Mike and Tracy's facility turned out to be a stone building of indeterminate size, locked into a cliff face in a nearby red-rock mountain. Its open front gaped like mouth of a gargantuan whale, deadly to all those who entered its dark and unwelcoming maw. Between the outer wall – a low, ineffectual layer of rubble – and the actual doorway set into the stone was approximately fifty meters of piled up, discarded vehicles, twisting corridors of trash, and semi-completed concrete defences. A labyrinth of defence. Many had died here trying to get in.
'Doesn't look so hard,' Road Hog grunted. Probably sarcasm. But hard to tell. It was entirely possible that Road Hog had no idea what it meant to lead an attack such as this. Rushing into a war-torn mess like this one was suicide. There could be any number of traps, mines, or enemy soldiers lying in wait. If there was a sizeable force inside that did not want them to enter, they would be almost powerless to do so.
'Not so hard?' Junkrat backhanded the arm of his flabby companion. 'This is a death trap waiting to happen.'
Genji (whom Cassidy still thought of as Mike on occasion) spoke up. 'Last time Tracy and I passed by here we tried to get in. We barely made it out alive.'
'How did you?' Cassidy asked warily.
'I don't think they wanted us dead.' Genji shrugged. 'We're not machines, and we're not dead, after all.'
The day had passed swiftly after the battle with Maya and her Japanese hit-squad. A few miraculous clouds had drifted lazily across the sky, small and wispy. It was not normal for this part of the desert but, after all, the weather was nothing to rely on. It had been wild and unpredictable since the Fallout. Who knows what damage had been done when those catastrophic missiles were detonated?
Still, night was fast approaching, and although no one had said it the fact remained that no one wanted to be outside when darkness came.
'So we approach cautiously then,' Mercy said, the perpetual voice of reason. 'With hands up, and weapons lowered. Whoever runs this place is not a mindless foe. They may see us as potential allies. They may allow us to enter.'
'I don't think that's likely,' Tracy replied, and there were hums of agreement from most of the party. Still, Mercy held a great deal of respect among the group. As healer and a fearsome warrior she had led them to victory more than once, and continued to bring them back to health with her inexplicable magic.
Her heavenly magic, if Reaper was to be believed.
And speaking of Reaper, the other six turned to him now. The silent, black-clad figure seemed disinterested in the conversation. And yet he, for whatever reason, held the same kind of authority as Mercy. She looked at him imploringly.
'It's the best plan,' he agreed finally. Mercy nodded briskly, and began directing their companions to look as harmless as possible as they approached the facility. Only Cassidy, eagle-eyed as always, noticed her breath of relief, as if she had not quite known which way the Reaper would vote.
'Who wants to go first?' Junkrat asked once everyone was ready. He spoke from the front seat of the Ute, trying not to look like a manic threat, while the group gathered around.
'The car should,' Mercy replied. 'It can take the brunt of the enemy fire, if they start shooting.'
'With me drivin'?' Junkrat shouted. 'The hell it should! I ain't drivin' in there ahead of the rest of you! They'll blast me to pieces before I can get halfway in!'
Cassidy looked to where Junkrat was pointing, at a derelict looking wall that almost passed for a safe spot among the treacherous rubble. A halfway point they could aim for. A checkpoint. He looked beyond it – the doorway at the centre of the cavernous entrance looked further away than ever.
'I will go first,' Genji said, unsheathing his sword in a show of defiance. Mercy slapped the flat of the blade down with her palm.
'Idiot. Don't show your weapon!'
She had a good point. From their defensive position locked in the mountain, the enemy could already have a thousand guns pointed at them.
'Let me go first,' Cassidy drawled. 'I'm not much of a hero, but I owe the rest of you a…'
He stopped speaking as he realised Tracy had already left the ranks of the group and rushed toward the danger zone. His words caught in his throat. Of everyone here, he hoped she would survive the most. And yet there she was, running toward death ahead of all the others. Genji called out. A moment later so did Mercy. Tracy slowed to a walk when she was beyond their reach and passed through the first set of walls, hands up, in a show of supplication.
Miraculously, nothing. No secret gunfire from hidden turrets. Tracy was not picked off by a dozen snipers. She simply kept walking.
Cassidy breathed a sigh of relief. Opposite him Genji did the same, and suggested the others follow. Junkrat brought the engine to life and the warriors moved forward in the hover car.
Only then did the shots ring out.
