Raze 2

Ex. Treem- My first mission

Sage keeps shooting me annoyed looks for bouncing my leg with Dani sitting right across from us. Don't misunderstand- it's not because I can't contain my excitement about being on the way to our first mission as the newest members of the Raze Task Force. I am excited, but I'm just doing this because I'm bored. We've been on this damn hovercraft for nearly half an hour in complete silence. Dani refuses to leave the two of us alone because she doesn't trust me, and it's not like I'm going to joke around with Sage like I always do with her sitting right there. I can only imagine how much it's eating her that I made it onto the team. But even she can't deny that I'm by far the best recruit they have. Okay, maybe not by far. Sage comes in at a close second.

"It'll only be a few more minutes until we're on site," Dani says, making a point to only speak directly to Sage. "Johnny and Raze will meet us there. We've been hearing reports of aliens setting up shipyards in the desert for construction, and we want you guys to shut this one down."

I was fourteen when the initial invasion hit, so the only time I've ever killed an actual alien was when they ambushed us at the training dome a couple weeks back. But I've been itching to get my hands on those bastards again ever since. I've been dying to try out all of the explosives that the Raze soldier showed us how to use during training, and an alien shipyard seems like the perfect place to do so.

When we finally reach our destination a mile or so out from the shipyard, J. Rockit and the Raze soldier are waiting for us. They both know exactly how skilled I am since they've been training us for the past several weeks, but I'm still hoping to impress them today. I don't want them to think that adding me to the team was a mistake.

J. Rockit waves us over as we step off the ladder of the hovercraft. "Welcome to the team!" he says. When we wave back, he laughs. "What are you guys doing? Introduce yourselves!"

"Oh, right...uh, field medic, reporting for duty!" Sage says. I have to stop myself from laughing. He's so awkward for no reason.

"I'm Treem, the explosives specialist," I reply. "Best stay far from me unless you want to get burned." I don't even have to look at Sage to know he's rolling his eyes.

"That's it?" J. Rockit says. I guess Dani didn't tell him that is was only the two of us who made the cut. "Well you already know me, expert in close quarters combat," he continues. "You guys can feel free to call me Johnny." Sage and I nod.

The Raze solider says nothing. I thought maybe he wasn't talking during training as a way to intimidate us, but he has no reason to keep doing so now that we've actually made it onto the team. I have a dumb idea that I'd normally just keep to myself, but I figure me saying anything at all is better than us just sitting in this awkward silence.

"Would you guys be interested in making this mission a bit more interesting?" I say.

"More interesting, huh? What do you have in mind?" J. Rockit- I mean, Johnny, replies.

"First to 15 kills gets 60 bucks. We each put in $20 and winner takes all."

Johnny laughs. "You may as well just give your $20 to Raze now and save us all the trouble. But sure, let's do it." I'm surprised to see the Raze soldier actually smile in response. I think this is the first time I've ever seen him do so.

Johnny explains to us that HQ will supply us with guns, medical aid, and armor at regular intervals as we complete the mission. He also asks us which extra equipment we chose. Predictably, Sage chose the emergency heal and I picked the grenades. What can I say. You can never have too many explosives.

We came equipped with only our pistols, and I take mine out as we make our way towards where the aliens are working on construction. As we get closer, I notice a crate labeled "heavy." I open it, and find a flamethrower inside. I can't help but grin. Perfect.

The Raze soldier opens a crate beside me and pulls out a .50 cal sniper. I'm surprised to see him take aim immediately. Even with a long range weapon, shooting from this distance seems way too ambitious. I look over to where he's aiming, and barely make out three aliens grouped up together. When he pulls the trigger, one crumples to the ground. Before the others can even process what happened, he's taken out a second. He had to have hit them both directly in the head to take out each with only one shot. The final alien tries to run to warn the rest that they're under attack, but the Raze soldier proves that one shot is all he needs to take out even a moving target. I really shouldn't be surprised that any member of the original Raze Task Force is this skilled in combat. But this is insane- he already has three kills on everyone and we haven't even reached the site yet.

"We'd better get to the site quickly if we want to have a chance at beating Raze to the 15 kills," Johnny says.

"Agreed," I reply, breaking into a jog. It'll only be a matter of time before the rest of the aliens notice their fallen comrades anyway. Everyone matches my pace, and we reach the shipyard in no time. Sage opens a crate labeled "automatic" and pulls out a hailstorm. By now the aliens have spotted us, and they're moving in fast. Once one moves into his range, Sage takes aim and beats me to his first kill.

"Woo, I could get used to this!" he exclaims.

I pull the pin from one of my grenades and throw it in the direction of the incoming aliens. The explosion deals heavy damage to a couple of them, but not enough to kill any. I move in before the ones affected by the blast can recover and finish them off with my flamethrower.

"Hah, they burn so easily," I say.

It's hard to keep track of everyone's exact kill count as the mission goes on, but it's easy to tell that the Raze soldier is outdoing the rest of us by a mile. It's insane how little time he needs to line up his shots. He hits every one of the aliens in the head too, even when he's using a weapon that would kill them in one hit with just a body shot. And his reflexes are unmatched. In the time it takes me to notice that an alien has stepped into range, he's already killed it. I'm not even mad that I'm going to be out $20 by the time the mission is over. He deserves it.

After a while, the fighting slows down and J. Rockit announces through communications that all of the aliens are dead. The second J. Rockit confirms that the mission is over, the Raze soldier collapses to the ground and holds his chest in a way that suggests he's having trouble breathing. Shit, this is bad, I think, as I drop everything and run over to where he's kneeling as quickly as I can. When I get there, I see that Sage has beaten me to it and already has his emergency med kit out.

"Hey, you okay? I heard they pulled you out of stasis while still infected with the zombie virus..." Sage says as he offers the Raze soldier his emergency heal. The Raze soldier shakes his head to refuse it. If what Sage just said is true, I don't think the contents of every med kit in the world would be able to help. I can't believe the Raze soldier was performing as well as he was while infected with the zombie virus. But the infection must be getting bad if it's gotten to the point where he can't hide it anymore.

"Zombie or not, this guy's got some skill," I say. "I just hope we can finish all this before the virus takes him over. Would be a shame to lose such a good soldier." Everyone nods, and we help the Raze soldier to his feet.

As J. Rockit calls for an evac, Sage says that he's going to look into when and how the Raze soldier got infected with the virus to see if it'll give us any insight into how much time he has left. J. Rockit tells him that Dani probably has that information on file. As we help the Raze soldier into the hovercraft, I pray that the virus will take effect slowly. He may just be one soldier, but we're not going to be able to stop the invasion without him.