Chapter II: Emerald Hills
Recommended Listening: Dance With the Devil by Breaking Benjamin
As far as everyday occurrences went, the ride down was more or less standard. There was the rough turbulence and the terrible shaking that rattled Alex's insides as he clung grimly to his seat with a stoic face set in stone. He was staring at the others with one normal eye and one jaded eye, his tactical data screen hovering a few inches in front of his right viewport. For the moment, he had the tiny screen shut down; he wanted to enjoy this 'quiet' moment. The others around him were unfamiliar, just men and women too young to be doing what they were doing; but age was a trivial matter in the face of the Covenant invasion. Everyone was a soldier in one way or the other. The only face that Alex recognized was Jackson, who sat across from him, laughably attempting to make eyes with one of the few female Marines in the sorry plummeting excuse for an escape vehicle. The pilot began speaking,
"Alright boys and girls, we've made it through the upper atmosphere! I'm going to try and land us on some grassy fields. Prepare for one hell of a rough landing!" He shouted, then shut up and concentrated on the matter at hand. Alex's hands felt surgically attached to the arms sticking out of the seat, in spite of all the madness around him; he felt calm. He felt centered and stoic and very level headed, everything a good Marine needed to be if he was going to survive in the field. Which they were coming up on very shortly. Alex looked out the front window, craning his neck and saw glittering blue ocean and very solid looking green landmasses looming in front of them; filling the view.
He hoped that the brakes wouldn't blow too early like last time he'd had to escape from a going down ship. Not a pretty sight nor memory. Alex focused on the matter at hand, he needed to be crystal clear; razor sharp, like quicksilver. Be ready to grab any opportunity at hand. And then the whole world exploded. There was the shriek of metal grinding on metal as the air brakes popped up and the speed was reduced violently.
"Ah damn it! Hold on!" The pilot shouted, and then metal met dirt like an old friend. The ship collided with the ground and acted like a damn missile. It skidded across the ground, kicking up mounds of dirt and loose rock. Alex grimly held onto the seat, the restraining straps held him firmly yet painfully in place. Then the ship somehow managed to go sideways and then it was rolling, Alex shut his eyes and muttered a silent prayer;
"Give me strength, Oh Lord." He whispered amidst the chaos and insanity. The ship continued its crazed barrel roll, and then, slowly, very slowly, it finally grinded to a halt. Alex opened his eyes and could feel himself hanging upside down, just his luck; but at least he'd survived. Red emergency lights flickered on and washed across the interior of the pod in a crimson glow.
"Alright," Alex said. "Who's not dead?" There was a cough, followed by,
"Man...I need some weed." Alex just grinned, he reached for the restraining straps and undid them, then landed on his face with a loud grunt. Lurching to his feet, Alex looked around, he saw Jackson trying to get himself undone. Just as he thought about taking a step forward, he suddenly heard a click from above himself. Glancing up, Alex realized at the last second that the weapons locker had popped open; that's about when half a dozen guns fell right onto his face.
"Oh shit!" He screamed, then was pounded to the ground. Cursing loudly, he threw the guns off himself and regained his composure in time to see Jackson standing up. The two men studied the faces of their companions, who were unmoving.
"Oh damn." Alex muttered, he reached forward and checked the pulse of one of the limp forms; and his fears were confirmed.
"Dead." he murmured, then checked the man next to him. Within a few moments, Alex and Jackson had come to the conclusion that everyone else in the escape pod was dead from the crash. A few had had their necks broken in the rolling, one man had been impaled by a piece of the ship. The pilot had had the misfortune of being shot by his own gun, which apparently had misfired during all the pandemonium of the landing. Alex and Jackson all but stumbled out of the pod and into the harsh glare of an alien sun. Alex felt a cool breeze across his skin, which aggravated a number of very recently opened cuts; he looked around. They were in a wide, open area of waving grassy fields, craggy rock outcroppings and a few small streams and rivers. To their left and behind them were huge rock sheers and to their right was a massive drop that plunged a few hundred meters towards the ground below.
Ahead of them was flat, open ground; marked by large rocks and small groupings of trees. The area twisted off to the left to where Alex couldn't see anymore. He looked at ground disdainfully and found a small pool of blood had been splattered outwards from the pod, no doubt from one of the Marines inside.
"We gotta move." He said, his military mind immediately going to work; but Jackson didn't move.
