Chapter 15 – The Naggiar Campaign – part 8 The Ultimate Price
Homer...Everyone...I'm so sorry...I'm-
Another moment and it would all be over for Edy Nelson's career. There would be no applause, no encore for her final performance. There wasn't even an audience to witness her final act, which to her was the worst possible fate of all.
The knife point was pressing painfully hard against her neck now; it would not take much of an effort to send it plunging into her and ending her life. Edy's thoughts were racing through her head rapidly as she desperately tried to stay alive. The Empire took my family, my home, my whole life away from me and now...now I'm going to die by one of them...No...NO! I won't let it happen!
"?" The Imperial elite, who just a moment ago was overpowering this little girl, suddenly felt the knife being pushed away from his victim. Looking at the bruised face of the girl, he saw that a look of anger and determination had replaced the fearful expression that she had just a moment ago. And then, unbelievably, the girl managed force the knife away from her and knock him off her.
Edy could feel a strange sensation coursing through her body; almost like an overwhelming sense of power. The blinding pain she had felt just moments ago was gone and now the only thing she felt was an intense combined feeling of anger and strength. Her thoughts suddenly became focused on one thing: killing this monster in front of her. Although she still had her sidearm, Edy only saw her combat knife as a logical choice. Maybe it was her current state of mind that made her think that but she didn't care at the moment. Holding the blade in her right hand felt so...right to her at the moment. And before she knew what was happening she found herself lunging at the Imperial. Striking and slashing at the man she felt like she was fighting and reacting more on instinct than skill.
What the hell is going on with this damn girl, wondered the Imperial as he quickly found himself defending against the girl's knife blows, some of which were coming uncomfortably close to his face. Whenever he knocked her away, she just bounced back to her feet and continued attacking. Even hitting her with his full strength no longer had any effect beyond further enraging her.
As the fight drew on Edy was now literally seeing red, the overpowering sensation felt like a raging fire flowing in her blood. Her heart was beating so fast she thought it was going to explode at any moment, and yet it didn't bother her. She didn't care how many times she was thrown or knocked back or struck, there was no way she was going to relent. I have to win! I won't...let this bastard kill me! She charged at the Imperial yet again, but instead of attacking him, she heaved a Flame Flail fuel cannister at his head. The move was a bit surprising to him, but he easily knocked it away.
Edy disappeared from his vision for only a second when he did so but that was all she needed. The moment after he knocked the cannister away from his face, he saw Edy's petite figure in midair right in front of him, her knife held in both hands and raised over her head. The Imperial could do little more than look into the face that contained all the fury that was Edy Nelson as she brought the knife down.
Edy put all her pain, anger and determination into the attack and drove the knife completely into the man's neck. Uttering a final cry of pain and disbelief, the Imperial fell backwards onto the ground, his final thoughts on how was it possible to lose to such an insignificant Gallian, and a female at that.
Now that the man was dead, the sensation that had taken over Edy's body was quickly dissipating; the fire that had been raging inside her was no longer burning. As her mind returned to its normal state, she suddenly felt very weak and felt herself begin to fall backwards. However, instead of hitting the ground as she expected, she found herself in the arms of Eratria.
"Wha-?" Edy looked up at the older woman's face, which had a moderate trail of blood running down the right side of her face from hitting the trench earlier.
"Easy there," said Eratria as she looked down at Edy. "Take a few deep breaths. Let your head clear."
Edy took the woman's advice and slowly breathed in and out a few times. After a few seconds Edy stood back up and looked questioningly at Eratria.
"Um, when did you wake up?"
"Right as that man was about to send you to your death," replied Eratria as she wiped some of the blood off her face with her left hand, leaving a red smear on the right side of her face. "I was going to intervene but....well let's just say you took care of things before I did."
"I don't know how I did it myself," admitted Edy as she fumbled around for her ragnaid bottle. "When I thought I was gunna die, I sorta just lost it and the next thing I know...I kill the guy."
"...I see," said Eratria as she retrieved her cigarette pack. "Well, the human body can do some pretty amazing things, especially when facing certain death."
"Well, I'd rather not face death again anytime soon considering how bad my face feels right now," sighed Edy as she activated the ragnaid device. She watched as the ragnite crystal within the device glowed and reacted with whatever liquid was inside. She didn't know what ragnaid really was or how it even worked to be honest; all that science-y stuff confused her and all things considered she didn't care right now.
