TRIAL BY FIRE
Chapter 1 - Out of the Frying Pan…
"Lets go lets go!" Was the first words that registered in my head when my battalion and I looked at the alarm on the wall as it sounded. We were under attack.
I was a member of the 142nd drop battalion, 7th fleet stationed on Norion. Standing outside one on one of the many large platforms overlooking the canyon in Sector Zero (1) we were having an initial brief about an upcoming deployment to the Fólkvangr Region to suppress irregular pirate forces taking vast swathes of Federation space. As a drop unit we are equipped with jetpacks and jump out of an Aries class transport from about 200 feet right into the thick of the enemy's ranks, or just behind them. We are known for going out there and taking the fight to them. Not the other way around.
The first couple of moments were manic, people trying to find other members of their squad before double timing it to a designated defensive position. Needless to say, as drop troops we don't practice base defence drills for areas like planets, the most we train for in defensive roles is shipboard combat against pirate boarding vessels where our jetpacks give us a huge advantage in agility and speed in hand to hand combat. Ultimately though this doesn't appear to matter, as we will be battling in this environment anyway.
"Alright, squad number!"
"One!"
"Two!"
"Three!"
"Four!"
"Five!"
"Six!"
"Seven!"
"Eight!"
"Nine!"
"Ten!"
"Eleven!"
"Twelve sergeant!"
"Two ranks now, double time follow me!"
Ten seconds is all it takes to affirm that the twelve of us are here and for the next order to come through. I'm close to the bottom of the ranking tree, a Lance Corporal myself.
It's been less than two minutes since the siren went off, and us as a squad have left the platform and are running through one of the many corridors towards generator Bravo, where we would be linking up with a small PED squad to defend said generator. At that moment however, we heard the first of the Hydra Multiturrets starting up, and thats when I felt the unease kicking in. I have been in battle before and so has the rest of my squad, but we have never even heard of a pirate attack on a military stronghold the size of Norion, let alone been in one.
"Pick up the pace marines! They only need to take out one generator and we've lost the support from the orbital cannon!" Was the ever calm voice from Sgt. Campbell coming over the intercom. "I will not accept it being generator B being the one which goes offline!"
That resulted in a noticeable speed up in our already fast jog. Almost there, one more corner and then we're at the docking bay for the generator, another open platform.
"Foxtrot-five-three zulu-one-two where the hell are you!?" Was a sudden, raw sounding shout over the radio. "They're all over us! They've knocked out the generator and pushed us out onto the docking platform!"
Normally the squad IC (2) would relay what to say next to the rifleman who's in charge of the radio, yet the situation here was dire enough for Campbell to give a direct reply; "Zulu-one-two this is Foxtrot-five-three twenty seconds away, out!"
"Marines lock and load, engage and destroy all targets! Battle formation airburst!" Campbell at the front fired a single shot at the shielded door in front to open it, and for us to rush through onto the open platform.
Battle formation airburst changed all our perceptions about the opening of the battle. It requires the front rank and the IC to engage their jetpacks and leap forwards ahead of the rest of the squad to clear a path. The rest then fan out into the open space and attempt a pincer movement, bypassing any obstacles between us and them. We were no longer defending the generator, we were assaulting the pirates who were attempting to entrench themselves in the generator. This is what we're good at, this is where we come into our own.
The door opens and instantly the fins holding the jets unfold from their stowed position on the backpacks of the marines in front of me. In less time it takes me to take a pace they've already jumped ahead by several meters, and the unfortunate vanguard pirate in front of us was hit by a hale of assault rifle fire. As I am now the front rank on the left hand side it is up to me to lead the rest of the men in my column around the left flank. I now unfurl my own jets and take a small hop to the left, around a large storage container. Right into the path of an advanced aerotrooper.
"Left side second man take lead!" Is my order to the man behind me to take my place in front while I deal with the aerotrooper.
Huge, red and brown hide, it's own jetpack and thick dark green armour impervious to the beam attacks from my rifle. The only was I can see to defeat this thing is to get up close and personal in hand to hand combat. Time to mount the bayonet.
