Kitsune of the Federation

Chapter Four

***FEDERAL NEWS NETWORK***


"Colonel Uzumaki, can you voice anything in light of your father's removal as Sky-Marshall and perhaps how this might affect stability among the Federations Military?"

Paneling outward's the camera picked up the stern yet stoic face of Naruto Dienes, the literal hero of the Federation's fighting forces. It's said that the young man would be a potential Sky-Marshall candidate when he gets nearly a decade of experience fighting out in the frontiers. Not that any wished for the young man to take the mantle at this point and time.

As the camera panels outward again, a calm yet stern female Lieutenant Colonel Sasha Second in Command of the Federal Spec-Ops, sat to the left of the her Commanding Officer who she cautiously shifting eyed during this preceding. She took care of the paperwork which stemmed from questions that the reporters had written down to be answered, hopefully. She would slightly glance at the younger blond who seemed to be getting more annoyed as of late, not so good.

It didn't help that the questions stemmed from potential security leaks to political arenas.

To the right of Naruto furthest from Sasha was an Arachnid Scientist, one of the best in the field was Lisa Thomas herself. She'd be invited among their unit on numerous occasions, so her presence was more of a familiar formality then actual importance, from a political stand point. The woman had proven her worth to the Spec-Op's by assisting them with her theories about Insect Battle tactics, it saved lives.

Both Military officers didn't mind that the Federal Scientist was there as the Head of Bug Behavior, they often took joint adventures together in order to find effective means to kill or adapt to Arachnid battle hierarchy.

So again this was a moot point on formality.

Still more questions were being put in the open much to the need of the 'Sky-Marshall's' policy of informing Earth, no the Federation on the net to get them to support the war. He hated being the political voodoo doll to convince others to the 'Cause' and lately he'd been on opposite ends with the new Marshall. One could say that these actions were borderline treasonous, but the due to the fact of his record as Colonel of the Spec-Ops he'd been let go of such conversations. If the public had ever gotten wind of the 'dealings' and 'issues' that hindered the war effort, well Rebellions would be the last thing the Federation would have to contend with.

Issues that were ranging from his location to be restricted, to certain zones of interest close to Frontier Colonial Worlds and uncivil prevention.

Certain colonies that often had 'past' troubles with the Federation, he wasn't stupid. Naruto knew they would have to put down Colonial Rebellions if the word had been given, he hated this political shit-storm where he was the spear to stop the beast; rebels, at first glance. Humanity had a more pressing matter, the Arachnid incursions needed to be pressed back into their initial territories, but again Political Shit-storms just gave the meaning a bad stink. Humans bickered, Colonials died in thousands at the expense of a drink.

"My father did an excellent job in being and relishing his spot as the Sky-Marshall, no comment on the second part due to the fact we've been winning on all fronts. However I will comment on is that we'd need more soldiers from both Colonial and Earth-civilian's alike to maintain our dominance over the war, even my Spec-Ops can't do this alone."

Naruto spoke with clear dedication and sheer charisma to spark the crowd of reporters who leapt to their feet asking more. If one knew the young man on a personal level, they could see the building 'anger' creeping into his sapphire orbs, oh it lit with a cold rage aimed at many. Using every ounce of his Military Training and Discipline the youngest Officer in recent memory kept up his stoic face. Civilians didn't warrant his rage, not them.

Someone off camera raised their hand for permission to ask a question; Sasha nodded to the person as Naruto inhaled to listen to another journalist. He wished he had a glass of vodka or something similar to ward off the irritation building inside of him. Training be damned otherwise.

"Colonel, is it true that you and Doctor Thomas's team are going to expand their studies from theoretical insights into practical usage while deployed?"

Now Thomas cleared her throat with the head of the Spec-Ops nodding to her to go on ahead to answer, he needed to mentally calm down before ending this 'conference' that been set up by the new Sky-Marshall herself, he hated it. Not that anyone in any military uniform couldn't say otherwise, politics had a limit to be tolerated and absolutely ignored. This was an 'issue' that was caught up in the new politics, frequent interviews and conferences to reassure the public. The timing of each always grated on his nerves, he had to keep fighting to maintain the pressure on the threats to the Federation.

"Yes we can confirm such thoughts since it's an honor for the Federation's Elite Forces to assist us however our goal: is to lessen casualties' while effectively making our own soldiers to survive longer. Our goal is to help the troopers on the ground to win the war, as for specifics it's between myself and Colonel Uzumaki in that regard…"

Reporters flashed their cameras at times, making Naruto nearly get annoyed since he got blue spots in his vision. Sighing lightly, the blond tried honestly to make himself more comfortable but he wanted some alone time, for once in a great while. However that wishes was merely a fool's hope, the fight never ended with the arachnids as they pushed themselves into humanity's territories. Politics, the bane of the galaxy just got ramped up on his shit list.

Thomas looked to the colonel who took over, speaking in a firm yet grim tone.

