Chapter 71: Sanctuary by the Chimaera

Stepping outside, they saw numerous workers with suffering expressions and five armed soldiers. Clyde, Celes, Craig, Casca, and Corie exchanged glances and nodded. In an instant, they vanished, "thump!" and materialized directly in front of or behind the five armed guards, striking them down so swiftly that they couldn’t even manage a single scream before falling unconscious, entirely unaware of what had hit them.

Blugh.

Roughly ten workers who had been loading cargo into the aircraft dropped their loads, their faces contorting in terror as several collapsed to the floor in a heap. Craig glanced over at a blue-skinned middle-aged man who had stumbled down right next to him.

"Oh... so the uncle who guided us into town works here," Craig remarked via telepathy.

Naturally, Clyde, Celes, Casca, and Corie also turned their gaze toward the man, causing him to flinch and clutch his chest before his eyes rolled back and he passed out cold. Once the older man was down,

"Now, let’s free the captives inside," Clyde instructed.

"And what about them?" Casca asked, gesturing toward the terrified workers.

"Hmm... they were just doing their jobs," Craig noted.

"Kill them? Want me to take care of it?" Corie offered eagerly, raising her foot.

"Wait... leave it to me," Celes replied.

Celes floated upward, her third purple eye and the crystals glowing brightly on her shoulders, elbows, and knees. Suddenly, "blugh!" the nine surrounding workers, frozen in fear and confusion, abruptly collapsed and went completely motionless. Then Celes drifted down to land right back in the center among her siblings.

"I hypnotized them to sleep. Come on," Celes called out using telepathy.

"Wow... must be nice to have a trick like that," Craig muttered.

"Though I’m not very suited for frontline combat," Celes admitted.

"Hmm... that means the five of us complement each other perfectly, right, Sister Celes, Brother Craig?" Casca observed.

"Yup, exactly," Craig agreed.

"Hey... why are you guys just standing around chatting? Let’s move, Brother Clyde is already heading inside," Corie prompted, pointing forward.

Celes, Craig, Casca, and Corie turned to see that Clyde had already walked up the platform to re-enter the craft. They sprinted to catch up with Clyde, who had taken the lead. Once inside, "clang!" they shattered the padlocks and wrenched the chains holding the iron-barred doors. Pulling the gates open, they rushed to assist the women and young girls who looked so utterly hollowed out that they didn’t even register who was rescuing them, their minds deeply shattered.

With painstaking effort, they carried the women and girls out of the cages one by one, as not a single one of them had the strength to move or walk under their own power. They emerged from the aircraft alongside roughly twenty women and girls who could barely be considered half-alive, dragging their chains as they made their way toward the massive main cargo exit of the hangar, blocked as it was by the rear of the Chimaera Z-X, rather than the narrow side door.

Once they managed to squeeze through the gap in the dented gate pushed open by the Chimaera Z-X, they paused for a moment in silence.

"So, where are we going to put them? In this condition, we can’t possibly bring them into the city," Casca pointed out.

"Yeah... they’re still in shock and suffering from severe trauma. We can’t just leave them here either," Corie added.

"Ah... I know a place, give me a sec," Craig said.

Suddenly, Craig leaped high into the air, landing squarely on the arm of the Chimaera Z-X before bounding up to its shoulder and vaulting toward the cliff ledge above.

"What is Craig up to?" Celes asked.

"No idea... just wait," Clyde answered.

Shortly after "rumble!" Craig dropped back down, hauling a massive truck that had previously been parked up top behind the mansion, setting it down right beside the Chimaera Z-X. Craig then unlatched the rear security hooks and swung open the wing box until it slammed against the ground.

"There...let’s just get them up in here, and then we’ll cover the truck with the same foliage we used to camouflage the Chimaera Z-X," Craig suggested cheerfully.

"Hmm... good point. Alright, let’s build them a safe shelter right next to the Chimaera Z-X so the energy shield enveloping its body can protect them too," Clyde agreed.

"Let’s get to work. As usual, Casca... Corie," Craig called out, glancing back at his twin siblings.

