OSMOS V
August 04, 21:16 UTC
TEAM YEAR NEGATIVE SEVEN
When the dust settled, I was not sure how I made it to my feet, nor how I began to run through cracked, hot wasteland. On autopilot, I forced my feet to carry me over sizzling, newly-formed blast craters, my shoes painfully melting from the leftover heat. Each step was like agony, but I kept running.
I made it a solid few yards before I flipped around in terror. Mother! Gabriel!
Amidst warm smoke, bright glass, and incredible scorched earth lay only one of the two: Mother. Her prone, unmoving form was no longer metal but instead reverted to flesh, much of her clothing burned away. My legs carried me forward at the highest speeds I could muster, long strides on too small a child's frame.
Inexplicably riding atop a thin platform of metal, shining with green light, was Gabriel. The platform carried him fast at an angle straight for the armored Reach warrior, climbing higher and higher. A real life hoverboard! A sleek black and silver body suit had replaced his previous clothing, and he carried several glowing orbs in his hand. A look of determination burned across his face, which changed only slightly when he looked down long enough to lock eyes with me.
"Run!" he shouted, then turned away long enough to chuck an orb toward Xandros. "Get her and run!"
A moment later, the sky erupted in a catastrophe of emerald and silver light, undulating on itself like a willful flame. Bigger than any explosion I'd ever seen, perhaps rivaling movies back on Earth in another lifetime. Nothing could live through that!
I had to look away, using the moment to close the distance toward Mother. I spared a glance upward for but a second, and Gabriel flew straight through the flickering embers left behind and into a great cloud of smoke that choked light from the area.
Good god, what was all this?
What- how?
I cried for Mother to awaken. I begged myself not to focus on the sight of her ruined legs, her scarred back, her burned shoulders. I forced my twitching hands to pull her to her side, then to her back, to check her for any sign of consciousness. Every medical show or moment in a movie came to my mind, to check for a pulse, to check for signs of life, but I could only whimper in helplessness.
She had taken every bit of that force.
Every bit of that heat.
She had saved my life.
Another series of explosive blasts of plasma fell on the ground several dozen yards away, cooking every bit of sand and dirt in the area.
Every inclination I had to not trust the Reach had proven correct.
I could not dwell on it.
I had to get her out of here. Had to get her away from here. Where… where was safe?
He could fly! There was nowhere to hide that he couldn't see, even stumbling in the dark. There was no cover from an aerial onslaught in a flat wasteland. Sanitas was the closest settlement, at least two hours away without carrying her to safety. Grandfather was close, but the vehicle could not outpace the scarab technology. We were sitting ducks to run on our own.
My only solution: let Gabriel buy us some time.
Gift or not, neither Mother nor I had anything that could close the distance. Xandros could freely rain plasma down on us from dozens of feet in the air, and we could do nothing to stop it. Gabriel? He could close the distance. I dare not hope he could win, no matter what awe-inspiring tech he could bring to the table.
The hoverboard carried the man into view above me once more, carving a trail through the smoke. The human hefted something in the shape of a pistol and aimed at the retreating form of the armored beetle warrior. A few pulls of the trigger later, and electricity danced harmlessly against an energy shield that emerged from an outstretched gauntlet. I could practically see the Osmosian man's sick grin, despite the closed helmet obscuring his face. Gabriel shouted for me to leave again, as he changed ammo sources and unleashed something else that left scars.
I reached down to grab for Mother, only just now trying to comprehend why the Reach would do this. What do they gain by attacking people they do not know? Why was Xandros okay with attacking his own people? Why open fire first without discussion? They meant to kill us for investigating this?
I heaved her onto my shoulder, grateful to feel the soft shifting of her breathing against my back. Compared to a human child, it was easy to carry her weight, but cumbersome to keep her from dragging behind me. She was still too long compared to my height, and I had to grab at legs that were far too scarred to not have permanent damage just to pull them into a position to be easy to carry. It took great effort to not think about the wet wounds I could feel beneath my hands.
A horrifically loud sound reverberated somewhere above us. A new cannon unleashed a kind of sonic attack, and Gabriel narrowly dodged the impact force of it. Where it touched against the desert floor, a cloud of sand emerged in waves. The human tried to toss another grenade, but the silver and green orb missed and detonated several yards away, flashing the sky again with impressive light and fire.
Xandros flew through the mass of heat without worry. Voice amplified loudly enough that I can hear it as I try to flee, he taunted, "There is little chance of escape. Surrender now to the Triarchy, and you may face clemency for your trespass."
If I had been a gullible man, I might have believed that. If he really wanted us to surrender, he wouldn't have started with enough explosive force to level a building. But I was not a gullible man, and neither was Gabriel. The human scoffed and brandished his weapon with a short burst round of fire, one of the shots managing to mark a solid hole in the side of the armor. In response, the Reach's lapdog redoubled his efforts with the sonic weapon, and I pushed myself faster.
I carried her as far as I could in the direction of any sign of cover. Gabriel had managed to drive the man's focus away from Mother and I, and I stopped long enough to reach for the communicato-
Fried.
Useless.
I grumbled as I tossed the device onto the dirt. Grandfather would surely see or hear the sound of the explosions and come. If I could hide long enough, maybe he'd have time to get here and escort us out of harm's way.
Another distant flash of light preceded an immediate explosion, and the force of it rattled my knees. I didn't dare turn to see this time – fleeing was more important. Far more important.
OSMOS V
August 04, 21:31 UTC
TEAM YEAR NEGATIVE SEVEN
Jula would like to believe that she felt a shift in the air before the announcement. The past few days had confirmed it for her, and until this mess with her family began, she would have assumed nothing. Calls, messages, reports – not all were similar in content, but many were similar in meaning: things were about to change for the worse. For whom? Probably for everyone.
