You know that old saying, no battle plan survives the first contact? Well, whoever came up with that saying could officially suck a big fat...A massive hole tore through the wall next to where my head would have been a second ago, cursing, I lifted the borrowed customized rifle we had looted from the first Pirate Camp and fired blindly over the fragile barricade Fernando and I was using.

“I told you we should have gone another way!” Fernando shouted out beside me, risking a quick glance over the barricade and popping a quick shot off. The resulting scream meant he’d managed a hit on the enemies.

“You didn’t have a better plan yourself!” I shouted back, trying to fight for volume over the fucking gunfire, and the random explosion that went off. The explosions were Nova taking out weapon stores where she could, trying to sow confusion. Sadly that did jack-all for Fernando and me in our current situation.

The plan had been so simple, enter the Camp in the looted Marine armor, take stock of the situation and get out. Instead, it had all gone sideways half-way through the camp when one of the Pirates in Marine armor took notice of something, I don’t know what, and started yelling.

Now, we stayed cool for a bit, then he started raising his weapon, taking aim. At that point Fernando made an executive decision and took a pop shot at the Marine, scoring a hit on his shoulder.

From there it led us on a merry little game of chase, but with bullets and grenades, as we all but single-handedly threw all their Camp into chaos. About halfway through our failed attempt, Nova had come on the coms asking if we needed any help. I admit to screaming at her to fucking help, and then things got worse, by worse I mean the shed we had just passed blew up, and sent us to our current location. Apparently, that had been a weapons store, and my oh so wonderful Ghost felt the need to blow it first.

Fifteen minutes later, we’d managed to enter into a shootout with what I felt was their entire camp of roughly two hundred Pirates, only about thirty of them had the Marine armor, thankfully. It meant that most of our shots were kill shots when they hit the Pirates.

“Sir, we need to move...NOW!” Fernando screamed at me as another hole burst through our failing cover. He was right, we’d stayed too long. In fact, I was pretty certain that we had both taken some hits to our armor if those little red pings that were slowly growing in number on my display were anything to go by.

“Right, get moving Fernando, I’ll cover you!” He started moving, and got my happy ass up from behind the cover and let loose multiple bursts of fire, forcing them to duck behind cover. Now, I didn’t hit shit with my little spray-and-pray, but by God, it was beautiful to see so much wood and other objects splinter into nothing before I dropped the empty rifle and took off after Fernando. I’d have to pick another up as we moved to another cover.

I was actually really regretting not having any of the other Marines present, it was just Fernando, Nova, and myself in this operation. Failed operation that it was, Nova was doing her job well. Periodically with the explosions and a few updates that she had taken out key leading figures.

It showed, simply because the entire camp was in utter chaos aside from the group chasing us. Someone with authority had to be leading them, otherwise what Pirate would stay to shoot at two idiots that walked into their midsts while things were exploding all around them?

A bullet going by a bit too close for comfort pulled me from my wandering thoughts, things that I shouldn’t be thinking about, to begin with right now. Fernando has made it about fifty yards away, with me hot on his tail, and the shit ton of Pirates hot on my tale, before I collided with his armored back, and stumbled back.

“Fernando, what the…” I cut off my sentence when I saw three Pirates in Marine armor standing before us, at least twenty Pirates around them, all aiming weapons at us. Behind us showed another thirty or so, no Marine armored ones there.

A sniveling, sneering, sounding voice echoed out from the middle of the armored fuckers. “Alright, you ignorant little bastards, your mine now. I don’t know who you are, or why the fuck you’re here, but we could always use the new merchandise. Now, call in whoever else you have, and we can end this without the need for anything unpleasant.”

To emphasize the final part of his statement, one of the Pirates pulled out what looked like a mini-welder. Ah, torture, ok then. “Yea, not gonna happen. You plan to sell us as slaves, torture us, or kill us. Regardless, I don’t really feel like giving you the chance.”

“Oh, I am so happy you said that. I admit doing this the easy way would have been best, explosions ruin our gear, but the hard way is more fun. Get in there, boys. I want them out of that armor.”

I smiled ruefully, knowing this was going to suck in so many different ways. Fernando was the only one armed, my weapon had been emptied and discard. The only thing we had for certain was the increased strength the mechanical servos of our armor provided, but being mobbed wouldn’t allow us to use that very well.

Shit, shit, shit. How the hell were we going to get out of this situations? Fernando looked like he was about to just start shooting. The only thing that probably held him back was the fact he didn’t want to get me killed. Nova was still blowing shit up, apparently. I doubted she could do much here anyway, but I’d feel better knowing she was present.

The Pirates were inching closer to us, the central figure, their leader, and his two armored guards standing back. I ground my teeth in pure frustration when I heard Fernando speaking to me in a low voice. “Sir, I’ll start shooting, make them focus on me, you run afterward.”

What? Oh fuck me, he planned to sacrifice himself. “Sorry, Fernando, that isn’t happening. I’ll stick it out with you.”

If nothing else, I knew we lived and died together. Something I learned in the Military back home. May as well stick with it here. I saw Fernando move his head ever so slightly to me, I could feel the tension and slight disapproval at my words coming off of him, but he seemed to be thankful at the same time.

