Going Native: Smell of the Storm (1/2) (ch.24) (Patreon)

“You don’t have to tell them, you know,” Tora commented as we made our way to a makeshift auditorium where the troops had gathered. His words threw off my thoughts of rehearsing a speech in my head, mentally preparing myself for what came next. I glanced at him, prompting the tall saiyan to explain.”They’re just foot soldiers,” he elaborated as if that was an explanation. 

I suppose, to him, it was. 

I looked away, the large double doors growing closer with every step. I wish we had enough water to spare for a bath, or an extra set of clothes because all of us were looking rough. The others more so than me, but it would hardly inspire the confidence that I was hoping to create. 

“Maybe,” I returned, thinking that they were probably used to it after four years of war. I couldn’t imagine that Queen Teach ever bothered to explain the objective beyond ‘go do this or that’ followed by threats of violence or death for failure. “But ‘because I said so’ isn’t a good enough of a reason for me. They should know.”

Tora didn’t look like he agreed, but after exchanging a glance with Parslee, who walked next to him, the second in command of the Planetary Elite Squad shrugged in acceptance. I was glad for it. Not just because I didn’t have to worry about him undercutting me anymore, but mostly because I could return to rehearsing a speech in my head. 

My first one was rough. Very rough. Actually, if it wasn’t on saiyans, it would probably have been a failure. This one would have to be better. Now...where...was I?

Ah. Right. I was stuck on how to make a suicide run sound appealing. 

The doors slid open as we neared, revealing a stage that I’m guessing was used for demonstrations. Now, it was used so people could actually see me as they stood in a large room that I hoped my voice would carry in. I stood at the center of the stage, my team behind me with the black and white alien already there alongside Technician. I turned to face just under five thousand soldiers and I realized that it was pointless to rehearse my speech. 

Because, as I looked out at the sea of faces, every single word that I prepared for this fled my brain. The sea of faces was diverse, pockets of similarly faced aliens, but for the vast majority of them, they couldn’t be more different. And there were so many of them. And I had to talk to all of them. I had a lot of weaknesses, and I’m pretty sure talking was my greatest one. 

I took in a slow breath as the room fell so silent that I could have heard a pin drop. I guess...I should tell them how it is. 

“As you all know, we’ve been working on a plan to get out of here,” I started, distantly recalling something about public speaking from what had to be from before I was a saiyan. The three Ts -- Tell them, tell them what you’re telling them, then tell them what you told them. “The ship is complete, the wink drive that will get us out of Reach controlled space is nearing completion. However, as I’m sure you’ve all noticed, food and water has become a problem. Well, we’re out of food and there’s no more water, either.” 

Thousands of people muttering to each other was surprisingly loud, I realized as whispers broke out. I crushed whatever nervousness I felt into nothing, and forced myself to continue. 

“I’m here to tell you about the plan that we have to do something about it,” I said, continuing when I heard someone exclaim ‘the saiyans are going to eat us all.’ “My team will be performing targeted strikes on several priority targets that will give us the materials that we need to provide food for us, both for here and for when all of us escape this planet.” At that, the whispers quieted some, allowing me to speak. 

“However, there is another issue with our plan. While we are hitting these locations, we need several teams to perform another task,” I said and Technician took that as his cue to bring up a hologram of the planet, blowing it out so it was large enough for all to see. Now came the hard part. “While we are running interference, we need a bare minimum of twenty-five teams to infiltrate these levels and deliver a package.” In response to my words, twenty-five plips appeared on the hologram, marking every other ten levels. 

Technician crunched the numbers, and that was the bare minimum that it would take to weaken the levels enough that the laser could burn through them within a reasonable timeframe. Even then, it would take up to thirty seconds for it to make it from core to crust. It didn’t sound like a long time, but that thirty seconds might as well be thirty years. 

“The payload is non-matter bombs. You’ve seen them in action recently -- they’re the ones that form black holes that erase everything they touch.” That got some grumbling. I had managed to avoid losing anyone on my team to them, but it seemed I was a rare case. “The idea is to set them up on these levels, and when it’s time to get out of here, we detonate them to blow a new exit that they’re not expecting us to leave from.”

