The Collective vessel hovered low to the ground and a platoon of soldiers dropped to the sand. The vessel raised up again and closed the exit doors.
"At least you guys make it easy to see which ones we're fighting," I joked as I took in the 20 bright blue and orange striped uniforms.
"Yes, Father is all about keeping the noble traditions of battle alive," Kuzzon sighed.
"Do we think that these soldiers could be reasoned with? Is that a thing to attempt?" I asked. "Three fighters, two snipers, and two infiltrators against 20 soldiers on the ground and god knows how many others on the ship are not good odds."
"This is your Prince!" Kuzzon shouted.
The soldiers took aim and fired at the rock we were crouched behind. Kuzzon, Ben and I moved closer together behind the rock.
"Alright then," I sighed, once the barrage stopped. I used two fingers and pulled a disk from the band. I crouched low and peaked left around the boulder. I flicked the disk and huddled back into the aliens. I winced as the disk exploded and there were several cries from the enemy combatants.
"Nartayah, what's the count now?" Kuzzon asked, his voice a little rough. I cleared my throat, that hadn't felt good. Fuck.
"13, Prince," she responded softly. "Should I start picking them off?"
"I don't really want to give that order," Kuzzon said. There was a brief pause. Total quiet across the battlefield. It was eerie.
"Try for non-lethal hits," Kuzzon ordered.
"Does that apply to all of us?" I asked.
"I would really prefer if you didn't intentionally kill my people," Kuzzon said.
"You mean the people that are actively trying to kill you?" I shot back and immediately felt guilty about it. "Right, sorry, non-lethal." Ben just cringed. Another round of blasts and bullets hit the boulder.
"Nartayah," Kuzzon ordered.
Nartayah started to shoot from her position. I got down low and peered around the boulder. I removed the gun from my vest and shot out someone's kneecap. I popped back behind the boulder when the attention was back on this rock.
"They're advancing forward," Nartayah warned. "Down to 10."
"Nine," Jein said shortly after. The sound of him clicking between rounds echoed through the coms. We could see the hovering spacecraft from our position. The silhouette of two figures was clear on the top of the ship. Somehow Heatheroon and Furheen had made it up there.
"Eight soldiers approaching," Nartayah warned. I glanced around the boulder again. All guns were pointing in the air, looking for our snipers. I shot another in the knee and the soldier cried out and fell to the ground.
"Seven," I said.
"They'll be in arm's reach in," Jein started to countdown, "Five," I turned over ready for a tackle.
"Three, two..."
I lunged at the first soldier, knocking his gun away, and forcing him to the ground. He managed to roll us so I was under him. I kneed him off me and sprung up out of the dust. He came at me with a series of punches. I dodged and ducked. He managed to catch my chin. I turned into his body and elbowed sharply where the plastic armor ended. He gasped and I kicked him back farther and took out his left knee.
I ran over to the soldier's dropped rifle and locked it into my shoulder. Kuzzon was facing off against two soldiers in hand to hand. Ben was doing the same. There were bodies everywhere. I aimed the rifle and shot out a soldier's ankle. He collapsed immediately and Ben could focus on just one guy, who he quickly locked in a chokehold. I swerved to Kuzzon's fight and again aimed low. My first shot missed and pinged up red soil. The second shot took out another ankle. Kuzzon knocked out his remaining soldier with an elbow to the temple.
The vessel lowered and more soldiers appeared.
"Escape hatches are inaccessible from the outside," Heatheroon reported.
"Then get down here and help out," Kuzzon ordered.
"Just out of curiosity, and not to jinx us, but why aren't they firing at us with the ship's weapons?" I asked.
"Per the sniper, Commander Zymerian wants you and Ben alive," Nartayah said. "He wants to make examples of you to further oppress the humans.
"He's the worst," I responded quickly, and took cover behind a new boulder. This boulder was tall enough to allow me to stand behind it.
"Yes," Kuzzon agreed. "I've always found him intolerable." He was kneeling behind a boulder 10 feet away. Ben scurried over and took refuge next to me.
My wrist buzzed. I flicked on the com. Graham's voice came through.
"Breaking through the atmosphere," he said. "What's the situation?"
"20 foot soldiers and one new, fancy, impenetrable Collective ship," I answered.
"I'm glad to hear that you haven't managed to kill yourself, yet," Graham sighed.
"Oh, I'm actually wanted alive, so no worries about death or dying," I quipped back.
"That's worse, that's so much worse, Gwen," Graham groaned.
"Kuzzon, friendly runner, incoming, one attached blaster, any ideas?" I asked.
"Not currently," he responded.
I peeked around the boulder at the approaching soldiers and looked up at Ben. Ben just shook his head and sighed. "You're the plan person, Guinevere."
I bit down on my lip. And rolled it anxiously between my teeth. I looked at the runner, flying towards us, I looked back at Ben to see him staring at me expectantly. I looked back over to Kuzzon. I closed my eyes. Why wouldn't my brain just work? Shit. I closed my eyes and pictured the battlefield. I opened them again and glanced around the border.
"Graham, can you blast up the ground, make it harder for the soldiers to get to us?" I asked. I looked to Ben and he gave me a nod.
"Will do," Graham confirmed, before zooming in low and lighting up the ground. The earth pulled away from itself and created trenches and craters. A couple of the Collective soldiers fell into the new holes. Of course, that was when the Collective ship started to fire on Graham and he began evasive maneuvers. Fuck.
"Okay, someone else, what next?" I asked through the coms. Graham seemed to be holding his own in the air. I had to look away. I couldn't worry about Graham. He'd be okay. I needed to focus on what was going on around me.
"Just keep fighting, hopefully without killing anyone," Kuzzon ordered.
"Joke in poor taste to lighten the mood-"
"You're not allowed to joke about killing yourself," Ben ordered, cutting me off. When I looked away from the approaching soldiers and up at him, he simply frowned at me with an eyebrow raised.
"Okay then," I said. I locked the rifle into my shoulders and started aiming at the feet of the opposing force. I shot off three rounds and managed to knock a couple soldiers backwards into one of the craters before sliding back behind the rock as they started firing back. Ben took a couple shots from the other side of the boulder. Kuzzon went next before ducking back down. Kuzzon's team went next.
"Eight," Nartayah said. I glanced around the boulder and watched as more soldiers were dropped down to the ground from the ship.
"28," Nartayah and Jein sighed at the same time.
"How many more platoons could be on that ship?" Ben asked. We both stepped out from behind the boulder and leveled a barrage of bullets at the feet of the soldiers. We slid back as the shooting turned from Kuzzon's rock to ours.
"Anywhere from one to five platoons," Kuzzon said. I did the math in my head, that was between another 20 and 100 soldiers. I shot out another soldier's knee. It wasn't hard math, but 100 soldiers was way too many. We needed a better plan.
Ben grabbed the back of my vest and pulled me back from a blaster round. I quickly thanked him and took another glance at the approaching force.
We had to crash that ship or something.
"Soldiers will be in close combat range in 90 clykans," Heatheroon said. The sounds of battle were suddenly deafening. We couldn't get into the ship.
I pulled out another disc. I flicked the disc along the ground and watched it glint in the sunlight. I turned away before the boom. Ben turned away to take on soldiers that were coming close from his side.
We couldn't take down the ship from the outside. I tried to remember what the hell Ben said earlier about the ship.