Heavy armor? The Traxans had heavy armor?
The ground began to shake beneath her feet. Broken sections of the ruined eastern wall that hadn’t fallen yet, collapsed and sent up dark clouds of smoke and dust.
“Alice?” Thom Aldan, her unit leader, ran up to her. “Where did you get that… that thing?” He gestured with the butt of his rifle to her armor.
She was about to answer when the rest of the unit caught up to them. All of her people showed signs of battle; splotches of blood on their armor and muted panic in their eyes. Alice looked down at her strange metal suit—it shone pristine like newly fabricated steel.
“What are we going to do against heavy armor?” David Peters asked as he ran up beside Thom.
“I don’t know,” Thom answered. “They’ve never used it before. I didn't even know they had any on this planet.”
“Do we have any?” Alice asked. She was pretty sure they didn’t, and her suspicions were unfortunately confirmed when Thom shook his head.
“We’ll ask command what—” Thom’s voice was drowned out by the smash of stone as a Traxan tank barreled through the rubble of the wall.
It was the size of a house, big enough to comfortably fit all twelve members of her unit inside with space to move around. More tanks trailed behind the first. A cannon with a glowing sphere pointed forward, toward their position.
“Get to cover!” Thom ordered. He waved them to follow.
Alice took to the air. Her shields were still in the high eighty percent. She wasn’t sure what kind of firepower the tank had, or if her suit could withstand it—and didn’t want to find out. The plasma rifle in her arms felt like a child’s toy compared to the tank’s cannon.
As she watched her unit dart across the field, over to a half-crumbled barricade, the voice from earlier said, “Opening communications channel. Incoming message.”
“All units, hold position.” It was Sergeant Brown’s voice. “Demo teams are being organized, but we need time. Hold positions!”
The sphere on the tank started to glow a bright blue. It’s charging, Alice thought with a sinking stomach. With no plan, she flew forward, aimed her rifle and—
Four Traxan Flyers came out of nowhere and crashed into her armor. She heard the sickening sounds of breaking bones and their fractured screams, but each one held on. They clung to her arms and legs.
Alice veered off her path and away from the tank. The world spun around as her suit did a sort of barrel roll over and over. She lost her grip on her rifle. Before she could react, it was gone.
She clenched her jaw and brought her armored hands together. The two Traxan Flyers that had been hanging from her arms were squished together. Through the plate of her armor she felt the crushing of their spines as if she were rubbing two twigs together between her palms. Blood gushed across her visor, painting the world a rosy red.
Now that her arms were free, she slammed a metal fist into the Traxan on her left leg. Its bug-like face flew clean off its shoulders. Dead, it slid off her leg.
Using both hands, Alice gripped the final Traxan and threw it over her shoulders. She watched it rocket away for a second as she righted herself. Though she was no longer spinning, the world still seemed to turn. She kept blinking, shaking her head, hoping it would go away.
The tank!
Alice turned just in time to see the cannon's beam tear through a concrete pillbox like it was nothing but paper. A group of ten or so men and women were instantly vaporized. The ground beneath them exploded as if hit by a meteor.
“Where’s my rifle,” Alice muttered under her breath as she scanned the ground.
“Locating weapon,” the phantom voice said.
A flash of green appeared on the ground. She flew down. In the churned up dirt sat her rifle. She scooped it up and began to head back to the tank.
“Demo team on the way,” the Sergeant said through the comm channel in the suit. “Just hold on a little longer.”
The cannon began to charge again. The sphere went from a dazzling blue to near white. Sparks danced along the cannon’s long barrel. As she flew forward, Alice saw the tank's intended target—her unit.
Though they hadn’t been the friendliest, they were still her team, her people. In her heart, and from the little battle experience they’d had, she knew that they wouldn’t hesitate to help her. In fact, it was why sort of why they had resented her so much. Half of them had to cover for her: pulling her away from Traxan gunfire, helping her reload her weapon when her hands shook too much, Thom had once threw himself over her body when a mortar had landed nearby.
She fired shot after green plasma shot at the sphere, but they either ricocheted away or were absorbed by the glowing ball of energy.
Out of ideas Alice shot forward, as fast as her suit would take her. Straight into the path of the cannon’s beam.
It felt as if a car had just rammed its front bumper into her stomach. The metal burned hot against her abdomen. Warning signs and alerts flashed and sounded all around her. Her body ripped backwards, into a concrete barricade. The world around her became a cloud of grey dust.
“Suit damage critical,” a voice said. Alice barely registered it as her skin burned and her bones ached. “Shutting down for maintenance.”
Her flak jacket was back.
Alice tried to stand but her legs felt as if they’d been beaten with batons. With shaking hands she pulled up the bottom of her jacket to get a look at her stomach. Though the tanks still approached and Traxans flew in the air, Alice needed to know what the damage was. She kept picturing black skin like charred wood. When she pulled the jacket back she saw it was only inflamed, a little red.
“I got you.” A pair of arms pulled her backwards. She turned to find Thom and Rebecca dragging her behind the barricade, one on each of her arms.
Before she could say anything, streaks of white raced over her, whistling as they passed. Alice raised her head and watched the front of the tank explode. Gears whined and metal screamed against metal. It had been moving forward, advancing on their position, but now it slowed to a crawl. Flames lingered over its broken metal hull.
“We held out long enough?” Alice asked in a weak voice. She had so much trouble keeping her eyelids open.
More missiles soared through the sky. The demolition team moved forward. Alice could hear their shouts of “Reload!” and “Direct hit!” as they marched past, chasing the confused tanks.
“Thanks to you,” Rebecca said as she sprinkled powder over Alice’s burning skin. After a moment the scorching heat turned to soothing ice. “How come you never fought like that before?”
“I…” Alice shook her head. She was so sleepy. Her head pounded. Concussion, she thought. “I didn’t have my suit before.”
“Well, stay with us,” Thom said and patted her on the shoulder. “I definitely speak for the unit when I say we owe you a drink after this.”