The air was calm, a cool wind trickled like a sigh over the side of the narrow cliffside road as it wound its way along the side of a deep canyon. The very earth itself seemed to tense in apprehension as another sound broke the relative stillness. The growl of combustion engines slowly drew nearer, the unmistakable sound of heavy vehicles approaching at speed.
A quartet of Valor-M3 light utility vehicles charged around a distant corner, their lights set to their minimum setting for stealth and their gun turrets constantly swiveling as they scanned for targets. It was in the third vehicle that Donner (Ace) Fuliss sat, MR-12 in hand and his tactical assault gear ready to go in case of any emergency. The human looked not a day older than thirty three as the lines on his face wrinkled even more than they already were.
Donner hated escort missions, especially when they were escorting some snotty UIA agent who clearly thought they were Luck’s gift to the universe. He glanced past the large human seated next to him, Frezz (Yo-Yo) Dilk was scanning out the glazmite window beside him and probably thinking about how bored he was. The man seemed to relish fights in a way that Donner himself wasn’t really able to.
A pair of military fatigue covered legs stood between them, the soldier that manned the Valor’s heavy machine gun turret was another of his close squad mates. A somewhat snarky slaaveth woman named Bell (Whipcrack) Shede, her light blue scales that were exposed caught the light of the armoured vehicle behind them and seemed to almost glisten in the dusks light. He nodded to himself, she was a very capable soldier and would spot any threats long before his somewhat paltry human eyes could. Her people’s adaptations to low light conditions make her excellent at seeing in the dark.
He shifted, checking his spare magazine’s for the hundredth time as he spared another glance at their charge. In the front passenger seat was a strange creature, their round somewhat bulbous head looking like a mushroom cap on the end of their almost stalk-like body. Four arms sprouted from its shoulders and four legs from its slightly flared waist. The strange webbing that he could see on certain parts of their body certainly marked them as an aquatic species. Their head had eight eyes set in pairs equidistantly around its circumference in pairs so they could see in every direction at once and their mouth was a lipless hole on the top of their head filled with hooked teeth.
In fact he knew exactly what they were, they were razah’vool. The amphibious aliens were rarely seen in combat roles as their natural inclinations for self preservation generally made them poor soldiers. They were one of the member races of the Sapient Congressional union and so he had nothing against them intrinsically. He had sworn an oath to protect all of the Union no matter the circumstances after all.
Donner wiped his tired eyes and fished around in his pocket for another chococaff square. The small chocolate flavored delight’s were heavily caffeinated though not generally as effective as a hot cup of coffee would have been. They did the trick on a short notice though and they were given out in their standard field rations. He had always liked to save his for moments like this instead of snuffling them all down instantly like Frezz.
As if the big man could read his thoughts he heard a loud sniff and then a shuffling noise. He turned towards the sound, already knowing what to expect, he couldn't help but crack a small smile as the big red-haired man’s face screwed up into some semblance of puppy dog eyes and he begged, “Are those chococaffs? May I please have one?”
Donner laughed and shook his head slowly. “You had some already, you junkie.”
Frezz bobbed his big head up and down and leaned in closer, poking his head between the legs of Bell as he whispered, “Yeah, and I would trade you a half empty box of tacstix for two of them.”
A slightly gurgling voice came from above them, “Hey, what the drek are you doing down there?” It was Bell, she clearly had felt Frezz as he tried to barter with him.
Donner just chuckled. “It's alright Whiplash, Yo-yo is just trying to get your attention again.”
He chuckled again as Frezz’s face scrunched up angrily and he whispered loudly, “It was just the once.”
From the front seat the driver spoke up, “Hey, calm it down back there. Might I remind you we are in the middle of an important mission? Can you three stop behaving like juveniles for just a few hours?”
Donner looked at the speaker, it was corporal Eieen (Jewels) Kraperknack. They were nerivith, the pink skinned alien had short stubby horns that poked from their medium length raven black hair. Upon his horns he wore two small but brightly colored gemstones that were the gemmified remains of his parents. They had once told Donner that it was a cultural thing.
