Authors Note: I went back and did some super hardcore editing wizardry to respell all the Vagyr to the actual spelling, Vaygr. Now, back to the story!
Chapter Three: Planet of Ice
We rejoin Andrew and his crew as they travel in warp space, having just launched themselves from Zanzibar in the Higgens sector to the dreaded and mysterious Jaeger system, a strange zone with a dim, dying sun and only two planets circling around it.
I had always hated warp travel. Oh, I was fine with short range FTL\'s. I loved jumping from planet to planet back in my University days. But warp travel? Whole different story. Something about leaving realspace at a speed that exceeded any other known travel system did something to my stomach. The massive screen displayed nothing but a bunch of colors, little bits and pieces of realspace seen through warp space. I dropped some seltzer tablets Jeremiah had left for me into the soda water, and drank the glorious fizzly liquid. As usual, I tasted the slight tint of the strange little syrup Jeremiah dropped into bubbly water. But you know what? It hadn\'t killed me yet, and it did wonders to an upset gut, so I never complained.
We closed in on the Jaeger warp node, which was contained in the sole station that rested in Jaeger. The Washington jerked to a halt as we re-entered realspace. It was a bit of a unnerving sight: the Warp Beacon (or node, whatever you wanted to call it), was contained inside a large ring repaired and mantained entirely by automated machines. \"No one ever comes here\" I said. I was thinking aloud.
\"Except murderers, maniacs, and big angry people.\" Said a deep, gruff voice from behind my chair. \"And us.\" Jackson stepped into the scene to my left, his massive power armor boots landing with large clunks. He was already suited up for planetfall, and with Jackson, there was only size for going planetside: really, really big. Having already gotten tired of being stuck in the standard-issue exoskeleton that our shock-troops wore (a basic neuro-linked set of external movement enhancers that DFMC Marines, and our shock-troops, wore over their all-atmosphere armor), and having been \"inspired\" by the Vaygr Terror Trooper, he requested that Jeremiah make him something big.
Already one big, angry 6\' 2\" ball of rage and foul language, he now stood much closer to eight and a half feet in his massive machanation of Lazarus brilliance that managed to allow Jackson to express his incomprehensible lust for causing as much damage as possible all over the available real estate. Toting around a massive 20mm autocannon that fed directly from a belt on his gigantic, heat-spewing, power-supplying backpack, a rotary grenade pistol strapped to his left power leg, sleek and thick green plates of armor that somehow moved in perfect, uninterupted unison, and a big, smiling bald head sticking out the top, munching on an unlit cigar, his massive helmet in his free hand.
\"You know, it\'s not necessary to gear up that heavy, it\'s just a snatch and grab.\" I said, but I couldn\'t help but smile.
\"Just a snatch and grab? Sir, if I didn\'t gear up whenever the DFMC told me \'just a anything\', I would have been done a long time ago. Now, when the do we drop?\"
\"We\'re going in by shuttle.\"
\", you have any idea how cramped that dinky-ass shuttle is?\"
I couldn\'t help but laugh at his complete disregard for any kind of polite language. \"Well you\'re the one who wants to be a walking tank. I\'ll see you at the shuttle.\"
Jackson slammed on his helmet, and you could hear a loud whirr as lots of orange lights sparked up on his armor, powering itself up to full operational capacity. Alongside that, I heard a muffled set of curses as his cigar was without a doubt bent. Sometimes Jackson didn\'t think things through. He tossed his 20mm short-barreled autocannon over his shoulder and huffed out of the bridge.
Jeremiah, not having moved from his post, turned around and laughed. \"Sometimes, I wonder if I should have made that suit just a few feet shorter.\" He said.
\"Are you kidding me? I remember when you first strung him up with that thing. It was like his birthday all over again. I have never, ever seen a man so happy.\" I responded, smiling as I remember him fighting Jeremiah to get inside his new battle suit, and then proceeding to jam himself into a custom drop pod, flung it from the ship before the bay doors ever got a chance to open all the way, and commenced wrecking as much crap as humanly possible the moment he slammed planetside, right into a horde of pirates. Because lets be serious, landing alongside his troops would have been boring, at least in his eyes. It was one of the single most brutal displays of violence I had ever seen, having gotten a nice view after dropping planetside in suite.
I stood up. \"Is my armor ready, Jeremiah?\"
\"As always, Andrew.\" He jestured to my right. Sure enough, there it was, strung up in all its glory. While most soldiers wear their exoskeletons separately, to keep replacement and repairs simple, the type of armor Maria and I wore had it built directly into the titanium and neocarbon shell. It was thin, lightweight, and much more compact. And much more expensive and difficult to repair. Well, for anyone that didn\'t have a Lazarus on board. Which must have been a depressingly large number of people, now that I thought about it.
