Chapter Text
“Man, I can’t believe we’re actually gonna be Helldivers.”
Neither could he. He knew he wasn’t fit to be a Helldiver.
He wasn’t strong, he wasn’t fast, sure he was patriotic, but not nearly to the same level as his family and friends. By all means, he was not qualified. Yet here he was, on a Pelican about to be dropped off and trained to become a Helldiver.
“Approaching LZ. Next recruit, prepare to dismount.”
He glanced around, there wasn’t anyone in front of him, he was next. He took a couple of deep breaths to calm his nerves, but the clangs of the Pelican landing really hindered the effectiveness. Carefully, he stood and crossed to the door. He hesitantly walked out, the harsh sun in his eyes, it took him a second to adjust and see where he was. He stood on the middle of a Peli-pad with a sign in front of him that read: “Welcome to Helldiver Training! Earn your cape.”
“You’re on your own from here, recruit. Use your map to find your way to the training facility.”
Right. He was there to train and become a Helldiver. He had heard stories of bootcamp from before the first galactic war, 8-12 weeks of training. And now with such a prestigious role as a Helldiver? That would have to be 20 weeks minimum! He was not excited. He looked down at the tablet attached to his arm, finally it was activated. It was… not what he was expecting.
There were 4 arrows in the middle of the screen and a little symbol on the left side of the screen that, after a moment of tinkering, he swiped and a map appeared on the screen. Using his fingers he could zoom in, out, and pan around the map. By tapping somewhere on the screen he could ping a location. There also seemed to be a radar circling his location.
Following the map, he headed to the first orange hexagon. It took a moment of running in the desert, he was not excited to have to get the sand out of his gear later, but he’d cross that bridge when he came to it. Finally, he approached a concrete area with a metal gate blocking the way to the rest of the facility.
“Atten-hut! I’m General Brasch -Super Earth’s oldest and most grizzled war hero, and I am not easy to impress. Helldiver training is the toughest test in the galaxy, but I can tell that doesn’t scare you. Impressive.”
Ugh, so training probably was going to be long and harsh. He was going to dread these next couple months.
The gate opened up and he walked through. Barbed wire blocked his path, but it wasn’t very tall. He crouched down and snuck underneath it. Next up was two short walls stacked back to back. He begrudgingly climbed up both and continued through. There were three sets of concrete barriers next. Seriously? His arms were already killing him, but he climbed over all three and entered the next room.
“In all my years, I’ve never witnessed such acrobatic perfection. I think you’re ready for our highly realistic battlefield simulator. That’s right, the real deal.”
He walked up towards the next area and… those looked like two automatic machine guns. Surely they wouldn’t actually shoot at him, right? He looked down and read the yellow stripe warning him to, “Dive to prevent death.” They can’t actually be serious, Super Earth wouldn’t kill their recruits. Just in case, he got down to the ground and crawled down the stairs and towards the other side-
“PT-PT-PT-PT-PT-PT-”
The turrets started firing furiously overhead. His hands instinctively clutched his ears as he stayed down. The turrets didn’t seem to plan on stopping, so he very carefully finished crawling past and made it to the other side. He slid down and sat against the wall. He leaned his head back, trying to calm his breathing and heart. He basically got shot at! This was more intense than anything he had ever done before.
“Impeccable! Like I always say, the best simulation is a real simulation. Now, activate the battlefield injury simulator!”
He groaned and got back to his feet. Couldn’t he just have a moment to relax? He walked up to the terminal and the screen read, “Press E to activate simulation.” He looked down at the keyboard and cautiously pressed E. Nothing happened for a moment, until-
“Ack!”
He clutched his chest, a sharp metal rod had just stabbed him! He could feel the blood trickling out and he was starting to panic. This was where he was going to die, Super Earth doesn’t care about losing recruits.
“Grit your teeth, soldier! Grab that stim and patch yourself up”
A yellow compartment below the terminal opened up and a box with two stims extended out. He frantically reached for it, ripping open the box and grabbing the stims. Holding one stim in his hand, he searched his armor frantically for some sort of port to inject the stim to no avail. He’d have to go through the fabric and the most open spot was his neck. His vision rapidly starting to go black, he took a deep breath and jammed the stim into his neck. He felt a massive burst of adrenaline and felt the wound in his chest almost magically seal itself up, leaving nothing but a tingly feeling and the urge to itch it. After a couple seconds, the adrenaline slipped away, leaving nothing but the natural adrenaline from the life threatening event.
“There, good as new. Now, look sharp. You’re about to encounter Democracy’s sworn enemy, recruit.”
The gate to the next area opened up and he cautiously entered, worried that something else was about to kill him. He watched as a metal hatched opened and some sort of gray and orange creature climbed out of it.
“There it is. A Termanid. The Scourge of Liberty. Arm yourself and show that bug the true meaning of Freedom.”
The bug looked directly at him and started pacing its enclosure. It was trapped by large concrete walls and barbed wire. The machine in the center of the room spat out some sort of pistol and some ammo. He grabbed them both and reloaded the gun. Something about this felt wrong, shooting a defenseless creature. How were these guys so dangerous? He looked closer at the bug as it stared back. He noticed the sharp legs and hostile biology and realized that it could likely rip through Helldiver armor in an instant. These guys did need to be stopped. He lined up the shot, closed his eyes, and pulled the trigger.
As he opened them, he saw the creature still alive and practically unphased. He lined up his shot again and shot the creature one, two, three, four, five times total in the head. These guys were much tougher than they looked.
“Deadeye precision! Now use a grenade to close up that Bug Hole! Otherwise, they’ll just keep comin’.”
