[IC] The Xenowar Chronicles: Hell Jumpers

[Liotrent]

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Hesperus, 8th of may, 2145 - RNTS Fair Lady

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There was a lot of buzz about the coming operation known only as "Clean Sweep", not many troopers were privy to the knowledge of what was they were about to do. As soon as they came out of hyper jump the only thing they were sure of was that it involved Hesperus. The enemy have been pushing relentlessly into Federal and Republic space. Ground forces along with their defending fleets have been embattled and beleaguered waiting for reinforcements. The Fair Lady sounded its alarm and an announcement over the P.A. gave them their orders – “All hands report to muster!”

Troopers, Marines, Armor crews, Pilots, Gun crews, and other personnel knew what that meant – imminent combat deployment. Everyone was preparing for an engagement with the enemy. The ODIN division commander came on the P.A. and on the screens in their muster stations for a quick briefing hours before the actual deployment on Hesperus.

“Troopers of the 101st ODIN Division, you are to take part in one of the largest military deployments in human history known as Operation “Clean Sweep”. The operation is as straightforward as its name suggests – we are to sweep strategically important locations while securing our core territories. Hesperus is one of these strategically important locations as its rich natural resources such as precious minerals and its large pockets of subterranean natural gasses are necessary to build and maintain our fleets and industries.

Hesperus, despite being heavily cleared of vegetation in developed areas is still 64% jungle and swamp with only 22% being actual developed areas; mountainous and great lake regions take the final 14 percent. The water in some regions of the swamps can reach up to your waist, the atmosphere is breathable with acceptable O2 ratings – however the water is not drinkable with foreign contaminants from several different minerals that can be detrimental to bodily health. I am sure you have all been briefed about the flora and fauna of Hesperus – some might’ve used this as a great clue to prepare for the Hesperus drop in advance.

ODIN divisions such as the 101st, 82nd, 1st, 6th, and 9th are to deploy behind enemy lines to take strategic and tactical locations on Hesperus. This action will force the enemy to relieve the pressure from the front lines by forcing them to deal with ODIN units in multiple locations. ODIN will also be given the task of studying and observing enemy operations while sabotaging their every advance – to know the enemy is to beat the enemy.

Marines in the meantime will land on key areas of defense to relieve the beleaguered garrison; they will then establish a forward deployment zone for the rest of the campaign to secure Hesperus. From the army’s armored divisions, infantry divisions, and artillery divisions will assist in pushing back the enemy from the front. The Fleet will assist in any way they can through strategic bombing, close air support, and medevac retrieval.

To conclude this briefing, I will give you a bit of history on our division before you deploy.

You are one of many divisions that have existed for two hundred years and you are also one of the first to have been converted into an ODIN division. On this day two hundred years ago, your division took part in the effort to end a war on Terra in a region known as Europe.

They were Airborne; just like many of you. I will not sugar coat their efforts and say they achieved great victory. They suffered; they bled and they lost a lot of good men. But they fought hard and did not buckle under the enemy pressure – they believed in the bonds that they formed. The soldier beside you is your lifeline; believe in them for they will trust you with their very lives. Remember your training, for it will keep you alive.

The motto of our division has remained unchanged for two hundred years, ”Rendezvous With Destiny”. I believe that today, regardless of what the outcome may be that our motto is true. I will not wish you farewell, instead I will give you an order – come back alive or take as many of the enemy down to hell with you. I am proud to have been in command of such a fine division of soldiers.”

General Major Marcus D. Lee

ODIN troopers of the 101st were then given their deployment objectives, the 506th regiment were given orders to take a hill ridge with three distinct peaks that served as a supposed enemy head quarters as well as a forward operating base that the enemy has been using as a staging ground from which to launch attacks. The Regiment was comprised of five companies, each company was comprised of three platoons, each platoon consisted of two squads of five or more men depending on the company role.

• ABLE COMPANY
• BAKER COMPANY
• CHARLIE COMPANY
• DOG COMPANY
• EASY COMPANY

Charlie, Dog, and Easy company will be tasked with assaulting the hill as they are ODIN trooper companies; Able and Baker are combat support companies that will be dropping in with mortars, engineering utilities, and field medical services. At least one platoon in a combat support company is a regular infantry platoon for security. This arrangement ensures maximum survivability and punch for an ODIN regiment.

