Doomsday Pillars

The Nevada Desert

Vrooooomm...

A convoy of seven armored humvees, six trucks filled with troops, and another four armored security vehicles drove through the arid desert of Nevada. This was the presidential convoy of current US President Elizabeth McCord making their way to the Doomsday Pillar located 90 kilometers west of Area 51.

The road they were traveling on had cracks and bumps and sometimes they had to go offroad due to avoiding the reported areas, which were deemed as hazard locations. 

In the presidential car were President Elizabeth and her secret service guards, James Randall and his assistant.

James took notice of one of the men in black suits still wearing the black sunglasses staring at him. This man was giving off a stern and mysterious aura.

President Elisabeth saw James' interest and said, "This is Mr. Richard, James."

"Hello Richard, nice to meet you," said James, with a smile.

Richard, however, stayed silent as he stared at James Randall while occasionally looking outside at Nevada's desert.

President Elizabeth went on to say, "Don't worry about him, he doesn't like to talk much."

"I see. That's okay. Let's play a little game while we're on the way. I'd like to take a guess where you served though before secret service. Are you from? Marines? Navy seal? Or maybe Deĺta?"

Richard remained silent.

"No reaction huh. Okay then. Secret services usually come from an agency background. So, that would either be the FBI or the CIA?"

Richard's brow slightly twitched when the word 'CIA' left James' mouth.

James put out a smile and said, "Okay, I'm sure you're from the CIA."

Elizabeth was a little impressed at how James guessed correctly, she said, "You're very perceptive, Mr. James. Where'd you learn that?"

"Hahaha, it's just the experience of an old successful businessman."

James was one of the nine dragons of Indonesia before the plague had struck. A title that was only given to the most successful businessmen who conquered the market. He had to learn other things and the most important skill he had learned or one would even say his innate ability for an entrepreneur was the ability to read other people. Moreover, James had spent a dozen years in a wheelchair, countless people had tried to take advantage of him, so through the years, his ability to read people had been honed to the fullest. 

"I've also heard that you've also had a background with the CIA, Madam President. You must be better at this than me," James said with a chuckle.

"Okay, Mr. James, Honestly, I'm not used to that title. Moreover, you're not a civil servant. I'd prefer that you'd call me Elizabeth instead."

"Is that so? Well then, of course, Miss Elizabeth."

As a billionaire, James often socialized with important people such as her, so it's easy for him to talk comfortably with her.

Elizabeth indeed had come from the CIA. One of the things they had learned there were profiling other people. The ability to judge people's intent and personality even from just one interaction. She too felt James could be trusted.

"When will we arrive at the pillar?" Elizabeth asked Richard.

Richard answered immediately without hesitation. "About 15 minutes, Madam President. We're only about 6. miles away from the site. In fact, if you'd take a look at the window, Madam President, you'd be able to see the pillar from here."

"Ohhh. You're right, I do see it," Elizabeth said, after looking at the window. She had seen photos of the pillar and how massive it was. But this was the first time she had seen it in person. It truly was gigantic.

James remarked, "If we had traveled using the Punisher fast car or the Avenger hovercraft we would have been there a lot sooner, of course."

"Unfortunately, those vehicles are still prototypes and would still take months to complete," Elizabeth replied.

"Stop the car!" said Richard to the driver while his hand was on the electronic earpiece. 

All the cars in the convoy immediately stopped. 

"What's wrong, Richard?" Elizabeth asked.

"The front Humvee has seen critters ahead."

"How many?"

"There's only a dozen of them, Madam President. But for your safety, we better change course."

"Okay," said Elizabeth, believing his bodyguard's decision.

The convoy changed directions toward a few kilometers to the north before turning back to the pillar on the west.

But it wasn't long after they had turned was another group of critters in front of them again.

"This is odd," exclaimed Richard. "According to intel, there shouldn't be this many critters in these areas."

James vouched for what Richard had remarked since he had already made several trips from Area 51 to the Doomsday and this was the first time he had seen this many critters. James then explained, "According to information from Alex, as time passes, more of these critters will come out of the Abyss Gate. It has been more than a month since the gates have been opened and it seems that we have been lucky enough not to have encountered a lot of them, until today."

The dozens they had seen earlier had now doubled. It didn't look easy to continue avoiding them, hence, Richard thought it would be better to finish off these monsters before they multiplied further and become a serious threat.

