Chapter Text
Gus's tech station in District 6-21 was far enough away from the planned Scorches to not be in danger, but not really enough to excuse the mess of tangled wires, multiple broken monitors, and four keyboards that made up his "workspace". Two of the keyboards couldn't type the letter 'p'. He made do.
Luz had once remarked that the fact that any of his tech worked was magic, and Gus had taken that as high praise.
Right now, he was staring at multiple feeds relaying the movements of Tyranid and the status of various shuttles as he coordinated the Golden Guards’ movements. Not only was he hooked into the Celestrian satellites, but he had made sure, years ago, to hook into all the major security networks, so he was able to provide ground-level reports as well.
"....Severine, you need to leave!” He shouted into one of his three headsets. “There's a big one headed your way, not to mention a crap-load of the little ones.... I know, but half full is better than dead!"
One of his monitors flickered, and not in the usual kind of half-broken tech kind of way that he was used to. Like the connection had been severed, but then self-repaired.
"Get out! Gotta go." He ended the call with Severine and tossed the headset aside, and pulled on another pair from his neck as he clacked away at another computer. He gasped as he accessed the logs for the feeds: someone else was there, investigating the status of the signal. Gus could see them requesting server statuses and benchmarking connectivity.
Whoever this was, they knew what they were doing, and if they found the node that Gus had connected through — which wouldn't be hard if they looked — all they would have to do was kill or even just restart that particular part of the program, and Gus's hack would be undone.
Gus opened a connection "Hunter. I need your help —"
He could barely hear Hunter's grunts over the sound of air whipping by the microphone. "Little busy. Good news?"
"Someone's investigating the signal!"
"So stop them!" Hunter replied unhelpfully.
"I can't keep them out and also be useful!" Gus explained, typing furiously. "If I close the channel, it'll either reduce the cloaking quality or completely leave a district exposed."
"Disctri—"It was only after a few seconds of wind noise, then an explosion, before Gus heard his next words, "— Districts 8-20 and 24 are mostly evacuated —" the screech of metal on metal made Gus flinch away, which did nothing since he was wearing a headset.
Of course, Hunter would go straight to figuring out which district was the most opportune to reveal.
"— need all the —" Hunter continued, interrupted by more static, "— I'll tell them to prioritize getting the younger people away, can get to —" the signal went dead.
Gus resisted the urge to call out "hellos" until Hunter's signal returned, and instead watched the Celestrian invader narrow in on the "problem" in their network system.
Should he really pull the plug on a district? Or should he try to kick the pursuant out of the system?
Give them a false trail to follow?
"Gus?" Hunter’s voice sounded distant and tinny coming through a private channel, not the one that all the Golden Guardians used by default.
Gus flipped to his third headset.
"Could barely make what you said out, did you —"
"Unveil 8-20 and 8-24."
Gus closed his eyes. "I was worried that you’d say that. We can't —"
"They're the most evacuated!"
"There are still millions of people —"
"Who are going to die anyway! It's those districts, or all of us."
"I can't believe you're —"
"That's why you called me, isn't it? To make the choice. Which, by the way, we don't really have: Who are you going to save?"
Gus let the question hover in the air, even as he began inserting the commands into one of the terminals. Those feeds would throw off errors (all pointing to perfectly secure points in the security system) and hopefully throw the investigator off his tail, while still giving them the "win" of seeing the real satellite feed of those districts.
Gus hit the "return" key far too hard. "It's done."
"You're doing the right thing."
"Wish it felt that way...." Gus mumbled.
"Are we recording the satellite feeds?" Hunter asked, barreling right past Gus's concerns.
"We have access to it, yeah." Gus was still not comfortable with shooting what was essentially anti-Celestrian propaganda right now. But Hunter had insisted, and explained that it was for the greater good.
"The greater good." Gus mouthed silently, shaking his head back and forth.
"What was that?" Hunter asked.
Titan, I need to turn my mic sensitivity down, Gus thought, not for the first time. "Nothing, just thinking about the —"
"Is that medical ship still docked over the Gravesfield building?"
