Chapter - 03 : Contact

- - - - -

"Radio Test, do you all read me ?"

Just before the drop Major Irisdina asked the troopers.

"Sagari Ok"

"Lily ok"

"Page ok"

"Leya ok"

"Chiaki ok"

"Miharu ok"

"Check your mobile armour functions, make sure all functions are working properly..." ( Irisdina )

Once the girls had checked all the functions and found no errors they took their seats. All of them were carrying different types of weapons. Major Irisdina had an assault rifle, Arc-21. Its rapid fire and larger magazine with 50 bullets made up for its small calibre.The magazine was attached at the back right where the shoulder support was. The weapon was attached to the shoulder of the armour through the attachment point.

Sagari had a similar assault rifle while attached to her left shoulder was a rectangular rocket launcher with twenty rockets, each having enough explosives to turn a single storey house to scrap.

Chiaki was similarly armed with an assault rifle and a extra case attached on her back. It had medical equipment. But her rifle also had a detachable grenade launcher attached under it.

Leya also had an assault rifle but on her right shoulder was a 40 cal. quad-barell rotary gun, or simply a Gatling gun. An extra box holding the ammo belt for the gun was attached to her back. She had 500 rounds. How she carried all that weight with her petite body was a mystery.

Lily had the assault rifle and a mini missile launcher having two long range laser guided missiles. One was high explosive type which was capable of levelling an area of 500 square metres while the other was an incendiary type which would light a an area of 100 sq metres in the flames of hell.

Page also had a sniper rifle an NT- 70 calibre semi automatic. A common sniper used in the war. Along with a smaller Sub machine gun for support. Additionally she had a case on her back attached to the left shoulder support that had a mobile communication system.

Miharu carried a Berk-66 semi automatic shotgun. Over a metre long, this baby had enough juice to turn a rhino into cheese at point blank range. She also had a rocket launcher on her shoulder.

All these weapons were provided by the Captain, he had an entire battlecruiser filled with weapons which would have been thrown down the drain anyway so why not use them. The girls however were quite shocked. Were they going into war ? Whats with all this armament. But when they asked him...

"Since we have it we'll use it..."

Is all he said.

Now for those who would be wondering why there were no energy based weapons, laser guns and the like. Here is your answer. In the begining of the war humans used those weapons against the aliens. But sadly these weapons relied much more on software than hardwar meaning these were a bunch of computers fitted into guns. And the Aliens had a sad habit of using EMPs (Electro Magnetic Pulse ; it basically fries any electrical systems) anywhere and everywhere. So the scientists had to evovle conventional weaponry resulting in abandoning of sci-fi type weapons. Well after the war it has resumed but the Himmelriech was transporting these old weapons so she had only these available.

- - - - -

Back to the present,

The dropship sped towards the surface. Carrying seven people, an APC, a few crates of ammunition and ordnance, and many electronic equipments. Dropping from the illiana which was above 500 kilometres from the surface, it would be a ten minute ride. The shuttle was a HK-500 twin retro lander. A ship specifically designed to carry around fifteen personnel and 20 tons of payload. Its shape resembled a plane which had a box attached behind the cockpit part. There were no wings. Two pairs of thrusters used compressed Hydrogen and Oxygen as fuel to keep the ship afloat, and propel it. The first pair was present right behind the cockpit, attached to the roof of the fuselage through two maneuverable long wing like arms. The other pair was directly attached to the sides of the fuselage but at the other end. more stability, while a pair of tail wings were present, attached to the roof at the end of the ship right above them. The thrusters were independently moveable so as to offer maximum control. The tail end had a cuboidal shape with a large rear hatch to drop troopers and payload. It was one of the most extensively used dropships during the war. Easy to shoot down though due to its bulky design and slow speeds.

As the HK descended the wind currents shook it like a storm. The girls had not experienced such a situation ever before in real life. They had dropped in thousands of missions but experiencing virtual reality and reality itself are completely different things. Lily desperately tried to hold her urge to vomit while Chiaki was gritting her teeth enjoying the adrenaline rush of the drop. Sagari was quite and composed while Miharu was nervously clenching ther metal supports, which were like the ones you see in roler-coasters. Leya, on the other hand was wondering if she would be able to fly this ship someday. Page was shaking badly her forehead drenched in cold sweat. Finally she couldn't take the tension anymore and began screaming.

"Aaaaaaaaaaa" (Page)

"Remember your training troopers and you will not die."

