Chapter 14
Titus 1:15
“Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled".
After we landed, we all loaded up into light armored Humvees and sped towards the compound. Several of them had pintle mounted belt fed machine guns, a fact that we would surely be grateful for soon. I didn't get a chance to speak to Angiola as we were both busy getting the remainder of our gear ready and loaded up. As soon as we had the village in sight on the horizon I could tell something wasn't quite right. This fact was soon confirmed when Angiola came over the main comms channel from the overwatch position. “All teams be advised, the compound appears to be completely surrounded by... By what looks like hundreds, possibly thousands of dead bodies. They are all around the exterior wall that I can see from here, and are impaled through spikes holding the bodies erect. The bodies are spaced a few feet apart and are several bodies deep. The teams on foot will have to approach through a wall of the dead about 40 to 50 meters deep. I'm also seeing packs of what may be dogs running around and through the bodies”. She ended the transmission sounding a bit overwhelmed. I could tell the loss of life was really bothering her, I could see her tearing up when we watched the news footage the first time. When we saw the satellite images, there was only a fraction of that number impaled. It sounds like he's expanded his wall for some reason. Reginald was there with her and running drones ahead of us to make sure we didn't miss anything. I acknowledged the last transmission and replied. “Understood over watch. We plan to deploy on foot, form up and then follow the Humvee's in when they breach the walls. The vehicles will have to clear a path through the impaled as well. We will proceed with caution”.
Once we got closer to the compound, our convoy spread out and surrounded the area. The compound itself was hexagonal in shape, and made of thick mud bricks. There was scaffolding running across the tops of the walls and machine gun nests in towers on the corners. The construction was impressive, but I guess when you have magic and slave labor, things get built quickly. We all had breaching charges. We would have the humvee drive through the fence of the damned, then the passenger would dismount and set up the breaching charge. Humvee backs out, blow the charge then proceed with the attack. At least that's the plan, but we would have to see what happens once we made contact. There was a dirt road entering it on the south side opposite where my team would hit, Thomas's team would hit the wall west of the road. I got a slightly queasy feeling and could immediately tell something was very wrong. We were about 500 meters out when we stopped and unloaded. I shouldered my LMT MARS-H .308 and looked through the Eotech Vudu 5-25x50 optic. I couldn't believe my eyes, as Angiola mentioned there were thousands of victims impaled in neat rows surrounding the walls... What I could see clearly now at this closer distance was that they were all animated into zombies, and to top it all off the dogs were NOT dogs but hyenas... Hundreds of undead hyenas, weaving in and out of a forest of the dead. I keyed my comm and said “All teams be advised, the impaled dead appear to have been animated and there are packs of what looks to be undead hyenas running through the perimeter. Let the Humvee's clear a path then shoot the hyenas. Overwatch, we are in position now, can you get a closer look with drone assets”? There was silence over the comms but I could hear a few of the people in my squad cursing or praying under their breath. Reginald came back over the coms. “Sending in a low flyer to confirm now, wait one.” There was a pause and you could feel the tension hanging thickly in the morning heat. “Confirm last, All impaled victims have indeed been animated. Correct. They are not dogs, hyenas. Judging by damage I'm seeing, affirm, undead hyenas… Backing off now but I will be in the area. Right before you breach the outer walls I'll get an overhead view of the inside of the compound and let the teams know what we are walking into”. I wasn't much of a leader but I felt like I had to say something to my squad. “Listen up, any chance at stealth has gone out the window. The zombies will start to make a ton of noise as soon as they see us coming. We stick to the plan, be careful, be cautious and avoid teeth and claws. Keep your eyes peeled and heads on a swivel. WE will know more from the drone assets just before we breach. Be ready for anything, stay vigilant”. Without much else to say, I stated the obvious and moved on. We would have the trucks punch through the outer zombie wall making a 3 truck wide clearing, giving us a path through the dead. Once the main walls were breached with the charges, the machine gunners on the 50 BMG’s would engage as the vehicles then spread out to make room for the rest of us on foot.
