Chương 8: A Very Normal Rescue Mission Where Everything Goes Right

The APC's engine whined as they sped down the highway. Everyone's mood had suddenly gotten serious. Except Mason's.

"Great news! We got a bit more info. So, not your normal response. There's already four teams pinned in place, and our job is to reinforce. Doesn't look like we have sapients, it looked like the portal is dealing with some sort of swarm. Uh, bug-like guys? Not guys, I mean. Just bugs. Anyways, they're saying it shouldn't be too deadly, they just need a lot of men for the response. And women!"

"Mason, when we get back to HQ I'm going to kick your ass," Nicole radioed back.

"I'll help," Juan muttered.

"Cut the chatter. Mason, stick to protocols," Sergeant Nguyen said. After a pause, she added, "HQ-40 is reporting they've made contact. These are creatures we haven't seen before, but both spears and bullets are effective. They don't seem to be using magic. We're assembling east of the portal. Once enough portal response units have arrived, we're going to cut a corridor through the area and extract the pinned teams. Extract, then start establishing a perimeter until the army can arrive.

Portal Response Command is saying the extraction of the teams is considered the highest priority." Malachi didn't like the sound of that. The incursion was too big for the regional teams to contain, but they were going to go plunging into that mess? That didn't make sense.

"Sergeant, can they extract the teams with an air lift?"

"Negative, private. Correction on the creatures, they do have a magical leap, like the saurian imps. It sounds like…" There was a pause.

"Air extraction was already tried. We will have air support, though. Helicopters are running sorties over the site. Activate IR tags. We'll be popping signal smoke along our route to signal air our position." Trey crackled on next.

"We're about ten minutes out." There was a chime, and a screen flickered on in the APC. They all turned to look at it as headquarters broadcast a situation map. It showed an overhead of the area. The portal was in the middle of the street surrounded by some squat apartment buildings and an elementary school. Jesus, thought Malachi. Hopefully they'd all evacuated in time. A colored dot showed the position of the pinned teams, while a colored line showed the route they were going to take.

Corporal Booth came on to talk tactics.

"We're going to unload and form two teams who are going to walk side-by-side with the APCs as we move in. APCs will park at every intersection and act as strongpoints. Alpha and Beta squads will stay with our APCs as extra support, with machine guns on overwatch. When we're done, everyone's going to have a metaphorical four-lane highway to saunter back home through. Any questions? No? Good." They rumbled on. From outside, they could still hear the police sirens in front. A car horn blared.

"ETA three minutes," Trey said. Then Nguyen crackled on again.

"Getting word that Command upgraded this response because there's a high-value object and high value individuals involved. This response should be overkill. By the time we arrive, we should outnumber these creatures by two to one. Hopefully, that settles some nerves," she said.

"Doesn't mean get sloppy, though." William let out a breath he'd been holding. The back of the APC was still tense.

"One minute." They all started getting ready to unload.

"Fifteen seconds. Five. Go!" The back door slammed down and they ran out. It was a beautiful day; the sky was a perfect blue, with only a few scattered clouds high, high above. It looked so calm up there. Down below, it was the opposite. There were APCs everywhere as squads deployed. He'd never seen so many infantry out at once.

Squads were moving around in columns, brass were shouting on bullhorns, and there was a temporary command area set up full of vehicles with antennas on them and officers looking very concerned about whatever was on their screens. Already, there was a jeep with someone who was probably an army colonel shouting through a megaphone.

"HQ-40, begin the advance, 43 and 30, you're the tip of the spear so show me that wedge. HQ-22 right? You're right behind them. We ain't got time to spare. Begin the advance!" Malachi could hear multiple helicopters chopping the air overhead. He tightened the straps on his buckler. Juan would still be bringing a tower shield, but new protocols dictated all infantry have something to block with. The buckler let him keep both hands free.

Trey waved at them as they started marching alongside their APC as it rumbled forward. In the distance, Malachi heard the roar of a helicopter's minigun firing.

"All civilians, please evacuate through the corridor we are opening up. Gunners, watch your damn fire," a loudspeaker blared. For the next two blocks, civilians were all they saw, pouring out of the buildings and running through the lines as soldiers knocked on shelter doors to make sure everyone was out. Briefly, Malachi thought of Ms. Jones and her Pomeranian. He'd never found out what happened to her. He hoped she'd made it.

