When she heard the first gunshot, Rúna realized with a sinking feeling that “Plan A” had just gone to shit.

She wasn't surprised. Trying to bluff the guards into releasing the prisoners was always a risky plan, though she understood why their rescuers made the attempt. If they had pulled it off, it would have freed the internees without loss of life, a laudable goal indeed. But now that it had failed, Holme and the others had not only lost the initiative, they were now facing a firefight where they were at a decided disadvantage. If they’d come in tactically, they could have taken the key strongholds by surprise, hopefully keeping friendly casualties to a minimum.

Now? One look at the camp told a grim tale. Bodies were dropping everywhere, far too many of them civilians.

There was no time to worry about that now. They had to neutralize the threat as quickly as possible, get the civilians out of the line of fire, and then somehow escape from this place, preferably without getting shot themselves. A tall order, given the circumstances.

Fortunately, they hadn’t been idle during their time in camp. The team converged on their hiding spot as Arthur quickly unearthed their cache of weapons. They’d scavenged various scraps of material and fashioned them into fighting implements, but a few shivs and sharpened sticks were no match for assault rifles. Rúna herself carried a crowbar, liberated from the camp’s maintenance shed, as she lead her squad to the entrance nearest the enemy barracks. A few seconds of effort to jimmy the lock, and the gate popped open.

“Find a guard, get their gun,” she ordered the squad. How they dealt with its previous owner she left up to them, but considering the treatment they’d received during their captivity, it seemed unlikely said guard would survive the experience. But she could be wrong about that. Maybe they’d just knock them out instead.

Not that she intended on being that lenient herself.

As they neared the barracks, stragglers were still stumbling out of the prefab building, tugging on clothing and fumbling with their weapons, rushing to join the fray. At first, they didn’t respond to their approach, wrongly assuming they were fellow turnkeys. Their eyes widened in shock when she cracked the nearest one in the head with her crowbar, dropping him instantly. Tossing the iron cudgel to Yendrick, she relieved the now incapacitated private of his rifle, grabbing up his spare ammo and stuffing the mags into her pockets, before chambering a round and socking the weapon into her shoulder. Two of his companions were already reacting to her attack, bringing their own rifles to bear to deal with this new threat. Rúna double-tapped them both, their bodies falling beside their comrades, even as Becca and Arthur both bent to retrieve their guns.

“What’s our next move?” Doc asked.

She took a moment to assess the situation. Holme and the others, despite the failure of their initial plan, were obviously prepared for this turn of events and were now pushing back the defenders. While she was certain they’d appreciate an assist from her squad, one look at the compound made the choice a simple one.

“Protect the prisoners,” she ordered. Just as she’d feared, some guards were taking out their frustrations on the helpless internees, and they needed their help far more than Inaba and the 2/2 did.

“Rules of engagement?” Becca asked quietly.

The sergeant wasn’t just making idle conversation. While rarely discussed, in the past circumstances had occasionally forced the Valkyries to face off against their fellow Terrans, usually due to conflicting contracts. The brass did its best to mitigate the worst of it, shifting forces to sidestep the issue, or even withdrawing from the field of battle entirely and taking the loss, but sometimes the situation was impossible to avoid. In those cases, they focused on taking prisoners when and where they could, doing everything in their power to avoid taking a human life.

But this was not that.

“They draw down on a prisoner… they die,” Rúna said coldly. “No mercy.”

Their expressions were grim as they moved to defend their fellow detainees.

Remi led the trio away from the fighting, with Genvass still clutching the grief-stricken boy they’d rescued while prodding a shell-shocked Diggs to keep up. Twice the Corsair fired a burst to discourage Valkyrie guards who drew near, who in response simply looked elsewhere for less dangerous prey. Every horror Rúna warned them about had come true, yet her words of caution had been to no avail. Not because they’d refused to heed her advice, but simply because they had no resources, and almost no freedom to act.

A deadly combination, even under the best of circumstances.

The sounds of fighting seemed to lessen while Remi searched for a safe spot to hunker down and wait out the carnage. Other internees were doing the same, with mixed success, though far too many had simply panicked, charging off in random directions instead. Either they eventually stumbled into sanctuary by accident, or else had the misfortune of bumping into one of the Valkyries actively hunting them. From what little he could discern of the chaos surrounding them, mere happenstance decided their fate.