"Within the next standard year, we expect an increase in causalities due to our trooper's inability to understand the Arachnid tactics. If we are able to see and clearly counterattack any tactical incursions our troopers can clearly swing the tide of any battle, also we'd be implanting the use of heavier armaments so that whenever armored Arachnids take to the field we can hopefully even out the odds. Go by the this saying: 'Know thy enemy, to know thyself.' "

Naruto didn't sugarcoat the facts; he needed the conventional forces to pull their heads out of their own asses to see the light of day. If they didn't adapt, they were dead. End of fucking story, no happy ending or whatever it was. The Spec-Ops held the line, held firm and never died without a fight no matter that odds stacked up on them. Like the Spartans of old in Thermopylae, they were the vanguard to fight the enemy and hopefully it wouldn't take their entire Unit's Destruction to Unite Humanity to fight the Arachnids.

At this point hushed voices, with their various cameras became silent.

Another brave reporter who was a rare honest fellow, in fact a young college intern voiced out a question that really made the mood of the conference to get seriously dangerous. In fact it made the said man, of the Spec-Ops to narrow his eyes ever so slightly at the question itself.

"Excuse me Colonel, there's been word that the Arachnids have been trying to surge into the Sol System, is it true?"

This time Naruto spoke only one word, but it held implications far beyond what these petty journalists could ever hope to imagine. The Lieutenant Colonel rigidly sat up straighter since this was a certain subject that had to be maintained in order to not panic the masses. However again, her Commanding Officer did something that very few Federal Higher Ops did: tell the truth…

"Yes."


(Klendathu Objective)

The three Spec-Ops soldiers moved within a triangular formation as there flashlight attachments tried to pinpoint the threat that they faced. Foreign designs littered the walls, as they seemed to be pictographs at the least. Writings and other such alien details made the area seem more dangerous than it had to be.

Naruto's eyes narrowed as his vision adjusted to the dark, the darkness being driven away by his suit's ability to make him see extremely well in the darkness itself. Oh something was here with them but it was toying with them, it wanted its prey to shriek in agony when it diverged. Perfect in other words, as he scanned his sector of fire.

"What the fuck is it?" The youngest of the trio spoke while scanning his own sector of fire, behind them mainly as Naruto smiled. He didn't blame the kid in all seriousness but by technicality the blond Colonel was even younger than the elder enlisted. Being scared was one thing but nonetheless he spoke to calm both men down.

After all getting spooked could only lead to friendly fire in these condensed quarters.

"If I tell you what I think it is, would you run or stay?" Their voices seemed to echo slightly as something 'scratched' granite above them. Instantly all three flashlights looked up to see dust trailing off the ceiling making two thirds of the small group feels uneasy. One could say, Naruto had the will to stand against a hurricane if he were ever to be in one. Not that any could prove that notion in the distant reaches of space.

"Better knowing what this thing could be instead of being paranoid, I'd take an answer Colonel." The Staff Sergeant muttered much to their officer's growing smirk. He already was starting to enjoy the company of these two, contrary to the belief Naruto didn't frown upon Spec-Op's soldiers who were frightened by Arachnids. Fear meant they were human, fear could make a man realize the odds he faced and in light of fear: the only thing to fear is fear itself to make you stand your ground.

Fear was healthy, it meant always respect your enemy and that was what made Spec-Ops soldiers fight harder than conventional troopers who allowed fear to rule them. Always ready, ready to die because they were afraid and the only way to fight: was to stand together.

Just then all three soldiers wiped their weapons towards the far corner hearing a small 'screeching' sound that made their own spines curl. The flashlight attachments illuminated the darkness as it seemed to make the room press down onto them, various pictograms of alien design made the humans wary of what the hell they just stepped into. They were afraid on various levels, but alas it didn't consume them to make them panic.

"It's playing with us."

Naruto spoke this simply, as he narrowed his eyes looking around.

"Why?" asked the young Private who felt the hair on his neck stand up as he tried to keep his raging nerves on a manageable level. He tried valiantly to avoid shaking his weapon but failed to do so, the kid was scared nothing more or nothing less. The lack of an answer would just make things work as the blond Colonel looked from the corner of his peripherals.

"Insects are smart, they have intelligence. Not as much as the idiots back on Earth deny, they know how to secure a kill. What way to be a more efficient killer than to make your enemies panic? Well to better word that: make your prey skittish as it tries to find where the predator is. After all, the only thing to make a human scared is for it to fear what lays beyond in the dark…"

Naruto's laughter echoed off the walls, making the Private sweat from the way his commanding officer talked about how humans were in essence a prey item in a natural state. He felt sick to his stomach hearing how a man could act so calm yet make any person scared shitless from a simple question about an enemy they couldn't see nor hear unless it wanted to step into their lights.

A rifle fired!

"AHHH!"

A screamed followed before being crushed…

But it still echoed in the cavern itself.

Naruto and Jarod wheeled around to find several casings of Ssgt Clayton's rifle but the actual weapon was missing. They looked in opposite directions as Jarod felt tears in his eyes, what in the hell could move so quickly behind them to take out a man? For several moments, a still dread silence came over them. Blood rushed through veins and arteries for the two soldiers, something had to give.

