Her grenade sailed neatly onto the platform, followed by two more, and the three Rangers made themselves as small behind their flimsy cover as they could. Then the world exploded. After so much silence and darkness, the lightning flashes crashed through Kayla’s ears, leaving her stunned.
The familiar but intimidating cracks of bullets passed over her head, as the squad’s two machineguns on the walkway opened up. They didn’t know what they were shooting at yet, but they triangulated their fire onto the grenade’s impact points to do as much damage to the area as possible.
“Contact on the left, behind those girders,” Thandi called through the radio.
Kayla picked up the sound of single shots from the maelstrom of noise. A momentary gap in the shooting let her hear the clatter of metallic feet. There were obviously several combat drones in the hall, and they had begun to maneuver.
She caught sight of movement above her head, and watched as a spidery form, sparking from damage, skittered up a wall, and stopped to shoot a burst of rounds towards the hall’s entrance. A burst of machine gun fire quickly found it, and pulverized the machine.
“Barnes, you’re in the clear,” Kes voice said in her headset. “Get into the fight; opposite side of the hall at your ten, retreating for an exit.”
Kayla shot upright, pulling her weapon to her shoulder as Bao and Ray did the same, they scanned the scene before them, watching tracer fire from the walkway as it pinpointed a group of scurrying shapes disappearing down an access corridor.
Kayla squeezed off a few rounds in their direction, then radioed back. “We’ve got you covered, move up.”
The Rangers sprinted through the hall until they had taken positions near to Kayla and the others. But the enemy had fled, and there was only one thing to do—give chase.
Yak rejoined her fire team with a fist bump, whilst Kes called the contact back to the platoon. Akane approved them to push forward, so Kayla took the lead. She gestured to the others before sprinting up to the exit the hostile drones had vanished through.
The squad bounded forward, moving from cover to cover, and watching carefully as they followed the path of their fleeing prey. Their illumination drone, travelling by autopilot, flew ahead of them. Kayla was most concerned they would be ambushed again, and she wanted to rush forward to keep the drones from setting up in a strong position. She kept advancing as far as she dared until Kes snapped a warning to her not to get too far ahead.
Periodically a spidery shape ducked out from behind an obstacle and sprayed bullets in their direction, then vanished out of sight. The Rangers followed, crossing several tram tunnels until they came to another immense hall, connected to a multi lane-logistical trunk.
“Entering echo-five, in pursuit of enemy contact,” Kes called to the platoon commander, as she took cover. “No—ignore my last. We’re at delta-five, delta-five.”
More spiders appeared, shooting and scooting at high speed around the new space. From what Kayla could see, it seemed clear that they were done retreating.
“We are in heavy contact,” Kes called, to Akane, “requesting support.”
She didn’t have to say anything more; Kayla stopped where she was and gestured to her fire team to take firing positions. They found cover behind what looked like a big set of garbage drones, and began shooting at anything that moved. The battle raged around them, and Kayla found herself growing impatient to see more Rangers show up.
“Two-two is moving into echo-six—adjacent to us—also pursuing a contact,” Kes called to the squad. “Hold your fire to the north.”
Kayla made a mental note, and shifted her aim. Fortunately, the combat drones didn’t seem to be moving in that direction anyway. Instead, they were scrambling to the west, where distant columns of containers provided them with good cover. They popped out to shoot quick bursts, before ducking away just as Kayla’s sights aligned on them. At that range she could barely make them out and react fast enough in the frustrating game of whack-a-mole.
“Viper Two-two,” Kes was saying, “two-one is taking cover by some kind of scrap processor. Confirm you are entering delta-five from the north end? We can surround them.”
Was it a scrap processor? Kayla glanced up at the thing she had been hiding behind. It seemed more like a vehicle, but things were happening fast and she was exhausted, running mainly on adrenaline. Bullets sparked off the steel bracings by her head, and she turned to return fire. Something scuttled off into the darkness as her rounds struck home.
There was a spark in the corner of her vision and she turned to see a new set of muzzle flashes not far from the distant containers. Her vizor zoomed into its double magnification, but she couldn’t make out much more in the shadows cast by the illumination drone.
“Kes, are we clear to the west?” she called.
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“Uh…” Kes hesitated. “What do you have Kayla?”.
“A new element moving in from the west, heading for those containers. Lots of drones over there.”
“There’s friendlies to the north,” Kes replied. “Nothing west.”
“Yak!” Kayla called.
The Ranger lumbered over to her carrying the light machine gun, and under Kayla’s direction set up facing the direction she had seen the gunfire originating from. There was nothing moving there now, but she hadn’t seen anything leaving the area, so she motioned to Yak.
Streams of fire spat into the distant shadows, and Kayla popped off a few rounds of her own, before turning to scan for more movement. Then, a hail of gunfire came back that passed inches from her head, and made her duck down out of the way.
“That was accurate,” she observed out loud. For the first time that day, she felt a hint of genuine fear.
“Two-two is taking heavy fire in echo-six,” Kes announced. “They can’t get to us yet.”
Yak, without needing any prompting, kept up a steady burst of fire towards the new threat.
Kayla’s fear gave way to anger. The squad was becoming overwhelmed by the number of contacts, and they had to give the enemy everything they had. She sat back up to shoot, and saw movement.
