Futuristic Woe to the Conquered

[Hextremus]

"1500 Hours. Check your gear, lads."

Clacking and clanking, metal against metal.

"Prepare to sync watches."

Rustling now, clicking of boots against a metal floor.

"Sync. Commence Operation Freedom."

A chorus of faint beeps. Quiet grunts as soldiers clambered into transport trucks, engines vigorously roaring awake. The massive doors to the hangar bay cracked open, spilling sunlight in an ever widening line.

"For Queen and Country."

The troops tore into action. Several dozen transports and tanks emerged from the hangar's maw and into fresh air, trundling across the rough terrain, followed by the rhythmic droning of helicopters as they followed overhead. The military base behind the small army glinted dully under the grey skies.

"This is a bad idea. Storming and destroying a Carrion tower with only a hundred troops? Talk about sodding stupid."

Mikazuki Vale complained with a bored look on her face, feet kicked up on the dashboard of the transport truck she and the other Vultures rode in. She'd just been lucky to claim the passenger's seat before anyone else. Her mace was stored in the back of the transport with the other Vultures. The driver of the transport, the non-Vulture officer put in charge of the Vultures, laughed drily.

"Yeah, well, we're probably all gonna die within a week anyway. Might as well go out like this."

Mika just hummed thoughtfully, scratching her nose. Her sheathe pressed into her lower back but she didn't adjust her position, staring ahead at the horizon. Her eyes narrowed after a minute, the Vulture slowly dropping her legs from the dashboard and leaning forward.

Specks above the horizon. Then distant, instantly recognisable booms.

"Thunderers. It's the Carrion!"

Mika barked. The transport skidded to a stop, the advance of the small British army halting completely. Mika kicked her door open and clambered out, charging to the back of the transport to look inside at the rest of her team. Archaeopteryx screamed overhead and explosions lit the sky overhead as the helicopters engaged them.

"Shit! Someone pass me my mace!"

Mika yelled urgently, darting her head back to look around the transport as the soldiers took up defensive positions. The Thunderers drew ever closer, a menacing cloud with sounds to match. Her face tightened; there was no doubt that Carrion ground vehicles would soon follow.

"Look alive, guys! The alien buggers decided to meet us early, so let's repay 'em by taking them out right here!"

 

[pilgrim_]

Shade was the most distinctive sign of safety, thought Elias- the rumble of a running vehicle, an operating base's ceiling, or being under a noisy chopper letting off vicious weapon rounds. Rats survived even in dilapidated apartment blocks, if given a spot of shade.

As one of his companions commented away at their current plan, he had been holding his weapon between his feet, unloaded and unattached. It had been thoroughly cleaned and tested before each deployment, since he couldn't repair it out here, or let off test rounds while aliens were busy scanning houses for lifeforms.
His companion's - Mika's - weapon hung on the wall of the transport, strapped more securely than any of the soldiers.

The driver spoke. This meant he was unfocused, that it was calm outside- he was used to the violence.
Elias gripped his weapon tighter, a black gas mask looking from the front to the back of the vehicle slowly, concentrating not on his squad, but listening sharply to the sounds outdoors.

Once the Thunderers broke through, he was already snapping a magazine into his wood-furnished weapon, breathing hard. He twisted a narrow gas hose into the gun, and the back doors hissed to declare they were unlocked.

It was time, he decided, to get rid of whatever shade the Carrion were using, and removed Mika's mace with one hand.

 

[PeculiarOcean]

Charlotte's eyes were pinned to the outside of the vehicle, her eyes darting across the scenery as she watched the world whisk by. She bit her lip, her body covered by a bandolier filled with different explosives. Her gun sat at her hip, and her fingers twitched.

The woman that had stolen the passenger seat as soon as they had piled into the rumbling truck was speaking to the driver. She blocked most of it out, until she snapped to attention.

Thuderers outside the truck, her ears ringing with the noise. Charlotte recognized the sounds of the doors unlocking, and she was already pushing out of her seat and pushing open the door. Mika was already out of the vehicle, and she quickly followed after, the rest of the Vultures seemed to have the same idea. Her requested mace was already in Elias's hand, so she didn't bother to grab it for Mika on her way out. She squinted at the Carrion that were in the distance, her fingers tightening around her gun.

