Adrenaline is coursing through me, my heart banging against my rib cage, breathing drowns out the majority of sound, my eyes constantly scanning the path before me. I hear Bavarthos yelling out something as we run along moving south east through the streets. It starts to sound familiar and I realize he's shouting in Spanish.
"¡Correr! Si quieres vivir ¡Corre!" (Run! If you want to live, RUN!)
As my brain regained control of the flight response we had taken, we heard a boom again.
The next second we're flying through the air, Bavarthos still holding my arm, pulling me towards him. We hit the ground hard, knocking the air out of the both of us. Bavarthos taking the brunt of the fall as we hit the ground rolling. After a few gasping breaths and looking around, we're back on our feet and I snapped us to the evacuation point at the church.
Still trying to catch our breath, we're quickly being asked what happened by the few team members there who couldn't snap people. Holding my hand up for a moment, I took some deep, wet, ragged breaths before gasping out, spitting blood on the ground in between words.
"Tanks. Fired. In City.... Must get... civilians ...out... Now." I feel faint from the impact that we just endured and when I turn to look at Bavarthos, I hear a ring of gasps.
"What?" I turn back to my team mates and they stutter out a response.
"You're... ba..ba...back."
One quickly uses their visor to send me a live feed of it. No wonder I'm still gasping.
I have two ribs broken and they're sticking out of my back, likely into my lungs.
That's when the adrenaline decided to give out.
'Shit'
I hit the ground, on my knees, tears forming and falling before I feel the bones start to slowly and painfully shift. My breathing becomes more labored and tight, before I'm coughing up blood, gagging on it as I try to take a breath.
"B?" I struggle to ask if he's alright, just the one questioning syllable was hell to manage in between the coughing and gagging.
I feel a warmth spread over me, and my bones pop and crunch back into place making me scream out.
My lungs still feel raw, but I'm not coughing now and I slowly stand up. I turn to Bavarthos and he's doing something to his arm, which looks to be broken as well. It only takes a second before he's looking at me and looking at the crowd.
"Sin, radio everyone on our team, we have to leave as soon as we get these people out of here. There's too many, my machines and pets can't hold back all of them. They're starting to surround the city on the sides." Bavarthos looks around nervously in the direction of the visible and audible signs and sounds of the town being destroyed.
'Fuck, he's right.'
Hopping on my coms, immediately I radio all of the team members with the order to come back to the church and finish evacuating the people that we still have here.
"HQ. Sin here. We need IMMEDIATE BACK UP. The Erl's forces are coming at us hard with tanks and we need more people to help get these people safely out of here. NOW."
"Copy that, Sin. Sending support your way."
I knocked back a bottle before starting to snap groups to the refuge camp. Shortly, more magic users from HQ were there and helping to snap groups to safety.
I had just finished snapping another group of ten when my com went off. Thietian's familiar voice comes through.
"Sin, I'm snapping you some DS personnel. That should help hold the tanks back until we can finish getting those people out. We have our other specialist teams going ahead of you to get the towns and villages south of your position. We have some air support heading your way, should be there in the next twenty minutes to take out the ground troops. Take care and watch your back."
"Thanks Thietian, will do." I respond, thankful.
Within seconds the DS personnel show up.
They are part of the Deterrent Snipers force, but dubbed themselves the Demon Snipers. Within moments of their arrival with their equipment, they're already opening the cases and assembling their equipment. In less than a minute, the newest version of the FGM-148 Javelin, dubbed the 'Demons Javelin' was ready for use.
Greedily, I gaze at the weapon, my hands itching to use one to cause some mayhem for these assholes.
'I miss blowing things up.'
"Major General Sin." I'm saluted by one of the DS's and I bob my head in a nod to them.
"At ease. Go get those assholes, make em hurt." I wave them off and turn to the next group of people to snap away.
Within a minute, the earth trembles under our feet. Some people fell, others were wobbling as we try to remain standing, as a giant boom ripples across the town from the Demon snipers shot.
My own body is trembling from the shock wave nearly knocking me to my feet. Sweat drips down my neck and back uncomfortably as I try to get the people to gather up in groups again.
" ¡Todo el mundo! ¡Quédate en tu grupo!" (Everyone! Stay in your group!)
I'm looking around at the thousands still needing to be snapped to safety. We had around twenty people who were capable of snapping working hard, only stopping to drink a bottle, but it was still slow going when only the strongest of them could snap 10 people at a time. Bavarthos and I were the only ones present who could snap more than that. The only others that were strong enough.....
*Light bulb on, mental facepalm*
Clicking my com on I jump right to the point.
"Thietian, connect me to Lars, NOW PLEASE." I call out over my com, knowing that if he wasn't listening before, he would be now.
