Terran Marines

Terran Marines (Ch 02b)

This is a continuation of Part 2a and doesn't really stand on its own. A bunch of new characters get introduced, so I've added a handy cheat sheet at the end of the story listing who's who and where they slot into the organization.

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The armor locker was a beehive of activity. The able Marines were hastily repairing what damage they could, loading ammo and ensuring that the suits were charging. Cron and Berts' armor was located next to his. Stephen did his best to ignore the empty spot where Johnson's armor was normally stored.

"How's it coming? What's your status?"

"Pretty good," replied Cron. "My armor is patched and ammo is loaded. The suit is at 80% of charge."

"Uh huh. Come 'ere, you." Stephen took Cron's face and looked deep into his eyes. "You're down-checked. Go to the infirmary and have them finish taking care of your arm and get the regen started."

Cron's face fell, "No, Corporal! I...I gotta be in on this one. I need to get some back for Johnson." Tears rolled down his cheeks and he grubbily wiped them with the back of a hand. "Please let me go!"

Stephen brought him in for a hug. Out of the corner of his eyes, he watched as the remaining Marines in the squad studiously ignored the scene in front of them.

"I would, but this one is going to be fucking hairy and I can't afford to nursemaid you. You're too doped up on painkillers. See if anyone here needs..." Stephen almost said 'a hand', but managed to change it to "...help. Go on now."

Cron nodded miserably and began to walk down the line.

"Well, wasn't that special!" Stephen whirled around to see Sgt Durand, the 2nd Squad Leader, leering at him. "I see you pussies are all weepy about losing some gash, I bet she gave it up to every..."

Stephen slammed a rigid forearm into Durand's throat, pushing him across the room to slam into a bulkhead (wall). Durand tried a short punch to Stephen's side, but he angled his body and Durand's fist slid off his back. Stephen pinned Durand against the bulkhead with his body and increased the force pressing against Durand's throat. Durand began to slap ineffectually at Stephen's head, but the steel bar at his throat wasn't letting up. Durand began to gasp as his oxygen was slowly cut off, when Stephen was roughly pulled away from Durand.

"AT EASE! WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE!" Stephen winced when he realized that it was SSgt Kerwalski, the senior enlisted Marine in the platoon.

"He...he assaulted me! Stephen

tried to kill me!" cried Sgt Durand.

Sgt Kronkit interrupted him, "I don't know what Durand is talking about. I didn't see anything. I did hear Durand mouthing off about Johnson, though, calling her something unprintable."

SSgt Kerwalski turned on Durand, "Oh yeah? Is that true?"

"No...no! I didn't..."

"Shut the fuck up and come with me." Kerwalski grabbed Durand by the arm and shoved him out of the suit locker.

"That's right you stupid fucker," muttered Kronkit. "He'd deserve it if he got himself fragged when we go back down there." He looked around as the squad stared at Stephen and him. "What are you all looking at? Get back to work!"

He turned to Stephen, "And you, control your temper! You do not want to go back down there if your head isn't screwed on straight. Got it?"

"Yes, Sergeant."

Stephen tried to shake off the incident and walked over to Berts. "How's your armor look?"

Berts slapped him on the shoulder. "I'm good, Corporal, thanks for standing up for Johnson, Durand is a prick. As for my suit, no major damage, ammo's loaded and she's almost fully charged. We were able to service your armor as well. Everything checks out."

"Thanks, bud."

Stephen wandered over to where Kronkit was supervising another fire team. "Hey, Sergeant. What's the plan for the drop?"

Kronkit looked disgusted, "There isn't a plan. The fusion plant's structure is thwarting our sensors, so we don't know what's going on inside. Not that it might matter too much as there's an absolute shit-ton of bugs roaming around outside. Too many to put in a recon team and expect them to get close enough to see anything without dying. We can't hit them hard from the air as the fusion plant is too vulnerable. A ricochet could ruin everyone's day."

"Shit, that sucks."

"It sure does suck for us."

"So what are we looking at?"

"Right now? Dropping right on top of the fusion plant and charging up the middle. At least there's a good chance that shit-stain Durnad would take a round through his running lights."

"Fuck, that'd be one hot LZ. And a good way to permanently buy a piece of this rock."

