“I got two men left,” Team Beta Two’s Wingding reported from the demolished stairs. “We’ll cover both your sixes.”
Relief shattered through me. I had no idea how they had survived the rocket, but some of our people were still with us. The cats pressed close and I stroked them each again, more for me than them this time.
A barrage of gunfire sounded.
Wingding shouted, “We’re taking fire from Level Two. Unable to assist at this time. Requesting backup.”
“Puta-Bella here. I’m injured but ambulatory. How can I help?”
Jagger said, “Get Jacopo to a med-bay, PB.”
“Roger that. Poor kid.”
Sounds of gunfire and pained grunts sounded through comms. Jagger said, “Look around what’s left of the wall, Wingding. One of Team Alpha providing backup.”
Jagger was going into a hot zone. I shoved that deep inside where I didn’t have to acknowledge it. Not now.
Jolene said, “Commander, I have visual confirmation that Warhammer and nine armored warriors are evacuating up a narrow stairway, out through one of the garage blast doors. I’m inside the cameras systems, but someone, somewhere, is attempting to shut me out. Maarsies are following Warhammer at distance, giving me secondary cam footage.”
I dropped to one knee and took in an angle of the hall.
Hidden by the smoke and blood spray in the air, Spy and Maul raced out and through the debris. Following Warhammer.
Run,I thought at Spy.Follow Warhammer. Be safe.
“Copy that, Jolene,” I said, aloud. “Mateo, are you ambulatory?”
“Affirmative. Exiting the building up a lateral stairway and will approach overland. ETA to estimated exit point, six mikes.”
Six minutes. I could last six minutes. I wouldn’t be alone.
“Okay, Mateo. Let’s hunt down and kill us a Warhammer.”
My armor injected me again with meds, sugar, nutrients, and fluids. I had a spurt of nausea as my blood sugar and protein levels upped too fast. A tiny readout appeared, telling me I was nearly out of the good stuff. I got a deep breath as the oxygen levels in the helmet went up too. Six mikes. Until then, that left the cats, the Maarsies, and me to chase Warhammer.
I stood and pulled two new blasters, delivered by Mateo, and said, “Little Girl. Going in. On Warhammer’s tail.”
I stepped along the hallway, through the smoke. There were bodies—pieces of them, mostly—on the floor where the explosives and rockets had detonated. A small group of unarmored soldiers raised weapons toward me. One tossed a frag. Then another. As they fired and the grenades flew through the air, I ducked into an open doorway. Whirled behind cover. The frags detonated.
I extended one arm into the hall and blasted the three standing there. Instantly, six more began to fire from cover.
I had frags, too.
I pulled and tossed. Ducked back.
My frags detonated. One person started screaming.
My armor readout said my heart rate and blood pressure were too high.
No shit.
There was a door into a bathroom. I raced though and out the other side, into a sitting room, firing. Dropped two more unarmored encom with blaster fire.
Tucking my glove cam out in the hallway, I saw no one standing. Just debris and several deactivated Maarsies. They had expended explosive payloads long before Warhammer’s rocket.
I adjusted my view. There was a lot of blood. Everywhere.
And a dead cat. It had been shot.