I took in a deep breath, my gaze sweeping over the alien and saiyan faces, wishing I could make eye contact with them all, but I couldn’t. “I’m going to be honest with you -- my team will be running interference, causing distractions, and giving them a bigger target to shoot at, but...those that choose to go on this mission-” I almost trailed off, but I didn’t let myself. “-you won’t be coming back.”

There was dead silence, and it was somehow worse than them whispering amongst themselves. “This is a suicide mission for the teams that choose to undertake this mission,” I clarified bluntly, feeling something heavy settle on my shoulders. It was as heavy as the hundreds of soldiers that I ferried down here, and so much harder to carry. 

Tora, Matillo...they were right. I couldn’t save every single member of the 501st. It was stupid and arrogant of me to try. The only thing I could do now was making sure that they knew what they were dying for. 

“However, with these teams sacrifice, the rest of us will be able to leave this planet and return to Frieza-force space,” I said, my gaze sweeping over them again. “I’m not going to order you to do it. We’re taking volunteers only,” I told them. That was plan A. I could only hope that it wouldn’t come to plan B...where we either made do with the few that did volunteer or, in a more likely place, others were volunteered against their will. 

“If you want to volunteer, then stand up now,” I spoke with a heavy sense of finality, my gaze sweeping over the aliens, landing on one with three sets of eyes that seemed to wrap around its head.

The it-...he...stood. Others stood, at first they were sprinkled about, but the bare minimum was rapidly being reached...then it was surpassed as those few that stood spurned others to stand. With every second, dozens rose to their feet, then hundreds. Some, I imagined were because of peer pressure, and I saw faces filled with fear and doubt even as they volunteered. 

But, in the end, every single member of the 501st stood. 

…

In the end, too many volunteers caused its own problems. We decided on fifty teams of five was the magic number -- a small enough force that it wouldn’t merit a response from the Reach while they were dealing with pressing matters. At the same time, it offered enough margin for error that not every single team needed to succeed. 

“You’ll be sent up one minute after we begin our operation -- and stealth is the key to your survival. We’re going to draw as much of the heat as we can from you, but if you get caught, we won’t be in a position to offer support,” I told the soldiers as we began suiting up for the operation. “And if they discover the payloads, then the mission is a failure.”

“We hear you, sir. They won’t even know that we were there,” the black and white alien said, giving me a nod. I still needed to get it- his name, but now it was too late to ask. The next time I get my scouter upgraded, I was going to pick up an identifier, or something so I didn’t end up in this position again. 

I nodded back to him, turning my attention to Technician, who was handing out pill like capsules. He approached me, a pep in his step. It seemed that having a way out was doing wonders for morale because that pep could be seen in a vast majority of the soldiers. He held out the capsules for me to take, and I spent a quick moment inspecting them. 

About an inch long with a clicker on one end. It was hard to imagine that these things could store anything, much less the size of things that the blueprints claimed. 

“These are the capsules that the Reach developed here. Marvelous bit of technology that utilizes quantum- ah,” Technician started to ramble excitedly before he realized that I wasn’t going to understand a word that he said. Maybe one day that would change, but that day wasn’t today. “Ahem. It works by attaching this onto the object that you wish to shrink,” he said, handing me a small metal puck that was barely the size of my finger. 

“Then you click once and throw it towards the object after it has been tagged. The object will shrink before sealing itself inside the capsule. After that, it's safe to pick up. Unloading what's inside is done in a similar manner, but it takes two clicks,” Technician explained. “One ton is the limit that this version can store, so you might have to shave off some weight.”

“This,” Technician continued before he handed me a pill. “Is for you. The unoadium is a highly radioactive material that your hard suit won’t be able to protect you from. It can only be found here because of Skrew’s intense radiation that's bombarded this planet for millennia. This will prevent your body from absorbing too much ambient radiation for about twenty-four hours. Apparently these pills are very common on this planet.”

I nodded, accepting the pill before depositing it between my neck and the undersuit that clung to it. “Thanks,” I said, nodding at the alien whose name that I also didn’t know. 

