The Skimmers came towards us, and none of us said anything. We had planned this, and I was finding myself looking forward to what came next. I saw the distance close, and it was time. I pulled the trigger, and it hit the armored skimmer in the face, and the pilot panicked. It was perfect as it moved towards the ground to maneuver better, and others moved in reaction. The Sudden breaking of formation was more than I had anticipated, and they all reacted because they reacted to nothing; the mines came up, and when they noticed, they were already reacting in the wrong way.
The Anti-skimmer stealth mines made themselves known, and they loudly blew up with their anti-gravity technology, destroying the Skimmer's ability to fly. The skimmers in the back were already flying into the mines as they blew up again and again. Their skimmers were shot into the ground, and the mines only reacted to active anti-gravity tech. Skimmer after skimmer, armored or not, they lost their ability to fly as they tried to fly over where the mines were, and the mines came up and disabled their ability to fly.
Thud after thud of Skimmers hitting the ground hard and tearing up dirt and some roots resounded throughout the area, and I deactivated the mines as the last one was hit out of the air. At the same time, Nyahdia had already acted, and a grenade landed around each of the downed skimmers with a mix of grenades. It was the reason we paid top dollar for the grenade launcher, and she shot a sensor grenade with the smoke grenade. The Sensor grenade would light up the enemies even with the smoke there, and the smoke created increased confusion as they stumbled out of their skimmers like drunken fools.
My finger stroked the trigger, and the first one literally lost their head as the explosive round blew up their head, and Meemee reported. "Sensors are reporting armor," She notified us in a no-nonsense way. They were still completely confused by the sudden ambush, as not even three minutes had passed.
Then Nyahdia finished smoking the field, and I shot one after another the explosives assisting me. But when I reloaded, I swapped to armor piercing and shot another dead. I had killed ten and was reloading again, but there was more piling out, and they turned and started to fire up into the trees. It was random gunfire, but it was a response to our situation at this point.
Which is where Emma came in.
Emma started to lay down fire as I reaped through their numbers, and some started to run for cover on the sides of the road. Nyahdia sent down fragmentation grenades, and the death rolled through them. I picked them off while Emma released a torrent of fire into them. Death continued, and the sensors found one after another falling to the ground, leaving an outline of a body there, bleeding out or dead.
Then there was Meemee as some of them broke through the smoke and reached cover. Drones meant for armored were waiting, and she reaped their lives before they could do anything. More and more died in a perfectly planned execution of an ambush, and it was going perfectly. More and more bodies rolled through until no more got out of the skimmers. Either they were all dead, or they were too scared to leave their skimmers.
That is when it happened.
"Five more skimmers are on the way, and an armored skimmer is coming in. The armored skimmer and two of the normal skimmers are reported to be in the Terrorist's hands," Meemee reported dutifully, and we all blanked for a moment.
"Shit, they are going to see," I said, and three blinks acknowledging my response came in.
These ones did not just fly in, as they recognized that the previous transport had been ambushed. These were either a planned backup plan or closed when a Mayday message was sent out. Either way, we were in for a fight instead of a one-sided slaughter.
They came down, landing just out of the smoke, and drones shot out of the back of the armored carrier. Nyahdia did not pause. "Shooting smokes and sensors," she reported, and she brought herself into sight. The grenade launcher shot in full auto at the armored carrier as armored soldiers spilled out of the skimmer, and the normal skimmers went up into the branches, and armored people got out there.
This was just the start; some of the grenades started getting shot out of the sky as they started to land before the enemies. They also found Nyahdia and started to lie down, suppressing fire. She turned and got behind the cover and out of sight. "I am pinned from shooting directly," Nyahdia reported.
But the damage to those on the ground now using the Skimmer as cover was done. Smoke and sensors were in their way, but some kept up the fire. Then, I began to reap lives.
With the gravity being lighter than normal, the bullets were easier to line up as they did not drop off as hard. I lined up shots, and I killed two before they reacted. They got behind the cover, and Meemee started finding those in the trees now. Their reinforcements were going better than we hoped, but then the worst happened. "Not all from the initial ambush are dead!" Emma reported, and she began to shoot at those now coming out into the clearing smoke.
Things began to get more complicated as we had to split our attention to the two separated forces. "Emma, you keep those in the initial ambush site down. Nyahdia laid down some more smoke in the initial ambush site," I ordered. "We can't let the two forces join together. Meemee, I need eyes on those in the branches. I will take over killing duties," I brought what I could to clear any confusion, and they acknowledged the orders.
New smokes went out, and a fresh sensor landed in the right place. Five fresh people were waiting at the initial ambush site. I ignored that and watched the ones hiding in the cover. And suddenly, we lost sight of three as one aimed at the sensor grenade and took it out. "Fuck," I snapped before Meemee got sight of a sniper.
"Sniper identified," Meemee reported, and I was already lining up the shot. They were in a higher position than me, but their feet were sticking out a little, and their armor was giving off enough power data when she was looking at it to give her enough to outline the sniper. I found them, and they were in a green camouflage. It wasn't that great, but it did make it a bit harder. But we found them first, and I lined up the shot, and I saw the head blast back, and they went limp. Then I turned back down and noticed one of the ones still in our sensor peeking their head up. I smiled as he began to shoot, and just as he was about to get back down, a bullet smashed through the helmet and killed him.
