At 0300 hours, literally hundreds of dropships made Touchdown on Badger IV. While the battle in space began to die down, the zerg forces on the planet that had been dormant were now newly stimulated by the attack and preparing themselves to engage the hapless humans. The battle that was to take place would mark the first time in history that Alliance ground troops engaged the zerg. The soldiers could only concentrate on doing their job -- there were no thoughts of decisions past or making their parents proud; it was just them and the zerg now. Yet, even as the battle roared across the planet’s primary hive cluster, unseen eyes silently watched -- and waited.

****************************************************************

The G's finally subsided as the dropship broke it's momentum. A tremendous jolt rattled through the ship as it's landing gear hit the ground. In the personnel bay, the curved visors of each marine closed simultaneously.

It was show time.

The drop-doors opened and the cold air gushed in to the ship, making the bay seem like a wind tunnel.

"Go, go, go!" was all that was said over the com channel. The restraining gear of the first marine near the door lifted and he jumped out of the ship. As his feet slammed in to the rough ground below, Jareke McIntosh could hear sound coming from everywhere. A harsh wind blew across the and a cold mist seemed to clutch the ground with a death grip, inhibiting his vision. The impact of his feet hitting the ground would've shattered his legs, if he wasn't in his armor, but the armor's compensators absorbed the blow, and Jareke came out of his crouch and jogged forward. Even as he did, a second Theta force member slammed in to the ground where he had been only a moment before.

Lt. McGuire hit the dirt, and came up to survey the situation. As he moved out of the drop spot, two more marines dropped out of the ship. The voice of Hammerfall, usually an indomitable optimistic and cheerful one, came over the com, surprisingly sober.

"Give em hell, marines." And with that, the Dropship's engines revved up, and the ship slowly lifted away from them.

The squad stood in what seemed to be a field of frozen mud, and a gray haze clouded over everything, making it hard for them to see anything but each other. Around them, the noise was extraordinary. The scream of the wind, the loud roar of dropship engines, all these things broke through the armor's dampers. And, as Lt. McGuire listened, something else invaded his ears -- weapons fire. It came accompanied by another sound, just as loud; a strange, buzzing, screeching type of noise - an alien noise.

"Alright ladies, lets move!" McGuire shouted. They still had a job to do. A nav beacon appeared on each soldiers HUD as the lieutenant activated some of the mission data he'd received. The marines broke in to a run in unison, all of them headed towards the light in their helmet's display. As they jogged, the sounds of battle grew. It wasn't just that it got louder, but the marines could distinctly hear the sound grow as more and more weapons added their noise to the cacophony of battle-sounds. They ran hard and soon the mist began to part. As they looked, they began to make out muzzle-flashes and soon, individual shapes of their fellow soldiers -- marines that, until they neared touchdown, had had no clue as to what they were getting in to. The Theta force point man, Corporal Rommel, came to a ditch, which he easily jumped over. The other squad members followed suit never breaking stride. A few yards after that and the battle was upon them.

Ahead of the new arrivals, a group of four or five marines kneeled behind piles of dirt, all firing their weapons in bursts. As McGuire looked, he could see their targets - a bunch of strange, sharp edged, almost bug-like shapes in the mist, hopping and slithering along - right towards them.

"Open fire." McGuire said. Theta force burst forward, raising their rifles and blasting away at the zerg creatures. The combined muzzle flashes of the whole squad plus the marines already there created a mighty orange glow. Adrenaline pumping, McGuire took a step forward and raised his rifle. A hopping, multi-legged zerg filled his sights. He took careful aim and yanked down on the trigger. Flame seemed to burst from the rifle's muzzle as it rattled in his grip. A stream of hot adamantine spikes flew towards the zerg and slammed in to it. The creature seemed to explode and what was left of it rolled back over a hill and disappeared. His men blazed away, blasting the heck out of the zerg as they approached until none of the zerg were moving.

"Thank you sir!" said one of the kneeling marines to the leader of the reinforcements.

"Any time. Get to your nav point soldier!" McGuire said, and the other marine picked up and left.

"Let's move." Theta force charged over the dirt mounds and continued their run towards the rally point.

****************************************************

Air gushed in to the compartment as the medic squad bailed out of the ship, hitting the ground and gathering together as the ship took off. Cadence's squad leader, a fearless, strong yet compassionate woman spoke over the com.

