BXBX NOVEL Chapter 104 - The Strategist
DDay +27
5 days have passed since Alex arrived in Surabaya city. These past few days, the combined forces of soldiers led by Dario, Madura\'s fighters led by Ruslan and Alex\'s group lead by Aria, actively eradicated all zombies on Madura Island.
The island itself, although not as developed as Bali, was almost the same in size. It was not an easy task, the combined forces went into the mountains and jungles and covered all the beaches. The hardest was still clearing up the most populated city in the east of Madura. Five army battalions lead by Dario went inside and cleaned up more than five hundred thousand of zombies. Alex and the golem personally helped killing hundreds of mutated red zombies to make the task easier. With this action, now all the survivors within Madura Island have been gathered in Bangkalan City. The population of Bangkalan city has grown even more today.
This morning Alex and his group took the Boa Class patrol ship across the sea into the Surabaya City outskirts. Alex brought along Cahya, James Randall and Commander Dario. All the Brig Types ships brought by James could be seen following behind the patrol ship..
Across Madura Island, tens of thousands of people have gathered on the outskirts of Surabaya City. This group of people has gone more than 150 kilometers in the last 5 days journey through a few small cities and villages from Bali to Surabaya city. They are the star army divisions lead by Farell.
On the front line facing the Surabaya City, an army tent and simple wooden barricades were being set up. Occasionally, dozens of zombies could be seen approaching these barricades, but the fighters could easily and silently kill the undead. These fighters have been tempered with multiple battles in the last few days. The journey didn\'t just give them battle experience. There were dozens of carts with supplies and about 20.000 plus civilians coming along with them. These were what\'s left of the survivors between Bali and Surabaya city.
When Alex\'s group arrived, Cahya organized all these twenty thousand plus survivors to be ferried by the Brig Ships across the sea to Madura Island. Alex went to approach the tent to meet Donnie and Farell.
"Welcome, Mr. Alex."
Donnie welcomed the group with open arms. Although Donnie was already a peak stage mortal realm when he left Bali Island, Alex could tell the journey has made him stronger. Battle scars could be seen all over him and the same confidence could also be seen in Farell. The five-day journey was an interesting experience for them both.
"Yes, welcome to Surabaya Commander Donnie, Commander Farell. It seems you had an interesting journey. Let me introduce you to Mr. James Randall and Commander Dario."
Seeing Donnie, Dario quickly gave his salute. Donnie was one of the respected captains of the death squad, he also outranked him. As for Aria, their relationship is more like family, so she doesn\'t really put up much courtesy with him.
"So, Mr. Alex, what\'s the plan? My tiger platoon is ready for a mission.", Donnie said.
Alex told them the current condition of Surabaya City and Madura Island. Then he explained the laser weapon and the need to retrieve the technology.
James Randall told the details and position of his workshop and office and how it\'s located right in the middle of Surabaya City\'s center, right in the heart of the millions of zombie hordes.
"I did try to sneak in before, but there were too many of those red zombies, and we quickly got surrounded and had to leave." James did lose a few of his men back then.
Alex quickly wrapped up the mission objectives.
"The first objective is to create a diversion and drag as many zombies away from the city for at least 4 hours, while a group would sneak in and infiltrate Randall\'s office. The second objective, of course, is to kill as many zombies as possible... the more zombie we kill today are less zombie we need to fight tomorrow..."
"I will personally go and retrieve the item, for the battle, I will trust all the planning and strategy to you, Commander Farell."
Alex chose Farell to lead over Donnie. This decision seemed unthinkable to Aria and Dario, but Donnie didn\'t mind at all, he actually seemed excited by the plan. The last few days, Donnie had been following Farell\'s strategy, he grew to trust this ex-army intelligence officer. Alex had known Farell\'s capabilities from his previous life, he was known as the strategist. Back then, even without being a spirit enhancer, Farell was one of the survivors\' leaders. Alex didn\'t hesitate to assign Farell to one of the division commanders.
This guy named Farell is quite extraordinary, an Oxford book smart who finished his master degree in advanced warfare and literature, raised from a strict military family. A good looking guy with a stern, unbending personality. This guy is very popular among the females.
Farell, with his usual calm, gave the situation some thoughts and slowly spoke:
"This time we need to be extra careful, this is the second largest city in Indonesia. It\'s expected to have more than five millions zombies. This will be the largest hordes we ever faced, and there should be thousands of those red ones, maybe even tens of thousands."
Farell was an expert in military strategy, he\'s been teaching the art of war in the Indonesian Military Academy. Unfortunately, he\'s currently facing the undead. These abominations behave more like animals than humans. Therefore, his choice of tactics was limited. These times he\'s in command of Donnie\'s and Dario\'s soldiers, all total of 10 battalions of fighters. He has a little more than 10.000 men and he\'s about to face more than 5 million brainless zombies. That\'s a 500 to 1 figure, therefore he needed to think the strategy thoroughly.
Farell gave instructions at the tactical briefings with all the unit leader and battalion commander. Before the battle started, there were some things the fighters and workers needed to do.
Alex accepted all the plan and gave him full command of the battle, he then left with James and the others to prepare his own operation.
Later today, thousands of workers and fighters were given tasks by Farrell. One of the main tactic mentioned in the Art of War is the use of the land into an advantage. Farell started giving them tasks to cut trees and making funnel pits.
This was a tactic used successfully by Roman soldiers in 121 AD during a battle against Scottish tribes. A trench is dug, with a funnel at one end; this allows for the zombies to be herded into a tight, deep space where they are vulnerable and immobile. The trench only allows for a few zombies to be able to push forward at a time, meaning effective shooters or careful melee combatants can dispose of a few zombies at a time, rather than having to face an entire horde.
A hundred of this funnel pits with sharp wooden spikes were created facing the Surabaya City. All preparations took half a day, by the time the division finished installing the pits, all the 20.000 civilians have also been safely ferried across to Madura Island. Finally, all the preparations have been completed.
The next morning, when the sun has risen in the east, the divisions have also finished forming the battle line. Thousands of fighters stood ready facing the city of Surabaya. The battle of Surabaya is about to begin.