Omnira and her troop were tasked with clearing the officer quarters. It was a fast and furious door-to-door ordeal. Each of the higher ranking officers had their own house. A few of them had families. Omnira felt a pang of guilt dragging the women and children out of their homes, but these people had done the same thing to her people twenty years ago. Not once in all that time had she seen a shred of remorse from any of them. At the same time, she gave her troop strict instructions not to harm any non combatants.
The operation was quick and smooth. The lead squad would burst into the house, subdue anyone inside, and move on. The following squads were in charge of moving the prisoners to a secure location. The red alert kicked everything into high gear. The fighting became more fierce, due to the occupant being more alert as they entered. Omnira's squad was nearly shot more than once as they burst into a home. Thanks to Azaacar's Gift, they were more than fast and strong enough to handle every obstacle.
The junior officers all stayed in a single barracks building. Omnira's squad stopped and waited outside for more squads to catch up before entering. While she was taking a beat to catch her breath, the sky filled with nasty looking aircraft. She gave a few quick instructions to her squad and sprinted to the roof. A few officers came out of their rooms as she sprinted past, but she didn't have time to engage. She simply made a shield out of her energy and bashed her way through whatever poor soul got in her way.
When she reached the roof she stopped and looked amazed at the sheer number of ships in the sky. She wasn't sure what she was going to do, but she knew she had to come up here and do something. That was when she met Marcus' eyes. He nodded at her and started firing bursts of energy and the murder of airships in the sky. She watched as the first one exploded into nothing. Her eyes widened and she knew exactly what to do. She focused and called on her energy, then began firing off her on barrage, taking down ship after ship. It was exhilarating.
She glanced down at the ground and caught Marley looking at her. There was chaos all around him, the king was fleeing into the ship, but his eyes were on her. She bit her lip. His gaze had part of her feel warm and brought back memories of the last night they spent together. A laser whizzed a little too close for comfort and she quickly remembered why they were there. She sent him a mental message urging him on his mission. He waved before running off and she couldn't help but smile.
She refocused, taking down as many as she could as fast as she could. She noticed the front end of the ship would light up before they fired. Most gleamed with twin green lights, a few had one large, bright red light. She didn't care what the difference was. The moment she saw one light up, she nailed it. The good thing was, when the ones with the larger guns exploded, they usually took out their neighbors as well. The bad news was, there were too many of them. She was exhausted, sweat dripped off her face like so many tears. Her muscles burned, her body screamed at her to take a break. She refused. She led so many people here, she couldn't give up just because she was tired. She kept firing. When she saw the ships starting to retreat, she kept firing. When she heard the tanks roll in, she didn't bother looking down, she kept firing. It wasn't until she saw the mangled tanks fly through the air, that she stopped shooting. Only after she saw Marcus take out what was left with a massive attack, did she stop to breathe.
Omnira sent Marcus a quick joking message then bent over, leaning her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath. She heard a ruckus and looked up to see the ground troops fleeing back into the ship. She immediately thought of Marley. She didn't know where he was, but she couldn't let these people catch up to him. She ran as fast as she could and leapt off the roof, down to Jarka's back. She slid down her flank, making it to the ground before the legend could return to her humanoid form. The moment her feet touched dirt she sprinted for the ship, and was quickly joined by Jarka, Moco and Marcus.
Once they got inside, they had to stop short on their heels. The soldier's they thought they were chasing, where all standing inside a cavernous room bathed in red light, with a massive high-backed chair at the far end. They Were just standing there talking among themselves, faces hidden By helmets. The four Heroes froze, uncertain on what to do next. One the soldiers noticed Them And cursed loudly in surprise. This drew the attention of the rest of the room, prompting them To slowly raise their weapons.
Quickly the four manifested shields to protect themselves. The soldiers directly in front of them opened fire. The atmosphere immediately became oppressive under the heat of the laser fire. Moco Shouted over the din, "Okay fam! What's the move here?!" Omnira gritted her teeth and yelled at Marcus, "remember that move I said you should lead with, maybe we should try that!" Jarka agreed, "Good idea, but I have a better one. Get back-to-back, let 'em surround us."
They shifted until the four of them had their back to each other. They focused their energy until their shields connected into a floating Cylinder around all of them. The soldiers continued to fire on them as they moved slowly into the center of the throng. The heat in the room rose causing sweat to pour down the faces of the four friends. "OK, what now, great teacher?!" Marcus screamed, straining under the barrage. "Sustained fire forward, then drag it out to your side! On 3!" Jarka Yelled.
"Strong Mind" Marcus screamed.
"One" Jarka counted.
"Strong Body"
"Two"
"Strong spirit"
"Three!"
"True Power!" Marcus raged as they all fired a beam of bright blue energy from each fist Into the crowd of soldiers. They slowly spread their arms wide, crossing their fields of fire. The soldiers crumpled instantly as the energy burned through them. The air became heavy with the scent of burnt flesh and ozone as large swaths of bodies were mowed down like so much grass. It took less than a minute to clear the entire room. Not a single soldier was left standing.
The four stood silent. They surveyed the scene as they caught their breath.
Marcus gave a low whistle as they stood amidst the carnage. "I don't think this is a move we should teach people." Jarka shook her head. "It has always been a maneuver born of desperation. Definitely not something you lead with." Omnira shook her head in agreement. "Definitely not."
A flash of light caught the corner of eye. She looked down one of the corridors leading off the throne room. She saw flashes of blue and deep purple light that seemed to clash against each other. Her breath caught as she immediately understood what she was seeing.
"Marley."