by Marc Mulero
Moments later, Hiezer guards flooded the scene as the smoke began to clear simultaneously. Gun fire erupted from both sides. The sound of bullets ricocheting off of metal and intense battle-cries polluted the scene. The unnerving sounds provoked anxiety in the distance, as the civilians took cover near where they had set up camp. Kids were shaking with a mix of fear and curiosity as their families held them tight. The battle became too heavy for the civilians to advance at this point. Blague stood from cover and fired two shots from his Desert Eagle, one head shot and one chest shot, causing two guards to stumble down into the jagged debris. Twenty feet away, Briggs hoisted Lito into the air from a trench. While airborne, Lito pulled a short-fuse dynamite from his back pack, lit it and threw it. Four guards were tossed into the air from the explosion. About forty guards rushed through the breach to take their place. Bullets whizzed in both directions as the Sin fighters continued to fire their weapons. The battle ensued for about ten minutes. The Sins outnumbered the Hiezers, allowing them to lead a successful assault. The commanders ordered the fighters back to prepare for the next wave of enemy fire. Blague gasped as he saw a gunner soldier emerge from the breach. The soldier held a massive machine gun, while another soldier ducked down and held the chain of bullets.
“Take cover!” Blague shouted from the front lines as the gunner opened fire.
Lito was exposed, remaining close to the breach from his flight. He sped in front of the bullet trail following him and dove behind some wreckage. Briggs stood up as a distraction, drawing his two sub machine guns and opening fire. He clipped the soldier’s ammo feeder, but the gunner turned to where Briggs stood. Blood splashed in the air and landed on a Sin fighter's face. Briggs plopped down and dropped his guns, holding his wounded arm, wincing in pain.
”That better be a flesh wound,” the fighter said.
The gunner continued his assault, aiming at Blague, when all of a sudden the gunner fire stopped. Blague emerged from cover with his arm held out stiff, ready to retaliate. To his surprise, the gunner was already dead, lying face down with a knife in the back of his head. Lesh flipped down from a section of the wreckage, stepped on the dead gunner's head, and took back what belonged to her. Blague focused his attention to a Hiezer guard who appeared behind Lesh. He quickly shifted his aim and fired. The bullet whizzed by her, making its stop in the advancing guard’s heart. Amongst the chaos, Lesh leapt to a piece of stray debris while pulling a knife out of the ring on her back. She tossed it as she grabbed onto the jagged edge of a metal scrap. The knife shot through a guard's throat. Without skipping a beat, she took another knife and flung it while flipping herself off the debris. Dust was kicked up as her feet hit the ground. She took a glance of her surrounding area and sprinted toward her impaled victims, eyeing the exposed knives. She artfully recovered her weapons, appearing only as a shadow for the brief moment she was exposed at the breach. Another guard leapt out as Lesh dashed back toward Lito and Blague. As she weaved around the wreckage, she caught a glimpse of Lito waving his hands for her to get down. As the guard was about to open fire, a sniper bullet ran through his chest and threw him backward.
Briggs' arm was limp, wrapped tightly with his tank top. His bicep veins bulged as he tried to focus on the heat radar. “We're clear for now,” he said to Blague through his radio.
Blague then quickly turned to the fighter closest to him, “Get the civilians moving!” he commanded, knowing there was no time to waste. "Report our casualties in four minutes,” he demanded from another fighter. The fighter nodded. Blague hopped over some debris to get to Briggs. He moved the makeshift bandage and inspected the wound for a moment. “I see an exit wound,” Blague said. “The good news is you're going to be ok. The bad news is the pain is going to become more apparent within the next few minutes, when the adrenaline wears off. Go see a medic and sit the second wave out.”
Briggs barely had the energy to acknowledge the request, but he began to move toward the civilians. Lesh and Lito rummaged through debris to get to Blague.
Blague put an arm around Lesh, “You saved our asses back there, Lesh.”
“Maybe,” she said in a whisper, “but I scouted a second wave of guards. We slaughtered the outdoor patrol, but there’s also a patrol within the mansion. About one hundred strong,” her raspy voice cracked.
