“Congratulations, you are now the commander of this ship, what would you like to call it young man?” a man in a silver suit asked.
“The SES Lord of Vigilance, sir!” Atlas replied.
“Perfect, I will load the necessary data systems into your ship’s tech modules. At the head of your ship will be a planning board and mission selection system. If at any point you wish to recruit any helldivers to assist you on the ground, you may request assistance. Do you have any questions for me?”
“What is your name?” Atlas inquired.
“Fenix Zograd, head of Super Earth’s Deployment Agency.” he replied.
“It was a pleasure, Fenix. I will get my loadout selected and try to find my first mission, thank you for your help.” Atlas said while holding a salute, in which Fenix would salute with him before turning away and loading the last bit of data into the ship.
A brand new polished ship for Atlas to call home would become the answer to a lot of his future problems. The metals shined with pristine condition, the materials used to make these had to be alien, for there was no way Super Earth alone could afford the materials from the planet’s resource deposits.
Atlas would make his way to the head of his ship after selecting the loadout he would utilize on his first Terminid mission. He would locate the Social Panel that allowed him to contact and request help from anyone within his personal directory. He would see that just one of his schoolmates growing up were currently not deployed and available to partake in a campaign. His name was Zander Boone.
*Sending invite to Cadet, Zander Boone*
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*Invite accepted, preparing entrance pod*
Mere minutes had passed and Zander was already entering the SES Lord of Vigilance, Atlas would meet him at the entrance, already standing with a salute.
*Whoosh*
The doors slid open and Zander, with his black and gold armor stepped dramatically up to Atlas, pumping a meaningful salute back and into a fierce hug.
“Atlas, my old friend! We actually did it, we became helldivers for Super Earth. I remember we talked about this growing up, we always thought we were going to be too weak to handle this but,” Zander paused for theatrical effect and put his hands on Atlas’ shoulders, “WE’RE GONNA FIGHT FOR FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY BABY!”
A light chuckle came out of Atlas, he hasn’t seen Zander since before they were selected to depart for bootcamp. “Come this way Zander, it’s nice to see you too!” he said softly with a light grin. Atlas knew he was somewhat anxious about what was to come, he had to remember that these missions are dangerous and will require full attention.
“I already got my loadout selected, do you know what you’re bringing for weapons and stratagems Zander?”
“Hell yeah, I’m going with an SG-225IE Breaker Incendiary Shotgun, auto-pistol, frag grenades, and all I have for stratagems is the Orbital Airbust Srike with a Support Machine Gun Drop,” Zander said with excitement, “How about you?!”
“Yeah for stratagems I only got the same thing, we have to earn some money to purchase different kinds. For my weapons however, I am starting with an AR-23 Liberator, and I too am using the auto pistol with frag grenades.” Atlas replied. “Well let's go take a look at the mission console and pick our first drop!”
The two made their way to the holographic board, you can see Super Earth in the middle with two sides. The left was the battle with the automatons and the right was the battle with the terminids. “I heard it’s best that we start with terminids, you cool with that?” Atlas asked.
“You know it.” Zander replied with a patted hand on Atlas’ back.
After some time surfing through the various campaigns and missions, they landed on a civilian extraction mission with a terminid elimination mission on the planet Fenrir III. Both of them agreed on starting with the extraction, to save the people that were there as soon as possible. As soon as Atlas hit the accept button for the mission, the SES Lord of Vigilance flew at lightspeeds to hover in that zone.
*Please enter your hellpods to depart*
Atlas and Zander would lock their feet into the top of the hellpods, and the machinery within had pulled them into the protective casing that will soon be racing at Fenrir III at blazing temperatures. All Atlas could say to himself was “Fuck.”