14: War of the Worlds

‘Great work guys,’ Thomas told them as they jogged towards their objective. The sudden arrival of Ethan had been a surprise but that was the way of things in training sessions, throwing a curve ball.
The comms were working again now the machine had been taken down. Ethans’s suggestion that he might be able to take out the jamming mechanism was a good one.
‘The jamming effect was localised,’ Thomas said, his Welsh accent was quite pronounced right now. ‘And this is the Victorian era like the book, not the Spielburg movie. So I am thinking the comms interference might be a bit of luck for the Martians ‘cos it stopped when you guys took the machine down. But if we encounter another one try and isolate the source, but do not put yourself in danger to do it. I don't want us putting ourselves at risk to rescue someone if we don't have to. I want as many of us to get through this alive as possible.
They dived for cover as their aerial watchers told them there were weed zombies ahead. Tom had decided that the people who had been changed were still people and there would be no killing. Even though this was a simulation Tom would not allow the artificial constructs of the danger room to be destroyed. If it was a proper situation they would not kill under his command, and this was a good time to practice using limited force.
When the weed zombies had passed the team proceeded on their way. They had to survive four hours here and an hour was nearly gone.