Luminescence

Thirty-nine.

"Mara, wake up!" Lucy says, shoving my arm slightly, shaking me out of my dream. "We're just under one minute away!" She exclaims making me get up excitedly.

I pat my hair down knowing that I probably had bedhead, and walk over to Hudson's pilot seat to watch from the front windshield. He glances away from his main task only to smile up at me, as I wrap my arms around him in a bear hug for support.

As our ship flies below the clouds, I was expecting to see hundreds of ships and even thousands of soldiers. But all I saw was... an open grass field with literally nothing.

"Just wait for it," Hudson says, before pressing a few buttons leaving me very confused. Were we early to the party?

Suddenly, I see hexagons of some kind form a random hole directly above the field. They were glowing, almost as if they were a digitally enhanced technology feat.

"It's an invisibility shield," Hudson explains. "This will cover our tracks for now so the Plague doesn't receive any suspicious activity alerts." And as the ship flies through the gap, my jaw suddenly drops.

There weren't just thousands of soldiers in this large field. There had to be well over ten thousand as dozens upon dozens of ships were lined up, all with different sizes and styles. I don't think any of us were expecting this much of a turnout, as I look around to see everyone else's eyes wide as well.

"Look at all of them," Priscilla exclaims over the earpiece. "This is insane!"

We all agreed, but we were all in too much shock to reply back as Hudson puts the plane in landing gear. We looked down to see an air traffic director giving us a spot to land, and crowds began gathering around our ship.

Hudson turns off the engine and takes a deep sigh. "Ready?" He asks looking at all of us, more specifically at me, as we all nod.

We open the back hatch to the airship, only to see hundreds of people surrounding our ship. Dozens of eyes remained on us for what seemed like the longest time. But after a few seconds, a single man in the front begins to clap. Like a disease, the applaud began to spread like waves across the people, cheering us on as we walked through a path they created.

"Mara!"

As the crowd began to disappear, I saw Elaine pushing her way through the people with a massive smile on her face. I begin running towards her as well, laughing and embracing her in a massive hug.

As we break up the hug, she looks to me and my other three friends behind me.

"Congratulations captain," I say smirking to her and playfully punching her shoulder just like old times. "You're going to lead us to victory today, I just know it!"

"Thanks Mara," she breathes hugging me one last time. "Mind if you introduce me to your friends here?"

"Elaine, this is Ryan," I say, as he reaches out his hand for her to shake. "He's incredibly skilled at combat, and just wait until you see him on the battlefield."

"Damn, you've got a strong grip," Elaine says shaking her hand to relieve some of the pain. "Let me guess. Insanely strong and invincible to elements like fire?"

Ryan raises an eyebrow suspiciously and looks to me. "How does she know that?"

"Lucky guess?" Elaine shrugs and then shakes Hudson's hand.

"I'm Hudson," he says smiling. "Mara's boyfriend."

Elaine's jaw drops and slowly turns to me with a smirk on her face. "Bitch!" She whisper-shouts back to me, cupping her mouth so that Hudson wouldn't hear. "You're so telling me about this later!"