The first day in the Stratagem Support chair was a mix of sheer anxiety and adrenaline. What started as anxiousness manifesting as trembling hands and fear quickly turned into routine and boredom. His first drop came as soon as he sat down at the desk. The divers he was responsible for handled their mission with Eagle air strikes and a few resupply drops. There was hardly any wind causing the teams ammo resupply drop and extraction pod to land exactly where they were requested.
The next drop came an hour later. This group gave Bruce all the practice he needed. They called in ammo resupplies as soon as they were reloaded into the deployment cannon, as well as littering the battle space with EAT-17 Expendable Anti-Tank weapon requests. Only two of the eighteen supply requests Bruce launched were used. While it was mildly frustrating, he made it a challenge to try to land the resupply and weapon requests on the enemies. If the drop pods are shaped like bullets, might as well turn them into makeshift weapons right?
No drops happened in the following four hours after that. The room was dark, and the chair was comfortable causing his eyes to become quite heavy. Bruce did his best to stay awake with nothing to do. Other logistics personnel brought their dataslate and used the downtime to read or watch videos. He felt childish and wished he hadn’t destroyed his. When it was finally the end of his shift, despite being exhausted from not sleeping well the night before, he requisitioned a new dataslate. The supply sergeant wasn’t happy that he’d lost his, but gave him a new one after a stern reprimand.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The big swivel chair in front of console 2-05 squeeked as Bruce plopped into the seat the next day. Telemetry data for the planet the Super Destroyer currently orbited glowed to life on the monitor to the left:
Planet: Bore Rock
Terrain Features: Swamp, Dense forest, Liquid water present
Environmental Conditions: Light rain
Threat Type: Terminid
Enemy Density: 4
“Alright, let's see what we can do Golf squad.” Bruce said to the screen. This drop was consisted three members that seemed competent enough. Next to his left hand, six stratagem lights turned on: 120mm Orbital Barrage, Orbital Railcannon, NUX-223 Hellbomb, A/MLS-4X Rocket Sentry, Squad Resupply, and Extraction Beacon.
The telemetry data shrank to the left side of the screen to give space for the squad status screen to grow into the right with a countdown to impact. When the number reached zero, Bruce watched the three members climb from their drop pods.
They made their way to the north east, quickly dispatching a squad of Warriors. A rocket sentry icon appeared as they neared their first objective of a Shrieker nest. From Bruce’s position high above, it looked like an orange three leaf clover sitting in the center of a clearing, each piece of the clover resembling a bee hive like structure the flying bugs resided in. These nests could be a pain to take care of, but the sentry was a solid call in. Bruce pressed the button for the rocket sentry and checked the wind speed and direction. Seeing minimal cause for concern, he rolled the curser over the icon and tapped the deploy button.
Just over eight seconds later, the rocket sentry rose from the ground inside the edge of the clearing and released its payload at the hive. Sixteen 70mm rockets streaked toward their targets at one hundred meters per second. Four rockets slammed into the side of each bulb of the hive before detonating in a wondrous shower of yellowish orange goo and smoke. A few Shrikers had dropped from the hive to engage the squad prior to the rockets firing. Bruce smiled as they tumbled from the sky as the Helldivers opened fire on them.
On their way to their second objective, the Helldivers on the ground suffered a few small engagements while making quick time across the battle space. They called in a railcannon strike on a Behemoth and Bruce was more than happy to oblidge. The five kilogram projectile covered the distance from the Super Destroyer to the planet in just under a second, hitting with enough force to evaporate the Behemoth and topple trees for ten meters in every direction.
The squad arrived a few minutes later, pushing out of the forest to see a Terminid Hive, only this time, instead of being built up into chutes, this hive was dug into the ground. Several holes glowed orange showing the space where the bugs emerged from.
Bruce shook off flashbacks from his previous mission and hovered his hand over the NUX-223 Hellbomb button. To his surprise, the squad called in the 120mm Orbital Barrage instead. Wondering at their reasoning, but trusting their instincts, Bruce checked the telemetry, punched in the buttons then pressed the deploy button. It would take about six seconds for the first of three five kilogram high explosive shells to hit the target. The timer counted down.
6 seconds.
On the ground, a drone spotted the squad and tilted its head back to shout an alarm. Bugs began emerging from their holes as bullets ripped the drone apart. A horde quickly amassed to crawl and jump toward the squad. The Helldivers spread out to overlap fields of fire and engaged.
4 seconds.
