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PSU: pump shit underground
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2004-01-14, 08:13 AM
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[Ignore Me] #1 | ||
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Contributor Major General
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The Galaxy dropship was a dark shadow against the blackness of the night, the black of its armored hull visible only on the leading edges of its stubby wings and tailfins where the red paint remained, the rest having been stripped off to reduce visibility. Elias and the members of Omega Strike Force stood in a loose circle, their heads bent together as they reviewed the pre-mission brief. Each had read the operations order and reviewed the maps and photos and was prepared for the mission.
Elias had cleaned and repaired his armor as best he could, removing the grime, dirt, blood and carbon scoring from the previous battles, but the armor�s dense weaves of Kevlar fabric was still beaten and in need of repair or nanite reconstruction. Teams of ground crew personnel carried the last of the Galaxy�s cargo on board, the rear cargo ramp creaking under the strain. Elias looked to see if any of his men had a body-armor nanite kit, but they were traveling as light as possible, and that seemed to be a commodity and not a necessity. As they finished loading the converted transport, Sergeant Haarkon emerged from within and gave Captain Elias a nod of confirmation. Everything was loaded and securely locked down. The Galaxy was going to be doing some hard flying and the last thing they needed was loose cargo flying off the racks and slamming into some poor soldier. �We�re ready,� said Sergeant Major Banner, slinging his weapon. �Roger,� agreed Elias, checking the safety on his own rifle and ensuring his chainblade was secure in its boot sheath. He watched as the remained of the commando strike force silently checked over their weapons and armor, and then that of their battle buddies. They were silent and subdued, not noisy and boisterous- the mark of veteran elite soldiers. Satisfied, each man turned and marched aboard the dropship. Elias took a deep breath of cold, clear air and looked around the soaring peaks and glacial cliffs of the icy land. Distant specks spun in the starlit sky far to the west. The former Ranger officer shook his head briefly as he experienced a flashback�s nanosecond passing� fighting a tactical withdrawal across the green plains of northern Cyssor back to the warpgate, he�d seen similar flashing specks in the form of turncoat Reaver gunships firing their missiles. The flashback passed and Elias followed the commando team into the dropship�s cargo bay. There was barely any room for the commandos to move inside, with creaking pallets stacked to the roof and the dropship�s other passengers taking up a great deal of room. There were no benches along the outboard sides to sit on, their weight deemed unnecessary, so the technicians had removed the benches and the firewalls that separated the compartments from the cargo bay. Elias crouched with his back to the rumbling fuselage, right where a MAX would have been clamped into its berth. The ramp whined closed, shutting out the starlight and leaving the cargo bay bathed in the evil red glow of the drop indicator bulbs. Elias felt his eyes adjust as nanite-constructed implants took over and fought to make out details in the glow. A screaming whine built as the engines spooled up to vertical take-off power. Elias offered a quick prayer to whatever God was up there watching over them. He felt the dropship lurch as it lifted easily off the landing pad, and turn on its axis as the pilot set their course. The captain was surprised at the ease with which the Galaxy had lofted into the air before remembering that the reason was the stripped-down blacked-out transport�s lighter weight. The pilot may not have been accustomed to the lighter weight, as most Terran Republic Galaxy transports were cumbersome, heavy beasts. Elias felt the acceleration of the dropship as the engines built up to full power, pushing them eastward across the mountain tops with ease. There was a thick gray cloud cover higher up and while nap-of-the-earth flying might work anywhere else, on Ceryshen it was a problem since the entire continent was a massive ice plateau that jutted from the cold black of the arctic waters. That, and flying at low altitudes was enormously inefficient and burned up large amounts of nanite fuel. The clouds would allow them to cruise without being spotted, but it left them vulnerable to rebel missiles if one chanced to spot the aircraft. As the dropship climbed and sped eastwards, Specialist Markos, the most senior of their technician passengers, tapped him on the shoulder and pointed through the portal on one of the infantry bay doors. �Even if we succeed, will Auraxis ever truly be ours?� Elias turned his head to look outside. Angry purple clouds boiled in the distance and streamers of multihued smog hugged the horizon, belying the glaciers� actual height. The traitor alien-lovers of the Vanu Sovereignty had unleashed some horrible virus in the atmosphere, and it had dumped snow across the entire continent, dropping temperatures and blotting out the sun. Trees were stripped bare, looking like horrific giant skeletons. Hot springs were frozen over, and now soldiers were forced to carve blocks of ice to melt down for water. There was some sort of plasma-based storm brewing off the coast, and it was only a matter of time before it boiled over and came ashore. Elias did not want to think about what would happen then. He choked on his own words and bit back a tear. He wanted to lie but his sense of honor and integrity stopped him. �No,� he answered finally. �I doubt it will.� The Galaxy streaked through the night sky. * * * Gouts of mud and water were thrown up as the Galaxy dropship touched down on the upper slopes of the southern mountains in a cloud of shrieking jetwash. Its skids slid briefly on the slippery ground before finally finding a foothold. The rear ramp slammed down into the mud and the five commandos led by Elias surged forward from the ship�s black interior. Elias jogged to a covered position and crouched low behind a jagged brown boulder, resting his para-Cycler on it as he surveyed the slopes below for threats. A thick, driving rain fell and Elias basked in the warmth that the rain brought. It was eighty degrees warmer on Forseral, even though the two continents were of similar latitude. The thick sheets of rain cut visibility dramatically and Elias could see no more than a hundred meters through it. Thunder rumbled, followed shortly by jagged bolts of electrical lightning that speared the sky, throwing patchy coronal blue illumination onto the darkened plains below. He cursed as he realized they would have little or no warning of any attack, should the Vanu invaders discover them. Elias signaled to one of his troops to take his place and he climbed the mud-slick slope to where Sergeant Major Banner coordinated the unloading of the Galaxy�s cargo. Another sword-stroke of lightning seared the sky and Elias saw what they had come for, thrown into shadow by the bright discharge. From the outside, it was nothing remarkable, as all Terran military construction was, simply a steel-crete tower some thirty meters square, with armored blast doors on the northern and southern faces leading within. On each corner, a streamlined box-shaped turret with a single large gun barrel squatted atop the tower, their smooth titanium surfaces covered with a ceramic mirrored tiling. At the very top of the tower, a smaller building sat, most likely the roof access. Two vacant aircraft landing pads were the uppermost constructs on the tower. Four dropship crewmen struggled under the weight of cargo pallets while Specialist Markos and his three drenched technician-scientists slogged through the mud behind them with large cases in hand. The crewmen, pilot included, carried fully-charged capacitors and nanite bins, to recharge the tower and power its weapons systems. Sergeant Major Banner strode downhill to meet Elias, his red armor glossy in the heavy rain. �Anything?� �No, but they could be right on top of us and we wouldn�t know it, in this weather,� replied Elias, having to nearly shout to be heard over the rain and the whine of the Galaxy�s engines. Both men shot a surreptitious glance back down the slope, just in case Elias�s words turned out to be prophetic at that very moment.
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