UNSC Cavalry, Chapter 6, Reach Part II

2523 August 01, 1830 hrs.

UNSC Mark Twain

Reach Orbit


From Chapter 5, Reach Part I

"Roger, pressing button," Nigel pushed the button and then looked at the display. Nothing. "Damnit to hell!" Nigel slammed the bottom of his gloved fist against the button, this time the LCD readout scrolled 'Caution: Depressurizing' and then 'Depressurizing Complete'.

"Bridge, EVA team. Depressurization cycle completed. Can I push the green button now?"

"Roger, EVA team. You are go for open."

"Opening." As Nigel pushed the button he could hear someone on the bridge of the Mark Twain yelling 'NO…STOP!', but of course it was too late and unlike the yellow button, the green one worked just fine the first time it was pushed.


In order to fully appreciate the situation that Nigel and Tom, EVA Team One, has found themselves in, you have to understand the complex simplicity of how an orbital drop bay works and how critical a complete depressurization cycle is to avoiding what is about to happen. Consider that all things are normal, i.e. the drop bay on the Mark Twain wasn't damaged, shoddily repaired, and all internal bay sensors and controls were working properly. In the case of inserting cargo into low atmosphere and having it fall into a planet's gravity well, drop through the atmosphere, and land at a pre-calculated set of coordinates, the drop bay would remain pressurized to some degree (or fully), the outer bay doors would open in one tenth of a second, and the cargo would jettison using the escaping pressure for thrust.

In the current situation, Saber Platoon's cargo is trying to be put into high orbit for follow on recovery. In this case, the bay would be depressurized, the outer bay doors would retract in 3-5 seconds and the cargo would gently float out of the bay, sometimes with the assistance of 'cargo assist rockets'.

The reality of the current situation is that the bay was damaged, shoddily repaired, remote control from the bridge was not functioning, and the bay's internal sensors were malfunctioning. Following normal procedure, the correct codes were entered, the depressurization cycle was thought to be completed, and the outer door should have gently opened. The control panel on the exterior hull of the Mark Twain that Nigel was accessing was functioning correctly (with the exception of the yellow button), but the bay's internal pressure sensors gave a false reading to the control panel and the bridge.


EVA One

UNSC Mark Twain

Reach Orbit

"Awwwww Shit!, What's happening OPS?"

"EVA One, false depressurization reading on the drop bay, you have ten seconds until explosive decompression of that bay, get clear!" Captain Moore of the Mark Twain was clearly panicked, in all probability EVA Team One would be killed, and the cargo would shoot out of the drop bay and could collide at high velocity with something else in Reach orbit, possibly causing more casualties.

"Tom, you, me, linked, NOW!" Nigel and Tom moved close together and Nigel initiated the sequence to link their EVA pack's thrusters. "Tom, on 'one' push off." Nigel and Tom pushed off the ventral hull of the Mark Twain in a course that Nigel hoped would parallel the exit trajectory of the cargo. "OPS?"

"OPS, Go!"

"Are there cargo assist rockets on the cargo?"

"Affirmative!"

"Link me, NOW!"

The Ops officer on the Mark Twain entered the codes to give Nigel control of the cargo assist rockets that a very thorough Stu Reynolds had attached to Saber Team's cargo module when it was being loaded back at Earth.

"Ops time hack to open?"

Captain Moore came on the channel, "I told you to get clear!"

"TIME HACK DAMNIT"

"Three…two…one…NOW"

The drop bay doors slammed open, but not completely. The explosive decompression of the drop bay propelled the cargo module out with extreme force and velocity with the edge of the module slamming against a still exposed portion of the drop bay doors. The module shot past EVA Team One, passing within arm's reach of Nigel and Tom, and started to tumble out of control. The force of the escaping atmosphere from the bay caught Nigel and Tom and propelled them along with but behind the module. The module was carrying more velocity than Nigel and Tom and as they fell away from the Mark Twain, the module gained distance on them.

"EVA Two, Naomi, Dale. Use your EVA packs and start coming after us. I am going to try to stabilize the module with the CARs."