Bullets streamed from the Helldivers into the horde. Blood fountained and bodies crumbled as rounds hit their marks.
2 seconds.
A Helldiver stopped firing as their left arm swung wide. A small, bright flash of light popped inside a group of warriors. Gore exploded out from beneath them.
Impact.
The first of three salvos hit. Curiously, instead of small mushroom clouds and evaporated Terminids, hot fire erupted and quickly spread across the hive. Red globules of napalm coated the ground and enemy alike. Bugs squirmed and ran in all different directions in an attempt to escape the blaze, many running underground to spread the flames deeper into the hive.
As the second salvo hit, Bruce took another look at the icon on his screen, his eyes going wide when he noticed his error. Instead of sending in the 120mm orbital strike the Helldivers had requested, he’d launched the orbital napalm strike.
If that’s not what they asked for, why did they let me use it?
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The Helldivers mopped up the bugs that had escaped the blaze, then a resupply icon appeared. Bruce double checked that he’d hit the right buttons this time, and dropped the box right on target as the final salvo landed. The squad collapsed on it to refill their ammo then pointed to each other looking confused.
They have to be wondering why the wrong thing came in. I’m an idiot.
The squad walked over to the lip of the hive to examine the effects of the blaze. Nothing moved amongst the smouldering husks of bodies and charred trees.
One of the Helldivers shrugged and tossed something into the center of the hive. A Hellbomb icon appeared.
Bruce followed the process to deploy the hellbomb, double and triple checking that he didn’t call in the wrong thing on top of them. When it landed, the squad approached then double timed toward the extraction point. With the hive gone, the squad had no resistance on their way to extraction, and looked to be mostly relaxed as they waited for the shuttle.
Once the shuttle lifted into the air, Bruce felt a tap on his shoulder.
“What was that Helldiver?” Varla demanded without looking at him, dataslate in hand.
“Sorry. I thought I hit the right button.”
“You must. You MUST. Only send down the stratagems the Helldivers below request. You are not here to make decisions. This is Stratagem Support. Do not do that again.”
“It was an accident. Why are we able to deploy stratagems the squad didn’t request? Seems like an easy fix to not let us make this mistake.”
“You are not here to question Helldiver, you are here to act as expected. Act out of line or question again, and you will be reported to the Lord Commander. Do you understand.”
Bruce fought his frustration. “Yes ma’am. It won’t happen again.”
“Good. Your next drop is starting soon. Pay attention this time.” Varla said over her shoulder as she walked back toward the entrance of the room.
Charlie would have hated this job.
The hologram of the planet at the front of the room spun indicating the Super Destroyer was moving to a new location on the planet. New telemetry data listed out across the data display:
Planet: Bore Rock
Terrain Features: Swamp, Dense forest, Liquid water present
Environmental Conditions: Torrential Rain Storm - Reduced Visibility
Wind speed: Gusts expected to exceed 25 knots during storms
Threat Type: Terminid
Enemy Density: Extreme
The battlespace for this drop was about a third of the typical size for a drop. Bruce knew from experience that this drop was extraction based. The telemetry data moved to the side to reveal this drop would be completed by four members of Kilo squad.
Bruce’s squad.
“Great Constitution.” Bruce whispered. “We aren’t rated for this.”
The right display screen glowed to life as the overhead view came online. Hazy gray cloud cover showed nothing of the battlefield below. He pressed the button to swap the display to infrared. What he saw terrified him.
It was as if the squad had landed on a small island in the middle of boiling water. A chainlink fence surrounded a few buildings scattered around a small landing pad. The fence would do nothing to keep the bugs out.
Two A/G-16 Gatling Gun sentry and one A/M-12 Mortar sentry icons appeared as the Helldivers climbed from their hellpods. Bruce hammered through the process as fast as he could. He finished the commands for the last sentry as the first one landed. An Eagle raced across the screen followed by a flash of bright light as a cluster bomb blasted a hole in the oncoming enemies.
An ammo resupply and MD-6 Anti-Personnel Minefield icons winked on as the first Osprey class transport landed to extract the civilians. Six new human figures waddled from one of the buildings toward the aircraft. A group of bugs pushed through the wall of gatling gun fire to close on the humans. One of the Helldivers, likely Andy, turned from his target to spray at the line of advancing bugs.
Five of the humans made it on board. A thick stream of acid from a tick shaped bug called a Bile Spewer caught the human in the back. They fell forward before being covered in the spray. All that remained as the Osprey took off was a human skeleton.
