I reach to the back of my helmet to take it off. I would’ve taken it off earlier, at the time though I wasn’t sure if there would’ve been any activity outside the dome.
No survivors have shown up yet, our time is almost up anyways; in a little more than five minutes we’ll be allowed to start our search.
Before I unclip my helmet the ground shakes violently, the sky is lighting up with giant explosions. There’s no way to tell what’s causing them, but one can only guess that there’s contact with the enemy.
My intercom explodes with radio chatter.
“Sir!” One of the soldiers yells, “there are multiple contacts from various directions, we need backup out here!”
I spin around to the spot where I’d put down my assault rifle. I pick it up as I run towards the entrance of the dome.
I stationed eight of the soldiers outside to patrol the perimeter. Three more are inside waiting for their next shift and there’s always one that rotated out between the others for the turret that’s mounted on top of the dome.
I rush out the entrance of the dome, the sky lights up with enemy fire; explosions are going off from every direction. My HUD is picking up several locations of enemy vehicles; they resemble tanks from the faint outline that I’m picking up. There’s no way to tell how many of them there are though. I stop at one of the perimeter markers; beside me is Sargent Daniel Watts, the soldier that was there when I was rescued from the transport ship only days ago.
“Sir! Enemy tanks at the northern line directly two hundred meters in front of us, we need to take ‘em out!” He yells through the intercom.
“Where are the launchers?” I shout back, even though it it’s completely unnecessary, being in the middle of a warzone gets your adrenaline pumping fast, yelling orders when you can whisper them just comes with the territory.
“We left them back at the base!” He turns around and points at the dome.
I groan, it’s the one piece of ordinance that we need and someone left it behind.
I run back to the dome as fast as I can. The launcher’s located on the table by the far end of the wall.
I grab the launcher with my left hand. I lift it up off the table and I slide my right hand over the trigger -being careful though in case I were to stumble and accidentally pull the trigger, I place my trigger finger over the metal bracket- I then turn around back towards the door and rush out of the compound.
The sound of the turret going off from above makes the battle have a certain rhythm. The continuous chook chook chook sound as the rounds get fired and drilled into the opposing forces.
Watts is pushed up against one of the barriers that’s blocking the street, surprisingly though it’s still intact. I give him a quick nudge on the shoulder, “point out some targets!” I yell to him. He doesn’t move however though. I nudge him again quickly; this time he slumps over and hits the ground hard. I didn’t notice the first time though that the front of his helmet has been shattered with a well-placed round, the entire inside is covered in red splatter marks.
I don’t let the image of a fellow dead soldier stop me from fighting. Using my HUD targeting I quickly scan the surrounding area for the tanks. The launcher that I’m using isn’t laced with any Thopium; all it is; is a good old explosive.
I line up the sights from my HUD and the targeting reticule that’s attached to the launcher. I see the outline and the heat signature of the tank through the building chunks and the small hill that it’s behind.
I squeeze the trigger. The missile shoots out of the long tube then quickly changes its angle to a complete ninety degrees. You can completely ignore obstructions when using this weapon.
I hear a quick piercing scream over the intercom, the next thing that happened is the rhythm of the turret stops completely. I turn around and look at the dome. The soldier that was operating the turret is falling; he rolls over the side of the dome, all the way down to the ground. He lands with a sickening crunch. A puddle of blood comes out from underneath him; the wound hadn’t been cauterized completely.
I twist around again to face the tank. Just in time too. I hear the whining of the missile homing in on its target, like a bolt coming down from the sky the missile strikes the tank. Lucky for me I have my helmet on; otherwise, I fear I might’ve gone deaf temporarily. The explosion sends out a devastating shock wave that literally levels anything within a twenty meter radius.
Although I might’ve taken out one of their three mortar tanks, in doing so I’d completely given away my position.
A strange whizzing sound; a small bluish glowing object hurtles towards me. Before I react the device hits me square in the stomach. My feet fly up above my head and I land square on my back.
I gasp out for air, when I landed all the oxygen was pushed out of my lungs from the impact. Landing in armour like mine isn’t fun at all.
The shooting stops momentarily, I get on my knees and inspect the device, cautiously I poke it with the tip of my rifle; nothing happens.
I pick the device up warily.
I glance around quickly to make sure that the area is relatively safe for the moment. I stand up with the device in hand, it’s the size of my fist -if it were closed- it’s also still pulsating with a slight bluish glow.
The device starts to get brighter and brighter, before I have the common sense to throw it far away from me it detonates.
For the split second that the explosion lasts I feel it burn against my entire body, luckily I’m wearing armour; otherwise I would’ve been instantly blown up into a million tiny pieces.
I’m getting flown backwards, I try to move my arms and legs, hoping that it’ll somehow brace the impact when I finally land, I can't though. My armour must’ve been locked up or something. The device that went off was probably an EMP. My HUD’s gone dark, all I can see now is what eyes can see; all electrical systems have been fried.