The pirate abruptly changed course, catching Genvass by surprise and forcing him to drag Diggs by the hand to catch up. In the gloom, he could just barely make out a cluster of bodies ahead, trying desperately to avoid being spotted. Fellow survivors, it seemed, like them. Approaching the ragged assembly, he spotted movement near the group’s center, where an individual cloaked in shadow appeared to labor over some physical task. Drawing nearer still, he recognized them as none other than the Grand Master himself, fighting to save a patient. Others nearby did what they could to treat lesser injuries, immediately filling him with remorse over the wounded man he’d been forced to leave behind.

“I figure this is about as safe a spot as we’re gonna find,” Remi informed him, scanning the perimeter for potential threats.

Genvass could only nod in agreement. Taking a knee, he set down the boy he’d been carrying, doing his best to comfort him before tugging at Diggs’ wrist to pull him down as well. The young Tinker resisted his efforts at first, but finally, he got him on the ground and out of the line of fire. His expression was still blank; wherever his mind had gone to seek refuge, it was obviously far from this waking nightmare. It was hard not to begrudge him that, though one look at those haunted, vacant eyes quickly forced him to reassess that opinion.

Remi tensed, drawing his captured weapon tight against his chest as he spotted movement in the darkness, only to breathe easy once more and lower the rifle as Captain Taneka emerged from the pitch black, leading a group of evacuees herself. In her hand she held a pistol, liberated, he suspected in the same manner her counterpart had procured his. Like him, she too had a vigilant gaze as she kept watch, protecting him and the others as a matter of course, without hesitation.

He envied their courage.

Others filtered into the makeshift compound, many of them wounded, weeping or mentally shattered like Diggs. Despite all their people had suffered since the destruction of their homeworld, nothing had prepared them for this. Of being callously gunned down by fellow Terrans, for no reason than being on the wrong side of a wire fence. Not even during the Clan Wars had their people experienced this kind of barbarity, though, in the days of Earth’s distant past, it was sadly an all too common occurrence. He’d thought they’d grown past that, but his eyes showed him with brutal clarity how flawed that callow notion truly was.

“Will they come for us?” he asked them, glancing around at all the others huddled nearby. The Corsairs were the only ones armed, and if the guards did come, odds were they’d be quickly overwhelmed.

“I don’t know,” Taneka answered, peering into the distance. The crackling of gunfire still echoed all around them, as well as sporadic explosions that made the ground tremble. Many of the prefab huts were now on fire, blazing in the night, casting ghastly shadows that danced like demons of legend. Remi’s face in particular took on a spectral cast in the ember’s glow, highlighting the pirate’s angular features, giving him an even more savage presence than normal. Perhaps sensing his scrutiny, he turned, a dark and unreadable cast to his eyes before they swept finally past him, still searching for targets.

Genvass shuddered and averted his gaze, focusing his attention instead on his young charges. The boy clung to him, his face buried in his chest, trembling and afraid, while Diggs was now rocking back and forth, his arms wrapped tightly around himself as his mind tried desperately to shield itself from the madness all around them. Grand Master Makar still labored over the wounded, fighting to save those he could, though at the moment there was little he could do for the two youths. Physical injuries had priority, psychological damage would have to wait.

And just like before, aboard Mako when the Troika had attacked, he’d never felt so helpless.

He didn’t want to give the order, but as he watched the attack dissolve into chaos when their initial plan fell apart, as their forward momentum bogged down while the casualties on both sides steadily mounted, Colonel Holme knew he could wait no longer.

“This is Warlord Six to Dagger One-Six. Prometheus. I say again, Prometheus.”

There was a brief pause, as they acknowledged the order.

… and then the thunderbolts of Zeus and the flames of Hades itself began raining down upon the camp’s defenders.

He’d held Inaba back from the initial assault, keeping her and a handful of carefully chosen troops in reserve for just this moment, though he’d prayed it wouldn’t be necessary. It was an escalation their adversaries could not ignore, as Terrans deployed Precursor weapons against fellow humans in battle for the very first time.

Resistance immediately disintegrated, along with a good-sized portion of the camp.

