Connection Unknown: Chapter 1 Part 8 of 9 (Patreon)

“How the hell you load that thing, Jynx?” Luke asked.

“Like an MG42 barrel change—you grab a metal handle, pull it to the side, whole thing comes out, then you line up another box and slam it into the groove and forward into place.”

“That’s pretty cool.”

“Charlie Squad, the fuck you doing? We need help up here!”

Luke had tuned out most of their chatter, but they were Charlie Squad.

“Just got set up. We’re going to provide covering fire.” Luke increased his magnification and surveyed the base. The enemy was highlighted in red outlines as he spotted them. “Just getting oriented.”

“Hurry the fuck up! We’re dying out here.”

“Seems that Echo Squad lead is having quite the day,” Luke muttered as Turtle engines howled, a new flight coming in for a hot drop behind the advancing forces.

“All right, might as well get in while the going’s good. Fin, take out the turrets if you can.”

“What should I be shooting?”

Luke keyed command chat. “Team leads, what takes out the turrets?”

“Missiles?” One team leader said.

“Shoot their sensor package, makes ’em blind.”

“They can use a spotter, though,” another said.

“Thanks.” Luke flipped chats. “Shoot the cameras.”

“All right.”

“And I should do my hair another color?”

“You’ve only had two color changes this week.” Luke grinned. “I want you ready to cover our guys’ advance. I’ll ping enemy as they show up—you keep their heads down.”

Fin fired. “Fucker. Moved at the last second.” He fired again. “Gotcha.”

Luke spotted the turret’s cameras, a sparking mess as its rate of fire cut off.

Fin changed targets and fired, as friendlies moved up along the soft incline. Reinforcements swarmed up behind them to get into the fight.

“There, Jynx.” Luke pinged a group of enemy rallying on the wall.

Jynx fired a long burst, raking the area.

“Got someone!” She grinned.

Luke checked the turrets. “Shift up and to the right.”

Fin took out another that twitched side to side, unable to move. “Shit. I think I hit a runner or something.” He fired again and the camera went down.

“Got two turrets down. Three are still up. We’re covering—get moving!” Luke said on command.

Groups of bots moved forward, tentatively at first, feelers edging around the ice barricades. Like a tide coming in, they pushed forward, threading through the terrain.

A squad ran up and were mowed down by a group just inside the wall section that had been destroyed with a dropship missile.

“There. There, Jynx!” Luke pinged the opening.

She shifted her aim and fired, filling the air with rounds: long bursts with long pauses, enough to make them keep their heads down, not too much to burn through her ammo.

“Foxtrot, going for the eastern wall. Don’t shoot us!”

“Copy. Hey, Jynx, don’t shoot friendlies on our side of the wall.”

“And on the other?”

“Well, just don’t try to hit any blueberries.” Luke checked the advance, over the blue nameplates of friendlies, purples for squad leaders and the commanders.

A section of the eastern wall exploded.

“Fuck was that?” Jynx said.

“Reloading,” Fin said.

“Made breach!” came over command.

“I think that was us? Watch out for friendlies—they’re getting bunched up.” They were using the debris that had fallen from the glacier with the Turtles’ missiles and turret fire, now creating great cover up to the node.

“Shall we get moving?” Fin asked.

Rounds thudded into the tower they were on.

“Yup!” Luke said, backing up. All three of them moved to the rear of the pillar.

Jynx let herself drop the fifteen meters to the ground, Luke and Fin following.

“New firing position or get in there?” Luke asked.

“Get in there. Having a hard time not hitting our guys,” Jynx said.

“Yeah.”

“Okay.” Luke sketched a rough route in his mind; he pinned a marker and started jogging.

“Bravo, push in more. We need your help!”

“Shit, we need ammo. Anyone got an ammo crate?”

“Grab it off the dead. You have to do it physically, can’t just step over them.”

“Fucking realism.”

Luke stopped paying attention to the command chat as they weaved through the broken ice and up the side of the landing pad.

Other friendlies ran through the breach in the wall. The fighting had moved into the base.

