Interstellar Age
Chapter 105 Survive!



The sound of gunfire crackled in the air above the small forested moon, as Erich precisely nailed his target with his plasma rifle. Despite pulling off a perfect headshot, the Star Marine who was the supposed victim merely shook it off, and instead rained down a hail of gunfire onto Erich's position.

However, there was no time to return fire, because the moment he fired his shot, Erich picked up a transmission being sent out to a nearby artillery station. Clearly, the squad leader intended to launch an attack on Erich's current location.

Thus, he immediately responded to this incident by hijacking control of the communication with his newly enhanced NeuroLink, and jamming the signal. Because of this, Erich had bought himself just enough time to get out of dodge before his exact location was vaporized. 

Of course, he would have to run through a torrent of machine gun fire, because the moment he got up from behind his cover, he would be fired upon by an entire squad of Star Marines. But the alternative was certain death. 

Thus, Erich did not hesitate to pick up his special purpose rifle, which was lying on the ground, propped up only by a bipod, and fled from the scene with haste. Contrary to what Erich was expecting when Mirage first woke him up the day after he had received his upgrades, this was not your standard training course. In fact, this entire facility was probably illegal, because Erich had never heard of such a ruthless method of training new recruits. 

To put it simply, his current so called "training" was nothing more than kill or be killed. The moment his training began, Erich was given a single task: survive. Meanwhile, all the Imperial forces stationed within the small forested moon had suddenly turned hostile, and they were armed with live munitions. 

Surrounded by enemies on all sides, and given exactly fuck all in terms of resources, Erich was supposed to survive for three months on this moon, while being hunted by Mirage and the troops beneath her command.

These soldiers varied from Star Marines, Storm Commandos, and even fellow WRAITHs, all of which worked together to hunt down the new trainee and kill him. If Erich were to suffer from a fatal injury, or could otherwise not continue with his training, then he would have to start over from scratch. 

So far Erich had managed to survive for three whole weeks, almost entirely off of hit-and-run tactics, as well as scavenging from his victims. The massive amount of theoretical knowledge he had been given on a variety of subjects which were required to effectively perform as a WRAITH, were now being employed by him in practice. 

However, with only theoretical knowledge to go off of, and no actual practical training, many things were a matter of trial and error. Which Erich found to be particularly loathsome, because if he made a single mistake, he was as good as dead. 

Thus, Erich ran like a bat out of hell as the enemy fired plasma bolts towards his back, which thankfully missed, because he had no protection against such powerful weapons, after all, killing a Star Marine who is dressed in a full set of power armor, and leaving the body intact enough to recover said set of power armor was a task that most of the Galaxy's most fearsome warriors would fail to accomplish. And when it came to actual combat, Erich was a complete and total novice. 

Erich could hear voices over the comms which he had sliced into, coordinating with other units which lie waiting for Erich within the forest. His mind immediately created a real time tactical map, as he imagined exactly how the hostile forces were now converging upon him. Leaving him well and truly fucked. 

Of course, Erich did not have time to think about this, because in the next moment he felt his foot step on something it otherwise shouldn't have. A single word escaped the man's lips before a massive explosion occurred within the forest. 

"Fuck!"

Erich had stepped on an antimatter landmine, one which sent his body flying in multiple directions. He had previously thought that his skeleton was indestructible after suffering what would normally be a catastrophic injury during the first 72 hours of his training. Only now did he realize this was not the case, because both of his legs had been blasted off, but in doing so, they had shielded the rest of his body from the explosion. 

A badly burnt Erich lie in the crater, as he gazed down at his missing legs with a painful expression on his face. The moment the limbs were severed from the body, the nanites within his bloodstream began to repair the damage. By now, his bones were being reconstructed with a metallic substance, one which Erich could only assume was the one that had been grafted onto his skeletal structure to increase its durability. 

As much as he wanted to cry out in agony over the intense feeling of pain that he was currently enduring, Erich did not utter a word. No doubt the kill team was already on its way to his location after hearing the explosion, and if he did not manage to replace a weapon soon, then he was as good as dead. 

