An HFY Tale: Drop Pod Green

Planet XJ-1

Ch 17: The Vanguard

Rhidi and the rest of the drop troopers sat in a Battle Room, wearing their olive drab IB suits and staring at a large screen.

They had come out of their final skip days ago, tracking the signal that had brought them all the way here to this planet in the first place. Sensors had been off the charts, detecting a fleet of some sort around the other side of the planet, but the two groups of ships were keeping a tidal lock on each other, mirroring the other and keeping out of sight.

This was not exactly odd, but Rhidi's Human commanders and their accompanying scientists weren't sure what was going on until recon drones finally got to the surface. What the drones recorded was one highly advanced race hunting down the locals, darting them like animals and dragging them back to holding containers.

It became clear, quite quickly, that one race was attacking two others, and the Regs began landing within minutes in their great drop ships. The carriers deployed light bombers to zip in and drop explosives in order to give the locals time to retreat further, which led to dogfights in atmosphere; F-14-PP3 "Star Cats" were deployed, air superiority craft that found these enemy fighters quite trifling, leading to thirty seven aerial victories to a single downed F-14-PP within only half an hour of dueling each other. While the enemy fighters pushed on their engines and left atmosphere, the F-14-PP3s instead hovered overhead, watching the pilot and co-pilot of their downed fighter.

The locals down below, at first afraid, started helping the wounded pilot from his craft. This led to the Regs having to balance their approach to the towns, landing peacefully and unboarding without weapons drawn since they had the time. It turned out to be a good idea, as the Regs had found the smaller, razor-handed insectoids that lived on the planet rather feisty compared to their softer, taller fellows.

On the screen, the Regs had dug in around a large town, the technology level barely out of the late Bronze Age.

"Tell me again what they are?" Rhidi said, her eyes watching as the Regs repulsed another probe by their new enemy.

Alias rolled his shoulders, then leaned back with a creak of his IB suit. "They're some insectoid race, but with an extremely advanced evolutionary progress. According to the Regs, they look a lot like moths but with more Humanoid features and vestigial wings. The mothfolk have two sets of arms like the Kojynn, but there is also a subrace of little warriors that just have blades for hands, two sets, and a pair of powerful legs."

"Are they tall?" Shasta asked.

Alias shook his head. "The mothfolk are barely over four feet tall, the little warriors are just under three. They were a bit shook up when the Regs landed, but are actively helping the Regs now that they understand what is going on."

"How did they manage to get acrosss the language barrier?" Shasta asked. "Their language won't be in our archives, so the data-slatesss won't be able to do their things… and I am sssure they don't know English."

Alias let out a little chuckle. "Well, the little warrior fellows were posturing quite brazenly when the Regs landed, but once the Regs started putting holes in the people that had been kidnapping them… the point got across quite quickly. Can't blame them though, I'd be on edge too if some fucking alien race had come down and started stealing my people."

"I'm surprised they didn't attack us on sight." Rhidi said off handedly, crossing her arms. "I'd start swinging at anything that didn't look like a Kafya if that kind of shit was happening around me."

"At ease!" A voice bellowed out, cutting across them all and their idle chatter.

Rhidi and everyone else stood, arms behind their backs at the position of parade rest, as Drop Officer Duluth and First Sergeant Lower entered the room. Drop Officer Duluth looked more like a librarian than an officer, but there was a look in his green eyes that offset his mousey brown hair and muscular frame. First Sergeant Lower looked more like a tired teacher than an NCO, but his hands appeared as if they could crumble concrete to dust. His hair was more of a ruddy brown, paired with dark blue eyes.

"As you were." Drop Officer Duluth called out to the gathered Platoons, then rapidly tapped along his palm so the Qua-quid display came off the wall, going horizontal in plane and displaying the planet. "We've been trying to pin down the enemy fleet as we orbit this world, designated XJ-1 until we can figure out how to talk to the natives. Class I pre-Iron Age world that has been under assault from these people."

The display produced a three dimensional model of their enemy; They were brutish looking things, bipedal with a medium build. Unlike most known races of the stars, they bore only a single eye in the middle of their faces, bald along the scalp with ears that looked more like juts of rock rather than fleshy outcroppings. Their noses were just as angular with three nostril openings, above a lipless mouth filled with spine-like teeth. Their armor looked professional and modern by non-Human standards… but it still looked oddly… cheap.

