Current objective: deal with the EMP canisters, whatever those things were called.

For that, they would have to brave the constant rain of energy projectiles. The only saving grace was that Gene Corp had to split their own troops as they sent some along the perimeter of the energy wall. 

"How do we do this?" Josh asked. 

"We'll have to send our own guys. Platoons 2-3-4, set off!…wait, where are you going?!" Roderick shouted.

Instantly, a third of the army set off without any hesitation. It was as if this was but a routine occurrence. Josh joined them, with Kasha following. 

"What are we doing here? This isn't something we can really help with!" She couldn't help but grumble. 

"This is all a game of timing. We keep going forward until they start shooting." Josh then turned to the nearby captain in charge. "Moving as they shoot is what kills us, right?" 

"Yes, but it's not like we can predict where they will attack…."But then he stopped suddenly recalling the Trial footage. 

"Let's assign our troops numbers from left to right. I'll see what I can do." Josh said. He for once devoted all his energy to sensing the flowing killing intent on the battlefield. 

He had to act fast as they were losing soldiers by the second. He could sense Gene Corp's anger and rage. They wanted nothing more than to kill. Somehow their killing intent felt primal, inhuman. 

"26-47- 50," Josh muttered, with the captain reacting quickly, calling the names of these soldiers for them to stop.

As soon as they came to a halt, their shield stabilized itself just in time to be battered by tons of projectiles. As a result, they all survived. At first, no one noticed. But from that moment onward, the allied casualties had stopped in the vanguard. 

At some point, the enemies realized that something was wrong. Whoever they shot at would be in a defensive position, and those they ignored would move forward. This whole thing was a huge mind game. 

Gene Corp tried making their shooting more random, so none could analyze the pattern. This did make it harder, but Josh would warn the would-be victims every time.

"12-16-65-87-95 Defensive position. Everyone else should focus around 71 and 134 on their side," Josh kept calling out. 

At this point, they were about to reach one of the 200 men parties. Every man could be seen clenching their weapons hard, sweating, knowing the challenge to come. 

"What's the plan once we make contact?" Kasha worriedly asked as Josh kept shouting numbers. 

"Hehe. Don't worry about that part. As long as we manage to make contact, we'll be fine." The captain reassured. 

It turned out he was right too. A few minutes later, they finally reached their opponents.

The members of the Black Legion could be seen spreading out like insets all around the place. They didn't care in the least that the enemies had twice their numbers. 

They walked straight into the shielded area as it just protected against energy projectiles. Then began a massacre. They used their enemies as cover while they killed the others. They were akin to wolves released on a group of chickens. 

They all seemed to go their own way but were following hit-and-run formations, moving in unison. After every strike, they would fall back behind cover and repeat once again. 

To make matters worse, Josh kept supporting them, whispering to them where most of the enemy fire would be focused. Kasha went even wilder. She ran from one side to the other, using twin daggers, slicing throats happily. 

So this was the power of an army with members that were also Climbers! In comparison, the enemies were more numerous, had genetic modification, but their base specs were just that much lower, and so was their speed. 

As they stood in the remains of their enemies, Josh couldn't help but give a wry smile. They had managed to stop one party of 200. The rest of Gene Corp was happily busy setting the EMP devices. 

Their allies had tried their best to slow them down, but there was only so much they could do. A man could be seen fiddling with the EMP device, disabling it.

"Did this remotely change anything?" Josh sighed. 

"Yes, we should be able to save at least a good chunk of our defenses. It should be enough for us to hold on for a while. We better hurry back before we are left stranded here, however." The captain reminded. 

They made their way back relatively uneventfully as the enemies finished setting up everything. Then it happened. The four EMP canisters still left went off at once. 

There seemed to be an invisible shock wave as energy wall after energy wall went down. There only remained a few working that Roderick quickly reorganized to make a small bastion.

But, there was an issue. Now, the path to D-23 was completely open. They kept shooting and shooting as Gene Corp slowly trickled on the sides, avoiding them entirely. They could only slow down their progression. 

They discussed the problem with tons of Pew Pew Pew in the background: 

"This is the worst! We are still outnumbered. If we try and exit this, we'll instantly get killed. If we remain here, they will soon reach their objective. Fuck!" Roderick exclaimed. 

"How long until reinforcements come?" Kasha asked. 

"They should already be here. I don't know what's happening, but we haven't spotted the Nightmare at all or his four commanders. This is bad news," He grumbled. 

"Could they have struck anywhere else? Maybe this is just one of the battlefields," Josh said. 

"I have no idea. Long-distance communication seems to be disabled. Then there is EVE still showing them a distance away. There is something wrong here for sure." Roderick complained. 

"Maybe the problem is on our side. They probably blocked the entire area's communication with the outside world somehow. I'm guessing that screen shows us the last report EVE sent us. Maybe it's working fine, but we just can't receive the info." Kasha hypothesized. 

"Makes sense. What's the plan now?" Josh inquired.

"Either we die causing the most damage possible, or we have to give up the mission." Roderick sighed. 

"Actually, I have a better idea. If they want the sloths, they can have them." Josh mischievously smiled. 

They shared a look as they kept looking at Gene Corp invading D-23. This would hopefully become their enemies' final resting place...

Creator's Thought

At this point, we had already failed the mission. But, there was only so much we could do while being outnumbered. Keep in mind that this all happened in a time of peace. Large scales conflicts were banned. Regulations, quite funny that people still followed those back then.