After the Regiment captures the hill, it will have to be defended until the main push arrives, the hills have been dubbed by defending forces as the ’gun belt’ for the amount of fire coming around the hill structure making it look like a belt around a waist. Officially it was designated as Hill-765 after its highest central peak.

Easy Company’s first platoon had been reinforced with new faces, some were clearly veterans of the first war, some were new faces all together but one thing stood out, they weren’t all Republican. The 101st was also subject to the joint forces agreement, not every unit had this strictly enforced, but they were supposed to be open to new recruits regardless of their nationality. They had four hours before their deployment – four hours to prep and it was a chance for everyone involved to perhaps interact and get to know each other or calm their nerves as their fleet approached Hesperus’ occupying hostile blockade.

The Fair Lady’s crew was busy carrying ammunition to the guns that would be used to fend off the invaders. This point of every deployment is always considered to be the most nerve racking. The troops awaiting their drop-off planetside pondered whether or not they would even leave the Fair Lady in one piece.

[DeadDrop]

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"Every Republican regardless of military speciality re-qualifies yearly on standard small arms, a strong army is a qualified army."

Cleanliness is next to godliness.

Every day would start with some kind of cleaning whether it was of Alex's boots or of the floors the First Sarge assigned to be mopped. It was a good motto to abide by, if you followed it you woulden't be some slob nobody. Maybe you could be an above average soldier god forbid you get jacked up for your hospital corners once again. Alex was at her bunk bed in her fatigues working away at her boots, using Pub-Polish (the standard republican boot polish) to shine up her black boots. What use was a polished boot if it didn't have a mirror reflection, of course these boots would be stored for ship use. Little to everyone's knowledge, there was a pair of combat boots for deployments but they have a inch of dust on them. It's been a while.

When the alarm rang, shit hit the deck everyone started to run frantically. If they missed this mother fucking briefing, they might aswell be spaced. Alex was one of the first ones there, albeit in a hurried state. Not everything could be timed perfectly or thought out right, sometimes you just went with what felt right. Leaving her boots back there wasen't a good feeling, nor wearing his secondary pair but it's like riding a bike for the first time. You do it well or you don't do at all, in the briefing the General Major some voice on a screen barked an inspirational speach to them. Probably from his manor on Terra, where he's been since he was a Colonel or something. He wasen't really inspirational, the TV ads had become mind numbing and this just felt like another one.

It would be later when Alex returned to the quarters (or coffins, depends on your view point) when she'd start to take in the other soldiers. Noticing most of them were Republican like them, but also noticing some Fed looking assholes. Elitist in nature, arrogant, colonist looking scum bags. Intiailly she mistook Graves as one of them but realized her mistake, thankfully she didn't say anything and continued to mill about with her equipment and especially her boots. Her uniform was crisp, her hair was within regulation and the only thing that showed on her was the fade on her tunic which was probably someone else's when it was issued. Hopefully the squad SL would be more engaging than that pre-recorded movie she'd just seen.

[Shadow Daedalus]

RNTS Fair Lady - Orbit of Hesperius
8/5/2145 - ???? Hrs

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Pulling his boot strings tight, James gave a quick glance to his bunk-mates. He recognised a few faces from the 201st, and he spied one or two from the 24th as well, but most of them were new to him. A few were openly glaring at him and his fellow 201st Marines, and he levelled them with a hard stare. 'Feds then.' It was pretty easy to work out when you took into account the reputation the 201st had amongst Federation forces, and the Republic soldiers that agreed with them were better at hiding it. One of the Fed troops matched his stare, probably hoping to get him to back down, and he raised an eyebrow mockingly. He could see the Fed getting agitated and they made to stand up, presumably to cross the bunk hall and start something, only for another to grab their arm and stop them. James just smirked and laughed through his nose, tying his barely polished boots and rolling the sleeves of his uniform up. He'll be damned before he gave a shit about something as pointless as keeping his uniform parade clean.

