The terrible massacre did not pause until the ground was littered with corpses and the still-living Bejana had retreated in paroxysmal fits of terror toward their flimsy canvas homes. The streets that snaked between the makeshift homes were streaming with dead and dying things, detritus from the fleeing mass, all of it revealed in Apollo''s divine clarity by a relentless floodlight-white.


    Above them the latticework of rusted ladders set against the rock-face and leading up into the mushroom-structures were crawling with desperate figures. The TAF were shooting at them and bodies were falling like tears to their demise upon the hard ground.


    Cacliocos'' adamant protests were shading into vitriol, and as harsh invectives spewed continually from his mouth the Jegorichians stood by dazedly, their weapons half-raised and their minds unready to join in the killing. Entuban had fallen back amidst the chaos and his form was contorting itself in myriad gestures as he sought to convey his anger or outrage or general confusion at the TAF and their willingness to commit atrocity.


    Stop themthey have overstepped all bounds,Von


    A semblance of stillness descended over that small slice of space, as the TAF and the Jegorichians eyed each other with hostile and fearful eyes. treason


    You know as well as I


    proportional force to achieve limited military objectives


    Some tens of meters from Carrera''s contingent, a Bejana boy who could not have been older than thirteen was running down from the wall of mushroom-structures, snot-nosed and clutching a massive object clothed in velveteen. From the distance Betelgeuse could not tell what the thing was, but it was clear to him at least that the boy was making straight for Carrera and his contingent.


    "It''s a bomb, Chromie, kill him!" Hrodwulf commanded, his rasp resounding through every exosuit.


    "Don''t you dare—" Cacliocos began, and the Bejana youth reached a Messanal caught, hesitating, between the conflicting instructions of his superior officers.


    Time slowed and Betelgeuse, though too far away to discern the expression upon the boy''s face, observed that darkish figure twist and jump and soar through the air down the slope, clutching against his body, as he fell, the object imperfectly wrapped. As he traced a smooth trajectory through the air the velveteen cloth billowed and inverted over the boy''s body, revealing in his arms a spheroid shape which looked very like an oxygen tank.


    Messanal, the veteran CFC leading the troop, had already overcome his knee-jerk response to conflicting instructions. He depressed the trigger of his railgun, sending several shots lancing into the thing hurtling toward him, punching holes that threw up a dark mist into the air, the mist splaying out and becoming momentarily suspended like a grim shroud over that blood-soaked place.


    Then, light.


    An immense conflagration was raised and the ground reverberated with the explosion. Betelgeuse'' teeth clattered painfully together and his vision filled with light. Bits of gravel tinkled against his visor, and the shockwave was so powerful his thoughts were blasted to the back of his mind.


    When the light died down, phantom streaks were imprinted into his vision, and a crater had been created where Messanal and his troop once were. Around its edges and strewn upon the scorched and smoking gravel were a multitude of flensed shapes imitating limbs and half-bodies curled into alien positions.


    Kill them!kill the fucking traitors—


    Retreat they did, under heavy fire. Sound and static was in Betelgeuse'' ears and someone fell beside him. He turned. The boyish-faced Private Mizzarin Asaghar had stumbled and fallen to the floor, and Betelgeuse reached out with his hand, intent on helping Mizzarin back to his feet; there was barely enough time for the man''s tender eyebrows to rise, grateful, when his chest was punched through by an armature-round, causing him to shudder violently as his innards and Incunabulum were perforated and punched out in great chunks.


    Then, his head was disintegrated by a rush of air and metal. Blood and detritus flung from that exposed cranium, spattering Betelgeuse gray-white and red.


    Someone gripped onto his arm and pulled, dragging him violently toward the idling APC-line. He snapped his head around and found Thete Jutson, her teeth gritted and her prosthetic eye flashing. Every muscle in her body was focused on getting the fuck away.


    Betelgeuse pumped his legs in concert with hers, gripping onto her shoulder and blazing across the white-lighted landscape faster than he could ever dream of running. They bucked and tumbled behind an APC as a volley of shots snapped past their heels. Death, barely avoided.


    A second later Entuban limped across them, his right arm shot through and half-separated from the rest of that massive appendage about the forearm.


    "Entuban!" Thete yelled in alarm. Betelgeuse, struggling to regulate his breathing, raised his head to see Douglas, Voke and a pale-faced Edith already covering behind the same APC, all of them winded.


    "Don''t be worrying. We''re strung out here. Need to be getting out," Entuban rumbled through blood-flecked lips, barely fazed by the vicious injury.


    7Q2069PDF


    "Sir, Venna and Julla, they''re still in the support-coy casevac vehicles!" Entuban returned. Voke and Thete were frantically foaming up Entuban''s brutal wound, to limited success. Betelgeuse peeked around the end of the APC and saw that the TAF soldiers had split into two separate contingents, one covering behind the oxygen pile''s barricades, the other in the midst of traversing the frontage and making for cover at a rock pile by the closest of the Bejana tentages.