"Yeah, which is why the LT hasn't given us an OpPlan yet. RUMINT (rumor intelligence) suggests she may cancel the assault as we don't have the firepower to take down all those bugs, plus what may be outside."

"But all those colonists!"

"I know. Which is one reason she went into the morgue and dragged your sorry ass out of it." Kronkit held up his hands to ward off Stephen's glare. "Hey, I get it, but we'll need you for this one."

Stephen nodded and went back to check on Berts, who was busy helping other Marines. Everything seemed to be about done, except for a couple of suits that had been damaged and were frantically being repaired.

Stephen grabbed a set of HD goggles and its wrist control, then found a quiet corner to sit. He called up imagery of the fusion plant and he whistled at the number of bugs circling around the place. At least part of the fusion plant facility had been taken over by the bugs as he could see them milling around. There were dead bugs gathered around one part of the plant, suggesting that the colonists were actually making a stand in that part of the fusion plant. Perhaps the bugs couldn't use their heavier weapons as the bugs recognized the danger of the fusion plant.

He began to run different scenarios, starting with the entire platoon dropping directly on the fusion plant. That one didn't end well and the battle comp decided that casualties were 100%. He tried different variations. One was to have a fire team or squad set down some distance away from the plant and entice the bugs to chase the Marines. Not enough bugs chased off after the lure to make a difference and the remainder of the platoon was just too small to defeat the remaining bugs. He tried different variations on this theme, but it didn't make enough of a difference in the end, the Marines all died or they took too many casualties and couldn't break through to the colonists.

He then thought of the Alamo, the infamous battle in the old district of Texas and the various 2D movies chronicling the battle. He scanned the terrain around the fusion facility, looking for a terrain feature that wasn't too close, but was easily defendable by a squad or so of Marines. He found one and set up a scenario where one squad dug in and tried to weather the bug attempts to dig them out. Battle comp figured out the odds, incorporating the strong defensive advantage that the hill provided, known bug behavior and the weaponry of the Marines to calculate the result. The Marines on the hill eventually died before enough bugs were sucked away from the plant for the rest of the platoon to rescue the colonists, but they died hard and the number of bugs was significantly reduced. He fiddled with it for a bit before zeroing in on a defensive force of two squads. They lasted long enough to kill and draw enough bugs away so that the colonists could be rescued by the remaining Marines. The two squads died to a Marine, but the mission was accomplished. He saved the scenario, calling it 'Alamo' and squirted it to Sgt Kronkit.

As he continued to refine the scenario, he noticed others were making tweaks as well, professional changes that gradually refined the results, rather than his almost random hop-scotch of ideas. He quit adjusting things and watched in fascination as the other participants quickly refined the scenario. The Alamo force, as Stephen was still calling it, was composed of two squads while the final squad performed the rescue, herding the colonists and packing them like sardines into the two drop ships. There would only be time for one trip before the remaining bugs returned in force. Once the tweaking was done, the battle comp ran the battle hundreds of times, tweaking small elements until a final solution was proposed. The battle comp estimated that this solution would succeed roughly 80% of the time. Casualties were always heavy, particularly in the Alamo, but most of the colonists would survive. The Marines would have to make the necessary sacrifices so that the civilians would live.

He noted that an OpOrder was being generated using this scenario.

Well, better make sure everything is ready to go.

The ride back down to the surface was bumpier than the first run. The obligatory

Highway to Hell

was playing over the boat's comm channel as they streaked for the surface. They came down 200km (124 miles) away from the fusion facility and took a nap of the earth flight profile, meaning that the boats stayed as low as possible and dipped down into every valley or nook that they could find. It made for a very, very rough ride as the boat would unexpectedly dip, rise and bank to try and stay as low as possible while moving as quickly as possible. Surprise was key to allow the Alamo Marines time to dig in. If they had sufficient time, the mission success rate went way up. It was for this reason that the ride was crazy harsh and through his HUD, Stephen could read the elevated blood pressure levels in all the Marines.

"Two minutes," the drop boat pilot announced.

"Sound off!"

The Marines rattled off their names in turn. The absence of Johnson's name stabbed into Stephen, but he hardened his heart for the upcoming trial.

"Make ready!"

