Wow I'm on a roll. I'm just making stories all over the place lol-LLL

"So how much will you give me?" I asked, shifting in my velvet chair. The face on my 120'' Holoscreen frowned, my contractors never exactly liked discussing price until they saw a playback of my battle progress. But screw them, I wasn't going to lose clones without a range.

"120,000 ISK up front, 800 for each mercenary you kill on the field, and 36,000 if you can take the area. Will that suffice?" the man growled. I smirked behind my red and white helmet.

"Sounds good."

5 hours later-

I had docked my ship, designation "HeartBreaker," at the War Barge. Striding to the back of my ship, I added extra measures to my Caldari Assault Dropsuit in an Iron Man like room. Rotating pistons and sheets of metal attached extra pieces of metal to my Drop-Suit, making me bulkier. Twin plates attached to the sides of my head to prevent the damage of sniper fire. With a single touch on my wrist pad, the buzz of my shields told me they were online. And just like that my HUD popped up. The Armor and Shield Integrity popped up, as well as my power-grid. Hmmm, I still had 100 watts of power left, I could add a thruster...

Moving over to my arsenal, I pondered what to equip. This battle could easily last several days if the hostile numbers numbered as suggested. Large swaths of open fields consistent with farmland meant some cover inside of sheds and stables, but with a Forge Gun those would easily be destroyed. I'd need stay undetected, but be able to quickly dispatch any hostile confrontation until I made it to the Command Center. Some Nova Knives with a Duvolle Assault Rifle would complement that exactly.

I checked all my diagnostics, and readied myself in the elevator. It was time to do or die.

20 minutes later-

We were off to a horrible start. As soon as we landed on the ground, the defenders were waiting. In the open fields with waist-tall grass, it was a shootout. Laser rifles burned stalks of mutated corn, searching for victims. And the hot-sun blinded those who didn't have self-adjusting tint on their visors like I did. I raised my rifle to chest level and pumped ten rounds into a meddling Scout who thought they could kill me with Nova Knives. His body disappeared into the grass, and I fired a few more rounds just to make sure he was down. A bullet grazes my shield, drawing a small portion. Explosions break my line of sight, kicking up dirt twenty meters high. Realizing our chances of breaking this front line were slim, I fell back, running as fast as I could. Minutes passed, but the sound of warfare had only faded a shred. I expertly reloaded my weapon, and slung it over my shoulders. The sun had only fallen a few degrees from its zenith, meaning that I still had around seven hours of daylight. I checked a satellite read from "HeartBreaker" showing I was about 100 hundred miles from the Command Center. Hostiles still had the area around the MCC contained, but people still kept dropping in, thinking they would be The One to break through the land blockade.

I finally took my break on a hill, eating from a can that I had tucked into a pack on my hips. A beautiful breeze swept through the land, and I quickly disengaged my helmet and closed my eyes. The wind took my long red hair, bringing it all the way out to the left. I sighed, and for a second imagined I was back at home with my brother. He had wanted me to stay at home, go to college. Until Hellstorm Incorporated came and killed them. The weapons riddled holes throughout my home, and I watched as the leader, killed my mother with a retractable wrist dagger. Helanea Delcorba, my mother, didn't even look at me as she bled to death, he would've caught it. I didn't cry, I shook with fury. My brother died defending the front-lines, and my father, well he probably was some where in the Universe killing another mother. He was a mercenary, except he had no morals. Last I heard, he made 500,000 one pillage by killing an entire village singlehandedly. Women, Children, Fathers, he didn't even give us a dime, he just put it in a bank and gambled. He had over 100 million, but still never gave us any. So I grew stronger. I became a mercenary solely so I could one day kill the Leader of Hellstorm, and so I could snap one of my father's clones' necks.

Before I knew it, the sun was setting over the horizon. I'd been seated for hours. I blinked, refreshing myself, and then put my mask back on. The hydraulics secured my helmet to my shoulders, and my HUD blinked back to life. 78% read in the upper-left corner, I didn't believe in mini-maps. If I needed to know where hostiles were, I'd find them. A quick scan to make sure I wasn't being snuck up on, and I was off, racing through the plains. Animals calls and insect buzzes soon filled the atmosphere. I grinned, feeling at home among the noise. I wasn't surrounded by metal or shields. I was as I was when HellStorm landed on Alion 5.

I was in the wild...

So yeah the combat is how I anticipate Dust 514 to hopefully be in a couple years. Like or don't like, I'm also going to be restarting all my other stories, not focusing on just one. -LLL