Nick
I’m sitting in the back of a falcon, getting a ride to my new outpost, the infamous “Blue Base”. I’ve been with the blue army for my whole life, trained, fought, wounded, but never killed.
I pick up my Machine Gun, getting ready to get off. It happens so fast I almost couldn’t react.
The rocket collides with the right rotor, the falcon instantly going into a death spiral. The next rocket hit’s the tail, spinning us even faster. My armor locks right before we hit the ground.
I stand up, dizzy at first, but it passes within milliseconds. My MG is about thirty feet away, buried in the dirt. The remains of the falcon smolder in front of me.
I clear them with two jumps, and make my way to my MG. My team roster Shows the pilot and gunner as KIA, with my name yellow for critical condition.
When I reach my gun, I open the radio, “This Shadow one, my bird got shot down, I need my 20, over?” After a brief static, “Shadow one, this is Blue Base. You’re about half a click from the base. We are unable to send you a pickup. You’ll have to march it.” I shake my head, “Great.” I start walking in the direction of the base, only about five minutes to go.
Even before I reach the base, I can hear gunfire, lots of gunfire. I ready myself as I round a rock face.
I see almost a whole platoon of Amanti in the canyon outside the base. Two tanks, two snipers, and four soldiers are firing at the top of the base, where a blue squad is in desperate need of assisstance.
I go in gun blazing, taking out one of the snipers and one trooper. The tanks instantly look in my direction, loading new shells into the barrel. I brace myself, “Oh no you don’t!”
The shells impact at the same time, throwing me a good thirty feet in the air. I can see a figure in black on top of the base, he guns down the rest of the foot troops and the sniper.
I land on top of one tank. I pull the hatch off, and fire thirty rounds into the driver, who now is a pile of mush. The other tank is ready to fire again, but it explodes right before the shell leaves the barrel.
The black figure jumps off the top of the tank, walking back to the base. I stand there in shock, and think “If they have this guy, why do they need me?”
When I get into the base, Colonel Moore is talking to the stranger, obviously impressed. “And who gave you the order to leave the base?” The stranger crosses his arms, “If I hadn’t, even more people would be dead.”
He doesn’t even see me, but he pulls out his rifle, “Name, or I’ll blow your fucking head off!” I aim my gun, “Go for it.” Moore steps between us, “95, stand down, he’s with us.”
He reluctantly lowers his rifle. Moore looks at him, “Go drop that in the armory before you kill someone.” Hw walks out of the room, “Not a chance.”
Moore shakes his head, “You must be Nick, I’m Colonel Moore, field commander of Blue Base.” I’m still looking at the door he left into, “Right, who the hell was that, some freelancer?” Moore looks at the door, “Of sorts, he won’t bother you if you stay out of his way. Now, report to Sgt. Gomez in the armory.” With that he turns back to the small squad that returned from the top of the base.
The armory was small, weapons littering the floor and walls. A beefy man is running from place to place, trying to straighten the mess. He turns and looks at my gun, “Another heavy MG, place it over there.” he gestures to a line of guns just like mine. I throw my gun on the shelf, it hits with a loud bang.
Sgt. Gomez runs me too the 2nd level of the base, to report back to Moore. Who then assigns me to run a escort with the stranger, who I learned is called A95. We have to drive almost a whole click to rendezvous with a patrol deep in the rut.
We get in the warthog, a soldier already on the gun. He looks at us both, his hands tightening on the grips. I climb in the shotgun while 95 jumps behind the wheel.
Before I can even brace, the jeep lurches forward. The soldier in the back almost falling out. I grab to the side, hoping he actually knows how to drive. But, once we reach the open canyon, he glides the warthog around like a natural part of his body.
It doesn’t take long for us to reach the patrol, who are under heavy fire from an Amanti squad. The soldier in the back fires at the enemy position, but a sniper blows his head off his shoulders. We slide behind a wrecked tank and jump out.
I don’t have my gun, so I rip the one off the tank, and head over to the firing line were the blue soldiers are hold up. The CO looks at us, “Where’s the platoon?” 95 looks at him, “We’re all you got. What opposition are we looking at?”
The CO lets loose a few more burst of blind-fire, “One squad of Amanti with a single sniper. It would be easy, but the sniper on those hills takes out anyone going out of cover.”
I scope out the battle, the Amanti squad has the blues pinned down, but they lack any vehicles. “Nick, when I go over, provide suppression on the sniper, Sgt. Keep your men back.” A95 jumped over the cover, sprinting with amazing speed towards the enemy line.
The fist soldier went down with three bullets to the chest, the next with five up his body. The next two with a grenade. The sniper fired a few shots, but all missed. A95 looked and fired the rest of his clip at the coward, who fell to the ground.
A95 looks up, “Sgt. Call for a medivac, we’ll take the warthog back with us.” We head back to the base, as two falcons pass overhead.
