Terran Marines Ch. 02a

Terran Marines (Ch 02a)

While not completely necessary to read Ch 01, it introduces the characters, provides a little background and explains some of the acronyms.

As they will, this story got away from me and stopped being the quick, short story that I had envisioned and was taking longer than I wanted to write. So I broke it up. No big after-mission party, no long sex scene. There's a small passage where things could be considered steamy, but if you are looking for a long sex scene, you won't find one in this chapter. The next part will make up for it.

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"'Ten-hut!" Thirty five Marines rocketed to their feet and stood at attention, their backs ramrod straight. There were half a dozen Navy Sailors present as well. They too sprang to attention, but perhaps not as quickly or as sharp as the Marines.

A rich alto voice called out immediately, "At ease. Take your seats, Marines." All the Marines sat and relaxed a bit, waiting for what the next drop entailed. Rumors were sailing through the platoon, ranging from a training exercise, a cakewalk, stomping out raiders or even a bug hunt. Nobody liked bug hunts, the damn bugs were good at hiding, didn't show up well on scanners and their claws could open up a suit of armor like a tin can.

The LT walked to the front of the briefing room and turned to face the assembled Marines of her platoon. She was above average height at around 1.6m (5'6") tall. While the utility uniform tended to be baggy and hid a woman's curves, Corporal Stephen knew that she rocked a tight, hard body with full, perky breasts. Like her profession, her face was angular, without the soft curves that many preferred. Despite her unconventional looks, Stephen thought her beautiful.

"We're going on a bug hunt."

There was a spot of murmuring from the Marines at the LT's announcement, but SSgt Kerwalski, the Platoon Sergeant, shut it down with a quick, "At ease."

The LT continued, "Situation: Tau Omega 6 reported an anomalous meteorite entering their atmosphere ten Standard days ago. BuCol (Bureau of Colonization) lost contact with them three days later." She paused and let her eyes sweep the room. She tapped a button on her wrist comp and the wall behind came alive, displaying a satellite shot.

"Here's the colony. Note the residential areas here." She pointed to a spot to the bottom of the image.

"Work centers here, here and here. Aquaponics center here. The main colony administration building is the largest complex with three basement sub-levels and three above ground levels." She tapped her wrist again and the image zoomed out. "And here is the colony fusion plant, about 10 klicks (kilometers, or about 6.2 miles) outside the colony main. It's a 100 Terawatt facility, so try not to damage it. If that thing were to go Red and detonate, the colony is well within the blast radius and that means we are too."

She paused to let that sink in. "As we are hunting bugs, everyone will be suited up in powered armor. The heavies will not be packing rockets or micro-nukes due to the proximity of the fusion plant. Everyone will go heavy with autocannon and mortar ammo." There were a few murmurs.

"Yes, I know that will cut into your endurance in the suits. But our drop boat pilots," she nodded to the two pilots standing in the back of the room. "Will each have an extra charger that they can drop upon need. There should also be heavy equipment areas where we can charge if necessary."

"For our noobs," she tapped her wrist again and three creatures out of humanity's worst nightmares popped up onto the screen. "These are three main types of bugs that we typically encounter. They all resemble spiders, but have more of a hive mentality. They are roughly 2 meters (6') in height and 2.4m (8') around. The big visual difference between terrestrial spiders and bugs is that they have four tentacles that sprout from the base of their head. One pair is used for grasping items while the second pair have four digits at the end that are analogous to fingers. Each of their eight legs is tipped with a claw that can open a suit like a tin can." This wasn't too much of an exaggeration.

She pointed to the biggest bug, "This ugly guy here is a soldier. They are strong, fast and very mean. They typically carry laser rifles or grenade launchers in their hands and their aim is ok. They do not appear to use any AI aiming. Weak spots are the eyes or the junction between the thorax and abdomen. A hit there will usually either disable or kill the bug.

"This next one is slower and clumsier than the soldiers. We think that they are workers, but they often have heavy weapons strapped to their abdomen which makes them a threat and important target to hit first.

"And finally, these smaller guys are the scary ones. They're much smaller and much quicker than the soldiers and they rarely carry rifles. Their preferred weapon appears to be a long dagger, but it has a monomolecular edge on the blade and it'll carve right through armor. Their nickname is 'Ninja' and they are bad news. Thankfully they're pretty rare."

She tapped her wrist yet again, "These are eggs. The bugs put them next to hosts and when the larva hatch, they burrow inside the host and begin eating. When the host has been devoured, the larva molt and out comes a bug. It takes roughly 24 hours for the bug to mature. While undersized at this point, they are still dangerous. We do not know how long it takes for them to grow to full size. No one has ever bothered, or been able to, watch them long enough in the field and they do not survive capture."

"Our mission is go in, see if there are any colonists alive, rescue them and then exterminate the bug infestation. If the infestation proves to be too big for the platoon to handle safely, we will extract and wait for reinforcements. If no reinforcements can be spared, we will nuke the site from orbit.

