The Reaper’s Legion
Chapter 106
Hope and Defense
The Legion’s very purpose was to exterminate biotics. There had been many occasions when we’d save human lives, of course, but they were lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.
Right at this moment, I suppose I should have felt horrified with myself, even upon reflection, to be considering abandoning Argedwall to pursue this biotic.
It wasn’t just because it was biotic that I struggled with the decision. This being was clearly intelligent, clearly a threat that would only grow larger and more complex as time passed. Now that it was aware that we were on its trail, it would very likely escape the area, and I doubted we had the capability to track this creature down.
But, there were reasons why I didn’t simply order to push forward.
The fact of the matter was, this creature was going to get away, no matter what we did at this stage. Fighting through the hallways into potentially collapsible tunnels would, at best, result in us wasting hours digging out terrain and attempting to pursue a quarry through territory it created itself. At worst, the tunnels were rigged to collapse in a much grandiose fashion than a few bottlenecks, and we’d put ourselves at tremendous risk just to pursue a whisper of a trail.
For all I knew, there would be no trail to follow.
The expenditure in manpower and time, all for what might amount to nothing, in this case, was too much for me to wager on. At least, it was too much when a city full of people would suffer the consequences of that push.
I grit my teeth, and said, “everyone, we’re going to support Argedwall. Fall back as one unit, don’t leave any stragglers and watch our flanks in case there are any other surprises for us.”
People began moving quickly, though not surprisingly I saw a few confused glances thrown my way, mostly by the Legion. The Knights, for as much as they were committed to a counter strike, were grateful that they wouldn’t have to make the choice between Argedwall and a potentially botched strike on the mine.
That was another consequence to consider now, how our allies would respond to our actions.
‘We’ll find you later,’ I promised the thing in the dark, ‘and we’ll reap our pound of flesh we’re owed.’
As we began to pack in the few things that were necessary, Fran and Daniel approached me. There were fewer nearby, save for Peter who ostensibly was our liason for the operation.
“Are you sure about this?” Daniel’s tone of voice almost sounded like he was frowning in disappointment.
“Yes.” I nodded shortly, “we’ll be wasting our time going into that tunnel system.”
“But couldn’t we…” he stalled, frustration welling in his voice as he realized that there wasn’t a good way we could advance. Nothing we had would make clearing those tunnels any faster. “Couldn’t we at least leave some people here to try to push through the caverns?”
Even in spite of the fact that I enjoyed a looser style of leadership in most cases, I still felt a tremor of outrage in the back of my mind that Daniel was asking this. It was with no small effort that I reminded myself that, firstly, Daniel was the best friend and loyal companion I could ask for, and secondly, that I needed the opinions and questions of those close to me.
If those opinions annoyed the hell out of me in the interim, well, that just meant that they weren’t always of the same mind as me.
I forced the march at a high speed, but answered Daniel as we went. He glanced back at the cavern remorsefully, but didn’t slow, which was all I really needed of anyone in the Legion. Faith enough to follow my orders, intelligent enough to question them.
“There were several ways out of those tunnels. If we left a token force there, they’d be easy targets for a pincer strike. As is, we’ll have to deal with the possibility that the force comes out of the caverns and attacks us in the rear, but I doubt they will.” I ran at speed, “they’re there to slow anyone down who wants to pursue the biotic. I think this was a part of a contingency plan for it, but I can’t be sure. If anything, we might have spurred this into motion early, but nothing more. We can’t underestimate that thing.”
Peter nodded appreciatively, “if it’s been learning from us, I can safely say that it will have entrenched the position and booby trapped it considerably.” He then smiled with no small amount of chagrin, “we must have taught it quite a lot, these past months.”
“There was nothing you could do,” Fran comforted the dispirited man, “we’ll have time to figure out what to do with this creature later. For now, Argedwall needs us.”
“And besides,” Daniel pitched in, managing to put his doubts behind him, “the best lesson you can teach it is a pretty great one.”
We all turned our attention to the man, but I felt a grin coming even before the words left his mouth.
“Don’t fuck with humanity.”
-Alice P.O.V.-
“Get into the tower!” I heard Penelope shout to me over the din of Knights mobilizing into the trenches, almost all of them dedicated to the side that would be seeing combat.
“Got it!” My voice was high and tight, annoyance and anger flush in my veins. Richard was still unconscious, a medical unit having moved him into Argedwall while we were present. The forward base outside of town had been rapidly emptied, save for automated defenses.
