OPERATION BLACK CANOPY: III Guards Army Strikes the Santa Muerta Jungle Fortress
160 miles NNW of Jayapura — Pacific Ocean
December 2127
The jungle swallowed sound.
From the deck of the amphibious command ship, the green wall of Papua rose out of the morning mist. A place of impossible terrain — mountains, rivers, swamps, and triple-canopy jungle — where Santa Muerta had built one of its most isolated strongholds.
For weeks, intelligence gathered by KISA agents and aerial reconnaissance had pointed to this location: a pirate-supported Santa Muerta command, logistics and biological research complex hidden deep inland. The facility was believed to contain weapons, infected specimens, and records connecting multiple terrorist cells across the Pacific.
The mission was assigned to:
III Guards Army
VIII Corps
14th Jungle Division
Commanding Officer: Brigadier General Yorensin Lihwa
Leading the assault:
150th Infantry Brigade (Jungle / Mountain)
Commander: Colonel Fandi Yongrui
Attached naval forces:
10th Amphibious Force
Commander: RADMU Jeremy Masaro
Air support:
Javnian Aviation Detachment
Commander: Colonel Unang Kong
—
The Landing Force
At 0430, the fleet began moving.
The sea was calm, but every soldier knew the coastline ahead was hostile. Satellite imagery showed abandoned pirate camps, old defensive positions, and movement patterns consistent with Santa Muerta militia forces.
The amphibious fleet included:
· LSD Rikuto Lee landing ship dock
· ASB Sagari Kepla afloat support base
· (4) LST Natsuko Thi Class landing ships
· CVE Kuda Poni escort carrier
· CV Mashal Hiju auxiliary carrier
· DDG Budiono guided missile destroyer
· (2) FFG Kembang Api Class guided missile frigates
· (4) PG Minh Yo Class corvettes
· APA Basirun Shi multi-cargo vessel
· AH Samosir hospital ship
· AOR Sarumpaet replenishment ship
The room was comfortable by military standards.
Air conditioning.
Theater-style seating.
Folding tables.
A large white board covered with maps, satellite imagery, NOTAMs, NOTMARs, and intelligence overlays.
Colonel Yongrui reviewed the final assault plan.
A map displayed three routes.
Three battalions.
One target.
—
The Five Paragraph Order
Situation
Santa Muerta forces occupied a fortified jungle complex approximately 25 kilometers inland.
Estimated enemy:
· Pirate militia
· Santa Muerta security forces
· Infected mayat hidup population
· Alpha-class infected specimens
Enemy advantages:
· Jungle terrain
· Underground caves
· Prepared defenses
Enemy weaknesses:
· Poor coordination
· Limited heavy weapons
· Reliance on infected as shock weapons
—
Mission
The 150th Infantry Brigade will destroy the Santa Muerta facility, capture intelligence materials, eliminate infected threats, and secure prisoners.
—
Execution
Three-pronged assault:
16th Battalion — LTCol Irwan Darmali
Landing force moves from beachhead.
Route:
Damarwulan River → Raharjo Valley → East approach → Target
Mission:
Attack the southern flank.
—
17th Battalion — LTCol Wangsa On
Landing force moves inland.
Route:
Coastal road → Checkpoint Alpha → Mountain route → Target
Mission:
Attack western approach.
—
18th Battalion — LTCol Victor Batuara
Air assault.
Route:
Helicopter insertion 5km east of target.
Mission:
Block escape routes and attack from the rear.
—
At 1400:
All battalions advance.
Formation:
Wedge formation.
One company forward.
Two companies supporting.
—
The Helicopter Assault
The first strike came from the sky.
Heavy helicopters launched from ASB Sagari Kepla and the LSD Rikuto Lee.
The 18th Battalion moved in waves.
The first helicopters touched down east of the target.
The jungle erupted.
The soldiers expected scattered resistance.
Instead, they found a nightmare.
The landing zone was filled with infected.
Dozens.
Then hundreds.
Among them were Alpha infected — faster, stronger, and more aggressive than normal mayat hidup.
The first company barely had time to deploy.
“CONTACT FRONT!”
Machine guns opened fire.
Rifles fired.
The jungle became a storm of noise.