Naomi answered, "Understood EVA One, on the way," Naomi checked her HUD, the personal equipment crates were on a stable trajectory and would fall into high orbit as planned. "Dale, untether from the crates, ready?" Naomi brought up the EVA pack's navigation suite in her HUD, targeted EVA One and their rogue cargo module and plotted an intercept course. A hash marked circle appeared in her HUD with the text underneath "CALCULATING, STAND BY" and then a second later, "CAUTION, INTERCEPT COURSE EXCEEDS EVA PACK THRUSTER CAPACITY." Naomi rechecked her figures and made sure to account for two linked EVA packs, the software recalculated the course. "READY, INTERCEPT COURSE WILL REQURIE 85% TOTAL THRUSTER CAPACITY. ENGAGE / ABORT"

By this time, Dale had moved up beside Naomi and attached a short tether to her, "Ready."

"Dale, hold on." Using her neural interface she commanded the software to initiate the intercept, the 'ENGAGE' icon in her HUD flashed three times in confirmation and a countdown appeared…'THREE…TWO…ONE…' Naomi and Dale started accelerating, gaining momentum over the first few seconds of the thruster burn. "EVA One, intercept in one twenty seconds."

"Roger Two." Nigel and Tom were within one hundred meters of the run-away cargo module, still being carried by the force of the decompression. Nigel brought up his own HUD and accessed the command pathways for the cargo assist rockets. "Tom, I am going to counter thrust with the module's CARs to slow it down and get us to the module, if that doesn't work, I am going to fire our EVA pack thrusters to get us there. We have to gain control of the module."

"Ready Nigel, let's do it."

Nigel also opened up the EVA pack nav suite plotted an intercept course to the module, cross linked that with the CAR controls, and recalculated his intercept. 'WARNING…WARNING…' flashed on Nigel's HUD. 'CAR THRUSTER CAPACITY INSUFFICIENT.' "Damn,"

"What?"

"This sucks."

"What?"

"Tom, the CAR thruster capacity 'isn't sufficient' to bring the module under control. I am going to deplete the rockets, fire our EVA packs, and we are going to intercept the module."

'Ummm, what did you say 'intercept' like that?"

"We are going to hit…hard."

"Ugh," Tom made a cross between clearing his throat and grunting, "Yeah, right, no problem."

"Ready?"

"Yeah, let's get this over with already."

"EVA Two, I am sending you updated data, you are going to have to recalculate your intercept after we have slowed down the module."

"Understood, One."

"EVA One and Two, this is the Mark Twain, you have another challenge to deal with now."

"Twain, EVA One, go."

"On your current trajectory and with your current velocity, you have about three minutes until you impact with a refit and repair facility. I have already contacted its Captain. They are in low power mode, her engines are dead cold, and they won't be able to move out of your way. I am going to contact Reach Orbital Search and Rescue, I suggest you all push off, get clear and wait for pick up."

"All Saber units and Mark Twain, this is Saber Actual. I have been monitoring the situation. What is on the other side of the repair platform?"

"Saber Actual, Mark Twain, open space, if they can miss the platform that is."

"Understood Twain, negative on that SAR call. We can handle this. Nigel?"

"Understood Saber Actual. Tom, ready?"

"For the last time, hit it!"

Nigel fired the CARs on the module at maximum and constant burn, a burn that only lasted three seconds. The module did however slow considerably, it's velocity decreased from 500 meters per second to 350 meters per second. As soon as the CAR burn was complete, Nigel fired his and Tom's EVA pack thrusters and as predicted, they hit the side of the module, hard. Tom and Nigel slammed into the side of the module and their velocity slid them down the long side. Nigel cut the EVA pack thrusters and scrambled for a handhold. They slid three quarters of the way down the module before Nigel found a hand hold and stopped them.

"AAAAAAHHHRRRGGG…damnit…frak!" Nigel couldn't help but yell from the pain of getting his left shoulder dislocated from the jerk of stopping both him and Tom. "Tom…you alright? Tom?" Nigel pulled on the tether connecting them.

"EVA One, Saber Actual, report."

"We are down and secure. Tom is out, knocked unconscious from the impact. Module velocity slowed to three five zero meters per second," everyone on the channel could hear the strain in Nigel's voice. "Moving to the bottom of the module. I am going to use what is left in our EVA packs to try to alter trajectory. We still have," Nigel checked his HUD, updated the display and his calculations to account for the new 'object' in their path, "two minutes to impact."

"Roger, is it going to be enough?"

"Stand by Actual. EVA Two, status?"

Naomi re-calculated EVA Two's intercept course to account for the change in velocity of the cargo module after Nigel fired the CARs, "One, this is two re-calculated intercept at ninety seconds."