“My pleasure, prince Tarble. Though, while I have you, might I ask what you intend to do with the prisoner?” Technician asked, earning a slow blink from me. A prisoner? What prisoner-

Oh. Yeah. That Reach alien. I probably shouldn’t admit that I had completely forgotten about it with the hectic training I’ve been giving my team. I hope someone remembered to feed it because I sure hadn’t. 

“Take it with us,” I said, still thinking that it could be useful as a bargaining chip. I doubt it would be enough to buy our way off this planet, but it could be enough to stall the enemy. Even if it was only for a second. “I’m sure Lord Frieza will know what to do with it,” I said, only realizing that I had called the Reach alien an it while I was making a conscious effort to call the aliens around me by he or she. 

But...the aliens in the 501st had earned my respect. Just how Kaylark had earned my respect. 

“I’ll make sure that he has a compy cell then,” Technician said before wandering off to explain capsules to others and double checking everything. My gaze landed on my team -- a few hours of relaxation wasn’t enough to wipe away two days of pushing themselves to the limit, but it helped. All of them were dressed in hard suits of armor. 

“Are you all set?” I asked, getting nods all around. 

“As we can be. I take it that a secondary objective is to prob the Reach’s defenses?” Matillo asked, getting a nod from me. 

“It’s the last priority after everything else, but yeah. If we can thin them out, all the better,” I said, making Matillo nod in acceptance. Fasha let out a small sigh as she scratched at a scabbing over cut. 

“Wish we could be going another round -- I’m so close to getting a handle on the Wrath State I can practically taste it,” she commented, her lips tugged into a slight frown. Now, I knew that she was just grumbling rather than trying to undercut me. “What are we going to do after we do this? We escaping right after, or what?” 

I glanced over at Technician before shaking my head. “No, everything won’t be done by then,” I explained. “We still have to install the nutrient paste dispenser on the ship, make sure that it can support five thousand people for an extended amount of time. If we don’t get enough raw resources, then we might have to stage another raid...but, if everything goes our way, we should be leaving in about a day after we get back.”

Shugesh scratched at his armor, “the next planet we attack should be a roll over. We can finish learning then.” He said, echoing my thoughts. Despite the plan, none of them managed to master the Wrath State. Just as precious few managed to master their oozaru form. The foundation was laid, but we didn’t have the time to finish it here. 

As if summoned by the thought, a saiyan forced her way through the crowd of people. The one with the scar on the side of her head. Lotuce, I think. She came to a stop in front of me and as soon as my gaze met hers, she dropped to a knee and...was still taller than me. 

“My prince, let me join the assault. Please,” Lotuce tacked on after a moment of thought, as if she had forgotten that she was making a request rather than a demand. I considered it for a moment before I shook my head. 

“You’re one of the few that managed to control your oozaru form, you’re too valuable to send on a mission like this,” I informed. Lotuce was in limbo, in a way. She was too valuable to risk on a suicide mission, and at the same time, she was too weak to accompany a member of the team since she wouldn’t be able to use her oozaru form. 

“I-” Lotuce started to argue, her face twisting in frustration, but I knew what she was going to say next. 

“There's going to be other challenges and opportunities to prove yourself,” I cut her off. “Wait for them. You can’t manage to do anything if you get yourself killed by biting off more than you can chew.” 

It was obvious that she didn’t care for the answer based on how her face twisted into a scowl, but she nodded all the same. “I understand, my prince,” she muttered unhappily. I guess I should give her something to do...nothing sucked more than feeling useless. 

“For now, group up with the others and continue teaching the others how to master their oozaru form. We’re relying on you to make sure none of them get too rowdy,” I said, making Lotuce’s gaze snap to mine as a grin tugged at the edge of her lips. She gave me a firm nod as she rose to her feet. 

“Consider it done, my prince,” she said with much more eagerness as she took my words as a dismissal. I watched her walk away, idly thinking that I was going to end up seeing her more often if we all lived through this. I only looked away when a yawn escaped me as I blinked a few times to clear any haze from my eyes. 

