Later, Mars paced the length of the cargo bay, shouting out orders as he went. "Git yer shit stowed, ladies. They ain't paying us no hourly wage. Move yer asses."

Baby faced Kevin looked up from his work to respond. "Moving, sir."

Incredulous, Mars took several steps towards the young marine before he was able to speak. "I didn't ask for a response son, I asked for movement, now MOVE!"

Chance just chuckled while gathering his stuff before turning to his sergeant. "Sir, how do they pay us again?"

From his spot near the dropship, Dean replied. "Apparently with watery pork."

Frowning at both of them, Mars chewed on his cigar roughly for a moment before spitting out, "I ain't here ta work out yer payment plan." He then turned on his heel and went to inspect the cargo.

Chance glanced to Dean "He's here in the event that the rest of us die and they do something like that Rambo movie from back in the

1900's right?"

Dean just shrugged. "I prefer older classics, like the ancient westerns

Looking at one of the guns in front of him, Chance replied. "I think that they would trade for one of these in a shoot out."

Wincing, Dean shook his head. "Nah, man... you don't have any idea about the classics. That thing there'd just plain ruin the whole thing."

Chance nodded and then inclined his head towards the ship. "Of course it would, but I've never been one for rules. Now go get a seat Private." Dean saluted crisply and went. Chance followed suit, and the others were just behind him.

It was then that the dropship pilot entered. Her name was Nalam, and she was a young woman not long out of pilot's school. Her raven-dark hair fell in slight curls across one side of her face, which she brushed back before speaking. "Ship's hot and ready to go."

Once everyone was situated, Lieutenant Gaimen spoke up. "Thank you, people... as I said before, we're headed for a hot combat zone. Be ready, but remember, we're staying away from the target. Keep an eye out and your guard up, but don't go shooting a survivor."

Mars turned to the youngest marine. "Private Janith, stow these grenades." He shoved a box at Kevin.

The young man blanched for a moment before taking the box. "Ahhh.. yes sir..."

Chance had pulled out a piece of gum from his pants pocket and

began chewing on it while idly listening to everyone. He now chuckled while thinking of how bad of an idea that was.

Nalim called back from the cockpit. "Hope you're all set back there... we are out of here in five... four... three... two... one... Loose!"

The ship dropped out of the carrier and headed down to the planet, shaking the whole way. They were halfway down when Kevin looked to Chance. "Ummm... sir?"

Chance looked at him "Private?" He then realized that the young man was looking past him at the box of grenades. Turning to look, Chance saw the buckle had shaken loose and the box is halfway out of its placement He immediately reached out for it "Shit..."

Kevin unbuckled himself and stood. "I got it."

Seeing this Dean, shook his head. "Jan, no..."

Sighing, Chance barked, "Private! What are you doing?"

Despite their warnings, Kevin stood, holding onto the railing to remain steady. "I got it..."

Mars found his voice and yelled. "SIT YOUR ASS DOWN!"

Before Kevin could respond, Nalim's voice came from up front. "Turbulence com--" It was at that moment that the ship hit incredible turbulence and Kevin went falling head over heels. He tumbled, reaching out and snagging hold of the buckle holding the grenade box in… ripping it off the rest of the way and sending the box flying into him as grenades bouncing out.

Chance stared blankly while having an out of body experience as he watched them bounce. "Oh...shit…"

Kevin fell, with the box on top of him as Gaimen lunged for several of the loose grenades. Dean trapped one with his foot and reached out to catch another one.

Chance finally came back to his mind and lunged against his locked in buckles to grab any of them bouncing his direction. He was too slow however, to catch one grenade that bounced past him and into the pilots compartment.

River unbuckled herself, and moving in a blur, threw herself past the

doorway, grabbed hold of Nalim and hurled both herself and the pilot into the passenger compartment, stood and finally hit the button to close the door.

A second later, the grenade exploded and the ship began nose-diving while Gaimen called out. "CRASH POSITIONS!"

Dean nodded. "Put your head between your legs and kiss your balls goodbye."

Despite the situation, Tack looked at him. "What about me?"

He shrugged. "You're fucked.

The ship, by then missing most of the pilot's compartment, nosedived into the ground. Everyone on board was jostled and thrown around as dirt and debris sprang up all over them. Before the last bit of dust had settled, each of those aboard had surrendered to unconsciousness, except for River. She paced the crash site for hours after pulling everyone out and inspecting them for damage. While the synthetic human watched the sun set, she waited for the humans to wake.

Hours later, Chance came to as Mars picked up Kevin and shook him. "WAKE UP, you little fuck." For his part, Kevin just moaned.

Chance stood and went over to them "Sgt. Sir! He was just trying to do what he thought was right!" He pulled Kevin behind him and coughed, while maintaining eye contact with his superior officer.

Mars glared at Chance and raised a finger. "Piece of Shit! I oughtta..."

Before he could finish the threat, River spoke up. "Sir, it was not his fault." She held up a strap. "The buckle for the box was sabotaged, sir. It looks cut."

Nearby, Dean looked up from the ground. "Sir, if Jan hadn't caught the box, the whole lot of those things would've bounced around and we'd all be dead."

Mars continued to glare for a minute before spitting on the ground. "Fine, everyone load up. Let's see where we stand."

For the next twenty minutes, everyone gathered the remaining equipment and sorted it. There were about thirty grenades, all of the pulse rifles, with 200 ammo for each. They also had one remote sentry, two flamers, about a dozen mines, and one smart-rifle.

Once this was sorted, River looked to Gaimen. "That's all, sir."

The lieutenant sighed heavily. "That's just perfect... what's our location?"

River looked to the sky, judged the position of the stars and then replied. "Just about one mile shy of the target zone."

Gaimen grimaced. "Shit... the nest might spread out that far..."

Nalim glanced up from her scanner. "Sir, I'm picking up a really strange signal... it looks like a ship taking off..."

Looking confused, Mars shook his head. "They wouldn't... the aliens can't..."

Gaimen interrupted him with a single word. "Survivors."

After a moment of pondering this, Mars spoke slowly. "If it's the marines... you know what they'll do to the target zone..."

Blinking, Gaimen looked at him for a second before comprehension dawned. "MOVE! GO GO GO!" He waved his hand away from the target site and began running, with the others close behind.