FSE

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Guitars roared in my ears as the ground rocketed by below. I bobbed my head to it, "THUNDER.... THUNDER.... THUNDER.... THUNDER...THUNDER....THUNDER.... THUNDER...." It was remarkable how often one word could repeat and still be entertaining. There was something to the beat.

I tapped my paw, a loud boom on the metal deck beneath me. The rest of my squad stood behind me, to the side, weary of my dancing form. Right ahead of us was the open door of our ship, a jump down a few thousand feet to the ground. My view twisted as the ship banked hard and dove for a low approach. It was almost go time.

"Grizzzly Four Nine, we're under heavy fire down here!" came across the radio. I was still bobbing my head to the music.

"Easy Seven Four, Grizzly four miles in bound," came the response.

"I was caught, in the middle of a railroad track," I sang to myself, the rest of the rescue squad shook their heads as they looked up at me. Not a one of the little guys down there made it past the toe of my boots. Humans were such cute little creatures. It was their job to deal with the little pirates, I would be the distraction, shooting at the enemy pirate ship, heavy emplacements, and maybe I'd end up carrying everyone to safety.

The drop light turned green and I stormed out the back of the ship. The humans were a little more weary of following in my footsteps. Flares burned around me, a countermeasure to fend off enemy missiles. It just happened to have the side effect of drawing lots of attention to me. Clouds whipped by my helmet. It was a shame I couldn't feel the wind in my fur.

My fall gave me a great view of the battlefield below. To the west, a transport ship had been shot down. East of the ship, space pirates were closing in. They had probably shot the ship down. It was time to ruin their day.

An altimeter counted down on my helmet's heads up display. 4000, 3000, 2000. It wasn't such a big drop. My mech suit's thrusters kicked in, flames licked at the back of my legs. I could feel the G-forces picking up in my gut. For a few seconds my weight tripled. This was the scary part of the operation: the suicide burn. If this worked well, I would be at nearly 0 miles per hour by the time I hit the ground. If it didn't, I could be a pancake.

BOOM.

I hit the ground like a freight train into the side of a mountain. Every inch of dirt heaved up and crashed down around me from the impact. Small arms fire began to plink off my armor. It was like shooting a tank with spitballs. There was no time to waste, the regular assault humans were coming in hot behind me.

My boots stomped to the ground as I surged forward. Midstride I ripped out my rifle and started to put down suppressing fire. Bullets the size of small cars ripped into the ground, exploding like artillery shells around the little pirates. They started to scatter, giving the team behind me a chance at a safe landing.

An alert sounded in my helmet. The glass HUD lit up, shit! I dove forward, grasing to the dirt, sliding forward just in time to dodge a cannon from one of the pirate ships. The energy beam rippled just over my back. I could feel the heat even through my armor. Too damned close. It struck the ground behind me, drilling a pit deep enough for me to use it as a foxhole, if it weren't on such a sharp angle.

Mud covered the front of my armor. My arms thrust out around me. I forced myself up, pulling my rifle up to fire back at the ships as I got to a crouch. Shell casings crashed to the ground. The ship exploded after half a mag had been pumped into it. A blaze of fire lit up the battlefield. "You've been -- Thunderstruck!" roared in my ear.

Another alert sound off in my suit. No time to enjoy the victory. I dove to the side in a roll as my suit launched an array of flares. Four missiles shot by my head. The little pirates on the ground had some anti-ship missiles. They were designed to puncture hulls and blow up reactors. My suit and heart were a plenty good analog.

Luckily for me, those little idiots weren't far away. And they didn't have a second volley ready to go. I leapt forward and crashed down, my boots trampling them flat into the earth. Small arms fire continued to plink off my suit. A call for help cut through the radio as I stormed through the enemy forces. Literally.

"Grizzly Two-Two pinned down over here! Where's our support!" Rang in my ear over the sounds of rock and roll.

Another alarm, another pirate ship. How many of these little fucking things did they have? I ducked down, a hill made for nice cover. Their laser tried to cut through the hill.

"Kinda busy right now!" I yelled into my radio, "someone cover them while I fuck this god-damned ship up!"

My voice must've carried well outside my suit. That usually didn't happen unless I got loud. The little support ship started retreating a bit. I charged forward, sprinting across the ground. A small blade rose out the tip of my rifle. They started clawing at the air for altitude, I leapt up and drive the tip of my bayonet through the little craft. My rifle dragged it to the ground with me before I got a good grip, swung, and slammed it into the countryside.

The world rattled from the impact and ensuing explosion. There must've been a murderous look in my eyes. The pirates right in front of me began their retreat, running screaming into the horizon.

"WE NEED SUPPORT DAMMIT!" blasted in my ear again. I was a few miles from the team. Not quite as big a distance at my size, but still. My reign of terror here hadn't translated to any results near the transport ship.

