Dropship One

by L. D. P. Samways

  Locked and loaded. High-velocity bullets. High impact kills. It was the way of the Marines.

  I quickly made my way up the incline. As I did so, the sun became more intense. The heat was causing my visor to fog up. But my impaired vision was the least of my worries. It became quite apparent to me as I reached the top, just how organised these so-called pirates were.

  It also became apparent that the race of these pirates was important. In my mind, for some reason, I’d envisioned them as human. Which was stupid really, because they weren’t human. They appeared to be reptilian. Not quite like the dinosaurs from early on. Those were more like animals. They were aggressive and walked in an animalistic predatory way.

  These reptilians however had heavy armour on. Armour that had spikes embedded in it. Helmets that seemed to be made from bone. Utility belts that were made from leather. Weapons that had tusks mounted on them. They look like wasteland warriors from fictional movies like Mad Max from a couple millennium ago. The natives on the other hand, they were bulbous. Both in appearance and person. Well-rounded individuals. They look like insects. Creepy crawlies. But they were human in size, just like the pirates. As I stood there for a few seconds, contemplating the war effort in front of me, I began to wonder if there was more to this war than met the eye.

  Firstly, there were the pirates. They seemed to be fighting for something more than just resources. There was something about them, the way that they roared as they shot their rifles at the bulbous insect-like natives. They were entrenched in passion. Murderous rage. And that sort of rage could only come from scorn. Scorn brought on by, in my opinion, the captivity of their own kind. The reptiles back at the troop carrier shared the same ancestry as the reptiles fighting the insects at the quarry.

  Sure, they didn’t look alike, but they were very much the same. They shared the same bloodline. And I had a feeling that these pirates wanted to free the dinosaurs. Why else were they letting them loose? But then there were the insects. They carried themselves in a certain way as well. Like they were better than everybody. I’d heard stories about them before. How they were intelligent. How they liked to show everybody just how intelligent they were. And I reckon that the pirates were taking exception to that intelligence. Back on the troop carrier we were told that this was a war over resources. An illegal invasion of the natives’ planet by the pirates. But I wasn’t buying it.

  “Hey, stop standing there and start shooting,” I heard the mysterious guy beside me say as he started to open fire on the reptiles.

  My new comrade pointed at a rock a few feet in front of us. I gathered that he was suggesting that we used the rock as cover. And I was right, because seconds after he signalled me, he started to make haste towards the rock. I followed him, my gun drawn, aiming down the sights, taking down a few reptiles in the distance. I didn’t know if I’d hit any of the reptiles, but I saw a few of them duck for cover. That was good enough for me. We reached the rock and leant against it. As we did so, bullets started to hurtle past our heads, taking chips out of the rock, shards of stone splintering off into the sand. I turned to my new companion and frowned.

  “Well, this is exactly where we need to be. At least we’ll die in the shade,” I said, blind firing my railgun over my head. As I did so, shells started to fall to the floor, clattering about as the casings formed a small pile.

  I stopped blind firing and reloaded, sliding down to the floor, trying to make myself as small as possible. A small target is a hard target to hit. That’s what we were taught in basic training.

  “Stop your moaning, and continue firing. Nobody is dying in the shade,” the guy said next to me, taking a grenade off his utility belt and lobbing it overhead.

  After a few seconds of delayed silence, an explosion went off. A dark dust cloud formed just above us, seeping past the rock and billowing off up into the atmosphere. I sighed. My breathing was laboured and I was beginning to feel unwell. The sun was far too hot on this planet. I hadn’t had a drink in ages. I needed some water. But this was war, and I’d forgotten my bloody canteen.

  “So what’s the plan, just hunker down behind this rock and hope for the best?” I said, frowning as I loaded a clip into my railgun and checked the chamber.

  I didn’t want to risk jamming the gun when firing it. Trying to dislodge such a large calibre bullet was difficult. It was something that I desperately tried to avoid at all costs. A jammed gun was no use to a Marine. And more times than not, a gun would only ever jam in the worst of situations. Usually when staring dead-faced at your enemy, an enemy that wanted nothing more than to kill you. Thankfully the gun wasn’t jammed and I got back to blind firing over the rock.

