Chapter 166: Training Begins,
The first drop pod hit the ground with a controlled thud barely a hundred meters from Fort Delta’s east wall. The hatches hissed open, and five figures in matte-gray training armor burst out, already sprinting. Two more pods landed simultaneously on the north and west flanks.
"Contact! East wall!" shouted a Blue Team defender, João, his voice calm despite the incoming assault. "Three hostiles, 100 meters, closing! Holding fire!" His optical sensors in his helmet highlighted the charging figures.
Inside Fort Delta, Miguel, leading a Blue Team fire team, peered through a fortified viewport. "Pedro, hold the main gate. Santos, cover the north flank. Cortez, with me on the East. No wasted shots, remember! Make ’em count! They’re cocky, let’s make ’em pay for it."
The Red Team attackers moved with shocking speed, their enhanced bodies covering ground in long, blurring strides. They deployed a training turret near the east wall, its barrels swiveling to acquire targets.
"Turret deployed! East flank!" warned a Blue Team comm.
"Grenade!" shouted another Blue, as a training grenade, glowing red, bounced near their position. It detonated with a harmless POP, filling the air with a temporary, disorienting fog.
"Blue Team, remember your training! Reactive camouflage engaged!" Miguel barked, activating a function on his armor that made his suit shimmer, adapting to the grey fort wall, making him harder to target. "Maintain suppression! Don’t let them mass up!"
The training rifles on both sides began to crackle, sending bursts of kinetic projectiles. A Red Spartan stumbled, then fell as a round impacted his chest, his suit flashing red. "Dammit! Pedro got me!" a frustrated voice swore over the Red Team comms. He lay immobilized, his HUD displaying ’KIA’.
"One down, East!" Pedro yelled, adjusting his aim. "Two more closing fast!"
On the north flank, Santos’s heavy footfalls resonated as he repositioned. "They’re trying to flank around the back! We got a mobile artillery unit deploying on the field, aiming for the roof!"
"Artillery strike incoming! Brace for impact!" a Blue Team comm shouted. The fort shuddered as simulated artillery rounds impacted the roof, concussive but non-damaging. They were meant to disorient, to force a tactical retreat.