I finally land hard on my back; my head hits the ground hard, I slide into the walls of the dome. My vision begins to go blurry, from what I can see through my squinting eyes the shooting has started again, along with several gut wrenching screams. That’s all though, after that moment all goes dark. The last thing that enters my mind is an image of Syreena when we woke up from our first night together. It was the perfect morning, the sun glistened off her body, giving her the appearance of an angel, an angel that had entered my life and stayed with me right to the end.
There’s the image of Syreena then nothing; all goes dark as I slip into unconsciousness.
Fourteen
Day 34: Cycle 3: Period 2: Year 2397
I wake up, the world around me in utter chaos. Screaming. Blood. Explosions light up my surroundings. My ears ring from the heat of battle. Thopium bursts flying randomly through the air, hitting friendlies and enemies alike, their owner not caring if they kill their own.
They broke through the southern wall of the command outpost. The men that are under my command are oblivious to the fact that the enemy is right behind them. I shake my head inside my helmet. I decide to do whatever it takes to win this battle, we must win it. Otherwise Terra might fall. I will not let them destroy my home, even if it means my death. I look around my surroundings for something that I could use to take out as many hostile soldiers as possible.
I hear a faint hiss as the stale air from inside my helmet is released into the world. Luckily though when my suit was fried by the EMP, the life support activated. The emergency oxygen cylinders had come to life. Letting me breathe air, although stale air, but air nonetheless while I was unconscious.
I let my helmet drop to the ground since it’s useless now.
“Aspin Base come in, Aspin Base this is Colonel Woods, over. Come in Aspin Base, respond immediately. You have multiple hostiles on your six. If you can hear me, I repeat, you have multiple hostiles on your six, closing in fast,” I wait for a reply that I know would never come. The EMP blast must have also fried my wireless implant.
I reach into one of
my compartments on my belt, taking out a small vial, revealing a needle at the end of it. I feel down my leg for the tiny gap between the Graphite plates on my armour. Feeling the slight indent as my hand runs over it I inject the needle into my leg. I feel a warm sensation course through my body and into my bloodstream. Adrenal Stims were not always the best to use in combat, but in my case I would allow this one exception.
I brace myself up against the barrier, pushing into the ground with my boots to push myself up.
I reach over my shoulder to grab my sniper rifle attached to my back plates, carefully navigating it so the barrel wouldn’t brush up against any rubble and give away my position. Usually sniping with this rifle was easy; my helmet would be connected through the wireless receivers inserted directly into all my weapons.
I line the sights up to target one of the enemy soldiers. A motion scope was the only scope that was useful against the Hakorian soldiers because they are cold-blooded humanoids and they give off no heat signature to track. Still looking through the scope, I quickly count how many targets I would have to take out.
I squeeze the trigger and fire off a few shots in rapid succession. I watch as the rear three soldiers fall down dead. The fourth goes down wounded as the last shot passes through flesh, bone, and then directly threw the other side of the third soldier. The energy round leaves nothing in its wake but a gaping cauterized hole directly in the middle of the thirds stomach.
I line it up to the fifth targets head.
I pull the trigger.
The Hakorian dies before it even has time to hiss in agony.
They run towards me, hissing and cursing.
I fire off two more rounds, hoping to take them out from a distance; they easily sidestep them though.
I yell a war cry as I get close to them. They were almost on me as I twist my back leg towards the ground and slide through the dirt.
I eject my hidden blade in my left gauntlet and slash a long gash in the Hakorians right leg. Hissing in fury it drops to the ground. I roll off the ground and stab into the midsection of its stomach. I feel the resistance as the blade passes through the rib cage and directly into its heart, its eyes are wide in shock. It lies there looking into my eyes as thick green blood poured out of its mouth. It had only taken three seconds to take out the sixth.
One left.
I spin around just in time and avoid being decapitated by its razor sharp claws.
Bringing my right hand up I fire off two rounds, aiming for the stomach. My shots are too slow though. The first shot goes far to the left. The second one skims the right side of the Hakorian, injuring it only slightly. I bring my left hand up to guard my face as the Hakorian tries to claw me.
I try to shoot it again, this time from point blank range. The Hakorian is too fast though and must have expected what my next move was going to be.
I watch as my gun flies from my hand, the blow that I receive feels as if a speeder hit me. My teeth are still rattling as I bite directly into my tongue. With my back on the ground I roll out of the way to avoid being stepped on.
“There iss no esscape human, you musst realize that.” The Hakorian hisses at me.
I begin to circle it as I draw out my hidden blade, ready to end this fight. “Come and finish it then.” I spit on the ground, taunting it. It hisses angrily as I roll to the ground, slashing at its uninjured hip, my blade passes through the flesh with ease. The Hakorian falls to the ground, clutching its hip in pain.
“That won’t save you, and you know it, you’re as good as dead.”
It tried its best to stand up. The Hakorian gets on its knees. Dark green blood is beginning to flow out of its mouth.
I search the body for anything useful.
My hand traces over something metal in one of the small open compartments on the Hakorians hip.
Dog tags; some of the names I don’t recognize, but one catches my eye, half of it is covered in dried up blood. I rub off the blood with my thumb. A shiver traces up my spine as I see the call sign.
