Crusade

"... Welp, that's the end of the road I guess. Mind the gap as you exit the train car and load AP, from here on out it is shoot to kill on all unknowns."

While using a metro doing a planetary invasion had been a pretty bad idea in the first place, Mike, River and Jessica had nevertheless gotten fairly close to their ship before they were forced to abandon their metro pod due to a collapsed tunnel, getting out using the emergency exit it was easy enough to find a service shaft that would take them from the metro tunnel and back to the surface.

The real question is if they should.

"Is that even a good idea?"

Not keen to wander directly into an active war zone just to end up as collateral damage, River wanted to make sure the possible benefits were worth the risk.

"Our only chance of survival is getting to the Wyrm, while it would make sense to lay low if the planet was 'just' under attack. I'm not so sure we're still in the same galaxy so help is not coming. Unless we get ourselves out of this mess we're not getting out, the best chance of doing that is the Wyrm, even without the modifications for longer endurance, and the chance of it still being intact is falling by the second."

With everybody on the same page, Mike took point and emerged from the service tunnel inside some kind of office or administrative mega block.

"It looks like the coast is clear… I say we bypass the metro blockage and find the next possible access point to get underground until we know what we're up against, I'm not taking chances."

Ignoring the alarm that called for an evacuation and how creepy it was with no people around, Mike eventually found traces of people, just not the kind he really ever wanted to see.

"... That's a severed human arm, isn't it?"

"Yeah, judging by the amount of blood on the floor, the person it belonged to didn't have to suffer long… But would you look at that, we're going the same direction as that trail. Just my fucking luck."

Pointing out that the sign which showed the way to the nearest deep shelter (the metro station) and the trail of blood both led the same way Mike's wry smile hardened up.

"Get these heretics lined up!"

In the middle of what had up until a few minutes ago been a peaceful plaza in the middle of an office complex, a squad of infantrymen from the Eden Theocrasy were lining up prisoners under the orders of their imperator. While the normal soldiers wore what Mike would describe as ordinary-looking armoured vacuum suits and toned glass visors, the imperator's armour looked like a mix between standard seeming military armour and mediaeval armour plating, furthermore, the imperator branded a one-handed, dual-bladed sword in one hand and a pistol in the other while the grunts all used some kind of rifles.

"Well there's the fuckface who's going around cutting body parts off of civ's. Question is what to do now…"

Observing from the shadows, Mike weighed his next options as the little mid-progress execution separated him, Jessica and River from the metro entrance on the other side of the plaza.

(3 vs 5 really does not favour us as we only have handguns and a single rifle, on the other hand just watching innocents being executed doesn't sit well with me…)

"Fucking hell… River, take Jessica's new fancy pistol and flank right. The normal-looking grunts won't stay calm, but the knight is tricky, stay away from that sword and go for the spine, that's where the power assist is hiding."

"Roger."

"Jessica, River is flanking left and will wait for me to start the party, when I do, count to 7 and open fire from that office cubicle up there, then switch position and keep shooting, it doesn't matter if you hit anything, just suppress the shit out of them."

"Excuse me?"

While River was in on the plan even before she heard the entirety of it, Jessica couldn't figure out why they were fighting all of a sudden, after Mike had only been prioritising their own safety she didn't get why they needed to go out of their way to save people all of a sudden.

"They're going to kill those people, then look after more people to kill. Hence we're ambushing them before they start looking for us."

"... Fine then, seven seconds, then move and keep suppressing. Wilco."

Grabbing River's coil rifle, Jessica disappeared to find a stairway reaching the cubicle Mike had pointed at, as she did, River silently cracked her neck and cocked the hammer on Jessica's new hand cannon as she started flanking around right. Purging all emotions from his mind, Mike went around left and chambered a round in his pistol as he checked on his knife knowing he would be using it.

Creeping around a raised flower bed Mike closed to within 10 metres of the firing squad that was forming at the edge of the plaza and making sure no one paid any attention to him he emptied his lungs and took a deep breath as he rose out of cover.

At this point, habit took over in Mike and he assumed a slightly modified sport's shooting stance, extending his pistol hand out to the side Mike seemed to have all the time in the world as he made damn sure he didn't miss his opening shot by slowly squeezing the trigger before feeling the recoil as his pistol kicked back and took the top of the closest grunt's head off, spraying brain matter, blood and guts all over the nearby rosebed. Drawing his knife as he collapsed down behind the flowerbed for cover, Mike used it for leverage and kicked off it to slide on his stomach as his concealment and some lovely white orchids were decimated by automatic rifle fire.

(One chicken, four left.)

Counting how long it had been since he opened fire, Mike jerked his knife into a crack between two stone tiles to stop his slide before rising into a low run, cracking a few more of the lovely engraved stone tiles beneath his feet as he rapidly changed his vector.

(Three chicken…)

Bringing his pistol forward to fire as he rose up from behind cover, Mike ripped his knife out of the ground again and brought it up high in a reverse grip, making sure his forearm blocked part of his head as Mike knew from experience that having multiple layers of his armoured vacuum suit between his brain and any hostiles made a difference. Emerging out of cover like a madman after making sure all attention was drawn on himself, Mike's soul-chilling smile widened slightly underneath his tinted visor as River appeared in the edge of his vision with Jessica's hand cannon. Aiming for centre mass, River's first shot went straight through her target and into a second grunt she had made sure to line up, causing him to flinch as he fired at Mike, the grunt's shots going wide and missing.