"Questions? Ok, prep starts at 1000, armor draw starts at 1300 and drop boat boarding begins at 1400. We launch at 1430." She paused to look around. "Ok, let's get moving people."

Corporal Stephen wrangled the other three members of his fireteam, Lance Corporals Berts and Cron and Private First Class Johnson.

"You have 30 minutes for personal time to prep. No tri-V porn Berts! After that, Sergeant Kronkit will want to do a face to face with the entire squad before 1000, so be ready by 0930."

"Aye Corporal," replied Berts.

"Corporal, I gotta question."

"Shoot, Cron."

"Why does this set-up sound like that old 2D movie from the Twenty First Century?"

Johnson interrupted, "Dumbass, it was from the end of the Twentieth Century, the sequels from the 21st Century sucked. But yeah, there's some similarities."

Stephen looked at Johnson, "I vaguely remember that movie. So what are the similarities? Are we fucked?"

Johnson laughed, "Yep. A bunch of Space Marines drop on a colony world after the homeworld loses communication. The colonists have disappeared, but their beacons are found in the fusion plant near the colony. The Marines go in and are taken apart by the bugs. The bugs have eaten the colonists to produce more bugs. All but one Marine dies gloriously. The lone survivor gets off-planet with the gritty civvie consultant and the android helping them. Then there's the climactic final battle on their transport."

"We're on an express elevator to hell, goin' down!"

"Game over, man! Game over!"

Stephen rolled his eyes as the Marines traded quotes from the old movie. He watched them for a few minutes, then interrupted, "Alright sweethearts, you heard the man you know the drill! Assholes and elbows! Now get fucking moving and get ready to drop!"

The three junior Marines laughed, gave him a mock salute and headed off to get ready.

Once their personal prep was complete, the Marines turned to getting their armor ready. Final Built-In Tests had to be run, ammo loaded and power cells checked. Once the suit was ready, the Marines had to actually put the armor on. Each suit was individually fitted to their wearer prior to boarding the ship so it was a matter of stepping into it backwards and then having the carapace and helmet close up. There was one intermediate step that was tough on the noobs, but the experienced Marines had been through it before and took it in stride. The fact was, the Marines could be in the suits for days. The suits stored enough gel rations to sustain a Marine for three days. Water was recycled from sweat and urine. However, a human body must get rid of waste products and one could not simply unzip a suit at the crotch and let go. So certain hook-ups had to be made to collect the waste. For male Marines to make the front connection, it was a simple thing to insert one tube into another (and then strap it in, which wasn't necessarily pleasant.) For the rear connection, a tube had to be inserted in one's ass. Thankfully the rear connection was somewhat soft, but all the Marines lubed it up prior to insertion.

For the female Marines, their front connection was a bit more complicated...

Stephen entered the Third Herd armor lockers with the rest of the squad, dressed in the skin-tight uni garments that were worn under the suits. He made sure the three Marines he was in charge of were working diligently on their armor before turning to his own suit.

Once the pre-checks were complete, the ammo and energy cells topped off, they all doffed the PT shorts they were wearing over the unis, which had been worn to provide a bit of modesty. The unis were crotchless to allow for the plumbing connections to be made and due to normal variations in size, the opening tended to be wider than necessary, much wider. This left little to the imagination, but Stephen was used to the sight and it didn't phase him.

There was one noob in the squad and her face was bright red as she shucked her shorts. He watched out of the corner of his eye as she backed into her suit and fumbled with the plumbing. While they had all been through hours of training in suits, this was her first time donning the armor with the rest of the squad present and she was obviously nervous. He caught Johnson's eye and nodded to the noob. She nodded back and went over to help the new Private. He was about to back into his armor when Sgt Kronkit, their squad leader, walked by and slapped him on the shoulder in wordless thanks.

Sgt Kronkit then walked over to Cpl Trainor, the fire team leader for the noob, and jerked him outside of the locker, probably to impart a leadership lesson.

Soon enough, the entire squad was suited up and they filed out of the large door at the end of the armor locker, which led directly into the Basilone's boat bay. The Basilone was a fast transport, just big enough to carry a platoon of Marines, their weapons and armor, some support personnel and two drop boats. The two drop boats filled the Basilone's boat bay. Each boat could hold twenty Marines in power armor or thirty in unpowered armor. The Marines slotted into their assigned drop seats and waited. As they moved into place, their drop chair strapped in around them, cocooning them in a protective embrace.

Cpl Stephen viewed the drop boat external camera feeds through his helmet. The Heads Up Display (HUD) had the video, but off to the side were status indicators for every Marine in the squad. If he had wanted to, he could have shunted the video feed from any suit to his display to see what they were seeing, but with everyone locked in their drop seats, there was no reason to do this at the moment. He idly watched the feed, more feeling than hearing the boat umbilicals falling away and the boat itself lifting off and moving out of the boat bay. As the boat spun around its axis to orient on the planet, he reviewed the capabilities of his suit.

