SYLUX: ARMOR NIGHTMARE
Chapter one
Galactic federation sergeant Bronlux was bored. Not often was he given the "graveyard shift" on the federation controlled planet zeta 12, but every time was boring as hell. The damn planet was right in the middle of federation controlled space, where no potential invaders could reach them. Bronlux was sitting in the red swivel chair in front of the planetary defense computer, in front of the changing room.
"Yo Bronlux, any invaders?" said private Sinkley, a newbie to the squad.
"First of all, it's 'sergeant' Bronlux and second of all, what do you think?" he retorted.
"I'll tell you what I think, sergeant Bronlux," Sinkley illustrated quote marks with his fingers on the word 'sergeant' "I think that this place is damn boring and we're doing some dead-end job on a dead-end planet that doesn't need this damn dead-end job done anyway. Mind If I play Tetris on the planetary defense computer?"
Bronlux gave Sinkley a fatherly slap on the back of the head. This made a small clank noise as both of their federation issue armours hit together.
"Get back to work, private." Bronlux said mockingly. Bronlux put his feet up, pulled up his visor and opened up a can of some obscure fizzy drink whose name he had never bothered to learn.
It was going to be a long night.
BOOM!
Bronlux awoke with a start. The fizzy drinks can was lying on the ground, empty, its contents spilled out onto the floor. Bronlux scolded himself for being so stupid as to fall asleep on duty. He pulled down his visor and took his feet off the table, wondering what had caused the noise that woke him up. He turned round and looked at the changing room behind him.
Sinkley was slumped against the wall, blood covering the chestplate of his federation-issue armour. He appeared to be impaled on one of the coathangers on the wall. The shockwave from the explosion must have tossed him right on to one of them. Power guy, Bronlux thought.
"gaaah!" Bronlux almost jumped out of his suit. Pulling himself together, he realised he had to think quickly. He looked at the planetary defense computer. The screen was black, save for one logo flying about the screen.
Damn screensaver, Bronlux thought. He wiggled the mouse and looked at the screen again. There were 3 space pirate shuttles in orbit round the planet! They were bombarding the small defense base that he was in. again he studied the holo-map in front of him. One of the shots had completely destroyed the infantry quarters. It was highly likely he was the only live federation trooper in the whole base. The ground troops would be landing soon. Clearing his mind and doing his best not to panic, he returned to the defense computer. After scanning the ships to get more details on them, it was revealed to him that the ships were space pirate in origin, and that there was a high amount of nitroceleryne dust on the ships, a dust which was in high supply on the planets moon. They must have been biding their time there, waiting until the right moment to strike this planet and establish a space pirate base right in the middle of federation territory. They had aimed their weapons for the communications centre first. After this planet they would have moved on to the next. They could have caught this whole sector by surprise. Bronlux took his federation-issue pistol and flicked off the safety. Could one federation trooper defeat an entire space pirate attack force and in doing so save his entire sector? The odds were stacked against him.
Odds? I was never much of a mathematician anyway, he thought as he sat down in front of the computer.