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barrage in front of us and advance up the mountain as far as
possible behind it. Order each of our soldiers to save four rounds for use on
weapon emplacements. This is about to get down and dirty.”
    For the next
thirty minutes, they moved steadily up the mountain, blasting a swath one
hundred meters wide in front of them. Ryan moved his soldiers closer together
toward the center of the cleared area to lessen the possibility of attacks from
embedded weapons on the perimeter. He finally called a halt when Corporal
Hunter indicated they had expended all the explosive rounds except those being kept
back to take out the embedded weapons.
    Looking ahead,
Ryan guessed they only had three or four hundred meters to go to reach the
summit. He let out a deep sigh as he gazed at the beckoning heights, which
signified victory. He wondered how many others had made it this far on their
first attempt.
    “What now?”
asked Corporal Hunter from Ryan’s side where she was also gazing up the
mountain. She hadn’t expected to get this far.
    “We use the
energy weapons to clear us a path,” he answered. While the energy weapons had a
much shorter effective range than the RG explosive rounds, they should at least
be able to get them further up the slope. “Spread our six energy weapons out
along a line so we can clear a space one hundred meters wide.”
    “They won’t
last long at that kind of use,” warned Casey. It sounded to her as if Ryan was
getting desperate; she knew there was a lot of pressure on him due to who his
brother was. “We might get another two hundred meters up the slope if we’re
lucky.”
    “That’s two hundred
meters closer to the top,” Ryan answered as he thought over his options. “Once
the energy weapons are drained of power, we’ll stop and see what our next
option needs to be.”
    Corporal
Hunter quickly passed on the order and soon six powerful blue energy beams were
playing across the ground in front of them, tearing up the soil and cutting
down the large trees.  The surviving members of the platoon walked slowly
behind the soldiers with the energy weapons, their RG rifles held at the ready.
Whenever an energy beam struck an embedded weapon emplacement it would explode,
sending fire and smoke up into the air.
    -
    “Interesting,”
Wade said with a nod of approval. Ryan was using all of his resources to get
closer to his target.
    “That young shit
head's going to make it yet,” muttered Dylan, shaking his head. “He’s come up
with some inventive methods to take out the weapon emplacements.”
    “But not good
enough,” responded Wade, agreeing with Dylan’s assessment. “His energy weapons
will run out of power a good one hundred meters from the summit.”
    Dylan grinned
wolfishly, his eyes glinting. “The closer he gets, the more overconfident he’ll
become. I have a special surprise waiting if he does indeed make it to the top
of Charring.”
    -
    Ryan watched disappointedly
as the last energy beam sputtered and then faded out. He guessed they were
still at least one hundred and fifty meters from the summit. There were fewer
trees this high up on Charring Mountain and he could plainly see the summit
beckoning as if mocking him. If he had to do this all over again, he would have
equipped his soldiers with more energy weapons. With a heavy sigh, Ryan knew
there was a good chance he might very well get that opportunity. No one had
ever made it to the summit on their first attempt.
    He looked
around at the remaining ten soldiers in their battlesuits. Six of them showed
as wounded and could only move at half speed. “We’ll form four staggered lines
of three and charge the top,” he said at last, knowing the last line would only
have two in it. “Only one of us has to reach the reset button to win this scenario.”
    “None of us
may make it to the top,” Corporal Hunter pointed out. She had no desire to be
hit by one of those powerful stunners. She could still remember how loudly
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