The Reaper’s Legion
Chapter 87
Rescue…?
-Alice P.O.V.-
I had to admit, I was more than a little bit surprised by the watchtower that we did see down the way. From seeing the rest of the wall, I assumed that the base itself was going to be more like a refugee camp, maybe a little bit of patrolling, haphazard defensive plans, the works.
What I didn’t expect was the quad barrelled turret with a horizontal scanning eye that searched for anything out of place.
“Alright, new plan.” I paused, “first off, what the heck is that thing!?” I stared at my brother incredulously, “how did you not mention that thing?”
He bit his lip in thought, “I honestly have no idea what that is.”
Richard and I shared a - what I would say - very patient look with each other before turning to him. “Seriously?”
“It’s not like I come here ever,” he hissed, “you think we get anywhere near the other camps if we don’t have too?”
I managed to control myself from smearing my hand across my face in distress, instead it made it to my chin in some simile of a thoughtful expression.
“How reactive is it…” I heard Richard say, less a question and more of a statement. A plan was budding in his head.
‘Please figure this out so I don’t have too,’ I silently pleaded, turning my gaze to him as he lithely scaled the building next to us.
I was confused for a moment, until he got near the top where some shingles were loose. From around the corner, he quickly swiped a slate from the roof, sending it tumbling from the top.
We all heard the turret turn, an abrupt whirr that was then swiftly followed by what sounded like a harsh beep.
In all too short a time, not even a second, the turret let out a light tone and resumed its silent vigil. I could just barely lean out around the corner of the building, but I doubted that I could move much further without it picking up on me.
“So, it has target acquisition rules,” Richard murmured, “it was fast…”
I didn’t like the way he said it, though. It was clear damning tone of ‘Let me just put my foot in a beartrap instead,’ while he considered things.
‘Alright, what to do, what to do…’ I frowned, then turned my attention back to the turret.
“Alright, I’ve got an idea.” I turned to Richard, “throw another one of those.”
He blinked, “alright?”
The moment he scrambled up, I could see the quizzical looks the others gave me, namely my brother. “What are you planning?” He asked, “you’ve got that look.”
“What look?” I frowned, “this is just my look.”
“No, your look is different, this is the ‘I’m doing something a little crazy,’ look.” He crossed his arms in front of him, taking on the big-brother air. I smiled in spite of the situation, glad that he was still able to do that. I was worried that maybe they’d changed more than I thought, but it seemed that wasn’t the case.
“Oh, just, you know-” I spun, hearing Richard’s voice come through the headset.
“It’s down.”
As quickly as possible, I notched one of my special arrows, bringing it to bare even as the turret sighted the inanimate object.
Before the sensor could begin to scan me, my arrow was in flight. Even so, I drew another, gritting my teeth.
‘Of all the times I could miss.’ The part of me that I’d honed to a razors edge critiqued my work. After months of bleeding fingers and cramped hands, I’d gotten a handful of movements hammered into my body.
When firing one shot, always have a second ready. At worst, I’d have another arrow notched and ready to fly.
In this case, the first arrow didn’t fully miss, biting into the exterior armor of the turret, but not the center of mass.
I let fly the second, correcting my aim before diving behind cover. I heard a sharp noise from the turret cut short with a second, almost disappointingly quiet sound.
“It’s down,” Richard said from his vantage point above, “you should really tell me when you plan on doing something like that.”
I huffed, “it worked, didn’t it?”
Arthur crept up to the corner, peering out alongside me at my handiwork. The turret didn’t appear to bear any outward signs of the arrows, but the small holes where they’d torn into it were clear.
“Did they just punch straight through?” He frowned, then looked to me, “the hell were those arrows?”
“Really strong, heavy alloys. They’re the ones I use to hit bigger targets.” I patted one of the quivers on my left side, fed by a larger assortment on my back. “Impressed?”
He shook his head at my cocky grin, but couldn’t help but smirking, “yeah, I’d say so. Damn.”
Both of us started when Richard landed next to us, “alright, no idea if there's any alarm system for them being down, time to work fast.”
I nodded to him, “right behind you.”
He didn’t hesitate to move to the least dense part of the wall. It took only a few seconds for him to do his inspection before he pointed the two nozzle arms at the wall.
Pressurized gel poured out from the apparatus on his back, the volatile green liquid one that I recognized as a very potent acid. The wood and metal that it touched began hissing immediately, running like water as he finished his outline of our entry point. Only ten seconds after he’d begun, the slab fell forward, edges dripping from the acid.
