Wings of Death

Search and rescue

Alpha team was the first team to return to Fort Barton. Team Delta had to cover a greater distance and came back a few minutes later. The mission had gone exactly as planned, the Blood Demon had been eliminated and they had managed to retrieve both the titanium doors from the bunker. Both the doors were unloaded and sent to the lab for analysis.

Nathan, Alex and Joshua visited Margaret and informed her about all that had transpired that night. She was happy that they had managed to complete their objective and return safely to the base. While they were gone Klaus had been busy designing a portable shield wall. He had finished making the design a couple of minutes back and was waiting for the materials to arrive.

Dr. Erica checked the purity of the titanium present in the doors and sent them to Klaus Varchovsky’s department. In a few hours the vanadium bars and titanium doors were melted down inside the furnace and then began the final process of creating an alloy using vanadium, titanium and a small portion of steel. When the soldiers woke up on the following morning the special alloy was ready to be used. The structural and mechanical engineers started coating the armored vehicles in that special alloy under the supervision of Captain Elijah and Klaus Varchovsky. Meanwhile, the Research and Development department had finished creating two portable shield walls.

The portable shield wall was made of the same vanadium titanium alloy and was designed specially to counter the Blood Demons. One portable shield wall consisted of 5 shields linked together. Each shield in the wall was detachable and could be carried separately by individual soldiers. The small individual shields had to be placed on the ground close to each other. Once the shields had been arranged side by side they could be joined together using an interlocking mechanism. The shields were designed to connect to each other like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and eventually form a 5 metre long shield wall. Each shield had one small opening at the top which allowed the nozzle of the Rain Blaster to fit through it. When encountering a Blood Demon the soldiers could set up their shields to form a shield wall and then fire jets of rain water at it through the small opening at the top. Since the shields were made of the special alloy they resisted the corrosive effect of acids. It was an amazing invention which would allow the soldiers to fight the Blood Demons head on without any worries. Each shield was 4 metres high and was capable of protecting the soldiers from head to toe. As long as the Blood Demons were in front of them, they would pose almost no threat to those behind the shield wall. Unlike the Bloodwings, the Blood Demons weren’t capable of flying too high due to their size. This made the shield wall a very viable option against them.

New defense systems were added to Fort Barton as well. 4 prototype rain water cannons were mounted on top of each wall. They could be remotely controlled from the headquarters using a laptop. These new weapons were created keeping in mind the Blood Demon threat.

When the Bloodwings had first appeared the army was woefully unprepared to deal with such a threat, but as the days went by they were able to gather more information about the enemy and learn about their strengths and weaknesses. Previously, no one could have imagined that they could launch an offensive against the Bloodwings but Klaus Varchovsky’s weapons and equipment had made it possible. So far they had only been able to rescue about 53 survivors. Since the lines of communication had been compromised throughout the city they could not get in touch with the other military bases.

Most survivors could not contact the military because the telecom networks throughout the city had gone down. Alex had only managed to restore the network services in a very small area. Most of the country was still cut off from all lines of communication. Major Morris knew that the only way to rescue the stranded survivors was to carry out extensive combing operations. All this time, they had been too busy trying to protect their own base and the survivors they had previously rescued. Previously they didn’t have the means to organize a search and rescue operation but now with Klaus Varchovsky’s newly designed weapons and equipment they felt they could take the enemy head on and help those in need. Due to the brilliant research carried out by Margaret, Dr. Erica and Dr. Grant, they now knew how to deal with the enemy.

In the evening Major Morris requested everyone to gather in the courtyard. He was about to make a very vital decision. Soldiers as well as civilians gathered in mass in the main courtyard and waited for the Major to address them.

“What do you think he’s going to talk about?” whispered the people at the back.

The civilians had so far been sheltered from the horrors of the skies due to the valiant efforts of Captain Elijah and his men.  They barely knew what was going on outside. Major Morris had made sure that they had nothing to worry about inside the military base. Only Nathan and his friends knew what it was like to step outside the base. The world which lay beyond the walls was infested with plagues of screaming Bloodwings, terrifying acid spitting Blood Demons and armed bandits. There was no electricity beyond the walls of the military base which made the night even more terrifying outside. The civilians knew nothing about the military’s encounter with the bandits on the road; they didn’t know anything about the events which had transpired on top of that hill and they had no clue about the Blood Demons.

Major Morris knew that they had been selfishly protecting the survivors inside Fort Barton while ignoring those who were trying to cling on to life outside the walls. God only knew the horrors they had to face every day and every night. So far the soldiers had adhered to the protocols and only gone out in search of those people who had managed to contact them. The Major decided it was time for them to carry out a prolonged search and rescue mission outside the walls.

Taking off his hat, the Major addressed the congregation and began his speech, “I am glad to see all of you gathered here. It feels as if nothing happened. It feels like everything is...normal. Things outside tell a much different story. Soldiers are always expected to fight for their country and lay down their lives in service of their great motherland. People trust us to protect them. But we have failed them all. I am sure every single one of you wants to turn back the clock and return to much simpler times. Unfortunately, this is not a movie. We can’t change what has already happened. However, we can change the future through our present efforts. Many of you have been separated from your friends and family members. I am sorry you had to see this day. I am sorry that we could not do anything to help them out. We weren’t strong enough. The enemy had us cornered and we did not know how to fight back. Over the past few days that has slowly changed. Our brave warriors have taken down many of these monsters and even managed to bring back three civilians trapped outside. With our newly acquired knowledge and special weapons, we can now confront the enemy head on. Our days of cowering behind walls are now at an end. The military will begin its first extensive search and rescue mission from today. We will be sending teams to every part of the town and search for survivors. If you know where your friends or family members could be, please inform Captain Elijah. The time has come to honor our fallen brothers and sisters.”

The Major’s speech inspired every single soldier standing in the crowd. 90 brave souls in uniform saluted the Major while the survivors cheered them on with claps. Alex and Joshua broke down into tears, “We are going to find mom now.  Everything is going to be okay”, said Alex wiping his eyes. Joshua could barely speak through his tears but his eyes expressed more than words ever could.

Captain Elijah walked up to Nathan and asked, “How would you feel about leading your own team?”

Nathan was taken aback by this unexpected question. He didn’t know what to say and just stared blankly at the Captain’s face.

The Captain smiled faintly and put his hands on Nathan’s shoulders, “You are a born leader. You led these survivors to Fort Barton and you fought bravely by my side. I have trained thousands of men in my lifetime and I know a leader when I see one”.

“I don’t know Captain. I have always looked up to you. If you hadn’t showed up that day we all would have been dead. I had almost led these civilians to their doom”, he replied.

“We all make mistakes. A leader is a person who learns from his mistakes. I trust your judgement and so do these men. We are going to need 4 teams to search for survivors in 4 different directions simultaneously. Me, Sergeant Abel and Lieutenant Amy are going to lead 3 teams and I want you to lead the fourth one”.

All this time, he had waited for such a moment but when the opportunity finally arrived he hesitated. He had always wanted to be a hero but that incident near the collapsed bridge was still fresh in his mind.

“I don’t know if I am ready for this. Forgive me, Captain”, he said lowering his head.

Suddenly someone grabbed his left hand and pressed it gently. He heard a familiar voice say, “You are ready Nathan. I believe in you.” Nathan gently lifted his head and stared into Margaret’s beautiful brown eyes”.

He smiled and agreed to the captain’s proposal.