by Aer-ki Jyr
“Guess the kid gloves are coming off for this one,” Paul said, wary of getting stunned and drowning in a stupid pool of water. He wondered if they’d stop or postpone the challenge if someone did go in face down…or if they were truly on their own for this one.
“Looks that way. The courtyard has plenty of stuff in the center for cover, so I looked around a bit then headed down this hall. Never got a chance to check the shops, the stupid rover came up from behind me, meaning it was hiding somewhere in the courtyard or emerged through a hidden entrance. I really don’t see how I could have missed it, but there it was and down I went.”
“Alright, let’s head back there and go through the shops. Hopefully we can pick up a few more weapons.”
Rex nodded and leapt up over the counter effortlessly and walked up to the windows. Paul opted to round the corner and stay on the floor as he followed him up in a flanking position on the right side, pistol held at ready for whatever they might encounter.
Rex popped his head outside, looked both ways, then took off to his left at a jog, with Paul following a few steps behind. They backtracked down the hallway, ducking into every store along the way that was unlocked, of which they only found two, both of which were empty. When they got into the courtyard they stayed together to watch each other’s backs and began searching room by room, finding that two thirds were locked.
It took them twenty minutes to search the entire area, dodging four rovers in the process, which seemed to be circulating on a predictable pattern. One of them was actually a pair following a few meters apart, which was another innovation the trainees hadn’t encountered before. Disabling one had always been a challenge, but with a second present it was going to be ten times as difficult.
Fortunately the things weren’t very bright, and at the moment at least appeared to be operating on computer control rather than by remote, making them easy to dodge moving from one obstruction to another or just hiding out in stores. By the time Paul and Rex left the courtyard they’d collected two more pistols and a shield, which Paul now carried. Rex had passed on it in favor of dual wielding.
They both stopped short of the stairs and took a knee as they scanned the long hallway to the right that Paul had come from, making sure it was clear of rovers, then ascertained what they could from their vantage point down into the artificial valley that seemed to run parallel to the concrete retaining wall.
They spotted not one, but six turrets within vision range, all propped up on short pillars to give them excellent lines of fire in what looked like a commons area with benches and vegetation, along with an artificial creek flowing down from a waterfall and passing out of view. Several walkways crisscrossed over it on small bridges while others seemed to run parallel, all connecting to more shops, some of which appeared to be open air booths in the center.
Rex spied what looked like the barrel of a sniper rifle in one of the booths, but the approach was impossible to get past the turrets…at least with the two of them and their limited ammunition. Furthermore, there was no way they could get past the stairs more than a few meters before they ran into the crisscrossing fire from the turrets in view, not to mention how many more could be concealed to the right.
The left end of the valley seemed to be capped where the waterfall emerged, meaning all the ruckus would be to the right, which was probably where Paul had heard the weapons fire from. Unable to scout it directly, the only available option was to head back the way Paul had come and check out what lay on the other side of the statue.
With a quick hand signal Paul motioned for them to leave, with Rex falling into a staggered line formation behind him yet slightly to his right to maintain his line of fire forward while close enough that he could duck behind his shield carrying partner on a moments’ notice. They made it all the way down to the statue when another round of weapons fire broke out somewhere on the other side of the concrete retaining wall.
Suddenly Rex yanked Paul to the right, circling behind the statue just as he noticed a faint whine coming from the left. He caught just a glimpse of the front end of the silver plates covering the rover before Rex had leveraged him away. He threw his friend a quick ‘thank you’ nod as they backtracked around the base of the statue the opposite direction so as to stay out of sight.
Paul kept watch on the rover while Rex ran a few steps ahead and scouted out the opposite side. Like clockwork, the rover moved down the hallway/street back towards the courtyard like the others had.
Rex reappeared behind Paul and threw him two quick hand signals, prompting him to frown and follow. The other side of the statue ended with a 90 degree arc of stairs that lead down to the ‘valley’ which spread out in a dog leg to the right. From their elevated vantage point they could see acres of cityscape filled with streets, shops, and many, many turrets mixed into a multitude of cover.
Rex pointed down at the stairs, then back at the rover, making Paul realize that the stupid device must be able to climb stairs now too. Then off in the distance they spotted motion and heard the firing of more than one turret, but they couldn’t see exactly which ones.
A waving hand half immersed in vegetation caught Paul’s eye and he returned the gesture, then received a series of signals informing them where to go.
“Did you catch that?” Paul whispered beside Rex.
“Most of it. You lead and I’ll watch our flank.”
Paul nodded and rushed down the stairs, dropping into cover behind a low wall that ran parallel to the hall they’d just emerged from. After that it was a delicate matter of running, jumping, and rolling from cover to cover in a precise path to avoid the overlooking turrets and meandering rovers until they crossed the trainees’ skirmish line and into ‘friendly’ territory.
Mark met them just past the line and led them back into an impromptu command center in a shop at the back of a small courtyard that had improvised barricades erected to block any incoming rovers should they penetrate the lines.
