Mount Gola (ST)

[Aaron]

The primer of sorts, it explains some of the kit used by the characters.

Mount Gola
-By Corporal Aaron J Kendall (Ret)

Cast of Characters

Signals Detachment Commander = Sgt M Bean
Sigs Det 2IC = Cpl Aaron J Kendall
Signals Det Member = Sig Robin Hill
Signals Det Member = Sig Nephi Zea
Defence and Security Platoon (DNS Platoon) CO = Lt. R Ice
DNS Platoon WO - WO G "Moff" Yenchin
A Squad Commander = Sgt "Coyote"
B Squad Commander = Sgt "Pain" Rack
C Squad Commander = Sgt
D Squad Commander = Sgt

Misc Pvts and Cpls.

LCpl "Carpet" Calin
Pvt Booker


Brigade CP Members

Brigade Int O = Lt. Peter Jegs

Other Federation Military Personall

Joint Task Force 1 (Federation Spec Ops)
-Sgt L Revan

Bajoran Civvie #1 = Conse Quences

Glossary:


Skin Suit- Bio-engineered suit worn as a base layer of the Soldiers Enviormental System. A fully climate controled garmet modelled after a modern day dry suit, with fully enclosed feet and a balaclava face. Donned like a dry suit. It also provides full NBC protection when used with the helmet.

Mk I Helmet- Fully eclosed globe-like in shape. Contains full NBC filters and a 30 minute oxygen supply for extreme emergencies. Contains a squad level radio, and HUD which ties into the M-7 Pulse Rifle sighting system. Provides protection against shrapnell and shell splinters, as well as protection against stun and low-level kill settings on most energy small arms. The helment is lined with a transporter inhibiting metal, only through the use of a transporter beacon is the Marine able to be beamed up, the beacon is encased within the helmet and can be activated via the "Bracer" system on the soldiers forearm.

Mk I Breastplate- An armored breastplate that fits over the torso of the Marine. Similar in shape to the breastplate worn by General Veers in the 20th Century fantasy "Star Wars", except covered by a cammie fabric. Provides protection against shrapnell, shell splinters, and complete protection against "stun" settings on energy small arms. Protection against moderate level "kill" settings on energy small arms is provided, for example the breastplate can take 5 hits from a standard Jem'Hader rifle before protection is degraded enough to render the Mk I useless. As with the Mk I Helmet, the breastplate is lined with a transport inhibiting metal. It is normally covered by the Load Bearing Vest.

Mk II LBV- The Mk II Load Bearing Vest is exactly what it sounds like, a fabric vest designed to hold a Marine's personal gear while distributing the weight evenly over his torso. The vest provides holding capacity for eight 40 round magazines for his M-7 Pulse Rifle, and pouches for four M-5 Frag grenades, as well as two pouches for either M-6 Willie Petes or M-8 Smoke canisters. Various gas, flash bangs and energy grenades can be accomodated, but these are not part of regular issue kit. The vest also contains a first aid kit, a water bladder integeral to the back of the vest, and room for a days rations. The vest is made from a "smart" fabric that can change cammie pattern depending on the terrain.

Soldiers Enviromental System (Cammies)- A two piece fabric outfit with a "smart" camoflage pattern that can change with the terrain. The system also includes a pair of "combat" boots. A Marines gear will typically include another two sets of cammies and a spare set of boots. The cammies contain varies sensor spoofing materials, making the Marine harder to detect with traditional tricorders.

M-7 Pulse Rifle- A magazine fed (40 rounds), electricely operated railgun. The standard weapon carried by FMC troops. The diameter of the round is 10mm and for the standard round is a "flechette" designed to inflict maximum damage on an unarmoured or armoured enemy soldier. Various other rounds are available including AP, Incediary, Tracer, HEDP, and flare. The weapon can be fitted with an optional 35mm grenade launcher for which various rounds are available. The weapon is fitted with an electronic sighting package and backup iron sights. The electronic sight is connected by cable to the Marines "bracer" located on his forearm at which point an aiming reticle will become available on the Marines helmet display. The weapon is still employed at the shoulder, and all other marksmenship principles are employed. Maximum effective range is 800m for single fire and 1000m for group fire. However most engagements by FMC troops are under 400m. The battery powering the weapon is good for 10,000 rounds. FMC personall carry an aditional battery in their Mk II LBV.

M-6 Pulse Pistol- Standard sidearm carried by FMC troops. Magazine fed, electricely operated. Magazine capacity is 12 rounds of 10mm(k), a shortened version of the round used in the M-7 Pulse Rifle. Battery is good for 10,000 rounds and is interchangable with the M-7. FMC troops carry an aditional two magazines with them.

M-5 Frag Grenade- A simple frag grenade, pull the pin, throw, and five seconds later, shrapnell city!

M-6 Willie Pete- A white phosporous grenade. Method of employment is the same as the M-5. Except after the time delay the grenade will start dispensing thick clouds of white smoke. If you twist the top before throwing the grenade will explode after the time delay, throwing white phosphoruos everywhere. You don't want to be in the danger radius when it goes off!

M-8 Smoke Grenade- A simple smoke grenade, method of employment is the same as the M-5. It can dispense smoke in a vairety of colours. Most typical are green, purple, yellow, and white.

Carl Gustav- This is a somewhat unusual weapon for the FMC, as the design is lifted from the 20th Century Earth weapon of the same name. A "recoilless rifle" the Carl G is basically a hollow tube. The design was used to save on development time and funds. The only change to the Carl G of old is the fitting of modern sights which can interface with the FMC Mk I helmet. Various rounds are available, the most comman being High Explosive Anti-Tank - Rocket Assisted Propulsion (HEAT-RAP). The rounds have of course been manufactured with modern materials to be able to penetrate 24th century armour. THe weapon is employed by placing it on your shoulder and placing the targeting reticle on the target, and firing. The weapon is then reloaded by a loader. The rounds are unguided. Effective range is 900 meters.


