Survivor's Gacha; Endless Improvisation

The sealed chamber smelled faintly of oil and tired coffee.

Every eye fixed on him, waiting for him to speak, waiting for him to make his decision. The Supreme Commandant did not wait for sentiment.

As soon as he made his decision, he folded his hands on the table and spoke bluntly. "We strike".

A dozen heads around the table turned as if pulled by the word.

Holt felt the room tilt on that hinge. There was no debate this time; they accepted the Commandant's decision, but the only argument was how.

The Supreme Commandant continued. "We will not sit and wait for the C Rank to come to us".

"Holt," he called as he inclined his head to look at the lead scout of the quarantine zone. "You recommended a strike, you will lead a strike team, and I will go with you."

It wasn't a suggestion, it was an order.

"But you asked an important question, how do we pick the twenty Awakened that will be on the strike force?"

As soon as he asked, the other Captains narrowed their eyes as they looked at each other, almost as if trying to read the other's intentions thorugh their eyes.

Holt spoke first. "We choose," he said. "By need and by fit".

He rolled the prepared dossier forward, showing scouts' notes, a dozen grainy thermal frames, and sketches of the creature they'd sighted beyond the north ridge.

Holt tapped the page and the schematic swelled on the wall screen.

"It's a Wolf," he said. "But the Rift has painted it with cold. It's been nicknamed the Frost Maw by the trackers".

"It's size is roughly five meters at the shoulder when on hind legs. It moves with shocking agility for its mass, and its primary Rift trait is a freezing field that radiates outward in pulses".

"Anything that lingers in the field suffers. Flesh becomes numb, joints seize, and weapons over, even electronic optics frost up".

"It's secondary trait is a directional rime blast that layers walls of transparent ice, creating barriers and traps. Observers reported the ground itself turning glass-like in its wake".

Holt's voice was serious as he continued. "The beast is not solitary in effect, its very presence makes the environment into a weapon."

As soon as he was done talking, the table hummed with the gravity of the description. One of the younger Captains cursed, an engineer by trade who'd taken to command.

Holt's voice was steady. "We survived the last C Rank because we had room to move. This one will freeze movement, and it will make the field into its ally".

"If it reaches the wall and anchors itself, the Fort won't survive. It will turn our parapets into ice traps; we do not have the luxury of letting that happen."

The Commandant leaned forward. "So the plan is to intercept, weaken the field, and force the Wolf into an exposed position where our artillery and Awakened can carve through its defense?"

"We need counters," Jonas grunted. "Lots of them. There's no point in taking twenty men who are good at punching if all they do is freeze."

Holt nodded and spoke through the list. "Primary counters to the Wolf is anything with sustained thermal output, not just bursts of flame but devices and abilities that can keep a radius above freezing despite the Rift influence".

"Mobility specialists… teleportation, phase, and short-range displacement so teams can keep moving and not be trapped in a freeze field".

"We also need tools to prevent weapon icing, tools like insulated casings, heated barrels, and anti-ice charges".

"Finally, we need brute force capable of breaking the organ that houses the Wolf's frost". He tapped the schematic where a dull orange spot pulsed in the creature's chest. "If we can punch a hole in that organ, the field will falter."

"Which abilities fit?" The Commandant asked. "You have anyone in mind?"

"Yes," Holt nodded and began to list names.

In his list were three Fire Elementalist Awakened for thermal dominance, two resonance engineers, four mobility specialists, and three heavy strikers, Jonas and the Supreme Commandant leading them.

In the list were also three scouts, with Holt leading them. It also included support medics, with Travis as the first name.

"That's twelve named," Holt said. "We can fill the rest with seven to eight specialists pulled from armourers, demolitions, and Awakened who can stabilize and carry the wounded out".

"We don't have perfect gear," he said. "But we have what we have".

"We train for a week, hard, and we exploit the creature's behaviors".

"It is fast but constrained by the ice it makes. If we can force it to move on exposed ground and on uneven rubble, its mobility will work against it".

"Jonas's job is to keep it from anchoring to anything, the mobility squad collapses the field seams, the thermal squad keeps the ice from forming long enough for us to get in the chest".