Gus felt his stomach drop. He knew that some ships from the belt had come down to help in the evacuation, and the aid of the medical frigate had been a huge boon. It alone could fit thousands of people.... and the building Hunter was referring to was in 8-20.
Gus checked another monitor. The ship was still there, parked like a sitting duck. Luckily, it was far from the Warp breaches, but still solidly in the bounds of the Scorching. Wait.... a swarm of Tyranids was coming. The engines fired to life, but with its size, Gus knew there was no chance without intervention.
"Hunter! It's still there! We need to —"
"Gus. Listen to me. Make sure every camera feed is on that ship."
Gus's indignant "What?" came out more like a rage-induced scream.
"Listen to me — They're dead already. We both know it. They are Going. To. Die. Now, you have a choice — you can let them die silently, another cover-up of the Celestrians to keep power to themselves. You can make their deaths mean something. You can give them a voice, a voice of justice...."
Gus cut the call. Hunter immediately hailed him, which he ignored. He didn't need to hear more justifications for why they were trying to make sure this never happened again.
Gus flipped on the recorders and leaned in to maneuver 8-20’s monitoring system, at least until it got burned away.
He told himself that as soon as this was done, he was going to order the rest of the Golden Guards the hell out — no more propaganda, no more witnessing to genocide: just getting out of this alive.
Multiple warning bells were going off in the Celestrian command room. Lilith watched the main screen with a serenity that was in direct contradiction with her internal thoughts.
She watched the aerial feeds of districts 8-20 and 8-24, and the fleeing Terrans with fingertips touching in front of her face, forefingers just touching her lips. They had pulled a few ships down from the belt to help with the evacuation.... another fact that her underlings had missed.
Was she damned to be surrounded by incompetence?
Was she incompetent?
....no. Everyone else was just stuck in bureaucratic mediocrity. And they would soon learn that Lilith had no tolerance for it.
From the corner of her eyes, she saw Skara approach. On her scroll, there were multiple red flashing notifications, and multiple increasingly panicked notes from folks around the room — none of whom were brave enough to disturb Lilith.
Good.
"Commander?" Skara swallowed and rolled her shoulders back. "The Tyranid swarm has reached the first gate, and at this rate they —"
Lilith moved her hands to her lap and stood. "I do believe we've seen enough. Begin the scorch."
The technicians and engineers in the room breathed a collective sigh of relief.
A new screen showed the Scorch room, where a group of six made their way to an equal number of golden-inlaid stone podiums rising from the ground in an ornately carved circle. Each drew a spell circle of a different colour as they recited the ritual.
Lilith rolled her eyes. Such over-dramatics. It was just a bunch of Terrans — not like it was a petrification ceremony! Even the fact that all the coven heads were present was just a formality. Only three were strictly necessary.... not that any of these idiots knew that.
"For the lives to be taken," intoned the biology coven's representative, drawing a green circle.
"So life may persist", a blue circle from the healing coven was drawn in the air.
"We, the Keepers, share the story". Lighter blue / almost white from the phenomnancy coven.
"We reject the sins of the past, present, and future." Pink from the oracle coven
"And build a paradise for all." Orange from the construction coven.
"And through it, find unity." Yellow from the potion coven.
"For this, for all, we keep the Pact," they recited as one and pressed their circles into their respective podiums.
The different colours seemed to cascade down the podiums' golden threads, creating a six-pointed star in the center. The outer ring flashed golden, and all the light seemed to coalesce at the center, then vanished downwards.
From here, the pulse of magical energy would trigger a set of prepared spells carefully laid out around the districts.
Ideally, they would all burn together in one glorious punishment for their Pact-breaking — and also to remove the evidence of the experiment with the Tyranids. But from what Lilith had gathered, the spells had been rigged to go from outside-in first as a failsafe, and then the synchronization had been left to a second set of Keepers, who still had yet to report in.
”Titan, why wouldn't you just do it right the first time?” Lilith wanted to scream.
