The reason we departed after sundown wasn’t so much because of the literal cover of darkness, as Arty had eloquently put it, but rather a very simple reason. People slept at night. Despite their name, cyber vampires also slept at night. Having to dodge fewer groups of them meant we could travel through the desert faster.

We left our cars and the drone in the base of the Patriots, no need to get them damaged when we were being offered a better ride and one of their drones.

There were roughly one hundred Patriots, and twenty armored vehicles to carry us all. A column of ten heavy transports armed with heavy machine gun automatic turrets was at the center of the formation. Ten lighter variants were spread around, four scouting ahead, two on each side, and two covering the rear. Four drones were in the air, they were using thermal imagining to keep an eye out for any heat signature.

Our team was in one of the heavy transports at the center of the column. One of the safest spots in the formation. Batou was driving, Revy had won the passenger seat, and the rest of us were sitting at the back.

All lights were out, we were driving through an ocean of darkness.

I was looking through the small bulletproof window, messing with the settings of my eyes to increase the intake of light. This gave me a quasi-night vision. I could see in a gray color up to fifty meters. It wasn’t as good as the one from the helmet, so I readjusted my eyes to normal and decided to rely on the helmet instead. The world turned green. I could see over one kilometer away now.

I looked at the green sand swirling around us, there was no wind this time. The sand was being lifted by the vehicles ahead of us. Further ahead I could see one of the scouting armored cars that covered our flank, the fluttering flag with an eagle was mounted on its back, and a whirlwind of green sand was following in its wake.

We were on two comm channels, a casual one for our team, and one priority channel that everyone shared. We were making small talk on the team channel when a voice sounded from the priority channel.

“This is Fox 2, we have 8 hostiles just over 1 click northeast from our location, awaiting orders, over.”

Arty’s voice followed. “This is Yankee 1, Fox 2 maintain sight of hostiles, we are dispatching snipers to your location, over and out.”

After the exchange I received an encrypted group call from Bobby, I entered the call, six others were already connected.

Bobby spoke to us. “All right ladies and gentlemen, we are stopping in thirty seconds. Once we do, get in the lead vehicle. With all of us it’s going to be a bit intimate, don’t get any funny ideas if they don’t include me. Over and out.”

Bobby never changed.

The lead vehicle of a column was always empty except for the driver. That was for situations like these where specialized teams needed to be deployed quickly. The other, more morbid reason was that it was the most dangerous position in the column.

When we stopped, I grabbed the cyclone that had been next to me, no need for stealth this time. It was going to be over with one shot. I squeezed into the lead vehicle, with the eight of us and the driver, it was a tight fit. It was cozy.

Bobby was in the passenger seat with her legs up on the dashboard of the vehicle, she turned to us with what I presume must be a grin beneath the helmet and gave us a thumbs up.

The driver didn’t start the vehicle, he was looking straight at Bobby. She noticed, and after some hesitation sat properly. Satisfied, he nodded and started driving.

We stopped behind a sand dune, next to one of the scouting vehicles. On top of the dune, four Patriots lay low while training their sights on the horizon. Before we could climb the dune and set up positions Bobby got in front of us and spoke in the comms.

“Most of you already know how this works, but you know how it is, planning is indispensable and all that. We are going to share our neural interfaces and mark one target each. Once that is done, on my mark fire at your target. Confirm, over.”

Seven variations of “Wilco, out.” Resounded.

We then followed her to the top of the dune, where we spread out and lay down on the sand. As I connected my neural interface with everyone on the top right of the interface a series of coordinates appeared. When I focused my eyes on the coordinates a shrinking circle indicated the physical location represented by them, eventually the circle became a point and disappeared. I aimed with my scope where the point disappeared and spotted our targets.

They were 1 kilometer away. They were just a bunch of random bandit-looking people. No flags or symbols. They just happened to be in the Raptor’s territory and in our way. Which meant that they would have to die. I doubt Arty would be fine with taking the risk of being spotted so early just in case they might be innocent.

There were two SUV’s parked near a small rocky ridge. Their camp was against the ridge, most likely to take cover from the wind. Three of the bandits were keeping watch around four tents, they had military vests and rifles in hand. By switching to thermal vision, I was able to see the remaining victims. They were lying inside the tents, in one of the tents two of them were sleeping together.

I marked my target.

So did the other killers.

Bobby spoke. “On my mark fire.”

“3,”

I corrected my aim.

“2,”

I held my breath.

“1,”

I kept holding.

“Mark!”

I released and squeezed the trigger.

Eight people died.

We descended the dune and entered the vehicle.

It was a tight fit, but it did not feel cozy.

I was back with my team at the center of the column. We had been driving for one hour without any further incidents. Chatting about what we would do once we were back in Los Angeles. Revy had been following her lectures online through her interface, she missed seeing her university friends, so she’ll meet up with them when we get back. Alex had downloaded a trilogy of VR sci-fi movies and will be binging them. Batou will go drinking at his favorite bar, it’s a small place at the edge of the outskirts. Jun will be smoking enough weed to make him forget the headaches we cause him, is what he said. I will be catching up with some bad online novels that I did not have the time to read in the last week, I hope it rains when I do.