First thing to do is enrage it so it only targets me, otherwise it can wreck havoc with the rest of our relief squad with its rocket pods and beams. Easily done, accelerate into it and essentially rugby tackle it over the edge, which is what I then do. I open my jetpack to its fullest extent, to make myself appear as large as possible and attempt to startle it as well. I am less then 10 feet away when I open the throttle on the rockets and grab the 8ft tall pirate (actually small by their standards) around its neck, this manoeuvre actually taking us off the platform, something which I'd thought would require me dragging it.
What happened next was just a blur, the pirate engaging his own jetpack in an attempt to stabilise before we hit the bottom of the canyon below us. However I switch my rifle's mode to bayonet and a small energy knife forms at the end of my sight at the top of the rifle. I attempt to use this to stab it in the space between its chest armour and helmet. However before I can, (it was difficult to do, spinning through the air at that speed!) I have been thrown off by the pirate. Levelling off I find myself with an angry pirate trying to hit me with its rocket pods, as my proximity alarm tells me somethings just brushed by my head. With no better plan than to stab it in its neck I attempt to jump back on it. The space pirates may be three times the mass of a person and nothing but muscle, but damn they can be tough to keep a lock on.
Our deadly dance of me trying to grab his armour and him constantly dodging took us back over the platform. I was hit several times with his beams, losing almost an entire energy tank. It appears I picked a fight with a young trooper, not yet experienced enough to hit me with any rockets or gel-bombs. I count myself lucky there, and for its apparent lack of wanting to engage in close quarters where it could easily overpower me. Needing to end this now, I make a feint to the left, while preparing to leap right. The pirate falls for it and finds himself with my right hand latched onto his collar and the left with the rifle plunging the bayonet in his neck. Disengaging my jets to save some fuel and planning on using his jets to keep us both airborne, the pirates jets also turn off. I quickly try to pull the bayonet out of the very clearly dying pirate. Jammed. I guess we have about two seconds before we hit the floor so I manoeuvre our bodies to use his as a sort of cushion. This plan works - barely. There's a huge jolt through my skeleton as we hit the floor. Not my best landing, but then again I've never been in this hunched over position with one arm stuck to a space pirate. Thank god for all those practice jumps.
A series of purple bolts just missing me coming from the front makes me realise the sudden new predicament I've landed myself into: the crossfire between the assaulting marines and the remaining pirate forces. By the looks of it only a pair of pirate militia are left anyway. Just yanking on the rifle isn't appearing to work and I can't just disengage the energy knife because of a flaw in the rifles design - the bayonet must be clear of any obstructions to retract. I give a loud sigh of extreme irritation and in my adrenaline fuelled state make the decision to actually let go off my primary weapon. Counting myself lucky that I haven't been hit by either the poorly armed militia or the marines yet, I quickly move myself so that I've got one foot holding the dead aerotrooper still by the head and then use both hands to pull my rifle free. The pirate's blood all over the rifle and my hands don't make it an easy task and I keep loosing my grip, but eventually it gives and with a bone sickening crunch, making me fall backwards. I realise that I had actually pulled out half the pirate's collarbone. Deciding that now wasn't the best time to remove a large chunk of bone on the end of my rifle I make a dash behind one of the storage containers, where theres three other marines also taking cover; rifleman Mills, rocketman (literally fires rockets for a day job) Arbuckle and the sergeant.
"Finished dancing with that pirate then PED marine? I also think your radio's bust!" he yelled at me through our visors and over the sound of the pirate invasion.
The reference to PED marine was due to my apparent stubbornness issues. PED marines are allegedly indestructible when in hypermode, and I do things they'd be able to get away with due to said indestructibility. In my defence however, I take the only action I can see.
The radio however must have been knocked offline from one of the pirates many particle cannon shots. Which means that…
"With no generator left to defend we're going to have to pick another fight. If your radios gone I am going to have to leave you here with the PED squad, not that you'll mind!"
