This is Dwight Nolan, November-1.
If you’re reading this it’s because my authentication code cleared which tells you it’s really me… or our adversaries now possess the ability to mine information directly from the unwilling, I guess you’ll just have to trust me.
So the situation back in that awful cavern, for starters it was nearly impossible to see outside. Legitimately, the wall of darkness facing us was so thick you could maybe see a few feet. Night vision displayed… Well, let’s just say there were a lot of them waiting out there for us. Blackburn cursed as he continued to try and key into the radio, both of us by the front entrance as we heard the gathering storm outside. Theoretically they could just burst in, tear us apart, and rewire our souls to become apart of them and the New Advent, however in old customs it’s stated some vampires cannot enter unless being invited, spirits as well.
Maybe this was some sign of their old world customs still binding them.
Maybe they just couldn’t figure out how to open a door.
Either way the marshal sat back against the rock wall and took off his hat, the both of us sitting in silence as he let out a long exhale; “Ain’t this a fuckin’ tizzy” he said. He looked to the door, then back to me “No comms… figures cause we’re at the epicenter of this shit, but if we don’t get ourselves going? We’ll be with them soon”.
12 civilians, a march the better part of at least a kilometer, against all of that adversity. We needed to move, however doing so was suicide and yet staying here was slow death. It’s like being dealt a bad hand at the poker table, but we can only hold for so long- eventually we’re gonna have to play.
Now some of you who might have known me for a while might ask what exactly Isaac and I caught up to… well we were in that cave for several hours, initially trying to see if we could physically wait out the darkness. Nothing… worse so time was standing still; It was 1:28am for what felt like hours. During that time while Niyol and Matsoi checked our rescued persons for injuries, Zeus was sleeping in the corner, and I sat down on a couple of old chairs and talked with the single person I’d recognized.
“The hell are you doing here?” I asked, completely astounded that Isaac was here, after six long years of not seeing him. “Oh you know… well, you don’t, I guess, that’s why you asked. No so I was just going about my day…” he says, before stopping, his single eye seeming to glance off. I waited for a moment before asking; “Isaac?”.
Then he said the most off putting all decade: “Okay weirdest thing, I can’t remember”.
“You can’t remember?”.
“Nope”.
“Isaac it has been six entire years, how can you not remember?”.
“Well I can remember some portions…” he says scratching his chin: “I’d worked down at the local gun store, you know the one run by those two europeans? Yeah… I was there for a while, started talking to this one lady and then one day she stopped… being there”.
I raised an eyebrow “What?”.
“Yeah… a lot of people did, that town you did all that work in? Yeah so I noticed when traffic started getting easier to navigate, heh… okay yeah, bad joke. No but then… I don’t know… I just remember the night sky getting darker, one day I found myself walking out of town…” he said, hands slapping his thighs and giving me a thumbs up like somehow that answered… anything.
The long minute of silence told him that didn’t really solve anything, he scratched the back of his neck “I… tried to talk to Rosanne, you know the occult woman in town who… exercised rivers and talks to trees-”.
“Yes Isaac I know very well who Rosanne is” I say sternly, to which he feigned throwing up his hands “Well I’m glad to see you’re still you, Staff Sergeant”. From across the room, Blackburn spat some of his dip into an empty can he’d been keeping nearby “He’s not the military anymore, guy”. Isaac then turned in his chair to him “Listen: Once a staff sarge, always a staff sarge… so…” he then turned back to me “Staff Sausarge… what’s been keeping you?”.
I explained to him the offer I had gotten from PEXU all those years ago, and generally recounted some stories up until then. Isaac would make such intelligent commentary like saying loudly “Wait you fought a Wendigo?!”. I remember distinctly Matsoi’s wife slapped him upside the head, from the way he responded I guess they got acquainted while in that cell. Something was bugging me though and I asked “Wait… you said you tried to contact Rosanne…”.
That’s when… yeah, there was a look in his eye when he said it: “Didn’t work because… she disappeared first”.
These were things that would need to be handled later, but they were, for now… I had a close friend back that I hadn’t seen. For those who aren’t acquainted with Isaac, I’m fairly certain my old blog series might still be up. Regardless… the five of us: Myself, Blackburn, Matsoi, and Niyol, and even Isaac huddled up. The Marshal was adverse to Isaac as he eyed him, looking back to me “You trust this fool?”.
I looked to see what he was… Isaac was having a conversation with a cave painting. I sighed “Yeah… let’s just say when the going gets… going, he’s very capable”. That being said I don’t know how Isaac had fared the last six years so… time for a reintroduction I guess. John simply looked at the Idaho native remarking: “Well bless his heart”.
