Audrey Standard

Do you know what you're going up against if you try to take on Black Faction.

You've landed on a remote beach on the outskirts of Black Faction Territory.

You and a dozen or so run quickly from your vessel carrying antique BDRs and duffle bags of gear from your rickety vessel operated by pirates.

One Zog Extraction and you're all worth hundreds of Millions of Credits.

Its very much worth it.

You all pass into a concrete structure safe from Liquid Earth and Potential Azologoth.

You get deeper inside and set up camp.

You and the others have spent months training for this. Getting fit, even hired ex combatants to teach you weapons and combat skills.

They all tell you "avoid the companies" and they emphasise "Especially Black Faction"

You're all in your 30s and 40s. But only one has even stepped foot on Mallera-9 before. She is 32, the youngest.

You're the second oldest, 43. The ex combatant begins to take charge and some of the others are not having a bar of it.

"Since when did we vote for you to be in charge?" I shout at her

"I spent 8 years here in the thick of combat seeing things you cant imagine" she states back

"Well it cant be that bad, otherwise you would not have come back" I say to her in the most snarky voice I have

"Green is green bitch, I can handle what this place has thrown at me, you just wait until you see a Zog".

I start to think what I'm going to do, they said it eats you and just sucks you down into like a flesh pit. You're never seen again.

The ex combatant lays down on her mat and lights up a cigarette between freshly injected lips glistening with expensive lip balm. "Mallera-9 always claims someone, not all of us are returning from this."

How calmly she said it shot a bolt of fear through me. I feel out of place. Here on this island.

The next morning I woke up and we ate our MREs and got ready to start looking for Azologoth.

The we were in a state of commotion, making noise laughing all that when the ex combatant shouted at us to be quiet.

My first thought was just relax combat girl we're no where near anything dangerous here.

But after everyone shut their mouths there was a blistering echo coming from an aircraft.

"fuck its a ZT-90" The combatant whispered to herself.

She ran to the entrance to where we came in off the beach. The vessel operated by the pirates was beached and they were trying to dig it out.

The craft flew ahead and sprayed the vessel with gunfire.

"defensive positions, they're going to clear this area" shouts the combatant

Another asks her "what the fuck does that mean?"

"THEY'RE COMING TO KILL US!". She screams back.

We set up covering the entrances and we stack crates and other objects on the doors.

Within minutes they burst through and the gunfight started.

They (Black Faction) don't care about themselves. We were shooting into them and they were taking it and dropping. Then more would come.

They were all young, real young, real fit and very aggressive. Fearless too.

So many of the party we were with were just cut down so fast.

I just ran for it, ran for the Vessel.

The Pirates hadn't taken a single hit, they knew how to hide.

But they needed help to push back out on the water.

Another few including the ex combatant made it and helped.

We all got on and the pirates managed to get the engine started. It had failed overnight and they drifted back to shore.

We were on our way when we heard the transport approaching.

Before long it was circling above and those Black Faction girls were shooting at us.

"Just take cover, they have limited range on those transports" The ex combatant tells us.

I listen this time, just looking at the transport to see where it is.

Rounds are smacking into the deck and walls.

I recall a young blonde Black Faction Unit in the first wave bursting through, for some reason she sticks out in my mind.

Her look of aggression and assertiveness, the piercing blue eyes

I can see her, holding on with one hand while firing with the other out of the transport at us.

Then eventually the transport breaks away and heads back to the island.

That was terrifying. The relief when they left.

I'm never going back there again.

I don't want to see that blonde again. Ever.