Since her call with her father, Jula had spent the afternoon trying to gather information from as many people as she could. Reporters, friends, business rivals – no useful information. The company had forced her to make many contacts over the years, and she held quite a few close relationships with people in the government. The worrying thing? Not one of them would talk with her beyond the expected, and they repeated the same bottom line from Elder Gordia's announcements. No amount of smooth talking could convince them, and Jula felt truly in hot water.
It wasn't until the next broadcast where she learned exactly where things were headed, and she wished with every fiber of her being that her family were here. They were stuck in the wilderness, chasing after something that might not pan out, while everyone else stood ready to hear the most dramatic news imaginable.
Jula'd been in mid-conversation with a former colleague when the message began. Elders Seneca, Cato, and Gordia – the current Triarchs – interrupted every signal on anything with a screen and a strong enough connection, including her desk terminal. Their faces were calm, their voices resolute, their speech impassioned, their postures united. A perfectly poised message to deliver dreadful news. In the past twenty-four hours, life within the borders of the Triarchy had changed, and nothing signaled that more to Jula than seeing such a rehearsed message.
Gordia delivered the bulk of the message, and Jula supposed that if anyone could deliver them through this, it would be the woman who had ruled the longest.
"Earlier today, I delivered news of the grave threat that our planet faces. Our partners among the Reach have confirmed the presence of additional landing sites, to a number far beyond initial estimates. There have been hundreds of landings scattered across our planet, among nearly every region around the world."
Jula gasped in horror when they showed their evidence. A graphic displayed a map of the affected locations. Every major region across the three continents. Many were near cities, and even the Capital had dozens of landing zones around it.
While the message continued, she could see the panic beginning to spread from far below her penthouse window. The Overcity would be ensconced in mayhem within minutes, as people scrambled to make ends meet before chaos began. The aliens beyond their walls could be minutes away from causing harm, abducting more people like her brother, and she cursed herself and the whole damn situation.
Seneca stepped forward next. "These hostile creatures from beyond our stars are highly dangerous, with natural and unnatural abilities that threaten the stability of our home. Normal life in our great world cannot continue as it is under the presence of this close danger."
A trio of clips played on the screen below their three stalwart faces. In the first, a reptilian alien grew to be dozens of feet tall and barreled through a stone pillar, forcing a building to collapse. In the second, a strange shape flash-froze an entire ship near the coast, before diving into frozen water. In the third, a panicked group of civilians were torn apart as an alien spawned dozens of itself and swarmed them, ripping into them with teeth and bare hands.
With shaking fingers, Jula tried to shift the communicator to contact her father, but it refused to move away from the mandatory broadcast. With a glance toward the city, what few viewing screens she could see on the sides of buildings or through opened windows were displaying the same information. They wanted everyone to be on the same page, and it would calm and excite to equal degrees.
"Our forces unite against them now," Cato explained impassively, as the clips repeated. "Given the magnitude of the situation, we are instituting a strict mandate. You must shelter in place until further information arrives. Violators will be prosecuted under the full weight of the law, for the safety of yourselves and your neighbors. Information about logistics will be provided-"
She tuned them out.
Martial law. Intended to keep them safe, but would it succeed?
Jula ordered her robotic attendants to gather supplies from anything she might have and to place it in an organized pile for her to further collect. The broadcast continued, outlining more specific information, for nearly ten additional minutes, but Jula only half-listened. Instead, she and her drones carried the supplies down to her garage.
She was grateful for the private elevator to the ground floor. From its windows, she watched waves of uncertainty, waves of distress, and waves of violence begin to wash over the city. The people in her building, who lived below her, had no such access point to easily get to the ground floor, forced to fight for the same paths. The drones stood behind her, ready to defend her from any potential crowds.
The elevator's speaker continued the message as it reached its conclusion. "Cooperation from the Reach is ongoing to address the influx of violence we face from hostile dissidents. Even now, Diplomat Xandros engages with threats to our people's safety, and we thank our partners for carrying us through such a trying time. Osmos V will live on to a new day because they are here to help."
Jula had to admit that she once believed the Reach to be a boon. A people with technological superiority who were willing to share their resources with their society? Medicine, food, water, transportation, computing – all of those fields, and more, were better than they had been. Their sensors located this threat to Osmos V, an invasion right under the Triarchy's noses. If they helped stop the damage before it could spread too highly, then maybe? Maybe it was good.
Her brother and her father did not think so. Cassian didn't think so, and the kid had a remarkably fixed perspective on the whole thing. Many of her colleagues were on her side, but a few agreed with those of her family. She felt torn between suspicion and praise, and the entire thing was just… off.
Upon reaching the base floor of the building and its expansive garage, she could hear the sounds of panic in the streets just beyond its walls. Her three drones placed the gathered supplies into the back of the vehicle, and within minutes, she forced her way into the cramped roads, sure to activate her security system behind her as the door to the building closed. The man-sized robots sat among the cabin, and her most experienced at driving took the wheel.
Others held the same idea.
Get onto the road.
Get out of the city.
Get into the city.
The vehicle turned corners too-sharply and drove over walk-paths, only so quickly to avoid harming any of the growing crowds. More joined the roads in their own machines, or were already in transit, and she pressed on to the nearest gate. Once she was out into the desert proper, she could go off-road and avoid what would more likely become a target.
The second the broadcast ended, she tried again to call her father, to tell her that she was on the way to Sanitas.
Jammed.
Static.
Busy.
Jula cursed aloud and messaged her boss an update. Several replies followed in swift succession, and she ignored them to continue the drive. Someone in the city would know where she headed, and she hoped she could make it before martial law settled into place.
She wasn't the only one who had those same hopes.
Horror spread across her face as she crossed a second thoroughfare that led toward the nearest city exit, this one more packed than the first she'd checked. Desperate people crawled from the Undercity entrances to the surface. Idiots descended into the tunnels in the vain hopes things would be safer. Vehicles and people alike cramped the city streets as all looked for ways out, ways in, and anywhere else between.
