“Reinforcements,” shouted one of Urbina’s soldiers, “and they’re coming in hot!”

The enemy fighters’ weapons erupted, and their blasts pummeled the trees. The noise became deafening as the weapons’ fire struck all around the area and sent debris and smoke up in the air.

“Cover!” shouted Montes as he ran behind a thick tree.

Joe dove behind another tree with Ginke as the branches above exploded and rained down on them. Joe felt the pieces bounce off the back of his armor, and he turned his head to see Ginke rolled up so the branches bounced off his armor, too.

A concentrated volley soon found the turret and destroyed it. Large pieces of metal soared through the air from the turret, and the gunners screamed as they were blown away. The air got hot, and the smoke grew even thicker.

“Check!” shouted Joe as he restarted his HUD and scanned for the rest of the squad.

A series of “here” came over Joe’s headset as Montes and the others responded. They sounded fine but disoriented. Joe then searched for Urbina and her team, but they’d taken the brunt of the attack at the turret. As a result, they all were shown as “deceased” on Joe’s HUD.

“They’re coming back around,” yelled Chayka.

“Move, move, move!” shouted Montes as he got up and ran perpendicular to the incoming enemy fighters.

Joe helped Ginke up and started running, with Hoàng and Beck joining them. All four started after Montes, and the rest of the squad fell in around them. The squad ran as fast as they could and put some modest distance between them before the enemy fighters started firing again.

The blasts slammed into the forest, and the Birnstein fighters began to spread out and fire volleys over a wider area. More trees burned under the barrage and collapsed. Whatever distance Newgate-3 had put between them and the fighters soon disappeared. They found themselves surrounded by fire, but the squad continued running.

Joe’s HUD struggled with all the input coming in from the chaos around them. To compensate, he used his all-seeing eye and took the lead to help guide the others.

A warning went off in Joe’s eye right before someone yelled, “Look out!”

Joe looked up as several branches broke free after being hit by a blast. Joe tracked the branches’ descent and pulled on Beck’s and Ginke’s arms to pull them aside.

“Dive!” shouted Joe.

Montes and the others dove to their side and just missed being knocked down by the branches. Joe dove to the opposite side with Beck and Ginke beside him. He watched the branches come to rest near his feet. The branches burned bright and intensified the blazes around them. Soon, Joe was back on his feet and searching the area for the others.

“Check!” shouted Joe into his headset.

“H-Here,” coughed Hoàng as he got up.

Joe could see Beck and Ginke collecting themselves nearby beside Hoàng, Darabi, and Pandev. When he saw they were all safe, Joe looked back in Montes’ direction, but he couldn’t see anything through the inferno consuming the forest. Even with his right eye, none of the fields he used helped Joe locate the rest of the squad.

Newgate-Three-Two to Newgate-Three-One, do you copy?” shouted Joe into his headset. “Montes, are you there?”

“I-I don’t see anything,” said Beck.

“Wait,” said Darabi. “Do you hear that?”

Everyone listened for a moment and tried to hear anything besides the raging fires around them. Joe eventually looked up and searched the sky with his right eye. He saw the Birnstein fighters swinging back around, but they didn’t approach as fast as they had before. They seemed to be waiting for something, and then Joe did hear the low rumble of more ships. Joe spotted a few shuttles approaching the fighters, and their arrival would make everything worse.

Joe turned back to the others, who all looked at him.

“We have to get to the crashed commander’s shuttle before the reinforcements do,” said Joe. “We have to complete the mission.”

“Sir?” said Pandev uncertainly.

“What about Major Montes?” said Darabi. “Shouldn’t we regroup first?”

“We can’t reach Montes or the others,” said Joe, “but we saw where the target went down. We can get there first. We need to finish the mission.” Joe turned to look at everyone and added, “Those are our orders.”

Pandev looked uncertainly at Darabi, who looked at the others. But Ginke, Hoàng, and Mulloy didn’t say anything but nodded in acknowledgement to Joe. Joe nodded back and then looked back at Darabi, who soon nodded reluctantly in acknowledgment.

“This way,” said Joe. “Let’s hurry.”

The others soon fell into formation behind Joe and started to the east. Joe jogged between the trees and over fallen trunks that littered the ground. Smoke still filled the air, but their HUDs now did a better job filtering it out of their views. Although he could see nothing around them, Joe kept his auto-rifle ready. The others kept their auto-rifles up, though, and kept sweeping the area as they watched for any enemies.

Ginke hurried up to Joe’s side to run next to him. Joe acknowledged the Scincian’s presence, but Joe remained focus on the target ahead.

“Joe,” whispered Ginke.

“You getting anything?” asked Joe.

Ginke paused and flicked his tongue a couple times. Ginke kept his eyes closed for a few moments more as he processed what he picked up. He then looked back at Joe and nodded.

“One,” said Ginke. “The crashed shuttle is ahead, but those other shuttles will be here soon.”

“That’s what I see, too,” whispered Joe.

“But Joe,” started Ginke.

“The mission, Ginke,” said Joe. “We have to complete the mission.”


Chapter 25 coming soon!

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