“Attention all units! Operation: King’s Crown is live. All teams remain on alert. Repeat. Operation: King’s Crown is live! All teams remain on alert.”
Joe’s eyes grew very wide when he heard the order through his helmet’s speakers. He quickly stood up and looked around for Montes. Hoàng jumped up from sitting next to a tree and locked eyes with Joe. Joe jogged over to him.
“Let’s go,” said Joe.
“Attention!” said Montes as he stepped out of a small tent with Urbina.
“Sir!” said Joe and the rest of the squad as they gathered nearby.
“I need to check the turret,” said Urbina before they started away.
Montes walked over stiffly to his squad. Joe could easily see the intensity in Montes’s eyes behind his helmet. After stopping, Montes took a deep breath.
“At ease,” said Montes. “You heard the order, so stay alert.”
“Sir,” said the squad in unison once more.
Most of the squad went to a nearby table and sat down. They didn’t talk much and kept a hand on their weapons, whether it was in their lap or resting on the table. Since they arrived here the previous day, the squad had been anxious, but now the mix of adrenaline and suspense had everyone on edge. Even Joe had to focus on keeping himself in check, and he found it increasingly difficult.
Soon, a new message came over everyone’s HUD. Joe quickly opened it, and it read:
King’s Crown following Path C. Shuttle accompanied by four fighters. All units along Path C be ready to act! General communication to confirm eyes on the target and to receive the order to fire. All units, confirm?
Joe saw Montes’ and Urbina’s name in the long list of commanding officers confirming the order.
“Not our path,” said Beck, frustrated from the table.
“Dammit,” said Meinhardt with an angry glare at Montes. “I was ready for this.”
“Keep the chatter down,” said Montes. “This is just the beginning.”
Joe felt disappointed for a moment, too, but he soon dismissed it. If he heard confirmation that the mission was a success, he would be satisfied. Joe then noticed Beck looking at him, along with Mulloy and Hoàng, but Joe looked away when Ginke came up to his side.
“Ready?” asked the Scincian.
“Ready,” said Joe. “This will be a big help in liberating Scincia.”
“Good,” said Ginke quietly. “That makes me happy.”
A handful of quiet moments passed before the general communication channel exploded with activity.
“Charlotte-Fifty-two with eyes on the target!”
“Stones-Fifty-nine with eyes on the target!”
“King’s Crown confirmed in range. The primary target is the shuttle. Permission to fire is given. I repeat, permission to fire is given.”
“Stones-Fifty-nine engaging! Standby.”
“Charlotte-Fifty-two engaging! Standby.”
Joe could hear the turrets’ fire faintly in the distance. Everyone turned their heads in that direction, but even if it had been close enough to see, the thick foliage prevented anyone from seeing it. Joe looked back and listened to updates on the general communication channel as they started to come in rapidly.
“One enemy fighter destroyed!”
“One enemy fighter grazed!”
“Fighters firing off target!”
“Hit the shuttle! Shields holding, though.”
Joe grew stiff when he heard that. Would it go down? Joe tried to filter out everything else said over the channel as he listened for news only about the shuttle.
“Another fighter eliminated!”
“The shuttle’s changing course,” came a voice over the channel. “The target has turned west. Path A teams be ready.”
“Prepare the turret!” said Urbina immediately.
“Sir!” shouted the two soldiers close to the turret.
“Take cover,” said Montes as he stepped away from Urbina and the turret.
Joe and the rest of the squad followed Montes to a barrier between two trees behind the turret. As they took cover, the turret turned higher into the sky and to the east.
“Look,” said Ginke, who came up next to Joe and pointed toward the turret.
Joe looked up to see the foliage open up above as two Scincians pulled strings down at the bases of the trees to spread their branches.
“Where is it?” said Meinhardt as she looked over the barrier.
“Steady,” said Montes. “Let the turret team do their thing.”
“Be alert! Reinforcements en route to the target and moving fast!” said a panicked voice over the channel in Joe’s helmet.
“Stones-Sixty with eyes on the target! Now engaging! Standby.”
Joe looked up at the turret as he recognized Urbina’s squad’s call sign. The turret rose slightly and then tracked to the left before it fired a mighty volley. The blast charred the leaves of tree branches as it soared through the air to its target. Joe didn’t have a clear view of the projectile, so he tracked it with his HUD.
The Birnstein shuttle swerved to avoid the blast but not quickly enough. The turret’s shot hit the shuttle with a monstrous boom, and the shuttle shook mid-air before it started to glide. A moment later, the shuttle plummeted to the surface.
A lone Birnstein fighter escorting the shuttle began to turn around to follow the falling shuttle. Urbina’s team began to take aim at the fighter and fired another shot. The fighter exploded in a large cloud, and nothing remained to fall to the surface as the fighter was vaporized from the blast’s energy.
With his heart racing, Joe shut off his HUD and activated his all-seeing eye. He clearly saw the Birnstein shuttle smoking from the engines as half of the system had been blown off. The shuttle’s trajectory brought it crashing into the forest less than a kilometer away. The impacts created a cacophony of loud crashes in the distance as the shuttle’s hull cut through the trees. The shuttle eventually came to a stop, and the area became eerily still.
“Hit! The second fighter is destroyed. The target has crashed to the surface!” shouted Urbina over the general communication channel.
Montes and the others of Newgate-3 and Stones-60 cheered as they celebrated the success of the mission. Joe half-smiled with everyone, but his focus was elsewhere. He focused his right eye on the crashed shuttle to confirm the victory.
“Well?” asked Ginke from Joe’s side, the reptile’s eyes focused on Joe.
Joe didn’t say anything as he searched the wreckage from such a far distance. He filtered through several different views and detected movement inside the shuttle. The strain soon became too much before Joe could learn more, so he closed his eyes to shut his right one off.
“There are still life signs,” said Joe. “We have to get to that shuttle.”