AN: New chapter.
The light. The light in the sky was missing.
The machine had been broken.
The humans inside were left alive.
And the light wasn't there.
The light needed to come.
The humans didn't all die.
The humans were fighting.
The light needed to come before the beast could attack.
The nest was ready.
The trap was set.
The bait was set.
The three who had cracked the machine would see to it.
The rest were ready.
The light would come.
All things considered, Harold Mulberry considered this outcome better than the alternative.
How was a crashed Bullhead the better option? He had been on it instead of just the soldiers or, God forbid, the students.
From his half of the wreckage, he once more fired off slugs from Blackberry, supported by the soldiers who could do the same with their rifles.
"Fields!" Harriet made another attempt to race towards one half of the broken Bullhead, rush to where Fields and the rest of the men was struggling to not only fight but free the trapped pilots. The teacher knew her Aura had taken too much of a hit from the crash, left her Semblance unreliable and, once again, he was forced to stop her from rushing headfirst into danger.
"What did I just tell you?" He pulled her back down when she made to run, avoided the latest thrown boulder from the Geist.
It had been one of several to suddenly latch on to the Bullhead, to tear it apart in midair and send its occupants tumbling down to the forest floor. He still didn't know where some of the soldiers had landed, if they were even alive. All he knew was that Captains Fields had been shouting something before they fell, his warning giving them the chance to brace for impact at least.
The officer was pinned in his half of the wreckage, one arm trapped and one leg definitely broken. He couldn't see it but the armor he wore had shifted, jutted out from what had to be exposed bone. He didn't know if his injury was the worst on his side or one of the better ones, wouldn't have the chance unless he closed the substantial distance between the two crash sites.
He fired off another slug from Blackberry, managed to pierce through the wooden body of one of the creatures, set it aflame with the Fire Dust. The Geist let out a screech as it fled from its ruined body, ran from a hail of gunfire that only managed to tear apart some of its ragged cloak instead of truly injure it, kill it. Harold stopped himself from cursing, from letting his mounting frustrations show.
He had to stay focused.
Had to keep himself steady.
Now wasn't the time for panic.
"Let go of me! I can do this!" Harriet once more shoved him off, deployed her weapons as she threw out her arms. The lightning that marked her Semblance once more made itself known, the Atlas student taking off before he could try and stop her again.
Like he thought, the Grimm was waiting for her to try and make a rescue attempt. She narrowly avoided the flaming tree turned into an arm for another of the Geist, as it tried to crush her and make her into another target to draw the rest of them out. She was lucky most of the soldiers that came down with them had kept hold of their weapons, the Geist withdrawing before its mask could be damaged under a barrage of gunfire.
It let out a horrible screech but it didn't advance, took heavy lumbering steps away from the Specialist Candidate as it used the burning tree as a shield.
"Get back here Bree!" For once, she listened without complaint. She tumbled over their improvised barricade, nearly fell to the ground if he hadn't caught her. She was shaking from her close brush with death, would need a minute to get herself under control.
This was half the reason he didn't want students involved in something like this, knew they would be too emotional, too inexperienced to deal with the Grimm.
"Fighting humans or monsters, the rules of combat first-aid stay the same: Deal with the enemy first. You're no use to anyone if you rush out there." He didn't have time to do much more than set her down, keep Raspberry raised and fire on the snapping jaws of a Beowolf before it could reach them.
Now wasn't the time to teach a lesson.
Right now, they were in little more than a fight for survival.
He fired again, took out another Grimm in a Ursa that was too young to have armor or much more than a desire to kill. He, like everyone else, was then forced to take cover when a shower of rocks rained down on them. He shoved Harriet down when she didn't move, felt each of the few rocks that slammed into his back as he covered her. He could almost feel lucky after none of them hit him in the head.
