M2T1

[Nick]

2179 AD, 20th September
Location: Sol system, Gateway Station, USCM Quarters, Briefing Room

Five days of R&R had came to a rather abrupt ending last night, when the Marines leave was recalled. They were to be ready to leave within 24 hours. A few of the Earthborne Marines had planned a quick journey down to Earth to visit relatives and were, naturally, bitterly disappointed. But that was the core of a US Colonial Marines life: Waiting, disappointment and more waiting for more disappointment.

Lt Anderson entered the room carrying a small briefcase, she wore the standard US Colonial Marines brown-tan camouflage dress and a sharp edged cap on her head. A VP70 pistol was strapped to her right thigh in a black leg holdster. The briefing room was a simple construction with each row of chairs slightly elevated over the row in front. Each chair had a foldable tablet that could be used as support for the marines as they scribbled down notes on their PDAs.

"At ease" Lt Anderson said while grabbing her briefcase and pulling out a small memory card from a metal box on the podium in front of her. "First I would like to say that I am sorry for this short notice, but high command specifically requested You...and there are good reasons for it" she continued.

"I am uploading classified information to Your PDA's. The password to get access to them are AE231BE21235BCEDA1. Once accessed You can enter a personal password that is somewhat more easy to remember - Please note that Your PDA after this update is classified to a second grade rating, that means that they are to be locked up in a safe when not used" Lt Anderson looked at the Marines.

"Yes...this also means that You all now have a temporary security class two rating. The reason for this is that we had two options after last mission, either to drop You out or keep You in the loop. We chose that latter due to the succes of last mission"

Class two security ratings was uncommon for ordinary Marines to reach, only high ranking officers got such high clearance. An ordinary Marine had a class three security rating and most civillians had class five or four.

Class one rating was reserved for high command and the president.

Lt Anderson continued. "I will need all and everyone to digitally sign that You accept the temporary security clearance and comply to follow the rules that come by it." The Marines PDAs all blipped at the same time and a small text field appeared with a dotted line at the bottom.

"As You may have noticed, some of Your old friends were not called to this meeting. They didn't cut the security check up and were transferred to other Marine units."

Lt Anderson waited for all Marines to sign the clearance before continuing.

Lt Anderson took off her cap and quickly fixed her hair in a pony tail, she put her cap on the end of the table. She touched a button on the podium and the lights dimmed down.

A picture of a colony appeared.

"This is the Hadleys Hope colony on LV-426 also known as Acheron located in the Zeta 2 Reticuli system. In June of this year (2179) the two colonists Ann and Russ Jorden are sent to investigate an anomaly beyond the Ilium range by a certain Carter Burke of the Weyland-Yutani company. They also bring their children Timmy and Newt.

After two days searching they find a derelict spacecraft of unknown origin. Russ is attacked by something as they enter the spacecraft. Russ is brought back to Hadleys hope for medical attention.

Thirteen days later the contact is lost with Hadley Hope on LV-426. A colonial Marine squad of 2nd Battalion, 9th Regiment is sent to Acheron to investigate. Along with them they take Carter Burke and a certain Ellen Ripley as expert advisors. Ripley was brought along because of her claims of an Alien attacking her crew on the Nostromo after landing on Acheron back in 2122.

What happens after this is unclear. What is known is that there was some kind of engagement between Marines and an unknown force on the planet. This culminated with the destruction of the whole colony in a powerful nuclear explosion on the 28th of July 2179. Our analysis of the site shows that the atmosphere processing plant had a nuclear meltdown and exploded. There was no trace of either the USS Sulaco nor the colony - The USS Sulaco has been filed as missing along with all hands of her crew.

The derelict spacecraft of unknown origin beyond the Ilium range was intact however. A Marine boarding team entered it on the 15th of August and recovered several interesting objects. The Spacecraft was then sealed shut and is now being guarded by a garrison marine company. LV-426 is now classified as a military high security zone.

Three of the eight objects where brought to Chrysalis and hidden deep down in the old mines. However when the uprising started they were moved into the Mayors house as he was the only one we could trust. We suspect that the uprising was staged by a corporation to give cover for the retrieval of the containers. The other five containers were all moved to different secure locations throughout the CSC sector"

Lt Anderson waited for a few seconds as the image changed to a steaming bog. This is Saint John. The first CSC terraforming project, the site is now largely empty and most of the valuable components have been moved to Starview. The toxic atmosphere and sulhpur bogs have defied terraforming, and after decades of work the project has been abandoned in favor of the more pleasant Starview. There is still one Atmosphere processor active on on the planet, and there are also numerous research stations scattered around the world. The exact natures of these sites are corporate secrets."

Lt Anderson continued.

"As said earlier, there were eight containers taken from Acheron - out of which three You retrieved. Two of the containers were stored on Saint John in a research station run by Weyland-Yutanis bio-weapons division. We lost contact with this station 96 hours ago."

The display changed again and text appeared:

MISSION ORDERS - EYES ONLY

For U.S. Colonial Marines Strike Team "Byron's Bandits"

Mission Summary: Reconaissance

Site involved: Research Facility "Anubis", System/Planet Saint John

MISSION DEFINITION

Contact was lost recently with Anubis research station on the planet of Saint John. The research station is runned by Weyland-Yutanis top secret bio weapons division. Weyland-Yutani has denied to supply the Marine corps of the exact nature of this research and have required two advisors to follow the Marine strike team due to the sensetive nature of the station. This request has been aknowledged.

Priorities are as follows:
Discover why contact was lost
Determine state and condition of research station
Take steps to reduce threats to other research stations on Saint John

Suggest caution. Non-hostile response from local security personel cannot be guaranteed. Although it is imperative that strike time does not initiate in hostile action unless in self defense.

