As night fell across the city, a fog began to roll in from the ocean. Not an unusual occurrence in a city by any large body of water, but perhaps somewhat unusual as it was moving against the wind instead of with it. And with all known weather-controlling Capes in prison or their whereabouts known…
Calls had quickly made their way to the PRT, and the Special Operations crew found themselves out investigating the phenomena.
"I don't like it," Emily growled as her APC trundled down the road in the Docks. The fog had started out patchy, increasingly obscuring visibility as the vehicles of her group slowly made its way.
"We got motion on the trackers," one trooper reported. "Sounds like a whole group on audio."
"Range?"
"A hundred feet for the group, but there's enough clutter to hide an ambush."
Emily nodded. "Anything on IR?"
"The fog masks IR pretty good," the trooper manning the IR sensors reported. "I think we've got two large and two dozen unknowns nearby…"
There was a sudden roar as something struck the APC
hard, leaving a dent in the armored side. "We're being swarmed," the driver reported. "We've got these
things crawling all over the APC!"
"Describe them," Emily instructed as the van was struck again to less effect.
"About a meter tall, skin's an unhealthy looking orange. Flat face, pointed ears, small fangs. The eyes are glazed over, like they're on something. Wearing drab, dirty clothes. Armed with clubs and knives."
"And the large ones?"
"One appears to be bare chested, about two and a half meters tall, and is wielding a maul." The APC shook again as the creature hit the APC. "Ugly sucker, too. Can't see the other, it's holding back."
"Hit the lights," Emily instructed. "Weapons free. APC Two and Three, flashbangs. Once the rear hatch is cleared, we dismount. Gunner, assume Brute and target the thing attacking us with the fifty cal. Make your shots count. On one. Three…. Two… One!"
All three APCs turned on their extremely bright lights, temporarily blinding whatever had attacked them. Then the other two launched some flashbangs, disorienting whatever was outside even more.
Her gunner opened up with the M2; inside the APC they heard the dull chug chug chug as the weapon cycled and the screaming of whatever he'd hit. It then switched over to a steady thrum as he switched to full auto, sweeping clear the outside threshold of the hatch.
"Hatch is clear!" the driver called out. "Lowering!"
The three men in front had heavy riot shields out, with the next three men holding their weapons at the ready. Emily was behind them. Things became extremely chaotic, because as soon as the rear hatch had begun lowering, the small things tried to get in despite their temporary blindness. The application of a baton with a built in stun gun dropped the things and the door eventually opened fully.
They were rushed by a bunch of the smaller creatures, who had various hand-held weapons out, along with hide covered shields. A volley of buckshot had most of the rushing things down, and they began to clear the area around the APCs, hitting the ones on the APCs with stun batons, and spraying their hands and feet with confoam.
The largest creature currently lay on the ground, still breathing. Emily noted that it had taken multiple hits from the M2, leaving it bleeding out. She shook her head and then, with a smooth motion, brought her P90 up and snapped off two shots, dropping two of the smaller creatures in their tracks.
"Enough of this fucking fog," she grumbled and used a trick she'd recently picked up. A gust of wind spread out from her, clearing the fog for a good hundred feet around her. And then saw the rest of the problem, and why the other large figure hadn't come closer.
"Bravo," he said, clapping his gauntleted hands. "A good showing by the town watch, no matter what strange weapons they fight with." His voice was definitely more educated than the growls, yips and screams of his smaller minions. He was wearing an impressive suit of armor, a dark blue-black suit of plate armor that would probably be proof against the tactical shotguns they had, but not the rifles and carbines unless it had been enhanced. The M2 machine guns would make it Swiss cheese in short order.
That the leader of this group wasn't human was obvious, despite his armor.
"Liminal status, get back into the APCs, seal up," Emily ordered over the radio. "I believe you're mistaken," she said in a clear voice. "We're not the town watch."
"It doesn't matter, really," the demihuman stated, a shrug causing his kit to make grinding and clanking sounds. "This port city is ripe for the taking, and as our master orders, so shall it be." He snarled something else, and all the smaller creatures brandished their weapons, a collection of shortswords that looked more likely to kill from tetanus than any wounds they caused, some rather shoddy looking but apparently functional bows and some slings.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Emily asked.
"Kill this fool," the demihuman in plate armor ordered.
The wave of attacking creatures made it less than five steps before they came to halt, now facing a large bronze dragon who appeared to be very annoyed. "That was the wrong thing to say," Andraste growled, then flared her presence with predictable results.
Nearly all the small demihumans dropped their weapons and ran as fast as they could away from the big scary thing, the rest were unconscious or worse. She swore she could hear some of them screaming "It's gonna eat me!" as they ran into the various nearby alleys and warehouses.
She fixed her glare on the leader, who was now very much alone and obviously knew it. "We can do this the easy way, or the hard way," she said. "The easy way is that you surrender, we take you prisoner, interrogate you, and turn you over to the military."
"And the hard way?"
"As you began with lethal force, your life ends after a brief but futile fight," Andraste replied.
There was silence from the creature before he drew his sword. "Then today is a good day to die." He took a stance, getting ready to charge to his doom…
And after a quiet <phut> sound, dropped like a rock.
"I was wondering when you'd get here," she quietly rumbled as one of Tucker's lieutenants and his squad came out of the shadows. Two of the kobolds made sure the creature they'd just rendered unconscious was confoamed. They also gave him a couple of kicks while he was down.
"Sorry about that," the kobold offered. "A couple of other assets were a little late in arriving."
As her troopers disembarked again and began securing survivors, she could hear nearby sounds of some very large dogs baying, along with the howls of some wolves. "It would probably be a good idea to not mistreat the prisoner," Andraste instructed.
