Authors Note: this story has no time frame with the movies this follows the 5th Division.
Chapter Two
The Valor exits from hyperspace over the same planet General Sheppard and his men were all killed. The 5th Division are in the hanger. General Horton enters follow by 18 troopers. "Troopers of the Valor, SICON has sent us here to eradicate the bugs and Intel believes there is a Brain Bug on the planet. We're to neutralize the Brain Bug if we can't bring it back alive. I don't like this order as much as the next man, but they're orders." He tells them. "Gear up we drop in 10." The 5th isn't at full strength since Tophet only 200 replacements have arrived. Twelve men who were wounded during the Tophet campaign have return. Colonel Taylor's Regiment is assign one portion of the planet. Colonel Elizabeth Weir Regiment is assigned another portion of the planet, and General Horton's 2 regiments are assigned to the area around Hotel Delta. General Horton wishes them all good luck and good hunting. Intel doesn't have a clue how many Bugs are on the surface. Dropships descend towards the surface of the planet. Plasma Bugs open fire. TAC Fighters are dispatch to take out the Plasma Bugs. Colonel Weirs' Regiment encounters no resistance from Plasma Bugs. Several dropships are destroyed by the Plasma Bugs. General Horton's command boat is first to land and the troopers' onboard exit including two Marauder Mechs. A dozen Warrior Bugs charge towards the command boat, but the Marauder Mechs take care of them. Three other boats/dropships land at the general's location. One crashes a klick away from the command dropship, but the crew and passengers are still alive. Two more dropships land and General Horton gives the order to move but before they can Plasma Bugs destroy two of the dropships before they take off. Heath gives the order to neutralize the Plasma Bugs. They neutralize the Plasma Bugs. They move towards Hotel Delta. They encounter no more bugs. Heath sends two platoons into the fortress to secure it; they see bodies of dead MI units apparently the Federation sent troopers back to the planet after the incident. The 5th engineers will get to work once the fortress is secured. Three men come back and tell the general the fortress is secured. Heath position three Marauder Mechs to guard the entrance with two platoons. The engineers get to work restoring power and troopers scan the error for Control bugs and Infester bugs, but fine none. General Horton posts eight men on the roof of the fortress. He contacts his other units and they have made camp for the night. Tomorrow they begin preparing Hotel Delta for a larger contingent of troops, but for the night most will have to sleep in tents outside the fortress. The troopers have a perimeter around their camp with mines and motion sensor guns plus troopers and Marauder Mechs will patrol. General Horton chooses to sleep in a tent instead of in the fortress until they clean up the place despite it being cleared of any bugs. The troopers on guard duty can hear explosions in the distance and the sound of gunfire but they didn't think much about it since they are on a bug planet.
During the hours of darkness 10,000 Warrior Bugs including 12 Plasma Grenadier Bugs and a Scorpion bug. They attack Colonel Weir's perimeter and caught the troopers on duty off guard they didn't even have any automated sentry guns to protect them. Many of the troopers are killed before they even had a chance to defend them. Colonel E. Weir is killed earlier in the battle as she attempted to rally the troops to fight the bugs. Some of the troopers came together to fight the bugs but they are quickly dispatch however the bugs take a dozen prisoners for some unknown purpose. They are taken into the Bug tunnels. They enter a large caravan. Lieutenant Hampton sees Warrior Bugs all over the place including several Grenadier Plasma Bugs, and several Scorpion Bugs. A Brain Bug enters. Lieutenant Hampton is brought before the Brain Bug apparently INTEL was right for a change. The Brain Bug sucks the brains from the lieutenant. The rest of the troopers are infected with the Infester Bugs.
The next day General Horton gets his men working on getting the fortress ready for a larger contingent and preparing it for a Bug attack. Troopers are digging trenches and bunkers. The engineers got the electric fence around the fortress online and can deactivate when allies approach. The Vapor explosives are reloaded. Mounted Heavy Machines Guns are place one on the roof of the fortress. It takes about three days to get it ready, he has lost contact with his other two regiments he doesn't know if its problems with their communication gear or they're dead. He sends one battalion to each of their locations to find out what happen. These two battalions are mechanized battalions riding on speeders and can cover the ground faster than those on foot. "Sir, the 2 regiments have been killed but there are drag marks indicating some troopers have been captured." Lieutenant Hunt tells the general over his private coms. Two companies are assemble to begin the bug hunt. Recon Platoon 1 located a bug hole 5 miles from Hotel Delta that is where they will start. He gives the assignment to his brother Major Glen Horton he tells him don't take risk and inform him the bugs may have infected some of the soldiers. Major Horton and his two companies move towards the Bug Hole.
Major Horton and his men entered the Bug Hole. They move further into the cavern. They reach an intersection where the cavern splits in two directions. He decides to keep them together knowing there could be bugs setting an ambush for them. A group of Warrior Bugs are heading right for them Major Horton gets his men into a firing line they make short work of the bugs. They continue on now they found out the Bug Hole isn't empty. A transmission comes in over the radio but it's garbled. Major Horton orders twenty-four men to return to get a better signal while they continue further into the Bug Hole. Private Holland is in the lead with a motion tractor which picks up contacts heading their way. Major Horton orders them to get into formation. The grenadiers load grenades and prepare to fire. Thirty six troopers appear part of Colonel Weir's men. However, since what happen to General Sheppard's brigade Major Horton isn't taking any chances even though they look human he knows contact with Colonel Weir's men were lost and General Horton sent troops to their location and discovered her regiment wiped out. They have bug tranquilizers which Intel believes will even but the infected soldiers to sleep but then again they're talking about Intel. Major Horton and the others everything looked normal. He gives the order to sedate them. Tranquilizers are fired at them. They drop after three hit them. "Sir, what are we going to do with them we can't bring them back to the outpost?" His XO says to him.
