Ivan Kal - Olympus

“Anything?” He asked over his team’s channel. They were all connected via a secure link, provided by their implants.

“Nothing, I don’t believe they have any heavy weapons, so they’ll most likely surround the building and wait us out.” Laura his second responded. Elias crouched in a corner letting his suit repair itself without his movement interrupting it. It could move and repair at the same time, but each time he made a move that interfered with the repair process, time on the countdown clock rose a few seconds. He didn’t bother to inform his team why he did so, they all had access to his suits systems and could read its telemetry. The two other members of his team Niko and John kept their backs turned to him and Laura.

“Any ideas?” he asked.

“We could try to run to the evac point.” John said.

“No way. They have us surrounded by now, as soon as one of us steps outside of this building we are history.” Niko responded.

“You do realize that it doesn’t really matter whether we survive this or not right?” John asked calmly.

“Shut it boy.” Laura answered instead of Niko sharply.

“Oh, c’mon it’s not like we—” John started but Elias interrupted him

“Stop. It does matter, we will get out of this.” Elias coldly. “Do you understand me?”

“Yes sir.” John said softly.

“Alright, now, I want options.” Elias said.

“Well, first they don’t seem to have the same suits as us. The intel said to expect it, yet they clearly can’t see us inside, since we would have been already dead.” Niko said.

Elias nodded he had suspected the same, both from the way they managed to ambush them like that and the reason Niko mentioned. Their suits were equipped with infrared vision and could have easily seen through these thin walls.

“Yes and they had trouble keeping up with us at full speed.” John said.

“So we know that they don’t have heavy weapons, since we aren’t buried in rubble, they are most likely short on ammo since they aren’t wasting any on a lucky shot through the walls, they managed to sneak up on us and ambush us.” Elias said, he thought back on the ambush and something struck him as odd. “Anybody had a visual on the enemy?” he asked.

“No” Laura said.

“No, but then I was too busy running away to notice.” John said.

“No, I tried to spot them but there was nothing, my suits sensors didn’t even detect any movement prior to the ambush. I do have the number of shooters though, I had my implant analyze the sound record of the ambush, and there were nine different sources of fire.” Niko said.

Elias noted in his implant Nikos quick thinking. “Nine man team, with light weapons. And most likely some kind of stealth system.”

“It has to be something new, I didn’t hear anything from research department.” Laura said.

“Probably. Alright this is what I want you to do. Niko can you program your implant to analyze the sound in real time and feed the locations of the sound origins to your HUD?” Elias asked.

Niko paused for a moment. “Yeah, I can do it, I’ll need to specify the frequency range for their gunfire, but I have the recording from the ambush so it’s not a problem, but I’ll need a few minutes to configure the suits HUD.”

“Good, I want you to send us the program when you are finished. John, how much juice you got left?”

“About 60%” John answered.

“I want you to go on a full burn, you are going to be our bait.” Full burn would deplete the suits power reserves rapidly but would also provide a big boost to wearers speed and strength.

“Oh joy, I get to be chased by bullets.” John responded sarcastically.

“Laura, Niko and I will remain here and shoot through the walls at them when they fire at John, set your firing mode to piercing rounds. John I want you to run full speed in a straight line, they are slower than us and our suits can take a few hits from their weapons.” Elias said.

“Great.” John said and then muttered a few curses that were barely audible across the line.

“Niko how much more?”

“I’m just about…. And done.” He said in a voice that clearly conveyed the grin he had beneath the helmet. Elias immediately noticed a notification on his HUD indicating a pending data download, he allowed it through his firewall, and executed the program Niko sent him.

“When they fire a red flashing dot will appear in your vision over the HUD designating where the source of fire is.” Niko explained. “It will remain at the same position for 2 seconds after the firing stops, and will move if the source of the fire is moving, you are going to need to adjust for the distance between the barrel and the weapons holder on your own, I didn’t have time to program that as well.”

“Good enough.” Elias said.

His HUD flashed and informed him that the suit finished repairing itself, he got up from the corner and crossed to the center of the room taking position facing the wall. Niko and Laura took similar positions, while John remained by the door.

“Ready?” Elias asked.

“Yes.” John answered.

“Go.”

John moved through the room leaving dents in the floor, it took him three steps to cross the room and then he exploded through the window, almost immediately the enemy opened fire. Elias’s HUD showed four red flashing dots indicating enemy positions. Elias adjusted his aim and fired four times at each dot, he could hear Laura and Niko doing the same. A moment later firing from the outside stopped.

“I got four. You?” Elias asked,

“Two.” Niko said,

“Three.” Laura said.

“We need to check and see if we got them or they just changed positions.”

“John you alright?” Laura asked.

“Yeah, I got hit in the shoulder once but the suit held.”

“Alright turn back and confirm that the targets are down, I’m sending you the coordinates.” Laura said.

“Niko go help him, we will cover you.”

Niko went out through the window, followed by Elias and Laura.

“I got five confirmed here.” John said.

A minute later Niko called in. “Two here. I’m moving to the last coordinates.”

“John get on the roof across the street I don’t want us ambushed again.”

“Yes sir.”

“I’m at the last coordinates, there is blood but no body, I’ll follow – shit!” Niko said followed by a short exchange of fire.

“Niko report!” Laura said.

“I’m okay, he just appeared in front of me, got him before he managed the get in position, he was wounded. I think his suit got damaged, I don’t think he planned on showing up in front of me, they definitely have some kind of cloaking suits.”

“Found the last one, dead.” John said.

“Alright, if there are more we won’t see them until they fire. We’ll move towards the evac point, John keep to the roofs, Niko get back here.” Elias said.

They covered ground quickly using suits power, they arrived and secured the evac point. Elias called in the evac team. Ten minutes later a transport came across the horizon and they boarded it. As they lifted off, the village and its surroundings started exploding into bright blue particles until they swallowed everything, including the transport.

Elias opened his eyes, and the top of the chamber he was in slid open. He swung his legs over the edge and sat up. The face that greeted him was that of Maria Nunez. They have met years ago when she worked on a project involving the alien ship. Now she was head of Olympus simulation program.

She smiled softly at him “You win again. What is it, Fifteen to six for you I believe?” she said.

“Sixteen.” Elias said.