Crash

This piece is an entry into the War Stories competition being run by Prosieben to turn a fan-submitted story into a graphic novel. You can vote here. You can vote for one story in each round for each faction. This story is in Round 3 New Conglomerate, in case you liked it. Thanks for voting!

As the dropship approached the target from 300m above, Taylor was struck by the beauty of the scene. Three fully-laden galaxies of Bear platoon’s air assault fleet droned alongside his own, flak bursts popping all around them like fireworks. Strobes of blue and purple tracers illuminated the dying sun over Indar, the shimmering biolab dome glinting with every passing shot.

At the landing pad he could just make out hurried figures making final defensive preparations; a cluster of Vanu infantry ready to open fire the moment Alpha squad hit the tarmac. Despite being encased in the safety of his MAX suit, Taylors’ heart beat a mile a minute at the thought of the painful duty to come.

“I’m with you, rookie.” Came the steady, gruff voice of Malloy in his ear piece; his ‘pocket’ engie for this operation “Jus’ remember, keep moving, close the distance, trust your engie.”

If there was a better engineer in the division than Malloy, Taylor hadn’t heard of him. A fearless 25-year veteran of the War, he was a mess hall legend in the 1st Airborne. Coming from the same humble mining town background as himself, in Taylor’s eyes he was a hero.

A bright yellow light glared above the waiting squad, a buzzer sounded angrily in the dimly-illuminated cabin. Ten seconds to the jump.

#

Taylor’s two-tonne MAX suit plummeted towards the open maw of the Vanu defensive line.

SHHHTOOOM!

He slammed into the bio lab landing pad, the impact sending him almost to his knees. His leg compensators thrust him to full height and immediately his targeting visor was filled with the flurries of blue and purple plasma whizzing past. There were three turrets just ahead. Recalling the training, Taylor advanced towards them as quickly as possible; the adrenaline zinging through his body like electricity.

PANG!

A plasma blast winded him despite the two inches of hardened alloy in between him and the projectile. Melting, fizzing energy sprayed onto his helmet. Instinctively, he threw up his arms to defend himself.

“DON’T STOP ROOKIE!!” Came the gruff cry from behind him. “KEEP MOVIN’, GET TO ‘EM!”

Malloy shoved him off balance, knocking him out of his trance. ‘Keep moving, close the distance, trust your engie’ Taylor repeated as he blasted slugs at shadowy targets cowering behind their rapidly-diminishing cover. Melting laser fire and shrapnel from grenade explosions tore into his suit. But despite the damage, the lost chunks of armour were instantly replaced by Malloy’s expertly-directed nanite repair flow.

“THAT’S IT, I’VE GOT YOU!” Malloy roared over the tumult. “NEW CONG! NEW CONG! NEW CONG!”

His cry was taken up by Alpha squad. Chanting in unison, the four MAX units launched a barrage of slug shells at the turrets and snipers, who backed away from the intense fire to the barrels and trees just beyond the entry to the biolab.

SHHHTOOOOM!

Beta squad had landed. Almost immediately, thin arcs of blue smoke roared over Taylor’s head. A line of explosions simultaneously illuminated the entrance to the lab, scattering Vanu body parts all across the threshold. The wavering defenders broke and fled into the mist on the interior. All that remained was the pall of smoke, and the loud cheering of the New Conglomerate assault force.

Taylor stopped chasing and took a second to breathe again. He put his hands on his knees, still panting deeply from the adrenaline. His chest and arms ached from the force of the impacts despite Malloy’s expert repair work. He paid little attention to it; after four respawns, the bullet impacts hurt much less than they did after his first drop. But the battle shakes were still there, if only slightly.

Malloy peered into the darkness within the base, shaking his head in disbelief.

“That was it?”

He patted Taylor on the shoulder, shaking his head grimly with a wrinkled smile.

“No way that’s it. Ready for Round 2, rookie?”

Taylor gulped, and through the panting, nodded with all the enthusiasm he could muster

“A New Cong MAX is always ready, sir.”

A confident figure strode through the parting crowd.