Blague turned around to the fighter with a casualty report. “Yes?” he said.
The fighter looked solemn, “Eleven casualties and fourteen injured, including Commander Briggs. All were fighters.”
Blague, too, looked solemn. “Have the civilians gather the dead and tend to the wounded. We will address the situation as a whole once we settle into the mansion.”
Briggs looked at his radar while walking towards the civilians, who were slowly advancing toward the breach. In shock, he saw bodies quickly approaching from the back way, heading straight for the civilians. The wreckage breach was also becoming populated. Briggs desperately grabbed onto a fighter, showed her the radar and said, “Inform Blague, immediately!” The fighter shared Briggs’ angst after a peek at the growing heat signatures on the radar. She quickly ran to Blague to give him the warning as Briggs dashed toward the civilians, holding his limp arm in place. He heard a scream in the distance, panic ensued through the crowd. Briggs stopped a frightened man in his tracks by putting his huge arm in his way. “What's going on?” Briggs asked with intensity.
“Two people were attacked from behind by Hiezer guards,” the man said.
That means a scout in one of the outer cities either betrayed us or was found out. Either way, this wasn’t anticipated. I have to find Kentin. Briggs nodded to the man and raced off to find his son in the chaos.
Cherris had a front row seat to the attack. She gathered a few kids and told them to hide in her supply wagon, which she would guard. Ten Hiezer guards stormed from the back of the camp, where seven Sin patrolmen were strategically placed at the back entrance to protect the civilians from an ambush. All seven perished in gunfire, but so did eight of the Hiezer guards. The remaining two spread out and ran into the civilian crowd. Cherris spotted one of them not so far off, but she couldn't leave the kids. She screamed for help, but the sound was drowned out by the panic. Tears streamed down her face as she witnessed one of the guards draw his pistol and point at a woman's head. A man jumped out in an attempt to tackle the guard, but he was swatted away. Cherris felt her breath shorten when she realized that the woman was Milos' mother.
Not a moment later, Milos ran to the scene with determination in his eyes and a knife in his hands. Without flinching, the guard opened fire point blank. Cherris abandoned her post out of instinct, but was nowhere near close enough to stop him. Time slowed in that instant, as Milos stabbed the guard in the calf at the exact moment he saw his mother's life brutally taken from her. The bullet hole in her head, mixed with blood and tears streaming down her face was inconceivable. Milos' eyes became painstakingly bloodshot; his body wasn’t equipped to handle the anguish. The guard screamed in pain, pivoted, and pointed his gun to the kid's head. Milos looked up without fear of his own imminent death.
The split-second the guard’s finger began to flex was the moment a knife pierced his skull. His body went limp immediately. Lesh, rarely showing compassion, hugged the boy with one arm and ripped her bloody knife out of the guard’s head with the other, whipping the knife back into her knife ring.
“Child,” Lesh said, “you will never be the same. Go to Cherris to soothe the pain, but come to me when you're ready to inflict it.”
She let go and pushed him into Cherris' arms. Lesh looked at Cherris with a straight face.
Cherris stared back in despair, “There's still one out there.”
Lesh shook her head and pointed behind her. There Briggs was, with his son, and a dead guard over his shoulder. Briggs walked over and shrugged his shoulder to release the corpse, letting it fall onto the other guard's body.
“Is that all of them?” Cherris asked.
“
From the back way, it seems all ten are accounted for. The fighters are clearing the breach as we speak. Blague sent me back to account for this situation,” Briggs said while glancing over at the dead woman a few feet away.
“What happened, Briggs? I thought we were protected from this side?” Lesh questioned, tilting her head slightly.
Briggs frowned, “I suspect a mole.”
“How unfortunate,” Lesh said, “that mole cost eleven lives so far. That person better hope we never cross paths.”
Briggs stared at one of his devices. “All I have to do is find out which lookout isn't accounted for. If he isn't alive, he was found out. If he's still breathing, we have a traitor.”
Nearby, Milos looked shell-shocked as Cherris held on to him tight. They both had tears flowing down their faces. Cherris sobbed, but Milos' face looked as though it were made of stone.
