Bruce’s boots made wet, crunching noises as he walked across a snowy mountain range of Gorish IV. He shook his left hand to let the snow fall from his squad comm. The readout showed extraction was twelve hundred meters to the north and four hundred meters beneath him. The base of this mountain.

  “Why… Did I… Sign up… For this…” Charlie panted over the comms.

  “Relax dude,” Andres replied, “All we have left is to make it to extract. At least we made it this far.”

  Bruce couldn’t help but agree with Andres. The squad of three helldivers had a couple of close calls on this drop but, all things considered, this wasn’t close to the worst drop he’d had. He’d only wished that this planet was a little closer to the center of the solar system. The planetary analysis he’d read before dropping said this planet is about 10,000 miles outside the habitable zone of the blue giant star at the center of the solar system. That meant there was no way humans were going to be able to live, or even colonize, this planet. If it had materialized a bit closer, there wouldn’t be so much of this fucking snow.

  He supposed it didn’t matter. The Illuminate owned this planet. His squad of three had already destroyed the enemy's broadcast array and set up the anti-aircraft devices. Soon humanity would kill them all, be done with this solar system, and move onto the next one. It wasn’t up to him where he dropped or what he did, he just needed to survive.

  “I know but like, why?” Charlie complained again as the squad waded through the thigh-deep snow towards a gouge on the cliffside. “We can’t live here. The bugs can’t live here. Who cares if the Illuminate mines this planet?”

  Andres groaned into the mic, “If we don’t stop them, they can create more. If they create more, we have to kill more. Why does it matter anyway? We’re almost done. Look,” Andres stopped where he was and pointed out over the cliffside to a red streak in the sky where the extraction point was being dropped in. “We only have to make it there. We’ll just go around this cliffside then down the mountain. We came up this way. It’s gonna be fine.”

  “It’s just dumb.” Charlie continued his tirade, “Why would they drop us without the right equipment? What does ‘you haven’t earned it yet’ even mean? A jet pack would make this so much more efficient.”

  The wind howled and kicked up snow around Bruce as he made his way onto the pass followed by Andres and Charlie. The pass was wide enough for them to walk side by side, but they spread out far enough to give each other plenty of room.

  “Your dumbass would probably jump off a cliff on accident Charlie,” Bruce interjected.

  Andres laughed. “Yeah, then we’d have to climb down there and get you. And, you’d probably complain about that the whole time too.”

  A great gust of wind whistled along the pass pushing the helldivers to the ground. Bruce training took over and he rolled to his back, readying his rifle in case it wasn’t just a gust of wind. As he sat up to make his way to his feet, a snowdrift from an overhang above dislodged and buried the helldivers leaving only Bruce’s head exposed. Above his head, Bruce saw something shimmer in the air.

  “Are you fucking kidding me!?” Charlie screamed over the comms as laughter burst from Andres. Bruce saw the snow move.

  “Quiet! Don’t move!” Bruce demanded urgently. The snow stopped moving as the shimmer materialized into a floating geometric object roughly the size of an oil drum. Sensors poked out from its sides gathering ambient information while a long strip of dull orange lined the bottom of the object keeping it afloat. At the front, Bruce watched a glowing red eye dart from side to side and up and down looking for any signs of movement.

  They had wandered right underneath an observer and had no idea.

  A small pen-like object dropped out of the bottom of the observer and projected a wide laser across the snow that covered the helldivers, the blowing snow glinting red as it passed through the beam. Bruce assumed it was scanning for any irregularities in the snowfall and he watched as the beam passed over the two small lumps that were his squadmates. The beam continued along the snow then up and over his helmet. In an instant, the beam winked out and the pen sucked back into the belly of the observer. The red eye in the center focused on Bruce’s helmet while the observer drifted to within a meter of his position.

  It was time to act.

  “Contact! Observer!” Bruce screamed as he exploded up out of the snow and grabbed the observer’s red eye with both hands. Andres and Charlie pushed out of the snow and looked around frantically before seeing Bruce struggle with the machine. Bruce pulled as hard as he could and while he made a little bit of progress, it felt a lot like trying to pull a ball underwater. The orange strip under the observer glowed brightly and it started to rise, pulling Bruce out of the snow. Bruce flexed his arms bringing his head towards the eye while lifting his legs to his chest. He relaxed his arms and pushed his legs down to gain momentum. As he came fully extended, he pulled hard on the eye and felt something break behind the eye. He repeated the movement one more time and the eye snapped free of the device, sending him tumbling backward into the snow.

