Author: Johannes "Jergen[K]" Cruz			Viewing: Chapter 12

**Administrative note: any and all persons, names or events are purely a part of this work of fiction. I am in no way implying certain traits upon named Marines, their units or actions.** On the third night their water ran out. Using their trackers for a few minutes each hour the two men had proceeded in a westerly direction. Travelling at night to conserve water and stay out of the torturous heat of the desert, they managed to make pretty good time. Even the effects of the thin atmosphere were less noticeable as they became acclimated to it. “We have maybe two days before we wont be able to move,” Aegis said grimly. “The track is strong now, it’s certainly an escape pod, and soon we should be able to see it.” Aegis nodded, and then moved out in front to lead the way through the rocky terrain they had found themselves in the night before. Better than the dunes it was at least cooler here during the day than it was out on sea of dust. Both marines would have been more than happy to discover something other than red or brown rocks and sand, but this place didn’t seem to have much in the way of a sense of variety. Now both of their thoughts turned towards water more than anything else. An hour into the night both men stood at the edge of what appeared to be a dry riverbed. The walls of the area sloped down gently into a huge lowland. A large gash was cut in the ground near the center of the depression, at the head of which was a nearly buried metallic object. “That’s it.” Dachande said, moving forward into the depression. Aegis paused to look up at the night sky. With no moon to light the night it was always very dark here when the sun faded away. This allowed for perhaps the most majestic expanse of stars Aegis had ever witnessed. From horizon to horizon the milky way displayed itself in magnificent glory. Lost in thought Aegis pondered how many people were out there. How many people occupied planets near those distant points of light? *** The Vengeance set down just outside of the compound. Marines, each wearing black battle dress utilities, armor and carrying stylized black weapons, poured down the aft ramp and took up positions about the ship. Once the area was reasonably secure a lone figure walked slowly into their midst. Armed with the familiar pulse rifle, and armored much the same as the others, he would have appeared nondescript were it not for the way he carried himself. This was a hot dropzone, yet he was as calm as if he were on liberty on a pleasure station. A hand rolled cigarette dangled from his mouth, trailing a thin line of smoke behind him as he walked. The Preacher, and his fanatically loyal followers, had arrived. “Squads alpha and bravo enter the station, I shall be in the Command and Control center monitoring progress,” Preacher spoke softly, the calm in his voice reassuring his veterans. The two squads, already given a brief on the station and it’s every nuance, spread out and began their sweep. Lowering his night vision goggles with a flip of his hand Preacher tossed the cigarette to the dust behind him as he walked boldly towards the COC. *** It took Dachande and Aegis a little more than an hour to dig the escape pod out of the ground. When it had terminated it’s decent it had been buried as its momentum carried it forward. Now the upper hatch was plainly in sight and accessible. Aegis hopped off of the egg shaped pod and covered Dachande as he operated the release lever to open it up. Dachande pulled the hatch open and peered inside, the light from his helmet pushing away the dark to reveal the grizzly scene inside. Wrapped in an endless embrace were Captain Nealson and a drone warrior Xenophobe. The creature, having leapt into the capsule just before it had left the ship, had grabbed the captain by the shoulders and tried to rip him to pieces with it’s attack tongue. Dodging to the side Nealson had fired rounds directly into the thing’s mouth with his service pistol. The shots had not only killed the creature they had released enough acid from it to burn almost all of the flesh from Nealson’s chest and stomach. The scent was enormous, causing Dachande to fall off of the pod in a coughing spasm. Choking, he managed the name “Nealson,” before he began to dry heave into the dust of 477. Aegis moved up the side of the pod and peered in. Immediately he turned away and coughed, barely managing to hold down his gorge. Gaining control of himself he dropped behind the pod and began to free the supply packages there. Every escape pod was equipped with an emergency transmission device, a shelter and enough food and water for ten men to survive for thirty days. “I wonder why it didn’t land,” Dachande said, finally joining Aegis. “They aren’t supposed to hit the deck that hard.” “My guess is that creature’s blood destroyed most of the onboard guidance and control systems.” “Good bet. At least we will have some supplies.” Dachande helped Aegis pull several medium sized boxes from the pod and began to organize them. *** The station was obviously clear of life forms. Although there were signs of a large struggle, no one was left alive to explain what had happened. Kneeling down near one of the charred bodies in the COC, Preacher removed a patch from what was left of its uniform. Colonial Marine Corps Company Alien Killers. He nodded. He was familiar with these men, he had fought a campaign with them not so long ago. The others wore no patches or unit designation that he could discover, and thus they had to remain a mystery. Both platoons finished their sweep and converged on the COC. “Our target is not in this area Vengeance, we are moving position. Once in flight begin a sweep for possible PDT signals. We have friendly kills at this location.” “Understood Sir,” with this the pilot of Vengeance began to prep the ship for takeoff. *** “We will camp a distance away from the pod so that we aren’t so easy to locate in case the raiders stage some kind of sweep to find us.” This said, Dachande hefted his pack, now filled with water and food, and began to move out. Aegis paused for a moment, looking through the detached scope of his rifle before he spoke. Even at night the scope was valuable for searching out locations as it had better night vision than goggles and a far greater range than conventional field glasses. “There are some caves not far off, we can set up there.” “Understood,” Dachande said, falling into step behind his scout. Hefting his rifle into position he continued the rest of the way without comment. Both men were effected by the loss of Captain Nealson. He had been very competent and even handed. None of the marines in his command had any complaints to issue, even the constant combat operations went smoothly under him. They had both wanted to bury the man, but they were too far into what appeared to be a limestone riverbed to be able to dig at all. They had to settle for covering him up with what crushed rock the entry pod had managed to churn up in its violent landing. Things just kept getting worse.