Behind the lead bomber, more Rockwell B-1 Lancer strategic bombers powered up inside their shelters one after another. Their engines roared across the airfield, deep and violent enough to vibrate the concrete beneath nearby vehicles.

Ground crews cleared away quickly as the bombers began rolling forward.

The sight alone was intimidating.

The B-1 Lancers dwarfed almost everything around them.

Their long fuselages moved slowly beneath the floodlights while their variable-sweep wings adjusted outward into taxi configuration. Heat distortion shimmered heavily behind the four engines mounted beneath each aircraft.

Inside the cockpit of Lancer One, the pilot watched the runway lights ahead.

"Lancer flight, check in."

"Lancer Two ready."

"Lancer Three ready."

The co-pilot glanced toward the targeting displays updating from command feeds.

"Target density still high."

The pilot gave a short nod.

"Good."

Back inside the command center, Adrian watched the bomber icons begin moving across the tactical display.

The artillery bombardment still continued nonstop south of the base. Drone feeds showed entire highways burning beneath repeated HIMARS and M777 strikes, but despite the destruction, huge portions of the swarm remained intact.

The infected continued pushing northward through smoke, craters, and collapsing roads.

"Bomber payload?" Adrian asked.

One of the officers answered immediately.

"Mixed loadouts, sir. Mk84 two-thousand-pound general purpose bombs and cluster munitions."

Adrian’s eyes stayed on the screen.

That should do damage.

A lot of damage.

Outside, the first B-1 reached the runway threshold.

"Lancer One holding short."

The tower answered immediately.

"Lancer flight, cleared for immediate takeoff. Good hunting."

The pilot pushed the throttles forward slowly.

Then harder.

The engines roared violently.

The bomber surged down the runway, massive landing gear rattling against the concrete while the aircraft rapidly accelerated beneath the floodlights.

Inside the cockpit, the airspeed climbed steadily.

Eighty knots.

One twenty.

One sixty.

"Rotate."

The nose lifted.

The huge bomber left the ground smoothly before climbing into the night sky. Behind it, the second and third Lancers followed one after another, their engines shaking the entire southern side of Basa Air Base as they lifted off.

Inside the command center, several operators watched the live feeds quietly.

"Lancer flight airborne," the communications officer confirmed.

Adrian nodded once.

"Route them directly toward the southern kill zones."

"Yes, sir."

The bombers climbed through the clouds while fighter escorts moved alongside them. Far below, artillery fire still flashed continuously across the highways south of Manila.

The pilots could already see the battlefield from altitude.

Burning roads.

Collapsed buildings.

Entire sections of the countryside lit by explosions.

And beneath all of that, a huge movement, an endless amount of movement like there is a sea of it.

"...Jesus," Lancer Two muttered while looking through the targeting feed.

The swarm stretched for kilometers.

Even after hours of bombardment, the infected still flooded across highways and open terrain like an advancing tide.

Back inside Lancer One, the weapons officer adjusted the targeting systems.

"Approaching release corridor."

The pilot steadied the aircraft.

"Altitude stable."

"Target lock confirmed."

The command center patched through immediately.

"Lancer flight, you are weapons free."

The pilot inhaled once.

Then answered.

"Copy. Beginning strike run."

The B-1 bombers descended slightly as they approached the southern bombardment sectors. Their internal bomb bays opened beneath the fuselage, revealing rows of heavy ordnance mounted inside.

The weapons officer stared at the release timer.

"Five seconds."

Outside, the highways below looked completely packed with infected.

The artillery bombardment had slowed them.

But not stopped them.

Perfect targets.

"Three."

"Two."

"Mark."

The first bombs released.

The massive Mk84 bombs dropped from the bomber’s internal bays in staggered sequence, falling silently through the night sky before accelerating downward toward the swarm below.

Then more followed.

Entire strings of bombs dropped from all three bombers simultaneously.

Back inside the command center, the drone operators watched the bombs descend.

One analyst quietly whispered—

"...This is going to be bad."

Then the impacts came.

The southern highways disappeared beneath explosions.

Massive fireballs erupted across multiple kilometers as the 2,000-pound bombs slammed directly into the densest sections of the swarm. Roads shattered instantly beneath the detonations while nearby buildings collapsed from the blast pressure.

Cars were thrown through the air like toys. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Entire intersections vanished beneath smoke and fire.

The shockwaves alone obliterated huge clusters of infected before the fragmentation even reached them.

And the bombers kept dropping.

More bombs rained down across the advancing mass, detonating in overlapping patterns that turned the battlefield into a continuous storm of explosions.

The drone feeds shook violently from the pressure waves.

One camera feed cut out entirely after debris struck the drone.

"Direct impacts across all sectors!" an operator shouted.

The tactical display fluctuated wildly.

Huge sections of the red swarm disappeared.

Not reduced.

Gone.

Entire clusters erased beneath the bombardment.

The B-1s passed overhead like executioners.

Their bomb bays emptied continuously while explosions chased each other across the highways below.

One bridge collapsed completely beneath a direct hit, taking thousands of infected with it as burning wreckage plunged downward.

Another bomb struck near a fuel depot.

The resulting explosion lit up the night sky bright orange.

Inside Lancer One, the crew watched the thermal displays update rapidly.

"Kill count is massive," the weapons officer muttered.

The pilot didn’t answer.

He just kept the bomber steady through the turbulence from the detonations below.

Back inside the command center, even Adrian stared silently for a moment.

The bombers were doing what the artillery struggled to achieve.

They weren’t thinning the swarm.

They were carving entire chunks out of it.

Still—

The swarm remained.

Even after the carpet bombardment, movement continued beyond the burning sectors.

Slower now.

More broken.

But still advancing.

"Unbelievable..." one analyst whispered.

Adrian folded his arms tightly.

"Continue bomber rotations," he ordered immediately. "Keep pressure on them."

Then another operator suddenly looked up from the radar console.

"Sir..."

Adrian turned.

"What now?"

The operator swallowed once.

"More heat signatures."

The tactical map updated again.

And south of the burning highways, even more red markers were beginning to appear from the darkness.