When the Muster call came through, he wasn't far from the muster station so he wasn't making a dash for it but he still made it in time to catch the beginning of the briefing. He mentally logged the important information, but tuned out during the second half. He physically rolled his eyes at the General's ramblings about the division's history in one of those wars over a century ago, and the assumption that anyone even gave a shit. If he wasn't mistaken, James could trace his linage back to the southern tip of the central continent, 'Africa' if memory served him right, so he had no reason to.

The briefing over, James wandered to the nearest mess hall with a copy of the mission details on a data tablet. He grabbed a coffee, black with 3 sugars, and sat down to review what he needed equipment wise. As a sniper, he'll probably be called in to pick off troublesome targets that the regular infantry would have trouble with, like MG Nests or counter-sniping, but the nature of Woodland combat, i.e. lots of trees providing irregular sightlines and plenty of cover, would mean that the lower rate of fire and increased length of the M20A2 would be a detriment in the jungle. The reduced power of the SR20-D wouldn't be a problem unless they came across light armoured units, but if the primary objective was to secure a fortification then he wouldn't be expecting more than soft targets. The close confines of an enemy fortification would necessitate a CQC option, but the standard M9A1 sidearm might fall a little short, so It might be worth taking an M15A4 to compensate...

As he read over the file, he zoned out of his surroundings. He wasn't really interested in socialising, but food and drink wasn't permitted outside of the mess-hall and he'd pushed a few too many boundaries recently so he really couldn't be bothered to deal with a drilling from his CO.

[krismer22]

"I'm loud and I'm proud, I'm Fed and I'm proud mother fucker." The man said, rather the soldier in question who was pulled away by Rose. The soldier, Lead Spacemen Mike Lancaster of Barcallian a mining colony turned into a weapons factory when the Feds decided to exist and hero of the Space Battle of Murtox and a double ace. He was a hot head and some Pub looking shit could and probably would set him off like they just did to him, maybe they thought it was a game a show of force maybe. Even the 'leader' some grim looking bastard, probably some nobody who coulden't do any other job but the fucking army. Probably one of those knuckle draggers with a diploma in 'Weapons of Mass Destruction'. Rose intitally shrugged it off, it was typical that Republicans act out over losing so badly to a bunch of farmers and 'people of low creed'.

She pulled the soldier aside, attempting to reign in the situation. "He's not worth it Lancaster, we're more than them and more than this." Lancaster didn't really listen, still milling about from the stare down of 'men' and most likely plotting revenge. Could be delayed air support, hell even a alien ship could be coming down on that kid and his squad and there'd be nothing a Fed pilot would do to save him or his shit sorry squad in that matter. Despite being forced to work together, due to sweeping choices made by pencil pushing diplomats some would rather see this agreement burn like the ruins of Telconian. Regardless a majority of Feds in these situations continue to persevere in the matter. "Take the higher road." -Cpt. James Putnelli. Rose pondered for a moment why Republicans would already try to burn the fragile bridge between the two nations.

Sadly the thought came to the end when Muster call came, which it came quick and ended shortly after formation. A brief battle briefing was committed by some ODIN General, making references to wars no one really knew about. There wasen't really a feeling of comradiery just uneasyness in the air, the people of 100 years ago didn't fight the threats of today. That's what was really scary, you can't make a comparsion like that. It's just future-shock anyway, no one thought we'd get this far or maybe it was all the stories of aliens being real. It was some weird shit, however Rose found herself preparing for the mission. She was debating trying to meet some new faces but after that stand off in the bunks she decided against it. Hopefully she woulden't anger the apes.

[Liotrent]

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Easy Company’s muster station was a mess; there were reports of fights breaking out even before the arrival to Hesperus but the large ship usually allowed an easy escape from scrapes and bruises. The close proximity of everyone in the muster station further exacerbated the situation and made it apparent to Michael, the other two lieutenants, and the Company C.O. – Captain Rupert Mckinnerd, a Federal officer. Michael and the other two lieutenants from Easy Company’s three platoons have been observing the men ever since they got on the ship. The conversation they all had on the matter was grim to put it lightly - they reckoned that if the troopers couldn't get their act together, they might as well be declared dead before they even left the ship.

