"Mono/Dialogue"
'Inner thoughts'
Narration
[Message/communication apparatus]
Date: November 1091
Location: Kazimierz
POV: Narrator
The vilge is in chaos as militias haste to all pre-determined defensive lines to support and hold the fort. Experienced vilgers, especially Veterans of 72’s War, man the defenses to suppnt the faltering militia against overwhelming numbers. Despite years of restoration and recovery plus immigration, Wdirosa’s popution has barely reached 3000 people for the st decade or so, with more than 200 or so being orphans and less than 5% being inducted into the local militias.
Wdirosan militias could be considered a step above the standard army, courtesy of Nyx, who spared no expense in the name of defense. Cd in heavy shock troopers armor, which would make even Victorian green envious, and armed with towering shields plus repeating arbalest, each cost 10 times as much as a standard crossbow, and they could provide a withering amount of barrage under extreme stress. Their heavy equipment came at the cost of being forced to mostly hold their ground as trenches and bunkers unfolded from their idyllic camoufge.
All in all, less than a fifth of avaible manpower is combat-capable and presents a potent strategic reliability as a reserve. Unfortunately, it came at the cost of potentially exposing a rge chunk of Wdirosan to harm. To lose them would be a severe blow to both morale and the vilge’s function. It also presented another yer of problem as mortar rounds were seemingly aimed towards the orphanage. A very bold and stupid idea, but perhaps the knowledge of Nyx being left unable to act made those wretchs bold.
Factors aside, the suddenness and synchronicity of this attack left the beleaguered defenders reeling from shock and reacting slowly; putting up many rescue operations and keeping enemies at bay with limited manpower is not easy. Outsiders and merchants caught in the crossfire were immediately guided to many underground shelters and fortified dwellings by vilgers or any militias left within the innermost sector.
Cordelian PMCs sped past into the chaotic farmnd under mortar fire and arrows or bolts whizzing by. A team of a single all-terrain armored vehicle is escorting one transport truck capable of hauling up to 2 tons of cargo. The PMCs are watching with grim expressions as their foes seemingly trudge without a shred of self-preservation.
[Dragoon 1 to all units, keep them at bay! Prioritize rescuing non-combatants and deliver them to the shelter! Use your weapon and munitions liberally; we have them for a reason, and we cannot disappoint Nyx.]
[Dragoon 2 here! We managed to evacuate the eastern windmill, but we found multiple K.I.A and dozens of injured vilgers! We can’t haul them, so we are dismounting and commencing a fighting retreat!]
[Dragoon 3 got our side secured. We are coming in to assist Dragoon 2! Hold on tight; our ETA is five mikes!]
[Dragon 4 had failed extraction! I repeat, we had failed! We are loading up the corpses back to the vilge! There are 20 or 30 of them… Oh, God… we failed… Fuck it all! Caster! Spull up the Arts Repeater and bst these sons of bitches to hell! Driver, get to the vilge and bring those remains with you, we’ll show these bastards what we are made of!]
The turret operator, Arts Casters with above-average potential, began firing with all they had as this seemingly maddened bandits charging forth while blissfully ignoring their own injuries. Turrets are configured either into a form best suited to repel indirect fire or shaped to conventional auto-casters and firing until Originium starts growing on the barrel.
Few were modified to be highly sophisticated blunderbuss, spewing shrapnel and pellets that tore through bodies with ease. Yet that is not enough, more of these unknown lunatics keep surging through the tree line. Drones above armed with Originium weapons spent their ammunition at record speed while those configured with sawing bdes were getting stuck upon many bodies.
[This is Jan to Dragoon 4, calm down! Focus on saving those vilgers! You can get your vendetta ter, do you read me?! We have a lot of people outside defensive rings, and we need you to save them!]
[But sir- …]
[I beg you, not as your superior but as the Vilge Chief, please save them! These people had done no wrong, and they are suffering out there!]
[… Copy that! Fuck, Dragoon 4 is reorienting back to rescue operation! Caster, conserve ammo until we need more of those things.]
Vilgers outside the confine of the vilge watch their vehicles as rallying beacons. Larger trucks were soon filled by vilgers, and several near misses were prevented by automatic interception turrets, but they were running dry much faster. To extend their range, these turrets aren’t firing Originium bullets but, instead, a fin-stabilized canister carrier that has been calibrated by computers.