Revy got our attention. “I see some transports with a US flag on them over there.” She pointed outside her window. At the edge of our night vision, a convoy of military transports was cutting through the desert in parallel with us. Totally not escorting us.

Jun tilted his head. “Try pointing that out to the old man in charge. See what happens.”

Revy hesitated. “Do I do that in the priority comms?”

I reassured her. “This isn’t the army, the patriots might look professional, but after listening to their individual unit comms for ten minutes you will change your mind. Just talk to him in the priority comms.”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Revy nodded and did just that.

“This is Yankee 3, I see a military convoy 1.5 clicks east, over.”

Silence followed, and extended. When we started thinking he was just going to ignore the report Arty’s voice resounded on the comms.

“This is Yankee 1, Yankee 3 I believe you spent too much time under the desert sun and are suffering from a severe case of hallucination. I advise you to hydrate and not pay any mind to your delusions. Over and out.”

Revy looked at us. “Does he always come up with these excuses?”

Alex nodded. “Whenever a unit of the Patriots encounters a military patrol they both pretend to not see each other.”

Shortly after, the military convoy disappeared in the horizon. Either they realized that they got too close to us to maintain their precious plausible deniability, or they were intercepting some hostiles. The Raptors did not mess around, they were nothing like the group of people we shot before.

After thirty minutes of driving our convoy started slowing down. We were approaching a series of low rocky hills, between them, a gorge led down into Death Valley. The spiky points of the rocky outcropping looked positively creepy. This was a dangerous pass to cross through, but it was a shortcut that would save us time.

Arty had already sent scouting vehicles ahead to secure both sides of the pass before the heavier transports started crossing. We were only waiting for a confirmation of safety from those sent to the other side. Drones already had vision of the other side, but better safe than sorry.

Eventually, we received the go-ahead, and the column slowly started making its way into the narrow gorge. The steep rocky slopes surrounded us, suffocating our vision of the surroundings. There were numerous alcoves where one could imagine an ambusher lying in wait.

None of us spoke, we all looked out the windows to keep watch of our surroundings. Alex had control over one of the drones and was sharing the feed with us.

Once we cleared the gorge everyone took a breath of relief. We waited for the remaining vehicles to cross. Once they did, we got back in formation. The lighter vehicles went ahead and to the sides to scout ahead. After giving them some time to build some distance between us, the column started moving. We picked up speed leaving the gorge behind and entering Death Valley.

We were driving in between desert dunes and rocky–

I was lurched to the side, my belt kept me from flying. The world just outside my window was on fire. The deafening sound of the explosion reached my ears. The window shattered. Glass flew everywhere, harmlessly bouncing over our armor. We crashed against the transport in front of us.

As I recovered from the daze, I could hear the whizzing of bullets flying by, there was no sound of gunfire though. Someone screamed in the comms.

“They’re on our right! Take cover behind the vehicles!”

Before I could move I was dragged by a strong hand outside the left side of the vehicle. Revy was moving me and Alex behind cover. Jun and Batou were already there, crouching, rifles in hand.

I looked at the drone feed, our ambushers must have been wearing thermal camo, because the thermal vision was only picking small dots that were likely caused by the firing of their guns.

Arty started giving orders on the comms with a measured voice.

“Switch drones to night vision, stay behind cover, and mark targets with the drones. When the turrets are providing covering fire take your shots.”

While he was speaking, I recuperated my Cyclone that was left behind. Once behind cover again, I tentatively raised my right hand above the roof of the vehicle. As soon as I did a single strong impact snapped my metal arm back, sending a jolt of pain through my shoulder. Had it not been high-end stuff it would have shattered.

I spoke in the comms. “They have snipers.” And they were good ones too.

The mounted turrets blasted in short bursts as they fired toward the rocky outcrop that our enemies were on. Next to me Revy nearly broke cover, I held her by the arm, keeping her low. I looked to our right where four Patriots broke cover to take their shots. All four were shot in the head, one of them survived thanks to the helmet, and the other three were hit through the visor.

Those snipers were too good.

Jun called out on the comms directly to Arty, uncaring of his usual game of pretending the gangsters were not there. “This is bad, those are not desert bandits. Those are corpo elites firing at us. You have been led into a trap.”

Arty’s reply was instantaneous. “No, this is good. My little operation is not worth exposing a black site that they kept hidden for so long. This means that they really don’t want us to find out what’s inside.”

Alex’s incensed voice resounded in the comms. “Good?! How is this fucki-“

Suddenly, the sound of a thunderstrike dominated the battlefield, the vehicle to our right blew apart into hundreds of burning pieces. A molten crater replaced it.

Lighting up the surroundings. The smell of charred flesh would have been nauseating if not for the masks of the helmets.

