6 minutes and 5 seconds passed. Jackals passed the distance of almost 1000 km; now there are only 600-700 more to go.
He opens his eyes again and gazes at the place he came from. Multiple ring-shaped megastructures fused together with the blood and ambition of mankind. The place was aligned within a range of a 100-kilometer-long thruster pole that propelled the fate of billions. The blue sky, the green forest, and a fully sustainable economy are what they see and what they think they have, even if it is all just an illusion. A false paradise.
6:03 am.
Approaching atmosphere with speed over 13.76 mach, the capsule closes in the distance, entering the low orbit zone. The monitor Jackals looking show the distance between the shuttle and the LZ: 2780 km. The man taps on the button near his hand to deploy the air brake, the deceleration increasing.
0.5 G
1.8 G
3.1 G
4.0 G
"Elysia, how long would it last?" Jackals, he feels not too comfortable on his hardened tungsten alloy spine.
"Approximately 134 seconds. shouldn't be a problem for Not Your Average Infantryman like you."
Elysia answered with a sarcastic tone.
"Come on, have some respect for the colonel's signature. Besides, I've handled tougher missions than this before." Said, Not Your Average Infantryman.
Landing.
shuttle crashed deep into the forest. It shoots the small recon drone up in the air and scans the area for hostile creatures. The message with a yellow out-line pops up at the corner right of the man's ballistic box-like visor.
No threat was found.
"Jackals, don't trust the scanner too much; it only shows direct aggression, not indirect or ambush one." Elysia inform him about flaws
"Rogs." So, he pressed the door ejection button, and with a loud bang, the pressurized door was blown up by an explosive bolt.
Jackals walks out of the shuttle with his rifle out of the bag chambered. On the first stomp, he experienced his weight being heavier than before, roughly 18% more than in the ring world, and the air was filled with 35% oxygen, 55% nitrogen, and lastly 10% carbon monoxide, which is very critical for human life.
Jackals' nanobot was working nonstop to sort out excess carbon monoxide in his blood, but it doesn't bother him that much.
"Elysia, send a report to the colonel; we've landed safe and sound." Right away after Jackals said that, the transmission was completed. Now they only have to find a good place to set up an FOB.
Elysia highlights the terrain within 2 km of flat ground, which would be the optimal solution. Cutting through the forest, they walk 200 meters to the south.
[Crack] [Krack] [Stomp]
The sound of 315 kg of footsteps on decaying leaves and dry sticks makes obvious and loud cracks.
[Smack]
Large objects knock jackals down to the ground. He quickly flipped, lay up right, and aimed his weapon between his legs just to see the faces of a 3-meter abomination similar to hogs, yet much larger with its back carrying various plants and bush.
[Gun shots]
Jackals open fire in a quick burst. The purple trails leave from his rail-rifles straight to the creature's center mass; it doesn't even flinch, yet it's now charging towards him.
[Ilia protocol activated] the yellow message floated before his eyes.
Adrenaline flooded his brain, raising his blood pressure significantly, suppressing pain receptors, and tripling his calcium consumption. With swift explosive strength, he leaps 527 cm into the air, pulls out his grenade belt, and fires a precision shot into the creature's eyes in mid-air, creating a blind spot that he could explore.
Charging towards him with anger, just to barely miss its prey-predator, more like. hiding within the blind spot, he managed to get close and personal and slammed some of the thermite grenade on its skin with his immense burst of strength.
[Clicks]
Grenade engages its trigger to create the brightest light in the day. The roar of pain, thermite cooking their way through its thick skin, destroying its internal organs, spilling its gut out. The creatures died on the spot.
Breathlessly, Jackals' visor packs itself back under his chin. After a sip of air, he put it back on and checked on his gear as soon as possible; nothing broke.
"Fucking hell." Jackals cussing.
"Don't forget to bring some left over, so we can scan it later," said Elysia with expressionless interest.
"Nah, the bag is full. I want to set the beacon. Get some showers." Jackals wants to finish the set-up so badly, leaving Elysia with a slight dissatisfaction—an artificial dissatisfaction.
the highlighted destination shown on his visor, the flat grass field with a bit of water pond scattered around the area. Jackals gaze carefully throughout the place, very slowly, at every leaf of the grass and every shade of the tree.
"It looks like we're cool here." The sigh of relief came out of Jackals' voice.
Thus, he pulled the white metallic prism object out of the bag and attached some kind of antenna on top, and lastly, he put the beacon he just assembled on the soil.
"Elysia to Actual, ready to transport." Elysia recorded the message to send it later, after the next transmission window.
Jackal's objective is complete; now only he needs to stay alive. This very mistrustful yet boring atmosphere drives this man to sing a song under his mask: "To hold me every day I wake up-"
"You know that you can just keep it to yourself, right?" Elysia disrupts his angelic voice.