Donner replied a bit quickly, “I am fine. It was Frezz that was trying to get something from..” But the nerivith man cut him off with a haughty snort.
“Nah. I know what you were doing, you were trying to goad him into trading away all his tabac to you. You are addicted to the stuff, just like he is addicted to caffeine. I swear, I don’t understand your propensity for neural stimulants and if they weren’t strictly allowed by regulation I would have had you both cut off a long time ago.”
Donner blinked, that was a bit harsher than he was used to. Maybe Eieen was just feeling the stress of their mission. Once more he found himself wondering what the deal was with the strange four armed alien. She, or at least he assumed it was a she, seemed to look directly at him with her rear facing eye, their eye minutely as the red pupiless orb seemed to contract slightly. They blinked and looked away as they noticed him staring.
He shivered slightly. He had heard that they had split personalities, that the razah’vool were inherently untrustworthy because nothing they said was ever the full truth. He didn’t personally have anything against them, but with all that he had been told over the years it was very difficult for him to be objective in his own biased opinion.
He tried to put it out of his head and fished his last two chocolates out of the webbed pocket on the side of his plate carrier. He glanced up towards Eieen to see if the slight man was looking and then slipped them over to an excited Frezz who handed him a small crumpled box in return.
Donner smiled and pocketed the cigarettes before anyone else could notice, he would likely not get the chance to smoke one tonight. But he was able to rest easy in the knowledge that he would get to enjoy their slightly bittersweet aroma soon. Just as soon as this damnable mission had concluded.
Eieen popped off the small handheld radio on the dash and spoke into it with his normal clipped tone. “Valor three to Valor one, come in Valor one.”
A second of static filled the cab of their armoured transport before a very deep voice answered the radio. “Yes to Valor three, this is Valor one. Go ahead.”
Donner listened while keeping an eye on his window. He would be able to slam the emergency blast shield button in a fraction of a second should the need arise. Eieen continued on as he steered the car around a particularly steep bend in the road.
Eieen raised the radio to his pink lips once more and started to speak, but he never finished as the night was lit by the bright green flash of some manner of explosion above their heads. Donner slammed his hand into the emergency combat screen and relaxed slightly as the window was immediately covered by five millimeters of hardened steel armour coated in a layer of T-3ULA armour. The ultralight composite was durable and yet did not weigh the vehicle down all that much.
He raised his rifle and checked the ammo, no sooner had he done so than something bright streaked down onto the hood of Valor one. The impact of it detonated in a terribly bright explosion of molten slag and sparks as the heat caused the armoured windshield of the lead LUV to burst inwards. The radio registered a muffled scream and then static.
The burning wreck of Valor one slammed into the inner wall of the cliff and flipped onto its side. The heavy vehicle skidded for a dozen meters before it stopped, its chassis now entirely engulfed in flames. Valor two smashed it out of the way as they increased their speed to get out of the sudden killbox.
The radio chirped on their emergency frequency. “Valor four to all, what the shit is happening? What happened to Valor one!”
Eieen grabbed the radio and responded far more calmly than Donner himself was feeling, “Valor one was destroyed by heavy weapons fire, most likely a Lasbur or similar weapon system. It would seem that we have been ambushed.”
Valor two responded, “Yeah no shit, increase speed. We are going to have to punch through, the road is far too narrow here to maneuver.”
Donner was jostled around in the back of the Valor LUV as it began to pick up speed. He heard Bell shout something in her guttural native tongue, the sound of it like a bird choking on a fish. After a second she shouted, “Permission to return fire!?”
Eieen asked over the comms, “Valor two, we are compromised. Permission to go loud?”
“Fuckin granted Valor three, open fire on the bastards!” The response was quick.
No sooner had the words come through than the interior of the LUV was filled with the sound of thunder as Bell lit up the nearby ridgeline with their vehicle's turret mounted heavy machine gun. She racked the action and then laid into the controls. Short twenty round bursts eating through her available ammunition as she tried to suppress the previously unseen enemies.
