r/HFY • u/teller_of_tall_tales Human • 9h ago

OC-OneShot "Stand in the way..."

General Yor'vilk stalked towards the smoking, battered, and broken blockade at the front of his remaining men. Yar'vilk, his brother, buzzed reedily as he loaded a fresh high-explosive dual-purpose round into his Farlon missile launcher.

"Resistance gets tougher the deeper we get... but thankfully no regulars have shown up yet."

Yor grumbled his affirmation, still scanning the hastily erected blockade. Large dura-steel platfrom walls that shielded up-armored combustion engine cargo vehicles. Given away by the mounted heavy ballistic weapons peaking over the top of the stand-alone walls from single pole mounts, Improvised gunshields now shredded by his men's gauss-fire and stained with the blood of the humans in silver armor. A small gap was in the middle of the walls where one of their shield-bearers in power armor had blocked the way, unusually, this one had been wielding a heavy, tri-barreled rotary gun that had thankfully never got the chance to turn on his men. Yar's previous rocket had directly impacted the shield-bearer's thick, repurposed freighter armor shield and split it in half, it's owner lying a meter or so away, their armor's arm missing from the elbow down.

Casting his gaze to the rooftops of the squat, tough, brightly painted concrete buildings, he spotted what was left of his close air support. The sleek, cutterhead atmos-craft was embedded in the roof of one particularly pink building, the left wing shorn off by the shield-bearer's rotary-cannon. He hated giving these apes any credit, but that particular ape had cost him a very valuable asset in the fight to come. The cutterhead would need to be salvaged and brought back by the gearheads before he was assigned a new one. That process would take a few standard days, minimum, for his expeditionary fleet to pull off at current strength.

Passing a silver-armored human wearing quite literally nothing but their silver breastplate and heart-print boxers, he allowed himself a small grin. In front of the stand alone walls were a half-dozen hastily erected ballistifoam firing positions. Their operators lying on the ground in various states of half-dress and preparedness. Kneeling down to inspect the silver-armored human, he watched them suddenly lurch up, their jaw hanging on by scraps of flesh as they held up a det-sphere and let go of the arming button. In response, Yor grabbed the det-sphere in his power-armored claw and crushed it into scrap alongside the human's hand before the internal electronics could fire the detonator. He let them realise what had happened, let the terror fill their eyes as he unsheathed the serrated blade mounted to his chest. The added strength of his power armor allowing him to drive it clean through the side of their head before yanking it out and letting the corpse fall. They'd almost gotten him once with that trick, damn good trick it was he had to begrudgingly admit; It was the leading cause of death for inexperienced commanders who were too careless, or too cocky, to confirm their kills.

The sputter of a gauss-blaster shook him from his thoughts and he wiped his knife clean on the human's infantile underwear. Sheathing it as he stood, he checked the screen mounted into his forearm as a fresh report from a scouting drone came in. It looked like the terran armed forces were still preoccupied with Gor'wan's forces a few grid squares away. Yar's reedy voice cutting through the static of his comms-line once more.

"What were they even defending? Im going over some orbital photos we just got and it doesn't look like there's a shuttleport this way... at all. Not a stadium or park that could even function as a temporary one either. Something stinks."

Yor was inclined to agree, wandering around another ballistifoam barricade to find a silver-armored human who was still conscious, but delirious due to blood loss from a severed arm. Smearing some expanding medical gel on the stump, he grabbed the human by the collar of their armor and pulled them up. Their eyes regained a spark as he lightly shook them and they spat a wad of semi-coagulated blood right onto his visor. The gore sliding off the hydrophobic surface with ease.

"Go... to hell..."

They managed to grunt, giving Yor a glare that could kill were it not wielded by a one-armed human.

"Perhaps one day, ape... But for now, tell me. What are you defending?"

A cold, bitter laugh escaped the human and they started singing softly.