Bison- Standard FMC APC, looking vagually like a boat with tracks. It carries 10 troops plus two crewman, a driver and gunner. The standard model carries a 30mm railgun
and a GPMG mounted coaxially. It also has two, eight round smoke grenade dischargers, and a further GPMG on the roof. There are many versions, but for the purposes of this story we will only see the APC and the Radio ReBroadcast versions. The RRB version mounts a GPMG and a 35mm grenade launcher as well as two, eight round smoke grenade dischargers. Most of the troop space is taken up with the various comms equipment needed to rebraodcast six radio nets. As such the vehicle only carries four crewmembers, a driver, gunner, and two signallers. In practice all members are signallers and take turns manning the equipment in back. The vehicles armour is lined with transport inhibiting materials.

Interim Vehicle Artillery Shield System- A vehicle mounted automatic shield system attached to each Bison. When activated it erects a force field over the vehicle and surrounding area up to 100m, protecting the occupants and sourounding troops from incoming artillery fire. This the sheild is only up when rounds are incoming, the rest of the time it is on standby to reduce the EM signature of the vehicle. It has been prone to activation by slow moving flying objects as well. It is pronouced Ive-Ass.

Bracer- A PDA for the FMC soldier, strapped to either forearm depending on preferance. The M-7's sight cable is attached to it to allow interfacing with the helmet. It allows for storage of practically any info the soldier may need, and most of the info is capable of being directl downloaded into the unit via cable. A special covered toggle allows for instant "zeroising" should the soldier be captured. All of the soldiers electronic equipment is controlled through this device, some soldiers have even been known to download books into it!

Kindly read and post whether you liked it or not. I have 5 other chapters lined up. Most of the The Mess members have already read it. As I've been previewing it there.

Chapter 1

*THUD*

Kaw! kee! kee! kee! kekaw!

"What the fuck is that?" thought Corporal Aaron J Kendall as he lay on his foamie.

Kraw! Kee! Kee1 Kekaw!

"I hate this curseded planet." muttered Kendall as he slipped into his cammies and strapped on his breastplate and LBV. He watched as his cammies shifted to the puke green colour of his foamie. Reaching for his boots he heard the raucis from outside continue.

Kaw! kee! Kee! Kraw!

Stepping outside his hootch, Kendall fitted and sealed his helmet to his skinsuit and watched the helmet diagnostics go through their cycle. Retrieving his M-7 from the shelter he flipped his visor up and approached the sound of the racket which had wrenched him from his dreams of home.

"Hey Corp, check out the avioid!" Signalman Nephi Zea stood over a wounded Swoop Hawk poking it with a stick.

Kee! Kee! Kee! The hawk, obviously wounded continued screetching at the top of it's lungs, spinning around in the moss.

"You had the Ive Ass on again didn't you, Zea?" Cpl Kendall queried.

"I thought I heard incoming!" Zea pleaded in a nasal tone.

Kendall sighed, loud and long, "If there was incoming I would have woken up, thats the third bird you've butchered this week with that POS shield."

"Can I keep him, you know fix him up?"

"His beak is broken and so is his wing and a leg. He's fucked!" Kendall stepped over to the bird and picked him up, stroking his head and neck.

"I bet Doc Murphy can fix him up for me! C'mon Relic!" Zea looked at Kendall with wide eyes.

Relic slid his hands to either side of the wounded birds neck, which by now had stop keening and was nervously panting in his arms. "Don't fucking call me that, those days are behind me. It's either Kendall or Cpl, goddamnit!"

"Murphy can be over here in a few minutes, I'll get him, he's probably in the command trench." Zea turned to go get Medic Murphy.

"Don't bother, I'll take care of him." Bracing himself, Kendall grabbed the birds kneck in a quick motion and snapped it with a clean jerk.

Zea heard the crack and turned back to face the Cpl, "why'd you do that? Doc coulda fixed him up."

"Warrent Yenchin isn't going to let Doc patch up a bird, those medical supplies are kinda valuable to us." Kendall flipped down his visor, signalling and end to the conversation. He tossed the dead bird into the bush for the scavengers to have. Hefting his rifle he headed to the track to sit down.

"Asshole" muttered Zea under his breath as he followed the stocky Cpl to the track.

Relic stepped up the ramp into the Bison,clipping his M-7 into a rifle rack as he did so. He noticed that the IVASS indicator was glowing green. Dropping into the radio operators seat, he reached into the Commanders/gunners position and flipped the toggle down. The IVASS indicator flashed to a steady red. The low level hum that had been there before, dissapated quietly. Kendall removed his helmet and set it on the operators table, and turned to look out the ramp door, a haunted look on his face.

Zea stepped up to the ramp, nervously fingering his rifles safety as he did so. "Shit!", he thought to himself. "Not again, I hate that look", Zea muttered to himself.

"What look!?" Kendall snapped turning his gaze to Zea's eyes.

"That look you get when you think of what happened, it's like your staring through my soul." Zea shifted nervously, he finally stepped just inside the track and laid his rifle on the seat.

"Why do they call you Relic anyways, Corp?" Zea asked, a hint of aprehension in his eyes. He half hoped that the moody Cpl would finally open up to him, half hoped he wouldn't.

Cpl Kendall just sat there staring into Zea's eyes, a single tear rolled down his face. "None of your fucking business, Sig!" Snapped the Cpl, turning as he said and grabbed his helmet. Hoisting himself out of the seat he reached for his rifle.

