At the Company Command Post, Aguilar was also getting frustrated with the Task Force commander.

“Banshee, when was your last contact with Tiger?” she demanded.

There was a brief silence. “About an hour ago, Viper,” Smyrna replied.

“That is a long time for a team in contact to go without communication,” Aguilar pointed out.

“We’re aware of your concern.”

“Okay, so in the absence of any knowledge of what is going on down there, I’m supposed to sit here facing the enemy, waiting for him to take the initiative. Is that what you’re saying?”

There was a pause, and the background hiss of static. “For the moment—yes.”

Aguilar lifted her helmet vizor and rubbed her eyes. Smyrna’s reluctance to take the initiative was infuriating. “And you are aware that we will soon be fighting in daylight?”

“Do you have an alternative to offer?” the general’s voice said from the distant spaceship.

“Let me push forward and see if we can penetrate to that doorway.”

“To throw the drones back on their cave risks endangering the Tigers within.”

Aguilar’s voice took on a harsh tone. “You keep us sat here in the open like this, and I promise you, you will end up having to decloak, because our lives will be depending on that extra firepower.”

“Your concern is noted Viper—out.”

Aguilar swore again as she dropped the radio handset. “Tell me again why I do this job?” she said to the Company First Sergeant at her side.

“Because without your tactical expertise and stunning good looks, we’d all be lost, ma’am.”

“Did you tell that to the bad guys? Maybe if we let them know we have some hotties, they’ll stop trying to kill us.”

The Sergeant laughed, then, after the moment passed, grew serious. “I can feel this going bad,” she said darkly.

“Yup.”

The radio buzzed to life; “Viper, this is Raven.” Aguilar reached for the handset again, catching the Sergeant’s eye. The experienced woman had always had an instinct for trouble and now she was giving Aguilar her ‘I told you so’ look.

“Go ahead Raven.”

Thandi finished munching on her rations and peeked out carefully from behind a boulder. There was still no movement amongst the distant rocks, nor any orders to move forward, but she supposed the commanders knew what they were doing. A grey light had begun to creep into the valley, and Rangers were flipping up their night vision vizors and rubbing their sweaty faces.

She turned to her fire team leader. “Is every operation this much of a roller coaster?”

“To be honest, no,” Ash replied, “I don’t know what’s going on.”

“Raven is seeing movement—something’s happening,” Kes cut in.

They jumped up, weapons ready as they scanned the boulders. Thandi caught glimpses of dark shapes darting through gaps, and a few ragged bursts of gunfire erupted along the line. Though the creatures were clearly darting between the rocks, no attack followed.

“I don’t like this,” Kes said. “They’re just moving back and forth like they’re trying to dis—”

She was interrupted by a catastrophic explosion and the world around them collapsed.

Thandi flung up her hands to protect herself as heavy rocks bounced around her. She was falling, then sliding, unable to stop her movement until she collided with another boulder and came to rest.

At first, she was dazed, and confused as she wondered if the whole battle had been a dream. When her senses came back, she checked herself and found that she seemed to be miraculously uninjured. When her hands brushed against the cold metal of her rifle, she offered a silent prayer to her eternal guardian. Looking around, she saw through a dusty haze that she was at the bottom of a pit, with dimly lit tunnels leading down through the valley floor.

Kes was lying still a few feet away. “Corporal!” Thandi called desperately, but got no response.

“Who’s that? Am I dead?” came a voice Thandi recognized as belonging to Bibi, though she couldn’t see her.

Kes began to stir, sitting up slowly, and obviously dazed. She looked around in confusion, and was about to speak when a spike buried itself in her chest, throwing her over backwards, as someone else screamed.

Three hulking drones emerged from the pit’s tunnel entrances, and Thandi didn’t hesitate. Grabbing a grenade off her chest rig, she pulled the pin and threw it at the huge figures—then seized her rifle and switched the fire selector to full auto. She aimed and held the trigger down, steadying the bucking weapon until the magazine emptied and the bolt carrier locked back.

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The grenade had exploded, killing a drone and wounding another, which her burst of fire finished off. But the last drone was still standing, and whirled around to face her.

High on adrenaline, Thandi cursed as her empty magazine dropped to the ground, and she fumbled for another one in her pouch. She tried to ignore the creature, focusing on her own movements as her fingers wrapped around metal, pulled the fresh magazine free and slid it into the magwell. A flick of the finger released the bolt, snapping it forward. As she aligned the weapon’s sight to her eye, she saw the drone’s arm pointing directly at her. Another explosion knocked it over, then Ash was running into view, pumping rounds into the thing’s head.

Satisfied it was dead, the Lance-Corporal turned and froze as she caught sight of Kes’s body.

Thandi leaped to her feet and ran over. Though their squad leader seemed to be lifeless, she saw the subtle movement of respiration.

“She’s still breathing,” she said.

Ash reacted as though coming out of a daydream, kneeling down to check the woman’s pulse and life signs.

“Yeah, she’s breathing—knocked unconscious. I don’t think the spike punctured anything vital, thank God.”

“What happened?” Thandi demanded furiously. Above them, a storm of gunfire and explosions erupted, then died away.

Ash glanced at the dark passageways disappearing into the mountainside. “Looks like they tunneled under us. I heard Bibi call out—where’s Ray?”

“Here,” Ray confirmed, peering over the lip of the pit above them. “I got blown outwards. I’m okay though.”

