Please remember to favorite and follow!
"Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best; it removes all that is base. All men are afraid in battle. The coward is the one who lets his fear overcome his sense of duty. Duty is the essence of manhood."
~George S. Patton
Chapter Ninety-eight: Conflagration
Julie's rifle spoke in anger, hurling a bullet down the hall and straight into the overlarge eye of a sectoid.
"Fuck you!" She screamed into the void, working the bolt as Denver's laser fire rippled past her to stymie Advent's charge. Another shot took the next sectoid in the chest, sending him down in a spray of yellow blood, and Julie worked the bolt again. "Wear some fucking armor next time!"
An explosion ripped through the building, announcing one of the enemy's attempt to take cover in a side door. Shrapnel cut through the alien line, breaking their momentum, and the charge wavered, grinding to a halt in open ground as sectoids and vipers fired from the hip, trying to suppress Julie and Denver's position long enough to either fall back or advance.
Eleven bullets. With three in the chamber–and then it was ten and two, as Julie picked off a soldier who discarded his helmet, the visor punched through with an alloy shard that had also cut the alien-worshipper's nose in half. Work the bolt, pick a target–nine and one. Julie grit her teeth, pulling the trigger again. Eight and none.
"We have to slow them down!" Denver ducked low as mag-fire whistled back their way, hot enough to drive through the wall overhead and punch holes to the outside air. "Got anything?"
"Yeah." Julie hit her amp, praying it still had some juice to work with. She reached out, purple tendrils racing along the floor like tentacles, seizing the first viper she could find. The alien thrashed, contorting and fighting against her grip with what little willpower it had.
Cute. Julie breathed out, eyes searing a harsh violet. You belong to me.
It did. And because it did, it choked, thrashing in the hallway as it performed the one function Julie cared about.
Green poison smoke erupted from her slave's throat, the gas coating the entrance to the building. Julie shoved bullets back into her rifle, directing her new pet to pivot amidst the cloud she suffered no effect from, firing at anything she saw. By the time all five bullets were chambered, the viper had shot two of her own kind dead, with a wave of lancers surging inward to overwhelm her.
Julie sent the viper into the next side door.
"Jesus!" Denver whistled as the doorway blew apart, X4 ripping another hole in the alien ranks. A stun lancer's arm, complete with baton still crackling, thumped down on the barricade. "Piotr didn't waste time, did he?"
"Where the hell did you people get that much X4?" Julie fired again, then a second time, the harsh cracks of gunpowder explosions nearly popping her eardrums. "He hasn't been very conservative with it, that's for damn sure."
"There was this supply truck–"
"No one cares, get down!" Julie tugged her erstwhile partner low as green acid sprayed through the mire, melting alloy plate. "Fucking hell, they've got an andromedon."
"Well, the infantry wasn't doing shit." Denver laid his rifle up on their cover for a brace, sighting in. "Holy hell, I've never seen one of those."
"Don't shoot it." Julie hit her amp again. It flickered this time, worryingly, but light did for her, easing her path to tap into the Gift. Her consciousness stretched out, pushing past the armored suit and hunting the mind inside. She couldn't take it, not like the viper, not so soon–but there was a lot to be done beyond the obvious.
The andromedon flinched, twisting and flailing as Julie overrode its perception. From the alien pilot's eyes, rebels swarmed at the doors, moving in behind it to relieve her position. Fear was a universal language, and this pilot heard it as well as Julie spoke it.
Acid sprayed from its carbine, washing over the front doorway. Soldiers melted into slag, diving for cover as the andromedon backed up, doing Julie and Denver's work for them.
Julie put her next bullet into the last of the side doorways, clipping the X4 charge sitting armed and ready for use.
The detonation shook the building, blowing the andromedon's acid tanks open. The suit slammed into the far wall, the pilot compartment shattering open and exposing the alien being inside to the earth's atmosphere. It choked, gasping for breath.
Julie shot it. When it twitched, she shot it again.
"Now!" She ducked low as the suit's backup protocols activated, turning the machine around on autopilot. It stumbled through the hall, reaching out for Denver's face–
He put a shot right into its control panel, and electricity shorted out the suit's interfaces. It collapsed in a broken junk heap.
"Okay." Julie did her best to push upright, aiming down the hallway with her grand total of three remaining bullets all in the chamber. "I think we've overstayed our welcome."