Back at the breach, the Sin fighters were spread out, firing at the second group of Hiezer guards that Lesh had warned about. The guards were seeping past the breach and taking cover behind debris. As Blague hid behind a stray piece of cement, a haunting memory rushed to the front of his mind; a memory of his late wife screaming in pain as she was drained of her life force.
She was attached to a circular metal contraption that shackled her spread out limbs. Blague's recollection of the memory stirred a stress in his heart that rendered him helpless and desperate, as he remembered the eight men holding him down, preventing him from saving her. His blood vessels were popping all around his green eyes and his veins jolted from his neck. “Elaina!” he screamed, as uncontrollable tears dripped down his face.
After her last desperate cry of pain, her limbs went limp. For a moment, time stood still.
She looked up at Blague calmly and said, “It's alright love, there's no more pain now. I'll miss you.” Her head slumped to the side, lifeless.
As his senses returned to him, his feeling of desperation from the memory of Elaina morphed into rage. The sound of bullets clanking against the debris around him slapped him back to the present. His senses became heightened and his body grew tense. His Cryos mark was glowing in bright blue and his muscular arms had defined veins running through his skin’s surface. He heard a Hiezer guard stumble right above from where he was taking cover. Blague stood up and whipped his arm around, cracking the guard's black, full coverage helmet with his elbow, dazing him. Blague quickly spun in the other direction and swung his three-foot black carbon blade, slashing the guard’s throat. Wasting no time, he jumped out from cover and grabbed the dying guard by the collar and hoisted him as a shield.
“Lito!” Blague shouted in a chilling tone. “Give me cover, I'm charging in.”
Lito looked frightened, as Blague's appearance and demeanor shifted from his usual calm, deep thinker persona to an enraged beast. Blague sprinted easily as if he wasn't hauling a two hundred pound armored soldier as a shield. He charged the breach and Lito sprinted to catch up to him.
“Toss two ‘nades and then gather everyone to head to the mansion. I'm not risking anymore casualties from the rear,” Blague said.
Lito nodded and sprung two grenades from his backpack, bit off both pins in one bite and hurled them toward the breach. He then spun around and headed to carry out the rest of the order. Eight Hiezer guards remained at the breach point. The grenades blew debris in every direction and Blague sprinted even harder to get in range before the smoke cleared. As it cleared, Blague took a shot and strafed to his right. A guard's helmet popped as the bullet seared through his head. The remaining seven opened fire, but Blague was too quick. Very few bullets hit his human shield. His Desert Eagle was unique in that it held twelve bullets per round instead of seven. He opened rapid fire at lightning speed. The spray took out four guards, who dropped to the floor, shouting in agony. Blague decided to advance forward, now in close range fighting distance. He let out a deep chilling roar as he hurled the shield at one of the guards, spun, and popped another in the forehead. He then kicked to his right, fracturing a guard's shin. As the guard toppled forward, Blague whipped him with his pistol. The last guard opened fire. Blague strafed, twirled his gun back into firing position and took a shot, which penetrated the guard's chest. Blague was breathing heavily, staring straight faced as every visible muscle was bulging. Blague's rage had only been seen a number of times in battle by his closest commanders; no one ever approached him about it. Blague's deep seeded haunting memories shot to the front of his mind at opportune times, almost as if it were a survival mechanism.
A few seconds later, his rage lessoned, recognizing that the mansion was in plain sight. Up close, the mansion appeared to be the size of a small school that would easily fit the entire lot of Sins. Its unique architecture reflected a regal presence.
Eugene sprinted up to Blague, “You know that grenade idea made it impossible to get a clear shot.”
Blague flashed him a dirty look. They both turned their attention to the sky as they heard the sound of a helicopter fly by, both following it with their eyes.
“It’s headed for the roof of the mansion,” Blague said, “There must be Hiezers inside trying to flee. Eugene, take it out.”
