2.30.1

Botanical Battleground

The Defiance came to nestle itself upon the grassy bank behind them. It blocked the view of the busses from the small field in which the kids resided.

Yet another scream pierced the air to the north. Then another.

From the lobby at the base of the building, dignitaries and clerks fled. Only to turn to the assembly with abject fright as soon as they were outside.

For the younger Channelers, the light signaled success, and the promise of reward. And their passion for their work grew, no matter how much the teenagers fought it.

Crystals beamed bright in the sinking dusk. The melody climbed ever higher. Yet the climax still loomed.

The pulsar sticks, Astrid remembered. She located the nearest possible S.O. with a tool on their belt.

If she could get to it, she could disrupt the song. Surely the Opposition knew that themselves.

Behind them, the S.O.’s Defiance opened its belly, and a crew of armed operatives poured out and onto the upper field, with the Channelers in their sights.

Then, with a wash of relief, a familiar ship engine swept from the south, on the other side of the park. Astrid knew, even before she looked, that help finally arrived.

“EMS! EMS incoming! Execute Beta, Beta, Beta!”

The Opposition scattered at the arrival, to invoke a new order.

The children, mired in confusion, weakened their pull. Some continued, but the distraction enabled the teens to take more control of the stream.

The forward-most agents, with Rue at their point, ran back to their own ship. But not to flee.

From the other shipping containers, the Opposition’s ship crew quickly unloaded weapons. Massive ones. Rifles, grenades, and cannons in shiny white polymer.

Astrid’s stomach dropped in her gut.

Overhead, the amber-crested hull of her home ship swung its hind end over the park. And yet another ship, one Astrid didn’t know, joined her in the vast greenery.

It donned Service colors, which Astrid could only hope indicated the Castor, with Ramsey and Romo.

She bolted for the nearest pulsar stick and collided her body into an armored man with a grunt.

She knocked him off balance, and they pitch into the grass.

After he recovered from his surprise, he struck her. But still her fingers grasped for the tool on his belt.

He pulled it out of her way, scrambled to his feet, and withdrew it himself to wield above her.

“No!” his fellow warned. Astrid cursed to herself when a nearby fighter interceded and nodded to the children that still toiled at their task. “Come on, we have other problems.”

The man still kicked at Astrid’s stomach before he leapt over her to run to the Opposition’s weapon stash.

Astrid’s bound hands and arms took the brunt, but still, her diaphragm wheezed with her lungs to gasp for air.

Yet, chaos unfurled. And with it, an opening.

Kelvin ran over to where she writhed in the grass. The young man wrenched at the device around Astrid’s head.

It scratched painfully over her skin at the force it took, but finally Kelvin tossed it away like a frisbee, far away from the Channelers.

Astrid then set to work on her ties, and with his help, got free.

Kelvin lugged her to her feet, and she assessed the field.

At the rear, three ships now sat, two on the S.O.’s one.

The Opposition’s Defiance on the right. The Aldebaran, on the left. And between them, at center, dropped the Castor. To stake the middle ground, better control the battlefield, and form a buffer between the enemy, and their intended victims.

The trio of ships took up the whole upper third of the park. All three hung with their gangplank doors open, and fighters outpoured.

From the S.O., combatants brandished their new toys. Some for the crowd of Channelers, and some for the soldiers that tried to stop them.

From the second ship, a squat grey vessel with streamlined angles, Ramsey burst forth with Romo, and a small squadron of Fourth-Fleet troops.

And from the Aldebaran, Anders, Tenya, and Dell charged. Eames and Celeste held the back, to guard the gangway. Eames in his Guardian gear, clear and bright for the Channelers to see. And Celeste squeezed into Astrid’s Specialist armor.

From behind them, eight more Guardians disembarked and joined the fray.

All the excitement Astrid bore on their first reunion couldn’t compare to the joy felt now.

She ran for the Channelers, where the teenagers now pulled at the young ones as though to tear them from a trance.

“Now!” She cried over the ensuing noise. “Take them now!”

Some of the younger children screamed in alarm, confused by the sudden shift, and powers went haywire.

Each teen attempted to gather their children for their respective Sanctuaries, and Astrid bounded to point them in the right direction.

“That one!” She pointed to the russet and copper color of the Aldebaran, furthest from the Defiance and the skirmish that burdened the middle. “That one, they’ll protect you. Head for the Guardians!”

That’s when she noticed even the captain took up arms. He stood at the lip of his own cargo deck in his officer’s gear. The rifle in his hand cut a line to clear a path for the Channelers’ retreat.

Eames and Celeste clearly tried to locate their fellows in the disorder. They called to the Channelers, some by name. While their Guardian fellows poured from the hold and into the grassy field to make way for the return of their charges.

“The trees! Stick to the trees!”

Astrid directed the children to the outskirts of the park, and away from the fighting that took place in the open clearing.

The Opposition seemed intent on making sure they left their message on Septimus. They targeted only enough of their fellow Statics to free the rest of their forces to pursue the Channelers.

Ivy, from Lorelei, dove into a pack of kids and brought them to the ground just as a beam from one of the energy cannons pummeled into a tree just beyond where they ran.

“Go, go!” The young woman pushed them on before another burst could find them.

Menloh knelt and drew a boy on his back. Then, he slung one of the smallest kids onto his chest. With his spare hand, he nabbed the fingers of another, and the Channelers of Mercedes led an exodus toward the ships.

The hooded Menloh tucked them into the bushes. Slower, but more deliberate than how Ivy and Jeremy conducted Lorelei.

Celeste spotted him first, and across the lea, Astrid saw the teen point them out to her Guardian. She and Eames both went to meet them and cover their exit.

The focus cast over the capital building dissipated completely. People fled the structure, and with them, those in the street, too, ran away.

Unfettered, Astrid felt as though she could breathe again.

The energy that yet lingered in the surrounding plant life answered her call, and she cast a bolt over the field at one of the men taking potshots at Endran children while they fled.

Finn’s eyes widened to see the effects on the fighter she struck.

“Come on!” Astrid redirected him and Maya both. “Move! We have to get you out of here!”

Maya and Finn each scooped up a child. Neema held hands with two others, while her age-fellows, Georgie and Nigel, each took the hand of the littlest Channeler, smaller even than Opal, and all but drag him along.

Astrid covered them. She tossed bolts from their flank and put herself directly between the battle and the kids.

Any energy shot levied in their direction either deflected in vain or powered her next strike.

The ballistic bullets, however, tore through. Leaves and bark chipped away over their shoulders while Astrid ducked. She continued to shout to them when to run, and when to stay down.

One bullet cut through the surface flesh her arm in a streak of blood, and she cried out.

She immediately covered the laceration on instinct. When Finn looked back, Astrid yelled at them to keep going. To stick to the bushes and try to follow Menloh’s path.

With a hiss, she fell behind. Astrid withdrew her hand to stinging pain ripped through her skin.

But it didn’t appear serious.

She looked up across the way to see Rue give her smirk and a purposeful nod. Her sister claimed the shot in an almost spirited game.

Rue leveled her gun again, and Astrid realized she’d earned her own personal hunter.