“Damn unreliable union weapons,” Reliq murmured to herself, as she struggled with the rifle.
Seizing the opportunity, the red-suit sprang to their feet and charged towards Reliq forcing her to drop the rifle into the snow and reach for her pistol. Rapidly drawing her side arm Reliq discharged two rounds in quick succession, hitting her target twice in the chest and causing them to retreat to the other side of the ring and out of sight.
“Watch out, behind you captain!” Called Jin, through the radio, as he watched the events unfold from the command module.
Reliq spun around in time to see two red-suits rounding the far end of the ring with their weapons pointing straight at her. As fast as she could, she raised her pistol to take a shot. Feeling the sting and burn of a bullet passing through her upper chest near her shoulder, Reliq was knocked backwards to the ground from the force of the projectiles impact.
“Get up, Reliq.”
“Just take off without me Jin.”
“I can’t leave you here.”
“Go, that's an order Doctor,” finished Reliq as she noticed hundreds of company ships passing overhead high above them.
“You won't be going anywhere union pigs.” Said a red-suit, in a deep but muffled voice, now standing directly over Reliq.
Looking down the barrel of the red-suits weapon, Reliq tried to reach for her pistol lying in the snow next to her. Approaching from the other side a second red-suit stepped on Reliqs hand while kicking her side arm out of reach.
“We could kill you now,” said a red-suit as he kicked Reliq hard in the abdomen. “Or we could let you die when this whole area is turned into a crater.”
“You can’t do this... You will all stand before the Judicators for what you’ve done here.” Replied Reliq as she struggled to breath from the blow.
“I’m not worried. It’s already done, as soon as Asus is over head, in about twenty minutes, it will release a kinetic rod, erasing any evidence that you or your union friends were ever here.”
“Your ship is disabled; you will die too.”
“Don’t worry about us, we have alternate transport. I can hear it approaching now.” Continued the red-suit
“Enough playing around. Let's just kill her now and get out of here,” Interrupted the second red suit as he raised his rifle towards Reliqs head.
The loud crack from a rifle firing beside him took Jacob by surprise, causing him to jolt. Dawn had made a clean shot from a hundred yards across the clearing, with the round hitting one of the red-suits hard. The bullet easily passing through their helmet hitting the metal hull behind them, sending loud metallic echoes through the air. The red-suit remained standing motionless for a moment before collapsing dead into the snow.
Looking at Dawn with speechless surprise, Jacob stared in uncertainty at what she had just done. Helping the unknown girl and involving themselves, may have somehow saved them or caused their death, either way Jacob was unsure if it was the right course of action.
Noticing the others looking at her Dawn said, “I couldn’t just let them kill her,” as she continued looking down the sight of her weapon, ready to take a second shot.
Pulling the trigger, Dawn loudly sent a second round down range, missing the second target. Causing the red-suit to quickly move around to the other side of the downed vessel and out of sight.
With her path back into the ship blocked, Reliq took the opportunity to head across the clearing. Taking the risk, she assumed those who were shooting were friendly locals and ran out into the open towards the tree line while guarding her injury. Another bang exploded from behind her and Reliq fell to the ground face first as a burning pain shot up her leg.
Noticing a red-suit on the ground barely visible, Dawn said, “he is lying at the edge of that ship on the left” as she began to take shots in that direction.
Jacob watched as the girl forced herself to her feet and began limping towards them, a trail of stained red snow following in her wake. Unwilling to simply watch the events, Jacob sprang to his feet and began running across the clearing.
“Give the kid some cover!” Yelled Orm, as he too began shooting towards the edge of the ship, where the red-suit was seen last.
Reliq froze momentarily at the site of Jacob running towards her, unsure of the intentions of the local inhabitants. Yet, without any other choice, she had to keep moving forward in painful determination.
Arriving at the injured girl Jacob put her arm around his shoulder and helped her move across the open clearing. Only a few feet remained between Jacob and the tree line when he felt the burn of hot metal grazing his upper arm near the area of his knife wound, causing him to tense with pain as he continued to push forward.
“Right side,” yelled Orm, as he took a shot. Noticing the red-suit fire from the other side of the downed vessel.
As Jacob approached the safety of the thick brush, Orm ran out to help carry the wounded girl, past the tree line and down the embankment as Dawn kept watch at the top. Slipping down the steep slope, the three of them rolled down the embankment, leaving Reliq unconscious as they hit bottom.
“Is she breathing?” Asked Jacob as he got up to his knee and knelt over the girl.
“I think so, but she has lost a lot of blood,” responded Orm.
Remembering his past life as a medic, before the invasion, Orm began to instinctually examine Reliq’s injuries, autonomously repeating tasks his hands had done