"Thirty seconds!"

Then the boat pilot was yelling, "DROP! DROP! DROP!"

The Marines again were salvoed out of the bottom of the boat. The difference this time was that they were a bare 100m over the forest.

The boat had decelerated hard just before it dropped the Marines so that they would not be badly scattered. The reduction in speed also made the short altitude drop much more survivable. As soon as the Marines were released from the boat, their drop chairs kicked in max anti-grav. The seats fell away just a few meters over the ground, then the suit's jump jets kicked in. The landing was harsh, but all survived. Due to the low altitude, most of the Marine came down on top of the hill and there was very little scatter.

The LT's warm alto voice came over the platoon net, "Ok, follow your ball, it'll take you to the best spot to defend our position." Each Marine had been pre-assigned a defensive position and their suit battle comps showed them the quickest route to their individual spots. Having done this hundreds of times, there was minimal confusion as each suit found its spot. Once there, there was some shifting around, but the Marines rapidly dug in, knowing that the deeper they were, the better protected from the bug's lasers they were.

The Alamo was a short, but steep, rocky hill that was roughly 250 meters (800 feet) around. The majority of the Marines dug into the front of the hill facing the direction of the fusion facility, although some Marines were dug into the rear to provide a full 360 degree protection. The hill was mostly bare of trees, but was itself surrounded by the weird, almost tomato plant looking trees that comprised the vegetation of Tau Omega 6.

Once the Marines had dug in their personal positions, they began to improve the hilltop. Two Marines were sent out 300m to establish a listening post and emplace remote sensors. A third of the Marines stood watch from their holes, another third improved the hilltop by digging large holes for the heavier weapons they had brought and the final third planted traps and explosives on the most likely approach routes to the hilltop. The heavy weapons consisted of a heavy, automatic mortar and two gigawatt lasers. Two mini-fusion recharge points were also dug in, along with cases of extra autocannon, suit mortar rounds, and additional charges for the gauntlet flame throwers.

The faint sound of two autocannons firing brought the work on the hilltop to a standstill.

"Contact!" called the two man outpost. "Tens of bugs incoming!"

Stephen flipped his HUD display from the engineering plan to the tactical awareness display. The top portion of the display, which happened to be where the outpost was located, was becoming filled with bugs. The icons of the two Marines were moving back towards the hilltop rapidly.

"We're displacing and are didi-mao back to the Alamo!"

Behind Stephen, the automortar chugged and rapidly launched a dozen rounds to cover the two Marines.

"Everyone to your places, prepare to receive the bug attack!" called the LT.

Before Sgt Kronkit could yell at him, Stephen had Berts back in his hole. He looked around and yelled at an errant Marine to take cover. Once he was satisfied that Berts was set and his section of the line was good, he took cover as well. He extended a thin antenna up and over the rim of his foxhole. The antenna was equipped with a couple of sensors as well as a micro-lens camera, which gave him great visibility. He could also follow the status of the fight through his HUD. He raised his autocannon on its extendable mast which was just long enough to peek over the top of his foxhole.

The two Marines from the listening post came tearing back up the hilltop, bouncing and jittering like mad to avoid the bug's probing lasers. The dug-in Marines were providing a heavy covering fire and the big automortar would occasionally lob a round at a particularly large grouping of bugs. Once the two Marines were in their holes, the defenders reduced their rate of fire and took to sniping any bug that appeared. The initial group of bugs that had been chasing the Marines were all dead and only a few more bugs were starting to press against the perimeter. Stephen heard the automortar chug a few more times. It dispersed several additional remote sensor sets that began to feed information on bug movements. Stephen decreased the zoom on his tactical plot and it started to quickly fill up with bugs as a goodly number had started to move towards the Alamo.

A blinking alert let Stephen know that overhead imagery was available. He opened the feed which displayed the local area from their position to the fusion plant. Bug icons began to rapidly fill the display as the surveillance system spied them out. A corresponding count began to zoom upwards and when it passed 5,000 bugs, he could hear low swears over the platoon net. The count finally stopped at just over 6k bugs.

"Ok, people, knock it off," radioed the LT. "There's a shit-ton of bugs out there, but that just means plenty of targets for everyone. We need to husband our ammo, so make each shot count. I've arranged for the

Basilone

to provide some low yield kinetic strikes to our front if things start going south."

