The descent from the peaks was a brutal, vertical negotiation with the planet itself. Akane's proposed route down the western face would have been a swift, merciless plunge. Haruto's chosen path along the eastern ridges was a slow, agonizing grind, a winding dance with gravity and razor-edged winds. For the first few hours, Sakura's skepticism was a palpable force within the group. A spec-ops clone conditioned for efficiency, she saw every detour, every cautious halt ordered by Himari, as a waste of precious time.
"Officer, at this pace, we'll be on these mountains for three days," she transmitted over their private comm channel. "A fast descent would have us at the treeline by nightfall."
"A fast descent would also have us skylined against the cliffs for any predator to see," Haruto transmitted back, his voice calm but unyielding. "We are moving at the pace of our best asset. Trust the scout, Sergeant."
His trust was validated before midday. They were crossing a wide, exposed scree field when Himari suddenly stopped, holding up a hand. She pointed not at the path ahead, but at the towering rock formations above them.
"The wind is wrong," she said, her voice barely a whisper. "The stones… they're singing."
Akane and Sakura exchanged a look of confusion. To them, the wind was just wind. But Kaito and Riku immediately understood, their eyes scanning the cliffs with newfound urgency.
**
"Move!" Haruto commanded, his voice sharp. "Back the way we came! Now!"
They scrambled back, and not a moment too soon. With a groan that seemed to rise from the planet's core, a section of the cliff face the size of a frigate sheared away. Tons of rock and debris thundered down, obliterating the path they had been about to take. The ground shuddered, and the air filled with a choking cloud of granite dust. Had they followed Akane's doctrine of speed, they would have been directly under it.
The incident silenced Sakura's complaints. She looked at Himari, then at the devastation, her analytical mind recalibrating its assessment of the "primitive" princess. This wasn't superstition; it was a form of sensory input her training had never accounted for.
Their true test as a unit came on the second day, as they entered the foothills where the mountain's rock bled into the forest's dense canopy. They were navigating a narrow ravine when Akari's warning came, swift and urgent.
**
Before the warning was even finished, they appeared—lean, reptilian creatures with mottled green and brown scales that made them almost invisible against the damp earth and mossy rocks. They had powerful hind legs, sickle-like claws, and jaws filled with needle-sharp teeth.
"Ravagers!" Riku hissed, recognizing them instantly. "They hunt in packs of twenty or more. They use the ravine walls to surround their prey."
"Standard pincer ambush," Akane noted, her rifle already snapping to her shoulder. "Sakura, you take the left flank. I'll take the right. Officer, cover the rear."
"Negative," Haruto's order cut through her tactical assessment. "We don't break formation. Akane, Sakura, you are Fire Team Alpha. Suppressing fire on the right wall. Use burst shots; don't let them build momentum. Kaito, Riku, Fire Team Bravo. You're with me on the left. Himari, center, behind us. Do not move from cover."
The Ravagers surged, a blur of green muscle and snapping jaws. Following Haruto's command, Akane and Sakura unleashed a disciplined volley of plasma bursts, their shots not aimed to kill but to control, forcing the creatures on the right to scramble for cover. On the left, Haruto, Kaito, and Riku met the charge. Haruto's rifle was a tool of brutal precision, each shot dropping a Ravager in its tracks. Kaito and Riku, now comfortable with their pistols, provided close-range support, picking off any that got through Haruto's initial barrage.
It was a perfect fusion of tactics. Akane and Sakura's overwhelming firepower and spec-ops training controlled the battlefield, while Haruto's command and the guards' knowledge of the enemy's behavior allowed for a devastatingly effective defense. The Ravagers, accustomed to panicked prey they could easily overwhelm, broke against a wall of coordinated, lethal force. The attack lasted less than a minute before the surviving creatures screeched and melted back into the undergrowth.
They stood in the sudden silence, the air thick with the smell of ozone and alien blood. Akane lowered her rifle, looking at the bodies, then at Kaito and Riku, who were already checking their flank, their movements professional and sure.
"Effective," she admitted, the single word a high compliment from the stoic clone.
Haruto nodded, reloading his rifle. "One team. One fight."
They had entered the mountains as two separate groups of survivors. They emerged onto the plains at the edge of the forest as one squad, forged in the hardships of the journey. In the distance, just visible through the haze, was the dark silhouette of the fortress. They were almost home.