Stepping outside the track, he plugged his rifle into his bracer, and chambered a round. "I'll be at the command trench! I'll see you at the end of your shift", he called to Zea.

"Whens that Corp?", Zea quiered.

Sighing the brooding Cpl responded, "check your bracer, the Corps issued you one for a reason." Turning away the Cpl headed off to find the command trench in the fog.

[Aaron]

Chapter 2

Inshara was a pretty unremarkable planet, most of the terrain tended towards vast rainforests broken up by high mountains and some plains. The Federation had known about it for a long time, but it was considered to close to the border with the Cardies to colonise.

The Bajorans had no such compunctions, after the end of the Dominian War a charasmatic Bajoran expatriot gathered around a million settlers and took off for Inshara. Settling ironically around the same time as a group of around 625,000 Cardies that were looking to escape the devestation of Cardassia Prime. The two groups got along even if the relations were a little distant, the Bajorans hadn't forgotten what the Cardies had done to Bajor.

Around ten years after the "Nemisis incident" the Bajorans started to get antsy, they needed to expand their colony and the Cardies were sitting on some of the best argricultural land on the continent. Acting covertly the Bajoran government purchased a rather large sum of arms from a disreputable Ferengi arms dealer, whom apperently owned his own moon. Raising a militia they "trunkheads" as the Cardies call the Bajorans, attacked a Cardie Garrison (GM) outpost. Killing most of the troops present and skinning the rest save one, whom they sent back with an ultimatium for the Cardassion populace to leave their valley and resettle elsewhere.

The Cardassion garrison launched several retalitory raids on the Bajorans, but were alwyas replused. It seemed that in addition to arms, the Ferengi had supplied advisors to train the militia.The Cardies pulled back and screamed on their subspace radio for help. The Cardassion Union could only supply on Galor,and for one day to help. She arrived in orbit and started to bombard the Bajoran settlement from orbit, concentrating mainly on milita installations but also hitting several farms as well as burning a whole town down around a Bajoran bunker complex, which ironically remained inatct.

The Bajoran Militia (BM) although it took them a while mangaged to bring down the cruiser with a ground mounted photon torpedo launcher. As the Cardies bad luck continued to plague them, the Galor came down in the middle of the main Cardassion settlement.

The situation steadly worsened until the Cardassion government appealed to the Federation to meidate the dispute. After a Federation Assessment Team evaluated the planet and it's problems, it was decided to dispatch a Brigade of the Federation Marine Corps. A reletively new entity, formed after the Dominan War to rectify the Federations lack of ground troops, the FMC was a highly trained, well equiped modern fighting force. At the time of the Inshara operation, known as Operation Athena, the Corps was just celebrating it's tenth birthday. It was decided that the 2nd Federation Mechanised Brigade Group (2 FMBG) would be detailed for the operation. Widely considered the best brigade in the Corps, it had considerable experiance with peacekeeping operations. It had recently come off a deployment from Romulus trying to quell the food riots.

Consisting of two infantry battalions, the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, and the Royal Canadian Regiment. As well as an armoured Battalion, the 12th Manitoba Dragoons, an engineer battalion and a field hospital and field ambulance unit. the Brigade was well equipped to handle any situatuation that might arrise on Inshara. Given the amount of heavy weapons on the planet, 2 FMBG was given an attachment of a battalion of artillery and a 2 squadrons of hoppers.

Part of the 2nd FMBG's installations on the planet was Mount Gola, a mountain practically midway between the two warring groups. It's function was to act as a Radio ReBroadcast (RRB) facility for the Brigades comms. Consisting of a single RRB APC with four signallers, and a platoon of FMC infantry with four APC's the post was very remote and it was hoped, unreachable by the two factions. Considering that if the outpost was removed, the FMC Brigade would be severely hampered in it's communications throughout the Area Of Responsibility (AOR)...........

[Aaron]

Chapter 3


Kendall trudged past the 31A track on his way to the command trench, lost in thought. "Damn Zea and his questions, why are FNG's so nosy?", he muttered.

50 meters back from the main trench line, roughly centered on that line, he came upon the command trench. As he approached through the fog he could make out four troops in the trench, he could check his HUD for their ID, but he couldn't be bothered.

Shimmying under the logs that made up the command trenchs overhead cover, he flipped up his visor and joined in the conversation already in progress.

"Resup will be here by 1400", Sgt M "Blackadder" Bean reported to the WO.

WO Yenchin acknowledged Kendall with a nod, "By hopper or track this time?"

"Should be by hopper, apperently there's a secret squirrel coming with them." Blackadder turned towards Kendall and gave him a good natured shove. "Your up early Relic."

"Yeah, Asshat turned on the Ive-Ass again and burned another bird."

"Damn! Thats the third one this week, I'll go chew his ass out. Or did you already?" Sgt Bean raised his eyebrow in question.

"Nah, wasn't in the mood. Besides he never fucking listens. What the fuck is wrong with the FNG's these days, do they go through Comms school or nursery camp?" Kendall looked down in disgust and noticed a millipede crawling across his boot.

"It's not just Comm school, the Newbies in my platoon are pretty out there too." Yenchin twisted his face into a grin. "Must be replicator withdrawl." He snorted at his own joke.

Picking up the millipede with his left hand he gave it a lift out of the trench. "So whats this about resup being a day early?"

"Apperently there is a squirrel coming up to check out our defenses, something about arty being spotted close to the border and Command wants to make sure our defenses are up to snuff. As if we don't know what we are doing." Bean sniffed at the implied insult.

"Well maybe having two former Wogs up here makes them nervous." Kendall watched the milli fall back in the hole.

