[Fanfiction] Short X-Universe stories by Warenwolf

[Warenwolf]

Having some spare time I wrote this short story. It is somewhat different from the stories people read on this forum
I hope you enjoy it.



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The Last Trade Run


Johannes Holmstrand’s last trip. The one that would allow him to buy a green patch somewhere in the Three World’s sector, perhaps even a beachhouse. It would be a small house, but he wouldn’t need more. He lived by himself, his wife having left him many trade runs before.
Yep, that was his dream. Never to worry whether the life support system will break down after it had been patched by a mechanic scarcely being more knowledgeable than you. Never again wondering whether that Split patrol will let you pass or use you as target practice. Never again sweating over whether the Independents will decide to shoot you instead of paying you…

His Mercury transporter was half way in the Elena’s Fortune system. He had been awake for days, helped by the stims with names he couldn’t pronounce. Usually he wouldn’t done that, but he didn’t dare to sleep.
Johannes had been traveling all the way from Loo Manckstrat’s Legacy sector, from the infamous Anarchy Port. His cargo was so hot that any pirate and bounty hunter would be on his tail if they knew about it.
It was the first time Johannes had dealt in illegal wares. Reaching his fifties, he started to sum up his life. He had perhaps fifteen years of active life, according to statistics, and what did he have? A rusty transporter that wouldn’t have passed last inspection if he hadn’t bribed that inspector. There was no way he could sell it. And he had only 12.000 credits in the bank, not even enough for six months of living expenses.
The independent merchant’s life was a hard one. Without jumpdriver a trip across the space was a long one. The price you checked via economic report could change at the time you arrive. Or the price speculators may have dumped prices. Then there were the corporations that simply refused to acknowledge that they had any deals with you. What could you do? They could hire armies of lawyers while you perhaps couldn’t even afford the ticket to the trial. And of course there were always pirates that lurked around…
Johannes had been ruined several times during his career.
Then one day he got this tip from an old friend. A dangerous cargo transport. From Anarchy Port to a Cloudbase SE smuggling station, which he knew well. Normally Johannes would have dismissed the entire idea. But not that day.

He arrived at Anarchy Port and docked without problems. His mercury looked gargantuan beside smaller Orinco’s and pirate smuggling ships. Few pirates gawked at the ship, unused to see the pray they usually hunted inside the lion’s den.
The agreement and consequent transfer of goods aboard his ship went surprisingly smoothly. Whoever run the Anarchy Port, run it smoothly and he actually felt safe in the place. He got a good sleep before he undocked and made his way to sector’s North gate. His anxieties returned as he kept looking at scanners. There were plenty of pirates docking and undocking with the station, but no one seemed to follow him.
Finally he entered the gate. Once on the other side he slipped by the border patrol by following a boron resupply ship, pretending to be part of the convoy. Johannes knew that it was just beginning on a long, dangerous and strenuous trip. While Teladi patrol ships may be lax in their duties, the Boron patrol’s in neighboring Great Trench system, were not. He followed the convoy through the system and within an hour he was in Boron space. Customs and border patrols were all guarding the West gate, Johannes could hear from the chatter between the ships in the convoy. Until then, he was in doubt whether to take the Pirate Run or not. The patrols scanning every ship on the West gate decided the matter for him. He broke from the convoy and headed to the Federation space.
When he reached the Aladna Hill sector he took his first stim postponing the moment as long as he could. Normally he would have used 9 hours to cross the three sectors, but instead he had used 34 hours, avoiding the central path, making a roundabout tour around the populated zones. Now and then, he would pause next to the asteroid, pretending to be a mobile miner so that his route wouldn’t seem suspicious to those that watched the satellite feeds.
His arms and legs felt like lead and his head was hurting. The life support system was again making problems, increasing the carbon dioxide levels in the air. So he decided to take his first stim. After all he was about to enter the Pirate Run, the string of systems between Hatikvah’s Faith to Farnham’s Legend. Independent systems where pirates had free reign, not hindered by local rulers and sometimes even encouraged by the same rulers.
Hatikvah’s Faith was quiet, unlike the Nopileos Memorial, where he run into a battle between pirate clan and a convoy. The convoy ships were scattered and easy targets for pirates. One by one, the transporters were destroyed or abounded. Finally, the pirate broke off their attack and flew past his Mercury, ignoring the slow transporter. Their cargos were obviously full. It took few seconds for Johannes to realize that the banging nose he was hearing was his heart working at 180.
The scene kept repeating itself next few sectors, orgy of destruction where Johannes was latest arrival, to late to be part of destruction each time.
In Split Fire, he run into a battle between Pirate clans’ and he used his last ECM decoy after a stray missile locked on him. Slowly he progressed trough system while ships were blown apart around him and occasional shot depleted his cheap shield generators few percents.
When he left the Split Fire’s gate behind him, Johannes’ hair, which until now was black, had turned to grey. With shaking hands, he took two blue pills that supposed to keep him calm. He calmed down somewhat. The scanners showed that the sector was empty, except for the few traders heading to Elisa’s Elysium bootleg shipyard. Without further problems, he reached the President’s End.