Arthur moved next to me before I grabbed his arm.
I answered his question before he could ask it, “the fumes are mildly toxic, and the acid will go inert in a few more seconds. No reason to risk it.”
Richard looked back, his helmet on. I could tell he had a smile on his face, glad that I was well aware of what his concoctions could do.
As advertised, the green goop ceased sizzling and turned an opaque grey color as it finished its business. Richard was the first one through, three tails behind him flicking forward, slipping through a mess of support beams that were embedded into the ground on the other side of the wall. These we could squeeze through just fine, and came with the added benefit of obscuring the hole in the wall on casual inspection.
If you were on the other side of the wall, though, you’d almost definitely see the two meter wide gap.
“Okay, so this place looks… nice?” I offered without confidence, seeing the buildings in moderate states of repair.
Richard moved forward, quickly keeping to the buildings nearby, all of which seemed empty after inspecting them. “These are probably not the popular ones, given how close to the wall they are.”
“According to what info we have, most people should be kept to one side of the base.” Arthur said, “it should be this way.”
“That information is reliable?” Richard tilted his head, moving forward at a steady pace.
“From what I know.” Was the simple response.
I could see that he was nervous. I was too. Usually Benjamin would keep people for prolonged periods of time and would be set free with enough Matter Energy. However, the ransom amount was often too high to obtain on short notice, and so smaller amounts were exchanged in return for their care.
Honestly, it was very frustrating that Mack’s people had allowed themselves to be extorted so fully, but I suppose that if your leader - and thereby one of the few people with full access to the Obelisk - was letting it happen, you wouldn’t have too much more choice.
‘We seriously need to cripple this whole thing,’ I thought sourly, ‘this is soooo crap.’
I peeled my attention back to the matter at hand. Soon, I might very well be seeing the rest of my family, they would be free.
Then I’d just have to explain to them how I was front-lining for the Legion.
‘Deal with that later,’ a bittersweet smile came to my face as I imagined my parents telling me that I shouldn’t do something so dangerous. But, then, what else would I do? I was pretty damn good at this, overall.
We paused as we slipped through the now less and less dilapidated structures. A few times we stopped, hearing the sounds of passing individuals, whether they be patrols or residents, we weren’t sure.
Stolen novel; please report.
What became clear, though, was the fact that these guys were definitely not living it up as much as we’d been led to believe.
It was certainly a far cry better than I’d expected to see, but as we got closer and closer to the main thoroughfare, I felt a growing consternation towards their conditions. There was some food here and there of decent quality, people talking and seemingly at ease, aside from the background level of tension that I could feel, but it wasn’t the opulent lifestyle I’d come to expect.
“This is how they’re living?” I frowned as I asked, catching Richard’s likewise confused expression.
“They even have food stalls?” I heard anger in Arthur’s voice, and turned to see him and his team with dark and covetous expressions.
‘Oooohkay, not saying a damn thing about how we’re living.’ I cringed at the thought of telling them that this was small stuff compared to our day to day lives. ‘I guess I need to reassess what they view as a land of plenty. Just wait until we swing through and replace all this.’ I thought with no small amount of pleasure.
We moved through the alleyways, towards the most likely location that people would live in. There was a fairly well known apartment area that I imagined would be pretty ideal for keeping people.
But, as we traveled through, I couldn’t help but feel my guard relax. It wasn’t out of carelessness, per se, but more out of utter exasperation.
The entire time we’d snuck through, not a single patrol group had been seen. Sure, there were one or two people here and there, but they were hardly the ‘I’m an oppressor’ type. People even greeted them cheerily, carried on conversations with them like they were neighborhood watch.
Which, I guess, they might well be now that I thought about it.
“Hey, I know them,” I heard Arthur say, shock in his voice, “they were abducted a long time ago… what the hell?”
The pair of people he referred to were happily sitting on a bench, talking with each other. They were clearly a couple, and were too wrapped up in the others company to notice as Arthur walked forward.
I only then realized that he’d made a beeline for them the moment he saw them.
“Crap, hide.” I said aloud, the rest of us pressing ourselves into the alleyway deeper. I listened, trying to catch what was being said.
“Gus? Olivia? You guys are okay?” I heard Arthur ask, confusion clear on his face.
The pair looked up, shunted from their previous conversations only for their expressions to light up, “holy crap! Arthur! They finally rescued you?”
A muddled look appeared on his face. “What?”