"That can't be it" Yenchin replied, "you guys have been in the Corps ten years, fuck we were all on Cardie Prime and Romulus together."

Lifting the millipede back out of the hole, Kendall sighed "Moff you know we'll never get passed that stigma of being former Fleet."

"You're probably right", "Moff" Yenchin watched Relic place the milli gently on the ground above. "Hey I thought you don't like being called Relic."

"Blackadder gets the honour, we served together on the Norkova, he kept me alive till we got to sickbay." Kendall shifted, putting his back to rest on the rear trench wall, and watched the milli crawl under the trench radio set. The platoon Sig tried to keep his eyes out for it, those ones were poisoness.

"I wondered about those scars, what ever happened to the Norkova?" Yenchin spotted the millipede scooting out from under radio. "Watch out Private, he's taken a liking to you."

Bean chimed in, " She was decommisioned and put in the Fleet museum, to damaged to be worth the cost to repair. Fucking Kim, I told him to shut off the plasma conduit before he opened up the antenna."

"Kim, from Voyager?" Yanchin queried.

"The same, he thought he knew more about comms than the two comms specialists that were assigned to fix the subspace antenna, so he pushes Kendall out of the way and opens the access panel. Plasma flooded out and burned Relic pretty bad, set the whole fucking saucer on fire too." Sgt Bean spat in the grenade sump, showing his disgust.

"So what happened to him, he make it out of the saucer?" Moff stretched and at the pinicle off it reached out and squashed the milli, which was trying to knaw through the Platoon Sig's boot.

"Yup, like a roach. He was posted to the design team for the new Cheyanne class dropship. The fucker causes a fire so devestating that the whole saucer had to be evacuated and piloted from engineering and he gets a design job and a promotion to full Lt. Hell Relic rode the rest of the way back to Starbase 143 in a science lab floating in a tub to keep the burns from drying out. Maybe know they'll put a secondary sickbay in the engineering section of those tubs." Bean suddenly looked self-concious, like he'd said too much, he eyed Kendall, than: "sorry about the rant guys."

A high pitched whine suddenly filled the air and a hopper popped over the cliff 400 meters to the left.

"Oh look, resups here!" Kendall smirked to himself and got up out of the trench, snapping his visor closed. Dust swirled around the position, kicked up by the hoppers anti-grav.

[brianeyci]

Interesting... the Federation in this universe seems to have a wide reach, with Romulus, Bajor, Cardassia. And of course, cool kit. Where's the regenerative phasers and tricorders? It sounds like the only thing in common between this Federation and ST Federation is the name.

There's some spelling/grammar/typos.

Looking forward to the next one.

Brian

[Aaron]

Interesting... the Federation in this universe seems to have a wide reach, with Romulus, Bajor, Cardassia. And of course, cool kit. Where's the regenerative phasers and tricorders? It sounds like the only thing in common between this Federation and ST Federation is the name.

There's some spelling/grammar/typos.

Looking forward to the next one.

Brian

This is 10 years post Nemisis. And while the Federation in this fic isn't really any bigger than in DS9, the Federation Marine Corps (FMC) has found itself deployed to some rather diverse locales. Usually at the behest of the local government. You can bet that the Romulans and Cardies asked for the Corps help. The most notable difference is between the sterile attitude of regular Federation citizens and the stark reality that the Marines face. They are not regular Federation members, and in fact could be in many cases considered miscreants.

The FMC prefers railguns to phasers, as they are simple and easy to use. And they cause a massive wound to the enemy soldier, which is going to freak out his buddy. Who is used to clean phaser wounds.


And I suck at grammer, and spelling.

[Aaron]

Chapter 4


Conse Quences left his modest deli and headed down the street towards the post office. A rather odd designation for what was esentially a subspace comms facility. But it was the only way to get mail on the colony so he went every other day to see if Grandma Quences sent any news of his new niece, just born in a remote province on Bajor.

Paying no attention to a hooded figure with a duffle bag fussing on the side of the sidewalk, he started to walk past him, until the stranger grabbed his arm.

"Say pal, got the time?" The raspy voice came from deep in the hood.

Glancing at his watch Quences replied, "1400, hey wait a second your a Cardie!"

"Yup" the stranger turned back to his duffle bag and reached in, the sound of a switch being thrown was audible. "If I were you I'd run buddy."

Conse stumbled back a few steps and started to run across the street, narrowly avoiding a hover car that was lesierlouly headed down Hasprit Street. Suddenly he felt what he thought was a hand push him forward, and he went flying across the street. A large WHOMP! followed the hand.

Conse Quences flew into a fruit stand onto the opposite side of the street and collapsed in a heap, a large fragment of hovercar buired in his side. As blood began to stain the fruit strewn around him, his last thoughts were of his newborn niece. A bystander rushed to his side just in time to see the light fade from his eyes.

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The hopper hovered over the road leading into the RRB position, settling down in a cloud of dust. A tall wide figure with Sgt's insignia stepped out as members of Sgt. "Coyote" A squad approached the hooper's troop door to retrieve the resup.

Kendall went to walk past the Sgt untill Sgt. Bean came over the squad circuit. "Relic can you escort the squirrel to the command trench?"

"Yeah sure Blackadder". Kendall changed course and aproached the Sgt, reading his name of his namestrip, "Sgt. Revan, I'm Cpl Kendall. If you'll follow me I'll take you to the command trench."

"Ahh Relic himself, pleased to meet you", Revan smiled as he lifted his visor.

Rolling his eyes, knowing he couldn't be seen behind his visor. He snapped it up, replying: "Does everyone know my by that name in this Brigade?"

"Well WO White told me to look you up when I got up here, he said you had some good stories, and I brought some Gin with me", Revan produced a small bottle of Gin from a pouch on his LBV and showed it to the Corporal.

