Episode 2: Rookie Courage

Chapter 2: Attack Of The Faceless Fiends

"Attention, personnel of Azurite Outpost: We are under attack. This is not a drill."

Previously on SH50k: The bored crew managing Azurite Outpost were just coming up with ways to liven things up and make the station feel more like home when a shower of what seemed to be meteors interrupted the conversation, putting people on alert.

Things quickly spiraled out of control when the "meteors" were revealed to be fleshy drop pods carrying terrifying monsters from the Mind Flayer's Upside Down army, and the troops guarding the outer perimeters of the base were silenced and butchered one by one. Clone Captain Rags, the most senior member of Azurite's personnel, gets a real bad feeling when his calls to the guardsmen go unanswered...

Story Starts Here

The clone cadets and Spartan-IV recruits in the base's main entrance area took up tactical positions behind supply crates, spare parts and fluid pipes, planning to shoot from cover as a defensive strategy, since Rags had already given them the orders to do so. MA5 assault rifles, Phobos bolt pistols, and E-11 blaster rifles poked out of every available nook and cranny in the room.

The rookies realized that there was much at stake, because if they lost this battle, a huge segment of the Republic would be completely cut off from interstellar and interplanetary communication. This was a decisive struggle, and the newbies were going to fight to the bitter end in defense of the free galaxy. They had guts, and fear wasn't bothering them.

But even with all that, the rookies still weren't prepared for what bashed the gate down and came rushing into the base.

Two kinds of faceless aberrations with toothy flower-shaped jaws, the Demogorgons and the Demodogs, proceeded to assault the remaining defenders of Azurite Outpost, resulting in a ferocious firefight with losses on both sides.

The monsters were durable and tenacious, taking multiple hits from military-grade automatic weapons to bring down, and also moved at terrifyingly fast speeds, tackling troopers before they could land a killing shot and tearing them to bloody shreds.

Fortunately for the rookie troops protecting the gate section, reinforcements arrived from other parts of the base, and with them came Captain Rags and his companions, who were much better in frontline combat and had better gear.

Thianna spun her machine-gun-spear hybrid in an arc, cutting through tough exoskeletons like a hot knife through butter, while Rags fired off multiple bolts from his Wookiee bowcaster, and Noelle decapitated a Demogorgon with her oversized chainsword. Ahsoka used a Force Push to send the astro droids Finn and Jake flying through the air, to make sure they were out of harm's way.

Then, the biggest monster of the bunch knocked Thianna over, and tried to bite her head off, but luckily for the half giant, Noelle came to the rescue and cut the Demogorgon in half, sawing through its midsection with a grotesque crunch.

"Thanks," Thianna said to the knight maid. "I would've been dead meat right there!"

"No problem! We gotta look out for each other in situations like this!"

Roughly three dozen monsters from the Upside Down were killed in the skirmish, but the battle was far from over- just as the Republic forces regrouped, loud roaring noises came from outside the base. That shouldn't even be technically possible due to the lack of atmosphere, meaning that some kind of dark magic was at work.

"They've already opened portals to make way for a larger invasion force," the Jedi Padawan Ahsoka said. "My Master told me the Upside Down is like a cancer, spreading through worlds and tainting their terrain and environment."

Meanwhile, Captain Rags addressed his troops, preparing them for the inevitable clash.

"As Ahsoka was saying, we know who our enemy is, and what they do. The Mind Flayer is a well studied, active threat in the Milky Way. So we're gonna try to stop those faceless fiends before things get even more ugly. You survived this far, and you've done great work. You're the bravest cadets I've ever met, most newbies don't even get to see horrors like this, let alone come out on top. But we must finish the job. Who's gonna follow us into hell and back? You guys, of course!!!"

"Courage and honor!!!," the troopers chanted, answering Rags' call.

With haste, they made their way to the armory, and suited themselves up for warfare in the vacuum of space, taking various blasters and plasma guns with them, as well as thermal detonators, seismic grenades, and satchel charges, for destroying the portals. Everyone was wearing a heavy duty armored spacesuit made of reinforced mithril plating, able to hold up against a Demogorgon's sheer bite force (but only for a short period of time.)

You could say, it was time to turn the Upside Down right side up.

Rags paid a quick visit to the control room, and saw on the scanners that eldritch gateways had indeed opened on Koentus' surface where the drop pods had landed, just as predicted.

All he and his crew had to do was make the portals collapse with explosives, but there was a time limit on the mission, since the monsters would get bigger and nastier the longer the breaches in reality stayed open. Also, lots more foul creatures had already shown up in the time that passed during the skirmish at the base entrance.

Rags led the way. "We gotta get moving, lock and load, ladies and gentlemen!"

"There's no time to lose, let's go kick some demon butt!," Thianna shouted, raising her gun-polearm hybrid high.

And so the REAL battle for Azurite Outpost began.

A note from Spuddies (the writer, me:) Geez, I haven't edited one of my fanfics in almost a month!

I've been busy designing and writing about my own original character concepts, basically remixes of my favorite superheroes like Batman, Green Lantern, Spider-Man, and Captain America. I hope to share them with people someday!

But now, back to the story.

Next chapter will have a lot of really crazy DND monsters!!!