Chapter 2: Time for a Fight

"I think I can help with that last part" Came a voice behind Kade. Turning swiftly, Kade looked at the figure that stood before them. To call the imposing being standing before them armored would be an understatement. Though he lacked the simple brute 2 inch giant armor that Kade wore, the man still cast an imposing figure.

On his head, he wore a helmet similar to Eric's in general shape, but that's where the similarities ended. Instead of the blue and yellow color, the helmet's base color was red, with dark gray stripes running from the mask to the back of the helmet. In place of the visor, dark grey, almost black, goggles protected and shielded the man's eyes.

Covering the rest of the his face was what at first glance seemed to be simple black cloth, pulled up to just below the goggles. However, if looked at closer, the cloth was actually a super light metal of sorts, one that could be moved and bend in anyway, yet still maintain it's protective qualities.

The man bore large gray shoulder pauldrons with a splotch of red in the middle that went from a couple inches above his shoulders to the middle of his upper arms. In the space between his identically colored, thick arm gauntlets, one could see the gray sleeves of his shirt, which was made from the same cloth that obscured his face.

His pants were of the same material as were his gloves. The gloves shared the color of his shirt, but his pants were a dark tan color, like wet sand.

He wore a chestplate which was dark grey with two large red stripes running from the shoulders down to the center. The chest plate also featured armor up to the bottom part of the man's neck, allowing for a full range of movement. Attached to the chestplate, and going down to his waist, were identically colored interlocking pieces of armor that were tied tightly around his midsection.

A tan colored belt went around him, just below the interlocking armor pieces. The belt had many large bulging pockets, no doubt storing ammunition, grenades, rations and like. In the center of the belt was a small, red, armor plate, extending down a bit to protect some of the more… vital areas.

Below the belt, the man had armored plates that protected most of his thighs that also featured a color scheme of red with gray stripes. He also possessed similarly colored knee pads and greaves. His boot were heavily armored, shared the same color scheme as the rest of his legs, and were undoubtedly made with jumps from high places in mind.

What really drew the three soldier's eyes though, besides the two TX-1 Repeater pistols holstered at each of his sides, was the four foot long black and silver light machine gun with a magazine that probably held at least 50 bullets. The man altogether stood about a head and half shorter than Kade.

Upon seeing the figure, Jaxon's face broke out into a grin behind his mask. "Oberon!"He cried out, running towards the now-identified being. Hearing Jaxon's outburst, Oberon's face broke out into a similar grin.

"Jaxon!" He yelled, sprinting towards the lithe figure. Once the two running figures reached each other, they clasped each others right hands as if they were about to arm wrestle, and embraced each other with their free left arm, performing a rather manly hug that involved a good deal of back slapping on Oberon's part. It was a wonder that Jaxon's spine didn't snap like a toothpick.

After breaking the testosterone infused hug, Jaxon turned towards Eric and Kade, who had been watching with equally amused expressions, and gestured with his right hand, as his left arm was still on Oberon's shoulders. "Guys, this is my brother, Oberon Long. And before you ask, no, he is not adopted"

Eric and Kade gave a small chuckle at this, but they still couldn't make the connection between the large muscular figure that was Oberon and the slim form of Jaxon. Now moving his hand to gesture at Eric and Kade, Jaxon continued with, "Oberon, this is Eric and Kade," gesturing to the two respectively, "We've decided to work together to survive in this new place"

After being introduced, Eric gave a slight wave of his hand and said "Hey," while Kade jerked his head in the universal motion for 'sup'.

"Alright now that we've got that out of the way," Oberon started, his voice slightly muffled behind his mask, "We need to get out of this clearing, and see if we can find some sign of civilization."

Eric nodded in agreement, "He's right, even if we all have standard survival supplies, we've only got enough food to last us a couple of days." The group was now arranged in a circle, unconsciously having moved to listen to each other.

"And," Kade began, "I've checked using the interface on my helmet to check on the slim chance that this place has been mapped, which, it hasn't, but that's not the worst of it." All eyes on him now, Kade dropped the bombshell, "Since this place isn't mapped that means any, if any civilization here is most likely less advanced than us, which means," Taking a breath, he continued,"which means that there's...there's no re-birthing system."

The three who stood listening to him froze, the unfamiliar ice-cold hands of fear gripping their heart. They had relied on the rebirthing system since their first day of combat. See, how the rebirthing system worked was that they were implanted with a microchip of sorts, that kept a watch on their vitals, and if a person was dead for more than 2 minutes, their DNA was used to build, in a way, an exact copy of them back at the closest secure base using nanites, microscopic mechanical organisms, and they were built too include their memories, personality, all of it.

They then took data from the microchip and kind of…uploaded…. their recent memories into the new body's brain, from waking up from their last rebirth to the moment they most recently flat lined. The rebirthing system had given them a sense of self-assuredness when fighting and it drove them to take risks that they would not normally take.

They'd usually die while taking these risks, but they were okay with that, because they were comforted by the fact that they'd wake up, alive and well. Here they had no such comforts, here they were now haunted by the knowledge that if they died, there'd be no waking up. No coming back. Just the cold embrace of death.