"I heard he was at the squirrel farm, lets check in at the trench and we can hit that Gin after my shift. Wait a sec how long are you staying here?"

"As long as I want, the hopper is at my disposal. If I need an extra day to evaluate your defenses thats my perogative. Brigadier Hillier stated that my assessment was to be thorough." Revan winked.

"How is the Commander anyways?" Kendall turned and started to walk to the command trench, Revan fell in besides him.

Slipping the Gin back into it's pouch, Revan replied "worried, the Bajorans seem to be up to no good, their shifting arty close enough to be in range of Mount Gola."

"Lovely, I guess we might get to see the Ive Ass do something other than fry birds, well here's the trench." Kendall stopped short of the trench and a signal from Bean, he turned to head back to the RRB track.

"I'll catch up with you later on today", Revan remarked to Kendall.

"Gotcha Sarge". Kendall continued up to the track, through the clearing fog. Wondering to himself if the Ive Ass was actually going to work this time.

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"Warrent,Sgt good to see you guys. Where's Lt. Ice?" Revan settled into a squat in the trench.

"Fuck knows Sgt. I sent the Signaller to go look for him. The guy avoids people like the plague." Yenchin replied somewhat bemused at Revan's question.

"Whats up with Relic?" Revan absentmindedly rubbed the dust off his rifle as he talked.

"Ah fuck, you didn't call him that did you? He really hates it, only a few of us can call him that without him freaking out." Sgt. Bean honestly looked concerned as he spoke.

"Well I had Geo Whites blessing, maybe that kept him calm, either that or the Gin."

"GIN! Are fucking crazy Revan?" Bean replied, "Look, he hasn't had a drink in five years, so I'd appreciate it if you'd throw the bottle off the mountain."

"Alright", Revan spotted Lt. R Ice coming over with the Signaller. "Here comes your Lt. Lets get down to business."

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Kendall wandered back to the RRB track, somewhat lost in thought.

"Gin do I really want to open that pandora's box again?"

He spotted Zea sitting on the edge of the ramp, the speaker on the radio set turned up loud enough to hear from the door. "Well at least the fucker got that right", Kendall thought to himself.

As he got closer he noticed Zea fiddling with something on his lap, something with feathers.

"What the hell are you doing now Sig?" Kendall said as he approached the ramp and slung his M-7 over his shoulder.

"Well since you killed my avian friend, I thought I'd clean him up and put his skull up on the drivers hatch coaming." Zea continued stripping the flesh off the hawks head.

"Is that supposed to be a joke Zea?"

"Not at all, see it's kinda nice", Zea held up the semi-clean hawk skull for Relic to inspect.

"Yeah it's beautiful, look if the Sgt gives you a hard time about a grisly bird skull mounted on the hatch, tell him I said it's ok."

"Your seriously going to let me mount it?" Zea's grin was ear to ear.

"Thats what I said, just make sure you throw those guts over the mountain side, I don't want maggots crawling all over my track."

"Thanks Rel...err Corporal Kendall", Zea shifted nervously, hoping the Corporal wouldn't berated him again for calling by the knickname.

Kendall decided to cut the kid some slack,"no problem. Look your relieved, I'll start my shift early."

"But I've still got another hour"

"Hey if you want to do your full shift thats fine by me." Kendall turned and started up the ramp.

"No, no thats great, thanks Corp!", Zea retrived his helmet and rifle and went around the track to mount his skull.

Kendall continued up the ramp and racked his rifle. He took off his helmet and laid it on the radio operators table. Reaching over to the master radio panel he turned down the volume on the only net they were responsible to monitor, everything else was done automatically. If 0 needed them they'd call over the Sigs Squadron Command Net.

Glancing down he noticed the ration heater was open, flipping the top open he retrieved a dead bug out of it, and then reached for the ration box. Digging through until he found the ham steak and pinapple package, he pulled it out. Dropping the entree pouch into the heater he locked it closed and turned it on. Then turning to the radio log he noted that he had relieved Signalman Zea and signed himself in.

That done, he busied himself cleaning up the inside of the track, knowing that Sgt Revan would want a tour and an explanation of how a RRB worked. As well as what the crew was responsible for should they be attacked.

15 minutes later the indicator on the ration heater popped up and Corporal Kendall settled down for a hot lunch.

[Aaron]

Chapter 5-Norkova

Returning to the command trench after a tour of the lines, WO "Moff" Yenchin, Sgt. M "Blackadder" Bean, and Sgt. Revan squeezed back into under the log cover and settled into a semi-comfortable squat. Lt. R Ice had disappeared again.

"Where the fuck did the Lt. go?" Revan wondered aloud.

"Best not to know, I think we're safer without his input. This is his first tour, I'll fill him in and make some 'suggestions" later', Yenchin made the italics sign with his fingers.

"Well I can see you've pretty much got the approach to the road covered, and it's the only way up here, besides hopper, which neither sides have. Do you have any contigency plan to block the road, if they decide to pay you a visit?" Revan's face turned serious as he quiered the WO.

"We're a little short of demo but Blackadder and I thought about cratering the road or causing a slid over it." Yenchin's face twisted into a mischevious grin.

"Blackadder?" Revan asked

"Him", Yenchin indicated Bean

"Ahh, gotcha. How do you plan on taking out the road without any demo?"

"Well the Sigs guys and a few of my boys have a crate or two of Type II's with us." Yenchins grin became enormous, knowing Revan wouldn't be pleased how they got them.

"Ok I'll bite, where did Marines get a decidely Starfleet weapon? hmm?" Revan noticed a milli out of the corner of his eye and squashed it as it was making it's way across the trench wall. "Disgusting buggers".

