Onslaught

Beep, Daniel groaned and kept firing his ArmsTech A-12 blaster. His powercell for his power-suit must be low. Beep, Daniel lunged behind the nearest cover “Cover me!” he yelled over the comm to Auto who was nearby. “No problem Johnson, I’ll keep ’em occupied” Auto called back. The battle had been going their way so far, it seemed to be just another New Republic scouting unit.

But Daniel knew the tides of a battle could shift easily, and quickly. He fiddled with the powercell and popped it out, and immediately he felt a lot of weight as the power-suit suddenly locked down. He then gritted his teeth and worked the armor to the position where he could grab another powercell and thrust it into the opening in the front of the suit.

“Ay, you done yet Johnson? Because we got some more company” came Sarge’s authoritative voice over the comm. “Yep, I’m ready,” replied Daniel as his suit quickly regained power. And then he peeked out from the boulder he was currently using as cover. “Oh you’ve got to be kidding me” he said as he saw a New Republic dropship coming into view on the horizon. “Not good, this is not good. I only got a few more ’nades left” said Tick, the bombs specialist.

Daniel peered out from behind his cover again and saw that at least they’d taken out most of the original scouts, with only a few valiant fighters left holding their position. “Alright, You got the vibro-blades Hunter?” asked Daniel over the comm, a plan was beginning to formulate. “I got ’em right here,” replied Hunter in his growly voice. “Alright here’s the plan, Hunter, Heavy, and I will take the vibro-blades and charge those last ones head-on. Our power-suits should be able to take several hits from their blasters. Meanwhile, Sarge, you and Auto, and Cannon will watch our back and come in close behind us with guns blazing. Snipe, you and Tick will stay here and try to figure out some way to take out that drop ship before it can drop a bunch of commandos on us.”

“I agree, Hunter, Heavy, follow Johnson. Cannon, Auto, come with me. Tick, Snipe, you know your orders. Everyone, let’s move. We need to make some quick work of this.” Sarge replied, obviously agreeing with the plan. Daniel saw Hunter running up beside him. “Here’s your vibro-blade.” He said as he tossed a vibro-blade in Daniel’s direction. Daniel caught it and admired it’s design. These were definitely made for heavy-duty work. Cannon then ran up beside them and Hunter handed him his own blade.

And then they were charging. Blaster-shots streaking past them. Daniel loved this feeling, charging toward an enemy full speed. He also noted that he was quite terrified, but he quickly dismissed that thought. A shot hit Daniel in the shoulder but his suit absorbed it as he predicted. He looked up and saw that the dropship was coming up pretty quickly, and silently prayed that Tick and Snipe could figure something out. Then he fixed his eyes on his target, there looked to be about 5 men left holding their little strong-hold, which consisted of a few boulders and logs thrown together to create some cover.

Another shot hit him, this time in the thigh. But he didn’t worry about it. Stopping here could be a fatal mistake. He saw one of the men fall in front of him, no doubt from Sarge, or Auto who were supporting Hunter, Heavy, and him. And then there he was, jumping over the little stronghold the scouts and pulled together and slicing the nearest on across the chest. He flinched at the scream, he never liked killing. But this was war and he couldn’t dwell on that right now. The other three soldiers were now berating him with shots. And then help arrived in the form of Heavy and Hunter.

Heavy leaped over the small stronghold with the help of his power-suit and barrelled right into two of the three New Republic soldiers left standing. Hunter then glided over a second later and took out the last one. Daniel then took a deep breath and looked up at the looming dropship maybe a kilometer out on the horizon.

“Snipe, please tell me you’ve figured something out.” Daniel said urgently over the comm. One fire-fight was enough for today he thought. “Ahh well Cannon, do you have any more of those X-20s left? (He was referring to the single-use mega blasters, which could do an awful lot of damage if used properly)” Asked Snipe. “I got one left, but it would take a really good shot to take a drop ship out of the sky,” replied Cannon. At this point, Snipe and Tick had caught up with the rest of the group who at this point were at the small fortifications built by the New Republic scouts.

“It’s too late,” replied Hunter, who was staring at the dropship. Daniel looked toward the dropship and his heart sank, there would be more fighting today. Four New Republic wraiths jumped out of the dropship and landed on the ground without so much as a twitch. These were the New Republic’s elite, donned with dark matter rippers(giant blades that extended from a wrist module) and wearing T-80 power-suits. They made quick work of most soldiers and were trained for years before coming into service. Behind these wraiths came a squad of what looked like shock troopers. Which although not as deadly as wraiths, could still inflict major damage.

Daniel sighed. This is not how he liked spending his Saturdays. “Alright men, it looks like we’re facing a difficult challenge. But we are the 106th Elite Squadron. We’ve faced many trials and never have we backed down. We have a mission to do and now is the time. Are you with me?” asked Sarge, sounding as confident as ever. “We’re in Sarge, let’s give ’em a challenge, shall we?” said Cannon as he lifted the last remaining A-20. “Let’s do this.” Daniel replied, firing up his vibro-blade and putting in a fresh powercell. He pulled out his A-12 and looked out as the New Republic troops closed in. Boom Cannon’s blast hit them hard, all four wraiths leaped over the explosion but at least two shock troopers were engulfed in the flame.