The need for low profile means that there will be no support elements attached to his mission.

Good luck
U.S. Colonial Marines high command.

"Questions?" Lt Anderson said.

>

[Quinn]

Finally, a recon mission. Sixtus thought to himself, but he did raise his hand after reading and signing the security clearance.

"Ma'am, will we have the maps of the facility? And should we expect corporate interference from a rival on this?"

[Nick]

"Data discs with maps of the facility will be handed out after the Briefing. They are in R.O.A.D format (Note: Read Once And Discard) due to the facility being classified"

"We have no intel suggesting that there are any other forces. We still do not know which Corporation sent the soldiers to Crysalis. Interrogation with the Prisoner You took there is happening as we speak..." Lt Anderson said, looking for more hands waving.

[Tyler Ishizawa]

After the lieutenant had briefed them on their next operation, Ishizawa thought hard, trying to soak in all the information. The disappearance of the Sulaco and all hands was odd, not to mention creepy. He thought more about the bio weapons facility and how it tied in with everything else. 

Ishizawa leaned over to Mongo and whispered,

"You think it might be those corporates we fought on chrysalis who are responsible for this whole mess? I mean if they were after those containers, the derelict craft could have been theirs. Sounds to me like they were carrying small pox or something and some idiot at the research station accidentally let it loose..."

[Quinn]

Sixtus kept his hand raised.

Are we to assume the presence of contaminants, and should we use our HAZMAT gear?"

[Kurosaki, Ichigo]

Kurosaki leaning back in his chair. Last mission was not a success, but it wasn't a failure.
The last day of R&R he had looked at the new squad list. Only Quinn was still with him; Collins and Hoffman were gone. No matter. He'll get the new recruits up to speed.

Kurosaki leaned over to Quinn.
"Not to many questions... She's the new lieutenant, you know."

[Nick]

Sixtus kept his hand raised.

Are we to assume the presence of contaminants, and should we use our HAZMAT gear?"

"Weyland-Yutani has assured us that their research is purely on a molecular level and the trace ammounts of agents used to test the different bio-toxins are not considered a threat unless directly injected into the body" Lt Anderson said.

[Morse]

Morse rolled his eyes at the concept. He was major cynic when it came to most things, and this was just another one of the things he just thought wasn't goin to go anyway close to the way they thought, cus nothing ever goes by the numbers.

Are we gonna have some sorta back up in this mission, or are we just gonna go by the numbers as always and hope nothin comes up like always, cus i aint one much a thinkin that we wanna be caught like a critter in the dark, don't a ya fgure? Morse asked.

His heavy southern accent made him difficult to understand at times, but his point was he was asking if there was going to be any back up.

[Obi]

Mike "Obi" O'Brien looked thoughtful, having only just been posted to 3rd squad, he tentativley raised a hand.  "LT Anderson, Ma'am, while you said that there is only a trace amount of the agents being used, and they are only are a risk unless its direct fluid contact, what is the chance of them becoming airborne?  Do we really know to the full extent of the nature of the experiments that have been conducted?"

[Apachetear]

Scanning over the mission brief, Jacob understood all he needed to know.

"Get in, look around, find evidence of whatever might have happened, get out, and don't shoot unless they shoot first. Gottit"

He blew a long plume of smoke upwards, and coughed a deep cough. He stared intently at the LT to see if there was any hint of body language that she wasn't telling the whole story.

[Kurosaki, Ichigo]

Kurosaki raised his hand.

"Will we be using FMJ rounds or LMJ rounds?"

[Dugan]

Simovic sat there ingesting the information and signed the waver when instructed to. However one question was niggling him, he addressed the Lt. "Lt. Anderson, what exactly are in those containers, surely we must have some idea? Because whatever it was it was linked to a whole colony and strike team being wiped out not to mention it has also caused a civil war to be created as a subterfuge for their recovery!"

[Nick]

Kurosaki raised his hand.

"Will we be using FMJ rounds or LMJ rounds?"

"You will be using the 10 millimeter explosive tip caseless. Standard light armor piercing round..."

Simovic sat there ingesting the information and signed the waver when instructed to. However one question was niggling him, he addressed the Lt. "Lt. Anderson, what exactly are in those containers, surely we must have some idea? Because whatever it was it was linked to a whole colony and strike team being wiped out not to mention it has also caused a civil war to be created as a subterfuge for their recovery!"

"Even I have not been given all details. Due to the extremely sensitive nature of the mission we will only be supplied with information on a need to know basis. Thats the reason why we will get two advisors with us..."

[Nick]

Scanning over the mission brief, Jacob understood all he needed to know.

"Get in, look around, find evidence of whatever might have happened, get out, and don't shoot unless they shoot first. Gottit"

He blew a long plume of smoke upwards, and coughed a deep cough. He stared intently at the LT to see if there was any hint of body language that she wasn't telling the whole story.

She was holding back if not half what she knew, than at least a third - Jacob though with a smile. Lt Anderson did not have a poker face in any sense of the word.

[eyeball]

patch surveyed the group of marines present, some new faces, some old hands, Quinn the head medic was still there, thank god, patch was not sure he was ready for that lead roll yet. but unknown agents...great just what every medic wants to hear.." yeah there is probably some contamination..but no we have no idea what it is", this mission was already sounding snafu*.

patch did have one question but he was sure it was not the kind of thing the LT wanted to hear.... did an increase in security clearance me more pay? patch thought to himself, he would check with cpl heart he was bound to know, Cpl s know everything......don't they?



*Situation Normal All Fucked Up.