Before a Helldiver becomes a Strategem-throwing ace, they are but a humble rifleman first.
The primary, secondary and ordnance option of the Helldiver is wholly up to their choosing,
But the Helldiver is to ALWAYS be equipped with all three at all times.
Standard issue is as follows:
The AR-23 'Liberator' - Reliable, Powerful. When there is a standard, there is the Liberator.
The P-2 'Peacemaker' - For when the encounter is closer than a Diver would like, or when reloading the Liberator is not possible, make peace with the fact with the Peacemaker.
The G-12 High Explosive Grenade - For when you need a hole in some armor fast. Lacks the shrapnel of its sister variants, but the punch it packs more than makes up for that.
Similarly with their armor.
The B-01 'Tactical' Armor Set - Rugged and Reliable, the armor is constructed with the same Titanium-A alloy of the Super Destroyer-class vessels.
The B-01 'Foesmasher' - Durable, waterproof and thermally lined, this cape was made to be worn by Heroes.
Simple armaments, but when in the hands of the Helldiver,
The many enemies of Super Earth tremble against their might.
"Touchdown!" The pilot exclaimed. "Hit it ladies!"
It was a by-the-book hot drop via helicopter. Though not of the same bravado or of the same level of cool that is cracking the earth beneath you with Hellpods, though for all intents and purposes it sufficed.
"Time to move Divers!" I yelled as I hopped out first, sweeping the area of any hostiles.
One by one the girls filed out, with Yuuka exiting last.
With a minimal sweep of the area done, I slapped the side of the helicopter a few times, letting the pilot know she's good to go.
"Give me a call and I'll be right back, Sensei!"
I nodded. "Liberty be with you, pilot!"
From the cockpit, I could tell she gave me a weird look, but shrugged as she took off.
"Eyes up Divers, keeps those heads on a swivel. I'll be damned before I let a dissident get the drop on us!" I ordered as we moved down the street in a wedge formation.
Aboard the -Spear of Liberty-
"Alright Divers!" I exclaimed, catching the girls off guard again.
"Sen-" Yuuka cut herself off. "Sergeant! Will you please stop yelling into your microphone?"
If looks could kill.
I cleared my throat. "A-apologies H1." I looked at all the girls. "I wanted to ask what each of you brings to the table."
"Are you referring to our abilities?" Hasumi asked.
I nodded. "Yes, if the Commander entrusted this mission to you all as well, your skillsets must be something to behold."
A faint blush crept up Yuuka's face. "F-flattery won't get you anywhere!"
We all give Yuuka a look, causing her to blush even harder.
Hasumi coughed. "Anyways, I likely found myself in this position due to my skill with a precision rifle." She lifted her bolt action rifle. "Such as this."
I whistled. "I'll say, you taking out that RPG on the roof while we were in the air is more than commendable."
Her wings fluttered as she accepted the compliment. "Thank you, Sergeant."
Chinatsu raised her hand. "I was probably picked for my medical skills." She then lifted the strap of her bag, likely containing all of her first aid supplies.
I nodded. "Medics, the angels of the battlefield, always happy to have one such as yourself on the team."
She smiled. "Of course, Sen-Sergeant!"
We all turned our heads towards the now no longer flustered student. "H1?" I asked.
"H-huh?" She exclaimed as she turned her head.
"Your skillset, if you would please." I gestured for her to go on.
"O-oh." She shuffled in her seat. "W-well..." She trailed off as she dug into her jacket pocket.
She then produced a small device and shook it.
"Apart from my amazing ability to calculate numbers swiftly-" She began tapping at the small device quickly. "I can also do this!"
As she lifted the device to show it off, a blue shimmering light encapsulated her. Upon closer inspection, one could make out the faint outlines of hexagons interlocking to form a barrier around her.
"Is that...?" I trailed off as I placed a hand onto the barrier, my hand producing a ripple as it rested on it. "You have a personal shield generator?"
She gives me a half yes, half no look. "Kind of, yes. This small device not only handles calculations, but the Engineering Club have also fitted it with a device that can generate a barrier, granted the correct inputs are used."
I raised a brow, looks like technology here is on a sort of sliding scale. On one side, we have extremely dated weaponry used on the field, on the other, we have shield generators that fit into your pockets.
I hummed positively. "Looks like you've signed yourself up to head the front with me, H1!"
"E-eh!?"
Maintaining formation, we kept our weapons ready as we strolled down the street towards the SCHALE club room. Apart from the odd gunshot or explosion far off in the distance, our surroundings were eerily quiet.
"It's quiet." I muttered, my eyes watching the rooftops.
"Too quiet."
In the corner of my eye, I catch the glint of a sniper's scope.
