-Swarm-Part 1-Trident Squad-

Trident Squad was running down the small courtyard of Outpost 6B, Dodging bullets that flew through the open gate. They finally got out into the great Lost Desert and then each member of Trident Squad, Captain Tigershadow the Kougra, Corporal Trideli the Eyrie, Private H'dans the Scorchio, and Private Wajing the Xweetok, ran as fast as they could towards one of the walls scattered around the place to repel a bug attack.

Trident Squad is the professionals of the Sakhmet Militia, the best. They had one flaw though. If you counted the number of neopets, you would notice there are only four. Five is the appropriate number for a squadron. Private Lrasta the Wocky, Captured by the bugs, shot two times in the hind leg during the skirmish that lead to her capture. No one knows what happened to her and declared her missing in action. The only reason Captain Tigershadow refused for Queen Amira (who was Trident Squad's direct Commander because of their skill) to look for another Elite soldier as replacement was because he wanted to wear this as a scar, to show their 'Inferiors' as H'dans calls the other soldiers that even the best make mistakes.

Wajing ripped off a belt of SNOball grenades from the body of a fallen Usul and expertly aimed each one under the feet of a couple of bugs. Wajing ran to another wall, letting a Gelert take his place. When he got to the other wall he noticed that H'dans had been running for the same wall. They made a silent agreement and both took one side of the battered barrier.

"Where's Trideli?" shouted Wajing over the sound of blaster bolts and screams of falling soldiers. "he took his usual spot in the air! Put on his flight armor and took out a lot of their vehicles and tanks!" if you were confused by this, let's just say these bugs are an intelligent species. Wajing looked up to see the shape of an Eyrie shooting bugs with the guns built into his armor. Then H'dans unstrapped his signature weapon, a KanrikM-100 AP Slug cannon or a 'Slugger' as all the soldiers called it. He easily dispatched a slightly damaged enemy tank and used the last of his magazine to take out a winged bug that was about to attack Trideli. The Eyrie looked down to see who had just saved him, H'dans Grinned, and then replaced his Magazine.

Wajing then ran to a wall in front of his last one to inspire nearby soldiers to move on as well. Wajing fired at some bugs and then had to reload his rifle. Just as he had replaced the ammo pack a bug suddenly popped from behind his wall, trying to advance. Letting instinct take over for a second Wajing bashed the daylights out of the startled bug with his stock until it ceased buzzing and fell to the ground. Wajing ran to another wall a few yards away from him. As he ran, he saw something glint high above his head and then immediately rolled to the cover of burnt, destroyed tank. A group of unsuspecting, or, completely-suspecting soldiers near the place where he was previously at screamed as an explosive shell rained down on them, forming a crater full of bodies in the sand.

Wajing decided to stay at his current position and wait for someone to take out the enemy tank. After a minute of picking off passing bugs he finally heard an explosion as the enemy tank was destroyed by an anti-tank turret mounted on the wall of Outpost 6B. he was in the middle of getting up to continue running for another wall when he heard a yell that caught his attention, a nearby Aisha was wounded, he ran to it and, not having enough medical skills to help him at the moment, ran to a sturdy wall and slumped him behind it so the bugs couldn't finish their job on him.

Wajing ducked behind another wall. He saw a few more specks high in the air and was about to run when they stopped suddenly, and began descending towards 6B. The most beautiful thing a soldier can ever see descended towards him. Dropships, the kind with reinforcements. The dropships all landed, one soldier came out with A heavy-looking cannon which contained tear gas. Normally, this would be useless but the chemicals used to make it were poison to bug biology, 'Pesticide' if you wish. The bugs began to scurry about then a few of them fled until their way was blocked by the tear gas and the soldiers began firing. The bugs who did succeed in fleeing, were sniped by the dark ghillie-suited figures in 6B's high watchtowers. The scout troops or 'Moustaches' nobody really knows who started calling them moustaches but it sank in.

Their came a great shout from the victorious soldiers and silence from the soldiers lying in a crater or half buried in the sand. At the entrance of the fortified base squad leaders were calling out for their men to come to them. Only the Elite Squads like Trident Squad got cool names but the rest were just numbers such as Squad 67. Wajing saw Tigershadow and walked towards the Kougra, trying not to notice the bodies lying around him with a scream of terror still etched on their faces.

"Captain Tigershadow!" yelled Wajing. "Wajing! There's the last one. Let's return to the Squad dorms!" so Trident Squad walked down the hallways to clean up in the Trident Squad Dormitory. To everyone except the ones who were grieving over the losses of fellow soldiers, this was just another failed attempt for the bugs to penetrate Outpost 6B's defenses. After cleaning sand out of armor and polishing rifles, everyone returned to their duties as if nothing had happened. H'dans patrolled the perimeter of 6B's territory while Trideli replaced a damaged plate on his armor. Tigershadow went to confer with Queen Amira via hologram while Wajing returned to Trident Dorm.

IOs weren't really part of a squad and were only given to Elite Squads like Trident Squad. They were always the brains of an operation, coming up with backup plans, determining the amount of conflict, and messing around with enemy tech from a distance by hacking computers and downloading fatal viruses. They were only meant for thinking, not fighting, they could kill as long as it wasn't a full combat situation but the training an IO is given only involves the battle tactics needed for making a backup plan. They analyzed maps, scanned anomalies, and could think up a way to get out of an enemy prison while you're surrounded by bugs with shotguns all pointed at your face.

Wajing sat on his bed, reading a book when the speakers activated, it was Tigershadow, "Trident Squad. Report to Briefing room four. That includes you Drihy. Queen Amira wishes to bring something to our attention." Then there was a "ck" as the phone was hung up and the ready room returned to silence.

"Our scouts in the northwest pass have discovered something" said Amira through the speaker on her end. She was dressed in a uniform, the ones she usually wore when talking with miltia. "A bug prison base, Obviously a special one because of the cloaking device that hid it from our radar. It lies on the eastern side of the canyon, way up on top. I'm sending your squad on a special mission to retrieve more data for a successful air assault." Tigershadow began pacing the room and then said, "Wouldn't the Initial scout team have retrieved the data?" Amira hesitated then answered, "We lost contact with the team right after they transmitted the coordinates. Here are the last few seconds of the transmission." Then Amira disappeared to be replaced by a Lupe in scout armor. "We suggest immediate attack, there are too many bugs—AAGH!" then the Lupe dropped and what appeared to be one of the lower ranking scouts kneeled over him, checked his pulse, and said, "lots of bugs! Requesting immediate air support—RARGH!" then the hologram link went blank, and Amira returned. "This is why we need your team to investigate, Captain" Tigershadow nodded and said, "we'll assemble our aircraft, Trident Squad out" then Tigershadow disabled the comm link. He turned to Wajing, Drihy the Draik, their Intelligence Officer, H'dans, and Trideli, and said, "Looks like we have a mission, team."