89 Chapter 89 - Battle of Sadogashima VI

'HQ to all units! Evacuate the battlefield immediately! I repeat. Evacuate the battlefield immediately!'

Panic spread through the units fighting around the hole when at first, thick black smoke spewed out and then followed by lava exploding out the ground like a volcano erupted.

The HQ ordered everyone to pull out because there is no point fighting anymore. Most of the BETA was rushing underground when the lava erupted and it swallowed basically the majority of the BETAs leaving only a few stragglers alive at that point with the naval artillery able to take care of. Also, it's hazardous to the IJA and UN forces to continue fighting when they didn't know how bad the lava eruption may be.

However, with Adam's companions and shipgirls.

"Where is the Commander! He still hadn't returned to the surface!" Enterprise is very worried and panicked.

"Calm down a moment, Enterprise. Master definitely is safe or else we would have already noticed." Jeanne calms Enterprise and the other shipgirls down as she can sense from her bond with Adam that he is not in a life threatening situation.

"However, Jeanne. We should look for Master just to be safe." Siegfried offered his opinion which Jeanne agreed but sighed.

"I lost connection to Agent and I couldn't manually reconnect to the Orbital Fortress and I couldn't get his precise location." Jeanne said.

"Why don't you use that Providence ability you got, sis?" Jalter suggested and was also very worried about Adam that she didn't notice her slip up that admitted Jeanne as her sister when she usually denies it with her every being.

Jeanne noticed Jalter's slip up but didn't point it out either and just lightly smiled as she accepted the suggestion.

"Yes, I forgot about it. Give me a moment." Jeanne said and kneel down with both hands clasped in a praying pose as she closed her eyes and prayed to God for his divine providence.

After a moment, Jeanne opened her eyes and stood up. Jalter immediately demanded the answer from Jeanne's mouth.

"I received a vision. He will be besieged inside the hive by those aliens and a gigantic worm that tried to swallow him. Weust hurry!" Jeanne shared the vision.

"But, we are so far away from the hive. How are we going to get there quickly?" Cleveland thought deeply until Enterprise launched a squadron of jet fighters. "Oh right, I almost forgot about that method." Cleveland said with expression of unwillingness but the thought of rescuing the Commander forced her to abandon that fear and get on the jet.

"Let's go!" New Jersey commanded the Eagle Union shipgirls as the flagship.

Everyone gets on without a complaint and quickly they are able to reach the hive. Especially when there's no Laser-Class to deny the air space.

———

In the subterranean tunnel, Adam had been flying non stop for quite some while and risked running low on propellant very soon.

"Still… I can't put my finger on this. But why is the tunnel perfectly round?" Adam felt uncomfortable as if his instinct is trying their hardest to hint Adam of a danger but he couldn't understand the signal his instinct is hinting to.

Wall… perfectly round…? What is that supposed to even hint to? He wondered but couldn't find an answer as his mind was also busy doing sick maneuvers, dodging and cutting down BETAs in the tunnel and he slowly but surely approached the hive's core. As long as he destroys that core, all objectives will be fulfilled and the mission will be considered a success.

Snapping out from his thoughts by his intuition flaring up, Adam saw a group of Fort-Class set up an ambush and launch their stingers at Adam but he immediately reversed the thruster to slow his speed and buy him a few precious microseconds before he dodged to the left as the stingers sailed past him. However, thinking he was safe. Adam failed to see that he had actually fallen into a trap.

"Shi— Agh!" Several laser beams slammed into the Aura Barrier. Adam hastily brought up and defended that attack but his Aura meter wasn't that high to begin with and blocking the saturated laser bombardment drained his remaining Aura and left him only with his Forcefield.

As if not enough just falling from the ladder, his streak of bad luck hadn't ended yet. The display shows a flashing red warning that highlights the thrusters, stating he just ran dry of propellants.

"Great! Fucking great!" Adam cursed as the Type-00A unit fell to the ground and was immediately attacked by the BETA that tried to rip it apart but stopped by the Forcefield.

Adam made a split second decision to disable the Forcefield around theTSF unit and stored it into his inventory. It's a lost cause anyway to fight in this unit without it's 3D super maneuverability with the jet thrusters.

