His unit was the first off the drop ship. As they hit the ground the difference in gravity from that of their orbiting platform was more disorienting than he realized it would be. The force of his boots hitting the dirt kicked up sand and debris where it stayed airborne for many seconds before it started to slowly fall again to the ground causing his vision to be obstructed. It didn’t matter though. The heads up display on his visor was screaming multiple tones and beeps instructing him that he was still over 100 yards from his target position.
He dug the tips of his boots into the sand and launched himself forward hurling into the air losing contact with the ground. He could hear a few of his comrades over the sound of the almost constant scream of weapons fire calling him a rookie for such an idiot move.
He hit the ground again but this time he angled his body and launched in his assigned direction forward but not upwards staying low to the ground. A voice in his helmet was telling him he still had over 50 yards to his first mission objective.
Just then the internal environmental controls kicked in to regulate the humidity accumulating on his visor. Running in this terrain was causing the 4 year veteran to rethink his decision for redeployment. This new mission offered a new battleground on a new planet but with an old enemy. An enemy he was looking forward to seeing again. He was moving slower than he wanted and was starting to feel the anxiety of being more than 30 seconds behind mission schedule.
“Frank where are you?” a voice crackled in his earpiece.
Just then the pressure alarm went off in Frank’s HUD. He was still 30 yards away but he had been seen by the enemy and had taken a hit. The blinking graphic of the outline of a human body in the top corner of his visor indicated that there was a breach in the right foot of his armor suit. He couldn’t feel anything but fell down into the sand anyway as he attempted to take another step.
“Almost there sir, I’ve taken a hit but can still…” he started to respond but was interrupted by the pressure wave of a large explosion just behind him. The enemy knew from decades of fighting the Terrans their foothold procedure and have identified Frank as the Torch Runner.
Two more explosions went off, the second one hurling frank into the air.
Frank’s HUD was now showing multiple breaches and his suit already had begun to administer emergency medical injections to stabilize his body to the low pressure of the outside environment. Frank pressed a small blue button on the beacon which was attached to his arm which released the device. As he hit the ground face down he could see on his small digital map blinking in the lower corner of his visor that he had overshot his target. He started to get up and brought up his leg to stand when he realized the breach on his right foot was more than just a breach. It was missing completely. Undeterred he pushed himself up and threw himself forward in a cloud of sand and blood.
Landing on the ground he plunged the sharp end of the beacon into the ground and slapped the soft glowing red button that was pulsing on the now top side of the device. Just then a bright blue flash illuminated the sky for a brief moment about 1000 yards directly above him.
Frank could hear the cheers of his comrades in earpiece fade away as he lost conciseness.