The suits were large, standing about 8' tall and weighing around a metric ton (2204 pounds). It was covered in a layer of depleted duertonium, a very dense metal that provided protection against physical impacts. It in turn was covered by another thin, silver-ish anti-laser ablative layer. Servo-mechanical 'muscles' gave the suit its strength. The helmet had a solid face to avoid weak spots, but multiple optical and infrared cameras provided a visual view. The suit had various other sensors, lidar, etc to view and snoop the world around it. The boots and back had jump jets to allow the suit to bound quickly or even provide up to 30 seconds of flight before fuel exhaustion.

The on-board combat computer was located high on the back of the suit and it provided the smarts to run the suit. Various leads were placed on Stephen's body to provide medical vitals, but two on his head let him control the suit directly. He just had to think about displaying the drop boat's video feed and it appeared. Arm a weapon? Think about it. However, this required significant training and a certain level of intelligence, otherwise a stray thought could be deadly to the Marine and those around them. The combat computer, or battle comp as it was known, was also smart enough to interpret the mental commands and filter out any stray impulses. They also networked with their neighbor to share sensor data and coordinate fires.

Stephen considered his weapons load-out. The type and even number of weapons on the suit could be changed, depending on the mission and threat. Today, a heavier version of the Mk56 Needle Rifle was on his shoulder. The Mk18A Shoulder Cannon fired a heavier needle and imbued it with a plasma charge. While the heavier needle would go through a bug lengthwise and into the next one, the plasma charge would blow it apart. A 15mm grenade launcher was mounted on the other shoulder and it normally fired high explosive rounds. While each round was not very big, the advanced explosives still packed a lethal punch. A gauntlet mounted flamethrower rounded out the suit mounted weapons that were equipped for this mission. The flamethrower was useful in close, tight quarters. While not standard, almost every Marine had strapped their personal Mk56 rifle to the back of their armor.

His ruminations complete, he again focused his attention on the drop boat's video feed. They were entering the atmosphere and the ride began to get bumpy. Over the boat's comm channel, Highway to Hell by the older 20th Century band AC/DC began to play. Over the last few years, nostalgia for the decade known as the 1980's had taken hold of the Terran Empire. Music and movies from that ancient era were once again popular, thus the Marines from the squad knew the plot to the Aliens movie.

"Two minutes to drop!" announced the boat pilot. Stephen glanced at his HUD and absently noted that they were 10km up, a perfect height for a lightly defended or uncontested drop.

"Sound off!" called Sgt Kronkit.

The squad each rattled their name off in turn. As they were completing the roll call, the video feed switched to a zoom view of their drop zone. Active scanners flayed the drop zone for any sign of life, but none were found. Another set of scanners searched the nearby colony site, but no signs of the colonists or bugs were detected.

"Thirty seconds!"

Cpl Stephen braced himself for the shock of the drop.

"Stand bye... drop NOW NOW NOW!" sounded off the pilot. In sequence, the Marines automatically fired off in pairs, still cocooned in their drop chairs. Even in the chairs, the shock of the firing was intense and his vision blurred and narrowed into a tight tunnel as the g-shock load increased. The g-forces eased as the shock chair steadied and fell towards the planet. Stephen monitored his HUD, searching for any signs of defensive fire, but none was forthcoming. A bare 200m above the ground the first chute popped and was immediately lost, but the chute dramatically reduced his speed. The chair anti-grav kicked in and 50m above the ground, Stephen blew the chair away and fell the remaining distance, his suit jump jets settling him into a relatively soft landing. Once down, he took a moment to orient himself on the drop zone, then immediately began to trot to his fireteam's assigned position on the perimeter, just inside the treeline. He gathered Johnson, Cron and Berts, slotting them into the best spots to defend their area. He found a place between them and sank to the ground.

Stephen surveyed the area in front of him, using his visual feed and active lidar sensors to sweep the area. Nothing moved. The ground was green with growth, but the 'trees' were unusual, resembling nothing more than huge, overgrown tomato vines like his grandmother used to grow back at home.

Within two minutes of settling in, Sgt Kronkit came over the squad push.

"Stephen, your team has point. Move out at heading 012 degrees. Standard patrol formation. Stop when you get to the edge of the treeline near the colony."

"Roger, copy."

Stephen switched to his team's internal channel. "You heard the man. Johnson, you're up. Wedge formation."

Stephen watched with a critical eye as Johnson rose to her feet and began to move out at a slow, but steady pace. Berts took his normal spot, 10m (~30 feet) behind Johnson and roughly the same to her left side. Cron took the equivalent spot to her right. Stephen trailed all three where he could watch and support them. As they stepped off on the assigned heading, he called up the area map. They had about a klick to go before they reached the edge of the 'woods' nearest the colony.

Behind him, he knew the rest of the squad was falling into formation. It took the squad about 45 minutes of cautious patrolling to make their way to the edge of the forest. They took up a defensive position 100m inside the forest, enough to make seeing even their armor difficult for the somewhat short-sighted bugs. They waited for the rest of the platoon to take their positions. First squad was to their left and was the platoon reserve and SSgt Kerwalski knelt down alongside their squad leader. Second squad was to their right. LT Hunter took a position between 2nd and 3rd squad.