"Dude..." He whispered, looking up. Alex followed his gaze and stopped moving immediately, above them was the rest of the ringworld and it was truly a sight to behold. Blue skies could be seen clearly in all directions, intermitted with fluffy white clouds. Off in the distance were more landmasses and an ocean. The rest of the place rolled upwards and made a complete circle going behind them. Alex suddenly felt very small, as if he was a fly crawling on a stain glassed window of a cathedral; unable to comprehend its full beauty or complexity. But this only lasted for a moment, the Marine shook himself and he plunged back into the scarlet glow of the escape pod. He scavenged the bodies and the ship, in search of anything that would help them survive whatever it was that was to be thrown at them.
He had no doubt that the Covenant were here already and that they were on their way to the crash site; they hadn't exactly made a discreet entrance. Alex came out with a handful of guns, grenades, ammo clips and medpaks. He dumped it all unceremoniously onto the ground and began sorting through it,
"Grab whatever you can carry." he said loudly to Jackson, to get the man's attention from whatever awestruck state he was in. He blinked a few times, then nodded and set about going through the pile himself. First thing was first, Alex grabbed a medical kit, sat down on a relatively flat looking patch of dirt and then began checking himself. He was already sure that nothing was broken, and after a quick one over was happy to find that all he had were a number of scratches, cuts and bruises. The man quickly applied a few bandages and some biofoam to himself, injected himself with a general antibody and stimulant, then replaced what was left of the medpak and straightened up. Everything he'd had on him had fallen out in the crash, so now he set about appropriating some more gear for himself.
He slid three fragmentation grenades into his bandolier, grabbed a fully loaded MA5B with two spare clips and a fully loaded M6D with three clips to spare. Placing his half used medical kit and another full one into their appropriate places, Alex felt a lot better about his predicament. Of course, he was still stranded on a ringworld out in the middle of space with just his stoner Marine buddy for company and a bunch of alien bastards that would shoot and kill the both of them on sight just cause they looked different. And all he had to his name were some guns and ammo, not even a few heavy weapons. But he didn't think about that, or at least, he tried not to think about that. Focus on the positives, but keep the negatives in the back of your mind to make sure you're properly motivated to find more positives.
"Alright, here's the plan." Alex said, turning to Jackson. He opened his mouth, then realized that he didn't have a plan so he closed it.
"Um...what's that?" Jackson asked after a moment, looking behind him. Alex spun round, half expecting to see a full contingent of Covenant troops making a beeline for them with murder on their minds. Instead, he saw a bolt of pure white plasma energy shooting up into the sky, he watched it until it faded away into nothingness. He waited about a minute, then saw another one do the exact same thing.
"Okay, here's the plan." Alex said. "We go towards that thing. If there's anyone else around here, they'll probably head for it." Jackson nodded silently, holding his rifle almost loosely in both hands.
"Let's get moving." The Marine said, and the two of them set off towards the origins of the pulse. As the two men walked, the thought of others resonated around inside of Alex's brain, and he opened up a general comms channel on the UNSC frequency. He called out on it, questioning if anyone was alive and walking around; or just alive. But after five minutes of silence and static, he gave up and left the frequency open; just in case.
"So man, any ideas on what this place is?" Jackson asked as the two men walked on in silence.
"Not really. Too big for the Covenant. I mean, yeah, those guys have technology down; but this is advanced, even for them. I don't know who built this. It doesn't even make sense. What in the name of God is a giant ring doing out in the middle of space that just happens to have human friendly temperature, gravity and atmosphere? Hmm? What are the odds of that, honestly? I mean, I'm not complaining; we could have just been stuck out in open space and then been suckin' vacuum after those Covenant bastards blasted us to a bunch of free floating atoms. But...I don't know, it's almost like this was meant to happen. You know? We went with the Cole Protocol, and jumped at random; we just happened to find this thing?" Alex replied.
Jackson thought for a long while, silence descending over them like a calming cloak; and then an all too familiar sound broke the quiet and the real world came shattering back down again. Alex turned to look as he heard the low rumble of an approaching Covenant dropship. It came in low and fast down over the cliff face directly behind them, coming to hover about a meter above the ground behind their smoking dropship. The two sides opened up and a contingent of Grunts and Elites hopped out onto the ground. Alex muttered a dark and sharp curse, and started legging it fast as he spotted a Banshee come flying across the place from around the rock wall. Jackson seconded his motion and together they beat a hasty retreat, the pulse was looking more welcoming every second. The duo progressed on, not even looking back as they ran for fear that they might see something they probably wouldn't like.
