The mission parameters changed immediately and the Nexus expeditionary force discarded the cautious approach for a haste that had been held back until now.
They hurried out the shell of Acadia, and immediately Edward directe his comrades to create a clearing amidst the field of corpses. Edward watched them work with a careful eye as he contacted the Nexus homeland. “Eva, note that the mission has changed to a likely rescue operation. Parameters and protocols are changed accordingly.” A glance to his side and Sarah was nodding her approval at him.
He thought he imagined concern underneath Eva’s monotone. “Acknowledged, Commander Edward. Expeditionary task force objectives have now changed, assessment limitations have been removed. Notifying Sev.”
With the clearing before him made, Sarah got to her private comms, likely to contact the occult department in Ix. The former Brotherhood Sentinel took out a small sack from her armor’s back storage, and emptied out the green Tiberium crystals within onto the ground as she spoke to someone on the other end..
“Right, the corpses are old and dessicated, so we can’t use blood. Bones work? Got it.” Sarah snapped up to bark out the inevitable order. “I need heads from the Children of Atom corpses. Better intact…” Everyone gazed at the battlefield, remembering how most of the cultists’ corpses have had their heads smashed in. “...or at least as whole as possible. Skin’s optional, but eyes are important.”
That narrowed the harvesting down. Edward and the others immediately went to work, picking up the rotting dead to tear off heads that meet the criteria. As everyone here had at least some lessons about the metaphysical, nobody asked how many heads would be needed. The bodies here were old, and like most other things, old and spoiling meant poor quality. And poor ingredients made for ineffective rituals. A group went back into the observatory with a car’s bonnet dragged along to pile the heads on.
As Acadia was filled with the sound of wet cracks and dull thumps of the Sardaukar plucking heads, Sarah Lyons finished up her ritual circle with the help of Nexus specialists.
“So, we’re since they’re considered enemies, ‘cha’q’ or ‘hzim-uf’? Right, will try that. Females, so…‘azeg’? Oh, male gaze, right. That makes sense. ‘Fqir-nzeg’ then…”
Tiberium crystals rested at the center to draw in the ambient metaphysical currents to amplify the rite, and the veteran warrior triple checked the wards and runes carved on the ground. They needed to act fast, so no mistakes were allowed or they’d waste precious time.
One hour in, and a mound of heads rose up behind Sarah. As she sorted through them over a separate appraisal glyph, Edward got on the line with Sev and filled him in. He could hear the ruler of the Nexus frowning on the other end.
“Good call. The eyebots are filtering through both natural and metanatural spectrums, your visors should get the overlay options soon, after the filters have been properly processed. The Kirov is also on standby in case you need it, you’ll get the calling codes for your beacons shortly.”
“Got it, Sev. Thanks.”
“Don’t thank me yet. It’s been months since the captives were taken.”
“I know,” Edward nodded grimly. “There might not be any synths left to save.”
“Or considering the eldritch bullshit present, saving them might mean shoving a Tiberium crystal into their hearts.”
“I…understand.” Edward didn’t like it, but Sev was right. If it was anything like the Faceless incident, mercy to any synth captives they found might mean a quick death.
A teleport beacon was set up shortly after the call, and a crate of Tiberium weapons materialized after a sharp crack of displaced air. After distributing the rifles, pistols and grenades, the white laser armaments were stuffed into the crate and teleported back to Caladan. Though they’d be sacrificing penetrative power for effectiveness against the eldritch, the prototype crystal spewing weapons were still deadly against mundane threats.
Back at the ritual circle, Sarah had arranged sixteen heads in a neat circle around her, synth blood sprinkled on each of them. Edward frowned, the scrying rite was iffy enough as it was, but having to use expired materials might screw up the results. And that’s assuming that using heads was the right call in the first place. Metaphysics was still so poorly understood that improvising new rites was a risky deal.
As the former Sentinel began chanting the right words, the rest of the expedition team readied their weapons on the off chance that things went wrong. Some not-too-subtle prayers to Sev were muttered, because at this stage they needed all the aid they could get.
Edward felt a chill run down his spine and the runes on his armor started to glow softly as the unnatural energies were drawn in. The air visibly darkened around Sarah, and there was a soft susurration seemingly from everywhere picked up by the helmet’s sensors. The patch of Tiberium crystals pulsed brightly and visibly grew in size as they absorbed the excess energies rushing into the ritual circle.
