Jamal quickly took stock of the forces under his command, demanding status reports from anyone still capable to updating as to the troop disposition. "Sit-Rep. I need to know our status STAT ! Daley ! See what you can do for the worst cases."
The lilin was quickly directed to a wounded man with a bullet hole in his neck. Still the man desperately clung to life so the Chi instructor dove at the dying man and got right to work.
Meanwhile the platoon leader was quickly piecing together the various reports before verbalizing his conclusions. "So what your telling me... Is that we have..." he counts the bodies already shrouded that Maik couldn't get to in time with emergency aid. "fore. Five dead. 2.. 4.. 6.. 8. 9 wounded, and how many are still tripping ?" His Others confer and give him the total. "8 huh ? Two fucking thirds of the platoon... FUCK ! Get the stretchers laid out for the wounded and coral the others. Maybe they can at least walk back to the convoy. I'll mark the location for us to come back for the dead later. Now move."
The sounds of battle had gotten closer and were taking place at the convoy by now. The closeness of even more enemies urging the collected troops to perform their tasks with upmost hast and efficiency and they were quickly reorganized into 4 fire team, 2 with 4 men and 2 with only 3. 1 fire team was on point while all the other teams were moving the wounded. Those still under the effects of the mental attacks did their best to trail behind.
Maik was up front with aura at max range and taking a moment to double check their reserves. Apparently the lilin had used up just over a thousand Calories of Chi in both the fight and the medical aid in the aftermath. 1940 still in the tank. Full range of defenses up and diverting the boost to dexterity back to intelligence. Full range of protections is back over the group.
Given how spread out the remains of the platoon were Maik couldn't cover all of them but still, every man that could withstand just one more mental attack made a huge difference.
They rounded the corner around the house into the front yard and took in the sight of the convoy itself being peppered with shots from a distance. At first Maik thought it odd that there wasn't more return fire from the various vehicles until Jamal cleared up the confusion.
The man was only visible thanks to the flashlights due to his pitch back skin and gear but his voice was still a rally point the men could get behind, even in this mess. "I heard over the command channel that 2ed platoon got it worse they we did and most of first platoon went to help them out. We need to first secure the convoy and then help out 2ed platoon."
Anger and fear pumped out from Maik's heart with greater intensity with every beat. James and Eugene were with 2ed platoon. It is tactically unsound to just go after them our self. Our armor is compromised already and the only reason we don't have several cracked ribs is because we have been boosting the durability stat. Yeah, Jamal kind of saved our bacon by coming around that corner when he did. Damn it.
They advanced on the convoy just enough to get their wounded into the hands of the medical staff and then they were back off. They didn't advance strait into the enemies lines. Instead they moved back around the house they had just come from and then advance through the back yard of that house and into the next.
Jamal motioned for them to kill the lights and they advanced while relying mostly on Maik's auric effect of sending to tell them which direction to go in and where any obstacles were for them to avoid.
They made it all the way through the 2ed back yard without contact but as soon as they looked over the fence into the 3ed back yard it was obvious that they were in for another fight. Maik also felt another aura at the very edge of their range. Jamal asked about the strength but the lilin only shook their head. "I retracted my aura as soon as I started noticing their presence. I though we were trying to sneak up on them so I didn't want him to notice me."
Jamal just nodded to the Chi instructor and peaked over the fence again. "Alright. doesn't look like they've notice us yet. Maik. Your going to show us the perimeter around their illusionists range of detection. The rest of us are going to stay outside that range and more round to the right over there.." He points over the fence to indicate. "Along the back fence line. Keep low. keep quiet and lets give these mother fuckers the dirt nap they deserve. Move out."
2 by 2 they went over the fence and then made their way around at a crouch. It wasn't long until they had fully flanked the force laying down suppressive fire on the convoy. It was a larger group, with 8 men in tactical gear and 2 of the colorful illusionists, all standing in a row at a fence line that separated the yard from the road.
Jamal put his hand on Maik's shoulder and whispered to the lilin. "Something wrong. Their formation is shit and at least one of our snipers would have taken at least 3 of their heads off in the time we've been sneaking over here." His eyes, the only part of him that could be seen in the dark, darted around, looking for anything else amiss. Several seconds went by before he spoke again. "Your the expert. What do you think ?"
Maik grimaced hard, their face contorting into an ugly mask of poorly contained rage before shaking their head. "I won't be able to tell anything without getting close enough and then blanketing the area with aura. They will know where I am by then.... I'll be fully exposed out there too."
