Memoirs of A Roughneck

Chapter 1: First Drop

My heart rate increased rapidly as the dropship roared to life. We stood in tight formations, awaiting the blinking yellow lights of the docking bay to turn a steady red. Battle hadn't been a frightening idea to me nor death. Basic training nullified the fears of all of us as well as the psychic prep from the boys in Psy-Ops. It was the stillness, the waiting calm before the storm that tore me apart on the inside. Behind the facecover of our helmets, you would think we were all made of steel but behind the metal are humans. I clutched my MoritaMK I rifle as it pressed against my chest plate. The combined roar of the many engines soothed my nerves as the docking bay lights turned red. "Board up apes!" I could hear from the front of the formation. Within seconds full battalions boarded their dropships, taking seated positions against the walls. Our rifles fat snug against the sides of our seats. The heads up display of our helmets began to light up with indicators of our squad members, ammunition rations, suit commands and orders. The system was simple enough to use, switching commands with simple blinks of the eye. The back of our power suits were outfitted with jump packs that allowed us to scale large surfaces or cover long distances in one massive leap. Looking forward, I could see the word written across the chestplate of a fellow trooper. The word read, "Roughnecks," the call sign of our battalion, the best in the Federation.

"Alright you apes," the words rang in my ears from the communications hub in my helmet. "We drop in ten, this is a full scale invasion of the bug home planet. We smash anything and everything that has more than two kegs! Recall is in forty five minutes and I expect all of you to smell like gunpowder and bug juice on pick up, you get me!?"

"We get you sir!" We chanted in unison. Our platoon leader, Ratzak had a powerful and commanding voice. He looked like any regular old man under the armor, save the prosthetic left arm.

"We are going in with the first wave, recall will be in forty five minutes. Don't go looking to be a hero and don't you forget a single moment of your training. No one breaks off alone, cover each other's flanks and make sure you all get on board for pick up alive! Follow my orders and you will survive this!" His words fell silent as the hull lights flashed red, signalling us to stand and prepare for the drop. The dropship rumbled as it hit the atmosphere of the planet Klendathu. We each entered our pods, completely confined in the small space. Claustrophobia would kick in without the psychic prep for a drop and a trooper could lose his mind. It's the few seconds here that worries me the most. I could die right here, burn to a crisp with no way to fight my way out. A death unfitting of a trooper. I feel my pod release from the dropship and then nothing. The free fall to Klendathu was almost as if i were floated before the pod broke away. I could see my platoon still holding a tight formation.

"On the bounce!" Ratzack yelled in commands to activating our jump jets as the pods broke away. The jets would slow our fall to insure no one was injured. We dropped onto the blackened sands of Klendathu under the darkness of night. Full night vision mode was activated. The Mobile Infantry is known for a twelve percent fatality rate on a drop but our platoon was lucky to be met with no plasma and therefore no casualties. The open sands calmly blew in the gentle winds. The screens of our HUDs lit up as indicators tracked platoons dropping all around us as we pressed forward to our target of destroying the bug batteries. Plasma bugs were the cousin of every trooper's worst nightmare the Tanker. Massive in size and slow in nature but were almost always guarded by a swarm of warriors. Their thorax shoots a blast of concentrated plasma that can down a starship in one shot and can carry through the vacuum of space. Don't believe me, ask the good people of Bueno Aires if you can find a survivor.

"Form up," Ratzack called as a rock formation came into sight. We rushed for it, taking position behind the rocks and peering over to get a look over the vast valley. The sands of Klendathu now were littered with the Arachnids. Warrior bugs swarmed around Plasma bugs in droves. Their whales and howls reached us, sounding through the metal of our armor and shaking many troopers to the very bone. To our immediate right was another platoon taking positions. The platoon was meant to watch our flank as we prepared to launch our attack on the tankers. "Jones, Rivers, Huston rockets up." Ratzack called out. His voice was as calm as the gentle winds. The sky lit up, causing the night vision to deactivate as I could now see the sky in bright blue. "Fire when ready." Ratzack ordered as he readied his rifle. Clunking could be heard to my left. My eyes shifted as I saw the canisters that sat behind the shoulders of my fellow troopers now sling into place just above the shoulder. The canisters opened and six nukes shot straight forward before rocketing into the sky.

"On the bounce apes!" Ratzack ordered as the nukes began to fall. Both platoons jumped to their feet and instantly activated their jump jets. I could feel myself carried through the sky almost as if I weighed nothing. The landing was rough as I felt myself bounce a few times before striding to a stop.