She whooped in glee as she laid into the darkness, Donner saw at least one dark figure tumble from the heights above. She was hitting something it seemed.
Another flash interrupted his thoughts, this one coming from behind them. He turned and watched as the LUV behind them took a glancing blow to its turret that nearly caved in its armoured roof, the figure that had been manning the turret squirming for a minute before falling limp. The vehicle swerved and jerked as the cracked windows leaked smoke before slowing and falling behind, the front wheels bending out of shape as the slagged axle broke.
Donner swallowed heavily. “Valor four is down!” He shouted to be heard over the roar of Bell’s suppressing fire.
Eieen glanced at the UIA agent in the seat next to them before nodding and speaking into the radio once more. “We need to get off this road. Valor two, we need to get off this road or we will die next.” They continued driving for another tense minute, only the sounds of gunfire from Bell’s heavy machine gun disturbing the silence that engulfed the cabin like some dark primordial horror from the depths of the ocean.
The razah’vool finally spoke, for the first time since the grey skinned alien climbed into their vehicle nearly six hours before. “There should be a quarry access road about two kilometers ahead, on the left. The rebels likely know about it though, it may not be accessible.”
Donner looked at Frezz, the big man hefted his G602 LMG. If they ever had a chance to lay down some pain then they would certainly be able to drop some bodies.
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Eieen spoke calmly into the radio once more, “Valor two be advised, there is an auxiliary road two klicks ahead on the left. It may not be immediately visible.” Another explosion rocked them, the blast narrowly missing them as Eieen swerved them around another bend in the road.
Bell shouted from the turret, “Keep her steady Jewels! I’m trying to kill stuff here!”
Donner just held on to one of the handholds for dear life, the Valor LUV being shaken like a rat in a greling’s mouth. Another series of bright green lights illuminated the night once more and another flurry of impacts studded across the armoured flank of the transport. Bell shrieked and fell from the gun turret to the floor in between him and Frezz.
She cursed loudly and held a clawed hand over her chest, bright purple blood leaking from between scaled fingers. Donner went to help but Eieen stopped him. “Yo-yo has got her, man the gun Ace.”
He gulped and waited for Frezz to drag Bell out of the way before he scrambled up into the gun turret. He could smell the iron scent of her blood inside the tight space. The gun was still loaded, the long chain of ammunition that fed from the armoured hopper below the turret was still attached. A series of holes was pierced through the frontal shield of the turret, the glazmite cracked by the armour piercing rounds that had smashed through it.
Donner swayed and felt his helmet bounce off one of the armoured walls as he gripped the firing mechanism of the weapon. He looked through the glazmite, the virtual HUD was flickering from the damage done to the glass but it still functioned enough to make out the spotty highlights of potential hostiles upon the nearby clifftop nearly fifteen meters above them.
He depressed the trigger and felt the weapon buck as it spat out huge chunks of hot copper jacketed lead at just over one thousand meters per second. He fired at a nearby ridge, and it was well that he did so as another bright flare reached out from it towards them. It impacted the road about fifteen meters in front of them, his fire clearly having thrown off the rebel’s aim enough to keep them from being hit.
He yelled as Eieen swerved to avoid the crater, the rear left tire dipping into the pothole and causing his head to smash into the roof of the turret. Even with his helmet on he was stunned for a few seconds, slumping on the gun for a bit as his swimming vision slowly cleared.
“Are you hit?! Ace! If you aren’t, light those bastards up!” A voice swam through the haze that threatened to drown his mind.
Donner straightened and pressed the trigger a few times, the staccato flashes of the muzzle and bright stream of the periodic tracer rounds serving to ground him back to reality. He stuttered out, “I.. I’m f-fine. Just a litt-tle rattled.”
Somebody slapped his thigh, could have been Frezz or Bell, he wasn’t sure nor did it matter. Somebody was paying attention and cared, that was all the direct support he needed.