His heart sunk seeing the two police ships setting their course towards him. However just as he wondered if he could turn the ship and run away, the patrol were recalled by the Trading Station. The Trading Station began sending “Dangerous Sector” warning on emergency frequencies. They urged all ships to leave the system immediately.
So what, Johannes thought. I have been through hell for this, one pirate raid isn’t going to stop me now…
In few minutes his scanners showed unrecognized ship signatures attacking the stations in the sector. His anxiety was growing, prompting him to take another stim pill. Calm down, whoever it is, they are busy with station, he told himself. Few more minutes and he will be through the South gate. Then ten more minutes and he would be two millions richer…
The thoughts of the reward and the beach house he would buy with it, calmed him down.

Perhaps the stims dulled his senses or the old scanner had finally broken down, but Johannes got no warning when the alien ship jumped into the system, almost next to the Mercury. The ship then disintegrated into smaller triangular ships.
The thoughts of a new house never managed to leave his mind before the old shield generator was overloaded and gave in. The beams of the triangular ships shredded the hull and the vacuum did the rest.
And so did the Johannes’ last trip end.


The End

[Warenwolf]

This time I wanted to write a land combat based story, set in the X-Universe. The plot takes place at Olmancketslat’s World (planet mentioned in BBS, in articles regarding conflict on that planet). Drop me a line (PM or comment) if you liked this story.




Info gathered from BBS articles:
Olmancketslat’s World’s civil war is war between SCS and AFS, both federations of several semi-independent states and citystates. Population on the planet is highly mixed with only Boron race being absent.

Squadrists:
Squadristi or something is WW2 Blackshirts. I changed the word slightly. They are enforcers, so to say, of the warlord of the city of Okha, Gunter (no last name known).





War Dog


“Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war”*
from Julius Caesar by Shakespeare.





