I looked up to the starry black sky and saw one and a half moons along with a very bright sun. The red earth below me was shaking. All I could hear was a loud ringing. A blue light flashed across the sky as it hit the ground far to my side and created a blue mushroom cloud. Right after I saw it, I felt myself be rammed into by a brick wall of air and begin to roll over continuously until finally landing face first into a large ditch. Groaning in pain as my whole body hurt, I began to try and flip myself over. Placing my hands below myself, a skinny black nylon-lookalike space suit encased my hands.
It surprised me that despite the suit surrounding my hands I could still feel the red dirt under them as if they was naked. I began to lift myself up and noticed a blue mini-map with geographical data in the bottom left corner of what I presume was my helmets visor. On the map yellow dots were present one of which was quickly approaching my position. Getting up, my hearing returned and I began to hear muffled sounds, like people speaking in water.
Looking over the desolate landscape I saw a mountain ahead and thousands of bodies a little ahead of me. People wearing black suits like I was and other weirder bodies wearing red suits. Those bodies seem to have six legs attached to their torso. In the distance, the same red suits appeared only alive and well and I was immediately pushed back onto the ground. Tired of eating dirt face first, I turned around angrily to see a slightly more feminine version of the black suit and a yellow visor staring back at me while crouched down next to me in the ditch. It was then that I could barely make out her words.
“What are you doing Rookie! If those bugs see you, they’re going to send another nuke shell straight to your position to kill us both and where the fuck is your weapon!?!?!”
I then realized she was holding what looked like a larger version of an AR-18. Looking around I found a pistol on my side. When I grabbed hold of it I immediately saw at the top right of my visor a translucent image of the gun as well as information such as energy and power output, respectively 98% and 45%. I then began to hear the other muffled sounds.
“This is Squad 437 we require immediate medical sup…”
“Repeat the bugs have taken the valley, request immediate evac and fire support.”
“THE BUGS HAVE FLYS IN THE AIR; WE NEED AIR SU…”
I began to feel overwhelmed when a small message appeared in the top left-mid of the visor.
Automatic System Notification Due to heightened stress the suit AI program will now filter out all but the most relevant comm messages aside from those directed at your person or to your squad.
The sounds of desperation then went away. I looked back up to see the black suit aiming her weapon towards the mountain range and weird translucent yellow light shine and in that direction. Red lights shine towards us hitting the top of the ditch with small explosions as the black suit crouched down. A little box hanged over her black suit displaying her rank, sergeant, and codename, Frostbite.
Frostbite: “Fuck, we need to move now! Those naties are going to message our location to their artillery any second now. On my count jump out of this ditch and head to the trench.”
As I got into a crouching position I saw Frostbite pull what seems to be a gas canister from her left leg. She then began to count. Frostbite: “ONE TWO…” She then threw the canister towards the mountain range “THREE, GO GO GO!” I jumped as fast as I could toward were my mini map displayed a large trench. I then heard an explosion and looking back saw black smoke block out the mountain range. Ahead of me the trench was 400 meters away. When we were about 150 meters red lights were spread all around me. I could hear Frostbite scream “Shit! This thin ass atmosphere is spreading the smoke screen faster than normal.”
Continuing our run, the top left of the visor began to flash red under a small translucent picture of the suit. The energy marker underneath the picture was decreasing rapidly in bursts. Realizing that the energy represented the strength of my shield I then panicked with the sudden epiphany that the red lights were the visors way of representing the normally invisible fire from enemy laser weaponry. Were ever the lasers hit the ground exploded and the only thing remaining was black glass. Thankfully. I was 10 meters away from the trench with 23 energy left in the suit. Most of their shots missed around us thanks to our constant moving and distance. Coming to the trench I jumped in landing hard on my ass. Around us there were three other guys crouching in the trench. On top of them I read their names and ranks; they were all privates as well.
Breathing hard I looked over to Frostbite and she began “Alright ladies, right now the only reason we’re alive is because the naties’ artillery is currently blowing the shit out of the 73rd battalion. I know that right now all of us are fucked up tired but if we don’t get to Mount Red Horse then we’re gonna lose this fight and with it the fucking planet. So man up because were charging that mountain.”