All of us convened over the table with Blackburn starting us off “We have got to get moving, those things out there are surrounding us”. Isaac chimed in saying “Well I mean, we could always just wait out the storm. The sun will be here soon”. A few of us looked to Isaac as John rolled his eyes “Ain’t happening, son, that darkness is eternal”.
Isaac stopped his chuckling with a “say what now?”.
“We’re at the epicenter and caught in the snare, however our only exit out is currently directly into their maelstrom” Matsoi said looking back towards the entrance. Niyol chimed in “Not the only one” and proceeded to walk over towards a large old wall of the mine, he then punched through some of the rotten boards, and we helped the medicine man uncover an old forgotten passage way. He explained “This used to be the only passage up before the road around was created, they seemed to have not found it. It will cut our travel to our vehicles in half. From there it’ll still be a half of a kilometer journey to our vehicles”.
“Will we be out of… whatever this is?” I asked, Niyol nodded, I looked to John “If we’re not in some sort of snare… we can easily handle whatever’s there for a few hundred meters”. We consolidated all we had, designated able bodied persons to carry any of the children or help the elderly, I prepped my night vision as Isaac walked up: “So… I don’t suppose you’ve got any firepower for me?”.
I looked to Blackburn who was placing half a lip of what could be his last can in his mouth “don’t you fuckin look at me-”.
I sighed and handed Isaac my glock and the magazines for it “Don’t lose it, and make them count, keep them off the-”.
“Keep em off the civics, don’t worry, I’ve got you” Isaac said, shoving the magazines into the pocket of his flannel. “Isaac you are a fuckin’ civie” Blackburn muttered, to which he responded “I am an experienced monster hunter… I saved Nolan’s life”. Blackburn looked to me unconvinced to which I confirmed “A few times, actually”.
This seemed to settle the Marshal’s grievances as we prepped. I led first with my kalashnikov leading the way, the dark, ancient tunnels of the navajo were as eerie as can be as the illuminator of my laser traced every possible hiding spot under white and blue night vision. Just behind me I could hear Isaac and Blackburn, Matsoi and Niyol took the rear guard to make sure no one fell behind, Zeus kept to my side the entire way.
Then… the sound of wind could be heard as the faintest moonlight crept in around a corner, Isaac and I quickly cut the distance and panned out and saw a dark horizon but… filled with the tiniest specs of stars. Zeus’ ears were back as he let out a low growl for what laid ahead. We could hear nervous muttering from the rest of the people as they followed us like new age shepherds, Niyol panned out sighing “We are just barely at the edge of it’s presence… where is our vehicles?”. I quickly checked my ATAK, flipping the device back closed: 465 meters, due our 11 o’clock.
“Alright… let’s go” Matsoi said, quickly we all moved as fast yet as discreetly as we could, with only the slightest wind around us in that black and indigo covered desert landscape it seemed as if everything created sound. Yet… we kept moving, finally our vehicles were within sight. That’s… when we heard it.
The most gutteral, bone shaking roar I’d ever heard that sounded both in the distance and right behind us called out. With our two vehicles in sight I shouted: “Matsoi, get them loaded up, go!! Go!!”. I quickly cut to the back to provide any covering support as the herd of people led by Blackburn and Matsoi moved, I checked around for Niyol. The Medicine man was back helping a young lady escort an old woman, one of their town’s elderly, he had barely noticed the presence behind him. He turned to see… what looked like a female lead from the dark, with a single slash some sort of foul substance coated his eyes causing him to scream.
“Contact!!” I shouted instinctively as I centered my laser on her and fired, a series of bright 7.62 flashes punctured her and caused her to roar as she melted back into the black. Immediately I raced over to Niyol as Zeus barked off at whatever it was, I grabbed his hand and pulled him to his feet. It looked like oil although I swear it moved as he brushed it off his eyes, her strike had cut his skin and his eyes were a mess of blood and… it. “Can you see?” I asked, he used his rifle to push himself up “barely”.
In my peltors I heard John yell “We’ve got contacts up here!!!”. We raced to see Blackburn firing off at shadows in the distance, the marshal was putting in work with his heavy lever action as Matsoi fired off his short barreled AK. What seemed to be a… dog with far too many appendages broke towards the Marshal, he fired but his rifle went dry. As it leaped at him he quickly jutted it’s muzzle forward, impaling it into the thing, he then quickly hip fired his pistol. Several shots as it screamed and pulled off him, before he loaded that thing like lightning and began firing again.
