Dropship One

by L. D. P. Samways

  L.D.P Samways

  Dropship One

  Text © 2016 by Luis Samways

  All rights reserved.

  Cover Design by The Purple Book Co.

  Luis Samways has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

  This book is a work of fiction and, except in the case of historical fact, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  eBook edition first published in May 2016

  ******

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  For more information on books by Luis Samways Visit:

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  © 2016 by the Purple Book Co.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter One

  The Crimson Shores, Tribeca planet.

  I held the plasma railgun tightly in my grip. The troop carrier was shaking violently as we descended toward Tribeca’s foreign soil. My stomach was in knots as I attempted to hold my dinner in. But it was no use, I was as green as the grass, and green was certainly how I felt. I leaned forward and hurled my guts up. A fountain of vomit escaped my gullet and sprayed all over the steel grated floor beneath me. My boots were covered in a carrot -like substance. The men around me groaned. I’d let them down. We were heading into battle and I’d already puked my guts up like the rookie I was.

  “Rookie’s gone chucked up his guts,” one of my fellow Marines said.

  But I didn’t feel like a Marine. I felt like a failure. Like I’d jumped the gun and went into this headfirst without thinking. But now I was thinking. And I didn’t know whether the fact that I’d just puked my guts up was playing havoc on my self-confidence, or I was now seeing things clearly; but now I didn’t feel as confident as I did when I’d stepped on the troop carrier earlier on. Now, all my confidence was gone. There wasn’t much left of me. Not much left in my stomach, or my heart. And I sensed that everybody around me felt exactly the same way. In the space of a few seconds, I’d become a shell of a man. The reality of war was crashing down on me much like the waves of bile in my stomach.

  “Get a hold of yourself there Marine, puking your guts up isn’t going to accomplish anything. Unless, the only thing you want to accomplish is getting chunks on your shiny shoes. But you seem like a bright young man, the type of young man that doesn’t like to play with strands of vomit or mucus. I don’t say this about many, but you don’t seem half as retarded as some of the men that have graced this troop carrier in the past.”

  The men around me started to laugh. I wiped a smidgen of sick off my lips and looked up at who was talking to me. The guy continued his tirade. And I continued to suppress the explosive vomit in my stomach, holding it down to the best of my ability.

  “So I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt and putting all this down to nerves. So sit up straight, breathe through your nose and puff your chest out like the son of a bitch I know you are,” the Marine sergeant said to me as he flung his heavy arm around my shoulders and straightened me up a little.

  I sat there with my chest puffed out, everybody else was looking at me, judging me, probably laughing at me – But I was here. I was here just like the rest of them. And just like the rest of them, I was here to make a difference. And that is exactly what we were going to do.

  Make a difference.

  “Thanks ever so much, Sir,” I said to the Marine sergeant with his arm wrapped around my shoulder.

  The man’s tight grip loosened. He grunted, standing up and turning violently on his heels. His big abrasive boots screeched in protest as they made contact with the grated metal beneath his feet. The troop carrier continued to rattle and shake as it descended toward the foreign planet.

  We’d all been briefed on our mission. It had all gone awry on the Tribeca planet. Something about merchant pirates becoming a little over friendly with the native population. The over friendliness soon turned into war. A war between two fierce alien species. But they weren’t like us. They weren’t anything like us humans. They didn’t walk upright. They didn’t speak an intellectual language. They were animals. And animals so often enjoyed animalistic behaviour. Savage beasts. But these beasts had been learning to get along with the rest of the Universe. Space and everything that surrounded it was teaming with all sorts of different creatures. Some were diplomatic. Others were violent and predatory.

  Unfortunately, both the pirates and the natives of the Tribeca planet seemed to fall into the silent and predatory category. And we’d been sent there to stop the war escalating into an endgame event.

  The thing is, it wasn’t the natives of the Tribeca planet or the pirates I was worried about. I was sure they were going to fare quite well. But, we humans - Marines - weren’t so favoured. In fact, instead of being revered, we were vilified. No planet nor its inhabitants wanted to see us landing on their soil. We only served one purpose, and that was protecting the merger of companies around the Universe. Companies that controlled the trade and market share of goods. And when a planetary event was deemed to be affecting the market negatively, the Marines were sent in to stabilise the market. And sometimes, the only way to stabilise anything was with pure carnage and violence.

  The railgun in my hands signified carnage and violence well. It fired at a tremendous rate. Rounds and rounds skittering off into the horizon. Chances are my shots would hit something. And whatever it hit, it would bleed profusely. Yes, the railgun was the perfect weapon. A perfect weapon of violence. Carnage. Unadulterated death. At least my gun remained confident in my hands.

  I knew that if my gun was a conscious being, it would be smiling right about now. Maybe even salivating at the thought of taking a creature's life. The gun would not have any problems with disembarking the ship, putting boots on the ground and searching for a viable target. It wouldn’t have a problem pulling the trigger when the time was right. It wouldn’t differentiate between male and female, man or beast, woman or child. No – the gun, my gun, wouldn’t have any problems at all with getting the job done.

