Lanterns in the Fog

Lyra shouted, "Ambush!" as Sera dove behind broken stone. Bullets were patterned overhead. Malik returned fire from the flank, trailing the attackers as they moved. Keira, in the rear, activated her jamming device to scramble radio transmissions. The chant turned to howls.

Sera took a breath, scanning. She ordered quickly, "Stack up at my left – move in! Lyra on me!" They crept along the chapel's broken wall. The air was thick with smoke and screams. The team was split: Malik and Marcus on one side, pinning the initial attackers, Sera, Keira, and Lyra flanking through the side entrance.

A burst of gunfire exploded from the cellar hole in the ground. An armed man popped up, aiming at Sera's group. Keira reacted, a perfect shot, and the gunman collapsed back into the shadows. They had reached the lower room.

Sera peered into the darkness of a makeshift basement. Dozens of young men and women, wide-eyed, sat in terror as two guards pointed rifles at them, while another speaker blasted propaganda. The recruits froze, clutching backpacks with identical uniforms and weapons laid out in front of them. They looked like scared children in stolen adult clothes.

Lyra gasped softly. "They're teenagers..."

One boy tugged at Sera's sleeve; "Please, I want out," he whispered, voice cracking. Sera's helmet camera captured the moment, relaying to Malik's analyst team back base – evidence.

Gunfire erupted again from above. Sera shouted, "Valeguard!" And upon hearing it, Marcus activated the planted bombs they had meticously planted over days of observing and infiltration. A blinding white flash filled the cramped space, followed by chaos. By instinct, Sera kicked open the trapdoor into the cellar, rifle at the ready. Marcus had burst into the room from the other side, his large frame clearing the melee. Malik was right behind, breaching charges, cutting an entry hole in an adjacent wall.

The three others stepped into the dim light as bodies dropped. Barah Saab was there, flanked by two militants. He snarled, switching his pistol to his other hand and raising a heavy rifle. "You should have stayed away!" he spat.

Lyra screamed, and from some hidden places bullets flew and accurately shooting the terrorists outside, running to help their leader. Barah got distracted from the outer chaos, giving Lyra the shortest opportunity to fire, forcing Barah to duck behind a column. Sera pressed on. "Valeguard, on me!"

Outnumbered but not deterred, the team converged on Barah. Marcus took cover behind debris, reloading with grim focus, covering fire sweeping the shadows. Malik had already disarmed the guard to his right and tackled another from his perspective. Keira whirled, shotgun in hand, providing backup as they fanned out to isolate the leader.

Sera stepped forward, rifle aimed steadily, though her heart raced. Barah stood with a pistol pointed at the wall where some recruits hid behind crates. "Step back, or they'll die!" he threatened through clenched teeth. Blood smeared his mouth; the jade amulet around his neck glowed faintly in the dark.

Keira yelled, "He's bluffing. Everyone move!"

Slowly, Sera slunk lower, covering her angle. "I'm not one of the lost, Barah," she snapped. "Time to surrender."

Barah laughed, the sound manic. "It's too late, Seraphine Elion. The world is changing, and you stand on the wrong side." He jerked the pistol toward a recruit, and a shot rang out.

Lyra cried out. Sera's eyes widened. Lyra fell back, clutching her thigh. In that split-second panic, Sera squeezed off a single round. The bullet hit Barah in the shoulder, dropping his rifle. He howled and dropped the pistol.

Instantly, Malik and Marcus tackled him to the floor. Sera rushed to Lyra, on instinct, as footsteps echoed outside and men stormed the entrance.

"Ambush!" cried Keira, now shoulder-deep in adrenaline. Two extra terrorists had sneaked up – not human, but three attack dogs trained by Barah. The dogs lunged. Sera threw a piece of his helmet at one; it yelped but kept coming. Malik found a metal pipe and swung, sending the dog skidding backward. Marcus finished it with a single shot. The second dog, poised to pounce, turned – but Keira's shotgun pellet stopped it cold.

Within moments, the dust settled. Malik loomed over the captured Barah, who coughed. Lyra was grimacing, but not dying. One of the guarded recruits tried to slip past Marcus in panic, but the heavy gunner was on him in an instant, pinning the recruit under his weight. The boy's eyes were wide with fear; Marcus eased off him and lowered himself to the ground at Sera's hand signal. No one had to die.

