August 25, SY 2149 — 21:04 Republic Coordinated Time (RCT)
The Legion were absent from where they should've been.
"Wh-what?! That doesn't make any sense..." The Witch would've shrugged if she weren't controlling her Juggernaut, skirting around the forest's edge, she and the rest of LFRITH keeping their eyes open for the case that maybe the Legion really were out here, in hiding, waiting for something to change.
LFRITH raced between the trees of the forest — the polished bone armor of the Juggernauts not glinting in the moonless night. There was barely any chance for them to be spotted by the Legion in this state, the eight of them darting through the trees as they hunted for the Legion formation that should've been in this place, but wasn't.
"I don't know what to tell you, Captain, but they're not here." The Witch said, dodging to the left of a tree that she was doomed to collide with if she did nothing. "I don't know who provided you that information that they'd be here, but they're long gone."
The Captain had opened the resonance with LFRITH, with intel on a Legion formation that should've been in a standby state this late at night, opting to preserve energy rather than expend it through nighttime operations. It was later than normal for her to resonate with the squadron, and based on the sound of things, she had rushed to the command room, rather than calling from her home as she often had. But this meant that this was urgent — so the eight members of LFRITH embarked their Juggernauts, and raced to where the Legion should've been.
And this was how they ended up where they were now. Only for the Legion to not be where they should've been.
"H-hold on…" The Captain said.
The squadron continued darting through the forest, around this clearing that should've been where the Legion were. It was almost a minute before anyone broke the silence. "What is it Captain?" Monarch asked.
"The radar is returning a disturbance to your north, two kilometers. You'll close that distance in just a few minutes." She reported, finally.
"Eintagsfliege?" Darilbalde asked as the group changed their direction to the north, rather than continuing clockwise around the clearing.
"M-most likely, but it's not a large group, not anything like the number of units that were supposed to be here."
"You don't sound sure of that."
"I'm not, but the forest is too thick from this angle, I can't see anything from the radar on the Gran Mur." The Captain explained.
"Everyone, switch your radars to passive. Captain, make sure the LCS is off. We need all the advantage we can get… This reeks of a trap." The Witch orders as they continue to race out of the forest. "When we reach the edge of the forest, everyone stop, we'll make sure that there's nothing there before we move on rather than exposing ourselves too soon."
"Roger that." Darilbalde affirms.
They race through the forest, and before long, the density of the trees begins to relent, exposing the moonless sky more and more. "All stop." The Witch orders, and digs the legs of her Juggernaut into the ground, bleeding momentum into the ground, and sliding to a stop just before the edge of the forest, the barrel of her Juggernaut still obscured by the foliage around her. "Monarch, see anything?"
Monarch flicks on his more powerful optics, and begins his scan from behind the line of Juggernauts waiting to pounce at the edge of the forest. It's then when he catches a glimpse of something.
"Heading three-three-zero. A group of Legion northbound. I can't discern the composition, but they are definitely moving." Monarch responds. The Legion marched ahead, continuing to move northward, and not stopping nor looking behind them, their silver chassis glinting in the starlight.
"Alright, there's no forest between us and them, and it'll be a pain to catch up with them while evading them. Here's what I want to happen—"
"Hold that thought, they just stopped." Monarch reported.
"Shit… Are they turning around?" Darilbalde asked.
"No— They hit the five hundred meter mark and just… Stopped."
"Everyone, scatter." The Witch ordered, jamming her Juggernaut's controls in a direction that would keep her obscured in the forest.
"Aerial, what is it?" The Captain asked.
"I can't explain it, but it's a bad feeling. They stopped at a distance that's safe from explosives. I'm getting the feeling that we've been made, and we need to figure out our next move—"
She's cut off by the sound of an alarm that she's never heard before — her eyes rapidly darting around at the various readouts projected onto her retina, and finds that nothing is out of the ordinary. "LFRITH, we good?"
There are seven murmurs of response, all saying that everything's okay, that nothing's wrong with their Juggernauts.
"Captain?" The Witch asked — unsure if the alarm that she had heard had actually come from her end of the connection or not.
"I—"
"Handler One, what is it?" The Witch urged.
"The Gran Mur—" The Captain started, before shock continued to set in. "It—"
"Witch, what do we do? The Legion are still holding position." Monarch asked.