"We do not know what they are, we simply know that they are highly aggressive. From what the 16th Division has been able to gain, they are taking the natives back in pods up to their ships, and we are coming to a logical conclusion that these people are slavers… that, or they are like the Pactless and use other races as a source of food." Drop Officer Duluth said grimly, tapping his thumb pad with a finger to pull the map of the planet back into focus. "They are light in number and the 16th Division has had an easy time forming a line, but they are now coming down in massive numbers, numbers that do not make sense for the amount of ships we are detecting. As of right now, our scans tell us that nearly a quarter of this world's population has been stolen, but where all those beings went is still a mystery. The rest of the population is currently fleeing en masse to the safety of the 16th, while the 72nd Division has begun their landings to give the civilians a new area to run to for safety. When they first landed the enemy was in the number of a few thousand, but it has skyrocketed to over sixteen thousand and climbing. Our technicians believe they may have advanced technology aboard those ships and that is why they are mirroring us, making sure we can't disrupt them."

The screen slowly zoomed in on the planet as Drop Officer Duluth manipulated the camera, in which First Sergeant Lower stepped forward.

"They are massing here, along the main anvil of the 16th. The 16th has multiple Brigades of armored vehicles, and while casualties are light, we believe they will soon, somehow, come under assault from over twenty thousand enemy troops and vehicles. We are confident they can hold and safeguard the civilians for as long as they need to, as they are dug in deep and fortified. The 72nd is landing around another larger town, one we believe may be some sort of capital-" First Sergeant Lower was cut off by a loud, ringing alarm, followed by three sharp, shrilling whistles as the display zoomed out on its own.

Drop Officer Duluth looked down at the map angrily, furrowing his brows as his eyes flared to life with the annoyance that only a CO could understand.

"Sir?" First Sergeant Lower said, stepping quickly over to Drop Officer Duluth.

The man stared hard at the map, blinking as information was fed to him through an inner-skull implant that allowed him to hear without blocking his ears. Drop Officer Duluth then jerked his head up, his gaze narrowed. "They're launching an ambush against the 72nd as they are landing, fifteen thousand men just appeared out of the fucking ether! To your pods, now!"

"Hoooiii!" Specialist Fredrick bellowed, coming to his boots once again. "Time to scrape paint!"

The Battle Room vibrated with the warcry of the Platoons, and boots began to pound down the alleyways towards the armory. Rhidi could feel the ship rumbling and manoeuvring under her boots, the engines roaring to speed as Void Navy gunners sprinted to their positions along other alleyways.

Rhidi was fast, slipping under and around Humans as she skittered into her armory pod, holding up her arms. The mechanical arms of the fitting machines were already buzzing around her before her arm muscles settled, slamming her armor into place around her in record time. The usual small screen flickered with words near her line of vision:

Private First Class Rhidi, SOBP-19621983: Confirmed

All armor pieces accounted for

All armor pieces showing 100% functionality

Armor rating: 100%

Ammo load: 10,000 rounds

Deployments: XJ-1

Confirmed kills of record: N/A

Drops: N/A

Current assignment ship: The Wild Hunt

SOBP record: Clean

The whirring, thudding locks of her Skógarskera armor coming together filled her ears as everyone else began to get their armor on as well, her chestplate giving a final, vibrating shunt of metal as it was locked into the rest of the plating. Her suit hummed to life and swarmed with movement as the plates adapted, allowing the arms to lock her fully loaded ammunition pack onto her back. The arms took her rifle and placed it beside her ammo pack, then gave Rhidi her MG111 after attaching its servo arm. She was already moving out the door when she snatched up her helmet, thundering down the reinforced gangplank to her drop pod.

She slipped her helmet on, feeling the tips of her ears bend as her helmet glowed to life around her eyes. Rhidi boomed into the pod bay, other drop infantry hopping into their pods with the subtle clangs of their weight. Technicians were doing their final ready-checks of the pods, while other Void Navy crewmen were sprinting out of the way of the drop infantry.

Information flooded into her line of sight as she ran into her assigned pod, turning around with a scrape of armored boot on steel; As the g-rack arms picked her up and hauled her into place, she saw that the usually unused section of her helmet displayed that she was in Sergeant Flores's Pod Section, the rest of the troopers filling in the lines. There were little digits next to their names as well, showing how battle ready they currently were, but the names faded from view when she stopped looking at them with focus.

