FAMILY REUNION

Mark and Marina were taking cover as best they could. There wasn’t really anything to hide behind in this room. Mark was in the hole in the wall, Marina was kneeling behind a chair that was against the wall near the door. They relaxed and lowered their weapons slightly wen radio a transmission came in. Seconds later there was a yell outside the door.

“Where are you?” It was Carmen.

“Aqui,” Maresa said.

Carmen walked in followed by Angie. Through the door they could see people running past. The rest of the attack squad was moving on.

“Perra estúpida,” Carmen said immediately. “I told you to wait and tell us when you were ready---- BEFORE we attack.”

“We didn’t have a choice,” Marina answered. She wasn’t cowering before her sister. “Maybe next time you should do this.”

“Maybe I will…” her voice trailed off. She saw the woman cowering in the corner. “Who is that?” Carmen aimed her shotgun at the woman.

So far Angie and Mark had been left out of the discussion. Neither saw any reason to change that now. Marina answered, “A mercenary tech. She showed us where the switches were.”

Carmen walked closer to the woman. The shotgun barrels did not waver from their target. “You trusted her?”

“You made it here. Looks like we made the right choice.”

She turned her head towards Mark. The shotgun stayed aimed at the woman. “You agreed with this thinking?”

“Yeah,” Mark answered.

“Then you are as stupid as she is.”

That’s enough. “Can we continue this later?” Angie asked, “no matter what, the TU’Cons are coming.” Probably coming. Especially if they let that woman send a distress call as she disarmed the robotic perimeter defenses. Stupid!

Carmen turned her glare away from Mark and to Marina. Without looking, Carmen pointed the shotgun at the woman in the corner. The boom of the shotgun was shockingly loud in the room. The second blast wasn’t any quieter. “We’ll finish the discussion later.”

WAREHOUSE

“Grenade?” Heather asked.

“No! We can’t risk damaging the case,” Angie answered. Get lucky launching a grenade once and she wants to do it everytime.

They were in a warehouse, a big warehouse full of crates and racks and boxes and everything a supply base would be expected to have. The Logistics Officer had decided to keep his office in here. The blue case, the cause of this raid, was sitting on his desk as plain as day. The case was roughly a half-meter by a half-meter, carrying it would be no problem. The problem was the three mercenaries and four TU’COns who didn’t want to surrender.

Carmen counted “uno, dos, tres.” One of her soldiers leaned out from behind a shipping crate. One of the TU’COns exposed himself and started firing. Two heartbeats later Maresa popped out from behind a different crate. The TU’COn shots were deadly accurate and Carmen’s soldier died. Maresa’s were also deadly accurate. The TU’COn died too.

Maresa looked for her next target, but nobody else popped out. Maresa held her spot, she had the advantage now.

Crates were stacked high along the walls, a perfect place for Southaven and Mike to provide overwatch. They inching along the tops getting into a better position. Meanwhile, Angie, Heather and Mark were down on the ground level with everybody else. “Cover fire in five seconds,” Angie ordered.

Mark was next to Miranda. He leaned over and whispered to her. At the count of five, Angie popped up. She fired short controlled bursts into the shipping crates that the TU’Ons were hiding behind. Mark popped up and joined her in shooting, but he was firing on auto. After a few seconds, Mark nudged Miranda with his foot. Angie and Mark ducked down to reload. Heather and Miranda popped up and opened fire.

Maresa was a silent spider waiting to pounce. Her opportunity came when one of the defenders popped up. The merc probably thought he would be fine trying a shot from fifteen meters to the side of where Miranda and Heather were shooting. The merc was wrong. Maresa calmly put a shot between his eyes. Her shotgun was slung across her back. A plain old slug thrower hunting rifle was in her hands. Maresa was a deadly hunter.

For two more cycles, the cover fire continued. It gave Mike and Southaven a chance to scramble faster. They were quickly in position over the enemy. Angie switched to a view from Mike’s camera. The enemy was in two groups, TU’COns on the left and Mercs on the right. Mike and Southaven were above the TU’Ons. Angie nudged Carmen. She pointed to the mercs on the right. “Three mercs behind those crates. Get ready.” Next angie leaned to Heather and gave her orders.

Seconds later, Angie yelled, both out loud, and through the intercom, “NOW NOW NOW.” Many things happened at once.

Oriented to the mercs on the right, Mark charged. Marina was right next to him. Angie and Maresa were waiting for somebody to popup. Heather fired her grenade launcher. The grenade arced up and then down behind the crates. There was yelling from the mercs as a grenade landed in their midst. The grenade didn’t explode, it wouldn’t ever explode. Practice rounds have no explosives or gas or anything, they’re just a hunk of metal. The mercs didn’t take the time to look and they ran. One stood upright as he ran. The game computer gave Angie and Maresa shared credit for the kill.

