The desert was hot as the platoon trekked across the burning sands. They were sent to a small village, Boarador, in order to investigate sightings of a 'giant, metal creature not of this world.' They hadn't been traveling for long, but the heat had been slowly sapping at their energy since they ran out of water.
"You really believe there's something there, Quick Scope?" piped up one of the soldiers, Platoon Sergeant Red Dot, from the middle of the group. "Are you sure this isn't going to be for nothing?" This received a quick snap from the man at the front, Platoon Leader Quick Scope.
"Whether it's there or not, we're going," he said. "If it's not there, then we can all go home. If it is, then we blow it to kingdom come and go home. Either way, our job's going to be finished. I have a nephew waiting for me."
"You have a nephew?" asked another soldier, Double Barrel.
"Sure do," Quick Scope said. He then took one of his hands off his gun, leaving it pointed at the ground, and pulled out a picture of a teen from his left breast pocket. The kid pictured had tan skin – much like the man holding it – with purple hair covered by a grey beanie. He had an orange jacket over a green an white striped shirt and a pair of grey jeans to finish it all off.
"That him?" Red Dot asked.
"Mhmm."
"He kinda looks like one of the friends of my cousin, Flash," Red Dot commented as he checked the sights on his grenade launcher.
"Flash? Like, Flash Sentry, leader of the school band?"
Red Dot perked up. "How the hell did you know that?"
Quick Scope put the picture back in his breast pocket as they started up a mound of sand. "Minuteman's good friends with him."
"Wow," said Double Barrel, "small world, innit?"
As the group reached the top of the hill, Quick Scope said, "It just got a bit smaller..."
On the other side of the hill was their destination: the rundown village of Boarador. What looked like half of the village was hustling and bustling around in market, their maroon skins looking almost like one. Some buildings were cracked from the heat drying the moisture in the brick, and there were more than a few buildings that were already partly destroyed. Nearby stood a rusted radio tower, its job having been relieved ages ago.
"C'mon, men," Quick Scope said as he started down the dune. "We have a job to do."
However, the group was stopped as the radio tower toppled over in front of them, kicking up a huge cloud of sand. The men coughed as the dust started to settle, with Quick Scope ending up facing away from the village.
"Alright," he said with a weak voice, "everyone okay?" There was a jumble of yeses, then Quick Scope said, "Alright, now let's just move on with... what's up with you guys?"
He had looked up to find his whole platoon aiming their weapons in his general direction. "Sir!" Double Barrel shouted out. "It's right behind you!"
Quick Scope jumped away from where he was previously standing in time to see a giant mechanical tail of sorts stab the air where his head previously was before it disappeared beneath the ground. "What in the holy hell was that?" he screamed before a giant scorpion-like being jumped out of the desert right in the middle of the platoon.
"Get down to the village!" Red Dot yelled at the remaining troops, who ran haphazardly down to Boarador. At the same time, Boaradorian men were coming out of their own homes, carrying weapons of their own.
"C'mon, men, use everything you've got!" Quick Scope yelled. "Red Dot, Double Barrel, with me!" The grey and charcoal men, respectively, ran behind the tan one to a destroyed wall. After taking cover behind it, Quick Scope peek out to see what he was facing.
The creature looked like a massive, mechanical scorpion with high-tech weapons, shown after a silo of missiles fired from the right claw and a hail of bullets from the left. Both claws looked like miniature turbine engines, while the body looked like a bigger one.
"What're we dealing with here?" Red Dot shouted, looking around the other corner with his grenade launcher.
"It's a machine of sorts, I think!" Quick Scope replied. "Honestly, I have no idea what the eff this is!" he shouted as he fired his assault rifle at the machine.
"The bullets aren't doing a damn thing!" Red Dot shouted.
"It's metal, innit?" yelled Double Barrel. "Your sabot rounds should melt through the sucker!"
"Good idea!" Red Dot yelled back, as he ducked out of cover and fired at the scorpion. As the rounds hit, the machine flailed around in pain. One of the rounds hit its tail, severing it from the rest of the body. The scorpion then dug underneath the sand, running from battle.
"This is Platoon Leader Quick Scope," said the leader into a radio. "We're requesting immediate evac."
"Did you complete your mission, Quick Scope?" the radio spoke back.
"Well, sir, I really don't know what we found. All I can say is that it's hurt by our sabot rounds. Send some down here for the village, we're pulling out."
"How many casualties sustained?"
"I'm not sure." Quick Scope turned around to Red Dot. "What's out casualties?"
"Uh…" Red Dot said as he counted the survivors. "Twenty-one, sir."
Quick Scope relayed that into his radio before hearing from the other side of the wall, "Take that, you sonuvabitch!" The two looked out to see Double Barrel holding the piece of the tail in his hands, far away from him. "You think we should take this thing back?" he asked.
"Make that twenty," Red Dot muttered.
"Let's just get home first," Quick Scope said as a helicopter flew overhead and lowered itself to the ground to pick up the three survivors.