ADVANCE

"Southaven, get ready to take your team left," Angie ordered. "Mike, Heather, pour down fire!" Those two had HEather's grenade launcher and a crew served grenade launcher too. She looked between the area “in real life” through her HUD and at the minimap. Yeah, that might work, she thought.

"I'll take a team left," Flanni said- he wasn't asking permission.

"Stand fast, Flanni!" Angie fired again and again. She looked at Flanni. He was tensing, ready to run.

"I said stand fast Flanni. So help me God, I'll shoot you myself if you run."

The troopers who weren’t shooting were watching the drama unfold. “Shoot, dman you , shoot!” Southaven was yelling at somebody, or nobody. It didn’t matter, it was what Angie needed troopers to be doing while she formulated the plan- and got Flanni in line. Seconds ticked by.

"It's not running away if I'm charging," Flanni finally shouted back. They were ten feet apart during a firefight. Yelling wasn't a big deal. And the intercom throttled the volume automatically.

She turned to glare at him. He was already looking at her. Their eyes met- or at least their eyelines, they were both wearing helmets with visors down. "Disobey me and I will shoot." What kind of a leader has to threaten to shoot her troops? One who has that bastard Flanni on her team. She looked back towards the action. "Heather, give me smoke!" Angie yelled over the unit intercom. "Cease fire, cease fire."

“We’re trying,” Heater answered.

There was grumbling over the intercom. It was more than intercom. Some of the troopers were unhappy. Flanni's voice cut through. "If we run away I'll shoot YOU. That's a promise not a threat."

Can’t they just listen! She grumbled in her mind. Be calm, be a leader. “Cease fire, dammit! We're not running."

“Uh, smoke incoming,” Mike said over the unit push.

Smoke grenades started to land. "Southaven go! You are weapons free. I say again, everybody except Southaven, cease fire. Southaven only is weapons free."

Southaven's team started to move. There were only x of them. They fired as they moved, running from cover to cover. The cover was mostly trees. Some weren't quite wide enough to provide cover.

There was a scream over the unit push. NectarineOrange, One of Southaven's squad, fell. His leg was a bloody mess. The HUD didn't list him as dead, but the blinking icon said it might not be long. People who were close enough could see the blood pulsing out of his leg. Another one of Southhaven’s men, CrystalLakeBlue, started to go back for NectarineOrange. Both were members of Team Crayons. Southaven and Angie both yelled at CrystalLakeBlue to keep going.

“You save him!” CrystalLakeBlue, shouted. “You save him!”

NectarineOrange rolled on the ground clutching his leg. He was screaming for help. “Leave him,” Southaven yelled again.

CrystalLakeBLue swore and kept moving with Southaven and the other two troopers in the impromptu squad.

"Ang, we have to do something. Charge, help NectarineOrange, do something, anything," Flanni was somewhere between anger and pleading.

She turned to face him, rifle pointing where she was looking, at him. "When we move have one of your people help Nectarine. “Wait for the order. Got it?"

The message she sent by turning with her rifle was loud and clear. "Roger that," Flanni answered.

A scan of the area and a look at the minimap and a quick remote of Southahevn’s camera… This might be working.

In the inner reaches of the system servers, random numbers were generated, modifiers added and subtracted. Algorithms and AIs made decisions.

The rebels focused on Southaven's flanking move. The incoming fire was getting heavier. A machine gun opened up. Those bullets peeled pieces off of trees. Small branches rained down onto the prone Southhaven.

"Everybody get cover," Southhaven yelled. His team obeyed, relieved that this wasn’t a suicide mission. Southhaven had a light wound and CrystalLakeBlue had taken a nasty knock too, but neither were seriously hurt. Nectarine Orange was another story, but not his problem. Stupid Team Crayon names, Southhaven thought, What’s next sensational summer sunrise sapphire?

"That's as far as we go, Angie," Southhaven radioed on the command channel.

"Give me all the suppressing fire you can," she replied.

"You owe me dinner," He answered. "And something. Better than the Devil's Inn.

"Its a date."

