Turn 6 - South of heaven

The 11th campaign
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Nick
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Turn 6 - South of heaven

Post by Nick » Tue May 03, 2011 6:50 pm

Unidentified Asteroid, near space trade lane, In vicinity of communications relay
Mission timer: 00.55.15

The ticker past 55 minutes and Lt Ericson gave up a sigh. The suits were bulky and it was hard to stand comfortable in them as the heavy life support system forced her to lean slightly forward. A strand of hair had slipped out from beneath her hood and the fan that blew cool air over her face whisped it around on her cheek - Insanely irritating to have something that constantly tickled her face, completely unable to correct it. But the fan did it is work, she was hot but still she didn't have any persperation dropping into her eyes at least.

She glanced over her should towards the now open door some hundred meters away. It was pitch black. It had been over 30 minuters since the USS Corrado Marine platoon entered the tomb. She tried to straighten up to relieve her back slightly but immidiately the life support backpack pulled her backwards and she had to lean forward not to fall over.

She cursed through gritted teeth. Lt Ericson was well trained and in very good physical shape, but she was the runner type - Longer and with a smaller frame. Her muscles were not made for static support of heavy loads. Her neck ached and her back screamed at her to straighten out, but she couldn't.

Suddenly she was ripped out of her negative thought pattern by a static riddled with interruptions. It was a transmission but badly distorted. She made out a few words but they didn't make any sense. A surge of adrenaline struck her in the belly like a balled fist. "Hellbenders come in, this is Easy eights over" Lt Ericsons voice sounded nasal and brittle as her own voice was transmitted back to her through her headset. She waved off a thought that she sounded like a little scared school girl, not some awe inspiring lieutenant of the colonial marine corps. Another burst of static, stronger this time with more clear interruptions, almost staccato like. Lt Ericson started to move towards the tombs mouth to get a better transmission.

"Shit we should have setup a relay near the door" she cursed the Hellbender platoon commander who didn't want to wait for her to retrieve one from USS Costaguana. She moved towards the tomb, noticing how the other marines looked at her. They didn't have the platoon command channel tuned.

She brought her arm up and pressed a button opening a channel to the squadleaders only. "We could have trouble..." She said shortly, trying to not to sound too "schoolgirlish" when the talked.

Lt Ericson reached the tombs mouth. A few seconds ticked past and she stared into the black mouth. She turned her shoulder light on and a bluish beam pierced the darkness. The corridor in front was square and absolutely smooth, the walls were almost glasslike. Whatever cut this had precision, it must have been some kind of laser mine drill. When her light moved slightly to the side she could see that there were images on the walls - Holograms that moved when you looked at them from different angles. She had seen this on ancient credit cards her uncle had collected, appearantly they used these holograms as some sort of counterfiet back in the 21st century. Amazing. The pictures were of strange shapes and wierd looking figures. She couldn't see very well from a distance.

Another static burst came through her earpice, this time much much clearer. She could hear people talking and shouting without making out exactly what they said. Then the staccato came again, it sounded eerily familiar. Then it dawned on her, it was fire from a pulse rifle!

She flicked the platoon channel "Get your asses here right fucking now! Follow me!" she screamed as she launched herself into the tunnel, flicking the safety off on her pulse rifle in the same movement.

<actions>

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Re: Turn 6 - South of heaven

Post by maxvale76 » Wed May 04, 2011 10:31 pm

Samantha Hall was getting quite bored. Sure; at first the sheer magnitude of the situation; being on an asteroid with a pheonominal view of space all around was enough to keep her occupied in a sort of awe-inspiring way for a little while; but then the reality of being on guard duty in a heavy EVA suit became quite dull.

Sam caught herself absent-mindedly counting stars when she noticed LT Ericson moving towards the "door-way". Shaking her head a bit to clear the cob-webs, she wondered what was going on. When the LT said that there 'might be trouble'; her heart-rate began to increase and she put her M41 into the ready position and looked all around the asteroid to ensure that nothing was approaching them from any direction.

When she saw nothing and looked back to see the 'El-tee' standing in the hatchway; she began to think the officer was starting to go a little 'space-happy' and then the LT's panicked voice yelled out for the platoon to follow her as she raced into the tunnel.

Flicking off the safety of her Pulse Rifle; Samantha looked over to see what her squad-leader Corporal Quinn's orders would be.

