- Joined
- Nov 4, 2021
- Messages
- 96
- Reaction score
- 143
Memories always came in the brief but everlasting moment between stupor and rebirth. Like waves on a silt shore beach, they were distant at first like a whisper or an echo before the tide inevitably pushed in with the weight of the ocean itself and they crashed hard like brutal waves upon the beach.
"I'll agree the theory is there. But even speaking hypothetically the ethics- To use children is..."
"They're out there. Vultures fighting over a beast not yet felled."
"She burned them. A whole city of vandals was trapped within the walls of Prospero as it falls and..."
"You need not fall now, my friend. Do not try to speak. just blink twice- They say they can save you but..."
"Where did the ships come from? They were built too fast. They arrived so soon. In just ten years how-"
And with the growing sounds of trumpeting horns and flashing lights they were born anew into a cold and cruel world as lungs wheezed and gasped for air only to sting with the freezing chill of pure biting ice as half blind and struggling to remember how to breathe they found themselves in tight, cramped, confined spaces like a coffin upright and impossibly cold.
Eventually, vision turned from blur to bleary as the light started to filter through and the rapid blinking slowly alleviated their blindness into nearsightedness as the interior of the white-lined pods came into focus. Simple built-in lights illuminated the interior while a fogged window barely larger than the palm of a hand showed nothing outside but a flashing red light. Within moments the pods opened of their own accord as doors pulled up and away into the ceiling of the small bay and tilting forwards the pods pretty much forced their occupants onto the warm deck plating.
They were cold. Shivering. Confused. Naked.
To their left and right were others just like them. And in front of them were lockers with large numbers and small nameplates with their names on them. The haze of confusion fading, training kicked in and they lurched towards the lockers with unsteady feet. They opened only for them with the biometric lock and revealed everything they knew they needed as it all came back to them.
Underclothes, bodysuit, turnout coat, webbing and duty gear.
All dawned but for the greatcoats. Next came the under armor harness and bodysuit. Then piece by piece the Einherjar light-variant armor was removed and slid on piece by piece in the exact required order. Others came to them now, their neighbors awoken not first but recovered faster and already armored as they helped their armor up and check each other's gear. When all was dawned a lower safe-like locker on the bottom was opened with a biometric interface and inside was a weapon and arranged magazine, pistol, knives, ammo, anything issued to them that would harm another. They were slid into open slots or maglocked to the armor.
"One is ready!" Someone down the hall shouted.
"Two ready!" from the same direction.
It went on and got closer as the first woken in the order declared they were ready. When it was their turn and their neighbor inspected and gave them the thumbs up it was their turn.
All in all fifty decrees of readiness sounded and then back down the line from the last to the first they sounded this time over the radio in their heads.
"Fifty going in!"
"Four-nine goin in!"
Until all were back in the pods and the lid slid back over the now slightly more cramped it sealed with physically felt pressure as the very air was drained from the interior and their suits switched to a short-lived internal oxygen supply.
"Ready." A monotone voice stepped on the priority channel.
"Steady." It intoned a moment later and all prepared both physically and mentally for what came next.
"Mark. Mark. Mark." the man sounded in a rapid clipped statement before one final message of "Drop." Came from a different, more commanding voice and the feeling of the ground being pulled out from them was felt across fifty bodies as their pods were shot out with several G-forces behind them.
It was terrifying and exhilarating all at once as the view from the tiny window in their pods changed from gray interior metal, to a flash of rapidly passing lights, to pure black as they fell. Handles on the inside of the pod to hold on to were clenched as nausea and strain was pushed onto the occupants. Eventually there was a new sight of event horizon; Of a purple and black and blue onyx marble beneath them and spanning for the horizon as the view of Ereshkigal could be briefly seen.
Within moments, however, their pods rocked and shook and the G-forces lightened as the viewport was bathed in red-orange as they hit the outer atmosphere and their tiny drop ods were bathed in the friction of fire. There was no more radio communication here; If not for the interference all they would hear were the screams of exhilaration or of fear and terror.
At least for most. As in two pods specially designed for them their occupants; More machine than man at this point sat stoic and silent and appraised the view and experience with detached and morbid curiocity now lacking the nerves and guts to feel the G-forces other than slight pressure on their braincases.
In a minute the fire turned to a darkening blue and eventually a darker purple-black as they passed through the atmosphere and hurtled toward the ground at fatal speeds. Their pods shook as something beneath their feet kicked on and vibrated and something above them popped and pulled as the two antigravs not only corrected its trajectory but also slowed its descent.
