Chapter 1
The solar system of Knoxos would have been beautiful if it hadn’t been swarming with Punishers and V92 Titans. Hevarian aircraft could ruin a scene really easily.
Lieutenant Ranrûne of the Elite Combat Corps. Stood in the center of the Left Wing Recoiling Constrictor Command. Him and his crew were the gunners of the Supernova, General Aralius’s Solartrail, and Ranrûne was incharge of the left wing’s Constrictor. A UGCA superweapon that can down entire platoons of Hevarian Punishers and destroy small planets and moons.
But recently, the Punisher pilots had been using a new formation that made Constrictors impractical… Unless, Ranrûne was in charge.
“Twenty percent charge.” He instructed, “Hit the meteor to the right of the Punisher formation.”
“Charging.” One of the people at the controls said.
Vrrrrmmmm,
VVRRRRrrrmmmm
VVVVVVVRRRRRRRmmmmmmmm
VVVVVVVVRRRRRRRRMMMMMMM
“Charged sir!”
“Fire.”
VVVVRRRRRRMMMBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
A thick beam of red-gold light shot through the center of the meteor, blasting iron and rock shrapnel into the Punishers.
“Good shot, soldier.” Ranrûne said as the Punishers were blown to pieces, “Another twenty ships out of this war.”
Then the world exploded. Shattered glass shot everywhere. All the gunners in the front of the ship’s gun cockpit were covered in debris, and none survived.
A V92 flew out of the smoke around the wing, ion blasters smoking.
Ranrûne wasted no time. He pointed his arm in the direction of the Titan and his Grapple launched from his wrist and connected to the starfighter’s exhaust barrel. Ranrûne was pulled along with the fighter.
He retracted his grapple and hauled himself up to the fighter. He drew his two Retaliators, or ‘Camo Bananas’ as the UGCA called them, and shot the cockpit open. He dropped on a very surprised Hevarian pilot, who had barely drawn his SMS by the time Ranrûne punched his face in with a metallic fist. Ranrûne turned his hand to normal again and threw the pilot out, his silver skin settling to a normal pale green. Ranrûne, being an Argentum, could turn his skin to metal at will, making him lethal in close range. Then planted a sticky on it then jumped off and used his thruster pack to get back to the ship. He looked back as the V92 blew-up into smithereens. The blinding light forced him to turn away. After the light died down he saw the bloody charred body of the pilot in pieces float by. Soon after the steel emergency panels close up the broken glass, marines burst in guns up. Marines came through the door and set up a perimeter. After the perimeter was set up Major _______ came forward and yelled “Alpha take Gamma and head right to search for stowaways and survivors, Beta, Omega go right and search. Tango stay here to patch up holes and clean up.” The marines snapped a salute and went to search. Then Aurelius walked in and sayed “what happened here.”
“Ranrûne here blew a V92 to kingdom come and was a total bad*** about it” A marine said.
I wouldn’t say that.
Are there any survivors Major?
Not that we know squads are searching now.
BANG, BANG, BANG!
3 rifle shots rang out and the marines immediately rushed down the right side of the gunner pod and found 2 heavarian stowaways in combat with the marines. The marines could barely get more than 2 shots in before plasma rounds smashed and into the now charred wall the marines were behind, keeping them under cover. Ranrûne and Auralies rushed down and saw the smoldering, partly charred bodies of 3 marines who tried to rush the havarians. Aurelius lobed a smoke grenade into the compartment. The smoke spread over the havarians, who were now blinded from the smoke,stood no chance as the marines opened fire and riddled the 2 aliens with armor-piercing rounds. Blood spatter covered the left wall and the bodies fell limp onto a dead marine body and the floor. Blood started pooling beside them and the marines rushed forward and confiscated their weapons and took the bodies to the trash chute.
“Let the marines be mourned but let the scum be added to the insult to injury to the havarian empire.” Ranrûne said as the bodies of the havarians floated into space.
“Give the marines a proper funeral” He said.
Auralius said “ damn the havarians to ____ ___ and let the _____ himself torment them for eternity.
“Who’s gonna clean up the blood?” a marine asked
Auralius and Ranrûne looked at the Marine who said that.
“Aw damn it, why can’t I just shut my mouth” he said as he had a mop and was wiping it back and forth.
The marine kept mumbling and complaining till it was 9 pm and he was done.
“These are getting worse and worse. The UGCA is not liking how this war is going.” Auralius said. “ These new tactics are getting more difficult to cope with. It’s like they know where our weakest links are and exploiting them.”
“Just spitballing here, but what if there is a spy among us. I mean the Hevarians know where we are weak and how could they know.” Ranrûne said.
“I don’t know, but I will look into it.” Auralius said.
“Thanks.”
Later that night.
“Auralius and Ranrûne are idiots. They don’t know who I am and what I am doing. Lord *king of the Hevarians*, I shall not fail in bringing the UGCA to their knees.” said a voice in the shadows.
He then stepped out of the shadows to reveal he is a soldier. Kane Arnold on his nametag.