"Patching you through." Some unknown male voice comes through and a few seconds later, I hear Belle's voice answer the call.
"Pronto, si?" Belles singsong voice calls out.
"Belle, it's Sin. I need Lars now." I cut to the chase quickly and she must hear the urgency in my voice.
"Un secondo. LAR! Maria, tua figlia è al telefono." (One second. Lar! Maria, your daughter is on the phone.)She yells out for Lars in the background as I continue to count and wave people forward to snap.
"Hola mija. ¿qué te pasa? (hello daughter, What's the matter?) His tense, quick question full of concern.
"I need you and your brothers, to help get people to safety. I'm in Oxapampa, Peru. At the Church of Flowers. The Erl's forces are already in the city and there's too many people for just us. "
"Say no more, mija. Church of flowers, Oxapampa Peru." There's a click before the male voice comes back on.
"The call's been disconnected, Major General."
"Thank you." I smirk out while thinking, 'Captain obvious....'
Another boom and shock wave ripples through the area, making me drop to one knee, hissing as I hit hard.
The shaking had just stopped when my com goes off again.
"SIN!" Suites comes on over my com. "SIN! TURKOAS JUST GOT TRAPPED UNDER THE ROOF OF A HOUSE FROM THAT LAST SHOT! SIN, I NEED HELP!"
*TCK-TCK-TCK... Tink ..cling* The all to familiar sound of controlled burst of fire come through and I look to my other team members.
"I have to go." I tell them quickly.
One of my specialists Vickson waves me off. "GO! We'll handle this!"
I look towards Bavarthos about to tell him to stay and help, but he just snaps his fingers and we're in a different area of the town on top of one of the roofs.
'Not what I had in mind, but okay B.'
I sling my rifle into position and hear the shots being fired close by. Scanning for Suites, I find him shooting at a few of the Erl's soldiers who have made it into town. The building he's taking cover with has collapsed.
'Tarkoas must be in there.'
"Hey B?" I turn and get shocked.
I glance frantically around the area he was just at seeing nothing.
'Where the fuck did he go?'
I turn back to see Bavarthos has already taken out two of the soldiers and is working on another.
Movement to the side of him catches my eye.
"Shit."
My rifle comes up swiftly.
My sights catch him quickly.
I breathe out and pull the trigger.
As I lower my rifle, Bavarthos takes down the last two soldiers and I take a much needed breath back in.
Looking over to Suites who's going into the destroyed building, I snap down to him.
"TURKOAS! IF YOU CAN HEAR ME TRY TO MAKE A SOUND!" Suites yells out in desperation, looking for movement or any sign of life.
We both hear movement behind us and reflexively my rifle comes up as I turn.
"Shit B. You almost ate lead." Muttering I turn back to Suites who's beginning to pick up some of the lighter pieces of debris.
"B, watch our tails." Throwing my chin over my shoulder, he nods in confirmation as I turn back to stop Suites.
"Suites, wait a second, let me see if I can find him on my scanner." I stop his arm and he looks at me frantically.
Anxiety and desperation are there to help save Turkoas, yet he still nods and sets the pieces of board off to the side.
I tap my suits interactive and scan our location for Turkoas body in our immediate vicinity.
There's nothing.
"Suites, he's not here." I widen the area to search when Bavarthos mutters to us.
"Then I suggest we snap somewhere else, now. We have company coming."
He grabs our arms and suddenly we're back at where the refugees are being snapped to safety. There's still a couple thousand but half of what was there prior to a few minutes ago is already gone.
Lar and his brothers are snapping groups closer to 100 and doing it several times before needing a drink.
"Redcaps! Well I'll be damned..." Bavarthos says sounding shocked at the sight of Lars kind helping us.
I can't help but arch an eye brow at his comment, but quickly continue my search for Turkoas. Still getting nothing, I connect to HQ.
"HQ, I need a trace on Corporal Turkoas. He's gone missing and I'm not finding him in my vicinity."
Suites paces and I motion for him to take watch, even though the Demon snipers are doing their jobs of keeping our area from being attacked from the oncoming legions of soldiers.
"Copy, that Major General."
Silence is on the com as I motion Bavarthos to continue to help with the refugees. I'm snapping a group myself when the voice comes back on.
"Yes, Sin. We found him. He snapped himself and a young lady to the hospital ward. They've both been injured and he's not fit for duty now at this time."
"Thank you HQ." I sigh and turn to Suites.
"Suites, they found him. He's at the hospital. He snapped himself and a young lady to the hospital, they're both wounded though. I'm going to have you help group these people up for me and B to snap back. Women and children first."
Suddenly we're all thrown to the ground as we're pelted with dirt, stones and splinters. I can't hear anything as I cover my head, except for the ringing in my ears.