The fleet of dropships passed through the air with but a mere hum, above
the broken landscape of the desert planet. Inside the twelfth and final
dropship was squad 110 lead by Major Alec Jufairi.
"A routine flight, meh, a routine flight in a routine war followed by routine death. That's the one truth of this war" thought Alec to himself gloomily. He put his back against the hard metal chair and surveyed the inside of the dropship. It was not much, and was meant for little more than the quick launch and extraction of ground units. Due to the fact that many had to be produced to move the Terran army, luxury was not a large factor in the design of these ships.
Alec's squad consisted of a 3 men other than him; the team medic was on another dropship. He felt his muscles relax as he picked up the bottle next to him and took a quick gulp of the bitter drink; with a grimace he threw the bottle in the trash can near him.
He was not old but not young either, in his mid thirties he had seen more than his share of death and survived to live on, sometimes by quick thinking and at times by sheer luck. Alec's marine suit began to tighten on him; he took off his gloves and rested his forehead on his sweaty palm. His brown hair now had streaks of gray, most accumulated from lack of sleep.
Alec looked up with a sigh at the men surrounding him , one was wearing steel rimmed glasses and had used some form of hair gel to keep his hair spiky and straight, the young man was sitting on his seat with a relaxed grin , it was clear to Alec that this man was a rookie. The two other men Alec recognized as Dukan Flexi a siege tank driver and James Mirkan a goliath rider.
They had fought with Alec before but he was never very close to them, speaking to them only when necessary, Alec kept to himself and liked the way things were so far. After a while faces began to blur together and it became harder to distinguish between who came and who went.
The lighting was weak in the drop ship; four metal chairs were against the wall on one side four on the other with a door leading to the hangar on his side and a door leading to the captain's room on the other. One light was hanging from the ceiling moving swaying with the ships motion, jarred a few times as the plane was hit by a strong air current.
Alec noticed the young man looking at him, and looked up to face him. Through the lighting he could see the young man was grinning at him. "Damn, this boy can't be more than eighteen" thought Alec to him "What are they doing sending people this young out here? Have they run out of adults?" he questioned himself angrily.
"Hey, are you the leader here?" spoke up the young man.
"Yea, whats your name?".
"Mathew but my friends call me Mat".
"So Mathew how old are you?".
"18, next month".
"18! God, they are running out of proper soldiers ! Ever fought before?".
"No but I've been through training and I aced it, im a vulture driver by the way".
"Training doesn't do diddly squat hell you can take training and-".
"MARINES - We have landed move out".
Everyone looked up from their seats at the intercom above the seats, the cabin shuddered as the ship landed with a thud. They all stood up and checked their equipment, "We are just reinforcing defenses r-r-right? Routine mission no danger right?" asked Mathew. "Quite right, routine mission." replied Alec gloomily, remembering what he was considering earlier. He picked up his steel gauss rifle from the seat next to him, held it in both hands and took a deep breath, "Here we go " Alec thought to himself as the door to the hanger slid open and everyone walked through.
"A routine flight, meh, a routine flight in a routine war followed by routine death. That's the one truth of this war" thought Alec to himself gloomily. He put his back against the hard metal chair and surveyed the inside of the dropship. It was not much, and was meant for little more than the quick launch and extraction of ground units. Due to the fact that many had to be produced to move the Terran army, luxury was not a large factor in the design of these ships.
Alec's squad consisted of a 3 men other than him; the team medic was on another dropship. He felt his muscles relax as he picked up the bottle next to him and took a quick gulp of the bitter drink; with a grimace he threw the bottle in the trash can near him.
He was not old but not young either, in his mid thirties he had seen more than his share of death and survived to live on, sometimes by quick thinking and at times by sheer luck. Alec's marine suit began to tighten on him; he took off his gloves and rested his forehead on his sweaty palm. His brown hair now had streaks of gray, most accumulated from lack of sleep.
Alec looked up with a sigh at the men surrounding him , one was wearing steel rimmed glasses and had used some form of hair gel to keep his hair spiky and straight, the young man was sitting on his seat with a relaxed grin , it was clear to Alec that this man was a rookie. The two other men Alec recognized as Dukan Flexi a siege tank driver and James Mirkan a goliath rider.
They had fought with Alec before but he was never very close to them, speaking to them only when necessary, Alec kept to himself and liked the way things were so far. After a while faces began to blur together and it became harder to distinguish between who came and who went.
The lighting was weak in the drop ship; four metal chairs were against the wall on one side four on the other with a door leading to the hangar on his side and a door leading to the captain's room on the other. One light was hanging from the ceiling moving swaying with the ships motion, jarred a few times as the plane was hit by a strong air current.
Alec noticed the young man looking at him, and looked up to face him. Through the lighting he could see the young man was grinning at him. "Damn, this boy can't be more than eighteen" thought Alec to him "What are they doing sending people this young out here? Have they run out of adults?" he questioned himself angrily.
"Hey, are you the leader here?" spoke up the young man.
"Yea, whats your name?".
"Mathew but my friends call me Mat".
"So Mathew how old are you?".
"18, next month".
"18! God, they are running out of proper soldiers ! Ever fought before?".
"No but I've been through training and I aced it, im a vulture driver by the way".
"Training doesn't do diddly squat hell you can take training and-".
"MARINES - We have landed move out".
Everyone looked up from their seats at the intercom above the seats, the cabin shuddered as the ship landed with a thud. They all stood up and checked their equipment, "We are just reinforcing defenses r-r-right? Routine mission no danger right?" asked Mathew. "Quite right, routine mission." replied Alec gloomily, remembering what he was considering earlier. He picked up his steel gauss rifle from the seat next to him, held it in both hands and took a deep breath, "Here we go " Alec thought to himself as the door to the hanger slid open and everyone walked through.