The Resistance

"Rick give me the details"

She leaned back to her office chair and placed both of her foot on her table. She grabbed a cup of coffee and took a sip as the sound of keyboards clacking filled the air around her. The room was dark, the only lighting that it got was the light from the computer monitors, the blinking buttons on their sides and the dim lamp that she had on her desk. It looked like an internet sex den but instead of moans to entertain their customers, the people that sat on those desks were shouting and they're doing their best to contact and relay their instructions as much as they could.

"I said Rick, are you gonna come here or should I throw you down and get me a new assistant?"

A few of those people sitting in the cubicles turned their heads. That's when a man wearing a semi-formal attire came in carrying a bunch of papers that had a tall paper cup on top. He sat down in front of her and opened his computer. A few images passed by and it stopped with a map, it was an overview of their battle filled with a few moving arrows moving towards its center.

"Sorry Maám MC, I took your coffee…" The man turned his head towards her and pointed her a cup of coffee on the side of her table. "We're good to go… what do you want to know?"

MC raised an eyebrow and threw an empty mug at the dump of garbage behind her back. She reached out for her coffee prepared by Rick and took a sip. She then let out a satisfied smile and said, "That hits the spot, this is the reason why you're one of my favorites."

"My file did say that I used to work a Starbucks but maám a tall paper cup of mocha frappe with a decaffeinated shot of espresso with a lot of chips, protein powder, banana bits, vanilla bean powder, just light ice, 2 pumps of base, with soy, triple blended, no whipped cream, with mint crystals and a ristretto shot on top seems a bit too over the top, even for me." He scratched his head with an awkward laugh.

"And yet you did not fail to deliver, that's why you're still here Rick, keep that in mind." She switched the position of her legs on the table and gulped down all of its contents before she tossed it with the others. She wiped her lips with the sleeves of her dress and followed, "Get me the numbers."

He gave her a nod and moved on to type a few things on his keyboard. "The the latest update, it says here that so far 229 people have died so far and there they have eliminated 28 spirits and 43 of those things…"

"Imps, those are imps, Rick. Rick, I mentioned those before. Rick we had decided to call them imps during the first briefing, Rick!." She spoke in a condescending tone that made him panic to even straighten out his back.

"Sorry maám… wi-with that, we have a total of 71 confirmed kills"

"Just 28 Rick, don't get your hopes up, Rick. Rick, those imps could spawn indefinitely as long as that Mother is alive, Rick." She tried to reach for the side of her desk but there was nothing there. She retracted her hand and saw that Rick was scrolling his eyes all over the screen so she went back to her chair and bit her lips."Just give me the details over the eastern front."

"Right away." He clicked a few things off on the computer and followed, "The vanguard is currently pinned down by a barrage of strong long-range attacks."

"Give me an overview of the area and share the feed over my screen." The screen on her desk lit up and she got the bird's eye view of the battlefield. "That's a few tall towers over there. Rick, what're their numbers?"

"67 are confirmed alive in the main vanguard, their left flank had regrouped and are currently on combat. We haven't determined their numbers yet but we lost contact with four groups already. Their right flank, on the other hand, is going strong with only two groups missing in action."

"How many people have died due to those long ranged attacks?"

"Thirteen so far"

"Oh," She chuckled as she continued to gnaw her nails while she looked around. "Get some help over and the left flank and keep them alive as much as they can. Once they're done with that tell them to go take on a break."

"What?... Why?"

"You don't need to know Rick, just tell them to find a place that where they could be easily seen but hard enough to siege without a dedicated party. Tell them to drink some tea and wait for my orders once they're done"

"Right away…"

"Good, Tell me what's up on the northern front." She swallowed her saliva to moisten her dry throat as her eyes rolled back and forth across her table. "Rick could you do me a favor an-"

"Here, sorry for the delay." An image then flashed onto her screen. "The northern front cannot advance due to the overwhelming number of Imps, both of their flanks had taken serious damage, they are now on their way to regroup with each other."

MC clicked her tongue and bit her thumb while her eyes still wandered around. "Good… Good enough I guess. Tell them to go on and pick a building to coop themselves in. Tell them to leave out a few obvious entrances so they would at least know where they would come from and hold out as much as they can."

