A man reaches from the side to put a stop to the sword, it’s a person wearing normal armour followed by several others. They don’t have their weapons drawn yet they all look ready to draw them if needed.

“Sir, you do not have the authority to do that.”

“What is this disrespect? I do have the authority to impose my will as I see fit.”

“Sir, you are not from our unit’s sector. You are a ranker that was recently promoted to a command position. You may not realise the full extent of the culture where we are from… The command states people from our sector can only be punished by a tribunal, never on the field.”

“I don’t care.”

The golden-striped person pulls back on their sword again, but several of the armoured people move forward and restrain him. It’s a tough struggle, but it’s resolved with no one getting hurt, the golden-striped person is restrained in several special ropes.

Sam is just left standing watching the scene before Hanzel and a few other people walk over to him. The assistants join them too.

“Sam, sorry about that. If you can’t tell, this operation has been somewhat rushed. The commanders are all new… I wish I could say this was the only one that acted like this.”

“Sorry for that display, it was unbecoming of the southern sector units.”

Sam shakes his head, “I know that wasn’t your fault, and it’s true I got this thing around my neck. I gotta solve it and it’s true, if you guys cannot reset the timer on it. I can’t stay around here. I have to find someone that can help.”

“Well we receive several hundred distress beacon pings a minute, we could pick one of them and head to it.”

“Several hundred?”

An assistant with a clipboard speaks up, their armour is much thinner and more like a robe yet also hiding their face and skin.

“At the least several hundred. We have 994 active points at this very moment that we could head to.”

“What were you doing here then?”

“The commander was trying to find a lair entrance.”

“Why? Wouldn’t it be dangerous in there?”

“He didn’t say. We are required to follow his command up until a point until most of the other units, including ones like yours, had gathered. It would have been very dangerous but overall this operation has been dangerous and frankly…,” the assistant looks around, “stupid.”

Sam laughs at this display, “It has been pretty stupid but I think things haven’t gone as planned. I wouldn’t stay here if not required. You guys should evacuate and save yourself.”

The people in armour are suddenly quiet. It takes a moment for one of them to awkwardly speak up, “that’s an option?”

“Why not?”

No one responds to Sam’s question, he frowns looking at them wondering why this is such a big deal to them.

“We might just do that but first we need to assist you. We would have died under the command of him. We’ll escort you until your situation is more secure,” Hanzel speaks up, the other people nod their heads.

“Great, I really need to get this damn collar reset… and to get a weapon. Can I have that guy’s weapon?” Sam points to the tied up commander, his own weapon has disappeared somewhere after that strike.

“He won't be needing it for now, sure.”

Hanzel reaches down and fishes through the person’s storage device, Sam isn’t able to see where it is on the armour yet a large flaming sword clearly appears in his hand a moment later. The sword returns to normal, a black sword with red specks all throughout it.

He passes it over to Sam.

Sam takes the sword, instantly feeling the weight of the sword in his hands.

It takes a moment to adjust before he’s able to stand up and swing it with confidence, the movements are slow and laggard while the sword itself doesn’t have much weight behind it. It’s only half the width of harbinger too.

Sam nods before putting the sword down, it’s a sword that will do for now but it has clearly been made for the mass market. There’s no care in the craftsmanship and the weight reduction function barely seems to work.

“What now?” Sam asks, looking at the group watching him.

They stand around uneasily; they look at one another in question, yet no one speaks up.

“Well, if no one has any ideas then let’s head towards one of the distress signal points. Where is the closest one?”

“There is one about 1.6km,” the assistant turns around and points in the direction of the beacon in the sky, “that way. There’s another only 500metres from that.”

“Let’s go to that.”

“Ok, let’s go.”

A loud whistle is blown by three of the people before Sam, the soldiers suddenly shift their line and redeploy from a circular defensive posture into a triangular direction going where they need to. Sam and Hanzel are in the middle as the group sets out, Sam doesn’t have any option but to go along with this.

The group marches along steadily, cutting down and creatures that appear along the way, never being delayed a moment. The beasts have thinned out as they march along, but that doesn’t mean their attacks have stopped.

Countless beasts, but mostly pigs, have been slaughtered under the weapons so far as they march the distance slowly, the terrain covered in debris and bushes as people haven’t been here for some time and only the occasional beast will cross.

The occasional ancient house or building reclaimed by nature will appear, buried under the dirt but exposed with all the recent fighting and movements. All of these places are barren and filled with dirt for the most part, the only worthwhile places to explore are the large complexes or things that had active protections against what happened during the catastrophes.

Sam doesn’t have the chance to use his sword as the group protects him well, he feels awkward in this group that is travelling silently but not even Hanzel will speak long after a question.

“Unit approaching, left flank. Spear and shield bearers ready!”

Sam looks over there, a different beast is approaching them. This time it’s a large bear, it’s large black size with glowing red eyes makes it particularly menacing but Sam cannot feel any fear towards it behind everything.

*BANG*

“RRAAARR”

The bear contacts the shield bearers, a faint shimmer comes over the air as the shields bear the force yet that’s not all as the bear quickly swipes out and roars at them, furious that its attack didn’t get anywhere.

*BANG*

The shield bearers withstand another large impact from the beast.

The spearmen don’t waste the chance; they stab forward, protected behind the glimmering shields into the bear’s soft squishy flesh and face.