Unfortunately, his special purpose rifle had been utterly annihilated by the explosion, and thus he was left with only one option. Play dead.... Thus, Erich buried his head in the dirt and waited for the kill team to arrive. Which occurred soon enough because a few moments later, he heard a voice call out to his comrades. 

"The dumb fucker got himself blown up! Careful, he's in a minefield! Shit, is he dead?" 

The kill team carefully navigated through the minefield, and approached Erich's body, which lie completely still. One of the soldiers pointed the muzzle of his gun against Erich's body in an attempt to push him over. Which was precisely when Erich struck. 

Like a zombie that had just been reanimated, Erich grabbed hold of the weapon and stripped it from the man's hand, where he then emptied the entire plasma cell into the man's head, and those of the men who had followed him into the minefield. 

The sudden attack caught the Star Marines off guard and dropped them dead on the spot. Meanwhile, Erich crawled towards the nearest of the three corpses and began to loot the body. By now, his legs were close to being completely repaired, and he was more interested in taking the man's boots and socks to replace the ones he had lost in the explosion. 

After looting the plasma rifle from the man and his remaining plasma cells. Erich then began to strip the soldier out of his uniform, adorning all the power armor except for the melted helmet. Which vastly improved his defenses. 

Once he was fully kitted out, and his legs were in working order, Erich then walked over to the other two star marines and scavenged one of their functional helmets. For the first time in his life, he got to understand what a proper suit of power armor should look like, and he was not disappointed. 

Equipped with a heads up display, and all the information regarding his vitals, and ammunition. Erich was astonished to see just how much a power armor helmet enhanced a warfighter's capabilities. 

Of course, he did not have much time. The other forces would realize that Erich had killed their men, and if he did not escape from this encirclement soon, then this sudden treasure trove of loot would be meaningless. Thus, Erich came up with the brilliant idea of faking his death, and pretending to be the last surviving member of the star marines who had been sent to kill him. 

He did this by taking one of the corpses, and triggering it against a land mine, which not only tore off the man's legs but also damaged his facial features beyond repair, while burning off all of his hair in the process. After coming up with a decoy corpse, he then made it look like a massive firefight had unfolded by firing some of the scavenged weapons around the area. 

Once his ruse had been properly set up, Erich cried out on the communications channel in a concealed voice. Saying that the target was engaging in fierce resistance. With the enhanced speed of his body, he was able to accomplish all of this in a very short time frame. 

"God damnit, who the hell is this guy? Man down! We're taking heavy fire!"

As far as the rest of the Star Marines were concerned, a massive firefight had broken out in the area, as they could hear the gunshots and explosions going off. And Erich used this as an opportunity to retreat among the advancing forces who came to support their comrades. Skilfully infiltrating the unit. 

The other soldiers converged on the scene, and found the dead bodies of their fallen comrades, as well as the body of a man who looked like it could be the target. Thus, they were quick to confirm if Erich had been killed over the comms. All the while, the man in question covertly made his exit from the scene. 

"This is Sergeant Wulf. I have a corpse here, which is possibly the target. It's hard to tell, it's been fucked up to such a sorry state. I don't even recognize it as being the same species as us. Can you confirm that the target has been eliminated?" 

Back at HQ, Mirage was looking over all the data about the soldiers who had been cloned, but found no data that Erich was indeed terminated. Because she was so experienced in these matters, she was quick to curse out the Star Marines as she ordered them to do a quick sweep of the area.

"No, damn it! Fuck! That's not him, that's one of ours! Shit! He's either hidden among your ranks, or has already fled the scene. Confirm your identities and sweep the area! Quickly!"

But it was too late. The moment the Star Marines bought the bait, Erich had disappeared from the area, and was now working like hell to escape the encirclement altogether. Though it would not be an easy task, because there were more than just Star Marines that lurked in these forests, and those hidden monsters were a real threat to the man's survival.