Doomsday Pillars

Chapter 88 - War Council

Very early in the morning, a group of soldiers walked into the army barracks and started picking up a few soldiers. They were approached while they were still asleep.

"..."

"What is this? What the Fuuuuxxxx do you think you're doing?"

A bucket of water was thrown to the soldier and he quickly awoke in panic, 5 fully uniformed and armed soldiers stand before him. One of the higher ranking soldiers spoke to him:

"You are needed for questioning."

"What for? Why?"

"Just come with us." .

The poor soldier still in his sleeping clothes was taken to the headquarters, there seemed to be a few other soldiers taken, and currently waiting for a summon, everyone looked nervous. They were taken inside one by one, and finally, it's his turn.

Inside the room, there were a few people sitting behind a long table facing at him. The one in the middle was the Starbase Leader Alex, there were two other people he recognized, one was his platoon leader named Chris and the other one was another unit leader, named Dylan. He was suddenly frightened.

"Name, Platoon, and Battalion number"

"..."

"It's... Yuda, Platoon 077, 8th Battalion."

"You are here, standing trial for a crime, the accusation is desertion."

Farell the one who asked the question, Alex will be the one giving the sentence.

The accused was Yuda, one of Barry's men, at the critical moment, he and two other men ran and left the fight. Looking at Dylan and Chris, it seemed it's really hard for him to get away with it. At that time he said he went to find help, but actually, he hid in one of the safer warehouses.

"I didn't desert, I went to find reinforcements... believe me."

"So did you?... Did you find some?"

"....No... I got lost, it was very dark, and I panicked."

"Do you know what happened to your unit leader?"

"Yes he died... believe me, I really liked that guy, we were really close."

Hearing his answer, Alex whispered to the men standing next to him...

"So?... What do you think?"

"It's obvious don't you see... Even not using my ability we can tell... All lies."

The man standing next to him was Theo.

Alex gave a signal and a moment later, the soldiers brought another 2 men into the room. It's the two men who also left that same night. The one named Rofi actually did go looking for reinforcements.

"The army finds Rofi not guilty, but as he went away without the unit leader's permission, you will be sent back as a trainee, until reinstated as a regular soldier."

"For you both, you are found guilty of desertion! You will be stripped off from your military rankings and will be classified as probation citizens for one month."

"During this one month, you will keep working like all normal citizens, but you will only receive one voucher per day, and in the event, you create another trouble, you will be sent away from the base."

Yuda was baffled hearing the sentence, he didn't want to argue if he was guilty or not anymore...

"On what authority did you give the sentence??!!"

"You are not the president, you are not a judge, you are not even in the military or any government institute, you have no right to sentence me. I came here as a volunteer. I came from Black Snake Island, you took away your authority over us by killing our employer..."

"The situation that night was grave, I knew we won't stand a chance against that big mutated cats, so running was the smart thing to do."

Alex gave a slight smile, there will eventually be people who will not follow him, he was actually surprised it took so long before the first one to challenge his authority appeared.

"...Mr. Yuda, since the beginning of the doomsday, how many people did you save? how many monsters did you kill? I'm not gonna compare numbers, but what you did to the people around you will define who you are... Most of these people around this base chose me as their leader, at least the army did. Another thing, the place you slept at, the food you ate, also came from me... Let's just say, as I am the homeowner and you are a guest, you must follow the house rules."

"But you have a good point, I will not force anyone to follow me, let's just say the first two weeks, I accept everyone because of my philanthropist nature. You have eaten my food, you have received the safety and comfort of a bed, but from this day on, everyone can choose to follow my rules, or leave..."

The men next to Yuda were terrified to be sent out of the base, he accepted his punishment. As for Yuda, not only did he decided to leave, he influenced and took dozens of other men with him. He's a Bali local, he knew the surroundings, he also already ate a few of the spirit stones, he thought he could survive with this small group. It was his choice.

Alex took half a day to sort all the sentences and then continued on with his main agenda. Some were told to stay in the room, they were Farell, Karra, Jerry, Adnan, Donny, Benny, and Sandi.

"Any of you understand why I asked all of you to come and observe all of these?"

"You are planning to create a new justice system..." Farrell said.

"Yes, but not only that, very soon we will need to expand and take campaign across the sea, it will be very hard for us to communicate. I will need all of us to have the same system.. An agreement on how we will manage all the survivors. All 7 of you will be the highest ranking officers on site, the Star Army War Council. I need all you to have the power to uphold justice."

Division Commander will be the highest rank within his Star Army. One division will have at least 5 battalions and also will be supported with a support unit of 2000 men. A combination of administrators, workers, scavengers, and medical personnel. They will be supplied with a few vehicles and boats, they will be the star army expansion force.

Benny's Division will go to the East Nusa Tenggara province.

Adnan's Division will go to the West Nusa Tenggara province.

Karra's Division will go to the East Timor Province.

Farrell's Division will go to the East Java Province.

Sandi's Division will go to Lombok Island.

Three Divisions will go to the islands east of Bali. One will go to the West, with the presence of Jake Randall and General Rico, one division should be sufficient. As for Sandi's division, Lombok island is the closest island to Bali, so Alex assumed he will not leave for long or will be able to control both islands, especially because there were still 25.000 more soldiers still in training as support.

Jerry's Wolf Platoon will go support the East Divisions and Donny's Tiger Platoon will support the West Divisions, Alex also planned to go to Java island. First, he needed to gather both James Randall and General Rico's Army in preparation for the Doomsday Pillars that will drop in Java island. Secondly, yesterday's battle settled his food problems, but now he had a shortage of bullets. Alex planned to visit some of the military bases and ordnance factories in Java Island.

For the East Campaign, Alex gave them a few days to prepare. The boats were also limited so it will take a few rides to move the 20,000 plus men to the other islands. But for the West Campaign, they will need to leave immediately. The long-range messages seemed to be urgent. Before leaving the meeting, Alex gave them some pointers on places that were too dangerous and what their final destination should be. Alex also reminded them, their mission was to save as many men as possible.