Roy wiped an underarm long worm 2

Roy wiped an underarm long worm like creature with a round sucking mouth from the face shield of his Quasimodo – D Type. His suit was covered with at least a dozen of them,along with dark green almost black algae as he sloshed through the hip high brackish water.

About six meters to his left was PFC Robert Dunn, the Squad's SAW man , carrying his heavy TKU -SII Fafnyr in his agumented arms and he cursed over team channel.“This mud ball is an exceptional bad shit hole. How are we supposed to find Whakeys if we don't know how they look like?”

“You sing the same song every time we go dirt side.” Roy replied on the same channel. “Now quit complaining and keep your eyes in the game and your mind on track. We are bound to run into those Whakeys eventually.”

“Yes Lieutenant.”

Roy had his team walk in a loose diamond formation and as it was his habit in his short but eventful military career, he took point. To his left was Corporal Eugovhr, a Pertharian who was part of the Squad's Artillery support (SAS) and with his Trajectory Attack Mortar he could engage enemy fortifications, columns and other targets with a variety of nasty payloads.

The Pertharian added his comment saying. “With a little luck we find out that they are gone and we can go back to the Stryker. I could sure use a few extra hours of shut eye.”

PFC Nine-Nine-Two bringing up the rear said. “Some rest would be nice indeed.”

Roy kept an eye on his threat sensor, the sensors showed nothing artificial or sentient within 20 clicks, but that meant little. They were on the hunt to find members of a new species,no one had heard or seen before, well no one on Union Side of course,

The Kermac were retreating now for the last three years and most of the fighting happened in space. Roy and his Platoon could barely remember how many ships and enemy stations they had boarded. There was no one in the known galaxy doubting that the Union would win this war.

It had started just about four years ago, caused by a Kermac attack on his home planet Green Hell and escalated as it came to light that the Union Predisent himself was a Kermac spy.

Much had happened to Roy ever since: a small odyssey half across Union Space, his time on Sares Prime and the Wurgus affair at Pluribus. All this happened less than 4 years ago and yet it appeared to him as if it happened a life time ago.

He expected the war to be over by the time he was done with boot camp and academy, but they were still fighting the Kermac now, almost exactly a full year after he graduated.

One of the reasons was the fact that space was so darn big and that it took ships and fleets weeks and sometimes month to reach their destination. Out here beyond Union Space, without Space Trains and Hyper Jump Highways, travel was much slower. Another reason for the War dragging on was the fact that Command was taking it slowly ant methodically..

Of course the Kermac, leading the Galactic Council were not rolling over and surrender.

Almost every week were news about a new previously unknown Thrall species thrown into the fight by their Kermac masters.

Now if it was up to the Eternal Warrior the war would have been over, and every enemy world orbital bombed including Kermac Prime, but that was not the Union way. Since it was believed that most Thrall species of the GC did not fight on their own free will, but where forced either by the Kermac Psi powers or by other means.

It was by Assembly decission that every time a new species appeared, it had to be determined how they were controlled, before they could be attacked and destroyed unrestricted.

This was done mainly due to the X101 who once had been a Thrall species of the Kermac and argued that other species should get the same chance.

This was the reason Roy and his team were here on this wet, swamp world because a few days ago fleet ran into a new species.

Scuddlebutt had it, they were similar to the Y'All. Incredibly powerful and relentless. Creatures able to go toe to toe with a Marine wearing a Quasimodo.

Roy had learned not to pay to much attention to Scuttlebutt as it almost always was completley wrong and out of proportion. Not even a real Y'All could have fought a Marine in a Quasimodo.

In their briefing before they dropped on this world, he was told that NAVINT believed six or seven space ships of this new species had entered this system and had not left so far.

So this morning he and his platoon orbit jumped on this planet where Intel assumed Whakeys had a stronghold of some kind. The eight fleet was in full strenght in the system to make sure nothing left and no one uninvited joined the party.

It was his job to find out if this was true and capture a few of these beings alive, so Xeno could disect a few and perhaps find out what made them tick.

The planet, or at least the region they had jumped into was a steaming jungle swamp, but unlike on Green Hell his home planet, the plants here were black and looked for the most part like inter twined bodies of naked, wet snakes with thorns. These twisted tree like things did fan out into a dense canopy, most of the local sun's light did not reach the planets surface, at least not in this region.

