Saxifrage Fire

0032

The wall into Eirene sealed the path between the mountains. Beyond it, laid the southeastern side of the lake, and five miles south, the Capitol. But it was blocked by a Garda force of at least five hundred strong, protected by gleaming amber shields.

Kaleo pulled the truck to the front of the line where the road opened into a vast field of gravel where Sera trucks usually stopped for inspection before being let through the granite gates. The Pyro trucks were lined up behind their own line of amber shields, surely stolen from the Company.

Alethea leapt out and slammed her door scanning the Garda who stood like statues behind their glowing shields carrying automatic weapons, then studied the way the snow fell noticing the wind was still against them.

"No-maskers! In the trucks! Turn the air off!" she shouted.

The NESPs fell into chaos as those without masks barricaded themselves in the trucks and shut off the heaters.

Kaleo cast her a solemn glance as he seemed to read her intent.

Of course, she knew full well, the toxin would leak into the trucks and kill everyone inside, but at least it gave them a sense of comfort.

"The oxygen tanks won't last the entire invasion," she noted.

Kaleo groaned.

"Too bad our Sera friends couldn't give us a couple weeks to figure out that filtration system, huh? I guess they're in a hurry to wipe us out."

"We don't have the materials anyway and I don't they'd be up for a trade." She stared longingly city-ward considering all the resources at the company's facilities that would be at her disposal should they take the city.

"That was supposed to be rhetoric," Kaleo grumbled.

She shot him a bemused glance. He should know better than to stray too far from literalism in their conversations. 

A chill ran down her spine and she stilled, listening; she could feel vibration through her boots. Someone was approaching. She glanced back at the road; they'd been the last truck to arrive and no one had followed them. She narrowed her eyes at the southern road that fed into the pending battlefield. Whoever was coming was veiled by the dark trees.

Truck doors slammed and she sensed Ezi and Oshi at her side.

"What is it?" Ez whispered.

"I don't know."

They set their sights on the tree-line and shielded their eyes as highlights gleamed and the first of many trucks barreled into the open.

Alethea's heart raced in her chest.

"Thea..." Ezi called. "We don't know who that is."

Alethea whirled around.

"AT READY!" She screamed. "PYROS MAN THE GATES! NESPS, AIM AT THE NEW ARRIVALS!" Her people scrambled into obedience, kneeling behind trucks and behind doors to guard themselves as they aimed for both threats.

She looked to the Garda, finding they were aiming at the new arrivals too. Her heart lifted for a moment. Did she dare to hope that help had come?

Oshi chuckled.

"You should see your face right now."

She smiled.

The first truck skid to a stop in front of them and Oya and Baku leapt out, heavily armed, and adorned in gold armor and animal skins.

"You kept your end of the bargain, Master Atlas!" Oya called.

Thea choked up.

"Oh my god," Ez muttered. "Don't cry in front of the Chiefess!"