"Well it turns out that the transport that brought us here, her quartermaster had a thing for Admiral Janeway. Sgt Coyote happened to have some and they made a trade, bootleg Janeway porn for a crate of phasers."

"And the other case?" Revan was hurridly trying to wipe the milli's guts off his cammies.

"Thats my doing", chipped in Bean. "I used the old boys network, I knew the security chief of the starbase we staged off of. He slipped me a case on the sly, for old times sake."

" You guys have to know that you can be canned and sent to New Zealand for thieft, right?" Revan's demenour suddenly became joyful. "But to hell with the fleets phasers, how you gonna set them off?"

"Sgt Rack will rig them to detonate on command, Sig Hill has rigged up a radio detonator off an old SF communicator we poached." Sgt Bean replied, than looking at Yenchin he continued, "if we start tonight the phasers can be in place by morning and the locals shouldn't be any wiser."

"Sounds good guys, well I'm off to see this detonator and have a chat with Cpl Kendall", Revan crawlled out of the trench, and before turning to head to the RRB track he took the Gin out of his pocket and lobbed it towards the hopper. It fell to earth and shattered with a faint Chink! sound.

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The printer in the back of the RRB track beeped indignitly signalling the end of it's job.

Kendall tossed the remains of his meal packets in the trash and picked up the report that had just come over the TCCCS data network. He had told it to print five minutes ago but apperently the system was being uppidity again and had only started printing one minute ago.

The Cpl glanced through it, making sure that all the pages were in order. As sometimes the system printed pages out of order. He had already read it when it came onver the network. It was the daily SitRep on the AOR in total. Nothing too interesting other than an apperent suicide bombing on the Bajoran side of the Green Line. Although there was a section on the arty that had spotted moving into range of the Mount Gola camp.

"Great, fucking arty. Whats next the 'trunks' get hoppers?" Kendall wondered aloud.

"I bloody well hope not", Sgt. Revan spoke up from the ramp doorway.

"How long have you been standing there?" Kendall asked, point blank.


"Shouldn't that be, how long have you been there Sgt.?"

"Yeah, I'll get right on that. Sarge" Kendall shifted in his seat, "so how long have you been here."

Revan sighed at the insubordination," I got here about when you started pounding the data console, trying to get it to print"

"Yeah it sticks sometimes, it's the duotronics. They don't like the humidity, but their still better than the Isoleniar crap the Fleet is saddled with."

"I see, I never thought the Fleet comps were that bad. But what do I know, I was just a Goldshirt phaser monkey." Revan racked his rifle and sat down on the bench seat next to the operators table. Peeking at the radio log out of the corner of his eye.

"I figured you were former ships security, what class?" Kendall briefly cocked his head, rather like a dog, as if listening to something. "Sorry thought I heard our call sign, Command Nets busy tonight."

"I was on the Galaxy herself, I know you were on an Excelsior. Norkova right?"

"Yeah", Kendalls eyes briefly took on a far away look as if he was remembering something close to his heart. "Good ship, fine crew. We made it through the Dominion War pretty good. Only lost 50 people, most of them at Chintoka."

"How long were you fleet, before you went over to the Corps?" Revan glanced around the track noting that everything was in it's place. He caught site of a box labelled 'Type II Phaser. This side up. Do not store near plasma conduit!'. He supressed a grin.

"Seven years, I transferred as soon as the Corps started up. I had just finished my rehab and Blackadder had told me he was going over, so I went with him. I was finished with fleet after that idiot Kim burned down the Norkova anyways."

Taking off his helmet, Revan set it down on the seat beside him and rubbed his head to relieve the itch. "So what happened on the Norkova anyways?"

Kendall sat back in the radio operators seat and slumped down. "I tell you what, you give me that CS gas grenade I see sticking out of your LBV and I'll tell you about the Norkova".

"What do you need a CS grenade for?"

"I'll know when it happens, but we haven't got any up here. And their real handy things to have, in a tight spot." Kendall looked Revan in the eye, the defeated slump gone. "You're the one who's interested in the Norkova, not me."

"Fuck why not" Revan pulled the grenade from it's pouch and handed it over. "Squirrels don't have to account for their pyro anyways."

"Yeah I know" Kendall pulled a smoke grenade from it's pouch on his LBV and replaced it with the CS one. He then placed the M-8 in an ammo bin secured to the side of the track.

"So the Norkova?"

The far away look returned to Kendalls face. "It was just before that nonsense with that Romulan hack, Shinzon. We were on a patrol out to the Cardassion relief zone, checking security and delivering some relief supplies to a few hard hit worlds. The primary subspace transceiver had gone south and Bean and I were detailed to fix it."

Kendall shifted in his seat, propping his feet up on the OP table. "Kim from Voyager fame had been transferred aboard a month or so before the trip out to the zone and was placed in charge of maintinance. He was an ass, thought he knew it all. After all he had kept the ship running single handidly for seven years, there wasn't a thing he didn't know about fixing shit! He used to brag about banging Janeway over the nightly maintainers Mah Jong game in the mess too."

Reaching behind him, the Cpl turned the volume on the master radio panel down a notch. "Anyways, Bean and I headed up from the engineering section to check out the transciever array. We already knew what was wrong. On the first run Excelsiors, the isolinear chips had a tendency to shake loose from their slots. Happens all the time, the engines put out to much vibration."

Revan pulled a Mr. Chrunchy bar from his pocket and offered Kendall a piece. "Go on, and take a piece. I've been saving this one for a special occasion. The only Mr. Chrunchy left on Inshara."

