The Scout
Monday, 29th of February, 198 A.C, 18:05
“Nothing is more heavily correlated to high casualty rates and Psychon leaks during New Year’s Eve than breaches in the primary defensive line. Remember to stick shoulder to shoulder with your fellow citizens when protecting our great city.” - PSA by Spark City Hall
They came like rain. At first it wasn’t more than a drizzle, the vanguard taking out their marks out faster than the puddles were forming. But it wasn’t long before the Psychons who had apparated further out swarmed out from the shadows and into the floodlights’ beams.
The vanguard circled up while those of us on the wall with guns picked off clumps of Psychons from afar. Most of the swarm ignored the vanguard, preferring instead to dash for the barricade – this was exactly what we were gunning for. Optimally, the vanguard would be able to thin the herd entirely unfettered, the sheer volume of people in the city holding the Psychons’ attention far more tightly than a couple of isolated targets would.
I didn’t have time to worry about them right now, though. The first wave hit the wall, teeth and tusks and claws scraping at it for footholds. Lupi made up the bulk of the force, but there was a surprising (worrying, even) amount of diversity in their ranks. The wall trembled against the impacts of cervid antlers, and I could make out the dark shapes of serpenti slithering between the legs of their fellow Psychons and up irregularities in the wall. Some distance away, I heard the crowing of a corvus flock beginning to gather.
The wave had been weakened by the vanguard and our supporting fire, but a smallish horde of shadow monsters was still a big problem. Militia members grabbed their spears, hatchets, batons, and whatever other weaponry they had and beat at whatever they could reach.
Someone cried out next to me as a felis blinked into existence and pounced onto them. This was one type of Psychon I had never faced in person. Certainly read about it though. It took the form of a cat; they could get up to twice the size of a human, but this one ‘only’ came up to my waist. They had the unique ability to seemingly phase in and out of existence, allowing them to stalk their chosen prey for as long as they liked.
I yanked my tomahawk from its loop on my backpack and lunged at the Psychon, but my blade caught mist. I tsked. At least their victim was ok. For now. I would have to keep an eye out. I helped them to their feet, then headed down to grab some supplies for the other troops.
This would be so much easier if I could just use my Veil
I tried to put the thought out of my mind. The night had just started, and the Pugilist was right about needing to keep a level head. But doing things like this was so… inefficient. Besides, I had promised myself that tonight wouldn’t be a repeat of last year.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
No. I flicked one of the filters on my Veil. I would manage.
***
The Deadeye
I deserved a drink after all this. Not like I’d have time – Angela had insisted we do a whole charity drive tomorrow to raise aid funds, and had made it clear (in her own, not-actually-making-it-clear way) that showing up buzzed was *not* an option.
Didn’t help that not so much as a drop of liquor had passed my lips in three days. I had somehow spun it that I owed it to the rest of Impulse to put my best foot forward for this. And then the Pugilist had done his whole ‘save your Veil use’ spiel, so I couldn’t even skip the drink and get sloshed the quick way. It angered me that he was right.
I took another shot that was, sadly, not of the booze variety. Time to reload. I patted the inside of my duster, but came up empty on lead rounds. They weren’t as good as Knockout at taking out Psychons, but while Impulse’s wallet felt the difference, these small fry sure didn’t.
Just then a hand extended into view, carrying a small mountain of extra ammo. I grabbed the rounds, stuffed most of them in my pockets, then loaded the rest into my gun.
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“Scout, I could kiss you. I’m not going to, because I’m twenty three and you’re not even an adult, but. You get the idea.”
“Bagging some big ones for me is thanks enough,” he replied. “Now if you’ll excuse me…” He left to continue his supply run.
I returned to my own work. One shot took out a small capra charging towards a ginger-haired vanguard woman wearing a bike helmet. Another stole a lupus kill from the Berserker. I sent a quick Chipper message over to gloat, and got an angry emoticon in response.
A heavy impact shook the wall and caused my third shot to miss. I cursed under my breath and risked a glance over the ledge. A large cervid stared back, its antlers just about reaching the top of the wall. I could have sworn I hadn’t let anything that big through. Had it just happened to appear right there?
