Chương 2: Chapter 2 - Trial By Fire

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{ Democracy Officer Romel }

I stepped out of the Pelican transport ship as it finally made its landing on the orbital facility. It was here that many of Super Earth's top scientists got together to create new technology and inventions for the war effort. Being a formerly high-ranked member of the SEAF, I know quite a few people here and have visited many times in the past. This time, however, I'm here at the request of one of my many connections.

As I strode through the halls of the facility, many scientists and officers paused to give me salutes. Not everyone knew immediately who I was. After all, I was a much less public figure than Brasch, who dove more into the public and propaganda side of things. Still, many people recognized me, saluting me even though I no longer held the same rank as I did before.

Whatever the case was, I wasn't here for them. Soon enough, I found the researcher's office, opening the door I saw an older man looking over a table, working on some form of technology. What the technology was meant to be I had no idea, but as soon as he noticed my presence, he tossed it to the side and gave a salute.

"Ah Romel! It is a pleasure to see you on this day! How has the Liberation been going against the Automatons?" He inquired, lowering his arm as I met his salute. The man was eager and energetic despite his old age, his gray hair and receding hairline made him look almost old enough to be a First Galactic War veteran. His single monocle was glowing blue for another moment before he tapped at the side of it, causing it to return to a non-glowing red color.

"Super Earth is holding against the Automatons for the most part, but I have not had the best of luck with my own helldivers. I had sought to raise up one of the novice cadets up to the status of a true hero, but it seems I was a bit too optimistic. No matter, while I'm here on Mars I've been able to procure a better-trained helldiver, so I hope she can do better," I explained as the scientist turned around and began to rifle through his assorted pile of technology. Curiously, I asked, "And what did you wish to show me, Schugel?"

Schugel grinned and pulled out a strange device. The device was strangely reminiscent of the old pocket watches one might see in a museum. I have personally gone to a few war museums myself and there were a few like it in there, of memorabilia of the original fighters for Democracy. However, there were a few things that set this particular item apart from others like it. For one, it wasn't a clock. Inside of it, behind a layer of red-tinted glass, were numerous gears with various bits of materials that I couldn't recognize at an immediate glance. Secondly, it was a bit too big to be held comfortably in one hand. The whole thing was about the size of someone's hand, although that was counting the outer decorative portions. The outermost jutting segments, almost decorative if I didn't know better from this man, looked like three wings spinning around the center, colored gold in contrast to the red center which could almost look like a single gem from a distance.

"Liberty gave me a request, and I have delivered on it! This, my friend, is a new weapon of war! Utilizing some technology leftover from the crushed Illuminate, and even some tech from the Automatons and Cyborgs, I have devised a multi-purpose tool that can turn any helldiver into a force to be reckoned with!" He eagerly declared, placing the device on the table as I walked up to inspect it.

"And what exactly does it do?" I inquired. Anything that could increase a helldiver's potency in the field could be useful, even if it wasn't quite as powerful as their scientists lauded it to be.

"Many things. The idea is that it would be built into a helldiver's armor and allow them to achieve a number of functions. For one, it would amplify the effect of stratagems like the jump packs. It can also recreate a more temporary version of a shield pack, although it cannot be maintained at all times like a shield pack or shield generator can. It can also be used to enhance the power of the user's armor and muscles for a brief period of time, even amplifying their senses, all through an injection that will briefly accomplish all of that! When activated, it will even act as a STIM, healing the user whenever they enter that state!"

It was a long-winded explanation, but from what it sounded like, it would make any helldiver a supersoldier of sorts, at least to an extent. But, much like many things with the Department of Science, there was likely a downside. "And what's the side effects?" I questioned.

Schugel smiled and answered, "Officially, there are none. The idea that there might be any potentially negative side effects from repeated administering of the booster doses such as but not limited to addiction, long-term health conditions, and possible stroke are all dissident rumors meant to smear Liberty's good name! Of course, either way, it hasn't been properly tested yet, so any long-term side effects, not that there are any, wouldn't have been documented yet."

So basically, it was addictive and would probably slowly kill the helldiver. But if it could even so much as improve the power of a helldiver by even just 50% for a short period of time, that would make it completely worth it. "How many do you have ready to give out? If what you say is true, then we could greatly improve the power of our helldivers."

