Chapter 36: "Minerva's Ring".

It has been over 4 hours since Ava informed Crugnok of her plans. She is sitting on top of the APC watching Rob and another tech specialist of the unit working at the power source of the ring. Lightning continues to strike in the sky as the storm shows no sign of slowing down. The power source is 2 klicks South of the edge of the village in the middle of a cornfield. Because of the storm that blocked the sunlight and the constant rain, all the corn plants on the field are dead but what's left is still blocking the view of the surrounding area. Ava asked Curgnok to have the villagers flatten the field while the SIFs are working on digging trenches to fortify the area around the power source.

They can't protect the village while defending the power source at the same time. Therefore, in case Rob could not manage to install the new power core in time, Ava ordered the platoon to set up a defensive position around the power source so they could buy more time if they need to. The villager will also gather at the power source so the SIFs could protect them and they help bring ammo around the trenches. The corn plants are being turned into mass in order to replicate more sentries and ammo.

If things go south, the SIFs will load the designated youngest children and mount up then head straight for the Valley of The Gods leaving the villagers to their fate. Ava hopes that it does not come down to that, but if it does, she would not hesitate to give the order. On the other hand, Crugnok and many of the villagers are not happy with the plan but they know that there is nothing more the other worlders could do. They can only pray that the power core plan works and they don't have to die, yet.

Grey drops a large bunch of corn plants next to the APC so it can be put into the replicator then walks towards Ava "Commander, we've cleared the field. What do you want us to do next?" he reports.

Ava checks TACNet and then replies "The defensive positions are done, now we just wait".

"Yes, ma'am, mind me joining you up there?" Grey asks.

"Sure" Ava nods.

Grey jumps to the top of the APC and then sits down next to Ava "My years in the Imperial Army took me to far and strange lands, we fought against strange magics and beasts, I thought I'd seen everything. A few days with you people made me realize I know so little".

"Yea, well, we're a weird bunch" Ava replies then she looks around watches the villagers gather up to Crugnok. They all seem to be afraid "You don't seem too afraid" she asks Grey.

"Of death? No, commander. My father used to tell me that we're all dying the moment we were born so there's no point in fearing death. What really matters is how we use our time existing in this world, to do meaningful and impactful deeds" Grey replies then points towards to villagers "You see them? Those people are not capable of protecting themselves so it's up to people like us to protect them. It's a noble thing to do. So, no I'm not afraid of death, I only afraid that I die a meaningless death".

"Very wise, your dad" Ava replies then she calls to Rob who's working with the other SIF in the APC "Rob! How's it going?".

"It would go a lot faster if you guys stop asking us every 5 minutes!" He replies. The SIFs as well as Crugnok have been checking on the progress quite a lot.

"Alright, get it done" Ava replies.

"Yes, ma'am" Rob says.

"Do you think, Lieutenant Rob can do it?" Grey asks.

"Well, the Prothean tech is quite different than ours but they too have to obey the law of physic, unlike you magic people. Rob is one of the best techs I've ever known so yes, he can do it, the only problem is how long does it take for him to do it" Ava replies.

"Can he make it in time?" Grey asks again.

"I don't know, let just hope he can" Ava replies.

Hearing a slight chuckle from Grey, Ava asks "What?".

"With all your training, wonderful tools, great weapons and preparation, you still rely on hope" Grey says.

"Such is life, huh" Ava shrugs.

"Uh-oh" Rob says.

"What?" Ava asks "uh-oh what?".

"The field is beginning to collapse and I'm not done configuring this thing" Rob replies.

"That's it? No 'battery low 10% remaining' warning popup or something?" Ava asks.

"I think we're way passed that point by the time we got here, commander, we better get everyone ready" Rob replies.

"Alright" Ava says then looks over to Grey "Go get the villagers organized, Grey, make sure they don't get in the way of my men".

"It shall be done, commander" Grey replies then hops off the APC.

"Listen up everyone, the barrier is collapsing so it looks like we're going to have to put up a defense to buy time for Lieutenant Rob to do his work. Get ready and get focus" Ava orders through the radio.

Everyone is already in their position waiting after the preparation was finished. The ammo reserve is divided and put into 5 holes along the trenches where groups of villagers are standing by to bring ammo to the SIFs and the sentries when they need. All lights and torches are put off leaving only the flash of the lightning strikes shine on their position.

As soon as the barrier is completely collapsed, the heavy rain immediately pours on top of the APC's shield dome as all sensors immediately jammed and thunder could be heard louder. This change while small, signal that the battle for survival is about to begin. While the well-trained, battle harden SIFs are unwavering by it, the villagers are shaking to the core of their very soul with every sound of thunder. Grey is trying to keep the spirit up and maintain even a little bit of discipline but these are not the well-trained legionnaires of the Imperial Army that he was used to, which makes the job a lot harder. The only thing that is keeping them from running away is that they know their only chance of survival is to stay.

