Chapter 123: “We Have Been Ordered to Relieve Firefly City’s Evacuation Column.”
Headlights?
The heavy transport haulers used for the evacuation had been abandoned long ago. In this godforsaken wilderness, where could vehicles possibly come from?
Had some ravenous mutant beast swallowed a wrecked hauler and tracked them all the way here?
That was Joyce’s immediate instinct.
In the days since they were driven into this living hell, not a single shred of good news had reached them.
Only bad news, followed by worse news.
Like a bird frightened by a mere twang of the bow, she braced for catastrophe at every shadow.
Assuming the absolute worst, she prepared herself to fall in the line of duty to protect the civilians behind her.
Quickening her stride, Joyce led her soldiers out of the makeshift command post—the outermost warehouse.
The first thing that met her eyes was a crowd of people standing in the pouring rain outside the shelter.
Not every civilian had stayed huddled quietly within the building.
Through the haze of her failing vision, Joyce barely managed to recognize a few familiar faces in the crowd.
They were from the “gangs” of Firefly City.
Along the retreat, some had been consumed by endless terror, some had screamed and cursed in frantic despair, and others had sought to end their own lives.
Yet there were also those who gripped whatever weapons they possessed, marching in lockstep with the military and leading their own fighters to help repel the mutant monstrosities.
Joyce knew that in Firefly City… or rather, what was once Firefly City, these major syndicates had never been on friendly terms.
Scuffling over territory or hoarding supplies made friction a daily occurrence.
Certain factions held deep hostility toward the authorities and had clashed with them violently in the past.
Yet when push came to absolute shove, these very people had set aside their old grudges. Just like the military, they stepped forward to shield the “ordinary folk.”
If the garrison’s escort detail had managed to weather the relentless gauntlet of mutant assaults this far, these organizations and gangs deserved no small share of the credit.
And they had bled heavily for it.
“All civilians, return to the warehouse immediately!”
Joyce barked the order.
As the acting commander, upholding the duty to protect the populace was her solemn mandate.
Buzzzzzzz—
A deafening drone rose as a massive swarm of mutant mosquitoes surged forward, their eyes gleaming crimson through the stormy night. By the sound of it, they had already closed to within twenty meters of the encampment.
Through the swirling sheets of rain and mist, the grotesque silhouettes of the swarm resolved.
The vanguard mosquitoes were as large as a grown human’s torso.
Countless red eyes flickered across the gloom like a constellation of burning cinders.
Hideous and… blindingly bright?
Joyce whipped her head toward the southwest.
She caught sight of the “headlights” the sentry had reported.
The sheer intensity of that illumination was far beyond the output of a single vehicle.
It was an entire convoy.
Squinting against the rapidly approaching white glare, Joyce raised a hand to shield her eyes.
Buzzzzzzz—
The torrential thrum of wings shook the air.
Not good!
The swarm behind them had closed the distance!
“Defense Squad One, two o’clock, engage on my lead! Defense Squad Two, intercept the flank at eight o’clock—”
Before she could finish her command, the source of the blinding glare tore right past their perimeter, charging headlong into the advancing swarm.
…What?
The machines roaring past really were… a vehicular convoy?
Not fused with mutant flora, not battered into scrap, and completely free of bizarre anomalies… an intact convoy of heavy transport haulers?
Stenciled along the side of the leading chassis was an insignia.
The emblem of… Seed City?!
…
The ones who had arrived were indeed Mo Zeya and her relief detachment.
Relying on Luo Xianghuai’s [Tracking], they had pushed through five brutal hours of arduous trekking before finally locating this derelict warehouse complex.
From the passenger seat of the lead vehicle, Mo Zeya spotted the figures standing watch outside the buildings.
Beneath the ragged, torn hazmat suits, they wore the distinct black fatigues of frontier sentries.
“Target acquired,” Mo Zeya said, lowering her field binoculars.
“Mutant swarm detected! Massive numbers, closing in on the warehouses fast!”
Luo Xianghuai called out an immediate warning.
Thanks to his [Tracking], his senses were exceptionally sharp to ambient movement.
“Neutralize the swarm first. Prepare to decelerate; the lead vehicle will form a roadblock before the swarm. Kui Ping, drop the buff. Heixi! Shelley! Gloria! Mori!”
Mo Zeya barked the tactical sequence with crisp precision.
Along the five-hour march, the ad-hoc Awakener unit had already drilled their rotations multiple times.
The moment Mo Zeya’s order fell, Heixi—sharing the cab with the [Domain Expansion] user, Sheila—instantly reinforced the protective barrier blanketing the transports.
Bang—!
Thud, thud, thud—!
The heavy hauler braked hard, drifting broadside directly across the flight path of the vicious swarm.
Monstrous, red-eyed mosquitoes slammed into the energy barrier one after another.
Mori had already leaned out of the hauler’s window. Snapping a grappling line with practiced agility, she hoisted herself onto the roof of the cab.
She hauled Shelley up right behind her.
Empowered by [Domain Expansion], a torrential storm of white thorns erupted outward, weaving an impenetrable canopy that ensnared the entire vanguard of the charging swarm.
A split second later, a salvo of wind blades—greatly expanded in area-of-effect—slashed through the air, shearing every trapped mosquito clean in two at the waist.
Over the course of their journey, Mori’s assault had forged an instinctive synergy with Shelley’s [Entanglement].
Bang—!
Crack, crack, crack—!
A volley of rounds cracked from the window of the second transport, striking true against the second wave of incoming insects.
Boom—!
The four mosquitoes struck detonated violently mid-air.
The explosive shockwave blasted four distinct vacuums through the clustered swarm in an instant.
It was Operative Number 8 from Mori’s strike team, Rodney—[Detonation].
Following the violent blast, the surviving mosquitoes staggered in mid-flight, their movements freezing up.
The effect of [Paralysis], amplified through [Domain Expansion], had taken hold.
“Captain Mori!”
Gloria’s shout pierced the roar of the rain.
Mori vaulted onto the cabin roof of the lead vehicle.
She extended her hand.
A storm of razor-sharp wind blades erupted, slicing through every paralyzed mosquito with ruthless finality.
A vast constellation of glowing red eyes rained from the sky in the blink of an eye.
The maddening drone ceased dead.
It was over so fast that Firefly City’s defensive detail hadn’t even had the chance to raise their weapons.
What… just happened?
Joyce stood frozen, her sidearm blade still gripped in her hand.
Her vision swayed violently, dark green patches blossoming across her sight.
Clang.
The cab doors of the vanguard vehicle swung shut as several figures stepped out from the miraculous convoy.
The leader marched swiftly toward her, casting a sharp glance at the rank insignia exposed through the tear in her ragged protective suit.
“Captain Joyce? I am…”
The world tilted and spun out of control.
Before Joyce slipped into the dark, the woman’s parting words barely registered in her fading mind.
—”We have been ordered to relieve Firefly City’s evacuation column.”