The Alphas hit the formation before the second helicopter landed.
Close combat followed.
For nearly an hour, the 18th Battalion fought meter by meter.
The infected ignored wounds.
They climbed over their own dead.
They attacked until destroyed.
By the time the LZ was secured:
50 soldiers were dead.
But the assault continued.
The helicopters kept coming.
The 18th Battalion moved west.
—
The Beach Assault
The LSTs reached shore.
Landing craft raced forward.
The infantry hit the beach:
The 16th and 17th Battalions immediately established security.
Santa Muerta’s pirate allies responded.
They were not a true military.
They were armed clans.
Old rifles.
Medium machine guns.
RPG launchers.
But they knew the terrain.
The beach became a firefight.
76mm Cannons on the LSTs engaged the militia.
12.7mm machine guns on the LCMs provided covering fire.
Javnian heavy weapons teams deployed.
12.7mm machine guns cut through enemy positions.
Mortars fired from offshore support positions.
Within an hour, the pirate resistance collapsed.
Survivors fled inland.
The jungle swallowed them.
—
16th Battalion — Through Raharjo Valley
The 16th Battalion moved inland.
The river became their road.
But the jungle fought back.
The terrain:
· Mud
· Marsh
· Flooded ground
· Massive trees
· Thick vegetation
Vehicles struggled.
The MT-12C Jungle Tree Cutters opened paths.
Engineers built crossings.
Then the valley narrowed.
The triple canopy jungle began.
Visibility dropped to meters.
Every shadow looked alive.
The first crocodile attack came near a flooded section.
A massive saltwater crocodile erupted from the water.
The soldiers reacted instantly.
The creature was killed. Others came.
The attack cost:
· 2 fatalities
· 4 wounded
The battalion continued.
—
17th Battalion — The Mountain Road
The 17th Battalion advanced faster.
Their route followed an old jungle road.
Enemy fighters fired from hillsides.
Short ambushes.
Quick retreats.
Five soldiers were wounded.
At Checkpoint Alpha, LTCol Wangsa On reorganized his force.
Companies spread out.
The road ended.
The mountain began.
The march became climbing.
Rock.
Trees.
Steep slopes.
The soldiers moved like a climbing expedition carrying weapons.
—
1400 Hours — Final Assault
All three battalions reported:
READY FOR CONTACT
The enemy base appeared below.
A massive fence surrounded the complex.
Behind it:
· Buildings
· Storage areas
· Cave entrances
· Defensive positions
The mortars opened first.
81mm rounds fell.
The jungle shook.
12.7mm guns began firing.
—
THE BATTLE INSIDE
1400 Hours
The mortars had softened the target.
For twenty minutes, the jungle fortress disappeared beneath a storm of fire. Explosions ripped through the trees. Dirt, branches, and smoke filled the air as the 150th Infantry Brigade moved forward.
Then the order came.
“Advance.”
The first wave crossed the open ground.
Breach teams moved ahead with cutters and explosives. The perimeter fence shook as charges detonated. Gaps opened in the wire, and Javnian soldiers poured through.
For a moment, the compound was silent.
Then Santa Muerta opened fire.
Rifles cracked from hidden positions.
Machine guns erupted from bunkers.
Grenades fell from towers and concrete fighting pits.
The jungle transformed into a battlefield.
Bullets ripped through leaves like rain. Trees splintered under automatic fire. The air filled with smoke, dust, and the sharp smell of explosives.
“CONTACT FRONT!”
A squad leader dropped behind a fallen tree as rounds struck the earth around him.
“Enemy bunker, 11 o’clock!”
The answer came from behind the lines.
The TA-10 direct-fire section moved forward.
The 106mm recoilless rifles fired.
The blast shook the jungle.
The first bunker disappeared into a cloud of dirt and fire.
A second shot followed.
Then a third.
The old Santa Muerta defenses that had survived months of jungle weather finally began collapsing.
But the enemy refused to break.
Santa Muerta fighters poured more ammunition into the fight. They were not soldiers. They were fanatics, pirates, criminals, and survivors who believed the infected were a weapon of evolution.
They fought from every corner.
Every window.
Every trench.
Every hole in the ground.
The battle became a struggle measured in meters.
