Team Charlie

"Quick, open the cache." Reminded Oracle. Adriano wordlessly nodded and looked down at the oval object he had tightly hugged for the whole trip.

The metal turned by itself and opened in front of his eyes. Inside he found a tripod-like object (the teleporter, according to Oracle.), three separated gun parts he had to assemble himself, and a knife.

"What the hell am I supposed to do with this? I-" Before he could continue venting his grievance at not having received any training or preparation, he gave a double look to the segmented weapon. His hands moved instinctually, and he seamlessly assembled it.

He had been assigned a kinetic assault rifle that shot explosive tungsten shells. A name surfaced in his mind as he had just remembered it. "Reaper Mk7."

"I've already injected the required knowledge in your subconscious, everything about your loadout and how to use it, relax and follow your instincts."

Adriano caressed the smooth surface of the weapon and immediately felt an intimate connection. He could tell how many of the hundred and twenty bullets he had left just as good as he could tell he had a headache or how a drop of blood was traveling down his forehead.

Placing the rifle on the side, he took care of the most important device, the teleporter module. He rotated the spherical top three times and then set the tripod on the ground.

The sphere hovered in the air and then expanded into a vertical ring. A vortex of green energy whirled inside, and a moment later, Adriano could see the inside of the ship where he had been for less than a minute.

Huge super-soldiers, over three meters tall and clad from toe to head in power armors, quickly stepped out and secured the perimeter by setting up metal barriers and automatic turrets. Their every step shook the floor, and Adriano couldn't even imagine how much strength they possessed to carry such weight while smoothly moving.

The turret's triple barrels spun around with a whirr, releasing an unspoken threat. "F**k around and find out, three-thousand bullets at a time."

The stark difference between him and those mechanized gods of destruction made him doubt whether they were even humans like him. The only resemblance they shared was the number of limbs and their colors.

They ignored the slack-jawed Adriano sitting on the floor and observing them efficiently finishing up the defenses of the FOB. (Forward Operating Base.)

A dozen power armors had already stepped into the ship. Without speaking a word, they split in two and headed out in different directions disappearing in the turns and twists of the halls.

"Congratulation, you managed to complete your primary directive!" Oracle celebrated in his ear. "Does that mean I get to go back now?" He hopefully asked between frightened looks at the end of the corridor, imagining the dangers hiding behind the corners.

"Haha, no, silly. Your new mission is to join team Charlie and draw attention away from the Republic's special forces. Additional details will be provided as needed." She quickly thwarted his hopes.

"Where even is team Charlie?" he asked, looking around but finding no one.

As if answering his words, hundreds of people started streaming out of the portal like an endless wave of black locusts. Some were wearing the bare uniform like him, and others with varying degrees of extra protection and supplementary weapons.

He silently watched the hundreds of soldiers splitting into groups of twenty and leaving together until someone tapped his shoulder. Adriano turned his head and, while sitting, could already see eye to eye with the stranger that tapped him.

"You are the daredevil that established the beachhead, yeah?" A little person asked while sizing him up. He didn't wait for an answer and continued. "I wanted to thank you personally. Volunteers for the ride of hell are always rare because of the whole ninety-nine dot nine percent fatality rate." Wearing a conning smile, the man took Adriano's hand and vigorously shook it.

Adriano wanted to deny the whole volunteer part of this suicide mission, but as the people heard the man's words, they all came forward and started shaking his hands and patting his back.

"A volunteer for the Hell tour?"

"Someone is actually mad enough to try?"

"Hope some of your luck will rub on me."

"kyaaa, I'm never gonna wash my hand again!"

Adriano tried identifying the man that had screamed like a lady, but the hubbub of people clamoring to touch him quickly blocked his view.

"You know, newbie, luck is not everything." A lanky young man with a katana strapped to his back crouched in front of Adriano and offered a vial of black liquid. "But it would be a shame to let such a pair of steel balls go to waste. This is Panacea. As long as you still draw breath, drink it to survive another day."

Adriano's hands humbly accepted the vial and added the man, Wilford Wonka, to his contacts.

Ten minutes later, when everyone had finished giving gifts, adding him to their contacts and shaking his hands, hoping for some luck to rub off; Adriano finally looked in disbelief at the small pile of trinkets and explosives at his feet.

"Good haul." the little person walked to the pile and started plucking a few objects into his pocket. "Half to me and half to you, deal?" He smiled mischievously.

Adriano finally understood. He hadn't been mistaken for a suicidal volunteer. He had been made into one for a scam! He nodded, feeling an odd sense of friendship towards this sly individual.

