The quiet gave way to a sound like a mix of rushing water and windblown autumn leaves. Against the pale glow of the city, I saw a cloud of darkness rise to blot it out. Before I could begin to wonder what it contained, my quest log helpfully filled in the blank.

Quest – Survive the Locusta Migratoria Swarm (Optional)

Description – Lake has weaponised one of nature’s most voracious omnivores. The good news is there’s only 42973 of them. Fight them, or flee, the choice is yours. (PS – They can fly faster than you can run, so you might want to fight)

Reward – Loot Box (rare)

“Professor, do the words locusta migratoria mean anything to you?”

“Of course,” he replied. “It’s the common migrating locust. Why?”

I pointed at the seething mass that had started to fly in our direction. “We’ve got about forty thousand of them heading straight for us.” Before he could break out in a full blown panic, I sent him off with one of the younger Disciples. “Get him into one of the basements.”

“The cathedral has a massive crypt,” offered the teenage member. “It’s pretty secure.”

“Do it!”

She nodded and took Jessop’s arm, markedly helping his pace.

“Everyone else! Get any kids in the basements too!”

Rhys came over at a run. “What is it?”

“Prehistoric insect swarm.”

“What?” he exclaimed.

I ignored him and tried to calm my own racing mind. We had people, and we had guns. Bullets would be next to useless. “Rhys, do we have any flamethrowers?”

“What?” he repeated.

“Flame throwers!” I yelled, shaking him by the shoulders.

“No. Just what you see on our people. We’ve got the HMGs and Viper launchers you saw that we were going to use on the T-4s.”

“Ok, that’s a start. Bring them to the north of the camp as fast as you can. They’ll be here in a few minutes.”

“What about the people who haven’t got a gun? Half of the people in the camp only carry knives and machetes.”

“They’ll be useful if they get close enough, but in the meantime,” I said, emptying my entire stash of looted guns from the CID soldiers. Pistols, rifles, grenades, and magazines fell clattering into a massive heap. “Get them kitted out with those. Once they’re armed, get everyone to some kind of cover. I don’t want anyone out in the open. They’ll be picked clean.”

Rhys’s jaw damn near hit the floor.

“Now!”

My shout pulled him out of the shock and he started to call people over.

Cody looked at the incoming enemy with dread. “I doubt glass will be much use as a defence?”

“It’s better than fresh air,” I replied, leading my party to the wall.

We clambered up the secured construction ladders and looked out. I was filled with relief when the swarm totally ignored the solitary homes and the families within them. It was our pheromone covered camp they were after. Until we were all eaten, anyway. Then the entire city would be their smorgasbord.

Reb was close behind, his men loaded with rocket launchers and the bulky machine guns.

“Nice,” I said at the ordnance.

“Ripper made sure we used the drug money to keep ahead of the Blood Nation in terms of firepower,” explained Rhys. “They hand out their cash to their people.”

As much as I hated to admit it, philanthropic tendencies weren’t going to be as useful in the coming war as a missile. “Are they heat seekers?”

“No,” said Reb, preparing one of the shoulder mounted weapons. “Laser guided through the control unit. It’s all computerised.”

I’d been watching way too many cheesy 80s action flicks recently. “What’s the range on it?”

“I can already engage. Just say the word.”

We all moved a safe distance to the side. “Word.”

Reb pulled the trigger, and the rocket belched from the tube. The propellant ignited with a fierce hiss, sending the projectile screaming across the open land. I watched with bated breath as the burning trail neared the cloud of mutant insects.

“Come on!” I urged.

At the last moment, the teeming mass parted, leaving a perfect passage for the missile to fly through. Once it had cleared their swarm, the hole filled back in like a stone dropped in tar.

“Fuck!” I snapped as the horizon beyond lit up from the explosion. I prayed we hadn’t hit anyone.

“I can’t hit ‘em if they won’t stay put!” Reb grunted, hefting another launcher.

“Don’t waste your time. Just shoot your guns!”

All around us, the gathered Disciples opened fire. The night strobed from the muzzle flashes. Tracers zipped into the mass alongside the unseen bullets, too fast for the insects to dodge. The intense crackle of small arms gunfire was loud, and the heavy dudda-dudda of the machine gun was nearly deafening. Cody strafed the blob with one of the reclaimed rifles. Cris’s magic missiles flew from one hand, while small fireballs burst against the thick swarm from her wand.

Slowly, second by second, the buzz of thousands of huge wings took over. The shattered debris of the locusts rained from the sky, pattering on the ground or roofs as it struck. Despite the power of our weapons, we hadn’t put much of a dent in their number.

“Everyone back! Find cover!” I turned to Cody. “You too. I want you to hold at the entrance of the cathedral.”

He nodded and jumped, landing ten feet below effortlessly.

Reb stopped on the ladder when he saw the rest of us holding position. “What are you doing?”

“We’ll be right behind you. Go!”

He obeyed, as did the others.

I chanced a look back into the vast camp. Any lingering aftereffects of drugs or alcohol were wiped away by the adrenaline. I’d made the mistaken assumption that they were a murderous rabble, but they worked together as a cohesive team, picking the best properties to defend and then swarming them as the locusts were about to do. Windows were covered with furniture as if they were expecting a horde of zombies. Positions were taken to defend. My weapons pile was nothing but dust.

“You got a plan?” asked Cris.

“This is going to sound insane,” I warned.

“Insane has worked before,” said Sun.

“Can you bring Fen out?” The panting warg appeared beside us, waiting for an order. “Get close to me,” I said, pulling them into a partial embrace. Fen sidled up to us, his bulk pushing our group dangerously close to the edge. “Have him sit, Sun. Here they come.”