"Understood, begin your burn. Saber Actual. If EVA Two can get here in nine zero seconds, the combined remaining thrust from all four EVA packs should be able to give us enough delta-v to avoid the platform.


Personnel Transport

Upper Atmosphere

Reach

Jack and the rest of Saber platoon had been monitoring EVAs One and Two's progress and the current situation they found themselves in.

"Understood EVA One. EVA Two, get a move on. I am going to contact Reach ARCOM field and get our Pelicans and Albatross ready for immediate departure. Just miss that platform and we will be up to get you as soon as possible."

EVAs One and Two winked green acknowledgment lights in Jack's HUD.

"EVA One, this is Two, burning." Naomi and Dale had begun their burn to intercept EVA One and the cargo module. Ninety seconds to intercept.

Jack unstrapped and walked forward to the cockpit of the transport.

"Lieutenant, how long until we land at ARCOM Field?"

"What the hell are you doing? Get back in your damn seat!" The Navy pilot of the transport was more than a little pissed that one of his 'passengers' was in his cockpit.

"Sir, I have an EVA in high orbit that has gone foul, we need to get dirt-side, secure our ships, and back up there ASAP."

"Then contact SAR, they are already on stand-by waiting for your little stunt to go wrong, which apparently it has," there was blatantly obvious distain in the pilot's voice.

Jack decided to put this particular line of BS on hold for a second and activated his COMM direct to ARCOM Operations. "ARCOM ARCOM, Saber Actual, respond."

"Saber Actual, ARCOM OPS, we have been monitoring your situation, how can we assist?"

"We need our Pelicans and Albatross ready to fly ASAP, I also need someone to make the pilot of this transport more cooperative."

"Understood Saber Actual, stand-by."

"Roger."

"Saber Actual, this is ARCOM OPS Duty Officer, patch me through to the pilot."

"Wait one, OPS," Jack paused the connection.

"Lieutenant, what channel are you on? ARCOM wants to talk to you."

The pilot of the transport rolled his eyes inside his helmet, "Channel twenty four, encryption protocol Lima seven. What is going on, Sergeant?" The lieutenant put a little extra into his already condescending tone.

Jack patched ARCOM OPS, the pilot, and himself onto the same channel, using his helmet's COMM gear as a retransmitter. "ARCOM OPS, Saber Actual, you are online with the transport pilot."

"Understood Saber. Pilot, this is Reach ARCOM Operations, how do you copy?"

"Good copy RAO. What is going on here?" Amazing how the lieutenant changed his attitude when talking to the main operations center of a major UNSC Command.

"Saber Actual is on a mission directly under the command of HIGHCOM. You are ordered to comply with his directives. Transmitting authorization now." The pick-ups on the microphone was so sensitive that you could hear the beeping on the ARCOM Ops Officer's console as he entered the commands to transmit the authorization to the transport pilot's HUD.

The authorization from RAO popped up on the pilot's HUD, transparent text scrolling in front of his field of view. "Understood RAO. Will comply but under protest, this is a NAVY," the lieutenant very clearly stressed the Navy part, "transport and if Saber Actual is going to have me do what I think he is, it is a violation of almost every safety protocol governing…"

"Shut. Up." Jack cut him off. "Time to ground side, lieutenant?"

"Did you just tell me to 'shut up'? You might be in command Sergeant, but that does not give you…"

"Shut. Up. Sir." Jack didn't really like repeating himself.

Under his flight helmet, the pilot's face was turning blood red and he was baring his teeth. "What are your orders…Sergeant?"

"Again, Lieutenant, time until we land?"

"Five minutes." The pilot was so pissed not only couldn't he see straight, he could only manage two work responses.

"Not good enough. Max out the engines on this tub, we need to be on the flight line at ARCOM Field NOW."

"Understood, calculating for emergency thrust…go strap in Sergeant, you are going to be on the ground in two minutes, best this 'tub' can do."

"Understoo…" The pilot didn't care if Jack was strapped in or even sitting down, he hit what amounted to afterburners and the transport immediately lurched forward throwing Jack not only out of the cockpit, but into the passenger bay and on his back, "Son Of A…" Jack managed as he was flying through mid-air and slamming down onto the deck. The pilot angled the transport's nose down and the transport entered a steep dive.

"ARCOM OPS, Saber Actual. We will be ground-side in two minutes, repeat, two mikes. How copy?," Jack managed through clenched teeth.

