Chapter 18 – The Naggiar Campaign Part 11 All The Marbles
Time seemed to simply stop for Edy as she saw the energy beam blaze towards her. Her mind wanted her to move but her body seemed rooted to the spot. Suddenly, she felt herself being tackled to the ground right before the beam reached her. She could feel the heat from the blast as it passed over her and slammed through the back of the bunker. This caused the top of the bunker to blow apart, sending chunks of concrete and debris everywhere.
Once the dust settled, Edy saw that Homer was lying on top of her and that it was he who saved her from the beam. She looked round and saw that the remainder of her group were all slowly getting to their feet.
"Oh man, how are supposed to deal with something like that?" asked Ramona as she shook off what debris she could.
"..." Marina couldn't keep her normal stoic face as she too realized how bad the situation was. She watched as Selvaria slowly and purposely marched closer and closer to the bunker remains with her soldiers close behind. She gripped her rifle tightly and gritted her teeth as she could do little more than wait.
Edy was out of ideas, options and time. The turrets were unusable now, and what little cover the bunker provided now wouldn't matter against the Valkyria. It wouldn't be long before Selvaria reached them, and then it would all be over.
"Well, I guess our show's about over huh guys?" asked Ted, doing his best to keep everyone's spirits up. "I was kinda hoping we'd be able to do another act together."
Ramona couldn't help but give a nervous laugh to this. "Yeah, I was kinda hoping to get to know Edy's new friends a little better."
Edy had to admit it was looking more and more like the end was upon her and the group. She fought as hard as she could up to this point but there was just no way to compete with a Valkyria. Or so she thought.
Another bright blast of blue energy screamed across the battlefield, blinding the group. But this one didn't come from Selvaria- rather it came from behind the bunker itself. The beam hit the soldiers behind Selvaria, instantly vaporizing the ones directly hit and scattering the other ones.
"What? Who did that?" asked Edy.
"Edy, look!" said Marina as she pointed behind the group. "It's Alicia!"
Edy looked behind her to see that it was indeed Alicia standing directly behind the ruined bunker. But it wasn't the usual Alicia that she was used to seeing. The Alicia staring down at them was glowing in the same way that Selvaria was and was holding a lance and shield of similar nature to hers as well.
"Holy smokes, she's a Valkyria!" said Ted. "We might stand a chance now!"
"But-but how?" asked Edy. "When did this happen?"
"Who cares?!" said Ramona as she watched Selvaria charge forward. She stopped several yards later as Alicia dashed through the bunker and straight towards her.
"Edy we've taken the base!" Welkin's voice crackled over the radio. "Are you still holding out in your position?"
"Uh..." Edy struggled to answer properly as she watched Alicia and Selvaria begin to duel right in front of them. "We're here, but Alicia is fighting the enemy Valkyria."
"Did I hear that right?!" asked Welkin, clearly not believing her.
"Um, yes you did?" said Edy hesitantly. "She's a Valkyria too now. You...you didn't know that?"
"How could I?" responded Welkin. "She was lying in a bed earlier today! How could this be happening?"
"I don't know what else to tell you Welkin," said Edy as she watched Alicia dodge a lance thrust before sending another beam of energy at a group of nearby Imperial soldiers. "But she's holding her own for now, though I'm not sure how long it'll last with the other Imp soldiers trying to take her down too."
A few suspensefully long moments passed by before Welkin replied. "Help her if you can Edy, but don't get too close to her- there's no way of knowing if she'll attack you too. If...if things get too bad get you and team out of there, understood?"
"O-okay Welkin, I'll do what I can," said Edy as she tried to figure out a course of action.
"What now, Sis?" asked Ramona as the grouped watched the ongoing Valkyria duel. "Do you really think Alicia would...kill us?"
"I don't know Ramona," said Edy as she pet a fresh clip into her weapon and new canister into her Flame Flail. "But I'm not going to let her fight alone."
"Whoa, waitasec, you're going out there by yourself?" asked Ted. "That's not funny!"
Edy gave him and the rest of her group her best smile and nodded. "I'll have you guys backing me up here; so there's nothing to worry about right?"
"No, no no! You're going to get killed out there!" said Ramona as she tried to fight back tears as she realized that Edy was dead set on this course of action. "I know you want to help but there has to be another way!"