Nyx substituted the ck of gunpowder propelnt by generating force itself through Arts. Instead of using Originium to propel force, Nyx made it so Originium particles would coagute and expel the explosion. It is a very, very crude mass driver with not even 1/25 of its supposed speed or an over-engineered ballista, but it is more than enough when their duty is interception. Arts devices she had plundered from her work in Leithanien made a great source for it, but it came at a cost.
[Turret 1 through 4 had overheated! We are unable to keep the reactor stable, and the Originium spread has been detected! Personnel close to said towers must evacuate immediately or face a dire Originium explosion!] Those near turret 1 through 4 immediately vacated the trenches and headed deeper into the underground bunker or put as much distance as possible.
[Turret 5 had been destroyed! We had detected a sharp decrease in defensive integrity all across sectors! Enemy counterfires were hereby presumed effective! Proceed to the bunker and hold the fort! Don’t let them breach into the vilger!]
[We have no idea who the hell these guys are! No marking and no symbols!] One of them shouted to the comms link. He peered down his scope and squeezed the trigger to riddle a foe with eight bolts before they stopped moving. His heart clenched, seeing it took three bolts to the head to sy them, and there are many more.
[Our perimeters patrol? What the hell happened to them?]
[God fucking dammit, just what the hell is happening?!]
[We lost contact before the first bombardment, and we will have to deem them KIA.]
Mortars filled with crude Originium payloads are raining down on the vilge. Livestock that weren’t evacuated in time were sughtered in droves while fowl beasts took flight away from the vilge.
[They are targeting houses and warehouses! Get some casters or whoever to blow those damn mortars out of the sky!]
[Don’t ask for the impossible; focus on keeping them at bay and pray to whatever you believe in!]
[This is Western Defense Corridor, we sighted a surge of caninebeasts and fangbeast barreling down on us! They shrug off our shots and keep on moving. We are burning through munitions!]
[We cannot hold, I repeat! We cannot hold this many enemies by ourselves! Our line is being stretched thin!]
These creatures waded through the farmnd, using the taller wheat and general chaos to infiltrate deeper inside Wdirosa. As a defensive measure, the farmnd had been rigged to be set abze when compromised. That’s what the militias exactly do, but these creatures fight through the fme without fear. What emerged from the sea of bzing fire were nightmarish creatures of bckened skin and charred meat.
Some of them immediately died soon after, but not all were heavily injured. One of the militias was tackled by a group of them, ripping through the armoring even if these beasts injured themselves in the process. Luckily, their teammates were nearby and handily dispatched the rabid beasts with haste.
Unfortunately, the victim was still heavily brutalized, and their protection gears were only capable of lessening suffered damages to a limit. Reports regarding this unknown’s coordinated and synchronized assaults from multiple fronts piled up faster than what the central commanding force could realistically handle and spare manpower to solve this ever-growing chaos and destruction.
With militias finding themselves fighting off beasts amidst their ranks, and on top of defending the vilgers, many buildings were left ransacked and destroyed. Larger specimens took their time in colliding with pilrs, walls, and many other infrastructures. They took a keen interest in power lines and generators, setting a whole block abze with Originium dusting the air.
Even under this harsh condition, the militia stops caring about their wellbeing. If they’re infected, so be it, but no way in hell will they allow these creatures to run roughshod and amok unchecked.
Turrets meant to intercept mortars are forcefully reoriented to take care of encroaching beasts. For all their seeming ck of intelligence, the intruders appear to prioritize attacking softer and more vulnerable targets. There are cases where a group of fangbeasts already in the process of tearing a militia to shred suddenly changed target when an unfortunate vilger passed by.
Screams and agonized pleas were drowned under half a dozen razor-sharp maws ripping flesh to shreds. This enraged a lot of militias, infusing them with an ever greater zeal to repel what amounts to an invasion all by themselves. Great their zeal as is, no amount of indomitable spirit can plug the breaking down defenses
Drones are crisscrossing the sky, desperately pushing their Originium engine and weapon to its very limits. The Drone Command and Control center is utterly overwhelmed by the scale of this attack.
Their attention was focused upon Ursus' armies massing along the border, which is understandable after Silvernce shared the intel. Their focus ended up biting them back, with the vilge stretched thin and communication down.
[This is Dragoon 1! We got so many of them on our asses, and there are still too many vilgers outside! We are being stretched thin and overrun! Fuck! What the hell’s wrong with these people?!]
