“Hands up!” she yelled as loudly as she could, but her voice cracked, making the command unintelligible.

The soldiers turned around and stared at her in amazement.

“I said get your hands up, or I’ll kill you!” she yelled, trying desperately to channel her anger.

Unfortunately, she only now realized she had no plan of action if the soldiers surrendered to her. She didn’t have any cuffs or restraints. How could she possibly hope to control three men?

There was a flicker of movement in the corner of her eye, and one of the men glanced sideways. Kayla started to turn, but too late. Something leaped out at her, sending her flying onto the concrete, and her rifle spinning away.

“A girl?” her attacker said, incredulously.

Kayla looked up and saw Rayker standing over her, a sneer on her face. Rage flooded her mind, and she jumped up, slamming into the woman’s body and throwing her down onto the floor. Kayla drew back her fists and punched the woman hard in the face. Her mind screamed for the death of this evil thing, the one responsible for her father’s death, and for the deaths of so many on Caldera.

Almost drunk with fury, Kayla struggled to wrap her hands around Rayker’s skull, so that she could smash it against the concrete floor until it burst open.

But Rayker was managing to protect herself, so Kayla punched again and again until the woman’s face was covered in blood. Only once her fists went numb did she stop to see if her victim was still conscious.

Rayker reached up to grab her shoulder and pulled hard, squirming away as she pinned Kayla’s body with her legs. Then Kayla felt her own leg being grabbed, while her arm was held in a grip like a steel vice.

Terror sobered Kayla from her anger. The woman she was facing was much stronger than her—even stronger than the Raiders she had sparred against. A burst of adrenaline let her flip over, surprising Rayker, and breaking the dangerous leg lock. She tried to get onto her opponent’s back, but the other woman was too fast, rolling away to safety.

Kayla leapt to her feet and staggered back a few paces.

Rayker stood up, spitting out blood. “What are you, girl?” she snarled. “You’re not a natural human.”

Kayla said nothing as her lungs fought for air.

“The central committee has been getting creative, I see,” Rayker continued, as she began to circle Kayla. “They have unlocked technology I thought centuries beyond them.”

Kayla remained silent, hate-filled eyes fixated on her enemy.

Rayker smiled and cocked her head. “Did they tell you who I am? What I am?”

No response.

“I would think a young soldier with such impressive abilities would want to know—”

“Who cares what a dead woman thinks?” Kayla snapped.

Rayker’s face twisted in a sneer of incredulity, and Kayla used that moment to dart forward.

Rayker lifted up her arm, outstretched, as though to point at her. Instinctive dread seized Kayla’s mind, and she threw herself to one side. A terrible pain lanced through her body as something punched through her biceps, jerking her back with incredible force. She recovered from the shock, and saw with horror that she was now pinned against a concrete pillar, a long spike of bone buried in her arm. She got her feet under her and reached up to pull it loose.

Rayker raised her other arm.

With a scream of rage, Kayla dragged her arm forward, muscles, tendon and flesh sliding over the spike. Adrenaline drowned out the pain as her arm fell limp at her side, and she ducked away, just as the second spike buried itself into the concrete where her head had been.

Now free, Kayla rolled away behind a bank of machines, jumped back up into a sprint, and raced for the nearest exit. As she tore through a doorway, she felt bullets snapping past her head, while her leg began to move strangely. Ignoring the sensation, she raced between the crystals and back into the tunnels, turning this way and that to throw off her pursuers. She left behind Rayker’s furious shouts, and as she turned another corner, Kayla caught sight of a makeshift sign mounted to the wall.

‘Researcher’s Lounge.’

With no better option available, she turned, slammed through the door, and threw it shut behind her. She found herself in a communal lounge area. Down a hallway was another series of doors, and she stumbled toward one that was beginning to open. When she kicked it inwards, the occupant screamed and fell back inside. Kayla saw a terrified young woman on her back with blood running down her face.

There was a moment of silence, and Kayla, mind racing at a hundred miles an hour, realized she was staring into the familiar eyes of one of Rose’s old friends.

“Hi Julie,” she said, kicking the door shut and drawing her sidearm. “You’re going to hide me in here, or I’m going to kill you.”