"Understood Saber Actual, have the pilot land at Ramp Five Charlie, repeat, Ramp Five Charlie."

"Roger ARCOM OPS, Lieutenant, did you get that?"

"Yes." The pilot accessed, through his neural interface, the layout of ARCOM Field, with Ramp 5C illuminated in his HUD. He slightly adjusted the controls of the transport to bring them down on an optimal course, the image in his FOV zoomed in and he saw two Pelicans and one Albatross parked on the ramp.

"Sergeant, where to you want me to land in relation to the Pelicans and the Albatross?"

"Sir, can you put us down immediately behind them?"

"Sure, no problem." The venom in the pilot's voice could kill…

The transport continued its 80 degree dive, the surface of Reach and the ARCOM Airfield racing up towards the craft.

Jack, fighting the g-forces caused by the rapid decent, crawled his way back to his sling seat and hauled himself in, re-fastening his five point harness; just as he clicked the last buckle into place he heard a substantial thud over the platoon COMM.


EVA Two

High Orbit Perimeter Line, Sector 8

Reach Orbit

"Roger EVA One, this is Two…burning," Naomi engaged the two linked EVA thruster packs, "intercept in nine zero seconds." Naomi keyed the activation sequence and fired her's and Dale's thruster packs. In their field of view, EVA Two could see EVA One and the cargo module creeping closer as they flew through space.

"Saber Actual, EVA Two, we are burning and on course, intercept time hack holds."

"Understood EVA Two. We will be on the ground in under two minutes. Will contact you when we are airborne in the recovery craft."

"Roger Actual, EVA Two out."


Saber Actual

ARCOM Air Field

Reach

"ARCOM Ops, Saber actual. We will be on the ground in thirty second. Request you immediately clear all surrounding airspace and grant clearance for immediate departure of recovery flights."

"Understood Actual. WILCO, wait one." In the Ops officer left the COMM open and Jack could hear the follow-on transmission in the background clearing all airspace within 500 kilometers of ARCOM Field. "Saber Actual, you have clear airspace for 500 kilometers and emergency departure clearance has been granted…good luck. We are handing you over to ARCOM Field Air Traffic Control, call sign ARCOM ATC. Good luck Saber, ARCOM Ops out."

"ARCOM ATC, Saber Actual, how copy?"

"Saber Actual, ARCOM ATC, we have you on approach, you are clear for emergency landing and departure on ramp five charlie. Airspace is clear, come on in."

"Good copy ARCOM ATC. Saber Actual out," Jack made sure he was still connected to the transport's pilot, "Lieutenant, ARCOM ATC say you can put this thing on the ground."

"I was listening. Standby touchdown in ten."

Jack killed the COMM link with the pilot and addressed Saber platoon, "Saber, we are touching down in ten seconds. Fourth, take the Albatross, Third take the Pelican to the left of the 'Tross, and Second, you are with me in the other Pelican. ARCOM tells me all the recovery craft are powered and ready for flight. As soon as you are aboard, lift off. Understood?"

In unison the fifteen members of Saber platoon sounded off, "Understood Sergeant!" Just then the Navy 'tub' set down, quite roughly, on the tarmac. There was an audible hiss as the cabin depressurized and the ramp to the rear of the craft lowered. The CAV troopers scrambled to get out of their five point harnesses and on their feet. As soon as the ramp was down, the troopers bailed out and made for their designated ships.

Jack was the last one off the transport, as he was making his way towards the rear ramp the pilot, Lt. Eldridge, stopped him.

"Sergeant, stand fast!" Eldridge had removed his flight helmet and was glaring at Jack, "I don't give a shit who you work for or what command you fall under, NEVER give me orders, you get me…Sergeant?"

It was clear that the good lieutenant was quite butt-hurt by this whole experience and response Jack just stood there staring back at him through his helmet's visor. He waited a good five seconds, saying nothing before he turned around and made for the rear ramp, Lt. Eldridge calling after him, "I will be seeing you again, trooper." To that, Jack's only thought was 'douche bag'.


EVA One and Two

High Orbit Perimeter Line, Sector 8

On Collision Course with Refit and Repair Facility

EVA Two slammed into the cargo module much like EVA One did, although this time, when sliding down the side of the module, EVA Two slammed into EVA One. Nigel was able to get a good hold on Naomi before she and Dale bounced off.

"'bout time you two got here!"

"Good to see you too Nigel. What's with Tom? He still out of it?"

