1 Planet Lucent's Frontline (1)

*WHOOSH!*

The burning flames vanished from a sizeable ship with its precious cargo as it traveled past the protective layer of the stratosphere into the atmosphere level.

<<Announcement!>>

<<Dropship L-22 is now closing to the landing point! Your mission would be defending this Landing Zone from all threats until your next pickup arrives. The estimated mission time will be two hours! Each of you will be rewarded with 1000 Geass on your triumphant return.>>

<<Additionally, you will be paid extra for each threat you've neutralized, depending on their threat level. For starters, make sure you differentiate what you can take and what you can't according to your helmet's color designation.>>

<<Remember! The threat levels start from faint to dark. The most common targets of yours would be green, yellow, and red marked. If you see markers with blue, they're friendlies.>>

<< And if you encountered a black marker, run! As long the camcorder on your helmet recorded the presence of a black marker, you will be exempted from the penalty for abandoning your post!>>

<<One minute to landing! The corporation wishes all of you luck! Make us proud out there! Your pilot, out!>>

The Dropship carrying twenty soldiers equipped with an advanced technological suit descends from the atmosphere after the pilot finished the briefing. From the way he did it, this was not the pilot's first time reading what was written in his notebook.

Each soldier wore a typical head-to-toe jumpsuit with ample protection gear, mainly focusing on their torso and hip. On their back was a rifle and three magazines of spare ammunition. There's a baton-like stick attached to their belt, with a pistol on their preferable upper thigh.

The helmet they're wearing seems to be providing them ample oxygen to breathe. The technological advancement made sure the soldier no longer needed to rely on a cumbersome oxygen tank. All they need is to change one of the disks on their helmet's cranium part, and that would be more than enough to provide them with oxygen for a single day.

<<22nd team, get ready for ejection!>>

The pilot gave them the last before mission instruction.

"Ready!" the twenty soldiers responded.

The soldiers were ejected out from the Dropship once they responded to the pilot's question. It was like the seat they were on is voice-activated.

The parachute they had on their back spread opened immediately and allowed these soldiers to reduce their descending speed. But it would still take them close to five-second to stabilized midair before they reach the ground.

If the soldier focused their view over the ground, it was actually flat terrain without anything. Not even a blade of grass is growing on top of this surface. Except for some makeshift equipment turned into defensive bunkers, this place is literally barren.

"Holy F! What kind of mission did we signed for? This place is barren! Do you think two hundred bullets is enough for us to hold our ground for two hours?" asked one of the soldiers from this L-22 Dropship.

"I've signed up for an even worst mission than this. This place is literally heaven compared to the Micos-14 Death Star." said another soldier from the same Dropship.

"Shut the fuck up. Our targets found us." the quietest amongst the bunch, Li-Xin, said. He's the first to get ejected out from the ship and the youngest in this group of twenty. He was preparing to pull his weapon out to point at the targets.

"Keep your hand busy on your chute, Boy. You have two hours to slowly aim at them. For now, make sure you control your landing because this is the first challenge you newbies have to get used to." someone interrupted before Li-Xin managed to get a grip at his rifle.

Based on what he said, this was not the first time he joined the mission. But compared to the others with normal limbs, he looked different. This person has a metal right arm and a metal right leg on him.

"All of you, get ready for landing. I'll open a point for you guys to come in!" the individual's parachute retracted into his backpack after he finished with his sentence. His descending speed picked up considerably from five to six hundred meters above the ground.

Coming down like a blast of a cannon, this individual lands on the ground with a bang. All this individual did was relying on the metal right leg to create an entrance like this.

Unlike the others, this individual doesn't hold the rifle as the others did. The wrist piece of his metal arm disengaged and revealed a pistol's barrel from both left and right. Aiming by pointing his fist at the target, he started to go on a rampage.

"Let the party... BEGIN!" the individual went crazy and charged towards the direction with most targets.

From afar, the target looked like it was a humanoid based on how they walked. But that's all to it. These aliens do look humanoid from above, but not on the ground. Except for the tentacle arm with a mouth, these aliens had heads and legs identical to humans.

They had a bluish body with studier flesh around their shoulders and torso, somewhat like leather pauldrons. Since these "things" have no fingers to hold onto tools, they resorted to firing bone spikes from the mouth on the tentacle's tip.

"Hahaha! Let's get it started!" another member from the 22nd team retracts his parachute and comes down hard above one of the humanoid targets. Three bullets were fired at the target to limit its activity before the member forcefully stepped on top of the foreign being.

"Battle!" the member yelled after turning the alien's head into pulp. The rifle in his hand is pointed at another target as he gets himself ready to hunt.

His yelling made everyone else impatient as they tried to learn from him. But their results were a pitiful one. Except for a few experienced individuals that came later, half of the newcomers injured their legs from trying to land recklessly.

Luckily, Li-Xin wasn't one of the few.

...

"What is the situation down there?" the captain of a spaceship inquired his helmsmen for a situation report.

"We receive heavy resistance from the locals, but 70% of our land units successfully secure a few of the strategic building points." one of the bridge crews reported.

"Good! Launch five knights down there. How long do we have before the outpost is ready to get down there?" asked the captain.

"100 minutes countdown, sir!" the same bridge crew answered.