Border Station Five: Combat Arena

"Next up, we have Milsi and Thissa, crew members from The Pride of the Matriarchy," a female voice said.

The crowd around the main Combat Arena cheered as the interior shifted into new positions. Existing buildings, pathways, corridors, bunkers, and all floating platforms either moved or changed shape. Trees, bushes, grass, and hedgerows appeared, bright neon signs flickered into life, and fountains turned on. Ten minutes later, shortly before Milsi and Thissa stepped out, the Combat Arena had finished transforming.

"Are you ready?" Thissa asked as she slammed a magazine into her rifle.

"Remind me why I agreed to do this?" Milsi replied as she did a final status check on her armoured Nanosuit. The lights above reflected off her suit's Bevor and the raised section of her left pauldron.

"You'll have fun," Thissa said with a smile. She rolled her shoulders and then holstered a pistol. Unlike Milsi's armoured Nanosuit, Thissa's was designed with agility in mind.

"To be honest, I can't remember when I last entered a Combat Arena," Milsi said as she picked up her heavy weapon. She rotated the multiple barrels with her left hand.

"Considering you're one of the few heavies assigned to the Pride, I'm surprised we don't see you during training sessions," Thissa said, and then Milsi laughed. Before she could find out why, the lights inside the armoury changed to red, indicating it was time to head for the nearby doors.

Standing before the armoured doors, Milsi and Thissa waited patiently as they unlocked and slowly opened. A cheer went up as the two Vipers stepped out and into the Combat Arena. Walking up the grand staircase, Milsi gasped at the sight before her.

"You don't attend Arenas much, do you?" Thissa asked.

"No," Milsi replied, shaking her head.

"Come on, let's give the crowd something to cheer," Thissa said as she jogged up the staircase. Milsi rolled her eyes, pulled her heavy weapon close to her chest and raced after her.

Reaching the top of the grand staircase, Milsi stood next to Thissa and looked around the Combat Arena. In front of them was a grand causeway lined with tall trees, and a river snaked its way between the raised road. At the opposite wall of the arena, she spotted a large ziggurat-looking structure. To their left were small and medium-sized rectangular buildings, many of which were in various stages of disuse, and a smashed fountain in the middle. On their right were mainly gardens of various sizes, as well as several floating platforms. Garish neon signs lit the area in bright pinks, blues, and yellows.

"Did someone press the randomiser again?" Milsi said, and Thissa laughed.

"Yeah, it looks like it," she replied.

"I have a funny feeling that if John were here, he'd say we copied his home planet," Milsi said as the siren for the Combat Arena sounded.

"Well, the time for chatting is over," Thissa said, "I'll head for the causeway and snipe any of the targets that get too close to you. Just make sure you pay attention to their movements," she warned. Milsi watched as Thissa activated her helmet and jogged toward the causeway.

"I'm so going to ache after this," Milsi muttered to herself and activated her helmet. She was blinded momentarily as the Nanos inside her collar rushed out to build the rest of her armoured Nanosuit. Turning to her left, Milsi jogged towards a broken wall, her spare hand gripping the barrels of her gun and rotating them.

Reaching the wall, Milsi ducked as she spotted approaching enemy holograms. A whole pack of Lupine warriors, moving in pairs, they covered each other as they patrolled towards a nearby ruined building. One of the icons on Milsi's HUD started to flash, and after a quick double blink, the icon turned into a birdseye view of her position. Thissa, pointing her rifle at the Lupine pack, linked her scope to Milsi's Nanosuit.

"Looks like they're using their standard patrol sweep tactics," Thissa said.

"Have you spotted their heavy?" Milsi asked. She peered around the broken wall and spotted a pair of Lupines. The raised section of her left pauldron covered her face perfectly, with her eyes and the top part of her helmet sticking over the top.

"Not yet," Thissa replied, "however, I suspect when you open fire, he'll appear," she pointed out.

"I knew you'd say that," Milsi sighed, "fine, you better snipe any that get close," she warned.

Flipping a switch next to her right thumb, the barrels on Milsi's heavy weapon began to spin. The two nearest Lupine holograms heard the whine of the motors and turned to face Milsi as she rose from her position. Before they were able to react, she pulled the trigger on her heavy weapon, and both holograms were dead in seconds as her chaingun ripped them to shreds. Before their bodies hit the floor, Milsi had already switched targets to another pair of Lupine warriors. However, one of them was able to dive for cover while its partner died in a hail of bullets.