The other g-racks quickly filled, and Rhidi found herself between Woods and LeBlanc; Woods was a nice enough man, the son of a baker who sought to leave the ovens and crumbs behind. He had huge arms, even larger than Morris's, and Rhidi had personally seen him throw another Human like they were nothing but a sack of flour, laughing as the sun shone in his gray hair and blue eyes. LeBlanc was a shithead, prone to gambling and watching too many comedies. Where Woods was large, LeBlanc was a wiry little man of French descent with blonde hair and hazel eyes.

A professional female voice came through all their helmets and the speakers within the pod bay, clearly a Void Navyman on the bridge. "All Platoons showing green on the racks, closing doors."

"Let's go! Move it!" A pod technician yelled out, waving his hands as the drop pods came online. "Clear the bay!"

The flanged mace of a drop pod shuddered as the doors hissed up off their holding pylons, coming up towards Rhidi before locking into place and encasing them all in darkness. Only the blue glow of their visors lit up the pod for a few moments, then the pod was bathed in red light as it sealed.

"All drop pods sealed. All personnel clear of drop bay. Drop pods coming under tension and bay doors opening."

Rhidi closed her eyes, remembering how it all worked from the videos she had watched; The bottom of the ship opened up damn near like a barn door, exposing the bottom of the pods and allowing them to be shot out. The ship would then tilt, aiming them at the planet as their launching bays came under tension. She felt the rumbling stop, then felt herself tilt as the ship began to angle itself. Her pod then began to shake as it was pulled up into launching position, preparing to launch the pod at such speeds that she would feel five g's out of the sustained ten.

"All drop pods under tension. Steam is at maximum. Requesting Airboss, show green."

A new male voice cut in, his voice eager. "Green across the board!"

The female voice chimed in again. "Airboss is showing green, The Wild Hunt's 1st Company is prowling. Tally ho."

"Tally ho!" The Airboss barked out with a laugh, and Rhidi felt blood slam up into her skull. "Hounds away!"

In sequence, the drop pods were fired from The Wild Hunt's launching bay, propelled outward by the old fashioned, steam powered launching systems. There were no flashes of light, no bangs, just puffs of exhaust as the drop pod green vessels were thrown through space.

Rhidi felt the weightlessness take her, then she heard her Platoon Sergeant's voice enter her ear over the Platoon communication line.

"I'm sure you all noticed the ship moving as we were suiting up." Sergeant First Class Bloodmourne began, his voice calm despite the fluttering of Rhidi's heart. "The Wild Hunt swung in and yoyo'd as close as they could, but we are still thirteen minutes from hitting atmosphere. There is absolute bedlam going on down there for the 72nd, and we still have no idea where all the OPFOR came from. Three drop ships are down, casualties are climbing, but the boys are circling their wagons and waiting for us. Our goal is to tackle the infantry as soon as we land, and our pods are going to be calculating our drop points all the way until we hit the ground. We are going to be landing in front of their lines around the downed drop ships, forming a new line and giving them time to retrieve those who are trapped inside or wounded. M1-AX Abrams were able to land in good order and took care of the enemy armor, but that was after enemy vehicles took out the engines of the fallen drop ships. Our mission is simple; We land. We kill. According to our LT, there is a strong chance that we may be down there for awhile, and if that is the case, we will either receive auxiliary pods for our armor, or we are going to have to field-enter our armor should we leave it. If you have a standard magazine in your SR-113s, change them out for assault magazines. Watch your timers."

Rhidi didn't have to worry about her rifle, as it was her backup weapon, but the others began pulling out their more standard magazines for the longer, higher capacity assault magazines. To the shock of none, it was rather unwieldy to use the longer magazines when in garrison, as well as being heavier than leaded sin, but they were extremely common for Heavy Onslaught Infantry.

"Despite what he says, always load in your assault magazines before entering your pod." Fredrick said over their Platoon communications, his name lighting up in purple on her visor. "He is being polite and reminding you new fish, but you will empty those mags within the first couple of seconds after landing. Steady up."

Rhidi nodded more to herself than anything else, then one more voice entered her ears.

Sergeant Flores's voice was as tight as it usually was, though there was an exposed edge of excitement on the back of her words. "When the doors drop, some of you will be facing the wrong direction. Take stock, come around the other side of the pod, and join us in line. According to Bloodmourne, the OPFOR's weapons have trouble penetrating armor, but they are accurate. Keep your gaps closed. Rhidi, Wheeler, I want you laying down fire as soon as you see something shooting at us."

