Agonizing screams bellowed from the lips of dying soldiers. Electrical fires burned on the wreckage of the downed A-37 troop transport airship, somehow unhindered by the toxic deluge plummeting from dark violet clouds and bombarding the surface of the planet. One man, silent and unmoving, stared at the ominous clouds through a windowed section of debris that planted itself in the mud inches from his outstretched right arm. The large piece of debris angled out of the ground, protecting him from the toxic downpour. Since both of his legs broke when he fell out of the ship, all he could do was wait for hunger to sap his life away or acid rain to burn through the debris and melt his body trapped within his offline L-9 Paladin battle armor. Perhaps the ones who suffered a quick death were the lucky ones.

Another explosion shook the skies in the distance. Apparently, the operation to destroy the enemy shipyard still raged a few kilometers off, though it would definitely end with humanity’s defeat. The countless casualties within the first few minutes of engagement made that obvious.

Weakened and miserable, the man’s consciousness faded. Sharp pain in his legs forced him awake hours later in near darkness. The dual suns that the planet orbited had both set below opposite horizons, and all the electrical fires died down long ago.

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Rain continued to pelt the window above him. Perhaps the chemical-resistant coating on all the ships worked better than he thought. The dull pitter-patter and subsequent trickling of the toxic precipitation was all he could hear aside from his occasional groans, eventually drowning all thoughts into a pit of despair until the oblivion of unconsciousness swallowed him again.

He floated in a near-death state until a sudden impact pulled him from the dark sea of nothingness. For some reason, he was on his stomach now, visor planted in the dark purple clay which comprised most of the surface of the planet. A groan of anguish escaped his lips. His legs felt contorted and twisted. The low-pitched chittering and clacking above him, reverberating through the air like wood scraping against metal spokes, barely registered in his mind. Next thing he knew, something hoisted his limp body from the ground by the neck brace of his armor. He screamed. Pain surged through his shattered legs. Within seconds of being dragged across the ground, he fainted, not even noticing that the rain had stopped.