"Alright girls, I'm loading our rally point in to your computers now. We're to meet up with a marine escort and travel with them into the combat zone."

"Ma'am, what if the zerg reach us before we find the marines???" a panicked voice responded over the com. Cadence felt a knot in her stomach because in situations like this, it was very easy for a medic to lose her head – something more dangerous than the enemy at times.

But the question was valid. They stood alone in a frozen-mud field, a strong mist obscuring their vision. The Medic's only defenses were large individual-unit ballistics shields along with their A-13 flash grenade launchers - effective but non-lethal weapons. If caught by a zerg squad, they'd be in trouble. The squad leader's voice sounded anxious, but firm. She had always been a very brave woman. Cadence respected her a lot.

"Keep your head together girl," she said. "No matter what, there’s always gonna be a chance some zerg might find us. If that happens then we do what we can then. But our chances aren't gettin any better standin here talking about it. Now c'mon girls! People are depending on us. Lets move out!"

Cadence turned and began to run towards the red light that was displayed on her HUD and looked to see that the rest of the squad was following suit. They ran hard, partly because it was smart, mostly because they were really scared. But it was hard to run over the extremely bumpy terrain. For one, they couldn't see much ahead of them through the mist, and two, the frozen mud that seemed to make up the entire field was not at all flat, random pits and molehills popped out at every turn.

As they ran, they began to see distinct flashes on their left, to the north. The farther they went, the more they saw and soon they could hear the sounds of automatic weapon fire.

Cadence looked to her HUD, and saw with relief that the numbers indicating the distance to the Nav Point were dwindling rapidly; they would be with the marine firing squad soon. But trouble loomed ahead. At first, they couldn't see anything, but as they neared the rally point they began to make out a distinct column of flames through the mist and soon, a column of smoke could be seen rising above it. The flames were sort of centered on a dark shape that grew clearer and clearer as the tired, frightened medics closed in. A dropship.

"Oh God!" one of the medic's yelped in a panicked voice. The Nav was directly on top of the ship. No questions, THIS was their marine squad.

Worried voices began to buzz over the com and the squad leader stepped out in front in a sort of dazed manner to inspect the wreckage. Cadence felt an all-too-familiar sick feeling grow in her stomach. This was bad. Very bad.

********************************************************************************

The burning, dying oven that was the late-arriving dropship finally cleared the atmosphere and plummeted towards the planet. Knowing that if he didn't act this was the end, the latecomer decided to act. He cocked his rather massive canister rifle, not remotely a standard issue weapon, and blasted several holes in the floor. The marines’ screaming threatened to break his already stretched concentration. The ship was so hot it was glowing red all over and only the crew's protective gear kept them alive. The man with the canister rifle looked down and saw, to his relief that the area he'd blown away had been correct. He fired a shot at the desired mechanism and whatever was left of the ship's reverse thrusters kicked in lessening the G's somewhat. The pressure was still extreme, but the this man was no ordinary human. He undid his harness and slowly climbed towards the cockpit. The ship was plummeting straight down and there were no grips on the floor, so he was literally climbing over the other marines on his side, using their harnesses as grips.

He reached the cockpit and allowed himself to be plastered against the wall from the force of their decent. The ground, though very far away, was coming at them fast. The man could see on the Nav console that they were going to miss their LZ by several hundred miles south. That made things somewhat convenient, he realized. The heat and the G forces threatened to knock even him out, but he refused to give in. He had a job to do. With his foot he kicked the joystick on the ship and held it there. Then he let his head fall back and hoped for the best.

****************************************************************

As the medic dropship made it's landing, the doomed dropship slowly began to break out of it's downward spiral and began to fly north, eventually evening out enough that when the ship smashed in to the ground, it stayed somewhat intact. Ironically, it managed to slide itself the rest of the way to the designated LZ.

****************************************************************

"Stay alert. Keep an eye out for hostiles!" the medic squad leader shouted. She sounded firm in her command, but you could distinctly hear the fear in her voice. The squad's morale was breaking up fast. Cadence herself began to panic as her fellow medics got more and more fearful. They had no weapons or protection and now their escort was sitting in a flaming heap.

"C'mon guys!" She said. "If we lose it we’re that much worse off. Listen to instructions and let’s keep it together!" Cadence said in a vain effort to help the squad leader keep control of the panicking medics.