Rhidi's armored fingers rolled along the top of her MG111, the noise of metal on metal dulled by the blood pounding in her ears. She stared at the ramp door as it glowed in the red light, going over all the steps in her head as time slowly crept by.

The old feelings of pre-battle came back to her, the sickly tickle at the bottom of her stomach that bloomed and burned. Rhidi didn't know what to compare them to until she had seen Earthen fireflies, but that was what it felt like; Little pops of light, burning in the darkness within her.

She remembered her very first combat action against the Ur… she had been terrified, excited, the whole thing a violent, maddening blur as she raged against a wounded enemy that was already reeling. Rhidi had not fought the Ur in their prime, when they were true terrors of the skies. She had come in late, picking up the pieces and killing where there was killing to be done.

Falling from the sky, here… this was the first time she would face an enemy on the same footing as the Humans.

The thought nearly caused her to burp, her stomach bubbling with nerves. Her first kill had been a starving Ur, barely consuming enough slurry to stay alive and combat able. This new enemy was in their prime, raw…

Rhidi closed her eyes, drawing in a deep breath through her nose.

This time, the kill would be earned. Her true, first kill.

"Angel-1 in one minute."

Rhidi snapped open her eyes as Sergeant Flores's voice brought her back to reality. She dragged in another breath, looking down at her fully loaded MG111 and double checking what she could; Her spare barrels were in her right thigh plate, and were on her visor. Her MG111 trilled as she tapped the "Check All" button, showing all her systems as green, loaded, and functioning. She rolled her shoulders, her heavy Skógarskera OBP armor plates humming and sliding along themselves with the motion. Her wide pauldron shield loomed next to her helmet like a stalwart guard, layered with a thin sensor to let her know if anything was in her blind spot.

It was quiet, and calm, until the slam-generators hummed to life. The pod began to shimmy and shudder as they hit actual atmosphere, the generators shaping plasma around them to keep the heat at bay.

"Angel-1"

Rhidi felt the steel drag-chute pop away from its holder, furling out and catching the early atmosphere. The pod really began to vibrate and rattle now, slowing itself down in the early stages.

This lasted for what felt like hours, then the pod began to hum again as the auto-rotation fins began to extend out from the pod. The flanges began to buzz as they caught heavier air, and the pod took a hard angle as their landing calculations were updated.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Intel is updating." Sergeant Flores said into their helmets. "We're landing during an enemy push, come out swinging. Hey Dingobaby, can you turn us around so Rhidi and Wheeler are front towards enemy?... Ah great, thanks."

Rhidi's blood began to bubble as bad as her stomach as the pod tilted again, her skin feeling like it was itchy, and on fire. She gripped her MG111 like it was a lifeline, the drop pod humming and buzzing as the blades slowly began to turn.

The whine began, the priming and spinning of the Ascender Engine, and Rhidi bared her teeth; It was this noise that always made her realize how real it all was, how close they were to landing. She would be landing, in combat, in her armor, for the first time since training. The deep, thudding chops of the rotor blades, the keen, growing whine of the Ascender Engine, it made her eyes go wide, her heart to race, her fur to fray and her hackles to raise.

Death was coming, her drop pod the trumpet of its arrival.

The lights turned from red, to amber.

Rhidi swallowed, her mouth dry, tongue thick in her mouth as she began to count.

The warning klaxon barked three times, and Rhidi suddenly felt as if she had to pee.

With a roar that could shake the dead from their graves, the Ascender Engine bellowed to life, causing Rhidi's g-rack to hiss and go to work, dampening the worst of the effects as the pod slammed into the ground.

The bell rang, a rattling, manic death knell that stung the air.

Rhidi's wide, armored boots hit the ground with a thunderous clang that shook her knees.

With a rumble the doors fell to alien ground with a dull whump!, and Rhidi ran forward, swinging her MG111 in front of her. Vehicles were burning everywhere, a cascade of dark smoke and churned metal that pocked the open prairie like blackened sores. Landing ship parts were strewn everywhere, impact drags from their fuselages scoring the soft dirt in huge, smoldering grooves that tore the earth apart like ragged blades through flesh.

