Omega [REDUX]
Chapter 9
Anna pushed herself up from the soldier that lay terminated below her, the jet brakes attached to her suit still steaming and cooling off. Largely, the plan was successful, because they'd eliminated three soldiers from Harbinger Team and another two from Vigilance Team. But she couldn't get cocky now. They had landed in a construction site, and now they were about to come under fire.
Retrieving her ASR1, she dived for the nearest cover, before realizing no one had taken shots at her yet. Evidently they were more focused on her teammates, but she wasn't about to complain. "I'm freed up!" she reported. "What do I do now?"
"Some cover would be nice!" she heard Rapunzel's frantic message as gunfire sounded from the other side of the comm channel. "We're all getting pinned down over here!"
Anna swapped out the rifle for her sidearm, quickly ascending the staircase behind her. Her training kicked in; every muscle in her body tensed as her eyes darted from side to side, ears on the alert for any sound out of the ordinary. Nothing. I'm safe for now. She reached the level above her and sprinted towards the edge of the building, the HUD already marking out enemy units that were firing on her teammates. She loaded a clip into the ASR1, removed the safety, and took aim through the scope. "In position."
"Can someone tell me," Merida's voice rang out as Anna spotted a recruit spraying a hail of lead with an LMG, "what exactly is the difference between this plan, and the one Valor was proposing?" There was a minor interlude as Merida swore, and the mic picked up the sound of her diving for the floor. "This feels like we're drawing the enemy's attention to ourselves anyway!"
"The difference is," came Elsa's cool and collected tone, "either way Valor would use us as bait. With this plan, we have the element of surprise, and the odds aren't as heavily stacked against us."
"We're still outnumbered!"
Anna pulled the trigger just as her crosshair came to rest on the recruit's head. The signature firing sound was followed by the white trail of the round coursing through the air, catching him in the head. He dropped immediately, the LMG falling to the ground with him. "We're slowly evening that out," she chimed in, pulling back the bolt on the sniper rifle. "Rapunzel, you're freed up to move."
"Look," Elsa continued, the clicking of a weapon reloading reaching Anna's ears as she watched Rapunzel dashing from cover, "Valor using us as bait means that our scores aren't going to be as high as they should be. Now that those assholes are staying back, it's your time to shine."
Anna fired her shot. The white trail sailed through the air and caught another recruit in the shoulder; she dropped to the ground quickly enough. She pulled back the bolt and took aim again. "We might still be wiped out," she noted casually as she pulled off another shot. This one missed; the round struck the concrete near the recruit she was aiming for, and he dived behind cover reactively, near to the other recruit she'd down prior. "No guarantees for that."
"Yeah, thanks for the confidence booster, princess," came Belle's reply. "Not very helpful when I have three soldiers pinning me down over here!"
"It's to force them—" Elsa strained to reply, "to take you seriously. On a side note, I can't move very well over here. Anna, move and deal with Belle's problem."
"Copy that." Anna shifted her position to the other side of the building, taking in deep breaths to soothe her nerves. She set up again, scoping over to where Belle was situated, where she could already see lead flying to and fro in bright yellow flashes. She zoomed in, daunted by the distance of the shot she was about to take. Belle had landed the furthest from the main group, and she was going to be overrun soon.
"No promises on this one, Belle," she reported, " 'cause I don't think I have reliably hit those hostiles from here."
"Give them something to be afraid of," came the reply. "We need to regroup, so if you can get me out of here that'd be appreciated."
"Good call." Anna calculated the bullet drop, aimed as best as she could, and pulled off two shots consecutively in the general direction of their opponents. Surprisingly, one of her shots connected with the arm of one of the recruits, forcing her to drop her weapon. The other two ducked upon hearing the sound of her shots. "Move!" She watched the white flash of her teammate escape the area before return shots could be fired.
"I'm good to go," Belle replied. "Now what?"
"Regroup at my position," Anna continued, ejecting the cartridge and sliding in a new one with a click. "We're too spaced out as long as we're on different buildings. We need a coordinated—"
"Look out!"
Her ears picked up the crunch of footsteps. She hadn't been paying attention prior, and a sinking feeling bubbled up from the depths of her chest as she attempted to draw her sidearm and spin around. Out of the corner of her eye she saw her adversary raise a rifle, barrel almost at her head level.
A flash of light sliced through the air between them; the shot connected with the recruit's rifle and sent it flying out of his hands, but by then he'd already advanced far too close for Anna to take aim. Panicked, Anna tackled the recruit, sending them both flying into the stairwell. Pain ricocheted along her body as she felt the armor slam into her own skin from the impact.
My pistol. Where the hell is my pistol?
