Planetfall

[jammi]

Three hours into the journey, Nole began his first shift. Clambering up the ladder, hed fastened the faceplate of his Hazard suit back on before pulling the hatch shut beneath him. The subdued noise of talking soldiers was immediately sealed off and the metal plate clicked shut. Popping open the roof hatch, he sat down on the seat that was built into the small turret chambers wall.

In front of him there were three screens and a radio receiver that would allow him to communicate with the driver and the turret gunners of the other vehicles and vice versa. He glanced down at the screens, one of which showed the landscape thundering past in an eerie green, with rocks and the withered and stunted remains of trees and plants being picked out in white. The second screen was connected to a thermal imaging camera fastened to the tanks fore armour plates with the last being a simple radar assembly. Currently the screen was blank save for two green dots trailing behind the central icon that represented Nole himself.

Gripping the handles that aimed the .40 cal towards the horizon he surveyed the land around him. Theyd broken out of the Piles toxic dust and smog clouds about half an hour ago. The blight now towered behind them, almost a solid wall of pollution. Other than that the land was grey and inhospitable. Dust and sand covered the ground, which was occasionally broken by towering sentinels in the form of craggy rocks. Dust was whipped up by the wind and the convoys progress, which would have blinded an un-augmented man but was cancelled out by the Hazard suits visor. Through the microphones built into his helmet, he could hear the savage wings roaring across the plains. Because that was what they were travelling through the plains; a barren desert.

Nole was snapped out of his reverie by a ping from the radar followed by a squawk from the radio. Turret gunner, this is Foxtrot-oh-one-niner we have bogies inbound! I repeat, bogies inbound! Four red dots had appeared on the radar, spread along the horizon. Similar radio chatter was bouncing back and forth between the other two gunners. Nole hauled the gun around the point at the sky.

Foxtrot-oh-one-niner, do we have any idea what were up against? Nole yelled as he scanned the sky for inbound enemies.

Negative captain, but the Pile has mobilised air defences. The perimeter should be active in just under two minutes. As the Staff Sergeant finished speaking, Nole caught sight of something small and black roar past, little more than an engine with stabilising fins. A minute later there was a sonic boom as the sound rolled past. It lazily rolled around and slowed down to make a pass on the convoy.

Open fire! Nole bawled to the other two gunner. Twisting the mount around, he squeezed off the trigger, sending a stream of heavy calibre rounds screaming towards the invaders. There was another three booms as the other hostiles shot over. All three of the convoy's vehicles were now firing, spitting fire and tracer into the sky, crisscrossing the early morning sky with shrapnel and chaos. One of Noles rounds clipped one of the tiny craft knocking it head over heels before it plunged to the earth and impacted against a stone column at near enough the speed of sound. Then there was a second chatter of bullets, this time the dull whirring whine of low calibre rounds. Dust sprang up around Noles transport, with a few spanging off the metal to his left. So the drones were armed.

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