Someone screamed the obvious on the comms. “Large Caliber Railgun!”

Arty took back control of the comms. “I am setting turrets on full auto in ten seconds. Make a break for the hills behind us.”

That was a 400-meter sprint.

On sand. In armor.

With weapons in hand, cause I sure as hell wasn’t leaving my cyclone behind.

I doubted that the turrets could fire long enough to cover the entirety of our retreat.

Jun spoke on our unit’s comms. “As soon as the turrets stop firing dive for cover behind a dune. Don’t try to run the whole distance.”

We all nodded our agreement. All of us got ready to sprint.

A tense moment of stillness followed. No one was shooting anymore, the only sound was the crackling flames of the crater next to us.

All hell broke loose.

We sprinted as fast as our legs would allow. Revy was ahead, going in bursts of speed. Batou was close behind, he was carrying Alex on his back, she would hardly slow him down and he was much faster. Jun and I were last, running alongside each other. Despite our precipitous rush, Jun found the energy to shout out loud to me. “Not as bad as last time, huh?”

I felt a little annoyed, this situation wasn’t entirely my fault. Was it?

Roughly three dozen Patriots were running with us in lose formation, no shots were being fired at us. The turrets were doing their job well. Then they stopped.

We zigzagged while aiming to get behind cover. Bullets started whizzing past us. One hit me on the back, the armor holding, but it still felt as if I were being sucker punched, by a cyborg. I covered the remaining distance to the crest of the dune and slid down.

There were ten people taking cover here. I spotted Batou, he was placing Revy and Alex down. Revy had been shot in the leg. Alex was fumbling to prepare a bandage.

Revy giggled, high on painkillers. “I’m fiiiiiine, I’m fiiiiine. It already healed, see?”

I got closer and observed the wound. The bullet went straight through. Despite it being obviously fresh it had already stopped bleeding. Those were some ridiculous medical nanites she had. All ‘fast’ cybernetically enhanced types like Revy that used synth muscles needed to have medical nanites on hand, since every time they did a burst of speed, they would injure their normal body that isn’t meant to deal with the accelerations they were capable of.

Alex looked from Revy's wound to me. “And she has the balls to say she’s not rich.”

Thunderstrike interrupted our little moment of normalcy. The railgun turret fired again. A cloud of sand was launched into the air. A scorching, glassified crater was left where the hit landed nearby.

“We have to deal with that railgun.” Jun’s voice sounded in the comms. He was taking cover somewhere else.

“Drone has the turret marked,” Alex said.

“I’ll deal with it,” I stated while loading the tungsten rounds.

Batou turned to the Patriots taking cover with us and spoke out loud. “Listen up, this guy-“ He pointed at me. “Is going to take out the railgun, we are going to spread out and cover him so that he can get a clean shot. Is that clear?”

They all nodded at the words of the imposing cyborg.

Revy cheered her approval. “Wohooo.”

“Except you Revy, stay behind cover.” Batou denied her.

“Awwww.”

I took a look at the drone’s feed, the turret was in an alcove, its body was behind a rock, the top part poking out. Not much to shoot at, but so long as I landed the shot it would render it inoperable. I crawled closer to the top of the dune and waited for the others to do the same. In the meantime, I triangulated the exact location of the turret through my interface, the shrinking circle forming a dot.

When we were all in position Batou shouted “Light 'em up!”

Covering fire erupted, one beat later I got to the top and took aim. We were far away, nearly at the edge of our night vision. The turret was highlighted by my interface. I aimed at the center of the light blob. No winds and six Mach tungsten bullets made for easy shots. I took a deep breath, exhaled partially, and squeezed the trigger. I dove back into cover, shots were flying by, and I didn’t want to tempt fate.

It looked like a hit, but I didn't spend the time to confirm it.

Alex however, did so through the drone and spoke in the priority comms. “Railgun is down.”

A few words of relief resounded from everyone.

During that little exchange, three of the Patriots who had taken cover with us went down.

We stayed behind cover. During the lull of battle, Jun called to Arty once more. “Where are the scouts?”

“I sent them the long way around the hills, they’ll cross the gorge again and pick us up.”

After several minutes, in which the occasional probing bullet passed above our heads, things seemed to silence.

Someone that must have been looking through a drone spoke in the comms. “They seem to be pulling back.”

“They got what they wanted.” The dejected voice of Arty answered back.

He continued speaking. “I made a judgment call, when I saw how they deployed their elite to stop little old me. I was convinced that they were hiding something. So I gave the go-ahead to spec ops.”

He remained silent for a while and then breathed, “They played me, there was nothing illicit in there.”

I was a little disappointed we didn’t find any new leads, otherwise, I didn’t really care.

“Where’s Bobby?” I asked looking around.

“Bobby is dead.”

And with those three words, my friend was taken from me.

“How?” I managed to croak.

“The lead vehicle was hit first, she was there because she wanted to keep the driver company.”

That was so like her.