Title: Ship of The Line: Between the Steel and the Stars
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: Nothing Specific.
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy, Starship Troopers, Space: Above and Beyond or Babylon 5... I would buy them all but I am broke.
Summary: When Eathan's Halloween spell hit a powerful and unexpected entity, the result changes the entire world and Humanity's path to the stars. (Buffy/Starship Troopers/SAAB/Babylon 5) Ship of the Line response.
"Welcome to Monash Airlines." Joyce's upbeat voice came over the radio of every MI Trooper strapped into their Capsules. "Shortly you will be ejected from the vehicle. Please keep your arms and legs inside the Capsule until it burns up, then you are free exit the Capsule. You will crash land on the planet below into the middle of a firefight. Please provide your feedback of the experience in the review box onboard the Retrieval Boat. In the meantime, please enjoy the following Elevator Music."
With that ACDC's Highway to Hell began playing. Faith chuckled at Mrs S's antics before settling in to listen to the music. Unlike many of the other MI, Faith loved being in the Caps and the Drop into combat. It was private Faith Time, as far as she was concerned. Not that kind of private Faith Time. Platoon Sergeants could not be caught doing that kind of thing while aboard Ship, and it was physically impossible while secured in her Marauder Powered Armour. In Powered Armour you could not even scratch between your shoulder blades, let alone flick the bean.
The music ended and Faith knew it was time. There was a thump, then a ratchet as her Capsule moved and then it felt like a mule kicking her in the spine as her Capsule was fired out of the launch tube. After a few moments the acceleration of the launch faded, and she was momentarily weightless before the gravity of the Planet she was hurtling towards began to reach out to embrace her.
This was the time Faith felt most like she had been prior to The Halloween Incident. The adrenaline junkie loner that she had once been. Young, stupid and responsible for no one but herself. She did not regret the changes since and the person she was now, with being the most Senior NCO in the MI and a Platoon Sergeant, but sometimes she missed her younger, less responsible self for the innocence and the endless self-confident.
In the MI, there were no dedicated Planning or Logistics Officers, every MI was a fighting Trooper, so many ranks took on multiple hats. Mission Planning for Generals would be done by the most Strategic minded Officers in their force, who would then Drop and lead their regular units. For Platoon level operations, or a few Platoons working together, the planning would be done by the Lieutenants and the Platoon Sergeants, with the most senior Lieutenant being in charge.
A shudder in the Capsule pulled Faith out of her introspection. She looked at the altitude and thermal sensors. Low enough altitude and hot enough that her Capsule was about to go its own way. A second later, the shaped charges went off cutting the straps that secured her Powered Armour to the Capsule and split the Capsule in four sections. A parachute deployed briefly to separate Faith from the remains of the Capsule, each section coated in metal to give a similar radar signature as a Trooper in Armour, before the parachute separated from Faith's Armour.
Thirty seconds later, and four explosions from the defenders' fire, Faith fired the jump jets on her Armour to land. The items that were hit on the way down were either empty sections of Trooper Capsules or the decoy Capsules that were fired after the Troopers and were designed to distract and attract enemy fire.
The closest MI Trooper to Faith was Xander half a mile away as she landed, with the Platoon spread out at similar gaps to both sides but, unlike regular soldiers, they did not try to link up, instead they began their leaping advance firing at every building and moving target both along their line of advance and well away from it as well, to sow extra confusion. Every time Faith landed, she felt a small thump that was the Y-Rack on her Marauder's shoulders automatically firing grenades a hundred feet to forward and to the sides of her position. Her eyes were constantly flicking between the display which shows the positions of the MI Troopers and the battlefield around her.
On the arc of one bounce, that just skimmed over the top of a building made of native timber, onto the roof of which she tossed some thirty-second fire pills hoping it would make the building go up like a bonfire, Faith spotted a large and well-fortified building in the distance that looked like it could withstand a significant assault. It was outside the Hunter's line of advance, but fell short of the Spectre's line and she wanted to get it first. As she landed, she fell amongst a small group of Dilgar, who looked more like Military Technicians than proper Soldiers, engulphed a few with her hand flamer, dropped a grenade and jumped again, landing on the roof of the building.
