Doomsday Pillars

Commander Dario, the leader of the special army, with three of his comrades walked closer to Aria. This action brought everyone’s attention in the room.

Alex also thought they might be up to no good.

The four men stopped a few meters in front of Aria and suddenly altogether raised their hands.

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"Salute to Lieutenant Aria!"

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"..."

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The four soldiers gave a formal salute, with a friendly and warm smile to Aria.

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Everyone in the room was startled, especially the group in the corner... Dario and his special soldiers were known to be stern and hard to be close with. All the men in these rooms have been trying to woo them with no success, but this group of men suddenly turned into puppies in front of the beautiful girl next to Alex.

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Aria saw the man with surprise.

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"Dario... you guys are here!! That’s great"

"I am glad you guys survived the doomsday, the regent sent you here?"

This group of special soldiers apparently were the Deathsquad Soldiers sent by the regent, Aria’s comrades. Aria moved closer and gave a handshake to all the four men, she seemed really happy.

Aria was known as the ice queen, although her reaction was normal for most of the spectators, Alex found something was out of place. She was a bit warmer than usual. Cindy found the scene a bit unusual as well...

"That’s a bit weird, don’t you think?", Cindy wondered.

"They were obviously just comrades in arms.", Alex said.

Cindy continued... "Naaa... this is not the girl I knew... should Theo mind read this Dario guy?"

"That’s unnecessary, there is really no need."

Cindy turned and looked at Alex...

"Are you not even a bit curious? Now you are a bit weird... should Theo mind read you then...?"

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"..."

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Aria realized she was acting out of place, she introduced the group.

"This is Dario and soldier from the Deathsquad... we were from the same unit before I being promoted to another company by the regent."

Alex just realized he saw these men before.

Aria grew up in the military and in the special forces base, she had a special relationship with the soldiers. As the regent granddaughter, she was also the Deathsquad’s "princess". She was adored and protected by many of the men.

Alex stared at all the men and said.

"What’s your mission, Commander Dario?"

"To protect the citizen of this area."

"Now, please tell me, whose command do you follow soldier?"

"Since the general died on doomsday, my mission stays the same until I find further contact from the regent, I am currently in charge... Although now that you are here, it seems you are in command..."

The four men and the rest of the squad at the back altogether gave Alex a salute. It seems now his plan for the city will become easier than he thought. Dario also knew some of the soldiers that Alex brought. Knowing that Alex was in a good relationship with their best fighter made the spectators easier to trust Alex’s group. Except for some.

A group of men was sulking in the corner...

"There goes our plan...."

"For our safety... We should never say a word of what we discussed..."

"Agreed..."

The dinner was over with Alex getting to know the people and the city better. Alex currently had no solution on how to move these people other than sending his ships from Bali to transport them one by one. But he had limited ships and all have already been used for the expedition to the east by the other three divisions. If Alex can’t find another solution, his expansion plans to prepare for the doomsday pillars will be in jeopardy. Alex decided to sleep it off and wait until he has a better picture of the city tomorrow.

The next morning after another sumptuous breakfast, Cahya brought Alex to see the city. There were twice as many survivors here as in Bali, but the food supplies James Randall prepared were surprisingly more than enough for the survivors to last for a year. They were all stored in steel cargo containers. There were also containers filled with medicines and other necessities like clothes and blankets. There were also a few hundred working vehicles. The Randalls were really impressive to be able to prepare all of them in a week or so before doomsday.

When passing the shore, Alex saw the soldiers planning to bury the mutated crab carcasses. The civilians seemed worried about eating mutated beast meat. As they thought they have plenty of normal food, they don’t want to risk eating the mutated meat. Alex told Cahya about the benefits of the meat and Cahya stopped the burial and quickly collect all the crab meat. Alex also ordered to turn the sharp crab’s legs and exoskeletons into weapons and shields. It will be quite difficult but attainable.

There’s one particular thing that Alex was actually interested to find out. He left this one task to James before the doomsday. It’s the Madura Island mutated cattle. Madura’s Island was famous for its cattle herding. It’s a Zebu breed, the coloration was reddish brown with non-specific white patterning on the back and rump. It was used for racing by the locals and were sometimes called the dancing cattle.

This particular breed survived the doomsday and turned into mutated beasts, its body turned as big as an elephant but was surprisingly docile. Alex saw in front of him a few hundred cattle. In his previous life during the doomsday and when the Madura Cattle turned huge, most of the locals were scared and decided to kill it. Later on, the few that survived turned to be useful for the survivors. This time Alex told James to save as many of them as possible.

No one knew exactly about their docile behavior, some believed it the result of castration. The cattle were castrated since young and then trained to follow humans orders.

Seeing the hundred cattle in front of them, the twins are excited.

"With this hundred cattle, we can build a ranch and start producing many more little cattle."

"It will solve future food problem."

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Cindy replied... "What part of castration did you not understand?"

Alex knew from his previous life that only the male cattle or the ox survived the doomsday, and even if there were females that survived, all these male had no tools to do the job.

Alex never planned to use these animals as food supplies, although full of meat, they were only low-level stage one beast. Alex planned to use them as a means to transport supplies all the way to the doomsday pillar. They could also be useful later on to farm the fields... But now, considering the bridge was destroyed, things will become more tricky.

When Alex was still lost in thought planning, suddenly the city’s signal bell chimed again.

TING...!TING...!TING...!

The whole group was startled...

"Something was spotted from the shore... is it the mutated crabs again? Fuxxxxxxx."

The group went running to the closest shore and checked the situation. The things they saw surprises them.

Half a dozen huge ships could be seen approaching from the city of Surabaya’s shore. All of them were barges. A flatbottom boat normally used for carrying heavy loads. When the ship came close there were about a hundred people on top of each of the ships. Alex recognized the one standing at the front.

It’s James Randall.