Chapter 370 - Far Future Ch. 80 - The Healing Light (1/2)

I held down the Marine from getting up, reached up to his forehead with Grym, and the healing light stayed in place, shimmering into his third eye and playing down inside his armor, out of sight. However, rippling bands of black and yellow swirled up on my chest, torso, and snaked down my legs. The Marines watching widened their eyes, including the one I was treating.

”I'm going to have to go over all of you,” I sighed, turning my head and spitting out something black and vile, that popped and burst into misting unwhite flame when it hit the ground in protest. ”Line it up, all of you.”

”We don't have a lot of time, Sama,” Briggs noted from up top.

”Yeah, and if a Warp Shift passes directly over these guys, they're going to explode in pus and mushrooms,” I replied lazily, sending the Marine before me away and waving in the next. Under my skin, white and gold fires burned and chased the veins of infection away quickly. ”Don't worry, lads, I'll get you out of here.”

Their faces were interesting to see at the idea that a woman two heads shorter than they were was going to be protecting the big bad eight-foot superhuman hulks in power armor.

They all had some form of infection, including the Captain, fully able to sense it when the healing psi coursed through them, and they could see it when it suddenly rippled into place across me. The guy with a facial wound could actually see bone and teeth there, and I snapped a pic with my Band to share with everyone for whenever Halloween was here, and even set the Marines aback as it was transferred over to me and burned away. Notably, my Brand stayed perfectly visible even as the whole side of my skull became a rotting mess.

”Sama,” Briggs called down, but it was really for their benefit. ”There was a Warp Shift two miles out. I'm seeing... what looks like a horde of spideroids...”

I rolled my eyes. ”And of course they are heading this way.”

”Of course!” he replied with flat humor.

I eyed the dozen remaining Marines with a sigh. ”ETA?”

He blipped the feed down to everyone.

”Five minutes,” Captain Donnal judged instantly.

”Briggs, get us a course out of here, preferably one that takes us out of the path of the Horde. One more Marine...” I turned my head, squinted at them, and pointed, ”You. If we get one-minute rests, I can do more of you after him. Captain, get them ready.”

With his walking wounded taken care of, that didn't take much time at all. What supplies they had or had scavenged were allocated as the guy with the most hidden wounds watched as black veins snaked across my skin, and if he swallowed in relief, I didn't say or notice nuthin'.

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Briggs and I didn't really want to withdraw, as we obviously still had a long ways forwards to go, but rescuing people was great for the Karma, too. I finished up, and there was a snap as my Tails flowed back out of my back, burning with Banefire, and the Spikes popped into place on them, looking quite serpentine as they looked in all directions for targets.

Briggs hopped down from above with the crunch of a lot of weight hitting the ground, and took point without asking. The withdrawal route was up for everyone, the rough terrain around it was ghostly, showing how much it could change, and everyone followed him as he set off, while I stood in the middle of the formation.

The Captain paced me, watching me skate easily along the ground as they trotted along, keeping the pace of their longer legs without effort. He'd seen me moving, so he knew I could go a lot faster. ”Why are you keeping a position in the middle of us?” he asked. His helm was back on, so I couldn't see him frown. ”With your speed, I would expect you to be further ahead, scouting.”

”Primary purpose is the safe extraction of your team, Captain. If our purpose was search and destroy, or a deep penetration, naturally I would be the tip of the spear. By putting myself into the middle of your team, my Null is available in the event we run across Wilders, Warp Sorcerers, or Demons, and I will be able to rapidly be able to move to interdict any such attacks on your people.”

”A Null? Some sort of anti-psion field, Colonel?” he asked for clarification.

”Yes. The Commander has a variant called a Source Field. Just let it be known that if psionic or magical attacks income, either get within twenty feet of us, or use us as a blast shadow. It will have no effect on your tech. Also, don't try to engage any anti-grav around us, it's not going to work. We're toting full Interdiction auras with Stillflight Fields, so the five of you with jump-jets aren't going to be able to do much more than jump more efficiently, or break a fall.”

”Noted.” Tactical adjustments rippled out through the march line, with a subtle reconfiguration.

The Marines had 360-degree area coverage with their armor sensors, but the soup of the atmosphere restricted the range, and sending out radar or similar energies was like waving an Eat Me sign to more than a few of the natives. I dropped the visuals from my Tails into the tactical feed shared with my Band, especially the sky cover, and the clarity and range meant they were sharing and using them almost instantly, overlaying them on their own armor's readouts for the appropriate areas.

Ahead of us, Briggs started drawing fire, and replied with the same. He blew apart a few incoming grenades, mowed down some incalcitrants, and jumped down into a trench ahead of us. Everyone was watching his feed, and our courses didn't change.

The Marines' job was to move fast and quiet, and not draw attention to themselves. Briggs was a fine distraction, fully able to weather what was being thrown his way, and dish it right back. I could read how impressed they were by his firepower, and the way he swatted a demon out of the way using a wrecked armored carrier, buried the thing underneath it, and then blew both apart with a sustained barrage, while sending a couple of Hammer-Shards through its underlings along scything paths, and kicking some demonlings to pulp.

Yeah, he was quite the big distraction, and he was idly weathering shit that gave even the Imperial Legionnaires pause.