Several minutes passed before her vehicle even made progress, and each harrowing second was a second where fear gripped her heart. The two drones at either side of her in the back of the cabin shifted into defensive postures each time a scared, dirty face crossed too close to the windows looking outside. Jula almost told them to hold off, to become less aggressive, until she saw an Exception in the distance spit enough acid at a vehicle that the door melted, making it easy pray for looting.
Jula's fingers desperately tried to call again, to send a message, to let someone know. Heart pounding in her chest, there was no tone, no reply. Lucrecia, Cassian, Maximus, Horatio – no one was responding.
Someone thumped into her vehicle. Foot traffic and vehicle traffic became too tight to escape, too tight to turn around, too tight to get out. The robot to her left tensed as a metallic arm rose in a defensive posture, ready to crash through the window at anyone who managed to get too close. Jula had programmed them well for situations like muggers, not for crowds of people who just wanted out and were willing to do anything to get out.
A heavy crash caused panicked screams. Jula tried to see what caused it, but there was too much happening.
A voice – digitally enhanced to be as loud as possible – reverberated throughout the masses. "Citizens of the Capital are now under strict orders to return to your homes. This is for your safety."
The message repeated several times, and the people were not listening. Those who wanted to turn around could not, for there was little room to escape the immediate area. Anger bled from fear, and Jula desperately wished to be anywhere but here.
This was a mistake.
Another crash. A flicker of orange flames. An Exception stretching her body in impossible shapes, weaving her strange body through the crowd to try to get closer, only to get shoved away and then forced to retaliate.
In mere moments, Jula's vehicle lay in the center of a violent riot.
At her request, the drone to her left opened the door to the vehicle with such force that she knocked a pair of parents and their young son to the ground. Jula's heart sang with guilt as she dropped to the ground behind the exiting robot, the other two abandoning the vehicle behind her. A small bag of supplies over its metallic shoulders, the drone behind her stiff-armed a running citizen, knocking him away forcefully before he could get too close.
From the street, she could see a better angle of what lay ahead. The passageway through the city's perimeter walls, once designed to protect against the elements, now served as a reminder of a prison. Armed military operatives dressed in fatigues, four of them as hard as stone, two as sleek as metal. Others among them carried weapons and riot gear, and were actively using different methods to fight back against the ensuing threat of citizens who were too afraid to think clearly.
… She hadn't been thinking clearly either, she realized too late.
Jula did not have more time to contemplate as the first volley of the army's warning shots - and actual shots - fired in her vicinity. Blaster bolts struck flesh all around her, and those who could still stand began to hobble away as some in the crowd dispersed. Others, incensed, used the Gift and Exceptions to fight back, and Jula could not afford to stay to watch the violence.
She darted away as quickly as she could muster, robotic drones surrounding her. One took a heavy hit from a kinetic weapon, arm plates loose from their correct orientation. They readied their weapons as a deterrent, built-in stunner mounts on their shoulders, and at least three people who looked to cross in front of her backed away in shock. She had a clear path.
"I can't believe they'd attack us!"
"Get the damned aliens!"
"Morons are fighting them too! Get us all killed!"
"Elder Cato's gonna save us!"
More voices of the citizens joined the din of reactions, and she moved for the only place that looked safe – anywhere but here.
OSMOS V
August 04, 21:41 UTC
TEAM YEAR NEGATIVE SEVEN
Mother stirred awake, and I hurriedly dropped her as gently as I could beneath the rocky outcropping. I hadn't wanted to stop here for long – it would be painfully obvious that this was the only bit of cover around, and I'd had to carry her for far too long to even get here. Somehow, the confrontation between Gabriel and the Reach warrior had not yet ended, and if it ended right then, at that moment, I was just glad he bought her enough time to awaken.
If this was it, I could say my-
"C-cassi-"
I clutched her hand. The one that was least disfigured. She held tight.
"Mom, I – you gotta – you gotta move. We can't stay here. Can you?"
I knew the likely answer in my brain, but my heart was not listening.
She tried to stand. I could see the effort in her face, could hear it in her breath. Distantly, the warbling sounds of sonic cannons caught my attention, and each moment where Gabriel did not catch up with us was another moment where he'd just lose. I almost missed her finally pull herself to a sitting position, with immense effort.
"Don't stress yourself if it's too hard," I tried weakly. "We're gonna get help. The – Gabriel's using some weapons to fight him off."
She wasn't listening – or perhaps was in too much pain to hear me. Several seconds passed while Mother stared at her hands, and she reached down as though to grab for the rock. A look on her face told me she wanted to absorb it, but she did not follow through. Was there too much pain?
"Who- who is Gabriel fighting?"
"The Scarlet Scarab," I answered carefully. "I don't know how or why, but Xandros attacked us." I explained more about what I saw, but her eyes were distant as she thought deeply.
"Are you hurt?"
I was, and I told her. She hadn't completely covered me with her body, and there was a serious burn on my right leg that wrapped almost entirely around it, between my ankle and my knee. It was nowhere near as deep as anything Mother had, and the sight of it brought her to fresh tears.
"Oh, Cassian. You- you – I hate this."
I gestured to the jacket Gabriel had given me. "I guess this thing worked. I'm okay – I will be okay. And you will too. We just gotta wait it out." I exhaled. "Just wait it out." I glanced toward her extensively burned legs, trying not to think about the smell. "You can walk?"
Mother glanced toward her hands again and then toward me, toward my chest. The sky glittered with the flash of another explosion, and she grabbed onto my shoulder without a second thought.
Energy crackled where she touched, green light flickering and trying to escape her absorbant grasp. My eyes widened with shock as I realized what she was doing, and I watched with horror as her own eyes flashed with an emerald glow. Within seconds, the jacket had completely disappeared, and all of that energy had gone into her.