A little over 10 minutes after the ring completely shut down, nothing has happened yet. The fog is starting to creep towards their position but there's still no sign of the creatures but visual and on sensor. These creatures don't seem to growl or make any sound at all.

"Steady!" Grey is walking between the groups of villagers trying to keep them calm "Stand your ground and you shall live! Be brave men! If it's not for honor then for your love ones!".

"Commander, why aren't they attacking?" Jimmy asks.

"After they tried to attack us at the drone's wreck, they haven't tried again. They know we're dangerous and are waiting for a mistake on our part" Ava replies.

"I wonder why they attacked us" Jimmy says.

"For sport" David jumps in the conversation while still keeping eyes on his sector "They're hunting us for sport".

"That's a possibility, a very uncomfortable possibility, thank you" Jimmy replies.

"Ya welcome, Jimmy boy" David replies with a chuckle.

"Commander! They're closing in!" Ashley shouts as TACNet is warning them of approaching hostiles.

"You had you jinx it don't you?" Ava says "Rob! How long?".

"Nearly done, commander!" Rob replies as the SIFs start opening fire on the fast-approaching creatures.

They close the distance extremely fast as they charge directly into the shield. The impact doesn't seem to affect them in any way as they continue to slash and slam their blades against the shield, ferociously, until the sheer amount of firepower cut them down. It takes a lot of bullets to put them down, the vehicles' mounted weaponry are more effective but they keep charging at the SIF with, seemingly, a countless number. Dead creatures pile up around the shield quickly as their kinds climb over and continue attacking the shield.

The sound of rapid gunfire, explosion and the sound of the creatures attacking the shield cause some of the villagers to panic and lose their minds. Some faint, and some attempt to suicide using the daggers and farming tools they're carrying with them. Those who manage to keep some manner of sanity try their best to bring ammo creates to the sentries and the SIFs.

"David! Shift that MG to 3 o'clock APC!" Ava orders.

"Roger that!" David effortlessly lifts up his MG and rushes over to his new position and starts spraying bullets, literally.

"Rob, sitrep!" Ava asks.

"Nearly there! I don't want us to get blown up!" Rob replies.

"The shield dome is almost down, Lieutenant Rob!" Ashley announces over the radio.

"I know I know, just give me a moment!" Rob answers as he and the other SIF try their best to work on the power core.

Grey carries 2 crates of ammo to Ava and drops one next to her "Your ammo, commander" he says.

Just as he is about to leave to deliver the other crate to another position, Ava pulls him back "Knight Grey, the shield is about to go down tell Kaian and Rory to get ready then make sure the kids we chose loaded up into the vehicles".

"It shall be done, commander" Grey says then about to leave but Ava pulls him back again.

"Do not let the adults get in the vehicles" she says, pressing each word.

After a short pause, Grey replies "They won't, commander" then rush off to carry out Ava's order.

Not long after the shield dome start to flicker and showing sign of failing. Although they do not understand UNE's technology, the villagers know that it is a bad sign and start panicking further. Many of them lose any self-control they have left and try to get inside the vehicles. Only Crugnok and a few others are still performing their duty.

The ramp of the IFV is closed but the one of the APC is left open for Rob to work easier. Grey pushes away any villager that tries to get inside "Get back to your post if you want to have a chance of surviving! This wagon won't save your lives!" Grey shouts but it doesn't seem to be working.

"Alright people, if they can take the APC's shield dome down this fast it means they hit hard and our personal shield won't last long against them. So don't let them touch you, use your speed and try to avoid their attack" Ava orders through the radio.

As soon as Ava finishes her sentence, the shield dome flickers again and then completely shutdown as the APC begins its recharging process. The pile of dead creatures bodies collapses down towards the trenches forcing the SIFs to abandon their position and fall back closer to the vehicles. The creatures pour down at them from all sides.

Kaian and Rory dash around the defensive circle that the SIFs formed around the vehicles. They chop and slash those that got too close. Despite their incredible speed, the creatures are also very fast and some of them manage to get through. Although they get cut down quickly, each time one of them got through, a few villagers got killed. Armed with farming tools and have no armor at all, the villagers stand no chance.

Crugnok rushes towards a SIF "Commander Ava?" He asks as he wants to speak with the commander but all the SIFs armors make them look exactly the same.

The SIF grab Crugnok and pull him out of the way and dodge a creature that charges them at high speed. He empties the entire clip at the creature as it misses them. However, that did not kill the creature as it turn and try to pierce Crugnok on the ground. The SIF kicks Crugnok out of the way making the creature miss then he takes out a grenade and punches it inside the creature's body through the weakened part of its armor as it got shot earlier. He then jumps over and uses his body to cover Crugnok from the explosion.

