The night had gone by quickly, and now everyone was readying camp and packing everything back into the wagon. Despite coming face to face with Kazon, the party seemed to all fall asleep easily, save for Twindil and Lance, their elven genetics allowing them to stay conscious through the night. Even Hoplite himself had slept after a while, his heavy eyes having become far too annoying to continue dealing with.
The heavy rainfall last night served to be a boon for them all, especially Lance, who had left her bloodied clothing on the roof overnight to be washed. Everyone else had done the same as well, leaving Halm in charge of cleaning them. The orc hadn't seemed to mind the task, a good thing, for none of them could afford being exposed up there, save for Halm. A couple buckets had been placed out on the roof as well, to collect the rainwater. It should be clean of contaminants, but Hoplite had checked with the analyser in his finger, just to be safe. Once he confirmed it was clear of contaminants, Kid'ka had volunteered himself to test its safety.
Seeing that the man hadn't been cursed, they refilled their water supply and took turns using the extra water to bathe in the back room. The curse could potentially spread through filth, but there were other problems that could happen if hygiene wasn't properly maintained. Right now, it was Nolvi's turn in the chamber, but she had been taking an inordinate amount of time to get it done.
Alistair huffed as he heaved up Hoplite's shoulder-plate, with Michael standing by, "See," He breathed, straightening his back, "I told you I could lift it."
"Alright, put it on his shoulder now, tough guy." Michael said, "Do you even know how to get it on there?"
"This is a pointless contest." Hoplite said flatly, eyeing the two men with narrowed eyes, "Simply slide the pauldron into the groove until you hear a click."
"Sorry sir," Michael said, "He was telling me those must be light if someone like me could pick em' up, so I told him to go try."
"They are light, at least to me." Alistair said, heaving the pauldron onto Hoplite's shoulder, "When you grow up one day, perhaps you'll be as big and strong as me."
Why was he letting this stupid competition take place? This was his armor, and Alistair wasn't Eighth Arm personnel. Did he want Michael to conserve energy for the day's trek? The marine was already sweating from helping Hoplite don the rest of his armor, so that could be the case. Yet that still didn't seem quite right to him. As Alistair struggled to fit the pauldron in place, Hoplite found himself observing how he held it. That piece was probably just as heavy as Alistair himself was, and yet he held it with such relative ease…
Committing an act of arrogance had apparently made him stronger than before, and looking at him now, that seemed to be the case. That must have been the real reason he let Alistair handle the pauldron instead of Michael, it had nothing to do with the marine's exhaustion, Hoplite had merely wanted to see how easily Alistair could handle the weight. While he was physically stronger, this growth in strength made itself known in more subtle ways.
Alistair seemed lighter on his feet and quicker to react, it wasn't just physical power. This either had something to do with Foundation or his genetics as an Atheyare, but whatever it was, he didn't want Hoplite or the others outside his party to know about it. If he asked Alistair for clarification that may cause friction amongst the squad, best leave it alone…
For now.
When finally the pauldron clicked, Hoplite stood, nodding to Alistair before moving toward the back room, where Nolvi was currently bathing. She had been in there for far too long and it was close to being time to leave. He and Halm still needed to clear out the exterior of the church, but they needed to leave immediately afterward, he'd just make sure Nolvi understood that.
He stopped right outside the doorway, knocking on the wall before saying, "Nolvi, it's time to be done."
"Normally," Twindil said, moving to stand beside Hoplite, "I would assume she was just relaxing, but scrubbing down with a cold rag isn't something to enjoy. Nolvi!" Twindil yelled, "Please hurry."
No answer. Hoplite and Twindil looked at each other then, his helmet still held in the crook of his arm. Another moment passed, before the two of them called out again, once more they received no answer. Hoplite donned his helmet as Twindil rushed into the room, following right after her.
It was empty, with only the two buckets and the dozens of damp rags adorning them left. Nolvi was gone, and that wasn't the only thing missing. The spiral tome was gone as well, had it fallen on the floor? No, the book wasn't the priority right now. A squad member had gone missing somehow. Had they missed her? Was she already in the wagon? He should have noticed her leaving… but maybe he had been too focused on Alistair?
Yes, that must be it, "Don't worry," Hoplite told Twindil, "She's probably in the wagon. I suggest you search for her, and I'll look for the book." He said.
"You're probably right," Twindil said, letting out a sigh, "She must be asleep right now. She better not be thinking about bringing that cursed book with us, I will not allow it." She said with a small huff, crossing her arms.
"I agree." Hoplite said, "Go check, I'll see if it fell on the floor."
