Ari was just beginning to get fully recovered, her legs had stopped wobbling and she could slowly feel her fear going back down, when the call came over the COM. She eeped quietly before training kicked in and she replied "Aye aye Captain. Lieutenant Williams returning to combat station. Unit Astelion ready for launch in five."
At that, she slowly wobbled back in as Schwiss and the engineers were hastily replacing parts from spare stock. She'd get some hull integrity back, hopefully, but how much was up in the air depending on how fast they could work and how much they already had prepared. After climbing back in and re-sealing the cockpit, it was a simple matter of preparing to disconnect the Astelion from ship power once more, and she called out over the COM line "Lieutenant Williams, prepped for escort mission."
Hark walked out into the hangar bay with a contingent of marines. He barked an order and they all formed up. There was fifty of them, broken up into five squads of ten. All of them were outfitted in armor that was used by the 101st before the advent of the MAS. Each suit was advanced and featured personal shielding as well as reflex and stength enhancers. Every squad had a single troop in an ultra-light MAS. They stood two heads above their comrades. Mounted on their shoulders were heavy weapons that a normal soldier would need a partner to operate. There was a medic and a designated marksman in each squad as well.
Every marine had customized their armor much like the 7th had done with their MAS units. This particular platoon had taken to color coding their positions within the team. Red were team leaders, blacks were marksmen, yellow were medics and green were heavies. The colors took form in whicher pattern or design the individual troop wanted. Some striped their armor is tiger pattern camouflages and others had emblems or kill marks.
Watching the Marines gather in the hangar was something of an awe-insipring experience for Ari. Sure, she'd seen Marines before, she'd been on naval vessels a few times to do drills, but she'd never seen such a big assembly before. So many fighting men all in one grouping, frankly it was a little intimidating. That was, of course, a little stupid when you considered she was currently powering up a killer robot that flew through space firing plasma cannons, but even so, she couldn't help the reaction.
Hark put his hands behind his back and paced in front of the platoon. "First platoon! Attention!"
The armored boots of all fifty marines hit the deck at once, making an audible metal on metal slam. "We're the first wave, boys! The capain has ordered that we drop into the atmosphere of that moon," Hark pointed out the hangar and toward the moon, "and secure it. Once that's done, second platoon will follow in with the heavy ordance. We're going to set up a firebase and establish a presence here. Any questions?"
One of the marines spoke up from squad three, "Sergeant!" he spoke loudly, "What if the enemy attacks before the base is established?"
Hark grinned and looked at the marine. He was an FNG, his armor was shiny and he only had the platoon's arbitrary color coding on his shoulder platers. "Son, you're standing aboard one of the UEE's finest ships. Danger wont come to us down there as long as our stoic captain still draws breath. Besides, we get the honor of having an escort on this mission."
Hark pointed down the long hangar and toward the Astelion, "The 7th is donating one of their pilots to the cause. Captain Marquis has plenty of faith in this one and I'm sure it's well placed. We're deploying in ten minutes, mount up!"
At the declaration of faith in her, Ari blushed slightly in embarassment. Thankfully, they couldn't see into the Astelion, so she was at least spared that bit of humiliation. If they all had so much faith in her, she'd do her best not to let them down. Even so, she'd have to bring her A game. These Marines were probably used to the more experienced piltos in the 7th, not a by-the-book pilot like herself. She'd have to make sure to earn the faith placed in her with top marks.
The engines of the gunships roared to life and the loading ramps dropped down behind them. The first platoon filled into each gunship, two squads for every one ship. Hark moved toward the Astelion. When he reached the large machine, he stood right in front of it and put his hands on his hips. "Seems like the Captain wants you dirty quick, rookie. Pleasure to have your acquaintance on this mission."
Sensing she was being addressed, Ari looked down to see the Marine Sergeant standing there, hands on hips, talking. After mumbling under her breath "Hard to salute aboard the Astelion.", she shook her head and keyed the COM, saying "Sir, I'll do my best sir. I'll run a loose escort pattern, the Astelion can't do close escort. With your permission, sir, I'll patch into your mens' COM channel so I can hear any calls for assistance. Would that be permissible, sir?"
Hark chuckled, "No sir here, rookie. Just a humble sergeant. I'll send you the access codes for our channels." Hark was about to walk but he stopped himself and turned back toward the Astelion, "One more thing. If we come under attack, you're not going to be able to save them all. Keep yourself level and help the ones that make sense for the mission. You and that machine are worth more and ten grunts, I'd rather not have you die by heroics. Keep that in mind." Hark made his way back to one of the gunships after that.
When the Sergeant walked away, Ari released a sigh of relief and mumbled "Can't save them all huh? Sounds like something Tom would say. I can't believe that though, this machine may be worth a lot of money but no more than the dropship and the men in it, and lord knows I'm not worth any more than one of those men. I'm just another pilot."
