The hellpods slowly burned through thick layers of atmosphere descending onto Rirga Bay.
“Ready for a show, lads? Can't tarnish the golden boy reputation now.” Cynthia chimed in through the shaking of metal and the rumbling of the pod falling.
“Always am, kid.” Benjamin replied confidently.
“One they won’t soon forget.” O’Deorain’s answer carried the same energy.
Sebastian clutched Miku and stared down at her. The rapid slamming of 4 pods cracking the ground sounded. The young man took a deep breath. He too was ready.
The desaturated yellow green fog in the sky greeted them as they rose from the rocky crags below. Their filtration systems protected them from the toxins dormant in the fumes of the planet’s atmosphere The old structures of Super Earth origin still remained in the colony to the south, but the location had been completely overrun. Lights from the Illuminate ships and newly built hostile architecture glowed brilliantly from between the buildings. The town had been distorted and reimagined from what it once was. It was no longer a city of mankind, the acrid air and craggy cliffs now housing a wretched hive of scum and villainy.
“Blokes living here must’ve had a hard go of it, even before the calamari popped up.” Cynthia commented while everyone ordered their equipment from the Super Destroyer. “Don’t think I’d be chuffed to have a flat here, lads.”
“Perhaps we came out of season” O’Deorain spoke stoically.
“I’ve heard it’s lovely in the spring.” Benjamin replied facetiously.
Their supplies landed loudly and in rapid succession, tearing through the quiet pervading the planet. Pelican 1 arrived as well, providing the team with a construction grade FRV.
“We know the plan, just stick together if things go sideways.” sergeant John said as the team of soldiers equipped their specialized gear.
Cynthia equipped her reliable autocannon while her eyes silently judged her squad’s loadout. It was befuddling to see the Defoliator, but she didn’t have the luxury nor the authority to be doubting her superior’s weaponry.
It was a short moment before the FRV’s wheels were spinning and the four of them set off into the streets. Sebastian looked up at the Illuminate monolith towering above the buildings, the unnatural frequencies mixed with the alien colors of Rirga Bay for a kaleidoscopic show of lights as they approached. It was as if the Illuminate had taken over the sky itself.
“Take out the warp ships. Move through and move out.” Benjamin said as they slowed to a stop. “And…”
“Stick together, yeah, I won’t be far, old chap.” Cynthia said with a cheeky grin, disembarking and scampering off.
Sebastian made eye contact with the sergeant and nodded. Then he followed suit and hopped out of the vehicle. Benjamin sighed, then he and O’Deorain stepped out.
“Don’t worry, sergeant.” The Truth Enforcer said with a silent smile. “I’ll keep an eye on them.”
“Something’s off.” Benjamin spoke in a near whisper. He looked to the amalgamated sky. Illuminate reinforcement ships were floating down towards them already.
“Bloody hell, made already.” Cynthia scoffed while inputting codes. “Well it looks like the kids come out to play early.” Swiftly, two sentry beacons were laid on the rubble of the streets.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here.” Benjamin sounded irritated as he led the team further south.
“Not to worry, old bean, nothing a little artillery won’t fix.” Cynthia said with a laugh skipping off.
Just down the road, the warp ships hovered above, beaming down a wall of hostile flesh and tech. Harvesters began to advance along with the waves of voteless, but were met immediately by Cynthia’s sentries. Gas mortars pelted the zombified mass and scattered the individuals, laying them bare for the machine gun fire from her other machine. Bodies crumbled and spattered in the street even before the artillery began to rain down. A gatling and 120MM shell barrage rained down. The squad had already dashed away, but the Harvesters were lucky and resilient enough to keep up their pursuit.
Young Sebastian had gone unnoticed while placing his sentry protectors. Any stragglers were burnt to a crisp by the fire officer’s Cremator. His frantic eyes darted from target to target as they smouldered. Their deadly assault combined to halt the Illuminate approach for the moment, but more were already on the way.
Voteless herded by Overseers and others, simply drawn by the clamor of gunfire, poured in from the side streets. They met with the sergeant in the alleys. They met their end one by one. Necks were snapped with one arm. Leg bone crushed under boot. One skull after another shattered and scattered across the pavement. Pop. Pop. Benjamin’s Eruptor rang out between kills. gyrojet rounds fragmenting the approaching amalgamations of flesh with shrapnel. Overseers among them were bisected by the rotating blade of his chainsaw. The slaughter was quick, merciless and efficient.
