Purgatory, 19: I Can Still Hear the Screams
03 Feb 2024Meowers
"People die in battles. Most of them had to do battle to live, but such was the price. Yet, there are others. A rare breed. Those who live to die in battle."
So, we may have two battalions waiting for the signal... But, hey, here and now I have a battalion of my own, marching down the road to rip Azimuth losers to shreds, and they're angry. And vicious. Primal sort of brutal. Everything I like, phah. We had shown them how to march and they seemed to like it, so now they're marching. Still no idea about how the heck am I going to tell them what to do next... Okay, one step at a time.
Considering all that... I'd like to make it a hit and run raid as we did before, sending them off to retreat, back to the settlement, as soon as we get what we need. Maps to move further and Azimuth madness documents to read before going to sleep. And, if I know anything about how Azimuth builds their playgrounds around here, the C-02 would most likely have the main, central building of the compound where all the interesting things are happening, surrounded by warehouses, barracks, a small power plant, guarding towers and other crap I don't have any interest in. And knowing is half of the battle. The other is extreme violence.
T + 106h 07min... It should start getting darker soon yet we're close. Enough to give those people some time to rest after the march. Now... Onward and onward.
But... A realisation. Creeping in, slowly. Of all this being an absolutely weird and insane shipload of shit I never asked for but no one ever knew about. Maybe I've been too busy earlier, or just couldn't figure that out and shape it into words. Okay, follow the flying brick, point guns at some dipshit cultists, ask them what's happening and why, get back... Four days ago. And now I'm on the roof of a trophy Azimuth truck, with a tribal war drum and a thousand of those folks following me and ready to kill and die for me, and I still have no idea, like... Who are they? Are they even human? A third of my platoon is dead. Many others are wounded. Brainwashed mercs, indoctrinated captives, an organisation that's clearly an Azimuth branch operating in secrecy, concentration camps, human experimentation, parts of an ancient spaceship, a thousand more of tribal people attacking us with sticks once a mad scientist guy said something in the brain-humping-wave emitter. And all that on a jungle planet where the rain never ends. What. The. Actual. Fuck.
Only one way to find out, honestly. And we are on it already...
* * *
This thing behind the curve, Foster could you please... Shit, a roadblock! Shields on, grab the guns!
107-19 ran into an Azimuth roadblock
Fire at will! Smith, head down and full ahead, squish the fuckers!
Can't hide from me you shit...
Damn how do I tell those guys... Ffffuck, what an idiot, stop you damn morons
Shit this thing is dead... Everyone get out!
Get some you scumbags
Clear?... Pfff... Finish off those worms. Report the casualties and regroup, we're going on foot.
T + 107h 24min. Azimuth roadblock, cleared. Romano and Pohlmann have gotten themselves new scars yet nothing severe, they'll be fine. Our supporters though, well. Lost like seventy of them. Against fifteen Azimuth pigdogs. Running head first with spears and clubs against guns... Waaaaaitaminute.
Stop. That's another pebble on the scale. They may be primitive, but not clinically dumb. They know how to hunt big game. How to use modern weapons. How to build watertight structures. So, they may not care about their losses and run meat wave tactics because... They know they're going to get new people?
Okay, okay...
The roadblock itself. It wasn't built in a haste. A little concrete pillbox on the side of the road, floodlights, metal barrier, mobile generator, thick steel plates reinforcing things here and there. Everything already had gunshot marks on it, and spears and arrows scattered all over the place. Not the first attempt. Good. Mercs certainly have an alert signal sent but they might've thought that it was another act of aggressive tribal behaviour.
Okay, going forward. The truck is a wreck now, soldiers are squeezing the last bits of power out of its batteries and we all should go on foot. Through the jungle. Well... I'm going to explain that the road isn't so safe now... Somehow...
* * *
T + 108h 43min. Visual on the compound. A short fence, much likely just to keep the wildlife away, perhaps they don't expect anyone to get that far. Yet, the familiar picture of the guard towers and mercs on the territory... Heavy mercs, not the idiot ones. And it's going to be another night assault... Those almost bare-arse folks against elite troops with night vision, thermals, holos, searchlights, all kinds of stuff. Yep. That's going to be intense... Anyway, a little rest and planning first. And we're also going full, phah, mad tribe mode, decorating our armour with leaves, vines and tree bark. Let them think their angry pets have gone off the leash, and, hey, that claw necklace looks great on me.
