"Master Sergeant! Four minutes out!" Justin yelled out. Eric reloaded his magazine, once more taking the terrain around them into consideration. They were truly trapped. Open terrain behind them, and a steep incline to their right and left. He threw his last grenade and turned to Mia. "Deploy smoke! Red smoke to the right! Justin! Use that ridge line to prepare your spell."

Trephania collapsed behind the vehicle, and Eric looked over. "Are you okay?"

She nodded. "Yes. They are all stable enough to make it back in one piece, but I can’t use any more mana."

"Then grab your gun. There’s a reason why they call y’all combat medics."

Trephania’s eyes widened, and she stared at Eric as if he had gone insane.

Bullets made of mana began scorching the earth on the other side of the hill. The Empire patrol now had their vehicles circling before coming in to target the ridgeline they were taking shelter behind.

Eric threw her weapon to her.

"Trephania! Now!"

Trephania nodded reluctantly and crouched behind the ridgeline. More bullets flew towards them, and she ducked behind the tall grass, her hands shaking. Eric noticed her trembling body and shook his head.

She turned towards Eric, her eyes wide, and she nearly dropped the M4. "What do I do? I can’t..."

Eric sighed and crawled over. "You shoot back! We don’t have the luxury of having you stay in the rear! Every bullet keeps them from encroaching on us and killing everyone here. So shoot back, Trephania. Shoot back if you want to live!"

Trephania took a deep breath and lay on the incline leading up to the ridgeline. She clicked the safety off and mirrored what the other soldiers were doing. "I just got free from a ten-thousand-year marriage of misery. You assholes aren’t taking that from me because my ex-husband is a dick!" She shouted.

She pulled the trigger. The recoil shocked her at first, but managed to control it. She pointed the M4 at the nearest truck and began to fire.

"This is why you don’t send a healing goddess to a battlefield, Milano." He grumbled as he took aim. To his right, a tall pillar of smoke rose above the tree line. Fire had begun spreading from the molten steel of the destroyed Empire vehicle, causing acrid smoke to blow toward them in the wind. Eric coughed as the smoke reached them, covering his nose as he looked around.

Two minutes for QRF to reach them.

"Justin! We no longer need that spell!" Eric yelled up to the turret. "Get down here. We need more suppressive fire." The Cartharic patrol was edging closer with every turn they would make. Spells from Kate caused the patrol to keep their distance, but they were steadily closing the gap.

Justin grabbed the M249 and sprawled down next to Erica. Erica looked at the weapon and moved a few feet away, shuddering. "The last time you fired that near me, I couldn’t hear for a week." She muttered as she reloaded her last magazine. "LAST MAG! LAST MAG." She yelled as loud as she could.

Eric focused on the enemy trucks nearing them. They were now within just a few hundred feet. Ammo was getting low, and Kate was dripping with sweat. She had long since stopped shooting spells at the patrol, having joined Trephania in firing upon the approaching trucks.

Then he heard "Last mag." repeated twice. He looked to his right. Erica was lying down idly, her weapon to the side. Eric looked at her.

"Fuck."

All down the line, various other team members were running out of ammo, too. Justin was still firing a belt of 7.62 rounds, keeping the Empire vehicles honest, but most of their 5.56 caliber ammunition had gone dry.

Smoke and fire continued to fill the air. Gunpowder and oil burned, pervading Eric’s thoughts as he looked around. There was nowhere left to run. Once Justin ran out of ammo, he and Justin might...

A resounding "Boom!" shook the entire hill.

The cavalry had arrived.

Trephania dropped her weapon. Her eyes widened in shock, and she held her hands over her ears. "What was that?" She yelled.

Michael laughed from behind her as tan vehicles began to emerge from the treeline. He held the radio and issued commands. "Dresken QRF, contact front. One hundred yards. Three enemy vics. Marking with smoke."

"Copy, Chaos one."

Michael and Eric ran up to the ridgeline, throwing red smoke into the area where the enemy trucks were still moving towards them. "Happy hunting," Eric said as he retreated back behind the ridgeline.

"Mike and I will assist with the cleanup here," Eric said as he looked at the team. "The rest of you, get the wounded back into the trucks. We move out once we confirm enemy removal or retreat."

The team moved quickly as red smoke towered high above the tree line. An Abrams cleared the treeline, followed by two Bradleys. The Empire trucks opened fire on the vehicles, but Eric laughed at them. "Poor bastards must not realize they’re screwed."

Michael shook his head. "You are way too happy about that."

Eric leaned against the truck as another explosion shattered the air. The ground quaked with the pressure caused by the blast, and what remained after was another pile of molten steel. Two trucks down, two to go.

"I know, Mike, but..."

His eyes lit up with mana, and he clenched his fists.

"They almost killed my friend." He said in a low, dark voice.

Michael placed his hand on Eric’s shoulder as they watched another Empire truck get destroyed. The last one was doing its best to get away, and the radio came to life. "Chaos one, Dresken QRF, do we pursue?"

Eric grabbed the radio. "Dresken QRF, do not pursue. I repeat, do not pursue. We have WIA. Prepare for escort back to Dresken HQ."

"Copy, Chaos One."

Eric turned around to the waiting vehicles. "Let’s get back to Dresken."