The loading bay of the Cutter vibrated violently as the ship entered atmosphere. Aphotica strode through the bay, knees bent to compensate for the shaking of the ship, checking over her crew of mercenaries with a stern look on her pale face. Her long black hair was tucked into her battle suit and she carried her crimson chrome helm under her arm.

“Remember,” Came a voice from within the seats of mercenaries sitting against the gunmetal grey wall of the bay. It was the scientist assigned from their contractor for this mission. Paul was his name. “If I die, you guys don't get payed.”

“If you die,” Aphotica growled in her deep voice, “We leave your corpse down there and space on to the next job.” One of the mercs snickered and the Paul's face went almost as pale as Aphoticas.

“Approaching drop point,” Came the pilot's voice over the intercom, Squall. “Strap your big boy panties on because we're gonna do some crazy shit.”

The mercs rose in unison, their arms and armor clanking and clinking as they moved to their preferred positions in the bay. They all put on their helmets and the seals hissed as they sealed the occupants in the armor. With a filter system built inside the suits they could operate in any environment. At this moment there were nine of them including Aphotica, their commander. Frost, the newest recruit, stood with the bulk of the mercs, lined up along the wall, facing the bay doors and hanging onto straps bolted to the wall. Two mercs broke off to the other side of the bay and held onto similar straps just outside the door.

Amidst the loud humming of straining grav engines, the groaning of moving metal and hinges could be heard as the bay doors opened wide and the ramp was lowered, revealing a rooftop closing in fast as the ship rotated in the air. Twin suns reflecting off of a desert world would have blinded the squad if their visors weren't equipped with auto tinting. The buildings of the small colony were cookie cutter white and squared corporate buildings. Easy to transport and set up for colony distribution.

The bottom of the ship grazed the top of the building below them and the pair of mercs nearest the bay doors hopped out on to the rooftop while the ship glided past it. Then the ship accelerated to the edge of the small group of buildings and settled down to the dirt.

“Go, go, go.” Aphotica ordered through the squad channel feeding through their helmets. The rest of the company jogged out of the ship and when they were clear the ship took to the sky and swivelled around as over watch.

Aphotica took the lead and the seven man team split into formation around Paul as they made their way into the complex. The buildings all around them offered cover, but many people working in the buildings were gazing out their windows at them. Frost watched their wary and confused gaze as he passed them. They weaved through buildings for a short time before they made their way to the target building, the biggest of them all. It was a large white complex built in the middle of the colony. The sliding double doors opened as they arrived within ten metres of the building and instinctively the mercs dove for cover.

“Stop where you are and lower your weapons.” A voice demanded of them from the building. A head popped out from behind the side of the door, the man's assault rifle could be seen below his helmeted head.

Aphotica didn't bother to answer. She just brought her slug rifle to bear and shot at him. He ducked his head inside, but Aphotica had aimed for his weapon and it shattered in his hands. She then shot at the wall beside the door where the man had taken cover. From the scream that could be heard from inside, the group knew that she had not missed as the slug penetrated the wall and hit it's target. The rest of the squad opened fire at the doors. With the multitude of heavy and light weapons at their disposal they reduced the doors and the frame to mangled metal, revealing a jagged hole into the building. Aphotica lead the way inside the building, picking two of her squad to guard the mangled entrance, Jeb and Dev. Both were equipped with Repeater Mag guns, very accurate with a high rate of fire, they were perfect for holding a position.

The inside bay was now in lock down because the doors to the world outside were mangled and destroyed. A big merc named Sledge walked to the double doors leading into the building and pulled from his pouch at his belt a handful of metallic coin like pellets. He placed them on the door on the left side, making a rough rectangle about a meter long and half a meter wide. He then pushed a button on his suits wrist computer touch pad. The pellets glowed red as they heated up and melted through the door. Sledge grabbed the grav hammer that he kept slung on his back and gave a vicious swing at the door. With a large clang, the head of the hammer gave off a large blast of kinetic energy and a rectangular hole was blown out of the door by the hammer thanks to the perforated lines left by the pellets.

The now five man team, including Frost, made their way inside. Clearing each room as they entered them the same way they had entered the first. There were many scared scientists running for cover before they depressurized the room and peeking at them through clear secured doors. The scientists cowered under their desks and workstations, but the team didn't encounter any security personnel to deal with which was confusing. Scientists and administrative assistants scrambled here and there to get out of their way each time they made their way to a new hallway, depressurizing them as they went. The mercs never talked, just pointed their guns and moved on. Eventually they came to a room and Paul piped up.

“This is it!” He exclaimed. They breached the room and ignored the unfortunate scientists that were in the room as it depressurized. Paul ran to a computer in the back of the room and started fiddling with the HI, Holographic Interface. He ran his hands through the interface and delved into the research projects that were stored there.

“A group of security are exiting the south building, engaging.” Came Squall's voice from the squads channel. Suddenly the booming sound of the Cutter's slag cannons erupted from outside the building. It fired molten pieces of metal from it's barrels, perfect for cutting through ships, but also effective for crowd control.