"No shit?" Denver looked left and right. "Piotr?"
"Got him." Julie reached out, locating his mind around back. "We're falling back."
"On the way." She faintly heard his cannon erupt somewhere behind her. "Don't wait."
"We won't." She fired at a flash of motion in the smoke and poison ahead. "I've got two left."
"Go, then!" Denver drew his pistol, firing randomly into the haze. "I'll hold this for a moment."
"Okay." Julie stumbled for the stairs, driving the butt of her rifle into the floor like Gallant's cane. Was the stimulant wearing off already? Either that, or her pain was beyond the drugs' ability to counter. Either one was worrying.
Almost there. That wasn't the most comforting of thoughts, since "there" was the point after which there was no plan nor backup. The second floor meant Henri and Nathan, it meant vulnerability to attack from above and below, and it meant no way to keep retreating if things got worse. Which they would.
But what's the alternative? Maybe Henri and the boy could run. No, Advent would have a perimeter set up. We aren't getting out of here. Not on our own.
"Come on, Sylvie." She boosted herself up to the landing, grabbing hold of the railing as Denver moved to follow her up. "We're not going to last much–"
Red mag-tracers arced down the hall, punching right through the gas cloud. Soldiers appeared with glowing golden eyes, tendrils of light wrapped around their armor: the tell-tale signs of puppets with paired priests calling the shots.
"Watch out!" Julie leveled her rifle–
Agony exploded as something hot and fast caught her shoulder. Julie slammed into the far wall, shrieking as red gushed over her flank.
It left a trail down the wall as she slid into a slumped heap.
"Heads down!" Fatima Tariq did not follow her own advice, sighting in on the Emperor Archon as it surged forth to lead whatever kind of counterattack the Hunter had kicking around. Her suit's shield blazed to life around her, warding off the first shots as they fell about her position, but she only had eyes for her enemy. "Focus fire!"
Her shard gun roared. Alloy fragments ripped into the monster's scarlet form, sending it into a frenzy of howling cries. Rockets shot around the room, circling the eaves and blazing down on Fatima's allies from above.
"Father, Meysam!" Jane, at least, was on it. "Move!"
"Come on!" Meysam grabbed the priest's arm and flung them both backward. Not a moment too soon: rockets slammed down all across the ground they'd occupied, blowing shrapnel and shards left and right in clouds of smoke and fire. Charlotte screamed as another pinion struck her directly between the shoulder blades, flinging her onto her face.
"Charley?" Fatima spared her a glance.
"I'm alive." Charlotte spat out a tooth. Her eyes widened an instant later, and she rolled out of the way as fast as she could as mag-tracers ripped through the floor. That general ducked back behind cover as Charlotte rolled up in the shadow of her own, rifle lost and blood running from her mouth. She activated her wrist computer, her drone fluttering up for duty. "Armor did its job."
"Avenger, this is Chimera, we are facing heavy sustained resistance at the entrance to the Ascension Chamber." Meysam pulled Giovanni back into cover behind Julian, who dropped his shoulder like a linebacker to provide better protection. "Please advise!"
"I suppose I should be going on and on about how I will destroy you in the name of the Elders." That wasn't Jane. Fatima grit her teeth, firing at the Emperor as fast as she could while the Hunter mused. "But let's be real: I just like to kill things."
"Chimera!" Jane's voice broke through then, intent and focused. "Take out the support and we can work on the Ruler. Fatima, keep it busy until then."
"With pleasure." She fired again, scoring another heavy hit. She leveled her wrist, activating her rocket launcher–
The Emperor caught her by the throat. Fatima choked as it hauled her up into the air on a trail of fire, slamming her hard into the ceiling. Her armor's AI beeped frantically in her ear as the shield cracked and broke, the generator hissing with spark and smoke.
"I liked you better…" Fatima coughed, kicking at the beast where it had her pinned to the ceiling. "…in Vahlen's cage."
It roared. More rockets burst out, seeking Fatima's allies.
Then it dropped her.
"Rally!" Din Dourde held position, firing bursts around the corner of her column as the XCOM units scrambled to reorganize. "Counterattack, damn it! Before they pull together!"
