The sentint was touching.
A representation of what they had been fighting for all this ti. Just like how their ancestors fought to give them a tomorrow, they, too, would do the sa for the children of today.
They would stand before them so that the younger generation would not have to face such horrors before their ti.
And as the sounds of waves reached them with every tremble of the ground, Captain Nico was preparing to honor the Marshal's wishes when—
"Luca! What are you doing?"
It was the Duchess, her sudden question breaking through the haze and helplessness that the soldiers around them felt.
The transmission crackled. Then ca a sound that made every soldier blink in confusion.
Younger. Brighter. And unsettlingly ecstatic. One that would've definitely softened the hearts of everyone if not for the words carried by the voice.
"Mom! Look! It's really a giant tentacle!" Luca shouted, as if announcing a sale.
And in the video before the Duchess, everyone else saw the sa golden-eyed cadet who mourned two of their people, only this ti his drooping fra was all taut, his eyes were shining with what could only be… excitent?
"..."
"..."
"..."
But to the mother who had learned better, it was the shimr of money.
However, to everyone else, this was… what? Just what was that?!
Especially when the sa boy said, "Brother, the bigger ones are really different from the smaller ones! We need to make sure to collect a lot of those, too!" Luca's sudden serious voice rang clearly through the feed.
Sowhere off-screen, another cadet's voice followed in panic. "But, Brother, is it okay to choose? D-64 refuses to grab everything and only wants the good-looking ones, but they don't even look that good—?!"
"Mnnf!" ca a strangled noise, followed by a new voice—one that sounded very much like the frantic voice of reason.
"Now, now, little star, let's get back to collecting, just let D-64 collect what it thinks looks good, okay," said Kyle, an alard boyfriend who didn't want to hear talk about good-looking heads all over public communication lines.
The line went quiet for a mont.
"???"
"???"
Luca humd thoughtfully. "Well, Brother, maybe it's because it knows there's no more venom?"
He paused, then gasped like a man struck by revelation. "Oh, wait, speaking of which—Everyone! We can't get the ones that have already discharged their venom! Sadly, it's only one-ti use!"
There was a montary droop in the tone of the golden-eyed cadet, but as if watching a sponge, they all watched him quickly bounce back.
Back at the temporary shelter, there was a lot of blinking.
Definitely a lot of twitching.
Especially from the Captain, whose brain seed to freeze into forced silence and unnatural calm. Then, as if his mind refused to accept everything he had just seen and heard, the Sector One Captain made a decision only a desperate man could make—he decided to run off and rescue the children.
"Children."
"Monster."
The two words looped in his mind like a broken signal. He wasn't exactly wrong. It was just that, if the old guardian tortoise could speak, it would have pointed out that those two words would only work when together and in reverse. But the poor officer didn't know any better, so he took one heavy step forward, alarm pulling him half a stride closer to disaster.
"Cadets are out there," Nico muttered, his voice cracking as if he had dropped sothing fragile. He moved as if to sprint.
But before he could take another step, he was stopped.
"Don't," said the Duchess, calm and sharp. She raised her hand on the holo feed, her expression composed, but her eyes were lined with understanding and even pity. "Not yet. It might be harder for you to survive them than to survive the monster."
"Huh?"
Duchess Alia didn't explain. Instead, she sent a request to Xavier. He accepted. The prince's feed filled the main screen.
As a light cha usually stationed furthest out, his vantage point offered the clearest view.
And sure enough, what they saw was chaos given form.
The tentacles now visible from a much closer distance were raging. And if they couldn't see all the movent and feel every ground tremble, then they would've thought they were watching and listening in on sothing else entirely.
Custom chas darted like hornets. One white and gold fra cut tentacles with impossible speed. A red cha followed close, moving to block and shield like a living wall. Jax's voice cut through on another channel every ti an appendage exploded at his feet, at his side, or just over his head. The tiny explosions looked like sparks of bad luck or extrely good luck.
"Captain! Can't you shoot them when they're farther away? Just, just a little bit!"
Bang!
Bang!
"Gaaah! Never mind! Never mind! Do as you please!" the cadet yelled into the feed, breathless. While he could still feel the trajectory with all his animalistic instincts, these new projectiles were just too fast!
"It must be done right away so we don't lose track of the discharged ones that Luca doesn't like," ca Xavier's calm voice. "The faster they're gone, the faster they'll regenerate, and the more tentacles he'll be able to collect."
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Each shot struck a tentacle that had so much as brushed against anything else—including Jax's shield. It didn't seem to matter if it was friend or foe, but apparently, Luca had declared that once the nematocysts had fired, they were useless.
"?!"
It was the flawed logic of a husband who yearned to please, and unfortunately, that logic was being used indiscriminately.
Another explosion. Another curse. "Captain! Holy—! We did not train with that gun! Dammit!"
Xavier didn't flinch. His tone remained calm, his aim exact. "Luca seems fine," he said.
"Of course he's fine!" Kyle shouted, dodging another incoming blast that could've sent soone to the afterlife.
Then, as if his na had summoned him, Luca asked in that bright, innocent tone, "What's wrong?"
Elsewhere, Ollie, who normally carried one revive pill but now gripped two in his trembling left hand—in case Xavier's aim got too enthusiastic—called out, "Brother, how are you avoiding Xavier's shots?"
Luca's cheerful answer ca while he was slicing through another tentacle and neatly storing it away. "Oh! I'm not. I think that's actually very difficult to do with the Eclipse Cannon. It's just that Xavier only shoots tentacles that already hit sothing. So if it hits my shield, I know he'll shoot it next."
"Huh?! What, Brother?! How are you even sure?"
"Well, because Xavier doesn't miss!" Luca replied with the kind of smile that everyone could sohow hear.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
The next few seconds were filled with that unsettling organized chaos. Muttered curses, shots, and gleeful interjections could be heard from the comms as the cadets dodged or retaliated. And yet, back at the shelter, all sounds felt drowned out as everyone tried to process the onslaught that most couldn't even follow.
In fact, even across the temporary imperial command center, blood drained from several faces.
But sohow, Captain Nico found his voice small. He could not keep the astonishnt out of it. "Cadet Kyros… what exactly are you doing?"
Luca, still cutting and storing while humming with joy, suddenly froze mid-motion as he heard a voice—there were other people here! Worse, unlike when they went to "communicate" with Tortie, there were actually people in command this ti.
"!!!"
"Captain Kane, sorry for this!" said the money grubber, his tone far too polite for the carnage behind him. "W-we're just checking for its generosity! I swear we won't take so long!"
"...What?!"
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