The news of the English Channel's destruction hit the Munich command centre like a kinetic strike. George's voice erupted in a roar of pure, unadulterated frustration. "What the hell? The Russians have printed a battleship that has erased our naval legacy in minutes! We cannot allow this to stand. Our forces in Spain must move now. Recapture the entire coastline! I want the English fleet to see a wall of iron the moment they sight the Spanish horizon."
George slammed his fist onto the tactical map. "The ground infantry won't be enough. Move the armour. I want all German tanks shifted to the Western front—including the four Lashes heavy tanks and the five German Titans."
Satan stepped forward, his eyes burning with a dark, calculated fire. "And the East? You are leaving the back door open for the Russian pincer."
"We will bury the Russians in their own tracks," George replied, a cold sneer forming. "We will deploy traps across the Eastern border—lethal, advanced versions of the guerrilla tactics used by the Vietnamese against the Americans. We will turn the very earth into a weapon."
Anto shook his head, his mechanical processors whirring. "The snowfall is at record levels. The ice will jam the triggers. How can your planning survive the freeze?"
"Are you a fool, Anto?" George snapped. "I did not say I would use the exact traps of the past. I said I would use advanced traps. Lashes technology doesn't freeze."
Satan crossed his massive arms. "Then it is settled. My entire demon army will descend upon the Spanish coast. We must dismantle that battleship before the Russians can reinforce it. If they were cunning enough to build the Yamato, they were cunning enough to install tracking arrays within its hull. But," Satan paused, his voice dropping to a gravelly whisper, "I can bring the Bismarck back."
George's smirk returned. "How? It lies in pieces in the graveyard of the Channel."
"I will resurrect Parasite," Satan replied. "I will send him into the crushing depths of the ocean. He will find the carcass of the Bismarck and inhabit it. You know his abilities; he doesn't just pilot a ship, he becomes it."
Using the specialized metal shafts harvested from Peter Peterson, Satan channeled a surge of dark, ancient energy. A rift in the air pulsed with a sickly light as the Parasite was pulled back into existence. With a silent, predatory command, Satan sent the entity screaming toward the floor of the English Channel. Deep beneath the waves, the Bismarck began to twitch. The legendary hunt was far from over.
The march toward the west was a gruelling slog through ash and freezing mud. The Russian army, led by the colossal KV Champions, diverted their path toward Prague. The city was a vital industrial hub, but the spectre of radiation from the destroyed Berlin hung over them like a toxic shroud. Every soldier wore a Geiger counter on their wrist, the faint clicking a constant reminder of the invisible death nearby.
On the outskirts of the city, the lead commando squad halted. Steve raised his hand, signalling the team to drop. Through his high-tech optics, he spotted a massive, reinforced steel door embedded into a hillside, camouflaged by dead brush and artificial snow.
Steve keyed his comms to the Army Chief, who was positioned atop a KV-44 in the vanguard. "Sir, we've found a massive entry point on the outskirts of Prague. It looks like a high-tier bunker. Should we investigate?"
The Chief's voice crackled back, firm and cold. "The Germans don't build bunkers for shelter anymore, Steve. They build them for secrets. Go inside, but stay alert. If the radiation spikes or the door seals, blow your way out."
Steve turned to his squad. Tom, Jack, Ginger, Hank, Ben, Bazuka, Pointer, Gointer, Travis, Julius, Mathew, Scarface, Leo, Alex, Thomas, and Light—the elite of the elite—checked their weapons.
"The Chief gave the green light," Tom whispered, gripping his rifle. "Let's see what the Germans are hiding in the dark."
The heavy door groaned as they forced it open. The air that rushed out was stale, smelling of ozone and hydraulic fluid. As the squad stepped into the pitch-black corridor, their tactical lights cut through the gloom, revealing walls lined with advanced defensive systems.
The squad moved deeper into the shadows of the facility, their boots echoing against the cold concrete. Steve halted the group, pointing his tactical light toward a massive, reinforced barrier. "Friends, one more door is here," he said, his voice dropping to a cautious whisper. "What do you think is waiting for us inside?"
Light didn't hesitate. "I think nothing," he replied bluntly. He levelled his heavy weapon, and eight rocket launchers roared in unison. The high-explosive impact shredded the metal door, turning it into a twisted heap of scrap.
As the smoke cleared, a series of mechanical clicks echoed from the walls. Suddenly, a hail of arrows hissed through the air, clattering harmlessly against the squad's armoured plating. Scarface scoffed as he brushed an arrow off his chest. "Do they think these arrows can pierce our metal covers to hit our organic bodies?"
