C1

2217.02.23

Boom!Boom!Boom!

"How long has it been already? One day, a week, a month, a year, two or 3 years? I can't remember anymore."

Sergeant Hope mused in her mind as dust fell on her battle-damaged fully-enclosed helmet from the cracked cement ceiling that continued to tremble nonstop because of Ishni Soveregnthy's fleet's 24/7 indiscriminate orbital bombardment.

Only for the sound of solid warheads fired by mass drivers hitting land and trembling to stop all of a sudden.

Upon noticing this Hope's bloodshot eyes almost popped out of her sockets while her heart started beating like a madman as her body broke out in cold sweat because she knew what this meant.

"They're coming I have to get out from here! Now!"

Hope turned around and was about to start sprinting deeper into the bunker only to freeze in place after seeing the wounded human and Yarrowreacher civilians wrapped up in bloody bandages wearing tattered and filthy clothes holding their crying children in their arms as they tried to comfort them even though they were scared shitless themselves.

Mommy, I'm scared I want to go home!

Shhhh. Don't worry sweetheart everything is going to be okay the human soldiers will protect us from those evil Ishni.

A yarrowreacher woman looked no different than a human except that she had a squid's head and blue skin, comforted her child while looking at Hope with hope-filled eyes.

Fuck...

Hope cursed out under her breath as she turned around and assumed cover behind concrete rubble while dialing up her helmet's loudspeakers volume in her mind.

The fungies are coming everyone run deeper into the bunker I'll buy you as much time as I can!

After saying this with her dead tired voice she switched her cc(communications channel) to a private one.

Everyone who is incapable of holding and shooting their weapon or too scared to do their duty retreat with civies as for those who aren't dig in and say your prayers to the God's you believe in.

Upon hearing this the 20 wounded to various degrees human soldiers wearing battle-damaged filthy different color patterns camouflaged wore down obsolete exoskeleton armor covered in dust raised their heads in unison but not one chose to run away from their fates.

On the contrary, Hope watched both mentally and physically exhausted soldiers wordlessly crawl to piles of rubble with the help of their mechanical arms and legs help.

Hope turned around and started taking out her magazines from her webbing, placed them on the ground, and started reloading them with her trembling hands while saying a prayer to Ares the god she believed in.

Ares, fierce-hearted son of Zeus and noble Hera, full-famed you are as god of war.

To you do soldiers pray when battle is most heated, when mettle is most needed.

To you as well do we turn in desperate times, to you do we call for strength, for the spirit to endure.

You understand the terror of struggle and strife, you confront it in every way.

Ares, your courage is unquestioned, your might and your prowess unequaled.

Ares, friend to those in direst need, I pray to you, grant me the nerve to face what must be faced, grant me the will to do what must be done, grant me the heart to forge ahead.

As Hope finished her prayer she looked at her two full magazines connected together that contained obsolete 60 6.8 ×43 mm AP rounds each.

"With this, I can kill 4 before I run out of ammunition if I get lucky? No who am I trying to fool I can take down one at best."

Hope debated in her mind as she inserted her double magazine with her right the same coloring and type as other soldier's exoskeleton armor gloved hand into her modular smart rifle and pulled back the bolt with her left hand and released it making a fresh round enter the firing chamber.

Boom!

Without warning, the rubble in front of her blocking the large round electrical train tunnel exploded inwards making Hope fly back a couple of meters backwards because she was too close.

Bang!Bang!Bang!

Phew!Phew!Phew!

Tratatatatatata!

[User unconscious increasing the user's combat stimulants dosage]

Hope opened her eyes while inhaling deeply as if she was a newborn feeling as if she could slaughter an entire army by herself because of the combat stimulants overflowing her body from her cybernetic implants only to see humanoid Ishi soldiers with four hands and two legs geared up in their own exoskeleton armor firing their lazer assault rifles left and right.

Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you!

Hope watched a soldier with a missing left arm stand up from behind his cover and hip fire his modular smart machine gun at the bloodsuckers while cursing at the top of his lungs making 3 of them get torn to pieces by 12.7 ×108 mm AP HE bullets.

That pierced their nano-composite armor plates and exploded after their delayed fuzes activated themselves tearing apart the fungies internal organs from inside out only to get vaporized into pieces by their comrade's lazers.

Hope switched her selector to full auto fire mode while pressing her rifle against her right shoulder, crossed her holographic crosshairs in her cracked and bloody HUD helmet screen, and fired at the nearest fungy.

Bang!Bang!Bang!

The dented bullets ricocheted off from the fungies chest plate armor leaving dents as it brought its 4 hands in front of its head to protect itself.

"Die!Die!Die!"

Hope screamed in her mind as she watched her bullets eat away at the fungies armor plating while the holographic rounds count next to her rifle dropped down to zero.

Eat this you fucker!

Hope cursed out as she took out her last 40 mm APHE shell from her webbing and inserted it into her rifle's under-barrel grenade launcher and pulled the trigger.

Boom!

Arghhh!

Hope screamed out in pain as she felt a red hot shrapnel sink into her obsolete alloy armor-plated abdomen which was too painful even with all of the combat stimulants in her blood vessels.

We got a wounded! Cover me!

A paramedic screamed into their cc as he released his rifle making it automatically retract to his right side while taking out a syringe with morphine and sprinted to Hope.

Covering!

The paramedic heard a sniper reply as he plunged the syringe into Hope's black skintight EVA suit-covered neck.

Fuck just how many more?!

As the morphine spread out through her body numbing her pain receptors Hope heard the sniper roar into their cc as he took down one fungie after another with his modular mass driver sniper rifle.

Use your feet!

The paramedic roared out as he grabbed Hope's webbings emergency grip-strap behind her neck with his left hand and started pulling her back while firing his own rifle at the fungies .

Hope kicked her heels as fast as she could to scramble back as she took out her double mag and inserted it back into her rifle, released her bolt which was stuck in a backward position, and pulled the trigger again.

Only for the paramedic's headless body to fall onto her.

Hope tried to push the dead body off of her but she couldn't muster the strength because her overloaded nervous system started to shut down.

"So is this it?"

Hope asked herself in her mind as she watched her comrade's life signals one by one turn red on her HUD screen as her vision slowly turned dark.

Only for a red hot black drop pod to pierce the ceiling and crush a dozen of fungies.

"What the heck are they afraid?!"

Hope watched in bewilderment the fungies fearfully step back while looking at the drop pods doors only to understand why soon after.

Einherjar a God killer...

Hope muttered out as she saw an 8 feet tall ihumansoldier wearing black straight out from factory power armor with a white skeleton paint job kick open the drop pods doors with inhuman strength making them fly through the air and crush an unlucky fungie into meat paste.

As he did the fungies started discharging their lazers at him all at once only for them to bounce off from the soldier's improved deflector that materialized as a blue bubble around him.

Bang!Bang!Bang!

Hope watched the soldier fire his coilgun modular smart rifle with inhuman agility and perception.

The last thing Hope saw before blacking out was the soldier's black fully-enclosed helmets with white skull paint job with sharklike teeth bloodred glowing round visors staring at her.