Charlotte's knees bent involuntarily, as if she were preparing to already spring forward. Bits and pieces of training surfaced in her mind, and she glanced at their vehicle. Attacking one of the Carrion towers was already suicidal enough, and now they were already facing off against a chunk of the army. How many of them would even survive this attack, let alone be able to make it to the tower?

Brushing it out of her mind, she yanked a grenade from her bandolier, gripping it tightly in her hand. Her finger was already to the pin.

 

[Reis]

Roma yelped at the booming roar of Thunderers. The 5 foot long greatsword that he held at his lap nearly slipped from his grasp when the transport came to a sudden halt. The sounds of helicopters and Carrions filled the air above them, threatening to drown out the shouts of surrounding Vultures. He took a moment to process what was going on, but soon enough the young soldier followed his team towards their target.

Roma whistled to himself. "Not too shabby for a welcoming party..." Screams of pain and violence already filled the air as the attacking Carrions approached. The way their hideous figures limped towards them reminded him of apocalyptic video games he played back in the old days. Except this time it was all real. "...Maybe a little too not shabby."

Who was the genius who put a horror tag on life, anyways? Sure, life isn't perfect no matter what age you live in, but things were always better when humanity was the dominant species. Now it was all they could do to survive. Every soldier around him was trapped in an endless cycle of violence and death. And it was all thanks to them.

Roma hefted his weapon with one hand and pulled his bandana back with the other. When he opened his third eye, he felt his senses explode with new information. Infrared vision mingled with his natural sight, revealing just how many Carrions there were. As he studied the battlefield ahead, he idly wondered how the hideous things would look with a blade between the eyes.

 

[Hextremus]

Mika swore softly as the Thunderers drew closer, anti-aircraft fire from the base behind splitting the sky as they targeted attacking Archaeopteryx. She darted to the back of the truck and jumped up into it, quickly snatching her mace up from the Vulture that held it. She grinned at the gas-mask wearing soldier.

"Cheers, Blackfoot. Good hunting."

With that she backed up and grasped the rim of the roof of the truck, kicking off and easily clambering up onto the top of the vehicle. An evil grin blossomed on her lips as she braced her legs, spinning her mace around herself several times before slotting the handle of the mace into the left side of the sheathe at her lower back. She twisted it and it locked into place. Grips emerged from the bottom of the sheathe and the side of the mace the head of the mace splitting like an X and shifting backwards to reveal a vented barrel. The rods lining the sheathe shifted forward as she swung the weapon around herself, putting her weight on her back left foot and aiming the railgun at the approaching Thunderers. They were close enough now that they were beginning to descend to deploy Carrion, still emitting those thunderous booms. Her finger tightened on the railgun's trigger as her HUD activated, curved glass sliding in front of her right eye and lighting up with holographic light.

"Nine points, you dirty whores."

The evil grin remained on her lips as she hissed the words, her finger squeezing the trigger. The weapon fired with such force that the truck she stood on was rocked backwards, a projectile trailing white energy lancing towards the Thunderers with an incredible screech of electricity. It punched straight through the Thunderer heading the cloud, causing the aerial vehicle to detonate in an explosion of brilliant blue and orange flame. The projectile continued onwards to tear through the Thunderer directly behind before finally losing momentum. The damaged Thunderer veered to its left, trailing smoke and colliding with another Thunderer. Both dropships were directed down to the ground, carving massive furrows into the dirt and creating a storm of dirt and dust.

Mika smirked with satisfaction at the mayhem she had caused, twisting the mace and extracting it from the sheathe. The head of the mace reverted back to normal as the sheathe returned to its place at her lower back. The smirk quickly disappeared as the remaining several dozen Thunderers touched down. A chorus of inhuman howls and screeches erupted over the battlefield as Carrion emerged from the Thunderers. She swore and kicked off the truck, landing in a roll and making her way towards the enemy.

"We are utterly and completely boned."

