Everyone ducks down and tries to find cover. I check that the orange soldier is ok before dodging behind some rocks, dragging the Sim-Trooper with me. "Thanks" he says as he straightens his helmet and turns off the safety on his gun.
"It's Grif, right?" I ask as I pull a small pistol from my waist.
"Yeah" Grif says, looking around as he tries to determine where the sniper shots are coming from.
"I need you to do me a favor." I pick up a stick from the ground and hand it to him. "Take off your helmet and use this to lift it over the top of the rock."
"Why?" Grif asks as he pulls his helmet off.
"Just do it" I say, crawling to the edge of the cover. He nods and puts the helmet on the stick. "Okay, on my mark." I wait a few seconds, listening to the sniper fire. "Mark!" I shout. The helmet goes up and I peak around the corner just in time to see the movement of the sniper turning to aim for it.
A shot goes off and hits the stick under the helmet, causing it to fall and hit Grif on the head. "Oww" he moans.
I pick up the helmet and hand it back to him. "You should put this back on now. Thanks!" Before he has a chance to respond, I dodge out from behind the rock and into the cave where Wash and the others are hiding.
"Should I follow you?" Grif shouts after me.
"Yes!" Sarge says cheerily.
"No!" I yell. "Wait there until we can give you some cover fire!" I crouch down at the entrance to the cave and peek around the corner. There's a ledge on the side of the cliff where I assume the sniper is hiding. It's hard to spot, but I can see the barrel of a rifle in the bushes on the cliff ledge. I wave Wash over and point it out to him. "That's our sniper."
"Think you can hit him from here?" Wash asks.
"Probably" I say, holstering my pistol. "But if it's who I think it is, I don't want to."
"What do we do now?" Simmons asks. "We can't just leave Grif out there!"
"Sure we can" Sarge says. "One soldier is a perfectly acceptable loss."
Wash sighs, and I can imagine him rolling his eyes behind his visor. "Don't worry" I say, patting him on the shoulder. "I have a plan. Carbon!"
Caboose comes and stands by the cave opening with us. "Hello!" He says.
I recognize this as his go to response when he's confused. "Someone's shooting at us" I explain to him.
"That is not good" Caboose says seriously.
"No, it's not" I confirm. "But we're going to stop him. Do you remember when we used to play darts?"
"Oh, yes!" Caboose says happily. "I love that game! I am very good at it!"
I point to a tree on the cliff ledge. "That's the target." I then point to the area of the ledge where the sniper is hiding. "And that's the wall. Now remember, you can't hit the wall. Hitting the wall is bad."
"Okay!" Caboose says.
"Okay" I say. I climb onto his shoulder and crouch down, balancing by holding his hand. "Get Grif over here once he stops shooting" I tell Wash before squeezing Caboose's hand. Caboose stands up and in one smooth motion throws me at the ledge where the sniper is hiding.
"Whoa!" I hear the Sim-Troopers and Wash yell simultaneously.
A bullet whizzes past my head as I fly through the air. I reach out my hands and hit the sniper square in the chest, knocking him down. I hear Wash and the reds shouting and hope they got Grif to the cave. I roll to the side and jump to my feet at the same time as my opponent. Despite the fact that he's wearing a helmet, I recognize him immediately. "Gold."
He responds with a punch to my head, which I barely dodge. "Come on, Gold, talk to me. We can work this out." I say while continuing to dodge his attacks.
"There's nothing to talk about" Gold says, finally stopping his attacks.
"Let me help you" I say, taking a cautious step forward.
"I don't need help from a traitor" Gold snarls. He pulls a pistol from his belt and shoots at me. I roll to the side and aim a kick at his ribs. He sidesteps this and aims the gun at me once again. I kick the gun out of his hand while flipping backward, landing in a crouch.
"I'm not a traitor" I growl. "Mom lied to you. She lied to all of us."
"I don't believe that" Gold says, edging toward his gun on the ground.
I shake my head. "She won't let you believe it. She's controlling you, just like she did to me. She's using that chip in your head-"
"You're lying!" Gold yells, cutting me off. "She gave it to me to make me stronger, and faster" he says as he picks up the gun, "and better than you."
I pull a small knife out of my armor's sleeve as I back away, the gun still pointed at my chest. "Don't do this" I warn him.
"You're a traitor" Gold says, as though he's trying to convince himself. "You have to die." With that, he pulls the trigger.
As I promised, action. Yay! It's been a while since I've written combat, so I had fun with this one. Sorry for it being so short, but I wanted to end on some suspense. Don't worry, next chapter will hopefully be longer and will be coming soon. In the meantime, please enjoy and feel free to review!