Symbiote 0256: Rapport Building


    An hour or soter, Yelena and the widows along with the defense force of the settlement were all manning the walls. Yelena had distributed the widows equally throughout the perimeter of the city so that they could easily support the infantry against the Abominations. While the force of the settlement was decked out in heavy armor and battle gear along withrge weapons that each took two people to man, the widows seemed starkly underprepared. But no one underestimated any of them. After Yelena’s entrance into the city and the initial might she had established, they were willing to give the women the benefit of the doubt.


    “W-without this shield … This settlement would’ve beenpletely destroyed by now,” The leader of the settlement’s forces spoke, standing beside Yelena. He was also decked out in battle gear. Simr to arge chunk of the infantry, he was decked out in a battle suit with gauntlets and thrusters that was essentially a far bulkier Iron Man suit that looked less cool.


    “It was only a matter of time before you were attacked by a horde. We merely ended up elerating the process. You don’t need to worry, however. They won’t be able to breach the shield any time soon. Still, the power consumption of the shield must be managed. Which means that it would be best if we start clearing them out.” Yelena said solemnly. While she had heard a lot about the abominations from Alex, seeing was different from hearing.


    “Give the order. My men will follow me into battle,” The leader said as Yelena nodded and spoke into a walkie-talkie.


    “Let her rip, everyone. Show these glorified zombies what we’re made of,” While the Infantry division leaders heart the order through their walkie-talkies, the widows heard Yelena’s voice directly in their heads by means of Alex’s automated ry system for intemunication.


    The sounds of sma being charged reached Yelena’s ears as loud sts overtook her surroundings. The sentries released an initial wave of bombardment that obliterated the frontalyer of the zombies. As they were charging, the soldiers who were wearing power suits all jumped down the walls, walking through the shields alongside the widows who all burst into action.


    If anyone had any doubts about the capabilities of the widows before this, they were allpletely gone moments after the battles started. The lithe women were stronger than the men who were wearing literal power suits to fight and were manhandling the abominations like nobody’s business. What surprised them was the suits that the women wore seemed to be much more than mere clothes. Their clothes seemed to have been formed of nanoparticles that were easily able to form into different weapons and tools that they used efficiently to mow through the abominations. There even seemed to be a cleaning function where the downed abominations were all absorbed and dposed by the suits themselves.


    “Fall back!” After clearing a wave, they were all called back. The cannons were all charged up by now. The widows and soldiers all returned, effortlessly passing through the shield as the cannons sted the Abominations once again.


    “We only have two more shots after this. The cannons will overheat and can only be used after an hour,” The leaders on each side spoke. “We will be relying on you guys until then.”


    The process was repeated two more times as the cannons overheated, leaving everything to the soldiers in the power suits and the widows who had shown surprising efficiency in their work. As the battle continued, a certain widow shone through most of all. Yelena.


    The blonde was singlehandedly dealing with multiple ?Grunt ss? abominations and even a Buff ss and was actively pushing it back. With lighting-based attacks, she was able to move at speeds that none of the abominations were able to react to, effortlessly killing them. She even had the time to save a fellow power-suited soldier who was about to have his head blown off by two weak abominations that were upon him.


    “T-thank you …” Yelena’s angelic-seeming blonde hair fluttered through the air, despite the mask hiding most of her face, the man couldn’t help but feel that he was falling in love with his savior. She didn’t pay him any heed and continued on her way, keeping the ?Buff Grunt ss? abomination busy as Alex encroached upon it to devour it. He was already doing the same with all of the abominations around the battlefield without wasting anything. EP was a very precious resource for him after all.


    A simr scene as Yelena was repeating itself throughout the battlefield. While not as extreme, each of the widows was responsible for saving multiple lives from Abominations. And giving the soldiers a little bit of aplex about their supposed weakness while also causing some of them to develop a minor crush on the widows. However, the most prominent thought that almost everyone was sharing was that of admiration toward these women who were fighting the enemy so efficiently and effectively while also focusing on theirrades and protecting them.


    Despite the lower number of widows, they had taken the spotlight on the battlefield, each of them taking care of multiple times the number of abominations that the original forces were dealing with.


    As the hour passed, the cannons were charged up once again, but they weren’t fired. Instead, they were docked once again so that they could be used in the next wave. The widows were working so efficiently against the abominations that Yelena had the cannons called off. The real reason, though was that Alex didn’t want the abominations destroyed by the cannons. The destroyed Abominations didn’t provide him with much EP.


