Sarah stood at the edge of the observation deck of Kirov, looking down at the broken wasteland and the ruined city that was coming into view. Hazy trails shot out below her as the boys and girls of 1st Company gave their armors’ new upgrade a try. The miniature anti-grav suspensors allowed Sardaukar armor limited flight capabilities, and theoretically would serve very well as a means of aerial insertion.
Edward and his gang of fanatics would be testing that theory today as they dove into the raider-controlled zones of Philadelphia. The other Companies would be landing via Quetzals to join the newest form of ‘Steel Rain’. Sarah couldn’t help but frown as she stared at the city and simulated the coming invasion in her head. 1st Company would take out major strongholds, with 2nd and 3rd flying in to secure smaller contested sites, and 4th would be spread out to secure the civilian settlements.
Planning-wise it was about the same as every other settlement so far, with the exception of the lack of robot support. This would be the first all-human operation in a while. Some eldritch signatures were detected so 1st Company went out first to test the waters, but Sarah truly worried for the greener 4th, and still had some reservations about elements in the 2nd and 3rd.
Hopefully there’d be nothing today to result in the Nexus’ first court-martial.
Turning away and heading back to the tactical hologram, Sarah watched as the blips of 1st Company landed in their assigned areas, while eyebots streamed a birds-eye view of the rapid assault on various screens. The troopers were settling just for melee weapons, stabbing and punching and kicking the raiders into submission. No kills, because Edward kept everyone to a certain standard, but there were plenty of crippled foes to feed Blacksite Tleilax.
Combat was over in mere minutes and as the raider encampments were cleared out, Sarah sent out the signal to launch the Quetzals for the other Companies. The stealthed Quetzals did their job handing the initiative to the Nexus, allowing the troops to strike at maximum potential or literally get the jump on the enemy.
Squads interfered with turf wars and skirmishing raiders to quickly bring Nexus order to the untamed city, while the raider infested airport was cleared out by a full platoon from the 3rd. Garrisoned ruins, ramshackle checkpoints, waterside outposts, all were swept through and snuffed out. A decent percentage of captives were taken overall, as these soldiers operated with more common survival sense than those of Sev’s Own. Sarah was happy enough that the troopers operated at the efficiency she had expected of them. Kills or not, they didn’t dally around too much and were all soon moving out to clean out the rest of Philadelphia.
Several elements from the 4th took part in aiding beleaguered caravans and settlers, introducing these wastelanders to the Nexus in a highly impactful way. Sarah watched the screens intently as the soldiers of the company went about assuring and providing aid to the locals. Most of the good will was earned by healing guns undoing severe wounds, though some starving villagers all but threw themselves at a squad when food and water were handed over.
Things were proceeding as planned, so Sarah let the mortal soldiers of the Nexus do their jobs for the day. Sentinels and Strigoi would make their appearances tomorrow, freeing up the manpower to back up the 1st as they scouted out potential eldritch sites.
It turns out, after rumor gathering from the grateful locals, that the most prominent site of eldritch interest was one that was well known to nearby settlers and even raiders as being haunted. Supposedly, some sort of mutant abomination dwelled along with the ghouls in the naval yard, and scavenger teams never returned from the place.
*****
They encountered their first centaurs today, and to everyone’s credit the sighting only slightly freaked out the hardened veterans of 1st Company. They were hideous abominations, to be sure, but after the mental scarring from Far Harbor, these over mutated souls were as terrifying as a B-grade horror monster. And much simpler to deal with too. Oh sure, they’d be utterly lethal to anyone out of Sardaukar armor, but the deformed, lumpen mass walking on too many arms were utterly harmless after Edward ripped out their tongues and broke their limbs.
The floaters were a bit more of a bitch to deal with, Edward felt, as the hovering wormy things were so flimsy that shooting them down risked collateral damage. Nobody liked using their jump jets just to catch and dispatch the living sacs of air, but even a short burst of T-shards would leave little worth studying for the scientists back in Ix.
For better or for worse, none of these new encounters were eldritch enough to light up the runes in his helmet. Edward liked to think that it’s for the better. It could mean that whatever metanatural source was dormant and undisturbed. Hopefully.
