The ship vibrated as it approached Laxos, the engines straining against the planet’s gravitational pull. Sahaad stood near the observation window, his gaze fixed on the ice-covered behemoth below. Laxos was an awe-inspiring sight, an ice giant orbiting twin stars that bathed its surface in a haunting, golden light. The ice shimmered with an ethereal glow, and atop the frozen expanse, massive floating cities loomed like sentinels of a dying civilization.
But the skies above Laxos were a battlefield.
Sahaad's eyes narrowed as he watched the clash between the Entil’s massive warships and the Federation’s fleet. The Entil vessels were marvels of engineering and artistry, their curved hulls adorned with religious iconography etched in glowing cyan. Massive spires jutted from their frames, radiating light like the temples of ancient gods. Against them, the Federation’s warships looked brutal and pragmatic, all sharp angles and raw power. The skies were aflame with the exchange of fire, streaks of plasma and missile trails cutting through the void in brilliant arcs.
"Magnificent, isn’t it?" Ji said, stepping up beside him. His voice held no admiration—just the cold, calculated tone of someone assessing an enemy.
"Magnificent, and irrelevant," Sahaad replied, turning to face the squad. "Those warships are just a distraction. Our mission is down there." He pointed toward the shimmering ice world below, his tone brooking no argument.
The squad nodded silently. Their target was the defense array—a critical system buried deep within one of the Entil cities. Once destroyed, the Federation would have an open path to annihilate the Entil homeworld.
Sahaad motioned toward the drop pods lined up in the ship’s hold. "Get to your pods. We launch in five."
The Imperators moved without hesitation, each stepping into the coffin-like drop pods. These small, heavily-armored capsules were designed to breach planetary atmospheres at incredible speeds, delivering soldiers directly into hostile territory.
Sahaad secured himself into his pod, the harness tightening across his chest. The interior was claustrophobic, the walls lined with displays showing telemetry and mission data.
"Prepare for deployment," the ship’s automated voice droned.
Through his pod’s small viewport, Sahaad caught one last glimpse of the battle raging above Laxos. For a brief moment, he thought of Kato and the countless others who had fallen in missions like this one. He pushed the thought aside. There was no room for sentiment now.
"Launch in three… two… one."
The pods jettisoned from the ship in rapid succession, hurtling toward the planet below. The roar of the atmosphere tearing past the capsules filled Sahaad’s ears. Through the shaking and turbulence, he maintained his focus, reviewing the mission objectives one last time.
As the pods broke through Laxos’s atmosphere, the golden light from the twin stars gave way to the cold, pale blue of the ice world. Alarms blared as anti-aircraft fire from the Entil defenses lit up the sky.
Sahaad gritted his teeth, his muscles straining as he forced his pod to veer sharply to the right, narrowly avoiding a streaking missile. The atmosphere outside was ablaze, lit by the relentless barrage of Entil anti-aircraft fire. The pod rattled violently with every maneuver, and Sahaad’s focus was singular: survival.
"Operate your pods manually!" he barked through the comms, his voice cutting through the chaos. "Dodge those missiles or you're dead!"
"Affirmative!" came the simultaneous replies, each voice calm and resolute despite the deadly situation.
Sahaad slammed his weight into the side of his pod, causing it to roll in mid-air and narrowly dodge another incoming projectile. The explosion behind him sent a shockwave that rattled his teeth, but he pressed on, forcing the pod into another evasive turn. The others followed suit, their genetically enhanced bodies allowing them to manipulate the heavy pods with brute strength. One by one, they twisted and turned, avoiding the fiery streaks of destruction cutting through the sky.
For a moment, Sahaad thought they might all make it. But then the alarm in his helmet began to blare, and a rapid blinking on the life monitor caught his attention.
"Sia!" Nate’s voice roared through the comms, raw and panicked. "Sia’s been hit!"
Sahaad’s blood ran cold. Through the chaos, he glanced at his pod’s external display and saw it: a fireball spiraling out of control, the remains of Sia’s pod plummeting toward the icy surface below. The missile had struck her directly, tearing through her pod and engulfing it in a violent explosion.
"Report!" Sahaad demanded, his voice sharp, but there was no response from Sia.
