The Home Fires Burning...
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
RIKTI FORCES STILL IN CONTROL OF BOSTON SUBURBS Tyler Anderson slammed the newspaper down on the table, tears of anger welling up in his eyes. The Headline of the Boston Globe seemed to mock him. "WHY THE FUCK WAS I NOT TOLD ABOUT THIS!?" he screamed at his advisor.
"We felt that it would distract you fro-" began Daniel Xavier, one of Tyler's tactical advisors.
"DISTRACT ME!?" interrupted Tyler, almost incoherent with rage.
"Yes, distract you. And as evidenced by your reaction now, we made the right decision. Your devotion to your family would have shifted your focus away from the task at hand, and we need Boston to have any hope of driving the Rikti out of Massachusetts."
"I still should have kn-"
"General, you hired me because I was the person you trusted me the most out of the entire 1st Company. Just trust my judgment on this one and let go of the anger. We need to be working to get the Rikti out of the suburbs."
Despite his anger, Tyler knew Daniel was right. Still he couldn't just let it all go.
"Get out Daniel. We'll talk later." he said, still fuming.
With a sigh, Daniel left the tent. As Daniel left, Tyler lay his head on the table. What was he going to do? He had come back to the United States only 4 days before, with a medium sized contigent of SLA soldiers, most of them American tourists that had been caught in Scandinavia when the Rikti struck. His summer had been no vacation. Four of his best friends were dead, he had raised an army, and seen horrors that no man should ever have to. He had come home, thinking to return to the peaceful city lights of Boston, but when he had returned, the only things lighting up Boston were gunfire and explosions. War-weary though he had been, the task had not daunted him, and with the help of the people already defending Boston, his forces had driven out the Rikti. Thinking his task done, he had set up a camp for his troops and finally relaxed. His relaxation had been shattered when Adriana brought in a copy of the Boston Globe with tears in her eyes. Their families were both probably dead. Upon realising this, he had broken down into tears.
3 Days Later... Tyler, Edmund, and a 4-man Spec Ops team lay atop a hill overlooking Dedham. Much to the shock of the remaining Council of Ten, their school had been taken over by the Rikti, due to the large population of metahumans that attended it.
"I spy with my little eye...completed walls on 3 sides of the campus, a partially complete one on the other side, 4 sniper towers at the corners, a whole bunch of construction going on where the fourth wall should be, a lot of activity around the Science building...I can't see much of the high school through the trees though. For Security, I count at least 28 on the ground, 13 of them armored...let's see...at least 4 snipers in the towers...2 more on the roof of the middle school...um...6, no, 7 drones in the air...probably some monki-oh fuck!" said Edmund, looking through his binoculars towards the campus.
"What is it? What do you see? More soldiers?" asked Tyler, worried about whatever was scary enough to make Edmund cuss.
"A whole lot worse, take a look. Over by the gym." replied Edmund, handing Tyler the binoculars.
Looking through the binoculars, Tyler saw what had scared Edmund. A Chief Soldier, flanked by not one, but two Heavy Assault suits.
"Shit. How many others do you think there could be down there?"
"None of the other buildings are big enough to hold those things, but the gym could probably fit about 10 more of them. We need a whole lot more firepower to even have a hope in hell of taking the place back."
"Stealth is out of the question then?" sighed Tyler.
"If you want to fight 12 of those things with just us, we'll follow you, but trust me, it's a bad fuckin` plan, Ty. We need back up."
"You're right, but where do you propose we get said firepower? If we move troops anywhere near here, they're going to know we've found them out, and then THEY'LL call for back up."
