Army of the Damned

VOLUME 11 Chapter 5

Rolling through the open countryside of Geraldia, with its large rolling hills, open plains and the cold and harsh mountains behind them. Riding on an open top M151 jeep. An officer in his combat uniform was wearing gold framed Aviators with rose tinted lenses leading his massive column of armor and transport vehicles into the fray. The wild life only looked in curiosity or ran in panic as the ground shakes with the iron beasts from another world driving through paths meant for carriages pulled by horses. The military vehicles would flex their suspension as they drove over the unmaintained roads.

Crossing the plains, the tail end of the column reached far into the mountain ranges, its peaks covered by the clouds as below was a solemn plain that's overtaken by small grass that would sway on the wisp of wind blowing into the South. There was no longer any snow, though the mud was still hardened and the exhaust smoke of the vehicles as white as the clouds above them, the armored transport trucks and tracked infantry fighting vehicles would tip and sway violently on the path that was getting further destroyed by the weight of the metal machines.r

Kicking up a wild dust storm as they drove through the dirt forest road, the heavy wheeled vehicles kicked up an unimaginable amount of debris, rocks were being thrown and crushed as the cloud could be seen for miles in all directions as if a snake was burrowing through the trees and the sound of the diesel engines echoing to the mountains far away. "Stop. Convoy stop." with a single word. Fixing the position of his Aviators, the long line that reaches far into the horizon of hundreds of vehicles stops and the officer dismounts the jeep alongside his men. He tapped the mud with his combat boots and it was still frozen hard.

"Well... whaddya think?"

"We should call the Engineering Company, sir."

They look over to a stone bridge with a big arch on it. Rushing water below it. With vines already encroaching on its foundation and some of the stone wall missing bits and pieces.

"Alright. Call them up. Tell everyone to take a break. We've been driving nonstop for a day now."

"Roger, General."

"Also, call up the two other armies, tell them the bridges of this part is not eligible for our vehicles."

"Yes sir, and what're we going to tell General Jackson sir?"

The high ranking officer then puts his hands on his hips as he spits on the dirt road and a 5 ton transport truck arrives and a bunch of players exit from. Majority of them are Dwarves as they check below and above the structure.

"Lieutenant."

"Sir."

The small Dwarven player salutes the 2-Star General as he unrolls a map on the hood of the jeep.

"Does our bridge layer work there?"

"Nah. We'd be missing... hmmmm... about a meter or two."

"If that is so. Then the next bridge we can check is thirty kilometers down. After that, it's a hundred kilometers for the next bridge."

"I suggest we try it, General. Fording the riva'."

"Hmmmm..."

"Captain, I think Jackson is not gonna be happy with the news. He will have to wait a bit longer."

"Yes sir. I'll relay the information to him."

"And tell him that if the soil isn't good, we wouldn't be able to lay bridges and will have to find a part of the river that's low enough for all of our vehicles to pass through it."

"Copy on all sir. But I am sure he'll throw a fit. He really wants us to get to Zavalda as quickly as possible."

"Yeah... well if what he says is true, he will need us there as fast as possible."