Darilbalde clicked his tongue in annoyance at the situation. Their Command and Control officer was locked up in some kind of alarm, and now even their combat commander wasn't responding. "We hold position until we know what the hell—"
He was silenced by the sound of an incoming Para-RAID connection.
"This is Bloody Regina to Processors in all Combat zones!" The silver-bell like voice commanded over the Resonance, with a confidence that wasn't there the last time that anyone in LFRITH had heard. "A large scale Legion offensive has launched. You are to gather within the Eighty-Five districts in open combat. All personnel within National Defense HQ, remove anti-personnel mines, and open the Gran Mur's gates immediately. All we've done has been in preparation for this day... To protect our honor, we're going to fight until the end!"
"Shit, you hearing this?" Tomcat asks over the Resonance, unsure if his voice would even be heard by Bloody Regina.
"Captain, what do we do?!" The Witch asked, bordering on begging once more.
"We should start heading towards the Gran Mur, head west — screw these guys, they're acting weird anyways." Dante pointed out, her voice calm despite what she just heard.
"To hell with that! We should take these Legion out before they realize we're here." Darilbalde interjected. "The more Legion we scrap out here, the less there'll be in the Gran Mur!"
The bickering continues for what feels like forever, all the while — The Witch has clenched her teeth, and is stares at the shimmering form of the Legion as her Juggernaut shudders under the force of the movement she's making it move under.
"LFRITH… I-I need you to engage those Legion… Darilbalde's right, the more we take out here, the fewer we have to deal with inside the walls…" The Witch mutters, but knows that it'll be picked up by the Para-RAID.
"…Copy that…" Dante sighs. "Dante, enga—"
There was a split second, in which Dante's Juggernaut had practically stepped foot beyond the forest's bounds, where the Witch realized what it was that had just happened. That they had been baited by moving at all — and that the best move for the Squadron to make, was to not make one at all.
The force behind the tungsten rod that penetrated Dante's Juggernaut was enough to cut through the light armor of the Juggernaut, and carry the rod clean through the other side of the armor, boring a hole through Dante's chest, killing her instantly, and rupturing the power-cells that provided the power to operate the Juggernaut. The rod would continue through the armor of the Juggernaut, over-penetrating it, and boring a hole into the ground on the other side, that would erupt in a shockwave, and leaving behind a crater. Fortunately, due to the Witch's quick thinking in having everyone scatter — no one was close enough to be blown away by the shockwave.
"Shit!" Shouted Darilbalde, who darted further into the forest, trying to obfuscate his location from whatever spotter it was that had zeroed them in the moment that Dante had stepped foot outside the forest's bounds. Another rod rocketed into the forest, piercing the trunk of a tree, and blowing the leaves off of nearby other ones as it burrowed its way into the ground. This shell was closer to where Monarch was, and while it didn't kill him or injure his Juggernaut, it threw him a considerable distance, and instantly did his Para-RAID shut itself off as he lost consciousness.
The Witch darts away from where she stood once more, further into the trees. "LFRITH disengage! Back the way we came from!" She barked, and another explosive shockwave rattled her eardrums, this time Fallen Crow's Para-RAID signal dropped. The Witch was too far away to see if it was because he had been hit by the artillery fire, or if he'd simply been knocked away in the same way that Monarch had been.
She darted her Juggernaut between trees, in a pattern that she hoped would make it hard to hit her directly. As she did, she glanced over at the Legion units that Monarch had spotted — and saw that they were moving once again. This time in the direction of LFRITH, not away as they had been.
"Dammit!" The Witch shouted, and jerked her controls, moving her Juggernaut away from the forest, and out into the open field, breaking into a dead sprint towards the Legion unit.
She readied her high-frequency blades, and fired two APFSDS rounds into the Amaise at the front of the formation, before diving into the midst of the formation herself, and driving her blades into wherever and whatever they could find purchase in. Behind her, two explosions shook the ground, but none of the remaining Processor's signals went blank in the moments that followed.
"The hell are you doing?!" Darilbalde shouted, as he broke away from the forest, and raced across this field to join The Witch in combat, firing his own rounds at the Grauwolves that The Witch had missed during her initial attack. She dove further into the fray, slashing at legs and chassis alike, bringing a Löwe to its knees, before skittering around it to fire a round into its rear, exploding it in a wave of silver.
