You, Amori and the four other troopers charge up the battered street, scanning for movement. Then, as you round the corner onto a cross street, you catch a glimpse of three men disappearing around the next bend. Urging your troopers into a run, you try to catch up. You spot the men again, disappearing into a large building that looks like a warehouse.
"We got 'em, sir," Amori says.
You run to the edge of the warehouse, gathering your impromptu squad and scanning through the walls. Infra-red reveals indistinct movement. Quantum-flux shows nothing, but it's short-range and this building has a lot of space inside it. You send a quick update on your tactical display, then motion your troopers forward. You skirt along the wall of the building to the nearest door. Then, at your nod, the lead trooper kicks it open and charges through. You're the last to enter, only seconds behind.
Your first impression is a metallic smell. You swing your rifle through an arc left to right, at first seeing nothing but dim, empty air.
Then you pan right, and freeze.
The warehouse is bursting with rebel soldiers, all of them pointing weapons at you. And looming behind them are three silver machines. Twice as tall as a human, mounted on tracks and bristling with rotary cannons and rocket launchers, the Centauri anti-personnel robots target you in awful silence. You've never seen these war machines in real life, but threat awareness training at the College has taught you enough. These things are deadly.
"Told you we could lure them in," one of the closest rebels says to another.
"You were right," the other sighs.
It's a trap, you realize with a sinking heart, as you lower your rifle to the ground. As you do you steal a glance at your tactical display, but gasp when you see that your last update hasn't been sent. Your communications are silent, and the screen on your display is frozen. You must be in some kind of jamming field.
Your troopers have all put their rifles down. The rebels close in and calmly order you all to remove your armor. You cringe at the idea of being so exposed, but from what you've heard the guns and rockets on the anti-personnel robots can chew through Terran armor like it was cardboard. The rebels addressing you are polite, but you see no love in their eyes, and the crowd of soldiers still training their rifles on you look in no mood for argument. Sighing, you start pulling off your armor and your troopers follow suit.
You can't believe that they knowingly set a trap like that, and you worry that they might be doing it all over the town. Luring troopers in, one squad at a time, until the remaining force is too weak to complete the mission. Or, you realize as you stare up at the towering Centauri war machines, too weak to fight back when the real rebel assault begins. You have to do something to disrupt this situation.
"I'd like to speak to your leaders," you say once you're standing in just your coveralls, mind racing for a way out of this. You remember well the local councilor you met a few weeks ago, and of course there was that rebel general everyone was talking about in the mountain base. "Specifically, Councilor Reena De Silva…and General Tethong."
"Really?" one of the soldiers says. "And who should we say is calling?"
You think fast.