Chau grimaced as the rebel next to her exploded, the pulse round obliterating his skull in an instant. As his wrecked body fell to the ground, his weapon- an ar2- bounced on the floor, sliding over to where Chau was crouched; a small stack of barrels and crates.
Chau could only sit and watch as the threatening blue laser swept the street, searching for something to shoot. The beam tilted to the sky, aimed at an unfortunate pigeon. Chau made her move, running from cover, scooping up the ar2 of her fallen comrade before dashing into the building on the other side of the street. Just as she slammed the door closed, a shot rang out, and a muffled and pained "cooo" came from the pile of feathers that was once a bird.
Chau didn't have time to stop; she had to reach the trainstation in an hour to escape along with the others. There were even rumors that Dr. Freeman was still in the city and would have to be on that train before, well, the citadel became a large, shiny grenade filled with dark energy.
A quick peek out of the nearby window revealed that the next plaza was occupied; five of the grey, faceless soldiers were assembling a mounted gun on a fence in the park. However, standing back, holding what looked like a remote control of some kind, was a white cyclops with a glowing red eye: an elite soldier. Just its blank, emotionless stare was enough to make Chau think twice about what she was about to do.
Lining up the ar2 with the closest soldier's head, Chau pulled the trigger, and the front of the weapon exploded in a blue light, causing the soldier to collapse, blood spraying its 'friend' behind it in a fine red mist. All if the remaining combine turned to face the loud crack an ar2 produced while firing, and raised their weapons.
Green pulse bursts whizzed overhead as Chau ducked for cover, aware that only a few hits from the deadly energy is enough to kill a strong, healthy person. And that was assuming that the elite didn't use the other attack its ar2 had; a lethal discharge of dark energy in a ball capable of dissolving even hunters. Reloading, Chau ran out into the plaza. Firing against all instructions, she held the trigger down constantly, sending a stream of thirty pulse blasts at the shotgun-wielding combine soldier, which managed to survive. Chau knew that if they could still feel any pain after what had happened to them, it would be very pissed off.
The elite yelled something that resembled "Overwatch, sector 16 is not clear", but its vocoder scrambled its voice so it didn't even sound human, but nearly as disturbing as the horn of a speeding razor train at midnight. Chau realised that her ar2 was out of ammo, so began the frustrating process of reloading it. Everyone else made it look so easy, that it appeared they were barely moving their hands in the right way.
The reassuring beep sounded as the gun loaded the new clip and Chau jammed down on its trigger, this time in a more controlled way. "Five shot bursts" she recalled over and over. It was now that Chau regretted not listening during the weapon training she received ten minutes before being thrown into the middle of a manhack infested tunnel.
At last the final soldier fell, leaving only the intimidating elite, staring blankly at the apc Chau had taken cover behind. As it began to creep around to the other side, Chau's weapon clicked empty. She had no more clips, and prayed that the elite put one, swift bullet in her head. As a white glove appeared around the odd angles if the vehicles bonnet, a scrambled cry sounded from the elite as it was tossed through the air by an explosion. The soldier would have been torn in half if it weren't for its armour.
As suddenly as the grenade exploded, a tall, armoured person jumped off the roof of a nearby building, landing softly on the ground with a thud. Chau could only stare as the form approached. Her body filled with dread as she realised it was a metrocop, but dread quickly turned to curiosity as Chau noticed something odd about the police. Its armour was spray painted the same green as Chau's rebel uniform. Painted onto the arm was the symbolic 'lambda' sign of the Resistance. But most odd was that Chau was not dead already.
"Hurry," the police pointed at the apc, "get in."
"It's locked," Chau replied, unsure if it really was or not. A small beep sounded from the device the metrocop picked up; the same remote the elite had held, and a door swung open on the side of the apc. "No it's not." Chau climbed into what appeared to be the driver's seat and pressed the button labeled 'Ignition', just as the cop climbed into a hatch at the back of the same apc.
"Have you ever driven before?" the unusually distorted asked me as the apc's gun suddenly came to life, swiveling around.
"No," Chau replied, "But I'll do my best!" The apc's engine revved as the wheels span, and the combine tank sped off down a deserted street.
AN: I'll just see how this chapter goes. Yes, I'm Australian, excuse my different spelling, and realise (or realize, for that matter) that I'm to lazy to spell differently for other people to read. Hope you enjoy.