267 High risk EVAC/CASEVAC 1

"So? What kind of resistance are we looking at?"

Keeping a precariously low altitude the transport Lux, Dax, Vanessa and Ifrit found themselves inside burned up its own engine with the afterburner as it weaved around trees and other obstacles on the way to the imperial capital. It was under such circumstances Dax chose to brief his subordinates, for the simple reason that there was no time to do it later as they were already on final approach to their incision point.

"At least 20 elders are present, with 4 of them confirmed to be irregulars. Luckily we don't have to stand and fight them, the aim is to get in, secure the friendlies and then get out again before they can pin us down. We're not spending more than 5 minutes on the ground, get caught and you'll get left behind."

Taking a second to make sure that fact registered in each of his comrades, Dax continued the briefing and moved on with the more technical parts of the operation.

"We touch down in 180 seconds, about 500 metres from the target area, that point will be the start of the operation. 30 seconds after touchdown will the first of 5 available MEDIVAC/CASEVAC crafts arrive on site, Lux and Ifrit will lead that detachment of modified Reaper drones to the other captured members of the deep recon operation were the drones will either stabilize the injured for transport or euthanize them. 150 seconds after touchdown a secondary CASEVAC craft be available for potential overflow, otherwise, it will be our ride out, a possible secondary extract will happen at fallback point bravo between the original deployment point and the area of interest at 200 seconds into the operation otherwise the final tertiary evac point will be at the incision point at operation end precisely 300 seconds after touchdown, then finally the Hermies will cover our egress with orbital fire support, I've already authorized the use of one times G19 antimatter equipped MIRV hypersonic strike package along with however many rounds of 540 mill and SATGM's Ra feels she needs to fire before she's satisfied."

"I'm sorry what is that? Mirv? Satgm?"

Hearing terms they didn't understand, Ifrit raised their hand, prompting Dax to show a wry smile as he explained the terms to his partner.

"MIRV is a type of missile that has multiple warheads which split up before hitting multiple targets at the same time, SATGM is another type of missile which is made to defeat armoured targets by sneaking up on them."

"So expect lots of large, flashy explosions?"

"Indeed."

"Yaay~✿"

-

"ENOUGH OF THIS HORSE PLAY!"

Having so far failed to kill the pest which had so rudely declined its generous offer, the irregular elder started generating mana, quickly weaving into a complex spell formation which took the shape of a small black sphere which it launched towards Terra.

(Shi!-)

(What would Dax and Lux say at this point?... Ah, yeah 'you can sleep when you're dead. That doesn't sound that bad right now.)

Death didn't seem so bad at this point, if not that then at least some rest sometime soon would be nice.

"DIE!"

As if the elder had heard Terra's thoughts it chose that moment to strike, charging forward it pinned Terra down with its tentacles before swinging down a massive ominous looking sword, clearly aiming to cleave her in half.

(Ah, is it fine to sleep now?)

With that thought coming to the top of her head, Terra stopped moving as the elder's sword slowly closed in on her, time seemed to slow down and almost come to a stop till Terra closed her eyes, embracing the void.

But as it turned out, it wasn't her time to die. As the irregular elder's sword closed in on Terra and was about to crush her it was deflected by a bullet, making it just miss her at the same time as the elder was by multiple crystals which started growing inside its body and sealing its movements.

"Terra! You can sleep when you're dead! Get back on your feet!"

Stepping out in between the elder and Terra, Dax tightly grasped his kite shield and battle axe made out of mana crystals. With Dax defending Terra, Lux and Phillipa moved in for the kill while Ifrit continued to lock down the elder, humming a happy tune as they mercilessly struck the elder with countless crystals which fed off its flesh.

"LUX!"

"Yeah, move to second!"

Coordinating their attacks, Phillipa released a barrage of anti barrier rounds at practively point blank range to cover Lux who closed into the elder's range while slicing apart the tentacles it hastily threw after her using her zero point longsword. Getting into strike range Lux's eyes lost their focus as she sidestepped a tentacle aiming for her eye while she breathed in sharply with a hiss.

