Chapter 1: Wormhole Reborn
It has been a long and painful three months trying to get the deep space radio… thing up and running, but we finally got it. We all gathered around the dish and Kayla finally came out of the power room.
“Okay, just finished overlooking everything… power fluctuations at normal… transmitter ready…. maybe on-” Kayla has already cheeked this over so many times, I cut her off.
“Jezz, you already looked over this a hundred times already, take a breath.” I told Kayla, who sighed and looked back at the dish, then back at me.
“Okay… alright… I think we are ready.” Kayla mumbled.
“Good, start the transmission.” I nodded, and turned to look at the army. Black walked up beside me, smiling.
“I guess they are expecting some kind speech” He whispered.
“Oh come on, you of all people should know I’m not good at this…” I protested.
“Yeah but you're the only one who’s good at this. Just be yourself, you’ll be fine.” Black winked and joined the rest of the crowd. I stood there… thinking… but before I could open my mouth, the Dish activated behind me, letting out a loud burst of energy and sending a massive beam of plasma off into space. I almost jumped outa my armor as I turned around looked up into the sky, and I saw a swirling black dot in the sky that was probably a lot farther, and bigger then it is.
“There it is… that’s the Wormhole…! That’s our way out!” Kayla shouted, that caused everyone to cheer. I looked back, and figured this was my opportunity.
“Alright, alright, everyone calm down!” I shouted over the cheering. Soon, everyone wanted to quiet down. “Before we make the final preparations… I wanted to say a few things.” I coughed to clear my throat. “It has been a long and hard war… many years with only one thing on our mind… kill the enemy. But now, that changed. Ever since the Magrider Nuke went off, the whole planet was disconnected from the rebirthing technology… and we lost a lot of good people since that time. This was a reminder, a reminder that we are in fact human. And no matter what we do, what kind of technology we design, we are only delaying our passing. Life may be extended, but it’s still short, more so on the front line. But now is our chance to set things to how it was before. We may one day bring peace to this planet, but first, it is time for us to return home. You all fought well, and without fear, you all deserve a break. And we just hit that brake. Soon, Earthbound Command will send a fleet through the wormhole to bring us home. But in the meantime, we gotta make sure we defend that fleet. So, ladies and gentlemen, it is time to take up your arms for once hoorah! This time, it’s not just for your fellow soldiers, it’s for your home planet! So, who’s with me!?” I shouted, holding up my fist. Everyone followed suit, shouting “hoorah” and raising their fists. After that was done, the Terran Murder Squad walked up to me.
“Not bad for your first motivational speech.” Mich laughed. I rolled my eyes.
“You're one helluva leader, Jet.” Axx nodded. As if on cue, Kayla came running out again.
“Guys, it’s Earth, they just made contact!” Kayla reported. We all walked into the command room, and I grabbed the radio receiver.
“Earthbound command, this is Jet Sunstrider, do you read?” I asked. There was a long moment of silence before the radio crackled to life.
“Roger that, we read you 5 by 5. We see the Wormhole and just set up the fleet to pass through.” Earth responded.
“Glad to hear it, when will you be here?” I asked.
“Well, that depends on if the Wormhole itself wants to play nice. Just make sure you are ready to defend us once we get there.” The voice responded.
“Understood, Sunstrider out.” I let the radio go, and turned back to my squad.
“Time to get the army ready.” I ordered. Everyone nodded and walked back outside, barking orders to the men and women. At long last, It’s go time.
Chapter 2: One Last Hoorah
We waited… thousands of us… waiting just outside the Warpgate shield. Tension flew in the air, we were all excited, but also a little nerves. I mean come on, it’s been god knows how long since we last saw Earth. Who knows what happened. Did another world war broke out? What crazy technology was created? Did they invent anything like we have? So many questions… but the biggest fear, of course, was the Vanu and the Rebels. How are they gonna see this? Surly they must know, right? All our questions were about to be answered.
We looked up at the wormhole, and saw the first round of ships enter the atmosphere. These things looked straight outta Star Wars. As they got closer, I saw a similar purple ball of energy fly up and nail one of the sips in the back left thruster.
