Unit 37: Rescue at Kilter Field

  Chapter 8

 

  Arles came over the comm. “Bri?”

  Bri’s overlay was in the middle of a systems check across her weapon. “I’m here.” The indicator flashed ready then switched the overlay to a map view of the pumping station. She zoomed in on the front gate. It was wider than she wanted.

  She took a deep breath and steadied the scene in her optics.

  “We need to do this today, folks!” Arles clapped her hands together and Unit 37 dashed forward in opposite directions.

  Biloxi and Arles were Alpha Team. They would take the west gun emplacement while Bravo (Little, Thelia, Pauly, and Kat) worked east.

  Bri swung her rifle from right to left.

  A pair of Earther marines worked their way down the wall toward the gate. Their weapons were shouldered and one was lazily running his hand along the wall as he walked. Her optics put them out of Bravo’s immediate concern and Bri kept moving.

  She couldn’t see the eastern gun emplacement from her hole, but she could see just past it all the way to the western gun. She swept down toward Arles and Biloxi, moving through a little clutch of trees.

  Three marines were moving toward them. There was no way they wouldn’t spot Arles and Biloxi. Bri sighted on the first marine’s helmet. Her overlay flashed green and she felt her exo adjust and stabilize the gun. It was intrusive, it felt strange to have your own body work outside of your will, but it was also comforting, knowing that you had an edge.

  “Don’t” Arles came over the comm and Bri saw that her and Biloxi had found a place to hide.

  Bri’s visor flashed and she glanced up. Two Earther drones, little round sensor arrays that used micro jets to hover, were zipping toward them. She got to one knee and brought her rifle to bear. The overlay squared the target and flashed yellow.

  The drone stopped for a moment and then turned in midair, like it was looking for her.

  She couldn’t lock on. She laid her sights on the first drone, and fired.

  The drone ducked the shot. And now they had her.

  The drone opened a panel and a bright green laser began to scan the ground, coming toward her like a wave.

  She looked at Biloxi and Arles, they were still hiding from the marines that were walking by and there was no guarantee they knew about the drones at all.

  The green field moved forward and Bri knew that if it got to her, the little round ball of Earther love was going to tag her. She laid the crosshair of her optics on the drone. The green light was getting closer. Her visor flashed yellow. Her exo was useless for some reason. She watched as the little hover jets fired and the drone bobbed up and down slightly. She took a breath and squeezed the trigger.

  The light disappeared and the drone flew back into the trees out of sight.

  As soon as the second drone turned, her visor flashed green, the rifle sighted, and she sent it into the trees as well. The marines were far enough by then that they didn’t notice.

  “Nice,” Biloxi waved back.

  “Move,” Arles barked.

  The two of them broke from the trees and began to push up toward the gate. Their feet padded across the dry broken dirt of the lakebed fast enough to leave their own little scribbles of dust in the breeze.

  She swept the rifle toward Alpha but couldn’t see anyone. Their green circles were still on the visor, they were just out of sight and obviously running silent. She wished they had a drone, something that could give her a better view.

  But that was it. She could see the western side of the gate and the heavy gun the Earther marines had placed there. She shifted her shoulders and stared through the optics.

  The gun was huge, a heavily armored weapon with an operator and a strange looking sensor array. Bri went over it slowly, looking for the weapon’s strengths and weaknesses. An Earther marine, the gun’s operator, stood talking with another marine. Everything looked so relaxed and quiet, like they had no idea the Helios had even arrived. Hadn’t the other units hit the base from their points? Why were the marines just strolling into the facility?

  She found a sensor array covered in a hundred mirrors mounted above the gun, an odd contraption that reflected the dim sunlight at odd angles.

  Those looked like the weapons only real weaknesses – the operator or the sensors or both. Everything else about the gun was metal and mechanics. The barrel was sleeved in a box-like structure that looked like it was made of metal fins, all perfectly square, all perfectly spaced and angled at forty-five degrees like some kind of heat venting system. It was laser weapon, computer directed. It looked sturdy but there was nothing artful in its design, it was a brute force weapon.

  In class the teachers had talked about current Earther technology. Their main artillery consisted of heavy pulse weapons run by sensor arrays and computers. Everything was digital which is what made EMP tech obsolete, but they too were fond of projectile weapons. They didn’t have anything as advanced as NewT weapons, but that hadn’t stopped them from whittling 37 in half.

  Biloxi and Arles found a small amount of shelter down the hill and further west than the gun. They were lying on their sides flat against the earth a hundred and fifty yards from western gun. Bri watched as Arles pulled a falcon off her uniform. “On my mark,” she looked back in Bri’s direction.