  As he landed in the snow, two small transmitters stuck out from both sides of the observer, the tips glowing red. Charlie lunged at the machine. He wrapped his hands around the transmitters and snapped them off at the base. Charlie landed face first in the snow and Bruce watched in horror as Andres leveled his railgun and fired.

  The round ripped through the observer from stern to stem, sending it clattering to the ground. The thundering report of the railgun raced down the cliffside, bounced off the adjacent mountain, and came back to them sounding the same as it had when Andres pulled the trigger.

  “Why the fuck did you do that!?” Charlie demanded, “Every Illuminate on this godforsaken planet heard that. We might as well have launched a flare into the sky and let them know where we are.” Charlie bent, grabbed the observer with both hands, and hurled it off the cliffside in anger. “Now we have to do more than just make it to the extract. They know where we are!”

  Bruce sighed, “Of course they know where we are man. We destroyed their antenna and left a nice trail for them to follow. Quit bitching and let’s move.”

  The helldivers spent the next few minutes pushing their way through the snow to the other side of the rise. From their position, Bruce looked down the mountain and saw the red strobe of the extraction beacon pulse brightly against the blizzard. “There we go,” Andres said, “Are you happy now?”

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  “No. We still need to get down there and call it in. I’m so fucking sick of this. Why couldn’t they just land up here and we get extracted up here?” Charlie demanded.

  Bruce had enough of his bitching and turned to let him know that. “Listen dude, I’m tired of listening to you bitch about everything!” Bruce heard his voice raise as he continued. “You need to nut up and finish this. Don’t say another word unless it’s helpful!”

  Charlie looked at Bruce and sighed, “I’m sorry man I just don’t under-” were the last words that Charlie ever said. A blinding bright yellow beam blasted through Charlie’s upper torso leaving a hole in his chest the size of a dinner plate.

  Andres raised his railgun and fired at the source of the beam. His round took the unseen enemy in the stomach and separated its legs from its body causing the beam to disappear, but it didn’t matter. Charlie’s body tipped forward unceremoniously and he was dead before he hit the snow.

  Bruce stood in a daze staring at the perfect circle of snow that filled the space where his friend’s lungs and heart used to be.

  “Bruce,” Andres called to him. After a moment he tried again. When there was no response, Andres put a hand on his shoulder and shook him gently. “He’s gone man. We need to get down there before we join him.”

  Bruce suddenly realized he was holding his breath and let it out in a sigh as a tear ran down his face. What the fuck are we doing here? He thought to himself. He took another deep breath, tore his eyes away from Charlie, and looked at Andres who was tapping a code into his squad comm. Andres hit the last button and Charlie's suit burst into a hot, intense flame that melted the snow around them for three meters in every direction. When the inferno subsided, there was nothing left of the dead helldiver.

  They turned to look down the slope at the extraction point. The two helldivers began cautiously making their way down the slope. The last thing either of them wanted to do was to slip and break a bone on the way down the mountainside. About halfway down the slope, the air around them began to shimmer.

  No time to be cautious.

  “Move!” Andres screamed and both helldivers started running down the slope. Within moments, both of them lost their footing and tumbled head over boot as they fell the remaining distance. Every time Bruce attempted to slow himself, he either slipped, or his momentum carried his tumble further.

  Hang on to your gun Bruce, was all he could think about.

  The two helldivers landed in a heap at the bottom of the rise some three hundred meters later. Bruce on his back and Andres in a crumpled heap on his side. Bruce took a deep breath, “You ok buddy?” He asked Andres.

  Andres grunted, “I think I broke my arm but I’m fine. Hold them off, I’ll get a turret and call the shuttle.”

  “Roger.” Bruce looked up the mountain at the avalanche of Illuminate coming towards him. Walkers made up the bulk of the force, their bulbous bodies and three legs marched down the mountain with silent determination. A trio of Warlocks, similar to the one that had killed Charlie, sat behind them, arms spread wide gathering static energy from the air. At the front of the charge ran the Monks, humanoid creatures with long staves rippling with unknown energy known to slice through a helldivers armor.

