“You know it,” the disembodied voice said through Chandra’s commlink. “You look mighty good through the lens of a twenty-five-times zoom. You have a group of fine folks converging on your position.”

“I figured as much.” Epyc Ro crushed the data fiche under her heel. “Can you do me a solid and welcome these fine folks to our party?”

The nearest three Lei’den guards to their position dropped under Anitra’s sniper fire. They scrambled for cover, scanning for the position of the sniper. Anitra’s EVM doubled as her camouflage, rendering her invisible to all manner of sensor telemetry. The soldiers had little concept of how her DMX-3000’s AI operated in perfect tandem with her instincts to guide her shots.

A few moments later, explosions ripped along their landing strips. Flames shot into the sky, a barreling conflagration, taking out the few remaining vehicles on their side of the building.

Epyc Ro smiled. Debris pelted her face. She turned to figure out the source, when another volley of shells rippled the tarmac. She turned to Chandra. Her mouth moved, but no sound came out. Epyc Ro feared that her hearing might be fading. Chandra gestured to the side. A wide beam of light pierced the thick darkness. The next explosion knocked Epyc Ro from her feet. Darkness washed over her.

Chandra’s face came into focus above her. Her cheeks smeared with blood. The heavy machinery near her obscured by a halo of smoke. All sound rushed at Epyc Ro at the same time. A wall of noise buffeting her from all sides. The world lost its equilibrium in a staccato burst of volley weapons.

Chandra placed a hand on either side of Epyc Ro’s head and shrank her signal field.

Signals screamed at one another. Epyc Ro had been caught in Chandra’s channel scans. She’d been overloaded with signal bursts, and her containment field lost integrity, allowing Epyc Ro in for a moment. That was what her world sounded like at all times.

Her team had taken several hits. Nothing directed or focused. Just scattershot fire, but the enemy had gotten lucky. Once the explosions lit up their positions, it was easier to lock on to them.

“This plan’s gone to shit. Go, go, go!” Epyc Ro yelled.

“Captain, I’m hit.” A large shard of metal protruded from Robin’s calf. Blood mixed with the dirt beneath her.

“Hang on.” Epyc Ro charged toward her. She leapt over a burning hedge of metal and slid into position next to her. She checked Robin’s wound. With no time to be gentle, she ripped the shard out. Biotelemetry indicated nothing too damaged. She sealed the wound with a field pack, used to numb and fill wounds before re-sheathing her nanomesh. “We gotta go.”

Robin struggled to her feet. Testing her leg with her weight, she nodded before Epyc Ro could ask her about how she felt.