Chapter 7
Everyone switched their energy cells, dropping the spent battery on the ground and slapping new ones onto their belts.
“Are we going to take them?” Bri stood beside Alers. 37 had passed the most recent wave of crates, reinforcements for the Earther forces already at the water facility. It wasn’t the best case scenario; they were effectively sitting between the marines at the pumping facility and the marines that were still landing. They had jumped the line and she wasn’t sure what Alers intended.
“As much as I’d love to,” Alers voice was a growl, and her narrowed at the smoke-covered field behind them. “We have our orders.”
Bri understood the anger in Alers’ eyes. She had counted the soldiers when she and Kat had arrived at bravo and they had lost two besides Cooper. Their overlays only showed 37’s position. No one had any idea how far the other three units had made it or if they had made it, but it didn’t matter. They couldn’t stay at Bravo long.
“18 will be pushing to the west side of the facility,” Alers looked around at the rest of the team. “We hit the front, straight on. Hard and fast. What are we looking at Pauly?”
Pauly had one knee in the dry silt that had once been the bottom of a lake. He was working his wristcall. “The facility’s main power system is still operational.” He wiped his wrist across the back of his forehead. “It’s ugly. I’ve got soldiers everywhere, two turrets at the main gate.” His voice got higher and higher with every word.
“Pauly, I need to know how many marines are between those guns and us. What are we looking at?” Arles tone wasn’t desperate, but it was urgent. They heard the heavy pounding of footsteps, at least three marines moving off to their left. Bri’s chest ached and she aimed her pistols into the dust. Her overlay found and locked onto the helmets.
A breath and he would be gone. But they were moving away. The wind blew and the smoke thinned.
“I see thirty-seven buoys.” Pauly’s voice fell a bit when he read the number.
“Alright kids, remember pistol training?” Arles looked at Kat and nodded.
A crate slammed to the surface, bounced somewhere behind them, and flew over their heads. It took a half a breath. One minute there was nothing, the next there was this thunderous shadow and the sound of thunder. It was deafening, an angry roar as the pod flipped and tumbled through the air.
It was the size of a Daedric fighter, a massive rectangle filled with marines. Everyone ducked as the force of the crash hurled the megaton object off somewhere in the smoke and dust.
The frigate was still firing crates. They were going to be sandwiched.
“Let’s go save some people,” Arles charged forward and 37 fell in behind her, every stride faster and further as their suits took over.
Bri was second, running close enough to see Arles but still far enough to maneuver and scan the area. This close to the facility, there were scattered groups of marines, ten to twenty thick, moving all around them, following their equipment toward the gates.
She thought back to the classroom lessons, the video feeds Anderson had shown when he was trying to make them understand exactly what they would be up against. Augmented movement in heavy armor. Heavy projectile weapons. Simple comms. They are big and strong but slow.
Anderson’s answer to every conundrum he presented had been the exo’s. You will be faster. He made them run for miles and miles. Some tiny incentive waiting for the winner. (That and bragging rights.)
And they were fast, and quick. Just watching the earth move underneath their feet, the steady rush of movement, made her feel stronger. She looked to the left and saw a soldier running headlong toward Arles. He was only ten or twenty yards away, a huge lumbering thing. He must have seen her somehow. Every time the wind blew the dust seem to thin.
Bri looked at the distance between them and shifted her course. Intercept took two steps and easy jump. Her body left the ground and she counted. 1…2… She tucked her chin and flipped her body as soon as she saw the silhouette of the marine below her. He was huge. The mirrored surface of his helmet reflected the smoke and sand and her shadow.
Gravity. She looked down at her feet. A blink and she was on top of him, both pistols pointed at the reflective helmet. She could hear footsteps, heavy ones. Another marine was nearby. Was he moving toward her? There was nothing on the overlay.
The soldier under her weight flipped his visor up.
Suddenly, she could see his eyes. They were blue. Light blue, closer to gray. He was young, a few years into his twenties maybe, a few years younger than her.
His eyes moved to the head of the pistols planted firmly against his helmet. Then back at Bri. Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.
For a moment, a split second, she wondered what to do. One movement and the man below her would be gone. But why? There was no hate in his eyes, only fear. He was just a soldier on the other side.
The footsteps running toward her grew louder but she didn’t react, all she could do was stare into the young man’s eyes.
There was a flash of red across her overlay, the proximity sensor on the exo. “That’s a good girl,” something hard pressed into her back and she realized it was a rifle. “Turn around and look at me, I want to see your NewT face when I kill you.”
The soldier she was sitting atop looked back and forth between Bri and the marine over her shoulder. He looked like he wanted to say something.
Bri glanced up at her overlay and thought of firing off a low density charge, it would drain the energy cell, but it might buy her a couple of seconds to figure something else out. She thought of what lay ahead, the charge would leave her shooting on her own.
“I said, turn around,” the heavy barrel of the Earther rifle pressed into the back of her skull and she knew she was running out of time.
She closed the overlay, took a deep breath, and lowered her pistols.
“That’s it, come on,” the marine backed the gun off her skull as she slowly turned. She honestly had no idea what she was going to do. She still had tricks, but her brain couldn’t stop staring at the armor suit the Earther was standing in. But she didn’t have to think long.
She saw the silhouette before she heard the soft, quick, little footfalls. Then she saw the whiskers, the little yellow whiskers drawn across her chest piece. And his face exploded against the visor of his helmet.
The marine below tried to sit up, but Bri grabbed her pistols, and jumped backwards off the young man. She was three feet above him. His eyes widened as he realized what was about to happen.
Her finger tightened around the trigger, squeezing until she felt the click.
The wind blew and a cloud of dust obscured the sight of his body bouncing like a ball that someone had kicked.
“You alright?” Kat was next to her.
Bri looked around. It had been quieter ten seconds ago. Another crate slammed to the ground somewhere off to their east. It seemed impossible how much the earth shook when they slammed to a stop. Bri wondered how many more were coming.