This wasn't his first mission like this, and it certainly wasn't going to be his last. Invading a human base and destroying their weapons before their weapons destroyed him. But it still gave him anxiety. The fate of his race and his friend's races were in his - and the rest of the crew's - hands. It was nerve-wracking, standing on the ramp like this, waiting for the OK from the pilot and aircraft staff for him to jump. His eyes could see now, the magic had finally kicked in, and it stung for a little as his brain adjusted to sight once more. They had already loaded the centaurs into their carry vessel, and he watched as they were dropped from the plane. He'd found it funny the first time he'd seen centaurs held in strange cages and then ejected, but it wasn't so funny now.
"Reporting to aircraft crew," Sadie's voice came over the phone a short time later, "we have landed and are now making our way to the base. Safe to deploy."
Safe to deploy, three words that Ollivander knew would never leave his head.
"All ground-staff merfolk and avians, we are ready for you to jump. Jump in formation." The pilot spoke over the intercom. Ollivander looked at Brii and Dekk, and they looked at him, and they jumped. He felt so safe, plummeting like this. His whole life was in the air, he was born to soar, and this, falling to the ground, was the safest part of his mission.
"You know what I do, when I'm falling?" Ria had asked, a younger Ollivander in his arms.
"No. What do you do?"
"I listen to the best music I can find, the old stuff."
"Why? Shouldn't you be running through protocol?"
"Hell no. Falling? That few minutes of silence? They're deafening."
Ria had given Ollivander a copy of the playlist that he had at the ready for these missions, and he had chosen one that he thought was good for the occasion. It was sung by an avian called Flori. No one really knew who she was, truly, but her voice echoed in Ollivander's ears and he hoped that she knew just how many lives she would help him save.
The building they'd been sent to infiltrate was half the size of the avian block of Base X. It wasn't the biggest building Ollivander had ever seen, but it was up there with the largest he'd ever infiltrated. It was a large cube, almost, with barred windows and defence surrounding it. He watched from the bushes as the merfolk who had jumped out after him scaled over the defensive wall. Humans were very… unprepared. At best they were vaguely alert of missions, but Ollivander wondered why after nearly 600 years they hadn't learnt to have their eyes wider.
The lights in the building, one by one, flickered off, leaving only the hollow glow of the emergency lights. That was his queue. He stormed out from his hiding spot, hearing the clanking movement of guns in his direction, and pulled his own from his back, holding the pistol in his hand and shooting blindly. He knew that none of his shots were hitting, but he was yet to be fired at, so at least they were acting as a deterrent.
Brii and Dekk flanked him on either side, also contributing their own shots. With each step, their bodies began to glow. It was horribly unhelpful in a mission situation, but it was their magic within them focusing. As the three of them slid behind an outcrop, Dekk fired a dark purple mass towards a weaker part in the wall, and it shattered. Brii did the same, only she aimed towards the tower that was now aiming towards them, and her mass hit the wall with a boom, fire engulfing the whole open area. The glow dissipated with their shots, but Brii's ethereal, joyous glow only grew stronger.
"Good aim, the two of you." Ollivander hummed, making his way towards the gap in the wall that Dekk had caused. The three of them clambered through the ragged gap, careful to not scrape themselves on the metal and concrete.
Now, up close, the building was higher than Ollivander once thought. Without the emergency lights coming through the window, it would look as if all of the stars in the sky had fallen. His eyes focussed on the backdrop around him.
For a second, he felt like he was out of his body. He could see a large hand reaching down for him, at least he thought it was a hand. His eyes followed the arm attached to the hand, and was met with two bright eyes. They blinked, and he was back on land, his eyes latched on the two brightest stars in the sky - Li's stars.
"You alright, Ivan?" Dekk asked, hand on his shoulder.
"...Yeah.." he forced himself to look away from the stars.
"You look spaced out, are you sure you can continue with the mission?"
"I'm fine. I just blanked out for a second there."
