The Guards could only follow Hunter’s order, and Aera didn’t reprimand them for retreating as they climbed up the rope.
Aera was backed up against him.
Hunter had to use his arm to hold back the edge of the metal plating that the engineer had been holding back while he worked. It was uncomfortable, and it trapped him there until he could finish. It took some elbow grease to cut through the channel that led to the Glyph, and then carve new channels into a new Glyph altogether. The Guards were yelling, Aera’s voice joined in their cacophony. He couldn’t afford to listen.
“Class-1 is engaging! Focus fire!” one of his Guards yelled. The voice broke through his focus just as Hunter finished the last fix. He wrenched his arm out from between the two pieces of metal.
Just as a wave of etherium which hit him from behind, thrust forward into the panel he had just repaired. Thankfully, his improved constitution ensured that nothing inside his body broke from the impact.
The wave of pressure didn’t abate. Aera groaned as she forced herself back to her feet.
Despite his better judgement, he turned to see just how bad the situation was for him.
The creature was just as big as the Pyrothar he’d encountered when he first woke up in this cursed world. It was like a bigger version of the strange wolf-like insects he and the scout team had encountered in the caves near Lake Striptease.
But this one was at least 5 times their size. It stalked towards Hunter, a visible aura surrounded it. Dark green, and it flickered as if it were being stroked by ethereal winds, akin to a candle’s dancing flame.
The way it felt contrasted the way it looked. It was like what he imagined a hammer might feel when it struck an anvil. Again, and again, and again. Why did it feel like that? He fell into something of a stupor. It was like his mind was out of his own control. He felt his channels light, etherium magnetized to them, and activated them in a way he’d never felt before. He didn’t even need to focus too hard to feel them. It was as if a spotlight were shining on him from the etheric realm. He could see everything.
The rest of the creatures of the beastwave seemed to view the Class-1’s aura as a threat to themselves as well. They flowed around the perimeter of the aura, which meant that there was space between the beast and its prey. Its eyes darted between him and Aura, then its attention moved to the Guards who were peppering it with everything they had. Bullets barely penetrated its skin. Energy weapons seemed to annoy it more.
He could only give the creature half of his attention. His remaining focus turned inward, and he was astonished.
He felt the creature in front of him. But it wasn’t in the same vague way he could feel his way through constructs and other etheric phenomena. He felt how the etherium moved through it, in and out, like an endless breath, a perpetual exhale. It was almost like it was being charged before it even reached the creature, as if it was being activated by the creature’s presence alone.
The beast stopped advancing. It assessed him. The rest of its attackers became irrelevant. It must have felt his presence as well.
Then something in the beast’s demeanour changed. The charge of the etherium around it shifted. He could feel the etherium within the creature expand to saturate its body, and its aura intensified. It made him sweat. It gave him a headache.
“Activate it!” Hunter yelled back to the defenders.
“You’re too close,” he heard someone yell back.
The beast charged.
“Just fucking activate it!” Hunter yelled.
Hunter tried to leap out of the way, but it was too fast. He shoved Aera out of the way of its charge, but then the Class-1 hit him head on. He found himself trapped between the beast and the wall, and then the beast stepped back, readying for another charge towards the wall.
The force field didn’t activate. He didn’t even feel etherium flowing through it. They hadn’t listened. He wanted to yell at them, curse them, but he couldn’t breathe. He hadn’t felt like this since Barnum. The telltale agony of broken bones consumed him. It had been too long since he’d felt like this. The pain was too shocking. He’d forgotten how to work through it.
He couldn’t move.
Aera was screaming his name, firing at the beast as if it would make a difference. Its gaze shifted to her for a moment, but then it brought its attention to the wall.
The creature charged again, slamming its head against the repaired Aegis plates. Hunter felt a brief ember of hope flare when the plate activated, but then the Class-1 hit it again and the Aegis’s plate deformed. With another hit, it tore through the plating altogether.