Alex splashed across a stream and then as he made it across finally cast a glance over his shoulder, in the distance he could see the dropship hovering lazily about five meters in the air. The Covenant were just milling about, picking over the bodies and the ship itself. And the Banshee was merely circling in some sort of automated flight pattern above the dropship. Alex heaved a sigh of relief and slowed down to a quick walk with Jackson at his side, they had made it...for now. The Covenant were probably convinced that everyone had died in the crash. This was a tactic that Alex had been using all his career, and because he was quick on his feet he had survived when many others had not.
The two men made their way along the rock wall in silence, approaching the corner. He wondered if any others had landed in the area, and prayed that they had. It would be a miracle, because two Marines alone could not hope to survive against the might of the Covenant. Maybe a dozen Marines could hold out for a little bit. But then again, Alex had seen Marines do amazing things on the ground against what seemed to be overwhelming odds. He noticed that the Covenant kicked ass in the air and in space, but on the ground usually they got their asses handed to them. He had come to a viable conclusion why about a year into his military career. And it made sense. The Covenant were a split army, with the Grunts as well, Grunts, Jackals as scouts, Elites as field commanders and infantry and the Hunters as heavy weapons. But the Marines were all that rolled into one.
Alex made himself pay attention, he had a way of kind of slipping into his own mind when walking in the field with no enemies around but still mostly remaining completely aware. They rounded the corner and Alex looked about. Ahead of him was a large valley at least a mile long, maybe longer. It had similar landscape to the one that they had just come from, however there were a few things different in this place. About two or three hundred meters down the way was a structure made of gleaming metal. It was squat and sort of squarish from what Alex could see, but it stuck up out of the ground in a way that reminded him of the Egyptian God of the Dead, Anubis. He waited, and then a pulse of energy shot up from the apex of the structure; Alex grinned briefly. So that's where it was coming from.
The other thing that was different, and something that made Alex very happy, was a second crash site. It looked as if another pod had come down right in between him and the structure, about a hundred meters away. Smoke drifted lazily into the air and he knew that they probably didn't have much time before the Covenant made their way over there. Alex set off, gripping his gun firmly; he felt better now. Pushing aside his weariness that came from the fact that he hadn't slept a wink in about twenty four hours now, and for about twenty of those hours he'd seen combat in one form or another; Alex pushed on. Jackson moved along silently at his side, the Marine unusually quiet; perhaps it was the Covenant just a few hundred meters back. Alex thought about a few things as the walked, about what he was going to do if he ever survived the war; about what a Grunt's head looked like coming apart when a high explosive round hit it; about exactly how many rounds it took to take down an Elite's shield.
Down the years he had become cold and calculating, each shot was a measured mathematical expression of rage and cold hate. Each grenade thrown an equation of sorts, the amount of force used to throw it, the exact time to release one's grasp upon the grenade, the arc in feet or meters in which it traveled. Having to calculate the move if an Elite dove away from the grenade in time, which way it dived, taking into account how much, if any, of its shield had been taken down by the blast. Hoping for that bit of luck, that it had nowhere to dive and the blast would take it down forever. Hoping that a Jackal would point when it spotted an enemy, alerting the others; so that it revealed itself long enough for that one pistol shot.
Alex pulled himself out of his cold calculations as he realized that they had arrived at the crash site. He studied the ship with a sharp gaze and could tell already that there were survivors, and that they had done the same thing he had; only with a head start. Guns were missing, there were footprints of standard issue UNSC combat boots, about half a dozen from what Alex counted. He and Jackson moved swiftly across the crash site, in search of any spare clips of ammo; but the survivors had been extremely thorough. The only weapons left were either broken or empty, their red digital counters reading 00. Alex heaved a brief sigh but it was immediately dismissed as something caught his eye in the distance.
He glanced up, looking at the structure, and called up the 10x zoom on his tactical display screen. The Marine grinned and felt a sense of renewal in his heart, the survivors. He spotted and counted four Marines and two technicians, all of them moving around on the top of the structure, setting up a defensive perimeter.
"Let's move." He said to Jackson, who nodded and the two of them set off at a quick pace towards the structure. Alex tried his communicator again,
"This is Sergeant Kelly; who's this?" Came a gruff response.
