The enemy had no face. The combatants were simply designated enemy by the fact that they were the ones firing on her gbeto. They hammered the HOVA from all sides, dropping all manner of ordnance. Some exploded. Some sprayed shrapnel. Some billowed flames. Fire rained down on all sides, a fusillade of explosions and erupting earth, scattering the HOVA Hellfighters. A shriek erupted in the distance. A keening wail that hurt Fela’s ears as it neared, with the growing intensity of an onrushing bull finding its stride. Sound curved in on itself, with the echo of a dull thud. The earth quivered in a death spasm. A hailstorm of reddish-brown soil coated her. Rooted to the spot, the action playing out around Fela as if all she could do was watch. The alien landscape began to morph into recognizable patterns. Perhaps the remains of ancient fortresses, constructed early in the culture’s antiquity. The walled areas guarded courtyards that opened up to a village of some sort. In the hail of weapons fire, the terrain melted away, becoming ridges on the surrounding horizon, as if a great, scaled dragon curled about them in slumber. The red-and-brown dirt no longer a road but transforming into a flattened stretch of hostility daring the HOVA Hellfighters to traverse it.

To a gbeto’s ear, weapons fire needed no translation. Suppression fire always had the scattershot chatter of being undisciplined. A random spray of charges with no other purpose than to keep the enemy pinned down, making them think twice about popping their heads out, or taking the time to steady themselves for better-aimed shots. Using artillery designed to shred. To tear through flesh and cause maximum damage. The flames, the noise, the shaking earth, the devastation of bodies all coordinated to maximize shock and confusion.

“Take cover!” Epyc Ro yelled.

“We have to get out of here!” Robin yelled. “We’re in a kill zone!”

Forces had been deployed on either side of them. Fela studied the muzzle fire. The enemy knew the terrain. Twin forces, utilizing completely different munitions, boxed them in. Her people were in a nearly four-hundred-meter stretch designed to kill them with brutal efficiency. To her left, a series of rocky crags led into the hills. Abandoned military vehicles blocked them from the rest of their unit. The fire fell all around them. The enemy couldn’t have anticipated them unless their technology was far more advanced than they’d seen so far. They definitely couldn’t have known HOVA tactics. Sometimes the only way to make it through hell was to keep going.

Fela’s mind drifted back to her son asking,

“Are you going to die over there?”

Telling him she was leaving him in the care of her brother so that she could serve in the HOVA was the hardest thing she ever did. Both of them knew he’d be cared for and loved, but the hint of betrayal hid behind his lingering gaze.