118 Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This (1/2)
The sky turned dark and gloomy as smoking trails of fire streaked across the sky, exploding into small mushroom clouds as they impacted the surface. Mills gripped his M1 Magelock and looked up in horror at the hundreds and thousands of burning spores crash landed down from space.
He yelled to his men to make ready, while he readied his rifle, but to his surprise, there wasn't anyone replying to him. He turned around to check on his men, only to find several Swarm warrior drones feasting on the torn bits of elves and humans parts. Mills screamed, firing his Magelock from his hip, the heavy round barely scratching the thick carapace of the lead Swarm warrior drone.
His actions caused all the Swarm warriors to turn their eyeless heads towards him and their saw-toothed, funnel-like sucking mouth gaping open and screaming an alien cry, before lunging towards him with their many limbs.
A thunderous roar of rage erupted overhead, and a heavyweight dragon flapped its massive wings rapidly, holding it huge muscled body hoving over Mills, its shadow blotting out the dim sunlight in the sky, and in its great front limbs, it held on to a massive Gatling gun which Mills subconsciously recognized it as a 30 mm General Electric GAU-8/S Super Avenger, an ancient design over a hundred years old, except for changes on its ammunition and material upgrades, it was still in service with the United Nations of Man's military due to its overwhelming firepower.
The ammunition feed was looped over the dragon's chest like an old 2D picture action war movie, the ammunition feed ending at the huge ammo drum slung over the back of the dragon's chest. The dragon which Mills recognized as Blue Thunder strangely wearing a dark blue beret, reared its head back and blasted a ball of fire into the cluster of Swarm warriors in front of Mills, turning them into charcoal. Mills cheered, ”Go fuckthem up!”
Blue Thunder probably hearing Mills's suggestion, beat his wings even faster and tilted his body upright while the GAU-8/S in his arms was aimed at a huge dark horde of approaching Swarm warriors and he pulled the trigger with his clawed finger.
An eardrum bursting ripping fire exploded out from the muzzle of the seven barrelled gatling gun, spewing a mix of 30 mm armor-piercing incendiary and high explosive incendiary rounds at a rate of 3,900 rounds per minute torn into the mass of aliens, turning them into bloody chunks of meat and ichor. The powerful recoil forced Blue Thunder backward, as he furiously flapped his wings to keep steady. The spent cartridges were recycled back via the double feed system and into the ammo drum.
”Holy fuck!” Mills cried out in joy as he watched the mass of Swarm warriors get cut down by the laser-like gunfire. ”I am touching my self, tonight!”
He sat down next to the sandbag barrier and watched the light show when suddenly a shadow loomed over him, ”Ah fuck,” He looked up and saw a funnel-like mouth full of teeth stretching over his face. ”FUCK YOU!”
Mills yelled and felt something smack him hard on his back, he jerked up and found himself lying face up, having fallen off his bed and staring at the spinning fan on the ceiling and Bartley looking down sleepily from the top bunk at him and asking, ”New trend?”
”Fuck me, that felt real!” Mills groaned as he pulled his legs off his bed and sat on the floor, rubbing a bruise forming on his back. ”I had a damn realistic dream there.”
”Nightmare?” Bartley rolled back onto his bed and asked.
”Yea, sort of, dreamt about the Swarm but it had dragons with fucking Gatling guns!” Mills grinned as he recalled the nice parts of his dream.
”You been watching too much anime and movies,” Bartley's voice drifted down from the top bunk, ”It's late, get some more sleep. Night.”
”Damn, I need to drop a suggestion to the Airforce for having dragons with fucking gatling guns!”
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Seacliff Mines, Dungeon Level 1
Sergeant James sat on a stone outcrop and carefully stripped his M2 Magespitter into their individual parts. He started cleaning the barrel and the bolt of his weapon, while others in his platoon did the same.
The 1st Battalion, Alpha Company, Platoon 2 was involved with clearing the dungeon for the week. They have found out that, allowing the dungeon monsters to recuperate for a week or more, allowed a more optimal amount of resources to be harvested.
If they went in right after the monsters respawned, the quality and quantity will be lacking compared to a week later, the monsters' quality and quantity will double. Dr. Sharon and Magister Thorn's theory is that the newly respawned creatures are at level 0, like in a video game, they have not gained any XP. Allowing the dungeon ecosystem to run its course over a week or more, the monsters will gain XP and level up, thus increase their quality.
That was why when they first explored the dungeon, a supposed cake walk, turned out to be way much harder due to the monsters inside had decades to increase their levels. If the Spider Ants and Sand Scorpion did not have a max growth cap, the exploration would have been even deadlier for them.
Alpha Company, 2nd Platoon had easily mopped up the Spider Ants and its Queen, and even the Sand Scorpions, but they did not find any champions rated monsters. There wasn't any new treasure as they do not respawn, and even the Spider Ant's nest looked emptier than the first time James was here.
Several Marines carefully cut away the bundles of raw silk cocoons and stacked them onto a pile for transportation out of the dungeon. The door to the next level laid against the 'throne' of the Queen, which carcass was like a third smaller than the Queen, James and his team previously defeated.
After an hour later, the men of Platoon 2 had rested and resupplied, stood before the large double doors. James nodded to one of the Section Leaders who gestured his section to form up next to the door. Other Section leaders also arranged their men behind cover and aimed their weapons at the door as it was opened.
A flight of stairs made out of stone lead downwards into a hallway where another double door stood. A couple of support techs started unspooling a coil of cables down, ensuring that the cables are able to slip under the doors by digging a small trench, allowing the cables to lay inside.
The techs buried the cables in concrete, to prevent any monsters from chewing or destroying the power and communication lines and attached lamps and comms array onto the ceiling walls. The whole platoon stood around on guard as the techs worked and finally when they were done, James tested the comms and WIFI signal, ensuring all is properly working before getting the platoon to advance to the next step, which is entering Level 2.