She tried to comfort herself by concentrating on the veterans, cradling their strange weapons. The same PAR-9 that made her nervous was an apparent source of comfort to the strained looking blond that sat across from her. Still, the best that she could say about the veterans was that they looked grim rather than uneasy. At least they didn’t look sullen, or worst of all, apathetic. She had served as an advisor for a Thai dissident group a couple of years ago. Sullen, resigned, some had just been suicidal. That had been a less than happy experience. She shook her head and looked around. None of that feeling here. The team leader, a sergeant that had barely spoken to any of them yet, seemed focused enough. He cradled a massive weapon that she assumed was an HPAW-12 and cocked his head to the side, as though he could hear something over the scream of the jet engines and rushing air outside. A moment later there was a pronounced change, and she realized that they were in vertical descent

   "All right, it’s time to wake up, children." Sgt. Ulbricht’s shout was barely audible over the increasing noise from the engines, but he had everyone’s attention. Or hers, at least. "We’re dropping into a park area, so you’ll have to disperse from the transport with more attention to your fire arcs than to cover." Danielle didn’t like the sound of that. "Bradley, Thompson, and Buchard, you’re all with Zhanov’ out the forward hatches. The rest of you follow me off the main ramp, disperse by twos, left and right." Ulbricht slapped a magazine into the butt of his weapon and shouted "Ready Arms!" Danielle gripped the forward rest of her PAR-9 and rammed the magazine in, a solid mechanical sound answering her. Somehow, the sound of magazines being locked into weapons didn’t make her feel less nervous. She checked the indicators and safety catches, then leaned back into her seat, bracing for the landing.

   In a rising shriek, the noise of the engines increased dramatically, and the g force slammed her into her seat. She grunted and tensed her legs and stomach, seeing stars anyway, as the force increased. With a sudden shock, the engines cut out, cycling down in a dying whine, and for a terrifying moment she thought that they had failed, plunging them all towards certain death. Then the hatches unsealed and started to open, and the sudden stillness of the aircraft penetrated her abused senses. She undid her safety harness and stood, turning towards the rear hatch as it dropped. Ulbricht was already on his way out even before the ramp touched down, jumping off it to the left. She was just jumping off the ramp herself when she heard the high pitched sound of high energy weapons fire from behind her at the forward hatches, echoed in her headset by an excited voice. "Hostiles sighted and engaged!"

   "Roger that, Bradley. Covering you."

   Danielle jumped off the ramp to the right, fanning out towards a group of buildings that bordered the park area. Suddenly, a shout came from ahead of her. "Hostiles sighted. Covering fire!" She opened up with her PAR-9 at the same time as another soldier at her left, uncertain what she was even aiming at. Even as her first burst of fire ended, the high powered scream of an HPAW-12 sounded just over her head, and she ducked even as a massive explosion marked the target area. A steady masculine voice came from behind her. "Hostiles engaged."

   Ulbricht’s voice was next. "Hostiles appear to be confined to area of buildings to the West, all units sweep, staggered line, controlled fire." As if in confirmation, there were sounds of weapon’s fire from the buildings, echoed by screams. Ulbricht continued stoically. "Civilians in area, proceed with caution, check targets."

   "Hostile movement! Covering fire!" Danielle recognized the sound of near panic in the voice of the woman on point.

   "Engaged." Danielle opened fire again, this time being answered by her own pyrotechnic display. Another explosion came from the other side of the nearest building almost at the same time. Deafened and stunned at the cacophony, she lurched to her feet and headed towards the explosions. As she approached a convenience store that had been damaged already by the explosions, the familiar call of "Hostiles sighted" came over her headset several times, answered by an abundance of energy weapon’s fire. She stumbled towards the store, seeing a lost looking register clerk peering out from the wreckage in evident terror.

   "Get back inside! Clear the area!" Danielle shouted at the woman, the strain of the intense firefight marking her voice. She ran past, staying close to the intact wall of the shop to try and catch up with the team leader. She could hear Ulbricht’s voice ahead of her, sounding the alarm. A burst of fire and a scream sounded over the link a moment later, echoed by the dispassionate computer voice. "Man down. Life signs terminated."

   Ulbricht’s voice answered. "Who’s down? Sound off!"

   A chorus followed. "Schultz here!" "Bradley here!" They were interrupted by another woman’s voice. "Zhanov’ here! Thompson’s down! Hostiles sighted and engaged!" This last came across punctuated by the distinctive sound of a PAR-9 and a high pitched scream.

   Danielle loped to the corner of the building where she had last seen Ulbricht, rounding it to find the narrow alley blocked by a dumpster and an open cargo door. She pushed past the door to see a smouldering ruin of rubble and half destroyed buildings. Ulbricht was standing in the middle of it, kicking at something in a desultory manner. He glanced up at her, then called into his throat mike. "Ulbricht here, call in your areas." He glanced around again, then called. "Left flank clear."

   Answers came back, a litany of center, rear, front, and right flank, all clear. Danielle walked over through the smoke to look at the heap at Ulbricht’s feet.

   Slick, gray skin and a large head identified it. Lying there, it looked like an obscene parody of a human infant, and she felt nausea that even the ride in couldn’t match. Ulbricht had already kicked its weapon behind him, and it lay there naked save for a pouch slung from its hip.

   Sirens began sounding in the area, local emergency units responding to the battle. Ulbricht looked up from the corpse and swore. "All units, begin cleanup." He motioned at her imperiously. "You get the weapons and artifacts, I’ll grab the bodies." Danielle grabbed the alien weapon carefully, not touching any of the controls on the oddly shaped stock. Ulbricht was stuffing the alien into a large plastic bag, a task that she was glad to be spared. He tossed her the pouch from the alien’s side, then finished sealing the filmy plastic with the alien inside. "Hurry up. The local police always want their own forensics run on everything, and it saves a hell of a lot of argument if we get everything packed away before they get here."

   Danielle nodded. "Yes, sir." Actually, she hadn’t even been briefed on the protocols of her new assignment, just the weapons familiarization and a disturbingly vague mission statement. She began shoving things into her pack. Ulbricht stood and strode away, the noise from the rubble underfoot pulling her eye in time to spot the incongruous image of a plastic wrapped alien head leering at her from the top of his pack. She shoved the smaller items in her belt pouch and moved to the next corpse. Just another day in the green machine...or beige...or whatever the hell colors this unit wore.

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