It took a long minute before Sarah’s unceasing chanting produced actual results. The heads within the ritual circle, and several more beyond it, levitated in the air. Wobbling a couple of feet above the ground, they began sizzling from the mouth and eye sockets, until electric fire burst out of those orifices and melted the flesh around them. And just like that It was over, the heads fell to the ground while the coalescing energies quickly evaporated away.
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Sarah dropped to her knees from the exertion, and after she waved everyone’s concern off, Edward then noted the fallen and burnt heads. Despite the violent bursts of energy, all of them landed on their necks, and all charred and melted eyes were turned towards the southwest. A good distance away from the supposed home base of the Children of Atom to the west.
“Well,” Sarah coughed as she caught her breath, “Either the captives are in there, or their corpses are.”
“Let’s go then.”
They moved on without waiting for the Sentinel swarm above the clouds to descend upon Acadia. One of the ritual heads was tied in rope and hung off Sarah’s belt. She brought it up every now and then, letting the dead cultist’s gaze lead the expedition. Occasionally they ran into the bloody remains of camps belonging to Trappers, the local name for raiders here. Some corpses were found, but now that everyone knew what to look out for, Edward noted with growing concern the lack of female corpses scattered around.
It took a couple of hours of light jogging before the expeditionary force encountered the enemy. A mob of glowing cultists shambled through the woods, rasping and growling rabidly. Edward did a quick headcount of the feral things before giving out the order.
“Melee only. Make it quick.”
The Nexus soldiers were outnumbered two to one, which made the clash last little over ten minutes. They struck into the glowing mob with a silent fury, slicing and hacking apart the shambling Children of Atom with contemptuous ease. Ribcages were crushed and heads were parted, and Edward did a quick status check before leading his team onwards. It didn’t take long for another horde to be encountered, this time right as they left the treeline and came into sight of the coast.
Combat this time lasted about seventeen minutes before the last sputtering cultist was decapitated.
“I got a feeling they know where we are,” Colin remarked as they spotted another wave of Atom worshippers converging towards them from all sides. Off in the distance, the silhouette of a ruined coastal town could be spotted. The majority of the cultists were streaming out from there, the glowing trail of lunatics tainting the surroundings green with their radioactive light.
“Could be the Fog,” Sarah answered as the team formed into a tight circle. “Using it like some sort of radar.”
Edward growled his annoyance. “Not important now. They’re surrounding us, so that’s making our jobs easier. Rifles out and start marking targets.”
As ordered, the troopers swapped blades for Tiberium rifles, forming a loose double-layered ring as they marked targets and took aim.
“We gotta make this fast,” Edward muttered before he switched to the helm’s speakers. The horde might be mindless ferals, but maybe whatever’s controlling them wasn’t. Which meant presentation points might count a bit. “Soldiers of the Nexus! In Sev’s name, erase these rad-suckers!”
A torrent of blue crystal shards poured out from the Nexus elite, mowing down the Children of Atom. The cultists tried breaking into a charge, but it only meant that their corpses fell several yards closer to the defensive ring. Edward kept track of his comrades’ disciplined bursts of fire, counting down until the sixty-round magazine was nearing depletion.
His rifle’s ammo counter reached thirty when the commander realized the mob had thinned down significantly. There were more rad-worshipers on their way though, judging from the glows from the forest.
“Breakthrough to the town!” he called out. “If the captives are there, we have to secure them!”
With a roar, the Nexus expeditionary force surged towards their target. Several members swapped rifles for pistols and blades, serving as the vanguard to cut a path through the glowing horde. The resistance was paltry, though Edward didn’t let that dull his caution. They made it to the town as dusk settled in, and found the place lousy with cultists. As half of the team set up a defensive line against the stream of mindless rad-worshipers, Edward led the other half to clear out the settlement.
The Children infesting the town obligingly poured out to meet them, and aided the quick securing of the town as a result. All that was left was a large brick building glowing sinisterly from the windows and doorways. The ritual head in Sarah’s hands kept its eyeless gaze onto the building as she did a quick scout of its perimeter. Breaching teams were formed at the entrances, and with a swift order the fifteen Nexus Sardaukar stormed the building.
They needn’t have bothered, as no opposition met them.
They did, however, find the poor captives, and several troopers had to hurriedly yank off their helmets before they vomited.