'Crunching' and 'cracking' sounds made both men slightly sick: the first casualty of the Operation.

The leader of the Spec-Ops gauged how much time till Alpha and Bravo companies landed to reinforce the position but as of now: they were up against an insect rarely seen. Well by rare, it had a specialized task to be fair and it needed to be on the ground first before taking to the skies. Oh yes, Naruto wagered this was a Flyer-Bug that had yet to spring its wings to take to the skies.

Similar to a grasshopper's ability to leap quickly to any surface and make 'cricking' sounds to indicate where it was, only this time: the grasshopper was three times the size of a man with an appetite to match a lion. Oh such great feelings knowing you were pigs for slaughter and having weapons only prolonged the agony.

"Shit, I don't have thermal on my Kevlar. Best possible outcome is to get out in the open, wait for reinforcements but…"

'Drip' 'Drip' 'Drip'

Naruto looked down, he saw blood.

His flashlight attachment caught the droplets of the crimson liquid to his right, then back to his left.

Scowling he knew what it meant: a soldier was dead.

Cringing mentally picturing the solder being dragged up a wall, the blond shined his light to follow the growing trail upwards. Jarod followed suite standing side by side with the officer only to have a growing face of disgust as bits and pieces of the Iron-Men suite that Sergeant Clayton wore were attached to the wall as the speed of the attack made the blood similar to glue.

Glue that depicted a human's lifeline as the massive amounts grew as hand prints etched the wall in a mockery of the old cavemen on earth. Jarod lost his stomach, vomiting onto the ground as Naruto casually followed the blood path's to the ceiling as more dripping came from around them. Only the blood knew what that meant: the body was being eaten on the move.

"Show yourself."

He spoke silently as his light kept on following the blood trail, he wasn't disappointed in the slightest once he stop his light. Nerves flared to life as a disgusted expression formed, he found what in the hell was in here with them. Naruto wished he didn't have to witness the next few moments of his life.

Jarod looked up to only speak terrified out of his mind now, fear had overrun him not that the blond could say it wasn't natural.

"Oh god…"

It was a young Flyer, whose wings hadn't formed due to its age.

Due to its mobility as a hopper, it could impale a human at speeds of a horse. With its appendages similar to spear tips, any trooper being Spec-Op or Conventional would've been dead. The suits were meant to stop brute and blunt crushing forces: not direct sharp attacks. It was torn apart like paper if a Spec-Ops soldier was in a situational similar to that.

The light revealed a greenish near blue coloration of its hide.

Molded like wings, on its back where in small cocooned silver webbing to display its age, yet it had nearly all the offensive limbs to impale, slice and dice any human unfortunate enough to come across it. But the most disturbing feature that this creature held was the fact…

Jarod vomited again.

Not that it made Naruto's unflinching gaze waver on what he was seeing right now.

The fact it was devouring the former Spec-Ops Sergeant right in front of them made a burning rage hit the blond full on. Bones were sticking out from the corpse, as organs most likely the intestines were being ripped out for them to witness, blood at this point plummeted to the ground. The low guttural growling made the blond Colonel glance backward towards the entrance…

Possibly they could back out, a mini-gun in close quarters sounded almost heavenly.

"Private, fall back towards the entrance. We're going to need bigger guns to take this thing down, I'll cover your back. Understood?" Naruto spoke not once making his eyes leave the arachnid, he needed eyes on it at all times now since it had the advantage to hop towards the walls. It could become a miniature rhino in the most basic sense if it charged, they had no way to stop it. Even the blond Uzumaki was wary to tackle something on this size by himself, it was near insanity if a man had to choose such an action.

Fortunately, insanity didn't hold sway over his mind.

Slowly but surely, the two men moved backwards careful of the organic remains that were once their comrade. Naruto didn't want or see another one of his men go down without a fighting chance, not while he still had the power to prevent this from happening again. Few troopers on the ground could prevent casualties, but if one had the chance to do so, it saved another body going back to Earth viva the space courtier. Only God could tell if the men and women who died would ever find peace, outside the life on the battlefield.

'Drip'

More blood poured onto the ground, making the young Private nearly release what was left inside his stomach. Naruto did what he could silently gripped the lad's shoulder, ideally trying to tell the young soldier to remain calm. Words would spare the insect into attacking them, a false hope in a twisted truth, the body of the human occupying the insects hunger.

"That's it, ignore us and do what your doing. Easy does it Naruto, don't let fear rule you." The two men moved nearly twenty meters away from the initial attack, they could sprint if things got a little close for comfort. The entrance, nearly upon them only to hear something from above them.

Jarrod was the first to notice a slight 'clicking' noise, out of reflex he was about to raise his rifle.

But got stopped by the blond office, his weapon didn't move an inch higher as Naruto himself whispered faintly enough to make the young enlisted pale.

"Another...above!"