Once the latest shower of stones was done with, he looked up in time for a lunging King Taijitu to snap its fangs at him. He grabbed it by one of said fangs and trusted his Aura to protect his hand from one set of snapping jaws. He only held it long enough to turn and throw it away with a shout. Such an act was only possible because it was still in the juvenile stage, hardly bigger than a particularly large dog and lacking much of the size of an older one.
Of course, that was a problem by itself.
Juvenile Grimm came from somewhere, had to be directed by older ones for an attack like this. On their own, they did nothing but charge blindly forward, craved nothing but death for humanity.
He drew up Blackberry in the moments he had brought himself and blew off first one head and then another with two slugs fired in rapid succession, didn't watch as his two targets fell to the ground and began to dissolve away.
More Grimm were coming, would need to be dealt with in this sick game.
He didn't need to ask to know that some of the soldiers, perhaps even the majority of them with him, were running low on ammunition. Full combat load or not, scavenged ammunition from the Bullhead or not, they couldn't keep this up, couldn't keep fighting the Grimm that simply kept coming.
He was running low himself, would need to give up on ranged combat sooner rather than later to conserve ammunition.
If this kept up, if nothing changed, they were all going to run dry.
And that was little more than a death sentence.
"How are those shields coming?" The Hard-Light Dust shield projectors had been salvaged in his half at least, two of the soldiers working to get them up, get them something to work with. The machinery presented chance to make something to stem the tides, to bridge the gap between the two halves of the Bullhead, to make some headway in a situation growing ever bleaker.
"They're still fucking broken!" One of the soldiers was gradually growing more and more panicked. "It's all fucking broken and we're fucked!"
Harold didn't have the time or the energy to reprimand the soldier for losing it, didn't think he would do any better in his position. They were gradually losing this fight no matter what he did, were being encircled by more and more Grimm the longer he did nothing.
"STOP COMPLAINING AND FIX IT THEN PRIVATE!" Sergeant Davis shouted for the Huntsman, had seemed to push his panic aside for anger and authority, fall back on the chain of command. He turned back and opened fire on a charging Creep with his rifle, gunned it down before it could reach them.
An Ursa tried to attack as he reloaded but Mulberry simply blew its roaring head off with a slug from Blackberry. A Boarbatusk that attacked with its rolling charge did manage to reach them but it swiftly learned that Blackberry was an acceptable substitute for a bat when he flipped the weapon around and swung it like a club.
He needed two strikes to deal with the creature, took a moment to kick its dissipating carcass out before turning towards the Sergeant.
He had drawn his handgun by this point, the ammo for his rifle having run dry and forcing him to rely on the smaller caliber rounds. It took nearly half the magazine to point down a Boarbatusk Mulberry hadn't seem coming from the other side of the wreck.
"Davis, what about heavy weapons?" He shouted the question, reloaded Blackberry while he had the chance. He fired off another slug, only managed to anger a Deathstalker when he shot out one of its glaring red eyes. His second and third shots made it turn away, retreat under a hail of, mostly ineffective, gunfire.
If it came back, he wasn't sure what they could do about it with the weapons they had.
"No good! Couldn't find any!" The Sergeant had been as thorough as he could be in-between repelling wave after wave of attacking Grimm. "Best guess? They're under our feet right now!"
He didn't let the information infuriate him, let it throw off his aim. He but a hole in the chest of the next Ursa to charge the wreck.
"What do we have?" He fired off another slug from Blackberry, wounded an Ursa Major through a gap in its armor. It roared back at him and he answered with another shell, his shot failing to kill the Ursa Major but it did manage to crack one of the plates on its arm. The Ursa Major was hobbled for a moment and didn't press the failed attack any further, turned away and retreated with a snarl.
If he had the ammunition to spare, he would've tried for a third shot on the creature.
"Only what we had on us!" That meant rifles, pistols, swords, limited Dust rounds. And the standard combat load for any Atlesian soldier in just seven magazines, six on their person and one locked and loaded in their rifles. That didn't account for any who lost their weapons when the Bullhead had been torn in half, didn't account for those who had tried to gun down the approaching Geist.
