Planet Grand

[Metal]

Its a story i had an idea for earlier today. Keep in mind im writing this as i go. Anywho, ill post the backstory now and start chapter one in a bit.

Here goes:

Planet Grand, a planet around the size of earth, but it has no atmosphere. Thus it was deemed ideal for fighting wars on. However Wars are no longer fought with tanks planes and bombs, and when the super states alliance was formed a mandatory disarmament was called. The super states are not allowed to have any military at all. And political debates are solved with a "war", Mercs now fight wars. They form merc clans and sell there services out to the highest bidder. But ultimately the mercs are free to choose who they fight for. The white light group is just one of the numerous merc groups. Enter Zeke, a former Earth alliance soldier. He joined the white light group after the superstates alliance was formed. This is his first time on planet grand, however he was hand picked by the groups leader morimoto for the war, due to his "limitless" potential.

[Metal]

Zeke sat in the dinning hall of the freighter, he was by a window. The ship was traveling through subspace so nothing was visible outside, but when the jump ended the stars would pop into view before the next jump began. He liked that. He had always liked space. Had felt a longing to explore the final frontier. Necessity had dictated he become a soldier, as only higher ups children were allowed to become engineers and explorers. He was fine with that. How many of those higher ups kids had been on a date with the princess of the gunstag empire. Granted he had been tasked with saving her life but they really had hit it off. Those were the days. Before the ssa had taken over and he was a soldier for the EA. Oh well. He thought to himself, this was the here and now. Time to get ready. He got up amd put his hardsuit on, the helment sat in his locker staring back at him. It would be his face for the next several months. Maybe even years. Who knew, it was war, one side only
Being victorious when the other surrendered. He didnt bother with the details he was a soldier, and while he had his morals, he couldnt decide which group he fought for. That was morimotos job. Zeke let out a sigh. "you had better put that helment on, ya know the planet has no atmosphere. Which means no breathable air either." morimoto had come up behind him while he was lost in thought. The man had a habit of doing that which zeke wasnt too fond of. Oh well. "yea, i was about to." he said putting the helment on and securing the suits airlock. (forgot to mention, while planning this i decided that it would use the megaman zx art style should it ever become an animation or something with visuals. So, the hardsuits look like the megamen, i will state whose suits look like who, zeke looks like model x, but stark white, the crystals everything. Also note the suits posses a visor and mouth plate. Morimoto looks like model hx but mostlt white, with the knee spikes and the gold bits(on model hx) being light blue.) "im surprised, most people dont pick the standard off the shelf armor, they prefer it customized. But you, you like it like that dont you?" morimoto flashed an unseen grin. "Yea, im a soldier, give me a gun and i will fight to my death. I dont need all the specialization." they were walking toward the airlock now, the rest of the force had assembled at the frieghters various docking airlocks. Zeke felt honored that the group leader would want him in his personal team. "here. Take this. Its a new prototype weapon. Its designed to give you two weapon options on the field. It switches between a pistol and a sword." (zx saber...) "thanks but i already have a gun." zeke holds up his off the shelf machine gun. "that thing is a piece of junk kid. I refuse to let anyone in the white light group fight unprepared. So take it. And throw that mess away." Zeke took the weapon, it fit oddly perfectly into his hand. "alright lets go!" morimoto said through the comms." the airlock opened amd Zeke lept out. Followed by morimoto. The ship had landed inside the superstructure of the only city on the planet. "welcome, to grand city, and to planet grand!" morimoto uttered to Zeke.

(will post more soon. Thanks for the views. Feel free to comment or ask questions.)

[Metal]

"its sligtly underwhelming. I was expecting like a giant version of vegas or something. The planet doesnt have laws right?" zeke asked. "the laws of the ssa apply inside the buildings. But outside? Total chaos. Look." morimoto points as a bomb drops and blows a crater in a merc group stronghold a few clics away. "see. If their bombing tho, its best for us to get inside. Or well get caught next. The city streets count as free game for bombing. And violence." the frigate negins to lift off as morimoto finishes talking. It had left supplies in on the dock. "lets get thess supplies inside. Move it people! Go go go!" morimoto yelled at the group. Zeke placed the pistol inside the weapon compartment on his hip, it magnetically locked into place. He hefted a pallet of supplies and walked toward the nearest building. If his memory served the city had supply tunnels underneath it so supplies could be freely transported, without fear of the supplier getting killed and having the goods stolen. "kid, rule of thumb. Never take that suit off as long as your on grand. Citizens are shady at best. Usually looking to score a quick bit
Of cash, that armor is a few mil in someones pocket if your dead." morimoto told him through the com. "right, thank you sir." Zeke radioed back. He entered the building airlock and, once he had been pressurized he walked in, the inside of the buolding shocked him. It was like new york city inside the building. He was in awe, hover cars zoomed overhead and people hustled along the busy streets. He followed the directions on his hud to the destinstion for the supplies. He arrived at a small clinic. "supply delivery he called." and then waited for someone to appear. (hate to leave you with suspense, but i gots to go to work. So i have to end it here for
Now. Also woot! 20 views! Thanks guys, hope your enjoying it thus far.)