“It’s a Vanu ambush!” Mich yelled.
“Everyone, battlestations! Protect those ships!” I shouted as everyone raced to get everything set up. I called for my Titan/Mech thing, GT, who came stomping into the combat zone. I climbed up the left leg, across the chest piece and the cockpit slid open for me. I feel into the seat and GT closed up tight.
“It is nice to see you again, commander.” GT commented.
“You too buddy, now, let’s go get some ass!” I replied.
“Copy that, all critical systems function at normal.” GT notified me as we stomped off, backed up by tons of tanks and aircraft combined. The first ship that got hit came down in a blaze of glory.
“Black, take a sundi down to that Crash site, recover any survivors!” I shouted over comms.
“Copy that!” Black replied, and I saw the sundi roll out. I turned back to look where the first shot came from, and there you have it, a squad of Vanu Harassers was hiding out behind a hill. But they were not alone, far off in the distance, I could see a full scale invasion force bearing us down.
“Everyone get ready, we are about to have one nasty battle on our hands.” I warned and took aim at the ambush squad. I opened fire and melted two of them, as the remaining five scattered. A few minutes later, the Vanu air force rolled in, doing bombing runs and engaging with our own air fighters. Looking around, I could see more Earthbound Transports. One of them looked like a giant soldier carrier… and low and behold, it hovered low and the sides opened up, revealing dozens of soldiers in green-ish battle armor holding some kinda old style laser weapons. One of them walked up to me and singled as if he wanted to talk as the others deployed. I jumped outta my Mec and allowed it to wander off. Drawing my NS-15M2 I walked up to the Earthly soldier.
“Sir, General James Adem of the Earthbound Military! Me and my platoon has been tasked with assisting the New Republic in clearing the extraction zone.” James explained.
“Good, nice to meet ya General. I’m Commander Jet Sunstrider of the NR, the Vanu’s attack just started, you're right on time.” I replied.
“Wonderful news, sir. I won't waste any time then.” James nodded and turned to his soldiers, pretty much telling them to shoot anything purple.
“All units, this is Sunstrider, the soldiers in green armor are friendlies, I repeat, watch your fire on the green soldiers, it is Earth’s military sent in to assist us.” I shouted on coms, then turned around to get back into the action. In the distance, I sould see a squad of sundis deploy and hundreds of Vanu soldiers pour out. I locked a mag into my gun and got myself ready. Before long, the Vanu soldiers were swarming our position. Both NR and Earth’s soldiers took their positions and we started to return fire. The weapons the Earth Soldiers had fired what looked like red hot laser bots… I mean, it’s cool, for about twenty years ago.
“You're wepons seem a little out of date…” I commented to the Earthbound Soldier taking cover beside me.
“Says the one who still uses ballistic firearms…” The Soldier scoffed.
“At least I can take down hostiles in a timely manner.” I laughed and popped out of cover to gun a Vanu Heavy down, only using about one third of my mag. The Soldier beside me also popped up to take down a Vanu Solider, but it took his rifle’s entire charge to take even a Light Assault down.
“Oh, whatever…” The soldier mumbled.
“Can’t argue with the results!” I laughed again and regained focus. I leaped over my cover to trigger a counter attack, a dozen NR Soldiers following my lead, but the Earthbound Soldiers stayed behind, also confused. “What are you waiting for!? We need to launch a counter attack!” I shouted back to the slackers. They remained where they were, and I just rolled by eyes and kept advancing. Over to my left, a group of friendly Harassers drove in and wiped out a Vanu Sundi, allowing us to gain an advantage. As me and the other NR soldiers moved in to flush the rest out, I could see a big fussy blue blob in the distance…
“Jet, I got the crash survivors back at the Warpgate, but looks like we got Rebel forces moving in from the West…” Black’s voice cracked on the radio.
“What does he mean by that!?” James’s voice asked.
“That mean we are about to have a three way battle… Black, take the Earthbound Forces and half the NR Forces to defend against the Rebels, I’ll take the other half of the NR to finish off the Vanu.
