Unit 37: Rescue at Kilter Field

Chapter 9

She was upside in midair, her legs following each other in a graceful arc. She saw the reflection of her body on their helmets, her legs splayed into a Y, both hands holding pistols. She pulled the trigger on each.

They didn't have time to react. They had been standing beside the autocannon, watching the drone feed, and talking about the ride down from their frigate. And then they saw something, a blur, just in the corner of their eyes.

Bri was moving at top speed before she jumped. She had already locked onto both marines while she was running, little squares flashed on her visor. The first two in the way.

Biloxi was right behind her. Upside down, her body swinging through the air, she put two each of the marines. But she looked away as soon as she saw the holes appear in their helmets and chests. She wasn't interested in what happened next. There would be blood, maybe a scream, and their bodies would fall or tumble. Projectile weapons were mean.

Biloxi's BB barked out three times in quick succession.

Bri turned and saw two more marines torn to shreds just inside the gate to the facility. She hit the ground as two more turned a corner onto the street and saw them. She swung her pistols around and dropped them. Her visor went crazy as Earther marines poured out of every building like ants when you step on their hill.

Burster fire echoed around them. They were just inside the walls and the gunfire sounded like it was coming from everywhere, a hundred rifles cracking off. There was a scream behind them. One of 62's was hit three or four times and blown backward through the gate. Another green circle on her visor disappeared before Bri could even read the last name. She clenched her jaw and fired at two marines taking cover behind a transport cruiser.

But the marines had raised the alarm. Everyone knew they were there. Bri remembered the numbers Pauly had given them. It seemed overwhelming. Marines poured out of nowhere until they were everywhere.

There was no chatter over the comm. No one said a word. The possibility of failure and death was upon them. There had always been too many marines; they knew that when they left the Helios, but now they were faced with the reality, the sheer number of armored soldiers that stomped the earth toward them.

Bri fired and hit another marine. Her energy cell went critical. For a thousandth of a second, the earth at her feet looked like it was rippling. Then it shifted and exploded upward. The shockwave threw her backward but only a few feet. There wasn't time to reload.

Using their exo's to outpace the marines; the NewTs stayed in a tight knit ball of motion, jumping and running as fast as they could. Biloxi stopped every few yards and laid down cover fire.

There are moments in battle, moments that supersede thought, moments where training and conditioning take over. There are moments where, if you had time to think (or if you dared), you'd find yourself cut to ribbons. Crossing the main street in Kilter Field was like that.

The Earther had them surrounded, they closed in from the east and west, both sides of the tower the NewTs wanted. It was a cacophony of death. That run, the last hundred yards to tower passed in a blink that felt like a year.

Bri turned her shoulder toward the door and smashed through. Burster fire echoed down the corridor. Two rounds grazed her arm. She twisted in midair and threw herself onto one wall and then down a hall.

Biloxi, the second through the doorway, yanked a micro charge free and tossed it down the hall. The charge sizzled through the air, spinning faster than what seemed possible. Biloxi took two steps and stood like a wall between the soldiers and the rest of the NewTs. His BB thundered over and over. It echoed like thunder.