Taking the Beach

The sky over Trostolos was cracked and shattered by streaks of blue lightning. Lightning defined the shape of clouds by the insanity of its unending piercing claps and streaks of light. Out of the heavens, dozens of transport ships from the atmosphere disappeared into the clouds. Each ship had a boxy hull and metal fins protruding from the sides even including a metal tail with fins.

Inside one of those transport ships stood Special Forces Unit twenty-eight. Adorned in their Thorakai exosuits, the powerful armor completely covered the wearers allowing them to function with full mobility, the greatest leap in military warfare since the atomic bomb. Each soldier in the special unit had his own custom, crudely painted colors and armor type, some bulky, slim, and others in between. But all adorned the golden crest upon their left arms.

In their armor each man stood close to seven feet tall, beneath the top layer of armor plating was a mryiad of pipes and canisters that powered the armor and beneath that was the exosuit that allowed the wearer to control the armor itself.

“Check your weapons grunts!" Commander Roark prepped and lectured his troops, walking down the middle of two rows of thirty men. Ajax and Eversor stood one behind the other. Ajax was adorned in his medium sized armor with a muscular shape that had extra armor plating giving it a sharper design and red-colored highlights that were worn down and scratched.

Eversors armor was similar in build although his armor plating was more sharp than sleek with harder edges with a red and black tone overall. Altogether it resembled the armor of ancient Roman legionaries. Carrying an slug ammuntion assault rifle with a scope on his back the soldier clenched his fist, steam emanating from the crevices between the armor. “Slugs” as they were called had become the slang for metal bullets within the Roman military. Both of his forearms had odd looking devices, one below the golden eagle and the other on the top side of his right forearm.

“This is it, this operation is the stuff of legends,” Ajax said with a soft chuckle, a hint of both nervousness and anticipation for what was next.

“Yeah, and we're gonna be just another name on the memorial for it,” Eversor replied. A scowl rested across his face beneath the helmet as he shook his head back and forth. With the helmets came the issue of expression meaning the soldiers would have to emphasize with either their words or their movement. The visor slits that allowed him to see outside of the helmet had no unnecessary technology to portray expression.

“What's with you? This is our chance to rise the ranks we've been stuck with, operations like these birth heroes and martyrs, and I'll be damned if I don't become either.” Ajax said with a chuckle as if facing death wasn’t new to him which it wasn't.

“What, you got a death wish? Want to be the first man off the beach? Roark didn't sugarcoat, it's a beach landing. I doubt half of us are going to get off it. You sound like those new recruits.” Eversor cracked his neck releasing the building gas in his metallic pipes and armor, "The other kingdoms are smelling blood in the water now that the senate and Emperor are wrestling for power, they chose the perfect time to strike if you're asking me."

Ajax shrugged, “They did...well even if the capital gets sacked it's not like I have anything to go back to.” 

Eversor scoffed, “Shut it, you got me and if I don't make it out of this you got the whole damned military.” Seeing Roark making his way back towards him he spoke up, “Permission to speak sir?”

“Granted.” Roark responded with a husky, worn voice as he stopped to talk to his subordinate.

“Sir, any idea on what we gain from this operation? Yes, I understand we gain another planet but Trostolos isn't in a particularly advantageous position and isn’t very rich in resources as far as the reports say.”

"To be honest son...I don't know. Even the commanders weren't clued in. What I do know is that it's important enough to not even bombard within a one mile radius."

"That's...odd." Ajax said as he overheard their conversation.

"Odd? Very odd, I've never done an operation like this where everything is kept so under wraps. At the end of our briefing, the Legate told us we would all sooner die than risk the destruction of the facility." Roark said with an exasperated voice.

Both men went silent as they looked at each other thinking over what it could possibly mean. Of course, they were just soldiers but to die for something with no reasoning wasn't comforting to either of them.

"So you're both saying we're going to die on some nowhere planet for some objective that may add up to anything at all?” Ajax asked.

"Yeah," Eversor said with a shrug.

"You say that like it's ok," Ajax said with a deadpan voice.

Roark shook his head, "He never said that, but what else were you expecting? It's not our place to ask. What difference does it make if we die in battle like this or for something that matters?" Ajax could practically feel his apathetic gaze below the helmet.