“ASSAULT FORMATION!” came the command roaring through Taylor’s eardrum. He swore under his breath. Not this idiot again…

Lieutenant Thust paced in front of the platoon, his golden armour and bright blue cape giving him an air of Napoleonic confidence. The lieutenant stood theatrically with one foot atop a fallen Vanu body like a conqueror of old times. A few sniggers over the squad comms were quickly disguised as coughs.

“BEAR PLATOON!” Thust shouted to the sky above them, as if calling on the gods “We go straight for point A and hold. WE DO NOT STOP. I want a MAX crash, by the book.”

“Permission to speak, sir?” Malloy shouted.

“No, Staff Sergeant Malloy.” He responded, swatting him off like a fly “We have six minutes to resecure these points, I -”

“But sir, it’s a trap!” Malloy spoke up once more “The Vanu don’t fold like that on the pads, I ain’t never -”

The lieutenant paced purposefully up to Malloy and gave him a hard, back-handed slap. There was a gasp from the platoon.

“Shut the hell up, you stupid mining grunt. The Vanu fold because we have superior tactics and training. One more word and I will have you despawned.” He stated coldly, cocking his head with a sadistic smile.

Taylor gritted his teeth with rage. It wasn’t an idle threat. Just five weeks after he was imposed on the platoon by some corporate bureaucrat, Thust already had a reputation for severe discipline; he’d despawn you for looking at him the wrong way in the morning. He was also a terrible tactician. Bear platoon couldn’t stand him, Taylor included.

“Get in there, point A, no time to waste. GO GO GO!” Thust clapped his hands, which Taylor had learnt meant ‘everyone attack in front of me’.

Bear platoon ambled into action. Taylor paced steadily from the chilling dusk wind into the hot, stuffy, environment. His targeting visor steamed up immediately.

“That snot-nosed corporate prick.” Malloy grumbled over the comms to Taylor, “Keep your eye on the skies kiddo, we’re sitting ducks here with no light assault support.” he chuckled.

“Yes sir!” Taylor responded, scanning the treetops.

Taylor marched with the front line, where twenty MAX units were spaced just one metre apart. The engineers followed close behind, protected from fire by this impenetrable wall, complemented by a few medics who weaved in and out of the line at will. Despite Malloy’s doubts, Taylor felt invincible alongside such numbers. Especially when standing next to Howie, the most experienced MAX operator in the platoon, who was wrapped in enormous, black, ogre-like armour that made him leer a full foot above the next tallest man.

The platoon squelched through the marshy roots and ponds that covered the bottom of the biolab. The air was silent – there was nobody to be seen. The only sound was the soft drips of perspiration falling from the trees. But Taylor was wary. In his five engagements to date he’d learnt that the Vanu were notorious for manoeuvres such as these – blasting you all out then slipping away into the shadows. And they never spoke, not even to cry out in pain. It was like fighting phantoms. The antithesis of the loud and brash New Conglomerate forces, who blared noisily and confidently no matter what the situation. Yep, there was a lot of strange things about those purple-wearing crazies…

The point A building loomed about fifty metres away, a simple two-storey structure with open doors and windows facing their advance.

“INFANTRY ON THE ROOF, 12 o’ clock!” someone shouted over comms. The air filled with the frisson of  panicked movement from 48 soldiers. Purple tracers erupted from the shadows on top of the point.

“CHARGE!” Thust shouted.

“No, no, wait! It’s a trap!” Malloy called out. Taylor held back, but no one else could hear him in the tumult.

The platoon rushed pell-mell at the point, a thick column of MAXes charging towards the small, solitary entrance. Taylor scanned the roofs desperately as he heard the thrusters light assault units burning off roofs and branches around the clearing.

BANG!

The front MAX units were blown off course by an anti-infantry mine planted close to the doors.

BOOM!

A second second sharp shards slamming into the side of the MAX column. Suddenly, Vanu infantry and ZOE MAX units appeared in the doors and windows in the building ahead. Taylor heard shots from the walls to the side, from the treetops. Purple flashes started to land all around Taylor once more, and the world was chaos.

