Unit 74 Creative Writing Piece

New Order

Division Mission Brief <auto>

Date: 13th June 2013

Mission Type: Recon

Mission Brief: Reports of mutilated monsters attacking farm animals and pets in the town of Saltaire, United Kingdom. Potential Daemon sighting, Division squad Cypher of Garrison 7 deployed to assess the area. Squads Delta and Ares on standby for emergency assist

Side Notes: One witness reports seeing several monsters drag off prey into an area around Baildon Bridge, reliability of this Intel is suspect, witness heavily inebriated, investigate at own discretion.

<End Brief>

'It was a bitterly cold night, unusual for this time of year...  normally that wouldn’t unnerve me, but when dealing with these Daemons it's never a good sign. Our approach on the target location was as silent and undetected as always, these new SH-A12 Reaver stealth choppers really did the trick.  Deployment in and out of an area has never been easier or safer; the Division has access to equipment I’ve never dreamt of.

As safe as it was I could tell all the guys were unnerved, well all except for the cleric I don’t think anything rattles them. But these guys were seasoned veterans, the best of the best, but the things we had seen over the past 5 month... These things we’ve been fighting are a new breed of horror, for every one of the bastards we take out more often than not we lose a whole squad. Only 2 of the squads in our entire garrison are still intact from their initial formation the rest have been replaced and re-garrisoned a half dozen times at least, that's 2 out of 3 dozen squads lost! But things have gotten better since The Order came along.

It is a little weird though, having to forget most of everything we’ve ever been taught about combat. Daemons don’t show any mercy, no leniency and have no interest in prisoners. They'll rip through one of their own to get to their prey, so we have to make every shot a lethal one, well as much as we can against these things, you see sometimes they don’t have hearts… or heads for that matter it makes quick kills almost impossible. The tactics the order has shown us though, they’re weird... but effective; Prayers with our guns, engraving sigils and symbols that have long since lost their meaning to the world onto our bullets and blades, drinking holy water to ward off possession. It’s some weird shit, but as I said... it works.'

"We're on final approach" we hear the pilot come in over the ear pieces "Dropping in 20"

On that note the colonel Barron stands up steadying herself with one of the storage nets behind the pilot’s seat. "Alright men, we’ve had reports of as many as a dozen daemons in the area, so far they've kept their hunting only to cattle and domestic animals which suggest they’re nesting. Our mission is to assess the area, check the accuracy of the Intel and wipe these out these sons of bitches! We cannot allow them to gain a permanent beachhead up here, squads Delta and Ares are standing by to assist if neces..."

"Were at target location Colonel"

"Alright men, you know what to do, suit up! Let’s get it done." Finishing her speech we all finish getting ready; checking our comms with a tap to hear the faint buzz of feedback and synching our HUD's with our guns and other systems. The blue displays in our helmets light up, blue triangles light above my squad mates.

I slowly begin to whisper off my systems check list, "Ammo count...check, comms signal… check, mission beacons... check and gps-map... check"

"Russ you know you don’t have to read it out to us right?" Hudson’s comm. icon flashes up on my HUD

"Piss off Hudson, haven’t you got a kitchen to get back to" I carry on with the banter before we're cut off by Barron.

"Hudson, Russ cut the chatter!" Colonel Barron’s icon flashes up and the joking stops, time to get serious.

Just as the Reaver steadies itself over the flood plains near Salts Mill all the men have a final look over their guns.

Within the next few seconds the Reaver had steadied, the loading ramp lowered, and the troops began to make their exit.

Sgt. Nikola and Lt. Russell took point, heading off the loading ramp and taking up defensive positions flanking the chopper. The Cleric, Colonel and TAG were the next to make their exit, Tesla and Russ took point leading the squad to the tree line, the rest of the squad followed behind with Hudson bringing up the rear… so far so good

At the tree line the Colonel gave us the game plan “Alright, the bridge from the eye witness report is just a half mile down the road, Padre! You lead Hudson, Russ and Chief to the bridge and see if you can see anything unusual, recon only. You are NOT! To engage unless absolutely necessary I don’t want to be losing any men today, understood?”

All the men uttered the standard yes sir in unison and we moved out, the Colonel, Tag and Tesla headed further into the town to see if they could find any clue as to what had been going on here.

The trip into the town was relatively uneventful but the tensions were a little high, all these old buildings gave the Daemons brilliant vantage points and the darkness was perfect for concealing an ambush. Their goal was to make it into the main area of the village and see if they can witness daemon hunting, a simple enough task… as long as it’s the one daemon.

They didn't have to wait long, as Tesla quickly spotted a shadow moving fast in the darkness, “Sir! Daemon at 3 O’clock” he piped up in an alarmed whisper.

“Did you get a good look at it?”

“No sir, but from the size and speed, I’d guess Acheri demon”

“Damn it.. Alright Tes, you go and circle round and watch it from the top of the street. But stay hidden!”

“Sir!” With that Nikola skulked off into the shadows

“Tag, me and you will watch from this side, you take the high ground, from… up there!” The she looked to where the colonel was pointing to see the fire escape of one of the local college buildings.

“Affirmative” As the Tag took her position on her new perch, the colonel watched the daemon from the shadows of the building she was stood next to.

“Your move demon….”

For the next 10 minutes the now confirmed Acheri demon was looking in and over the gardens of the surrounding terraces, if it wasn’t they’d have been spotted by now, Acheri only hunt by sight, meaning the 3 soldiers didn’t have to be too quiet.

Just then the demon appeared to have found its next victim, a large cat playing with a mouse by the looks of it, it began to move in, its teeth bared and fully poised to strike the cat when all of a sudden it stopped. The daemon quickly lifted its head, swivelling it around like a dog or meerkat detecting a threat

‘There’s no way it could have heard us…’ The colonel thought to herself as the daemon shot off, scaling the house directly to its left and heading towards the river. Just as she was beginning to piece what had happened together the colonel was interrupted

“We need assistance! This is Hudson to Colonel Barron, we've found the nest!!

‘That explains the Acheri demon’

“We've got incoming hostiles at least 2 dozen daemons, Acheri, Arrah and hell hounds!! I repeat WE NEED ASSISTANCE!!!”

“You heard the lady, MOVE OUT! Tag get on then horn tell HQ we need Delta and Ares on scene immediately!”

And the scene wasn’t pretty, in the opening attack 3 hell hounds had ripped into the chief, he was losing blood fast.

A hail of gun fire was launched into the horde of daemons attacking their position 3 of the Acheri were cut down to size fairly quickly, the hell hounds however were deadly bastards, too quick on their feet, there’s no chance of an accurate hit on then. One of the bastards was heading towards Russ full pelt and launched itself at him, jaw poised to grab his throat

“duratus locali!!” The padre yelled out one of his spells

A flash of pale blue light enveloped the daemons as it slowed down painfully so in mid-air, Russ raised his P90 and fired a hail of bullets into the hell hounds face, a spattering of bone, blood and hair splashed cross his helmet and armour.

The others were quickly dispatched before the spell wore off. Just as Cypher squad were about to relax, they heard the growls and guttural barks of more hell hounds, they looked around to locate the oncoming enemy and to his left, Russ saw the pack. The oncoming Storm….