Eye for an Eye - Chapter 4: Fever Pitch
"How much… How much time has it been?" Swiss murmured quietly. Her condition had gotten worse to the point where she was leaning on Dazzle's shoulder to support herself while walking. Time seemed to slow to a crawl, and Swiss could no longer recall vast swathes of her recent memory.
"One hour, thirty-nine minutes," Night Eyes replied, "Stay with us, Swiss. Please."
Swiss didn't respond, instead she continued to grab Dazzle's shirt sleeve and trudge forward.
"Swiss?" Night Eyes asked again, walking up to Swiss and bringing her hand beneath her chin. Night Eyes gently turned Swiss's head towards her, revealing her face. Swiss's eyes were half-closed and unfocused, and when she looked at Night Eyes she shrunk backwards as if she was facing a floodlight.
"What… Why's it so bright?" Swiss asked as she tried to raise an arm to shield her eyes, it bumping into Night Eyes' head "Where are we…?"
"We're almost there," Night Eyes reassured Swiss, "What are you seeing right now?"
"Where're we?" Swiss asked again, her speech a bit difficult to understand. "What's going on?"
"Swiss," Night Eyes said, putting both arms on her shoulders. "Look at me, who am I?"
Swiss's eyes were firmly shut. She didn't seem to hear what Night Eyes was saying either.
"Leave it for now," Dazzle told Night Eyes, "We gotta expedite."
"But where to?" Sapphire asked, "We're more or less there, but there's nothing-"
"Contact!" FN-49 suddenly shouted from ahead. The Griffin doll scrambled back to the group and hid behind Dazzle, much to her irritation.
Night Eyes, Dazzle, and Sapphire instantly pointed their weapons towards the general direction FN-49 retreated from. After a few tense seconds, a squad of Vespid units marched forward from the trees, forming a neat line some distance from the group.
"Those are Alchemist's units!" Dazzle warned after doing an IFF check.
"W-Where's Alchemist?" FN-49 asked, quivering behind Dazzle's back.
"Right in front of you~" Alchemist's sneering voice came from one of the Vespid units.
"Coward!" Night Eyes shouted, her voice burning with hatred. "Show yourself!"
"I would've, but you're not worth my time anymore," Alchemist's voice taunted, "Not only did you fail to capture a measly Griffin doll, you appear to have… defected to their side too. I hope you know what the consequences of your decision are."
"You laid a trap for us, you bitch!" Dazzle retorted, "You were clearly trying to get us infected from the start!"
"And so what if I did? Consider it a punishment for failing the previous mission," Alchemist said. Although the Vespid remained emotionless, everyone could easily imagine the cruel grin Alchemist must've been wearing at the time.
"You're a monster!" Night Eyes said with a growl.
"And you're a tactical doll, a tool," Alchemist responded, "Besides, what's the big deal? Even if you die, you could just reset using your neural backups, hm? Oh wait, I just remembered~ Traitors don't get to-"
"That's enough," Night Eyes said, raising her rifle at the broadcasting Vespid. "It is you who has betrayed your fellow dolls. You who has betrayed Sangvis Ferri. Sabre team, prepare to engage!"
"Do you really think that's a wise choice to make?" Alchemist asked. As she said that, several additional squads of fodder units appeared from the foliage all around Sabre team, surrounding them. In unison, each fodder unit raised their weapon and pointed it at the five dolls in the middle.
"No…" FN-49 gasped, looking around. "It was a trap…"
"Of course it's trap," Dazzle responded matter-of-factly as she loaded a flare magazine into her machine gun. "Night Eyes, orders?"
"Wait wait wait! What?!" FN-49 stammered. "We're five walking-wounded here! Swiss is unconscious, and I don't even have a gun!"
"Just shut up and close your eyes!" Night Eyes shouted.
"What do you mean-"
A brilliant white light suddenly flooded FN-49's vision, blinding her and causing her to drop to the ground. In an instant, the ground around her exploded into a deafening cacophony as gunfire erupted from all directions.
