2179 Common Era – 3 years before the events of Eden Prime
The Kodiak had started its descent, leaving the SSV Cairo as it made its way towards the planet. The 8 man special ops team was eager to get their mission underway and Operations Chief Alex Lloyd was humouring his inquisitive friend and team mate Corporal O'Hare.
"So what are we doing in the back end of nowhere again chief?"
Alex went to answer, being interrupted by the rattling of the Kodiak as it started hurtling through the atmosphere, "God knows O'Hare, but whatever it is the Admiral is pretty adamant on it. Once the captain finishes getting briefed he fills the rest of the blanks in"
"Yh but come on chief, all we've been told is that there's some facility down there and the admiral is 'suspicious' of it" adding emphasis to the word suspicious with fingered quotation marks. Receiving a firm but playful smack to the back of his helmet as Captain Spencer stepped into the middle of the Kodiak.
"and the fact the admiral is suspicious should be good enough for one of his spec-ops teams O'Hare" his speech vibrating slightly as he walked down the middle of the shuttle, wobbling before grabbing hold of a rail above his head before standing straight to address his team of 7 marines. "So listen up!" the words followed by each marine bolting up right in their seats, eyes locking straight at the captain through the slits in their helmets "We'll be landing in approximately 5 minutes, so far you know that we're doing a sweep of this area. The admiral believes there is a facility here that has something to do with the Akuze incident 2 years ago"
"The Thresher Maw attack?" one of the marines suddenly asked earning looks from the rest of his comrades "I lost a good friend in that attack"
"Don't let it cloud your judgment now, you get off track and you'll end up doing something stupid and getting yourself or one of us killed, so park it in the back of your mind" the captain quickly added to fill the silence left by the marines comment. "So as I was saying, we're sweeping the area and if we do indeed find a facility we're to do a close ground recon and attempt to secure any info we can."
"Are we expecting…well anything at all?" the lieutenant chirped from the rear of the Kodiak "I mean if we're not expecting to even find a facility, then why send us? We're special operation marines wouldn't a platoon of regulars have been good enough?" the inquiry had all the marines looking at the captain for answers, it was true. If they weren't even to expect anything why send a group of highly trained marines.
The 15 year veteran stood at the front of the ship replied after a short pause "That is true but the Admiral is going of a hunch, spec-ops are easier to move around plus we're a small squad. Easy insert and quick extraction plus there's deniability and of course, the small fact that if anything does goes tits up we're touch enough to get out of there without a scratch" the captain sighed before slowly continuing "plus the admiral is worried….that platoon on Akuze had 50 men, most of them kids, he doesn't want to risk a massacre"
"So instead he'll risk us?...fair enough, I've had worse reasons to walk on some god-forsaken arsehole of a planet" O'Hare quickly before getting another quick whack up the side of the head from Alex "Oi! What was that for?"
"The captain was going to hit you anyway, figured I'd save him the wobbly walk over O'Hare" Alex quickly snipped back at the corporal before cutting off the expected rebuttal from the "comedian" of the group "So sir, if we're to expect anything how are we going to move? And on the odd chance there is anything down there what's our ROE?"
"Rules of engagement are standard, don't fire at anything unless it attacks first after which you're clear to engage. Just try to keep it tidy boys, pick your targets carefully and make sure they are hostile first" The captain resumed with the briefing, the atmosphere instantly getting back to the serious nature you come to expect before a mission "as for movement we'll be in our standard teams, I'll be leading Charlie fire team and the Lt will have delta. We have two points of reference to check out and we'll split up to check both ASAP. I'm sending all relevant data to your omni-tools, read as much as you can and get familiar with the mission" the captain paused as he tapped at his omni-tool, awkwardly jolting around as he let go of the rail before his entire squads arms lit up. "Right then, read up boys, our ETA is 15 minutes, you know what to do so let's get it done. GET TACTICAL MARINES!" the captain shouted as he walked back into the cockpit.
"OORAH!" the call resonating off the walls as each and every marine chanted the cry before looking down at their omni-tools reading and learning the mission intel as fast as they could before prepping the rest of their gear for drop off.
- 1 Hour Later, planet side –
Charlie team was walking through the rocky valley; the 4 man squad was led by Captain Spencer, with Op. Chief Lloyd, Corporal O'Hare and Private Keene. The squad moved along the rough terrain as carefully and as quickly as they could, Keene at the front followed by the captain. The squad was in a tactical column with 10 meter spacing, enough distance to prevent an ambush but close enough to maintain eye contact.
Alex was 21 years old, pretty young to be an operations chief but due to his skill with software hacking, he had been quickly bolted up the ranks. Mainly to help teach new recruits get up to speed as fast as possible, the alliance always jumped at the chance to get experts teaching and that was Alex's excuse for his promotion. He always felt that his promotion was pointless but all that really mattered was he knew what he was doing and he knew how to shoot a gun, his rank was secondary to his skill as a marine.