Captain Add calmly but severely stated through the speakers, making Page instantly shut up. Major Irisdina was slightly better than her peers, though by sheer willpower. She was seated farthest from the cockpit just beside rear hatch. Her posture was straight and showed no care for the continuous shaking of the dropship.

She thought of the captaim and found him to be very suspicious.There was definitely more to this man than met the eye. She knew well how easily he, a generation one had over powered, Sagari a generation five within seconds, and that too without using much force. Just what was his background, she wondered.

"...Host reaching jump mark in 1 minute..."

The AI, Lapis informed. Add nodded and informed his passengers.

"Major Irisdina are your people ready to jump ?"

The girls were confused, 'jump' 'were are going to jump? The Major moved across the ship and manually opened the large rear hatch.

"This is it troopers. We are going sky diving through the rear hatch. Lily and Leya stay on board, the rest are going with me, we'll clear a spot to land."

""""""WHAT!!??"""""" The girls almost fainted from shock. A bone rattling drop wasn't enough now the captain wanted them to jump from this ship. He must be a lunatic.

"We are going to jump !? Why !?" Sagari shouted.

"Because we have to secure and clear a spot for the ship to land, unless you want to land inside a forest full of trees or a group of hungry aliens...." (irisdina)

The girls had their jaws dropped inside their helmets.

"No! No matter what you say i am not jumping!" Sagari huffed

"Me too...i don't want to jump...." Page said in a wavering voice.

The other four also nodded. The Major shook her head and sighed. She then spoke in a fed up tone.

"Then the choice is yours, either you jump down or i will personally throw you down. You have 10 seconds to choose....10, 9, 8, 7....."

""""""".........""""""

The eyes of the girls nearly popped up. A devil, this was a devil! They started to back away instinctively. The Major calmly counted.....

"3, 2, 1, 0...."

Next instant she lunged and grabbed the closest one to her that was Sagari and grabbed her arm. The poor girl tried to break free but she could not even move her hand. And the next instant she was flying down the sky.

"Kyaaaaaaaaaaa....."

Her blood curdling scream echoed across the radio, making the other girls shiver.

"Whose next....?" The Major coldly asked looking at the others, making them drown in fear. They silently prayed for this nightmare to end.

"Aaaaaaaaa"

Page screamed and jumped down on her own followed by Chiaki and Miharu, while Lily and Leya clutched their seats in fear. Irisdian gave one last look towards the cockpit, a look filled with a suspicion and jumped down as well and Lapis closed the hatch. The ship remained hovering around three kilometres over the surface.

- - - - -

"""""Kyaaaaaaaa"""""

The four girls, Sagari, Page, Chiaki and Miharu were screaming their lungs out. Major Irisdina used her retro burner, to close the distance between them.

"Stop screaming troopers you are not kids anymore!"

"""""Whose fault do you think this is !?"""""

The girls screamed in their minds but the words didn't come out due to the fear of approaching death. Not knowing that The captain continued.

"I have good news. All systems are a go. Everything is working as its supposed to..."

She kept a watch on the display of her helmet. The mobile armour had the facility of an optical display on its inner side. The ground neared ever so faster. The group broke away from the clouds and one could see a greed landscape down below. The Major waited for the right time.

"600 metres to surface. On your retros on my mark. In 3, 2, 1, Mark!"

Ahe was the first to do it and her fall immediately slowed down from hundreds of metres per seconds to a few metres per second. Following her the other girls also did the same and their speeds also quickly reduced. Now they were less than two hundred metres off the surface. Yet their hearts were besting as if wanting to pop out of their chest.

"I almost died..." Sagari muttered

"We will touch down in a few seconds, turn your weapons to live. Keep your sensors on. Consider that we are in hostile territory. Scan the area and keep your eyes on any movement."

All of them quickly readied their weapons and sensors as they landed.

They had landed in a landscape which looked like a small clearing in a forest.

"Ahh we are finally down..." Sagari fell to her knees almost embracing the ground.

Miharu used her long gun as a support putting it on the ground and took deep breaths while Page almost burst into tears thanking whatever gods there were for saving her life.

Only Chiaki looked like she had been through a roller coaster and was too exited. Irisdina looked around. She felt light. It was natural. The default artificial gravity on the ships was around 3 times standard terran gravity. It ensured neo humans with their enhanched physical prowess did not keep jumping around neddlessly. So a gravity of 2x terran gravity was quite easy to walk in for them. She began giving orders.

"Stay alert. Nobody open your helmets yet. We don't know how the air is like. Page ready the radar system. This opening is quite big, we can fit the dropship easily here. The rest of you, spread out and check for any surrounding life-forms..maintain radio contact..."