But frankly, you know... It's a bit difficult to explain that so many of them are going to die, no matter how little attention is being paid to losses. And that I didn't ask for their help. Their light skirmishes with Azimuth, maybe planned and orchestrated by the latter? Okay. But a full-scale assault on a compound? Like, the chieftain's eyes are literally burning and I have a hard time keeping them from taking off right now. And not a single idea on how to tell them that Azimuth isn't going to play gently tonight. At least it seems like he'd wrapped his head around my paper towel artwork of a battle plan, with them attacking from three directions and doing gunfire first, not the spear'n'club rush that should go second wave, and retreating as soon as I shout 'stop' at the top of my lungs. Had no time to invent signal horns...
I should admit, it's good to be a kind of a local deity, phah. And, well, I need to meet the expectations. But why the heck should I even refuse? Their war goddess will be in the lead of the central charge.
So, yeah. Central attack straight line to the main building, smaller yet still significant groups along the left and right sides of the fence, converge around the main, make some hell and chaos, I go inside with some of my troops to grab stuff, datapads, documents, maps, deleting everyone on my way in the process, and then we all spread out back into the jungle in every direction. They don't have enough people to follow everyone, and if they decide to leave their cosy covers to spread out too, that would be the end of them. Those of my wounded troops who aren't hit that badly are to hide behind the nearby trees and give us some fire support, picking them one by one from the dark.
Yeah, where's my last pack of cigarettes...
I don't want war. I never asked for it. Bad things happen in war. But I'm also amongst the ones who make them happen.
* * *
T + 109h 20min. So... Here we go. Getting the troops ready. Commencing the attack.
Charge!
Go go go!... Ah that looks damn awesome!..
Ssshit, watch out for snipers! Navarrete, on my tracers! Dammit, these idiots...
Die you shit! Stay down! Fffuck they're so thick
Barracks to the right, more of them! Fire you dammit
Focus on the doors, delete those suckers
Get behind that wall and recharge! Shit, don't die here that's an order
Take cover!..Damn they're focusing on us
Crap...They're fucking shocked, mercs are decimating them...Ffffuck, we can't fail here. Okay...Everyone, give me more batteries!
109-27 the attack had fucking stalled, mercs are shredding them to bits, going to show how it's done
Yeah, yeah, that's what I call shields... After me. Charge!
Try me you cheap shits! Mwahahaha! Cry about it fucking losers
Don't stop, move and shoot! Nail the freaks! Yeah, that's the way
Ssssshit...Ah, come on, now you've made me angry
Smith, Black, Schulte, follow me inside! All the rest, keep the entrance safe!
Ssshit another one...Just fucking die!
109-30 we're inside
Turned the master alarm off but it's too late, mercs are coming from everywhere, shit, a hundred of them
Datapads, documents, maps! Ammo if you find it! Fast!
Shitshitshit, can't take the window they're firing everything at me... Watch out dammit!
109-36 okay, getting out now
We're getting out, press on those triggers!
STOP! Shit, those folks... Stop! STOP! You morons... Stop the attack dammit get back! Get back you chumps! Fuck, where's that chief... Fucking mess dammit
STOP! You dipshits get back you're all going to fucking die here
Fuck. No chance now, retreat! Dammit, ships are coming... Retreat! Shit we can't win this one
109-40 retreating into the woods, damn tribe is getting annihilated
* * *
T + 109h 53min... Phew... I think this is it... We're deep in the jungle. Nobody around us. No new trouble except for small wounds I'm honestly too tired of listing. Just, everyone is scarred now. Literally, everyone. Me too, with that friggin laser burn line across my stomach, damn it was hot. Didn't pierce thankfully... Applied the gel, should be okay soon. Jarvinen, lucky bastard, got her shields down and then a shot grazing the side of the helmet. Just a few centimetres to the left and it'd be the end of her. Gods-bloody-dammit. Smith had to drop the launcher, doesn't have any rockets for it anymore. Many others were forced to snatch merc belts and bags, maybe there's some ammo and batteries, we're, like, scraping the bottom. Personally, I only have fifty seven rounds left, not even a single full box. Can't dismantle covers or do any suppressing fire anymore. Hope some of these are of the same calibre, I saw a few heavies...
Friggin sorry tribe folks. Didn't want to use them as a meat shield. Really, really didn't. Wanted to strike hard and then retreat, and send them back home. But they couldn't understand my orders. There was a retreat in the battle plan but maybe they couldn't hear me, or couldn't stop their rage, or just couldn't run away and hide. Thousand deaths in less than a half of an hour.
Some Azimuth pissface shot the claw necklace off my chest somehow and I have a surface burn mark on the armour there now. I guess that was a close call. Or, maybe... Maybe that thing deflected the shot when my shields were down, and, actually, saved me?
I can still hear the screams.
* * *
Next part: #20: The Human Side
Next part: #20: The Human Side