"Five minutes." Over the platoon push, the LT let the Marines know that they had a few minutes to conduct any final preparations. Stephen eyed the sun as only a sliver remained over the horizon.

Stephen radioed his team, "How's everyone? Any issues with your armor?"

Various 'Good' and 'negative' replies came to him. He settled in to wait.

"Up and at them," came the command from the LT. 2nd and 3rd obediently rose and stepped off towards the colony. Above them, the two drop boats flew patterns over the colony, both boats staying at around 10 km up.

As the two squads rose to their feet, the sun completely set as they stepped off towards the colony. The platoon had timed their approach to the colony to coincide with the setting sun. The bugs did not function as well in colder conditions. Even a slight drop in temperature could mean the difference between life and death for the Marines as the bug's reactions and speed slowed.

"Stay frosty, people," intoned Stephen. "This is about the worst place the bugs could hit us, exposed and in the open."

His team double clicked their mikes, almost silently acknowledging his words.

The tension built as the two squads neared the closest houses. Each was a small, single story structure with numerous windows, a back entrance and a front door facing the street. Many of the houses had simple ground cars or 'cycles out front.

Stephen breathed a sigh of relief as the squad reached the first house without incident.

"Cpl Stephen, check out the interior."

"Roger, Sergeant."

Stephen went to his team push. "Johnson, you're first through the back door. Berts, Cron, follow per our practice. Try to keep the racket down as you go in. "

"Really?" was Johnson's sarcastic reply.

Stephen remembered that they were all in suits. One did not do anything quietly in a suit.

"Yeah, well, try not to bring the house down when you go in."

He could feel her smirking at him through the faceless helmet of her suit. She went to the back door and delicately grabbed the door knob and opened the door. It opened silently. She proceeded to walk in, but her armor was too wide for the doorway and with a loud crack, she made the doorway fit.

Stephen sighed to himself and followed the three Marines into the interior of the building. A quick search resulted in no colonists. A meal sat on the kitchen table.

"Sgt, no one's home. We did find a half-eaten meal on a table in here. It looks like they left in a hurry. It doesn't look like they took the time to grab any valuables, but the gun safe is open and empty."

"Roger. Second is reporting the same thing. The LT wants to move out, so grab your team and get out here stat."

"Aye."

On his team channel, "Ok, let's quickly rejoin the squad, we're moving out."

He watched in disbelief as Johnson trotted through a wall and out the building. The noise through his external pickups was almost deafening.

"Stephen, what the fuck was that?"

Stephen was shaking his head as he followed Johnson through the new opening. "You did say quickly, Sergeant."

"Fucking hell, if Kerwalski has my ass, I'm returning it on you two-fold."

"Hey Sergeant, if they wanted this place intact, they wouldn't have sent us down in suits."

"Yeah, yeah. Now shut the fuck up and get ready to move out. Your team is on point again."

The two squads waited for 1st to catch up, then the platoon moved out as a whole, physically checking each house for survivors. Once six houses were discovered to be abandoned, they used their sensors to search for survivors. This allowed them to move quicker towards the center of the colony.

The central building in the colony was the administration building, which was physically much larger and strongly built. If there were any bugs, chances were they were inhabiting that building. The thicker construction material would also hide the bugs from the suit and airborne sensors.

"Damn, Corporal. Are we moving slow or what?" asked Berts.

"We are Berts, but that's by design. I think the LT is treading a fine line between waiting for the colder night air to slow the bugs down and leaving us enough time to clear the admin building before sunrise."

"Huh, I didn't think about that."

"Which is why she's getting paid the big bucks to think things through and to stress about her decisions."

"Shit, she's pretty smart, isn't she."

"That she is shit-for-brains," interrupted Johnson. "That's why she's the L-T and you're a grunt."

"Ok, can the chatter. We're getting close to the admin building. If the bugs hold to prior habits, that's where they'll be hanging out in force."

"Aye, Corporal."

As the administration building came into sight, the platoon found a defensible spot and settled in across a pedestrian square from the building.

Stephen finished setting his team into a defensive spot, then took some time to scan the location of the rest of the squad in the HUD as well as the rest of the platoon. In the HUD, he could see Third Herd spread out to face the admin building. Second was behind, covering their rear and left flank while First did the same to their right. He noted that the three squad leaders, the platoon sergeant, and the LT were in some sort of conference call as all five had slowly blinking icons with an overlaid antenna icon, symbolizing that they were in communication.

After a few minutes, Sgt K came over the 3rd squad push, "Ok, listen up. We've been chosen to make initial entry into the building. Cpl Stephen, you and your team will make the initial approach and entry, followed by Bronson's team. Trainor and I will bring up the rear. 1st and 2nd squads will provide overwatch as we enter. We step in one minute. Any questions?"