  “No, we need to get to a squad and we need to get to one fast. If we don’t rendezvous with one of the section leaders, then we’ll be counted as dead. Once we are counted as dead, our data is taken off the system. It takes a very long time to bring someone back from the dead, even if it’s just on paper. And I don’t know about you, but I want to get paid for this,” the guy said.

  I nodded. He continued.

  “So the plan is simple; we clear out this left side of the quarry, make our way down the dirt ramps and enter through the cave system. According to the radio chatter there're six teams inside the mining shafts. We get to one of them and we can be of some assistance. We’re not much use out here. Sure, we can take a few of these bastards out, but when it comes down to the nitty-gritty, we won’t last out here alone. There’s far more of them than there is of us. Plus, once we run out of our ordinance, we’re stuffed. We need ammo and fresh food and water. Sun’s baking out here and I don’t want us to overheat,” the guy said, smiling at me.

  I smiled back at him. The guy was on the same page as me. He wasn’t stupid. So I decided that I’d go along with what he was saying. It made all the sense in the world. We needed to get into those mineshafts. If that’s where the Marines were, then that’s where we needed to be.

  “A man after my own heart, I’m with you on this one. I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry and thirsty. As you said, the sun is way too hot out here. I’m roasting in my suit. I’ve turned up the AC, but I think one of my filters has gone out. If I don’t get some shade soon, I don’t think I’ll last. These reptiles won’t have to put much effort in. I’ll be dead before they know it,” I said, reloading another clip into my railgun.

  “That’s the spirit!” The guy said, reloading his gun as well.

  He then turned to me and held out his hand. He wanted me to shake it. It kind of felt like bad timing. Call me crazy, but I preferred a handshake during gentler times. Maybe down the pub, sipping on a drink. Not on the battlefield. But I guess it wouldn’t look good if I just left him hanging there. So I shook his hand.

  “Name’s Jensen,” I said, shaking his hand.

  “Hi Jensen, they call me Spooks. Real name is David, but Spooks suits me just fine,” he said, letting go of my hand. I nodded my head. Spooks was just fine with me as well.

  More gunfire could be heard around us. Bullets were still whizzing past us. Some of them were kicking dirt and sand up. Others were taking chunks out of the rock that we were leaning against. I knew that it was time we got a move on. There was no use in us hanging around here. Continuing to do so would only get us killed. So, me and Spooks stood up and rolled out a cover.

  He took down a few pirates from afar. He was a crack shot. Me on the other hand, I was just spraying and praying. I found it difficult to fire accurate shots with the railgun. But it was all I had at my disposal. I watched as Spooks slowly made his way down the dirt ramp. The quarry was rather large. It kind of looked like the Grand Canyon in a way. Circular walls of rock surrounded us, along with a deep crater in the middle.

  The dirt ramp slid down toward the crater. And the crater housed around forty-five tunnels - according to the schematic that they’d showed us before landing – the one I hadn’t been paying much attention to. Those tunnels led to mineshafts. Mineshafts that Spooks and I
needed to get to. It didn’t matter which one, as long as we reached a shaft. Because once we reached a shaft, we’d reach our men. It was as simple as that. But as they say, some things are easier said than done.

  “On my mark, start suppressing cover fire. I’ll make my way down the ramp, while you make sure that anyone approaching my flank gets a bullet for their troubles,” Spooks said, giving me the thumbs up.

  He didn’t hang around. The guy quickly made his way down the ramp, shooting at will. The few pirates in the vicinity got taken down quickly. Most of them were preoccupied with the fighting in the tunnels. I watched as hordes of them made their way inside the mineshafts. Only a few of them had spotted us. But the more we fired on them, the more resistance we’d receive. So I decided to pick my shots. I watched as Spooks disappeared down the ramp. All I could hear was controlled gunfire bursts. And then nothing. I guess now was my turn. My turn to make my way down the ramp. So that’s what I did.

