Short Story: Hopeful

[PS Junkie]

It's 3am here and I can't sleep so thought I'd write a short story..may add to it, hope you enjoy it.

Hopeful:

We're falling fast, we've lost our left engine and the right is only seconds away from failing we're just hoping we'll hold together long enough to reach the base.

"Ten seconds to target!" Yells the panicked pilot, the comms inside our Galaxy went with the first round of Anti-Air fire. Despite the panic in the
pilots voice he's kept his nerve and gotten this far.

"Theal, you ready?" The grizzled veteran Vesa screams at me, his scratched and scuffed armour shows the combat he's seen better than his Battle Rank ever could. That damaged armour is why I joined this squad, he's on the front with us instead of screaming orders from the Sanctuary...
It's the little things, like joining your men on a suicide run that helps build the trust.

"Just keep me covered and I'll-" before I finish yelling back at Vesa another torrent of Flack Fire punishes us, the complete lack of armour offered by my
Infiltrator suit does nothing to exorb the vibrations and trauma running through our drop-ship.

"DROP, DROP, DROP!" Screams the pilot over the flack,
As the last man's harness releases and the small hatch below him opens
I slam my fist into the large 'Drop' button on my harness only to have my heart sink as the red light and high pitched error sound rings though the hold.

My hearts racing, every press of the button is met with the increasingly infuriating error noise. "I'm stuck!" I yell out before looking to the cockpit only to see it's empty and the Galaxy is plummeting into what looks like the enemy base's vehicle bay.

With one final effort I smack the 'Drop' button with all my strength and find myself falling. The air rushing past me does little to ease my racing heart, I catch a glimpse of Vesa and the guys rushing the roofs door when I notice I can see my feet and my panic grows.

The sinking feeling in my gut is ramping up as I struggle to fight against the force of the fall and reach the cloaking button on my belt.

After what felt like an eternity of praying that nobody noticed me drop I finally land on the wall and quickly cloak before diving behind cover,
the large fire ball that was once our drop-ship seemed to provide a nice distraction as it slams into a newly acquired ATV of some description.

Thankfully the row of snipers beside me one the wall are too busy suppressing our troops at the nearby tower to have noticed me.
I instinctively find myself reaching for my sidearm when the sound of gunfire on the roof snaps my mind back to the task at hand.
'Theal where are you?' Vesa's voice asks over comms followed by calls for healing from other members of the squad.

With the snipers focusing on my comrades across the field I slip by and sneak along the catwalk 'Theal?' despite the amount of gunfire
that accompanies Vesa's voice his annoyed tone is not lost in the chaos.


"Enroute, hold on." I whisper as I come to a flight of stairs leading to the roof when an unfortunately familiar sound of a jump pack
freezes me in my tracks. 'Incoming MAX units' I whisper just as the MAX jumps onto the stairs, only a few feet ahead of me.

I'm helpless. my sidearm is absolutely no match for a MAX I just have to hope, hope he didn't hear me whisper a warning, hope it doesn't cause him to turn around and hope he doesn't have dark-light to see through my cloak. Despite every instinct telling me to run I decide to follow the MAX, if I stick close I won't have to hack my way through the door locks as they'll automatically open for him as he approaches.

'Where?' Vesa calls back to me.

'Stairs'

The MAX makes short work of the stairs and races through the once locked doors of the base, unaware that I'm right behind him...Just as I was unaware that Vesa would already be waiting with the squad.

The MAX provides me with unintentional cover as I jump back out the door, thankfully avoiding most of the shots. With the MAX down I head inside and quickly make my way to the Control Console
'Hack it fast Theal'

'It's not like I get a choice.' I say as I grab my REK kit and get to work hacking the console. "I want boomers on the stairs and doors, nobody gets to this console'
Vesa barks his orders to the squad and they take up positions to defend me...I hope they listen, I hope nobody reaches this console because until this hack is finished I'm locked to it with my REK kit, completely helpless.


End for now, as I'm now tired and will now attempt to sleep.