>>5299211[We’re going to let that group of Daughters tend to their wounded…but we’ve got to do something about the girls that’re getting killed down there] You reply, glancing back down at the shadowed valleys below. Your jaw tightens, teeth grinding together as you feel Gina’s concern envelop you like a warm shawl…but it does little to ward off the chill that runs through your bones.
“I fucking hate having to do this.” You utter aloud, Julia and Dorian moving closer even as your vitriol for the current circumstances billows out from you. “Can't help but wonder how Ozmas, Mara—or even West—manage to stomach shit like this."
“When it comes to Mara, I’d imagine these things got easier for her.” Dorian says, despite not quite sounding convinced of his own assurances. “She’s had two years to get used to making hard calls, Miss Shu. You’ve had all of two weeks.”
“And if you’re b-bringing up West, well…” Julia trails off, placing a kind hand on your shoulder. “…s-something tells me that she doesn’t lose sleep over m-much of anything.”
“You’re not them, Shu.” Dorian says, his hand finding your other shoulder. “They have their reasons, but you? You always focus on saving lives, and that makes all the difference.”
Saving lives.
That’s what you’re doing.
You have to keep telling yourself that, even as you give the orders that will end them. You bring your family together with Escher’s Gear, assembling the machineries of carnage that you hope will put a stop to the bloodbath in not only the canyons below, but this whole damned slice of the Crucible. November and Rath prepare for a heavy artillery bombardment, the Metall Geschoss and Rath’s Core ready to drive the shadows from the canyons beyond where you all stand on the ridge that overlooks the jagged labyrinth. Dorian’s slight frame cackles with potential speed, and he gives Julia a playfully competitive wink as she bulks up, her musculature doubling, tripling with raw, bestial power. Gina’s completely armored, the thin slit of her visor glowing with her Core’s enhanced sight, ready to twist the terrain to her absolute whims.
Meanwhile, Amara’s fleet of Joyous are ready to quickly whisk Daughters to safety, while Francine’s at the ready with her calcite gatling, her unnerving fishmen constructs at your side and ready to defend you all from possible retaliation. You stand at the fore, your peerless chitin armor gleaming at the cliff’s edge, a fleet of swarmlings at your beck and call as you prepare to commence your plan.
But first, a warning.
(Continued)