    With measured breaths Betelgeuse took aim and fired, blasting the head from the shoulders of one of the TAF making across that craggy land.


    That could''ve been someone I knew,


    "Venna, Julla, do you read?" Cacliocos sounded. Static.


    Cacliocos again: "Entuban, not sure if you could receive their transmission, but they said they''re in the last vehicle. I will get them. If we lose comms—you focus on getting the rest to the APC. Remember, third from the back. If you get there before me, load up and sit tight."


    Kak,


    "Roger that, Staff," Thete replied, nodding. She turned to glance at Edith and indicated that scared expression to Betelgeuse. "Your friend''s not rigged for company comms-link, is she, B.T.?"


    "No, but she will understand," Betelgeuse said, tapping Edith on her visor and motioning over to the other APC. She nodded.


    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    "Okay, ready on three, two, one—"


    Entuban twisted and snapped off one, two, three shots. Section Five plus Edith hurtled across the space at breakneck speed.


    "Listen to me, Belekov, Von… Thete, Douglas, Voke," he transmitted, grabbing onto Edith as he did so, finding her eyes focused on something distant. She was struggling against him in sporadic bursts, and he kept a firm grasp on her arms.


    informational contentproximity


    Then he turned and saw Entuban no further than ten meters away, making to walk out into the open. As quickly as he could muster he sought for the hold the compulsion had over Entuban and, calling out "Entuban!" to get his attention, ripped it apart.


    all of you


    The impact of Belekov''s chest-piece against his shoulder-pad was swift and savage and more powerful than any strike he had experienced from another human being. Ignoring the pain lancing up his side, Betelgeuse slammed his visor straight into Belekov''s and rammed the Sergeant back several steps. "Snap out of it, you stinking piece of offal! It was the compulsion!"


    The compulsion had already been broken,but his intentionality aligns with Rolf''s. That''s why it took him longer to break out of the lingering effect.


    "What was that?" Cacliocos transmitted, his voice showing a hint of emotion, and as his voice dropped the comms-link filled with a smattering of surprised mutters and loud comments from Entuban and Von.


    Douglas contented himself with slapping Betelgeuse in the back and winking knowingly as their gazes met.


    "Just listen to him. Hate to admit it but he knows what he''s doing," Thete grumbled, glaring warily at the sullen-faced Belekov and digging through her pouches.


    The pins were pulled and they left their grenades resting against the immense tires. The group made for the next APC down the line and as they did so they heard behind them multiple explosions resolving into low rumbles.


    lifted


    "Betelgeuse," Cacliocos voice cut through the static once again, "note the compulsion''s power is affected by proximity."


    "I already know that, sir," Betelgeuse responded, crouching in the shadow of the tilted APC. Voke was before him and gesticulating wildly to Edith.


    "It''s also affected by the user''s affinity and level of mastery. The more targets it has, the weaker it is. If somebody''s caught—you need to beat those guys over the head."


    "I have a better way, sir," Betelgeuse said, signaling to the others that they should make for the next cover, a rock pile several meters away which Karella and Misha had taken refuge behind, "but it is limited. Anything you can do?"


    "My use of the matrix can keep your intentionalities aligned, effectively countering Hrodwulf. But the problem is visibility and proximity. Keep out of Hrodwulf''s sight as far as possible. Make it difficult to target you."


    pull


    "In three, two, one..."


    twang


    "We''re six o''clock of your APC, sir," Betelgeuse sounded as they reached the rock pile and linked up with Karella and Misha.


    Private Reese, we need to reverse


    Entuban slumped to the ground, spent, his face looking rather blue and unhealthy. The grievous wound to his arm was taking its toll. He managed, despite all that, a raspy, "roger, roger."


    DUS


    As he flitted back into cover a hailstorm of armature-rounds scoured a shallow crater where he had stood. They waited for the enemy fire to die down, and once it did Douglas, Voke and Karella returned their own volley of bullets.


    APC 7Q2069PDF was twenty meters away now and closing in upon them fast. Its whinging engine was loud and rough and Betelgeuse could see Cacliocos within the open back of the troop compartment, staring and motioning at them. He recognized Venna, Julla, Gelam and Smit, all of them beside Cacliocos and flush against the partition-wall separating the driver seat from the troop compartment. Armature-rounds poured from the TAF forces, several glancing off of the front-plating.


    thunk,


    "Hurry up, dammit!" Cacliocos yelled.


    Edith jabbed her elbow into Betelgeuse'' side and, straining under Entuban''s weight, jutted her chin at the rock pile beside them, her eyes filling with fear.


    Danger?Incunabulum-gifted sensitivity to violence


    get up, quickly!


    7Q2069PDF accelerate, accelerate


    Betelgeuse righted himself and struggled valiantly to climb over the tangle of bodies, making toward the front-aperture and Cacliocos; through the windshield he could see the light dim and pass into hues that were green and blue, and then disappear entirely.