Starlight: the Edge

“Alright, listen up ladies!” The voice rose over the sound of the talking troops and the noise of descent. The ship was entering the planet’s atmosphere, going mach twenty-five.

Even on the inside of the ship, the noise was difficult to get above “We are in for a quick hard drop, so no fuck ups. We’ve been hired on to get this done, and the Wildcats don’t disappoint. Do we?!” He finished his orders with the same question he gave on every mission. As with every previous mission, the response was the same.

“NO SIR!” came the unanimous answer. The Man nodded his approval and took his seat next to his second in command. The others were mostly talking amongst themselves as they got closer to the landing zone.

“Saul, this seems off.” His friend spoke up to him once he was seated. His second kept his voice just loud enough to be heard, so as not to spread his doubts. Saul had always appreciated that trait of his.

“You don’t say…” He responded dismissively. His friend was right though, there was some sketchy activity going on planetside, but it didn’t really matter, they were Mercenaries. They were paid to fight, not to solve mysteries or deal in right or wrong, and at the end of the day that’s all that mattered.

“I’m serious, whoever is behind this is bringing in a hell of a lot of mercenaries, entire companies, including rivals. Rumor is they even had their own private army. Well funded, well trained…” He continued. His nervousness was noticeable and he drew the eye of a couple of other soldiers. He gave them an amused smirk to reassure them.

“What’s your point, Chase?” Saul asked, letting his commander tone seep into his voice.

“The fuck are we going to be fighting?” Chase didn’t let his friend’s tone force him into submission as it did the younger troops. He could tell they were about to be in a shitstorm. They were being paid a small fortune to come to this fight, and he wasn’t sure they were ready.

The Wildcats had a good reputation, but they had always been smart about their contracts. Nothing too big or too dangerous, that was how they did things. An unknown planet fighting a war out of any faction jurisdiction, a battle that has been going on for an undisclosed amount of time, any and all fighters being hired for the fight. These were all bad signs.

It seemed like whoever was in charge was taking anyone, experienced or not. They had seen shuttle crafts being loaded with guys who barely looked like they could handle a gun. They would fill up, head to the sight, drop off the troops and head straight back for another load. It was crazy and screamed trouble.

Too many credits were offered though, and the Wildcats had joined on. They had experience, troops, and their own battle-ready dropship. They were put on a separate roster and were being paid more than the average. Even still, Chase wished they had passed this one up.

“A bunch of corpses, because when we get paid, the enemy dies,” Saul responded without batting an eye. He knew this was going to be hard, but if his men were ever going to move up in the world, they would need to make a bigger impact than they had. This was the perfect opportunity, a chance to prove how good the Wildcats could be.

“If you say so.” Chase was worried that their win streak had made the commander arrogant. He hoped they wouldn’t all have to pay for that arrogance.

“Just lead your team, Max will lead his. Jess will keep us covered in the sky. How many others do you think have their own personal air support?” He could tell the commander was trying to pass this off as an easy job, but they both knew that wasn’t the case.

Suddenly Jess’s voice came through the ship’s coms “We have a problem gonna have to make an emergency drop.” Her words were matter of fact, she was well versed in keeping her cool when shit hit the fan. Likely Chase and Saul were the only ones that heard her concern.

“What problem?” Saul commed her for info.

“AA guns, a lot of them. They're gonna give us hell any moment now.” As if to punctuate her words, the ship suddenly shook violently as she maneuvered it past incoming fire. It shook again and there was the sound of explosions. Luckily for the Wildcats, Jess was a cut above the rest when it came to flying. The ship was built for planetary combat, and she had been born to fly. Both showed as she streaked through the incoming fire.

“I thought we were still in the green zone…” A new recruit spoke up next to Chase.

“Guess we’ve already lost some ground,” Chase responded absentmindedly. It was definitely a bad sign. They seemed to be losing the battle and they hadn’t even reached it yet.

“Fuck!” Shouted another soldier as the drop ship shook from an uncomfortably close shot. His sentiment was echoed by others as the ship continued to rattle.