The group of five scattered. The glade like area was roughly as big as a football field, probably a bit larger. It was surrounded by dense foilage on all sides, trees over twenty metres tall. The glade itself however was only covered in short dense grass.

Meanwhile captain add who was looking at the proceedings through alive feed from the helmet cams of the troopers, was frowning.

"Of all the places, they had to land in a glade surrounded by dense forest. Thats an area predators stay in wait for easy prey. Those idiots...."

And just as he thought that....

"Major !!!!!"

Page immediately shouted.

Irisdina, Sagari, Chiaki and Miharu immediately tensed up. They had barely walked twenty metres away each. They hastily ran towards Page who was trembling watching her screen. The communication unit on her back had a mini radar which was now functioning.

"Whats the matter Page !?" Irisdina came rushing beside her.

"Major! Heat signatures all around us ! 40, 47, 55, 70,.....they keep increasing!"

The Major quickly reacted.

"All of you form a perimeter! Arms at the ready!"

The girls quickly formed up a circle with their guns pointing out.

Soon over a hundred signatures were picked approaching them. Irisdina narrowed her eyes. Not even ten minutes of their landing and a welcome party was in bound ? What a nice world.

The heat signatures around them kept on increasing. Soon they found out what these heat signatures were. As they waited soon their welcoming hosts revealed them selves. Zooming in Irisdina saw humanoids, having two pairs of limbs walking on their legs. They were over two metres in height with a slouched posture and had black and grey hairs covering some of their body. Their skin was dirty ashen grey and their overall appearance resembled disfigured humans with a flat face having a pair of slightly pointed small ears and two holes for a nose with wrinkled skin and open mouth that bared pointy teeth. They looked like apes on steroids. In their hands were clubs made of wood and crude spears made from long branches. Over a hundred of them were approaching towards them.

""""Guooooo"""""

The creatures gave savage growls.

"What the hell are those things natives of this planet !?" Chiaki shouted. She was disgusted looking at these creatures. The Major calmly looked on.

"What do we do Major !?"

Sagari shouted.... She too was tensed. Very tensed. Irisdina looked all around. Her unit was surrounded on all sides. There was no place to escape.

"Fire at will !!" She commanded.

*Ratatatatata*

Four Arc-21s and a SMG spewed hellfire on the approaching creatures. As they were getting hit many died immediately, while some fell down hit on their legs or vitals. But to her despair, Irisdina found that to kill just one of these around ten shots were needed. These savages had needlessly tough bodies.

"Aaaaa they don't quit !"

Chiaki shouted. They had killed tens by now but the numbers kept on increasing. Miharu's large shotgun had enough power to kill one of these savages in one shot. But her magazine was not very large. Just as she was reloading, a hulking savage took the chance and swung its club at her. She was barely able to use her weapon as a shield as the impact sent her rolling along the ground. The armour had absorbed most of the impact but her hands still went numb. The savage approached her again.

"Help me !!!" She cried out.

"Sergeant major !!"

Irisdina ran towards Miharu and emptied her remaining bullets into the savage killing it instantly. She helped Miharu stand up, who somehow once again picked up her weapon and reloaded it.

"Are you okay Mi-chan !?"

Page asked through the radio.

"Y-yes I am fine..." (Miharu)

"Pull back stay close ! Form a circle. Let none near !"

The girls formed a circle continuously firing at the horde killing more and more of the savages, but they kept coming like a flood.

"Captain do you read me over !? We are in trouble! Bring the ship over here !

Captain do you read me !? Damn it where the hell are you !?"

The poor Major tried to contact the captain but she received no reply.

"I cannot hold them off much longer Major ! What do we do !?" (Sagari)

"Damn it ! Sagari and Miharu, Fire your rockets fry the entire area !" (Irisdina)

""Roger !"" (Sagari and Miharu)

As told they fired all of their rockets in all directions around them.

*Boom* *Boom* *Boom*

As the two rocket launchers gave off smoke, all over the glade explosions rang out. Tens of the savages died with each hit. Dust and smoke filled the area, dulling the visibility.

"All of you stay close be on alert." (Irisdina)

"Oh no....." (Page)

"What happened page....?" (Sagari)

"More......more are coming much more......." She said as she looked at the radar display

"You have to be kidding me....."

Muttered Irisdiana as she looked at the radar screen above Page's arm. All around them a dense mass of heat signatures was gathering. Hundreds. Hundreds of savages. As the dust settled, she saw them. Slowly approaching towards them. Line after line of the savages. Their eyes bloodshot. The girls had nowhere to escape. They had nowhere to go.