The war came to sleepy village unexpected and violently, as the war always does. They came early in the morning, flying low, almost touching the waves in order to avoid the sensor antennas in the village. The two grey T-12 transporters separated, one landing in the open plaza in the center of the village, the other landing at the road leading in the village. The transporters disgorged Squadrists and the outworld mercenaries, who rushed to their positions, blocking any escape routes.
Hamid the Merchant’s two sons who very early that morning, preparing their fishing nets, tried to run in the jungle, only to be cut down by a salvo from a PMD. Steven who was already in his boat, tried to start the engine but the Squadrists were faster and opened fire. Steven slumped over the boats engine, his head gone.
Groups of soldiers went from house to house, rounding up young people and forcing them all to the plaza. Wk’ts and his wife Pli’str of family Tkl’str were immediately shot by Squadrists – Split were dangerous and SCS was supported by Split. Lord of Squadrists, Warlord Gunter was on AFS side. Family Tkl’str was on no ones side but Squadrists never asked.
They came into Saul’s house too, crushing his mother’s treasured china and hitting his father several times in the face. Two mercenaries dragged him out of his bed and forced him out of the door.
The village youth was ordered to form a line and Squadrist officer, a man with glasses reminding Saul of his schoolteacher, walked around and looked everyone in their eyes. Saul looked at his mother, who was held tight by his father. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. He tried to form a smile on his face, to reassure her and signal to her that everything would be all right, but he failed miserably.
Finally, the officer stopped walking around, looked at the people gathered and spoke,
“By order of Gunter, your overlord and protector, every village has to provide men for defense of our territory…”
The officer stopped, as if reconsidering whether he should bother explaining anything to these dirty villagers, then simply waved his hand and called over one of the mercenaries. He pointed out the men and women he wanted and soldiers started gathering them and pushing them into T-12’s cargobay. Saul heard the scream of his mother as he too was pointed out and one of the soldiers grabbed him and started pushing him into the cargobay. He tried to turn to see his parents one last time but all he got was slap in the face from the soldier. Twenty people were crammed in the transporter and then the doors were closed.




“Private Saul,” the fat officer called out of the door. Young man in his twenties entered. His face looked like it belonged to someone twice his age. His uniform was old but it was clean and well kept. His shoes, one number too small, had been cut open in the front to give relief to his feet.
“Two silver strips,” the officer said and threw the two strips across the table. Saul collected them and walked outside. Another young man, this one with tattered uniform and unclean, long hair walked over to him.
“You noticed the strips?”
“Not here Remul. In barracks,” Saul said glancing over to the group of Squadrists over the street. Luckily they were too busy groping whores to be paying attention to what two soldiers from Auxiliary Battalions were saying.

“They are making fools of us! The strips are one third shorter then they were year ago! Do they think we are blind!?” Remul was ranting, showing everyone his silver strip.
“The way you shoot it is no surprise they assume you are,” someone said and people laughed.
Saul smiled too. Despite being in Auxiliary one year, Remul still haven’t learned the rules. The entire “pay” thing was a joke. You got either two or three strips of silver per month. And then you had to pay for your food and supplies that month in Lord Gunter shops. Which invariably would amount to whatever you had received in pay that month. If some soldiers tried to save up some silver, that was just fine for Gunter. It only meant that fewer of the supplies were sold and spent, easing the burden for his supply lines. Only thing that was free was the energy storage cells for their K67 assault lasrifles.
Still shortening of silver strips worried Saul too. Lord Gunter was having less funds on his hand, enough to be borrowing from the silver strips that were recycled each month. He had checked prices on his way to the barracks – there were exactly same as last month, when the strips had been longer. The same situation had happened for two months and plenty of soldiers were half-starved. To Saul, this was a sign that strategic situation was changing to Lord Gunter’s disfavor and the warlords income was drying up.
Saul found out what exactly had changed the next morning as he was cleaning up the office of captain Vukic. The fat officer was obviously afraid as he was receiving the latest update on developments on the front. The sweat was pouring down his forehead as he listened to the com. His hand was shaking but he did not notice and he was too mesmerized by the message to remember to order Saul out.
The last SCS offensive had broken the lines and their entire Operative Group West marched towards the city of Okha, the “capital” of warlord Gunter’s mini-empire. Their advance threatened Highway 16, the route connecting several city states to Okha. But more importantly once SCS reached the Highway they would have access to wide pawed road straight to Okha, perfect transport route for armor and supplies in an otherwise dense and impenetrable jungle. Saul dared to take a glance on strategic map. The main thrust of SCS’s battle group OG West was somewhere between Lexstadt and Okha. Silch, a port on the other end of Highway 16 was already in the hands of SCS and if SCS managed to isolate Lexstad, the city that had been a roadblock so far to the SCS advances from South, would fall. With Highway 16 under SCS control all the way to Silch and with supplies coming through Silch’s port, SCS would take Okha with ease.
Later, returning to barracks, Saul was in deep thoughts. The SCS offensive meant that Lord Gunter time was at end. Saul wouldn’t miss him but the offensive implied that Auxiliary Regiment would certainly be deployed somewhere between Lexstadt and Okha to try to stop SCS advance. Saul had seen enough combat last two years, both against SCS and Lord Gunter’s rivals to know that no force on the planet would stop SCS offensive. Other city states were too far away to offer any assistance.
Back in barracks, he heard that group of outworld mercenaries had massacred a unit of Squadrists and had escaped in the jungle. Rats are leaving the sinking ship, Saul thought. He shared with others news he had heard. Just as he finished, a Squadrists officer entered along with five other Squadrists.
They pointed their weapons at Auxiliary soldiers and officer barked his order,
“All gather your equipment and be ready for deployment. Entire Auxiliary Regiment is loading into T-12s in ten minutes.”
Saul cursed silently. Situation was bad, no doubt about it. He expected Auxiliary to be deployed but this soon!? Was SCS advancing so fast?


