Inside the iron skeleton, Aaron stepped away from his task of arming automatic turrets and hurried over to Sila.
The robot glanced up from executing the same task elsewhere. "What?"
"Fire up the Sand Dollar." Aaron ordered, "We've got tanks to deal with."
Sila pointed at the overarching dome. "Enclosed."
"Yeah, well, I kinda figured something like this would happen." he replied with a smirk. "Over near the west side, I made sure to make a panel wide enough that removing it will allow it to just barely squeeze through."
"Genius."
"Why thank you. Now, get that fired up. I'll be in shortly."
Sila's head pivoted from side to side. "No."
"No what?"
The robot pointed at the nearest unarmed turret. "Busy."
Aaron frowned. "And who else is gonna fly with you?"
"Hannah."
"You're sure? I'm not sure if she's—"
"Capable."
Aaron scratched his chin. "You'd better be 100% sure about this. It ain't just a joyride or—"
"Certain."
"Alright, go ahead then. Don't scratch the paint."
"Unintended."
Aaron nodded and watched the black robot dash off. Then he hurried over to Baird, who motioned him over with a wave of his hand.
"You said to connect blue to blue?" Baird asked, holding up two wires sticking from a panel in one of the turrets.
Aaron face-palmed. "No, no, no! That just makes a feedback loop! Perfect if you were making a bomb, but we're not."
Baird sighed. "Sorry. So what is it?"
"Blue to red, red to yellow, yellow to blue."
Baird muttered Aaron's instructions to himself three times with closed eyes. "Alright, I've got it, thanks."
"Yep." Aaron said, stepping over to a turret a few feet down the line. "You were hoping to be outta here by now, huh?"
"To be honest, yes. But you won't catch me complaining. As long as I'm with you guys, I'm gonna give it my all."
"That's good to he—"
Both men jumped when a loud boom resounded off near the northeast section of the dome. Their widened eyes spotted a panel bowing inward and remained transfixed on it. A tiny push, it appeared, and the plate would give way.
Aaron snatched his communicator. "Sila, hurry! They're already breaking in!"
"Hurrying." the robot's voice replied through the device's speaker.
"Well, not enough. Go faster!"
"Impossible."
Aaron grunted. "Don't tell me what's possible. I made you, for goodness' sake! You found Hannah yet?"
"Easily."
"Alright, well, don't waste any time."
With that, he pocketed the device. Aaron and Baird abandoned their current turrets to ready the ones closer to the place of impact.
********************
Minutes later, the Sand Dollar squeezed through the opening in the dome on the west side. The ship sped out into the open air and banked hard right. After flying around the dome, the vessel hovered over the approaching tanks, and the Insurgence soldiers occupying the four underbelly turrets let loose a barrage of bullets and occasional laser beams.
One of the tanks below fired another explosive round at the iron skeleton, but a few bullets from the Sand Dollar's turrets detonated it in midair, before it could achieve impact. A laser beam sliced through another tank's cannon, causing their round to fall down onto the top of the vehicle. A few shots set off an explosion there as well, and the armored vehicle's top was demolished. As the men inside scrambled to escape, they were easily picked off.
A squadron of fighter jets raced in from the south and pelted the Sand Dollar as they sped just above it. After dropping a few feet, the ship rotated so the underbelly turrets faced skyward, and with several well-aimed shots, the operators evened the odds once more. A few of the jets dropped from the sky and damaged the tanks below.
The Sand Dollar spun upright again and sped after the jets that escaped. With its greater speed, the ship overtook them and pestered them from above. Several jets succumbed to their destruction, but many more darted away and split paths. Soon, the Alcontean air support resembled a swarm of bees buzzing around the much larger vessel.
********************
Ace peeked around an oblong boulder for a quick second, then crouched and settled back down into his hiding place. Another Alcontean contingent was heading in from the south, their path leading straight into the ambush.
"Guys," he spoke through his earpiece, "don't fire a single shot until I say so. We're gonna hide out until they're too far in the thick of it to retreat. Then we give 'em hell."
While he received a flurry of affirmative statements, Ace finally stamped out his cigarette. He glanced over his gun, nodded at it in approval, and felt in his pockets. With a satisfied smirk, he settled down and waited.
Several minutes passed before footsteps plodded by Ace's hiding place. He raised his gun to take out any soldiers more observant than usual. Every time another man passed by the boulder, his breath caught in his throat again. His heart raced, but yet his body refused to inhale deeply enough to supply the oxygen it demanded. Every muscle in his body tightened.
When one soldier sharply turned his head to cough into the crook of his elbow, Ace panicked. He aimed his weapon at the man, his trembling finger eager to pull the trigger. Only when the man straightened his head again and marched out of sight did Ace release his breath.