Isaac and I escorted the medicine man and the last of the civilians into the vehicles when suddenly, something broke from the dark. It had antlers, rippling muscles yet somehow a lanky body. I quickly fired at it and it ducked away as I could see parts of it torn off. Another came from the opposite direction, and I could see Isaac firing away with his pistol. Just then, I turned to see one of them had somehow closed completely on top of me. I fired my rifle but it pushed the barrel out of the way, shots firing all over the horizon before my gun went dry. I pulled my weapon away, the thing had red eyes, that much I remember, several jaws all over it’s body, I remember muzzle thumping my AK into one of them and pinning it to the ground. I then reloaded as I kept it pinned, before firing into it as it writhed.
“Sarge, we’re good, let’s go!!!” Isaac yelled as he and I ducked into the back of the pick up with several of the people. I took a knee and maintained cover as I whistled, Zeus proceeded to leap almost 7 feet off the ground to land inside, crashing into several of us. As we pulled off… I could see them watching from the shadows.
We weren’t done yet, not by a long shot.
Despite this the sight of a bright sky of night time stars and the moon was a boon to our morale. Our small convoy pulled back in front of the police station, Matsoi was helping Niyol out, as the people quickly left the vehicles, being greeted by several others. I scanned around to see several residents had come out of their homes… including the mayor. Though to be honest I was too busy pulling off my helmet and catching my breath as I sat on the cab of the truck, Isaac pet Zeus.
There was misery and merriment, all of which was silenced as the mayor shouted in Navajo as he approached Niyol and Matsoi. From what I could see he kept gesturing to his watch, I then decided to check mine and I realized why he was so angered- we had been gone for several days.
Matsoi then pointed to the Marshal and myself, the both of us dropping down as we approached Altse. “He tells me you were… ambushed” the mayor said, calming himself. “Shit… we were fuckin’ trapped… it’s way worse, you don’t have infiltrators, you got a whole god damn invading army” Blackburn barked. I nodded, there was not much more I could add but; “we barely got out with everyone we had… the New Advent’s laid their claws in your home, sir”.
Matsoi then nodded “they were giving their bodies as vessels, all we found of them were husks, and that was nearly a dozen… who knows what crawled out of them!!”. It seemed the mayor had been calmed and brought onto the same page, he looked around and asked “what happens now”. Matsoi seemed stumped as he controlled himself, finally having seen the proof of his woes he… stopped, genuinely he probably didn’t think he’d get here. Blackburn looked to me “You know what I’m gonna suggest”.
The mayor raised an eyebrow as I stepped forward “Sir… they’re coming down from that Mesa, and they’re gonna besiege this place. You’ll have more of those things here than you will living people. My advice? Get everyone to the best defensive position and we call in a PEXU SMU, your people may not have wanted a full unit down here, but-”.
“But you got enough creepy crawlies down there to usher in the new rapture, and they did a number on your guy over there and he’s custom made to mess up witches and wendigos” Isaac said from the bed of the truck. Altse seemed to pause for a moment before asking “Who… are you?”.
“Isaac, friend of the staff sergeant” he said with a smirk and pointed to me. “He… might’ve worded that strange as hell, but he’s right” the marshal said. The mayor looked around, allowing a moment for time to stand till as he took a single exhale… he nodded and patted Matsoi on the shoulder. “Order everyone to the center hall, get them into the concrete cellar. Tell them all guns…” Altse ordered his police chief, which caused several of the male residents of the town to whoop and holler as they ran off. He then looked to Blackburn and myself “If you have any friends you can send? Get them down here, you have our permission”.
Roger fuckin’ that.
I quickly walked off as I left my helmet and rifle in the truck, telling Isaac to keep watch, Blackburn pulled out his keyring; “I’ll distribute our goods, you get on the line and tell that brit to send whoever he can”.
I quickly fished out my SATCOM, hooked up the tripod and antenna, connected it to my personal radio and… [“November-1 to main…”]. There was nothing but static and silence, I tried again; [“November-1 to main… radio check, any station on this channel this is November-1, radio check, over”].
Finally: [“... November-1 this is main, sitrep over”].
I’d never been so glad to hear Montgomery in my life up until that point. I gave the down and dirty… there was a lot of back and forth, but I cut to the point [“we need a full unit down here, there are far too many PARAFOR for us to handle”].
[“November-1, tonight there are several coordinated attacks, many of the units we had in the North American AO are tasked out. We may not be able to reinforce you, how copy”].
I cursed, at this time some of the people and Isaac had seen, the latter kept watch as I barked back [“Main, this is November-1, if you don’t get someone down here we will be outgunned, undermanned, and you’re looking at a worse disaster than Tipton… and the Navajo Nation vilifying us for it… how copy, over?”].