[Metal]

As zeke waited, a very attractive woman in a hazmat suit followed by a medical mech walked in. "oh dear. I mustve forgotten to lock the door again." she said, with a voice that sounded as sweet as the wind blowing across a plain in the springtime. "allow me to get that from you." the mech spoke up
In a very robotic voice, it took the supplies. "insufficient mass. Supplies have been removed from this pallet." it said once the full brunt of the pallet came to bear.

Zeke looked puzzled. He typed the ledger of the pallet, quering about the amount. "my apologies mrs. I only brought half of the supplies. The other half should be here within the next hour." Zeke took a bow and turned to leave. "ms. And my name is maybelle. Dr maybelle. Thank you, we appreicate the supplies, but would you
Mind going to look for the rest? We really do need them now." through the clear visor on her suit zeke could see that she was sincere. "Sure. Ill be back shortly ma'am." zeke nodded and left. He commed morimoto as the door slid closed behind him. "sorry for the interuption chief. But i apparently grabbed half the supplies for the clinic on floor one of starside towers. Do you have a sitrep on the other half?" the comm came back with silence, then a message popped up
On zekes hud. "cant talk, in meeting with mayor of starside tower. Check drop zone. Will messge again with more info later. Sent a query to all the guys and your comm frequency attached. Morimoto out." "guess ill check outside then." zeke sighed, day one on the job and hed already done more harm than good. Oh well he had to learn from this so ot didnt happen again. He headed for the airlock. Something had been bugging him though, why had maybelle been in a hazmat suit? He had his hardsuit scan the air for contamination. The list of foreign agents that popped up was astonishing. The above floors people had been fine, but on the ground floor there hadnt been many people. No wonder. He sent the results to morimoto with the message "ask about this. All these polutants were found on ground floor. Whats the deal?" he made it through the airlock. Morimoto hadnt replied. Once outside he say two things, first the pallet he needed, oddly no one had grabbed it. And two, a merc unit truck hauling the pallet away. Zeke sprung into action. He had the suit rewire all the power it could to boosting his running speed. He caught the truck in a minute or so, and had grabbed the pallet off the back and headed back to starside before they even knew what had happened. He was waiting for the airlock when the truck pulled up behind him. He heard a rifle charge and prepared for combat. Sitting the pallet down he turned around and activated his external mic. "easy guys, im unarmed. Im just a courier. You stole these supplies and i needed them back. Im sorry for your inconvience."

The man in the passengers seat stood up, and spoke. "a courier? In white light armor, fat chance. No one has that advanced of a hardsuit and is just a simple
Courier. We know your armed too. Scanner reads for plasma radiation, youve got at least a pistol. Keep your hands in the air." zeke raised his hands, he had never been a good liar. He heard the airlock start to activate behind him, if he timed it right he could get himself and the supplies inside before a single shot was fired. He wasnt prepared for what happened next. The airlock opened and with the flood of gases making a smokescreen plasma bolts started firing and then turning to hit the mercs. All of the shots were non critical but they stunned the mercs. A large hand grabbed zeke and the pallet and pulled him into the airlock. Once the door was shut and compression had begun the large man spoke. "you must be the rookie. Morimoto sent me to assist you when he spotted you running after that truck. Im sven. Morimotos second. Next time, grab both pallets. Or disable the truck. Either way, make sure this doesnt happen again." once the airlock recompressed sven was gone. Zeke walked back to the clinic. Walking in he spoke. "sorry for the inconvience ma'am. The second pallet, got away from me. I apologize for the inconvience, it wont happen again." the woman came and hugged him. "thank you so much." for a woman so thin, she had a surprising grip. "it was nothing ma'am just doin my job." she stopped hugging him. "your leader sent me a message, he said the mayor was unaware of the pollutants being pumped in here, and that the memebers of the starside tower city council were to be tried and removed of their post. They face lifetime improsonment on prison planet j-59" zeke shuddered j-59 was known for being the worst of the prison planets. "no problem ma'am, hopefully they get all of those chemicals out of the air. Let us know if you need anything else." zeke turned and left. A message popped up on his screen. "kid you should have seen the faces of those guys when the mayor called them on it. Priceless. Proud you did the right thing, but sven is right. Dont make a rookie mistake again. Doesnt look good on paper. Or for our reputation. Meet us at the attached coordinates." zeke checked the coordinates and had the suit give him turn by turn as he headed that way.