"You act like we haven't been preparing for our deaths since the day we joined the legions to take-”

Eversor was cut off by alarms all around the ship beginning to blare. The sound of booming explosions outside the walls of the transport deafened everybody’s hearing inside the ship as they realized they were nearing the beach.

“Prepare for the landing! If all goes well we will still be a unit after this soldiers, oorah!” Roark sounded off, raising his arm showing the crest of the golden eagle with pride to try and invigorate his troops.

“Oorah!” Everybody in the cockpit sounded off, cocking their guns and preparing for the fight ahead. The transport ships barreled out of the clouds to fly only a few meters over the water skimming the dark blue ocean. Ion cannons on the nearby beach began to rotate towards the incoming ships. On the beach, officers ran towards their stations, and soldiers began taking their positions on the turrets. The main communications relay began sending out signals to the nearby facility.

[ROMAN FORCES ATTACKING BEACH: PREPARE DEFENSES] The message flashed on every screen in the communications room of the nearby facility. 

Mortars, machine guns, and several hundred troops guarded the beach bunkers atop the plateau. The beach could only be accessed through a few craggily slopes making excellent choke points for any defenders. The raging boom of the massive canons, which looked more akin to small buildings fired at the transport ships that were barreling towards them.

The transport ships roared as their thrusters landed on the beach’s shore. The loading ramps separating the men from their enemy began to be lowered. Those inside began to be met with plasma, slugs, and the deafening sound of the battle being waged. Rockets flew through the air slamming into the hulls of the ships creating magnificent explosions that sent them hurling into the black sand. Their metal armor was shredded by the plasma and metal slugs fired at them, peppering the sand with shards of metal.

Out of the crashed transport ships came the special air units flying out of the cockpits. Their specialized Thorakai exosuits allowed for flight by thrusters in their feet and packs on their backs. Unfortunately, most of those air units began to be fired upon, their metal suits were shredded by plasma and slug fire. Their bodies were hurled to the ground exploding upon impact sending shrapnel raining down onto the soldiers pinned on the beach.

Unit twenty eight's transport ship flew towards the beach reaching the sandy shore. Hovering above the waterline the bay doors opened, letting the men jump off the ramp and onto the sand. Roark led his troops, being the first to step onto the beach. The constant firing from the titanic ion canons hadn't ceased and one ball of plasma came soaring towards them. As Ajax and Eversor were about to jump off the ramp the ball of plasma collided with their ship.

Neither of the men had a second to react before they were tossed out of the ship as it went down. Ajax collided with the sand falling just in front of the water. The pounding waves rushed over him, the liquid seeping into the armor. "Eversor!" Ajax screamed out as he gripped his weapon noticing his friend wasn't anywhere in sight.

Under the water Eversor kicked his legs back and forth, the heavy metal impeding his efforts as he continued to sink. Clawing at the sand it gave way under his grip. Pushing off a small rock jutting out of the sand, he put all of his strength into pushing himself up. Inside his armor, water filled every crevice. His helmet being filled to the brim left him with no air to even breathe. Running out of air he exhaled sending bubbles out of his helmet that floated to the surface.

Really?  Not like this, Eversor thought as he reached up in vain towards the surface, so close yet not far enough to even be noticed with the chaos going on. As his eyes went dark and his suit began to drag him down he felt himself stop falling

The strength of a Thorakai's grip wasn't there and yet he stopped falling deeper into the water. Slowly he felt himself pulled up to the surface, with both the water and his armor obscuring his vision all he could make was a vague figure.

The cold air stung his fingers under the armor as he was pulled out of the water, along with the rest of his body. Gasping for air he fell forwards onto the sand frantically panting for breath. The grip on his hand was gone as he lay on the sand, "Thank you Ajax...Ajax?" Looking around as bullets whizzed by him he glanced around looking for the man who had pulled him up but there was nobody close enough to have done it.

Blood seeped into the black sand blending in with it while the rocks were stained red. Whenever they got the opportunity the legionarries took shots at enemy snipers and those trying to fire off rockets but it wasn’t doing much. Rockets flew down turning the beach into chaos as soldiers were tossed into the air. The constant barrage destroyed the organization of the beach landing as the men scrambled for cover.