Suddenly, their was a strange banging noise from behind her. Someone screamed and a second later, Cadence turned around to see the back of the downed dropship get blown free from the rest of the ship with a tremendous boom.

To the utter amazement of the medics, a slim figure managed to climb out of the hole and step out on to the frozen ground.

The figure appeared small to the medics. If they had all been out of their armor, he would have surely been taller and more built then all of them, but the Medics, and practically every other infantry unit in the field were wearing large, bulky Powered Combat Suits or larger defenses and this man was not.

He stood at about six-feet tall, with a lean, muscular build. The protective outfit he wore was far more form-fitting then the PCS’s. He seemed to be covered from neck to toe in a tight fitting dynamic suit. Special armor covered over or replaced this suit at various different places on his hands, boots, upper torso, waist, and shoulders. These area's were covered in a mix of ballistics armor and high tech devices or extra ammunition. Also, there seemed to be strange, green glowing facets on these more armored sections, on his metal boots, on the torso region and even a few on his gloves. The inner-arm portions of the gloves each seemed to be covered by a device of some sort and the devices on each arm seemed to vary, bearing a different variation of wires or buttons. Adhered to the chest and shoulder plates was what seemed to be a metal backpack that was actually part of the armor, but it had no visible openings. That was likely the suits power generator.

A slew of what seemed to be cords and wires, some very large, some smaller, came out of the top of the device on the man’s back and seemed to go directly into the back of his skull. This was not likely so, Cadence thought, because must really be connected to the back of the full-head, covering mask he wore.

The mask was an eerie thing to behold. It had the appearance of a second, metal skull being crafted around the man's head. The front of it bore no visible eye-holes, mouth pieces or air holes of any kind. Yet puffs of visible gray breath occasionally emitted from the bottom of the mask. In place of eyes, the mask bore what looked like a numerous set of different sized camera lenses that jutted out from the mask. Each lens glowed green and aside from a small glowing red light under and to the right of the lenses, there were no other variations to the mask's surface.

The final feature that made itself readily and eerily apparent about this new person's appearance were the weapons. His entire body seemed to be covered in different weapons or ammo clips. Cadence could swear she even saw what looked to be a small rocket and the hilt of a very large dagger laying side by side horizontally at the small of the man's back. And in his hands was the biggest rifle she had ever seen.

Before the Medics could ask any questions, the man spoke in a quick, flat, emotionless voice.

"There's a few more inside. Get them out, quick!"

Suddenly, the Medics snapped in to action. As one, they surged towards the smoking hole in the wrecked dropship. Her training and instincts kicking in, Cadences fears seemed to go away as she and her fellow Medics got to work.

They managed to bring out four living Marines, the only other survivors besides the man who had blown his way out of the wreck. One of them was only slightly injured, though his suit's defensive capabilities had been compromised by the ordeal. Two others had been very badly injured and one was on the verge of death. The squad leader and several others immediately got to work on the last one, while Cadence and her friend Kim got to work on one of the other two. A single medic tended to the man whose injuries were slight.

Years ago, a soldier with the type of wounds Candace was treating would've been barely savable and the man with the near-fatal wounds would have been doomed. Now, thanks to modern laser and bio-reconstructive surgery techniques, the two badly injured men would be able to fight and the seriously wounded man would survive, albeit on a stretcher, until they could get him to a hospital.

The other man in the strange suit turned away all offers of medical aid and instead stepped away from the others up on to a little molehill wear he raised his rifle and through it's scope, looked out in to the mist. Cadence and Kim were almost done working on their patient, who thanked them profusely the whole time. Kim looked up at the strange man and Cadence followed her gaze.

"What's with him?" Kim whispered.

"Dunno," Cadence said. The man's appearance was unusual and why he was here was even more of a mystery.

"Guess were gonna find out soon enough," Kim said. "Look!"

Suddenly, the man jerked his rifle towards the general direction of the main battle and began to open fire. Each shot from the rifle seemed as though it bore a tremendous kick, yet the man held it steady. Only a muffled 'whumpf' sound accompanied the obviously powerful shots.

The man fired off three rounds in quick succession, then turned back to the Medic Squad leader.

"Hurry up with that." He said in the same emotionless voice. "They'll be coming this way soon."

