“Check, check. Can you hear me, Alpha team?” The old man barked through the coms. 2 other voices answered affirmative, so did Jax. “Alright good. We're 600 seconds to orbital drop. Beta team is already down there. We’ve yet to get a sitrep though, guess they're in combat. By the way, I’ve got some evidence to suspect that we're not the only one’s though. A topographic report says that there were various orbital drops on this planet a couple of weeks ago. Not only that, but it looks pretty barren, like it was evacuated.”
“That should be fine” Fraser voice says over the coms “We have our mission. Like you said, go in, grab the intel, and get out.”
“That's the spirit. Alright, final checks, Alpha team. You're down in 245, over and out.” and with a short crack, the coms were down. Jax could hear the wind buffer against the ship as it grazed the atmosphere. Rattling the plates of the drop pod and whistling against its uneven surface. The inside of his cockpit was cold. He had set his poncho and other clothes on his lap and across his chest to keep warm, but it didn’t help much. He ran diagnostic after diagnostic, checking piston pressure, stability calibration, even going as far as to check the OS, seeing if there were any faults in the “brain” of his Argonaut. It was just routine to him, like a robot preforming menial tasks. Orbital drops were always a tricky manoeuvre. It requires both the pilot and their manager to be in constant communication and for the gear to be at peak functionality. Jax had already done a couple orbital drops. Vanguard was quite fond of the tactic and often deployed him using that method. Suddenly, Jax felt his gut drop, the sound of steel grinding against steel followed as a small beep on his monitor indicated that it was time. Securing his body and putting in the final cables, he jacked in…
“Look who finally woke up.” A young male voice said. Jax’s eyes flickered as they adjusted to the dark environment of the inside of the drop pod. “I was already plugged in for hours, I tell you, the sim in this thing is amazing.” The voice continued. “Even if I beat you every time.” Said another voice, Fraser’s. Jax didn’t say anything though. There was no point. Instead, he pulled up the topography report that the old man was talking about. He was right, there were significant impact craters on the surface and what looked to be discarded drop pods, charred black and barely recognisable. The surrounding area was a ruined city scape. Tall concrete high rises, either laying destroyed on the streets or barely standing. The planet's name was Kempos. Looking it up revealed it used to be a large, wealthy habitation planet with minimal industrialisation. But after a hostile take over conducted by a massive pirate group, it was turned into a chaotic battleground. Vanguard tried to reconstruct the planet after beating out the pirates, but in the end after many failed attempts just ended up using it as a dumping ground and minor base of operations. The rest of the notes bored Jax. they just consisted of political jargon as Vanguard tried to explain to Pantheon why it was justified to treat Kempos as a dumping ground instead of rehousing all the previous residents. “Hey… “Wight?” wacha doing?” The young man's voice said. “You’ve been silent the whole damn time. You mute or something?” His voice had a certain ring to it. Like a child trying to mimic the speech of an adult, fitting, Jax thought. “I’m just thinking, you should try it sometime.”
“Man fuck you…”
“Heads up, boys and girls, we're dropping early.” the old man said over the coms “Team Beta has gotten back to us with a sitrep. All I got was a TXT message saying ‘FUBAR”, safe to say that things aren’t going well. Dropping in 20. Get your toys ready, we're going in.” The closing of the channel was followed by a heavy click as Jax felt his Argonaut buckle. The drop pods were slowly lowered as the bay doors opened to the ground below. Jax and the rest braced themselves, activating a myriad of bracing systems as with one final click, the 3 drop pods were sent hurtling down. The massive egg shaped metal boxes tore through the atmosphere with an ear-piercing scream. Jax closed his eyes as he felt the simulated G force push down on his body. The battlefield underneath his feet was barely visible through the shaking camera, he could make out the rough shapes of various emplacements and buildings. “Alert, high power kinetic projectile is approaching” The robotic voice said. Then with a deafening crash, he felt something collide with his drop pod. “We’re under fire!” Fraser barked over the coms as more projectiles hit the drop pods. Jax felt his trajectory shift due to the sustained fire. “Jettisoning drop pod!” he shouted, giving the command to the system to initiate early drop pod breakage. With a loud clunk, the bottom of the drop pod opened up like a flower before shattering and flying up. Jax was temporarily blinded as the camera’s adjusted to the bright daylight before he was greeted by a heavy calibre projectile screaming towards him. The ERA armour triggers as it violently explodes, sending the bullet off course and crashing into the ground below. The explosion of the ERA armour sends him spinning as he free falls through the air. His HUD is useless as of right now, the cross-hair spinning around wildly trying to lock onto something. “Jax, what are you doing!?” Fraser shouts
“If we keep getting hit our drop pods will be torn to shreds, it’ll also fling us miles of course. So to answer your question; I’m gonna take out the turret.” Then in one fluid motion, he grips the assault rifle from his rear, unholstering it. He shifts his weight, turning onto his belly. The cross-hair stabilizes and locks onto a turret in the distance. It fires another burst of 3, the bullets slamming into the young man's drop pod. Pieces of shrapnel fly off as it loses its stability and is sent hurtling down. “Fuck meeee!” he screams. Jax grits his teeth and grips the rifle with two hands, trying to line up the shot. The wind and chaos around him making the task no easier. “Jax, this is pointless, we need to get to ground 0, quit these useless heroics!” Fraser shouts.
