“Do not touch that keyboard!” Catie ordered. “You’re dead! Office is clear,” she reported to Baker.
“Good, I’m bringing the rest of the team in. Wait until we get some help here before you clear the top floor,” Baker ordered. He moved to the office with Julie and started checking the displays. “Nice setup you have here,” he said.
“Why don’t they have surveillance in the house?” Catie asked.
Julie smacked Catie on the shoulder. “Are you complaining?”
“They did,” Baker said. “It’s on this monitor over here, but the window is minimized.”
“Smart, real smart.”
“Alfa team here!” Malory said. “We’re in position.”
“Give us five minutes,” Baker said, “then start the assault. Bravo team, how are you doing?”
“We got tangos on our six. They’re coming from the landing strip. We’re going to divert to the northeast and try to lose them.”
“Copy, once you have a good position, start your assault,” Baker ordered.
“Wilco!”
Howard and Lambert were the first to make it into the house. “The others are just two minutes behind,” Howard reported.
“Good, you two go with Watanabe and MacGregor and clear the top floor. Delacroix and McCoy, take charge of these monitors and start feeding us intel,” Baker ordered.
Catie motioned the others to follow her and headed up the stairs. The monitors in the office had shown clear hallways, but they didn’t have coverage in the rooms. It didn’t take long to clear all of the rooms; they were as empty as the hallway.
“The roof is next,” Catie said, pointing at the stairway that led up.
“You first,” Howard said. “Watanabe, follow her.”
“Howard, fire a full load through the door, it might not take him out, but it should knock him off of the roof. Same thing for you, Lambert, through the wall here. You can see where he is on the probe’s video feed. It’s not perfect, but you should be able to hit him. Then we’ll all burst through and take the other three out as fast as we can. On three,” Catie ordered.
“One . . . two . . . three!”
Crack! Crack! Crack! The big rifles that Howard and Lambert were carrying retorted with an unexpected third shot.
Catie and Watanabe burst through the door, rolling on the floor then came up firing. Catie nailed the tango on the right and immediately rolled to get a shot at the other one. She took a hit to her armor, but it didn’t register any impairment, so she kept moving, firing as she went. Watanabe went left and got off two rounds before his suit locked up, indicating he was wounded. But he’d nailed his target.
“We’re clear up here,” Catie announced. “Watanabe is down!”
“Lambert is down!” Howard barked. “He’s out of it!” Which meant he was registered as dead.
“Watanabe is just wounded. Howard, can you come and take him downstairs so we can administer first aid? He’s just showing a leg wound.”
“On it.”
“What happened to Lambert?” Catie asked as she helped Howard get Watanabe to the stairs.
“As soon as I fired, one of the tangos nailed him through the wall, lucky shot,” Howard said. “He took one of those big rounds to the head. I’m sure glad this is a simulation.”
They made it downstairs to find the rest of their team had arrived. Baker was talking to his command staff. “Chambers, I want four snipers on the roof. Favre, prepare defenses around the house. The assault teams are heading this way; they’ll drive the enemy back to the house. Have the snipers, take out as many as they can from long range; you need to be ready for any tangos that get through.”
“MacGregor, Howard, back on the roof, grab two sniper rifles,” Chambers barked. “Favre, who are your best snipers?”
“Chen, Rosenbach, grab your sniper rifles,” Favre ordered. Then she proceeded to dispatch the rest of her Flight to positions by the windows where they would have a view of any attacking force.
Catie grabbed the sniper rifle that someone had carried in for her and headed to the roof with Howard on her heels.
◆ ◆ ◆
“Here they come!”
Catie moved to the south side and found a spot where she could set up. The drone would let them know if the enemy started coming from another direction, but for now, all four of them would line up here.
“Find your shots and take ‘em!” Sergeant Rosenbach ordered.
Catie adjusted her scope; she could see about twenty-five tangos making their way toward the house. They were still over one hundred meters away. She lined up her first shot. CRACK!
“Good shot, now do it again!” Rosenbach yelled as she finally fired.
CRACK! CRACK! The shots kept ringing out. Catie had taken out three before the enemy dropped down and covered up.
“We’ve taken out nine!” Rosenbach reported.
“Keep them pinned down,” Baker ordered. “Flight Six is coming up behind them.”
“Yes, sir!”
“We’ve got incoming from the east!” Julie yelled from her station in the command center.
“MacGregor, Howard, shift over, we’ll hold here and keep these pinned down!” Rosenbach yelled.
“Yes, sir!”
Catie and Howard scooted along the deck to the left, getting into position to fire on the new wave of attack. Catie lined up another shot, CRACK! She nailed one. But it was clear that the attackers knew there were snipers covering them as they were approaching cautiously, leapfrogging between cover.
Catie adjusted her position to line up her next shot. CRACK! “Damnit,” she gasped as her armor shocked her in the left shoulder, partially paralyzing it.
“MacGregor’s hit!” Howard yelled. “We need another sniper up here!”
“No! I’m okay,” Catie yelled. “It’s just my shoulder!”
She shifted around, grunting through the pain her battle armor was applying to her shoulder. “Where are those simulated painkillers?” She shifted the rifle to her right shoulder and pushed her left hand out to steady the aim. The armor was allowing her to move her hand without much pain, but any big movement hurt. CRACK! She got off her next shot.
Baker was watching on the video feed; he shook his head as he realized that Catie could fire the rifle