  That sort of confidence requires an empty mind. A bottomless pit of a conscience. It would require somebody not to be human. Ironically, a gun would do just fine. It wasn’t human. It was metal. Forged by the hands of a human. A human that most likely didn’t give too much thought about the lives the gun may take in its tours of duty. But the time for thinking was soon up. The troop carrier was starting to rattle less as it descended toward the ground.

  We were seconds away from planetary touchdown. Once the ship made contact with the foreign soil of the Tribeca planet, then the doors would open. We’d all then be expected to make our way out of the ship and onto the ground, no matter what lay in wait for us. There could be a seventy-foot-tall dinosaur waiting to munch on a bunch of Marines, and we’d still be expected to go out there with a smile on our faces.

  Missions like these ended up the same way every time. We would win, but at the same time we would lose – lose many men. It was the price of war. The human body was expendable. It was just flesh and bones. And at the rate that humanity reproduced, there would never be a short supply of humans. People back on Earth sure liked to fuck. Everybody I knew had some sort of baby, or kid hanging around. Schools were filled to the brim with children eager to learn. Millions of bo
ttles of milk every morning – making Kids grow big and strong. I didn’t want kids. I didn’t want more people going through what I went through in my crappy existence thus far. They tell you to get married and to start a family. To enjoy life. Go out on picnics. Chase your smiling kids down the park. Ballgames. Swimming holes. Tire swings. A cabin in the woods. That’s the stuff that freedom is made out of.

  But then they call you for enlistment. Man or woman, enlistment is mandatory. Two years’ service – or else. That’s why I’m here. Mandatory enlistment. I’ll do my two years. I’ll kill whoever they ask me to kill. The thing is, unlike most of the people on board this troop carrier, I won’t be doing it with a smile on my face. I’ll be doing it whilst gritting my teeth. I’ll be doing it begrudgingly. They’ll never know that I don’t enjoy the prospect of spilling blood for the simple and primitive objective of financial or economic gain.

  “Touchdown in thirty seconds,” the Marine sergeant said while standing up and turning toward us. He gave me a wink and I smiled. It was all I could do. It just didn’t feel right winking back at a grown man. I’m sure he understood my predicament.

  “Things are going to get messy down here. There will be a lot of firefights. The pirates are armed to the teeth and so are the natives. Most of the fighting seems to be happening in the rock quarry fields to the east of the city. We’re landing around ten clicks north of it. Once we touchdown, every one of you will make your way toward the quarry. Good luck out there and don’t get killed. As my daddy used to tell me, you only get one chance at dying – might as well make it memorable. So no fuckups out there, just get the job done and get your arses back here in one piece.”

  The Marines around me whooped and hollered as the troop transporter shook violently. I braced myself, the railgun in my hands shaking in parallel with the transporter. My legs vibrated as the air vehicle swayed from left to right. My heart was in my mouth. I could taste copper. Iron. Blood was rushing through my head. My ears felt like cotton. I couldn’t hear much. I couldn’t see much more. The red light above the exits flashed rapidly. We were seconds away from touchdown. And before I knew it, the light above the door went green. Everybody unbuckled and stood up. The sound of hundreds and hundreds of guns being loaded and cocked reverberated off the tin walls that surrounded us. Then that sound was replaced by the new sound of swift moving boots making haste toward the double doors.

  The darkened dimness of the air vehicle soon became engulfed in light. Natural light. The doors opened and the Marines disembarked. It didn’t take long for the sound of gunfire to make its presence known. Within twenty seconds, most of the transporter was empty. I felt someone push me. I stumbled forward, my railgun still tightly in my grip. Then I craned my head back and saw who’d pushed me. It was the sergeant. He was the last one on the ship. I was second to last.

  We both stepped off the ship and onto the Tribeca planet. Huge mountainous peaks surrounded us. The tips of the mountains were pointed, the sun in the sky cascaded a bright warm light across the canvas of rock above us. But time was of the essence. We couldn’t afford to be standing around, staring at the natural beauty that surrounded us. This was a war zone after all.

  A war zone teeming with danger around every corner. If only I knew how dangerous things were to become, then maybe I wouldn’t have been standing around like an idiot waiting for the danger to find me. Instead, I would have seen it coming; I would have seen it approaching us.

  “Keep your wits about you, there’s plenty of areas where an ambush could potentially become a reality, so stay frosty around the corners, rookie,” the Marine sergeant said as he turned toward me and gave me the thumbs up.

  I was heavily distracted by the glare coming from the sun above us. Not even the mountainous peaks gave us much protection from the hot beating sun. But the sun was the least of my worries. The troop carrier behind us was empty, and dust was slowly rising around us. The dust emanated from the running boots of our fellow Marines, Marines that were far in front of us now, meaning that it was just the two of us. And two lowly human souls would be nothing more than cannon fodder for whatever was lying in wait for us out here.

  “We should get a move on – I have a bad feeling about this,” I said, gripping tightly onto my railgun.

