Thunder soared across the sky of the planet below, the huge sheets of light easily visible from space. It was a night-time of torment, the atmosphere broiling and screaming into the void of space as yet another huge shaft of light plunged into the atmosphere, a vortex shearing through the clouds as powerful forces tore at everything in its path, lighting blasting outwards in a display on anguish and pain.
The planetary bombardment of Planet IV in the A2-V27 had begun earlier that day and from his position in the docking bay, Field Commander Saul Torash watched as the relentless fire of the orbiting naval vessels scythed the nights sky.
He could almost hear the planet screaming.
"Alpha-Seven" The hollow voice of the ships Capsuleer pilot echoed in his ears.
"Your target is the command bunker, below the southern mountains on the primary land mass. You launch in 60 seconds, priority is Intel - get everything you can."
That voice always made him shiver, it was a soulless and course voice and despite its assurances it was completely unforgiving. He turned to face the three burly men in the shuttle with him, Cyberknights and some of the best soldiers in the Royal Khanid Navy, let alone this side of the cluster and more importantly than that, his friends.
"Launch in 3...2...1.... Fire”
From his armoured drop shuttle the force of the launch crushed him against the seat, the quad thrusters firing deep from the belly of the Mothership RKNS Shadow of Glory and slinging them into space, bound for the surface.
“So we land, blast out a few Blooders and nick a few numbers and get home before tea, drinks on the one who bags the most.” The voice of Juan “Duke” Fren sounded in his helmet mike. The biggest member of the group, Duke was the heavy weapons specialist.
“Bets on that Duke comes second again.” Everyone chuckles at that, Duke almost always came second, Saul usually had that one.
“Don't be hard on Duke, Spike just because your fingers are lighter than his.” replied Saul to Lukas “Spike” Akarmanil, the teams tech specialist.
“Hey, I had NOTHING to do with the Admiral's badges, she just got drunk and left them on my table”
“Bullshit Spike, you slept with the Admiral and where damned lucky not to get kicked out, its only because Boss saved your ass your still here.”
Saul laughed a little at that, Moran “Blaze” Dirsch had made the last comment and was almost always the buzz-kill for the other two, but when he was the teams medic you tended not to make much of a mention about it.
“Ok everyone, settle down, remember we have a job to do and we are being counted on to knock out central command so our friends up north have a chance of getting through.”
The mood instantly calmed, these four had worked together for nearly a standard year – and in a line of work as lethal as this, they had become known as the fleets Go-To men for hard problems.
Although Saul had always maintained that it was more luck than anything.
He gazed outside the transparent window in front of them as a final red flash seared past into the ground then suddenly went silent, he looked back to the rest of his men, his friends and nodded.
They all gave a single nod in response, and as the shuttle hit the atmosphere and speared through the cloud layer, the armour plating burning up from the heat of re-entry.
Screaming across the night sky like a demon Saul open his command console and opened the rear doors and silently one by one each of his team got up and silently leap out, standing himself as Duke clapped him on the shoulder and leap from the descending shuttle before he followed, spreading his arms and leaning forward into a head-first dive into the darkness.
--------------------------------------------------
They landed like birds of prey, silently and swiftly the specialised suits deployed a combination kite/wing system to bring them swiftly and accurately to their destination.
Saul landed hard, grunting from the force of the impact and forcing a bit of wind out of him, it took him a moment to catch his breath and look around, the dim light instantly amplified by his suits visor.
“Sound off.”
“Duke.”
“Spike”
“Blaze”
Satisfied, Saul raised his hand slightly and motioned forward towards the bunker entrance hidden in the trees they found themselves in, they moved forward stealthily with the suits shimmering and almost vanishing into the night. The advanced nanite composites and active camouflage systems had recently been incorporated from a design donated from sources unknown, but rumour had it the legendary Mashtori had, had a hand in its development.
It took ten more precious minutes to make their way to the staging point, the heavily guarded bunker had so far escaped the orbital fire, but not by much as Saul could see the fires burning over the horizon, orange mixing with liquid white fire from the skies as thunder and lighting surged overhead.
