Unidentified anomalous payload jobs were often left to collect dust, who would risk being turned inside out or being vaporised for a large pay packet? It was difficult enough to prepare for the unknown, never-mind when the unknown was able to defy physical laws and do the impossible... Only the mad and the desperate took on jobs like these... or so she thought previously...

 

“Notice how he left out how much he thinks the payload is worth. I reckon we're already being underpaid.” Akila scoffed, checking over her pulse-rifle. She was a Jackal-breed mercenary hailing from Enigma Inc. A well respected tech specialist known for her acute attention to detail and rather cold tendencies, but she knew anomalies thoroughly and was looking for well paid work. She had thin, black fur with golden markings across her eyes and cheeks, with a pair of large black ears that were always listening and pumpkin coloured eyes that were scanning over the other squad members. “Never liked this pre-recorded drool anyway. Why can't we speak to the commissioner directly?”

 

“If you didn't like the terms, why did you agree to come?” Across from her in the rocking drop pod sat a humming, pleasant lioness, hailing from Orion Industries. Kayter was fully equipped, rocking a huge armoured frame that was built to withstand punishment, the bulk of her armour was sandy colour but it had distinct white patches on it, denoting her rank with Orion, she was mid-way through checking her own weapons, a rather brutal looking “Titan” brand personal mini-gun, a tri barrelled beast of weapon that could fill a room with lead and dead bodies in the blink of an eye. Kayter herself had a short, white and purple half shaved bob-cut, she was surprisingly cute considering her beefy build, with curious, large wheat coloured eyes and similar fur.

 

Akila did not appreciate the comment, shooting a harsh glare at the lioness who seemed to not mind in the slightest.

 

“Because the money offered was insane, you received the upfront payment, right? How could I turn down the job after being head-hunted. Just makes me curious, thats all. Are you not curious?” Akila was also armoured but the difference between the two corps was on clear display. Kayter's Orion armour was thickly built, made from slabs of ceramic and metal, powered by huge, mechanically driven systems, a true work-horse and built to last. Akila's Enigma armour was a well engineered sleek bit of kit that clung more tightly to her body, was formed from carefully forged tech glass and meta steel, it was nimble, intelligent and well designed, if somewhat frail in comparison to the heavily armoured Kayter, but these two weren't fighting each-other today, as long as they both performed their role, the differences wouldn't matter.

 

“Thats fair but you don't have to complain so much.” The lioness didn't bother to look over but continued to tinker with her weapons, hauling a massive chunk of weaponry onto her shoulder, looked like some sort of missile rack. “We get in, we get it done, we get paid, we go home, right?”

 

“There is nothing wrong with asking questions and being sceptical, especially considering the mission brief and money offered.” Akila scoffed, still eyeing Kayter up. “Does Orion equipment always need so much prep work or...?” She wondered if she was pressing the lionesses buttons.

 

“My stuff has customisations. I know you Enigma types just have standard templates, no room for personal modifications but Orion lets their soldiers tinker.” Kayter continued to mess around with her stuff but was nearly finished.

 

“Doesn't sound very smart to me, what if they mess it up? You don't want your equipment dying on you mid-fight because you fucked around with it, surely.”

 

“I don't fuck my equipment up.” Kayter shot the jackal a fierce glare for a second but then continued on her merry way, happily humming as she fed an armoured belt feed of rounds into her mini-gun, the metal clicking into place with a satisfying snap, much to her approval.

 

Akila thought about her answer for a few seconds before just nodding and continuing to check her pulse-rifle, a glorious bit of weaponry, sleek and effective, a dark blue and metal body that fired bright blue pulses of energy that could take a man down in a single shot. Before too long however, a figure emerged the back of the pods armoury. A critter sized bug-like creature, head similar to that of an ant, standing around 3ft tall, all four of his arms well equipped, his armour was intricate, featuring many pockets over an armoured shell and a series of aerials or antenna poking up from its shoulder, it had bright blue eyes and a black, slick looking shell skin.

 

“Holy hell... are you a Cold One?” Kayter asked, pausing work on her shoulder mounted rocket rack.

 

“Yes!” The bug responded eagerly, nodding its head a little too much. “You won't be able to pronounce my actual name, but please call me... Dave.”

 

“Dave...?” Akila's eyes narrowed. “Are you for real?”

 

“Yes! Dave is a great name. Do you not like the name, Dave? Do you prefer the full hand version? You may call me David if you prefer?” The bug wasn't able to smile but it sounded quite genuine and happy to be part of the squad.

 

Akila shook her head and huffed. “Fine. 'Dave'.” She air quoted his name. “Our commissioner got a Cold One aboard, doesn't seem like a great idea to me.” Dave seemed hurt but Kayter shook her head in annoyance.