"HQ-50, alpha and beta, park your asses here!" a corporal shouted, and two of the APCs in the rear pulled aside. The rest of the HQ-50 phalanx moved forward with them. The teams popped smoke and a pink column emerged. Twice more, APCs pulled off to the side as they worked on securing their corridor along the street. Then, they got their first glimpse of the creatures. It was hard to describe them. Malachi thought of the bugs from Starship Troopers, the way the head seemed to sit like a turret on four barbed legs.

Only, the top of the bugs didn't have a mouth, just four more arms, not quite scythe-like, but too curved to be a needle. They were covered in some sort of carapace that was halfway between chitinous and metallic. They were about the same size as a big dog. Someone ahead called out the creatures and there were gunshots. The creatures exploded with both strange colored blood and sparks.

"Fucking hell. Are these alive or robots? I thought this was fantasy-land invading our asses, what are those?" Jason asked.

"As long as they die when we kill them," Juan said, his tower shield still strapped to his back. More of the creatures came down one of the streets, legs tip-tapping on the pavement and were gunned down before they got close.

"Ain't so bad," William said.

"Don't jinx it," Malachi grumbled. A helicopter continued to circle overhead, minigun occasionally echoing through the streets. More of the creatures came crawling out, this time a few dozen, scurrying quickly through the street. This time, they leapt forward, several golden glyphs glowing around their legs as they did, and sailed through the air to impact the front wedge. There was the brief clatter of steel as the bug-things were cut apart. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen.

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"We have a name for these yet?" Malachi asked.

"Wait, shit, you haven't seen these before?" Jason said.

"Aren't you… well damn. How about scarabs?"

"What the fuck," William said.

"Man, you ever see a scarab before? It's a damn beetle. You ever see a beetle before?"

"Jeez, sorry," Jason said, sounding offended.

"Quads," someone said.

"Ain't no way," Trey said from the cabin of the APC.

"That's a vehicle."

"Mantises," Juan said.

"'cause those four scythe-y arms." Malachi nodded.

"Mantises. I'll update the wiki." William gave a short laugh. Another group of them smashed into a shield wall on the other side of the street. They were aggressive, but didn't seem very smart. They just charged into whatever they saw first. There was periodic gunfire coming from one of the apartment buildings a few blocks ahead. Another group of APCs pulled off at the intersection. More canisters popped and a column of pink smoke wafted upward.

"Big wave coming in west!" someone called. At the front of the response group, soldiers lowered shields and spears to prepare. Gunfire erupted as the APCs sent out bursts of machine gun fire. This time, it wasn't just a handful of the mantises. A hundred of them careened down the street. Several of them made it to an APC with a leap. When its bladed limbs couldn't get through the plating, a strange mouth opened up in its torso and disgorged some sort of fluid.

The armor began to hiss as the creatures were blown off with rifle bursts.

"What the fuck, can they vomit acid?"

"Looks like it," Malachi said. They wouldn't be the first creatures to be able to do that. War dromedaries could spit a small fire bolt, and there was a kind of hunting hawk some of the elves used that could create a small cloud in the sky that then rained acid. It wasn't particularly potent, but it could pit armor to hell and burned like a motherfucker if it got on your skin. It wouldn't change their tactics. Shields and armor had a composite component that was resistant to any acid—magical or not.

"Another group south!" one of the HQ-22 guys called. That was their position in the advancing column. The 22 team turned as one, placing down shields and readying spears. Nicole opened up with her machine gun from the top of the APC, brass raining down on the street. Another group of a hundred mantises pushed forward. Another portal response team linked shields with them. Malachi watched the creatures come charging forward, bracing for impact.

The blood was purple and gooey, and it exploded out from the bugs in globs as gunfire ripped apart the charging swarm. Most of them were gunned down before they got close, but several coiled and then used their magical leap. One slammed into Juan's shield, but he held firm. Malachi thrust his spear right into its underbelly. Sparks flew as the purple blood dripped out. The creature let out a metallic scream as Malachi kept stabbing it. It smashed to the ground in time for another to ram itself into the shields.

One of the scythe-arms cut down through the thin gap between the shields, but Malachi side-stepped it, then thrust forward, nailing it in the weird mouth-torso. Within two minutes, the attackers were dead. Malachi steadied his breathing as Juan lifted his shield and they marched forward again. All across the column, there was now constant contact with the enemy. He could hear the constant thrum of the helicopters and boom of their guns. The crack of rifles and machine guns now echoed through the streets.