"Aerial! Fall back!" The Captain urged over the Para-RAID.
The Witch dodged between two more Löwe, both of whom swiveled their turrets to face her, but neither could quite reach the angle of depression needed to hit her Juggernaut. She slashed at their legs, bringing them to their knees, and burying their barrels into the ground as they fell. The Witch spun around, and fired a round into the right one, before having to dodge a flurry of missiles from a lucky Grauwolf that had managed to escape her initial dive into the formation. The remnants of LFRITH darted into the battle as well, using their mid-range capabilities to engage, rather than diving in as the two remaining melee units of LFRITH had.
"We need to fall back, dammit!" Darilbalde shouted.
"They have a spotter in this group! If we don't take it out, we're as good as gone!" The Witch retorted.
She dodged a Löwe firing at her, and responded by shooting down a Grauwolf that was preparing to fire missiles. "Fire at the Amaise first!" She ordered her Squadron.
Quickly, and using their smoothbore guns rather than their 12.7mm heavy machine guns, LFRITH dispatched all the Amaise that they could find, before turning their attention to the remaining heavier units.
It was a battle that lasted maybe a minute or two, and in that time — not a single additional shot was fired at them by the ultra-long-range artillery that had killed Dante, and disabled Monarch and Fallen Crow.
The Witch prowled among the bodies of the Legion in silence, looking for any possible stragglers.
"Witch, c'mon, we're running low on energy packs, and we need to get back to base before we head west." Darilbalde prompted in the silence that followed the battle.
The Witch didn't respond.
She instead kept looking, something in her instincts telling her that something was still amiss. That there was still something out here, waiting for them — waiting to pounce. "Darilbalde, go get Monarch and Fallen Crow." She ordered. "The rest of you, stay at least two hundred meters apart, we need the spacing to make sure that we don't get shot at again, and if we do, I want to minimize injury." No matter how hard she looked, she couldn't find anything that indicated that there was something wrong, that any of the Legion were still active in this moment. And it had been minutes that felt like hours between the last of the artillery rounds making impact and now — had the attacks truly stopped?
"Hey, we've got Monarch, but we can't find Fallen Crow." Ür reported. "Are you even listening, Witch?"
"Aerial…" The Captain said, an alarm still blaring in the background of their transmission.
"Hey!" Darilbalde shouted, "You fucking listening?! We've gotta move!"
The Witch cursed under her breath, looking around the ruined Legion once more, hoping that her instincts were wrong, that there wasn't still some spotter unit hiding somewhere among this group. If there were, and it caught wind of which direction they had gone? That would spell trouble — especially since they needed to get back to their base first, rather than heading straight for the Gran Mur's walls without getting new ammo and fresh supplies.
She turned her Juggernaut away from the mass of Legion that had just been destroyed, and headed back towards the forest.
"Handler One." She started.
"Y-yes, Aerial?"
"Please go do whatever you need to do to prepare to defend yourself from the Legion… We're still several days away at soonest, but we'll be headed your way." The Witch said. "Tell Bloody Regina that we'll be in contact as best we can."
"U-understood… Stay safe."
"We will. You too." The Witch said, before cutting the link to her Handler.
"Everyone else, the plan is this; we take fifteen, try and find Fallen Crow, after that, we head to the base — get repairs, rest, and we leave at first light." The Witch instructed her Squadron. "If the Legion are moving now, it doesn't matter what time of day we operate, they'll still be moving. So for now, we get what rest we can." She said, as if hearing the complaints of Ür and Darilbalde before they even voiced them. But still, something felt off to her, as if there was someone or something behind her, watching her as she moved.
It was then that she whirled around, confident that there would be something there, only for an explosion next to her Juggernaut — throwing her around the cockpit.
The last thing The Witch remembered as her Juggernaut was blown away by the force of the ultra-long-range strike, is that of Miorine's panicked shouts from over the Para-RAID.
August 27, SY 2149 — 23:29 RCT
The fighting had been from all sides once the Gran Mur fell — the Legion pouring in through the Minefields that had been destroyed by the ultra-long-range artillery type that had ambushed the Northern Defensive Lines, and had killed most of the Processors in the north. Giving the Legion free reign to pour into the Republic's walls, and slaughter all those inside them. Those who had no weapons to defend themselves — relying purely on the fact that the Eighty-Six were outside the walls, protecting them under duress. Lena had no option, other than to subvert the chain of command, and ordered the gates of the Gran Mur blasted open using the Republic's own artillery canons — giving the Eighty-Six a chance to pour in through the walls, in an attempt to save whatever was left of the Republic.
