Disclamer: I don't own Kim Possible and any related characters to either her or Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles
Day 153 of the battle for Earth...
To say that the war was going well wouldn't be a total lie, but neither would it be untrue. SICON forces had managed to hold on to the American Southwest, including Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and California. Most of the worldwild civilian population had been moved to Australia and as a result of this, most of the country that had once been barren and unihabited, now held tent cities and emergency shelters. SICON command had set up deep ground sonar sensors all around the continent as well as AA batteries all around the coast. So far it was working, the bugs hadn't made any attempts to attack the population. The bugs seemed to be more concerned with taking Northern Russia and Europe. SICON had hoped to set up a base in England, but the bugs moved too fast and they had to set up in Ireland. Since then, the bugs had made a few attempts to gain the island, but every attempt had been thwarted. When they landed, the bugs had quickly taken the Himalayas as well as South and SouthEast Asia Nepal, China, Japan and India as well as several other countries in the area. SICON has declared Asia a lost cause and pulled all its troopers out and back to Alaska, Hawaii, Australia and the Middle East. The bugs have overrun the Eastern Seaboard of North America. South America isn't doing much better, either. The majority has been overrun, but troopers are pushing farther in everyday.
Kim and her squad are just getting back from retriving a data module from an unmanned outpost just outside of what used to be Chicago. First thing, the squad heads for the locker room
"This sucks" Kim complains
"Come on, L.t. It wasn't that bad. You took out more bugs than anyone" Ron says with a smile
"I know. It's not that" unknown to Kim, Anne has walked in "It's just all we seem to be doing is defending a base for civilians to evac and then retreating. Or dropping in to retrieve some data-whatever-thingy. I am getting sick and tired of this"
"So what do you want?" Anne asks. Kim whirls around, suprised. She salutes. After the general returns the salute, Kim speaks
"General, I..."
"It's ok, Lieutenant. I agree with you. And so does high command"
"Meaning?"
"Meaning we have another mission for you. High Command has decided that we've been on the defensive long enough. Report to the stratagy room in ten" Anne walks out.
"This is your objective" Anne presses a few keys on the projection control panel and a map of a mountainous area with a small town appears
"This is, or was, Kaslo, British Columbia in the Canadian Rockies. SICON command has decided that it is a strategic location to launch an attack on the bug mounds in North of the town. Unfortunatly..."
"We have to take the town first?" Kim asks with her usual smirk
"Correct. The town is swarming with bugs, due to the high concentration of bug mounds in the area"
"This sounds like the textbook definition of a sucide mission!" Pvt. Volcors says with a hint of worry in her voice
"Yes, it does" Kim smiles
"I won't deny that is a risky mission. But if we can take and hold the town, we can launch a massive assault on the bug mounds in the area and cut the bug army headed for the coast off from reinforcements and save a lot of lives" Kim gives her mother a look
"What's the catch?"
"Beta will be joining you for this mission" Kim sighs
"Couldn't you get..."
"No, I couldn't. I know you don't like Lieutenant Haragah, but you will be working with her on this. Do you get me solider?"
"Sir, yes sir" Kim replies
"Good" Anne starts to walk away but turns back "Oh and one more thing, you have joint command of the mission" Kim grins as Anne walks out.
"Ok, here we go. This will be a high danger low level drop because of all the plasma bugs in the area" Kim briefs the squads. High danger low level drops (H.D.L.L.D.s) are very rare. Mainly because when a squad can't drop suit in, or be insterted by transport choppers or shuttles, Skimmers, or other ground transportation are available. That was not the case this time. The region they were being dropped into was bug infested unlike any area SICON command had seen before. So an HDLLD was unavoidable. It was either that, or the two squads would have to walk over the entirety of the rocky mountain range. That would have taken days and would be extremely risky for the troopers, so the HDLLD was approved. They would have used a regular transport chopper, but the amount of Hoppers and Kamakazies are preventing it.