“It doesn’t matter, we take it back. Ready to go in hot.” The Commander spoke putting all his confidence in his words. Every soldier stood at the ready, waiting for the doors to open, and the short jump to the ground, to the battle.

“Jess get ready to deploy the BT barricades before we jump, on my mark!” The commander shouted into the com standing with the rest of the soldiers. Everyone was ready to make the leap, to get in the fight. Chase hoped the Bunker Tech would hold. He heard stories of the shit not functioning properly. Landing on the ground and not activating, just a big box on the ground as men died where it failed to cover them. He shook the thoughts away, instances like that were rare, and he sure as shit didn’t need to concern himself with terrible what-ifs.

“Here we go,” Chase said more to himself than those around him. His doubts, his fears, his concerns were useless now. Like it or not they were all in the battle, and the only way out was through. He looked over his team and was glad to see them ready to go, with no worried looks, no visible doubts.

“Alright, Move! Move! Move!” The commander shouted as the doors finally opened. A few soldiers made it out before ground forces started firing on the ship.

Chase followed his men out and saw a few get shot down before they even made the jump. No time to think about it, he vaulted out the door. The few seconds it took for him to land seemed like an eternity.

He felt a shot breeze past him and instinctively knew his troops were being cut down before impact. Finally hitting the ground, he raised his rifle and fired. He was grateful to see that Jess had dropped the BT barricades perfectly. The men had enough cover to get behind once they landed.

Even still, they had taken casualties, and injuries. This had been the hardest drop they had ever done and it showed. He barely had time to register that he was jumping over bodies every time he moved. There were gunshots going off all around him at a non-stop pace, deafening him with their song of war.

The troops felt the dropship start to rise before racing forward, to escape the range of the AA weaponry. Chase looked around while firing his gun. The troop had landed in what appeared to be some building ruins reinforced with bunker tech. Luckily for them, the sight had recently been on their side, so the defenses were facing their opponents' direction.

The Wildcats pushed the enemy back as they moved into the defenses. Using the barricades, cover, and mounted weaponry. Chase grabbed a set of explosives and launched them to where a cluster of enemies was located. The explosion shook the ground and helped lessen the incoming fire. The Wildcats had deployed their bunker tech on impact and were now moving it further forward.

Soon the mercenaries had formed a large circle of defenses to fight from. It was a mixture of their own bunker tech, the BTs that had already been in the ruins, and the ruins themselves.

Chase signaled for two of his guys to take his place behind a barricade he had taken cover behind, and return fire. As they moved, he darted through different parts of cover, keeping his head low as shots were traded back and forth, many flying directly above him. He couldn’t believe that they were already surrounded on all sides. If he had to bet, he would say that the enemy had been making a push forward just as the Wildcats entered the fight.

In the long run, it would be a major disruption to the enemy’s advance, but only if they could survive in their position.

Chase made it next to Saul, who he saw had been grazed across the arm. It seemed to be the only injury he had sustained. Max was with him as were a few other soldiers. They seemed to be keeping their cool, and maintaining a steady stream of return fire.

“Hell of a welcome party, eh?” His commander shouted at him with a laugh.

“Sir, there are way too many, were completely surrounded, we need that air support,” Chase shouted back. He looked over the barricade and had to immediately duck down to avoid being hit. He still had not gotten a good look at their enemy and had no idea who they were fighting.

“No shit. Even still, Jess can’t help us if those AAs tear her apart.” The commander pointed out. “We need to find them, and clear some out for her, but we also need to hold this position.” Saul took a look around, the ruins provided great cover, the downside was that they didn’t discriminate. It protected their enemy as much as it protected them. There were a few still-standing buildings, that seemed intact enough not to collapse anytime soon. And there was enough open space for the men to move around in.

“Okay then, Max. Get a team of scouts, marksmen, and recon troops. Head to that building, the tallest one.” Saul pointed to the building he was talking about. As soon as Max saw it he nodded his understanding. “Provide cover fire when you can, but your main goal is to find the AA guns, and give their location to Chase.” The commander finished giving his order, as Max got ready to head out.

