[Imperaxum]

AMERISH - ABOVE HEYOKA TECH PLANT – 0967 HOURS
The worst part was the waiting. Preceptor II Klivosk Jogat sat hunched over, alone in soft ambient glow of his drop pod. He’d been unexpectedly diverted from his normal re-matrix chamber a few hours ago into the Humanity’s Destiny, a large “respawn” ship that hovered far above major battlefields to drop soldiers into battle. And so here he was.

Unfortunately, Klivosk had no idea where he was dropping into or what sort of situation to expect. Hell, he didn’t even know which continent the Destiny happened to be hovering over at the moment. Last time he had been on the ground, he’d been outfitted with the LMG and hand-held plasma launcher of the “Heavy Assault” class on Amerish, fending off Terran Republic (TR) Prowler Main Battle Tanks from a lonely outpost in the far west of the Vanu territory. It wasn’t a class he enjoyed – far from it.
Klivosk was first and above all a Scythe pilot, secondly a Magrider driver, and if he had to fight as an infantryman a Light Assault. The Engineer class, the logical choice for drivers and pilots, was second nature to him. Of course if the need arose, like recently on Amerish, he’d use other classes, but he much preferred the Solstice carbine of the Engineer and Light Assault classes.

His reverie was broken by the unmistakable sound of the clamps on the drop pod disengaging. For a second, he wondered if something was wrong with the machinery, until he realized that while he was indeed hurtling to the surface of Auraxis, the Destiny had been so far up – in space – that he was in a weightless environment. Soon, however, he was pressed into his seat by the force of the descent. The altimeter was dropping at a fast, but not alarming rate however, thank Vanu. Once he’d been in a faulty drop pod – a piece of debris had interfered with the rezzing process – and the results were him splattered all over the surface of Esamir. But now was certainly not the time for such thoughts.

The pod began to shake violently as it entered Auraxis’s atmosphere. In no time, however, the thrusters began to slow it down, and Klivosk strained at the small window to see the where he was headed.

Amerish. And by the looks of it, Hekoya Tech Plant. He’d seen in the news about how the TR had recently taken the facility, and it looked like they needed some reinforcements. Glancing up, he saw the at least a half-dozen more Vanu pods falling around him. It was time for landing. Klivosk braced himself.

He was jolted out his seat as the floor gave way. Normally the velocity would have killed him, but an infusion of Dropper Nanites cushioned his impact and he was fully functional the a second later. The nanites didn’t always work either – gah, not the time!

He had landed on a rooftop on the outskirts of the plant, which towered above him. The sounds of heavy fighting filtered through his helmet as he dove for a recess in the roof of the building he was on top of. Behind him, the drop pod quickly rezzed out, now unneeded. He took a moment to bring up his Tactical Interface in his helmet. There were 102 Vanu soldiers in and around the facility, and an undetermined number of TR defenders, though they were estimated at a platoon. Good odds.

Above him, he saw mostly Vanu craft filling the skies. A few sporadic dogfights swirled on the outskirts of the facility’s airspace, but it was safe enough that friendly Liberator gunships were circling the plant, firing on exposed TR troops. There weren’t many of those, however, as most of the defenders were clustered inside the tech plant itself, shielded from fire. Checking his map again, Klivosk realized he had dropped down on the far eastern side of Hekoya Tech Plant, away from the main fighting.

Grunting under the uncomfortable weight of his Orion LMG, Klivosk got up and cautiously began moving toward friendly lines to the north. Reaching the edge of the roof, he dropped down and started sprinting for the next row of houses. No enemies were in sight yet. No friendlies either – no, wait. A small blue triangle had appeared in his HUD above an empty patch of ground near a barracks, which meant only one thing. Cloaked Infiltrator, or sniper.

Running over, the man de-cloaked and greeted him. As he drew nearer, a name and rank appeared above the man’s head. Venator II Delcar Retly. Venator – that translated to rank 33 or a Command Sergeant in the “normal” military.

Klivosk snapped to attention. “Sir!” he said, giving the raised-fist salute of the Vanu Sovereignty.

“At ease, my enlightened comrade. How did you get here?” he asked in a calm, unstressed voice.

