Ravens of Eternity

59 The Seven, Pt Amal sat on the roof of one of the silos on the farm. She peered through an optical monoscope at the land around her.

As she scanned the horizon, she caught sight of a frigate in the distance. It was accompanied by a handful of fighters.

They were all descending carefully.

The readings on her monoscope showed that the ships were roughly ten thousand meters away. It was further than even simple sensors could pick up. And certainly further than what the naked eye could see.

Amal immediately told the rest of her team through her DI.

—

Amal: You were right. Nightmare and his gang really showed up.

Freya: Figures. Well, we’d best post up and get ready.

T-Rex: How’d you know they’d show up?

.....

Freya: Didn’t know, was just a guess, really.

Freya: Since they told everyone to leave and never come back.

Freya: It stands to reason that someone’s watching to make sure.

Fluke: What if it isn’t Nightmare down there?

Freya: I suppose we sit tight and let ’em look around, find nothing, and leave on their own.

Tycho: And if it’s him, we know what to do.

Raijin: I would like to remind everyone to do their best to avoid killing Nightmare himself.

Xylo: Is kneecapping or crippling him on the table?

Raijin: I believe the others will find that acceptable.

—

It didn’t take long for the marauders to come up to the farm. Like the first attack, they rode in on antigrav hoverbikes and hoverboats.

All of them were armed to the teeth.

The boats quickly came up to the front square while the bikes circled around the main buildings. They cruised on by, but found nothing suspicious. So they joined the boats and parked in the front square.

Nightmare hopped off his bike and drew his pistol from its holster. He left his rifle in a sling on his bike. He reasoned that he didn’t need it at all. The intel he got said there were probably a half dozen of them here, mostly women.

He had brought a couple dozen of his thugs with him, and motioned for them to spread out and search the grounds. They did so without hesitation.

He believed that there wasn’t a chance against them.

We’ve got this in the bag, thought Nightmare.

Every single one of them wore the same sort of light armor. Though they weren’t patchwork, there wasn’t any uniformity either. Everyone had their own preference in terms of fit, function, and style, so they ended up looking like a hodge podge mercenary group.

The only thing that united them were the red sashes on their waists.

As they walked around the farm, they quickly confirmed that it had been cleaned up. There weren’t any more bodies, or any dried blood anywhere.

Bullet holes were everywhere, of course. Those couldn’t be wiped away that easily.

They also found a number of areas on the ground that had been burnt, and they easily reasoned that those must have been the location of the pyres.

Nightmare and his goons combed the area noisily and carelessly. They were confident in their superiority over their victims.

After all, they had torn them up so easily the first time. Even their powerful hunting rifles couldn’t do much against their storm of bullets.

A second attack against even fewer defenders would have been no trouble at all.

Except as they continued to search the grounds, nothing and no-one had greeted them. Not one bullet or scream. The place seemed deserted.

“You think they left already?” asked a thug.

One of the others sighed in exasperation.

“Damn shame if they did,” he said. “I really coulda used a bit of extra R and R this cycle.”

“You think they really did actually just come here to burn their dead?” asked another thug. “And then left? Just like that?”

“Doesn’t matter what any of us thinks,” said Nightmare. “Just look around and make sure it’s empty, alright. Keep your gun arms high.”

Nightmare peered into a window caked with dirt. He struggled to look inside. Something didn’t quite sit right with him, and he couldn’t tell why.

“Did anyone call for the boys back on Helios?” he asked.

“Sent a ping, but didn’t hear back,” answered a thug. “Must be havin’ a lil’ too much fun on shore leave.”

“Fuck ’em. Means more for us,” said another.

A few of the goons laughed.

“If they’re even here,” said a thug.

“They’re here,” Nightmare interjected. “I can smell ’em. Prolly saw us land and hid somewhere. Maybe some sort of hidden basement or something. Likely scared shitless.”

He motioned for a thug to hop up on something.

“Draw ’em out,” he ordered.

The thug immediately climbed up on a large crate, then took in a deep breath.

“No need to be shy!” he yelled. “You know we’re here, we know you’re here. May as well come out and play. ”

But there was no answer, only silence. His voice echoed through the buildings, then faded into the sky.

Nightmare was still wary. This situation felt familiar to him, but he couldn’t put a finger on why.

The thug on the crate spun around and looked in every direction, but nothing changed. So he decided to yell out and provoke them again.

“Come on little girls and boys! Don’t you wanna-”

His taunt was cut short as his body suddenly burst open in a cloud of blood and guts.

A split second later, the distinctive CRACK of a supersonic shockwave swept through the air around them.

All of the goons immediately ducked behind cover out of fear and panic even as their dead comrade was still falling to the ground.

“Heads down!” yelled Nightmare. “There’s a fuckin’ sniper out there!”

He peeked up from his cover and looked around, but saw nothing. He couldn’t tell where it had come from, or how far away the shooter was.

A thug behind cover was suddenly split in two, followed shortly by another resounding rifle CRACK.

This time, it was easy to see where the shot had come from, and Nightmare pointed at one of the silos roughly a thousand meters away.

“It’s coming from there!” he shouted. “Get outta line of sight!”