She growled to herself, jumping over a twisted mass of flesh that had been a soldier and skidding to a halt behind a tank and peering out around it. She watched as the Carrion began engaging the British ground forces proper. The Decimators charged in first, ramming through their enemy and spewing deadly poison upon those unfortunate enough to stand in their way. Behind them came the Banzai Carrion, eviscerating their way through soldiers while the Assault Carrion advanced behind them, backpack weapons firing steams of energy and bullets. The Artillery Carrion remained behind the charge, firing large beams of energy and explosives into the British ranks. Mika sighed quietly, leaning back against the tank and closing her eyes for a brief second. She took a deep breath, composing herself. The aliens drew ever closer.

"Well then... to business."

Hey eyes snapped open and she vaulted up onto the tank, leaping off it and towards the enemy with a resounding battle cry. She hoped the other Vultures were doing their part as well.

 

[PeculiarOcean]

Charlotte attached herself to the truck, even as it shook with the force of a gun from a certain Mika perched on the roof. She held on by one hand, her SMG tucked underneath her arm as she watched the Thunderers touch down on the ground. She pulled the pin of the grenade she was holding with her teeth, throwing it into the mass of Thunderers. Carrion popped out, and some were met with the explosion she had caused.

She jumped off the truck, running and leaping atop a tank. She pulled the trigger on her SMG, shooting at a few of the Carrion in the back of the masses. It was hard to miss with the wave of disgusting, gnarled creatures. She crouched down for a moment, before springing up high into the air. She could see for quite a way up in the sky, but she pulled the pin on another grenade, chucking it right into the center of the alien bodies. A short explosion followed after, and she took a few shots with her gun before landing back on the ground.

Taking a deep breath, she glanced around and surveyed the area to see what she could climb on top of. She found part of a decimated wall, jumping on top of it and scaling up it like a lizard would. From there, she stood, shooting into the masses and hopefully taking down some of the aliens, or at least damaging them enough to be picked off.

It was hard to see when one went down, as the aliens surging forward trampled right over a fallen body and continued after the soldiers in the front of their resistance.

 

[pilgrim_]

Elias, not out of rudeness, but being aware of the situation at hand, paid little notice to his friend's gratitude, and simply stepped past the truck behind the nearest chest-high object of cover. He clicked a switch into place, and was immediately grateful for the versatility of his weapon- despite the shudder of explosions in the ground and the muffled devastation all around, the hundred metre stream of liquid flame ignored accuracy, pouring out into the wave of Carrion with a friendly equality in its treatment of lifeforms. Among the typically overpowering, flesh-rendering monsters, was now an agonised horde of blackening alien meat, some crashing past each other to escape the cruel human weapon.

A reminder pushed him onward- the advance was headed by stronger, more threatening elements such as the Decimators. He gave one of the more crowded flanks a short burst of manufactured lava before flipping the weapon's setting again.

The enemy, in these defensive attacks, didn't often need much of a plan, beyond the occasional trick. They were by all means fully aware of human limitations, including fear, and so allowed their powerful troops to take the frontline instead of reserving them often.
With experience though, and certainly with the Vultures, this wasn't necessarily effective, and so he followed the source of a light beam and took aim at an armed Carrion, letting a manmade 7.62 round crack it and several other targets into bodies with puddles attached.

This was too easy, he knew. Hopefully the British would pull back at some point until the real defences started tearing them up, he thought as he shot a Decimator in the leg. A stray splash of acid fell onto him, the liquid falling away as if it were water on a coat and burning the concrete under his feet.

A wall of black smoke had been rising now, clouds winding into buildings and spilling through the sky. Beyond the furious beasts, there was little indication of whether something else was being prepared.
Elias pushed himself on to the next best piece of wall, a column surrounded by debris that had once supported a collapsed ruin of a building, and continued on sniping the Decimator from earlier in the limbs.

