Chapter 54: Another Anomaly

"We must fall back immediately, Commander!" Lyra urged, her claws extending as tension gripped her posture. "The open ridge leaves us completely exposed. If a pack descends, we will be torn to shreds!"

John remained completely calm, his eyes locked on the circling silhouettes. "Break it down for me quickly, Lyra. What are we dealing with? What makes them so dangerous?"

"They are apex predators of the Cragspine Range," Lyra explained rapidly, her voice tight with urgency. "Their scales deflect standard iron arrows, their talons can crush plate armor, and their breath spits corrosive, boiling venom that melts flesh on contact. In a pack of twelve, they can wipe out an entire armed vanguard in minutes! We do not possess the heavy ballistas required to bring down flying beasts!"

John turned to Captain Hayes, who was still peering through his tactical binoculars.

"Target count: eleven, descending rapidly on an intercept vector toward the valley," Hayes reported. "Airspeed approximately forty knots."

"No need to run, Lyra," John said evenly, resting a hand on his holster. "We don’t retreat from overgrown lizards. We’ll handle them right here. Let us provide air defense."

"Hold on, sir," Hayes cut in, his voice suddenly losing its clinical calm as he adjusted the magnification focus on his binoculars. "Look above the cloud line. That’s not just a hunting pack."

John looked back toward the Cragspine Range.

Behind the initial formation of eleven wyverns, the northern sky darkened as a massive, undulating swarm crested the mountain peaks. Hundreds upon hundreds of winged silhouettes poured over the jagged ridge like a swarm of enraged hornets, their collective screeches coalescing into a deafening, bass-heavy roar that echoed violently across the entire valley.

Lyra’s eyes widened in sheer horror. Her wolf ears flattened completely against her skull, and her body froze.

"By the ancestors..." Lyra gasped, her voice trembling. "The sheer amount of blood and burnt flesh from the last battle. The coastal wind must have carried the scent across the entire mountain range. It’s a full nesting migration! Hundreds of them! We will be slaughtered!"

John scanned the bogeys one last time and made a decision. "Hayes, let’s turn back and inform our nearby air assets."

"But sir, our air-defense system is yet to be installed in this territory," Hayes said. "We don’t have the capability aside from small-arms that can deal with an airborne threat."

"Shit, not even an M2?" John said and Hayes simply nodded his head in confirmation.

John looked at Ritcher. "Well, we can do with small-arms but we do have an air assets available. The destroyer must be nearby, it has anti-air capabilities, they can provide help."

"I’ll contact them immediately, sir," Hayes said, instantly raising his tactical radio headset to his ear. "Tactical Control to USS Arleigh Burke Actual, Priority Alpha! We have an airborne swarm closing on Grid Victor-Niner, estimated three hundred plus hostile organic flyers. We need immediate AEGIS tracking and surface-to-air support on the northern vector!"

"Copy, Outpost Alpha," the crisp, digitized voice of the destroyer’s tactical action officer crackled back through the comms. "SPY-6 radar has positive lock on the swarm over the mountain ridge. VLS cells are spinning up. Standard Missiles and Sea Sparrows are ready on your mark."

"Good," John said, turning back toward the path. "Move, back to the settlement now!"

The group bolted down the slope, sprinting into the center of the town.

Lyra immediately let out a piercing, commanding howl that reverberated across the hills, followed by the deep, frantic blaring of beastkin war horns.

"Take cover!" Lyra roared to her people in their native tongue. "Civilians into the storage caves and iron shelters! Warriors to the perimeter!"

Beastkin mothers scooped up their children, scrambling into the reinforced bunkers and underground cellars while able-bodied hunters drew heavy broadswords and recurve bows, forming tight defensive rings around the encampment.

John reached the command tent where the stationed Army infantry squad and combat engineers were already dropping their shovels and racking the bolts of their M4A1 carbines.

"Listen up!" John barked, his voice cutting through the rising chorus of monstrous shrieks echoing from the mountains. "We’ve got hundreds of hostile flyers descending from the north! Set up firing lines behind the Hesco barriers! Conserve your bursts, aim for the wings and heads, and let the Navy soften them up first!"

"Rangers, lock and load!" Ritcher shouted, dropping behind a sandbag barricade and cocking his rifle with a crisp mechanical snap. "Interlocking fields of fire! Make every round count!"

Beside them, Elenore stepped up to the barrier. She reached to her side, where she saw a recurve bow and an arrow resting against an unopened crate of supplies. She picked it up in one fluid motion, pulling a feathered shaft from a leather quiver and nocking it onto the bowstring.

"I can pierce their eyes and the thin membranes of their wings from two hundred paces."

John looked at her and then remembered how she easily handled two men in the hospital. She is a fighter.

"I understand, we will need all the help we can get."

The high-pitched hum of the tactical comms link chirped to life in John’s earpiece, cutting cleanly through the escalating shriek of the approaching swarm.

"All stations, this is Captain Miller aboard the USS Arleigh Burke," the naval commander’s voice crackled over the radio. "AEGIS Combat System has multi-target track solutions. Initial surface-to-air salvo is away. Stand by for inbound fire overhead—we’re about to thin out the herd."

"Understood. Clear the upper canopy," John replied.

A heartbeat later, a thunderous roar rolled across the coastal bay as dozens of vertical launch cells discharged in rapid succession. Streaking across the sky at over Mach 3, a synchronized volley of RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles and SM-2 interceptors traced brilliant white contrails over the valley.

The missiles slammed into the dense mass of wyverns.

Blinding detonations ripped through the leading formations. Proximity fragmentation warheads detonated in rapid sequence, unleashing dense clouds of tungsten shrapnel that shredded leathery wings and shattered reptilian bodies mid-flight. Dozens of wyverns dissolved into bursts of flame and smoke, their broken forms plummeting into the forested slopes below.

The concussive shockwaves rippled across the settlement, rustling the treetops and kicking up loose dirt along the perimeter.

"Ancestors above..." Lyra breathed, her eyes reflecting the blooming fireballs across the horizon.

Even Elenore’s eyes were wide as she took in the scenery of explosions.

"It’s so powerful..." she mouthed.

John’s system notification popped up.

[You have killed 160 Wyverns!]

[You received: 480,000 System Points & 320 Souls!]

Then, John realized that this might be a good point farming. He’s going to need System Points for infrastructure and souls for manpower.