A ding sounded out. The sound making everyone freeze because it had seemed oddly loud in the setting, with explosions going off in the background. Then another, and another. I blinked, seeing three holes appear, one for each of the armored Marines, and then the singular most amazing thing happened. More dings, I realized it was the sound of gunfire through a silencer, as bullets started taking down the Pirates, one shot per Pirate hit.

Chaos once again ensued as the Pirates themselves started shouting and trying to run, a few hefting their weapons and just firing at us, only to hit their comrades in the confusion. “Fuck, open fire, Fernando!” I screamed, grabbing one Pirate that had run close and used him as a body shield against the others fire, ripping the weapon from his dead hand when I threw the corpse at a small group and started firing with the pistol I’d taken.

God fucking damn, I was going to find some way to thank Nova for this. I should have figured she would have done something to help, but this was still utterly amazing. Now, just to finish off any and every Pirate in the area while they either fled or tried to fight.

When all was said and done, only about forty of the Pirates seemed to have made it out alive, running into the barren Wasteland outside the ravine. Personally, I was just trying to keep from shaking, coming so close to dying again because a plan I’d made had turned out so poorly...again.

I closed my eyes, refusing to remember the trauma of that fucking battleship, before turning to Fernando who was just sitting down, his breathing audible even with his visor down, when Nova materialized in front of me.

“Dear God, woman. I could kiss you for that!” I saw Nova smirk and shrug before looking serious.

“Sir, all but two ammunition depots in this camp were destroyed, I think you’ll like what remains a great deal. It’ll help with the other Pirates Camps when we strike. I do recommend moving against them with a strong force next time though, we got lucky today.”

She wasn’t wrong, and I just nodded at her before taking off the helmet I wore and dropping it to the ground. “You are an amazing shot. Is it just the gear, or can you teach others?” The question seemed to catch her off guard momentarily, but she answered readily enough.

“Fifty-fifty, Sir. I can teach the required breathing techniques and how to focus properly, but without the chip my gun has, most won’t be as accurate.”

Well, better than nothing. I needed to find a way to engineer more weapons like hers, and I had an idea for it. Using the primary building card for an engineering bay would help solve the issue, I had wanted to obtain a Ghost academy for it, but that wouldn’t do me any good without more people with Psionic abilities already awakened, even my own weren’t actually active right now, which made the Psionic Storm ability I had doubly useless.

“Then I want you to work with Fernando when we get back to the base and start training the men to shoot properly. I won’t make the mistake of going in like this again. Now, what presents did you save for me?”

Nova gave a light chuckle, the sound was endearing as hell. More so when I don’t think I had ever heard it in the game, or prior. It was a cute sound.

She led me to the Depots, Fernando having found his feet, followed slowly behind us. What I saw upon arrival made me smile a million watt smile. It was Marauder armor, four of them. Why the Pirates hadn’t used them was beyond me, though it may have been a lack of time on their part. Nova had done her job and done it well after all.

Upon entering the actual Depot, the System seemed to have deemed that a completion of whatever it judged this to be, probably a mission, and I was hit with multiple boxes, one, in particular, making me very happy.

System announcement!

Congratulations Player! You have successfully cleared the Hallowed Ravine of Pirates, you are one step closer to freeing the Wastelands of their influence.

You have acquired four Marauder armors, each capable of manufacturing and using hundreds of grenades against their enemies in battle.

Congratulations Player! Your Minor Hero Fernando has successfully reached level two! He has obtained the ability ‘Command Structure’

Command Structure - able to promote to Marines under his command to Corporal ranks. This promotes their standing Marine station by one.

Congratulations Player! Your Hero unit, Nova Terra has reached level two! Nova Terra has been granted the ability to use her assault gear!

Assault Gear - Nova Terra is capable of changing her gear load out to a shotgun, and frag grenades. Discarded stealth, she becomes a Queen of Urban warfare.

Congratulations Player! You have gained a new Passive Ability from Nova Terra! You may now turn one Marine into a Trainee Ghost.

System advises Player that only Marines labeled Veteran Marine may become a Trainee Ghost. -WARNING- This forcibly awakens their Psionic gifts, there is a thirty percent chance of failure in unawakened Marines.

I wasn’t sure the base kill count needed for leveling them, but when I looked at both their stat screens it showed a kill count under their name. Nova had thirty-eight kills, Fernando had twenty-nine. If I went off the game, like how ranks increased at twenty kills, then they probably increased their level upon reaching twenty kills. Remembering that cosmetic system was a hassle though, for now, I was happy that Nova had become a great deal stronger with added versatility, and Fernando would allow me to turn two Militia Recruits into whatever was their stronger, or more experienced variation was.

The Ghost passive was even more amazing, it had huge limitations, more so when I had no idea how long it would take me to get a Veteran Marine, but later on it meant I would gain a Ghost for free, then have Nova train them into my personal spy force.

Grinning from ear to ear, I had Fernando call in the boys near us to pick up the Marauder suits, then followed Nova to the second Depot, and froze in shock at what I saw, it held one item, but that single item would change everything if I could make it work.

System Announcement!

Congratulations Player, you have located the weapon schematic for Vultures.

Vulture - Fast moving two-wheeled vehicle, launches small projectile grenades as a weapon, capable of deploying spider mines in set locations. Requires three hundred minerals, two hundred Vespene Gas and a Factory to produce.