Rick continued to press his keyboard as much as he can. He then relayed what he was told through the mic and then MC followed,

"While we're at it, Let's get the western flank to help them secure a hiding spot"

"Sure..."

Silence had filled the air between them and the only thing that remained in the background was the noise coming from the keyboard as well as the voices coming from the others. Rick then ran his palm over his face and groaned as he removed his headset and placed it on his side. He clenched both of his fists and said,

"We have lost contact over the western front..." He whispered with a shaking voice.

"You what?!" MC slammed her knuckles onto the table and knocked out a few items out of her desk. The headset that dropped down continued to ring with the countless apologies coming from a girl who was about to break down.

Rick turned towards her and lowered his gaze. "It started with the Western front's left flank. All of them reported a clear landing but then the groups that we had on the left flank started to disappear one by one. They had been trying to re-establish that contact ever since… so-"

"And you're only telling me about this now?" Her eyes widened and her gaze felt like a monster who had been denied of everything that it ever wanted. One of her eyes twitched as she shoved some of her hair towards the back of her head. "This… this… this is why I hate working with others."

A moment of silence plagued the space between them as they all watched MC close her eyes and take a deep breath.

"Get… get me someone from southern front."

His face froze up as he pushed up his lips and swallowed his saliva. He made a quick turn and gave all of his attention towards the screen in front of him. He picked up his headset and started to push a few buttons and spoke to people here and there. The woman behind her seemed to be at peace but he still can't shake the feeling that someone's gonna bite his neck if he ever makes a single mistake.

"Rick." Her sudden voice sent a shock on his shoulders. He then took a deep breath and cracked his knuckles before he turned his head to her with a straight face.

"Y-yes ma'am?"

"You're taking your time, are you gonna tell me that we lost the southern front as well…" She leaned in front of the table and put her hands together to cover half of her face. The dim lighting over her desk enhanced the menacing look on her dark brown eyes as if she was a beast waiting for the signal to devour her meal.

"N..no… We managed to get someone from their left flank… well actually… they had called us for help. I'm gonna put him in now…" He panicked and pressed the button to play the call with a speaker and his voice echoed through their room.

"Finally… finally, someone picked up. That hold music was just starting to get annoying." All of them heard his rough voice as well as the wind blasting in his surroundings. MC sighed and looked at Rick who raised and waved both of his hands. "Hello? Is someone there? I-we need help please..."

"Sorry for the long hold, I never thought that I would be working with corporate pussies so yeah, This is MC speaking what's up?"

"My… My name is Rei…" The voice then paused, they all heard a sound of metal cutting into flesh along with a grunt and a burst of breath. A few gunshots could be heard from the background as well. "Sorry about that. Everyone's gone. We were instructed to wait for the other groups but no one came. We had tried to establish contact as well but no one was left to answer and we can't seem to contact the main force as well…I've been separated with my groupmates and we need some help..."

"Alright let me see what I could do. Rick, " She pointed at him and said, "Get me someone from the southern vanguard as fast as you can."

"Thank you, ma'am…" Rei said.

"No worries, continue talking… tell me what happened." MC stretched her shoulders before she slammed her back at the comfort of her office chair"

"We just were about to regroup with the sole survivor of the Group F but then she got her brains blown to bits out of nowhere. One guy then swooped down from the clouds and incapacitated one of us. Our female member ran off to a nearby building and the last one were in combat just like me. I've been running around for a while now, I've taken a few enemies and I can't say that I'm still in a good condition." Rei said along with his ragged breathing and heavy footsteps against the building's tiled floors.

"Yes this is the captain of the southern front speaking, what can I do to help you, ma'am?" A stern voice echoed in their halls along with the chaos in the background. They had heard a few projectiles flying in the air, some screams, metal crashing with metal and occasional explosions here and there.

"What's your status captain?" She replied back before she went back to biting her fingers.

"Not good maám, we had lost the one who was in charge of connecting us with the left flank. I had lost over forty percent of my forces and my right flank is currently divided. The eastern front asked us for assistance so I had half of them go there to offer some help and the remaining ones would be coming here as backup."