 

[Kersey]

Valls disembarked from the vehicle, gently lowering himself onto the ground with one hand on a safety railing and the other on his beloved shotgun. He had purposely waited until he was the only vulture left on board, with Mika having leaped off into what he assumed was a horde of carrion seconds prior. He preferred not to check if he was right though, knowing he'd probably shit himself if he unintentionally caught a glimpse of one of those ghastly alien bastards. Instead he attached his thermal imaging mask to his pitch-black suit, activating the active camouflage system directly afterwards. He watched as his body dissipated from view within seconds, with Sunfall's less advanced but equally capable system activating subsequently.

He finally turned around the corner of the truck, easily spotting Roma among the teeming swarms of carrion in the distance by locating the heat signature of his third eye. Valls steadily begun to close the short space between them, leaving a path of flattened grass and overturned pebbles in his wake. He didn't see a point in rushing as he wouldn't be in range to effectively engage the enemy, not like he planned to anyways unless the situation required it.

It was his duty to protect Roma Aurelio, nothing more, nothing less.

 

[Hextremus]

A roar of anger tore its way out of Mika's throat as she brought her mace down on the Decimator charging her. It connected with its armoured head and drove the entire front of the creature into the dirt, the glimmering armour plates fracturing and shattering as acid spewed outwards, forcing Mika to backflip away from the mangled remains of the Decimator. Her eyes snapped up and she dove to one side as a Banzai Carrion swung a sword connected to its wrist at her, rolling into a crouch and spinning, slamming the mace into its stomach and flinging it back into another Carrion.

"Fucking aliens..."

She growled to herself as she blocked a blow from another Banzai Carrion with the shaft of her mace before skewering it on the lower point. As it writhed and twisted on the razor point, she raised a hand to the headset on the right side of her head and flicked the radio on.

"Zenith, can you help me out over here? I'm trying to back up the tanks and soldiers that are still kicking."

Mika requested, kicking the Carrion off her mace and taking a proper look around during the lull. The dirt beneath them, earlier dotted with pristine grass, was now scorched and almost mud-like with blood and oil. There had been several abandoned buildings still standing; most of them were now large piles of rubble. The tallest building was at the very back right of the British forces, a scorched and battered three story building. There was even a massive gaping hole halfway up its side. Perfect for Roma to pick off aliens from. She opened her mouth to ask him to take up position there but frowned; what looked like a squad of Carrion were flanking around the British forces. She couldn't make out the species very well, but she was sure she could see a Sixeye. She swore.

"Cupid, August, looks like the Carrion want to take your sniper spot from you. Think you can handle it? Looks like they're bringing a Sixeye out, you may have Greyskulls on your hands too. Back 'em up, Blackfoot?"

She wasn't the leader of the Vultures, but all members were considered equal; there were no ranks in the Vultures. She was simply making suggestions and requests, as any of them could to her. Now, hopefully Charlotte would meet up with her soon.

 

[PeculiarOcean]

Charlotte’s eyes immediately flicked over the battlefield, searching for Mika. She had heard the request and was getting ready for a leap right to the woman. She immediately spotted her, squinting, then shoving off the wall she had perched on.

“On my way.” She announces to her as she leaped through the air, taking out a few of the surrounding Carrion with her SMG to give them some space. She landed heavily next to Mika, crouched down on the ground, and immediately began to fire at the aliens, grabbing for another grenade. She eventually got it out of her bandolier after a moment, and pulled the pin out with her teeth, still firing. She spat out the pin and rolled the grenade into the masses, hoping to put another hole in them.

“Grenade, to your left and a bit forward. Don’t step on it, Buster.” She immediately called out through the radio. She stuck close to Mika’s side, making sure they wouldn’t get separated in the twisted masses of bodies.

 

[Reis]

Roma carefully scanned the surrounding area. Although he felt tempted to jump into the battle, he knew that as a sniper he would need to prioritize long-range support. He turned his attention away from the sounds of war, focusing purely on the locations around him. He saw several abandoned buildings. Some of their walls were destroyed completely, while others were harmed only by the passage of time. Soon enough he had eyes on the tallest building around, its three stories scorched by weapons of formidable power. A hole opened up at its top like a mouth, making it the perfect place for him to deploy his weapon.