After a moment of silence: [“Wait one, over”].
I stood there, staring into the sky wondering how long until the stars above disappeared like they had in the desert before finally… I got a response. [“November-1 this is main, you have additional forces enroute. SMU Raider is approximately 45 mikes how, how copy?”].
4th Special Forces Group.
A detachment of green berets currently led by an old friend of mine, Nicholas Walker.
Yeah… that’ll do.
[“I copy all”].
[“November-1, send any new data, and good luck”].
I quickly grabbed my gear and staged my vic near the center hall; a concrete building with vivid paintings of the people’s history spread across in chipped blues, orange, red, and yellows. If I wasn’t working off institutionalized muscle memory I might’ve taken a moment to stop, as the story of the entire Navajo people was laid out through better and worse times… I guess this was another chapter for them, what would happen next would decide if it would be a good one or not, but it wouldn’t be the final one.
The sounds of nearly four dozen people ushed down the stairwell towards the back of the building could be heard as I entered, what was a carpeted center room now had all of the furniture pushed to the windows and around the door in makeshift barricades. Matsoi and Blackburn quickly unlocked the equipment cases from the church. As the Marshal lined up at least a dozen incendiary and stun grenades, the Navajo police chief quickly unsealed some cases of ammunition; “You two brought more with you than my station’s stocks”.
I checked on Niyol, whose wife was busy cleaning his eyes, he raised his head instinctively to me “Nolan…. Are you friends on their way?”. This was also the first time he addressed me by my name in a non-insulting manner “Yeah, they’ll be here soon”. He seemed to resign to the situation, sitting back with his weapon on his lap “well… let’s hope this final alliance stands better than the last”.
Matsoi seemed to be working a mile a minute as he scanned around “Not everyone’s here… we’ll have to do this the old fashioned way and go block to block”. I grabbed my weapon, checking it as Isaac jumped to his feet “I’ll volunteer too, but two guys and a dog isn’t enough for a whole town”. That’s when we heard the door open, remember those townsmen who were all too energized to be called to arms? The nation’s people are extremely well versed in their old warrior skills as several were professionally armed with everything from a modern rifle to an old school bolt action, handguns, a chest rig, and all. Matsoi gestured to them “Dwight, my men will assist you”.
“Roger that… oh, one more thing… Isaac” I said, kicking over a gun case to him. He quickly opened it up, pulling out a Remington 870 that Blackburn had prepped with a side saddle, light, and extended tube. “Don’t you fuckin’ break it” the Marshal barked.
Last thing he said before grabbing a bandolier of shells was: “Wouldn’t dream of it, Calamity Jane”.
It was a strange feeling of the past, hoofing it down the dark streets with a vest and ACH with nods on, flanked by the armed locals as they quickly went door to door. Many of them knew who lived nearby, who would probably still be at home, we worked efficiently to comb the streets. The town wasn’t that large, we burned maybe 16 minutes before we were certain no one was around. Taking stock I stopped at an interaction as Isaac and the Navajo militiamen quickly posted up behind nearby vehicles, stone walls, around corners…
[“November-1 to Bravo-1…”] I said trying to reach Blackburn, I could hear him but it was… broken up. [“D-....ht, we’ve …. signs of –c…ing, southside…”] is all that came through. I looked around, our group getting restless as we stopped, I tried again… nothing. The same level of interference we had at the Mesa, I took a look up and sure… the stars were getting dimmer. Then… contact.
The sound of tearing metal could be heard as we canned the road nothwards, a wooden plank fence with old red paint was slowly torn apart as spindly limbs punched their way through. What pulled itself over and through was this amalgamation of what looked like calcified roots and tendrils, weaving together in some horrid round form. A single haunting face like that of a wax figure that was melted to where its jaw and chun melted together, poked through, it was at least 3 meters tall. Then… more sounds, from the gangways and yards, we were right at the head of an assault.
I immediately fired off a burst of rounds, firing into the thing causing a… reverberation, it felt like my skull shook. Several of the others were feeling it as they fired off, some aiming towards distant sounds; “Pick up, we’re moving!!!” I ordered. We tried a bounding retreat but elected to just turn and burn when we heard an additional noise directly to our right, the quick paced sound of metal being smashed, chain link being torn if that’s possible, something in us kicked in and we realized we were outnumbered and surrounded.
