CH-24: Beauty Of Disaster

Everyone dropped what they were doing as the siren rang, and gathered together. They quickly formed a line and awaited further orders. Soon enough, Captain Henry arrived with the Savan Support Team. 

"At ease." He said with a calm,and collected voice. It was as if there wasn't something going on. The sirens quieted down in a minute and he continued. 

"About an hour ago, our satellites took notice of a spike in Ether at Sector 12-A. We have sent reconnaissance troops for further inspection. Their on-site readings matched with those of the satellite. What does it mean, you would ask. It means we are on the brink of a Rank 4 Gate Reformation. Me and the elite team behind me will be clearing the Gate, so there is no need to worry about that." 

He dropped a bomb like that but then said not to worry, he definitely was being dramatic. Although Gate Reformation caused some worry, the trainees knew it wasn't their place to worry about something like that. They were not strong enough. Everyone here knew they couldn't do much in such a high ranked Reformation. A low ranked one wouldn't even cause sirens to ring, as it would be easily dealt with the Southern Evolutionary Camp's personnel at bay. 

"What you need to worry about is the Abomination tide. For the sake of efficiency, we will ignore lower ranked Abominations that come out of the initial Gate Reformation, and only target high grade Aberrations or Rank 4 Abominations. Dealing with the rest will be on your seniors, and you are to assist them. You will take care of the wounded, oversee ammunition distribution and such logistics. This is a great chance for you to experience how a high ranked Gate Incursion looks like, while being relatively safe. Follow orders well and do well." 

After saying his piece, he dissappeared in a flash, leaving a sound boom and a somewhat shocked elite team of Savants behind. They clearly did not expect him to dip out like that, so they too left in sound booms before it got awkward. Now the only ones left behind were the trainees, still awaiting further orders. Soon enough a Sergeant came along and did the task allocation. Sean's group were on first aid, they would work both inside and outside the camp. 

Everyone had their tasks assigned, and started to carry them out like a well oiled machine. The seniors were a huge influence. It was obvious they had gone through something like this multiple times, and were very efficient at what they were doing. Saying it was something that happened quite often wouldn't be that far from the truth. There would be many Gates formed in the large region that the Southern Evolutionary Camp oversaw, and due to coagulation of Ether at the camp, it would often draw in hordes Abominations. These Abomination hordes would mostly consist of Rank 1 Abominations, as lower ranked Gates formed more frequently than those of higher ranks. 

Sean and his group followed a Corporal to their positions just outside the camp. Through this situation, they also learned about other exits from the underground other than the hangar. Although the camp was underground, there were places where the safety of the camp could be compromised, like the train tunnel. The tunnel was sealed with a metre thick compound steel lock, providing enough defence that could resist Rank 2 Yellow Grade Abomination's constant assault for weeks. Though it would only last for a day against Rank 3 Yellow Grades. There would be Rank 3 Yellow Grades in this tide, so they had to protect it. 

A defence line was set up in two hours, and a safe location to tend to the wounded was made. It was just outside of the lock, if things went south, they could easily retreat back to the camp. Tents were raised, and the medical equipment was brought from the camp. Sean and his group, with a few others, were waiting at the tents. They held their breaths, and waited for the Gate to reform. For what could be called a disaster, Gate Reformations often were spectacles of poetry in motion. The Gate Crystal would rise into the air, and would start to swirl. While swirling, the nearby space would shatter and crumble, and purple-black void could be seen from even tens of kilometres afar. Ether would gather around the Crystal, and would shine every colour of the spectrum included in the rank of the Gate. With the void slowly creeping in, the contrast of the colours were simply mesmerising. Because the Reforming Gate was of Rank 4, they would see up to Cyan this time. 

As the day progressed, every entry point of the Camp has been reinforced with defence lines, extra layers of compound steel wall and locks. The only thing remaining was the initial Gate Incursion. Contrary to normal Gate Incursions, the Incursion of Reformed Gates did not happen right after the Gate was formed, instead they had a trend of occuring in a half day period after the Gate reformed.

—

While Sean was sanitising the medical equipment, he catched a glimpse of bright light outside of the tents. He walked out to see the Gate reforming with his own eyes. On the horizon, he saw a second sun shining green and cyan, while purple-black tendrils of shattered space formed around it and enveloped the sun slowly. As it coated the green-cyan sun, the tendrils got caught up in the swirling motion of the Gate Crystal, and slowly formed a portal through space. As the Gate formed, a shockwave of Ether spread. Even Sean felt the shockwave, despite how far away the Gate Crystal was, no need to mention Evolutionary privates, they would be more sensitive to the Ether than him. Before he went back inside the tent, Sean noticed that the air had become suffocating, as if you were submerged in water.

'Great..' He thought to himself. 'It isn't enough that it's scorching hot today, but now this wretched Gate also made it humid.' He didn't want to think about how bad it would be near the Gate if the humidity was this suffocating so far away, so he focused back on sanitising the medical equipment.

"Was quite the show, huh?" Tyson exclaimed. Despite being from a family that owned a guild, it was his first time seeing a reformation with his own eyes.

"Nah. Seen better light shows at the night clubs." 

"You just came of age, Jayden. How did you get into the night clubs?" 

"With this ticket here of course!" He was pointing at his face. "Older ladies adored my face, so I just went in with them. Good times…"

"Dude, come on!"

"Hahaha! You should see your face right now!"

"I will make you see two instead-"

Tyson and Jayden were bantering while carrying medicine, meanwhile Latoya was fixing the beddings. Samantha and Klein were bringing other goods from the tunnel. Sean grabbed one of the scalpels and started wiping it. Each left to their tasks, time flew. They eventually went to sleep inside other tents, only trainees were sleeping. The higher your rank was, the longer you could go without sleep. A day without sleep was nothing to the soldiers here. Quarter of a day later, they woke up to a Roar that pierced the skies. Countless shrieks and roars followed right after the initial one.

'An Aberration.' Sean quickly noted. There was at least a Blue Grade Aberration this time. In the worst scenario, a Rank 4 Violet Grade. 'Rank 4 Violet Grade...' Sean repeated in his mind. Just the thought of it was enough to bring shivers to his spine. Hopefully, Captain Henry and the Elite Team would deal with it…

Sean looked at the direction of the Gate. Because it was night, he could only make out green-cyan borders of the Gate. He observed it for a while, and a small detail caught his eyes. The borders of the Gate were flickering.

'That is impossible.' Sean thought. 'A newly reformed Gate wouldn't just collapse. Did the Captain do something?' A human affecting a Gate's condition seemed even more unbelievable so he discarded the idea. Then, it came to him. 'Shit! Those are Abominations! The Incursion has already started!'

As he guessed, the Incursion had started, and the Gate was spewing out monstrosities one after another. It would be a long day for the camp, and Captain Henry.

They were near the vicinity of the Gate, watching from a higher standpoint. Breathing was completely impossible, not that they needed it much, but it was still an inconvenience. They watched as the Abominations poured out of the Gate, making sure they were not discovered before they went in.

The strongest Abominations would stay on the other side for a while, so they could go in and sweep them when all of the horde had passed. 

{CRACK}

Captain Henry crunched his neck, and gave the order after all of the Abominations had passed.

"We are going in."

They walked inside the Gate, and stepped forward towards the other side…