Chapter 6-172: A Portal to Damnation (1/2)
“They’ve set the town on fire!” Corporal Katherine Newton reported, seeing the rising flames and smoke that hadn’t been there moments before. The speed at which it was done made it plain it was premeditated and in position.
“Ignore the town, what we want is under the vortex.” Sama doubted anything was left alive in the town. “I imagine the entire town was a blood sacrifice for what they are doing.”
All the young women went silent, realizing they were up against something totally ruthless and uncaring of what it did to non-combatants. Their expressions hardened as they recalled stories of similar events they’d heard of as children... and more of them related to them as they went through Basic.
There were some foul, vile, and ruthlessly evil forces in their world, and someone had to fight them.
This time, that someone was them...
“The Rules of Engagement are to shoot everything that is not us. The enemy is Demonic. With both Ogres and Minotaurs, we are talking both Fey and Hag involvement. They will have sussed out every living thing in the city, and it is going to either be dead or under their complete mental domination. No matter what it looks like, you shoot it, kill it, and move on.”
They remembered vids of happy dogs blowing up like bombs, children pulling strings of grenades, American soldiers turned into glassy-eyed puppets shredding their friends and brothers-in-arms, suicide-detonating bombs and mines in the face of attackers, and the like.
Some of the examples came from video games, perhaps not surprisingly. It was the best way to expose people to some of the horrors that things like this did early. It wasn’t the same as seeing it in real life, of course, but at least they had some exposure.
“Expect illusions, possible shape-changers, demonfire, possibly undead, who knows. Prepare to shoot it all.
“Identification call-signs will be fruits, then vegetables.” Sama ignored the eyebrows being sent her way. “Response will have a letter lower than challenge. Don’t challenge with zucchini.” Smirks broke out behind her. “All right, my team will breach on the west, Team Two on the east. Meet on the south side of the vortex. Good luck.”
The replies were subdued as the two groups split wide. There were only two vehicles left in the convoy, and the blockade of stacked cars hurled into place at the edge of town assured them all that neither of the APC’s were going to make it very far.
That said, they still floored it as their summoners ordered, juking back and forth slightly to foil any grenades being sent out their way, while the real attacks were coming in from the sides.
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The magic swirling past her Null was like a thick and foul current, turgid with negative emotions and sin drawn down from the Hatecloud writhing above. Sama could sense the touch of Hag and Fey magic, and just shook her head.
What are these idiots planning?
The vortex was smack on the borderline, drawing energy from the artificial division in the land, the conflict of law vs natural order, and the Chaos unleashed when such things happened. Did the idiots really think they could suborn the natural order?
She wasn’t in any danger from the creatures that were here, of course, but she wasn’t about to tell the Karma-hungry Powered all fired up with vengeance in their smoke masks and ready to kill everything here that.
They all knew she was a badass, and if anything came into melee range of her directly, Tremble was out and singing softly, letting everyone know exactly where she was, including the enemy, and that she was still alive. They charged her, and she cut them down. They shot at her, and she shot back, and so did the young women behind her.
And, of course, she was Warlording them.
“Squad Four move your ass across that yard and give Three some cover fire! Two, drop that ogre! Warlocks coming in from two o’clock, get your damn guns in position! Espana, grenade under that truck, NOW!” CRUMP! Aie!... “Finish them! Squad One, RPG on the barricade right in front of that Bullhorn!” POOM! “Three, finish them!” Sergeant Gertrude led her platoon into the breach in a spray of cover fire.
Reports were singing out left and right as guns barked back and forth. The balefire that tended to accompany the enemy made them easy to pick out, if ferociously dangerous, and two or three hits was enough to kill the Threes following her without much trouble.
Reserves accompanying the rounds shooting back were fully capable of returning the favor, too, and the enemy didn’t have many solutions for Minor TK dropping a grenade in on their positions and popping the pin there.
The Fireball going off was an unwelcome addition, as were the screams accompanying it. The formerly invisible Witch was promptly filled full of holes, but the enemy was charging the wounded squad, aiming to kill them directly before they could be healed and recovered.
Sama covered a hundred yards in five seconds, and the attackers couldn’t help but whirl around when they heard the ominous two-tones coming for them. Trailing red and black Jotun-killing Banefire, she drove into the gleeful group of ogres ready to rape the women who had taken cover behind the brick wall, who were now scattered and dying in the garden beyond.
The ogres’ deep bellows of agony as she cut them down were quickly drowned out by Tremble’s condemning notes, and their stench was thankfully overwritten by the smoke around and kept away by her Vajra regardless.
Squad Four had Corporal Annabelle in it, who was a Healer. They came up into position, and gawked at the massive bodies in several parts scattered the road, Sama calmly catching a Warlock fifty yards away in the face with a bolt from her hand crossbow Fall, waiting for them to arrive.
Corporal Annabelle ignored everything else, quickly Stabilizing all of them with a Cantrip, and then starting her use of Healing Reserve. It wouldn’t restore their Soak, meaning they’d still be extremely vulnerable, not much tougher than any other human, but they’d at least still be able to fight.
The main road into town had been a disaster for the cultists, as the two APC’s had rammed into the barricade at full speed, to the utter astonishment of the defenders; avoided the RPG’s meant to take them out, and in doing so scattered the oversized ogres and their kin around.
A lot of gunfire had come together on the APC’s, but none were quite as effective as when the Phantom Servants pulled the cords on the claymores set onto the doors, and sent a whole lot of ball bearings in every direction while blowing the cabins apart, which really discomfited the creatures converging on them.