Edy gave her a tight hug and held her as she spoke. "It'll all work out, don't worry." Letting her go, she took a deep breath and then looked at Homer. "Okay, you all know what to do. Keep everyone safe Homer, dear. Not a scratch, you hear?"
"Okay Edy," said Homer. He knew that determined look on her face and that it was pointless to convince her to abandon her plan. "Just... be careful okay?"
"Oh ho ho! It's going to take more than a Valkyria and a few Imps to stop Edy Nelson!" She turned around and faced the ongoing duel.
"Good luck Edy," said Marina as she readied her rifle for use again.
Taking a deep breath, Edy leaped over the bunker and ran towards the soldiers that were regrouping to assist Selvaria. She could feel her heart beating hard and fast inside her chest and the lingering feeling of fear began to creep up inside her as she neared the soldiers. No! I wont back down! I, Edy Nelson, will do it; will give it my all!
There were at least a dozen soldiers that she was charging at, almost all of them firing at her but it didn't matter. She opened fire when she was in range as she felt a few rifle rounds deflect off of her armor plates. Her main target went down immediately and the shocktrooper next to him suddenly went down from a sniper round. Good job Marina! She could hear the rest of her Detachment firing behind her, doing their best to support her amid the clanging of ragnite on ragnite. Once she had emptied her clip, Edy activated her Flame Flail. The large gout of flame quickly immolated the entire group of soldiers in front of her. The effect was better than she had hoped, with the affected soldiers screaming and rolling on the ground and the ones who weren't began to scatter and turn tail, leaving Selvaria to fend for herself.
"Do not fall back! You call yourselves soldier of the Empire?!" shouted Selvaria as she struggled to fend off Alicia, who had begun to gain the upper hand as more and more of Selvaria's soldiers began to abandon her. Her shouts were falling upon deaf ears as the Edy Detachment had effectively routed the surprisingly small attack force that Selvaria had brought with her.
"Yeah, go Edy!" shouted Ramona as she watched her friend continue her offensive just a few yards away from the dueling Valkyrias. The few Imperials who did try to stay and fight wound up either shot up or set on fire by Edy, or have a sniper round put into their skull courtesy of Marina.
"Do I have to do everything myself?!" fumed a loud and angry voice from the trench where the Imperials had retreated into. Edy's heart sank into her stomach as she saw Ty the Immortal appear and promptly fire an Imperial Anti-tank lance round at her. Edy had no time to react and the round struck her square in the stomach. Luckily the round itself didn't explode, but it knocked the wind out of her, sending Edy to her knees.
"A dud?! You gotta be kidding me!" Ty threw down the lance and grabbed two nearby shocktroopers' weapons and rushed out of the trench in order to dispatch himself of the annoying Gallian pest.
"Edy, get up!" Ramona screamed over the radio. "That Ty Imperial guy is going to kill you if you don't!"
Edy coughed and tried to stand but couldn't. Ty was getting ever closer and she knew it, but she needed more time to recover.
Ty made his way over to Edy, despite being peppered with both rifle rounds and sniper rounds, with neither having any visible effect on him.
Ramona desperately tried to come up with an idea to help Edy, but there was no way to reach her in time, and even with Eratria's rifle she couldn't do anything to Ty the Immortal. It was then that she noticed that there was a grenade loaded onto some kind of device on the bottom of the rifle. What is this? Some kind of grenade shooter thing? It was better than nothing, even if she had no way knowing how the hell to aim it properly. She aimed it roughly in the area between Edy and Ty and fired the grenade, praying it would give Edy an opportunity to recover.
Ty stopped has he felt something go clunk against his helmet. "What the-?" he looked down in time to see the grenade that Ramona had fired suddenly detonate in front of him. "Arg!" The shrapnel from the grenade might not have had much of an effect on him, but the flash from the explosion managed to blind him temporarily. As he staggered around, Edy was able to recover and shakily rose to her feet.
"Yeah, I did it!" cheered Ramona as she watched Edy stand up and Ty stagger about. "Now Edy can-" She suddenly felt lightheaded and very dizzy. "H-hey Homer, I think I'm..." She didn't finish her sentence as she collapsed on the ground.
"Whoa, what happened?" asked Ted as he along with Homer rushed over to her. "D-did she get shot or?"
