Omega's Valued Prisoner
Tale 25: Invasion
Gyules was running not only to find Mora, but to find Osman and Borusc. At this point in time, he wished life was a video game. Where you just get a waypoint. Follow some sort of arrow pointing the way or some shit. At the very least, he had an idea of where to search for Osman. Borusc should be nearby. More than likely Mora was going to be with the Marauders. That is an idea, at the very least its nice to have an idea, but little else is known enough.
Gyules approached the gates where Osman was informing men who were passing down info. He waved to him and Osman waved back, jumping down.
"Hey man, I told everyone of what is to occur. Currently they are all eager to shoot the Marauders."
"Good, except we gotta go face them." Gyules shouted to Osman as he jumped down. Osman walked over to him a bit confused.
"What's up?"
"Our girl has been taken. Marauders attacked us at the hospital and a smoke grenade was thrown. In that time they took Mora."
"So where is everyone else?"
"Tanner is a bit too hurt so I sent him off with Ilian and Aiden, its you, me, and if we are lucky Borusc."
"Hopefully we will find him, but I didn't see him. Now do you know where she is?" Osman asked as Gyules began to walk away from the gate, moving his Lancer from his back to his chest. Osman moves his rifle always and follows him. The start walking past the church which has been fortified. The large doors have been barricaded and snipers are now on the roof. All of the people the church once employed are all waiting and ready for the Locusts or anyone who attacks.
"Remember the creepy totems they made?" Osman brought up as they walked by.
"Really wish there was more to that , but just a cult is all. Wasn't even that much of a problem."
"Just quite the odd people. People are always trying to seem deeper and more than they are. Naturally humans want to feel like they are more than a simple human, than a statistic or a person in the crowd. So they do whatever the fuck they can to get noticed and feel like more. That's why Jacob is doing the shit he is doing now. He wants to be more than a human and from the looks of it, he wants to feel like some sort of prophet or a saint or some goddam bullshit. Either way, he is still a homo sapien who bleeds like everyone else."
"And we are going to be sure to make it so he no longer bleeds."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Like...empty his body of blood...when we kill him...in a bloody and painful way?" Gyules facepalms at his comment and then puts his hand on his shoulder, the other hand just letting his rifle hang down.
"That was awful. Really awful. Promise me you won't say anything lame like that again."
"I can't help you find what I say is stupid or not!" he said and then began walking forward. Gyules began to follow him.
"Lets just get this guy and hopefully you won't fall down a hole again and put me against odds."
"Hey, you handled Skorge well. Got a little hurt, but consider you were alone. Probably survived longer than I would have if Mora wasn't there. Even if she sucks with a gun..." The two kept talking on their fight with Skorge as they marched onwards to rescue Mora.
The commados though, had already gunned down the men guarding the entrance to the gate and set up a perimeter. Two commandos sit on rooftops with Longshots to snipe anyone who comes by with a gun. They had two men facing right and left to shoot down any men who come to fight them in case the snipers are busy with anyone else. Four men operate in the center, two were opening the gates, the other two were setting up a savage Locust alarm shell (Specifically one man held it in place while another blew into it). They waited to blow into it once the men opening the gate were ready. The men nodded after a minute. The commando gathered all of the air in his lungs before blowing into the massive shell. The sound made its way throughout town and to the surrounding area, alerting any and all Locusts who had set up camps in the vicinity. With that sound the gates were forced open, then the mechanisms to open them were ripped out. The snipers stayed in place, but the rest of the commandos threw out smoke grenades to conceal their exit.
With the sound of that horn, people were panicking and gathering their weapons or fleeing opposite of the gate to try and escape town. Men could not go near the gates, less risk the snipers shooting them, whom were shooting anyone in their sight that wasn't Marauder or Locust.
At the sound of the horn, Aiden lifted his head instinctively. Ilian was monitoring Tanner as they had tumbled down past the wall and now searched for a place to set up in to camp in until the others returned and the attack ended. If they returned, luckily radio contact was set up so they could at the very least, know if they are alive or dead. They can also just annoy the shit out of them and risk their lives by screaming into the radio and making annoying noises.
"I believe that horn means the Locusts are going to start shooting up their assholes?"
"Tanner, that is a disgusting mental image." Ilian scolded.
"Well, if I know Locusts like I know Locusts, they are more than likely going to swarm and basically do so. Since it seems a majority of their combat relies on numbers or giant fuckers. The giant fuckers have become scarce since a majority of them did kind of drown because they are slow. So more than likely they will have a number of Locust forces and following them Lambent. Bam bitch! I know the enemy better than you!" Ilian appeared annoyed at Tanner. She slapped his chest plate and he cringed it in pain, falling over. He was silent rather than screaming, his face depicting the agony he is in. Ilian hoisted Tanner up over her and was about to follow Aiden, when he pulled Tanner from her and carried him.