  I quickly and efficiently leaped toward the ramp. In the distance I could see a pirate aiming something at me. Whatever it was, it wasn’t a rifle. For a second I stopped dead in my tracks. The pirate was too far away from me to get a clean shot. But I couldn’t help but think that he needed to be dead. He needed to be neutralised. Whatever was in his hands was better off incapacitated. But before I could sweep my aim toward the pirate in the distance, I heard a thunderous explosion.

  I hit the deck as soon as I could. The explosion was followed by the sound of falling rocks. At first, there were just a few. But then, there were many. I quickly turned my head behind and saw that the large quarry wall had a hole in it. I hole most likely caused by a projectile weapon of some sorts. It didn’t take a gun specialist to figure out that I’d just been shot at by an RPG. Only a weapon of that sorts could cause such massive destruction. Destruction that I was incredibly close to. So close in fact that it would have been wise to move. But for some reason I felt stuck to the ground. And then I noticed it. A rock had fallen on my foot. It was a medium-sized rock. Luckily, it hadn’t crushed my bones. It had a hook on my pants though. I couldn’t move. I tried to shake the rock off but it wouldn’t budge. All the while I was attempting to free myself, I could hear the debris from the explosion falling onto the ground around me. If I didn’t move, I’d be crushed to death.

  “You sleeping on the job?” I heard somebody say.

  It was Spooks. He’d come back for me. And before I could reply, he was removing the rock from my foot. He chucked it and helped me up. I felt embarrassed. He’d managed to move it so easily. And there I was struggling like a wimp. This tour wasn’t getting off to a great start. Within the space of the first hour of landing on the Tribeca planet, I’d managed to cause the demise of my staff Sergeant and my Marine Sergeant. I was determined to get through this. There would be no more casualties on my watch.

  “Okay, now we’ve got that out of the way, let’s focus on causing some actual damage. I spotted a mortar down the ramp, near a few rocks. I think the best thing that we can do is make our way down the ramp together, then one of us gets on the mortar and blows those son of a bitches to hell. What do you say Jensen? Fancy making these fuckers pay?” Spooks said to me, looking me up and down.

  I guess he was trying to see whether I was critically injured or not. I could take my weight on my foot. There was no pain and judging by the readouts on my PDA, my vitals were fine. No elevated blood pressure or heart rate. It looked as if I’d gotten away with it by the skin of my teeth. Or in this case, the graze on my ankle.

  “Yeah, I’m fine with that. I’ll take the mortar while you keep the rest of the pirates off my back. I’ll try my best to blow these guys to kingdom come. Back in basic training, I dabbled with explosives. So I think I know what I’m doing,” I said, a faded smile finding its way onto my face.

  “Good, looks like you’re the man for the job. Once we’re down there, I’ve got an idea in how to deal with the stragglers. I’ll pop a few rounds off, maybe throw a few grenades. Once we get rid of them, we can make our way inside the tunnels. And once we’re inside the tunnels, we can make our way to a squad. We need to get in contact with our fellow troops. If we don’t, we risk ending up separated from them permanently. This planet doesn’t exactly scream safe haven. Being stranded doesn’t sound like a good time. So finding our men is our number one priority, is that good with you?”

  I nodded my head. Spooks nodded back at me. He gave the okay and before I knew it, we were both running down the ramp. Spooks opened fire first. A few of the pirates flanked us on our left. Because we were going down the ramp, the pirates were at an elevated position. They were just above us on some rocks. About six or seven of them had spotted us.

  And now we were in a firefight. Spooks did exactly as he said he would. He popped a few rounds off into two or three pirates. One of them fell forward and landed face first on a rock. The spatter was unpleasant. The sound of its skull crashing against the rock would probably stay with me for the rest of my life. Come to think of it, this whole bloody tour would stay with me for the rest of my life. So far it had been nothing but bloodshed. And I wasn’t the squeamish type, but I was starting to feel sick. Spooks then grabbed a grenade from his utility belt and chucked it overhead. We both hit the ground near some rocks and covered our heads with our hands. The explosion followed and debris rained down on us. A few stones hit me on my back. At first I thought it was gunfire, startling myself back onto my feet. I searched for some bullet holes in my spacesuit, but found everything intact. I was jumpy, and Spooks could tell.

