“How many units per pod?” Lucas asked aloud as he scrambled to the door leading out of the office section of the store.
“Six.”
A small diagram of the drop pod appeared in Lucas’ vision as Lilly responded.
“I counted three pods entering the center of our building so that means eighteen hostiles. If the bots are unable to take our position the pods will detonate. I’ve already jammed the detonation frequency in case they get trigger happy, but that will only buy us four minutes.”
“So we need to clear out the area behind us.” Ashten jogged up and took up a position right behind Lucas.
“It’s not going to be that easy.” James’ voice over the radio stopped everyone else from joining Lucas at the door. “Movement at our twelve o’clock. They’re going to hit us at the same time.”
This isn’t good. Lucas bit his lip as his brain spun into overdrive. A full assault from the front, sixteen murderous robots pushing us from behind, and three bombs all set to…
Lucas stiffened as he made an unexpected connection in his head. Being fully aware of his thought process, Lilly laughed joyously aloud.
“I’ll set it up for you. Give me a second.” She giggled and Lucas’ heads up display began to shift.
“What do you want to do silence?” James asked.
“Ares and I will handle the drop pods. Everyone else, maintain overwatch and engage at your own discretion.” Lucas instructed with confidence.
“Are you sure?” Ashten asked from behind him.
“Done.” Lilly announced proudly.
Lucas’ display finished shifting to a perfect replica of what he would normally see when he played Focal Point. A small minimap blinked into existence which contained a detailed blueprint of the building as well as three floating letters representing the drop pods themselves. Lilly had even included a small scoreboard with sixteen bot names listed on the right side while Lucas and Ashten’s names sat on the left.
“Amber.” Lilly called out to her counterpart. “I’ve got a HUD config file for you. Sending it your way.”
There was a brief pause before Ashten let out an audible chuckle.
“All right. I’m in.”
They were attacking a bomb site against superior odds. For the two best pros in professional play, Ares and Silence had done this countless times before. Lucas had to admit that four minutes didn’t leave a lot of room to wait around, but it was doable.
“You take B and I’ll take A, rally at C?” Lucas turned his head enough to see Ashten nod in agreement.
The pair sprang out of the office door and swept into the larger shopping section of the structure. Ashten rapidly vanished to the left and Lucas continued to the right. Lucas lept over a counter and came face to face with a pair of robotic enemies. Lucas doubted the Wu Jin were capable of feeling surprised, but the few hundredths of a second it took for the duo to turn and recognize Lucas as a threat were all he needed to fire first. Two quick bursts tore both chests to pieces and they fell back into a large shoe rack with a clatter. In the corner of Lucas’ vision a small kill feed sprang to life.
DEF Silence has eliminated Wu Jin Scrap Pile 1.
DEF Silence has eliminated Wu Jin Scrap Pile 2.
Lucas’ grin only grew wider when more activity pushed his eliminations out of the picture.
PHX Ares has eliminated Wu Jin Scrap Pile 7.
PHX Ares has eliminated Wu Jin Scrap Pile 8.
PHX Ares has eliminated Wu Jin Scrap Pile 9.
Gunfire erupted from the back side of the building where the rest of the squad was watching the front line.
“Contact front!” James called out. “There’s a lot of them out there squad leader. We’ll need you two back here the moment you’re finished over there.”
Lucas didn’t have time to respond as that was the exact moment when the shelves to his left exploded. A torrent of shattered wood and plastic rained down around him as three more hostiles tried to kill him through the makeshift wall. Staying close to the floor, Lucas rolled forward and leaned around the nearest corner. He immediately spotted three hostile robots taking cover behind a mannequin display. Lucas emptied the rest of his magazine and caught one of the AIs in his tightly controlled stream of bullets.
DEF Silence has eliminated Wu Jin Scrap Pile 3.
The response was just as fierce. Before Lucas could duck back out of sight the two remaining robots stood and returned fire. Lucas felt two rounds strike his exposed shoulder.
One deflection, one went clean through. Superficial damage only. Lilly reported immediately.
With combat moving as fast as it was, the ability to communicate at the speed of thought was quite convenient.
Two and a half minutes. Don’t get bogged down. Get me to the pods so I can defuse the ordinance. Lilly instructed as Lucas slapped a fresh magazine into his rifle.
Lucas dashed out of cover and sprinted towards bomb site A. He fired wildly to his left in order to keep the two nearest hostiles behind cover. That worked until his mag ran dry once again.
PHX Ares has eliminated Wu Jin Scrap Pile 10.
PHX Ares has eliminated Wu Jin Scrap Pile 11.
PHX Ares has eliminated Wu Jin Scrap Pile 12.
“At site B, moving to defuse.” Ashten reported over the radio as Lucas was forced to slide behind a clothing rack.
Six per pod. Ares took care of the ones tied to her target. I’ve taken out three. Lucas counted quickly in his mind as he reloaded his weapon. I know where two are, but where is the last-
Call it a mixture of intuition and skill, but before Lucas was even aware of his actions he turned and fired directly into a trampoline tipped on its side a few feet away from where he lay. Through the hold his bullets tore through the elastic material, Lucas watched an aI’s sparking corpse fall to the floor.
DEF Silence has eliminated Wu Jin Scrap Pile 6.
How’d you know? There was a hint of awe in Lilly’s internal voice.
I just felt it. Lucas would have said more but the remaining two bots chose that moment to push.
Lilly’s armor deflected three more shots before Lucas managed to take down the remaining targets. Now that he was free from aggressors, Lucas followed a nearby hole in the ceiling to find the large metal drop pod embedded in the fractured department store floor. The crude device looked like a devilish flower as the armored exterior had opened up at four points to release the soldiers Lucas had just killed.
There’s no parachute or boosters? Lucas noted as they drew close.
The Wu Jin don’t really have an air force. They fire these out of large, I mean really large, artillery cannons. There’s a slot at the top. Lilly pinged a rectangular hole for Lucas to see. Put my hand in there.
While keeping a close eye on his surroundings, Lucas reached his hand up and forced it into the rectangular slot. It felt like a small pin poked his index finger as a connection was made.
Disarmed. Lilly chirped proudly.
That was quick. Lucas withdrew the hand and inspected it closely.
No visual indicator existed for how Lilly had made the exterior connection.
“I’ve made contact with the final pod.” Ashten reported as gunfire erupted further ahead.
PHX Ares has eliminated Wu Jin Scrap Pile 13.
“One minute and forty seconds left and you’re a kill behind.” Lilly clicked her nonexistent tongue. “You really going to let her show us up like that?”
Lucas cracked a smile. This was still war. The consequences here were very real, but just for a moment it felt good to fall back into some friendly competition.
“No ma’am.” Lucas readied his rifle and sprinted towards the sound of gunfire.
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Thanks for the chapter
I wonder how long it will take Lucas to get a feeling for the Wu Jins tactics/movement patterns.