Foothold

Posted on 26 Sep 2011 @ 9:47pm by Commodore Da`nal of the House of Varal & Sergeant Dawn Brianna & Lance Corporal Cyfian Harper

1,559 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: M8: The Kzinti War!!!!
Location: Mercer - Operation Beachhead

[Alpha Site]

The pilots brought the craft in low and fast in pairs, touching down quickly then lifting off, not even bothering to unload the supplies or equipment, just the amped up Marines and Volunteers who were itching to put their feet on firm ground and start the fight.

Since Reiger's platoon had been diverted, Stone decided to take his hopper in first. He stood up and turned to the Marines in the back. "COUNT OFF!!" The right side of the hopper counted up sequentially and the Squad Leader gave him a thumbs up. The left side counted up sequentially and the Squad Leader had not turned around. He was counting and recounting his Squad. The Squad Leader finally got fed up. "TEAM LEADERS, TOUCH YOUR PEOPLE!" Each Team Leader stood up and physically put his hand on each person and counted them. The rearmost Team Leader turned to the Squad Leader with a slightly panicked look. "Sarge! I don't have Hyrum!"

Major Stone's head snapped around and he pushed his way to the back, climbing over Marines and equipment alike. He went up to the Team Leader. "Are you SURE Corporal?" The Team Leader nodded gravely. Stone knew where Hyrum was. Stone rubbed his eyes and then with an enraged scream he punched one of the cargo containers putting a fist sized dent in the polycarbonate case. "Sunuvabitch went over the wall on me." Stone turned back to the Team Leader, "Don't worry about it. I'll take care of him. Just concentrate on the job in front of you." The Corporal straightened up. "Yes SIR!"

Moving slowly back up to the front of the hopper he reached the aux communications console in the cargo area. He opend a channel to Valez.


=^= "Velez this is Stone, Hyrum has deserted his post to go get his sons. Apparently sending a whole platoon of Recon Marines just wasn't good enough for him. In addition to securing any civilians at the location of the beacon, you will disarm, detain and transport Hyrum back here. He is armed and has already demonstrated a disregard for the mission and my orders, so I wouldn't put it past him to shoot at you. If he does, you have my authorization to use lethal force. Try to detain him out of sight of his kids if you can. They don't need to see that. Do you understand Velez?" =^=


[Runnabout Zephyr]

Velez had just finshed asking the Master guns what the hell was going on when the Majors call came in. The back of the Zephyr was crowded to say the least but at least the kids were forward with Gideon and the pilots. Behind him he could here weapons activating, ready to fire if the Master guns resisted.

He could understand why he had done it...but that didn't matter. He took the Kenderson's weapons but didn't place him in restraints. He would allow him his digninty infront of his kids at least.

Hyrum shrugged, his arms retuned to his sides after being disarmed and he saat in an empty seat as the runnabout buffeted in the wind. And he motioned his sons to him, none of the other Marines stopped them.

Lifting them to his lap, he turned his gaze back to Velez. "I was planning on returning to my post as soon as I had them. That's not desertion; desertion would be not returning to your post." Nodding to his boys, "There are higher duties for me than this uniform," Hyrum said.

Velez had lost his family in the Dominion war and knew what Kenderson had been going through. If he had had the chance to save his family he might have done the same thing. No matter how much he understood, he had his to duty as well.

=^=Velez to Stone. We are on our way back now sir. Package intact....and Kenderson is in custody.=^=

[LZ]

Stone closed the channel and turned around....the ship was flaring thrusters and getting ready to touch the ground. His heart started pounding in his chest. He forced his breathing to slow down and closed his eyes. As soon as he felt the ship touch ground his eyes snapped open the doors came open. "LETS GO GO GO!!!"

The troops fanned out in a large circular perimeter, growing a little larger every time more troops hit the ground. Situated roughtly in the center, near the Landing Zone behind a large rock outcropping, Stone was using pointing out how he wanted the troops positioned for the defence of the LZ. He needed to get things organized and start sending out patrols to warn him in case any Kzin might be lurking around in the mountains. He also needed to get those supplies unloaded before Reiger's men and Velez returned from the rescue mission.