Glancing upward with just his eyes, the young man followed the gesture to see another one crawling on the ceiling, ignorant of the two humans underneath its body. Heavy breathing could be heard now that Jarrod witnessed it above him, he just realized something startling about his actions.

The flashlight from the weapon, was nearly hitting the insect...

Gulping immediately, he lowered the rifle as Naruto exhaled quietly as the two moved towards the doorway. The clouted and dirty storm making visibility turn zero, however Jarrod leaned against a pillar facing the outside steps. Naruto remained vigilant on the inside, making sure no insect wanted to take a walk into their direction. God did he hate this type of shit, walking into an unknown area with no hint as to what awaited them.

Ambush just screamed in his mind, bad thoughts.

"Bravo Company, ETA on arrival?" The blond officer requested into his comm-unit. A raspy static voice from Bravo's 'boat' came through with well orientated relief.

Eying the entrance, the colonel gave an ear to find an answer.

"ETA two minutes colonel, we'll be there over."

The occasional screeching from inside warranted a moment to be wary if something came out, Naruto quietly returned an answer before lifting his rifle into a more stable position. "Roger that Bravo, over." With a ping of static the blond moved handling his rifle, training it above him to notice subtle movements from a massive organism that didn't seem self-aware. Breathing quietly he spared a glance over to the enlisted who finally stopped hurling his stomach's contents.

Even over the dry atmosphere, he could smell the twisted remains of food and stomach acid.

"You alright, Private?"

Jarod tried to form some coherent answer, but it took him a few moments. The blond officer didn't fault him for this, so stayed silent watching the entrance. His eye sight notable improved making him count three flyers inside the structure, so far.

But what in the hell were they doing there?

Three young flyers?

Where were the adults and god forbid the rest of the swarms of arachnids that followed?

It made him paranoid for a better lack of a word.

The wind from the storm whipped violently making visibility drop even further to a point where a man couldn't see more than several meters in front of him. Naruto and Jarod both winced from the dirt being stirred into their eyes, danger had just been upped from the natural forces around the structure. Only god or any higher power knew what would happen, if these flyers had willingly attacked them outside the confide spaces inside.

A loud humming sound made both men look up into the storm to see lights hovering above, thanking god himself the blond Colonel moved down the steps. He had a small flare on him, a reddish coloration as he popped it open making it hiss violently in the wind. Tapping the side of his helmet, the blond had to be loud to get over the picked up gusts of wind. Sand nearly got into his eyes as he tilted his communications radio away from the wind itself.

"Pilot, land at red flare over."

He threw the damn thing a good forty yards from his position into the open ground,

"Copy that Colonel, LZ in sight, over."

The transporter leveled out as the ramp went down, revealing a brightly lit interior with massive shapes moving out of the hold. Naruto smiled as he walked up, through the red smoke as the flare kept itself alive burning oxygen. The smell was similar to burning plastic, as a massive soldier walked up to him with a 'mini-gun' strapped to a feeder on his back. From an outside view point it seemed bulky but Bravo Company Troopers could move quick enough to support allies or eradicate enemies completely.

"Captain Yolanda of Bravo Company sir, heard you had a bug problem." the officer said good naturally, as Naruto just shrugged somewhat amused. Considering he just lost a soldier, sometimes you had to push through to make a good front for your soldiers as a whole. His heart similarly felt like someone drove a spike through it, soldiers he knew were going to die regardless.

"Not just one captain, two maybe three. I need you to clear out several Flyer Arachnids, they hop quicker than hell and I have one confirmed KIA. Alpha is not going to like the news, I have a Scout with me currently. He's right there..."

Jarod was on the steps, wiping his mouth while keeping a rifle level on the entrance. The young man tried to keep a strong front but his skin tone was visibly pale even in the sandy conditions. Yolanda grimaced the enlisted rank, he felt for the man truly.

"Roger that sir, I'll have several 'Heavies' clean it out. We have our ammo-carriers per heavy as requested. They can move more nimbly than we can with these monsters on our backs." Each Bravo Company soldier had the mini-guns attached to their backs, with a feeder leading to the center of their weaponry. Five thousand rounds time almost sixty men was enough to levels waves of Arachnid rushes, always it got messy with them around. On a more amusing note, brass police calls never helped any man's mood.

"I'll get the Flyers to come at me Captain, just line yourselves at this doorway and I can guarantee you some targets to come at you." The lower officer nodded, "Bravo form up. 1st Platoon line up on my six, the Colonel will bring the bastards at us."

A dozen heavy troopers walked behind the captain, each of the dozen had an ammo-carrier, a standard trooper with the Mark I suits that had an additional bag of five thousand rounds. Plus their own load-out, all Bravo company troopers had to meet excessive physical weight standards to be combat effective. The force moved up the stairs as the lone surviving Alpha Scout moved over to one of the pillars covering the front, doing what he could as Naruto nodded to him. Common sense here was that if a soldier had a bigger gun, move the fuck out of the way as much as it pissed you off.