"HIT THE DECK!"
Diving backwards, I twisted by body around, aiming my 'Breaker' in the direction of the sniper before hitting the ground.
I let loose a volley of shells as I pointed at the window with my free hand. "Sniper up top! Follow my shells and give 'em hell, girls!"
Suppressing them under the hail of shells, I ordered my squad to push up, grabbing space to allow Hasumi to take a shot unimpeded.
With a single shot cracking out, she stood up and flipped back her hair before giving me a smirk. "Sniper's down for the count."
"With shooting like that, you'd make General Brasch blush! Good work H3." I gave her a thumbs up.
Following the scuffle, the loud interaction attracted more trouble as a new posse of dissidents made their presence known, shouting and yelling with the odd round flying through the air.
"Sergeant!" Yuuka called as she put down some fire. "We have some more gang members inbound!"
Diving into cover behind a wrecked car next to her, I tossed an empty mag before slamming another into my 'Breaker'.
"What I wouldn't do for some air support!" I exclaim as I brought myself over the car, moving forward and shelling the dissenting students, knocking them out cold.
I take note that throughout our engagements, whenever one of the students takes enough damage, they go unconscious, and their halo disappears.
"Hold on, Sergeant! You're pushing up too far!" Yuuka yells out.
'Wait a minute... Sweet Liberty!' I internally screamed, ignoring her calls.
Bringing up the strategem terminal on my left wrist, I grabbed a beacon with the other before inputting a pattern.
'If it worked with the supply strategem, maybe...'
'Right Right Up.' I thought as I inputted the pattern.
"Fingers crossed girls!" I yelled as I threw the beacon as far as I could into enemy lines.
Within that instant, one of the dissidents swung their submachine gun around whilst firing simultaneously, my arm catching a round as she panned it across the battlefield.
I feel the round tear through my right arm and-
"SWEET LIBERTY, MY ARRRRM!" I screeched as I dove back into cover.
"Sensei!?" My squad exclaimed as they promptly gunned down the perpetrator.
I hold my arm to inspect the wound, the round having cleanly entered and exited my forearm, miraculously evading the portions of the extremity that are armored.
Blood seeped continuously as it soaked my black BDUs. As I inspected the wound and as I was just about to reach for a stim, Chinatsu ran over, her eyes locked onto my injured arm.
"Sensei!" She exclaimed, her hands shakily reaching for the blood-soaked extremity.
"Hold on there, H2." I say as I pulled my arm back. "Don't want to get my blood on your hands."
She looked at me and shot back. "No no no no, that's the least of my worries, you've been shot!"
Yuuka and Hasumi pushed up towards us, periodically firing their guns to keep the enemy's heads down.
"Chinatsu! How's Sensei looking!?" Yuuka asked, tossing an empty mag away before grabbing a fresh one from her jacket.
The medic shook her head. "He's been shot! It's a clean wound, but the bleeding's profuse!"
"I-I don't have the equipment to fix a wound of this severity!" She exclaimed, her voice shaky.
Lifting myself into a crouch, I craned my head over my cover to see an angry red beacon shoot into the sky before subsequently turning off. Despite the situation, I find myself grinning.
Then the telltale boom and subsequent reverberation of an ATLAS Cannon reported, the three-hundred-and-eighty-millimeter shell tore through the air, a whistle produced in its wake.
Even through their protestations of me moving around, their attention was thoroughly redirected as the ordnance in the sky whistled louder.
"What is that!?" Hasumi yelled as she pointed at a rapidly approaching object in the sky.
Picking myself up, I grabbed a stim from its pouch and jabbed it into my neck. The solution quickly injecting into my body, I feel reinvigorated as the medicine worked its magic.
Tossing the empty injector, I turned and faced my squad, who're extremely confused, not only by my actions, but by the artillery shell that's screaming towards the enemy as well.
"That, H3-" I began as I watched the shell approach with a smile, extending my arms outward. "-Is Freedom."
As my sentence ended, the shell landed a few meters off behind me, the following explosion annihilating everything within its radius, launching all manner of debris and dissenters into the air.
The shockwave sent dust and shattered asphalt our way, with the force of impact so grand, my cape fluttered valiantly.
With the ringing in our ears dying down, the girls began coughing, clearing their airways of dust kicked up from the awesome power of Democracy.
"S-S-Sensei?" Hasumi began, her eyes wide as she beheld the destruction wrought by the ordnance.
Chinatsu rubbed her eyes. "W-what...?" She trailed off, no longer concerned of my injuries.
"...Was that!?" Yuuka finished for them, as she dusted herself off of debris.