She spotted it lying a few feet away, but the recruit was already recovering. Anna made a futile attempt to scramble across the floor for her sidearm, but the recruit balled his fists and slammed down, knocking Anna's head aside and sending a wave of disorientation through her head as he made a grab for the gun. Reactively, Anna pinned down his arm with her body weight, taking hold of her combat knife and unsheathing it in a single swoop, knocking away his other fist in the same motion. She slammed the edge deep into the soldier's ribs, feeling the flesh beneath cut and splutter with blood.
She heard the muffled, agonized scream. The recruit's visor filled with blood before he was terminated from the simulation.
"Anna! Status report!"
Holy shit holy shit holy shit—
She let his body go limp, leaving it sprawled across the floor as she tried to regain control of herself. Anna struggled to control her breathing, her heart palpitating wildly, sweat trickling down her forehead, wetting her helmet.
"Anna! Are you there? Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm good," she replied in ragged breaths, her hands fumbling as she grasped her sidearm again, almost failing to put it back into its holster. She realized she'd dropped her rifle back where she'd tackled him. "Thanks. I owe you one."
"Don't thank me yet, 'cause we've still got a lot of shit to get out of," Elsa replied. "You forgot to put down your motion sensor. Good thing I had my eye on you even when in cover."
"Yeah, I'll remember—"
Gunfire continued to sound from Elsa's comm channel. "If everyone else is freed up, I could use some help!"
Shrapnel chipped off the concrete that shielded her from the deadly hail of lead above. Elsa dropped out the spent magazine, slamming a new one in, calculating the number of shots fired before the next lull. Her adversaries would have to reload at some point, but until then, she remained pinned down. "If everyone else is freed up," she yelled into the comm channel, "I could use some help!"
A lull. Elsa swung the weapon around, taking aim through the optical sight, pulling off a three round burst at the first sight of her contacts; they ducked as soon as her rounds flared their energy shields. Inwardly she cursed the academy's decision to utilize the well-protected WAR-suits in the simulation. This is pointless, she realised. I can't hit then for as long as they have their shields up. She considered the other items she'd kept on her loadout, but decided they could be put to better use. If Anna could cover her, she could get out.
"On my way," she finally heard Anna report after what seemed like an eternity, even though she knew it was probably just a few seconds or so. "Stay there for as long as you—"
"Er, guys?" came Merida. "Spotted an enemy rocketeer in the area. Heads up."
"Where was she last headed?" Elsa asked, flinching as she ducked back into cover when the suppressive fire began again. "Where was she last seen?"
"Straight… towards your position," came the reply.
Her eyes widened. "Anna, do you have eyes on me yet?" Frantically, she looked around, her enhanced vision scanning the area for movement. She didn't spot anything. That meant the rocketeer was out of her field of vision; he or she could be anywhere from rushing over, to already setting up the weapon. "Anna!"
"Almost there," Anna said. "Just hang on."
Amidst the gunfire, Elsa brought up the minimap on her HUD, tracking her teammates' movements with waypoints, and noting the last location Merida had sighted the rocketeer. "Okay," she spoke directly to Anna. "Look around for—"
An explosion shattered the cover behind her into smithereens, the shockwave knocking her forward into the opposing wall, her shield capacitors drained completely of energy. Her head collided with the hard surface, sending waves of pain through her head as she struggled to recover. She realized that was running out of time; the smoke and dust would soon clear, and she would be utterly exposed to whatever enemy units awaited her, that were patiently waiting for the cloud to be lifted. Elsa planted one hand on the floor and pushed, rolling to her right, desperately trying to find cover.
Through ringing ears she thought she heard a faraway voice yell "Suppressing fire!", and through blurred vision she saw muzzle flashes light up like strobe lights as she fought back pain and exhaustion, and a strange new sensation that had begun to creep up with her.
Is this… cold?
Alarm bells were tripped in her mind as she crawled behind some debris, her head still feeling the effects of whiplash. Cold. Fear gripped her heart as she concluded that she was indeed feeling cold; she never, NEVER felt cold, and the fact that this was an exception signified something bad. Her arms trembled. Her fingers fumbled for her gun. She needed some way to defend herself, from whatever that could be coming, because at that moment she couldn't think, she couldn't hear, she couldn't speak, she couldn't rely on herself to make the right decision despite being someone trained and bred for battle and suddenly the pain hit her in full force and oh god I can't think straight my head hurts too much what is that goddamn conceal don't feel conceal don't feel conceal—
NO! Her mind lashed back at whatever had overcome her; her vision sharpened back into focus, her hearing less fuzzy and her mind became clearer. No. Conceal don't feel is my past. The past that I will never return to. She felt energy fill her body and the cold drain away, her senses returning to that of a battle hardened veteran, her will unbroken. She could feel everything better: the crunching pieces of concrete next to her, the constant rattle of gunfire, the clammy feeling of her hands as the fabric of the suit's gloves stuck to her palms.