Twirling barrels from the mini-guns came to life, giving off sounds that made any person feel at ease.

"We're in position sir, ready at your go-ahead."

The Commanding officer of Bravo announced watching the eerie darkness. Several flashlights from Kevlar helmets or ammo-carriers lit up a good twenty meters in front, it caused several 'screeches to be heard from inside. Naruto took it all before nodding, he moved inward keeping his rifle trained upward to see the shapes scuttling about, oh he knew that these insects could feel the commotion outside.

"Move around all you like you fucking shits, you're going to eat hot lead. Believe it."

Breathing deeply, the blond noticed in the dark two Insects circling above him. They were trying to unsettle him, which just caused another smirk to appear on his face. Turning away, he found the last of the three positioned at the far end of the room itself.

Human remains littered the walls, almost like another Flyer tried to get the body from the original killer and a small fight broke out over it. Suppressing the urge to growl, Naruto took one last breath before looking at the third insect.

Time to let loose.

Naruto fired as his rifle lit up the cavern, causing all three Arachnids to screech to make his ears ring.

One literally came screaming from his side, causing him to shoulder roll away it. The mandibles dripping saliva onto his suit, nearly revolted the blond let loose more lead from his rifle. Hardly denting the insects hide, the blond back flipped away as another near miss caused him to be wary.

That's when the Colonel realize, two of the three Flyer insects lined him from behind!

Well shit, time for for plan B...

He bolted!

Feeling his heart nearly burst from having almost all three try to jump over each other to spear him for their next meal. Insanity couldn't be said, but for Naruto Uzumaki it'd fit in with clearing out this godforsaken building on this planet.

Sprinting, a reddish haze drifted off him as he sped towards the entrance quick as a bullet. He didn't once hear the guttural sounds of the Arachnids as they lunged on top of each other, intent on getting a meal. It seemed like was a blur, all the coloration's blending into a grayish brown as Naruto heard a distant voice yell out...

"FIRE!"

He slid, on his legs underneath the volley of automatic machine gun fire as it zipped and snapped past his eyes, both were a red slit tint. Witnessing orange lit brass could say many things about a man's ability to see details, Naruto wasn't an ordinary man. He witnessed the brass and bullet shells flying over him by mere inches. Heat also could be felt from the proximity he had with the rounds, as shells started to pile up at the feet of Bravo Company.

His heart hadn't skipped a beat, he felt and lived on the battlefield fighting for humanity's place in the Galaxy. Deep inside his mind, the blond could feel satisfaction as his enemies were cut down to pieces by his command alone. Laughing while flat on his back, he turned over to go prone unleashing his own weapons ammunition's onto the Insect Flyers.

Green blood, limbs, organs and rock all were torn asunder by the power of human technology.

It lasted just two minutes, three Flyers and a ton of stone all destroyed by nearly twenty thousand rounds worth of mini-guns. What a day to see and its more special to witness it firsthand. There had to be any sane person alive to feel that something dying, was so right to see up close and personal.

Naruto got to his feet, from the help of a bravo soldier who effortlessly didn't get strained from handling his weapon. Looking up to the kill-zone, it was just pieces of arachnids and a lot of green blood, fucking fantastic as always!

Bravo Heavy Troopers moved inward with their red hot barrels starting to cool off, the plastic material showing strain against its natural enemy called heat. Steam piled upward as the air cooled it off, Captain Yolanda moved towards his Commander as he spoke.

"Threat neutralized sir. " He leaned to the side to hear some static transmission, Naruto shook himself down for a moment.

"I also got word that Charlie Company has two boats for them and their Scientific escorts, they're en-route now sir." Well, Dr. Thomas was on her way down, the woman loved to get her hands dirty which spoke volumes about her character. A few jokes and rumors went along that she 'loved' to get her hands on him. Funny story that the most iconic of all gossip was based on loose misinformed information. Simply it made the Unit have its own 'club' to bullshit about, which wasn't good for him.

Naruto often got irritated at 'sexual' or 'romantic' rumors spreading from company to company, perhaps people found it amusing to piss him off in the most unexpected way. His love life was a shrouded controversy that neither his former Teacher Rex or his Second Lt. Colonel Sasha put down, they had their moments to irk him. Not mention, he didn't admit to anyone: he hadn't had sex or what not with no woman before.

It wasn't his fault mainly, being caught up in leading the most efficient Unit in the Federation to protect Earth. Outside life of the Military really got axed literally and metaphorically for relationships.

And the fucking best part, he'd wouldn't hear the end of it: the Virgin Commander protecting humanity...

God the fucking headlines would give him the shame of ending his life and his father the Sky-Marshall would just send Political dates his way to milk the fame out of it. The Modern Joan of Arc and the story always ended up with the Virgin dying. So Naruto shuddered before getting an answer back to the Bravo Company CO, it took a minute roughly.