Thomas chuckled, though his eyes remained on the dark corners of the room. "It won't hit our organic body, but it could kill us just as well if we aren't careful. I think more traps are deployed here."
They stepped through the ruins of the door into a massive hall. In the centre sat a stagnant pool of water, and a strange, sharp scent filled the air. Ginger sniffed the atmosphere and made a face. "Ah man, during my training I used to eat ginger so much that my trainees named me Ginger. This place is smelling exactly like it."
Leo started to laugh. "Haha, it's funny, but just a minute." He stopped walking, his expression turning pale as the scent grew overpowering. "If ginger is present here and it is smelling this bad... wait. I think it's poisonous gas made from ginger! Run!"
Steve commanded Light to take out his scanner and analyze the mist. Light activated the device, his eyes scanning the data scrolling across the internal HUD. "This is not poisonous," Light announced, his voice echoing in the metallic hall. "It is liquid nitrogen."
Mathew looked at the rippling surface in the centre of the room. "So, is that pool of water actually a pool of liquid nitrogen?"
Alex shook his head, his tactical sensors confused. "But if it were liquid nitrogen, we would have seen a thick, smoky fog by now. We haven't seen any of that appearance."
"I don't know," Hank said, reaching into his pouch. "Let me throw this coin over there." He tossed a metallic coin into the centre of the hall. The moment it hit the floor, it triggered a proximity sensor. The dim red emergency lights of the bunker cut out, replaced by a blinding white overhead glare that illuminated every corner of the massive room.
Steve looked around the now-bright chamber. "Then I think no trap is deployed here. But then from where is the gas coming, and why are your scanners saying this is liquid nitrogen?"
"I don't know," Light admitted, turning toward the squad's specialist. "But Thomas, have you finished your magic sessions from Morok? It is actually not magic, but ancient Lashes technology which came to Earth millions of years ago."
Thomas shook his head, his eyes darting around the dark corners of the hall. "No, I have not learnt magic. Just a minute—who is there?"
Steve snapped his head toward the side, his tactical light catching a glimpse of a uniform. "He is a German official! Catch him! Let's run!"
The entire team surged forward, their heavy boots thumping against the concrete as they began to chase the official. The man sprinted for his life, his face twisted in a panicked grin. "You cannot catch me!" he roared. He slammed his hand into a wall-mounted console and pressed a hidden button.
Suddenly, a massive wall of liquid nitrogen erupted from the vents, surging like a tidal wave behind the team. The squad looked back, frightened by the freezing white wall of death, and began running frantically toward the exit. To make matters worse, the German official smashed the main power switch, plunging the entire bunker into absolute, suffocating darkness.
Meanwhile, on the surface above the bunker, KV Reddy came to a sudden halt. He stood still, his senses heightening as he felt a strange vibration beneath his feet. "Why am I feeling a sudden strange movement of a kind of fluid?" he whispered to himself. "What are my powers trying to say to me?"
He closed his eyes, focusing on the energy swirling deep underground. "Let me try to freeze it."
KV Reddy unleashed his powers, sending a surge of absolute-zero energy through the earth. Deep in the bunker, the rushing wave of liquid nitrogen—which was only inches away from the team—instantly turned into a solid, unmoving block of ice.
Inside the pitch-black hallway, Leo collapsed against a wall, his breathing heavy. "This is our end," he gasped, his voice trembling. "The liquid nitrogen is going to kill us, and there is also complete darkness."
The German official began to shout, "Help! Help!" his voice echoing frantically in the absolute darkness. Steve leaned toward Light and whispered, "Switch on the torch."
Light clicked the heavy tactical light into high-beam mode, cutting through the shadows. "Here you are," he muttered, as the beam landed directly on the trembling German official. Steve rushed forward, grabbed the man's collars, and slammed him against the cold bunker wall to begin the interrogation.
"I don't need your name or any warning," Steve growled, his face inches from the official's. "All I need to know is why you are here and for what purpose is this bunker."
The official gasped, his eyes darting around. "I will never say! You will never know that this bunker is a secret place where biological weapons are being made! Oh no... I told you everything. This is all because of my OCD!"
Steve smirked, relaxing his grip just enough to look the man in the eye. "Thanks. Now I understand why these Germans are too stupid to win this war. Please, have a bath." With a powerful shove, Steve pushed the official backward. The man tumbled into the pool of stagnant water in the center of the hall. He struggled for only a moment before the heavy, murky water claimed him, and he died from drowning in the pool.