  Bruce sighted through the onslaught towards the Warlock on the right. Serving as the snipers of the Illuminate, if he let the Warlock charge up enough energy, he’d spend more time dodging their attacks than he would killing the rest of them.

  They needed to die first.

  Bruce set his rifle setting to burst and pulled the trigger. Two rounds leapt from the barrel and raced up the mountain to the warlock. The first round hit the warlock square in the chest while the second hit somewhere in the head. Its head snapped back and it made a half backflip before landing lifeless in the snow.

  Bruce sprayed bullets randomly as he swept his rifle left to target the second warlock. More bullets certainly wouldn’t harm anything. He ended up killing a Monk and took one Walker through its red eye, sending it tumbling lifelessly down the hill, killing Monks in its path. His first burst towards the second warlock found a Monk instead, whose staff sliced clean through a Walker behind it. Without hesitating, he fired again as the Warlock finished charging its attack.

  Bruce fired randomly into the crowd as the final Warlock brought its hands together to attack. His sight sat in the center of the Warlocks chest as he pulled the trigger.

  Nothing happened.

  Bruce rolled to his left onto his belly as the Warlock shot a bright yellow beam from its hands that raced down the mountain and bore a hole in the ground where Bruce had been moments before. Bruce pushed up to his feet and ran towards Andres who was sighting up the mountain, his railgun wedged on the extraction beacon for support. Bruce dropped the magazine from his rifle and loaded a fresh one as Andres fired at the Warlock, ending its life.

  “We’re ninety seconds out,” Andres said calmly before firing again.

  Bruce looked up the mountain to the horde of Illuminate. “There’s too many of them. I’ll call in a turret.” He shouted as Andres fired again.

  “Way ahead of ya brother. I already called one in.” Andres responded as something slammed into the ground between the helldivers and the mountain. “Just keep shooting.”

  Bruce lifted his rifle and fired at the front line of Monks as the turret Andres called in rose out of the ground. When it locked into position, Bruce watched as the turret aimed up the mountain and fired a steady stream of fire for twenty seconds. Its rounds tore into the horde, ripping through machine and flesh alike. Blood fountained and immediately froze into intricate patterns. Sparks flew from the machines as they exploded, melting small patches of the cliffside. The Walkers attempted to return fire, but their small plasma charges flew wide of the helldivers, doing more harm to their allies than to the humans. Finally, the turret fell silent, snow sizzling on the hot barrels. Bruce let out a sigh of relief turning to Andres, “Wasn’t sure how we’d get through that one.”

  “You have to use what you bring Bruce. It isn’t always about shooting. SEAF gives us tools for a reason. Use your brain before you drop. Bring the things that will be helpful, not just things that are flashy. Everyone loves the grenade launcher, but that can be more harm than good. Even this,” Andres gestured to the turret, “won’t hesitate to shoot through you to kill an enemy.” Andres lifted his railgun from the extraction beacon and took a couple of steps back. “Here’s our ride. Back up a bit.” The two helldivers ran a short distance away as the extraction shuttle circled in for a landing.

  The air around them began to shimmer as the shuttle landed, crushing a newly materialized Walker. “Get on board! Now!” Andres demanded but Bruce was already moving. Around them, a squad of Monks materialized along with a few Walkers. The side center panels of the extraction shuttle slid open exposing the center of the aircraft and through the opening, Bruce saw the turret rotating.

  He dove into the shuttle as the turret opened fire. Rounds tore over his head and made quick work of the enemies pursuing them. Bruce rolled over onto his back and sat up to make a rude gesture at the enemies when he noticed Andres wasn’t next to him. Bruce made a motion to stand and find his squadmate but his body wasn’t responding to his commands. He made a quick inspection of his body and didn’t see any wounds.

  Why can’t I move? Bruce thought. He tried again to stand up but it felt like his body was made of lead. Struggle as he did, he watched as the bulbous body of a Walker rolled aside. Andres, clearly now in more pain than just a broken arm would allow for, crawled through the heavy snow as fast as he could. Behind Andres, a Monk materialized, staff raised for the kill.