Normally, it would only take about five minutes to walk from the village edge to the Civic Center in Monte Aldé, but at their current pace it took Hitori’s team twice that. He spent the journey ushering them forwards. It was a little annoying, but to be fair they had all been up near twenty four hours. Nova trained for many things, but sleep deprivation wasn’t one of them.

Something to think about, I guess. Not enough equal distribution of suffering.

When they arrived things were much the same as they were when Hitori was there yesterday. Busy. Hitori supposed his team probably wasn’t the only group running short on sleep and long on problems. The town square was a large concrete pad, with the Civic Center on one end, and a small brick storehouse in the center.

He led his team into the Civic Center, where he found an older man standing over a paper map, penciling things into the margins. It was their mission commander Ramses Malikah, an instructor he shared with Elvira for a class on global politics. One of the few courses where his new teammate was on par with her peers.

“Commander Ramses!” Hitori said, breaking the man from his thoughts.

“Ah, Omega team,” he said. “You’re a few hours early. Was there a problem?”

“Nothing serious,” Gordon said. “Few drakes, forest came alive and decided to kill us, bad weather. You know, usual.”

Hitori flashed Gordon a glare, which he ignored, before turning back to the commander. “Not how I would have reported it, but in the essential details he is correct,” Hitori said. “We came back because there’s an army of motive metaflora on its way. I believe it’s time to evacuate.”

“A few trees moving about is pretty rare,” Ramses said. “And frightening too, I’m sure, but they’ll hardly be invincible, there’s no need to overreact.”

“No sir, you’ve misunderstood,” Hitori said. “It wasn’t hyperbole to call it an army. There are a least a thousand animate trees coming our way, and by the look of things, driving a wave of terrified metafauna before them.”

“A thousand? That’s impossible. There hasn’t been more than a half dozen reported cases in the last three centuries.”

“Es la neta, pendejo!” someone yelled from behind Hitori. He turned to see it was none other than their evaluator, an Eastern woman named Rosalina Kinyani Varzhish. “I saw it with my own eyes! Los pinche arbustos shambling down the mountain!”

“Damnit Rosa!” Ramses winced. “Do you always have to yell?”

“Only at estúpidas fresas who waste everyone’s time! They gave you their report, believe them. Your students aren’t going to make stuff up.”

Ramses muttered a swear in Bachijan. He sighed, then continued, “I was so sure we wouldn’t to have to evacuate Monte Aldé. Foster is going to be insufferable.”

“Can any ships make it in time?” Chandra asked.

“Yes, I believe so,” Ramses said. “Foster insisted on calling in a favor from Mairtala and getting them to send a flight our way. Last I heard they were due to arrive around daybreak.”

“But that’s after the metaflora will arrive,” Protius said.

“Yeah, less than ideal. Thankfully airships tend to fly at half speed. If we tell them to double time it, that should give us hours to spare.” Ramses nodded to himself. “I’d rather spend a half day floating idle over the ocean than even a minute running an evacuation during a battle.

“Alright, you guys wait here a minute. I’m going to call the fleet and tell them to hurry, then we’ll think about what you should do next.” He pulled out a small black disk and started manipulating a series of floating symbols. Then he frowned.

“What’s with the face, Ramses?” Varzhish asked.

“That’s strange. It says it can’t make a connection.” He tried again. “Nope, just a generic error message.”

“Can you contact any of the other teams?” Protius asked. “It might be wise to recall them now anyway.”

“Good idea,” he said. Then he punched a few more icons and waited a second. He frowned again. “Nothing. I’ve never heard of a WebComm failing like this.”

“That happened to us too,” Hitori said. “We tried to call you earlier, and didn’t have any luck.”

“I think the local web has been depleted,” Protius said.

Ramses bolted upright. “Is that possible?”

“Theoretically, certainly,” Protius said. “And it explains why WebComms aren’t working. I think the metaflora are feeding on it.”

“If that ain’t the red sands,” he muttered. “With that much energy….”

“Yah güey, they told you it was an army,” Varzhish said, slapping Malikah on the back.

“Think a radio might work?” Gordon asked.

“It should,” Protius said. “Assuming we have a transmitter with enough power.”

“Unfortunately they’re a bit too backwater around these parts to have a tower,” Ramses said. Varzhish glared at him. “Looks like we’ll have to rely on Flares. Hopefully the teams have a good view of the sky.”

Hitori heard someone barge into the room behind him. “Boss!” they yelled. Hitori turned in time to see a man barrel past him. He was in his early twenties, and strongly Duroterran. Hitori thought he looked a little familiar.

Varzhish snapped her gaze to the intruder. “Oh, so now I’m the boss, is it,” she said.

“Ms. Rose,” he said.

“Don’t try and sweet talk me either! Do you have any idea how—“ she cut herself off. “I mean, how dangerous things are right now.”

“Damnit Queso,” he mumbled.

“Don’t go blaming him! My nephew at least had the good sense to stay behind the walls. What were you thinking!”