No one had to ask who he was referring to.

Apparently, the least injured marine was the ranking soldier, excluding the unknown sniper.

He and the medic who healed him walked up to the group where Cadence, and the other medics huddled over their patients. The squad leader and the other medics kept working furiously.

"What're we gonna do sarge?" one of the marines asked his leader. "Where are we anyways?" The marine leader's face looked more than a little shocked, but his eyes were on the sniper.

"We're right where we were supposed to be," he said in a quite voice. "I checked the map grid. We are in the exact location of our designated LZ."

The other marine gasped.

"Bu--but that's not possible!" he gulped.

"It's true," Cadence said. "We headed to our rendezvous point the minute we touched down and when we reached it, the dropship," she gestured over to the still -- burning wreck right near them, "was right there."

"But sarge, when we got hit, we were WAY above the planet! No way the ship could've accidentally landed exactly where we were aiming!" said the third marine, Cadence's patient.

"I know," the sarge said. "But it wasn't an accident. Not really. When we were burnin in the atmosphere, most of us lost consciousness. Before I blacked out I remember seeing him--" he gestured discreetly towards the sniper, who was popping off more rounds in to the mist. "blast a hole in the floor. Seemed pretty pointless. Then he got out of his seat and crawled down in to the cockpit. I think he somehow got us here."

"No way...." the second marine breathed in awe.

"Judging from your conditions upon touchdown," Cadence said with a frown, "that doesn't sound humanly possible!"

The marines were silent for a moment. Then their leader spoke again. "Yea well," his eyes were locked on the sniper, "I've always wondered about them Ghosts."

*****************************************************************************

McGuire and his squad ran on towards their new nav beacon. The sounds and sights of battle through the mist were getting clearer, and suddenly.........

McGuire saw it before it hit. A slight movement in the ground, barely noticeable in the frozen earth. He leapt out and to the side, knocking the point-man off his feet. The earth seemed to explode in a huge eruption in the spot where the point-man was about to run. In the midst of the spray and flying dirt, McGuire could see what seemed to be a long tentacle or spike sticking out of the ground, almost as tall as a man and pointing straight up. It would've impaled the point-man. Just as suddenly as it had come, the tentacle receded.

"Alert!" McGuire yelled. "Fall back a little ways, we don't wan-" but he was cut off as another series of explosions emitted in the area around them. Dirt flew everywhere, but instead of strange, killer tentacles popping out of the ground, a slew of creatures that could only be zerg emerged from the holes.

"Fire!" McGuire shouted, almost too shocked to think. Each member of the squad raised their rifles and began to fire in different directions as the zerg formed a loose semi-circle around them. Chunks of frozen ground bounced everywhere, dislodged by the bullets hitting them. The zerg weaved in and out of their fire trying to get closer and using the savagely uneven ground for cover.

McGuire raised his own rifle. He looked down its sights and put them right over a zerg warrior, a strange snakelike thing with two-bladed arms and a long tail where the legs should be. McGuire let loose and angry gouts of flame erupted from his rifle. A full stream of spent uranium spikes hit the zerg dead in it's chest before it had any time to react and it suddenly disappeared from view in a cloud of debris. McGuire turned to another zerg, this one a smaller, four legged hopping creature that was making sharp zigzags across the field yet still, rapidly approaching. Timing his shot, he sent a burst of fire at the thing and removed it's hind legs. A second burst to the torso put it down for good. His example seemed to boost the morale of the rest of the squad and they tightened up their shooting, mowing down all the zerg in the process.

"Hey Lieutenant," said Highwind, the rocket jockey and only person not shooting. "Those snake things aren't trying to close the distance at all. They just seem to let us hit them."

"I know," McGuire responded over the com, still repelling the zerg. "Intel says they might have some sort of ranged attack, and that may be the reason they ain't closing."

Sure enough, one of the snake-things got a little closer and before their eyes, two large flaps opened up on either side of it's body, each revealing rows of razor-sharp barbs. A sustained burst from McGuire's rifle silenced it before it could fire.

Suddenly, one of the marines stopped shooting and knocked the man standing next to him over and onto the ground. Before McGuire could ask what the hell he was doing, the ground next to the offending man erupted and the underground spike re-emerged, knocking the first man off his feet as well. The other men near them stepped out of the way and with good reason. The next second, the spike had shrunk back in to the ground, only to appear an instant later barely missing Corp. Highwind.