"Got him," Thissa said, and Milsi watched as her shot went through the surviving Lupine's head.

"Thanks. Have you seen the Heavy yet?" Milsi asked as she jogged over to a nearby building. Unlike the previous one, this ruin had an interior with most of the roof intact. Milsi carefully walked into the ruin, making sure her tail didn't knock anything over. Satisfied that there were no Lupines inside, Milsi walked over to a nearby window and looked out.

"I still can't see that Heavy," she said.

"You've got movement to your left," replied Thissa, "looks like the remainder of the squad and the Lupine Heavy," she said. "They've got ballistic shields too," Thissa pointed out.

Milsi used the feed from Thissa to watch the Lupine holograms as they stalked through the area to her left. She noticed that the ruined buildings were causing them to walk in single file, so Milsi changed the ammo for her chaingun to armour-piercing. Her HUD notified her that switching from standard rounds to AP will reduce the remaining ammunition by twenty-five per cent. Milsi's chaingun started to spin as she stepped out of the ruin and aimed her gun at the approaching enemy.

Pulling the trigger, Milsi watched as the AP rounds impacted against the first shield. It withstood the first few hits, but within seconds, they were punching through and into the Lupine holding the shield. As they collapsed to the floor, the Lupine behind turned to flee and managed a few steps before Milsi's chaingun killed them.

"That looked like it hurt," Thissa laughed over the open comms. "Try not to get too overconfident," she warned.

"Can you see what the Heavy is doing?" Milsi asked as she ran for nearby cover.

Multiple shots flew overhead, kicking up dust and impacting against the walls. An oddly familiar beeping noise bounced off the wall to Milsi's right, and she reacted to the grenade instinctively, flicking it away with her long tail. Shortly afterwards, it exploded, and Milsi used the dust cloud to activate the thermal imaging mode installed in her helmet. She peeked over her cover and spotted the remaining members of the Lupine squad, along with their Heavy.

"Thissa, do you have a clean shot?" Milsi asked.

"If you can keep looking at him, I should be able to hit him," Thissa replied.

From her raised position, Thissa rested her rifle on the edge of the causeway and used the scope to zoom in and focus on the Lupine Heavy. With her helmet still linked to Milsi's, Thissa was able to see the approaching Lupine. At the back, carrying a Missile Launcher was their Heavy. Aiming her crosshair at his forehead, Thissa squeezed the trigger. Moments later, his head exploded, followed by the ammunition stored within his backpack.

"Was that a HE round?" Milsi asked as she used the distraction of the explosion to step out of cover, opening fire on the remaining Lupine.

Thanks to the explosion, the four remaining holograms were in the process of getting off the ground when they were each hit in turn by Milsi's chaingun. Forgetting to change the ammo back to standard, the AP rounds shredded the four Lupine shortly before her ammo belt ran dry.

"Somebody forgot to change their ammo," Thissa said with a laugh.

"Oh, ha, ha," replied Milsi. She disconnected the ammo feed from the drum on her back and then, with help from her tail, attached it to the second one. Milsi's HUD informed her that the new drum was correctly connected, and after a quick system check, the ammo counter updated to one hundred per cent.

"I suggest we move up to the nex..." An explosion went off at Thissa's location.

Milsi turned around to see Thissa dropping down from the causeway as black smoke billowed up from where she had been. Shortly before reaching ground level, the thrusters on her feet ignited, and Thissa landed as if she had jumped down on purpose. She waved at Milsi and jogged over to where she was watching.

"Are you okay?" Milsi asked, and Thissa nodded.

"Thankfully, my combat training kicked in and I dived out of the way," she replied. "Granted, I hadn't planned on said dive sending me off the edge of the causeway," Thissa laughed.

"I don't suppose you know who fired at you?" Milsi asked as she looked around.

"No, however," Thissa replied as she brought up her wrist-mounted scanner, "I think I can get my suit to work out where it came from." She then tapped away at the screen. Moments later, her suit started to beep.

"So, where are they?" Milsi asked.

"Scanner says they're at the midway point of the Combat Arena," Thissa replied, "looks like we'll have to run to their rough location, we don't have long before the timer runs out," she pointed out.

"Running," Milsi said, "why did it have to be running?" she grumbled.

"Ha," Thissa laughed as she slapped Milsi's shoulder. "Come on, let's get going," Thissa said as she started to run.

"Urgh," Milsi groaned as she held her chaingun close to her body and ran after Thissa.