POV: Erling Stragos
A rough pat at the top of my head disturbed my sleep but, I refused to wake up that easily. Stubbornly I shifted into my bed getting even more comfortable then a hand pulled my pillow from under my head. This did the trick. Groggily I opened my eyes and found my teammate fully dressed for combat. I groaned in pain.
"Get dressed. We're getting deployed." Was all he said as he through my pillow to me and left the room. We slept small rooms that could fit only four people and that was already pushing it. I rubbed my face a few times to rid my self of the grogginess then made my bed. There was a lot of commotion outside and that meant a fiend attack was imminent or a raid was being planned. The world had changed considerably in the past hundred years. The blight fiends just started appearing from different corners of the world. Science still hasn't been able to explain what they are exactly, some say it's the planets defense mechanism others say demons from another realm. They took over forty eight percent of the world.
That didn't concern me though, I was in the internal department. I got dressed in the customary dark grey military uniform that was double breasted with the buttons ending at the waist. On top of the uniform I wore the standard combat vest for protection.
"Move, move! We need to in the air in ten!" shouted the drill officer in the corridor. I looked myself in the mirror once more to see short cropped brown hair, complimented with ordinary brown eyes. I wasn't anything special and I knew it but, with enough time I could get myself an implant. Become someone who mattered.
I joined the swam of soldiers rushing to their respective sectors. Fort Ildris was more suited for a camp than combat. It focused more on training soldiers than actual combat against the fiends. Only a few devils were stationed here. Grey doors opened to reveal my briefing room which was already full. There were about fifteen men dressed for combat, all eyes trained on our commanding officer, Viktor Stig. Unlike like us, he wasn't dressed in grey but, black meaning he was a devil. A human fused with a fiend which increased his strength, speed and regeneration. The implant allowed him to also use the fiends innate abilities.
He stomped his foot, silencing the whole room. He took out a cigar from his pocket and lit it slowly. He turned his scarred face to us, finally recognizing us with a puff of smoke. He gestured to the screen in front of him which had the mission details on it.
"Five hours ago" he began "We managed to locate a trafficking ring. A big one. We aren't clear on the number of fiends they have but, what we do know is that they have a category 4 fiend with them" this caused a ripple of unease in the room. I hardened myself even further. Stigs let the information sink in before continuing, "The good news is. This is an opportunity. According to brass some lucky gentlemen amongst you will wear black after this"
This caused a ripple of excitement amongst us. "You takeoff in two minutes. Reinforcements are inbound. Take care of any human interference. We will take of the fiends. Dismissed." the door behind us opened and everyone shuffled out to the armory. Everyone was murmuring excitedly about this mission. Each person here had managed to survive over three years and that warranted respect. That didn't matter when you wore grey though, black was the real deal.
****
Two minutes later, the helicopter had taken from fort Ildris and we where heading for Tusken or somewhere close to it.
"What a shame boys. This could be our last ride together." said Jean, our squad leader. He was seated closest to the cockpit and shrouded in darkness but, I could see his customary smirk. I scoffed "Don't be too sure. Nobody likes you enough to promote you" everyone snickered.
"I don't need you losers to like me. Those beautiful ladies in the science department like me enough to get me the promotion"
"Survive this mission first, asshole" I countered.
The helicopter started losing altitude and everyone went silent.
"ETA two minutes. Looks dark boys. Be careful" came the announcement from the pilot. Jean stood up and walked to the middle of the loading boy, assault rifle in hand. "Okay ladies. Showtime, mission parameters are to take out hostile humans. No one needs to be a hero. I need you guys all alive to see me in black." The helicopter landed with a soft thud and the hanger door slowly opened. It was dark, as expected of 4 am weather. The rain was pouring heavily making it even more dangerous. Fiends loved this kind of weather. Jean was the first one out, followed by me .
Assault rifle ready, we surveyed the environment for a few seconds before giving the the green light.
"Clear" I called out. Everyone else came out and we set our eyes on our target. The trafficking ring was stationed in the middle of nowhere. It was far from from any city increasing chances of fiend attacks. The perfect place. It was a large abandoned warehouse that had seen better days. There were no lights on or any sign of life. It made me weary.
We slowly made our way to the warehouse.
"This is odd" came Jeans voice over the coms. He was kneeling by the wall looking at the claw marks on them. "These are fresh. They have blood on them too" thunder rolled in the distance.
"Switch too infrared" my eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the different vision. I pushed the double doors open slowly and what I saw made me tense. The were no heat signatures. The loading bay was huge with boxes thrown all over the place. There were corpses all over the room, some cut in half. One soldier knelt to examine a body. "They're too clean to be claw marks". The atmosphere grew even more tense. A giant man hole in the middle of the room released dark puffs of smoke rose from it. An ear splitting screech from underneath use shook the room.
"What the hells is going on?!"
The room shook again and the floor started giving way.
"Get out!" I shouted as I ran for the door. An explosion from underneath forced the building to crumble. I only managed to get a few meters away from the man hole before the shockwave from below blew me away. Everything from then was hazy. Pain exploded across my whole body and the ringing in my head wouldn't stop. There was someone shouting. I pushed past the pain and forced myself up. The force of the explosion had thrown me outside of the building and I had evaded much of the damage. I was lucky.
My left hand was twisted at an angle. Adrenaline helped numb the pain. Movement to my left caught my attention. I took out my handgun and hid behind some rubble. They were two people talking and it didn't sound like anyone I knew.
"...you've suffered enough. I'm giving you the opportunity to have a new life" said the first voice "All you need to do is have faith"
A weak raspy voice answered "Faith huh?" he laughed afterwards "Were do I sign?"