Samantha Rose peeked through the colony ship's window to see the newly claimed planet she will settle down in for her first Tour of Duty. Her eyes widened in awe as the young woman marveled over the Earth-like planet that the Colony Ship 'the Eodem' hovered over. It means roughly 'same' or more appropriately by the insistence of the Osei Korporasie 'Coexist' in Latin. The reason behind that name as there is a wide variety of people of many races, cultures, and beliefs. If Samantha has recalled correctly, there were Americans, Russians, British, some Asian countries she can't remember the names of and even Nigerians onboard the Eodem. Overall, they make about not including the ship crew of around 1000 people.
Samantha's reasons for being on board was more of a tour of duty than finding greener pastures like most of the people on board. She has just recently graduated from Officer Training School from the United Federation of Earth (or UFE for short) in what was once called WestPoint in the United States. Her first assignment as an Officer of the UFE Colonial Militia is to organize and train the colonists to be able to form a sizeable defensive force to fight out hostile wildlife, raiding pirates and enforce the law as a police force. Sam's superior would be Colonel Kaidan Polonsky who is the commanding officer of the planet's Colonial Militia who is she has yet to meet.
"Lieutenant… Uhm… Sam...somethin… Rose?" A rough voice spoke behind her, raising her respective rank in the United Federation of Earth's Armed Forces. It sounded like the man was British of the Cockney variety judging from the accent.
The Lieutenant, fresh out of West Point Academy turned around to meet a large man wearing an Exo-suit standing in attention to her. Judging by the badge by his shoulder, the man is a Sergeant.
"Yes, soldier?" She asked.
The man saluted to the woman and was promptly saluted back.
"I am Sargent Lewis Crocker. I will be your second in command and I'll also help you integrate into the field as a full-fledged field officer. Additionally, I would like to inform you that I am to escort you to Colonel Polonsky right now for a briefing of your duties." The Sargent informed her.
"Affirmative, take me to him," Samantha said.
"I gotta say compared to the places I have been in my career Lieutenant, this is the first non-shithole I have ever seen. Forgive the language." Lewis commented.
"Sargent? Where did you tour?" Samantha asked.
"At first Mars fighting off Islamists then some Mountain Planet that makes the good old Himalayas look like a vacation spot and then finally I patrolled in a slum in Kesserheim. Believe me it nice to see some trees, flowers and rolling hills for once. As I can say… I have seen some scary shit. I mean, have you seen those photos the probe made?" Lewis answered.
"Yeah, I have seen them. Indistinguishable from Earth before the Urbanization. It's too bad we lost the probe for some reason the government won't explain. Some people say it's too good to be true, 'a perfectly Earth-like planet? Ridiculous!'. They even added that it was the work of aliens!" Samantha replied.
"I don't believe that shit from those conspiracy nuts anyway," Lewis grunted.
The two soon arrived at the Captain's Deck where Samantha is to meet with her superiors. They both entered the room together to see that the colonial leaders were expectantly waiting for her by a large holographic table that displayed a hologram of the planet 'Benham-3'.
"We have been expecting you, Lieutenant. Please have a seat next Sargent Crocker." Said Colonel Polonsky.
Sitting down on a nearby chair, Sam gulped nervously as she has her first real mission briefing. Several other chairs were filled with other officers who are also her peers. Compared to everyone else she was the odd one out due to her greenness.
"Alright men, within 24 hours we will be touching down on Benham-3 at the prearranged coordinates and begin the construction of our colony. Your job is to organize a militia to protect the colony while it develops from God only knows what kind of creepy crawlies might be there. I know that some of you had just been transferred from other places or were just fresh out of the Officer School but I can assure you that if we follow the plan things will run smoothly for about… Uhm at least a year and six months minimum." Jeremy White, the Benham-3 Colonial Governor said. The man, as Samhain can remember reading from is a Ph.D. in Agricultural Developments. Jeremy is assigned to handle the civilian aspect of the colony's wellbeing but he also has to get involved in the colony's defense since he is effectively also the commander and chief of the colony too.
"So far we are currently undermanned in our militia than what is supposed to be our minimum. We lack about 47 personnel out of 100 and we lack willing volunteers so we may be forced to enact a Draft for recruits once we get the colony rolling. Now grab these files I have stacked next to me as they will brief you in detail of your duties for the next few weeks." Colonel Polonsky said.
Samantha and Lewis stood up and grabbed their squad's respective folder and opened it. The briefing from her point of view felt more informal than normal from what she is used to hearing back in WestPoint.
"Alright so we are called the 'Stryder Group' and our job is Studies, Observations, and Reconnaissance we will get missions on exploring the wilderness the old-fashioned way," Samantha said while her eyes browsed the file studiously.
"Unfortunately, we are undermanned. Kayin and I were the only other members of Stryder Group before you came." Lewis added.
