While the team waited and bantered, the townsfolk searched all over town for the intruders.

“Brother Ion, we’ve looked everywhere, but there’s no sight of them.”

“What of Sister Windcaller?”

“No sign of her either!”

Brother Ion frowned. Always impulsive, that one. He could only hope that she would not pay a heavy price for it this time.

“I think it’s time we call the Sentinels of Dawn…”

Just then, Brother Ion was interrupted by loud sirens. His eyes widened. Someone began to shout.

“Another raid! The Soulless are coming!”

“I think we know who our intruders were. Call the Sentinels of Dawn! Everyone else, prepare to fight! We will not let the Soulless take even one more of the Blessed!”

He grit his teeth as he, too, rushed to his station. He lifted a quick prayer for Sister Windcaller. He feared for her safety. But he had no more time to consider her now…

20NS flew at the head of a massive formation of NSLICE-A warbots. Two additional NS units had volunteered to go with him: 52NS, who was a former kunoichi of the Souma clan, and 77NS, a former hero named Master Mammoth Owl, rebuilt into a veritable flying tank. He had refused but they insisted.

And they were not the only ones.

The Concordat had established many hidden bunkers filled to the brim with NSLICE units near Atomic Cult territory. The units could remain dormant for quite a long time without communication or resupply, which made them difficult to hunt down.

After all, the Atomic Cult only accepted those who had undergone blessed mutation under the Sacred Light. Which meant they only accepted people willing to undergo an extremely dangerous and extraordinarily painful process of exposing themselves to lethal amounts of radiation in the hope that they receive superpowers instead of painful death. So after the Atomic Herald had gathered the initial survivors of the blasts, his recruitment slowed to a trickle, mainly limited to those mutants who had not yet joined him. All in all, that meant his manpower wasn’t particularly high, and so great swathes of land remained uninhabited, granting the Concordat plenty of room to hide their assets. The Atomic Cult simply lacked the numbers to hunt them all down.

Which meant most of the Concordat’s safehouses remained at large, allowing them to muster forces within Atomic Cult territory and strike whenever and wherever they pleased.

All those units now answered the call.

And so all across the Alps, NSLICE forces assaulted Atomic Cult settlements and fortifications. Everywhere they could, intending to stretch the Sentinels of Dawn as thin as possible.

For no NSLICE unit would remain behind when the Liberator needed their help.

And though they no longer served the Concordat, they still had a score to settle with those who had destroyed the world. Those who had driven them from their homes and into the arms of the Concordat.

So they were most enthusiastic to strike a blow against the Atomic Cult.

Just then there was a flash of light from the town. Energy beams pierced through the sky, for energy manipulation was the most common mutation among the survivors of the nuclear apocalypse. An autonomous unit just to 20NS’s left was caught, exploding and falling from the sky.

With a silent conversation the NS units split, the autonomous bots following suit. 20NS raised his hands and a huge wall of fire appeared in front of his group, blocking them from sight. His warbots raised their arms, hands transforming into machine guns and opening fire. The fire wall blocked their vision and thermal sights as well, but that wasn’t the point.

Every member of the Atomic Cult may have superpowers, but that didn’t mean they all knew how to fight. Most of them continued to live relatively normal lives, as much as they could. So when a hail of lead began to whiz through the air, most of them couldn’t help but duck for cover. They were deeply vulnerable to suppressive fire.

And so the Atomic Cult townsfolk began to retreat, making their way to the central fortress. After countless NSLICE raids, every Atomic Cult town now had such a fortress. Despite the imposing name, it was mainly just a structure large enough to house every member of the settlement.

And that was the point.

The NSLICE raids aimed at abduction, stealing more victims for the cyborgization program. So if all the people in the town gathered in one location, the raiders would be forced to restrict their firepower, lest they accidentally wipe out the entire population and so gain nothing from their raid. The Concordat didn’t actually want to wipe out the Atomic Cult, a major external enemy is a useful political motivator, after all.

The three NS units moved in, the autonomous units forming a full blockade around the structure both on the ground and in the sky. They began to probe for weak points, the autonomous units keeping up a steady barrage of bullets and dodging the energy beams fired out of small embrasures. Or at least, they kept up the appearance of doing so. Their true goal was simply to keep the cult distracted, after all.

At this point 20NS contacted the Liberator.

“Status Report: Atomic Cult hostiles fully suppressed. The Liberator is clear to begin operation.”

With that he turned his attention back to the structure.

Now to wait for the Sentinels of Dawn…

Time was ticking. The NSLICE units could not hold back any longer without arousing suspicion. Soon the gates of the fortress would break.

20NS hoped the Sentinels of Dawn would arrive before they did. Because if not, they would have to start grabbing cultists and then start to flee, as they did during Concordat ordered raids. Which would mean they would no longer be around to distract the Sentinels of Dawn when they arrived, who subsequently might notice the Liberator’s operation. 20NS wanted to engage the Sentinels in active combat and pull them from the area at the very least.

Just then, a bolt of lightning struck from the cloudless sky. It surged through an entire platoon of warbots, which subsequently exploded.

Following that, a piece of clay in the shape of a bird flew down into the center of another group.

“AHAHAHAHA, die you stupid bots!”

The bird exploded. A small mushroom cloud explosion wiped out the entire platoon.

And a barrage of glowing green crystals and radiation beams smashed into another.

The lightning bolt struck in front of the fortress, forming into a man. He wore a suit of armor, with a tabard displaying a sun with a nuclear trefoil as its center. A similarly dressed woman and a young man covered in glowing green crystals arrived on the scene as well.

“Arrrr, so ye be the scurvy dogs resisting the Sacred Light! Expect no quarter, for the Sentinels of Dawn won’t be giving ye none!

20NS ordered the retreat.

It seems they overdid it.

The Atomic Crystal.

Nukemaker.

And worst of all, one the Atomic Herald’s personal lieutenants, the Electron Pirate.

The Sentinels of Dawn had pulled out all the stops. Previous Concordat raids had been small, targeted affairs meant to grab single digit numbers of non-standards. The NSLICE units may have been a bit overzealous with mass simultaneous assaults across the entire region. And it seemed the Atomic Cult had responded in kind.

Which meant they needed to draw them away right this instant, or the Liberator’s entire operation would be at risk.

52NS flickered in front of the Electron Pirate. She was unique as one of the only NSLICE units to retain both organic eyes. And with AI assisted chakra forming, the kunoichi didn’t need handsigns to complete her technique.

“Activating Hanshagan, Mirror Prison Protocol.”

The air shimmered and formed into shifting glass panes, hiding the Electron Pirate from view. Lights flashed from within the shifting panes but the Electron Pirate could not escape.

“Arrrr, what be this trickery?!”

An exploding clay ball flew through the air towards the cyborg kunoichi, only to be intercepted by a massive beam of light.

77NS landed with a crash, panels open all over his body with gun barrels, missile launchers, and glowing laser cannons sticking out of them.

“Recommendation: 20NS should fall back. ”

“Negative. Resolute Response: I will hold the line.”

“Counterpoint: This unit specializes in firepower over tactical mobility and 52NS is necessary to contain Electron Pirate. This is simply the most efficient allocation to buy maximum time for the Liberator.”

“...Affirmative.”

“Farewell: For the Liberator.”

“...Farewell: For the Liberator.”

With that, 20NS and the autonomous units all fled, scattering in all different directions, while 52NS and 77NS prepared to hold the line, for as long as they could…