“AMBUSH!”

“MAN DOWN!”

“ZOE MAX!”

Burning wood and shredded leaves fell all around him. Hard smacks started to hit Taylor from the back as well as the front. Flares of a dozen speeding jet packs circled rapidly above his head. He turned, desperately firing at the rooftops, in the desperate hope of suppressing someone.

“Don’t stop! GO GO GO!” Thust cried out in panic, hiding from the fire in between his personal guard of MAX units in the centre of the platoon.

The forward MAX units made it to the front door despite the wall of fire, leaving several New Conglomerate soldiers behind in their marshy grave. Due to their sheer numbers they became stuck one behind the other in a desperate squeeze to breach the interior. Trapped at the back of this immobile deathtrap, Taylor searched despairingly for another way in. He caught a glint of light above.

“C4!” he cried.

He jumped back just in time as the explosives shattered the entrance to the building. Armour, arms, legs flew everywhere around Taylor, debris and blood raining down upon him. The entrance was full of billowing smoke, several New Conglomerate soldiers were coughing, limping, splayed over the ground surrounding the smashed entryway. But now at least, there was a small gap.

“Now’s your chance, kiddo, get in there!” Malloy coughed, picking himself up off the ground.

Taylor charged into the building at top speed, bounding over the thick debris of several fallen MAX suits. Turning right to the stairs, a Vanu light assault was still inspecting the result from his handiwork. Taylor ploughed into him at top speed, crushing him into the floor. A lone Vanu engineer hopelessly struggled to swivel his anti-personnel turret to face the oncoming beast – two slugs smashed the turret to pieces and the man was flattened by his unstoppable momentum.

Taylor’s charge function jammed, sending him running full speed past the stairs. A shotgun blast to the back sent him tumbling into the far wall. He smashed halfway through the concrete. Dazed, he cried out in frustration, and swivelled awkwardly to face a Vanu light assault drifting casually towards him, C4 in hand. Taylor desperately pulled at his arm to retaliate, but it was hopelessly trapped. ‘Crap, it’s over!’ he sighed, despondently awaiting the respawn tube.

Suddenly, a shotgun blast sent the trooper catapulting sideways through the air. The corpse punched into the side wall, his C4 bouncing precariously to a halt on the steps. The remainder of the New Conglomerate MAX crash piled into the building, whooping war cries at the top of their lungs. Despite their heavy losses, they pushed easily to the stairs and upwards, their scatter cannons cutting down the defending ZOE maxes with armour-piercing pellets and cannon-like slugs. Vanu light infantry leapt out of the windows in order to avoid the slaughter, crunching and rolling onto the earth below. In twenty seconds it was over; Bear platoon had won the point.

Malloy hauled Taylor off the wall, and they followed the victorious platoon up the stairs. Taylor winced as he limped – his armour was soon back in shape, but his body was painfully bruised and bleeding. When they got to the top, the base computer had already been hacked; point A was now under New Conglomerate control.

“OK Bear platoon.” Thust drawled, a large cut weeping across his ashen forehead. “Hold the point.” Barely able to hold himself upright, his shaking hands scrabbled at the wall for support.

Outside there was the sound of jet packs firing in the distance, the ominous clang of Vanu MAX units approaching. Taylor shook with fear. They were trapped. He turned to Malloy, who shook his greying hair in disbelief, the frustration evident in the deep creases that lined his face.

“Sir,” he advanced boldly towards Thust “there’s more than a platoon of Vanu here. Intel was wrong. We’re outnumbered. We have to get the spawn room generator back up or this operation’s over.”

Thust, swaying slightly as he moved, pulled out his commissioner.

“Insubordination… Malloy… Unacceptable.” He drawled, spit bubbling down his lip “I’M IN CHARGE HERE!”

As he brought up the pistol to the old miner’s face, Taylor tensed his muscles, preparing to intervene.

Suddenly, plasma shot tore through the air all around them.

“THE WINDOWS!” shouted Howie.