The moment the scanners had read the incoming horde, we decided that abandoning the base would be for the best. Not that there were a lot of Legion personnel there at the moment, most had gone for the attack.
Of which, we knew that the attacking force hadn’t run into this wave. That was something.
Not something good, I was sure, but definitely something.
“Hello,” I called cheerily to the two Arbolests, “ready to get to work?”
The first, a lady, snorted, “always. This is just another Tuesday.”
The second, a younger girl by the sound of her voice and the veritable eye-roll I could feel through her voice, said, “don’t mind her, she’s always been a little edgy.”
“At least I treat this with some measure of dignity.” The first replied defensively.
“You’re larping all the time,” her companion shook her head, “how is that dignity.”
“Yup. I’m glad I’m up here.” I laughed, settling in between the pair, who unconsciously made room for me without realizing it. “Should we keep a tally?”
The two looked at eachother, and without hesitation asked, “what do we win?”
I paused a that, “hmm… how about losers have to cook?”
“A penalty game?” They looked at each other and shrugged.
“Sure, I can go for that.” The second said, as the first nodded.
“Emily,” the first introduced herself.
The second followed, “Lucy.”
“Alice,” I nodded to them, “alright! Girl party!”
They stared at me for a few seconds as I cheered, before Lucy joined in cautiously to the shaking head and grumbling of Emily.
Who then begrudgingly gave a weaker cheer.
“Aw, come on, guys, we can do better than that!” I said, trying to shake the fugue in my own heart. I was worried, a little bit frightened over what had happened to Richard.
It took everything I had not to climb down the tower and go stay by his side. But this was where I was needed, where I could do the most good.
Where I could protect him the best.
“So, on the count of three, we’re going to blow the eardrums out on every Knight down there.” I said simply, “we’re going to have ourselves a fun game with a fun party, and we’re going to kill a lot of biotics as brutally as possible.”
They looked to me searchingly, realizing, maybe feeling, that everything wasn’t quite so simple and straightforward with the happy-go-lucky girl that they’d shared the tower with.
Emily nodded, a meaningful, slow nod, and surprised me with another gesture. She put a fist out, “well, let's do this then. Count of three?”
“Oof, this’ll be embarrassing.” Lucy shook her head, “if you’re doing it, I guess I have to join in.” She put her fist in the middle, and I smiled as I joined mine with the three between us. Mine was small, but not dramatically so against the mech suits they wore.
We counted down, and on three I felt something feel right.
I felt all of the anger and anguish, the hope for the future and the bitter entrenchment against these biotics swirl in my chest. A tremor of rage here, exasperation and tiredness there. There was a lot of fear, too, so much that I thought I’d drown in it.
I pressed against that, drowning fear in a sea of intent, of the will to move on.
‘To be afraid is normal. To have fear is sane. But to push through that, is bravery.’ I recounted the line I’d heard from a show I’d heard long ago. Nothing else about it stood out, but that single line. Something to live by, something to remember no matter what I was doing in life.
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‘I’ll be brave, then.’ I felt my will somehow solidify with my cheering voice, and at once I felt almost as though the feelings in my chest amplified, echoing out with the sound of my own cry.
And before I knew it, I realized that the Knights beneath us echoed our cry, carrying it out far and wide. It was infectious like a wildfire and felt like it hung in the air, long after my lungs emptied of air.
There was an energy there, hanging above us, emboldening to my heart. The three of us shared a moment of wonder as we listened to the echoing cries.
“That was so worth it.” Lucy nodded succinctly, “you wanna be friends?”
Emily laughed hard, “you’re stuck now, Alice.”
I grinned, bumping the both of them with my elbows good naturedly.
Without really knowing why, I turned my gaze backwards to the wall, seeing a man in gold and red armor, larger than the standard knight. The Knight-Commander met my gaze, wide-eyed and surprised, and looked out upon the population before smiling and shaking his head.
He crossed his arms, a warm smile on his face in spite of everything.
‘Ah, I stole your thunder.’ I smiled awkwardly, ‘I guess I can do that kind of stuff. Cool.’
I settled in, putting myself in as comfortable a position as possible by standing, the two mechs on my sides with heavy bolt guns. They almost appeared to be a mix between a rifle and a crossbow. Electrical crackles ran into them, thick wires connecting into the hilts and running down into the tower. Even as we settled into position, a pair of ammo crates rose on the sides, slid into place by a pair of masons on each side, giving a quick thumbs up to us as they moved to do the same thing elsewhere.