Just as the thugs all moved around to hide from the sniper, a bunch of the other Seven burst out of hiding. They fired their weapons at every goon in front of them.

T-Rex and Locke had fired into the chaotic group of marauders with bursts of their rifles. They picked off those who didn’t even realize that they were there.

Those who did were taken out by Fluke and his silenced SMG. Though no-one really knew where he was at any given time.

Inside one of the smaller buildings, Eva was kitted out in her matte black hunting armor.

She patiently waited for her chance to take out one of the thugs. After a moment, she popped out of cover and took a shot at one with her Handcannon.

He was blown apart with a single shot. His torso essentially disintegrated from the force, and his head and limbs were scattered in every direction.

The thug behind him was also blasted wide open. His left shoulder all the way to his chest simply vanished as the slug gouged out his heart as well as his life.

The Seven’s ambush had taken out over a half dozen of their enemies’ lives.

The thugs quickly scrambled into whatever cover they could find, but were completely suppressed. The Seven had surrounded them, and fired at them from all angles.

One of the thugs was so frightened that he fled from the firefight. He had made it halfway to his bike when a sniper shot blew off his head and upper chest.

“Fight back you pussies!” yelled Nightmare.

This bolstered a number of his men, who quickly counterattacked. They belted out suppressing fire in every direction.

The Seven ducked back into cover to reload and reposition. This allowed some of the thugs to reposition themselves as well.

However, many had pointed their guns at Eva in particular – her Handcannon simply took too much attention.

They fired round after round into the building where she had posted up.

She quickly dropped down to the ground and shielded herself with her hands.

The glass above her shattered as the thugs riddled the building with a wave of bullets. Glass and shrapnel fell down all around her.

Up in her roost, Xylo adjusted her scope and bore down on the thugs that were suppressing Eva.

.....

—

Xylo: Looks like you got yourself some fans, Freya.

Freya: You mean flies? Yeah, can’t keep ’em off me.

Xylo: I’ll swat down a few, no sweat.

Raijin: I will also help.

—

Two of Miko’s gun drones flew from around the corner. Their barrels spun up as they flanked a number of thugs.

By the time the thugs heard the WHINE of the chainguns, it was far too late.

Streams of bullets slammed into them, and tore them open like slabs of meat. Their blood was smeared all around, like fertilizer.

The best kind, really.

Those who had the sense to immediately run away didn’t fare much better. They were quickly blasted to pieces by Xylo’s rifle.

~

High above on a silo across the way, Amal watched as the rest of the team slowly took apart Nightmare’s gang.

She wondered if things would have been different if they were there the day they were attacked. But she quickly shook the thought away.

It did her no good to think it.

Dareon’s rifle laid next to her, but it went unused. She had barely even touched it.

Everyone else had told her that it was fine if she simply held back. Xylo had even said that it was better if she stayed out.

She might have hit a teammate by accident.

It wasn’t as though Xylo said it to be hurtful. She was simply being pragmatic. If Amal had problems pulling a trigger, then she was more of a liability than an asset on the field. She acknowledged the truth of it. But it still made her feel useless.

The feeling tugged at her, and urged her to do something about it.

Everyone had fought to exact vengeance or justice or some mix of both. Regardless of their reasons, she did nothing but watch.

She pulled the rifle to her, and shouldered it squarely. It fit well.

With an eye through the scope, she zeroed in on a thug. She breathed well.

But when she put her finger on the trigger, her heart thumped madly in her chest.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to shoot him. Her hands shook uncontrollably, and she found pulling the trigger became impossible.

A frustrated sigh escaped her lips. So she stood up, slung the rifle on her shoulder, and climbed down the silo quietly and carefully.

If she was going to be of any use, it was going to be on the ground.

~

Nightmare crashed shoulder-first through a window and into the main house.

Glass shards had scratched and stabbed his armor, but not enough to pierce through or draw blood.

He nervously peeked through the window he just leapt through and fired a couple shots through it.

Then he quickly and carelessly shoved a shelving unit at the window, but only partially blocked it.

He then moved towards the front of the house, where a handful of his thugs had already posted up. One of them was at the door, and shot at one of the Seven.

“The hell we gonna do now?” he asked.

Nightmare paced back and forth. He was afraid and unsure of what to do. He was always the one that ambushed people. He always had control of the fight every time.

But not this time. This time, his voice was filled with uncertainty, and his actions were caked with desperation.

“We gotta hole up,” he said.

“You heard ‘im,” said one of the thugs.

They quickly threw furniture at every entrance and made sure they were at least somewhat barricaded. Although the thugs were hurried, they still did a rather admirable job.

Those doors were well and truly jammed.

The five of them posted up at a few of the windows and peered out into the dusty road outside.

As they had busied themselves with their barricade, the Seven had polished off those who had foolishly remained outside.

There was nothing out there but shredded corpses and pools of blood.

All that they could hear was the beating of their own hearts. They thundered in their chests.

After a few excruciating minutes of silence, Eva’s voice boomed. It sounded as though she was right outside.

“Well, well, well,” she said. “Looks like we caught ourselves a handful of mangy rats.”

Nightmare and his thugs immediately paled.

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