Cold Iron (part 1)
Mr Zoat
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Cold Iron
25th June 2012
11:25 GMT
John and I simultaneously generate construct barriers to shield the population of the park, and I rise a short distance into the air as I use my ring to scan the area. Patchy return from the Sheeda units, and it looks like they're dropping off infantry in the town.
"Orders, Captain?"
More proof that the Justice League needs a better-. An actual command structure. Diana has command of the mission, but everyone else who went along only has the authority she chose to give them. I'm asking Major Adams for orders because he has seniority… Literally, a higher number, not because he's actually supposed to be in charge of anything. But if a man who fought in the Vietnam War is shy about ordering us to kill people…
I glance down and I see him reason through the issues associated with using League power in a situation like this. He isn't ignorant by any means, and I see my own face from multiple angles, his recollections of points I raised giving direction to his own-
"Military order. Stop the attack."
-intuitions.
"Good-"
Thin strands of orange light leap from my shield constructs, each one terminating in-. Okay, they dissolve into orange mist just before hitting the Sheeda. Fine, since the Sheeda seem to be members of the 'no helmet' club, I generate pulse laser constructs and open fire with those instead. Three, four drop, flies wallow in the air as their wings begin to burn-.
"-show."
The horde vanishes. I continue shooting at their predicted last locations, careful to aim upwards so that I don't risk hitting the town I'm trying to protect. Next, armour from subspace and-
The first entropic rays burn lines across the sky, but with my armour still optimised to withstand them I'm not all that worried.
-switch to sensor-based targeting. Visible light lasers aren't going to work on people using invisibility, so I switch to masers.
Below me, Beulah has her jezzail out and I hear a boom as she opens fire. Abednego is sheltering the theonomist who is clutching a cluster of small sigils and chanting quickly. Hopefully, some sort of mass-countermagic. Major Adams is receiving a frantic briefing from a British Army captain someone found him. Without any sort of augmented vision his ability to kill our attackers will be severely compromised.
There's a flash of light-. A tent I hadn't noted before is marked with the sword on a shield design of the Congregation glows brilliantly for a moment, then a group of five Congregationalists run out. They're not wearing their usual loose red clothes with white detailing any more; they're in light body armour with a runic design which.. a momentary review suggests is there to improve their energy discharges. Further flashes follow as more of them teleport in.
Whoever's firing those entropic rays has gotten their eye in. A series of beams strikes my cuirass, a flicker of light at first and then a continual beam. The origin point appears to be an empty space and if they're not worried about focused electromagnetic energy at all… Yes, the beams don't cut out when I point my masers their way.
But guess who's not the only one who can create entropic rays?
The maser constructs grow slightly but maintain their outlines, then the maser beams vanish and red beams flick out. I can't see the Sheeda, but I know their shape and can judge their approximate loc-.
Yes, there we go. Beams cut out and there, the gunfly and its passengers flicker back into visibility with chunks of their bodies missing. Fragile, then.
A cluster of Congregationalists are gathered at the south side of the park, glowing as they build up power. About half of the army contingent is forming up in a line behind them, all either wearing goggles or obviously shielding their eyes in preparation for the eventual discharge.
It's been a while since I've been to Ipswich, but the place looks reasonably intact. I don't think this area has seen sustained fighting-.
A crisp packet vanishes and I fire again, hitting a Sheeda soldier who had been too confident in his invisibility. Spraying fire at that area gets me another two kills and a dozen potholes. I've got no idea whether the Sheeda can see each other or what their drill is, so I don't know if there will be others close together like that… But the streets look relatively empty. I-.
The light flares and my world briefly goes dark. The town is blindingly illuminated, and-. I'm getting returns from the Sheeda. I stick with entropic beams, shooting out the heads of the flies with support weapons. There… Don't appear to be as many as I registered coming in. Pulled back? Teleported?
"You best with the soldiers or staying here?"
John might not be able to kill people without specific Guardian authorisation, but he can shield other people while they do it. And he can beat someone nearly to death and then leave them for someone else to finish off. And… If the Sheeda start using mass entropic ray fire on the refugees, he… Probably couldn't stop that. I could.
"Staying here. I've got the shields."
His constructs vanish and he heads to the front lines as the soldiers storm forwards, medics checking the collapsed Congregationalists and directing stretcher-bearers to move them back out of the way. Radio detection shows John relaying the positions of the Sheeda to the officers directing the attack while I continue my fly cull. Red beams flash out of a house in the path of the advance, but John's command of ablative barriers and his sheer bloody-mindedness allow him to keep his shield up for long enough to swing a wrecking ball construct into the wall next to them. Soldiers just behind him… Don't bother taking cover, which… Yes, with guns like these there wouldn't be much point. Instead they crouch to minimise their profile and open fire, shredding the interior of the upper floor of the house.