“ROOOAR”

The creature stands up, the spears don’t stop as they continue stabbing forward.

*BANG*

The beast swipes forward, this time the shield bearers couldn’t hold out. The swipe was from a different angle and they weren’t ready just yet.

A small gap has appeared in the defences, the bear charges at the gap where the person is downed.

Sam wants to step forward, but Hanzel and two other armoured people do, pulling their swords out from their sheathes and attacking.

The bear notices these people approaching it, it rears up and swipes out at them.

The spearmen don’t stop as they stab into its sides but it’s able to ignore them, its claws reach out and contact the sword.

*CLINK*

Three swords intercept a single bear’s claw.

They’re barely able to hold it at bay, the creature leans into the strike as they hold it.

The three armoured men cannot hold it as they’re blown back, yet they don’t let up.

Hanzel and another person stay back, they relentlessly attack the bear’s face with quick attacks while the other person goes around the side of it, they stab their sword straight into the bear's chest.

It rears up again, this time its eyes glowing red brightly. Its claws glow as it swipes out.

The person that stabbed it is struck, their lifeless body is thrown far in a bloody cloud.

Hanzel and the other person quickly retreat out of range, the bear swipes at nothing yet the person next to Hanzel is struck as a large amount of blood pours from his arm.

The bear swipes out randomly again, this time taking out two more shield bearers.

Sam can’t stand this anymore, this creature is clearly on its dying limbs yet these people won't back away.

“Get away from it!” he yells before in his mind saying, ‘Stop!’

A shimmer comes across the world, everything pauses except the beast that lets out a loud roar.

Sam waits unmoving on the ground for the light to disappear in the distance. He still isn’t sure exactly what these things are. He has an idea but ultimately he doesn’t know and cannot ask anyone about it.

The light shimmer disappears, there’s only a few moments for him to do this as it could always come back.

He takes several swords from the soldiers standing around and looks at the bear.

It’s standing on its rear legs right now, leaving just enough space beneath it for a few swords, Sam does that while placing the usual things inside its mouth. There’s not much he can do and unless he wants to devour it, he needs to resume things.

“ROOOAR”

The light shimmer has returned, it’s only a few steps away from him and approaching quickly, ‘Stop Stop’.

Sam doesn’t want to deal with it, he resumes everything quickly and rolls his body away.

Everything comes to life, the people are standing around while the bear is still standing on its rear legs about to take another swipe of its paws.

“ROOOAR” “ROOA–

A strange roar comes out, almost echoed, as the bear suddenly falls down on its paws. Its eyes, face and body are entirely bloodied yet it still doesn’t forget to take more swipes at people. The shimmer rounds its body weakening as its attacks no longer contain the extra force.

The soldiers don’t waste this chance as they pounce upon it, “This is for Gerty!”

“This is for Peter!”

“This is for Jan!”

…

The soldier’s attack makes an exclamation of a name before stabbing the creature, Sam gets up from the ground and approaches Hanzel who is nursing his wound, a large gash appears across the chest plate revealing the flesh below.

“What are they doing?”

“That’s the name of the people the bear just struck. They will take a piece of it and ensure its buried where they are. It’s about the only meaningful thing these people can do, empty gifts at the last minute don’t express your sincere feelings, this will express that at the least.”

Hanzel places some medicine over the wound, it heals visibly before placing some metal plating over it hiding the skin once more. Sam wants to ask about this but given everyone does it, it’ll be something cultural.

The bear slumps over in a pile, the soldiers quickly set about cutting it up revealing the flesh and muscles below. The soldiers seem expert with the knives and have almost the whole bear carved up in 5 minutes.

The whole creature disappears into storage items, Sam wants to ask where the core went but it’s not his place to ask about it.

“Ah!,” one of the assistants speaks up, “the point has disappeared. The one 500 metres away too, there’s another one 1.2km that way though.”

The assistant points in a direction the way they were going, they’re continually walking towards the beacon in the sky.

“There’s really no information about the level of these alerts? I’d hardly think they give standard soldiers and officers the same level.”

“There is nothing,” the assistant flips the clipboard, which shows a list of points with strange numbers and a direction on it. It seems less of a clipboard and more like a display. There’s nothing he can meaningfully glance from the screen.

“Point taken. Let’s set out if you’re done?”

Hanzel and the other people speak amongst themselves for a moment, “Ok. We have already done the funeral arrangements.”

‘You guys are seriously a military unit?’ Sam wonders as the Hanzel yells out.

“We’re moving, 1200 metres that way, look sharp!”

The group recreates the formation; the bear caused havoc on the line, yet there’s still plenty of people. They march in that direction, everyone fighting with a renewed vigour, slicing down everything without giving it a chance to respond.

They get to 200 metres of the point and spot a change in the terrain, it has shifted into mud causing their footsteps to be delayed.

“You’re sure it’s in this way?” Hanzel asks as he pulls his feet out.

“Yes, it’s this way. You can see the footsteps over there” the assistant points in a particular direction where people can see the mud all churned up, but the distinct mark of human feet is there.

“Ok. Let’s go then. Watch out everyone! don’t get stuck!” Hanzel yells out, he has been settling into the commander's role yet still defers to Sam. The previous commander being dragged behind.

The group proceeds through the mud with little concern but slowing them down a lot, between the trees and night sky, they’re unable to see much at all. They don’t stop and quickly the scene reveals itself.