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one of her grenades. The Low Frequency concussion from it was her only chance, if she could gain the upper hand for a moment and kill the beasts she might be able to stabilize her arm and get away. She pressed the activation button and drew her hand back to toss it into the air before she rolled over.
    She pulled her arm back tight when she caught movement on her left. The stunned assailant pounced on her, trying to grab her other arm. She rolled with it, sending it flying into the other one that was worrying her arm. She tossed the grenade after them then rolled back, tucking herself into a ball and bringing her arms to her head.
    Her arms? Else pulled her head back and stared at her arm. From the elbow down it was exposed, complete with scratches and scrape marks on it. Not only was her arm still attached but it still worked!
    The concussive blast from the LF grenade sent her rolling again. Her display blinked and restarted, alarms flashing to let her know of the damage taken by the armor. She followed the indicator in her display and saw her rifle laying nearby. She scrambled over to it and grabbed it, holding it steady in her now naked hand. Lacking the external power source the rifle relied upon its internal power cells. She aimed it manually at the two surviving but disoriented creatures. One tried to rise but fell down, the other was rolling around and snapping at the air. She fired twice, killing them, then fell to her own knees.
    She stared at her arm, looking at the blood that dripped from the scratches in it. She flexed her hand a few times, not believing it was all right. It ached but she’d take an ache over the alternative. She let grateful tears fall from her eyes for a moment before she forced them back with a sniffle. She picked up her rifle again before turning to focus on the dead aliens. They were at the epicenter of a bowl in the grasses where her grenade had knocked the weeds to the ground. It measured roughly twenty feet across.
    Elsa stood and went to the torn armor. She picked it up, wondering if it could be repaired. The soft material at the joints were shredded and torn. Even the harder armored plates in it showed gouges, cracks, and breaks in a few places. She sighed and let it drop to the ground. The cuts on her arm had stopped bleeding, the rest of it she was going to have to do on her own.
    “ Keep your head on straight, Gunny,” she admonished herself. If she’d have seen one of her men get ambushed like she had, she’d have ripped their head off. She popped her visor, taking a few deep breaths of unfiltered air, then wiped the sweat and tears off her face. Exposed to the fresh air again she felt the shakes that had threatened to set in recede. She took a fresh drink of water and reluctantly lowered her visor before skirting the insect mound and heading off in the direction of the ridge.
    “ FIST Team three, Dark Angel reporting in!”
    “… Angel….FIST….Ov—“
    Elsa gasped. The response was broken and she couldn’t understand them, she had a signal and a heading. Her instincts had been close, she was heading in the right direction. With a new indicator on her display for the signal, she felt her spirits buoyed once again.
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 10
     
    A small herd of four legged behemoths moved across the plain. Elsa watched from the top of one of the foothills that turned into the ridge she’d been moving towards. Two slightly smaller predators stalked the herd, moving back and forth as they sought to find a stray.
    Elsa smirked. Light years from Earth but animals still acted like animals. They were predictable but no less dangerous for it. Especially since they had both the size and the lack of familiarity with humans to not be afraid. She watched a moment longer as one of the two legged predators seized on a chance and lunged forward, running at the pack with a speed that surprised her.
    The aggressors reminded Elsa of the overgrown chicken that had come at her, except