Despite this some of the Navajo men laughed, one of them with a supped up AK like the one I was using firing off a few shots as I could hear muffled prayers under their breaths. I said one too… we were going to need it. I daringly took a look back to see that thing gaining on us, fast, and I mean really fast, it seemed to somehow be able to pull itself ten meters at a time. Suddenly one of the men at the front of the group had his leg snagged, he dropped to the ground as he and his weapon were dragged back. I grabbed his hand with my off hand, aiming my AK at the thing which was just halfway down the black. He screamed and I could see why… the tendril has metal barbs protruding out of it that dug into his flesh like a thousand fish hooks. As the sound of his skin tearing could be heard, Isaac placed his boomstick onto the thing and fired. The material tore away as it howled enigmatically… I helped the guy hop back along with another militia member as we hauled ass to the center hall.
“Open the hell up!!” Isaac called out as the doors opened and we bolted through. Quickly a designated “field medic” in the form of the town doctor took the man to a triage bed, quickly looking after him as Blackburn, Matsoi, and several others took to the windows. “I was trying to reach you, cameras been going dead all along the southside…” Blackburn walked over. I switched out my magazine; “We took contact from the north, John”.
“So… both ends of town closing in…” the Marshal noted. Then… the sound of something landing hard on top of the concrete building, causing the lights to flicker caused everyone to stop. Dust fell off the ceiling as Zeus was barking like a mad man, Isaac looked to Matsoi “I don’t suppose you got anyone on the roof”.
Then… almost instantaneously, the lights went out… I quickly flicked down my dual tubes, John produced a set of digital NVGs of his own as the both of us scanned around. Immediately the back up generator for the building kicked in as dim orange lights gave everyone else some light. Matsoi immediately shouted to his people, as everyone stood fast… then?
The laughing.
I remember something like it back in the forests of Missouri, I don’t think what is out there has a concept of humor but they know exactly what rattles us. Like a chorus, both verbal through the shadows outside and inside our minds, suddenly the sounds of dozens of them crawling all on the outside. Suddenly through the metal places and furniture placed against them, one of the windows broke… then another. Then the doorknob started to turn as the howls began: “Stay put, they’re trying to off put us” I warned, looking around at the different entrances. “Yeah well, consider it achieved” Isaac quipped, taking cover behind a cabinet as he aimed his shotgun.
It’s then that Marshal Blackburn walked up to one of the barricade shaking his head; “Nah, not for me”. He then pulled the pin on a flashbang, throwing it just outside as he and some of the Navajo defenders took cover. Normally they’re not as bright as you see in movies, but due to the sheer black outside, it seemed like a flash of white coated outside.
It also gave us a small glimpse of them… all of them: contorted, demented forms as whatever they were destroying the physical… sense, the sanity of whatever they inhabited. Gaping maws, slender, yet ginormous forms. Their laughing stopped, and they started to roar, and yell…. Isaac was the first to fire as one of the entities tore through an entire cabinet, it’s arms lined with spikes, as it’s skin was missing, grey and lifeless. A blast of buckshot cast her back… at the other windows, the Navajo quickly took up arms and began to fire off, Matsoi commanding his people.
I was running through out, aiming my laser and taking shots to help where I could and fill gap. One of the militiamen had his shoulder cut when a hand, just a hand, reached through and grabbed hole… then proceeded to rip a chunk out of him like he was wet paper. I dragged him back to the aid area with Matsoi, reloading my weapon.
“Nolan…” a voice through all of the loud gunfire and yelling could be heard, I turned back to see the mayor, Altse… holding… Well first, he seemed to have thrown on one of his old digs. Old school BDU camo, green and black, a chest rig that the vietnam rangers used to rock as in his arms was an M60, gas operated air cooled belt fed machine gun. “Where do you need this?” he asked calmly. Blackburn fired off his lever action as he ducked back around the window to the wall. He looked up as he reloaded, pausing; “Where the fuck’s that been?!”.
“My property is my business, lawman… now, where do you need it?” Altse reiterated, just then the sound of something big began to slam on the front doors directly in front of us as I aimed my Kalashnikov; “Right here should do….”. Whatever was out there had the clean mass of a trunk as the concrete shook and even cracked at the edges of the front door. Zeus assisted by grabbing the neck of one of the things as it’s contorted skull poked in, keeping it in place as Isaac unceremoniously exorcized it’s skull. Suddenly… the center doors came loose, the metal warped as one of them nearly fell off… a hulking mass of what looked like limbs started to crawl through, the thing in the road.
“Gun hot!!!” Altse yelled, with the M60’s bipod mounted onto a large trough box, he took aim and fired a burst straight through the metal. Blackburn and several others ducked back as the sound shook the building, red and white streaks tearing into it as black substance flew all around the door. Another burst, I took aim and assisted, as did the Marshal and several others. The king beast withdrew with a roar torn off limbs fell through the mess of metal that was the entrance. One of them twitched and began to crawl, causing one of the medics to panic as a knife was planted into the palm… by Niyol. “You back to shape, old timer?” Matsoi asked as he cleaned his blade; “just barely…”.
