Free Space Cadets by Adam Moon

and held two fingers to his earpiece. He said, “Shit. It’s not working. I’m a damn idiot.”
    He grabbed me by the shoulder and hoisted me to my feet. “He might be lying but I need to make sure. You’re in my charge so you’re coming with me.” Then he led me back behind the curtain. He issued his men a final order. “Hold that line and kill that asshole if he pops his head out.”
    There was a door behind the curtain. Arthur opened it up and sunlight nearly blinded me. It opened on a small, clean alley. A bullet whizzed past my head and I would have ducked back inside had Arthur not yanked me out with him.
    A muzzle peeked from the rooftop in front of us. Arthur took the safety off his Popper attachment and fired the explosive at the muzzle. The boom rattled my ribs and blew my hair around. The section of wall beneath the muzzle flew away and a mangled woman fell through the gaping opening. She fell on her head three feet in front of us but the fall didn’t kill her, the explosion had ripped her body to pieces already.
    Arthur didn’t wait around. He ran off down the alley so I followed the best I could. The armored uniform was cumbersome with the mech part of it disabled.
    As soon as he got to the street he was peppered with gun shots. Luckily he had the armor on or he’d have died there.
    He turned my way and held a hand up to stop me in my tracks. When I came to a halt, he disappeared around the corner. I heard gunshots and the boom of explosives. It was like a full on war was going on, except our side had only one soldier in the fight.
    I raised my PQ5000 and prepared for the worst.
    Arthur appeared at the mouth of the alley and yelled, “Hurry up kid. I got ‘em on the run.”
    I ran forward and a bullet pinged off of his faceplate. He grumbled, “God fucking Dammit,” and then wheeled around and let loose with his PQ5000 again.
    As soon as I reached him he said, “I need a phone to call in an air strike.”
    I nodded and started to look around for anyone that I could take a phone from but the street was deserted, and for good reason.
    Arthur screamed, “Where the fuck is everyone?” He clearly didn’t like the notion of failing the President.
    On a whim I said, “Check the bodies,” and I ran over to a broken man wearing armor of his own, but apparently his armor had some flaws. I rifled through his ammo pouches and then started checking his pockets. Right away, I found it. As I ran back to Arthur, a bullet hit me in the back. The armor is effective but the impact knocked the air out of my lungs. I spun around and found the perpetrator. He was hiding inside a shop, taking pot-shots through the display window. I dumped a popper through the window and the explosion threw glass shards into me.
    Arthur was beside me now, grabbing for the phone. As he dialed whatever top secret number he had to issue an air strike, I covered him.
    A round zipped by my head and before I could react, a grenade rolled to a stop I front of me. This was it. This was how I was going to die.
    But Arthur ran up and kicked it away like a soccer ball. It exploded midair. I wanted to give him a high five but I don’t think he’d appreciate that. I zeroed in on the dome of hair sticking up over the top of a car and squeezed the trigger. The hair flew away and a body fell into view.
    Arthur said, “Fine. I don’t care. Fuck the air strike then. Send airborne Rangers to wherever the Beast is.”
    The Beast has been the name of the Presidents limousine for a long time.
    Arthur threw the phone at the ground and stomped it flat.
    I asked, “Why won’t they send an air strike?”
    “They’re nervous they’ll kill the President by accident. Fucking bureaucrats, hey?”
    Arthur started to say, “Let’s go regroup with the others back inside,” but his voice caught in his throat. Rapid gunfire could be heard and it was approaching us at an alarming rate.
    He yelled, “Take cover behind a car.”
    I ran to a smoldering red