The T-12 landed in groups of four, unloading soldiers and then returning to Okha for more. Saul was in first group. He left T-12 quickly, putting as much distance from it as possible. Plenty of Saul’s friends the last two years had died when the T-12 they had just unloaded from had been hit by a rocket.
He and rest of the twelve men team spread out and started securing the landing zone. Remul was just setting up a communication relay, when a crack like that of the sniper rifles SCS used was heard. He dropped the relay antenna on the ground, falling over it screaming. Nobody tried to help him. That was just what the sniper was waiting for.
“Anybody saw him?” Saul heard over the com. He looked over at Remul. The seventeen-year-old kid was crying, trying to stop the flow of his blood with his hands. Judging by the amount that was flowing out, Saul doubted Remul would celebrate his eighteen birthday.
Clearing his minds of the thoughts, he scanned the tree line. A short flash as the sniper killed another soldier revealed sniper’s position to Saul. There was no way Saul could use his K67 on this range. It would only reveal his position and get him killed. The engines of approaching T-12 could be heard. As silently as he could, he spoke, “This is Auxiliary Company Dread on LZ. We got sniper situation on the LZ Initial. I repeat: sniper situation on LZ Initial.”
Now he had to hope that ID of his com unit was working. Otherwise the T-12 would just ignore his message.
“This is Bad Boy to whoever is speaking. Tell me where the sniper is and I am frying him”
“340 to 350 meter, 33 degrees west from my position”
“I got your position localized, I will commence the attack run now. Keep your heads down if you want to keep them”
The T-12 came roaring down from the skies, over the clearing and Saul. It fired stream of 40mm rockets on the position Saul had designated. As T-12 climbed away, Saul reported, “Bad Boy, your package is on target, I repeat package right on target”
“What did you expect? Now clear that LZ so I can unload these troops. Bad Boy out.”
Saul and rest of the company carefully searched woods around the clearing, without finding any sign of enemy activity. Saul found the remains of the SCS sniper team. Whatever was left of it. There had been three of them, all armed with chemical propellant sniper rifles that SCS started to employ recently. No doubt, the men had been pressed into service just as Saul had been. SCS preserved its professional mercenary sniper units for more important task than this team had been sent on. Probably they had been tasked with information gathering but couldn’t resist the temptation in such target rich area. They paid for their mistake with their lives. Saul walked away, leaving the remains of the dead snipers.

Soon the company moved out to its deployment zone. The SCS recon units were near. One of the south LZs had been overrun by a SCS light battalion. They had been driven back but the regiment lost good portion of its S2A systems on that LZ. After few hours of fumbling, most of the regiment along with Squadrists companies took position along a line running parallel with the highway, linking up with Lexstad garrison.