(Six chicken, two and a half left…)

Reducing the number of active hostiles right after he had gone through the effort of counting them by finishing off the grunt River had injured by sinking his knife into the weaker armour plating on his neck, Mike pointed his pistol towards the last grunt who had his ticket punched by Jessica finally opening fire, the shot from her borrowed coil rifle going straight through his head and a couple of flowerbeds behind him before burying itself deep into the ground.

(Eight chicken, final chicken left…)

Pointing his pistol to the imperator as he used the dead grunt as a shield with the leverage from his knife still in his neck, Mike absorbed a few shots from the imperator with his improvised armour but didn't need to fire in the end as River's knife found a soft spot in his armour plating. Using the leverage she had gained with the knife going in between a pair of ribs, River kicked the imperator in the back of the knee and forced him down to a kneel, perfectly aligning his head with her hand cannon as she was already squeezing the trigger.

(Nine chicken, all chicks wasted…)

In just nine seconds Mike, River and Jessica had transformed one imperator and four-foot soldiers of the Eden Theocrasy into nothing more grim-looking flower beds while fertilising a good deal of flowers in the quaint office plaza with fresh, all-natural fertiliser.

"... All in a good day's work, I guess. They sure moved a lot slower than normal, I guess their training was lacking."

Having made sure the grunts she shot through the chest was dead, River glanced at the office workers she had saved with disinterest before making a 'shoo' gesture and finally commenting on Mike's absurdity.

"I'm pretty sure no amount of training could have saved them from that, remember that your standards are vastly above anything around here."

"Right, duly noted. Jessica, stuff is clear and people are dead! If you're running away, seek cover underground if you can!"

Not immediately seeing or hearing back from Jessica, Mike offered her some advice for striking out on her own before she popped out, jumping out from a second story cubicle and landing in front of him.

"I heard you the first time, dickweed."

"Righty, let's keep moving."

Hearing that their rescuer was leaving, one of the office workers perked up.

"W-wait! T-"

"Nope."

Not giving the office worker a single second of attention, Mike picked up one of the dead grunt's rifles and tossed it at him.

"Here, seek shelter somewhere underground, use that to do it, two shots to the chest, repeat as necessary, but point that weapon at me and I will kill you."

Offering the office worker a chance at survival, Mike shooed them away with the same gesture as River, but Mike's cold tone of voice seemed to do the trick. Finding a working metro that could take them closer to the Wyrm, River waited until they were at least sitting down to bring up what had been on her mind for a while.

"So I take it that those guys we just wasted aren't the same as Jessica."

"Nope, that was the Eden Theocracy, crazed supremacist blood cultists with almost see through skin and blood red eyes. They worship their god with blood and human sacrifices."

"Sounds pleasant, can't wait to meet more of them."

Filling in Jessica too, Mike got a question in return he hadn't expected.

"What exactly is a cult?"

(... Right, beaskin are only slightly spiritual at most so a cult would be a strange concept for them…)

Having not really studied religion in school or college and being pretty lost on the entire idea that there was a dude with a large beard hiding somewhere in a cloud watching young kids and judging them if they misbehaved, Mike struggled to explain.

"... Erm… They, and by 'they' I mean most not all, believe that they need to kill people and drain their blood out on statues."

"That sounds really stupid."

"Yeah, but let them catch you saying that, they'll skin you alive before draining out your blood if they hear that."

"Noted."

-

In high orbit looking down on the newly appeared boon, Inquisitor Lua had a bored expression on her face. So far initial raids had met minimal resistance, whatever the revered lords above had done, the heretics clearly hadn't seen it coming.

(I volunteered to lead this initial raid hoping to see some action, but this is duller than suppressing dissidence or listening to those endless sermons.)

"Esteemed Inquisitor, we're lost contact with an imperator detachment sent to secure initial samples, furthermore an additional 4 units in the area have gone quiet."

(So someone is making a mess out of our units? Interesting…)

Not really caring for the unit's she had lost, Inquisitor Lua was more intrigued by the possibility of ending her boredom, the question was how to justify it to her superiors if she fucked up somehow.

(Eh, if anything happens I can just blame it on my subordinate.)

"We need to make sure this isn't a trend that'll start spreading, take us out of orbit."

"Ma'am?"

"You heard me, take us out of orbit, the rest of the troops can act without me needing to tell them every little thing. It is not like these heretics can do anything to us after we took out their puny little railguns."

With her crew too afraid to oppose her as they knew what had happened to the people they replaced, Inquisitor Lua got her way as her command vessel shuttered its bridge and prepared for atmospheric entry. Although the idea that a hulking behemoth of a battlecruiser could fly inside an atmosphere seemed like something straight out of a fairyland fantasy, Eden capital ships had been designed to do extremely low altitude direct fire support, a necessity born from the Eden theocracy's long and arduous history of COIN operations purging non-believers from all corners of their galaxy.

A massive contact suddenly starting to drop out of orbit didn't go unnoticed, however, as what was left of the planetary defence core who had been busy managing evacuations and slowly watching their units bleed dry saw a chance.

"S-sir, what are the chances that vessel is some sort of command and control node like you said?"

"It is by far the largest of all registered contacts and both its EMS and heat signature are too far off the charts for it to be anything else… It is time to mobilise, I recommend we disable the suspected command node and gather whatever intel is available."

Speaking to a voice-only comn line, the planetary defence commander knew he was acting within his right to make this request, and it was within what operational doctrine remained in this insane situation.

But still, he was quite nervous, in most other situations he would have been demoted and harshly reprimanded for suggesting what he did in such a rude manner.

"Very well, you've made your case commander."

After an almost 10-second break, the comn line finally responded before following with orders.

"Lure them all the way in, it is time for these marauders to find out who exactly they're fucking with."

"Ma'am! YES MA'AM!"