“JAC!” Mari screams as ringing ears return white noise.

“I’m fine!” The response comes fast. “Gods what is…”

The snap of a high caliber bullet interrupts as it roars overhead; the armored guard vehicle at the very back of the convoy literally crushed by the round. Red hot fragments of steel and sparks sent flying in lethal paths, the entire truck exploding into shrapnel as its stored munitions ignite like runaway firecrackers.

The screams of wounded echo through the valley, punctuated by wild, unaimed gunfire.

“GET OUT!!!” Mari orders as she kicks open the door, grabbing her rifle as she leaps onto the dust and rock.

Extracting himself from the seat the driver flops into the world, carnage surrounding him as ears ring in shock. Behind the abandoned transport truck two of the vehicles burn as fuel tanks rupture, their occupants charred, screaming corpses as Jac stumbles to his feet.

Scattered along the roadside the rest of the convoy is enraptured in chaos, voices barking over deafened senses.

A hand grabs his arm suddenly, dragging the stunned form behind the truck and into cover. “Keep your head down!!!” Mari growls as she checks him over for wounds.

Breathing heavily Jac plants his face onto the glass-like surface, the scent of burning biofuel filling his lungs as the world returns to present minds.

“ANYONE HAVE A HEADING?!” Mari yells to the rest of the guards.

A flash of light, velocity fast enough to turn the twenty five millimeter armor piercing round into a streak of superheated plasma. Bridging the gap between target and targeted in a blink of an eye, the scream of divine ordinance liquifies armor plating as one of the transports is struck.

From the middle of the convoy an armored technical vehicle attempts to return fire, the slow thump of its truck-bed mounted light machine gun echoing across the valley as tracers reach out towards the cliffside.

“They’re coming from there!” One of the guards points over gunfire towards the western angle. “It’s a sniper wi…”

The soul is ripped from flesh as the body is splattered into mist, death instant against the power of gods.

Mari tosses Jac a pair of binoculars, voice a low growl. “Help me spot this bastard!”

“What?!”

“I need you to get me a heading so I can take ‘em out!” Mari bites as she scampers to the edge of the truck, rifle in hand. “Or at least something so I get their heads down!”

Gripping the tool Jac sends a prayer to divinity, taking a deep breath as he slides against a rubber tire. “Gods save us please.”

High above on the cliff’s edge the young girl reloads her weapon with learned swiftness. Long black hair tied into a knot, brown eyes blinking through the mounted sniper scope. 

An anti-material rifle of unknown origin, lethal in construction. A barrel of pure black, the material smooth and ice cold in the desert heat. Forged alongside a receiver of mortal development, the smooth steel in awkward compliment to ancient alloy.

The thing glows with white hot energy, a fragment of the divine thirsting for the taking of blood and life. The application of godly power, uncontained and unrestricted by mortal form.

The metallic snap of the charging handle echoes from it the soulless anticipation of gunfire, a spent magazine replaced with a fresh load of armor piercing rounds; a signal to the sibling next to her.

The ties of blood, woven together in the womb. A similar face and frame, differences derived through the random chances of destiny against the deserts of this world.

The boy kneels as he stares down towards the chaos below them, eyes wide as they glow an ever subtle blue.

An accent far flung, a voice reminiscent of a land across oceans of sand beneath burning suns. With precision he speaks, cold in execution. “Gunner, second armed vehicle from right. Range: eight hundred twenty meters. Wind: four kilometers per hour east to five kilometers per hour north east, changing at three hundred meters.”

The crosshairs find the target, the girl taking a deep breath. The heart slows, aim point stabilized upon the hastily armored four wheeled truck. A single human form upon its rear bed, the machine gun within the man’s grasp chattering out pitiful return fire in their direction.

A squeeze of a trigger, the rifle responding immediately. Dust is kicked from rock as the weapon roars out its twenty-five millimeter round, reality itself warping around the divine barrel as immense recoil is absorbed by the projected gravimetric field.

Bridging the gap between rifle and target the bullet annihilates the vehicle, a machine gun falling silent as plasma shreds through steel and flesh.

“Target destroyed.” The Spotter reports as he narrows his eyes, a larger threat detected amongst the carnage. “Hostile sniper team, closest transport truck. Range: eight hundred and ten meters Wind: no change.”

A burning wreck, the heat near unbearable at their backs. Jac ranges the cliffside, the shot near impossible at such a range. “Do you see him?”

“Barely…” Mari blinks out smoke as she attempts to stabilize her breathing. “That’s at least a mile right?”

“Maybe?”

A flash of light, reflected off the five suns. A scope honing in on their location ready for execution. “GET DOWN!!!”

The bullet tears across space, human reaction barely enough to dodge the hand of divinity. Contact with flesh, the round ripping through the woman’s cheek with a glancing blow.

Streaks of blood spill onto dust, the guard falling to the ground as she tries to grasp the fragments of the right side of her face.

“Target, grazing hit.” The boy coldly reports to the girl, voice turning to sarcasm. “I see that your shooting ability is as refined as ever.”

“Silence.” The girl bites back.

Blinking dust from his eyes the boy changes tone. “Shift target, adjust: truck, munition load. Wind shift: four kilometers per hour west full to target.”

Another lance of hellfire crosses the sky above the bandit convoy, impact confirmed by the explosive force that sounds deep into the carved valley. Stowed bullets explode under burning flames, black smoke enveloping the remnants of the force as the transport truck at the edge of the scattered group detonates.

Ears ringing, lungs choked by smoke. Mari fades in and out of consciousness as blood flows from her wound and onto glassed rock.