BoTH Chpt 48

==Blood on the Horizon - Chapter 48 -==
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===Mission Debriefing===
Location: King Henry V, Invader-Class Jumpship en-route to EidolonMay 8th, 3004
"Officer on deck!" Paige barked as Major Hull entered the briefing room, a small handful of reports in his hand. 
 
"At ease, you can be seated," the Major pulled out a chair and sat down himself. "Now, normally we'd be going through death by PowerPoint. But I'll spare you the trauma this time around."
 
The Major waited for the chuckles to die down before speaking again.
 
"I have here a stack of the reports from the operation we conducted against the pirates. All of you went over what worked, what didn't work, and what we need to improve on in our training scenarios for the future. We'll start with infantry and move on from there."
 
Peterson opened his mouth to speak before closing it and gesturing for one of the senior noncoms to speak.
 
"We performed well on the ground but we're going to have to work on rapid dismounts," Staff Sergeant Packer replied. "We also need to see about expanding our officer and noncommissioned officer pool. We've got a lot of infantry, and not enough officers to rein them in."
 
"I'll just add that the DroSTs functioned extremely well as an infantry delivery platform," Peterson nodded at the dropship captains. "They also were effective as support platforms once we had boots on the ground. I want more of them."
 
"Noted," Sheppard wrote something down. "There were four left on Eidolon, we'll see if we can salvage at least two of them."
 
"Now, onto vehicles tanks and how everything went during their portion of the operation," The Major moved the discussion along.
 
"We've got to start training gunnery more than we did before," Naomi stated, a stern expression on the short woman's face. "We have vehicles with fusion engines and the fuel for that is cheap. So next chance we get, we're running drills on movement and firing at the same time. There's no reason for half of our modified Hunters to miss like that."
 
"Alright, and lastly, the 'Mechs. Our Artillery didn't get to play around all that much on the last op, so we'll leave them for our next debrief."
 
"If we're going to be doing orbital drops, then we need to be running simulators on them." Sheppard shrugged. "Aside from that, we acquitted ourselves decently. Though we should probably work on more combined arms warfare."
 
"Is there anything else that needs to be pointed out?" Major Hull asked. "If not, then you're all dismissed, go take care of your people and get some rest."
 
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===Antiques of Space ===
Location: EidolonDate: July 4th, 3004
"Those aren't regular Jumpships," Katrina muttered as she checked the sensors. 
 
"No, they aren't," Hober replied. "Most of the ships in the graveyard here predate the Star League's first war with the Periphery-."
 
"That's a Conestoga!" Katrina cut the Lieutenant off. "Those ships should be in a museum somewhere."
 
"Probably," Hober shrugged. "But we don't have the time or resources to repair them and get them pulled to a settled world at the moment."
 
"Any chance I can get the coordinates?" Katrina asked. 
 
"First of all, the coordinates are classified. Secondly, we're trying to keep this system off of the official records in case we manage to piss off any of the House Lords. We might need a place to lay low, after all."
 
"I can understand that," the blond's voice took on a somber tone. "Still, these should be preserved somewhere, not left here forgotten in the void forever."
 
"I'm sure that the Powers that Be have their plans," Hober chuckled. "But for now, we've got our own job to do. So man that sensor station and get ready to shoot if need be. Just because a system was clear last time, doesn't mean that it is this time."
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"So what makes you so sure that we're going to find things that we missed the first time?" Victoria Jewel asked as the Messenger glided down onto the remnants of the spaceport, the other dropships falling into place around her. "After all, Archeologists spent months here looking through things."
 
"Because they were focused on pulling data from computers and the government buildings," I grinned. "And I've got a superpower that we didn't have the first time around."
 
"And what might that be?" Captain Jewel asked.
 
"Bored soldiers given an entire city to explore and do dumb shit around," my grin grew. "And I'll probably throw some of Paige's Marines down here too. Just to increase the odds of something stupidly impressive happening."
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===Camping Out===
Location: EidolonDate: July 8th, 3004
"Sarge, why are we just walking through an abandoned city?" Specialist Jenkins asked, his rifle hanging from his vest. "Aren't there better things to do than this?"
 
"We're not the only ones walking through the city like this," Packer replied. "It's all hands on deck exploring the city. So get used to being bored."
 
