All images are made with a canva.com pro account.
All depictions of people, locations and events are entirely fictional.
This work is owned entirely by Simon Tonkin, all rights are reserved.

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This is a short story I am writing exclusively for #hive

These will be posted in the #Powerhousecreatives and #GEMS communities as they are truly awesome.

Special shout-out to @mariannewest and the #freewriters who inspire me to write with their daily prompts.

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This story is set in a grim sci-fi universe where corporations have colonized space before governments were able to. Because of this, galactic power is dominated by an inter-galactic cartel of conglomerates who conspire with and against each other for market dominance. Freedom has an asking price in the Corporate Hegemony, and it's not cheap. Getting to the top is a grueling journey and only the best make it.

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If you enjoy, please consider sharing it with someone off-chain who would enjoy it too🙏 Thank you.

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If you like what you see and/ or want to get caught up, check out CHAPTER 1.

Paladium Corps Battalion Command

To: All Operation Winfall Managerial Personnel ≥ Lv 3.

This regimental release is class S and is to be destroyed exactly 60 seconds after acknowledgment.

Anyone without proper clearance is prohibited from seeing this communication - no exemption.

Any violation of class S status will result in immediate extra-judicial detainment.

Please complete the virtual signature to confirm you understand.

“There’s nothing better than free money.”

Jaden's voice was so heavy with greed it made me want to slap him.

For his sake I decided against it. It’s not good leadership to assault your men in the field even if that crap got to me. Greed makes you unreliable and prone to irrational thinking and that'll get you killed fast, especially for a kid.

Even so, I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was right.

We received word from Battalion that Halon Fortress was taken without any resistance. That seemed impossible. The siege was to take years, I saw the strategy proposals first-hand as the plans were hammered out. Casualty estimates were in the tens of thousands, but so far no one had fired a shot.

“Tyris, what’s the situation?”

My voice echoed in the helmets of the squad and her reply came a moment later.

“Praetor Squadron have made it to the valley floor and are deploying orbital beacons. Squads D118 through 120 have begun their descent into Gongora Valley and should clear the walls by the time you arrive. No resistance has been reported and I’ve seen no sign of the enemy. Your path looks clear.”

Clear? That’s a nice change.

“Copy. Assume overwatch and cover our approach. Fall in when we begin our decent.”

I signed for the squad to move-out in standard formation. Like a dozen chrome statues coming to life the metal clad mercenaries fell in behind me. We moved at a disciplined pace; the tear shaped plates of our armor clattering and our reaper pattern Shredder rifles held at various states of ready. Lacquering applied pre-sortie made us an eye watering visage under the blinding light of Calaxis Pryor, the giant white star sitting high over the skies of Ordo Maxima.

D113 jogged for hours down a wide chasm formed from inert ancient lava flows.

Although thirty foot wide, it was a minuscule part of a larger field that more resembled an ocean.

Massive waves rippled the ground some fifty feet high and formed dips so steep you could fall to your death. We negotiated our way through patches of jagged razor glass which ground to black dust under boot. Every surface was marred in churning fluid textures while porous rock and jutting obsidian crystals stretched out for miles. Slabs of obsidian glass reflected blinding rays from impeccable surfaces, and towering larva stalagmites spiraled high into the air in suspended animation.

Entire sheets of magma rock had formed ledges and cliffs as if snap frozen by some immense cosmic force.

Calaxis Pryor made our progress clumsy.

Everything appeared washed and hyper exposed and the innumerable reflections stung my eyes. My helmet’s dampeners tried to compensate but the software was clearly failing at the task. Motion sensors ghosted and tracked things that weren’t there, and flickering threat signals spooked me repeatedly.

A target appeared from a boulder at my seven o’clock and when I turned I saw nothing. My visor’s software began to glitch causing random menus and readouts to flash across the transparent screen.

Our pace slowed to a crawl as we reacted to phantoms.

We took cover more than once and covered each other as we confirmed false reading after false reading.

I could tell they were getting worse the longer we remained in the open sun which concerned me greatly. I’ve never seen a modern SCS struggle like this.

“Squad leader, could we make use of that?”

Engineer Haden gestured toward a large blistered section just up ahead. A membrane of porous rock curved up and over the channel forming a brittle dome, and the floor beneath was concaved. From what I could tell a bubble the size of a house had burst then froze while it still retained shape. Light pierced its sand blasted façade, yet it provided decent cover.

