Fireteam Valor: the Dawn of the Past
Written on August 27th, 2022 by Ethan Zhang
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Fireteam Valor
What is valor? The courage to fight under overwhelming circumstances. The courage to give up everything for a cause. Valor is a fighting spirit. That is where the story of Fireteam Valor begins.
“Congratulations on graduating. You five are now designated Fireteam Valor. Good luck on your missions: Sergeant Xander Lee, Specialist Michael Soren, Specialist Luke Black, Private Romeo Adams, and Private Jason Nylond. Godspeed soldiers.” Five shots rang out as they fired their ceremonial rifles. Fireteam Valor stood at ease and marched back to their barracks to pack for their deployment to the front lines of Exigent Osiris IV.
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Exigent Osiris IV
The United Fleet approached the planet. Fireteam Valor assembled and gathered their gear as launch pods awaited them in the bay. Each of the pods had weapons assembled for the small team as well as one pod just for supplies. The situation on Exigent Osiris IV was miserable at best. The world was covered in dense forests in which the United Army planted soldiers that were bound to die.
The war between the United Coalition and the Maran Confederation had accumulated to the precipice: a war over the capital of the Confederation, Exigent Osiris IV. The Maran Confederation had practically lost the war, but they continued fighting, every last soldier. The United Coalition had sent in its best forces, for them to hold down and fight the long, arduous war for the greater humanity.
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Drop
“30 seconds to launch! Remember, let Exigent Osiris’s gravity do the work, only use the thrusters last minute.” Sergeant Lee shouted to the other soldiers in their respective pods.
“Yeah, yeah, quit the squawking.” Private Nylond shot the Sergeant a smile, Lee shook his head and flipped Nylond off. The rest of the team stood stock still. Then the floor underneath them gave way. Six pods dropped from the belly of a United Fleet cruiser. The grey silhouette of the cruiser shrank as the team rapidly accelerated towards the planet, far behind enemy lines.
Six successive thuds sounded as the launch pods buried into the ground. Fireteam Valor unpacked their gear from the sixth pod and began their mission: relay locations of enemy strongpoints to United Command on Exigent Osiris IV./p>
“General Mystic, this is Valor One, we have successfully landed. Going radio silent until coordinates are found. Valor One out.”
“Copy that, good luck Valor One. General Mystic out.”
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Scouts of Valor
Private Nylond moved through the undergrowth of the planet. His camouflage armour was undetectable to the Maran soldiers. These things were not human. From behind a tree, Nylond grabbed a knife as Sergeant Lee told him to count how many enemies there were first. Nylond resheathed the knife as he counted the enemies.
“We got the two guards to our eleven, and two guards to our one. Sarge, who goes where?” Nylond’s voice was barely a whisper.
“Nylond, Adams you two pop the ones on our eleven. Black, Soren, pop the ones on our one. I’ll pull overwatch and make sure y’all don’t get killed by commandos.” True to their leader, the four men slid out behind trees and silently fired a silent set of rounds into the four Maran soldiers. They were vulnerable as a commando suddenly appeared. Specialist Black was suddenly ambushed by a commando Maran. The commando pulled a blade. A slice. The commando fell over as Sergeant Lee held a combat knife in his hand, the black blood of the commando dripping from the serated edges.
“Let’s get inside. That’s where the intel on the strongholds will be.” Lee motioned to the prison-like structure the four Maran soldiers and commando were guarding. The facility was on a small mountain. It overlooked the forest with small ports for artillery and small craft. Black planted a charge on the door.
“Breach!” Lee shouted as Black flipped a switch. The door blasted off its hinges as Fireteam Valor filed into the room, scanning the room. Gunfire erupted as Maran soldiers were gunned down in quick succession. The command post seemed to be deserted, as did much of the outpost. It seemed as if they had known that they were coming.
“Get the data and send it to our HQ on Exigent Osiris. They know we’re here. Nylond, Adams, on me. We must find an armory and get heavy weapons to hold the Maran fuckers off while Soren and Black work on getting that data.” The sergeant barked to his men. They sprinted out of the command center, leaving Black and Soren in the room. The armory was not far off. Adams bypassed the door and inside was a corridor lined with weapons of all sorts. Heavy machine guns, sniper rifles, assault rifles, and other technologically advanced weapons. The three men grabbed machine guns, rifles, and ammunition. They set up at the mouth of the base, their weapons pointed towards the foliage where the Marans would come.
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The Fallen of Exigent Osiris
Black and Soren found the information on the location and details of the Maran strongholds. They began to transmit the information. The information began to upload onto a drive to be sent to the United HQ on Exigent Osiris IV. Time was all they needed. Time they did not have.
Three soldiers sat at the mouth of the outpost. A low humming came from the forest. Three machine guns primed. Thumping began to grow louder as a Maran assault force began to march on the trio. Marans began to charge Lee’s position as bullets ripped through them. There was nothing but carnage left of the first wave. The machine gun nests smoked.
“That was light work. Wave 2 inbound.” Adams cracked his knuckles as he resettled into his post. Armed better with light vehicles, the second wave began to surge upon the three lonely machine gun nests, only to meet the fangs of Fireteam Valor.
A torrent of rounds lit up the light frontier vehicles. Troops took cover, but it was no use as bullets ripped through inky flesh. The vehicles exploded as bodies fell. Then the machine gun fire began to slow. Barrels began to redden. Rifles were pulled out, then precise, lethal fire ripped the staggering Marans apart as they gradually drew nearer.