“Benjamin and them,” Olivia spoke, “they rescued you! Good for you! They’ve been telling your family for days that they’re trying to find a way to get you out of there,” they stood up, embracing him in a friendly hug before retreating.
“Given by the state of your clothes and stuff, I’d say you only just got brought in, huh?” The woman lightly teased.
“Uh… yeah, sure.” He said unsteadily, “you said they were talking to my family about rescuing me?”
They gave each other a knowing look, “it’s a lot to take in. Everything we were being told by Mack is a lie. They don’t actually ransom people, though you’re welcome to leave if you want. But why would you?” The man, Gus, gesturing around, “it’s a lot safer and nicer over here.”
“A little constrained living, there’s a curfew and stuff, but it’s not bad.” The woman added happily.
“Wait, wait,” Arthur paused, pressing a thumb and forefinger against the bridge of his nose. He opened his mouth to talk, and only then did the pair notice he was shaking.
They thought it was a relief, but I knew my brother.
He was probably shaking in rage and trying to calm himself down.
“You should go see your family, don’t worry about catching up with us,” Gus laughed, “they should be home today, third floor, apartment 320.”
“I, uh… yeah, thanks.” Arthur managed to squeeze out as the two left, leaving us as alone as we could hope for here.
We walked out from our hiding spot in the alley, all of us in varying degrees of confused and agitated.
“So, what, they just feed bullshit to everyone here and they just eat it up?” Richard fumed, “does no one question authority around here?”
“Well, what’re we supposed to do?” Gabe shot back, “even if we wanted to fight back, we don’t have the fancy technology you guys do. Anyone who starts trouble or stirs the pot too much gets jailed.”
I felt words fail me as I thought about everything that was happening here.
“Let’s just get my family,” a dragging sigh escaped my lips, “I’m really, really done with this place.”
The others followed me into the building. I opened the door, an individual just coming down the stairs, meeting me with wide eyes.
‘Whatever,’ I shook my head, striding past them after nodding to them. A few moments later they resumed their day, no signs of alarm, just curiosity at mine and Richard’s presence.
‘Have we been sneaking around for no reason?’ I bitterly thought to myself, and heard Richard grumbling something along the same line of thought.
Up three flights of stairs we moved, no one bothering to hide themselves at all now. It didn’t take long to find apartment 320.
I knocked on the door, sucking in a deep, steadying lungful of air. My helmet retracted, letting my face be in full and unhindered view.
“Coming!” I heard the familiar feminine voice call, some other words exchanged, the sounds of what I thought were my other siblings talking in the background.
The door opened and my anger melted away, replaced by relief.
My mom was a pretty lady, a long time social worker and someone who smiled a lot. The slight wrinkles on her face seemed to have deepened after everything that had happened, but somehow she managed to look just as beautiful as I remembered her.
“Mom,” I said, then realized my throat refused to do much more than squeeze, emotion overriding my control.
“Alice,” she breathlessly said, a whisper more than anything else. Her face rushed forward with the rest of her body, her arms wrapping around me as best as they could. “Oh, my little girl, you’re alive.”
‘Shit, here come the tears.’ I thought, letting out a snorting laugh mixed with moisture in my eyes that refused to be held at bay.
“Yeah, I’m alive. I’m glad you’re alive, too,” I returned her embrace, feeling my chest tighten up.
“Ma, who is it?” I heard someone call, and looked to see another of my older brothers peek out from the wall. His posture went from curious to stunned as he slunk out from the wall, “guys! Dad! Come here!”
The urgency in his voice and worried responses fitted so well with my family. Arthur came up behind me, smiling broadly.
“Arthur, too? Oh my God!” She started, relief and happiness washing over her. A part of me said I should be a little embarrassed to be showing Richard and the others this scene.
But I could safely confine that part of me to the ‘fuck off’ corner.
“I missed you so much,” I said, face buried in her brown curls, “I missed you all so, so much.”
It took us the better part of half an hour to calm down enough not to break out into tears. Our family wasn’t known for their emotional control when it came to other family members. Arthur’s friends were occupying themselves around the dining table, deciding to give me and my family time to ourselves for now.
Richard, though, was by my side because I wanted him to be. My mother, Alicia DeLeon was sitting beside me on the sofa, while my dad was just across from me. His name was Earl DeLeon, a lean and stockily built man who was no stranger to hard work. They looked two the two of us in our close proximity, which, of course, was spared no small amount of mischievous glances from my mother and father.