The platoon leader started breathing heavier and heavier. He knew that the enemy could conjure illusions, it was in the briefing and that's clearly what this was. The question was, where was the actual enemy. Then he noticed it. Shards of glass on the ground, refracting light from the convoys search lights. It looked like that glass should have come from the window of the house getting shot out. The very much whole window that overlooked the fence the illusions were standing at.
Jamal started passing the word down the line and everything was fine until the 4th person down the line was informed. In the darkness people within the house might not have been sure whether a black man was pointedly looking at those windows but the first light skinned fellow to pointed stare at the windows with suspicion gave the allies intentions away.
There was a shout from within the house and gun fire spewed from the window in the next instant. One of the troops cries out. "I'm hit." Fortunately there were already 2 guns trained on that window and return fire quickly put an end to that shit. Half of the illusions dropped and more gun fire started erupting from other windows.
Men dove for cover behind trees and bushes while bullets flew back and forth between the house and the back yard. The illusion had done its work and lured the allied forces into a bad position.
A slab of metal emerged from the back door of the dwelling to soak up fire and from behind it Maik could suddenly feel an aura spread out, the strongest Maik had ever encountered. Diverting everything to wide spread defenses.
The expected gust of air followed and it bashed its way right through the first layer but the second layer still slowed it down enough to keep the soldiers in the fight. The other half of the illusions evaporated just before bullets started coming from the next house over as well.
Thankfully only a couple windows had a clear view of the forces advancing through the back yard but it was going a long way towards pinning them down. It was so effective that even with their body armor they now had 4 men down and it hadn't even been 20 seconds sense the fight began. Jamal called for the retreat. "FALL BACK... FALL BACK."
Someone started dragging one of the wounded but then went down when he took 1 round in the chest plate and another in the shoulder. Another man opened up on the fence to weaken the barrier. Many did their best to provide suppressive fire but the Neon Lights had both better cover and the high ground.
Jamal kept his composure and shouted orders to keep cohesion. Fire team Alpha. suppressive fire. Bravo. wounded. Charlie. secure egress. Delta move to take over fire suppression once Alpha falls back."
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There were wounded from every fire team but Charlie and delta only had one man still in the fight, but at least everyone knew what the fuck they were supposed to be doing. Maik was with Bravo so they got to work and spent the extra energy to imbue their chest armor, tattered as it was, with Chi item infusion. That proved to be the right choice when a couple rounds hit the lilins vest, the second one punching through far enough to draw blood.
Another gust of air spread out and the lilins spread out defenses were assaulted by a powerful mental attack once more, but with brute determination fueled as much by fear of death as by conviction of purpose helped the lilin to endure. Then there was a notification.
Tier 3 skill advanced - Aura projection – Effective
Maik just grunted while pushing more Chi into their skill before they grasp the back collar of one solder to start dragging them along. The man was using his good arm to aim his side arm and return fire. The lilin felt another impact in the back of the vest and they furiously pumped Chi into the armor so that it would last just a little longer while reaching down to grab a second man collar to begin dragging to men towards safety. That's when the lilin noticed another skill advance notification.
Tier 5 skill advanced - Chi Item infusion - Capable
Maik immediately used the expanded capability of the skill to infuse a second Item, the helmet. Good thing too because the moment after that a bullet struck the head gear. The extra durability of the item diverted the projectile just enough so that the lilins durability enhanced skull could just barely deflect the bullet the rest of the way.
Maik vision swam as they went down and in an instant all of their erected and projected defenses went down. A deeper part of the lilin roused. This part that usually remained quiet and placid, but had recently been given new life and voice thanks to the race evolution's, took command of he lilins body and drove them to their feet.
Maik moved in a haze for an unknown time, Minor healing, Minor regeneration and flash molding working to repair the damage down. When they Woke back up they were behind a tree back in the first back yard, where they had defeated the first group of Neon Lights. There were cries of anguish and despair behind Maik, back where they had left what remained of the platoon.
1274 Calories of Chi remaining. wounds are partially healed but we seem to be suffering cognitive difficulties. Fuck the cognitive difficulties. we left them back there. We got shot in the head. Do we need them to help out friends or should we cut and run ? Flee ! Is that body ? Sense when could they talk ? Fear ! Outnumbered. Overpowered.
A disgusting sense of powerlessness gripped Maik's heart in that moment as they looked back at what was happening. At some point after the lilin had gained the head wound the Neon Lights illusionist had hit the group with another wide area attack. Escaped. Barely. The other members of 3ed platoon. They were wallowing, helpless and now being executed.