"I can walk you know." said Tanner. Aiden dropped him and Tanner hit the ground on his chest. He tried to remain silent and after a while of laying there, let out an inaudible "ouch" and got up, taking out his Gorgon submachine guns. Aiden moved his Hammerburst II to his hands and Ilian her Lancer to her hands. They began to walk, prepared for any hostiles into the forest around the town.
Aiden took point, watching for anyone after them. Ilian took rear guard and Tanner watched wherever he could, bearing the best battle vision of them all as he is trained to spot enemies, but not entirely combat ready for point.
"Think Gyules will be fine?" Ilian asked, to break the pressing silence on them.
"Should be fine, Osman might get hurt, but should be fine. I think our entire squad proved ourselves in Hollow Storm." Aiden pointed out "We started out with twelve split into two divisions, the four of us are who survived."
"We were sort of the squad of people the COG didn't wanna deal with. Most everyone was half Tyran and somethin else. Hell, remember those two UIR guys." Tanner stated smiling. Aiden was trying not to be distracted by the conversation, but then lowered his gun and laughed a little. Not a very common sight for the ever wise Islander.
"Those men were fools, but their ammo and rations were good!"
"Two UIR?" Ilian asked, a bit confused as Aiden regained his stance.
"Two guys who were former UIR came into our squad and tried to act like they were still against us and yet never proved of much use. Osman told us about how when they first entered the Hollow they came under attack right away and they got frightened and tried to run off. Instead they got shot as they tried to run off. Course, everyone in Omega-One besides Osman died."
"Interesting." she said, though wasn't really. As the two members of Omega reminisced, the Lambent were preparing. A large stalk busted through ground before them, knocking Tanner onto his ass. The three of them quickly got behind separate trees as Lambent forces began to emerge. Two more stalks came out from the ground, one of them bending into the original stalk. Lambent forces were flooding out now, menacing and armed with whatever guns were on the corpses of the infected Locusts. Ready to kill whatever was not infected in the vicinity, but targeting the members of Omega. Though the sound of the Lambent hid the sound of Locust horns sounding off in the distance. When one sounded another would go off from another Locust camp, the horns being used a form of communication to alert every Locust they could.
In town though, Gyules and Osman were rushing to the mansion, but had to fight the crowds of people trying to leave. Many had taken to the idea of entering the church as it seemed to be fortified right now. The church was denying everyone entry and forcing people back. Parents attempted to put their kids in front and prayed they would at least let their kids in, but they too were denied. Osman looked back to it and sighed.
"I am going to help."
"What?"
"These people need refuge and safety. I don't give two shits what anyone says. That church can keep them safe."
"What if it doesn't?"
"It has tunnels though, it goes beneath the town, I am sure they can rush past the imulsion fumes and find a way out or sit in the basement." he said and began to rush forward. Gyules sighed and followed him, just wanting to get Mora and get out. He didn't care as much for the people as Osman did.
Osman began to push through the crowd best he could, holding his Lancer above the people. It took the help of Gyules though to push through and made them to the window where a man was looking through an opening. Osman lowered his head to the point.
"Yo man, let them in!" he shouted to him above the people. Gyules pinched the bridge of hise nose at his attempt. Gyules pushed Osman aside and stepped over, pulling out from his belt a grenade.
"EVERYONE SHUT UP OR I WILL BLOW US UP!" he screamed at the top of his lungs, leaving his voice a bit hoarse afterwords. Everyone went silent and the people in the church aimed their guns at him, snipers taking position. Gyules leaned over to the window.
"You gotta let people in. They have guns and help defend in case Locusts enter. If you don't they will force their way in and leave the door open for when the Locusts come." he pointed out.
"Prophet's orders though! Don't let anyone in!"
"Look at those people. They are people you dealt with every day, you are really willing to let them die for the words of an old man? The man wants fighting, not a massacre. They are probably going to be at these doors until the Locusts come rather than go home and defend themselves. Besides they are gonna draw a lot of attention to your church and a lot more focus there." The man sighed and then looked over to the people at the doors.
"OPEN THE DOORS! LET THEM ALL IN AND GIVE THEM GUNS! Those who cant fight get into the basement!"
"But sir-"
"THEY AREN'T GOING TO LEAVE UNTIL THEY GET IN! SO GIVE THEMW HAT THEY WANT!" It took a few minutes, but then the doors opened. The people began to swarm their way in. Familiar faces went by, such as those who worked at the hot springs and the twin neighbor girls. Charlie gave Gyules a thumbs up as he entered. Osman got up finally and brushed himself off.
"K, I didn't think a threaten of suicide would work."