"Get the LZ secured, Charlie can escort out Federal Scientists in. Rest of Bravo await Alpha's arrival, then secure this building. I'm not entirely sure we're remotely alone now, understood?" he half-asked reloading his rifle, the magazine slipped out of its holder. The captain saluted before walking away barking the orders out, leaving the blond to his thoughts again.

"Seek...me...Seek...us..."

That softly whispered voice, it made him narrow his eyes quickly. What in the fuck was that? Ever since he got here, those two soldiers from Alpha heard it and he wasn't going insane. Something was here, but what in god's name could it be? Events were going into hell before anything could be made of use, this 'place' screamed a trap to him. Why? His instincts didn't lie to him, this structure didn't remotely seem human.

But it was closer to human than the arachnids themselves...

Absently he looked to the walls, ignoring the dented holes from Mini-gun fire. Symbols in some strange etched language pictured a history of something long forgotten here. Imagery reminiscent of ancient life at some point, the only thing remotely close to identify where figures of humanoids on walls described to be doing whatever they panned out to be doing. Graphic in an archeological sense, but to him he felt as though he were reading gibberish.

Sounds of various soldiers doing their tasks, faded away even further as he just heard the sound of breathing in front of him. In that pitch darkness leading further inward into this building, Naruto could feel something that put the hair on his arms to stand too. Limbs locked as blood froze in his veins, his eyes tinting into a near bright red broke through the veil of shadow.

"Come...seek...us..."

An outline appeared, eerily humanoid as it melded with the darkness, swaying as if it were an image in the desert. Famously called a 'mirage', the blond Colonel watched it nearly beckon him forward to search whatever this voice told him.

'Drip'

A droplet of blood shattered the image, ripples coursing over his vision: "...Seek...me..."

"Colonel?"

Naruto broke out of his staring inhaling slightly to shake off the momentary, shock. Turning to his right he found that Charlie had just arrived, which made him wary of how long he'd just been staring off into space. Exhaling deeply, he looked into the Face of the Head of Arachnid Research of the Spec-Ops Brigade: Lisa Thomas.

Her eyes were like emeralds, green as they could be with a pale complexion on her skin. Dark brunette hair that coursed down to her neck-line, she could be easily of the top beautiful females in the Federal Forces. Then again he'd learning something over the years: if a female in the Federation was hot, or beautiful it meant they were important. Sort of ironic that the real damsels in distress weren't portrayed as the beauties in fairy tales most common civilians believed. While not often, beauty in the military was just a spokes person to make the masses more liable to enlist.

"Yes Doctor?"

He said turning fully to speak, her lab coat a bright white swished as she appeared somewhat worried about him. "You were spaced out for a good five minutes, a few soldiers were very hesitant to disturb you: something about you intensely staring down an enemy?"

Naruto shrugged, "We have are ways to cope with stress, I like to stare off into space. It's not to disruptive, unlike other people." The Doctor looked a bit skeptical but nodded, technically everyone in this Brigade had mental issues ranging from PTSD to Extreme-Anger. Her team started to set up lights, each had three spot-lights with generators using their own power sources to illuminate the cavern. This whole scene looked like a laboratory, from the sheer excitement being displayed from human to human.

A few of Charlie Company soldiers looked around before paling, as the remains of the Staff Sergeant of Alpha were on display for all to see. Several vomited at the blood and organs sprayed over the walls, a hellish butcher that left one to imagine the way the victim went. Despite this a few soldiers of the Charlie Company, with red 'crosses' on their Kevlar started to piece together the body of the dead Scout.

Charlie Company was the Support and Medical of each battalion, they were tasked to have enough Ammo to halt an Arachnid wave while tending to the badly wounded on the battlefield. They had enough tourniquets, morphine, pressure-bandages and bio-foam to stop bleeding or extensive trauma that all humans had against an Insect Warrior. If there were no on the field medics, then each injury was a guarantee for another Spec-Ops to die.

The Federation's R&D came up with a solution: (1.) Bio-foam.

In its Basic form, the foam just cauterized and blocked whatever blunt trauma to stop blood leaving the body. It formed a temporary shell to stop blood, it didn't work on internal organs but it always stemmed the blood leaving through a cut leg or arm. Despite the improvements in Medical technology, the Foam had a tendency to deflate for a better word.

Bio-Foam got deployed from a needle like gun, injecting directly past the skin to constrict the blood vessels, tissue and what not with high heated liquid. It burned like hell, several Spec-Ops fervently telling that it was like your leg was being burned off with liquid-lava. A fair assessment, but all advantages came with dangers that most humans wouldn't enjoy.

So by 'deflate' it went stale: it wouldn't deploy from its canister and just made things worse, it happened just not that often. It just left the sliced limb pouring out blood and the liquid of the foam itself, just prolonging the agony. Again not the best way to go down in a fight, unluckily most soldiers died several minutes after due to the blood loss alone.

Coming back to the matter at hand, Naruto watched several Scientific teams start to Catalog the various symbols aligning the structure itself. Several Tech-Scientists who had portable computers on their wrists with holograms popping up traveled in small pairs. Heavy Troopers stood on over-watch outside and a few inside to cover the unarmed civilians.