“Our systems should recalibrate if we get them out of direct sunlight.”

I felt my tension release a little. This was affecting me more than I realized, no doubt the rest felt the same.

Stepping into the shade brought my eyes much needed relief. I stayed there a moment so my HUD could refresh then made room for the others. One by one the squad moved through like a decontamination shower and before long D113 was ready to go again. Before I gave the order, I swapped to Haden’s channel.

“Do you think it’ll keep happening?”

“We’re running old firmware so it’s likely, I was about to let you know.”

His words were as unbelievable as Halon Fortress falling without a shot fired.

A chill went down my spine.

“Did you say old firmware, Haden?”

“I ran a diagnostic while it reset and we’re at least two versions out of date.”

“Two?!” I tried to contain myself.

“Aye, sir. No doubt about it. That’s probably why the SCS is doing this.”

My thoughts began to race.

They sent us here with an out outdated SCS? That’s insane. That’s suicide at best, or murder at worst. If the enemy were running the current versions their lethality rating would be at least 8-9% higher than ours.

Statistically that’s one guaranteed casualty in any engagement scenario of equal force. It’s hard to know just how devastating that is until it’s translated into real life. So far I’ve been lucky enough to never end up on the wrong side of that equation, until now.

“How long will they last?”

Hard to tell, squad leader.

“Let’s keep it between us then. Good job Engineer, fall in.

I switched back to the squad-link

“D113, fall out!”

Volcanic dust dirtied our uniforms as we climbed out of the bubble then over a portion of collapsed channel. Navigating the glass surfaces proved incredibly difficult. We tripped like drunken idiots as our enviro-boots refused to grip the obsidian. For a length of thirty meters we crawled as walking was impossible.

A dip in the floor caused us to encounter a beam of light so focused it stopped us in our tracks. Concentrated sunlight radiated from a broken obsidian core in such a way it became impossible to avoid. Its crystalline structure focused and refracted the light so it expanded outward in a burning cone. We hadn’t noticed it on our approach among the daylight, but face to face it was obvious.

“No way to go around.” A squad member noted.

“Why don’t we blast it?”

“Blasting might reveal more obsidian and we wouldn’t want that.”

“Indeed” I added.

Korvax accepted young Jaden’s assertion with a grunt then moved himself to the front to stand by the beam. I could tell he was concerned by the lack of combat, we all were. It wasn’t often he showed this level of impatience as he reached a gloved hand into the ray of light. Loose cotton fibers burned to a crisp but the leather seemed to hold up okay.

“Screw it. We’ve wasted enough time.”

Korvax gripped his weapon again and dove through, his metal plates practically glowing.

We followed simultaneously and exited four or five disorienting steps later.

A cascade of target acquisitions flooded my visor compounding my daze. Bright red lights blinked madly registering movement all around. Dozens of hostile indicators flashed to life, four to the right and another six behind us. Threat sirens snatched my attention as failing systems keep up with the mounting number of enemies.

Before I knew it our helmets registered a nightmare scenario; we were in a kill box, yet our eyes told a different story.

Command icons indicated that the others saw the same - with the exception of Tyris.

I pondered while I scanned frantically for targets, finding nothing. I pivoted thirty degrees and held the next set of phantoms in the sights of my Shredder gun. I knew they weren’t real, yet I could feel panic beginning to build as I looked down the sights of my weapon

Still feeling the stun effect I closed my eyes and called a halt. I lowered my weapon then opened my eyes again, this time ignoring the dying HUD. I stared at row of phantoms a few meters in front of me. If they were real I’d be dead by now.

“The beam fried our systems, squad leader. No chance they’ll work now.”

Haden yelled over the sirens in his helmet.

Various squad mates protested and swore over the link, their voices a mixture of scared annoyed and angry. Specialist Nowe berated Haden and three others were in the process of taking off their helmets.

“Do not remove those! Squad D113, turn off SCS combat computers. We’ll be proceeding without them.”

There’s an order I never thought I’d give.

With the click the flickering interface vanished and the sirens ceased with a final blip.

I paused to settle my nerves; the silence seeming out of place. Being surrounded by imminent death wasn’t something I enjoyed. Even if it’s fake, it’s the kind of thing that reappears when you try to sleep to make you feel like you’re about to die all over again.

