“Now this is nice,” smiled Dakota as Mai showed her the room she’d built.

“Thought you’d like it. It’s away from the rest of the base, so it’s nice and quiet, and no one knows about it yet. Other than you, Chan and me that is.”

“Any other places like it?”

“Not that I’ve seen but completing missions has seen me able to grow the base, by expanding the bunk room for example. And bringing you and your people here has unlocked more rooms and building points.”

“Building points?” Dakota cocked her head.

“Yeah. Like nodes. I was able to alter this room because it already existed. Just that no-one used it. I was able to expand the bunk room because that already existed. But when I was looking at the minimap I could see places where I could add extra rooms.”

“And now you’ve brought us and that girl back to the base, you can build in other places?”

“Exactly,” Mai nodded and brought up her minimap, RedFanging it over to Dakota’s retinal monitor. “See those little spikes? That’s where I can build extra rooms, and there’s a lot more of them than there were before.”

“Cost much bio-mass?”

“None. Although for personalisation the costs are still just like they were when I was back at the sewer company. I’m running out of the bio-mass booster, so I’m going to save it for now, but if we can get another supply drop, I’m going to expand this base and make it nice as much as possible.”

Dakota’s stomach rumbled.

“Well, this is all very nice, but I’m starving. Want to show me the canteen?”

Mai smiled and led her friend out of the secret room and in the direction of the canteen.

“Mai, sorry, been looking for you everywhere,” said a rebel as she hurried up to them. “There’s a supply drop a couple of levels above us. Some of us want to get hold of the supplies. Anna’s not letting us because she thinks the base is compromised and doesn’t want anyone leaving.”

Mai looked at the rebel for a couple of heartbeats, unsure what she should say. Totally at a loss as to what to say.

“There’s going to be a lot of bio-mass boost there,” Dakota laid a hand on Mai’s shoulder. “We could really build on what we have here, use the bio-mass to get everyone up to full strength with plenty to spare. Lay more mines and defences outside of the base.”

Mai nodded, slowly. She didn’t want to be the one that broke the rebel cell. Didn’t want to be the cause of a civil war amongst the rebels.

“Excellent,” smiled the rebel as if a decision had been made. “I’ll let Biyu know. We can put together a team if you’ll lead us?”

Mai’s mouth dried. She was being pulled into a coup, civil war, or a mutiny, it didn’t matter which. And she didn’t know if she wanted to be part of such an event or not. And to hear that Biyu might also bring her people in on the fight made her mouth dry.

I didn’t realise my reputation with her was that high!

“Excellent,” echoed Dakota. “Get the people ready and we’ll be there shortly.”

“What the hells are you thinking?” hissed Mai as the rebel hurried off in the direction she’d come from.

“We were just saying we needed bio-mass booster. And then this comes. The gods are smiling,” her friend smiled, exaggerating the motion until it looked as though she was the joker god.

“You’re going to get us killed,” Mai sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

*

Getting the raid together hadn’t been too difficult. She’d merely had to wait for Jock to come and take them to where the rebels had assembled. Waiting for that to happen hadn’t been easy, however. Her nerves jangling, Mai had spent every waking moment expecting a confrontation with Anna, or one of her still-loyal

“Everyone I trust is here,” said Chan. “They’re all eager to get their hands on the bio-mass boost.”

“I bet they are. It’s going to be dangerous though. Cullers need this stuff to survive, it’s as valuable to them as the blood in their veins,” warned Mai.

“It’s going to mean one hells of a fight,” agreed Dakota. From the look of it, it was a fight Dakota was looking forward to.

Mai saw a couple of Adam’s apples bob up and down at that. People are always brave until the point it comes to them actually stepping up.

Just how many have seen combat? Wondered Mai.

“Anyone doesn’t want to come, just step aside,” she said. “It’s fine. I know we’re going against Anna’s orders and I don’t want any of you to suffer because of the bad blood between the two of us.”

There was silence. No-one moved, although a couple of the rebels shuffled their feet. None of the Cullers Mai had rescued moved an inch. Dakota gave her the age-old symbol of approval in the form of a double thumbs-up.

“Okay,” Chan clapped his hands, “it’s done.”

And with that, Mai and her raid set off.

*

The guideline for the mission led directly to an open space. It was supposed to be a park. A place where people could gather and enjoy the fake sun which hung from the ceiling about three hundred feet above them.

Now though, it was a battlefield. All of the children’s play equipment had been destroyed. None of the trees were left standing or unburnt, and bodies lay strewn about as if some petulant child had thrown their toys all about.

Shouts and screams filled the area as bullets and other projectiles flew in all directions. In the direct centre stood a pile of supplies.

“It’s a right fucking mess,” whispered Chan as he scanned the battle with hard printed binoculars. They’d taken position in a hab-block overlooking the park.

Other Cullers had done the same in different areas of the vent area, Mai could sometimes just about see their shapes as they surveyed the battle below them.

“I really don’t want to be stepping into that,” whispered Jock. He’d taken it on himself to stick close to her. Whilst it still puzzled her, she was glad she had him and others watching her back.

“Nor me,” agreed Mai. “I want everyone to take a drink from this bottle of bio-mass. Then to grow basic sniper rifles. From what I can see, all of the Cullers are pretty much entrenched. They won’t be moving about too much, so it won’t matter if you’ve only got a base skill of twenty per cent.”

It was the last of the bottles she’d stored in the sewage. Not that she told them that, despite having cleaned it thoroughly.