Saul hunkered down in what looked like an old farm house, sheltering their forms from any scanners.
“Duke, you and Spike have the turrets and sensors, Blaze and I have the guards.”
All three men nodded.
“Spike, Intel says these are amp'd sensors, go for multispec.”
“Got it Boss.”
Saul took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“Nobody die on me now, we get in, shut them down and leave.”
“Spike still owes me from the other week and Blaze it too much of a bastard to die.” remarked Duke, Blaze simply shook his head and gave Duke his middle finger salute.
Saul smirked slightly inside his helmet, they where all so familiar with each other that the tension of an impending attack on an enemy fortress didn't interrupt them never ceased to amaze him.
The burst of electromagnetic energy was all that most of the Blood Raider guards saw before Duke appeared from the shadow with a lethal stream of high-energy rounds spewing from his hybrid assault Carbine.
Motion from behind Duke prompted Saul to smoothly lift and aim his precision rifle and softly caress the trigger, a flash of white as the pulse laser scored single red hole in the forehead of the Blooder.
“Clear.”
“Clear.” two replies.
A sonic thud barraged his ears from deeper into the woods.
“Clear.” the third reply.
Raising one hand and flicking his two fingers twice towards the door the team assembled around the large metal door, Saul nodded at Duke who calmly placed a shaped charge on the door and stepped clear.
The blast was so powerful that the resulting hole was large enough for the entire squad to pass through, scything through the immediate rooms with only a couple of retorts from the assault carbines they moved like angels of death through the long corridors, encountering only pockets of resistance here and there.
“Boss, its getting quieter and quieter, they are setting up in the bunker, bet you anything.”
“I know Spike.”
Saul barely got his reply out before a beam of laser fire tore into his right shoulder, spinning him around and putting him into the wall, his vision dimmed slightly and spots of red appeared in front of his eyes.
“Sniper!” Duke's cry sent the team scattering for cover.
Saul felt himself being dragged behind something before the entire corridor was engulfed by the sound and fire of Duke's light-machine gun, blasting huge chunks out of walls and doors from the anti-matter rounds.
As he came to Blaze was there injecting something in the layer between the suits armour
.
“You'll be ok Boss, it didn't go all the way through.” Blaze's voice was like ice, calm and steady.
Another single beam speared through cover not far from where Duke had hidden
.
“Sniper is still active, repeat sniper's not F***in' dead yet.” The tension in Spike's voice was evident, but not of concern yet. Saul took a breath and hoisted himself up off Blaze's shoulder.
“I got this bastard.” Saul rasped.
Reaching down to his belt Saul grabbed a couple of grenades and attached them to the under barrel launcher, pointing the rifle round cover he pulled the trigger and was rewarded by a soft thud and a split second after that a burst of white noise and light, standing and reloading in one smooth motion his helmet instantly picked up the sniper at the far end of the corridor, still disorientated from the blast.
He didn't even allow himself the half-second to indulge the thought of revenge, it was just Load. Aim. Fire. He didn't miss.
“Lets go, Bunker should just be around the corner.”
There was a momentary pause before the confirmations sounded in his ear, but they knew better than to question Saul if he chose to simply keep moving, the door to the command bunker was a large slab of what looked to be reused battleship armour plating easily 1600mm thick.
“Ok, Spike get us in quietly, Blaze gas through the door as soon as its wide enough, Duke and I will cover you.”
It didn't take Spike long to bypass the initial security and the doors opened a sliver, just wide enough to poke through, Saul’s arms and legs tensed as Blaze threw the gas bomb inside, a cry from inside was all they got before spear of light punched through the hole and Saul instinctively recoiled and pulled his rifle to his chest, so much for quiet he thought.
“On my mark, go for breach.”
Saul took a steadying breath, pushed the pain from his shoulder out of his mind and focused on what lay beyond they door.
“Three... Two... One... MARK!”
The doors slid open and the four men spun through the opening into a hail of laser fire, carving everything in its path, Duke took two blasts to the chest and fell into cover before Blaze dived in beside him, running at full pelt Saul dived and slid legs first into the cover of a console, a dark form rising into his sights and was greeted with line of laser fire from his chest up, the body fell instantly.
