SEASON 2: EPISODE 08

SEMPER FIDELIS: Part One

  As the first wave approached the LZs the ship formation spread out as the shuttles headed for their individual landing spots.  In some cases some ships started to deploy their troops.  Like paratroopers of 20th century Earth, Starfleet Special Forces teams started to jump out of their shuttles, even without parachutes they floated to the ground thanks to 24th century technology.  The first allied troops in the war with the Dominion had set foot on Cardassian soil.

  Included in the force were a number of Normandy class dropships, including four from the USS Swiftfire.  The main LZs were near the largest population centres on the planet, but the group with the Marines from the Swiftfire were heading to a secondary Landing zone.  Their mission was to secure the area around a large military facility that had been hit from orbit.  The facility was far from any major population centres and located in a large forested area.  It was likely that any forces that were located at the facility would have dispersed into the forest.  The first wave was to secure the landing zone and then start hunting for the enemy.

  The shuttles and dropships landed in a clearing just outside the smoking ruins of the base.  The area looked like it was a marshalling area and was flat with little cover.  To deal with this problem the orbiting ships had used their weapons to place craters to provide the ground troops with cover.  As the shuttles came in to land they came under fire from enemy forces in the ruins of the base and from the edge of the forest.  Attack fighters screeched overhead and peppered the base with phaser fire.  Escort shuttles, which were basically normally shuttled that had increased armour and weapons hovered at the edge of the landing shuttle formation firing at the enemy.

  Colonel David Tiki held tight to the hand rail as his packed Normandy dropship landed hard against the ground.  The rear hatch opened and he stepped out into an almost deafening amount of noise.  There was the whine of shuttlecraft, the thump of weapons fire and a lot of yelling.  He stepped to the left side of the hatch and used the bulk of the shuttle for cover and turned to face the other Marines in the ship.

  “GO!GO!GO!” he yelled.

  The Marines hustled out of the shuttle and into a nearby crater for cover.  Once all the Marines were out he reached inside the dropship and hit the control to close the rear door.

  “Semper fi, Colonel!” said the Marine pilot of the dropship over the radio.  This was the traditional Earth motto of one of the largest Marine Corps of the past and had continued to the Starfleet organisation. 

  “Semper fi, Pilot.  Now get this boat back up to the Veracruz safely.  I’m going to want to ride her home later on!”

  Tiki stepped off the rising door and run to the cover with the rest of his Marines.  He dived into the crater and rolled onto his back at the bottom.  He watched the dropship lifted off and headed back to space.

  “Incoming artillery!” said a voice over the Marines communication channel.  The Marines bunkered down and Tiki looked up to see the Umbrella shield drone above the LZ.  There was a large explosion several metres above them as the artillery slammed against a force field.  Artillery in the 24th century was a dangerous piece of hardware.  Artillery was accurate and devastating.  Some artillery had an over the horizon range and fired ‘smart’ projectiles that could guide themselves to the target.  Thankfully a shield drone had been deployed above the LZ.  The large unnamed drone was just a hovering shield generator that placed a protective roof over the force until they could set up a base with its own shield generator.  The artillery piece that fired the shots at them would now most likely be destroyed.  It had given away its position and the roaming fighters would have reduced it to rubble.

  Tiki pressed a button on his left gauntlet.  He was currently not holding a weapon, in fact he was only armed with a Type-2 phaser that was strapped to his hip and a combat knife strapped to his thigh.  The new hazard suit armour he wore had a transporter buffer built into the armour; this meant most of his equipment was stored in the buffer, eliminating the new to carry a large number of objects.  In his buffer he had a second Type-2 phaser, one of the latest Type-3 rifles, grenades, combat tricorder, power packs, rations, water and a basic medical kit.  He selected the Type-3 rifle and it transported into his hands.  His right glove adjusted his hand so that the weapon would appear in his grip, that part took a bit of getting use to.

  At the top edge of the crater were several Marines firing their rifles.  He crawled up to the edge.

  “What do we have Lieutenant?” he asked.

  “Jem’Hadar located at the edge of the base firing from the rubble,” reported the lieutenant pointing to the Jem’Hadar’s position.

  Disruptor and phaser fire crisscrossed the battlefield between the two sides, who were around fifty metres apart.  Both sides were in good defensive positions making it hard for either side to kill the other.  Several streaks of blue crossed from the allies lines as the heavier weapons, such as isomagnetic disintegrators were used.  When the projectiles from these weapons hit they caused larger explosions and more damage then the standard phaser weapons used.

