Doomsday Pillars

DDay +17

"Next!"

"Name?" 

"Barry."

"Battalion?" 

"8th Battalion."

"Platoon Number?" 

"Platoon 077."

"Here it says you are an elite soldier?" 

"Yes."

"How old are you again?" 

.

"I am 16 this year."

"Here are your 10 cans of high-level first stage meat."

Barry received ten canned meats because he had been chosen to be a part of the elite soldiers three days ago. As he had expected, elite soldiers received special treatments. The regular soldiers had only received three portions of canned meat and even the city guards, people who had received earlier training than them, only got five portions.

The Star Base managed its residents this way. In exchange for housing, food and security, everyone had to contribute. If anyone managed to do more than what was required, they would receive extra treatment. And one such example were these ten portions of canned meat.

When Barry received his portion this morning, he immediately consumed two of them for breakfast. At first he thought something had gone wrong for his body warmed up, making him sweat bullets, but then after a few minutes, he felt energized like he had taken a cold shower after a whole day of strenuous exercise. Afterward, Barry returned to his platoon. 

The Star Army had been modified, simplifying the known military units. A squad was composed of 10 people; a platoon consisted of 10 squads, a total of 100 men; a Battalion contained 10 platoons, for a total of 1,000 men.

As an elite soldier, Barry had been forced to become a squad leader and for the last three days, it had been disastrous for him. Within the whole Star Army, he was the youngest squad leader. He never knew what Milo saw from him, because most squad leaders came from either the military, law enforcement or at least had some martial art experience. His squad of 10 men had been looking down on him and wasn\'t the least subtle of their worries that he would get them killed.

"Squad leader! I saw you got lots of canned meat, please share some with me."

Barry, being the nice guy he was, gave one of his canned meat to this guy named Yuda. Yuda was one of the untalented Black Snake Gang fighters. He was a troublemaker who had always complained about how unfair the system was to everyone, especially since he was one of the earliest people who came here.

There were a total of 25,000 regular fighters and 3,000 elite fighters who had passed basic training. Unfortunately, most had no actual battle experience. So, those who had a slight leadership or battle experience like the pencak silat society, police officers or military soldiers, were automatically accepted as the elite fighters, except for the ones who were too old or had a questionable attitude like Yuda.

"That canned meat is wasted on him. You must quickly take control of your unit, else your nice guy routine will only endanger your squad," said Dylan, also an elite fighter and a squad leader. They were in the same 077 platoon.

What Dylan had said was actually true. Yuda had been fighting zombies on the front lines from the very first day, he had found and eaten a few spirit stones, hence, a stage one beast meat no longer had much benefits for him. The canned meat was only effective for people who had never eaten any spirit stone before. Like Barry for example, he had eaten only one spirit stone, so he still reaped the benefits from the meat. In truth, Barry planned to give some of these canned meat to Cynthia. The thought suddenly improved his mood.

"Gather up!"

Chris, the 077 platoon commander gathered all his 100 men. This Chris was a sergeant in the Red Barret special forces. Out of the 500 special forces, 250 who had talent in command were selected to be platoon leaders.

The Star Army had also modified army rank titles since more and more civilians had taken leadership positions. There were no longer sergeants, lieutenants or generals within the Star Army. There were only unit leaders, platoon leaders, and battalion commanders.

"We\'ve received a report about unusual sightings. Our 077 platoon have then been tasked to check this disturbance. So, let\'s go!"

"Yes, Platoon Leader!"

A few kilometers west of the Starbase, the 077 platoons were shocked at the sight before them.

There were thousands of mutated beasts heading toward Star Base.

- - - - - - - - - -

Since morning, Alex had been busy having another division meeting. In his hand was a list of the current data and the reports from all divisions.

<Star Base>

Size: 115 hectares

Population: 108,318

Guards: 7,000

Administration: 1,000

Children: 9,497

Elders: 5,611

Farmers: 21,428

Fishers: 6,215

Construction workers: 20,290

Scavengers: 27,311

Helpers: 9,321

Chef : 500

Medic: 131

Researchers: 14

<Military>

On training: 26,832

Regular soldiers: 24,119

Elite soldiers: 3,177

Special soldiers: 489

Number of Battalions: 25

Number of Platoons: 241

The population had increased for another 10 percent in the last 4 days. Most of the new workers were sent to become fishermen. And like before 40% were moved to Antiga to receive basic training.

The busiest of the workers were still the construction and steel workers. As of the moment, there were 140 warehouses built, it still wasn\'t enough for everyone but since tents had been set up, the situation wasn\'t dire. 

And due to the recent surge of materials, such as the carcasses from mutated monkeys and snakes, these workers had their focus changed to creating tools, sabers, spears, shields and canning of meats. Alex actually had another task for them, he ordered those who had experience in tailoring to start making armors for the soldiers. Simple light armor that would protect the people from animal bites or scratches. That should be helpful for the Star Army.

Behind that, Alex\'s actual main goal of finding people who could design and create light armor made out of the second stage beast snake. This snakeskin was one of a kind due to it being light, durable and strong material as evident by yesterday\'s battle and the how the steel construction workers had difficulty in cutting this material. As for the mother snake material, it couldn\'t be done for now. Alex would need to find a better weapon or tool later, which could handle such materials in the Doomsday Pillars.

Alex told the workers to collect other useful parts from these snakes. The fangs and the poison, specifically, these two materials, with the right modification, could be useful for Alex and his team.

After assigning those, Alex also just received a report that the HAM radio in the Gilimanuk City finally received a message from James Randall. It looked like he needed some help. Alex really wanted to start sending the army, but as he was thinking, a nervous-looking soldier entered the room and reported to Major Sandi in a whisper. 

The Major frowned as he said, "There\'ve been multiple sightings of mutated beast heading here."

"Isn\'t it like any other day? What\'s new?" Tony said.

"The sightings reported the beasts numbered in the thousands. The soldiers believe that at least 40- 50 thousand of them will arrive in an hour or two."

Alex was also shocked, a large number of beasts attacking this location had never happened in his previous life unlike the zombies! He searched through his memories of his previous life and then remembered about a similar case in the Philippines.

"The eggs! They\'re coming for the eggs!" Alex shouted. He added, "If I\'m not wrong, this means, even more, will come! We need to defend Star Base, sound the alarm, and contact the Star Army. Gather all the soldiers!"