NOVEL NEXT Chapter 106: Beachhead
I stood by the door of the shuttle as the other marines got in and filled up our landing party. As we were all accounted for I nodded and bonked the roof of the shuttle with a closed fist before getting into the shuttle myself. The doors closed behind me and I quickly took a seat opposite to the side door near the front of the shuttle. I then strapped myself in and gave the command to officially start Operation Daggerfall, that's also when Ellie notified me that Luna had opened a direct channel to my in-helmet intercom.
"I'm not going to keep you for long, Lauren. But I just wanted to tell you again that I love you."
"I love you too." I replied. "And don't worry, I'll be back."
A big shock rocked the shuttle as the engines revved. The shock almost pushed all the air out of my lungs as I recoiled against the belt.
"Sorry for that." Our pilot apologized over the ship's speakers. "That's completely normal. Those tanks weigh a bit and it takes some energy to get them moving. Nothing to be concerned about."
Luckily it seemed Luna had already disconnected the call before she heard me cough out my lungs, otherwise it'd just have given her more stress than necessary. "They are still attached, right?" I switched my coms so that I could talk to the entire shuttle as well.
"Yes, we are, Commander." Staff Sergeant Metz reported. "Flying right below you. Which is slightly concerning in a way but it's the only way we are going to get to the ground."
"Although I would like to ask our pilot to at least try to not make me want to puke out my breakfast. I need those calories for later today." One of the other crewmembers replied but I couldn't really place their voice that well.
"Pff. Always the same for those Army soldiers. Only critiques, never compliments. I don't tell you how to drive your tank."
"Uhm, excuse you, we aren't Army. Navy true and true." The same soldier replied.
"Definitely sounded Army though."
The marines at the back of the shuttle all started to chuckle. Shooting the shit was a good way to relieve the stress of incoming combat and pretty much a warrior tradition so I wasn't about to put a stop to it. When push comes to shove they would focus by themselves anyway. We are all professionals here.
"What do you think, Commander, are those really sailors down below?" The pilot asked with a cheeky intonation.
"Well…" I implemented a strategic pause. "I think I did see a beach chair mounted to the side of the tank. So definitely Navy."
"Ah shit, you weren't supposed to see that." Staff Sergeant Metz sighed into his microphone. "Who here didn't camouflage the chair? It was you, wasn't it, Stone?"
"Sorry, Staff Sergeant. I was too busy deflating our beach ball so it would fit next to our coffee maker and tea kettle." Private stone replied. As I recall, that was the tank's driver.
"Alright, I forgive you."
The chuckling and shit talking continued as our shuttle flew down from orbit into the planet's atmosphere.
"Dear passengers of my shuttle, beware that the next couple of minutes might be bumpy as we approach our LZ. I can already see tracers fire up ahead so please be mindful to wear your helmets. It's also a nice toasty when it comes to radiation outside. So do not forget your sun screen."
The shuttle shook as it banked from left to right. "Shouldn't you stop talking for at least a moment."
"When I bullshit I'm the best at flying, Commander. Me shutting up would really not be good. Oh, that's a big one." As the pilot said that, the shuttle vibrated heavily as I got pushed into my belt again. Luckily these four-point belts were really good at keeping you in your chair. "Looks like they got some of those old flak guns working again too. Won't really damage us unless they get a direct hit in."
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"Commander, didn't you say that the AA guns were not on this flight path?" The marine next to me asked.
"The ones that post the biggest threat aren't. Otherwise we would already be paste on the concrete below."
The marine next to him bumped into his shoulder with the low amount of freedom of movement he had. "Don't worry, if we get hit by one of those we'll just be Swiss cheese."
"Hmmm. Not a big fan of cheese to be honest."
"Pretty good with a glass of wine though." One of the others joined in and just like that they had started to lower each other's nerves again.
"Is it still far to the LZ?" I decided to ask the pilot.
"A couple of minutes, Commander. Flying in as fast as we can without hitting the ruins here. Low and slow is not in my dictionary."
"Copy that."
A few moments later another flak shell exploded nearby, rocking our equipment but aside from that and a couple of other bangs we managed to get to the drop zone rather unscathed, only some scratches to be painted away according to the pilot.
When we finally got to the drop point the shuttle's rapid deceleration pressed me against the wall on my left that separated the cockpit from the hold. The shuttle bounced slightly upwards as a loud clunk signalled that our heavy armor had been disconnected from the shuttle's carrying hooks.
"Putting her down now. Please make sure to take all your hand luggage with you. I will not be dropping it off at the lost-and-found when I return." As this announcement echoed through the shuttle's hull, all our seatbelts automatically decoupled, allowing us to stand up straight.
I took my rifle in hand and waited by the door on the side. "You all now the drill. Get to cover immediately and set up a small defensive zone until the rest of the infantry has landed. Keep the enemy away from our tanks' dead zones.
"Hooah!" All my Marines shouted in choir.
"Touchdown in three… two… one…" At that exact moment the doors opened and we were greeted by the outside air, be it completely filled with dust. My visor switched to infrared as I ran through the cloud of dust, kicked up by the shuttle's engines, switching back to normal when I regained visuals and took cover next to a nearby wall.
Shots were already bursting out from the guns of my squad as they cleared the immediate landing zone from the enemy mechanoids.
There didn't appear to be much resistance yet however as the side I was covering looked clear, giving me a short moment to take in the ruins beside me. pretty much all of the buildings were blackened and burned with some exceptions being the smaller buildings that received cover from bigger buildings next to them. Ash lay in the streets and shadows were imprinted on some of the walls I saw too, only a vague memory of the biological life that once roamed this planet. Definitely a ghastly sight to behold but one that I decided to block out for now as there were more immediate threats to worry about as my first enemy wandered around the corner of the next building over, making a trail in the ash and stumbling its way towards us.
The mechanoid wasn't much of a danger to me as I saw its weapon hung broken from its arm and its movements were rusty at most, but I leveled my K-B0L 40 towards it nonetheless and with a loud thud blasted the head clean off the rest of its body. The brass shell casing of the round I fired fell in a deeper pile of ash, muting the sound of its fall.
A wave of dust temporarily blinded me again before my visor automatically switched over as our shuttles lifted off to head back to our ship to collect the second wave of troops.
In the meantime I could hear the high-pitched rattling of the tank threads slowly creeping forwards as the other half of shuttles of the first wave zoomed overhead to make their landing too.
"Commander, hold your fire, we are coming around the corner ahead of you." The familiar voice of the scout team leader radioed into my ear as I saw our team appear from the opposite building to where I had just taken out a mechanoid. "That was a nice shot there."
"Thank you." I was smiling but they couldn't see because of my helmet of course. "Those practices at the gun range are paying dividends."
"Absolutely." The scout team ran up and took position next to me close to the wall. "Where do you want us to go next? We deployed mines and boobytraps to cover the read side of our assault but we are still rearing to get in some action."
"If you can take up some high ground on top of one of the ruins in our line of advance that would be really useful to call fire solutions for our tanks."
"Any building in particular?"
"Your pick. Just make sure it's stable. Wouldn't want to come and pick you out of the rubble"
"Alright. I've got just the building in mind that I wanted to check out anyway." Sergeant De Smet sounded actually excited for the task at hand. "Squad, move out." And just like that, they all jogged off in the opposite direction. I didn't know where they got the energy from as they had been down here for a while but oh well, better this than dead tired I suppose...