"Brace for impact!" A voice yelled out as the explosion once again caused the night vision of our HUDs to deactivate. White was all I saw as I looked away from the blast, then the rush of wind smacked the backs of our armor. Luckily for us, our boots were equipped with stabilizers that kept us from being swept away in the winds. The skies fell back to darkness and night vision again activated as the battlefield fell silent. Zeta Platoon split into their four squads and peeled off to our right flank. A platoon consisted of thirty six troopers and each squad eight. Ratzack extended his arm, giving us the order to press forward. We fast marched through the sands and silence as we made our way to the second target. My mission clock was now at thirty eight minutes to recall. A whole lot of time to smash the bugs and peel out without a hitch. If only we took into account the intelligence of the bugs. My HUD began to show red indicators to our right flank, red meaning a trooper bought it. Ratzack held up his fist at a ninety degree angle signally us to halt our advance. I found it odd, we were on a time schedule so why were we stopping.

"Ratzack's got that itch," a trooper named Martin said. I looked to my left to get a look at him. He stood taller than me by a few centimeters, His armor and body size was bulky. His helmet had a black bullseye painted onto his armor's desert camo design. In his arms sat the Morita MK SAW. A monster of a weapon that could spit hundreds of high caliber rounds in seconds.

"What do you mean?" I asked as I swept my weapon left and right over the rock formations with my rifle. I could feel it, the many eyes watching us and I then knew what ratzack stopped us for.

"Swarm!" A trooper yelled just before the howls started. The arachnids charged from the rocks to our flank. Their mandibles and jaws out stretched as a sign of aggression before they rushed forward. Martin's SAW whined as it spat round after round into the oncoming enemy. I breathed in deeply and narrowed my eyes on my targeting system before squeezing the trigger. My first kill, I watched its body sway violently as each round tore through the exoskeleton of the warrior bug. The stories were true, even with a limb blown clean off the bugs continued crawling towards us. I cocked the grip of my grenade launcher attachment and fired, seconds later a loud slam and bright explosion sounded. Limbs and bodies of Arachnids flew in all directions but their rush did not falter. Even if one were to fall, two more would simply climb over the body of their dead kin and continue forward. Martin's shoulder now holstered a gatling gun that instantly started spinning after activation. I took a step back so he could widen his arcs of fire and dropped to a knee. The casualties taken by the bugs began to pile up but more crawled over the growing walls of the dead.

"Jones, Martin, Connors make a hole!" Ratzack ordered. The three heavy gunners came together mowing down arachnids with the combined firepower of their Morita MK SAWs and gatling guns. "Alright you apes, on the bounce!" Ratzack ordered. We jumped as I prepared a grenade, leaving it behind as a parting gift to the Arachnids. It was then that every trooper's worst fear came true, the bells of the recall sounded in our ears with still thirty minutes of mission time. The beacon was over seven cliques to our east and from the sky we could see why. Troopers from Zeta platoon lay in pieces scattered over the sands and rocks. Their armor and limbs torn to pieces and penetrated by the powerful jaws and mandibles of the Arachnids. We landed into a full sprint as we found more survivors. It was almost as if every trooper we dropped with formed a massive blob of mixed platoons fighting to get to the beacon.

"What the hell is going on?!" I asked a trooper as I turned and fired a few rounds, dropping an Arachnid.

"It's a general retreat, we are to make our way to the retrieval boats and get the hell out of here!" The communications trooper said. Her voice was shaky. My HUD read her name off as Cassandra Laundry. A howl from behind snapped us both into action as we turned and unloaded on the Arachnid. As its body fell to the ground, another instantly stepped over it. No feeling of remorse, just the cold intention to kill me and every trooper invading this planet.

"Dump it all, everything you've got!" The coms blasted my eardrums with the order. A few blinks before my ordinance shifted into activated position. No time to pick out specific targets. I swept my eyes across the ridge top littered with Arachnids and took a breath to fire. My canisters empties within seconds. I could see the tracer smoke of what seemed like millions of rockets shooting into the air. Cassandra continued to unload round after round into the swarm as we quickly moved backwards, keeping up with the main force.

"Shit!" Cassandra yelled. I could only imagine the sound being made was due to the amount of hostile forces we faced down or the consistent flashes of small red text indicating our losses. I never wished to be more wrong. I glanced at my right side where Cassandra was only to find her not there. My eyes shifted down as my head tilted to see the now bug sized cave entrance with the top wall caved in. Cassandra looked up as her ankle was locked in the jaws of an Arachnid. She pulled a grenade from her belt, "fire in the hole!" She yelled as her body was dragged down the sandy tunnel. The explosion came seconds later but her body was taken too far in. Her name flashed across my display. I froze, unable to deal with the fact that just seconds ago, she was alive and well in this hell.