Putting a finger to his communications unit inside his Kevlar, the blond heard distant transmissions flooding the public channels. What he heard just made him scowl angrily, at the foolhardiness of Command and the fact that the Conventional forces were already scrambling out of the atmosphere, fucking pathetic!

"We need to fallback! There's too many of them!"

"...Issu...a retreat..."

"Get bac...to the...bo...OH GOD!"

Sighing, he mentally counted to three before he got wind of someone 'pinging' his personal channel: Rex apparently needed his attention. Switching it over with a tap of his finger near his side, the radio chatter cleared away immediately. The screams of the dead would have to be on hold, for a the moment being.

"Colonel, you hearing this?"

Naruto sighed, "Roger that, how long do you think we have to complete our mission Rex?"

The Sergeant Major didn't sugar coat the response, "Not fucking long kid. I'm on route with the rest of Alpha, the Scouting parties should be arriving at your position momentarily. Rex, out."

Glancing upward to oversee the dust storm, the first remnants of Alpha made it back to the Objective. Several Bravo Over watchers waved them through, as they integrated with their battalion relief on their features to be with them. Several Charlie Medics rushed into the Alpha ranks intent on checking for injuries that were amendable, all in all it was Unit Coherency at its best. Small mercies could be made out as good signs, but for Naruto it meant more soldiers to survive.

From the base of this, building a good three hundred yards were secured with the amount of men and equipment as the landing boats were good distances away from each other. They had weaponry to defend a small wave of arachnids if necessary, so the soldiers put up green flare markers leading to the steps as visibility was getting even worse. What a shit storm called a planet, these storms were just horrid on the best way possible.

Soon enough Rex's Transport came streaming inward, the lights flickering to make the other 'boats' informed of the overhead inbound. It landed to the farthest left of the two other transporters, it set down with an audible 'thud' much to the small tremor it made. Briefly startling several new medics integrated into the Brigade but beyond that all the soldiers took the tremor as positive reinforcement mainly.

Alpha company came streaming out, with Rex leisurely walking smoking his cigar in their mists.

Eying the skies were thunder rumbled, small batches of blue lightning came following suit. The atmosphere seemed to take their presence on its ground with extreme displeasure, making the blond smile at the spectacle. It made him realize: War was not just hell to living beings, but to the Universe itself. Bring it on him and he'll fight through it as a human, where their greatest strength was to never back down from a fight.

"You having a blast Rex?" Naruto asked quiet amused at his teacher strolling around, inspecting the various soldiers doing tasks. He met the man halfway from the building, in the middle of hissing smoking green flares. Both solders starting to move back to the stairs to get out of the sandy storm, which didn't help their moods. The occasional crackle of static came through their comm-units on their kevlar, the battle around the planet seemed to be picking up, badly.

"Always kid. Any trouble securing the objective, I heard you lost a man here."

A slow nod with a prominent frown, a face of a man who felt like the world was on his shoulders.

"It was a Scout Sergeant, I could have waited for Bravo but I wanted to see what was inside. I should have waited, I just felt like..." he gestured helplessly with his rifle, Rex gave the young officer time to come to terms with another bad call, it didn't hinder the operation just a personal nightmare. No officer, in any branch wanted to lead a squad of their own men to their deaths but it happened. No training nor any sort of warning could prevent it, sometimes you had to make a call: bad or good for the sake of the mission.

The Sergeant Major inhaled on his cigar as the two made their way up the stairs, several soldiers assisting the Scientists move equipment from the transporters into the building. Rex could relate, he lead dozens if not hundreds of men to their deaths within a single day before. In his lifetime, the man couldn't or rather, didn't count the amount of dead soldiers that were behind him in some shape or form. Thousands of lives could drive any man insane from grief, it was just war: a statistic that was a grim reality.

"Move forward Kid, nothing more can be said but to bury those who follow you. In War you know as well as I that soldiers dying under your command will happen. Honor them after the battle, for now keep yourself steady till the end."

Looking away the blond Colonel nodded, as Rex just clapped him on the shoulder telling him to remain strong in eyes of many. The two broke apart, when they reached the entrance where a flurry of activity awaited them, as dozens to a hundred humans were doing their assigned tasks. It made one wonder how quickly man changed an environment to his needs.

"Colonel, glad to see your all right." Both Rex and the said blond, looked up to see Chris speaking to several Bravo Heavy Troopers. Naruto gave a non-committal shrug as the three converged near the center of the cavern, they had to proceed to search the structure now quicker then ever. Time had to be against them, again and this time they had a very limited amount of resources to get this mission over with immediately.

"Did you move further into the structure?" Naruto asked the Major who shook his head, "Negative, we needed to secure the area around the LZ so we could reinforce the position if we got tagged by the Arachnids. Thankfully, it hasn't happened yet sir. "

Rex gruffly agreed, "I second that notion, get some eyes and ears up before we starting sticking our nose into this hole. Take a search party and explore further in."