That heavily armored ranger fell from above, victim to the Emperor Archon's whims. Dourde almost grinned–but swore when that damned buzzing drone swung underneath the falling woman, buoying her up enough to cushion her impact on the ground. Dourde leveled her rifle, optics sighting in on the prone form.
A grenade landed next to her.
"No!" She kicked it, the device soaring across the room to clatter down on the right. It detonated harmlessly, throwing rubble and wreckage back at the soldier who'd fired it, hunkering down with his sharpshooter friend. How was that man on his feet? The Hunter had nearly killed him in the Caribbean. It didn't make sense.
"General Dourde." The voice that sounded in her ear was not the Hunter's. "I have nearly arrived. What is the ground situation?"
"Little busy here!" Dourde fired a suppression burst, at least getting the sniper's head down and his rifle out of action.
"That is no way to address a child of the gods. I asked for an update."
"I don't have one for you!" Dourde flinched as that laser shotgun erupted on her right, spawning a chorus of screeching, screaming, and howling. "I'm losing units left and right."
"To what?" The Assassin, for her part, at least paused to consider the implications of that update. "What is happening, General?"
"They're here. XCOM is here, counterattacking us." That meant they weren't going to Greece, didn't it? "We can still take them, Mighty Assassin. If you can bring forces in to smash them–"
"Hold the line, General. I see their dropship now."
"Wait–" But she'd cut the line. Dourde leaned back into cover, mind whirling.
They were in Greece. But they were also here. That wasn't how the game worked. What was happening?
"General." A stun lancer stumbled up to her, clutching his wounded flank. "They are pressing hard on us. We are below a dozen effectives, including the Emperor."
"I know." Dourde sucked in breath. "Hold the line, soldier. That's the only thing we can–"
Red laser-light blew her conversation partner in half. Dourde staggered, yellow blood coating her armor.
"Away!" She fired from the hip, holding down the trigger and pouring fire into the darkness. The German crouched low behind a computer bank, but she didn't need her shots to hit; just suppress.
The Ascension Chamber. It was one dash away. She could fall back, rally up with her elements deeper in, and solidify the Hunter's defense. She had to. She owed her master that much. Her mentor, more than anything.
Dourde broke from cover, bent double as she scrambled away from the chaos of battle. Her feet hit the Ascension Chamber's plating, the actual teleportation pad bare yards ahead–
What felt like a muton's fist drove into her back, flinging her into the stairway railing. Dourde tumbled over, crashing down onto open ground. Pain flared across her back, a constant companion as she forced herself to rise–
Franz's second shot caught her in the chest, flinging her across the Ascension Chamber to crash amidst shattering supply crates in the far corner.
"Firebrand in position." The pilot's words were followed by the hiss of opening access doors. "Bring our girl home."
"As we are ordered." Pratal Mox pulled his helmet down firmly, plasma bullpup fixed on its strap. While Dragunova and Janet hooked themselves to the deployment lines, he contemplated the drop below, his stomach churning.
I will live. The drop wasn't even the scariest part. Ahead, a sectopod marched through the transmitter station's yard, infantry milling about its armored feet. Doubtless more waited in the woods, and still more would be inside.
But Pratal Mox was a warrior through and through. Fighting was what he'd been made to do, and he was so good at it that he had evolved to be more.
He threw himself into open air, free-falling while Dragunova, Janet, Sylvie, and Cipriano slid down their lines. Mox fired his grapple, hooking on to the Skyranger's landing gear and swinging himself down before any of his companions, hefting his weapon and disarming the safety.
Junior hit the dirt behind him with a heavy thud.
"Work in pairs, like we said." Gallant's voice filled Mox's ear, cold and intent. "Sylvie and Ross, kill anything in your path. Mox and Outrider, cover them as best you can."
"Vox Tala for Ten." Mox nodded to Dragunova, who racked the bolt on her temnotic rifle.
"Come on, big guy." Cipriano rapped Junior's flank, deadly serious as he moved southward with rifle up and ready, amp glowing on his back. "They're not ready for us."
"Slow them down as much as you can, but remember, the goal is to get Julie and get out. We aren't turning this into Stalingrad." Gallant paused, presumably to flick a few buttons. "Fuel is a concern too. You have six minutes. Firebrand, provide what cover you can."
Without acknowledgement, Firebrand gunned her engines. The Skyranger II shot away, beginning a wide bank for the facility.