    Hours passed as the sky darkened. Sadly, the Abominations still weren’t finished. Despite having lowered the size of the horde by arge factor, there were still enough that it would take them a few more hours to clear everything out. Understanding the situation, Yelena had the widows retreat behind the shield, where the soldiers were already present, already too tired to continue fighting.


    “Bring those two girls to me,” Yelena said with a hint of fatigue in her eyes. She was looking at two young women who were decked out in identical suits as the widows, both of them resting behind the shield.


    “They aren’t a part of your forces?” The leader asked.


    “Please do what is asked, Mr. Kabal,” Yelena gave the man a pointed look, making him cower. If he initially had a slight sense of jealousy toward Yelena, that had transformed into extreme admiration and some fear by now. To him, the woman was an absolute monster who was able to even contend against the stronger variants of abominations who usually took at least three shots from their sma cannons to be taken down. Even her own people were having significant difficulty against the stronger variants, being forced to work together to take care of them. Yelena, on the other hand, was able to take care of them on her own. She even managed to keep two of them engaged at the same time before another widow supported her.


    The man did as he was asked and Yelena saw the two young adults stand up from their spots and turn to her. One of them had caramel skin that was glistening with sweat and a bright gaze in her eyes while the other, white-skinned one seemed apathetic to her surroundings. They were both decked in the same outfit as her with some slight modification. Their cor, wrist cuffs, and anklet cuffs all sported a single horizontal line of glowing red, representing their status as widow trainees.


    “Apex …” Yelena spoke softly. “Was this you?”


    [Yes, those two are Kam and Laura. They’ve been helping me farm EP for a while in this ce and would do well in the new and improved ck Widow Program.]


    Yelena resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the man and gave a gentle yet faint smile to the two girls.


    “You two aren’t a part of my widows, are you?” She asked.


    “No,” Kam shook her head. “But we would love to join you. You’re all like so badass, taking care of those abominations like they’re weak zombies instead.”


    Yelena gave a pointed look to the man who hade close to them, hoping to hear their conversation. He cowered and quickly moved away under her threatening gaze. “What is your rtionship with Apex?” Yelena asked them as Laura’s eyes lit up, Kam also showing signs of knowing in her eyes.


    “He’s my suit,” Laura said, going against her self-preservation instincts by telling Yelena about her abilities, but Apex’s instinct told her to speak freely, so that’s what she did. “He’s helped us a lot.”


    “Of course he has,” Yelena said. “I want to rest for a while, but would you two like to join us for the second round? You can also go and rest if you wish to.”


    “I don’t mind fighting more,” Laura said.


    “But I do,” Kam interjected, only for Laura to look at her with narrowed eyes. “I’m tired. I want to rest, Laura.”


    “How about you … I forgot to ask you two your names.”


    “Kam.” “Laura,” The duo told Yelena.


    “Kam, why don’t you sit back here and rest while your friend helps us fight? What do you say?” Yelena asked.


    “Can’t,” Kam told her. “Apex has us tethered together,” She raised a ck rope that connected the two together. It was invisible previously and just became visible now.


    “Is this some kind of an experiment or something?” Yelena spoke under her breath.


    [Something like that. They will be staying that way.]


    “What?” Laura asked.


    “It’s nothing, Yelena said. “In that case, you both can rest back with the soldiers. We aren’t low on manpower and the widows only need an hour or so more to clear the majority of the horde. After that we will all be retreating to the fortress, you cane with us at that time.”


    After some time passed, Yelena noticed that the horde seemed to be gettingrger, and attracting more Abominations, so she decided to take care of everything once and for all.


    “Widows. Time for the final stretch. Show these people your strength as the protectors of the Sanctuary. We want thempletely dazzled and starstruck with us by the end of the event,” Yelena’s words were broadcast to each and every widow, each of them using their skills to make sure that the men who were enamored with them stayed that way without actually getting any tangible benefit.


    The reason they were working so hard to develop a reputation among the soldiers was that it was these people with the most children in the settlement — Having had the most work to do, and hence the most benefits, they had the necessary resources to raise children and take care of their spouses.


    If the fathers looked up the widows, the children would be the same. Eventually, it would make the position of a widow an extremely big deal in the settlement. With just the right amount of propaganda promoting the widows and their benefits, the job would be extremely desirable. At that point, once the recruitment drive starts, people would fight to have their children join their training program.