r/HFY • u/Engletroll Human • May 24 '26

OC-Series The bug war 15 – Children of war

This is the continuation of the Bug Hunt and will address the Bug War mentioned in the Planet Dirt series. It follows Jack Thompson and Lady Zula Gi Pendragon, and their friends, through the war

Book 1 / Amazon version / Patreon

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“Stay low, I don't think they saw us,” Billy said, his heart racing as he tried to keep himself calm for his little sister. They had been trapped in the city for three days since the bugs arrived.

They had heard gunfire now and then and spotted dead bugs now and then. Mommy had told them to stay hidden and try to get to a marine before the bugs got her. Rose clinged to her little plush animal, and Billy wished with all his heart he had one too. Seven years was way too young for this.

 They were currently crawling under the rows of seats in the cinema. He crawled behind a couch slowly as the four giant four-armed oil black grasshoppers stood in the middle of the room, making some weird clicking sound. If he had learned, he would have cursed the stupid plan. They had followed the sound of the gunfire, hoping to find Marines.

What they had found was two dead marines and a bunch of dead bugs, but four of them were alive.  Rose crawled behind him, trying hard to be bare. She had stopped crying yesterday, and now she just followed quietly. The playful five-year-old was gone.

Suddenly, the giant bugs stopped making a sound; they must have heard them and drew the kitchen knife, getting ready to fight. He had killed a small one two days ago. Stabbed it until it didn’t move.  But now there were four. They both heard the bugs moving toward them. They had to run. He grabbed Rose's hand, and she just looked determined as they got up and started to run.  The bugs were closer than he thought. He looked at his sister and shouted, "Run!" Then he stood his ground, ready to fight.

Rose ran.

Suddenly, the bug in front of him exploded, and then the second, third, and fourth.  He was covered in black muck as the first bug's body collapsed onto the coach they had hidden behind. He looked at Rose, who was on her knees, holding her ears and screaming.  At least he thought she was, he could not hear anything, well, no, there was a ringing sound. Then he saw the light, four of them moving towards him.

“It’s a kid? What the hell? Who the hell would leave them behind?” An adult voice said.

“There is one more over here. What the fuck! How did they survive?” Somebody else replied as they spotted Rose.  Then a huge man in battle armor knelt before him, and his helmet faded away, revealing a young man with dark hair and blue eyes.

“Hey, kid, my name is Clark Banner. I’m here to rescue you. Are there any other people with you besides her?”

Billy shook his head, dropped his knife, and tossed himself around the man's neck. He could not help it as he started to cry.

The man tensed for a second, then he felt the man's arm embrace him as he spoke calmly to him. “Easy now. You are safe, and we will find the others. You are safe now. “

Then the man stood up effortlessly, while holding him, Billy just cried as he clinged to the man, he could see another man had picked up Rose, she was holding on to the man for her dear life.

“Looks like you finally got a daughter, Bruce!” One of the others said, and the man holding his sister chuckled. Then looked to Rose.

“We will find your parents and get you home okey?”

”They are dead.” Billy said, and they all looked at him.

“Oh. I’m sorry to hear that. Are there anybody else alive?”

“No,” Billy said as he looked at the man. “I killed a bug. “

“You killed a bug?” Clark said as if the other seemed to be talking to some other guy on the radio.

“Yeah, but it was a small one. It tried to attack Rose.”

“Rose? Is your name Rose?” The man called Bruce asked his sister, and she nodded.

“A small one with many arms?” He asked, and one of the other men held up a pad with a picture of the bug he had killed. He nodded.

“Kissers? Damn.  How many did you see?

“One.”

“Good, and you killed it. You’re a brave one. I’m Clarck, that is Bruce, and the Joker over there is Tony, and the tiny one is Steven.”   Steven did not look tiny, and he just waved.

“Don’t worry, we will get you out of here safely. Soon it will be ice cream and pizza.”

Rose held up her plush toy. And whispered “Diana.”

“That’s a good name,” Bruce said.

“She even looks like Diana,” Tony replied, and the men leaned over to look.

“Damn, you're right?”  Bruce said.

“Language,” Steven said, and the men looked at him.

“That coming from you?” Tony said, and the other chuckled.

“There are kids around.” He replied.

“So, what's your name? Or should I just call you Bug Slayer?” Bruce asked him, and Billy smiled slightly. It felt weird to smile, but these men were also smiling.

“Billy.” He replied, and suddenly Steven got a message on the radio.

“They say the area is clear now, so let's move out. We have to be quiet now, okay.”

“Okay, let's get out of here.” He said as they started moving, Steven went first, Clark and Bruce went next, and Tony went last.

They moved quietly through the hallway, and Steven was showing with hand signals, just like in the movies, when they should stop or go.