As they entered the muster station Michael shouted, ”Officer on deck!” his order was echoed all around for all to hear as Captain Mckinnerd came in, combat gear ready.

”Ladies and Gentlemen, we’re leaving this boat, I’ll be seeing you all on the ground! Get to your drop-pods! Lieutenants, you have ten minutes before the hammer falls, brief your men one more time before that happens!” Mckinnerd’s voice bounced all over the Muster station and right after he announces the time to leave, the rest of the lieutenants including Michael start hollering for their platoon to follow them to the drop stations.

”First platoon on me! We’re dropping in ten minutes! ON THE DOUBLE!" the drop-pods were right outside of the ODIN muster stations. The Drop-pod station was just a long hall with many cylindrical tubes and doors that lead straight into the drop-pods themselves. The platoon was in two long lines by the time they reached their drop-pod station. ”First platoon! I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but to brief you all just before we launch. Easy is leading the 506th up the ant-hill while Dog and Charlie squeeze the sides. We’ll act as a wedge and confuse their lines even further. To those who’re straight from boot, this is no longer ’wargames and simulations’ watch your asses out there – We might not drop in all together.”

Michael opened his drop-pod, which was the signal that gave everyone else the heads up that it was time to go. He climbed in and enabled its launch sequence, he reached towards his right side and flipped a switch which allowed him to guide the pod in atmosphere to some degree; he reached over to the left and flipped another switch, which allowed the counter measure system to deploy once they hit fifty thousand feet above the ground. Counter measure debris would land in a scatter and is relatively harmless depending on gravity and atmospheric density.

Once Michael was complete with his pre-launch checks, he noticed the red light turn on in the hallways, which indicated all the troopers were in their pods. When the green light came on, they were shot down the tube. As they cleared the ship, the planet’s surface was clear, they were landing on a sunny day. As they looked at the space straight ahead of their pods, they could see that even in space they were under attack. The glow of missile exhausts and explosions and were all around them.

Inside the pod, they could feel the rumble as they started to encounter atmospheric resistance; the thrusters came on to slow their descent as well as the on board air breaks. As they hit fifty thousand feet they hear a loud bang indicating that the decoys have been launched. If one were to look at the sky with Radar it would look like five regiments of troopers were dropping out of the sky, when really it was only one.

The ground came closer and closer and the fire coming from their objective began to shoot up at them. Some were completely destroyed, others were damaged and knocked off course, and for the lucky ones – a decoy saved their life.

When the troopers finally reached the ground and deployed, they encountered immediate enemy resistance. Michael was lucky to have landed on dry land. He took out his weapons and started returning fire almost immediately; a few other troopers were able to join up with him with the rest of Easy company unaccounted for. ”SIR!” As Michael dove into cover behind some fallen trees, a trooper called out to him, ”LIEUTENANT! CAPTAIN MCKINNERD WAS HIT DURING THE DROP! HE IS MIA, YOU’RE ACTING COMPANY CO! SIR!

"Fuck" Michael cursed under his breath and brought up his rifle to shoot at the advancing enemy who were now beginning to come down from the hill and fight them on the forest floor. ”TELL THE REST OF THE COMPANY THAT THE ENEMY HAS DEFENSES ON THE FOREST FLOOR! LOOK OUT FOR TRAPS AND MINES! IF POSSIBLE CAPTURE THE DEVICE OR AT THE VERY LEAST DOCUMENT IT! WE ARE TO REGROUP AT THE BASE OF THE HILL! TROOPERS, ADVANCE!" as he finished barking out orders, he threw a smoke grenade to cover the advance at that particular sector. He instructed the rest of the troopers to start laying down smoke and cover fire so that they could advance closer and drive the enemy back up the ant-hill.

[Shadow Daedalus]

RNTS Fair Lady -> 2km from LZ, Hesperius
8/5/2145 - +0007 Hrs after Drop

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While he hadn't been in the muster station at the time, he was still close enough to heard the drop call. He fell in to the first platoon as they walked, quickly piecing together what he had missed from the briefings. He wasted no time in embarking in his pod, quickly running through his pre-drop checks and checking his loadout before the lights turned ready and his settled in for the jarring sensation of launch.

