Chapter 99: Bad Moon Rising

Night fell, and the raiders took off from the foundry. Every man who was capable of bearing arms and sworn into the brotherhood found themselves gliding through the snow and headed towards a single direction.

The gates of Elysium were always manned by somebody, patrols frequently walked among its lanes. The change of the guards happened at exact intervals, and overlapped in perfect synchronization.

But tonight, the snow-covered streets of Elysium were far from empty. Dean stood on his balcony, gazing through his FPV drone. It was one of several sent to scout the perimeter.

He could see the heat signatures of the Elysian Militia walking through the streets, weapons in hand. They had each been assigned a sector of defense and trained towards those purpose.

Ultimately, their job was to assist the hoplites in the event of an attack, which Dean was certain would come tonight or the night after.

Why was he certain of this? Because by his calculations the enemy would be running out of food very soon, and they had no choice but to attack Elysium.

After all, in their rage they had foolishly burned their own supply chains to the ground. Meaning that the one area in the entire region that was currently producing enough food to survive and sustain their men was Dean’s own territory.

And Dean also knew that the enemy would be betting everything on a night raid. Hoping, praying perhaps even, that he and his men did not possess the capabilities to see in the dark.

But unfortunately for them, Dean had paid a significant cost to ensure that he owned the night properly. He had enough night vision goggles and thermal clip-ons to supply a single fire team at the moment.

And those were given priority access to the peltasts. But that didn’t mean the others didn’t possess white lights. Combined with their drones’ thermal and night vision, there was no chance…

As Dean continued to watch his own defenses act accordingly, he heard a voice call out to him over the radio.

“Archon, this is Perseus, I’ve got eyes on the hostiles in question. You were right they are all out tonight and headed your way, moment of contact eta fifteen minutes, maybe twenty. Should we engage or fall back, over?”

Dean thought about it for a few moments before a cruel smirk spread across his face. A single question formed in his mind, which he was quick to give voice to with the push of his PTT.

“This is Archon. Did you boys bring out the AGL like I told you, over?”

There was static for a few moments, no doubt Zach was checking in with his men to see if they had brought out that particular piece of heavy equipment. And just like clockwork, he could hear Zach’s voice again.

“Perseus to Archon, roger that, I have confirmed we’ve got the heavy bolter, what’s the move? Over.”

Dean sighed and shook his head, heavy bolter… it had somehow became slang for the AGS-40. He didn’t come up with it, it’s the term that the boys had created on their own.

He pressed the push to talk on his shoulder while rubbing the bridge of his nose.

“Roger that, fall back to rally point Theta and get the…. Heavy bolter online there. You should know what to do from there. Over.”

This time Zach’s response was near instantaneous.

“Roger that, orders received, over and out.”

Dean sighed and shook his head. He wrapped his fingers around the edge of the balcony, compressing it tightly as he thought about the upcoming battle.

It wasn’t until he heard a slightly snarky voice that interrupted him that he finally broke free from his anxiety.

“Heavy bolter? What in the goddamn kind of firepower are you hiding away? Next thing you’re going to tell me that you have access to a heavy melta as well?”

Dean turned around and found Brooke standing there a towel wrapped around her, and the bikini straps from the design he had made for her hidden beneath.

She was clearly about to step into the hot tub, until she heard him on the radio. Her words however, were too amusing for him not to notice.

“It wasn’t my idea, Zach and the others came up with the term for the automatic grenade launcher I… erm…. Acquired before the world was buried in a hundred feet of snow. Although I have to admit, I didn’t think a woman like you would be into Wargaming.”

Brooke didn’t even know how to begin to address this comment. Dean had an unusual amount of military grade firepower that far surpassed what was considered normal, let alone legal, even in a country as heavily armed as the Union of Columbia.

The way he built this home, prepared so much advanced and heavy equipment, it didn’t take much for her to realize that he absolutely knew the world was coming to an end before it did.

She just didn’t know how he knew… Even so, she didn’t force an answer from him on this topic. It likely wasn’t something he wanted others to know about. Instead, she relaxed her shoulders, her towel dropping to the wayside as she stepped into the steaming water of the hot tub.

She leaned back against the bubbling jets and closed her eyes, chuckling as she thought about the second half of Dean’s comments.

“My little brother was an enormous fucking nerd. How could I not get the reference when he practically beat it into my skull with how much he droned on about that shit? Truth be told, you kind of remind me of him at times….”

Though her words were harsh, there was a bittersweet smile on her face. Dean however didn’t interrogate further, he instead flipped his FPV goggles back down and began searching the horizon.

There he saw it before anyone else: the thermal signatures of over a hundred snowmobiles all heading directly toward them. His words were as cold and calm as they could possibly be.

“Hey, Brooke….”

She looked up at Dean, whatever relief she was feeling from the heated message that the tub gave her died in a second when she saw the look on his face.

“Yeah?” the words crept out of her mouth.

“You might want to cut your soak short and head inside… You wouldn’t want to accidentally catch a lobotomy by way of lead, now would you?”

She didn’t say a word, nor panic in the slightest, she simply turned off the jets and stepped out of the tub, grabbing her towel before heading towards the door with a calm but brisk pace. She stopped just short of the handle and turned around, sending one look in Dean’s direction.

“Dean… be safe out there, alright?”

She didn’t linger any longer, instead rushing inside, where she no longer calmly paced, but instead rushed down the hall to her room, passing Yuki by on the way there, her face was flushed, and her eyes were filled with panic as she only gave the slightest warning.

“Enemies inbound!”

Yuki stopped exactly what she was doing and was quick to rush downstairs, and after getting dressed as quickly as possible Brooke did the same. They both headed down to the subterranean level, where Katherine and her nurses were already prepping for whatever casualties ended up in their infirmary.

Yuki took one look at the single doctor and two nurses and immediately came to a single conclusion.

“After this is over, we’re going to need to invest in building a bigger trauma center….”

—

Aidan and his men had been forced into an unwinnable situation. And many among their ranks knew it.

Their numbers were too few to sustain a siege or overrun their enemy’s defenses. And the reality is this gamble relied on them not being able to know they were coming.

Because of this, Aidan had ordered his men to go all out, using speed and mobility as their advantage to bridge the gap between them and the Elysium before the local defenders could reasonably respond to their assault.

It was a bold and desperate last attempt to save themselves. There was just one problem with this plan: not everyone was a believer in its potential for success. And several of the more skeptical members of the brotherhood lingered in the rear and the edges of the formation as it rapidly approached Elysium’s gates.

Aidan could see the walls in sight. How could he do so? Because it was the only area amidst the darkness and the storm that was illuminated.

His fingers gripped the throttle of his snowmobile harder as he revved the engine up into a redline. Advancing forward ahead of the pack, almost as if he were racing against time itself.

Some of the more loyal men immediately realized their leader was heading beyond them and did the same, following after him, breaking off from the main formation while doing their best to call out.

“Sir! You’re advancing too quickly!”

*Boom*

The explosion was as deafening as it was hot. It had come from just behind Aidan and those who had been loyal or brave enough to charge after him.

They could feel the searing heat of the explosion grace the back of their necks and singe the edges of their hair.

When they looked back, they saw a giant crater, and a mixture of fire, soot, ash, blood and bone laying in a giant heap.

Before they could even reach the walls of Elysium, the battle had already begun… and the enemy had drawn first blood.

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