Chapter 4:
"Headshot!" cheered Kat, nailing a Grunt with her pistol.
"Suck it, Blues," said Lopez in his robotic monotone, as he turned the left turret towards a group of advancing Jackals. Armor-piercing bullets tore through energy shields, flesh, and bone. The rest of the bird-like aliens squawked and scrambled together, creating a phalanx of overlapping blue and red shields.
"Perfect," said Kat. She watched them advance, each gap in the formation decorated with a glowing gob of supercharged plasma. "Run them over."
"Acknowledged," said Lopez. A series of beeps emanated from somewhere below the waist. A second later, Red Team's Warthog roared out from its hiding place and plowed through the middle of the phalanx. The mounted gun spun on its turret and sprayed armor-piercing rounds. The Jackals scattered and fell.
"Elites advancing," said the robot. "1.5 kilometers and closing."
Kat raised her pistol and sighted one of the "mines" they had planted between waves. She fired at a seemingly innocuous dead Grunt, hitting the valve of its methane tank. The corpse exploded into a green fireball, which ignited the cluster of plasma grenades Kat had half-buried in a semicircle around the Grunt.
The resulting explosion sent a good portion of the Elites flying, either dead or wounded. Lopez gunned down the rest with mechanical precision.
"Nice," said Kat.
A red blip appeared on her motion tracker.
"One of them made it up the ramp..." Lopez warned.
She heard the unmistakable roar of an angry Elite as it thundered up to the roof. She barely had time to duck as the white-hot tines of an energy sword slashed the air above her. The space in front of her blurred as the camouflaged Elite reared back and kicked her in the chest.
She flew back, but managed to draw and cock Sarge's shotgun as she fell. She aimed for the center of that rapidly approaching blur and fired. The Elite's camouflage shorted out, along with its shields. She fired again and blew a hole through its chest.
"The same to you," she quipped as it gurgled, dying, in its guttural alien language.
She coughed and struggled to her feet, only to fall back down when she heard the high-pitched whine of a Wraith tank's energy mortar.
"…also, there's a tank," finished Lopez. He peered over the top of the turret. "And it just destroyed the jeep. And of course, it's gonna be me who has to rebuild it. Again. Heaven forbid anyone else on Red Team pulls their-"
A wave of superheated plasma washed over the top of the base before Kat had a chance to shout "hit the deck!"
Her shields fizzled as the bluish-white blob passed overhead and impacted on the ground behind the base. Heat washed over them as plasma exploded and left a glass crater. The blue banners on the outside of the base ignited and burst into flame.
Kat, still hugging concrete, turned her head to check on Lopez. Unfortunately, the magnetically-guided plasma had shorted him out and he lay on top of the base like a pile of junk metal.
"Ow," he commented tonelessly. "This sucks."
She counted the seconds that it took for the Wraith's plasma emitter to recharge and spared a look over the turret, only to duck quickly as a secondary weapon, a plasma cannon, unleashed a volley of plasma.
She crouched and breathed deeply. All they had to do was keep her pinned until the mortar recharged. At the rate the tank was advancing, the next blast would be accurate and close enough to obliterate the top half of Blue Base.
The chaingun, or any other weapon she had, wouldn't put a dent in the tank's armor. Setting off another "mine" would slow it down, but not stop it before it could fire again. She, Lopez, and the simulation troopers holed up in the basement were done for.
Unless…
She clicked off the safety to her magnum, rose, and fired once at the Grunt manning the turret. Her aim was good. The creature slumped over the cannon with a squeak, dead. With her other hand, she un-holstered and overcharged a plasma pistol she had scavenged. The burst splashed across the armored Wraith and the EMP pulse stopped it momentarily in its tracks.
Moving as fast as she could, Kat leapt off the side of the base, hit the ground, rolled, and sprinted straight for the Wraith before it could recover.
The remaining Elites on the ground roared and fired their weapons at her. Gobs of plasma hit her armor and drained her shields. They felt like sharp, punching, overheated jabs and hurt like hell, but she kept running. She leaped onto the sloping left "fin" of the tank and clambered up to the hatch.
It popped opened to reveal a very angry Elite, who snarled a string of colorful alien curse words at her. Her translator picked up some of it and emblazoned "heretic," "accursed barbarian," and "smelly jerk," across her HUD.
The Elite leveled a plasma rifle at her head, but she was quicker. She drew her pistol and emptied her last clip right into the center of its face. After heaving its limp body off the side of the tank, she dropped into the hatch and sealed it behind her.
She tapped the display and saw the remaining Elites running towards her with bloody vengeance in their eyes.
She fired.
The Elites rolled away from the blast but the superheated plasma gushed outwards and cooked half of them in their armor. With a grim smile, she simply ran over the rest of them.
It was after she drove over their smoldering corpses a third time, to make absolute sure they were dead, that she heard Carter's voice over the radio.
"…ktcchh…this is Noble One… Kat...we have a Falcon inbound to your position…"
"Copy," said Kat, popping the hatch and climbing out. "LZ is clear. Good to hear your voice, Noble One."
Two Falcons came into view overhead. One touched down while the other stayed in the sky and circled their position, probably so Jun could keep a watchful eye.
"Good to see you, Two," said Carter, as he and Emile strode out towards her. He nodded at the rather impressive pile of corpses scattered around Blue Base. "Looks like you really did a number on them. Good work, Kat."
"If that's really you in there," added Emile.
She realized that her armor was a blue and yellow mosaic of mismatched parts. "I had to improvise," she said, shrugging.
"I can see that," said Carter, looking her up and down. "Where'd you get the spare parts?"
"The simulation trooper that's currently hiding in the basement. We'll need to call in someone from Freelancer for an-"
Emile had walked around behind her and he snickered. "Juicy booty," he said.
"Excuse me?" snapped Kat, turning to face him.
Carter, who now had a full view of her back, made a flustered choking noise. "You… might wanna take a look behind you."
She twisted around and stared disbelievingly at the small of her back. The words "Juicy Booty" were decorated across the yellow plate armor in glittery decals.
"You've got to be kidding me," she muttered. "That little twit…"
"That's real fancy, Kat" Emile said, still wheezing from laughter. "Does it come with a matching cod-"
"Stow it, Four," Carter said sternly. He put two fingers to the side of his helmet. "Jun, are we clear?"
"Skies are clear, Commander," said Jun over the radio. There was a pause. "By the way, why does it say Juicy Booty on Kat's-"
"Shut up," snapped Kat. Jun shut up.
The second Falcon descended in silence and Kat stomped towards her ride with the intention of powering down her shields and scratching the offending letters off as soon as they got to base.
"You shut up too," she snarled at Jorge and Thom as she took her seat. The two men flinched and stared at anything but her.
"Didn't say a thing," Jorge mumbled, looking down at his boots. The Falcon rumbled and took off into the air, soon joined by Carter and Emile's Falcon.
"Nice weather," Jorge commented.
"Yeah," said Thom. "It's a booty-ful day." She didn't need to see his face to know that he was grinning from ear to ear behind his helmet.
"I'm sorry," she said dangerously. "I don't think I heard you correctly. Would you mind repeating that?"
"That's enough, people," said Carter over the COM. "Kat, we'll get your armor fixed as soon as we get back to base. Until then, let's keep it juicy."
Kat's eye twitched.
"… I mean, professional! That's what I meant. Ahem."
Thom sniggered. "Sure, Commander."
What was the penalty, Kat wondered, for seasoning the team leader's morning coffee with a powerful dose of laxatives?