Back on Verghast with Jorren Nox
By 812.M30, the Guild Alliance Defense Force stopped calling them incidents.
They called them patterns.
By 813.M30, they called them zones.
By 814.M30…
It was finally called by its true name war. The hive-city of Karth Vire was no longer a continuous structure, it has become a broken structure with some sections sealed, others abandoned, and others covered with the bodies of the dead.
Some areas became forbidden zones because no one who entered them has come back the same. They have seen the unseen and the results…
Not yet confirmed.
The Defense Force adapted faster than most worlds would have.They had no choice, a world in the system had succumbed to a witch which created refuges for them. They just did not expect for a witch to be part of the refugees that came.
Engagement Protocols were changed to Sigma-Black
Rule One: Never engage alone. All personnel must move in interlocking formations three lines minimum, Containment takes priority over lives of troopers…
Rule Two: Trust instruments, not senses, visual confirmation was unreliable. Thermal, motion, and mass readings took priority…
Rule Three: Burn everything, bodies, blood, structures anything touched by an anomaly was to be consumed by fire, with no exceptions…
Rule Four: Rotate command. Officers could not hold authority long enough for them to be able to be influenced and it affected the defence forces.
"Contact front," Sergeant Vale said calmly
The squad got into gear immediately, they have been at this post for 19 hours. They have stood against all that could come and they have not broken.
The walls expanded and contracted in slow pulses as a laugh came through to them.
"Range-to-target?" Vale asked.
"Unstable," replied the sensor tech.
"Distance fluctuating between twelve and… forty meters."
Vale nodded."Igniters to the front! Stagger fire-lanes. No advance."
This was the first mistake made by the guild defence force. As a tall being pink in color with fingers too long for its body came into view. It bent its body in a way that insisted on a lack of a spine.
The promethean flames covered it "hehehe…sO... sOfT" it said in a high pitched voice that grated the nerves of its listeners.
"Kill it" as screams came from the men, no one knows who gave the order but they unleashed everything they could at it.
It also answered in kind. From its body, the promethium fire moved like it possessed a mind of its own, coiling together and transforming. The heat in the area spiked far beyond what it had once been and then…
The creature threw it at them
Arrhhggg!
No armor could stop the fire, no water could douse the flames. It burned 3 troopers to the very soul of their being. The creature felt great joy in the burning as they burned.
The rest of the troopers did not relent their assault, they switched to solid slug rounds and grenades. The area exploded into particles as the creature screamed.
This time not in joy, but in regret as it extinguished along with its fire. The men already burnt by its flames looked no longer like humans, their armor and skin fused together to form a carapace for them.
"End them" before the men could utter a word the captain ordered their execution.
BANG! BANG!
Shot with solid slugs the flamers once again brought out their weapons to extinguish any remnant of the troopers.
"Yahaha" "Yahaha"
2 voices synchronized with madness and joy exploded in the very location the creature had just been killed at.
"Fall back. Engage as we retreat" the men opened fire in orderly lines as they maneuvered out of the area.
The small creature now blue in color threw fire once again at the troopers. Which they dodged learning from their last experience.
"Dump the mags! Ignore the count" the captain order
But as he turned to review his men, 1 of the blue creatures moved towards him, not with a speed that a human could see, and certainly not one they could react to. It came before the captain, opening its jaw ready to bite off his head.
When out of nowhere a multiple smaller slugs hit it at once. In that moment of pause was an escape for the captain… but his hand came in contact with the creature
It ignited immediately
"Cut it off, RIGHT NOW" the captain shouted his command
A man rushed at the captain, raising his blade. He brought it down swiftly severing the captain's arm at the shoulder. The battle raged on, but it once again felt to the soldiers that they were being played with.
The creatures after killing half of the troopers retreated back into the corridor. As they did the geometry of the corridor returned to normal.
The men hardened by battle had not seen something like one they have seen today. There was a blank look in the eyes of some of the troopers. Their minds were still trying to understand what they had just witnessed.
The Defense Force established layered containment across the hive
Outer Rings: Civilian evacuation and quarantine
Mid Rings: Active combat zones
Inner Rings: Lost sectors
Supply lines were rerouted constantly, nothing stayed stable long enough to rely on. Chaos adapted, it had already played its gambit.
Men once loyal began to question their abilities, their loyalty to the guilds. Others began weighing the benefit of the guild's orders.
Instead they began to try looking out for themselves more often. Meanwhile more humans twisted and wrong, attacked the supplies of the guilds. They cut off supply lines to the men fighting at the front.
It created a sense of mistrust between the men and the guild masters. Provisions began to gain mouths and fighting to consume each other, munitions grew hands within their barrels.
Stockpiles of supplies were burned away once they were discovered. Requests to other hive cities for supplies were sent out constantly, some guild leaders did not want to do so, but the situation had gotten that bad.
Commander Reth who was commissioned by the guild coalition issued orders for a trooper group to guard a sector, which had been empty.
There was no indication of a problem, they guarded the position for 12 hours until such time as they would be relieved of duty.
The entire battalion was found later at least what remained of them. Arranged neatly as their bodies were fused together into a structure resembling a command post.
Commander Reth at the center was still issuing orders.
"The... line... must... hold... hold..." he said over and over again
Captain Vale's unit rotated out after thirty-one hours on the way one trooper began to laugh
"What is it?" Vale asked.
The trooper pointed ahead."Don't you see it?"
Vale raised his weapon slightly.
"What are you seeing" he barked at the trooper
"It's already happened."Before Vale could respond the trooper's head collapsed inward.
"Burn it,"
Jorren on the other hand had continued looking for a guild leader who had a vox-transmitter used to alert the ship for pick up, with little luck.
As he searched he also felt it, deep within the under hive, something was brewing. Jorren paused at the edge of a collapsed transit bridge.
Below, a battle raged on as the defense force units held a choke point. Heavy gunners laid suppressive fire while flamers burned advancing shapes that shifted between forms.
They fought well, but they were constantly losing ground. A daemon appeared at the edge of the battle, its body resembled a rubbery mushroom, it began its body spitting out fire that turned groups of troopers into melted soup.
The demons at the front tore through the front line. Formation broke as Jorren watched the battle, until one daemon turned toward him. For a moment it just stared at him then it lunged at him.
Jorren in a slight panic created another singularity.
This time not a minor version, but one big enough to pull soldiers fighting on the front into it. Everyone and everything on the battlefield had to battle Jorren.
The sheer force of the pull caused the battle to stop. Some soldiers fired their weapons at Jorren, which resulted in him trying to deflect it, but once again wit increase the gravitational pull.
The first demon caught in the singularity was pulled in and crushed. And the singularity collapsed.
For those who don't know, when a singularity or black hole collapses it releases a vast amount of energy, and this one was no different…
A vast shock wave spread out from its center, spreading out into the rest of the battlefield. Troopers were torn to shreds, their bodies acting as explosives to those besides them. Armored troops caused the most damage as it became shrapnel.
Promethium tanks exploded, carrying terrifying amounts of fire with it.
Even demons were not spared. Their bodies twisted in resistance but ultimately were shattered by the force of the shock wave. Those far away felt the wave push them against the wall and press into them like someone holding them.
Until they also died of asphyxiation.
Everything died on that battlefield except one person.