Within minutes, guards came crashing into the lounge and began banging on the doors.

“Hey, get out here!” they yelled.

Kayla heard other dorm rooms open, and she recognized another voice; shaken, but defiant.

“What do you want?” Weslan demanded.

“Did someone come through here? A soldier—wounded?”

“Of course not. I think we would have noticed. Will someone please explain what the hell is going on?”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“You’re sure?” Kayla heard the soldier demand angrily.

She kept her pistol aimed at the fallen Julie, who was huddled on the floor, shaking in silence.

“How long are you going to keep us locked up for? We have work to do!” Weslan said with frustration.

“She’s not here!” the soldier called to the others.

“She could be anywhere in this maze,” another replied.

“She’s probably heading back to the valley entrance so she can regroup with her friends. Come on!”

There was the sound of heavy footsteps receding, and the lounge door slammed shut.

Kayla hauled Julie up and pushed her gun into her chest. She was a long way from being able to think straight, and she didn’t dare to drop her guard against the… traitor that she had captured. A moment of doubt entered her mind, but a lifetime of anger made her look on the young scientist with genuine hatred—why else was she here, helping these terrorists?

The door to the room opened gently, followed by a sharp intake of breath. Kayla spun around, holding her pistol tightly against Julie’s cheek. Other doors began opening and there were alarmed murmurs.

“Kayla?” said Weslan.

“You need to hide me,” Kayla insisted, fingers turning white against the weapon’s grip, “or I’ll kill Julie.”

“Kayla, it’s okay. They’re gone.”

She didn’t move.

“Please put the gun down, Kayla,” Weslan continued insistently. “We’re not going to do anything—we’re all prisoners here. Please.”

His hand gently touched her arm, but she was still focused on the terrified, white faces staring into the room as she searched them for a threat. But there was nothing more than a huddle of terrified looking kids. Slowly, the adrenaline receded, and her senses began to rush back as she began to shake violently. She lowered her gun, and without acknowledging Weslan, stepped into the room’s adjoining bathroom and vomited into the toilet.

Rose had spent the duration of the battle observing the valley from afar, as her and Christie’s dropship circled quietly and discreetly at a distance of a few miles. Christie had been preoccupied with her backpack, scanning for radio or other energy waves that might indicate activity from the Helvetic soldiers. The dropship had no business getting closer to the distant clouds of thunder and dust, so Rose was left with nothing to do but watch the light show. She wasn’t even patched into the task force radio and had no idea what was happening.

Feeling useless, she began to lose her patience, harassing Christie for information.

“Uh… yes it seems the situation has degraded,” Christie confirmed, looking up from her equipment.

“What? How? Do they have casualties?”

“Quite a few, though nothing major. But the Tiger teams have gone completely silent, and nobody knows why.”

Rose’s felt a knot in her gut. She had already learned from Christie that Kayla had gone into the underground base with the Raiders.

“You’ve worked with them a bit, haven’t you? Do they normally do that?” she asked.

“No,” Christie responded.

Rose saw through the darkness that her friend seemed quite concerned.

“Do you think they’ll send the dropship over, to support the battle?”

Christie shrugged. “Probably not. The Shrike seems to be doing fine holding the enemy drones at bay. The problem now is that we’re getting into daylight, and nobody seems to have any good ideas.”

Rose was speechless. “I thought Valkyrie could handle anything.”

Christie turned quickly back to her equipment. “I’m getting something,” she said as she played with the switches.

This didn’t seem to work, and she reached for her radio switch. “Banshee, this is Osprey, be advised, I’m getting a sporadic signal, but I can’t lock it down.”

Rose watched as Christie listened to the other side of the conversation.

“I think it’s a radio set. We could move in a bit closer. That would help me track the signal,” Christie said. The Banshee appeared to approve this request, as she turned and made the suggestion to the pilot.

“Copy; we will approach to two miles,” the pilot said. “But I’m not staying there long,”

“I just need a better line of sight on the valley.”

The pilot acknowledged, and the aircraft banked into a new turn. Rose hoped desperately that her friend’s efforts would pay off in some way, as she did not all like the feeling of helplessness growing within her.