"Thanks", Kendall took the offered piece and popped it in his mouth. "Anyways, Kim decideds he's going to come along and show us Petty Officers a thing or two, after all he had fixed Voyagers transciever during a Borg attack, or some such nonsense. So we get to the transceiver room and Bean and I go to make sure the plasma flow is shut off, when Kim opens the access panel. I managed to push him out of the way before the plasma burned him alive, but the flow nailed me dead on. Burned over 60% of my body."

Kendall finished chewing the bar, and picked a piece of caramel covered peanut out of his teeth. "Bean dragged me out of the room, and I guess Kim must have followed. I vaguley heard Bean tell Kim to activate the fire suppression system, and then I blacked out. Bean carried me to sickbay, I don't know what Kim did. Anyways the fire burned for ten hours, completely overwhelming the fire system and eventually turned the whole saucer section into a collapsed pile of slag.400 crewmembers died. Men and women I had known for years."

Kendall turned to Revan, tears streaming down his cheeks."My best friend, Donald Lasante was burned alive in his bunk. He was from Saskatchewan, nice place. If a little flat. His mother used to bake us brownies when were on leave. I spent 6 months in a Starbase hospital. Had to learn to walk again, the whole nine yards. I never got to go to his funeral. I turned my back on the Fleet that day and I haven't looked back. When they offered me a transfer to the Corps I took it with relish. Bean and I have been together ever since. I owe that bastard my life. Sometimes I wonder if it was worth it."

Revan sat in shock, he knew the Norkova had suffered a fire. It had been fleet wide news, but he never heard a first hand account of it before today. "So what happened to Kim."

"He got promoted to full Lt. They transferred him to R&D. I heard he was on the design team for our Cheyanne class dropships. I ran in too him after the Romulan riot deployment, I was on leave on Earth and I stopped by SF Command to see an old buddy. I bumped into him in the cafeteria. He tried too talk to me but I brushed him off and left."

Revan let out a long slow sigh. " Wow, thanks for telling me. Though I don't have much too offer in reply other than empty platitudes."

"Don't worry about it, it's good to talk about it once and a while. And I'll be damned if I see one of those Betazaid hacks on the Fleet barges." Kendall put his feet back on the floor and picked up an old style flip communicator. He offered it to Revan. "Here drop this off to Yenchin on your way out, along with that box of Dustbusters, will ya?"

"Sure no problem, so Hill rigged this antique into a detonator huh?"

"Yeah and guess were he got it? Turns out that there's a SF surplus shop on Orion Prime, run by Jim Kirk's son, Sam Medina. Got it for 3 slips of latinum." Kendall chuckled, "Damn greenskins are as bad as the Ferengi."

"I didn't know Kirk had a suriviving son."

"Yeah turns out it was from an affair he had shortly before he was killed on the Ent-B. He took his moms last name and went into business on Orion"

Revan took the communicator and placed it in his pocket. "Well you learn something new everyday." He replaced his helmet on his head and retreived his rifle from the rack. Picking up the crate of Type II's he turned back to Cpl Kendall, who was smiliing pleasantly back at him. "Thanks for the story Cpl Kendall, I wish you luck. Hopefully we'll cross paths before this OP is over."

"If we do you can call me Relic", Kendall smilied and stood up, patting Revan on the back. " Catch you later."

Revan turned and headed out into the dark angleing for the command trench, Kendall headed back to his work, logging Revans visit and the time it had taken. He turned the radio back up.

A short while later he heard the whine of the hopper lifting off, and figured it was Revan on his way back to the Brigade CP.

Seconds later he heard a Whoosh! followed by a BANG!.

Kendall stuck his head out intime to see the hopper tumble to the ground, apperently hit by a militia SAM. Seconds later he heard the warbling noise of an artillery shell passing over the position.

"FUCK!" Kendall shouted as he reached down and flicked on the IVASS. He reached into the drivers compartment and sounded three short blast on the horn, signalling an attack on the position. Hopefully the other tracks could get their IVASS up in time.

[Aaron]

Chapter 6 - Arty! Arty! Arty!

BANG!

The night sky lit up briefly illuminating two figures doing a rather intimate dance in a trench.

"Get out of me!" Lance Corporal Calin screamed pushing Private Booker off of her whilst closing her skin suit and pulling up her cammies.

"But I'm not finished yet!" Booker yelled.

"I don't fucking care! Didn't you see that hopper get wacked?" Now fully clothed Calin commenced watching her arcs of fire.

Booker finished dressing and double-checked that he had a round chambered. Nervously he whispered to Calin, "hey Carpet, we gonna get hit?"

"I dunno, you heard that arty round and the horn blasts. Plus you saw the hopper go down. You tell me kid."

Their squad radios crackled to life. "Booker, Carpet get down the road and see if there's any survivors from the crash." It was Sgt Coyote.

"Roger Sarge", replied Calin as she hoisted herself out of the trench and turned to give Booker a hand only to find that he was already out.

They hurried down the trench line, coming to the road shortly. Proceeding cautiously down the road, rifles at the shoulder, they scanned for any possible sign of a Militia soldier.

As they approached the wreck they heard another warbling sound, signifying an incoming round. "Arty! Arty! Arty!" screamed Calin, "Boker get the fuck down!"

Fortunatly the round dropped short and landed 500 m down the road. "Hmm" Calin thought to herself in an instant, "first was long, this was short, should be bang on in the next few rounds."

Rapidly apraoching the wreck they came apon a rather still body. "Booker, check him out. It's that squirrel from earlier, thats the guy that was checking our lines."

As Booker knelt down to tend to Sgt. Revan, Calin swept the hopper wreck coming up empty. Revan must have been blown clear.

She keyed her radio,"Sarge this is Carpet, we have one injuried party. Looks like the squirrel."

