Cassandra
Cassandra tried to control her breathing, and closed her eyes as she heard the countdown from her drop-pod. She didn’t mind the drop-pod like others, nor did she love it like many others. She just accepted it another task, and experience she had to handle.
The drop-pods had their own risks, like any form of planetary transit, but it was safer than pretty much any other. dropships were slow, and easy to take down. They lacked the weapon and counter measures of faster standard shuttles. Even Assault shuttles, and gunships were easy prey for planetary defenses. A well defended world with surface to air, or orbit weapons was a grunts worse nightmare.
A drop-pod could be caught in surface to air fire, but it was rare. They were too fast. Fired like missiles, and slammed into the ground enough to make small craters. Designed to absorb the impact, and protect their lone passenger. A sole power armored guardsman could fit into, and when everything went well, survive the launch into hostile territory. The ‘Cave’ had three and half thousand drop-pods, and could land a whole Regiment in mere seconds from orbit, as well as pods loaded with supplies to besieged troops.
Cassandra always tried not to think of all the ways one could die in a drop-pod. They might be safer in a warzone transit, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t many ways to die, but she always took comfort in the knowledge that pretty much every way she knew killed the person in an instant. It wasn’t so bad when you knew you would be dead before you could feel anything.
“Launch,” Cassandra heard, and in a moment she felt herself being hurled towards the world of Fornsogtuna, and was glad she couldn’t see it as the lone display screen displayed a target location, and the distance before the pod dropped.
The pod slammed into the ground, blasting dust, dirt, concrete, and other debris upwards, and even with her power armor, and the tech of the drop-pod Cassandra shook violently. She reached out and grabbed the door discharge lever, and pulled it after giving a quick glance at her screen to ensure the all clear.
Cassandra jumped free of the drop pod with her rifle at the ready. She was the sixth of the Retinue to make it free as she saw the other twelve pods within a ten or fifteen meter radius of hers.
“Status?” Lt Vault asked.
“Good,” Cassandra responded, as the others did likewise. It sounded like no one had lost their lunch, which was good.
“On me,” Lt Vault said, and the retinue began to move even as the sounds of weapons fire began to sound off, and other units began to take fire.
Cassandra fell into position as the retinue moved to their objective. Basic intelligence, and scans had revealed a sizeable base, and they like all members of the 13th, 14th, and 16th Regiments moved towards their objectives. The 13th were the first down in the drop pods, and they moved to secure what scans revealed could be possible surface to air weapons so the 14th could drop in close with drop ships, and the 16th was already landing just outside the combat zone to secure the outskirts, and move in on foot.
The crumbling ruins on a once full world were covered with over-brush and other plants as natural tried to reclaim what Mann had once created. Cassandra moved, and scanned her area, and cleared sections as they worked.
The first two objective sites proved to be nothing but overgrowth, and than the third the firefight started. Lt Thane dropped the first raider who was in some battle armor, but still caught by surprise. Cassandra saw Edmund move quickly, and drop two targets before he pulled First Companion Bogg out of the path of an RPG fired by a raider that Cassandra dropped quickly with her rifle.
More fighting.
Cassandra could see the dead of several raiders, and the dead of what must have been slaves, the ragged clothes of the slaves hiding none of the horrors of how they were treated, and clearly long before the arrival of the 10th.
A drop ship slammed down to the ground quickly, and Cassandra watched as fresh troops made their way out, and began to secure the area. She was breathing heavy, but felt good as she heard the calls of area secured come through her comm from other retinues throughout the compound.