“Roger that sir, James, meet me at sector G15. Black out.” Black replied. I turned back towards the Vanu frontline and we still had Magriders and Liberators inbound. I clicked my wrist and called for GT again. My Mec returned and I jumped into the Cockpit, reactivating manual control.
“GT, activate Anti-Armor protocols.” I told GT after regaining control.
“Roger that Commander, Rocket Slavo and Titan Shield ready.” GT replied. I took hold of the controls, and moved forward, toward the enemy. But right as I started engaging the enemy, I heard a distress beacon go of.
“All available units, this is Mich rain of the New Republic, we got increasing resistance on the Rebel front, they also have Mechs of their own! Me and Blac are trying our best, but the Earthbound forces are getting their asses kicked!” Mich’s voice rang in my ears.
“I read you Mich, I’ll swing around Axx, think you can hold these guys off?” I looked down to Axx who was in a Prowler beside me.
“Don’t sweat it Je, go help Mich and Black.” Axx replied. I nodded and stomped off to the Rebel front.
“Kayla, how’s it looking so far?” I contacted the Warpgate on my way to help Mish and Black.
“The last of the Earthbound Ships are almost though, soon we can start loading them.” Kayla replied.
“Copy that, get the Engineers and Scientists Evaced first, and all our mobile equipment. The rest of us will keep trying to hold them off.” I ordered.
“Understood sir.” Kayla replied and went back to her work.
“Alright guys, we just gotta hold out a little longer!” I shouted as I charged the Rebel front. But as I ran up I saw what Mich was saying. At least a Dozen Vanguards, Revers, and Sundis were advancing, and I could see they also had at least two Mechs like mine. “Mich, you and Black deal with the Tanks and Aircraft, I’ll handle the Mechs.” I turned to them.
“You sure you can handle both at once?” Black asked.
“I’ll be fine, just do your part and watch my back!” I ordered and rushed the Mechs head on. The Prowlers and Rave-Fighters followed me into the fire. I dashed up and punched one Mech in the face, turned around and dumped half the mag of my Mech’s gun into the chest of the other, took a step back and smacked the first one with the butt of my Mech’s rifle. The two enemy Mechs stumbled back, the one I shot moving further back, letting the more undamaged one go first. The first one fires a oversized shotgun at my cockpit, causing my Mech to stagger.
“Hull has taken light damage advise caution.” GT warned. I regripped the controls and got my balance again. The enemy Mech went for another shotgun blast. But I dashed to the right. I quickly used this to counter attack and punch the enemy Mech at least three times in the cockpit, and it stumbled to it’s knees. Before I could finish it off, the second enemy Mech got behind me and empties it’’s shotgun into the back of my Mech, and I fell on my face.
“Come on, stay with me…!” I mumbled, trying to regain control. I did manage to stand back up, but I was heavily damaged. I looked to the side and picked up a Vanguard that was ramming my ankle and threw it at the already damaged Mech, it exploded, destroying the Mech’s cockpit and it slammed down in a shower of sparks.
One down, one to go… I turned around just in time for the first Mech to power punch mine in the cockpit…. The control console exploded in sparks, and I had to let go.
“Ooooog shit…” Was all I managed to whisper under my breath before the enemy Mech took another swing at me… and the world went dark.
Chapter 3: No Man left behind
My eyes opened up, and I was faced with the burning red sky as dusk fell on the planet. Earthbound Ships still entering the atmosphere, five of them, I was able to count. I could still hear shouting and gunfire in the distance, the battle was still going strong. I looked around and noticed the damaged cockpit, sparks and flames spitting everywhere. The only reason why I could see outside was because the cockpit lid was ripped off… I tried getting up, but my leg was crushed underneath the destroyed control console. In fact, I could barely feel my right leg… much less see it in all the wreckage.
“Commander, commander? You alive in there? Jet, can you hear me?” I heard Mich’s voice in my armor’s communications system.
“Barely…” I muttered, still trying to find a way out of this mess.
