You are no simple soldiers nor simple navy. You are candidates for the United Colonies Reapers. Everyone of you are handpicked to be the best candidates from your academies, shown to be both masters of combat and strategy. Well in the class-rooms and training fields at least. As of now your real training begins, by the end of it you may even want a vacation in hell, after all little Luci will be nicer than me. Now on your feet rookies!
Taken from Instructor Ellen’s speech to the new recruits, 93 SE.
After days of cutting our path through the woods looking for land something finally happened to show we were on the right track. Estrid raised her hand making a gesture for me to stop walking, and once I stopped she sent a message through the text display on my helmet.
Signal coming through on emergency channel two the message simply said.
Using my eyes to control the helmet I connected to the second channel. Three beeps in quick succession, three slow beeps and then three quick beeps once more. Someone was sending an sos to one of our emergency lines which were connected to these suits. This meant two things, first at least one of our crew was nearby, and second they were in trouble. Many people would either turn the other way and leave, or rush to help in this kind of situation. However due to the training we both went through we knew that rushing in was the worst thing we could do. Don't get me wrong, we fully planned to help our crew. We just were not going to run head first into what could easily be an ambush.
As we got closer to the transmission the suit tracker kicked in showing us which way to head in order to find our target. However, upon the route we found a clearing that made us both worry. Laying upon the ground were twelve bodies in what appeared to be makeshift looted armour. Slumped over a large rock was another body which wore the same black armour with a symbol matching Estrids and my own.
“Carson or Elina?” Estrid asked as I approached the one in our uniform, while she went to check the body of the attackers and the scene. I pressed a button hidden on the bottom back of the helmet which made their visor slide into the helmet revealing a woman who always looked almost more a model than a soldier. She had been a friend always willing to help with any fashion and makeup I was interested in when off duty. But the time to mourn those lost would be once we were safe.
“Elina.” I answered emotionlessly. Focusing back on my task I pushed against something within her helmet which caused a small chip to push out the back of her helmet. I took it and slid it into a port which opened up on my own helmet as the chip approached.
Footage from the helmet started to filter through my own display. Elina had turned their camera on as she sat into the drop pod, panning around to show the others who were sitting with her. Carson, the last of the ship's four reapers, was sitting opposite her. Skippy, the ships fresh out of academy strategist was beside her. This was only shown by the fact the kid was still wearing the stupid white and gold trimmed academy shoulder cape one gets for graduating. Don't get me wrong shoulder capes are worth bringing back into style but who wears white in a combat situation. Three others where sat within covered by the ships uniformed armour. However when they linked their squad displays together the other three were revealed to be head engineer Janis, Ship gunner Trevor and Jane the quartermaster. The video rocked as did the people within the drop pod as a pressured bang rocked through the metal, this mixed with the ever growing shaking showed that they had been released from the ship.
Elina watched as most of the metallic padded walls of the drop pod were hidden by a hologram that surrounded the group showing the outside of the pod, the only thing looking out of place was the side of the walls showing around the holograms. The first few times you enter a drop pods freefall it is truly terrifying, the fact you watch the world around you and can only see the ground getting closer at a rapid rate is something that definitely takes getting used to. When the drop pod then starts to slow down as they parachute and jets deploy a display will pop up in front of everyone, the pods external systems having checked the atmosphere letting the occupants know if it is breathable air or warning them to ensure their oxygen tank is connected if not.
The pod rocked aggressively as they watched the branch like vines snap around them as they crashed through the canopy. Getting worse as the parachute was released when it got stuck in the high vines. Before eventually stabilising when the pod rested on the ground, the hologram fading as three of the walls opened up and lowered to become doors. The video then fast forwarded a few hours later, by this time it appeared in the middle of the night and the group where huddled around the fire with supplies that must have been stored in the drop pods with them. The fact that no drop zone in sight implied they had been travelling, and Elina was watching Janis walk towards the forest.
“I need a piss just give me a second.” he said back with a wave, as much as a few of them spoke their protests about separating he ignored them and walked into the darkness, his light vanishing with him. For a few minutes nothing seemed to happen as the others fell back into conversation, the night seemed to be filled with a slight lightness as laughter ran through the camp. That was until the screams came from the trees along with the sounds of ripping flesh
The group all raised their sidearms towards the trees, their lights highlighting the thick vegetation as the screams of agony drew further and further away, the vitals of Janis getting lower and lower on their helmets until Janis’ vital bar was shown as a flatline. The footage fast forwarded again to the morning, it showed the group following the blood trial that Janis had left behind with their guns at the ready. However all they found at the end was the remains of his leg after the blood dripped off from a high branch onto the white cape covering Skippys left arm. Somehow the armour that can withstand rifle fire seemed to have been torn to shreds by the creatures that must have been native to the world.
The footage skipped forward again until it showed the group walking through deep forest, when a bellowing noise came from nearby they all jumped into alert. Until they saw a large creature pressing itself against a tree, the creature was almost titanic in size. Its body was the size of a house supported by eight legs as thick as large trees. It was resting on four of them while the other four were pressed against the tree. Its clawed front feet dug into the vine tree as its long neck reached far into the canopy too far for them to see its head. Figuring that the animal was too focused on its task to notice them, the others advanced forwards again, until a large creaking crack could be heard. Skippy had to jump forwards as he narrowly avoided being crushed by the tree and the large animal riding it down. After looking around it was clear that Trevor and Jane were not with Carson, Elania and skippy. A simple look at the squad display informed them that Trevor would not be going anywhere, his lack of life signs showing he had been crushed as the tree came down.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
The large creature rose its head from the branches showing a long elongated face showing a set of grinding teeth as it was eating the trees leaves, its head had a set of curved horns behind its head and another set of horns protruding from below its jaw jutting forward. It then turned to the path they had been walking through and started to walk that way. A message quickly appeared upon the screen.