"Sarge really? You're actually doing this?" I exclaimed in disbelief. Yes it may be protocol to leave a marine without a functional radio in a harbour area (3) or safer place than the front line, but I didn't have the confidence in them to survive any more hand to hand combat. I was having visions of Mews or one of the other recent additions to Foxtrot-five-three pinned beneath a pirate and me having to do some more rugby tackling. Campbell however, wasn't having any of it.
"You heard me. I cannot be responsible for a marine who cannot reliably hear a command. He leaned in closer to me so he could lower his voice to a volume more appropriate to a private talk. "I also promised Izzy I'd keep you safe, or has that pirate knocked some brain cells out as well as the radio up there? I can't keep that promise with you not able to hear."
I could feel my shoulders drop and I tilted my head back before letting out a sigh. "Yes sergeant." There was no way around it. Isabelle was my girlfriend back on Daiban (4), I met her after I had joined the GFMC but every time I came back on leave she'd latch onto me and not let go. Izzy goes to the barracks every week with other marine families to see what our current status is. It can take a couple of days for a surprise engagement to filter through the system, but this event should already be raising alarms through the emergency frequencies.
I could just imagine her pleading with me again to leave the corps when I get back next, only to have me tell her that I haven't served the minimum length of 4 years yet. Now that I think about it, she'll hear about this battle before the next service update, with a planet like Norion under attack its going to throw the rest of the Federation into a defensive stance.
"Good man." Leaning around me to look at the pirates and then turning back around; "Arbuckle! I thought I told you to finish off the militia! Theres still one left I can see!"
"Apologies sarge!" And he very simply jumped the storage container and I heard a missile go off with a near instant explosion accompanying it. Arbuckle is one of the stingiest grunts I know when it comes to ammo, so he was probably expecting another marine to finish off the last of the pirates before he needed to use another missile. However he is also the most effective yes-man in the squad, accepting orders without a second thought.
There was a second of nothing but background noise before Mills began moving around the container and Campbell turned to me; "he's called clear, we're going to link up with Zulu-one-two, follow Mills."
Moving around the container as well, still very much annoyed that I'd be missing the rest of the battle I decide to take a good look around at the surroundings for the first time. Littered around us is pirate bodies, 10 foot tall storage containers and evidence of a massive firefight everywhere. Dents in the Jovian glass floor, cracks on the roof and scorch marks practically everywhere. The dense forest surrounding the canyon was on fire in numerous places and all over there were Federation Stiletto-class fighters engaging the pirate Fang-class. I allowed myself a smile despite the situation at the lack of any bodies belonging to a marine.
I look around at the collection of soldiers around us. 18 in all. That means there is 5 PEDs among us.
Stepping forwards towards a marine with gold accents on his shoulder, Campbell begins talking to what appears to be the IC of the PED marines. An officer. Usually I'd be able to hear what they're saying over the radio, but as mine is busted I really am out of the loop.
Someone knocks my arm and I turn to find that there is a PED marine standing there. Before he can say anything however…
"Foxtrot-five-three change of plan! We're to go to the cargo hub and provide a relief force to a besieged squad! Any questions?"
"Why the change in plan? Can't we bring the generator back online?" Corporal Clark spoke up. It wasn't usual to not speak over the radio to each other but I respected them for trying to keep me informed.
"Tech isn't our area. Anyway…" Campbell's visor faced me now, "...Hunter Rundas is coming to assist."
I felt my jaw drop.
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(1) - Just to remind everyone (including myself), the sector in Norion in which you land is called Sector Zero, not the place of the same name from Other M!
(2) - IC = In Command, in this squads case sergeant Campbell is the IC, 2/IC is the second in command. At this point I haven't decided who the 2/IC is.
(3) - A harbour area is a "position established to provide safety during an extended halt."
(4) - Capital planet of the Galactic Federation.
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A/N - First chapter of a very planned story! I'm releasing this chapter with one from the How To Train Your Dragon universe, just to see how things go. Is the chapter too long? Too technical? Boring even? Please let me know and I'll (attempt to) do better in coming chapters!