Edy recalled the two most common ways to use ragnaid depending on the need; apply the medicine on the skin for specific injuries, or drink it outright for a quicker and more evenly distributed effect. She knew that some people also injected the medicine into themselves for an even faster effect but there was no way in hell she was going to stick herself with a syringe needle. Edy wasn't a fan of directly consuming the stuff either, as it tasted like sewage water to her. Shutting her eyes tight she quickly drank the contents, nearly gagging as she did so.
Eratria watched with some amusement as Edy forced herself to consume the medicine. It was a bit unbelievable to her that a girl like this who could barely choke down ragnaid was able to take down an elite Imperial soldier alone. Perhaps there is more to her than I thought, she thought as she lit her cigarette.
"Edy, are you there?" Ramona's voice sounded even more panicked than it did before. "You got cut off; what happened?"
"Yeah, I was....delayed, sorry," answered Edy as she felt the effects of the ragnaid start to take hold of her.
"Are you okay? Eratria didn't try to do anything funny did she?"
"Um, no..."
"So what were you saying about her?"
Eratria looked up at Edy and tilted her head in confusion, causing a few strands of her hair to fall in front of her eyes. She let out a quick gasp and quickly looked away from Edy at the sudden realization that her cloak was gone and that her heritage was now known to the younger female.
"I think it'll be easier for you guys to see for yourselves," replied Edy as she looked at Eratria, guaranteeing that the woman would have to explain herself later on. "How is everyone holding out?"
"So far so good. The rockets that guy fired at you blew away the ladders you guys were using, so they won't be getting here that way."
"Neither will we apparently," said Eratria, still facing away from Edy. "There's no way to get out of this trench from here."
"Well maybe-"
Bakoom! A loud explosion on the base's hillside interrupted Edy. Looking up, she saw that a large crater had been blasted into the hill.
"What was that?" asked Edy as she looked around. "I know that wasn't a lancer round!"
"Sis, there's a huge freaking tank parked behind the trench that the Imperials are in! That thing'll blast a new entrance into the base with the size of the cannon it has!"
"Typical of the Empire," sighed Eratria. "If they can't get around something, they'll go through it."
"What are we gunna do Sis?" asked Ramona. "We can't even fire at the Imps now with that tank sitting there..."
The problems seemed to keep piling up for Edy as she thought hard about what to do next. She knew it was an absolute must to hold the base as long as possible, and in order to do that the tank needed to be taken out. Which meant...
"Eratria, doesn't this trench loop back to where those Imperials are now?"
The older woman glanced back at Edy and thought for a moment. "Yes it does, but why would you want to..." Eratria looked at Edy as if she had grown a second head as she realized what Edy wanted to do. "No, absolutely not. Whatever you're thinking, forget it."
"It's the only way," countered Edy as she retrieved her Mags that was lying near the dead Imperial. "If that tank isn't taken care of, Ramona and the rest of my team are toast! You might not care about them but that's too bad for you!"
"Courage and foolhardiness are two different things," snapped Eratria as she narrowed her eyes at Edy. "You're talking about trying to sneak past multiple Imperial elite squads, climbing up a trench wall and then taking out a tank-destroyer class tank! Without an anti-tank launcher mind you. Oh, and then getting away to top it all off."
"I'll find a way," said Edy as she stared back into Eratria's dark blue eyes. "With or without you."
Eratria responded by drawing one of her handguns and pointing it at Edy. "This isn't a game little girl. This is war. If at first you don't succeed, you fail and everyone dies. Including you."
Edy walked up and let the barrel of the gun touch her forehead. "I will NOT lose Ramona again! If you're going to shoot me, then do it. Otherwise help me or stay out of my way!"
"...For your sake I hope she's worth it," answered Eratria as she holstered her weapon. "Lead the way. We'll see how well your courage holds out. Oh and I won't shoot you, don't worry. Eleanor wouldn't be too happy with me if I did."
"Ramona, we're going to try to take out that tank so just hang in there," said Edy over the radio as she retrieved her knife from the dead Imperial.
"What? Are you sure Sis?"