Yet another example of the incompetence of the Pact Keepers.... She was glad that there were a few beacons of excellence in the newest crop of Pact Keepers, especially her finest student, Amity Blight. Perhaps it was for the best that she wasn't here to see this embarrassment of an operation.
But it was of no consequence. She would change all of this soon.
Amity staggered against the railing, neon green dripping from the abomination blade she held in her left hand.
She panted hard as she surveyed the situation: Eda and she had managed to get the Terrans back into a semi-solid line towards the middle of the platforms, while a motley line of volunteers shot down the perimeter at the Tyranids who were scaling the building.
She wished she could do more — she was sure she could have hidden most of what she needed to — except for the firestorm over District 8-19 that she was maintaining. Somehow, that hurt more than the large gash she just received in her leg from an incursion of Tyranids who found their way up through a ventilation shaft.
But at this point, she didn’t dare let go of the storm: if she did, they would be overwhelmed by the swarm — at least sooner than anticipated. That, and the fact that Gus's satellite feeds weren't covering 8-19, which would certainly be enough to blow their cover and get them killed sooner.
In the meantime, she could conserve resources, which was easier said than done. She had already dispelled her ear-illusion when most of the Terrans fled, and she doubted any of the ones on the last transport took any notice, even if they happened to glance through her hair, which flapped loosely against the side of her head. So weird….
Fighting Tyranids with magic was an interesting challenge. The easier area of effect spells mostly caused harm — fire, ice, even lightning — but not specifically death. A group of Tyranids, with their natural armour, could survive a certain amount of that kind of damage before succumbing, especially when it was directional. The type of spells that killed them quickly required individual attention. The kind of attention that Amity barely had energy for.
And so she constrained herself to the subtle spells, as she dealt with the xenos one by one as they got close.
Amity felt the pulse of magic before she heard the explosion. Like submerging into a pool of icy water, it took her breath away. Then the noise of the Scorch. It was like a crack of thunder - but the crack never stopped. It was deafening, brutal, and cut through everything. Amity knew that some phenomenancers had worked hard on that particular aspect - part of the psychological torture of watching your neighbouring district being burnt to atoms.
The Scorch was early.
She drew a quick spell circle, and the ringing was gone from her and Eda's ears.
Why weren't they dead?
She knew the protocol for a multi-district scorch: they should have been simultaneous. Perhaps the warp fissures had some kind of side effect? Either way, they were on borrowed time.
"Titan's tits — what was that!" Eda said.
"The first scorch,” Amity said bluntly, as it was logical. “We need to go. Now."
"Yeah, but—" Eda corrected, at the same time, Amity said:
"But where is Luz?"
The doors burst open as the next group of Terrans burst from the elevator shafts in the center of the platform, scattering in every direction — the organized queues Amity had worked on were now a thing of the past.
Amity had set up a perimeter of Terrans with weapons — some theirs, most from Eda's arsenal — to keep the rooftop clear of Tyranids.
Then, in the crowd, she saw the bobbing mass of fluffy brown hair.
Luz!
She left her conversation halfway through and ran towards her, all else forgotten.
She skidded to a stop, just shy of Luz, but to her horror, Luz didn't slow down! And then Luz caught her in a massive hug and spun her around.
"Amity, Amity, Amity!" Luz exclaimed, finally putting her down. "Boy, am I glad to see you!"
"Yeah, Amity," came a familiar voice behind Luz.
Amity pulled back slightly from Luz to look behind her. Most of the influx of the Terrans had spread out, but one of them had followed Luz.
And then she caught it: A slight refracting of the light just to the right, above their left shoulder. It was a classic mistake — the kind novices made when they were learning whole body illusion spells. Three-dimensional figures were hard, and maintaining perfect perspective took effort and a lot of calculations.
They were a Celestrian — with a disguise! Amity realized with horror.
As she tried to react, she became painfully aware that all her magic was being used by the widened inferno spell. She dispelled her ears and rotated her wrist, but when Luz grabbed hold of her hand.
Instead of throwing Luz to the side and casting the spell —
Instead of pulling the Terran in front of her as a shield —
Instead of doing anything that would have prolonged her life — Amity looked down stupidly at the hand holding hers.