As this was a well rehearsed scenario, something that the squad had done numerous times, there were no questions.

Stephen switched to his team channel, "On my mark, up and max speed to the building. We're not stopping to knock, go straight through the entry and take positions inside...

"Ok, Stephen, step off."

"Roger." He swapped channels, "MARK!"

Without a word, the team were on their feet and bounding towards the building. Their jump jets would momentarily activate with each step, allowing the suits to 'skip' as they moved, vastly increasing their speed. What would normally take 30 seconds to trot across, took only 10 seconds as the team streaked towards the entrance. Johnson was the first to the double doors. She didn't pause, just lowered her head and went through the doors with a scream of tearing metal.

As she bulled through the doors and into the vestibule, she scanned her HUD for threats. Not seeing any, she planted her feet and skidded to a halt at the far end of the room. In the process, she skidded through a reception desk and ended up next to a door leading further into the building. The door was open, so she pulled a sensor ball out of a thigh compartment and tossed it down the hall. The other three Marines took up positions to provide support and overwatch. The take from the sensor ball confirmed the building layout, something that BuCol had forwarded prior to the mission. It was always nice to know that the plans sent matched what was on the ground, something that could not always be relied on.

"Clear!" called Stephen over the platoon push. Once his team was set, he watched his HUD as the rest of the Herd bounded across the square. 1st and 2nd squads had set up as instructed.

"Hey Corp, why are we always the first one in?"

"Well, Berts, when you need something hard done, you send the best."

"Or the most expendable," quipped Johnson.

"I prefer to believe 'the best'."

"Me too!" piped up Cron.

"Ok, cut the chatter and keep your heads on a swivel. The rest of the squad is here and in a moment we're going to push forward."

On que, Sgt Kronkit came over the squad channel, "Ok Stephen, bump your team forward. We'll cover. At the next intersection, take up security and 2nd will pass through. We should come to a stairwell at that point that will take us down. We'll be going down two levels and from there we'll access the colony operations center."

"Ya know," said Berts over the team push, "on every tri-vid horror movie, the monsters suck the heroes into the basement before springing the trap."

"Shut it Berts."

"Aye Corporal."

Whether Berts was right or not, the squad made it safely down to the operations room on basement level 2. Once they had cleared the room, 2nd & 3rd team joined the rest of the platoon securing the rest of the floor. Stephen and his team were left in the room to provide security while LT Hunter and SSgt Kerwalski interrogated the colony computers.

He posted his three Marines in the corners, after making sure they placed sensor balls in the false ceiling and in a pop-up panel in the floor. No aliens are sneaking up on us that way, he thought.

Stephen alternated between sweeping the room with his eyes (cameras) and checking the status of the platoon on his HUD. After what felt like the thousandth circuit, his eyes settled on the LT and platoon sergeant. They were huddled near one of the center's consoles, or at least as much as one could huddle while wearing powered armor.

Neither moved, but he could feel himself come to their attention.

"Cpl Stephen."

"Yes, ma'am?"

"You studied cyber security at the University of Luna for a few years, didn't you?"

"Yes, ma'am. I was a semester away from graduation when I enlisted."

"I sense a story there, but I need you to look at this. Link in."

She sent him a link and he mentally accepted it. The link granted him access to the operations computers. The LT highlighted a portion of the code. "What do you think?"

He studied it for a few moments, "This isn't standard Terran code. It's... unusual. Almost alien. I'm surprised that it's interfaced so well with the original code. How'd you twig to it?"

"We were trying to use the colony comms to lock into the colonists personal comm units. It wasn't working properly, so I ran a couple of diagnostics and this popped."

"Huh. Interesting." Stephen had stopped listening as he continued to study the code. He entered some search commands and scrolled through more of the code. He was now sure that the code wasn't Terran, thus was alien in nature. He opened additional virtual consoles and pored through various screens. He was working intently and lost track of time. He was startled when the LT asked, "Cpl Stephen, did you find anything? I've lost track of what you're looking at."

He started within his armor. "Yes, ma'am. It's rather interesting, but also very, very alarming. Look here," he highlighted a screen, "and here. These are the comm screens and they control all internal and external communications. Basically, the alien code controls ALL of the comms for the colony. No comms get in or out unless the aliens want. And right now they are set to OFF."

"No, shit!" interjected SSgt K. "How'd they do this?"

"By using this virus." Stephen popped up another screen, filled with alien gibberish.

"A virus?" LT Hunter for once sounded unsure of herself. "Can it get into our suit comps?" Stephen realized that the LT wasn't unsure of herself, but rather she was scared. He was startled at the realization. While Lieutenants were the most junior of officers, all Terran Marine officers had successfully completed at least one hitch as an enlisted Marine. This meant that almost every one of them had seen the elephant at some point or another. It usually took a lot to make one nervous. For one to feel scared? He began to become worried as well, but fought back the emotion.