With that, Ollivander pushed his body to run towards the base of the building. Out of nowhere, a human tackled him to the ground, their knife glinting in the moonlight. They wrestled, Ivan trying to slash the human's skin and in return feeling a knife blade just nick some of his feathers. He managed to flip the human onto their back and snapped their arm. The human cried out in pain, dropping their knife. Ivan smiled and thanked them for the weapon, before knocking them out with a punch. He knew, subconsciously, that the face he punched was younger than his own.
Brii and Dekk were already inside, and he followed the direction they went - in through a busted vent, probably kicked in by Brii- and took the safety of the vent gratefully. His hands were shaking and so was his breath, but he had to continue. He used his claws on his fingers and feet to scale the metal vent.
The top of the vent opened up into a large room. There was considerable centaur-esque damage done to the room already. Unlike merfolk and avians, centaurs would storm in and kick the shit of anyone who dared insult their status by trying to fight. There were humans all over the place in this room, all bloody and passed out, as well as all of the control panels being kicked till they couldn't operate. It didn't come without a cost on their side though - there was a avian in the corner, Ollivander vaguely knew her from training, and he rushed over, kneeling at her feet.
"Masie… can you hear me?" He lifted up her chin.
"..Yes. I'm alive, Ivan, I'll be okay. Go on without me, I can't walk anyways. One of my legs is broken and the humans that escaped ripped the prosthetic off the other."
"Who will come get you?"
"I don't know, Ivan. I'm scared but I can't let you not aid in the mission."
"I don't want you to die here, Masie. Keep relaying your location, someone will come get you."
Her helmet was shattered, as so Ollivander took his own off and put it on her head. The world was quiet now, without his music, but if it kept one of his own alive, he'd give it up.
"Thank you," she spoke, weakly placing her hand on Ollivander's forehead and dragging it through his hair.
"Stay awake, don't close your eyes."
And then he was gone. He looked at the map on the hologram on his wrist, following it with the goal of reaching the bombs before they had to evacuate.
----
By the time he reached them, many of the other soldiers were already getting to work disarming the bombs, some the size of Ollivander's old house. Humans, the overly boastful and self-confident beings they were, had written the names of the major avian and centaur cities on the bombs. Someone had even thought that drawing humans celebrating over the death of millions on the bomb that could have caused it was a good idea.
He got to work on the bomb labelled "Farle", working with a scruffy-haired young centaur. The centaur was happy for the help, but was more interested in getting Ollivander to retrieve tools than try and blindly guess what wire he had to cut. From a count, it seemed like most of the crew were in this large room, but Ollivander was unsure if those who weren't here yet were still on their way or ended up like Masie, or worse.
Shots rang out across the room, and shots fired back. The engineers and injured soldiers ducked for cover under the aircraft that was stored in the space, and everyone's senses heightened once more. Ollivander, like many avians, made himself visible and made himself a target, but also a distraction. There was a reason that they brought merfolk to these missions, and it was the sheer power that they possessed. No enemy human who had seen their power lived to tell the tale.
A grenade went off right next to Ollivander, scorching his back, but he had to keep making himself a target. Merfolk, while powerful with their attacks, were susceptible to far worse injuries on land. He cried out, calling for a weapon. A merfolk threw a sword across the ground, and it clattered towards him. He grabbed it with one hand, screaming as he ran - it was a mix of agony and pure anger - towards the soldiers. These ones were older, they stood far taller than him, a body mass much more extreme, but it didn't put him off.
The merfolk that had thrown him the sword was chanting, from under the bomb that would have destroyed her city, making the sword glow and warm and flicker with the power she had infused it with. It seared through flesh, bone, and metal in one foul swoop. Each of the soldiers he ran to were disarmed, figuratively or literally it didn't matter. His fellow soldiers had begun to evacuate, the med teams sneaking past distracted enemies to reach those like Masie, stuck and injured.
He knew that his back would scar, but it was only added to his mottled body as a reminder of the day that they saved the major cities from destruction.
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