SNAFU: Hunters

Again the pride set off, loping across and out of the narrow gorge. They passed more evidence of the rogue’s presence along the way – bodies like burst melons, ravaged and discarded. Accustomed as the pride was to death they still found the overkill distasteful. It bespoke a lack of restraint, reinforcing the necessity of terminating the obsolete mod responsible.

Despite the irony of her position Sierra refused to feel shame for their role in hunting down and dispatching older mods. The unstable operators presented a liability to the Apex Program and, by extension, the security of the United States. She felt no kinship with the quarry, they were a breed and multiple generations removed. The rogue was obsolete, nothing more than a prototype. Sierra and her sisters were the future.

‘Patrol deflected. Proceed freely’, Horus transmitted after they’d traipsed along for a quarter of an hour.

Sierra called the column to a halt. “Charlie, send Horus ahead to reconnoiter. I want to know what we’re walking into.”

“Yes, Staff Sergeant.”

“Foxtrot, Tango, you’re on overwatch. Stay frosty.”

“Roger that, Staff Sergeant,” Foxy and Tango said in harmony, hustling off to take up elevated positions.

“Juliet, tend to Vicky’s wound.”

“That’s not necessary. I’m fine,” the solider answered.

“Stow it, Specialist, that’s an order. Might as well let Juliet kiss your boo-boos while we get our bearings and have a few minutes. I’ve got my own to deal with.”

Sierra sat and took a slug of water from her canteen. She removed the medical kit from her ruck before taking another swig of water. Rehydrated, she peeled back the adhesive stuck to her leg, revealing the gouges in her bloody pant leg and the subsequent lacerations in her calf. She pulled off a glove and began extracting the slivers of rock embedded in the skin with her retractable claws. Once finished she sprayed anti-bacterial over the cuts, covered it in gauze, and fastened it all together with a fresh strip of duct tape.

“Check your screens. You’re gonna wanna see this,” Charlie called out.

Sierra tugged her glove back on and viewed the live feed streaming on her forearm display while Horus recorded, the quadrotor suspended above a city in tumult. An inferno raged, engulfing the stacks of shipping containers that had been converted into residences. Figures in riot gear bearing the Eight Immortals Group device battled in the streets against men in drab jumpsuits and hard hats trading fire with automatic weapons.

Sierra watched a rebel wind-up to toss a Molotov cocktail only for it to explode in his hands, intercepted by a lucky bullet. The improvised incendiary consumed the man and those standing nearby. A mass of jumpsuits overwhelmed a detail of riot troopers on the main thoroughfare as the chaos expanded. Those few with guns used them as clubs but the majority, armed with little more than rocks, took turns pummeling the EIG contractors. Sierra snarled at being forced to watch the combat from a distance though she knew she didn’t want to be involved. Her priorities lay elsewhere.

On the screen a bulky armored personnel carrier turned the corner farther up the avenue. Several rebels retreated down back alleys or hid in domiciles but most persisted to assail their victims, oblivious to the approaching threat. The remote weapon system mounted atop the APC rotated to greet the crowd. Fifty-caliber tracer rounds lanced through soft targets, causing the mob to crumble under the pitiless barrage. The weapon system ceased firing a few moments later, the field transformed into an abattoir.

“Recall Horus,” Sierra told Charlie. “I’ve seen enough.”

If the rogue’s trail didn’t take any drastic deviations it would lead the pride right into the rapidly deteriorating situation at Ming Resources’ No. 4 Extraction Site. Memphis explained during the meeting how the escalating tension between the state-sponsored company and its workers in the territory had boiled over. The Eight Immortals Group had already stamped out insurrection at another mining location in the province but the violence was spreading. Trusted informants belonging to Memphis listed No. 4 as the next most likely to revolt, and they’d been right. And as of four hours ago it was the last known location of the rogue mod they’d been sent to eliminate. The two circumstances were not a coincidence.

“Orders, Staff Sergeant?” Charlie asked.

“Regroup, we’re moving on.”

“We’re going to just walk right into a war zone?” Juliet raised an eyebrow, barely visible through the eye slot of her balaclava.

“Nothing can be allowed to impede the mission. If anything the fighting will serve to conceal our presence. We can use the noise to our advantage.”

“And if the rebels attack us again?”

“React with extreme prejudice. Miners, EIG, PLA. Kill ‘em all and let She Who Mauls sort ‘em out.”