“Rex, Paul,” Greg said as they walked through the door. “Good, you’re already armed. Don’t suppose either of you picked up a keycard?”
Rex shook his head, but Paul dug into his utility belt and held up the green keycard that he’d found back in the labyrinth.
“Finally,” Sara said with obvious relief, standing behind the windows so she could receive/send hand signals from trainees stationed in line of sight relay points throughout their territory.
“What’s it open?” Paul asked, tossing it to Greg.
“Armories, one per card. We’ve accessed two so far, but that’s not enough to fully equip an assault force.”
“Well, I just spent a good number of minutes stunned unconscious and he just arrived,” Rex said to his 7s team leader, “so fill us in on what’s happening.”
“Over here,” Greg said, walking back to the counter that all the shops seemed to have at least one of. On top of it was a crude map drawn up in blue paint, apparently scavenged from enemy stinger rounds. “This place is huge. We’ve discovered five zones thus far. We’re here in zone 3 and have control up to this line,” he said, pointing at a jagged blue arc nibbling into zone 2. “Where did you guys come from?”
“Here,” Rex said, dipping his finger in a glob of paint and drawing the courtyard add on to zone 1. “It’s a dead end and we cleaned out all the weapons we could find.
Greg nodded, happy to have a bit more of the map filled in.
“Have you found the finish area that Wilson mentioned?” Paul asked.
“We suspect it’s somewhere past zone 5, that’s the most heavily defended. Right now what we have of teams 3 and 4 is consolidated with our heavy weapons and are working on pacifying zone 4, here,” he said, pointing to the area on the opposite end of the long valley. “We think there are at least two more armories there, plus an assortment of other weapons scattered in random locations.”
“We spied what might have been a sniper rifle here,” Rex said pointing to zone 1. “Stuck right in the middle of
turret city.”
“Out in the open?” Greg asked, curious.
“Hard to tell without a scope, but I think so.”
“How are you taking out the turrets?” Paul asked.
“The hard way,” Greg said, almost grumbling. “They’re temporary, so we’re having to physically disassemble them one at a time to secure an area, and we’re running low on ammo, which is why we need the keycards so bad.”
“What are you using to take them apart?”
“Bare hands at first, then we started to improvise some tools from the salvage.”
That explained where the blue paint for the map had come from.
Paul nodded his understanding. They were making progress, but the trainers had designed this challenge to be as difficult as possible. “Where do you want us?”
“With you two we’re up to 37, so we’ve still got a lot of people missing. Finding and linking up with them is our first priority. Rex, I want you to replace Jason on the skirmish line so he and Paul can do some scouting for us.”
“Which direction?”
“The back end of zone 1,” he said, pointing to the valley on the opposite side of the staircase coming down from Rex’s courtyard. “We think there might be another zone past it, maybe one past 4 too, but we can’t assault both at once. You think you can get some eyes over there?”
“We’ll find a way,” he said confidently. “Any more 2s around?”
“Just Megan. She’s high point on the relay line.”
“Where’s Jason?”
“Somewhere near here, last I knew,” Greg said, glancing at Sara.
She took the cue and sent a query through their improvised communications grid. A response came back in under a minute detailing his approximate location.
Eyes still on the window, Sara stepped over and pointed her finger at the map, swinging it around in a tight circle in zone 2.
“Got it,” Paul said, heading for the door with Rex. “Any sign of our best friend yet?”
“Not yet,” Sara answered. “But we’re keeping a close watch.”
“Say hi for me if you find him,” Greg said, tossing Paul a paintball grenade.
Paul nodded then headed off for the skirmish line to find Jason.
10
It took Paul and Jason more than an hour to sneak their way to the other side of zone 1, but when they did they were able to hook up with 15 other trainees that were pinned down in their own makeshift bunker, slowly working their way through the heavy defenses in zone 6. None of them had access to any keycards, so they were having to make do with what weapons and ammo they could scrounge from the immediate area, though they had managed to take out one of the rovers and were in the process of prying off its panels to use as improvised shields.
Jason helped Jax and Martin tear out the paintball turret and reconfigure it into a crude handheld version that required two people to operate, but once they got the basic operations worked out it provided the necessary firepower to subdue the nearby turrets and allow the trainees to expand their holdings while punching a line through the zone for Paul and Jason to move on through into another new zone, which they labeled as 7.
They eventually met up there with the assault force that had driven through zone 4, and with their help secured a pathway back into zone 6 so they could exfiltrate the trainees there and incorporate them into the overall command structure, arming them with some of the heavy weapons recovered and reconstituting the original teams a bit more as they pushed their lines out wider and further into the turret fields.
After nearly 10 hours of fighting a total of 8 zones had been pacified, leaving only the heavily defended zone 5 before them…plus whatever lay on the other side. So far they hadn’t even been able to get eyes on what was past that narrow chokehold, but they knew that was the way they had to go simply because they had exhausted all other options.
Twelve of the trainees were still unaccounted for, but the 88 that were assembled had begun napping in shifts in preparation for what was going to be the largest assault yet on zone 5, all the while keeping a lookout for ambushes from rovers or the Black Knight, who had as of yet not been seen.
