Chapter - 3

“So, where are you all headin” I asked.

The squad leader, with blue waves wrapped around his medium armor set, responded in kind, “We are heading towards an operation zone.” He said without any emotion.

“Any specifics I should know?.” The SL just glanced at me, even though I can't see his face, I can tell when someone is glaring at me.

The SL simply turned his face forward and a ping pops up on my hud about joining a new radio frequency. I gladly accept before the names pop up, numbers and single letters are their names, such is the grim reality of a clone.

However, I do see an actual name in italics next to it. Yeah, some clones tack on nicknames usually given by another named clone, it's cool. I probably won't remember these names, so I'll just have that on hand when I'm speaking, which happens to be now.

"This is sim Daxon and they'll be with us for the journey until she links up with her squad.” Said now named Kane.

“Afternoon, as said by SL I'll be with you all for the time so let's get along for the duration.” I said straight forward to all of them on the team net.

A name pops up indicating who is speaking from a clone named Tux, “Welcome Daxon, l’m tux and I'm the biomed and don't mind the SL, we swear he was made to have a stick up his ass.” Said now named Tux, as SL Kane scoffed but made no notion of response.

“Thanks, I was wondering where we are heading,” I asked. Tux responded, “Well at the moment we are heading towards sector mu, but SL is tight-lipped about exactly what we're doing.” I nodded and glanced at the rest of the clones listening in to our conversation, seeing as they had nothing else to say I decided to ask, “So how'd you all end up on base assuming you didn't just walk here.”

I was pretty sure they were an aquatic based brigade and that division was across the planet. “You'd assume correctly sim, our platoon was nearly wiped from an explosive from an urban engagement. The few that survived died shortly after being overwhelmed by rebels.”

The SL now named Kane said. Interesting. It isn't uncommon for whole swathes of clones to die, it's just interesting to see how they handle it. Just by glancing, most of my new fellow squad mates were talking to each other on private channels or just looking at something on their internal display. It reminded me of my own little decision that I have yet to do. I opened up my menu with a thought.

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Name/Rank: Private Doxen O. Kery

Class/Specialization: NOT MET LEVEL REQUIREMENT

Level: 5 (-1 Death penalty canceled for heroic sacrifice)

Points: 2

Stats:

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

-Physical

–Agility: 6/10

–Strength: 3/10

Buy Menu

Weapons

Commodities

Armour

Misc.

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I began looking through my choices as I peeked at the armor section. I saw sets and individual pieces of different types of armor for any type of situation. however, the section that I was specifically looking for was stealth tech. It also happened to be the one of the most expensive tech.

I grimaced looking at the prices and was saving interesting pieces to my Wishlist. Most expensive tech usually was in the 20 to 30 points range and the cheap stuff was the 1 to 10 range. Also, cheap doesn't mean bad just means it isn't as fancy.

For example, a cheap piece will protect you against what it says it will. An expensive piece will protect you against what it says, but it will have central cooling, auto-medical procedures, and sometimes look cool.

So in layman terms, cheap is reliable and expensive is reliable, but has more features. So, at the moment, I was rolling with an expensive weapon which has its own quirks, and a mass produced armor set because I spent way too much on the weapon and stats rather than a good armor set. Which in hindsight is one of regrets, I should've done a bit more research than just jump in the deep end. I'm not incredibly new to sims but this is my second one I've done.

Last one I joined was very late in that battle and we were cleaning up for the duration. So I joined this one only a few days after they made landfall, which was fun as heck dropping out of a drop pod, even if it was absolutely terrifying.

“10 minutes till landfall.” Said an intercom voice above me, the voice being the pilots. I looked at the others before SL Kane spoke. “Get prepped for landfall squad.” He looks at me, “You know how to landfall sim?” I gave him a negative and I almost swear he smiled, he tossed me a metallic backpack, “Put it on and keep it for the duration you'll be staying with us”, the clone next to me pings me and the feminine figure asks, “You know how to use a boostpack?” The clone named Fox, she seems to be an infantryman, starts giving me instructions on how to use it.

“When you connect it to your armor, a command will connect and it has two settings: landfall and boost. Landfall will be what we will be doing soon, it'll mostly tell you how to use it but just one thing… don't take off your helmet.” She pats the side of my helmet and starts fiddling with her own booster pack.

I grimace now looking at mine before asking, “What about the booster setting?” she answers without looking up, “it's basically a boost to your jumps and allows for short term flight.” She says before looking up, “it's also useful in case you are going terminal velocity and need to slow down, although your core might end up in your throat by the end of it.”

I swallow while realizing I might've been a bit reckless in my death. I shouldn't have thought I was invincible, I mean I knew I wasn't when I first got shot and it hurt like heck. And now I was not excited to jump from a high altitude and experience terminal velocity while not in a dropship. I do some breathing exercises and mellow out while taking a peek at the other squads inside the ship and seeing most if not all also had the booster packs.

“4 minutes” said the pilots and all the troops, including me, stood and unhooked our magnetization to the seats. Since we are in the back where the main ramp is, we would be first. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. Even though I knew the sim was simulating the heart I could swear it was beating in my head and everyone could hear it.

We got in order in a horizontal line and I froze in place as the ramp started opening.

“Two minutes” I saw the open blue sky with clouds far below. I forgot about the part where we were dropping from the near atmosphere and the air was now whipping past us. I hooked my weapon to my side and started doing the breathing exercises.

A tap on my side had me glance at the tall figure in medium armor, “You good sim?” Said clone named Jim, which was funny. “Yeah, just my first time doing this,” Jim chuckled. “don't worry, just do what others do and as long as you don't mess up or panic, you won't pancake in a bloody mess on the ground.” I could hear his smile behind his helmet so I simply nodded, before looking outside the ramp.

“Has that happened…pancaking on the ground I mean?” He was silent for a bit longer than comfortable so I glanced at him and he was thinking thoughtfully. I gave him a concerned face, and he looked at me, “Depends, like overall too many to count, but in this squad alone, maybe 4 times. Most were due to malfunction which is rare in itself and that situation anyways was a clusterfu-”

“10 seconds, all troops be prepared for jump.” I glance at the others before calming down and continuing with my breathing exercises. I glance to my left at Jim and he just gives a thumbs up, “Counting down, 10…9…” I start slightly panicking and seeing everyone getting ready, I make a resolution and steel myself. I'll live, I'll live, “3…2…1..Jump, jump, jump”

Fuck.