Not a lot of flies left. I'm leaving a few to try and tempt the Sheeda soldiers to cluster around them to try and escape, as well as shooting Sheeda in the path of the soldiers' advance to thin their numbers and reduce their ability to resist. I don't think they're taking it-.
Across the town, Sheeda soldiers fix shields in place while others move to whatever flat surfaces they can and trace out symbols-.
I begin sniping the ones doing the tracing, shifting guns around-.
Red beams from my right, outside of the cone affected by the Congregationalists! I shift focus, retraining my guns on the place the beams appear to come from and reinforcing-
"AAAAH!"
-the barrier protecting the panicking civilians below me. Major Adams takes a shot and the burned remains of a gunfly and its crew collapse and fall to the ground. Since the ground on that side is open fields I switch to railguns, loading Columbian-enchanted mageslayers and opening fire. I miss twice as the fly riders learn how to shoot and scoot, but clipping a single wing is all it takes to break the invisibility effect. Beulah hits my target with an incineration round a moment later and immolates them.
The rapidly-traced circles shimmer into… They look like Dolmen gates. I… No, Major Adams is in charge and my primary responsibility is to defend the civilian population.
I abandon my gun constructs, generate a large fly swatter construct and swing it through the area occupied by the distraction attack. Tiny disruptions mark where flies are struck and I extrude cables to assimilate them. As predicted, the local Sheeda are under the same onus as those in Columbia and decay the moment I get solid contact.
"Orange Lantern!" I look around to Major Adams. "Try and take some alive!"
I stop the swatter construct on its next hit and change it into a net, which wraps around something I can't see and binds it. Then… Drain.
There's a weight on the bottom of the construct as the fly and its passengers collapse, shimmering back into visibility as the enchantments on their chitin and armour are consumed. Looking back at Ipswich I see that all of the Sheeda who were rendered visible have retreated. Those still alive, anyway; rushed Dolmen gates appear to have a failure rate.
"Orange Lantern, stay on overwatch but keep listening. Green Lantern, stay with the soldiers as they sweep and clear. I need to find out what the hell is going on."
25th June 2012
11:25 GMT
John and I simultaneously generate construct barriers to shield the population of the park, and I rise a short distance into the air as I use my ring to scan the area. Patchy return from the Sheeda units, and it looks like they're dropping off infantry in the town.
"Orders, Captain?"
More proof that the Justice League needs a better-. An actual command structure. Diana has command of the mission, but everyone else who went along only has the authority she chose to give them. I'm asking Major Adams for orders because he has seniority… Literally, a higher number, not because he's actually supposed to be in charge of anything. But if a man who fought in the Vietnam War is shy about ordering us to kill people…
I glance down and I see him reason through the issues associated with using League power in a situation like this. He isn't ignorant by any means, and I see my own face from multiple angles, his recollections of points I raised giving direction to his own-
"Military order. Stop the attack."
-intuitions.
"Good-"
Thin strands of orange light leap from my shield constructs, each one terminating in-. Okay, they dissolve into orange mist just before hitting the Sheeda. Fine, since the Sheeda seem to be members of the 'no helmet' club, I generate pulse laser constructs and open fire with those instead. Three, four drop, flies wallow in the air as their wings begin to burn-.
"-show."
The horde vanishes. I continue shooting at their predicted last locations, careful to aim upwards so that I don't risk hitting the town I'm trying to protect. Next, armour from subspace and-
The first entropic rays burn lines across the sky, but with my armour still optimised to withstand them I'm not all that worried.
-switch to sensor-based targeting. Visible light lasers aren't going to work on people using invisibility, so I switch to masers.
Below me, Beulah has her jezzail out and I hear a boom as she opens fire. Abednego is sheltering the theonomist who is clutching a cluster of small sigils and chanting quickly. Hopefully, some sort of mass-countermagic. Major Adams is receiving a frantic briefing from a British Army captain someone found him. Without any sort of augmented vision his ability to kill our attackers will be severely compromised.
There's a flash of light-. A tent I hadn't noted before is marked with the sword on a shield design of the Congregation glows brilliantly for a moment, then a group of five Congregationalists run out. They're not wearing their usual loose red clothes with white detailing any more; they're in light body armour with a runic design which.. a momentary review suggests is there to improve their energy discharges. Further flashes follow as more of them teleport in.
