Writing Post 3
Title: Extraction Point (Version 2)
Series: Syn_Thetic (Original)
Rating: R (Language and imagery)
Word Count: 2094
“I said move!”
“But Sir!”
“But nothing! I gave you your orders!”
“What about?--”
“They’re dead, leave them.”
“But!--”
“You’ve got their IDs, right?”
“Y-yes.”
“Good enough. Now follow your orders, soldier!”
“Sir, I can’t go along with this!”
“The rest of the men are, why aren’t you?”
“We can’t leave their bodies!”
“Oh, so you want to run out into the hail of fire and artillery shells to retrieve their bodies when we’ve got their IDs? It’s a human city, the bodies ain’t gonna get eaten by some alien monster. You will fall back, just as I ordered the rest of the unit to.”
“B-but...”
“MOVE!”
“Y-yes Sir!”
With that argument finally finished, the two soldiers jogged along the blown out building they were using for cover, the superior obviously ahead of his lower ranking officer. It was no lie that the air was thick with deadly packets of cohesive energy and shells that’d turn a man into a bloody smear. But it wasn’t exactly the intention of the superior officer, who’s name was Kage “Buzzkill” Sirakal, to be turned into a bloody smear. Not again, at least.
Flicking open a compartment on the butt of his rifle, Kage pulled a wire from within and plugged it into the piece over the back of his neck, the HUD in his helmet showing him a view from the camera on the rifle. Carefully pointing the rifle around the corner, he studied the view given to him.
“It’s clear. Go!”
Feeling it best not to protest the orders given to him again, he ducked around his superior and sprinted across the open road towards the next blown out hulk of a building. Kage could only watch as the soldier made it to the building, only to have a volley of artillery shells fall from the sky. They found their target with a resounding thunder, the remaining upper floors of the building exploding outward. The soldier’s head snapped up and around at the sound of the whistling shells, his head coming back down as he started to sprint away from the building, intent on avoiding the rain of debris that was beginning to fall.
Kage lost track of his comrade as the debris started hitting the ground, turning the area around the building into an inferno of smoke, fire, and shattered earth. While not one to mourn the loss of his fellows, he felt a small pang of remorse as another person lost their life in the civil war. Shaking the feeling off, Kage reminded himself he only had under twenty minutes left to reach the extraction point for this botched mission.
Unconcerned over whether or not his subordinate was alive, Kage tagged his ID as “MIA,” adding him to the already long list of MIA and dead soldiers for this mission. Turning away from the sight, he began heading back the way he came as he hunted for a way to the EP. It was now obvious that the opposing force’s artillery had the entire city under the gaze of their scopes, so he’d have to move quickly and stealthily, unless he wanted a volley of shells fired at him.
Gauging the distance between the building off to the east and the building he was hiding behind, he felt it a short enough distance to make without the artillery being able to zero his location in. Without a second thought on the issue, he sprinted across the roadway, diving through one of the lower windows. Thanks to his suit, the glass he crashed through was no issue, so he simply rolled to the side and out of view. Okay, it was progress. Not much, but the building would provide some added cover for the time being.
Slinking through the building, rifle held at ready as he progressed, Kage made it through the building without incident. Apparently the evacuation of the city had been complete before they got there. Or, at least the evacuation of this particular building. Didn’t matter either way, it made it easier for him. Reaching a fire exit on the opposite side of the building, he readied himself and kicked the door open, leaning out just enough to utilize the camera on the end of his weapon.
He was relieved to not be greeted by enemy units, though the carnage that was laid out before him was hardly reassuring. The pavement was cracked and broken, the obvious victim of heavy shelling. Bits and pieces of what used to be his men and their equipment were scattered across the roadway before him. Lowing his weapon, Kage rubbed the back of his helmet with one hand as he sighed. This was getting a tad annoying. The intelligence was so botched that he was probably the only one left alive. For however long that lasted.
Glancing about to make sure there were no unfriendly units, Kage made his way out into the carnage, intent on scavenging any remaining equipment as well as the rather grim task of gathering IDs. Not quite sure exactly where to start in the mess, Kage cocked his head slightly upon hearing someone call out to him.
