But before Roger could answer, an explosion echoed in the distance.
Roger beeped and rose into the air. “A single RMI missile soldier hit the mech parties gathering at the former Gonzales farm, but the soldier was quickly dispatched. The missile strike did manage to destroy a single Drop Dragoon and temporarily ground a Heavy. According to the feeds, all of the active participants have just receivedfrom Apex Command an update and map indicating that a ‘medium-difficulty enemy base’ is located at our location. Thunder Thighs has purchased a local, real-time map that will expire in twelve hours. Our heat emitters and camo netting appear to block the real-time visuals of the main base, but our location is no longer a secret. They are on their way. They are proceeding forward by team, indicating the multiple groups aren’t working in concert. They will not arrive at once. A team consisting solely of five Cheetah Recon units has pulled ahead and will arrive first. Estimated time to the outer wall, five minutes.”
I eyed the sandwich and water bottle sitting on the edge of the wall, still untouched. I was hungry, but I didn’t want to eat the cheese sandwich. I didn’t want the phantom taste of cinnamon to leave my tongue.
I activated the local band with my bracelet. “Okay, everyone, here we go. Cheetahs in five.”
Chapter 26
“All five of the incoming units are from a newly formed team called the Freeks,” Roger said over the feed. He’d disappeared a minute earlier over the top of the wall and zoomed out into the fields.
I pulled up the chart. All five were thirteen- and fourteen-year-old boys from a place called Samara. The chart noted that they all spoke Mandarin as their primary language, though all were proficient in English. Their Cheetahs were all painted in a solid black pattern with gold highlights. Roger warned in the notes that even though the team was relatively new and skewed young, the five members were all students at a prestigious science-based private academy. The potential-insult columns over all five were empty except for the note “low to no social media footprint.”
“I think insults for these little pricks would be easy,” Sam said, reading the notes at the same time I was. “They go to a science academy? That’s serious low-hanging fruit right there. Virgin, acne-covered nerds, all of them.”
“Maybe,” I said. I had my night vision helmet on, trying to see them. All I could see was the woods. “They may be driving Cheetahs, but they all have a lot of upgrades, and it’s a private school, which all suggests they’re rich kids. Smart rich Earth kids who all know eachother.” Was that movement in the distance? They would be here at any moment.
“They can’t be too smart if they’re running ahead of everyone else,” Sam said, coming to stand next to me.
“How’s Harriet?” I asked, changing the subject.
He took a moment to answer. “She’s down there in the shelter. It’s like you said before. She’s pretty scared. I keep telling her it’s going to be all right, but she can be so pessimistic. That can’t be good for the baby.”
“Maintain at least a meter distance from one another,” came the message on both our bracelets. “Deny the enemy single-shot dual kills whenever possible.”
“Jesus, Roger,” Sam muttered as he moved back into place.
“Yeah, we’re all scared,” I said. Every little movement in the woods set my nerves on edge.
Sam leaned against the wall, also looking into the woods. “She has it worse, I think. On top of being really pregnant, she doesn’t have anything to do, which makes her feel helpless. She was putting some circuit boards together, but Mr.Gonzales made her stop, said the fumes or something are bad for the baby. And the old ladies are worse. If she so much as stands up near them, they start yelling at her to sit.” Sam turned to look at me. “Oliver, listen. If something happens to me, make sure she’s okay, will you?”
I grunted. “If something happens to you, I’ll probably be dead, too. And if I’m not, Harriet will kill me herself, so I won’t be around to make sure she’s okay. But I know Lulu and Rosita will take care of her.”
Sam nodded, turning his attention back to the woods. “There,” he said.
And just as he said it, a Roger-controlled line-of-sight missile fired from the wall. I felt an unexpected blast of heat as the small missilewhooshed from the battery, making a strange sliding-like sound as it zoomed out into the darkness. It hit something in the woods, and a pair of explosions echoed through the night.
“Dual kill,” Roger said. On the chart, which I kept floating over my bracelet, two names—Minghai and Jian—were crossed out.
At the same moment, three more Cheetahs appeared, jumping from the woods. Two landed in the fields in front of the first wall, and a third landed just past the wall. The one closest to us had a flamethrower attachment and a small four-pack launcher on its shoulder. It shot all four of its missiles at the same time.
The Cheetahs were as described: black with golden highlights. The black was shiny like glass, and the gold piping along the edges glowed brilliantly, giving the smaller mechs the appearance of being high-performance toys. Something not meant to ever get taken from its packaging.
The four missiles corkscrewed through the air, hissing with a different, more high-pitched sound than the missile we’d fired. To my right, a counter-missile fired. It arced up into the air, and it discharged all four stages, one after another.Pop, pop, pop, pop.The darkness was suddenly alight with thousands of burning pieces of chaff. In that brief moment as night became day, I could see them: our own drones weaving through the trampled grain like snakes preparing to strike, waiting to reveal themselves.
All four incoming missiles curved upward and detonated in midair amongst the chaff.
Crack!The Cheetah that had fired the missiles took a step, but it hit a land mine.
All the golden piping on the thing blew out at once in a brilliant display of fireworks, and the mech fell over with a clatter.
“Lights out,” Sam said.
The next two Cheetahs jumped over the fence at the same time, landing in the minefields. One hit a mine right when it landed, with a result similar to his teammate’s. This one did not have a four-pack missile launcher but an actual gun on its shoulder in addition to a pulse gun arm. The shoulder gun was a type of weapon I hadn’t seen before. Whatever it was, it blew up the moment the mech touchedthe EMP mine, blowing the whole top half off the mech. I’d once seen the aftermath of a pressure cooker explosion at Miguel Mustache’s house, and this reminded me of that.
The final Cheetah fired all four of its missiles before jumping away. Three missiles fired from our side. One was another chaff missile, one was from one of Roger’s batteries, and the third came from Tito and Axel’s position from our left.
The twins’ missile went wide, skirting off into the woods. Roger’s missile appeared to hit the mech, but it didn’t actually explode. Still, it knocked the mech off-kilter, and it spun sideways, flipping feet over head before it crunched and smashed to the ground in front of the outer wall.