"It could have, but I isolated it and firewalled it out. We'll need to be careful with how we interact with the colony computers going forward and I recommend that no one be allowed to jack into one of them without my supervision. I've already squirted a situation report to Ensign Jack, he's the security nerd on our transport. He'll check the ship's network and isolate themselves from the colony network. I had to piggy back the signal over the colony systems as we must be too deep in the building to reach the ship directly. Sorry I didn't ask for permission, but this needed to be done immediately to protect our ride home."

"Ok, good initiative. Now..."

She was interrupted by a call on the platoon push, "Contact! We've got bugs.. urk!"

A 1st squad Marine's icon began to flash the lurid red that signified death. The Marine next to them began to slowly flash yellow, signifying an injury. That Marine's icon slowly backed down the hall they were defending. The HUD sparkled with bugs as they suddenly began a full-court press on the platoon.

The LT began to issue orders in a calm, collected voice. She brought the perimeter in tighter, ensuring no one would get cut off by the bugs.

She looked at Stephen, "Your team is my reserve. Stay here, I'll let you know when and where I need you."

It was a hard fight. Normally, the bugs are constrained by the tight confines of a hallway, but these bugs were smaller than normal, which made them quicker than expected. The platoon lost two more Marines KIA and three more had suffered various non-lethal penetrations of their armor. Stephen and his team were never called up to assist.

When the attack petered out, the LT turned to Stephen, "Cpl Stephen, I've been trying to reach the ship, but the mass of the building is interfering with my signal. Do you think that it would be safe to use the colony comms to contact the ship?"

"Ma'am, let me check their system again. Thirty minutes ago, I would have said it was fine, but I'd want to look at it again. I'd rather not risk our ride home!"

Stephen didn't wait for an ok before he tried to access the colony systems again. "Shit! LT, I'm locked out of the system. Someone, or something, has gone in behind us while we were fighting."

"God damnit." Stephen could see the LT confer with her platoon sergeant.

While they were doing that, Stephen checked up on the rest of the squad. He could see one of the squad's Marines was dead, Everett, from the third fire team, and another was wounded.

His comm unit chimed and he saw that he was being conferenced in with LT Hunter, SSgt Kerwalski and Sgt Kronkit. "Ok, Cpl Stephen, I need you to take your team topside and get in touch with the drop boats, get them ready to do a dust-off with our wounded. They need to get back to the transport's medical bay ASAP. It looks like the bugs have shot their wad, so the four of you should be able easily make your way to the ground level. Questions?"

"No, ma'am. We'll step in two minutes."

Sgt Kronkit opened a private channel to Stephen, "You guys need anything?"

"No, we got this."

"Ok, godspeed."

"Aye, Sergeant."

Stephen called out over his team push, "Ok, we have a mission. Our team is going topside to get the drop boats ready to retrieve our casualties, once they've been brought to the surface. It looks like most of the bugs died in their attack, but there may be a stray bug or two around."

He paused, "While this might sound like a time for stealth, I gotta bad feeling about this, so we're going to power through as quickly as we can. If we run into anything, steamroller it. No stopping. Ok, order of march is Johnson, Crons, me and then Berts bringing up the rear."

He set the route that they would take and sent it to the Marines. The battle comp would constantly update the route and provide alternate routes in case the Marines needed to detour. The comp would display a ball in their HUD to indicate the route they would take.

"Ok, Johnson, step it out and follow the ball."

The team left the operations room and the safety of the platoon. The fight between the bugs and Marines had destroyed much of the basement level. Power was spotty, causing the lights to flicker. Vast holes bore mute testimony to the power wielded by both the spiders and the Marines. They passed numerous bug carcasses, as well as two dead suits of armor. The armor was opened, the dead or injured Marines having already been retrieved and drug back to the ops center.

Johnson set a fast pace, wanting to get out of the building quickly. They reached the stairwell and began to ascend, leaving the destruction of the fight behind. The damage to the building's energy distribution net must have been widespread as the lights were out in the stairwell. Johnson slowed as going up a spiral staircase was particularly dangerous. She had finished the first set of stairs, reaching the landing for the first sub-basement level and began to head up the stairs to the ground level.

She was half-way up the stairs when she cried out, "Ninjas!" Her armor seemed to explode as she cut loose with her autocannon, mortar and flamethrower simultaneously. Stephen could hear the bugs screaming as they were blown apart and incinerated.

As he screamed out orders, part of him wondered how she managed to trigger all her weapons at once; he didn't think it could be done.

"Berts, through the doors, check for bugs! Cron, back him up! Johnson, I'm covering you, back down!"

Without thinking, he changed channels, "LT, we've got contact! Tens of Ninjas on sub-level one. They've got our primary staircase blocked, we're heading to the north staircase. Stephen out."

He hopped up two steps as his HUD filled with enemy icons. He fired two mortar rounds over Johnson's head, then let loose with his autocannon, the duertonium needles making a deep 'ZZZZ' as they screamed up the stairs. Bugs blew apart, but the ones following them attempted to dance along the ceiling to close the distance with Johnson. One managed to leap to her back, but before it could sink its claws into her, he washed her with his flamethrower, frying the bug.

