The Delargivic Palace was a complex hugging a mountain outside of New Alexandria consisting of several buildings connected by pathways several meters off the ground. Two buildings towards opposite edges were L-shaped and two stories tall, the interior light spilling out into the courtyard and illuminating trees growing between them. Beyond these lay a third structure, three stories high and twice as wide, in the shape of a short H, the areas at each corner barely jutting out from the main body. A balcony overlooked the courtyard from the center of the top of the building, an Arcadian flag with an eagle inside a gear hanging from the bottom.

Walls surrounded the compounded, occasionally interspersed by rectangular towers with several different floors and metal balconies. Spotlights hung from the top platforms, slowly scanning both the inside and out in erratic patterns. Guards patrolled the walkways and walls in pairs, lazily moving back and forth between the towers and buildings. From high above in the Helios-Two dropships, the Siatian soldiers had the impression of a technologically advanced ant farm.

Inside each of the two dropships was a squad of a dozen soldiers, each of them latched in and waiting for the all clear for insertion. All of them were wearing experimental exosuits that could withstand falling hundreds of meters designed for quick in-and-out, high priority missions. At their wrists were sets of wires as grappling hooks for quick and silent ascents. An assault rifle was magnetically attached to one side of the suit and a pistol to the other, both readily accessible. A couple had a rocket launcher strapped around their torso, pressed tightly between their back and the wall of the transport. Each was also equipped with a set of metal cuffs for restraining Arcadian soldiers where possible.

Captain Travis Centric felt as nervous, yet calm, as he ever did before a mission. Even after dozens of operations, the moments of waiting never got any easier. He looked at the other soldiers, some with their heads bowed in silent prayers and others staring unblinkingly either at the ceiling or the wall across from them, their eyes open wide with apprehension. The ramp at the back of the dropship hung open, letting the roar of air into the back of the transport as well as allowing them to see their objective.

As they stood there in the dimly lit interior, quietly awaiting further orders, the captain couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride in the soldiers. Each volunteered for the mission with no other information than it would ensure galactic harmony. Not that there would’ve been any shortage of soldiers if they hadn’t, but just putting themselves out there to defend their Federation spoke volumes. A few of them he had worked with in the past, growing to trust them with his life—moreso than the others at the least.

Trooper Gareth Byrn, a young, dark-skinned man conscripted to the Vanguard Ascendancy just a year ago for mandatory service. He proved himself to be a soldier unlike any the captain had met, subverting the norms of combat, always smiling and willing to lead the way into danger, for better or for worse. Sergeant Celeste Catlow, a somewhat reserved woman of few words who served as his second in command during many operations. Not someone he’d ever thought about crossing, not that he would want to. Finally, Ensign Alec Kulova, a dewy-eyed boy fresh out of the Vanguard Academy and eager—perhaps a little too much—to prove himself in battle.

‟Dragonfire Squadron, you are clear for drop into Zone Alpha,” a harsh hissing voice said over the speakers, seeming to emanate from each corner of the ship. ‟Prepare for descent.”

When the voice finished speaking, the dropships immediately turned into a steep, almost vertical, dive, heading directly towards the compound. The g-forces of the movement pushed each soldier against the wall of the ship, compressing them tightly with the pressure.

In his head, Captain Centric counted down, attempting to gauge how long before their harnesses would be released. With each second ticking by, he grew more and more impatient, wanting nothing more than to be down in the thick of things. Somewhere his math was off, because when he reached two, small pops went off around him and they were thrown from the transport, plummeting headfirst towards the compound below.

A wave of adrenaline pulsed through his body as he trusted the equipment to keep him alive during and after the three-hundred-meter drop. The air rushed past him in a roar, the exosuit doing its best to keep the noise filtered but some still leaking through. Gareth zoomed alongside him, giving the captain a thumbs up with a grin before he whooped and the visor of his exosuit snapped shut as he shot past and towards the ground.

After just a few seconds of falling, the suit automatically corrected itself, putting Travis upright, and a pair of small engines at his hips fired to slow his descent. As he touched down in the courtyard with a metallic clang, the engines disconnected themselves, hitting the ground with a bang as the others around him hit with thuds. A smell of oxidation mixed with smoke filled the air from the quick jets of fire.

Before he had a chance to recover, shouts sounded from the suspended walkways, and bullets pinged off the metal air, ricocheting off and disappearing into their surroundings. Flashes of light from the weapons on both sides lit up the area as the spotlights swung to them, casting them in its radiant glow.

Captain Centric immediately pulled his assault rifle free, his CAM sending the command to the exosuit to release it, and brought it up to aim at the nearest Arcadian soldier. A burst of three bullets shot from the barrel, embedding themselves in the guard and causing him to topple over the railing to the ground with a sickening crack. The captain ducked around the nearest corner of the building, pressing his back against it before leaning around to fire again.

A series of bullets slammed into the ground next to him and ricocheted off into the darkness, narrowly missing as he ducked back behind the wall. After the firing ended, he peeked around and aimed at the first Arcadian he saw, letting loose his own shots and causing the man to jerk several times before falling still.

Across the courtyard, Catlow pressed herself against the wall, carefully focusing shots at the soldiers in one of the guard towers. As she let loose her precise barrage, one of the spotlights bearing down on the group of Siatians went out, sending part of the courtyard into darkness. Some yells of surprise from the Arcadians pierced their air before they were quickly stifled and overwhelmed by bursts of gunfire.

An explosion came from a few meters away from the captain, and a thin wisp of smoke trailed from one of the Siatians towards a guard tower, where a rocket burst against the metal. A fireball erupted from the spot, sending shrapnel and pieces of metal with a cloud of dark smoke in all directions.

After several intense moments of fighting—which felt as if an eternity had passed—silence filled the air, accentuated by the occasional groan from an injured soldier. Several of the Siatian soldiers walked throughout the bodies, taking the CAM discs from their own dead and putting bullets through the heads of still alive Arcadians.

‟Well, that was easy,” Gareth said, his visor flipping itself up to reveal his grinning face. ‟What were we here for again, cap’n?”

‟We grab Delargivic, we call for extraction, we go home.” Centric scanned the perimeter, looking for any sign of further resistance from the Arcadians before gesturing to the two groups of soldiers. ‟Greyhawk Squadron, clear both of these buildings and ensure there are no surprises waiting for us in either. Dragonfire, we’re heading to the main building to secure the objective. Keep your eyes on the fucking shadows, and watch each other’s backs.”

The captain took a deep, steadying breath as the soldiers affirmed the orders and began splitting up. Electrical wiring and metal panels hung from some of the walkways and walls of the buildings, destroyed by the firefight. One of the soldiers of Greyhawk dragged an injured fellow out from the open, bringing him around a corner and propping him against the building. Bodies littered the ground, mostly Arcadian but also the occasional Siatian. Six of his soldiers were lost, and he uttered a quick prayer for the fallen as the rest of his squad—minus two of the original twelve—stood in a loose semicircle around him, their eyes continuing to search the area.

Before he could give them an order, Catlow stepped forward, putting her fingers between her lips and letting out a piercing whistle to draw all of their attention.

‟Come on, you lot, let’s keep moving and complete the mission,” she said, her hands clenched tight on her rifle as she led the way.