Of the three groups of pods; the dead, the damaged and the lucky, James fell into the second. As soon as the platoon entered firing range, The pod to his immediate left was torn apart by alien weaponry and the re-entry package within detonated, the concussive blast sending debris into the guidance systems of James' pod and shorting out the auto-nav. "Shit, Fuck!" He couldn't help but swear loudly, unfortunately into open comms, before being prompted with the automatic activation of the manual guidance controls as the pod began to pitch and veer off course.

Thick black smoke poured from the left-side control surfaces as he fought against the damaged controls, all too aware of the rapidly approaching ground, until he broke the tops of the trees and mentally resigned himself to fate. The pod impacted the ground with ballistic force and everything went black...

When James came to, he felt the straps of his seat digging uncomfortably into his shoulders as he tried to blink away his blurry vision, groaning as the pain struck him all at once. "Ah, my fucking head... what the hell happened?" He felt liked he'd been clocked over the head by a masonry hammer or crowbar. He fumbled at the straps before punching the manual release of his pod's door, stumbling out and falling onto his hands and knees in a daze, pulling off his helmet as he did so. His head was killing him, he couldn't focus... He crawled back into the pod to grab at the emergency medkit, fishing out a couple of pills and knocking them back without much thought. It was a gamble, but it luckily paid off as his vision cleared and the pain mostly faded from his head. A palm to his forehead, he took a deep breath of the swampy jungle air, feeling slightly sickened by the warm, humid air but slightly glad to still be alive, before picking up his helmet and inspecting it for damage. It was mostly superficial, a bit of lost paint and a few hair-width cracks, but the integrity was alright. He pulled it back on before looking around. "No-one around... I need find the rest of Easy and regroup with First Platoon."

He hopped back into the pod and retrieved the rifle and sidearm from within, but the SMG seemed to be a lost cause. The receiver, barrel and mag-well were FUBAR, so he grabbed the spare magazines but left the ruined weapon behind. A flickering on one of the readouts drew his attention and he looked to see a mission clock as well as a geographical read-out. The crash had thrown him way off course, and he'd blacked out for just over 5 minutes. The revelation drew an agitated hiss from him as he pushed off of his position in the doorway to the pod, stepping back to properly survey the area around the crash site. The falling pod had evidently smashed through multiple trees and even a small rockface, coming to rest at the bottom and surrounded by metallic and stone debris. The external damage was still sparking and lightly smoking, but no open fires seemed to have started, he didn't have to worry about an imminent explosion but still...

"Fuuuuuuck..." He cursed under his breath. With all the drops he'd seen, it wasn't often that people walked away from ones like that, not without serious wounds at least. James still had all of his limbs in working order and he wasn't vomited blood, so if he believed in a god he'd be thanking the fuck out of them. He shook his head, stopped as a stabbing headache returned, before putting his hand to his radio.

"This is Specialist James Graves of 1st Platoon, Easy Company. Does anyone read me? Over." Nothing. He was only met with static."I repeat, this is Specialist Graves. Does anyone Copy? Over." Again, static. Either busted or out of range. Cursing softly for the nth time in the past few minutes, he unslung the SR20-D from his shoulder and begun the arduous journey to Easy Company's last known location.

[DeadDrop]

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"Republican scientist Abar Dafreeko invented and pattended ODIN armor during the Terrible War for Republican troopers to utilize against Federation Seperatists."

There's always something about getting the shakes before a drop, something in popular fiction or in that one book. It has to do is eager to start, yea that's it. No matter what you do, how you prep it's all the fucking same just your legs rattling, skittering waiting to hit the ground so you can run out to kill and probably be killed. It was a cliche but it's how Alex felt right now, it was such a big deployment not as big as the one she was on before. Bigger - y'know bigger pods, bigger risk, bigger badasses the works. Before she walked to her pod she saw Sergeant Biff Hellcat, he was a legend alright but to explain his never-ending list of achievements and victories.

