2

"Breaking the atmosphere in…thirty seconds." The small drop ship pod was nothing but a too often seen occurrence to those on the surface…Both the Blue and the survivors who had been left behind in the jump to escape Earth so long ago. The humans below despised the simple sight of that miniscule orb in the night sky they called 'Second Earth', and they equally hated seeing dozens of military ships drop in everyday to fulfill trivial missions…their lives, to those of Second Earth, had become obsolete.

As the pod came into the atmosphere, the cacophonous din of the fuel exhaust was nearly unbearable. Locke and the rest of the team sat in the personnel bay of the small ship. They were a colorful group indeed, but effective at what they did…Captain Tommy, as they called him, one of the most honored and celebrated veterans out there. He was rumored to have been offered the promotion to General, but didn't want to pull himself out of the action, so he retained his captaincy.

Then there was Kitty Heron; only two years older than Locke, with a fiery attitude and notorious stealthy battle techniques. She, at times, resembled Athena the Goddess…Beautiful and without compare in war.

Lieutenant Leon was another. An expert with the armored mechanized warrior they called 'Shrikes', yet a naturally quiet man. Most knew little of his past, but all felt his presence of concealed anger and battle fire.

Lieutenant John Baron was the communications specialist of the Delta Team. He was skilled in all manner of technology, yet somewhat lacking on the battlefield. Either way, he was an invaluable asset to the team…just as everyone else.

"Descending en route to Sector 204...hang onto your seats, boys." The pilot's voice met the ears of the team promptly…raising that feeling of anticipation and anxiousness that as inevitable at the dawning of a mission.

Locke checked his rifle calmly, then gripped it tightly and narrowed his eyes determinedly. He was undaunted by the premonition of the task. Captain Tommy was intrigued by this…"You know, kid…most young un's like you are scared out of their minds on the first mission."

"Hmm…Maybe they were afraid of the Blue. The way I see it…the Blue should be afraid of us."

Tommy bellowed laughter for a moment. "You can tell them that when you're surrounded by four towering insects that know nothing but killing you…"

Locke smirked.

"You gotta make a choice right now, Locke…From this point on, you gotta decide if you're going to live for tomorrow…or if you're gonna live for today!"

---

The desert was so still, so quiet. The only thing the eye might notice was the ever shifting sands in the curling wind.

"Hit it, boys!"

The blast door on the back of the personnel bay of the drop ship exploded off the hull of the vessel, falling down on it's journey to the surface.

Diving out of the ship, one by one, came the Delta Team…each armed with an air discharging jet pack…The five fell through the air expertly, holding their guns against their bodies and keeping straight and stiff, as to fall quickly and without much pressure against them.

As they neared the surface at a wavering rate, Captain Tommy roared out to the rest. "Now!"

And so it began.

They all activated their dischargers, and the air propulsion tore them into a standing position as they fell. The dischargers shot hyper driven air downwards, dampening the force of the fall and, by the time they reached the surface, they hit the ground lightly.

Once they touched down, there was only a show of expertise to be seen…In silence, they fanned out, at least twenty yards apart each. Bending over low and gripping their rifles in anticipation of enemies, they set up a steady perimeter around a pivot area…a large ejection of boulders and rocks upward in the middle of the flat deserted land.

There was calm and stillness…

They remained unmoving and silent for many lingering moments of absence. No sign of the Blue…no sign of humanity.

"Alright, team, let's reel it in…" Tommy lead the soldiers to the top of the boulders, where they would sit and wait.

"Mission specifications say that we should be receiving two Grapple Class Shrikes and a Sniper Class Shrike before nightfall…for now, we'll just have to rough it and take on all these Blue ourselves."

A burst of laughter followed…For the seeming urgency of the mission, there was not a single enemy creature in sight. Not even any evidence that they had been there. "Locke, you go down there and setup a stationary…and be quick about it."

The new soldier nodded and went about his task…leaving Tommy to address the older soldiers while he was gone.

"There was another thing that General Warner included in this mission specifications…" He held up the envelope, and turned it over so that it dropped out a small note.

"He wants us to make sure that we make all possible efforts to avoid running into any survivors…he's unsure of how the kid will react on his first mission, y'know, having his family left here and all. He is not to know about the survivor policy, got it?"

A chorus of nods.

"Sir! I got the gun set up! I also spotted some movement in the distance to the north…in the hills, sir!" Locke called up to Tommy as he made his way back up the rocks.

The captain peered through his binoculars to where Locke had directed…he saw flashes of light. It seemed like grenade explosions, or gun fire…He couldn't be sure.

"Hmm…we'll investigate later on, when we have our Shrikes." Tommy replaced his binoculars and glanced over the edge of the mesa-like formation of boulders that they sat upon.

"Hey, Locke…I thought you said you set up the stationary down there."

"…I did, sir."

Tommy looked over at the younger soldier and quirked a questioning eyebrow. "Then why is it not there?"

Locke crawled over to the edge to look, as well…but, when he got there, he discovered the cause of the sudden disappearance in the most unwanted way…

A sizeable Blue, at least fifteen feet tall, and colored the same way as the grains of sand, exploded out of the dunes, surging upwards with an unsettling rattling and clicking noise. The insect-like monster hovered only a few short feet from the mesa, and screeched horribly in the face of Locke and Tommy. The two were taken completely by surprise and were left frozen in their shock.

The Blue reared back it's massive right claw and poised to maim both humans in a single swipe, and, had it not been for the intervention of Leon and Kitty, that would have been reality.

Kitty seized Locke around the neck and pulled him backwards with one arm, the other holding up her rifle towards the mutation's head. She pulled the trigger and began an onslaught of bullets streaming into the Blue's face, while Leon recovered Tommy as well.

"Go back to your pits, you bastard!"

Five beams of lead rounds met the Blue's head, and it was only a matter of time before the vulnerable spot in the middle of it's skull was pierced, killing the monstrosity immediately, and dropping it's repulsive body to the ground.

The team was left breathless, by both the sudden exertion and the surprise…As they struggled to regain themselves, Tommy gave his next order. "Maybe we should stay away from the sand…"