Joe could hear the shuttles slowly getting closer. With so many fires burning through the forest, the shuttles likely didn’t know which smoke plum belonged to the crashed shuttle. That gave Joe and his team enough time to get to their target.
The team maneuvered for several minutes through the forest’s foliage, hopping over eroded earth and walking along fallen tree trunks. Hoàng and the others held their weapons up and kept watch all around them, but Joe focused his eye on the shuttle ahead. Joe particularly watched the one being moving inside the shuttle. Joe couldn’t lose him.
“Joe,” whispered Ginke.
“We’re almost there, everyone,” said Joe, ignoring the Scincian’s words. “Be ready.”
Joe stopped at the edge of the trees about ten meters from the crashed shuttle. He finally raised his auto-rifle as he filtered through several different fields of vision to gain as much intel as he could on the target. The one living being he’d been focused on this whole time was trapped under his seat, but the Birnstein would be free soon as he worked to pull his foot out from under the seat.
“Enemy shuttle!” shouted Pandev as he raised his auto-rifle in the incoming shuttle’s direction.
The Birnstein shuttle hovered several feet above the trees north of the crash. It spun around and fired several blasts to clear an area to land.
Joe and the others ducked down to avoid the debris kicked up from the blasts. Joe looked through a tree he hid behind with his right eye to see the Birnstein soldier trapped in the crashed shuttle had stopped moving as the blasts rocked his ship. Joe saw the integrity of part of the shuttle collapse from the shaking, but the trapped enemy wasn’t in harm’s way yet.
The flying shuttle soon cleared an area and moved in to land. Joe shook Beck to get her attention and then raised his voice so everyone could hear him over the shuttle’s engines.
“Let’s move,” he said. “We’ll mow them down as they get off.”
Beck and the others nodded. They stayed low as they moved to the northwest side of the crash to take up defensive positions and have a clear view of the enemy shuttle.
The shuttle landed with its hull and landing gears pushing down on the fractured and decimated trees. Once leveled out, the back of the shuttle opened up for two squads of Birnstein soldiers to disembark. The twenty soldiers paused to form up and scan their surroundings before starting for the crashed shuttle.
“Wait for my signal,” whispered Joe as he took aim with his auto-rifle. “We’ll get them when they’re in the clear.”
The others waited quietly, but Joe could tell they were anxious and ready to start firing.
“Now,” said Joe a few moments later.
He opened fire on the leading soldiers, startling them and knocking the first one down and grazing another. Pandev and the others opened fire, hitting a few more soldiers. The Birnsteins fired back randomly as they scurried for cover, but once they knew where the enemy fire came from, they returned fire more accurately. Joe ducked as the enemy shots hit the surrounding trees, scattering dust and debris all around.
“There’s too many of them,” shouted Darabi over everyone’s headset.
Joe activated his right eye to pinpoint the Birnsteins. One had his foot sticking out from behind a tree. When a pause happened in the Birnsteins’ fire, Joe leaned to the side and fired a few quick shots at the exposed foot. The Birnstein chirped loudly in pain and fell out from behind his cover. Ginke followed Joe’s lead and fired a couple shots to finish off the Birnstein.
“Good shot,” whispered Joe before he took aim at another enemy.
A few were trying to flank Joe’s position while also getting closer to the crashed shuttle. Joe swung his auto-rifle toward the Birnsteins and opened fire. The enemy quickly dove for cover and returned fire. Joe saw them chirping at each other and pointing toward the crashed shuttle. One talked into his headset and the weapons fire from the rest of the Birnsteins intensified, forcing Joe back behind his cover.
“We’re pinned, corporal,” said Hoàng. “We can’t get any shots off.”
Joe gritted his teeth. Frustration and anger filled him with rage, and when he looked at the crashed shuttle, Joe saw the surviving occupant had freed himself and started away into the forest. The whole mission was falling apart. Joe didn’t know how to complete it, at least not without eliminating two squads worth of Birnsteins with barely half a squad.
“Incoming fighters,” said Pandev over the headset. “They’re coming from the north. They’re ours!”
Joe switched from the squad channel to the general communication channel and soon received confirmation the fighters were inbound.
“Stones-Beta closing in on a Birnstein shuttle,” said a pilot over the channel, “and the crashed shuttle’s nearby.”
“Copy, Stones-Beta-one.”
“Newgate-Three-two to Stones-Beta-one,” said Joe quickly over the channel, “we are pinned by the Birnsteins near the shuttle. Can you get the birds off our backs?”
“Copy, Newgate-Three-two,” replied the sergeant. “Take cover.”
“Let’s move,” said Joe back over the squad channel.
Joe led the others away from the enemy shuttle, and they alternated giving each other cover fire as they stayed low and moved through the trees. The Birnsteins soon realized what Joe and the others were doing and gave pursuit.
A few Human fighters flew overhead once before they turned around and targeted the Birnstein squads’ shuttle. With his eye, Joe saw the Birtnstein soldiers pick up the pace and look for cover as they saw the Human fighters preparing to attack.
All three Human fighters targeted the shuttle and fired several volleys into it. The shots blasted several large holes through the hull, and it quickly fell apart and collapsed. Hot metal and thick smoke blew through the area, clouding everyone’s vision.
A couple Birnstein soldiers thought it would be worthwhile to fire on the Human fighters hovering overhead, but that only let Stones-Beta know where to fire next. A handful of the remaining Birnstein soldiers moved away from their destroyed shuttle and started in Joe’s direction.
“Joe, we found you!” shouted Montes over the squad channel. “We’ll be there soon.”
“Copy, Montes,” acknowledged Joe before he turned to Hoàng. “Hoàng, hold the Birnsteins here until Montes arrives. There’s only six of them left. Ginke and I will go after the other one.”
“Sir?” said Hoàng.
“He’s hurt,” added Joe. “We’ll be right back with him.”
“Sir,” acknowledged Hoàng.
“I could use your help tracking him, Ginke,” said Joe quietly as he turned to the Scincian.
“But Joe,” started Ginke.
“The others got this. We need to complete the mission. Let’s go.”
“Understood.”