In a normal drop, the drop ship releases the troopers from lower part of the Mesoshpere, the drop suits protect the troopers inside from the extreme heat of atmospheric entry. This time, the suits will be released from inside the lower Troposhpere directly into the lake that the town sits on the shore of. The plan is for the dropships to make a low fly and eject the troopers, who will fall into the lake, jettisoning the troopers before hitting the bottom and walking to the shore and clear out the buildings as they advance through the town. That is the plan.
"Delta Squad, this is Beta lead. We are three-zero seconds behind you"
"Copy Beta lead" Kim replies
"Delta squad, we are nearing drop coordinates" the pilot speaks over the comm
"TROOPERS, SUIT UP!" Kim barks, pointing towards the drop suits. She figures it habit that every drop, she points towards the suits, since they've been dropped seems like hundreds of times.
While both squads make ready to drop, underneath the water, a lone Plasma bug moves into position...
"Alright, we go in and secure the area. As much as I hate this, SICON command, in all it's wisdom has decided to place Lieutenant Possible in command of this mission..." Lt. Haragah briefs her squad "This mission will be extremely dangerous. Not only because of the HDLLD, but because of the sheer amount of bugs in the area. Once we're in, they'll be no getting out until we are done. Clear?"
"Yeah. With all due respect, how are we gonna finish this? Do we even have a goal?" one of her troopers asks
"Yes, we do" she presses a few buttons on the projection control panel "Lieutenant Possible's squad has already been briefed on this. After the drop, we will make our way to an edge of the town and plant plasma wall charges in a line"
"Like a fence?" her top-kick, Sgt. Powell asks
"Yes. Delta Squad will attempt to knock out Plasmas in the area as well as trying to distract the bugs from what we are doing. Once all the emitters are in place, we will fall back to the center of town where SICON command dropped a care package a couple days ago. We hook it up and bingo. One town secure. If Delta succeeds and manages to destroy all the Plasma bugs before we finish, SICON command will be able to start sending in more troopers and equipment"
"And if not?"
"Then we're gonna be pulling an extra shift tonight" she grins, several of her troopers chuckle.
"Beta squad, prepare to drop" the pilot says over the comm. Sarah looks around at her troopers
"Alright, prepare to..." She never finishes.
A plasma shot clips port engines one & two, sending the craft into a uncontrolled barrel roll. Lt. Haragah manages to hit her radio
"THIS IS BETA SQUAD. WE ARE GOING DOWN. REPEAT WE ARE..." she doesn't have time to finish.
The ship crashes into the lake, sending the troopers flying into the forward bulkhead, knocking several of them unconcious. Kim and Lt. Haragah have a, complicated relationship. They hate each other, but respect each other enough to be able to work together when necessary. Sarah hopes that Kim heard her call. She didn't.
Kim walks up onto the beach, her dark green powersuit dripping wet. She looks around, no sign of Beta Squad.
"They should have been here before us" Kim says as she looks around. No bugs have been sighted so far, but they've only just walked on the beach "Take up guard positions. Move out" Kim waves her hand out to disperse her troopers. "Where are you?" she mutters to herself. Because this was a water drop, they are wearing fully sealed powersuits, rather than the open ones that are normally used on a planet with a breatheable atmosphere.
Deep under the water, Lt. Sarah Haragah regains conciousness. She looks around but it is hard to see in the suprisingly murky lake. She hits the switch on her head lamp and it turns on, illuminating the immediate area. It isn't long before she spots a couple troopers floating in the water...
Delta squad, aka Possible's Protectors, have been holding the beachfront for about twenty minutes. Either the bugs don't know they are there or they do know and just aren't doing anything, though the latter is incredibly unlikely. Bonnie is kneeling down over against some rocks, she gets up and crouches down to walk over to behind some logs.