Lyna emerged from beneath another pile of rocks. “Broke my arm,” she said, indicating the blood-covered limb hanging by her side.

“Can you fight?”

“Of course,” the Ranger said with a cheerful smile.

As other members of the squad checked in, Thandi turned her attention back to the doorway and saw movement. Her rifle snapped up, and she fired a burst. “Uh… I think there’s more of them,” she called.

“Ray, get Kes out of here and get her a medic, then get back down here!” Ash yelled.

“Okay, but it’s gone to hell up there too!” Ray yelled back, as she started scrambling down into the pit.

More bombs fell into the valley, shaking the ground, and gunfire exploded above them as the battle swung back into full force. The squad had their own problems to focus on, and they positioned quickly to shoot into the tunnels and toss grenades. This seemed to halt the would-be tunnelers in their tracks while Ray hauled their unconscious Corporal out of the pit.

Once their situation was back under control, Ash took stock of the situation. “Uh… I guess I’m squad leader now?” she asked Lyna.

“Are you asking me or telling me?” the Ranger snapped back, impatiently.

“Yeah—I’m squad leader. Uh… keep… doing what you’re doing.”

“Get it together, Ash!”

Ash took a deep breath and thought for a moment. Then she keyed her radio. “Viper two, this is Viper two-one,” she called to her platoon leader.

“Roger two-one,” Lieutenant Akane radioed back, “what’s your situation?”

“Corporal Rudaski is down—badly wounded—taken back to the casualty point. Looks like they had tunnels below our position and blew a hole through our line. We have the situation under control, repeat, under control.”

“Copy two-one. Be advised we are fully engaged up top and cannot assist you.”

“Solid copy—holding position and awaiting instructions—out.”

The Rangers waited tensely for several minutes; guns pointed down the tunnels. As the battle raged above, and nothing but silence emerged from the caves, Thandi grew impatient. Somewhere in the darkness, there were answers about what had happened to Kayla and the Tiger teams.

“Are we’re just going to sit here?” she demanded once she had plucked up the courage to speak.

“That’s correct, until we get new orders,” Ash replied.

“You know tunnels go both ways, right?”

She got a confused expression in response and tried to explain further. “Why don’t we counter-attack? We have a new way inside the base, and the Tiger teams have obviously not been successful for whatever reason.”

Ash stared at her incredulously. “You want the seven of us to go in there and take them all on? You’re crazy rookie.”

Thandi just shrugged her shoulders and looked away, not wanting to argue. It was true that she didn’t really know what she was talking about, and Ash’s experience probably outweighed her enthusiasm.

Eventually Ray returned. Her face was covered in dried blood from a nosebleed, but she seemed happy enough. “Kes’s good, got the platoon medic looking her over,” she said.

“How are things looking up there?” Ash demanded.

Ray shook her head. “I think they have it under control, but it got really hairy for a hot minute. Lots of girls got hit.”

“Awesome.”

“What are we doing?”

“Well… if you’re feeling suicidal, you can go into these tunnels with Thandi,” Ash said in a sarcastic tone.

Ray nodded, her eyes wide and alert. “Okay, yeah, good idea.”

Ash’s jaw dropped as she stared back at Ray. “Are you serious?”

“It’s starting to look like trench warfare up there. At least we could retake the initiative,” Ray suggested enthusiastically.

Ash looked around at the rest of the squad. “Um…”

“I’m with Ray on this, actually,” Bibi added. “Why have we been sitting doing nothing into daylight? The plan has obviously gone off the rails.”

Lyna and Tian also nodded their agreement, while Thandi remained silent, keeping her gaze fixed on the tunnels.

“Oh, shit… okay then,” Ash said eventually, and keyed her radio to pass on the suggestion.

“What’s your supply situation?” the Lieutenant wanted to know.

“We’re good. We can go a few more rounds,” Ash confirmed.

“Standby.”

Captain Aguilar received the call from her lieutenant and listened carefully.

“Seven rangers to penetrate those tunnels?” she asked, skeptically.

“They defeated the tunneling force easily enough,” Akane replied. “Doesn’t look like the enemy has much in reserve.”

“Can you spare another squad to join them?”

There was a short pause. “My machine-gun section is doing fine keeping the drones at bay. I can spare some Vipers if you shift third platoon over to tie in the gap it will open on my flank. But I stress, we will be able to hold a defensive line only.”

“Standby.” Aguilar coordinated quickly with the third platoon commander, who felt reasonably secure in her position, and eager to assist with anything that would change their situation.

Feeling renewed vigor, the Captain radioed up to the gunship in orbit.

“Banshee, this is Viper Actual. My second platoon has been hit by a tunneling attack. They were able to repel the assault—sustained three casualties.”

“Acknowledged, Viper.”

“Be advised, I want to dispatch two squads to exploit this tunnel system, see if they can penetrate the base and gain some awareness of the situation.”

There was a long pause. “Are you confident they will succeed?”

“Absolutely, Banshee,” Aguilar said, “or I wouldn’t have suggested it.”

“Then you have my support.”

“Much appreciated. Out.”

“Okay, green light,” Aguilar confirmed to Akane. “Send two squads in there and see if they can figure out what’s going on.”

The radio clicked off as Aguilar beamed at her first sergeant. “She’s not so bad, old Smyrna. Hasn’t forgotten her soldiering.”

The first sergeant frowned. “I wonder what happened to the Tiger teams?” she asked, somberly.

Aguilar nodded. “Let’s get those Vipers inside to figure it out.”