"This is Private Steele and Private First Class Jackson, we're survivors from the Autumn. We crashed about a half mile back and have just found your pod. I can see you on the structure." Alex responded, there was a brief pause.
"Yes, I can see you two too. Alright, haul ass over here. We think there's another pod down the way and the Covenant are probably on their way. Kelly out." The link was cut and Alex and Jackson hurried on. They closed the gap between themselves and the other UNSC personnel quickly, making good time across the relatively flat green grassy landscape. Alex studied the structure as he approached, it was just one building in the middle of everything. The base of it was a basic square shape with two ramps going up on either side of it. On the large, flat top, going around the border was something similar to a castle; small flat pieces jutting straight up. Alex noted they would provide excellent cover. In the middle of that was more of the structure, sticking straight up and releasing pulses every now and then.
Alex and Jackson walked up the side ramp and came to find the six survivors had set up a quick and effective little outpost. In one corner was a small pile of weapons, ammo and supplies. The two technicians were sputtering over a small portable radio with a handful of small, portable tools. Three of the Marines stood guard, looking anxiously around in case any Covenant came by and the man that Alex identified as Sergeant Kelly approached them.
"Good to see more friendly faces. I'll fill you two in. We're trying to get in contact with someone, anyone else from the ship; preferably a pilot with a Pelican. But right now our biggest concern is the Covenant right around the bend, we all saw that dropship and the Banshee at your guys' crash site; so no doubt it will be coming to ours shortly and therefore be closer to us. We can stave off the Covenant from this position for a little while, but not indefinitely. We only have so much ammo. Now, there is a third crash site beyond this structure; about half a mile down the valley." Kelly explained, nodding over his shoulder; sure enough Alex could see another pillar of smoke drifting into the air.
"The Covenant are sure as hell going to notice that. So I want a few of you guys to go down there and scope out the situation, see if there are any survivors about and gather up any weapons and supplies you can find; then double time it back here. You two willing to be volunteers?" Kelly asked.
"Uh...yes sir." Alex replied.
"Yeah." Jackson said. "Uh...sir." He threw on. Kelly nodded to them, then yelled back over his shoulder,
"Smith, Jones, get over here!" Two of the Marines approached the trio, one was a young kid who looked unhealthily pale from space travel and the other was an older, more experienced looking man of darker skin tone.
"Yes sir?" They both said at the same time.
"You and our new friends here will be heading to the other crash site. Now..." Kelly looked off into the distance suddenly and then they all heard it, the low rumbling of a Covenant dropship.
"Duck and cover, people!" he screamed, and then suddenly everybody was scrambling for a hiding place. Alex looked round and spotted a small niche in the piece that was jutting up out of the structure, he bolted for it and threw himself in. Jackson huddled in after him, followed by Kelly and Smith. The four of them crowded in, Alex couldn't see anything but the back of Jackson's head; but he could hear the dropship getting closer. He could almost sense everyone else holding their breath, tension was palpable and thick upon the air; the dropship flew overhead. But it didn't stop, didn't even slow down; it just kept going. Everyone let out their breath as the sound faded away and then piled out of the niche.
"Aw shit." Kelly muttered, moving forward, staring down the way. Alex came over to his position and saw exactly what the man meant; the dropship was preparing to land at the third crash site. Already Alex could see gunfire emanating from the site, bouncing harmlessly off of the thick, blue hull of the dropship; survivors for sure.
"Dammit! Double time it, Marines!" Kelly shouted. "We'll stay here and hold down the fort, now move!" Alex and the others needed no more incentive, they moved across the structure and pounded down the other ramp. The four Marines clutched their weapons fiercely in white knuckled death grips, preparing themselves for combat. Alex could hear the sounds of battle distantly, but they were growing closer all the time. He could see that the Covenant had the survivors at a disadvantage, the dropship was pounding their position and so were a number of Grunts and Elites. But Alex knew that he and his three friends held the upper hand, or would once they got there. Just about another hundred meters to cover now. They would have the element of surprise, and would blast those bastards straight to hell.
