Onyx Guard Part 1: Stranded Beginnings

'''King Raven 28, Flying over Deadlands. 2 A.E'

"This could go badly" Thought Trevon as he sat with his legs hanging out of the out of the Ravens bay door. This was his first operation as an operator for the Onyx Guard, the elite Special Forces group dedicated to protecting and serving the COG's high ranked individuals. Trevon knew that the operation was simply grabbing a somehow important stranded man then bug out, but Trevon was still shuddering. Vinnie came up behind Trevon and put a reassuring hand on Trevon's shoulder, as if to say "don't worry, ive got your back." All of a sudden, A loud CRACK could be heard over the Ravens rotor blades. Trevon thought nothing about it, until he heard scrambling of people behind him. Then a drop of dark red liquid fell down onto his thigh plate. Then he turned around to see his squadmates gathered around something, and there was gore all over the Raven's ceiling. Someone had just been shot from the ground. And for the first time since E-Day, Trevon thought there was a good chance he might die.

Fresh out of the Onyx Academy, Trevon was born and raised in a suburb of Jacinto. Until everything changed. E-day, the worst day in Seran history, changed his life forever. The next day, Trevon went to a COG recruitment office to enlist and become a Gear. The recruiting officer found something, a spot in the Onyx Guard academy had opened up. This was odd as veteran Gears usually take those places. Chomping at the bit, Trevon didn't hesitate to join one of the most elite, and secretive, organizations in all of Sera. He packed, and left for Halvo Bay the next day. After his accelerated training of two years, he was shipped off to a temporary COG base to be put with a squad designated Rhino. After he went to the armory to get a suit of black, glossy armor. He also picked up a Lancer assault rifle, as he was the best shot with it in his whole class at the academy. He made sure to get a Snub pistol as well. His new squad leader and medic was Vinnie, a well-trained sergeant who had a lot of field experience. He was very strong with his Lancer, and showed Trevon how to use, disassemble, and clean the chainsaw bayonet. Then there was Jonah, who was easily the burliest human Trevon had ever seen before. He carried a Boomshot in addition to his Lancer as if it was a second rifle. Easton, the squads CQB expert, only carried a Sawed-Off Shotgun and a Gnasher Shotgun into battle. Even though he carried a Boltok revolver for range, he barely used it. To round out the squad was Callie, an absolute artist with the Longshot sniper rifle. Apart from that she only carried a strange, automatic, dual magazined Locust pistol that she claimed she picked up from a decapitated Kantus priest. Trevon found his niche as the in between guy, who supported the squad by fighting alongside them.

Now Trevon's thoughts came back to the present, where somebody probably just died. Trevon pulled his legs back into the Raven and moved over to see a fellow Onyx Guardsmen slumped over in his seat on the Raven. "It's Easton, he's been shot from the ground" said Vinnie. "It was a sniper, probably a Longshot" added Callie. Trevon looked at Easton, and saw why Callie made that assumption. There was a thumb-sized hole in the lower part of Easton's left cheekplate. There was a small fist-sized exit wound in the back of his helmet. "Pilot, drop us off where we were at when Easton got hit" said Vinnie. "But sarge, we might miss the mission window, Major Loomis won't be happy at all" replied Callie. "It was only a stranded with a rare fairly strong mind, he'll be there later. Pilot set us down here." No sooner had Vinnie spoken when a round hit the floor of the Ravens bay, leaving a vapor trail that Callie immediately followed to find the sniper. "It's a Locust! What are they doing out here" Callie said with surprise in her voice. "I don't know and quite frankly don't care, shoot to wound Rhino." Trevon knew exactly what he meant; they were going to make that grub feel pain.

The squad made their way across open rocky desert to get to the sniper behind a rock. Callie sighted in and shot the barrel of the Locust's sniper rifle, rendering it useless. The grub dropped the gun and burst from cover, charging towards Rhino squad. Trevon Brought up his lancer and put 2 rounds into each of the grub's kneecaps. The sniper tumbled forward and started using his arms to move towards Jonah. Jonah used his foot to kick the drone onto it's back. Now Trevon got a good look at the enemy. The drone stared at him with orange-tinted goggles that Locust snipers usually wore. Its mottled gray skin looked very reptilian and its face almost looked crocodilian. Vinnie walked up with Easton's Sawed-Off and promptly blew the grub's right leg off at the hip. Then Jonah lifted his colossal boot and said "for Easton" before he brought it down on the grubs face, smashing its head into bits of bone and gray-matter.

"Pilot, we are coming back to the Raven." "Understood sir, well keep the rotors...Nemacysts! , oh sh-" The tac/com died just as a massive explosion rocked the ground, and the raven was gone completely. "What the hell are Nemacysts?" asked Trevon. "They're living missiles that fly into Ravens and other important stuff we need" replied Jonah, who was scraping gore off his boot on a rock. Before Trevon could reply, a tremor shook the ground and the rest of Rhino squad darted for cover. Feeling like they knew something, he ran for cover beside Callie. "What's going on?" Then Callie pointed out to a rock outcropping where the sound of digging ended with a small explosion of dirt. The dust obscured what was happening there, then Trevon heard multiple roars. Most were lighter but a few were deep, guttural roars. Trevon looked across a small distance and saw Jonah and Vinnie give sighs of dismay, even through their helmets Trevon could tell something was wrong.

