XMAN’S BODY

Twenty meters away. XMAN's body was twenty meters away. Angie, Mark and Southaven were laying prone. Weapons were ready. There was no movement. Nothing. Not even birds or insects.

Is that because this is a game, Mark wondered, or is it a sign?

Another minute of nothing happened. Text appeared on his HUD.

Team chat message from Mike: all clear from here.

Team chat message from Angie: Stand by.

Angie looked left at Mark then right at Southaven. "Go," she said over the intercom.

Mark sprinted 10 meters and took cover behind a tree. He looked in every direction, including up. "Clear" he reported.

Angie sprinted 15 meters. She was 5 meters away from the body. When nothing happened she waved Southaven forward. He joined her.

"Lots of footprints, let's take this one slow."

In sync they stood up and moved slowly, painfully slowly forward. After a few steps they stopped. Angie tried to read the ground. She tried to get a clue of what happened here. She didn’t have a chance to find out.

"What do we have here?" a woman said with a Coumbian accent. Angie and Southaven spun to face the speaker. The woman had an accent and an AK203. She held the weapon level with her hip. She didn't need to aim carefully, she had several other people with her who were aiming their weapons.

Angie started to move her accelerator rifle, get it in a firing position.

"That is not such a good idea, deary." The woman with the Columbian accent said

Ten meters away, Mark shifted his aim. The woman was in his sights. All he had to do was squeeze the trigger and she was toast. Of course there were a few problems. First, they were outnumbered and the firefight would escalate quickly. Mike and Heather probably didn’t have a chance of helping. The second, and more pressing problems was the voice behind him.

This voice was the voice of men’s dreams. Soft, sultry, with an accent. The voice said “That’s not a good idea either.” The cold piece of metal that situated itself in his ear was definitely not the hot breath of a dream girl.

Bravado made him speak. “Think I can get her before you pull the trigger?” Inside he was a shriveled mass of fear. This wasn’t the first stressful situation he had ever been in. It wouldn’t be the last. And this one was in a game. Why am I nervous?, he wondered.

“That bitch? You’d be doing me a favor if you shot her.” There was a chuckle. She yelled across the clearing. “Carmen, this guy thinks he can kill you before I kill him. Want to find out?”

“Should we find out?” Carmen asked Angie. “He shoots me, Miranda shoots him and my friends shoot you and your friends.” Her smile was vicious. “You wan’ to find out?

Angie ignored her question. “Who are you? What do you want?”

“I don’t think you should be asking questions. I think you should answer them.” She stepped closer to Angie. Carmen was careless where she pointed her rifle. Her soldiers were careful. “Who are you? What do you want?”

Angie bit the inside of her lip.

Team chat message from Mike: What the hell is going on?

It was a message from Mike in the team chat. Angie had left her camera on. In the corner of a frame she could see the blinking light. Mike had accessed her camera and could see full well what the hell was going on.

This can’t get much worse. “My man there was killed.” She nudged her rifle in the direction of XMAN’s body. “I want to know what happened to him.” She looked the woman, Carmen, in the face. “Did you kill him?”

Carmen looked at her, and then at the body. “A Space Marine? Why should I kill a Space Marine? Like you?” Angie was confusd by the inflection on th last question. Was it a question? Statement? Amusement? Threat? Carmen held her rifle in one hand and held it so the muzzle was pointing at the sky. “Are you here to kill TU’COns or rebels?”

Angie sent a note through the team chat.

Team chat message from Angie: No Shooting!

Southaven lowered his rifle. Mark slowly did the same. “I’m not here to kill anybody. I’m trying to get my team out of here,” Angie answered Carmen.

Carmen stared at her. After a few seconds, Angie continued. “Our ship crashed. We need to get to the rally point for extraction.”

When Mark lowered his rifle, the muzzle came out of his ear. He turned to face the woman. She was a chestnut haired beauty. She had the looks to go with the voice.

“I’m glad I didn’t have to kill you,” the woman said as she looked Mark up and down. Her eyes lingered on his ass. “It would have been a shame to kill such a specimen.”

“I’m glad you didn’t kill me too.” Stop being an idiot, he thought. He knew he had a stupid smile on his face. But that accent.....Stop being an idiot.