Ant

As I go over the information a begin to wonder, why is there only this much intel on such a high priority target. I get that its highly classified but why would there be almost not intel on it if we knew where it was and what its producing. "Yo sanders, what's the deal with this intel its bare bones almost nothing." "look man I'm not sure, but we get these bare bones missions a lot so if you're going to be rolling with us get used to it." Damn wonder who shat in his cereal this morning.

After a few more minutes of thinking and waiting the pilots voice comes over the intercom. "30 minutes till re-entry" 'well this ought to be fun' I think to myself I glance over to the mechs sitting towards the back, specifically the one I was given personally by dad. While he was taken off guard by my choice to join the military, it was not that farfetched as we did run the sole arms manufacturer for the federation. While he was slightly dismayed, he did understand as compared to my sister jane who showed better management, while I did show talent when it came to engineering and design, I much preferred work and pilot work. So, with the approval of my father and my mother, I decided to join the military, also at my request I was not boosted or given anything considering my thunderous background. After working hard for five years as a combat engineer in a mechanized division, I was promoted to sergeant first class and offered a promotion to special ops.

I did fine there for a year, and while I am still skeptical of whether my father interfered, after a year I was suddenly brought in front of 2 suit and ties and asked if id like to join a force called the epsilon program, at first, I was confused as I had never heard of the epsilon program before. The man just smiled and informed me that if I had not heard of it that means that they did a good job at hiding it. After mulling it over for a few days I told them I would like to join, they said great then without warning a bag was shoved over my head and I was knocked unconscious.

After that the next year was absolute hell. They trained me on every weapon and weapon system known to and used by the federation, past and current. I was told that since I showed engineering promise I would be trained on that as well. They had me do things such as completely disassemble a mech and reassemble it into another mech the best I could, these were surprisingly difficult even though I studied with my father's greatest engineers since I was little and being 22 now means I had a lot of knowledge stored in my head. However, the worst part by far was at the six-month mark, they informed me I would start combat drills with the expectation that I had to be able to kill a 20-man team solo to reach the standard minimum requirement! After six months I was deemed ready and sent here to the epsilon teams' headquarters in the Rocky Mountains, as it is not needed to have more then 1 aside from the maintenance personnel, only the 9-man team remained, and it was down to 8 as the last combat engineer got blown to bits on a mission, hence my training.

Thinking back to that training still gives me shivers… do you even know how hard it is to used bolts to secure sections that should have been welded! Regardless with all my knowledge something throws me off about the graduation gift my father gave me he said that the AI built in was a prototype and that I should put it to good use. The X-4 as it is supposedly the base prototype for the new X-5 they are developing, was given to me, it had a sleeker design along with boosted power production, luckily my father gifted the team new weapons and equipment along with this X-4. suddenly an alarm blared overhead. This was the start of a long night.

"Delta load up, that's the early warning system we've been spotted and missiles are inbound were gonna have to re-enter early for a suborbital drop" Well fuck I wasn't trained for this, "Sure thing Colonel" I run down to my mech near the middle of the plane. As I get close the cockpit the canopy opens and the steps lower down for me to mount in, as the other mechs must go up and use the remote release I hear a quip from sanders, "yo rookie don't let that fancy tech get to your head out there, your fathers tech might help but it won't save your life when push comes to shove you here me?" "Aye sir". As I start mounting inside a calm mechanical voice is heard, "welcome pilot, shall I start systems check?" "please do." At first it was weird getting used to the ai, like a combat copilot of sorts it comes in quite handy. "all systems green, sir… there appear to be multiple objects heading towards our craft at sub cosmic speeds." "yeah, I'm aware we've been spotted." "roger, initiating impact reduction" "no need we are gonna sub orbital drop, are you good to do that?" "aye sire switching to heat shielding" alright let's do this….

as the plane descended further the shaking became more and more intense. "Alright everyone on my count release your boot locks and begin ejection, I'm sending landing site to your HUDS, do NOT be late we are already behind because of this. Pilot thanks for the ride." "my honor colonel" "group 1 go! … Group 2! Group 3!" As I heard my group my ai released the brakes for me as we slid out of the plane and began heating from the friction. "Computer aim us for this site" "Aye sir". After falling for about 3 minutes, we began to approach the ground. "initiating landing thrusters" Bright white arcs of flame began ejecting from the legs and torso of the mech steadily increasing slowing the decent before the mech slammed into the ground at only 40 or so km/h, "you coulda landed a little slower computer" "sorry sir, this was my first sub orbital drop." "Yeah yeah, I got it." Set waypoint on my HUD for the meeting point." "aye sir"

after a minute or so of jungle marching, I came on the group, "you're late rookie" "yeah traffic was bad from your mother's house" "Quiet you two fall in and let's get moving we ended up about 30 klicks off from the intended landing site we need to get moving now before daybreak" ""yes sir""

"let's be sure these guys don't notice us, so we can get this facility dealt with as soon as possible" "don't worry sir these stupid ants won't notice use otherwise wed be under attack already." "I hope your right misfit" amidst some small talk we trekked around 30 kilometers to a forest valley somewhere south of the facility. I just could not help but feel something off, I am not sure what it is, but it makes me anxious.