Medellín – Defense Line Bravo
The jungle burned in waves. The tree line collapsed under sheets of fire, smoke trailing high into the heavens like black pillars. A sky once filled with stars had been smothered, leaving only flickers of flame and war.
Shawn Rose lay still on a stretcher near the command post, chest barely rising. His coat was gone, replaced by bandages hastily wrapped around seared flesh. Skin flaked, lips cracked, and Blackline no longer coursed through him as it had been spent. He hadn't stirred since the monorail rescue.
But his team had.
Virginia stood at the edge of the field, helmet tucked under one arm, smoke stains across her jaw. She scanned the horizon, eyes sharper than ever.
"They'll push again soon," she said.
"They always do," Felix muttered, loading another clip into his rifle. "How long do we hold?"
"As long as we have to."
Civic Sector
The shelters were at capacity. Dozens of civilians still hadn't been pulled from the outer neighborhoods. Entire families clung to each other behind sandbag walls while screams echoed from alleyways. Dwayne leapt over a flaming car and pulled a mother from beneath the wreck. Sonya dragged the moms teenage son from behind trying her best to keep his skin from blistering due to the heat. Together they ran, dodging falling ash.
Spencer and Marco worked triage in the center plaza, converting a restaurant's broken counter into a surgical table. Burn kits emptied. Blackline doses ran out. Their hands trembled, but they never stopped moving.
"Leslie!" Spencer called. "I need a stim pack!"
"Out!" she shouted, firing two rounds at a scouting omnic trying to breach their line. "Check the last crate!"
He dove into the supply bin and found one. Just one. He used it on a man with half his back gone. A risk. But a worthy one. Something Shawn would have done rather than giving up on him.
"You'll make it," he whispered.
Command Tent
Shawn didn't wake. Marco knelt beside him, running a handheld monitor over his vitals. The readings were faint, but steady.
"He's not dying," Marco said aloud. "But he's not getting up either."
S3bastian stood beside him, silent. His plasma arm hissed, venting heat. "I calculate a 72% chance we lose the eastern block if someone doesn't redirect the push."
"Well," Marco replied, standing up and cocking his rifle, "then I guess it's on us."
Eastern Perimeter
The next wave hit. Omnic incendiaries rolled over the firebreaks, spewing napalm across barricades. Walkers followed, their treads cutting through melted pavement. But the Thorns were ready. Virginia led the charge while Leslie took control of medical.
"Focus fire on the legs!" she shouted.
Dwayne, Sonya, and Felix moved in tandem, each throwing charges, flanking, suppressing. Grenades burst like fireworks beneath the bots. Virginia emptied a full mag into one's optical sensor before leaping off a sandbag to avoid its collapsing bulk.
They had barely had powers. Just enough to be above the average human. But there was nothing extraordinary they could do. No miracles. Just grit. And training.
From the rear, Leslie coordinated evac for a burning apartment block. Two kids. One elderly woman. A man on crutches. She carried them out one by one while her uniform caught fire at the sleeves.
"Marco!" she yelled. "Where's my backup?"
"Five seconds!"
"Make it two!"
Civic Center
Smoke curled over the last standing towers. The fire had begun to die, but so had the defenses. Then came the final push. A full platoon of omnics rolled into the city center. Not specialized. Just numbers.
They surrounded the shelters. For a moment, everything stood still. Then the Thorns moved.
Spencer and Marco dove into the plaza, pulling wounded out of the path of tank treads. Virginia took position atop a crumbled balcony, sniping fuel ports. Felix led a civilian unit to flank. Dwayne carried two at once. Sonya shielded a pair of teens with her own body.
Leslie stood over a downed soldier, eyes wild. No ammo. No stim. She raised her knife.
And waited.
Reinforcements
The last evac transport hovered in the smoke, ramp open. Dozens of civilians sat inside, coughing and crying but alive.
The Rose's Thorns loaded the final stretchers and wounded aboard. Spencer gave the pilot a nod. "Get them out. We'll hold the line here."
As the craft lifted off, a moment of silence fell. Just a moment.
Because then in the distance....drums. Not human.
Metal feet.
Omnics began pouring from the jungle. More than before. Hundreds more than the last time. It was clear that they were done poking at the defenses and was ready to eradicate them.
Heat signatures aligned across the perimeter. Lights flashed in synchronized pulses. The forest edge lit up, not with flame, but with omnic order.
"They're preparing," Marco said grimly. "A full-scale assault."
Virginia tightened her grip on her weapon. "Then we do what he would've done."
She looked toward Shawn.
"We hold."
They dug in. Smoke thickened again.
A stratoscopter with an Overwatch insignia broke through the clouds, providing transports from Mexico City, flanked by strike aircraft. The cavalry had come.
Ropes dropped. Commandos and soldiers poured out by the hundreds. Among them: Commander Gabriel Reyes.
He walked through smoldering rubble, stepping over broken bots and shattered buildings until he found the stretcher near the command tent. Shawn still hadn't moved.
Reyes looked around. Saw medics he didn't recognize standing watch. Saw wounds patched with sleeves, Blackline administered with bare hands, firefights held by the unlikeliest soldiers.
He turned to S3bastian.
"He's the one who saved the city?"
"No," the omnic said softly. "They did."
Reyes nodded once. Then gave the order.