Snipe was second to fire, his heavy-duty sniping equipment allowed him to take out several shock troopers and even dent one of the wraith’s armor. But they were closing in fast, and the shock troopers were having trouble keeping up. “We need to focus our attention on the wraiths,” growled Auto, who was pulling out his long-range machine gun. “Agreed” Daniel replied. The wraiths had just got in range of his A-12, and it was time to get to work. Daniel had always been a good shot, he didn’t know why, because before the army he hadn’t had any training in blasters or really any other type of weapon.

Daniel took his first few shots at the wraith to the far left side, but the wraith easily dodged the bolts. Daniel then realized it, they were so easy at dodging singular bolts, but what if they had multiple bolts flying from different directions at them all at once, essentially cutting off escape. Daniel quickly pulled out his repeating blaster pistol and using both his pistol and his rifle he shot four bolts in rapid succession. The one bolt to the left and one to the right of the wraith, and then one over the wraith, and one directly in the middle of their power-suit. And this scored a hit. The wraith attempted jumping to the left of the incoming bolts but got hit almost directly in the chest. A staggering blow too, for the wraith, staggered back and then collapsed.

“Nice shot Johnson! I’ve got to try that,” said Auto after seeing the damage that Daniel had caused. He too used the technique and scored a hit, and two wraiths were down. But it was too late, they were no more than 50 meters out now and closing in fast, with five or six shock troopers following behind. “Alright men, it’s time for our vibro-blades.” called Sarge, the shock troopers had started laying cover fire for the wraiths. Daniel and the rest quickly got behind cover and fired up their vibro-blades. And although vibro-blades were indeed a really nice close combat weapon they were no match for the wraiths rippers.

The two wraiths leaped over the fortifications with rippers ignited, one of them charged at Heavy which was probably the worst decision the wraith could’ve made. Heavy yelled, and charged and took both of the wraith’s rippers to his vibro-blade, this gave the rest of the group time to help out. And Tick reacted first. He sprinted towards the wraith and attempted to stab one of them in the back, but his blade glanced off. Daniel saw this and pulled out his pistol. At this point the other wraith had engaged Cannon and Sarge, both of whom were struggling to fend off the wraith. Snipe and Auto continued to hold off the shocktroopers and Hunter was pulling out his own rifle to try to attack the wraiths from behind.

Daniel fired his repeating pistol five times into the back of the wraith before the wraith finally sunk to the ground, this freed up Heavy who then turned and barreled into the other wraith. Which he finally killed after repeated stabs to the chest. Sarge and Cannon then moved to help take out the shock troopers. But Daniel just sat down to take a few breaths. This was a challenging part of war. The constant battle for your life and billions of others.

The battle finished rather quickly after the wraiths were taken out. The rest of the 106th made quick work of the shock troopers. “Great job men, you continue to serve your nation and this country well. I think that our current location will be a good place to set up camp for tonight. We have a lot of work ahead of us.”

They quickly started to work with setting up shop. “They definitely put up a good fight.” said Auto as he hopped out of his power-suit. He quickly began to work on a blaster-bolt wound that had punctured through his power-suit. “Yeah, but definitely not the worst we’ll face.” agreed Cannon. He was already out of his suit and setting up a pop-up tent. “Great leadership out there today Johnson, you came up with some good ideas and probably kept us all alive.” Sarge said with his usual authoritative tone. “I did what anyone would.” answered Daniel as he hopped out his own suit and grimaced at the new dents and burns that now adorned the armor.

“Yeah, you’re pretty good at thinking on the fly.” Tick said laughing and slapping Daniel on the back. Daniel laughed and shook his head. “You guys give me some good practice.” He said as he pulled out his survival pack and grabbed his own pop up tent which he tossed over to his left. The tent cube exploded into the full tent complete with his own cot. “Hey Cannon, you gonna cook some of that good stew? I’m feeling tired out today,” said Auto, the usual cook for their squad. “Mmm, yes. Stew does sound good,” said Heavy as he started preparing his own tent and pretending to sip a spoonful of stew.

Daniel laughed and shook his head, Heavy could definitely make anyone laugh. Daniel pulled out his datapad. The war was definitely not going according to plan. The New Republic was pushing their forces inland in North America after taking over San Francisco. That was why the 106th was on the current mission they were on. Daniel sighed after seeing the usual headlines and set his datapad on the cot in his tent. Maybe he’d play some game on it later, but for now, he’d eat with the guys and relax.

Cannon had the stew already cooking over a makeshift stove, and boy did it smell good. The stew tasted just as good as it had smelled and it really hit the spot. Then they chatted around the fire a little more and started retiring for the night.

After Daniel had climbed into his cot he thought about how hard they’d thought to get where they were now. And he remembered all those days back at training camp, meeting his squad for the first time and how intimidated he was. He was a part of something massive and he wondered truly how his role in this planetary civil war would play out. With those thoughts on his mind, Daniel drifted off to some much-needed rest.