Prelude

[Pale Rider]

Date:Tuesday August 8, 2179, 1200 UTC
Location: Gateway, Earth Orbit
Mission Time Index: 0:00:00

The Marines of the Easy Eights stood at attention. They were a newly minted unit for the sole purpose of investigating the whereabouts of the missing 2nd Battalion, 9th Regiment of the USCM that had been sent to Acheron. Last contact had been made by Bishop, the android Executive Officer of the Sulaco one week prior. 24 hours and the Easy Eights stood in the Marine Barracks of Gateway Station awaiting deployment.
The 8th Regiment had been dissolved following the unification of the United Americas in 2104. Now, 75 years later and the Colonial Marines were stretched thin and the thought process was to send in a unit that would not cost the United Systems and ICC too much money or manpower.

2nd Lieutenant Haydon Knutson looked out at his new command. He had just graduated from Annapolis two months prior and had been serving as a recruiter at the Gateway Station while he awaited an activity duty posting. His dark gray eyes swept over each member of platoon. He noticed the arrival of Colonel Cadence Layla Novak.
“Atten Hut,” he quickly barked his midwest accent coming through. He watched proudly as the fresh boots and the veteran Sergeant all jumped to attention.

“At ease Marines and for craps sake take a seat already. We have a mission to brief and a flight for you leatherheads to be getting onboard in less than 30 minutes.” Cadence settled down into the command chair and looked around her. The stink of new filled her nostrils and wondered if command knew what they were doing by assembling such a green unit. Not that it really mattered she thought, those decisions came from above her pay grade.

“Please hold all questions until the end. Then if you have questions we will answer them the best that we can with the intel that we have.” She paused as everyone nodded their heads in affirmative.
“Okay, at approximately 1000 we received a message from the Android Executive Officer on board the Sulaco. He stated that he was manually piloting in a dropship to LV-246 to rescue the survivors of the 9th Regiment. After that there was no further contact and no answer to any hailing.” She reached over and flipped on the hologram. “Twenty-six minutes later this appeared on our satellite feeds within the Boridino Sector.” A bright flash is seen on the farthest planetoid in the system. “We can only assume that either a nuke was released or the Atmosphere Processor overloaded.”
She stood up and began to pace back and forth as she spoke, “Twenty-four hours ago, command lost all contact with the automated systems of the Sulaco as she was enroute to return to Gateway. All transponders and tracking devices are likewise offline.” She spun on her heel and faced the marines,”You are tasked to land on Acheron somewhere at or near the colony of Hadley’s Hope. Acheron is, or rather was in the process of being terraformed so the atmosphere should still be breathable. The landscape is harsh and definitely not inviting. To the best of our knowledge there are not hostiles present. Acheron has no indigenous lifeforms. The sunlight is very limited due to a thick cloud covering so sunrise and sunset are not important factors in this mission. You will be placed in Hypersleep for the three week trip to conserve fuel needed to run the life support systems.”

She settled back down into her seat and looked around at the group. “You are all professionals and as such I expect nothing but the best from each and everyone of you. Now at this time the table is open for for discussion.” She looked down at her wrist, “You have 10 minutes for questions and 5 minutes for final prep before you are to enter your pods.”

<Tag the Easy Eights>

[Corporal Hicks]

Private Danny Sykes grinned stupidly with excitement. He grinned often, a result of his unbridled optimism. He exuded confidence and energy. Danny had been waiting a long time to go into action. He came from a military family, a long line of soldiers that he had traced back to the American Civil War. Now was his chance to prove his mettle.

He leaned forward, trying to process every word the Colonel said, but he still felt like he had missed something. Oh well, all he had to do was what he was told. He wanted to be the first to ask a question, he felt it would make him stand out to his officers. "Excuse me, Ma'am, uhh, if we think they had to nuke the planet, why are they sending in troops on the ground? What if we get, uhh, radiation? Ma'am." He felt a little nervous as her eyes landed on him.

<Tag Col. Novak>

[Pale Rider]

Novak sighed and was just barely able to refrain from rolling her eyes. "The planet's surface will be scanned before you make landfall. If perchance it was a nuke strike the Executive Officer J. Priest will access the situation and help direct Lieutenant Knutson on making the right choices. I hope that answers your question!"

<Tag Sykes>

[Medic Guy]

Private Clint McKenna was seated behind private Sykes and was glad to hear that they were going to head out on their first mission soon. He listened to the exchange between Sykes and the Colonel about the radioactivity, glad someone else had already asked the question he was prepared to ask. The answer sounded as if meant to brush off the potential danger that they were likely going into. Seems like the radiation is going to be all around that area regardless of whether there was a military strike or disaster at the site, he thought to himself.

"Ma'am...what kind of mission was the Sulaco on out there?" he asked, directing his attention to the female Colonel. "Seems like we oughta have a little more knowledge bout what's going on out there than what you just told us...Ma'am". Clint looked around trying to see how the rest of the Eights were feeling about this briefing.

