Chapter 8.3: Operatsiya partizanskaya part 3

I watched my soldiers eat while I tried to feed the bear spiritual familiar. Hmm I need to stop calling it my familiar. What should I name the bear? Hmm.....

Wait I got an idea! I'm gonna call it zima. After the story and mythology about a woman who lures men to their frozen death. I look at it and started to pet it, and carried it in my hand. The bear looked at me with confusion. I smiled, and said....

"Can I call you zima?"

I asked the bear familiar. It smiled, and started snuggling to my stomach. I picked up a alligator steak or at least an alligator like steak, and chopped it in half using my combat knife. I fed bear the other half and I ate the other half. I tasted the meat, and it tastes like a mix between chicken, and beef. Suddenly I saw my other soldiers digging in, and ravenously ate the meat. It's better than always eating MRE's where meat is a mix of every meat including inside's which if cooked correctly tastes great but an MRE mixed with multiple types of meat honestly it tastes like a mc rib from McDonald's just without the sauce, and wasn't cooked. It tastes like shit compared to fresh meat. Fresh meat is fresh meat even if it is alligator meat. Well anyways...

"Hey zima can you make me a block of ice?"

I asked my familiar. It nodded, and created a small block of ice over 5 inches tall and 3 inches wide. I was a little shocked when I can't even feel the cold nor did my hand hurt. I smiled and started carving an ice sculpture maybe it's the cold resistance from the contract. Honestly I quite liked this hobby plus with zima around I can enjoy ice sculpting while on deployment. I started chiseling and my combat knife broke like it was attacked through the molecular level using cold temperatures like some sort of solid version liquid nitrogen. Oh shit.... Fuck!

I sighed as my only melee weapon broke down like it was dipped in liquid nitrogen. I tossed the block of ice at the ground and the grass surrounding the block of ice started freezing. Damn.. I was right? How will I dispose of this chunk of ice? Well I can't get hurt by the cold right? Might as well put it inside my magazine pockets. I put the chunk of ice inside my magazine pocket, and tucked it away for a rainy day.

A few hours later.....

I sighed as one of the BTR in the front of the convoy stopped.

"What is it now?"

I asked one of the soldiers using the built in radio.

"Well... Sir.. There are a few corpses in way..."

The others left the safety of the BTR to check if there are still some alive. I sighed and left the vehicle to check if there are any problems. I picked up my gun, and while I walked I rearranged the recoil mechanism of the gun if encase it jams again while fighting someone or something.

"Sir! there are a few survivors!"

Yelled one of my privates. I sighed, and then carried one of the survivors into a transport truck that carried medics, and physician's. Then they started to patch up the survivors. I left, and came back to one of the wrecked vehicles of the survivors. From what I saw these people must be either slaves, or prisoners. From the neck collars it was probably a slave convoy. Honestly I find this disgusting that these people rely on slaves but who am I to judge? What if these people are criminals put into slavery as a punishment? I honestly can't tell. From what I heard from one of the locals here we first met they were either persecuted demi humans or as I like to call them therianthropes from other countries but with special privileges from wages and contracts (Therianthropes are a species of human that has animal like traits, and has the ability to turn into animals at will. it depends of what sub species of sub species of therianthrope they are. They can't turn into any animal they want but can turn into an animal that which coincides with what species they are some times fish like, some mammals, some Reptile like, etc. I call them therianthropes because of mythology I found interesting.) or prisoners of war, and criminals.

If I let these people go they might cause havoc to the locals, and probably get us in trouble with the locals. I looked around, and saw someone in one of the cages who was bleeding in the arm that has a piece of some sort of spear. Some of the soldiers tried to break the cage but the metal bars are too strong to break with hands. Even the lock was hard to break because they use a passcode that you need to dial, and the metal was too strong to cut with bolt cutters.

I sighed and picked up zima. The bear looked at me with a Little confusion. Wait... I forgot! I have that block of ice! Maybe I can make the metal brittle with the block of ice just like the knife?!

I opened one of my magazine pockets, and brought out the block of ice. I then put the block of ice into one of the metal bars. A few seconds later I was able to break one of the bars. I continued to process and after a minute we got the person out of the cage. I then rushed the person to the medics. The medics immediately used a tourniquet to stop the bleeding, and started fixing her up. I wonder if there are bandits here? That explains the piece of the spear stuck in her arm. After we picked up the survivors we cleaned the place up. Burying the bodies of the dead into a mass grave. The other soldiers cuffed the survivors just in case they are hostiles or prisoners.

"Men after you finish helping the survivors tie them us using zip cuffs if you don't know what is that because we rarely get prisoners it's the zip ties. Ask one of the logistics personell with us. They know where they put them because they need to inventory everything."

I said over the radio.

If these are criminals I'm gonna kill them if they ever hurt one of my men. I've seen dozens of my comrades die from monsters I'd rather not relive that trauma.

45 minutes later.....