"I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED BY SUCH!-"

Before the elder even had spoken its last words Lux succeeded in cutting it in half, splitting its core with a lightning fast strike.

[OPERATION +30, MEDIVAC 1 INBOUND HOT.]

"Dax, what's-"

"Not no Terra. Ifrit, Lux! You're up!"

"Affirmative! Moving to breach!"

"On it~✿"

With no time to rest or even explain to Terra what was going on Dax shouted orders as a CAS-7 transport landed using a suicide burn right next to him, rapidly unloading its cargo of Reaper drones outfitted for engineering work before launching again, cutting engine power after only a second of flight as it moved down between a gap between the building it had landed on and a nearby skyscraper. While the drones unloaded Dax and Phillipa weren't idle, acting like well oiled machines they locked down the area and started suppressing nearby elders with a brutal level of efficiency behind their spells and shots.

[OPERATION +60, OPERATIONAL CALLOUT FROM FIRE SUPPORT COMMAND: BRIMSTONE, LIGHTING.]

Down below the roof, Ifrit and Lux had reached the surviving members of the deep recon operation, or whatever still remained of them anyway. Finding most of them unconscious there was sadly a large part of them who had already lost against the curse they had been inflicted with, if she had more time Lux would have at least attempted to bring them back with her, but as time was of the essence they had to be euthanized in order to deny the elders of potentially new organic processors.

"I'm sorry…"

Offering a silent apology Lux squeezed the trigger while the Reaper drones around her were busy cutting out survivors, severing either the wires which pinned them in place or their limbs, whatever was more time efficient. No single second was wasted as the CASVAC arrived at the same level that the recon members were trapped at, instead of finding a place where it could safely dock it just simply opened fire with its chin mounted cannons, caving out a docking area as the first Reapers arrived with the injured.

"Dax!"

"Yeah, I see him!"

Meanwhile back on the roof, the elders had well and truly started their counteroffensive as such, Phillipa and Dax were starting to be overwhelmed with waves on waves of angry elders rushed their location and threatened to overrun them if they let up for a single second.

"Terra, make yourself useful!"

Tossing a spare type 19 mana powered 10 mill rifle to Terra, Dax launched a laser focused high energy thermal pulse which desiderated an elder only 1 city block away before it could attack the CASEVAC. 

"Phillipa break it down!"

"Roger! Recruit, on me!"

Shouting over her fully automatic fire Phillipa called over Terra before she started calling out targets and issuing fire orders for Terra to follow.

"Drop and target cover is not a factor, target the cores and keep it semi automatic!"

"Affirmative, ready for tasking!"

"Target! 7'o clock, elevation 200, fire for effect!"

"Firing!"

Working together with surprising efficiency even though they had never met before, Phillipa and Terra managed to push the elders far enough back that the CASEVAC craft could launch, leaving the area of operations safely.

[OPERATION +140, EVAC INBOUND HOT, DUST OFF IN 15 SECONDS.]

With Ifrit and Lux joining the rest back on the roof the end of the operation was finally in sight as a second CAS-7 transport entered the area of operations. Switching over to VTOL mode its twin VSIMR electrothermal thrusters moved to air breathing afterburners as it started slowing down in a suicide burn.

"That's our ride!"

Shouting over the roaring of the afterburner as it was about to set down on their rooftop, Dax prepared his subordinates to leave, but it turned out the elders wouldn't just allow them to leave after stealing their precious source of organic processors. Using one of its own kin as a living shield, an irregular elder somehow managed to breach the perimeter as it targeted the transport, weaving together a spell which it immediately launched.

"INCOMING!"

Unable to intercept the spell in time, Dax shouted at the top of his lungs as the CAS-7's left wing was severed, freeing the one engine to launch into the sky as the rest of the craft came crashing down in their position while spinning out of control.

[OPERATION +150, CALL OUT FROM FIRE SUPPORT COMMAND, BRIMSTONE, RED. SECONDARY EVAC ON STATION, DUST OFF IN 50 SECONDS.]