Kur Mountain Range, Eridani, Qir System, FDA territories

  September 8th, 2506.

  The wind was quiet across the Kur Mountain Range. In the midst of it was the Crimson Iron’s base filled with basic amenities like supplies, containers, armory, and, sensor jammers across the base, and even two bunks. There were also two helipads meant for their rotor-wing aircrafts, though only one stood. And lastly, four transport ships just far behind.

  In the north-east from the base, high up in the mountain cliff, was Strike Team 9. Before they headed, they had a plan. It depended if the enemy had something that exploded heavily in the armory.

  Grim looked through the scope of the KI-8 MMR towards the base, her eye set on the armory. The armory door was opened for a moment as one of the mercs came there, then she sighted her scope further at something just behind the door. Two mercs came from the doorway and carried a rectangular crate. Grim kept her eye on the two mercs with their crate. After they put it in the ground and left, her scope sighted on the crate, which showed the nuclear symbol.

  “Bingo.” Grim murmured, then called up her STR-COMM. “9-4 to 9-Actual, confirmed visual on nuclear package.”

  [Affirmative. Stand by.] Raptor stated. Grim stood by, and awaited for further orders. Any other circumstances, she would’ve been the model of patience. But this mission? It had to go right. Part of her hoped that UHD don’t crash in after CI are dealt with. Part of her hoped that Eridani and its people don’t sacrifice themselves.

  [9-Actual to 9-4. Stay on the cliff and take sniping positions with 9-5. 9-2, 9-3 and 9-6 will accompany me for the assault.]

  9-5 was of course, Lid’s callsign and her sniper companion. 9-2, Hawk. 9-3, Bullet. And 9-6, Iris.

  [On my mark, take shots against four merc assholes near the helipads.]

  “Copy on your mark, lead.” Grim affirmed.

  “Likewise, lead.” Lid confirmed.

  Sniping was often known as a game of patience. Never strike unless necessary. Never give out your presence. Wait for the right moment to hunt the prey. Calm and steady wins the game.

  Grim and Lid focused their scopes on the four mercs patrolling around the Helipads. Their breaths calm and silent.

  In the next few minutes, this little base met with an explosion in one of its two bunks. This rattled the mercs, including the four who were near the helipads.

  [Mark!]

  In two beautiful screams of ballistic, the four CI mercs collapsed on the ground, their heads only left with holes on the side, the blood seeped on the sands. A few more came out from the armory, where they too met their maker by the bullets from Grim and Lid’s Marksmen Rifles.

  Grim sighted to the left, when she saw around three mercs on the flank. She cursed and called up “Actual, heads up. Three hostiles on your back flank.”

  [Copy. 9-3, protect the flank! 9-2 and 9-6, on me!]

  Grim focused fire on further hostiles coming out from the back flank. Meanwhile, Lid assisted Raptor, Hawk, and Iris, as she fired rounds towards a few more mercs coming out of the two bunks. In sync, the Rangers on the ground peppered more mercs that came out of the bunks, while Bullet protected the flank. There were no more hostiles in his flank, which was a relief.

  However, one merc pilot saw the carnage from afar, and fired his flare gun. Both Grim and Lid noticed it in the air, and so did Hawk who was advancing further into the dropships landing zone, and shot the pilot down.

  “Shit!” Lid shouted.

  “Actual, be advised, one pilot fired up a flare.” Grim warned

  [Ah, hell! The fleet must be preparing to jump outta here.] Raptor hissed.

  [9-2, get to the dropships and have Aquila send an all clear signal. 9-3, assist her. 9-6, you’re with me, we’re moving the package over there] Raptor gestured Iris towards the package and the dropships.

  [9-4, 9-5, if there’s any more hostiles in your scope, shoot them.] She gave the order to both snipers.

