The day you stop feeling anxious before going into combat is the day you should quit being a soldier. Nerves save lives. If you aren't even a little afraid then it means one of two things; One: You are a psychopath, or, Two: You are numb to your surroundings.
A soldier who is numb is a liability to their team, they forget the importance of their comrades. A soldier who is numb will fail to act to their highest degree during critical moments, they are complacent... and complacency kills.
"3 minutes to the LZ. Gauge 3, prepare to jump." A voice pierces my ears through my earpiece. "Roger that." I reply aptly. I'm Colin Richards, Lieutenant Colin Richards. I've been the squad leader for Gauge 3 for what seems like a decade now, though, in terms of calendar years, it's only been four. "Alright Three, you heard HQ. Maintain accountability of your weapons, fasten them until you land. Don't want the enemy to catch us going on a scavenge hunt for a rifle because one of you decided to get butter-fingers."
My Gauge is made up of four other soldiers, pecking order goes as follows; Lieutenant, the squad leader, a.k.a me. Seargent, second in command, although some Gauges have Seargent's in squad leader positions. My NCO is Seargent Nicholas Burns. Smart guy, big muscles, the ironic movie stereotype of a Seargent, and unironically the best kind to have. Then you have the rest of the squad, generally G-3s and below. Regardless of rank, everyone has their own purpose and role. Like Corporal Tanya Muller, our Communications Expert. Then we have The Twins. The Fuckin' Headaches is a better name for them. Both of them are G-2s and they are constantly swapping from being at each other's throats or at mine.
And, as if they were acting on cue, "Yo LT! Know what we're doing out here?" Twin One asks, named Lewis by his poor mother. Twin Two, Landon, pipes up as well. "Yeah man, are we kicking something's ass?". The Twins come from a very prominent family within A.N.S, the Keslers. The Keslers helped found the Gauge program and are leading yet another "experiment" as we speak, some kind of new training program to produce more advanced Gauge squads from what I've heard. Seargent Burns shoots them a glare, quelling my annoyance. I'd be lying if I said that we weren't extremely under-briefed on this operation, however. Guess I should check in with HQ real quick.
"Seid. Can you tell me what we're up against here?" I radio up, clicking the transmit button on my earpiece. "An Anomaly. Threat level inconclusive at this time, but judging from the level of destruction it has already caused, I wouldn't expect anything lower than an A-5. You're one minute out." Damn, guess this isn't just another false report from an old woman thinking that her cat was turning into a monster, only to find out upon our arrival that it was just going into labor, the kittens were cute though.
"Prepare for combat, team! It's an Anomaly, a tough one from the sound of it. We drop in one minute. Twins! Put your fucking helmets on!" I snatch the helmet from Lewis's feet and plop it on his head, destructing his makeshift footrest.
The Alert Lights come on, flooding the entire drop-ship bay with flashing red. 30 seconds. The ramp opens up, we're just below cloud altitude, the view of the city lights would be beautiful under better circumstances, but this was no time to take in the sights. Time to jump...
Cold air rips into my face, like tiny daggers made of ice. I never got used to jumping out of an airplane, something about plummeting to the ground from an insane altitude just doesn't sit right with me. Can't say the same about the twins though, Lewis gave an excited "Yehaw" as Landon backflipped off of the ramp. No military bearing whatsoever...
After what seemed like an eternity of freefalling, our chutes open up just before we land. It is rough but we've been trained to land safely enough to avoid injury. Our LZ is a flat concrete slab where a building once stood, the remnants of the said building are scattered around the area. "Shit, this thing did some serious damage." SGT Burns remarks as he surveys the area. This entire district, D30, has been quarantined since the first report came through. Hopefully, all the civilians evacuated in time before A.N.S deployed the Sector Containment Barrier. The Barrier is a hardlight-field that has covered the entire district like a giant cube; We managed to temporarily open a small section in the top to drop in but it has since closed, trapping us inside.
"Alright 3, break perimeter guard and fall in on me. We're gonna start searching for this thing. If you see any survivors, Muller will radio it up to command and we will instruct them to hide until it's safe." I say as everyone breaks off from their position and forms up in an arrow-like formation. It is eerily quiet, there are half-destroyed buildings surrounding us, wires protrude from the wreckage and are shooting off random sparks, vehicle wreckage lines the street along with countless bodies. "Let's follow the trail of destruction." I command as we set off down the road.
I flick my rifle's safety switch to 'Fire' as we cautiously make our way through the ruins, a building off to our right's security alarm is going off, it seems some civilians stuck around to loot the local businesses. Vultures. "Ay Jack! Look-y what I got here!" A man dragging a skiff with several boxes on top yells to his friend who is attempting to carry a TV out from the broken window."Yeah? What is it, Dunc?" Jack yells back, huffing as he struggles to move through the broken glass. "Oxy man! Loads of it! Just hit the pharmacy down the roa--" Jack stops abruptly as he notices our presence. He throws his hands up in a comical surrendering manner and coughs, attempting to get his friend's attention. "Pssst. Jack. Gauges." Jack looks up at Dunc with a confused expression, then over to us before he drops the TV, shattering it and throwing his hands up to match his friend. "H-hey guys! We uh, we found this shit just out in the street man, we didn't break into--" Jack jabs Dunc with his elbow, shutting him up.
I nod over to Muller. "Radio it up. We found two survivors that were... hiding." I squint and wave them away with my hand as Muller sends up the report. Dunc and Jack quickly grab the ropes of the skiff and scurry away, hopefully off to hide somewhere safe and preferably not inside someone's store. Just as we begin to step off, a loud groaning sound echoes throughout the district. Landon clicks a button on his earpiece and an orange visor slides out in front of his eyes. "I'm pinpointing the sound, it seems to be coming from...there." He points forwards towards a towering skyscraper about a mile away. "Alright, then we head there. Everyone stay alert and be ready for anything."