“Cease Fire!” he shouted into his helmet mic, as the fighting ground to a halt. The gate, much of the fence line, the main barracks, and most of the defensive positions were obliterated, wiped from the face of New Terra as if they’d never existed, tearing great rents in the soil and leaving only blackened and glassy residue in their wake. Nothing recognizable survived the dreadful blasts, though here and there odd remnants and residue could be seen, fragments of the camp… and its custodians… now twisted and mutated into alien shapes and forms that beggared all description.

It was Gehenna. It was Tartarus. It was Sheol and Perdition and Abaddon.

It was Hell, or as close as mortal humans had ever witnessed firsthand.

“... Holy Mother Terra…” he whispered, staring at the wasteland forged by his command.

Survivors slowly emerged from beyond the blast zones, their arms raised high as they surrendered if they were guards, while others, the former internees, simply gaped in mindless horror at the devastation.

“They didn’t give you a choice,” Inaba said gently, materializing by his side, one of the ancient weapons still in her grasp.

Holme closed his eyes, trying desperately to shut out the image, knowing full well that image would be forever seared into his memory. Turning to the captain, he shook his head. “It doesn’t matter,” he told her. “We’ve opened Pandora’s Box. God help us all.”

The captain grimaced but nodded in reluctant agreement. “Maybe we should try to focus on what got left behind in that box,” she suggested.

The colonel cocked his head. “And what was that?” he asked her.

Inaba let out a heavy sigh. “Hope,” she answered, before moving to secure the camp.

Taneka and Remi bristled when they spotted figures approaching, taking a defensive stance and charging their weapons as they readied themselves for a fight. Genvass tried shielding Diggs and the boy as best he could, fearing the worst after the horrifying detonations that turned night into day, only to gasp with relief as they shouted, “Incoming friendlies! Don’t shoot! We’ve come to get you out!”

“... thank Mother Terra,” he whispered, his eyes misty as the long nightmare finally ended. He looked at the Corsairs with a newfound sense of optimism. “Thank God. It’s over.”

“We don’t know that,” Remi growled, keeping his rifle trained on the nearing throng of bodies. “Could be a trick.”

“Shooting’s stopped,” Taneka pointed out. “Besides, whatever caused those explosions sure as shit didn’t come from the guards. I think we can trust them.”

He shot her a look. “Taking one hell of a risk if you’re wrong.”

“Maybe,” she allowed, “but what choice do we have?”

Remi snarled at that, only reluctantly lowering his weapon as they drew near. They were strangers, though Genvass could see the similarities between Rúna and the others. Valkyries, then. He hoped that was a good sign, but then the guards had been from her clan as well. Rising to his feet, he composed himself as best he could and stepped forward, though he could only imagine how he must look to the hardened warriors.

“I’m Ambassador Genvass Shaafvaazif,” he told their leader, a woman toting a strange-looking device, before nodding at those huddled nearby. “We’ve got a lot of people here who need help.”

“Captain Valérie Inaba,” the woman responded, before glancing past his shoulder. “Is that the Grand Master?” she inquired.

“It is,” he nodded, recognizing her name. “It's good to see you, captain. I’m glad you got Rúna’s letter.”

“Sorry we couldn’t get here sooner,” she replied, before peering around once more. “Where’s Rúna?”

“I don’t know,” he answered, shaking his head. “She and the others went to tell the internees to get ready when you arrived, but I haven’t seen her since.”

“I’m sure she’ll link up with us shortly,” she said gracefully, both of them patently ignoring the genuine possibility she hadn’t survived the assault. “We’re bringing up vehicles now to take you somewhere safe.”

“And where the hell is that?” Remi demanded.

The captain grimaced. “Working on it,” she shrugged.

“So, business as usual then,” Taneka said sourly.

“Look, I don’t have all the answers,” Inaba informed them, “but I know we can’t stay here. The clan leaders are going to figure out pretty quickly where we are, and when they do, we really need to be somewhere else. For now, we focus on the evacuation and treating the wounded. As for the rest, we’ll just have to play that by ear.” She shrugged apologetically but stood her ground.

“Of course, captain,” Genvass agreed, “we understand.” Pausing for a moment, he gazed at the devastation surrounding them, the broken bodies and tortured minds, before shutting his eyes against it all. “I wish I understood how all of this could have happened,” he said at last.

Inaba just shook her head.

“Because, despite being descended from the Precursors, we’re still only human, Ambassador,” she said softly.