The Recruit: Part 2
WolfofShadows
Join Date: 2002-12-23 Member: 11420Members
Join Date: 2002-12-23 Member: 11420Members
<div class="IPBDescription">The first battle of Tara Yulon</div> <b>The Recruit Series</b>
<a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=6&t=18089' target='_blank'>Part 1: Arrival on the TSA SuperAxe</a>
<a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=6&t=19125' target='_blank'>Part 2: The First Battle of Tara Yulon</a>
<a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=6&t=21304' target='_blank'>Part 3: Foothold</a>
<u>April 13</u>
90% of Frontiersman victories over the Kharaa occur on the first day of an engagement. I learned this statistic as I was helping to set up our encampment for the night. Our First day of engagement seems over for the moment, though we are far from relaxed. Tommorrow the horror begins again. All throughout Basic, and even up to yesterday, I wanted nothing more than a taste of action against the Kharaa Swarm. Now, I feel as though i've had my fill.
We reached Tara Yulon at 0400. The area around the fallen city was dark, but it seemed as though the decrepedcolony itself was even more so. The stinch hit you as soon as you walked into the area. If the smell of rotting carcase wasn't enough to make you sick, the sight would ensure it. The remains of countless skulks littering the ground, slain Whiskey Company troops with looks of sheer panic frozen on their lifeless faces. On my way in I nearly tripped and fell over what i thought was a piece of a building...until i clearly saw the rank of Sergeant First Class cleary engraved on what was left of some poor Whiskey Company guy's chest. The Kharaa had been ruthless in their assault, all Whiskey Company personnel were accounted for, all KIA except the one guy that managed to get to our ship.
At first we thought the area was clear, that maybe the Kharaa had been passing through when they came across Yulon and had now moved on. As a matter of fact CPT Brinor was sure of it as he sent our Company XO, 1LT Uricks, to fill his canteen. After about 40 minutes without a sign of Ulricks, we were sure he was wrong. This was confirmed soon after by his blood curdling scream, and a spine tingling after sound that sounded eerily like joy from one of the skulks that got the poor ****. We set up a perimeter in what was the commons of Tara Yulon, the center of the city. Tara Yulon must have been pretty important to the TSA, because LTCOL Jameson himself took the command console aboard the SuperAxe as soon as we confirmed the presence of hostiles in the area. Soon i found myself and my squad quickly trying to put up a Turret Factory system to set up our defenses. That was the easy part, unfortunately though, we only managed to get two turrets running and loaded before the first attack came.
The attack came quickly and unexpectedly, even more-so than they warn you about in training. One second you are chatting with your squadmates about how many skulks you are going to kill, the next you see 2 dozen of the little **** running at you...and what's worse, a fade, in the distance, and I swear he was laughing at us. You spend your entire time in Basic training thinking you are god to the TSA and that the Kharaa don't stand a chance once you pick up your survival pack and LMG. All dilusions end quickly in the first onslaught. It didn't take long to forget about the turret we were welding together when bodies started to fall. The scene was like a slow moving nightmare. Everything seemed to move in frames. The snarled faces of the skulks as the chomped down people I had shared a barracks with for their last weeks. By the time I heard the scream of "Incoming" and racked the bolt back to chamber the first round into my LMG two members of my platoon had fallen. When you think about it, 24 skulks charging madly into a full company of over 100 marines, 2 platoons, each divided into 4 squads, it seems unfair; And you're right, we should have brought both companies.
One thing about Foxtrot Company though, we fight hard. One by one the Skulks fell, even though every dead skulk left 1 or 2 dead marines, we began to get excited, even cockey...damn, we forgot about the fade. Eventually the skulk attack had been beaten, the last skulk made a desperate leap, straight at my throat. At the same time a round made a desperate leap from the barrel of my rifle, straight for his. You should have seen the look on Staff Sergeant Pennock's face as that skulk's body feel inches from my feet. I'll never forget it, or the look on his face as that first acid rocket slammed into his body. My eyes were at first locked on his lifeless face, then, almost as a reflex, I traced the path of the rocket, straight into the path of another one, barreling straight for me.
I awoke to a startling silence and stillness, remembering my last sight, I was damn near afraid to move. Then I heard the familiar sound of a turret whirring near me, a Frontiersman's best friend. Where there's a turret, there's a turret factory, and where there's a turret factory, there ain't Kharaa. I ventured a look around myself, I saw the bodies of the skulks, and surpringly enough, the body of one dead fade, it's head only a fading memory. Then suddenly someone was standing over me, a refreshingly familiar face, as bloodied as it was from the combat we had just endured. It was 2nd Lieutenent Maddox, my platoon leader. He pointed to the body of CPT Brinor near the dead fade. "I'm Company Commander now and...", he pointed to the body of SSGT Pennock, who had already been moved to the burial pile, "2nd Platoon needs a new squad leader. Are you up for it?"