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Re: Turn 6 - South of heaven

Post by Duncan » Thu May 05, 2011 12:27 am

Duncan's apprehension had disappeared in the 45 minutes they had been standing guard. His thoughts drifted towards the wiseass comments he didn't speak aloud. Sir, I've discovered rocks! My god, there's more over there! It's an ambush! He gave a soft chuckle, heard only in the helmet.

His enjoyment was cut short by the CO's orders. At first, he thought he had left his microphone on and she heard his laugh. He quickly realized the that the platoon was being called to the doorway, and hauled ass. Duncan paced his movement, to close the distance as fast as possible in the low-G environment. He knew something had to have gone wrong in the object.

Despite every survival instinct warning against it, Duncan followed the officer into the tunnel.

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Re: Turn 6 - South of heaven

Post by Quinn » Thu May 05, 2011 2:21 am

Quinn was settling into being the squad leader, but the Marines under his command knew their stuff and required little actual babysitting. His squad held the innermost perimeter, as First Squad was typically the Lieutenant's bitch... rather, go-fer squad. Also usually the one that kept the commander alive.

When the Lieutenant moved into the tunnel and reported out that there might be some trouble, Quinn flicked the safety off his pulse rifle. If there was atmosphere, there would have been the tell-tale CLICK of the weapon being set to it's fully automatic setting. He kept his eyes on her

When she screamed for them to follow and plunged inside, Quinn barked "Ma'am, wait!" but she was gone by then.

Swearing sulfurously, Quinn moved inside the tunnel as he switched over to the squad channel. "God dammit, Sam, on point, double march! Watch your fire, there's friendlies in there."

Today was not turning out to be good.

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Re: Turn 6 - South of heaven

Post by Obi » Thu May 05, 2011 5:12 am

After First Squad had finished their perimeter sweep, they hunkered down and took overwatch position close to the structure. Obi took a knee and leaned up against a outcropping of rock and maintained a visual watch outwards. Without looking he knew the remainder of First Squad was spread out in a loose line in covering positions.

A commotion behind him caused Obi to turn around just in time to see the LT charging in the tunnel. Quinns voice barked through his headset as he called out to their platoon leader. Oh great, what the fuck is going on now. So much for it being a walk in the park. Obi sighed as Quinn charged after the LT. Picking himself up Obi ran after the Medic and Sam, who was taking point.

"Quinn, i'll take tail end charlie and watch our six. What the fuck is going on? Why did the LT go charging of for?" Obi called out as he followed the rest of the squad into the tunnel.

I have a really bad feeling about this. Obi thought as the darkness surrounded him.
CPL Mike "Obi" O'Brien
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Morse
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Re: Turn 6 - South of heaven

Post by Morse » Thu May 05, 2011 6:47 am

Morse was in some ways surprised and yet unsurprised about the call that they might have trouble. He was surprised that anything out on this mission was giving them trouble, since nothing was likely to when they went out as far as he was concerned. Unfortunately this was always countered by their units constant troubles. It was getting to the point where he wasn't bothered by the USCM's miserable track record recently. Morse budget cuts, and lack of staff was always what it was, where as the people they went up against had the exact opposite sort of noise. So was it fair, no, did he have a choice, not from the moment he signed up. But then choices were relative, because if you made any choice outside of what the corps wanted, you were left for dead, killed on the spot, thrown in prison, or had your memory wiped. Sometimes all of those happened, given certain penal rocks. He hadn't bothered with staying too far away from the group, and kept the squad in the same point. He had never really been in any group that wasn't a support squad, so as far as he was concerned, this squad filled with new people were nothing more then getting a crash course in how to not get sent into terrible situations all the time. That's why Morse liked being support, because he never went in first, and he was never the last one out.

Then came the worse news of larger problems. He wasn't quite sure what was going on but whatever it was he still felt like they shouldn't get involved. Colonial Marine Corps seemed to imply that they should stick to the colonies, not dead rocks with things that they didn't understand. That didn't seem to fit much into the jurisdiction.

"Does runnin' inta the tunnel at' we don't no goes no where seem like a good idea?" Morse asked openly wanting to know if he was the only one that found this to be a bad idea given they were outside, and the trouble was clearly inside, and that they shouldn't be going that way.

< Tag All.

