"Surion, we were drawn away and a gate sealed behind us. It’s a trap, but not for us."
"Do you have a solid path?" Tsur Selkie asked, while First-Second Squad went all tensely alert and started scanning in every direction.
"None yet," fake-Kaoren said, and looked at me. "Drop the visualisation."
I was being a bit slow to understand, but have learned by now that he only uses that tone on me when he really means it, so reluctantly dropped the visualisation.
"Back to base, no delay," Tsur Selkie ordered, but at the same moment Maze said: "Threat," and so did Zee, and Regan added: "Multiple directions."
They’d been waiting in the surrounding spaces, at strategically chosen gates with a view of my testing area, and didn’t emerge until they saw the visualisation. My people-detect does kind of work through gates, but not very well. Combat Sight doesn’t at all, so there was no warning before there were dozens, maybe fifty, thickest around the gate back into real-space, but quickly zooming forward from every direction. Cruzatch.
"Caszandra, try to increase your connection to the Ena. Quickly." Maze was using his most even-toned captain voice, pushing me down to kneel beside my test chair even as the Setari contracted in a defensive formation around me, quickly enhancing in turn. "Kettara, Norivan, Light walls at first and eighth mark. Regan, Dolan, Fire at fourth and tenth."
The Setari snapped into action, setting up a hasty barrier of elements to slow the incoming charge. Cruzatch are very fast though, and most avoided damage, though at least couldn’t go straight through. But there were still others coming through the gaps which couldn’t be covered.
"Missiles," Maze said, as the nearest drew back their arms. "All Tel-Lev repel. Regan, bracket us with Ice, thick as you can manage."
I’m not terribly great at speedy reactions, especially trying to quickly do something which I usually need a calm state of mind to manage. The most I could do was close my eyes as the Cruzatch began throwing things at us, and send my senses out further and further, not trying to be calm, but just trying to sense anything alive out beyond the Cruzatch, as quickly as I could push it. It wasn’t a good way to do it – I felt forced, as if I’d pulled a muscle – and the things going on immediately around me kept trying to pull my attention back – Maze’s voice steady, flashes of heat and chill right near me. The Ddura hadn’t been called in the last few days, but the near-space was still very clear of Ionoth, and I was really glad when I found a lone swoop. It felt like ages away, and then it just felt like one of a world of points of life, and I stopped properly being aware of what was going on around me, and only vaguely noticed that most of the points of life around me abruptly vanished, and then I got incredibly dizzy and had to draw back to myself and found myself still kneeling next to my test chair, but in a pool of water, and I felt like I was going to pass out and was coughing because of some acrid smelling stuff which Ketzaren was trying to blow away even while she was coughing herself.
Almost all the Cruzatch were gone, vanished, and only Ketzaren, Tsur Selkie and one of First’s Kalrani spares, Az Norivan, were still on their feet. Regan and Lohn were unconscious and the rest had fallen, and were choking on the gas worse than me. Maze was right next to me, shaking and gasping and looking like he’d run a marathon. There were three Cruzatch still moving, hanging back at long distance, but unfortunately in the direction of the gate.
Ketzaren managed to get up enough of a breeze to move the gas away, but that didn’t help with the dizziness, and Zee passed out instead of recovering.
"Spel, Norivan, we three will advance as quickly as possible and attack," Tsur Selkie said, after a quick survey of the Cruzatch. "If they split and attempt to make for this point, Norivan and I will return. Spel, you are to head as quickly as possible to the gate and call for reinforcement. Go."
His fingers brushed me as they went, and he blurred ahead of the other two, running all-out. Ketzaren followed, levitating Norivan along with her. As Tsur Selkie had predicted, the little cluster of Cruzatch split, one remaining to attack him while two came circling toward my location. Ketzaren dropped Norivan down to run back and obediently continued on toward the gate.
Enma Dolan from Second levered herself shakily to her feet as the two Cruzatch came at us, flying far more quickly than Norivan could run. She used Lightning, which was a mixed blessing since the enhanced ball she produced arced and spit so randomly that while one of the Cruzatch was zapped like a bug, it also meant that Norivan had to make a major detour.
Maze kept trying to get to his feet next to me, spiked out a nanosuit weapon, and then collapsed. I was feeling dizzier and dizzier – we’d obviously all had enough of a dose of the gas to be knocked out: it was just a matter of how long it would take for each of us. Setari trying to fight or use their talents while being all dizzy and on the verge of passing out are not safe people to be around, as I discovered when Norivan desperately threw a Light wall into the path of the remaining Cruzatch, and the thing appeared horizontally directly above us. She was damn lucky Dolan had collapsed by then. She did get the Cruzatch, though.
I guess the way my breathing slows down when I’m expanded is the reason I held on longer than everyone else. As Norivan dropped, I poked my head cautiously above my test chair and saw that the Cruzatch Tsur Selkie had been fighting (he has no elemental talents or nanoweapons, so had basically been kickboxing the thing) had decided to ignore him and come back and get me. Tsur Selkie fell down, and there I was, the only person still conscious, with one Cruzatch remaining.
I knew I had no chance of outrunning anything that flies, so straightened and formed one of the suit weapons. And the damn thing grinned at me, one of those Cheshire Cat smirks stretching over excessive amounts of its face. Annoyance briefly overtook terror, and I set my feet and tried to remember everything Mara has taught me.
Then I passed out.
But I got to see the cavalry arrive, right before I dropped. I’m glad I missed the next bit. The Cruzatch apparently grabbed me and made for the nearest gate – giving me yet another set of minor burns, this time from being slung over its arm. Fortunately only Cruzatch claws are super-hot, and so my nanosuit was able to mostways cope with the heat. Arad Nalaz from Squad One saved me by simply using Telekinesis at the extent of his range to grab me back.
The gas kept us all unconscious for a couple of hours, but Maze, Tsur Selkie and I were the only ones actually injured. Tsur Selkie and me with minor burns, and Maze from the side-effects of using his Fire talent all-out while being extra-enhanced by me, which put a huge strain on his heart and caused some bleeding and swelling in the brain. So he gets lots of scans and monitoring for blood clots, and won’t be on duty for a while, but I suspect he found some level of satisfaction in crispifying all but three of the Cruzatch in a fiery maelstrom of ultimate doom. The Ice he had Regan make was to protect us from him using his talent like that, the first and probably only time anyone’s going to dare use an elemental while my enhancement is at max.
Fourth and Seventh couldn’t find a path back to Pandora at all through the spaces they’d been lured into, but eventually managed to work their way to a different part of Muina. Fortunately there’s much better satellite coverage now, so they could simply signal their location, and a ship’s gone to pick them up. They should be here by dawn, and other than being really tired are completely fine.