"The medics will keep us from bleeding out."

"Who do we pick?" The Commandant asked finally.

Holt's gaze flicked around the room.

Taking a deep breath, he named the regulars, captains and reliable Awakened with proven records, those the fort trusted not just because they could hit hard, but because they could keep a formation under unspeakable pressure.

He picked a few more names.

"One through fifteen," Holt said, ticking them off.

The list included Jonas and Holt himself, Travis, two resonance techs, three mobility specialists, two fire-wielders, two demolitions, and three trackers and engineers as names appeared on the wall screen in tight list form.

Each one stirred murmurs of approval and worry, approval because these were veterans, worry because these men and women were too valuable to lose.

They reached nineteen, and the Commandant waited for the last.

Holt's hand hovered, and then, quietly, he added a name that made heads swivel. "Ethan Cole."

The room did not explode. Instead, there was a sharp intake of breath as a dozen quick glances moved towards the Commandant, at Holt, then at each other.

"You want a civilian in the strike?" The engineer spat, disbelief and irritation flaring in his tone. "He's not a soldier!"

Holt's face didn't change. "He's an Awakened, and he has a unique special ability, one that improvises beyond doctrine".

"He's a variable that creates options we don't have." He looked at the Commandant, then around the table as if the room had grown small. "We need someone that doesn't think the way we do".

"I came here with him, so I should know".

"Alongside him, we survived things that mere F Rank Awakened then have no right surviving. We killed, we fought, we survived, and now, he's E+ Rank".

"He's not a showroom hero, he's the guy who makes the impossible actually happen on the ground when the plan goes to ash".

"We need that unpredictability."

Silence reigned as eyes searched Ethan's dossier.

Someone muttered about his civilian restriction, but Holt shrugged. "Restriction or not, he's kept himself alive through creativity, not brute force".

"That creativity is what will make this strike work when a standard doctrine fails, and he has the gauntlet to do the job if we break a seam".

The Commandant's eyes found Ethan's name on the wall. He said nothing, he only tapped the table twice.

One of the older Captains rubbed a hand over his jaw. "You're betting a lot on one Awakened," he said. "If he fails…"

"If he fails, we all fail," Holt said flatly. "But if we only bring what we already know to do, we will never make what we need to do".

He leaned forward and, with that same thin, honest voice that got to the bone, he added. "Ethan doesn't just improvise gear, he improvises space".

"His special ability is one of a kind".

Seeing how much he praised him, the others quietened down.

Silence hung as they looked at him with complicated emotions, but then Jonas broke the silence and thumped his palm on the table. "I also vouch for Ethan, he's one reason why I survived the trek to the quarantine zone".

The Commandant frowned, and that small crease was all the concession Holt needed. With a smile, he keyed a slot on the wall screen and Ethan's name glowed on the roster, marking the twenty souls chosen to go beyond the wall.

The Supreme Commandant sighed.

"Three days of prep," he said in a commanding voice. "Seven days full training, then we move on the eighth".

"We strike hard and bleed fast. If we go, we do it together. No side missions, and hopefully, we survive."

Holt felt the air shift. He watched the faces of his fellow Captains, each one set now in the way that made soldiers follow.

For the first time since the wall's C Rank encounter, he saw a line forming, a resistance… instead of staying passive like usual, they would leave the fort and fight the apocalypse where it bred.

He took a deep breath. "We get only one chance, let's will make it count."

The room answered not in words, but in the small, necessary acts of readiness as maps were unfurled wider, armories queried, and medics assigned.

The decision had been made, and the plan had a name now… Operation Winterfang.

Outside the sealed door, Fort Aegis hummed and breathed like an enormous living mechanism preparing in its own way to push back against the dark.

The Commandant looked at Holt, then around the room.

When he spoke, his voice was deep. "If we do this and succeed, Fort Aegis survives. If we fail, we die so the wall stands for a little longer".

"That is the calculus of our world in the apocalypse".

Holt's hand clenched as he met the Commandant's stare, leaving his thoughts unsaid.

And with that, the room began to move.