The things outside began to crawl around, shaking the building as they the sound of tearing metal could be heard… then, a sound from one of the walls. Matsoi’s eyes raised “They’re entering through the air system!!”. I took lead with several others, including Isaac, Zeus sprinted off towards the basement stares as the dim lighting was even worse. The cellar was an open concrete area, the townsfolk were huddling near the edges… we reached the bottom. Suddenly… through the HVAC unit we could hear something messily fall through and from the vent, it burst out. Miniature versions of the things began to spill out, messily, trailing their black blood behind them. One leaped for some of the civilians, however Zeus quickly leaped, pinned it down, and gored it. Another was skeet shot out of the air by Isaac who fired on the vent and turned it into a messy bottleneck for them. The Navajo defenders and I quickly took aim and fired, I stomped one before firing into another. One of them men grabbed one and whipped it into a wall as another jumped on his back, I took aim and shot it off with a single shot. Then… one of the last of those things leaped for me, I turned-... and saw it hit out of the air by a metal bat, then pulverized… by Matsoi’s wife who was guarding a group of the town's children.
“Careful, Staff Sergeant” she quipped.
“Nice one, uh… Sarah, was it?” Isaac quipped, she rolled her eyes and responded with “Glad to see you’re still topside Isaac”.
“Technically we’re underground” Isaac said.
“Shut up”.
From outside a loud noise could be heard, originally we thought it was yet another creature attempting to gain entry, but I immediately knew what that was. Aircraft, specifically a helicopter and the literal best thing we could hear at that point causing me to outright laugh and pump a fist. Isaac seemed confused “I don’t follow, those cultists didn’t give me a lunch, kinda light headed…”.
“That’s our back up”.
…
[Log-Addendum Added… Processing….]
[Author: Captain Walker, Nicholas, SMU “Raider” of 4th Special Forces Group].
I’ve been asked by the brass to give my perspective of our quick response deployment to the Navajo Nation, this is Captain Nicholas Walker. For those reading you’ll have to forgive me, I’m used to writing OPORDERs and debriefs, planning missions, and my after action reports are dry, but I’ll give as best of a retelling as to what the hell we encountered down there.
We were on QRF tasking when we had gotten the alert, we seem to be doing a lot of that… probably because our specific team of America’s finest happens to be able to adapt the best against PARAFOR and their unusual circumstances. Regardless, multiple alerts had been given out and some of our sister units in Canadian JTF2, 1st Ranger Batt’, even a unit of FBI HRT based down in Virginia had been spun up. The New Advent’s roots were tightening around us and missions were more frequent than the ‘07 surge. We expected something to pop off and give us a reason to roll out, I just didn’t expect it to be an old friend…
Montgomery’s words somewhat-exactly: “A joint mission to bring the Navajo onboard has gone completely bloody FUBAR, we’ve got several solos stuck down there with reality warping entities having tore a damn hole in the county. They’ll be overwhelmed if they don’t receive immediate assistance. Local liaison is the town’s chief Matsoi, solos tasked are US Marshal John Blackburn and Dwight Nolan”.
I’d recommended Xavier to bring Dwight in, especially after he went toe to toe with whatever the hell he found back in southern Missouri. He was an absolute firebrand of a squad leader back in our line unit, got it done but also kept his guys’ heads above water mentally. Him and I kept contact tangentially however I reached out after he joined with PEXU, and I wasn’t too surprised he started tearing through target packages left and right. He might not say as much, but from a cohort of his looking in… Dwight Nolan has eliminated cases as a solo than some groups of them fail to do in the greatest quantity.
So if his ass was in the fire… let’s just say me and my boys were suited up, radios prepped, and out on that tarmac before the coffee was hot. Our ramp brief laid out a clusterfuck ahead [“Inward communications limited, OPFOR unable to be seen on ISR, drones unable to regain visual on town due to supposed ‘wall of darkness’... break”]. I flipped my notes, keying back in; [“Contact on entry is likely, though birds will take us in…”]. I closed my boot and shoved it back in my rig’s pocket, eyeing one of the door gunners… an M134 minigun, chambered in good ol’ 7.62 NATO… I’ve seen those things bisect vehicles faster than you can register. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about my time with the unit, a healthy amount of well trained warfighters is equivocal to anything that crawls out the primordial asscrack of this universe.
