As Astra Per Aspera 3

Just as I make it to the bottom of the hill and stop to catch my breath the sound of Heavy Chain Guns and small arms fire coming from the direction I was headed. I knew my comrades were probably fighting creatures similar to what I was fighting earlier so there was nothing really to worry about. It seemed like the armor designed for space could take some major punishment.

Seeing as how I, a space hull engineer killed at least nine by myself. Or so I thought anyway. As I got closer the firefight it was seemingly starting to intensify. I start to jog over to the the smoke plume, the chain gun spooling, ready to tear through the first enemy I encounter. As I make my way across the open valley and a beefy unfamiliar ship soars by... Heading in the same direction as me.

I begin running towards the smoke and quickly reach a small over looking plateau. There I see the Huntsmen Heavy engaged with two roughly 7 or 8 meter long snake like centipedes. Five carcasses were strewn across the ground already. As I continued to watch I noticed a couple guns point downward. That was bad. That normally indicated an extended overheat and required immediate cool down and barrel swap. Then a third went down.

“Huuuh. Well. I guess my luck ran out.” I mutter to myself.

“Current calculations estimate 1.47% chance of success with 0.0085% chance of survival.” S.A.R.A.H states as my neurolink links the calculations.

“Very well.” I sigh lifting the rocket.

[POOOOF]

The first rocket flies out of the tube and beautiful slams into the first creatures head. The anti-armor shell does meaty damage and as the smoke clears I zoom in and see the left mandible is hanging from it’s head. I quickly load another rocket aim and fire again. This time I hit the second one but the damage wasn’t at great. It just left a decent gash on its side.

Both creatures turn and set their sights on me.

“Sir! Friendly unit on the hill to the East! ” My Lieutenant yells to me. “The creatures are going for them.”

“What? ALL TECHS GO! REPAIR THOSE GUNS” I ask before commanding my techs. We had been blasting the emergency beacon for two days and received nothing but now we were receiving help. I watch as the feed pulls up and the entire crews jaw drops. A single being is shown. We watch as he tosses the rocket launcher on his shoulder to the side and lifts a mobile chain gun. The chain gun lights up and the creatures both turn in different directions. The single soldier seemed to be focusing on the least injured one. One seemed to be moving significantly slower.

The faster creature goes in for a crushing bite but he barely rolls out of the way. He scoops up the rocket and runs close to the edge and once again let’s loose with the chain gun. Both creatures dip and dodge as he lights them up. “Guns up in 30 seconds.” Comes from the intercom. However none of us acknowledge as the chain gun must have overheated because he looks down and then chucks it to side and lifts back up the rocket. “Got feed.” Our technician says as a separate screen pulls up the dirtied face of a young man.

He had unnatural green eyes and several scrapes and cuts on his face. It looked like he bad black hair. “Is that a smirk?” The technician asks and we all notice it too. The creatures were now almost fully erect, swaying lightly side to side and looking down at him like a Predator to its cornered prey. Yet this man still had the audacity to smirk at death. “He seriously doesn’t…” The technician mutters to himself. “Is he insane?”

“Rade? Explain yourself. What are you talking about?” I demand as he continues to talk to himself.

“Look at the one on the left.” He says pointing at the screen and then switches to POV.

That’s when it clicked. On the left mandible of the centipede that tried to bite him earlier was a bulky bag. Just as that realization hit us the [POOOOF] of the rocket being fired, followed by the rapid back to back explosions of multiple rockets. The screen with the POV view is filled by the bright lights of explosions followed by the screen being filled with the split second view of the sky before turning to static as the blast throws the soldier off the now crumbling cliff.

“RESCUE SQUAD TANGO, PREPARE TO RETRIEVE THAT MAN!” I order my rescue squad and they immediately begin gearing up.

“All guns operational ma'am!”

“Good, have them on standby." I reply.