1852 hours 25 November 2552
Orbit of Kobol
UNSC Hawaii SOEIV bay
First sergeant Gene Ruize checked the magazine for his MA5B seeing the digital counter spin up to 60 he smiled preferring the older rifle to the slower more accurate Cs as he looked over his squad of ODSTs "this is a SAR under fire the Galactica sent three raptors to this world to examine the ancient ruins and locate the Tomb of Athena. One of them was confirmed shot down. If we can find the survivors and locate and secure the tomb we are one step closer to getting home."
The Marines with stoic silence listening to the rattle and thump of the destroyer weapons firing Gene linked into the tactical display and saw the three cylon ships a pair of Colonial Manticores escorting a Cylon Talon carrier the radioactive debris of a Basestar could be seen in the planets lagrange point . he heard Reading say "conserve MACs. Archer and Ramparts will be more than enough for this." Gene and his marines never stopped checking their weapons gear and pods waiting for Commander Readings word on the orbital scan of the planet to find any trace of the colonial raptor.
As Gene stowed a M6 Nonlinear rifle more commonly known as a Spartan Laser into his pod weapon compartment a tone sounded as the lights starting flashing in time to a claxon and the speaker activated "Heads up Marines our Longswords have located the crashed Raptor we are geo over their position in two minutes get ready to drop troopers."
"You heard the commander!" Gene shouted to his men "FEET FIRST…"
"..INTO HELL" the marines shouted back.
"THEN LET'S MOVE YOU SONS OF A BITCHE'S!" Gene shouted leading by example as he situated himself into his pod. The marines grinned and followed suit.
Keeping his rifle close to his chest Gene watched the pod's hatch slide shut with a thump as the locks engaged. With a thunk the pod began to rotate as the floor withdrew under his pod. Gene felt the pod vibrate as the destroyer skimmed the atmosphere. A screen in the pod activated showing his second in command and the commander of beta squad Staff Sergeant William Travis "second squad is prepped for drop Sir."
On the other side of the pod the projected path disappeared and Commander Reading face appeared "Remember Troopers search and rescue is your priority once you locate the survivors Pelicans will recover them as well as land reinforcements."
"Roger sir." Gene said.
The screen cut off and he looked out the narrow strip of ballistic glass as the pod locked into its launch position he saw the green and blue of the landscape far beneath and felt his heart quicken this is what hell jumpers lived for.
A series of three beeps signaled a countdown as the final long beep the pods engine kicked on, dropping the pod towards the planet Kobol. Watching the light blue of the sky turn slowly as his pod rotated he saw the UNSC fleet of five ships the destroyer Hawaii the frigates Colossus and Hyena the Colonial frigate Minotaur and the corvette Demois.
Off in the distance he could make out the three cylon ships, the talon throwing up a constant flakk barrier stopping the occasional Archer missile but doing nothing to stop the small Rampart guns shells as he watched one of the Manticores take a series of hits and burst into flame. He lost sight of the battle as cloud cover and the atmosphere blocked it out.
Turning his mind back to the mission at hand he watched the planet rapidly approaching the pods maneuvering thrusters altered the pods course for a clearing on the edge of a massive forest and with a metallic clunk the pod deployed its drag chute and the heat inside began to subside. On his monitor he could see he was still in the lead with his squad clustered around him. About fifty meters away was Travis's squad.
"Okay Travis." called Gene "your squad on standard perimeter upon landing. We will focus inward."
A double click from Travis signaled is acceptance.
Seeing the countdown near zero Gene clenched his legs and stomach just as the pods breaking thrusters activated at full burn as the pods reached treetop level. Slowing the pods to a safe speed just before they slammed into the ground. Followed three seconds later by the other four troopers of his squad.
Gene took a deep breath and hit the door release. The cover exploded off as the bolts fired on the other side of the clearing closer to the trees Beta slammed down and deployed as well.
Checking his rifle he saw it was ready to rock he secured the gun to his back and grabbed the laser throwing it and the spare battery over his shoulder and arming it, a slight hum as the capacitors were charged and ready to fire.
"Let's move Lopez and Hori your on me King and Smith watch our backs." inside Genes helmet four green acknowledgment lights flashed as the marines replied.
Gene led the way to the smoking wreckage of the crashed Raptor. Taking a moment to look inside he saw it was empty. Gene stood on the broken wing and looked around taking a quick note of several ancient ruins that reminded him of some of the arecalogy protected zones in Greece and Italy. "Spread out and look for clues their bodies aren't in here so they must have survived and moved out." Gene began moving wreckage around looking under it for any trace of the colonial survivors.
A few feet from the crash Hori called out "sir! I have some supplies here that look like a Colonial first aid kit and some drag marks in the grass that look like the survivors moved east from here."
"Good Job PFC, keep looking." called Gene
Near the water's edge on a ancient brick platform with fractured marble columns strewn about came the call from Erickson the squad medic "Sir got a body here, KIA"
Gene looked at the body that was covered under a black crash blanket. The man was heavily burned "Probably died on impact."
The last member of the squad Smith lowered the blanket and put a tag on the body for Colonial graves pickup. Standing up he went off to keep looking for other signs of life.
Gene's foot kicked something as he stepped over a rock. Bending down he picked up a colonial rifle, the magazine still full. Before he could examine it further a sonic boom echoed causing everyone to look to the sky.
"Three raiders inbound." Travis called over the radio "four o'clock way high."
