Shooter seems grateful for the hope.
Justice Hammer raises himself up a bit, and meeting your eye, he begins speaking. He isn't polished like a bard or charismatic like fancy folk, but still you feel the familiar draw of a storyteller and natural leader, as he tells his tale.
Justice Hammer and the Coffin Nails heard of attacks on remote farms farther down the valley. Cartouche holds one end of that valley, a gateway to those lands between here and Castle Refuge. They scouted the farms, and discovered a small incursion of demons and a growing environmental change: plants wilting, plus unusual localized snow and ice in that area.
They formed a plan and went in. Justice Hammer front and center, Graves and Bully flanking with their autofire-weapons, Singer supporting them in a classic diamond attack formation, and with Shooter and Doom on overwatch, as the kiddies call it. (Justice spits a wad of tabakky into a spitoon dubiously when he says that last part; Shooter shakes her head at the old man, as if this were a long standing argument between them no longer worth wasting words on.)
The demons were upwards of nine feet tall, armored, fast and strong, rising from under the snow in an ambush, but gun fire and hammer swings slowly whittled what could, mostly holding their own. The demons fought with axes and held shields, and while they were frightening to behold, they fought with no weird stuff. Sniper fire and Singer watching their backs kept them from getting annihilated but they were settling in for a long, ammo-burning engagement trying to whittle past those armored hides.
A scream from Shooter alerted them to a new threat. Justice Hammer turned to see a twelve maybe fifteen foot ice demon rise beside their snipers, with a huge axe in one hand and covered in foul armor. With a mighty swing, Shooter and Doom were flung crashing into the trees. They don't know how the big one got behind them, but it was impervious to their answering hail of bullets. They retreated, meeting Doom dragging Shooter who was unconscious and leaving a bloody trail, while blasting the big demon with whirlwinds that only slowed not stopped it from following.
Ice fog swirled around them, blown in from somewhere. "But it weren't no natural ice fog; this was itchy, and burned something fierce. Drained you, made you want to just lie down and quit." The others all not at that, shame darkening their features. They couldn't see for shit, but together, they formed a perimeter and retreated to their vehicle. Singer and Doom carried Shooter and were loading her up onto the floater, Graves and Bully laying down suppressing fire to cover their retreat, when the big demon appeared or if the fog. Toe to toe, Justice Hammer went. His hammer crashed mightily into its hip, the maul actually doing some damage, but not a lot. It screamed and backed off, giving him time to retreat and grab onto the back of the hovercar waiting for him. They fled.
"I don't know. Maybe in my prime I could have taken that thing, but even then, on my best day, I doubt I coulda done it alone. Woulda needed a team with better weapons than we've got. We were barely holding our own against the little ones, those only his size," he finishes, waving at big Tipolei. They others snicker at his dark sarcasm.
"I don't know what abilities you all bring to a fight, but if the Legion sent you, I hope that means you're enough."
