Omega [REDUX]

Chapter 31

He plummeted through the sky, the explosion of the deployment drone still ringing in his ears as jetstreams rushed past him. Out of the frying pan, into the fire.

Kristoff felt his retrograde thrusters on his suits kick in as a jab into his shoulder blades, and felt the air forced out of him momentarily. Ignoring the ache in his chest, he reoriented, slamming feet first into the ground and taking a knee to reduce his impact. His shields flared, hexagons of energy becoming visible as bullets slammed into the field that surrounded him, prompting him to roll out of the way and into cover, drawing his rifle in the same fluid motion.

Around him, his squadmates made their groundside presence known in similarly spectacular fashion, thrusters flaring as they hit the ground, leaving similarly shaped dents in the floor as lead rounds sailed through the cloud of dust they left behind and scattered yelling echoed around them. Kristoff brought his rifle up to bear, took aim through the red dot sight and squeezed off burst after burst of lead, aim staying true to him after all this time. Soldier after soldier fell to his deadly hails of fire, his hands settling into a robotic routine of seeking out his target and eliminating them.

"Trying to raise our own Ascendant, sir," one of his squadmates reported. "She's not responding."

He refused to let himself worry in the middle of a firefight. "Keep trying!" he replied as he dropped behind cover to reload.

They had landed in the middle of the courtyard, thereafter gaining a foothold in its south-eastern quadrant. His seven other squadmates got their bearings and returned fire on their attackers, lobbing grenades liberally, sending explosions across the courtyard and bodies in every direction. Gunfire assailed his ears and shockwaves jarred his bones, his rifle continuing to spew solid death at the Empyrean soldiers.

"No luck sir," the soldier reported. "Should we spread out to locate her, or—"

A bright flash of icy blue blinded him momentarily, forcing him to duck, less he be caught in the open. His squadmates recoiled as well, grunting their discomfort as screams began to reach their ears. Kristoff forced himself to forget about it, pulling his rifle up over the debris he hid behind to gun down one soldier, then another, and another, before turning to take a better look.

A blue figure strutted down the courtyard at a leisurely pace, lead rounds flying from all directions. Most perplexingly, the rounds didn't seem to connect, even though Kristoff swore the majority of them passed through the figure. Lances of cyan lashed out at enemy soldiers, even though the figure didn't seem to move.

The figure held her ground in the middle of the square, both feet planted and unmoving, hands clenched by her sides. She turned to Kristoff, who resisted the urge to pull up the rifle and blast her head off. "You might want to duck."

He understood. He signaled his squad to take cover.

A blizzard slammed into the square, icy winds coursing through every crevice of the facility. Kristoff's suit beeped out an alert as the temperature dropped to dangerously low levels, but was ultimately redundant; the layer of frost upon his weapon served as enough of a warning. Screams that floated his way began to fade, almost chokingly so, like the air had promptly left their lungs for some reason.

It wasn't long before silence hung over the area once more.

"Sir?"

He turned to his squadmate.

"Why aren't we frozen solid?"

He peeked over the debris. Several icy figures had joined the Ascendant's, albeit misshapen and in positions reminiscent of their encased victims' agony. Silence hung over the area. Kristoff vaulted over his cover and approached the figure, still wary and awed from the display of power he had just witnessed.

"You sure you need our help on this?"

"If we're going to get every single civilian out, yes," came the response. The icy blue complexion reverted back to her normal skin tone as she flexed her arms tentatively; the mystical blue figure reformed into Elsa. "My main concern is actually collateral. I don't know if I have complete control over my powers yet."

His heart stilled. "Minor concern there."

"Don't worry, I've got most of it nailed down."

"With all due respect, you took out two of my teammates when you lost control." Kristoff shifted a tad uncomfortably. "You sure that won't happen again?"

"I was also confused and in pain. I doubt it'll happen again." Her neutral response failed to hide the hurt in her voice. Kristoff decided to lay off her, instead moving to retrieve an earpiece communicator from his suit pocket.

