Titan's Fall by Zachary Brown

said.
    â€œIf the reactor goes offline?” Amira asked on the command channel.
    I let out a deep breath. “I don’t know.”
    â€œNow is the time to figure rally points,” Ken said.
    â€œWhere?” I asked through gritted teeth. “If they’re boiling up out of the ground, where do we go? How do we know where to go? We leave this spot, we walk into what?”
    â€œWe sit here and fight to the last?” Amira’s voice dripped scorn. “You know my feelings about that crap. I’m here to survive. I’m not here to throw my life away to either the Accordance or the Conglomeration.”
    I opened my mouth but was cut off by a familiar voice. “Third Platoon, this is Commander Barbera Charet.”
    Relief washed over me. “HQ, go for Third.”
    â€œUpstairs has marching orders, Lieutenant,” Charet said. “I need you and your team to detonate the weapons foundry and hold the power plant until the ships get down here.”
    I looked up at the cannon. “Right now we’re holding a hill and directing fire down—”
    â€œI know. That’s why I’m choosing you. The foundry has a few bombs big enough to destroy access to it; you’ll know what to do.” Charet coughed and went silent for a second.
    â€œHow long will it take for backup to arrive?” I asked.
    Silence.
    â€œHQ?”
    The sound of gunfire cracked the channel open. An explosion. “I’m going to have to get back to you,” Charet said.
    â€œHQ? HQ? Commander Charet?”
    I looked over at Ken and Amira. “We have orders,” I said on the common channel. “Charlie, Alpha, you’re going to split off with me. We’re headed down to take the reactor and hold it until help arrives from upstairs.”
    â€œHQ just went down,” Amira said up on the command channel.
    â€œAnd we have orders. We hold the reactor, we can hold the hills. You know, Amira, the only way off this planet is up. Ken, Delta and Bravo stay with you. Keep sweeping the basin.”
    â€œThere’s a good chance anyone going down there dies,” Amira said. “It’s crawling with Conglomerate forces.”
    â€œI’ve been there before. It makes sense, Amira.”
    Amira walked over to the tunnel and looked down. “You’re going to need someone who can open doors and hold your hand. Also, you don’t want to go down this tunnel.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œThey’re waiting for you there. They won’t be waiting for you somewhere else in the middle of the basin.”
    I wasn’t going to ask or order her. I knew her position. “Okay. We’re going downhill. Alpha takes point. Charlie covers our asses.”
    â€œYou need me to open doors,” Amira repeated.
    â€œLet’s go, Rockhoppers,” I said, with a calmness I didn’t feel in any way. And beside me, leaping up over the hilltop and down with us, was Amira.
    â€œThank you,” I said on the command channel.
    â€œI’m thinking, before we blow up the foundry, I want to pick up some more weapons,” she said.
    +  +  +  +
    We boogied down the tunnel after unleashing lightning from the hilltop along our chosen path to force everything well back. Charred bodies lay around the basin as we pelted down into it, hopping and bouncing our way along.
    Amira came in behind us, hitting even higher and longer jumps into the air and firing her EPC-1. She left a swathe of twitching Crickets on the ground.
    â€œLeft,” I ordered.
    We veered and hit the inside of a loading bay, preceded by a hailstorm of our own bullets before we dropped in.
    â€œAmira?”
    â€œI’m worming my way into the networks. No ghost sign.”
    Good. This was the old routine. The first routine, really. Amira had used all that black-market Accordance nano-ink technology buried under her skin to look around corners, check out surveillance