Adam drops to the ground and reforms the Forcefield around his body before his Crysis suit turns on the Cloaking mode as he infiltrates the hive on foot. His speed is obviously slower compared when in TSF but still fast enough to finally reach the hive in about ten minutes.

There Adam stood, looking in marvel at a familiar structure for its grand scale which isn't accurately portrayed in the visual novel.

"It's the Gate-Class BETA." Adam mumbles and tries to recall how to open the damn thing.

"I would need a specific chemical for that." Adam said when he finally remembered the scene from Operation Cherry Blossom.

Since the key is a type of chemical he could obtain, Adam has to think of another method. He looks at the massive closed gate and then remembers it's a living being, technically since it's literally just another strain of BETA. Adam immediately took out his Hornet sniper rifle and shot at the gate repeatedly until he could see a darker patch of spot gradually spreading.

"It's working!" Adam said excitedly and shot more as the Outer God's power contained in the bullet corroded the gate's sturdiness by weakening it with curses, poison and disease.

"I'm loving this Goddess more and more. Even though her initial personality is shit. But she is so damn good." Adam chuckle gleefully before he reinforced his legs with Aura and Haki.

Adam jumps and climbs until he reaches the gate before he slammed his Haki coated fist on the corroded gate and cracked it open. The hole isn't big and just big enough for him to climb though, which is a testament on how sturdy the gate was even after its durability was greatly reduced.

On the other side of the gate is a long hallway leading to another gate. Adam quickly try to repeat his previous method but the hive was already alerted of the intruder that breached its first line of defense.

BETAs quickly swarm in through the hole in the gate which only allow those smaller than a Grappler-Class to pass through, Adam didn't hesitate and used [Elite Reinforcement] and [Reinforcement] despite his rapidly diminishing Aura pool that dropped to near zero after that.

Adam repeats the process of weakening the gate and then tries to punch it through with his Haki reinforced fist but this time he actually fails to punch it open like previously. He only managed to leave a deep crack. He didn't have much more time as his initial six Operators were quickly reduced to three with the normal Operators dead first like the Elite still barely holding the line with BETAs clawing their way in in a mad frenzy that disregard even friendly fire within their rank just to break through.

"Sir, I don't think we couldn't hold them back any longer!" One of the Elite Assault operators said when he was almost captured by a Tank-Class BETA only for to be swarmed and piled by Warrior-Class and Soldier-Class BETA that tried to turn him apart and devour him hungrily.

In his last moment of defiance, the Elite Assault operator pulled an entire belt of grenade and turned his body into a bomb. The Elite Medic operator also shares similar fate although was impaled by a Grappler-Class and exploded the entire stock of Necro Bomb he had, creating a purplish white fog of death as any BETA that dared thread into the fog will have its flesh melt off its body and explode.

The only surviving operator is the Elite Heavy operator that stood guard before Adam as he repeatedly punched the gate but failed to leave anything but a crack on it and decided to bring out his miniature Jupiter Cannon, The Coffin since his fist alone isn't enough.

Adam knows how deadly this weapon is especially in a confined space which is why it's his last resort. Adam turns to the Elite Heavy operator and looks at the fog that the Elite Medic created still is stopping the BETA from advancing toward them.

"What's your name, soldier?" Adam asked.

"William, sir. William Bartford."

"Then, William. I have a difficult request to ask of you." Adam said as he set up the cannon ready to fire at the gate.

"Ask away, sir. Please do not hesitate to order us." The operator said his face remained unreadable, hidden behind his helmet that covered his face.

It pained a little for Adam because he is asking another person to die in his place. Even if the operators do not truly die when dispatched through his summoning, they feel those injuries and pain they receive.

"Please protect me with your body, I will blast the gate open." Adam said with a heavy heart because someone else is suffering for his mistake. Had he just snagged a few extra TSF, he wouldn't be in this situation.

"Yes, sir!" The operator saluted and stood in front of Adam to cover him with his body.

Not wanting to dally as the fog is rapidly diminishing, Adam clears all his hesitation and pulls the trigger which shoots out as a super destructive shell carrying Dust explosive that sends tremors through the underground.

