Herdis ran over in a low crouch, shooting towards the bridge with her giant pirate pistol. Kiris was next and a blast from some direction or other hit near her feet. Bers chose that moment to roar and vault over the wall, pistol in one hand and knife in the other.

As Jaquan and Ayna ran to join them Gaylen got going, hurrying out of cover in a crouch.

Up above were the two mercs, higher up was the sniper, and down among them were the Browns. They had to get out of here, but the only real cover to be had led through the Browns.

A blast from the bridge hit a corner as Gaylen passed it by, running from one ruined cabin to another. He turned at the sound of a nearby shot and saw one of Eldin’s hired losers fall to Herdis’s gun. Another one fired at Bers as the man appeared out of a doorway, howling like a frenzied beast. The rushed, panicked shot flew past the fringer’s head and Bers plunged his knife home in the man’s gut.

Gaylen caught glimpses of the overall fighting. He saw one of the mercs take two hits, but an energy shield crackled around him. The Browns and their help were firing wildly from here and there, scattered about the ruins. The mercs were picking their shot, landing most of them.

A relatively broad street was the only way to reach more cover. A Brown crouched behind some more leftover machinery, wearing an armoured variation on the signature jacket. He and Gaylen noticed each other in the same instant, but a shot from the sniper took the man’s head apart.

Gaylen seized the opportunity, and before the rifle could cool for another shot he darted across to the Brown’s cover.

“WAIT!” he shouted to his crew, and let himself drop down flatter than the dead man had, hoping the sniper couldn’t target him.

Something changed in the fighting between the Browns and the Blues. It sounded like more of the former had come from somewhere, attacking the mercs from behind. Eldin had kept men in reserve.

Herdis watched him from that last bit of cover between her, Kiris, Ayna and Jaquan and that sniper.

“Ready!” he shouted, and lifted the dead man up into a sitting position. “Now!”

Using the corpse as a shield he fired towards the sniper. The mercenary fired back. The bolt burned through the front of the jacket, but not the back, sparing Gaylen. Herdis added her pistol fire to Gaylen’s, in faint hope of a lucky shot. Jaquan, Ayna and Kiris darted across and into cover.

Some instinct caused Gaylen to drop himself backwards, and the next shot flew near where his head had been. He rolled over to his feet and ran. Herdis ran as well. There was the hiss of a bolt and sparks flew from her back. The woman gasped, and stumbled for a moment, but kept on running and made it behind a wall a moment after Gaylen. He took it to mean her suit had held.

There was another explosion, with a lesser bang than the concussive but with a bright, hot flash, and centred around the bridge up above.

Gaylen and Herdis again spearheaded their flight. The bridge across to the next platform was near. They could make it.

“BOYS!” Eldin shouted from somewhere nearby. “Are they dead?!”

Somewhere Bers screamed again, as did whoever he’d encountered.

Gaylen entered a doorway, hoping for a clear exit on the other side of the house, only to find that the wall facing the gap between platforms was long gone. Standing outside of it were Eldin and several of his men, looking rattled and kill-happy.

Gaylen screeched to a halt and Eldin threw himself into cover just in time to survive the bolt that he sent his way. The others turned and raised their weapons and Gaylen dove back. Bolts hit on either side of the door frame, but he made it through.

He ran around the corner, sprinting to make it to the opposite one before the Browns could round it and cut them off. Gaylen fired a shot as soon as he made it, and heard the sound of someone retreating. The Browns were definitely moving, but he couldn’t be sure about how.

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Jaquan, Kiris and Ayna came after him, with Herdis now guarding the rear. Gaylen crossed over to use the opposite building for cover, and the others added suppressive fire as they did the same. They ran a short distance, by a few intact cabins, then Gaylen peeked up ahead.

The bridge across had a slightly raised arc, and was just a five-second sprint away. Unfortunately, four Brecke Browns stood on it.

“There!” one shouted before firing a shot.

Gaylen retreated back into cover.

“Stay on the bridge!” Eldin ordered. “We’re coming!”

And they were coming. The first group’s footsteps were on their way around.