"We take three back so General Horton can decide what to do with them. The rest kill them."
"Sir Yes sir," his troopers reply. They return to Hotel Delta with the three troopers with Imposter Bugs in their brains. Heath wasn't happy about this but they have a room for them the engineers' setup just in case they manage to capture any Imposter Bugs. He orders double watches and the perimeter fence be on all the time. Six dropships arrive with some artillery and two APCs dangling underneath them. Heath hasn't informed Intel they have Imposter Bugs to study because that would condemn his men. His good friend Lieutenant General Chris Hall arrives at Hotel Delta in one of the dropships. Lieutenant General Chris Hall is in Intel. General Horton welcomes his friend to his base. General Horton knows the Imposter Bugs want stay quiet with Intel snooping around even though his friend wouldn't do that but the other Intel guys with him would so he told him about the Imposter Bugs. He knew there was no helping the troopers, who are already infected but maybe they can save others. General Hall promises Heath they'll work on a way to combat the Imposter Bugs. General Hall returns to a dropship and heads back to an orbiting frigate.
General Horton received word an hour later to begin bug cleanup and he acknowledges the order. A massive bug hunt is underway by the 5th Mobile Infantry Division. Two Bug Holes are nuked. However after two days of Nuking Bug Holes and dealing with bugs trying to stop them General Horton receives orders to clear the Bug Holes with Fireteams. Heath couldn't believe what the brass want him to do he argues with his best friend but he tells him the orders comes from the top because they want the Brain Bug alive despite capturing one on Planet P. General Horton is personally leading Alpha Company and Bravo Company into the Bug Hole that SICON Psych believe the Brain Bug is located. Major Horton and two companies are moving into another Bug Hole. General Horton and Major Horton are both attack by Warrior Bugs as soon as they entered the Bug Hole. They make short work of the bugs. Colonel Taylor's regiment continue to draw bugs from the holes and engage them aboveground. They engage many Warrior Bugs in the Bug Holes. General Horton and his two companies find the location of the Brain Bug chambers after heavy fighting against Warrior Bugs and 2 Scorpion Bugs. The Brain Bug is surrounded by Warrior Bugs and four Scorpion Bugs. Colonel Taylor and Major Tigh reports the entire Bug Army is moving to protect the Brain Bug. Heath knows a world of hurt is on their way. They toss fragmentation grenade. The Warrior Bugs charge them Heath gives the order to fire at will. The first two waves are killed and theire bodies formed a wall the others will have to climb over to get to the humans. The Brain Bug hasn't moved. His troopers behind them see Warrior Bugs appearing an open fire. They report to the general they are cut off from the surface. One of his troopers is stab in the leg before a bug finally drop. "Sir, give me a nuke and get the hell out of here." General Heath hands him a nuke. Two other troopers volunteer to help him out the bugs off. The general orders the Marauders to blow them another door. They enter another tunnel. A Marauder Ape Model fires a plasma wall to keep the bugs behind them from overrunning them. The two Marauder walkers had to be abandon. The two companies run away to escape from the nuke's blast radius. The nuke detonates and the Warrior Bugs pursuing them are vaporized. His troops hit the dirt part of the tunnel collapse but no troopers are buried. Heath wonders if they got the Brain Bug or did it manage to escape. They exit into the open and see thousands of Warrior Bugs, 2 Plasma Bugs, Hopers, Ripplers, and several Scorpion Bugs. General Horton contacts the Valor and calls in an airstrike. General Horton orders Alpha Company to kneel and Bravo Company to stand. They waited for the bugs to attack but they haven't moved.
"Sir, what are they waiting on?"
"I don't know," Heath answers. Eight TAC Fighters fly in and drop bombs onto the bugs. General Horton and his two companies open fire. The TAC fighters also sprayed the bugs with their cannons. Another eight TAC fighters arrived and drop more bombs onto the bugs. Hopers and Ripplers attack the TAC fighters. Lieutenant Willis and his platoon arrive above them and they open fire with their Marauder Walkers and armor vehicles. The battle ended. General Horton lost one hundred fifty troopers in the fight. They find the remains of the Brain Bug among the Warrior Bugs. Heath wonders if the Brain Bug knew he was going to be taken prisoner and it sacrifice itself so it wouldn't become a POW the thought made the general's brain hurt he'll leave it to the psyches to figure that out, he knows HighCom and Intel want like they lost the Brain Bug. Over the next few weeks the 5th continue to hunt for bugs and destroy them including their nest without the Brain Bug the bugs showed no tactics. They attack in waves and are easily defeated the 5th suffer casualties during every engagement with the bugs but not what they had under the last three campaigns. The Valor is constantly sending fighter support. General Horton was right SICON/Federation wasn't happy about the loss of the Brain Bug but they tell the general they're sending another division to relieve him. The 5th return to the Valor and they leave the planet. His friend Chris manage to get the 5th much needed replacements bringing the 5th almost too full strength. A few soldiers that were wounded during the Hydoria Campaign return to the division. The Valor and her support ships are on their way to the next mission and there will always be another mission until the war is over and that want be until the Bug Empire is completely wiped out.