Simon came over the comms and said a brief prayer before the charge. Once he finished the prayer, he gave the order to execute. The Humvee's took off down towards the compound, the squads on foot running after them. Everything was going according to plan until the Humvees disappeared with a puff of dust. The Humvees trailing them slammed on the breaks but slid into the hole as well. There was a dry moat around the compound! It was either covered or hidden with a glamor that members of The Order somehow couldn't see through. Just then there was a massive explosion as the entire trench detonated, sending a cloud of oily smoke and Hummer chunks into the air. Debris from the explosion began to rain down around us as several heads popped up from the wall and we began to take small arms fire. Thankfully it wasn't incredibly accurate, just as I had that thought, the guns in the tower opened up and began to walk tracers into the front ranks. It sounded like a Dushka, a Russian machine gun similar to the 50 cal's we had mounted to the Humvees. We all hit the dirt and began to crawl, presenting less of a silhouette. Thank God for over watch, just in time the Dushka walking a line my way, suddenly stopped shooting. Followed by another and another as Angiola and the other sniper teams took out the shooters. We hadn't planned on needing morters or RPG's because this wasn't supposed to be a siege on a fortified position. So much for the drone getting us an interior view before breaching the walls. I wasn't even sure how we could breach now, the charges were in the Humvees that were now just chard wreckage. Hopefully the snipers would keep the DShk’s unmanned long enough for us to charge into the trench. As soon as the big guns stopped spraying our way I jumped up and made a run for it. When I landed in the trench, I realized it wasn't just covered or hidden with a glamor. The dry moat had been dug out by the Shoggoth until there was only a little dirt left above it, then the tunnel was rigged to blow. It was about 20 feet deep and 10 feet across and had blobs of tar stuck to the walls in random spots. I also saw a few smaller tunnels going off in other directions. “Status!” came over the comms, overhead gun fire reaching a crescendo as we tucked up against the wall of the tunnel. “I made it to the crash site for my convoy, looks like a tunnel from the shoggoth. There are a few smaller tunnels branching off, I can't tell if anything goes into the compound. Do we proceed as planned and try to breach the walls or try the tunnels?” I asked into the comms. Before I could get a response, I saw a flash of movement from the tunnel closest to me. Suddenly a pack of about 30 undead hyenas were rushing at us and charging my team. “Undead in the tunnels, heading to the wall!” I shouted into the comms while drawing my 2011. I started engaging targets and half the surviving members of my team did too. The remaining members heard the order and began to shoot towards the top of the wall, engaging the child soldiers as they hung guns over the wall and tried to get shots down on our position. The man to my left hit the ground, a hyena tearing his throat out as he gargled and thrashed. The dry dirt below him soaking up his blood eagerly. I shot the beast on the man's throat in the head then rolled a grenade into the tunnel they were coming out of. I bellowed “FRAG OUT'' at the top of my lungs, charging the hole while reloading. The Manus Patris men behind me took cover behind the wreckage of the Humvee or on either side of the tunnel entrance. I shot 2 more before the grenade went off and blew wet bloody chunks of hyena out at me. I could feel the familiar burn as a few pieces of frag from the grenade came back and tore into me. Three fragments hit me, one in my shoulder, one in my left hip and another in my thigh. Luckily I still had my vest on and nothing punched a lung or an origin and would work their way out as I healed. Yes, I was wearing a vest and ceramic front and back plates. I would heal, but why not wear armor. Plus not wearing gear would single the members of The Order out as different. I'm sure The Dark Pope knew of us and probably knew about some of our abilities. If he was smart enough to somehow hijack a transit, and have his doppelgänger impersonate Simon he was well informed. Thankfully the tunnel collapsed and nothing else came out.
Thomas
Thomas was running with his squad when the dry moat collapsed and the 3 Humvees went into the trench. After the charges in the moat blew and the gunners popped up over the wall, his men began to leap frog up to the moat. There was a bridge from the paved road, reinforced so vehicles wouldn't fall into the trap going over the dry moat. Fortunately it hadn't collapsed and his team took shelter underneath it just before the Dushkas on his side started to fire. The slight cover was being chewed away by the overwhelming rate of fire. He laid down in a prone position and took aim at the first tower. He could just see the outline of a man's head between the muzzle flashes. He took a deep breath as he sighted in on the outline and slowly exhaled. He squeezed the trigger on the respiratory pause and was rewarded with a splash of blood on the wall of the tower the machine gun nest was set up in. What happened next was a total fluke, the almost headless body of the man he shot must have tensed up on the trigger. As his lifeless body began to collapse, he traversed a string of tracers up the wall and across the battlements. The men hanging their guns over the wall were mowed down one by one in a hail of rounds before the Dshk fell over as the corpse at the controls finished falling. The belt ran out shortly after and the machine gun nest closest to his position went quiet. Thomas was both amazed and grateful for how that shot had turned out. With the wall cleared he was going to try to enter the compound from the main gate, then try to rendezvous with the other teams. Thomas and his team of Manus Patris began to climb up the wall of the dry moat, with the pause in fire he may be able to hear coms from overwatch. He switched to private com, “Overwatch, this is Thomas, we are at the main gate and stacking up on the entrance. Can you get eyes near my location?” There was a pause then Reginald replied back. “Reinforcements inbound to your area, breach and hook left, you should have cover”.