Before he could move out, Roma heard a voice shout from the radio of his headset. A wry smile formed on his face at the news. "Thanks Buster, I'll keep an extra eye on them." Roma activated his armor, causing it to take the color of the burnt grass and concrete around him. He crouched low and moved stealthily, circling around the battlefield towards the noted area. As he moved closer to the building, his movements showed a growing amount of care. He clutched his greatsword tightly, expecting combat at any moment. To his relief, he made it to the base of the building with relative safety.

The inside of the building was a lifeless gray. Any attempts at making the building aesthetically pleasing faded away with the passage of time. Roma could see the occasional burnt piece of paper or collapsed furniture, but it was impossible for him to tell what it was used for in the past. The cloudy skies above shed a dim light on the area, and Roma idly wondered how he'd reach the third floor when the staircase was destroyed.

Shaking his head in defeat, Roma decided that parkour would be the answer to his problems. He felt Carrion blood flow through his body as he braced himself for a hard run. Dashing forward, he climbed the few stairs that remained intact. Roma leapt from the final step onto a piece of the wall, and his boots touched the grimy building with a crack. "W-wooah!" The piece of wall he landed on was loose, and it threatened to knock Roma off balance. Before he could fall, the soldier gave a strengthened jump from the wall, and his hand barely managed to reach the second floor.

Roma sighed in relief. That was a close one! He pulled himself up onto the ground while grinning to himself. Another soldier may have found an easier way to ascend, but this was more fun, right?

Suddenly, he heard a hiss from in front of him. "Ooh boy..." He could barely make out a dull gray crest in front of him. His infrared vision flared to life, and it was immediatly clear that a lizard-shaped creature stood before him. "Ack!" Roma threw himself to the side as a vicious tail lashed out at him. He barely had time to roll to his feet and ready his weapon before a plasma beam shot right past his face. "A Greyskull!" This was one of his only times facing one of these creatures. It worked alongside Sixeyes, but only rarely. The intimidating creature would have been nearly impossible to see if not for his third eye.

Yet another beam shot passed him, and Roma jumped to the side. Before it could fire again, he ran towards the Carrion and swung his greatsword. The alien saw it coming, and it managed to deflect the blow with its scaly tail. Before Roma could regain his footing, the beast's teeth bit at his throat, and he had no choice but to stumble awkwardly back. The Greyskull pushed its advantage, biting and blasting and whipping its tail so that he never gained a moment of rest. He was so focused on dodging that he was surprised when his back hit a wall. Startled, Roma took his eyes off his opponent for a short moment, and that was all it needed to pin his weapon to the wall. He closed his eyes as the Greyskull snarled, lunging out with its toothy maw for one final attack.

 

[pilgrim_]

Between gunfire and bursts of flame to fend off the occasional thrust towards his position by the masses of bloodthirsty organisms, Elias considered the combat relatively calm. Given that the British were beginning to back away a little, providing more remote fire with their small arms and the occasional burst of tank-shells, the fighting was bound to die down soon.

The radio message from Mika was almost drowned out by the hideous sound of a beast pushing past its minion-companions, grappling on grey flesh, before being sniped in an eye. The quieter, agonised trilling let Elias look elsewhere, a shattered reflection of his gun flashing by him for a moment in a surprisingly semi-intact car window.
Cones of smoke and asphalt threw up flesh into the air, punctured by misfired beams of energy that turned into flashing dots of white, yellow, incinerated dust. All this as the weapon shook back in Blackfoot's hands, dropping a few choice targets- he made his approach towards Roma's position to support, only to watch light refract off a huge amalgamation of camouflaged skin.

He cursed his leniency in the second that followed, hitting the monster in the side of the face with another round. The stunned moment of respite that followed let him press a finger down, and in a matter of blinking, the Greyskull seemed to be writhing with pain, removing itself from "Cupid", and its flesh apparently blackening.
Confident, Elias pushed on, covering the area a little haphazardly, and stopped for a moment to try and get a shot into the thing.

What seemed to be the dying figure of a Greyskull flashed- the sea of charred skin turned, easily, back to a normal body, then into camouflage that was merely tainted with some dark spots- and the unmoving gas mask swore loudly.