"Don't worry, Madam President, our ASV team in front would deal with these monsters easily. Troops, ready!" said Richard through his earpiece giving orders to the other convoy. He then reassured the president, "These Humvees are all made from the toughest materials solely to protect the most important figure in the US. We'll be fine, Madam President."

The convoy stopped and all the vehicles formed a line with the four ASV taking up positions in front. The entire army in the truck and humvee got out and took the line of fire.

Name: M1117 Guardian

Type: Armored Security Vehicle (ASV)

Used: 1999

Weight: 12,410 kilograms

Length: 6.0 meters

Width: 2.6 meters

Height: 2.6 meters

Passenger: 5 people

Maximum speed: 101km / h

Main weapon: 40 mm Mk 19 grenade launcher, .50 caliber M2HB

Additional weapon: M240H Medium Machine Gun

Four grenade launchers and a .50 caliber machine gun fixed its sights on the dozens of small, rolling monsters toward these troops. But before the little monsters got within shooting range, Richard got new information.

"South side!"

James came out of the humvee and turned his gaze south. He picked up a binocular and found dozens more critters approaching from the south; it seemed that their numbers were still growing.

"This seems to be the group of critters we had encountered earlier. They seem to be chasing us."

Richard coordinated with Captain Marcus, the commanding officer of three platoons totaling 150 soldiers. The 4 ASV vehicles split into two lines, facing west and facing south, while the three platoons divided into three, two guarded the front along with the two ASVs, while the last platoon made its way to the rear, guarding the humvee of President McCord.

James didn't want to stay still and came out of the vehicle to watch the fight. He was confident he could handle himself because he was also an earth realm fighter. Since that evolution, James had felt that all the remnants of the bone ailments he had faced during those years in the wheelchair were gone. He now had the same fighting capability of other earth realm fighters.

James, along with Richard and ten secret service guards, guarded the armored humvee that the president was riding on. In no time at all, they were ready to fight hundreds of critters that were coming in from two directions.

Captain Markus shouted, "Ready! Shoot!"

The ASV launched its grenade launcher in the middle of the critters. 

"SSSHTTT SSHHTTT SHHTTT SSHTTT

KABOOMM !! KABOOO !! KABOOMM !! KABOMM !!!

The sea of critters seemed to have made holes in the area where the grenades exploded. They had split apart due to the shockwave and the strength of the explosion. Next came the .50 caliber machine gun in action.

TTARRATATATATATATAT TRTATAATATTAT

The rain of high caliber bullets also made holes in the tough skin of the critters. Only one in three critters had made it into the firing range of an army force after the barrage of the machine guns. And at that time, these marines were ready to give these monsters from the abyss hell.

"Soldiers! Fire at will!" shouted Captain Mark.

"Give em' hell!" The soldiers answered in unison.

"Fire! Die! Kill them all!"

Tratatatatatat Tratatattata Tratatatattata

Another rain of bullets from the assault rifle M16 with 5.56x45mm NATO rounds hit the remaining critters, but it wasn't strong enough to penetrate the critters' spiked skin. Fortunately, some of these troops were equipped with the new X16 weapon that used high caliber .50 cal bullets.

BANG!! BANG!! BANG!!!

The shower of high caliber bullets and grenade launchers eliminated the monsters in the open field in just a matter of minutes. Although there were some critters that had reached the soldiers themselves, they were easily picked apart since all these three platoons were experienced peak stage mortal realm fighters. The hundreds of critters finally split apart and fled.

After things had calmed, Elizabeth got out of the humvee and looked at the aftermath. The yellow wilderness had been filled with corpses of critters and dozens of soldiers were chosen to find and collect the spirit stones.

Captain Markus, a man with a large body and a long mustache, looked proud at the success of the company he had led. "Hahaha! They're retreating boys! We've given 'em hell!" 

The rest of the soldiers cheered at this victory. While they were laughing, however, Captain Mark noticed the rising dust in the distance. 

"Incoming! From the south!"

Richard replied, "Critters again?"

"It doesn't seem like it. Even if there were hundreds of those little monsters, they wouldn't blow dust like that. It's something big. "

The soldiers got into positions once more and were on high alert.

"What a monster!" said Captain Markus.

The monster arriving had the face of a bull with two giant horns protruding from its head. It got ready to charge with its body that was as large as a truck. 

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