After the surprise attack from the Krix, Commander Preston ordered Cassie to head back to the Drill beam train to provide it with protection. Since the first wave of spiders and wyrms, the Krix have gone back to their intimidating, observant tendencies- Moving alongside the North of Squad 2.1.9’s garrison as they send smaller waves of proxy troops underneath the shield.
Dante and Nadia joined Cassie in a passing humvee and they made their way back to the Drill beam before any commotion began.
Allowing them to get a few hours of shuteye in the Humvee before being woken up upon arrival.
_NOTE: 48 hours to relocation site.
“Drill beam is ready to fire, Heir,” Rebecca announces from behind her control panel.
“Standby,” Cassie says, speaking privately to Preston whilst Clint and Kabela enter the hatch, having done maintenance to the drill beam.
“You're in a bad way, kid,” Clint raises an eyebrow at Dante before chuckling, “Didn't think you were gonna wake up from that nap,”
“I’m fine,” Dante grunts as he shifts his body in pain, he woke up to a total numbness in his leg- he can still move it but he wouldn't be able to run in this condition.
“No, I don't think you are,” Kabela comments, looking at Dante’s leg as she walks over to him with a medical aid kit.
“Looks fine to me,” Captain Hammond grins, “He ain't dead,”
Kabela prepared a needle and thread before suddenly pausing, and waiting patiently.
“What’s wrong?” Dante asks.
“I need access,” She says, looking at Cassie.
“Oh right,” Cassie stammers.
_ENERGY SHIELD DISABLED_
Kabela starts stitching the entrance and exit of Dante’s wound after removing the makeshift bandage- Occasionally poking him in the leg because he can't sit still- Each stitch is like jabbing his wound with a knife, and the needle is fucking massive.
“So Preston thinks we’re in trouble, huh?” The Captain addresses Cassie.
“Yeah, you've been causing the Krix a bit of trouble,” She responds.
“Not as much as the shield has,” Siv comments.
“What?” Cassie asks, her tone suddenly grows stern.
“I’m just saying,” Siv shrugs with a nervous look on his face, “The shield’s been quite the problem too,”
Cassie glares at him with a blank expression, before Dante recognizes that it’s a look of concern. She’s anxious, and he’s never seen her like this before.
“Preston, we have a huge fucking problem,” Cassie starts speaking on her comms, pacing around the inside of the cart.
“Go ahead,” Preston’s voice echoes in everyone's ears.
“What if they're targeting the shield?”
The line goes silent, setting an air of discomfort in the room as they all await a response. They all know what would happen if they target the shield- They’re fucked.
Royally.
“Preston?” Cassie's voice grows more shaky.
“Standby,” He comments.
Dante looks over at Nadia, who’s leaning against the wall of the cart with her arms crossed and a bored expression on her face. In her mind, this probably justifies why she thinks it's a shit strategy. And to some degree, Dante can see it too. If you're on the defensive, you’d better make sure your defence stays up and running.
“Shield units are not responding,” Preston returns with chilling information.
“What do you mean?” Cassie stammers, “Are the shields still up?”
_OVERWATCH: UPDATE FROM COMMAND
_DETAILS: Shield is at 77%.
_STATUS: Active
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Everybody pauses in confusion as they confirm that the shield is still running.
“I don't understand,” Cassie shakes her head.
“I can't get a line to the shield unit, but since the shield is still active it's safe to assume they're alive,”
_OVERWATCH: ORDER FROM COMMAND
_DETAILS: Protect the Shield.
“Copy that,” Cassie nods with a newfound resolve and turns to Dante and Nadia. “How’s it looking?”
“All done,” Kabela comments, wrapping a bandage around Dante’s leg.
_ENERGY SHIELD ENABLED_
“Thanks,” Dante says once Kabela finishes matching him up.
“De nada,” She responds.
“You good to go?” Cassie asks Dante.
“Yeah,” He says, standing up to his feet and giving his leg a bit of a stretch.
He definitely feels better, and can move his leg. But it’s still completely numb- He won't know if he’s making it any worse and he needs to push himself.
_HP: 34 (-66)
_MANA: 39% REMAINING
_DETAILS: 90/230 (+9)
_NOTES: Multiple broken ribs. Muscular damage from stab wound.
