A/N: Posting double Chapters in 1 chapter cuz it's been annoying me that it doesn't align with the number of Chapters posted. However In exchange, I probably won't be posting next week though but we'll see.
Edit A/N: Please note that I know nothing about Military disciplines or processes or how the Military operates so all of this is just coming out of my ass, enjoy
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First goal partially achieved, now onto the next one, the food.
I went to their cafeteria, and I see the blond woman from earlier just outside a fancy-looking tent, sitting on her chair while reading a book, i wasn't too interested what she was reading so I just glanced over it and returned to scanning the cafeteria to see any optimal strategies I could do to not get caught while taking their food.
Even though those were my intentions, what I saw next surprised me to the core, it wasn't the humans there that shocked me, it was something else there with them.
A tall humanoid creature sitting on one of the tables, casually talking with another neohuman, with scales for skin and a tail behind them, it didn't look fake, especially since it was swallowing its food whole, and many other things that did not make it seem fake.
I realized what the creature was, and so I should be calm about this, but the only thing on my mind was-
"Lizardman?!!!!" I covered my mouth, but it was too late
My mind screamed, 'AGAIN?!!!'
My eyes quickly scanned their camp and saw the hundreds of eyes probing the dark area where I was at.
'They're not gonna do anything right?' I asked myself, standing there and waiting for them to make a move
I saw soldiers making their way towards the blonde chick with serious faces
'Just in case' I activated [Hunters Ear]
"..... kill the source of the disturbance" was all I needed to hear.
"Ah shit", I ran the other way faster than I had ever run in my entire life before flapping and flying away in another dark corner of the forest that was not a colour of the RGB spectrum, and quickly grabbed the Pillows and foam wrapped in the blanket and dashed.
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'Shit shit shit fuck'
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[Approximately 2 days ago]
In the skies of the forest of Zaleria, a group of black Helicopters formed a flock, all had different sizes and shapes, flying on top of the forest, breaking through the air with immense speeds, the signature sounds of their impossibly rapid beatsof the the wing blades scaring off any small to medium sized kaiju and Monsters on the ground, other aerial creatures made way for them and hid beneath the forests gigantic flora's canopies to not get ripped to shreds by their ability to summon the sound and power of thunder.
The group is composed of 3 large black birds, surrounded by multiple smaller ones, and while it is interesting to see that the leading chopper was smaller than the 3 of their largest, but even more interesting was that it had no wingbeats, but only the power of fire propelling its flight.
*ksssshk*
"Alright lads, we're approaching the objective in T-minus 30 minutes"
"Roger That/Copy That/Ryoukai" says a multitude of voices
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[????]
"Uhh yo chief, I got a question, it's been on my mind since we left the borders you see"
"Ask away, oh and that goes to all of you" she says while looking around us, her voice loud enough to be heard by everyone inside the massive transport chopper.
"You can ask questions" she returns her gaze to me
"Nah don't need ta" replied one worker
"Just throw me wherever and I'll do it if you got the money" said by many of the people in here.
Seeing as they didn't have any questions, I continued, "What's the big deal about this operation? I know the job we're doing is outside the borders, but to even involve them? I mean, I'm excited they're here, after all, it's my dream to become one of them someday, but for the company to hire them for this mission? Isn't that a bit overkill? Wouldn't simple Hunters or Adventurers from the Adventurers Guild be enough to protect us?"
I asked, glancing out the transport chopper's window at the impressive number of military personnel in their own choppers, while holding my specialized equipment in front of me.
My equipment, standard-issue for the company, is a pseudo-crystal-powered machine that generates a lot of power just to cut through a Kaiju's tough hide and other bodily structures.
Pseudo-crystals, an energy source in the form a dull crystal-like glass in looks and durability, it is a completely zero pollution fuel aside from the fact that it can give lots of temporary and short-term side-effects from using equipments that make use of the fuel in close proximity for long periods of time which can take a while, probably around 20-hours, since the radiation being emitted by the equipment is absorbed by the user and gets to accumulate faster than the radiation being discarded by the body naturally.