An ice-cold hand squeezed her guts. The shape that had darted briefly between cover had been humanoid.
“Yak—” she began, but a bullet struck her helmet and she fell on her back while everything went momentarily dim.
When she tried to sit up, Kayla saw Yak hunching over the machine gun as it bucked in her arms. The woman’s back exploded with red spray, and she collapsed onto her side.
The scene unfolded like a nightmare. “Get down!” she called to the others “Friendly fire, friendly fire!”
The others dropped to their bellies, but Thandi, still shooting in the opposite direction, was slow to react. Kayla watched in horror as a burst of fire sparked off the floor then struck her friend in the legs. She screamed and dropped to the ground.
“Two-two, cease fire, cease fire. You are engaging us!” Kes screamed into the radio.
“Yak!” Kayla cried again, and crawled over to the woman’s still body. She checked for signs of life, and felt sick when she felt a weak and irregular pulse. “She needs a medic!”
Lyna darted over as the fire from the surrounding drones continued to pour in. She stuffed bandages and clotting solution where she could, while Kayla moved over to Thandi. She was pale, but conscious, and her eyes were rolling back with pain.
Kayla threw a tourniquet on her leg, and barely knew what else to do. But she had to act and move, because if she didn’t she would throw up. The battle had taken a horrifying turn, and Kayla felt her head spinning. Her thoughts became sluggish, and she found nothing more to do except wait for help.
The other Ranger squad had quickly shifted their fire, and were fighting back the drones more effectively. Kes was yelling on the radio, and Kayla understood that a team of PJs were on their way. The corporal’s voice had gone monotone as she called in the directions to their position that she only had just been able to correct.
Kayla seized Thandi’s hand as she writhed on the floor in pain. Eventually, Lyna finished with Yak and came over to apply an anesthetic. Kayla watched her best friend’s eyes begin to close, and something broke inside her.
She looked out from behind the squad’s hiding place. The drones were still fighting, darting back and forth as they were pushed to the north. But things were happening too slowly, and Kayla had had enough. Adrenaline and rage roared through her mind, barely keeping bile from rising up her throat. She had done this. She had shot at Rangers, and gotten her friends killed. And they were all still in danger.
The voices of her squad faded to the background, overwhelmed by one single, intense goal. She had to make the chaos end.
Ray had already picked up Yak’s machine gun and was shooting short, controlled bursts, so Kayla picked up Thandi’s. She checked the box, saw it was nearly empty, and reloaded the weapon.
Then, because training had instilled it within her, she called, “Moving,” and jumped to her feet.
In the near corner of the hall, a crane rose above the rest of the machinery. Kayla raced straight for it and began to climb. She heard the yelling in her headset, but couldn’t make out what the voices were saying. But it didn’t matter. She had to get up to the top. She didn’t even feel the strain in her muscles as she vaulted up the scaffold to the top. She was a bolt of lightning, without thought or feeling. Sparks shot off the metal near her hands, but they seemed so irrelevant.
Once she reached the top of the crane, she found a perfect platform from which she could take aim at everything around them. The drones were scurrying away now, across the open ground, while clouds of wasps seemed to buzz around Kayla’s head. There was no cover, either for them or for her. She propped the machine gun against the edge and lined up a drone through the weapon’s scope. It had nothing to hide behind, and went down under a concentrated burst. Then she moved on to the next, and then the next.
Eventually the hall went quiet, except for the yelling of voices and radio messages in her ears. Kayla sank onto the platform as her whole body began to shake, and she tried to rescue her senses from the roar that drowned them.
A Ranger hauled herself up to the top of the crane. Kayla watched as Ray raised her vizor and smiled down at her.
“How’s it going Kayla?” she asked, in a friendly voice.
“Yak’s dead,” Kayla said listlessly. “I killed her. And I got Thandi shot.” Her head snapped up. “How is she?”
“No-one’s dead. There’s a group of Pararescue working on them right now. They’re about to run Yak to the nearest exit, and a dropship is landing at the nearest entrance. She’ll be in surgery within twenty minutes. Thandi’s messed up, but she’s in stable condition.”
The adrenaline had already eased, and Kayla felt terribly cold, and so exhausted she could barely keep her eyes open.
“Anyway,” Ray continued as she moved closer, “There’s been a bunch of firefights and a lot of Valkyrie wounded. Things seem to be calming down now. Looks like we won—yay!” she said and punched the air.
“I can’t do it anymore,” Kayla said.
“What’s that, my dear?”
“Be a Viper. I screwed up again. I should leave the company.”
Ray nodded slowly and sat down beside her, dropping an arm over her shoulders. “It was a fun day, wasn’t it? Type four fun, I mean.”
Kayla just shook her head.
“How about we get you down from here, get some food, and maybe a nap?”
“I can’t move my arms or legs.”
Ray gingerly pushed on her limbs, and watched them flop freely. But when they tensed, Kayla’s face screwed up in a grimace.
“Looks like you tore up your muscles in that climb. I’m not surprised—you moved faster than one of those spider drones. No sweat. In half an hour the nanites will have fixed you up. We can just hang out here until then.”
Ray reached for her mic switch. “Barnes can’t move. We’ll be here a bit longer.”