It only took her a second to show the fortified building, which she suspected was either a Hanger for Space Fighters or for Tanks, to the guidance system of the Pocket Nuke and sent the missile on its way. It was a clean Nuke, almost no radiation, with a miniscule two kiloton nominal yield but perfect for bunker busting. As soon as the missile was fired, Faith was on her way off the roof. Only the Lieutenants and Platoon Sergeants had the Pocket Nukes, two each, with orders to use it 'as needed', with the expectation that most would be returned unused at the end of the mission.
Landing from another bounce, the flair of the Pocket Nuke went off in the distance, just as group of five Dilgar piled out of a building beside Faith. Her Slayer instincts kicked in and she took them hand to hand. In seconds it was over and the Dilgar were a smear on the walls around her with the combination of the Powered Armour strength amplification servos and her Slayer Strength.
Music came over the almost silent general MI Frequency. A welcome sound for any MI Trooper as it meant the retrieval boat was on its way to pick them up. With a jump, Faith watched the dots on her display that indicated the Hunters start to converge on the blinking dot that was the retrieval boat's beacon spike. As she moved she noticed one of the dots stop moving. She switched from the MI General frequency to the private one she had with Xander as Platoon Sergeant.
"X. Collins has stopped moving. I'm doing a pickup." Faith said.
"Copy." Xander replied. "He's alive but not in good shape. On the bounce, Faith."
Xander's Command Suit was able to display the vitals of all of the MI Troopers under his command, something only Officers got to see.
"Got it, X." Faith acknowledge and switched back to the general frequency as she picked up the pace to Collins' location.
As she move she checked her Y-Rack and noted the munitions were getting closed to depleted, so she turned off their auto fire function. Collins was in bad shape and there was destruction all around him. Trusting her instincts, Faith veered to her left and grabbed a flash-bang grenade and a frag grenade from the pouches at her belt. The flash-bang grenade flew between where she felt, with her Slayer instincts, the enemy emplacement was, while the frag grenade flew directly towards the emplacement.
This time, Faith did not jump over the building between her and the emplacement, instead she simply charged directly through it. It was a temporary construction and was no impediment to the Marauder Armour, with the two grenades going off a second before Faith emerged through the far side of the building. Half of the squad defending the heavy weapon were dead from the frag grenade, while the remainder of the squad and the two crew of the heavy weapon were blinded by the flash-bank.
Faith continued her charge, firing at the remaining members of the squad with accurate shots. One of the heavy weapon crew must have had hearing protection of some kind, as they tore off their headgear and, with a cocked head, turned the heavy weapon towards Faith. A brief flair of her jump jets, Faith got out of the line of fire of the heavy weapon and into an arc that brought her feet down on the end of the barrel with one knee while she landed with her other foot. No matter how well constructed, any weapon that has a over a ton of MI Trooper and Armour impact in a concentrated area was going to be scrapped. Finishing off the last few Dilgar Soldiers was almost an afterthought.
Faith concluded that the heavy weapon was either energy based or thermal based, when she reached Collins. His entire left arm, Armour and all, had been taken off and the wound cauterised. She quickly checked the readout at the belt that gave Collins' vitals. Still alive and in desperate need of medical attention. She used 'the can opener' to rip Collins' Marauder Armour open and then she pulled him out of the Armour. She had no trouble carrying him, the ammunition she had already expended weighted more than he did, but she left behind a thermite plasma grenade in his Armour to make sure it was destroyed.
She made it to the retrieval boat without any difficulty, and boarded with the others and laid Collins down on the deck. Oz took over looking after the wounded Trooper.
"Ten seconds." Cordy's voice came over the general frequency.
It did not surprise Faith that the former Queen of Sunnydale High came down herself to retrieve Xander.
"All aboard." Xander replied as he stepped into the boat, the last MI to do so.
Faith switched to the private channel, knowing that both Xander and Cordy would be doing the same as the boat rose into the air and accelerated for the Monash's orbit.
"Any word on the Spectres?" Xander asked.
"They dusted off thirty seconds ago." Cordy replied. "They took out one of the enemy's tanks. One KIA, De Kirk. Twenty Soldiers ambushed her and killed her with overwhelming fire. She took them all with her."
"They have a heavy weapon that can punch through Powered Armour." Faith said. "Seems heavy and slow to fire, and needs a wheeled mount to maneuver it around. Looked like the got Collins' arm on the first shot."
"Mrs S will go over everything in the debrief." Xander said with an edge to his voice.
Faith knew he was taking Collins injury and De Kirk's death hard. She did too. They had both busted their asses to train the current MI Troopers and they knew them all well. But this is what MI do, and they had done it well.
TBC….