12th April 2310 21:46 EST - The commotion on the decks of the Athena was intense. Scores of soldiers were running towards their assigned posts each checking their rifles intently before standing to attention by their designated dropship. Loud noises were coming from the corner where the tall six-metre mechanised walkers (mechs) were being prepared for their position in the battle.
These mechs were large fortified walking powerhouses. They took one man or woman and turned them into a two-tonne walking death machine housing an array of highly-rated weaponry. From flame throwers to lasers to rocket launchers to long-range artillery batteries, they were the epitome of one-man armies.
As things stood, though, their role was simply to get prepared and wait. The battlefield would be too tight for them to manoeuvre and would likely cause more damage than it was worth, but they were being prepared for stage two of the operation along with other vehicles.
Jason stood in amazement, admiring the sheer power that these machines held. They looked intimidating with their large metallic hulks, but comforting if you knew they were there to support you.
"Haven't you got somewhere to be Corporal?" one of the mechanics shouted at him.
Jason snapped out of his trance realising his mouth was wide open looking somewhat clueless at that point. He quickly apologised and turned away to make his way towards his dropship.
He was still getting used to the armour he had been given. The exoskeleton of the armour would allow him to run quicker, jump higher and support any excess pressure placed on his body. It would effectively make him stronger as well, but it was cumbersome.
He found it strange that this was the armour that all the troops wore, knowing that the enemy was known for its agility. They already moved quicker than a human without armour, so having this bulk would make even the most agile of humans manoeuvre like a tortoise.
Watching some pilots run past towards their ships he realised that he hadn't placed on his helmet. It was still stuck in his hand but his thoughts had taken him away from doing the most basic of tasks.
He placed on his helmet and allowed the visor to cover his face. The HUD then connected to his suit and in turn his weapon, a Volokov P17, the standard rifle for soldiers, reliable but average in accuracy, good for engagements within half a kilometre but not overly powerful. Basically, they were cheap to produce and therefore perfect for the normal 'grunt'.
A streak of envy crossed Jason as he saw a soldier walking past a Ndegewa FP-9000 sniper rifle. Apparently, he had read somewhere, that they could be deadly at over 5 kilometres.
He examined the data that his weapon was displaying on his HUD. Battery levels, maintenance levels, safeties activated. Before long he had arrived at his drop ship without even realising it due to concentrating on the graphical interface he could see on his visor.
The rest of the squad was already lining up by the dropship that would take them to the surface. Each of them was deep in discussion, mostly about what was to come but it was obvious that they were trying to take their minds off the unknown and potentially dangerous situations they were about to be thrown into.
Jason's eagerness to encounter a real battle meant he was concentrating on making sure that he and his equipment were ready.
"Two Twenty Third, Atten-Hut" a shout echoed across the gangway where they stood.
All of the soldiers stood in line as upright as possible. Their eyes focused on the front, ignoring all surroundings as the Sergeant appeared accompanied by the Lieutenant, both in full battle gear. A woman stood alongside them, she wore the standard uniform and the diamonds on her shoulder suggested that she was the Major of the unit, performing a final examination before sending the troops into battle.
The Major, flanked by the Lieutenant and the Sergeant, stood in front of the 20 strong soldier unit of the 223rd. Her stern look appeared as if she meant business even though by the lack of armour, she wasn't expected to make the trip at this time.
She was ready to give her words of encouragement though!
"Crazy Tigers, you may be a new unit but you are also the most promising the Europan academy has to offer. We have trained you, nurtured you, guided you but it will not prepare you for what is expected on the surface floor. Training is over, you are now at war!"
Smiles appeared on the faces of some of the soldiers, and this time Jason's was not one of them. It was starting to sink in, that some of these people would not be making the trip home, but he was certain that fate had no intention of catching up with him today.
The Major continued "Resistance on the ground will be light, but the enemy have embedded themselves into this planet so once we get on the ground it will be a hard slog. Fight hard, aim true and come home, hoorah!"
"Hoorah!" The 223rd shouted in unity, a sound that always gave Jason a certain level of pride.
"Lieutenant." The major stood to the side and allowed the Lieutenant to take centre stage.
"Thank you ma'am," The Lieutenant said "Sergeant, get the squad onto the drop ship and prepare for launch."
"Sir yes sir!" The Sergeant responded. "Crazy Tigers, embark!"
As if those words had switched the soldiers into life each of them marched into the dropship interior.
The ship was separated into two parts. The cockpit, where the pilot and co-pilot were already sitting examining the various instruments on the dashboards, and the main bulk of the ship, where the soldiers were meant to sit. There were plenty of seats for the soldiers to choose from, sturdy but relatively comfortable in appearance.
Jason sat down in one of the seats and placed his head on the headrest. The comfort was negligible due to the armour he was in, but it felt extremely secure when he pressed the button to strap himself in. He looked around the ship as Aurora took her seat next to him. The hull looked solid from where he sat, but there was no way he'd be able to tell how it would fare against gigawatts of energy burning through the side of it.
'So this was what fear felt like?' he thought to himself.
For the first time ever he realised that the lack of control frightened him. He was being dropped into the emptiness of space, only a few hundred kilometres from the planet's surface, just far enough away from the surface to be concerned if something happened to the ship. If the drop ship sustained problems in navigation, speed, elevation, acceleration or weight, among thousands of other miniature details then he and the rest of the 223rd would have to endure the cold vacuum of space and die in some of the most horrific ways.
His life now was completely dependent on the two pilots who he had never spoken to or never even laid eyes on before in his life.
And the mechanics, ground crew, radar operators, command staff, commanding officer...
He shook his head, worrying about these things were not going to change anything. The initial drop between the Athena and planet atmosphere would be mere seconds anyway.