 

“Stop being an asshole, Akila. Pleased to be working with you, Dave.” Kayter knelt down and offered a hand, Dave tilted its head and started jumping a little on the spot, its way of expressing excitement or happiness, coming over and shaking her hand with a couple of its own.

 

The Jackal scowled for a second, but rolled her eyes and decided to play nice, not wanting to be shown up.

 

“Fine. Sorry 'Dave'. I just have a lot of questions about our commissioner. You both got the full brief, right?” The drop-pod began to shake violently as it hit the atmosphere of the planet, they only had a couple of minutes before touchdown. Both Dave and Kayter shook their heads.

 

“I only got the basics, they said you'd have the details. Need to know basis and all that.” Kayter was just finishing up, popping her armoured helm on and sealing her armour, the reactor had a powerful hum to it as she stood up and ensured a full seal, standing proud and strong and looking rather intimidating with the trio-barrelled mini-gun and shoulder mounted missile rack.

 

“We're meeting up with the other three on planet-side and we'll get further details then, the whole planet has been infested with Kaiserians so I think we'll be attacked the second we land. You ready for a hot landing 'Dave'?”

 

“May I ride on either of your armours and provide supporting fire?” Dave asked, shuffling forward a little, nervously.

 

“Sure, just don't muck about with my stuff.” Akila nodded, preparing her own helm.

 

“Wouldn't want your precious tech meddled with now, would we?” Kayter joked. “Your in-built coffee maker might dispense castor sugar instead of granulated! Nightmare!”

 

“Harhar, at least my armour has a coffee dispenser.”

 

“Wait, seriously? Your armour has a coffee dispenser? I was joking!” It was difficult to tell if Kayter was jealous or not.

 

“... What is coffee? Is it some sort of combat enhancing drug?” Dave questioned, finishing his own preparations.

 

“I am going to die, aren't I?” Akila in utter disbelief.

 

“Do I need Coffee?” Dave pressed on but the moment of action was about to hit them, the droppod slammed into the planet with a loud thud and the frontal door opened up, the three squad-mates stood and anchored themselves for a fight. Mayvar 3 (The planet they had landed on) had a breathable atmosphere but the helms they wore were for their own protection, as the planets dominant species was not happy about its sudden intruders.

 

They had landed within a shallow cave that had several monstrous looking mouth-like openings that descended into the planets crust and Akila knew which one they needed to move down. The local area around them was unremarkable, but the ground was a petrified wood substance, rather than typical rock. The top-soil guards of the Kaiserians were roused though, these were 6 legged bug-like creatures, with vicious mandibles and tough outer shells, these ones were the basic guards and only stood around the size of a large dog, but those massive mandibles were able to cut through metal and flesh with equal efficacy and a group of them began charging at the drop-pod.

 

Kayter stepped forth, armoured metal boot on metallic ramp, gun down and spinning. The thunderous roar of lead spat from her weapon in direct fashion, shredding shell and flesh, puncturing and punishing, half the bugs dead in a single volley, her gun hissing and warm in her hands as it spat metal death. The distinct sound of high energy pulse shots whizzed out of the pod behind her as Akila dished out pain, the pulse rounds boiled and melted bug guts with demonic valour and within seconds, the top-soil guard was crushed, leaving a considerable mess of shells, legs and mandibles. Dave scurried onto the back of Kayter's armour, sitting on the opposite shoulder to the missile pod and looked out over the area. This was but a fleeting victory however, just a mere introduction to the Kaiserians, but the team were happy to start with a crushing assault. They clanked down the pod ramp and made their way to the open maw of the cave as indicated by Akila.

 

Moving deeper into the caves, the petrified wood of the surface slowly turned alive, becoming wetter and more wood-like as they descended, bathed in darkness at this point, they flicked on their flash-lights, both on their weapons and mounted on their armour to light the way up, casting their powerful spot-lights onto the walls, the cave so far was heading down, like they were slipping down the neck of some great beast but was otherwise featureless, the group moving quietly and in silence as they kept a close eye on the walls for any Kaiserian tunnels.

 

They continued without issue for a few minutes, Kayter leading, Akila slightly behind. They were mid-way down a narrow-corridor when Akila noticed the ground next to her had an odd shape to it compared to the smooth texture of the living wood they'd been walking on so far, but her perception was a tad late as the ground heaved and a massive Kaiserian erupted between the group, this one was heavy and terrible, built like a massive boar and towering over the girls in height, two massive tusks sticking out of its armoured head, with short, powerful legs.