"Kayin… Do you mean this black man? Let me see… Ah, so he is a Combat Engineer who operates gun drones and turrets and also has trained with demolitions. Nigerian and 6'5 feet of your height, slightly taller than you." Sam said.
"Yeah, he is alright. Kind of laid back, probably because he let his drones and mines do most of the work. But overall I like him despite being a soft-spoken one." Lewis added.
"Anyway, back to file, we are undermanned by four more people. We need the likes of a marksman, grenadier, a rifleman and a combat medic. Well… I did do quite well in the first aid classes back in WestPoint but I struggled with the tourniquet. No Red Crosser's?" Samhain asked.
"No, but I already have someone in mind for the Marksmanship role. Names Obediah Root. Old man, but he's a member of the Interplanetary Hunter's Association and knows how to shoot. Is it also an excellent scout and survivalist? I asked him earlier if he is interested in several extra packs of rations but he says he will think about it."
"Well let's see if he is interested later. Anyway, I will see you later Sargent Crocker. I need to get into my bed and rest for tomorrow."
"Alright, then I'll see you soon Lieutenant." Crocker Saluted.
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The very next day, with all systems check for the first landing of the UFE into the new world complete, the Eodem sets her feet down on Benham-3's soil. The activity inside was lit abuzz at the loading bay as people scrambled to get everything that is needed to build the colony out of the ship and onto the ground immediately.
"Alright steady… steady! Go!" Kayin signaled a large truck to safely descend from the colony ship's rampart.
"Good that's the last one now," Samantha said.
The Eodem deployed the engineers that she held as soon as it a touchdown on the green fertile plain it has set foot on. The soon to be established colony was surrounded on its south a small lake that will act as it's freshwater source while on it's north and eastern directions was a dense forest that will soon be cleared off to add more room. By the west is by far the only unchallenged approach of their surroundings with a clearing that leads to the great unknown. Foundation digging and the moving out of the colonies supplies are being implemented as the makeshift Colonial Defense force began their routine patrols.
Sam, Crocker, and Kayin moved around near the ship's docking bay as they overview the dozens of people leaving the ship to taste the fresh air of the new world. One of those people was a middle-aged looking man with a thick black beard who approached them. He carried a large bag behind him that looked like it came straight from a department store's camping section.
"So, Sargent Crocker, I made up my mind about that offer you told me. I will take it. I mean I would love to get my hands on some of that Spaghetti rations you said are popular with soldiers." Obediah Root greet.
"Ah! Obed! That's great news. I would like to introduce you to my C.O. Samhain Rose." Lewis replied.
"Wait, Sam is a woman? That's surprising." Obed said. He observed Sam and her figure with astonishment that has gotten the woman with a slight annoyance.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.webnovel.com for visiting.
"So, Obed, you will be my squad's marksman, right? Sargent Crocker told me your handy with a rifle and have a good eye despite you… advanced age." Sam replied.
"I may be old but I am reliable if that is what you're saying. No, I am here to give you my volunteer signup letters to you. So, when do we start." Obed said.
"We can start right now with something easy. Just make sure these colonists have safely disembarked and then we patrol around the camp for today." Sam ordered.
Obediah dropped his bag and brought out two unusual items from his bag. First was a long bolt action hunting rifle from his bag.
"This is my Ruger .308 Rifle. Although not up to par with the latest tech in sniper rifles there's a reason this why it's still in production and popular for hunters looking for a great value. But wait… that's my primary, this is my beauty." Obediah demonstrated his rifle to the squad then proceeded to grab the show his next weapon.
He showed to them a silvery hand cannon which looked like it could house large rounds and cause serious damage whether near or far.
"An 'Elephant Killer' I presume? Damn you must be anticipating big game huh?" Kayin said.
"That's right isn't she nice? I cleaned it myself." Obed smiled.
"And outside the regulations of standard issued weaponry." Sam criticized, she crossed her arms to express her disdain. However, Lewis placed his hand over her shoulder.
"At this stage right now, we need all the muscle we can work with. There's a reason why I asked him to join us. Besides based on my experience, the farther you are from the Core Worlds of UFE the laxer we are about those rules. Trust me you'll get used to this with time and besides no one tries to enforce the regulations in the first place since its just a waste of time. Plus, he's an American and they love their guns." Lewis said.
Sam shrugged and let go of her grievance with the American Hunter. She looked back onto the ramp and then noticed that a man was being escorted by two armed guards. He was wearing a brightly colored neon jumpsuit with a serial number behind his back and a name tag on his left breast that said 'Diaz'.
"Hey don't push me, let gravity do its work." The prisoner said.
"Shut up you scum! You are needed as manual labor by the construction zone right now so make you thieving ass useful!" said one of the guards.
"I didn't know that we have penal colonists with us." Said Samantha.