“Easy for you to say, you're not the one flying to your demise. Besides, this is a cakewalk.” Then as the computer finishes calibrating for bullet drop, wind and other factors, Jax pulls the trigger, releasing a stream of lead at the turret. The bullets make contact and the turret explodes in a fiery display. Pieces of burning metal, flung down onto the street below. “Ha ha HA! Take that!” Jax shouts, punching the air, still free-falling as the wind brushes past him. “Jesus Christ, you're a mad man.” Fraser says judgementally. “Heads up, brace for impact!” she continues as jets underneath the drop pod fire to slow her descent before the entire shell breaks open, propelling her Argonaut faster down. Jax follows on suit, shifting his weight once more to have his feet first as he sets his thrusters at max to slow his fall every so slightly. With one hand, he gripped a building beside him, gripping the concrete, tearing the structure as he plummeted down. Then, with one final boost of his thrusters, he lands on the street below. His chassis slams onto the asphalt, sending dust and debris flying into the air, smashing the infrastructure with a thunderous crash. His legs buckle as the hydraulics were pushed to their limits. The aftershock vibrates through his entire body, the frame of his Argonaut groans as the steel absorbs all the kinetic energy. The sensation was a strange cocktail of a soft waving pain and a feeling like of your gut dropping so low it might as well have fallen out. “Get out of the way!” Fraser shouts as bullets pierce the veil of dust and rip through the air. Jax’s ERA armour triggers again, shards of shrapnel slamming into the narrow corridor of buildings he found himself in. The explosion itself making a flash of bright light. Despite the effectiveness of the armour during the first few barrages, the weight of fire eventually runs the ERA dry as bullets finally reach his base armour. Jax stumbles around, discombobulated from the explosion of the ERA and now the simulated pain as bullets ripped through the composite plate. Despite the suppressing fire, Jax turns tail and bolts it down the street into an alleyway big enough to fit his Argonaut. Warnings fill his vision, alerting him of damage to the armour and nervous system-over-load’s. One by one, Jax manages the warnings, allocating nerve dampening and other countermeasures, all while fighting off the teeth gritting sting. “What the hell is going on!?” Jax shouts over the whizz of bullets and distant explosions, “As far as I’m concerned, this was supposed to be a hit-and-run. But this, I mean, this is a goddamn war zone!”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“I know just as much as you, so shut up!” Fraser shouts back
“How about the kid, he alive?”
“Fuck if I know. All I heard before his coms were shut off was a cry for help.”
“So KIA then. Great. How about Alpha team?”
“Also dead coms.”
“Shit…” Jax says as the realization settles in, “What now?”
“How the hell am I supposed to know!? Can’t you think for yourself!?”
“According to you, I’m some kind of freak, so clearly I must have a couple wires lose.”