Thomas stepped closer to the massive wall of ice that had saved them. "Steve, see? This wave of liquid nitrogen was solidified by someone, but now it's melting. Shouldn't we run now?"
"Yes," Steve agreed, pointing toward a heavy metallic frame nearby. "See, it's written on the door—it's the exit." The team moved rapidly, pushing through the final barrier and escaping the suffocating air of the facility. Once they were back in the freezing air of the outskirts of Prague, Jack opened his comms and reported all the incidents that had occurred inside the bunker to the high command.
At the front, the massive treads of the Russian tanks ground to a halt as the Army Chief's voice crackled over the heavy-duty comms. "Wait a minute! We have new intel. There is a massive bunker network directly beneath our tracks, and reports indicate the Germans are developing biological weapons here. We need a drone in the air, now!"
KV Dynamic rumbled forward, the internal gears of his frame shifting with a metallic hum. "I have destructive drones," he announced. "They are built for a single strike—they find the target, hit, and self-destruct. I can send one to scout the perimeter."
"Do it," the Army Chief commanded. "We need eyes in the city."
A sleek, black drone detached from a hidden compartment in the chassis of KV Dynamic, its rotors whining as it accelerated into the gray sky. It soared over the jagged skyline of Prague, its high-definition cameras feeding live footage back to the command center. As the drone crossed the city limits, a haunting silence took over. There were no anti-air batteries, no soldiers, and no movement.
All the sensors could pick up were dark, jagged bloodstains splattered across the cobblestone roads and the crumbling facades of the industrial buildings. The city looked like a slaughterhouse.
Deciding to investigate a particularly dark alley, KV Dynamic navigated the drone lower, letting it descend toward the pavement. Suddenly, a massive, flickering shadow lunged from behind a ruined wall. Before the sensors could identify the shape, the entity struck the drone with incredible force, triggering a violent explosion that cut the feed to black.
KV Dynamic's optical sensors glowed a deep, pulsing red as he processed the final frames. "Army Chief," he reported, his mechanical voice dropping an octave. "The city is in total ruin. I saw no German soldiers—only their blood smeared across the buildings. Whatever hit my drone was too fast for the tracking software. I think something catastrophic has happened inside Prague. Those biological weapons... they may have already been unleashed."
Back in the luxury of Munich, George was enjoying a quiet breakfast with Anto when a command official burst into the room, his breath coming in ragged gasps. "Sir! We have received horrifying news from Prague," he stammered. "Head scientist Fin Leon reports that the virus has spread throughout the entire city."
Anto paused, setting down his glass. "What virus is it?"
The official's voice turned ice-cold. "It is the zombie virus."
"Oh, the zombie virus," Anto replied calmly, as if discussing the weather. "And how far has it spread?"
"Only Prague, so far," the official reported.
Anto smiled. "Nice. Now I can use my special tool again to remove this kind of infection."
George looked up, surprised. "How can you remove a zombie virus with no effort?"
"What do you expect from a civilization that is 13 billion years old?" Anto asked with a smirk. "In our history, we have already survived 103 ice ages and more than 200 zombie apocalypses. Three of them were removed with no problem at all because we have the UV Trajectory Device. It focuses the UV rays from a star directly onto the virus, killing it instantly. And if you fear we don't have the instrument, don't—it is already present in Apache and Jagiya. But George, when will the portal be ready?"
"It will be completed by today," George confirmed.
The official interrupted again. "The Russian army has reached the outskirts of Prague. It was reported by the last official in the secret bunker, but that location has now been captured by the Russians."
George turned back to Anto, a dark plan forming. "Anto, we will create the portal today, but let the virus spread among that Russian fleet first. The soldiers will be traumatized and it will slow their progress. While they struggle, we can easily deal with the English fleet sailing through the English Channel toward the Spanish coast."
Anto laughed, a sound that chilled the air. "It's a great idea. Let's do some experiment. Ha ha!"
At the outskirts of Prague, the Army Commander shifted in his seat, looking at the silent skyline. "Sir, how long will we wait here?" he asked, his voice tight with nerves.
The Army Chief didn't look back. "Can't you see? I think some big plan or a trap has been deployed against us."
"But what shall we do now, sir?" the Commander pressed. "The city is completely calm and—"
"Wait a minute," KV Dynamic interrupted, his sensors zooming in on a distant silhouette. "Who is that? Why is that tank acting strange?"
"Where?" the Chief asked.
The Commander pointed frantically. "Can't you see? Are you blind? Over there!"
