> A Mercenary's Venture > by The Fateweaver > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter One > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was so simple for something that could end all life as we knew it. Board the space station, kill everyone on board, deactivate the laser and head back to Earth for a beer. Simple yet effective. The station in question was in full view from the window of my VTOL gunship’s viewport. Second flew by as I maneuvered the ship closer to the station. In preparation of a violent response, I flipped a switch on the dashboard and activated the kinetic barriers. The station’s anti-air defenses came to life, setting their sights on my gunship. I wasn't worried. My ship was outfitted with high-grade kinetic repulsor shields to withstand such things. The cannons opened fire, sending forth a multitude of streaks of bolts. Just as the ship was going to be battered with cannon fire, the bolts halted and disappeared as a translucent blue honeycomb field sprung up into existence around my ship. More bolts pounded against the protective shield and showed no sign of stopping. I flipped a few switches on the dashboard, arming the missile salvos to return fire. The salvos gave a high-pitched whine as they heated up. I guided the ship’s targeting system and, while being buffeted with gunfire, squeezed the trigger on the joystick. Several missiles streaked out from the ship’s sides and flew toward the first flak cannon. The missiles struck their target and reduced the cannon to scrap metal. Switching on more switches, I simultaneously armed the ship’s nose cannon and disarmed the salvos. I held onto the trigger this time, guiding the system towards the two remaining flak cannons and unleashing automatic death up them. The cannons exploded and their internal hardware floated off into space. I smiled internally and rapped my fist against the metal blast door separating the cockpit from the rest of the aircraft. “Station countermeasures are neutralized, get ready.” I said. Stowed away behind me were the rest of my squad, the Strike Force Heroes. There was Jyn, our Korean marksman, Nathan, the Canadian engineer and Tower, the big guy. I’m the squad’s pilot, Rookie. I know it seems a little ‘off’ for an experienced pilot, but the name just kinda stuck when I had joined the Heroes. With the station’s automated defenses destroyed, I pushed the joystick forward and guided the craft toward the hangar bay. There was no way in hell that the militia was going to just let us waltz in and shut down the orbital annihilation laser. We were more than happy to oblige them with responses of automatic gunfire. The hangar bay door was basically a large gap in the top of the station with an airtight energy field spanning the gap. Revolutionary energy fields, such as the one I was about to pass through, allowed vehicles and personnel to pass by, from the inside, without suddenly dropping dead from asphyxiation. I land the gunship inside the hangar and popped the exterior doors open with the flick of a switch. Although it was barely noticeable, I felt a small jolt indicating the departure of my squad. I stood up from the seat and wrenched open the cockpit door, retrieving a Micro M52 SMG from the rack on the wall. The weapon wasn't something you’d see in a full-blown skirmish, but it got the job done for non-standard military personnel. It was lightweight, compact and held enough ammunition in its three-quarter circle magazine. It was even outfitted with a holographic sight for those that needed accuracy with the rate of fire. Joining the squad at the door that led inside the station, I waited for Nathan to finish hacking the door so we could head inside and save the world. Again. Tower stood menacingly by the door, a pump-action EX-41 ‘China Lake’ grenade launcher clutched in his hands. Jyn waited by him, holding an equally powerful L96A1 bolt-action sniper rifle. The panel that Nathan was working with suddenly sparked, causing the locked door to slide open. Bullets streaked past as I dropped into a crouch, already gazing down the holographic sight of my weapon. Catching sight of the defenders, I gunned down two in response. Several grenades from Tower’s grenade launcher arced down the hallway and rolled into the feet of unsuspecting soldiers, promptly exploding and sending a bloody mist everywhere. Nathan and Tower moved up and secured the hallway, leaving Jyn and I to secure the way we came in. Something was bugging me badly. Those uniforms looked strangely familiar. I crouched down beside a soldier that had his legs blown off. The black and orange pattern; where had I seen that before? Then, the realization dawned on me: this was GlobeX. “It’s GlobeX, they’re back,” I shouted in disbelief, ripping off the soldier’s mask and revealing a cold, emotionless face. “The clones are back!” “WHAT?!?” Nathan snapped, rushing over to confirm it himself. “The Rook’s right! It’s all there, the uniform and everything,” Jyn commented, looking at my discovery from over my shoulder. BUT HOW? I OBLITERATED THAT RAT-BASTARD JUST A FEW MONTHS AGO! More gunfire reached my ears. I looked up and spotted Tower fending off more GlobeX troopers. Shaking myself out of my disbelief, I joined him with my submachine gun dispensing death at nine-hundred rounds a minute. Alright, shocking revelation aside, we still had a job to do. We pressed on through the station, crushing any and all defenders as we cleared the place out. I had abandoned my submachine gun when it had clicked empty, it was only meant to be used as emergency ordnance anyway, and seized a GlobeX soldier’s fallen HC-24C AR and several magazines corresponding to the weapon off of his corpse. I switched the weapon’s mode from Auto to Burst and covered the squad’s tail as we advanced into the control room. “Cover me, I’ll have this thing shut down in a few minutes,” Nathan said, shouldering his rifle and focusing on the board of technical