By the time Alex's train of thought came up she was already in the sky, the sky was on fire blowing up. The aliens were just picking pods out of the sky like a hand of God, it was over in a few seconds. No not death, but the deployment. The pod cracked the ground and like those before her she stepped out, rifle in hand. So did others in her company, disoriented obviously and eager gunfire popped off. Bodies fell, the fire was returned. A simple song a dance, a pattern but more so just the way of life for these next few minutes. A distinct click of an empty magazine, the vibration touched Alex's hand. The firing pin slammed dry on a rather empty gun, a reload later the sound was corrected.

Where was the Lieutenant was a question that eventually came to mind, it would be after a couple alien mother fuckers punched their ticket but it was a thought non the less. Alex landed on point, maybe the Lieutenant had died or worse pushed on without the team. At the moment the only thing that could really be done is fight, not think. Thinking was a losing man's strategy, it came naturally fighting that is you train for so long doing one thing when you enact that training it becomes clockwork. The question was how long would they last, the sky looked grey and the atmosphere was flooded with the smell of death.

[krismer22]

As Federation soldier you had a job to do so holding back on the grudges from before was pointless, the group of Fed soldiers already in Easy were in their pods. Everyone was ready, their equipment was checked by Rose herself. If anyone was going to survive this attack, rather assault it would be the Federation. They were picked for a reason, not that the Republicans needed to know the best survive the worst that the world throws at them. The General had some truth to the saying, being like the troopers of old. Rose hated to admit it but being wrong was sometimes a reality for her.

The pod went flying through the air, it was graceful and also calming. She'd done it many times before and it just felt right to be sitting in a pod again, albeit it wasn't her pod just one of the Republicans unused metal vaults. It came down with force and landed swiftly, of course, there was some anti-air fire but luckily she wasn't one to take fire. When the drop cleared the Feds and Republican ODIN troopers exited to fighting. Sadly for Graves it looked like he didn't make it, just a constant reminder of Karma of the battlefield. Rose took cover with other soldiers of both nations, there were injured already. Men cut in half by alien weaponry, was it some kind of plasma bolt or beam who knew but the wounds were devasting.

Rose found herself helping those she could, with minor burns, shrapnel and the sort. However the weaponry employed seemed to leave many men dead, ODIN armor or not the aliens were imposing a challenge even. They had taken worlds in days, so the fight was definitely uphill figuratively and literally. Until Easy regrouped the most the soldiers could do was fight and recover, it ultimately would be the Lieutenant who would - or should lead the company to the objective. If for some reason he was gone, it would be up to Rose. A daunting task none the less.

[Liotrent]

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Michael and a handful of other troopers from other platoons pushed towards the ’ant-hill. He waded through the thick swamp and smoke, the entire area was engulfed in fire and noise. The moment he broke through the smoke, he saw three mg emplacements lined up on the base of the hill in a trench of sorts, around the trench was a series of barricades and what would most likely be enemy explosive anti-personnel mines.

The enemy defenders noticed him and started opening fire, he took a glancing hit on his right shoulder piece. He dove to the ground and rolled behind cover, he leaned over to return fire, quickly being suppressed by the enemy static defenses. The other troopers would be coming out of the smoke soon; he was about five meters from the entrenched position. Without hesitation, Michael pulled a pin on a frag grenade and turned his jet boosters on and hopped to a nearby tree branch while lobbing the grenade into the enemy trench from above.

Before the alien defenders even realized what the grenade meant, they were engulfed in its fiery blast. Troopers began emerging from the smoke and quickly attempted to take over the enemy positions. Without thinking, one of the troopers rushed into the enemy position instantly meeting his maker via enemy explosive defense catching four of his squad mates in the blast leaving two with minor injuries and one in critical condition.

”Shit! Okay, anyone with a jetpack make your way to the trench. The rest of you wait for the engineers to clear this area!” Troopers went up and over the barricades and enemy traps, among those left behind were heavy infantry and marksmen carrying heavy equipment such as explosives and extra ammo.

He put his and up to the side of his head to start transmitting to the rest of the company tried his radio, ”Easy, I need you to sound off! If you’ve been knocked off course, regroup with us on the grid coordinates I’m about to send to your displays! I need every available trooper, we have a lot of wounded and some are in critical condition. Does anyone copy?”