The private with the tag Glaive responded “That’s fucking suicide! You and Rookie over there almost got killed running away! And you want us to charge those things?!” Frostbite grabbed Glaive by the neck of his suit and lifted him 3 inches off the ground while screaming at him “If we don’t take care of that fucking artillery then every one of us is dead anyways along with everyone on this planet! Hundreds of thousands of colonists dead because of your fucking cowardice!”
She then dropped Glaive and he fell down to the ground breathing heavily. “That said our squad commander is dead and I’m open to suggestions. Archer how many bombs you got?” Archer moved toward Frostbite and looked down at the choking Glaive. Shrugging his shoulders he said “I have 5 grenades and 3 mushroom clouds.” Frostbite then looked at the suit tagged Red Tape and asked “how many batteries and smoke screens you got? Also switch out the Rookies, I think that last shell must have broken something in his brain.”
Red Tape made his way to me and grabbed my chest pulling out a box-like device. The suits power quickly dropped to 5 as he replaced the box, or battery I assume, and my energy shot back up to 100. Red Tape motioned towards his back and said “Sorry Sarge, I’ve only got 4 batteries left and 1 smoke in my backpack.” Frostbite quickly cursed. I found on my leg the same canister Frostbite used earlier and, looking around, I noticed I was the only one.
The Sergeant was growing desperate and said “we don’t have enough to even get near to that mountain. So we will use Tape’s smoke to get us close and afterwards Rookie uses his smoke and we split up. The smoke screen spreads fast so before 45 seconds are up we find a ditch and try to get as many hits as we can. After the battle earlier there’s only 15 to 20 left.”
Glaive, after recovering from being throttled cried out “that’s insane! If we split up they might not bomb us but they sure as fuck are going to pick us out one by one. Also, those bugs are all in fortified positions!” A mood of despair struck me as Red Tape began to pace around, Archer began to sit down, and the sergeant began to mutter cursers only lightly heard through the helmets comm. I then got up and looked towards the mountain and saw a tag over it, “Red Horse.” Without thinking I muttered under my breath “there’s another way.” Instantly everyone looked over. “Shit Rookie, I thought your comm was just damaged but I guess the shelling must of really broken something in there. So let’s hear it.” Coaxing me, Frostbite leaned against the earthen walls of the trench.
With the unusual amount of attention I still managed to stutter out “We… we should charge like Frostbite suggested but instead of splitting up on the second smoke we can just grab more smoke screens from the dead bodies in the battlefield. They were approximately 75 meters from my last position. Then we use a few more smokes to get close and form two groups. Tape and Archer slow down and go towards the left and the rest find a ditch for cover. We then use the remaining smokes randomly to obfuscate Archer and Tape’s flanking maneuver. Meanwhile we will be shooting at the… bugs. The bugs focus on us while Archer and Tape Flank em, blowing them up with grenades.” Having said all this I began to feel embarrassment for speaking so far out of my depth. Thankfully they probably can’t see my face through the visor… probably.
Frostbite straightened her posture while the others slowly got up. “Rookie, that shelling must of made you either smarter or crazier. It’s a risky plan but it’s better than dying. Alright, hand me your smoke. Considering you had your gun’s safety on this entire time I don’t exactly trust you with it.” I then panicked and quickly looked at the pistol a little switch on the side was pointed towards engrave writing saying “Safe.” I quickly shifted the switch to “Live.” The picture of the gun on my visor changed to a translucent red color.
I handed Frostbite the smoke and she threw it at Archer and Red Tape did the same. Frostbite then asked Archer “what’s the max range on your launcher?” Archer replied “Oh this bad boy?” He started to ‘pet’ his gun, which looked like Frostbite’s except with another larger barrel underneath. “It’s rated for 225 meters back on Earth but considering the lessened gravity and atmosphere it should reach 250 meters.”
“Alright, if we double time it we can get to the bodies before the smoke screen spreads. Soon as we do, scavenge as many smokes from the bodies as you can and everyone needs at least three. Set your weapons power output to 100 and pick up another from the battlefield. We move on my count and Archer hold back on the smoke until my signal, everyone got it?” The Sergeant looked around her squad finding nods of approval.