With shaky movements, light shimmered across her body in crackling waves, solidifying into an aura that enveloped her. In movements that surprised both of us, she stood confidently – if wearily – onto her feet, energy cascading off of her with such distorting force that I could feel it from feet away.
"Mother, you-"
"Do as I say, not as I do."
Green light flickered into existence across her entire body, and then she took off running toward the sounds of battle. As she ran, the ridges around her eyes deepened into solid black lines, and the horns that were not due to grow for several more years lengthened into prominent, permanent fixtures across her head. If she noticed, I wasn't sure, but she turned long enough to throw a warding hand toward me.
"Stay here!"
And with an impossible leap despite wounded legs, she bound into the air with such force that she almost cleared the ground entirely. I watched in pure surprise as she landed several dozen yards away with a crash, and then leaped again, even higher and farther.
Toward the site of the battle.
OSMOS V
August 04, 22:10 UTC
TEAM YEAR NEGATIVE SEVEN
Lucrecia's body buzzed. Every cell, every nerve ending, every muscle, every tissue – a glimmer of something more raced between them all, exciting each and every sensation she could imagine and others she could not. Never before had she felt so energized as she did in those fleeting moments, so intense that she could forget about the debilitating pain that throbbed in the back of her mind.
She ignored the pain and focused instead on what she needed to do, on what she had the power to do.
This was not the first time that she had interacted with energy beyond her own. This situation brought back painful memories of a shameful time, and she held those moments in her mind long enough to consider how to use the energy she had absorbed. She had a limited window to make something happen.
The Osmosian landed in a tumble beneath the aerial fight. A quick glance upward showed a sweating Gabriel, carried by a flying platform through the air. Minor abrasions and likely bruises were visible on his face, and she hoped he had no serious injuries that she could not see beneath his uniform. There was little she understood about Gabriel – especially now – but if he was fighting to defend her son and find Horatio, that was more than enough for her.
His opponent came into view, spiraling through the sky. Carried aloft through bug-like wings and some kind of tech along his back, he was fast. Deadly fast. Armed with weapons that were more sophisticated than she had ever seen, Xandros renewed his efforts and launched several projectiles toward Gabriel. The investigator twisted up on the platform and rocketed into the sky, gravity a mere suggestion for him, and the attacks missed in a wide arc. Where they struck against the sands below, they exploded into a series of flaming conflagrations that left behind warped fields of glass.
Gabriel evened out in the air and returned fire with a gun in hand, bolts of light flickering across a flashing sky. Xandros seemed prepared for everything, armored plates shifting into a shield that took the attacks head on. Lucrecia was glad to see that they'd damaged the defenses, and he'd had to toss the ruined metal away into the dirt far below him. She'd expected to see that his gauntlets had lost some material to make that, but if it had, she couldn't see it from this distance.
The fight began anew, and Lucrecia redoubled her efforts to find – or make – an opening. Whether either of them had noticed her was unclear, but both of them would know her soon. She was sure of it.
The twisting energetic excess vibrated amid her arms, crackling visibly in green tendrils that wafted from her form like smoke. She'd tried not to think of the vehicle she'd destroyed once, many years ago, with a move like this. Aching for release, she leaped with a building of power in her ruined legs, a wince of pain escaping even as she jumped dozens of feet into the air. Rearing back at the apex of her climb, she shouted, "Xandros!"
An arc of green light cascaded like a cannon through the air. The released energy twisted around itself like a coil, moving too fast to track properly with her eyes. A mere moment later, an emerald explosion erupted mid-air as it found its target. It was a terrifying display and far more powerful than she could really comprehend – what was this technology?
The Scarlet Scarab emerged from the smoke cloud in a downward spiral. End over end, he plummeted into a rocky edifice far below him. Wings failed to unfurl in time to stop his descent, and the dust cloud that formed on impact might have dwarfed the size of their home in Sanitas. Lucrecia grinned as she finished her arc through the air and collided with the ground in a roll. Her legs spiked with renewed pain, the energy suffusing it bleeding away by the second.
The realization that it had taken a significant chunk of whatever power source for the armor she'd absorbed to pull that off further sobered her mood. If this confrontation continued, she would not likely produce something to that effect again.
Gabriel descended to get within earshot. He started to say something upbeat, but his eyes flickered downward to study her lower half. "Nice effort. Is your kid all right?"
"He'll be fine." She started to move toward the downed diplomat, but the flying man held up an arm.
"Lucrecia, take what you have left and go. I got this."
She considered the suggestion and disregarded it. "I jumped in front of a bomb to save my son, and it only saved him from the worst of it. Once this wears off, I might never walk again. You think I'm letting that bastard live?"
That shut the man up quickly.
Lucrecia steadied herself and arced more of the borrowed strength into her extremities. Soothing sparks of power flickered visibly behind her knees, her thighs, her ankles, her shins as she accelerated into a sprint. Adrenaline - and more - pumped into her veins and muffled the ache of each step. A half-second survey of the top of her bare foot revealed visible bone beneath melted tissue, and she decided that this must be a miracle that she could move at all.
Her ally settled into her path, flying just in front and to the right of her. His bodysuit was torn in several places, revealing wounds of his own that seeped into the black material. The technology the man possessed was a confusing mystery to her, and she wondered if they had what it took to finish the threat. Perhaps together, they could-
Xandros snapped into a sitting position and brandished twin cannons, one from each scarlet gauntlet. Power coils pulsated beneath the exposed ends, threatening them both with whatever power he could exploit. Behind him, damaged wings tried and failed to unfurl, to help him to move. "By the authority of the Triarchy and their Reach allies, I demand that you stand down."
Lucrecia merely sneered as she dashed faster. Gabriel hesitated long enough for her to dart past him, but whatever warning he shouted was lost on her determined ears.