"Come on!" Sylvie shoved her way into the undergrowth, moving at a dead run with psionic energy radiating off her amp and her eyes. Janet took position at her right hand, blades out and slicing through foliage as easily as they would flesh. Mox joined the charge, Dragunova with him every step of the way.
"We are coming, Julie." Mox hurried to maintain pace, fighting the fear he couldn't shake. "Hold on."
Julie clutched her shoulder, blood pouring between her fingers. The world swayed and shifted, nothing hanging in focus like it should.
"Shit…shit…" Her numb fingers fought for her amp. "Come on. Please."
Light flared. She drew from it, pressing the glow to her shoulder. Psionic energy wrapped around her wound, putting it into temporary stasis. It wouldn't save her life, not on its own. But it would buy time.
Wasn't that what this whole thing had been about anyway?
Her amp whined, the light fading. Julie hit the trigger a few more times. No effect. With a sigh, she threw the device away, reaching for her rifle.
"Julie!" Denver appeared overhead, his face blurry and indistinct. "Are you dead?"
"Not yet." She could barely make the words come out. "Two bullets."
"That's something. Come on." Denver grabbed her under the arms. "Piotr!"
Red laser-fire erupted in the hallway. The Ukrainian thumped up past Julie's position, firing wildly into the smoke. Cover, presumably: cover as Denver hauled Julie up the rest of the stairs and on to the second level.
"Ow. Ow!" She hissed through her teeth, grunting as he pulled her up the bumps and bangs with more speed than care. "Fuck."
"I'm sorry."
"Faster." Her throat was dry, so dry. "Just get us upstairs. I can still…still…"
"I believe you." Denver hauled her onto the second floor, pulling her to another makeshift barricade. Piotr ascended behind them at a dead run, boosting himself over the edge and slapping a new energy cell into his cannon. "Just a little further."
"It's always a little further." Julie gasped as her erstwhile friend pulled her into place, the world still a haze. The hall had one side door, but they bypassed it. Instead, Denver pulled her beyond the barricade, set up at the archway entrance to some kind of server room. A glass ceiling afforded a beautiful view of the night sky.
"Henri?" Julie fought for breath, the pain still inundating her.
"Here." Sure enough, he poked his head out from the rear of the room, pistol in one quivering hand. "You…look well."
"Liar." Julie thumped her head back against the wall.
"It's okay." Piotr reached out to pat her good leg. "We had a good run."
"They'll be here." Julie opened her rifle. Yeah, just two bullets left. "They'll come."
"Gentlemen. Miss Richardson." Denver leveled his rifle down the hall. "It's been an–"
That glass ceiling shattered, sending shards falling through the server room. Henri tackled Nathan low, hugging him closely as death rained.
"Kracsad!" Above, a magnetic weapon roared.
"Watch out!" Piotr fired from the hip, pasting the open side of the window with searing red light. Two, three, four Adventers screamed, collapsing in or out with streams of yellow blood spraying.
The fifth popped up to fire again.
"Shit!" Julie hit the trigger at the same time, her shot catching the soldier under the chin. He choked, tumbling through the hole to crash on the ground.
Denver sank to one knee, clutching the bloody mess of his left arm. Red burst through his fingers, staining the floor as thickly as the scarlet trail left from Julie's dragging.
"Fuck." Julie ripped an entire sleeve off her shirt. "Here, let me–"
Footsteps echoed in the hall. Advent voices shouted.
This is it. Julie grabbed for her rifle. I loved you, Sylvie. I really did.
One moment, the soldiers were directing traffic, angling the sectopod toward a firing angle into the building.
The next, the sectopod exploded, rockets slamming into it as the Skyranger arced past at full speed, magnetic cannon-fire stitching the courtyard and sending infantry crashing in heaps or scrambling for cover.
And right after that, those two soldiers each wound up impaled on one of Janet Ross' armblades, lifted off the ground by the power of her charge.
"For the Templars and for XCOM!" Power crackling in her eyes, she sprang across the yard, tackling a muton with both blades embedded in its chest before it could even reach for its bayonet.
"Vox Tala for Ten!" Mox came on her heels, bullpup roaring as he blasted through a trio of flailing, confused stun lancers. Dragunova's rifle spoke in anger, hurling magnetic rounds from the dark spaces to catch aliens and their soldiers in the rear and flank. In a matter of seconds, Advent control of the yard had shattered.