We’d been closest to the canister when it ejected its pheromone payload, and the bulk of the insects knew it. They resembled a giant’s fist as they gathered their strength together, a hundred feet above our heads. Small groups broke away as the Disciples fired into the mass from the nearby homes, looking like the tendrils of an eldritch god as they sought a target.

“Ready?” I called over the humming drone that vibrated through every cell of my body.

The swarm dropped like a stone, aiming to devour us. I knew we needed every last millisecond, and only activated holy shield when I could make out the serrated mandibles of the eight-inch long locusts. Carried downward by gravity and powerful wings, they hit my glowing sphere. The noise was like a fly-zapper from hell, popping and fizzing as the insects burst by the hundred. In a fraction of a second, our view was cut off by the streaming gore. The holy power was attempting to boil away the bloody mulch, but it was simply too thick. Beneath my feet, I felt the makeshift wall begin to shift under the weight of the attack. In one swift motion, I pocketed Fen, grabbed Cris and Sun tightly to me, and jumped backward. The all-encompassing shroud of fluttering death cushioned the fall a little, preventing any broken bones. Jumping to my feet, I pulled Cris and Sun up, careful to keep them within the protective cocoon. My eyes shifted to the active icon of the spell which was ticking down steadily.

“Ten seconds!” I yelled, casting smite blindly. The searing ray was out of view, but I felt the insistent press of exploding locusts pushing against us from its power. “We need to move! Cris, start casting your nova!”

Our bright sphere dulled as the tendrils of purple arcane energy began to gather, creating drifting shadows. With a cry of anger, Cris unleashed her magical power. It punched upward and outward, clearing the thick gore smeared on my shell and the first few feet of locusts themselves. As the pulse dissipated against the pressing swarm, the filth splashed down again, cutting off the brief snatch of vision. Not that I’d seen anything other than a seething mass of insects. My concentration was on the minimap in the corner of my screen. Without the cathedral marker, we’d have walked around dumbly until the holy shield failed.

I returned Fen to his mistress’s pack and cried out, “Five seconds!”

Cris let loose a second shockwave of nebulous energy that cast a violet, twilight hue on our party.

“Shall I bring Fen back out?” yelled Sun. “We can burn them!”

“No! We’ll fall over him, and then we’re dead!”

Pressing on toward the narthex, which was achingly close, I staggered back slightly as two powerful detonations rocked the tightly packed insects. Cris depleted her mana and unleashed a third nova, this time clearing a patch that gave us a momentarily clear view of our destination.

I knew we didn’t have enough time to make the distance, and I prepared myself for the pain. Reb stepped into view, another Viper launcher on his shoulder. He fired, and all I saw was the red tip of the projectile. It hit my sphere just as the spell collapsed, turning everything into fire. I roared in fear, dragging Cris and Sun through the heat. The swarm collapsed in where we had just been stood, and the pocket cleared by the explosion was doing likewise as we ran. Reb stepped aside, and I literally dived through the open door with my friends under my arms. Rhys and Cody were ready, and slammed it shut, but not before a decent number of the locusts made it through. Many more oozed and writhed from their crushed position between the two doors until they died. We’d all taken a healing potion at the same time to offset the momentary scorching.

“Everyone go!” ordered Sun, her body turning as grey as death even as the blisters faded. Fen popped up beside her and started to tear the massive insects straight out of the air. He was having the time of his life, bounding from the pews, biting down on the locusts once then spitting them onto the floor.

I followed our flailing group who lashed out at the attackers. In smaller numbers, they took little chunks of meat with each bite, but it wasn’t enough to overwhelm us entirely. Cris was targeting any she could with her basic wand, the small fireballs causing the locusts to explode. The girl who had taken Jessop was waving frantically from a small doorway set within the wall of the transept. We ran down the aisle, batting away anything that came close. The faint, multicoloured light that shone down on us from the stained glass was slowly blotted out as the remaining locusts settled on the cathedral itself.

“Sun, the glass won’t hold!”

She nodded, but maintained her slow pace, crushing anything that landed on her stone body. Fen’s aura was working wonders, and the delicate wings of the insects went up with little bursts of flame before they fell and started to cook on the ground.

I reached the doorway and ducked inside. “How long have you got?” I called.

“A few seconds,” she replied.

Glass burst into the cathedral, and I thought the bugs had broken through. Peering out from the low doorway, I saw the tiny eruptions that sprinkled Sun in a kaleidoscope of shards. Bullets ricocheted around the interior, sparking from walls and columns. The Disciples were engaging the blanket of bugs that had us surrounded.

“Sun, move!”

Fen vanished, and the warrioress charged at us as the weakened windows gave in completely. The humming filth that was the locust swarm poured in, filling the vaulted roof. I stepped out, allowing an ichor covered Sun to duck under the low lintel, then dodged back inside. Slamming the door, I called for Rhys. It was tight in the narrow passage, but he made it through.

“Order everyone away from their firing positions. Get them inside the basements. We’ve hurt the fuckers, but there’s still thousands left.”

“On it!” he moved back and shouted into the radio.

The door came alive with the sound of a hundred nails scratching it, as if there was a zombie horde just outside. I knew it was only the powerful mandibles of our foe, and their jaws wouldn’t just peel away like fingernails from rotten hands. They would get through if given enough time.

“Sun, can you drop Fen here to keep watch. His aura should keep them away from us for now.”

The massive warg was even more imposing in the thin tunnel. He sat down, his armour clanking against the stone, and grinned at us while panting excitedly.

“Good boy,” I said, scratching him under the chin.

“What now?” asked Cris, squeezing through.

“I guess we wait for our cooldowns to end, and then we head back out,” I said.

“Let’s take five minutes so we can get cleaned up too,” she suggested.

Sun tried her best to hide her disgust at the insect gore that clung to her body following the golem shell transformation. “Yes. I think I’d like that.”