If any of my team noticed my lack of sleep, then they didn’t comment on it. Maybe I should mention to Technician that I needed a healing pod, or some kind of pod filled with a fluid, installed on the ship? No, that was wasteful. There were more important priorities than my inability to sleep in a bed like a normal person. Maybe, eventually, I would get so tired that I collapsed from exhaustion. So long as it happened after we were off this planet, I didn’t care. 

Making my way to the door that served as a main entrance to the base, I stepped inside of them before I turned to the forces that would be following us. Then I glanced up at the hole that we had made to get in here. After that, my gaze landed on my team. All of us were worse for wear, exhausted, but still alive. 

“Don’t die. Any of you,” I ordered, my gaze sweeping over my team. 

“Right back at you,” Fasha returned with a chuckle in her voice. 

With nothing else to say, it was time to begin the operation. “All teams prepare to go one minute after my mark. Five...four...three...two...one...mark!”

Once I said mark, I punched my way through the makeshift cover to the hole, blasting my way into the tunnel. And, almost instantly, I fell under heavy fire. Plasma blasts and laser shots from defensive lines that the Reach had set up. A few of them slammed into my armor, so dense that it was impossible for me to dodge all of them. All the while, I cupped two hands at my side and let my scouter pick up on the power levels. 

It seemed that Technician had made another upgrade that I hadn’t noticed because it picked up on floating objects that littered the tunnel going all the way up. Mines, I’m guessing. Smart of them, but it wasn’t enough to keep us down here. 

“Kamehameha!” I shouted, a bright blue blast of ki lit up the dark tunnel as it blasted through scarabs and mines alike. The defensive measures seemed to have worked against them because as soon as I detonated them, it set off a chain reaction that claimed more of their soldiers. The mines weren’t the black hole ones, thankfully, but the explosions that rang out until my attack faded ate into the tunnel -- forcing it to expand as parts of it-

“Fuck,” I cursed as rubble began raining down towards me, chunks of expremly heavy rubble that would block off the entrance, leaving the others unable to follow. I walked right into a trap. Forced to waste precious seconds, I reduced the rubble that rained down upon us to ash before I could continue forward, my team following behind me. We were lucky that I was leading the way, because one of the others wouldn’t have been able to destroy the rubble in time. 

With the way cleared, I rapidly closed the distance between my target. In the heavy darkness, it was difficult to tell where things were, and I didn’t want to risk illuminating my team as we approached. Even still, it only took a few short seconds for me to reach the level of the planet where the unoadium was. “I’m breaking off,” I informed, reaching the level and blasting my way through a door. 

Instantly, I was greeted by a black hole missile that I only saw on my scouter before I detonated it and let it claim a potion of the level, making my entrance bigger. 

“Watch your corners,” I warned, firing a ki blast down the hallway to clear the way. 

“Watch your back,” Shugesh shot back as they continued upwards where they would break off into smaller teams. With that serving as a goodbye, I took off down the hallway, going down the path that I memorized from the blueprints of the plant. A ki blast formed in my hands before I lobbed it at a metal door, punching right through it as I took in a deep breath. 

The hallways themselves were generic metal walls that were occasionally dotted with a metal door. When there was a window, it displayed a vast open area that was filled with what I could only describe as some kind of forge. There were countless pads with a hologram floating above them - from robotic soldiers, to tanks, to tools to weapons, anything that the Reach could need. That hologram was surrounded by some kind of welders and other tools, and when they pressed against the hologram sparks flew. Materials were fed into the tools as they started from the center out, dozens of them working in perfect coordination and by the time they were done, the finished project matched the hologram perfectly. 

Each room...there were thousands of those platforms. And so far, I’ve seen over a dozen of them. 

The output of this place was absolutely insane. 

My scouter bleeped as it picked up on high power levels rushing towards me, prompting me to let out that breath slowly. I did a general scan on the area to pick up on other power levels, just to get an idea of what kind of resistance I was going to be up against. The counter kept going up, picking up on more and more and more power levels…

Thirteen vanguards, fifty scout class, and hundreds of soldiers.