"Well, that is the problem, Officer Romel. I don't have any more, and I can't make any more. Some of the materials used were from the last war and haven't reemerged since, at least not in enough quantity for me to produce anything with. I imagine it could be years before I have enough materials to even make a second one. By that time, however, I would like to have fixed all the problems with this model. As such, on-field testing must be done to fix any kinks it may have. That is why I need you, Officer Romel," Schugel explained.

"You want me to give this to my Helldiver I assume?"

"Correct! But do be careful, I recommend only giving it to one you're confident in the abilities of. It would be a headache to have to organize an extraction mission for the jewel, should its wearer die. Don't worry about it falling into enemy hands though, it should be practically indestructible and as such impossible to reverse-engineer. It should also be impossible to use since I added a failsafe that only allows its strongest abilities to be activated by someone giving great praise to liberty and democracy! It is the perfect deterrent against the fascists and communists! They would never pledge allegiance to freedom!"

I sighed. "So we only have one of these things? I suppose I understand your logic though. Is there a reason you wished to meet with me specifically?"

"Indeed there is, Officer. You see although you are only a Democracy Officer, you already are in a league of your own. There is no need to worry about you spreading information about the tech before the Ministry of Truth is ready to reveal it, after all, you have already proven yourself several times over. Not to mention, a helldiver under your guidance is far more trusted than a helldiver under the guidance of any other Democracy Officer."

I picked up the device and looked down at it. "I see… It'll take some time before I can come to a decision on whether or not to trust my new helldiver with this, but if that time comes I'll arrange another meeting with you. If I may ask, what are you calling this device?"

Schugel smirked and proclaimed, "It is the Libertium Type 95 Computation Device!"

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{ Tanya Degurechaff }

[February 8th, 2184]

When I heard that most helldivers received poor training, I didn't think it was that bad…

Yet here I go flying off into Mars' orbit after undergoing the standard trial all helldivers must pass to 'earn their cape,' and it was a cakewalk, to put it mildly. Can you run, crawl, duck, shoot a gun, or throw a stratagem? Then congratulations! You can be a helldiver!

Needless to say, it makes sense that most helldivers are far more likely to die in their first few months than they are the rest of their career combined. Although that's not the official record, it is one that was spread around the elite helldivers.

For any helldiver that went through even a few years of the elite training I went through, that training would be considered a cakewalk. Of course, we have to take it anyway since officially speaking, our training for the last several years hasn't actually been connected to the helldivers. Legally speaking, it's just special military training that happens to work very well for Helldivers. After all, you don't want to make it look like there's a special class of helldivers above all others, that would hurt morale and incite divisions.

For all intents and purposes, I was the same as any old cadet. However, behind the public curtain, I would apparently be given greater favoritism for my past training and my documented skills, providing me with faster promotions and greater access to resources. I never thought being born as an orphan could bring such benefits, but being seen as a child raised by the state itself certainly has its benefits.

After a few minutes, my pod broke off and flew towards one of the Super Destroyers, slowly docking into the ship a moment later. After a few more seconds, the pod shifted around the ship, soon coming to a platform as the door finally opened, hitting me with a wave of warm air in contrast to my near-frozen pod.

'Hellpods,' as they were called, were what Helldivers like myself used to drop into battle from low orbit or just transfer from ship to ship. The pod itself lessened the impact from the massive fall, but the drop itself causes the pod to heat up to extreme temperatures. The freezing mechanics of the hellpod are largely meant to keep the helldiver from burning alive before they can reach the ground, but since the hellpod doesn't have an on-and-off switch for it, they are just constantly freezing inside. It is uncomfortable for sure, but it keeps you alive when it matters most, so it's hard to complain.

Moments after I exited the pod, I was greeted by the Democracy Officer I had seen a few days prior. I remembered his name as Romel, and although I also recognized the Ship Master, I had not heard his name yet. There were others behind them as well, but I had not seen any of them yet.

"Greetings, Helldiver. Good to see you've earned your cape, but considering your record, I can't say I expected anything less," Romel stated as he lifted his fist in salute.

I matched the salute before responding, "Thank you, Officer. I am simply glad I can finally be of direct service to Super Earth."

Romel nodded and lowered his arm, folding both of his arms across his chest and nodding. "Of course. Now, as a Helldiver you have full authority over this Super Destroyer, as such I thought it'd be best if you meet some of the most important members of your crew." He turned to the Ship Master from before, "This here is Erich Lehrgen, he has been specially trained in ship maintenance and is highly skilled in managing logistics and subordinates. Although you have full command of what actions the Super Destroyer takes, the responsibility of making sure the ship follows those orders is his."