“You're on shield duty from here on out,” Cassie orders after bringing up Dante’s stats. “When I tell you so, use the rest of your mana on one,”
“Yes, Heir,” Dante nods.
“Amarecruits Bazoshona la,” Kabela chuckles as she goes to open the hatch.
“Yeah, akanangqondo,” Clint responds whilst helping her.
“What was that?” Nadia asks, lifting her back off the wall and getting confrontational.
“Don’t worry about it,” Clint says before winking, “Good luck,”
“Let’s go,” Cassie says, climbing the ladder as a humvee pulls up beside the Drill beam cart of the train.
They all hop onto the roof of the car before entering via the hatch on top.
“Welcome back to Cal’s taxi service, it looks like you're returning customers,”
“We need to get to the shield unit,”
“Roger-roger,” He nods before the vehicle takes off past the drill beam train.
----------------------------------------
“Looks like the garrisons gone to war,” Thunder comments.
“Any update on Dante?” Julz asks, standing with Squad O3 on a hilltop overlooking the ancient city of Old Vi as the sun sets behind it.
“Last I heard he was headed to the front lines with Cassie,” Prodigy responds, with her husk, whisper-like voice and white hair.
When the garrison was still fifty-four hours away from the relocation site, Squad O3 arrived at the site themselves, alongside Squad O1- of whom Julz is yet to meet. They spent the last hour getting to a vantage point on the southern half of the relocation site, the northern half of the area is being scouted by O1.
“Don't worry about it,” Captain Eddy says, “The kid seems competent,”
Julz takes a deep breath, trying to calm the thoughts running through her head- is Dante ready for that yet?
The obvious answer in her mind is one that she’d prefer to ignore. The result of it isn't one she should think about. She needs to focus on right now. If anything, she’s in danger too if they find any Krix.
Or if the Krix find them.
“No signal from here,” Atari walks over with an antenna in his hand and a pair of clunky headphones. “Could we get closer?”
“Not yet,” Captain Eddy responds, “First order’s to scout the area,”
“Understood,” Atari sighs, putting his antenna down to start packing it away.
“Where to first?” Thunder asks.
“we’ll chop from East to West, Same as O1,”
“You see that light?” Atari stands up with a grin on his face, bumping into Julz as he steps to the edge of the cliff, “That’s the fucking server!”
“Yeah, we see it,” The Captain rolls his eyes.
“Keep it in your pants, Atari,” Prodigy chuckles.
“Doesn’t look all that cool to me,” Thunder comments.
“Wow, you idiots really don't understand what you're seeing. Julz, listen real close when I say this…” Atari takes a deep breath and pinches the bridge of his nose, ”Never be like these idiots,”
“Stop manipulating the recruit into becoming a tech,” Prodigy says.
“Yeah, Julz probably doesn't care about any of that, right Julz?” Thunder grins.
Julz briefly loses all manner of social skills as she awkwardly glares at the eyes around her, “Actually, I uhh-”
“Ahhh,” They all collectively sigh and throw their hands in disappointment.
“He got to her,” Thunder says.
“I just want to know what it is,” Julz pipes up.
“It's an engineering masterpiece,” Atari responds, being mimicked by Prodigy.
“It’s one of the five servers where the Krix run their central A.I from,” Atari grins, “Well, four servers after O2 got a hold of one,”
“You still have to tell us that story, Captain,” Thunder says.
“Not yet,” Captain Eddy responds.
Captain Eddy is the O2 soldier who survived their last mission and bought back the data. Atari and Prodigy have been a part of O3 for a few years now. They lost two members of their squad a few months before the recruits arrived- the Captain was one of those who died. And Thunder transferred in just before the losses happened, Julz can tell it didn't affect him as much as it affected Atari and Prodigy. She doesn't know the details of the event, but she has caught both of them in these occasional glares, as though they are searching deep within themselves for something but Julz isn't sure what.
Captain Eddy and Julz have been assigned to fill the gap that was in O3 and despite being a team that’s scrapped together, everyone seems diligent enough to try their best. It’s the first thing Julz noticed.
“Let’s get moving,” Captain Eddy orders, heading towards the Humvee.
“Yes, Sir,” The team calls out.