So this is a work of boredom, and, I suppose, more procrastination. It's the first part of a story that might never be finished based on a free to play massively multiplayer online first person shooter called Planetside 2 and written without any consideration for grammar, spelling, or character development. It might appeal to two or three people I know personally, and other than that has very few redeeming qualities.
Basically what I'm saying is if you read this blog normally or something, this is not a normal entry and can be skipped without missing anything.
I'd seen a lot of good men go down on Hossin, men I hadn't been able to get to in time to reconstruct.
That was what it was, what my nifty little white medical gun actually did. I was no doctor, I'd failed out of med school back on Earth, why would any doctor have volunteered to get transported through the wormhole to Auraxis? I'd done it because I owed too much money to too many people and Auraxis was a chance to get out of it all. I'd had enough basic medical training to make it as a mine medic, but nothing else, and that training became less and less relevant as the incredible advances the Auraxian tech allowed us to make. The nanomachines--nanites--that were uncovered on Auraxis changed everything. Now you didn't need to know how to fix the human body, you just needed a medical applicator with a blueprint of human anatomy and plenty of nanites and batteries, the little alien machines would swarm into you and right any wrongs detected. Even death could be reversed if you got to the corpse soon enough, nearly the whole body could be reconstructed as long as you knew where to put the beam.
After the wormhole collapsed and we were all trapped here, after the VS started fighting the Republic and the miners formed the Conglomerate no one cared what training I had, they just wanted me out there fighting, keeping the soldiers going, trying to finally free ourselves of the oppression Terran Republic and the madness of the Vanu Sovereignty.
But that's all beside the point. The point is that on my last day of break I was walking across a courtyard on Sanctuary when two MPs flagged me down. I was informed the Suits wanted to meet with me in NC headquarters, and was then told to follow the MPs.
I'd never met the Suits, the heads of the New Conglomerate, men who had once been mine managers and shift supervisors, now doing their best to work as generals. Against the intelligence of the Vanu and the training of the Republic I'm amazed they did as well as they have.
Inside of NCHQ I was efficiently moved through old mining offices and told to wait in a cramped room with two chairs and faded carpet. I was wearing my fatigues and the office was hot. Sweat beaded at the back of my neck as I stood staring at the door I hadn't come in through. I was nervous, and unsure of whether I should sit down or stand.
After what seemed like hours, but was probably five minutes, the door opened and three men walked through it. Two of them were soldiers wearing Reinforced Exosuit Armor--what we called ReXo suits-- and armed with EM1 machine guns. Typical heavies. The third man was a Suit. I was stunned to see he actually was wearing a suit, a nice, black on black thing that looked like it had just come off a ship from Earth.
"Ericksson?" He asked, looking me up and down.
"Yes, sir," I responded. The Terrans claim we're anarchists in the NC, but we have discipline when it's needed.
"Combat Medic, yes? Served on Hossin with distinction?"
"I was just doing my job, sir."
The Suit smiled. He produced a tablet from somewhere and his eyes flickered over something I couldn't see.
"Your commanding officer claimed you were the best combat medic he'd seen, said you'd run into plasma streams so thick you couldn't see the ground to pull men out."
"Yes, sir." I said, "My job, sir."
The suit nodded, "Well, I think you'll do just fine for this job then, son."
"What job is that?" I asked. I was feeling incredibly confused at this point.
The Suit motioned to one of his heavies. The soldier crossed the room to open the door I had come through and two more men walked in. They were obviously brothers, with the same black hair and jawlines. One was taller, slender. The other was just slightly shorter but powerfully built, with shoulders that looked about five feet wide. They weren't wearing armor, but did have the thick canvas fatigues of the NC on.
"This is Engineer Edo Vahn and his brother Sergeant Desfend Vahn," the Suit said, the two men nodded to me, "they're going to be accompanying you on a very important mission, should you choose to accept it."
"Mission, sir?" I asked.
The suit motion to the other heavy that had been with him, who walked to the wall and flipped the light switch off. The Suit pushed something on his tablet and it projected a map of the continent of Indar against the far wall in flickering blue and red light.
"Recognize the map?" the Suit asked.
The three of us did.
"Good. Then you should know we've been locked in a stalemate with the Terran Republic on this continent for the past three weeks. They have pushed us back from the north and western regions of the continent, and now we're barely holding on to a few key regions around our warpgate."
As he spoke, the Suit motioned to the map with his hand, the map reacted, hexes lighting up in red to mark the TR's advance and blue to show our few remaining positions.
"If the Republic gets us to the warpgate there will be nothing between them and Sanctuary."
None of us said anything in response to that, Sanctuary was the only place on Auraxis that the New Conglomerate could call home, it was where our few children and non-combatants were, where what passed for families these days were kept, a place to retreat from the never ending war and feel like you were more than a machine made for fighting, held together by hardly understood alien technology.
"Now," the Suit went on, motioning so that the map zoomed in on a specific region west of the NC warpgate, "this is Tawrich Tech Plant. The Republic is using the facilities there to crank out Prowler main battle tanks as fast as the nanites can assemble them. It's those tanks that are pressing us so hard. We cannot spare soldiers to attempt a counter attack to any less defended regions because every man and woman on Indar is working to keep the tanks from blitzing into the warpgate and destroying Sanctuary. Air strikes against the plant have proven useless, the air defenses there are too strong for us to punch through."
The map swerved again and held on another region, farther west than Tawrich.
"This is the Regent Rock Garrison. A strongpoint for the TR's invasion of Indar. They took it from the Vanu four months ago but since they claimed Tawrich they've left it almost empty. We have an agent already on the ground there, and he's confident that he can take the base with some reinforcement."
The Suit motioned to the heavy, who flipped the lights back on. The Suit made the map vanished and looked at the three of us.
"You three are to be that reinforcement. Your mission will be to fly, undetected, to the Garrison, to rendezvous with Specialist Jackson and then to take Regent Rock Garrison and activate the spawning tubes. From there you'll travel east to Tawrich and open up a second front at their flank and hopefully be able to enter the base and blow the generators. That should break their production line long enough for our forces to rally and counter attack."
When he was done speaking, the Suit put his tablet away and crossed his arms.
"Any questions?"
"Sir," I asked, "the three of us are supposed to make it across over a hundred miles of battlefield, meet with some 'specialist', take over an enemy garrison and then assault a Republic tech plant that the whole New Army has been unable to take in over a month?"
"That's the idea," the Suit said, "it's a desperate move, I won't lie, but you three are all highly recommended by your superior officers and your action records. If anyone in the New Conglomerate can do this, it would be you three."
For the first time since they had entered the room, one of the Vahn brothers, the shorter, wider one--Desfend--spoke.
"No problem boss."