Lehrgen appeared a bit nervous, or perhaps was he anxious? I suppose helldivers have quite a high reputation with them already, and I'm a helldiver with elite training, so I suppose that puts me on an even higher pedestal.

As Lehrgen gave a quick salute in my direction, Romel turned to the two standing behind him, dressed in standard military uniforms, albeit a bit more casual than the mostly formal uniforms of Romel and Lehrgen. "These two are the pilots who will be among your greatest allies on the battlefield." He gestured at the one in front, a thin but tall man, still clearly firm with his posture. Although he appeared a bit skinny, it was evident that he was strong enough to meet the standards of the SEAF. His hair was cut short, mostly hidden by a helmet with goggles placed on top, he had a wide smirk as he gave a salute while Romel introduced him. "This here is Schones, or as you'll come to know him, Pelican 01. He will be the main one in charge of your extraction and getting you out of there, among other jobs."

"You could say I'm something of an escape artist… If that applies to spacecraft," Schones proclaimed, maintaining his smirk as he spoke.

Then Romel gestured towards the woman standing a bit to the side of Schones, with long brunette hair that almost leaned towards amber in coloration. She seemed eager and bouncy, practically jumping up with a salute and a grin while Romel continued, "This is Mary Sioux, or as you'll soon know her, Eagle 01. She'll be the one handling many of the stratagems you throw down."

"Eager to spread democracy with you, helldiver!" Mary exclaimed, practically bouncing up a salute, a wide smile on her face. Good to have eager allies, at least. And given who was introducing them, they were likely at least semi-competent.

The last man Romel pointed his arm towards was an older man, perhaps in his thirties or maybe even his forties, with the more advanced medicines of this age keeping it ambiguous. "And lastly, this is your service technician, Maximillian Ugar. While Lehrgen might keep the ship running operationally, Ugar will make sure the ship is running functionally. If there are any technological issues on the Super Destroyer, Ugar or his team will be the ones to deal with it."

"It is a pleasure to be working with you, helldiver," Ugar stated, giving a quick salute.

"Now then, let's get you started on an operation. No use in stalling. Everyone to your posts! No stalling!" Romel commanded, walking down the ship as he led me toward the central command room. As we walked he pointed to a screen on my left, "Over there you can obtain more stratagems or apply for obtaining ship upgrades. We don't hand those out to helldivers who cannot prove themselves first, of course."

I glanced at the screen as I saw a schematic of the Super Destroyer projected on it. It was just as I had been taught, helldivers weren't given a full arsenal right off the bat. Instead, they slowly needed to prove themselves to amass up enough trust and wealth to purchase more. It made sense when helldivers were meant to range from elite fighters to completely expendable cannon fodder. Those who could prove themselves competent and elite got the expensive toys, while those likely to die at any mission weren't wasted the expense. Resources were resources, after all.

As we entered the bridge we marched past a hall lined with monitors, armor, and weaponry as Romel further explained, "This is your armory. As a beginning helldiver, you aren't provided much, but over time I'm sure you'll amass quite the collection of choices."

I nodded as I listened to him, walking behind him as we fully made our way onto the bridge, about a dozen people working on computers below, keeping the ship operating. In the center was a circular table with a large hologram of Mars on it. As soon as I walked up to it the hologram retracted, showing the entire Sol Sector with both Super Earth and Mars included and highlighted.

The table had many screens at the bottom, although only one seemed capable of controlling the hologram projection. The UI was relatively simple, clearly meant to be as idiot-proof as possible. After a few taps, I zoomed out the map to look at all of Super Earth's 'federation.' Hundreds of planets in dozens of sectors were all organized in a circular fashion extending outwards from Super Earth. At the edges, East and West of Super Earth were orange and red highlighted areas of contention respectively.

The red zone was the Automatons, a relatively new threat compared to the Terminids, having only just recently emerged and started attacking Super Earth. As such only one sector was controlled by the Automatons, the Severin Sector. Super Earth was already on the offensive there, launching two attacks on the planets Malevelon Creek and Ubanea.

Then there were the Terminids in the East, labeled with orange coloring. Unlike the automatons, which were a new threat and had only taken control over one sector, the Terminids held full control over five sectors and had already seized two planets within a sixth. Those two planets, Heeth and Angel's Venture were both now under attack from Super Earth in a liberation campaign, all part of 'Operation Valiant Enclosure.'

