One Character (19)

Chapter 19 - No Harmonic Left Behind

“Move! Quickly now! Don’t stop!”

Rackell’s voice resounded down the cramped corridor leading from the Sub-Level Storage facility. Her team, alongside Sheldon’s guild and a few other surviving Provisionals, hurried the dazed civilians upwards towards the war-torn surface.

The air grew warmer and thick with the acrid smell of smoke and burnt ichor. Children cried, elders stumbled, but the Harmonics urged them onward relentlessly.

Sheldon’s earthen armor was still intact regardless of the earlier fight. He effortlessly scooped up two small children and tucked one under each arm without breaking stride.

“Faster! Keep moving!”

Sheldon urged the adults lagging behind him.

A few other Harmonics followed his example by lending strength to the injured or exhausted, while the rest formed a protective perimeter.

They burst out into the devastated streets of Deserek Outpost. The sky above was a bruised purple, choked with smoke.

Almost immediately, a wave of chittering sounds heralded an attack. Dozens of Category 1 Skitterlings surged from the rubble, staring hungrily at the vulnerable civilians.

“Unus! Engage!” Rackell commanded.

There was no hesitation. Rackell unleashed jets of fire from her hands to incinerate the closest attackers.

Dodo’s Shadow Maw lashed out, crushing chitinous bodies.

Maya’s Static Whip electrocuted multiple creatures at once.

Nala’s Shield Pixies zipped protectively around the civilians, deflecting stray claws and spitting attacks.

Sheldon simply stomped and sent shockwaves through the ground that shattered the brittle legs of nearby Unus.

The swarm, though numerous, was weak. Within moments, the attack dissolved into a scattering of broken bodies and retreating shadows.

“Clear! Move towards the LZ! Now!”

Rackell pointed towards the rising slope where the heavy thud of Tanker Joe’s cannons still provided a rhythmic baseline to the chaos.

They scrambled upwards over broken ferrocrete and twisted metal, the large shape of the Ackuline 360 transport was visible at the crest, its ramp lowered invitingly amidst sporadic defensive fire.

Tanker Joe stood near the ramp and was using his massive cannons to spit choreographed death at any Unus that dared approach the evac zone.

“Tanker Joe!” Rackell yelled as they drew near. “We have the second group! All accounted for!”

Tanker Joe turned briefly, the spectral Ballerina Character still shimmered above him, channeling power into his weapons. He spared them a quick glance.

“Confirmed! Good work! Get them aboard, now! We’re lifting off the second this ramp is clear! Move your sour asses!”

They pushed the last few survivors up the slope. Just as the first civilians reached the transport’s ramp, a shadow fell over them. A lean, predatory Floater Unus, different from the Spike Dweller, dove silently from the smoke clouds towards the exposed group.

BOOM!

Before anyone could react, one of Tanker Joe’s oversized bullets intercepted the Floater mid-dive and blasted it into a rain of gore that splattered onto the rubble.

“Get inside! Go! Go!” Tanker Joe screamed.

The survivors scrambled onto the transport with relief evident on their faces.

Rackell paused at the edge of the ramp and scanned the battlefield below one last time. Their duty was to the civilians, but ingrained instinct compelled them to check for fallen comrades.

Rackell saw no more civilians moving amongst the ruins of Deserek. However, her eyes caught flashes of movement near a cluster of partially collapsed administrative buildings further west – Harmonics, clearly injured, pinned down by sporadic Unus attacks. Maybe three or four of them.

“Tanker! There are wounded Harmonics down there! West sector ruins! We need to–”

“Negative!” Tanker Joe cut her off sharply. “Mission parameter is civilian evac only! Those grunts knew the risks! Get your sour asses on this transport now, Harvester! That’s an order!”

Rackell froze. Leave them? Abandon fellow Harmonics to be torn apart? The thought felt like acid in her gut. They weren't her guild, weren't her responsibility by the mission specs, but they wore the same insignia, fought the same enemy.

“Sir, we can’t just leave them!” Rackell protested. She turned fully towards Tanker Joe.

“I said get aboard! Final warning!” Tanker Joe aimed one of his massive cannons pointedly towards the sky, not at her, but the message was clear. Disobey, and be left behind.

Rackell looked at the stranded Harmonics, then back at her team.

Dodo shifted uncomfortably, Maya chewed her lip, Nala watched Rackell intently. The sounds of the Ackuline’s engines spooling up for takeoff was evident.

“Kark it.” Rackell spun around, ignoring Tanker Joe’s furious roar. “Team! With me!”

Dodo blinked, surprised, then grinned. “Yeah! Screw orders!”

Maya hesitated only a second before nodding firmly. Nala simply moved to follow Rackell without question.

Sheldon watched them, utterly bewildered. “What are you doing?! He said–”

“The rest of you! Get your team aboard! NOW!” Tanker Joe’s patience finally snapped. He gestured forcefully towards the transport ramp.

Torn between orders and Rackell’s defiant act, Sheldon hesitated, then grimly motioned his own guild members onto the Ackuline 360. They scrambled aboard just as the ramp began to retract.

