Raven Company

Chapter 1: Kwangju III part one

Unknown space, 2526, November, 15, 0200

The alarm went off without warning and in seconds the men (and one women) were out of their bunks and heading for the door of the bunk room in a rush as they grabbed their helmets by the door.

The five of them sprinted into the briefing room or as the troops called them, the "Hot" room. Others were already sitting down and more were coming in as the five found their seats.

Lieutenant Jackson Forge walked into the room to find his company of 150 ODST sitting in the large briefing room waiting for his speech before their first mission. "Alright gents the brass just sent this down to me this morning. Were deploying to the Kwangju III, he gestured to a holo board that was behind him, alien sightings were made just before we lost contact...HIGHCOM wants us to deploy to the planet and if enemy targets are there...destroy them" he said as a snowy world appeared in the center of the room and was a good three feet above their heads.

"We deploy in two hours!" he said and headed to gear up. Cheers and whoops of joy filled the room as he left. The creatures that they had been fighting for little over a year were most likely on this world and now the supposed failure ODST project was going to kick them back into orbit with out their spines. He smiled at the thought as he headed to gear up for the fight.

Skeleton Squad was in high spirits after hearing their ODST company was going to do its first mission soon. They had gone back to their barracks and gathered up guns, ammo, explosives and other gear for the drop and then headed off for their pod room.

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

in route to Kwangju III, 2526, November, 15, 0400

John Codfish ran a hand through his fire red hair as he slid his sniper rifle into the metal pod that were commonly called, "Tuna Cans". He added a pair of pistols and then his duffel bag. After making sure his gear was ready he headed off to Jayson's pod to report.

Jayson Pill had brown hair, blue eyes and white skin with a strong build and the confidence of success around him. He had just finished putting his assault rifle in its slot in his pod next to a pistol and his pack when PVC John Codfish came up to him. Codfish had red hair, black eyes, a strong build and tanned skin. He was also the teams Sniper.

"All ready to go sarge!" he said with a lazy salute.

Jayson returned the salute and nodded just as his Second in command James Anderson came up. Anderson had dark skin, black hair, a strong build and grey eyes, he was the heavy weapons specialist for the team.

"All ready to go Sir" the African version of the hulk said keeping the seriousness in his voice. He was known to be a party man but only when off duty. Pill respected that trait very much.

He nodded and looked around, "What about Rex and Kelly?" he asked.

"Kelly is in med bay gathering supplies and Rex is just finishing up Sir" James said.

Jayson nodded again, Kelly was the teams medic and had long blond hair, green eyes, tan skin and a light build around her shoulders and legs. Rex was the teams tech expert and had Dark skin, black hair, blue eyes and a strong build just like almost every ODST trooper.

He pulled the helmet over his head and turned the mic on, "Kelly report to your pod and check in, everyone else get ready for the drop" he said.

The two men in front of him nodded and headed off for their pods. Jayson made sure the mic was secure and then got in his pod.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Orbiting Kwangju III, 2526, November, 15, 0410

John sat in his pod in full gear, a standard marines armor with ODST painted on, with the logo too. Since the budget for the ODST program was low they had only basic marine armor and weapons, the only thing about them that was different was they were more hard core and that they went feet first.

"Alright men..." the Lt's voice said over the main com, "Alien troops have been confirmed and we have the green light. Keep your heads down and your gun up and those things won't even know what hit e'm...now how are we going down!" he yelled.

A chorus of "FEET FIRST SIR!" blasted over the comm and then the pods hatches slid down and the pods fell from their slots.

John felt on the edge at first, just before the pod hit the atmosphere. This was the first time these pods had been tested and bugs were sure to happen, and bugs were tech speak for death.

He held tight to the pod as Jayson spoke on the com on coordinates for the squads landing site. Before he could say anything something exploded and a piece of metal no bigger then a pencil blew threw his pods front and lodged into his arm.

He screamed hard as the metal was still red hot and the heat filled as the atmosphere leaked in. he was thankful that he hadn't been too far in the atmosphere or he would have died from the heat.

"DEPLOY CHUTES!" Jayson yelled.