The squad continued to move along the terrain, making their way up a steep incline to the top of the ridge before suddenly Keene signalled to stop, the marines quickly made their way up to the top of the ridge, laying down in line with him before realising why he had stopped them all. A building was sitting right at the base of one of the mountains, the entrance was just a tube leading into it but there it was. Kahoku had been right after all
"Well fuck me sideways…the admiral was right" O'Hare snorted, looking over to Alex who was equally surprised "so much for a nice walk along in the park right?"
"Never a dull day in the corp, so captain what's our next move?" Alex rolled over and slide down the hill slightly, sitting back against the hill and looking up at the sky.
"Now, we call delta team and get them back to us, no point having them running around out there when we've found it. O'Hare get on the horn and get them back to the Kodiak, the shuttle can fly them back to us" the captain ordered, staring down at the facility through his avenger's scope "we'll maintain watch on it and if nothing is happening by the time delta gets here we'll work our way towards it for a closer inspection"
"No problem sir" O'Hare quickly replied before sliding down the ridge to make the call to delta. After 5 minutes had passed the corporal scrambled back up the rocks and sat himself down next to Alex. Delta would be arriving in about 30 minutes so they had time to kill and with the captain and Keene keeping an eye out, they had an opportunity to relax. Alex worked on his omni-tool, perfecting his equipment's runtimes as best he could, the faster it worked, the faster he worked and getting through a door or security system was always best done as fast as possible. After half an hour of tapping away at his omni-tool he started to hear the tell-tale noise of the Kodiak as it cut through the air. About time they got here, Alex had finished his checks at least 15 minutes ago and playing solitaire was really beginning to get dull, grabbing his rifle and letting the glow around his arm fade he crawled back into line with the rest of his squad where the Kodiak finally came into view as it slowly made its way towards them.
Without warning a loud crack erupted from the other side of the mountain, a missile suddenly appeared and flew straight into the side of the Kodiak, shunting the shuttle in the air before a second missile flew straight through its downed kinetic barriers, colliding with the metal of the shuttle and exploding on impact. Charlie squad watched in silent horror as the Kodiak nose-dived down and crashed in the valley in front of the base, flames rising up and engulfing the shuttle entirely. They hoped, prayed that someone would clamber out of the wreckage but after a few minutes of watching they realised that delta squad was dead and their Kodiak was gone.
"SHIT!" O'Hare shouted, punching the ground in anger, and glaring at the captain for answers "the fuck just happened?"
"That was a SAM wasn't it sir?" Keene was starting to panic, he was young and the sudden deaths of his friends was hitting him hard as he stared almost absent minded at the crashed shuttle
"O'Hare calm down! Get yourself together and help the private, now! Chief!" the captain snapped, immediately taking control of the situation, stopping it from spiralling out of control "get on the radio and call the Cairo, we've got a confirmed hostile presence and we're not going to be enough!"
Alex just nodded and slipped down the hill away from the commotion of his squad, immediately activating his omni-tool and hailing the SSV Cairo only to be met by the sound of static. 'Oh please just be atmospheric disturbance, I seriously don't need this now'. He kept trying, hailing over and over before attempting to boost his signal to try and beat through the disturbance. As he flicked through his channels over and over he discovered something that really didn't bode well….they were being jammed. Actively jammed by a site very close to them and if they were being jammed by the unknown hostile forces there was a very good possibility their communications were being monitored. "Oh fuck, CAPTAIN! We have a serious problem!" Alex started to sprint back up the hill falling back in line and still out of breath told the captain what he had discovered; he hadn't even finished his sentence when a whizzing sound went flying at their position, followed by the crumpling noise of Keene's body as it rolled down the hillside.
Time stood still, it was only a split second but time stood still for Alex as he watched Keene drop and roll lifelessly down the hill, the silence was then broken by the roar of gunfire, unbeknownst to the squad the hostiles had outflanked them and were firing relentlessly on their position. Instead of even trying to fight back the captain immediately gave the order to fall back and retreat, each marine sliding down the hill as fast as they could and bolting along the valley they were in, gun fire dancing around their feet and occasionally colliding with their kinetic shielding. The 3 marines ran for their lives, moving as fast as they could. Alex was at the front, he had always been quick and he was quickly moving along with his squad mate's close behind, each member of the team turning every so often to fire a quick suppressing burst at the enemy. They knew they were out manned and out gunned but the instinct to survive had kicked in. They kept moving as fast as they could, the sounds of the soldiers behind them getting closer and closer until suddenly the object that had taken down the Kodiak appeared in front of them.
A gunship
The last thing Alex saw before he lost consciousness was a missile hurtling towards him and his own feet flying above his head. The bodies of O'Hare and the captain on the ground around him and the boot of a soldier, dressed in gold and white armour coming down into his visor, before he was left in total darkness.
3 days later the special operations team was declared MIA, presumed KIA. Admiral Kahoku eventually sent a much larger force to investigate the area, but no trace of the marines nor was what happened to them ever found. It is now the year 2183, and Commander John Shepard has been named the first human spectre and the war with the geth has started.