Thandi gingerly touched her stomach where the spike had punched through, but felt nothing. When she moved to sit up, she felt a stab of dull, but manageable, pain. As the battle in the valley settled into a stalemate, things had quietened, and the Rangers had taken the opportunity to assess their casualties and supplies.

“What’s the situation, Kes?” Ash wanted to know.

Their squad leader was perched on a boulder, peering through a small crack at the valley beyond, while monitoring the task force’s radio traffic.

When Kes spoke, she looked away from her vigil of the distant rocks. “Raven says that they’re backing off, estimating we’ve killed about a third of them.”

“They’re easy to drop when they just charge into bombs and machineguns,” Ash commented wryly.

“Yeah, well, we’ve seen they can be quite nasty up close, so don’t anybody start getting overconfident. I’m watching our sector—use the opportunity to check your kit, eat some rations, drink water.”

Ray sniffed. “My bladder got holed.” She tapped at a ragged tear along the suit-integrated backpack. “Lost my water.”

Thandi stood up carefully, happy to rid her legs of the numbness that had been building while she recovered from her wound. “Plug into mine Ray, I have plenty.”

“Yeah, give me your nipple.” She paused. “If I catch you clipping that onto social media, I’m gonna demand, like, eighty percent of the profit.”

They laughed as the tension eased.

“Thandi,” Kes said sternly. “You have plenty of water because you’re not drinking enough. I want to see you sipping for the next fifteen minutes. Ray can plug into someone else.”

“Hydration, Hydration, Hydration,” Lyna said with a smile.

“Yes, Corporal,” Thandi obeyed meekly.

“Everyone good for ammo?” Kes asked. They nodded.

A sudden shriek of jet engines disturbed the peaceful moment as the Shrike fighter passed low overhead. At the request of Elmira, Toska had begun to fly ‘show of force’ passes through the valley—coming in at low altitude to spook the enemy. Hopefully, this would remind the drones that they were not safe from above and force them to stay hidden.

Lyna swallowed a mouthful of water. “Hey, Corporal?”

“What’s up Lyna?”

“How long are we supposed to sit here playing whack-a-mole with these lizard dudes? Dawn’s not too far off.”

She, like many of the Rangers, was obviously growing concerned by the approaching dawn, which would rob them of their night-vision advantage. Whilst the drones appeared to have some ability to see in darkness, the spikes weren’t very accurate. Nobody wanted to find out how much better they would become with the benefit of the sun.

“Until we are told otherwise.”

“Copy that,” The Ranger sighed. “Hey Thandi, you on Night-vis?”

“I-R.” Thandi replied. The Rangers had found that once they were in a stable position, Infra-Red mode helped them find targets more easily.

“Switch over.”

Thandi did so.

“Now look up.”

“What? Why?”

“Just do it,” Lyna said, stretching her arms forward in readiness.

Thandi shrugged and lifted her chin, bringing the night sky into view. It took a moment for the sensor’s exposure to adapt, and when it did, she stumbled back into Lyna’s waiting hands. “Lord almighty… that’s incredible,” she breathed.

The highly sensitive night vision sensor picked up light normally invisible to the human eye. As Thandi stared upwards, it seemed like every star in the galaxy was visible; vast clouds of them smeared across the heavens, while the Andromeda galaxy—normally a small bright spot—appeared larger than the moon. The immense bulk of the milky way was draped across the mountain peaks, immaculately detailed in her vizor’s high-resolution display.

“Pretty cool, huh?” Lyna said.

“It’s so beautiful…stunning. All of creation.”

“I like to get that perspective once in a while. Reminds you how timeless this all is.”

“I agree it’s a beautiful sight,” Kes acknowledged, “But let’s bring our heads back down to ground level. We’re still working.”

Reluctantly, Thandi dragged her gaze away from the wonder, back to the dirt and blood that surrounded them. Several boulders away, a sudden clatter of gunfire erupted as the platoon’s machine gun squad engaged a moving drone.

After several hours of deafening noise, Thandi now found the rapid-fire crash of thunder as comforting as the surf breaking on a beach—it kept the darkness at bay.