Odyssey of War

Chapter 3: In The Jungle, The Mighty Jungle

"All crew be advised, we are making the jump for light-speed in t-minus five minutes" A young male voice said over a speaker.

Phillip, Lindsey and I had been exploring the ship. We had already visited the recreational facilities like the gym and swimming pool to keep the crew in shape.

"What are they?" Lindsey asked, pointing through a window to a row of devices stacked in a sealed room.

"They're the ship's fusion generators, they power everything" I explained.

"Shouldn't they store them in different parts of the ship, in case they get damaged?".

"These look like main generators, there's likely more clusters around the ship" Phillip said.

We entered the armory, where we found an assortment of weapons. They ranged from small sidearms and rifles, all the way to mounted gauss and plasma turrets. Phillip picked up what looked like some sort of light laser turret and said, "I'd like to try this one out on Atlas".

"Haha, definitely your type", I replied, picking up a anti-armour launcher, "Though I think this might make a mark for you"

"You know me all too well", he chuckled.

A light siren rang through the ship, so the three of us stood at the window as the ship started the warp drive. The announcer spoke again "Making the jump", a loud humming sound emanated throughout the ship, and a moment later it stopped and he said "We are now on route to Atlas, we'll arrive in 13 hours"

The space outside of the ship constantly changed, moving the dots of light in fast swirling patterns, but I felt no g-force at all. The ship uses an Alcubierre drive, invented in 2043. It's a complex device that bends the space around the ship. The 'bubble' that is created traps normal space. The device then bends space in front and behind it to propel it at speeds faster-than-light, with no side effects or g-forces. Looking out at the warped space for too long has known side effects, so the three of us returned to the simulation room.

Once everyone was there, the simulations started again. Once more the room changed to form an environment. This time we were in a jungle, and had an even larger variety of weapons. I grabbed a rifle, ammo and some sort of heavily modified crossbow.

The Major began explaining "You're objective is simple, survive for as long as you can. We will be testing you against Dytari, and have based their behavior off of the colonists security footage, so expect different behaviors from the real ones, good luck".

We all stood in a medium sized clearing with scatterings of cover, and so Martin stationed everyone in defensive positions. Some were behind small rocks, others behind fallen logs. I was close to the surrounding trees, and was first to hear them coming.

"Sir, I hear movement in the trees, heading this way" I say, pointing to the location of the sound. A moment later, several people on the other side of the clearing were pulled into the trees, their scanners going red.

"You must learn to survive longer, or else you won't stand a chance in real battle" the Major said over the comms.

I quickly moved away from the treeline, and scanned it for any unusual shapes. I spotted one of the creatures about to leap at an unaware Lindsey from the trees, and so I fired off several rounds. All of them missed, as the creature had dashed back into the trees when I fired.

"Everyone stay clear of the treeline, check for any movement" Martin ordered.

One of the Dytari dropped down from one of the overhead branches and tackled Martin to the ground. We fired round after round, but each bullet was deflected. It had an extremely thin blade on it's arm which slashed violently at Martin, who managed to avoid it. Another soldier fired rounds at the Dytari's head to distract it, before he pulled Martin to a safe distance. The Dytari then began to change it's exoskeleton. The material morphed around the creature, changing it into a large hulking mass. It opened fire on us with an arm-mounted cannon, taking out a dozen of us.