The Operation was supposed to be a swift and quick thrust to wipe out the Terminids, but with the Automatons showing up out of nowhere, it effectively caused the operation to fumble from a lack of resources. So much for a running start, it seems.

As I examined the map, Romel ordered, "Let's get you started on a simpler mission. For now, let's begin with the Terminids. The Automatons are a new threat, so your training has hardly had time to cover them."

I nodded, tapping on the screen below me as I zoomed into the Orion Sector, zooming in further onto Heeth as the planet itself filled the entire table. On the map it showed areas still occupied by the bugs, giving various missions with an option to sort by difficulty. Harder difficulties seemed to be locked off initially, likely to limit at least the number of amateur helldivers diving right into the hardest operations.

As I scrolled through the missions, I ultimately settled on one tackling taking down a Brood Commander. They were apparently not all that rare where bugs were better established and thus more numerous, but the sign of one in an area often meant the bugs were gearing up for a rapid expansion. So while these bugs on their own were hardly a threat to a decently skilled helldiver, they still needed to be taken out before their nest grew too out of control.

Picking this mission was also meant to be a show of confidence. I can't pick the easier-sounding mission where I just place a flag somewhere. I need to do the hardest mission available to me at this time. I have to prove myself capable to the Democracy Officer and to any high-ranking military officials who might be looking at my record in the future that I was commendable from the get-go.

As I selected my mission, confirming it on the screen below, I heard the intercom of the ship speak into the bridge, "Commencing FTL jump to the Heeth System."

I glanced out the window as space warped around us, stars flying by until they were mere streaks of light, unrecognizable from the glistening lights they once were. In a mere instant, I felt the ship shake as it came to a sudden halt above the planet of Heeth. I had felt FTL travel before, but traveling across several Sectors was much more intense than jumping from Earth to Mars.

I looked to my left as I saw the hellpods moving into position, four pods lifting up, ready for their helldivers. Each Super Destroyer was made for up to four helldivers to drop from one ship, but without any sort of squad with me, I would be running my maiden mission alone.

Before I walked to my hellpod, I was stopped by Romel as he explained, "Before you go, there are a few things I wished to discuss with you. For one, what would you like to name this Super Destroyer? It is customary for all new helldivers to give their Super Destroyer a name, after all."

I thought for a moment. Truthfully I didn't have a name that stuck out to me, but after a few moments of thought I simply said the first interesting name that came to mind, "How about… the Wings of Silver?"

Romel nodded, "Quite a unique name, I think I like it. Better than the Patriot of Patriotism…" Romel groaned, clearly reminiscing on a past helldiver before returning his gaze towards me. "Getting back on topic, because this ship was formerly commanded by a helldiver who was dismissed on account of his heart ceasing function, it does have some functions left over. While most of its guns had to be replaced, we do still have many of the bombs intended for the Eagle. Thanks to your elite training, I was able to convince SEAF command to allow you to inherit the Eagle Airstrike stratagem, lest these bombs go unused for Democracy and Liberty when they were already assigned to this ship."

"I appreciate that, Officer. Although I must ask, is there a limit on how many airstrikes or orbital strikes I can call in a mission?" I had never gotten a clear answer on this in my training. Clearly, Super Earth had a military-industrial complex that would make the United States tremble in its boots, but did they really have that much ammunition on board?

Romel shook his head as he explained, "None at all! As I'm sure you've noticed, your Super Destroyer is quite a large vessel. And although a good chunk of that space is used for vessels like the Pelican and Eagle, most of the space is actually used for ammunition storage. We will always have more than enough shells and bombs stockpiled to at least last you a mission or two."

Giving a cadet an endless stream of bombs… I'm starting to see why helldivers have a high casualty rate…

After one last salute to Romel, I stepped onto my hellpod, stepping on the two handles for my boots as they clung tightly to my feet, the platform below dropping down as the top was quickly covered. Nothing was new to me, I had already practiced dropping a dozen times before, but this was still the first time on an unregulated battlefield.

Actually no, those training exercises could hardly be called 'regulated.' I swear, there were a dozen casualties every time we had practice.

With a bit more confidence, I saw a screen appear in front of me in the pod, showing a circular map of the ground I would be dropping onto below. Red stripes showed potential areas of contention, with black symbols of a bug giving a clear indication of where my targets were.