A Javnian platoon advanced twenty meters.
Lost five.
Advanced another ten.
Lost three more.
The wounded screamed for medics.
The dead remained where they fell.
The jungle floor became a mixture of mud, blood, and spent ammunition.
For several minutes, neither side gained ground.
The only movement came from soldiers reloading.
Then something strange happened.
The gunfire stopped.
Not slowed.
Stopped.
The silence was worse than the shooting.
Captain Arif Sembiring looked toward the enemy positions.
“Why did they stop?”
Nobody answered.
Then came a sound.
A deep metallic grinding.
A heavy door opening.
Not from a building.
From underground.
A cave entrance hidden beneath the main compound slowly opened.
The soldiers watched.
Waiting for more fighters.
Waiting for another ambush.
Instead…
Something crawled out.
Then another.
Then another.
The Alphas.
Santa Muerta had not been defending a base.
They had been guarding a cage.
The creatures stepped into the sunlight.
Former humans.
Now something else.
Faster.
Stronger.
More aggressive than ordinary infected.
The soldiers froze for half a second.
That was all the Alphas needed.
They attacked.
The first infected wave hit Santa Muerta’s own defensive line.
The militia fighters fired in panic.
“CONTROL YOUR FIRE!”
A Santa Muerta commander screamed.
But the infected did not recognize uniforms.
They did not recognize allies.
They did not recognize enemies.
They attacked everything.
Santa Muerta fighters abandoned their positions.
Some tried to run.
Some tried to fight.
Some simply disappeared beneath the infected.
The Javnian soldiers realized the truth.
The enemy had lost control of their own weapon.
“INFECTED INSIDE THE PERIMETER!”
The call exploded over the radio net.
Every command channel went active.
“All units, confirm!”
“Alpha contacts inside the compound!”
“Repeat — infected are inside!”
A squad leader watched in horror as a fallen Santa Muerta fighter rose again.
Seconds later, the dead man attacked the person standing closest to him.
The battlefield changed instantly.
The assault became survival.
Javnian soldiers who had been shooting bunkers were now fighting enemies coming from behind.
The Bravo Companies turned their weapons inward.
Heavy weapons teams repositioned.
12.7mm machine guns swung around.
The sound of the guns returned.
Only this time, there were no enemy lines.
Only a swarm.
The radio crackled again.
A different voice.
More afraid.
“Command… we have movement north.”
A pause.
Then:
“Large numbers approaching from the north.”
The officers looked toward the tree line.
The jungle was moving.
Hundreds of infected emerged between the trees.
The dead from the mountain.
The dead from the pirate camps.
The dead from the villages.
All drawn toward the fighting.
The battle that had begun as an assault on Santa Muerta had become something else.
A three-sided war.
Javnia.
Santa Muerta.
And the infected.
Colonel Fandi Yongrui grabbed his radio.
“All companies, this is Brigade.”
The battlefield went quiet for one second.
“New mission.”
“Destroy the infected.”
The soldiers raised their weapons.
Mortars turned.
Machine guns loaded.
The jungle shook.
And the Battle Inside had only just begun.
—
THE SECOND BATTLE
The radio network exploded with voices.
Too many voices.
Reports came from every direction.
“Alpha contacts inside the compound!”
“Multiple infected breaches!”
“Rear security collapsing!”
“North side movement!”
The battlefield that had been a planned assault was gone.
There were no longer front lines.
No longer a clear enemy.
The enemy was everywhere.
Then Colonel Fandi Yongrui made the decision.
“Charlie Companies. Turn around.”
The order traveled down the chain.
The soldiers who had been pushing deeper into the Santa Muerta fortress stopped.
They turned.
They faced the jungle behind them.
The direction they had come from.
The direction nobody wanted to look.
The jungle was moving.
—
The Rear Defense
Charlie Companies from all three battalions immediately reorganized.
The soldiers who had been searching buildings became a defensive wall.
The wounded were pulled back.
The engineers stopped placing demolition charges.
The prisoners were secured.
Everyone who could carry a weapon moved to the perimeter.
Heavy weapons teams deployed.
The 12.7mm machine guns were dragged into position.
Tripods slammed into the muddy ground.
Ammunition belts were connected.