I walked over to the armor, and stripped down to a layer of skin-tight thermals I always wore. I tosorsed my uniform onto the captain\'s chair. I put on the armor pieces, and they effortlessly connected themselves, all the way down to the gloves. I had my armor painted a solid white, contrary to shock troopers wore, and almost always had my loose black officers jacket over it, just for the sake of memory (and the fact that I had the jacket modified to double as a combat rig). The internals of the armor had everything I would need stored in the back: water, nutrients, and even combat drugs, if something happened. And my beautiful jacket, of course, holding all the ammo I would ever (hopefully) need to keep my 10mm gyro-stabilized magnetically-accellerated auto-rifle loaded. I shouldered the auto-rifle, and put on my helmet (which had a large, golden colored plexiglass shield that could easily be retracted into the helmet). It took a minute for the systems to boot up, but afterwords movement was entirely natural, the well-mantained armor linked directly to my neurological system as short little needles poked into my skin. My least favorite part, but hey, better than going planetside in my underwear.
\"Are the shuttles ready?\" I asked.
\"Do you really need to ask? Of course they are.\"
\"Oh, my bad, I keep forgetting, you\'re psychic.\" I sneered.
He laughed, \"Not psychic, just prepared.\"
\"Staying on the ship?\"
\"As always.\"
\"See you on the flipside, Jeremiah.\"
\"Good luck, Captain. Don\'t do anything stupid.\"
\"I\'ll try.\" And with that, I headed back into the elevator. \"Lower hangers\" I said to the little computer voice. The elevator rocketed downwards, and opened up to the rear, giving way to the lower hangers which housed three repurposed DFN military shuttles, repainted to match the colors of the Washington. Maria was waiting with her auto-rifle in one of the shuttles. A shuttle was equipped to carry an 8 man squad, but with Jackson somehow managing to curl up and fit inside, it was just enough for Maria, myself, Jeremiah (if he ever came along), and some supplies we always kept tied to Jackson.
An 6 man squad of shock troopers (of which we had a total of 10 squads aboard the ship, which we counted in as parts of the crew, meaning we had 140 actual crew members and 60 people always ready to bring the hurt) stood guard around the shuttle. They always did this, even though it was primarily just routine. I boarded the shuttle, and the doors slid shut. I heard the engines fire up, and the pilot opened up the com system. From outside I heard the lower hangar doors screech open, a force field now keeping the atmosphere contained.
\"Weeelcome aboard, everyone.\" Said the pilot, the shuttle lifting off the hangar deck, \"Today we\'re going to be heading towards Istaban II, a nice planet covered entirely in ice.\"
Jeremiah\'s voice cut in \"And apparently some life forms, if my detection systems serve me properly. Be careful when your boots hit the ground.\"
Maria and tossed me a nervous glance. In the mercenary world, \"life forms\" had a fantastic range from \'possibly a nice little village\' to \'giant instectiods that consider your face a delicacy\'. I looked up at Jackson. He simply connected the covered 20mm belt into the side of his autocannon. Apparently, he enjoyed hearing the word \"life form\", since to him, it only translated as \"target\".
The shuttle lunged forward and shook as it entered the atmosphere. \"Hold tight, everyone. Looks like Jeremiah\'s coordinates puts us smack dab in the middle of a pretty little blizzard.\". Maria and I reached up and grabbed the bars on the roof, keeping ourselves upright as the ship shook from left to right, our pilot navigating through the roaring storm. \"Alright, connecting to the surface in five... four...\" the ship began to slow. My facemask slammed down, and I looked at Maria. She followed suit. I did a quick body check with my free hand, making sure I had everything I needed. Ammo? Check. Spare transmitter? Check. Picture of mom? Check. Grenades? Double check. \"three... two....\" the landing gears slid out. \"one...\" the shuttle touched down. \"And here we are folks.\" The shuttle doors opened up, and we were immediately greeted by a wall of white. We hopped out of the shuttle, landing on hard, compacted snow. \"Enjoy your stay. You know my number.\" The pilot said, the shuttle doors automatically closing. I watched the shuttle dissappear into the blizzard.
The helmet comm-systems kicked in. Maria\'s voice immediately came through, \"You there Andrew?\". I felt her hand on my shoulder.
\"Yeah, loud and clear.\"
\"Are we just gonna sit here?\" Jackson kicked in. \"I get bored fast.\"
The HUD lit up, and a map of Istaban lit up in the top right of my vision. Jeremiah fed coordinates through this system, with Jackson and Maria appearing like little blips in the local map. I shook my head. \"Relax, Jackson. And follow me.\" I unstrapped my auto-rifle, and with my faith bestowed in the guidance from the Washingington and her crew, began trecking deeper into the blizzard, my friends by my side.
I really like this. It\'d be cool if there was some homage to the CR though, I was never a member, but maybe you could add an old legend, piece of tech, coup, or some other tidbit of CR goodness. *sniff, sniff*