  “With pleasure, boss.” Grim and Lid responded, and got to work.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Ranger Hawk sprinted further and took cover on the CI dropship on the right side, screams of ballistic from other mercs hitting the craft. She threw a smokescreen on the side, and shot her AR from there. However, one lucky ballistic flew towards her left shoulder, and yelped in pain. When the smoke dissipated, three remaining mercs came forward, and one pointed their rifle at her helmet. Her face was smug, believed that she had her lucky day,

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  “Hawk!” She heard Bullet shouting, which distracted two mercs to fire while the third kept an eye on Hawk. When the two went down, Hawk lunged at her-would’ve-been killer, and locked her by the neck with her legs. The merc attempted to counter by her left elbow, though Hawk didn’t let go. In a few more seconds, the merc lost her oxygen and will, then the Ranger broke her neck.

  Hawk got up, and winced from the wound in her left shoulder. She pressed her right hand on it, while Bullet arrived. “Shit, how bad?”

  “We need to send an all clear, first.” Hawk moved forward to the dropship besides her, still pressed on her wound. Bullet helped out in opening the ramp, then moved ahead to the cockpit, with few control panels. Bullet came forward to the panels, and connected a a wire from his TACPAD to one of the panels plugs. “Aquila, do your thing.” He whispered.

  “Interfacing” Aquila pinged.

  “Let’s hope they don’t already know what’s going on, yeah?” Hawk sniped.

  After a dozen of seconds, and then “All-clear signal sent. Fleet awaiting orbit, but will send an inspection squad in five minutes.” Aquila pinged.

  “Shit!” Bullet hissed. “Aquila, how long till this craft can get to one of their ships?” He inquired.

  “One minute.” Aquila voiced monotonously. With this confirmation, Bullet disconnected his TACPAD.

  “Ah, bleeding hell, Hawk. You’re going to make this a habit?” Hawk shifted her head to Iris, who alongside Raptor, brought the nuclear package. Iris moved to the ramp and looked at Hawk’s wound, she brought a medical-foam and applied it. Hawk hissed, and bit her lip as the foam expanded to stop the bleeding.

  “Good thing it wasn’t crtiical, but you have to stop taking risks.” Iris sassed, and Hawk rolled her eyes as she got up, her shoulder wound dissipated.

  Raptor gestured for Bullet to pull the package inside. Together, they pulled it inside near the doorway to the cockpit

  “So… bad news?” Raptor asked.

  “The fleet is sending an inspection squad.” Bullet answered, then Raptor cursed.

  “And the good news?” Raptor asked again. “This baby can enter the hangar in one minute.” Bullet gestured his hand to the cockpit.

  Raptor came forward and connected her TACPAD’s wire to the panel. “Aquila, can you set to auto-pilot?”

  Dozen of seconds later, the panel screens flickered in different numbers and colors. “Auto-pilot engaged.”

  The dropship’s engines started spooling, but there was one more thing. “

  Raptor disconnected Aquila from the cockpit and connected it to the nuclear package. “Warhead activated. Detonation in 2:30 minutes. Will detonate immediately, if necessary. Please stand clear.”

  With the ramp still open, Raptor, Hawk, Bullet and Iris left several feet away from the dropship. In full spool, the Dropship flew towards the sky, till the Rangers lost sight of it as it made its way to the Crimson Iron’s fleet.

  It didn’t take long for a huge flash in the sky to arrive, and with it, the destruction of the unlamented Crimson Iron’s small fleet. And what was only left was small debris raining down towards the other side.

  However, the Rangers looked in dread as they looked to the sky. Grim and Lid joined in, after they were done with their sniper duty not long ago.

  They felt the stomach drop as they felt the chill around them when a Tyrant-class Cruiser warp jumped to Eridani’s orbit, oppressive in its grey color and imposing on its size and width. They connected momentarily to Eridani Defense Force comms, and heard the shouts from its troops.

  [God help us…]

  [This can’t be happening.]

  [It’s the fucking Dominion! Mount up!]

  They promptly disconnected from the comms. Nothing more needed to be heard. Nothing more needed to be understood the gravity, the enormity of what is happening.

  Iris felt tense and anger, as she knew what needed to be done next. Raptor shifted to her fellow Rangers and nodded. “We know what needs to be done. Semper Vigilans.” She shouted loudly to her comrades, and bumped her fist twice to their chest.

  “Semper Vigilans!” They reciprocated.

  Tonight will decide whether these Rangers will drown in the waves of conflict, or rise from it.

  But most importantly, whether She is brave enough to rise.