"Look, we have no time, Naomi, Dale; link your thruster packs to mine, we have to move down to the bottom edge and fire our thrusters or else we are going to hit the platform. Time to impact sixty seconds."

Naomi and Dale both gave a simultaneous 'Roger'. Nigel, Naomi, and Dale started moving down the module towing a tethered Tom behind them.

"Saber Actual, EVA One. EVA Two has completed their intercept. We are getting into position to try and alter trajectory. We have fifty seconds until impact. What is your time to our intercept?"

"EVA One, we have just lifted off from ARCOM Field. Will intercept you in four minutes. Hang in there."

"Roger, hanging. EVA One out." Nigel and the rest made it to the bottom of the cargo module and positioned themselves so when their EVA pack's thrusters fired the module would move laterally, and they only needed twenty feet.

"Naomi, Dale; link your packs to mine." EVA Two used their neural interfaces and linked to Nigel. Nigel in turn used a command over ride to take control of Tom's pack as he was still unconscious.

"Right, linking complete, standby…," Nigel's HUD suddenly flashed a repeating alarm with an audible warning; 'ALERT ALERT COLLISION IMMENIENT'. Nigel brought up his pack's NAV suite that showed a three dimensional picture of EVAs One and Two on top of the cargo module barreling towards the quite large and immobile refit and repair facility platform. Nigel programmed in the desired course and the NAV suite did the calculations…which came up short. "FIRING!" The four thruster packs fired simultaneously, pressing the four CAV troopers hard against the cargo module.

'ALERT ALERT COLLISION IMMENIENT. THRUST INSUFFICIENT FOR PROGRAMMED OBJECT AVOIDANCE TRAJECTORY. TIME TO IMPACT, THIRTY SECONDS'

"Damn I wish that thing would just shut up!," Naomi, like the other three were starting to get more than a little worried about going splat against a square kilometer of titanium-A battleplate.

'ALERT ALERT EVA PACK THRUSTER CAPACITY DEPLETED'

Of course, the visual warning text scrolling across their HUDs wasn't all that annoying, but what is really distracting is that the text is outlined in red, with the red outline and text alternately flashing, in addition, the edges of their visors also flashed a red outline all the way around their respective fields of view, AND there was that damn annoying voice inside your head.

"Jack, how long?" With all but one option exhausted, Nigel wasn't standing on ceremony or protocol anymore.

"Two minutes."

"Venting EVA pack and suit oxygen reserves, that should be enough. Get here quick."

"We are already at max thrust. We'll be there. After you vent, push off."

"Naomi, Dale. Route your suit O2 reserves into the EVA pack and take a deep breath." Nigel brought up the command pathways in for the EVA packs in his HUD, opened the submenu for the EVA pack's life support controls and chose the command to vent the pack's oxygen through the thruster nozzles.

'ALERT ALERT…' Nigel shut off the audible and visual alarms. A confirmation prompt appeared in his HUD. Nigel thought-confirmed the command and less than one second later the EVA packs vented. Immediately the team's respective HUDs popped up the 3-D map, they could see it auto-updating to account for the last bit of thrust provided by the O2 venting. Suddenly, superimposed over the 3-D image the NAV suite displayed a message outlined in green : 'TRAJECTORY OPTIMAL OBJECT COLLISION AVOIDANCE CONFIRMED' and immediately after another message appeared, this time outlined in the familiar red: 'WARNING EVA PACK OXYGEN DEPLETED, PLEASE CHANGE OXYGEN CANISTER IMMEDIATELY.'

'Damn' Nigel thought to himself as he and the rest of the EVA team saw the top of the repair and refit platform come into view and the rest of the 'object' slid by, a little too close for comfort.

"Pushing off," Nigel said over the COMM. Being in top physical condition, any one of the four of them could hold their breath for at least two minutes, but if something else went haywire, it wouldn't matter and they would all asphyxiate.

"Understood Nigel." Jack had brought up a timer in his HUD just before the EVA team vented their O2 and set it for two minutes. It had already been thirty seconds. He 'moved' the timer to the upper right side of his HUD and then brought up the EVA teams vitals which showed three of the four with elevated heart rates, increasing body temperature, slowing respiration, and decreasing blood-oxygen content. The vitals were moved to the upper left area of his HUD. In the center he brought up a 3-D map of the area that showed the two Pelicans, the Albatross, the refit platform, the cargo module, and the EVA team slowly separating from the module and drifting off into open space. 'At least we don't have to worry about any more object collisions,' Jack thought to himself.

