Interstellar Age

Erich landed on Germania not long after, where he was immediately met by a group of soldiers who brought him to the headquarters of Germanic Military Intelligence. Once inside, he was met by his comrades, all of which seemed exhausted.

They had clearly just finished a mission while he was undergoing training to become a W-2. For a W-7, there was really no such thing as r&r. There were many enemies of the Empire, and not enough elite operators to go around. 

When they saw that Erich had returned, the men smiled and greeted him, curious about how he scored on his previous training scenario. 

“Hey Erich, back so soon? I suppose it really has been three months, now hasn’t it? How did it go?”

Erich felt slightly better knowing that he was with friends once more. Even if they had departed on rather awkward terms, they appeared to have gotten over their discomfort. Thus, he smiled as he bragged about reaching the high score.

“Well, I got the top score!” 

Obviously, these men had mistaken what Erich had meant, because Heavy scoffed as he boasted about his own zero-gravity scores. 

“Big deal. We all received top marks in our W-2 certification. In fact, we would expect no less from you, considering you were assigned to a W-7 unit as only a W-1!”

However, Erich wore a pretty grin on his handsome face as she shook his head and corrected Heavy. 

“No, I meant that I received the top score on the leaderboard. Seven hundred and seventy-seven kills!” 

This information astonished the team so match, that even Echo, who had never made a single noise since Erich was first introduced to him, gasped. Which immediately drew the attention of everyone in the group.

Of course, Echo pretended as if everyone else was just hearing things, which caused several of his comrades to believe that they really had. Eventually Ghost stepped forward and spoke of his disbelief about such a high score. 

“That’s impossible. Are you seriously telling me you took out over half of the other WRAITHs? How the hell did you manage that?” 

Naturally Erich wouldn’t say that he had two enormous advantages over the others. For starts, there were not many people, if any, other than Erich, who knew he had the gift of foresight. And secondly, if he said he had downloaded Tia to his NeuroLink after being ordered to terminate her, his fate would be sealed.  Thus he simply made a boast that nobody believed. 

“What can I say? I’m supremely talented!” 

This remark caused the rest of his team to scoff, almost in unison, as they explained what their next task was. 

“The time has come. The Oni Civil War has gone on long enough, and the rebels, with the support of Imperial Intelligence, have gained significant ground. All that is left is to lay siege to the Loyalist’s capital. Surprisingly, we have been given the most important task of all. Capture the Great Oni Emperor, and secure the Royal Palace so that Kondo Yumi can take the throne.  We will be deploying from orbit, so get kitted up already!” 

This news stunned Erich, as he had yet to actually go through orbital drop training. Something that was normally reserved for W-3s. And because of this, he was quick to give voice to this matter. 

“Hold on a second. I’m not certified to perform an orbital drop. Isn’t there another way for us to deploy?”

Ghost simply scoffed, before confirming that these were indeed their orders. 

“Certified or not, these are our orders. It’s a damn good thing they crammed all that theoretical knowledge into your head, because now you’re going to have to sink or swim. At the very worst, you will splatter on the ground and turn into a puddle of blood and bone. Perhaps you’ll be revived, perhaps you won’t. It’s difficult to tell. We have no idea what has happened to our research station on the Oni capital. So, don’t fuck up!”

Erich could only sigh as he heard this. In that moment he was fully prepared to accept permanent death as a real possibility, that was before hearing the lovely voice of his little AI assistant speak to him.  𝑂𝓋𝓁xt.𝒸𝑂𝗆

“Don’t worry master, if it becomes necessary Tia can take control of the suit, and ensure that you drop successfully. Your safety is guaranteed!” 

Upon hearing this, Erich sighed heavily in relief. But at the back of his mind, there was something else, too. A bit of disappointment that he would have to continue living on in this hostile universe. One that just seemed like it wanted to keep him down. 

Still, he gave this no thought, and quickly got kitted out in his Mk 2 Power Armor, where he joined the others on the corvette, where they immediately flew to Oni Space, where the Capital of their Empire was currently being bombarded by rebel forces. 