“You're Mech looks totally ruined, can you even get out of there?” Mich asked.
“My right leg is stuck under the control console… there's no way I’m getting out of here without some help.” I replied.
“Alright, I'll bring an ANT unit with a crane attachment and get you outta there. Hold tight.” Mich explained.
“Not like I have a choice…” I mumbled as the transmission ended. I continued looking around the Cockpit until I saw a small compartment of some kind. It had a small handle on the front, but when I went to pull it out, it wouldn't budge. I thought about it for a minute, then I got an idea. I tried turning it to the right, nothing. When I turned it to the left however, I heard a hissing sound as I felt it go lose. Then I noticed that it was not a strange compartment, but some kind of core. Maybe a small battery for the Cockpit itself… when I looked at it, it had GT’s ID number on the side. Then it hit me, this might not be a core for power, but the core to GT’s AI. So maybe if I ever get off this planet alive, I could rebuild the Titan chassis and upload GT’s AI into it. I smiled, knowing that he’s not gonna be permanently destroyed as I clipped the AI core onto my belt. Just then, I heard a rumbling as a red ANT unit became visible on my left. I couple minutes later, Mich appeared above me.
“Were you sleeping?” Mich laughed.
“No, but I was about to if you were any slower.” I rolled my eyes.
“Very funny, now, let’s get you outta here.” Mich replied as she swing the ANT’s crane around, she hocked it to the Mech’s controls and told the driver to lift it up. Mich helped me up, but when I went to walk, I almost fell over again.
“Something tells me that leg of yours is broken.” Mich commented.
“Gee, thanks for noticing.” I mumbled. Just then, the radio crackled to life again.
“Guys, all the Scientist and Engineers are on the ships, now the soldiers are starting to get aboard. There are enough ships to get us off this rock, but we might wanna move fast if we are not to get overrun.” Axx reported.
“Alright, we found Jet, he’s wounded but we can get him outta here.” Mich responded.
“Good, cause you might wanna make this quick!” Axx ended the transmission. Me and Mich shared a nod and she helped me onto the ANT unit.
By the time we got passed though all the fighting, most of the soldiers were already loaded.
“Alright, we the majority of the remaining troopers and all of the mobile equipment, as well as some of our vehicles.” Axx explained, I looked outside the warpgate and saw about ten soldiers, mixed NR and Earthbound still protecting the Warpgate. As the last transport swooped in, I turned to face them.
“Hey, you guys get your asses over here and in the sip, on the double!” I shouted to them. The soldiers turned to look at me, and started moving back. But before they all got into the shield, one of them, a Earthborn soldier, got hit in the leg. Without even thinking, I jumped off the transport, ignoring my pain and ran outside the shield to save him.
“What are you doing!?” Black shouted.
“No one left behind, just make sure that ship is ready to go!” I shouted back, drawing my revolver. I popped a couple, shots at the advancing Vanu forces and kneeled beside the the wounded Earthbound Soldier.
“Ugh… just… go…! I can barely move, I’m not worth it!” The Earthbound trooper grumbled, holding her leg.
“Like hell I’m just gonna leave you behind! Come on, get up!” I replied, helping the wounded soldier up. My leg was also on fire, but I suppose it wasn't as broken as me and Mich once thought. Using me as a support, me and the wounded Trooper inched ever closer towards the Warpgate shield.
“You know you're probably just wasting your time…” The Trooper whispered.
“No one deserves to be left behi-” I was cut off by a sniper shot to the lower back… the beam melted though my armor and probably burned by back pretty hard. I fell to the ground, holding back a scream of terror, but as I fell, I used my momentum to almost throw the Earthbound Trooper into the Warpgate shield. As I landed, I rolled for as much as I could, but I just missed the shield myself.
As my vision blurred out… I figured this was the end of the line. Without the old re-birthing technology, there's no coming back from this. I could only watch as the Vanu soldiers closed in and the last transport preparing for take off. I could hear the shouting of my squad members in the distance, and one of them felt awfully close, but I was already unconscious to actually notice.