  Bri aimed at the sensor array. “Ready.” She put her finger on the trigger. “Three, two…” The reticle flashed green and she squeezed the trigger.

  Arles was just about to throw the rocket into the air when she exploded into a vapor of red smoke.

  Biloxi screamed.

  Bri barely had time to blink before another shot tore through the little mound of earth the two had been hiding behind.

  Bri dropped the rifle’s optics and just used her visor. Everything seemed still, frozen in time. Even though massive chunks and dirt and stone sprayed toward her in slow motion, there was no sound.

  She laid her head flat on the earth. Womp, womp, womp, the marines around the gun began firing wildly down the hills. Dirt and rock exploded into the air as the weapons tore through the earth.

  “Arles is down,” Bri said. “Arles is down.” She looked back up the hill hoping that Biloxi was still there. He was lying on his side, his eyes wide and crying, but he was alive.

  Bri ran the rifle back up to the gun. The sensor array was in pieces, little wisps of smoke wafted from the hole she put through the middle of it. The guns operator was at the controls and the gun was pivoting its barrel down toward Biloxi.

  She could hear her own breathing, each chunk of dirt and rock as it landed around her. She couldn’t believe Arles was gone.

  “37 this is 62!” The voice shouted across the comms. “We’re coming!” Bri looked at the overlay on her visor and saw more green dots appear. 62 had nine left. They were in the middle of the lakebed, fighting and alone, but they were alive and only a few minutes behind. Of course, that did little to change the fact that Biloxi and her were pinned down and Bravo team was alive but unable to lend a hand.

  Tracer rounds cut through the air around her as the marines continued to lay down cover fire, unloading their rifles into the haze.

  Womp, womp, womp. The big gun fired into the earth ten or twenty yards shy of Biloxi.

  Bri pulled the rifle’s stock into her shoulder and aimed at the gun’s operator. The angled fins of the gun glowed red from the heat. The marine’s visor reflected the color.

  She magnified the view until she could read the numbers marked across his right lapel. She laid the sight in the center of his chest and squeezed the rifle’s trigger.

  The armored crinkled like it had been punched by an immense, invisible fist and the marine flew back against the wall. He hit hard enough that he hung there for a moment, crushed against the wall before he fell to ground, face first and unmoving. Bri moved the rifle to the right, found another one and punched him through the gate.

  Bri laid her head down when a group of four ma
rines appeared and unloaded their Bursters in her general direction. “Biloxi?”

  Biloxi looked back at her, tears running down his face. “I’m coming to you?”

  “That’s right,” Bri lifted her head, found a marine, and put the reticle in the middle of his chest. Click. Three inches to the right. Click. Another marine disappeared through the gate. “Come on,” Bri ended the career of another Earther marine, this time thinking about Cooper and Anderson and Arles.

  Bri heard the eastern gun start. Womp. Womp, Womp.

  She pulled up the overlay on her visor and saw Kat’s buoy. She was all that was left on the east and her vitals were all over the place. “Shit,” she moved the rifle back to the left as a marine was stepping up to the autocannon’s controls. Click. The shot hit a stasis field and rippled in a wave across the shield.

  Biloxi was on his feet. Running as fast as he could, but the gun was training on him. Bri clicked the trigger once, twice, three times, and watched as every shot splashed against the shield.

  Womp.

  The earth behind Biloxi’s feet flew into the air.

  She fired again. This time the shot hit the helmet of the operator. The dome shattered and there was a red mist.

  Biloxi passed Bri. “Come on,” he called running toward 62 like they were long lost lovers.

  Bri touched a control on the rifle and it folded back into its compact form. She slipped it over her shoulder and followed Biloxi down the hill.

  “Kat? Can you hear me?” She felt a tingle in her legs, a vibration, like a heard of wild animals running toward them. She turned to her right and saw four marines running straight toward them; their visor’s reflecting the sun. “Biloxi!” Bri screamed as she reached down and pulled her pistols.

  The first marine’s Burster fired three times before she could get her pistol pointed in the right direction. Every shot went wide.

  Bri pulled the trigger once. A black hole appeared in the reflective material of the marine’s visor and his body dove, face first into the earth.

  The soldier to the left was trying to find Biloxi but Bri put two shots into his chest. The rounds burned through the armor in half a second. There was a scream from inside the suit, but then the marine toppled over.

  Bri saw a shadow fall over two that were lifting their rifles to fire on her. Their bodies shook violently as Biloxi emptied his BB into them. They looked like they were being hammered into the ground. Their heavy metal plating tore open exposing the machinery and the marine to spalling projectiles. In a blink they were a pile of twisted metal and blood.

  Biloxi landed behind the crumpled bodies with a loud thud.