[Metal]

(i really need to be asleep, but that didnt work so... Moar story *forever alone face*)

Zeke arrived around four minutes later. Only morimoto and sven were present. "where is everyone else?" zeke asked the two. "there out on liesure. I gave them the afternoon off. We are supposed to relieve the red plague mercs asap. But their leader refuses to talk to me. So until he relents being a douche, no reinforcements will arrive." morimoto replied "you may view that as harsh, but its business. Besides, they havent suffered any casualties. The blue waves group we are going to be fighting has a new leader, one that is rather inexperienced. So they havent really done any serious damage. But the red plague swear they have something planned so they wont push an offensive. My reason for calling you here is youve intigued me. As many times as the group has come here none of the others have said anything about the pollution on ground level. I was waiting for someone to do what you did, as sven and i cant do that on our own for politcal reasons. Thats reason one. Reason two is, why didnt you waste those mercs? They stole your supplies and i know you have more than enough fire power to waste them. So why hesitate, they were interfering with your mission. Yet you didnt fire. Not even a warning or wounding shot. Why was that?" morimoto gestured for zeke to respond. "you have the floor zeke, im all ears."

"well sir. My priority was to protect the supplies. I couldnt risk them getting hit with a stry shot and being contaminated by the plasma radiation. And besides, those mercs were the ones we are set to relieve right? It wouldnt look good for us to start fighting our allies. If i had wanted to theyd have all been dead, and the supplies wouldve probably been fine. But life is more precious than a successful mission. I couldve probably pulled off a wounding shot, but something couldve still gone wrong. I didnt want to chance killing one of them or loosing the supplies, so i was prepared to kick the supplies and myself into the airlock in the smoke cloud, and then have the door shut immediately. As for the pollution, no one should have to live like that. Live in fear that each breath kills them quicker, that each second could be their last. It was the right thing to do."

Sven started to laugh. ( he looks like model h (zxa version) but bigger btw.) "he sounds like you boss."

"can it sven. Dont go foolin the boy, youll give him a big head. As for your reasons. You passed. The white light never endanger life. Under any cirumstances. Keep that in mind, thats why sven used stun shots, and his hits were none lethal. And as for doing the right thing, i made a good choice. Some of the other mercs have noticed the pollution, but you were the first one brave enough to say something. For that im promoting you to my third. You have command directly under sven and myself of course. But on the battle field, remember. Do not kill an enemy, wounding shots are fine, let them know we mean business. But do not
Kill them. Understood?"

"yes sir. And thank you sir, it is an honor." zeke remarked in typical millitary fashion.

"And cut out the millitsry crap. Were mercs not a unit of marines. Boss or heck even morimoto is fine. But relax, your not gonna face a courtmarshal for being honest with me."

"right. So what now?"

"well kid. Now we wait." sven replied. Come with us, we are headed to the best restaurant on this dump of a city tower. Sven started laughing.

And for the first time since he had spent that evening with the princess. Zeke was happy.

[Metal]

When they finally arrived at the restaurant, morimoto walked up to the hostess.

"we should have a table for four. We are meeting someone here, tho i dont see her, is she in the back perhaps?" Morimoto said looking around.

The hostess stammered. And finally mustered "right this way sir."

Morimoto chuckled. "relax, i understand your new here, but most of your customers will be higher class mercs. Dont worry, none of us bite."

"right. The vip section is through this door, she should be inside. Enjoy your visit." the hostess walked away with her head hung in defeat.

"how did you know she was new? Her atttitude?" zeke questioned morimoto.

"naw, she was part of the civilian party on the frieghter we shipped in on. Im just good with faces." morimoto took his helment off and the others followed suit. Zeke had no idea who the fourth person was, but he was even more shocked when they sat down.

