Chapter 7.18 - Finding the Source

Summer

"Intelligence reports state that the church and state have merged in GWA."

"Good for us I guess. Even if our work wasn't sanctioned by Haven officially, it will still be accepted by the Church."

"Which makes us just like them."

"Yes. We are a response to them. We wouldn't exist if they hadn't struck."

It was still Summer when Hera and Ulrica stood with their team, the Sirens, tucked away under an alcove on a barely scalable cliff face. They were nowhere near Haven. And they were definitely not here under direct orders. They were the Sirens. Haven's unofficial wetwork team. While the Protectorate protected Haven from harder threats, and the Subjugator took specialized teams outside their gates on specific missions, The Sirens had one goal. Hit the soft targets that were unexposed of their enemies.

Today that was a 'monastery'. The information the Sirens had gathered was that this 'religious retreat' was a religious sanctuary for those where were 'damaged by the war against the impure'. This made no sense to Ulrica, leader of the SIrens.

Haven took no prisoners. Haven only destroyed its enemies completely. There should be none 'damaged' by war because it was Haven's policy to eradicate its targets.

And Ulrica was right. This place was not a monastery. They had it under careful observation for a week before today, and there were no civilians. There were only heavily armed non-uniformed combat personnel.

Today's mission was a 'raid'. They would go in, capture valuable intel, leave a marker, and exit before reinforcements would come. And the reinforcements would definitely come if alarms were activated.

In the week that Ulrica and Hera's team had this post under observation, they had seen there was a nearby GWA army garrison. Their response time had been 12 minutes. They had watched as a wild Pekin had wandered in through a window searching for food and set off the alarm. An entire army battalion arrived to face off against the daring intruder.

"When we enter, it is imperative we do not go loud until the last possible moment. If we remain undetected, we will exit and take the cart at the bottom of the cliff. If we need to make a quick exit we will use Plan B."

Plan B was met with a groan from Hera. "I don't like it any better than you do, but that is what Cere is there for. She is safeguarding our emergency escape. But since it is universally accepted that we don't want that to be the outcome, let's make this quiet." With that, Hera and Ulrica, as well as the other two available members of the Sirens Lana and Lia, snuck towards the Monastery, 'Mephystra's Retreat'

***

Alarms. The loudest alarms Hera had ever heard. "How did they detect us? We censured the alarms?!"

It was then that Hera saw a notification that Ulrica had also received.

[Having trespassed on holy territory as infidels of another faith, your detection was immediate.]

"Well that puts a damper on things."

Then rifle shots started. "Alright! Hera, Lana, you two go and secure the marker beacon. I will go with Lia to try and find any intel. In 6 minutes we leave! Go, go, go!"

Hera ran with Lana. This was not her preferred fight. It was too open and exposed. She ran with her rifle, bayonet attached. She fired rounds as she ran. Even with her armor and high [greater resist] spell, the enemy rounds still nicked and bruised and hit like hammers. Three shots to her chest and she felt a broken rib or two.

Lana ran with her, pistol blades in each hand, jumping and weaving, firing at the numerous enemies. Hera knew. Lana was making herself a more dangerous target so she could accomplish her mission.

Hera ran until she found what she was looking for. It was a toilet. Their observations told them that all waste was handled onsite, as there were no sewage out pipes. So this meant that if her marker was placed inside a pile of human waste, it was not likely to be discovered anytime soon.

Hera didn't think about it. She pulled the marer from her [inventory] and activated it. She then activated the auxiliary switch attached. As was the plan if they had to go loud.

Hera dropped it into the disgusting pool of waste, and it sank to the bottom out of site.

With that, Hera ran out. It had been less than a minute, but the fighting in the small alcove where she had left Lana had stopped. She saw Lana on the ground. Around here were dead bodies. She was still breathing, but wasn't able to walk. Hera saw the damage. It was too much to fix on site.

Lana simply looked at Hera, "If you can carry me I can still move my arms." Hera picked her up as the sounds of boots were coming towards them.

***

Lana and Hera ran. Hera running, Lana firing her pistols. Enemy soldiers falling dead. "Not next to my ear, by the divines if we survive I am going to box your eardrum to see how you like it!"

They soon met up with Lia and Ulrica. Ulrica was unconscious, missing a large part of her intestines. Her internals were filled with the amber of [stasis]. It was keeping her from bleeding out but the pressure on her diaphragm made breathing difficult.

Lia looked at Hera. "Documents secured ma'am. Exfiltrate?"

