Station Phoenix

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It was almost seven days since Keiran had volunteered his team to go and check up on the Phoenix Station down on Martur. Since he had accepted, however, nothing had happened. No times had been set. The captain had been wasting his time, waiting for the call for the RECON mission to begin. He waited. And waited.

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James Corran sat down in his office’s chair. It was the first time he had had any rest since the morning; almost 20 hours now. It was almost midnight, but the people still around at Station Phoenix were still busy. They rushed here and there, making sure everything was still secure.

James sighed. It had been two months since the horrible catastrophe had begun. A distress signal had been sent out, a beacon lit. Why hadn’t anybody replied? Why wasn’t anybody coming? Now, with the chance to relax and think about the situation properly. Almost ten weeks back, a research team had been out in the ‘fields’ of Martur, doing research on the climate change. Martur was much like earth crossed with the moon. It had a breathable atmosphere, no water and craters and rock outcrops covered most of it’s surface. Station Phoenix was located in a valley, surrounded by mountains with only one way out of the vale to the South.

The team had been out in one of the land vehicles with their heavy equipment, searching for the highest place to set up. They had reported in saying they had located a large ledge halfway up the mountains, and had set up their equipment there. After a few hours, the team of seven had contacted the base again to say they were heading back with a few results, but were leaving the equipment in place to do further recordings during the night. That was the last the Station had heard from the science team until they arrived at the base again. On entry, the squad looked weary and tired, as if they had been part of a fun-run. They later revealed that on the way back, the team had discovered a sign of life. An animal. A creature. A monster.

James could remember the description the head of the team had given him:
“Long, brown tusks jabbed out from the things head on either side. Each tusk being about two foot long. The being itself is only four foot high, when standing on it’s hind legs. It has long nails; more like claws than nails, actually. And the most peculiar feature was the lack of ears and eyes. The creature has a nose like a dog or cat, and a large, gapping mouth lined with fangs. But no eyes or ears. Strange.”

James had remembered the man explaining the creature’s tough, un-cuttable, red skin. So far, the scientists hadn’t been able to get passed the creatures skin and couldn’t get a look at it’s inside. It was indeed, one hell of a discovery.

The whole station began doing all they could to help on the identifying of the creature. Some teams even went on missions in search for more. It was so exciting that the station had decided not to report the discovery, until they knew all about it. It had seemed a good idea, until the creature woke up.

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Kieran Jones of the Marine CORP awoke instantly at the phone rang. It was his General. Kieran knew it. Now was the time. All missions like this would begin at night. So the press wouldn’t know about them. This mission was from here on in ‘invisible’. It was secret.

Kieran grabbed the phone. It was his General. After a quick conversation, the captain hang up. He sat there, in his dorm, for a moment as he took it in. For the first time in six months he had a good mission. And then, jumping to his feet, Kieran rang the members of his team, directing them to meet in docking bay 15A, then he left. It was time to start this mission.

 

Damien jerked awake, his sleeping quarter phone ringing loudly. Cursing, he answered, it was his Captain. Altough his Captain was a father figure to him, it didn't change his mood.
"Yeah, wadda ya want?" He said gruffly.
His mood changed as he listened,
'finally, a real mission' He thought, 'none of this, sit-around-on-our-arses ****'

Damien arrived fully clothed, with a pistol and knife hanging in their holsters.

 

Josef was already tying the shoe laces of his boots when his phone rang. He reached for it as he eased himself back into a sitting position on the edge of his bunk. "Josef Arca, speaking." He listened calmly as Captain Jones explained their situation. After a short time Josef answered "Yes sir, docking bay 15A, I will be there, ASAP." Josef placed the phone down again and finished tying his shoelace. Finally, he stood and looked at himself in the mirror in his full Marine uniform. The buttons had been shined to a gleam, the trousers perfectly pressed, the sword scabbard could have reflected as well as any mirror and his boots were neatly polished.

He sighed even as he looked at it all. He'd probably have to pull it off and throw it aside as soon as he reached the docking bay. Swiftly, he threw a white pistol belt around his waist and checked the safety of the gun in the holster. After all was done, he marched himself out of the bunk room and onto the docking bay, arriving just before Marine Johnston. The young man gave a crisp salute, which Josef returned "At ease." Josef said and stood beside him as they awaited the rest of the team.

