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Long shadows claw desperately away from your dusty combat boots, fueled by the
relentless sun of a late Texas afternoon. Shading your eyes against the glare,
you squint for the thousandth time at the line of soldiers ahead of you. It
stretches on endlessly across the rubble, disappearing at last into the cool
shadows of a troop carrier. Soon you’ll walk up the ramp into the ship, climb
into your one-man cocoon, tear through the interplanetary gateway, and smash
down light-years away from the blowing sand and blasted ruins that surround the
Dallas-Metro crater.
"What the hell is taking so long?!" you snarl, slamming the battered barrel of
your side arm, the blaster, against your scarred palm. "I’ve waited long enough.
Time to kick some Strogg ass"
Slightly rocking back and forth under the sweltering August sun, you spit out of
the side of your mouth, rub your eyes, and think back to the day when the
wretched creatures first attacked. Like flaming meteors, their crafts pounded
into the Earth and unbelievably, these bio-mechanical aliens these hideous
cyborgs swarmed out while their ships still sizzled with reentry heat. They
killed or captured anything that lived. We figured that the Strogg were after
our planet’s resources: minerals, metals, and water: things like that. But their
onboard storage facilities did little to disguise what they considered to be
resources: fleshy limbs and organs for new cyborgs, and of course, food.
The line moves. And moves again. Into the cool shadows at last. The assembled
armies branch off into new lines divided by corps and unit.
"I can’t deal with this shit – what’s the friggin’ hold-up?"
"Cool your jets, marine," Tokay mutters and smiles over his shoulder. "We’ll all
get a few Strogg heads to take home as souvenirs. I promise you that."
"Yo, soldier, 3585." The medtech’s voice startles you. "You in or out?"
Competent hands guide you into the coffin-like opening of your Mark 9A drop pod:
sleek, dark, and invisible to the Stroggos defense systems. One of the techs
begins to drop the reinforced pod door. "Sleep tight, soldier. You’ll see
sunlight in less than six and a half hours. Not our sun, mind you" (SLAM)
Pitch black except for the mild glow of your video readout system in front of
you. You’ve done this a dozen times in the sim classes. No sweat. Just a few
short hours to sleep, recharge, and then the moment of glory. But this time it’s
for real.
It’s also time to think. You recall your first official day of training, your
unit commander discussing how these damn parasites made it to Earth and other
nearby colonies in the first place. By employing our best satellites and
long-range scanners, we learned how they traveled light years so quickly – the
Strogg used these black hole-like gateways as their highway to heaven. We still
don’t know if they created these rips in the fabric of space and time, or if
they simply discovered them by accident. Either way it’s just like opening the
door to an all-you-can-eat restaurant for these bastards. In about two hours,
we’ll be entering the same interstellar portals, to hit ‘em where it hurts on
their own turf.
You close your eyes and relish this thought. Eventually, you nod off to the low
hypnotic hum of the troop carrier.
*Crackle* ... *fzzzz* ... "Greetings to the people of the Coalition. This is
Flag Admiral Crockett, speaking to you from the bridge deck of Phobos. We are
entering the outer orbits of Stroggos, the alien’s home system. As we had
postulated, Stroggos’ atmosphere is harsh but breathable. We expect to make
planetfall soon. Now is the time to switch on your debriefing panel if ya need
it."
"Boomer?" the voice crackles through every soldier’s headset. "Drop X-ray squad
in 30 on my mark. You copy?"
"Roger that!" In another pod, your sergeant snaps back. "OK boys and girls, you
see the clock on your heads-up. Two demerits for anyone who up-chucks during
bounce and roll!"
*Shthunk!!* Your drop pod is shot from the side of the carrier and hurtles
downward. *Wheee-oooooo!* Incendiary atmosphere howls past the pod’s rapidly
heating shell. *Ka-WHUMP! * The pod wall suddenly buckles to your right, but
stays intact. Another pod must have clipped yours on its way in. ECM didn't
indicate enemy fire. Shit. Thrusters and stabilizing gyros are fading. Based on
the pings, the other pods are pulling away. Below you, the large alien city
roars into focus on the screen. But where are the other pods? They were there a
minute ago.
Suddenly, distorted radio chatter lights up, "Mayday! Mayday! Lost all power...
shielding failed... missed dz... some kind of EMP is... kzzzt... us out. We're
dropping like fli... zzzzkkkzzzt". Silence. Damn! If the Strogg have
electromagnetic pulse defenses and we failed to detect them all of us are in the
shitter.
That HUGE blip has to be the Big Gun. You do a slow dogleg left as your navcomp
finds a place to land when all of a sudden retros kick in and propel you south.
"What the...?" Before you know it you skip across the lip of a crater and slam
into a structure, a good distance away from your target. Dazed and bleeding from
a head cut you toggle open the labeled arsenal bins and reach for where your
gear ought to be stowed. Damn. Nothing but your sidearm. Damn again.
You leap out the crushed pod door, alone, with blaster in hand, and tear off
into the room with the bittersweet stench of vengeance coursing through your
veins.
We have cleared the interplanetary gateway between Earth and Stroggos. In
exactly three hours operation Alien Overlord will commence. As I speak to you,
your pods are being fueled and all systems brought online. Activate your field
computers. The following intel brief will provide you with your military
objectives, terrain information, arsenal and equipment details, and enemy
analysis.
Never before has there been a greater challenge to life, liberty, and
civilization. This is a crusade in which we will accept nothing less than
victory. No matter how long it may take us to overcome the Strogg’s barbaric
assault, the people of Earth in their righteous might will win through to
absolute victory. Today we will make very certain that this form of barbaric
treachery shall never endanger us again. With confidence in you, and with the
unbending determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph -- so
help us God.
So go forth and kick ass, soldiers!