There were panicked voices all around behind her, the sounds of other drop pod doors slamming open, the ring and shriek of enemy munitions singing past her helmet, and the rattle of Regs climbing up into, or down from, their stricken crafts. The growing thrummoar from thousands of enemy boots grew slowly in volume, their heels digging into the grass as they pumped their legs, hoping to gain the ground and dispatch their newly arrived foes quickly.

They were everywhere, screaming, shouting orders in an unknown language… Rhidi barely had to bother with the trouble of aiming.

"Hoooiii!" Rhidi screeched, planting her feet before her howling, charging enemies and pulling back on the trigger.

The number tracking her ammo count danced on her visor as she spat out a long line of lead, the heavy 8mm Spandau rounds ripping through the inadequate shielding and armor of her unknown, one eyed foes.

The effect was immediate, the heavy lead core ammunition spinning or ripping them backwards as the rounds made contact. Armor shattered with flashes of yellow light as the shields were immediately overwhelmed, pale blue blood splashing into the air and splattering along soft grass no longer unblemished.

Rhidi kept the hammer down and turned, her control arm whirring angrily as she dragged her line of fire sideways, cascading red tracers along the charging enemy line like an angry kid pissing on ants.

Wheeler came striding up beside her, his steps determined and malicious as he too kept his MG111 breathing fire.

"They're halting, Rhidi." Wheeler said, his voice coming in through her ears. "Caught them flat footed, can you shift your fire left?"

"Shifting." Rhidi said confidently, releasing the trigger to pivot on her heels as if she were completing a left facing manoeuvre. She saw a small clump of the one eyed soldiers running for the cover of a crater, and she pulled her trigger with a snarl.

The red tracers ripped across their backs like a whip on water, their uniforms shredding apart in a fray of rended fabric as chunks of their lighter ablative armor exploded into the air in fragments. Rhidi did not pause, mowing down twenty enemy troopers in under a few seconds.

Rhidi glanced up at her visor, checking her ammo count:

MG111: 76% heat

MG111: 6153/10000rnds

Mount Arm: 100%

"Watch your ammo Wheeler, I'm damn near halfway through my pack." Rhidi called out as the Heavy Onslaught Infantry poured around them both, kneeling and taking up positions to form a firing line.

Wheeler tilted his dagger-helm towards her, still holding down the hammer as he suppressed a group of combatants behind broken engine wreckage. "We'll time our pack reloads, remember that we have an extra pack each on the pod."

"Lay it on them!" Sergeant First Class Bloodmourne roared into her ears, the huge Human striding forward while firing his well-battered rifle from the shoulder. "Drown them! Don't give them time to breathe!"

The Heavy Onslaught Infantry were forming a literal wall of steel, their firing line nothing more than the flash of sunlight on steel and the angry haze of hot weapon barrels. Their enemy, whatever they were, were firing some kind of propelled munition as well that flashed with light as it hit their armor, spattering the air with sparks and leaving a small dent wherever it landed.

Rhidi risked a glance backwards; Three massive drop ships were embedded in the ground or scattered across the torn grass, and bodies were everywhere. Regs were running around, their arms pumping and armored chest plates flashing as they ran to either grab wounded, or rip equipment free of the fallen ship.

Rhidi saw a Reg with an extremely battle scarred breastplate gesturing around himself, seemingly at ease despite the chaos.

"Regs are asking for suits." Sergeant Flores called out into their communications line, the female Human tracing her weapon and firing with even fingered practice. "Rhodil, Troy, get over there and rip that fucking door off, Rhidi, cover them with walking fire."

"On it!" Rhidi responded, leveling her MG111 again as Rhodil the rogue Pwah prince and Troy took off at an accelerated run, churning up the ground like sprinting draft horses.

These moth people, whatever they may be, had constructed their roads on high berms, likely to keep the roads free of water and prevent them from being flooded. Rhidi and the rest of the UAA troopers were down in a large, open prairie likely used for grazing, staring up at the high berm roads.

Their enemy had been running down the berms to try and swamp the Regs, and Rhidi had to wonder if they somehow knew drop pods were coming down. It wouldn't have surprised her, as they were all moving with a practiced tactical acumen. Despite their charge, the one eyed soldiers were now spreading out and finding cover, though more of their kind were swarming over the berm or setting up weapons up on the road.

Rhidi blinked; Those were large weapons, and their barrels looked very mean when pointing her direction.

"Heavy weapons on the berm!" Rhidi called out, hefting her MG111 up into her shoulder proper and spraying lead so it skipped along the road, and tore through anything made of flesh. "Silhouettes on the sky!"