She began to steadily back down the stairs until Stephen saw a break in the bugs, "Go!" he commanded. She turned and fled down the stairs, past Stephen and into the corridor. He pumped another round of grenades up the stairs, momentarily clearing it. He turned and went through the doors.

He was gratified to note that they were heavy duty doors and that Crons was about to get busy welding them shut as he passed through. The team paused the thirty seconds it took for the doors to be welded, then rapidly moved down the hall where the bouncing ball directed.

Johnson was again in the lead, employing her jump jets to skate down the corridor. She burst through a set of doors into what their map labeled a dining hall. As she did so, she screamed, "Bugs!"

Johnson's momentum carried her into the center of the room and the bugs. She began to spin, laying waste to the bugs as they tried to reach her. Cron and Stephen stopped just inside the door and began to lay down a heavy covering fire. Due to the battle comp, the suits knew when to adjust their aim to avoid the dancing dervish in the center of the room or the three Marines crouched at one end.

The bugs had overcome their momentary surprise and opened fire on the team, most focusing on the three Marines at the south end. A rocket struck Berts, knocking him down and momentarily stunning him. As he groggily climbed to his feet, a heavy laser brushed over Cron, who screamed as his left hand was vaporized. His suit administered a quick anesthetic and he was quickly back into the fight.

The dead bugs began to stack up around Johnson as she tried to make her way back to the others. However, more bugs kept pouring in from the sides and it became apparent to her that she would not be able to get out.

She called out over the net, "I'll hold them! Get out of here!!"

Stephen's world exploded when a bug landed behind Johnson, a pointed claw entering her back and bursting out of her chest armor. She keened in pain, then struck down with an armored arm, snapping the leg. She turned and blew the bug bag with a mortar round. A Ninja fell from the ceiling, landing in front of her with its monomolecular blade raised.

"Fly, fly you fools..."

The blade came down and he watched her die.

Time stood still for Stephen as he remembered. Remembered her gorgeous blue eyes, staring into his soul. Remembered the party when he walked into the showers, Johnson soaping her spectacular chest. Back in his room, her eyes locked on his as she took his member into her mouth. Her quick wit and sharp tongue. Johnson, no not Johnson, Becky, bent over his desk, shaking her ass at him in invitation. His cock splitting her labia, filling her as she sat on his desk, legs spread in invitation. Becky riding him as he lay on his rack. Waking up next to her the next morning, slowly and quietly taking her, her legs wrapped around him, hidden from his roommates only by his bunk's privacy curtain. Meeting her surreptitiously after the last mission, holding her hips as she bent over a bundle of stores, stroking into her as he admired her ass. Covering her back and ass with his spend...

"Mortars, full rate." The mortar on each suit went into rapid fire, arcing low and into the mass of bugs. The Ninja standing over Johnson evaporated under the impacts of two rounds.

He muttered a command to his comp and a new route appeared. "Cron, take point. Berts take trail."

The three followed the ball, as the LT came up on the radio. "Cpl Stephen, status? We about had the ceiling fall in on us."

"We lost Johnson. We're taking an alternate route to the north stairwell."

He heard some soft swearing. "Roger, understood. The platoon is moving out to the north stairwell as well. See you on the surface or in Valhala."

It was a nightmare route, they burned countless bugs which lunged out at them from the dark. Each Marine was struck several more times, but their armor held. They burst upon the north stairwell and cleared it in a blizzard of fire, then ascended to the ground floor. Stephen blew out a window and was able to radio the drop boats and their transport. He related their situation and request for medevac. Once his request was acknowledged, he turned to the remaining members of his team. They could hear the platoon battling their way up the stairs.

"Let's get back in there. We're going to hit the bugs from behind and help secure the stairwell."

Setting words to action, Stephen bounced down the stairs and then lit into the back of the mass of bugs that were trying to keep the platoon from climbing them to safety. Their surprise assault scattered the bugs and the lead elements of the platoon made it up to the first basement sub-level. First squad immediately set security and battered back bug attempts to close the stairwell while the weary remnants of the platoon continued their climb to safety.

As the platoon climbed up behind them, Berts alerted, "Hey Corp, I've got bugs coming down from the second floor!"

"Copy, let's go!'

Stephen led Berts and Cron back up the stairs. They hit the descending bugs head on and stopped them as the first tired Marines from the Second squad began to exit the building. These Marines crossed the street to the North of the building, cleared two of the buildings and then prepared to cover the test of their brothers and sisters leaving the admin building.

Third squad excited the building, gently carrying the bodies off their dead and wounded, sans armor.

Stephen's armor chimed with a low ammo warning, just as Berts came on the net, "Hey boss, I'm starting to get low here."

"Me too," chimed in Cron.

Stephen reflexively checked his HUD, noting that his team had temporarily fallen under 1st Squad's control. "Hey, Sgt Thomas, we're beginning to clock out here. We could use some relief."