End of part one, more will be added in time (not too long I hope).







*The military order “Havoc!” was a signal during the Middle Ages for English soldiers to pillage and wreck chaos.

[Paranoid66]

Nice very down to earth understated X3 I'm jealous. All my characters have suddenly become overblown.

[Warenwolf]

I take you are praising "War Dog"?
It just happens that this kind of stories come very easily to me. When it comes to Unknown Heroes (long story with over 100.000 words, more conventinal in style by Creative Universe standards) I am more on, let us say, thin ice

[tempaccount]

Hi, this is part two of the War Dog story. Some of you may wonder why I post under other username. Well the story is that on friday last week, I couldn't log in the forums. Thinking that I simply mistyped the password I retried several times without luck. I tried "I forgot my password" option but that didn't work well (I was reminded that because security resons the egosoft can't send me passwords within timespace of 15 minutes )
I mailed Abyss and Stormsong telling them about the problem but the two of them did not respond. I established this account and sent them PM to no avail. Then on monday "send me new password option" worked and I recived new password. Then today, I tried the new password - it did not work. I retried 5 times. The system locked me out for 30 minutes. Of course all this makes me paranoid. I log in this account and see that Abyss had sent me new password yesterday, rendering the one I got on monday non-valid .
Well at least the issue had been resolved but take lesson from above story
- don't forget your password!!! (although I doubt I forgot mine)
- check your PMs and emails more often


Anyways here is part two of war dog






War Dog - part 2







Soon the company moved out to its deployment zone. The SCS recon units were near. One of the south LZs had been overrun by a SCS light battalion. They had been driven back but the regiment lost good portion of its S2A systems on that LZ. After few hours of fumbling, most of the regiment along with several Squadrists companies took position along a line running parallel with the highway, linking up with Lexstad garrison.
Saul’s company was supposed to get transport to their positions but hoovertrucks were nowhere to be seen.
“Did the boss screw up again?” John asked, the company’s AT – gunner.
“Nah, the Lexstadt guys are to blame. The were supposed to pick us up,” a man answered, an unknown face to Saul. The company was full of new faces he didn’t recognize.
“Guns up, the transport is here!” the sergeant yelled.
Four, instead of promised five, hoovertrucks entered the clearing. Men moaned in chorus. Nobody liked the idea of being transported as tight as packed fish in cans for several kilometers.
One of the drivers jumped out of his hoovertrucks and headed for the jungle in order to take a leak.
“Where is the fifth truck?” John asked him in the passing. The truck driver waved his hand and answered, “He bought it. Drones.”
“Isn’t road covered by Lexstadt’s AA batteries?”
“Taken out by SCS commando raid last week…”
“Perfect,” John commented to Saul, “as if Split attack bots weren’t enough to worry about, now we have to worry about air attacks too. Great! Just great…”
“Shut it soldier,” the sergeant warned John, “get your gear and yourself aboard those trucks.”

The trip went uneventful. They passed the burned out truck, the soldiers in the hoovertrucks silent as they all watched the two charred lumps of what had once been living beings. They faces turned upwards, with their eyes searching for telltale white streak indicating presence of attack drones.
But it seemed that drones had gone elsewhere in their search for pray.

