ANDROMEDA: Journey of a Cursed Man

PROLOGUE: TOUGH RECRUITMENT

In the year 2456 humanity discovered that they were not alone in the universe. This devastating truth hit harder than we expected and cost us half of earth. 3 years later we built the first line of defense against them and shortly after the first successful strike force. Earth was retaken but with a cost unimaginable, fifty million soldiers died in the field and another twenty million civilians at the point of contact. A union was founded whose purpose was to stop any human rivalry and focus on the advanced military force that they were left to deal with....

....<<STAND UP LAZY WORMS WE HAVE A JOB TO DO>> the scream of the trainer sounded and every soldier in the room woke up, rapidly dressed up and stood in a line. Alcatraz was already awake so he was the only one that had figured out what had happened. << You are pathetic soldiers; it took you fifteen minutes to dress up, which is unacceptable. Since it is your first day I will be gentle with you so... if you please GET YOUR ASSES TO THE BRIEFING ROOM >>.

The company formed up in three lines and went to pick up their battle equipment and then headed for training. Before they enter the WarzoneSimulationRoom , they headed to a room with a separate seat for each one of them. They sat and a Female officer entered the room;

<< Good morning gentlemen I am Commander Sara Palmer. I am here to inform you about the training that you will be put in and some other relative information. Firstly I will show you how things work; the command has divided the troops to four different parts, one more important than the other. First are the ordinary soldiers and artillery which is you, then there are the ImmediateResponceDropSquads also known who dive into battle inside drop pods that were shot from orbit and are mostly sent to rescue missions, then there are the SpecialOperationMarines whose job is to support the main force with their unique weaponry and finally there are the ShipCommandingOfficers who as you clearly understand have their own ship and crew , but they are not just that; they are put in the hardest training and are physically and mentally capable to overcome any combat difficulty. Now your trainer Jacobs McCarthy is going to talk to you>>.

A man entered the room and introduced himself as their trainer; he had grey long hair tied in a ponytail and deep green eyes that seemed like they could pierce through your soul. Rumors have been going around about him and his ways of hardening his trainees during their stay at his base. He stood in the middle of the room and stared at us silently and slowly the atmosphere became tight and insufferable. Time passed and no one moved from their seats where they were left to endure the endless heat. After about and hour of standing still like statues he announced with his loud voice; <<At least you have learned what patience means>> and with that everyone sat down with a sigh of relief.

He led them to a humongous room where the soldiers formed squads of six. << Each squad will be put in a simulation where you have to capture an enemy light defended post. Each soldier will have different equipment from the others, I will allow you to pick your place in the squad, at your left there is a table with your equipment; pick wisely>>.

Alcatraz headed to the table and looked at the gear that was left there. He picked the GS-17 shotgun along with two grenades and the all time classic magnum pistol, then he looked left and right at his squad mates who nodded at him affirmatively and the simulation started placing them into a small rock as tall as their knee. Before they even moved plasma round was shot from the enemy post that they were ordered to capture. Alcatraz quickly took cover and shouted at the others; << Which of one us is the squad leader? >> they looked at him so he started raining down orders; << Buck take position at the rock above us and use covering fire when you see us run through that narrow passage two hundred meters north from here, Antony you and your rocket launcher are valuable so don't get isolated and try to fire some shots at the energy gate or the guard towers south-east and south-west from our position, me Kat and Raiden will run through that narrow passage while Buck is covering us and then we will escort Vaila at the gate which will be open by Antony's rockets, then we will regroup and we will head for the core of the facility in order to turn it down, Keynes you need to stay behind us and keep that healing beam charged >> they nodded and everyone took position,<< 3,2,1, GO>> Alcatraz ran first through the passage end which was about three hundred meters ahead of them, as planed buck fired continuously at the wall and kept the guards busy. << Antony your turn Kat, Raiden go for the gate>> the rocket flew above their heads and hit the energy gate and through the smoke The other three run and took cover beneath the wall out of the line of fire.

Antony fired another couple of rockets and the energy gate finally shattered allowing the squad to move in the main yard; Alcatraz, Kat and Raiden had formed a human shield around Vaila their combat engineer. Alcatraz kept firing without stop, his finger didn't even stop pulling the trigger when he reloaded and the bullets fell like rain upon the enemy formation which started to break. They reached the main building's door and Vaila was working furiously. For a minute they thought that they could hold their position and accomplish the mission but things went wrong, Kat got hit in the shoulder and her bleeding was serious, Keynes wrapped the wound with bandages and fired the healing beam at her. The base's defense turrets were now online and fired at them, the tide was turning against them and grenades along with plasma rounds kept hitting them hard. Alcatraz looked at Raiden who was fighting face to face with a Stygian brute, he seemed to be winning the fight when he froze and looked at his chest, and a laser knife was stuck in his heart. Raiden fell down with the empty look of a dead man, behind him Vaila had opened the door and everyone headed inside the building. << Vaila work on shutting down that energy core, Kat if your shoulder can hold it head to that security panel and see if you can get the inner turrets online>>, the answer Kat gave him was lost in the trembling sound of the charges that Vaila put in the cores shield to break it.

Alcatraz kept firing and suddenly he heard the only sound he didn't want to, the click of the empty clip, he looked down and search for more of his shotgun slugs but in vain as there were no more left, he dropped the shotgun and started shooting with his pistol without any purpose in order to keep the enemies from charging in. He looked behind him as Vaila shouted at him; << Charges set we have ten minutes to evac>> Alcatraz look up as the core's defensive turrets were back online and firing without stop at the entrance. Kat smiled at him; <<we need to leave now>> there was no doubt about that and everyone understood it, the formed up and charged through the alien barrier that was formed at the door, now they had stopped shooting and gave every last bit of their energy to get inside the extraction's ship range of fire. The evac ship was a Dragon-jet which could carry thirty soldiers and could reach the speed of sound in order to break orbit .Alcatraz jumped inside the ship and turned around to see an illuminating light coming from the base as the charges set off and the core destabilized.