./\.+ Lycra +./\.

Hirv and Vidita grabbed onto the side of Lycra's cart to stabilize themselves, then both looked at the mouth of the tunnel where light was spilling through the defenses. It intensified and drew closer as the rocks and defenses gave way with a series of popping noises.

Vidita snatched his backpack off the cart and sprinted towards the growing noise and heat. Hirv and Lycra ran after her.

As soon as she was past the carts, she turned the pack upside down and shook. Crystal carving tools and notebooks spilled out, along with the seven crystal tools they hadn't expended in the tunnel-digging effort.

Lycra, Vidita, and Hirv exchanged a glance that felt like a conversation. Vidita's cerulean eyes were tired, but determined. Her fingers fought against fearful tremors as she grabbed the central, intricately carved crystal off the ground.

Hirv's mouth was set in a determined line. He took two of the connection point crystals, and raised them above his head towards the top of the tunnel.

Lycra kicked two more connection points into rough placement, stabbed his sword into the wall at an angle to keep a third halfway up the tunnel, and leapt to the other side to raise the final point of the hexagonal configuration in place.

Ahead, popping and heat intensified as it raced through the rest of their defenses.

Magic swelled in Vidita's hands, into the central piece. It arced out to the connection points, and coated the tunnel in a bubble of light.

The last of the defensive walls fell with a loud snap that shot bits of molten stone and burning wood slivers careening into the shield. Its shimmering surface tinked and deflected the debris and the wave of heat. The molten mouth of the tunnel was open far above them, its length glowing with the remaining energy of a massive blast.

They'd only been hit with debris. With heat. With the after-effects of a salvo.

Their defenses had held almost the entire barrage at bay. The improbable solution worked. They had survived.

Silent, tense seconds were broken by Vidita's laugh.

"I think we-"

The air rumbled and rushed towards them down the open mouth of the tunnel, followed by heat. Vidita's eyes went wide as her magic flashed anew. She grit her teeth as a blinding wave of plasma followed the hot air, racing down the tunnel towards them in an inescapable wave. It flash-melted the partially cooled sides of the tunnel and burned the air.

The death wave slammed into the bubble, and threw Vidita back into Hirvonen's frame. He let out a roaring shout and dug his heels into the dirt, hands gripped hard on the crystals raised above his head.

The bubble groaned and vibrated against the overwhelming force. Rock around them glowed with heat that and burned into Lycra's hand that held his crystal in place.

A cool blast of air rushed in from behind.

Two ice mages were forcing magic from their hands, draped over the backs of soldiers whose legs still let them move. More were coming.

Half a dozen Vuxarinans positioned themselves behind Hirv to stop the barrage pushing him back any farther. Others jumped to the crystals on the ground and wall. Armor and skin melted as they fought to keep the crystals in place amidst the melting rock.

At their center, Vidita's body seemed wreathed in pulsing light. Energy crackled from her hands and eyes. She screamed and released growing magic power to counteract the swell of plasma that beat down on them all. Her skin cracked and rose off her arms as light spilled from within her body.

Lycra's ivory armor cracked and his skin burned under the impossible heat and force.

His voice joined the chorus of resolved screams.

The bubble of light sparked and dimmed, and Vidita's body pulsed again to reinforce the shield as her scream rose higher.

They clung to desperate hope as hellish seconds ticked by.

As the blast continued.

As the tunnel melted around them.

As Vidita forced everything she had into the shield.

).-. Beatrice .-.(

Bea paced around her office like a caged animal, waiting for the first salvo from the orbital battery to fire.

"How much longer!?"

Uzochi, her aide, looked down at her watch. "Roughly two minutes, forty-three more seconds to first full ignition, then another 10 seconds to impact. They can't escape, ma'am. Even with the carts, even if they had five minutes, they wouldn't have enough time to make it out of the mine."

She knew the words were meant to be reassuring. Reminding. Gentle. Helpful. Bea turned on her assistant with a hard glare. "How long after that for the second salvo?"

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Bea knew the answer to her own question. She'd studied the capabilities of her weapons and forces enough to damn near work the batteries herself. Hearing the words from Uzochi was keeping her from climbing up the walls. From tearing the hair out of her head. Her prey was in her grip, and yet - she worried.

"Roughly 20 seconds between the cessation of the first impact and the start of the second, because the unit will already be primed from the first blast. The ground won't have enough time to shed any heat in between blasts. Coverage area is set to roughly 1.25x the width of the mine, as ordered."

Bea nodded at the words, and took a breath through her nose. Her eyes wandered back to the screens on her desk. The scout set to watch the operation was running to create distance, as ordered. Bea wanted to see the results, and they were her best option.

They stopped for a moment, and turned back towards the digger and processing plant.

Other guards and soldiers were sprinting their way towards the edges of the mine. Some of them were peering at the sky with fearful eyes.

Bea felt a chill run up her spine. She barked out a name and a slim man half jumped through the doorway. He was an attaché for the information corps. The ones overseeing recordings for this plan.

"Lieutenant. My soldiers. Are running. They're running. And they're looking up. They shouldn't know what's happening! How long have they been running for!? They're going to give away the plan!"

The slim man straightened. "Apologies, ma'am. We believe when the scout was told to get clear, they weren't moving quickly enough. To get them to rush, an officer involved gave out more details. The scout then relayed that detail to others. But ma'am - even if they figure out an attack is coming from above, they cannot win. They'll be dead in less than 4 minutes. What could someone possibly do against an orbital barrage?"

Bea's glare seemed to physically knock into the man as he took a step back. She turned back to her screens as the scout finally made it clear, and turned around.

