Old Raily sat in the shadows overlooking the mess hall used by the guards, the target they had to deal with. He would be lying to say that he didn't feel that they were rushing their attack, but he understood why they had to do things that way. The Harvesters could attack any day, and that would mean the death of even more of the slaves, they couldn't let that happen.
His only regret was how it wasn't him who went after the guards' Captain, the man was the perfect target for him and his skill, Brothers in Arms. A dangerous target that his squad could deal with without worrying about him hurting any of them.
Unfortunately, Marcus decided that sending him to deal with the guards was better for the whole operation, while Marcus, Leonard, Hank and Ricky went to deal with the Captain. The reason Marcus chose that lineup for that operation was because they had decided that the group going after the Captain had to have Marcus on it, Altruism was a skill that group would need more than any of the others after all.
Thinking about his group, he turned to the only other person he had with him, Luke. The Metal Sorcerer seemed a bit nervous but Old Raily wasn't going to let him join the heat of the battle if he could help it, hopefully, just him and his squad were going to be enough for the coming confrontation.
Only having Luke with him might seem a bit underwhelming, but Old Raily knew that he could have dealt with the whole mess hall himself, it was just better to have someone who could help him if the situation called for that.
The third, and final, group was led by George. It had him, Arnold and Kathy. That group's main objective was to deal with the few guards who weren't in the mess hall and instead were standing guards in a few locations. They needed to hit swiftly and attack all those points.
Fortunately, all those guards and their watchtowers were on the defensive line at shore, where the Harvesters were attacking from, so they had an easy time docking at the other side of the island and making their way to their targets. They only had to deal with a couple of solitary guards that George and Marcus finished without having to fire any shots.
After going over all the groups and their targets, Old Raily found himself without any other distractions and he could only face those thoughts brought to the surface by the coming attack straight away. He thought that he had already left all his insecurities and troubles behind after being part of so many missions since they had found themselves in this new world. Unfortunately, with how similar the current mission was to some of those from his past, all those old wounds seemed to be opening again.
Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Old Raily calmed his heart as he repressed his churning emotions, he wasn't the same person as before, and he wasn't going to lose himself in his mind. Glancing at Luke next to him, he steadied his heart again, it wasn't just his life on the line there, he would make sure that the young man would return safe and sound to his mother.
Calming his heart and preparing himself for what was coming, Old Raily suddenly caught the weak but unmistakable sound of a stun grenade sounding from the distance, it was their signal!
Tapping Luke next to him, he kept close to the ground as he left the shadows they were hiding in and ran into the window to the mess hall. Glancing inside he noticed that a few of the guards were standing up and looking in confusion as the sound of gunfire sounded from the captain's private house. Not wanting to give them the chance to get rid of that confusion and going to check, he removed the stun grenade's pin before throwing it inside, right at the centre of the hall, and where the guards were most concentrated. Luke did the same from next to him. At the same time, he activated his Brothers in Arms skill as he willed them to jump through the windows and start the attack.
Bang! Bang!
PaPaPaPaPaPaPa!
The two stun grenades landed first, followed by heavy fire from The Squad. Old Raily had already told Luke what was going to happen, so the young man didn't try to go in, he just kept to the ground as The Squad dealt with the guards inside. Only after ten to fifteen seconds had passed did Old Raily raise his head to peek inside.
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As he had expected, most of the guards inside were already on the ground, either dead or injured, the few remaining were just hiding behind walls or doing their best to stay away from The Squad's fire. Three of the guards caught Old Raily's eyes. The first had a metallic shine to his skin, the projectiles that hit it were only leaving behind sparks as they either changed courses or just fell to the ground.
The second seemed to have turned into a being of viscous liquid, the bullets were just passing through him harmlessly. Old Raily noted from his grimace and how he was trying his best to find a place to hide, the bullets weren't as harmless as he made them look.
The third was the one that made Old Raily pause, having him decide to take him down personally. He had turned incorporeal as he floated away, trying to retreat.
Old Raily aimed his gun at the running incorporeal guard and activated the first skill he got after making it to Talia, Soul Attack. It was a skill that attacked a being's soul directly, doing damage that bypassed most of their defences. It was a skill that had much use against those undead fish that the Ghostly Lantern sent after them.
As expected, as soon as the man was hit, he turned corporeal again and fell to the ground screaming, Old Raily didn't care for him anymore, knowing that his people would deal with him soon, instead, he aimed at the other two and shot. It took much more to have those two change back to their normal selves, but they were eventually dealt with.
Dealing with the few who were just hiding didn't take a lot after that. Soon, the fight ended and they were only left with the injured moaning guards on the ground.
"What are we going to do with them?" Luke asked as he joined Old Raily inside the mess hall.
Looking at him, Old Raily noticed how his hands were shaking and his eyes were moving all around. He honestly was happy with how the Metal Sorcerer did. It wasn't that apparent, but he noticed him using his power to pull some of the guards who were hiding while clutching their weapons to the open, where The Squad dealt with them, which helped end the fight pretty fast.
"Get out," Old Raily finally answered him.
"What..?" Luke seemed confused at first before his face went even paler as he understood what he had meant.
He opened his mouth a few times as if wanting to say something, but eventually, he just turned around and left. Old Raily gave his Brothers in Arms a glance and a nod before turning around and following after him, ignoring the shouts and sounds of shots coming from inside.
He knew that it might seem too cold-blooded, but they had already made sure that they were the worst kind of people, and they for sure weren't going to let such low lives be or have them join on the Voyager, which only left finishing them right there and then.
"Old Raily here." He contacted Ricky who had been with Marcus and was in charge of the walkie-talkie, after he noticed that the gunfire had stopped on their side. "How are things on your side? Over."
"The Captain is dead," Ricky's voice sounded, "Leonard got injured and Marcus had to use Altruism. We used a healing potion on him but he's still in a critical condition, Leonard carried him and is taking him to Fleta at the shore. Over."
Old Raily gritted his teeth as his heart skipped a beat. He knew that this moment would happen, when someone would get seriously injured, but when it happened, it still stung.
"Head towards us," he ordered after bringing his emotions under control, "We will move from there. Over."
"Affirmative. Over."
As he waited for Hank and Ricky to come to them, he contacted George, Arnold and Kathy. The ones dealing with the guard at the defensive line.
"How are things on your side? Over," he asked after contacting them.
"We are facing a bit of a problem," Kathy said, her voice a bit stressed, "We are holding on well, but they are hiding behind those walls and they are making it pretty hard for us. Over."
"We will be there soon. Over," he said as he looked at Luke.
With all the guards inside the mess-hall dealt with and Brothers in Arms still having quite a bit in it, he decided that they would meet Hank and Ricky halfway there before turning towards George and his group. They needed to finish this fast.
"Let's go." He started running, The Squad leading ahead of him as he and Luke followed.