She gave a quick nod before spinning on her heel, leaving the chamber before Hoplite rounded the table. Yet, when he scanned the floor, he saw nothing. Hoplite checked beneath the table as well, but still nothing could be seen. He then looked in the buckets of dirtied water, but it wasn't there either. This could only mean that Nolvi had the book.
"Nolvi!" He heard Twindil shout, "Where are you!?"
Hoplite left the room, his concern growing when he heard panic beginning to creep into her voice. Once he emerged, he saw the entire squad, save for Theopalu and Ortega, searching around for Nolvi. If he hadn't responded and wasn't clearly visible in this area, then she had to be on the roof. Why Nolvi would do this, he didn't know, but she'd be exposed up there. He rushed over to the stairway, awkwardly scrambling up the steps and emerging outside. Halm was no longer at his post, most likely he was already clearing the streets below of Fiends. Hoplite scanned the roof, spotting Nolvi standing at the edge, looking down and clutching something in her hands.
"What are you doing?" He asked, "You're exposed, get back downstairs and put that book back where you found it." He ordered.
"I…" She said, turning back to him.
His blood seemed to freeze over when their gazes met. Her eyes had both turned a deep purple, a black spiral pattern surrounding her iris. He nearly took a step back out of instinct, but held his ground. The book had been open in her hands, and a sinister violet light seemed to emanate from the very pages themselves.
"I have to go." She told him in a monotone to match his own, "Goodbye."
"Nolvi!?" He heard Twindil shout from behind him.
Twindil rushed past Hoplite, "Put that thing away!" She shouted, "It is evil!"
"I'm sorry." Nolvi said sadly, and then, just like that…
She was gone. Just like Kazon last night, she had simply vanished in an instant, leaving no blips on his motion tracker. Twindil was left grasping the empty air where she had been.
"...What?" She asked, putting a hand on her brow, "But she was- She…"
"She's gone." Hoplite said, "There's no one but us up here now."
Had she been kidnapped by Kazon? Whisked away by teleportation magic? It seemed as if she had gone of her own volition though, and it was unlikely she would have gone with Kazon willingly, if she hated him as much as her friends did.
"Could she always teleport?" He asked her, "Where do you think she went?"
"I- uh." She stammered, sweat beginning to pour down her brow, "N-no, no she couldn't, I don't know where she could have gone. I have to find her." She said, her tone shaky, "She couldn't have gotten far," She continued, "Let's search the surrounding buildings-"
"Negative." Hoplite said, "She could be anywhere now, searching for her would jeopardize the mission. If she can teleport, she'll come back on her own."
Twindil rounded on him, a sharp glare on her face, "You don't know that!" She exclaimed, "She could have been taken against her will, she needs my help!"
"Before you came up here, she told me she needed to go." Hoplite explained, "Whatever the reason, it was her choice."
"But-" She began before Hoplite cut her off.
"If you go starting a useless search, I'll take the provisions and leave you behind." He said harshly, the Soldier's reasoning taking over, "She could be anywhere, but wherever she went she did so willingly."
"The book could be influencing her, you saw that glow!" She yelled, approaching him before jabbing a finger into his chest-plate, "And I will not allow you to take the wagon away from us, we need it just as much as you."
"You will not delay the mission." Hoplite growled, The Child's frustration bubbling up to the surface.
He seized control from the two of them, taking a deep breath to calm himself. Having a screaming match here was unproductive and dangerous. What if Michael had vanished like that? Would he not also try to mount a search for him, even if it delayed the mission? Twindil opened her mouth to retort, but Hoplite cut her off by pointing to the doorway, "We can talk about this more downstairs. Perhaps we can reach a compromise."
She frowned then, but said, "Very well. Do try and stay in a stable state, yes?"
He didn't reply, instead moving over to the edge of the roof to inspect the streets below. As he had suspected, Halm had already begun clearing out the streets. Dozens of purple bodies lay strewn this way and that, with Halm himself slowly making his way back toward the church. It looked like he had completely gotten rid of the Fiends in the immediate vicinity.
He then turned back to Twindil, "Let's go."
…
…
…
Cat's eyes fluttered open, a dim orange light illuminating the cloth roof above. She groaned as she sat up, shoulders slumped. Her mouth felt dry… she wanted water. It looked like she was in some kind of wagon bed, having been wrapped up in a few layers of blankets. She had survived all that? Apparently so, but why was her body not in agony? She'd pushed her jets to their absolute limit and had essentially cooked herself alive, and indeed, when she checked herself, the burn scars were there.
Yet they were faint, as if they had been inflicted years ago… Had she been comatose!? She felt at her face, feeling the familiar smoothness of her own youth. Thank Jyn, she hadn't become a wrinkly old bat. She ceased feeling at her face when she heard voices speaking outside of the wagon, and she moved to investigate. Coming upon the lip of the wagon, she could see a dozen people gathered in a circle, including Hoplite, private Michael, and the blonde woman that had… er, glowed on her, if she was remembering that right.