"Fine," Jenkins sighed. "Can we at least take a break? It's really fucking hot out here today."
 
"Sunset's in two hours," Packer replied. "We'll start looking for a building to make camp in, I figure we'll be at this for a few weeks before the Major and the rest of the Senior Staff get tired of not finding anything." 
 
"That building's got a bunch of caduceus all over it," Jenkins pointed out. "And where there's a hospital, there are beds. Sure, they won't be great. But they'll be better than sleeping on the ground."
 
"Alright," Packer nodded. "We'll finish up this block and then head for the hospital, we can spend our last hour exploring it before we bunk down for the night."
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"You guys are going to get in so much trouble if Sarge finds out," Jenkins looked at the six soldiers who were pouring out medical-grade alcohol onto improvised torches. 
 
"It's not like it's going to hurt anyone, and besides, in the dark, this building feels a lot like a castle or a dungeon. So why not play into it a bit?"
 
"Fine," Jenkins sighed. "But I'm coming with, someone needs to be the voice of reason here."
 
The small fireteam moved through the abandoned hospital, laughing as they told stories and played with the torches they'd manufactured. 
 
The halls were quiet though, and the laughter and fun slowly faded away as the atmosphere grew somber. 
 
"It's so odd...." One of them finally said. "There should be bodies, there should be more dead people, but instead all we found was nothing. Sure, we found the graveyard, but there should have been a lot more graves. So what happened?"
 
"I have no idea," Jenkins shrugged as he opened a door to a stairwell, a thoughtful look on his face as he realized that this set of stairs didn't just go up. But that there were several floors below them.
 
"Dropping a chemlight here," He cracked the green stick and tossed it down, counting the flights of stairs as it fell. "Charlie, take your partner and go grab the Sarge and the rest of the squad. I've got a feeling that we just found something interesting."
 
"Copy that," the soldier grabbed his battle buddy and headed for the area where the rest of the squad had bunked down for the night. 
 
"The rest of you, follow me, we're going to see what's down there. I want those torches doused and your Nightvision gear ready."
 
The four of them plus Jenkins smothered the fire on the torches before reaching into pouches and removing their night vision goggles.
 
"I've got point," Jenkins shifted into low ready as he moved down the stairs and into the first sub-basement level. "Opening on the right."
 
"Checking," two of them branched off to check the open doors. 
 
"There's a fusion reactor here," one of them peeked into the room. "Looks like it'll power the entire complex."
 
"Leave a chemlight at that door, we're Oscar-Mike."
 
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"Well Jenkins," Packer looked at the now well-lit sub-basement. "I have no idea how you found this place, but I'm glad that you did."
 
"I just reined in the chucklefucks who were trying to be stupid," Jenkins shrugged. "There's still three more levels that we haven't checked out. "But I figured we'd want to get power restored first."
 
"Agreed," Packer pulled out a cigar and lit it, tossing the match to the ground and stubbing it out. "Now, I want you on point at the lowest level, we'll clear the rest of the levels simultaneously. The techs'll leave a relay at the stairwell so we don't lose comms." 
 
"Understood," Jenkins nodded before gesturing for the fireteam he'd been with all night to fall in behind him. "You heard Sarge, we're going down to the ninth level. Let's just hope that there aren't any demons waiting to torment us down there."
 
"This doesn't bode well," Jenkins glanced at the five centimeters of water that covered the floor. "Ready?"
 
"On you, boss."
 
Pulling the doors open, Jenkins pied the door before picking a section and moving in, trusting the rest of the fireteam to have his back. 
 
"This is a lot of water," Charlie commented as he looked around the room. "Odds are that there are rooms that are entirely flooded."
 
"If they're this close to sea level, there should be pumps that can be activated."
 
Jenkins continued through the hall, pointing out openings for the fireteam to clear as he checked the far door.
 
"This door's locked. It's electronic too. We'll need some techs to get down here and breach this one."
 
"No, we won't," Charlie stepped forward. "This model still exists in the Concordat, and when the power's been disconnected for a certain length of time, it factory resets. And the default code is one through six."
 
The fireteam member tapped the numbers in sequence before the door slid open, revealing a much larger room.
 
"Someone get Packer down here, and the Major too. We just hit the motherfucking jackpot."
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Chapter 48