At that moment, Trevon peeked his head around the rock to see 15 drones standing in a group that fanned out, they were moving casually and were oblivious to the Guardsmen. When Vinnie shouted "Fire!" he and Jonah rose up and started firing over their cover rock, While Callie rested her Longshot on the rock she was behind and sighted in. Trevon leaned out of the side of the same rock, and fired down the Lancers sights. 4 drones fell immediately to Lancer fire, while one drone's head snapped back and it toppled from the impact of Callie's bullet into its frontal lobe. The rest of the drones took cover, and Rhino squad started leapfrogging forward. Two team members would provide cover fire while the other two would move up. They did that until they were practically on top of the Locust infantry. Rhino squad then killed 4 more Locust, then hunkered down to shoot at the remaining drones from cover. One drone ran out of ammo for it's Hammerburst assault rifle and charged Callie. She whipped out her automatic pistol and stitched the drone across the chest. "What kind of pistol is that again?" asked Trevon. "A Gorgon, Kantus use them." Trevon watched as Jonah stood and started shooting over the head of one of the last drones. Vinnie used this opportunity to vault over his cover, sprint to the drone, and blow it to pieces with Easton's Sawed-Off. The last drone was nowhere to be seen, but Rhino squad had missed something. There was another Emergence hole behind the first, and 3 Boomers clambered out into the sun. They looked like a drone had become extremely fat and tall, and they carried Boomshots. Boomshots were like miniature artillery pieces that you could hold in 2 hands. One of the Boomers made the deep, low roar Trevon had heard before. Jonah piped up "oh crap, that's bad."

Trevon remembered back at the academy the lesson on Boomers. They were slow, terrible shots, absolutely brain-dead, and extremely strong. Their Boomshot shoots a grenade that can travel very far and made a big explosion. The sheer power of the weapon compensates for their bad aim. They have a habit of yelling BOOM! Right before they fire, giving you time to get out of the way. Back to the present, the lead boomer took 3 steps forward and shouted "BOOM!" Then the big hulk fired. "Get to cover!" yelled Vinnie. The projectile sailed past them and detonated behind the squad. "They can't fire if we're very close, come on!" And with that, Rhino squad sprinted from cover as one. They closed the difference quickly while dodging 2 more projectiles. Vinnie jumped hard and grabbed onto the boomers chest, then brought up the Sawed-Off and vaporized the boomers head. Callie did the same but stuck a Bolo grenade right behind the Boomer's head. The behemoth reached back to pull the grenade out of its neck, but its anatomy made it impossible. The grenade detonated, nearly vaporizing the boomer from the waist up. While the legs leftover collapsed, Jonah brought his own Boomshot to bear on the final Boomer. The Boomer was reloading when Jonah ironically shouted "BOOM!" before firing. The projectile impacted the Boomers chest with extreme force, detonating and blowing it to bits. Trevon let out a sigh of relief, but remembered the drone that they couldn't find, and turned to look for it. He found it, but not how he wanted; the drone was walking up to Callie's turned back. Trevon screamed "watch out!" as he shouldered his Lancer and started sprinting towards Callie, who was inspecting her rifle. Jonah and Vinnie turned around to see Trevon running towards the drone who now had now raised his Hammerburst to hit Callie in the head with the back. Just as it was bringing down the rifle for the kill, Trevon jumped and pushed the gun aside. This caused the gun to miss Callie's head and hit her shoulder with a loud CRACK! Callie screamed and fell. Trevon spun and landed a massive right hook on the drones left cheek, and was surprised at how hard the locusts jaw was. Nonetheless, the drone recoiled and spun back towards Trevon, but Vinnie already had his Lancer drawn and fired a burst into the drone's thigh. The drone fell momentarily, but before it could stand, Trevon kicked it full force in the chest. With the drone dazed and on its back, Trevon pulled out his Lancer. Trevon jammed the front of the Lancer into the grub's upper chest, breaking its ribs and lightly digging into the flesh. Trevon revved the chainsaw inside the grub and the chainsaw ripped its torso apart, throwing grub bits and bone everywhere. After the grub was thoroughly eviscerated, Trevon turned to join the rest of the squad who were helping Callie sit up. Trevon saw that her shoulder was off center, and ran to help her. After looking her over, Vinnie said "well, it's obviously dislocated. We need to pop it back in." Callie agreed. Trevon walked up and got on his knees as the guys started to push her shoulder back in. Callie groaned, then yelled. Vinnie stopped pushing and asked "do you just want to wait for medics." "No just do it!" As they started pushing again, Callie screamed and lifted her right hand. Trevon grabbed and gripped her hand and was surprised at how solid her grip was. SNAP! Callies shoulder popped back in and she yelled, but then stood u and hugged Trevon. "Thank you, thank you all." Trevon replied "no problem, but now you have grub bits on your armor." Callie didn't care. Vinnie opened up his tac/com "Control, we need a raven for evac in the northwest corner of the Deadlands." "Roger Rhino, a raven is being sent for you. ETA thirty mike. Trevon felt a deep connection to his squad, they had been through hell together, and got out alive. He couldn't have asked for a better squad.

Hope you enjoyed, Leave a comment or a review if you liked it and would like a part 2