Zero to Peak: Ascension Online

From Maximillian's briefing, Ivan learnt that the aliens he had played an important role in vanquishing were the only group within a 4km² area. After Maximillian and his group had touched down from their helicarrier, an alien battleship had emerged shortly after. The group's best guess was that the ship had come to aid its three super-powered comrades in battling the man clad in white.

Maximillian had used a sophisticated, portable anti-battleship railgun from their aircraft's arsenal to shoot down the alien battleship. He instantly instructed his soldiers to spread out in groups of at least thirteen units, and they obeyed. Originally, he had stayed back with more than a hundred units to protect the helicarrier. Unfortunately, a turn of events forced him and ten squads of soldiers to go to Battle Site A to support the group already there.

Ivan and the mafia soldiers journeyed about five hundred metres to where the helicarrier was parked. The vessel was massive, exceeding Ivan's expectations. Inside the aircraft, there were about ten vehicles suited for land or sea navigation. Six armoured skiffs were in the aircraft's hangar. The equipment Ivan observed aboard this aircraft made him wonder what exactly the mafia's operations entailed.

The massive river cut through Zone Alpha's business district. More than one hundred alien naval battleships were stationed at various points on the water. However, the radar systems the ships employed were located on the Bryan Estate, on the other side of the river.

The aliens had invaded the estate in a bid to secure rumoured "super-advanced" weapons that the estate had developed. The effort was unsuccessful, as the weapons were sealed off in a virtually inaccessible bunker at the southern end of the estate. It was the same bunker in which Bryan, his daughter, and his three hundred employees had locked themselves.

As soon as the aliens invaded the estate and established that extracting the desired weapons was going to take some work, they rapidly set up a base. The estate was massive, with a number of skyscrapers used for offices and a few warehouses for storing goods that the Bryan business sold.

Radars were set up to cover the entire estate and the riverfront that ran alongside it. The radar's reach spanned two hundred metres over the river's northern shoreline.

Maximillian's helicarrier had taken flight. Before the aircraft took off, Maximillian had helped the man in white kill the last of his three alien adversaries. A stroke of luck had allowed Maximillian to kill the severely weakened alien. The man in white was in a similarly weakened state, but in even worse shape, which would have given the alien a great advantage. The man in white didn't say thank you. He arrogantly left, which greatly pissed Maximillian off. Ivan jollied inwardly while maintaining an impassive pose.

Being an experienced combatant, Maximillian didn't permit the pilots to fly recklessly close to the river. He made his soldiers deploy reconnaissance drones. The instant the drones came within two hundred metres of the shoreline, missiles came hurtling towards them, obliterating them.

Although Maximillian was an arrogant idiot, he was a very smart soldier with a good understanding of warfare. He immediately had an inspiration for the tactics to deploy to allow the helicararrier to cross into the estate.

An armoured MRAP vehicle was lowered from the helicarrier. There was only one passenger aboard: the driver. The vehicle blasted off, quickly accelerating past two hundred kilometres per hour. It went into the radar detection zone, and a flurry of missiles came hurtling at it.

The vehicle possessed a 360-degree automated attack/defence system. A 12-cell vertical launch missile pod unveiled itself from beneath a retractable hydraulic roof. The system intercepted the incoming missiles, ensuring the MRAP vehicle survived. The automated programme then fired off a radar signal jammer device.

Maximillian estimated that the jammer had a brief operational window of about seven seconds. The device automatically activated its signal-jamming suites, disabling the aliens' radar.

Maximillian pumped his fist, celebrating the success of this step. Ivan was a mere spectator as all this transpired. He could only caress the face of his sword as he watched. The helicarrier fired off more than twenty additional radar signal jammers the instant the first one activated.

The aliens retaliated to the initial jam with a barrage of missiles at the estimated position of the radar jammer and the MRAP vehicle. The vehicle and the device succumbed to the missiles' combined explosive force.

The twenty-plus radar jammers flew over the river, sea-skimming as they traversed. The jammers gathered information on the locations of the radars and, in the process, crippled their detection capabilities.

The alien battleships on the river were now 'blind'. The helicarrier also sea-skimmed, stopping at a point that was visually unobservable on the river. Six skiffs, clad in silvery-black plate armour, were released onto the water. The helicarrier then changed direction, heading west, while the skiffs, each manned by seven soldiers, charged towards the battleships.

The skiffs were a strategic distraction. The situation on the river's surface devolved into a chaotic, violent, and gory scene. Explosions and gunfire erupted. Battleships sank as the air filled with the painful and helpless cries of drowning soldiers.

Soon, only one skiff remained. The helicarrier, which had ascended into the clouds during the chaos, was commanded to join the battle. The aircraft unleashed a torrent of precision-guided missiles that rained hell upon the battleships below. The skiff was given a breather and it quickly advanced towards the southern shore.

Maximillian had made it ashore on the riverbanks of the Bryan estate. He had used a stealthy submersible skiff to arrive. A corner of the beach was lined with tall false-berry trees. Using the cover of the trees, he used his sniper rifle to take down the radar antennas.

The helicarrier briefly moved away from the battle at the river to drop off the two hundred and twenty soldiers, plus Ivan, who were aboard the aircraft. The aircraft then ascended back into the cover of the clouds, ready to carry out instructions from Maximillian.