The machine in the center spat out another box, this one holding four grenades. He clipped all of them to his belt, filling it completely, and grabbed one and pulled the pin. He lined up his throw and threw it, hitting the edge of the hole, but bouncing in anyways. After a moment, it exploded in the hole and the metal hatch closed on top of it again.
“What a catapult of an arm! Onto the next section!”
He took a couple steps over to the left and saw a group of bugs sitting on an island.
“Look up in the sky, recruit; that there is a Super Destroyer and it’s all powerful stratagems are yours to command. Use a stratagem now to take care of those bugs. Just make sure you take a few steps back.”
He looked back down to the tablet on his arm and saw a new area where stratagems and there codes would be listed. Only one was there, an orbital precision strike. He typed in the code, right, right, up. Nothing happened. He heard a beep and inside one of the machines on his hip there was a yellow ball. He grabbed it out and then the arrows on his tablet lit up. He typed the code again and the ball glowed red. He threw it at the bugs and it attached to one unfortunate bug. A red beam shot a couple feet into the sky from the orb. The stratagem on his tablet no longer showed the code, instead it said how long until the strike would hit.
All of a sudden, an explosion hit the bugs, killing all of them and scattering guts all over the island. It startled him as he took a jump back.
“Ah, the will of Democracy. Good work!”
He blinked a couple times. He had just killed all those bugs without even batting an eye. What was happening to him? He didn’t have time to think about it as he continued on to the next section. There, he was given an assault rifle, more grenades, and ammo.
“Load yourself up, recruit. This is the real deal. It’s just you, the gun in your hands, and 2,000 megatons of explosives in close orbit. That’s it!”
As he reloaded the rifle, the door ahead opened up and alarms began to blare. Another metal hatch opened and bugs began to crawl out. The first one screeched, and began to move at an alarming speed towards him. Without second thought, he mowed down both bugs and through another grenade at the bug hole. It went straight in and the metal hatched closed after the explosion.
“Those unthinkin’ bugs never stood a chance against a genius tactical mind like yourself. You are literally invincible!”
He stared at the dead corpses of the bugs and realized that there was no point in feeling guilt. No matter what these creatures were going to attack him. It was survival of the fittest. He couldn’t let this bother him if it would end up costing him his life. He continued to the next room, which had a sign that read, “Watch out for falling Hellpods.”
“Hold up, recruit. It’s finally time to call in the big guns. Use the support weapon stratagem to get yourself a real weapon.”
He looked back down at the arm tablet and saw a new stratagem for a machine gun. He grabbed a new yellow orb from the machine attached to his waist and typed in the code. He threw it down near him and the beam was blue this time. After a moment, a Hellpod slammed into the ground, spewing sand and dirt everywhere. The inside core came up, revealing a machine gun. He grabbed it and the core went back into the pod.
“That’s the stuff! Now, use a Resupply stratagem to get yourself some more ammo!”
He glanced back down at his arm and saw the new stratagem. He grabbed another ball, quickly typed it in, and threw it down. He was getting the hang of this. After a moment, another Hellpod slammed into the ground and the core came up, revealing two sides worth of stims, ammo, and grenades. He grabbed two and headed for the door.
“Load up soldier, because playtime’s over. You’ve reached your final test. THIS- is the REAL DEAL. This area is in dire need of liberation from the Terminid scourge. Activate that terminal!”
He approached the terminal and tapped the screen, waking it up. After a moment, the screen appeared with a series of arrows. He quickly swiped them in and after another brief loading period, it prompted him to retrieve the flag of Super Earth.
“I’ve never seen such flawless terminal activation. Now, somewhere around here is the flag of Super Earth. Find it, and plant it where all can see its Democratic glory.”
He walked up and struggled for a moment to tug it out of the ground, eventually pulling it out.
“That’s the flag of Super Earth, recruit! Plant it in the designated area.”
He walked over to a circular platform with a small slot in the middle where he planted the flag into.
“Make sure you show it the proper respect.”
He quickly turned his arm and gave the salute of Super Earth. Almost as if they saw that, two hatches opened up and Terminds crawled out, screeching and ready to attack. A big one on the left ran up and a small one on the right began to run as well. He quickly aimed his machine gun and sprayed down both bug. The Terminids weren’t done yet, as more bugs quickly began to exit the holes. He sprayed all of them down and quickly ran up to each hole and threw a grenade in. After a moment, both hatches were down. He panted and reloaded his weapons.
“Glorious work, recruit. Already you’ve advanced the cause of democracy farther than any soldier I’ve ever seen. You’ve proved your worth. You’re ready to don your cape.”
The door ahead opened, revealing a hall of 6 Helldiver statues all saluting a cape on a rack, ready for him to put it on. He walked up, turned around, and slotted in his neck to the hole. The cape automatically attached itself to his suit and all around him confetti cannons went off.
“Now THERE’S a Helldiver. You remind me of a younger me -fearless, invulnerable, and 7 feet tall. You’re finally ready for the realest deal of them all: The Galactic War. Liberty. Democracy. Justice. They’re in your hands now. General Brasch, over and out.”
He looked outside and saw a rocket full of other Helldivers ready to sacrifice for their planet. He walked out and saw a capsule open and ready for him to get in. He took a deep breath and stepped inside. He turned around as the door closed, and then he felt the air get cold. Really cold. Really really cold. Before he knew it, he lost consciousness as he was put into cryostasis.
The next thing he knew, he fell out of his stasis pod onto the metal interior of a Super Destroyer. He started to get up when a hand was extended out to him. He grabbed it and stood up. There were three other Helldivers standing there. The Helldiver who offered his hand, looked at him and with a confident, trusting voice, said:
“Welcome to the squad L-2.”