But that was just the prelude.
"Sylvie, slow down!" Janet abandoned her kills, racing to keep up as the psi-op surged into the lead, screaming her vengeance and her determination. Her rifle blasted green energy across the field, picking off the weak and putting fear into the strong. As Mox and Draguova's fire joined hers, suppressing her enemies, Sylvie's hand went to her amp. Bolts of searing psionic soulfire rippled through the air, melting minds and igniting flesh.
"Richard!" Gallant joined the call, but there was no stopping her, not now. Janet ran at a full sprint, scrambling for her autopistol and firing on the move as Sylvie led her into the building. Every room, that rifle spoke and alien voices screamed in reply. Every room, Janet swept in with blade and blaster alike to finish some poor soul.
Every room, Sylvie got a little further ahead.
"I've got this!" Mox shoved Janet from behind, taking over the sweep of the lower level. "Go, go!"
"Menace, we have alien interceptors scrambling from Rome and Cairo. Those six minutes are running out." Gallant paused. "Cipriano, watch your six."
"Oh." Over the comms, Janet might have heard an alien shriek. "Thanks, Avenger."
"Sylvie!" Janet swore as the psi-op reached the stairs. She drew on her own power, eye twitching. "Enough!"
Power flared. In a crack of energy, Janet seized the lead, swapping places with the reckless warrior before she could finish surging up the stairs.
Coming face-to-face with a swarm of lancers and soldiers, pivoting in shock.
Janet's blades lashed out in a frenzy. Arms and legs flew, heads cracked, and armor shattered. Bolts of lightning surged from her grip, tearing into the tightly-packed soldiers and jumping from one to the next with casual ease. Her focus rose and fell, driving her on to hammer her way through the line in a bloody cavalcade.
Red laser fire joined from ahead, and then green plasma from behind. Sylvie fired over Janet's shoulder while she projected a shield to cover them both from the shots ahead. Magnetic tracers skated off the field amidst the storm: Advent's lackluster counterfire.
A grenade clattered against the shield. Janet caught her breath.
The detonation flung her and Sylvie back onto the stairs, sending them tumbling with a chorus of cries. The psi-op's rifle clattered away from her, while Janet slid down to the pool of blood on the lander, gasping for breath. Her head throbbed, but if that was the only price of taking the grenade, it was a win.
"Watch out!" She pulled her autopistol from its holster, still lying down, shooting up at the blocky, armored forms that appeared at the top of the stairs. They ducked for cover, one tumbling from his wounds, which gave Janet the chance to roll out of the line of fire. Sylvie hurled psionic energy, blowing another off his feet like he'd caught a missile engine in the chest.
"There's a ton of them up there!" Even after all that damage, shouting still echoed from the second floor. Janet pulled Sylvie back around the corner before magnetic fire could shred her, wincing as more screaming and shouting sounded from above. "Avenger?"
"We hear you, Ross." Gallant switched channels. "Firebrand, targeting data incoming. Watch your fire: there might be friendlies on the second floor."
"Understood. Engaging." The Skyranger's icon swept around the building like a helicopter gunship of old, cannons chattering. Her shells punched through hallways and windows, eviscerating Adventers and aliens alike as she painted the hallway yellow with gushing blood. Icon after icon disappeared from Gallant's display, cleaning up the signal in seconds.
"Ammunition at critical. Holding fire." Lilah pulled her bird up and away, circling the compound to provide sensor support. "Come on, Menace. We're not done yet."
"Couldn't have put it better myself. Mox, Outrider, join the charge and take the second floor." Gallant eyed his display, but couldn't bring himself to fully trust it. "Be advised, there are likely hostiles who survived that."
"Wouldn't have it any other way." Dragunova took point, pulling Ross along with her while Mox shepherded Sylvie back into formation. Their icons raced up the stairs, pushing forward for the finish.
"I'll be damned, Commander." Bradford whistled from his side. "They didn't have a clue we were coming."
"Yeah. This was some local garrison who thought their sectopod made them tough stuff. Then we went all winged hussars on their rear." Gallant narrowed his eyes.
It was too easy.
"We may actually pull this off."
"Let's get Julie back aboard before we start saying stuff like that." Besides, that was only half the ballgame. "Director Kelly, status report."
