“Any final questions?” Carlos asked the group of assorted personnel who just received his elevator-pitch briefing on the defensive systems. Seeing no one indicate they did, he finished off with a reminder, “make sure they have a secure footing when you set them up. If something goes wrong, press the big red button and I’ll send something to assist. Good luck.”
During the entire three minute briefing, his team’s private text channel had been blowing up with chatter he hadn’t had the time to check yet. As he got in the car to head to the final defensive position around the perimeter, he pulled out his phone and was surprised to see the chatter was actually from the outdated channel which lacked their newest team member.
They both had the same notification sound, but he figured that the others would just use the newer one: what could they be saying that Silvia wouldn’t want or need to know? As soon as he thought that, he remembered that every time a new MG joined their group, Rebecca would get nervous about them to the point she started slacking on her own duties.
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NF: Do you think she’s doing alright? She said she encountered some demons, but left out the other standard report information.
DT: We did not teach her the more formal reporting procedure, remember? Higher priority was put on being able to defend herself. I’m sure she would have included something if she needed help.
NF: Alright.
NF: But what if she thinks it’d be embarrassing to do that? What if unpleasant memories of her last encounter with demons cause her to freeze?
Pal: Chill, her costume would hold up long enough for her to snap out of it. Especially against these early demons.
NF: What if her chemicals backfire? Have you seen the warning on those things? Who signed off on giving her ClF3?
DT: I am sure she knows how to be safe with them. She chose them.
Pal: ^^ just relax. How do you even have time to chat with us? I'm up to my neck with all the little injuries I need to heal.
===========
Deciding to just mark the rest as read, Carlos did the apparently unthinkable: just asking the person in question. Well, Rebecca probably thought of that too and was either refraining for once or had been preemptively blocked by an aide when Silvia’s account was being set up. Most likely the latter as the incessant questions had slowed down or distracted every trainee they picked up before the blocking policy was subtly implemented.
“Ironically,” Carlos quietly mumbled as he typed out his question, “Silvia probably wouldn’t get all that distracted or slowed down by something like that. She’s way too comfortable with that ‘prosthetic’ of hers. At what point does it become a cybernetic or modification?”
Despite the questions, Carlos liked technology- especially the crazy stuff the Semiseelie could help design- but directly connecting to your brain was too much. In fact, Carlos figured it went deeper than just that in Silvia’s case. How could someone so comfortably control an extra limb to the point of having complex muscle memory and kinesthesia in a handful of days, without having their memories and nervous system modified as well?
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TB: Status? I’m almost done with setup, lures are on standby for your signal.
DYK: I need a minute to finish the route, but the next ones should go much faster. Can you give the shelter a call and tell them to open the door when I arrive?
TB: Yes. Can I ask why?
DYK: I can’t see into the shelters.
TB: Explain?
DYK: I need ULE to see. Shelters are anti-magic zones.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
TB: Got it.
TB: Sorry.
DYK: Np. Got the perimeter fencing up and there’s no demons for a few blocks- how long until the next wave?
TB: 15 min +/- a few.
DYK: Should be enough to be mostly back by then if we hurry. I guess give them the call?
TB: Can you not?
DYK: I don’t have access to that system.
===========
“Of course someone forgot to give our extractor access to the shelter comms,” Carlos muttered, calling into his personal coordination hub. With practiced ease, he navigated the menus, pausing briefly to remember which shelter was the first being evacuated.
The call only rang once before someone picked up, not getting a word off before Carlos told them, “MG Technobabble here. There's a non-critical issue preventing my teammate from calling you directly. As you can probably see from the cameras, the area around the shelter is safe and secure, so you are to meet them in the courtyard. From there everyone will put on the gas masks and follow any of her instructions.”
Mercifully, the person he was calling responded in a very calm and professional tone, “Got it. I’ll get everyone moving right away. What’s our time frame looking like?”
“Around fifteen minutes before more demons show up. Safety is also a fifteen minute walk, but your escort should be able to handle it. Her weapons are not suited to precision, so if there are demons, priority should be getting distance.”
“I’ll forward the message,” the voice said before obviously covering the microphone and shouting at the other people in the shelter with them. “Rescue’s here! Get your masks on and line up. If you don’t have one, there’s extra’s outside. Door is opening.” Done giving orders, they turned back to the phone, “we’re on our way. Thanks for the help.”
A few minutes later, Carlos was flipping through video feeds of his lure drones, watching for any demons as the group of civilians was getting prepared to move. As he switched to the non-lure hovering over the group’s heads, he was slightly startled to see Silvia spraying a cloud of white gas into the faces of everyone nervously standing around. Concern growing, he turned on the drone’s microphone and speakers, picking up someone complaining, “why are we wasting time doing this? There could be demons anywhere!”
Without turning to look, Silvia sent a gust of the gas at the complainer, while explaining, “you probably want to find out if everything is properly sealed now, rather than while running. Also, I checked and there’s no demons for a few blocks- but the ones closest to us are starting to get a little antsy. Anyway, everyone’s good so please form a line, parents make sure you hold your kid’s hands. Actually, maybe everyone should partner up.
“Visibility is going to be very bad, but we’re trading that for being less noticeable. I’ll be about as blind as the rest of you.” Pulling out a familiar drone from the backpack, she continued, “I do have this guy to help me, but if you run into danger, the best thing you can do to get my attention is yell. But please only do that if it’s really an emergency.”
As everyone lined up, Carlos’ phone started to ring- showing that Silvia was calling him. With a shrug he answered, asking, “having a problem?”
“Nah, we’re just about to head out and I figured it was easier to coordinate if we were calling instead of texting. It doesn’t make much of a difference to me, but you only have two hands to manage more things than I am. I’m going to do one more wide-area sweep before I have to rely on the drone’s thermal camera to see.”
Humming in acknowledgement, Calros offered, “I only noticed one or two groups of demons from my brief searching, unless it’s necessary, I’ll keep the lures far out and a little behind your group.”
“Sounds good, we have a pack coming in to investigate from the… south. We should be gone before they get here, but a distraction might still be a good idea.”
With a simple confirmation, Carlos pulled the drone closest to the indicated position to investigate. As soon as the lure got within a hundred or so yards of them, they snapped their bodies in its direction and started chittering.
Checking his network program, he sighed as he realized there were no armed drones out yet. Even without having a way to permanently deal with the issue, leading them demons on a chase away from the group of escaping civilians would still help out. He also figured he could have the lure lose its hunters after a while since the demons were on the slower end.
Satisfied, he switched back to watching Silvia just in time to see her stick a canister just inside the doorway of the first building, filling the room with a thick fog. One by one, the civilians entered- some more brave than others- and he was forced to use the drones lower quality thermal imaging.
As the group traveled from building to building along the route, his initial skepticism on leaving Saliva to escort on her own was slowly dissipated. The system she had set up was fairly comprehensive, but clearly uncomfortable for everyone involved. Additionally, despite the low visibility and size of the group, they were making good time- fitting right into the estimates that would put them almost to the forward base before the next wave was likely to hit.
Annoyingly the good luck couldn’t last forever, as the signs of the said wave beginning flared to life just as the group was a few blocks from the defensive barriers of the base. Gritting his teeth, Carlos arrayed the lures closer to the group and prayed that nothing would pop up in too bad a location.