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Chapter 19 - The Wind at my Back, Stars at my feet[]
Shuttle Two...
Carlos Gonzales enlisted in the Marine Corps from Arluna to the great shame and consternation of his 'mechwarrior grandfather, and he made Sargeant in the Corps during the Solar Liberation Campaign stage, assaults on New Earth and titan took him from barely-graduated Private to NCO status.
New Earth was hairier, he figured, as the pilot corkscrewed them down among the falling debris of destroyed enemy dropships and other...things.
He looked around the crew compartment of the Fennec recon truck, "If you need to piss your pants go ahead, guys. a few days on the dirt and we'll all be smelling like hell anyway."
this broke the tension for the real greenies-the high-school kids who weren't going Enlisted-to-Officer like he was.
"Middshipman Gonzales, how many drops?"
"Combat drops, or sims?" he asked.
"Combat."
"Well, it's only going to be combat if we ****** this up." he told them, "Our job is recon and contact, find out what the ****** this is all about, who the players are and what the game is...but I did the recon drop for New Earth, Rigil Kentaurus, and Titan. At least the air's not fifty percent ammonia this time."
Brace for landing. the Coxswain for the shuttle's voice quivered a little-he was new too, sitting side-by-side with an instructor pilot.
"Alright, you heard the pansy, crash pose, and remember, Breathe normally."
The Fennec has most of the drivetrain of a Rommel tank crammed into a 40 ton wheeled vehicle. That meant there was no engine exhaust or vibration before the first impact shock, followed by the second as the clamshell door at the back of the modded Mark Eight opened and the drag chute pulled the loaded vehicle out the back to fall ten meters to the ground pointed forward at seventy KPH.
The driver hit the release on the cargo chute and was already in gear when they made landfall, speeding toward a woodline at eighty KPH after being dumped out the back of a shuttle like a giant piece of birdshit.
"Let's go find us some information!!"