Chapter 2: First Mission with the Royal Marines

The sergeant leaned in my door, “Gear up private.”

I shifted things around and settled the long bladed mono knife on my left thigh. I made another check of my gear and picked up the new assault rifle. I grabbed my pack and slung it over my other shoulder before heading for the door. Lt Peters was at the ramp into the drop shuttle and the platoon sergeant was making a check of every soldier before they reached him.

My own squad leader had already checked and rechecked my gear. I had only just graduated from advanced training and this was my first permanent assignment. The mission was simple, drop onto Protus and move to the Senior Hive. Make a show of force and then pull back to the pick up site. It was a mission straight from the Emperor’s counsel.

The entire mission intel came from Duke Tonis and said we only needed light weapons because the warriors armor was fragile. Whatever the mission was supposed to do, I felt uneasy about it. The shuttle dropped free from the insystem transport and began decal. To keep the Hive government from expecting us we had used an unarmed civilian transport.

Two orbits in constant decal were enough to start our entry into atmosphere. Everything was going as planned but I was still nervous. The Lt was new; we all knew he was rich just from looking at the jeweled mono knife he carried. The shuttle was down only long enough to drops us and then it was heading skyward.

We had started our walk to the Senior Hive when they attacked. The penetrators from our assault rifles had little effect. As the warriors hit our line, I dropped the rifle and pulled my mono knife. After that it was a nightmare of slicing pincers and stabbing stingers. Our withdrawal to the pick up site was marred by the jamming of our comms.

When we pulled our dead and wounded into the pick up zone only twelve marines were still on their feet and uninjured. I took a second mono knife from a fallen comrade and moved to the perimeter. It was good that the warriors seem to be very short sighted. The rush of warriors was loud over the quiet of the jungle.

I blocked a slashing pincher ignoring the scream of pain from the warrior as it was cut off. I slid forward stabbing into the thorax and then spinning to avoid a stinger and slicing through it with my other knife. I spun, cutting through the legs of a warrior as it lunged for the Lt. I followed it with a stab into its head before moving back into position.

I lopped off a slicing pincer and then slid in and cut the head from the body. The warriors were suddenly retreating and I looked around to see four of my comrades down. We moved everyone closer together and drank water. We all thought we knew how this was going to turn out and rested while we could. The rush of warriors was loud enough to bring us to our feet and into place. I was resigned and just let my training take over.

I ducked and slid in to stab into the thorax and then danced back to turn aside at a thrust of a stinger. I stabbed back into the head and leaped forward and half onto another warrior. I stabbed through the neck as it struck at the Lt. I rolled off as another warrior’s stinger thrust over my head.

I lunged up and stabbed into the head twisting as I pulled out and slicing through another pincher headed for the Lt. I slid the other way as he killed the warrior and faced a huge warrior as it climbed over other fallen warriors. It was almost as if it was covered in sparkling jewels. I dropped and rolled as it stabbed with a stinger and sliced above me with an open pincher.

I came to my feet and lunged forward to slice down. It screamed in a high pitch voice as my knife sliced off the pincher. I cut across my body in an almost unconscious move that brought another scream as the stinger was cut off. I lunged as it rose up to drop down onto me. One knife slid into the thorax and the other slammed through the bottom of its head.

As I staggered back the warriors pulled back again leaving four of us still on our feet and several wound dead. Some of the wounded had managed to treat others and threw up a barbed barrier to one side. I wiped the blood and gore from my hands and the handles of the two knives I was using.

I sipped water and scanned the area in front of us. Only the Lt., the Platoon sergeant, a corporal from third squad and I were left. While the able wounded made spears tipped with mono knives, the platoon sergeant did something that punched a signal through to our orbital shuttle. The clacking rush of warriors brought me to my feet.

I slid forward and onto the dead body of the huge warrior I had faced. As the warriors struck they parted around the warrior I was standing on and I lunged off the side in a dive. One of my knives cut through the middle thorax of a second warrior facing the corporal. Its front turned towards me and I swung out and across my body, taking the head.

I shifted across the perimeter and cut down, taking a stabbing stinger headed toward the Lt. as he fought a second warrior. My second knife swept back taking half the head with it. I spun, moving a little forward of the perimeter to meet another huge warrior. I dove and rolled, coming up under it as it reared up shuffling back.

I lunged up with both knives sweeping back and forth cutting through the thorax spilling guts down onto me. I twisted sideways cutting back and through two legs as I broke free. I spun back swinging a knife up to block a back swing from a pincher. I lunged into the warrior as the pincher was cut through and stabbed into a glowing eye.

I rolled away and came to my feet with the Lt. pulling me back as the warrior crashed to the ground. I took a couple of steps towards the falling body of the corporal and another huge warrior was suddenly in the opening swinging back towards the platoon sergeant. I vaulted up onto its back, stabbing down and through the body.

The sergeant grunted and stabbed it in the head before falling back. I rolled off the warrior and crouched. The rush was over and I saw the warriors moving away. I pulled the body of the corporal back as the sergeant knelt. I went back to him and saw the blood on his side. I pushed him towards the other wounded, “Move back sergeant.”

I moved forward and started grabbing the huge warrior remembering the way they had avoided touching the first one I killed. After positioning the three huge warriors so that the Lt was still beside me, I wiped everything off again. The clacking started again and then the loud sounds of the warriors rushing.

The first warrior that rushed into the gap sliced across with a pincer and would have killed me if I had been standing. I had dropped down to knell and ducked under the swing, coming up behind it in a lunge that stabbed one knife through the lower part of the head. I slice away and the head bounced as the body dropped and twitched.

Before it was completely on the ground a second warrior was rushing over it. Its stinger stabbed towards me and I turned sideways and half stepped back avoiding it. I cut out and up and a spray of gore almost blinded me as the stinger spun away.

I back handed a slice at the warrior and was rewarded with a jerk as the head fell forward past me and its pincher barely missed my arm. I lunged sideways, stabbing into the pincer of another warrior as it held the Lt. suspended with its stinger through his shoulder.