When he looked back, he could see the groups parked at the intersections were fighting. Down the streets, he could see more mantises. They would come scurrying out of the buildings, look around, then group up and charge forward. There was some sort of primitive intelligence at work, he could see that now. Definitely a swarm-type, he thought. Another group charged his section of the line.

"Incoming!" he shouted, but Nicole was already lighting them up. Again, there was the slam of a body into Juan's shield, then Malachi was doing the butcher's job of perforating it. The column had slowed to a crawl as engagements continued. One more block, Malachi thought. He glanced back. Every street and alley for the whole mile of street they'd advanced on was now blocked off by dozens of Response teams.

"Two APCs, three squads on each side!" one of the brass ordered from a jeep that was moving with them in the center of the column.

"HQ-24, glad you could join us, that's you. Last intersection we're going to block completely, three APCs, 35 and 37 you'll be joining 22 on the south side, 43, 30, and 29, north side. Be ready to withdraw as soon as we have the VIPs!" Malachi's heart was pounding. Through an alley ahead of them, there was a strange glow ahead, playing across the far street even though it was daylight and for once the northwest wasn't covered in clouds.

It reminded him of the way an indoor pool reflected light, only it was like the reflection was half made of shadows, half of jagged light. Something's different about this portal, he knew. Another wave hit them, this time, only a few dozen. Malachi skewered two more. One of them had used the vomit-acid spell on Juan's shield, but it hadn't penetrated.

"Alright, 22, deploy!" Corporal Booth shouted. Trey pulled the APC up—his window was closed now—and his team formed a tight phalanx in front of it. A full shield wall stretched across the intersection. The brass who'd been riding in the jeep ran towards one of the apartment buildings. That was where the four teams were trapped, the one overlooking the portal. He could see a burnt-out tank in one of the intersections. How many mantises would have had to cast acid spells on it to do that? he wondered.

The radio in the jeep came to life.

"Wave! Another wave! Oh shit, oh shit! Fire, fire, fire—!" Gunfire crackled over the radio before one of the lieutenants manning the jeep hit something and the radio turned off. Malachi glanced through the alley, towards the strange reflections spilling across the street near the portal. There was an intensification of the glow, and then he saw mantises over in that area scurrying past. A lot of mantises. They weren't stopping. It was just a constant stream.

"Fuck me," he whispered. Juan looked over, then shared a worried glance with Malachi.

"Dios mio," he said. Malachi hit his radio.

"Sergeant Nguyen, we're seeing a lot of enemy activity. Does Command see this?" The stream of mantises had now curved around to one of the distant cross-streets he could see. Murmurs of concern went up and down the line. There was no response. Nguyen was in an armored car somewhere in the column since they'd left the tank back at HQ. There were a few tanks deployed to the rear, but they'd been held back because they wouldn't be very effective against this kind of enemy. Mason was the one who responded.

"HQ-22, hold your position, Command is aware and discussing what to do." Malachi glanced up. There were low-flying recon drones overhead. Plus the helicopters. They had to be seeing this. Suddenly, they heard a roar echoing through the street, and a beam of fire erupted from somewhere near the portal. Malachi watched in horror as one of the helicopters was knocked out of the sky.

It gave a pathetic whine as the shattered blades tried to keep turning, then the thing dropped like a stone into a building three blocks away. There was this terrible sound, and Malachi had a visceral flashback to standing in the middle of the street barefoot, bleeding from everywhere.

"Mason, what the hell is happening? They said no magic!" William was saying over his radio.

"Look, we see it. We see it. They just don't want anyone to panic. Another minute—they almost have the package." Malachi glanced over at the fortified apartment building the mantises had been sieging. There was a lot of commotion. Then he saw movement through the alley with the portal glow, and he saw the colossal creature moving past.

"Jesus fuck, that thing's the size of a t-rex," he said. Is that what shot the fire beam? Is fucking Godzilla coming out of the portals now? That was when the constant stream of mantises began to change direction. Before, they'd been streaming down the streets around them. Now, they were starting to turn towards them. He peered between the gaps in the two APCs, looking north. Same thing. It was like two big jaws were now closing around them. There weren't hundreds of them anymore. There were thousands.

Behind them, Nicole was already opening up with her machine gun. Juan braced his shield. Malachi readied his spear. === This story is only available on RoyalRoad and Patreon. If you find it anywhere else, it's stolen.