"Don't worry, I'll take care of it. You just make sure the Imperials don't get inside the base,"
"Sure thing; don't do anything stupid you got that?"
"Too late," smirked Eratria.
"...You know, I always thought Darcsens were generally nice people," sighed Edy.
"I am not a dark-hair," fumed Eratria, as she tied her long, obviously Darcsen hair back with a green ribbon. "I'm...complicated. At any rate survival first, explanations later."
"I'm holding you to that," answered Edy as she began to run through the trench.
Eratria paused long enough to retrieve the FF cannister that Edy had thrown at the Imperial. One never knows... she thought as she ran to catch up to Edy.
Bakoom! Another tank shell blast hit the side of the base's hill, causing the ground beneath Ramona and the others to tremor violently. Ramona had everyone to fall back towards the middle of the base after the first blast, and now had no choice but to wait for either Edy and Eratria to take out the tank, or for the Imperials to start appearing, whichever happened first. And from the looks of things it seemed like the latter was going to be happening really soon.
A third tank blast struck the hill, this time collapsing the upper part of the hill edge.
"H-hey this isn't looking too good you know?" Ted nervously looked across the base at the hill edge. "You sure we should try to hold this base?
"...Please shut up Ted," sighed Marina. "The last position is even less defendable than this base. Besides, we're not leaving Edy behind."
"I wouldn't mind leaving that woman behind though," muttered Ramona as she looked over at Hector who was preparing one of the turrets with Homer. Still, she had to admit that Ted wasn't completely off-base with his concern. The Imperial elites they had taken out earlier wasn't even close to enough to putting a dent in their numbers and to top it off they were running out of lancer rounds.
Bakoom! The next tank blast sent Nadine staggering to her knees as she was trying finish preparing the second turret with a fellow Squad 3 member. Returning to her feet, she was secretly glad that Eratria wasn't with them; it meant that she wouldn't be screamed at for falling down.
Personally she wasn't comfortable about the fact that Ramona was taking charge in Edy's absence. It made no sense to her that Edy gave Ramona command after the initial retreat; after all, she was just some model for a magazine that Nadine used to read prior to the war. Hector on the other hand seemed to be a more logical choice to her, since he was a town watch captain for the past couple of years. Perhaps even more puzzling to her was that it was Edy Nelson herself who was in charge of the actual mission. Considering some of the unflattering things she had heard about Edy, the way the military worked just made no sense to her... On the other hand Edy wasn't doing a horrible job so perhaps it was best not to believe everything she had heard. As another tank shell hammered the the hillside she wondered just what exactly Edy and Eratria were doing that was more important than trying to get back to the base.
Massively frustrated was the easiest way to describe Edy's current temperament. After running through a long stretch of trench to get to the base, she now found herself running back to where she had come from. Halfway to her goal she found herself wondering what the hell was she thinking trying to take out a tank. She didn't even have any training in that sort of thing but she wasn't about to admit that to Eratria. I just hope I don't run into any of those Imperials on the way. One was bad enough... But... why didn't they come this way?
As she and Eratria took a sharp left turn in the trench she suddenly found out the reason for that. Blocking their way were two large stacks of crates with rows of barbed wire wrapped around them.
"Um... Was this always here?" asked Edy as she looked at the unexpected obstacle.
"No, I set up all this here myself prior to the arrival of Squad 3," answered Eratria. "It was intended to force the Imperials into attacking from where they are currently at."
"Well now we can't around it either," groaned Edy. "What are we going to do now?"
Eratria offered no advice, rather she simply leaned against the trench wall and with a smug look she stared at Edy as she slowly and intentionally took a drag from her cigarette.
"Fine!" shouted Edy. "I don't need your help anyway!" She turned back to the crates and began to climb up, carefully trying to avoid the barbed wire. Turning back to Eratria after climbing up a crate she flashed her right middle finger and uttered a single word at her.
"Bitch."
Eratria simply smiled back at her and watched as Edy continued to climb up the crates. Eleanor was correct. It would seem that this girl thinks and performs better when she's riled up like this. I suppose it would make sense considering she has a more of an on-the-fly style of doing things. Eratria watched as Edy continued to work her way atop the next crate and listened as Edy let out a frustrated curse after getting her left leg tangled in the barbed wire.
"Careful that's sharp!" shouted Eratria as she looked amusingly at Edy.