 

It reared up and charged at Akila, she rolled to the side avoiding the piercing charge but the bug still clipped her and knocked her to the ground. Kayter spun around and lowered the mini-gun, opting to use a gauntlet mounted cannon to fire red-hot, armour piercing rounds into the things legs, splintering its limbs much like an axe to a tree. Dave leapt from his perch and landed next to Akila, pulling a small pair of pistols from his hip area and firing blasts of bright orange crystal-like bullets at the bugs side as it attempted to turn around and charge again, these blasts clung to the creatures shell and began to hiss loudly, burning through its armoured protection.

 

The repeated thudding of Kayter's arm cannon finally burst through the damn things leg, causing it to fall painfully, immobilised by the injury and she readied the mini-gun, aiming it at the shell that was melting off from Dave's attack and opened fire, its buzz-saw like assault chewing through the poor things innards and laying it to rest in brutal fashion, guts and goo dripping from its lead mashed corpse. Once dealt with, she turned back and offered Akila a hand up.

 

“You alright?” Kayter inquired, glancing at her ammo count within her helms HUD.

 

“Yeah, all good. Thanks. That was uh.. a good kill... well done.”

 

“Good god Dave! Did you hear that? Akila struggled out a compliment!” Kayter laughed, helping Akila up and patting her on the shoulder.

 

“Yes! She is most generous with her words. Perhaps with her coffee too.” Dave was looking around, scanning the walls and the floor where the charging Kaiserian emerged from.

 

“One track mind, that bug. Tell you what Dave, we make it through this and i'll make you the nicest coffee you'll ever have.” Akila's words caused the bug to hop up and down excitedly and it retook its perch on Kayter's heavy shoulder pad. “We should continue though, we have a cavern ahead.”

 

The team continued down the neck of the cave until it bottomed out into a large cavern that extended far into the distance, a few hundred meters at least. The team felt uneasy though as they could all feel things moving in the darkness. Dave tinkered with his kit and used some sort of local fabrication device to produce some very thin films.

 

“I have analysed the composition of the Kaiserian shells and produced a film that will cause our flash-lights to make them glow in the dark. May I place this over your flash-light? It will not interrupt normal function.” He asked both his squad-mates, preparing more film for them.

 

“Don't touch my stuff.” Akila said firmly, watching the walls closely as she spoke.

 

“Come on Akila. Stop being a prick already, he's not cracking your reactor open, he's putting some cling-film over the glass.” Kayter's patience starting to wear thin.

 

“No.” She replied firmly, becoming more alarmed about the cave.

 

“Are you for real? Why do you Enigma pricks think you're so much better than everyone else? 'Oh look at me, i'm from Enigma Inc. I can make coffee on the go and do spreadsheets better than you, hurhurhur'. Honestly, its grating.” Kayter threw her arms up in the air dramatically as she did her impression.

 

“Yeah, that's great, but is it me or are the walls moving?” Akila brushed off the retort and spun around, trying to look in every direction at the same time.

 

Dave finished applying the film to its own lights and shone them around, in every direction, the walls were glowing...

 

“Back to the neck of the cave! Now!” Akila commanded, Kayter following her orders and charging back the way they came. Akila fired a couple of devices from her own gauntlets into the ground and ceiling in front of them, which deployed and emitted some sonic interference, causing all the Kaiserians in the room to turn aggressive and charge for them, thousands of the things moving like a carpet of teeth and armour, but upon coming into range of the devices, they seemed to slow dramatically, becoming pained and angry, buying the squad precious time to open fire.

 

A series of explosive warheads flew into the cave, blowing up vast swaths of bugs in fire and fury, the sound of mini-gun and pulse rifle echoed through the cave as they pasted the bugs in vast quantities, but the tide of chitin and anger only continued to swell and push forward as the dead mounted. Dave changed weapon and pulled a stunty looking rifle out that unfolded in his hands and began blasting bugs that slipped past the sonic interference with solid looking crystal rounds, acting akin to solid slug rounds and punching straight through the creatures, allowing Kayter and Akila to continue pouring firepower into the horde that was crawling over the walls and ceiling.

 

Akila stopped firing with her rifle for a second and pulled a rather sleek looking pistol from her side, she aimed a perfect shot at one of the creatures and blasted it with a larger blue pulse, which angered it but didn't kill, she holstered the pistol and swapped back to the rifle, taking aim at the same bug and firing in the same spot she fired the pistol, there was a deafening blast that ruptured through the horde, a bright blue detonation that nearly threw Kayter off her feet and sent Dave hurtling backwards, stunning the poor thing as it hit the ground. The pulse charge was extremely effective however and took a massive amount of bugs out in one vaporising blast, but the assault was not over.

 

More of the horned Kaiserians emerged from the center of the cave, shaking bits of wood from their shells and turning to face the group, charging through their smaller kin in a threatening, thunderous gallop, with there being no end to the tide of bugs already and with armoured cavalry on the way, it seemed like they'd already met their end...