"What about the shields! Can we use the Dust?" He had an idea.
It wasn't much but it was something. And, at this point, something was better than nothing.
"I think I get what you want." It wasn't insane to come up with when they were this desperate. Davis clearly didn't like what he had in mind, something easy to read from the look on his face and the tone of his voice. He didn't like it either but they were running out of options.
It didn't take the Sergeant long to tear out the Hard-Light Dust from one of the shield projectors, one he knew they stood no chance of fixing. It took even less time for him to shove it into Mulberry's hand.
"I hope you know what you're doing. Once that hits-"
"Sergeant." He brought a halt to the explanation. "I know what's going to happen."
Another rock crashed against their half of the wrecked Bullhead, nearly sent them rolling. It still rocked them all, threw some of the soldiers off their feet. The Grimm surrounded them surged forward again, seemed set to make use of this opportunity to end this last stand.
One of the Geist leading the attack let out a horrible shriek before the pack of monsters could travel far beyond the trees, sent the Grimm running back.
"This is just great." Mulberry used the chance this lull brought on to switch out Blackberry for where Raspberry had been collapsed on his back. He hefted the massive weapon up, double checked that it was loaded. "Sergeant, I'm going to need covering fire!"
"I'll give you what I've got! Say when!"
The Geist hadn't come alone, Grimm that dwelled in the Emerald Forest drawn to them, couldn't resist the panic that was building up in all of them. They harassed the wreck as much as the trio of Geist and the younger Grimm with them did, as they continued to lumber forward, a deeper goal than just killing them in the works.
Harold knew they were little more than fish in a barrel, that something beyond just their deaths was at play here.
It was why he hadn't fired off the emergency flare yet.
As terrible as the situation was, he was under no belief that this was it. He knew just how awful this could become, that this could very well be nothing but a trap, a desire to draw even more to their deaths.
It was fitting for older Grimm, those who understood more of human nature, who could restrain their own bloodlust in pursuit of greater carnage.
Grimm who wanted something.
And, unfortunately, Mulberry had no idea what that was.
"Cover me!"
"You heard the man!" Sergeant Davis must've gotten another magazine for his rifle. "Open fire!"
The handful of soldiers with ammunition to spare did just that with their rifles, a fair amount of shouting involved as they did so. The shouting didn't add to the impact of the rounds, was more just an outlet for the growing fear, the panic, the soldiers were feeling.
Without another word, he threw himself over the wreck, Raspberry letting out a roar as the engine incorporated into the weapon came to life. It threw him forward once he triggered it, threw himself towards the closest of the three lumbering Geist. It noticed him coming rather easily, Raspberry far from a quiet weapon.
It screamed at him, threw the arm made of rock forward to slam him into the ground. He drew Blackberry from his side, fired enough heavy Dust slugs to shatter the rock. The Geist immediately recoiled, immediately tried to get away while he closed the distance. With a twist of the handle, another roar came from Raspberry's engine, sped up his flight towards the Geist in front of him.
It fled from its body before he could strike the mask, flee just like the other had.
It was a good thing his goal wasn't to fight. He landed well pass the falling rocks and trees, managed to reach Captain Fields and the rest of the wrecked Bullhead. He slammed the roaring Raspberry down on an Ursa Major that had been approaching, half crushed it and half burned it with his massive weapon.
The Grimm was already breaking down as he turned to the next, slammed the sharp end at the opposite end of Raspberry's head into the creature of darkness. A twist of Raspberry's handle and once again the engine roared to life, all but flew through the air with his arm little more than a guide for the speeding heavy weapon.
The next Beowolf he hit was sent flying, knocked down the tree it slammed into. He twisted the hammer of Raspberry once more, engine screaming once more before it died down. He let the weapon rest on the ground as he drew Blackberry from his side, fired off the last few Dust slugs he had loaded.