"The commander is over there!" He points at the direction of Ava then reloads his rifle and returns to shooting.

Crugnok rushes over to Ava "Commander!" he shouts "You must take the children and leave!".

"What? I'm not gonna leave you all to die!" Ava replies while still shooting.

"Commander! Listen to me, we're all dead anyway" He shouts trying to be louder than the sound of heavy rain, gunfire and thunder "Even if you manage to turn back on the ring, the creatures are already inside! You might be able to kill them all eventually but won't be before all of us a dead and a lot of your soldiers will die!".

Ava knows that Crugnok is right, she doesn't want to leave these people to die but she has no choice. Looking around the field, one of the SIF is on the ground being stabbed by a creature while 2 others are trying to kill it to save their friend. Another SIF got his arm teared off before he could kill the creature that was attacking him. She sees another on the ground lost one of his legs but still keep fighting.

"Go, save the children" Crugnok says.

Ava nods then give the order "Everyone mount up, wounded in the APC, we're leaving! Rob, rig the core to explode".

"Yes ma'am!" Rob replies.

As Ave turns around to provide cover fire for her men to fall back, a creature charge straight at her. Suddenly, a strong force throws her out of the way. Rory managed to push Ava out of the way but the creature stabbed its blade right through her and Crugnok right in front of her.

"Rory!" Ava shouts as she shoots at the leg that is piecing through Rory to cut it off the creature. She then reloads and jumps on top of it then empty the clip at the center of mass of the creature leaving a large hole and killing it.

Rory is now laying on the ground, seeing Kaian lands next to them Ava tell him to take Rory to the APC knowing that she'll health fast enough as an apostle. She looks over and see Crugnok is chocking on his blood but still alive.

"Medic!" Ava shouts while trying to keep pressure on his wound.

Crugnok grab Ava arms "Go! It's too late for me, save my kid. Please!".

"Commander! We're ready to go!" Ashley reports.

"Roger that" Ava replies then nods at Crugnok and starts rushing towards to APC while dodging the creatures' attacks.

Around her are the villagers screaming and dying, getting teared apart. Crugnok's older daughter rushes over to her dying father and tries to help him but they both got jumped by one of the creatures and get brutally mutilated.

As soon as Ava gets inside, the APC and the IFV weapons focus all firepower to the front and rush forward. Hovering, they could easily drive over the pile of dead creatures out to the open field. The vehicles are rocking from the impact of them ramming the creatures as well as the creatures ramming them from the sizes, occasionally. Ava orders Rob to detonate the power cores causing a large explosion that shake the vehicles even harder. At this point, any villager that wasn't killed by the creatures would now be dead from the explosion but it would be a quick death.

A wave of greenish energy swept from the power source at extremely high-speed causing the system of the vehicles to temporarily shutdown but no serious damage. However, it seems to be very volatile against the creatures as they seemingly melt when the energy wave touches them.

"What was that?" Ava asks.

"Don't know, commander, the explosion must have reacted with something in the Prothean power source. The good news is we're clear" Rob replies then looks at the sensor and continues "for now".

"Sitrep, everyone" Ava orders.

The SIFs update their status to TACNet then report "checked" after they're done doing so. There are 7 wounds without any casualties, all the kids a present. However, 4 out of the 7 lost either lost an arm or a leg and the other 3 are severely hurt. Almost half of the unit is now combat ineffective in addition to the loss of all 4 SAT8s and almost all the drones.

"I'm sorry, commander, took me too long" Rob says.

"It was my call, don't worry about it" Ava replies, she pauses a little then continues "We had to try, couldn't just leave them".

"At least we got the kids" Rob replies.

"Yea, I hope it doesn't cost us the mission" Ava says.

"Commander! Rory is not healing" Jimmy says.

"What? I thought apostles have super healing ability?" Ava leans back and looks at Jimmy trying to stop Rory from bleeding.

Kaian lay his spear on top of Rory, along her body, the spear glow bright gold for a moment then stops.

"Kaian?" Jimmy asks.

"My healing magic, it didn't work" Kaian says calmly.

"The other wounded?" Ava asks about the other SIFs.

"Don't worry, commander, our medical tech works" Jimmy replies "I've applied combat medigel to her wound, it should stop the bleeding momentarily. I'm just surprised that she isn't healing herself".

"Rory, how are you feeling?" Ava asks.

Rory slowly lifts her arm and gives Ava a thumb up without saying anything then pass out.

"She's unconscious, commander" Jimmy reports.

"Well, keep an eye on her" Ava says.

A few klicks away from the center of the explosion, the creatures are back to circling them like before they entered the village. Although they still don't know how many of them are there, one thing they know for certain is that there are a lot more than they could fight. Ava hopes that the creatures will continue to keep their distance, at least until she could figure out how to deal with them.