The Scarlet Scarab armor bombarded the space between them with plasma, so hot that the very air sizzled with heat everywhere it touched along the way. Instinct forced her to pull up a single arm to defend her face, but she did not stop moving. The blast struck her torso, but she was too angry to care about the overwhelming pain.
Xandros scrambled to his feet and tried to back away, but she closed the distance. A fist shimmering with emerald light slammed into a hastily-formed hexagonal shield of transparent material. Gabriel attempted to add to the onslaught with some kind of tossed binding material, but Xandros showed no signs of fear. As the ruined shield and ruined wings crumbled away, he pivoted to the side to avoid the follow-through of her blow and leaped away from Gabriel's tech.
Lucrecia whirled around, anger filling every pore, and attempted a second strike, but Xandros conjured a blade at the end of his gauntlet. A swing of the sharp insectoid weapon caught her imposing arm, still glittering and crackling with borrowed power. A moment of rational thought broke through her fury, and she barely yanked her arm away in time before she lost her entire hand. Instead, blood dripped onto the sand below her feet from a thick gash on her forearm.
Xandros redoubled his efforts and formed a second blade, charging forward with propulsion from his boots. The movements were nearly too fast to track in these close-quarters, and Lucrecia fell on the back foot. She narrowly dodged to the left of one fatal slash, but that placed her in the path of a second. A crackle of light flashed out from her at her mental urging and struck the Reach warrior in the abdomen, but it was nowhere near as effective or powerful as her initial burst.
It didn't slow him down either.
Fortunately, Gabriel intercepted the blow with a metallic staff that brimmed with power similar to the energy rushing through her body. He maneuvered in such a way that he was now taking the focus of the enemy. The platform beneath his feet was less flying and more skating across the ground as he moved, tightly able to maintain the momentum of the fight.
"Lucrecia, you can't beat him-"
The words only made her angrier.
She reached for the end of the staff and felt the energetic pull of power flowing into her. Gabriel cursed as it vanished from his grip, fully absorbed into her body as the apparent energy construct faded and became one with her energy reserves. She flooded herself with it, pain muting and becoming nothing but background noise. Wounds still flowed freely from several places in her body, but everything was too vibrant, too vivid, too all encompassing to care.
"You have to get out of here!"
Ignoring him, she forced herself forward and traded places with her ally once more. A flicker of power gathered around her fist as she attempted a strike against the armored warrior. The fist itself did not make purchase, but crackling energy surged in its path and managed to hit the scarab's armored arm indirectly. Where it touched became scarred, burned, and cracked, revealing Osmosian forearm beneath.
Before she could celebrate, Gabriel forcibly shoved her away from a cannon that had formed in Xandros's breastplate. An immense blast of power scorched the environment and only scored an indirect hit on the man's outstretched arm, burning away the uniform and singeing the flesh beneath for but a moment.
"You should listen to your friend, woman," Xandros taunted, armor still functional and visibly repairing from the effort of the fight. The chest beam weapon still hummed with power and could release a charge at any moment. Something resembling the wings he'd been using earlier began to reform behind him. "If you insist on this fight, you will lose. Stand down and come willingly into custody."
Lucrecia cursed. "You almost hit my little boy with something that could kill him! Could kill any of us. Now you suddenly care about taking us alive?"
Gabriel agreed with a subtle nod, face alarmed and ready to maneuver at any moment. "If I had to guess, you're far more scared of what we've accomplished together than you let on."
With each passing second, she could feel the energy surging through her diminishing. She held it in her grasp as fervently as she could, for she would need it to continue.
"Ha!" Xandros laughed. "You've no idea what I can do. What the Reach and Osmos V can do together. This is only the beginning of what we will accomplish, and I have more than enough resources to end you both in seconds." Twin cannons formed in his gauntlets, while six more emerged from insectoid appendages jutting from his back. "You can end this farce of a confrontation now and live to see tomorrow." His face turned directly to her. "Live to see your son and husband again."
Lucrecia erupted.
OSMOS V
August 04, 22:24 UTC
TEAM YEAR NEGATIVE SEVEN
I didn't stay put.
How could I possibly stay put? I was too far away to see the fight and understand its outcome. My mother left to fight the Scarlet Scarab, empowered by technology that dwarfed anything even Jula's company had been doing for decades. My father might be dead, might be kidnapped, might be imprisoned – I wouldn't know for sure until I found him, and I might never find him. I can't add uncertainty about Mother's fate.
I played it smart.
I approached the battle while staying low. I moved as quickly yet quietly as I could. I transformed my arms into stone to add to already boosted durability, in case stray debris struck me. I even managed to cover most of my chest with the material, which was more than I'd previously ever managed, and I had just as good a chance as I ever would finding some level of defense against something like this.
The fight, even viewed from afar, was insane to witness.
Xandros was a perfect weapon. A mixture of close-combat and ranged skills made it difficult for the others to find an opening. He countered their attacks with increasingly varied armor constructs, and counterattacked with surprises of his own. Each new configuration he manifested with his armor was a different challenge for his opponents to resist, and it was only a matter of time.
Gabriel moved like a whirlwind through the air on his hoverboard and pulled a multitude of tools from his belt to use in the confrontation. He'd somehow gained the air superiority, or at the very least, Xandros chose to continue the fight on the ground. The additional range was perhaps the only reason they were still able to fight.
If Gabriel was like a storm in the sky, Mother was like a meteor. She glittered with that borrowed power, an aura of green light surrounding her in pulsing waves. Each attempt to strike Xandros was devastating when it landed, but he was keeping her at a distance. I didn't think they could do enough damage to take him down without a solid amount of luck on their side. Despite the craters sometimes left in her fists' wake where they struck.