Mortar crews turned their tubes north.
The enemy was coming.
The jungle became strangely quiet.
Then the first infected appeared.
One.
Then ten.
Then hundreds.
They moved through the trees like a flood.
Some were old.
Some were newly infected.
Some were the remains of Santa Muerta fighters who had fallen minutes earlier.
And among them were the Alphas.
The faster ones.
The stronger ones.
The ones that could cross open ground in seconds.
A soldier watching through his optic whispered:
“How many are there?”
Nobody answered.
Because nobody knew.
—
The Line Holds
The order came.
“Fire.”
The jungle erupted.
The 12.7mm machine guns opened first.
Heavy rounds tore through the infected wave.
Tracer rounds streaked through the trees.
The darkness of the jungle became a flashing wall of red and orange.
The first infected collapsed.
The ones behind climbed over them.
The soldiers kept firing.
Barrels overheated.
Belts disappeared.
Gunners swapped positions.
“Reload!”
“More ammunition!”
“Keep them back!”
The infected did not slow.
They did not retreat.
They did not fear.
They only advanced.
—
Danger Close
The northern tree line disappeared under the swarm.
The mortar teams received the call.
“Targets approaching friendly positions.”
The mortar commander looked at the map.
The distance was too close.
Danger close.
He looked at his crew.
“Fire.”
The first rounds landed.
The jungle shook.
Explosions ripped apart the infected mass.
Trees snapped.
Mud and debris flew into the air.
The second volley landed closer.
Then closer.
The soldiers could feel the shockwaves.
Every explosion bought them seconds.
Seconds they desperately needed.
—
The Alpha Attack
Then the Alphas reached the line.
They moved differently.
They did not run blindly.
They moved with purpose.
One jumped over the body of another infected and slammed into a defensive position.
A machine gun team fought at point blank range.
The gunner fired until the weapon jammed.
The assistant gunner grabbed his rifle.
The squad leader threw a grenade.
The explosion knocked the Alpha backward.
Another replaced it.
The soldiers fought like they were fighting the ocean.
Every time they pushed the water back, another wave arrived.
—
The Breaking Point
For thirty minutes, the line held.
Then forty.
The ammunition counts dropped.
The wounded increased.
The soldiers were exhausted.
A radio transmission came through.
“Charlie Three, report.”
Static.
Then:
“Still holding.”
Another message.
“Charlie Two?”
A pause.
“Still holding.”
The officers looked north.
The infected wave filled the jungle.
The battle seemed impossible.
Then the mortars fired again.
The heavy machine guns roared.
The rifles joined.
The entire defensive line fired as one.
The infected wave finally began to slow.
The front ranks collapsed.
The bodies piled higher.
The movement became weaker.
The jungle became quieter.
Then…
Nothing.
No screaming.
No gunfire.
No movement.
The soldiers waited.
Weapons raised.
Breathing hard.
Watching the trees.
The wave had stopped.
For the first time in hours…
The jungle was silent again.
But nobody celebrated.
Because every soldier knew the same thing.
Silence in the jungle did not mean the battle was over.
—
Clearing Operations
Bravo Companies moved through the facility.
They searched:
· Barracks
· Storage buildings
· Underground tunnels
· Research areas
KISA agents entered behind them.
They recovered:
· Computer systems
· Communications equipment
· Financial records
· Biological samples
· Santa Muerta operational documents
Several wounded Santa Muerta fighters were captured.
The facility was prepared for destruction.
Explosive charges were placed throughout the complex.
—
Extraction
As the sun lowered, commanders conducted accountability.
Dead.
Wounded.
Prisoners.
Equipment.
The brigade moved out.
The three battalions descended through Checkpoint Alpha.
TA-10 ambulances and TA-16 transports carried wounded and dead.
Soldiers walked.
Weapons ready.
Eyes scanning the jungle.
But the enemy was gone.
The march back was quiet.
Almost too quiet.
—
Return to the Fleet
The brigade established a defensive perimeter on the beach.
The Navy prepared withdrawal.
Helicopters recovered remaining troops.
Ships moved offshore.
From the command deck, General Yorensin Lihwa watched the jungle disappear behind them.
The mission was successful.
The Santa Muerta base was destroyed.