Anyways where were we? Ah right-
"HQ detected a massive energy spike at around 6-7 hours ago at the location, which means it's a newly killed Kaiju-class Monster, so we were hired by the Izumo's to bring back whatever we find, if there's anything left that is, also that's Chief Hewder, Hibino Kafka-kun" Said Hewder while playfully accentuating my name.
The Chief of Team Copper, which is also the team of the Kaiju-disposal unit I am a part of.
Ah, Chief Hewder, I too had a little trouble at saying your name the first time, apparently it's supposed to be said as "Heeder".
Honestly she was way too relaxed for my comfort, It was my first deployment that is so far outside the borders so my nerves are at maximum shakiness right now.
Anyway, she's one of those Lizardpeople, they look mostly human except for the fact that she has an elongated snout like a lizard, some very pronounced scales on her, and a tail.
Lizardmen tend to have a wide variety of colors, Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, with all of them being different shades, with the rarest being White and Black, I haven't seen one of the last two in all my life.
Historically they were physically stronger than us neohumans albeit dumber, a LOT dumber, but the mixing of the genes 10 million years ago when we finally made peace with each other after some great Neohuman and Lizardman War of sorts sorta made it so we had become equal in everything except our looks, at least that's what I remember from Biology Class….or was it from history class? Can't remember.
Speaking of History Class, that subject gets pretty wonky when almost every booming civilization gets decimated by two or more Alpha Titans having a minor disagreement.
Their battles sometimes raze a mega-city or two or three to the ground so almost everything faces a massive setback in development and progression of technology since the ways to save information were pretty outdated back then.
That was until Kaiju Crystals came into play, and the ones to get a hold them were major companies like the-
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Chapter 21 Drop the Bombs
[Kafka Hibino, ??? years old, POV]
"Izumo Tech huh, but how big was the Fort' for them to send this many miltary escorts for us? not to mention THEM of all people, aren't they pretty busy bunch and all?" Another newbie speaks up, I know this because we were both hired at the same time, anyway, she is also a lizardman, well, woman, in fact all Lizardmen are female, for some reason I can't remember from class. It's been 50 years since I graduated after all.
Also the name of the one who just spoke up was Viida, she's an otaku to anything related to kaiju, but in her case she's obsessed with statistics side and the Idolizing of the combatants, I'm obsessed with going to the frontlines and battling kaiju, as well as finally being able to stand side-by-side with the girl who I made a promise with.
Hewder looked at us with a laid-back expression but her voice was anything but that-
"It was measured as a Fortitude 8.8"
Aside from the machines running, a pin-drop silence swept across the room, a tiny bead of sweat formed on the faces of everyone on the helicopter, but at the same time, various degrees of a smile gripped every single one of the people in here, an 8.8 Fortitude is massive in more ways than one, just thinking about the cuts we get after the job is done, fuuu-, it gets my muscles pumping, now I can fund my endeavours to become one of THEM!.
"I see" By the Alphas, no wonder THEY are here.
"But don't worry, we got a senior Kaiju-killer with us so we have nothing to worry, this is a low-risk job for us, think of it as training so that the next time you get deployed outside the borders, you won't be a sack of rattling bones like Kafka-kun here" a cacophony of chuckles ran through the chopper
"Alright chief that was uncalled-" as I was talking to the chief, someone interrupted our conversation.
"A Senior-Kaiju killer? Really?!!! Who is it?" Viida asked the chief enthusiastically
"Sorry but I can't tell, confidential I'd rank it since it's a direct special request from her and I want to respect that, she want's to keep it a secret until it's necessary"
Oh? This person might be a BIG deal for the chief to fold like this, there really is nothing to worry about, as for the identity of this Kaiju-killer, could it be HER?, no, it can't be, she's way too high up for something like this.