The assault exposed the outpost’s bare wall, which wouldn’t withstand this kind of attack for long. The beast backed up and charged again. Wounds pitted its blood-soaked hide. It was slowing down. The weapons were working. The beast was struggling, despite its power, despite its stubborn will.
The wall trembled and cracked with the next impact.
It seemed like the entire defensive line had turned its attention to the beast. The focused fire of a hundred weapons impacted the creature. The sound was deafening. An endless thundering. The beast roared its defiance, but the combined assault from the defenders drowned the sound out.
It retreated, but didn’t make it far before it fell under the combined assault.
Hunter would have sighed in relief if he could inhale at all. He settled for a mental fuck you towards the creature that could have just signed his death sentence.
He felt a pair of hands grab him, and then another. They lifted him over the wall, and he caught his breath.
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Old strategies for dealing with the pain resurfaced. He did his best to fight through it.
“The wall,” he rasped for whoever could hear him. “I’m not sure how long it will hold.”
“We know,” he heard a familiar voice behind him. He turned and winced at the pain that came from the effort.
“Guard Captain,” he said.
“You’re insane, a moron, or one of the most courageous people I’ve ever seen, Mr. Koar,” Guard Captain Bell said.
“He’s a moron,” Aera said. Hunter was relieved to hear her voice. “I’m going to make it my mission to make sure you don’t make it anywhere near this wall again, understand? I’m chaining you to that workshop until the day you die.”
Fury contorted her features. It reminded him of a dream he’d had. It was just over a week ago.
Had it only been a week since then?
But the Aera in the dream had been an avatar of pain and torment. The rage of this Aera was born of concern and frustration.
Hunter declined to comment. She was alive, and that’s all that mattered to him right now. He observed the surroundings. A defensive line was being formed behind the vulnerable wall. And even further back; sand bags, heavy machine guns. A few squadrons were watching the wall with their weapons at the ready.
He felt the etheric fluctuations of the Ambition above them, ready to blanket the ground below in a sea of fire if it was necessary.
Even now, it was firing at distant targets. Class-1 and 2 creatures, he could only hope. He imagined the hulking beasts falling under the surprise attack from the sky. A ground-based energy burst surprised him as it shot toward the Ambition, its sources hidden from his view by miles of forest.
The Class-1’s were fighting back.
Flying creatures flocked around the Ambitions shield’s, oblivious to the futility of their actions.
“Class-1 creatures were supposed to be immune,” Aera said. Hunter could only grunt in agreement, electing not to invoke more pain than necessary.
“Clarke said that the parasite had prioritized our elimination. Couldn’t tolerate us knowing that it had a weakness. Maybe it could always control Class-1’s, but hadn’t deemed it to be cost effective.”
They didn’t have time for speculation, Hunter thought.
“The rest of the Aegis system needs to be repaired,” Hunter said, regretting the words, knowing full well he was in no position to help. “I need to go back out there.”
“We informed Mr. Geraldine, and he’s already taking steps to ensure that the rest of the plates are triple-checked before installation; teams have focused on replacing all the damaged plates,” the Guard Captain said.
Hunter wanted to protest. These people couldn’t feel what he felt. His sensitivity made him invaluable during this kind of work.
But then he processed what the Guard Captain was saying.
Replacing the plates would be a lot faster and less dangerous than heading over the wall in order to repair them. It would just require pulling the plates over the wall and lowering a new one.
Why hadn’t he thought of that?
It’s because he hadn’t been thinking. Only reacting. He’d risked Aera’s life, the Guards’ lives, and that engineer’s life because he hadn’t assessed the situation.
He thanked the universe for Joey Geraldine.
Hunter figured he should cede all the authority he’d inherited with the Oberon's name. If today’s events had proven anything to him, it was that he wasn’t ready. In this trial by fire, he’d almost got everyone burned alive. A Guard had died because of his reckless decision-making.
Aera had returned to the wall, fighting alongside the Guards. Trey would be pissed. But the beastwave was terrifying in its scope. It was like an entire enemy army laying siege to their walls. If he was her, he’d be right where she was, helping them fight the unstoppable horde.
Hunter coughed and winced from the pain.