“So, young man, what do you think of my daughter?” The dad asked, intending on giving him a hard time.
“Dad,” I leveled a threatening tone, “do you have to do this?”
Richard looked to me, giving me the slyest grin I’ve ever seen on his face. ‘Oh, you’re gonna-’ I only part way managed to process the mischief he planned on trying to flip over onto them.
“She’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met and I love her.” He stated with confidence, and though his face didn’t betray the emotion, I could see the glint of amusement in his eyes.
I felt my face flush red, “you beha-”
“When’s the wedding?” Mom said, double shell-shocking my dad, and not the least bit myself.
This time Richard looked equally shell-shocked as my dad, and my other siblings blasted out laughter at our expense.
“Yeah, you can’t do that with her,” Arthur snickered, “she’s the one we learned it from.”
“You guys!” I complained, “really, this?”
“I mean it though,” Richard caught me flat footed. I turned to chastise him, only to see him staring at me instead, the amusement in his eye something warmer now.
‘You sonovabitch, right now? You wanna do this right now? I asked you on the Ogre and you weren’t sure, now you’re saying yes!?’ Happy feelings and absolute bloodcurdling embarrassment warred for whether I was going to hug the man or kill him on the spot.
“I know, son,” Mom winked, and then quickly inserted “still, same question.”
“No more!” I pointed fiercely at my Mom, “Dad’s gonna have a heart attack and so am I.” I turned and then pointed just as fiercely at Richard, surprising him, “we’re dati-I mean, fuck, talking! Later!”
“That’s rather forward of you,” joked Arthur, catching my slip up and building on it.
I raised my steel gauntleted fist and augmented arm and readied to whip his skull into the wall before I realized I would probably kill him doing it.
In spite of knowing exactly what I’d intended to do, his shit-eating grin was still firmly plastered on his face.
“I swear I’m going to kill you.”
“Someday,” he nodded sagely, “but it is not this day.”
“On the topic as to why were here,” Richard switched gears, fluidly moving to a business, my Mom similarly switching moods. “We’re here to remove you from the situation here. Where we’re from, things are like this-”
He spoke about the Obelisks, how they worked, and the costs of objects. We went over the general amount that their own biotics should award to confirm, and then compared to what they should have been able to get. There came up, invariably, the topic of why this was such, and then we explained our theory that Mack and Benjamin were manipulating the market to maintain control. That they were carefully controlling the flow of information with strategically minded goals and a fair amount of individuals who sided with them to insure this would continue.
But, it was likely that the addition of the third group destabilized things, making it harder for everyone, resources strained. The balance of power was hard to maintain like this, and as time went on, I could tell that neither of my parents were surprised at all.
“Did you know?” I asked them flat out, staring daggers at them.
My Dad shook his head, “not exactly. I suspected something was wrong, but I couldn’t figure out how to fix it. A few of…” he cleared his throat, “...rather, some friends of mine were planning on killing Benjamin and Mack and trying to reconcile our supposed differences.”
I felt my heart skip a beat at the casual mention of murder, “you were going to kill them?”
“We didn’t want to kill anyone,” my Mom spoke up, “that’s why we haven’t moved. The suits that they have make it hard to remove someone non-lethally.”
Richard shared a look with me that, I suspected, said something along the lines of ‘Your parents are pretty hardcore.’
“Well, Strauss is talking with Gerry and seeing if they can get us close to the Obelisk.” Richard stated, “hopefully they can help us out.”
“Ah, I don’t know much about those guys personally,” my Dad said, “but they seem pretty fierce. Is your friend up for it?”
We nodded at the same time, “definitely.”
They laughed, “then, what about the core you were talking about?”
“Oh, Matthew’s getting that,” I waved it off nonchalantly.
My family froze at that, save for Arthur, “Alone?”
“Yeah? Oh, he’ll be fine. It’s Matthew.” I scoffed, “that guy’s crazy good at killing biotics.”
“Daughter of mine,” Dad said with a measured tone, “it’s alright to be confident in someone, but they’re only human. People make mistakes. Maybe you should help him out?”
I felt a twinge of annoyance at that, but Richard’s snort brought attention to him.
“Well, he might be some part human, but only a very small part.”
“Meaning?” Mom frowned, confused at that meaning behind that.
“We can talk about that after we get you out of this spot. At the very least we don’t want it to be easy to find you.” I said, “just in case anyone tries to hold you hostage or ransom you for real.”