The operator activated his defensive skill to block as much damage as possible but since the shots are basically point blank with both in the blast zone, the explosion killed the Elite Heavy operator. However, he soaked up enough damage for Adam to barely survive with his final layer of protection shattered, his Forcefield barely blocked enough damage for Adam to survive with his Health barely floating on the yellow zone.

"They're gonna be so pissed if they learn about this." Adam chuckled before he felt a shiver at the thought of his wives learning about his close brush with death.

With no time to rest, Adam climbs through the second gate and then turns around to shoot the ceiling of the chamber between the first and second gate, causing a cave in that will temporarily impede those BETAs.

Then Adam turned back into the chamber past the second gate. A large open chamber that has an egg shaped object that Adam recognised is the core. He didn't hesitate and shot several times at the core using The Coffin. After that, Adam immediately pull up his mission tab to verify the core's destruction and sure enough, he did.

[Battle for Sadogashima]

Objective;

(Main)

- Successful capture or destruction of the Hive Reactor. (Complete)

- Successful recovery of Unit 00. (Complete)

- Overall casualty rate not exceeding 70%. (Complete)

(Side)

- Overall casualty rate not exceeding 50%. (Fail)

- Prevent the Self-destruction of XG-70b Susanoo II. (Complete)

- Annihilation of all BETA Strains on Sadogashima. (Pending)

(Optional)

- Accumulate 100,000 BETA kills. (Complete)

- Help the allies to secure a beachhead on Mano Bay and establish a foothold on the shore. (Complete)

- Survival of all A-01 Special Task Force members. (Complete)

- Destroying Hive 21th before XG-70b Susanoo II. (Complete)

Reward: ???

[Complete Mission?]

[Yes / No]

Adam saw that he still hadn't finished killing all the BETA and honestly, he probably won't with how spread out they were and unless he destroyed the entire island like in canon, it's an impossible task as even then, 40k of them escaped and caused the Battle of Yokohama.

Speaking of the Battle of Yokohama, they should have had an easier victory considering how much less the casualties were in this battle.

Adam immediately decided to turn in his mission and declare an end to it. With the core destroyed, the BETA would lose its purpose to continue fighting and flee either to the hive in Korea or the captured core in Yokohama.

[Calculating rewards…]

[Completion Rate: A+]

[Rewards calculation complete.]

[Type-04 Shiranui Second (Blueprint), XG-70b Susanoo II (Blueprint), Charged Particle Cannon (Blueprint), Rutherford Field Gravitation Shield (Blueprint), All Gen 1-3 TSF Armaments (Blueprint), Gen 7.5 Post Union TSF, 10B SAS Credits, +10 Levels, Orbital Fortress Modification Function.]

Adam's eyes glow brighter with each reward he glosses past until he landed on that one.

"Wait… Gen 7.5? Aren't the latest TSF only Gen 3?" Adam mutters before he quickly open his Inventory to check the spec of the 'Gen 7.5 TSF' he just received.

"It's bare bone without any weapon but a twin G-Generators with up time up to… 15 continuous years of operation! Also… a goddamn Rutherford Field too!" Adam can't stop his excitement of 'winning the jackpot' on his reward.

Adam was excited to take out his new toy and check it out when a powerful tremor shook the ground and threw him off his feet.

"What the hell was that…? Adam climbed out the collapsed rubbles that buried him down to the scene of a gigantic maw that opened up to unleash hordes of BETA into the former core room of the hive.

"Shit! Why are they still here after the core was destroyed!" Adam couldn't believe his eyes as those BETA should retreat the moment the core was destroyed. That's how it should work!

"Why!" Adam could only groan tiredly and dissatisfied because his Aura reserve isn't at the satisfactory level and without protection of his Forcefield and Aura Barrier, Adam felt exposed.

He groaned inwardly at the BETAa that didn't play by the script and prepared himself to make his way out of here. Even without his Aura, as long as he can muster his willpower, he still has his Haki.

"Fuck you all. I can do this all day long. Now come! Let me whoop your asses not even your creator will recognise your ugly mugs!" Adam lifts both his arms up prepared to square off with those BETAs that think he is an easy prey just because he no longer has his TSF unit.

—————