He uneasily continued waiting, until one last furtive glance over the boulder allowed him to see the end of the formation. After one last check of his weapon, he tapped the earpiece.
"Alright, now!"
Gunfire erupted from the many hiding spots, catching the Alconteans off guard and throwing them into a panic. While the general struggled to call them to order, his men sputtered return fire at their opponents, who had by then already concealed themselves elsewhere. Meanwhile, many of those same soldiers received bullets from behind.
Ace showered the Alconteans with bullets as he dashed across the open space between one hiding place and the next. When one of his comrades fell to enemy fire, he gritted his teeth and shot a bullet of vengeance at the perpetrator.
He slid to a stop behind another boulder and unpinned a grenade. He hurled it over into the Alcontean horde, but fired at it in midair, causing it to explode at eye level. Ace ducked as an explosion of blood splashed all over the surrounding area.
********************
Meanwhile, Keira peered through her scope and nailed the Alconteans below with precision shots. She focused her fire first on the general, and then on the soldiers who bore the most abundant insignia on their uniform. Traveling down the command structure, she injected more and more chaos into the enemy ranks.
When an Alcontean fired a bazooka at her perch, she swiftly grappled over to another tree and grimaced as the one behind splintered apart. She shrugged and mouthed "serves you right" as the trunk toppled down and crushed the very man who had destroyed it.
Another Alcontean ran at a group of Keira's comrades below with a shotgun, only to scream when her grapple hook snatched him up to the treetops. She disengaged the claw halfway up his ascent, and after his spine snapped on the trunk, his corpse fell back down onto one of his comrades.
********************
Ace slid across a clearing between two trees and hammered his foes as he went. He spun at the crunch of fallen leaves and rolled his eyes as a soldier stepped closer with a flamethrower in his hands. Tongues of fire slithered out of the weapon's barrel and groped for his flesh.
Ace threw himself to the ground and crawled out of range. He hurled a grenade into the flames, immediately throwing his arms over his head as a massive explosion ensued. Burning chunks of the soldier's flesh rained on the ground all around, some igniting dry vegetation in the area. With a grimace, he dashed away to find another source of concealment.
As he reloaded his gun behind a thorny shrub, a burst of particularly loud gunfire across the field drew his attention. Ace peeked over the top of the vegetation and frowned at the sight of a quintet of snipers all focusing their fire on Keira in a tree. She hurried to the other side of the trunk to avoid their assault, but gasped when a bullet tore right through the bark and sped right by her face.
Keira shot her claw at the branch of a nearby tree and swung away just in time to avoid a headshot. Then she gasped as that limb gave way and snapped. Ace's eyes widened as he watched her fall uncontrollably from the great height, with nothing to do about it.
Just in time, she saved herself and caught another branch. She sighed and ascended the line.
Then she screamed.
One of the snipers had fired a precise shot at the line. Keira fell again. Ace tossed his gun aside and ignored his own safety, racing his heart out to attempt catching her. But he tripped over a root, and with his balance, he lost any chance of preventing the calamity.
Keira landed on one leg with a thud and a snap. Her agonized screams became muffled when her face dropped into the mud. To add insult to injury, a sharp corner of the grapple gun hit her head as it finally fell after her.
Ace's forehead wrinkled as he shoved himself to his feet and sprinted over to Keira's fallen form. He grimaced at the sight of her right ankle, twisted sideways just under 90 degrees. Her muffled groans made his heart hurt.
He snapped back into the present moment when Alcontean soldiers began closing in. He sighed, scooped Keira into his arms, and hurried his fastest to find cover.
Ace ducked as a gunshot rung out behind him, sighing with slight relief when it hit his impenetrable jacket instead. He managed to push himself to run just a little faster, and soon found himself back in the cover of a maze of bushes.
He gingerly lowered Keira to the ground and met her eyes. "You alright?"
"No." she whispered.
"Didn't think so." he muttered as he tapped his earpiece. "Guys, I need a stretcher on my position ASAP. Keira's hurt."
With a sigh, Ace sat cross-legged in the dirt and laid Keira's head in his lap. He stroked her hair in an unsure attempt of comforting her as they waited for help to arrive.
********************
A/N: Oh no, our baby's been hurt! I'm assembling a team to avenge this injustice, if anybody's interested in coming along.
Anyway, make sure to vote and comment if you liked this, and any prayers for their lives and wellbeing will also be appreciated. 😂
Now, I feel like in some of these battle scenes, I'm ending up with some pretty short scenes. Does that bother you? Just curious for editing.
And now for our random question: Computer or smartphone?
(I'd have to say computer, though I'm biased since I don't have a smartphone. Call me grandpa if you want, but it is what it is. 😆)
Alright, I'll take off for church for the morning soon, so I hope you have an awesome day! Hope to see you in the next update.