The three thousand transport semis spread across the engagement zone, most of them completely exposed. They maintained formation as best they could, fleeing toward Kenway in a ragged column, but the defensive hemisphere could only shelter a fraction of their number.
[PFC David Kim - Exeter Mars Transport] "We are outside the defensive perimeter. Repeat, Mars Transport is exposed. Maintaining retreat vector per Boston Command orders."
[PFC Marcus Bell - Exeter Gilead Transport] "Divine Child has ordered the attack. Seventy Cult Nascent Souls advancing on central formation. Twenty-five Nascent Souls breaking into strike teams."
The red indicators split into distinct tactical elements. Seventy Cult Nascent Soul domains converged on the central defensive hemisphere, a wave of overlapping authority spheres crashing against the five friendly Lords and their drone screen.
Twenty-five other Cult Nascent Souls lead strike teams dispersed across the engagement zone, each accompanied by a cluster of twelve Gold Core cultivators. Hunter-killer groups designed to disable individual transports.
A final formation materialized at the rear of the convoy. Five Cult Nascent Souls leading two hundred Gold Cores, trailing behind the fleeing transports, looking for wounded prey.
The first strike team reached the outer transports.
On the tactical display, Leo watched an enemy Nascent Soul domain envelop a cluster of blue icons. Within that three hundred meter sphere, the Nascent Soul's power was absolute. The rules of reality bent to their will. Spiritual energy flowed according to their command.
The transports within that domain opened fire. Flak guns roared, filling the air with explosive rounds. Most were T2, the standard ammunition that convoys carried in bulk. Cheap, plentiful, and inadequate against a Nascent Soul's domain.
The twelve enemy Gold Cores accompanying the Nascent Souls surged forward under the Lord's protection. They moved through the flak barrage untouched, the domain shielding them from harm.
[PFC Marcus Bell - Exeter Gilead Transport] "Transport Seven-Alpha disabled. Engine damage. They're falling out of formation."
The tactical display showed a blue icon flickering, its movement slowing. The enemy strike team had achieved their objective. They had crippled the transport so it could not keep up and fell behind.
Where the rear guard waited.
"The Gold Core formation at the back," Matt said grimly. "Two hundred enemy cultivators. They'll swarm any transport that drops out of formation."
Leo watched Transport Seven-Alpha's icon drift backward relative to the convoy. The rear guard's red indicators converged on it like blood in water.
The icon went dark.
Another strike team hit another cluster of transports. The pattern repeated. A Nascent Soul domain enveloped the targets, nullifying their flak defenses. Gold Cores breached the transports' physical armor. Engines were targeted, mobility killed. The disabled transports fell behind.
The rear guard finished them off.
"Why can't we destroy them?" Leo demanded. "Three thousand transports. Six thousand flak guns. We should be able to threaten something."
"We can," Matt said. "Watch the Gold Cores outside the domains."
The display highlighted a group of enemy Gold Core cultivators that strayed outside a domain. A nearby transport's flak guns swiveled and unleashed a concentrated burst. T3 rounds this time, the more expensive ammunition reserved for critical moments.
The Gold Cores vanished from the display, shredded by explosive force from the powerful detonation of the T3 shells.
"Outside a Nascent Soul's protection, Gold Cores are vulnerable," Matt explained. "But inside the domain? Untouchable. The Lords are essentially mobile safe zones. As long as the strike teams stay coordinated, our flak can't reach them."
The central formation was faring just as poorly. Seventy Cult Nascent Soul domains pressed against the defensive hemisphere, their combined authority grinding against the five friendly Lords' interlocked barrier. The T4 drones engaged in constant skirmishes, darting through gaps in the enemy formation to strike at exposed Lords.
But the drones were designed for numerical superiority against small amount of Nascent Souls. Against massed Nascent Soul opposition, they could only delay. One by one, enemy domains caught the fast-moving drones and crushed them.
[PFC David Kim - Exeter Mars Transport]
"T4 drone attrition at 15%. Dreadnought Three sustaining heavy damage."
The tactical display showed Dreadnought Three's icon flickering. Its defensive barriers were failing under sustained assault. The massive war machine fell behind the formation's retreat, its engines struggling to maintain speed.
Twenty enemy Nascent Soul domains converged on it simultaneously.
The Dreadnought's icon went dark.
"Six operators," Tom said quietly. "Twelve drones lost with them."