Eugene flipped his rifle into position and took aim. His first shot poked a hole in the gas line of the helicopter. The pilot realized if he landed, his life would be over, so he jutted the helicopter forward, trying to get out of the sniper’s line of site. One of the passengers threw down a rope ladder. Eugene started running backward, trying to get a clear shot. Finally, the helicopter began to peek into sight. He backed up a bit more and saw two men with knee length black leather cloaks trying to escape from the mansion. Eugene took aim once more and fired toward the front glass of the helicopter, piercing it but missing the intended target. The pilot stumbled for a moment as the helicopter tilted awkwardly. One of the two men in robe lost balance and fell off the rope ladder. The helicopter took off, the pilot raced to their destination before the punctured fuel tank depleted. Blague and Eugene looked at each other and then ran toward the mansion.
Blague pulled out a small radio. “Lito, Briggs, pick up speed and get everyone in the mansion now. Pop the EMP as soon as you’re in range. Eu and I are storming the front. We suspect a Hiezer was left behind. Have Lesh and Sabin scout the higher floors while you populate the ground level, copy?”
“Copy,” two voices responded slightly out of sync.
Blague and Eugene marveled at the twenty foot high front door that was left open by the panicked Hiezer protectors of the mansion. They both confidently entered, knowing that the eerie silence and the desperate attempted helicopter escape meant that the mansion was clear. All except for the robed man that was left behind.
“What exactly do you hope to find in here, Blague?” Eugene wondered as they advanced with their weapons drawn.
“I’ll explain later, but in short, a home for the Sins that risk their lives for this cause, a rare chemical, and important research materials,” Blague responded.
“Won’t the Hiezers just bomb the location and write it off?” Eugene continued to probe.
“No,” Blague said, “not if the chemical I’m looking for is here. The research can be transferred in milliseconds, but the chemical is invaluable.”
One of Eugene’s eyebrows went up. “I’m very curious to hear more. You never disappoint. Things always seem to get a bit more interesting as we move forward.”
Blague remained silent as they hastily ascended up four flights of stairs, each with uniquely carved, intricate patterns and made from notably rich marble. The entire mansion was completely out of place in Senation, considering the next best shelter was a fifteen foot dusty hut.
“Eugene,” Blague said, “I know how the Hiezers operate. Expect the coming months to pique your interest. Stay sharp.”
After climbing to the fourth floor, they heard a voice. “Ok, ok boys. I know when I’m cornered,” a man said as he approached from the darkness with his hands up.
He had black g
loves on with a golden pattern that matched his armored shoulders. His pauldrons were slightly raised with black ornate orbs at the center of each piece, surrounded by a sleek golden pattern. The armor was connected to his knee length black cloak. The getup looked as if it were intended for status.
“I’m Jeck Stone,” the man said in a firm tone. “I’m assuming this is another rebel uprising?” Blague and Eugene looked at him with guns pointed his way. “Well,” Jeck said, “I’ve never seen a Hiezer mansion successfully stormed,” he said as he began to pace, maintaining eye contact with the two of them. “You know this will disrupt our communications and our progress.” Jeck gave a smug look to both of them.
“Shackle him,” Blague said.
“You know, boys, you may think this charade is justified, but nonetheless, it’s a crime that will just add to your Sin reputation. This fight will fizzle out, like all the rest, and you will be left fewer in numbers and viewed as a tad more violent than the other social classes already perceive you.”
“That’s enough,” Blague said, “Contrary to your thoughts, I am going to let you preach your side of the story, if you cooperate. Judging by your demeanor, you think we aren’t going to kill you. My response to that thought is not to be so sure.”
Jeck’s face changed from smug to serious. All three of them heard the crowd entering the mansion.
“Take him to Lito, Eu. Then help everyone get settled with their supplies. I have to consult with Cherris. We have a lot of future steps to sort out. Feel free to join when you’re ready.”
Eugene nodded as he pushed Jeck forward.
Chapter 3
Blague walked slowly through the crowd on the ground level of the mansion, observing the mixed emotions among the Sin civilians. He made it a point to stop and attempt to console the families who lost loved ones. On his way through, he saw a woman crying over the corpse of a dead fighter. He knelt down on the opposite side of the body. While doing so, he allowed himself a moment to notice the dust and dirt that covered her face and much of her hair. He then realized everyone had similar filth all over them, including himself.