“Lieutenant Sirakal!”
Turning his head toward the voice, Kage was rather surprised that it wasn’t human, but more electronic sounding. He found himself looking at what was left of one of the combat robots that had been assigned to him for this mission. Ignoring the timer on his HUD as it continued to count down, he carefully picked his way over.
“Yo. You managed to survive somewhat intact?”
The robot mimicked laughter, hefting itself up against a wall with it’s remaining arm, revealing it had nothing from it’s torso down. “Somewhat. This position took many volleys from the artillery they have positioned along the city’s perimeter.”
“I noticed. The craters kinda give it away, y’know.”
“Yes, those aside. I was the only ‘survivor,’ so to speak.”
“Also noticed, but it’s good to see someone did.”
“I am of no use any longer, though. There are ground forces advancing on this position as we speak. I’ll transmit the IDs of the fallen soldiers to you and activate my self-destruct sequence.”
“Understood.” He saluted the robot as it transmitted the IDs to him, turning and sprinting away once it was finished.
The robot returned it’s superior’s salute as he ran off, starting up his self destruct countdown. It’d done what it’d been programmed and designed to do, and it was a good way for it to ‘die.’ Kage was out of visual range soon enough, and none too soon. With its timer reaching zero, its power core went critical and detonated.
Having made it a good distance away, Kage stopped to look over his shoulder at the sound of the explosion. The map in his HUD adjusted and zoomed in on the area, indicating the building the robot had been leaning against as structurally critical. The building’s indicator turned red moments later as it started to collapse. Swearing to himself, he turned back toward the extraction point’s location and started to run again. This had turned out to be hell.
Less than ten minutes remained on the timer for Kage to reach the extraction point, making him much more frantic as seconds continued to tic away. There was no way he was going to be left behind in the middle of a war zone. Or so he thought. Jumping at the loud shriek that pierced his ears as two Shrike fighters buzzed by, Kage ducked against a building, hoping they wouldn’t come back around for him. A sigh of relief escaped him when they didn’t, but it didn’t take him long to realize where they were going.
The two Shrike fighters were heading right for the extraction point. They intended to take away his way out.
“...Oh fuck this shit.”
Adjusting the settings of his rifle and placing a flare round over the end of the barrel, he aimed toward the extraction point and squeezed the trigger, firing off a warning flare into the sky. With this done, Kage took the spent flare cartridge off the end of the barrel and readjusted the rifle, sprinting again. He really hoped the flare would be noticed in time, and by the right people. If not, well, he’d be full of holes very soon. If even still intact.
Unable to see or hear anything happen at the extraction point, Kage did start picking up garbled transmissions over his comm unit as he grew closer to the designated area. What little he heard did not reassure him in the least. He sprint finally slowed to a halt when he reached the extraction point. Kage’s look of horror was hidden by the one way window of his faceplate at what he saw. The drop ship was a smoldering wreck. The Shrikes were coming around for another pass as multiple Exo-suits moved into position to lay down a screen of fire in an attempt to shoot them down. Kage snapped out of his daze when he realized that someone was hailing him.
“Sir! Sir, get inside the perimeter!”
“...Right, right!” Shaking his head, he quickly made his way back towards the defensive positions that were setup, realizing that there were ground forces attacking the position as well. Getting his wits about him again, Kage instantly began barking out orders and demanding a full assessment of the damage. He paused for a moment before looking at the maybe twenty men that were defending the position.
“And where’s the fucking comm officer?! I want a line to the Advent Grand, NOW!”
“Yes, Sir! You have a direct line... now!”
-Advent Grand, go ahead Lieutenant.-
“Where the fuck is the air support?!?”
-...You don’t need to yell. We’ll dispatch two wings of Hellraisers to your position to cover your retreat.-
“Don’t need to yell? The intelligence given to us botched this entire mission!”
-That is not my fault. I’m a comm officer, not an intelligence officer.-
“...I hate you, so much.”
