"you have got to be kidding, man." Jacob said.

He was referring to the helldiver in front of him, mildly scratched up armor, but with a brand new basic issue helldiver cape.

"We got ourselves a rookie. Probably don't even know the difference between a liberator and a diligence yet. Definitely hasn't seen the inside of a Hellpod."

Cadet Kelley Grimes did not reply. He stood on the combat bridge like a statue.

"Hey rookie, you know the difference between a diligence and a liberator?"

Calvin watched the exchange.

"Yo, I'm talking to you." Jacob shoved the cadets shoulder, trying to elicit a response.

"That's enough sergeant Bynez, leave the kid alone." Calvin turned to the newest addition to their team, who was still shivering from the de-icing procedure. Extra helldivers and other crew members were frozen in suspended animation until needed. The procedure cut down on the amount of food the ship needed to carry - allowing for more weaponry and ammunition.

"Why did you join up diver?" Calvin asked.

"To protect Super Earth from her enemies, sir."

Calvin did have to give credit where it was due and the rookie sounded very confident. Calvin made a note to himself to watch this one. Confidence without understanding what threat the automaton menace could pose was a dangerous equation. It would often be fatal and not just to the offending soldier.

"He is here to spread democracy and that's enough proof he belongs here." Calvin said staring a hole through Jacob's helmet.

Jacob Bynez grumbled quietly to himself. Calvin could understand, no diver worth his liberty would want a green rookie watching over their back - Especially when support from the super destroyer was going to be almost non-existent. A mistake made in their current situation would surely cause loss of life, or like in Jacob's recent case, loss of limb.

Democracy officer Gamacho had apparently heard Calvin's comment as he strode into the control center. "I could not agree more. Anyone who would give their life to defend liberty and democracy has an honored place in our prosperous society," he said while approaching the command console. "Is your team ready Death Captain?"

Calvin looked down at the machinery area under the catwalk. He saw once again that there were no extra hellpods. He noted that there would be no supplies past what they took in with them and what they could potentially get at the outpost. They already had a very limited stock of weaponry. If they were any less prepared, they may as well have loaded sticks and rocks into their hellpods.

"As ready as we will ever be, sir." Calvin responded and stepped onto the hellpod in tube one. His feet locked in and he descended into the vehicle. Jacob and Kelley followed suit in tubes two and three.

Calvin did not expect for the lead pod startup cycle to be different, but the control console was already lit up and waiting. The screen prompted him for drop coordinates on a topographical map. Enemy troop and or base concentrations were highlighted in red. Thankfully there wasn't much red at the moment. The only worrying red blotch was to the north-west of their destination. There was little sense in dropping anywhere except into the science facilities so he locked in those coordinates.

Calvin tried thinking through all the things Captain Owens used to say during the pre-launch preparations.

He checked that the liberator was present in the weapon rack. Not his weapon of choice but there was no other diligence ammunition on-board. He had checked three times. Liberators always seemed underpowered against even the slightest of armor plating - which the tinnies had plenty of. It would have to do this time though as all three of the men in this dive would be packing the basic rifle. Calvin had almost brought his empty diligence regardless in the hopes of finding ammunition on the fly, but that wasn't reliable enough to carry essentially dead weight - if not a very expensive club.

The new captain eventually decided what he was going to say.

"Alright gentlemen, standard rescue drop. We are short on supplies so try to conserve ammunition as much as possible. Intelligence briefed the base defenses are Mark two Tesla coils. Those can fry us just as readily as any rust bucket so stay away from the perimeters, and they need power so keep the generator up at any cost."

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Acknowledged." The rookie said.

"Grimes, this is your first drop so you are going down last, I and sergeant Bynez should already be on the ground. Try to keep up." Calvin said. Calvin was just saying things out of the training manual. It paid to be prepared but it was unlikely the bots would be on top of them when they hit the dirt.

"Yes sir." The rookie responded, he sounded young to Calvin, probably not even a few months past eighteen.

"And rookie, you can be golf or you can be kilo, what will it be?"

"I like kilo sir."

Calvin smiled, that's what he would have chosen too. "Alright Kilo Seven it is, Salute your console when you are ready to drop and then it's go time."

The rookies' ready light turned green almost immediately. Calvin initiated the countdown and they were in the express elevator to hell in almost no time.