"Shift fire to the berm!" Sergeant Flores howled, and the Human was now moving forward. "On me, 1st pod!"

Rhidi's fellow drop troopers bounded forward, their legs slowly coming to full speed as the line reacted. A command must have gone out over the NCO communications as 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Pod Sections were now coming to full speed, the entire Platoon charging forward to gain an angle on the berm.

Rhidi continued walking sideways, firing in long bursts as targets presented themselves; She traced along the berm to either kill the one-eyes or get them to cower in cover, then ran her stream of fire along multiple defilades. She managed to catch three one eyed soldiers across their chests, and Rhidi bared her fangs as sunlight briefly glowed through their bodies.

Her ear mics picked up the Regs yelling at Rhodil and Troy.

"Take it! Take it to the one with the ears!" A Human was shouting, and she heard the rattle of ammunition.

"Reload incoming, Rhidi." Rhodil said with a calm tone, the actuators of his leg armor slowly growing in volume as Troy ripped the door away with a shriek of tortured steel.

Rhidi slammed down onto her right knee and kept the hammer back, spraying along the berm again as a large crew served automatic weapon started barking at them, causing a drop trooper to stumble backwards and clatter onto the ground.

"Medic inbound." A voice purred over the all-comms, and a female Human came walking from out of nowhere; Her armor was normal, her helmet bright white with a red cross running down the middle of her visor…

… but her mocambre was already sliding out from beneath her palm, dripping with Aloe-8.

Rhidi shuddered in horror as Rhodil came down behind her, the medic stalking after her prey.

"Someone's about to have a very bad day…" Rhodil murmured as he popped the tray release on Rhidi's ammo pack and opened the front cover, linking her old belt with a new one.

Rhidi turned back towards the berm to see not one, but two very angry looking weapon teams turning her direction.

"So are we." Rhidi said with a grimace, turning the shoulder with the gardbrace towards the weapons. "Get small behind me."

Rhodil chuckled at her in response, the ringing song of moving brass never ceasing. "My dear I am a Pwah, even in this armor they cannot see me with you in the way! Almost done."

Rhidi saw the flashes from the weapons discharging and leaned forwards, pulling her MG111 to her chest as the rounds impacted against her a few heartbeats later.

"Shit!" Rhidi barked out as the impact of the rounds nearly carried her backwards, pulling her up from her lean and nearly causing her to bowl over Rhodil.

"I got you!" Rhodil shouted, using one hand to keep Rhidi upright and the other slamming her ammo pack shut. "Troy?!"

Rhidi heard Troy say "God damn it! Just use me!" over their comm-link in an annoyed growl, and after three heartbeats the berm started erupting in huge plumes of soil and ripped apart roadway. She risked a look over her shoulder as her helmet pinned her ears for her, and let out a short laugh.

Holding onto two barrels with his armored hands and hefting the rest on his shoulder armor, Troy was acting as a mount for four M2 heavy machine guns. Each Reg was moving them back and forth, their helmets flashing yellow as they held down the butterfly triggers to give Rhidi come cover.

Cover was a word for it, more to the point that they had reduced both heavy weapon teams to bloody, flesh littered skid marks across the now ruined roadway.

"That's our que." Rhodil said, coming around Rhidi with his weapon raised and firing.

Rhidi came up onto her feet, then glanced at her weapon status:

MG111: 12% heat

MG111: 10000*/10000rnds

Mount Arm: 91%

"That'll do." Rhidi said with a bright smile, then swung her MG111 back out in front of her. She pulled back on the trigger with the bright, bonfire flash of the muzzle brake, her weapon chattering out a maddening buzz as she started walking again.

Behind her more M2s and M260 Boars were opening up, freed from the clutches of their fallen craft, with wounded Regs crawling up to get a little revenge on those who had shot them out of the sky during landing.

Despite the overwhelming firepower, the one eyed assailants were more determined and highly disciplined; More of their own crewserves were opening up from a bushy woodline to their left, while their regular infantry held. Both sides were attempting to hold sway over fire superiority, and it was still coming out to a hard stalemate.

When an enemy munition exploded with a great clap amongst the drop infantry, things were starting to take a turn; It must have been a high angle mortar-like weapon of some kind, the flash bright but very little shrapnel to be found. Whatever did make contact with their armor behaved the same as their munitions, giving off great sparks of light with a concussive force.