“Come on guys. Come on! Call things in! Let me help!” Bruce shouted at the screen. Streams of hot bullets resembling lasers flowed from the Helldivers and turrets alike as mortars hammered deep into the enemy lines. Telemetry data showed the winds were pushing hard from the west, causing the mortar rounds to land away from their target, but slowing the bug advance in the east. To the west, however, the wind pushed them toward the squad.
Two more gatling gun turret icons appeared right next to the two helldivers battling the western front. Bruce had to call them in as far to the west as he could and hope they landed in the right place. Fortunately, they landed close enough, and the two Helldivers moved toward the ammo supply box.
To the south, the wall of bugs began crawling over top of the minefield. Thousands of small ball bearings ripped through their bodies, sending razor sharp limbs into other bugs as they flew apart. To the north, another Eagle bombing run cut back the advancing horde.
“Alright guys, good. Hang in there.” Bruce said as the second Osprey landed. This time, all six humans made it on board safely. The shuttle wobbled a bit as the wind gusted in takeoff, but it made it out of the battlespace without issue. Another mortar sentry icon appeared in the same place as the previous one. The new sentry crashed through the abdomen of a Bile Spewer as it landed. Acid poured into the opening of the drop pod as it attempted to deploy itself. All thirty six mortars detonated at the same time, cratering the ground around it in a ten meter radius and sending a Helldiver flying across the battlespace to crash hard against an inert Gatling sentry.
“NO!” Bruce shouted, hammering his fist on the console. “NO NO NO!”
Another Helldiver sprinted from their position across the landing zone toward their downed squad mate as the third and final Osprey came in for a landing. Jetwash pushed them off balance, but they forward rolled to land on their feet. If Bruce wasn’t beside himself with worry, he would have cheered at the sight.
Another Eagle zipped over the battlespace followed by bright flashes and dead bugs. With the pace of destruction the Gatling Guns cut through the bugs combined with the fire from the Helldivers, it seemed the horde was thinning.
Bruce checked the team vitals. All four of his squad mates' vitals were higher than he remembered them ever being when he dropped with them. Fortunately, everyone's heart was still beating.
The final civilian boarded the Osprey and the evacuation was complete. All that was left now was to extract. Bruce pressed the call button and a two minute count down appeared at the bottom of the telemetry.
A few more sentry icons appeared on the map as the squad moved toward the launch pad, two Helldivers providing overwatch while the third dragged the unconscious fourth by the armpits. The sentries deployed perfectly and cut back what remained of the horde.
Bruce couldn’t believe it. They were going to make it!
The pelican came in from the west, hammering the surrounding area with covering fire from the nose mounted auto cannon. When the Pelican got into the air, Bruce let out a whoop, pulled the headset from his head and stood.
“Where are you going, Helldiver?” Varla shouted from her seat.
“My squa... The squad from the last mission was injured. I’m going to check on them.” He said as he rounded the edge of the
“We have medical personnel for that. Return to your seat!”
“No. I’m not even supposed to be here anyway.” He said as the door to the Stratagem Support center closed behind him. Shouts of treason followed him up the spiral staircase.
He pounded up the stairs then sprinted down the hallway toward the barracks section of the ship only vaguely aware of the throbbing in his new leg. He had to push past a few responding Helldivers as they ran to their hexpod to get ready for the next round of Helldive operations. He punched in the Hellchute code to go up to the hanger just before they were locked to the down position.
He pushed open the door to the hanger to see the Lord Commander watching medical personnel pulling Andrew and Candice away on stretchers.
“Why aren’t you at your post Helldiver?” The Lord Commander demanded.
“Those are my friends! My squad was down there.” Bruce shouted, pushing past him. A strong fist grabbed the front of his uniform as the Lord Commander pulled Bruce back to face him. A sharp pain stabbed the side of his neck.
“You are causing more problems than I’m willing to deal with right now Helldiver.” The Lord Commander said, barely keeping his voice from breaking into a shout. “You’re walking a dangerous line of a traitor with your disregard of authority and questionable actions.”
Bruce felt his body go limp as the Lord Commander continued. “I will try one more thing to get you under control before branding you a traitor.“
Bruce’s eyes started to close as he felt himself laid on a stretcher and wheeled into a different room. He rolled his head to the side and he fought hard to keep his eyes open. Candice and Andrew were pushed out of sight as Bruce felt his uniform being removed and lifted into what seemed to be a Hellpod.
