Standard date: damned if I know
Location: yeah, that's a hard one too
Mission: sort of on hold for the moment
Situation: oooohhh yeahhh, that....


We were in the first drop, the only drop really, deep recon, ahead of the main force.  
The Grelbies weren't supposed to see us coming, we were supposed to just drop in, observe, and mark targets...quietly.

Everything went off exactly like I figured it would, typical.

The first hit killed the lights with a bright flash and my dropseat screen and helmet display went black, "EMP" the Lt called out, like nobody could guess that without his help.  The second hit took out the bulkhead he was hanging onto...and the port wing it was attached to; the Lt wasn't all that bad as officers go, but we needed the wing a lot more.

Holes in dropships are generally bad things to have, very bad when you aren't completely in atmosphere yet. Having both wings helps a lot with the 'getting into atmo in one piece' part too.

"Pull the handles, hang on then try not to die before landing"

I blacked out on the roller coaster down then came to just in time to see some weird looking legs and then a brighter flash before I passed out again.  The next time I woke up was in the cell I was going to be in for the next eight months, every moment, except when I was in the arena, or being 'examined'...I preferred the arena over those ones.

That's right, I went from assault medic to glorified gladiator and playtoy in one swell foop.  Didn't even have to go to school, it was "here's your spear, try not to die" now where have I heard that before ?

It would have been a lot easier with a rifle, or some grenades, or a flamer...definitely a flamer, a big one, but in that ring you got what you were handed and if you wanted something better you had to find someone who had it and try to take it away from them.

I have no idea who named then Grelbies, they're sort of like a big reptilian humanoid with a mangy fur coat sticking out between their scales and smell about the way you'd expect, but they do like watching people scuffling over scraps and we gave them a damned good show, once we figured out the loser got eaten anyway if the audience didn't think they'd put up a good enough fight.

Eight months in the ring, or dragged off for some pretty specific 'examinations', probably longer than that and then the fleet lit up the night when they jumped in, half the fireworks coming from weapons fire, the rest from dropships and buildings exploding.

When our compound walls came down we booked it, fast.  Some made it to the landing boats, other didn't but most did. I made it to the second last one after finishing a little unsettled business with one particular 'examiner'.

We got off fast and hot and were halfway out of atmo before everything turned to colours and noise.  Funny, I still remembered the "pull the handles and try not to die" chant.  This time I woke up in the middle of a desert with a long walk to a city that's never heard of electricity or fusion plants but where things light themselves up if you say the right words.

I have no idea where this is or even how I got here. I don't remember seeing any deserts on the scans we ran before getting blown out of the sky, just jungle, a whole world of it.  Did we hit an uncharted wormhole ? get knocked into a jumpgate with a co-ordinate glitch ? some secret Grelbie weapon ? or is this just what comes from being in one too many explosions ?

Either way, it's where I'm stuck, may as well make the best of it. I landed with a complete insertion seat and a full combat load this time so there's that and at least nobody's poking me with a shockstick to make me fight if I don't want to.

I'm in pretty good shape, all things considered, no major hurts, plenty of rations, water, enough charged mags for more than a few firefights and a commlink that works but only hisses empty channels.  I just have to figure out how to get a signal out, maybe the high ground or I might find a booster from the ship, assuming it didn't burn out on entry and I can find the crash site.  Someone else might have made it out too, there's always hope, or so they say, we'll see.

From the combat diary of TechSgt Piritta 'Pyro' Kovac, Assault Medtech, 132nd Recon, Fleet Marines.



5'6"
olive skin
dark eyes and hair
perpetually pissed off and happy about it
armed with the biggest thing she can find

preferably a grenade laucher, or a flamer...yeah, a flamer...a big one.



Inventory:

MultiSpectrum Stealth suit with resilisoft armour
BoneDome Plus field helmet with IR scan and respirator
Mk XIV heavy plasma carbine
12 mags plus induction/solar charger
DeepSlash MK VI knife/bayonet
SentexArms Hand Blaster
6 mags plus charger
LongBang Grenade Launcher mounted on carbine
3 bandoleers grenades-24ea
2x FragmentingUtilityCombinedKineticEnergyMaximumAppliedLethalLoad
1x DownloadedUnitaryMatrixBangFlashUnfragCollateralKillfreeStunners
ProxyDoc Cat4 MedTech kit with BioScanner
ReadyScoff Drypressed Rations-6 month pack
Hydratek solar still/water purifier
LandRoamer GP survival kit
SureTalk FullEncrypt Comm Link
QuietCover Multicam personal shelter
NoStep proximity perimiter defence set
GruntProof Issue Webkit w/standard eqpt
Stick, Pointy, Long, Large, Souvenir, 1ea
Shockstick, Grelbie issue, slightly bent, 1ea