Thankfully my primary targeting reticule was unaffected. The Shredder gun’s hard-wired interface was independent from any other system, so turning off the SCS wouldn’t have an impact on my enhanced aiming. It was strange looking through the clear visor without any electronic overlays.

In fact, too many strange things were happening.

As we rounded a final rocky out-crop I saw the channel end in a long gentle incline. It was clear we had reached the end of the lava field by the type of rocks that were visible in the distance.

We didn’t encounter a single enemy, and they said we would be fighting in the lava fields for weeks.

Maybe the kid was right. Maybe we were getting paid for walking around.

The lanscape changed from volcanic black to a sun-bleached purple.

Underfoot the ground transitioned from a hard-hollow surface to solid rock.

As we ascended out of the channel not twenty meters later the ground curved and suddenly dipped away again.

Following a gray rock protrusion running along the decline, we walked until the wall etched away revealing an awe-inspiring vista; the mighty Gongora Valley, spanning hundreds of miles east to west.

The far side of the valley comprised of sandy colored mountains about two hundred miles away, and the expanse itself was populated with patches of dense vegetation and networks of thin waterways. Deep fresh water springs spilled into the valley making the ground luscious and fertile.

Eleven of us spread out along the edge to look for a way down. I left them to it as I was taken by a distant mirage that shimmered off the heat in the air. It looked like a series of native habitats hundreds of miles to the West. A wide sprawling settlement of strange alien structures stood out like little yellow sandcastles under Calaxis Pryor. I bet they were mud or clay based, and when not clustered they seemed to reach out to more water sources.

Jace hit his transmitter when the unmistakable rattle of gunfire erupted from the valley floor.

First one shot and then dozens of fully automatic bursts turned the air into a raging tempest.

I ducked down and moved forward. Looking over I could see groups of blazing white figures moving in tactical advances down the valley wall a short way to the East. They were Paladium Corps, probably D119 or one of the others.

From what I could tell they were off track by a fair margin.

I bet that was Gerald’s squad, he was horrendous as navigating. Even so they could fight as good as any other unit and they were moving to do just that.

“Tyris what the hell is going on?”

“It looks like what happened to us, squad leader.”

More gunfire barked from the valley floor as I realized it was another squad who were shooting. They were firing up at the descending unit, and not effectively. After a few moments the unit I thought was D119 returned fire in just as erratic a fashion. I could see some burnishing figures lose discipline and shoot in wild jerking movements.

“They’re shooting at each other!”

“No!”

Tyris snapped over the link.

“They’re reacting to phantoms the same as you did. D119 strayed eighty meters north west and didn’t realize they’re descending on D120.”

“Any casualties yet?”

***“Three from 119 and one from 120.” She said grimly.

A trio of wayward shots landed a few meters beneath me.

Erratic gunfire raked the valley wall with hundreds of high velocity rounds and sent clouds of purplish dust billowing.

“Squad leader!”

Jace called over the squad-link.

“I see a path leading down but it looks risky, sir.”

Specialist Devin Jace wasn’t kidding.

He indicated a narrow pathway that formed a series of switch-back pin-head turns all the way down. Aside from the dust cloud there was absolutely zero cover. It was three quarters of a mile down before the rocky basin provided any protection. If 120 were using their SCS then there’s a high chance it would detect us.

In normal circumstances we would be shredded no question. Hopefully luck was on our side.

“No one fires a shot no matter what happens.”

I shimmied close to a ledge where I could slide on my back five meters down to the first pin-head. Calaxis Pryor burned my retinas as I plotted my route. The transparent visor of my helmet rattled as a sudden explosion roared from the valley floor.

More combat shouts followed and more gunfire.

“Corporal Gerald is dead, squad leader.” Tyris informed.

“We have to stop them!” Jaden cried over the link.

“Michael, time to act!”

Korvax gripped my pauldron as he saw me prepare to slide.

“I take point, Korvax you're next! Next one 5 seconds! Zig-zag formation, four meter spacing!”

“Safeties on!” I repeated

I paused with both hands ready to launch and watched them slide their Shredder safeties on, Korvax doing so last and with the most protest.

“Go, go, go!”

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Thank you for reading, and I'd love to know what you think!

Remember if you enjoyed please leave an upvote and share it off-chain with someone you think will enjoy it.

The next chapter will hopefully be out in a week or two. I have started school so my time is in pretty high demand, but #hive will always be high on my daily priorities.

Thank you again and stay safe!

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@freewritehouse

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@pommom

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