Taylor turned to see a trio of Vanu light assaults hovering just outside the point, raking the platoon with carbine fire. A grenade exploded just feet away from Taylor. Staggering sideways, he desperately returned fire through the thick dust. Two of his slugs tore through a light assault’s head and shoulder; the corpse buzzed lazily out of view. A conflagration of shotgun shells quickly finished off the few remaining attackers.

But the damage was done. Two more NC MAXes operators lay dead. Thust, laying flat on the ground, had a smoking hole straight through the chest. There were only five MAX units left, a few engineers, and Milly, the medic.

“We’re screwed!” Dean cried, a young rookie like Taylor himself “Let’s get out of here! Let’s get back to the pads and haul out!”

“Yeah, we don’t need to die again!” shouted his buddy, Michaels.

Malloy jumped into action without a moment’s hesitation, shouting down the wavering privates.

“That’s not how the NC do it! We can win this! An NC NEVER gives up!”

The survivors shifted nervously from foot to foot. Malloy continued unperturbed.

“LISTEN UP BEAR PLATOON! I AM your ranking officer. We’ll get our asses handed to us if we stay here. We gotta fix the gen now and get our boys and gals respawned up in the base. We can do this!!

On three, we run back out there, straight to the gen, got it? Hit it hard, hit it fast, and don’t look back. Got it?”

The room resounded with the sound of nervous agreement. Taylor felt a swell of pride as Malloy roused the platoon.

“WELL COME ON!!” Malloy roared “WE’RE BETTER THAN THAT! NEW CONG! NEW CONG! NEW CONG!”

Despite their fear, the survivors’ voices slowly rose to join the defiant chant. Soon, they were howling at the top of their lungs. Malloy nodded, a satisfied smile on his face.

“That’s more like it. One, two, THREE!”

The sound of creaking hydraulic joints filled the air as they bounded down the stairs to the side entrance. A disorganised squad of Vanu, who scrambled and jumped out the way as Bear platoon screamed past. Ignoring them, Taylor spotted the pitch black, smoking generator just thirty metres away. He weaved in between the rocks and trees, the bright purple and blue cross fire just a distant blur to him. Blood smacked onto his visor as plasma rounds struck him from the sides and back.

“KEEP IT GOING ROOKIE!!” Malloy cried behind him.

The giant, smoking generator hung almost free from its bearing in the half open central compound. With a final sprint, he made it. Somehow, Malloy had kept up, now panting heavily. Taylor sighed with relief, but there was no respite here. In the distance, he spotted a large group of Vanu desperately reforming to face them.

“Good work. TESTUDO FORMATION! Harrison will fix her up!” Malloy shouted.

The four remaining New Conglomerate MAX units formed a tight line to block the two engineers from incoming fire. Pulling out their aegis shields, they created an almost impenetrable barrier. Next to his head, the generator crackled and spat angrily as nano repair bots got to work.

“We got three minutes!” Malloy shouted nervously “Move it Harrison. I got your back, boys.”

Out of the quiet shadows surrounding the buildings facing the generator in a 180 degree angle, burning laser light, plasma and bullets ricocheted off the blue defence. Malloy’s constant green glow filled in the scratches and punctures on Taylor’s MAX suit that snuck past the barrier.

“ARGH!” a scream came from behind.

“Crap! They blew his danged hand off.” Malloy yammered nervously “I gotta take over. You’re on your own, boys.”

The Aegis shields spat and sputtered as the sheer volume of blows quickly drained the MAX unit batteries. But they held on. Taylor’s breathed more and more rapidly as the mysterious forms shifted on the edge of his vision, becoming bolder by the second. He fired randomly into the throng, the occasional scream and volleys of blood the only indication of success against these mute, intimidating ghouls. As the laser shot rained in, he started to panic, shifting from side to side. His body told him to run, to get out of here.

“Hold steady kid,” said Howie next to him flatly “takin’ shit and takin’ shots is what we’re here for.”

“THEY GOT LANCERS!” screamed Dean, the MAX operator to Taylors left. The corner of the generator wall flashed and hot shards of metal smashed into his helmet.

“HOLD STEADY DEAN!” Howie growled.