"Major, go get several volunteers, preferably from all Companies. I'll inform Dr. Thomas of our exploration, understood?" Naruto ordered firmly as Chris gave a salute before moving off to go do his task, Rex just checked his rifle slapping the magazine firmly to make sure it clicked into place to feed rounds to the weapon itself. Sighing he moved to go find the Head Scientist who miraculously was pointing out findings to her colleagues that were flanked by several Spec-Ops.

They were gesturing to the walls and something on their holo-computers integrated on their wrists, basically nothing worth mentioning to him yet.

"Dr. Thomas!" The woman turned to him as he strode forward, his rifle at the low.

"Get some of your fellows and meet me back there, we're going to explore further in. We'll have a squad's worth of men to guide us, just giving you the heads up now." the blond said calmly as the woman smiled happily at the thought of discovering new artifacts that haven't been touched in millennial. She gave her nod before storming off to find the best of her assistants to catalog more of this place.

Sighing Naruto brought a hand to the back of his neck, he really needed to shower after this damned planet. Already things were going about in the wrong direction, a dead soldier within hours of dropping, several weird voices and the rushed time-frame to find anything of value! One of these days he'd swear that Politics would cause a catastrophe so large, it'd make WW2 look like a kid's fight.

"Why do I feel as though someone is just stringing me along? I can't fight it, not in the normal sense but its like something wants me here and god help me if I don't find out otherwise..."

Naruto shuddered an a gently chilling sensation went up his spine.

"Otherwise the dead will only start to pile up."

Leaning against the wall, breathing became difficult slightly making the room seem to shimmer in a near alien fashion. Trying to regain some sort of control, the blond slowly and methodically controlled the deep breathes his lungs brought in. Mentally counting down to three, he exhaled and then deeply inhaled to stem the blood flow inside of his veins, which rushed quickly. Warmth surely came back to him, once he tried to open his eyes.

Everything got brighter, with colors blending into a near mass of light from the corner of his vision.

"What am I searching for?" He asked himself quietly staring at the far wall, the voices and the cold feelings all went away. Scoffing internally about being lax about his body, Naruto quickly strode forward towards the dark end of the room, idly noting that there was a tunnel leading onward. The question whether anything else occupied this place brought him to be mindful of close quarters. Another flyer insect would result in someone being flayed out alive, or crushed in its jaws.

Several footsteps made him turn over his shoulder, nearly two dozen solders including the Scientists group made their way towards him. Chris and Rex were at the head of the column, Naruto counted several men from all the companies including Medics of Charlie. A balanced exploration team intent on keeping each other alive, while committing enough firepower to repel any hostiles. Despite this all the soldiers knew on some level that it didn't make you anymore liable to be killed from the man next to you.

"How many?"

The question was there to confirm what he knew.

"Six Alpha Scouts, Six Heavies and their escorts and six medics from Charlie. All in all enough to be nimble but have enough guns to wipe shit out, sir." Chris said good naturally as Rex grunted in agreement, he didn't care for specifications unless he were training them. Not to mention they had Dr. Thomas's group as well, she had three Assistants to aid her in the exploration. Non-combatants in a high dangerous unknown zone of Arachnid aggression? What was not to enjoy about this mission?

In total, twenty seven humans plus their Commander gave their strength at just under a Platoon's worth of bodies. Tact on two more, with Rex and the Major so the grand total was thirty people. It's not bad, but not great either. All of them to escort four civilians into this objective, great odds.

"Let's move, sooner we find anything, the quicker we can bug out."

Several of the men held their laughter in check at the 'bug' pun, intentional or not it lifted the spirit. Chris nodded before moving forward Rex flanking him as two scouts moved up head, roughly five meters to keep look out.

The real mission started now...

End

Author's Note: Next chapter is where the real reason for the 'voices' and mission come into play. I'm not sugar coating it but it will throw many of you for a loop and possibly question whether my sanity is intact. To be honest the Third Movie of Starship Troopers really got me to write this fic, yes the worst movie of the Franchise got me to write this out. And to be fair I'll list three games lately, genres I've been playing or reading kind of are rubbing of on me.

When you play Warhammer 40k, Starcraft 2/HoS and Gears of War, certain 'motions' are going to show in my writing of this story. Not blatant copy paste material but the generalized concepts are there. Personally its fanfiction, so shits going to show itself eventually and without much to annoy others who make actual money. So alas, enough of that warning, I just have one explanation for this chapter.

(1.) Bio-Foam: It is what it is, a high burning liquid that solidifies within human bodies to condense the wound to stop blow flow. It's essentially medi-gel from Mass Effect without the highly technological properties surrounding it. It's almost like a steroid for the bodies cells to divide and heal for a short time, the job mainly for its purpose is thus: 'Keep the soldier alive, for a short time." Mainly for medical treatment, it works but not always. The grim reality of this Starship trooper Universe.

And now I have nothing really more to explain or answer for, the best I hope for is for others to try out to write and follow this story.