“How much time do we have?” Jinx asked.
“Not so much, focus all your neurons to the objective and we should be good!” Erwin replied.
“You know it’s impossible, we are humans afterall!” Hogdja joined the discussion, trying to stimulate the party and look for something positive but already knowing a specified response would have arrived.
“No. And even if you believed it, not anymore.” Erwin satisfied Hogdja’s expectations.
The dropship was unmoored from a cloaked covert ops frigate around the low orbit of the planet Anath III when the cue was reported: all the orbital patrols were suddenly called for a system-wide emergency alarm and the radio transmissions started to be saturated by screams of panic, pain or arbitrary authority orders. As the patrols were departing from the ground and the already flying ones urgently left the area without waiting them, the dropship found a hole in the security barrier and put through it.
“Turn off that radio.” Erwin said it annoyed.
All those screams where cut off, minus the one from the covert ops frigate which conducted them there. His radio operator started to send updates about the solar system situation while the three operators were preparing for the infiltration: multiple civilian stations have been assaulted by unknown contacts who started to anchor peculiar structures next to the assaulted facilities which presence started to generate pain to whoever was into the station. Another Drifter incursion had started as reported also from other eleven systems within the four empires like the previous week. That’s why the patrol fleets were readier than the last time and that’s why penetrating a barren planetary security has been easier than the last time. The radio operator continued describing how to easily know the presence of the Drifters before their arrival: the sky should shade with a color of a dark jade green.
“And how can we know that as the light isn’t fast as our FTL communications?” Hogdja asked.
“Just complete the objective and don’t think anything else.” Jinx intervened.
The dropship landed in the middle of the desert and deployed the three men before departing and disappearing to the sky. No extraction zone; it was a one-way trip. Around one or more kilometers from the infiltration point, an abandoned site was visible and the group took immediately the direction to go into it.
“No one on sight, we arrived first.” Erwin started to make reports to the mission.
“Very well, let’s begin.” Jinx replied and deployed a relay jack around the buried structures. The scanner picked a signal under the terrain and an array of underground bunkers were reported by the data results. The entrance door was also easy to find and hack to open that complex but the hard part had to come later.
Inside those bunkers, various biological laboratories have been built around an ancient big hall, probably of jovian origin. It was like finding a relic site on the ground: various scrapped metal and salvage components but the object of interest was another one, in the hall. This one was another laboratory with various capsules which probably contained clones of an old age now empty, exception for some of them, in various conditions. The complex was still powered and functional but all the defense systems were offline before arriving.
“There they are. Begin the loading! There should be around four or five in a good state.” Erwin orders the other two to detach the intact capsules while finding a truck to move them all and extract to the surface.
“How many could they be in this planet?” Hogdja asked while executing the order.
“Probably a few. Many of them can be found around richer Amarr systems; but expect similar numbers all around the big four”. Jinx replied while unplugging cables and connecting backup batteries powered by energy cells they carried for the mission.
“That’s why even Tash-Murkon Prime has been attacked?” Hogdja was a bit perplexed.
“Maybe, as a secondary task”. Erwin was going to unplug the third capsule while suddenly the radio operator of the frigate broke the silence again.
“What’s the situation under there? Time is clocking!”
“Eram, what’s happening?”, Erwin stopped the truck and focused on the transmission.
“A battle has started here, in the orbit!”, The radio operator raised the voice: “The sky is very dark now, and some bomb is starting to fall on the planetside. The defense fleets are going to be destroyed quicker than we thought and some third-party entities are starting to take advantage about that, landing on the planet. You need to hurry!”
“Can you estimate how many?” Erwin resumes to load the fourth capsule.
“Some frigate is descending on your position… They’re deploying dropships too… I’m picking another signal… wait…”, the radio operator was going to read the last signatures as Erwin realized the situation and replied to him, closing the transmission immediately after:
“Let them come, the new ones.”
Then, he resumed to speak to the other operators: “Change of plans! Let’s put this truck outside and proceed to the extreme action!”
Despite they know the travel was indeed a one-way, Jinx twitched and Hogdja stopped to hope in a better outcome. The truck was ready and filled of those recovered capsules and everything valuable to fill the remained space. Once left the underground, they realized the situation described by the radio operator: the sky was completely dark with some shade of jade green. They didn’t make even two kilometers when Erwin immediately shouts:
“STOP THE TRUCK!”
Jinx pushed deeply the brake pedal and shuts down the entire vehicle without noticing it. The human istinct beat the logic and he jumped out it going prone. Hogdja did the same but less quickly thank Jinx. Erwin left the vehicle without any empathy, standing up.
“They’re following us” Erwin said and raised his arm indicating a rock formation where taking cover, then he pulled out a motion scanner with the intention to place it and turning it on.
“Wait! Let’s hide the truck and let them pass! They may not find us!” Hogdja suggested while moving to the position. Jinx had still to recover from the fright.
