Suicide Squad: The Genesis Sanction

Issue 2

Sheba swerved dramatically as a drone exploded against her windshield, debris chipping against her rotor. Still visibly barking nonsense from behind the pockmarked plexiglass, Briscoe didn't blink as the craft dove through another line of drones. Even as Sheba banked up and retreated into the clouds, her guns swiveled and cracked the air exactly where her pilot pointed.

Tresser scoffed half disbelievingly before a burst of hot air jerked him back into the wind and the desperate battle all below and around him came into sharp relief. Puttering motors didn't reflect the uncanny speed and agility of Cujo's rust-red drones, although thankfully, the rate of fire of their high-payload ammunition seemed to be comparatively stunted. Tresser tried not to notice the ground nearing by the second, tried and failed to not estimate how much time he had left in the air - three minutes - and stiffened suddenly as his focus returned to what was right in front of him.

"SHIT-!"

He bunched up and pinballed off the back of a drone that was taking slow aim at Jewelee. It spun off like he'd pulled a ripcord on its back and Punch ran through the air on glowing boots to grab it and, with a dramatic shriek of exertion, tear it in half just as it fired its payload, bathing him in golden light. It wasn't quite the feat it appeared to be - the drones were nothing more than two metal shells protecting a central propeller, a cannon, and some wiring, so one might be able to say the job was actually already mostly done for him - but this didn't stop Jewelee from letting out a shrill cheer of admiration over the wind, even as she continued plummeting downwards.

Nemesis scoffed as he passed the floating Punch, who dramatically watched his lover fall. With a theatrical wind-up, he waited for his boot charge to give out and shot downwards after her. Harley, who was straddling a wildly bucking drone, swiped at him with her bat on the way down, nearly taking his head off. She snarled in frustration at the near miss.

Tresser was about to rebuke her before the sight of her triggered something in his mind - the weird clique she had formed with the other two veteran Squaddies - and, out of conscience as much as obligation, he flipped his hand to his ear, howling over the wind.

"LAWTON! COME IN, LAWTON!"

"I wish you would speak up. The line's crystal clear and my eardrum's only slightly damaged."

His voice was tinny and acidic, but isolated from the shuddering gale thanks to his helmet. Nemesis, who was currently battling a line of drool fluttering out the side of his mouth on top of the stuttering of gunfire warming his rear, gritted his teeth and tried to swallow his annoyance - and his spit. He kept things short and twisted in the gale.

"DRONES, LAWTON!"

"You're all drones," Floyd said casually, and tuned his comm out. He laced his gloved fingers behind his helmeted head and fell through the sky. Blasts of flame shook his teeth as the drones broke the second cloud layer, chasing him down to the ground, and started firing at him. He laughed once. The slides on his wrist guns clicked home.

——

"How did they get Hydra rounds, Sekofsky?"

"I don't know -"

"Hydra is proprietary. You invented the damn thing."

"That's why I don't know, Miss Waller."

"Goddammit."

"What the hell is Hydra?" Lock butted in.

"A fictional Nazi agency," Waller snapped.

"Play nice, Amanda."

"Kill yourself."

——

Lawton had taken out a drone with each shot he'd fired and spent the rest of the time swiveling easily in the air to dodge them. It wasn't that he had grown tired of shooting skeet. They simply weren't worth the ammo. Now, with the rest of the firefight and Squad specks in the sky, his attention had been shifted towards the fast-approaching compound and a trio of new drones, coming up in a convenient line.