Thanks to the still accessible restrooms and food and water stores, the trainees had been able to rest and refuel to some extent as they concocted their plan for breaching zone 5, which began with sniper suppression on the leading turrets through the choke point, barely more than four meters wide.
Paul, Jason, and the rest of the 2s minus Emily and Dan, who were still unaccounted for, waited patiently in zone three for the snipers to do their work, then followed the complete teams of 4s and 6s into the breach armed with handmaid tools.
As the twenty trainees in front of them cleared a foothold of turrets, it was the 2s responsibility to start physically disassembling them, so Paul and Jason leapt up on the third one they passed and began prying off the armor plates to get at the wires and connecting tubes coming from the ammo stores up to the quad barrels. After several previous hours of practice they’d gotten the mechanics down to a quick rhythm, but there were so many overlapping turrets that even with 20 trainees covering for them it was difficult to keep all those in range suppressed so the 2s weren’t target practice when they climbed up on top.
When they succeeded in permanently disabling the first four turrets that eliminated the chokehold point and let the trainees begin fanning out on the other side. Teams 1 and 9 came through next to assist with the suppression effort while 8s came in to assist the 2s with dismantling.
As Paul climbed up their second temporarily disabled, paint splattered turret he caught a glance at the whole of zone 5. It was a large, flat open area with what looked like tree trunks sprouting everywhere, except they were turret pillars. There was little other cover, though the base of each pillar was wide enough to hide a person each. Paul thought he saw a pair of exits past the forest but couldn’t spend any time observing. He and Jason needed to get this turret deactivated before it could come back to life, in which case they’d have to drop to the ground, allow it to be shot again, then climb back up and repeat.
If they were quick, and lucky, they could get the job done in the first 20+ second window they had, but the danger also came from the fact that when up on top they were in a direct line of fire from the surrounding turrets. It was their teammates’ responsibility to keep those quiet, and even as they worked Paul could see paint being added to those already deactivated, depositing more stun charge to keep them quiet.
It was hard work, made all the harder when three rovers appeared, meandering through the ‘trees.’ They’d had to drop down off their perches and deal with them before returning to work, which wasted a lot of valuable ammunition in the process. In the end, the rovers were upended and the ‘tree cutting’ work continued until they had cleared out the entire zone, opening up access to two additional areas.
As the trainees advanced, another tool bearing team began disassembling the rovers and appropriating their armor plating. As the assault teams secured the exits the team leaders did an ammo count, finding their supplies dangerously low. Worse yet was the fact that this zone had no pickups of any kind. It was just a kill zone, plain and simple.
“What have we got?” Paul asked as he stepped up behind Morgan as her 6s probed the side exit.
“More like before,” she whispered, signaling ahead to her scouts. “Hopefully with the others and some weapons.”
Jason caught the last few signs relayed back and frowned. “Something new?”
“Ceiling turrets…and a lot of paint on the ground.”
Someone tapped Paul on the shoulder. When he turned around it was Brian.
“Get to the other door, they found something.”
Paul and Jason exchanged glances and headed off, leaving the exploring of this new zone to Morgan and her team. They met up with Greg, Sara, and Rafa at the far end of the turret forest where they were stationed just inside a median doorway, with the other side obscured by three finger-l
ike walls interlaced so that one had to walk right/left/right to get to the other side.
“Found it,” Sara reported as the pair caught up to the informal command group. “And guess who’s guarding the door…”
“Figures,” Jason muttered. “What have we got?”
“Large open area,” Greg reported. “Far end has a pair of columns that bracket the finish line, along with four flanking turrets. Out in front of them is the Black Knight, pacing back and forth just waiting for us. Between here and there we’ve got nothing to hide behind.”
“What about backside turrets?” Paul asked.
“We haven’t checked yet,” Sara told him. “We don’t want to spook our friend until we’re ready.”
“We still haven’t found the others yet, either,” Rafa pointed out.
“The other door leads to a zone filled with ceiling turrets,” Paul told them. “Let’s put up a barricade here and focus our attention on the other room. Maybe one of the others is still holding onto a keycard.”
Greg nodded. “We’ll bring the rover husks up and block this off. Go find the rest of us,” he told Paul and Jason.
“Let us know if the bastard gets squirrely,” Jason said as they headed off.
The last zone had vertical cover in the way of arched walkways and covered pavilions to run between, making it a doable navigation challenge, but not an area that they could lock down like the others. They found two bodies out in the open, which they retrieved using some of the rover plates as overhead shields, and the other 10 trainees holed up in a back ring promenade with a concrete retaining wall that blocked the firing lines of the central-mounted turrets.
After reviving Andy and Brad they had a quick inventory session, finding that this group had already accessed a local armory and had been conserving their ammo since they had nowhere to go. Emily said they’d scouted as far as the outskirts of zone 5, but had suffered a few casualties trying to fight their way past the turret field. After they’d retrieved the unconscious and retreated back to their safety ring they’d been forced to stay put and brainstorm ways of circumventing the defenses.