"I just wanted to share with you; why not?" With a mocking speech, he may be trying to flirt with A.I.
"We are on the mission. Take things seriously-"Elysia's sentence was interrupted.
Jackals pointed far inside the woods.
"300 meters, the same shit that fucks around with me, you see, aye?" Then he put down his hand. "Don't try to boss me around, life or death; I know what is what." After the sentence, he left Elysia speechless.
"How much RAM do you have? Should be enough to talk with me while being another pair of eyes, kay?"
"Um..." Said Elysia with a low voice
[4 hours before the transaction will be sent]
Jackals stare at the mountain range not far from him, seeing the human figure.
2x magnification
4x magnification
20x magnification
At this point, Jackals is using the scope of the anti-material rifle to look at that...human?
40x magnification
The image became clearer, leaving Jackals stunned by the sight of a female dressed in chainmail with a cloak made out of animal fur covering her head. She also carries some sort of crossbow on her back, but he sees no quiver anywhere near.
"Orangish animal ears? What in the RHA is this?" Jackals exclaimed loudly inside his mind.
The woman turned around, her eyes filled with anger, staring at Jackal's position. Their eyes met.
"Did she just see the lens glance?" Not too good for Jackals.
She walked back down the hill, escaping from Jackals' line of sight. The situation is not too loose anymore; he needs to stay alert, so he walks to a nearby puddle and fills up the water canteen with that muddy, sour water. Maybe he could drink it from a filter straw.
Back to the beacon, suspecting that his position had been exposed moments ago, he dug himself a foxhole, covered his matte black skin with dirt, and lay down, watching the beacon from afar through his AM rifle scope.
10:38 a.m. 2 hours later.
The man covered in mud, maintaining his focus on his surveillance duty, watches over the grass field for any potential threat lurking in the shadows. The soft breeze hitting the leaf is the only sound in this moment of silence.
[Crack]
"!!!" The step on the stick spook Jackals out of his mind; something was directly behind him. He can only listen to the sound and stay completely relaxed and still. It's getting closer, closer, and closer.
Elysia scans the area, and the tactical map on his visor shows a dot inside the minimum scaner range, 8 o'clock behind him. the sound of chains clinking at each step, the gravel on the ground was crushed.
[splosh]
The muddy sabatons stomp on the puddle in front of him, passing by a few centimeters, heading to the beacon. Jackals looks up, out of his scope, steady and slowly. The same women have orangish animal ears. The animal fur cloak conceals most of her face but not her intense gaze, which reveals a mix of curiosity and wariness.
"Don't wanna drop her right away, am I?" With that in mind, Jackals plans to capture her for interrogation. He ejected the armor-piercing round out of his AM rifle, thus meanwhile inserting a Kevlar wire munition instead. He prepares his rifle and quietly switches the velocity to subsonic. He takes aim.
[Ba dub]...[Ba dub]...[Ba]...[Dub]
The heart beat slower, the hand steadied, and the eyes trained on the intruder. waiting for a shot. The woman walks into his scope with her crossbow in a low, ready position, her back toward him, and a light squeeze on the trigger.
[Poof]
Tripped by a bolo round, the woman was stopped in her tracks, face down toward the ground. Looking at her leg, she was tangled in a similar white wire. She tried to break free, but the wire only cut deeper into her skin. With a desperate tear in her eyes, Jackals approached carefully, his pistol loaded.
As soon as she saw Jackals, her face turned into a face of anger and hatred, her wet tail fluff up as well as her ears, while she was also trying to reach out for her crossbow that was lying near.
[Bang Bang]
The bird creatures, at the sound of his gunshots, flew away. Jackals give the woman a warning shot and an intense glare.
"P-diq-bo--!!" She barks with an unusual tongue that is similar to Latin and Italian. Jackals turn on logic translators.
"Fu-- o-f." He almost heard it properly now, yet it required some adjustment.
"You scum, if I can get out, I'll cut your throat!!" She screamed with pure rage.
Jackal walks up to her, and she attempts to fight back with her free hand, only to get grabbed easily by his immense strength. He tying her up with a spare rope, as well as kicked her crossbow away, then lifted her to sit up.
"Fox catching a fox—funny aye?" Jackals said it with a mocking face.
.
.
.
anti-material railrifle, or AM rifle for short. It is a 45mm magnetic acceleration rifle that can launch the projectile at a speed of 4km per second. It was designed for a recon squad to sabotage enemy backlines from a very long range.
It still gets complaints about its length of 1.8 meters because sometimes grunts who use it end up hitting their friend's face or getting stuck by the door frame.
Aside from that, this weapon has proven to be excellent for long-range fire support roles because it has a variety of munitions to choose from and can be set to different velocities for sound masking or maximum penetration.