Chapter One: Aurora Drop
5th of April 2115
Gagarin Cluster
XSS Vigilance
A dim light coming from the corridor slowly lit up the cabin with four bunks in it, one of them occupied by a black woman in her late twenties with black hair, all wrapped in sheets. When light came up to her face she let out a grunt.
"Hey wake up." A woman standing in the door was dressed in a standard issue BDU pants and a shirt. "Come on Gloria, get your lazy ass out of bed."
"M… Monica?" A woman in the bed slowly pushed herself up from bed trying to face her friend standing in the doorway. "You know what hour it is right?"
"Not really, but I guess you're going to tell me." Monica replied with a jovial voice.
Gloria picked up her PDA from a nightstand next to her bed and brought it to life with a few taps.
"Four in the morning… what is wrong with you woman?" Gloria asked as she tried to suppress a yawn. "You better have a damn good reason for wakening me up this early."
"No, not really, but LT has one." White woman said with innocent voice. "We're almost there so he called a squad leaders meeting."
As if universe wanted to confirm Monica's words a slight thump run through the ship, a clear sign that it started deceleration from the FTL speed.
"You're enjoying it don't you." Gloria said, more stating than asking. "Fine just give me a minute, I'm not going to go on briefing only in my undies."
"Aw… guys are going to be so disappointed, how can you taunt them like that?" A smile was present on Monica's face as every time she made a joke.
"In your dreams girl, in your dreams." Gloria said as she began to dress herself, putting her BDU pants and shirt on, collecting her hair into a ponytail and putting her blue beret with XCOM sign on the front. She slotted her PDA into a special bracelet on her wrist, well out of fashion in the civilian sector. Thing is, guys in R&D have put some serious work into this system and what was considered obsolete by most civilians have become one of the most advanced piece of tech in the military – holographic display, comm system, portable scanner – stuff that was considered science fiction in the 21st century. Finally she was ready to leave and took a step into the corridor where Monica was waiting for her.
Gloria could finally see her friend in the light of the corridor lamps. Short blonde hair, late twenties, white skin, two friends served together since day one. Together they joined the military, together they got recommendation for service in XCOM.
"So… any news from Earth?" Monica asked as the two walked towards the elevator that would take them to the upper deck and the briefing room.
"Not really." Gloria replied. "Another world about to be colonized, some political bullshit. You know, the usual stuff."
"Seriously nothing?" Monica's voice was filled with disappointment. "It's so boring, I want to get some action. Things were way more interesting in our old unit don't you think?"
"Interesting? You really consider getting shot an interesting thing?" Gloria asked as she was checking her mail. "I can't believe that people whine about time zones on Earth."
"What?"
"I mean yeah it can be confusing back there, but here in space and colonies it's out right pain in the ass."
"You really don't have bigger problems?" Monica asked surprised as they stepped into the elevator.
"And I hear that from a woman who just whined about lack of bullets flying around."
Finally the women reached their destination. The briefing room was filled with seats around a single table with a holographic display in the middle. This time only four people were present, counting the new arrivals. A older man with a brown hair turned to face the two women.
"Ah, sergeants Van Doorn and Henderson. What took you so long?" He asked.
"I'm sorry sir." Monica replied. "I had to drag her lazy ass out of bed myself."
Lieutenant moved his eyes to Gloria, asking the same question.
"Yes sir, it's true." She replied with a tone of embarrassment in her voice. Gloria shouldn't oversleep the briefing and if not for Monica, she would be still in bed.
"Well, with that out of the way we can finally start the actual briefing." He tapped the table a few times and the display came to life showing a planet. "This is Aurora, a jungle world with an unknown wildlife, breathable atmosphere. Coalition flagged it as potential colony. Our job is simple – go down there, secure a place for a campsite and then protect the survey team. Give them time to run test, see if it's really worth colonizing, I'm sure you all know the drill by now. Questions?"
"You said unknown wildlife. Any specifics?" Asked so far silent Stg. Yasunow.
"Thermal scans indicates a lot of activity down there, but the jungle is just too thick to get any precise readings. There may be slight problems with ground-to-space comms."
"Noted sir." Russian squad leader was talkative as always.
"Where is our LZ?" Gloria asked looking at the magnified satellite image. "I can't see any place with enough free space for Skyranger to land."
"That's true sergeant, you will be dropped here." LT pointed at the place when jungle seemed to be the thinnest. "When you'll be on the ground you will have to use explosives to make an LZ and a place for a camp."
"Are we going to play lumberjacks sir?" Monica asked with a smile on her face.
