Technicalities Only Work Once

"This is helmet camera footage of the incident in question."

The video had some basic information overlapping it. The bottom left read "Staff Sgt. O'Reilly". The top left had a crude image of a human, likely representing the soldier wearing the camera, next to it was a heart rate reading. The bottom right listed "13:07:55".

No image could be made out right away, it was obscured by dust or smoke. However, there was much to be heard. Incoherent yelling, the shuffling of bodies, and the instantly recognizable pops and booms of human small arms. My translator was doing its best to tell me what the combatants were saying, though only small bits were successful with all the overlapping noise, and every explosion briefly distorted the sound of the footage. However, the radio chatter from the ground was audible and subtitled on a second monitor next to me.

"Hornet Actual, this is Pylon-2 Actual. Mechanized infantry ambush at DMZ Barrier one-seven, one AFV still operational, medium casualties sustained, requesting immediate QRF. Priority, DMZ Barrier one-seven has been breached, how copy?"

"This is Hornet Actual, solid copy. All DMZ teams be advised: Pylon 2 has now engaged vehicles and attached infantry at DMZ Barrier one-seven /break/ QRF fireteams Quebec through Tango rendezvous with Pylon-2 in approximately seven minutes."

After a few moments, the dust cleared enough to get a scene of what was happening. There was a group of human combatants, anywhere from ten to twenty individuals in this area. The landscape was green and hilly, and the soldiers were in what looked to be dug trenches in the side of a slope, as it was packed down dirt. This human was crouched down and moving quickly. To the right of him was the edge of the trench they were using as cover, to the left some kind of vehicle in front of the slope on a flat spot. It had a weapon mounted on it that was raining deafening fire over O'Reilly's head as he ran by.

It was now that O'Reilly looked up ahead, the walls got a bit taller there and turned into a small section of tunnel. One human laid unmoving on the ground. Whether this was natural or if it was made for the purpose of providing cover I did not know. There was a break in the tunnel ahead, and what was clearly superheated plasma projectiles flew through this opening, striking the sand on the ground behind it and sizzling. O'Reilly looked at the impact for only a moment while running by, seeing that the dirt struck by the bolts briefly glowed bright red.

Moving toward two crouched-down humans, O'Reilly could see one operating a large weapon mounted on an artificial cover wall, the other seemingly feeding this weapon ammunition, boxes of more ammunition were piled next to them. He lowered himself and began to speak to the human not operating the gun, even with their individual radios they all had to yell to be heard over the fire.

"We need a Javelin on the right flank now! Fifty isn't doing shit, they've got up-armored APCs crawling toward our position!"

"Should be one in the command bunker down the line!"

"Where the fuck is Red Bull? He's supposed to be on that thing!"

"He's inside! Band-Aid's working on him!"

O'Reilly stood back up and began moving toward the small structure that was built into the side of the slope, yelling more profanities the whole way, and passing other humans in similar states of engagement.

They were moving through a low point in the trench when the wall right next to him was hit, slowing him down with a shower of dirt. A human ahead of him was looking over the trench and started yelling something incoherent, though one word could be made out: "incoming".

Seconds later, a combat form rushed over the trench, slamming into the sidewall before falling in and turning to the human in front of O'Reilly, rearing up to attack. The humans had nicknamed these war animals we used "ravagers". They were bred for combat support for their speed, often used in frontline operations like this. They also were excellent for the intimidation factor.