  “Easy fella, we’ll get through this,” he said, patting me on the shoulder and turning back around. He then began to open fire once again.

  For a second or two, I just stood there. The sound of the gunfire around me was causing me to go into shock. I don’t know why, but at that very moment, I was terrified. There were many reptilian pirates that surrounded us. We had a slim chance of escaping with our lives. The fact that both my Marine sergeant and staff Sergeant were dead, all of it was crashing down on me like a ton of bricks. These bricks weren’t light. They were heavy and they were damaging. My shoulders and my back ached. My chest felt constricted. My breathing was heavy. And I thought I was about to faint. But luckily, luckily I pulled myself together. I had to. I couldn’t let Spooks down. I couldn’t let another person die. And even though I’d managed to handle myself just fine so far, I knew that I would be in as much need of Spooks as he was in need of me. There was no way that the two of us would survive this alone. And he was right, we needed to get to a squad. And we needed to get to one fast.

  “On your six,” I shouted, realizing that a Pirate was gaining ground on Spooks from behind.

  And because I’d just been standing there, I hadn’t had my railgun at hand. So I wasn’t going to be of much use. But luckily, my voice was working just fine. And so were Spook’s his ears. He turned on his heels fast and shot the oncoming pirate. The pirate convulsed on the floor, it’s reptilian body clenching as its life faded into the distance and he remained a forgotten soul on the battlefield like many more before. And many more after.

  “Are you just going to stand there with your thumb up your butt, or are you going to get onto that mortar and rain some hellfire on these bastards?” Spooks asked, momentarily looking at me. I was still feeling a little hazy, but I pulled myself together.

  I nodded my head, I knew what I had to do. And so did he. He turned back around and started firing on the various pirates that surrounded us. Some of them were acting like whack-a-moles, coming up for some air, us shooting a few rounds off, and then them ducking back behind their cover. If it carried on in that vein, it would be extremely hard for us to get into one of the mineshafts. All it took was for one of them to stay behind cover until we cleared the area, and then flank us when we least expected it.

  So I momentarily checked my rounds in my railgun, and aimed down the sights. Fortunately, two pirates in the distance, at around a hundred yards, popped out of
their cover, and I let rip. A jagged line of railgun bullets clipped the rocks behind them, sending a few large rocks tumbling down. I think one of the rocks crushed one of the pirates. But I’m also pretty sure that one of the rounds hit one of the pirates. I’m sure of it because the pirate’s head had exploded into a red mist. A red mist that hung around a little after the pirate’s body hit the ground.

  It was sick really, the power of the weapon in my hands was enormous. And thank God it was. After all, we were just two human beings trying to survive on a hostile planet. Two human beings that had lost contact with their squad. So it was a good job that our weapons were powerful. And it was an even better job that their weapons, the pirate’s weapons, were more like BB guns. But you still couldn’t underestimate them or their guns. They had the numbers game. We had the power game. And when those two combustible elements came together, fire was bound to engulf the foreign land that surrounded us and scorch the soil until it was tar black.

  I took a few more pirates out with my railgun. The sound of the bullets leaving the chamber was loud and deafening.

  Thunk – Thunk – Thunk – Thunk - Thunk. Wiz – Wiz – Wiz – Wiz - Wiz.

  My arms began to ache, and then I remembered what my true goal was. I spotted the mortar on the floor near a few rocks. The rocks would provide the perfect amount of cover for me, acting like an enclave. I slowly made my way toward the rocks, making sure to aim down the sights and take out as many of these reptilian pirates as I could. The insect-like inhabitants of this particular planet were nowhere to be seen. Usually, I’d heard in the past, when war broke out on various other planets, the natives would fight alongside the humans. The humans that they had hired to help them eradicate the threat that they were under. But not on this job. Not on this planet. It was just me and Spooks and the many men inside the mineshafts we were trying to reach.