I didn't dare get too close. Gabriel and Mother did not need to worry about my safety while they fought. I had no fighting skills whatsoever to make a difference, so I didn't need to get closer and didn't need to intervene. Mother had to have been in a few scrapes before to hold her own, and I suspected there was much about both of my parents that I had not known. Father once worked for a terrorist group, and Mother was brave enough to strike head-on against a superior opponent. What did they do in the past?
I managed to find a crouching spot outside of the effected area of the fight, the terrain shifting with each passing second. I wanted nothing more than to shout advice, to provide pointers, but what did I know that either of them didn't? The Reach provided no knowledge to the public about how the scarab truly worked, so I knew of no weaknesses despite how many hours I'd spent looking into their tech. If Gabriel had been on the planet for longer than I'd initially thought, he may have even more information that I do.
The fight shifted to one of defense for the pair, interrupting my thoughts. Surprise struck me as Xandros darted forward with rocket-propelled movement, a trail of light almost flickering behind him in the coming darkness of the desert night. Mother was unprepared for the movement change and took a direct hit from one of the beetle-like blades, a wide gash opening in the stomach!
I screamed.
The three of them darted their attention to me, even as Gabriel landed several shots from a blaster pistol onto the Reach warrior's front. Mother grimaced in shocked pain. Xandros grinned beneath the armored face-plate.
"Run!"
"Both of you, run!"
I raced to scramble away at the sound of Gabriel's warning, and I almost tripped over my own two feet and uneven ground. Mother turned away from the two men and darted for my side, moving with such speed that she almost seemed to fly across the distance, glittering with light the color of emeralds. I grasped onto her hand with pleading fingers, and she cursed under her breath as she leaped into the sky with me in tow.
Something struck me around the mid-section a moment later, moving at such a velocity that I'm ripped from her grip. A scarlet bar-like device pinned me against the ground around my midsection, like a giant human-sized staple. Stunned partially from the impact against the ground, I pushed against it with stony hands, but it does not budge. With horrified, desperate eyes, I noticed a second staple projectile scored a more direct hit on Mother. One end extended from her bloody hip while the other end fastened her to the ground a few feet away.
Gabriel launched an explosive that created a cloud of dust that surrounded us. I hurriedly tried to pull myself out, tried to reach Mother, tried to do something, but nothing was working. I smashed my fist against the staple so strongly that the stone cracked away, revealing bruised knuckles beneath.
"Leave them both out of this." Gabriel shouted. "Your quarrel is with me, not them."
Scarlet Scarab ignored the human and walked closer to both of us, armored gauntlets transforming into twin cannons once more. Green light flickered faintly from Mother's body as she tried to muster her strength, but the injuries she had suffered were extensive. She was fading fast – too fast for comfort, and anger filled my soul.
"Stand down," Xandros dared Gabriel. The armor whirred to life as he leveled his fist in my direction, at point-blank range. "The boy joins his mother."
"Don't you- da-re!" Mother cried with a gurgle. She managed to force the staple-like device to bend, but a second joined the first with such efficiency of movement that I barely saw it form from the scarlet armored plating. This one did not pierce her body, but the message was clear: he had her restrained.
She struggled further, but I- I don't think she- she can't-
"Let them go. Take me instead."
The human's offer sent me into a further spiral of despair.
My one chance to escape this place. To return home. To find Father. To save Mother. To save myself.
Xandros did not lower the weapon pointed at my face, but it did noticeably reduce in power.
Gabriel and his hoverboard descended to ground level. He kicked the center of it with a heel. The contraption flickered until it became nothing more than a single silver disc, no more than six inches across, that floated of its own accord into the buckle of his belt. Other gear joined it within a few seconds, and the Reach warrior grew more excited the longer it took the man to disarm. Once the last of it was finished, he whirled the weapon in the human's direction.
My last chance, gone in one evening.
Xandros sneered as the man fell to his knees. "I am surprised someone not of this planet would care to throw your freedom and livelihood away for the locals."
The Reach knew about his humanity?
"Says the local," Gabriel prodded. "You'd never understand if you tried."
"You think me incapable of sentiment?"
"Imperialist beetle fucks proved that a long time ago. This is just more of the same. How many more orphans you going to make before you stop?"
Orphans?
The word caught in my throat and in my thoughts.
I wasn't- I wasn't! She was right there, still breathing- still awake.
Covered in scars. Bleeding profusely. The strange energy of Gabriel's technology slipped away more each passing second, and with it, Mother's ability to fight the pain of her wounds. I could see it on her face, marred with six large bruises that were already swelling. She weakly tried to absorb the metal of the Reach's restraining device, but it failed as her concentration failed.
"Why would you do this to us?!" I screamed, too goddamn angry to cry. I gripped the metal of the staple and pulled on its material, shifting away from stone and instead to its cold structure. I struggled anew, making more progress than before, and the staple began to bend. "What did we do to you? You're supposed to be one of us, not one of them!"
The Scarlet Scarab leaned down without taking his sensors off of Gabriel and any surprise tech. "Because you're nothing but meaningless meat."
"You attacked us!"
He ignored my complaint and gestured for the human to stay put as he walked closer. By now, much of the damage the battle had done to his suit was rapidly repairing.
"Unprovoked!"
Again, the Osmosian turncoat ignored me.
Gabriel met my eyes as Xandros gripped the other man's shoulder. "I'm sorry. I should not have involved any of you. I hope, one day, you can find a way to forgive me."
Xandros activated the wings of his power armor and jettisoned himself and the human into the sky, leaving behind a thick dust cloud that enveloped us both.
With a heavy heart and a release of negative emotion in the shape of tears and a forceful tearing of staple pins from above my ribcage, I crawled over to Mother. I was barely able to think clearly enough to do it, too furious and pulled in several goddamn directions to make any rational goddamn decision.
"Ca-cass-Cassian."
I choked, tears free flowing and dropping onto Mother's newfound horns. "Don't- don't do this. Don't die. You can't."
I couldn't deal with this.
Not again.