“That’s too much,” I muttered to myself as I blasted through another door, racing towards the unoadium, blowing past the protein farms on a lower level. The level that the Reach was expecting us to attack. I knew that I was going to be up where their defenses were at their thickest, and it wasn’t that I was worried that I couldn’t win that fight, but the number of scarabs was too high. 

Were they stacking them there? No, it couldn’t be that. Why take the risk of front loading your defenses on the bet that we would go for the food over trying to escape all together when we got hungry enough? 

“I guess it means the others will have an easier time,” I said, forming a ki blast to bust through another metal door, only for it to glow cherry red a split second before a torrent of plasma tore through it. Reacting instantly, a Riot Javelin formed in my hands before I launched it at the torrent of plasma. It splashed over my attack, spraying over the hall and walls, but there was no contest in strength. 

The plasma attack was pushed back to the source before it detonated, a loud explosion ringing out as plasma fire erupted from the room just ahead of me. Fire washed over me, but I still continued forward through the heat and smoke, glad for the mask that covered my face. If the map was right, then I should be in a intersection. As I picked the direction I was supposed to go, I twisted in midair to fire ki blasts down the opposing hallway. 

My attacks struck dead on thanks to my scouter. Others fired back at me, another large torrent of plasma rushing towards me, the bright beam of intense heat illuminating the dark smoke for a moment. I dispatched it in the same manner I had the first, another explosion filling the halls as the heat washed over me. 

Already, I could feel myself sweating from it. Now that I thought about it, this was the first time I had ever fought scarabs in such close quarters, so down here the heat didn’t have anywhere to disperse to. That was annoying. 

Twisting back around, I blasted forward, tearing through a few doors that got in my way, and where the hallways didn’t lead me to a straight shot to my destination, then I made a new hallway. The scarabs were forced to react to me, playing catchup when I left their fortified positions behind, their confusion costing them valuable seconds. 

Once I was near my destination, I pulled up my mask and popped the pill into my mouth before swallowing it. Replacing my mask, I saw a door at the far end of a hallway, danger signs plastered all over it. Sucking in a deep breath, I crashed into the door, tearing through it like it wasn’t even there, and finding myself in a large room. 

This was where they fed those grinders materials, I realized, looking around for a split second. There were countless crates filled with what looked like ingots of exotic minerals, each labeled with two letters that identified them. There were plenty that I didn’t recognize, and I had no idea what they were, or if they were dangerous or not. Then my gaze landed on a box labeled with an Uo, marking it as Unoadium. 

Taking out the capsule, I followed Technician's instructions. The crate of unoadium shrunk until it was nothing more than a spec before the capsule flew towards it and sealed it inside. It only took a moment, and where once was a giant crate now was the capsule. That was...really weird to watch. I’m not sure if I liked seeing something shrink like that. But, it was undeniably useful, I thought as I tucked the capsule away, idly noting that it didn’t seem to weigh any extra. 

“That was easy,” I said, turning towards the door as ki flowed to my hands. Now it was time for the hard part. I darted out of the room and saw that the scarabs that I had left in my dust had caught up. Six of the vanguards rushed towards me, the others acting as support while my scouter picked up the scout classes hanging in the distance. 

There wasn’t enough room to fight in here, I decided as I fired a ki blast to the side of me, blowing a hole so I could enter one of their open forges. Now there wasn’t a wall and thick glass, the screeching sound of thousands of welders grated on my ears, but I ignored it in favor of cupping my hands to my side. The vanguards followed me out, making their own entrances, but they didn’t need to. 

“Kamehameha!” I shouted, my attack slamming into where they were, tearing through the hallway and carving a line through the levels. A vanguard disappeared according to my scouter, so I got one but there were still plenty others. A plasma blast fired out at me, forcing me to dodge it before I rushed back down, using the smoke as a cover to dive back into the hallway.

Now their numbers worked against them. Ki coated my hands a split second before I punched my fist through one of their chests, destroying the scarab that clung to its back. As soon as it died, the scarab falling off the corpse, I already moved on to two others. A thin beam cut through the air, nearly cutting through my head, but I jerked out of the way in time to dodge it. The hallway was filled with the sound of violence as I hacked the scarabs apart. 

