After confirming that Bunny would be fine looking after the Fireflys and shadowing them if they moved, I took off as fast as I could without alerting them to make my way back to camp and grab the Screechers we'd be using to remove them from the planet. With much less stealth and more speed, I was able to retrace our route and make it back to camp in a fraction of the time. I arrived just in time to see Carrie loading three for our eight Screechers onto her back and preparing to leave for where she'd left Sarah.

"You're sure you want me to put the altered Screecher in front of where they're expected to move?" she asked me as I skidded to a stop in the camp. More difficult to do when the ground is rocky with roots shooting through the soft soil in unexpected ways.

"Yeah," I confirmed. "The idea is that if they move away from the other Screechers, they'll end up going toward that one."

"I'm just glad we found them quickly," she said before taking off in a jog that gradually sped up as she adjusted to the weight of the Screechers.

"Me too," I muttered to myself as I strapped a few Screechers to my own back. "I also hope they didn't break up into more than two groups."

I hefted the Screechers and adjusted the way they sat on my back before following Carrie's example and gradually moving faster on my way to where I'd left Bunny. The run back to where I'd left her took longer than the run back to camp, but didn't mind that as I slowed to a light jog before walking the rest of the way when she came into sight.

"They haven't moved," she whispered to me. "I asked Rex if they were dead, but he said they're just sleeping."

"That's good," I said. "Help me get these off and set up. We need to be fast with this."

As we worked to set the Screechers into position, I couldn't help but look toward the sleeping Fireflys. If one of them woke up, they'd all bolt and then we'd have to wait until they either regrouped or met up with the other group of Fireflys, or worse, other Scourge. Fireflys were pretty unique compared to other Scourge. They had a shell that was thicker than any other Scourge's and they had almost no combat capability beyond acting as mobile artillery and anti-air. They were forced to retract their shells when they prepared to expel their bioplasma, and that made them extremely slow, but when they had their shells closed, they were some of the fastest Scourge and could scatter well enough that despite their size of more than ten feet tall and thirty feet from head to butt, they were able to lose most pursuit quickly enough to go to ground and hide. They were very good at hiding too.

Finally, we'd set up the last Screecher and had made our way away from where the Fireflys were enough to talk to one another, or check in with the other two which is what I did.

"Carrie, how are things going over there for you?" I asked her.

"Great," she answered. "We're on the way back to camp now."

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"When you get there gather up the shelters and any food and water," I told her. "Then make your way to the north fallback point. The Fireflys were all to the south so north is a better place for us to watch these fireworks go off."

"Roger," she said before cutting the line.

"Are we going back to camp to help with anything?" Bunny asked.

"Yeah we are," I told her. "All the gear is too heavy for two people to carry. Carrie knows that, so she's going to take certain things, like a shelter and some food and water stuff, and she's going to have Sarah do the same. One of them will carry the Prince's corpse and we'll swoop in behind them and grab some of what's left and the probably the Screechers too."

"I don't think I can carry one of those on my back," Bunny said nervously. "I'd be too worried about it exploding to be able to move fast."

"I'll carry them both if they're there," I assured her. "But that means you'll have to carry some extra stuff so I don't fall behind you."

"I can live with that," she said, nodding in agreement.

We came into camp and immediately saw the piled supplies and gear waiting for us to snatch them up and make our way north. I quickly slung one of the packed shelters and a smaller bag of supplies onto my back before following it up with the two Screechers while Bunny adjusted her own load to sit comfortably for the run ahead of us.

"And we're off," I said, breaking into a run as I led her toward the northern fallback point. I just hoped we would make it in time to be able to watch the fireworks instead of participating in them.

"You're here," Sarah greeted us as we ran into the clearing we'd set aside as the northern fallback point. "Worried you weren't going to make it."

"I nearly didn't," Bunny panted. "I didn't know that Demigod James was so fast."

"I'm not fast," I told her. "You're just slow."

"No, she's right," Carrie said. "You're really fast when it comes to running."

"Like you're one to talk," Sarah griped at her sister. "You're just as fast as he is! At least Rickshaw allows for slower people to run with him."

"Ladies," I said, holding a hand up to forestall the brewing argument. "Why don't we all find a nice spot to watch the fireworks from instead?"

"I'm in," Bunny said, sounding more recovered now that she'd had a moment to catch her breath.

"Yeah, sure," Sarah agreed while Carrie nodded.

"Great," I said, setting my load down and grabbing a chair from the resultant pile. "This looks like it has the best view."

I sat down on my chair and faced toward the direction that the Screechers were wailing away from. They'd started nearly fifteen minutes into the run and had drawn a rather large crowd of flyers from all directions that wheeled above them waiting for the next set of orders from the false Queen that called for them. I could only imagine the number of non-flyers on the ground.

"How much longer do you think it'll be?" Sarah asked as she plopped herself beside me.

"Just a few more minutes," I told her.

"Did anyone tell the Phoenix to prepare shuttles?" Carrie asked as she sat down beside her sister.

"Oh shit," I swore. "I didn't think of it. Cai did you cover for me?"

"No."

"Great," I sighed as the first explosion bloomed in the distance. "Can you send word now?"

"Of course."

With that taken care of, I watched the flocks of Vultures and Harpies be consumed by the rising cloud of superheated fire while the Scourge on the ground were first disintegrated by the heat from the Screechers and then flattened by the force of the blast as it travelled outward.

"This reminds me of Rallypoint," I told my squad. "The fire's a different color, more orange than yellow, but I watched that explosion too."

"This one's better," Carrie said assuredly. "You've got us here with you."

"I'm also not ready to tear my eyes out for a chance to take a shower," I chuckled in agreement.

The others laughed as the first of the reinforcement shuttles began to make their way down to finish clearing the planet of all Scourge.