Fire at Will [Mech Sci-Fi Military]

STEEL RAIN

The air screamed a discordant shriek as three bright streaks tore through the avenue.

"Missile strike! Take cov—"

BOOM!

The world turned white.

The blast hurled Will, mech and all, like a ragdoll, slamming him headfirst into the building behind him. Sirens wailed in his ringing ears as his HUD flared red with cascading warning messages.

Dust and debris swirled into a choking haze while aftershocks rattled the avenue. The rumble dragged on as Will fought to stay conscious.

A quiet groan came from his left, and Remy rasped something unintelligible. Half-dazed, he tried to get up, but the servos in his legs failed to respond. Becca, meanwhile, gave a pained gasp as she tried to free her pinned arm.

"What the hell was that?" Remy rasped over his overworked filter fans.

Will tuned into the command network. A haze of overlapping voices crackled through bursts of static. The lines kept breaking, but he caught enough through the noise.

"The fabrication plant," Will rasped. "There was a hidden missile battery there."

Remy swore, clambering to his feet. "Isn't there a Belgrave team stationed there? What the hell are they doing?"

"They'll move in soon," Becca said through gritted teeth, wrenching her arm free. "But we've got to hold until then."

Remy swore again before helping Will and Becca up.

The smoke began to thin, revealing dazed troopers reorienting themselves. Gunfire resumed in bursts as the convoy, sensing weakness, pressed the assault.

Screams of dying troopers filled the channel as they began picking off stragglers. Will's gut twisted as he shouldered his rifle. Sighting through the drifting ash, he fired.

Beside him, Remy snarled, stepping out of cover and firing wildly toward the convoy.

The duo was about to charge the line, but before they could move, Becca grabbed them both by the shoulders.

"Stop, you two! Get back!" She yanked them behind the shattered wall.

"What are you doing?" Remy snapped, struggling against her grip.

"Think!" Becca hissed. "There are still more missiles. We can't go in guns blazing."

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"There are people dying out there!" Remy shouted back, his voice cracking with rage.

Becca turned to Will. "Talk sense into this idiot!"

Will didn't answer right away. He looked past them, out toward the shattered highway.

The convoy still loomed through the clearing dust, its armored haulers arranged in a defensive arc, forming a steel fortress at the heart of the storm.

Through his half sight, he saw the Revenant silhouettes moving with purpose to finish their dark work.

Will's breathing quickened. Every instinct screamed at him to act, to do something, but with the threat of another missile barrage hanging over their heads, every move felt like a death sentence.

"We don't have much time," Remy muttered. "They could be arming the nukes right now."

Will clenched his fist. There had to be a way to take the missiles out of the picture. He glanced back toward the convoy and then froze.

"Will?" Becca asked, her voice uncertain.

"We need to rush the convoy," Will whispered.

"What?" Remy blurted out, surprised.

"We need to rush the convoy," Will repeated, his voice stronger. "They'll never risk hitting the haulers with the warheads inside. We have to get closer! right in their faces!"

Becca and Remy stared at him, silent. For a moment, only the crack of distant gunfire filled the air.

"Well, shit…" Remy said slowly.

Becca shook her head. "We'll be drowned in bullets before we get there… and if we aren't downed by gunfire, the missiles will."

"Get blown up here or up there," Remy muttered. "Not much of a choice."

Will looked between the two. "So what's it going to be?"

The two exchanged a look. Despite their armor, he could see it—the fear, the defiance, the grim determination.

Becca drew in a slow breath, then straightened. "Alright, we'll—"

Before she could finish, news came in from the recon team.

"Missiles inbound! Cover! Get to cover!"

A low rumble began to build overhead, like thunder dragging chains across the sky.

Will's blood ran cold.

"Brace!" he shouted, throwing himself against the wall as the sound swelled to a thunderous roar.

BOOM!

A wall of fire consumed the street. The blast tore through a squad of troopers, shredding them into fragments of armor and charred flesh. The shockwave rolled outward in a blistering wave, and for an instant, Will saw their silhouettes vaporized against the inferno, their last moments burned into his visor like the shadowy forms of the Revenant.

Will staggered back as his HUD whited out. The heat washed over him in waves, but he held his ground, boots skidding across cracked asphalt. The aftershock that followed slammed into him, rattling every joint of his mech.

Beside him, Remy and Becca braced as chunks of concrete, rebar, and burning asphalt hammered against their armor in a deadly rain.

Before they could even recover, the comms flared again, panicked and fractured.

"Smoke in the air!"

"Missiles sighted! Secondary salvo on approach!"

Will's head snapped up. Through the thinning haze, he saw them, a dozen contrails cutting across the sky. The missiles were flying in staggered formation, and the lead one had its nose pointed directly at them.

It broke off from the formation and dove, locking onto their position.

Becca screamed.
Remy let out a choked gasp.
Will froze.

The battlefield fell away. The sounds of gunfire and explosions faded to nothing. All that existed was the burning streak tearing down through the rising smoke, its reflection glowing in his visor like the eye of some vengeful god.

His mind raced faster than ever before. Even without the aid of the shard, dormant since his stint in Derbent, his perception sharpened to an impossible level of clarity. Every second stretched, suspended in cold stillness.

The missile was coming in too fast.
There was no cover. No time.
He wouldn't be able to move fast enough to get out.

It was with growing horror he realized they wouldn't be coming out of this alive.

His throat constricted. A final breath slipped free, fragile and raw.

"…Mom… Ellie… Annie…"

The light swallowed him.