“Yes sir. Going now.” With that, he made his way to the other troops grabbing the ones he would need. The commander turned his attention to his best friend.

“Chase, get a team, and start heading to the AAs. There is one close enough that I could see it when we jumped. To the east, you’ll see it. I’ll hold the lot together here, let's give Jess the room she needs to save our asses.” With that the commander rushed over to some other soldiers and started giving them commands, organizing their landing spot into a fortified defensive position.

Chase grabbed five of his men, and headed east, keeping low and staying in as much cover as they could find. A few enemies had started shooting at them but had stopped once the team had made it a distance from the rest of their troop. The enemy seemed to be focused on removing the barricaded mercenaries.

Chase kept his team moving until he came on the AA gun. It was massive and guarded. “Shit.” Chase hissed when he saw how many were guarding it. He still couldn’t tell who they were, but there were too many for this to be easy.

“No worries boss, I’ve got this.” A big guy named Tony spoke up. Chase looked at him and grinned when he saw what was strapped to the man’s back. It was a sweet Tri Rocket launcher. They were illegal in both MEPAC space and the ESF space. Luckily in the Frontier, it didn’t matter.

Tony lined up the shot as the others took cover and got ready to engage. The trigger was pulled, and the missiles flew out of their chambers heading straight for the AA gun. The three collided with it at the exact same time, exploding in a spectacular display of color and deafening sound.

As the smoke began to clear, Tony ducked behind some cover just in time as shoots peppered the area. Chase took a look, the smoke made it difficult to see, but the shoots were easy to follow.

He aimed his rifle and fired a burst. They waited a moment but there was no return fire. “Alright, let’s see if there’s any of ‘em left.” Chase said to his team. They moved in formation, weapons drawn and ready.

“The fuck…” one of his troops said as she got a good look at one of their enemies. Chase took a look. It appeared to be an Ark soldier, but they weren’t supposed to be anywhere near this part of the system, and there was something about them that seemed, off.

“Holy shit… are we fighting the Ark?” Tony asked in a concerned voice. Chase understood the sentiment. The Ark was not to be trifled with. It had held back Earth and Mars during the last war and had only gotten stronger since.

“Fuck that! I didn’t sign up to go to war with them.” responded another soldier. Chase could tell they were letting fear get hold of them, that wouldn’t do. He needed to get the situation under control, but there was something eating at him, something about how the soldiers looked.

“No…” He spoke almost absentmindedly as the realization began to form.

“Sir?” The girl looked at him questioningly. Finally, it hit him.

“They're not Ark soldiers.” Chase realized that their armor had looked wrong the moment he saw them, but he hadn’t been able to see why until now. “Look at that stuff on and in their armor. It seems to be reinforcing their gear.” He pointed out the strange pulsing material that seemed infused with their gear. “Ark doesn’t do shit like that. More likely these guys just got their hands on some Ark tech.”

Still, it was concerning. It seemed almost biological. That kind of tech wasn’t unheard of, but it was dangerous. Outlawed everywhere there was law, frowned on everywhere there wasn’t. It seemed that this planet had an entire army with it equipped though. That didn’t bode well for anyone on the planet.

“That might be just as bad… at least for us,” Tony spoke up, clearly still focused on the Ark aspect of it all. Chase just nodded his agreement. It would serve no purpose to spread his concerns with the team. Instead, he got on the com to figure out where the next AA gun was located.

“Chase, glad your still alive.” Max’s voice came alive, though from the sound of him he had some trouble getting to his objective. “Saw the explosion from here, nice fucking work.” he continued.

“How bout you? Everything good on your end?” Chase asked him, keeping as much concern out of his voice as he could.

“Yea yea, we’re fine here. Even better we can see the AAs. We’ll launch some markers at them. Good luck Chase.” As Max signed off, Chase saw from the building he and his team had taken, a flare-like marker get launched. It sailed past Chase and his team landing a ways off. He couldn’t see where it ended up, but a few moments later a column of colored smoke started to rise.