The Keeper dropped his illusion and cast a mostly prepared restraining spell. Amity couldn't let go of Luz's hand if she had wanted to.
"He’s your backup!" Luz said excitedly.
"Your what?" Eda exclaimed.
"Didn't expect to see you here," the Keeper said. Amity matched the voice to a name: Mattholomule.
Shit.
"Mattholemule?" Amity said in disbelief.
"And why shouldn't we kill you here and now?" Eda snarled, a pistol pointed directly at his head. Amity hadn't even seen her draw it — much less where she got it.
"Same question. You have five seconds to answer." Amity stated as coolly as she could while internally panicking, more from Luz holding her hand than from Matt’s spell. He hadn’t even properly bound her fingers.
Matt raised his hands, and the spell disappeared. He kept his fingers spread — the typical Celestrian motion of surrender.
"He's not your backup?" Luz asked, crossing her arms and looking at Amity.
By way of response — and not at all because she missed Luz's hand in hers — Amity pressed an abomination blade against Matt's throat.
"Look, I lied," he explained, his voice wavering. "I'm just trying to get out of here alive."
"Stop snivelling. You still haven't given a good reason."
"You didn't kill me yet!" Matt said hopefully, looking at Eda.
"Only cause she wouldn't like it." Eda nodded at Luz.
"You can't just kill him in cold blood!" Luz explained.
"Called it," Eda muttered.
Another Scorch went off in the distance.
"Pretty sure all their blood is pretty warm now," Eda muttered, finger twitching to squeeze the trigger.
Amity didn't point out the fact that any trace of blood would have been atomized by the Scorch. Instead, she shrugged and took a step back, "Let's be done with it —"
Her abomination blade was infinitesimally sharp. She barely needed to push it forwards for it to slice through his flesh. She had always hated him. Not in a fiery do-something-about-it kind of way, but in a festering "you're everything that is wrong with the Keepers" way. She didn't hesitate as she began pressing to end his pitiful, whiney, little —
"Wait!"
She had expected Matt's pathetic voice to call out, to beg for his life. She couldn't have cared less.
But in the whole of Percia, there was only one voice that could cut through Amity's murderous thoughts.
Surely, there was no way Luz was about to actually suggest....
"Don't kill him," Luz begged.
She was.
"You don't know him." Amity justified, "I do. He's going to betray us." He's going to hurt you, she didn't say.
"No! I won't, I'll be quiet, just let me live," Matt whined pathetically. Amity barely resisted rolling her eyes. Titan, she hated grovelling.
"Shut up," Amity barked at him.
"You're right." Both Eda and Amity started as Luz began, "We should kill him. Cause the Celestrians don't think twice about killing us. And as a Pact Keeper, he'll just turn me in the second he gets home...." She turned to look Amity in the eyes: "Just like any Pact Keeper should."
Amity's murderous rage deflated. "Is that.... what you think of me?"
Even Eda's cold, jaded heart thawed slightly at the puppy-kitty-sadness in Amity's eyes as she asked Luz.
"Of course not." Luz reached out and brushed her fingers against Amity's cheek as she tucked a matted clump of green hair behind her pointed ear. Luz moved her hand down to Amity's shoulder and addressed her firmly, "'Cause you're better than that. You just needed someone to believe in you. To give you a chance." She looked at Matt, a trickle of blood running down his neck from where his begging had caused him to bump into her blade.
Uuuuuuuugggghhhhhhh. Even inner Amity hated this. Why are the cute ones always the wooooorst?
"I like a redemption arc as much as anyone, but we really need to get going," Eda said as she opened fire at the Tyranids that were climbing over the railing at the far end of the platform.
"Fine," Amity told Luz as she grabbed some vials from the console. She tossed Luz two healing potions. "We'll just fly low.... I guess. The Ghost is only designed for 2."
"And if I so much as think you're trying something," Eda warned. "I'll put a bullet between your eyes." The blind show that blew a Tyranid's head into chunks made him nod seriously.