"hey beautiful." morimoto said planting a kiss
On maybelles lips.

"mori stop, your gonna embarass me." maybelle pushed him away.

Zeke noticed the ring on her finger, and from the way morimoto was acting she was either his wife or his fiance.

Sven started laughing. "come on boss, your gonna freak the kid out."

"hello again dr maybelle." he said with a nod. She had said ms earlier, meaning they were just engaged, "congratulations on your engagement ma'am." he said for lack of words.

"oh, well thank you. Your very observant. Mori made a good choice in his third. Keep him safe for me ok?" she said the last part with a smile.

Dinner went smoothly after that. The topics for discussion ranged from politics to
Medicine, to the war, to life on planet. And a plethora of other things. The food was exquisite, some of the best Zeke had ever tasted. When it was finally over and they left, morimoto had gone with maybelle. Which from what sven had said was typical, and zeke and sven had retired to the officers quaters.

"is it always this bland here? Or is there occaisionally some excitement?" zeke asked svem after about an hour.

"naw kid. Its usually pretty dull. I try to read a book series to pass the time. Tho once the battle starts most of the time we are fighting. So theres that. Provided the other forces stay in stalemate, we could be here until the next supply run. Who knows. Ill show you the library in the morning. As well as the rest of the tower. Right now tho we best get some rest." Sven laid down on his bed and was snoring in a few minutes.

Zeke laid down. It was the first tine he had slept in a hardsuit, but during a non combat time he found it difficult. He finally fell asleep.

[Metal]

The next day sven showed zeke around. After awhile zeke had a map of the tower on his hud, he could rely on it should he get lost. A few weeks passed, as zeke was bored out of his mind. He read a lot faster than sven. So within the time off he had read most of the interesting book series and single works that the library offered. He had discussed things with the other mercs to death. He would have no trouble working with them. He had finally decided to do training exercises in the virtual simulator. He set his enemies as the blue waves, on the hardest difficulty the simulator had. It provided some sntertainment but it was still too easy. Then he set his opponents to every merc group but the white light. Still too easy. He put a time limit on the match, but after two days he had that beat too. "im dying of boredom. This city literally has anything imaginable to do and i dont want to do any of it!" he groaned.

Sven just laughed. "shouldve read slower. Have you checked out the amusement park? Its a thrill."

"sven ive done that like 5 times already. This tower is boring. I almost want to go and just push the offensive myself. It is so dull here." Zeke groaned. More bored than before.

"well then stop griping and get ready. Were movin out. The head of the red plague finally called. The blue waves used a disruptor bomb and attacked. Comms were down and none of the tech worked. Most of the plagues have been hospitalized. Only a few escape with minor injuries. 50 of them died. So were up. And i want to finish this so we can leave this forsaken rock. I have a wedding to plan. Amd this has been holding me up." morimoto exclaimed walking in.

"bout time. Lets go!" zeke said running out of the room. " ill rally the troops!" he yelled back. A few hours later he was zooming toward a stronghold on a hover bike. It would take a few days to get the facility repaired and ship shape, and the blue waves had to allow them to take the plagues place before they could do anything. Zeke knew ehat that meant. Meetings, sitting through long boring talks with morimoto and sven about strategy and plans. This week would suck. But after it ended a short thrill would be present. He looked forward to it.

[Stove]

Wow, just read that wall of text...
It seems decent so far, but you're going a bit cliche/done to death with this concept. I recommend thinking out of the box some, y'know? Add your own flair, I know you're a great writer.

[Metal]

Yea, thanks steve. I know its long, which actually surprises me cause im writting as the bits come to me. The plot will get a bit unorthodox, sort of. I hope. Ill post the next bit soon.

[Deleted]

Oh, I didn't know we were allowed in this thread.
I posted feedback in the daily spam thread... and I cant remember what I said. OH YES! Yeah you seem to have fulfilled it on your own so keep it up!

[tatsurou]

It's very well written so far. Can't wait to see where you go with it.

[Metal]

Thanks guys. As soon as i habe all the details lined out for the next part i will have it up.

[Metal]

(alrighty. Its about time i guess... For another tid bit of story!)

When zeke arrived at what was to be the command center, morimoto and sven were already there, to his surprise they were helping set up equipment. "boss the kid is here."
Sven yelled at morimoto over the sound of labor.

"ah good. Have him help set up the turrent defense grid around the perimeter." he said nodding to zeke then pointing to a stack of crates.

