948

Prologue

"Hiss…" The door opened up to the planet below. The drop ship shook slightly, causing some to grab the support bars to keep themselves steady.

"Time to rock n' roll." Said the squadron commander.

"Let's go!"

The whole squadron jumped from the back of the drop ship into space and began to fall toward the planet.

"All armor systems functioning normally." Said the squadron NCO. "Personnel officer check the status of our power packs." "All power packs at 100." Came the reply.

The squadron had entered the atmosphere now and their armor glowed red with heat.

"Everyone activate your energy rifles, we're approaching the target."

The ground was coming up fast. The whole squadron activated their H.A.L.O. wings and landed softly on the ground.

"All right," Said the squadron commander. "I want a mobile base set up and an immediate recon of the surrounding area, including locations of hills or any other geographical formation. After you've finished, I want the data loaded into our I.I.H.'s (Interactive Interface Helmet). That's all for now."

While mobile base was being set up, the recon team was out scouting the surrounding area. In about 5 minutes the team returned with the data and loaded it into our helmets.

"We found evidence of another squadron, but we think they may have been here some time ago and already left." Said the recon commander.

"I still want a perimeter to be set up and I want to be notified on the situation every hour. That's all." Said the squadron commander.

A few hours later, the perimeter guards detected an enemy force moving toward them.

"Hurry! They're coming straight for us!" yelled a guard.

The squadron commander dashed to the temporary tent in the middle of the camp and grabbed a pair of automatic pistols and a clip of grenades and ran back outside just in time to see an explosion rip the perimeter wall apart. The noise from the blast was deafening, but that was the least of their problems. A whole battalion of enemy squadron troops emerged from the smoke of the burning wall and opened fire. The whole camp was in a state of chaos as the enemy troops poured in and started to surround the unit.

"All right 948, you can drop your weapons or we can pry them from your dead fingers." Said one of the enemy who appeared to be the commander. "What'll it be?" he sneered.

"It'll be this!" said the squadron commander as he dropped a full clip of grenades on to the ground. "You've got about ten seconds before that goes off and we all die," He said. "Might as well leave." The grenades were going to explode any second now and, by the looks of things, they wouldn't be deactivated. "T minus 5, 4," came an electronic voice from the clip. "Damn it!" Yelled the enemy leader "Everyone get out of here now!" "1, 0." The grenades exploded with a billow of smoke. It had been a bluff. "Everyone get away while I hold them off!" yelled the squadron commander as he ran after the enemy. "The hell we're leaving!" said a staff sergeant and ran after him.

The rest of the squadron stood and looked at each other. Would they leave their commander to the enemy? This was answered by one of the flight commanders' running back into the smoke. He was quickly followed by the rest of the squadron and they soon rejoined the squadron commander. The situation was looking good. The enemy had been disoriented by the bluff and couldn't find their way through the smoke to where they had come from.

"Alright, here's the plan. Said the squadron commander "They don't seem to have thermal imaging capability, which gives us the advantage, everyone turn on your thermal visor." The squadron clicked on their visors and immediately located the enemies' heat signatures, huddled together while searching for a way out.

The squadron slowly moved closer until they could detect each enemy soldier distinctly.

"Once you have them in clear view," whispered the commander. "Open fire."

The squadron was inching closer and closer, closing in a circle around the enemy. They were so close that details on the armor were beginning to show. "On my mark," said the flight commander.

All of a sudden, the smoke was gone and the squadron was revealed to their prey. The enemy had their guns drawn and were pointing straight at the squadron. The squadron commander looked up to see an enemy helicopter with its side propellers pointed down.

"Kill them," Said the enemy commander.

The troops opened fire on the squadron. The lucky ones were killed in one shot; the unlucky ones were torn apart by grenades and enemy fire. A few survived and were holding up against the enemies closing in around them. "RAAAAAHHHHH." Yelled the last soldier left and threw his grenades into the cluster of troops. The grenades killed several of the enemy and left others mortally wounded. The soldier made a dash for the opening in the line, but was shot in the chest by a sniper. The last thing he saw was the enemy commander standing over him and taking off his helmet, but he blacked out and saw no more. He fell into the black abyss.

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