A stray Improved Kinetic Grenade detonated in the air above them and Thorne ducked away as damage rained down. Beside her, Kaiden hissed as he took the bulk of it, his health bar falling a good eighteen percent. They’d all been taking glancing blows here and there. No one had made it this far unscathed, but Kaiden in particular was squishy. Enhanced wardens weren’t made to tank damage.
Before Thorne could stop him, his health flashed back to near full as he popped a stimpack.
“Kaiden!” she shouted. “Let the medic handle that. Save your stims!”
“Shit. Right,” he said. But she couldn’t blame him. Between organizing the attack strategy and all the chaos going on around them it was a miracle he could even see straight.
She waved over to the medic, Skaia, and she shot Kaiden with a syringe, bumping his health the rest of the way back to full.
Thorne kept her hammer at the ready as the bomb team pushed through the battle, but she never needed to use it. PlayaSlaya, Nando, their Maximus guards, and Dawson and his free wardens had them covered on all sides. Anyone who got too close was beaten back. Not killed, usually, but attacked by several guards at once such that they were forced away. Combined with the speed Titus was keeping in leading them forward, they were away from most attackers in a matter of seconds.
They were deep in the warden lines now, and the fighters around them were changing from power wardens to blast wardens. Made it all the easier to keep pushing on as most of their opponents now tried to back away from them, keeping distance where they’d be more effective.
A quick glance behind told Thorne the free warden core of the army was bogged down in the middle of the defenders. Worse, it looked like the bulk of the warden army was closing in on the flanks now. Preparing for an encirclement, she knew. That was the problem with a spearhead attack like this. It could be absorbed, creating a churning mess of a battle in the center while the larger force – which was decidedly the wardens here – swarmed around the outside. The end result was the smaller force surrounded on all sides while the larger picked away at them until there was nothing left.
We’re not fighting the long game here, though, she knew. That was Kaiden’s plan, and she had to admit it made sense. We need to move quick, take minimal damage, be ready for the fight that comes next, Thorne thought, looking ahead to the gate. They were drawing closer to it. She looked up to the sky next. The battle was still raging there and it was impossible to tell who was winning. What was clear to see, though, was that no ships had been able to make it down to take shots at the gate.
Are we going to have to do this ourselves? We’ll never get through it that way…
“Come on!” PlayaSlaya shouted from the front of their group. Kaiden had watched as he’d leapt past Titus, lashing out at any warden who drew near. His attacks were swift and savage. His axe cut through everything in its way, a blur of molten metal. Power and shield wardens had trouble standing up to him, but now the bomb team was in among the rear ranks of the warden force. Most blast wardens simply fled at the sight of PlayaSlaya charging them.
The gate was just ahead.
“Have a go!” PlayaSlaya shouted again, chasing down a fleeing blaster.
“Keep formation!” Kaiden said, trying to reel PlayaSlaya back in and sticking close to the others himself as they reached the gate.
We made it, he thought. We made it…
But now what? The fleet above was supposed to have been hammering the gate this whole time. The unexpectedly large force the wardens had mustered to defend the air space had cut that plan short, though.
“Odditor!” Kaiden called through comms. “Where are those ships? We’re at the gate. We need someone to blow this thing apart!”
“Form up!” Thorne called, taking control of the situation as Kaiden tried to reach their air support. Thorne ushered everyone off to the side of the gate – towering, massive thing that it was – and formed a perimeter with shield wardens, Maximus guards, and Dawson and his free wardens on the edge. Zelda was blasting away from the interior, alongside another free warden blaster, and Skaia, the medic, was healing anyone who got hit as fast as her abilities came off of cooldown.
An enemy power warden sprang into the midst of their group with Heroic Leap. She came down with a vengeance, hammer already swinging. Kaiden raised his own to respond but a well-timed Energy Grip from Titus yanked the would-be attacker to the edge of the group where she was pounced on by the Maximus guards.
“Odditor!” Kaiden shouted again, staring up into the chaos above them. Still no response.
“We’re holding, but we can’t do it forever,” Dawson grunted from where he was hammering away at a shield warden. “We have to get through that gate sooner rather than later.”
“Can we do it ourselves?” Kaiden asked, turning to face the thing. His visor pulled up its health pool. It didn’t give numbers, but percentage, as usual. Stray attacks and flying debris had likely hit the gate during the battle but it’d made little difference. The thing was still at ninety-eight percent health.
If we can’t get air support, we’re going to need every fighter we’ve got to turn on this thing. It should be enough damage to bring it down. But it’ll mean losing the army; while they’re focused on the gate, the wardens will take over the battle.