Meanwhile Ranrûne was in his quarters sleeping when a loud bang shook the ship. Sleepily he got up and put on his uniform and looked at the security cameras to see Heavarian Elites running through the ship, with many soldiers following. Guns up and firing at the UGCA soldiers.
“Damn.” Ranrûne said as he grabs his Retaliators and bolts through the door right into a platoon of *Grunts* and let’s just say he won and there was a large mess. He rushes forward through the ship moving toward the bridge where he found Auralius and a squad of marines pinned down by the main strike force. Marines started falling, but they still were firing into the horde of Hevarians. Ranrûne started unloading his rounds into their backs. The rear half turned and fired.
“I did not think this through,”Ranrûne said as he dashed behind cover, just as pinned as the soldiers. He pulled the pin from his grenade belt and threw the belt and the grenades into the center of the Hevarians. A second later there was a huge explosion and the firing stopped abruptly and the Marines and Ranrûne rushed at the same time and found the Hevarians all dead.
Ranrûne picked up a needle gun that looked like a DMR and slung it over his shoulder.
“How did they get on this ship?” Ranrûne said.
“Apparently they had 4 heavy insertion craft landed on the side of the ship and blew a hole in it.” Auralius said.
“How did they get our location?”
“I don’t know but I found a locator on the CO.”
“Sh*t. This is bad.”
“I know, but what can we do?”
“I mean, we can follow the ship, but that’s really all we can do until they strike again.” Ranrûne said.
“Then let’s bring the fight to them, I’m tired of living in fear. If we go down in flames, so be it!”
“Alright, I’ll see if I can find the point of origin.”
A bullet came from nowhere. It was an impeccably aimed shot, moving easily past mach 4 and headed for Aralius’ heart.
He caught it and laughed. “That’s the best you could do?!”
Another one came, this time at Ranrûne. He grinned as the round bounced off his now metal chest. “Come out, now. Or we call reinforcements and outnumber you. Your choice.”
Little shadows appeared outlined on the wall. Each one with four arms and a tiger head. Each one holding both a Wasp and Pinner.
“Surrender!” A high pitched voice said, “We outnumber you five to one!”
“So there are ten of you.” Aurelius guessed.
There was a collective curse from the grunts.
“Well, let’s kill them.” One said.
Pop! He hit the ground, dead.
The other grunts jumped back.
“What was that?” One screeched, then he turned to Aralius, “Are there more of you.”
“Yeah, of course.” He responded.
“Declare yourselves!” The grunt shouted.
Silence.
“DO IT!” The grunt screamed.
“We are your worst nightmares.” A spine-chilling hiss responded.
“We!?” The grunt shrieked.
“Yeah,” Said an intercom-sounding voice, “There are four of us.”
BAM! BAM! Two more grunts hit the floor. A sound reverberated through the vents above.
“We are easily stronger than you.” Another voice said.
A small, smoking sphere fell in front of a grunt. KABOOM!
Rat-tat-tat-tat. Rapid fire lasers blasted through all of the remaining grunts. Only one remained.
Four silhouetted, armored soldiers dropped into the hall.
“Fireteam Star ain’t gonna lose.” The one in the middle said, “We win. Give up.”
“NO!” The grunt put his Pinner up. He fires at the one with the least armor. He caught it without flinching. The biggest one punched the grunt into the wall. And the one with the AR blasted the heck outta him.
They turned to Aralius and Ranrûne, who got their first good look at them. One had a Hawkeye Rifle on his back, and wore much less armor than the others. Though the armor that he is wearing is very heavy, evidence that he’s a sniper.
The second one was very clearly not to be messed with. He had at least a thousand pounds of armor on, all of it blood red. He had a massive CAML on his back, though it had been modified to provide him with a thermal scope and small laser gun. He had an orange Bomb Squad insignia on his chest.
The third was almost as terrifying as the second. He wore camo green/grey/black armor and had a Bullpup AR in his hands, a Wasp in his belt, and a band of grenades on his arms, like the Bomb Squad guy. The fourth was the most scary. He was tall. Maybe 6’5 or so. He wore a yellow vest with what looked like a jetpack strapped to his back. He also had a metal arm. He also, like the others, wore tons of armor. His weapon looked like something straight out of a movie. A giant rifle with a thermal scope and a laser sight fitted onto it, with an extended clip and around 50 mags on his utility belt. Are those… explosive bullets? Ranrûne thought.
Chapter 2
The ship exploded. Or that’s what Ranrûne’s last thought was. The ship did explode, just not in the way you probably think. Some reinforcements arrived for Ranrûne, but when they landed on the ship, the craft had been shot up so much it just collapsed under the weight of the landing craft, causing the boiler to explode. Ranrûne’s metal chest was severely damaged and now had a huge chunk missing out of the side. Molten metal was spewing out of his chest. Ranrûne held his side to keep any more metal from falling out. Ship remnants flew past him, as well as body parts. Ranrûne grabbed onto the nearest piece of space junk and held on as tight as he could because if he let go, even for a second, he would be lost among the stars forever. He floated for hours. That turned to days. Weeks. A month had passed since the ship had exploded. He had gotten on top of the piece of ship. He barely slept, because if he did, he would fall off. His chest had stopped spewing metal, it had kinda sealed itself.