"It always works if other lives are at risk." Gyules countered and began to walk off "Now c'mon, we gotta save Mora." Osman ran up a little to follow him. As the two walked off they heard the doors slam shut and soon they could hear Locust battle cries as they ran into the city. Bullets were being fired by the Snipers on the church, putting down as many Locusts as they could while trying to stay safe.
"Sure they are gonna be fine?"
"More than likely the Locusts are gonna attack the church and they will try and hide the top of the entrance to the sewers and sit in there. Hopefully no formers are down there, but I feel pretty certain they probably mapped an escape route or at barricaded those doors."
"I hope so..." Osman said, praying Gyules is right . The guys began to rush forward but soon gunfire went on behind them. Locusts were flooding the streets and a Savage Grenadier was leading soldiers to attack them, using whatever weaponry they could find and supply ammo to. The Savage Grenadier shouted to church as his Locusts began to run at Osman and Gyules firing. The two quickly got into cover behind buildings and blind fired their Lancers down the street as suppressing fire. They could hear a few groan from being shot. Gyules peaked from cover a little bit once to see two Locusts fallen to the ground and several others were in cover. Past their battle, Locusts were running past them and into the city. A grenadier fired a snub pistol at Gyules and he went back into cover. He snickered a little at the idea of trying to kill him with a pistol. Osman poked out of cover and began firing at the Locust with the snub pistol who was standing out. The Locust fell dead, groaning a little. Another popped out from a building to shoot Osman, only to be shot quickly by Gyules.
The two played this strategy, manipulating the Locusts easily. One shoots at the man who shot another and then you shoot him. They kept this strategy to kill three Locusts until one came behind Osman, having gone around the building. He shot at him with a hammerburst. Osman tumbled away and Gyules lined up, shooting the Locust once he was open. He kept firing until his clip died to shoot another who was looking into the ally. He reloaded, performing an active reload and smiling.
"Fuck yeah! Now lets get going, we are too close to the entrance, too thick out here." he said.
"No complaints here." Osman stated and reloaded. The peace did not last long. Osman ran over to Gyules side once he was sure no Locusts wold spot him. The two began to walk through allies between buildings, where cover was little, but enemies were not traveling. They scarcely saw any Locusts and those they did came from behind and Osman had the rear guard, killing them quickly when spotted.
They were making their ways through until eventually the two ran into Marauders Commandos, the same who had opened the gates. The y quickly got into cover. Two of them went into an opening to the street, while the other two huddled together behind a dumpster. Osman got into an ally opening as well and Gyules behind another Dumpster.
"Watch for Locusts Osman, I am going to kill them." Gyules stated.
"Sure you can take-" Before Osman has finished that sentence Gyules has thrown his grenade, which landed behind the dumpster. The men shout in unison: "SHIT" before the grenade goes off and blows them apart. Some blood rains down in the area. Gyules stood outside of cover and began to whistle as he walked forward, holding his Retro Lancer now. He stepped past the dumpster and a Marauder stepped out to shoot. Gyules quickly gunned him down before he did with quick reflexes. He leaned against the wall.
"Gonna use my last grenade Osman, can you loan me one later!" he shouted. The Marauder began running to get out and hopefully make his way around to flank them, hoping no Locusts were past the building. Instead Gyules just stepped past and opened fire upon the scared Marauder. The bullets tore his minor armour and flesh, killing him.
"Don't need the grenade!" he called back to Osman who began to approach him. Gyules deposited the clip and looked in to see how many bullets were in. It was enough.
"The Marauders are starting their attack, the true battle is beginning! We should hurry!" he said. Osman just nodded and began to follow him, the two of them rushing forward in the ally. The streets were filled with far more gunfire and explosions now. The sounds of Marauders screaming orders could be heard as they were expertly fighting Locusts.
"Gyules, even if we kill Jacob, what are we gonna do about the Marauders? Aren't they gonna want us dead and just swarm us? I assume Jacob will have security as well."
"We kill them and without Jacob they won't have too much leadership and will probably far apart. Begin fighting over things and separate. Unless they have other forms of leadership, in which case its just one more enemy for us to fight then. Nothing we can do now."
"Why are you so willing to risk our lives for Mora?"
"None of your business."
"Got a crush?"
"Nope."
"Then why?"
"Her mother will kill us if anything happens to her, she keeps morale up among you guys, she adds extra fire power against Lambent, yet doesn't turn on us when Locusts attack, and has a unique personality."
"Unique is a bit vague, man."
"You know her, you have seen how she acts. She is different, she hasn't been broken by a lack of supplies and hasn't been around all of the death and destruction. A real innocent of the war. She has not let it affect her as it shout, considering she actually talked to us when we killed her guards, tied her up, and let Conway deal with her. The girl has dealt with her people absolutely hating humans her whole life. Her mother preached about hating us. Yet she defied them all and never really hated us. As much as she wanted to talk big about Locusts ad wahtnot, she never really seemed to believe it and took the time to get to know us. I applaud her on that, its hard to resist people when they teach you something your whole life. Hell wish I could say I don't hate Locusts even if I know they were just taught this way, but all of the attacks and whatnot, I lie when I say I don't hate them."
