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The next day, the cadets were already back on the road at 0600 sharp, even though they were all completely exhausted. On top of the 40 kilometres they’d just run the day before while carrying their equipment, they’d been attacked by Vertaerax Crawlers a total of 10 times during the last night, and none of them had been able to catch more than a few hours of shut-eye.
Jake especially, was beginning to feel like his body would give out before they even reached the nest at this rate, and he even thought about throwing away his sniper for a second. After all, he had yet to use it even after all this time on Genova, and he had a feeling it would be a long time before he‘d ever get to.
“You good?” Micheal Kirk asked from next to him, with both Owens and Ryan giving Kirk a weird look.
“Yeah, don’t worry about me.” Jake answered back.
The thing was, people usually only talked to Jake when they were either trying to mock him or insult him, yet Jake and Kirk undeniably bonded during their assigned guard duty last night. Since then, Jake and Kirk had grown noticeably closer, and Kirk had even started travelling right alongside their little trio, drawing suspicious glares from Owens and Ryan.
The both of them looked like they were about to ask Jake what was going on when a horrifying cry echoed from somewhere to their left. On King’s shoulder, a noticeably smaller version of the Vertaerax Crawler was currently biting through her articulation’s flesh, with the girl letting out agonizing cries of pain. After a few seconds passed, one of the Evans — who were the closest cadets standing near the girl — finally thought of helping her out and decapitated the beast with his sword.
“What the hell was that?” Owens shouted.
Then, a prompt appeared in Jake’s field of view.
[ Vertaerax Spawn — A smaller version of the Vertaerax crawler that is known for travelling in very large groups of hundreds of individuals. They make up for in speed what they lack in size and strength, and their bite realeases a powerful corroding agent.]
“Fuck, that’s not good.” Jake mumbled.
“REGROUP!” Officer Neilr shouted before they were assaulted by hundreds of Vertaerax Spawns.
Jake didn’t hesitate for a second before he took out his sword and activated his strengthening skill as he made his way toward his squadmates, swinging at the nearby Vertaerax Spawn with his huge sword along the way. However, his lacking speed once more put him at a huge disadvantage against the creatures as for every beast he cut down with his sword, at least two of the things clawed or bit at his armoured body. The spawns’ attacks carried a lot less weight than the crawlers’, allowing the cadets’ armors to soak up most of the damage as they were assailled by an astounding number of bites and swipes.
[ Dude, what the hell. The goal is to hit the things you know? ]
Ed, now is not the time. One more word and I swear I’m ripping you out of my brain with my bare hands.
[ I’m serious, stop trying to swing where they are, instead swing where they’re going to be. Also use the flat of your sword will you, it will be a lot easier to aim with a bigger surface area.]
Jake was seriously about to get mad when he thought the implant’s words over for a second, and realization dawned on him. The implant was incredibly annoying, that was certain, but he was annoyingly right.
His sword fell, aiming around a feet in front of where one of the spawns was, and Jake couldn’t repress a grin as his sword crushed the beast in two in a sickening crunch of bones and exoskeleton being reduced to paste under the flat of his blade. He kept fending off the things this way for a until he finally reached the others, and he could see that everyone else was struggling just as much as he did to fight off the creatures, with their entire squad looking like it’d soon be overtaken by the sheer number of opponents.
“Maintain your position!” Ryan shouted from the left, as his giant axe fell on one of the creatures.
“There are too many of them” Jenkins shouted back from farther away, his voice barely more than a grunt at this point.
All hope seemed lost when Jake saw their training officer stepping forward from the corner of his eye. The Kreigen let out an exasperated sigh, and then a weird pressure started to emanate from his entire being, and Jake was suddenly brought to his knees. Then, the officer swung a fist in front of himself at a speed barely discernable to the naked eye, and a terrifying explosion erupted outward along with a deafening sound. The entire area in front of him was pulverized, from the spawns to some of the landscape, the whole area had been scraped clean by the power of the explosion. A second later, the First Lieutenant turned on his heels to face the cadets, who had all fallen to the ground due to the pressure emanating from the kreigen.
“Take care of the rest yourself, or die.” The Kreigen said, coldly.
With that one attack, the First Lieutenant must have had taken out at least half of the beasts, yet there were still over a hundred of them in their immediate vicinity, and the small reprieve only lasted for a moment before they were overwhelmed again by the creatures.
