from above

Druuna kept close to the sergeant, who had handed her a pistol. Holding the heavy sidearm in her right hand, Druuna wondered if she could bring herself to use it, should their attackers reappear.

The soldiers had prepared their position as best they could, and said very little as a couple of minutes went by. The amount of time felt much longer to Druuna though, waiting in nervous silence for either some sort of relief to arrive, or to face another attack.

“What do you think hit us?” Smith asked the sergeant.

“Anti-personnel mine.” The sergeant responded, “That would be my guess. The blast came upwards, and if it had been an anti-vehicle one we’d all be extremely well-done toast by now.”

“Sergeant Spencer,” Patton called out, holding a pair of binoculars to her eyes, “I’m spotting movement up on the ridge!”

“Fuck!” The sergeant spat out the curse, and raised her rifle. “Get ready girls!”

Suddenly, the sporadic fire from the hill resumed, accompanied by a flurry of bodies sweeping over the ridgeline and down the slope.

“Fire!” Sergeant Spencer yelled to her women, who all let loose a hail of led which proceeded to cut down the onrushing attackers.

These did not seem to waiver under the sudden incoming of fire, however, leaping over their fallen comrades and letting loose a collective cry for blood.

The attackers were now close enough that Druuna, still holding the pistol but not having used it yet, could get a better look at them:
A mixture of men and women, clad in a wide variety of clothes and makeshift armour such as glued-together straps of tires or rusty metal plates, they waved their weapons in the air, brandishing axes, clubs and even a few pistols or shotguns as they hit the floor of the valley.

“Why don’t they break!?” York cried out in horrified disbelief as she struggled to reload her **** rifle, the mass of dirty bodies now only a hundred yards away from the APC, which was doused with bullets from up on the ridge.

Private Smith let loose an entire clip of grenades from her under-barrel launcher in one go, cutting up long sways in the savages’ ranks, but not even that could break their resolve.

Losing her head, Patton stepped out in front of the APC and fired into the attackers, screaming out “Die!” over and over again, until a trio of bullets struck into her stomach and sent her flying onto her back in the dirt.

The savages were just twenty-five yards away by now, Druuna could see as she stuck her head out from behind her cover.

Bringing her pistol up, she squeezed the trigger and felt how the gun recoiled against her arm, almost causing her to lose her grip of it.

As Druuna fired, a thunderous roar could be heard, with a good dozen of the attackers being ripped to pieces by something.

Sincerely doubting that her shot had been the source of all that mayhem, Druuna could now hear a steady noise coming from above.

Lifting her head, Druuna saw that a strange vehicle had just flown over the ridge and made a pass across the charging attackers.

Resembling the APC in some ways, the flying vehicle was pointier in the front, and had a long, fixed tail. Mounted on its sides were small wings under which large canisters were hanging and somewhat larger wings just further back, which ended in two large engines which moved as the vehicle ascended into the sky.

Swinging around, the vehicle then dove down at the attackers once more, letting loose from the canisters under its wings and the quad-barrelled which was mounted under its front, once more killing or wounding scores of the now panicky attackers.
Finally breaking, the savages proceeded to run up the slope, abandoning their dead or dying and continuing to be harassed by the flying machine.

“All right!” Smith cried out, breaking into a smile, “Thank god for the cavalry!”

“York!” Spencer spoke, “attend to Patton.”

“Yes sarge!”

As York opened Patton's thick vest and was relieved to find that only one of the bullets had managed to penetrate it, a second vehicle came flying into the valley.
This vehicle was box-like and apparently unarmed, though propelled in the same way as the previous one, which was now hovering over the top of the ridge, fire spitting out of its quad-gun.

The second vehicle landed not far from the APC, and a door at its rear suddenly dropped open, eight soldiers immediately pouring out of it, dressed in the same way as Spencer and her women soldiers, though only three of these were female.

At the front of the new soldiers was a stocky man, wearing the same bars on his sleeves as Spencer and carrying a shorter rifle with a larger barrel.

“Turning up at the last possible moment as always, Kowalski!” Spencer greeted the man with a relieved tone.

“Relax a little, Jenna. You know that I find your ass too fine to allow it to be shot off.” Kowalski replied.

“Outstanding.” Spencer said. “What are our orders?”

“HQ wants you girls to board the 10: er and head back ASAP, we are to remain here and get your wagon rolling again, with the Dragonfly covering us.”

“You heard the man,” Spencer said to York and Smith, “get everyone on board!”

“Whose this?” Kowalski asked Spencer, pointing his finger at Druuna.

“A civ, we picked her up back at the objective.” Spencer replied.

“Well, just keep her around until I get back!” Kowalski eyed Druuna’s scantily clad body before catching up with his men, who had already begun repairing the fire-wrecked carrier.

Entering the box and sitting down, Druuna gulped as the vehicle took off, her body shaking after the fight.