"Take this." He tossed the device to Elsa, who promptly caught it and placed it into her ear. "If you need to contact me, you know how."

"We need to get to the main hangar," she went on, nodding towards him. "If we're lucky we'll get the jump on them." Her hand elongated and morphed into a blue, icy edge; Kristoff swore he heard the ice screech like an actual sword. "Come on. Barrage is still incoming."

Kristoff dew his rifle again. "How soon?"

"In less than half an hour." Her skin turned blue again, and began to fade into the background, much to Kristoff's surprise. "We need to move. Won't be long before they redeploy to kill us."

Elsa crept along the corridor. She might have been invisible, but that didn't mean no one was going to hear her if she was careless. Her clear, see through skin was going to take some getting used to. Her eyes darted across her field of view, keeping them trained on corners and moving swiftly when she felt the area was safe.

"Sector is clear," she reported, tapping her finger to her earpiece. "Moving to scout hangar entrance."

"Careful," came Kristoff's reply. "That area's a viable crossfire."

"Don't worry," she said. "They'll have to spot me first." She surprised herself with how calm she sounded; she had no weapons on her, because she couldn't turn those invisible. Going into combat with just her powers didn't feel quite right just yet.

She placed her hand upon the wall and closed her eyes, kneeling down as she did, allowing her body to accept the stimuli around her. She felt her consciousness expand, suddenly drastically more aware of everything, and her vision tinged with blue energy. Frost spread across the room from where she stood like a wildfire, trailing the surface of the academy's walls, its reach stretching on and on. Red blotches began to appear in her vision: heat signatures, thermal footprints that she could read even through walls and obstacles.

She heard every footstep echo down the halls to her ears, the minute chatter of Kristoff and his team, and the shifting of the Empyrean soldiers not too far from her position. It wasn't looking good; the huge red blot indicated a large presence of enemy soldiers.

Elsa darted silently across, quickly pressing her back against a wall as she sighted the soldiers. "We have a small problem."

"What's that?"

She kept the line with Kristoff open as she peeked from behind cover. "I've got at least 20 soldiers." Elsa squinted to get a better look. "But they're restless; looks like they've been camping here for a very long time. If we go in blitzkrieg style they won't expect it, but you're gonna have to make every shot count."

"Not gonna happen," came the reply. "We brought precision, single-shot and burst weapons. No way we can mow down that many people in such a short time without taking multiple casualties."

Blots of red appeared in her peripheral vision. She glanced up, staring through the ceiling, trying to make sense of the stimuli. "We need a plan now," she spoke, eyes widening as the realization hit her. "Dropships are inbound to extract Empyrean forces."

"Shit."

"Can you establish a comm link to friendlies on any frequency?"

"I can try." She sensed the uncertainty in his voice. She let her enhanced sensory state simmer off, her vision returning to normal, her senses frayed and partially overloaded. "I'll let them know we're here. Then what?"

"Tell them to hold position," she responded, swallowing as she did. "I need you to move to the mainframes and hold the area for the next 10 minutes. After that we make a break for the hangar. There should be shuttles to evacuate the civilians, along with dropships to escort them."

"What are you gonna do?"

"Distract them."

Elsa broke her invisibility and fired from cover, ice beams lancing across the room, deliberately catching a few soldiers in their legs. Shouts and panicked screams resounded off the walls that were now quickly frosting over; soldiers ducked left and right as Elsa kept up the pressure, taking advantage of the lull she had created before they could organize a counterattack. Her icy blasts connected with one soldier after another, quickly thinning their viable ranks before one of them finally got a shot off.

"Move!" she yelled into her mike, as the first retaliatory rounds sailed over her head. She ducked; she needed them to believe she was vulnerable, else they might come up with something drastic that she had not prepared for, and only endanger the rest of the people here. Her eardrums were pounded by the sound of gunfire as she darted for the hall whence she had entered, lead rounds trailing her escape, along with the roar of quick footfalls.

"We're en route, Elsa," Kristoff reported into their comm. "What's your status?"

"Distraction has—" She turned to fire off a bolt of ice, "—commenced."

