More enemy shuttles landed outside of the outpost with more Birnstein squads filing out into the area. One squad started marching in Joe’s direction.
“We’ve got to keep moving,” said Joe to Hoàng and Beck behind him.
The three moved as quickly as they could with the forest exploding around them. They stayed low to prevent the Birnsteins from spotting them. Birnstein fighters flew over the trees and fired shots randomly into the forest’s canopy. Smoke continued to thicken between the trees as the foliage burned. Joe’s HUD struggled to see through the smoke, so he used his right eye to compensate.
Joe turned his head to check on the others and to look back at the Birnsteins. Hoàng and Beck appeared calm and focused on the retreat. Behind them, the Birnsteins continued approaching, but they moved cautiously, so Joe and the others had created some distance.
“Just a bit further,” said Joe. “Stay close. This smoke will help us hide.”
After weaving for another fifty meters, Joe could no longer clearly see the Birnsteins. He led the others behind a large tree with several thick bushes growing around it.
“Here,” said Joe as he motioned to the bushes.
Joe squatted close to the tree and forced himself to relax. Beck stopped across from Joe, but she didn’t look relaxed at all. Hoàng kneeled next to Joe, and Hoàng flinched at every sound from the battle in the distance.
“You okay? Anyone hurt?” asked Joe.
Hoàng nodded when Joe looked at him. Hoàng seemed to calm down a little as he stopped reacting to every sound in the distance. Beck didn’t seem to be doing any better when Joe looked at her, though. She made eye contact with him, and she was terrified.
“Beck, are you okay?” asked Joe.
“I…. I-I can’t…,” Beck said while shaking her head back and forth. “Th-They just….”
“It’s alright, Beck,” said Hoàng, “We got away.”
“But they didn’t,” Beck continued.
“We have to trust Montes and the others,” said Joe. “You know what training they have. You know what a soldier can do against the birds. Right now, we need to focus. You got that, Ensign?”
“Y-Yes, sir,” stammered Beck before repeating, “Yes, sir.”
Joe reached out and placed his hand on Beck’s shoulder. She was extremely tense, but Joe could feel her coming back down slowly. Joe then smiled at her.
“Stay strong, Kacey,” said Joe. “We got this.”
Beck nodded once. She then closed her eyes and lowered her head as she finally looked to relax a little.
“Let’s see where the others are,” said Joe as he looked at his HUD.
Joe’s HUD showed him Beck and Hoàng near him, but he didn’t see anyone else.
“Major Montes, do you copy?” said Joe across the squad channel. When no response came, Joe continued, “Three-Two calling Three-One, do you copy?”
Joe looked at Hoàng and Beck, who confirmed they hadn’t received a response either.
“Newgate-Three-Two calling any available squad, do you copy?” said Joe over the operation channel. Joe paused for several moments to listen for a reply, but nothing but static came over the channel.
“I don’t hear anything,” said Hoàng to give voice to Joe’s thoughts.
“They must be jamming us,” said Joe. “We’ll just have to–”
A branch snapped nearby, and Joe’s head turned quickly in that direction. Hoàng and Beck turned, too, raising their auto-rifles instinctively. Joe’s HUD lit up after registering four Birnsteins a few strides away.
“Down!” shouted Joe.
As Joe fell to his side, he grabbed Hoàng to bring him along. Beck fell to her side, too, and then the first volleys of the firefight started.
All four Birnsteins opened fire and sprayed their shots through the trees. A couple of the Birnsteins chirped out battle cries, but any articulation was drowned out by the noise of the auto-rifles. During this, Joe motioned to the others to start crawling. Joe traveled several meters on his elbows with Hoàng and Beck right beside him before the Birnsteins slowed and momentarily stopped firing.
Seeing an opening, Joe and the others got on their knees and fired back. The Birnsteins were still looking at the same tree where Joe and the others had been before, so they got in some good shots by catching the Birnsteins by surprise. Joe hit one Birnstein squarely in the chest. As that enemy fell back, Beck got off a shot at the next Birnstein, clipping him in the wing and knocking him down to a knee. Hoàng fired a couple shots, the first one soaring high as the next shot grazed a third Birnstein’s armor before she dived out of the way.
“Go!” said Joe as he shot a couple times at the fourth Birnstein, but Joe’s shots went wide as the Birnstein took cover.
Joe, Beck, and Hoàng sprinted away from the Birnsteins. They weaved around bushes and trees to prevent the Birnsteins from having a clear shot. A couple enemy shots came from behind, but nothing was close. Hoàng and Joe fired behind them in between steps, but they didn’t hit anything, even as Joe used his right eye to aid his aim.
While using his eye to aim, Joe also became aware of three more Birnsteins coming at them from the side. Joe motioned for the others to follow him, and a few moments later, their HUDs registered the new threats.
“That was close,” said Hoàng.
The trees’ cover couldn’t keep Joe and the others hidden for long as the Birnsteins closed in. They’d been eluding the Birnsteins so far, but Joe knew they needed to turn the tide.
