Out of Space
Chapter 279: I Like to Order One Umagi Set!

The night skies were lit up by floating orbs of light and bright darts of tracers and exploding shells of cannons. Cannon and small arms fire rumbled like thunder while the effects of the tracers and shelling caused the surrounding vegetation to catch fire, bathing the low clouds an orangey glow.

The Snake hissed with anger, unsure where those irritating explosions came from, but it hurts. It's barely recovered body and tough scales could easily withstand arrows and swords, but not overpressure from high explosives.

It could only see two fast moving objects with the glow of souls on them and it channeled all its anger and frustration on those running mortals. It lowered its body and slithered as fast as it could after its prey, ignoring the spells exploding all around it.

Focusing all its attention on the fleeing creatures, it did not notice any changes to the terrain when it followed them, only knowing that it will vent all its anger and hunger on the puny mortals.

-----

Both jeeps formed upon a single file as they sped between two lines of yellow flags laid out carefully. The flags were laid between a supporting roof bridge for the jeeps to cross the pitfall trap. Just as the forward jeep reached the midpoint of the bridge, a red flare was launched out, further illuminating the surroundings.

They sped on and was barely off the concealed bridge when the God Snake entered on covered pitfall.

-----

"NOW!" The ground commander in charge of the troops yelled as he viewed the God Snake entering the trap with a pair of binos. The Marine holding a demolition board quickly twisted one of the trigger keys and several dull thuds of explosions could be heard and felt underground.

The daisy chained explosives hooked up underneath the supports of the roof bridge blew and the whole roof collapsed inwards, dropping the surprised God Snake down into the pitfall. The ground commander seeing the Snake falling into the trap quickly ordered the next set of traps to be set off.

Twisting another key on the demo board, the Marine grinned as suddenly the night turned to day as the napalm fueled flame fougasses erupted like volcanos. "Burn baby... burn!"

An unholy shriek resounded out from the flaming pitfall and the God Snake could be seen thrashing wildly within the flames. The super heated air and flames finally ruptured the drums of white phosphorous, and once the chemical got into contact with air the highly toxic powder reacted violently and combusted.

The ground troops all watched from a distance of two kilometers away with binoculars at the display of fireworks and smoke. Yet the shrieks and thrashing serpentine shadow within the smoke did not appear to lessen. The ground commander frowned and turned to the mortar battery commander, "Give me the special munitions! Three rounds rapids!"

"Yes, sir!" The mortar commander nodded and ran off to his mortar carriages and yelled at his men.

"Load the special!" He quickly ordered the men who jumped into action. "Three rounds air bust!"

The 1st ammunition bearer quickly rotated the fuze cap of the mortar shell clockwise until a three-letter engraving PRX was above an index line which indicated the fuze was set to proximity air burst setting before handing the mortar bombs to the assistant gunner who held the bomb at the tip of the 120 mm mortar already sighted in to the pit while the 2nd ammunition bearer prepped the next mortar shell.

The gunner peered through the sights and double checked the range chart before nodding to his section leader who acted as the fire controller who yelled. "Mortar One. Ready!"

"Two ready!

"Three ready!"

"Four ready!"

"THREE ROUNDS SPECIAL! FIRE FOR EFFECT!"

"FIRE!"

The Marine gunner dropped the bomb down the mortar muzzle and quickly turned away from the blast while keeping his mouth open and covering his ears. The solid thump of the mortar blast shook the men's insides but they ignored it and continued to serve the gun, firing a total of three rounds each as fast as they could drop the bombs down the muzzle.

-----

After recklessly speeding away for a distance, Tyrier ordered the jeeps to stop and the Claymore One men all quickly watched the fireworks going on at the trap. They covered their ears as the unholy screams of the God Snake slammed into them like a shockwave.

"What the fark is that?" Hitsu yelled as he covered his ears while rolling on the back of the jeep from the pain that stabbed right into his brains.

"Quickly cast Mental Fortitude!" Tyrier yelled out while putting his words into action. Everyone quickly cast the spell which fortified their willpower to defend against the sanity causing shrieks.

"Damn, that was close!" Hitsu rubbed the back of his head, feeling like something had squeezed his brains for fun. He rubbed the trail of blood that dripped out of his nose and quickly stuffed earplugs into his ears to block off the screams.

"Is that bloody Thing dying yet?" Hitsu asked as he pushed himself up from the floor of the jeep. "Damn, my head hurts..."

Tyrier massaged his burning eyes and looked at the glowing flaming pit in the distance, "I hope so!"

Suddenly several shrieking shells screamed overhead and the men instinctively ducked, "MORTARS!"

They straightened up when they realized that the mortars were not aiming for them and laughed sheepishly among themselves before turning their attention back to the trap, seeing the mortar bombs landing right on target.

-----

Shrieking in pain and anger from the hellfire that was burning its strength away, the God Snake tried to dislodge its self from a couple of sharpened tree trunks that had unluckily pierced into its open wounds.

Thankfully, the hellfire helped as the flames and superheated air reduced the stakes to charcoal and the thrashing Serpent managed to break free.

But before it could rejoice, suddenly several large explosions roared loudly and instantly its vision was blocked by clouds of white acidic smoke that burnt its eyes and exposed wounds. Badly blinded it rolled about in pain and panic, trying to get out of that hell hole.