The silence on the comms was deafening. Nate’s breathing was heavy, labored, as if he were struggling to contain his emotions.
"Keep moving!" Sahaad commanded, his tone unyielding. "We’ll assess the situation when we land!"
But inside, a knot of guilt twisted in his chest. He had seen the missile heading for him and made the split-second decision to dodge, unknowingly leaving Sia in its path.
He slammed his weight into the pod once more, using the explosion of a nearby missile to propel himself faster toward the planet’s surface. The heat and pressure battered him, but his body—designed to endure the unimaginable—held firm.
As his pod hurtled closer to the ice-covered ground, Sahaad forced his mind to focus. They were not safe yet. The mission had to come first, even as the loss of Sia weighed heavily on him.
"Brace for impact," he said, his voice colder than he intended.
Moments later, his pod slammed into the surface with a deafening crash, ice and debris scattering in all directions. The impact jarred his body, but he quickly unbuckled himself and pushed the hatch open, stepping out onto the frozen expanse.
The rest of the squad’s pods landed nearby, their impacts shaking the ground. One by one, the others emerged, their faces grim. Nate’s expression was unreadable, but his fists were clenched tightly as he approached Sahaad.
"Sia’s gone," he said, his voice low but seething with barely-contained anger.
Sahaad approached the wreckage of Sia’s drop pod, his heavy footsteps crunching against the scorched ice. Flames flickered weakly amidst the twisted metal, the acrid stench of burning fuel and flesh hanging thick in the air. He hesitated for a moment, steeling himself before stepping closer.
Nate appeared beside him, silent but grim. Together, they pulled at the mangled edges of the pod, the searing heat barely registering against their augmented bodies.
What they uncovered was a sight neither could prepare for. Sia's body lay crumpled against the pod’s interior, her armor charred black and fused to her flesh in places. Her once-pristine tan skin was mottled with blistered burns and deep cracks where the heat had split it open, revealing raw, darkened tissue beneath.
Her face was barely recognizable—her visor shattered, her expression frozen in a grimace of pain. One eye had been destroyed entirely, the other glazed over, staring blankly into nothing. Her hair, once tied neatly in a regulation bun, was reduced to brittle, singed strands clinging to her blackened scalp.
Sahaad clenched his jaw, his enhanced senses taking in every gruesome detail with painful clarity. He noticed her hands, curled tightly into fists, as if she had fought against her fate even in her final moments.
Some of her skin regenerated over, forming what seemed to be tumors all over her body, but the damage was too much for the regeneration. It didn’t help that her brain must have been rattled from the explosion.
“Sia…” Nate muttered, his voice a rare tremor of emotion. He knelt beside Sahaad, his usually sharp demeanor dulled by the sight.
With great care, they lifted Sia’s corpse, her body stiff and fragile from the intense heat. Pieces of charred armor crumbled away as they moved her, leaving trails of ash that were quickly swept away by the icy winds.
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“Leave her body here, the cold should prevent any rot. We will come back after the mission to retrieve her.”, Sahaad ordered, as Ji laid her body to rest next to the smoldering pod.
"You knew she was behind you!" Nate snapped, stepping closer. "You—"
"Enough," Zara interrupted, placing a firm hand on Nate’s shoulder. Her gaze met Sahaad’s, and for a moment, there was a flicker of understanding between them.
Sahaad exhaled slowly, suppressing the guilt gnawing at him. "This isn’t the time," he said, his voice firm. "We have a mission to complete. Let’s move."
The squad nodded reluctantly, their grief buried beneath years of training and discipline. Sahaad turned his attention to the towering spires of the Entil city in the distance. The defense array awaited them, and with it, the fate of the Entil civilization.
But as they marched across the icy terrain, Sahaad couldn’t shake the image of Sia’s pod exploding in the atmosphere above. Another loss, another burden to carry.
The icy expanse of Laxos stretched before them, jagged and glistening under the cold light of the twin stars. The Imperators moved in a tight formation, their footsteps crunching against the frozen ground. Sahaad’s sharp gaze scanned the horizon, alert for any signs of ambush.
It didn’t take long.