Seconds later, the scout's video feed showed hell descending from the sky.

Two massive swirls of chaotic red and orange energies was let loose from the platform. Their intensity was great enough that it was visible from the ground, even to a G grade with subpar perception. Like a new, angry sun, the barrage shot down through the atmosphere and burned away clouds in a massive, 8-shaped ring around itself. Birds flapped, and glowed, as they used wing and skill in an attempt to get themselves far clear of the area. Air displaced by the orbital plasma weapon came off the two columns in visible shockwaves as they descended. They slammed into each other, and if the scout were closer, they would've heard the telltale rapid percussions that let you know you were too close to a Belar orbital blast to come out unscathed.

The twin columns impacted the mine with a plume of dust, pushed away from the true blast by more displaced air. The beams of plasma slammed into the mine with titanous violence. Chucks of rock larger than the mining equipment ripped free from the ground and incinerated. What wasn't evaporated flash-melted into a bubbling mess of molten stone. The equipment in the mine disappeared. The steps and definition of the location disappeared. The destruction continued out, to the lip of the mine and the overwatch building. It burnt away the location where the soulcrusher had emerged from Travis' tutorial space. Beacons were the only thing on the planet that the orbital bombardment wouldn't be able to destroy, and the one for that tutorial had already been moved.

The heat from the edges of the blast lit a few wooden structures in the city on fire. She watched her slower, uninformed troops burn and die on the outer edges of the barrage's impact. A few more seconds of awareness, and they would've made it clear. But that was a sacrifice Bea had been willing to make, the same way she was willing to sacrifice the resources of the mine below. The threats she faced were bigger than a resource equation. And she was willing to break this planet in half if it meant her victory.

Red and orange swirls flickered as the first salvo ended. From the side of the room, Uzochi counted down.

"Second salvo firing now. Impact in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, f-..."

Bea's face were glued to the feed from her scout. The second massive red and orange set of beams descended, without the same level of shockwaves and collateral damage as the first. It slammed into the ground and cooked the molten stone before it had a chance to cool. The ground bubbled, popped and sagged as the seconds ticked by and -

The destructive beam tilted off target halfway through its volley and burned a wide line over the planet's surface.

That was wrong. That was very wrong. Less than half the second volley had actually hit its target. The battery shouldn't have been capable of moving mid-fire. It shouldn't be moving at all.

Bea's hands dug into her desk, and she flashed a demanding look at her aide. Uzochi's eyes read information from a screen, and her face paled.

"There's been an impact on the battery, ma'am. Targeting was lost, and the reactor is in overload. It's... *ahem*. The Peacekeepers have reached orbit."

+ Reid +

His vision flashed red, and he had just balled a fist when a single word arrested his charge towards the mad, deformed doctor.

"Antivenom."

Reid shifted his motion and his blow, grabbed Randal Ferber by his long neck, and lifted him off the floor until the man's grotesque form slammed into the ceiling. Even then, the man's mantis-legs were fully planted on the floor. Reid looked over to Bubbles on the bed, and applied pressure to his grip. The doctor's eyes widened, and he choked out words.

"I make antivenom. Want her to live. But needed time. To listen. Convince. Five. Minutes."

Randy's furred and normal hand were both gripped against Reid's wrist, then clawed at his hand as he lost air. He gasped at shallow breaths, scorpion tail twitching as his eyes started to change color. Reid frowned, and relaxed his grip just enough for the doctor to choke out more words.

"Antivenom takes five minutes to make. She has fifteen to live."

Reid grimaced. The doctor could have been lying. But that didn't seem right. Reid felt it in his gut - this twisted bastard was actually serious about not 'wasting' the children's deaths, and he really didn't want Bubbles to die this way. Fifteen minutes wasn't enough to get himself and Bubbles out of this damn facility - it certainly wasn't enough to find a healer that could undo whatever Randy had done. If he had to, Reid could try giving the girl one of Win's leftover pills, but he had no guarantee that the apothecary's medication would have the desired effect. He gave the girl a hit with Identify, and his frown deepened. There was nothing listed there to give him an idea of her current state. Which meant Reid didn't really have a way to determine if she was poisoned at all. He couldn't wake her and ask her, either, since the sedatives were still running through her veins. He set aside his desire to snap the doctor's neck and prioritized the best chance to let Bubbles get out of this hellhole alive.

Reid pulled the doctor down off the ceiling and drew the man in close until he could see the blood vessels that had burst while he choked.

"If you do anything, try anything, I will tear your limbs off as slowly as I can and shove them back in the wrong way. Make two doses. I give it to her. Nod if you understand."

The doctor nodded, and Reid dropped his body to the floor. He walked in and checked on Bubbles as the man coughed and rubbed his throat. The folds of her shirt shifted with her slow, relaxed breaths. The spot where the doctor had stabbed her with his stinger was barely visible, and only slightly discolored. He put his hand over it, and realized the doctor had actually been able to scratch him in his struggle.

From the other room, the doctor's voice was rough and raw.

"If you were unaware, antivenom can be somewhat harmful to someone who does not have the associated venom in their system. Two doses is absurdly redundant. Injecting it in yourself may cause you-"

Reid frowned. "Shut the hell up."

Randal Ferber stopped his hands and scuttled on his four legs to face Reid.

"I must talk while I work, it is how I do my best crafting. Besides, I will be dead in ten minutes once Bubbles receives her dose."

He turned away from Reid and set back to work as his damaged voice started to rattle off a story.

Reid wondered if he could make it five minutes without breaking the man's jaw.

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