The soldiers were finally finished burying the dead. Finally. "Soldiers. Go back to your assigned vehicles. Let's hurry encase there are bandits here. It's almost night. In just 3 probably 2 hours from now there is a village if we hurry we would lessen the risk of a bandit ambush." I said over the radio. I then noticed that Schmidt didn't noticed that we stopped. I sighed, and got back to my vehicle. The other soldiers got back to their vehicles, and started moving again. This is gonna be a long ride.

I looked at the surrounding in the tiny windows, and as we passed by we saw many creatures yet they didn't make a noise, and there is no other sound than our engines. It was awfully quiet. Hmm.....

An hour later....

We neared our first contact of the local government location. Some of the soldiers who were with us smiled as they can sell the alligator like hide, and buy the local food stuffs here. I sighed as I know all too well that these guys are gonna buy useless stuff like what happened when some of them were under my old company. They usually wanted to taste local food. Some were even charged with drug usage because they didn't notice the poppy seeds inside the food stuff from the locals. Yeah they got high while I'm Afghanistan. I remember that time we tried to fish some of them up because they accidentally crashed into a boulder while high on painkilling poppy seeds. Then one of the turret gunners said something that made the radios roared to life.

"Oh shit! Bandit's!"

One of the turret gunners said, and started shooting to the direction where one of the arrows appeared. Then I saw an arrow hit the glass pane. Shit.

"Light them up!"

I shouted using the radio. I then hurried to the machine gun placement and started suppressing the area where the arrows came from. Hundreds of gunshots roared killing every single thing that moved between the bushes. Grunting was heard coming from the bushes and after that screaming, then suicidal banzai like attacks. The soldiers equipped gasmasks, and started throwing tear gas. The attackers choked, some fainted, some even died. After a few minutes the tear gas dissolved. We check if there were survivors. We may need them if they had a bounty or perhaps they had useful geographical knowledge or even more advantageous knowledge of local languages.

"Sir! There are some hostiles still breathing!"

One of the corporals yelled.

"Good handcuff them and send them to the physicians just encase they had a bounty."

I smiled as the thought of making these people who made people suffer be turned in and be punished. A Dozen people or more probably died from these guys considering their weapons, armor, and their equipment. Some of my soldiers left their vehicles, and went inside the local forest. I then saw some of my soldiers zip tying the prisoners hands into the canopy of one of the transport trucks.

"Fire team delta please look around. Be careful maybe their hideout is nearby. Better cut off the head of the snake before it becomes a problem."

I said over the radio.

"Copy that staff sergeant."

The fire team leader confirmed, and went to the nearby more foresty area. I picked up my my gun, and went to follow the fire team. After a few minutes of walking I got lost. Suddenly a large bug appeared from one of the bushes. It was a giant ant 4 feet tall, and 2 feet wide. Fuck...

I started running back to the convoy. Fuck! I looked back, and saw the giant bug chasing me. I then started shooting. gunshots rang through the air. I dump more, and more bullets to the thing yet it didn't fall. Fuck. The keratin on that thing must be thick enough to stop 5.45x39 MM bullets. After a few seconds of firing bullets i ran out of bullets. Fuck!

I continued to ran, and searched my pockets for a grenade. After 4-5 seconds of rummaging my pockets I found an M26 grenade, and pulled the pin. I tossed it at the giant bug, and it looked at it while I got because the grenades can fragment all over the place, and it can give me a higher chance of surviving the fragmentation caused by said grenade.

An explosion rocked the air as I feel the shockwave caused by the explosion of the hand grenade. I stood up, and checked it I got hurt. Thankfully I was fine. I sighed as I looked back, and saw the ant riddled with holes. Leaking some sort of blood. It had stopped moving. Suddenly the bushes started ruffling around me.

"Hands behind your back!"

Said a voice that sounded like one of my corporals.

"Wait staff sergeant is that you?"

Asked one of the privates with a corporal.

"Yes. I'm the staff sergeant dumbass. Also please dispose of that thing."

I then pointed at the corpse of the giant ant. The soldiers looked at it with disbelief like this was some fiction. This is real even if I don't like it it is real. The anomalies must be tears across space, time, and universes. The god particles must be the fabric of the universe or multiverse honestly I don't know how to call this an alternate universe or another world in our universe but in another galaxy. If it wasn't then I'll call it an alternate universe. If this is just an world inside our own universe connected by said anomalies then the god particles must the catalyst for the anomalies. If so what if we can bend the universe to our will? What if this catalyst can be used to bend reality?

Then the corporals got me out of my thoughts, and slapped me.

"Hey staff sergeant snap out of it!"

Said one of my corporals.

"The other soldiers are already captured the remaining bandits. Also the ant thing was now disposed of by fire, and the bodies of the dead bandits have been burned."

I nodded my head, and went back to my vehicle. It's been a long day. Might as well sleep.

I then slept in the vehicle while the other soldiers drives, and some slept.

A few hours later....

I heard the stomping of boots, and was woken up by one of my corporals.

"Sir we've arrived."

The corporal said. I nodded, and noticed I was wrapped in a wooby. I took it off, and went outside. I looked around as my soldiers used flashlights to manoeuver to find establishments. Some already were holding some sort of bag, and some sort of card made out of wood.

I smiled as I can finally taste new things other than stupid MRE's.

To be continued....