[01] Elite: Wanted by Gavin Deas Page B

was difficult to say what happened first, though Ravindra knew the order of events. The night turned an angry hot red as the
Song
’s military laser punched a hole through the Cobra’s armoured hull and the Cutter’s pulse lasers fired. Two of the five mercenaries in front of them just became so much red steam, which then instantly refroze into root-like, red ice sculptures. Black score marks appeared on the front of the Cobra.
    Then everything in front of them turned into glittering silver as Orla fired all the front-facing reflective chaff launchers. The return fire from the Cobra’s pulse laser batteries was refracted into so much red light and heat. Ravindra’s suit’s expert systems transmitted warning icons to her lenses as it partially melted. She ignored them and moved forwards firing, the griphook soles of her suit keeping her adhered to the ice.
    Harnack fired the underslung grenade launcher on his EM carbine. The recoil rocked him back but the griphook pads kept him on the loading ramp, the suit’s servos compensating and returning him to a firing position.
    The grenade shot through the glittering silver rain of anti-laser chaff and exploded in the hail of ice fragments. Newman’s remaining mercs were thrown into the air and bounced off the underside of the Cobra. The targeting systems on Ravindra’s EM carbine tried to compensate as she followed one of the bouncing figures, firing short burst after short burst of needle-like, electromagnetically powered, low calibre rounds at the merc. The needles hit home, penetrating the suit’s armour, destroying its integrity, letting vacuum in and ripping into the man’s flesh.
    Ravindra glanced around through the chaff, which was rapidly floating away at its initial launch velocity. Newman was nowhere to be seen. He’d been Harnack’s job, but Harnack’s bio readout on her lenses had flat-lined. She risked a glance behind her. Harnack was still adhered to the loading ramp, but it looked as if he was swaying in an invisible wind. The visor on his suit had been smashed. There was something that looked not unlike a red bonsai tree growing from the hole in his visor, where leaking blood had flash-frozen.
    Refracted red light filled her vision and she felt heat on the side of her helmet. They’d missed a sniper. Somewhere out on the ice one of Newman’s people had a powerful longlaser and was targeting them through the thinning chaff. Worse, Newman had made it back into the Cobra.
    ‘Sniper on the ice, starboard,’ Ravindra said over the secure comms link. ‘Jenny, Newman made it back to the Cobra.’ She knelt down, aiming the carbine out into the ice. Jenny ran across in front of her, and Ravindra raised the carbine as she passed. Any moment now the Cobra’s pulse lasers would have a clear targeting solution through the chaff, and she and Jenny would be nothing more than a cloud of red steam.
    There was another flash of red and part of Jenny’s armour glowed. It looked as if smoke was pouring off it, but the smoke was actually particles of superheated carbon being blown off the suit’s armour. It was enough. Ravindra had seen the beam. The carbine’s targeting systems interpreted the visual data from Ravindra’s lenses. Ravindra triggered long burst after long burst, suppressing the area where the shot had come from. At the same time, she sent the targeting information to the
Song
.
    ‘Rav, get out of there,’ Jonty called urgently over the comms link. Ravindra started running towards Newman’s Cobra. The
Song
’s pulse laser started firing. The ice to the starboard of the cutter exploded upwards in geysers of steam, which subsequently refroze into a beautiful, glittering, and structurally fragile wall of ice.
    Behind her, too, something similar was happening, as the Cobra’s pulse laser tried to target her through what was left of the chaff. Her world was red. She could feel the heat through her suit. Armour plate was starting to run like melted