The Stigma (by Koltin Scott)

Chap. XII

"All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near."

–Sun Tzu, The Art of War

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"RUN! RETREAT!" The Baron screamed over and over. I could see myself with my Co-Angels watching, our faces contorting in confusion and then kicking into action. I never thought I could be running from them.

We rounded the block when they came behind us; all of them were couriers first and second degree. Messengers, equivalent to a sergeant in the army, get grappling hooks, but below that rank is Courier, grade one gets slideJets and when upgraded they get jumpJets. Thus, with all of them being Couriers, they jumped and wallRan with flips and corkscrews. One might call it show; our trainers called it intimidation.

The thing is, not only do couriers come in large numbers, but have a elite Angel or a super leading them. NOT GOOD.

Surprisingly, none of us were hit by the first volley of bullets. Wehya launched his second nade at a fire hydrant and Obsidian formed another shield around us. She seemed to be growing weaker by the minute however. A volley of underslung grenade or gauss gun fire followed.

Wehya walked smugly to the water that was forming until he was in it. With the first real but evil smile on his face he looked at all of the soldiers who were shifting in their weight uncomfortably. Then it was too late.

Some of the Second degree Couriers leapt away from the water thinking Wehya was a water-specialist but he's not. Wehya seemed cloaked in blue when he pumped arcs of electricity into the water.

The morbid sight before me reminded me of the stories of the older police officers when they'd take someone to the electric chair. Blood oozed from their helmets as their eyes popped out of their skulls and the smell of feces filled the air. Some of the electricity had exited their bodies into some of the others but when it would exit it would blow off whatever part of the body it came out of, leaving singed stumps and meatballs on the ground. On top of that, a lot of the bullets kept on the soldiers went off. Chaos.

This all happened in a few seconds...

We unleashed fire and shot a few of the Couriers down like birds after Obsidian dropped the shield and Waya began slaying. Then we continued our retreat to Fluffy, because more were on the way and it's gonna get dicey.

We passed into a coldesack around a water fountain surrounded by buildings. Angels began pouring into the area and we were forced to take cover. I made myself a shell of gravity to redirect any bullets. Waya did the same thing but to Thread Walker so she could flank with her katana.

I shot two or three of them and had to reload. Their burstJumping and burstSliding made them fast, agile targets. On top of this is their tough armor, thus, they are incredibly fast and tough targets. I could put six rounds into their heads and kill five per magazine but then the Baron might think I've had training from somewhere.

Waya's electromagnetic shield had Walker untouched. Bullets curved around her and sometimes hit Angels behind her. At one point an Angel drew his KABAR marine knife and even that bounced off. Following Walker were floes of blood and mutilated or decapitated people.

"Obsidian!" Alien yelled out over the gunfire.

Alien began reaching for his military grade IPad in his suit and Obsidian, realizing something threw a force field around him. I heard that hissing that can only come from a jet engine and looked up in fear to a predator drone. It didn't seem to be targeting us and I smiled when I realized that it was Alien's.