Pride goes before a fall

The sun was shining high in the sky while the Barracuda class transporter was on approach. Below him was a small collection of angular sandstone houses, which, by the light of the sun, shone brightly.

On the outskirts of this village was a small landing field where a crowd was already gathering. When the ship came in for landing, all the of the soliders were already standing at the exit and talking quietly.

Kane knew all too well that the sergeant would let them until the door opened.

In the background he could hear Michael and Licy talking about their vacation.

Michael was about to tell her how he fell into the lake while trying to catch a compa fish when the barracuda touched down with a gentle jerk.

Immediately all conversation stopped and the soldiers put on their helmets. A few more words of encouragement were heard through the loudspeakers, but Kane's mind was already on their mission.

Until now they hadn't been told what the mission was about, it didn't seem to be that important, he thought to himself. Or maybe it is a secret mission?

No matter what it would be, just this mission and he would quit his career, or what existed of it at all.

As he was about to lose himself even deeper in his thoughts, the door opened and the soldiers stepped out into the open, only to be greeted by a heat wave, a lot of sand and villagers.

The Sergeant led them across the metal landing pad to a nearby sandstone hut. Kane inspected it as they approached: What he had thought were joints turned out to be cracks in a stone.

As he examined the building more closely, he noticed that it appeared to be cut from a single stone.

Interesting, he thought to himself and made a mental note of it, perhaps it could come in handy again sometime. They reached the building and entered, inside the air was cooler, though he didn't see any cooling or anything to similar effect. The soldiers took off their helmets, and the faces that had just been so joyful showed the first signs of heat exposure after the short walk of about 200m.

"Good morning soldiers", a burly man in uniform greeted them. "I am the current leader of our operation here, my name is Harskof". In the back of the room, one could hear quiet whispers about whether he had a last name, but they were skillfully overheard by the OP.

Kane examined Harskof closely: he was a stout man in his 40s, his skin tanned by the sun, he had a gray mustache and dark brown, almost black hair, his eyes were a rich hazel. The sleeves of his sand-colored uniform, consisting of a pair of trousers, a pair of boots and a shirt, were rolled up, revealing his muscular arms, which he held crossed in front of his chest.

On his shirt was his rank insignia, which showed him to be a tactical commander, who had already successfully fought one battle or another.

After the soliders got silent again, he began to explain the operation to the soldiers:

"So ladies and gentlemen, the task is quite simple, escort the transporters and unload the relief supplies, after you have done that you will return here and then you will receive further orders."

"A very simple mission, in and out. Before you do that I recommend you to change your armor for the new desert armor, if you want your old one back just tell the staff, otherwise your armor will be loaded and you will get the new model for your next mission. Any questions?"

"Yes sir", Michael spoke up, "If the mission is so simple then why do we have to escort the supplies, our mission reports say we can expect little resistance at best. Why can't civilian personnel just do it?".

"Good question", replied the OP, "but as you can imagine, this is a desert, which means that the relief supplies are of high value to all who live here. From this you can conclude that there are also pirates or similar groups who want to get their hands on the goods".

"And, to answer your presumably next question: By escorting the transporters, you will convince people who might get stupid ideas not to do so by your presence, but there are always a few especially smart ones," Harskof said with a smile. "Anyway, if there are no further questions please get ready and find yourselves at the front".

Kane moved with his colleagues to the waiting logistician, who handed them the new armor.

He examined them and went to one of the locker rooms to change.

After he was done, he ran into Michael and Licy, who were also wearing their armor and waiting for him.

"Hey Kane, how are you? A little quiet, everything ok?" asked Michael. Kane just nodded absentmindedly.

He thought about what he should do after this mission, maybe he would work in a shipyard and maybe he would even get promoted there and could design ships, but when he thought about it longer he realized that the shipyard might not be the right thing for him. After all, he didn't join the fleet then, but the infantry.

Just as he was about to reflect on the course of his life in the Army, they were already standing outside and the commander started talking again. "Since this is a relatively safe region, we decided to give them a few recruits, ladies and gentlemen step forward please".

In the lines of soldiers whispering spread, many were skeptical about the new recruits, because firstly it was not in their mission report, secondly, which was also the more important reason, it could be that these recruits were nobles or the like, who hoped for a glorious career in the army.

As the new soldiers stepped forward, there was no sign of shyness, respect, or the like in most of them.
They stood confidently in front of the soldiers and beamed with vigor, at least most of them as Kane noticed. Occasionally there were also reserved people to be seen. The soldiers did not vent their displeasure and kept their comments to themselves.

The commander, sensing the displeasure of the soldiers, remarked that this was only a short mission and therefore an ideal opportunity for the recruits to participate in a mission. The OP now led them to the vehicles and divided the soldiers into groups, each escorting three of the vehicles.

Kane and Michael went into one squad, but Licy went into another. "So guys good luck to you and don't beat up the first best recruit, remember we were some until not too long ago", "good luck to you too" said Michael and Kane nodded in agreement, then the two also turned and went to their vehicles.

