With Cookie still overthinking it, he was startled when the rookies followed Shade out of the trenches with extra weapons in hand. They stole some ravager armor as well, adding more layers of armor despite only being made of bones, wood, and foliage. Chappy and Ace put on some chest plates, which were too big for Zoey, but she put on a camouflage hood to conceal herself, and while Tricky didn’t grab any weapons since she already carried enough weight, she strapped her backpack to her chest to hold the bomb secure. Since Shade led the charge, Chappy handed him a skull helmet with horns to protect him, which he seemed to find useless, but as he glanced back to see his teammates improvising, he put the helmet on and took the lead. Cookie was the last one to leave, and before he stepped out into the open, he grabbed a bag containing more rudimentary equipment as well as some arrows before catching up with the rest of the group.
As soon as they left their cover position, they were already exposed to the gunfire. They ran straight while the turrets were aiming lower as they cleared the ravagers trying to break into the base. The wall was too thick, so even with dozens of soldiers banging on it, they could only chip it. The other option was climbing, but it was too steep, and there were little to no ledges or ridges to use as handholds, so they could only jump and try to pile up to gain some height. Despite this, Shade’s main concern became the dwindling number of ravagers to provide cover since no more reinforcements were coming from behind and the remaining ones were dying every second.
They were facing a mighty challenge, but there were no other options, and Shade had already put his plan in motion. He gave instructions only using gestures taught to them, ordering the squad to split into two lanes. He led the right one, with Zoey and Ace right behind, and Cookie led the left, with Tricky and Chappy, ensuring they stayed close and kept their arms in front to be as slim as possible. While everyone prepared to put their weapons to use, Cookie and Shade caught up to the last row of ravagers, which were only a fraction of what used to be hundreds. The omens were unrelenting and enjoyed every single kill since they would soon have no targets to shoot, and while they got cocky since they were the ones slaughtering the ravagers now, they made sure not to cease fire with the turrets until they gunned down every last one of them.
–Remember the formation!– Shade shouted at his fellow rookies, to which they all nodded firmly, though Cookie and Tricky barely understood what he was talking about. However, as they were already charging into battle and joining the ravagers in their final push, they figured out what he meant by keeping formation.
With the few turrets lined up and firing from left to right in synchrony, they replicated the omens' wall of bullets, but it was much more effective and precise, shooting almost simultaneously, with only a delay of less than half a second between each one. This left the ravagers with no chance to go up against the omens’ defense, but they still tried; there was no other option. Every time the turrets swayed to one side, they took out a whole line of soldiers in one sweep, forcing the ravagers to concentrate the last of their units in the middle to attack the doors in the center. The omens stayed on the sides, surrounding the area and deliberately engaging only when necessary as they watched the turrets take out everyone for them. The ravagers who managed to run to the sides got away from the turrets, but the omens only played with their hope, as they would then mercilessly kill them before they could get away or run past the wall.
With a limited number of ravagers to cover behind, EchoForce made sure to stay close but always behind, never getting ahead to avoid being shot. This meant there was no turning back; once the ones in front were out, the squad would be completely exposed, so they all focused on tracking the ravagers’ movement. The enemy ran sporadically; there was little thought in their approach since they were all forced to run for it, but Cookie and Shade were observant and fast to react, shadowing the ravagers to guarantee the rest of the squad was behind safety as well. However, this didn’t suffice, as some of the turrets still managed to miss the ravagers in front and reach farther, putting the squad at risk.
Upon this realization, only three seconds into the plan and a few meters away, Shade commenced the next strategy to dodge the bullets. Without saying a word, he raised one hand and pointed left with one finger, and everyone understood and started following perfectly, with Cookie quickly adjusting and picking up on his movement. To get close to the wall without depending on the ravagers as meat shields, Shade and Cookie paid close attention to the turrets’ movement pattern since there were only five, and they weren’t even in the range of three of them when sticking to the center.