I quickly brought my attention to the image of the gun on my visor and silently cursed about having no idea on how to change the settings. However, soon as my attention was on the power output it increased in size and began to slide up to 100 and then shrunk back. Having very little idea on how it works, I was thankful that it did. Frostbite began counting, “On three, one, two…” Before she finished the rest of the squad made a motion to jump over the trench’s wall. “Three! Go, Go, Go!” I quickly jumped out and ran behind them.
A few seconds went by and red lights started to dance around us. One of the lasers was about to hit my armor but a blue light, about 2 centimeters from my suit blocked it. The energy marker quickly decreased to 93 though. Frostbite gestured toward Archer, “Now!” Archer took one of the smokes placing it in the bottom barrel of his gun and fired it towards the mountain. A plume of black smoke covered the area and we ran with everything we had towards it. Every few meters there were craters left behind around us. Coming to our front there was a small hill and as we climbed it we spotted a six meter crater on the other side.
Frostbite: “We don’t have time to go around, jump it!” Archer, Glaive, and Frostbite in front of me jumped forwards and made to the other side. Red Tape and I both jumped together and somehow made it to the other side while rolling forwards. We quickly got up and started to run after the others. I am so tired of eating dirt. In front of us the black smoke screen was clearing; I could see red lights hitting the smoke and being absorbed.
The smoke was clearing a lot faster than before. Frostbite cursed “Their using their lasers to spread the smoke faster. Archer, ready the next smoke.” Archer began to fit the other smoke into his gun. We were about 300 meters from the bodies when the red lights started to dance around us again. Archer then aimed and fired the last smoke. Everyone was breathing heavily. I ran faster than I ever did in my life. Jumping over the ditch that saved my life I saw the nearest body. It had a smoke but was 50 meters away and the smoke was clearing fast.
The ground began to exploded around us. Glaive in front of me howled, “My batteries almost dead! Tape give me one of yours!” Red Tape tossed him a battery when the laser fire broke through the shield with electrostatic charge going everywhere and hit Glaive on his side making him scream, “fuck me!” He fell down on the ground. Sergeant picked him up and Archer stated shooting his weapon to provide some covering fire. Red Tape brought out of what seemed to be a med kit some… red tape. I couldn’t help but think to myself that he must have some seriously bad naming sense.
I continued to run as fast as I could towards the body. My suits energy was down to 17. I got hit by another laser right to the face. My shield energy was down to 8. Approaching the body I dived onto it grabbing the smoke. I then pulled the release pin and tossed it as far as I could, 75 meters. As it was exploded in the distance I couldn’t help but feel jubilant at not only surviving but the best throw of my life. Archer quickly retorted “man that was a bad throw. You should have given it to sarge, she can do 150 meters easy.” Red tape then looked at Glaive “can you walk?” Glaive got off of sarge and started to walk, “yea, this suit is pumping me so full of adrenaline and pain killers that if I don’t, I’m pretty sure I’ll explode or sarge will strangle me to death, whichever is faster.” Frostbite quickly interrupted “knock it off guys we only got 20 seconds before things get hot again. Scavenge what you can. Glaive and Rookie when you’re done scavenging meet me at that ditch 30 meters ahead. I’m going to throw another smoke to give us a bit more time scavenging but afterwards split up and follow the plan.”
Frostbite quickly ran to another body and appropriated its smoke, tossing it as soon as the last was beginning to clear. I looted dead bodies getting 5 smokes and 4 batteries. Interestingly enough, placing the objects on the side of my thigh or arm attaches them. I replaced my old batter to receive 100 energy in my suit. I also found what looked like a M107 anti-material rifle and holstered my pistol. Running to the ditch with my new favorite weapon, I joined Glaive and Frostbite, who were already there. Archer and Red Tape were far to our left. Soon enough the smoke started to clear. Sarge then said on comm, Archer, Tape move out.” She then threw 3 smokes; two in random directions and one in the line of sight for Archer and Red Tape’s team.
As the smoke finished clearing small explosions encircled us. I checked to see if the rifles safety was on before joining Glaive and Frostbite in harassing enemy positions. Aiming the rifle a new display came up, the display unfortunately didn’t magnify at all but as soon as I put the enemy in the cross hairs and thought about shooting them, it zoomed in. The bugs were dug into ditches of their own carrying weaponry similar to ours only longer and leaner. The display gave me the distance to the targets, 153 meters, and refraction rate, .05. They were damn close, we could run that distance. There were four ditches in total with 4-5 bugs per. looking at a bug in the distance, Frostbite took a shot at it’s head and electrostatic exploded from its suit. I then shot towards his head but before I pulled the trigger I felt the gun be nudged slightly to the right. I fired and hit the bug right in the head, destroying it and releasing green goo everywhere. Frostbite praised “nice shot Rookie! Got him just when the shield came down.”