"Fall back!" McGuire shouted over the com. His men responded quickly, ceasing fire and jogging back the way they had came. They all jumped behind a large mound of dirt hoping they were far enough away from the underground spike/tentacle thing's reach.

"Sanchez, gimme somethin." McGuire ordered.

"You got it boss," a heavily Latino accented voice answered back. Sanchez, identifiable in his armor only by the insignia on his shoulder got up into a crouch and peeked over the hill. The emblem on Sanchez's armor resembled a large fat cigar blasting off like a missile. Near the cigar's top was a small nuclear symbol. McGuire had chosen him to search their position because he had exceptionally good eyes.

"Uh, I think I got somethin here boss." He said after a moment. McGuire peeked up over the lip of the mound and strained to look in to the mist.

"It's all the way back there, man, maybe 15, 20 clicks dead ahead. S'the only thing that's movin man."

McGuire saw it. What he had mistaken for a large mound of dirt thirty yards away was actually moving, and was apparently the source of the underground tentacles. Now that he looked, he could see the thing move and throb every now and then and he noticed a pinkish brown tint that he hadn't recognized before.

"Looks like that's our....uh....man." McGuire said. "Highwind, gimme a crater!"

Not having fired a shot since touchdown, the young rocket jockey felt excitement well within him. Still behind the mound, he hoisted his missile launcher up on to his shoulder kneeled on one knee. He looked in to the weapons electronic sights and a cursor began to hover around the view as he took aim. The crosshairs settled on the moving thing and Highwind set the lockdown button. Everything in the sights turned red and the launcher emanated a high pitched, sustained beep. Highwind pulled down on the trigger.

The area the squad occupied was immediately covered in smoke, as two missiles exploded out of the launcher and rocketed towards the target, trailed by large plumes of smoke.

"Clear!" Highwind said, and everyone ducked their heads behind the mound. A muffled explosion reported in the distance, and McGuire looked back at the target. Fire, smoke, and what looked to be a large fountain of liquid were flowing from it and chunks of debris were still falling to the ground.

"Positive contact." Highwind said smugly.

"Hey-ey-ey wait a second amigo," Sanchez said. "Uh, what if it ain't dead?"

Feeling extremely nervous, McGuire decided he'd better find out. He stepped tentatively over the mound, as the entire squad watched in anticipation. He stepped down the other side and began to slowly step out over the compromised ground.... “This’ll really suck if we’re wrong,” McGuire thought as adrenaline raced through his veins. Getting ready to jump backwards, he stomped his feet on the ground....

nothing happened. He stepped outwards with his other foot, walked around cautiously a bit but no subterranean spines rose to impale him. Flooded with relief, he turned back to the rest of the squad.

"Let's move!" He said, and they were off once again, getting closer and closer to the real battle....

*****************************************************

They had run unchallenged for what seemed like miles, but Cadence could not relax. It seemed as though there was something in the back of her mind that would not settle down, something alien and unwanted.

"Perhaps we should slow down...." Cadence's squad leader suggested. They had been running hard and even in their powered suits some of them were showing it.

"Negative." Responded the cold flat voice of what Cadence now understood to be a Ghost. The Marines they had saved had recognized him for what he was, but none of the medics had ever seen one or even a picture of one. All they had were stories and rumors; the thought of those tales made her shudder.....

Sounding irritated now, the squad leader continued. "Look, some of my people are getting tired. I don't care what or who you are but I have to look out for--"

"We are about to be attacked," the voice cut her off. "It's not organized, but a large number of zerg are moving towards us from multiple directions. They can track us. We have to reach the force rally point."

That did not sit well with the medics or marines at all.

"Attacked?" squeaked a petrified sounding medic. "How? They can't track us, its not possible..."

The com quickly filled with the scared voices of multiple people. None of them knew how the Ghost’s observation could be true. Nor did they care. The prospect that the zerg were closing on them was horrifying. All the medics had for protection other than the three healed marines with damaged armor, was the Ghost, himself which could mean everything or nothing as far as the medics knew. Not to mention they had to carry another marine that was too injured to walk. Even Cadence, who always tried to be optimistic, felt her heart sink at hearing this news.