The lights dimmed and the hull lights became a darkened red. Gravity was starting to decrease and the weightlessness of space seemed to flow over everyone on the ship. The humming of the ship's engines started to crescendo, it wouldn't be long before launch.
"This is Captain Deveraux, your pilot for today. Welcome to your non-stop cruise flight to Loki courtesy of the United Solar Military."
There was a certain arrogance and mischievousness about his tone which Jason liked. Those flyboys certainly had a charismatic vanity about themselves.
"Please be aware there is only 1 exit during this flight which will not be opened in a case of an emergency," Captain Deveraux continued "but don't worry inflight entertainment will be provided by my esteemed colleague Lieutenant Yoshida."
As if on cue, the drone of humming from the speakers echoed throughout the room. Apparently, this was their version of inflight entertainment.
"We shall land on the surface of Loki in approximately Twenty minutes."
Twenty minutes and then the war officially begins for Corporal Jason Scharn.
The roar of the engines was exhilarating as the ship departed from the floor of the hangar bay. Looking through the small canopy gap there were glimpses of a vast number of dropships all exiting the hangar all keeping a good distance from each other.
By the time they were well and truly in space, it had become apparent that two other carriers had entered orbit and all of them had launched a similar number of dropships towards the planet's surface.
It was difficult to see through the canopy but what could be seen was mesmerising. He took in the view of three carriers in the darkness of space before turning and viewing the shifting horizon of the planet before gradually descending through the dense clouds. The cloud seemed to twist and turn among itself as if various parts of it were engaged in its own intergalactic warfare.
The trip felt like it was going to be over too quickly.
Parts of the clouds turned red briefly. It seemed like nothing at first but it appeared again, and again and then it became more frequent before other parts of the clouds started to do the same.
"You see that?" The pilot murmured.
"Yeah, command said that the flight path was secure." The copilot responded.
Suddenly a large stream of energy weapon fire rained from the ground in random arcs towards the dropships. There must have been a few hundred streams littering the sky and it was making the pilots very nervous.
"Strap in people, command has issued a state of red alert we are going to perform evasive manoeuvres." The pilot instructed.
At this point gravity was starting to become more apparent as the ship swung from side to side, but, fortunately, at this time it wasn't significant enough to feel uncomfortable.
There was a loud explosion and the ship vibrated a little followed by more loud explosions in the distance. Looking outside it was apparent that drop ships were starting to get torn apart from the constant laser fire and now the devastating and nerve-wracking explosions from flak cannons.
The cannons were not accurate but they would detonate leaving large amounts of shrapnel hurtling towards their targets in multiple directions. At high altitudes, they wouldn't do much, but as the force of gravity increased so did their impact.
The ship was now starting to shake violently.
With the loud booms of the flak cannons and the shaking that followed some of the soldiers' heart rates were starting to increase, Jason, being one. As a boom went off he continued to try and remain calm deliberately taking deep long breaths to keep his composure. He did not like the fact that he was totally reliant on these two pilots.
Looking through the canopy he could see it was starting to become a slaughter, multiple dropships were exploding by various means and turning into fireballs as they dropped to the planet's surface.
They entered the dense cloud and the HUD of the ship darkened and projected a view of the other dropships and upcoming terrain. This was even more disconcerting than seeing the weapons fire. The cloud was extremely dense and incredibly difficult to see through. They were relying entirely on their computer systems for navigation.
Another sound pierced the sky. A low electronic thump. Then another one.
"Shit! EMP's! They managed to gain control of the entire planet's defence system!" Cursed the pilot struggling to make manoeuvres from the beams of energy that pierced the sky.
Another low electronic thump, then another. A boom and intense vibration, then another electronic thump. It was relentless.
Then another electronic thump, a loud one. The HUD went blank, the light switched off, and it was pitch black in the ship. They'd been hit by an EMP.
The pilots started scrambling in the cockpit frantically to try and start the power up again. They were unable to manoeuvre the ship which was now dropping like a stone.
The ship shuddered violently and there was a loud scraping noise, metal on metal. All of a sudden the vessel started spinning out of control as they had inadvertently hit another dropship.
The spinning was brutal, as it got stronger and stronger the soldiers were being pushed heavily back into their chairs to the point where it was starting to crush them.
Jason could feel his ribs starting to bruise, he tried to move his hand to release some pressure but it wasn't happening, he simply could not move and hoped that his rib wasn't starting to crack. He struggled to turn his head as he could hear the snapping and groans of the bulkhead and watched helplessly as a large portion of the opposite side of the ship gave way under the stress, spinning off in a different direction along with a good seven soldiers, including Lance Corporal Pavylenko.
He watched helplessly as he saw glimpses of that section of the ship burst into flames leaving no survivors.
They were below the clouds now. It was nauseating, seeing ground, sky, ground, sky, ground, sky, about seven or eight times every second. He could hear the muffles of attempted screams from some of the other soldiers. Whether it was the fear of their impending doom or the pain of the forces pushing against their body or perhaps it was the fact that they were all close to vomiting if it wasn't for the stims being injected into their body designed to stop them from doing so.
Jason tried to speak to calm them down but was unable, his lungs were under too much strain and breathing was becoming particularly hard. From what he could tell they would probably be enduring this for another twenty or so seconds before hitting the ground.
The longest twenty seconds of their short lives.
It was becoming harder to see, he was awake but everything was turning black. He didn't want to die this way, he shouldn't die this way, but it appears that perhaps fate had different plans for him after all. He blinked to regain his vision, but nothing.
The groans of the metallic bulkhead, the screams, all were becoming muffled. Now he didn't know how far the ground was, or whether it would hurt on impact. Would he survive, would this insistent spinning keep on going, would he ever speak to his father again?
What a strange last thought to have just as he lost consciousness.