Chapter 3

Peering into the darkness of the pit we had surrounded, I looked for any sign of movement. There, just past the edge of the hard tarmac was a sentry talking with a fellow short-straw puller. They were both in light armor and armed with the familiar energy pack and laser rifle. The one closest to me was sipping on a canister of fluid, probably water, and laughing at what the other was saying. A shadow behind them moved. Suddenly, both of the men snapped to attention and I could almost see the strained look on their faces. Quickly, they snapped a salute and started answering the man in the heavy armor. Finally, they saluted once more and started back into the standard sentry swagger known to all midnight runners. The larger shape ambled off in the direction of the nearest hangar. Stepping into the frame of the doorway, the warrior was easier to get a better look at. He was holding a mortar gun at his side and scanning the space in front of him back and forth. He saluted to someone that must have been close by. Still holding his weapon and motioning with it as he talked, he looked as if he were having a heated discussion. After a few minutes of wild gesturing, he stepped aside to let the person he was talking to, out. As soon as the other man reached the doorway, I knew our signal wasn't far around the corner. The man in the heavy armor lifted the mortar gun, and with considerable force, hit the other man on the back of the head. The body slumped forward with absolutely no life in it. The fatty turned, kicked on his weapon after a slight adjustment, then fired half a dozen shots into the room.

"Get down there, you friggin' pansies!" Big D shouted, sounding like he was right behind me. The adrenaline kicked in. I bounced from my prone position with a flicker from my jet pack to give me a little forward momentum and charged down the hillside. Thirty-two men with nothing but murder on their minds were running headlong into a pit where an unsuspecting mob was waiting.

I can't say who fired the first shot. But heading down the slight incline, I saw a red streak shoot across my vision and a shadow near the corner of the hangar I was running toward dropped. "What about those mortars?" I thought to myself. "They should have gone off by now!" During the first part of my sprint down the hillside, I noticed the heavy barrel out of the building he loaded with time bombs and run at the other one we had marked on our maps. All of a sudden, a bright flash of evil-looking green shot out of the doorway of the hangar with the mortars inside. The report of the blast hit a second later.

"Holy..." crackled in my ear, definitely in the voice of Mechalus. "One down, five to g..." The second blast cut him off in mid-sentence. Looking out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the heavy lob a few mortars into the second building. The heavy was then in the midst of a swarming mass of bodies pouring out of the doorway he was standing by.

Big D spoke in my head again. "Somebody cover his a*s!" I noticed, as stripes of red started imprinting themselves on the insides of my retinas, that the laser beams cut through at least three or four men at a time when going off.

"Skewer those b******s!" screamed Beef from the enclosing circle of men. Directly across from my position, I saw Big D launch up to the top of what was labeled "Loading Forum" on our maps. He ran to a vent and dropped a grenade in. He jumped off the roof and jet-packed next to the heavy plowing bullets into the people running out of the building. The grenade went off with a dull thud followed by the start of the mortars previously launched by our comrade.

"HPC's coming in from the East." Hippie informed the crew now in combat with some enemies that happened to reach their armor suits.

"Gangreen!" I heard on our open channel.

"Sir!" I replied to Big D.

"Take your team over and pound those damn fly boys that think they can break up our tussle." he answered back with a wicked grin I could hear.

I switched over to my team's channel and yelled out the command, "You heard the man. I wanna see some red blurs shootin' over that horizon yesterday!" Five men broke off from the mass of confusion in a single burst of jet packs.

"On our way, boss." After taking the time to disk a guy trying to take out one of ours, I hit my thrusters and bounced out of the fray.

"Remember, he said HPC's." I was relaying to my team, "That means more than one, and up to at least eight fatties to take care of. Simms, you and Roberts hit the South flank. Switch, you're with me. Jax, you and Goose dig in on the underbelly." I received five flashes of command acknowledged on my HUD. Hopping over the flat area and scanning the horizon for the unmistakable shape of an HPC, I realized that Hippie had neglected to give the distance.

"Enemy in sight... ah, crap! Bail, Simms!" came from Roberts.

"Aaaaaaaaghhhh!!!!" I heard Simms scream, then the blip that represented him was gone.

"South!" I hollered over the comm. "Head South Jax" knowing Goose was with him. "What's the sitch, Roberts?"