We quickly entered the airspace of the town, our nods were down but we couldn’t make out a damn thing… legitimately. I knew what they meant by wall of darkness because the clouds soon vanished and a void is what greeted us. The crew chief came back to talk: [“We’re still able to make out altitude, once you’re on the ground we’ll be unable to provide air support”].
Not the best, though last thing we’d want is a blackhawk going down because it hit a damn light pole in a Navajo town. Try explaining that on the news, Xavier.
Soon we felt the rotors stabilize as gravity remind us we are still on earth, we exited right side, half crescent formation as we all took up sectors. Our comms sergeant chimed in, short range communications were still up… the leader of my alpha team, also the one who keeps you updated on 4th Group, SSG Ivensky, kept all sectors scanned. Our warrant kept look out with a thermal as the birds left us in total darkness and silence.
That was… until we could make out gunfire, a lot of gunfire. We expected our forces to still be engaged though we didn't expect the distant sounds of wounds like the better part of a line company going at it. The sound had the same effect as the cold, too much of it too far and it seems silent, but whatever was going down pierced that veil… our people were still alive. Our medic doc said something akin to “-Hell yeah, give ‘em hell”.
“Ivensky, have Alpha pick up, we’re fucking moving” I ordered, without hesitation his team lead the formation. We were on the edge of town so the second we saw structures, cars, anything anyone could hide in our lasers were trained. Our warrant kept chirping in my ear; [“This matches stories I’ve heard about the Anaye”]. We moved carefully as our quad nods had trouble piercing the darkness though we quickly made our way to one of the streets, we’d been emplaced on the north end of town.
[“The hell you talking about, chief?”] I barked, keeping volume low.
[“Our projected OPFOR... When they enter our world in great numbers, their entry way sucks all energy back into it… I see no stars and no sun”] he noted. I looked around, he was right, though as he noted [“That’s just the working theory”]. We hugged a stone half wall, keeping eyes on a nearby vic and house as we moved through, following the firearm thunderstorm just south of is.
Ivensky’s alpha team immediately snapped to action I saw them quickly take cover behind a nearby car aiming down the road as through the comms [“Contact!! Five PARAFOR front!!”]. I immediately hoofed it… sure enough; two that looked like hybrids of canine and corpses, some sort of marionette, all charged, talons, bones, reaching out as they closed the distance quickly. Was nothing we couldn’t handle, I saw peq lasers on targets, cutting them down even if it did require an entire magazine each. Another leaped from one of the roofs, though alpha’s gunner took it out with one hell of a burst… showered us as well.
Doc didn’t hesitate to complain [“Dammit, I just got that shit from West Tennessee outta' my kit”].
Bravo team bounded up as Alpha replenished and fell in… we could see the damage these things had done. Torn up fences, cars had been smashed though it seemed as if they moved quickly with a singular and controlled path of destruction. They weren't here for slow conquest, they needed to decapitate any resistance. The hellstorm we could hear ongoing was just that... Pieces of calcium, rotten flesh, flaked skin, littered the ground [“Seems like the locals did a number”] Bravo’s team leader, Sullivan noted, chief disagreed.
[“There’s no brass, this wasn’t a firefight”] he noted, I looked over [“So what’s your theory then?”].
[“They’re molting”].
Soon we reached the center of town where the gunfire emanate, though as we approached from the east side of the center hall, we could see tracers and hear the whizz of outgoing rounds. We immediately hugged a nearby concrete wall, not wanting to catch blue on blue and become a folded flag. Our comms sergeant tried to reach them; [“Friendly units inside, this is Raider-Romeo….”]. Nothing, yet fighting could still be heard, one of our guys stupidly tried to peek around to see and nearly caught an AK round that tore off a chunk of the wall with a spray of brick, his team leader Sullivan yanking on the carry handle of his kit.
“Don’t lose your head, guy” was all I could say. Swear to the lord, best of the best but those 18Bravos run off of nothing adrenaline and tren.
[“What’s the play?”] Chief asked; they were barricaded, and from what we could assess carefully… multiple parafor along with a larger creature were around the entrances and possibly made entry. From a careful cross angle through a hole in the wall I could observe smaller ones acting as... dismounts I guess? Breaking off of a larger entity all over the perimeter. They were flooded, we needed to relieve pressure off of 'em fast, luckily we had all of the firepower we needed.
[“Break the siege… Bravo deploy a starcluster and flare to let them know we’re not flesh eaters, Alpha bound out and we’ll take the center of the road…. Draw that big son of a bitch off the top of the roof”].