That was only two days ago. The fighting had raged completely unabated through the streets of the Eighty-Five districts of the Republic, and the fighting was now threatening to pour into the streets of Liberté Et Égalité — the metaphorical nerve center of the resistance against the Legion.
It had been over a day since she lost contact with Aerial, and she had been doing her best to direct the rest of LFRITH back towards the Gran Mur — to engage with the Legion as best as they could. In the absence of Aerial, Darilbalde had taken over command of the remnants of the Squadron. Initially, they had planned on returning to the battlefield where The Witch had been hit by the shockwave of the ultra-long-range type's attacks, in hopes that she had survived — but in the morning, the Legion were already threatening LFRITH's base with their advance on the Gran Mur's now-open gates, and rather than staying behind and engaging them with only the few of their numbers that remained, they opted to grab as many supplies, and rescue as many of the Maintenance Team as possible — besides the fact that the Maintenance Team were comrades as well, they would need as many maintainers as possible to help out the defense efforts. The rest of the team that they couldn't bring with them, or couldn't operate Juggernauts themselves, would hunker down in the nearby city in the higher levels of the buildings — and hope that they wouldn't be found out by the Legion.
She hadn't heard anything from Darilbalde since they had left, he had said that they would contact her over the Para-RAID if they needed anything, but hadn't heard anything at all. Miorine hoped that they were okay — but in the meanwhile, she had bigger problems to worry about, namely that of the Legion formation that her kit-bashed together defense squadron was facing down. "Platoon B, focus your fire on the Löwe moving to your right try and stop their advance!" She ordered as she moved a facsimile of the Löwe formation across an old paper map of the city, predicting where and what it was the Legion was doing. "D platoon, fall back one block to the south, the Grauwolves are moving into effective distance in twenty seconds!"
"Copy that!" The unfamiliar voice of the Processor under her command responded.
That was the crux of this battle, unfamiliar units working with unfamiliar Handlers, in one grand battle between the Processors of the Eighty-Six, and the Legion that was nigh endless as they poured from the openings in the Gran Mur. There was no telling what the units thought of their Handlers, or how these squadrons would interact when working with one another, but there was nothing else that could be done to defend the resources that both the Republic and the Eighty-Six needed to survive. Manufacturing facilities, power plants, water reclamation, all things that the Eighty-Six couldn't survive without, couldn't fight without. Lena had been right in her speech to Karlstahl that Miorine had only heard about — the Eighty-Six were aware of how important the Eighty-Five administrative districts were, and that they couldn't survive without them. So they continued to fight, even though they would protect Alba in the same defense that they mounted for themselves. Lena wouldn't have had it any other way — and right now, with the fall of the Palace that served as the Headquarters for the Military until that point, there was no telling whether or not she was truly the commanding officer of the Republic's military. But it seemed that it was for the best that she was. Miorine had no qualms with following her orders.
There was a flash to her right, and then an explosion that rattled the sides of this building that they were hunkered in — a lucky artillery shot from one of the Skorpions on the other side of the Gran Mur, that were firing into the eighty-five districts like a barrel shoot, working with what information they did have on the location of where vital resources were. The Legion had information processing capabilities unlike anything the remnants of the Republic had now that their Headquarters had been overrun — meaning that with even fragments of information, the Legion could discern where it was that the Eighty-Six were protecting.
"All units, after the destruction of these Löwe, hold position — Scavengers are coming with resupplies. I don't have a picture of when the next push is going to be, so be prepared." Miorine instructed, moving the figurines that she was using as stand-ins for the Legion on her map, off the map. This was as good as it got without her Command and Control room back at the abandoned headquarters.
There were murmurs of assent and thanks from her squadron as she stepped away from her situation map, and let the noise of the rest of this ramshackle command room flood back into her attention — if she wasn't going to be directly commanding her own units, she could at least help other Handlers, including ones who weren't as experienced, in trying to defend against the Legion in the close-quarters that were the streets of Liberté Et Égalité — whose streets were not designed with Juggernaut combat in mind, much less accommodating to the Legion's hulking forms either. Meaning that most of the time, Processors could ignore side streets that didn't connect to main streets; thus giving the Juggernauts a form of a home-field advantage through the Handlers guiding them, despite fighting in a city that was entirely unfamiliar to them.