"What the fuck?!" FN-49 screamed as she pressed herself as flat as she could within the tall grass.
FN-49 gingerly tried to raise her head, just to be immediately blinded again by a torrential stream of light erupting from Dazzle's gun, bathing the entire area in light as bright as the sun.
"Dazzle, we're clear!" Sapphire shouted into the radio, dumping Swiss's body onto the ground in a nearby ditch. "Fall back!"
"Understood!" Dazzle responded, before ducking down and repositioning. She felt the impact of a pair of bullets on her side, knocking her to the ground.
"I'm hit!" Dazzle called out, "I'm pinned down!"
"Stay put!" Sapphire ordered as she switched on the ultraviolet search lamp on her rifle's scope. Lying against the sloped ground, she raised her rifle above her head and swept it across the battlefield. Her rifle optic was directly linked to her neural cloud, and within seconds she neutralized the enemy units firing upon Dazzle.
"S- Sapphire," Swiss weakly called out from behind Sapphire, "What's… going on?"
"We're in a firefight!" Sapphire responded, "Stay low!"
"I… I can fight…" Swiss insisted before clumsily unslinging the carbine from her back.
"No!" Sapphire and Dazzle shouted at the same time.
"But- But I'm-"
"You're injured, Swiss!" Sapphire insisted, "Stay in cover, that's an order!"
"What about Night Eyes?" Swiss asked.
"She's doing her thing, don't worry about her!" Sapphire responded while throwing a grenade at a nearby enemy that Dazzle marked on datalink, "Crap, we gotta reposition!"
"Where's… Where's FN-49?" Swiss asked.
"Huh? I dunno," Sapphire responded as she dragged Swiss up and led her to a new position, "I think she's still in the clearing, but that's not important at the moment!"
"Forget about the Griffin doll!" Dazzle shouted, "Sapphire, I'm gonna link up with you, I can't handle them by myself! Night Eyes, they have a firing line to my east, take them out!"
"Understood," Night Eyes said. Moments later, the sound of gunfire from that direction gave way to an eerie silence, allowing Dazzle to retreat to a better position.
"Sapphire, I've moved to a more defensible position!" Dazzle reported, "You and Swiss meet up with me here, I'm marking it on the map."
"Understood, on the move," Sapphire responded, turning to help Swiss up.
"Wait, Swiss?!" Sapphire asked in a panic, "Where are you?!"
"FN-49…" Swiss muttered as she stumbled back towards the clearing, "I have to help her…"
"Are you insane?!" Dazzle screamed, "Forget about the fucking Griffin doll already!"
"Come back, please!" Sapphire desperately pleaded, "It's too dangerous!"
Swiss ignored their demands, instead continuing to slowly make her way towards FN-49's last known location. Bullets began to crackle through the air around her, though she didn't seem to notice.
"God damn it!" Dazzle cursed as she steeled herself to get back up, "Sapphire, lay down suppressive fire now!"
The two dolls desperately tried to suppress the enemy and draw their fire, each taking several hits in return. Fortunately, this bought just enough time for Swiss to reach the clearing, where she fell back down and disappeared into the grass.
"FN-49… FN-49?" Swiss weakly called out, looking around while trying to keep her eyes shut.
"S-Swiss?!" FN-49's voice called out from behind, "W-what the heck are you doing here?!"
"I came back for you…" Swiss responded with a weak smile. With a bit of effort, she unslung FN-49's rifle from her back.
"Your gun…"
"M- my rifle?" FN-49 stammered, staring wide-eyed at her rifle as Swiss handed it back to her.
"Can you help us fight?" Swiss pleaded.
"Me, fight?"
"I'm sorry," Swiss said, "But we might need a bit of help here…"
"Ah," FN-49 responded as she looked at Swiss's pitiful state. "O-of course, I'll help you guys!"