But they could not dwell on their impending doom for long. Even as they ran, the sound of battle began to grow and they could see what looked like muzzle flashes from a hundred different rifles up ahead. Then the Marine squad leader piped in.

"Heads up, we got contact!"

Heart racing, Cadence looked around frantically, and sure enough, there it was, coming through the mist, a hopping, leaping creature that could have only been a zerg. There was a muffled rifle report and the zerg fell down dead. But even as he fell, three more shapes became visible through the fog.

Suddenly they were everywhere. A hundred bouncing, slithering forms coming on them from all directions.

"Hold!" the ghost snapped. "Defensive formation. Now." The marines snapped into action. They formed a tight box around the medics, one marine at each of three corners, the Ghost at the fourth.

"Open fire!" cried a Marine.

The air exploded with sound. The rifles roared as they spat out angry streams of fire at the incoming zerg. The medics huddled down, their body shields outward, nearly helpless. Thudding sound after thudding sound seemed to punch through the air as the Ghost rapidly dropped the zerg coming in towards him, his accuracy flawless. But despite this, the zerg continued to close in on them.

"Medics." the Ghosts voice addressed them over the com. "We need a code red distress flare, fire north at a roughly 50 degree angle." When he said north, he was clearly referring to the area ahead of them where muzzle flashes could be seen through the fog.

"Madison, load and fire!" the squad leader shouted. Cadence could see Madison as she tried to load the necessary defense flair in to her launcher. Her hands shook so badly she dropped the flare twice and still couldn't manage to get it in.

"For heaven's sake Madison, fire that FLARE!" the squad leader screamed. Gritting her teeth, Cadence let go of her shield, grabbed one of her own flares, loaded her rifle, stood and fired in the desired direction. She quickly hunched back down and retrieve her shield, while watching as the flare flew across the sky, then exploding into a bright red light, which descended very slowly towards the ground hundreds of feet away. Madison promptly abandoned loading her launcher and brought her shield back over her head.

Hopefully, the flare would get the message to their marine allies up ahead. Meanwhile, the zerg moved in dangerously close to their formation and all the sharp-shooting in the world didn't seem to stop them from coming.

"Ma'am, we need more time!" Cadence said through the com. Her squad leader responded, "Roger that. All units, prepare for Optical flare.

The Medic's standard round in their launchers were Optical flares, so there wasn't too much screwing around with readying them.

"Prepare for shut eye in 3, 2, 1!" the squad leader said. All around them, every marine and medic activated a blinder mechanism on their armor that completely impaired their vision. It also saved them from the light show that was about to come as each medic fired an Optical flare in all directions. Their were several cracking sounds and the Squad leader said, "Resume fire!"

The Marines blasted away at the zerg, but instead of resuming their mad charge to tear them to pieces, at first the zerg all just stood around looking stupid as they were blown in to mulch by the Marines gunfire. The zerg, for all their tenacity had no way of protecting themselves from the flares. They were completely blind, their retinas burned beyond repair. They began to run around, looking for something to attack but all they succeeded in doing was make things more amusing for the marines who proceeded to blast the entirety of the zerg force in to oblivion.

Suddenly, a new male voice came in over the com.

"This is first wave command. Distress signaler, please identify yourself and your situation."

"This is Medic squad 145, 1st wave, D company!" the squad leader responded. "We are surrounded by zerg forces and need reinforcements!"

"Roger that, MS 145. Reinforcements are en route now."

*************************************************************************

Sgt. Amber De'Vir gritted her teeth as the G forces played against her. Strapped in to her restraining gear, inside her siege tank, Amber had to admit that this was not the kind of seat she would have preferred to be in setting down on a planet yet untouched by humanity. But such was life.

She managed to look down to a computer near her wrist that displayed their status. Hers was the first of two tanks in the dropship, each secured and crammed in together like sardines. The first and second waves of Marines had hit the planet, and now wave three was making it's entrance. Wave three consisted of combat vehicles. Reports indicated that the marines had reached the outskirts of the zerg hive cluster, and now command was bringing in the big guns. Namely, her.

"This is the pilot," a shaky voice sounded over the com. "We’re making touchdown in one minute. Both tank crews, prepare for counter thrusters."

That meant the ride was about to get a whole lot more unpleasant.