"Spin a spell I don't like, you'll be dead before her bullet finds you," Amity said, not to be outdone.
Matt looked at Luz, who gave him two tentative thumbs up.
Matt's eyes found Amity's again as she told me, "And if you don't try anything, you might just live through this."
The battle plan was simple: keep the Tyranids away from the transports and the lines of Terrans.
And like all battle plans that Amity had ever heard about — it was going to hell.
It had started going wrong almost immediately when, on the way to his post on the wall, Matt had killed two of the Terran defenders. He had caught a glimpse of their golden bandanas beneath their coats, and with a blast of construction magic, had killed them both on the spot.
Eda and Luz had both yelled that he had just killed two people who — whatever their criminal state — were helping them.
Matt had shrugged and looked at Amity. "They were criminals. I'm just doing my job."
Amity had a hard time disagreeing. Eventually, she had just told him to leave the Pact Keeping until after they got out of here alive.
If they were able to.
Between the four of them, they had enough firepower to keep the platform clear, but now that the scorches were funneling the Tyranids swarm into them, the transports were being attacked mid-air. This forced Eda up to the second layer near the middle of the triangular rooftop, and Luz with her for cover.
Amity had Matt on barrier duty. She had quickly realized that they couldn't take on the full swarm, so she had made a barrier of fire surrounding the platform. Some got through, of course, but not more than they could handle — she hoped. Matt's one job was to keep the barrier up. She was pretty sure he could handle it, and it kept his hands busy.
Despite his and Luz's reassurances, she didn't trust him.
And she was not a fan of their current configuration. Yes, the upper platform was the best vantage point for Eda's weapons, but it was also far from the Ghost.
She shook her head as she saw the glint of the largest — and most Pact-breaking — gun she had ever seen. And one that she had studied in classes. Of course, another one of Eda's secret identities was Lord Calamity: one of the most highly wanted Terran terrorists, responsible for the disappearance of an entire trading convoy before it could enter the Warpgate. She had been killed in the resulting fight, the only remains being a tooth.
When Amity pointed this out to her, Eda had grinned widely — showing her one golden tooth, and asked, "What are you gonna do, arrest me?"
Luckily, she didn't have to worry about her conflicting priorities and duties — there were plenty of Tyranids to take her mind off of it all.
She was good at killing things.
The easier area of effect spells mostly caused harm — fire, ice, even lightning — but not death. A group of Tyranids, with their natural armour, could survive a certain amount of that kind of damage before succumbing, especially when it was directional. The type of spells that killed them quickly required individual attention.
Slice right, sever the head from a snarling drone. Duck under the acid blood splatter — she had turned that lesson the hard way.
Chain lighting on her left to clear the way. Step over a Terran body. Two attacks at once — she dove out of the way, relying on her shield to absorb the weaker of the blows. It mostly did, and she grunted in pain.
No time to feel, the next attack was already on its way.
Kra-KOW!!!
Eda's oversized rifle let off another shot.
She chambered another round as she moved across the small raised platform, already scouting for the next best vantage point.
There was a swear and a blast of gunfire behind her.
"You good, kid?" she asked Luz without turning around.
"What the Warp is that?"
"Inbe Tower," Eda said, glancing, then she did a double take when she saw an impossibly large limb burst through the side of the building and embed itself in the adjacent building. A second and third limb quickly followed. Eda realized that one of the portals — or whatever they were — must have been opening inside the building. "Well, that sucks."
She changed her target towards the titanic creature. "Cover the ships." She didn't need to know what it was. It was a threat to her kid — it was going to die.
The giant head and neck of the largest Tyranid Luz or Amity (or really, anyone for that matter) had ever seen, emerged from the breach and yelled a sound that could best be described as a bear sticking its head underwater and screaming a patriotic hymn. It had a mismatched number of eyes on each side of its head and tentacles for horns, which made everyone uncomfortable.
Her first shot hit it right behind its right mandible. It shrieked in pain, and a thousand psychically linked bugs screamed too — and they all turned to head right towards her current position. She wished H.O.O.T.Y. was awake. He'd have something clever or insightful to say.