Twenty minutes later, they arrived at the outskirt of the Lexstadt. The soldiers quickly unloaded from the hoovertrucks and started searching for their positions. The few buildings remained in what once was a vibrant city. SCS had attacked mercilessly the city that had blocked their advance towards Okha. Now with SCS’s OG West threatening to cut off the city, the last refugees were fleeing Lexstadt. Their moved silently, not even protesting as Squadrists moved among them, taking away the few remaining valuables those wretched people still possessed. Only few screams could be heard as Squadrists started to take away younger women.
Saul turned away his head, ignoring the screams. There was nothing he could do to help. Instead he focused on their positions. The Lexstadt garrison had been lazy when it comes to digging trenches. They were too shallow and too straight. He and John jumped out in disgust. If a shell hit the trench lot of men would die from fragments.
“How about that bulldozer?” John asked, pointing out a burned out bulldozer beside a devastated house.
“The ruins will block the view to our left,” Saul pointed out skeptically.
“Nah, the PMD nest got it covered”
Saul nodded his head in agreement and they started to dig out a foxhole under bulldozer’s ram. Hopefully the SCS soldiers attention would be drawn to the trench and they would ignore their ambush position. And the bulldozer provided above cover from drones’ sensors.
They worked for half hour and then looked satisfied at their work. As they carried away the dug out earth to throw it in the ruins of the devastated house, so that enemy wouldn’t be alerted by a pile of newly dug out earth, John commented, “Saul is it just me or has the volume of shooting to the south suddenly increased?”
In that moment, the voice of the captain crackled through the com, “We got armored attack from direction of Silch. Company Dread, be prepared for the eventuality that enemy will try an enveloping attack.”
“Will try!? Probably it would be their main thrust!” Jake said as the two of them run towards their freshly dug position.

They didn’t need to wait long for SCS to try to dislodge them. Few drones appeared over the jungle. They were what soldiers called “duster” variants. This type of drones were basically a engine attached to a metal tube with avionics in the middle of the tube, while front served as ammo magazine for the two AGL* that were mounted on its two wings. The two dusters attempted to strife their positions, but two 35 mm Quad HMGs opened fire on them and the drones exploded, achieving nothing except spectacularly exploding.
But whoever was in command on the other end wasn’t stupid. Barrage of ELMAG* mortar shells immediately started hitting positions of Quads, their position given away by their fire on the drones. Two more drones arrived and now they started strafing their positions unmolested. One couldn’t do anything except hunker down and hope for the best as the wave after wave of drones attacked.
When the aerial attacks ceased half hour later, Saul knew that it was time for the real thing.
The sounds of motor engines could be heard and two “walker” remote controlled robots appeared accompanied by human infantry that darted from cover to cover. The robots consisted of metal armored body with two “legs” where the “feet” were actually tracks. The bots could “walk” when it was necessary to travel across rough terrain, while the tracked section offered speed on flat terrain.
It was these tracked sections that Jake aimed for. Saul tapped him on the shoulder.
“Wait, let us wait for artillery. We’ll have to separate the infantry from the walkers, otherwise they will pour everything they got on our position,” Saul warned.
“Nah. Soon they will be too close to our lines for artillery. It is now or never,” Jake said calibrating his weapon one final time. Then he fired.
The missile found its target but it failed to detonate on impact. Nevertheless whoever was remotely controlling the walkers seemed to think that the walkers were in too great danger and he ordered them to retreat at full speed. Unfortunately for a soldier that was right behind the walker Jake fired on. The walker trampled him to death.
The remaining infantry tried assaulting their position but without bot support they were doomed to fail. PMD fire suppressed them while sniper teams picked them off.
“Bots behind us!” someone screamed on the com. Jake quickly turned his AT system around. The bot was walking behind their line and firing at PMD and AT positions. The Jake aimed and fired. Someone else had fired too and two missiles impacted on the main body of the bot. The black smoke came out and then series of explosions as the ammunition in the bot ignited. The SCS infantry in meantime launched an all out assault on their position.
While Jake looked for other bots behind their lines, Saul watched the front. A SCS soldier, human dressed in one of their militia uniforms, tried to run towards the destroyed house in attempt to use it as cover.
Saul took aim with his K67 lasrifle. The target was so close that he didn’t wait for targeting computer to acquire the target. He just fired once. The SCS soldier fell to the ground. One more soldier ducked up and sprayed the ruined house with grenades from his AGL, thinking that Saul was in there. Once again Saul fired and the grenadier fell.
He heard Jake firing again and following explosion.
“One more bot is down. How are things on your end?”
“Two enemy inf down.”
Moments later ELMAG mortar shells started landing around them. They were on airburst mode, exploding twenty to ten meters above the ground, spraying the ground with rain of deadly fragments. But the overhead cover in form of the old bulldozer proved sufficient.
After the shelling ended, another SCS infantry team tried to advance towards the ruined house, deploying smoke and jammers to cover their approach. They haven’t yet figured out the Jake’s and his position, Saul thought. Which was strange since he and Jake haven’t had the time to carry away all of the freshly dug earth.
Saul took careful aim at what appeared to be their team leader. He waited until targeting computer obtained solution and then fired. In his scope he could see how the man’s face contorted as the meat where laser had hit boiled. Then his uniform took fire but the man was already dead by then. The rest of SCS team hunkered down which was stupid thing to do – the company’s own mortar shells started hitting them as John acted as the mortar teams’ forward observer. The SCS soldiers never had chance.

