"I'm out!" yelled Krill.
It was pretty obvious he was out, he was gaping at his powerless staff with a look on his face that indicated he was seriously considering using it to physically fend off the 20-foot tall Vear that was bearing down on our party.
Taron's shoulders seemed to drop ever so slightly. At the best of times Beasts seem incapable of showing any emotion, but my trained eye noticed the small movement and I knew he was yet again disappointed with his companions.
"Krill, move behind us. The other three of us can handle one bad guy. We'll be fine, rest up." Although Taron was our adopted guide on this trek across the West Kugu Desert, I was not willing to concede leadership for this mission. Krill followed my instruction and glanced at me as he headed for the rear of the party. I think he was guessing that neglecting to take the opportunity to replenish photon energy when he had the chance was going to be the last straw. With any other guide I'd have probably agreed, but Taron was a strange one.
The Vear was within our range now. They may be 400lbs of tough muscle and bad attitude but no matter how ferocious SEED made them they were always going to be a monomate short of a six-pack. I felt the magic well within me as I focused my Technic, then channelled the energy through my staff and released a bolt of lightning just as the Vear pounced towards Taron. Beside me, Zondar opened up with an ice bullet from his rifle a split second after he saw my Zonde spell hit the target. If Zondar hadn't been a CAST, a man-made killing machine, I'd have been annoyed because it would have appeared that he didn't think my spell was good enough to shock the enemy into immobility.
Because he was a CAST, he'd already calculated the probability of the first spell's success and chosen his ammunition, lined up on the target and pulled the trigger within milliseconds of seeing that the Vear was still moving.
Oblivious to all of our activity, Taron simply stood immobile, his right foot planted deep in the hot sand and his spear pointed forwards, waiting for his moment. Zondar's shot crashed against the Vear's chest, and the imperceptible reduction in his forward momentum was all that Taron needed. With a deep growl he launched himself forward and drove his spear deep into the Vear's throat, allowing the laws of physics do the rest. The monster's neck vertebrae was severed and it was dead before it finished collapsing.
As Taron knelt to retrieve his weapon and began to clean the blood from the bright metal spear-head by digging it into the sand he said, simply: "Dark soon. We camp here now."
"We can't stop to rest. My orders from the Alliance Military are to get to the confinement facility as quickly as possible before it gets overrun. They need us there."
Taron finished his cleaning, but remained knelt where he was. He looked me straight in the eye.
"On Moatoob - to walk the desert at night is death."
"Not to reach the facility in time could result in more death," I countered.
Once again, a very slight inclination of his head was all that Taron would allow to show that he was considering this.
"Perhaps." He admitted.
"But, I need a few hours for my staff to recharge," Krill added, unhelpfully.
Taron seemed to come to a decision. Standing up and walking over to Krill, Taron withdrew a short dagger from his own belt and offered it hilt-first.
Krill looked at the weapon blankly.
"I can't use that, I'm not trained! I'm a Force! I use Technics! What do I know about daggers?" he whimpered.
"It is more use to you than that stick." Taron pointed out.
"Take it, Krill," I said. "We're moving out."
"But... but..."
I'd had enough. We were two days out from Dagora City, the confinement facility was only about 6 more hours ahead of us, and Krill's flair for navigation and general ineptness was the main reason we hadn't arrived at the facility 6 hours previously. If Taron's curiosity hadn't been aroused by seeing our small group heading off in the general direction of endless desert and if he hadn't broken off from his Jishgara hunting party to see what we were up to, who knows where we'd have ended up? Taron's offering to guide us to our destination was both a stroke of good fortune and spoke volumes for the hospitality of this planet's native inhabitants.
"I said take it, Krill." I hoped that I imparted enough finality in my tone of voice to convince him. Just in case, I followed it up.
"You are a Guardian, Krill. You are sworn to protect, using whatever means at your disposal. Remember that."
It did the trick. Whatever his faults, Krill had a sense of honour and understood the nature of duty. It's just that sometimes he was prone to let Newman nature get in the way of both of them. With a disdainful glance at his new weapon du jour, Krill sheathed the dagger in one of the pockets of his Neudaiz designer robes and got to his feet.
