This world is for the Mad

[canon35]

Imraj stood in a desert, regretting ever taking this job.

The brutal sandstorms covered the base he was working in on a daily basis, the wind could tear through the hardest of clothing and bust any window in sight, but that still didn't stop NT from setting up a base on Arcis VI.

So he stood there, wearing a pair of goggles with cloth wrapped around his face, a helmet tightly secured on his head, with a dusty camo greatcoat protecting his body from the died down sands as he wore body armour underneath. jackboots prevented the sand from getting into his socks, but barely.

As he looked around him, he could see similarly dressed men, each one surveying the site, looking for any sight of raiders. A little over 10 years ago Arcis VI was host to a violent civil war as people fought against NT's control. No one was sure what started it, but the other side won and failed to set up a proper government. Within 6 months, the planet devolved into a anarchy. Gangs roamed the deserts, attacking settlements and brutally murdering anyone they came across. But as NT began to move it's forces back in, the planet was on it's way back to proper living as mercenaries, like Imraj, were hired to bring order back.

Imraj soon felt a tapping at his shoulder and turned to see a member of his squad, evident by the mark he bore on his helmet (A blue star) motioning him to follow. They soon re-entered the base and Imraj was face-to-face with the commander of the base, Alastair. Alastair was dressed in a black suit, wearing a black trench-coat to match. With jackboots and a pistol on his waist Alastair looked to be a very important man, but his usual smile was gone, a expression of annoyance covered his face. "BRAR!" He screamed, his face inches away from Imraj. "You fucking get your fucking ears checked, hear me? We called you inside five fucking times!". It took Imraj nearly every fiber of his being not to yell back "Apologies, the sand must of gotten back into my earpiece, sir.". Alastair, looking discontent with Imraj's responce said "Get to your squad briefing room, they're waiting on you.". Imraj nodded and spun on his heel, making his way down the grey metal walls to a door with a Blue Star on it, he pressed it open and walked in.

The room was a spacious one with a row of chairs in the center, facing a podium. There were four doors, each one with a different symbol on them. A red cross, a grey wrench, A gold star, and a laser carbine. Each one represented the medical, engineering, command, and armoury rooms respectively. Imraj was about to enter the armoury to gear up when he noticed the rest of the squad starting at him from the opposite end of the room. "About fucking time." Muttered his squad leader, Davis. Imraj merely grunted and open the door. He grabbed a C-20r and put it on his waist, grabbing two clips to use as ammo he also grabbed a Colt 1911 and shoved it into a small holster on his chest. After a short trip into the medical section to refill his stores of medicine in his backpack, Imraj turned to the rest of his squad and nodded. They left the room and began to walk towards the dock, due to the high sands of the planet the best form of transport was a mag-lev train.

As they all clambered into the cars the Squad Leader gave the OK to the engineers to start up the train, and they began to speed down the tracks. "What arrrrre we even going forrr?" Asked a tajara who was checking his shotgun's ammo. "Raiders, what else?" Responded one of the squad's grunts. Davis, noticing the talking, said "Raiders hit another mining colony, we're to go in there and check the area with local defenders.". "Joy." muttered one of the engineers in the car "Can't believe NT is bothering to try to civilize this dump.". "What'd you expect?" grumbled the tajara from earlier "Planet has plasma, NT wants it.". Davis looked out the windows of the train and said "If you ask me, they sho--" his words were cut short as a large boom washed over the train, as it began to go out of control, flipping over numerous times before finally stopping. Imraj groaned and unbuckled himself "Everyone good?". The other soldiers all groaned and muttered yes. The tajara was immediately out of his seat and forced open the door on the side of the train car "Everrryone out.". As Imraj clambered out with the rest of the group he saw the damage to the train. The tracks were demolished, completely gone as parts of the train were smoking and on fire, the cargo inside eitherly destroyed or scattered on the floor. Another deafening boom has heard as a train car, the engine, as destroyed in an explosion. Davis looked at the wreckage and yelled "Everyone! Get your fucking gear on and starting running down the tracks! This was not an accident.".

The soldiers quickly packed whatever they could take and began to walk down the tracks as they heard another boom, the track in front of them as decimated. "What the hell?!" Screamed an engineer, "Fucking tracks must of been built on some sort of ex--" again, the man's words were cut again as a large horn was heard from behind them. All the soldiers turned at once to see a collection of vehicles in the distance spewing black smoke and carrying banners on them. "Shit, shit,shit." said the engineer as he turned to Davis "Do we surrender?". Davis merely looked at the panicking trooper and said "No, they were likely the ones who set the trap, they knew someone was gonna come here eventually and laid in wait." Imraj looked away from the on-coming storm of black smoke and says "Then what the hell do we do?". "Grab what the hell you can, and run." Stated Davis before he began to run towards a near-by spire of red rock. The other soldiers followed suit, unsure of what was to come next...