“Hammond, what’s your status?” Cassie asks Captain Hammond over Comms.
“All systems go, Heir,” He responds, “We’re just getting started,”
“Where do you want us?”
“Nearby,” He responds.
“Copy that,”
Cassie looks behind her to see Nadia, with Dante a few paces behind. His injuries are pretty severe- They shouldn’t kill him but he’s much more useless than he already was. Luckily, all she needs from him is his shield, she'll do all the heavy lifting.
_ID: DANTE FORST
_HP: 34 (-66)
_MANA: 38% REMAINING
_DETAILS: 87/230
_NOTES: Multiple broken ribs. Muscular damage from stab wound to leg.
He’s got enough mana to make a decent enough shield, considering his mana total has shot up. Did this kid seriously put that many points into his mana? It’s a bold move and makes sense relative to his abilities, but it seems like a bit of a low-tier decision. Honestly, Cassie’s been quite impressed with how Nadia and Dante have kept up and taken orders without issue. She just needs to whip them into shape, and they’ll be her personal attack dogs.
They’ll be useful.
As they approach the Drill beam train, Cassie notices that it is moving much slower than before. They’re going to have to get it moving at speed or else it will be out of sync with the shield. Losing either of them would be a pain in the ass and she’s been avoiding the thought of which one she’d sacrifice if she was forced to choose.
The plan is for both of them to make it to the relocation site- The garrison hasn’t had any casualties yet, which is quite a miracle. She doesn’t expect that to last long but she would only find it acceptable to lose one unit if absolutely necessary.
But even that doesn’t sit well with her.
As they ascend an uphill slope to reach the Drill beam, Cassie notices the units of Krix heading towards the train in a series of boring vehicles, many of which are still bursting out of the ground in the distance before hauling in their direction- Luckily they didn’t tunnel around the Drill beam, so they aren’t immediately under threat, but that unit of Krix is massive, and barrels towards the Drill beam whilst a large plume of smoke fills the air like a dust storm.
A bright white light glints in the corner of Cassie's eye before a loud rumble ripples the ground. Before she can brace herself, the Drill beam fires and a wash of light fills the area. She briefly closes her eyes before opening them to a dense mushroom cloud erupting amongst the dust storm of Krix.
“Let’s move!” Cassie says, picking up the pace to catch up to the Drill train- which is now less than a kilometre away.
It’s a good thing she decided to get out into the field, they’ve covered a lot of ground since leaving the overwatch truck. Cassie prefers being in the thick of it all whilst Preston carries out the plan. He always told her that it’s useful to have a Zo’an or two in the field and he’s right, after watching him do it for so long she was a natural at strategizing and delegation. In fact, she puts a lot more effort into pre-planning a strategy than Preston does. He likes to improvise and keeping up with it is damn near impossible.
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Before Cassie and the recruits reach the Drill beam, a large beam of light blasts from the abyssal dust cloud of Krix. The laser crashes into the side of the Drill team train, lifting one side of the train off the ground and nearly tipping it over before it crashes back down on its treads.
“Hammond, what's your status?” Cassie yells over comms.
There's no response, besides the purr of white noise, sending an air of concern over Cassie- if the drill beam teams are dead, the garrison will have lost a third of its firepower… Maybe more.
“Hammond?!” She yells
“I read you, Heir,” He stammers.
“What’s your status?” She repeats.
“A little shaken up,” He grunts before speaking to his team, “Run diagnostics,”
Having caught up, Cassie leaps up onto the back of the drill train, opening the hatch of the rear cart and poking her head into the engine room- the moment her head enters, her sight is greyed out by the mass of grey smoke filling the room.
“Get the filter running,” A woman's voice orders.
“Yes, Ma’am,” The voice of two men responds.
“Engine room, what's your status?” Cassie calls out, wafting the smoke out of her face.
“Is that you, Heir?” Captain Priscilla responds.
“It is. Everyone alright?”
“Yes, Heir. Everyone’s fine. We just had a bunch of hot coal scattering where we don't want it, we’ll be tidied up in about three minutes and back at tempo,” She responds.
“Copy that,” Cassie responds.
“Can you pass a message to the drill team for me?”
“Sure,” Cassie responds.
“Tell Hammond to fucking shoot the bastards,” She grunts before yelling, “Hey! Why am I still seeing orange glows on the ground?!”
“Copy that,” Cassie chuckles before lifting her head out the hatch to see Dante and Nadia peering over her shoulder.
“Get to the Drill beam cart,” Cassie orders them as she seals the hatch.
“Yes, Heir,” They both respond before running ahead of her.
The two of them are very curious, more curious than Cassie was fresh out of the Academy. It took her a little longer to get acclimated to doing more than just killing Krix, so she can't help but feel a sense of optimism when she sees them learning from her.
Dante most of all, he seems to get pretty stuck in thought sometimes- he’s probably wondering some nerdy shit like ‘Why does the train use coal’.
“Diagnostics complete, Heir,” Hammond responds over comms as Cassie heads over to the drill beam cart.
“Go ahead,” She confirms.
“Engine room and steering have confirmed that after some light repairs, the train can get moving, but the brunt of the damage was to the drill beam,”
“How bad is it?”
“Pretty bad, Clint and Kabela are saying the main gyro is pretty beat up, and the barrel has been bent,”
“Shit,” She mumbles as she looks up at the smoking drill bean above her before entering the hatch of the drill beam cart. “What’s the fix?”
“Kabela and Clint need to fix the gyroscope and a few of its surrounding parts, they also need to cut the barrel, which will reduce the firing range by about thirty-six percent,” He responds.
“Hmm,” She pauses, thinking of a plan of action, “Tell the Engine and Steering teams that they have five minutes to get the drill beam moving. I want them doing everything they can to realign at the center. We’ll protect the drill beam whilst Kabela and Clint do repairs,” She says, nodding at Nadia and Dante who both nod back, “I want all units fixed on the weak side of the train- Preston, we’re going to need support from a few gunners. But keep it all mobile, no ground troops,”
“Understood,” Commander Preston responds.
With the way Preston operates the Overwatch system, he’s always listening in on Cassie. It used to bother her when she was first appointed as Heir because she thought he didn't trust her- turns out it’s the best way for them to always be in sync.
“Oh and one more thing,” Cassie turns to Hammond, “Priscilla says to ‘fucking shoot them’,”
“Aye Aye,” Hammond replies.