Cassidy heard the bullets before he saw them, and in fact would not have seen them at all if pillars of misplaced dust weren't thrown into the air every time a bullet impacted the ground. The group ducked and ran for cover. Ahead, Tracy got the worst of it. Shots from all angles. She rolled forward just in time, and the machinegun fire shot past.
Then she was gone, darting forward. Had she run, Cassidy wondered, or had she flickered in time again? Blink and miss it.
'Come on!' Genji shouted, rushing into the occupied zone and drawing his katana. The group followed.
They spotted the turrets then, hidden as they were behind piles of trash and rubble. Genji dodged past one, and managed to destroy its firing function with a well-thrown shuriken star. Reaper appeared in a flash of smoke and disarmed another to their left. Road Hog, using his long hook, took out a third from a rooftop. They strode forward, feeling untouchable, Mercy at their backs with her healing stave in hand.
Cassidy checked to make sure he had six shots in the Peacekeeper and, sated, followed along cautiously.
They made it less than a dozen meters before they were attacked again, this time by actual enemy fire. Lots of it.
It came from their left. Road Hog was hit, three rounds slamming into his bulky side, and the big man staggered to take a breather. Junkrat shot at their foe without even looking, lobbing a grenade launcher, but the enemy had already moved on, shooting out from a position of cover and sprinting across the plain. More shots from the right. Another figure flitting past like lighting.
'Fuck,' Junkrat whistled. 'He's fast.'
Cassidy could not help but agree. The figure ran as fast as some motorcycles he had seen.
More gunfire from their left. The six turned to defend themselves when a rocket slammed into the wall behind them and it rained rubble. A helix rocket, Cassidy guessed. He'd seen this type of thing before. They had to duck enemy fire from the opposite side, turned again, but were too late. Their enemies, it seemed, were all around.
'What the hell…' Cassidy drawled.
'Anyone catch a sight of them?' Mercy asked? She was swivelling, doing her best to keep heals on all of the forward line.
'A male, I think,' Junkrat guessed. Cassidy would have said the same, but it was hard to tell. The sprinting figure was too fast, and wore a fairly shapeless uniform. A streak of blue and white on two legs.
'Tracy?' Genji called, looking somewhat afraid with his blade in the air. 'Where's Tracy?!'
Cassidy peeled his eyes for her but instead spotted an enemy, sprinting from a spot of cover to a new position. He whipped up the Peacekeeper and fired. The bullet tore through the running man's leg and he toppled to one side.
'So,' he drawled, 'the sons of bitches can be hit.'
It was Road Hog who took the next one. He was a big man, but he was angry, and his reflexes were sharp. The next soldier to run past was too close, and Road Hog snapped it up with his hook, winching the man in to finish him.
The soldier did not come easily. As Road Hog pulled him in the soldier raised his legs and kicked the big man to the ground. Normally, Cassidy guessed, a kick like that would not have been enough to floor the obese road warrior, but Road Hog had just been shot. The two tumbled down. Road Hog took a lot longer to get to his feet.
The enemy soldier raised his heavy pulse rifle and looked around at the group, daring them to attack him before he made the first shot. It was the stance of a bargainer; the stance of a young man who was not ready to die. The stance of a man about to say something that he hoped would save his life.
'Surrender,' Mercy said. 'We don't want to…'
The man shot her. A shallow wound across the top shoulder that dropped Mercy to the ground. The rest of the group flinched, but did not make any sudden movements. Their enemy held a much more powerful weapon at this moderate range. A quick spray of bullets and he could take them all down. Plus, he'd hit their healer. Without Mercy, they were all in danger.
'Put your weapons down,' growled the young soldier, 'or I'll…'
It was Road Hog who saved them. The big man had got to his feet with deceptive noiselessness for his great size and, rather than use his shotgun, took out the throat of the soldier from behind using his hook. It was a messy affair, but Road Hog was full of vengeance. The enemy soldier died quickly, toppling to the ground in a pool of red.
'Fuck that guy,' Hog snarled.
The calm in the heart of the storm passed quickly. The enemy were still out there. More shots, more rockets, fired from all directions. The six gathered closer still, using what little cover they could from the Ute and the scrap-covered yard. They were too far from the door, and too far from the outer wall, to make a run for it. They were trapped in the centre of a wide battle zone. And still no sign of Tracy.