It slammed its body against the walls of the pit, trying to rub the sticky hellfire off its body. And not long, it felt the temperature of its surroundings dropping finally!

Just as it thought it received some respite from the hellfires, it suddenly heard several shrieks followed by several thunderclaps above its head. It raised its blinded head up and its boiled tongue hissed out to taste the air and it suddenly shrieked as its burnt tongue touched something that was worse than the hellfires it had suffered from!

-----

The dozen special munitions mortar bombs detonated in series as they screamed over the air. The bombs internal mechanical clockwork fuzes were set to detonate after seventeen seconds, the time needed for the mortar bombs to travel and reach the target site.

The clockwork fuzes' timer winded down to zero and the fire runes snapped together, igniting the burster assembly charge and spewing the contents of its charge out.

2.45 kilograms of pure sodium chloride or commonly known as salt spewed out from the bursting cap of the mortar's payload. In less than 10 secs, over 29 kilograms of salt were scattered over an area of half a football field, directly over the God Snake.

As the sea salt landed down into the inferno, it melted in the superheated air and boiled, before its molecules broke their bonds into sodium and chloride.

But as more of the salt rained down over the God Snake and with the temperature dropping, enough of the remaining salt landed on the God Snake and onto its festering burns and wounds.

Almost immediately, the wounds touched by the raining salt started to erode into wisps of smoke as the purifying powers of salt broke the bonds of the God Snake's body from this realm.

The pain almost drove the God Snake insane as it spasmed even more violently, destroying the walls of the pit and causing the magical reinforced earthen walls to crumble.

The ground commander seeing the effects of their special munitions appeared to be effective, quickly ordered the mortars to fire every single mortar shell they have in stock.

The mortar men jumped into action and bomb after bomb, the mortar kept firing till the tubes glowed red in the night.

-----

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

The whole Command Bridge was silent as everyone had their eyes glued on the UAV feed being streamed on the battle with the God Snake. Blake unconsciously bit his nails as he watched the feed only to have the Princess gently pull his hand away.

He smiled at her before turning back to watch the live stream. "Damn thing is pretty tough to endure so much napalm."

Commander Ford nodded from his spot. "If we can't kill it this time, we don't have enough stocks of napalm left to use on it."

They watched as multiple bursts of white powder appeared overhead of the God Snake, making it squirm violently each time. "Looks like Joseph and his people came up with a good idea with the salt loaded mortars. Seemed like it works well on it."

"Well, salt seemed to be used in all cultures and religions as a ward against evil," Blake replied.

"Also the intel from Claymore One was quite valuable that salt works against these... things..." Blake added. "Hell, I don't even know what these things are classified as. Demons? Devils? Evil Gods?"

Ford smiled, "Don't start that in front of Dr. Sharon, or she will start a lecture and give you homework and make you have an exam afterward!"

"Ha!" Blake grinned back. "Well, looks like its working. The sensor measuring the density of its magic power appears to be dropping fast."

They continued watching the UAV feed, observing the thick oily smoke evaporating off its body under the burning land, exposing its startling white bone structure.

Slowly, its scales and flesh evaporated away and leaving behind a skeletal frame over a hundred meters long and it suddenly crumbled under its own weight before turning into dust. The watching crew and command staff cheered wildly as they watched the God Snake getting defeated.

"That was easy..." Blake smiled. "I kinda expected more..."

"Seriously?" Ford frowned. "You want more?"

"I mean, we did use our main gun to kill a God's Champion..." Blake shrugged. "That seemed just too easy..."

"Do you know how much napalm, fuel, explosives, mortar ammunition, 250 kg bombs and countless small arms ammunition firing that Thing costed us?" Ford raised a disbelieving eyebrow. "Not to mention the loss of a Mariner which is one fifth of our entire bomber air fleet!"

"Woah... chill," Blake grinned. "I meant it in a good way. Besides, materials and machines could always be reproduced while the lives of men are more precious."

"We are lucky we only lost the crew of one Mariner and luckily not the full crew either," Blake added. "That is still considered a heavy price for an easy victory."

"True," Ford nodded. "Well, an easy victory is always good, even if the material cost is high. I guess we lucked out this time."

"We will take all the luck we can get," Blake smiled tiredly before turning to the communication link to Orwell's Point. "Good work, give my congratulations to the men."

"Yes, Sir!" Joseph's image replied. "Operation Pied Piper is a success!"

"Have the men take a well deserved break," Blake ordered. "You too, give me your report tomorrow afternoon."

"Thank you, Sir!" Joseph saluted and his image disappeared from the screen.

"Damn, I'm hungry!" Blake stood up. "We all only had some sandwiches while on duty."

"Now that you asked," Ford stood up. "Yeah."

"How about you?" Blake turned to Princess Sherene, who nodded.

"Let's go to the Officer's Mess," Blake said and he turned to the rest of the Command crew. "Alright people, good job. Stand down to alert from Orange to Yellow. Those off shift now, get some rest, food, or whatever you want. I will see you all tomorrow! Dismissed!"

"Aye aye, Sir!" The crew chorused and saluted the departing officers.

"I remember the menu for tonight is umagi right?"