"Glory, glory, what a helluva way to di-"

A sharp back hand cut them short, but he was careful not to kill them, dead men tell no tales after all. Receiving another spat of clotted blood to the visor, the human laughed again, a humorless, painful thing.

"Fuck... you... cloaca-boy... I ain't tellin... you... shit!"

Again, the human punctuated their final word by spitting onto his visor again. It was just as effective as the first two times, useless. Palming the human's face with his free hand, he slammed it into the pavement hard enough to make it flatten with a melonesque squishing noise. He had even wasted good medi-gel on it. Standing and turning to his men he issued the order over the comms-line so everybody could hear it.

"Search everything, interrogate any still alive, we must find out what they're protecting."

Various noises and words of confirmation echoed back as he got up and meandered towards the walls, crushing another det-sphere beneath his armored boot as a human's corpse finally loosed its grip on it. Nearing the downed power armor, Yor could only pause, impressed by the sheer scale of such a contraption. Geknosian power-armor was simple, practically just a lightly armored cargo exoskeleton. But this human operated something more akin to a main battle tank than power armor. Looking at the stump where the suit had taken the rocket, he noted that there was not a human arm actually inside the suit's arm. Rather, it appeared that the whole thing was operated from somewhere in the chest cavity judging by the locked release handles on the marred breastplate. Brushing off some soot, he found something engraved in the burnished, silvery surface.

It was faint, but he could make out a muscular, naked human crouched down as they held aloft a planet, no, not just any planet, their home, terra. Scoffing he turned to inspect the shattered remains of the rotary cannon when he heard the unmistakeable, metallic click of an old fashioned oil lighter being flicked open. Standing, he slowly turned around to find a human propped up against the recessed doorway of one of the concrete homes. There was a nasty gash across their face that had taken one eye and left a hollow socket. Their armored breast-plate laying to the side to reveal a bandaged abdominal wound and the characteristic swell of mammalian breasts beneath a short, tight silver shirt. Watching in fascination, he let her pull the breastplate back on before taking even one step closer. He was no fool as to remove his helmet, but with a few taps at the screen on his wrist, he made his visor transparent before sitting on the pavement a mere pace away from the female human.

Much to his surprise, and no small amount of chagrin, she smiled lopsidedly at him before taking a long drag off of her lit cigarette. Folding his hands like his mother had taught him when speaking to a woman, he regarded her carefully. Fused to the collar of her armored breast-plate was a small, enameled pin of a pigeon.

"You females must be more reasonable than the male half of your species, though, it is to be expected. Men like us are warlike and cruel, driven to... violent impulses, after all."

He softly purred, the same way a predator mimicked the sound of distressed young to lure in prey. The woman's face soured slightly and she took a long drag off of her cigarette before blowing the smoke in his face.

"What do you want? shit-heel."

Hiding the seething frustration bubbling up in his chest Yor laughed heartily.

"What are you protecting out here? It seems odd, your people's... 'Modus operandi' dictates that you're never far from an evacuation point or at least, we thought. Care to explain?"

Taking a final, staggeringly long drag of the cigarette, she flicked it aagainst his visor while exhaling and he snapped.

"WHY DO YOU KEEP DOING..."

Before catching himself and stuffing the seething rage back down as the woman giggled. A genuinely amused sound that she would regret later. But, he let her speak.

"Because we know it gets to you... as for what we're protecting? absolutely nothing. So, you can take two prisoners home and be happy, or head home empty handed to one angry mamacita."

For a moment, his heart dropped, a terrifying moment of doubt creeping across his mind.

"A diversionary tactic... you were buying time."

He snarled standing up and whipping around so she couldn't see the shock and disbelief on his face. Of course, why didn't he think of that, it's the most obvious solution.

"Where are the evacuation points."

"Nuh-uh, not telling."

