Chapter 13 - Feigned Mission

The rest of the squad caught up to Eric and watched the sky as two groups of infantry units dropped in. The enemies cut their shutes early and each landed with a thunderous impact, creating small craters everywhere they landed. Each one was clad in full bodysuit armour, similar to the previous attack but also clearly upgraded. Each one was dark grey with yellow lines trailing all over them. As the enemy landed, they ran straight toward the white building. As they charged, the one in front instantly collapsed, a large hole in the side of his head.

“One in front down. Let me get another before engaging.” Alice said, her voice cold and calculated.

He lined up her scope just ahead of another one of the infantryman, exhaled slowly and pulled the trigger. The blue bullet sailed through the air and made perfect contact with the targets head, passing cleanly through.

“That’s two, you three are go. I’ll keep over watch.”

On her cue, Jack, Kelly and Iris opened fire on the approaching squad. The three of them were on the roof of a nearby weapon hangar while Alice was further back on a taller building. Kelly was at the largest disadvantage as her weapon was a close ranged sub machine gun-like firearm. Along with the enemies dodging and countermeasures, her accuracy was offering more to be desired. Jack was in a similar situation, using one of his twin pistols.

“What was Alice thinking? This is not a smart plan, this angle does nothing for us, Kelly and I have short ranged weapons.” Jack groaned.

“We’re outnumbered, it’s smarter.” Iris argued, staring down her rifle’s scope.

She managed to take out three other enemy troops, either incapacitating them or killing them. She stood up and holstered the weapon on her back.

“There, we can get closer now. Let’s go.” She said, jumping off the hangar roof.

Jack and Kelly gave each other a concerned look before following Iris. The three landed without issue and took off running toward the laboratory, outpacing the armoured enemy soldiers. Jack swept in beside them, pulling out both pistols and dropping to knees, sliding along as he fired onto the enemy. Most shots missed due to the chaotic movements of himself and his targets, but he managed to wound multiple of the soldiers, causing them to fall. Two other soldiers stopped and turned to shoot at Jack, crouching to take aim. Jack’s slide ended and he somersaulted into a crouched position, readying both pistols. He fired at the troops, hitting them both multiple times in the head. However, he wasn’t not quick enough to get his shot off before one of them did as he felt a burning, piercing pain hit his lower abdomen.

“Gah, damn, I’m hit.” Jack said, rather calm, over comms. “But all my targets are down. Giving myself first aid, but I’m out for the rest. Up to you guys.”

Jack opened one of the pouches on his belt and pulled out a white canister. He popped the lid off and shook it before spraying it onto the wound on his stomach. The spray created a white foam that slowly solidified and filled the hole in his abdomen, sealing it and stopping any more blood from pouring from the wound. He winced as he felt the sting of the chemical enter his flesh, but it was soon replaced with a cool sensation, the area numbing.

“Understood. Get to cover, we’ll take it fro-”

“Kelly, watch it! Incoming!”

Iris shouted out, interrupting Kelly’s response. Iris tackled Kelly to the ground, just barely dodging a large yellow orb that nearly collided with them. Raising their heads they saw the remaining members of the enemy infantry squad crouching and aiming at them, one of them holding a large, box-like weapon on their shoulder. The two quickly got up and slid behind a nearby barricade, dodging the enemy weapon fire. Kelly peaked over the top and saw the soldier with shoulder-mounted weapon start to charge it up, the barrel glowing yellow.

“This thing won’t withstand a blast from that, it’s barely keeping standard fire at bay.” Kelly said, slight panic in her voice.

“I need you to cover fire while I charge my weapon. Anything to stop that guys aim from hitting us.” Iris said, placing her finger on the sensor on her gun.

“Cover fire?! We’re being pelted here!”

“Just blind fire, you don’t need to hit anything.” Iris said through half closed eyelids.

Kelly’s face flushed from embarrassment from the obvious suggestion. She rested her back against the barricade and held her gun up above her head, firing into the enemy. Her face was puzzled and annoyed as she wished she could see where she was aiming. It was an odd trait for her, but she hated missing her shots and this was a pet peeve for her, but she brushed her petty pride aside seeing as it was in the heat of battle. The gunfire that was previously hitting the barricade without missing was now shooting wild and hitting the buildings behind us, indicating that her blind fire was at the very least causing the enemy to miss their shots. Iris, meanwhile was grinning as her gun started to hum. At the same instant that Iris stood up from behind the barricade, the large yellow orb that nearly hit them before flew past her, causing her hair to flutter from the tailwind.

“My turn.” Iris said, Kelly giving her a look that could only be read as ‘Seriously, a one liner?’

Iris pulled the trigger on her gun, that was now glowing red, and her previously burst fire rifle that shot out blue bullets was now projecting a thin red laser out the barrel. Iris trailed her gun across the squad, the beam slicing through their armour and cutting into their flesh. Iris meticulously ensured to incapacitate each one of the remaining hostile infantrymen, concentrating the laser onto their chests. She took them out one by one, until only one was left, that began to run away. Iris focused the laser onto the fleeing soldier’s legs, causing him to fall.

“Wow, that’s insane. My gun doesn’t do anything like that!” Kelly shouted in excitement. “But how come you left that one alive? We don’t need to interrogate.”

“Yea, it’s awesome. But it makes my gun useless after I use it.” Iris got up and stood behind Kelly. “And sorry, beautiful, but can’t tell you. Now, time for you to check out.”

Kelly attempted to turn around at the weird combination of words Iris just said, but was instead met with a the butt of Iris’ gun hitting her in the back of the head, knocking her out. Her face smacked against the barricade, cutting her face open and causing her to bleed. Iris shrugged and placed Kelly against a nearby building.

“Enemy infantry down, Kelly’s unconscious, though. Continuing to Labs.” Iris relayed over comms.

Iris ran over and grabbed the crawling soldier whose leg she maimed and dragged him. The soldier protested in a foreign language, spouting a string of unpleasant words that Iris could only imagine were curses. She headed toward the laboratory, giving a thumbs up high in the air. Through a crosshair, Alice watched Iris as she headed toward the mission objective.

“Copy that, I see your six. Moving out now.” Alice said, confirming she could see Iris.

“Don’t watch my six too close, you might get jealous!”

“Of that flat thing? Yea right.” Alice retorted, a smile clearly heard through her snide remark.

“Focus on the mission objective, you two.” Jack said, wincing between words.

A loud explosion echoed as the mobile tank continued to fire at Eric as it chased him around the laboratory area. Eric shouted words of glee as he sounded like he was playing a game. If anyone could watch Eric as he battled with the tank, it was obvious that he wasn’t trying to destroy it. Instead, it looked like he was playing with a bull, trying to get it to charge, or in this case shoot, where he wanted it. Eventually a shot hit Eric’s intended target: the side of the laboratory building.