equipment. Several GlobeX troopers rushed in at that moment, the first wave cut down by the initial volley of bullets and grenades dispensed by Tower, Jyn and I. A second wave followed, stumbling over their dead comrades and being promptly disposed of. The bodies began to pile up, most of them slumped over dead in the doorway and hindering their live counterparts’ movement. Just as more arrived, my gun gave three resounding clicks. “Cover me, I’m reloading!” I called out, taking out the empty magazine, retrieving another from my belt and slapping it into place in the stock. More and more soldiers fell to our weapons as time went on, weapons falling short of their deceased owners. I glanced back at Nathan for a few moments. He was still typing furiously on the supercomputer’s keyboard. “Alright…” He muttered. “Got it!” “ORBITAL LASER IS NOW OFFLINE.” The computer chimed in a monotone female voice. “Alright, fall back and regroup at the ship. Rookie, here,” I turned around in time to catch several detonation charges. “You can do the honours. Meet us back at the ship when you’re done.” “Affirmative,” I said, shouldering my rifle and started to walk down the hallway leading to the laser itself while my squad headed back to the gunship. The journey was relatively silent. In films or video games, this would probably be the point where one of the characters comments about how it’s too quiet. The room that the laser was housed in wasn't spectacular, it was just the body of the laser jutting down from the floor. I placed the charges on the four sides of the device and armed them, followed by a strangely familiar voice echoing into the room. “Hello, Rookie. It’s been a long time.” I turned around and spotted the GlobeX leader, alive and well, standing at the doorway of yet another hall, smiling evilly. He had one of those fancy vibro-weapons in his hand. If he wanted a fight, the bastard’s gonna get one. A long, slender energy blade extended from the underside of my right gauntlet, glowing a bright orange colour. I could practically feel the heat coming off of it. “I’ve killed you twice before,” I taunted. “I can do it again.” “We’ll see about that,” He shot back, glaring at me. I lunged at him like a mad bull, ready to tear flesh from bone. Metal met hot energy as our blades clashed against each other. My fist slammed into his stomach, winding him temporarily and breaking the stalemate we had. I swung wide with my blade, managing to connect this time. The energy blade sliced into his flesh and drew blood, instantly cauterizing itself from the blade’s searing heat. The fight was rather one-sided. The man I had killed twice over had no more skill with a blade than a novice. By the time I was done, he was dead on the floor with lots of scolding stab wounds on his arms and one deep in his throat. The blade on my wrist dissolved from sight. I turned around and saw a green beam rapidly approaching me. It slammed into me before I could react and threw me forcefully into a wall. I felt like I was being cooked alive inside of my armour. The pain halted after a few seconds as I stood up, quickly ripping out my handgun from the holster on my chest and firing all twelve rounds blindly down the hallway. Six rounds streaked by the foe, pinging off the wall in the other room while the other six tore through his chest. I limped over to the man, dropping my pistol’s empty magazine onto the floor. I recognized him as the scientist from Hong Kong. I was furious. He was the one behind the reactivation of the clones the whole time? I slapped another magazine into my handgun and stumbled back over to the laser emitter. “Rookie, what’s taking so long?” A voice spoke up on my helmet’s internal comlink. It was Nathan. “I’m fine, just ran into a little trouble is all. The charges are set and I’m coming back to the ship now,” I responded, double-checking the explosive charges. I began to walk off when something struck my back and caused me to stumble forward. I whirled on the attacker and found the totally-not-dead scientist wielding a razor-sharp katana. He was swinging the thing like a madman and stabbed the blade into one of the charges in an effort to decapitate me. The charge beeped frantically in response. I scrambled away to avoid the ensuing explosion, but the explosive force of four concentrated demolition charges caught up with me and threw me into a wall. I was desperately flailing my free arm to stop from slamming into the thick slab of metal, but I was already knocked unconscious mere milliseconds after. *** When I awoke, my vision was plastered with grass. I came to the conclusion that I was slumped on the ground and began to stand. My bones creaked and dull pains throbbed all over my body as I got up. That explosion did a number on me, it seemed. My gaze lingered on my armour for a moment, there were no major damages just some minor scorching on the plating. I looked around, finding myself in a forest clearing. The trees looked like they wanted to eat me, what with the creepy faces on the trunks and all. Running water brought my attention to the river on the far side of the clearing. I walked over to the river and holstered my handgun, retrieving my almost empty canteen from my utility belt. I filled the canteen with fresh water and downed it feverishly within a few seconds, after I had removed my helmet, of course. I screwed the cap back on and returned it to my belt, wondering how an exploding laser array could support teleportation. Sure, it wasn’t unheard of. That incident with one of the UEDF military cruiser’s hyper drive malfunctioning and teleporting half the ship to oblivion proved that. I zoned out for the time being, idly staring at my reflection in the river with it meeting my gaze with the familiar orange V-shaped visor on my helmet. Something in the vicinity gave a fierce roar. I shot up and turned on my heel, grabbing my rifle from my back. I gazed down the holo-sight and sighted my target. A