Whoever's firing those entropic rays has gotten their eye in. A series of beams strikes my cuirass, a flicker of light at first and then a continual beam. The origin point appears to be an empty space and if they're not worried about focused electromagnetic energy at all… Yes, the beams don't cut out when I point my masers their way.
But guess who's not the only one who can create entropic rays?
The maser constructs grow slightly but maintain their outlines, then the maser beams vanish and red beams flick out. I can't see the Sheeda, but I know their shape and can judge their approximate loc-.
Yes, there we go. Beams cut out and there, the gunfly and its passengers flicker back into visibility with chunks of their bodies missing. Fragile, then.
A cluster of Congregationalists are gathered at the south side of the park, glowing as they build up power. About half of the army contingent is forming up in a line behind them, all either wearing goggles or obviously shielding their eyes in preparation for the eventual discharge.
It's been a while since I've been to Ipswich, but the place looks reasonably intact. I don't think this area has seen sustained fighting-.
A crisp packet vanishes and I fire again, hitting a Sheeda soldier who had been too confident in his invisibility. Spraying fire at that area gets me another two kills and a dozen potholes. I've got no idea whether the Sheeda can see each other or what their drill is, so I don't know if there will be others close together like that… But the streets look relatively empty. I-.
The light flares and my world briefly goes dark. The town is blindingly illuminated, and-. I'm getting returns from the Sheeda. I stick with entropic beams, shooting out the heads of the flies with support weapons. There… Don't appear to be as many as I registered coming in. Pulled back? Teleported?
"You best with the soldiers or staying here?"
John might not be able to kill people without specific Guardian authorisation, but he can shield other people while they do it. And he can beat someone nearly to death and then leave them for someone else to finish off. And… If the Sheeda start using mass entropic ray fire on the refugees, he… Probably couldn't stop that. I could.
"Staying here. I've got the shields."
His constructs vanish and he heads to the front lines as the soldiers storm forwards, medics checking the collapsed Congregationalists and directing stretcher-bearers to move them back out of the way. Radio detection shows John relaying the positions of the Sheeda to the officers directing the attack while I continue my fly cull. Red beams flash out of a house in the path of the advance, but John's command of ablative barriers and his sheer bloody-mindedness allow him to keep his shield up for long enough to swing a wrecking ball construct into the wall next to them. Soldiers just behind him… Don't bother taking cover, which… Yes, with guns like these there wouldn't be much point. Instead they crouch to minimise their profile and open fire, shredding the interior of the upper floor of the house.
Not a lot of flies left. I'm leaving a few to try and tempt the Sheeda soldiers to cluster around them to try and escape, as well as shooting Sheeda in the path of the soldiers' advance to thin their numbers and reduce their ability to resist. I don't think they're taking it-.
Across the town, Sheeda soldiers fix shields in place while others move to whatever flat surfaces they can and trace out symbols-.
I begin sniping the ones doing the tracing, shifting guns around-.
Red beams from my right, outside of the cone affected by the Congregationalists! I shift focus, retraining my guns on the place the beams appear to come from and reinforcing-
"AAAAH!"
-the barrier protecting the panicking civilians below me. Major Adams takes a shot and the burned remains of a gunfly and its crew collapse and fall to the ground. Since the ground on that side is open fields I switch to railguns, loading Columbian-enchanted mageslayers and opening fire. I miss twice as the fly riders learn how to shoot and scoot, but clipping a single wing is all it takes to break the invisibility effect. Beulah hits my target with an incineration round a moment later and immolates them.
The rapidly-traced circles shimmer into… They look like Dolmen gates. I… No, Major Adams is in charge and my primary responsibility is to defend the civilian population.
I abandon my gun constructs, generate a large fly swatter construct and swing it through the area occupied by the distraction attack. Tiny disruptions mark where flies are struck and I extrude cables to assimilate them. As predicted, the local Sheeda are under the same onus as those in Columbia and decay the moment I get solid contact.
"Orange Lantern!" I look around to Major Adams. "Try and take some alive!"
I stop the swatter construct on its next hit and change it into a net, which wraps around something I can't see and binds it. Then… Drain.
There's a weight on the bottom of the construct as the fly and its passengers collapse, shimmering back into visibility as the enchantments on their chitin and armour are consumed. Looking back at Ipswich I see that all of the Sheeda who were rendered visible have retreated. Those still alive, anyway; rushed Dolmen gates appear to have a failure rate.
"Orange Lantern, stay on overwatch but keep listening. Green Lantern, stay with the soldiers as they sweep and clear. I need to find out what the hell is going on."
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