The familiar red glow of re-entry took over the inside of the cockpit of the tiny craft. Even in the best of situations the sound reentry made on the shell of the hellpod was always terrifying. The shape of the hull created a sort of screaming noise all the way down. It lessened when the retro-rockets triggered but then there was that noise to contend with. Hellpods were not considered a stealth instrument.

"Remember your training manual tips gentlemen, today's is 'Don't Die'." Calvin spoke over the comm. He sighed and shook his head after he read it on his console. Of course this would be the tip of the day. It was very Brasch Tactics. The man could probably put the tip into effect even if shot by a cannon shell. They said in the first galactic war that explosive rockets would bounce off the general's abs. They also said that he once pointed a finger gun at a tank and yelled bang and the tank was destroyed. There were many things people said about the man. He was a Super Earth treasure after all. To Calvin the legends started seeming over the top after his twentieth or so dive on the creek. To die or not to die was not a choice one could just make here, the bots would decide that, and luck.

The Nav console beeped at Calvin. It had switched to control-in-flight mode. Calvin felt the pod lurch as the retro-thrusters activated. He noted the deceleration was much smoother this time when the retros were slowly and properly fired vice set to full throttle from the emergency toggles. He looked down at the console and grabbed the control stick. Calvin looked at an open spot to land below. He did not want to smash into any buildings or personnel unfortunate enough to be under his pod's trajectory so he steered to the outside wall - well enough away from the tesla coils - and instructed his team to do the same.

Calvin landed and heard Democracy Officer Gamacho on the comm. "Go now, and should you fall, remember this: Every day is a good day to die for Democracy." Lines like this were usual for the Democracy Officer of a ship to deliver when the team arrived on mission. Calvin wondered if they were pre-recorded at times.

It was only moments later that all three of the team were on the ground and moving into the center of the compound. They approached the tower in the middle of the arrangement of buildings where several civilians were discussing evacuation protocols. One of the men gathered in the group pointed out the squad as they approached.

"It's the helldivers, thank liberty we are saved!"

Another man waved the other to get back to work and then met the team halfway. "Greetings divers. The scientists and civilians of Freedom's Run are ready to evacuate at your command." Calvin noticed the man speaking was the facilities' Democracy Officer. As such, he gave the man a salute. The Democracy Officer returned the salute.

"We just need to wait for the Pelican to arrive." Calvin checked his mission clock, they had about four minutes until the pelican would arrive on site to pick everyone up and get out of here.

The Democracy Officer made a face as the team got closer. "Do you really expect to be able to do anything with those liberators against these tyrannical toasters? I thought a helldiver team would be more prepared. Is this some kind of joke?"

Calvin fought to keep his tone respectful. "This is all we have right now, and bullets do a heck of a lot more to spread democracy than words."

The Democracy Officer seemed to agree with Calvin's logic as his sour face became a neutral one. "I suppose we have a few weapons in the communications center armory. It's not much, but you can have these weapons so my personnel do not need to risk their lives."

Calvin accepted the offer and they headed to the communications center. The door whooshed open and Calvin could hear all sorts of radio traffic from operations happening nearby. Calvin could even see their rescue pelican on the screen, completing it's re-entry burn. The Democracy Officer continued on and waved for the divers to follow.

Calvins heart sank the second he saw the armory door open. On the ground, next to the first shelf in the room was a large ammunition crate packed with box after box of ammunition. The crate was labeled "diligence". Calvin kicked himself, he wished he had brought his weapon after all. Then he had an idea, maybe there was a rifle in the armory. He pushed his way into the room. There was no such luck.

"If you are looking for the diligence, I'm sorry, we sent it out with our scouts." An armory attendant in Super Earth Armed Forces garb stated. "They didn't bring it back, or themselves."

An alarm blared from the main room. "Uh, sir, the malevelant microwaves are in the move. They are headed this way."

Calvin stepped back into the control room. He looked at the main console screen. "No worries, the pelican will be here before the bots get close enough to pose a threat."

"Do you mean that pelican?" Freedom Runs Democracy Officer pointed out the window to the landing pad. The Pelican was there alright, but so was the cloud of smoke emanating from its starboard engine pod. It was going nowhere, Calvin could see Tak was attempting to put the fire out.

Calvin cursed, Freedom Run's democracy Officer just stared at him.

"Look's like we are going to have to hold out a little longer than we expected gentleman, let's get a look again at your weaponry."