As long as they kept running straight, they would only have to dodge bullets from at most three turrets at a time if they ignored the omens on the sides, though they didn’t appear to be a threat at the moment since they were distracted by their morbid amusement. Each turret was a few feet apart from the next, so to avoid any of them catching them, EchoForce had to predict where its barrel would aim and constantly sway left to right as well to mimic the motion. There was no room for error, only the tiny, constantly shifting, safe space between each other. With ravager corpses in their way to jump over, the strategy would put the rookies’ agility and reflexes to the test, but that’s what they all trained for.
Shade picked up on a trail of bullets and immediately guided the squad left, following right behind at a fast pace to stay in the safe zone, only to have to run back to the other side and repeat it all over again. The first shift was almost effortless, but since there were multiple turrets and they had to identify which one to focus on to not break the line of sight or the order of their lanes, the rookies stopped breathing in their state of absorption as they followed the motion.
EchoForce began waving between the thousands of bullets coming at them. They had to zigzag to survive, keeping up with an exact pace to match the slow but constant fire rate of the turrets while also knowing exactly when to rush to dodge the following sweep from the next turret. It required an immense amount of concentration, as there was a tiny window of half a second to shift before either adjacent trail of bullets caught them. There was no missing a beat, so Shade and Cookie couldn’t even blink as it meant losing track of their shifting lane, but they kept rushing forward.
Cookie was able to replicate Shade’s formation after seeing him execute it once, synchronizing his movement to run right behind the trail of bullets chasing the other lane. Immediately, they all started to sweat from the stress, but they all stayed in the safe gap between bullets instinctively without looking at their feet. But while they could dodge and weave formation, performing the same motion at the same speed repeatedly was too much, and the closer they got to the wall, the harder it was to maintain the rhythm or stay in formation. They did dodge every bullet heading their way, but they soon stood out to everyone around as EchoForce was the only group capable of advancing without harm.
After seeing their method of dodging, the ravagers tried to replicate it as a last resort. Most of them failed, but some were able to advance without getting shot. Once they reached the wall, only a couple dozen remained, and since they had no other plan but to climb the wall, a large pile of bodies was formed at the foot of the doors, blocking the entrance but giving some height for the remaining soldiers to start climbing. The pile was still not even half as tall as the wall itself, and it only gave the omens an easier target to shoot since the ravagers significantly slowed down when stepping on their fallen teammates.
The squad had made it far but couldn’t stop for a second until they managed to hide from the turrets under the balcony, so before the omens could realize they were about to reach the wall as well, Shade and Cookie executed the next move. They now heavily relied on their teammates instead of guiding them, and fortunately, they were all prepared. As soon as they reached the corpses piled up before the wall, they stuck close to the wall to avoid the rain of bullets coming from above. Zoey, Chappy, and Ace spread out and grabbed the spears they picked up to hurl them directly at the wall, using all their strength to puncture the minuscule ventilation panel strips since they were the only part of the surface they could viably use to climb.
Zoey shot hers right above the pile of ravagers, with Ace shooting his a few feet above to the left and Chappy doing the same, hitting below the balcony with the turrets. They created a weak but evenly spaced stair that could take them to the very top of the wall, but they first made sure the spears were set in place before attempting to climb. The ravagers were astonished, but hopeful, when a way up suddenly appeared above them. Before they could steal their chance to climb the wall, Shade, Zoey, and Ace climbed the pile of corpses with big strides to reach the top faster. They almost tripped since there was no solid ground, but they soon made their way up to reach the first spear.
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Using her agility and lightweight to play it safe, Zoey grabbed the spear first and kept the momentum of her jump to swing to the next one, and so forth. Ace tried to follow, but by the time he and Shade were about to grab onto the first spear, the omens had picked up on their plan and opened fire once again, now aiming at the rookies. The pile of corpses began to crumble as the omens focused on the ravagers trying to imitate EchoForce before singling them out. They prevented the rest of the squad from climbing, but while they tumbled, Zoey made it to the top.