Frost kept a firm hold on his rifle and paced the doorway as Paul did his thing. He imagined the damage the slag cannons were doing and shuddered. His chrome grey suit was adorned by the simple painting of a white wolf on his chest piece. He had done it himself, to easily distinguish himself from the rest of his squad. The others had different adornments to personalize their armor, a pleasure that was not afforded to corporate soldiers.

“Your keeping up, for your first run.” One of Frosts fellow mercs said as he slapped him on the back of his carapace. It was Sledge, the big veteran of the group. Sledge was an intimidating guy underneath his helm, and his armor seemed to strain to contain his muscle. He had a shaved head with luminescent tattoos of a bear and a lion across his skull. His salt and pepper beard was trimmed, marred by the scar running down across his upper lip. Steel grey eyes had locked Frost's with them when they first met, assessing him down to the core. Now only the shaded visor stared at him, but he could feel those eyes. “Keep it that way.”

Frost nodded. Then a shot rang out and Frost felt his carapace jerk. On pure reflex, he pivoted towards the sound and brought his rifle up. He had a split second to realize it was a scientist with a pistol. The scientist was holding a breather up to his face. Frost shot him as the scientist shot another round. Feeling a jerk in his arm, Frost barely realized it as he watched the scientist fly backwards, impaled by Frosts high impact round.

“Medic! Frost is hit, check him. Shayla with me.” Sledge hollered as he swiftly closed on the writhing scientist on the ground with his rifle trained on him. The pistol had flown across the room and lay on the ground.

The man adeptly nicknamed Medic stole Frost's attention as he roughly started checking him over for wounds. Frost heard a shot rang out from the other side of the room as Sledge finished the scientist off.

“Your gel layer will keep your atmosphere in your suit.” Medic exclaimed, “Your hit in the chest and the arm but the gel sealant closed around the wounds and it will keep it sealed. I can't take your suit off here, how do you feel?”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“I don't feel anything from my body but I'm definitely hit in the arm. I can feel blood in my suit.”

“Alright, we'll be done soon.” Medic assured him, “Sling your rifle and use your pistol. Try not to move.”

“Done!” Paul exclaimed from his interface. He turned to them. “Let's get the hell out of here.”

They all gathered with Paul and Frost in the middle of the pack and they exited the room. They went down the halls, extra careful of any other scientists that wanted to be a hero.

“We've stirred up an ant hill,” Squall could be heard over the team channel. “I'm taking heavy fire, and they've broken off into small groups, headed your way.”

The main group made their way through the halls until they came in view of the doors. The two mercs guarding the door saluted them as they approached. Suddenly a silver ball bounced off of one of the guards and everyone looked at it as it landed on the ground between them with a solid clunk. Then, with a burst of force, the ball exploded and the wave of kinetic energy slammed into merc and walls alike. The two mercs crashed through the walls on either side of the hallway, and the entrance to the building exploded outward into the yard beyond. Then the pressure of air escaping the opposite rooms pushed the two mercs caught in the explosion back into the hallway and they crashed into each other.

“Cover!” Aphotica yelled as she dove towards a doorway in the hall. Everyone did the same just as a squad of colony security appeared outside and started to move in.

Aphotica opened fire with her deadly rifle, slugs bursting through the security personnel. They took cover behind what was left of the entrance and started firing inside. Suddenly flashes of hot magma could be seen, raining down from above, and the security personnel scattered away from the entrance. Screaming could be heard from those unlucky enough to be caught by the blasts. One of the security personnel ran inside the building to get cover and he was gunned down merciless by the mercs in the hallway.

“Your clear.” Squall informed them. Aphotica led them to the entrance and grabbed one of the mercs caught by the Kinetic Grenade while Sledge grabbed the other one. They then moved out into the yard, through the steaming holes of glass and metal left in the dirt by the Cutters guns.

“All units, move to extraction.” Aphotica ordered over the team channel. “Squall, cover us and touch down over us when we get to the border of the colony.”

“Yes, mam.” Squalls tin voice could just be heard over the din of the Cutters deadly guns.

The main squad made their way into the tight spaces between the buildings of the colony and cut their way through alleys while the Cutter drew the attention of the security personnel away from them. They turned a corner and found the snipers that were on the roof had descended and were waiting for them at the extraction point. One of the mercs pulled out a digital transponder and thumbed the activation before throwing it out into the open space beyond the buildings of the colony.

“Now, Squall.” Aphotica ordered. Suddenly everyone heard a whine of engines as the Cutter sped over them and dropped out of the air to land softly in front of them. The grave engines whiped sand in all directions, limiting visibility. They all ran for the bay doors as they opened. Shayla and Frost were the first to arrive to the bay doors, they swung around to cover the rest of the mercs as they dragged the wounded towards the shuttle.