In the sky high above, one large transport ship flew overhead. Opening up its loading ramp men in armored Thorakai began to jump from the ramp down towards the beach defenses from thousands of feet above. As they approached from the sky, gun fire suddenly began to be focused on them. 

Without any chance to maneuver the small force of paratroopers were cut down in the air before they even had a chance to land or begin using their parachutes to descend. Their bodies hurled towards the ground, crashing into the defenses of the beach. On impact, their Thorkai's were destroyed and those that landed on the large metal ion canons dented the massive machines.

Eversor's breathing had calmed before an explosive went off just a foot away from him, bringing his attention back to the battlefield. Jumping up from his prone position, he ran towards Ajax and a few other men ducked behind the cover of rocks.

“Where’s Saxon’s squad?!” A soldier adorned in black armor called out to the men by his side as they all hid behind the large rocks, bullets whizzing by their heads as they spoke.

“Wait, this isn't Dio company?” One of the soldiers called out.

“No this Blackmayne company!” A soldier firing bursts from his machine gun yelled

Ajax waved to his friend to come over to him as he yelled, “Eversor! We're scattered, our companies aren't even discernable! Where’s Roark?" Ajax yelled at Eversor before lugging a grenade in vain up at the nearby plasma turret raining down suppressive fire on them.

“Don’t know! The last I saw he charged forward, and I got thrown into the water. Somebody pulled me out!” Eversor responded as he cocked his gun.

“I'm sorry I couldn't get to you, they were raining plasma down onto us!” Ajax apologized as he reloaded his two sub machine guns.

Eversor ducked down narrowly avoiding a sniper shot that skimmed his helmet creating a high pitched screech that sent him falling into the sand. His head collided with the ground, making the world go black for a few seconds before his vision returned. As it did he blinked away the blurry spots in his vision only to see a grenade launcher from a fallen comrade lying in the sand. A severed gauntlet from a Thorakai still grappled onto the weapon tightly.

An idea popped into his head as he grabbed the weapon before tearing it away from the severed gauntlet, “Ajax when the plasma machine gun has to cool down. I need you to cover me from the snipers!” He yelled over the roaring of gunfire. Eversor’s speakers within the helmet were loud enough to be intelligible through the blasting sounds, “Now!”

Ajax gave a nod of affirmation as he waited for the plasma turret to cool down. After he reloaded his guns he peeked up from behind the rock they had been pinned behind laying down covering fire on the turret. Eversor peeked from behind the rock, firing the grenade launcher toward the plasma turret. The grenade arced, flying high into the air before falling down, destroying the small turret in a blaze of plasma.

“Move, move, move!” Eversor shouted as the hail of bullets stopped, or at least the ones coming towards them. The men jumped from cover along with a few of their fellow soldiers to start running forward. Grenade shrapnel, bullets, and balls of plasma narrowly missed the two as they ran as fast as they could From the ridge line, an enemy soldier spotted the group running towards a sandy slope that would lead up to the pillboxes and trenches on high ground.

Aiming his grenade launcher he fired it at the group sending it whizzing through the air. Eversor looked up hearing the whistling sound of the grenade coming toward him. Raising his right arm the legionary put his thumb, pointer, and middle finger together before snapping them all together. With that from the device atop his right forearm, a blade extended from the back of his forearm to past the front of his hand. Swinging it upwards he slashed the grenade letting the two pieces fall into the sand.

With that, the small group of men charged up the sandy slope the first to get off of the beach. Those pinned on the beach watched as the group charged forward like heroes out of some old man’s war story. What little firepower that the warriors on the beach had was concentrated on the pillboxes closest to where the opening had been made. Like a funnel, those closest followed up the large slope and off the beach.

Their victory had been achieved even if nobody had realized it yet. The sudden surge of men rushing off the beach caught the defenders unprepared. As the fighting moved off the beach those in the worst positions were able to get away and move up to join their comrades.

Bunkers that had previously massacred the legionaries on the beach were being cleared by those rushing in with their blades, fists, and gladii. The gladii began to be unsheathed from their holsters on the waists and backs of the men charging in. Metal shrieked from the grinding of the Thorakai exosuits against each other in close combat, blood stained the suits as it sprayed out of wounds. Each pillbox that had been defending the beach turned to chaos, the only ones that weren’t were those being abandoned.

