The first rays of light poured through the gun port of the United Planets of Orion’s (UPO) bunker. It was that awkward two minutes before the naked eye was effective and night vision no longer worked. All Pvt. Marcus Damaris could do was retract the night vision glasses inside his helmet’s visor and wait. Marcus sighed and shook his head a little to shake off the sleep. He had pulled the last guard shift again which was always, in his opinion, the worst.
The not-so-subtle thud of his squads heavy gunner, Corporal Caedo, laying in his weapon next to Pvt. Damaris was heard to his left. Marcus didn’t turn to see his squadmate, but kept his eyes straight ahead on what they all knew was about come. “It will be about two more minutes,” said Marcus, opening the team’s channel to Caedo “Every morning, every bloody six hours.”
Cpl. Caedo racked back the charging handle on his XXXX Machine Gun. A simple grunt was all that piped through the headset back to Marcus. Cpl. Caedo was a man of few words. Marcus was firmly of the belief that Caedo was dumb as a bag-of-hammers with the exception to all things soldier. In that respect, there were few better. Caedo stood six and half feet tall and had a build that would put a football player to shame. The kind of guy you want to have on your side in a bar fight, or any fight for that matter, including this one.
To the right, Private First Class Barrúil walked up to them with his usual swagger and laid in his XXX grenade launcher. “Good morning ladies!” He piped through the team channel, “Are we ready for another fine day of death and destruction?” He half smiled and cocked his head, turning towards the two other men, “ Because I sure know I am!”
PFC Barrúil. Every platoon had one. This one was ours. He was cocky, hilarious, and all to unmilitary for being in the military. The problem was, he was just so damn good at what he did. He was undeniably one of the best soldiers in the company. The reason he could never make it past PFC was his attitude and his self-destructive mission of bedding every officer over Colonel's daughter.
“So boys, is today the day that they break through?” said Barrúil as he loaded a few of his XXX Grenades into a spare drum magazine. “Marcus, come on........” Barruil trailed off when the clock in their helmets hit the five second mark and pulsed red accompanied by a tiny beeping with each passing second. His focus snapped back to the task and hand and they all trained their weapons to their sectors of fire.
2....1...!!0!! Silence. “Set time to negative countdown” Piped Cpl. Caedo in his half grunt of a voice. His computer had taken a week longer than average to fully adapt to his vocal recognition patterns and he now refused to upgrade any system until absolutely required. The clock ticked down in the team’s visors -1...-2...-3...
Silence.
The clock hit negative 5 minutes then a wing of VOLTURIUS class fighters screamed overhead causing Marcus to wince and hunker down. Typically moments after the sonic boom of these craft moving through atmo was followed by the explosion of several thousands of pounds of explosives being dropped. Once again, silence.
Marcus looked over at Caedo, then to Barrúil. “Um, maybe we get to go home today?’ Marcus said with disbelief in his voice “They wouldn’t waste us 82nd boys on a simple guard mission and if they’re gone, then what's the point of us sitting here?”
“Privates, scan you sectors.” Grunted the Cpl. He was in charge while the Sergeant was down with a native bug. The medics had it under control but he would be peeing out of his ass for about another week.
A chime sounded and the platoon channel opened a video feed in the bottom lefthand corner of their visors. 2nd Lt. Lapsus face appeared on the feed with an all too uncertain look for an officer. The LT was fresh out of the officers academy. He has family connections that led him to the quasi elite 82nd. The perfect place to pick up some battle streamers and ribbons while not being placed on any suicide missions. He was obviously here for the wrong reasons and the men knew it.
“Men, um, we are pulling out of this sector. The Captains said he doesn’t want any bitching about this, and it’s not my choice but, we are staying on mission.” Said the LT with the slightest quiver of fear in his voice. “ We will be lifting off in twelve standard hours, so be ready. Your squad leaders will have further details on our tasks. LT Out.”
“LT Out” Mocked Barrúil as he pulled his G-Launcher off the line and swaggered around their tiny enclosure in an exaggerated strut that mimed the LT. “LT Get us fucking killed, OUT! LT I have no idea why daddy wanted me to be in the military, OUT!” He circled the inclosure, his power armor thumping on the cement floor not paying much attention until he bumped chest to chest into Sergeant Fidus.
Sgt. Fidus, who had slipped in only moments after the Lt’s video, reached his open hand out and palmed Barrúil faceplate. He then pushed with his servo enhanced arm sending the PFC back two steps and onto his armored butt. “Shut it Barrúil, we have more important things to get to than your antics at present.”
The Sgt strode over to the wall screen that came standard in all XX Drop Bunkers and pulled a small fiber wire from his power armor along his left hip. He jacked into the screen and it came to life with new data. “ Corporal Caedo, stay online and keep that gun trained. You two knuckle heads come over here.” The Sgt hit a few more buttons and opened a much smaller version of what was displayed on the board in Caedo’s helmet display.
“Alright men, and Barrúil, we have a serious situation on our hands. The Bære have left this Godsforsaken rock and have headed for another, much more important one.” Said Sgt “ Air Recon has detected another planet on the border of our’s and Bære’s space that is full of RESOURCE on a scale we haven’t found in a century. “
The Sgt. turned to the screen and hit a button to start the graphic briefing. It was narrated by the UPO’s top commander in this sector, Admiral Nauta. As soon as the voice piped into his helmet, Marcus’s eyes widened. This wasn’t going to be good.
The Bære have abandoned PLX-1007 during the last cycle. How they slipped away undetected is still under review by our intelligence teams. We do know that they left quietly to move towards this new planet and establish a defence before we realized they were gone.
- The graphic showed a standard star sphere map with the current planet highlighted in green. It then kicked a dashed line over the grid and to a planet that was relatively close with their jump technology but even closer with the Bære’s. -
This is PLY-1 designated “Jackpot” for this mission. Jackpot is the richest source of AAAA in the entire known galaxy. If we were to hold this planet we could produce enough ships to overrun the Bære homeworld. This planet, this rock in space, could End... This.. WAR
Earth is sending as much help to you as possible but you are very remote and the number of ships we have that can make the jump is still few in number. The 82nd is ordered to push through the space battle and drop over the richest deposit of AAAA. You will then hold in place until relieved. To the last man gentlemen. You could be Earth’s only hope for peace.
Good Luck.
The briefing continued with standard timelines and procedures.