<a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=6&t=18089' target='_blank'>Part 1: Arrival on the TSA SuperAxe</a>
<a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=6&t=19125' target='_blank'>Part 2: The First Battle of Tara Yulon</a>
<a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=6&t=21304' target='_blank'>Part 3: Foothold</a>
<u>April 13</u>
90% of Frontiersman victories over the Kharaa occur on the first day of an engagement. I learned this statistic as I was helping to set up our encampment for the night. Our First day of engagement seems over for the moment, though we are far from relaxed. Tommorrow the horror begins again. All throughout Basic, and even up to yesterday, I wanted nothing more than a taste of action against the Kharaa Swarm. Now, I feel as though i've had my fill.
We reached Tara Yulon at 0400. The area around the fallen city was dark, but it seemed as though the decrepedcolony itself was even more so. The stinch hit you as soon as you walked into the area. If the smell of rotting carcase wasn't enough to make you sick, the sight would ensure it. The remains of countless skulks littering the ground, slain Whiskey Company troops with looks of sheer panic frozen on their lifeless faces. On my way in I nearly tripped and fell over what i thought was a piece of a building...until i clearly saw the rank of Sergeant First Class cleary engraved on what was left of some poor Whiskey Company guy's chest. The Kharaa had been ruthless in their assault, all Whiskey Company personnel were accounted for, all KIA except the one guy that managed to get to our ship.
At first we thought the area was clear, that maybe the Kharaa had been passing through when they came across Yulon and had now moved on. As a matter of fact CPT Brinor was sure of it as he sent our Company XO, 1LT Uricks, to fill his canteen. After about 40 minutes without a sign of Ulricks, we were sure he was wrong. This was confirmed soon after by his blood curdling scream, and a spine tingling after sound that sounded eerily like joy from one of the skulks that got the poor ****. We set up a perimeter in what was the commons of Tara Yulon, the center of the city. Tara Yulon must have been pretty important to the TSA, because LTCOL Jameson himself took the command console aboard the SuperAxe as soon as we confirmed the presence of hostiles in the area. Soon i found myself and my squad quickly trying to put up a Turret Factory system to set up our defenses. That was the easy part, unfortunately though, we only managed to get two turrets running and loaded before the first attack came.
The attack came quickly and unexpectedly, even more-so than they warn you about in training. One second you are chatting with your squadmates about how many skulks you are going to kill, the next you see 2 dozen of the little **** running at you...and what's worse, a fade, in the distance, and I swear he was laughing at us. You spend your entire time in Basic training thinking you are god to the TSA and that the Kharaa don't stand a chance once you pick up your survival pack and LMG. All dilusions end quickly in the first onslaught. It didn't take long to forget about the turret we were welding together when bodies started to fall. The scene was like a slow moving nightmare. Everything seemed to move in frames. The snarled faces of the skulks as the chomped down people I had shared a barracks with for their last weeks. By the time I heard the scream of "Incoming" and racked the bolt back to chamber the first round into my LMG two members of my platoon had fallen. When you think about it, 24 skulks charging madly into a full company of over 100 marines, 2 platoons, each divided into 4 squads, it seems unfair; And you're right, we should have brought both companies.
One thing about Foxtrot Company though, we fight hard. One by one the Skulks fell, even though every dead skulk left 1 or 2 dead marines, we began to get excited, even cockey...damn, we forgot about the fade. Eventually the skulk attack had been beaten, the last skulk made a desperate leap, straight at my throat. At the same time a round made a desperate leap from the barrel of my rifle, straight for his. You should have seen the look on Staff Sergeant Pennock's face as that skulk's body feel inches from my feet. I'll never forget it, or the look on his face as that first acid rocket slammed into his body. My eyes were at first locked on his lifeless face, then, almost as a reflex, I traced the path of the rocket, straight into the path of another one, barreling straight for me.
I awoke to a startling silence and stillness, remembering my last sight, I was damn near afraid to move. Then I heard the familiar sound of a turret whirring near me, a Frontiersman's best friend. Where there's a turret, there's a turret factory, and where there's a turret factory, there ain't Kharaa. I ventured a look around myself, I saw the bodies of the skulks, and surpringly enough, the body of one dead fade, it's head only a fading memory. Then suddenly someone was standing over me, a refreshingly familiar face, as bloodied as it was from the combat we had just endured. It was 2nd Lieutenent Maddox, my platoon leader. He pointed to the body of CPT Brinor near the dead fade. "I'm Company Commander now and...", he pointed to the body of SSGT Pennock, who had already been moved to the burial pile, "2nd Platoon needs a new squad leader. Are you up for it?"
Comments
Keep it up.
as for the starship troopers references, i watched it recently, but didn't actually intentionally make any, lol. Oh well.