"Saber Green, you have the cargo module. Blue, back me and White up on personnel recovery, we should be able to get all four, but if we miss someone, you pick them up." Three green acknowledgement light winked in his HUD.

"Saber Actual, Albatross. We are coming in too hot. We are going to do a 180 and let our momentum carry us to the module, going to fly it right into the cargo bay. Suggest you do the same."

Jack, already in the cockpit of the Pelican looked down at the pilot, Specialist Todd, second squads best pilot. "Todd, can you? Or do we need to come in over them and brake hard?"

Specialist Todd brought up the Pelican's main HUD on the canopy and displayed the situation in 3-D. "Standby, one point five kilometers to EVA team," Todd worked the flight controls and the Pelican flipped around, tail pointing towards the EVA team, he decreased thrust to 20%, not enough to cancel out the momentum that the Pelican was carrying but enough to begin to slow it down. "Prepare to depressurize troop bay. Time on…twenty seconds. Sealing cockpit." The Pelican's cockpit door slid shut, maintaining the atmosphere.

Superimposed over the 3-D display, Todd brought up a wire frame cross section of the Pelican with four green dots several inches behind the tail, a line appeared between the bay and the green dots, halfway in the middle of the line was a numeric readout that displayed the distance to 'target' which was rapidly decreasing. Right in front of his field of view on the main canopy, Todd brought up another wire frame of the Pelican. This one looking head on with the green dots representing the EVA team centered in the wire frame of the troop bay, distance to 'target' displayed under the cluster of dots.

Todd was constantly adjusting the Pelican's attitude with RCS thrusters to keep the EVA team centered so that they would drift right into the troop bay. "Cutting artificial gravity to 10%, opening ramp. Distance to target, 300 meters."

The Cav troopers in the bay all braced themselves for the reduction in artificial gravity, looking out the back of the troop bay, they could see the four suits of the EVA team steadily getting closer.

Somewhere in the middle of the Pelican flipping around and assessing the situation on the map displayed on the Pelican's main canopy, the EVA team's vitals flat lined, they were asphyxiating. "EVA team vitals are down! As soon as they are in the bay, re-engage gravity and re-pressurize the troop bay. Get those EVA packs off and start CPR." Four acknowledgement lights winked in Jacks HUD.

The team in the back of the Pelican carefully moved about, getting ready to grab the EVA team when they drifted into the bay. One of the team members got to the med-pack in the Pelican and pulled out the O2 tank and the defibrillator, and began powering it up.

Jack came over the platoon COMM, "EVA recovery team standby…one hundred meters…seventy five…fifty."

Todd began increasing the Pelican's thrust, slowing their approach, "Thirty percent thrust…forty…fifty percent thrust…." The four green dots representing the EVA team steadily gained on the wire frame displayed on the cockpit canopy.

"Thirty meters…ten…five…," Jack counted off.

"Thrusters to ninety percent…ninety five…ninety nine percent thrust!" Todd was still working the RCS thrusters, keeping the team perfectly centered.

The EVA team drifted perfectly into the center of the troop bay, slowly falling to the deck, an effect of the ten percent artificial gravity. "THEY'RE IN AND DOWN! SEAL THE BAY! REPRESSURIZE…NOW!," one of the troopers exclaimed over the COMM.

Specialist Todd worked the controls and hit the 'emergency close' control on one bank of the Pelican's cockpit controls. The ramp slammed shut and there was a loud hissing has the troop bay re-pressurized with oxygen, Todd also increased the artificial gravity to 100% of normal gravity. The cockpit hatch hissed open, a slight pressure differential between the cockpit and the troop bay.

Jack immediately moved into the troop bay to assess, all four were on board and on the deck. He checked his HUD, "All vitals are still flat lined, get those EVA packs and their helmets off!"

Jack really didn't have to say anything, they were all well trained and knew what they needed to do. Saber White hit all the necessary quick release buckles and stripped off their EVA packs. Next, they hit the emergency release switches, breaking the air-tight seals between their helmets and suits, pulling off their helmets and being careful to lower their heads to the deck. Subsequently they started unbuckling their body armor, tossing that aside, and unzipping their air-tight flight suits and thermal under suits, exposing their bare chests.