John reached up and hit the red button and the pods speeding decent stopped...but just a bit. The pod was still moving faster then a archer missile and he had only a few Kilometers to go before impact. Screams of dieing or dead were heard all over the comm as someone yelled about no AA reported just before static filled the line.

John was still yelling form the pain of the shrapnel in his arm and the painful stop. He faintly heard Jayson calling out the Kilos.

"7...6....5.....4.....3.......2.....1....IMPA-" the com went dead and the world stopped as the pod smashed into the ground and John swore he broke something as he yelled in pain from the old and now the new. He screamed again before hitting the eject button and the pods hatch shot off. He stumbled out of the pod as a plasma round hit near their landing zone.

The company had landed on a stretch of beach or what would be a beach if the world wasn't snow covered. Aliens were up on the rocks above them shooting everything they had down at them as the troops charged for the heights.

John grabbed his sniper and slung it over his shoulder with his good arm and then grabbed the pistols and pack before running with the others. Blood and gore covered the ground as snipers and motors fired down at the outnumbered company that ran at them none the less.

A round hit near him and blisters formed all over his arm from the close impact of the plasma as soldiers fire their guns at the enemy. He collapsed when a sniper round went clean threw his right leg, he screamed and collapsed into the side of a pod as his helmet fell to the ground. He used the sideways pod as a stand and unslung his rifle and fired the thing despite the pain.

Round after round, clip after clip, he kept the fire until he blacked out from the pain and smiled faintly realizing that he was out of the 300 bullets he had brought with him.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Kwangju III, 2526, November, 15, 0440

Jayson woke up from the blackness that had claimed him and hit the release button for his hatch eject. The hatch blew off and he jumped out grabbing his assault rifle before running out and finding the frozen beach they were on covered in dark red blood and gore.

Men were firing rifles and rockets at the aliens on the cliffs above them. Motors were hitting all over the place and sending shrapnel everywhere when one hit a pod. He ran threw the battlefield trying to find his squad and found Rex and Kelly near a bleeding trooper.

Kelly was pounding his chest screaming as she tried to save the dead man. The soldier had a bullet hole in his chest right under his ribs. Blood was pouring out of his wound and soon he started coughing and a small wave of blood poured out of his mouth as he gave his last breath.

Jayson looked away as Kelly screamed more trying to save the man who was already gone. The problem with her was she always expected her to be able to do everything and if she failed at anything she thought she was letting others down. He walked over and put a hand on her shoulder before looking at Rex. His face was grim, not that he blamed him or Kelly, the men of Raven company were their brothers and Sisters and had trained with them and ate with them during their training, each death was a blow to everyone's hearts.

He snapped out of his thoughts and turned back to the fight at hand, "Rex, Kelly we need to get up to those cliffs and take out those mortars" he said grimly tearing his eyes from the bloody body of a fellow soldier. His comrades nodded and they headed off into the horrible thing that was war.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

James hit the dirt just before the plasma round hit. He coughed the dirt out of his mouth and followed Wolf Squad through the battlefield. His pod had been hit during the drop and he had crashed away from his squad and had linked up with Wolf. They where moving around the main lines to the forest and were going to link up with Dog and head up the hill to the cliffs and destroy the AA and Motors.

He saw movement near by and fired off a burst, moments later a alien dropped to the ground holding a unactivated grenade.

Lance corporal Tomas Saginaw walked over and kicked the thing, "Dang Shorties are all over the place...good work James" he said nodding to the man.

James nodded back and they continued walking through the woods until finding Dog Squad pinned against some trees and a bunch of "Shorties" as Tom called them.

They opened fire and cut two down and flanked around to the left. The remaining shorties tossed a grenade and someone screamed before the entire squad was tossed into the air.

James cracked an eye open to find his helmet was gone and his gun missing. He looked up and found were the shorties had been was covered in burning flesh, gore and blood. A small crater was in the center of where the three aliens had been and the entire ground was burned.

He got up slowly and looked around. Dog was running to them as fast as they could and Tomas and Victor could be seen laying on the ground slowly getting up. James walked carefully over to the crater and looked around. What he found made him want to hurl. Julie was about a foot from the burned area...or what was left of her.

Her legs were melted to the bone and her entire front was either melted or gone. Her face was frozen in horror and pain with bits of melted bone shown were the skin should have been. Her back and sides had little damage and it seemed that the blast had hit her front mostly.

