Since covid-19 is causing a big stink all across the world, I guess I'll do something with it in the next chapter or so. Stay tuned I guess.

We had all been armed from our counter attack, and the others had been given watches as well. In the morning I reviewed satellite footage of the location where the medical supplies would be. It was under an overhang from a cliff, so we couldn't bomb it, even if we wanted to. The mission was simple; get in, get supplies, get out. We would go in as one and split up to clear the whole camp. Once it was clear, we would bring in the helicopter to help shuttle the supplies out. I had rigged a simple basket underneath the helicopter to give it more storage. Trudy would be flying us in and waiting for the all clear.

We had just landed and had just exited the helicopter when everything exploded. The clearing we had landed at had been rigged with explosives. I was thrown backwards and landed hard on my left shoulder. When I opened my eyes, spots danced in front of me. I managed to stand up after a few minutes, but my ears were still ringing. I shook my head. The spots had cleared, but I couldn't hear anything. I looked up and saw that Trudy had gotten clear of the blast, and was hovering. I could tell she was yelling, but I couldn't hear anything.

"I'm fine, I can't hear, though, get back to base and wait there, " I said. At least, I think I said that. She must've understood because she left us there. I looked at the others. Brand was dead, as well as three others. That left five others. They were standing up, but they were in no state to fight right now. I motioned for them to follow and we entered the woods, away from the medical camp. We got up some trees and waited for our hearing to return. We waited a long time. Several hours later, I could hear the others talking to each other.

"Trudy to John, can you hear me?" I heard over the comms.

"Yes. Hearing is back. Are you at base?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm at base. Not much going on here. "

"Good. We'll attack soon, I think. We need those medical supplies. "

"I saw some people didn't get up after the explosion. Did anyone die?"

"Yes. Brand and three others died. "

Silence.

"We'll be attacking soon. We need that medical equipment more than ever now. "

"I'll be on standby for the all clear. "

"Thanks. " I turned to the others. "Alright, let's go. The camp is only thirty minutes away by foot. " We started walking. At the explosion site we stopped for fifteen minutes to bury the dead, then continued. We were armed each with a light rifle and pistol and assorted grenades, except for one person who had found a grenade launcher. We each had watches to stay in contact with each other. As we approached the base we fanned out to see the camp from different angles. We had planned to split into two groups when we attacked, but now we would have to stay as one group. Once we found a suitable entry point, we grouped together and prepared to attack.

I counted down to the others. 3. 2. 1. 0. We charged across the open space, firing at the guards at the perimeter. We used our pistols with silencers for this part, which kept the rest of the camp from knowing what happened. Atlantian silencers were truly silent, the only sound being the click of the gun. We got over the picket fence easily and surveyed the camp. There were three tents. A large tent had the hospital and the medical supplies. A medium tent would be where the troops slept, and the third larger tent would be the mess hall or something like that. I nodded to the troop with the grenade launcher. He understood and loaded an anti-personnel grenade. He aimed and fired it into the mess hall. It ripped a hole in the fabric and exploded with a loud bang. People staggered out of the door, other parts of the camp going on full alert. We charged out from our hiding place and attacked. I picked up an energy shield from a dead guard and used it to defend myself. The energy shield was similar to the human riot shield, but it allowed me to fire through it without being exposed. It was much lighter as well, and a good deal smaller when deactivated.

The others followed my lead, and formed a line with me. It was rather effective, as long as we took out the enemies before they could flank us. We slowly advanced into the camp, taking and giving damage. At the center we were forced to form a circle as we were flanked, but we were able to keep the enemy at bay. Finally, we had cleared out the whole camp.

"John to Trudy, we're all clear. Come on in, " I said over the comms. We searched the camp one last time and began to empty the hospital tent and take weapons from the dead guards. We had all of it in a pile when a helicopter arrived. It wasn't Trudy, who was still ten minutes away. It landed on the overhang of the camp. We prepared for a fight and picked up energy shields again. We heard voices, but couldn't make out what they were saying.

Ten Atlantians then jumped down from the ledge, heavily armed and riding hoverdomes like I once did against Colonel Miles. They charged, making spears as they approached. I threw my energy shield to the side; they were only good against projectiles; and threw a wall of ice at them. They simply went over it and continued their charge. "Scatter!" I told the others and charged the first Atlantian. He leveled his spear at me as I ran towards him. At the last moment, I slid under him and flipped his hoverdome. He fell off and was forced to dispel his spear or risk impaling himself. I commandeered his hoverdome and flew towards the others. They were chasing my troops and I came up behind one and drew my knife. I stabbed him in the back and he fell off his hoverdome, which came to a rest a few yards away.

I continued to attack the Atlantians, blasting them with ice and slashing away. It was difficult to maintain balance, but we eventually killed all of them. The helicopter on the overhang had left when they first descended, leaving us alone. Trudy arrived just after I dispatched the last attacker. She landed in the camp and jumped out.

"What happened!" She asked.

"We took the camp and they launched a counter attack. We didn't lose anybody but we better get some medipads on them before it gets infected or anything. " Once everyone had medipads on their wounds, we loaded the remaining weapons and medical equipment into the helicopter and flew back to base. We unloaded the supplies when we arrived and then settled in for the rest of the day. We had enough medipads to keep us going for a long time, and the weapons we would need to fight off the upstarts, but the one thing we severely lacked was troops. Only seven left. At this rate, we would need to get everyone off Hope by the end of the week to keep them at bay.

I knew we had yet to deal a fatal blow to the uprisers. So far we had been a nuisance, but the medical camp was a big blow. Without their main supply of medical equipment, they would have to fight a lot more conservatively. Any injury could mean death if it got infected, which could easily happen on Pandora.