"Two of them... heading back this way. Fatties are loaded Gan. Can you pinpoint me?"

"I've got ya Rip" I assured him, heading to the point where his blip disappeared. "Jax?"

"Almost there, Gan." Jax responded. I was straining my jetpack's engine scooting ever closer to Richard "Rip" Roberts when I saw the beam of his laser rifle streak through the air followed by a flash of green where the laser shot came from.

"RIP!" I screamed.

"Damn... b*****s are using up their mortars on li'l 'ol me?" came Roberts' voice over the air.

"Hehe. Good old Rip." Jax giggled as he streaked in beside me. As I turned my attention back to where the flash and laser came from, a dark shape came growling out of the air. An HPC loaded down with four heavies. Three had mortar guns at the ready, swinging them to bear on us, while the fourth was using his repair pack to fix up the guy that must've eaten Rip's laser. I lifted my spinfuzor and took careful aim. Leading the beast barreling down on me, I saw three green trails of smoke floating in my direction. I fired and took off straight up from my position. While concentrating on not coming down like a rock, I saw my disk clip the medic on the arm. I hit the ground running and dodged the bits of scruff blasted from the mortar that hit behind me. As the transport slowly passed overhead, cooking the air with it's four powerful jets, I tossed a grenade into the bed of the vehicle. A few seconds later, a shockwave, followed by a heavy knocked off the HPC, hit the ground. "Damn." I swore to myself as the heavy landed like a giant cat. I could hear the groan of the HPC as one of its engines crapped out. Pulling out my plasma gun, I launched into the sky again. Luckily, the heavy was too slow to hit a target moving as fast as I was. I left the corpse behind me a few seconds later as I rushed in the direction of the crippled flying machine. "How are my boys doing?" I asked into the mic.

"I'm bleeding bad, Gan." came the faint whisper of Goose. "Can't hold on..."

"Don't you give up there Goose!" I yelled at him. "Jax, what's going on?"

Jax answered back instantly. "Goose decided to play kick the can with one of their green eggs, Gan. He's in a culvert through. He should be safe."

"Goose, if you die on me," I informed my wounded buddy, "I'm gonna kill you!"

"I'll... ohhhh.. be alright. Just gotta... get this... health pack working." Goose wheezed. Topping the next rise gave me a pleasant sight. The lumbering monster that was the HPC I crippled was slowly plowing a furrow into the hard, sun-baked dirt. It looked as if the pilot had met up with a high-speed piece of metal. The three remaining heavies were having a heck of a time trying to get their bearings.

"Jax, where'd that other transport go?" I asked as I saw him top the rise.

"To the base, Gan. Need some help there?"

"No. Switch and I got these fatties. Go find Roberts." I answered. Switch was already barreling over with his chaingun blazing away. I kicked my jetpack into action again and popped off a couple of disks. "Switch, put that fat boy with the plasma gun away. I'll get the one on the left with the mortars. I had noticed that the middle heavy was having some electrical problems and was probably frying in his own armor. During my flight path to intercept my target, he must have noticed the telltale flash of my jets. Three deadly trails of smoke came flying my way as the heavy searched for a more defensible position. I blasted into the lower stratosphere hoping my jets didn't heat one of those mortars and set it off early. A split second later, I found myself with an aerial view that would have made Icarus proud and a burning sensation in my foot. The fatty that launched me into ballistic mode then made a mistake that cost him dearly. Gazing up at me, the enemy stopped to get a better view, just in time to see the handful of grenades followed by a burrowing mine. He looked down at the four grenades about ready to go off when the mine hit him in the faceplate. The smoking divot in the ground was the only reminder that a person was even in that spot.

"Woo hoo!" I heard Switch holler into the comm. "What now, boss?" he asked.

"Let's gather up what we can and get back to the main battle." I answered back. "Jax, how're you doing?"

"Looks like Goose is gonna' take a while to get anywhere," he replied, "and Roberts'll be okay after a few stimpacks."

"Alright. Roberts," I commanded, "you stay with Goose and use a scrambler. Switch... Jax... you two come with me back to the base and get ready to kick some more a*s. As we headed back to take part in the carnage of the main battle, the sun poked it's head up over the horizon behind us. Little did we know, we had a surprise waiting for us.