When I left my old life behind, through whatever means, I also left my mother behind. A remarkable woman who inspired me to teach. Mom was the best and brightest – she had her rough spots, don't get me wrong, but in many ways she had been my best friend.
And then I vanished and appeared a universe away with no reasonable ability to return. As a new infant to a new mom. A mom - no, mother that was similar and yet so different from the first, one who tried hard to be the best she could. But… she would never be the best, because I'd already had the best.
And now, nearly eight years later, I l-lost this one too.
OSMOS V
August 05, 03:52 UTC
TEAM YEAR NEGATIVE SEVEN
Jula had managed to hide within the Undercity, a mess of seedy taverns, cramped housing, and heavily-guarded and out of the way estates from richer folks who wanted no one in their business. She now regretted the decision she'd made, after her first major bonus at Vir Actus, to not purchase property here. At the time, she'd valued living under the stars as paramount, for she'd always found value in reaching higher and higher. Living in a grungy affair, hidden away from the rest of the rabble down here, wouldn't let her enjoy the view from the skylight in her office.
Now? She couldn't care less about the sky.
Her robotic guards kept her isolated through sheer force of technological will. They were imposing figures to the have-nots that had joined her within the underbelly of an above-ground theater. The other citizens huddled in cramped clusters, while some individuals paced back and forth in pure nervousness. The lights above them provided warm light to such a dreary, fear-filled atmosphere, and the sight of such terrified families brought tears to her eyes.
She refused to cry. She had a better position than most. The immediate danger would soon fall, the government would tighten its grip on the rioting populace, and she could return home to obey whatever curfew. She'd use what resources she had to contact her father, get her family back to the Capital. They could wait out the storm of whatever threat these aliens posed, while the Triarchy squashed it.
A young man without horns stood so abruptly that it drew her attention. One of his arms was longer than the other by nearly a foot: an Exception, perhaps, or someone born with an unfortunate birth defect. "We gotta make a plan. We can't just sit here-"
"Sitting here is working so far!"
"Get down, fool. You're scaring my daughter!"
"My kids too."
Shouting continued for several moments, and Jula wanted nothing more than to drown it all out. This wasn't helping.
The long-armed man drifted that hand into the air, dark skin glowing with a faint yellow light. Jula tightened her grip on one of her bodyguard's metallic limbs. "C'mon, being scared isn't going to get us anywhere. What if we're here for several days? Any of you brought food? Water? Weapons? If one of them aliens comes down here, how you gonna fight for your life?"
Several frightened people nearby, including a boy a little older than Cassian, turned their eyes toward her and the robots that surrounded her. She warded them off with a glare, but refused to meet the child's eyes.
Murmurs swept across the crowd. One couple – young, too innocent – offered some of their provisions in a pile in the center of the theater. Another man started shoving tables and chairs to one side of the room, to block the entrance, which inspired several others to help. The man with the Exception gleamed at the possibility that he might be getting somewhere. "That's it, that's it. We gotta stick together, do what's right. Someone get a headcount, someone start taking down names. We gotta…"
Jula watched with faint hope at the display. Maybe, just maybe, they'd get through this.
"Quite the trinkets you have there."
A man approached her calmly. Dark hair that flowed past his shoulders, horns atop his head, a long billowing cloak wrapped around his torso. He was handsome, with a build that suggested he took care of himself. Jula bristled at the idea of his coming closer, and her bodyguards were programmed to respond to the tension in her body language. The nearest one turned to place its torso between them.
He raised a placating gesture and stopped a few feet from her. "Not to worry. I won't get closer. Just admiring these models, wondering if they might be useful if we get in a pinch."
She considered, briefly, ignoring the man, but he didn't seem to be the type to let things go. "They'll do what's needed."
"I'd hope so," he offered. "With everything that's happening out there, I'm glad to see you have some tools to help you stay safe."
Jula almost rolled her eyes. "Why do you care so much about if I'm safe?"
"Oh? It's not about you, madam. It's about all of us."
She'd already counted. "Big enough group forces its way past that barricade and tries to steal our stuff? I doubt my robots could keep us all safe."
He scanned the room, eyes settling on the women and children. "They probably would have trouble, yes. I don't mean the people in this room, madam. I am speaking for all of us on Osmos V."
The man was deluded, Jula decided. Charisma be damned.
"We rest on the precipice of defeat, of destruction. Barring a miracle, our society will crumble. Every one of us must stand ready to fight, tooth, horn, and nail, for everything we have if we want to survive."
"That's ridiculous. The Triarchs will-"
"Those supplicants?" The man laughed. "They fell when they decided to share."
OSMOS V
August 05, 07:39 UTC
TEAM YEAR NEGATIVE SEVEN
The Ambassador was pleased with himself. A dangerous dissident element on the planet had been uprooted before it could bear fruit. The minimal threat of this non-Osmosian man had been reduced to nothing, now under their thumb.
One of his assistants within his direct employ as the Ambassador brought with him an update, passing a slim panel covered in insectoid plates into the Enforcer's waiting gauntlet-covered hands. "Sir, pockets of violence have erupted across the Triarchy and its rival city-states across the seas. This event has rippled across the planet beyond our expectations."
The Ambassador could not help but bask in the glory of that information, even as he dismissed the officer after the report. Many events were ongoing simultaneously, though what caught his attention more were the efforts of Xandros against this unknown man.
The Scientist, chief researcher of the entire operation on Osmos V, entered the chamber at the height of their victory, likely to bring a report of another of their various projects. A large carapace-like screen still displayed elements from the surprising combat against a foe with unexpected technology, much of which did not fit within their extensive databases. The Ambassador studied the written hypotheses on the screen, but none of them fit the picture quite perfectly. Perhaps the Scientist had come to place his input into that matter.
A careful finger traced the plating of his arm, and he did not turn away from the screen even as the former Thanagarian Enforcer whispered, "You're spending a lot of thought on something that is no longer a worry, Amby. Why don't we get some rest? The coming days will be long and arduous."
