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The two soldiers stood in the shade of the metal lean-to, the land was barren around them. One of them turned to the other, "You got the time?"
"Yeah, it's uh... 1440, twenty more minutes and we can head in." The first speaker sighed and took out his knife, tapping it against his armor in rhythm.
"Hey, can you cut that out? We only got twenty more minutes, let's spend it silently."
"Yeah, yeah, fine." He sheathed the blade and leaned back against the rock. "So Greg, you get anywhere with that Sophia chick last night?
"Shuddup."
"Hey, I seen the way you was lookin' at 'er."
"I said shuddup, okay? Drop it."
"Haha, no dice man? No dice, I swear... A goddam Brahmin wouldn't let you touch it, geez."
"I said SHUT IT!" He raised his fist as if about to strike.
"Okay, okay" hands raised playfully to protect his face, he smiled, "We'll drop it. All silent, just like you said."
"Good."
A flash of green and his head was an explosion of gore.
"[censored] CHRIST," Greg was on his feet in an instance, flicked the safety off and spun around to face the attacker. There was no one there. "Jesus F [censored] Christ, come out here you little [censored]!" His friend's neck leaked blood into the sand. Austin dropped down from the ceiling and caught Greg from behind, slit his throat.
Cooper rushed up from the sand, his combat helmet bobbing on his head, smoking Laser Rifle in his hands. "Both down?"
"Two ducks down," Austin pulled the walkie out of his coat pocket, "Hey Archie, bring up the heavy stuff, we breached the eastern perimeter. Repeat, eastern perimeter"
"On my way" The radio clicked off.
Austin turned to the gunner, "Nice shooting there Coop"
"Hey you wasn't half bad yerself Tex, right across the jugular." He drew a line across his throat, grinned, "work o' art."
Austin scraqed his knife on the sand, cleaning the blood off. "You still got any of that rot gut?"
"Sure, sure, 'spirit o' battle', like the injuns used to say, lemme get that." Cooper dropped his pack onto the ground and sat down on Greg's body, rummaged through the pack. "There she is!" He withdrew a dusty bottle, an amber liquid sloshed around inside. He offered the drink to Austin, "Give you some legs to fight on."
"Yeah we're gunna need 'em, how big's this hit?"
"I heard at least a 'undred in the village."
"[censored]. A hundred? What's that make for, at least another twenty guards inside?" He passed the bottle back. Cooper took a swig, coughed, "Yeah, I figger. Hey hey, here's Archie."
A hefty man was making his way up towards their lean-to. Sweat drenched the top of his tan shirt dark brown, he carried a sack over his shoulder.
"Oh oh, lemme help you with that," Coop dropped down and took the sack, gave his friend a hand up.
"Oof, that's a trek and no mistake, the hell you guys have to pick the East side for when we approached on the west?"
Cooper smiled devilishly, "Thought you could use the exercise mate."
Archie tried to smack him, but missed, "Yeh, next time you think that, think again. I might not make it, and without these babies what good are you, huh?" her patted the sack.
Austin stepped in, "Cooper's sorry, hey, let's see what you brought today."
"Oh man, you gunna like it, remember those Enclave we knocked over last week? Positively loaded with this [censored]." He started drawing packages of plastic explosive from the bag. Archie looked up, "This the wall we gunna blow?"
"Yep," Austin picked up the walkie and clicked it on, "Sara? You in place?"
"Yessir, got a nice vantage point."
"Can you see how thick the walls are?"
"Just a moment." The static sound of the walkie cut out, they waited.
"About six inches, not more."
"Got it, thanks babe. Stand by"
"Roger"
Austin turned back to Archie. "You got all that demo-man?"
"Loud and clear," he picked up three packages and taped them together. He slowly pressed a detonator into one of them and handed the whole lot to Cooper. "Drop it right next to the wall, then get back. I'll blow it when you're clear."
"Excellent," Cooper took it and started off towards the city walls. Austin followed. They reached the walls in short order, Cooper dug the explosives down into the ground near the wall and backed away, took cover behind a large pair of boulders. Austin looked up towards the cliff-side, he got back on the radio, "Ready Sara?"
"Yep yep."
"Ready Arch?"
"Copy that"
"Cooper?"
Cooper waved over to him.
"Let's go." There was a deafening BOOM, the wall blew into dust.