"Ha ha! Yes!" I cheered as I turned around. Lifting up my communicator, I attempted once more to hail the Super Destroyer in orbit.
After all, without a Super Destroyer, there's no ATLAS Cannon.
"This is Sergeant Allen Hicks of the Helldiver Corps, current Helldiver to be heading the Super Earth Ship, Hammer of Democracy, do you read me?"
PSSSSSSSSSSH
I'm met with static once more.
My face scrunched up, my hopes dying with each failed attempt at contacting a Super Destroyer that may or may not even be there.
But that wouldn't make any sense, how could I be able to call down strategems without one?
A tug on my cape pulled me from my thoughts.
"Sensei!" Yuuka exclaimed, her face filled with concern and fear.
I shivered at her facial expression before coughing. "Y-yes H1?"
"What in Kivotos was that!?" She pointed at the smoldering crater.
"That was an Orbital Precision Strike." I replied as if it was common knowledge.
"Uh huh." She scowled. "But where did it come from!?" She pointed into the sky.
I looked up. "I think you know the answer to that." I then glanced at Chinatsu.
She recoiled slightly at my gaze. "From space-?" She then dropped her jaw. "Don't tell me that's from the spaceship you came from!?"
I nodded. "You are correct, H2." I held my wrist, gesturing towards the communication unit. "Though we might have issues communicating."
The girls looked at the wrist-mounted device in varying degrees of awe.
'Though, would that mean that the Hammer of Democracy somehow got sucked in too?' I concluded, as there would be no other possible explanation.
The comms unit then beeped to life. As I hastily reached to accept the call, hopes that it was finally the Super Destroyer reached a high.
"Sensei! Now you answer!" Rin exclaimed on the other side.
My head dropped as I sighed heavily.
"I most definitely know that exaggerated sigh was not directed towards me, was it now, Sensei?" Her tone took a deep turn.
I straightened out my posture real quick. "N-not at all, Commander."
"Mmm hmm." She hummed. "Now then, sitrep, if you would, please."
I nodded. "Understood. Following our deployment off of the Spear of Liberty-" She audibly groaned at that, for some reason. "-We were met with some resistance from the locals. Suffice it to say, we cleared them out and are now ready to move out."
She paused for a few seconds. "I see, now would you be able to explain the ground-shaking explosion that just so happened to have originated in the direction of your position?"
"..." I paused myself.
"Se-n-se-i?"
I hung up as I turned towards the girls. "Alright squad, time to move out!"
They all look at me with varying degrees incredulousness.
I scratched the top of my helmet. "I'll.. uh, I'll handle the Commander later, for now-!" I cut myself off as I reloaded my 'Breaker'. "We have a planet to save!"
They glance at each other then back to me before shrugging.
"If you say so." Yuuka says, giving me a raised brow.
Continuing our advance towards the SCHALE club room, we catch the sounds of an ensuing scuffle turn into a firefight real fast.
Knowing that we can get the drop on them, I signal to the girls to stack up on Yuuka, before gesturing towards her to use her barrier upon first contact to create impromptu cover.
Just before we could enact that plan, three. Count 'em-
Three flashes of light filled our vision, as well as three deafening pops filling the air.
Caught extremely off guard, I did what any good Diver worth their weight in rare earth samples would do.
Empty the magazine of your weapon in the direction that you last saw the enemy. Or suspect where they are.
So I did just that.
As the ringing wore off, my vision gradually returned. Blinking the spots out of my eyes, I hear my 'Breaker' click empty. Promptly reloading it, I glance around to see my squad crouched down while rubbing their eyes.
"Hold fire! Friendlies! Friendlies in range!" A girl called out from around the corner.
I lowered my 'Breaker'. "I hear you!"
Waving their hand around the corner, they stepped out. This time it's white hair, a single short wing fluttering from behind her head.
Odd placement of a wing, but somehow fitting on the student.
I cleared my throat. "Sergeant Allen Hicks of the Helldiver Corps, you must be...?"
"Helldiver... Corps?" She asked before shaking her head. "Introductions first, I am Morizuki Suzumi of the Vigilante Corps, nice to meet you...?" She trailed off as she looked behind me, my squad still suffering from the aftereffects of the flashes.
Her expression dropped a smidge. "Did I do that?"
I raised a brow. "Were you responsible for those bright flashes and loud bangs?"
She shivered. "Er... I think so." She dug into her pocket and pulled out a cylindrical device. "They must've been caught up in my flashbangs."
I lifted my head. "Ah, so you must've been the one in the middle of that firefight then, right?"
She nodded. "Yes, I was on my patrol when I ran into those gang members. There've been more of them lately, so I have been bogged down by rounding them up and turning them in to the authorities."