Cordelian PMCs performed a fighting retreat with a thin line of them forming a shield wall as these lunatics crashed upon them. Subpar equipment can be more than dangerous if brought to bear with enough quantity and quantity they have. The only reason they managed to hold them off would be the primitive exoskeleton embedded into the armor’s leg, providing extra footing against the cascade of flesh and fearless men.
They don’t linger for long, when vilgers are secured inside the trucks, they immediately retreat and keep on thinning out what appears to be thousands of attackers. Such a sheer scale of the attack is unfathomable, and no one knows how many had congregated beneath notices. Many suspect that the attack had been pnned long before execution, but now is not the time to entertain hypotheticals.
As far as facts go, these bandits are more than just bandits. They act like zombies, and they clearly have limited intellect and an ungodly resilience compared to the common Terran, which is already quite a resilient people. Outlying rescuers are being forced to stand their ground while wounded vilgers limped back to the vilge.
There should have been enough vehicles, but enemy mortars made it difficult to make a straight delivery and transport. Casualties started mounting, mostly from the PMCs side, who were forced to fight against overwhelming odds.
[Stay calm! The Silvernce will enter the fray after they finish off whatever obstacle they encounter! Just focus on saving the vilgers, we have enough supplies to weather any further assault as long as we can keep them at bay.] Jan keeps barking his commands through what’s left of the commanding net. His heart was gripped with weariness from how well-coordinated this attack was.
Adeptus came to mind if he judged from well-coordinated was the surprise attack. It doesn’t have to be the organization proper but the fringe factions with ambitions of what they think is right. He had heard whispers of rebellion to overturn the unwful rules of thieving businessmen or merchants’ dominions and their petty mercantile policies. The Chief can’t understand such people, change happened because the nobles could be no different than these so called thieves.
Jan began suspecting K.G.C.C. behind this attack. He had been dealing with them, and they were quite the unpleasant bunch using predatory tactics to force him to sign an agreement. When they heard of the burgeoning industry of this vilge, they pressed and pressured him to allow investments. Nelka had been instrumental in stifling them, and he had politely but firmly rejected such offers. It won’t be strange that the more shortsighted members finally ran out of patience, but he can’t endorse that idea either.
His mind raced on what or which other faction had made such a boneheaded move to attack with such precision and willingness. Even if Nyx lost a lot of her influence just for being under suspicion, this much preparation and manpower to pool their resources on what could amount to angering Nyx… Unless…
‘Could it be that neither K.G.C.C. nor Adeptus is behind this attack? There must be something else afoot, but I don’t know who.’ That brought his mind to a series of theories. Nyx has a lot of enemies, but she has too many shields in the form of people who will eagerly ‘bail’ her out when she gets into trouble. She made herself cheap but too useful, so each controversy would be a double-headed sword.
Conversely, with her shields gone, those same enemies can overwhelm her like no other. She will be hard-pressed to protect anyone since she is only one person and can only exist in one pce at a time. The nature of her work and assignment in the Catastrophe Messenger prevents her from being physically present during many situations.
Once such a situation would be when a Catastrophe struck the vilge and left 1/5 contaminated, it was hard work on his part to sell the contaminated ground to wandering mining companies and mobile cities. Those had taken a lot of glimpses at what they truly saw of Wdirosa and how quickly the vilge could urbanize. It is not out of the question that someone high up the chain wishes to see the vilge fall.
That, however, is not logical. K.G.C.C. will throw tantrums against the perpetrators no matter how disunited the members are, and Adeptus will hunt the provocateurs to the very end. He held the direr thoughts away; his vilge needs him, and he will do his best.
Silvernces had mustered out of their barracks, just 6 of them is a staggering detachment for this vilge, but they too are having problems from crazy bandits throwing themselves at these elite knights with wave after wave of them. They intended to help the outying evacuation by utilizing their guerril training in practical application and began picking off enemies from afar with their Arts or performing lightning-fast strikes before retreating, or so that was the pn.
This set of lunatics' faces is horribly mutated with Originium rocks and crystallized skin that appears to mimic armor. Their effectiveness is dubious at best, and that was a puzzling part. Not mentioning a risk of Originium infection via contaminated dust. Nyx had assured and shared her skill in combating this type of foes.
Their bdes, nces, and maces began pulverizing any that dared to stand in their way in due time, and their art power is the pinnacle of might that Kazimierz has to offer. Each Silvernce is an army of their own, but they can only cover so much ground by their lonesome, and for all their martial might, it still quite a lot of work to cut a hill's worth of grass with a sharp but small scythe.