"The sniper?" asked Marina as she quickly scanned the far trench for any signs of one.
"No signs of a gunshot," said Homer as he checked over Ramona. "She's breathing and there's a pulse. I think she just passed out. Maybe she hadn't fully recovered from her previous injuries or something like that?"
"Well what do we do?" asked Ted. "Should we tell Edy?"
"Don't," said Marina as she fired another shot at Ty, knowing it wouldn't have any effect. "She has enough on her mind as it is. The last thing she needs is another distraction."
"I agree," said Homer as he tried to rouse Ramona awake with no success. "I'll make sure Miss Ramona is safe- just keep trying to help Edy."
...
That hurt... Edy clutched at her stomach with her left hand while holding her weapon with her right. She watched as Ty began firing blindly in front of him as his vision was still blinded. She circled behind him and triggered her Flame Flail, lighting his entire backside on fire. Ty responded by roaring in anger and wheeling around to face her.
"Oh, crap," said Edy as she saw him point both of his weapons at her. She took off running towards the two nearby dueling Valkyria in hopes that it would somehow help her situation despite the fact that either one of them could kill her in an instant. Luckily for her, doing so did indeed help as the rounds fired at her were drawn towards the shields of Alicia and Selvaria, where they were then deflected harmlessly away.
"Enough of this!" boomed Ty as he tossed his guns aside and pulled out his fireaxes, which were still bloody from their earlier victim. Edy had inadvertently backed herself into a corner when she ran the way she did, and found herself backing against the far trench wall with Ty approaching her. To say that the sight of a heavily armored shocktrooper that was nearly twice her size angrily approaching her with two large axes was intimidating to Edy would be putting it mildly. It scared her to death- Ty was even bigger than the Imperial that nearly did her in before.
She watched as Ty charged at her and dodged out of the way as he buried one axe deep into the trench where Edy's head was a moment ago.
"OhGodOhGodOhGod," gasped Edy as she tried to run back out of the trench while trying to reload her weapon. She didn't get very far as Ty grabbed her from behind and tossed her back into the trench. Edy bounced and rolled until she collided with the trench wall, dropping her weapon in the process. Edy got to her knees and spotted it and tried to scramble for it only to have it nearly cleaved in half by Ty's axe when it was at her fingertips.
"I'm finally going to rid myself of your annoying presence," growled Ty as he stood over Edy, pinning her with his foot while holding an axe in his right hand only, as the other one was still embedded in the trench wall where he had missed Edy previously. "You caused me a lot of headache girl; now it's time to put an end to it!"
Edy was running out of options and chose a desperate option. She grabbed a Flame Flail canister and heaved it at Ty, who caught it with his left hand. He began laughing and held it up. "What is this toy for?" he asked Edy and he applied more weight on her.
"It's... fuel!" gasped Edy as she turned on her radio as she tried to free herself. "Better be careful with that- it might explode if it gets shot..."
...Understood," Marina's voice sounded over the radio.
"Why would you tell me that?" asked Ty a moment before a sniper round struck the canister and subsequently detonated it. The blast sent him staggering and off of Edy, who took the opportunity to yank Ty's other axe off of the trench wall. She saw that Ty was still shaken up from the blast and so she flipped the axe around so that the small narrow pointy end was facing outward. She then used all her strength to swing it at Ty's faceplate, sending it through one of the spaces used for vision.
Ty let out a bloodcurdling howl as he fell to his knees grabbed at the axe but was unable to dislodge it from his helmet and whatever it had struck underneath. Edy could see that blood had begun to come out of the helmet and realized that she had probably seriously injured Ty.
"Edy, Alicia beat the Imperial Valkyria!" Ted's voice sounded over the radio. "But now she's gone off and started attacking other Imperial forces!"
"Um,o-okay," said Edy as she backed away from the still howling Ty. "Welkin, Captain, did you hear that? What should I do?"
"Don't try to go after Alicia," Welkin voice responded. "It's too dangerous and there's still no way to know how she'll react."
Varrot responded next. "Nelson, the Imperial lines have started to break now that their Valkyria has been incapacitated. You should get you and your team out of there and fall back to the main encampment."
"Does that mean we completed our mission?" asked Edy.