That meant it was almost time. The body trembled in apprehension and anticipation as-
Each pod slammed into the mud at hundreds of miles per hour. The explosive force expelled at the last second by the directional antigrav and the purpose-built shock and suspension of each pod mitigated the kinetic force to just a jarring shake that slammed them harmlessly in their armors against the walls of their pods. Doors exploded out their occupants half stumbled, half lept out at the ready with rifles and weapons coming up from maglocks and maneuver gears whirring to life.
"One up." The check-in started again.
"Fifty up, no injuries." The last responded as they looked through the mint-green tint of their helmet optics and slowly made their way to a central position and formed up in a wide circle a hundred meters across until all were present.
"Delta in position." Motts declared on an open channel as they all stood with weapons pointed into the surroundings of the open mud plains they found themselves in while the two Golem slowly moved around the formation in an ever-expanding circle.
"Good timing, Delta!" A familiar voice answered back sounding like Astarte Dubrant and her reassuring-excited tone. "Stand down and move to point-Juliet seventy meters south by south west; Griffins on the way for exfil." The channel closed out and with a command from Motts everyone eased up.
"Good work, people. Anyone throw up?" It was impossible to miss the amusement in his tone at the exercise of their first orbital drop from the Chariot-class ship in orbit that in an actual drop would eventually make planetfall and disgorge the rest of the company, its mechs, vehicles, and equipment in support after they cleared the LZ.
"Morgan pull back in. Ares reconnoiter ahead to the LZ and get some flares dropped for out birds. The rest of you center yourselves and shake out the jitters but keep weapons on safe and at the ready incase one of the locals tries to snatch you like they did to Balthazar in Charlie yesterday. If you go masks off get your shoulder lights on, birds should be here in fifteen.
It had been six months since the events with their astray countrymen and the conflict that had lasted until the reactivation of councilwoman Persephone and the reconvergence of the board of directors.
Six months of training, drills, and monthly ship launches from the Atlas shipyards of now orbital warships and a slowly awakening and reemerging Babel.
It was three months past when their contracts would have expired and they would have shifted back to civilian positions had the council not re-activated them into another term.
It was life in babel now on a still untamed and majority unexplored world that was now their home that BAMF was needed to not only explore and conquer it of its hostile native wildlife but also balance the power between the new and much larger Colonial Guard that the warmaster Dread Persephone now commanded like she once had all of BAMF.
Like every day it was dark. And it was raining.
"I'll agree the theory is there. But even speaking hypothetically the ethics- To use children is..."
"They're out there. Vultures fighting over a beast not yet felled."
"She burned them. A whole city of vandals was trapped within the walls of Prospero as it falls and..."
"You need not fall now, my friend. Do not try to speak. just blink twice- They say they can save you but..."
"Where did the ships come from? They were built too fast. They arrived so soon. In just ten years how-"
And with the growing sounds of trumpeting horns and flashing lights they were born anew into a cold and cruel world as lungs wheezed and gasped for air only to sting with the freezing chill of pure biting ice as half blind and struggling to remember how to breathe they found themselves in tight, cramped, confined spaces like a coffin upright and impossibly cold.
Eventually, vision turned from blur to bleary as the light started to filter through and the rapid blinking slowly alleviated their blindness into nearsightedness as the interior of the white-lined pods came into focus. Simple built-in lights illuminated the interior while a fogged window barely larger than the palm of a hand showed nothing outside but a flashing red light. Within moments the pods opened of their own accord as doors pulled up and away into the ceiling of the small bay and tilting forwards the pods pretty much forced their occupants onto the warm deck plating.
They were cold. Shivering. Confused. Naked.
To their left and right were others just like them. And in front of them were lockers with large numbers and small nameplates with their names on them. The haze of confusion fading, training kicked in and they lurched towards the lockers with unsteady feet. They opened only for them with the biometric lock and revealed everything they knew they needed as it all came back to them.
Underclothes, bodysuit, turnout coat, webbing and duty gear.
All dawned but for the greatcoats. Next came the under armor harness and bodysuit. Then piece by piece the Einherjar light-variant armor was removed and slid on piece by piece in the exact required order. Others came to them now, their neighbors awoken not first but recovered faster and already armored as they helped their armor up and check each other's gear. When all was dawned a lower safe-like locker on the bottom was opened with a biometric interface and inside was a weapon and arranged magazine, pistol, knives, ammo, anything issued to them that would harm another. They were slid into open slots or maglocked to the armor.
"One is ready!" Someone down the hall shouted.