Without hesitation Sullivan immediately slammed a silver canister into the ground, a bright burst of pyrotechnics bathed the road ahead as Ivenskyy’s team stormed out and took the center, posting up behind some vehicles. All outgoing gunfire towards our direction has ceased meaning our signal was recieved, even if chaotically. I rushed out, following behind to the far side as we saw… it… the thing was some mass of yarn, but instead of yarn it was limbs, spinal cords, and it face looked… otherworldly. Let’s just say, it had all the right functions to see, smell, and speak, and those forward facing eyes… all of them, told us it was a predator.
It dropped off, limbs and flesh falling showing the damage it recieved as we engaged.
A burst from the belt fed, and our grenadiers immediately started to put rounds on target though I warned “Don’t hit the fuckin’ town hall with a 40-”. Through the hailstorm of the teams talking off of each other's bursts of fire, an HEDP found it’s place directly in the center of it’s chest, guts and entire bodies spilling out almost like we popped it’s sternum. We did… it rushed us, a swat and several calcified talons as big as .50 rounds nearly hit us.
["Jesus!!!"] was the only thing I could hear from Doc as he ducked behind an old van, watching one of the projectiles embed like a damn ballista bolt. We heard yelling as miniature versions I had seen crawling all over began to advance; ["Multiple smaller Parafor inbound!!]" Ivensky said as the teams began to engage. A burst fron an M48 cut down a group of them as our rifles went to work, some of them managed to make it towards us. I saw one of my men thrust their muzzle clear through a chest cavity and fire earning a splatter all around, another one of our grenadiers went dry but quickly drew his sidearm and domed them. The bigger creature advanced and with it's mini legion attrition down to casualties we were able to re-engage as it was within 10 meters.
["We good to deploy frags?!"] one of our guys checked, I get why: collateral. No sign of any friendlies so far, and if they were ontop of the thing right now? They were insane and dead anyways.
["Fucking send it!!"].
I set the standard by deploying an M67, landed inside one of it's gaping wounds made in it's body, causing a splash and rain of... it. Another member of Bravo deployed an incendiary that caught it's front limbs on fire, as it started to emit a scream that peaked the dampeners on our peltors. Yet… eventually… the thing began to lose balance, efalling as its centipede-like structure caved in and yet it's howls continued. It still roared as we advanced, Bravo pushed right and fired on the smaller ones that were still crawling and began to check the front of the building while Alpha and I approached it. I
ts ring of eyes looked up, hatefully as all we could smell was char and rot- I aimed my SCAR heavy and put enough rounds to pierce its crown of a skull.
[“Lead to all Raiders, advance to the center hall”].
[Log-Addendum ended]
Seeing Walker and his green eyed devils emerge from that red and smoke filled street was the best thing we’d seen throughout this long well. Immediately there was crying, cheering, some like Blackburn slumped against the walls as Altse and I emerged. Zeus immediately ran up as Walker’s men took point, the captain seemed to chuckle at the sight of the doc as their Warrant pet him. flipped his quad nods up “Nolan… up shit’s creek I see”.
“Regular circumstances, yes”, we shook hands, just glad for the majority of our people to be the ones in mostly one piece.
“You Special Forces?” Altse asked, Walker eyed the patches on the mayor’s jacket “Formerly 10th but yeah, you were at Stewart? Bless your soul”. I could see their warrant officer positioning guys, one of their teams quickly went around the building confirming dead parafor with two rounds each as their comms guy started to set up an advanced antenna.
That’s when Isaac caught up; “Is it true those things cost as much as a house?” he said, gesturing to Walker’s night vision. The Atlanta native eyed me then back to Isaac “More like a truck but yeah… who’re you?”.
“Isaac” he said, resting his shotgun on his shoulder.
Walker then rolled his eyes “This one is Isaac? … Yeah, that tracks”.
….
Closing up now as there’s a lot of fallout from that. Things within the surrounding towns have stabilized, whatever we did worked and seemed to have retreated- for now. Our ties with the Navajo Nation have strengthened as that alliance baptism in fire has encouraged both sides to work together more closely. It was a necessary bridge that needed to be built, better late than never I suppose. That being said it seems our victory’s gotten a lot of them pissed off, New Advent’s Ryan Evans just came on the news talking about a “new effort” to unite the people. Flanking him were senators, charity relief founders, representatives of the red cross.
It’s going to get worse, before it gets worse.
I guess when one side finds allies, so does the other.
That being said, we’re in this for the long run.
Don’t believe their lies, hope isn’t dead even if it’s knee deep in a foxhole. PEXU works in the dark, and I’ll be back soon, with Isaac, Zeus, and the Marshal.
Stay safe.
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