"Aliens throwing a lot of shit my way." Jane paused to issue another order, eyes glued to her screen and the Emperor Archon's rampage. "It's not working."
"Good to hear." Gallant spared Bradford a look. "Soon enough, Shadow Man will give her my job."
"Here's hoping." Bradford grinned ruefully.
Gallant's comm crackled. He winced, grunting under his breath.
"Commander." Tygan gestured to his computer. "We have a new signature on the field in Greece."
Meysam fired the Shadowkeeper from the hip, pouring plasma into the engine port on the Emperor's bottom half. The archon flailed in the air, roaring as it released another blast of rockets.
"Fucking hell!" Charlotte dove out of the way as another one detonated near her, spraying shrapnel across her armor. "Not again!"
"Let's not forget the sweet deal the Elders cut us." The Hunter's voice cut through the fighting, almost…bored. "I take you out, and this world is mine. Think of all the fun we'll have."
"Bring it down!" Fatima rose across the room, stumbling on some kind of injured leg but voice alive with fury and fire. "Bring the damn thing down, now!"
"Meysam, hook it."
"Copy, Director." Meysam leveled his arm, firing the Serpent Armor's grapnel line. It wrapped around the Emperor's neck, hauling taut. "Come down, you big fat–"
The jet flared. Meysam yelped as he was hauled into the air, hanging on for all he was worth as the archon twisted and fought for freedom.
"Don't do that." Julian caught the line in one hand, his motors revving up into overdrive as he yanked sharply. "Come down here so I can shoot you, you miserable atrocity!"
The Archon staggered in the air. Meysam disconnected his line, thumping down hard but leaving the tug-of-war to the machine with all the advantages. SPARK and Emperor hauled away, rocket engine blazing and metal sliding over the ground as the beast fought for freedom.
"Now!" Franz fired first, but Fatima and Charlotte came fast on his heels. Laser, plasma, and alloy fire filed the air like the anti-aircraft cannons of old, ripping chunks out of the Ruler and punching holes into its engine. Black smoke poured from its twisted form, flames licking away at its organic compartments, and another shriek filled the air.
Father Giovanni's cannon joined the fray. Meysam grabbed his fallen gauss rifle, popping up to one knee and sighting in. While the others blasted away at random, he sought with precision, hunting for anything that looked valuable.
His scope fell on the engine.
His rifle spoke once in anger, punching into the afterburner glow beneath the hovering monster. Whatever it used for fuel exploded, ripping its back out away from its front in a tearing crash of metal and meat, the Archon blasting itself to shreds from the inside out.
Its faceplate slammed down at Meysam's feet with a heavy clang.
"Well." Bradford's voice was the next one to sound over comms, a bit more subdued. "Vahlen toughened them up some, but not enough to handle us. Good work, Chimera."
"I am eager to examine the specimen as soon as we can get it back to the lab." Tygan's voice held awe…and horror alike. "We may as well take advantage of Doctor Vahlen's experiments as best we can, as I have no desire to try to replicate them myself."
"No shit." Meysam kicked the head. It rolled across the field, thumping into the remains of the Emperor's body as it finally crashed to rest. "That was for Julie." He hoped against hope that operation was going alright.
"Come on." Fatima beckoned. "Is anyone dead?"
"No." The team assembled, bloodied and battered, but still ready for the fight. Meysam took his place at Fatima's flank, fitting a fresh clip into his rifle. "Ascension Chamber?"
"Yep." Fatima led the way inside, shard gun up as she hunted for surviving hostiles. Apart from the broken body of their general, no Advent awaited.
"Well done, Menace." Gallant let out a long breath on the other end of the comm. "Activate it."
Purple surged and swirled. Meysam closed his eyes, the better to avoid losing his sanity in the void he remembered.
"You weren't going to win this war anyway. And imagine how bad you'd feel watching the Elders tear this world apart. Really, I'm doing everyone a favor." The Hunter's voice, hanging in the nothingness of limbo, filled his world. "But I get it. You will never give up the fight. You will do what is necessary. For you are XCOM! And you! You are going to die."
His feet landed on metal. Meysam opened his eyes, beholding the dark, looming hall of hate and death before. Built to a similar design, but with adjustments in its pattern, here was surely the sanctum of their enemy.
