Colossal Souls

1. Some Kind of Crazy

Jack's cyber blade cuts diagonally clean through the soldiers torso. For a split moment the two halves are separated, before both collapsing in a pile. Jack lets the blade sheath itself, disappearing into thin air. The hilt is attached to the bottom of his forearm, controlled by his mental connection to the armored rig strapped to his body. Looking to his side he sees his partner Dancer slicing through two more targets. She kicks one hard, sending him into a tree with a loud crack. Smirking, Jack admits to himself he'd never want to go head to head with her. They wore similar combat rigs, outfitted with the galaxy's fiercest toys. Both of them were veteran Shepherds of the Colossus, pilots of their respective mechanized warrior. They'd grown up together in Crowley's battalion of misfits, working together as though they were never apart in life.

The pair waltz towards the entrance of the makeshift bunker they were infiltrating. Alarms rang in the distance, alerting more soldiers to the trespassers. The duo were on the planet called Bliss, a world similar to Earth. They were given a mission by Crowley himself: investigate the absence of the Bliss colony's communications. No one had heard from them in weeks now.

"Sonny and Liona are fifty meters away, on standby. Just remember that we don't have to do all of this alone." Jack continues to smile cheerfully.

Dancer shook her head, a  red visored helmet hiding her face. Her voice projected through the speaker when she spoke.

"Why would I let them overkill on a job I can do just as easily myself. Our main objective is to see what happened here, not destroy everything in sight."

Jack nodded, several more soldiers now blocking their entrance to the bunker. Guns raised, they open fire on the pair.

Jack's left arm goes up, the bullets bouncing harmlessly away. A yellow circular-shaped energy shield blocked the bullets, leaving Jack and Dancer unscathed. The bullet barrage subsided for a moment, allowing Dancer to bounce forward. Four lines of red death passed through soldiers, bursting bones and organs. Dancer allowed her sword to disappear into thin air, just like Jack. Seven soldiers lay dead around Dancer, who only looked at Jack.

"I never get sick of watching you work."

Dancer nodded, the helmet she wore hiding the sad expression she gave. Battle came so easy to her, so why was she feeling bad now? Turning around, they walk into the bunker.

Jack sits at a computer, punching keys to see what exactly these guys were doing here. Information flashes across the screen, words like death, red men, family, and boy repeated many times. None of it has meaning to Jack, who was led to believe this planet was uninhabited except for the few colonial farmers and their families that lived here. He shut the computer down, seeing that the information collected was spotty and done by obvious rookies. He pinched the bridge of his nose, in annoyance. This planet, Bliss, had stopped communication with outside colonies. The farmland here was near identical in potential as Earth, leaving a very bad hole in the economy of planets close by. It is on the outskirts of the galaxy, which leaves it and others like it with slow communications traffic. It was their orders to figure out what happened, getting paid handsomely while doing so. Jack preferred the last part of that statement. He turned to his partner, who was leaning against one of the desks. With disappointment in his voice, Jack spoke.

"Nothing to lead us anywhere special. We're gonna have to keep moving and have our eyes peeled. These guys don't seem to know exactly what's going on either, although they don't seem to be here to try and figure that out. Let's round Liona and Sunny up and head further in. We're gonna need them for whatever is coming up. The planet might not be as uninhabited as the PRA led everyone to believe."

Dancer nodded, remaining silent.

Jack sighed, standing up from his seat. "Whatever answers we're looking are out there. I just wanna get this shit show over with."
The pair walked out of the bunker, making their way towards their waiting Colossus.