"Kobolds typically have, shall we say,
issues with things like goblins, hobgoblins and ogres," the kobold stated with no small amount of sarcasm.
"So which are what?" her Special Operations sergeant asked, already well used to his boss in her bronze dragon form.
"The small ugly ones with the crap weapons and armor are goblins," the kobold explained while his group secured the prisoners with zip cuffs. "The big ugly one with some intelligence and better weapons who was going to try and fight you is a hobgoblin. And the really big, stupid one with a maul who got chewed up by the heavy machine gun is an ogre. Who isn't mortally wounded, by the way."
Which prompted the sergant to set a couple of troopers to confoam the creature before it woke.
"So where did they come from?" Andraste inquired. "If it wasn't for the fact that Ellisburg is gone, I'd say these are some of Nilbog's creations."
"You do not want nilbogs and goblins to ever meet," the kobold stated. "The results are never pretty." He had treated the name, Nilbog, as if it was an actual creature.
About then, there was movement from other streets and three groups were marching the goblins that tried to run away
back. The first group was Hellhound and her dogs (along with PRT handlers) herding about 20 of the things, looking somewhat chewed on and sullen. They did not, however, give the large monstrosities herding them any trouble.
The second group was led by a being that looked like a cute husky puppy except that she was close to seven feet tall, walking on her hind legs and had razor sharp fangs and claws. Here, the goblins had wolves nipping at their heels and the occasional growl from the werewolf to keep them in line.
It was the last group that surprised the bronze dragon. They appeared to be bipedal rats, dressed in dark, drab colors which would easily blend into the shadows, their faces kept in shadow by hooded cloaks. They threw several deceased or dying goblins to the street. "Keep your trash out of the sewers," a large one hissed. "You throw enough shit down there as it is."
With that, they walked away, fading into the darkness.
"Who was that?" Andraste asked the kobold.
"Wererat," Tucker's lieutenant answered. "Shapeshifters who can take on the form of a giant rat, or a cross between a rat and a man. If they bite a human, there's a chance they can develop lycanthropy and become one. They are not well liked, and tend to form organized gangs. Prefer to hang around larger communities, engaging in criminal activities, but usually don't try to take over."
"Wonderful," the dragon growled. "Just what the city needs, another gang."
"And this one squarely in our laps," added her sergeant.
= = = = = = = = = =
Naurelin was just getting ready to leave, having completed her shift after an evening patrol near Captain's Hill with Kid Win. They noted the fog rolling in against the wind, and had reported it to the console. They finished their route and flew back to base.
They'd filed their reports and were getting cleaned up when the klaxon started going off, meaning The Rig was going into lockdown. There was the sound of gun fire from several decks below them, muted by the intervening floors.
"We have intruders on the lower deck," the PA system announced. "Security teams to decks one and two. Intruders are armed and dangerous."
"Well, I guess that means they'll be trying to evacuate us," Kid Win stated. "Usually, they get stopped by the forcefield. I think the last time someone tried to get on The Rig by force was before the forcefield was installed."
Their phones beeped. "We're to shelter in place," Taylor read, "and not to leave until the all clear is given." Taylor thought for a moment. "Gear up. I think we're gonna have visitors at some point, and if we don't, we'll have time to stand down. Vista, bring up one of the external cameras and put it on the monitor."
Vista's smile was not a pretty one. "Can do." A couple of key clicks and she had the boat deck in sight. There were a couple of strange creatures coming up over the side of the rig and were engaging the PRT troopers on the deck, who had taken what cover they could.
Weaver summed it best. "Why are we being attacked by goggle eyed fish men with spears, nets and shields?"
"I dunno," Takara added, "but I bet I can use the monitor to help!" She concentrated, and on screen, a tentacle of water appeared and began knocking fish men off their feet. "Hee! It works!"
From the screen they could see the effects as Triumph started yelling at the intruders, while Miss Militia covered his back, using rubber bullets to drop the slimy creatures that charged her.
Then the troopers opened up with the fire fighting hoses.
The water pressure knocked the intruders off their feet and started pushing them off the boat deck, where they would fall off the side towards the water.
Then there were some banging noises in the duct work above the Wards, and something pale, slimy and fish-like dropped into their midst. Before anyone else could react, Vista opened a portal underneath the creature to a point visible well above the boat deck, through which the thing dropped with a burbling cry. It fell to the deck and bounced a couple of times, not moving afterwards.
"Console, Naurelin: The intruders are in the larger ventilation ducts. They're inside The Rig! We've evicted one already."
"We copy, Naurelin. Be advised they're scaling the outside as well."
"Naurelin, this is Armsmaster," Armsmaster's voice came across the comms. "Evacuate your quarters to the most expedient location, do you understand?"
"Affirmative, Armsmaster. Evacuating now." She turned to the rest of the Wards. "Get any stuff you want, plus anything edible out of the kitchen. You've got two minutes!" She made a mental note to reorganize food storage for this sort of situation.
Kid Win rushed down the hall to his lab and quarters, sealing the former and grabbing a packed duffle bag from the latter. Vista abused local space time and grabbed her go bag without leaving the kitchen, where she'd grabbed a cooler and was packing it. Mizuchi and Weaver had likewise gone and grabbed their bags and some bedding from their quarters, then helped pile more food and drinks into the cooler, along with some utensils and ice.
"Console, Naurelin," she called in as she returned to the kitchen with her own go bag. "Wards are evacuating. We will make contact in one hour."
"Console copies," came back the response.
Naurelin put her phone away and changed to her dragongirl form. "Everyone, grab hold!" When everyone had, she said a single word: "𝕷𝖆𝖎𝖗!"
And they were gone...
