2.30.2

Collection and Chaos

She darted into the brush and behind a tree.

“Shit, shit, shit!”

“Astrid!” A blonde headed girl with wild eyes fumbled through the brush in Service camo plates. “Astrid!”

“Celeste!” the Channeler soldier hissed.

The teen bolted for her. Astrid grabbed the girl’s arm in time to yank her close and out of the line of fire from a barreling cannon shot.

The energy munition erupted into the brush behind, and a small tree toppled from the force.

The young women flinched away and, together, scrammed for a larger tree trunk for cover.

“What’s next?” the girl asked. Her eyes widened at the red that seeped under Astrid’s fingers.

“There’s new intakes. I didn’t get the Sanctuary name. They’re fighters. They-ng!” Astrid groaned. Both with the pain, and against the shitstorm of energy that roiled from just on the other side of their cover. “They’re not going to know who to go to. They’re going to want to fight!”

“Okay, okay!” Celeste nodded fervently. Her face dirty, her hair wild, the girl still readily agreed. “I’ll find them if you can-”

“Yeah, I’ll draw their attention,” Astrid finished for her.

She abandoned concern for the laceration in her bicep. It proved an annoyance, but not combat-prohibitive.

Astrid charged first. She gathered power from a nearby rose bush and struck the nearest Static Operative. An armor-clad woman spun away from the bolt and into the grass.

The battle climbed upward, closer to the ships, as the S.O. followed the mass of Channelers that fled.

And it pulled them all into a bastion of chaos.

The Service soldiers grouped up in their two teams. More evacuated from the ships to help the cause. The S.O., though fewer in number against two forces, rolled out weapon after weapon.

“Channelers, on me!” Celeste, as brazen and bold as anything, hoisted her crystal into the sky like a beacon, bright and burning. She ran along the tree line, to try to keep to the edge of the battle with the soldiers between the enemy, and any that would follow her. “All Channelers on me!”

She summoned all with her voice. Little faces lost in the pandemonium followed the blue light. Under Celeste’s call, they found one another. She led a charge of stragglers up the left flank to the ships.

And Astrid ran right, to keep the S.O. off them. She prioritized anyone who took aim at the Channeler teen now blazing a trail for the others.

After all her growth, and restraint over the last several days, Astrid’s body awakened, more than ready to expel some serious havoc.

She let the grass, the trees, the flowers, weave their way into her energy, and she threw them all at the Opposition where packs grouped up to divide their targets.

Behind one of the cannons, Rue lined up a shot. And Astrid found the will to return some anger on the woman who took hers out on Astrid.

And yet, when the bright flare of power left Astrid’s hand, it came in a cone instead.

Rue flew back. Unable to fire. But alive.

At the others, the specialist levied bolts without mercy. Why Rue’s life meant more to her she didn’t want to examine in the madness. But it still felt good to put an end to those that tormented her people.

Any Opposition she recognized from Maxwell. Especially those that most indulged in the pulsar sticks, they died first.

To finally exact revenge for the horrors inflicted, not only here, but all across the Sanctuaries, Astrid unleashed attacks relentlessly.

Channelers died. Guardians. Teachers. Friends. Kids.

And Astrid claimed a life for each.

Her entire body lit up by the time she marched up the center of the field to the heart of the battle. Where she could most influence and fight and block access to any stray Channelers.

Any activated pulsar stick didn’t last beyond its first two seconds of use. For under the trained ear of Eames and the other Guardians, they only made their wielders a target for the ally Statics.

Astrid no longer looked at those that fired upon her. The energy beams sent for her could no more catch her unaware than practice drones, and she drained them just as easily. Only to send them back in a pitch of blue and white light.

Her glaring bolts only grew tighter with each pass. As though her time among the Opposition only further refined her precision.

The enemy grew desperate. Determined to leave bodies behind, they switched to less discriminatory tactics.

And soon, too soon, they lobbed grenades into the field.

Astrid raced to her team while the battle cinched closer and closer between the ships.

She met up with Anders at the top of the hill. He nodded to her and paused only long enough to reach at his side and draw Astrid’s hand-cannon.

He handed it over wordlessly. Astrid checked the weapon, before she pulled it into place, ready to fire.

At what seemed to be the last clutch of children at the Aldebaran’s cargo ramp, a white-shelled grenade, like the ones Astrid once saw on Penny Station, flew at the feet of retreating Channelers.

Anders immediately jolted away on instinct. But Astrid knew in half a second, they’d never get far enough away.

She summoned all her will to remember the shield she managed days previous.

Fear and desperate need fueled the force she channeled, and when the grenade burst in a shower of wreaking energy distortion, it beat against a wall of near-white light.

Faint wisps of the malicious energy still lapped around the shield’s edge, and Astrid felt herself drained from the contact. Like it somehow wounded her spirit rather than her body.

She buckled down onto one knee, lashed by the unnatural attack of the energy grenade. But the children passed safely behind her.

“Holy-” Anders breathed somewhere beyond her perception. But she couldn’t explain, not now.

Another batch of children made it to the ship. But the S.O. still fired upon them.

Ramsey and his company assaulted the Opposition from the flank, and with fewer Channelers to target, the attention then fell to them.

The chief moved up with the others to take more of the field. When another cannon strike landed shy, the force it expelled sent soldiers sprawling, including Tenya in her lavender-shelled armor.

Astrid staggered to her feet and toward where the woman lay face down in the grass.

“Tenya? Tenya?!”

The woman coughed when rolled over. She looked shocked, but intact and alive.

The chief groaned when Astrid threw a purple arm over her shoulder and heaved the woman to her feet.

She dragged Tenya with her back to the ship. Romo made his way to them with several Castor fighters at his flank, to cover their retreat back into the Aldebaran’s hold.

Brown and black grass marked every step Astrid took, as her energy output remained almost constant in the fight.

They made it to the Aldebaran. The Channeler passed Tenya off to Dell. The technician took the chief in his hands and pulled her deeper into the hold, and out of the range of fire.

Inside, Channelers hid. Clustered in the corners and sheltered by Guardians. Frightened, and fascinated both by the pandemonium.

Celeste, Maya, Menloh, Finn, and the other teens stood at the front. But they, too, did not look certain yet in safety.

“Did we make it?” Astrid gruffly called. “Are we all here?”

“We’re missing some,” Menloh told her without preamble. “Leia, from Mercedes.”

“Zeke, from Lorelei,” Maya added. “Nigel. And Opal.”

Astrid spun so fast stray hairs, caught in furious static, snapped at her face.

Somewhere out there, behind the hail of bullets and beams, a child, at least a few, were lost. Separated from the group.

“We need to wrap this up and prepare to pull out,” the captain barked when she marched past him.

“Hale!” Anders yelled after her. But Astrid already re-entered the battlefield.