When shit hits the ground

"Touch down in five" The pilot called, she was a 65 clone template, short blonde with a melodic voice, like most of the fleet's shuttle pilots. Elissa dragged the poor woman or more accurately different women who shared the same genetic composition out of two shuttle wreckages over the past two years, she hoped she will not be doing it again today. As soon as they leveled horizontally with the ground, the shuttles drop slits opened and Elissa and her company dropped the rest of the way, a drop of ten more meters to the ground. She had complete mapping of the area with indications on where to go to find cover until the black out will pass. The most dangerous and difficult part of any drop was the establishment of a beachhead. Taking a firm and defensible position on the ground from where to start the main offensive. A Black Out protocol ensured no one could see or hear the dropping ****, no one could resist any incursion firstly of the sheer confusion and disorientation and secondly since the Droptroops weren't as blind as the defending troops, all the data on building schematics, enemy or any life signals positions and the mapping of each and every detail on the ground up to 1 millimeter accuracy, meant the a droptroopers could fight as normal using their ARPCs. A black out only lasted thirty seconds, enough to make the initial insertion and take tactical and strategic positions without the enemy knowing what had hit them, and because of the blackness no one ever dared to make a move or fire back, so they were always easily disposed of.

Luckily for them, they had no enemy positions anywhere near them. The company dropped about a kilometer east to the 'palace' in what seemed to be a market square, 1st Platoon on the North Western Corner of the square, closest to the palace, 3rd Platoon on the southern most edge, 2nd Platoon dropped at the north eastern corner right next to a water tower. Since it was a fairly new colony, everything was built using the standard modular housing provided by the colonisation department of the Federation. Each housing unit was the same, an entryway with living room and kitchen on the first floor and the upper floor was reserved for bedrooms based on how many members of the family there were when assigning. When needed more housing units, they were just stacked one upon the other, none of these units actually belonged to the colonists, they were supposed to be temporary until the colonists will build their on houses, in reality, most just left it as it is and made those housing units their permanent home. Elissa & Anna dropped together with 1st Platoon in the North Western corner, they had a house marked with red that they were supposed to enter according to the deployment plan, but Elissa ran to a house that was two houses down from the marked house, hoping none of her company ran to any of the marked houses, Anna ran to the south to join the 3rd Platoon. The house she entered after a swift kick to the door, had three life signs in it, probably a woman with two children by the size of figures the ARPC was showing her. No doubt the children are screaming now, but no one can hear them because of the black out, and they will scream even harder when the black out will fade and twenty armed soldiers will appear in their home out of the darkness.

Five seconds to positions, someone unmarked slammed into Elissa, a small disadvantage to the black out, is that you can't see your anything happening right after the black out, meaning if someone changed positions, there was no data they did, and thus nothing will show on the UI. She felt to taps on her shoulder, designating it was a friendly, few more taps translated the person to be Xavier, leader of the 1st platoon, Elissa identified herself to him and asked if everything is green. Few seconds later, Xavier tapped her on the shoulder that everything was green and the 1st platoon all accounted for. A second later, as though a dark veil was removed from the world, sound and light returned, as expected, sitting in a corner cowering were a mother and two girls, they screamed as soon as they saw the room full with troops. "2, 3, report per order" Elissa said into the ARPC, she received confirmation a second later. Four second more and a house few houses left from Elissa and 1st platoon's position exploded, it was the one they were supposed to deploy into. "ARPCs compromised, switch to alternative communications protocol!" Elissa transmitted to her whole company, switching to an alternative protocol cut out any outside access to the ARPCs in case the communications were compromised. "Done" Anna sent her.

"So, you were right, something is fishy here, orders?" Xavier asked his CO, "For now be on the look out, we continue as planned until we know more" Elissa told him. "Sofia, Hendrick be ready, I'm on my way. Hendrick raise the Battalion on the coms and get me the black-ops' positions" She ordered the two soldier from 2nd Platoon to wait for her. "Platoon leaders, secure the market, engage any hostiles, meet me on 2nd's position in forty seconds after you have your Sergeants deploy your platoons, acknowledge", all platoon leaders acknowledged one after the other as Elissa crossed the open market area heading towards the water tower. A loud thunder was heard over head as Elissa looked up, the ARPC confirming that the drop shuttles were the thing which exploded, clear missile trails leading from the shuttles to the buildings to their west. As Elissa reached the water tower, debris started falling all around, but one shuttle seemed to survive the initial missile impact and was heading down spiraling to a crash landing somewhere to their east most likely. "Fuck" Elissa thought to herself, as Hendrick and Sofia joined her, the platoon leaders and Anna on their way with hasten pace.