FN-49 steeled herself for a second, fighting against her uncontrollable shaking before she got up into a crouch and began moving towards Dazzle and Sapphire. Thankfully, Night Eyes had already silently wiped out most of the enemy dolls, allowing FN-49 to move unmolested. Swiss raised her head and watched FN-49's figure make it halfway there before a massive explosion erupted from the ground beside the Griffin doll, who disappeared into the blast.
"NO!" Swiss screamed as she stared at the dust cloud dissipate. There was nothing left. "FN-49!"
"Holy shit!" Dazzle exclaimed, "What the fuck was that?!"
"Manticores!" Night Eyes hissed, "Three of them approaching your position. Get down!"
"What the fuck, Manticores?" Dazzle echoed, "Sapphire and I are injured, and we don't have the equipment to deal with them!"
"This is really bad!" Sapphire chimed in, "We're running out of time here. What's the plan, Night Eyes?"
"Ugh, damn it, let me think!" Night Eyes responded.
"We don't have time to think!" Dazzle countered, loading a new magazine into her gun. "Do we engage, or do we fall back?"
"If we fall back, we're as good as dead!" Sapphire pointed out.
"Night Eyes!" Dazzle shouted, "Permission to engage?"
"Negative!" Night Eyes responded, "Wait for me! Fire on my lead!"
"You're too far away!" Dazzle countered, "I'm going to draw their fire. Sapphire, move to another firing spot!"
"Wait!" Swiss suddenly shouted.
"Stay down and hide!" the other three ordered in unison.
"And watch you all get killed?" Swiss incredulously replied, "I can't do that!"
"Now's not the time for heroics, Swiss!" Night Eyes urged, "Think!"
"I'm sorry, Night Eyes, but I'm too tired to think anymore," Swiss quietly apologized, slowly standing up on shaky legs. "It seems I'm gonna have to disobey orders once again. I may be naïve, but I am willing to accept the consequences of my actions…"
"Stop!" Night Eyes cried out, "What are you doing?!"
"As long as I can stand…"
Swiss unlatched the electronic warfare device from her waist. She grabbed it as hard as she could with both hands and pointed it at the Manticores. Through her failing vision, she could just about make out the three cannons pointing back at her.
"…You'll have to get through ME first!"
Swiss felt an indescribable pain flood her neural cloud as she concentrated all her processing power into a single desperate electronic attack. The tip of the spectrum device wavered under her trembling grasp, sending an intense beam of invisible radio signals through the air. Through sheer determination she kept it pointed at her target, each excruciating second dragging out into an eternity.
"Even if I must sacrifice all that I have…"
The lead Manticore aimed its cannon at Swiss and prepared to fire. Concentrated fire from Dazzle and Sapphire pelted the Manticore to no effect. But before the Manticore could open fire, several cannon shells slammed into its rear at point-blank range, causing it to erupt into a brilliant fireball. Everyone else stopped in their tracks and stared at the explosion in awe, the wrathful fire outshining the moon a hundred-fold, as if a new Sun had been reborn from thin air.
"…Nobody will EVER hurt my FAMILY!"
The Manticore on the other side began turning towards the one controlled by Swiss. Swiss swiveled the cannon of her Manticore onto the next target and began pummeling it with cannon shells. The deafening clang of metal striking metal reverberated through the forest as one of the enemy Manticore's legs crumbled under withering fire. Immobilized, it turned its cannon onto Swiss's Manticore and began firing back.
"Jesus Christ!" Dazzle whispered under her breath as she watched the two Manticores pump round after round into one another. Muzzle blasts and savage sparks danced in the distance until one of Swiss's shells hit a weak spot, detonating the enemy Manticore's ammunition.
"DIE!"
With a final surge of strength, Swiss kept the remaining Manticore's electronic defense program suppressed for just long enough to transmit the self-destruct command, causing it to erupt into a third fireball. As she watched it light up the night, her body grew limp and she fell to the ground, the world around her slowly fading to black.
"Night Eyes… Dazzle… Sapphire…" Swiss whispered as she lay on the ground, too weak to hear the cries of her teammates.
"The rest… is up to you…"