Feebee asked the QI to release another drone. It flew up and out of her backpack, small, silent and took station over the on-coming group of insects.

  She didn’t want this one seen. It was heavily cloaked, unlike the previous.

  Alpha-3 was pacing around, burning nervous energy. Eager to fight.

  Once the feed came in from the new drone they moved down from the cave and took up position amongst a stand of trees. Feebee watched the insects advance up through the jungle towards them, but something was off. She couldn’t say what but knew it.

  She looked at the drone feed again, then up ahead.

  “Alpha-2. Get down here with the cats. Quick. Something’s off.”

  “Look at this,” she flicked the QI’s tactical map with the hostiles tagged to Alpha-3. He already had access to the drone feed and compared them. The hostiles were closing in on their position.

  “Something’s definitely wrong. Their spacing isn’t right, even for these guys. Too spread out. They tend to stay closer. Also there’s no shape… and the gaps?”

  “Alpha-2, how long until you’re here?” Feebee asked, her voice calm despite the anxiety building within.

  “Three, maybe five mins. Less for the cats.”

  “Not sure we have that lo...” before she could finish the trees around her were ripped apart by a stream of tracer. She was already kneeling but instantly dropped flat to the ground and stayed still.

  “Alpha-3 report.” It was the barest of whispers.

  “All good, helmet has a dent. I’m two meters back off to your right.”

  She slowly turned her head and could see his outline. “I see you. Stay put.”

  She called up to Alpha-2 again. “We’re taking fire. Unknown number of hostiles.”

  The jungle around her was being rapidly reduced to low-cut scrub. The heavy fire coming in from multiple directions.

  ‘Stay down,’ advised the QI.

  ‘You reckon. WHERE ARE THEY! Identify them.’

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  ‘I’m trying. Searching for telltales.’

  “We need help here. Hostiles are heavily cloaked.”

  The hostiles, visible to the drone and tagged by the QI, were now gone.

  Reality dawned, ‘They’d deliberately used faulty cloaks. Nice.’ And she’d bought it.

  “Cats and Alpha-2. Swing wide. We’ll hold them off. Attack their rear.”

  “Roger that. The cavalry is coming. Stay safe.”

  Feebee turned to Alpha-3, “We need to find some cover and dig in. The others are on the way.”

  “Could we make it back to the cave?”

  Not a bad idea. “We could try. They don’t know they’re alone. Might assume we’re running into their trap.”

  The QI cut in, ‘The cave is ninety five meters up and to the left. Getting there will be tough, but once there it will be more defendable. Staying here has a low probability of success.’

  ‘I agree.’

  “Let’s try for the cave. Fire and move. Fire and move. Agreed.”

  “Agreed.”

  “Three-two-one. Go.”

  Alpha-3 waited until Feebee started shooting in the general direction of incoming fire, then sprinted up the hill. As soon as bullets started closing in, he threw himself to the ground.

  She heard his charge through the bush stop and took the time to load a fresh magazine. ‘Ok, my turn. Wait. Wait.’

  Then, Alpha-3 started raking the jungle with fire. She leapt up and started running, up and slightly away from Alpha-3’s position.

  A couple of explosions rocked her. Nearly knocking her off her feet. They’d landed very close to where she’d been. If they were Alpha-3’s she’d kick his butt; that was too close. She ran and ran, managing to make it fifty or so meters up the hill before she was forced to take cover.

  She immediately turned and started firing back down the hill. The gun clicked, the magazine empty so she threw a couple of grenades, reloaded and started firing again.

  ‘You hit one. I have calibration on their cloaks.’ The terrain map refreshed and showed nineteen tagged hostiles.

  ‘Shit.’

  It also showed her and Alpha-3 tagged as A-1 and A-3. Moving in on the nineteen hostiles were seven additional tags. She smiled but they still had to get to the cave.

  ‘Send the calibration settings for their cloaks to the rest of the team.’

  ‘Already done.’

  ‘GOOD GIRL.’

  The QI sent back a smiley face.

  This had taken the blink of an eye because now Alpha-2 was shooting down, into the jungle. Laying down covering fire for her. He lobbed three of grenades, the last an incendiary which spat white hot phosphorus across the jungle. The shooting stopped for a moment, so Feebee kept sprinted up the hill. When the shooting picked up around her she gritted her teeth and just kept running.

  The next thing she knew she was face down in the dirt and it felt like someone has stuck a hot knife through her back.

  ‘Shit. We’re hit.’ The QI sounded shocked.

  “I’m hit.” Was all she could say before she blacked out.

  Her mad cap rush up the hill had been enough to distract the hostiles. The cats, hearing Feebee had been hit went cat-shit crazy and ripped into the hostiles without a care for their own safety. Two of the cats were wounded and by the time Alpha-2 arrived all the hostiles were down.

  “Shit. Please tell me we didn’t kill them all. Feebee will be made as.”

  One of the wounded cats was lying flat out on the ground. It held up a paw.

  “Put your paw down; we’re not at school. What?”

  The cat rolled slightly to the side. Two insect legs, pointing at weird angles stuck out from beneath it and twitched.

  “Well done. Bring it along and also a couple of the dead ones along with their gear. We need to look at them. Learn more about our enemy and determine their capability.”

  “Ack.”

  “Where’s Feebee?” asked Charlie-4, sounding worried. “Didn’t she say she’d been hit.”

  “I have her. We’re in the cave,” responded Alpha-3. “She’s in a bad way.”

  She was still unconscious but the nanites had stopped most of the bleeding.