Interstellar Age



Erich stalked his way through the forest. Though the forces he had previously encountered were no longer tailing him, he could not become complacent. The moon was filled with dangerous creatures, many of which were similar in ferocity to the dinosaurs of Earth's ancient history. Not only that, but there were plenty of military units stationed throughout the moon, which he could encounter at any minute. 

A simple sighting from a scout could bring either an air strike, or an artillery strike on his position. Undoubtedly, he would have to remain completely concealed within the woods if he wished to avoid such a miserable fate. 

In the skies above, reconnaissance drones searched for Erich's whereabouts, which previously he had been unable to avoid due to the advanced nature of their thermal imaging. But with his new set of scavenged power armor, his thermal signature was greatly reduced, giving him the means to more easily hide from these drones. 

Of course, Erich was vastly underestimating the might of the Germanic Star-Empire. The most dangerous thing in these woods was not the monsters or the drones, but rather the unseen. The WRAITHs were an elite unit which specialized in reconnaissance, espionage, and foreign internal defense.

Not only were WRAITHs among the most elite forces which the Germanic Military deployed, but they had the most advanced equipment as well. Unlike other units within the Empire, a WRAITH's power armor was equipped with active camouflage that allowed them to blend in with their surroundings, almost like a chameleon.

If these elite operators remained perfectly still, then they were almost invisible, even to Erich's superhuman vision. And these men could stay as still as a stone for hours on end without feeling any discomfort. 

Naturally, Erich knew nothing about this technology as he had never encountered WRAITHs before, and thus he made his way through the woods with less caution than he would have if he was aware of this ability. 

It was because of this that he was slowly being stalked by the most elite unit that the Germanic Star-Empire had to offer. One of these men had caught Erich's trail and had been covertly making his way towards him. Though he did not immediately attack, rather he was waiting to strike for when Erich finally set up camp and went to sleep. 

Hours passed, and darkness had set upon the moon. But this did not bother Erich, as his power armor maintained his body temperature. Because of this, he did not need to build a fire to maintain his warmth. Nor did he need so to purify food and water at this time, as he had a set of rations which he scavenged from his previous kills. Instead, he just needed a place to hide from the drones, who were no doubt looking for his location even now. 

His power armor relied on antimatter fusion cores, which could maintain an operational capacity for years without need of replacement. Thus, Erich did not need to worry about reserving his energy supply. This meant that he could sleep in his power armor, which provided many benefits in his current situation. 

After finding a small cave, Erich quickly scanned the interior in search of potential inhabitants. Luckily for him, there was no sign of anything living which dwelled within this cave, or at least anything that could harm him. There were no remains to speak of, or animal droppings. Meaning that at least for this night, the odds of a monstrous predator walking in on him when he slept were low. 

However, before Erich could successfully make this cavern his camp for the night, he had to check for structural integrity, and after a quick scan, he confirmed that the odds of the cave collapsing on him were especially low. 

Thus, Erich entered the cave and leaned against the wall inside. He clutched his weapon in his hand, as if it were his lifeline, before slowly drifting off to sleep. He needed just a few hours if he was going to keep going like this. 

After all, he had been surviving for three weeks on end so far, without the slightest bit of sleep. Something which he could only achieve due to his superhuman level of endurance. If he were a baseline human, he would have likely died by now from sheer exhaustion. 

Of course, the moment he appeared to be sound asleep, the dangerous WRAITH which had been stalking Erich for hours revealed himself. The man silently walked through the cave and found his target lying asleep. The elite operator could only shake his head as he thought of a single phrase to describe the man he was about to kill.

"So naïve..."

Little did he know that Erich was actually wide awake, and had used his NeuroLink to make his body mimic sleep. Thus, he had spotted the man the moment he began to walk through the cave. As expected, his sense of paranoia, which had been ruthlessly refined over these past three weeks, was spot on. He had indeed sensed someone stalking him throughout the day. Thus, the moment the concealed operator raised his rifle, Erich smacked it out of his hands and took the man down to the ground. Where the two men played a game of human chess.

Erich began to rain strikes down upon his opponent, which was enhanced by the power armor which wrapped itself around his body. But the WRAITH managed to block most of these attacks with his hands and elbows. All while trying to sweep Erich to the ground with a De la riva hook. 

This succeeded and the WRAITH quickly scrambled for a heel hook in an attempt to tear Erich's ACL, thus immobilizing his target long enough so that he could fetch his weapon and end the fight. However, Erich was a little too quick, and got to his feet without injury, where he quickly unsheathed his combat knife. 

The knife was made of an advanced composite material, which was enhanced with a fine plasma edge. Though it might take some time to cut through Power armor, it was enough to force the WRAITH away from his primary weapon. 

All the while Erich lunged at the man, he battled within his mind against his opponent. They were both attempting to slice into each other's NeuroLinks to end the fight immediately. And though Erich had the advantage in terms of raw ability due to his cyberkinesis, the WRAITH had overwhelming experience in cyber defense, and was able to keep Erich's mental attacks at bay long enough to continue their physical fight. 

Erich's lunge was quickly deflected by the WRAITH, who grabbed ahold of Erich's arm, and disarmed him of his knife. Once the weapon was in the enemy's hands, he did not hesitate to stab Erich in the most vulnerable portion of his power armor. But even then, it did not penetrate through Erich's defenses, allowing him swiftly to deflect the next strike, as he rolled towards the floor and grabbed hold of his rifle. 

Upon realizing that he was in serious trouble, the WRAITH immediately began to flee from the cavern, with an antimatter grenade in his hand. He quickly pulled the pin and tossed it behind him, forcing Erich to break his line of sight and run out of the cave as well. For if he stayed behind, the entire thing would have collapsed upon him. 

The grenade detonated immediately after Erich had cleared the entrance. Bringing the entire cave down upon where he previously attempted to get some sleep. Undoubtedly, he would have been killed, either by the explosion or the ensuing rubble, if he had chosen to take the shot.

Once outside the cave, Erich soon found that his enemy had completely disappeared on him. Undoubtedly the man was nearby, and invisible, calling for reinforcements on what he now realized was a far more difficult target to deal with. 

Erich knew that if he stood by and waited, he would soon be surrounded by more men like the one he had just tangled with, but if he ran, he would be followed, and it would only be a matter of time before the enemy caught up with him. Should he stay and fight, or flee despite knowing that such a thing would only further exhaust himself? One thing was certain: he did not have much time to decide.