The defensive hemisphere contracted, the remaining Dreadnoughts pulling tighter together. The T4 drone count dropped to one hundred thirty-two active units.
Strike teams continued their attacks across the convoy. Transport after transport fell out of formation, disabled and finished off by the rear guard. The class chat filled with flickering status updates as students aboard those transports met their ends.
[PFC Marcus Bell - Exeter Gilead Transport]
"Gilead Transport under direct attack. Nascent Soul domain has enveloped our position. Gold Cores breaching outer hull."
Leo watched the Gilead Transport's icon on the tactical display. It sat within a red sphere, a Nascent Soul's domain wrapped around it like a fist. The transport's flak guns fired continuously, but the rounds were easily blocked by the powerful cultivator.
The icon flickered.
[PFC Marcus Bell - Exeter Gilead Transport]
"Engine two disabled. We are losing speed."
The Gilead Transport's icon drifted backward.
[PFC Marcus Bell - Exeter Gilead Transport]
"We have fallen out of formation. Rear guard approaching. Abadon..."
The message cut off.
Eight names from the Exeter Gilead Transport updated simultaneously. Eight green indicators now red.
"No," Tom whispered. His phone trembled in his hands.
The tactical display updated with cold efficiency. The Gilead Transport's icon had vanished.
[PFC David Kim - Exeter Mars Transport]
"Gilead Transport is gone. We saw it happen. God help us all."
Vivian let out a small sound. Her eyes remained fixed on the display, on the icon labeled EXETER MARS TRANSPORT, still moving, still green.
The convoy continued its desperate retreat toward Kenway. Behind them, the rear guard grew fat on stragglers. Ahead, the strike teams continued their systematic work of crippling transports and feeding them to the wolves.
The ten friendly Lords holding the Divine Child sent no updates. Their battle raged at intensities that made communication impossible. Even a moment's distraction meant death.
Another Dreadnought fell. Then another.
[PFC David Kim - Exeter Mars Transport]
"T4 drone count at 110 active units. Defensive hemisphere is failing. Command is issuing new orders."
The tactical display shifted. Boston Command's strategic overlay appeared, showing a new directive propagating through the convoy's remaining transports.
Matt leaned forward, studying the orders. "Over a thousand transports are being ordered to reverse course toward Allston. Away from the main engagement. With no T4 combat cover."
The tactical display showed the convoy beginning to divide. The forward elements continued their push toward Kenway, still surrounding the battered T4 defensive hemisphere. The rear elements peeled away, executing a mass turn that would send them fleeing in the opposite direction.
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Directly toward the enemy rear guard.
[PFC David Kim - Exeter Mars Transport]
"Mars Transport has received orders to join the Allston breakout group. We are reversing course now."
The green indicator next to Ivy Xiu's name pulsed steadily. The Exeter Mars Transport's icon began its turn, joining over a thousand other transports in the desperate reversal.
Vivian's hands tightened on her armrests until her knuckles went white.
The Allston breakout group accelerated toward the rear guard. One thousand transports, two thousand flak guns, bearing down on two hundred enemy Gold Cores and five Nascent Souls.
The Gold Cores had been positioned to pick off stragglers. Disabled transports limping alone. Easy prey.
They were not prepared for a thousand transports charging directly at them.
[PFC David Kim - Exeter Mars Transport]
"Boston Command has authorized expenditure of reserve ammunition. All transports, fire at will. T3 and T4 rounds free."
The tactical display lit up.
One thousand transports opened fire simultaneously. T3 rounds filled the air in concentrated streams. T4 rounds, the precious high-tier ammunition normally reserved for absolute emergencies, joined the barrage.
The five Cult Nascent Souls anchoring the rear guard had already raised their domains. Three hundred meter spheres of authority bloomed across the engagement zone, shielding the Gold Cores within their protection.
But two hundred Gold Cores could not all fit within five domains.
The exposed cultivators died in seconds. Flak rounds designed to threaten Nascent Souls tore through the exposed Golden Core.
"They're slaughtering them," Matt breathed.
The five Nascent Souls attempted to consolidate, drawing their surviving Gold Cores into tighter formations. The breakout group used this opportunity to speed forward, transports streaming past the rear guard on all sides.
[PFC Kim - Exeter Mars Transport]
"Rear guard Gold Core formation destroyed. Estimate 180 enemy cultivators eliminated. Five Nascent Souls still active."