At the end of the cavern, a hanging sarcophagus glowed with inner light.
"You aren't supposed to be here." In a flash of purple energy, he appeared, crouching before his sanctuary with rifle strapped up on his back. The Chosen Hunter rose to his full height, looming over the battlefield. "You were never supposed to figure out our little trick. Full of surprises, aren't you?" He swept his rifle free, a grin forming on his hateful alien face. "Soon to be full of holes."
Chaos and fire raged in the server room. Sparks flew on all sides, the roar of engines fading into the distance.
Julie drove her last syringe into Denver's good arm.
"Shit!" The American's eyes shot wide. "Oh, that feels better."
"Yeah, it's lit. Get up." Julie had one bullet left, a dead amp, no syringes, and with her arm and leg both fucked up, the knife wasn't going to accomplish jack shit. "Sound off! Who's not dead?"
"Not yet." Piotr poked his head out from behind a server bank. "Half a cell left."
"Henri?"
"We're okay." They must have found a good hiding spot, because Julie couldn't see them for shit. "We're alive."
"Bit of old vinegars!"
"For fuck's sake!" Julie twisted her rifle around, but the stun lancer caught the barrel too fast. Three of them surged into the room, scrambling past her position and diving for cover from…from…
From outside.
A plasma bolt caught Julie's attacker in the back. He fell over her in a heap, crashing onto the ground with a choking cry.
"Julie!"
Her heart skipped a beat. "Sylvie?"
A blur of motion. A single figure, sweeping down on her like an angel from Above.
Sylvie Richard caught Julie under the arms, hauling her in close without a care for the Adventers popping up all around them. Their lips met under shattered windows and amidst the blood spatter of war and carnage, so fast and forceful Julie's shoulder screamed in protest.
And she didn't care. She didn't care for the pain, she didn't care for the threat, she didn't care for the forms of Dragunova, Mox, and Janet Ross sweeping in behind Sylvie's back.
Psionic energy surged outward, crackling over the floor and driving home into every Advent soldier on the second floor, bursting their brains and cracking their skulls inward under an unbreakable vise-grip. Bodies hit the floor in a rush, purple fire and smoke searing from shattered helmets.
"I thought I lost you." Sylvie pulled back, eyes glimmering with tears and terror, hope and validation.
"You're not that lucky." Julie forced a smile. "I missed you, sweetie."
"Kids." Dragunova lowered her rifle. Was she grinning behind that stupid helmet?"
"Shut up, Outrider." Julie gestured to her leg. "I can't walk."
"Not a problem." Sylvie shifted her weight, sweeping Julie up in a full-on bridal carry.
"Stop, I'm going to melt." A tear trickled out of the corner of Julie's eye. "Bring the others."
"Come on." Mox gestured with his bullpup. "Ross, take the wounded one."
"My name is Denver–"
"How cute."
A shot sounded in the dark: a hammerblow that flung Julie down on her face amidst the shattered wreckage of her last stand.
Sylvie tumbled head over heels, crashing through a server bank to lie still at the terminus of a black-smoking mag trail.
"But there won't be a pretty ending this time." From the shadows, the Assassin swam into focus, shotgun smoking as she blocked the door. "This is vengeance for my brother."
Author's Note 98: Last of the Rulers
And here we are, all setup out of the way: two battles, two Chosen, two Commanders(well, one and a Director). Next time, we find out how these mirrored confrontations end–and if everyone's coming home alive.
To clarify a bit of what I said last time about an EW novelization–it seems like a logical next step: a prequel focused on Gallant and the War. The thing is, that's what the character was originally designed for: I still have on file an early attempt to make an EW version of what became Vigilo Confido, starring Gallant as my commander of choice. So one would think, why not?
Well, mainly, Gallant's story will have been told at that point. There would be no ground to cover with that character except to reset his character development and go over every step on his journey again from scratch. So if I was to do such a thing, it would be a novelization with a totally unrelated Commander not set in the Vigilo Confido universe, and at that point, why bother? I'm sure there are other projects that I can set myself to with better results, and other people better suited to tell other, unrelated stories.
Anyway, that's my answer to a question no one necessarily asked. In the end, Gallant found his story, even if it wasn't the one I designed him for. And honestly, I think he works better in this context than he would have in EW.
Until next time, Vigilo Confido.