-Noted. Your air support is on its way, Lieutenant.-
Not saying anything else, Kage simply cut the connection and grumbled, leaning around his position and squeezing off a few shots before ducking back around. He began barking out orders again, ordering all surviving soldiers to retreat to the trees as a volley of artillery shells rained down, slamming into the smoldering wreck of the drop ship.
“...Bull fucking shit.” Well this was lovely. Now the artillery was in range of their position. Could it get any better? Apparently the warning systems in his suit thought so, since they signaled something was right behind him. Diving out of the way, he turned around to find himself staring down the pilot of an enemy Exo-suit that’d broken through the defensive line.
Swearing to himself, he dodged out of the way as the Exo-suit swung it’s claw arm at him, shouldering his weapon and drawing his vibra-knife. Vaulting up over the claw arm as it passed again, Kage landed atop the mech and activated his knife. The panicked cries of the suit’s pilot were silenced seconds later as Kage brought his knife down through the faceplate of the soldier’s mask, piercing his brain. Yanking the knife out of his dead foe’s head, he pulled the body out and took over the suit as his men bitched about him getting another buzz kill.
Brushing it off, he brought the mini-gun arm of the Exo-suit to bare on the enemy ground forces and opened fire. “Where is that damned air support?!”
“Inbound, Sir! ETA is five seconds!”
“Roger, all units, prepare to fall back to the tree line once the Hellraisers get here!”
There was a resounding call of acknowledgement as the whine of the gunship’s engines filled the air, their chin mounted chain cannons from one flight opening fire on the ground forces once they were in range as the other flight chased off the Shrikes.
-Air support, as you requested Sir!-
“About fucking time!”
-Sorry, we got laid over by shoreline defenses.-
“Excuses! Just cover our asses!”
-Roger that, consider ‘em covered.-
“All units, fall back!”
With the gunships providing much needed fire support from the air, the remaining men, now numbering fifteen, made a break for the tree line, Kage bailing from the suit as he bolted off into the cover of the trees. It only took moments for all the men to seemingly disappear.
With their jobs done, the gunships rotated themselves and flew off, heading back to the main drop ship floating off shore.
Series: Syn_Thetic (Original)
Rating: R (Language and imagery)
Word Count: 2094
“I said move!”
“But Sir!”
“But nothing! I gave you your orders!”
“What about?--”
“They’re dead, leave them.”
“But!--”
“You’ve got their IDs, right?”
“Y-yes.”
“Good enough. Now follow your orders, soldier!”
“Sir, I can’t go along with this!”
“The rest of the men are, why aren’t you?”
“We can’t leave their bodies!”
“Oh, so you want to run out into the hail of fire and artillery shells to retrieve their bodies when we’ve got their IDs? It’s a human city, the bodies ain’t gonna get eaten by some alien monster. You will fall back, just as I ordered the rest of the unit to.”
“B-but...”
“MOVE!”
“Y-yes Sir!”
With that argument finally finished, the two soldiers jogged along the blown out building they were using for cover, the superior obviously ahead of his lower ranking officer. It was no lie that the air was thick with deadly packets of cohesive energy and shells that’d turn a man into a bloody smear. But it wasn’t exactly the intention of the superior officer, who’s name was Kage “Buzzkill” Sirakal, to be turned into a bloody smear. Not again, at least.
Flicking open a compartment on the butt of his rifle, Kage pulled a wire from within and plugged it into the piece over the back of his neck, the HUD in his helmet showing him a view from the camera on the rifle. Carefully pointing the rifle around the corner, he studied the view given to him.
“It’s clear. Go!”
Feeling it best not to protest the orders given to him again, he ducked around his superior and sprinted across the open road towards the next blown out hulk of a building. Kage could only watch as the soldier made it to the building, only to have a volley of artillery shells fall from the sky. They found their target with a resounding thunder, the remaining upper floors of the building exploding outward. The soldier’s head snapped up and around at the sound of the whistling shells, his head coming back down as he started to sprint away from the building, intent on avoiding the rain of debris that was beginning to fall.