A streak of white broke the monotony of the landscape, followed by the sharp crack of energy weapons. Entil soldiers, clad in their pristine white armor adorned with intricate, glowing patterns, emerged from the ice formations ahead. They opened fire, their weapons emitting brilliant arcs of blue plasma.
"Cover!" Sahaad barked.
The squad reacted instantly, their reflexes honed by centuries of training. Zara and Nate dove behind a jagged slab of ice, returning fire with their heavy artillery. Massive bolts of plasma and concussive rounds blasted forth, shattering ice and forcing the Entil soldiers to scatter.
“They’re trying to pin us down!” Ji shouted, rolling to avoid a streaking plasma shot.
Before Sahaad could respond, a high-pitched whine filled the air. He turned just in time to see a group of Entil racers barreling toward them. The riders were mounted on sleek, hover-bikes, their lances glowing with deadly energy. The bikes zipped across the frozen terrain at blinding speeds, leaving trails of frost in their wake.
“Entil racers!” Sahaad called out. “Focus fire on the riders—don’t let them close in!”
The Imperators quickly adjusted their aim, but the racers were impossibly fast, weaving between incoming fire with practiced precision. One racer angled his lance toward Nate and charged, the weapon crackling with volatile energy.
Nate sidestepped at the last moment, his enhanced reflexes allowing him to grab the lance mid-strike. With a grunt of effort, he yanked the rider off the bike and slammed him into the ice with bone-shattering force. The bike spun out of control, exploding in a fiery burst.
Zara fired a concussive round at an oncoming racer, the impact sending the hover-bike careening into another, both erupting into flames.
“They’re regrouping!” Ji shouted, pointing to a cluster of racers circling around for another charge.
Sahaad’s mind raced as he evaluated the situation. The Entil soldiers on foot continued to fire from cover, while the racers kept the Imperators on the defensive. It was a coordinated assault, designed to overwhelm them through sheer speed and precision.
“Zara, Nate—suppress the soldiers! Ji, with me! We’re taking down those racers!”
Sahaad and Ji sprinted toward the circling bikes, their enhanced speed allowing them to close the distance faster than the racers anticipated. As a bike zipped past, Sahaad leaped, his powerful legs propelling him onto the vehicle. The rider turned in shock, but Sahaad was faster, driving his fist into the Entil’s helmet with enough force to shatter it.
Ji followed suit, vaulting onto another bike and dispatching its rider with a precise strike to the neck. The two Imperators now controlled two of the hover-bikes, which they steered toward the remaining racers.
“Let’s give them a taste of their own tactics,” Ji said with a rare grin.
The two sped through the fray, using the bikes’ speed to outmaneuver the remaining racers. Ji rammed his vehicle into another, sending it tumbling into the ice. Sahaad fired his sidearm with deadly accuracy, picking off riders as they tried to evade.
Meanwhile, Zara and Nate’s heavy fire decimated the Entil soldiers on foot, their defensive positions obliterated by the sheer firepower of the Imperators’ weapons.
Within minutes, the battlefield fell silent, save for the crackling remains of the destroyed hover-bikes. Sahaad dismounted, his boots crunching against the icy ground as he surveyed the aftermath.
“Regroup,” he ordered, his voice steady.
The squad gathered, their breathing heavy but controlled. Nate glanced at the smoldering wreckage of a bike and let out a low whistle.
“They’re getting desperate, throwing everything they’ve got at us,” he said.
“They know we’re here for the defense array,” Zara replied. “If we take it down, the Federation will crush them.”
Sahaad nodded, his expression grim. “No time to waste. Let’s move.”
The squad trudged through the biting cold of Laxos, their breaths forming small clouds in the frigid air. The towering spires of the Entil defense array loomed closer, their intricate designs barely visible through the icy haze.
Nate broke the silence, his voice sharp and filled with anger. “We shouldn’t even be here. If you’d been a better leader, Sahaad, we wouldn’t have lost Sia. We wouldn’t be down to four.”
The words cut through the cold like a blade. Sahaad stopped in his tracks and turned to face Nate, his expression stony.
