This chapter picks up shorly after the last one ended, with Nicola and Baird having headed out to do what they were told.
"Damn! Baird, I'm out of ammo!"
"Well Amazon, I've got half a clip left, so we're pretty SOL."
"Humansssss...!"
"Amazon, get cover now!"
"Cover? What cover?"
Nicola and Baird were working their way to the warehouses, as per Prescott's order. The only problem was they were finding large groups of Locust soldiers left and right and there wasn't anything nearby worthy to be called cover. Nicola acted on reflex, spring behind the first solid object she saw. She landed with a grunt and tried to think of what her next move was going to be.
"Control, this is Baird from Delta, I'm in the bar district and in need of support."
Nicola and Baird were flanked on two sides, and from the chatter they were hearing over the Tac/Coms their were others less fortunate.
"Don't worry Blondie, I'll kick some ass for ya!" A voice rang over the channel.
Nicola gasped.
"Was that Sabre's voice?" She shouted to Baird.
Baird made some sort of reply, but his words were drowned out by a hail of gunfire. Three Sires ran wildly at Nicola from different sides. She reved up the Lancer bayonet just in time to tear into one of the Sires. However before she was able to throw its corpse off the blade, the other two were able to knock her down and began to tear into her with their claws and teeth. One of the sires was able to get under her armour and slice her abdomen open.
She screamed bloody murder and tired to throw the Sires off her, to no avail however. From the corner of her eye, Nicola saw Baird in a chainsaw duel with a Locust Drone and knew he wouldn't be able to help her. Suddenly, one of the Sires went sailing through the air and slammed with a crunching of bones against a concrete building.
"Why don't you Locust sons-a-bitches pick on someone your own damn species?"
The other Sire went flying and Nicola found herself staring into a pair of blood red eyes.
"Sabre...?" She muttered weakly.
Nicola tried to sit up and found that her body suddenly weighed about a thousand pounds.
"Ahh... Help.. Baird..." She gasped.
No sooner had the words left her lips, Nicola could hear the sickeningly sweet sound of a chainsaw tearing through armour, flesh, and bone. She gasped and turned her head to where Baird had been fighting only moments before. She was relieved to see that Baird was un-harmed. He picked up the weapon of the Drone he had killed and shot down several more nearby. Sabre looked at Nicola, and the blood flowing from her wound and called over to Baird. He came jogging over and cursed when he saw the state Nicola was in.
"Shit! Not here."
Baird quickly examined the wound, all the while a steady stream of curses escaping him.
"God you retarded rookie... Getting sliced like this... What the fuck were you thinking?"
He lifted up Nicola, grunting as he tried to carry her weight.
"Sabre, we need to get her medical attention. As much as this wound's bleeding she won't last much longer."
Sabre nodded and took point. The three of them made for the impromptu medical center that had been erected nearby. By the time they got there, Nicola was barely coherent and muttering non-sense.
"And Daniel... Said I shouldn't... Isaac... But Rivka... and Mom..."
Once Nicola was patched up however, she seemed to recover fairly quickly and was even trying to get back into the fight. The people on medical duty tried to stop her, but Nicola soon pursuaded them to let her go back to fighting. Nicola made a bee-line for where Prescott would be, and was stopped by two Onyx Guards.
"Sorry, no one past here." One said.
"Ah... You don't understand,," Nicola began. "It's important I speak to Chairman Prescott as soon as possible. Like, right now."
The other guard shook his head.
"Prescott's orders. No one passes."
Nicola sneered at them.
"Agh! Take your heads out of your asses for five minutes please! This is important!"
Nicola tried to puss past the guards, but they pushed her right back.
"Look, if you don't stop, we will use force on you." One said.
Practically growling, Nicola turned around and took a step away from them. She quickly spun back around however and took out one of the guards with a sweep to the legs. The other guard drew it's gun, but Nicola grabbed the end of it and used it to smash the guard in the face. The helmet absorbed most of the impact, but a blow to the face is still a blow to the face, and he too went down. Nicola walked past the two disoriented guards and into a building. Various officers and officials were frantically doing their job, so they paid Nicola no mind. She found the door to Prescott's office and walked right in without knocking.
Marcus and Prescott were there, having a conversation about what could be done about the sudden Locust attack. The Locust's had opened up E-Holes all around the city, and they seemed to be impossible to close.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Prescott demanded.
Nicola was out of breath and clutched her abdomen.
"Let me... See the map..." She weakly gasped.
"Guards!" Prescott yelled. "Get her out of here."
Nicola lunged forward and grabbed the front of Prescott's shirt.
"NO! I Know what's going on!"
Marcus placed a heavy hand on each of Nicola's shoulders and pulled her away.
"Know your place Rook." He said.
Nicola shrugged off Marcus' hands and turned her head to briefly glare at him before looking back at Chairman Prescott.
"Look, back at the camp I'm from the Locust's launched an attack that lasted for three days straight. The way they had the E-Holes set up was almost like the body of a flute, air and pressure could flow through them all evenly, so practically nothing could close them."
Nicola took a deep breath and continued.
"When a frag grenade is launched into a hole to close it, the thing that actually closes it is the pressure generated by the blast, which causes the walls to collapse inwards. If the Locust's are doing the same thing here, we can't get enough pressure to close the holes unless we set off a massive detonation in a center position that would cause all the space between the holes to fill, and therefore collapse in on each other."
The guards Prescott called for arrived and started to remove Nicola when Prescott stopped them.
"Wait."
He scrutinized Nicola, his eyes boring into hers.
"You sound awfully sure."
Nicola nodded.
"Yes sir, no mistaking it. I remember the battle."
Prescott looked out his window briefly before turning back to Nicola.
"Fine then. Tell me everything you remember."