A torrent of rounds lit up the light frontier vehicles. Troops took cover, but it was no use as bullets ripped through flesh. The vehicles exploded as bodies fell. Then the machine gun fire began to slow. Barrels began to redden. Rifles were pulled out, then precise, lethal fire ripped the staggering Marans apart as they gradually drew nearer.
The barrels of the machine guns cooled. Three soldiers switched over and hell began as the second wave was ripped to shreds. The trio ran out of ammunition as Maran soldiers approached the fortified position. They backed up, firing as they moved. The interior of the outpost provided minimal protection, and before long, one went down. A plasma pulse ripped through Adams’s armor as he collapsed to his knees, more bullets ripping through him. His look of determination told them everything they needed to know: run. Adams pulled the pin of a grenade and closed his eyes. The hallway imploded as he clutched a cross, praying in his final moments.
“Adams is down! Black, Soren, how much longer?”
“Shit. We need another two minutes.”
“Affirmative, we can get you that time. Nylond rendezvous with them and get the hell out of here, I’ll keep them at bay when we reach the narrow corridors.”
“But sir, that’s suicide.”
“I know it is.” Lee had a solemn look on his face as he moved in front of Nylond, retreating into the corridors that he could cover. Nylond handed his sergeant his remaining ammunition and bolted off, his pistol firing back at the onslaught of Marans.
Nylond reached the end of the corridor and turned into the hallway. The armory was still loaded with weapons. A black backpack sat on the table. Nylond haphazardly shoved weapons and ammunition into it. Sealing it, he picked up his rifle and moved to the command center as he turned and watched his sergeant fight on, pointlessly firing into wave after wave of soldiers. Eventually, he ran out of ammunition, and all hell broke loose. Bullets ripped through him as the Marans pulled out blades and ripped into the sergeant. Lee dropped his knife as his breathing grew heavy. His vision began to fade as the searing pain subsided. Nylond counted the bodies as he ran backward, firing with fresh weapons.
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Run
Nylond slipped into the Command center as he handed Black and Soren spare ammunition and grenades.
“How much longer? Adams and Lee are gone. We need to get going.”
“We’re done, There are 4 copies of the drive, so whoever gets out can give the data. Let’s go!” They began to move as they heard shouts come from the end of the corridor. Black and Nylond ducked into the side tunnel that led to a craft launch as Soren stopped to return fire, a fatal mistake. Suddenly, two Maran commandos appeared and impaled Soren as his insides twisted, blood dripping from their blades. Nylond fired shots back but didn’t even faze the commandos. Soren pulled out a grenade and the pin clattered to the ground silently. Nylond turned and ran, Black in tow. They heard the explosion but never saw it, never looking back. Tears streamed down Nylond’s face. In a matter of seconds, he had lost most of his team, his brothers. He looked up at the ceiling, recomposing himself.
The launchpad was small. A single-seat fighter was ready for launch. Nylond helped Black into the seat as the information they had gathered sat right in his lap. A salute was exchanged before Nylond hit the button and Black was catapulted into the air. A full team of Maran commandos filed onto the launchpad. They saw the empty launching area and grimaced. Nylond went camouflaged as he moved behind the squad and squeezed the trigger.
Bullets ripped through the Maran commandos who went into hiding under their cloaks of invisibility. Nylond silently crept across the launch pad as four of the Maran Commandos surrounded him. Nylond drew a pistol and dropped to the floor as a commando dived at him with a blade. Nylond stood up and pulled the trigger as a bullet pierced the back of the commando’s skull. Nylond fought with just a pistol and a blade as the Maran commandos closed in for the kill. At last, the last Maran commando caught Nylond with a blade. Blood oozed out of the wound in Nylond’s stomach. Nylond gasped for air, clutching his stomach. Yet, the last commando grunted in satisfaction, not knowing the last ace in Nylond’s sleeve, the ace that was used all too many times.
“Little bastard. This one’s for Adams. This one’s for Lee. Long live the Coalition!” Nylond hollered as he pulled the remaining pins on his grenades, each word taking longer and longer to produce. The pins jingled as they hit the ground one by one. The hangar lit up a fiery orange as the grenades lit up the nearby aviation fuel, searing the base a crimson black. Then the armory ignited. The weapons cache shook the foundation of the base. Pillars imploded, the mountain collapsed in on the base.
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Fireteam Valor
Black turned back as Nylond fell. A tear formed in the corner of his eye as the fighter flew across the sky. Landing at HQ, Black entered the debriefing room, where officers awaited him. He tossed the drive haphazardly to the commander and collapsed into a chair, bittersweet tears rolling down his cheeks. He sighed as the commander called his name.
“Where’s the rest of the team?” The commander looked perplexed as to how an elite squad of scouts could just disappear.
“They’re dead. Every single one.” Black said. His voice was void of emotion as he looked dead into the eyes of the commander. The debriefing was short. Black walked out to find recruits for a new Fireteam Valor, this time as the team leader. It was going to be his Fireteam Valor, and they would never suffer the same fate, Black vowed that. He owed his long-gone squadmates that much. True to his word, they never lost a single member, being a one-squad army as they cleared Exigent Osiris IV of the Maran Confederacy.