"Hmm, for you to respect that person, she must be a-" As Viida was theorizing as to who the Senior-Kaiju killer was, I looked to the front where the Chief was looking at, to which I see the helicopter, much more advanced looking, bigger, and a logo on the sides of it that contained the series of letters: J.A.K.D.F.
The Japanese Anti-Kaiju Defense Force.
Well, calling it a chopper is a bit of a stretch, it had no blades like a normal chopper would, instead it had these weird-looking Jet engines on the sides that helped it maneuver in different directions in the air quickly.
I wonder what they were called, haa.
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We slowly arrived at the area we were being sent to, currently we were flying at the top of a plateau which was dark, jagged, and solid.
At the edge stood a crescent-shaped cliff, and there they saw the corpse of a Kaiju.
Obviously the source of the energy spike.
The energy spikes happen because the internal Kaiju Crystals that contain so much radiation is released in massive amounts in a short amount of time and it is measured in terms of Fortitude, that said, that doesn't mean that the Fortitude calculations are skewed just because of the energy spike, I think they had already taken such a thing into a account when calculating it, plus the energy spike is also a good thing because it makes it easier for HQ to detect them.
I don't really get how they calculate the Fortitude stuff but it is pretty simple to understand the numbering they give us: 1-3 are city street-levels, 4-7 are city blocks, and finally 8-10 are multi-city level.
"Welp, seems like we found our answers" Said Chief Hewder.
Having heard the chief, everyone quickly gathered and looked at the side of the chopper where there was a clear view of the dead Warbat.
'Fuck' The same thoughts ran through the heads of everyone but her, Viida, the other Lizardman, the pilot, and our escorts.
The Warbat corpse was one of the top ten worst carcasses to dismantle, mostly because of its venom glands, which unnecessarily discharged upon death until it is nothing but a pile of bones.
While the venom wasn't corrosive unless combined with another concoction from another gland in its body, it was incredibly pungent and unpleasant to the nose. The stench could linger anywhere from three months to a few years.
A small mercy, however, was that the odor was particularly dense, heavier than air, so it didn't travel far. It sinks to the ground, rarely rising more than 1–2 feet, and begins to settle down at around 3–10 meters from the source. Once fully settled, it barely extended a meter above the ground.
However, that's only the case for Neohumans, Lizardman on the other hand, they don't have the same weakness to it as we do because they can turn off certain olfactory nerves at will, which is just cheating in this line of work to say the least, so they are probably going to be assigned to work in the mouth area, I hope.
"We are going to land, get ready" Said by the speakers inside our transport chopper, a signal from our escorts.
We approached the area around the carcass and tried to look for a relatively flat spot to land and luckily they found one close to it.
*Kssshhk* "Approach the perimeters, prepare to drop the load" commanded their leader, which I assume was the Senior Kaiju-killer Hewder mentioned.
The choppers went away from us and encircled the corpse, as well as a few more of them in another part of the forest.
"Drop the bombs"
The choppers around us and around the corpse simultaneously dropped the bombs to flatten the forest floor even more in order for us to have the perfect flat area to work with, as well as to deter and scare off any predators that might kill us, which makes their job of protecting us a lot easier.
*Boom*
The forest was blown to smithereens, easily providing a flat plane of soil for us to work with, and honestly the lightshow was nice to look at.
In the first place, it was a good idea, but in hindsight though, it was a big mistake.
A massive swarm of Leafwings burst out from the canopies of the trees around the dead Warbat.
The swarm flew upwards into the sky and tried to intercept us, making my eyes widen like saucers.
"All combatants!! Prepare to engage! FIRE!" The comms was broadcasted to everyone in the chopper, the voice roared orders to which the soldiers escorting us followed, the barrels of the soldiers pointed to the approaching cloud of flying monsters who were receiving a good dose of peppering to their numbers with numerous bullets.