Kyra shook her head, although more to clear it than in any acknowledgement of Corporal O’Byrne. The sound of machinery tearing itself to bits and the distant hammer of guns made it difficult to hear anything from the dropship. She opened her mouth to say something when a sudden deafening crack nearly threw her from her feet. The dropship ran like an enormous struck bell and showers of sparks flew crazily skyward, incandescent red and white with traces of burning metal. A moment later a second strike and a third punched into the stricken dropship, filling the inside with ricocheting shrapnel that cut equipment and conscripts to pieces with equal indifference. Dirt and loam sprayed up in wheel barrow sized scoops, heated dirt and stone prickling and burning through the supposedly ‘flame resistant’ uniforms.

Kyra divided sideways and rolled into a nearby ditch cut by run off from the infrequent rains. She swung her weapon to bear on the threat, following the illuminated path of the tracers back to its source. On a distant hill top she could see the starburst muzzle flash of a heavy weapon probably mounted on a heavy vehicle. Although it was far out of range, she swung her rifle onto it by rote and squeezed the trigger. Nothing happened. The mechanical lock out was still in place, the conscripts weapons were locked before they were issued, to be unlocked only by their officers when the reached the ground. It was a polite fiction that this was to prevent accidental discharges during the drops, the truth was that the conscripts might otherwise find turning the weapons on those same officers too tempting.

“No one left alive,” some shouted, maybe Kyra. More weapons were firing, apparently the men who had come with O’byrne had unlocked weapons, though the range was still far to great for their weapons to be effective. One of O’byrne’s men grabbed her by the shoulder and shoved her backwards.

“Fall B..!” his words ended with a wet crack as a round cut him in half, spraying Kyra with hot blood and bits of fragmented body armor. The hot taste of blood was on her lips as she trembled, breathing rapidly as her body began to lock up.

“RUN!”