"Yeah from what I have heard from the guards he was a bank robber who worked for the Romero Mob before he got unlucky," Lewis added.
"Hey, to be fair I wasn't even they intended target of that sting op I got caught in. It was the fencer was the real target." The prisoner turned around to face the squad.
"Hey! No stopping! Off you go!" the guard said as he was lifted by his two escorts and was dragged away to his fate.
"Please, I hear you are conscripting people or something. Please take me with you! I hate these two guys here and they call me racist names!" the prisoner yelled while being carried away. He was kicking and struggling to be free but the two guards simply overpowered him.
"Like I would…" Samantha thought to herself with a snickering feeling of elitism and moral superiority over a criminal scum like that 'Diaz' fellow.
The rest of the day went up with nothing else unusual for the squad other than the occasional lost child looking for his missing parents and a few radio calls from HQ back in the colony ship. By nightfall, the prefabricated houses that will serve as temporary housing for the construction crew and the security team were built alongside a storage house for the building materials and food that will be cooked in a mess tent that was built adjacent. The rest of the colonists retreated to Eodem because of the comfortable air-conditioning provided compared to the cool light breeze that was washed to the outdoor camp.
Samantha settled into her bed which will be her new sleeping abode for the next weeks until a real house can be built for her and the rest of the Defense Force.
--------
Another day has passed for Samantha's first tour of duty. It was all surprisingly quiet for her. She was expecting to be bombarded by hoards of paperwork, assignments or other missions but the Colonial Defenses' High Command was acting very conservatively as of late.
As for her second in command however, if Lewis knew anything from his 20 years of service it's that something doesn't feel right about this place. He felt like he was having another sleepless night in the middle of a warzone where he is always alert at his surroundings in case an enemy tried a midnight attack on him and his brother-in-arms, a real fear when in the field. His eyes reddened with exhaustion and sand as he prematurely rose from his bunk bed. His squadmate Kayin took the top part of the bed while the new guy Obediah slept at the bed adjacent to his left. For the women like Samantha, she was in a separate barrack tent for the women members of the militia.
"Ah… fuck… another sleepless night again…" Lewis rubbed his eyes. Walking out of the door of the barracks he noticed judging from the faint glow of the tent's clock that shone with glow in the dark paint on its hands and hour signs that it was around 4 am. Even though many of the planets that the UFE has expanded upon, scientifically speaking, planets have a different means of rotation around their axis and to spin itself around 360 degrees of itself the Earthlings are so used to the standard 24 hours a day, 7 Days a Week and 365 Days a year plus one extra day for every four years that they have still maintained the standard 12 hour or military hour clocks and the Gregorian Calendar despite the actual 'time' on the planets to say something different otherwise. He can recall during his tours of duty that there were several planets where the sun stays up in the sky much longer than back at Earth that it was normal to sleep for 6 hours during 'a clear day in the sun' or the other way around where it is pitch black as night but his watch would always say that its only noon.
"Might as well just sneak off a bit and enjoy the peaceful air. It's beautiful out here compared to the last ones." He said in his mind. Compared to all the other places he has been and serviced, Benham-3 was like a trip to a Nature Preserve. He was tired of the many 'Shithole' places he had to call his office space from desert wastelands to Wintery Mining Colonies on the verge of socio-political collapses so he, with a few back-scratching and kiss-assing to his commanders he was transferred to the quieter job of being part of an expedition to the lush continental world of Benham-3.
Walking out of the barracks he quietly strolled around the camp. He envisioned that the on-going construction that was quietly sitting idle at the dug-up land to rise to a peaceful community. 'Peace' a word that he finds an elusive luxury to him. Perhaps after he finishes this tour of duty he will retire from active service and might even buy a piece of land here and settle down to live on the rest of his days quietly. But that kind of tranquility has today evaded him again as he noticed a suspicious smoke cloud rising above the construction yard.
"Smoke? Fire!?!" Lewis internally exclaimed.
He stopped his strolling and began to job forward to the seen. Something has gone wrong if a fire accident of some sort happened THIS early during the colonization period. Running past the tents, the sleeping civilians he reached the source of the smoke…
It was the storage tent where they keep a good chunk of their starting food supplies ranging from soup cans, luncheon meats, instant drinks and even a huge box of Grandma Curly's Italian Spaghetti Sauce which is the love of many children and soft-hearted manly men everywhere were on fire. Razed in flames and smoke towering above it, Crocker watched in horror and micro-flashbacks of his previous battles in the field flooded his mind for a moment.