Mark and Marina reached the barrier and aimed over the top. They had a bead on the two remaining mercenaries. Both fired. The game system gave Marina credit for both kills, but generously gave assists to Mark. Most of his shots unintentionally sprayed the office that the mercs had been running towards.

Marina looked at him. “You’re a lousy shot.”

While the main assault was against the mercs, Southaven and Mike were in action against the TU’Ons. Mike dropped three concussion grenades. He didn’t want to use shrapnel grenades that could damage the precious box, or his teammates. After the explosions, Southaven leaned over, rifle ready. He calmly started to shoot each of the TU’Ons. From the concussions, all of he TU’Ons were flat on their backs. Putting rounds into their prone bodies was better safe than sorry in action. Before he could shoot the third TU’On, it stirred. It tried to raise its laser rifle, but it was too injured, too slow. It died as Southaven punched it with round after round. He only stopped when the TU’On fell back down. Southaven then went back and put extra shots into the other two, presumably dead, TU’Ons.

As the echo from Southaven’s shots echoed into silence, there was a collective sigh of relief. Carmen sent two of her people to check the TU’COns. They confirmed they were dead.

“You can loot the bodies,” Carmen said absently as she and Maresa walked towards the office. Carmen’s soldiers stayed where they were, at their firing positions behind the crates or from behind the TU’COn barrier.

At a command from Angie, Heather started checking the bodies for money and items. Angie and Mark and even Marina walked towards the office. Their weapons weren’t at the ready. In fact in the peace of the moment, Angie took the time to check something Mike had sent her.

[Message from Mike: XMAN’s killer]

[Photo attached]

Angie took a deep sudden breath.

“What is it?” Mark asked.

“Maresa,” Angie breathed.

Maresa and then Carmen looked back. Carmen seemed mildly annoyed that Angie and Mark were standing right there and not looting bodies.

There wasn’t a bad connotation to the word “loot.” Items and credits from dead mobs was expected. It didn’t matter if the mobs were TU’COns, NPC mercenaries, giant cats or man eating lobsters, if you killed it there was almost an obligation to check the body for stuff. It wasn’t like stealing things from dead bodies in a 20th century war.

Angie spoke up. “We need to talk.” She was staring at Maresa.

Carmen practically growled. Maresa looked at her quizzically.

Angie fixed Maresa with a glare. “You killed XMAN.”

“You,” Carmen answered for Marena, “you killed your XMAN. You invaded our planet. You came to my home with guns. To kill me? Perra estúpida.”

“We’re just trying to get to the base and get off this rock,” Angie responded.

“I don’t care,” she said with a shake of her head. “You helped me get into here, and gracias.” Her feral smile crossed her face. “But I don’t share and I do not like you.”

“Carmen!” Marina objected.

“And you mi hermana puta,” Carmen was full of venom. “You betrayed the family when you went to the capital and came back as one of the asesinos de bebés.” She spit at her sister’s feet. “Traidor!”

Up above, out of sight and out of mind, Southaven and Mike lay in wait. Earlier, Southaven had started to move. He wanted to go down and join the rest of the group. Mike had reached out and touched him. Southaven stopped and looked. Mike used an instant message chat.

[Message from Mike: Let’s just wait a minute and see what happens.]

Southaven nodded and knelt back down.

Now they were waiting as the scene below got tenser.

Angie took a quick glance around the room. Mark and Heather had a death grip on their rifles, they weren’t aiming, but they were ready. Miranda was standing there in shock. Carmen was full of hate. Angie had no idea when Maresa had unslung her shotgun, but there it was, ready to deal death. Most disturbingly, Carmen’s soldiers had their weapons ready, and all of them were behind cover.

Looting the bodies was a trap. Get us out in the open away from cover. DAMMIT! I am going to lose this competition because we got suckered? We should have just finished the mission and f-this quest. DAMNITTTT!

“I’m still curious,” Mark said. Eyes turned towards him.

“About what?” Angie snarled. It’s pretty damn obvious we’re screwed.

Mark pointed his rifle at Carmen. Slowly, as he raised the stock to his shoulder, the muzzle remained pointed at Carmen. “I’m curious if I can kill you,” he was addressing Carmen, “before Marsea can kill her.”

Maresa smiled and aimed her shotgun. “Los mataré a los dos antes de apretar el gatillo.”

Mark and Maresa locked eyes. It was an old fashion stand-off. Each was hyper aware and ready to pull the trigger at the slightest provocation.

And three years of work is riding on the absolute worst shot in the whole damn universe. It’s not fair! What can I do? Angie found some words. “Everybody relax, we’re all friends here.”

Carmen’s answer was sharp. “We’re not friends.”

There was a shout from the other end of the warehouse. There were laser blasts. A scream. From above, Southaven and Mike started shooting. Everybody was shooting everywhere. It was chaos. Maresa and Mark both pulled their triggers.

Mark and Angie were knocked backwards by Maresa’s shotgun blast.

Shots and explosions and yelling and screaming continued as chaos reigned.