“I was thinking suspicious movement in the forest should be investigated, and that a massive surprise attack from the north could be a problem. It’s a good thing I did too, because it looks like that’s what they’re planning. I saw at least three chieftains pass Moonshadow Rock while I was out, and that—“

“Ay!” Varzhish yelled a string of colorful expletives in Eastern. “You went that far by yourself!”

“It wasn’t that far,” he said. “And besides, I had Nando and Paca with me.”

Apparently that wasn’t anything his boss wanted to hear, because she exploded in profanity.

The young man turned away and mumbled, “It’s not any worse than what you get up to.”

As he turned Hitori heard a gasp from Elvira. He looked back, wondering if perhaps she found him stunningly handsome.

She was certainly stunned, though Hitori wasn’t encouraged by the snarl forming on her lips.

Do they know each other, I wonder? Maybe an old flame? This could be fun.

Hitori had the sudden impression his newest teammate was about to attack one of their future peers. A certain amount of combativeness was expected in mercenary companies, but assaulting their evaluator’s subordinate would do them no favors come grading time. Even if Varzhish did seem rather murderous herself.

Hitori moved to block Elvira, planning to guide her out under some pretense. Before he could she pushed past him.

“Drake! Valentine! Vincent!” She said each world like she was cursing the name of Apep himself. The young man, apparently Drake Valentine Vincent, jumped and turned to face her. He was more surprised and confused than Hitori was to hear his full name, but Hitori noticed a hopeful gleam he did not share. Varzhish passed a quick glance between them. There was a sad hint to her eyes.

“Vivi?” Drake said. “Is that you?” He walked towards her.

Elvira hissed, “Don’t call me that, you! You!” She swallowed the rest of her sentence in a growl.

Drake winced. “Vivi— I mean, Elvira, sister, I— I don’t know what you heard but—“

“Shut up!” She yelled. “You fucking— cowardly— treacherous—“ each word was choked off. Her meaning was made perfectly clear by the drawn sword, however.

Finally, some excitement! Come on, let this play out for me! I’m dying!

“Elvira,” Hitori said gently. He reached across her, placing a hand on the hilt of her sword. “Come outside with me, please.”

Bah, spoilsport.

“No.” Elvira had a dark look in her eyes. Hitori continued to move, putting himself between her and Drake. Her brother had a pained expression. She growled, “Get out of my way.”

“Not going to happen,” Hitori said. Elvira pushed into him, but Hitori returned the pressure, steering her towards the exit. Her hand flushed white from the pressure of her grip. She resisted a few seconds, but eventually relented.

When they cleared the front door, Elvira made a trembling attempt to sheath her weapon. Instead it toppled to the ground and bounced away out of reach. She feebly grasped after it, then gave up. They stood in silence a moment.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Hitori asked. Elvira tensed, but then found something very fascinating in her boot laces. “Or maybe someone to distract you?”

She took a few deep, slow breaths, then wiped at her eyes and looked at him. “Sorry.”

What’s she apologizing for? You’re the one who ruined it.

“Hey, nothing wrong with feeling stuff,” Hitori smiled. “Though it might be a bit much to stab a motherfucker.”

Elvira laughed, but with a manic gleam to her eyes that was not at all encouraging.

“If you don’t mind my asking, what did he do?”

Elvira remained silent a minute, before saying, “He killed my father.”

“What!” He dropped his hand to his sword. “We’ve got to—“

Hitori was interrupted by a tremendous crash from the north. An explosion of screams and roars filled the air, accompanied by an outpouring of gunfire. He drew his weapon and aimed towards the commotion, taking a position in front of Elvira.

“What was that!” Elvira said.

Hitori turned to her, taking one of her hands. “Grab your sword,” he said. “We’ll manage your brother later.”

“You two! The north wall has been breached,” someone yelled as they came out of the Civic Center. It was their evaluator, Varzhish.

“Varzhish,” Hitori said. “Drake isn’t—“

“You don’t know the whole story,” she cut in, with a quick glance between Hitori and Elvira. “But we don’t have time to talk. Metafauna are pouring into the village, and we need every available body to push them back.”

More people poured out the Civic Center behind the veteran mercenary, including the rest of Hitori’s team and Elvira’s brother. Drake was standing apart with a forlorn expression.

“Alright, we can let it sit, for now, right?” Hitori said, looking to Elvira. She nodded. She’d managed to take up her weapon, but her eyes were unfocused. Drake approached from behind his boss, and made a motion as if to speak.

“Later, mijo,” Varzhish said.

Drake shook his head. “I need to say one thing.” He looked at Elvira. “Don’t go back home.” Then he took off north.

The Eastern woman looked after him a second, then turned to Elvira. She gently touched her shoulder, a sad look in her eyes, then turned and followed after Drake. A couple people appeared from around the Civic Center and joined her.

“I don’t understand?” Elvira said.

Hitori frowned and shook his head. “We’ll get to the bottom of it, I promise. For now, we have work to do.” He gathered the rest of his team and led them north.