His mental blue screen of death was halted when he hears incoherent screaming and yelling coming closer to him. Large humanoid figures in what looked like they were wearing cloaks and some crude looking leather ware emerged from the smoke. To his shock, the cloaked figures had faces of real and normal flesh and blood humans and their said faces had a sociopathic glee painted on their heads. They were wielding an assortment of weapons of what Lewis can remember were commonly used during the Late Medieval Ages. He counted about ten figures walking closer to him as he noticed that they began to laugh and tease him as if he was some sort of prey. One such figure held a wooden crossbow by his hand and began to aim at…
"FUCK!" Lewis exclaimed as he reflexively ducked and turned tail and ran. Normally he would fire back and seek cover at a similar situation back at his previous campaigns but he was essentially naked with only the clothes on his back and his skin.
"I need to wake everyone up!" Lewis instinctively told himself. With the concerns and lives of dozens of people weighing him. He ran around through the colony camp towards his barracks while crying out to the civilians and any Militia member of the horrible changed of events.
"We are Under Attack! Attack! We are being Attacked! The fucking food store IS BURNING! IT'S FUCKING Burning!" He cried into the night. Several people began to wake up by the sudden noise coming from Crocker and woke up in confusion while others had his words fall into deaf ears unaware of the danger they are in.
Lewis continued to run, his heart racing and adrenaline pumping through him. This was the same surge of power he had felt in all of his long career of combat duty. Yet Lewis couldn't believe what he had just seen. Men in Late Medieval Wear and Arms? Is this a dreamlike sort of crazy Stuck-in-another world show where the hero from a cosmopolitan modern background has found himself in the middle of a fantasy world filled with danger and monsters at every corner?
Then a loud neighing of what would come from a horse followed by an even louder sound of a horn going off was heard. At first, Lewis thought it was the Hazard Alert Siren that would warn colonists of an incoming natural hazard is approaching but the pitch was too low for it to be the real siren, plus the noise was coming from the direction away from the ship where the siren would be. Turning around to the direction of the sound he saw a man wearing similar clothes from the same earlier intruders on a horse. To his fridge horror, the expedition didn't bring any horses…
"Hiya!" said the strange cloaked figure on the horse with an open iron sword unsheathed on the man's hand. His steed raised itself and stood upward on its hind legs and charged towards him.
His instincts and body memory kicking into the old soldier, Lewis rolled sideways and narrowly dodged a vertically superior slash from the horseman. Quickly standing up, he saw the horseman turn around to make another charging run to cut down and trample his quarry. As the intruder charged again towards him, Lewis bent his legs in anticipation. At the last possible moment, he dodged the blade of the intruder again. The horseman yelled in frustration as he harmlessly cantered past Lewis and turned around again, more determined to kill Lewis than before.
"Enough of this shit," Lewis said.
Setting one left foot forward and his right foot back in a 'get-set' position like in a grade school relay race, he set his sights on the center mass of the charging horseman closing in towards him. With a loud and mighty roar that was past down from his Maori heritage from his mother's side, he charged aiming straight at the center breast of the horse and with a great big leap he tackled down the horse alongside its rider with it. Climbing out of the body pile with a sore shoulder he walked over the knocked down horse and over to the rider whose pelvis was crushed by the weight of the horse. Lewis knelt down and repeatedly punched him in the face until he was sure the man was not going to wake up from that anytime soon. He began to pant heavily after his repeated pummeling of the poor man until his hands felt sore. If he was wearing his Exo-suit he wouldn't even feel that much soreness from his shoulders nor the aching of his unprotected knuckles from the repeated ground and pounding he delivered. Standing up and grabbing the sword of the unconscious rider in case he encounters another of these… intruders… or more like bandits seeking to plunder a defenseless camp of people. Reasoning that thought earlier made Lewis blood boil again.
"Barracks… Barracks!" Lewis suddenly remembered what he was supposed to do and dashed towards his objective.
The once serene and sleepy environment was turned into a nightmare vision straight from the scenes of a terrorist attack at a refugee camp in the news as bandits flooded by foot and by hoof at the camp. Tents were set on fire and belongings were stolen. Lewis soon saw one such enemy bandit in front of him with a sword in hand and tensed into a defensive position. With all of his strength and adrenaline, Lewis charged and buried his sword down at the bandit easily penetrating his parrying stance and killing him outright. However, the sword was buried so deep into the hostile human that the soldier struggled to set it free. With a strong pull powered by his legs to his arms, he pulled out its sword only for the blade snap of the sword handle. If this sword's quality was can be graded by him, not even a LARP gamer nor a Prop Manager would ever want to use it. Dropping the broken weapon to the ground, Lewis ran again this time to not get distracted by the horrors he is witnessing around him.
Dashing and strafing away from any of these hostile bandits he made it safely to his barracks which was still unscathed from the bandit's hands. He could also hear the loud blaring of the Hazard Siren coming from the Eodem in the distance noticing now that the higher-ups have noticed the chaos from outside their ship. Quickly opening the door, closing and locking it behind him. He yelled at his fellow soldiers who were just rudely awakened from their slumber by the sound of the alarm siren rather than the barrack's alarm clock that goes off at 5:30 AM...
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