After a moment of silence, Jaxon was the first one to speak up,"Well then…I guess…we-we'd better not die." This elicited a short round of chuckles from the group and lightened the somewhat somber atmosphere, though not entirely.

"So, where should we head?" Oberon asked. After a moment of looking at the view around them, Eric spoke up, "How about there?" He was pointing at the tall, wide cliff rising up out of the ground about 2 miles away, marking the one end of the forest.

"Uh Eric, I don't think people live in cliffs" Kade said, sounding completely innocent, although Eric could have sworn that there was a teasing grin hiding underneath that helmet.

Shooting him an annoyed look, Eric replied,"I didn't mean in the cliffs, dumbass, I was suggesting that we climb on top of it and see if we can find or see anything"

Agreeing with him, Jaxon voiced his opinion, "Yeah, and I don't see any vantage points closer and taller than those cliffs"

Oberon nodded in agreement, and spoke for the group when he said, "Alright, it's decided then, we'll head for the cliffs" All agreeing, they nodded and started a steady jogging pace in the direction of the cliffs. Jaxon took the front, with Oberon and Eric on his flanks, Kade right behind them. Logically, if they were ambushed from behind, Kade would have the best chance of surviving, with him wearing his armored MAX suit and all.

After jogging until the four of them were about half a mile from the cliff, Jaxon tried to start a conversation. "Hey Oberon, did you happen to run into a giant, black, bear-like creature with white spikes and a bone mask with two glowing red eyes?" Had he said the exact same thing three hours ago, for that was right before they crashed, Oberon would have slammed Jaxon in the nearest psychiatric ward so fast his head would split. But now he just shook his head a replied with:

"Actually, the creature I ran into wasn't so much of a bear as it was a wolf. It was still pretty big. But, then again, that didn't stop my T9-CARV," He said, nodding at the machine gun he carried in his hands," from putting five bullets in it's brain."

"Great," Jaxon sarcastically commented,"There's more than one species of whatever those things are"

"Eh, the one I ran into seemed to be more built for speed than full frontal combat, I don't think they can do much on their own. However if they were in a pack…." Oberon let that hang in the air for a second, and then as if the creatures had heard him, the group heard could hear the howling of multiple creatures that sounded like wolves, which brought the group to a halt. As they listened, their eyes widened as they realized the howling was getting closer.

"You just had to say it, didn't you Oberon? You just had to say it" The others shared Eric's sentiment, but didn't had to time to comment on it before Jaxon spoke up.

"It's too dense and dark here, we'll never see them until they're right on top of us. We need to find a clearing, some sort of open area."

"We could sprint for the cliffs, they can't ambush us from there" The others nodding at Kade's suggestion, they all began to run in a full on sprint. Jaxon quickly took the lead due to the endurance training he'd been through, and Eric wasn't far behind him. Kade lagged behind the most, simply due to the heaviness of his armor. Oberon was only a couple feet in front of Kade, running as quick as he could.

When Jaxon reached the cliffs he took a second to catch his breath, breathing in short, quick pants, shoulders heaving from the exertion. After regaining control of his lungs he turned around just in time to see the first wolf-like creature burst from the trees, howling for blood. Quickly unslinging his TSAR-42 sniper rifle, he took aim, and promptly sent a bullet straight through the creature's brain, it's body going sprawling in the dirt.

A couple seconds after joining him with his back to the cliff, Eric unleashed three shots from his Razor-G5, killing a black wolf creature that had attempted to flank them on the left. Oberon and Kade showed up moments later, five of the wolves right on their tail. Jaxon and Eric quickly brought down the wolves, their howls of pain and the blood left from their bodies coupled with the bullet casings on the ground made for a grim scene.

As soon Kade and Oberon regained authority over their lungs, the group quickly rearranged themselves in a semi circle formation with their guns up, looking for the slightest movement, shaking of a bush, anything. And so they waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited even more.

And just as they were about to bring down their guns and start figuring out how to get up the cliff, there was a thump heard deep in the forest. And another thump. *thump*... *thump*... *thump*

"You guys hear that, right?" *thump*

"Yeah, It sounds almost like…"*thump* "like footsteps" Jaxon answered to Kade's inquiry.

A guttural growl was heard just in the edge of the woods. Aiming at the source of the sound, the group stood, weapons at the ready. Then, out of the trees, emerged one of the wolf like creatures.

But instead of standing about half a story high as the rest did, this one was easily two stories high, maybe even three. The spikes on it's back rivaled Eric in size, and the red eyes glowing beneath the bone mask would have driven a knife of fear straight into your heart. Upon seeing the creature, the soldiers jaws dropped as the giant beast stared at them, and let out a threatening growl that revealed a row of razor sharp teeth.

Staring up at the creature that could have easily swallowed him with one bite, Kade managed to put to voice what the rest of group was thinking.

"Oh shit"

And that's chapter two!

I've really been getting into this, now I know why people like to write fanfictions so much.

Review! All input is welcome!