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
I continued to fire into their positions only to hit their shields. Frostbite threw out another round of smokes. My suits energy ran to the low single digit so I crouched down and replaced the battery. Aiming the gun again I saw another one’s shield come down, this time though I didn’t feel the nudge and missed, hitting his torso instead. He went down for a few seconds before recovering and getting back up. I then noticed in another ditch one of the bugs standing up with a pear shaped device in his hands. I aimed for it and after feeling the nudge again shot it, exploding him and his companions to Neverland.
I kept lobbing shots off when in the distance Archer and Tape emerge from the smoke tossing a grenade at one of the other ditches, killing five bugs in the process. In the remaining two ditches the last nine bugs immediately got up and ran full sprint to us. Frostbite then commanded “They’re charging, take out your knifes.” She then reached for her shoulder and pulled out a silver 6 inch Bowie Knife that seemed to glow at the point. I reached for my shoulder taking out the same. Immediately the display changed and on the top right a knife with an energy marker showed.
Archer and Tape threw out another grenade and caught two of the bugs. The other seven were now 35 meters away and approaching fast. Archer then said on comms “get ready boys, it’s gonna be a ‘goo-fest.’” She threw a smoke 10 meters ahead, covering us all inside of it. Getting up, I ran towards the right. After having played so many shooters I’ve learned that attacking head on gets a person killed. Sneaking around were I think the bugs should be, I heard a low chirping noise along with what seemed to be someone clicking their tongue. In the black cloud there was an outline of a person with six legs. Coming up behind it, I stabbed at its head. It pierced through the armor, electrostatic exploding everywhere. I recovered my knife as the now lifeless body fell to the ground.
Continuing onwards I found another bug. However, this time it saw me too. Charging at me with what looked like a sword in its left hand, I readied myself placing my knife ahead of me. It swung at my knife hand and as I quickly retracted and side stepped to its right. It began to turn around slowly, it must take it time to coordinate all those legs in a motion aside from forward. I stabbed to its side and continued to walk around it. It chirped in what I presume to be pain. Green goo covered my hand as I stabbed it again and again near the same place. Slowing it down even more, I approached the bug from behind and pierced its head. It felt down after clicking its tongue.
The smoke cleared. In the distance I saw the sergeant surrounded by two bodies and beating the hell out of a third on the ground. I also saw Glaive extract a… glaive from one of the dead bodies around him. I’m starting to think there might be more to this name thing going on. Meeting up with the others covered in green goo, they looked at me. Frostbite laughed “Guess you’re not a Rookie anymore, we get through this and I’ll change your codename. Maybe something with green in it?” I began to look at her in horror and replied, “can’t I name myself?” She rebuked “tags are given, Rookie, now don’t you worry I’ll give you something nice.” The others began to snicker. Frostbite in a bit of a jubilant mood, having beaten death after all, said “enough relaxing. Once the bugs figure out their guards are dead they will send a detachment to protect the artillery. Hell, they probability already have. So grab what you can because we are going to run up that mountain.”
I looked around and grabbed a few more smokes and batteries from the dead bodies around me. Joining the others I couldn’t help but feel exhaustion looking up two kilometers of rock and dirt. Glaive then turned towards sergeant and asked “what’s the play?” Frostbite looked at us and said “don’t know, there’s no intel on enemy forces up there except that there is one artillery emplacement left after the last bombing run. Could be only the operator is left, pray to your divinities that it’s true.”
Like a child Glaive kicked the ground. They all understood the risk but also the stakes, even I have a sense of urgency. We began to climb the mountain, five minutes in we started to see a clearing with a few rocks and boulders randomly strewn about. Once we were 50 meters from it, the bugs sprang their trap. Focusing fire on me they broke through my shield and blew a crater in my right shoulder. Pain throbbed forward and I screamed every profanity known to me. Frostbite tossed a smoke giving us cover. A pear shaped device fell on our previous position as everyone took cover, exploding into a blue plume. Red tape changed out my battery and started to patch me up after dragging me behind a boulder. I immediately began to feel extremely light, as if the pain was gone. I’ve never ran a marathon before but in that instance I thought I could run two back to back without breaking a sweat.
