THRIIIIIIP

I fought the urge to dive to the ground as the blue flash ripped through the air a few inches from my head. They couldn’t see me from that angle, I knew. They were guessing, and trying to make me panic, flush me into the open. In the sudden quiet after the sound of the plasma bolt passing me, I could hear a staccato of guns firing in the distance. Small arms, rapid fire, and electric rounds*1, I was fairly sure.

I slowly turned my head to look at the floor next to me, the glowing red fading as the metal tile cooled. Following the line back through the gap in my cover that the plasma bolt came through, I mentally superimposed a memory of the surroundings. There was a water tower about 200 meters away; someone perched on the railing would have been able to make that shot. The railing itself would give them cover, but the legs looked weak when I was running past earlier…

THRIIIIIP!

Another round flew well over my head, and I heard the splash of a shield breaking. The sniper fire was definitely coming from the tower. The small arms fire, having paused a moment, started again.

“Yo, Butt. Sniper round caught me, shield’s gone, and armor is at five percent. I found better cover, but their team has me pinned down from the other side too. I can take them, but that sniper…”

“Yeah, I hear you Monarch*2.”

I glanced at my wrist, a pair of colored bars and several small icons shining against the metal bracer wrapped around my arm. Shields at 80 percent, armor untouched. 40 rounds in the pistol in my hand, 10 in the sniper rifle strapped to my back. Both regular firearms, not the plasma variety pinning us down. One holographic decoy. And 5 shaped charges.

“Monarch, you have eyes on that water tower to the east?”

“I do.”

“How many legs?”

“How many? Uh, its a tripod, three legs. Steamer was commenting about it looking like the War of the Worlds Martian walkers before that sword caught him, remember?”

“Yeah. You sure you can take them? I have a plan, but its a hail Mary, you’ll be on our own, Monarch.”

I heard laughing, Monarch's bright voice tinkling through the radio before she responded.

“That's a solid ten four, Butt. We’re on the last furlong, and I don’t think they’ve noticed that the Null is gonna hit them first and stop right before it gets to my cover. Counter says six left alive, and I’ve got three on me, plus the sniper, plus you and me, means we’re all that’s left. They’re down one on their squad, and the other squads are out. Plus, the idiots are hudsoning*3.”

“Wait, seriously?”

THRIIIIIIIIP

The distant fire had stopped, and another sniper round ripped out above me.

“Indeed. That’s confirmation right there. Listen.”

I listened to the gunfire as it started back up, and she started singing.

“It's the pi of the Chrysler,

it's the wheel on the right,

Driving up to the station for some diesel.”

I laughed, realizing that the gun fire was in beat. “Those aren’t the right lyrics, Monarch.”

“I’m streaming, goof. Not gonna risk a copyright takedown. They’re getting empty at the stanza break and letting the electros recharge, and the sniper is firing to keep me from taking advantage. Watch.”

My mental singing came to the long note, and the gunfire paused.

THRIIIIIIIP

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“That one went way off, I think the sniper is trying to lull me out next rep.”

“Okay Monarch, I got this. I’ll grab his attention right before the next shot, and keep him from taking another. Ready?”

“Ready. Sentinel’s Strength, Butt.”

“Luck of Atlas, Monarch. And.. GO!”

Just before the next pause in the song, I tossed my holographic decoy towards the gap in my cover that the first round had come through. An image of myself ran out from under cover. A moment later, I moved the other direction, sliding through a small window in the building rubble that had been giving me cover.

THRIIIIIIP

The plasma bolt ripped right through the head of the image. A tap on my wrist and the image vanished in a swirl of gold, looking almost but not quite like the derez*4 of a Loader getting popped.

Grinning to myself, I twisted and headed towards the tower. Broken debris spotted the ground between here and there, and used it as I could to stay out of the line of sight of the sniper.

“Got one, broke the shield on another. You good?”

Panting, I mentally pinged my spot to show in her map. “Stay in cover this rep.”