As soon as he was done talking he noticed more of the alien combatants charge down the hill for an assault, it was almost as if they had an infinite reserve of manpower. Michael, looked down and signaled for marksmen and support gunners to take up favorable positions to suppress the while the regroup for the push up the hill. The situation was deteriorating and it seemed that Dog and Charlie weren’t doing so good either.

Observed the enemy troop movement from the tree canopy, judging their positions from all the yellow lines of tracers coming from the enemy defensive positions. There were squads that had the miserable luck of landing on the hill surrounded by the enemy. The drop was a shit-show.

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Baker company and Able company were in the thick of it, some of their equipment landed in the wrong place and some of the equipment they have was damaged during the drop. They were providing what little mortar fire they could, but reinforcing enemy forces encountered their position and engaged. The platoon that was supposed to be acting as their security team was heavily outnumbered to the point where some of the mortar crew had to join the fray. The exchange of fire was intense but they were holding.

The amount of tracers, explosions, and yelling was deafening. The mortar crews couldn’t use their mortars on the hill, they had to use it against the reinforcements otherwise they’d get overrun quite quickly. The support companies were giving the enemy everything they had and they weren’t in a well dug-in location yet. If anything, the fighting here is just as intense if not more intense than that on the hills. "This is Able company requesting immediate assistance, we are surrounded by enemy forces and are under heavy assault! Any available troopers respond!"

[DeadDrop]

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"The joint-peace agreement allowed the Republic's economy to skyrocket post war, allowing more private and public jobs to be available to citizens."

It didn't take long for Alex to pivot, hell the whole thing had gone to shit - however, the comms still worked. For the most part, it seemed like the assault was still going on. Despite the fuck ups and mis-drops and the whole 9 nines of shit that was dragged in by the drop. The call came through, something about Alpha company taking it hard. Yea looks like they couldn't survive it anymore, the hell the carnage the death. It was too much, they needed relief probably and with the communicae being broadcasted it was obvious. On Alex's end shit already was calming down, if you could call it calming down. Maybe it was just bearable, but enough for her to break away to assist Alpha.

Guess you could say it didn't take too long, to get the alpha that is. They were being overrun by something deadly, just most of the horde converging. They didn't have much time to set up a defense that is, and the enemy was surrounding their position at the time of arrival. Marines were dead, encircled and low of ammo there were some people coming to their aid it appears (besides Alex). All she had to do was raise her rifle and shoot.

So she did, again and again, the fire came back but she was okay she had soldiers around her. The ones that survived after all, in cover and relieving pressure on Alpha. Hopefully some other soldiers would show up, break the line and allow Alpha to leave the encirclement. Maybe just fucking maybe but it wasn't likely, with the shit show and all. Easy needed everyone they could get to take that hill, the LT would be pissed not everyone was on point but no matter. Such is life.

[krismer22]

When the call to help Alpha came through it was unexpected that they would be calling, at the time of the call the battle really had only just begun. Alpha company was radioing for help, assistance rather due to a quick encirclement of enemy forces. It was unlikely that they would survive on their own, since they had just been encircled oddly enough. Regardless, the call was made to split forces. After Rose had fixed up the last soldier she was working on - a man who had cut up his legs badly from 'planet fall'. Rose spoke to the Fed soldiers with her.

"We're going to split up, half to Echo other half with me to Alpha." The soldiers seemed to be in agreement, more so the ones that were heading to Echo. The ones with Rose agreed, they weren't going to run from it but going to Alpha seemed to be a lost cause but their voices of disagreement were swiftly cut off. There wasen't time to argue or have a debate about it, if Alpha was salvable they were be saved because in the end Alpha surviving benefitied the mission. Their mission with Easy.

After leaving their plight in the skirmish fields, the ravaged world just seemed to devolve into a mess of gore and mud. Trees blown to ashed stumps and the land scape seemd to be terraformed by artillery shells and orbital strikes. There were alot dead, alot injured but Rose didn't stop for it. If Alpha were to have a chance they would need to be given a chance to break through, when Rose and her team did make it. It seemed progress to break the encirclement was slow, that was about to change.