since Jake and his team left Outpost #7 but in the days that followed a change was noticed by the residents.

The number of mutant beasts had greatly decreased as of late, normally 2-3 times a day the outpost walls were attacked but now there had not been an attack in days.

Even when teams were sent out to hunt the beasts and acquire their meat the typical hunting grounds had little to show for their effort as if something had come along and culled all the best the beasts had to offer before leaving the youngest behind to develop more.

For an outpost like this firearms allowed them to deal with 1st tier beasts, but now unless they wanted their food source to disappear they could not resolve themselves to hunt the beasts at all.

At the local pub the people remarked at the posting of a new mission from the Fortress city.

The primary point was a request to investigate the decreased number of Mutant beasts in the area, with a side mission to locate where a suspicious individual with men in black clothes had gone to.

The basic reward was 1,000 salvation coins with greater rewards being offered depending on ones contributions.

It didn't take long for the bar to empty as all the young and hopefuls set off to begin their investigations in teams.

The people were unsure who issued the mission but guessed it was the remaining two managers of the outpost, while some had seen the seal of the Fortress city and known it came from even greater powers.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Within the Fortress City nearest to outpost #7 Sarah was sitting comfortably within and office, awaiting the return of the man in a suit whom she had run here from the outpost and upon reaching the gates was granted entrance into the fortress city even though she was an ordinary human because of the information she claimed to have.

After being granted entry she had to tell her tale to more than three different people each who called in their direct superior until finally she was brought to the central core building, and left in this office.

"Thank you for waiting Mrs Sarah."

A man entered the room after the door was opened by a butler the door was then closed behind the pair who entered the room.

"I've heard the basics already but if you don't mind telling us again what you've seen that would be most helpful."

"If the agreed upon reward is still the same?"

"If the information you give is better than I expect I'll increase your reward of course."

Smiling on the inside Sarah began recounting her tale about how she'd come across Jake an ordinary human who was escorted by 9 tier 1 soldiers armed with guns and wearing the same clothing.

Then about how he seemed to be selfless with a Soul Gem allowing one of his escorts to consume the gem whole resulting in his evolution.

Next about how within the same day, she witnessed not only the same escort but also the other 8 members of the squad also having jumped in rank once again.

The rate of progression heard by the man was something unheard of, even for a genius jumping from the 1st to the 3rd tier in less than a day was simply impossible.

The man thanked Sarah for her information.

When the butler re-entered he presented her with a card and informed her that her Salvation coin reward was within before offering to lead her towards the training ground where her awakening could be conducted and training begun.

This was her request, to give up Jakes information she wanted the rights to live in the city, be given enough coin to live there for at least 3 years and access to resources to cultivate up to the 3rd tier without needing to pay for the gems or trainers.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

As Sarah left the room the man was left alone at his desk to think about what he'd just heard.

Had they somehow suppressed their cultivation to appear like 1st tiers until they needed to reveal themselves as 3rd tier?

And if so just how much power were they really hiding or if the girls story was truthful did they have a way to excellerate the cultivation process which would make them a threat, not just to the outpost but also to the Fortress city.

Their controller had gone into isolation to attempt breaking through to the next tier, which meant their greatest fighting power was absent, and short of the city being brought to ruin she would not exit the chamber as they the cities defenders should be capable of handling it.

So an order was issued to the three Outposts in the area, one to scout out the reason behind the decreased number of mutants reported by Outpost #7 and a side mission to be on the lookout for information on the mysterious young man and his company of soldiers.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Back within his base Jake was marveling at the wonders before him.

His construction yard doubled as both their primary storage center, along with an administrative complex to deal with the day to day reports and logs, while also having a private office and bedroom specifically for the commanders use.

The office gave him a holographic interface to use like a computer, from this screen he could see a general overview of his bases building their respective deployment queues.

The base had been expanded quite a bit these last few days.

The livestock pens had increase to now contain not only chickens, but pigs, boars, cows, and even some deer all mutated beasts of course.

Next up the base itself had been fully surrounded by a 20ft high concrete wall.

Atop the walls RA soldiers patroled and stood guard in shifts, while outside the walls camoflauge pillbox's we constructed periodically to add an extra layer of defence possessing a heavy machine gun these positions likewise were manned in rotation.

As for the army itself, thanks to the mining operation and the mutant beast harvest Rocket soldiers, medics, Grenadiers and engineers joined the army.

While not technically being soldiers the army corp was also enhanced by the creation of Attack Dogs, they were companions to each team of soldiers as they could sniff out spies, and when grouped together dogs could achieve a one hit kill on infantry just like in the game, at least so long as the target was of the same rank.

After having built everything he could, Jake realized he'd need to get to commander level 3 before any further progress on the base could be made.

As his army grew he also deployed more soviet barracks to house them all, while the allied barracks itself was use more as a field hospital by the medics until a real hospital could be captured or another building unlocked and repurposed to become one.

The husky corp was a unique unit within the base independent of the normal teams structure, since in the game Dogs were the primary way of spotting spies and intruders, having them with each team was useful but a specific unit of nothing but dogs was also formed, They would merely frolic around the base all the while seeking out possible transcendent who had the ability to disguise themselves or possible even camoflague.

And while you might be able to trick the eyes of a guard dog you cannot deceive its nose.

The cost per dog was fairly expensive at 400 credits but against the possible threat to the base this cost was nothing.

As the mining and hunting had continued on over the weeks since he established the base, and now he had ample credits to spare, the army itself was now close to the size of a battalion (1,000 strong). And inside the concrete fortifications the engineer corp was hard at work creating unique buildings that the Commander could not create with his system.

Jake had managed to convince his men to only do a simple salute if he passed by so as to not hold them up or cause them to waste time.

In the beginning whenever he'd come across someone in the base they'd stop and salute and hold the salute until he either walked away or responded.

Thankfully the order was accepted and even newly deployed units followed the order.

Among the dozens of guard dogs he deployed there was a lone single unique unit amonst them, most of the dogs looked relatively similar save for a couple of albinos, and Jakes chosen a pure black huskey with red eyes, looking like a beast straight out of the pits of hell, Jake took this dog to be his own personal pet rather than as a working part of the army, or rather as his own personal guard dog, giving it the name of Shadow in contrast to his stealth black form.

While the first base was established and the surroundings more or less under control the ability to move his army was limited, at present they only had a single vehicle and after the days of hunting the tank was running nearly on empty, and unlike with the Ore Truck they could not power it simply with Credits or even the bases power.

Maybe if they could find an Electric vehicle but the short bus was a diesel engine.

perhaps if they can locate coal or natural gas the engineers could create some, but the other option is to find out the conditions to level up to 3 to unlock the war factory.

But for now at least Jake felt secure enough with his base, his soldiers, and his defenses that were in place.