  “Did you see the others land?” he asked.

  “No, but Private Dix said he saw them take their positions.  Group 2 is left of us while the other 2 groups are covering the tree line.”

  “Good, just pick your targets…”

  “What the hell are you doing 9?  We haven’t cleared that area!”

  Tiki wondered what that message was about.  It was over the general communication frequency meaning that it was from one group of soldiers to another.  Suddenly a large dark object shot low over head.  Despite the fact they were mostly below the surface level the Marines still ducked.  Two Klingon shuttles screamed overhead towards the base.  The Jem’Hadar pounded the shuttle with weapons’ fire and they slammed into the ground, skidding past the base perimeter.  From the wrecked craft leaped a group of screaming Klingons, bat’leths held high.  They rushed out and towards the Jem’Hadar like a pack of mad dogs.

  “The Klingons have broken their lines,” said the LZ commander.  “Move forward!”

  “Damn crazy bastards,” mumbled Tiki.  He stood up got a bearing on a Jem’Hadar soldier who had exposed himself to attack the Klingons and fired two pick shots.  The Jem’Hadar went down.  He turned to the rest of his Marines.  “Come on, Marines!  CHARGE!”

  The Federation soldiers climbed out of their holes and charged forward.  As they went Tiki spotted Major Stevens and group 2 to his left.  The Marines sprinted toward the edge of the base.  The Jem’Hadar’s fire towards them have drastically reduced as they found themselves fighting a close quarters battle with Klingon warriors.

  The Federation soldiers were much more cautious.  They run to cover at the edge of the base, set up position and fired at the Jem’Hadar.  The two groups from the Swiftfire happened to run to the ruins of a wall at the edge of the base for cover.

  “Glad you could join us, Colonel,” said Major Rachel Stevens.

  “Good to be here, Major.  What do we have?”

  “The Klingons are all over the place.  They are making it hard for us to actually shoot anything since they’re getting in the way.  Plus it looks like other then the perimeter there aren’t that many Jem’Hadar here.”

  Tiki peeked around the corner of the wall.  On the other side there seemed to be more Klingons then Jem’Hadar and most of them were fighting a brutal hand-to-hand  battle.  The Jem’Hadar were brutal warriors and killed a number of Klingons, but they were outnumbered and the Klingons were in a frenzy.  As the last Jem’Hadar fell the Klingons raised their blood soaked bat’leths to the sky and roared.

  “YOU CAN COME OUT, STARFLEET!  WE HAVE TAKEN CARE OF THE FEARSOME JEM’HADAR FOR YOU!” yelled one of the bigger and more blood soaked Klingons.

  The Federation soldiers slowly moved forward, scanning the area for any hidden Jem’Hadar.  They checked in the rubble of collapsed buildings and it was soon clear that the base was clear.  Soldiers started to comb through the ruins of the base for any valuable information or supplies.  Others gathered the bodies and where the Klingons had fought, body parts, of the Jem’Hadar into a pile and their equipment into another pile.  The Klingons performed the rites to Sto-vo-kor for their fallen warriors.  The Federation troops had suffered few casualties.

  The Jem’Hadar attacking from the forest had been small in number and once the Klingons landed they had pulled back into the forest.  A small contingent of allied soldiers had then gone after the Jem’Hadar to harass their retreat.  This allowed the troops to set up a perimeter around the entire area.

  A larger shuttle soon landed at the base and deployed the start of an allied base.  Prefabricated shelters, computer equipment, a shield generator and supplies.  The new allied command post was set up in the heart of the ruins of the old Cardassian base.  Fortified positions were quickly been set up around the base and landing zone to create a secure area.

  Colonel Tiki met with the LZ commander.  “Orders, sir?”

  “What unit do you control?” asked the commander.

  “83rd Company, Starfleet Marines.”

  The commander checked on his computer station.  “That’s in the 4th Division isn’t it?  Here we go, Colonel Tiki…you’re orders are to advance north-east towards the mountains.  There is a mining settlement out there we want you to check out and secure.”  The commander picked up a padd and handed it to the colonel.  “Coordinates and your full orders are in here.  You are to leave immediately, good luck.”

  Colonel Tiki saluted.  “Thank you, sir.”

  The commander saluted back and Tiki left to look over his orders and prepare his troops.