"Ah." She sounded as she placed a fist on top of her hand. "You must be the new Sensei!"
I nodded. "That's what I've been referred to as of late, so I suppose so."
Her eyes lit up. "Does that mean you're on your way to the SCHALE club room?"
"I'm not sure I should be divulging mission details." I narrowed my eyes.
Then the comms unit on my wrist lit up.
"Don't worry, Sensei, she's a trustworthy student, even if she is a bit headstrong." Rin chimed in.
I nodded. "Understood." I looked back at the student. "Then you would be correct ma'am, my team and I are on our way to retake the club room."
"Also, Sergeant." Rin's voice grew stern as she pulled my rank.
I stood stock still.
"After this operation is completed, I believe you and I have some... discussing to do."
I gulped. "U-understood."
The comms unit turned off, causing me to release the breath I didn't realize I was holding.
"Sensei?" Suzumi asked as she reloaded her rifle.
I looked in her direction and nodded. "Care to join us in this operation, ma'am? We could always use another pair of hands."
She nodded. "Of course! I'd never turn away those in need."
"Glad to hear it!" I turned towards my squad, who have now recovered from the flashbangs. "Alright team, once you've shaken out the lead, we are double timing it!"
Just a hop and a skip away from the SCHALE club room, four bright and angry red bolts of light flew right past us, picking up dust and leaves as it shot past us.
"Well, well. The General Student Council didn't bother to show up in person." The newcomer scoffed. "Not that it matters."
Yuuka balled her hand into a fist. "It's her!"
Hasumi readied her rifle. "The Fox of Calamity! We've found the mastermind behind all this commotion, get ready!"
The Fox of Calamity giggled as she slowly strode towards us, her rifle held across her back as she supported it with her arms. "Looks like the little puppies of the General Student Council have come to stop me. How adorable~."
Immediately activating her shield, Yuuka jumped straight into the fray, rushing forward while firing her submachine gun.
Hasumi began rapidly working the bolt on her rifle, firing just as she had loaded another round into the chamber.
Contrary to her being a medic, Chinatsu laid down some fire of her own, the pistol bucking in her hands with each pull of the trigger.
Wary to not blind her teammates, Suzumi held off on using her flashbangs. It was all firefight from here on out.
Not to be left behind, I rushed forward behind Yuuka, my 'Breaker' screaming as I set it to full auto, emptying the magazine of shells quickly.
All this firepower for one person would be overkill, some might say. But this Fox of Calamity, they call her, she had an extremely dangerous vibe to her. Enough for me to have my hairs stand on edge as we charged towards her.
Deftly dodging and weaving her way through our fire, she worked the bolt on her rifle before performing a backflip and landing on top of a light post. Aiming her rifle with one hand, a wave of bright petals coalesced around her, before once more shooting the same bright red and angry projectiles at us.
With us narrowly evading the attack, the projectiles destroyed the asphalt as they impacted the ground, kicking up a screen of dust.
"My job here is done. You can take care of the rest." The Fox of Calamity uttered, thoroughly obscured by the impromptu smoke screen.
"Ah!" Yuuka sounded out as she swatted away the screen. "She's running away! After her!"
I placed a hand onto her shoulder. "Hold off on that, H1, she's not the objective."
"Huh?" She turned her head towards me. "Well, fine." She huffed. "I guess it's not our job to catch her."
Hasumi nodded. "Exactly, our current objective is to reach the SCHALE club room, so we must make haste."
With the Fox of Calamity repelled, we double timed it to the entrance of the SCHALE club room.
"We made it! We're at the entrance of the building!"
Then an all too familiar sound of a deep rumbling engine and turning tracks came into earshot. To me, this was a wakeup call. There is only one enemy of Super Earth to rely on heavy and tracked vehicles.
Automatons.
"Huh? What's that sound...?" Yuuka asked, questioning the sudden rumbling.
Chinatsu pointed towards the side of the building. "Watch out! It's a Crusader Tank!"
"That's a Crusader Type One!" Hasumi noted. "It's the same as the tanks used at our academy!"
Yuuka turns towards her. "It must be stolen! Those thugs must've swiped one meant for the PMC!"
"That means it's no different from a hunk of scrap metal!" She yelled as she readied her device. "I'm going in!"
My blood boiled as I stared at the massive armored vehicle. Just looking at the Liberty-forsaken tank reminded me of the many brothers and sisters I've lost to these disgusting socialist machines.
Just before Yuuka could activate her shield, I rushed forward towards the tank, beacon in hand and strategem terminal at the ready.
As I approached the tank, I entered a pattern into the terminal.
Up.
Right.
Down.
Down.
Down.