It took about an hour. But zeke had set the devices up properly and had them all ready to attack an intruder should the need arise. He had burried the turrets so that they would be harder to detect, they were able to pop up amd unload and then drop down to be unseeable.

"im finished chief." zeke said walking back in. "what next?"

"next we determine our plan of attack. Sven and i have been talking about the flaws in enemy strategy. They plan to stall us until they have a bombing run underway, and then attack when all our systems are down. Our plan is to press the attack when they arent ready. So we need this." morimoto tapped on a keypad and a large tank came into view.

"haha, the m1-a1J abrams juggernaut battle tank. Its the best tank on the market, and we have 3. But there in various pieces right now." sven laughed as he talked. "weve also got an air team." he said keying in his own command. "a small one man fighter plane. State of tge art prototypes from the Gunstag Empire. Specially designed for us, to field test. It was a real pain sneaking them through clearance." sven laughed again.

"so were going for the all out blitz then? Just hit them hard and fast before they are prepared?" zeke queried the two.

"yes. Oh kid you have a package." sven said walking up to a large rectangular crate. "it was packed with the fighters, but this crate had an encryption key, and requires a passcode to open. That and your name is on the manifest." sven said tapping the side of the crate.

Zeke looked it over and then queried the crates computer. A message popped up on his helment. He opened it. It was a video. Of his last night in the gunstag empire. With the princess. Zeke heard his voice, amidst plasma bolts and other sounds of battle in the background. "you know princess. If you plan on dying by my side you could at least tell me your name." he said with a smile as he watched the video. It was more of a devilsh grin, he was being sarcastic, but it had had the effect he wanted. "delilah. But you can just call me lilah. For short." she had replied, and then picked up a spar gun and helped him hold the line. For those last few hours they were almost unseperable, he and her. Until finally a ceasefire was called. The super states alliance had been formed that night, 5 years ago. They had shared a kiss at the end of the battle. One of zekes happiest memories. When he had been called back to earth for his discharge following the disarmerment. She had made him promise to come back. To be her soldier. They had that kind of relationship he guessed, he really wasnt sure. Then reality came back, the video had ended and sven was looking at him like he was an idiot. "sorry. Memory lane crept up. I know the code." Zeke typed in the command for open, and the crates computer queried him with "you know princess, if you plan on dying by my side you could at least tell me your name." he typed in delilah, and it was denied. "lilah for short." began to echo in his mind. He deleted the de part. And the crate whooshed open.

[tatsurou]

Wow. Totally cheesy, but totally adorable.

[Metal]

(so i noticed, and by noticed i mean read through two pages of spam to get to, als feedback in the spam thread. They aremt really special, save for zeke, the rest are just average mercs employeed by politicians so that soliders dont have to be trained and die in war. That way no one loses loved ones, in theory, as mercs dont belong to any psrticular planet. And next post, i will elaborate more on some other tech. For now, i will sumise and say the turrets, tanks, fighter things, and zekes surprise... I havent decided what she sent him yet. Well actually i havent decided how to best implement it yet but anyways. Will all be elaborated on somewhat in the next post. Once i finish the story i will make a second thread somewhere titled "the technology and other stuffs of planet grand" or something close to that to better explain it. Sadly now i have a funeral to attend.)

[Metal]

(alright, ive delayed this for a bit so here it goes. The next bit here, actual combat )

As the smoke from inside the crate cleared Zeke could make out what looked like a small ship, around the size for two people albeit cramped with two, it was stark white and had the white light emblem on it, (which i have yet to design ;D) it was equiped with a couple 30mm railguns under the wings for ship skirmishes, and a single plasma cannon mounted under the nose. She was a beaut, one of the best starships of this size zeke had ever seen, and she was his.

"dang kid, she got you an MO6 Turtledove, she must really like you." Sven said as he whistled. "Oh look, its even monogramed." sven said slapping the area underneath the cockpit hatch, it read "MO6 Turtledove" and below that it said "Delilah edition." and had a picture of a turtledove holding an olivebranch. (for lack of creativity think of galaxy force/cybertron wingsaber in jet mode. I cannot create a visible image in my head of this thing.)