The system was automatic in some regards, but they were loading extra up top, just in case we needed any ammo faster than what the tower was supplying.
And, seeing the map still feeding us incoming contacts, I knew that we might just very well use all of that ammo, and more.
“Ready frontline!” I heard Harris call out, voice deafening at this close range, impossibly loud.
I heard the Knights at the front, filling trenches and ready to fall back at a moments notice, clatter massive shields and weapons together. Thick razor wire and girders of steel buried into the earth made a forward charge suicide for anything smaller than a Carrier.
And, moments later, I found that the Centaurs were not quite up to task.
The sound met us first, a deep, low rumble that rose in crescendo by the second. The pitch of stampeding, snarling Centaur biotics was different than what I imagined a horse charge would sound like. It was ominous to wait for them, the trees and ground shaking with the amassed force.
They broke the forest line, and immediately the Arbolests and myself went to work.
‘One, two, three, four, five, oh a two for one!’ I fired one after the other, matching the tempo of the Arbolests beside me.
Dozens dropped to the impacts, simple bolts being used by myself so far. The Arbolests were far more destructive though, and I had no shame in admitting that for every one I slew, their bolts culled two, or three, fragmenting and piercing even the Carrier’s armor.
The front two waves died to the opening volley, corpses tumbling head over heel and slowing those behind them. Were they anything other than biotics, the falls alone would have killed them. As it was, the Centaur’s bones and joints bent with the impacts, even dislocating and snapping back into place after righting themselves.
Then the front lines opened fire with three-man cannons. Though few in number, the sheer explosive power each belched forth carved deep rivets in the earth and through the front ranks. While the third wave was hardly broken by the strike, there were many more damaged and destroyed farther within the waves.
“Ordnance team!” Harris shouted, his voice still loud even against the explosions and fierce snarl of biotics in the distance.
Atop the wall, several familiar looking mortars rotated into place. These weapons were on loan from the Legion, nearly automated and quite rigorously tested for just such occasions.
They rapidly deployed five salvo’s before the teams based around each greyhound sized mortar began to reload them. Distantly, the waves still within the forest were greeted by shattering explosions, airburst rounds, and fire. It was a variety pack, we weren’t sure what would work best just yet against the Centaur, aside from straight up vicious armor penetration.
I personally think the fire did the best, though.
The front line warriors howled their challenge to the charging, snarling Centaur, the first of them crashing into lines of wire, designed to shred just such creatures.
Carbon reinforced spikes dug deep into the Centaur, and as more joined the fray the lines crew taught, tangling around limbs and digging ever deeper.
The first Centaur only passed that location by stepping atop their trapped comrades.
And then, seemingly without warning, dozens of those Centaur seemed to explode, fragments of black spikes spitting out in every direction.
Almost none of the Spindlies armor piercing spikes actually hit the Knights, comfortably sheltered in the trenches.
It was almost hysterical when the front line seemed to take just one collective second to share their confusion with a neighbor before they just shrugged and resumed their ready stances.
I never stopped firing, but I did take more than a moment to appreciate how awful that adaptation was in this case for them. Perhaps they didn’t know how to use it yet?
Good.
“I’m up to twenty.” I said aloud.
Lucy laughed, “twenty-nine, here!”
“Forty-eight,” Emily said quickly, firing again and again, adjusting her aim.
There was a hiccup of a moment when both Lucy and I looked to Emily with horror. “Do you hate cooking that much!?”
Her shot went wide then, “n-no! That’s not what this is about at all!”
We laughed, tension relieving slightly. So far, things have gone well.
The first fragmented remains of the initial strike finally made it into the trenches, but I witnessed the Knights cleanly dismantle the disparate offenders efficiently.
Out from the fire and black smoke the next waves pushed. They were much more densely packed, thanks to them slowing for the flames.
I switched to another type of arrow, feeling my visor connect to each one, the six pronged head far heavier than it appeared it should be. “That’s more like it.”
The first arrow went out, and the heads each connected to my computer system onboard. I mentally guided each to pick a target as it flew, sharp and whistling, through the air. The head didn’t so much explode as it simply projected the large, narrow projectiles to each target in mid air. The initial arrow lost momentum and simply fell from the sky.
But the other six heads each tore through an eye-socket and exploded, sending them toppling
I followed up with another, and another, and another, repeatedly, and had my suit keep a tally for me.
“That’s so broken.” Lucy complained, trying to fire faster while Emily grumbled something similar.