His threat indicator snapped into place once more and he saw it light up with hostiles. He growled deep in his throat as he fired upon the mass, the bright contrail of the tracers walking its way up the cliff face towards the masses contacts before tearing into them. His fire was met with a stream of brilliant tracers from Valor two as well, the twin streams of gunfire causing the rebel forces on the cliff to scatter, more than one dark shape tumbling down the slope towards the road.
He watched as a body slammed into the dirt with bone shearing force. It looked big and heavily furred, likely a yeown traitor. He knew that the yeown as a people weren’t directly responsible for the rebellion, but as it was on one of their colonies that the entire fiasco started upon, he could not help the small part of him that hated the large furred aliens.
He stopped firing as they passed the point of contact. The radio crackled to life once more, “Valor three, I see the access ramp ahead. Less than two hundred meters, making the turn no..” the radio suddenly cut off as a large and violent blast consumed the LUV. the road lifting in an eruption of fire and debris. The Valor’s anti-blast rockets fired but were simply not powerful enough to counter the anti-tank mine it had just activated. Donner watched as if in slow motion as the vehicle was smashed into fragments, the scything remains spinning out in a wide cone of destruction that seemed to go on forever.
“Hold on to something!” Eieen shouted, their normal calm breaking slightly under the pressure.
Donner only had time to grip the handholds and brace his legs before the vehicle was suddenly airborne. In a desperate bid to avoid any other mines as well as the sheer devastation caused by the exploding ordnance Eieen had driven them off the edge of the cliff and into empty space.
Donner watched as the ground dropped away beneath them, the realisation he was probably about to die awakening a primal fear deep inside his chest. Then the wheels of the Valor slammed down into solid earth as they met the side of the off ramp formed by the quarry access road. His sudden relief was short-lived as the vehicle tilted and then rolled.
Donner didn't even have a chance to scream in terror as the turret was ripped off and he was thrown from the tumbling vehicle. The last thing he thought before he slammed into the ground was that he wasn’t even going to get the chance to smoke his tacstix, then his world exploded with pain and the lights went out.
**********
Special Agent Drelloc would never have admitted it aloud, but all of her was terrified. Her minds concord was nearly shattered as the first terrible blast destroyed the escort in the lead. She found herself cursing these low level grunts for their inability to perform a mission as simple as escorting her safely across hostile territory. All they had to do was drive and remain undetected, something that her fellow agents likely could have achieved without being discovered.
Then the second escort was destroyed and she felt her second strongest self pull free from her concord. This one was the same that had been staring at their protectors for the last two hours of the drive. Her four lobed brain was generally in consensus, but the recent events combined with the terror she felt had fragmented the bond and allowed the other to slip free.
While she wrestled with herself she was forced to ignore her surroundings. After a few minutes of this struggle she finally was once more able to observe her surroundings in detail. She was shocked to discover that they were in fact nearing a potential escape route. Her internalised map of their route showing an oncoming exit ramp.
She revealed its location with a warning to her pitiful escorts who made the knowledge known to the other remaining vehicle. She gurgled quietly to herself in annoyance, they were still several dozen kilometers behind enemy lines. They would need to find an alternate route in order to escape this rebel ambush.
She felt herself shiver slightly, one of her legs twitching involuntarily as she sat upon the seat half cross legged and other two legs extended on the slightly uncomfortable humanoid seating. She wasn’t a field operative, she hadn’t even fired a weapon in anger since her last reevaluations nearly ten years before. She was a data analyst, nothing more.
Another blast rocked the vehicle and she heard a scream, the slaaveth female that had been manning the turret collapsed, her chest leaking bright blood. Drelloc didn’t need to turn to see this, her three-hundred-and-sixty degree vision allowing her to be simultaneously aware of her full surroundings at all times. How limiting these others view of the world must be, to have only two forwards facing eyes. And yet, there were many humanoid, as it was called, species in the setting and only one in the manner of her own people.