I rose up, rushing against the enemy's fire. How many of these jerks did it take to rob a ship? The missile lock on alarm lit up, but I didn't have time. I didn't stand a chance of outrunning them, but I had at least a chance of staying ahead. Those missiles were fat and slow.

The ground slipped out from under me, my body fell back and slid before I crashed against the colony ship. It made a massive, dull THUD. It already crashed into the ground, what harm was another scuff and a dent? The missiles that were after me missed, they struck the cargo ship, scorching through a section of tail assembly. That was less good.

I laid on the ground, using a hill for cover. The humans were on the ground nearby. One called up, "we asked for support, not more pirates!"

I poked my head up ever so slowly from cover. They had more rocket teams. More pirates. "Who the hell invited them?" I countered.

"SHUT UP CARL!" another of the little humans yelled up. I wasn't Carl but... It was a thing these little guys said to the smart asses.

Behind us, the transport ship's own defense teams were starting to retreat. They were going to make their last stand right after we fell. We could at least buy them a few more minutes.

"What's that thing hauling anyway?" I looked back at the ship. "One of you go find out what's in that damned thing. I wanna know what I'm dying for."

Two of the squad ran back. I started putting down some suppressing fire. The least I could do was make the bad guys keep their heads down.They were advancing with every bit of boulder and cover they could find.

"They say they've got nothing!" came over the radio.

"If they don't tell me what nothing is, I'm coming back there and throwing them at the pirates," I countered between bursts of fire. I could almost feel my little squadmate point at me before asking how good the ship's guards were at flying.

"They're smuggling uranium ore" came the response. "Five thousand tons."

"In a ship that size!?" I stole a glance back, "if they dump that shit, will it fly?"

Silence behind me for a moment. "They won't do it."

"Dump the shit, or I throw them and their captain at the pirates, dump it, fly off, and leave them behind with whoever fits on the ship." Even if we made it out of here, they weren't going to keep the uranium. It was a regulated material, mostly to ensure it didn't irradiate a planet or a ship.

"They're conducting preflights now," came the response. One of those missile teams popped up and scored a shot on the ship."Nevermind." They scored a hit on the engine pods.

Now we were stuck here fighting the pirates, pinned down, and because those greedy assholes had been too slow to dump their stupid cargo, we were stuck here to die. I looked to the team, "I'm going to try to hold them off til' we can fix the ship. Focus on taking out their missile teams."

This was probably going to hurt. I moved on all fours and charged into the assembled pirates. It wasn't that individually they were hard to kill. It was that they had lots of missiles now. And a new gun ship coming up from the rear. This was the biggest ship yet. It must've been their main base. It was nice that we were making headway.

The gunship joined the fight. It's heavy beams rained down around me. It had to happen eventually, one of the beams struck. It burned through the armor on my arm, scorching through and burning my arm before I could do a thing about it. The fur singed off, my skin bubbled and it was all I could do not to scream. I stumbled, still for a moment.

My missile alarms lit up, back to running. I rushed through the ground troops. Their ship was pretty low. I moved on it and leapt up, kicking in my suit's thrusters. Flames trailed my path before I hit the hull. I rammed my fists into the armored exterior and began to climb. A new alarm joined the chorus, my suit was blasting out flares constantly, balls of fire shooting off me in every direction, I was running out.

The missiles racing at me were missing, striking the mother ship. I scrambled up, hammering new hand and footholds in until I got on top. Laying against the ship, I had some cover from the missiles. And their own defenses couldn't get me. A quick crouch, and I rammed my rifle into a hole in the hull. Missile alarm. Duck. I wrenched the gun down, til' it was low enough to get at the trigger. I started dumping rounds into the ship. It started to vibrate under me as I lit up the unprotected interior decks.

The missile blasted passed me, circled. Fuck me.

Hot sparks lit up the back side of my mech suit. HEAT warheads burned through the armor before starting to scorch my fur and skin. The rounds burned off a patch of my fur and searched my shoulder. I gritted my teeth, resisting the urge to howl in pain while my rifle unloaded into the ship.

Sparks, fires, and explosions ripped out the side of the gunship. I felt it starting to turn. Time to go. I stood and ran for the end, dove off the edge of the ship, and crashed to the ground while it fought for altitude. The pirates around us were in full retreat.

I laid there on the ground, groaning. For the moment. I was a little sore to be celebrating. I tuned back into my music just in time to hear, "I've been Thunderstruck!" Getting struck by lightning would've hurt less.

Slowly I rolled over and forced myself up as the rest of the squad approached. "Ugh, what stinks?" One of them chimed up.

I glared down at them, "shut up," I said, then started to tap at my suit controls to order up a nice round of pain killers. "I want a week's vacation after this."

"Fat chance," the squad leader said, "we're moving from rescue operations to pirate hunting tomorrow."

I flumped back to the ground. "You owe me bigger guns."