“WE’RE DEAD! WE GOTTA GET OUTTA HERE!” Dean stuttered.

It was too late. Dean tried to run from the projectile, turning away his shield. But the lancer shot crashed into him, blowing his armour apart from the inside. The ground shuddered as he crashed to the floor.

“Hold on dang it! Hold together!” Malloy cried.

A grenade exploded a few feet away, and shrapnel sent Michaels screaming to the ground, clawing at his helmet. Taylor gritted his teeth at the blood-curdling cry – desperately fighting the urge to run away. There were just two MAXes left – him and Howie. Howie’s huge, distinctive suit took the brunt of the assault, his thick front armour melting into a dripping, hole-filled mess. His two scatter cannons glowed red as he pounded one shotgun round after another into the baying mob. Shards and chunks of his suit fell off in large pieces as the burning rounds struck him relentlessly. A sniper shot ripped through the gap between his chest armour and his shoulder blade, he cried out in rage.

“I’M OUT!” he roared, panting over the comms “Good luck.”

Before Taylor could open his mouth, Howie was charging headfirst away from the generator. His Aegis shield flickered into nothingness as he piled into the Vanu infantry. He swung his mighty arm once, and then he was swallowed by the mass, completely enveloped in the silent darkness beyond. Taylor’s stomach dropped. He was completely alone against tens of Vanu infantry.

“GOT IT!” Malloy cried.

A loud shudder erupted next to Taylor’s head, and the generator hummed into life.

“Now, let’s just hold on until -”

BANG!

Taylor opened his eyes. He was sideways, in the wall looking out. Clammy, humid air roared into his suit, but his body was numb. Something was seriously wrong. His head pounded, the world was spinning before his eyes. His helmet was gone. His vision was red, one side was black. A sharp tug on his right – his vision filled with a burning, green glow.

A rapid mumbling in his ears. He could barely make it out over the intense ringing in his ears.

“…Taylor…before they blow…”

Where was he? Another tug. He turned an aching neck to his right. There’s a man – wait – I know him?! He’s pointing, panicked. He picks up his gun. More figures. Dark figures. He fires. Lights and sparks all around. He’s hit. He drops the gun. Anger. Leave him alone?!

Taylor bellowed in pain as he tore a crumpled leg away from the debris in the wall. Lurching to the right, he heaved his left arm upwards – the only arm that still responded. The world moving in slow motion, he pushed Malloy out of the incoming fire. Instinctively, he levelled his arm at a floating figure above his head and blasted twice – one shot tearing off his leg, the second blasting through the grenade satchel. A muted explosion, then body parts and clothing rained down upon the crowd of dark figures like confetti.

He didn’t feel the stinging shots anymore. His broken limbs crunched and he lurched out of control, Taylor careened towards the charging Vanu infantry. A slug from his outstretched arm popped another helmet like a pumpkin. Scattering sideways, the rest of the Vanu bolted for cover. His leg finally failing, Taylor crashed to the ground just outside the generator room, shots punching into his shredded armour. He lay on his side as dark figures surrounded him once again from the corner of his reddening vision. The world drifting away from him, his body numb from the pain, Taylor found he didn’t care anymore.

Suddenly, there was a barrage of explosions. The dark figures disappeared like ghosts in a thick haze of fire and smoke. Taylor made out the glint of gold, the ground shaking regularly with the thump of running feet. Brightly-coloured soldiers ran at top speed around and over his ragged body. Apart from one.

“TAYLOR?!” Malloy shook his shoulders, waved a hand in front of his eyes. Taylor found he could only gurgle back, punch-drunk.

“MEDIC!” he cried.

“Christ Taylor, you’re one tough son-of-a-bitch. One helluva show there. Wouldn’t want any other MAX covering my back.”

Taylor could only manage the smallest grin as the world faded slowly to darkness. It’s not too bad, the fifth time round.

“Hold on, son. I’m with you.” Malloy gave him a hard pat on his shoulder, his smiling face turning to concern.

“For Christ’s sake, where are they? MEDIC!”