Nukledeus

A very determined Chloé pushed the door of Headquarters. She quickly went to the armory where her men were waiting for her. She'd selected them one by one with the utmost care. She needed the best and was very proud of them all.

In the other squadrons, many wondered why she didn't allow female soldiers to serve under her command. Resentment and misunderstandings seemed unavoidable since she did not provide any justification for her recruitment choices. How could she tell them that, if they were caught by the No-light, it would probably be "every man for himself and Nukledeus for all", as the saying went ? And that, if this was truly their fate, she didn't wish for them to end up being eaten alive by a pack of dogs ? If they were going to serve as food, they might as well be dead…

As usual, everything was in order. The Section heads in her squadron were highly skilled and totally devoted to their "Capitan", the leader they were willing to follow even in Hell. Few leaders could claim to deserve this title.

Chloé offered a few words to each of her aides and several particularly deserving soldiers. In the end, she spared them the main part of her speech, rallying her men to the squadron's battle cry which they shouted so loudly the windows would have shaken, had the armory not been underground therefore windowless. Afterwards, they left without further delay toward the Western Gate, to meet Gili's squadron which was ending its shift.

Her friend Gili's troops shouldn't be ashamed of the comparison with Chloé's. They belonged to the arkian elite soldiers as well. They were waiting in front of the wall near the Gate. Facing away from them, Gili was having a pugnacious argument with the leader of the city guards.

Chloé raised her hand and her whole squadron halted as one in a snap. With one glance at her friend Gili, Chloé already knew that the night patrol wouldn't bring them any good news. Leaving her interlocutor, Gili approached her to pass on the information.

Slightly worried, Chloé looked at her friend who seemed weary, more affected than usual. Both were standing face to face and Chloé couldn't help but smile. Even though she was tired, the disapproving air on Gili's face when she was gazing at her friend's look spoke for itself.

Gili was always so straight-forward, so candid that one could guess what she was thinking even before she opened her mouth. The wrinkle on her forehead after this night patrol should have alerted Chloé but the latter was dying to have a fight with the No-Lights. There had been no opportunity to clash with the enemy again since the slaughter she had witnessed. A few sporadic encounters happened, sometimes to her advantage, but no real hand-to-hand battle. She was bidding her time, she felt ready.

Gili quickly briefed her on the current positions. Most of the activities of the No-Lights were concentrated upstream. According to the scouts, they had started to build a dam to divert the river. As the night patrol couldn't intervene, Chloé and her men were assigned with uprooting the enemies and destroying the dam.

This mission perfectly fitted her squadron's need for action. The Capitan joined her troops and issued her orders. As soon as they got the green light from the city guards, the whole squadron stepped out of the city and spread out according to the selected tactics. They reached the bank without a problem and went back up the current along the shore. The lack of enemy movements was unusual, however it allowed them to progress rapidly towards the location indicated by Gili. Everyone was on the alert. They moved as quietly as possible in order to catch the opponent by surprise.

As they advanced, hints of the No-Lights became more visible. Chloé and her soldiers could see many traces on the dusty ground. For a while they followed the wheel marks of wagons drawn by horses. The deep and numerous tracks indicated a heavy load and either frequent trips or a large number of carts.

Lifting the visor of her helmet, Chloé wiped her forehead. The temperature was rising, the sun was already high in the sky. Likewise, Nukledeus shone brightly from the temple of the city. She checked her wristwatch. She had to quickly lead the assault. The work was progressing faster than the estimations of the scouts suggested. The river had dwindled significantly, Arch City would very soon be in need of water. Moreover, her shift wasn't very long and the Capitan wanted to act before the arrival of the relief. She cursed inwardly, once again, against this "tinpot dictator" who wasted her precious time at the Gate.

Chloé's shift started a little after daybreak, before the dome opening. After receiving Gili's information, she had to negotiate with the city guards to be granted permission to leave. The regiment assigned to the protection of the city's access was really taking its mission to heart.