"Roger that. Securing mainframes now." The sound of gunfire came through the comm channel into her ear. "Little busy now Elsa, I'll get back to you."

Elsa dropped into a roll as a sniper round zipped past her head, firing in response. "Touché." She broke into a full sprint as she turned a corner, intending to put some distance between her and her pursuers. Her skin tingled as power surged through her, her icy barriers materializing to ward off the incoming fire as she dived past another corner and raced towards the courtyard.

"Do we have non-lethal weapons on us?" she heard from behind her.

"Negative. Aim for her legs; we need her alive!"

She heard the crack of a sniper rifle, prompting her to jump reflexively. Her eyes caught the round sailing underneath her before her legs touched the ground again, and she hardened the icy barriers that coated her legs, trying to put on an extra burst of speed.

Her comm crackled. It was Kristoff. "We have the mainframe. What do you need us to do?"

Elsa had reached the mess hall. Bullets pinged off furniture as she ducked and wove between them. "Secure all data to offsite location," she barely managed between breaths, "and set AA guns to target incoming enemy aircraft. Then scramble all existing security measures; it's not like anyone's going to be using them anymore."

"Roger that."

"There's the bitch!" A group of soldiers had flanked her from another direction; she'd been too distracted to take particular notice of their heat signatures. Elsa simply lashed out with her hands, letting fly beams of blue that sliced right through her opponents. Gunfire behind her drowned out their gurgling screams.

Another sniper round sliced through furniture, nearly catching Elsa in the arm as she slid behind the main counter. Not that it would matter, but she wanted to maintain the illusion for as long as possible. Soldier after soldier soon began to flood the room, and the gunfire increased in volume dramatically. She forced herself to keep her head down. Not yet. I need to buy Kristoff time. I need to buy everyone some time.

A grenade clattered to the ground beside her. With superhuman reflexes she lunged, grabbing the explosive and lobbing it back at the soldiers in a calculated arc; she heard the resulting explosion, and the crashing of bodies upon metal and concrete. But it failed to deter the soldiers, and the hail of lead only seemed to increase. Rounds began to shred the counter she hid behind, and she was forced to surround herself in a sphere of icy walls.

"Securing data now," came the voice in her ear, even as bullets ricocheted off her shields. She felt each and every shockwave jar her bones; she could feel every imprint the rounds made upon her icy wards even as they quickly reformed. Her arms trembled with fatigue.

"AA guns have opened fire on their transport."

She shut her eyes.

Elsa let herself levitate off the ground, her palms outstretched, icy magic gathering in her palms in swirling vortexes, the icy sphere around her flaring dangerously. Alarmed voices rang across the room and the rate of fire increased to no avail; power coursed through her body like a raging river until she was practically overflowing, and a blue nova pulsed from her being, rapidly expanding and slamming into the soldiers. The nearest ones froze instantly, their final moments captured in gruesome detail as they literally turned to ice; the rest were knocked back, many of them screaming in agony as various parts of their body were overcome by frostbite.

Those of them who were still able to fight barely had a chance to push themselves to their feet before Elsa's fluid form engulfed them, disorienting them before Elsa reformed, slamming her icy blade into body after body. Bullets and rifles clattered to the floor, equally useless, as Elsa's relentless melee tactics left them powerless and lifeless before long. Her mind overcome by rage, she tore the soldiers to shreds in gruesome fashion, until the frost covered shreds of metal and flesh that lay strewn across the cafeteria were unrecognizable.

"Fall back!" she heard the remaining soldiers yell, scrambling back down the hallways.

She let out a breath, her arms still aching, her mind still racing, her blood still pounding. "Kristoff, what's your status?"

"Alive and kicking." A gunshot resounded through the device in her ear. "AA just took out their transport. We should be clear. Moving to secure hangar now."

"Roger that." She tapped the earpiece again, and her hand fell to her side, morphing into another blade of ice, her feet picking up the pace once more. Her vision blurred momentarily, but she shook it off and kept running.