The tactical display showed the breakout group streaming toward Allston, leaving the shattered rear guard behind. The five enemy Nascent Souls pursued, but they could only threaten transports that fell within their domain range. The bulk of the group had escaped.
For a moment, hope flickered.
Then the tactical display updated with new enemy movements.
"No," Vivian said. "No, no, no."
Half of the strike teams that had been attacking the main convoy peeled away. Thirteen Cult Nascent Souls, accompanied by roughly eighty Gold Core cultivators, broke off their assault and accelerated after the Allston breakout group.
They joined the five Nascent Souls already pursuing.
Eighteen Nascent Soul Lords. Bearing down on a thousand transports with no Dreadnoughts, no T4 drones, no defensive formation.
[PFC David Kim - Exeter Mars Transport]
"Contact. Eighteen Nascent Soul domains. We have no T4 cover. We have no support."
The breakout group had been bait. A thousand transports thrown at the rear guard to eliminate the Gold Core threat and draw enemy Lords away from the main convoy.
They'd succeeded. The Gold Cores were dead.
Now eighteen Nascent Souls closed in with nothing to stop them.
[PFC David Kim - Exeter Mars Transport]
"Boston Command has ordered us to maintain retreat vector toward Allston. Reinforcement arrival from Allston estimated in forty-three minutes."
Vivian stared at the display. Her friend's transport icon moved with the breakout group, fleeing toward Allston, toward reinforcements and safety.
---
The Allston breakout group dwindled on the tactical display.
Boston Command's orders came through in measured intervals. Every few minutes, groups of five transports received authorization to split off from the main formation. The selection was random a cold lottery that determined which crews would attempt independent escape and which would remain with the doomed convoy.
Leo watched the splinter groups peel away. Some of them made it, their icons racing off into the wilderness surrounding the engagement zone, disappearing beyond the effective range of the pursuing Nascent Soul Lords.
Others did not.
[PFC David Kim - Exeter Mars Transport]
"Splinter group seven encountered hidden T2/T3 teams. All five transports lost."
"Enemy Gold Core teams," Matt muttered, studying the tactical feed. "They're too weak to register on the long-range spiritual detectors. Boston Command can't see them."
The display showed the problem clearly. The Nascent Soul Lords appeared as distinct signatures, their spiritual energy dense enough to detect at distance. But lower-tier cultivators operated beneath that threshold. Teams of enemy Gold Cores and Foundation Establishment cultivators had hidden themselves across the surrounding territory, invisible to long range sensors, waiting to pick off splinter groups.
Leo's hands clenched at his sides. "Why doesn't the retreating group split completely? Twenty-five different groups, all going in different directions. The Nascent Souls can't chase everyone. A few group could survive."
The words hung in the air.
Tom opened his mouth. His eyes flicked to Vivian, still motionless in the pilot's seat, her gaze locked on the icon labeled EXETER MARS TRANSPORT.
He closed his mouth.
"Command probably has its reasons," Tom said quietly.
He looked at Leo. Then at Matt. A silent message passed between them.
Not now. Not in front of her.
Leo didn't understand, but he knew enough to keep his mouth shut.
The breakout group continued its desperate flight toward Allston. The eighteen Nascent Soul Lords pressed their pursuit. Transport after transport fell, disabled and destroyed, feeding the enemy's advance.
But the Exeter Mars Transport's icon remained green.
Vivian watched it move across the tactical display. Her breathing had gone shallow, each exhale carefully controlled. Her eyes tracked the icon's progress with absolute focus, as if looking away would somehow curse it.
David Kim's status updates continued to flow through the class chat.
[PFC David Kim - Exeter Mars Transport]
"Nineteen minutes. We can see the reinforcements on long-range sensors. They're coming."
More transports fell. The breakout group's numbers dwindled from a thousand to eight hundred to six hundred. Each lost icon represented students, crews, families that would receive notifications in the coming days.
But the Mars Transport survived.
[PFC David Kim - Exeter Mars Transport]
"Eleven minutes. Reinforcement column is visible. Nascent Soul Lords leading, Gold Core flyers behind. T4 Flying Boats bringing up the rear. They're fast. Help is on the way!"
Vivian's hands trembled. Hope crept into her expression for the first time since the engagement began.
[PFC David Kim - Exeter Mars Transport]
"Six minutes. Contact imminent. We can see them clearly now. Dozens of Lords. Many more T4 signatures. They're..."
Then the entire feed cut to black.
