Merkiaari Wars: 03 - Operation Oracle Read Online Free

returned to her body and limbs, with the dead Merki trooper still falling.
    Gina gasped, feeling the pain in her muscles receding. That happened when TRS moved a viper at computer speeds. It happened when she went from combat mode to melee mode as well, but at least she knew it was coming. TRS did it without warning.
    She kept her rifle up and aimed at the ramp as she ran to the body in a bent kneed stance. She kept her eyes on the ramp and kicked the monster, but her sensors had it right. It was dead. She took TRS offline and edged forward. Two more Merki were halfway up the ramp. She took two grenades off her webbing, depressed the triggers, and rolled them down the ramp.
    Whump! Whump!
    She jumped forward and emptied her rifle into the Merki already reeling from the twin explosions. Both died without returning fire. She didn’t go down to make sure. She ran back to check the other side of the roof. Sensors reported a single Merkiaari there. It saw her first and fired. The impact on her torso armour was sudden and shocking. The mass of the slug caused her armour’s nanocoat to react and harden, but that didn’t reduce the force of the impact. She flew off her feet snarling at the pain, and landed on her back. She rolled to avoid two more shots. Her target reticule was locked on to the sniper and pulsing redly as it spun. If she’d had a rocket launcher she could have fired right then and forgot about it. The rocket would have found its own way to the target, but she didn’t have one. She did have her rifle and its integrated grenade launcher. She had chosen to load hers with all HE (High Explosive) rounds. She remembered Sergeant Rutledge telling her class of recruits that he preferred all HE himself. Good for taking out armoured vehicles and Merkiaari troops, he had said back then. Gina agreed and used the grenade launcher. As soon as the decision was made, the targeting reticule morphed and an arcing line connected her to the target.
    She adjusted her aim and fired.
    The grenade followed the arcing line as if physically anchored to it. It wasn’t of course. The line was the projected trajectory needed to kill the target, which it did moments later when it exploded. The building shook and rained debris into the street below. Pieces of Merkiaari fell with it, and the red icon on her display faded.
    The steady blue icon close behind her blinked out of existence and Gina froze watching where it had been. It reappeared and started blinking steadily. Cragg was in hibernation, sleeping the little death. She quickly checked her sensors and scurried back to her friend. She patted his cheek.
    “Sleep well,” she said and went to war.
    Gina reactivated TRS and added melee mode to the mix. The world slowed around her as she stood tall over Cragg. That attracted enemy fire as she knew it would, but the Merki had to reveal themselves to hit her. The moment they did, TRS took over and threw her bodily over Cragg, not to protect him; TRS didn’t care. It was just an auto-targeting program after all. It threw her down to avoid damage, and then fired back. She let herself go, and screamed her rage at the enemy trying to kill her. Grenades flew faster than human thought. TRS switched to full power and full auto on her rifle as the Merki died and her launcher emptied itself.
    Impact!
    Damage assessments flickered onto her display, but quickly parked themselves to one side out of the way. Gina watched like a spectator in her own body. She took a moment to check that IMS was dealing with the damage. Lower right leg, bone bruised probably, but not broken. IMS was already on the case flooding the area with nano assemblers and pain blockers.
    Her body kept firing and reloading with no wasted motions. Fire to the left and then spin to fire the other way without pause. Her body killed and killed and killed as she spun and danced across the roof. Her body did, not her, not with TRS engaged and Merki in range. It was just a conceit. This was