Kristoff took point as the squad reached the hangar entrance. The fortifications were still there, and soldiers had taken over. A little tense, but still generally unprepared, he assessed, as he pressed his back gingerly to the wall. His squadron took cover nearby.

"On my mark," he mouthed into their comm channel, raising his rifle and taking aim. From the corner of his eye his squadmates moved to do the same.

His finger tightened around the trigger. "Mark."

He opened up, his first burst catching the nearest soldier squarely in the head. His squadmates opened up behind him, their targets marked out in their synced HUD, allowing to pick their next targets ceaselessly. The remaining soldiers, scrambling for their own weapons, fell dead with the next barrage of lead.

Kristoff turned to one last soldier, desperately crawling away, his rifle a few feet away. He raised the rifle and pulled the trigger. The gun clicked. It didn't fire.

Shit.

The soldier in front of him made a desperate scramble for his rifle, only to be stopped by a bullet that pierced the back of his helmet. "Check your ammo next time," Kristoff heard his squadmate say as they turned away from the scene, "sir."

"Yeah yeah," he muttered, but he realized he'd screwed up again. Bad memories came flooding back to him. Flynn. Nemo. No. Never again.

He motioned for his squadmates to holster their weapons, as they trod down the large hallway leading into the hangar. "Attention academy staff and students," he called out, his helmet amplifying his voice, "this is Class-X squadron Delta, designation CXD1. Hold your fire. We are entering the hangar."

"I didn't buy it from the last guy that came along pretending to be UIF forces," came a voice down the hallway, "and I got no reason to buy it now."

"There's a Whiplash Torpedo barrage headed our way. We need to evacuate immediately," Kristoff insisted. "I'm coming through now."

"You take one step further and this gun right here will tear through your armor like paper."

Kristoff doubted that it would, given that his armor was pretty damn tough, but he wasn't about to take any chances. "We don't have time for this!"

"Stay frosty," came Elsa's voice in his ear. "I'll handle this."

A flash of blue rushed past him in fluid motion, and gunfire erupted in response. Two more bright flashes of cyan and the firing stopped. More guns clicked beyond his field of view, but they didn't fire. He motioned for his squad to move up.

"We need to move," he heard Elsa say as he moved up behind her, revealing the fortifications that the staff and students had set up, in particular the pair of light machine guns that lay strewn on the floor, no doubt a result of Elsa's handiwork. "In less than 10 minutes this entire place will be decimated."

Murmurs that began to rise in volume resounded throughout the onlooking crowd as they stood before the civilians. "Alright people," someone said, stepping forward form the mass of bodies. Kristoff recognized him: General Hans, director of the academy. "Load up on the shuttles in an orderly fashion. We cannot afford any delays."

Kristoff watched Elsa's eyes narrow suspiciously as she turned ever so slightly towards the hangar entrance. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"The Empyrean soldiers should know by now that their transport isn't coming," she said. "They're likely to organize a push—"

Elsa wavered, her voice cutting off abruptly, before her legs gave way.

Kristoff dived forward to catch her before her head hit the ground. She felt limp. He forced himself to remain calm, although nothing was looking very optimistic right now; their main source of firepower was now gone, and there was a limit to how much Kristoff's team could do, however skilled they were. They were only eight people.

One of his squadmates slid over. "Does she need medical attention?"

"Don't think so." He watched her eyelids flutter, and brought up his scanner just to confirm. "She's coming round again." Kristoff lifted her head with one hand as her eyes attempted to open, her arms tensing again.

"You okay?" he asked.

"I…" She flexed, running a hand over her face. "I'm very weak." He could see her trembling a little bit. "Think I overexerted myself."

Kristoff let her push herself to her feet, albeit very shakily so. "We need to get you out of here," he said, drawing his rifle again. "Go with the first shuttle."

"No, wait."

He watched her irises flare blue momentarily, before the glow dissipated as quickly as it appeared. "Move!" Elsa yelled, "Soldiers around the corner! Take cover!"