T-Rave.
I stand up, ready to leave this place. Getting back to Headquarters is my only priority now.
“Rot in hell,” spitting on the corpse as I turn around. Only to see a giant fist centimeters away from my face, I have only a split second to register what is happening. It’s a gloved human hand, not a clawed Hakorian hand.
Pain. Sharp pain tracing up my face, what follows shortly is white light, then darkness.
It feels like I’m falling into an abyss.
****
Day 35: Cycle 3: Period 2: Year 2397
Those last things are all that I can remember. My mind runs through them repeatedly.
My eyes slowly open; they take time to adjust to my surroundings, which are almost pitch black, except for a very dim light that’s illuminating the ceiling. I twist my head around to have a look around the room that I’m in; I notice a chair in front of me. It takes me a second to realize that I’m tied to a chair. My memory is still groggy to what exactly occurred. The event that I remember the most is getting sent on a patrol mission, which got turned into a search and rescue op. Lots of death followed soon after landing in the destroyed city.
The very last thing that I can recall is a fist coming directly at my face. It takes me a moment to realize that my face feels like it’s on fire, and that there’s the metallic taste on my tongue, my nose must’ve been broken and the blood is leaking a slow and steady stream onto my cracked lips and then directly into my mouth.
I’d been in the dark like this before, it’d heightened my senses, enough to know that someone is standing directly behind me; I can smell whoever it is. I also hear their boots moving on the floor and grinding tiny bits of dust into the ground.
“Who’s there?” I manage to say.
I hear the person moving more, they’re walking in front of me to face me square in the face.
It’s a man, based on his body shape under his loosely hooded cloak. His face is covered completely; it’s like I’m staring into a dark abyss.
“The person you least expected,” the figure says; the voice sends a chill down my body. He’s supposed to be dead. He brings up his hands under the hem of his hood and pulls it back.
My ears hadn’t betrayed me. It’s T-Rave.
“How?” Is all that I say.
“Something got your tongue all tied up?”
I stare blankly at him for several seconds, he’s supposed to be dead in a ditch somewhere in the city streets of Terra, everything since I’d been knocked out is starting to rush back into my mind. Finding T-Raves ID tags on that dead Hakorian is among those memories. “You died though.”
“Did I?” A smug look on his face.
“I don’t understand, what are you doing here?”
“Your mind is confused Woods, I never died, I only wanted you to believe that I died. And now that I finally have you in my custody I can finally collect my reward.”
My mind burst into action, I can't understand why T-Rave’s doing any of this, he’s my friend, he wouldn’t betray me, he couldn’t.
“You are my friend though, I trusted you!”
“No I wasn’t, I never really did like you.”
“What?”
“I’ve been waiting for the right moment for this.”
“I still don’t understand, why are you doing this?”
“You’re a bounty Woods, you are my way off this miserable rock,” he sits down in the chair opposite mine.
“Why am I a bounty, what have I ever done to anyone?”
“It’s not what you’ve done, it’s what you are.”
My mind racing, I still can't understand what he means.
“What, a human?”
“Of course not a human, any old human would do. It’s what you have in you. Apparently you have in your genetics some advancement that other humans don’t possess. My employers want those genetics.”
“You mean the Hakorians?”
“Correct
.”
I try to piece together the mass amount of information that I just received. T-Rave’s working for –or with- the Hakorians, his mission was to capture me for a reward that’s obviously better than the survival of the human race. What’s the reward though? What reward can be so good as to completely cast aside your fellow kin and doom them to extinction. What about my genes though? What’s so important about me in particular?
“There must be another reason to why you’re doing this.”
“This is my one way out, a fresh start and a new life.”
“One way out of what? You must start making sense!”
“I’m leaving this place behind to start a new life at the Capital.”
“And they promised you a ride to get you there,” I finish his sentence. In my time as the Hakorians prisoner I was told of a place that the Hakorians came from, or rather where they were banished from.
I rarely get angry, but at this moment there’s nothing more that I want to do but lash out and tear T-Rave limb from limb. He’s betrayed me, basically for a little dough that could get him somewhere.
I gather all of the saliva that I can muster, mixed with the blood that’s running from my nose it doesn’t make the best combination.
I spit the large gobbet of bloody phlegm at his face, “fuck you! You would betray your entire race to extinction to satisfy your own personal needs! Go to hell!” I struggle as best I can to get myself out of the ropes. They aren’t too tightly bound, but tight enough that it’d take more time than I have to break free.
He wipes the bloody spit of his face with the sleeve of his jacket; a disgusted look on his face, but not a surprised one.
He stands up slowly, “behave yourself, because if you don’t you won’t like what your new masters will do to you.”
It’s déjà vu, the gloved fist comes striking upon my brow once again. This time thought it doesn’t knock me unconscious; all it does is send arcs of pain racing through my head. I try my best to absorb the blow by moving my head slightly; it’s tough though being strapped to a chair.
Siege of Terra (The Mavrik Woods Series, Book 1) Page 26
