Age of Space

“Here's the data I’ve been able to gather on the targets,” a man fully clad in power armor said over the holoscreen.

“Hmm, I see,” a figure replied back. The dark room somewhat hid the figure's face, but some features were too distinct for even this room to hide. The spotty gray hair and an old burn wound—covering half the man's face—told a story involving many years of military service.

The data package he’d just been sent was detailed, more so than usual. It spread out before him like a holographic map, showing the buildings they’d been asked to hit. The map also displayed the locations of various defensive installations, as well as the locations of a number of guards.

Studying the map like an old practiced general, the scarred man commented, “from how well these two facilities are fortified, and the amount of hostiles we’re expected to encounter, I estimate this job would cost about 16-20 million Tar credits.”

The man in the 3 meters tall power armor stayed silent for a while, then nodded, “I’m fine with that, but, -” he raised an arm, closing finger after finger until only one remained. “There is one condition I’d like to raise for such a high price. Classify the operation as black.”

Captain Dravenic thought about it for a moment. If the operation was classified as black, and they bailed, they’d lose their reputation as mercenaries forever. He’d have to dissolve the company, but... this was a lot of money…

“We’ll do some of our own surveillance of the two sites, if it is as your report claims, we have ourselves a deal,” he finally said.

After hammering out a few more details regarding this new, and potentially very lucrative job, the connection was cut, and he walked out from the transmissions center. Before him was the naked sky, the warm embrace of a red tinted sun, and vast fields of crops stretching as far as the eye could see.

As the grains ahead swayed like waves upon an endless ocean, he shouted to his comrades, “everyone! Vacation is over! We’ve just landed ourselves a big one boys!”

Men sitting beside campfires, upon weapon crates and besides shuttles began standing up and making their way over.

“After this job, we’ll be set for years. We’re all getting paid after this one! Now, it’s a one-week job, we do a little scouting first, and if it looks good, we launch a full operation and make our money. Any questions?”

“Specifics?” one of the men asked.

“We’re taking out a couple of crime lords at their homes. Anyone else?”

“When do we leave?” Another asked.

Chuckles and laughter could be heard amongst the company, whilst Captain Dravenic only smiled. He looked over at his men, all 278 of them, then shouted, “Now, who’s ready to make some money!?”

The air seemed to boil, and like a volcanic eruption, every single one of his battle brothers shouted in unison, “YEAAHHH!!!”

It was time. Time for the Hammers of Fortune to once again enter the storm.

Ronin had to wait three days before the mercenaries confirmed they’d do the job and were ready to move. They’d been informed that he would join the assault, and he was currently sitting in the back of the Heidenreich’s cargo bay.

The Hammers of Fortune had happily made the deal. In exchange for driving Ronin out, the mercenary company had been allowed to borrow his cargo ship for the duration of the mission. They'd said something about needing the extra space for the transport of certain mission critical components.

Ronin didn’t mind, the ship shouldn’t see much fighting anyways, being stationed at the back lines and all.

As the Hammers headed for the chute leading to district 101, Ronin heard the captain of the company speak over the intercom, [We’re approaching the conflict zone. Expect some light engagements after we enter. But stay alert! The closer to the targets we get, the tougher the fighting will be!]

Ronin checked his warsuits HUD, and a virtual model of the suit began rotating before him. Lit up in bright green, the model showed the suit as undamaged.

It was a handy feature, if Ronin had to say so himself. Instead of having to study a stat sheet in the middle of combat, you’d see parts of the model change from green to yellow when the suit was damaged—or red when broken.

Ronin’s eyes shifted over towards his weapons loadout. The HUD showed him as having 5 fragmentation grenades, 20 shoulder mounted missiles, 2 knee-mounted scatter-missiles and two rapid fire lasers in his arms. His right arm also had something called an ion plasma blaster, whatever that meant.

He hadn’t properly tested this suit before this. In fact, he’d planned to modify it, it being illegal and all. Now he was thankful he hadn’t.

“…”

As the ship reached the 40 meters deep chute, then entered, the direction of gravity shifted. Ronin grabbed a handle on the wall, attempting to stabilize himself. While cursing himself for not having installed better internal dampeners, the ship, now flying completely vertically, continued on downwards...

Finally, the ship righted itself again and the sounds of explosions began rumbling out ahead.

[Minor contact up front. Proceed as planned,] the captain said over the intercom.

The strike force continued on as the sounds of fighting outside became louder and louder. After some time, Ronin felt the ship begin to slow down, and soft sounds of machinery began reverberating throughout the hull. There was a release of gas, movements of hydraulics, before finally, with a deep clang, the ship touched down.

Ronin rose up, walked over towards the airlock, then began descending down the ramp.

“After clearing out the guard station, we’re only left with some minor skirmishes on this side. We’re pretty much ready to go!” a man shouted, running up besides Ronin.

Around them, scattered laser beams lit up the fog and sounds of projectile fire could be heard.

Giving a curt nod in response, Ronin asked, “the tunnel, is it secure?”

“Yeap, all that's left is to move on through, though we will have to leave some ships behind. There's no way all of them will fit through that gap.” The man looked Ronin up and down before chuckling, “if you were any bigger, you wouldn’t fit either.”

Around him, Ronin saw figures running in and out of his cargo ship, collecting supplies.

“Alright,” he replied and began heading towards the dark passage ahead. “Fly my ship back to the factory after you’ve taken what you need.” Ronin wasn't in the mood for jokes. Not now. Not when vengeance was at hand.

As for the cargo ship? There was no way that huge thing would fit through that tunnel. Either way, it didn’t matter much at this point, his suit had more than enough power in it for the fight to come. He could walk.

Entering the tunnel, he thought, did you expect something like this when you blew up my apartment, Specter? What will your face be when we finally meet?