She quickly turned to the data pad to her left, and jotted down a few notes to herself, before turning around to take the data pad to the person who was doing her best to keep this entire situation under control.
"Lena." Miorine said, approaching Lena's station in this abandoned conference room. The girl is surrounded by maps and data tablets, all detailing as much information as is possible about the current fight — where the worst of it is, where the artillery shells are landing, where the likely position of the spotters are — things of that nature. She does her best to issue orders to her subordinates, rather than commanding all the Processors herself. It was too much for one person to bear, synchronizing with all the Processors who were currently fighting to defend the Eighty-Five sectors. No one could expect her to do that all by herself, and no one did. Miorine would absolutely not let her. So she took on some of the responsibility — she, and other Handlers who either had been aligned with Lena from the start of her drafting up plans to counter this large scale offensive, and even those who hadn't known; but fallen in line quickly once the alarm had been raised about the attack that was underway.
"Yeah. Yeah? What is it?" Lena seemed distracted despite the fight that was going on outside, like her mind was in a different place. And truly, Miorine didn't blame her — they had been fighting to defend the Eighty-Five sectors for the third consecutive night, with barely any rest. The Legion was unrelenting with their numbers, and every unit that was destroyed was just as easily replaced by another, if not stronger, unit. The Processors had no such luck. If one of them was struck down by the Legion — that was it. There were no reinforcements coming. Miorine herself felt the same exhaustion in the corner of her vision, creeping into her bones. And nearly resented her human body for having such limitations. There was a crash and then another explosion from a nearby building, knocking her free from her momentary resentment.
Miorine sighed. "My squadron engaged a Legion formation that was advancing to the North, presumably to advance to the heavier-duty bridge on that side of town… At the 3100 Block of Andromeda Street?" Miorine points at the tactical map in front of Lena. "They forced that formation to withdraw, but I'm not sure if there's more units advancing that way or not. My Squadron hasn't seen anything since we held that position."
"That's good… If we can keep them from crossing to this side of the river… We should be better off." Lena said, leaning against the table in front of her, her eyes fluttering shut for a moment.
"Hey, when was the last time you slept?" Miorine asked, putting a hand on Lena's shoulder.
Lena simply looked at her and smiled, smally.
"C'mon, Lena. Go get some rest. We can hold them for an hour or two while you do." Miorine said, herself wishing that someone would give her the option to sleep — but in lieu of that, the next best thing she could do was continue fighting.
Lena looked away from Miorine for a moment, and begins to open her mouth to say something, but she is cut off by shouting from inside the conference room.
"No! Shit! No no no no!" The voice shouted.
Lena and Miorine quickly moved through the room to the young Handler who had been swearing. "What's wrong?" Lena asked.
The Handler looked panicked as he looked up from his situation map — realized who it was that had him the question, before straightening himself up, and looking back down at his situation map. "The Legion just routed my squadron, they're moving for the southern heavy-lift bridge... I'm sorry…"
Lena looked over at Miorine, who nodded in understanding. "I'll move my Squadron south to try and hold them at the bridge." Miorine said, moving away from the station that the young Handler is at, and reaching for her Para-RAID around her neck. "All Units, this is your Handler… Please rearm and start moving to the southern lift bridge. It'll be…" She reached her situation map again, already beginning to move pieces around. "About a dozen blocks to your south. Please report when you're two blocks away and I'll issue positioning orders." She ordered.
"Yes ma'am… You heard the nice lady, gents… Let's get moving!" There was the rumbling sound of the Juggernauts over the Para-RAID, and Miorine moved the pieces on her map that signified her Squadron. Lena passed by her station as she returned to her own.
"Looks like you won't be getting that rest after all, sorry about that." Miorine said as Lena passed her by.
Lena simply shrugged and smiled as she passed by, not seemingly worried at all at the fact that she wasn't going to be able to get any rest any time soon.
"Handler One, we're two blocks away. We have the bridge in sight. The Legion are already crossing!" Her Squadron captain reported.