Tom got up and walked over slowly before seeing Julies corpse and he became grim. "My best friend since second grade....joined up together...." he mumbled quietly to James. He walked over and closed her burned and melted eyes and then stood up taking her dog tags with him.

"Dog! Wolf! Lets move out!" he said gesturing to the top of the hill and the five Dog soldiers fell into step behind the survivors of Wolf. They walked grimly past the corpse and on up the hill. Two more slight engagements between the squad and a pair of shorties made their advance slow but it didn't stop.

At last they made it to the edge of the woods and found the rocky cliffs before them. A small rocky trail led up to the top of the cliffs and plasma could be seen coming from the top.

"It just keeps going up and up doesn't it" Victor said sarcasticly as they walked up the trail carefully and checking every boulder and crevice that could hold a enemy soldier.

"Shut it Vic" Brad said just before a sniper round went over their heads. He ducked and fired a burst over at the group of Shorties coming down the trail. "FIRE!" he yelled and the ten ODST fired at the shorties, the passage was covered in their blue glowing blood and tinny bones.

James and Victor were on point and continued up the trail as they fought past another group of shorties. Finally they made it to the top and found four massive...things. They were smooth and blue colored and resembled a beetle sort of but much larger, almost like a weird fish. It had a large cannon that fired a blue plasma shot into the air and then down onto the ground below.

Brad gave the order and the two squads and James moved across the plain shooting at the things. The rounds just bounced off the hulls and then a turret turned on them. In the seat sat a thing that looked like a humanoid fish. It fired the gun and two Dog Squad members fell with holes through their heads or chests...or both.

"Fall back!" Brad yelled and they ran back into the cover of the rocks as more laser round hit around them. They were lucky that thing was such a bad shot since no one else was dead...yet.

James looked around, the four massive vehicles were still shooting at the ODST below who were now fighting a massive amount of aliens that had gone to fight them. But the vehicles turrets were still sweeping the area.

"those things look vulnerable in the rear...i didn't see any guns on the back" Victor said regaining his breathing.

Brad nodded, "Ok Vic, James go and try attacking them from the rear, we'll cover you" he said.

James and Victor nodded and headed off into the rocky boulders to flank around to the rear as the rest of the ODST moved near the front and fired their assault rifles at the gunners.

James headed off to the first one as Victor headed off to the one next to it. He looked at the back and found a motor in the back with plasma gas coming out of it. Hoping it was important he stuck a grenade into the fan and ran. What happened next was a massive fire ball or rather plasma ball, that turned the ground to glass near it.

A second blast went off that signaled Victor had completed his job. The two headed off to the the last two guns to find they had turned towards them.

"RUN!" Victor said and the two ran back sprinting for the boulders.

The two vehicles fired their cannons and two massive blasts went right after them. The blast landed less then five yards from them, the two ODST flew threw the air and smashed into the boulders.

James saw stars and thought he was going to die but a hail of gun fire went off making the vehicles turn and fire at the other soldiers. James dragged a unconscious Victor to cover as the squad met up with him.

"What now?!" he asked as more motor shells hit around them.

"Raider Squad is bringing up a pair of rocket jockeys to us...lets pray that's enough" Brad yelled back.

More blasts and gun shots could be heard as the ODST company pushed farther up the beach and near the cliffs and foot hills. After five minutes the rocket jockeys showed up with a rocket launcher on their back and a pistol in their hands with the Raider logo on their shoulders.

"You guys call for some anti armor?" one called.

Brad nodded and pointed up the hill, "Two mortars up there. They got turrets and turn on a dime so don't take it for granted" he said.

The two nodded and moved on up the trail with Dog and Wolf following them. They set up on some rocks and made adjustments to their aims. "3....2....1...now" the first said and they both fired hitting their targets, then reloading and firing another pair.

Both sets hit the mortars and the vehicles blew up in a large plasma ball.

James and the others sighed in relief before moving out to the clearing and looking down, the place was covered in blood and gore and half a dozen spots were covered in purple and blue blood. James took his helmet off and ran a hand through his black hair as a soldier ran up the hill to them.

"You guys Wolf and Dog?" the soldier said panting.