"Shut...Up!" growled Edy as she freed herself, cutting her leg slightly as she did. Resisting the urge to hurl something at Eratria, Edy made her way atop the final crate. She had planned to hop off the crates one by one and continue on her current course but upon seeing things from her new perspective she came up with another idea. The crates were high enough to allow her to jump across and out of the trench. Grabbing her binoculars, she looked over at the tank that was sitting behind the trench that was on the other side. To her relief and surprise, she saw no other Imperial units near it.
"I take it you see something you like?"
Edy wheeled around to see that somehow Eratria had made it up the crates next to her without making a sound.
"I can see the tank over there, but there's no one defending it," Edy finally said. "Is it a trap?"
"How very typical of Ty," replied Eratria as she peered over at the tank sans binoculars. "He always focuses on a single and swift attack with no afterthought on the possibility of losing. Some things never change..."
"I thought you said you didn't know him," recalled Edy in a sarcastic tone.
"Not important at this time," countered Eratria as she looked back at Edy. "You've gotten this far, so how will you take out the tank?"
"Um, I think I can overheat the radiator with my Flame Flail?" replied Edy. "I remember awhile ago Isara and Kreis were talking about how in theory a fire could damage a tank's radiator so..."
"More like Flame Fail,"" sighed Eratria. "As I thought, you had no clue what you were doing." Before Edy could come up with a retort the older woman tossed Edy a square taped-up item.
"What's this?" asked Edy as she looked over it. She's being awfully helpful considering she tried to talk me out of doing this...
"It's a timed explosive charge," answered Eratria. "Remove the pin in the middle to activate it. Get back and after ten seconds watch the fireworks."
"If I didn't know any better I'd think you had planned for things to go like this," said Edy as she prepared to jump across the trench. "I just don't get you."
"That's an understatement," agreed Eratria as she readied her rifle and knelt down on the crate she was standing on. "I'll cover you for what it's worth but don't get careless out there. When the charge goes off you need to get your butt back here as fast as you can."
Edy nodded and jumped off the crate and out of the trench. Luckily, all the constant shelling and explosions created many small craters in the area. Considering she needed to not be seen as she made her way over to the tank she decided use them to her advantage.
This is crazy, this is crazy, this crazy! It was only 200 yards to her target but it seemed like 200 miles from where her position was. As Edy ran from crater to crater she expected the tank's machine gunners to spot her at any moment. That of course would be very disagreeable to her since she needed to not be shot full of holes in order to succeed with her task.
"Keep going Edy," said Eratria from her position. "Those gunners are all focused on the base. They won't know what hit them."
With only 75 yards separating Edy from the tank she saw that Eratria was correct; the tank commander could be seen standing halfway out of the main hatch, binoculars in hand and shouting orders to his tank crew. He was focused entirely on his target, and had he looked behind himself he would have seen Edy sneaking towards his tank's radiator, bomb in hand.
Edy came so close to the radiator that heat coming from it was nearly burning her face. Okay, I just pull the pin here and... Upon doing so she began to hear a ticking sound. After setting the device atop the radiator she began running away as fast as she could. After five seconds had passed the device detonated and caused the radiator to overload, resulting in the entire tank exploding from the inside.
After a large piece of shrapnel from the tank nearly missed cutting her head off, Edy angrily shouted into her radio. "What the hell Eratria, that thing went off almost as soon as I pulled the pin!"
"The girl with the wool cap who made it told me it was a ten second fuse," answered Eratria. "Don't blame me."
"You didn't tell me Wendy made it!" fumed Edy as she began running back. "Good grief... Ramona are you there?"
"I'm a bit busy Sis, the Imperials made it into the base!"
Not the response Edy wanted to hear. After going through all the trouble of dealing with the tank, the Imperials still made it in. "Well, we took out the tank so that's taken care of. We're on our way back now."
"You'd better hurry or we might not be here for much longer," warned Ramona. "I'm not sure how long we can hold out."
"If you feel you need everyone to fall back to the final position you have them do it," ordered Edy as she ran back towards the trench. "I don't care if I'm back or not."
"No way," Ramona protested. "I'm not going to leave you to die out here!"
"Damn it Ramona don't argue with me!"
"Forget it Edy, I'm not falling back until you get here. Don't even think about it!"