"Two ready!" from the same direction.
It went on and got closer as the first woken in the order declared they were ready. When it was their turn and their neighbor inspected and gave them the thumbs up it was their turn.
All in all fifty decrees of readiness sounded and then back down the line from the last to the first they sounded this time over the radio in their heads.
"Fifty going in!"
"Four-nine goin in!"
Until all were back in the pods and the lid slid back over the now slightly more cramped it sealed with physically felt pressure as the very air was drained from the interior and their suits switched to a short-lived internal oxygen supply.
"Ready." A monotone voice stepped on the priority channel.
"Steady." It intoned a moment later and all prepared both physically and mentally for what came next.
"Mark. Mark. Mark." the man sounded in a rapid clipped statement before one final message of "Drop." Came from a different, more commanding voice and the feeling of the ground being pulled out from them was felt across fifty bodies as their pods were shot out with several G-forces behind them.
It was terrifying and exhilarating all at once as the view from the tiny window in their pods changed from gray interior metal, to a flash of rapidly passing lights, to pure black as they fell. Handles on the inside of the pod to hold on to were clenched as nausea and strain was pushed onto the occupants. Eventually there was a new sight of event horizon; Of a purple and black and blue onyx marble beneath them and spanning for the horizon as the view of Ereshkigal could be briefly seen.
Within moments, however, their pods rocked and shook and the G-forces lightened as the viewport was bathed in red-orange as they hit the outer atmosphere and their tiny drop ods were bathed in the friction of fire. There was no more radio communication here; If not for the interference all they would hear were the screams of exhilaration or of fear and terror.
At least for most. As in two pods specially designed for them their occupants; More machine than man at this point sat stoic and silent and appraised the view and experience with detached and morbid curiocity now lacking the nerves and guts to feel the G-forces other than slight pressure on their braincases.
In a minute the fire turned to a darkening blue and eventually a darker purple-black as they passed through the atmosphere and hurtled toward the ground at fatal speeds. Their pods shook as something beneath their feet kicked on and vibrated and something above them popped and pulled as the two antigravs not only corrected its trajectory but also slowed its descent.
That meant it was almost time. The body trembled in apprehension and anticipation as-
Each pod slammed into the mud at hundreds of miles per hour. The explosive force expelled at the last second by the directional antigrav and the purpose-built shock and suspension of each pod mitigated the kinetic force to just a jarring shake that slammed them harmlessly in their armors against the walls of their pods. Doors exploded out their occupants half stumbled, half lept out at the ready with rifles and weapons coming up from maglocks and maneuver gears whirring to life.
"One up." The check-in started again.
"Fifty up, no injuries." The last responded as they looked through the mint-green tint of their helmet optics and slowly made their way to a central position and formed up in a wide circle a hundred meters across until all were present.
"Delta in position." Motts declared on an open channel as they all stood with weapons pointed into the surroundings of the open mud plains they found themselves in while the two Golem slowly moved around the formation in an ever-expanding circle.
"Good timing, Delta!" A familiar voice answered back sounding like Astarte Dubrant and her reassuring-excited tone. "Stand down and move to point-Juliet seventy meters south by south west; Griffins on the way for exfil." The channel closed out and with a command from Motts everyone eased up.
"Good work, people. Anyone throw up?" It was impossible to miss the amusement in his tone at the exercise of their first orbital drop from the Chariot-class ship in orbit that in an actual drop would eventually make planetfall and disgorge the rest of the company, its mechs, vehicles, and equipment in support after they cleared the LZ.
"Morgan pull back in. Ares reconnoiter ahead to the LZ and get some flares dropped for out birds. The rest of you center yourselves and shake out the jitters but keep weapons on safe and at the ready incase one of the locals tries to snatch you like they did to Balthazar in Charlie yesterday. If you go masks off get your shoulder lights on, birds should be here in fifteen.
It had been six months since the events with their astray countrymen and the conflict that had lasted until the reactivation of councilwoman Persephone and the reconvergence of the board of directors.
Six months of training, drills, and monthly ship launches from the Atlas shipyards of now orbital warships and a slowly awakening and reemerging Babel.
It was three months past when their contracts would have expired and they would have shifted back to civilian positions had the council not re-activated them into another term.
It was life in babel now on a still untamed and majority unexplored world that was now their home that BAMF was needed to not only explore and conquer it of its hostile native wildlife but also balance the power between the new and much larger Colonial Guard that the warmaster Dread Persephone now commanded like she once had all of BAMF.
Like every day it was dark. And it was raining.