The platoon sergeant, SSgt Kerwalski came up on the net, "Squad leaders, while the pressure is still light, I need 25% of your people to continue digging out the trench system. Connect your individual positions then run trenches back to the CP. This way we can get ammo to all of you without exposing the runner."

The three squad leaders confirmed their understanding. Before Kronkit could task Stephen, he highlighted Berts icon and had him begin digging. The suits had a digging subroutine and could dig like a gopher with minimal input or exertion from the Marine, they just needed to relax and let the suit do its thing. Berts opened a storage container, pulled a collapsible shovel out and began to work. If the digging Marine ran into a particularly stubborn portion of soil or large rocks too big to move, a careful shot or two from their autocannon would break up the resistance.

Stephen kept watch and as he was assigned targets by the battle comp, he carefully sniped the bugs that the comp highlighted in his HUD. As long as the number of bugs was low and they were not too close, the battle comp would continue to assign targets to individual Marines, saving ammunition and hopefully keeping the bugs guessing as to the location of the Marines' fighting holes.

On the tactical plot, Stephen could see a large mass of bugs massing within the trees, just out of range. "Hey Berts, it looks like it is going to start getting hot again, come on back to your hole."

"Roger, on the way."

The Marine line settled in and waited. They could see the bugs milling around via the remote sensors, waiting for an unknown signal. The numbers grew until a significant portion of the 6,000 bugs in the area were massed in front of the Marines.

"It'd sure be nice if the

Basilone

were to drop a kinetic rod or two now."

"Yeah, Berts, I agree. It'd sure as hell make our job easier. I guess they're worried about shrapnel or debris damaging the fusion plant. If that thing went up, it'd ruin everyone's day."

On the plot, the bugs started to move en masse towards the Marines. As they came within sensor or visual range of the suits, calls of "Contact" came up and down the line. The slow, steady ZZZ of individual autocannon rounds went down range at a steady pace. As a round hit a bug, the duertonium needle easily punched into the bug (and most likely through one or two more behind it) while the plasma charge on each needle made the initial bug explode in an arctic blaze of white fire. The rate of fire slowly picked up as more bugs appeared. The sound of individual rounds being fired was soon drowned out by the cacophony of noise as the firing rate continued to increase.

As Stephen continued to serve targets, he watched the live feed. There were 15 suited Marines facing the on-coming bugs and together they could lay down an incredible amount of fire. He was amazed that any bugs survived long enough to fire back, but he could see the impacts of laser strikes around his hole.

The mass of bugs surged and Stephen stopped selecting individual targets, but served the largest groups of bugs. The battle comp indicated what portion of their front was his responsibility and the actual boundaries would shift depending on the number of targets available. He was still using short bursts of fire, but doing it almost constantly. He kept half an eye out on his ammo counter, but the nice thing about the needles was their small size. Each suit could pack an amazing number of rounds and additional blister packs had been fitted for this mission.

"Shit, Corporal! They tagged my autocannon, it's gone."

"That's Ok, Berts. Make your way to the CP, they brought along some spares."

Battle comp automatically noted the damage to Berts' suit and split his area of responsibility between Stephen and the Marine on the other side of Berts. The problem was, the reduction in fire allowed the bugs to get closer.

A large number of soldier bugs broke into the clear at the base of the hill and Stephen's battle comp indicated it was time to use mortar rounds to break them up. He obliged and sent a short burst of mortars from his suit. They arched up and down, decimating the group. Stephen was able to kill the rest of them, but the overall line of bugs surged closer.

The sensors identified another threat moving up. The worker bugs with their heavier weapons started to make an appearance. Some mounted heavier lasers, which weren't of too much use against the dug in Marines, but others carried their own mortar-type weapons and soon explosions started to bloom on top of the hill. Battle comp was able to calculate the back trajectory of the rounds and it initiated counter-fire. Stephen barely noticed when his mortar slewed around on its own and fired another short burst. He could hear the singular automortar in the middle of the CP begin a slow counter-fire. The mortar bugs were soon eliminated, but not before they killed a Marine and damaged another suit, severely enough that the Marine was out of the fight.