Cassidy examined the body of the dead soldier. Though bloodstained, it was clear to see that his uniform was red, white, and blue; the national colours. He wore combat boots and gloves, carried standard issue weaponry, and had a wrist-mounted rocket launcher on his left arm. The face was covered by a tactical visor, red-lights blinking, that disguised all features save the scruffy blonde hair above.
Cassidy examined even closer. He'd learned in the Deadlock gang that sometimes it was worthwhile to loot the dead, no matter how uncomfortable it made you feel. On the dead soldier's waist was a small pouch he recognised from his time as a fighter: a biotic emitter, field issue. He snatched it away and held it out to the Road Hog, whose injuries were the most serious.
'Here,' he said. 'This is a biotic emitter. Since Mercy's unconscious it will help with your wounds.'
'How's it work?' Road Hog growled.
'Just place it on the ground and the displaced biotic microbots will instantly move towards any injury they sense in the nearby…'
Cassidy was cut off. Rather than place it on the ground the Road Hog stuffed it in his mouth and shattered the protective casing with his teeth. The microbots surged into his system, healing the huge fighter even as Cassidy watched. Road Hog gasped between breaths as the microbots did their work.
'Or,' he admitted, 'do that.'
More shots rang out, and a rocket detonated against the side of the Ute. Junkrat was firing out towards his enemies, and Reaper was soaring across the battlefield, a dark untouchable shadow. Genji looked frustrated, unable to risk approaching his enemy with the sword, but lacking enough shuriken stars to do any damage from a distance.
'Has anyone seen Tracy?' Genji repeated.
And this time, finally, Cassidy could answer yes.
He saw her over Genji's shoulder. She was practically flying – one moment jumping forwards, then darting through the air in an inexplicable flash. Her short brown hair seemed not to know which direction to face as she ran ahead, then back, then reappeared where she had been moments ago. Time was broken around her.
She was cute, Cassidy noted, in a way that he was unable not to notice. Her tight orange pants accentuated the slender grace of her legs, and she cut a lithe figure as she raced across and over and through all obstacles. But she was also deadly. Her twin pistols pulsed as she moved, flashing shots towards her enemies on all sides, attacking them from all angles, a one-woman force of destruction and mayhem.
Enemies fell all around her.
He watched as she clambered up a pile of rubble, darted forward, and shot an unwary foe in the back of the head. She then flashed back to where she had been, kicked in the face a soldier who had been chasing her, and shot him too. No matter how many of the enemies approached her she could not be taken down.
Cassidy felt his heart swell with pride and, dare he admit it, attraction. She was a hell of a fighter. Whatever abilities she had, she was using them well.
Another thirty seconds passed and the coast was cleared. Tracy, dashing back and forth through the exposed battleground, had picked their defences apart with ease. She strolled back to the group now, hips swaying, with an expression of supreme satisfaction on her face.
'How was that?' she asked, knowing damn well it was some of the best fighting anyone here had ever seen.
No one knew what to say to answer her. So Tracy shrugged and faced Genji directly.
'Do you believe me yet?' she asked.
He nodded weakly. 'Sure. I believe you. But what was it?'
Tracy opened her mouth, but remained quiet for a moment, as if not sure what to say. Perhaps she didn't even have the answer.
Either way she was spared the moment by the creaking noise of a doorway opening. They turned as one to look at their destination, a steel-locked door set into the mountainside, from which yet another of the identical soldiers was stepping forth.
This one was slightly different. The light shining from the room behind framed him in a glow of glory, but that was not it. There was something in the way he carried himself, a world-weary slackening of broad-shoulders. Or perhaps the slight extra weight he carried around his paunch. Or even the white mop of hair, rather than blonde, which flapped over the top of his tactical visor.
This man, it seemed was older. A leader. Someone who could make decisions. Someone worth talking to.
He spoke in the clipped tones of a soldier, brisk and to the point, but there was gravel in his voice. The gravel of an old man who has seen it all and lived to tell the tale. The gravel of someone who has fought for years, and will keep fighting no matter how bad the violence gets, until the day the last breath fails his lungs, for no other reason than it is the right thing to fight for.
'It takes a damn impressive force that can kill ten of my men. Imagine my surprise when I come out here and see a handful of kids, barely in your twenties or thirties, most of you. No training. Barely any armour. Old weapons. I'd be impressed if I wasn't so annoyed.' The old soldier sighed. 'I suppose you'd better come inside. It seems we have a lot to talk about.'
He turned around and walked back through the heavy steel doors, leaving them wide open.
The seven followed him in.