Contact Alpha

The Descent

Uncertainty, excitement and a slight hint of panick.

They flow around my brain and its implants.

To me, it is indeed strange.

We are one of the best, the top-of-the-line, the elites among elites. Trained and modified to be absolutely stoic at any possible scenarios. Gone through untold amount of deployments, through countless conflicts and missions. With decades of experience under my belt. Yet here I am. Experiencing panick. Even though just slightly, a tiny bit of panick. It is still strange.

It is hard to believe that just several minutes ago, everything were still going smoothly. With just several standard hailing and docking procedures, and maybe some official greeting of both parties. Everyone thought it was going to be another simple escort mission: follow our VIP, put up a barrier around him all the way until he returns to Sol system, simple enough. We even questioned the decision to pull us out of the front line and shove us into this whole thing. Why bring such an elite force to some random VIP escort mission? Our target is not even someone important. From what I can gather in the mission brief, he is just a governor-in-training. Well there's the fact that he is the second son of the Kanz family, the family whose members for generations always end up as planetary governors. They are known for taking care of newly explored and frontline-of-exploration planets. But it still does not justify the fact that the higher ups decided to take away such an important asset, us, only to folow some guy visiting a space station.

We all though it would be easy, simply a temporary trip away from the fronts. Just another one of those government official VIP escort mission made up by the tops to PR the VIP, by putting them next to the famed Delta Six. We thought that we will be back in no time.

But none of us would really expect something like this to happen. Just look at us now.

Sitting inside an escape pod, entering the atmosphere of an un explored planet. Exactly 7 minutes and 39 seconds ago, while we were taking a break in the cafeteria, the station's alarm suddenly goes off. And moments later, the whole thing start to list to one side. Then some loud collision noises were heard, turns out the transport vessels that are docked to the station had collided with the station's main module. Worse, an evacuation order was set in place. And the next thing we know, the entire orbital platform started descending. After helping the station's personnel evacuate, we entered one of the few remaining pods and dropped down as well. So right now we are descending onto a planet. Not just any planets, but a planet with an alien civilization on it. Every other habitable planets human came across before only had alien animals, not actual sentient intelligent beings. Which means all six of us will be some of the first human to come into contact with sentient alien.

A slight vibration rocks the entire pod, waking me up from my thoughts. I look out of the small circular air tight hole. I can clearly see the dancing yellow flames shifting about on the other side of the reinforced carbon glass. A clear indication that we are indeed, descending down onto the planet's atmosphere from orbit like a meteor. The  cold blackness of space is slowly retreating, giving way to a more vibrant, clear cyan-ish blue as it slowly creeps up from below the view of the porthole. It is rather dark in here. With the only light source being the window, our personal lights and the screen in the middle of the pod. Which did not help to ease the feeling of uncertainty.

"Chief, seems like we hit something on the way down. Two directional thrusters are offline." the voice was coming from the man in front of me. He is Talon 4, the Engineer Sergeant of Talon squad, Staff sergeant Shirogane 'Deman' Keiki. Specialisation: engineering and demolition. He has a rather obsessive relationship with anything explosive related. Hence the nickname "Deman", short for demolition man. And from his name, you can clearly tell he's from Japan. He is currently interacting with the escape pod's control system via a portable UI pad he always carries with him. A standard issued piece of equipment for soldiers, but combat engineers recieve specially modified ones.

" Is restoration possible?" I asked, eyes still tracing the cloud that is now vissible from the porthole.

" For now, chief, negative. But I'll do what I can," Still focusing into the UIP monitor and its keyboard, he gives me a short answer. But I am confident he will be able to come up with something. My time fighting alongside him has taught me many things. And one of them is that he can fix pretty much anything.

" Hey what do you think will happen from now?" The buffed man sitting on my right suddenly speaks. That was staff sergeant Marcel Traver, or Talon 3, a weapon specialist sergeant. But we call him Mont. Short for montagne, means "mountain" in French due to his massive build, his usual load out and weapons. Because he is recruited from the Juggernaut corp. He belongs to the few that was handpicked by the higher ups to join the Delta Six. One of the few rare boys from the Jugs that can actually do some proper stealth trainings and execute infiltration missions. Something that you would never expect from a Juggernaut guy.

" I do not know. But I believe we all know what to do once we land, yes?" I asked the rest of my team. Now looking at every one of them.

Mont did not answer, just a slight nod. Then he shifts his gaze toward the circular window. The same goes for the rest of my men. Not a single word spoken. Yet I know that behind the ballistic masks and nano visors blocking their faces. They are smirking confidently.

I know my men, my brothers in arms. We have been fighting together as elites Delta Sixers for decades now. We share the highs and lows of our career together countless times. We know each other very well. Each of us know we always have each others' back. Each of us know we always have our flanks covered. And we all know for a fact that if any of us got knocked out in a fight. They will always be dragged back to cover by another one of us. Know that none of us will ever be left behind, even under the direst of circumstances. An unbreakable bond of brotherhood, forged by the flames of plasma, of ion bolts, of railguns slugs through decades of combat. How long this bond will last I have not a clue. Maybe until death? I hope so.

" Done, back up thrusters online. Regaining fall trajectory," Deman's voice can be heard in the comm. Like always, he got things under control. And to justify what he has just said, the pod stop turning chaoticly and actually start to follow our descending trajectory.

[ 2000 meters to touchdown ] 

As announced by the system in the pod, sights of terrain become vissible through the window and the large monitor screen array at the center of the pod. We begin to sit upright and hold on to our seat lock. Deman put his UIP back into his pack and proceed do the same as us.

" Alright Talons, what ever happens next will not be like anything we have been through before. I believe that this will undoubtedly be the highest point in our career as Delta Six operators. We will be among the very first of mankind to contact sentient alien life forms. Today, on the dawn of June 14th 2367 Earth, we will be making history." I give a small speech to my trusty squad as the ground gets closer.

[ 1000 meters to touchdown. Activating dampeners ]

" Hell yeah"

[ Dampeners activated. 700 meters to touchdown ]

" 'Bout damn time"

[ Dampeners operating at 79 percent. Slowing down]

I feel a force pushing me down to the seat as the pod slows down, preparing for landing.

[500 meters to touchdown ]

From now on, we will be treking on unknown land. Will there be hostiles? Allies? Will we find our people out there, who survived this mess?

[ 300 meters to touchdown ]

We haven't even taken a look at the data collected by the science team on the station. We are going into this blind without intel of the local flora and fauna. Not even info of the local aliens we will potentially come across.

[ 200 meters to touchdown ]

" Talon 2 to Talon 1, order, sir." Kai speaks up. Telling me to give out an order for Delta Six Talon squad. He is sergeant first class Anton Baker from England's city on Mars, or "coyote". We call him "Kai" for short.

[ 100 meters to touchdown. Brace for impact ]

" This is Talon 1, order to all of Talon squad. Begin operation "Contact Alpha"."

[ Touchdown in 5...4...3...2...1... ]

-------------------------------------------------------

 " A new chapter will be opened for mankind today. What will it bring? What can we expect from it? Nobody knows for sure. But whatever it is out there, it will surely make a massive impact on our understanding of this vast universe."

Talon 5 - Medical sergeant - Sergeant first class Johan 'Doc' Tiedemann