The squad was almost on board when a group of security personnel showed up in a land rover full of people armed with rifles. They opened up on the main squad while Frost and Shayla shot at them from the rear of the ship. The driver of the rover was hit and he fell onto his wheel. The rover accelerated and turned towards the ship. The main squad had dropped and were now firing back, except Paul, who lost his cool and ran for the ship before getting gunned down. Everyone on the rover was killed by bullets before it careened off the ramp, past the ship, and flipped out of sight into the sand. Aphotica and Sledge picked up their injured mercs and everyone got up and charged towards the ship again. Frost and Shayla darted over to Paul and grabbed his body to drag it to the ship. Everyone was dragged aboard and the bays closed behind them, closing off the bright light of the twin suns. The engines of the ship hummed to life as it took off and carried them away from danger.

Frost had to wait for Medic to triage the med bay and treat the more wounded of his fellow mercs. Dia, the team sharpshooter, helped him. Medic was training her. Frost sat down on one of the counters and watched Medic at work, pronouncing Paul dead, assessing Jeb and pronouncing him too far gone to save. He had hit his head hard against the wall when the Kinetic Grenade blew, and then he had been shot when the rover appeared. There were too many wounds. Medic worked on Dev for a while. Dev had gained consciousness soon after he had been carried to the ship. He had been the other one hit by the Kinetic blast. Suffering from a few fractures to his leg and arm, and a gunshot wound to the leg, he was going to live.

Finally it was Frosts turn. Medic checked him over and Frost was uncomfortably aware of Dia doing the same. She was an Elarian, an engineered race of humans that were designed to be very appealing and beautiful. After genetic engineering took off, many rich individuals decided to create their own races of humanity, especially when colonizing a new planet. Elarians were a very popular choice among the people who could afford to get the treatment. Though, to see an Elarian doing tough and dirty work as a mercenary was very uncommon. Dia had large crystal blue eyes that darted uncomfortably over Frost's body. Her long dark hair was tied into a ponytail.

“So, no new holes since I last looked at you,” Medic told him, “You have a wound in your arm, but the bullet went straight through, so no need for surgery. The bullet never penetrated your torso carapace, so luckily you have no body wound. I'm just going to give you some gel and you'll have to sleep it off.” Medic drew a syringe full of blue gel. It was really called Manaragell. When injected, the gel enhanced the bodies healing capabilities, but the enhanced healing takes a toll on the body, so the patient becomes very drowsy and eventually falls unconscious once treatment has been administered.

“You did very well today,” Aphotica saluted Frost with a fist to her chest. Frost was so surprised that he almost forgot to salute back.

“Thank you, commander.” Frost said as Medic injected him with gel. Everyone in the room saluted then. He felt proud, he had been accepted into the company. Then he set his head down on the med bay bed and fell asleep.

Aphotica made the call to the contract holder. It was a research and development company named FerroCorp. They didn't react well to the news of Pauls death, and had threatened to pay less, but Aphotica reminded them of the fact that whatever he had downloaded into his neural link was still relevant to them and that if they didn't pay the full amount, she would find other buyers for the information. They agreed to do the exchange at a port nearby.

The company waited for Dev and Frost to wake up before they held a funeral for Paul and Jeb. Frosts gunshot wound had healed in one treatment of Gel, but he had slept a full twelve hours. Dev needed one more treatment for his wounds, so Frost had wheeled him out of the med bay to the docking hatch. Everyone gathered to see them off. Aphotica was there in her customary polished leather jumpsuit. She was very thin, despite her obvious strength. Sledge was there next to her. A giant of a man and just as intimidating as he looked.

Dia and Phylla were standing next to each other. They were fast becoming friends, being almost as new to the company as Frost himself. Both were excellent sharpshooters. Dia was looking as beautiful as ever, in jeans and a tight T Shirt. Phylla was an exotic looking woman. Her genetically altered race was that of the Felis. Her race had been genetically altered to have cat like features. She was covered in white fur with black streaks, and her large green eyes were cat like with vertical pupils. Her ears, on the top of her head, turned this way and that as she picked up things no regular human could.

Medic was standing at attention with Squall, long time friends. Medic seemed to be a natural human, but one could never truly tell from appearance anymore. Squall seemed like a natural human, though he was hairier than most, his mutton chops jutting out from his face. Shayla was leaning against the wall of the hallway, out of the crowd. This seemed to be her manner. She also seemed like a natural human, but she didn't talk much and stayed to herself most of the time. She wore black leggings and a leather jacket, which contrasted with her long and curly blonde hair that cascaded down her back.

Both bodies were laid out on the floor of the docking hatch, Jebs weapons and helm were set upon him in a graceful manner. His helm was dark brown with the yellow design of a jackal painted on to the left side.

“Jeb was a good merc,” Sledge said, “He was brave and tough as nails. He loved anything that got the adrenaline pumping and he lived for the rush of the fight. May he now rest in peace.”

“His cut will go to his family on Garatoss Station, as per his own recommendations.” Aphotica announced. “He was a crucial part of the team, and he will be missed.”

With that, Aphotica pushed a button on the control console on the wall and the doors slid shut. She then used the console to release the outer hatch and both bodies were jettisoned into space.

“We have a new contract,” Aphotica announced before anyone could turn away. “It will take us a few days to get to the destination. Once everyone is healed and ready to fight, I'll brief you all. It's a big payout, so look alive when it's time. That is all.” Aphotica saluted and they saluted back, then they all went about their own business.