It took some time to arrive at the Oni Capital, but even from space, Erich could witness the untold destruction that was occurring across the planet. However, he did not have enough time to voice his disapproval when he was dragged out of his pilot seat by Ghost, who gave him an order. 

“Alright, put that thing on auto-pilot, and have it join the Rebel Fleet after we have deployed. We drop now!”

Erich quickly did as he was commanded, before joining Ghost and the others in the cargo bay of the corvette, whose ramp had opened up to reveal the ongoing battle in front of them. As the commanding officer of the unit, Ghost gave a brief speech, one that was not the slightest bit reassuring to Erich, who was the only nervous member of the team. 

“Alright, you’ve all got the proper coordinates of the drop site. I suggest you activate stealth to avoid contact with the enemy. And if all goes as planned, I will see you all below. If not, I pray to the gods that your souls find their way to Valhalla. For glory and fatherland!” 

After saying this, Ghost jumped out of the cargo bay and dived towards the world’s surface below. He was followed by Echo, then Heavy, and eventually JT. Once his entire team had dropped, Erich stood at the edge of the cargo bay with trepidation in his silver eyes. 

Anxiety had taken its hold over Erich, as he sifted through his memories on how to properly drops. Which after realizing that he had absolutely no fucking idea what he was doing, he said one simple phrase before taking a step off the ledge. 

“Fuck it!” 

Erich immediately began to fall into the atmosphere of the massive world, where he transitioned into a diving position like his allies to gain speed. All the while hearing Tia’s voice confirm how quickly he was dropping. 

“One hundred kilometers and dropping fast…” 

Naturally, Erich’s drop was not unopposed, although his figure was concealed by an advanced stealth field generator. The planetary defences were retaliating against the Rebel bombardment by shooting everything they had into space. Massive flak guns were detonating all around him, and Erich had to control his drop to avoid being blasted into pieces. 

Unfortunately for him, the blast of one of these explosions managed to hit Erich, which sent him way off course from his initial position, while damaging the Mk 2 Power Armor’s stealth field generator in the process.  Yet Erich survived, with little wounds to speak of, and with each passing second, Tia continued to countdown the distance between him and the ground. 

“Fifty kilometers… Forty… Twenty… five…. Master, give Tia control of the suit now!”

Erich did as Tia had commanded, and gave her complete and total control of his power armor, which forcefully shifted his position, and activated the anti-gravity technology so that Erich’s drop would come to a complete and abrupt halt just before he splattered into the ground. 

After landing on the ground, Erich felt like throwing up, but managed to find the strength not to do so. When he finally recovered his senses and looked around, he found that he was nowhere near the drop zone, and was instead deep behind enemy lines, in a particularly devastated part of the city.  Erich was quick to ask Tia about this, with a particularly grave tone in his voice. 

“Tia, where the fuck are we? What happened to the others?” 

There was a rather anxious tone in Tia’s voice as she confirmed their whereabouts. It sounded almost as fearful as Erich had. 

“Master… It appears that we were blown off course from the impact of that shell. By my estimates, were are approximately fifty kilometers away from the drop point….” 

It suddenly dawned on Erich just how unbelievably fucked he was. Despite knowing the grave reality of his situation, he was quick to give voice to them with a tone filled with disbelief. 

“Do you mean to tell me that we are now completely alone out here while stranded deep behind enemy lines, without stealth capabilities, and fifty fucking kilometers away from our nearest friendlies?” 

Tia simply nodded her head before responding in an equally grave tone.

“At least fifty kilometers…. I suppose that this is why you went through all that harsh training on that moon, is it not?”

Erich gazed around him at the destruction on the Oni Capital’s surface, and suddenly realize that his objective had now shifted from capturing the Great Oni Emperor, to simply surviving. There was a hint of complete and total disbelief in his tone as he voiced his thoughts aloud. 

“Oh…. we are so completely and utterly fucked!”