Sera knelt by Lyra, applying a tourniquet. The medic's face was pale, courage held firm beneath pain. "I'm okay," Lyra whispered, forcing a grin. "Guess I won't have to write up the field report on healing someone I already know."

Malik punched a wall lightly where Barah sat. "We're done here, you got nothing. Peace will come to these villagers."

Barah spat blood on the stone floor. "You may have beaten me," he groaned, "but a day will come when the men of principle rise again!" Sera pulled him to his feet. "I'm dragging you to the camp. The Commander wants you alive."

As Barah was cuffed, the surviving recruits gathered around, shaking. Sera offered their first aid kit and words of reassurance. She saw bravery in their frightened eyes, and sorrow for their shattered dreams. They had been misled but somehow Sera feared that some might have believed Barah and will live following him.

---

By dusk, they had escorted Barah's men to a field headquarters camp for interrogation and handed over the injured to medevac. The evidence of their recruitment tactics – the encrypted broadcast scripts, pamphlets, and the jade amulet – would ensure the Obsidian Reapers cell here was shattered. New arrests were likely within hours.

Sera planted a small flag on the hill where they'd first watched the village, if only for a moment. Marcus joked in a low growl, "First one to plant it is the new commander." They laughed, a brittle sound. The desert wind tugged at their clothes.

Malik sat beside Sera, staring at the horizon where day bled into night. "Your leadership saved lives today," he said quietly. "One wrong move, and those kids in the cellar—" His voice caught, finishing lightly, "—they wouldn't have made it."

Sera dipped her gaze. "We all did. Because we are the Valeguard." Her tone was soft but certain. She looked at the younger faces around: Marcus cleaning his rifle, Keira running diagnostics on her comms jammer, Lyra stitching a wound on her thigh in casual defiance of pain. She felt a surge of pride and relief — like they'd passed a test that no one else would ever see.

Lyra, ever aware, walked over with two steaming mugs of coffee. "Take this, tactician," she said, handing one to Sera. "Hot and dark, your favorite." Sera accepted, the warmth traveling through cold bones. She toasted to each member lightly with a nod.

The air cooled sharply now. In the peace, the world's harsh edges returned. They were the ones who stood between such harshness and those unprepared for it.

Keira finally cracked a grin. "You all look like hell." She pulled her gloves off one finger at a time, glancing at Sera. "But a good hell. We did well."

Sera rested back, every muscle aching, tension in her shoulders releasing. "We did. And we'll do it again if we have to." She paused, thoughtful. "Out there... those kids maybe wanted change, thinking we were the enemy. Today, we showed them otherwise. Brotherhood means standing together, understanding sacrifice."

Marcus, watching the last glow of light, said gruffly, "The order of operations. We did them in." He glanced at Barah being loaded onto a blindfolded transport. "But plans go out the window half the time, yet we manage to keep on track. Also, Sera, your brother's unit of distant shooters is always a great chess piece." A ghost of a smile touched his lips. 

Malik added softly, "This is the price of ambitions turned to greed. Their open wounds, that's what recruiters target, believing their cure is to turn against their nation." He looked out at the darkening mesa lines. "If these villages heard what happened, our Valeguard might be something they come to trust again."

The team watched in silence as a convoy of armored trucks appeared on the road behind them, marked with the insignia of the border patrols. Local law enforcement had arrived, as promised, to take over.

Sera finally stood, stretching cramped limbs. She had a fresh sense of calm and fatigue. They had faced fire once more, and the team was still intact, though battered. They would laugh about this later, she thought – if not now, then in days ahead.

Before returning home, they filed to the edge of the cliff once more. The night sky was black velvet crowned with stars. The crickets had returned, and in that quiet, only the desert wind spoke. Sera closed her eyes, taking it in.

"We are stronger together," she whispered to herself, then to Malik. "Thank you, brother, for always choosing to come with me."

.

Malik gave a faint smile. "That's what siblings do."

Sera gripped her rifle and turned. The mission was done, they were alive, and justice, however fragile – held the night at bay. Sera looked forward and answered, "At last, after days and weeks, we'll be going home."

Then, a loud voice from behind said, "Callum might be overloaded then."

It was Riven Elion, the eldest child in the Elion's five line, the Brigadier General, and the leader of the Phantomline Unit, a group of far-distance shooters.