Edy knew it was pointless to argue any further. She didn't really expect Ramona to retreat without her. She knew that if their places had been switched she wouldn't leave Ramona either.
Approaching the crates within the trench, Edy prepared jump onto them but was halted by Eratria who had jumped out to meet her.
"What's up?" asked Edy.
"No need to run into the trench," explained Eratria. "We can run around to the entrance from out here."
Seeing that there were no Imperial reinforcements for the time being and that the route would be faster Edy agreed.
Hiding in the shadows of a nearby pile of boulders, Sytreet the Lynx watched through her rifle's scope as Edy and Eratria ran off.
Pity that Nonnenkof wants the silver haired one for himself, she thought as she watched Edy run out of sight. It would have been so easy to send a bullet into that girl's skull. As for that Darcsen, isn't that...? Sytreet's crimson lips formed a thin smile upon recognizing the woman. Oh my, it is! Best to let Ty handle her, though. Oh well, I can always hunt one of the Gallians that are fighting Ty. Sytreet refocused her aim toward the base that Ramona and the others were defending, her left emerald eye peering through her scope in search of a target. Hopefully my brother hasn't wiped them all out by now; he always hogs all the fun...
Listening to her radio she was somewhat surprised to hear that the Gallians were actually pushing back the Imperials on the western front. That could possibly be trouble for the Imperial forces except for the fact that another transmission had come in reporting that General Bles had crushed most of the Gallians opposing her on the eastern front and was now making her way towards Ty's forces. I feel sorry for those poor fools, mused the Lynx as she brushed some of her bright red hair away from her face. Now then, which of those Gallians will taste my bullet today?
Now that the Imperials had breached the base, Ramona and the others had become hard pressed to maintain what little ground they had. Because the tank was able to blast a significantly large section into the hillside before it was taken out by Edy, the Imperials were employing the use of ladders of their own to gain access. Although the Gallians were keeping the enemy at bay, with every Imperial taken down, it seemed like five more took their place.
Come on Edy, hurry up! As Ramona lobbed a grenade at a cluster of Imperial elites hiding behind some sandbags, she began to wonder if she really would have to fall back without Edy. She dismissed the thought almost as soon as it came to her. Of course she wouldn't leave Edy. But standing her ground was becoming extremely difficult now that more and more Imperial elites were climbing into the base. Looking over to her right she watched as Elysse sent a lancer round straight into an elite soldier who had just climbed one of the ladders into the base, sending him flying in the air back into the trench.
"Come onnnnn Homer, reload faster," urged Elysse as she waited impatiently for Homer to put another lancer round into her launcher.
"I'm trying Miss Elysse," answered Homer as he completed the task. "Okay, done."
The instant he finished his sentence Elysse immediately re-aimed and sent another round in the middle of another group of Imperials. Elysse cheered at the results and once again urged Homer to quickly reload her launcher.
"You're...acting kind of strange?" noted Homer as he began the reloading process. "You're not usually so fired up."
"I'm like, in the zooooone Homer," replied Elysse, cracking her knuckles. "Or...whatever it's called? It feels pretty cool at least!"
"Um, that's good?" Homer gave Elysse a thumbs up, indicating he was finished reloading.
Elysse wasted no time firing the fresh round.
On the opposite side of those two, Marina and Ted were making full use of the abundance of grenades, lobbing one after another. Truthfully, it was actually Ted that was doing all of the throwing. Marina had been reduced to the task of simply handing the grenades to Ted from the crates near the pair, while periodically pointing out where to throw them. Marina didn't have any particular issues with this; after all she was just a sniper and as such didn't receive any training as far as grenade usage goes, hence why she nor any of the other snipers ever carried any. That, and to quote an age old cliché, she threw like a little girl.
As she watched Ted, she was mildly surprised by the effort the normally easygoing scout was putting into the battle. Half expecting him to start hitting on her or to begin cracking one of his jokes, it never happened as he remained focused on his task.
"Boom! Look at em fly Rina!" laughed Ted as he witnessed a particularly successful grenade throw that resulted in a pair of Imperials getting blown back off of the edge of collapsed hill of the base. "Man I love playing to a full house!"
