Chapter 83: It's All Gone (Patreon)

"BELL! BELL! WAKE UP!" Lisa's shout felt both distant and close, like an angel lifting him out of purgatory. Suddenly, he felt a jolt on his chest, and his eyes snapped open, revealing the command room. His command staff lay on the floor in recovery position, with Lilith being the first to stand up and check the radar screen.

Most of them wore expressions of confusion, but Bell was different. Tears welled up in his eyes from the horror he had just experienced. It wasn't a fleeting scare; it was deeply unsettling. Bell had seen many things, but nothing like this. Lukas, usually stoic, was openly weeping on the floor, a sight Bell had never witnessed before.

"Are you alright? Does anything hurt? Your heart rate spiked like crazy, and then it suddenly stopped! You were mumbling a lot in your nightmare. What the hell happened?" Lisa asked, concern etched into her voice.

Bell blinked, tears still streaming down his face. How could he even begin to explain? The pain and suffocation still lingered, and all he wanted was to escape into sleep. But what if the figure returned to torment him again?

"I'm fine," Bell muttered, though he knew it wasn't entirely true.

"You're not fine, but we can deal with that later," Lisa said, helping Bell to stand up.

Lilith stared at the information screen, frustration evident in every pull of her hair. Initially, Bell was puzzled by her reaction, but it didn't take long for him to understand the situation. The radar screen was empty, and there was no jamming—meaning the planes were gone.

In the aftermath of the inexplicable disappearance, the command center descended into chaos and disbelief. The realization that their air force had vanished without a trace left them grappling with a reality that defied all logic and understanding. The entity they had provoked, an eldritch being of unimaginable power, had seemingly retaliated with such precision that it erased any trace of their military might as effortlessly as blowing out a candle.

"They're gone? HOW THE HELL ARE THEY GONE?" Lilith's outcry echoed the disbelief and horror that gripped the room. The radar screen, now hauntingly silent, offered no clues or solace.

Lisa, seemingly immune to the phenomena that had affected the rest, provided the only lead, albeit a perplexing one. "Our squadron turned back towards the mountain range and then... just disappeared from our radar. No warning, no crash report. They're just gone..."

The room fell into stunned silence, the weight of the situation settling heavily on their shoulders. Despite the shock, Bell rallied his focus. "Look, let's assess the damage first, and then, we can figure out what the hell happened."

But the damage assessment only deepened the mystery and sense of loss. An entire tank division vanished. Half of the SRD and the 120th Air Assault, including key command staff stationed along the Maruno River, were gone without a trace, including the 1st Armor and 1st Infantry Divisions. They hadn't been anywhere near the northern mountain range at the time of their disappearance.

No reports, no radio communications—nothing remained of them. Even reconnaissance aircraft found no evidence of their presence in the area, nor any indication of conflict. The satellite feed didn’t show any sign of fighting either; the 100-ish tanks and armored vehicles on the border in the river region were simply gone.

The inexplicable ringing that had preceded these events offered no answers, serving perhaps as a cryptic warning or a show of force from an adversary whose motives and methods lay beyond their comprehension.

In the command center, the atmosphere was one of despair and frustration. Gerhard, usually the voice of reason and analysis, was reduced to nervous habits, while Lukas, the strategic mind behind their military operations, held his head in his hands, overwhelmed by the enormity of their situation. Aurora, known for her stoic demeanor, was visibly shaken, her distress evident in the ice crystals that formed on the toilet door where she sought refuge after learning that her husband was also gone since he joined the 120th to coordinate the defense in the Maruno River.

Lilith, who had led the now-missing fighter group, sat isolated, tears marking her silent contemplation of the unfathomable loss. Amelia, her frustration and helplessness reaching a breaking point, resorted to physical expressions of her anguish.

Bell stood amidst the turmoil, the weight of leadership pressing down on him. The question of what to do next loomed large, a daunting challenge in the face of an enemy that defied not just their military capabilities, but the very laws of nature as they understood them. The path forward was uncertain, fraught with danger and the unknown, yet retreat was not an option.

In the silence that followed, the resolve to find answers, to confront this eldritch threat head-on, began to take root. The battle was far from over; it had merely transformed into something new, something that would require every ounce of their courage, ingenuity, and will to survive.

"ARGGGH, WHAT DO THE NUMBERS MEAN?"

The numbers would be the key, but what did those 'things' want? Was it retaliation for the SEAD attacks? Possibly. Then again, what was their intention? It seemed like Bell messed around and found out what these entities would do, and the same could be said for them. He didn’t want to wage war when the coalition was right at his doorstep, but this adversary kept giving him a hard time by denying him aerial superiority. Now, they had made 3/4 of his frontline force disappear, including the air force.

And the ringing. That ringing lasted for a long time. It was so loud and deafening that nobody knew what had just happened. Was it a mental attack? It certainly felt like hostile intent. New Glacier reported the same thing, wondering where their fighter jets were. Panic began to set in on the streets, with reservists coming out with their rifles in hand, standing guard in front of their houses for any possible attack. Paramedics were scattered left and right, dealing with accidents caused by the ringing.

Bell took a deep breath and then released it. He needed to calm down. The cruise missiles had definitely hit their mark, but the fighter jets were gone. If there was ever a great loss of air battles in Federation history, this would be one of them. Bell tried to regain his composure, figuring out what went wrong, or how it went wrong. However, one thing was for sure. 

Offensive action was no longer beneficial.