David Kim's status updates ceased. The class chat showed his name greyed out, his connection terminated. Ivy Xiu's status indicator, the little colored dot that showed life or death, shifted from green to grey.
The tactical display went dark. Every feed from the Allston sector disappeared simultaneously, replaced by a simple message.
INFORMATION RESTRICTED - OPERATIONAL SECURITY
Vivian stood.
She moved past Leo without a word, her footsteps carrying her toward the rear compartment. The door sealed behind her with a soft click.
Matt rose smoothly and slid into the pilot's seat. His hands found the controls, taking over without a word.
Leo finally understood what had happened. The reinforcements from Allston would arrive in two waves. The Fast Response Task Force, which consisted of Allston's flying forces, traveled at speeds the ground-bound Dreadnoughts could never match. They had reached the feeling transports first.
The Fast Response Task Force must have flew straight past.
They must have passed the breakout group without pause and continued toward the main engagement zone. They did not turn to engage the pursuing Nascent Soul Lords or provide cover for the fleeing transports.
Eighty-two Nascent Soul Lords, the Divine Child's main force, were still engaged with the convoy's remnants. A concentration of enemy power that rarely presented itself so openly.
The Allston Task Force had flown past the dying transports, past the students screaming for rescue, past Ivy Xiu and everyone aboard the Mars Transport.
The breakout group was not the objective. The breakout group was the bait.
Since the fate of the remaining transports was still censored, the gambit must have worked. The Eighteen Cult Nascent Soul's must have committed to destroying the breakout group, continuing their slaughter instead of retreating.
If the Lords had disengaged, Command would have shared the news immediately. The silence spoke volumes.
David Kim and Ivy Xiu had been sacrificed to keep eighteen enemy Lords occupied while the Allston Task Force encircled the remaining eighty-two.
Command would call it a victory.
Tom reached for the display controls. His hand hesitated over the interface.
"We don't need to watch anymore," he said quietly.
He deactivated the remaining feeds. The tactical displays went dark. The class chat stood muted.
Their transport drove on through the night in silence.
---
The battle, now known as the Battle of Kenyway-Allston, became a great victory for Boston Command. The Divine Child stayed too long slaughtering and attacking the hard to crack transport trucks and Dreadnoughts, and ended up trapped and encircled by Boston Command reinforcements.
The breakout group played a large role, occupying eighteen Nascent Soul Lords and drawing them away from the main battle. All of the members received medals. However, almost all of them posthumously.
The Divine Child escaped only by ordering a quarter of his Nascent Soul Lords to sacrifice themselves as a rear guard.
Boston Command effectively traded three Nascent Soul Lords and one hundred twenty Gold Cores to kill twenty-five Nascent Soul Lords and four hundred Gold Cores. It was a great victory, and morale surged in Garrison Boston.
The students of Exeter saw things differently.
The Battle of Kenway-Allston had involved three thousand transport trucks staffed by over two hundred thousand Qi Refiner and Foundation Establishment cultivators, most of whom were student-soldiers or draftees. Fewer than a fifth made it back home.
Boston Command said nothing about the deaths of Qi Refiners or Foundation Establishment troops. After all, new troops could be raised using free spiritual Qi seized from the catacombs. But the drivers knew that over twenty thousand troops just like them had died.
Merit pay increased again. It now stood at over five times the baseline peacetime rate. Exeter even sponsored free mental health services.
None of Leo's group went. They all knew that military therapy was about holding to Command's line, rather than working through your trauma.
Leo and his team kept driving.
Jimbo's reassurances helped. He said the Divine Child had learned his lesson and would stop wasting time slaughtering low-tier troops.
This was possibly the best time ever to earn merits. It would be weeks of peace, with five times base merit pay.
The work kept their minds off of treasonous thoughts too.
It was now that Leo finally realized the world he had transmigrated to. This world that looked and felt like the America he knew was different on a cruel, fundamental level.
The America he knew would have never sacrificed its soldiers as bait. Let alone a group of high school students.
It was today Leo learned the difference between the America of "Leave No Man Behind" and the America of this world that thought twenty thousand rank and file were well worth the lives of twenty five Nascent Souls.
If he put himself in the shoes of Boston Command, he would probably have made the same choice. And it was probably the best choice, saving the most amount of lives.
But none of his classmates on the mission survived. The next time they would return to school would be in coffins at homecoming.
It was a very difficult pill for Leo to swallow.