It helped gun down a second Ursa Major, one that had burst from the trees with a roar.
More were already coming, older Grimm that held no care for whatever plan was present. Not with prey trapped like they all were.
These Grimm couldn't be cowed, couldn't be stopped by roars or snapping jaws, and Grimm didn't fight each other, didn't fight for dominance like a pack of wolves, like a pride of lions would.
Fortunately, he had dealt with his fair number of Grimm just like this.
It took a moment to flip Blackberry around, to grab hold of the barrel and turn the shotgun into a club. The first Grimm to reach him had the top of its head smashed in, to put it on the ground where Raspberry's engine was waiting. He burned off the Grimm's head when he twisted the handle of his massive hammer, brought it roaring up from the ground and swinging through the air once more. It smashed into a second and a third Grimm leaping for him, blinded by their bloodlust despite their age. He counted four others coming towards him, could hear a fifth behind him, and had the feeling of a sixth watching him, waiting for the moment to strike.
With Blackberry out, he needed to release Raspberry to reload it. He revved the engine once more before releasing it, turned the massive hammer into an improvised projectile as it was powered through the air. It flew with devastating force, tossed two more of the approaching Grimm to the ground.
He took the chance to load Blackberry with another Dust shell, took the chance to reach to his side and draw up the Hard Light Dust from his side.
'Let's see if this works.' He knew exactly what Sergeant Davis was afraid of when he had handed the bundle to him, how volatile the exposed Dust could be. If he was unlucky, the Dust could rupture from where it was hanging at his waist and put him in as bad, if not worst, of a position as Captain Fields.
And, with what he had planned, it could always blow off his hand.
He loaded a shard of the Dust into Blackberry, fired not at the Grimm but at the ground in front of him.
He was amazed it worked, that it created a rough looking shield in front of him, would block the Grimm on at least one side.
'Trust Atlas to make Dust predictable.'
He was quick to load another shard, fire it off.
Another rough looking barrier appeared and then another, his efforts helping to cordon off one half of the wrecked Bullhead.
"What's your status?" He finally turned to the soldiers who had been defending the crash site, the two pilots who had been pried from the cockpit.
"Captain Fields is down sir! And we're running dry! Been trying to get comms up but we can't get anything!" He didn't recognize the soldier who was speaking to him but nodded. "Looks like our comms got taken out!"
"I was afraid of that." Harold took aim with Blackberry and fired off two shots in quick succession, put two more rough barriers into place. "We couldn't get anything on our end either."
With how bad the situation was on his end, he wasn't surprised it was much the same in the other half of the Bullhead. He had hoped that they would've been able to get a distress signal out but it looked like they weren't that lucky. And, with the lack of reinforcements, it seemed like Specialist Church's command post had been hit as well.
It was well past the time now to call for backup.
Regardless of what happened from it, if this played into what the Grimm wanted, there was nothing else he could do but call for help.
He drew up the flare gun from his side and fired it skyward. Even with all the snarls and roars from the Grimm around him, he heard the earsplitting scream of the flare as it was soared high into the air.
He heard his Scroll all but scream in reply the distress message in a set of coordinates. The same could be said for any other Scroll that had its number on the mission roster.
He tossed away the used flare gun and instead focused on reloading Blackberry, calling Raspberry back to his hand with the Gravity Dust embedded in the weapon and on a bracelet he wore on his wrist. He had left a decent enough gap in his rough shield placement for Raspberry to pass through, filled the gap he had made with another shot.
'Now all I can do is wait and see what happens next.'
And that thought frankly terrified him.
With everything that had happened so far, the attack on the Bullhead before they landed, the fear that this was all part of a coordinated attack, there was no telling what was going to come next.
All he knew was that it was going to be something big.
AN: This chapter was delayed and well out of the 1-2 weeks timeline. I'm rather upset about that break from the schedule but the chapter's out so its all water under the bridge now.
Review/PM if you want.
Peace.