"We can't wait any longer" Kim says "Prepare to move out" she looks around at her squad. Ron walks up to her
"L.t..." he starts, Kim looks at him
"I know, I know. But we must try to complete the mission" she looks around at the faces of her troopers. She's about to order them to move out, when the water behind her starts to bubble
"LT!" Bonnie moves and aims her weapon at the spot, part of her is hoping it's a bug. Part of her.
"Don't shoot" Lt. Haragah says as she walks out of the water, dragging a couple troopers behind her. A couple more walk out behind her. In all, six troopers of Beta squad are taken out of the water, one way or another.
"Where's the rest of your squad?" Kim asks Lt. Haragah
"On the dropship, I'm gonna go back for them in a sec" she says as Pvt. Hellena, Delta squad's medic, checks over her
"How is she?" Kim asks
"Superficial mostly. A couple of deep cuts, but nothing serious"
"Good. I'm gonna head back and..."
BOOM!!
All the troopers whirled around and looked over the lake where a large column of water spurted up and out. The blast came from the general direction of where Lt. Haragah ahd come out and at about the same time, the two blips on her scanner went dark. Everyone knew what it was - the dropship had blown up, with the pilot and two troopers of Beta Squad still inside. Lt. Haragah felt bad, no, terrible. The pilot had died on impact, so that wasn't it. The two troopers inside were the latest addition to her squad, they were no less then two weeks out of basic. It took her a few moments of Kim telling her that they have to move for her to finally get her strength back and stand up.
"Let's move" she said, with a hint of rage in her voice. Kim nods
"LET'S MOVE OUT!" she orders.
The first task was to clear out all the buildings en route to their objectives. Delta squad would head directly East, towards the hill, drawing as many bugs as possible. Beta squad would head South to the river and begin planting the fence emitters along the bank and in a set pattern around the town. SICON command dropped in a care package the day before that contains all the emitters and the main generator for the energy wall. The emitters are about the size of a human hand, very small. The generator is a bit bigger, about the size of a window-mounted air conditioner. Beta squad first carries the generator to where they will be setting up the HQ in the town. A large brick building that was the goverment center before the town was abandonded.
The first half hour goes as planned. Both squads head towards their objectives, clearing houses as they go.
"CLEAR!"
"CLEAR!"
"All right, move on" Kim orders, pointing towards the next home. Most of the buildings in the town are in ruin and close to collapsing.
Delta squad quickly clears all of their assigned targets, but several times, just after a building had been declared clean, it was filled with bugs again.
Not too much later, Kim's squad have found themselves looking down into a valley where several plasma bugs are moving around.
"L.t. we've reached our target, we can start being the distraction" Bonnie informs Kim
"Uunderstood" Kim taps her radio "Delta squad to Beta Squad"
"This is Beta. Copy Delta"
"We are in position. We are ready to be the distraction"
"Copy. We're ready too. We're almost done planting the first sequence of emitters. No enemies spotted yet.
"Copy, Delta lead out" Kim turns back to her squad "Alright, let's make some noise" she grins . Bonnie nods and loads a charge into her rifle's grenade launcher. She fires the charge right at a plasma. It explodes in a ball of bright blue flame.
"INCOMING!" Ron yells and fires his weapon into a mass of approaching warriors
"FIRE AT WILL!" Kim yells and fires her own weapon. She fires a shot at a lone warrior that survived the explosion. The round hits the nerve cluster, it dies. Several more shots into a few others, they all die. What Kim doesn't see is the lone warrior coming up on her left side. It lunges and scraps along her left arm, tearing through the suit and shredding her arm
"AAAAHHH!" she screams and Ron quickly kills it and goes over to her
"You okay?"
"Yeah. I'll be fine" she proves her point by killing a couple more bugs that are approaching her and Ron's position. He grins, but looks down at his work, trying to stop the bleeding from her upper left arm, which has been cut open down the side. "Does hurt though" she says.
Bonnie is over with the other troopers, she gets up and is heading over to where Kim and Ron are when she spots the largest army of warriors she has even seen.