"that is so like her." Zeke mumbled as he walked off, he had things to do, he had installed the turret grid and activated it, but now he had to input serial numbers for all of their vehicles that had arrived so that the turrets wouldnt shoot their own people. He brought up the turret OS, he programed it for the white light emblem, meaning it would scan vehicles for the emblem first, and failing to find an emblem begin running through its list of serial numbers and should it not find one it would fire. It took about two hours, but zeke had finally finished, he had programmed it to scan not only the vehicles but the occupants as well, hard suits had an emblem linked to them, each part of the suit had an emblem digitized into it, so simply changing them emblem on a tank would still get it shot down once the occupants were scanned. As he stood and stretched morimoto walked up.

"i see your done with the turrets. Excellent work. I know your probably tired, so i hate to ask, but would you mind helping with the sensor and scanning arrays? They have to be hardwired into the turret system and most of the guys can never get it right. Im
Not tech savvy so i cant help. It would save us a lot of trouble."

"yea sure. Where are they at?" zeke asked, morimoto pointed to the roof. "alright, i have an idea too. It will better protect our sensors and such." zeke walked outside and told the others to take 5. It would be easier if he worked alone, he always did better that way, he was a lone wolf, it bugged him because he was part of a group now, he would have to remember that, but with tasks like this, he could work faster alone, without a million questions being asked by the 20 guys that had been working on this. By the time he was finished, the base looked like a sensor array depot, he had cables running everywhere and at the end of each cable was a dummy sensor array, they all looked to be hardwired in as well, but it was really a dummy breaker. He had placed the actual sensor array as well as the scanners on the sides of the building facing away from the enemy, it would drop the range a tad, but not enough to be detrimental, and it would ensure that, unless the enemy got by them and attacked from behind, they wouldnt go blind in the middle of a fight. He went back inside. Sven and a few of the guys were fooling sround with one of the tanks.

"man i love these things." sven said patting the main gun. "its got a 10mm railgun in the barrel, thats her main armament, then shes got two plasma repeating guns on the sides of the big gun for close range fire, and finally a 5mm rail gattling gun on the back, which is operated from inside so no external pilot has to be put at risk. Couple all that with hull armor so think and durable, you could probably drive it through a planets core, and be fine. And a top landspeed of 300 kilometers per hour. These things sre indestructible." sven said laughing, "and we get to begin the test drives tomorrow."

"impressive. But can it fly?" Zekd said laughing, sven slugfed him in the shoulder and laughed. Zeke saw morimoto over by the fighters, he headed his way. "chief, im finished. It took a bit, but ive got us seeing clear unless they get behind us and take our our eyes."

"excellent. Superb work. Have you ever flown one of these?" morimoto said tapping the side of one of the fighters. "its a MO3 Raven. Theyve got a couple plasma repeating canons on the wings, and a large plasma cannon up front, they cant planet hop, but these here are modified to get up and go. They have the ability to carry a payload of around for bombs. May not sound like much but these things are designed to drop plasma shells, which radiate an area, not enough to kill someone or cause genetic mutations, but it causes one heck of a migrane." morimoto laughed. "tho these things aint no turtledove, i hate to have you fly that tho, it sure is pretty. Bet it flys so fast plasma fizzles out before getting close, and a railgun slug would probably be your only worry, but it should be able to dodge one of those easily. If i was really concerned with this war id have you go win it tonight." morimoto laughed again.

Zeke decided it was time to stop dekaying the inevitable, he got inside the turtledove. When he did a hologram of lilah appeared. "i hope you like it. I was originally going to send you your own raven, but then i thought "he said he woukd come visit, but he doesnt have a ship." so i got you this instead, it has a small warp drive so you can enter hyperspace and come see me. Lots of love delilah." she said the last part blowing a kiss. The image flickered off. "good to know im missed." zeke said with a chuckle. "might have to go for a roadtrip when this is over. He flipped the ignition switch, and activated the ship. A feminine robotic voice greeted him. Literally. "greetings Zeke, i am thus ships VUI, verbal user interface. You may call me dove. Do you have any questions?"

"no. Just making sure you run right." zeke said back, he forgot, ships always came with UIs of some sort, they were there to navigate and offer a
Sort of companion on long trips. But in a ship thus small? Zeke doubted hed be using Dove very much.

"very well if you need anything just ask." said dove, as she went into standby.

Zeke shut the craft down, it appeared to be in working order. He fell asleep in the cockpit.