 

Kieran, dressed, armoured and armed, walked briskly towards Docking Bay 15A. On entry, seeing as it was very late, the first thing the Captain noticed was the lack of people in the huge Bay. So far he could only see three workers and the two Marines who had already arrived. After stopping to survey the scene, the captain made his way over to Josef and Damien.

"Good to see you fella's all ready so quickly. I hope this will be over soon, and we can all have a good night's sleep." He smiled.

Kieran walked to a pile of large crates and, taking the top one, took a seat in the empty Bay. He took a cigar from his side pocket, lit it, and waited. A large cloud of choking smoke rose around him, and the captain's eyes fell upon Josef.

Josef Arca. He and the captain had been friends since the ol' days. They didn't quite have much in common, but other things joined the two men together in a bond not understandable by any other. They were so tight, Kieran felt, that at any given time he would give his life for Josef. Although that was pretty much the same with his entire Squad...

 

Sgt. Tomas Cordoba was smiling when he entered Bay 15A. "Finally, some action," he thought. Like any other soldier, he enjoyed his downtime, but he detested the "hurry up and wait" routine that had plagued soldiers down through the ages.

He strode up to where Captain Jones was lounging, accompanied by Lt. Arca and Johnston, the team sniper. "Reporting as ordered, sir," he spoke, standing at attention. Tomas liked the two officers, having served with them for a long time. Johnston was a good kid, as good with his weapons as Tomas was with his own. He wondered where Percov was.

Once his CO had acknowledged him, Tomas relaxed and said, "You really ought to quit, sir. Those things will kill you."

He sat down on the deck and began a diagnostic check on his M-241 autocannon. Without looking up, he addressed the officers. "Are we gonna get the chance to light something up once we hit dirt, or are we just hitting the bars?"

He hoped it was the former. Bars were for afterwards...

[ February 26, 2005, 00:06: Message edited by: el timtor ]

 

The captian acted casual, as he always did with his marines. After seeing Tomas arrive, the old captain began to wonder, ignoring the marine's comment on his smoking.

He wondered how long the rest of the team would take to arrive. There were still a few more to arrive, along wiht Percov and Corvon. Jarred Corvon. He was a strange boy. He had joined the marine squad almost two years back. The young boy had always made the captain think. He was always very inquisitive and curious about the smallest things. Strange.

Kieran turned to Tomas, "I'll tell you what i tell you with every mission, soldier. Be ready to do everything."

He leaned back on the crate and began checking his fire-arms, a new, fresh cigar in his mouth.

 

"Anything and everything, sir. As always. That's why we get the big money."

Making sure the big weapon was on "safe", Tomas stood, picked it and its spare ammo cassettes up, and stowed them in the dropship.

Rejoining the group, he looked to his officers. "So what do we know about the situation?"

 

"Some clonists down on Martur haven't made contact in a few days..." the captain began.

Keiran paused. "I'll give you all a briefing when the others show up..." He stopped talking as Jarred entered the bay.

"Good to see your awake, little guy." The captain mocked. Jarred looked tired and anoyed. He simply took a seat on the Bay's floor and began his weapon's check.

 

Damien crossed to a weapons rack, taking an M468-LE semi-automatic assault rifle and a A281 sniper rifle. He sat down on a spare crate, taking up the sniper he cocked it against his shoulder, checking the scope, it looked fine. He cleaned out the barrel of both rifles before loading them and checking the safety catches. Slinging the sniper over his back he stood, the M468-LE held loosely in his hands.

 

Josef changed into his combat fatigues quickly, dumping his sparkling clean uniform to the docking bay floor. He smiled slyly as he slipped a pair of desert issue sunglasses he had won from a special forces soldier in a game of dice into the fatigues top pocket and buckled his helmet on. Finally he threw a set of webbing around him and transferred his pistol into the webbings holster.

He walked back to the group looking at those that were there. All young and cocky marines, ready to take a fight to any enemy. And win it too, he decided as he lifted a M468-LE assault rifle with a detachable scope, several grenades and a set of infrared binoculars. Then he took as much ammo as his webbing would allow.

Ready for combat he wandered over to Kieran and sat himself down next to him "Well Kieran." he said leaning back on the crates. "How long should we wait until we send a drill seargent to wake the marines who haven't reported in yet?" He smiled as he said it and settled himself further on the crates.

 

The base, she had been here for such a long time. It almost felt like home.

What was happening? Was it all a dream? Live on the base wasn't the same since the exident...