“There’s our next target, let's go get it done,” Chase said to his team as they started to head out to the next AA. As they moved past the now wrecked AA sight Chase spoke to Tony.

“How much ammo do you have for that?” He asked while gesturing to the bigger man’s weapon of choice.

“It’s not run on sliver tech, but there’s still enough to give these pricks a world of hurt,” Tony answered with a proud smile.

Chase hoped it would be as easy as the first attack, it was the first part of their mission to go their way.

The group of fighters got closer to their target, and Chase motioned for them to get in position for an attack. They moved closer, with Tony heading to the front. As the AA gun begin to come into view, Chase motioned for the unit to stop. This gun was completely abandoned.

“Maybe they didn’t think they would need to worry about an attack this far in…” One of the newer recruits spoke up. He was trying to be quiet but was still too loud for Chase’s comfort. Not that it really mattered, they had made enough noise on their arrival to cover their own voices.

“Don’t be an idiot. There’s no way they would leave something like this unguarded.” Tony snapped at the younger man. He gave him a look of disdain and looked like he might say more.

“It doesn’t make a difference we still need to take it out.” The girl from earlier threw in. She was right that they still needed to take out the AA, but the lack of guards certainly did matter to Chase. There was a problem here, and he had the feeling that he knew what it was. He started looking for immediate cover near them and to his dismay, he couldn’t see any.

“Something doesn’t feel right,” The young man spoke up again “let’s pull back and…” his words were cut off as suddenly, a projectile flew threw the front of his skull and out the back, taking most of his face with it.

“Ambush! Take cover!” Chase shouted just before more shots went off. He fell to the ground as the girl tackled him from behind. Just in time as shots flew through the air they had both been standing in not a moment before.

She took out a case and slammed it in front of them. It unfolded into a decent piece of cover. Chase sent out a silent prayer, thanking whoever had designed bunker tech.

He quickly crouched behind it with the girl and rested his rifle on top of it before firing. She quickly followed his lead and helped him shoot back. He did a quick count of their enemies and was surprised to find how few of them there were.

There was less than half of what had been at the first sight. Chase gritted his teeth as he felt a shot graze past his cheek. He did his best not to flinch as the new scar was seared into his skin. He shot the enemy that had sent it to him. As he went down chase saw a shiny ball on his belt.

He steadied his breath and aimed. He pulled the trigger and watched as the shot raced across the distance and hit the little ball. The reaction was better than he could have hoped. It exploded in a ball of fire, quickly igniting those nearby and causing a panic that scattered the attackers.

Chase and his team broke cover and moved on the offensive eliminating the rest of them with relative ease. As the last of them fell, Chase took a look at his men. There were only three of them left. Tony, the girl, and a marksman.

The team had been new, and Tony had been the only one on it that Chase had previously fought with, even still he had hoped they wouldn’t take losses. He had expected resistance, hell even for things to be worse than they sounded when they took this job. This, however, was far worse. They had lost only two men, but in reality, there was no way he could see for the four of them to successfully remove the remaining AAs.

“It’s hopeless.” The marksman suddenly spoke up. His voice was calm, but his words sent a chill down Chase’s spine.

“The fuck did you say!?” Tony spun on the other man, with a glare that could melt ice.

“Hey calm down…” The girl tried to intervene. She placed a hand on Tony’s arm, but he violently shook it off

“No, fuck this guy. What do you think you're saying?!” He spoke through his teeth as he stepped forward. To his credit, the marksman didn’t even flinch at the bigger man’s threatening demeanor.

“It’s a fact, we don’t have the manpower to keep this mission going.” He spoke calmly and rationally. Chase had to consider those words. As much as he didn’t like them, they were true.

“Yea well we better. If those AAs don’t go down, we don’t get air support, then we go down.” James spat at the other man.

“As I said, hopeless.” Was his only response. Tony’s face went red with rage.

“You motherfucker!” He shouted grabbing the marksman by the collar and dragging him forward.

