Red Star: A Soldier's Tale (again....)

Well, as you all know, the old forum went to dust, apparently, so I will post this again here.

I give you, 'Section 1: Chapter 1: Part 1'

Quote :

Red Star: A Soldier’s Tale

0730 hours 22/lambda year 2511

Patrol duty. Justin hated patrol duty. He and his squad were ordered to patrol Oceanus Peregrinus, the maria closest to the city. The city was New Suez, nicknamed the Red City, capital of Red Star. Justin hadn’t always lived in New Suez. He was born farther North (or as much as a “North” as there can be with barely a magnetic field) in Rebnil. The rest of his squad was from all over as well. Nick was from Second Rome, Alex from Las Mesas, Phil came out of New Sydney, and Tony was from Second London. And this was their life: patrol duty.

And Justin hated every bit of it. Not just because it was incredibly boring, but because of the principle of it. His squad was given special training, they were the best of the best. And all they did all day was walk. Of course, not always walk, but mostly just walk. From maria to maria, terrae to terrae. Each of them was specially conditioned for low-gee and null-gee combat, and all they did was walk.

“Alright boys!” Justin yelled, hefting his “Void Dart” m2 HVR. The great thing about being Special Forces was that you generally got better guns than the standard issue T34 Assault Rifles. Phil and Tony also sported Void Darts, but Alex and Nick had U47 Vera LMGs.

Today was a standard deal. Walk a few miles in one direction, come back. Then walk in another direction. No long distance traveling, no riding in Gilgamesh battle walkers, just pacing. Little did the small squad know, this “standard” day would turn into a bloodbath.

“Man, I hate this,” said Tony, after the 4th “roundabout”, “If we get put into patrol duty again tomorrow, I’m grabbin’ myself a ‘Mesh and goin’ AWOL.” Of course, they all felt that way, bbut only someone like Anthony would say it.

“That’s what you said last week. Stop repeating yourself.” That was Phil. Obviously bored half to death already,

“No, but this time, I’m serious. Last time I was just – wait. Did you here that?”

“Nah, man. That’s just the dead silence getting’ to ya.”

“No, it’s…frag! Everybody scramble!” Tony yelled as a G3 Fragmentation Grenade soared through the air. The squad hadn’t brought grenades. Everyone dove every which way and grabbed for their guns.

Justin knew that his Void Dart would be useless at such a close range and drew his S7 Reynolds pistol instead. “Phil! Tony! You fall back to firing range and snipe ‘em! We’ll hold them off for now.”

Fortunately, and unfortunately, there was barely any cover in the maria. It was easy to find the enemy, whose cloaking had finally lost charge, but it was also easy to get hit.

Justin jumped down behind a small pile of rocks and took aim. There were 3 of them, presumably scouts, each with modified T34 assault rifles. “This is patrol squad Peregrinus,” he said on the private com channel back to base, “we are under attack and need air support. Yggdrasil is requested. There are 3 targets, marked now.” Then over open com he yelled to the attackers. “This is Void Trooper Elite Squad 005 of Red Star. Stand down now or we’ll open fire.”

The only response was gunfire. “Anthony, take the shot.” Tony, in two shots, downed the left and the right assailants. The last, however, opened fire, hitting Nick. Justin drew a bead on the target and shot him five times, killing whoever was behind the helmet.

“Scratch that, command. We need a dropship for immediate medical evac. Nick is down and could be dying: we don’t know how much atmo he lost. There’s also probably more hostiles out there.”

And as I said on SSLF, and the old Merc Center, I'm taking character sign-ups via PM. I need name, roll (pilot, soldier, officer, rebel/terrorist, other, etc.), and description. The next part may be up soon, depending on how much I work on it now that spring break is over.

Hey im in right

Yah. I'm not sure if you'll be in section 1 chapter 1 part 2, but probably in 3 or 4. I'm almost done with the next part, by the way.

Okay. I actually finished writing part 2 a loong time ago, but just got around to typing it. Soooo.

Quote :

Section 1 Chapter 1 Part 2
“Scratch that, command. We need a dropship for immediate medical evac. Nick is down and could be dying: we don’t know how much atmo he lost. There’s also probably more hostiles out there.”
“Copy. ETA is 15.”
“We may not have that much time! We’re dealing with bullet wounds, and possibility of internal damage from the atmo leak, plus there may be more Aaru near by.”
“Look, it’s the best we can do. We can’t lose any more Black Holes as it is. We’re sending our best pilots and ground crews as we speak. You’ll just have to wait.”
“Judging by the tactics used by the Aaru lately, you may want to send some Svartalfar too.”
“Already working on it. Stand by for evac.”
The Odin-class dropships got there in 10. As they landed, side hatched swung open to reveal more men. There were to teams of Svartalfar, jokingly called Dark Elves, and a med team. In the last ship was another “Black Hole” Void Trooper. Black Holes were the elites of the Void Troopers, just as the Liosalfar presided over the Svartalfar black ops. Unit tags identified this one as Hashim Rothwell.
As the med team got Nick onto the first Odin, Justin walked over to the second. “Captain Rothwell. Seems last time we met, I was evacuating you.”
“Sergeant Soris…ah, come ‘ere man! Good to see you again!”
“Would say the same, under different circumstances.”
“Yeah. Well, hop in everybody. Command wants to see us up quick. Special briefing.” Then to the pilot he yelled, “A’right! Take us up, John!”
The dropship lifted away, it’s repulser-lifts igniting nearly instantly. Under pressure, a pilot could make the trip in about 9 minutes, but now that there wasn’t as much of an emergency, they took it slower. That was a mistake. An explosion suddenly rocked the shuttle.
“What the hell?”
“Marris, get strapped in on that turret! Crene, Soris, prep-seal that hatch. Byrns, run a full diag’. Gun it, Selren!!”
“Sir, yes sir!” They all chorused, each going to their assigned tasks.
“Captain, you may want to reconsider heading back to base,” Anthony yelled from the gunner’s chair.
“And why is that?”
“We’re being gunned down by Heimdallrs.” Or at least they looked like them. Hashim got in the gunner’s chair to see two heavily modified Heimdallr interceptors. There were two extra wings, however, and racks of missiles on either side. On the cockpit was decaled the Aaru flag.
“Selren. Dive. Now.”
“What?”
“Do it!” The ship dipped down and quickly started plummeting. Hashim, Justin, and Phil, not being strapped down, were tossed around like rag dolls. “Pull up! Get the other Odin on the radio. Now, dammit!
“Marris, open fire at the ships. Selren, evasive maneuvers. Soris, get on that line and tell the other Odin to land at the nearest outpost. There should be some Iškurs there to take care of any more Aaru. Now Go!”