Lackluster: The God From The Machine

"Hey Captain Aesc, are we heading back yet?"

Ulric Aesc glanced back towards the young girl. She was one of the newer soldiers placed under his command. She was kind enough, and a good shot with her rifle. "Yeah. We've been heading back for a while now actually. Just taking a different way back. Never go back the same way you came. Makes you easier to track." Ulric turned his attention back towards his route. The group of three was currently on their way back from a reconnaissance mission. They had been sent to observe and map a machine outpost in order to help the raid that would eventually destroy it. They had left their observation point in the middle of the night and had been walking since then to get to their extraction point. There would be a VTOL transport jet waiting for them there to take them back the base.

Ulric tapped Edgar and told him to get to the back of the group so that Ulric could take point. They walked that way for another hour without incident, making small talk, telling jokes, anything to help keep each others nerves down. Patrols were rarely ever sent this deep into enemy held territory. The Sun was just rising, but the forest was still dark and vision wasn't so great. Amanda screamed in pain and then world erupted around them. Gunfire erupted from their right and rear sides, thankfully the darkness that made the patrol slow also helped to hinder their enemies' accuracy. The girl had been hit in the left knee so Ulric ran to her and picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. "Run to the exfil and cover me and Amanda," Ulric ordered Edgar. The man nodded and took the lead and sent a message over the radio he had and told their pilot that they were taking fire and to not land at the exfil. The pilot was going to hover in the clearing, they would have to jump on the ramp to make it in.

They made it the clearing in ten minutes without another person getting hit. Their ride out was already there waiting for them. Ulric gave a signal and a panel on the side of the jet opened up to reveal a man behind a minigun that started firing into the woods. Edgar took cover behind a stump and started shooting as Ulric ran to the hovering jet with Amanda flung over his back, firing her rifle back into the woods. The ramp at the back was down and there was another woman waiting there for them. She took Amanda from Ulric and he threw himself on the ground and started again. He yelled over the noise of combat for Edgar to join them and heard no response. Edgar was lying on the ground, his body was still and the ground was greedily soaking up the dead man's blood. There was a scream from inside the jet and the minigun's fire stopped. Realizing there was no way to retrieve Edgar's body safely, Ulric got up and ran inside the jet, hit the button that closed the ramp, and ran to the minigun. The shooter was dead by the time Ulric got there. The man had been hit in the chest and had only lived long enough to scream. After cursing, the surviving patrol leader shut the panel and the jet picked up speed. They were safe for now.

Back at their base Amanda was unloaded and taken by the medical unit to be operated on. They would have to give her a new knee cap so she could walk again. She would probably be back in the field within a few weeks. After getting debriefed and handing over the newly made map of the enemy outpost, Captain Aesc was exhausted, filthy, covered in Amanda's blood, and craving a hot meal. He decided that getting a meal was the most important thing to do, and the easiest since it was actually time to eat. After getting a tray full of food he spotted a table with the masked woman Hraesvelgr. She wouldn't talk to anyone, which fit the Captain's mood for the moment. On his way to sit down, an angry Major came up to Captain Aesc and started to yell. "Why the hell are your weapons still loaded in my mess hall Captain?" the major screamed.

"Because I was too hungry to take my weapons back after I came back from a patrol where I was ambushed, one of my soldiers was shot, one was killed, and I haven't had a hot meal in two days. Sir." Ulric walked on before the major could respond to the words that were dripping with hate. He took a seat opposite of Hraesvelgr and began to eat.