Shouts of panic rang out along the wall. Ira was trying to rally her troops, but this was far beyond the size of Psychon most of the people here would have ever seen in person. If it decided to stop bashing its head and jump the wall instead, it would tear through the militia like toilet paper.
A light flashed to my right. The sudden brilliance of the Aegis’ aura forced me to avert my gaze at first, a harsh contrast to the feeble fluorescents along the rampart. She said nothing, but the militia members watching her seemed to recover their composure. They settled down, adjusted their grips, and got back into fighting stances. I even caught the Heister and Scout staring for a moment.
I looked down and realized that I had reloaded my rifle. I always forgot about this part of the Aegis’ Veil. It was easy to be swept up in if you weren’t paying attention.
The Aegis bellowed and lept from the tower, crushing two lupi on landing and pinning a third. She grabbed a lost spear and skewered the trapped Psychon, then charged through the swarm towards the giant cervid.
The display gave the troops on the wall their second winds. Gunfire lit up the night, and whatever Psychons weren’t shredded by lead quickly found met their ends at the sharp end of a spear or three. To my left, the Scrapper flipped over the ledge and let off a spray of bullets from her Squall down the back of the cervid. The creature screamed as the Scrapper landed behind it and gave a thumbs up to the Aegis, who was fast approaching.
The cervid turned and swiped at the Scrapper with its antlers, but she danced out of reach with a quick jolt of her Veil, her red afterimage wafting away tauntingly where the monster had swung.
It was preparing for another attack when the Aegis collided with it, sending the deer-like thing hurtling through the air like it had been hit by a train. Its travels sent it bowling over several smaller specimens, turning them to mist on the spot. When at last it tumbled to a stop, it was such a broken heap that it could only maintain its form for a few seconds before it too vanished, leaving behind nothing but a single wispy antler.
Cheers went up along the wall. The Aegis’ aura flicked off as someone set up a ladder for the two Veiled. Their rampage had left a sizable gap in the Psychon swarm, enough for the Aegis to hoist a slightly winded Scrapper up on her back and climb up the ladder without incident.
With a lull in the fighting, it was time for troops to swap out. A reserve contingent hopped the wall and fought their way to the vanguard, creating an opening for tired fighters to get back behind the wall and take a breather. A similar rotation happened on the wall, though all of us Veiled stayed out; we didn’t have anyone sitting around to replace us.
***
The Pugilist
The new contingent was here. Good. Beyond the obvious risks, the vanguard was caught in a difficult position where their duties fatigued them much faster than the troops on the wall, but their positioning made it difficult to get fresh units in and spent ones out. Or fresh units out and spent ones in, depending on your point of view.
Fortunately for the militia, they had the Runner to help. Displays of power like the one the Aegis had just pulled off were good, of course, but if I had to identify just one of us who I believed would have the biggest impact on the night’s outcome, that honor would have to go to the Runner and his healing aura.
Right now he was jogging back to the wall with the conscripts who were switching out, but then he’d be right back with us, waiting for another order. When he had first flipped on his Veil and that light green glow surrounded him, I had overheard a few others calling his glazed-over eyes and frozen body language disconcerting. Nobody seemed to be complaining now, when we were over a half hour into the night and had suffered no casualties.
I sidestepped a charging lupus, then countered with a jab to the temple followed by an uppercut to the jaw. Its head snapped first to the side, then towards the sky, where it stayed as its body lost coherence. I looked around for my next target, but we were, surprisingly, running out of Psychons to fight.
Maybe ‘surprisingly’ was the wrong word. ‘Suspiciously’ was a better fit. I had been able to hear corpi since the start of the scramble, but not so much as a feather had flown into the floodlights. Also, I was all alliteration, apparently.
I signaled for the attention of the Berserker and Duelist, and together we moved in front of the vanguard. Seeing what we were doing, the conscripts tightened their formation. At least a few of them must have had the same thought as me: the Psychons were biding their time, building up for a heavy second wave.
I tightened the knot at the back of my Veil and got ready to slip it over my face if the need arose. Hopefully the Runner would be able to get me back in shape in that eventuality. If not, well… I supposed we’d have bigger things to worry about anyway.