“Whatever, just stay alive” Fraser says before she closes her coms. Then in the distance, Jax hears the familiar sound of her blade, turning on. The crack of energy, all too recognisable in the surrounding cacophony. Then he sees Fraser’s Argonaut fly through the street, bullets bouncing off her armour as she disappears into the veil. Jax follows on suit, gripping his rifle and charging in. His HUD lock onto 3 Argonaut signatures, Fraser also appears in his vision, her ID tag whizzing around, dodging bullets and striking the combatants. Bracing the rifle on his shoulder, he activates the boosters on his back and skates around the targets. The dust kicked up from the impact obscures their forms, the only thing giving away their presence being the rough estimate informed by heat signatures and ID signals. Despite this, Jax zero’s the sights of his rifle into one and opens fire. The bullets temporarily dissipating the smoke, giving him glimpses into his target’s location. The sound of lead hitting steel confirms the hit before he lunges in and stabs his knife into its torso. Sparks fly as he drives the red-hot knife into it, the other Argonaut tries to fight back but not before long, with one final push he reaches the cockpit. The machine goes limp and slumps onto his shoulder. Before he can throw it off, he is hit with a heavy barrage. He looks over his shoulder and sees an Argonaut with a rotary rifle firing at him from behind. Swiftly, he spins around, using his new kill as a makeshift shield. “Fraser, I got this guy's attention. Kill him!” he shouts, planting his feet, trying to weather the storm of lead. Then with a haunting hum, Fraser's ID signal disappears from his HUD, that same hum moving around the space like a ghost. His make shift shield starts to give out as the bullets tear the robotic body apart. Armour, cables, shrapnel, and sparks pool at his feet. Here and there, bullets hitting his arms and hands. He clutches is knife, preparing to strike the second his shield gives out. “Fine, if Fraser won’t get this guy, I’ll do it myself” he thinks to him self, as with one swift movement he throws the Arrogant, or what's left of it, at the target, disorienting it for just a moment as he runs forward with terrifying speed. Just has he readies a strike, Fraser’s ID signal appears behind the target and after the electrical crack of her blade materializing rings out, she plunges it into the target. It strains its limbs for just a moment, dropping the rifle before being thrown onto the ground. The dust finally starts to clear, the vicious fighting blowing the fine powder into the air. “Sure took your sweet time.” Jax said, sheathing the knife.
“I needed to get out of its detection range first, or else it would blast me.” She responded, retracting the blade.” then I wouldn’t be able to save your sorry ass.”
“Whatever” Jax said, turning his head to the sky. Above, jets roared through the sky, in the far distance you could hear the occasional explosion or sonic boom. “What the hell is going on…” Jax said, his voice trailing off as if his statement was to the planet itself. Fraser joined him by his side. Also staring at the sky as more jets blew past. “Jax…” her voice trailed off slightly. As if trying to find the right words. She took another breath, relaxing her posture. A delicate manoeuvre only possible on fancier models, “Do you know what the contents of your contract with Vanguard?”
“Why do you ask?” Jax says, turning his head.
“You have a deal with the Vanguard corporation, don’t you? They provide you with an Argonaut and work. In return, you’re their soldier. Correct?” Jax turned fully this time, taking a step back and replying, “You're starting to really piss me off. What the fuck does this have to do with the fact that this entire job has gone to shit.”
“I didn’t expect to see you here.” Fraser continued, as if Jax wasn’t speaking at all.
“I was sent here to thwart this little heckling and low and behold I come across Vanguards little war dog without his leash on…” She turned to face him, and a single jerk of her arm sprouted the blade from her arm. “I am Vanguard special covert operations officer Kaila Fraser. You're under arrest for breach of contract.” Jax tenses up, his mind completely left blank. Slowly, he reaches for his blade. Unsure of whether to fight or not. Fraser doesn't move a muscle, though. Simply standing there, staring into his eyes. Then a hum. Just soft enough to be easily ignored, but just loud enough to catch Jax attention in the silent ambiance. The hum grew louder and louder, being woven in with similarly pitched buzz. The sound was strange, like it itched the back of his skull. His vision grew blurry. As the image of Fraser’s Argonaut shifted and buzzed with the same frequency. And then, with a single ear-piercing scratch, no longer than half a second, she disappeared. Not like a disassembly with the cloak,, but a true blink. Like she was never there. Jax stumbled around, checking his surroundings. There was no way, it wasn't possible. This wasn’t cloaking, she really did…
Oh,
That feeling.
It stings.
Jax felt a sting, in his chest. A pain like no other. But there we’re no warnings, no HUD, he barely realised that it was gone. In fact, everything was gone. He wasn’t in the ruined city scape. He wasn’t in the confines of his cockpit. Furthermore, he wasn’t even in the void. There was just, pure nothingness. It was hard for him to perceive the space. Slowly, sparks began to fly up. Bright blue flocks of glowing sparks. He had seen these before. The first time he piloted. They were back. But why. Why now…?