If my training was correct, I would be rewarded with more than the stated compensation should I completely wipe out all nests in my assigned area as well as any secondary objectives that might be available to me. Of course, those were supposedly only needed in areas with greater enemy presence, so there shouldn't be any here.

The map in front of me seemed to be allowing me to select my dropping location, and while I could drop right on one of the Brood Commanders, perhaps even hitting them with my pod, that was a bit too risky for me. Instead, I chose a nice safe area a good distance away from the danger zones.

As for stratagems, I was heavily limited in my options, not that I wasn't already used to it. For a support weapon, I brought the MG-43 machine gun, not having many other good options available. Next was the Orbital Precision Strike and the Eagle Airstrike, both being powerful bombarding tools, although I had yet to see the Eagle Airstrike firsthand.

As for my actual weapons, I wasn't blessed with options as a new recruit. My two options were the AR-23 Liberator or my M2016 Constitution. With the M2016 Constitution being well over a hundred years old and being largely ceremonial as a gift to 16-year-olds, the Liberator was simply a more modernized weapon and ultimately my best bet for a simple mission.

With my equipment set and stratagems decided, I activated the drop. Instantly, I felt a tingling in my stomach that one would expect from an amusement park ride, not that I had ever enjoyed one ever since entering my second life. It wasn't long before I could feel the frozen pod begin to warm up. As it got closer to the ground, I could feel it reaching a stable room temperature as it heated up in the atmosphere.

Eventually, the screen in my pod appeared again, displaying a camera view outside my pod, giving me a chance to have some control over its steering as it rapidly slowed down upon entry. Although I hardly needed to steer it now, it was pretty clear how this might be advantageous in the future.

Soon I felt the impact of the fall, although it was unsurprisingly nullified by the pod itself. As the platform raised me up and out of the pod, I immediately reached for a small screen located on my left arm, grabbing a stratagem ball in my left hand as I did. Tapping it I used the input 'down, left, up, down, right' as the ball then glowed blue. I threw it onto the ground as a bright beacon of light extended into the sky.

As I waited, I felt the cold chill in the air. Heeth was a frozen planet after all, clearly it was on the outer edge of its solar system's Goldilocks zone, but that didn't stop people from settling in the frozen tundra anyways. After a few more seconds another pod dropped down from my Super Destroyer, this time lifting up to reveal the MG-43 I had brought with me.

I grabbed the weapon from out of its container and holstered it on my back as I started making my way towards my main objective. Looking at the screen on my left arm again, I was able to bring up a map as I made sure I knew where I was going. After moving in the right direction for a few moments, I was able to see the orange smoke coming out of the bug holes in the distance.

Grabbing my Liberator, I began sprinting to the side of the nest, beginning to fire upon the smaller orange scavenger bugs as they quickly began to scamper in my direction. It wasn't hard to hit them, and frankly, they weren't a threat. My main goal was to narrow down their numbers as my aim then turned to a warrior Terminid approaching behind the small swarm of scavengers. The warrior was noticeably larger than the scavengers, being darker in color and a bit better armored in terms of exoskeleton. After a few bullets were placed into his head, it was blasted off, causing the warrior terminid to fall onto the ground, dead.

I rushed over to the nest as more scavengers crawled out. I quickly began firing on them as a Hive Guard, a more armored variant of the Warrior, rushed out and attempted to claw at me. Despite landing a hit I backed away, managing to land enough bullets to kill it before it closed up. I quickly reached behind me and threw a grenade into the bughole to my right. Immediately after, I took out the remaining one next to it as well with another grenade, collapsing both within seconds.

As I reloaded my gun and called in for more supplies, specifically to refill my grenades, I noticed a Brood Commander overlooking the crater that was once a nest. The Brood Commander was joined by a small escort of several scavengers and a warrior. Before I could worry about its escort, I had to deal with it first as the strongest target.

I began shooting at its head as it screeched in pain, rushing at me before I quickly turned my focus to its front left leg. After a few bullets, the leg was blown off, causing it to fall onto its side. After a quick reload I blasted more bullets into its other leg, forcing it to crawl before I blasted its head with one more bullet, killing it.

I heard a noise play within my helmet, informing me of completing the first part of my mission. One brood commander was down, two more to go.

After I cleared out the remaining bugs the commander had dragged with it, I finally turned and stocked up properly on a full supply of ammo and grenades as I then headed northward towards the next nest and brood commander.