“Sir Liam!” A Silvernce called out to their de facto commanding officer. His nce speared through three bodies, with one having their heart crushed, before flinging them away. He grits his teeth as these abominations stand up and approach in their ungainly gait.
“Speak briefly!” Liam’s bde cut through 7 foes with ease, but even such a magnificent stroke of his bde had failed to fall them swiftly, his face scowled and disgust made palpable.
The disemboweled body cwed on the earth, eyes manic, breathing rough, swinging their weapons without rest, and trudging with the bloodied body until the st embers of their maddened light were extinguished.
“We are dealing with an unknown force, and Kazimierz must be alerted to its existence!”
“We would have done so if not for the jamming!” He dodged a rabid Terran, seemingly a votive too, he watched as its body jerked and spasm unnaturally and continued the assault. Liam merely dispatched the abomination with a clean diagonal swing, tearing muscle to sinews and flesh to bones.
They would have gotten out by now if not for the unrelenting rain of mortars. One of the SIlvernce was smmed against the wall but managed to stand upright and continue fighting. These lunatics are here to keep them busy, and their unknown support raining down the fire made the whole mess even worse.
“Get to the vilge now! We’ll handle this side!” A pair of Silvernces cut open a path with their greatsword and war give, respectively. Blood and flesh were torn while Liam brute forced his way forth.
His feet crash on the earth, and he breezes past through waves of dead meat along the way. He was forced to suffer some hits, but nothing he can’t shrug off with his armor, natural toughness, and skill as Kazimierz’s finest.
Outside the camp, Liam watched in horror as the battlefield erupted all over the vilge, this is beyond the scale of their defensive pn. They can see fields of fire and explosions of Originium rounds blooming around the earth. Militias, Vilgers, and PMCs are fighting bravely, but their foes are simply too numerous, and the severity of the surprise attack was the real problem.
Thankfully, not everything is falling apart. Battle lines of wagons and vehicles are being made into makeshift barricades.
He and Jan had concocted pns ranging from refuting either modestly sized bandits to stupid for their good or the projected Ursine invasion amassing in the border, which amounted to full evacuation and fighting retreat. He held no illusion that Ursus nd battleships could simply trample the vilge, and thus, they had been stockpiling vehicles for evacuation.
None of them know just how severe are the attack, only that these foes are capable of overwhelming them with number and coordination. They had imagined this sort of scenario where the vilge would be completely isoted. Nyx has an extreme penchant for the vilge's safety, and ideas of her being negligible shouldn’t be possible unless their enemies are not just from the outside but from the innermost section of this country. No matter, it appears that having Nyx around had made them blind and filled with hubris, they had been so used to her guidance and protections that once crisis hit, they fumbled.
Liam held himself from cursing up a storm and pushed his mighty body to its very limit. His armor began to crack under the pressure of his speed, and he wouldn’t dare to spare anything less. Along the way, he helped PMCs locked in combat and forced to stand their ground while civilians were frantically mounting up the transport.
The Silvernce Captain knows that the situation will only worsen, and the likelihood of commencing total evacuation is inching closer and faster.
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Away from the chaos unfolding around the vilge, a group of unknown individuals are making their way towards the secluded home to nurse infected children. They are cd in Knightly armor, but that can’t be right, especially when they act so suspiciously. It was made more apparent that they were carrying suspicious and conspicuous sets of support equipment such as wiring and tools, canisters for liquid in all shapes, and even some Originium explosives.
They briefly paused, seeing the pce retively deserted. Few thoughts that when push comes to shove, and the vilge being a more logical point for protection, no one will vouch for the infected despite the vilge's perceived inclusivity. No one cared about that; they were here for a mission, and it shows.
Their scanners show that there was no sign of drones or other automated defense system. Their equipment had been bought from the Bck Market in Sargon, a nexus of many Columbian and Bolivarian equipment when cash is of no issue.
Creeping past the scant barbed wire and defensive measure, they got ever closer to the isoted, towering building. One of the masked people noticed that the windows had been boarded and strengthened, which certainly invoked a feeling of unease among them.
When they spotted a surveilnce camera, it was immediately destroyed, but not before ‘accidentally’ showing the Adeptus symbol. With the surveilnce taken care of, the group is being broken into three squads of 8 men, each tasked with checking and searching three floors. Before they entered, the squads were stacked on their respective breaching point.