To his left, Jake could see that Ryan was currently mowing through the beasts with his axe, and he turned his focus to the right where Micheal Kirk was currently fighting off half a dozen spawns with his short sword. Further to the right, Owens was currently holding off half a dozen creatures with her telekinesis as she swung through some more with her iron bracers. He tried to locate the others every moment he could, but the thick layer of dust and dirt that covered the entire area made it impossible for him to know about the others’ wherabouts.
Jake, on the other hand, looked ready to keel over as the beasts in his immediate vicinity kept increasing in numbers, and the sword in his hands felt heavier and heavier as time went on. His whole body was littered with small superficial wounds, and his armour looked almost completely scorched off by now. His energy core was almost dry by now, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep up the pace for more than a minute or two as his arms grew numb. But he still kept swinging until he felt like his arms would fall off, and even then, he still kept swinging. Even when he‘d had to stop using his skill as only a few units of biotic energy were left in his core and he was left barely able to swing the sword, his will to survive was simply too strong for him to give up. Somewhere along the way, even his mind blacked out as his body fell into the numb darkness of his unconcsious.
Ten minutes later, not a single beast remained as over a hundred bloodied insectoid corpses littered the floor around them. The cadets themselves were all lying on the floor, panting, covered in blood that was as much their own as the creatures’.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Jake had regained consciousness only a few seconds ago, waking up some distance away from the others. The altercation had only lasted for an instant, yet he was covered in wounds from head to toe, and his armour had been reduced to shreds by the spawn’s claws and teeth. While the armour was made up of a very resistant carbon-mesh alloy, the creatures’ bite secreted a corrosive acid that could melt right through the cadets’ armours over time. One of the creatures had even bit off an entire part of the plating on the left side of Jake’s torso, where a nasty wound was currently festering and bleeding profusely. Unlike normal bite wounds, the corrosive acid from the Vertaerax almost seemed to melt through the skin and flesh right off the bones of the cadets, making each wound extremely painful.
Further away from the group, Officer Neilr’s silhouette appeared walking between the corpses covering the entire vicinity.
“Cadets, report for duty.” The officer shouted.
Jake tried to get up, but he didn’t even move a muscle as he saw the other cadets around him slowly make their way to the commanding officer’s position. Then, a familiar hand scooped him up from the ground, and Jake was suddenly carried off over Ryan’s shoulder, sparking an intense bout of pain from his left side.
Seconds later, Ryan put him back down as they reached the officer, and Jake could tell from a glance that everyone had made it out alive this time. However, every cadet looked worn out beyond what he thought possible. It was only their second day, but everyone was at the end of the rope already.
“Well done, cadets. I’m glad all of you pulled through.” Officer Neilr finally said, and no one made a sound for a few seconds until the First Lieutenant spoke up again.
“I know you guys think I should have helped you out more,” Officer Neilr declared, “but the reality here is that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I might be strong, but if you cadets don’t become much stronger than you currently are, we will fail this mission. You might not like it, but this entire assignment relies on you cadets, and if five of you have to die for the rest of you to become strong enough to carry out this mission, I’ll make that sacrifice in a heartbeat.”
Not a single cadet spoke a word at the officer’s speech. Of course, everyone couldn’t help feeling frustrated about how little their lives meant to the commanding officer, but it’s not like they had much of a choice to follow the First Lieutenant’s orders. It was only after a short silence that Jake spoke up.
“Yes, sir. We will not disappoint.” Ryan let out, his voice firm but weary.
The cadets all looked at each other, before finally answering the commanding officer. Like the others, Jake didn’t like one bit how they were being used as expendable pawns by the officers. However, unlike some of the others — like King — who believed they deserved to be protected, Jake had no illusions his survival had to be taken into his own hands. He’d made some friends along the way, and Officer Neilr was powerful, but when push came to shove he could only count on himself.
“Yes, sir!”
This time, the cadets only travelled for a few kilometres before they stopped at the entrance of a small cave located at the foot of a small mountain, which was where they’d be resting until they’d recovered enough to continue with the assignment. Thankfully for Jake who still had trouble even walking with his injuries, the Officer had massively slowed down the pace to allow the more injured cadets, like Jake and Jenkins, to keep up with the rest.
While Genova’s entire landscape had looked entirely devoid of life at first, it hadn’t taken long for the cadets to realize that this was only true on the planet’s surface, where temperatures could regularly reach dangerous extremes. As soon as they reached the cave, the cadets were left in awe at the sight of the leagues of vegetation and mushrooms littering the moist ground and rock walls. The temperature inside the cave was also a lot cooler than on the surface, while also being a lot more humid, and the cadets all let out a sigh of relief as soon as the change was felt. Deeper inside the cave, a small runoff of water shot from one of the walls before disappearing in between some small crevices, and a few of the cadets ran toward it at full speed as soon as they saw it. Among them, King was the first to get to it and immediately started drinking from the source, with the two brothers and Laurent doing the same.