Three of the four members of 2nd squad began CPR while the fourth was preparing to hit Tom with the automatic external defibrillator, or AED. Jack went to the trooper's side, reached in the med-kit and grabbed the tube of AED conductive jelly, flipped open the cap and gave the paddles a glob of the stuff. The trooper rubbed the paddles together, placed one in the middle of Tom's chest and the other on his left ribcage, "CLEAR!"

"GO!" Jack made sure that he wasn't touching Tom, the suits that they all wore, as well as the body armor was non-conductive, but you can never be too sure.

The trooper pushed the 'fire' buttons on the paddles, sending millivolts of current through Tom's heart, Tom's back muscles contracting sending his chest arching upwards. Nothing.

"AGAIN!"

"CHARGING…", the AED gave off a series of beeps indicating that its internal capacitor was ready for another discharge. "CLEAR!".

Jack checked Tom's vitals in his HUD, the spikes from the shocks were there…but no heartbeat. "HIT HIM AGAIN!"

"CLEAR!" Nothing.

"DAMNIT," Jack pushed the trooper out of the way, got next to Tom, clasped his hands together in a single fist and hammered Tom in the chest, right over his heart. Jack checked HUD vitals, the line representing Tom started to oscillate the tiniest bit…Jack reared up to hammer Tom's chest again, right when he was about to come down, the vital line in Jack's HUD sprang to life.

Tom drew a gasping breath and flailed his arms about, shocked and a bit shaken. His eyes shot open.

"TOM…TOM!"

In a scratchy, groggy voice Tom muttered, "I'm fine".

Jack rechecked HUD vitals, Tom was stable. Dale and Naomi were conscious too. Nigel was still flat lined.

Jack looked over his shoulder at where Nigel lay in on the deck of the troop bay. The trooper with the AED had already moved over to him and started shocking him, it wasn't doing any good despite three shocks and two increases in the millivolts put out by the AED. Jack grabbed the med-kit, quickly located the epinephrine shot and moved over Tom, Dale, and Naomi to Nigel.

"Sergeant, we can't get his heart going. CPR and shocks aren't doing anything."

"MOVE!" Jack moved up next to Nigel, pulled the sheath off the epi-shot, located the appropriate space between Nigel's ribs, placed his middle finger on the rib above, and index finger on the rib below…stabbed and depressed syringe's plunger, immediately withdrawing the needle.

Nigel bolted upright, gasped for breath, and flailed his arms about; smacking Jack in the helmet. "Nigel, you alright?"

"Yeah." Nigel looked over at Tom, Dale, and Naomi; all sitting upright against the side of the Pelican, taking slow deep breaths from O2 tanks. "Yeah Jack, I'm alright. My chest hurts like hell though, what did you do?"

Jack held up the syringe with a four inch needle protruding out.

"Damn Jack. Didn't your mom ever tell you that drugs aren't the answer?", Nigel quipped and gave Jack and the other troopers a half grin. Tom, Dale, and Naomi just started at him.

"Yeah, you're fine." Jack stood up, "Monitor them," Jack moved towards the cockpit. "Todd, sitrep."

"Sergeant, we are moving over to the Saber Green's position. They have already recovered the cargo module and the other equipment crates are almost on board."

"Understood, Todd," Jack killed all the unused displays in his HUD and brought up the COMM display, "All stations this channel. EVA teams One and Two are on board and revived, they are stable. Cargo recovery complete."

"Saber, Mark Twain, excellent job."

"Saber, this is Reach Orbital SAR, we've been monitoring, you guys are nuts…good job."

"Alright, cut the chatter, clear the channel. This is ARCOM OPS, great job today Saber platoon. Standby for ARCOM ATC."

"Saber flight, this is ARCOM ATC, standby for return vectors. Medical support will be standing by where you land."

"Good copy ARCOM ATC, standing by." A few seconds passed and the return vectors appeared on the main HUD in the Pelican's cockpit. "Vectors received. Saber flight, form up on the Albatross, wedge formation. Let's go home."


Constructive Criticism would be much appreciated as would be reviews.

Stay tuned for Chapter 7. Reach Part III

Hi folks, on 31 March 2012 I started a website for this facfic, the entire story will also be available there. The purpose being is to provide a format of this story with richer content. There is no flash or shockwave, just a better experience and some graphics. Check my profile for the link to my homepage.

h t t p : / / s i t e s (dot) g o o g l e (dot) c o m / s i t e / s a b e r s i x a c t u a l / h o m e (of course you will have to take out all the extra spaces)