Sura took the truth of her experiences and accomplishments on the frontier and spun them into fictions that would bolster Samuel. She stripped away the violence and lawlessness she had witnessed, and passed along the details and stories that she thought would give her man the strength to soldier on.
If he survived the trade war, Sura had already found the world upon which they would make their home, and once he saw its primal beauty, he would forgive her those fictions, of that she was certain. They had their land now, even if neither of them could be there presently to enjoy it, but it was there. The claim had been laid, and now more than ever Samuel and Sura both had a clear and tangible idea of the life they were fighting to build for their family.
Sura sighted down the barrel of her gun and managed to blow out the knee of a shooter who was attempting to rush Dar while the captain was reloading his assault rifle. She sucked in her breath and silently screamed at herself to get up and get moving.
Gunfire crackled across the canyon and Sura could hear Dar shouting into his com-bead and cursing in frustration. The signal was spotty planetwide, as they had learned upon their arrival some six weeks prior, though it seemed especially so in the canyon.
Sura checked the action of her rifle for the sixth time and knew that she was just stalling. If she didn’t move the claim jumpers would eventually manage to get someone across the low river and flank her. The embattled woman closed her eyes and started counting down from five as she took one intent breath in and out, just the way Dar had shown her. By the time Sura reached five her heart rate had lowered and she felt much steadier. She loosened her grip on the rifle and launched herself from behind the bullet-chipped boulder.
Sura sprinted away from Dar, widening the gulf between her and the spirited captain. The move was unexpected, and by the time the enemy had re-trained their weapons on her, Sura had sprinted within a few yards of the tree line. Perhaps had she been a more classically trained and seasoned veteran it would have been second nature for her to maintain squad cohesion and seek to close the gap between herself and her battle buddy. As it was Sura acted on pure instinct, and sought refuge and camouflage in the dense foliage just above the canyon floor.
Dust plumes sprang up around her as the hostile shooters worked quickly to tighten their aim. Sura’s duster flapped in the air as the young woman’s powerful legs pumped with speed and her booted feet plowed through the underbrush. Splinters and leaves swirled around her as more and more rounds chased her progress, but she managed to avoid them by cutting right and then left to confuse their aim.
Sura kept running through the forest that overlooked the canyon and started making a wide arc to work her way back around to where she was certain Dar still held his own against the bushwhackers.
As she ran, Sura found herself rather thankful that physical fitness was a priority among the crew of Rig Halo. Sura had always kept herself healthy, though six months ago she would be slowing down by now with quivering muscles and gasping painfully for breath. The young woman slowed her pace so that she could move through the underbrush with a degree of stealth, though she dared not slow too much, else Dar end up flanked or overwhelmed.
She could have fled the fight entirely, as it was only a five or six mile hike back to the Halo drilling complex, but despite her wish to do exactly that, Sura could not flee. The man had risked his life for her and her son, and there was no way in the entire universe that Sura was going to leave him to die. There was a debt to be paid, and her Grotto sensibilities were deeply ingrained.
Sura was nearing the treeline and could hear the now familiar bark of Dar’s chopped down assault rifle, and her heart began pounding in her chest as she readied herself to fight back. Her time as part of the Rig Halo crew had been challenging, though she’d not yet had to face the prospect of actually killing another human being.
She had worked hard to become proficient with her bolt-action rifle, though only against range markers and target drones. The crack of small arms fire in the canyon below took her thoughts back to Pier 16 even as she reached the edge of the treeline and took a knee to survey the area below.
Sura reached the treeline and took a knee so that she could raise the bolt-action rifle to her shoulder and peer through the scope. A quick survey of the canyon revealed the sight of Dar crouching behind the incapacitated ATV. The prospector was burning through his ammunition at a swift pace, and it was only his suppressing fire that was keeping him alive.
Sura could see at least four shooters on his position. Once the prospector ran out of ammunition he wouldn’t be able to keep them at bay and he would either be rushed or flanked, both scenarios ending with him dead on the ground and his ride and gear forfeit. That’s what life was like out here on the frontier, Sura could hear Dar saying in her imagination, you only keep what you can hold.
Sura drew a bead on one of the shooters, a man carrying an assault rifle who seemed to have forgotten that there might be other enemies in the area as he had stepped out from behind cover to continue attacking Dar. The young woman did as she was trained, and let her breath out in a slow and controlled exhale as she squeezed the trigger of the rifle.
The large bore weapon lacked the flair of the pistols, shotguns, and automatic rifles that most of the Rig Halo crew preferred to carry, however, in that moment, Sura considered her choice well suited to use in such large outdoor areas. The round sped across the canyon and thudded into the man’s chest, picking him up off of his feet and hurling him backwards into the underbrush. Sura could still see a fine red mist hanging in the air for a fraction of a second after the man disappeared, and she knew there was no way he could have survived. As she had been trained, the young woman, now a freshly minted killer, worked the bolt action and ejected the spent shell just before slotting another. Dar had lost his sharpshooter during the Helion attack on Pier 16, and Sura, wanting to be more to the crew than just another refugee, asked for the job.
Sura trained her aim on another shooter, who hadn’t noticed yet that he and his comrades were under attack.
With one kill under her belt and the prospect of another in front of her she still couldn’t stop her mind from going back to the night on Pier 16 that had catapulted her into this new life she could never have imagined.
Sura’s eyes misted over with tears and she missed her shot at the second claim jumper. The round went wide and bored into a tree near the shooter, who then turned his rifle in her general direction. The claim jumper didn’t seem to notice her exact position, though he had an idea of where she might be. The man appeared to activate a com-bead and speak into it before he raised his rifle and fired indiscriminately in her direction. Sura had the feeling that he was attempting to flush her out, and that one or more of the shooters she could see, or even one she couldn’t, would be ready to gun her down the second she broke from cover.
Several bullets impacted near her, and yet Sura held her ground, taking long, deep breaths to keep herself calm. It had been a long time since the nightmare of Pier 16 and she was no longer that frightened woman, so she held her ground, slowly ejecting the spent shell and chambering another. In a few seconds they would either hit her with a lucky round or pause to re-load, and then she would take another shot, and this time she wouldn’t miss.
Sura exhaled and this time her shot punched a hole through the man’s chest and sent his body tumbling down the canyon wall. The prospector crew needed to hold this claim, as it had been several months since they had found a good mining play and everyone’s bank account was getting thin. They had to win this fight and keep drilling, or soon Rig Halo would be on the drift.