“Dropped in. I’m trying to get to our lines.” Klivosk responded.

Delcar eyed him. “Is there something else you’d like to say?”

Could this guy read minds? Klivosk hesitated. “How is the battle going, sir?” he finally said.

Delcar gave a laugh. “The shape of the battle revolves gratifyingly according to out plans, Preceptor. The enemy Prowlers have been forced out of the facility, and assault squads are readying to storm the main building. Enemy resistance is crumbling.”

“Why is that so? I thought this tech plant was important to them.”

“Most of their reserves are being used up in the east, where their rebels, the New Conglomerate, are making a major offensive, luckily for us of course.”

Klivosk smiled. “That’s great to hear, sir. No NC and few TR to deal with.”

At that, Delcar paused and his expression grew troubled. “I wouldn’t say ‘No NC’”.

Confused, Klivos asked him “What do you mean?”

”Do you mind if I have a special task for you before you head back to join the fight?”

“Of course, sir. What is it?”

Delcar leaned in close and whispered now. “A few minutes ago, I saw a drop pod with NC markings land near that turret defense tower over there.” he said, pointing at said tower which was situated to the far east of the base.

“Maybe it was a faulty pod?” Klivosk asked hopefully.

“Or maybe it was a NC scout. Their territory slices right up to the plant. I want you to check it out. Here, I’ll hack this terminal and you can re-equip to Light Assault for scouting.”

“Thanks.” Klivosk replied, inwardly ecstatic at getting the jetpack of the Light Assault class on his back.

In a minute, Delcar had hacked into a nearby infantry terminal and Klivos had switched to the Light Assault class. “I’ll kill whoever is there, sir.” Klivosk stated as he started for the tower.

“No. You will take them alive.” Delcar flatly ordered.

“Sir?” Klivosk queried, dumfounded. Since the rebirthing technology made death merely a temporary inconvenience, prisoners were never taken any more on Auraxis. There wasn’t any point to even try to take them alive.

“Yes, take him or her alive, please. At least extract information on why they have come to this battle. I need to know if the NC are planning an attack so I can call in reinforcements ahead of time. You know what taking them alive entails, correct?” Delcar asked.

“Of course. Disable their redeployment module on their suit manually.” Klivosk replied automatically. Doing so would prevent them from simply committing suicide by redeployment and escaping capture, assuming he could restrain them safely.

“May Vanu be with you.” Delcar waved as Klivosk sprinted away, and then cloaked back into invisibility.

The tower wasn’t actually that far away. Within no time Klivosk had reached a small storage building right next to the tower. He slowly peeked around the corner to check all three levels of the tower, which was the logical place from an enemy scout to go. Nothing. He briefly debated jetpacking up to the top of the tower and working his way down, but reasoned that if there indeed was a NC scout in the tower they would be alerted by the loud noise that his jetpack gave off when in use. Damn. He really needed to spend some certifications on that new Nanite System Stealth Jetpack he’d seen.

Without warning, a bright flash appeared on the middle level of the tower. It was the reflection of sunlight off of a scope, he’d seen it countless times before. Pulling out a pair of advanced Vanu binoculars, he zoomed in on the area. Sure enough, the barrel and scope of a NC14 Gauss Sniper Rifle poked out from behind a tower support. However, it was pointed away from Klivosk’s position.

Taking advantage of this, he quickly broke cover and sprinted for the base of the tower. The lightweight Vanu jetpack barely slowed him down, and within a couple of seconds he was crouched directly below the sniper rifle’s barrel. Lifting up his Solstice carbine, he slowly began up the steps into the tower.

After reaching the first floor and the levitation pads, he crept up the second flight of stairs to the side, and as he walked he could actually hear the faint talking of the scout into his or her’s mouthpiece radio. He wasn’t close enough to understand the words, but he figured once he reached the very top of the staircase he would be easily able to. In fact, maybe listening in on this conversation would be enough and he wouldn’t have to try and take the scout captive - that notion didn’t exactly appeal to him.

You will take them alive

Delcar’s words echoed through his mind. Great. Orders were orders.

Klivosk slung his carbine over his back, and slowly pulled his force blade from it’s sheath.