[Elswere in the Mountains]

Jason stood and reached down to pull to help Brianna and Harper to their feet. "Anyone injured?"

Dawn checked herself for holes, looking down, she noticed some blood coming from her abdomen, but she didn't want to say anything, so she just put her hand on it, "I'm good here boss." she knew it was fairly serious, but didn't want to say anything to slow everyone down. Dawn looked down again, lifting up her hand a little. She let out a small sigh, hoping not to draw attention to herself.

Cyfian took Jason's hand, pulling himself up. Head still ringing and the dust dancing around his lungs causing him to cough violently. "I... think I'm in one piece." Quickly checking his body, only revealing a few cuts and bruises. Shaking the cob webs loose from his mind Cyfian's eyes glanced over too Dawn and hearing her sigh. Raising an eyebrow he walked over to her and placed his hand softly on her shoulder.

"Are you ok Sergeant?" Cyfian asked.

"Yeah I'm fine." Dawn assured him, "I might need your help later, so don't go far." she said, showing him her wound. "Don't tell anyone you got it?"

"Sergeant that doesn't look too good." Cyfian replied with a worrying look on his face. "We should tell Jason and get that wound bandaged up."

"I'll be fine. I'll so everything down if we do, we have to keep going." Dawn said to Cyfian, "I can bandage it up myself later. I am the medic you know." she let out a small laugh.

Chuckle softly to himself. "Ok, you know what's best. Just..." Sighs slightly knowing that he could do nothing to convince her. "Alright, but if you need a hand." Cyfian smirked. "I'll come running."

"I'll let you know." Dawn gave him a small smile, "I think we better get moving and go see what the Staff Sergeant wants."

Cyfian nodded and extend his arm to allow Dawn to go first. Cyfian watched her walk away, his smile slowly fading from his face. He couldn't help but feeling that the injury was worse than she let on. Shaking his head to clear such thoughts he continued after her and towards Jason.

Dusting himself off a bit Jason replied. "Well I think we need to get to higher ground and make our way to our campsite. We can watch the camp from there and see if it took damage and when it might be safe to return."

"Yes sir." Dawn replied, "Lead the way." she said, covering up her wound.

Jason looked up to the ridge before then and hoped the could make it over the crest by night fall.

[Back at the LZ]

Work parties of Volunteers and Marines were unloading by hand several tonnes of supplies and equipment, as Marine Artificers and Starfleet Engineers began to carve into the side of one of the granite slopes. Another Artificer team was using antigrav lifts to move once of the large modular containers from a Firefly hopper towards the great hole that was being quickly blasted out of side of the mountain.

Small groups of Marines and Starfleet security had begun the climb hauling tubes and targeting arrays to provide a little surprise for any Kzinti craft that might get a bit too close.

Still other groups were cleaning up behind the landing, trying to erase as much of the signature from the landing as possible. The hoppers and shuttles were being moved into little nooks and crannies as sensor retardant camoflage netting is thrown over them turning them into oddly shaped, but fairly convincing rocks from a distance.

Stone watched the Artificers doing thier work on the mountain, he turned to the Artificer Lt. overseeing the redesign of the mountain's face. "Lt., when is my new hunting cabin gonna be ready Lt.?"

The Lt. turned around with a mess of drawings in his hands and a PADD in his teeth. Quickly, he grabs the PADD out of his mouth. "Yes sir, give us another 20 minutes and we'll have it roughed out. Then prolly another 10 Minutes to fit the command pod into the hole and another 10 to get the holo emitters tuned to match the surrounding rock. In 40 minutes sir, you'll be ready to go hunting."

Major Stone
Operational CO

1stSgt Arcenio Velez
Marine Recon - USS Achilles
NPC

SSgt Jason Frey
Marine Recon - USS Achilles
NPC

Lance Corporal Cyfian Harper
Marine - USS Achilles

Sgt. Dawn Brianna
Marine - USS Achilles

 

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