The air technically was breathable but had a higher oxygen content than Standard Terran type NiOx atmospheres.

They kept their helmets closed anyway because Science told them, that the local air was thick with pollen and spores of all kind.

Science had no idea yet if that stuff was harmless or not.

Wiping off these aggressive worms that almost constantly slimed over his face shield made him glad the helmets were sealed.

The dense bio sphere of the planet combined with strong electro magnetic storms made sensor scans unreliable.

Lighting and thunder was almost constant and so was a strong downpour of rain. He wondered if this was only seasonal or if conditions were always like this.

His team was agumented by 12 Cerberus XI robots, but since this was a potential first contact situation they did operate under the Second Response Directive and would only fight if the Marines were attacked and an order from Command was given.

Roy and his team was only one of many combing the surface all across this planet.

Barlow, a Terran Human also carrying a TKU Fafnir Gatling snarled. “Almost fourteen hours now, and nothing but these damn slime suckers, ugly Lizard Snakes and friggin' huge swim beetles. Maybe there aren' any Whakeys down here.” Roy responded. “We have barley covered ten percent of the planets surface, there is still lots of ground to cover.”

His platoon sergeant, the Pertharian swatted a huge black beetle landing like a miniature helicopter on his helmet, chimed in. “Mr. Barlow if you feel bored you can join me for a recon flight ahead, if the Luitenant agrees to it, of course.”

Roy shook his head, knowing they could of course not see his gesture and said. “You wouldn't see much more from above the canopy and make a nice target. We don't even know their tech Level, for all we know they could detect you. Just stay put for now.”

Just then the Operations-Command icon flashed over com-panel mirrored directly onto his retina and Roy blinked it active. “Lt. Masters here.”

“This Operation Command, Major Omval, Find a spot and make Camp. We drop a MOTEL as soon as you give the signal.”

“Yes, Sir, any additional instructions?” “There will be an official Mission Update brief at 0900 hrs and that is two hours and six minutes from now, but here is the situation in a Nutshell: The Army is going to do a full Divisional Orbital assault on the southern Continent of this world, making a lot of Noise doing so.

They even land a Leviathan Planetary Siege Engine. The Army Division also brings in Aqua troops to scour the oceans. Our Tactical brains at Command feel that this will make whatever hides on that mud ball nervous enough to attack. If they attack we' re ready and if they move we hope they move into northern direction,in other words right to where you and the other platoons are.”

Roy rolled his eyes as he heard the word Army and sighed. “They just had to join the party. Why don't they let us do a Division drop and they do the point scouting for once?”

The Major on the other end snickered. “Because they aren't Marines..” “Semper Fi Major.” Roy pointed at the Pertharian. “Sarge, you got your wish, go up there and see if there is a spot around here where we can set up camp.”

“Aye.”

The Pertharian shot into the air and through the canopy moments later.

Roy blinked at a star shaped symbol in his troop command screen and y doing so gave the so called 'Gather” order and his troop pulled close together in a star formation weapons pointing outwards.

The Sargent reported. “Local Topo analysis complete. There is nothing better for ten klicks all around us, just trees and swamp. There is a shallow hill 21.6 klicks from where we are, sensors say its Terra Firma.”

A new voice buzzed in. “We spotted that hill first. Bravo Company 1st Platoon Dragon Riders call it, besides we're only 4 klicks away from it.”

Roy snorted. “Lt. Arsugen get off our channel and quit eavesdropping on 2nd platoon. The hill is yours, it is to far out for us.”

“This Thowerian needs every edge to compete against a certain Greenie Lt, besides you left the Company Level channel open ever since we dropped.”

Of course Roy had left the Company channel open so the two other Platoon leaders of Bravo Company could listen in or call for help if needed.

Roy trusted his own senses more than he trusted his sensors, but so far his uncanny sense of danger had not reacted on anything. Lt. Arsugen was a tall six limbed being from Andromea and and despite his alien and quite unsettling appearance, he was a good marine and Roy liked him. “Well keep your ladies nice and safe, looks like the Army is doing a big fancy show down south and perhaps scaring those elusive buggers our way.”

“I think Intel has it all wrong and there aren't any. They may fool our sensors but I am a Thowerian and I can smell sentient brain activity over great distances and I haven't felt anything.”