“Oi Benny, you ever consider becoming a butcher?” Cynthia called out to the sergeant in a wry tone.
“Not much since they let me out.” He chuckled in response. The team funneled towards the monolith and into the hostile fortifications. Cynthia took the front and Sebastian held up the rear.
O’Deorain took to the air with their jump pack and strategically positioned themselves for the best vantage on both ally and enemy alike. Their AMR, Censor and Stim pistol, all would hit their target with surgical precision. The remaining few Overseers that led the crowds were executed unceremoniously before they could even scream in protest. Aerial support obliterated the alien’s entrenched spawners with a 500 kg explosive on the Truth Enforcer’s mark.
“Sebastian!” The sergeant yelled out as he spotted the remaining foes.
Light cascading from the massive explosion illuminated the two Harvesters’ towering bodies and cast a shadow over Sebastian. They threatened him from both sides of the dilapidated intersection he found himself in. His legs took him as quickly as they would carry him. Burning blue beams scorched through the ochre fog from the creatures’ eyes. The young soldier ducked and slid forward, barely avoiding certain doom as the deadly lasers crossed in a white hot convergence above his head. Benjamin staggered them with covering fire from his Eruptor while O’Deorain nailed high caliber rounds from their AMR into the Harvesters’ legs. In seconds the beasts were slain and they had the clearance to move forward. The Truth Enforcer moved close to check on their subordinate as a crimson glow dissipated from their visor.
“Are you alright?” O’Deorain questioned the trembling soldier with a calm tone, wrapping him in their dark cape and applying a soothing stim. He took a deep breath and regained his composure, then responded with a firm nod. “Good, let’s go.”
“Where’s Mannington?” Benjamin called out and searched for his teammate but she was gone.
Cynthia had dashed around through colony alleys and planted another machine gun sentry behind in a bid to ensure that the path would stay clear for them to finally advance on the courtyard with the monolith. Satisfied with her work in protecting their flank, she turned the corner to return to the rest of her squad. She was met face to face with a hulking amalgam of reanimated corpses. Adrenaline filled her system as she roared at the abomination, drawing her serrated shovel and begging to bash on the behemoth before her. Despite the blue viscera scattering across the concrete of the corridor, the Fleshmob stood strong against the onslaught. But before she could find any reason to fear a counter attack she could see the trembling in the monster’s body as the butcher’s whirring blade met with the creature’s back. The two of them ripped and tore into the thing until it was nothing more than a congealed pile of gore and pity at their feet. They looked at one another from across the carnage.
“I’m sorry, kid, it looks like I underestimated you.” Benjamin said, stretching a hand out to his teammate to climb over the body. “It won’t happen again.”
“No worries, old bean.” Cynthia said with a smirk. “We can’t all have perfect judgement."
Covered in cerulean viscera from the close combat, the two of them regrouped with O’Deorain and Sebastian. They moved quickly towards the monolith towering just before them. Illuminate fodder continued to drip in from the unseen crevices and alleys of the colony.
O’Deorain and Benjamin saw a route through the wreckage surrounding the construct. The Truth Enforcer nodded and took to the air towards the monolith, Hellbomb beacon in hand.
“Mannington, move forward and clear us a path. O’Deorain’s arming the Hellbomb, we gotta move quick.” The sergeant shouted, grappling with a voteless before snapping its spine backwards at the hip and folding it over.
“Roger that, Cap’n.” The engineer replied confidently, leaving the demolition of the mind control structure to the enforcer.
Sebastian lingered behind, the smell of burning flesh following them as they seared the voteless to ash. The explosive’s timer began to tick. O’Deorain was already gone, caught up to Cynthia.
“Sebastian move!” Benjamin yelled before an Overseer’s staff crashed into the back of his head. He turned to his attacker, unmoved by the strike. The sergeant thrust his chainsaw into the Overseer’s gut and split it open upwards, its arms each falling in different directions. He turned in time to see Sebastian’s silhouette against the Hellbomb’s tremendous explosion as he sprinted outside of the danger zone. They both breathed a sigh of relief. “C’mon kid, let’s get going. The fight’s just starting.”
