It was dark, the infiltration had been long, they had been there for 10 days now. And finally, their target was in the area. Intel said that resistance should be light, around 30 enemy combatants, how wrong were they. After an initial scan by the drones they put up, it showed around 200 enemy combatants and perhaps more if they had an underground bunker. Still, they had to eliminate their target. Hopefully it wouldn’t go into hiding inside the main complex. Today the xeno should do a round around the external perimeter and they would take him out then and there.
"This is Falcon One to base, target located, permission to execute, how copy?"
"This is base, execute, over"
He took aim, range was 900m, no wind, he relaxed, exhaled, and took the shot. It went true to his aim, center mass. He could see the blue xenos blood splattering the wall and the rest of the xenos who were with the target. He took another shot at the xeno who was on the ground, bleeding, but not dead, as the xeno raised his hand the second shot impacted, taking his head clean off. It all took no more than 2 seconds.
"We got a problem Logan, vehicles are mobilizing here. How the hell can they locate us so quickly? Pack your shit, don’t leave traces behind, command said we cannot be involved. We will move to the secondary exfil. The boys are securing it now. Let's move"
They went to the secondary exfil, but the enemy was quick on their tails. The xenos were tracking them somehow. That was not good. They laid a few explosive traps to make their pursuers go slower or blow them up. They heard a couple of detonations, but the xenos kept coming towards them. They were 5 minutes out from the secondary exfil.
"This is one to all falcons, we are coming in hot, there are multiple contacts coming towards us. Lay down an ambush and prepare to move to exfil 4. Over"
As they moved, they could hear enemy vehicles coming closer. They were already at the exfil and met up with the rest of the team members. They were all in position, ready to engage. First came the scouts, a couple of xenos moving on a small vehicle, and a couple vehicles behind them. They were blasted and destroyed in a couple of seconds by two of the team's rocket launchers. Then a tank appeared.
"Fall back, throw smoke and fall back! Jessie aim for the turret, try and incapacitate it."
Their leader was fearless, he had served for over two decades. They obeyed him without question, they were loyal to him. Jessie took aim and fired, while the rest threw some smokes and covering fire. Then the tank fired. In a blast as soon as Jessie pressed his trigger he was hit.
"No! Jessie!" Logan screamed, rushing forward towards the remains of Jessie, but there were none. Only a red spot on the ground and his half-destroyed guns was all that remained of his brother.
"Logan, we need to fall back!" His leader, Mach said, with sorrow in his voice.
They retreated; the tank incapacitated for now. But many more contacts were on their way, too many.
-------------------------------
He woke up sweating. It had been a while since he dreamt about it. He looked at his watch, 0040, good enough to wake up. He went for the gym, there were a couple of xenos there, but they were minding their own business and he wasn’t up to chat with someone. He did his morning routine, cutting the running to 5km to not be too tired once the training started. He went and took a quick shower.
"You the new guy?" asked a tall xeno, around 3m tall.
"Yeah, why you asking?"
"Welcome to the Brave, I hope you find peace and a new family here. Take care"
'Well, that was strange. Xenos, who can understand them.'
He continued his way towards the showers and had a quick one. Once he was out of the shower, he headed towards his bunk again. He checked his watch 0130.
'Lets see if Xocarion is awake by now’
Once he entered, he found the xeno was already dressing and prepping his armor. He greeted him and moved to do the same. It would be a long day.
-------
"I am told both of you are to be new recruits amongst our elite members, we will see about that. For the next couple of weeks, we will train and test your abilities. This will be hell, or as close as we can get without actually killing you." The xenos speaking had all the tenure of his former instructor Luke, damn he missed the guy sometimes. "Grab your pack and move with me, we will launch in a shuttle and go to our training camp. We will return in a few weeks to the ship."
The journey there was quiet and as soon as he recognized the instructor would not tell them more about the training he dosed off for a couple of hours. They must have gone into warp while he was sleeping. Xocarion was still in the same spot, checking his gear and probably talking to himself.
"I see you are awake, tell me Logan do all humans sleep in transport or are you just tired?"
"Take a rest while you can, no need to spend energy when you don’t need to. It always fascinates me how y'all xenos never seem to sleep during down time."
Xocarion shook his head and did something akin to a smile for his species and then returned to check his equipment and adjust his armor. Logan for his part stood up and went to the instructor.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
"Permission to speak, sir."
"Go ahead human, but be quick"
"How much time until we arrive at destination? Sir"
"One of your hours. Is that all?"
"Yes, sir"
For the next hour he stretched and then began to prep for the mission. He put on his equipment, did a couple of checks on his rations, and filled his backpack with all things he believed he would need, Xocarion apparently didn’t have a notion of long-term preparations as he was missing a backpack.
'Guess we are the only idiots to do infiltration missions then'
He checked he had his knives, his axe, shovel, and a small drone in case he needed it. He then packed his ammunition and put on a standard combat charge, with some extra bullets in his backpack. He prepared for a week of rations and somewhat around a thousand extra bullets for his main gun, along 200 with for his sidearm.
As they landed, he put on his backpack, rifle and sidearm and grabbed his duffle bag putting it over his shoulder. As the ramp cleared, he saw it was not in a base of any kind and his instincts kicked in.
"Xocarion take the right side I will secure the left, wait till the ship takes off and we head to the tree line carefully."