"This is sagari to the dropship! Does anyone read me over !? Help us damn it! Leya Lilly where are you !? Anyone help us ! Some one respond !!!! some one...."

Page was weeping, Chiaki looked grim, her legs were trembling. Miharu she held on, but her hands too were shaking like crazy. Irisdina dropped on her knees. She had lost all hope. As she saw the hordes slowly approach them, she thought out loudly...

"Ah....we are all going to die...."

"You do not have permission to die !!"

Just then a loud voice boomed through their radios. A very familiar voice of a captain.

"What !? "

She looked up right behind them in the sky, something was fast approaching. She at once understood what it was. The dropship. She saw as the two mounted rocket launchers on the ship aimed at the horde before them. She understood what was going to happen.

"Get down troopers ! Incoming!"

It was Captain Add's voice which once again came through the radios.

"Get down all of you !!!"

This time the major understanding what was about to happen screamed. The girls instantly dropped to the ground as tens of rockets flew a few feet above their heads right into the hordes. These were much more powerfull than the ones they had on the mobile armour.

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

Around twenty four rockets landed and eradicated the entire horde of the enemy in front of the troopers. But that was not the end. The dropship flew in dangerously low over their heads but didn't stop. Instead the girls saw its rear hatch was opened and just as it flew by the tree line again the APC jumped down from it.

"Yee haw !!!!"

Shouted Leya, the driver who was driving the APC. She was on cloud nine as the adrenaline of the crazy jump filled her to the brim.

"Hiiiiiiiii"

Sitting beside her, Lily was nowhere as exited as her friend. She held on to the shaking vehicle as if holding for dear life.

The large vehicle with eight wheels fell down five metres but thanks to its heavy duty all terrain suspension, it endured the fall. The 10 ton vehicle sped towards the girls and stopped just before them. The upper hatch behind the mounted 70 cal machine gun flew open as Lily in her mobile armour appeared and mounted it.

*Click* *Clack*

"Surprise ************ !!!!! "

Lilly shouted aiming at the horde behind the girls.

*Thud* *Thud* *Thud* *Thud*

The heavy sounds of the large shells being fired resonated across the glade. The 70 cal rounds tore through the horde of fat and flesh like a hot knife tears across butter. Pieces of their bodies and limbs flew around and the creatures were turned to meat paste.

Leya came out of the vehicle as the Gatling gun on her shoulder raised, aimed and started firing at the savages close to the girls.

*Guvooo*

The motor roared as the four barrels spewed fire onto the unfortunate creatures. Though nowhere as powerful as the 70 cal, it high rate of fire turned tens of the savages into walking lead boxes withing minutes. Once she had neutralised them. She ran towards her unit. Her friends.

"Are you all ok !?"

She rushed towards the group which was still in shock.

"Leya ?" (Sagari)

"Yes its me ! Are you all safe !? Please tell me no one is hurt !" (Leya)

"Uu...Leya its you.....we are saved we are saved.... Uwaaaa......."

Page ran and hugged onto Leya and began bawling like a kid. Leya shrugged as she patted her friends back, everyone in the unit knew that page was the most sensitive and meek among them.

"Thank God you are here....What too you so long ?" Asked Chiaki coming by.

"Well thats you know, the-"

"And where is the captain !?" Sagari cut her in mid sentence. "Don't tell me he threw you two out of the ship and ran away with it !? That bastard is he trying to kill us !??? Is that what he is up to !!!! ?"

"Ah No Sagari-Chan listen to me..." (Leya)

But she wasn't listening.

"That son of a ***** ! That Bastard! Ill skin him alive-..."

"Umm Sagari-chan...."

Miharu timidly shook her friend who was literally blowing off.

"What is it Miharu !!?"

"...Umm no that...i think you should look there...." She said pointing towards something.

"What is there. Isn't that the Major....wait...WHO THE HELL !?" (Sagari)

As the other girls followed her line of vision, their eyes also widened, except Leya who just shrugged and Lily, who was busy letting of some steam.

"Whats your Malfunction Major ?"

Major Irisdina shuddered at the voice as she looked at the figure that had just dropped before her. Wearing a suit which was similar to her but completely obsidian coloured, with the image of a skull painted in white on the chest piece of the armour under which were written the words D-01. Carrying a heavy sniper rifle in its arms, the figure looked like a death god. It had a very murderous aura around it. Dense Killing intent oozed from the armour. It was like

Like "Death" itself.

Like the "Reaper" itself.

* * * * *