Joe scanned the area with his right eye, straining himself to see further and clearer to get ahead. But Joe’s optimism changed when he saw another squad of Birnsteins up ahead moving toward them.
“Shit,” whispered Joe as he came to a stop and looked back at the others.
Hoàng and Beck stopped as well while continuing to fire at their pursuers.
“What is it?” asked Beck between shots.
“Just a moment,” said Joe as he searched desperately.
With the new enemy squad coming at them, Joe looked back. Their current pursuers were ducked behind trees as they took cover from Beck’s and Hoàng’s shots. Joe looked past them and saw three more Birnsteins slowly approaching, appearing to be the last third of the first squad they’d been fleeing.
Joe started to his left, shooting back at the Birnsteins with Hoàng and Beck. Joe then stopped, and the enemy started returning fire. Joe and the others stopped firing and ducked down before Joe motioned them back to the right.
“That way, go!” said Joe.
The three of them started moving quickly while staying as low and quiet as they could. Joe looked back and saw the Birnsteins shooting and slowly heading in the opposite direction. Joe smiled when Beck spoke next.
“It worked,” she whispered.
“There are more Birnsteins ahead, though,” said Hoàng.
“I see three,” said Joe when the signals appeared on everyone’s HUD. “They don’t seem to see us yet. Let’s go.”
Joe took the lead as they neared the three cautious Birnsteins. Joe got his auto-rifle up and used his HUD to mark their targets. Joe assigned one to Hoàng and Beck each, and they acknowledged by double tapping their microphones before they took aim.
“Now,” whispered Joe.
The three Humans stood up and opened fire, and all three hit their targets. Joe knocked his target down with one shot, as did Beck. Hoàng only grazed his target with the first shot, but Hoàng’s second shot hit cleanly. As Joe’s target fell, their auto-rifle fired off into the sky a few times.
“Clear,” said all three in unison.
As Beck and Hoàng moved forward to confirm the kills, Joe looked back. He saw all of their Birnstein pursuers turn toward them after they heard the shots.
“We’ve got to keep moving,” said Joe.
“Right,” said Hoàng before he led Joe and Beck away.
Joe and the others didn’t get too far before the Birnsteins started shooting. Joe cursed as he couldn’t believe how quickly the enemy had caught up to them. Joe’s HUD and eye didn’t show anything ahead that could adequately protect them. Dread began to settle in for Joe.
The Birnsteins got closer, and their random fire became more frequent and flooded the area. The shots and impacts also created a cacophony that made focusing with all the noise more difficult. Even with all of Joe’s training, the real situation differed greatly from the drills at the academy.
A couple shots came very close to Joe, and he came to a complete stop to avoid being hit by more. He dropped down with Hoàng and Beck as a large volley of enemy fire sailed over them. As trees and bushes got hit, branches and leaves rained down on them.
Joe’s HUD began to get foggy as it struggled to track all of the enemy targets. Joe’s right eye showed him that the Birnsteins were nearly on top of them, and there didn’t appear to be anywhere to go. Looking over his shoulder, Joe saw Beck with her face down and mumbling indistinctly.
As Joe started to turn his head back, he saw a pair of brown eyes looking at him from between a rock and a tree a meter away. Joe was startled, his eyes growing wide, but the constant pounding of the Birnsteins’ auto-rifle blasts kept Joe from jumping away. Joe then saw the reptilian eyes were part of a Scincian’s head.
The Scincian stuck out his blue tongue a couple times as he looked curiously at Joe. Joe looked back at him curiously, too, and got an odd but unthreatening feeling from him. The Scincian continued to flick his tongue at Joe but didn’t say or do anything.
“Shit!” shouted Hoàng as a blast hit very close to him. Hoàng bumped Joe as he scooted away from the blast.
“Ah! Damn birds,” hissed the Scincian as he shook his head.
“What?” said Hoàng as he and Beck turned to look at the Scincian in the hole nearby.
“Wait,” said Joe as the other two started turning their auto-rifles toward the Scincian.
“Me? I’m with you,” said the Scincian as he held up his scaly hands, “but we need to get out of here.”
“Uh?” said Beck.
“Come on! Where else are you gonna go?” continued the Scincian.
“He’s right,” said Joe, which prompted the Scincian to flick his tongue once more before he nodded.
“Quick! Follow me,” said the Scincian and he ducked into the hole.
Joe crawled to the hole and easily slid through it. Hoàng and Beck followed a moment later.
The Scincian had ducked to the side as Joe and the others entered. Once they were in, Joe turned to see the Scincian hit a switch next to the hole, causing the rock outside to slide over and seal the hole shut. A faint light shined from near the hole and showed a tunnel leading deeper into the ground nearby. The Scincian crawled toward the tunnel and then motioned the Humans to follow him.
“Right,” said the Scincian. “This way.”
“Who are you?” asked Joe.
“Me? I’m Ginke. I’m part of the resistance. Now hurry!”