Overture II

You don't dream in cryo. Time passes almost instantly to you. Decades can pass and you'd never know.

Mark was awoken from my cryosleep to the sound of the pod door opening. An injured young Marine leaned against the wall, breathing heavily. Mark stepped out of his pod, about to ask why he'd been woken, when the Marine fell. The Drengr caught him in his arms, examining his wounds quickly. Severe burns.

"Help... ." The boy managed to grunt through his grimace.

"I will." Mark assured him as he went limp in his arms.

Turning to the holotable, he pulled out a hardware chip from the slot in the table, then placed it in his helmet. The "A.I. connected" alert came up on his HUD. A familiar voice echoed in his helmet.

"Hello, Mark."

"Good to hear your voice, Daisy." He replied.

"The fleet's under attack. Aliens. Currently, only two other Drengr soldiers are actively fighting on the Amber Clad."

"Names?"

"One's Maya Reed, the other has a redacted name. However, he does have a callsign: Alpha Nine. I'll pull up his file later."

"No need. I know who he is."

Mark nodded, grabbing a nearby pistol. Checking the magazine and chamber revealed that it only had one shot left. That would be enough.

The alarms blaring throughout the ship mixed with the shouts and gunfire as he exited the cryoroom. He held position at an intersection between two hallways, watching as energy beams and bullets zipped by. Once there was a lull in the combat, he left his cover. As he rounded the corner, he was immediately met with a large insectoid creature.

BANG

The pistol's shot did nothing. He holstered the pistol, deploying his Phalanx armor's wrist-mounted thermal blades. Mark stuck both blades into the creature's shell, but took fire from the side. Lifting the insectoid off of the ground, he threw it at a nearby lizard-like alien. It nocked the other alien over, and I immediately curb-stomped the lizard, crushing its skull.

"Mark, watch out!"

Daisy's voice alerted him to a charging enemy. The Drengr turned, elbowing the alien so hard that it dented the wall that it collided with. Several shots hit me, so he ducked away, grabbing one of the lizard's rifles as he moved for cover.

Mark examined the rifle, smirking to himself. Alien technology. It had a trigger and a gunsight, though a strange one. He couldn't locate a magazine, so he assumed that it had an unlimited number of shots. Judging by the burns he'd seen on the Marine, he assumed that it fired some sort of extremely hot gas or even a laser.

He readied the weapon as hefty footsteps approached. A feline-esque alien rounded the corner and was immediately shot. It's clearly shielded armor absorbed the shot. The Drengr fired several more shots, taking return fire. But the alien's shields depleted before his did. He aimed the rifle at its head, putting a bolt between its eyes.

"These alien rifles are effective." He said to Daisy.

"But your shields are more durable than theirs are, thankfully." Daisy replied.

"You can say that again," Mark replied. "Where are those other Drengr?"

"Reed is engaging aliens near the bridge with several Marines. Alpha Nine is pushing aliens towards the hangerbay."

Mark nodded, the began making his way to the bridge. He'd worked with Maya several times before. Plus, if the bridge was captured, the Amber Clad would be lost. And if the Amber Clad was lost, over a thousand lives would be lost. We just ended one war and we're already tied up in another, he thought as he sprinted to the bridge.

As he made his way through the ship, he encountered another fight. Unfortunately for the aliens, Mark was behind them. He fired at a lizard in gold armor. The lizard turned, then activated some sort of lazer sword. It stomped towards him, shields absorbing more shots than the feline's had earlier. The gold-armored lizard swung its sword at him, but the Drengr dodged easily, dropping his rifle and punching the golden armor. He hit it so hard that the shields were disabled and he left a fist-shaped dent in the alien's armor.

Then he tackled the lizard, only to be dropkicked by a feline alien. He grabbed the small cat alien and threw it across the hall way. Then he drew his large combat knife, stabing the lizard's leg. Next he put his knife through the alien's chest armor, and it let out a scream. "Die already!" Mark grunted, shoving the knife deeper. Then he was picked up by one of the insectoids. His shoulder chaingun deployed, drilling a hole in the alien with its bullets.

"Thanks, Daisy." He grunted, pulling his knife out of the lizard alien's chest. He cleaned the purple blood off of the blade. Sheathing the knife and grabbing the alien rifle, he continued his march to the bridge. He passed several dead fireteams of Marines. He set his jaw. More would die if he didn't make it to the bridge.

His armor clunked as he ran through the halls of the ship. Mark had to literally knock down several doors that were stuck. He'd run through about half of the ship by now, and he still wasn't out of breath. He arrived at the bridge twenty minutes after his last fight. But what the Drengr found there wasn't what he expected. There was a LOT of dead aliens.

The hallway leading to the bridge was covered in all colors of blood. He managed to wade through the bodies, tossing aliens aside and carefully stepping over Marines. It was genuinely impressive how many bodies there were throughout the single hallway. When Mark reached the bridge, he knocked on the large door.

It opened for him, and he looked around. Several Marines and crewmen were being treated by medics. Then he saw the ship's captain, Captain Tacitus Killgore. The man was holding a pistol, his Defender Mark IV armor was staind with blood. Judging by the single wound on his shoulder, most of it wasn't his. Captain Killgore nodded in greeting, then holstered his pistol and began giving commands.

Then a familiar voice called out to him. "Well well well, if it isn't the war hero himself."

The Drengr turned.

"Maya. It's been a while."