“What a bunch of idiots,” the officer mumbled as he ran a hand over his face. “At least test it with the water testing kit that’s in each of your bags.”
The four cadets all stopped dead in their tracks, and looking slightly embarrassed, took out a small water testing kit from their bag. It was a simple vial with a small holographic interface that was extremely easy to use, as one only needed to fill the vial with water for the interface to confirm whether or not the water was safe to drink. Luckily, the testing kit soon confirmed the water was clean, and the cadets all drank their fill.
Moments later, Ryan helped Jake and the others get their shelters installed. The amount of flat space inside the cave where they would be able to set up camp was pretty small, so the cadets all ended up sharing the shelters in groups of two. Jake partnered with Ryan, which might have been a bad decision as his giant friend was so big that the two of them would end up being pretty cramped inside, although he still felt a lot more comfortable sleeping next to the giant than the others. As for the others, the two Evans brothers had been partnered together, with Kirk and Jenkins forming the third duo, with Smith and Owens being the fourth, with the fifth being comprised of King and Laurent.
Jake was getting so used to hearing King complaining he had been expecting it.
“What? Why should I be with you? You’re not worthy of me!” King lashed out, giving Laurent a disgusted look as she did.
“If the Vertarax doesn’t kill you, I will,” Laurent answered with a sigh.
“Sorry, bud. I called dibs yesterday already.” Kirk shouted from the opening of his shelter, and a few laughs echoed from across the cave, including Jake’s.
“WHAT THE FUCK DOES THIS MEAN?” King shouted, visibly angry. “Smith, you’re switching with me.”
“If you do that, I’m swallowing Jake’s sword,” Owens answered, flatly.
“Jake, dude. Owens wants you so bad.” Kirk answered, laughing hysterically, with everyone else exploding into laughter, except Jake and Owens whose faces had grown red in a matter of seconds.
“NOT WHAT I MEANT” Owens shouted back, horrified, sparking more laughter from everyone else, except for King who’d already furiously made her way inside her shelter.
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Once everything was set up, everyone gathered around for one final meal before they went to bed. Compared to the Vertaerax Crawler, the Spawns tasted a lot more like insects, and even in his mutilated state, Jake still almost ended up not eating anything at all.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this,” Jake said, “But I almost miss eating the big crawlers.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” Owens added.
“Come on, guys, at least we have something to eat. Some of us haven’t eaten anything since we got off the spaceship.” Kirk added, shooting a glance toward King, who had overheard the discussion.
“Fuck you, Kirk! Like I’d want to eat some of these creepy disgusting things.” She shouted back from across the cave, drawing a much-needed laugh from everyone else.
Still, Jake managed to gulp down almost two entire Spawns, which were as big as a dog before he felt satisfied. His entire body was covered in wounds, and the pain was bad enough to keep him wide awake even though he felt so tired he could have probably slept for three days straight.
“You cadets are going to stay here for 24 hours.” Officer Neilr declared. “During that time, focus on improving your specs while your bodies recover, I’m going to go and scout the way ahead during that time. As always, sleep shifts will be assigned through your implants, but I’ll keep most of the Vertaerax away.”
Luckily, Jake seemed to be part of the first group that got to go straight to sleep, and he immediately made his way to his unit with Ryan’s help, and then immediately laid down inside his sleeping bag.
[Look at you, you look like a cadaver, it’s uncanny.]
Not now, Ed.
[Someone’s in a mood. That sucks, I had great news for you.]
Stop fucking around, Ed. Spit it out!
[While you were at a hair’s length away from dying earlier, some of your armour’s key biotic energy processors were damaged by the spawn’s acid, which means your armour’s attribute-strengthening functionality no longer works.]
And that’s supposed to be good news, Ed?
[Yup, it means we can put some more focus into improving your specs again.]
That’s good and all, but have you seen the state I’m in after WEARING the armour? Now you want me to take it off?
[It shouldn’t be a problem, you just have to try not to get bitten to death by a bunch of vermins. We’ve already talked about this matter before, but I think it’s time for you to stop acting like a fool and focus — ] Ed started before he was cut off by a very impatient and tired Jake.
I’ll do my best, Ed. Goodnight.