KV Dynamic didn't wait for an order. He leveled his secondary battery and fired a precise shot, obliterating the erratic small tank. But the explosion didn't bring silence. Instead, a massive, twisted troop began to sprint toward their lines with unnatural speed.
"Okay, they are zombies," KV Dynamic announced, his mechanical voice steady. "KV Champions, come forward and save your comrades! We don't have biological bodies, so they won't be able to infect us! Soldiers, move behind and shoot!"
The ordinary soldiers didn't need to be told twice. They retreated frantically, firing their rifles endlessly into the mob. No one wanted to be bitten; no one wanted to lose their life to the "Gutter" virus. Meanwhile, the KV Champions slammed into the front lines, their massive steel hulls crushing the undead. The only sound from the enemy was a chorus of low, guttural growls: "Grrrr... grrrr..."
The Champions opened up with every cannon they possessed, killing the zombies ruthlessly, but the numbers kept increasing. The horde was endless.
KV Dynamic opened a long-range frequency to the English Channel. "Captain of the IJN Yamato, do you copy?"
"I hear you, KV Dynamic," the Captain replied over the static. "Why have you called me?"
"Can you create a portal in front of your cannons and attack the coordinates I've sent?"
The Captain paused for a split second, checking his tactical map. "Okay... but who is this enemy you're finding so hard to destroy?"
"Zombies," KV Dynamic answered shortly.
"Woah. Horrifying. Okay, opening the gates."
Suddenly, three massive blue portals tore open the air directly above the battlefield. They were linked directly to the three main triple-gun turrets of the Yamato. The Captain looked at the targets through his own screen. "They look so small in front of these cannons," he remarked. He slammed the firing button.
The 46cm High-Explosive shells roared through the portals and impacted the center of the horde. The classic naval strike vaporized a huge troop of zombies instantly.
"One more attack, please Captain!" KV Dynamic shouted while batting away a group of undead trying to climb his tracks.
"Wait, wait," the Captain urged. "It needs time for reloading... okay, it's reloaded. Here comes the second!"
The second volley screamed through the air, wiping out another massive wave.
In the heat of the fight, KV Dora turned to KV Kalis. "Hey friend, these naval battleships are so strong. That cannon is only half the size of KV Dynamic, but look at the damage!"
"That is because we are the kings of the land," KV Kalis grunted, crushed a zombie under his treads, "and they are the kings of the seas."
"What about the queens?" KV Dora asked with a mechanical shrug.
Kalis fired his main gun. "You are thinking of joking here? Focus on the targets!"
The Captain of the IJN Yamato adjusted his cap, watching the chaos through the portal monitors. "These Gutter zombies are just like that Gutter captain of the Bismarck!" he shouted. "Low-tier and annoying!"
Suddenly, the ground began to shake. A massive, bloated shape began to rise from the center of the undead horde—a creature stitched together from hundreds of bodies. KV-99's sensors flared red. "I think this is the biological weapon the Army Chief was talking about!"
Before he could even load an Armor-Piercing shell, the three main turrets of the Yamato roared again. The 46cm shells screamed through the portals and impacted the creature with the force of a falling star. The "Big Zombie" was vaporized instantly.
"Hey man!" KV-99 shouted toward the portal. "He was my target! You stole my kill!"
"I am leaving this battlefield," the Captain's voice crackled back with a hint of pride. "I am not made for the mud of a battlefield. I am made for the battle seas. My business is with the waves, not the dirt."
"Sorry! Don't leave!" KV-99 pleaded, realizing the sheer numbers they were facing. "If you go, we will lose this position! We need the heavy support!"
The Captain of the Yamato paused. He looked at the endless swarm of "Gutter" infected and sighed. "Fair enough. I will hold the line."
Another devastating volley from the Yamato's main battery hammered the earth, erasing an entire troop of zombies in a single flash of heat. Between the crushing weight of the KV Champions and the world-ending power of the Yamato, the zombies stood no chance. For 30 minutes, the battlefield was a storm of fire and steel until every last moving corpse in the vicinity was silenced.
But just as the smoke began to clear, a shadow taller than the buildings of Prague rose from the ruins. It wasn't a mob; it was a singular, terrifying entity that made the previous creature look like a toy.
KV-80's turret tilted upward, his optics struggling to take in the full height of the monster. "He is huge... even bigger than us!"
The Captain of the Yamato gripped the railing of his bridge, a sharp grin crossing his face. "Finally," he whispered. "A worthy opponent."
The End