Astral's Rise Part 55: Southern Theatre

James and Angel stepped out of their transport shuttle, the terrain of the area a shock to them. The reports said it would be cold. The two of them took off their coats revealing their underlayer being enough for them.

"Captain Pete, we have the enemy location and the bunkers across the area?" James asked as Angel fluttered her wings to stretch them out and warm them up. James tightened his glove waiting for the response.

"Yes sir, as per the planetary scan, this is what the holomap shows." Pete pulled out a tablet and showed the two who marveled it. "There are two main enemy camps, one here near Rio, the other in Panama." The two bolted without a sound. Angel was soaring on her way to the Panama one while James was sprinting to the Rio camp.

'Astral warned us they would run off.' Pete thought to himself as he looked over to his troops. "We go from bunker to bunker, trying to save as many people as possible, remember if they want to stay they are able to." The forces nodded as the troops set out to the bunker. Each one responded with the same answer.

"Please save us from this tyranny!" Pete nodded as the escort ships safely got each one out of there, the problem became with each bunker released, more and more Sacramentum were charging in after the bunker was cleared.

"Sir, do you want to hear the status reports of the others?" A man walked up to Pete with a tablet. Snatching it from his arms he looked at it.

"So we are dropping like flies, meanwhile Astral has cleared the US already, within less time than we have while saving people?" Pete put the tablet down, only roughly two hundred of the three thousand and three hundred were still in perfect health. Let alone the injured count being astronomical. "Where are the twins?" Pete asked the officer at his side.

"No one is able to get through to them, they have their private channel, but only Astrid, Alexa and Astral have access to that." the officer pulled up the activity, they were clearly talking back and forth, what it was however was hidden.

"We have three bunkers to clear yet. We sit back here and fortify while waiting for those two to be done playing with their foods." Pete shook his head. "Until they return we can't do jack shit, we don't have the numbers or power to keep up."

"Understood sir, I will give out the command." The officer nodded telling the remaining troops the plan of action. What were the twins up to? What was their goal?

"Ha! I made it to Rio hiking through these jungles before you flew to Panama." James mocked Angel through their channel as she blew a raspberry through the comms.

Landing on a tree top she had a full view of the camp she had to take on. "Using your ability and stacking into speed shouldn't count."

"You are just mad because you lost."

"Am not."

"Yes you are, I hear it in your voice!"

"NO!" Angel shouted as the nearby birds flew from the treetop. "What did Astral tell us about these creatures?"

"Be careful and don't get hit." James spoke as their heart rates slowed. "On sync. Ready?"

Angel stood atop the tree as a salvo of plasma shells rained down on her position. "Sync." She flew forward with a thundering boom. Being directly over the base camp of the enemies. Looking down, her sight saw the targets to hit. Picking them off one by one, diving in like a hawk. Completely dismembering them with her spear.

Pete heard the sonic boom from their base camp. "So, Astral, this is why you stuck me with the kids. To have them learn. Men, suit up, we move for the last few bunkers while we have a distraction." The men all started clamoring about. Moving quickly to get their weapons and armor ready for the last three bunkers.

James pounced from out of the brushwork slicing up the first two sentries from their posts. 'She broke the sound barrier, showoff.' The two Tizzle guards saw their friends turn into chunks, falling to the ground. How did it happen so fast? James' gloves illuminated with a white glow, as three blades extended from them as he severed the waists of the creatures. On all fours James starts to charge in on the camp.

Angel's dive bombs onto members of the Sacramentum were brutalizing. They worked on setting up an airnet to catch her. Keeping her down on the ground would be the way to win, right? She flew up through the set up electrical field. They learned, too slow, stacking all of her ability into speed she bypassed the electric barrier. Sliding all of her stacks into strength to brace for the impact with the ground. Landing on her two feet, she shattered her legs.

Angel sat up with her arms hoisting her up. Realizing what happened she felt the pain bearing down on her. Lifting herself off the ground with her wings she looked around, surrounded. Her brother, not anywhere close to save her. She changed her stacks mostly to regeneration before filtering a few into speed.

She saw the plasma bolts fire past her as she glided around them. The electric field slowly shifted downwards as she kept an altitude level with the Sacramentum. She was able to slice the close ones with ease. But abiding the plasma was becoming draining and too difficult.

James was tearing through his camp. The silence from his sister's end only scared him as he knew it was dangerous. Blitzing around the camp he was able to crush each Apparazza skull with one swift kick or punch. Stabbing each of the Tizzle's with his claws and leaving the small ones alone and alive.

Jumping up into the ship. He ripped through it and got to the engine room, tossing two spherical objects before carving a hole upward. Getting to the top of the ship he moved all of his stacks into speed and sprinted off of the ship. The engines exploded, dropping the rear of the ship. After leaping the front of the ship cascaded into the ground.

Spinning in the air he balanced himself by extending one arm. Seeing the other ship he was bound to crash through it. All of his stacks bound into strength as he stopped his momentum slicing through the ship and its shields with a single slash from each hand. His claws seemed so long. Severing the ship into pieces.

As James started to fall to the ground Angel shouted up to him. "There is an electric field in the air, be careful!" Her voice cut through the air as he heard it and launched his claws into some of the ranged attackers from the Sacramentum. He tensed up as he fell through the field.

His body started to convulse as each muscle began to spazz, his entire body moving wildly as the Sacramentum watched him flop like a fish on the ground. Angel was able to take out the remaining Sacramentum who were not surrounding James.

His body stopped twitching as he sprung to his feet, the Sacramentum forces around him all aimed at him. Way too late. With a swift motion from his hands he slashed all of the far opponents. Punching a hole through the one next to him. Kneeing their skull off. As he used the body as a launchpad to jump and sever the rest of the forces around.

Angel gently stood on her legs as James bolted at her with open arms. James embraced her as his hair fizzled from black to its normal brown color, the wind blowing the black dandruff from his hair.

"Hey, you did great." Angel softly ran her hands down his head as purrs came out. Her legs tingled and were numb, probably from still being shattered. James hoisted up his sister and smiled.

"We did it. We bought them the time that was needed for the others to escape!" James smiled as he spun a small circle with him and his sister, seeing Pere walk through the gate.

"Yeah and Astral beat you to it through the US." The twins were shocked as Angel tapped Jame's shoulder to be let down. The two of them sitting next to each other Pete would continue. "Jaimie also has encountered resistance but will be finished in less than an hour." He handed the two of them the ration packs he had on as the squad accompanying him handed him a tablet.

"As for you two, we will get you checked up on the low priority list and head to the Red Merle." Pete waved his hand as a shuttle slowly came down.

"Wait, we still can fight." James spoke as he slouched over onto Angel's shoulders.

Angel sighed as Pete picked up her brother and carried him to the transport as the other members of the squad softly carried Angel to the shuttle. Only one part of the world was left as Astral began his last battle on earth.