I grinned widely, but that grin began to taper off as I felt something amiss.
The trenches were built in such a way to make it difficult to assault them from any direction. The Knights would be able to retreat through the corridors and come up between a maze of barbed wire and girders, preventing enemies from pursuing them with any great speed.
It was this fact alone that kept the Knights from immediately being overwhelmed by the flanking forces.
“Arbalests, strike the flanks!” Harris commanded us, leaving the command of the frontlines to the Lords that were now smack dab in the middle of a sudden three sided strike.
“How the hell?” Lucy shook her head, seemingly trying to clear her vision as she repositioned her aim.
I narrowed my eyes, seeing the Centaur creeping low to the ground, their stealth demonstrating that it was far superior to the cats. If they moved slowly, creeping as it were, they could emulate the ground easily.
The only saving grace was that there were fewer on the flanks, but they were also making their way through the mazes. From our higher vantage point, it was actually harder to make out what looked like slinking mounds in the dirt.
I took a best guess shot, hitting three targets and three plots of dirt. The creatures I hit snarled in annoyance and bled silver, and I realized that, disgustingly enough, the Centaur were somehow unfurling layers of tissues from their backs, covering them like a cape. Or carpet, in the current situation.
“That’s gross.” I murmured, switching to another type of arrow, one that fragmented a great deal more. I dubbed them shotgun arrows for good reason.
I pelted out several, not aiming in particular, leaving long barbs in the ground in several places.
It didn’t take long for the other Arbolests to realize why I was doing it. The creatures had to walk over bolts eventually, suddenly obscuring them from vision. It was then that I noted that the act of using this technique must have required some skill on their part, because there were some biotics that I couldn’t have possibly hoped to find without it.
But, it couldn’t last long.
The Knights pulled back, the front lines beginning to receive a much heftier bulk of Centaur all at once. Several of them realized how to use the caustic acid spitting cannons on their shoulders, and no small amount of Knights were spared only by the virtue of having a coating against such things.
But that wasn’t something that could survive multiple rounds of that gunk.
The Lords fell back, and I grit my teeth as some of the Knights were fighting a losing retreat, pushing through areas with stealthed abominations waiting for them.
“We have to help them fall back!” I shouted out, switching to arrows that contained an acidic gas and firing to stall the biotics pursuing the Knights.
Harris echoed the suggestion seemingly at the same time, “cover the retreat! Pull back to the wall!”
That measure surprised me, given that there were still many layers of trenches in-between.
But, it made sense in a way. There were just too damn many of the Centaur. Already their numbers had climbed to be in the thousands.
The front lines were the clumsiest of the biotics, simply brute forcing their way deeper and dying in droves to the gridlock of razor wire. Further in, though, sneaking through our lines, were far more dangerous and seemingly experienced of their members. The fact that they were still harassing the Knights as they pulled back into the fourth defensive line spoke volumes to how capable they were.
However, now that they were this close, we were finding much greater success in detecting them.
But, the price was high. At least twenty percent of the Knights had fought to the last. Even standing up here, I couldn’t feel distanced enough from that number. It was a bloodbath.
“Matthew, you better get here fast.” I mumbled as the Knights situated themselves at the third defensive layer, close enough to the wall to fall back, but far enough that the mortars and Arbolests were still in prime firing positions.
I’d seen Wolven, and these people were no strangers to hordes of opponents. But even so, I felt my hope flicker as I watched them climb and crash through the defenses of the eighth trench with abandon. Even with them accidentally killing their own, they outnumbered everyone in the city ten times over.
“Eighty three,” I heard Lucy say, a small, but defiant voice next to me.
Emily laughed, “One-hundred and twenty two.”
They turned to me, and I found myself shaking my head, a tremor in my hands I hadn’t realized I had stabilizing. “I’m at two-hundred and fifty six.”
“Cheater.” Lucy huffed.
Emily shook her head, “not cheating if she’s got good gear.”
“I want gear like that.” Lucy pointed, “if I had stuff like that I’d be able to…” she let the comment trail off.
I felt like she wanted to say ‘... live through this’ but didn’t want to finish that sentence.
I grinned, “well, when we win and survive this, you should join up with us. We get stuff like this all the time.”
Lucy hesitated for a moment before nodding, determination supplementing defiance.
“Alright, back to the grind,” Emily chuckled, “I really don’t like cooking.”
“Hah! I knew it!” Lucy shouted, and then returned her focus to firing in earnest.
I laughed, churning arrows out like rain drops on the battlefield.