She shifted in her seat, the restraints tight across her bodysuited chest. The one whom her rebellious self had been watching had now climbed up and into the Valor’s gun turret. They resumed firing and moments later another blast rocked the vehicle, this time the entire craft jolted as if it had been punched by some massive creature and she let out a grunt of pain as the restraints dug into her body.
The driver shouted at the one in the turret, asking if they were alright. They seemed to be fine, why did that make her feel safer? They were in terrible danger, the actions of a single nameless soldier would do little to preserve them in such dire situations.
The gunfire reached a fever pitch and she noticed they were closing on their escape, a small part of her reached out for that hope. She tried to suppress it, but hope was a hard emotion to suppress and only when the other remaining LUV transport was destroyed in the cataclysmic detonation of buried munitions did she feel that particle of hope evaporate.
Before she had a chance to understand what was happening the vehicle was suddenly airborne. The weightless sensation akin to that she had experienced when she had ridden her shuttle down to the world’s surface nearly a month prior.
This feeling was short lived however as the armoured vehicle’s wheels slammed down into the earth a moment later. For a few tantalizing seconds she once more dared to hope, then the vehicle began to tumble and she heard only screams.
The one manning the turret vanished as the roof was dented in, the gun displaced and the man torn from the vehicle without a sound as the wounded one was thrown into the opposite wall amid the sickening crackle of shattering bone. She had already succumbed to shocksleep though and likely never felt her own death.
Her companion however was not so lucky, the large man crying in agony as the side of the vehicle was smashed in and their legs snapped like gunshots. The pain must have been intense for even the super constitution of the human failed as they lost consciousness. Drelloc was tossed about, but she gripped every available surface with all eight of her arms and legs, the harness combined with her stance helped to hold her stable. The driver’s head smacked into the armoured window next to their helmeted head, the twin stubbs of their horns just poking through the material.
The vehicle overturned again and she grunted in pain once more as something heavy smacked into her legs. With one last shuddering crash the Valor LUV came to rest on the bottom of the ravine. She took a second to check herself over internally, nothing stood out as particularly injured, though her front leg was sore and her hands ached from gripping so tightly.
She observed her surroundings with a glance, her head unable to turn at the neck as her eyes did all the turning she needed. She was largely unhurt, but her escort was in shambles. The large human male and the slaaveth were dead, the driver seemed okay though at first glance. At least from the subtle rise and fall of their chest she could ascertain they were alive.
She unbuckled her harness and reached out to them with one of her side arms. As she shook them gently they groaned and one of their violet eyes opened a crack.
“Are you injured?” she asked them. Likely a bit of an obvious question, but a necessary one nevertheless.
The man nodded and then coughed, a splatter of blue blood issuing from their mouth. “Adrenaline.. quickly..'' They made a feeble gesture towards the glovebox of the utility vehicle and after a spot of difficulty she managed to wrench it open. A 3011 pistol and two spare magazines tumbled out and onto the floor by her feet. She glanced at the nerivith man, but they seemed to have lapsed back into unconsciousness.
She looked inside, having to lean forwards at an unnatural angle to get a better view of the small compartment’s contents. Inside she found a small emergency medpack that she quickly opened. Inside she located three syringes of concentrated adrenaline among other things. The human combat stimulant was unique to their species and could be used to awaken somebody from shocksleep if they were injured. A common practice in the military from what she understood, there were even those that found themselves hooked on the potent stimm, something that she herself had never really understood. Adrenaline junkies they were sometimes referred to, she hoped that the nerivith man wasn’t one of those as she uncapped the small syringe and muttered, “I hope this doesn't hurt as much as it looks.”
She stabbed the long needle directly into the man’s shoulder just above his heart and leaned back. The nerivith was still for another moment before they jerked. Their body spasmed slightly as it reacted to the alien combat drug, every muscle tensing as their eyes flew open and their mouth opened in a scream.
They thrashed for another second before their dilated eyes roved wildly around the ruined vehicle. They alighted on hers and the man seemed to become focused, their pupils narrowing as their ragged breathing slowed.