Sure enough, Amber suddenly felt a horrifying wave of inertia as the dropship activated it's reverse thrusters to break it's own momentum. Conflicting forces rattled the ship to it's core, and the dim red lighting inside the tank coincided with that effect to make Amber very nauseous indeed. The G forces subsided, and the pilot came back on.

"Touchdown in 5.....4.....3.....2.....1, we have planet fall! Prepare for release!"

Amber knew that no matter how lousy she felt, now was the time to get it in to gear.

"Alright ladies!" came the derisive order since the entire tank crew was male except Amber. "You heard the man. Corporal, get her in gear! When that hatch opens I want us out of here!"

"Uh, ugh, ye-yea, uh, hang on a sec sarge," the man said, clearly delirious from their joyride down.

"Don't give me that," she said. She had to get them thinking straight and sharp again. They couldn't afford to dawdle. "Wake up, and when we get the go-ahead, you get us out of this ship, you hear me?"

"Uh, um, yes si-ma'm. Uh, ma'am yes ma'am. Activating engine warm-ups. Master switch engaged. Activating navigational computer."

Amber smiled. He was regaining his senses, as was the rest of the crew, they were already to begin going about their duties.

"Engines engaged. Were ready to roll out, ma'am."

"Roger that tank one," came the voice of the pilot. "Vehicle restraints released, opening exit hatch doors. Tank two reports ready, prepare to depart."

"Roger that pilot, this is Tank one, we await your signal."

She could hear the sound of machinery in the background. Everyone in the tank grew tense. This was it: combat.

"Tank one, clear out."

And with that impromptu message, the driver hit the gas and with a lurch, the siege tank rolled out of the dropship and onto the bumpy terrain below. Not that they could notice the terrain much.

"Alright driver," she said, excitement filling her up to the brim. "Step on it, we got bugs to squash!"

****************************************************

Captain Dave Wachowski and his Lance Group experienced similar discomfort in their dropship. Strapped in to the cockpit of his Goliath, Dave simply waited for the ride to end and quietly thought over his mission objectives. He decided to check in with his Lance Group, all of whom were on the dropship.

"Tiger, this is lance leader, come in, gimme your status."

A female voice responded.

"R-Roger t-that, Jackhammer. Th-this is Tiger. I'm go-good, s-sir."

Dave smirked. "You sure ‘bout that tiger?"

"R-Roger that, Jackhammer, this is one kick ass r-ride!"

"Lance two this is lance leader, come in." he continued down the line.

"Roger Jackhammer, this is Bushwhacker. All's f-fine he-er-re si-s-sir."

The dropship had just gone through some pretty heavy gyrations as the man was finishing his report.

"Burnout this is lance leader. What is your status, over?"

"Lance leader this is Burnout," a rather exuberant voice responded. "Sir, can we do that again sir?" he asked as the dropship began to settle.

"Affirmative Burnout. This is lance leader to all units, I can feel the releases comin off ladies and gents. Lock and load!"

Each member responded, and before his eyes, the dropship doors opened, allowing Dave to step on out. He activated his engines and started the warm-ups.

"Lets rock and roll boys."

************************************************

Finally, inside one of the smallest vehicle waves, four vulture pilots sat strapped in to their vehicles, each one of them capable of looking at his buddies and seeing if they were hurling and each one ready to hit the dirt and cause some havoc. It took a certain type of recklessness to be a vulture pilot. Sgt. Tommy "Tomahawk" Pierce looked over to the guy next to him as the G forces shook their ship.

"How you think McNairs doin?" he said, grinning despite the G's.

"If he hasn't egressed that spaghetti from last night yet," said a gruff yet amused voice, "I'll be shocked."

"Hehe, yea." Tommy said. Their vulture squad was split in to two halves, four on one dropship, four on the other. McNair was a tough dude sometimes, but the squad enjoyed guessing how long it would take for him to lose his stomach, a frequent occurrence.

The G's finally subsided. Red flashing lights played across the innards of the ship. A warning klaxon sounded, echoing off the walls. The exit doors began to separate, and even before they were completely open, each vulture pilot had slammed down on their throttle.

Tom was blasted back in to his seat as the vultures blasted out of the ship's hatch, doing airborne "wheelies" the whole way. Their hover pods' force-fields made contact with the ground with a violent jerk, but they did not paused for a millisecond before the were rocketing off towards the distant battlefield, traveling at near 200 mph, completely unhindered by the rough terrain. The four hover bikes zoomed in a loose formation towards the nav point, and were soon joined by four more vehicles.