The Scientist settled opposite the Enforcer on the Ambassador's other side. He could tell the Reach man had something to report, but knew better than to interrupt a conversation between the Ambassador and the Enforcer.
"There are too many unknowns," the leader of the Reach on Osmos V reiterated. "Our tactics are sound. This strategy guarantees us control of the population soon. If we stay the course, and there are no other unnecessary and unexpected interruptions, then predictions indicate all resistance will be negligible within six months."
The Scientist cleared his throat. "With all due respect, those were initial estimates. The genetic variability of the denizens of this planet could produce significant challenge to any of our number, especially as outnumbered as we are."
The Enforcer scoffed at the Scientist. "The Triarchy already wrestles with martial law. Our little game will force everything to crumble – they are far too unorganized to mount any significant challenge."
"If we deploy too early," the Scientist warned, "then we'll have no choice but to-"
The Ambassador cut him off and leaned slightly into the buxom Enforcer's loose embrace. "Deploy all but the reserve Assets in strategic locations."
"But, but that will-"
"Total pandemonium." The Enforcer purred. "You're a madman, Amby."
"Ensure our forces are in position to mitigate the chaos. See to it that the citizens of Osmos V know that they owe their survival to us."
The Scientist bristled at the command, and the winged beetle warrior left to engineer their master stroke. The races native to their system and those races that were assimilated from others moved with purpose throughout the complex like an orchestra, and the music of their activity forced the Ambassador into a great sense of satisfaction.
The Scientist was clearly still uncomfortable. "This is ahead of schedule, Ambassador. Did the capture of this prisoner truly engender this response?"
The Ambassador did not affirm or deny the question outright. "There are two major concerns, Scientist, with this individual's identity and the technology he commanded. My suspicions are largely that: suspicions, and until a proper interrogation occurs, I suspect we will not know for certain. Regardless of the truth, I believe his interference warrants an advancement of our timetable, if only because our position needs to be more tenable. If I am right, we cannot afford to leave any stone unturned to force Osmos V's hand."
The Scientist hesitated. "Can you share your suspicions?"
The leader merely pointed at one of the captured clips of the fight, taken through Xandros' scarab. Diagnostic readings suggested two major possibilities, though neither were confirmed. Both indicated a difficult position for their future, though one held far more potential consequences than the latter.
"Mysticism?" the Scientist remarked with clear doubt in his voice. "The chances of this are minimal at best, from initial surveys of the planet. There is very little thaumaturgic activity within the sector."
The Ambassador understood the speculation and the doubt. "It would not be the first time in our empire's history for us to underestimate mysticism and its many wonders."
The other Reach man scoffed. "The technology behaves like technology, not anything I've studied from the other realms. We have little reason to fear that."
"And the other possibility?"
The Scientist read over the panel for several seconds, replaying one clip of an explosive grenade several times. When the man finally realized the possibility, he gripped the panel in his hands tightly. "They wouldn't dare interfere."
OSMOS V
August 09, 19:41 UTC
TEAM YEAR NEGATIVE SEVEN
Months.
Months of agony.
Months of loss.
Months of uncertainty.
Months of fear.
Horatio could do little but think in the few moments of lucidity he possessed. Unconscious hours slipped into unconscious days, and for all he knew, it had actually been years. The only reason he thought he had a sliver of an idea of how long it had been were the seemingly regular intervals where his captors brought him a meal. Slid the disgusting plate of food right through the energy field that kept him from the outside world.
These meal times were precious, he'd learned early on, because they were the only sustenance he had. He'd tried to refuse to eat, but learned quickly that he'd need his strength to maintain his mind through the torture.
From the moment of his abduction by a green-skinned, four-armed behemoth, he'd sustained himself through countless days of tests, needles, electrical shocks, and too many others to count.
He'd let his mind wander about the possibilities of escape. About the possibilities of returning home to Lucrecia, to Cassian, to Jula, to Father. He missed them all dearly, and he'd thought of what their reunion would be like countless times and in countless variations.
Lucrecia would embrace him and never let go. Jula would berate him for the years they'd spent hating one another. Father would bemoan himself for allowing it to happen, and Horatio would have to console the man so he could keep his pride. Cassian would laugh in tearful joy and then demand to know everything, no matter how much he'd want to shield the boy from the truth.
So repeated these wonderings were, in fact, that he would often lose himself in their dream-like wonder.
These moments were the only moments to allow him any sort of reprieve. He'd tried to learn what they wanted with him and the others, but the insect-like Reach spoke in trills and high-pitched whines. When soldiers of the Senecan Legion spoke to them in Osmotin, the conversations were clipped and difficult to parse. His only thought, truly, was that they'd wanted him for Carnifex, somehow, but the details made no sense.
The satisfaction that he'd been right all along about the Triarchs did not carry him far, but it had vindicated decisions that he'd made for Carnifex in his youth. That vindication came from the uneasy realization that they'd willingly allow these Reach to perform mad science experiments on their own citizens. It was not at all what the group had had in mind, but it was far worse than anything the corrupt government had done in its long history.
A shift outside caught his attention, different mechanisms of the likely spaceship he'd called home lighting up at someone's behest. A moment later, the golden beetle warrior with brilliant wings entered the view of his cell for the smallest of moments, carrying something - no, someone - in her arms. He stood with weak knees and tried to get a good look at them, wondering whom the newest miscreant might be, but he didn't recognize the man. A moment later, and they were out of sight as the Reach soldier vanished around the bend.
It had been only days since the last arrival, and weeks more for the one before that. The sudden frequency confused him, and when several more began trickling into the ship, he realized something was amiss. Something was happening, and he was determined to learn what it was.
That determination would carry him through the rest of this ordeal. It had to, because he had very little left to keep him going.