Interstellar Age

Erich underwent a lengthy procedure to surgically alter his body so that it closer resembled that of humanity. And though he was excessively tall, and muscular by baseline human standards, he would still be able to blend in with the rest of them, even if his facial features were more refined than those of the average human.

The moment his alteration was concluded, Erich looked into the mirror and was immediately disgusted by what he saw. From the day he was born, all he had ever really seen was a sea of white skin. Whether it was the citizens of the Germanic Star-Empire, or their Oni allies. There were some exceptions to this rule, such as the red skinned Dvrakians, or the aquatic Thaxkorvians who resembled fish more than men.

But never before had Erich seen a creature with brown skin. He had read about them, and seen holographic projections about them, such as the dark elves. But he had never seen it with his own eyes. And from the perspective of a man who had been raised in a society where the most ideal features a living being could have were that of pale skin. Erich suddenly found himself repulsed by his own appearance.

Evidently, the other members of his unit could tell by the look on his face, because they simply scoffed and assured him that this appearance was only temporary.

“Relax, once the mission is over, you will be reborn in an untainted body, and it will be like it never happened. For now, just act natural and pretend like your aren’t disgusted by your own appearance.”

Erich could only sigh and nod his head as he heard the words of those operators more experienced than himself. That is, of course until he saw Tia appear in his line of sight, who looked equally as disgusted as he was. Something which she was not afraid to voice.

“Master! You look so…. Hideous! What have they done to you?”

Erich clicked his tongue in disgust, which the members of his unit thought he was doing in response to their words. But they did not seem to care. After which he ignored Tia’s taunts and redressed himself before following the members of his unit to a ship that looked like it was centuries behind in terms of technology. Erich could not help but exclaim his thoughts aloud when he saw the vehicle, which was almost akin to a death trap.

“What a piece of shit! You can’t possibly tell me we are taking this hunk of junk across the galaxy?”

The men simply chuckled as they opened the rear hatch, allowing Erich to follow them into its interior. Once inside, the leader of the unit was quick to explain the situation to their newest member.

“It might look like a tin can, but trust me, this bad boy is equipped with the latest technology we have. In fact, its appearance is a mere holographic projection so that it blends in with the ships of the Confederacy. Do you honestly think high command would send us a quarter of the way across the galaxy on a ship that doesn’t even have shields?”

Erich suddenly felt stupid when he heard this explanation, and remained utterly silent as he made his way to the cockpit, where he quickly activated the controls, only to find that they were intensely familiar to him. In fact, the nav computer already had a course charted to the Confederacy, and all Erich really needed to do was coast along the journey.

Thus, Erich quickly took the ship out of the space station’s hangar, before spooling up the quantum drive, where he then set it on a course to the frontiers of the Confederation of Human Worlds. Once he had done this, he spun his chair around and began introductions, wanting to know more about his new teammates.𝑜𝐯𝓁xt.𝑐𝑶𝓂

“I’m Commander Erich Jaeger, though I’m guessing you all knew that by now…”

The leader of the group currently appeared as a dark skin man, with tattoos on his face. He had a blood red robotic arm, and matching hair, which was fashioned into a faux hawk. Undoubtedly, this was not the man’s normal appearance, but he introduced himself nonetheless.

“Colonel Svend Mortensen, I’m the leader of this ragtag team of misfits. Though you can call me Ghost.”

Ghost quickly reached into a nearby cabinet and pulled out a bottle of hard liquor, the origin of which Erich did not actually recognize. He then popped off the lid and chugged the substance like it was water. Seemingly unaffected by its strength.

As for the rest of his fireteam, another man quickly introduced himself, as well.

“Sergeant Lukas Raschle, I’m the heavy weapons and demolitions expert, so the guys just call me Heavy… If you need something blown to shit, I’m your guy!”

From Erich’s perspective, Heavy seemed like a pretty simple guy who just liked blowing things up. The man currently had light brown skin, with a shaved head, and a blue beard. He had a scar over his right eye and several piercings to match in addition to his multiple cybernetic limbs.

Eric honestly did not know how to react to such a simple personality, and thus he quickly shifted his focus to the next guy who seemed entirely disinterested with their introductions, almost as if he had some kind of grudge with Erich, even though they had never met before.

“Lieutenant Joar Thorell…”

Joar was a man who seemed to constantly have either a depressed or agitated expression. As he currently stood, the man had skin the color of chocolate, with golden hair and red eyes. Though only one of them was visible due to the fact that his bangs covered his left eye. Like the others, he had several parts of his body replaced with cybernetic prosthetics, something that was incredibly common in the Confederacy.

Erich was confused about Joar’s short introduction, one whose words were clearly laced with malice. Just when he was about to ask what was the man’s problem, Ghost handed him the bottle which he had been drinking from before giving a proper explanation.

“Don’t mind JT, he is just salty about his lot in life. As you can see by the collar around his neck, the man has been sentenced to serve in our unit until the end of his natural lifespan. If he even thinks about running away or betraying any of us, his head will be blown clean off his shoulders. Where he will just be resurrected and sent back to us. Let this be a lesson for you. If you are stupid enough to disobey your orders, then you will end up just like him.”

Erich was only now starting to realize how severe the consequences for insubordination were among the Empire’s most elite military units. Even though he could empathize with JT and his plight, Erich did not want to end up just like the man, and thus he simply ignored him.

Finally, there was one last member of the group, like the rest of these elite operators. He was not only tall, but extremely muscular. In fact, out of the entire unit, Erich was by far the leanest. Most of these guys were built tanks, and this man was no exception.

For the sake of the operation, his skin had been darkened like the rest of his unit, however his hair was a vibrant green, with eyes that had clearly been replaced by cybernetic implants, as they glowed purple with crosshairs for irises.

Though Erich had no idea what this man looked like when he was not posing as a standard human, he could tell that he was the silent professional type, because he did not even say a word to Erich, instead he simply nodded his head.

Seeing how the man was not going to introduce himself, Ghost sighed heavily before introducing the man.

“That’s Captain Haakon Lunder. Oh, and mind you, that’s an Army Captain, not a Navy Captain, so you outrank him. We call him Echo, which, as you can clearly tell, is an ironic nickname based upon the fact that he never says a word. He doesn’t seem to mind. Instead, he accepts it with pride.

Although we might all be experts at stealth, this man takes it to an entirely different level. If Echo wants you dead, there is nothing you can do to stop it, because you will never see or hear him coming. By the time you realize something is wrong, you will already be drowning in a pool of your own blood. So word of the wise, don’t piss him off. Not that he is quick to anger…. Ain’t that right, buddy?”

Once more, Echo did not respond. He simply nodded his head while leaning back against the wall with his arms crossed. With these introductions out of the way, Erich felt like he was finally part of a team again, for the first time since the friends he met at the academy had all perished in the war against Terminus.