"Yeeeehhaaawww!" someone yelled over the radio. Another turned on an electronic music player and heavy metal music jammed through their headsets as they sped along. Suddenly, a voice that did not belong to anyone in their squad emitted over their frequency.

"This is Wave one command, contacting Vulture squad S-0. Come in, S-0."

Surprised, the leader answered in his usually rough voice. "Uh, this is S-0. We read ya. What'dya want, command?"

"We need you to make a slight course adjustment, S-0." the other voice said. "A few medics in a bit of a rough spot. Give em support and then head back to your designated rally point."

A silence came over the channel. Vulture pilots had a tendency to not answer when spoken to-just to be difficult. Yet they were already changing their course to the new heading when the voice said;

"Uh, S-0, please come in and confirm-"

"Yea yea, I'm goin!" the squad leader barked. He cut off the tactical command frequency and everyone laughed.

"Time to save us some helpless, little medics!" Tommy shouted and the vultures screamed on towards battle.

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Many zerg had died but more seemed to keep coming from all directions. The optical flares had bought them time, but that time was running out.

"Where the hell are the reinforcements???" shouted one marine.

"Yea," barked another. "I'm gettin low on ammo!"

"Shut up and shoot." said a cold and emotionless voice. The marines promptly complied.

But Cadence had to wonder. It had been almost ten minutes since battlefield command had promised aid, and yet none was showing.....

Then she heard it. It started out as a low whine, barely audible over the sounds of the Marine's machine guns. But it steadily grew in to a loud drone and, finally, a near deafening roar. Then one of the Marines said, "Look!"

Everyone's eyes turned south, and coming out of the mist, were a mass of dark shapes approaching rapidly. Cadence noticed that none of the approaching shadows were touching the ground.....

"Hang on, leeetle darlins! The calvary's arrived!" announced a new, unsavory, gruff voice. "Thiiiss is squad leader 1st Sgt. Myles Hogskins from vulture squadron S-0, and Imma gonna be your official savior for today!"

The medic next to Cadence groaned. "Vultures." she said. "Had to be Vultures....."

But the aid they lent to the battle was soon apparent. A series of flashes emitted from the line of incoming vultures and Cadence could barely make out several small shapes flying through the air. The area around the medics and marines abruptly began to explode, as dozens of anti-personnel grenades dropped down on to the incoming zerg.

"Now's our chance, lets move!" said the marine squad leader. Everyone got up and began to run and as they did the vultures reached them, zoomed by at breakneck speed, and kept on going past. As Cadence got up to run, though, one of the vulture pilots pulled his bike up short. He was wearing light body armor and a helmet with a visor. He quickly tore the thing off, revealing a gruff, yet somewhat handsome face underneath. Cadence wondered what the man was doing, but he wasn't looking at or interested in her. He was staring at the ghost, who was popping a last few shots into the few surviving zerg.

"No way..." he breathed, staring with an astonished, scared look on his face.

"Hey you! Get your butt in gear! Don't just stand there!" she shouted. He seemed to snap out of his trance. Somewhat shocked and bewildered, he looked to see who had addressed him.

"C'mon, lets get out of here before more come!" she said and with that, Cadence took off at full speed, running to catch up with the others. Realizing the truth behind her words, Tommy Pierce slammed his helmet back on and yanked on the throttle, rocketing off at high speed towards the action.

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The primary force of marines had stopped outside of the perimeter of the zerg hive cluster and were engaged in fierce battle with the defending zerg as Theta Force, the Medics, and various reinforcements of vehicles and marines began to arrive. The newcomers looked out at the hive cluster as it became more and more visible as the mist finally began to part. It was a labyrinth of structures, most of which appeared to be dilapidated terran buildings. Interspersed throughout the entire compound was a variety of forms of zerg infestation: large, festering living structures, millions of tentacles wrapping around and poking through steel terran-built walls. And, far, far, back in the core of the massive, infested, jungle-like compound, were three large biological spires, identifying the heart of the zerg Lair. It was a scary prospect; plunging into that mess and battling the zerg till not a single one survived. It would be tough, the marines knew, yet they diligently fought on and prepared to enter what they would eventually come to call Bug City.