"Same as before. Taron on point, Krill and I next, Zondar can run the flanks as lookout, all clear?"
A small nod from Taron, a quiet "ok" from Krill and an "Aye-firmative" from Zondar made me feel somewhat happier again. Although if I could get my hands on one of the early programmers during the CAST development program I'd throttle his sense of humour out of him.
We were fortunate and we made good speed. As we crested the final ridge there was still no sign of the false desert dawn. Below us stretched a small plain, 100 yards or so lit by moonlight, and at the far end we could just make out the long stretch of the confinement facility outer wall. But no signs of life. Were we too late or were there still some Alliance holed up inside? I glanced over at Taron.
"It looks clear. If this is the west side, the main gate should be just over there."
I pointed over to our right a little. Taron followed the direction of my finger, his sharp night eyesight able to pick out the twin buttresses housing the photon-enhanced metasilica gate.
"I see it. It looks clear. The gate is closed."
"Let's go then!" said Krill, and started making his way down the ridge with the rest of us following.
We were thirty yards from the entrance when we first heard the rustling. Faint at first, like the wind blowing through desert scrub, we thought it was just that. The base of the confinement walls were lined with clumps of the rugged sand weed, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Zondar was the first to alert us.
"Movement detected. Multiple signatures. To our left."
Toran stopped in his tracks and crouched, his senses on full alert. Krill seemed torn between making a bolt for the gates or staying with us, luckily for him Zondar's next words saved his life.
"Movement detected ahead of us."
Krill edged back slowly and crouched down beside Toran.
"Movement detected behind us."
Krill looked at Zondar. "Any good news?"
"Vanda!" Toran's harsh whisper cut through the party like a machinegun through Rappies.
It was all becoming clear. Despite being simple creatures, it had been confirmed many times that SEED infection grants its targets with a certain wilyness, the ability to strategise - and in this case ambush. The rustling had been the sound of the Vandas' thick skin unfolding as they moved from their crouched position at the base of the confinement wall. They'd been lying in wait and now they were coming at us on three sides in great numbers. Our only avenue of escape was a flight to the east up the ridge and back into the hostile Kagu Desert. Krill was glancing in that direction even as the thought crossed my mind. But as leader, my duty was to take the suicide option. Of course.
I stood up.
"We can't outrun them, so we fight. We cut our way through to the gate. The noise of the battle should alert those inside. They'll open it for us."
Zondar immediately punched a fresh clip into his Vullseye and attached a night scope. "Aye-firmative."
Toran, without question, equipped a set of mean looking knuckles. "Fight is good."
Krill held his staff at the ready. Then remembered he was running on empty. Sheepishly he fumbled around in his robes until he brought out the blade that Toran had handed him earlier that day, but his gaze was directed at Toran's hands.
"Toran. You are here voluntarily. You are not part of this mission. We are grateful for your help and hospitality, but you must know that you only stay by choice. You may leave if you wish, this is our battle." I felt it only fair to say this, I think Toran knew as well as the rest of us that there might not be anyone behind those gates to open them.
"Fight is good."
"Wait a second. Are those Gudda Skera knuckles? S-class?" Krill was still staring at Toran's weapon of choice.
At that, Toran held his hands up to Krill's face so he could examine them more closely. Krill seemed to forget all about several hundred approaching Vanda as he gazed with wonder at the metal encased fists before him.
"But.. but... those are half a million Mes at Tenora Works!"
And for the first time in recorded history, we saw a Beast smile.
"Tenora Works only 27% ice damage. These made by my hands. 48%"
The blast of Zondar's Vullseye interrupted any further conversation as he took out the nearest Vanda in one hit. As he adjusted his scope a fraction in the dark, he turned to us and said: "LeTs RoCk!" before he quickly despatched 3 more. They were within 20 yards of us now and starting to attempt to fry us by belching fire, the distance was too great but they were panicked at losing four of their own so early.
