If I told you the story of Malevelon.
Would you fall in line?
Pay Homage to all those who’ve fallen?
Or celebrate them, each year that passes where they are no longer with us.
Or, would you ask me their names, their legacies and what changes their actions brought to the world. Aspiring to be like them, in every way that you can perceive.
Telling the Creek’s story’s a waste, if it doesn’t fill you with hope, and give you reason to sacrifice.
Back then, we were nothing more than a scruffy band of divers, strapped into pods, diving straight down without any warning. We woke up, mid cryo-defrost. And when we emerged, all we had left to do was to grab whatever weapon was alongside our pod, and emerge into battle. Some of us lived, some of us didn’t.
I remember meeting alot of folks down there, that didn’t make it past our first objective together. Running past tanks, struggling while large scale bombardments came down upon us. With nothing but a machine gun sent in from orbit, and a liberator strapped to my belt. Standard issue weaponry, and orders to go launch an ICBM.Pinned behind a rock, hearing nothing but the jetpacks zooming off.
Yet still, the missile went off.”Freedom Reigns once more.” Thats what mission control said. So, we ran from the launch site. All the guns and lasers blarring still firing at us. Coming from every direction, and nothing but close air support could save us. And it saved me.
Just… me.
I fought and bled to launch that missile with those men, and with the speed that our intel was coming. I didn’t have time to question the objective. Make it work, extract, and make sure to bring as much from the fight as I can.
Arrive to the ship, and grab some more gear. While listening to the ship computer repeat. Over and over. “Hellpods primed.”
And we dropped. This time with a different squad, a complete rookie, and some lad who called himself the Vandal. So, we made due. Immediately pinned down, I fought to get these two out of danger, and secured, yet again another ICBM launch site. We were launching missiles on areas of the planet that were “isolated”. But I looked at those maps, I knew what the target was. I knew we had lost all our planet. What was once my home, serene after years of fighting terminids. Now a staging ground for the Automatons.
All to just hear the rookie say, “Help, I am stuck.” As I realized, he had primed the warhead’s engines to launch…
I, pushed the button. Launching the missile…
We keep going, we keep fighting. “Democracies Finest”. So we mobilized somewhere else, securing artillery sites, me and this Vandal moved on. Finally making it to the extraction site. Finally getting out…
But it wasn’t over. The Automatons still had so much ground left to take.
Sent somewhere else, yet again. This time, with simple orders, Push the enemies out of this location. This time, Shield Generator relays were authorized, and so were new weapons. A sickle, they called it. Laser, fast firing. It felt… painfully similar to that of the automatons. Leaving the same scorch marks, the same laser streaks. It felt likew we were turning the tide, using their own guns agains them. So we dived, landing rapidly. And calling forth an onslaught from our super destroyer air support. We had mechs, exosuits, if you will. My, they made such good work down there, but when it came down to it, the area was heavily fortified, but quiet.
Turned out to be an Ambush. So we fought, bled, died, and lost. Not the battle, but another squad I came in with. Reinforcements trickled in, one by one, as the fight kept escalating. With orders for extraction refusing to come in. We fought, we bled, we lost comrades. Jump packs in tow, weapons at the ready, and nothing but determination was all that carried me through. Once again, in the end, alone on the pelican. Heading back up, with nothing but the tags of the ones I lost in that fight.
And I still remember my last battle in the creek. High quality spec ops gear, and a lad with me who stuck by me and followed my commands very well. Back then, I was nothing more than a Death Captain. But the kid, he called me Commissar, not as a rank. But out of respect. He knew I had seen this surface numerous times. So we moved together, and recovered critical data from the Creek, before the final hours came down upon it. It wasn’t a combat mission, but a retrieval. As the final order from High Command had finally come in. “Authorize everything, bring all Destroyers to bear”. So we fought through dense ionized forests and muddy waters, secured the critical data and made our way to extraction. Four of us went in. But only two of us, made it to the site before the Pelican began it’s journey.
One final orbital laser left by those who had fallen, to secure our landing site. Normally one would think that’s what we needed to get out of here. But that train of thought was wrong, That laser let all of the bots know where we were. What the rookie thought was our salvation, ended up being a beacon to those who were coming against us. So I gave him orders. We held our ground, and prepared for what genuinely felt like my final fight. My Spear and his Autocannon roared against the enemy lines, as we fought through the dense fog and oncoming heavy armour coming down on our position. Devastators, Annihilators, Hulks. All coming down on us as we held with nothing but one wall segment stopping their bullets from hitting us.
And just as we held our ground, seconds before the Pelican arrived. The rookie peeked the wall, and a single stray rocket blew off the top of his body… An instant.
Once again standing alone, with nothing but what was left of the enemy vanguard infront of me. I couldn’t avenge my comrade. I didn’t have enough firepower.
All I could do was sit back, and accept their sacrifice having bought me precious seconds.
What it was like when we were planetside. Well, it was hell. And We Dove. That’s what it was like, to be a Creeker.
I don’t operate this ship, to fight the enemy. I operate it so I can save as many of you down there as possible. My squads didn’t make it, but I will stand by The Will of the People, if it means ensuring that all SEAF under my command, make sure you Helldivers do.
