Strophades
The details came quickly. The Daughters had been betrayed, that much was obvious. The valley which Ouroboros occupied was accessible through a few ways, all of which were guarded but none moreso than the route the Harpies were given to enter.
It was at this entrance that Scipio Venator and his centuria attacked. It was a bloodbath. The Hounds were caught unaware, swarmed by superior numbers despite their superior firepower. Hound Captain Jordan Dae was cut down by no less than an entire contubernia attacking him at once, but before he was killed he managed to send word of the attack back to Ouroboros.
"They've penetrated the first defense," Sibyl Yvana reported, "Strophades corridor is compromised. Captain Dae is killed in action," she concluded, crestfallen.
"Order the main guard out to Strophades checkpoint three, tripletime," Julia commanded, "Get a contingent of Maenads supporting them. Wait for further orders from the Goddess."
She turned on her heal and left the Sibyl control center. She entered the private chambers of the Goddess unannounced as was her privilege and filled her in on the details including her response. The Goddess was stunned. For more than a decade she had maintained authority over the southwest wasteland and Caesar's puissant Legion without so much as condemnation and new she faced her first Legion attack since the betrayal of the Twisted Hairs.
As Julia waited for her Goddess to respond, Hecate's head filled with Dark Mother's visions. The Legion standard over a thick black cloud of smoke, the smell of burning tires so thick in the air she could choke on it. They severed limbs from her tribespeople, left a whole pile of arms and legs that quickly attracted a swarm of bloatflies.
She remembered the man with a coyote's head. The devil the Legion rode with. He tore whole warriors limb from limb, strong men who knew battle like the bloatflies knew the bodies of her tribe's slain. The coyote with the body of a man tore them into fat bloody chunks. Who could fight a force allied with old coyote himself? The stench of death, the stench left by the death of the Twisted Hairs flooded Hecate's nose and she was unable to lead.
Meanwhile, Mortuus Anima led the charge of Venator's centuria, a Legion standard strapped to his back and a roaring chainsaw in his hands.
"Caesar Enim! Enim Legion!" he screamed at the Legionaries, ushering them onward into battle for the glory and benefit of Caesar. It was ironic, considering Centurion Venator had gone AWOL to attack Ouroboros, and Mortuus and the Legionaries who followed him through the winding corridor were no longer part of the Legion or owned by Caesar as a result. Although they still fought for the benefit of Caesar they no longer had his blessing, as no amount of convincing on Scipio Venator's part could convince Caesar or his Legate that the Daughters of Hecate and Hecate worshippers in general were a threat to the Legion, at least not enough of a threat to expend the resources of an entire centuria.
Venator didn't even bother to tell him. He knew Caesar would be too short-sighted, would underestimate the threat presented by the Hecate worshippers. He would make an effort to stamp it out where he saw it, certainly, as he stamped out all non-Legion ideologies in the southwest wasteland. He wouldn't see the organization or the dangerous efficiency of the creed and its believers.
Venator knew he could never go back. It didn't matter. He would save Caesar and the Legion even if it meant damning himself and his men, even if it meant turning away from Mars' embrace.
Julia noticed her Goddess' hesitation, even if she didn't understand it. She knew it was no time to get lost in thought, not aware of the dread visions that fueled Hecate's paralysis. The Legion would be advancing to the second checkpoint in a matter of minutes, and inaction could mean the death of Hecate and all her Daughters.
"I'm going to transfer Hounds from other checkpoints to Strophades checkpoint three, and mobilize Ouroboros proper," she informed Hecate. The Goddess could only nod in shock. Julia had her approval and returned to the Sibyl control center to give her commands.
"W-where are you going?" Yvana asked Julia after receiving the orders, tears now streaming down her face for her departed Captain Dae.
"I'm suiting up and I'm getting out there. Keep me posted over the shortwave, on the special channel," Julia grabbed a radio and walked briskly to the armory, where she encountered Bella, the new leader of her old Maenad team.
"What's the word? Shortwave is blowing up," she asked.
"Right now a centuria of Legionaries are killing our Hounds at Strophades checkpoint two, while checkpoint three is getting reinforcements. We don't know if this is part of a bigger assault yet, but it doesn't look like it. Help me get my armor on, then tell your team to suit up and take defensive positions, then meet me on the promontory," Julia dressed quickly, practiced at taking her body armor on and off.
The Strophades corridor was the most tactically defensible entryway into the Valley of Hecate. It was a narrow, winding corridor that opened in to a flat, vast plain, the entirety of which could be viewed from the promontory, a tall rock jutting out of the ground at a low angle. Julia climbed its gentle slope and positioned herself with The Lady. Nothing could broach the valley from Strophades and escape her or her .50 caliber rifle. She was soon joined by Bella, who had brought her hunting Winchester.
"Second checkpoint has withdrawn to the third, which is at triple strength. There aren't any attacks at any other entrance, so it looks like it's just the one group," Julia filled Bella in.
"I can't believe we didn't see this coming," Bella mused anxiously. A long, greasy strand of blonde hair fell in front of her face, and she brushed it back and put her Kossuth hat with all the animal teeth in the brim back on. Unlike Julia's authoritarian, pre-war Hopeville riot armor, Bella wore light hunting apparel. Unlike Julia's thick, armored jacket Bella's duster was sewn together from the leather of animals she'd killed and skinned herself.
Belladonna Fiasco of the Fiasco family, as she was called where she came from, was once the premier hunter of a family of hunters in a small Arizona town. When she became a Hecate worshipper she claimed she had fled the Legion because they were trying to enslave her, but the truth was her town had capitulated to Legion rule without incident. She had actually helped teach the Legion's explorers better survival skills in exchange for Legion coin. She had only left when the Legion explorer corps muscled her out of her hunting contracts and off her hunting grounds- using the skills she had taught them, of course. She had served as tracker in Julia's Maenad team before replacing her as captain.
"If anyone makes it through, we'll pick them off," Julia shrugged off Bella's apprehension, trying to shake her own apprehension at the Goddess' less-than-assuring or leader-like response to the Legion attack, "If any Legion make it through," she repeated. She grit her teeth and peered through The Lady's scope.
"If anyone makes it through."