From afar, Commander Roark exited off the beach his armor covered in debris, scratches, and sand. Watching the chaos in front of him before focusing in on a certain other commander gunning down several men who had dropped their weapons to the floor in surrender.

“What the hell are you doing!” Roark screamed at the top of his lungs rushing toward a certain commander Nestor adorned in his bulky Thorakai exosuit its armor plating resembling older models that were more akin to old armor.

“Avenging my dead men lying on that beach.” Nestor said nonchalantly, “Roman blood is spilling onto that sand because of-” Pulling his arm back Roark’s metallic gauntlet clobbered the helmet of Nestor sending him to the mud beneath them. The men nearby all looked at each other before lunging at their commanders to pull them apart.

“I’ll have you court court-martialed and beaten to death in front of your own men! You're a dead man!” Roark screamed out like a madman out for blood. Even Roark’s men looked on with worried eyes. This had come from nowhere, their normally contained, calculated commander charged in to fight a fellow comrade.

“If you want this conflict to end we have to stop playing by the rules you outdated old man!” Nestor's thick Britanian accent showed as he spat back at Roark with his anger lunging towards him, nearly getting a hold of the commander before being pulled back.

Not far from them Eversor and Ajax turned into a seemingly empty bunker entering the dim pillbox and holding their weapons looking for the injured or dead. The creaking door behind them fell shut as they moved towards the opening slit between the concrete. The slit allowed the defenders relative safety when firing down at the beach.

A deafening bang reverberated through Ajax's helmet. He slumped down, sliding against the wall the metal of his armor shrieked against the concrete before slamming onto the floor with a sickening clank at the sound of the bending metal. Whipping around Eversor watched his friend fall towards the ground, his eye’s underneath the helmet going wide.

In the harsh shadows of the room, he saw nothing but a dark figure. Clenching the but of his rifle, he did the first thing that came to mind to both close the distance and put down the enemy. Raising his weapon he whacked the butt of his rifle against the figure's head. The dark figure’s head whipped back smacking against the concrete sending them down to the floor.

He watched the figure fall into the light. The figure now in the light was an enemy soldier, with thorakai steal armor fitted for a woman. The only difference between the suits was that they were generally a bit smaller and had rounder armor plating. Glancing at her just once he dropped down expecting a corpse.

“F-gah…what the…what happened?” Ajax muttered out, confused as he slowly raised his head.

“Ajax!” Eversor called out grabbing his friend's helmet and looking over it to see that the bullet had nicked the side of his helmet so close to killing him.”

“Shut up… damn that rung in my ears…it fired off right next to my head if it wasn't for this new helmet…” Ajax shuddered, his death so near yet so far now. “I'll be fine.”

Eversor breathed a sigh of relief standing up and pulling his friend up along with him. Gazing down at their enemy he saw the engraving on her shoulder. The engraving of her tribe as their enemies called it. A flag of a green dragon flying in its center was engraved upon the shoulder plating.

“She’s alive?” Ajax asked.

“Yeah, and a colonel no less,” Eversor said softly as he looked at her.

“As much as I’d like to kill her for almost taking my head off…she is a colonel.”

“Grab her, we need to find Roark.”

Exiting the pillbox, the two looked around the battlefield. Their first victory on the planet had been achieved and now they had to organize until more supply ships could break through and help them set up a proper base of operations. Looking around the two spotted the scuffle not far off.

“Not again.” Eversor grimaced before running towards the men. Booking it towards the commanders he jumped between the two pushing them off of each other and trying to say something over the screaming match between the two commanders.

“End it both of you!” Eversor yelled.

“Give me a few swings and I will!!” Nestor barked swinging towards Roark

“You're dead!” Commander Roark spat back.

A piercing gunshot rang out silencing all the men and stopping the scuffle. Their heads turned to see Ajax with the enemy colonel over his shoulder and the pistol she had nearly blown his head off with smoking at the barrel.

“Commanders!” Ajax yelled as his shot silenced the group. “I may have found someone of interest.”