The balcony housed the turrets and all the omens shooting down, so Zoey couldn’t climb up and waited for her teammates to hand her some tools. That’s when Tricky and Cookie retrieved a few short ropes of clothes from the bag he stole and quickly tied them together to hand them to Ace, who in turn tossed them at Zoey. Since there were no railings on the balcony, she immediately began wrapping the rope around the base of the turrets, at least the ones in her reach. The rest of the squad laid low while the omens gunned down every ravager around them, buying themselves more time while Cookie and Tricky tied more rope to hand to Ace and let Zoey take care of the turrets.
With plenty of rope to secure a good knot around the turrets but a difficult grip to maintain with one hand, Zoey struggled to get much done, especially with the omens now focusing on her. The ones on the balcony were still unaware she was right below, but the omens on the ground were not risking anyone climbing, so they shifted upward to take Zoey down, prompting Tricky to use one of her gadgets to create a distraction. With easy access to her backpack, Tricky pulled out another smoke grenade and threw it in the air as hard as she could, which was still not enough to reach the top of the wall, but Zoey grabbed it; they only needed to set it off midair. Bow already in hand, Chappy concentrated on aiming and took his shot hastily as he saw bullets nearly missing Zoey.
Chappy failed the shot; he had aimed too high, and the arrow had reached its peak before it began falling. It would have taken him too long to shoot another arrow, so he panicked and tried to grab a spear. Before he could even reach down for the weapon, Zoey grabbed the arrow before it left her reach. As she faced the bullets coming at her, she reacted quickly and stabbed the smoke grenade with the arrow against the wall before tossing it over the ledge. She lost her grip in the process, but after falling safe in Cookie’s arms, they all watched as the large cloud of smoke poured from the balcony, quickly rising and startling omens, who didn’t think twice before kicking the grenade off the wall, causing more smoke to obscure the area.
While the turrets could still shoot just fine, at least Zoey had tied ropes around a few of them, and with enough movement, they naturally fell just above the ravagers, who pulled down as hard as possible. The omens froze; they were petrified and didn’t even know what they were looking at anymore. They suddenly realized they had lost control of the situation when they heard their turrets smashing on the ground. The ravagers’ might and diligence proved to prevail once again, as they ripped all the turrets off the balcony and completely destroyed them, or at least damaged them to the point where they didn’t shoot anymore.
Despite still outnumbering them, the omens next to the base began fleeing, trying to get into the base or simply retreat down the mountain, as the ravagers were bloodthirsty and looking for revenge. On top of it, they threw the broken pieces back at the omens on the balcony, who were too terrified to poke their heads out and decided to use the smoke as cover and run down the stairs to hide in their base as they no longer had machines to protect them. But right as the smoke in front cleared, the omens realized they weren’t off the hook, and in fact, they were about to be ripped apart as well.
The plan went swimmingly. Shade, Ace, and Zoey climbed back to the top with their spear poles, and as they found a dozen or so omens still on the balcony, they forced them to retreat inside. A few tried to fight back but were thwarted by the rookies’ agility. Zoey found two short swords and used each one to slash throats open, with Ace jamming his sword into an omen’s stomach before spilling his guts over the wall, followed by Shade charging at the exit door with an axe to scare the enemy off, but not without picking off a couple of targets and finding way too much joy in it. After the balcony was clear of any smoke, Ace found three more omens cowering in the corner opposite the door, and while he didn’t hesitate to attack, Shade beat him to the punch, and he not only rammed his battle axe into their skulls but pushed their bodies off the wall. The corpses caught the ravagers below by surprise, but they made sure to rip off all the limbs and keep throwing them at the nearby omens as a sign of mockery and dominance.