"A and B Platoons, engage the units that are already across the bridge. C, D, and E platoons, try your best to disable the ones that are currently crossing with concentrated broad-side fire!" Miorine ordered, moving pieces for the Legion onto the bridge on her map.
There was the sound of Juggernaut fire, and the clinking of antipersonnel rounds from the smaller Legion units, the Amaise, that were firing back at the Juggernauts.
"Shit! I just lost Apollo!" One of the platoon leaders reported in a shout.
"D and E platoons, move into the buildings on the east side of the bridge, use the buildings as cover — C platoon, concentrate your fire on the lift bridge's brake units! Try and raise the bridge and the Legion won't be able to pass!" Miorine ordered, her eyes flicking over the map once again, unsure if her idea would pay off in the end. "They should be at the top of the lift bridge, and look like massive bricks!" She did her best to recall her memory of what the bridge looked like, and now it operated.
"Firing!" The C platoon leader responded, and Miorine heard the roar of the smoothbore cannons of C Platoon as they fired at the brakes of the lift bridge. "Ugh, no joy! We're just damaging the superstructure under fire like this."
"Handler One, we're getting overrun here!" The Squadron Captain shouted, as Miorine heard the hissing sound of his High Frequency Blades. "Are any reinforcements headed our way?!"
"N-negative, most squadrons are occupied dealing with spotter squadrons, or in situations similar to your own… I can't send anyone, I'm sorry."
"Tch, then we'll just have to make do… D platoon, rain hell on these bastards! E platoon, do you have a better line on the brakes the Princess was talking about?" The Captain barked.
There was the roar of more Smoothbore cannons — punctuated only by the screaming of artillery as it fell nearby the command center that Miorine was in. Still, somehow, the Legion hadn't managed to score a lucky hit by blind-firing into this side of the city.'
"E platoon has a bead, firing." The calmer voice of the E Platoon Deputy responded, and after a moment, reported; "We hit the brakes, but the bridge isn't moving. It looks like the mechanism might be jammed?"
"Shit…" Miorine said, leaning against the table that served as her station, envisioning the myriad ways that the mechanism could've been jammed as she had ordered her Squadron to fire on it. "Do your best to hold back the Legion… We have the advantage of having a choke point on them."
"Copy that, we'll—" The Captain began, before an ear-shattering crunch came across the Para-RAID.
"C-captain!?" Miorine said.
"Fuck! We're taking fire from across the river!" The B Platoon leader responded. "They hit the Captain! And we're losing the bridge. The Legion just got more numbers!"
"F-fall back three blocks eastward, I'll see what I can do about getting more Processors your way!" Miorine said, and moved away from her situation map, and over towards Lena, pressing the Para-RAID once to mute it. "Lena, are there any squadrons that can back up mine?"
Lena looked at her knowingly, before shaking her head. There was a crack outside the building, and then a less-than-distant explosion as the artillery shell exploded. "I'm thinking we should prepare to abandon this post, and move further towards the Eastern edge of District One… The Artillery is getting too close and we're losing too much ground." She motioned away one of the Handlers that was standing nearby, either having just given, or had been ready to give their report. "Right now, I'm thinking that's going to give us the best chance for continuing the defense."
"B-but what about the civilians still in this sector?" Miorine stammered.
"Evacuation efforts have done the best they can, right now, anyone who isn't coming, won't be." Lena said gravely.
"I… I understand." Miorine sighed. "I'll get my squadron to continue falling back to help the defense of us as we evacuate… But the Legion have breached the southern lift bridge, it won't be long befo—"
There was a crack, this time much closer to the building. Or rather, right on top of it — Miorine wouldn't have been sure what drove her to react the way she did, but in the moment she heard the crack above her head — she shoved Lena to the ground, herself not having the time to react, before the timed shell exploded in the floor above them, and half-destroyed the building in an ear-shattering explosion that shoved everyone who was standing in the room, to the ground — and then sent debris tumbling down onto them.
It was silent.
No, it wasn't silent to Miorine — it was loud, it was so loud that it had become quiet again — her ears ringing in shock from the explosion.
She wasn't sure how long she was out. But when her hearing started to wain back — it was more obvious that something terrible had happened, and she had been pushed to the floor, face down because of it.
There were screams of pain. Although she wasn't sure if it was coming from the Resonance, or from the room she had been in. Her head spun something terrible, and she couldn't open her eyes.