Red Tape looked towards me and asked “can you get up?” I then jumped up lighter than a feather. He then responded “First time, huh? Drink plenty of water the hangover is pretty bad. Anyways can you still shoot? If not stay back here.” I took out my rifle. I then noticed the power output in the display was at 75. Soon as my attention was drawn, it shifted to 100, I am seriously loving this suit. Grabbing the gun’s handle with my left arm, I tried to balance it with my right but I simply couldn’t put any force with my right arm.
Soon enough I put it away and took out my pistol with my left. The smoke was clearing up. Frostbite spoke up, “We have to hurry up. Their detachment will be here any minute. I’m gonna toss another smoke and then we melee them.” Glaive interjected, “there’s no way we will win that fight, and they got the higher ground and terrain advantage. Also there’s five of them and Rookie won’t be able to do anything in that kind of a fight.” Feeling unnaturally charismatic, I interjected “how about we throw all our grenades and smokes behind them. Not necessarily to kill them but to force them to come towards us. Then we pick them off one by one.”
Frostbite looked at me, “two crazy ideas in one day, you’re on fire Rookie. We make it out of this and we will buy you a drink on Valkyrie Station. Everyone get ready to toss everything and make sure the pin is still on the smokes, the last thing I want is to give them cover to return to.” Archer grunted “Hope those bastards enjoy the taste of mushrooms.” The smoke cleared and we lobbed everything we got behind the bugs. They immediately got out of their cover and ran towards us. We focused fire on the first bug taking its life quickly. The second bug was about to throw a grenade of its own when the shockwaves from our grenades forced him to the ground. The other three ran to the large stones in the area to get some semblance of cover.
Boom, and with a blue plume there were only three left. Archer and Glaive began to circle left while Red Tape and Frostbite circled right. I remained in this position. Surrounded the remaining bugs were easily picked off. We got together again and we started to move upwards to a plateau. There several large devices with huge barrels and stools at the end were melted through. Another was periodically shooting blue lights with a bug on the stool. Huge blue mushroom clouds could be seen in the distance. We began to shoot at it but before it got up to defend itself two of its legs exploded.
I approached the last artillery emplacement. I heard small chirping sounds coming the bug. On the device was a display of a geographical map with black boxes and a few gray triangle. The bugs must be color blind. Archer was making his way around the device placing heavy explosives. I looked towards Frostbite and asked, “can we use this?” She stared at me with her head tilted and said “this should have been covered in basic training. Only bugs can use this device and if a human so much as touches the controls it would explode.”
I looked towards her with a smile and said “we got a bug right here.” Sergeant looked at the half dead bug and responded “if the artillery AI thinks you’re a traitor it will blow up anyways... Then again, we’re losing this fight regardless, so were fucked either way.” A moment of hesitation passed through the group. I could hear low muffled curses coming from Glaive as he apparently resigned himself to an early grave. Frostbite broke the silence saying, “right now we don’t have many choices. This is probably one of the more shitty options but at least there some hope of making it back home. No matter what happens, here or afterwards, we stick together. Go ahead crazy, make it work.” After the speech I felt motivated but also couldn’t help but feel as if I was missing something. I grabbed the hands of the bug, they had two large fingers and one huge opposable thumb. Placing the hands a joystick I moved a cross hairs on a screen to the location of the squares near what appears to be the front lines. Firing in the hopes that the AI won’t immediately assume the worst.
The device rocked back a bit as a light flew fast to the plains below. Another mushroom cloud exploded. I fired two more times and decided not to push the AI anymore. Looking at the display I also saw 50 squares approaching our position. Frostbite took out her knife and finished off the barely living bug. “Archer, time it for three minutes. Let’s head out, were going to the main encampment of the 73rd, what’s left of it anyways. Looks like the general wants to talk to us.”
