Starfall Setting #1 - The 102nd Voidborn, AKA, 'The Eyeslayers.' (Patreon)

As his plasteel suit hit terminal velocity, with the planet’s wind threatening to blow him leagues off course, Nylson Chag gritted his teeth. The world below them looked peaceful. From this vantage, falling from the heavens, it was all but impossible to guess that an abomination had been rampaging across the farmlands. Impossible, except for the line of char tracing its way through the fields. Good intel? Lucky drop coordinates? Nylson couldn’t be sure. He only knew their target was going to end up directly beneath them, and that it was about to have the worst day of its life.

Once the heat shielding had done its job, they’d be free to form a ring [LC1] around the target and--

A voice crackled in his ear. Zilton Mangin, one of the newbies, spoke through the arcanoglitter [LC2] static.

“I have eyes on the drop, sir[LC3] . Descending to-”

Nylson saw the mistake before Zilton finished trying to articulate it. Zilton put his head down and started to roll. The heat shielding had no tolerance for lateral motion; it gave out immediately. 

“Zil, maintain bearing. That’s an order.”

“8,200 mark 14 bearing -- King Alive it’s h--”

His words corrupted into a guttural scream as the drop-suit in the outermost right of the formation went blazing red, pouring out greasy smoke and flecks of char.

Nylson swore and silenced Zilton’s speaker from the command interface in his helmet.

“Eyes forward, everyone, keep to your bearings. He’s with the King now, and we have work to do.”

In a few moments, they would make contact with the ground – an imperfect ring of craters around their target. Nylson’s command report, much later in the evening, would emphasize the need for more hands-on drop training involving targets. A distraction had killed a man today. But inevitably, when spoke to the Corps newsman, he’d say that Zilton had died in battle. That he’d gone into the creature’s mouth, willingly, to take a pound of flesh from where it had no scales to protect it. And that it had worked.

As the heat shielding broke, their target looked up. Its eyes were big enough that Nylson could see it squint. Could see it make the snap decision to start running, spread its wings, and try to get away.

“Heat shielding is free,” Nylson barked through the comm. “Adjust bearing on my mark.”

In a rain of hot steel and arcano[LC4] plasma, the 102nd Voidborn shattered the earth, and put a monster down.

#

The 102nd Voidborn Droptroopers are a unit within the King in Mithril’s Space Corp (KMSC) renowned for dealing with extraordinarily dangerous flora and fauna. While they are technically within the jurisdiction and payroll of the Peacekeeping Engineers, they are known for operating within a secretive chain of command and have a reputation for causing disturbances in the towns they occupy.