"—andl—" A distant voice shouted, or at least, sounded like it shouted. She tried moving her hand, to unmute the resonance, but despite how much she tried moving her shoulder, her arm felt caught on something. "—an you hear—?"
She wasn't sure if she could even move at all, and her vision refused to come to, despite her senses telling her that her eyes were open.
"Handler On—" The voice continued to shout. This time she was able to make out the words more clearly — it was her Squadron, calling for her.
She coughed, a deep cough that came from deep inside her lungs, but when the air came into her mouth, it was wet and heavy.
"—veryone who can mo—" A different voice shouted, this time from a different place. "—Abandon—this stat—". It was a voice like a silver bell, and it continued to shout in words that Miorine couldn't make out.
She wanted to cry out for help, but she couldn't force enough breath into her lungs to try and form the words, her lips simply mouthing the shape of them as best as she could muster. It was pitch black, but she could still hear, if not distantly. It made sense, in the moment, that she was pinned under rubble. She tried moving her other hand, this time, her senses indicating that there was motion. Through dust-covered motions, she felt around the space as best she could, trying to paint a mental picture of what it was that she was trapped under. There was a scuffling of boots beyond this collapsed prison, and she tried her best to call out for help. Using her free hand to slam an open palm against the debris that her body said was above her, while she was facing downwards.
The scuffling stopped, or it faded — she wasn't sure.
She thought about the words that she had heard from the voice like a silver bell. "Abandon." It had been Lena's voice, she was almost confident of that. "Abandon." Had she ordered the situation room to be abandoned in lieu of it being a victim of an artillery strike? That would make the most sense in the moment… But what about Miorine? Who was still trapped beneath the rubble and the boots that had faded away. Had they already abandoned this post? If so, who was going to come for her? Would anyone?
Panic had begun to set in, and Miorine had several minutes where it did, her breath shallow in this space — before she realized that was the problem altogether. That she was panicking, and she wasn't trying to find a way out of this situation.
It took several more minutes… Minutes that felt like hours… Before she eventually managed to calm herself down. Her breathing, still shallow, but less panicked. If she was trapped, the rubble might have sealed a pocket of air around her, and it was dangerous to waste that air. She felt around the space again with her free hand, before feeling something that felt like a pipe lodged between two pieces of rubble. She pulled on it, pushed on it, until eventually it felt like something came loose. And there was a rush of cool, fresh air into the space — but she still couldn't see anything. Her face was pressed against something that was obstructing her vision, and she couldn't feel it, much less reach her arm around to try and move it.
She reached around the space that had come loose, where her body had told her the fresh air was coming from — and felt around the hole for a moment, before reaching her hand out of it.
Her ears still rang, she couldn't hear any voices, or anything at all, really. There was an uncanny silence. She kept her hand propped against the debris, as a flag, something to indicate that she was there, in case there were still people around, although maybe if she stay still enough, the Legion wouldn't notice her in their advance.
There was nothing. No sound, no light, just the smell of the dirt and dust in the air, even the fresh air that came through the hole that her arm was propped out of.
But there was something else.
A thud. Then another one. Then many, many more. A sound like a wave that was roaring ever closer to where she was. For a moment, she hoped that it was footsteps of someone, but realized that the fact that it was louder even more than the ringing in her ears, was probably a Legion.
She wanted to pull her hand back, to hide in this hole, but realized if she did — she'd likely alert it to her presence.
The thudding moved around the space outside. She could sense it based on where the thuds were or weren't. Before eventually, and dreadfully, the thuds drew ever closer to her hand — before something metallic, and cool, touched against her hand. It held for a moment, before pulling away.
There was silence.
Had she been found?
There was a creaking, replaced by the ringing in her ears, and a pressure felt lifted off her chest that she hadn't even noticed was there — and she reflexively took a deep gasp of air, filling her half-deflated lungs with air that she didn't even notice that was absent.
She coughed, again and again, her breath becoming less and less wet against her mouth and tongue as she did.
She felt, relieved — almost serene in the moment that the air rushed back to her brain.
She immediately felt pain from her legs, and pinned arm beneath the rubble, and light registered in her eyes.
Her mind filled with relief. And for a moment, she was able to turn her head, and looked up at a form standing above her.
She mouthed words that no one, not even the Tausendfüßler above her, would hear.
And then she felt nothing at all.