“We’ll have to charge them,” Gaylen told his crew. “Blast our way through. It’s-”

A sound drew his gaze back out of cover. Someone new was coming across the bridge.

It was a Kavian Hunter, clad in their distinctive crimson helmet and cream and crimson hard armour suit. The figure swung a collapsible combat staff into the nearest Brown, sending the man to the ground. The one behind him reacted and tried to bring his gun to bear, but a staff-swing broke his arm and a second one knocked him aside. The third one got off a shot, but the Hunter caught hold of his wrist and it went wide. The staff smashed into his head, then disarmed the fourth man and knocked him down.

The bridge was cleared, and the Hunter hadn’t broken stride.

A greasy lowlife in cheap armour came around from behind them, but promptly took a shot in the chest from Herdis. He staggered on his feet for a moment before a second shot hit him in the back. Bers now ran into view as well, wild-eyed and stained with blood.

Up above and behind, in the sniper’s general area, there was a big flash of some kind.

“Go!” Gaylen shouted. “Now!”

He led the sprint towards the bridge.

The Hunter had charged into Eldin’s remaining men, and Gaylen watched the whole mess as he passed it.

A thin cable shot out of the top off the staff, wrapping around the nearest Brown’s leg. A quick yank felled him. The next man in line fired, but his unimpressive pistol just caused a small rain of sparks from the cream-coloured chest plate. Something shot from the Hunter’s gauntlet and the man fell, twitching and screaming as electricity coursed through his body.

A shot came in, and Jaquan fell with a gasp and a hiss of plasma.

The mercs weren’t dead. One of them looked somewhat singed, but both were on their feet, armed, and arriving on the scene.

Keep calm.

Jaquan groaned as Gaylen knelt by him. His right shoulder was scorched and smoking, but he tried to push himself up with his left arm.

“Bers!” Gaylen shouted, and the fringer helped pull Jaquan upright while the women of the crew fired a few running shots back.

The Hunter turned on the nearer mercenary and fired from the other gauntlet. A small cable spun through the air and around the merc, pinning his right arm to his body. He hurriedly shifted his rifle over into his left hand, but that was all the delay the Hunter needed. A swing of the staff knocked the weapon free, and another swept his legs out from under him.

The Hunter reached into a pouch and withdrew a thin, glimmering net and tossed it over the man in passing. It didn’t suffice to cover him, but adhered to his armour and to the ground, pinning him down.

Jaquan ran clumsily, half-carried along by Bers and Gaylen, but they made it to the bridge.

The free mercenary fired, but the cream and crimson armour held again, and now a cable shot out from the other end of the staff. It wrapped around the man’s rifle and tore it from his grasp. Undeterred, he drew a keremak blade and thrust it at the Hunter. Eldin chose that moment to rise out of hiding and fling another one of his bombs.

Gaylen threw himself down to the ground and pulled Jaquan with him, a moment before the blast hit. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the Hunter go sailing over the platform edge. Then the bridge beneath him, cobbled together from scrap decades ago, shifted.

“Get off!” Herdis shouted from the other side and fired a shot. “Get off the bridge!”

The bridge shifted some more as Gaylen stood up. He reached for Jaquan’s jacket, but Bers just grabbed the man’s working arm and dragged him along the ground like a sack.

“Ayna went over!” Kiris said from a spot by the makeshift guardrail.

From the cover of a corner Eldin readied another bomb. He drew his arm back for the throw, and Gaylen shot him in the chest. The bomb dropped from his grasp and detonated, resulting in a flashing, hissing burst of fire.

Eldin screamed.

“Ayna-” Kiris began, but yet another shot came from up above, striking the bridge. The sniper was still in play.

They made it across with Jaquan, and despite her protests Kiris followed. Gaylen saw that other merc kneel over his restrained comrade, with a gun in one hand and that blade in the other.

The bridge collapsed, and a shot hit a cabin corner right after their group made it around.

Bers let go of Jaquan and leaned against the wall, groaning. At some point he’d been shot at least twice.

“We have to keep moving!” Gaylen said.