"Um, nice job..." said Marina quietly as she handed him another grenade. Normally she wouldn't let him get away with calling her Rina, but truth be told it didn't bother her as much anymore as she thought it would. Besides, as long as it kept him focused on his task and not worrying about the battle itself she would let it slide for the time being.
A loud shout from within the Imperial troopers suddenly grabbed Ramona's attention. She watched as the large trooper that she and Marina believed to be Ty the Immortal appeared and shoved several of his soldiers aside.
Holy crap, he's bigger than Largo, thought Ramona as she was finally able to see him from a closer vantage point. He's gotta be, like, seven or eight feet tall!
"Enough playing around with these whelps!" he shouted as he raised his massive weapon, pointing it at the pair of Squad 3 members that were manning the turret on the right side of the base. "Say goodbye!"
Before Ramona could shout any kind of warning, the turret gunners were immediately shot up by Ty's powerful weapon.
"Holy-!" gasped Ramona as she ducked behind the sandbags.
Upon seeing his fellow squad mates fall, Hector gave an angry shout and rushed up next to Ramona, firing a lancer round at the Imperial leader as he did so. His shot was dead on but Ty simply batted it away with his left forearm, causing the the round to fly harmlessly away into the sky.
"What...?" Hector couldn't believe what he just saw. A lancer round had enough propulsion to punch through tank armor; any ordinary man who tried to do what Ty just did would simply wind up with a broken arm. Just how strong is that armor of his? he wondered. He didn't have long to think about it because Ty responded by aiming his weapon straight at him. Ramona quickly jerked Hector to the ground just as Ty opened fire, the bullets just missing him.
"Careful there big guy," said Ramona as she listened to the bullets fly overhead. "I don't think the swiss cheese look suits you."
"Me neither," sighed Hector as he reloaded his launcher. "Thanks."
Marina watched from behind her sandbags as Ty continued to spray bullets at Ramona and Hector's position. His armor may be unbreakable but the weapon... She took note that Ty's weapon featured a large drum magazine to feed it ammunition. If she could somehow damage the magazine it could be possible to disable the weapon, but that presented a dilemma in itself.
She knew her rifle was now doubly useless as not only could it not penetrate the armor of these Imperials, but now she was far too close to even use it as it wasn't calibrated for short range use. Which meant the only option left was...
"...Ted, let me see your rifle."
"Wha?" Ted gave her a confused look as she had never, ever before asked him for...anything, really.
"Rifle. Now. Please," replied Marina with her usual serious tone. Not wanting to upset her, Ted obliged.
Using a Gallian series rifle was not unfamiliar territory for Marina, as it was the first rifle her father had given her. Once again she closed her eyes and recalled the key lessons her father had taught her for it.
Remember this has less recoil than my GSR, so don't grip it so tightly. You can fire up to five times in a row without worrying about a visible accuracy drop so long as you don't squeeze the trigger too hard. A half a second between shots is all you need to wait for.
Opening her eyes, Marina took aim at the specific part of Ty's weapon as he continued to keep Ramona and Hector pinned down with a blistering barrage of bullets. Hoping to herself that Ted's weapon was even halfway accurate, she opened fire. Amazingly to her, all five rounds hit their target, the fifth shot causing Ty's weapon's magazine to break off.
"What the?" Ty looked down at his weapon as it suddenly stopped firing. Upon further inspection he saw that due to the way the magazine was damaged he couldn't remove the remaining piece out of the weapon and therefore could not reload it.
"Well that's a heck of a show stopper Rina," cheered Ted as he gave her a thumbs up.
Marina gave a satisfied 'hmph' and handed Ted's rifle back to him. "Not that your comments make me happy or anything," she added, though she was actually happy. On the inside of course.
Throwing his weapon down in disgust, Ty immediately produced two ZM MP machine guns that were strapped to his back and began firing them both at Marina and Ted's position as more of his troopers climbed into the base.
With so many Imperials having reached the base, Ramona knew that she and the others could no longer hold their current position without risking serious casualties. "Everyone fall back to the rear of the base!" she shouted. "Hurry!"
Hector fired another round at Ty but this time aimed at the ground in front of the Imperial. The round exploded as planned and caused enough of a distraction to allow him and Ramona safely run towards the back of the base. Ted and Marina also used the opportunity to retreat as did Elysse and Homer.