Luke moved in first and checked around, his bot adjusting to the darkness inside the node’s cave.

Buildings and containers were dotted around the node. Machinery was still working, while firefights pushed from the wall into the base.

[Monkey Balls Node]

[Capturing]

[1%]

“Push! Come on! Inside the node, we’re worth one body. In the Command Post, you’re worth three!”

Luke found stairs and ran up on the wall. “They want us to push for the CP, but we’re going t hold here to make sure we’re not counterattacked and lose our foothold. We’ll set up here. Shit’s a mess among the buildings on the way to the CP.”

“Those turrets still work?” Jynx pinged them along the wall.

“I think that one over there does.” Fin pinged it.

“Set up there. Luke, use that turret.”

“All right, sounds good.” He was eager to get into the fight.

They ran along the catwalk, the wall coming to chest height. Luke vaulted the railing and landed next to the tower the turret was mounted on. At the bottom was a simple joystick with a camera feed. He grabbed it and selected to “link.” His vision changed, as if he were looking through the turret, and spun it around to face the base.

“Enemy there.” Fin pinged a location.

Luke turned to the flashing ping and fired, stitching holes through a building, bots dropped out as one tried to run, caught out in the open, Jynx cut him down as others rushed out.

“Take the left I got the right!” Luke stopped trying to use bursts and went full cyclic, shredding up walls and cutting down bots. They kept advancing, somehow making it through the destruction.

Suddenly they slowed, Luke went to bursts again, his machine gun alerts blinking about the heat overload.

Bots, gear and broke buildings were left behind. Luke tracked others running back and sent bursts at them. Catching some.

“Good work on the machine guns!” a team leader yelled as they pushed into the area, flowing through the killing ground and moving forward.

“How’s it going, ladies and germs? Came to show you how to take a node,” someone yelled on local.

Luke shifted his turret, seeing reinforcements streaming into the base as dropships took off at the landing zone.

“Shit, Luke at the turrets—behind you!” Jynx yelled.

Luke came out of his turret and grabbed his rifle and jumped away. Rounds hit where he had been, Luke fired from the hip cutting them down with a burst, he felt the tug of wind as Fin fired past him, hitting another bot.

“Shit, thanks.” Luke checked his ammo count.

“More coming. They’re flanking on the left!” Fin said.

Luke glanced at the console. “Turret’s busted.”

Fin fired several times, Jynx moved to him firing at the flank. Luke grabbed a grenade off of the bot Fin had saved him from, arming it and throwing it in the direction of the flank. He found a container, near the wall’s stairs.

Two bots ran out, rushing the stairs behind Jynx and Fin. Luke cut them down in a burst, sending them sprawling on the ground.

Rifle up he went around the container, nothing, he turned to face the flank cutting down a bot running full tilt. They had no time to react as their momentum carried their body.

“We’re starting to take the node!” A squad leader yelled on command chat.

“Factories to the left side of the CP—take them out and we take out their reinforcements!” Another said.

Luke reloaded his rifle, watching, nervous for someone else to run up as reinforcements flooded through the breach and pushed into the base.

“Watch out there’s people on the right trying to flank us!”

“Got it!” Two groups headed off to the right.

“I don’t see anymore,” Jynx said.

“Me either.” Fin said

Their guns were silent but fighting could be heard off in the distance, bouncing around the cave.

Luke checked the map, the groups that had pushed on the right flank advancing quickly. “Okay, looks like they’re taken care of, you want to move up?”

“Hell yeah I do.” Jynx said.

They gathered, Fin looting a pistol. “These guns have some serious punch.”

“All the weapons do. We’re punching holes through the bots,” Jynx said.

“Let me grab some grenades,” Luke said.

“You speakin’ my language,” Fin laughed.

They moved up to the corridor they’d gone cyclic from, grabbing gear and ammo.

A flash of the map told Luke what he needed to know “The fight is moving into the back of the Monkey Balls cave. We got pushed out of the CP, but we’re starting to cap the location just by sheer numbers.” Luke said.

“Lead the way,” Fin said.