[Metal]

The next day the battle began. Blue waves were flooding to the frontlines, the white light had started to push them back. Zeke decided against using the turtle dove for combat, it was too powerful. Instead he set his pistol to stun and walked along by one of the tanks, it was firing concussive shots. Most of the enemy were scattered but not seriously injured. Zeke was firing at the few the tank disnt hit, and it was indeed few. "this is too easy" he thought, he heard a loud boom and looked overhead to see morimoto on the side of one of the ravens. The ravens flew right at the blue waves camp, dropping their payload and circling back. Zeke had seen morimoto drop down and began fighting, he was a monster, both of his sabers were set to stun zeke guessed but the enemies were being downed in droves, for each 1 that charged him morimoto downed two, in a matter of 1 minute an entire platoon of mercs lay at the ground near morimotos feet.

"amateurs." zeke heard through the com, "did we win cheif?" zeke asked.

"for today id say so. If they want to keep fighting tomorrow it will be the same. Thats up to them." morimoto replied as he flew over to zeke. "im sure this isnt quite what your used to. This style of combat, i mean." morimoto placed his hand on zekes shoulder. "its not all out warfare. At least not on our part, its more like mopping up under prepared rebels than anything."

Zeke just laughed. But morimoto was right, this wasnt war. This was a game. A game of power, whoever had the bigger guns would always win. It wasnt like any war zeke had fought in before. He hoped he would never fight in another real war again. Not like the one between the super states alliance and the gunstag empire. That war was horrible. Amd yet the memories that prevailed most from that time were the memories of he and lilah. If this was over he may go for a visit. He wasnt sure yet. He would figure it out tomorrow. He thought as he laid down on his bunk, the fighting didnt seem to last long, but it had take roughly all day. And getting back to base and then system checking all the equipment took another couple of hours. Zeke had eaten and was now ready to sleep. He did so in a matter of minutes.

[Metal]

The next day the blue wave surrendered, and the group that was replacing them showed up. The hells fury mercs. Zeke had heard of them in his days in the military, back when merc groups were still the forces that assisted and not the actual soldiers. They had an alarming reputation, not a single loss in their whole career. Zeke gulped as he read the file.
But the white light hadnt lost either so that gave zeke hope. The battkes woukd start up again in around two days, zeke did battle sims against the hells fury program on the hardest difficulty. He didnt fair to well at first, but by the end of day 1 he was striding through the training. He never could get it perfect but he got 99% every time. Then something hit him, he could still try harder, soon the simulator wasnt a challenge. It couldnt match him at all. He felt like he could do anything. Almost as if no enemy could touch him. It was exilarahting to feel almost godlike zeke imagined.

[Metal]

If zeke had to describe the next few days it was hell on earth, or at least as close as he figured it could get. He had an inkling that hell was much worse. But that was irrelevant, he had to win this... This game. It still wasnt a war, it was rather like chess, the enemy had just cheated and made all of their pawns queens. Zeke figured that with everything the white light had this would be a breeze. He hadnt accounted for regularly scheduled emp bombing runs. All of the communications were down, scanners computer systems, everything. No air support, no tank support, nothing. The only things that still worked were the hardsuits and the weapons. Zeke had taken to charging through the battkefield, with his weapon in sword mode, he had it set to stun still, which when used as a sword the result was amazing, the blade would pass through the enemy, but it wouldnt cut them, rather it shut down all of their hardsuits systems except for life support. It was fascinating. It had taken him 3 days, but he finally found the stronghold, he snuck in and very stealthily sabotaged the hells fury bombers. Then he set every emp
Bomb they had to go off on a schedule, one going off each day. Then he stole the emp blocking devices they had. Now for the trek back to the white light camp. This would be rather difficult. He thought as he ran out of the door. He wasnt prepared for the man he ran smack into. The man was larger than sven, and had a lion motif on his hardsuit (fistleo the psuedoroid.)

"hey your not a hells fury merc!" the man roared as he licked zeke up and threw him against a wall. "whatre you doin here little man?" he said with a snarl.

"leaving." zeke retorted.

"huh?" the man no doubt had a puzzled look on his face zeke thought.

Zeke then with his right leg kneed the man in the jaw and delivered a strong left hook to his temple. Or at least those areas of his body, the hardsuit softened the blows, but the man still fell unconscious... Right on top of zeke.

"so much for a stealthy getaway." zeke mumbled as he struggled to get free.

Suddenly the man was lifted off of zeke, "quit goofin off kid." sven said hauling zeke up, "we gotta go!" he yelled as he ran with zeke strung over his shoulder, zeke still had ahold of the anti emp equipment, he hoped it was still in working order.