In the battle, things started to slow down: "We have skimmers turning and running away instead of joining us, probably normal traffic," Meemee reported, "They are staying away."
That was a relief. The last thing we needed was more reinforcements. Things began to drag on as it became a game of cat and mouse. Slowly, Meemee would find one, and I would kill them a moment later. One of them found a drone and shot it out of the sky, which made me wince as it was a lot of credits I hoped to use in the future for other bounties.
However, they did not try to run, so Meemee could only find them slowly. Nyahdia received the brunt of the hate as she used the tree near her to bounce the grenades into position to renew the smoke and sensors.
"This can't go on forever," I reported, and only one person could do something about it. "Emma," I said over the comms, "What do you think about going down and killing them on foot?" I asked, and silence took over.
A minute passed, and one of them came out of cover to fire at Nyahdia while the snipers' hide-and-seek game continued. It seemed that this group was their long-range squad, and silence took hold for another minute.
"I can do it," Emma said suddenly. "I will move now before they can react. Nyahdia, increase the smoke a little, and I will move in."
The decision was made to break the deadlock, and Emma climbed down with a tether attached to her previous position just in case something like this happened.
Emma floated down almost and hit the ground running into the fray. "I got a sniper!" Meemee reported that the HUD lit up when the Sniper noticed Emma moving. I quickly moved and lined them up as they took the shot, and the shot hit Emma's armor. In return, I put an armor-picking bullet through their head. Emma tripped into the smoke and coughed.
"I'm okay," She reported, "My armor deflected it, but I think my ribs are going to bruise."
Notifications sounded as I hit that last one. Emma got into position and released a torrent of bullets into the ones inside the Armored Skimmer. They had not expected us to come on foot, and Emma reaped through them like butter and started to clear the other skimmers. One after another, she reported, "Clear!" She reported, and when she finished, "That was the last one, no more in the initial ambush area."
"Good, now we need to clear them out. Do any of you have ideas?" I asked over the comms.
"I do," Nyahdia reported, "I have the heaviest armor; I want to lay smoke down with the last of my smokes. I have six left and can make a smoke tunnel for Emma to run through. Although it will not be perfect coverage, it should get you to the last area. They also know where I am, so the snipers are aiming at me, which means that Meemee can find the snipers. My armor should be able to take a sniper bullet or two."
I froze for a couple of moments, then said, "Okay, do it. We need to clean this up before more people show up," and it began.
Nyahdia stepped out, and the first sniper took the bait, and I shot them dead. Their issue was that they never found me with my optical camouflage, making it neigh impossible to see me, and I was in a position where the barrel or gas from my gun would not give me away. I really did have a great position, and I was using it.
Over an hour had passed since the start of the battle, and Nyahdia shot the grenades, creating a tunnel of smoke. There were gaps in it to reach out to them, and Nyahdia reported, "I'm out of smokes. We will not have any till I make it back to the skimmer." She finished, and I watched Emma. "Sending sensor grenades to assist," Nyahdia added, and a sniper found her.
"Sniper spotted. Careful, Nyahdia!" Meemee shouted. Two bullets hit Nyahdia's armor as she shot the sensors, and Nyahdia grunted into the comms channel.
The HUD lit up, and Nyahdia reported, "I am fine," as she got back behind cover. I hunted down what had to be some of the last snipers. Emma, in the meantime, reached the final spot, where four armored terrorists looked ready to run out and fight.
Emma popped up over cover, and she knew exactly where they were while they were blind. The sound of her emptying her drum magazine into them sounded, and they took dozens of bullets as she swept across them.
"We have runners," Emma reported as a Skimmer started to move, and a second one quickly took off. One suddenly shot toward the ground, and I lined up the other, and I fired a bullet. The Skimmer did not break right away. What did happen was the round tore into it and slowed it down. Then Emma used her drone with explosive rounds, which we only had four of, and explosive rounds smashed into the side of it, sending the skimmer into one of the trees, and it crumpled into itself before falling to the ground.
Silence took over the comms, and I sighed in relief. "We need to sweep the field and confirm these were the terrorists. Meemee, keep an eye out. Nyahdia, get to the skimmer and reload before joining Emma. Emma, look for something to confirm that they were the terrorists. We are looking for ship records and weapons. Let's get moving, ladies. I will keep an eye out while Nyahdia reloads, and then she will take over covering while I join Emma."
Acknowledgments came in, and I finished with, "Good work, ladies. That went worse than planned but better than we hoped. If we can make sure these are the right people, we can call down the loot collectors. Once we do that, we can go to the cave and kill them there."
A moment later, "I have confirmation," Emma said quickly, "We have the target that they were going for," Emma continued after a moment and put the data up on our screen, and I smiled brightly. Their target was a Corporation Headquarters in Anarchy City. They were planning on burning it down, and we now had their incendiary bombs.
I quickly made a call to Loot collectors, then one to the Bounty Hunter Association, reporting we found Incendary bombs and would be bringing them back up or whatever they wanted us to do with them. With the enemies we killed behind confirmed terrorists just by having those bombs, we were in the clear, and we went around taking pictures and making notes of our loot while we waited for Loot collectors.
----------------
Hey Everyone,
Happy Holidays, I hope you all enjoy your Holidays!
If you are interested in enjoying more of my books you can find them on Amazon or on my Patreon.com/madjic
Enjoy your holidays! DO IT!