ANY ONE YOU WALK AWAY FROM

“Any landing you walk away from is a good one,” Mike said cheerily.

“Bullshit,” XMAN235 replied. “That one sucked.”

“I’m with XMAN on that,” Southaven chimed in.

“I think we more crashed than landed,” Heather added.

“But we survived,” Mark said. He was the last one out of the escape pod. TESTTESTQWERTY didn’t count, he was dead. “So, what now?”

Angie was standing still. They could see her eyes through the transparent half visor that was attached to her helmet. Her eyes were slightly glassy, she was focused on something that only she could see.

“OK,” she said. Rather than say it, she sent the message she just received to the team. And to Southaven and XMAN235.

Mark saw the notification appear in the corner of his HUD. Back in the lab, it took some trial and error and a lot of help from Billy Long Hair to get his HUD and settings where he wanted them. Making sure he could see in a firefight was job 1. Being able to see his personal stats, especially his energy and health, was job 2. Getting important notifications, important to him at least, was job 3. Being able to keep tabs on the rest of the team was job 4. Everything else was relegated to background noise.

He clicked the notification.

FLASH FLASH FLASH. INCOMING MESSAGE FROM SEA HARRIER. TO ALL TEAMS FROM THE Antonio Lopez ASSEMBLE AT FIREBASE ALPHA. REPEAT PICKUP POINT IS FIREBASE ALPHA AT COORDINATES 234-DOT-98-DOT16 BY 101-DOT-76. EVAC WILL BE PREFORMED FROM THAT LOCATION ONLY. BEWARE TU’CON AND REBEL FORCES. THIS PLANET HAS AGGRESSIVE FAUNA. USE EXTREME CAUTION AND DO NOT HARM FRIENDLY CIVILIANS. SEA HARRIER OUT. BREAK BREAK BREAK.

“There we go.”

Nobody went anywhere.

Angie started giving orders. “M&M, make sure we have everything useful out of the pod. Heather, you’re our scout, plug in the coordinates and start scouting our way.”

“Uh,” Mike interrupted, “who are M&M.”

“Mike and Mark,” Heather’s “duh” was implied.

“Uh, I don’t think I like that.”

“I know I don’t,” Mark agreed.

Angie ignored them and turned to XMAN235 and Southaven. “So what are you two doing?”

XMAN235 spit on the ground. “the other half of our team is with the DirtKnights. We’re here. That idiot Kline got us separated. Our best hope is to rendezvous at the pickup point.”

“Can we travel with you?” Southaven asked.

“Sure,” Angie answered. It wouldn’t hurt to have a few extra guns.

M&M came out of the pod with some gear. An axe, a machette, survival kits for each of them and a few extra. The pod was meant to carry a dozen people. The guys were doling out survival kits when there was a scream. All eyes turned to the forest. Everybody had weapons aimed in that direction.

“Mark, go” Angie ordered. “XMAN?”

“I’ll on it,” he replied. He and Mark rushed into the forest.

“Southaven, you get drag. Mike, come with me.” Angie and Mike started towards the forest, but their course would take them to the right side. If there was something there, they would open a second front.

Mark and XMAN went through the forest as quickly and quietly as they could. Quick and quiet didn’t necessarily go together, but they did their best. It was a short trot before they saw Heather. She was turning all around, pointing her weapon wherever she was looking. When she head them, she turned and aimed.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.”

Heather saw who it was and lowered her rifle. She turned away from the men.

“What’s wrong?”

“I heard a noise.”

“What kind of noise?” The men aimed in different directions. They had everything except the way they came from covered. They even scanned the trees.

“A noise,” she repeated. “It scared me.”

“Was it mechanical?”

“No.”

“TU’COns speaking?”

“No, just a noise.” At that moment, there was a creaking sound above them. All three of them aimed at the forest canopy. A breeze or something at the treetops was causing one of the trees to sway. A dead limb was dangling down and rubbing against another tree trunk.

“That noise,” Heather said.

XMAN lowered his rifle and cursed. “We’re in a forest you know.”

“Duh,” she replied.

“And forests have trees and sometimes trees creak,” XMAN finished.

Angie and Mike burst into the clearing from the side. It was the side that Mark was covering. He had received some sort of notification that friendlies were approaching. He didn’t shoot. In fact, he had lowered his rifle.

“What’s going on?” Angie asked, confused.

“Your girl here is a horrible scout,” XMAN replied.

“What?”

“A tree scared her.”

Angie looked around at the trees. She scanned up to the tree tops. Nothing, not even birds. Just the annoying creaking of a limb. “What do you mean a tree scared you?” She addressed the question directly to Heather.

“Look, I get scared easily.”

“Good traits for a scout,” XMAN’s voice dripped with sarcasm.

“DO I have to be the scout?”

“No, no you don’t have to be the scout.”

“I’ll lead,” XMAN announced. “Can we go now?”

“By all means,” Angie replied, “by all means.” She turned to Mark, “Can you walk point while he scouts?”

“Sure, why not?”

“Do you want the armour?” Heather asked. Mark looked puzzled. Heather continued, “For some reason they gave me special scout armor. Do you want it?”

Mark didn’t know what to say. There was no way her armpur was going to fit him. She was six inches shorter and who knows how many pounds lighter than him. Her armour had bulges for her breasts. That would look stupid on me.

Quick as could be, she was standing there in her gray fatigues and holding her armour out to him. He took it. Mark had to expand the notification box on his HUD. Maybe his setup wasn’t the most convenient for some things, like this. The notifiaction window asked if he wanted to put on the G-7 Scout Armour. HE clicked yes and suddenly he was in Heather’s armour Magically it fit him perfectly.

She cleared her throat. He looked at her and realized what she wanted. She was standing there in her fatigues, in the middle of hostile country. He gave her his standard Star Marine armour. He watched as she donned it. It only took a heartbeat and she was in his old armour. It fit her like it was made for her. Mark shrugged, whatever.

“Uh, are you switching rifles too?” Mike asked. Mark looked over at her. Her rifle was smaller than his.

She shook her head. “I like the smaller one.”

“Fine with me,” Mark said.

“Move out,” Angie commanded.

Mark took a deep breath and stepped out into the forest.