Red Tape laughed, “hear that Glaive? We might finally be able to get off this rock. How many months did they extend your tour by? Six? Seven?” Glaive sighed. “Eight, at fucking last.” We quickly began to run down the mountain, being careful not to fall. Soon enough red lights and explosions started to surround our step. Frostbite asked Archer “how much time left?” Archer smirked, “5 seconds. Get ready, it’s gonna be a kicker.” Behind me 3 large explosions could be seen and another wall of air hit me. I crashed face first into the ground, tasting my own blood. I am so tired of this planet.
Frostbite helped me up while the others laughed. “Be careful, or you might just get named dirt eater.” Red Tape commented. Frostbite responded while holding in laughter “lay off the Rookie, we all ate dirt once. Let’s go home.” Half an hour later we were passing large craters with bodies everywhere. Then we came up to a trench filled with wounded and medics. Jumping over I saw a large circle of metal trees with no leaves and a circumference of at least a kilometer. Passing between them little bits of electric charge came off our suits.
From there we headed forwards to the encampment of the 73rd battalion with tents and people everywhere. Nightfall was coming quick as the sun began to set and oddly enough the sky turned blue. Reaching the generals tent, or at least the biggest, we entered and saw several men around a display table having a heated argument about whether to march or not. A man wearing a tight fitted officer uniform/suit motioned his hand to bring the group to a halt. My squad mates immediately saluted and I followed. His visor was down so I can make clear African American facial features but with a straight nose, mustache, and a very short haircut. He had a Tag of General and name of Wolf Eater.
He immediately said “At ease.” Everyone placed their arms down and I followed. “So, you’re the squad that saved all our asses, huh? Capturing and destroying enemy NUCLEAR artillery but not before firing it at the front lines. You know you guys nearly killed half my men? Thankfully, everyone was already in cover when your mushrooms came down.” Frostbite interrupted, “sir I can explain. In the situ…” The general motioned for her to stop and responded, “relax sergeant, even if I wanted to do something, I can’t, higher ups want to make you all heroes for saving our asses down here. I for one am thankful as well. There’s a Stork on a landing pad behind this tent, you’re to take it to Valkyrie Station and meet with Admiral Glass. Dismissed.”
Leaving the tent behind, I saw a large 13 meter oval ship with short and very sharp angled wings. Entering the ship through a rear cargo bay door, there were some soldiers inside pods attached to medical equipment surrounded by medics. I sat next to my squad mates in the attached seating on the side of the ship. They began pull down their visors. Frostbite was a beauty with strong Germanic features and a blonde Mohawk pony tail combo. Archer, had a darker complexion with a mix of Native American and Mexican features combined with a short spiky haircut. Red Tape was the biggest ginger I’ve ever seen with more polka dots than a cheetah and extremely red combed hair. Lastly, Glaive had distinct Asian features and looked to be a mix of Korean and Chinese. I also pulled my visor down.
Soon enough everyone had a creepy grin as they looked at me and Archer said “happy Birthday. Frostbite, what are we going to name him? My vote is for Dirt Eater.” Frostbite, then retorted “now, now, I promised to be nice remember? How about… Bug Slayer.” Everyone started to laugh and I could feel my face redden. I immediately responded “come on! Your making me sound like a fucking pesticide!” My visible agony only made them laugh more. Red Tape added “Bug Slayer, I like it, I’ll make sure to buy it when I get home.”
The ship captain came on comm alerting us that take off was in 30 seconds. After laughing it off, Frostbite congratulated me “Good job Rookie, or should I say Bug Slayer, you made it through your first tour. Anyways it takes one week to get to Valkyrie Station so watch out for the glass.” I immediately realized that everyone was strapped in, including the medical personnel on the other side. The pods for the wounded were also closed. Then the captain came on comm to alert us that we are launching. Almost immediately a glass tube fell around me and I was flash frozen.
A notification came up.
Game Notification Congratulations! You have successfully finished and survived the prelude chapter to Quantum Unity! The tutorial will now begin or you can log out and wait 24 hours to awaken in Valkyrie Station. You can log back in before that at any point to begin/continue the tutorial. You currently have 37 game notifications stored in your inbox, would you like to review them now? If so, simply think or say ‘open inbox.’
I began to think of logging out and another notification came up asking if I was sure. I immediately said yes. Logging out of the game I couldn’t help but think about what happen while wanting… more.