Roy snorted. “I take that as an insult, you walking Brain leech, or do you imply there isn't any brain activity over here where we are?”

The Thowerian laughed in his strange metal rattling, hissing way and snarled. “Well if I really concentrate,I might be able to seperate your mind activity from those disgusting sucker slime worms.”

Roy grinned inside his helmet. “That was a good one, Split face and it would not suprise me if NAVINT sent us to the wrong planet, like that never happened before.”

The other Platoon leader tapped an acknowledgment and Roy deactivated the connection and said switched to Platoon channel “Well looks like the subtle approach is out the window. The Army is on its way.”

He called up a local map and selected four hexagon shaped areas centerd around his own position. “Snyder, Kronaki, T'Chnk and Ash you take perimeter guard till 2100hrs. Go into Sniper stealth.”

The four Marines acknowledged and Roy said to the rest. “We might as well camp right here. Mr Dunn be so kind and make us a little room, Command is dropping us a MOTEL, so not even you can complain.”

Dunn opened up with his gatling and moved it in an arc, vaporizing vegetation and trees in a neat circle. While he did that he said. “Oh Sir, I certainly can! For one I prefer our drop ship over a MOTEL any time,or even better some R&R on Para Para.”

The Non Corps said. “Well if anything is out there, they know where to find us.”

Roy shrugged. “Who knows,with all that thunder and lightning?”

then he send the exact coordinated to the USS John Stryker somewhere in Orbit around this planet.

On the Gun deck of the Stryker, Gunner Crews loaded a green Giga Load casing into a Translocator cannon and hit the discharge contact. The Translocator cannon was aimed straight at the cordinated Roy had send them. There would not be much Jungle left or any of the Troop if this would have been a Red Giga Load, but this wasn't a bomb, it was a Mobile Operations Temporary Encampment Load, specifically developed for the Union Marines.

Only perhaps ten meters from where Roy stood and almost at the center of the spot Dunn had cleared, a dark green 5 ton capsule appeared in a white flash, enormous bang and tidal wave of black swamp water.

While the rest of the platoon was keeping guard, Roy sent the activation signal.

The Capsule sensors analyzed the surroundings and reconfigured the pay load with an army of Nanites to the environment and seconds later, almost like a children inflatable bouncy castle something expanded and inflated.

A 20 meter diameter floating platform with a central cube shaped building appeared. The thin plastic walls, filling with molecule expanding concrete foam, hardened in moments. The Platform was well shielded with ParaDim Shields. It has room enough for the platoon to get out of their suits, take showers, eat in a small galley and sleep in low gee cods. It certainly beat the prospect of sleeping in the suit, something they all had done many times before of course.

--””--

The platoon had settled down, for some chow and rest. The M.O.T.E.L was of course a bit crowded but Roy had a tiny seperate chamber for himself as that came with the lieutenant bar on his collar.

He was out of his suit and had a short shower. The environmental system of the MOTEL did not need to use and recycle the very limited water reserves it came with but could use local water. It was good clean drinking water once it had passed through the filtering and conditioning of the Nanite recyclers.

He checked all positions but still there was nothing out there but slime worms, snakes and big flying beetles.

He sat down behind a small desk and dialed for Command. “Lt. Masters,for Admiral T'Thakk.”

The Klack Admiral who was in charge of this operation came on almost immideatley. Normally no simple Marine Luitenant could simply call right up to the top brass, but Roy could have called the Eternal Warrior and would have been connected. The Klack Admirals was one of the two Klack he had saved from being shot, back on Harper's Junction almost five years ago.

It was the Admiral who wanted Roy to call if he had a moment.

The Klack face was unreadable, but Roy started to learn o read the subtle ways Klack communicated emotions with their feelers and how they moved their heads. The feelers right now told him the insectoid officer was relaxed. “I already expected your call Luitenant, how is the situation down there?”

“We are currently making camp, Sir. We covered about 50 miles in difficult terrain but have not made any contact or even noticed any traces of sentient occupation. I would like to volunteer for a scout mission, Sir.”

“You are on a scout mission, are you not?” “Sir,it is the same back home on Green Hell. We are stomping through the swamp in high tech suits and use high tech sensors.