[Remember, keep a clear channel in our communication. The informant leaked that the convoy heading out to Kawalerielki does not contain Nyx’s adopted daughter, but I don’t buy it.] They turned towards their squadmates.
[So, what’s the update from another team? Have they proven what’s inside that convoy’s cargo?] They communicate using internal channels, and their voice is scrambled. This whole mess appears less and less of a mere attack.
[Just in time, Sir, we got an update from the decoy pursuit team. They are locked in a three-way battle with Cordelia PMCs and an unknown but Ursine-armed group. The battle has been going in our favor, but it will take time to check the truth on our informant.]
[Well, that’s just wonderful.] With that settled, the squads begin their breach. Subdued explosions were further drowned by the sound of combat. Whether the defenders gave any sort of response can be an indication of QRF heading their way and the state of the battle.
Checking the lower floor, this infiltration squad noticed that many of its rooms were well-stocked, as per leaked intelligence. There are still quite some valuable appliances and other useful tools lying around. None tried to loot anything, wary of any potential booby trap or transmitter that might be following them.
Two detached from themselves and explored through rooms to perhaps find something noteworthy. They checked the bedrooms and found that every single one was empty, quite the revetion because their informants confidently stated infected children that stayed here never go below three people.
Their minds failed to comprehend that ordinary non-infected had tried to evacuate them simply because prejudice shouldn’t be so easily dispelled just because a slightly strong woman can bend the words of others or their behavior through her sets of guile and violence. Finding nothing noteworthy, they regrouped and proceeded further.
The second floor is simirly deserted and perhaps even tidier and cleaner than the previous one. The quad swept from one room to the next and found nothing as usual. No infected, and none of the caretakers. It goes the same for the third and upward floors, just emptiness without any occupants.
Frustrated or perhaps pressured by the ck of progress, the teams spread out to leave no stone unturned. They used their tools and weapons to smash on the walls after being given a clear ahead by their detectors, ripping up bedding and flipping through wardrobes, and even ripping the attics and ceiling for anything noteworthy, the group grows increasingly desperate based on their movements.
They found an object of note at st: beneath the receptionist's table is a hidden passageway that can be traversed by a foldable dder. Not far from them would be on the wall, an elevator shaft leading further beneath the earth was found but they can’t find the elevator.
Left with no other choice, a squad explored through the narrow passageway. As per usual, the drone came in first, followed by a crossbow-wielding intruder. With limited time and resources, most of the squads focus on clearing nearby rooms on the topside and establishing observation posts for the battle unfolding.
It takes them less than a minute to reach a clearing. A hallway big enough for a military APC to pass through. The squad looked around and realized that this was an underground facility. This unknown pce infused a healthy dose of caution and fear, the vilge just became even more inscrutable regarding its true nature.
This pce could be a mustering ground for soldiers or perhaps other military facilities such as storage. The idea of Nyx being a ruthless woman logically goes in line with their perceptions to shield military facilities with notably less important infected. It is also a clever idea, for if they just destroy the entire building, this facility will remain unknown and protected from severe damage or outright destruction.
After finding a door to an underground bunker, they use military or industrial explosives to pry them open. Patiently stacking on the side, this bunker was pried open with haste, and still, there was no sign of any defensive measures being triggered. Proceeding further, a catacomb of many sealed rooms was identified with status of either [Vacant] or [Utilized] etched on them.
One of them snapped their eyes towards many discarded fabrics already contaminated with Originium. Dress, shirts, pants, and hospital gowns are neat, as contaminated objects as it is possible, folded and not incinerated. Elsewhere, scanning by their drones is still ongoing, and this stretch of hallway is seemingly going on and on endlessly. Signal starts to get worse, too, implying they are getting deeper underground.
The scouting drone peered deeper past these discarded clothes and found itself staring at stacks upon stacks of caskets. Each is etched with a name, race, and sigils of a runic origin. A quick scan was performed, and more than 400 of such caskets are being stockpiled here. This did not turn out as they expected, and some began harboring deep suspicions about whether their intel was accurate. The squad leader dispatched a runner back to the surface, they will need direction on what to do with this finding.
[END OF CHAPTER]
Author’s Note:
Yo there, this is me, myself, and I, the author who seems to be drowning in pain.
I don’t know what to say here other than affirming that, yes, we won’t be seeing Margaret win the championship. Her victory is a foregone conclusion, and she is much stronger already.
First update this month.
Ciao