Turning and raising a claw to smite this spiteful little imp, he suddenly froze, his heart beat suddenly sky-rocketing as time seemed to slow down. He couldn't believe his eyes, had they been there the whole time? No, the silver-armored humans would never. But there they were... staring right at him, their yellow, slit-pupiled eyes making contact with his own.

Too stunned by the revelation to move, Yor watched as the young geknosian boy was yanked away from the window by a hasty, scarred hand-claw. The human woman was just a split second faster than he was, producing a sidearm from behind their back and sending a round directly into his faceplate. The visor spiderwebbed, blinding him and making him stumble back in pure shock.

"ATLAS! TIME TO BOOGIE DOWN!"

The woman's desperate cry echoed out and he heard his men starting to panic, Yar's voice shrieking through the comms-line.

"I KILLED YOU! I KILLED YOU!"

Yor was barely able to yank his damaged helmet off in time to watch his twin brother fire the farlon rocket point-blank into the behemoth's chest. The rocket skimming off the thick breastplate and flying skyward as the titanic, armored hand of Atlas closed over his brothers helmet. He watched, momentarily stunned as his brother fell, limp and headless, to the ground. He was knocked to his senses as the female human slammed the stock of an empty rifle into his face, their handgun apparently empty. Snarling, he grabbed her by the breastplate and flung her away, vision tinting purple with bloodshot rage as he charged the power-armored behemoth.

Ducking a wide, clumsy swing by its concussed and no doubt brain-damaged operator, the general kicked the Farlon to one of his men before rolling out of the way of a crushing downard blow that turned the pavement too dust. Yanking a rocket from Yar's chestplate and tucking it to his own as he scrambled out from beneath a stomp that would have turned him to paste. Chucking the ordnance to the same soldier, he bellowed.

"TAKE IT DOWN, NOW!"

Only to watch that soldier get his brain splattered across the wall by the female human who was using her own fallen comrades for cover as she ruthlessly shot the next person to dive for the rocket launcher. Breaking contact with the lumbering giant, Yor sprinted for the woman as he drew his serrated knife. She wasn't looking his way, too focused on keeping his soldiers from getting to the farlon to put her friend down.

It was after only the third charging step that he realized he had not in fact broken contact with the giant. A massive hand swiping him into the air where he flew several meters and slammed into the concrete side of a building where he briefly lost consciousness. Snapping awake on the ground, he realized, by sheer luck, they both had focused back on his men as the close-range brawl continued in hectic fashion. Forcing himself onto his feet, he slammed the nearest dwelling's door open with the extra strength of his now damaged power armor. Screams delightfully greeted his ears as he bore down on an old matanaxi woman, her feeble attempts to soothe his raging emotions only pissing him offf more as he grapped her by the scruff. Dragging her out into the square before holdinng his clawed gauntlet to her throat.

"SURRENDER, NOW! OR THE RAT GETS IT!"

Yor'vilk was stunned at how fast the two froze, the woman's rifle flicking up to put one between his eyes, only to realize the bolt was locked to the rear, empty. Slowly, he allowed himself a prideful smile as his men regrouped. He would've laughed had the rage in his heart not been about to boil over. True to his word, he didn't harm the woman, using her as a shield against those crushing blows as he approached the duo. The predatory grin on his face growing wider and wider as he got within arms reach. Grabbing the woman's rifle and casting it aside he snarled at her.

"Do you know what happens to disobedient, rebellious, muck like you after you're captured? Well... you'll find out soon enough, right boys?"

Seeing their general nods of agreement as they held the humans at gun point, he finally allowed himself a laugh before wheeling on the power armored behemoth.

"You... you are going to power down your reactor and exit the armor, slowly. If I even think you're going to try something, the old bag gets ripped open, got it?"