Another mortar-like round fell near Rhidi and Rhodil, scratching their armor fiercely and causing them to stumble to their knees. The round may not have had a lot of shrapnel, but it packed a helluva wallop with the pressure wave.

The unit chatter in her ear was constant, everyone reporting in what they were seeing or calling out for targets. A far more authoritative voice cut through them all, one that made Rhidi's helmet perk her ears without her gesture.

"Guidons, Guidons, Iron Rain 6, take that fucking ridge!"

Drop Officer Duluth had actually used the all-command channel in their helmets, his voice broadcasting to every trooper under his command.

For the first time since she had arrived, Rhidi had received her first Company-wide command. Such commands were rare, used only when delegation of commands would cost valuable time, and she had received one on her first combat drop.

The renewed adrenaline rush caused her fur to raise on end all across her body, and she felt a need to… say something.

"Kafya, drop your bags!" Rhidi called out, steeling her voice as she blinked at the release for her tail bag. "Tails out!"

Without another word Rhidi started forward, her bright yellow tail fluttering free and rustling in the wind as she ran. The sun glittered on the exposed metal of her armor as she fired on the move, the entire gunline of Heavy Onslaught Infantry surging forward like a tidal wave of iron, lead, and steel. Pops of color were erupting amongst their ranks as more yellow, brown, pink, blue, red, orange, black, and green Kafyan tails fluttered out into the sunlight.

Their one-eyed enemy, seeing a hulking line of assault armor coming their way, did the logical thing and began throwing smoke grenades as they ran, clambering up the steep slope of the berm in order to escape their executioners. They had assumed that, like in the past, their indirect fire weapons would have had great effect on their enemies… but it seemed they had done little more than rattle a hornet's nest.

The air roared and thundered as weapons discharged, heavy rounds from the M2s sailing over Rhidi's head and rending the air with their ear-splitting cracks.

The long, charging line of armored infantry hit the enemy like a rhino smashing into a safari truck, crushing through the wounded with little regard.

Golden smoke did little to hide the retreat as the drop pod green and steel suits punched through the clouds, weapons throwing hard shadows as The Wild Hunt's 1st Company found themselves at the backs of their quarry.

"Tally ho!" Sergeant Flores bellowed, her armored gauntlet cleaving straight through a wounded combatant's head and leaving a shattered stump in its wake.

Her warcry was answered in kind by her entire Pod Section, Rhidi's voice roaring as she pumped her armored legs and came up onto the crest of the berm road; If she had thought they were thick on her side, they were swarming on this side of the berm.

"What the hell is that?!" Rhidi called, pointing to something as it flashed with piercing white light, so bright that her visor dimmed itself for a moment.

Where the flash once was, there were now a neat stack of rather surprised looking one eyed soldiers, nearly an entire Battalion sized element.

Rhidi didn't pause as she swung her MG111 up into her shoulder, watching her aiming reticle glitter across her visor and show her that the weapon was sitting dead center of the entire formation. She planted her feet in a bracing stance and pulled back on the trigger, the thrumming thunder-wave that was the MG111's percussion cloud of noise splitting the air once again, the muzzle brake throwing the dust from the road out around her feet.

Glittering, bolt-scarred brass sang and tumbled along green alien grass, the tall stalks bending away from Rhidi as if giving way to her very aura.

Rhidi held down the trigger until her MG111 let out a series of trilling beeps, the small cage on the side of the forward heat shield housing clicking open. A glowing, red hot barrel was spat out from it the same time her armor whirred open and exposed her extras, pushing out a fresh barrel into Rhidi's hands.

With practiced ease Rhidi slammed the barrel into the receiver cage and the MG111 closed itself, locking the barrel into place with a soft, affirmative beep.

When she glanced back up, the entire Battalion sized element had been reduced to mere scattered Platoons that were now hauling ass across the vast, open field of grass, attempting to make the cover of the treeline some hundred yards away.

The cresting mass of Heavy Onslaught Infantry did not share their optimism.

Standing tall against a blue sky, Humans, Pwah, Lilgara, and Kafya opened fire, their faces hidden and replaced by the eery placidness of their helmet visors. Pale blue blood sprayed freely from yellow meat as bodies were torn apart by 30-06 Oakley and 8mm Spandau rounds, their fire accurate, effective, and unrelenting.

