After the death of the remaining commanding structure in the convoy, the soldiers finally realized that something was terribly wrong. Some of them even heard the sound of the mirror shattering followed by the sound of a coconut busting, which attracted their attention and forced them to take a look at what was really going on.
But that was not all, some of them had been having a conversation with their comrades, just before the person they were conversing with had their heads suddenly explode in front of them, spattering all of their brain matter over their faces, giving them a horrific experience and a very expensive PTSD to recover from.
Although killing people was good, Athena had practically dismantled all of the existing command structure, rendering any effort of recovering from what had happened in a short period of time almost impossible. And throughout this whole fiasco, artillery shells continued to be fired by their forces since she had already decrypted all the radio signals on the island and was impersonating to be the authentic command, ordering them to continue firing until they ran out of shells, planning to end the war by the end of this very night.
The artillery squadron asked no questions as they were sure that if a problem occurred, they wouldn’t be the ones to be blamed for it since the order came from the higher ranks. They continued firing the shell relentlessly, as if there was no tomorrow, making little adjustments in the firing angle after every few rounds.
While the shell were still flying over them, the soldiers in the convoy had now fully come to the realization of what had just happened and started panicking, that was when the first person fired their guns in the direction of Esparia’s camp, with that, the rest soon followed as they had came to a conclusion that the snipers must be coming from that direction.
Athena silently observed as the Esparian soldiers fired their guns in panic, with some of them trying to run back towards the artillery squadron for their safety, some of them were even hiding in the tanks or in the armored cars. This was immediately followed by the driver of those vehicles starting to retreat, trying to get as far away from the chaos as possible, to increase their chances of surviving.
However, the moment they started firing, some soldiers shot their own fellow comrades in a fit of panic, escalating the chaos even further.
And with more than fifty vehicles trying to retreat at once, another level of chaos now erupted amidst the cars as the driver of every car tried to be the first one to leave this chaotic zone.
[Surrender now and you won’t be killed] An announcement was heard through all the radio communication devices, this caused a short moment of lul among the Esparian soldiers on the border as they wondered if they had heard it correctly.
Alas, despite the warning, the artillery continued to be fired as if they hadn’t heard the order while they remained oblivious to the chaos that was going on just a few kilometers away from them.
Athena, who had deliberately made it that way as she wanted to demonstrate another feat of force to convince the soldiers to follow her order, sent the order to the pilot of the massive helicopter hovering over the same location since the massacre had started, to release the TDR type.
Wasting no time, the pilot followed the order and pulled the trigger, releasing the bomb which was immediately followed by the booster strapped on it to get ignited as it embarked on its final mission, a journey of being a part-time grim reaper, though just for a brief period of a second.
The soldiers who had paused for a moment continued their attempts to escape once the artillery team continued firing heard a sonic boom coming from the Eden’s base and by the time they raised their heads, they could see a white colored tube looking object with a fireball behind it for a brief second before it passed by them. Realizing what it exactly was, the soldiers immediately dunked down, trying to take cover and when they noticed that nothing had happened, they turned their faces towards the direction the bomb had gone.
To their shock, they immediately saw a massive explosion occur exactly five kilometers away from them, it was as if a massive light bulb had been lit up.
And exactly 14.6 seconds later, they were honored with being the very first humans on land to have an enmasse collective loss of hearing, similar to what their counterparts at the sea had experienced.
At this moment from the deepest part of their hearts, they understood very well that the artillery squadron was no more. The moment their hearing returned, they heard the same announcement they had heard before the artillery squadron was wiped out, causing them to understand that if they failed to comply with the given instructions, they would be the missile’s next target.
As the saying goes– “It only takes one coward to determine the entire outcome of a battle.” The moment the first soldier dropped his weapon, it was as if a domino had started to fall as soldier after soldier followed suit, dropping their weapons and raising their hand high while facing the Eden base’s direction, hoping that whoever had fired that bomb or missile could see them clear enough and not do the same thing to them as he had done to the artillery squadron.
However, there were a few brave ones in the midst of the surrendering soldiers, but after the third soldier tried acting heroic and had his head burst out of nowhere, the rest of the soldiers didn’t dare to do anything that would make them be deemed as defiance. They now were aware that there was an angel of death somewhere on the other side, who was ready to take them to after life the moment they tried doing anything funny.
[Now, with your weapons left there, start walking to our base. Remember, the moment any of you try doing anything funny, he will be killed. Of course, you are welcome to test our theory] Athena announced once again and at the same time another soldier’s head was blown off. When those near him glanced at the dead soldier, they caught the sight of a hidden handgun next to him, this increased the level of fear they had against their enemy as they failed to imagine how the heck the enemy whom they still haven’t seen could see that one among them had hidden the gun behind his back.
One by one, they started walking, officially beginning the march of life as they tried to walk as fast as they could, lest they also had their heads popped like watermelons similar to those who had fucked around and ended up being fucked out of the very life.
Just like a jock, the war that had started abruptly also ended abruptly, finishing the entire war with a landslide victory. The only loss on the winner’s side was the base that was shelled, with no casualty sustained by them. The entire war had come to a conclusion in a matter of fifteen minutes with the losing side having lost more than two hundred and fifty soldiers altogether, along with it taking the title of the world’s shortest war from the Anglo-Zanzibar War which had lasted for only about 38 to 45 minutes.