"Well, when you put it that way, yes. So to sum it up, you go in, make an LZ, establish and sweep the perimeter and then give us all clear to send survey teams along with materials and workers to build a small outpost. After that we'll see." The plan that LT presented was solid enough, all within standard procedures, well maybe except cutting trees for LZ, but things like that occur from time to time. "You have a couple of hours before we'll be in position on the orbit. That will be all, dismissed."
Yasunow was first to leave the room, going off to God knows where, to do God knows what. Nobody could get a hang on a Russian sergeant and figure him out, but in combat situations everybody wanted him close by, as he always got the job done… at least on combat simulators. Only problem is that combat sims can't really prepare for a really fight, but he was the first to admit it.
"I better go brief my team." Monica said as she walked toward the elevator. "And you better do the same because I am not going to be babysitting you again if you fall asleep."
"Very funny girl." Gloria replied and raised her comm. "Martinez, assemble the team in the briefing room D12. We have a job to do."
"Si Sargento." A Spanish voice from the comm answered.
Briefing Room D12 was arranged much like the main one, the only difference was smaller amount of chairs. When Gloria pushed the door her squad was already in the room waiting.
"Morning guys." She said as she eyed everyone.
"Morning Sargento." Corporal Martinez answered. He was team's scout and part of assault program. He was also only member of her team that have been genetically modified, after gene therapy he was able to "sense" livening creatures in his vicinity, something that they called "bio-electric skin". His face was one of a seasoned soldier and on his right arm there was a tattoo of Jesus holding assault rifle in one hand, giving sign of peace with the other. "Everybody is present and accounted for ma'am."
"Good, in that case let's get straight to the point shall we?" Gloria said and summarized everything LT have told her. "Questions?"
"Are we going in blind?" asked private Alex Daniels, team's gunner. "Because for me it looks like we're going in blind."
"Don't we always? I'm more concerned about potential problems with communication systems." A woman in the corner shared her thoughts with the rest of the squad, Private Elizabeth O'Brien, team's medic.
"As far as I know only normal communication systems can be disrupted, PSI grid should work just fine." Gloria replied. "But let's hope it won't be that bad. As for your question D… all we know is that the thermal scans are picking up a lot of activity, but nothing major."
"This is bullshit! I signed up to fight, not to babysit some eggheads!"
"Stand down rookie." Martinez said to the squad's newest addition – PFC McCain. "I don't think you understand how it works here…"
"Spear me the lecture grandpa."
"Silence!" Gloria knew she has to stop the fight before it escalates. "I'll take it from here Loco." She said to her corporal.
"Si Sargento."
"And you rookie know that I will not tolerate that sort of behavior in my team, you don't like it, go ask LT for a reassignment, but as long as you're in my team you play by my rules, are we clear?"
"Yes ma'am." McCain muttered an apology and remained silent for the rest of the briefing.
The rest of the briefing went without any more incidents and the team headed down to the armory to get their gear and prepare for drop. Gloria took her standard gear consisting of pulse rifle, faithful laser pistol and Carapace armor in jungle camouflage. Back in the day XCOM soldiers had a large degree of freedom when it comes to slapping their armor with paintjobs but these privileges were severely reduced after an event called "Rookie Rangers Incident" during the Great Conflict. It's not like she would like to step on the battlefield wearing bright pink, but now if soldier wanted to mess around with a paintjob, they had to make a formal request. Gloria took some extra webbing to squeeze more power cells to her pockets – a decision that saved her life more than once during her military career. She looked in the mirror eyeing the armor for potential gaps. A new line of Carapace armor wasn't identical to the ones built during the Great Conflict – a supply of alien alloys went dry a few decades ago, and they have been replaced by "XCOM's alloy mix" as engineers called it half-joke, half-serious. It was only slightly weaker and heavier than the ones made out of actual alien alloys, but Gloria knew it was enough to take a hit or two, worst comes to worst.
In the hangar bay three of the Skyranger class transports waited for teams to pile in. Gloria took a look at her team – Martinez with his sleeveless shirt exposing his tattoo was carrying pulse shotgun, a simple green ball cap on his head, D with his heavy pulsar, Liz and McCain both sporting pulse rifles. Other teams have also assembled and as they were entering, Monica send her the look, as she always did before the mission. This look carried a simple message – See you on the ground sis. Ramp of their Skyranger closed behind her. The transport took off and took its place in formation. As it flew into the Aurora's atmosphere Gloria's comm came to life.
"Coyote teams, this is Overlord. Comm check. Over."
"This is Coyote 1-1, I read you loud and clear Overlord. Over." Gloria confirmed.
"This is Coyote 2-1, loud and clear. Over." Monica reported.
"This is Coyote 3-1, reporting in. Over." A response came from Stg. Yasunow.
Skyranger started hovering above the trees. It's ramp lowered and a ropes came down.