“Duke's down, repeat Duke is do-” Blaze's voice was cut off by the thrum of his rifle.
“Spike, on me flank left.” Saul was thinking fast, he just had to hope it was fast enough.
A tap on his good shoulder let him know Spike was with him, he stood and started to blast loosely towards the hostiles, sending them scurrying for cover as Spike dived forward and started to open up on the Blooders, they advanced while firing continually and driving the Blooders into a corner.
The advantage of laser rifles, thought Saul, was they never really needed to reload.
A stream of liquid fire from his right side scored some light hits on his back, prompting him to swing around and pump a lone Blooder full of return fire.
A loud and brutal chain of explosions nearby knocked Saul from his feet and against a console, his hurt shoulder being thrust against the corner, unable to hold back a scream of pain he clutched at it and dropped his rifle, darkness smothered him.
He didn't know how long it was dark, but when he came to he was breathing heavily, franticly he fumbled to regain his poise and grab his holstered heavy calibre pistol as an unfamiliar form came round the corner and spotted Saul, the figure slowly raised its weapon and its owner removed its helmet, he could see the snarl on the face of the Raider.
“Think you're so smart eh, think that us Raiders are easy prey? I am of a mind to send you back to your masters in several body bags” The voice of the Raider was raspy and oozed menace.
As the Raider raised the rifle and aimed it square between Saul's eyes he resigned himself to death and failure and closed his eyes.
He waited for a second before the was a wet smacking sound and the feeling of warmth running down his neck.
“Raiders, always over dramatic – its their cardinal curse I swear to the Lord.” Duke's deep voice resounded in his ear, it couldn't have sounded better.
“Where's Spike?” Through the dim he could see Duke frown.
“He got hit hard, Blaze is checking him up now but we gotta go, this shit-hole is clear and extraction is in fifteen.”
Shaking himself slightly he scrambled to get up, throwing off Duke's helping hand with a dazed stupor.
“Ok, you and Blaze get Spike, I'll finish up here and then we are getting off this rock.”
Duke didn't see Saul give the dead Raider a prayer for the deceased.
It took Saul five minutes to hack and download the mainframe to his suits computer, whatever the Admirals wanted had better be there Saul thought bitterly.
The trip to the entrance of the facility was uneventful, as they neared the entrance Saul's comm blared in his ear.
“Commander, scans indicate mission successful, extract ASAP, Raider reinforcements inbound from Delve, ETA Ten minutes.”
Saul barely gave the hollow voice a response.
It took Saul and his team seven minutes to get to the extraction point, a team of medics and commando's where waiting for them, Saul didn't hear anything they said as he was seated opposite Duke, both of them simply staring at each other as medics franticly worked around them.
He nodded once, Duke did the same.
------------------------------------------------
“Commander, you can come in now.” The warm voice of the Admiral wafted into his ears.
“Thank you Admiral Sigis.” Saul's voice was tinged with steel, this wasn't where he wanted to be, with two men hurt and one critical the Admiral had better have a damn good reason for dragging him here.
The Admiral gestured towards a seat opposite her desk, she placed her fingers together and rested her elbows on the table.
“How are your men?”
“I'm unsure at the moment, one is critical but the other two are doing ok from what I understand.”
“Our thoughts and prayers are with them, your successful assault saved the lives of thousands today.” Her smile definitely made it seem genuine.
Saul nodded slightly “Thank you Ma'am, but I have to ask, is there a reason you wanted me here?”
The Admiral paused slightly and nodded, she pushed a datapad forward towards him.
“What’s this?” Saul’s brow furrowed as he picked up the datapad
“The reason we went down there.” Saul shook his head, and threw the pad down like it was a snake.
“We found him Saul and he is yours if you want him, we owe you that much.”
Saul’s eyes burned in their sockets, he looked up to the Admiral and pursed his lips together firmly, standing and saluting her with a sharp nod, the Admiral saluted in return before Saul turned and walked out.
The pad had a single word on it.
Karsoth.
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Topic: [Fiction Contest] - Shadows and Light (Read 1124 times)