The people of Landown were scared. They were always scared, because they were constantly being preyed on. No matter how much the mayor asked for help from Jacinto, they never received any support. Jacinto wasn't even a day's ride from Landown, and the Stranded living there were certainly not happy with their current condition. The convoys that brought supplies from Jacinto were constantly being raided, but the Coalition of Governments didn't see it as necessary to assign soldiers to guard them; after all, the city was so close to the capitol, and the Plateau was a fortress. Nothing bad could happen that close to their stronghold's walls.
Or so they thought.
Landown was attacked five years after E-day in the middle of the night one winter by an immense amount of locust, with only one squad under a Lieutenant Bryce to protect it.
The night started quietly enough, as usual. The COGs made sure that everyone was in their houses by curfew and were patrolling the streets as was their jobs, but Locust never came into the city; they only attacked unguarded convoys.
"Aw man, this shit sucks," complained Private Lee.
"Doesn't it always?" replied a weary Private Phillips.
"You know, maybe instead of hanging around here where there are no grubs, we should protect our supply lines. Grubs have fun with those, but no, Prescott finds it unnecessary, so we'll just let men and supplies go to waste when we don't have enough of either in the first place!" Lee voiced angrily. Phillips ignored him; he made a speech like this nearly every night, after all, so he just kept watching the streets.
"Hey, did you see that?" Phillips asked, raising his Lancer – an automatic machine gun with a mounted chainsaw bayonet – and scanning the street ahead of them with it. Lee raised his gun as well and they moved slowly forward.
"Are you sure you saw anything?" Lee asked quietly.
"It was just a shadow; I don't know if it was locust or human," Phillips replied.
"It was probably just a dog," Lee said, though he didn't lower his gun. Phillips scoffed.
"Yeah, and the locust will surrender tomorrow with offerings of roses and chocolate," he replied. Seeing nothing in or around the street, or in the alleys branching from it, he lowered his weapon with a sigh. He looked at the building where he'd thought he'd seen the shadow, noting that it was the food storage building. He frowned.
"One of those greedy Stranded are probably in there stealing our food," he said angrily.
"Oh, I'll get him, don't worry," Lee said. "Come on out, asshole! We know you're in there!" There was no answer, so Lee started to head around the back of the building while Phillips guarded the front.
Somehow, Landown always managed to be low on food, even with the careful rationing. Now, Phillips thought, they would catch the person responsible for that.
His attention was soon grabbed by something else, however; a whistling noise that he knew all too well.
"Nemacyst!" he shouted, and he and Lee immediately ran behind the stores building, hoping that the living bomb wasn't aimed at that particular spot. A building down the road exploded in a cloud of ink, and they could hear more coming.
"Theta Squad! Protect the citizens; we're evacuating!" Lieutenant Bryce shouted over the Com link, and the two could hear gunfire in the background.
"Wilco! Theta- Two out!" Phillips said back, tapping his earpiece. "Come on, Lee; we have bigger fish to fry."
---
Despite their effort to keep the Locust at bay, Theta could not save everyone. As a matter of fact, they hardly saved anyone; two of their men were killed in the attack, leaving only Lee, Phillips, and Bryce to evacuate the remaining citizens.
"Come on! We have to get these civilians out of here!" screamed Lieutenant Bryce, covering the rear as they retreated to he city limits. They could still see Nemacyst bombing the city like artillery cannons, destroying many buildings while the Locust burned others to the ground, and they could hear people screaming as the Locust eradicated them. Bryce clenched his jaw, frustrated that he couldn't save them. Only a few people near the edge of town made it out, and that was a meager population indeed.
The small band of survivors included a group of women from the factories, a convoy driver, a group of children and two teenagers. One of the women held a screaming infant in her arms and was trying in vain to calm it even though she was crying as well.
Lee and Phillips ushered the group forward, trying to comfort the crying women and the scared children, though they kept their eyes on their surroundings, hoping that they wouldn't be ambushed in such an open place.
"Theta to control, we need pickup!" Lieutenant Bryce said into his Com, pressing two fingers to his ear while he watched for more Locust. "Do you read?"
"Copy that, Lieutenant Bryce," a female voice crackled in over the com link. "Pickup is on its way. How many survivors are there?" The Lieutenant took a quick count of the small group.
"Eleven," he stated curtly. "Landown is gone." There was a short pause.
"Copy that. ETA is five minutes. Be careful."
"Wilco. Bryce out." He was silent for a moment, contemplating what should be done and then turned toward what was left of his squad. They looked rather small and desolate standing in front of the dead trees in the snow. "Alright, hit the trees, Theta! Take cover, pickup is on its way!" The squad complied, hiding the women and children back farther than they were by about ten meters, and once again Bryce moved to cover their rear, just in case there was an ambush in wait.
"Well there you go, Lee," Phillips mumbled. "You just had to wish for something else to do."
"This is not what I meant," Lee replied, shooting down a Locust that had been chasing them. A loud, guttural roar sounded, and a slew of gray-skinned Locust climbed up the hill they had just ascended. Hammerburst bullets flew by them, and one of the women cried out in fear. Bryce moved to help them, using the trees as cover as the bullets made a trail through them. He tossed a Bolo Grenade among them, and because there were so many of them they couldn't flee, so a group of four died in a shrapnel-laden explosion. Other Locust were knocked down from the force of the explosion and were trampled by their own comrades.
Crack!
"What the hell?!" Lee yelled as a now-headless Locust dropped to the ground. He ducked behind a fallen tree and turned around, seeing one of the Stranded they'd rescued reloading a Longshot sniper rifle, looking incredulous at the fact that it was one of the teenage girls.
"Just keep shooting," Bryce said over the com link. The battle continued, the COG soldiers shooting down the oncoming Locust with their burning city in the background, and things started to look bleak as more and more kept coming.
Suddenly they felt a gust of wind and heard the roar of a helicopter, and they all dropped down behind cover in relief as a King Raven used its turret to cut down the entirety of the front line, and the rest of the Locust fled back to their new stronghold.
"It's about time!" Lee yelled, though it was in a more relieved tone than he'd intended it to be. The King Raven landed in the clearing and the women were loaded onto it before it took off. A second one took its place and the rest of the Stranded climbed in before the soldiers joined them, and they took off as well.
"So, what's with that girl?" Lee asked over com so that the Stranded wouldn't hear him. He cast a glance in the teenager's direction, where she currently was sitting with one of the children in her lap, hugging him and willing him to stop crying even though silent tears rolled down her cheeks as well. Her Longshot was slung over her shoulder, reminding them of exactly what she'd been able to do for them.
"She can't be more than eighteen," Phillips commented, noting her slight frame and long brown hair, tied back in a ponytail. She dressed pretty strangely, even for a Stranded; she wore a long black trench coat over a sweater, khaki cargos and combat boots, all of which were very worn and seemed to have been ripped and torn in multiple places, as was the clothes of the other Stranded, even bundled in their winter night clothing as they were. It didn't occur to the worn soldiers that she was the only one wearing her day clothes, either.
"Yeah, but where'd she get a sniper rifle? And how's she know how to use it?" Lee asked.
"That's none of your business, soldier," Bryce cut in with a stern look. Lee was silenced immediately, though he gave Phillips a questioning look, which was answered by a shrug. They turned their attention back to the girl for a moment more to find her staring at them in a confused and depressed manner, though she looked away quickly when they noticed. They cast each other questioning looks and came to the silent understanding that they would get to the bottom of this enigmatic Stranded before the next day was out.