But at the same time he was already running in on reflex. "One a you assholes in front." Morse said moving over to the right. "Another in back." Morse had come to the conclusion he would no longer be able to remain as rear guard, but he'd then stay on the right since he liked it better then left. He moved in with the rest, and presumed his squad would form around him.

< Tag 2nd

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Re: Turn 6 - South of heaven

Post by Quinn » Thu May 05, 2011 7:46 am

"Quinn, i'll take tail end charlie and watch our six. What the fuck is going on? Why did the LT go charging of for?" Obi called out as he followed the rest of the squad into the tunnel.
"You know as much as I do." Quinn replied. He flipped down his IR eyepiece and turned on his shoulder-mounted light. "Eyepieces down and lamps on. Eyes open and cover each other."

<tag squad>
"Does runnin' inta the tunnel at' we don't no goes no where seem like a good idea?" Morse asked openly wanting to know if he was the only one that found this to be a bad idea given they were outside, and the trouble was clearly inside, and that they shouldn't be going that way.
"Apparently Butterbars thought so." Quinn growled in response. "She told us to follow, so we gotta go." Quinn entered behind Sam, his light piercing the darkness in a thin shaft of white.

<tag squad leaders>

"Lieutenant, Echo-Eight-One Actual. Stop running and wait for us. You might be running into an ambush!" Quinn radioed to the woman fleeing ahead of them. He caught himself enough not to add "you idiot" onto the end of the sentence.

<tag LT>

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Re: Turn 6 - South of heaven

Post by Nick » Thu May 05, 2011 8:23 am

Lt Ericson moved quickly down the slightly sloping glassy surface of the tunnel. What struck her almost immidiately was that she felt extremely heavy all the sudden. This place had artificial gravity! That didn't help her however as her heavy moonboots skid on the extremely smooth surface. The already confusing world of darkness, dark green walls and blueish shoulder light became even more confusing as it whirled in front of her eyes. She fell over and immidiately started skidding on her back down the slope. She cursed her stupidity, rushing head long into the thick of things. This was a rookie misstake, but on the other hand she were a rookie. She had only limited experience, with no real combat drops prior to this one.

Lt Ericson came to a stop at the bottom of the corridor. A small rooom with two large doors, reminding of the door that had been outside. Lt Ericson rolled over to her belly and started the cumbersome movement to get to her feet with a full space suit. She saw the lights of the marines hurrying down the slope towards her, and she felt a surge of guilt and fear. Some of these marines were bad ass beyond the state of the bad ass art. She had heard about the Easy eights and it was no without a slight apprehension she had accepted the assignment. She fully expected one of the marines to smash her face shield with the butt of his M41 as the Marines came down one after another.

She decided to not let that opportunity arise. "Squad 1 and squad 2 cover those doors, squad 3 see if you can get one of these doors to open."

The room they found themselves in was a square in shape with two doors facing eachother on the adjacent walls. The corridor that lead to the surface was on one side and facing it were a huge smooth wall. The wall had a similar holographic effect as the other walls had when shone upon with a light. Lt Ericson saw to it that the marines covered the doors and moved towards the large wall with her shoulder light. The wall reacted and seemingly deep within the dark green glass like surface a huge galactic wheel appeared. There were markings and odd symbols, probably some kind of writing. Lt Ericson had seen these kind of symbols before somewhere but could not put a finger on where. They looked like triangles, put next to each other, moved upside down and to the sides. Lt Ericson thought for a few more seconds then she realized she was looking at cuneiform writing. The same kind of writing the summerians had used around 30 BC on earth! It was the earliest known writing of mankind.

"This is cuneiform! Amazing! We need to get Monk here!" Lt Ericson said and moved closer to the wall.

<actions>

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Re: Turn 6 - South of heaven

Post by Marcus » Thu May 05, 2011 1:20 pm

As the rest of the marines, and his squad, ran down into the tunnel Markus pressed his hand against the side of his helmet, opening a channel to the Costaguana. He was standing at the mouth of the cavern, looking down at the backs of his comrades.

"Monk? Private Waneright. We're going underground, into a tunnel at this posistion. If you could drop a relay or UAV it into position right round here, where I'm transmitting." He checked and gave more accurate headings. "That'd be advisable."

<Tag Monk>

He ran after his group, surprised at the sudden artificual gravity but none the same a little disturbed by how articulate and well constructed the walls were.