"We're agreed then." Hoplite said, "We'll sweep neighboring buildings for an hour before we head for the tunnels."
"Very well." The blonde woman replied, "If we can't find her in that time… we'll continue without her. After we kill Kazon, we'll continue our search on our own time, and we'll separate."
"Affirmative." Hoplite said flatly, helmet tilting toward the wagon, "Private Ortega, welcome back." He said, leaving the group to approach the wagon.
She nearly jumped back in her blankets when he said her name. The Guy of all time was coming to speak with her!? It was too much, she wanted to disappear back into her blankets forever, but she forced her body still despite the feeling. When he reached the wagon, he stopped a few paces short, Michael having trailed right after him.
"I'll brief you on the situation." Hoplite told her.
"Sir yes sir!" Cat croaked out, saluting, "I am Catalina Ortega, I serve the Octopus and Lord Jyn loyally!"
She waited for him to reply… but for some reason, he did not repeat the greeting. Was there something wrong with him? Michael looked at him strangely as well, brows knitting together before he himself repeated the greeting. Again, Hoplite did not follow suit.
"A lot has happened since the crash, private." Hoplite said, "Do you know of any other survivors in the city?"
Cat frowned and shook her head, putting a shaky hand over her brow, "Sir… it was a massacre, aliens and humans both, neither of us were ready for those purple freaks. I think I might be the only one left who isn't infected… I haven't heard another signal in days, until you came along. I was camped out in a pod my squad had secured for a couple weeks, but we got overrun…" She finished, "They found us and there were too many-" She said, tears welling in her eyes, "I was the only one who could get out of there, I left-" She paused to wipe her eyes, "I left them behind… I couldn't save them."
Hoplite put a large hand on her shoulder, "It was all you could do, private. Staying there to die wouldn't have helped them, escaping meant you could fight another day."
She knew he was right, deep down she acknowledged that… but he hadn't heard them screaming for her to help them, screeching as they were being disemboweled, "I need to fight something sir, anything." She said shakily, "I'm good to fly again, those boosters don't fry like other models if you push them too hard."
"Affirmative, but first, I need to brief you on what's happened this past month." Hoplite told her, "Twindil, Halm has cleared out the majority of Fiends out there, it might be a good idea to begin your search now, while I brief private Ortega. Don't get lost." He told the blonde woman.
Twindil, the girl with the pointed ears, nodded, 'This won't count as the hour we agreed on, we'll still take the time when we head for the tunnels."
After a brief instant of silence, Hoplite replied, "Affirmative. Rendezvous back here in fifteen minutes."
Michael grimaced, "Sir, it might take more than fifteen to properly fill er' in, a lots happened."
"Fifteen is enough." Hoplite said in monotone, "I need to open the door for them, Michael, keep your rifle trained on the door during the brief."
"Sir yes sir." Michael replied.
After that was all said and done, with the strangers gone and Michael on watch, Hoplite began to brief her. In that fifteen minutes, he had managed to convince Cat that he had gone completely insane while planetside. Magic apparently was real, as were gods and demi-gods, oh, and this was also a different dimension. Michael too had apparently gone crazy, for he allegedly believed a majority of what Hoplite spewed out.
Yet, at the same time, some of what he said didn't seem too far-fetched… maybe it was because seeing something's head blown off and still move around had convinced her (at least slightly) that the supernatural could be real. Most of this was surely not true though, especially the whole thing with 'Pillar-Gods'. Lord Jyn himself was the only thing in existence close enough to that title, and he wasn't some pillar.
Cat would simply nod and play along, she didn't want to invoke Thirty-Seven's ire. She'd ask Michael what was really going on later, when Hoplite was out of earshot. He had to be pretending to believe this to keep Hoplite in a stable mood. She didn't blame Higgins one bit. After exactly fifteen minutes, the psychotic tirade ended, and all fell silent.
"Any questions?" Hoplite asked her.
"No sir!" She exclaimed, "I understand completely!"
Michael snorted, and shook his head, "She thinks you're making it up sir."
Cat's jaw dropped open, and she stared wide-eyed at Higgins. Why the hell would he rat her out like that!? Hoplite simply shrugged, "It is the situation, she'll see how things are soon."
Clearly, Higgins was not to be trusted. They both had gone off the deep-end and may have to… be re-indoctrinated. She banished the thought, there was no way Cat was going to report her childhood hero, The Chair was the last thing Hoplite deserved. Thirty-Seven just needed to rest and relax, maybe he just hadn't slept since The Sparrow crashed? She had heard that they sometimes went weeks without sleep…
Michael though? He had no excuse, he was just crazy. The strangers, having been explained by Hoplite, all returned, a defeated look on their faces.