SCS did not give up that easily. They assaulted the position three more times with walkers and infantry before changing the direction of their attack. Saul wiped away the sweat from his forehead. The fighting had been vicious and lasted for hours. He was barely holding his lasrifle. The barrel was too hot to hold and he had been forced to perform emergency repairs twice when the accentuators had melted.
“One more attack like that and I would have surrendered,” Jake said, his voice strained.
“It seems that they shifted focus on positions to our north”
Their coms came to life with sergeant’s voice, “OK people, the 3rd will relief you. Reposition into the city.”
The remaining soldiers packed up and staggered over to their assigned new position. There was noticeably fewer of men left but Saul was too tired to count. Some of the dead were even friends but he did not mourn them, instead focusing his thoughts on other things. Focusing on the sad things in war was as dangerous as a laser beam through your head, a lesson he learned early.
It was forty minutes walk through destroyed city before they arrived in what had been school before. The second floor was demolished and only burned out first floor remained but it was more than good for the tired soldiers.
Saul found a place for himself and tried to get some sleep. The bombing did not bother him. SCS focused their artillery on the approaches to the city, leaving the city itself alone.
He sunk into a dreamless sleep.

Saul awoke from shouts of the soldiers outside the building. He grabbed his rifle, checked it and looked around. It was dark outside, he must have slept for hours. Several other were awake too from the shouting outside, their rifles in ready position.
Suddenly, a soldier from Lexstadt garrison runs inside. Seeing score of lasrifles pointing in his direction he screamed, “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot!”
“What is happening?” someone asked the terrified soldier.
“The hill is taken!”
“Which hill?”
“There is only one freakin’ hill that is overlooking the city! The OG West has also struck at full force north from here and has broken through.”
“Damn! Is this confirmed?”
“Yeah. When OG West’s armor broke through in north, they turned south along the highway towards the city. Entire Auxiliary regiment panicked they said. I saw Squadrists shooting at some of Auxiliary people hour ago. When asked around what had happened, they said they were taking revenge for Auxiliary’s failing to hold the line”
Someone swore. Most people were too shocked to react.
“So we are isolated and city has effectively fallen…”
“That sums it up. The SCS forces have stopped temporarily because of the darkness. In the morning….” The sentence remained unfinished but everyone knew what morning would bring.

