Ivan Kal - Sanctuary

“Yes, sir!” Sahib said and saluted. Then he turned and went to find Platoon Leader Nissah Monifa and then to get their platoons.

Sahib swayed gently as the TTV or tactical transport vehicle turned a corner. He was standing in the TTV alongside the rest of his platoon. After Sahib found Nissah, both he and she got their platoons into their TTV’s and immediately started towards the position of the militia force. The TTV’s were armored vehicles designed to be used in high threat situations, transporting troops through contested territory. They remained almost unchanged from even before Olympus got into space, with only a few additions.

“Reaching the coordinates in 5 minutes.” A voice over the internal speakers in Sahib’s helmet, as it did in that of every soldier in the TTV’s.

“Alright, everyone get ready.” Sahib said. Looking at his HUD, he saw the updated info on the situation sent from Company Leader Okoro. The militia forces had engaged the Sowir, and were losing badly. Laas Rett sent 700 militia to deal with 300 Sowir soldiers. Militia with limited training and equipment against 300 fully equipped soldiers. Sahib shook his head. It was stupid. Even this small force will be able to do enormous damage before it was defeated unless Laas Rett started acting competently. TTV’s came to a stop and the back opened. As soon as the two platoons left them Sahib started giving orders.

“Squad Claw and Paw reinforce militia positions, setup turrets and keep them bottled. Nissah, you hit them from the east. I’ll try to come from their backs, see if we can take their dropship.” Sahib said, and Nissah saluted. Claw and Paw squad took out two boxes from the TTV and then started towards the militia positions, Nissah’s platoon took off to get in position. Sahib turned to his two remaining squads, Alpha and Fang.

“Let’s go.” Sahib said. They were provided with detailed maps of the city by the Laas Rett, and Sahib’s HUD was constantly updated with enemy positions. They chose to take a long round route around the contested area, hoping to avoid any Sowir forces until they got into position. At first Sowir landing points seemed random, as there was no significant point of interest they could be going after. Until he realized that all of their droop points were in close proximity to the underground shelters. Logic dictated that those were their targets and that they had some knowledge about them, even though the shelters were supposed to be undetectable from orbit. Sowir were throwing their troops away, but also trying to wreak as much damage as they could. Sahib constantly got updates from Claw and Paw squads, they had set up defensive positions one on the street level and one on a nearby building, from where they managed to halt the Sowir advance. Sahib had sent his thoughts on the Sowir objectives to CL Okoro, and both he and Laas Rett concurred. The militia has been taking heavy casualties simply due to them being outmatched. Claw Squad Leader Lee “Noose” Sato commed Sahib to let him know that their weapons proved very effective against the Sowir, unlike those of Nel militia.

After fifteen minutes they reached the back of Sowir position. “The Sowir dropship came down somewhere behind these buildings.” Sahib said, highlighting them on his and the rest of his people HUDs. “Fang scout ahead. See how many are guarding the dropship.”

Without a word Cheat took his squad through one of the buildings that connected to the square where the dropship was supposed to be.

Sahib took his own squad to the side, where he could quickly respond should Fang need help, or attack the dropship. A few minutes later Cheat commed in.

“There are four Sowir in front of the dropship, can’t say if there are more inside Alpha.”

“Can you take them down?”

“Yes.”

“Ok, wait for my signal.” Sahib said. He moved his squad closer, and then gave the signal to Fang. Alpha squad ran out of cover towards the dropship, using their suits powered systems to increase their speed in three seconds they covered over 160 meters. Sowir noticed them and started to turn just as four shots rang out, dropping them in a shower of blood. Sahib ordered two of his squads to secure the dropship. Then instructed squad Fang to spread out around the square and provide cover. After the dropship was secure and they made sure there are no more threats around them, Sahib looked down at the Sowir bodies. There was much more blood and gore than he expected. The bullets from their sniper rifles ripped through the Sowir suits and their bodies, taking with them huge chunks of flesh. It was as if a cannonball punched through. The Sowir looked like some kind of octopi, only with seven arms instead of eight. The arms weren’t really anything like that of an octopus, there were no suctions or ridges of any kind that Sahib could see, they looked more like Elephant trunks, long muscles ending with four small finger like appendages. The arms were close to two meters in length, and their center of the body looked like a big blob about a meter across. All shots were in the center of their mass, as that was where their major organs were. Looking down, he couldn’t see for sure what their skin looked like as it was covered in a brownish suit, but the few chunks he could see were grayish in color. The center of their bodies was encased in a kind of armor, although Sahib couldn’t tell what it was made from. The center blob had something mounted on it that looked like it could be a weapon of some kind, while two of its seven arms had things attached that definitely were weapons.

“Why the hell didn’t they have more guarding this thing?” Cheat asked over the comm.

“I have no idea. They are alien, who can say. And I don’t think that they planned on getting off this planet alive.” Sahib said.

“But that makes no sense. They can’t possibly hurt Nuva enough to warrant the sacrifice of their soldiers.” Cheat said. Sahib didn’t respond, he felt the same way. Sahib decided to leave two of his men to guard the dropship from a safe distance, but he had them put explosives on the dropship.

“If more Sowir than you can handle come this way detonate the charges.” Sahib told the two. They saluted and went to find sniping positions. Then the rest of Fang and Alpha squads continued towards the back of the Sowir positions.

Squad Leader Lola ‘NGD’ Petrov and Squad Leader Lee “Noose” Sato sat behind the cover guiding their squads, they had set up a defensive perimeter in one of the main streets that lead to one of the shelters, which as it happened Sowir wanted to reach. They set up two HO-32 turrets on the street level one on a nearby building so that it could cover the west approach, and one closing off the adjacent street. That meant that Sowir had to go through them if they wanted to get to the shelter. And as they learned that wasn’t going to happen, they were at an impasse. Sowir couldn’t get pass the turrets and militia positions, and the militia couldn’t get to them. The Sowir positions were in a series of small streets, which with their higher speed and agility meant that anyone going in there wasn’t coming back out. Before the humans arrived militia was getting hammered. They simply didn’t know how to position themselves, nor did they have any kind of training that could help them. After the two squads arrived and set up their defenses things changed. The turrets started laying waste to the Sowir that were running down the street trying to overwhelm Nel positions. They lost at least fifty before they wised up and moved back. Now the Nel militia was at least positioned correctly to protect the area, under the guidance of Lola and Lee. All of their commanders died in the fighting before humans arrived. Sowir now kept to their side of the street, trying to snipe at the human positions, without much success. Each time they did a shot rang out, and a Sowir died.