Shaking her head, as she often did, to clear away these notions, she finished her final flight checks with a few flourishes of her fingers. With final clearance attained, she shifted the Astelion into position for a mag launch and entered the codes to key into the Marine COM. On their net, she announced
"This is Second Lieutenant Ariana Williams in the Astelion. I'll be your escort for this mission, the net will be loose so you may not see me, but I'll bail you out if trouble comes. Launching now to secure the area." At that, she keyed a few more commands into her console, engaging the mag launch manually. The thrill was as intense as ever, but she had to stay focused.
The marines in the shuttles all woo'd and and whistled when they heard Ariana's voice over the comms. Some spoke up when she finished.
"You can escort me if you catch my drift!"
"A girl in a big suit of armor?! I'll show ya big!"
The cheesy lines kept on coming and it took a quick order from Hark to shut them all up. "That girl in the big suit of armor also has a pair of big ass guns... Literally." Hark said, "So don't piss her off."
When she got out into space, she immediately began to do some quick scans and visual recon runs along the dropships' path down to the moon. It seemed clear for now, but the Coalition knew where the Lincoln was. They wouldn't risk flying any of their bigger ships around almost certainly, getting that close was begging for a WMG shot and they'd seen what it could do. That didn't mean, however, that the White Knight or other Coalition suits wouldn't come out to play. She kept up this sentry pattern, awaiting the launch fo the Marine vessels.
The gunships got the order to deploy. They lifted from the flight deck to five feet and shot forward out of the main hangar entrance. Once all five of them had made it into space, they forced a wedge formation and made their way straight for the moon. Inside the gunships, the joking and suggestive lines were replaced with serious communications. They were checking their weapons and armor, talking tactics and triple checking their assignments. A one liner would pop up every so often but it was just small talk to ease the tension aboard the gunships.
"Breaking atmo." one pilot said as the five gunships started to penetrate the thin atmosphere of the moon. There was just enough friction to cause that telltale fireball effect along the bottom of the gunships' hulls. The transition from vacuum to atmospheric was quick but the difference was noticeable. High winds blew across the moon, making the gunships adopt an angled approach.
The Astelion, for its part, kept up the aforementioned loose pattern. Even as the gunships were descending, Ari was still running an orbital patrol. She, for now, made sure that the enemy wasn't nearby, and blessedly she hadn't picked anything up. Of course, there could be some form of super stealth MAS, so she needed to keep alert, but at the very least nothing seemed wrong. Hopping back on the channel, she reported
"This is Williams, following you down ground team." True to form, she began guiding the Astelion down after the gunships, using her banks of thrusters to keep a slow, measured descent. The trademark effect that wreathed the ships also was seen on her suit, though to a lesser extent since she could handle a more controlled descent. Once she was in atmosphere, the Astelion shook a little from the winds, but soon stabilized. A suit meant to fly at high speed like the Astelion, in atmosphere and in space, had to be able to handle high winds, so at least for now there was no danger.
Hark walked into the three man cockpit of the gunship and looked over to the pilot, "Can you set it down?"
The pilot shook his head as he fought with the wind, "Negative, taking off would be too risky, we need ot keep up our speed."
Hark looked out to the moon, he could see the large dust plumes blowing off of the peaks of dunes. He nodded slowly, "Drop pods then."
The pilot looked over to him, "You'll be off course in an instant."
"Then shoot us at an angle and let the wind take us to the LZ!" Hark gave his signature grin.
The pilot looked pale, "You're a crazy son of a bitch, Hark, y'know that?"
Hark continued to grin as he turned and entered the troop compartment again. "We're taking pods, ladies and gentlemen! Secure your equipment!"
Stabilizing her pattern around the Marines, she watched with a raised eyebrow as the dropships began angling into the winds. She wasn't sure what they were playing at, but whatever it was it wasn't in the books. Her mouth fell agape, however, when she watched as the gunships' onboard drop pods began falling down into the winds. Just based on what she saw, she guessed they were banking on the high winds blowing them on target, but that was mind numbingly dangerous. The wind could shift and blow the pods into one another or any number of other problems, and she couldn't save them from the powers of nature.
Releasing a sigh, she keyed the COM and drily remarked
"That's quite the insertion tactic Sergeant Hark, I can feel my head instructor rolling in his grave." A light chuckle slipped from her lips after that as she followed the pods down, the enemy still nowhere that she could see. She supposed little blessings like that were something to appreciate, though that was a small consolation given the already dangerous drop tactic would only go from "Incredibly Dangerous" to "Suicidal" on the, as her father called it, "Williams Scale of Doom".
Hark sat down in one of the seats. He pulled a harness over her body then mounted his weapons on a small receiver next to him. "This is Hark. Send me out."
Just seconds later, the seat lifted a bit from the floor and a capsule closed over around him. The capsule was then flipped backward and directed toward the horizon of the moon. Then it shot out of the gunship at high speed directly against the wind. A speed indicator in the pod showed that he was slowing then. Hark felt it in his gut as the pod flipped around and started travelling in the opposite direction. Seemed his snap call for drop pods worked!