Unbeknownst to the Hammers of Fortune, another group was following them closely from behind. Being hired to capture Ronin alive, they’d taken note of the large ship leaving the Maximus Solutions factory. Following it, they’d been quite surprised to find a war band, at least twice the size of their own, flying over to accompany it.

At the head of a round table, sat a bearded man in militaristic clothing. The beard, however, couldn't hide the man's frown, growing more and more pronounced the more he thought about the dilemma they were in. The situation was deteriorating, and the hologram hovering above the round table, only made that fact clearer with every passing second.

“Boss, Argus said nothing about this! We were supposed to grab a kid. A well protected kid, sure. But this? This feels more like we’re joining a war!” A female voice broke in, cutting through the dour atmosphere.

"Hmpf!" The bearded man grumbled. “Let’s follow them for now…We’ll have to attack sooner or later if this goes on though. If that war band, or whomever they are, kills our employer... We can forget about getting paid, whether we capture that kid or not.”

Exiting the tunnel, Ronin continued jogging, making his way towards Specter’s compound. Above, starfighters could be seen circling the area, protecting the men below.

A BOOM! sounded out as a missile crashed into a nearby building, taking out both men and equipment inside. Large sections of the upper wall began falling down, and Ronin had to move out of the way so as to not be squashed under the rubble.

[Heavy contact ahead! Prioritize using long range missiles,] someone shouted over the intercom. It made sense. Heavy fog didn’t exactly provide good conditions for light-based weaponry. The issue, as with light traveling through any kind of medium, came in the form of particles. Water droplets—to be more precise—caused the laser to diffract, in turn crippling its long-range effectiveness.

Amidst the increasingly heavy fighting, he advanced further until he eventually reached the battlefront. High powered lasers were exchanged back and forth, and missiles struck both buildings and people. A starfighter crashed onto the street in front of him, plowing up the ground as it began rapidly sliding towards him.

Running up to a half-destroyed building, he hid behind one of the walls, narrowly dodging the incoming ship.

“We can’t move forward unless something is done about those large guns! Their lasers are specialized for this kind of environment. We’re getting outgunned down here!” A nearby mercenary shouted, looking up at the towering figure that was Ronin's suit. As if to punctuate the statement, a section of the wall between them melted as a bright red beam pierced through.

"Alright, I'll see what I can do!" Ronin shouted back over the weapons fire.

He began moving along the wall after finding a suitable spot 15 meters ahead. Most of the wall here had collapsed and only his head and shoulders reached above the crumbled concrete. It should suffice for his shoulder-mounted missiles. Once he was at the opening, he tried getting a target lock on one of the large laser guns.

The target lock kept moving around, but did not lock in. He cursed inwardly. There was just too much fog and there was only one way left he could think of.

I’ll have to eyeball it, he thought.

Squinting his eyes, he positioned himself carefully and aimed. Here goes nothing! A sharp fizzling sound was followed by a short thump as the rocket left the chamber, flying into the mist. Ronin already knew the answer before the missile even arrived.

BOOM!

It missed the large laser gun by tens of meters, blowing up a part of the road running parallel to the embankment. He fired another missile, then another…It wasn’t until he’d fired his 6th shot that he had to, once again, hide. He’d been spotted, and anything from missiles to lasers were being aimed his way.

As he ducked out of the way, the barrage of weapons fire hit, and the crumbled wall crumbled even further. He moved quickly along the foundations of the broken building, leaving before one of Specter's men had a chance to get lucky.

My missiles won't reach those guns, not with the visibility as bad as it is. He needed to do something, but what?

Just then, he heard Captain Darvenic shout over the intercom, [we’ve got a large number of hostiles coming up from behind! Divert the starfighters to the backline!]

The situation just went from bad to worse. With a new force attacking them from behind, they were now surrounded and unable to move. His mind raced as he thought of a way out of the stalemate. One side has to break, if someone doesn’t get rid of those guns, we’ll end up stuck here, squeezed between two forces.

Just sitting here, waiting for rescue, sounded less and less appealing the more he thought about it. Especially now, with their air support gone. There had to be a way out of this! There just—

Then it struck him. His warsuit! Though its shielding wasn’t strong enough to stop those lasers, the suit was still strong enough to lift something that could!

He did a quick surface level scan of his surroundings... There! A large broken pillar lay about 30 meters away from him. He should be able to pick that up, maybe?

Walking over, he bent down, spread his arms and gripped the slab of concrete with all he had. Gears and servos strained as he attempted to lift the big thing. Come on big boy, you're not that heavy, are you?

The pillar was barely off the ground before Ronin had to shift his position in order not to fall over. The lift would not be easy, but it was possible. Slowly but surely, the broken pillar rose.

“Void dammit! We’re losing cover! We need those lasers gone—NOW!” someone close by roared over the gunfire.

The sensors within his suit began cracking as he pushed the machine beyond its limits, adding his own strength into the mix.

With a force of will, he brought the broken pillar into position, and shouted out, notifying the Hammers, “prepare to storm the hill! I will clear you a way!”

He began moving, and heavy thumps rang out along each step his warsuit made. Exiting cover, he picked up speed as red lights flashed past his vision.

Thump, thump, thump, thump

A missile crashed into the ground ahead of him, detonating. Pieces of concrete and metal erupted out, colliding with the broken pillar, but he barely felt it.

As he got closer, some of the enemy combatants began shouting out frantically and the lasers began turning. The large stationary guns were now targeting him. As they began firing, the pillar heated up rapidly, but he was close now.

Reaching the embankments upwards incline, with a quickstep, he maneuvered the suit further under the pillar, allowing for more servos to work. It gave the warsuit the little extra power it needed, and with a final push, Ronin, along with the half-melted pillar, flew over the embankment, taking several of Specter's men along with them in the fall.