"Smart kid." He approved with a nod. "Lance corporal Charlie Kirk, the leader of the makeshift team Charlie. At your service." He introduced with a satisfied smile. "this behind me is the rest of the team Charlie, don't bother with introductions. We got work to do."

Adriano kept the vial of Panacea in his breast pocket and placed the rest of the loot, two magnetic grenades, and a flashbang, on his waist, where they remained attached. On the other side, he placed the dagger, or as the army called it, a progressive blade, the edge would produce high-frequency vibrations and cut through almost anything.

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The 20 men team Charlie walked in a loose formation with plenty of space between them. Tension was palpable as they advanced through the dark halls. The lights had gone out at some point, and now they were forced to use rifle-mounted torchlights.

Apprehensive of making noise, they tried keeping quiet under the order of Team leader Charlie.

The silence of the desolate corridors frequently echoed with church bells ringing, followed by prayers. The many alien voices eerily chanted in unison, honoring their deities and consecrating the intruders to them.

(consecrating is the association of something or someone to the divine. Romans used to consecrate criminals by sacrificing them to the gods of hell, but it can also mean to recruit or bless.)

An explosion rocked the ship. Its booming thunder reverberated throughout the passageways.

Spooked, Team Charlie competed for who could dive to the ground faster. As the ship's rocking died down and they were still alive, team Charlie slowly got up.

"That was a big one, aye?" Lennox, one of the three tech specialists on the team, asked, rubbing his head.

"Aye. We must be kicking their arses." A red-headed woman, Rossana, stated.

"Tech, Red Newbie. Shh! If you have something important to share, use your Oracle comms. Otherwise, keep it down." Charlie ordered through his Oracle. It had a voice-chat function that allowed everyone to communicate telepathically. However, to most, it would simply slip out of their mind when they wanted to speak.

Charlie observed a radar that showed signs of movement in a two-hundred-meter radius and cursed under his breath when two red dots appeared on its fringe.

"Everyone down, turn off your flashlights. Techs, barriers in front. Scouts, share your infrared. Newbies, get ready for your fire baptism."

Everyone hid behind the waist-high walls placed by the techs and pointed their weapons on the other side of the corridor. A holographic crosshair showing the calculated trajectory of the bullets appeared in Adriano's eyes. The videogame-like experience did little to ease the tense nerves.

As the flashlight died down, the passage plumbed in total darkness. However, thanks to the information passed by Oracle from the scout's infrared, everyone had a rudimentary idea of the world around.

Cold surfaces turned blue, and as it got progressively warmer, yellow, orange, and finally red.

Adriano turned his eyes to Charlie, the uniform kept most of his body blue, mixed with the surroundings, but his glowing orange-red head gave him away.

"Lizards and squids don't appear on infrared, so don't trust the equipment too much. The second they enter reach, whether you see something or not, open fire."

The world went quiet as Charlie stared at the radar. "10 meters."

"5 meters."

"2 meters."

"1 meter, get ready. They are turning the corner."

Even the most sharp-eared couldn't hear anything and nervously caressed the trigger.

Everyone held their breath as anxiety took hold. This would be the first encounter for six members of this small fire team.

The red dots moved, indicating they were right in front of them, but nothing appeared on the infrared.

"Fire!" Without hesitation, Charlie shot two magnetically accelerated chained cannonballs.

A dozen and a half gun sprayed their ammunition in a downpour of superheated metal. The light of the bullets overwhelmed the infrared, painting the world red, and everyone just kept blindly firing in front of them.

"DIE!DIE!DIE!DIE!DIE!"

"Take this! You cold-blooded F****!"

"RATATATATATATA!"

Some screamed as they fired, and others cursed, but as the guns progressively ran out of bullets, the alley went back to quiet. They breathed hard as if they had just run a marathon.

"Did we get them?" Lennox asked, turning back on his torchlight. Because of the gun smoke, the whole area appeared yellow in their eyes.

A powerful light cone shone through the smoke and dust in the corridor, revealing a swiss cheese-like passage. On the floor, highlighted by a pool of blue blood underneath, a two-meter-long lizard in red trek-suit-like clothes lay dead.

"WE GOT IT!" A few noobies, including the red-headed one, cheered, getting up. "Go back to your planet. This is human space!" One of them taunted while flipping the midde finger.

"Get down! There were TWO DOTS!" Charlie warned, but it was too late.

A blade of energy diagonally slashed apart three standing newbies and left a glowing mark on the barrier.

"On the roof!" Charlie spotted the surviving lizard hanging on the roof. Its bleeding left arm swung powerlessly. However, it still manged to hung and shot once before dropping to the floor and charging the group for a melee.