"Roger, slowly fall back and I'll have a team relieve you. Then..."

Berts cried out, "The stairs above us are collapsing!"

With a loud crack, the much abused stairwell gave way and fell on top of Stephen and his team, knocking them all to the floor.

"UP! UP! UP!" screamed Stephen, not caring if his yell went out of the squad or team net. He surged to his feet, the servos in the armor groaning as he struggled to his feet, pushing the debris to the side. He caught a glimpse of a slashing chitinous leg and ducked under the lethal claw. He stepped into the bug and with one armored gauntlet, he caught a tentacle that tried to bring a monomolecular blade down onto his head. When he stepped into the bug, he automatically drew his own combat blade and as he held the bug's limb, he thrust his own blade into the head and brain of the bug. The bug shook and spewed liquid onto Stephen's armor. Good thing they don't have acid blood, he thought.

He stepped back, away from the bug carcass and fanned the ruined staircase with his flamethrower. He absently noted that his mortar and autocannon were both out of ammo. With a chug and wheeze, his flamethrower died.

He readied his blade when he heard, "Cpl Stephen, bound back! We've got this!"

The 1st Squad team stepped up and lashed the staircase with fire, driving back the bugs. Stephen led his team out into the night and across the road to the safety of the buildings.

Sgt Kronkit greeted him, "Glad you three are back. Follow the others until you reach the evac boats, then get on one."

Stephen started to reply when he realized that they had forgotten someone. He spun in place and started back towards the admin building.

"Sgt, oh fuck, I left Johnson back there! We... I need to get her body!"

An iron grip grabbed his shoulder, "Don't worry, Second helped us retrieve her. The three of you created enough havoc that the bugs were drawn away and they were able to sneak in behind them and get her. She'll be waiting for you on the Basilone."

Stephen could only mumble a rough thanks. He followed Berts and Cron to the pick-up point and was soon headed up to orbit. He settled back into the drop seat and let his thoughts drift. He realized that his reaction to Becky's death had shaken him more than the death of any other Marine he had served with. His thoughts flashed back to her confident smirk, quick tongue and radiant eyes. He thought back to their recent interactions and he perceived that he had started to look forward to seeing her each day and would feel a small thrill anytime she touched him. I've fallen for her! Against every Regulation, we developed feelings for each other. Forbidden feelings. Something that could have gotten one of us transferred or even brought up on charges.

Inside the solitude of his helmet, he wept for his loss and the missed opportunity to get to know the woman in his heart. He would never get to know her better or grow old with her. Regulation and age old Tradition had kept them from publicly acknowledging their feelings for one another and now he never would.

The boat docked with the Basilone and Stephen followed the other Marines out and into their armor locker. He walked his armor to its charging station, then doffed it, slipped on his shorts and quickly left the room as Berts and Cron exchanged worried looks.

He was lost in his own reverie when a slim hand, placed on a shoulder, brought him back to the present. He looked up to see LT Hunter standing over him as he crouched over Becky's body. A thin blanket hid her wounds, but did not obstruct the tears falling on her still face.

"Cpl Stephen, I'm sorry for your loss. Johnson... Becky... was a good Marine and a better person." He heard her sigh. "I wish I didn't need to ask this of you, but I need you. You're the heart of 3rd Squad and we need every able Marine right now."

Stephen looked up at her in confusion.

"SSgt Kerwalski was able to work the ops computers enough to find the colonists. They are either holed up or are captive in the fusion reactor complex. It looks like there may be at least 75 survivors and we're going to go get them. Can I count on you?"

"Yes, ma'am!" He shot to his feet, wiping away a tear and straightening his shirt. "I'll go check on Berts and Cron and get everything moving."

"Very good, carry on!"

Stephen nodded and left the morgue at a quick jog. His mourning would have to wait, there was a mission to complete.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The next part is in-work. Votes are always appreciated!

Notes:

Many thanks to the authors who have gone before me. I must give credit to Robert Heinlein and his Starship Troopers, John Ringo and his Aldenata series and David Weber for his portrayal of suits in his Honor Harrington series.

The US military has long since converted to metric measurements for distance and speed and I've kept to that.

Corporal (Cpl) Claudius Stephen - 1st Fire Team leader

Lance Corporal (LCpl) Berts - team member

LCpl Cron - team member

Private First Class (PFC) Becky Johnson - team member & point

Cpl Jackie Bronson - 2nd FT leader

Cpl Trainor - 3rd FT leader

LCpl Tanaka

Pvt Ramirez

Sergeant (Sgt) Kronkit - 3rd Squad Leader

Sgt Bernard Durand - 2nd Sqd Ldr

Sgt Janice Thomas - 1st Sqd Ldr

Staff Sergeant (SSgt) Kerwalski - Platoon Sergeant

First Lieutenant (1STLT) Joanna Hunter - Platoon Commander

Each platoon has three squads. Each squad has three fire teams of four Marines plus the squad leader (Sergeant).