Brad nodded.

"LT. Wants you guys down at the HQ" he said gesturing for them to follow him. The troops followed him down the slope and after four engagements with more shorties they made it to the bottom of hill were the woods gave slight cover, a clearing up ahead had about a dozen ODST standing guard or looking over a holo map.

Lieutenant Forge looked up and nodded, "We were worried you were dead" he said and gestured for them to look at the map, "Skel and Raptor are pinned three hundred yards from the second battery of those mortar gun things...im sending you to reinforce them and get to that second battery" he said and pointed to the glowing green circle with a HQ on it, then a red circle that had Skeletons and raptors tags over it.

Dog and Wolf nodded and headed off to catch up with the other two squads. They grabbed ammo from the depot that was set up in the clearing and then booked it to Skeleton and Raptor.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Kwangju III, 2526, November, 15, 0530

Jayson cursed and fired at another wave of the short aliens as they ran at them shooting their little green pistols that burned threw armor in a heartbeat. He dodged another shot by ducking and then fired his gun again cutting one down with its face torn off.

Skeleton had linked up with Raptor half an hour ago and had been calling for back up for who knew how long as they fought of wave after wave of the little creatures.

He reloaded and fired another burst at the short stubby aliens and tossed a grenade at them. A small shower of bone, blue blood and bits of gore and dirt followed the detonation.

He glanced at Kelly who had the only working mic, "Where are those backup units!" he yelled

Kelly was about to reply but a hail of bullets tore threw the woods and cut the rest of the wave to pieces. Before they could react eight soldiers burst threw the foliage with Dog and Wolf squad logos on their shoulders. And one had a Skeleton squad logo.

"James?" Jayson said a bit surprised as they figured he had been shot down.

"You rang?" James said shouldering his assault rifle.

"about time...that pizzas free" Rex joked.

A soldier walked up to him, he was bald with brown skin, and hazel eyes. "Sargent Brad Wolf squad" he told him and shook Jayson's hand.

James took a look around, "Wheres John?" he asked.

Jayson shook his head, "MIA" he said and the group of ODST started heading up the hill to the last battery. "Where the hek have you been?" he asked James.

"With Wolf, took out a battery about a click from here" he said.

Jayson decided to wait for the details as they came up to the clearing the Guns were at.

The massive vehicles were sitting in the clearing firing the blue blasts into the air, Jayson counted Six of the things. From how James and the rest of the new arrivals it was clear that they were worried.

"what?" he said at last.

"We took on four of those things and nearly got wiped out...we covered them in bullets, grenades and rockets just to take em down" James said.

Jayson nodded grimly and tried to figure out a way to take out the large hovering things. "im open for ideas..." he said at last.

James shrugged, Kelly shook her head and Rex looked around.

"what about that?" he asked pointing at another mortar vehicle that was laying at the edge of the clearing with a pair of shorties working on it with some odd device.

"that will work" Jayson said.

Rex nodded and headed for the vehicle.

"Dog, Wolf and Raptor stay here and be ready to give cover" he said. A few affirmatives were given and then he took off to catch up with his squad. Rex was sneaking onto the back and James and Kelly were ready to shoot the workers if they moved.

Rex jumped into the entrance hatch and the hatch slid close behind him. For a second nothing happened and they grew worried before the thing fired a blast that hit close to the front of Rex's vehicle.

Both Shorties were vaporized and a good part of the hull melted exposing circuts and wires. Before they could even find out what had happened a mortar had turned and was moving its cannon to aim at Rex's vehicle.

Skeleton scattered but Rex had yet to jump out.

"Rex abort, abort!" Jayson yelled to the moving thing wishing for the thousandth time that the radios still worked.

Rex's Mortar fired a shot that hit near the mortar that was aiming at him. The round melted half of the enemy mortar and inhuman screams could be heard. The power core caught fire and the whole thing blew up, because of the close proximity of the mortars, since the clearing was small, the one next to it blew up and then the next and so on. Soon the entire battery was either burning, melted or destroyed.

Rex hopped out of his mortar and sighed sweating like a dog, "Those things need a manuel" he said sliding down to his teammates.

The others laughed and they headed back to link up with Wolf, Dog and Raptor.