As I waited for his all-clear, I looked through the window across the room from me and to the distant sunset. The red sun reminded me of home in many ways while being so different in others. In fact, the whole planet reminded me of some of the desolate mountains on Earth. Storm scoured and devoid of life yet having everything that life needed to thrive.
“Go!” It was the command I had been waiting for. I shot out of the building and down the center of the road. We needed to focus on speed, not stealth. Using the drones in such numbers had removed the option.
No sounds of guns firing or rounds hitting the ground and walls confirmed that no one was nearby. Pelting around corners, I nearly ran into Victor and his squad.
His command-and-control specialist was sitting in the middle of the group as she swiped and called out small commands to her AI.
At my questioning look, Victor tilted his head at her and said, “Queen here is looking over the target location. It is down the road. A very clear and empty road.”
My entire team groaned upon hearing this. The road would be a death zone. We would have practically zero cover while trying to approach the target. “Why not just bomb the place from orbit and be done with this?” I asked.
“The intel I read stated the presence of an experimental quantum power tap in there. Twice the output at a third the size.”
“That was the official numbers,” Queen said as she stood up. “A few of my drones are reading much higher output than that.”
“So, how do you think we should approach the building?” her commander asked.
“Best bet? Take down the buildings on either side of the road. A few well-placed explosives could bring a few of the buildings down.” Before I could ask about going through the walls of the buildings, she shook her head. “Each of those buildings are rigged with traps and explosives. Also, each road I scanned had the same problem. If I had to guess, they have been planning this as their fallback point for weeks.”
“Gerald, use your laser to take out the buildings on the left. Nick, you get the right.” My team’s commander took charge. Those were the heavy guns for the two squads. The amount of time they would be firing would use most of their batteries and take both out of the rest of this fight. “Greg and Thompson, you both need to find a perch to snipe from. Queen, you and I will be using what drones we must watch the field and take out what we can. The rest of you have the joy of attacking that place. Don’t make me come save your asses again.”
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
My team grumbled at that. It had only been one time that we had needed to be saved. It wasn’t even our fault. One of his drones was hit and crashed into a nearby building. That building had then come down on us. Luckily, our computers had moved us fast enough to survive, but surviving did not mean much when you had no safe way out without collapsing the rest of the building on top of you.
Greg and Thompson took off at a sprint for buildings in opposite directions of each other. Their large rifles were magnetically tied to their back as they held their handgun.
Felix and I stuck our guns down the street and started to fire at the building. Turning our weapons to full power in an effort to force anyone watching to move back and find cover. Taking the opening, Nick sprinted for the other side of the street.
Both he and Gerald pulled their weapon off their shoulders. On their back was a backpack. A small nuclear generator and battery sat inside the bag. With that, the laser could fire a few microsecond shots a minute for hours or a sustained beam for ten minutes.
Firing such a beam ate through coolant. Vaporizing it as the gun cooled off the expensive components. The gun would stop firing once the coolant dropped to almost nothing, conserving the little left to keep the reactor cooled off. In a pinch, you could add water to the system, but then the cooling system would need an overhaul when you next returned it. Still, the thing was great for massive damage.
The lasers fired up, and the buildings on either side of the street started to crumble. While the laser itself was invisible, my AI overlayed what my suits sensor could see. Each laser was cutting through the buildings like a knife through butter.
Sudden explosions from the traps caused the buildings to send shrapnel into the air. Based on the explosions on the streets on either side of the target, we were not the only ones doing this.
I kept my gun pointed at the target, looking for anything poking its head out. Not firing as my targeting computer kept seeing ghosts. Just like us, the enemy was using some scrambler to fool targeting computers into seeing things that were not there while ignoring other things that were. The lasers cutting out let me know that they had done what they could. Between the building we stood behind and the target, no wall stood higher than a meter tall.
Heavy smacking sounds had me glancing over to Gerald and Nick. They were dropping their bags and lasers. Opting to leave the heavy and practically useless equipment for later.