Hera nodded. She knew if Ulrica went down, Ulrica's parasite took over. But if the body was non-functional, the parasite would work to keep the brain and body alive while they sought aid. And since that was the case, Hera was next in the chain of command.

Soon enough they could hear the approach of the battalion of troops arriving from the nearby garrison. The base was a quick reaction force to protect this site. It was their only purpose they trained for. And they were ready.

Hera took the lead and they met up with Cere, who's eyes went wide. "By the divines, y'all look rough." Cere had already uncovered the windrunner that was parked on the cliff and the towbox that was behind it.

"Cere, you will need to cast [Stasis] on us or two of us won't survive the trip. We are heading back to Haven."

"And how are we supposed to hide our involvement."

Hera shook her head. "Both markers are activated. It's too late to hide our involvement. And I don't want to be here in about 2 minutes."

Cere nodded, "Roger ma'am." Cere knew Hera was in charge. And if both markers were activated, there was no hiding what was about to happen. Cere loaded up the four of them in the toxbox and cast [stasis]. For the conscious, it was the feeling of slowly drowning, but not. And they would be aware of their surroundings.

***

His name was Resolute Light, of the Enduring Sun, Lord of Twilight, and Conqueror of the Great Bickor Labyrinth.

Or Lord Rezzi, for short.

His team had slowly shifted from undead to Homunculi, but he was still left in charge of his station. This was because the person in charge had to follow orders unwavering. There could be no question or no internal quarrel. There could be no remorse. There was only duty to Haven and his Master Serin.

Lord Rezi watched on the large crystal display. It was designed by Josef Blomst. In the center, it had a display dot. This represented where lord Rezzi was, standing surrounded by artillery cannons large enough to encompass the inside of the top quarter of the mountain range at Haven's center, between its first three regions.

Then he had a field of dots to look for. Each dot had a number attached to it as well, which gave the identity of the marker. If the dot was green, it was a reference dot. These were city centers, known points, landmarks, etc. If the dot was yellow, it was a marked target. These were targets that would be available for bombardment when ordered, such as moving military units of enemies, barracks, and not-so-secret research projects. These were most of what filled the screen. Today however, Lord Rezzi watched a rare red dot appear.

Red dots were 'fire at will according to the target guidance.'

Lord Rezzi began to bark out orders. "All units to stations. All Canons move lateral to position 162.119. Move Vertical to 47.778."

Lord Rezzi then read the loadout and smiled. "First Salvo, High Explosive. Fire!"

***

It had been mere minutes since the Sirens made their daring escape. Their autocart at the base of the mountain set to burn away should the internal timer not be reset. Troops had filled in the monastery and had just secured it, having found no sign of the invaders. Now the investigation started. They needed to know their losses, not of personnel. People were replaceable. They needed to know what was lost in information.

The battalion was led by two of the specialist inspectors from the GWA Capitol. They were known as 'Inquisitors

Just as Haven had its team of Inquisitors, so did the GWA. but while Haven's Inquisitors were focused on determining the truth and policing the city, the GWA's Inquisitors had been absorbed into the GWA's religion of purity. Their goal, root out the impure. Their ability to shake off spells, and their new buff of blood magic made them dangerous opponents. Their religious fervor made it all the worse.

As the 1200 troops from the garrison had spread out through the monastery and were combing the surrounding lands, one inquisitor had used his [magic sense] to pick up on something peculiar. Without a second thought, he dove his hand into the pool of waste, and pulled out a strange magical device. It had two crystals that glowed. The first glowed a soft yellow. The other, an ominous red.

He had no idea its use. So as he took it to his brother in the monastery's courtyard, they were questioning the dying troops.

"Brothers! I found a listening device!"

The more senior inquisitor, took the device in hand. First curled his nose at the smell, then inspected the device. Memories of classified reports came to mind, and as the realization hit him, he screamed "GET UNDER COVER!"

Less than one minute later, as Hera's team was disappearing into the cloudless night through the sky, the mountain was lit up by the fury of a salvo of high explosive shells fired from half a continent away.

***

A few survivors had gotten to some of the internal structures of the monastery. As the explosives rained down, the supports they hid under were enough to keep them alive, albiet trapped. Unlike the numerous soldiers spread throughout the open forest around the monastery, they would survive.

This was, at least, until the second salvo came in, carrying not a payload of explosives, but of a purple miasma, which rotted the lungs.

Haven was not monstrous however. This miasma would be dangerous if left to spread to the local ecology, so after roughly 6 minutes a third salvo of all consuming fire came and burned it away, as well as any who might have survived the first two salvos.

And with it, the Chimaera's intelligence headquarters was struck a devastating blow.

***