The men quickly split up in small groups. Officers had no longer control of the unit and Squadrists were too few to stop the company’s disintegration. Not that the remaining Squadrists even pretended to do so. They were among the first to start deserting.
The large portions of western parts of the city bordering the jungle were not yet under SCS control and it was there most people headed. Jake and Saul joined up. Jake discarded his AT system and picked up a K621 energy shotgun.
The streets were full of soldiers that tried to leave the city. Two of them forced their way through the mass and moved towards west, through the maze of streets. Soon there was fewer soldiers around and two of them tried to avoid large streets. Shooting around them increased in intensity. Obviously the lines of separation were fluid here. The two of them moved along a quiet street with burned houses at both sides, while full fledged battle apparently raged just two streets away. The two men moved silently, listening for voices and sounds.
“Stop where you are! Who are you guys?” suddenly a voice was heard in front of them.
“Relax, it is just us,” Saul said before he and Jake threw themselves to the ground shooting. Jake’s K621 barked twice, lightning up the night. Three soldiers lay on the ground dead. SCS by the types of their weapons, Saul thought. By pure chance they killed SCS soldiers. In this darkness and situation, we might have just as easily killed our own side…
As the two of them run away, the street came alive with laser and projectile fire. Saul jumped over a fence and run over a lawn at same time trying to make himself as small target as possible. A silent scream came from Jake and he slumped to the ground. Saul couldn’t stop and help his friend – it was too dangerous. He jumped over his doomed friend and continued on, ignoring the pleas from Jake.
He continued running, stopping only after his lounges felt as they were being burned. By this time he had already reached the outskirts of the city and he could see the jungle that started few hundred meters away. Saul dropped to the ground and started to crawl over the clearing. Now and then, he could hear voices of people talking, sometimes only few meters away. Saul progressed painfully slowly, but he knew better than to stand up. After one hour of crawling he reached the first trees. He cautiously stood up and continued towards the north, walking slowly and carefully.

Night turned to day and then to night again. Saul never stopped walking, heading deeper and deeper in the jungle. His throat was dry and hunger was starting to really bother him, when a T-12 overflow him and landed somewhere in the east.
A T-12 here? As far as Saul knew SCS did not use T-12 type transporters. He picked up the speed, ignoring the protests of his exhausted body, and headed westward where the T-12 had landed. Ten minutes later he arrived at the clearing where T-12 was parked. It was another Harvest.
The Squadrist team had already gathered men and chained them, ready to be transported to Okha. That the situation was desperate for the lord Gunter was obvious. The officers had not bothered with selecting the most able men – instead everybody in the village that could carry a weapon had been chained. The Squadrists were now focusing their attention on any potential loot from the village. Couple of them were casting hungry looks at scared women. Another familiar sight for Saul – mother crying for her boy.
Something snapped in him. Perhaps it was the lack of food or water. Maybe it was the jungle. Or perhaps two years participation in a war he never wanted or cared for. Whatever it was, Saul raised his lasrifle and fired.
The pilot died first as he sat outside the transporter, taking a smoke. Next, a Squadrist died as he walked towards the prisoners. The lasrifle was silent – the only sign of the carnage it was causing was the smell of burnt flesh. Five more soldiers died before their comrades noticed what was happening. General panic ensued. Squadrists, used to being gods, deciding who will live and who will die, found themselves in reverse role. And they had no idea how to handle it. They died one by one, despite the fact that they outnumbered the sole attacker. In span of five minutes, every single one of them was dead – not single shot had been fired at Saul.
Saul moved around jungle for ten more minutes, shifting positions and checking the village from every angle, making sure he didn’t overlook someone. Then he moved in the village, checking the bodies of dead Squadrists. Finally he walked over to prisoners and unlocked their restrains. The crowd looked at him silently, shocked at the latest turn of events.
A woman tried to tell him something, but Saul couldn’t hear her because of the sound of the engines as he started the T-12. He smiled at her and she smiled back. As he lifted of, he hovered for moment, thinking where to. Then he sat course for a tiny village, a place where the vast jungle met the sea. He headed home.




*The military order “Havoc!” was a signal during the Middle Ages for English soldiers to pillage and wreck chaos.




Few words and concepts explained.


AGL:
Automatic Grenade Launcher, self-explanatory.

ELMAG Mortar:
Mortar where propulsion for the shells are provided by magnetic force fields

HMG:
Heavy Machine Gun

PMD:
Portable MD that soldiers can carry around. Sort of a machinegun. Used in heavy machine gun role.