"Interesting, I still think you like her there."
"Think all you want, doesn't make shit true." The two would begin guiding their ways through the allies, making sure to watch for any enemies. At most they encountered a few Locusts coming from behind, searching for kills. They easy to kill, but sadly never carried Lancer ammo. They kept running into dead ends until eventually a conversation was sparked about ammo.
"Hey Gyules, how many clips you got?"
"Six."
"Six!? Where the hell are you keeping the six clips? I am at two with currently half of one in my Lancer."
"I am not carrying a pistol, I replaced my pistol holster with another ammo pouch for the Lancer. Need a clip?"
"Probably gonna need one, yeah..." Gyules is about to open his pouch when they hear gunfire.
"FUCK TAKE THAT SHIT OUT!" shouted a human voice from behind a wall. Soon after that there was the iconic "BOOM" shout and an explosion. The wall in front of them was blown apart, a damaged weapon on the ground in the blood remains of a man.
"Must have been an active reload." Osman stated while Gyules tumbled past the hole and got into cover. He swapped to his retro lancer and began to fire into the Boomer. The bullets tore through the Boomer's flesh and it took half the active reloaded clip, but the Savage Boomer fell over dead. A few Locusts shouts some orders and began to run into the room, which was a little living room . There was a couch, a box that had two stone chairs by it with a chest board on it, all of the pieces now scattered, and there were a few boxes in the corner. Currently a Locust ran into cover behind the couch and another was behind the box, the only real pieces of cover in the room.
"Kind of an empty place." Osman noted upon peaking in.
"Well, how full was our home?"
"Good point. Eh, I don't wanna deal with this." Osman pulled out a frag grenade, then threw it into the room. It landed right in the area between the two Locusts, exploding and sending shrapnel into them. It knocked back the one by the chess board, wrecking the box with shrapnel, and killed the one by the couch. Gyules walked into the room and then over to the Locust. He flipped the Locust with one leg and slammed his foot onto his skull, completely crushing it. He then started walking forward, but slipped on his own foot, hitting the ground hard.
"Fuck, my boot is slippery." he commented. Gyules stood up and had a large swollen bruise on his forehead. He sits upon the couch and peels the face flesh off of his boot. Gyules got up then and walked around fine.
"C'mon, lets hurry." said Gyules. Osman nodded.
"Lets get to the roof, see if we can get an idea of where we were compared to the mansion." Gyules ran up the stairs in the room, Osman following him. They quickly ran up a second set of stairs and made it to the roof. From there they could see the mansion in the dawn, but it was not pretty. The area had been bombarded and many of the buildings destroyed. A barricade was set up outside of the mansion with sandbags and a majority of paths to get to the building were blocked by destroyed buildings or piles of sandbags, causing anyone who wants to attack, to have to take a thinner path that went around a corner and right into Mulcher fire by Marauders, who had boxes of the ammo, made from whatever scrap metal they could find. Though not visible to the two, more than likely they had figured out a way to reload the Mulcher. They could see the hordes of Locust past the destroyed buildings, trying to run in thick groups and getting gun downed. Usually one would try and stay in place and then would be pushed out by another who wants to rush forward.
They specifically watched as in one tunnel, a berseker made its way. The Berserker got within twelve feet of the barricade before two men began firing Flamethrowers at it and burning it, several others without Mulchers firing whatever they could and Snipers from the roof firing at it's head. Before long the Mulcher died and the back up men aided the Mulcher man in killing the Locusts whom were behind.
"So...observing this perfect strategy...how do we get in?" asked Osman, pulling off his helmet and watching the stairs in case anyone comes up. Gyules stayed from the edge and watched for snipers.
"We gotta get around that, or we gotta wait."
"Wait for what? For them to finish off the Locusts who are too dumb to try this!?"
"The Locusts have lost their little intelligence and gone Savage, desiring to kill any human they can. The Lambent are going to join soon, there are stalk behind us." he pointed out "I feel bad for the poor saps dealing with those, they obviously came out to fight something there, but the Lambent cannot resist conflict this large and they can actually get troops in this time. That and since they advance everyday...I just said the option, I am going to save our girl there and go around. We just gotta watch and make sure they have nothing planned to handle Locusts going around. Let alonet hey also have death squads all about killing Locust and human alike.
"You know too much on war, man. Can't wait till this shit is over."
"Well, it isn't going to end itself anytime soon." Gyules patted his shoulder and began running forward to the other rooftop.