Gene cursed for not having one of his men grab a SAM launcher as he turned he heard the familiar turbine and saw a Longsword chasing them. Smoke billowed out from the fighters wingtip and a missile knocked one of the robotic craft into pieces followed by a stream of tracers from its nose gun causing the second to shatter.
Gene and his marines watched as the fighter lined up the last shot just as a Viper streaked down and bisected the Longsword. Cursing Gene leveled the laser at the approaching raider doing some quick math he led the fighter a few inches and held the trigger. The laser began to vibrate as the capacitors built up a charge Gene could feel the heat on his shoulder as the weapon charged. When the indicator lit up he let go of the trigger and the thick bright red beam shot out and instantly removed the wing of the raider sending it into a terminal spin.
The marines cheered as the stricken fighter spun into the water about three hundred feet away. "Travis took your squad to the longsword crash site to see if the pilot survived."
"Roger" the blips on Genes motion tracker marking beta squad headed off in the ordered direction.
"Squad" Gene said "On me." Gene led his squad into the forest following the drag marks PFC Hori found.
Movement through the forest was slow going, the woods were wild and untamed from who knows how many thousands of years of natural growth. A yellow light from Hori signalled caution. Gene and the others crouched and looked towards Hori.
Hori lifted a hand and pointed at her radio and waved her hand holding up three fingers and pointed at her gun and out towards the distance "movement in the distance cylons, three targets armed"
Gene pointed to Hori with the hand signal on the left. Then pointed at Smith with the signal of right, to Erickson Gene pointed right behind himself. With silent efficacy the marines moved to take cover behind trees in the direction the targets were coming.
The approaching cylons were heading up to a ridge in the in single file without looking around. Holding a grenade up for the others to see, Hori and Smith nodded, pulling a grenade of their own.
Gene held up three fingers, then two. At one the three marines threw their grenades and watched the explosives land perfectly between the machine's legs. The cylons deployed their wrist mounted guns and turned to fire just as the grenades exploded.
Gene moved up followed by Hori and Smith seeing one of the machines still moving Gene fired a half dozen rounds into it watching the thing stop moving its sweeping red eye died. "Let's get a move on. Find the survivors if there are any."
The ODSTs continued walking for nearly an hour when the red light activated this time from smith.
Shit thought Gene rushed to the left to see Smith and three men holding him at gunpoint.
The three men…correction Gene thought two men and a woman came into view with a rifle and a pair of pistols in their hands aimed right at Smith's helmet.
The woman said something while talking to the first man with a his helmet audio pickups Gene heard the translation of what the woman said "Tarn? What do you see? Cylons?"
Gene signaled a solid yellow light indicating his men to hold their fire. He stood up leaning his laser against the tree and chinned the helmet to unpolarized.
The three people seeing another person appear shifted their guns back and forth until they saw the human face behind the helmet visor took a step back. Smith copied Gene and unpolarized his visor. Using his translation Gene called out "Don't worry, we're friendly if you are."
The one called Tarn called out "Identify yourself are you Cylon? Or human?"
Gene raised his hands to remove his helmet. "I'm as human as you three." using his free hand to scratch his short cropped red hair.
The three colonials lowered their guns slightly "you're not from the Galactica are you? Asked the girl, "I've never seen uniforms like that."
Tarn answered before Gene "no their not look at their weapons and armor they definitely aren't from Galactica." Tarn looked back at the ODSTs
Gene smiled to "your right we aren't from Galactica or your civilian fleet." Gene took several slow steps forward and held his hand out "First Sergeant Gene Ruize, 111th Hell Jumper battalion."
Tarn took Genes' wrist cautiously "Lieutenant Tarn Adale, Battlestar Galactica."
Gene grinned pumping the man's wrist "good how many are you? We were sent to find and recover you."
The woman smiled with happiness and threw her arms around him "did you hear Chief we are getting out of here."
Tarn at the mention of the others got an alarmed look on his face "we have to get back to the crash site we have a critically wounded man and need a medpack that was left there."
"No Need lieutenant." Gene said pointing to Erickson "we have a medic and supplies."
Tarn looked conflicted but the girl said "Come on Lt we have to get back."
Tarn nodded and pointed back the way they came.
Gene picked up his laser with a smile putting his helmet back on sending the pulse to Hawaii, they had found the survivors.
POV switch to Lt commander Matthew Reading UNSC Hawaii
Mathew Grinned on the Bridge as Hawaii's Plasma cannon finally got within range "Fire." he ordered.
The Plasma cannon fired and the bluish purple ball burned right through the flakk field the carrier had been throwing out and slammed into the ship. The UNSC and Colonial fleet watched the large carrier burn as the super heated projectile burned its way through the ship setting off secondary explosions as tylium fuel and munitions got too hot and started burning and going off.
The plasma started dying and the cold vacuum of space snuffed out the fires leaving the ship looking like a giant had taken a bite out of it.
"The Orbitals are ours, let's go ahead and start sending down additional personnel and locate the survivors if there are any. Ordered Mathew "also land some of our people to survey these ruins to see if we can't assist in locating this tomb of Athena."
"Sir." called Second Lieutenant Jessica Conrad from communications "we have received the ODSTs pulse they found the survivors"
"Excellent dispatch pelicans and longswords to their location." said Reading "lets get those people to safety."
Authors note
hey guys couldn't sleep last night so got a good chunk of writing done until i ended up passing out lol so enjoy.