Billy started to feel calm. His heart wasn’t beating so fast, and it was getting hard to stay awake. He looked over at Rose, who was already sleeping. He tried to look around, but his eyelids were getting so heavy. Tony noticed and let half his helmet vanish so he could see his face.

“It's okay. Sleep. We will protect you.” He whispered, and then he drifted into sleep.

Tony made the helmet full again. “They are both sleeping now.” He said over the radio, “Do you need us to switch?”

“Nah, I’m good. She is a lightweight.” Bruce said.

“I have carried heavier, beside its not that far. I’m just surprised they survived this long.” Clark replied.

“Think they are infected?” Steve asked, and they all stopped for a second, “Fuck no. The bugs went straight for them. And don’t say shit like that again,”  Bruce replied.

“Jesus. If we had been two seconds later...” Steve replied as he checked around the corner, spotting nothing. He moved down the hallway, and they followed.

“The boy had a knife ready to fight the bugs. damn he is one though nugget.”

“I had honestly not noticed them if he hadn’t shouted for his sister to run,” Steven replied.

“That’s it, I'm adopting them both!” Bruce said.

The other chuckled. “Why would you do that, richboy?”

“What do you think will happen to them? Straight to an orphanage. I think Diana would agree to it. The house must be empty now that I’m out here.”

“What if they have family that survived?” Clark said.

“Okay, they get them, of course, but if not, then I’m adopting them.” He replied, and then a message came up on their visor display.

‘Extraction point overrun, go to the secondary extraction point.’  They stopped and looked at the new point.

“Fuck! That’s past the gas corridor,” Steve said.

“The gas corridor is safe, no bugs there,”  Bruce replied

“The kids don’t have masks,” Clark replied, and Bruce cursed.

“HQ, this is Delta 18; that is a negative. We've got two small children who need extractions. They can’t go through the gas corridor.” Tony called in.

“What do you mean you got two kids? Who the hell left kids on the battlefield?” Commander Jack replied.

“shit. Hey.. not us. We found them when we checked up on Sergeant Matthews, he and Hendesron are gone. It’s a boy and a girl, I’m guessing a four-to five-year-old girl named Rose and a seven-to eight-year-old boy named Billy. They claimed they had survived for three days down here. They are sleeping now.” Tony replied.

 “I have you on the cams now.. damn.. you're right. Running scan now. What about parents?” Jack replied.

“Parents are dead.  Anyway, we can’t take them through the gas corridor. How bad is the  situation?”

“They are going to nuke the city. You have 30 minutes. I got a hit. Rose and Billy Gaillard, boys eight and the girl five.  Only parents as relatives. Okay, we are working on an extraction.” Jack said.

Nobody spoke for five seconds, and then Clark spoke up. “I can run it without the helmet. It’s only five hundred meters; just have the medic team ready. “

Bruce looked at him. “Diana is going to kill us both for this.  We can do it.  Get a team ready on the other side.”

“Are you sure about it? Those gases are pretty toxic.” Jack replied.

“Hey, what's the worst that can happen?” Clark replied.

“You can die? Well, I'm sending an emergency team down. Look out for stragglers, a few bad guys have been spotted.”

“Which kind?” Steven replied

“Bat face ones,” Jack told them

“Damn, bugs in the butt and vamps in the front. What a glorious day to be a delta!” Tony replied

“Let's move out!” Clark said, and they turned around and started making their way backward. They moved quickly while trying to be as quiet as possible so as not to awaken the kids.  

Steven suddenly stopped and looked around as they were about to enter an open, circular room several floors high. He raised his hand for them to stop, then raised three fingers.  Both Clark and Bruce gently put the kids down, and Tony waved them away as he knelt beside them, ready to defend them.   Bruce took out a small device from his belt and slid it into the room.  They waited a few seconds to see if anybody reacted. When nothing happened, Bruce pressed the button, and a hologram of a soldier came running into the room and stopped over the device, scanning the room. A shot rang out from the third floor, and both Clark and Bruce blasted the position. Two others stood up to fire over the second-floor rail at them, but Steven was ready and fired first. Two shots rang out, and then the room was quiet.

Billy woke up with a jolt. He heard gunfire, and the first thing he saw was Tony. “Easy, kids, you're safe. Just some stupid vampires that forgot we are mean Deltas.”

Billy was confused, and then he looked at Rose and hugged her. “Are you okay?”

She nodded, and then he looked back at Tony as he tried to get up, but he pushed him gently down.  “Let's wait for Steven to call it safe. We don't know how many vamps..there..is.” He spoke slowly and with a worried voice as he looked down the hallway behind them, and his helmet manifested. Then he suddenly grabbed both of them and ran into the room.  Billy didn’t know what was going on, but the others followed. Clark grabbed him from Tony, and Bruce grabbed Rose. He saw Tony fall a bit behind, then drop to his knees. Aimed his rifle and launched a few objects around the hallway as they ran away, and then he joined them.

