11

The sun will set in an hour...Alex standing on top of the four-meter concrete wall stared at the horizon...

There are four main gates within the Starbase. The Main Gate facing the south, River Gate in the east, Pillar Gate in the west and the Mountain Gate facing the mountain north of the base.

The scouts have gathered the information. Alex quickly brings the battalion commander into the headquarter.

Alex started the meeting: "Commander Farell, please give out the report."

"Out of the 25 battalions that were formed. Only 14 managed to get inside the base in time, the other 11 battalions are currently awaiting orders. They are currently still gathered at Antiga in the east."

For the battalion commanders, other than Farell, Alex recognized Adnan, Rangga, and Russel from the special forces, also Bayu, one of the Black Snake leaders. Each commander is in charge of 1000 men. Alex didn't really know the other 9 commanders. There was also Sandi who is in charge of 2000 Starbase Guards. Total soldiers ready to fight in Starbase were around 16.000 men.

"The threat came mostly from the south, it's mutated rats. There are at least 30.000 of them. We also sighted a group of cats, at least 5.000."

"What's the strategy?" Alex asked again...

"Do we even need a strategy? Only rats and cats.. with the walls and our firearms... they won't stand a chance." Bayu has fought many of these rats and cats during patrols, so he wasn't worried

Farell gave a look at Alex, he seemed to agree with Bayu's analysis.

"I'm afraid it will not be that simple."

In his previous life, Alex heard of a similar case in one of the bases in the Philippines. The mutated beast came because of the scent of high stage eggs.

A python normally never left its eggs, it would keep the eggs safe and left some kind of gelatine that would cover the eggs' scent. When Alex killed the mother snake and took the eggs from its nest, the scent roamed free.

The sense of smell differs among species, with some having keener abilities than others, some species are born with genes devoted to smell. Rats, for example, are highly sensitive to smells, some rat species have even been known to be trained to detect land mines.

Humans have their brain to help them out of a tricky situation, but for many animals, it is their nose that helps them to survive. The human nose has about 5 million olfactory receptors that allows us to detect odors. Cats have a far better sense of smell with up to 200 million receptors.

There are many other animals who have better smells than rats and cats, such as snakes, monkeys, and bears. A bear can detect an animal's carcass from about 30 kilometers away. Alex was currently just hoping that there were not many bears on Bali island. Alex explained his worries to the group, they were suddenly feeling anxious.

"Can't we just take the eggs away from the city?"

"I believe it is too late, the eggs have already been here overnight, even if we took it somewhere else, these beasts would come stomping this base first."

"Let's not underestimate this and prepare for the worst."

Each gate will be guarded by three battalions. The other 2 battalions and the guards unit will guard the center and will move between gates when needed.

The Starbase has a double defensive system. The concrete wall, and the stone bern. In front of the 2 meters tall stone bern, there were two meter deep ditches. Although these walls and ditches will be effective against the zombies, Alex, not so sure if it would be a good idea to hold ten thousands of rats. He was worried if thousands of animal striking the wall at the same time would destroy the wall. Therefore the plan was to open all gates and have the soldiers prepare inside.

Farrel and Sandi will stay in the center, a total 4000 men, Adnan will guard the South, Rangga the East, Russel the west gate and Bayu took the north gate. Each with 3 battalions, totaling 3000 men. 12.000 men were barely enough to cover the 13 kilometers concrete walls.

The enemies were mutated rats and cats, the rats were not really dangerous, but Alex knew these cats can climb the walls. Therefore, during the attacks, all workers must stay inside the warehouses, they were also being told to pick up weapons. Mostly pickaxes.

Alex thought if things go well, this disaster could turn into a fortune... ten thousand mutated beast bodies and hundreds of spirit stone being delivered to his door. But he needed to win the battle first.

"Ok, move move move!!"

Every soldier took their position. One battalion stood in a half circle formation inside the gate, the other two battalions either on top of the gate using firearms or actually spreading around the gates. Alex also prepared in each gate some special toys to use.

"Phalanx formation!!"

A thousand men together forming a tight defensive formation holding spears and shields up.

The rats were already moving closer, only meters away. The first gate that was attacked was the south gate. Hundreds of rats, with the smallest at the size of a cat trying to walk through the gate... just as they went inside the gate, before reaching all the spears...

Wwooossssshhhhhhh!!!!Wwooossssshhhhhhh!!!!

Roars like a dragon, a fiery god purging everything in its path. It's the flamethrowers... Alex bought them before the doomsday started. There were 20 of them spread between the four gates...

Everyone of them blowed dozens of mutated rats burn to crips... the beasts only left squeaking sounds. The rats that got past the fire, were being pierced by sharp steel spears...

Pa!... Pa!... Pa!... Pa!... Pa!... Pa!...

The south gate's defense held... the mutated rats started spreading to all the other three gates... all over the gates, the same scene repeated. The battle turned into rat skewerd barbeques.

An hour later, the sun started to set, it's getting dark...

RRRrrrr!!... RRRrrrr!!!...

The mutated cats started showing up.. dozens of them started climbing up the walls... Cats are good at detecting movement in low light, have an acute sense of hearing and smell, and their sense of touch is enhanced by long whiskers that protrude from their heads and bodies. These senses evolved to allow cats to hunt effectively at night.

This meant trouble for the soldier up the wall. It's like fighting dozens jumping tigers… the firearms troops with AK47 and 556 cartridges started shooting at the moving targets...

DRATATATATATA... DRATATATATATA...

Fighters using sabers also joined the fights, but casualties started pilling up… fortunately, most soldiers were already at the middle stage Mortal Realm. Seeing the soldiers starting to have trouble, Alex gave another signal...

SHHHH!!! SHHHH!!! SHHH!!!

KABOOMM!! KABOOMM!! KABOOMM!!

Multiple grenade launchers were shot all around the gates, it was like fireworks in the night... not only did it kill dozens of unfortunate mutated beast, it also lighted up the ditch that had previously already been filled with gasoline.

WHHHHOOOOOSSSSSSSHHHHHH!!!

Lines of fire lighted up all around the starbase, hundreds more beast got burnt and the night became bright like a day... the beast massacre restarted...

DRATATATATATA... DRATATATTATA...

"Send in the reinforcements!!"

Ten battalions of soldiers rushed in from the east, the reinforcements came fully armed and brought along half a dozen APVs... machine guns were blazing their way into the east gate...