He received reports from the marines, "On target! Landing in thirty seconds!"
Others were freaking out, "This is suicide!"
And even them, some were cheering and hooting as the pods rode the wind toward a large crater that was their landing zone. The pods all hit the surface in quck succession, sending up towers of dust. The dust blew away in the wind. All of the pods had landed five straight line, maintaining that same wedge pattern that the gunships had when they deployed the pods.
Hark's pod opened and he stepped out. His helmet highlighted surfaces and told him it was all clear. "This is Hark. First platoon is on the ground. Captain, if you're listening, you're going to want to tell second platoon how they're inserting."
Back up on the bridge of the Lincoln, Alexis couln't help but chuckle. The captain wasn't surprised at Hark's unorthodox method of delivery worked. She had known him long enough to know that his crazy plans managed to work out. "Affirmative, sergeant. Set up a perimeter, second platoon is deploying now."
Listening in, Ariana took this time to reply
"Understood Captain, Lieutenant Williams returning to orbit to escort Second Platoon." At that, the Astelion turned back towards space and, offering the men on the ground something of a show, flipped the X-50s back for a rapid acceleration. She'd break her maximum speed before she was out of atmoshpere, give them a glimpse at what hardware like her suit could do. After all, the men needed to believe in something she supposed, and it may as well be superior firepower.
Getting back into space, she still wasn't picking up anything on the Astelion's sensors, but that didn't count for much. She wasn't piloting an artillery unit, so her sensors were only good for about half of the deployment line, and she wouldn't be able to detect enemy units at all until they rounded the moon, when she'd stand a chance of seeing them through the cameras. Stationing herself into a stable, for now, patrol pattern she called out once more
"Second Platoon, this is Lieutenant Williams. Patrol pattern established, you are green to go. Take it out nice and easy and I'll keep you safe while you fly out."
"Copy, Lieutenant, gunships coming out." a voice responded. Five similar gunships launched from the hangar, followed by a trio of larger hauling ships. They were carrying the heavy ordinance that Hark had mentioned. It was a common practice for fire bases to have surface to orbital weaponry to assist their mothership. Anything the Coalition would send around the moon, they'd not only meet the full might of the Lincoln, but a surprise attack flanking from the moon itself.
The haulers weren't going to be swayed as much by the wind and their thrusters were far more powerful than the ships they were propelling. the ships, they'd have the strength to lift off amidst the wind. Once the cannons were offloaded, they would be light enough to lift off and return to the Lincoln.
Following the haulers and gunships down, she made sure to keep a loose circle around the ships. She couldn't detect any other problems aside from the wind buffeting the ships, and that had no bearing on the cannons. So, for now she got back on the line, saying "Captain, Sergeant Hark, no problems detected yet. Moving to atmospheric patrol pattern, call me if you require assistance." Shortly after, the Astelion began to circle the firebase, keeping up a circle pattern to maximize sensor and visual coverage.
Looking around, she noted the Astelion was beginning to shake more as she accelerated to high speed. The wind was only getting worse as she accelerated, though thankfully it didn't seem to be causing any real damage yet. It was playing a bit with her fine motor control, but she'd be fine so long as she didn't try to do a quick rotation or any kind of flip at top speed. That, however, was kinda the only way she'd been fighting up to now...so she'd just have to hope for the best on this one.
The second wave of gunships launched their drop pods. The same combination of professional reports, cries of fear and cheers of excitement came from the second platoon marines. The pods angled in the wind and came down in the crater only a kilometer away from the first platoon. The haulers decided to put their cargo down between the two platoons. They landed without a problem, the wind was entirely superficial to them. The loading bays in the back opened up and crews of men started trollying out the parts for the cannons. Each hauler was able to carry three cannons, which gave the marines six to work with.
Hark looked around the edges of the crater, "First platoon, move up to the ridges and remain on overwatch. Second platoon, you monkeys are putting the cannons together. Double time it, marines."
Alexis radioed in, "Williams, Hark, long range sensors are detecking Coalition movement. They aren't coming for us yet but they'll be making a push. How long until the firebase is operational?"
Hark replied quickly, "I can have three cannons up in forty minutes, all of them in twice that. How long do you think we have?"
"I need them all up in an hour, sergeant. Out." Alexis dropped off of comms.
Hark clenched his teeth and mumbled something just before he began to give his orders to the rest of the marines.
Ari bit her lip immediately after the news, but called out
"Affirmative Captain, going to full combat alert." She dumped power from some of her secondary systems into the sensors, extending its range slightly. It wasn't much, but she'd take what she could get. As she patrolled along, she heated up the X-50s and kept them running hot, so if she saw any Coalition suits she could let loose and destroy them immediately. As she patrolled, she added over the COM line
"Marines, if you have anything you think the Astelion can do to help speed up construction, call me in. I can drop the 50s and help out."
