General Bastogne has heard enough from his combined intelligence departments. First the communication officer claims that one of the settlements may be burned down by what is probably a mutant woman, in places with fewer mutants he might be inclined to disregard such claims, but Bastogne knows mutants. He knows plenty of his troops harbor sympathies for mutant scum, claiming that upon hearing the news, it is just some prank-call made by locals. Bastogne didn't get his position by not being paranoid, The Lost tolerate no mutant shenanigans, even with the threat of interplanetary invasion. The council doesn't want to believe it, but all the generals are already in unanimous agreement. A war that hasn't been seen since The First Cult War will be upon us again. Even if the council moves slowly, local lords have already been restarting their arms factories. Invaders are everywhere, and apparently one of them had an interest in Ostkampf.
What this mutant bastard doesn't know is that Bastogne is planning for a lengthy interrogation. Technically, his methods are illegal under Lost policy, but they are all mutant scum anyway, and they need all the intel they could get. This enemy is isolated, and away from one of the main entry points. Yes, 'one of' since these happenings have been going on across the world. Some even claim the otherworldly mutants come in peace, and offer trade. The general doesn't believe any of that, merely the ramblings of mutant-sympathizer branches. Especially when he looks at his scout's report on Ostkampf.
That being that there is barely an Ostkampf left, the entire place was burned, and resettled by giant spiders. The scouts saw no sign of the supposed woman over the radio, but she is sure to be around. Spiders aren't known for fire usage, after all. Thankfully, his paranoia was warranted, and maybe the men could learn a thing or two about trusting mutants. They wouldn't be entering Ostkampf as an allied settlement offering shelter today, they would be engaging it as a military target.
Bastogne's forces are meant to be the first-responder reinforcements sent out in the east, and were merely meant to slow down, and deter the mutant advance. Instead, he finds himself cleaning up the newly spawned mess created by this disaster. His forces number 15 [Lost Heavy Tank], 30 [Infantry Fighting Vehicle], 200 [Infantryman], and 40 [Motorized Artillery]. Opposing his forces are roughly 700 [Hive Spider], 1 [Hive Spider Genestealer Anomaly], and 1 [Angel].
As the general's forces make their approach, so too does the settlement respond. Spiders scurry back and forth, seemingly with no direction. It is a thin facade, they are actually digging tunnels, and hiding the eggs for the coming combat. The queen directs her forces intently, while the angel simply waits on one of the towers, eating a bag of Gummi Bears. If the spiders believed that The Lost would be engaging them in direct combat, they are mistaken. Screams of fire and death sound in the distance, and the whistling noise of death shatters the broken town. Rocket artillery cracks the earth, and spiders are scattered with the first volley. The angel protected herself with a barrier of light magic, while the queen simply shrugged off the indirect hits. The standard spiders fare much worse, having been the main target of the general barrage.
Their casualties do not deter them, and they finish bringing all the eggs underground, their web constructions on the surface lighting the town in another fire. The small army takes positions outside the settlement, forming a half-circle of death. They are here to exterminate this town, and will give no quarter. Yet, as the vehicles set up their line, the ground bursts open, and spiders flood the area around the rocket artillery. The IFV's notice their predicament, and move in to get the spiders off their comrades, but they are too late. Most of the men operating the artillery pieces are bitten to death by the ravenous spiders.
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"General! These things are showing an unusual amount of intelligence! Our artillery just got nailed!" A IFV commander reports to the general, and the general mulls over his next steps. His scouts reported seeing a spider of significant size in that settlement, and most of the activity they saw was around that spider. Some sort of leader perhaps? If so, he has some good solutions for those kinds of issues. The general orders the tanks, and infantry to move up. They are to put up more pressure on the town while the IFV's cover the flanks.
As the first volleys are fired from the large cannons of the tanks, one of the tanks is hit by a blast of light. As the light dissipates, and the men around regain their vision, they find that the tank is unharmed by the odd light attack, and the one who fired it shows her face. A woman flies from the settlement towards the line, one showing clear signs of mutation.
"You dare attack the righteous!? You will face justice!" Justitia brings out her 2 trusty weapons, the scales, and her plasma cutter. As she points the scales at the whole army, instead of seeing their crimes before her, she gets a migraine of titanic size, and falls from the sky. The spiders, seeing their hero fall from the sky, engage the infantry. Machine guns rip through the spiders, as they make a desperate rush to their enemy. Just as they break the lines, and begin tearing into man and woman alike, the tanks open up on the lines. They were wary of the close quarters that they saw the infantry in, but anyone in close quarters is dead anyway. IFV's close in from the sides, and attempt to envelop the attacking spiders. It all seems lost for the defenders, until one of the heavy tanks in cleanly cleaved in two. A woman emerges from the corpse of the tank, looking pissed, and flies to the IFV's.
They stand no chance, as the winged woman turns the vehicles into clouds of gas, and puddles of metal the men clean up the last bits of assaulting spiders. They turn their attention to the woman, only to find that her massive speed completely annihilated the right flank, halving their IFV count. The tanks take point against the rampaging mutant, knowing that their chances against this menace is only marginally better than the infantry.
"This entire situation is FUBAR! We need support now!" Aerial reinforcements are en route, but it's unlikely they will make it before the end of the battle. The men with boots on the ground know it is all on them to salvage this. As Justitia tears through the soldiers, she begins to notice her barrier wavering. The attacks of the sinners are having effect? Enacting justice on the world will be harder than she had originally thought. Justitia slices another heavy tank in two, and is surprised when one of the tanks is charging at her. Someone that gives off an air of authority sits on top of the tank, and is shouting angrily at her. Justitia ignores the ramblings of the man, and as she prepares to cleave him in twain, he suddenly lunges for her arm, and stops her attack momentarily.
"FIRE!" He bellows out, and out of the 5 remaining tanks, 3 manage to obey the order. The first shell shatters the barrier of Justitia, and completely obliterates the defiant general. The second shell barely misses, while the last shell cleanly tears off Justitia's left arm. Justitia hadn't had pain before an hour ago, first the migraine, and now this. She doesn't want to know more types of pain, no matter how much she enjoys new things. Both the scales and the arm are nowhere to be found, and she has never felt so exposed before. Is she going to die here? To these sinners? It is a fate she deserves, she lost the scales after all. She wouldn't be able to find sin now if it was staring her in the face.
No. She cannot end like this. As long as she lives, justice could be served. Justitia doesn't feel much anywhere in her body anymore, and quickly flies away. She doesn't even know if she still has the plasma cutter, not that the plasma cutter matters. Only the scales matter, and Justitia matters because she wields them. She must find them again...later. She... needs some... rest.
As The Lost take the town, they burn countless eggs. They radio in with command, and inform them of the disastrous attempt to reinforce the east.