A faraway voice called her back. "Elsa? Please respond!"
"I'm good, I'm good," she replied, checking to see if anyone had spotted her before making a grab for her rifle. "I'm okay, no major injury."
"Thank god," Anna said, "We were worried!"
"It's a simulation, Anna. I can't die here." Elsa slid back into cover, reloading her weapon, realizing she didn't have many magazines left. "Where are you? What's the situation?"
"We're on the building opposite you." She heard the small exhalation of breath through the comm unit: a small laugh from Anna. It brought a smile to her own face. "We're pinning them down for now," Anna told her, "but they seemed to be backing off. Belle is tracking a bunch of units currently falling back."
"Can you trace where exactly they're headed?"
"Negative. We didn't equip tracking beacons because we didn't think they were necessary."
"I'm sending my feed to your HUD, Elsa," Belle cut in. "The last of them just broke off the engagement." Elsa's HUD beeped, and a revamped minimap popped up, now tracking multiple hostiles pulling back. She synced the data to her own HUD, marking the last known coordinates they were spotted at just before Belle lost sight of them, and checking for their objective. In their fight to stay alive, they'd forgotten to check for their objective. She marked out the supposed coordinates of their objective on her minimap, tracing it to a single building. Their opponents appeared to be falling back in that direction.
"Think they went to guard what we're looking for?" Merida said.
"Looks that way," Elsa replied. "I have a rough idea where to go though." She relaxed, leaning against the broken concrete walls, letting her heart rate return to normal once more. "Give me a few minutes, and I'll get moving."
Movement. Top left corner. Elsa almost brought her rifle up and fired off two shots, then she realized the motion was on her HUD, not from actual people. She cocked an eyebrow. "Anyone else seeing this?"
"Seeing what?" Belle asked.
"Four of Valor Team dropping off our HUDs. They've been wiped out."
"What the fuck?" Anna asked incredulously. She doubled checked her own HUD just to be sure, even as she looked down at Elsa from her vantage point on the other building just to make sure it wasn't some kind of scare. It wasn't.
"How in the name of all that is holy and good—?" she began.
"They deployed after us, right?" said Belle as she walked up next to Anna, looking over the cityscape together. "How did they get nerfed so quick?"
"Serves them right for not following the plan, and trying to use us as bait," Merida cut in, twirling an arrow. "They have themselves to blame."
Anna watched Rapunzel cock an eyebrow, but kept quiet. She suppressed a laugh herself; trust Merida to always be feisty, even when she started to contradict herself, having doubted Elsa's plan herself just moments prior. "What do we do now, Elsa?" she asked.
"We try to locate the last member of Valor Team, which according to this HUD, is Vanguard—"
A sudden crackle and static filled their ears. Anna flinched, cringing as she did, noting what appeared to be painful screams in the background. "You all getting this?" she yelled into her own comm unit. The pained, bent over figures of her teammates signaled the affirmative. From their position, she could still see Elsa straining visibly as the crackling continued.
"I trust you are receiving this in good condition," came an unnaturally loud, and rasping voice, hindered by the improper use of the comm unit.
"Ursula," Merida said, the first to reply.
"Clever girl," the voice continued. "But can you guess what happened to your poor team?"
"It doesn't matter," Anna replied, an edge of steel in her voice that surprised everyone, even herself. "We don't need them to begin with."
"Right now, you're probably wishing you had them."
"What do you want, Ursula?" Rapunzel said indignantly. "Can we just get on with this fight?"
"Face it, Valkyrie," Ursula spat out, "There is no fight. I have your teammate's HUD system. I can track every single move you make. I can track when you're rounding corners, or how you're preparing to retrieve that intel of yours that we're currently guarding."
Anna cursed inwardly.
"So you can make this quick, and let us come to you to wipe you out, or we'll eventually find you and kill anyway. UP to you how much time you want to waste."
"Go fuck yourself, Ursula," Elsa's voice cut in.
The line cut off.
Anna looked quizzically down at the figure, who was looking out toward their objective. "I don't suppose you muted her?" she remarked.
"Go figure," came the reply.
"Well, this trash talking is nice and all," Rapunzel interrupted as she paced the concrete level incessantly, thumbing the safety on and off, "but that doesn't solve the problem at hand. How do we even win this scenario right now?"
A silence passed between all of them, but just for a small moment.
Then Anna swore she heard Elsa smirk.