"It does indeed. Now fall back and let the Army take care of the rest."
"Yes Ma'am!" said Edy with a sigh of relief. "You heard her guys, get going! I'll be right behind you."
"Yeah, we did it!" said Ted as he gave Homer an impromptu high-five. He then tried to give Marina one but was left hanging after seeing an icy glare from her eye. Marina turned around and let a satisfied smile escape her lips.
"I can't lift Miss Ramona..." trailed Homer as he struggled to do so.
"Leave it to me!" said Ted as he quickly picked up Edy's best friend in his arms. "Totally swept her off her feet! Betcha you're jealous huh Marina?"
"..." Marina stayed silent as she climbed our of the bunker and began running back towards the base.
"She's so totally jealous," smirked Ted as he carried Ramona out of the bunker. "She digs me."
"Um, yeah, sure," said Homer as he followed Ted. He looked back to see that Edy had picked up one Ty's discarded ZM MP machine guns. What's she going to do?
Edy slowly walked up to Selvaria's unconscious form and pointed the weapon at her head. She's killed a lot of us since this war started. I...I should get rid of her now while I have the chance! She looked down at the Imperial General for a minute before lowering her weapon. I can't do it! I've done some pretty bad stuff before, but this would be a new low. I, Edy Nelson would never commit such a vile act!
She turned to leave but then spotted Ty suddenly charge out of the bunker. "You can't be serious!"
Ty had managed to remove the axe from his visor and judging from the amount of blood on the axe itself, his left eye as well.
Edy knew that in this situation, with no grenades and armed with an unfamiliar weapon there was only one option left to her. Run like hell. She knew that if he caught her she would be killed, no question about it. She leaped into the bunker and around the debris inside as deftly as possible, not wanting to trip over anything. She heard Ty land inside the bunker soon after she did and wasted no time in getting through and out of the bunker. She wasn't far from the bunker when she turned to see Ty exit the bunker and listened as he let out a furious shout.
"Hey Marina, think you can help me out?" panted Edy as she tried to stay ahead of Ty.
There was a brief moment of silence as Marina contemplated the question. Edy was several hundred yards away as it was, with a stiff breeze blowing across the battlefield as well. It would be an incredibly difficult shot for Catherine, let alone her. Missing the shot might result in Edy being the recipient of the round, but not taking it would mean her death regardless.
"Keep running Edy," commanded Marina as she tried to line up a shot. "Try to run in a straight a line as possible." Looking through her scope she saw that Edy was pretty banged up from the fighting that she had been involved in. The Imperial chasing her looked like his helmet was damaged around the visor area, meaning that a head shot was possible. The only problem was that attempting one meant she had to fire the shot uncomfortably close to Edy.
She thought back to the advice her father gave her and took several slow deep breaths to calm her nerves and get herself focused. She could feel time start to slow down for her as she began zoning in on her shot. The wind was going to cause the shot to deviate to the left so she aimed just off of Edy's right eye. Now to time the shot right...
Crack! Marina watched as the round whistled towards Edy. The wind affected the shot as Marina had calculated and it grazed Edy's right cheek and through her let-down hair, splitting it as it passed through. The shot continued toward the Imperial and struck the visor, penetrating it.
Ty stopped in his tracks for a moment before falling backwards, unmoving. Marina was unsure if the shot truly killed her target, but she wasn't about to check either. Making sure that Edy made it to safety was more important. Once Edy had reached her, Marina gave her leader a nod.
"I got him," she said.
"I knew you would," replied Edy as the two made their way to the main base where the rest of her Detachment was waiting for her. Ramona had since regained consciousness and was sitting on the ground with Homer tending to her.
"Hey, Sis," said Ramona as Edy plopped on the ground next to her., whilst dragging Homer to the ground with her. "You know, we'd better get a medal or something for doing this. I'm just saying."
"The way I feel right now, a hot bath would be good enough," sighed Edy as she rested on Homer's lap.
"We did succeed," noted Marina as she stood over the three. "I'm glad."
"Aw c'mon Marina, show some more enthusiasm," said Ted as he put his arm around her shoulders. "It wouldn't kill you to show some emotion you know!"
Marina responded by sending Ted to the sand, face-first. "It might kill you though."
"Aw, looks like the joke's on me..." sighed Ted.