Kage lost track of his comrade as the debris started hitting the ground, turning the area around the building into an inferno of smoke, fire, and shattered earth. While not one to mourn the loss of his fellows, he felt a small pang of remorse as another person lost their life in the civil war. Shaking the feeling off, Kage reminded himself he only had under twenty minutes left to reach the extraction point for this botched mission.
Unconcerned over whether or not his subordinate was alive, Kage tagged his ID as “MIA,” adding him to the already long list of MIA and dead soldiers for this mission. Turning away from the sight, he began heading back the way he came as he hunted for a way to the EP. It was now obvious that the opposing force’s artillery had the entire city under the gaze of their scopes, so he’d have to move quickly and stealthily, unless he wanted a volley of shells fired at him.
Gauging the distance between the building off to the east and the building he was hiding behind, he felt it a short enough distance to make without the artillery being able to zero his location in. Without a second thought on the issue, he sprinted across the roadway, diving through one of the lower windows. Thanks to his suit, the glass he crashed through was no issue, so he simply rolled to the side and out of view. Okay, it was progress. Not much, but the building would provide some added cover for the time being.
Slinking through the building, rifle held at ready as he progressed, Kage made it through the building without incident. Apparently the evacuation of the city had been complete before they got there. Or, at least the evacuation of this particular building. Didn’t matter either way, it made it easier for him. Reaching a fire exit on the opposite side of the building, he readied himself and kicked the door open, leaning out just enough to utilize the camera on the end of his weapon.
He was relieved to not be greeted by enemy units, though the carnage that was laid out before him was hardly reassuring. The pavement was cracked and broken, the obvious victim of heavy shelling. Bits and pieces of what used to be his men and their equipment were scattered across the roadway before him. Lowing his weapon, Kage rubbed the back of his helmet with one hand as he sighed. This was getting a tad annoying. The intelligence was so botched that he was probably the only one left alive. For however long that lasted.
Glancing about to make sure there were no unfriendly units, Kage made his way out into the carnage, intent on scavenging any remaining equipment as well as the rather grim task of gathering IDs. Not quite sure exactly where to start in the mess, Kage cocked his head slightly upon hearing someone call out to him.
“Lieutenant Sirakal!”
Turning his head toward the voice, Kage was rather surprised that it wasn’t human, but more electronic sounding. He found himself looking at what was left of one of the combat robots that had been assigned to him for this mission. Ignoring the timer on his HUD as it continued to count down, he carefully picked his way over.
“Yo. You managed to survive somewhat intact?”
The robot mimicked laughter, hefting itself up against a wall with it’s remaining arm, revealing it had nothing from it’s torso down. “Somewhat. This position took many volleys from the artillery they have positioned along the city’s perimeter.”
“I noticed. The craters kinda give it away, y’know.”
“Yes, those aside. I was the only ‘survivor,’ so to speak.”
“Also noticed, but it’s good to see someone did.”
“I am of no use any longer, though. There are ground forces advancing on this position as we speak. I’ll transmit the IDs of the fallen soldiers to you and activate my self-destruct sequence.”
“Understood.” He saluted the robot as it transmitted the IDs to him, turning and sprinting away once it was finished.
The robot returned it’s superior’s salute as he ran off, starting up his self destruct countdown. It’d done what it’d been programmed and designed to do, and it was a good way for it to ‘die.’ Kage was out of visual range soon enough, and none too soon. With its timer reaching zero, its power core went critical and detonated.
Having made it a good distance away, Kage stopped to look over his shoulder at the sound of the explosion. The map in his HUD adjusted and zoomed in on the area, indicating the building the robot had been leaning against as structurally critical. The building’s indicator turned red moments later as it started to collapse. Swearing to himself, he turned back toward the extraction point’s location and started to run again. This had turned out to be hell.
Less than ten minutes remained on the timer for Kage to reach the extraction point, making him much more frantic as seconds continued to tic away. There was no way he was going to be left behind in the middle of a war zone. Or so he thought. Jumping at the loud shriek that pierced his ears as two Shrike fighters buzzed by, Kage ducked against a building, hoping they wouldn’t come back around for him. A sigh of relief escaped him when they didn’t, but it didn’t take him long to realize where they were going.
