saw it. Besides, if I pointed, I might as well yell out my plan to the other squad.
"Two and two," I muttered just loud enough to be heard by the three sets of ears around me. "Fire and move, then hold. Go!"
We pushed forward and left, downrange toward the other squad. We each fired several rounds, the paint rounds kicking slightly as they left my rifle. The sound was mostly fake, speakers built into the rifle to simulate the sound of a real plasma rifle's rattle and bark. The rifles were set on low power, and I could actually see the rounds traveling through the air. They struck the ground about halfway downrange. Fifty meters absolute range. Great. That meant an effective range of half that much. I might as well throw the rifle at them.
I heard David's rounds whip past me as he fired over my shoulder, sure about where I would be, and were I wouldn't. This was nothing new for us. Five years together, and we knew each other well enough to do this blindfolded. I could barely hear the footfalls of my squad, and certainly no rattle of equipment, which was all well secured to our bodies. I heard Kyle mutter to Raj, and they split off from us, moving right, toward their own barricade ten meters away.
The only loud sound we made was our firing, answered by the yelling from the far side of the arena. The other squad dove for cover, yelling at each other in confusion. These were not new recruits, newly shaven kids out of school. These were seasoned troops. Marines couldn't even apply for recon training until they had one combat tour under their belt. These four were scattering like recruits on their first field exercise. What sort of people were they recruiting into Recon these days?
No time to think about that, not now. I reached the barricade and took a knee, my rifle barrel just over top of our cover. David took up a position to my right. I looked past him briefly, toward the other barricade. Kyle and Raj took up their positions. Raj fired off two rounds, and I saw one of the other opposing marines scurry back into cover. Kyle looked at me for a moment, awaiting orders.
"Too easy, Jack," David sneered. "Something's up."
I shook my head, listening to the enemy squad telegraph their plans as they yelled and pointed in full view of us. "Yeah. Let's do this by the numbers and get it done."
I turned to my right, and David inched back enough so my hand signals could be seen by Kyle and Raj, though remain hidden behind the barricade. I let the spring action in my rifle sling pull the weapon against my chest, and started signaling with both hands. Simple, yet effective. I suppose the instructors were expecting a lack of comms to be a problem. That was more insulting than anything.
'Forward sweep,' I signaled silently. 'Fire and move in turns.'
Kyle and Raj nodded, as did David, who watched out of the corner of his eye as he scanned our forward field of fire, shooting every so often to keep the enemy focused on him and not me. I turned back toward the front, and David inched up against the barricade. This would be over quickly, once we started moving.
The other squad seemed to pull themselves together, and had decided to make a stand instead of pushing forward. Rookie mistake, but predictable and understandable. Most soldiers, confronted by what seemed, and in this case certainly was a superior force, tended to dig in and try to hold their ground. It was a natural instinct, really. Let the bad guy come to you, and theoretically, you can control the field. Without the variable of movement, you can focus on shooting, and watching the attackers' movements. Again, very natural. Also very foolish.
Recon Marines, like most Special Forces for the last several centuries, were trained to stay on the offensive. Holding ground is not what we did. We took ground, no matter how much the bad guys wanted to keep it. Push hard enough and fast enough and your enemy eventually panicked and lost composure. Or, you know, died trying to hold their position. Whatever worked.
David and I moved first. We swept right, around the barricade. Our steps were quick, but not overreaching. Not a run, but a fast walk. Each step was sure and methodical. No rushing. As soon as we started moving, Kyle and Raj opened up, laying down heavy fire. Short bursts only. Two shots, reassess, two more shots. One looked while the other fired, creating an endless stream of fire from their position, yet allowing one set of eyes to watch. It also allowed reloading to be accomplished without too much interruption of fire.
We fired as we moved, but only a few rounds each. These were not plasma rifles, but paint-round guns; they used physical ammo, and we didn't have a lot of it. My target ducked down behind her barricade, even though rounds were not coming anywhere near her. The other squad hadn't realized how low their weapons were set, yet. I waited for one of them to squeeze off a shot and figure it out, but they seemed too scared to do much of anything.
David and I took up our new position, and immediately started firing, angling our rifles upward in order to squeeze a little more range out of them. Kyle and Raj stated moving, just as we had. They fired a few rounds as they moved. They also angled their shots upward, but still, nobody was throwing a round more than fifty meters or so. Even from our new position, that was still slightly short of our targets. I shook my head and sighed. Maybe one of them would slip on the paint spattered on the deck in front of them.
Just as Raj and Kyle reached their new barricade, two of the other marines dashed across our view, left to right. They were moving at a full run, and dove behind a nearby barricade. We were so close now; there was no more cover between us and them. Two were still near their entry door, with David and me across from them. The other two dashing marines were now directly downrange from Kyle and Raj.
I signaled for everyone to wait. The other squad was hiding, though I could hear their hissed orders, that sort of yelled whisper you get when you need to speak to someone far away but don't want to be heard. I couldn't make out the words, but obviously, they were planning something. If they ever got their heads together, they could drag this out. We would have to charge them, one way or the other, since they obviously weren't coming out after us.
I looked to my right, and gave the signal for a 'hydra' maneuver. Both pairs would move in at the same time. We would lay down heavy fire as we moved, spacing ourselves out into a jagged line, two groups becoming four equally spaced shooters, though still focused on our respective pair of targets. It would make it harder to hit us, as they expected us to still be moving in pairs. That moment, that split second while they readjusted to four moving targets instead of two tight groups, would give us all the time we needed to end this.
We stood up as one, David and I circling our barricade to the right, Kyle and Raj to their barricade's left. Our fire was constant, but not wild. The blue paint splattered the top and side edges of the enemy barricades, or flew just over top of them. We closed in on their positions. I moved toward the left side of our target barricade, and David the right. Kyle and Raj did the same for theirs.
We were so close that if one of the enemies picked their head up, they would take a round. It would probably hurt. A lot. With half of my rifle's clip gone, twenty rounds left, I sped up. We moved into a careful run as we swept in for the kill. I rounded the barricade, firing four rounds downward, as did David from the other side, our shots crossing paths but far enough away to avoid either of us shooting the other. We fired directly into... nothing!
"What the fuck?" David muttered.
The barricade was empty. I saw that the barricade Kyle and Raj had charged was likewise devoid of targets. Before I could say anything, I heard rounds whip past my head. Two struck the barricade, and I dove behind it, bumping into David as he did the same. The fire was coming from the right, past Raj and Kyle.
Raj and Kyle were running towards us, firing as they did. I looked