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Overall, the infiltration into the vast naval shipyard had gone about as the commander expected. The feral ghouls here looked far worse than anything the troopers had seen, showing tumors and unnatural bone growth, but they were still no harder to deal with. A quick check with the scientists suggested that it could be due to FEV poisoning, which then made everyone in 1st Company double-checking their suits’ integrity. Healing arches or not, nobody wanted to experience any unnecessary mutations any time soon.
As platoons fanned out to cover the massive area, they found the wreck of ships washed aground or sunk by their docks. One particularly large vessel flopped over on the broken concrete ground was causing the hazard readings to ping loudly for anyone getting too close to it. Why a ship was filled with FEV Edward didn’t know, but he chalked it up to typical old-world stupidity. Thankfully, the glowing ship wasn’t the source of metanatural energy, so he tagged the place for the robots to handle later and ordered the troops to continue their sweep.
More euthanized ghouls and crippled abominations later, Edward was called over to a port office building. The platoon commander, Allie, sounded alarmed enough that he pulled in several more squads to converge on the position. Inside a weather damaged, nondescript building, Edward met Allie and her squad outside what should be a janitor’s closet, where a false vent on the floor was opened up to reveal a dead terminal. The floor itself was missing, giving way to a steep staircase down into some unlit underground area. A layer of dust told him that the place had been undisturbed for a long time.
Edward noted the runes in his helm, which were glowing a little the moment he entered the building. He squatted down by the stairs, and the runes became noticeable brighter.
“Well, there goes ghost ships or cults,” he remarked with a sigh and some forced levity. “Anyone bet on underground bases?”
After posting a squad to guard the hidden entrance, the rest of the naval yard was sept through, just to make sure no further secret entrances were found. With nothing else of note, and no further signs of eldritch presence, the whole company returned to the entrance to the underground.
A teleport beacon was placed just outside the building, straws were drawn to decide who would stand guard, and the whole company began their cautious descent into the darkness, their visor’s thermal overlays giving each trooper’s head a green glow until their stealth suites activated.
Edward led from the front, wanting to make sure he would see with his own eyes what he’d be putting into his reports. After exiting the stairs, he found a long, not too narrow tunnel that sloped downwards, keeping parallel along the river if he got his directions right. A glance up at the rounded ceiling and the commander found that the lights were all blown out. One quick check later, and Sylvie confirmed that the wiring was still live, so there was a generator somewhere down there that was still running.
The tunnel began turning and winding uninterrupted as they continued on, and they eventually came across a large, rusted blast door. The runes were glowing bright enough that Edward and the others had to override the brightness to avoid squinting too hard past the distraction. “Final weapons check,” he ordered, and waited for everyone’s reply before he got a couple of them to open the door. It took a bit of finessing, but eventually the door’s terminal was working and a quick hack later the massive metal slab grinding slowly down into the ground.
Warm, orange light spilled out, revealing a cavernous room ringed by six levels of catwalks. Data banks and unidentified boxy machines clung to the walls of every level, while a circular plate occupied the center of the vast room’s ground level. The hazardous warning pinged again as ambient FEV levels were higher than safely normal. Adding to the ‘mad-scientist’ atmosphere, ghouls in labcoats crouched or stalked around senselessly.
No, that was incorrect. Edward did a double take when he realized that all the labcoats were shared by multiple ghouls, who themselves seemed to be fused together at various points. Three or more legs shambled awkwardly across the floor, with three or more arms shifting and writhing in the air idly as the eyes of two or more heads stared blankly forwards. Some of these fused ghouls leaned against consoles and servers as their multiple heads swayed back and forth against each other. One ghoul had its seven arms scratching at itself all over, while its five crouched legs twitched like a flea-infested hound.
None of the ghouls looked any more sentient than a feral and none seemed to notice that the door had clunked open, but considering the metanatural ambience, Edward didn’t want to underestimate their danger. He took the first step onto the catwalk of the vast space, and immediately felt chilling danger as many, many pairs of ghoul eyes snapped right at Edward’s stealthed position.
“Ah fuck.”
Hundreds of dried throats opened to let out hoarse roars, and as one, the ghouls sparked and crackled as they became wreathed in electricity as they got up to scramble towards Edward’s position.