The city guards were a separate army which zealously exercised their prerogatives, authorizing or forbidding access to the Gates even to the security squadrons. Besides, didn't they stop the last territorial patrol from entering the city ? Had they, as rumor had it, forbidden the other squadrons to go out to help their comrades ? Chloé didn't know, but she wouldn't have been surprised.

Gili had already started talking to the guard in charge of the Gate at the end of her shift, preparing Chloé's squadron's exit. The latter, in turn, tried in vain to convince the other party. She eventually gave up, she had gauged the individual and, like his fellow guards, he only responded to two stimuli: threat or bribery. For the Capitan, it was just a matter of betting on the right option. Nevertheless, the wrong choice could turn out to be disastrous. This time, money opened the Gate for her, but with delay, because the amount was exorbitant and she had to stoop to bargain.

Meanwhile, the No-lights were building their dam. The unexpected delay did not help the squadron's business, they had to quickly restore the water of the city. As soon as the water level went below the alert threshold, the alarm would resound to indicate to the arkians that the reserves stored in the tanks were being used and to impose drastic restrictions.

To manage the disgruntled population, the government would then have to increase the doses of some tranquilizers in the chimiocs mixture. This was, in any case, the thesis that Daphné defended before leaving. This policy seemed logical to Chloé since the divine nature of the sanctified chimiocs had always seemed suspicious to her.

The squadron reached the waterfall that overlooked the city. Usually, Chloé liked this place very much. The water droplets rising in the air pleasantly cooled the surroundings. Everything seemed purified. Because of the dam built by the No-Lights, the waterfall was now reduced to a trickle of water and the young woman felt a pang of emotion.

The Lichen was already invading the rocks as well as the river bed. It was imperative that this parasitic vegetation be cleaned up before it rotted and poisoned the water. The Capitan was therefore left with no choice but to detach one of the sections in order to collect the required equipment back in Ark City. She then led the others sections of her squadron on the slippery rocks, covered with wet Lichen, to reach a location upstream from the waterfall along the river.

The dam was clearly visible in the distance. It was necessary to act stealthily to avoid being spotted by the No-Lights sentries. Chloé sent two sections out as scouts, the rest of the squadron would split into two groups, one on each bank, to trap the enemy in a pincer attack. She ordered one of the soldiers to cross where the river was shallow in order to secure a rope and help his group pass on the other bank. A bridge would have been too conspicuous and unnecessary as the river there could be forded.

She appointed the best swimmer in case he was swept away by the weak current. The crossing seemed easy but it was without taking into account the mud that lined the bed there. The soldier sank into the sludge up to mid-t.h.i.g.h level. The rest of his section then made a chain by holding hands, Chloé in the lead, to bring him back. They'd have to look for another way to cross the river. Being confined within Ark City's walls most of the time, they were hardly experienced when it came to living outside.

Step by step, holding the hand of one of her soldiers, Chloé led the rescue party further away from the bank, in the cold water. She had to take it upon herself to suppress her disgust when she started sinking deeper and deeper into the mud. What kind of insects, what specimens of teeming creepy-crawlies were hiding in this gooey environment?

Chloé banished from her mind the image of nightmarish organisms living in this mucky environment and creeping into her boots. Together, the soldiers almost reached their companion. So much time had been lost ! At that moment, they heard screams and fighting sounds. The scouts had been spotted.

Chloé turned around towards the noise and could not take her eyes away from the huge wave that was surging towards her. In the battle near the dam, the latter must have collapsed and released all the retained water, as well as dozens of pieces of wood, with a deafening roar.

Hit by a log and engulfed by the howling mass of water, Chloé went down. In the middle of the wave that was crushing her, she was swept along with pieces of the wrecked dam. Her lungs were burning from the lack of oxygen, she no longer knew where it hurt as her body, covered with scratches and bruises, seemed like a gaping wound. Then, all of a sudden, she was thrown in the air and she eagerly inhaled a breath of air, only to expel it immediately in a scream just before crashing down at the foot of the waterfall.