"Roger", came the response. "Get him up here and to the medic. He's in 31A."

Hurrying back to Revan and Booker, she looped one arm over her neck to help take some of Revans weight. And they headed back up to the Camp.

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Kendall hit the ramp panic button on the RRB rack, bringing the ramp up in 2 seconds. Setting the radio master panel to remote to the gunners postition, he popped the hatch and checked that the GPMG and the AGL were cocked and locked. Satisfied he swung the weapons station to cover it's assigned arc, covientantly straddling the only road into the camp.

He heard a clang and poked his back into the troop compartment to see Sgt. Bean, Sig Zea and Sig Hill come tumbling into the track. "Fucking HELL!" Spat out Bean.

"Allright you know your positions, lets hope their just screwing around with us." Kendall dropped out the weapons station and made his way to the aft right air sentry hatch, while Zea moved to man the radio and Hill joined Kendall at the opposite sentry hatch. Both popped up and started scanning their arcs, helmets set for "starlight".


Bean slipped up in to the weapons station. Switching his helmet radio to the DNS Platoon net, he let fly. "Moff this is Bean, you find anyone in that wreck?"

"Yeah we found the Squirrel, he's pretty beat up but Doc thinks he can bring him around. That last round hit the road by the way. So we're bracketed, if these guys are any good. But the fact that their taking so long between rounds makes me think they haven't done this too often."

"Roger, out" Bean clicked back over to the RRB squad net and listened to Zea praying to himself in the troop compartment. Looking down he suddenly noticed what appeared to be a bird skull glued to the drivers hatch ring.

Keying his radio he queried Kendall,"Relic why is there a skull on the drivers hatch?"

"Zea asked if he could mount it, it's from his 'friend' that got whacked by the shield today. I didn't see the harm in it."

"Ok, I was just curious." Bean paused as a loud moaning filled the air. "Fuck, Arty! Arty! Arty!" he broadcast over the common net, which imediatly stomped the DNS and RRB nets in favour of it's own transmissions. Bean shrunk down into the weapons station and crossed his fingers and hoped the shield would work.


WHAM!

There was a momentary flash of light as the incoming round hit the shield and detonated. The shrapnell was deflected by the sheild as well.

"Looks like the trunks put moaners on them for us, isn't it nice to be loved?" Kendall straightend in his hatch and awaited another round.

"Whats a moaner?" Zea piped up.

"It's something that gets attached to an arty round, designed to make a loud noise to demoralise the enemy." Kendall wondered to himself if the FNG had even paid attention in boot.

The moaning suddenly became audible again, only louder and more intense than before.

WHAM!

WHAM!

WHAM!

The interconnected shields of the tracks flickered wildly with the impact of the last round.

"You see that Adder?" Cpl Kendall asked, as he ensured that his helmet was completely secure.

"Yeah, a shield buster. That Ferengi sold them everything."

"A few more in close succession like that could breach the Ive Ass." Kendall sounded concerned for the first time that night.

"Lets hope that they don't have any more or that their conserving them tonight." Sgt. Bean glanced down at the IVASS indicator and checked the integrity. "75% and climbing back up. They must be moving their guns after each burst. That would explain the gaps between barrages."

Kendall started absentmindidly singing to himself, "Well I woke up Sunday morning with no way to hold my head that didn't hurt. The beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad so I had one more for dessert."

"Whats that Corp?" Hill asked as he glanced over at the dim figure that was Cpl Kendall.

"It's a song by a 20th Century Country and Western artist named Johnny Cash." Behind his visor Kendall smiled at the happy memories of his father that the song invoked.

"You like 20th Century music? School always said it was mind numbing trash" Zea added "Only throwbacks listen to 20th Century stuff!"

Bean started chuckling to himself, Zea was gonna get it this time for sure. One thing Bean had learned serving with Kendall for ten years was, don't diss Johnny Cash.

"I listen to that trash as you put it, because it speaks to me. Johnny Cash came from nothing, a dirt poor cotton sharecropper as a kid. He rose to become possibly the most influential man in Country and even Rock music in the 20th. He sings about overcoming hardship, something he knows alot about. And so do I. So don't go dissing Cash, boy. When we get off this shithole, I'll play you some. You might like it."

"Ok Corporal", Zea replied, his voice full of doubt. "What about Mozart or Bach?"

The moaning returned with abandon this time, rising to a crescendo.

WHAM!

WHAM!

WHAM!

PHZZFFT!

WHAM!

WHAM!

Third round had been a buster, collapsing a hole in the shield big enough for the two following rounds to plow through. The track shook wildly as the rounds buried themselves in the dirt, micro seconds later a fountian of dirt was thrown up.One of the rounds had landed very close to the command trench, throwing a cover of fresh dirt over the log cover.

"Good thing they don't know how to set the fuses properly. I didn't really want a metal shower" Remarked Bean, "what were you saying about Bach, Zea?"

"Well, school taught us that the classics are the greatest musical works ever created by man. Everyone in the Fleet listens to it." Zea voice had a nervous pitch to it, like he knew he was in a discussion over his head.

"You know alot of guys think that in the Fleet. They've been told by the Federation what their supposed to believe and lots of people are happy to blindly follow that. But I tell you, search the Database on the Gators for stuff outside the mainstream crap the Federation pushes. Expand your horizons, it'll make you happy." Cpl Kendall smilied to himself, scarcely believeing that he used to think like Zea until Donnie taught him otherwise.

"Why do you serve the Federation if you dislike it so much, Corporal?" Hill chimed in, "You seem pretty bitter with the Federation and Fleet in particular."

"All you need to know is that I need the pension, and I've only got 10 years left." Kendall and Bean broke into a boisterous laugh at Relics claim.