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Defense of the colonies: Prologue
Posted By: just another 8th grader<m6stuart@yahoo.com>
Date: 6 November 2005, 3:08 am
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0700 Hours, May 14th 2552 (Military Calendar)
Fort George Robinson,
Restricted Planet name/ System
2nd Lieutenant Michael Louis walked briskly walked across the parade grounds to Barracks Five. He had just been transferred in from the Annapolis naval academy to fill a vacant command position in the newly formed 365th airborne Calvary Division, 4th battalion, Fox Company, 3rd platoon to be specific. He had received his orders from the CP, and was heading towards his new twenty-six man platoon, most of them fresh from boot camp. He reached a concrete building that read 5 on the side. He walked in and got his first look at the men he would command. Louis's presence went unnoticed, some men idly chatted, a lance corporal was cleaning his sniper rifle, and another five were playing Texas hold'em. Only one noticed his presence, a small female sergeant. She hopped of her bunk and straightened her back
"Officer on deck!" she yelled, snapping a salute towards Louis, the other men followed.
"At ease men," Louis answered, returning the salutes. A grizzled sergeant walked up and eyed him over,
"With all do respect sir, who the hell are you," he asked, his voice had a strange pitch to it.
"I, sergeant, am Lieutenant Michael Louis, your platoon leader, who are you?"
"Gunnery sergeant Jacob," he spit out a dip of tobacco "Ferdinand, and I've been in marines since 2445,"
"Alright, glad to be in your presence gunny," With that Michael walked down the rows of bunks and chose an open one between the female sergeant and the lance corporal with the rifle. He shoved his foot locker under the bottom bunk and sat down.
"Lauren Winters," the Teen said, extending her hand "and that's Patrick Connor," she said pointing to the sniper, who still hadn't taken his eyes off the S2 AM.
"Michael Louis, glad to meet you Lauren," Louis responded shaking her hand.
"When did you get here?" he asked
"A good twelve hours before you, where did you come from?"
"Straight from Annapolis, got my orders twelve hours after I got my silver bar," he said pointing to his insignia. "How'd you get to sergeant so fast, you can't be more than eighteen," he asked staring at the teen.
"Dropped out of high school with Connors, and after we got out of boot camp, they promoted me from private to buck sergeant, and him to lance corporal,"
"well if you don't mind sergeant, I didn't get much sleep in slip space or the pelican, I'm going to catch some shut-eye,"
Three weeks later
In the last few weeks Louis got to know his comrades as they learned to drive, and properly dismount a pelican. The twenty six men were all loaded into the back of a pelican speeding over a thick pine forest, heading towards a small clearing about a click ahead. It was their final exercise, where they, and the rest of Fox Company, would take on Bravo Company. All the men were armed with replicas of their normal weapons, only loaded with darts instead of bullets. The pilot throttled down the engines as they quickly approached the LZ, then pointed the thruster down, entering a hover. The men jumped the remaining five feet and set up a defensive perimeter around the clearing, Louis being the last off. Louis's pelican was followed by another three, ferrying the rest of the company in. As the last landed Captain Williams rushed out and signaled his four lieutenants over. He had a small aerial map of the target, a mock orbital gun generator facility.
"Alright men, this one isn't going to be easy," the Captain started. "I want platoon one and two here and here, providing covering fire for platoon three and four. Louis, I want you to use the woods to flank around to the back of the facility, Gomez I want you to flank to the side, and draw their fire," he said pointing to the map.
"Move out, bravo formation," he ordered. The four lieutenants scurried back to their men, explained and then the group set off. They marched routinely through the thick forest, until Sergeant Winters collapsed a red dart in her neck.
"Ambush!" Louis yelled diving to the ground. A swarm of red darts flew over, like a swarm of angry yellow jackets. Michael brought up his MA5B and scanned for targets. He spotted a man in a tree and fired a dart into his chest. Then he found another hiding behind a large Douglas Fir, fired and knocked him out.
"That's all of them," Connors yelled, peering down his scope.
"They might have radioed our position, double time it," Williams called over the radio. Louis ran to winter's limp body, threw her gun to Gunny Ferdinand, and hefted her lean 130 pound body over his shoulder. The hundred man group ran through the forest until they reached a huge clearing, in the center of which was a cluster of concrete buildings.
"All right, Louis and Gomez, it is now 1655 hours, we will open fire at 1710 hours, Louis and Gomez Attack at 1711 hours, and Louis, leave the casualty with us," Williams instructed, as he looked at his watch. The two second lieutenants ran to their men, updated the situation, and then started to sprint to their respective spots in the forest.
1705 Hours
"Connors, where do you think you can cover us best?" Louis asked, still panting from running two miles in ten minutes
"Uh, one of those trees, sir" he responded, equally as flustered from carrying the heavy S2 AM sniper rifle on his back.
"OK, make it happen, everyone else, I'll go first and throw a smoke grenade to cover you, when it pops I want the rest of you to follow. When we get their clear the bunkers, then finish off anyone else," the next five minutes felt like an eternity to Michael. His watch read 1710 hours,
"Go time," he muttered. He popped up and began to run across the field, about halfway he pulled the pin out of a cylindrical can and tossed it ahead of him. He reached the first building and stopped at the first wall, he peeked out and the compound was empty space a single sentry. The sentry dropped suddenly, with a dart in his neck, the work of Connors. Louis popped out and sprinted to the first pill box. He found two men in it firing at Gomez's platoon, he brought up his MA5B and fired two darts into each of them. He then continued to the second pill box, and threw in a flash bang, then popped into the door way and shot the two riflemen. His men had reached the compound now and were clearing buildings. Michael was clearing his fourth bunker when he felt his left arm go numb, a dart had grazed it. He turned around to find two of the enemy firing at him. He dove into the insta-crete bunker and stuck his gun around the corner, firing into the direction of the aggressors, his left arm completely limp. He dropped his rifle, prepped a flash grenade and tossed it outside, then waited. He heard a popping sound then popped out putting two darts in each of the stunned soldiers. Then privates Gonzalez and Jackson cleared the remaining two bunkers, effectively ending the resistance. All around his men Started yelling Clear!, stating that all enemies had been neutralized. The other men in the company had already cleared the field, bringing the wounded with them.
Captain Williams walked up with a grin on his face.
"Good job Louis, expertly accomplished," he exclaimed.
"Thank you Sir, any idea when I can use my arm again," Louis responded, gesturing to his motionless arm.
"Never, we'll have to cut it off," Williams responded with a chuckle.
"and the, um, KIA?" Louis asked referring to the people who had been darted.
"The antidote is in the "Generator" Gomez is getting it now," Williams answered referring to the large concrete building at the back of the enemy base. A minute later the man returned with a large wooden box. Over the next half an hour the antidote was distributed through out the "KIA".
June 7th
Michael "Red" Louis, stepped of the back of the pelican, and admired the cavernous hangar. It turned out that Gunnery Sergeant Ferdinand enlistment had ended, and he had already served the maximum for enlisted men, He would be on his way home. The short hop from planet to ship ended in Hangar 1A, on the Destroyer Fujikawa, named for the co-creator of the Shaw-Fujikawa trans-light drive. His unit was to help defend the inner colonies. Word was they were headed to the Olympian system of colonies to defend against any attacks.
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