“Stop!” Chase shouted before it could turn into a fight. “Just shut up and let me think for a moment.” Thankfully they seemed to calm down waiting for him to tell them what to do next.

He had to think. Tony was right, they needed to get rid of the AAs or they would all die without air support. The marksman was right as well, they didn’t have the troops to finish off the AAs. They had only successfully taken out one… Chase then got an idea.

“Tony, your gun, was it made with Ark tech, specifically the targeting system?” He asked the man.

“Uh… Yea. Why?” The big guy responded, confused as to why this mattered.

“I need it. You,” Chase pointed to the marksman as Tony brought him the gun. “Get on some high ground see where Max has set the rest of the marks, give me as exact coordinates as you can.” As the marksman moved Chase took the gun and started taking it apart.

“Hey! What are you doing?” Tony asked now concerned as Chase tore his weapon apart.

“You two, make sure the AA is cleared of any enemies or explosives.” He said while he continued to work on getting the pieces he needed for his plan.

“Remove the explosives? Shouldn’t we be rigging the AA to blow?” The girl asked him as Tony started up to the AA sight.

“No. Now get up there.” He spoke without looking up. She watched him a moment longer before heading after Tony. It took several minutes for Chase to get the pieces he needed and attach them the way he wanted. Once he was done he headed up to the AA. Tony, the girl, and the marksman all stood next to it.

Chase headed straight to the massive cannon and then started hooking his device up to it. The others watched him, confused as to his intentions.

“Did you get the coordinates?” Chase asked the marksman. The man glanced at Tony before turning back to Chase.

“I did, there are six of them.” He spoke calmly, but the concern in his voice was unmistakable.

“Six? Fuck…” Tony spoke, almost as if to himself. He was tough and arrogant, but even he had to question their odds against six different sights.

“Damn, how the hell are we going to take out six AAs?” The girl asked, clearly trying to fight off panic and despair.

“We can’t.” The marksman responded in his cold manner.

“Fuck that, we have to,” Tony said, matching the other’s calm with his own anger.

“Your both right.” Chase suddenly spoke up. They both looked at him as he finished up. Chase looked at his work and grinned. It was crude and wouldn’t last very long but that was a good thing.

“We don’t have the men to succeed and failure isn’t an option. So, we make another option.” He continued.

“What option is that?” The girl asked.

“Did you...” the marksman asked finally catching on.

“Yea, we need to get out of here as fast as we can,” Chase said excitedly, as he and the others started to sprint away. AAs were tough and powerful, but if they fired too fast they would cause damage to themselves eventually exploding, which is why they had to be fired manually.

Chase loved how simple the answer to their problem had been. Using the tracking system on an Ark tech weapon to guide an Ark tech AA helped him set it to automatically aim at the other AA sights.

It would start firing and rapidly switch to each target in turn, firing and cycling threw them. It would decimate the other sights, and the damage it would sustain from rapid-fire would cause its own destruction.

They were a ways off when it started. Chase could hear the firing and its pace. He grinned as he turned around. He couldn’t see the AAs but he could see where the shots were landing. It continued for less than a minute before exploding. Chase knew the other AAs had been removed.

His team let out a cheer as dropships came into view in the now safe airspace. Chase saw Jenny’s ship and felt that perhaps they could turn this mess around after all. Just then a deafening sound erupted as a giant shot tore threw the air, slamming into their ship.

Chase was knocked to the ground by the energy as it flew past them, and watched in horror as it struck true, and the Wildcats’ ship dropped from the sky. Chase couldn't believe what had just happened, had they missed an AA? No that wasn’t an AA shot.

He turned and saw what had done it. A shot from a giant rifle, in the hands of a giant metal war machine. The colossal warbot marched forward with slow steps, that sent tremors through the ground.

The dropships scattered as it fired upon them.

“Motherfucker that’s an…” Tony started but seemed too enthralled or too horrified to continue.

“An Ingen.” Chase finished for him as they all watched the awe-inspiring war machine march onto the battlefield. He looked at it and realized that as impossible as it seemed, their battle had just gotten even harder.