He went and proceeded to secure the left side, putting his duffle bag in front of him and using it as cover, he was prone on the ground, his silhouette a minimum and was covering the back side of the shuttle.
"I see your instincts are still there human but worry not this zone is safe. You might rise. Welcome to Kworthal, your home for the next few weeks."
As the instructor said this 3 xenos emerged from the tree line, coming to greet him.
'Well, it never hurts to be careful'
He stood and went towards the instructor; the ship was already taking off and he found Xocarion close behind the instructor, talking to him.
'Seems he is not well listening to others, that might be a problem. Overconfident xenos.'
"I see you bring new recruits Sarge. Let's get to base before introductions." One of the xenos, probably an officer, who came from the forest said.
As they followed the officer, they encountered another 4 members of the xenos team escorting them. They walked in silence and showed true discipline and he expected they had a couple of scouts ahead making sure nothing was ahead of them.
'Good movement, they take this planet seriously enough, so either there are predators, or they never let their guard down. Good thing to have around'
After 1 hour of traversing the forest, they arrived at a clearing, near a mountain. Logan saw some guard towers over 700 meters away. And an entrance to a tunnel.
'Great another bunker, always one of those.'
They made their way and he suspected there were also patrols always in the forest, which was a good thing, as 700 meters was an easy shot for any rifle with a scope. They made their way and the officer showed them inside the mountain. This was a big bunker, perhaps a couple hundred xenos actually were stationed there.
'Just how big was this army of the Brave or was this more of a common training ground for different merc groups across the galaxy?'
"Welcome to Kworthal, FOB Antros. This will be your home for the next couple of weeks. I am the officer in charge of all new recruits brought into the ranks of our organization. As a mercenary company we go far and wide into all the conflict zones in the galaxy, and you have been selected as top tier members, now its your time to prove it. Follow Sarge into your rooms, put your bags in there and then come back here. Move it!"
They both snapped to attention, doing a salute of their own military background. They followed Sarge and went inside a small room, with a couple of bunks, some occupied already with more duffle bags.
'New squad? This should be interesting'
After putting the duffle bags in the beds, they proceeded to follow their instructor towards some sort of briefing room or a TOC ((*Tactical Operations Center*)).
"Now that we are complete you might all introduce yourselves to us. State your name, former rank, experience, and unit name. But before you do so, let me introduce myself." The big xenos around 3.5m tall, same species as Xiqar said "I am Commander Uxrak Watlhei, from the Xuurian Empire. I spent over half a century inside the Xuurian Rapid Reaction forces. Welcome to the Brave, we have many ships but never two in the same sector. This has helped us gain an incredible reputation with many factions across the galaxy. And you are our future generation" the big xenos said pointing to the 20 recruits inside the room. "With this said, you might introduce yourselves"
They all talked, many were from unknown corners of the galaxy, some were tall a couple had 4 arms and one had 4 legs, like some type of centaur. He listened to the introductions, but he noticed not a single human was there.
'Lucky me, no fellow humans, fuck'
As they all finished Xocarion spoke, and they were surprised to hear him say he was from the Tarasha Conglomerate. 'Maybe they were big players'. Finally, it was his turn to speak.
"I am Logan, 10 years of service with the Terran Confederation, former Drop Assault, Reconnaissance unit, and part of the unit y'all call the Devils." As he finished, they were all silent.
'Just what the fuck do they think us capable of? Or what did intelligence put out there? Fucking crooks, always spreading rumors and shit to enemy nations so that they fear the oh so mighty humans. Fuck the agency'
As he thought this the Commander spoke.
"So that is where you got that armor from? Interesting. Were you a team leader Logan?"
"For 3 years, sir."
"Very well." He said and faced the other xenos "Welcome, now take a sit and prepare for the briefing. The operation will begin soon after. Sargent Tardelion, you have the floor"
"Thank you, sir!" Sarge snaped a salute "Now listen well, we will begin your training by doing a formal test, you will infiltrate this area around 100 kilometers from here, you will travel by foot. The enemy has patrols all over the place. Your target is not to engage but to do some reconnaissance in the area and gather all the intel possible. Your main target to observe is him " a holo pic showed a Zaalik with a big scar on the back of his head, a burn scar. "his name is Tarqwo Lashu pirate, he has a big bounty in its head and is guilty of the destruction of 4 passengers ships, this is NOT a training exercise; he is a wanted pirate, and this is his base of operations. We have established a small camp here with our forces avoiding detection. Since you are all operators you should know how a simple recon mission is done. You shall follow this route, " he said pointing to the map " we have a few teams patrolling the area and it is the most secure. Once you reach 10km from the pirate base you are on your own. Expect enemy patrols, avoid engaging them at all costs. Once you have gathered all the intel you can, contact us. Then we will take the pirate base and kill the pirate leader. You will be our eyes out there, so take guns accordingly."
The rest of the briefing went on for two more hours. The whole team planned who did what, of course he and Xocarion were the team scouts. As they were the ones more focused in this type of missions. The other xenos were more assault troops but had good knowledge in reconnaissance. They finished their preparations and went out. With Xocarion and himself taking the lead 1 hour ahead of the rest of the team. They had some comms but otherwise they were on their own.
'This is gonna get interesting'
Logan thought as he went into the forest.