"It's a massacre!" Alias shouted as he came up beside Rhidi, firing his rifle in short bursts as he cleaned out a small mortar hole of its crew.

Shasta strode up beside Rhidi, his hood flared as far as it could be within its armored hood. "Do not become complacent! Thisss is merely the prelude!"

Rhidi came down onto a knee again, holding her MG111 down at her side, and instead used her targeting laser to slowly drag her line of fire from side to side, like a scythe through grass. "They're coming out of some flashing thing!"

"Teleportation via beacon." Sergeant Flores replied, striding up behind the trio while reloading. "They're getting troops from a garrison ship down to the surface with some kind of tech we don't know about yet, and there is a ship battle happening above us."

Rhidi glanced up, squinting. "Are we winning?!"

"We were, until six more of their boats showed up. They've retreated back around to the other side of the planet." Sergeant Flores said. "Resupply ships are coming in as soon as we fortify this berm."

Rhidi let go of the trigger, her visor flashing with a ceasefire warning as she turned to her NCO. "Are we alright up there?"

"Minor damage, but their ships are able to do some kind of micro-skip." Sergeant Flores said with a shrug of her shoulder, her ear filling with the reports of the enemy fleeing into the woodline. "They attack us above the same time they do below, but they are not able to handle the Moose. Command isn't going to send down tenders to grab our pods until those ships are destroyed or gone, so we'll be putting on our armor the old fashion way."

Imridit sidled up alongside Alias, shaking her head as her pink tail swayed behind her. "Despite our evolution, we shall molt like the crab."

"Skrimp warriors we shall be." Oin piped up, coming up beside Shasta as she looked around. "Fucking slaughter this was, I was getting a little worried when the mortars started coming down."

Rhidi saw that the field still held a lot of movement, mostly the crawlings of the wounded still trying to find cover. "So… do we go and get their wounded?"

"Get the wounded? Of those who steal other races?" Sergeant Flores asked, then let out a harsh laugh. "No no, my little Kafya, you're gonna see how Humans treat those who deal in flesh. Lay down."

Rhidi looked up at Sergeant Flores, confused, but saw that the entire Company was laying down along the roadway, so she did too along with Alias and Shasta. There were reports of gunfire behind them, and Rhidi slowly turned towards Alias.

"... Are they?" She asked, jerking a thumb over her shoulder as her other hand aligned her MG111 to lay along her side.

Alias nodded. "No quarter for slavers, it seems."

"I find myssself struggling to find tears for them." Shasta muttered, looking over his shoulder. "Normally even the IDC would offer quarter to any combatant, but thisss battle is going by Human rules."

Oin shrugged, her black tail wagging behind her. "I'm with Shasta, if these bastards wanted mercy, they shouldn't ask for it after kidnapping a lower-tech race from their home planet."

"Same." Imridit murmured, her pink tail wagging as well. "I do not believe the galaxy will miss whoever these scumbags a-oh! A timer!"

Rhidi had the same numbers pop onto her visor, an artillery impact countdown. She looked over to Alias. "Well, this should be fun."

"Not for them." Alias said, resting his helmet on the palm of his armored gauntlet.

Rhidi glanced up at the sky, her helmet catching the foreign sun with a shimmer, and her display actually showed her where the rounds were with little red lines.

There were many, many, red lines.

"I believe the Humans took this personally." Rhidi said with a hidden blanche of the face, then tilted her helmet back down when the timer hit five seconds.

The odd calm stood for a few more heartbeats before the prairie ahead of them exploded.

Not merely a plume of dirt or a flash of light, but the entire prairie went airborne, the wounded and dead of their enemies aerosolized as the rapid claps of high explosive space-to-ground rounds took the soil down all the way to the clay.

The rapid bombardment lasted for ten seconds, shrapnel whizzing and zinging through the air the entire time as the line of drop infantry watched from their flat positions on the berm road.

When the wind had carried the last of the dust away… there was nothing.

Nothing was there at all to mark the passing of their one-eyed combatants.

Just exposed dirt, craters, and the hush of the distant trees.

"Fucking hell…" Rhidi laughed out, coming up onto a knee. "There's nothing left!"

Oin looked over at Shasta, nodding her head towards the now newly plowed and scraped dirt lot that used to be a prairie. "Remind me to keep my life on the straight and narrow around Humans, will you?"

"Duly noted for the both of usss…" Shasta replied, his smile audible in his voice.