large mutation of scorpion, lion and avian was the perpetrator. I quickly wracked my mind on the subject, I had seen that thing somewhere before. Maybe in a extranet page on ancient myths or something. I flicked the fire mode lever to Auto and let loose a barrage of lead. The creature didn’t seem to flinch apart from the twenty-something bullet wounds in its hide. Most goons would’ve dropped dead by the time the fifth bullet hit them, but it seemed this thing was made of tougher stuff. Maybe tear gas? No, that was better for crowd control. I slapped another magazine into my weapon and, discarding the empty one, poured another volley of shots into the creature in order to suppress it. Then it hit me. Napalm grenades would burn through the beast’s thick hide and incinerate it to a crisp with the drawback of possibly setting the whole forest on fire if it thrashed. I retrieved a napalm grenade from my belt and lobbed it toward the beast. A single flame-like streak trailed behind the grenade as it flew through the air. It smashed against the creature’s hide, splitting the fragile glass and instantly setting it ablaze. It roared and wailed as the napalm burnt through its flesh and agony tore through its body. I watched the creature thrash about, desperately trying to extinguish the flames engulfing its body and only managed to make it worse. It seemed less likely that it was going to tear me apart. Survival of the fittest, right? Somebody hits you and you have initiative to hit back twice as hard. In this case, ‘twice as hard’ counted as two magazines worth of ammunition and full-body incineration. I continued to watch until the beast stopped moving. Cautiously, I walked up to the creature and put a bullet between its eyes to make sure it was dead. I wasn’t sorry, it had tried to attack me first. As the old saying went, “If you don’t draw first, you don’t get to draw at all.” I passed by its corpse and began to follow a barely visible gravel path through the forest, hoping it would lead me out of here. Minutes bled together and felt like hours spent wandering an endless trail. Then I heard a reassuring sign. Voices. People. Civilisation. My face lit up at the thought of this. “Twilight, remind me why we’re in the Everfree Forest again,” A raspy, tomboyish said. “Because, Dash, I heard thunder coming from the Everfree and it isn’t thunderstorm season,” Another female voice, presumably this ‘Twilight’ character, addressed ‘Dash’. “Somepony may be hurt.” Honestly, the names were weird. The only reasoning I could come up for them was that they were UEDF codenames for those particular officers. Infantry were issued codenames as well, so they might be soldiers. I remembered my own ‘name’ I used back when I was in the UEDF before I got court-martialled all those years ago: ‘SEPTEMBER’. Also, thunder? Nobody in the UEDF can mistake gunfire for thunder, even those green as grass types who can’t even properly handle their rifles. They couldn’t be GlobeX either. GlobeX troopers were just mindless clones controlled from a satellite, incapable of sentient thought and were only cloned from a male’s DNA. So that only ruled it down to civilians, close-minded ones at that if they hadn’t heard gunfire before. Hopefully they would know a discharged UEDF pilot when they saw one. “Ah still don’t know ‘bout this, Twi. Being in here isn’t exactly a walk in the park,” Yet another female voice added, this one carrying an accent that would belong to one who had spent most their life in Texas. “Ah-” The voice stopped, whatever for I wouldn’t know. I seemed I had zoned out in my journey, because I saw six small multicoloured equines standing in front of me, their mouths agape. I would’ve returned the gesture, but the helmet prevented me from acting out facial expressions. Instead, I winged it and started at them, my unnerving V-shaped visor probably gazing into their very souls. Never before had I seen something this strange before, besides the carnivorous plants that one time. Two of them had horns, two had wings and the remaining two had none extra appendages I was aware of. My mind darted back to the extranet (New World Internet) pages on ancient mythological creatures, pegasi and unicorns among them. The original Pegasus was born of Poseidon disguised as a horse and the mortal form of Medusa the Gorgon when Perseus decapitated her. And unicorns were supposedly capable of magic, and the closest thing I’d seen to magic was the mass manipulation of Elementals. Even for mythical creatures, they were still too colourful to be realistic. One of the Pegasi, which had cyan fur, even had a seemingly tie-dyed mane and tail to match a rainbow! “What in tarnation is that?” An orange equine with a blonde mane and a Stetson hat, something typical of Old and New World Texans, said, eyeing me as if I was the strange one here. IT FUCKING TALKED! A HORSE TALKED! “I don’t know, but it looks p-pretty scary…” The yellow Pegasus said quietly, her voice stuttering as she tried to hide behind her long pink mane. “OOH! This calls for a ‘Meeting-A-New-Alien, Please-Don’t-Eat-Us’ party!” Said the pink one excitedly, bouncing around on her hooves. “What do ya think it is, Twilight?” The cyan one asked curiously to a purple unicorn I suspected was Twilight, all the while shooting me a dangerous look and hovering just above the group. “I … don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it.” The purple one replied, bearing a studious look. “It looks simply ghastly!” Exclaimed a white unicorn with a purple mane, her accent reminding me of British people. She probably never knew what combat armour was before she saw me a few seconds ago. “Grey and orange don’t go together!” I ignored the comment about my armour and simply said, “You’re talking equines. Equines aren't sentient enough to possess speech and thought. Then again, I was just attacked by a beast that looked like it waddled out of a vat of radioactive waste not long ago.”