“You think I don’t feel her loss?” Sahaad said, his tone dangerously calm. “You think I wanted this? Every decision I’ve made has been to keep this squad alive!”
Nate scoffed, stepping closer to Sahaad. “Don’t lie to me. You care about yourself more than you care about any of us. You push us harder, put us in situations we can barely survive, and for what? So you can play the hero?”
“...”
“Even that day a century ago, you left us alone, facing that warrior and Kato paid the price. Of course you had to hog all the glory and dealt the finishing blow.”
Sahaad’s jaw tightened, his hands clenching into fists. “Watch your mouth, Nate. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I know enough!” Nate snapped. “You’ve been reckless since day one. Maybe you don’t deserve to be in this squad, let alone lead it.”
That was the final straw. Sahaad lunged at Nate, his enhanced strength propelling him forward. The two collided, fists flying as they grappled in the snow. Sahaad managed to land a few hits, but Nate’s sheer brute force quickly turned the tide.
Nate slammed Sahaad into the ground, pinning him with one knee. “Face it, Sahaad,” Nate growled. “You’re not invincible. You’re not even close.”
Before the situation could escalate further, Ji and Zara rushed in, pulling the two apart.
“Enough!” Zara barked, her voice commanding. “We don’t have time for this!”
Ji stood between them, his calm demeanor masking his frustration. “Save the arguing for after the mission. Right now, we need to focus, or none of us are making it out of here alive.”
Sahaad wiped blood from the corner of his mouth, his anger simmering but under control. Nate glared at him, breathing heavily, but he stepped back.
“Fine,” Nate said curtly. “But this isn’t over.”
Sahaad nodded, his expression unreadable. “Let’s move.”
The city of Axiol-ah spread out before them, a sprawling network of jagged architecture carved into the icy surface of Laxos. The Entil's signature artistry was evident even in their militarized structures—each building gleamed with a crystalline beauty, but the fortified turrets and armored vehicles patrolling the streets betrayed its purpose as a stronghold.
Sahaad crouched behind a ridge of ice, scanning the city with his enhanced optics. “Most of the guards are on the frontlines, but there are still enough soldiers inside to pose a problem,” he said, his tone brisk. “We need a distraction to draw them away.”
Nate shifted beside him, gripping his railgun. “You want me to take the shot, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Sahaad replied without hesitation. “Target one of the tanks in the center of the formation. The explosion should draw enough attention for us to slip inside.”
Nate frowned, the tension from their earlier argument still evident in his expression. “Fine. But don’t act like this is some genius plan. It’s just loud and reckless—your specialty.”
Ignoring the jab, Sahaad motioned for the others to stay low. “Once the chaos starts, we move fast. No stopping until we’re inside the city. Understood?”
Zara and Ji nodded silently, their weapons at the ready.
With a grunt, Nate hoisted his railgun, its coils humming with energy as it charged. He aimed carefully, the massive weapon glowing faintly as arcs of electricity danced along its barrel.
“Firing,” Nate muttered, pulling the trigger.
The railgun discharged with a deafening crack, sending a bolt of lightning hurtling toward its target. The impact was instantaneous and catastrophic—one of the Entil tanks erupted in a brilliant explosion, shards of metal and flames scattering across the street.
The blast set off a chain reaction, igniting nearby fuel reserves and vehicles. The city’s serene atmosphere was shattered as alarms blared, and Entil soldiers scrambled to respond to the sudden attack.
“Move!” Sahaad barked, leading the charge down the ridge.
They sprinted through the chaos, their armored boots crunching against the icy ground. The distraction worked perfectly—Entil troops abandoned their posts to investigate the explosions, leaving key access points unguarded.
The squad ducked into an alleyway, avoiding a patrol of hover-drones scanning the streets. Sahaad glanced over his shoulder to ensure everyone was still with him. “Good work, Nate,” he said grudgingly.
Nate smirked, though his tone remained clipped. “Don’t thank me yet. We’re still in enemy territory.”
“We’ll manage,” Sahaad replied, his confidence unwavering. “We always do.”
They pressed deeper into Axiol-ah, their eyes set on the looming defense array at the city’s heart. The mission was far from over, but they were one step closer to delivering the Federation's crushing blow.