THRIIIIIIIP

The sniper shot snapped into a pile of debris in front of me. I had paused at the right time, they almost caught me. A few more steps and I was under the tower.

“Butt, the Null reached them, they’re about to move.”

I leaped high, planting two charges on one of the legs, then leaped again, getting two on another. The magnetic base of the charges pulled them out of my hands at the push of a button, snapping them in place, which made the midair deliver much easier. A pair of sharp bangs sounded from above me, and I could see the thermal trails in the corner of my eyes streaking down into the ground next to a ladder. The sniper assumed I was going to come up the ladder after them. Wrong choice, pal.

My last charge went on the third leg, near the ground. I pulled my pistol and unloaded it up, through the same opening the sniper had fired down through. I realized I was pulling my trigger in the same beat as the others had been.

“Monarch, GO.”

My shield flashed then splashed as the four explosives mounted high went off. Shaped charges still had enough backblast to hurt when you’re standing too close. Running towards the blasted legs, now hanging twisted in midair, I felt the final charge behind me go off, and red indicators flashed across my vision, armor depleted. Not dead yet though.

The third leg, already straining under the of balance weight pulling down on it, bent under the single charge, then folded. I dropped to my knees, rifle out. The tower slowly fell, and I watched a dark green shaped, vaguely humanoid, fall out, hitting the ground with a splash of orange in my view, sensors registering armor damage to an opponent.

“Seriously? He’s using the Zuch skin? Damn zucchini is so three seasons ago.”

POP

A single sniper round flew out, impacting the figure in the chest. Blue flared then splashed, enough damage to take out their shield. “It’s too bad fall damage bypasses shields, or that would have finished them.”

The falling tower, landing on an unshielded Loader, did the trick though, and I watched the flare of golden light moments before my entire field of vision went gold, then black, as the crumpling tower came to a rest, the base crushing me as well.

1 Electric or electro is a generic term used by Furlong players to refer to what are labeled in game as Compressed Static weapons. Popular with spray and pray players due to the technically unlimited ammunition, Electric guns fire small balls of plasma charged with static electricity. These rounds do extreme damage to shields, but less to armor. Hits to armor DO have a slowdown effect on the struck opponent, however. The other drawback to electric guns is that while ammunition is technically unlimited, there is a limit to how many rounds can be fired before recharging, and the recharging process takes a few seconds, longer than the reload time of any other weapon available in Furlong - Furlong Unofficial Wiki - Weapons - Categories Retrieved Aug 1st, 2036

2 “How did WriteBehindU get the callsign Butt, and ButterflyGrl2020 Monarch? Easy, we can’t call Butt Write, because that sounds like right, and Behind or U as shorthand can be just as confusing. So Butt it was. But Butt and Butterfly would be confusing. Plus, have you SEEN her? Monarch is the close combat QUEEN!” - Interview with Larry “HoundDawg” Hernandez, Team Leader of Furlong NA Championship Squad “Down and Under” - October 23rd, 2038

3 Hudsoning: A tactic used by squads to coordinate action. One of the squad plays a song across the team audio channel, and squad members use the song to perform actions in tandem or on certain key words. Often compared to the use of Sea Chanties to coordinate sailors, the term derives from the PrePan film ‘Hudson Hawk’ - ‘So your kid is playing Furlong? Here are some terms you might hear them use that DON’T mean your child is using drugs.’ Article on The Allium Dot Com , published April 1st, 2037

4 Derez: A shorthand term referring to dying in Furlong. Possibly derived from Resolution, as part of the visual effect of death involves the graphic sprite morphing through a decreasing resolution with larger pixels and less detail. Also possibly derived from rez as shorthand for resurrection, as dying is the opposite of being resurrected. Generally a negative, being used as a POSITIVE is often associated with drug use. The phrase, “The squad and I are gonna chill on the train and just derez for a couple hours.” refers to getting high in a group. - ‘So your kid is playing Furlong? Here are some terms you might hear them use that DO mean your child is using drugs.’ Article on The Allium Dot Com , published April 2nd, 2037