"Nowhere." The blonde man, Alistair said, "We searched a few places top to bottom, but we couldn't find her anywhere."
"Then we need to get going." Hoplite said, "Private Ortega, stay here and guard the wagon, "Michael, you assist her, I'll be searching for Nolvi as well."
"Yes sir." Michael and Cat both replied.
"I'll stay with them too." A big purple infected said, moving casually through the doorway.
Cat nearly jumped out of her own skin seeing the hulking mass enter, but Hoplite had informed her that this guy, Halm, wasn't a hostile. Apparently, Twindil had glowed on him too, and it made him not crazy like the other Fiends. In fact, he had apparently saved her before the rest of his kind could spread the 'curse' to her. As much as Cat hated mutants, she owed him one for rescuing her.
"I'll be an all natural door bar." Hal said, flexing his massive arms, "Just sit back and relax." He finished, looking directly at her and Michael.
"Affirmative. We'll meet back here in one hour, everyone else should go in pairs, I'll go alone." Hoplite said, rushing out the door.
"Oh no you won't!" Said the black-haired girl, Lance, "Everyone's going in pairs? Fine, that means you're stuck with me, got a problem with it?" She asked him in a challenging tone.
The balls of this woman, talking to Hoplite like that. Would he reprimand her? Perhaps force her to go with someone else? His shoulders slumped slightly in response, a motion that was nearly invisible.
"Affirmative." He replied in a tone bordering on suffering.
Cat stared, bewildered before shifting her gaze over to Michael, who merely shrugged in response, "She's got some kinda super-power." He told her casually, "Anyway, hold tight, they should be back soon. Maybe you should check out yer gear?"
"Not a bad idea…" Cat said, shaking her head lightly, "I'm just in shock that Thirty-Seven let himself be talked to like that."
"Super-power." Michael repeated, "I don't know how she does it." He paused then, for a long while before continuing, "Do you know if… Do you know if Nasty Nate was KIA?"
Cat tried to think if she'd seen the man amongst the Fiends over these past two weeks, but she couldn't recall him. Then again, it would have been hard to pick any one face out of those crowds.
"I don't know." She said, "So you remember me then."
Michael nodded, "When you tell a guy to airlock himself ya don't forget."
"I don't feel bad." Cat replied with a huff, "Guy thought if he tried hard enough that he could get me in his bunk. I'm not that type of girl."
"You drove him crazy," Michael said with a laugh, "I think you mighta gotten him to fall in love with ya, and all ya had to do was tell him no."
She snorted, "Guys like you and him have it too easy with the ladies," She said, "You think a nice jawline and some muscles will get you the world."
"I mean, not the world." He replied with a shrug, "Just some mutual fun with some girls."
"Is there a mirror somewhere in this thing?" She asked, changing the subject, "I haven't seen myself in weeks."
"The princess will find her vanity in the sack on the left hand side of the wagon, loaded into the bottom." Michael told her in a pompous nasally voice, "Is there anything else milady desires?"
"Well," She said with a grin, "If you could put on some coffee that would be great."
He then shook his head, keeping his eyes trained on Halm and the doorway. She disembarked from the vehicle, shifting through the various bags until finally she found a small hand mirror. Good, she really hadn't been comatose then, for her short dark hair was the same length as it had been when she'd basically cooked herself.
No scarring on her face either, meaning she hadn't had one on one contact with the street when the jets failed… Thanks to Halm. She didn't like it, but she would have to at least go and say thank you later, after she got her gear in order. In her inspection she spotted a single eyelash, sitting atop her tanned skin. She removed it with a shudder, and then stowed the mirror away. Was there anything worse than loose hair?
She walked back around the cart, her legs somewhat shaky as she went. Cat needed to get some food in her system or she'd collapse, not to mention water. Michael could maybe help her get something ready, she didn't know where the food was and with how shaky she was, she may not be able to cook anything herself. Then again, if they were just ration bars all she'd need to do is tear through that awful thick plastic.
When she rounded the wagon, she saw Michael frowning, a distant look in his eyes. She took a deep breath, leaning against the wagon before she told him, "I don't think Nate's pod crashed here, I know a lot of others ended up farther away than this. Try not to stress about it."
"I know." Michael said, "It's hard not to worry though." He paused then, his eyes refocusing on her, "If we find him don't you tell him I was worried, I won't hear the end of it."
Cat smiled, "I won't."
She didn't feel guilty about lying. It would be the perfect way to get back at him for ratting her out to Hoplite.