Alex held onto his rifle tightly, then thought better of it. Letting the gun hang by its sling, he unholstered his pistol and held that. Seeing his action, the others mimicked it; and everyone who had one grabbed a grenade. Which was actually only Alex and Smith, unfortunately there was no time to pass out other grenades. The quartet crested a small hill and looked down upon the battlefield. There were two Elites and six Grunts, or there had been; three Grunts lay dead now. He could see three Marines hunkering down behind the remains of the drop pod. Alex and Smith threw their grenades, the duo killing devices landed in the midst of the Covenant. One of the Elites was quick on his feet and dove again, two of the Grunts were out of distance. But the one Grunt and one Elite that were within the blast radius had exactly that happen to them; a blast. The force of the twin explosions picked up their limp frames and tossed them dozens of meters away. The surviving Covenant became lost in confusion.
The two Grunts began running around screaming, tossing grenades wherever the hell they could because that's what Grunts did when they became extremely frightened. The Elite still had some whit about it and fired upon Alex's position. Smith happened to be standing up at this time and bad luck happened to glance in his direction. One of the bolts nailed him directly in the face, right between the eyes; he was killed instantly. His body flopped backwards and landed with a metallic thud on the ground, his armor clinking against a few rocks. Jones yelled a curse and opened fire upon the Elite with his pistol, Alex added his gunfire to the display and together they brought down the eight and a half foot tall beast. Jackson finished off the two Grunts that were running around and that was that.
Or at least, it would have been; no one forgot about the dropship that was still firing upon the survivors' position. Alex looked around for anything that might be useful against the dropship, but nothing sprung to mind; he didn't have any rocket launchers or even an LAAG. Then something caught his eye, he saw a small satchel of plasma grenades that had been dropped by the Elite he and Jones had wasted. Without thinking about how risky it was, he hopped over the small hill and ran full tilt towards it. Alex holstered his pistol and threw himself sideways as a plasma bolt nearly nailed him in the side, he rolled with the fall and came to rest just a foot away from the satchel. He jumped up, snatching the pack up as well and activated one of the grenades. Then he hurled it for all he was worth directly at the gun on the dropship.
Luck seemed to have sort of a thing for Alex, because the satchel caught on the oddly shape metallic protrusion that was the main plasma cannon on the dropship and stayed there. There was a tremendous explosion, followed by another, and then two more. When it was all over and the plasma stopped flashing, the plasma cannon was nothing more than a twisted, sparking mockery of itself. The dropship pilot seemed quite upset about this, but probably realized that there was nothing more he could do; so he retreated. Alex watched the dropship go, then became unhappily aware of the fact that he was probably going off to tell on them.
"Alright people, let's move like we've got a purpose!" He shouted, and the others seemed to agree with him. Out of all of the Marines that had been in the escape pod, Alex noted that only two of them had actually made it out of both the crash and the battle. He, Jackson, Jones and the other two survivors scrambled over the corpses as quickly as they could, snatching up guns and ammo and grenades as they went. Alex ended up with a few more clips for his pistol and assault rifle, and two more grenades; then it was time to go. As if to punctuate that last thought, Alex's comm unit crackled to life; it was Kelly.
"Get your asses back up here, boys! Looks like they're coming back with more friends for the party. We've called in a dropship, but there a good fifteen minutes out. Haul ass!" He shouted, then cut the line; Alex hauled ass. He and the others hoofed it over the small hill and pounded across the open grassy fields. And briefly, just briefly, Alex thought that it was wrong that something so horrible as war should be happening in such a beautiful place. But the thought was quickly thrown aside, he could see two dropships coming in low and fast with a duo of Banshees backing them up; heading directly for the structure. Alex wasted a breath on a curse and then kept on running, they were almost there.
Within moments he and the others were pounding up the ramp, Kelly and the other Marine had their guns pointed out and the two techs were manning their stations as well with pistols; looking distinctly terrified.
"Where's Smith? And were these the only two survivors?" Kelly asked.
"He's dead and yes." Alex replied.
"Damn kid..." Kelly muttered. "Get ready, get your pistols out; they're landing. Jones, you and the techs take on those Banshees; see if you can shoot them out of the sky. Steele, you and Jackson and the other two help me take out the ground forces." Kelly ordered, there were a string of 'yessirs' and then everyone got to work. A cacophony of pistols sounded as they all spoke, triggers being squeezed by precise, skilled fingers. A dozen Grunts and a quartet of Elites were on their way, leaping and dodging. Alex focused on the little ones first, take out the Grunts so you wouldn't have to worry about them later. He caught one immediately, jumping down from the dropship; and put it out of his misery.
