Duty Log - ColTowers - "Insertion"
Posted on 241506.10 @ 4:57am by Colonel Adam Towers
Mission: The Krigoran War [GQ]
=*= BEGIN LOG =*=
Free fall was an exhilarating experience. As the marine runabout pointed its nose up and headed back out to space (they had taken the long way around to avoid detection), twelve marines dropped towards the ground, thousands of feet below them.
Sharpe had called for a "half platoon", which would have been roughly 18 operators. Towers had made the call to trim that to a standard squad of 12, both because it was easier to coordinate and split into smaller groups, and also because the vast majority of the troopers in the 5th lacked what Towers considered "appropriate" SOC experience.
Meaning that in general, the boys in green tended to stomp through the trees and make loud noises. Towers needed a team to tiptoe through the tulips, as it were.
This was a HALO, or High Altitude, Low Opening drop. The high altitude part was so that they would jump from the runabout at a high enough altitude that sensors wouldn't detect the ship.
The low opening part was so that they spent a minimum amount of time drifting down lazily under their canopies. Even with the sensor reflecting materials in the parachutes, they could be spotted easily by the naked eye, and somebody drifting down on a parachute was a pretty easy target. However, free fall for this length of time was not for the queasy or anyone afraid of heights.
Towers had needed to cross off a few potential candidates for the mission for this reason. The idea of a HALO drop had turned several troops greener than their uniforms. A rain of vomit announcing their arrival wasn't really the way Towers wanted to get into the operational zone.
The altimeter on his wrist beeped loudly, and Towers flailed his arms to get the attention of the others. He held up ten fingers and began lowering them one by one. They understood.
The last finger came down and was replaced by a thumbs up before Towers tapped the control on his wrist, deploying the parachute.
With a loud whump, the canopy unpacked and shot up, going taut as it caught the rushing air. The sheer material looked almost invisible. Towers remembered being unnerved by that on his first jump, as one had to look fairly carefully to accept that there actually was a canopy there slowing their descent.
Two minutes later they were on the ground, more or less together. Quietly they detached their chutes and put on the remaining pieces of their ghillie suits. Towers crouched, looking at a PADD on the floor as he figured out where they were.
"What's the plan boss?" Edmunds whispered.
"Orbital scans showed our nearest HVTs (high value targets) to be here and here." Towers pointed at what looked like an ammo dump, and what was almost certainly some sort of camp. Both targets were in close proximity, about four hundred meters to their east.
"But first we need to sit tight and wait. If any patrols saw us come down, we'll know in a few minutes."
"They could have gone back for help before coming after us." Lieutenant Vellar, the only other officer on the mission, opined.
Towers smiled, though Vellar couldn't see it through the face veil on the ghillie suit. He gestured around them. Vellar looked around and nodded, getting the point. To Towers, Edmunds, and Vellar, the other nine marines were invisible in their suits. Unless someone sneezed at an inopportune moment, they would be undetected. For now.
"Now. The problem is that the two targets are very close. We can't take one out and have the element of surprise for the other." Towers said.
"So we split up." Edmunds said.
"Yes. I take four to hit the ammo dump. Lieutenant, you take four to get the camp. Sergeant, you'll be able to provide overwatch for both operations. You'll take a spotter with you."
Edmunds nodded. He was not carrying his M82, for obvious reasons. Instead he had an SOC modified phaser sniper rifle, which would make almost no visible flash when it fired, and was virtually silent. A dangerous weapon in the hands of an expert, though it certainly wouldn't be blowing off any limbs like a .50 calibre bullet would.
"I'd say here would be the best spot" Towers pointed on the map on his PADD at an elevated spot.
Chase nodded in agreement.
A soft whistle broke the discussion.
The three men froze. Towers slipped the PADD into a pocket, and they cast gazes around.
"Three. Eight o'clock." Towers' comm unit crackled.
"Hold fire. Comm silence." Towers replied quietly.
The three Krigoran soldiers entered the area, chatting and occasionally laughing. Towers relaxed slightly once he heard this. Even a fool wouldn't stroll around so brashly if they were aware of a strike team that just dropped behind their lines. Off in the distance, Towers could hear phaser blasts and artillery fire. Something was happening near the river... but that wasn't their concern.
The trio came within feet of touching a few of the marines, who to their credit, stayed perfectly still. Towers had given orders that in this situation, they were to let their targets walk if at all possible. The longer they could maintain their cover, the better off the marine team would be.
Another twenty tense seconds and the soldiers were gone, their voices fading off into the distance.
Towers slowly rose.
"Move" He said quietly into his comm unit.
=*= END LOG =*=
Colonel Adam Towers
Commanding Officer, 5th MEU
Starfleet Marine Corps