The Reach realized that they were losing the fight despite their greater numbers because the vanguard scarabs in the back launched a black hole missile. It raced towards me as I bisected a scarab. My hands were out of position to take the missile out...unless…?

Trying something out, I continued to slash downwards, imagining a sliver of ki escaping from the tip of my ki blades. Like I imagined, that sliver became an attack that raced towards the missile in an crescent arc before it was consumed by a black hole. Smiling to myself, I wound up my arm, flooding the ki blades that coated my hands, and performed the same action. 

This time, the arc raced towards the scarabs that took up defensive position and cut right through them. It carved a line through everything that it touched -- the metal walls, the scarabs, the soldiers and doors until the attack ran out of energy before fading into nothing. The halves of the scarabs fell over dead. Just like that, their defenses fell apart. 

I think I finally found a way to compensate for my height...or, rather, my lack of height. 

With that taking care of, I pressed down on my scouter, “I’ve got the materials for the bomb,” I announced loudly. I had no idea if the Reach would be able to pick up on our transmissions, but I said it loud enough that I should have been picked up on a security camera, or something. 

“Tarble-” I heard Shugesh shout back at me before an explosion cut him off, but based on the volume, he was transformed into his oozaru form. “We need some support back at the tunnel!”

Worried, I pushed myself to go even faster, not bothering to take turns or anything. I simply gathered ki into my palms, fired it out, and made a straight shot back to the tunnel. No sooner than I had, a scout class scarab appeared in the tunnel, its arms glowing to fire off a shot, only to have its head reduced to a fine mist when I closed the distance. 

Entering the tunnel once again, I saw something that made my heart sink. Scarabs. So many scarabs -- they darted around, firing upon my team. They seemed to be in one piece, but my gaze landed on a vanguard scarab that fired a missile that would change that. My body moved before my mind did, destroying the missile before the vanguard suffered the same fate.

This was too many scarabs, I thought as I dispatched another, taking the pressure off of my team. Thankfully, the scarabs viewed me as the greater threat because they focused on me. They came to me in droves and they died in droves. Still, even as I killed them, my brain was hung up on that one fact. 

There were too many scarabs down here. I understood defending the food because that's the obvious place, but I wiped out the bulk of that already. Yet there were still dozens of scarabs darting about, trying to kill me, only to be killed instead. The thought nagged at the back of my mind, but I still had other priorities. 

“The others?” I asked as I ripped a scarab in half before using my new cutting technique to bisect another with wild haymaker that took out another scarab with the same motion. 

“A team has made it back, but the others are still enroute. Others have been detonated prematurely,” Matillo answered. My heart seized in my chest, but I forced it to beat. I knew that I was going to send men to their deaths with this. And just because one team made it back didn’t mean that others weren’t. This was a fast operation -- it hadn’t been more than ten minutes at the most. There was still plenty of time for them to get there and come back. 

“And did we get everything?” I asked, taking out another scarab with a kick. The numbers were already thinning out considerably and the few that remained were falling back. 

“We got it all. And no one’s dead, so the mission went about as good as it could have, even if it got a bit messy at the end,” Tora answered, making me nod. That was...shockingly simple and fast, but that was kind of the point for this operation. A snatch and grab. 

But...There was something about this that I didn’t like. The number of scarabs was concerning. It just didn’t make sense to keep that many of them down here. 

“Shugesh, you take this down,” I ordered before looking up. These numbers weren’t adding up, the defenses were too heavy. Why were they so heavily guarding nearly random locations? Why were the response teams so large? This didn’t make any sense -- I was expecting a reaction, but this was too...heavy handed. Could this mean that the defenses up top were thinner than I anticipated? Or was there a spy amongst us?

“Where are you going?” Shugesh asked, frowning at me. 

“I’m going to go prob their defenses,” I answered, turning to the rest of my team. “The rest of you go sure up the defenses. I don’t like how many there are down here, and I think they might be planning an assault on the base.” That was about the only thing that could explain the sheer number of scarabs that were floating around down here. 

