Chapter 123: Chapter 119

Despite the significant distance from the Nexus, a fleet of ships arrived at the beleaguered port settlement of Far Harbor. Edward led the expedition to investigate the ramshackle town, with Sarah Lyons serving as advisor. This would be a test for his capabilities acting so far from Sev’s aegis. Four boats docked and thirty 1st Company troopers landed behind the rising sun before the fearful Harbormen. The townsfolk wouldn’t be able to see the reserves high up in the air.

 

The trepidation spiked when the armored soldiers brought out rods of sorts and began waving them around. Nothing happened to the townsfolk, save for Brooks who promptly fainted.

 

“Right then, only one synth,” Edward declared through his helmet’s speakers. “Sorry about that, folks. We just wanted to make sure the Institute hadn’t overrun this place.” He inclined his head to the fainted synth’s direction. “Hope you all know he’s a synth. In any case, he’ll be fine in fifteen minutes.”

 

The speech didn’t do much to earn the relief of the Harbormen, nor of Sev’s military advisor, as Sarah gave a slight cough and took over. “Please, we come in peace. Word has traveled of the conditions suffered on this island, and the Nexus wishes to aid you.”

 

It took some suspicious murmuring and whispering, but eventually an older woman gingerly stepped out. “Do you mean it? What…what will be the cost of this…help?”

 

Even with her back facing him, Edward knew Sarah enough to know she was putting on her confident Brotherhood smile to reassure the townsfolk. “We only need your aid in seeking out the settlements of the Children of Atom. The Nexus has-” 

 

She stopped when the crowd reacted rather poorly to the name. “Why’re you looking for those rad-sucking fucks?” someone spat, the aggression clear in his voice.

 

Sarah continued smoothly. “The Nexus has unresolved conflicts with them. I’m sure you would benefit as well if we resolved them. We only need you to point us to their hideouts, there will be no risks on your end.”

 

The old woman gave a dry chuckle. “Hideouts? The Atom worshippers have been going nuts for months now. You don’t need us to lead you to them, just stick around and they’ll come eventually.”

 

An urgent cry from beyond the docks caught everyone’s attention. “Speak of the devil…” The woman gave the Nexus troops a weighty, concerned look. “You said you’re here to help? Well, the Children are coming to siege us again.”

 

Edward beamed a smile through his helmet’s clear faceplate. “Take us to them.” Earning these settlers’ trust and bagging some Atom worshippers? This task might be easier than expected. The commander led his boys and girls to the top of Far Harbor’s meager walls, and for a moment he doubted that thought.

 

These were not the semi-crazy kooks from the Glowing Sea. The rad-bathed men and women creeping through the fog curtain beyond the settlement glowed with a sickly green light, and with his helmet’s enhanced optics Edward noted the open sores on them that leaked glowing blood. 

 

Some had skin and flesh sloughed off their limbs or faces, others extra, deformed limbs wriggling and writhing uselessly from shoulders, elbows or knees. The helmet’s zoom even picked out the mutations in the crazed eyes of every rad cultist, every one of them had irises shaped uncannily like radiation symbols.

 

“Goggles,” Edward whispered in the comms, and the troopers tensed as he pulled off his helmet to put on a pair of consecrated welding goggles offered to him. Through the darkened lenses, the town of Far Harbor and its people was nothing but shadowed shapes, but looking out, the stalking cultists glowed brightly. Which meant that this excursion might not be the easy steamroll everyone was expecting.

 

“We’re dealing with weirdness,” he announced calmly as he removed the goggles and donned his helmet again. Edward could hear grips tightening around rifles as he turned to the locals. “You’ve been holding out for this long…can they be killed?”

 

A swarthy fisherman nodded. “Aye, takes a bit of work, but they’ll go down.” It was then that the young commander noticed the grim men and women of Far Harbor wielding harpoons and improvised polearms. The fisherman raised his own serrated pole with a wry grin. “Guns take too long and just draw their attention. These work better, we found.”

