Chapter 5: Inbound Traffic

Resistance Base

"Commander Simmons."

Commander Leonard Simmons turned from his command chair to see a young Resistance standing before him. Right now, they were several levels under ground level, using an old subway station as a makeshift command center. The boy who addressed him cringed under Simmons' hard stare.

"What is it, soldier?" He said gruffly.

The boy noticeably cringed. Unlike many of the more easygoing leaders within the Resistance, like Eli Vance and Barney Calhoun, Simmons tended to be stricter and more militaristic, which was why the base he was in charge of was so heavily fortified. Everybody assumed that Simmons had spent time in the armed forces before the Combine, but Simmons never mentioned any of it. Everybody had their secrets, after all.

Oddly enough however, Simmons seemed to know exactly where and how the Combine soldiers outside would attack, as if he had seen it all before, which was how they were able to hold onto this base for so long.

"Some of our scouts spotted a Combine drophship coming in from the south."

The soldier could swear that he saw Simmons' face pale slightly, though Simmons gave no sign of any nervousness. "Just one?" He asked.

"Yes sir." The Resistance soldier replied, "It's coming in low and fast, and should be here in several minutes."

Simmons nodded, and thought for a second. "Call in the RPG teams. Tell them to get on the roofs and shoot that dropship down."

"Sir?" The soldier gulped, "We don't have much ammo for the RPGs, and we were saving them for the Combine armored un-"

"I know that, soldier, but right now, that dropship is our biggest concern." Simmons gave his subordinate a hard stare. "Shoot that craft down at any cost."

Dropship

"We're coming in on the landing zone." The pilot said, "better-"

Suddenly, the pilot was cut off by an ear-piercing shriek. Both he and the copilot began frantically flipping switches and pulling levers.

"What is that?" asked Kate.

"Missile warning system." The pilot cursed, and then turned to the copilot. "Activate the PDS."

"Point Defense System activated." The copilot said as he flipped a large red switch.

Outside, Kate could see roughly five missiles closing in on their dropship, each coming from a different direction. She saw pulse rounds fly as the dropship's heavy pulse cannon automatically tracked each missile. Each of the five missiles exploded in a ball of golden fire as they were torn apart by pulse rounds, a testament to the effectiveness of the dropship's PDS. With all of the missiles destroyed, the pilot sighed in relief.

"Well, that was-"

Before he could even finish the sentence, however, the missile warning system started blaring again.

"Son of a bitch!" The pilot cried, "Where are they coming from?"

Kate suddenly had a very ill feeling. It was just frustrating, sitting in the back of a drophsip with absolutely no control over her own fate. Her and her team's life was in the hands of these two guys flying what was basically a giant biomechanical tin can with engines attached to it.

The pilot yelled to his copilot, "Where are they coming from?"

"Same vectors!" The copilot took another glance at the screen and gasped, "Eight missiles incoming?"

The pilot's jaw dropped. "Eight?"

Again, the dropship's PDS began firing on the incoming missiles. The first four exploded harmlessly in the air, with shrapnel and debris drifting down to earth. The remaining four missiles began to maneuver in an attempt to evade the pulse fire. Those had to be laser-guided RPGs. That was no surprise, since it was well known that the Resistance had managed to procure a large amount of the weapons.

Two more missiles exploded, but the remaining two kept coming, aiming for the dropship's vulnerable cockpit.

The pilot quickly grabbed the control stick and began pushing it down, putting the dropship into a steep dive. "Strap in! We're going evasive!"

While strapped on her safety harnesses, Jackie asked, "What?"

The copilot turned his head to face the passengers. "Better hold onto your panties, ladies, because we're going for a little ride!"