Angie didn’t know how to react, so she didn't say anything. Did he really want to go on a date in real life? On her display, Southaven’s intercom light went out. Did he mean for me to hear that?

“It is a sweet ass!”

GRRRR leave it to Flanni to take something questionable to awkward in 1.2 seconds. Focus! She chided herself. She keyed the unit push"It's go time. Straight up the middle."

"About damn time," Flanni wasn't the only one who groused. Regardless, the unit moved forward. It didn't take many steps utility they were in the other side of the smoke.

They advanced from tree to tree. Nobody fired yet. There weren't any clear targets. Another 15 meters and they saw the rebels.

"Permission to fire, ma'am," Flanni's question dripped with sarcasm.

"Light 'em up." They did.

Angie keyed the command push. She meant to send direct to Flanni, but command would be fine. “Flanni, iv eme some covering fire.” She dashed forward. Angie and Flanni formed a solid team as they led from the front. Flanni laid down cover fire. His target was an obnoxious looking guy. The kind who when you see him, a total stranger, you just want to punch him in the face. There is no doubt in your mind he has some smart ass comment to make so you want to punch him to keep him from talking. The jerk probably wore obnoxious hats too.

Unfortunately, as Flanni fired, the guy obnoxiously ducked behind a stone wall.

Angie dashed forward two trees as Flanni shot into the rock wall. After she took a deep breath, she poked out from behind the tree and fired. At first there was no target, but pulling the trigger might keep somebody’s head down. Then she saw him. The kid couldn't have been more than 16, but he was playing soldier and shooting at her troops, so the kid was fair game. She gently eased back on the trigger. Three rounds later the kid had fallen.

If Angie had really wanted, she could have checked the game log to see what kind of hit it was, she thought she got a clean head shot, probably a critical hit. Later, that was a later question. Right now it was enough that he wasn’t shooting back.

“Nice shot!” Fanni yeled as he bounded forward a couple of trees. “You always were good at firing things up.”

“Hah,” Angie said. “You never had patience to let things develop or listen to reason.” She had a fierce scowl on her face. Somebody might have interpreted it as concentration or focus- a war face.

“You were always good at blowing things out of proportion.” Flanni’s response deepened the scowl. Her closest friends would have read it as unappiness and anger. She could picture the glass flying, aimed right for…

An explosion ahead of her took her full attention. Mike and Heather were laying down grenades. FINALLY!

“You never should have gone into development. You would have been a great member of the team.”

“I seem to recall somebody saying I’d never be good enough,” she said pointedly, “and there is more of a future for me in development.”

“Maybe I was wrong.”

Angie goggled at his words. Did the bastard just admit to being wrong? It was Angie’s turn to fire. There were fewer targets now. When the grenades started landing, the rebels took better cover. Two shots smacked into the tree Angie was using. She dropped to the ground like her legs had disappeared. The move saved her as more shots hit the tree and wizzed by it. She pulled the trigger and fired on full auto in the direction of the shots.

Flanni said something, but she totally missed it. Incoming bullets took precedence. It was now her turn to move. She got ready to run, but was trying to find a good place to run towards.

There wasn’t much undergrowth in the orchard. The problem was that the trees were lousy cover. They just weren’t thick enough. “I feel like I’m in a cartoon,” Flanni yelled. The tree he had his back against protected his spine and maybe a little bit more.

Angie looked at him and laughed. “You always look like a cartoon buffoon.”

“The waskally wabbits are bugging out,” Southhaven’s voice cut in over the net.

“Thanks,” Angie answered over the command net. Could Southhaven see them? She looked at the mini map and then across to where Southaven was. Yeah he probably could, or was Southhaven remoting her camera? Dammit!” Angie had finally checked her radio frequencies. Airing our dirty laundry on the command net. Very leaderish. She chewed the inside of her mouth in annoyance. Another thought struck her, was there an edge to Southaven’s voice? Could he be upset about her leadership or because she was talking to Flanni or... Over the unit net she commanded “Keep moving.”

Sometimes the only thing you could do is keep moving...