Rackell and her team slid recklessly back down the slope of rubble and ignored the shouts and curses from the rising transport.

As they reached the bottom, a desperate cry reached them. A lone Harmonic, dragging a mangled leg, burst from the shattered doorway of a nearby building, pursued closely by a ugly Category 1 Striker Unus.

“Nala!” Rackell yelled.

Nala reacted instantly. Her Shield Pixies zipped forward, forming a solid, hexagonal barrier just as the Striker lunged. The creature’s claws screeched uselessly against the vibrating energy.

Before the Unus could react, Dodo charged forward.

“Terra-Fist!”

His metallic gauntlet materialized, grabbed the stunned Striker mid-air, and crushed its carapace and insides with a sickening crunch. He tossed the mangled corpse aside.

Thud!

Maya rushed to the wounded Harmonic’s side. “Are you alright? Can you stand?” she asked upon noticing the bloody bandages wrapped around his thigh.

“My leg… broken, I think,” the man winced in pain.

“Maya, help him up,” Rackell ordered.

Maya nodded. “Wave Tail!” Her watery appendage manifested. Instead of attacking, she shaped the water into a supportive bubble that gently lifted the injured man.

As Maya stabilized their new charge, they all looked up behind them and saw the Ackuline 360 lifting off.

Dodo spat on the ground. “Great. Left us behind.”

Rackell felt a burst of bitterness, but quickly suppressed it. No time for regrets. “What’s your name? Where are your teammates?” she asked the wounded Harmonic floating beside Maya.

“Diago. My squad… Krell, Anya, Bort… they’re pinned down! In the Processing Hub Alpha, just over there!”

He pointed a shaking finger towards a large, blocky administrative building fifty meters away.

“We got separated… I tried to draw the Unus away… thought I could make it to the LZ for help…”

As if on cue, a burst of pulse rifle fire erupted from the upper windows of the designated building, followed by the enraged screeching of multiple Unus.

“They’re still alive,” Rackell stated. “Let’s move!”

They advanced quickly towards the Processing Hub Alpha.

…

Inside the Hub, chaos reigned. Krell, the squad leader, gritted his teeth as he fired another burst from his pulse rifle through the shimmering energy field blocking the main doorway. Anya and Bort flanked him, adding their own fire. Outside, a dozen Unus – mostly Strikers and Skitterlings – clawed and slammed against the barrier, unable to penetrate.

The barrier itself was a complex lattice of golden energy projected from three portable emitters placed in a triangle. They flickered noticeably.

“Krell! The emitters are overloading! Barrier’s not gonna hold much longer!” Bort shouted.

“Keep firing! Thin them out!” Krell yelled back. “Diago should have reached the LZ by now! Help is coming!”

“You hope!” Anya retorted bitterly as she reloaded her weapon. “More likely he panicked and ran! Ditched us like dead weight!”

Krell didn’t reply. Doubt gnawed at him too. Diago wasn’t the bravest of their squad. Maybe Anya was right. But focusing on that wouldn’t keep them alive.

“Conserve ammo! Focus fire on the bigger ones!”

CRACK!

Suddenly, the golden barrier sputtered violently, then vanished completely with a dying whine from the emitters.

“It failed!” Bort screamed as the Unus rushed forward.

Death seemed instantaneous.

“Fall back!”

SCREEEEECH!

Just as the lead Strikers lunged, a massive wall of roaring flame erupted directly in front of the doorway that consumed the first wave of attackers and forced the others back momentarily.

Through the wavering heat haze, Krell and his squad saw figures engaging the remaining Unus outside – flashes of shadow, crackling electricity, shimmering shields. Unus screeched their death cries. Within seconds, the sounds of battle subsided.

The firewall dissipated.

Standing in the doorway, framed by blazing Unus corpses, was a team of unfamiliar Harmonics.

Krell, Anya, and Bort stared, stunned into silence. Then, Krell’s eyes widened as he saw the figure floating gently beside the woman with the water tail.

“Diago?!” Krell gasped.

“Krell! Boss!” Diago cried out and began tearing up as he floated forward in Maya’s water bubble. “I made it back! I got help! My leg… they got me, but I came back!”

Relief washed over Krell, Anya, and Bort. They rushed forward with concern as they saw Diago’s injury.

Rackell stepped forward and interrupted the tearful reunion. “Glad you found your friends. But we need to leave. Now.”

She pointed back towards the distant edge of Deserek Outpost. “Tanker Joe took the main transport, but Crimson Star’s lead Ackuline, the one Elizabeth Pellesh commands, is still holding a position near the border checkpoint. She’s covering the withdrawal. If we move fast, we might make it before she pulls out too.”

Krell looked at Rackell, then at his rescued squad mate, then back at the woman who had just saved them. He nodded firmly. “Alright. We’re with you. Lead the way.”

With their numbers bolstered, the combined group turned and ran behind Rackell into the deadly ruins, hoping desperately to reach their last chance for escape.