I need to get away, Trevor is dead. I will try and find you all once I am not in risk of getting trampled and can get around the giant tree it's brought down. Read the message from Jane.
Be safe, try and get to the closest town if you can. It should be only a couple days away. Hopefully you manage to get to us again soon. Elina replied as the three of them turned to carry on the path.
The next place the footage advanced to was one I recognised, and the place I knew it would end at. As they approached the rock Carson froze, stopping as he saw a group of people in makeshift armour standing around what looked like a civilian. The man without any armour was on his knees with his hands behind his head and two of the armoured soldiers had their guns raised to the man's head as one stood in front of him and seemed to be asking him questions. Around twenty more soldiers were looking around keeping guard. When they noticed Carson they began to open fire, without hesitation Carson, Elina and Skippy Dove behind the large rock for cover. Carson rolled to the side of the rock and opened fire. Elina used the rock as cover as she looked over the tip while raising her own side arm and joined in the fire fight. The camera caught that as she dropped one of the soldiers near the Civilian the other hit him with the butt of their rifle knocking the man down.
Elina quickly shot the man who had knocked the civilian down before being forced to retreat back under cover from the concentrated fire, when her back was against the rock she looked towards Carson who had gotten back into cover before her. While their armour was designed to protect them against small arms fire it wouldn't help them when it was this concentrated, this had been proven by the fact a bullet seemed to have gone through Carson's shoulder. Skippy was in the process of taking out what almost resembled a thick pen, pressing it against the wound before pushing a button which caused a disinfecting like foam to go into the wound. The foam would block the wound and keep it clean for a few hours, however it wouldn't last forever and by the end of the day he would need it to be properly looked at.
With a grunt of pain however Carson peered over the rock, quickly ducking back down as a bullet ricochet off his helmet.
“We have a habit of getting into tight spots, don't we Lainy.” Carson asked as his helmet covered face turned to look at her.
“Not been in one like this since the Utha engagement.” Elina replied with a slight chuckle before quickly peering out of the opposite side Carson had previously, taking a few shots at the few advancing figures dropping a few more. Her attention was dragged away though when she noticed the lifesigns of both Skippy and Carson flag up along with agonised screams ripping from their throats. She hastily turned to see two figures in much better armour standing above them both, devices attached to both of their backs that caused energy to run rampart from their suits. However before she could react she let out a gunt of pain. Her flaring vitals already let her know that something was wrong however when she looked down she saw boiling blood sizzling on a blade of light that pierced through her chest, the blue light running over the burnt metal as it illuminated it in cold light.
“Sorry soldier, no more seals.” An empty voice behind her as she slumped over he rock, the words unheard by the already dead target. Only the rock that she was slumped over was left covering the screen; however the sound of something being dragged could still be heard.
“Sir, what about our dead?” A voice asked in the distance. One of the rebel soldiers it seemed.
“We will have to send a truck to pick them up, now let's go make sure our guests are nice and locked up.” The empty voice replied, one that I was sure I recognised from somewhere. But where?
The camera proceeds to show nothing for a little longer, the noise of the dragging and footsteps getting further and further away until nothing but the swaying trees in the wind could be heard. Finding nothing else of importance the basic AI cut off the video.
“What's the verdict?” Estrid asked as I rose from beside our friend's corpse. My eyes took in the sight of the lifeless face as I struggled to repress my rage. Estrid herself kept her eyes roaming over the path ahead of us as I took a deep breath to steady myself.
“The wildlife here is extremely dangerous, it can shred armour that can withstand small arms fire. Insurrectionists are already planet side so I believe the ship we encountered is to stop the planet getting any reinforcements. They used some device to pacify and detain two of our own and there seems to be some shades deployed.” I replied as I moved my friend's corpse back over the rock after resetting her helmet to cover her face again, I had to make sure it wasn't obvious we had been here. “They are sending a collection team to get the corpses so lets clear any tracks we made and follow the road forest side.”
“Shades? Hell’s what are they doing here? Fuck we are in deep shit captain.” Estrid said as she failed for just a second to hide the little fear she felt. The Shades are a group of highly trained assassins who had for some reason decided to join the rebellion. When not sent on missions to eliminate high end targets they were sent on missions of high importance, ones where they didn't want to send a force big enough to alert the UC but needed to complete the mission. Whatever the insurrection was doing here they had decided it was a mission important enough to send shades.
“No idea but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, best we find out their aim and how to disrupt it. First off though we need to rescue our soldiers and get better equipment.” I replied as I started to clear up my own tracks as Estrid did the same we then slowly went around the clearing making sure not to trip on the thick foliage as we followed the path the rebels had come from in the video.
As much as we both wanted to charge straight to the enemy camp to save our soldiers we knew that it would only lead to us joining them, we would have to just hope that our two friends could bear with it until we could get them out until then all we could do was make plans and watch the rotation.