The recruits were already inspecting the vehicles, under the sergeant's supervision. "
At least now we can put them in charge of the unpleasant work" said Michael,Kane nodded only slightly and replied, "We shouldn't overdo it though, remember what we had to do back then just because we were recruits. Just because we couldn't disagree."

With a slight grin he still said, "But yes some things they can do anyway, just for the sake of tradition."
They had arrived at the vehicles and stood on the roof to keep an eye on the surroundings while driving.

The sergeant came up shortly after with a couple of recruits and instructed them to keep an eye on them.

Michael replied with a "Yes sir, it's an honor sir" to which the sergeant raised his eyebrow slightly skeptical. After
a few minutes the vehicles started moving and drove out of the village.

Michael stood at the railing and talked to the recruits about tips for protecting convoys. Kane, on the other hand, stood on a raised platform in the middle of the roof with binoculars and let his gaze wander attentively over the surrounding sandy landscape.


With the tremendous data from the vehicle and the support visor in Kane's hand, the driver could optimize his route and also access extra data in the event of an attack. The 50 meter long vehicles drove in a row behind each other.

At the moment, one vehicle could be  reached via a small bridge that was attached to the rear end as well as the sides. After several hours of driving, Kane saw a village in the distance. Driving closer, he realized that it was the same stone buildings as the first village.

In the middle of the village was a large oasis with green and red palm trees, different colored grasses and water. When they were almost inside the village Michael came over to him. "And found something interesting?"
he asked.

Kane nodded towards the lake, Michael took his visor and looked at the oasis as well. "Oh man, now I understand why we are transporting relief supplies, that lake looks like it is made of pure acid, everything is smoking". Kane nodded, "I'll see if we have a treatment plant with us, that should help".

Michael nodded and followed him inside the vehicle. Shortly after they started checking the inventory, the van stopped and the rear door opened. A couple of soldiers and recruits had begun setting up a small collection point and were organizing the distribution of supplies from there. "I'm going to go see Jarn and tell him to put one of the processing plants on the list, you go ahead and unload them in case they change their minds."

Kane nodded, taking two recruits with him to transport the processing plant to the distribution point. "Excuse me, sir," said one of the recruits, "do you think we'll meet any resistance?" The way he asked the question made Kane wonder, he looked at the young man who was confidently maneuvering the cargo through the people and replied "I hope not, and you should hope so too".

The young man looked at him slightly skeptically, only to then converse with his comrade, who also seemed not averse to an armed confrontation. Kane eyed the men as they set about unloading new goods. He and Michael had not been like this, he thought to himself, they had joined the army to "

"Private Kane," the sergeant's voice interrupted his thoughts. Straightening his posture, he replied "Yes sir?". "
As I saw, you were responsible for us unloading a processing plant, do I see that correctly?". "Yes sir " Kane replied, hoping the conversation would be quick so everyone wouldn't overhear. Before the sergeant could continue he replied, "I saw the lake when we entered the village, which was completely over acidified. "

The treatment device seemed to me to be helpful there, in the long run we would transport less relief supplies." The sergeant nodded while waiting for Kane to finish, when he finished he said: "Good work we were leaving in 2 hours and no one would have thought to check the lake, in the first place the inhabitants wouldn't have let us go there, since it's only the villagers allowed in there, seems to me there's something wrong with their beliefs, unfortunately I didn't have the time to check, the mission came very quickly" sighing he nodded to Kane.

"Well then maybe get a cap of sleep before we leave, I want them on observation post, maybe they'll see other things that could help us in the long term or short term. I'm counting on them." Then the sergeant left to get back to distributing the goods. Kane was taken aback; Michael approached him with a slightly horrified look on his face. After Kane told him what had occurred, he too was astonished.

"This is the first time that we haven't been dismantled by a superior for such an action. Well then, I'd say you should lie down again, there are cabins reserved for us over there". Kane went into the sandstone hut and began to take off his armor, positioning it just in case so that he could quickly put it back on.

Before lying down, he looked around the building: The walls were all made of some kind of sandstone, there were no doors except at the entrance. There was one made of solid wood. The walls were painted with colorful circular patterns, partly there were shelves in the wall, the furniture in the house was simple and pragmatic, no excess as in most poorer worlds.

In one room there was a shrine, which was marked by a detailed image of the watering hole. The kitchen was not a simple fireplace, as he would have expected at first, but a modern kitchen like those found in many families 10 years ago.

It consisted of a stove, which was apparently heated by the heat of the desert, how exactly Kane could not find out, then a Fastcool freezer, which was particularly popular for storing food. Furthermore, there were still spices, cooking items and everything else you can find in a good kitchen.

He grinned, that he had looked at a kitchen in such detail surprised him, why he did that he also did not know. The rest of the rooms were also minimalist and pragmatically furnished.

When Kane lay down, he noticed that it was pleasantly cool inside, either it had to do with the construction of the building or with the stone. Before he could think about it further, he had already fallen asleep.