Upon reaching the sandbags at the rear of the base Hector noticed that Nadine and the other remaining Squad 3 member were still manning the other turret in the middle of the base.
"What the hell are you two doing?" he shouted. "Fall back!"
"Huh?" Nadine and her squad mate never heard Ramona's orders and suddenly realized they were isolated in a very bad position. Before either of them could do anything, Ty charged at the two with a large fireaxe in his hands, his previous weapons also discarded. Nadine's squad mate desperately fired the turret at the Imperial leader while Nadine used her rifle , hoping it would take him down as it had many of the other elite troops. However, Ty the Immortal's armor was strong enough to repel even turret rounds and in the blink of an eye he was upon the two and swiftly buried the axe straight into the skull of the turret gunner, right in front of a horrified Nadine.
The Darcsen engineer stumbled backwards and fell on her backside as Ty freed his axe from his victim and looked straight down at her, his helmet wet with blood. He raised his weapon in the air and brought it down toward Nadine, heedless of the shots being fired at him by the other Gallians.
Nadine managed to roll out of the way a split second before the axe smashed into the ground. Her heart stopped for a second as she saw the axe blade had struck the ground mere inches from her head. As she attempted to crawl away, Ty grabbed her left ankle and began dragging her back toward his troopers.
"Help me!" she screamed as she desperately tried to free herself from Ty's iron grip as she was being dragged backwards. As a Darcsen she knew that the Imperials would show her no mercy.
Ty had only dragged Nadine a few yards when he looked up just in time to see a lancer round flying straight at him. With no time to react, the round struck Ty square in his helmet, sending him to the ground and allowing Nadine to scurry toward Hector and the others.
"Yaaaay!" shouted Elysse as she stood and cheered, being the one who fired the round.
"Wow you really are on a roll Miss Elysse!" said Homer as he prepared reload Elysse's launcher.
"You know it Homerrrrr," replied a still standing Elysse. Looking back at Ty who was still on the ground, she shouted, "Nyah, nyah, not so tough now are you, dumb Imper-"
Homer heard a high pitched zip sound as Elysse's sentence was cut short. He watched as Elysse suddenly fell backward and hit the ground.
"M-miss Elysse?" Homer shook the young lancer but received no response.
"Homer, what happened?" asked Ramona as she looked over at him. "Did she fall over or something?"
"I-I don't know," replied Homer as he turned Elysse on her back. He immediately had a bad feeling upon seeing the blank look on her face, along with the small trail a blood that had come out of the corner of her mouth. Looking at her uniform he saw a large red stain in the middle of her chest.
"She's....gone..." trailed Homer at the realization of Elysse's fate.
The members of the Edy Detachment all looked at Homer at the same time upon hearing him.
"What do you mean?..." asked Ramona not wanting to hear the answer.
"She's dead," answered Homer as he tried to hold back his tears. "I think a sniper took her out..."
"Impossible!" gasped Marina as she quickly attempted to scan the Imperial side of the battlefield with her rifle's scope. "We're on an elevated position with those Imperial units blocking any viable line of sight. The skill required to make a shot like that is...well it's beyond even mine!"
Hector looked at Ramona who was still trying to take in what had just happened. "We can't stay here anymore! If the Imperials have someone like that on their side we're all going to meet the same fate!"
Ramona was inclined to agree but there was one thing that was stopping her from ordering everyone to retreat to the final position.
"But...Edy isn't here yet."
"Forget her!" shouted Nadine. "Because of her we've stayed here longer than we should have and now most of my squad is dead and one of yours is as well!"
"That's..." Ramona was at a loss now. Four Gallians had just died trying to hold the base but just because Edy wasn't there didn't mean things would have been different.
"You should consider it," offered Marina as she looked at the ground. "I don't like the idea any more than you do but this is certain death if we try to stay here any longer. I'm sure Edy will understand and figure out what to do wherever she is."
"I....agree," trailed Homer as he closed Elysse's eyes. "It won't do Edy any good if we're all dead."
Damn it! If we leave now, Edy is going to have an almost impossible time trying to get to the final position; she and that woman will most certainly be intercepted by the Imperials. But if we stay...We'll all die, even I can't deny that. W-what do I do?
"Alright everyone," said Ramona as she closed her eyes. "I've made my decision."