They spoke, their icy calm shattered as they spoke, “Wow, what a rush.” The raven haired man sat like that for another second before trying to move and groaning in pain. “Yea, that’s what I thought.” They looked towards her again. “Listen to me carefully, spook. I know that you don't have much combat experience..” they waved a hand as she was about to speak. “Nah nah, don't ask. Call it a soldier's intuition. I need you to listen to me carefully because I might only have the time to explain this once.” She was incapable of nodding and so instead made a hand gesture of understanding.
The man nodded, his face straining as the pain must have been intense. “My legs are crushed. I am not getting out of here, I assume from the lack of complaining that the others are unconscious.. or wo-rse.” He stopped. Their voice breaking.
She spoke softly. “They.. they are gone. I am sorry. It is only you and me left.”
She closed all four of her eyes as the pain upon the pink skinned man’s face deepened to something else. A hurt that went deeper than physical trauma. He choked out a small sob before taking a deep shuddering breath. “It doesn't matter anymore. I am not making it out of here, but you still can. I need you to move to the rear of the vehicle and retrieve the large black duffel bag stowed behind the rear left seat. Go, do it now, quickly.” he prompted her.
Drelloc hardened her internal resolve, the threat of discord in her mind giving her a moment's pause before she decided that she had other things to worry about. Strangely this admission actually seemed to quell the discord on its own, as if her rebellious self understood their situation and had decided that it was in their best interests to behave. She would have smiled to herself had she possessed the facilities, instead the skin around her eyes crinkled in her own version of the gesture as she climbed unsteadily into the rear of the dilapidated vehicle.
She had to move over the broken corpse of the slaaveth woman, her body horribly twisted in ways that turned Drelloc’s stomach. The bright purple splashes of her life essence mixing with the much darker red of the dead humans. After a bit of struggling she found it, the black duffel was behind the seat exactly where the man had described it.
She carried it back towards the man and he called out to her as she neared the front once more, “Agent, do you see a belt of grenades on Yo-yo?”
She looked, indeed there were. The man’s limb body had a row of four grenades of different colors hanging from a bandolier that adorned their shoulder and side. “Yes, I see them.”
The man groaned again as her movements made the vehicle shift slightly. “Grab the yellow one and the green one. Hurry, the adrenaline is starting to wear off.”
She gingerly grabbed the two he had mentioned, holding them both carefully in one of her ten-fingered hands. She reached him and he nodded again. “Good. Now I need you to listen to me carefully. I am going to need you to take that survival kit with you. Exit the vehicle through the roof and make your way to the engine compartment, underneath you will find the battery bank. Place the yellow thermobaric grenade and the green fragmentation grenade next to each other directly on top of the battery and then pull the pins. Now you..” She cut him off.
“What!? I can’t do that, you will be killed!” The man nodded.
He gestured towards his legs, towards where his legs would have been had it not been for the mass of twisted metal that had pulverised and fused him to the cab. “Yes I know. I can't allow you to be captured, nor can the enemy know you survived the crash. Detonating the Valor’s promethium batteries will generate enough heat to completely immolate all evidence of your survival. In all likelihood this should buy you the opportunity to make for friendly territory without pursuit. But you must act quic..” he coughed again, more bright blue blood splashing across the steering wheel in front of him.
She watched, torn slightly inside for this man she didn’t know as he convulsed. After another few seconds he seemed to stabilise, his voice now issuing from his blood flecked lips as a pained whisper. “You need to go now Special Agent. Take the pistol from the glovebox and Ace’s MR-12 if it's still in here.” He paused as she reached down and grabbed the gun from the floor, she also noticed that the thing that had earlier bruised her leg was in fact the MR-12 battle rifle that the man had mentioned and so she grabbed it in a pair of arms as she slung the duffel over her rear shoulders.
She looked at the man, he was now leaning back in his seat, blood and drool dripping from his mouth as his labored breathing slowed. His eyes flickered and he gave her another nod before they closed for good. His horned head slumped forwards as he let out a final gurgling breath, and was still.