Kristoff's reflexes kicked in as he scrambled for the nearest waist-high barrier. He settled for a series of toolcarts; it was the only viable cover for quite a distance. As squadmates took positions behind parked aircraft the first shadows began to appear through the hallway, alongside the signature flares of rifle discharges.

There was a small ringing in her ears even as she forced herself to stand to her full height, fully aware that she was exposed to enemy fire. But she couldn't take cover, not without risking passing out again. Elsa summoned what was left of her energy and turned to face the threat.

It was whatever was left of the Empyrean force that charged, collectively, towards the shuttles that were now prepping for takeoff. And it had been larger than Elsa had expected. In her weakened state, that was going to be a problem.

But she wasn't about to stop. She had an entire academy to evacuate, and one red-headed girl left to save.

She raised her arm and fired. Blast after blast of ice shredded the oncoming soldiers, and yet they still kept coming. Shields flared as rounds from Kristoff's team slammed into them, and soon bodies began to pile up near the entrance, but their combined efforts weren't stemming the tide fast enough.

Her hearing kicked in again, the ringing now gone. She picked up the sound of rifles clicking, and frantically raised an icy ward, just before a sniper round slammed into it. The blue, transparent surface shattered on impact, and Elsa's arm snapped back painfully from the force, swinging her other arm up to compensate. One bullet, two bullets grazed her skin, and pain burned across her body.

"Take her down!" she heard the Empyrean soldiers yell. "Don't let them get away!" A rain of bullets from Kristoff's rifle sliced through them, silencing their voices.

Elsa planted her feet and raised her hands, a sphere of ice materializing around her, sparks flying as rounds chipped off bit by bit. Through the sphere she fired blasts from her open palms, her eyes darting left and right as she tried to seek out targets, her head beginning to pound again as she exerted herself. The gunfire raged around her as she felt herself weaken from impact after impact, and she forced herself to hold her ground.

Behind them, civilians scrambled into shuttles, engines firing one by one as they prepped for launch, doors sliding shut to protect them from stray rounds. Elsa spied a few soldiers charging for some of the open shuttles, and sent a hail of dead ice flying their way, tearing through their armor and sending them tumbling to the floor.

Then something small clattered to the ground in front of her sphere.

"Grenade!" she heard one of Kristoff's squadmates yell, but she was too slow. "Get back!"

The blast threw her off her feet, sending her flying into the floor, sliding painfully along her face for a good distance. Her vision faded to black, then light poured in as she tried to open her eyes, the world around her suddenly blurred. Everything was drowned out again by the pain in her head and the ringing in her ears, and she struggled to even place her hands upon the floor and try to push up.

"Cover me!" a faraway voice seemed to call out. Hands grabbed her roughly by the armpits, and she felt herself being dragged across the floor, and into a small enclave. The humming of thrusters reached her ears.

Her head cleared a little. Through shimmering blurs she saw Kristoff's team inching towards the shuttles, albeit pinned down by enemy fire. A sudden burst of energy coursed through her, and her vision tinged blue again, she lurched upward, lashing out with her hand, unleashing the most potent blast of ice she had ever conjured at the enemy soldiers in the hangar.

The results were devastating. From the epicenter soldiers were thrown into the air, only to be impaled by icy spikes that emanated from the impact site; those even closer instantly shattered from the shockwave, their bodies having been completely turned to ice. Anguished screams were silenced by bursts from rifles as Kristoff's team managed to reach the shuttles.

"Go!" she heard Kristoff yell to the pilot. "Get us out of here."

The door slid shut, and the engines fired up. Elsa lay back as the aircraft took off, feeling the momentum push her left and right.

She took a look around her. The other students were mostly terrified; half of them were crying, some of them were dead silent and others still couldn't quite believe their luck. Still clad in her blue dress, Elsa pushed herself up to look out the shuttle window, watching silently as black lumps descended from the sky toward the academy premises. Abruptly, orange flowers blossomed across its length, marred by black smoke and debris scattering everywhere.

Elsa shut her eyes, not wanting to look anymore.

Then she felt a sharp pain slice through her head, and she collapsed back onto the floor. Her world fading to black once again.