This time as I approached I managed to get up on a rock overlooking the nest. Slouching down, I stared at all three bug holes of the nest perfectly lined up. Although I have never seen an Eagle strike in action, I was taught how they function. If I lined it up perfectly, all three of those bug holes would be gone.

Before I could be spotted by any passing Terminids, I put the inputs onto the screen, causing the stratagem orb to glow red as I threw it at the nest.

The bugs looked down at the glowing red beacon in confusion as I heard Eagle 01 shout over the comms channel, "FREEEEEEEEEEEDOOOOOOoooooooooooom!"

I sighed, it appeared someone really liked their job. Whatever the case, I watched as several bombs impacted the ground, exploding and destroying their nests as the red lines on my map slowly cleared away, indicating success. Unfortunately, the brood commander was left remaining in the nest alongside a handful of other bugs. Fortunately, it still had sustained heavy damage, with one of its arms gone and many bits of armor on its side completely blown off, other parts heavily cracked from the damage. After a few well-placed shots, its head was completely blown off as it continued to stumble for a little longer before finally dying on the floor.

The other bugs were a breeze to take out, slowly falling one by one to the rain of bullets from my Liberator. Now with two brood commanders taken out, there remained only one nest and one commander to go, which would fall soon enough.

As I swarmed the next nest, I focused on quickly throwing grenades into all four bug holes, taking out a small handful of bugs on my way. As the swarm of bugs I hadn't yet killed continued to chase me down, I turned and opened fire with my machine gun, quickly thinning out the small swarm into gore.

As I stomped the last scavenger in the group I looked around in an attempt to spot the brood commander which hadn't been in the nest. Turning, all I saw was a single scavenger a good ten feet away. As I was about to kill it, it raised its head and emitted a puff of orange smoke.

I was initially confused but then realized what it was doing. I groaned with annoyance at having to deal with more bugs as I quickly shot the scavenger dead. However, then I felt the ground tremble and shake, temporarily destabilizing me.

Did all bug breaches cause minor earthquakes? I haven't experienced a real one yet, so it's impossible to know. However, the comms that came in from the Super Destroyer painted another picture.

"Tanya, fall back! Now!" I heard Romel loudly command. Still, with the comms on he seemed to be speaking to someone else if the more distant sound of his voice was any indication. "The hell is that doing there?! That thing's way beyond the danger rating of this region!"

"Officer, what's going on?!" I asked, slowly backing away as the earth trembled more, snow shifting and moving all around the tundra, particularly around the growing fume of orange smoke from the bug breach hole.

Romel sighed. "There's been a complication. Our scanners seemed to have… missed something."

"Missed something? What did you miss?" I inquired calmly, best not to get upset yet if I don't have to.

Before Romel could answer whatever was causing the earth to tremble, it began to crawl its way out of the hole it had caused. One by one, I watched as massive legs the height of larger buildings crawled out of the earth. The tall behemoth was easily several stories tall, and its main body alone was the size of a semi-truck. Its underside was filled with bright green sacks, which if I remember correctly contain Terminid bile, an acidic substance that would certainly turn my bones into a nice soup.

Finally, Romel answered, "...a Bile Titan."

The titan opened its mouth as a bright green glow pulsed within it. As bile shot out of its mouth like a hose set to jet I dived to the side, hiding behind a rock as I watched the snow on the ground completely melt away in all directions for several inches around where I had formerly been.

"I take it that… thing isn't supposed to be here? I remember seeing it mentioned in my lessons, but we never had a chance to fight one," I inquired as I hid behind the rock, reloading my weapons and considering my options, all the while the titan inched closer.

These things were strong, but they could bleed, and if it could bleed, it could be killed. Although as a novice, my chances weren't the best. Generally, larger firepower and numbers were recommended to take one of them down.

"No, they're not. Just the presence of one indicates a high danger rating. Look, head to extraction and we'll send down the peli-"

"No." I interrupted. This was a test, it had to be. They were testing my resolve and commitment, and if I went back to the Pelican surely it would harm me in some way during the retreat. I needed to complete my objective at all costs. "I will finish the mission I was assigned. That Brood Commander is still around here somewhere, I'll find them and kill them. But first…" I looked up at the bile titan as it turned the corner and turned its gaze toward me, "This insect's stilts need to be knocked to the ground!"