The two Shrike fighters were heading right for the extraction point. They intended to take away his way out.
“...Oh fuck this shit.”
Adjusting the settings of his rifle and placing a flare round over the end of the barrel, he aimed toward the extraction point and squeezed the trigger, firing off a warning flare into the sky. With this done, Kage took the spent flare cartridge off the end of the barrel and readjusted the rifle, sprinting again. He really hoped the flare would be noticed in time, and by the right people. If not, well, he’d be full of holes very soon. If even still intact.
Unable to see or hear anything happen at the extraction point, Kage did start picking up garbled transmissions over his comm unit as he grew closer to the designated area. What little he heard did not reassure him in the least. He sprint finally slowed to a halt when he reached the extraction point. Kage’s look of horror was hidden by the one way window of his faceplate at what he saw. The drop ship was a smoldering wreck. The Shrikes were coming around for another pass as multiple Exo-suits moved into position to lay down a screen of fire in an attempt to shoot them down. Kage snapped out of his daze when he realized that someone was hailing him.
“Sir! Sir, get inside the perimeter!”
“...Right, right!” Shaking his head, he quickly made his way back towards the defensive positions that were setup, realizing that there were ground forces attacking the position as well. Getting his wits about him again, Kage instantly began barking out orders and demanding a full assessment of the damage. He paused for a moment before looking at the maybe twenty men that were defending the position.
“And where’s the fucking comm officer?! I want a line to the Advent Grand, NOW!”
“Yes, Sir! You have a direct line... now!”
-Advent Grand, go ahead Lieutenant.-
“Where the fuck is the air support?!?”
-...You don’t need to yell. We’ll dispatch two wings of Hellraisers to your position to cover your retreat.-
“Don’t need to yell? The intelligence given to us botched this entire mission!”
-That is not my fault. I’m a comm officer, not an intelligence officer.-
“...I hate you, so much.”
-Noted. Your air support is on its way, Lieutenant.-
Not saying anything else, Kage simply cut the connection and grumbled, leaning around his position and squeezing off a few shots before ducking back around. He began barking out orders again, ordering all surviving soldiers to retreat to the trees as a volley of artillery shells rained down, slamming into the smoldering wreck of the drop ship.
“...Bull fucking shit.” Well this was lovely. Now the artillery was in range of their position. Could it get any better? Apparently the warning systems in his suit thought so, since they signaled something was right behind him. Diving out of the way, he turned around to find himself staring down the pilot of an enemy Exo-suit that’d broken through the defensive line.
Swearing to himself, he dodged out of the way as the Exo-suit swung it’s claw arm at him, shouldering his weapon and drawing his vibra-knife. Vaulting up over the claw arm as it passed again, Kage landed atop the mech and activated his knife. The panicked cries of the suit’s pilot were silenced seconds later as Kage brought his knife down through the faceplate of the soldier’s mask, piercing his brain. Yanking the knife out of his dead foe’s head, he pulled the body out and took over the suit as his men bitched about him getting another buzz kill.
Brushing it off, he brought the mini-gun arm of the Exo-suit to bare on the enemy ground forces and opened fire. “Where is that damned air support?!”
“Inbound, Sir! ETA is five seconds!”
“Roger, all units, prepare to fall back to the tree line once the Hellraisers get here!”
There was a resounding call of acknowledgement as the whine of the gunship’s engines filled the air, their chin mounted chain cannons from one flight opening fire on the ground forces once they were in range as the other flight chased off the Shrikes.
-Air support, as you requested Sir!-
“About fucking time!”
-Sorry, we got laid over by shoreline defenses.-
“Excuses! Just cover our asses!”
-Roger that, consider ‘em covered.-
“All units, fall back!”
With the gunships providing much needed fire support from the air, the remaining men, now numbering fifteen, made a break for the tree line, Kage bailing from the suit as he bolted off into the cover of the trees. It only took moments for all the men to seemingly disappear.
With their jobs done, the gunships rotated themselves and flew off, heading back to the main drop ship floating off shore.