Smoke coiled through the battlefield like a living thing, twisting around shattered stone and scorched metal. The air crackled with plasma discharges, screams, and the thunder of exo-suits pounding across dirt.
Aera's voice rose above it all.
"Push left! Echo Nine, flank the ridge!"
She wasn't a strategist—not in the way Kael was. She wasn't stronger than the exo-suited elites that bore down on them, nor faster than the kinetic bullets tearing past her head. But she cared.
And that made her loud enough to be heard through hell.
Ten of them. Dezune troops, elite-class. Five carried rifles that turned stone to ash in seconds—accelerated energy rounds, near-undodgeable at range. The other five wielded high-frequency blades, their exo-suits tuned for brutal melee efficiency.
Elian barked out positions, his mind calculating cover angles and retreat paths. "We'll split their line. Make them choose!"
Aera didn't hesitate.
"Echo, follow Elian! Vanguard with me! We draw the swords, he breaks the gunners!"
She sprinted, leading the charge herself, weaving between ruin and crater. Her rifle barked once, twice—then clicked empty. She tossed it aside without missing a beat and drew her sidearm.
The Empire's swordsmen met her halfway.
Blades hummed with lethal energy. One swipe from those could split armor like paper.
Aera ducked under the first strike and slid between her attacker's legs. She rose behind him, jamming her pistol into a joint plate and firing twice.
He dropped.
"Behind you!" someone shouted.
She turned too late.
The second swordsman struck—but a shield caught the blade. Elian, expression blank but focus razor-sharp, pushed her aside and countered with a rifle blast to the attacker's knee. The exo-suit buckled.
Aera gritted her teeth and got back on her feet.
All around them, the squads were fighting. Not flawlessly—not like Kael's projections might demand. But with grit, with defiance.
And together.
"Cover the medics!" she shouted, dragging a wounded soldier into cover. "Don't let them take the north line!"
Minutes blurred.
Aera was everywhere. Shouting orders. Dragging wounded. Rallying squads that broke under pressure.