 

After a grateful nod, Edward went back to the private comms. “We’ll try a salvo. If that doesn’t work, straight to melee. Prisoners only when there’s opportunity to disable them, otherwise, dalek these fucks.” A glance to Sarah who nodded her agreement at the plan, and the young soldiers of the Nexus took their places on the ramparts while most of the Harbormen braced their weapons like pikes by the small openings in the walls. Some remained on the wall, manning harpoon launchers, grenade launchers, and other heavy weapons.

 

The rad cultists crept closer, glowing maws opening to snarl or hiss as they slowly closed the distance. There were a lot of them appearing from the fog, an easy hundred at the least. 

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“Don’t worry,” the older woman from before called out, “They’ll run like mutts after we knock a few of them down.”

 

Frowning doubtfully, Edward brought up his rifle and took aim. “Pick your targets,” he ordered through the comms. Soft affirmatives and clicks signaled the expedition members marking their intended shots and highlighting them on the helmet’s display. Satisfied with the spread of victims, Edward drew in a steadying breath. 

 

“By Sev’s will. Fire.”

 

Blinding white beams strobed out once, eliciting gasps from the Harbormen as each beam lanced out to pierce at least two glowing cultists. Only those with their heads disintegrated, and those whose chest were cored fell lifelessly to the ground, their glows dimming to nothing.

 

The rest of the Children let out rasping roars, and the building tension in the air snapped as the mindless mob abandoned the slow approach in favor of running towards the walls of Far Harbor.

 

“Fucking hell... Fire at will! Aim for their heads and their hearts!”

 

More beams lashed out, felling scores of mutated members of the Church of Atom. They still came on regardless, and after four shots and barely nine seconds in, the first raving cultist lunged at the wooden wall with flesh-scoured fingers. Spears and harpoons shot out from drilled out spaces, impaling and shredding the lunatics. Some died, but others simply flailed futilely as they were stuck on the long poles. Harpoon and grenade launchers on the wall thumped to deliver projectiles that skewered or exploded.

 

Edward smiled savagely as he got a clearer picture of the enemy they faced. This wasn’t the curbstomp he was expecting, but he was pretty confident about defending the place. Confident enough to risk an experiment.

 

He gently dropped his rifle and drew a pair of mismatching blades. “Cover me,” Edward ordered before jumping off the wall and onto a trio of cultists. A plain metal machete swung down to lop off a forearm and a thigh, while a short sword shaped from blue crystal parted legs from two cultists with an effortless slash. The cultists fell in a growling heap, and Edward plunged his blades into a body each. Only one roared in pain as cold metal glanced her heart, while the blue tiberium blade glowed dimly as its victim shivered and quickly expired.

 

The third cultist barely got on his arms to crawl when Edward kicked him in the head with armor-boosted strength and broke his neck. He still lunged jerkily with his arms despite his head lolling freely to one side. Edward withdrew his tiberium sword from the corpse, and dispatched both cultists as he stood up.

 

“Definite eldritch presence in the enemy. Switch to tiberium blades. Can’t have the locals outdoing our help.”

 

The Harbormen defenders took a moment to glance in confusion as the strangers stopped firing and drew blue, glassy blades. None had a clear view of what Edward had done just outside the walls.

 

“Peace through power!” 

 

The warcry pierced through the snarls and growls of the cultists, and the armored youths leapt down from the walls to engage the onrushing mob in melee. Almost immediately the pressure on the wall slackened, and pole weapons found nothing to stab or slash at. The Harbormen climbed back up the wall to witness the thirty figures from the Nexus chopping through the routing rad worshipers, their initial concern replaced with disciplined savagery.

 

It was the easiest defense Far Harbor had ever had, not a single mad glowing Child making it over the walls for once. They didn’t even use a quarter of their nightly quota of grenades, or broke a tenth of their stockpiled weapons.

 

The soldiers from the Nexus left dismembered bodies in their wake, and only after the fog no longer glowed green did they return to the very grateful settlement.

 

“You say you’re looking for guides to find those rad-suckers?” the woman who introduced herself as Captain Avery inquired. “The night’s still young, let’s get some rest and we can discuss more come sunrise.”

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