<Tag Colonel and the Eights>

[Pale Rider]

"The Sulaco was out there checking on the shake and bake Colony. They were simply re-establishing contact. Beyond that you know as much as I know." Colonel Novak looked around the room. It's a crying shame that I don't know more she thought.

[JuanPerez]

Juan was assigned to the Easy Eights just two days before the briefing. He did not get close to anyone of his teammates yet. Not that he pursued that. He spent his first day doing exercises with the smartgun, mostly on his own. The call took him slightly by surprise, because he did not anticipated to be sent out on a mission that fast. But he was not here for personal convenience, orders were orders. So he got to briefing room, took his place, and listened to the briefing of the Colonel. He was a bit suprised about the vagueness of information. After two questions were asked he stood up and took his turn ...

"Ma'am, Private Perez, well, it looks like the mission of the USS Sulaco got awefull. Was there anything unusual 'bout their mission? Unusual cimcumstances or something like that?"

<Tag Colonel and Eights>

[Pale Rider]

"There was a hair brained Civilian, a former pilot actually who claimed there was a boogie man on the planet. Her entire crew was wiped out due to her inadequate reactions." She looked down at the file before her, "Her name was Ellen Ripley. Seems she spent 57 years in hypersleep. Which probably is why she was hallucinating!"
She paused for a second, "I really think it will probably be a simple case of a solar flare or something took out the communication arrays."

[JuanPerez]

"57 .... years? that qualifies for "unusual" in my opinion, Sir. And what exactly is that 'boogie man', Sir? Any more information about that subject, Sir?"

[Dirk Pitt]

Dirk sat at the back of the briefing silently listening to his new CO go over the mission briefing as the smoke from his ever present cigarette slowly drifted up towards the ceiling where it seemed to pool until the air scrubbers pulled it in and got rid of it. Crushing the cigarette on the heel of his combat boot he pulled another from the pack and lit it with the old battered Zippo he carried.

"I heard about this Ripply woman's discovery at the edge of the core system. The way I heard it she screwed up and got her crew killed. Blew up an old class M freighter while she was at it." Dirk said to no one inparticular.
<Tag anyone>

[Pale Rider]

[*]

"57 .... years? that qualifies for "unusual" in my opinion, Sir. And what exactly is that 'boogie man', Sir? Any more information about that subject, Sir?"

"Private Perez is it; let me let you in on a little secret! When someone of higher grade tells you to jump you do not question you simply JUMP! I understand you have questions. Hell, I have questions myself but when General Hooper says Novak I am giving you 16 hrs to put together a new regiment and send them to check on The Sulaco. I say sir yes sir!"

[JuanPerez]

Juan was suprised about the obvious absence of intelligence information about this matter, but he did not show it. Instead, he could read between the lines and acted accordingly ...

"Thank you, Sir. No more questions, Ma'am."

... then he sat down and did not show any signs of disaprovement, but inside he felt in between angry and pissed off, because at the end, it was the squad and himself, that would be dispatched down to the surface, facing any potential danger for real. Whereas those officer sat back in their bunkers and watched it on video. But as the colonel said, orders are orders, you take them and don't ask about it.

He mumbled to himself ....

"a boogie man? for sure."

.... but then he relaxed.

<Tag Eights>

[Corporal Hicks]

Sykes frowned slightly at the disconfirming response from the Colonel, but simply nodded to indicate she had answered his question. He listened to the other questions, trying too hard to listen and thus missing a lot. He was disappointed to hear that it was probably just a downed comms unit. His confidence shaken, he fell back on enthusiasm. "I'm ready to go! Let's make it happen guys!" he said with a grin and clapped his hands together.
<Tag anyone>

[JuanPerez]

Juan took the opportunity to look around and tried to memorize the faces of his fellow soldiers. Suddenly positive vibrations came up behind him. He turned around to Sykes and gave him the thumb-up sign ....

"Mui Bien, Hombre, i am in. Maybe those colony wifes are happy to see a bunch of handsome guys like us."

.... he said in a joking tone, grinned and looked again to the front side.

<Tag Anyone>

[Medic Guy]

Juan took the opportunity to look around and tried to memorize the faces of his fellow soldiers. Suddenly positive vibrations came up behind him. He turned around to Sykes and gave him the thumb-up sign ....

"Mui Bien, Hombre, i am in. Maybe those colony wifes are happy to see a bunch of handsome guys like us."

.... he said in a joking tone, grinned and looked again to the front side.

<Tag Anyone>

"Could be that's what caused the communications black out and why the other marines don't pick up the phone, they're too busy picking up the ladies", Clint winks towards Perez and Sykes with a grin. "Maybe this planet is colonized by a bunch of co-eds or models or something" he continues, A guy can always hope, right.

<Tag Eights>

[JuanPerez]

Juan liked McKenna's attitude, grinned to him and nodded approvingly. In a sudden, something struck him, which had worked it's way through his brain. He looked to the Colonel and stood up again ....

"Ma'am, sorry for bothering you again about this subject, but was that Lady, Ripley right, debriefed? I am courious 'bout her report?"

<Tag Anyone>