“They have already found us” Erwin replied and activated the motion scanner. The device turned around for a complete rotation: No signal.
It repeats: No signal.
It repeats: 1 hostile.
It repeats: 3 hostiles.
The contacts immediately moved from the position as the motion scanner seems having alerted them. Their signals slowed near the rock formations until to disappear from the scans, probably being immobilized. The operators grabbed the weapons and aimed to the last signal locations. Once the motion scanner ran out, rushed footsteps could be heard but not from that last location, but from a flank.
“IT’S THE DEATHLESS!” Jinx shouts and started to shoot at that direction, scared but aiming precisely with the scope of suppression fire. Erwin moved out of the cover and chose another one and Hogdja just rotated his head to the new threat. After less than one second, he noticed another presence from another flank, then another to the first location and finally behind him. He realized those entities which started to fire as well from the covers, carrying no face and completely cybernetic, surrounded the group in a planned attack and so he started to rush towards a direction having a rifle on a hand and taking a grenade with the other one. Erwin followed him, grasping what he was going to do and trying to tell Jinx to move too. The latter ignored both of them and continued to fire at the threat emptying his clip.
At that point two of the facelesses moved out of the cover taking advantage of the scared one but one of them was suddenly hit by Erwin who expected the quick reaction but couldn’t stop the second one firing at Jinx who istantly got a cover but he hadn’t any more time to reload his rifle. Hogdja reached his intent throwing the grenade to the other side covered by the facelesses and then jumping to a cover; Erwin remained in the middle, covering both the comrades but being the only one who shot. He tried to call Jinx; no response, he didn’t know if he got shot or busy to reload his rifle.
Despite the uncertain destiny of Jinx, Hogdja had the worst in the encounter so far: after the grenade did the work exploding and taking out whoever was behind the targetted cover, he stood up reaching the new cover he gained and then felt on the ground realizing to get shot two times. Erwin reaches Hogdja and pulled out another device for the mission from him and turning it on immediately. The device emitted a blue sphere around them just in time to block the projectiles of the last faceless, who immediately adapted to the new situation and charged to the shield with a knife.
Jinx suddenly comes out from the cover with the reloaded rifle but the last one was quick again to jump to another cover and retake the rifle to shoot him. “COME TO US!” Erwin screamed noticing Jinx and he emptied another mag for suppression fire. Suddenly a grenade was seen in the air in the direction between the sphere and the operator; Jinx was trapped again. At the grenade explosion, the shield emitter started to have difficulties to keep the barrier active and some projectiles could pass through but while Erwin was looking to the last threat position, this one suddenly appeared on his flank shooting him; the barrier blocked 7 out of 10 projectiles. Jinx rushed to the position thinking to be the last one alive when suddenly the faceless get headshotted surprisingly by Hogdja, still alive like Erwin but bleeding unlike him.
“What are you waiting for?” Hogdja said to Jinx while Erwin stood up realizing he was just grazed “Press to the wound!”
The shield device run out of batteries and now they were vulnerable again, without even the time to recover and find a way to heal Hogdja that other individuals started to get close. But this time they weren’t faceless, they have it, more pallid, with more cybernetic and dark bodies, carrying no weapons because they were floating around them and they were taking aim. Erwin said “here they are!” and returned to the truck only to move it between them and those. The individuals changed approach, starting to wait for something as their floating guns cancelled their aiming to the targets. Hogdja looked at them, not believing they were who they are and then he let the bleeding flow as Jinx stopped to care about everything, standing up and then kneeding before them.
Erwin opened the truck showing the individuals the load they were transporting, then he shut off, falling on the ground not being there anymore; Hogdja wasn’t there anymore too; Jinx took its pistol and aimed on his head. “Dike Samas.”, he said and pulled the trigger.
Once ended the weird-as-macabre spectacle, the individuals loaded the truck into a frigate-like ship which landed plus the corpses of the battlefield and the “gifted” ones.
“Report? How’s gone?” The radio operator asked to a newly enstablished connection.
“Mission completed. I told you it was a one-way trip.” The voice of Erwin replied. “The complications of the operation did nothing else than perfectioning the outcome.”
The radio operator was a bit surprised: “Did you literally…”
Erwin stopped him: “Yes! They need them! Especially now.” Then tried to open a communication channel which started to search for contacts that may not be there anymore.
“So the informations of that contact were correct.” The radio operator returned on its previous emotional state and engaged the warp drive; “I can’t believe it they waited for your scene instead of just killing you”.
“They just knew it, Eram, as always. They’re five steps ahead the human species. They knew also the contact” Erwin exited from the regeneration chamber after cleaned and dressed with civilian clothes.
“How can a man feeling so insignificant when he was been able to… do that?” The warp drive concluded the execution and the ship was getting close to a jump gate.
1 Contact found. Beginning transmission.