With the balcony cleared, Cookie, Tricky, and Chappy were trying to find a way to get up to the wall before the ravagers turned hostile towards them. They saw that Shade, Ace, and Zoey were already clearing out the top, but unlike them, they couldn’t use the spears to get up there anymore, at least not without a boost since the pile of bodies in front fell apart and wasn’t as tall as before. Cookie offered to boost Chappy, who gladly accepted since he was growing nervous with all the ravagers around and took the opportunity to get to safety as soon as possible.
He reached for the first spear with relative ease, having a little trouble swinging with the bow in his hand, so he let go of it, keeping only his sword and a short piece of rope he managed to retrieve. But as he was about to reach for the ledge and pull himself up, he glanced back and panicked when Tricky and Cookie were stuck in the middle of the crowd as the ravagers attempted to follow the rookies’ lead and climb as well. The two began arguing as Tricky wasn’t confident about making the jump, but Cookie insisted on her climbing first since they were running out of time.
The ravagers were not as agile or careful with their movement; they had their characteristic animal fierceness, but they weren’t nimble as they struggled to take turns climbing and instead piled up, entrapping Tricky and Cookie in the middle. Cookie tried to push through while protecting Tricky, but since they couldn’t get to the front, he simply picked her up and tossed her over the swarm of ravagers. She was almost dragged back down but managed to grab onto the first spear, holding onto it in terror upon looking down. With her backpack slipping down her shoulder, and the ravagers appearing scarier from her perspective, her main concern was still Cookie. He wasn’t following, there was no way for him to climb the pile of ravagers, so he focused instead on defending Tricky from anyone who tried to pull her down.
Tricky froze for a moment, trying to find a useful gadget in her backpack, but the ravagers were becoming more aggressive by being used as stepping stones and began reaching for her with the intention of harm. Cookie wasn’t going to allow it and started brawling with everyone, distracting most of the ravagers and Tricky herself, who looked up to ask the rookies for help. Ace and Chappy tried setting up the little rope they had, but it wasn’t long enough to reach Tricky, let alone Cookie. She had to climb to the second spear by the very least, and since they weren’t too sturdy and the ravagers' outburst shook the wall violently, she couldn’t hesitate for longer. However, she waited for Cookie to make his way to her, kicking the ravagers’ below her in the face to buy some time, but as much as she tried, Cookie kept urging her to climb.
–Go! You got this. They’ll have your back… last every single one of them for me, okay?– Cookie shouted encouragingly, almost joyous, despite being in the middle of a fight with the ravagers. He gave Tricky a smile, but she adamantly shook her head and refused to listen, even when he kept reassuring her selflessly.
–You’ll make it, just go! Remember when you challenge the unthinkable… You always say you’d find a way, right?... You’ll do it by a-…– Cookie kept shouting, losing strength but trying to speak sense into Tricky. He kept ordering her to leave before it was too late, but as he was getting overwhelmed, his voice was drawn out by the ravagers, and the daunting thunder was growing louder and more frequent. Tricky could no longer hear him; she only saw him slowly disappear in the mass of ravagers, still supporting and routing for her unwaveringly until the last moment. That courageous, genuine, heartening, and slightly cheeky expression of his remained no matter how many punches he took, and as Tricky watched it all with tears rolling down her cheeks, she had to stop herself from looking. It wasn't until the rookies took the initiative and sent Chappy down the rope to reach for her that she broke out of her petrified state and reluctantly grabbed his hand.
–By any means…– Tricky responded under her breath with a despairing look, conflicted with the agony and comfort of hearing his last words as she looked for Cookie in denial while Chappy held her hand tight. Zoey, Ace, and Shade began pulling them up, and even when they could see Tricky’s sorrow, it didn’t deter them from continuing the mission and finishing the job as they were told, no matter the losses.
| AND WHAT IF WE CHANGED THE WORLD?
WE RISE FROM THE FLAMES THE VICTOR
IT’S FAR FROM A PERFECT PICTURE |