Shugesh’s face twisted, but he nodded all the same. “Right, yeah, we’ll do that. But you running off and hogging all the good fights for yourself is gonna stop when the rest of us master the Wrath State,” he warned without any ire in his voice. 

I cracked a grin that he couldn’t see, letting out a small huff of laughter at that. “Good luck with that,” I teased, floating upwards, giving him a nod. 

Fasha let out a huff, “don’t die up there Tarble.” She said with resigned frustration in her voice. None of them pressed the issue of following me up to the surface because they knew what my answer would be. And because, as much as it galled at them to admit, they weren’t ready for that kind of resistance. They would, in time, but not today. 

“I won’t,” I returned before flying upwards, blasting through the sound barrier while the rest of my team fell back. My scouter picked up on scarabs moving in to intercept me, but they barely so much as slowed me down as I raced towards the surface. All the while, my mind raced as fast as I moved, trying to puzzle out what was going on here. 

The spec of light in the distance grew closer, revealing a dozen vanguard scarabs poised over the entrance of the tunnel, poised to fire down it. Once I came near enough, they unleashed full blasts of plasma, all of them meshing together until it became one giant attack that radiated so much heat that the sides of the tunnel began to melt from the ambient heat. My eyes narrowed into slits as I clasped my hands together at my side. That wasn’t an attack that I could afford to dodge since it would hit the base below. 

“Spiral...Buster!” I shouted, firing the technique I had created to meet the attack. Unlike before, it was hardly a no contest of power, but that didn’t matter. My attack punched through the mass of plasma falling my way, sending it spiraling outward. It worked just like a Riot Javelin, only it was sustained. 

The heat, as I continued upwards, was unbearable. My hard suit glowed in several places, some parts melting together, while the undersuit smoked. Something exploded behind me, hitting me with enough force it was like I was kicked in the back, and it took me a moment to figure out that it was probably my oxygen tank. 

Then, without any warning, the attack stopped and I was out of the tunnel. Falling down were corpses of...what...defended the...entrance…

My mind slowly ground to a halt as I took in my new surroundings. I was outside, but things had changed greatly in the past two days. 

I completely underestimated the Reach defenses, I realized with dawning horror as I took in their defenses. The ships that seemed to fill the sky, the hundreds of scarab, the fortified positions, the tens of thousands of soldiers that surrounded what was left of the space elevator. However, my gaze landed on one scarab in particular simply because it was one that I had only seen once before at a distance. 

A special-class scarab, or as the Reach started calling them, the Champion class. I had thought I wanted to fight another in an open area, and, despite my body practically tingling with anticipation, I couldn’t help but regret that though. Especially when the champion scarab was being supported by vanguard scarabs. My scouter told me a number I didn’t care for. There were two hundred vanguard scarabs, at least. Three times that number in scout class scarabs. 

Countless barrels of plasma cannons and guns trained on me since I was the only target. A force that I couldn’t hope to beat. With this...the plan was a failure. There were just far too many scarabs for us to hope to escape with the plan that we had now. They wouldn’t be disbursed enough. 

“Surrender and you will be treated accordingly to Reach prisoner of war regulations. Resistance is futile,” the special class scarab spoke. Oddly enough, I detected a hint of emotion in its voice, telling me that it was a recent host...and the voice...sounded familiar.... Thousands upon thousands of weapons were pointed at me. I wouldn’t be able to dodge all of them, and worse, I was completely and utterly surrounded. As much as I hated it, its words rang with an echo of truth. 

“Resistance is futile, huh?” I repeated, my hands curling into fists. Despite myself, my lips tugged upwards in a mockery of a grin. My heartbeat started to pick up, my blood surging in my veins, any trace of exhaustion and hunger forgotten as a sense of calmness filled me. Because, all of it came down to one very simple solution. 

If there were too many scarabs, then I needed to cut their numbers down to a manageable size. 

“When has that ever stopped me?”

In response to my words, the ring around my neck rose.