"Pull your head out of your ass Moore!" I felt a hand slap my helmet, snapping me back to life. I steadied my rifle and returned fire. "Any moment you can spare to think, you can put a bullet in a bug!" I stood side by side with the one who struck me, shuffling back as we stare down the impending death. A violent and painful end stares us all in the face and for many, already claimed their lives. A split second break in the bug formation appeared caused by more rockets. The blast knocked the bugs back just enough to give us room to breathe.

"We gotta jump!" I yelled to the man whose name read Waltkins. He simply nodded and seconds later we were in the air, we didn't need to jump far, only about a fourth to fifty meter distance between us and the retreating force. Upon landing, I could see Ratzack. His attention averted to his left. I looked in his direction to see three troopers. One caught in the clutches of an Arachnid's jaws while the other two desperately try to gun it down before it can dismember one of our own. Their attempts failed and the upper half of the trooper's body was flung into the first. The name flashed in red, Keenan. Ratzack made a beeline for them.

"Shit," Waltkins whispered before rushing for Ratzack. I sighed inwardly. We never leave a trooper behind but recall was now fifty seconds out and being left for second pick up here meant certain death. Before I could even think, my legs were moving, keeping pace with Waltkins just a few metered behind Ratzack. The second trooper went down, impaled by the mandible of the Arachnid. It's armored exoskeleton kept it going up to this point but the lone trooper was able to finally put the creature down. Multiple Arachnids simply ran past the altercation, turning their attention to us. Was this a form of confidence? Was this simply their way of showing they didn't need to care about all of us because one of them would cause us to buy it anyway? One Arachnid took down two troopers after a hailstorm of bullets and was still fighting forward. A horrifying sight and thought.

"Move and fire!" Ratzack ordered as if he knew we were behind him. I raised my rifle, squeezing the trigger as I rushed forward. The bodies of the Arachnids dropped within seconds. The trooper ahead stopped to reload his weapon as the Arachnid before him lay seemingly lifeless. It was in the moment he dumped his mag that it used its last will to kill. It lunged forward, dropping the jagged edge of its upper jaw down into the trooper's quad. We continued our press forward. The trooper writhed in pain. It was only seconds before more Arachnids came for him. He sat up, grabbing his rifle and shouldering it. Without fear of death he fired, dropping on as more rushed for him.

"Covering fire!" I yelled as I laid down suppressing fire. I must have gotten lucky with a few shots to drop perfectly healthy bugs in one round.

"Moore, grab him!" Waltkins ordered as we reached his position. I grabbed him by the chest rig and pulled him to his feet. Twenty seconds to pick up.

"On the bounce!" Ratzack called out as he put down a bug. The four of us jumped again and again trying to cover the ground we lost. Waltkins turned to fire on ever jump to keep some of the bugs at bay. I could see the boats landing and forming an assembly area. Troopers rushed to them, vying for positioning to get off this rock. One last jump and we were in the hull of a dropship. I placed the trooper into a seat, his leg still gushing blood. I took the seat next to him as Waltkins and Ratzack sat across from us. "Stay with us trooper," Ratzack said, "You made it this far and we need you alive." The trooper's name read Juan Rico. His helmet and facemask pulled back to reveal a young pretty boy. Eyes emerald green, hair brunette and jaw strong and clef. He was drenched in sweat and breathing heavy. The dropships took off within seconds. Shooting us back into the sky before the plasma could fire into our direction. It was as if we had just left the ships when we landed on them. Medical teams scrambled, patching up who they could. It was weird to see almost no wounded at all. Rico's body was carried away instantly. Platoons regrouped with what was left of their men. Many held their heads down in shame after the horrible defeat. Psychic prep, basic and extensive training did not prepare us for the intelligence of the bugs. They had tactics, traps and formations. As well-oiled machine as the Federation. To think we would suffer a defeat this grand on an initial invasion. I sat down on a bench, watching the chaos of medics rush between trooper to trooper. Ratzack stood beside me, almost like a ghost.

"No need to worry son," his metallic hand gripped the armor covering my shoulder. "You did a hell of a job and saved a trooper. That's what matters, bringing back as many of our boys and girls from the hell of the battlefield." I looked up to see his face straight and imed in the direction Rico was taken off. "But I think that kid right there, he will make a fine addition." His lips twisted into a smirk before straightening back into his usual scowl. The docking bay lights flashed yellow again as the screen flashed the word "rescue" repeatedly. Ratzack's helmet shifted onto his head from it's resting position as he listened in. His face mask formed seconds later as he pulled his rifle from his back. My helmet and mask shifted back into the activation position as well. "What's the matter ape? You wunna live forever!?" We rushed for our dropship, meeting up with more Roughnecks along the way. Looks like we get to drop right back into the grinder.