"Sir!" Imogene yelped, as she barely managed to fall into her position in time.
The transport that lay before her was to land in 11 minutes.
The captain strode up the line towards Imogene.
"You fuckin' mercs have no sense of punctuality or order. Next time this happens I'm throwing you out the 'lock per the contract. Got that you fuckin' Unwda worm?"
"Yes Sir!" Imogene barked.
The captain turned back towards the ramp of the transport vessel that lay near the edge of the hangar.
The beefy design of the transport vessel was obviously an older design compared to the high-tech fighters and bombers, as transport vessels were not used in combat zones in this day and age.
A system voice played through the loudspeaker above them.
"All personnel in hangar E-11, please equip air-tight helmets now. Hangar bay door opening in t-minus one minute thirty seconds."
The captain quickly turned on his heel and yelped at the marines, "You heard the bitch! Helms on!"
Imogene did as she was instructed and tightened the helmet on her head, the HUD suddenly alighting in front of her eyes.
A boot-up sequence started, reading:
[ Sol Interstellar Products Inc. ]
[ Oxygen tanks: 97% ]
[ Vitals: Stable ]
[ Area of Operations: The I.R.I.S. (Classified) ]
[ Objective: Retrieve any lost artifacts. Do not get caught. ]
[ Notes: If any marine is caught, they should eliminate themselves. ]
As the boot-up sequence finished, the text boxes for her vitals and oxygen tanks moved to the top left corner of the HUD, and the rest faded.
The soldiers started to file onto the transport, taking their seats and lowering the harnesses that went over each shoulder and around their waist.
Imogene did the same.
"T-minus 30 seconds until bay door opening." The voice echoed from outside the craft.
Each SUMU squad had 14 soldiers and a captain.
The classification for these cannon fodder soldiers is "marines", although Imogene never understood where that name came from.
Mars? Mariana trench?
Imogene thought about how she heard that the Grand Canyon was supposedly the deepest Canyon in the world before the Mariana Trench, but she couldn't remember why the Mariana Trench wasn't classified as the biggest.
The thoughts were abruptly cut off by the ramp door raising quickly and shutting.
"Launch in 3...2...1..."
The transport suddenly lurched forward the sounds of the engines ruptured her ears.
Her bodily inertia caused her to slam against the side of her constraints, grabbing her breath.
"o-ooh... fuckin' hell." One of the marines said from her right in a deep grizzled tone. "Never gets better does it."
Another marine on the other side of the aisle gave a hearty chuckle. "No, it never does. Departed 3,401 times now. Every time is just as rough."
The captain looked up towards the crew. "Shut your mouths will you? I've got shit to think about."
The cabin of the transport craft began to shake violently as it began to enter the atmosphere of the Iris, a planet with sprawling deserts due to spatial anomalies that occurred years ago during some infamous experiments.
What they were doing, descending to the planet's surface, was a cargo run.
They were tasked with grabbing the leftover materials from the experiments, a weird substance simply called 776 by the higher-ups.
Over the many times Imogene had handled it, she had been baffled by the glowing blue substance that seemed harmless, but had apparently created a monster.
As the transport neared the surface of the Iris, the captain looked up from his seat.
"Get the 776 and get out, and remember, if you see it, it's probably already too late."
All the marine's eyes furrowed as he said this, and the marine near the ramp shouted:
"Landing in three!"
The captain tensed his legs.
"Let's go."
Imogene steeled herself as the transport slammed into the ground, and the ramp collapsed onto the silent sand.
All of the marines including Imogene filed out of the transport, forming a circular position around the entrance to the craft as the captain walked out.
"Section A, move to the east side of the crater and gather as much as you can, section B, provide overwatch."
Imogene, being in section B moved to point around the craft and scanned the horizon, gun at the ready.
Minutes drove by, silently, as there was no noise on the surface of the planet, for some weird reason.
Imogene was sure there was some strange hypothesis for this, but she never listened to the researchers.
She watched intently as the other marines carried pill-shaped capsules of 776 through the sand dunes and into the craft.
The captain came over the comms:
"Once Preta and Evan get the last pill to the craft we can get the hell off this weird shit ball."
All of a sudden, for the first time out of the several times she has been on the planet, she could hear the sand beating against the side of her helmet.
As Imogene realized this, she could hear the sounds of people yelling on the other side of the craft.
As she made her way around the side of the craft to see what the matter was, a voice came through over the comms:
"EVAC NOW. WE HAVE TO GO."
A desperate plea, everyone understood.
Imogene turned the side of the craft to see an individual standing on the edge of the crater, with tattered clothes and goggles that obscured her face.
Her hands were bound.
Imogene immediately raised her gun and fired, as did many others.
"Fuck... fuck. Fuck. Fuck fuck FUCK."
The captain's radio was open, letting the panic reach the entire squad.
Imogene continued to fire at the individual, which seemed to have no effect, as she made her way up the ramp to the transport craft.
She quickly took a seat in one of the seats whilst all the marines rushed into theirs, each taking turns firing at the thing in the distance as they boarded the craft.
As the engine revved and they took off, the tension remained in the air.
The last thing Imogene remembered was the sound of the roof of the transport crunching in with the imprints of two feet.
Her vision was blurry as she awoke, blood soaking her body.
The pain had been nulled by the anesthetics, which stopped the pain of the metal through her abdomen.
A figure stood above her.
She remembered pleading.
She remembered a somber look from the thing above her.
Then she remembered walking.
And walking.
And walking.
And walking.