Simon
Simon was riding on the rails of the rear hummer when the moat collapsed. He managed to jump off the back of the truck as soon as he saw the lead vehicle go into the trench. His squad caught up with him right after the massive explosion hit. As soon as the gunners popped up on the walls they charged to the only available cover, the moat. They all lined up on the wall closest to the compound and took turns returning fire. Simon noticed there was much more to the moat system when he saw there were tunnels heading towards the compound. He yelled to his squad and they stacked up on him to enter the closest tunnel. “Undead in the tunnels” came through the static, he could hardly make out Tobias. An emaciated zombie stumbled out of the dust, likely a local from the village, before The Dark Pope set up his empire here. Simon had his rifle shouldered and engaged the zombie, quickly dispatching him. As soon as the zombies rotted body hit the ground a larger hoard came shambling out. One of the men to his left tossed a flare into the tunnel and the pale flickering red illumination showed a hoard of the undead. Simon and his team advanced into the tunnel and took out zombie after zombie. The tunnel ended in a steep slope. Shining his weapon mounted flashlight up the earthen ramp exposed a large chunk of plywood over what he hoped would be an exit. Cautiously Simon moved the plywood to one side revealing the inside of a large garage. If it was the same one they had see on the satellite photos, they believed this was where the bomb was located. Finding and neutralizing the bomb was one of the primary objectives of the mission. He poked his head up and looked around seeing a few large military vehicles, and over in one corner on a wheeled dolly was a large crate holding what must be the bomb! Communicating with hand signals he led his team out of the tunnel and towards the bomb. Suddenly there was a yelp from behind him and one of the men went down, his weapon light casting bizarre shadows along the wall. A vampire had dropped off the ceiling ambushing him. Aiming his light up he could see there were multiple vampires all clinging to the rafters of the building. His squad began to engage the vamps as they fell. The bullets themselves having little effect, but punching holes into the roof letting in the sunlight set off an anti vampire grid. Simon slung his LMT .308 and drew his bastard sword, decapitating the closest vampire in the same stroke. Half of the Manus Patris squad continued to shoot into the ceiling, causing rays of bright morning sun to pour into the area, creating a shield of light. The other half engaged any vamp brave or stupid enough to try to get past the light.
Tobias
With that wave stalled, I stepped onto the charred and twisted frame of the humvee still stuck in the trench upside down at a 15 degree angle. Looking over the trench and seeing no one was shooting at us at the moment. “I need a satchel charge” I yelled down to the remaining men. “I'll charge through and set this, start clearing the zombies”. I told the remainder of my squad. I climbed up the wreck and ran quickly towards the wall, zombies reaching and clawing at me the whole way through. I set the charge at the base of the wall then shot the closest 3 poles at the base with my LMT .308. I dragged the bodies over like giant disgusting corndogs and piled them onto the charge to help tamp the force into the wall. I ran a few yards away and curled up in a ball before setting it off. Sure I can heal but getting a large chunk of shrapnel through a lung or having a limb blown off would either slow me down or take me out of the fight temporarily. There was a loud woooommph as I detonated the charge, then I was being pelted with small chunks of zombie bits and dirt. Looking back I saw the wall had been breached and there was a good solid 4 by 3 foot chunk of the wall missing. The top of the hole was crumbling mud bricks, so I charged the hole and rammed the crumbling bricks with my shoulder. The rest of my team was busy shooting the animated dead in the head, clearing a path through the impaled zombies, and heading my way. Once the remaining members of my team got to the hole we entered the compound. “We breached the walls, my team is in. The tunnels are swarming with the dead”. Simon came back over the comms. “My team is making its way into the tunnels. The closest tunnel was full of zombies, but it wasn’t wide enough for them to swarm us. Should be in pretty soon”. Philip replied. “We have collapsed the closest tunnels but are pinned down. Unfortunately the majority of my team was killed when several Werewolves came out of the tunnel and attacked us. We killed them but the remainder of my team is being pinned down by fire from the upper walls”. My team made it through the wall and stacked up against a long building that we had identified as barracks running along the north east wall. We believed the nuke would be in the large garage along the West wall. I started to engage the shooters on top of the East wall to get them off of Philip's team. “This is Thomas, We are at the main gates. The road is still standing but our vehicles are gone. There were no tunnels on my end of the trench and the majority of my squad is still intact. Entering the compound now”. The plan was to fight our way to the garage where the bomb was likely being held. “Philip, I'm clearing the wall for you, come around to the North East wall and you can meet up with my squad”. Philip must have had the same plan, as soon as he heard that my team had breached the wall. I glanced back as I was grabbing another mag to see how many men I still had in my team. Looking down the length of the barracks I saw Philip leading his men into the compound through the hole I had blown into the