Captain Tae-Joon's POV
"Captain Tae-Joon, all Juggernauts are ready to deploy!" One of the Flagship Mercury's Crews named Jackson from the command center reported to me.
"Tell them to advance, defend the Mercury at all cost!" My hands are intensely sweating but just like the crews inside the command center, determined to defend the flagship.
"Acknowledged!" Jackson answered, using his terminal he relayed my orders to all Marines that piloting the Juggernauts, "Orders from the Captain, all the Juggernauts advance! Don't let any of those green-skins get near at the Flagship!".
"Roger that!"
A large holographic screen popped up in front of my sit showing the Juggernauts exiting the ship's armory.
The "Juggernaut" or the unmanned coil-powered drone (UCPD) is a spider tank drone powered by a propulsion system called Octopedal Walker Technology or OWT. It may operate under remote control by the human operator, as terminal-piloted drones (TPD), or with various degrees of autonomy, such as autopilot assistance.
The Juggernauts armor has a thickness of 350mm of pure steel protecting its processor on its body. Its main armaments are one 150mm howitzer gun and two 40mm Plasma autocannon while the secondary armaments are two 12.7mm machines, an anti-EMP system, and series of rocket pods.
Few minutes have passed.
"Captain, the Juggernauts are in position and ready to fire!"
I nodded at Jackson and relayed another order.
"Begin the bombardment now!"
Using the large holographic screen I oversew the entirety of the battlefield, it was covered by thick white smoke as series of high-explosive shells accurately hitting the upcoming wave of green-skins. Huge craters from large mushroom-like flumes producing an intense heat burning the flesh of the ugly creatures and their scorching and blackened fragments lay prostate but despite the Juggernaut's heavy bombardment, the green-skins continued their tsunami-like waves towards the flagship.
Then the alarm violently rang causing crews in the command center to panic.
"What the fuck is happening?" I'm confused as hell and so, the crews.
"Captain, the recon drones detect an intense radioactive activity from above. Switching to aerial view from recon drone's camera"
The scenery from the large holographic screen changes to something we never understood that left our mouth agape.
"What the hell is that, am I fucking dreaming?"
The only thing I can do is to curse in what I just saw, a big red circle with junk of scribbles that we didn't know if it was letters or something else. The big red circle continues to rotate which is accompanied by strong sparks of red electricity.
I have a bad feeling about this shit.
"Deploy the Plasma Shield now!"
"Copy that Sir! Arranging the plasma circuits... installing the shield... S-sir... " the communication officer named Ethan turned to face me, his face is unnaturally pale.
"The Plasma shield is not gonna make it we need more time. "
"Shit! Shit! Shit! Please, do something!"
Completely exhausted, all I can do is to look up at the sky and watch helplessly at the rotating red circle. The circle stops and fired its blinding light. I closed my eyes and embrace my upcoming death but as I wait for the light to touch and burn me I only feel is a tap on my cheeks.
"Wake up Captain, wake up!"
I slowly open my eyes and looked at the girl who's frequently tapping my cheeks. It was Alexandria or Alex for short a personal assistant of mine. I suddenly burst out from my comfortable chair and immediately asked her what had happened.
"Alex, what happened to the waves of green-skins and the rotating red circle? And most of all, where are you at that time?"
Alex frowned and immediately applied her hand on my forehead. I can see the confusion in Alex's eyes as she feels my body temperature.
"Hmmm... looks like you're not sick but Captain, are you eating properly? Do you have enough sleep? Maybe you're tired that's why stupid things going through your mind"
Alex helplessly shook head her and begin to open her terminal.
"We still have ten more minutes before our departure, you can still rest if you want Sir?"
"It's okay, I'm fine."
I smiled at Alex and ignore her advice still thinking about the dream I just had wondered if it's just a dream or something else as everything looks real. I'm confused but it's wasting my valued time so I decided to ignore that hell of a dream and just focus on what I need to do.
"Any news about the Fleet, do the other ships are done loading their supplies?"
Alex opened again her terminal and browse the reports of the other captains with their respective ships. After reading the contents she sends the report to my terminal.
"According to the report, eighty percent of the supplies have been loaded into their respective ships and the remaining twenty percent have been placed on the Flagship's storage room"
"Good" I nodded while also reading the contents.
The entire Fleet is consists of four giant spaceships called "Saturn" the Engineering spaceship, "Neptune" the Agricultural spaceship, "Earth" the Supply spaceship, and last but not least the Flagship which called "Mercury".
The ESS Saturn contains everything about engineering and mining. It stores all the power tools, steel, concrete, electrical and plasma wiring, and the spare parts of the other spaceship in the Fleet.
The ASS Neptune contains everything about planting, greenhouses, and animal husbandry. It stores hydroponics, glasses, animal products especially dairy products, and power tools for vertical planting systems.
While the SSS Earth which serves as the supply spaceship contains the ammunition, food, water, oil, and Plutonian coils for this expedition.
And the last is the Flagship which contains the other twenty percent of all supplies, military personnel, the headquarters, and military weapons.
When I finish reading the other Captain's reports and saw that everything looks fine concluding that there are no anomalies, I decided it was time to move.
"Okay relay my order to other Captains. announce the departure now!" all the crews at the command center nodded as I order.
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Sergeant Vasquez's POV
I gently sipping my last coffee of the decade when suddenly, the alarms violently rang causing me to throw my cup into the table.
"Wait wait wait, if the alarms are ringing, it means the fleet is about to depart!"
Nicholas and I looked at each other and immediately opened our terminals, our eyes to widen we only have three minutes before the departing time.
"Holy fucking cow! We spend too much time here sitting, our superiors will fucking scold us!" Nicholas said aloud he's panicking a lot.
I immediately stand up from my seat while adjusting my uniform and quickly run towards the exit. Meanwhile, Nicholas was left behind the cafeteria panicky wears his combat suit. Well, I knew he can catch up to me anyways.
Only a few seconds have passed and Nicholas can be seen running behind me but still panicking. When he caught up with me, he began to speak.
"I'm sorry but I don't want to be punished," he saluted with tears on his eyes as if I'm his superhero to get through the higher-up's punishment, "goodbye my friend," he shook his head as if he felt sorry for me and begin running again.
"Hey, fucker wait for me!!!" I yelled but he ignores my shouts and continues to run.
That fucker! he will pay for this. The only thing I can do is to shook my head as I run, deciding to accept my punishment because of our antics and thinks about how can I get my revenge on Nicholas.
"Shit! we're really a fucking friends."