The lilin tired to activate their skills like they had before only to get a splitting head ache. A glance at the stat sheet showed a pretty bad debuff to their intelligence and dexterity to boot. That would need to be fixed before Maik could hope to survive helping the rest of the platoon and the lilin didn't have enough time to heal up before they would all be dead.
One of the tactical gear clad Neon Lights spotted Maik peaking around the tree as the lilin wasn't being every subtle about it and the brightness of the flashlight made the lilins headache flare up again. Run ! Live ! Maik started running. A stumbling gait that had all the coordination of a drunk teenager failing a DUI test, but somehow Maik made it back to the convoy.
2ed platoon hadn't fared much better and that was only because they had more Chi soldiers with them. 1st platoon also contributed when they caught the enemy off guard.
Maik had gotten back to the convoy not long after 1st and 2ed platoons had reconvened back at the convoy themselves.
Harper and 2 of her aids rushed up to collect Maik. Questions were set aside by order of the head of the medical department once they realized Maik had a fractured skull and a major concussion. However with the combination of Maik's Minor regeneration and the ministrations of the medical staff it only took about 2 minutes before the lilin was back on their feet and feeling just fine.
Norson wanted a sit rep as soon as Maik was clear headed enough to report. The lilin swallowed their shame and survivors guilt to give the report with as much detail as they could. "The retreat wasn't going smoothly but it Was working.... I guess I got greedy, going for the second guy while still dragging the first. The next thing I knew I was 2 houses down, huddled behind a tree with a splitting headache and multiple debuffs. I looked back and... they were helpless. All my protections must have gone down when I got hit and the next mental attack just.... One of them spotted me. I couldn't activate my skills properly. I ran."
Many of those who had just heard the story were pissed and they looked it. Zolinski's voice cut through the thick atmosphere. "They have bled us. Badly... But we have broken there forces in turn. Most of their number lay dead out there. Now only their leaders remain. We can.."
The mayors words were cut off when James shouted over him. "WE DON'T... Have enough Chi soldiers. The only reason 2ed platoon didn't get massacred was because it had 8 Chi solders that weren't just blown over but the first mental attack. We fucking held that line until you guys..." he points accusingly at the heads of 1st platoon. "Finally arrived to help... 4 more of my friends died over there."
James was clearly done with fighting and death for one day but the steely gaze of a man who had already looked upon the corpse of his child earlier that day stared right back at him. When that man spoke, his voice carried the full depth of loss that only a parent who had lost a child can know. "Young man. I know your pain. Your not the only one... to Loose someone... Precious... to you today. But these... Animals must be put down. Or they Will take more of our people."
Nods make the rounds from those who have known war and Leavery places and comforting hand on James's shoulder. The young man wipes his eyes and his nose clean with the back of his hand before standing tall again, joining the call to arms for one last push.
Engines were heard revving while Maik was recovering. Not large engines, smaller. The riding mowers most likely. The convoy saddles up and advances. It doesn't take long before they catch up enough that the Neon Lights members have to veer off the road and towards another house to make their stand.
Once more Maik in on point but at this point they only have about a platoons worth of combat ready men to assault the top leadership of the Neon Lights. They could tell by the marking on both the tactical guards and the capes that the caters wore. Their symbol of command from the intelligence they gathered when interrogating the prisoners.
The last dregs of the Neon Lights packed into a decent looking house and started firing from the windows but the allied forces had had enough of this.
The plan was simple. Maik provided protection for those in the truck. 2 guys would sit in the back of the truck holding up multiple ballistic vests as a make shift shield. The truck quickly advanced on the house in reverse. Then another couple guys would lob Molotov cocktails at the house to set it on fire.
Snipers offered covering fire as well, though they had to shoot blindly into the windows sense the illusionist were making the windows look empty. They surrounded the place while remaining outside the effective range of the mental attack skill and waited them out.
One of the illusionists tried to sneak out the back, crawling on his belly while shrouding them self to look like grass but Leavery detected him with his aura and they lit up the ground all around the area where the gang leader had been detected. The gang leader never got a single attack off before becoming bloody Swiss cheese.
10 minutes later and half the house was an inferno. That's when the first of them came rushing out, gun blazing. One after another they were gunned down. All 8 of the elite guards and finally the second caster lay dead outside the burning structure. the convoy didn't depart until the house was little more then a smoldering pile of coals. No need to burn the whole town down.