“We’ll be attacking from cover and concealment, and shooting them in the back too,” explained Dakota. “That will up your chances of hitting a target.”

“Those of you who don’t have the skill should work with a buddy. Decide on a target and both take a shot,” ordered Chan. “Those who have at least one rank in USE SNIPER RIFLE should take on the Cullers in the buildings.”

Makes sense, thought Mai, secretly pleased that Chan and Dakota were not only getting on well, they were backing her up in every decision she was making.

“Spread out along the rooms here. We don’t want to be taken out in one go. Chan, take your people and spread out to the left. Dakota, take yours right. I’ll stay here.”

“Those of you that can, make some mines. We’ll assign a couple of people on each flank to watch out for attacks from behind,” Chan took the bottle from Mai’s hand and drank before passing it on.

*

“We’re all in position,” Dakota’s voice said in Mai’s ear over their team comms channel. Mai had chosen the name of Sewer Rats for their group, something which the rebels seemed to take great pride in.

“Same here,” confirmed Chan. Whilst he didn’t sound as excited as Dakota had, she could sense he was keen to get cracking.

“Light them up,” Dakota ordered and blew the head off a prisoner who looked to be leading a small group.

Mai took her shot, sights laid directly on the centre of her target’s face, another prisoner with hideous tattoos proclaiming their numerous crimes.

INSTAKILL!

HEADSHOT!

CONTESTANT 000038 ELIMINATED

Sniper rifles don’t use tracers as that would defeat the whole purpose of being able to kill from a distance and without being seen, so Mai had to rely on seeing where bodies fell to get an idea as to where her people were shooting.

Using kill markers wasn’t a valid technique because of all the other killing that was going on across the rest of the event area. It helped that her people were also shouting out when they got a kill. Not over the team comms channel, but just out loud. It wasn’t accurate, but a vague number was better than no number.

When the hells did they become my people? she thought as she laid her sights on a member of the dead prisoner’s team. A thought, and her bullet was ploughing through the woman’s back. Blood puffed into the air as her target dropped to the floor, mouth open in an inaudible scream.

CRITICAL HIT! 82%

BLEED @2% PER SECOND

Mai left her. Her screams would unsettle the Cullers around her and might even draw some over to heal her. Instead she panned her firing arc for another target.

“Oh, you’re a big bastard,” she whispered as she laid her sights onto a beast of a man. Covered in tattoos and what looked like armour plates attached directly to his skin, he was blazing away at another group of Cullers whilst roaring.

“Boom, headshot,” she fired.

HEADSHOT!

INSTAKILL!

CONTESTANT 500037 ELIMINATED

Beast man’s head exploded in a shower of gore, his massive bulk toppling forward to land in what looked like a sand pit.

Other bodies joined him as her team took out the Cullers nearest to them.

“Let’s see how the building shooters are doing,” Mai panned over to where she’d spotted movement previously. Only a couple of her people had the ability to shoot so far against such well-hidden targets, but from what she could tell, they were making a mark.

“Minimap’s filling up with kills nicely,” Dakota whispered. “But I’m worried that they’re really piling up so close to us. Anyone with a bit of sense is going to realise that we’re attacking the prisoners from behind.”

“Better make sure we kill them quickly then,” replied Mai as she shot and wounded another prisoner.

“Not many left,” agreed Chan. “I count four, no three.”

Mai opened a channel which would let her speak to everyone on her team.

“Concentrate on the last prisoners,” she ordered. “Pour it on them.”

Unable to shoot on the surviving prisoners because of the angle, Mai watched on her minimap as the prisoners were finally wiped out.

“Time to move. Everyone, swing left. Collect your mines. We’re going to move to this position,” Mai pinged a position on her minimap which would give them an angle on a different group of Cullers. “Watch out for Cullers holding that position. And make sure we aren’t flanked. ”

A clamour of voices acknowledged her order. Absorbing her sniper rifle she swapped it for a double-barrelled sub-machine gun which she had taken a liking to after rescuing Dakota’s team of Cullers.

Stepping out in the corridor, she joined her people as they ran down the corridor.

Damn it feels good to be part of a team.

The building shook and a huge roar blasted into the corridor followed by billowing clouds of dust and debris.

“Wasn’t that your room?” asked Dakota.

“Yes,” Mai was too shocked at the knowledge she’d just avoided being blown to smithereens to say much more.

“Lucky we moved then wasn’t it?” Dakota laughed out loud as the whole group sped up.

*

The battle had been raging for more than an hour. Mai counted over one hundred Cull markers on the minimap and that number was growing.

“This battle’s drawing more and more Cullers in. We’re not going to be able to just sit back and pick them off,” Chan slid down the wall and sat next to Mai.

“Agreed,” Mai groaned. Although she still had some bio-mass booster left in her sole bottle, she’d decided to make her people ration their shots. Only if they were absolutely certain of a kill were they to open fire.

“We need to split,” Dakota crawled over to them as a bullet blasted chunks out of the wall opposite the window Mai had been firing from. “Couple of teams working the flanks and shooting down. Another couple of teams are moving into position here, and here. And one team is making a run for supplies.”

She’d been marking her minimap as she spoke and RedFanged it over to their retinal monitors.

Mai didn’t speak for a while, just looking at the positions Dakota had marked and working out the path that those going for the supplies would need to take. “Okay, but I’m leading the supplies snatch. We’ll use up the rest of my bio-mass boost and armour up.