The horrifyingly large Tyranid had quickly evolved to defend its eyes from Eda's shots....then orbicularis oculi (the muscles that opened or closed eyelids).... then the tear ducts. The alien's ability to evolve to adapt to threats was impressive... and Eda took it as a challenge. The monster was already avoiding looking in her direction, and she had needed to use her imagination.
To her left, she heard Amity yell in pain, followed instantly by a worried "Amity!" from Luz.
A glance saw Amity continuing to fight, one hand holding her right side, which was bleeding profusely.
"Go save your girlfriend!" Eda joked, nodding in Amity's direction, making Luz sputter in indignation. Eda laughed as she fired another shot that bounced off the massive Tyranid's now-armoured eyelids. "Just be careful around Boots, okay?"
"Who?"
“Boots. Ami-something. Keeper-girl." Eda said as she reloaded.
"Careful? What's wrong with her?" Luz gasped.
"...." Eda let Luz dwell in her stupid question for a few seconds.
"Fair," Luz admitted.
"Besides the whole murdery thing, she seems fun!" Eda laughed, "But you know you've done a number on her?"
"What do you —"
"Girl — you've known her for what, like three days, and she's already diving into a xeno invasion and a scorch to save you? I guess you could call her a 'keeper!'" Eda didn't bother muting her next shot, given how loud her cackles were.
"Really?" Luz said, her disapproval barely interrupted by gunshots as the Tyranids swarmed over the ledges. "Fighting for our lives and you're on mom jokes?"
Eda laughed, "Go get her. I'll be fine."
Luz gave her a quick hug, then dashed off. Eda half watched as she waited for another clear shot.
"I'm fine!" Even over the sound of the battle, Eda heard Amity lying to Luz.
"You're bleeding!" Luz exclaimed.
Amity looked down, seemingly unfazed by the talon stuck in her side. "Cover me."
Eda assisted Luz in laying down suppressing fire as Amity worked. Amity tapped the broken talon, and abomination fluid slid around it, moving into her skin as it covered the blade and any foreign material. Once it was isolated, she yanked it out. She staggered slightly as the wound began bleeding heavily, but quickly cast a follow-up healing spell — but only enough to seal the wound. Eda assumed that any structural damage would be later-Amity's problem.
"Duck," Amity commanded — and Luz did!
A millisecond later, a ball of fire and crackling purple energy annihilated any chance of survival of anything remotely near Luz, who wasn't named Amity.
Wait.
Eda had spent a lot of time with her childhood friend Lily. Celestrians didn't have purple magic....
Who was this Celestrian?
Obviously, she knew it was Amity.... but what had she missed last weekend? As she lined up what she knew was her last shot at the hierophant, she saw Luz yell a warning, and saw Amity duck with no hesitation as Luz's next salvo cut down a few nasty-looking drones who dove right where Amity's head had been.
Where had the two of them learned to fight like that?
She mentally shrugged. Kids these days. She steadied herself and took aim at the xeno who had managed to get more than halfway out, and was now flailing at the Ember building, starting to take off. She didn't even begin squeezing until her breath was almost gone. This was a delicate shot.
The trigeminal nerve was supposed to be the most painful nerve in the body, located just past the jaw, almost at the top of the spine. It was responsible for all the sensations of the face and control of the mouth and mandibles. As she aimed, Eda hoped that the massive Tyranid bug would be able to experience the absolute agony of every sense....
She waited until it let out another bellow — opening its jaw wide aaaand — Kra-KOW!!!
Judging from the thrashing and deafening shrieking — Eda was pretty sure that her shot hit home as she headed towards the Ghost.
By the time she glanced backwards, she saw the Hierophant's body hanging over the breach's lip.... it had killed itself flailing in agony, and taken a few thousand bugs out with it. Most importantly, it seemed to have almost completely clogged that particular breach!
She broke into a sprint following the girls towards Amity's ship. She allowed herself a small smile. Maybe they actually would all survive this.