"L.t. we need to retreat. Bug resistance is taking a toll"
"Alright. Moblize for retreat" Kim orders as Ron helps her up. Bonnie nods and runs to the other troopers of Delta Squad.
Pvt.s Hellena, Timbers, Mallak and Volcors with Cpl. Rockwaller cover the retreat of Kim and Ron, then fall back themselves.
"Lieutenant Haragah, STATUS!" Kim calls over the radio
"Second sequence in place. But we're running into light bug resistance"
"Fall back to the HQ point, we have a massive column of warriors headed our way" it takes a minute, but finally Kim hears a response
"Copy that. Falling back"
"So what do we do now?" Sarah asks. Her squad got to the point first. Kim's breathing has gotten heavy
"Board up the building...But leave firing holes for the troopers" she orders as Ron helps her inside. After the windows are boarded up and the front entrance sealed, all the troopers head up stairs to the upper floor, collapsing the stairs behind them.
When they reach the top floor, Ron lays Kim back against a desk. She's lost a lot of blood and is starting to lose conciousness. Luckily Ron sealed the wound before she lost too much.
"How is she?" Sarah asks Ron
"She's fine. I'm no medic, but Max checked her out and shs's just out cold"
"Alright. Under battlefield regulations, I being the second in command on this mission, assume command under the fact that the mission leader is incapacitated" Sarah says. Ron reluctantly nods in agreement. "Then take up defensive positions. All windows"
"I'm gonna go keep an eye on Kim" Ron says and walks off.
They are right, Kim is alive. She did lose a lot of blood (her left arm was really cut wide open) and she is just out cold. Ron walks in the small room where Kim is
"Well?"
"She's fine" Max answers. Parts of Kim's armor are on the floor, as if they were torn off
"What happened here?"
"You did an ok job sealing the wound, but I had to remove her arm armour so I could fully seal it until we get back to base and I can put a cast on it"
"But she'll live, right?"
"I give her a few hours, then she should be fine to walk around. So yeah, I'm pretty sure she'll live. Unless we all get eaten by bugs. Then I dunno" he grins at the small joke. Ron stifles a chuckle
"Good man" he pats Max on the shoulder pad and walks out into the main room
"Well, the good news is that Kim's gonna be okay. According to Max, she should be up in a few hours"
"Good" Ron nods and walks out while Sarah sets up the comm to HQ "Beta squad to HQ. Beta squad to HQ"
"This is general Possible. Read you Beta"
"Ma'am, I have to report three casualties and one injury. Bugs control the area. We managed to set up almost half of the fence" the sound of gunfire drifts in from another room "And they are right on top of us"
"Copy that. Who was killed?"
"Major Bennard and Privates Lakhole and Karcy are dead. They died when our dropship was shot down by plasma. Lieutenant Possible has been injured. A warrior cut her arm open"
"And?"
"She'll be fine"
"Good. How goes the mission?"
"Not so good. We've been cut off from the emitters. We haven't even gotten them all in place"
"Alright. Well R&D has just finished developing something that might help"
"What?"
"I can't say over the comm. But a care package is being put together with the weapon. As soon as it is ready, I'll have it dropped on your location"
"Be much appreciated. Any idea when It'll get here?"
"No idea. Sorry"
"Alright, I just hope it gets here soon"
"I will do what I can, but no promises"
"Understood, General"
"Good. Possible out"
"Alright people, listen up. Orders from command are as follow; we are to hold this poistion until the care package they are sending arrives. And I don't know when that will be, so don't ask. We hold here and then the weapon command is sending should help us complete the original mission. Clear?"
"SIR, YES SIR!"
"Good. I want every trooper at a window and every side covered by at least one trooper. GO!" she orders and the soliders disperse, each moving to a window.
"I got bugs over here" Bonnie says after a few minutes, the troopers rush over to her side, the Eastern side, the front of the building
"How many?" Sarah asks
"More than I can count" Bonnie replies