Then he zeroed his sights in on another one, firing away at him stupidly. He put a bullet in its head and sent it flopping back. He fired off a few more rounds at another little alien that was fleeing and managed to put it down. He finished out the clip with a few more misses and a few hits that rebounded harmlessly off of an Elite's shield. Alex cursed and hit the eject button, then went about reloading; six Grunts and an Elite lay dead now. The dropships hovered back and above, pounding their position; and the Banshees circled around trying to get a good shot. Jones and the two techs were actually doing a good job, one of the flying screamers was sparking heavily by now as a few important systems had been ruptured.
Alex refocused and tried to find a good target and spotted an Elite coming out to fire upon his position. He never gave it the chance, immediately popping off a round. It capped the Elite directly in the chest and sent it stumbling back from its cover. Alex fired again, and again, and again until the shields overloaded and collapsed. The Elite, now naked without its energy shield, tried to dive for cover; but Alex was quicker then that. He fired the last two rounds in his clip and put two bullets into the thing's head, the body collapsed limply to the ground. Alex quickly reloaded his pistol, and that's when the survivors decided to make a charge. The two remaining Elites burst from their hiding places and the other Grunts ran after them, two of the Grunts were dropped in the charge but the others made it to the ramp.
Alex cursed and quickly reloaded his pistol again, then holstered it and grabbed for his assault rifle; it was time for some close quarters combat. He was briefly thrown off by a loud explosion and noticed happily that one of the Banshees had been completely destroyed, its charred, twisted, smoking, sparking remains dropping to the ground like lead. The second one circled warily, perhaps reconsidering the strike. Alex dropped two grenades onto the ramp, the two Elites were fast enough but the surviving Grunts just weren't built for speed. The twin explosions sent the lot of them flying, rupturing their tanks and pretty much vaporizing them. One of the remains of the Grunts splattered all over the hull of the other Banshee.
Then the chaos began, with the dropship pounding their position and the Banshee's pilot getting its courage back, the two Elites made their assault. They burst up onto the platform, all loud warcries and blasting plasma. One of the techs took a blast to the face, twice, and was sent twitching to the ground. Alex aimed his assault rifle at an Elite and let him have it, just squeezing the trigger and not letting up. The thing grunted and returned fire, Alex was sent stumbling back as a triple blast of plasma bolts nailed him right in the chestplate, but his armor held strong and he finished off the rest of his clip; dropping the Elite's plasma shield. Taking the opportunity, the Marines blew away the monster and splattered it all over the clean, reflective surface of the structure. The victory was short lived however.
The second Elite, the one survivor of the ground forces, was a crimson armored one; and a tough bastard. He dodged and wove through the gunfire, taking few hits but dealing many; like some sort of mad ballet dancer. Alex quickly reloaded and watched Kelly get tagged a few times, but the older man held strong and returned fire. Alex brought his rifle to bear again and opened fire, then watched as the Elite lunged towards the single remaining technician. Nobody could stop the giant arm as it swung down with all the power of an oncoming train, like a supernova it hit the back of the fleeing technician's head and caved it inwards in a bloody, gory, disgusting mess. The body thumped to the ground.
Alex took the opportunity to toss his second to last grenade whilst the Elite was distracted, the device landed at the crimson clad beast's feet. The Elite was good...but not that good. It dove a second too late and was blown away, picked up and thrown over the side of the structure where it landed some five meters below and didn't rise. Alex put a few rounds into it just to be sure, and then looked up as he realized the battle wasn't over yet. There were still two dropships and a Banshee staring them in the face. All the surviving Marines stood, weapons at ready; the Covenant vehicles hovered ominously in the air. Mexican standoff. And then, out of nowhere, a rocket shrieked through the air and nailed one of the dropships in the side. It began losing altitude and then erupted in a bright ball of blue plasma.
The second dropship and the Banshee turned just in time to see a second rocket hit the Banshee and blow it to smithereens. The last remaining dropship, seeing that it was obviously outgunned, did the smart thing; it beat a hasty retreat. Alex turned to see a Pelican dropship hovering in the air next to the structure, he could almost see a smug look on the pilot's face through the front windows. Everyone's comm units crackled to life in a burst of static,
"This is Pelican Delta 342, happy to see me?" Came the question of a smug sounding pilot.
"Damn glad to see you Delta 342." Kelly responded. "You saved our asses." He added. The dropship spun around so that the back ramp, which was lowered, was right next to the side of the structure, as the Marines headed towards it, the pilot spoke.
"Come on aboard, boys. I've got good news and I've got bad news."