wall. He was heading our way and linking up what was left of the two squads. Then I noticed another pack of hyenas round the corner of the barracks, as well as several werewolfs. Thankfully he saw them too and started to engage, looking back to the East I saw more coming down the wall. We were trapped with hordes of undead hyenas and werewolves coming at us from both directions. A squad of soldiers and the man in the Red beret was at the rear. They opened fire over the heads of the zombified hyenas. They must have been shooting normal copper jacketed lead because the werewolfs didn't seem to care as they were hit with stray bullets. My team and I started to engage targets while walking backwards as did Philip and his team, meeting in the middle of the area. One of the MP men launched a 40mm grenade into the midst of the men shooting at us from Philips side and the blast took out most of the shooters. With the back wall of the barracks to the right of me and the compound walls to the left, thankfully the hexagonal shape of the compound let us spread out a bit and offer up a wall of lead and silver to the swarming undead. Both the hyenas and the werewolves were still insanely fast and the were's could jump and climb the mud brick walls. The enemy shooters attacking from Philips side were all killed at last, but Philip and I both lost men on that wave unfortunately. Our two squads of about 25 each, were down to a total of less than 30 men combined since the raid began. Philip was breathing heavily as a 7.62x39 had hit just behind his chest plate. His lung was just starting to reinflate again as he healed. He paused, placing a hand on my shoulder and hacked up a gob of blood, spitting it onto the dusty ground. We started to head towards the garage to try and finish the mission. Just then Thomas came over the comms “I'm pinned down South west wall. I'm at the back of…” “ENNNNOOOOUUUUUGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” The ground shook with the bellowing command. The entire compound fell silent as the booming voice echoed and reverberated off of the walls. “COME ON OUT ORDER OF JUDAS, THIS GAME HAS GONE ON FOR TOO LONG”. The volume of his voice was insane, sounding like it was inside of your skull, chest and teeth but I still couldn't tell what direction it was coming from. It was coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. The remaining men in our squads were ashen faced, the man standing next to me was trembling as blood dripped slowly from his nose and around his hearing protection. Philip and I exchanged a questioning glance, I was at a complete loss.
The wind around us began to howl, pelting us with sand and grit. Then the ground began to vibrate. The wind got faster and faster whipping around us from every angle. The ground went from a vibration you could feel in your boots to a trembling quake, as the sky started to get darker and darker. It was like the sun setting, but much quicker, in about 90 seconds the sky was as dark as midnight under a full moon. “This is over watch, what's happening down there?” asked a frightened Angiola. I rounded the north corner of the barracks to see The Dark Pope standing in a doorway to a large building closest to the gate. We couldn't tell what the building was on the satellite images but from the ground level we could clearly see it was a temple of some sort, complete with the stylized DP symbol carved into the building above the doorway. The Shoggoth was there with him, oozing down the steps and there were also a few dozen Vampires out in the open now that it was dark. Undead, werewolves, necromancers and more poured out from all of the buildings in the compound. Then the necromancers chanted and all of the dead from both sides of the battle that were not shot in the head began to rise. Suddenly animated again, and ready to attack. In a moment of weakness I said “Angiola get out of here! Get to the airfield and take off”. over the comms. The Dark Pope looked at me and smiled maliciously, then clapped his hands in front of him. Suddenly the entire overwatch team was there, they just popped into existence about a foot off the ground and right in the middle of the compound. “Now now. We don't want anyone to miss the fun, do we?” Asked The Dark Pope. His voice wasn't as loud as before, but you could still feel each word vibrating in your guts and clenching your chest. We were surrounded on all sides but no one was attacking. The dead of both sides had risen but were just shambling around aimlessly. The wind died down and the entire compound was as silent as a tomb. The Dark Pope walked slowly down each step finally making his way into the large common area. Reginald was there with the rest of the overwatch team, basically stuck in the middle of this mad Mexican standoff. The female sniper from MP raised her rifle in the blink of an eye and fired right at The Dark Pope. The bullet stopped a few inches from between his eyebrows and hovered there spinning for a few heartbeats before suddenly dropping to the ground. The shoggoth shot out a tentacle and completely split the sniper in half, she hit the ground with a wet thud. Her blood poured out and seeped into the soil. The Dark Pope began to laugh. The sound was like running glass through a garbage disposal, sending a cold chill running down my spine. “You have all failed, I made sure you would all come here to make such a bold attempt to stop me. It's such a shame that you won't get to see the end of the world with me, although I'm sure you will all be rather busy trying in vain to fix this for many years to come. Remember this day as my gift to you. I will let you live to see the horror you couldn't stop”. The Dark Pope said as he clapped his hands over his head and everything completely vanished.