 

As soon as the phone rang private Julius Heide was up on feet. With a speed that would make anyone jelous, he was dressed and runing toward Bay 15A.

He enetered it and looked at the troops allready there. As soon as he saw the captain he came to attention and saluted.

"Private Heide reporting for duty, Sir!"

Then he just stood there until someone would tell him to do something.

 

"Good to see your awake, private." the captain joked as he saw Heide arrive.

"Okay, soldiers, up and at em'!" The captain yelled at his marines. He watched as the team lined themselves up against the drop ship, standing tall and straight. The sight sent a shiver up the old captain’s spine. For good reasons, of course. He loved to see his squad ready for action. Organised was his style.

Kieran began pacing up and down the line.
“Now, down to business. The mission we have tonight is quite… where the hell is Lawson!”
The marines didn’t reply. It was one of those questions.

“Wheres radio-shack!?”

 

Link fell into line a step behind everyone else, next to the new member of their squad, Julius... something, he couldn't remember. The marine was standing there empty handed, sticking out like nothing Link had ever seen before, amongst the others. He almost laughed, then he remember that had been him about a year or two earlier. He shoved his assault rifle at him, "You might be needin' this." He said with a friendly grin. He dumped a couple of extra magazines on top of the rifle.

 

Julius took the rifle and the extra magazines and thanked Link. Then he quickly ran to his locker and changed into his combat fatigues. He was ready for war in 40 seconds. He shoved the extra magazines into his pockets or stuffed them in his belt. Then, with the assault rifle in both hands he ran back to the group.

Once there he again came to attention, as rigid as a stone. He couldn't wait to go on his mission.

 

Floor looked at the dead body of one of the workers. They whern't able to find a cure and the people that were infected with this strange virus where dying one by one.

She walked through the coridors of there base towards James Corrans room, she had to talk to him.

Quickly she knocked on the door and opened it.

 

Corran had his eyes closed, meditating and relaxing his body as much as possible in the times stress. The opening of his office door startled the man, almost jumping from his seat. He saw Floor enter.

For once, he thought, a face that is clean and un-spoiled.

"Floor. Good to see. How are you?" He smiled, gesturing towards a chair.

 

Gareth was working out in his room, so that he only heard the phone ring the third time. Picking it up he spoke casually into the receiver and listened to the person on the other end. When he hung up the phone he immediately got dressed into his combat clothes and grabbed his MK-1 assualt rifle. There would be plenty of ammo at the docking bay he thought with a grin. Still smiling, Gareth started running towards docking bay 15A. He arrived a bit breathless but staightened up and said to the captain, "Sorry im a bit late".

 

The captain nodded, grunting, as the last member of his team arrived. Now, all seven marines lined against the wall, the captain continued his speech, pacing once more.

“All right, you bad-assed punks! Listen here. The mission is simple. Some colonist nerds down on the surface have lost contact with us. The signal has been down for quite some time now. So we’ll be dropped in at exactly 0300 hours. That means,” he paused, glancing at his watch. 1:47am.

“…we have a little while before we leave. The trip itself will take up to twenty minutes. You do the maths.” Kieren looked at the team. They were all so close, so friendly towards each other, so family-like.

“I’m gonna want a clean landing, you hear! I want Lawson, Corvon and Johnston with me. Corboda, Percov and Hiede. I want you three with Arca.” The captain glanced quickly at Josef.

“We have no idea what’s going on down there, but we’re going to find out. Maybe some bastard isn’t getting any and has gone suicidal, or maybe there is a power failure. Either way, we’re finding out. Clear?!”

“Sir, yes, sir!” was all the marines said. Chanted.

“Now, get to work preparing the equipment.” And the briefing was done.

 

Anthony booted up the computer, which took only a few seconds. Logging into the administrator account he went to the long listing of other people's folders and scrolled down until he came to the one he was looking for: Flo56

Had he needed it, he even knew the password: Moonlight - but access to the admin account did have its advantages. The account's wallpaper came up, a picture of a gigantic moon rising over the horizon of a barren planet, which he recognised as one of the latest pictures sent back from the explorationary teams sent to other far off solar systems to see what they could find.

He ignored the folder where study results were kept, they held no interest to him - but went to the folder containing the more personal thoughts of the person who owned this account - someone that he still had to meet in the flesh, but that he was working on.

Within he was disappointed, she had not updated with any more of her poetry since the creature was discovered. He browesed over to the folder in which she kept her journal, bypassing another password, and looked for the latest entry.