“We’re getting you to a medic,” the Guard Captain said, pulling him to the side.
“I need to work,” Hunter said, wondering how he was going to get anything done in his current state. The thought of being useless when his help was most needed the most repulsed him.
“You will, once we give you a clean bill of health. We’ll have more artisans sent down from the Ambition if there are still any on board.”
Hunter shook his head.
“There’s no point. The system is almost finished—”
“—then that’s even more reason for you to receive care for your wounds. This is an active battleground, I’m in command, and this is a direct order,” the Guard Captain said. Hunter pursed his lips.
What weakness within him would be so ready to accept the order? He wished that he’d refused, overriding the Guard Captain’s authority, crawling back to the wall or the workshop and helping however he could.
Instead, he felt relieved. Was it cowardice?
He felt useless. Honestly, he wished that the Guard Captain had been there earlier to stop him from putting everyone at risk.
Besides, now that he had nothing to do but wait, he could use the time to understand just what had happened with the etherium, which was still surging within him. The feeling was like being charged like a battery, but it wasn’t uncomfortable.
A commotion along the wall caught his attention.
“Another Class-1! It’s big!” someone yelled. The entire line of Guards atop the vulnerable wall retreated. Aera seemed the most frightened he’d ever seen her. She jumped off the wall and broke out into a full-bore sprint.
She only got a few meters away when the wall exploded with a strong etheric pulse.
Hunter had felt that flavour of etherium before. It was Force, and the way it was manifesting reminded him of his time at the museum.
Even at his distance from the wall, hurricane-force winds buffeted him and threw him off of his feet. He hit the ground and cried out as the broken bones in his chest coloured the world in hues of suffering.
The wall was breached.
Hunter heard calls for retreat. A wave of beasts poured through the opening. The temporary barricade worked until a massive figure forced its way through; it was too large to fit. It rammed against the hole, the edges of which immediately gave way to the hulking creature. It reminded him of a giant ape — but it was hairless. Its eyes observed the area with intelligence. It seemed like it was trying to resist its own rage. Its body rippled as if its muscles were in a state of constant, intense cramping. Once it stepped through, people died. A hurricane of Force propelled bodies, weapons, and debris from the wall towards the defenders and their surroundings.
It walked on all fours, but then it stood on its hind legs and thumped its chest.
Its aura filled the surroundings. It wasn’t just a pressure; it was a weight. A blanket of domination to cow the weak animals that pelted at it with their weak weapons.
Hunter grunted. Its presence was twice as strong as the last Class-1. A primitive mechanism deep within him cowered before a superior life-form. The abandoned child that still lived within his mind scoffed at the fear, and any creature that would dare to look down on him.
The outpost was lost. The Ambition could retreat and signal for the other ships to find another world to settle. Skyhold wasn’t worth the price paid in blood. Let the gods rage amongst themselves in this cursed place.
Hunter’s blood turned cold when he saw Aera’s form laying prone, 20 yards from the Class-1 creature which advanced towards the defenders.
Then his own etherium flared in response to the creature’s own.
Something deep within him was resonating with the power of these creatures. There was a recognition he couldn’t define. Despite his pain, he pushed himself to his feet. The movement was smooth. He felt lighter than usual, as if the etherium itself was supporting him.
The etherium within him wasn’t just increasing, there was something else that he was feeling. It was the same thing that he felt from the creature.
It was that distinct feeling of Force-charged etherium. Except it differed from what he’d ever felt before. The etherium seemed poised between dormancy and manifesting its field, as if held in stasis, awaiting permission to release itself. He felt that all he would have to do was let it go, and it would burst from him in an uncontrolled explosion.
“Holy shit,” he breathed.
Aera groaned and moved.
The creature brought its attention towards her. It moved with the sure conviction that its might was uncontested here. It would meet no rival in these puny creatures.
Hunter’s mind quietened, and the world slowed down. All doubt and cowardice evaporated.
Focus came so easily to him. A single idea took almost all of his attention.
The beast must die, and he would be the one to kill it.