He finally caught up with the group to catch the LT observing the scratchings on the wall, and Monk.

"I sent Monk a shout out to drop a relay. Hope he caught it." The real question is if the Constaguana was given UAVs that could drop a relay. He didn't doubt it, and in Zero-G it'd be easier to fly the little buggers.

"So..." He looked around. "How'd the other guys open their door?" He walked up to one and ran a hand over it.

<tag: anyone>

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rednus
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Re: Turn 6 - South of heaven

Post by rednus » Thu May 05, 2011 1:33 pm

As the ancient cuneiform writhed to life under the shoulder lamps of the moving marines, Rednus began to feel as though he was standing in a place of worship, and possibly, the thought crossed him, a tomb.

"Cuneiform? What the fuck are Sumerians doing out here?!" he exclaimed before remembering himself and adding "sir".

After a few seconds, intelligence returned to Chappells mind, and a disturbing thought entered along with it.
Sumerians hadn't been here, they're teachers had...

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Re: Turn 6 - South of heaven

Post by Morse » Thu May 05, 2011 5:07 pm

Morse was very good at following orders. However Morse was very bad at doing it without question. So the whole moment they followed he was constantly wondering why they were doing it, and that they should turn around. He kept his squad moving slower then the others, because full charges on three squads would be a bad idea, and he was thinking they were support as it was. They made there way to where they were headed, and on the order to cover the doors they were at, Morse instantly turned around to cover the direction they'd just come from. This was all routine, if there wasn't danger, this was what he did.

As he held the position, presuming his squad to do the same, he heard something he didn't want to. Someone who wasn't in the squad leaders, or of the officers that was making a support call. This was not something Morse ever liked. The amount of times that he'd heard calls for air support or things like this, he couldn't stand. It wound up giving their position away, wasting materials, half the time the things didn't work, and it was a pointless thing as it was. But at that point he realized it was one of his own squad, and now he was in a position to do something about it.

"And you aint never gonna do it again Fuck nut" Morse yelled at the private that had just called for the support. "Aint none a ya's done been up in an actial combat I'm figurin' so you get this bit a spit through yer brain." Morse didn't care about the chain of command a lot of the time, but he did believe that the higher ranks, namely things at sergeant or higher should make those calls. "You don't never do that shit lessn' someones done told ya to do it, understand Private!?" Morse yelled. This platoon had a structure, and people at the squad level weren't the idea people, because almost every single time they came up with the bad ideas.

< Tag Marcus

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Re: Turn 6 - South of heaven

Post by Quinn » Thu May 05, 2011 6:12 pm

When Sixtus slid down the incline, his boots slipping on the floor, he noticed that there was artificial gravity in here. That would change things definitely. When he and his squad came to a halt, Lieutenant Ericson immediately began issuing orders. He sighed in frustration, then activated his squad's tacnet.

"First squad, stack up on the left-hand door." Sixtus pointed at it, in case the Marines got mixed up in here.

<tag first squad>

He activated a private comm channel to the Lieutenant then as he took a position behind Obi, his hand resting on the shoulder of his squadmate.

"Ma'am, a bit of friendly and unofficial advice? Please let us go first next time." he said in a quiet voice, his pulse rifle low at his side.

<tag LT>

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Re: Turn 6 - South of heaven

Post by Nick » Thu May 05, 2011 8:04 pm

Lt Ericson replied "Noted...any suggestions what to do next?"

<tag chappell>

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Re: Turn 6 - South of heaven

Post by Marcus » Thu May 05, 2011 8:12 pm

Marcus didn't speak while he was being chewed out, he just noted his overstepping and listened to Morse roar over the comms. It was strange, the slight lag of the voice and his howling face through their face plates.

He almost felt the urge to smile.

At the end of the tirade Marcus nodded, "Yes, Sir." The response was solid, not snarky or flaky or anything. He'd made an error, it was done. Hold position.

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Re: Turn 6 - South of heaven

Post by rednus » Thu May 05, 2011 8:15 pm

Lt Ericson replied "Noted...any suggestions what to do next?
"no sir... short of spouting off a few of they're gods or temple names, I really cant help, though I'm willing to try" replied Rednus now in the position ordered of him. "The others got in there somehow though, so I doubt its anything activated by speech, maybe they were already open and closed behind the Hellbenders."

<Tag LT>

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