  I’d refrained myself from scanning the area with my red dot sight. Even though it made sense to do so, I didn’t want to come across as nervous in front of my Marine Sergeant. But as I stared at him, I realized that he didn’t really give a hoot about me, or how I carried myself. He was also distracted.

  I didn’t know what was causing the distraction, but judging by the expression on his face, at least what I could see of it through the space helmet that he was wearing, it didn’t look good. Whatever was distracting him commanded and deserved every morsel of his attention. Which could only mean that whatever was distracting him was dangerous as hell.

  “Sir, is there something wrong?” I asked, still holding onto my railgun tightly. But the Marine sergeant didn’t even acknowledge me. He just stared off into the distance.

  I was about to repeat myself again, but then I heard something rustling in the bushes. The terrain around us was scarce of life, yet where the drop ship had landed there were a few instances of greenery. Bushes thick with leaves and twigs, the perfect spot for somebody… or something - to jump out on us.

  But that’s not what happened, it didn’t come from the bushes. It came from the shadows, shadows caused by the hulking aircraft that we’d travelled in. Whatever it was, it must have used the drop ship as cover to sneak up on us. And before a gargle could leave my windpipe, I heard the rapid sound of approaching footsteps behind us. I reacted hard and fast, turning around and aiming my railgun at whatever was behind us. But there were two of them.

  And only one of them was firmly in my sights.

  Then I heard a scream. Before I could open fire, I felt warm and wet blood spattering up my back and neck. I knew something had happened to the Marine Sergeant. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that one out. But I had the approaching footsteps to deal with. Footsteps that belonged to some sort of reptilian creature. The best way I could describe it was it being akin to a velociraptor.

  It seemed to walk on its hind legs, small - yet deadly arms gently bobbing up and down as it approached me. I could see the glint and glare of the sun bouncing off its talons. I didn’t know if I was going crazy, but I swear I could see chunks of flesh hanging off its razor sharp claws. But before I could give the encroaching beast a second thought, my finger automatically pressed down on the trigger of the railgun and my shoulders began to buckle under its tremendous velocity and pressure.

  Huge piercing bullets smashed out of the barrel and peppered the velociraptor-like dinosaur that stood in front of me. The dino hit the deck, dust and sand billowing up into the atmosphere, momentarily encasing it in a tomb of death. But the tomb of death settled, and revealed the dead reptilian on the floor, blood seeping out of various bullet holes in its thick and leathery skin. But I didn’t have time to admire my kill. Suddenly, a flash of light went off in the back of my head, reminding me that I had another reptilian enemy to deal with. And it was right behind me.

  I quickly turned on my heels, momentarily checking my ammunition in the clip, noticing that I still had a hundred rounds at my disposal. A small LED screen sat just before the red dot sight, keeping me up-to-date with the vitals of my firearm. On the screen it showed that I had 100/400 rounds left. It also showed that I had one round in the chamber. The LED screen suggested that the gun was operating at optimal heat and ambience levels. There was zero chance of the gun jamming. My training was kicking in. I was able to ingest all this information within the blink of an eye. Which was useful, because when I blinked once again, I saw the bloody sight in front of me.

  Lying on the floor was my former Marine Sergeant, gargling his last breath as blood sprayed out of his neck. And standing menacingly above him, on its hind legs, another velociraptor-like
dinosaur. The dinosaur wasn’t paying much attention to me, it was too busy gnawing and tearing at my Marine Sergeant’s neck. I saw chunks of flesh being ripped and torn out of my former superiors throat. For a few seconds all I could do was stand there and gasp in horror. But then I remembered the railgun in my hands. I took aim and shot one calculated bullet into the dome of my Marine sergeant. The shot to the head put him out of his misery. He was no longer being tortured and played with by the beast that was tearing chunks out of him.

  But then I recalibrated my aim, swooping the sights directly onto the dinosaur that was now staring straight at me. It hadn’t noticed me before, but now it had. The fun and games were over. I’d angered it. This one looked like it enjoyed playing with its food. Like it enjoyed torturing and maiming, all for the fun of it. And I’d interrupted its fun. And judging by the look on the reptiles face, its eyes piercing hot and predatory daggers into me, I didn’t have much time to react.

  Before I knew it, the dino was making its way towards me. It had taken four massive strides, its scrawny and bony feet firmly crunching against the sand, leaving ominous footprints behind. But the reptile was still in my sights. And there was nothing he could do to stop the onslaught of shrapnel that was about to be unleashed on him. It was all a blur, a blur facilitated by a seemingly automatic will for survival. A will for survival that I was taking very seriously indeed.

  I lit the son of a bitch up with fourteen direct hits within six seconds. Fourteen large calibre bullets pierced the dino and floored him. I stood there in shock. Within the space of a minute I’d taken down two beasts. And those two beasts were my first confirmed kills. Ever. I’d expertly taken down two savage animals. Two savage animals that had ripped my superior officer’s throat out. I’d failed him. I should have been quicker on my feet. Quicker to react. But instead, all I’d been able to do was put him out of his own diabolical misery.