War: A Business

Chapter 70: Operation Beanstalk

   Its noon. All of the high-ranking officers here are assembled. Except Michel.

   He is always late. I'm surprised that he is still here. Oh, well. Now that our Boss sold the company to the Global Alliance, it doesn't matter.

"He is always late, but excellent in managing finances." the squad leader of the elite ExOps Unit, Tsar, remarked.

  As if on cue, a man with a wild tuft of blond hair, that is, a drill sergeant's worse nightmare, opened both doors and walked in like he wasn't late.

"Hey you!" one of the officers, a brunette, burly man, called. His eyes glowed yellow, checking his Holo. "You are 1 hour, and 12 minutes late!"

"Actually," he mockingly corrected. " All of you are 1 hour and 1 minute early. I just arrived on time."

  We stared at him in silence.

"Ahem."I coughed."Now lets start the second phase of our invasion of the enemy headquarters." I announced. "Our other forces are occupied in different fronts all around the globe, New Russia, Africa, South America , and Asia so we are in our own."

"All of our assets and supplies are ready." one of the base commanders stated.

"Neptune is completed, but, there are no signs of Dr. Reinhardt." another one announced." Neptune is now moving towards here to conduct a diagnostic check. The other M.I.L.Es are still in development."

"Good." I remarked.

   We planned our next move, for we have located the flying fortress. A holographic map popped up. Holographic small scale ships were dotted on the map.

   To get to the artificial archipelago, codenamed "Giant's Lair." Our upcoming op, aptly and coincidently named Operation Beanstalk, coined by Michel himself .

   The goal is to infiltrate the flying fortress, gather any information , and capture it to "bridge" us to the "Giant's Lair". But it is not easy, as many planes and ships patrolling the perimeter.

   Thirty small squads of the Spartan Force and the ExOp Unit, led by me in the fray will infiltrate by breaching the bottom of the fortress from one of the carrier-class submarines, while our warships distracted them with suppressing fire.

    Neptune will also join the fight, by firing her arsenal of conventional weaponry to destroy the enemy assets, except the fortress, to test her conventional warfare capabilities.

  While our 19,000 forces are in the Pacific, the remaining 1,000 with the Global Miltary will guard our bases.

   We managed our assets and supplies for the mission for weeks. We send UAVs to the fortress's position.

   Weeks later, our new batch of submarines arrived, docked in the only submarine base in this country.

   I traveled there by hitching a ride with one of the company jeeps. With me are numerous troops in armored vehicles, including the ExOp unit. We have established private routes to our bases, shared by the Australian armed forces.

   I accidentally hit one of the buttons on the communications module in front of me.

   I overhear the conversation the ExOps Unit were having. They joked, laughed and told stories.

   Nostalgia washed over me. I remember my service in the Philippine Army. They reminded of my former unit.

   My skin suddenly has a gray tinge to it. The outline of my veins turned jet black. I look at the mirror inside the jeep; my eyes are now glowing electric blue.