"I see…" Rei whispered through the mic.

"Excuse me Maám? Is there anything else that I need to say? I need to get back and help my brothers out…"

Every one of them dropped whatever they were doing and watched MC as she lowered her head like an actress in the middle of a stage. The situation was grim, some of them clenched their fists and some had swallowed to clear their throats as they waited for her answer.

"Haha...hahahaha…" Her lips curved into a twisted smile as she let down her shoulders and laughed. After a few moments of silence, she contorted her spine backward and howled as she stretched her fingers looking like claws wanting to bite into some flesh. "HAHAHA… HAHAHAHAHAHA… AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Not bad. Not bad at all. Not bad for a piece of white meat slapped with a desire to live."

"Hey, Captain." Everyone fell silent and looked at her until she went back to her normal demeanor as if none had happened.

"Yes Maám, I'm waiting for your orders." The southern captain replied with a stern voice.

"Get some help over Mr. Rei here, He's a good boy that needs to be protected. Recall your right flank get him some help, drag your fight over to his side for all I care. I need that done and hold as much as you can."

"Roger that... I'll cut off now and relay your order, thank you very much"

"Go back there and give me bring home the cake. Now for you." Once that the captain had logged out, MC turned her attention towards the image of Rei's voice projecting at her screen. "Good job on that, you had proved yourself to be better than some of my clerks. I'll make sure that you'll get out of here alive if… you could hold out long enough that is. By the way, are you sure about your other team members?"

"Well thank you for that honor. I'm worried about one actually… for the rest, they're strong so I think they would be okay." Rei replied with a determined tone.

"Good. Help would be coming but try to hold out as much as you could at the moment and Rick!" She shouted once again. "Put the Northern and Eastern captains on the phone. There's a chance that a bunch of here are pussies as well so I'll speak to them this time."

"Thank you very much, ma'am, I'll do my best." Rei had logged out of the call.

"Here they are, ma'am, sorry for the wait," Rick said.

"This is the captain of the northern front speaking, how could I offer my assistance." A deep voice then echoed through the speakers.

"This is the eastern front captain, your orders ma'am?" A woman's voice then followed.

"Alright. Change of plans." She stretched her arms, stomped her feet on her table and said. "I figured out their plans so we're gonna turn the tables. Get a group or two and run through the area and search for the mind reader as well as the artillery guys. Speculations are just fine, just give me the locations that I need to shoot down. It's fine if we had to risk our position by doing so, I'll even bet this ship on it if it meant that we would win."

"Roger that!" The captain of the northern front replied and logged out.

"Got it, I'll go set up our team, wish us luck" The eastern front captain replied and hanged up.

The room was then filled with silence yet again. They all watched her take charge of the situation that took all of their efforts just to patch up and hide. They just looked at her act out her graceful dialogue in the middle of the spotlight. All of them had a different take on what she just did but all of them wondered if what the hell just happened.

"What?" MC noticed their eyes glaring at her. "Do you… fine. The enemy placed their bets on one massive force to take care of offense and the others were just there to buy them time."

"Which means…" Rick followed.

"Which means that most of the two hundred twenty-something of you guys died to a bunch of suppressive fire." She chuckled while no one else laughed. "This one's too good of an opportunity for them to pass up. They are coming. So we need to eliminate their means of transmitting information by taking the mind reader out together with the guys that have the power to shoot us down. If we managed to get that out of the way, I'll drop the Dolphin and this battle is as good as won."

Their face lit up with smiles and some raised up their fists while the others tried their best not to cheer. Rick then took the initiative after he looked around him and said, "What do we do now?"

"Good question Rick. Get back to work and don't tell anybody of what I just told you or I'll personally bash your face in with your own keyboard." Everyone nodded in unison and went back to their chairs. A part of them felt bad that they were denied of bringing the good news that could help their comrades on the ground who were doing their best to survive. Soon enough, the room was back to what it once was until MC then decided to crash the melody of the keys clacking and the choir of murmurs from the people drowned by the light of their personal computer.

She called out Rick and pressed her finger onto her cheek. She let out a light smile and said, "About that person who was in charge of the western front. Tell her that we need to talk and tell her to bring me coffee."