"Uuugh... again? Fine," Corie grumbled in complaint.

"Come on, Corie," Casca urged, giving Corie a supportive pat on the back.

With that, the two dashed forward "crack, crack!" as large nearby trees began crashing down, kicked over by Corie and sliced through by Casca’s razor-sharp tail. They tossed all the lumber toward the truck, where Clyde and Craig caught the logs and neatly stacked them over the top of the truck to conceal the cargo box.

Meanwhile, Celes slipped into the cockpit of the Chimaera Z-X to retrieve their travel bags left behind inside, bringing them down to replace the tattered and revealing garments of the women and girls with fresh clothes.

As soon as the truck box was securely sealed, Celes, Casca, and Corie gently guided the young women and girls up into the truck bed, while Clyde and Craig headed back into the hangar to scavenge their food supplies, carrying them outside and loading them into the truck for the captives. Once the provisions arrived, the fameless women and girls began eating ravenously, having gone without food for God knows how long. As they watched the captives devour the meal with wild, messy abandon,

"Can we leave now?" Corie asked.

"Patience... we’ll stay here for a bit, then head to the station," Clyde replied.

"The station?" Celes echoed, turning to look at Clyde.

"Yeah... Mary and Selma are arriving at the station. We need to wait for them," Clyde explained.

"Oh, right. Alright, I’m on board. So after that, are we heading back to Safe Haven using the Chimaera Z-X?" Casca asked.

"Hmm... depends on the situation," Clyde answered.

"Ah... I want to go back to Safe Haven. I want to see if Lyra’s woken up from her sleep yet," Craig said.

"Hang on... I want to go back there too, but for some reason, something’s bothering me. I can’t quite put my finger on it," Clyde confessed.

"Hmm... I see. I trust you, Clyde. If you say something like that, chances are it’s true," Celes said, resting a hand on Clyde’s back.

"Thanks, Celes," Clyde replied, touching Celes’s shoulder.

"But they’ll be safe here, right?" Corie asked, glancing sideways at the women and girls, some of whom were eating while others had drifted off to sleep out of sheer relief.

"Hopefully... that’s why we’re waiting here for a while. We should head down from the truck and keep watch on the ground," Clyde instructed.

"Got it," Celes, Craig, Casca, and Corie chorused together.

They leaped down from the vehicle and secured the wing box shut once more to protect the women and girls resting inside.

***

Meanwhile, in the governor’s office located in the main city of Utopia, the governor hung up his phone, then turned to face the two Neo Ark officers standing behind him as he rose to his feet.

"First Lieutenant Ryker, Sergeant Janet of Neo Ark, as you saw on the security footage, they are currently in the territory governed by Silas Ward. I ask that Neo Ark refrain from interfering for now. Let them deal with Silas first so we don’t have to get our own hands dirty cleaning up a tumor like him. Afterward, we will approach them and arrange for a conversation with the two of you," the governor stated.

"It’s not that simple, Governor. They know both of us, and they’ll naturally turn hostile toward us if we make a misstep in approaching them. So I must insist that you dispatch your own operatives to meet with them, by whatever means necessary," Ryker countered.

"I see. Very well, understood. I will send out my operative who has been working undercover there, keeping an eye on the activities of this man named Silas and his abuse of authority," the governor conceded.

"Very well. May I know the name of your agent?" Janet asked.

"Here is their file, please have a look. I’ll contact them right this second," the governor replied, handing his tablet over to Janet.

The governor immediately pulled out his smartphone to place a call, while Janet peered down at the tablet screen, which displayed the profile of a half-fox male operative wearing a Utopian military uniform alongside a winged female soldier also in Utopian military attire, both caught mid-salute.

Then Janet handed the tablet to Ryker, who immediately scanned the profiles of the two individuals displayed on the screen. Meanwhile, Janet watched the governor making his call and stole a glance at Ryker, whose face had turned utterly serious as he read through the files.

"I hope this mission goes smoothly... I need to figure out how to bring them to meet Colonel Irena, and it seems when that moment comes, I’ll have to fight my own husband," Janet murmured inside her head.