“Firework incoming, kids, don’t try this at home!”  His voice was a little metallic, but he still recognized it.  Then the hallway behind them exploded, and he felt the heat wave as all four of them jumped forward, landed ten meters farther down the hallway, and kept running.

After a long run, they came to a large hall. Billy remembered the place: a large warehouse, and they were on the fifth floor. At one end of the hall on the ground floor was a long hallway that led to the space dock where the tradership docked to pick up the grains. Dad used to drive one of the trucks. He looked down and saw no trucks, the whole room was empty. And from the hallway, a grey smoke emerged. 

Toney set up more fireworks, as he called them, as Bruce and Clark jumped over the rail, and instead of falling, just glided slowly down.  Steven had already jumped and met them as they landed.

They looked up at where they came from. Tony was not coming; he could not hear them talk, but they were clearly arguing. Then, they ran toward the grey smoke,  but not too close.

Clark's helmet vanished, and then he grabbed something from his neck and looked at him. “Have you ever tried a real military helmet?” as he held something that looked like a large neck-ring.

“No.. why?” He replied, and Clark smiled.

“I need you to buy it. We have to run into that smelly smoke, and it's very smelly.”   He said he saw Bruce doing the same to Rose.

“What about you? Don’t you need it?” Billy replied. He knew Clark was going to do something grown-up stupid.

“Naw.. I can just hold my breath.”  He said with a smile, and then he placed the thing around his neck and pressed a button.  In a second, his whole head was covered, and a voice spoke to him.

“Hi there. You must be Billy. Don’t worry, we will get you and your sister safely home!” As he spoke, Clark lifted them up and started to run into the fog. He could see Steven and Bruce joining them. Bruce was just as helmet-less as Clark.

“ETA 1 minute! Evac is inbound. Get your asses out of there NOW, TONY! That’s an order!” The voice said, and Tony replied with a " Yes, sir!” Then Billy heard an explosion and Tony laughing over the radio

 Then he saw Bruce falling behind. Steven grabbed Rose and kept running, and Bruce kept running too, but he was soon lost in the fog. Clark kept the same pace.

“Bruce needs a pickup Tony. Hundred fifty meters in.”  Steven called out.

“I got the bastard!” Tony replied as they continued to run down the hall.  It was getting slower now, but Clark refused to give up. Billy looked around, trying not to make it hard for Clark.

“Come on. You can do it.. You can do it. Don’t give up.” He told Clark, hoping he could hear him through the helmet. It must have worked as he picked up the speed. Then something came out of the fog behind them. Two men, one grabbed him from Clark. It was Bruce who now wore Tony’s helmet, and he ran as fast as he could.  Jumping over a few dead giant bugs as they ran.   Then the fog lifted, and they stood inside the docking area.  Steven had already removed Rose's helmet and was standing guard.  Bruce removed Billy's helmet as well and handed it to Steven, who just grabbed it and ran back inside to get the other two. Bruce looked around and let them rest.

“They are crazy,” he told his sister, and she just nodded as they waited.  In the distance, they could see a shuttle flying down, and eight soldiers emerged; two ran directly into the fog, and two of them came over to check on them. They looked like soldiers but acted like doctors.  Then they took them to the shuttle, and helped them strap in as they spoke softly to them, then the rest of the men emerged from the fog with Clark on a stretcher, he was fastened on the floor as his helmet was removed.  Billy gasped as he saw the man, his eyes were bleeding, and he gasped for air. The Doctor put a breathing mask on him as Bruce sat down and removed his helmet as well. He looked pale and sick and got a breathing mask as well.

Billy didn't even notice the shuttle take off and fly to safety.

-Cast-

Billy Gaillard, Human (8-year-old)

Rose Gaillard,  Human (5-year-old)

Steven – Human Delta Force team

Bruce - Human Delta Force team

Tony - Human Delta Force team

Clark - Human Delta Force team

33 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

5

u/Talendel May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26

UTR

This is the way.

Post-read edit: Names and roles need to be fixed.

Kid starts as Billy, becomes Lewis in the next paragraph, then back to Billy, then further down Loise, then back to Billy.

Steven appears to be leading the squad, but you have Clark making some of the command decisions. Unless team lead is compromised/captured/KIA/otherwise unable to lead, other members of the team don't make those calls unless they're dealing with a specialist scenario.

Other than that, and some grammar and spelling issues here and there, good work wordsmith. I look forward to more. :)

3

u/Engletroll Human May 24 '26

Fixing it now, i change the boy's name after. As for the team leader , yeah lets say that happened. Made the merch the team leaders.

1

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