I again dodged behind the rock as the titan shot more of its acidic bile in my direction. Dashing around the rock again, I quickly began to climb onto it, typing in 'right, right, up' into the pad before passing the now red-glowing ball into my right hand. The bile titan turned as it saw me on the rock, opening its mouth to blast at me as I leaped off the rock, throwing the stratagem and landing it right on the top of its face, causing it to close its mouth in shock.

The titan attempted to shake it off as I landed on the ground, rolling as I quickly dashed between its legs, running behind it as the canon from my Super Destroyer pelted the titan right in its skull.

I watched as the explosion brightened the sky, the shock of it blowing my cape behind me. However, while the titan briefly buckled, it did not fall. Instead, it slowly turned towards me. I glanced at my stratagem list, seeing the cooldown for the eagle strike having gone down to zero. Quickly I put in the input for an Eagle Airstrike and dropped it at my feet.

The bile titan had now fully turned around and slowly made its way towards me as the counter for the airstrike lowered. As soon as the titan raised its armored foot to slam down onto me, I launched myself backward into a nearby ditch. I could hear my bones crack as I landed, with lights filling the ditch a moment later. The sounds of many successive explosions joined them as I crawled out of the ditch just in time to see the titan slowly stumble onto the ground, blood flowing out of him into a puddle.

I let out a sigh and reached for a STIM pack, injecting the needle into my skin as I felt a euphoric sensation as my body healed itself. STIMS were frankly impressive, even being able to stop combustion and broken bones in seconds. But it didn't help that they were basically also drugs and probably addictive. Best if I minimize how much and often I used these.

I walked over to the corpse of the bile titan, climbing on top of it as I called into comms, "Titan's dead, looking for brood commander."

All I heard was laughter coming from Romel's signal, "AHAHAHAHA! Of course it is! I expected nothing less! Continue with your mission Degurechaff, Liberty Speed."

I surveyed the area again for the brood commander, now seeing it standing on the rock where I had initially thrown the Orbital Precision Strike. Bringing out my machine gun, I bombarded the brood commander with bullets as both of its legs and eventually its head were blown to bits after a few seconds. I was now effectively out of ammo for my machine gun, but it wasn't a big deal.

I looked to my left as I saw a massive blue beacon stretch into the sky. As I made my way over there, I inputted the code to activate extraction. While bugs were drawn to the beacon, launching a relatively large attack on me, none of them really compared to the bile titan. With plenty of ammo around I hardly had any trouble finishing up the mission, decimating the remains of this brood in minutes.

As I saw the Pelican approaching I heard Schones on the comms, "Pelican 01 arriving at landing site." As soon as he landed I hopped on, the Pelican's doors closing immediately afterward as he then said, "Quite the busy mission you had, huh? I'll tell ya' one thing, you're the first helldiver I've been under that's managed to take down one of those things. And you did it single-handedly!"

I was a bit confused, "Wait, is beating that ugly thing not a standard thing for most skilled helldivers?"

Schones scoffed, "That thing? Hell no! Only the elites of the elites can pull that off with the stratagems you had on ya'. Most people who can take down those things solo have some fancy stratagems and support weapons. Makes it a lot easier and actually bearable apparently. But considering your arsenal, I betcha half the Super Destroyer thought you were a goner. No offense, of course."

"None taken," I muttered as I sat and took a much-needed break on the way to the Super Destroyer.

As I briefly relaxed, I once more heard Romel over the coms, "You have made this country proud. Good work out there, Degurechaff. I believe you have a bright career ahead of you. We can get you started on some more challenging missions immediately. I may even be able to procure you some better stratagems a bit sooner than anticipated, too."

I sighed, albeit only mentally. It would appear that my desire to prove myself turned out to be a moment of outrageous courage and skill. I suppose it's what I wanted to accomplish, but if I prove myself too skilled on the battlefield, they won't ever want to take me off. I need to be seen as a smart commander, not an ace soldier. Whatever, it was just one bile titan.

There's still a long war ahead of us.

What's the worst that can happen?

-=X=-=X=-=X=-=X=-=X=-

{Beta Readers / Executives}

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Fish Tank - "This planet needs some Terminex." -Tanya, probably.

Dr. Rx - good to see old tanya characters back. Good to know we're hopping tanya on drugs for the dubs.

BynFlew - "What's the worst that can happen?" Love a bit of foreshadowing hehe. Goodluck Tanya, you will need it…

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