"To the gate! Follow!" called Toran as he moved forwards with fists raised. We stayed close behind him, and once I'd tucked away the image of strangling linguistics programmers and concentrated on Zodial and Zambarta Technics to aid cutting a path through the massed Vanda towards our destination, we picked up the pace. Zondar, for a CAST, seemed to relish picking off the Vanda from our left flank and rear in great numbers, and even Krill managed to damage one by hurling his dagger forwards. As his target hopped around trying to pull the dagger out of its foot, Toran took it down with a swift combination of punches.
The battle raged. The wall of ice I was keeping up around us saved us from a lot of damage but still we'd all need to visit the hairdresser if we got out of this alive, the air itself was trying to ignite around us such was the wrath of the Vanda. Another deadly flurry of punches from Toran and a space around the gate opened up. The gate itself remained firmly closed, however. Was anybody there? The four of us were now pinned with the gate behind us and a wall of Vanda in front of us. Zondar's Vullseye continued to rack up its deadly tally, and any that got close between reloads were taken care of by Toran's flailing knuckles. Any extra that got too close were poked back by Krill, who was kneeling down behind Toran and prodding out his staff at any Vanda that tried its luck rather than wait in line.
Unless a miracle happened soon we'd run out of energy before the Vanda ran out of Vanda. The massed wall of SEED-infected monsters was pressing closer and closer, gaining a height advantage as they pressed on over the bodies of their fallen.
"Power low warning." Zondar was still making every shot count, but his programming seemed to prioritise having to notify everyone of bad news as soon as it became available. I was running out of power too, my staff trembling to warn me I had enough for just one or two more Technics.
"Toran! Thankyou! This last one is for you!" I shouted as I cast my accuracy and evasion boosts for the party with the remains of my drained photon supply.
Zondar was out of bullets and was now swinging his Vullseye madly, taking Vanda 3 at a time with the butt of his rifle. Krill was still poking way at them and so I moved foward to Toran's left side and started swinging my staff as well. We were all, I think, saying a silent prayer. Except perhaps for Toran, whose flying fists seemed unstoppable. But it couldn't last. We couldn't last. The gates weren't opening.
Nobody was home.
"Morning! We weren't expecting visitors! I'll put the kettle on, be right with you!"
Clearly I was hearing things. The voice seemed to be coming from above and in the midst of battle I was obviously hallucinating. It was enough to make me miss my swing and I only managed to bash a Vanda on the nose instead of poke its eye out, but fortunately Toran had that one on his 'to do' list next. Then the voice came again.
"Open fire!"
Now I was definitely hallucinating. On the brow of the ridge in front of us, the sun peeked up. But the sunlight seemed to be coming from the top of the walls above us. I wiped some blood from my eyes, I noticed Toran was badly cut on his left arm, then looked up. It wasn't sunlight coming from the top of the wall. It was laser fire! Both sides of the wall above the gates were manned by Alliance forces, and they were cutting swathes through the Vanda with laser cannons. But if it wasn't an hallucination, it still wasn't going to be enough. The Vanda were massed 10 deep in front of us, we'd all taken damage, and there was no way the lasers could target them without risking hitting us as well. But then it happened. Toran just exploded.
I'd never seen a Nanoblast before, although I'd heard of such abilities and read descriptions. But nothing prepared me for the blast of light and roar of sound that seemed to emit from the centre of Toran's body. Even the Vanda seemed to be trying to pull back from their front row seats, but those behind them kept pushing in. Some of the Vanda were even trying to turn and scramble back over the top of the army which was unwittingly preventing their escape, for the vision before them now in Toran's place towered over them and roared with such ferocity that even Zondar seemed to quiver.
And then the massacre began. And was over in less than a minute. Mighty punches rained down upon the Vandar from Toran's monstrous form. Four, five and even more were killed with every blow, so tightly packed were the Vanda. Those on the periphery tried to outrun the torrent of death only to meet their maker via the surgical slicing from the laser cannons. And then Toran reappeared.
As he walked back to us, picking his way over the crushed Vanda corpses, he shouted up at the wall: "Fight is good!"
And to a man, the Alliance cheered him.
Krill plumped himself down wearily at the base of the gates. As he started to wipe some of the gore off the end of his staff he looked up brightly and said: "Did somebody mention a cup of tea?"
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