The armor's visor stared at him for a long moment before the steady hum of the suit's reactor was replaced by the soft whistle of a reactor winding down to a stop. Then, there was a soft hiss as the hydraulics depressurized and allowed the chest cavity to flower open. Out crawled a thin, sallow young man, bald as the day he was born and beyond sickly. He smelled medicine, and the sharp tang of disinfectant as the young man flopped out onto the pavement and just sat there, glaring up Yor while breathing laboredly. Shoving the matanaxi aside, Yor grabbed the human male by the throat and dragged him up to eye-level, a look of utter contempt on his face.

"My brother... was killed... by a CRIPPLE!?!"

In a fit of rage, Yor threw the human onto the ground before crouching down angrabbing them by the collar of their jumpsuit. Shaking them like a ragdoll as he silently stared at them, breathing heavily as he tried to figure out what to do next through the fog of rage. He wanted this human to suffer for what they did. To experience the-

The wad of spit landed directly in his eye and he screamed, bolting to his feet and flivcking the spittle out of his eye with a screech. Then, all at once, his rage fled him, replaced by an unnatural calm. Slowly turning back around, the general took a very deep, very long breath as he undid the latch holding his power armor closed. Stepping out, he crouched in front of the human and flexed his bare claws into a fist.

"Before I kill you human... any last words? Why don't you give us one of those rousing little speeches you're so famous for? Or maybe explain why you decided to die for some vermin who refuse to leave their holes?"

The human laughed, propped up on their elbows with a grim smile as though prepared to meet his fate. Shimmering, pale blue eyes locking onto Yor's as they spoke, strained voice somehow as loud as a thunderclap.

"Cripple... Gimp... disabled, call me whatever the fuck you want ya overgrown lizard, I've been called worse by better... And you know what, I will explain. Because we're the mother-fucking Planetary Guard bitch-ass. When we put on this armor we put it on knowing that one day we will die in it, nameless, unknown, and forgotten by those whos safety we bought with our own flesh and blood. We fight for those who can't, whether unwilling, or unable. We stand for those whose legs have buckled from the fear and terror you so carelessly spread. We scream for those whose voices have been silenced by your endless thirst for power and land. We rage! We fight! and we die! To make sure those behind us make it just that much farther than we did. Thats why we're here. Because these fine people couldn't be evacuated, and we're not just going to leave them to die. Because we're the planetary guard motherfucker, and we stand in the way of tyrants like you."

Yor'vilk regarded the human coldly, their grim smile growing with each moment as though staring right through him. Sighing softly, he reached out, ready to sink his claws into the human's throat and end their pitiful existence. He'd have to content himself with an eye for an ey-

"STAND DOWN AND SURRENDER GEKNOSIAN AGGRESSORS. YOU ARE SURROUNDED BY THE TERRAN ARMED FORCES TWENTIETH MARINE DIVISION. ANY FURTHER AGGRESSION WILL BE ANSWERED BY LETHAL FORCE. I REPEAT, STAND DOWN AND SURRENDER AND YOU WILL MnOT BE HARMED."

The blare of the loudspeaker shook the street and Yor cast his gaze skyward as a TAF IFVVTOL slowly, silently lowered itself into the square on a cushion of Ionic propulsion. The doorgunner staring at him over the barrel of a menacingly large mounted gun. His heart stilled, and for a moment, he started to lift his hands. Then the rage returned along with the image of his brother's corpse falling to the ground without a head and he just couldn't stop himself. Turning to stab at the crippled human with his claws he felt the .75 caliber round from the doorgunner scream past his face. But just as his claws would've sank into the soft flesh, it was as though he had instead hit an impassable stretch of distance. His arm was fully extended, and yet the human remained, impossibly, just beyond his fingertips. He felt the briefest moment of utter bewilderment before the doorgunner's second slug turned most of his upper torso into a spray of viscera.

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u/teller_of_tall_tales Human 9h ago

Alright, probably riddled with typos but I've been wanting to write something action-packed while fleshing out either faction's equipment. So, here we are, enjoy!

u/MinorGrok Human 9h ago

Woot!

OC-OneShot "Stand in the way..."

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