Alpha Squad

[OutlawTorn]

One hundred and seventy years ago, some people would have laughed in your face if you suggested alien life existed on other planets. Yet in 2034 a US deep space probe discovered a planet inside the Milky Way Galaxy containing alien life forms.

One-hundred and twenty years later, mankind set foot on the planet for the first time... and the war has been raging ever since.

Fifty years of combat later, I'm in a UNEGA transport shuttle on my way to the surface.

My name is Kayleigh Dawn Mahoney. I had nothing to leave behind, because I lost everything a long time ago. I enlisted at seventeen after my mother died and my father slipped into an abusive, drunken stupor. He'd get so hammered he didn't know who I was, that I was his daughter. I'd turn into some cute little thing he figured was his girlfriend. It wasn't as bad as you might be thinking, but I had to leave, and so I did.

After basic training, and a slew of aptitude tests, I was selected by the United Nations of Earth Galactic Alliance to take part in a top secret training mission for the Marines. How could I refuse? Five years later, here I am, headed for a hostile alien planet, lightyears from home, what little I had to call home. It's all so far behind me now...




2202, The Milky Way Galaxy...


The shuttle rattled and shook about as it entered the planet's atmosphere. It vibrated violently, producing a loud clanging noise that suffocated the thoughts of ten rookie soldiers. They had been through thousands of intense, realistic drills and simulations, but nothing could prepare them for the real McCoy. Heated, intense combat with an alien race unknown to the regular citizens of earth. It was known that we were away fighting a foreign threat to our planet, but the details get a little mixed up over a the lightyears. The truth is a luxury most governments can't, or won't afford to divulge.

They didn't know the truth, and most of them weren't ready for it.


Kayleigh Mahoney cast her beautiful brown gaze at her best friend Keira Smith.

"Are we there yet?" she said, imitating a young child in the back seat of a car on a long trip.

Keira laughed. Her medium length blonde hair spilled over her shoulders from under a forest green bandana. She chewed gum through her smile and rolled her blue eyes, looking to her left at Trevor Hanken, who was sound asleep, drooling on his own shoulder. She shook her head in shock, looking back at Kayleigh.

"I don't know how he can sleep through this," Keira said.

Kayleigh shook her head, laughing at Trevor.

Kayleigh got serious. "I just can't wait to get there, you know? Settle in, meet this Sarge guy."

Jonathan Rhodes looked up from the Memo he had been reading. "Who is this guy anyway?"

"They say he's some kind of hero down there. That his men worship him, and the hostiles fear him!" David Carlyle spoke up. He leaned forward, an intensity twinkling in his eyes. "They told this one story back on the base ship..."

*****

"Negative Ghost 1! This thing is like the wrath of god! We need air support!" Captain Reynolds shouted into the radio over the sound of distant shouting, gun fire and grenade explosions. He sat in a poorly dug trench, hunching over his Communications Officer, operating the large radio on his back.

Sergeant Sean Pentecost lay on his side to Reynolds left, awaiting orders, and growing impatient with the entire situation.

The Captain shouted a variety of profane words before he stood up, keeping his head low. "This is the deal, troops! Command wants that Titan taken down, now!! Air support is a no-go on this one gents, we're on our own!"

Sarge leaped from the side of the trench, approaching one of his soldiers. He took a grenade launcher from him, throwing it around his shoulders and shouted across the line, "cover me!"

He took off over the edge of the trench and into the desolate, arid battle field. Miles of rock and dirt. Cloudy, stormy skies that only clear up a few times a month, and odd, unearthly creatures everywhere. Thousands of them marching forward toward the human front. Leading the charge was a giant. The beast was easily four, five-hundred feet tall. It seemed to scrape the sky as it charged forward, crushing any of it's own who failed to avoid it's devastating strides. They shook the earth beneath him, creating the sensation of a series of small earthquakes.

Sean didn't flinch, nor hesitate. He pressed forward, fired round after round from his assault rifle. He picked the hostile alien soldiers off one by one at a distance as he ran toward the Titan.

Ahead was an old human trench, evidence of a time not so long ago when they had won this battle, only to be driven back by the unrelenting attacks of the natives. He shot two of them in the trench, and three more beyond it as they threw crudely fletched spears in his direction. His shot, even on the move was deadly accurate.

Ahead of him, a massive alien spike hit the ground and lodged in the loose, moist soul. The impact lifted dust and clumps of earth into the air. Sarge avoided the massive alien missile that lay in his path, striding to the left, ducking under the upper portion that protruded from the ground on an angle. He dropped his rifle at his side, reaching around his back to pull the grenade launcher around his waist.

Moments before reaching the edge of the abandoned trench he took aim and fired a single grenade round into the sky toward the Titan. He pulled a grenade from his vest, pulling the pin as the explosive round hit the Titan in what would be it's face. He lunged sideways into the air over the trench, throwing the grenade with all his might before he fell safely into the trench in a fetal position.

The Titan collapsed slowly, creating a massive earthquake, and a raging dust cloud that covered a mile radius, sweeping over the human line like a sand storm.

As the dust began to settle, and the men hacked and coughed the dust from their lungs and throats, the silhouette of a soldier holding a rifle at his breast emerged from the haze.

It was Sergeant Sean Pentecost, head hung low, breathing heavily.

He stood proudly over the trench. "Hope you were takin' notes. ****in' pussies."

*****

Keira popped a bubble of gum. "This guy sounds hardcore," she said plainly.

Rhodes leaned forward resting his elbows on his knees. "There's no ****in' way it went down like that!"

"Why not?" Carlyle asked, crossing his arms.

"You're tellin' me his whole unit let him go it alone?"

"They were shook up, John."

"Bullshit! And what kinda grenade launcher can clear five hundred feet?"

Carlyle laughed.

"He's not some kinda god, Carlyle. He's probably some hard ass old man who saved a few asses and won a few battles along the way, so they gave the guy a few medals. Few years and some half-in-the-bag mess hall magic later, the guy's a ****in' war hero - alien killin' machine."

An argument erupted amongst the soldiers, and Kayleigh began to feel like she was the only one on that ship who was focused, nervous, or even worried.

She looked down at her lap, a wave of anxiety falling over her entire being.

What did she get herself into?

[OutlawTorn]

The air was hot and heavy. The sun beat down on the planet like the unforgiving wrath of Ra. The tarmac was cooking under it's might, creating blurry waves above the surface of the airstrip. The planet was cloudy and stormy for 99% of the year, and the few sunny days it allowed to slip past, were so hot you prayed for rain.

Ten fresh faced, high spirited rookies walked off the transport ramp one by one. Most of them puked within minutes of entering the planet's atmosphere. The air was so hot and muggy you could barely breathe. The smell of sulfur and decay was unbearable, and the minor change in gravity was taxing on the knees and lower back. It was a total shock to the system and senses. The planet was often described as hell, in a literal, and biblical sense.

Sergeant Sean Pentecost stood with his arms crossed behind his back, the collar of his dark green T-shirt soaked with sweat. He squinted his scrutinizing gaze as he examined the crew of wet behind the ears newbies that would be joining his team. The best damn team in UNEGA's arsenal. Alpha were the elite, the chosen and proven. The best of the best came to Alpha to fight. And now half of the squad would be combat virgins. Alpha was looking more like Echo by the minute as he watched rookie after rookie vomit all over the tarmac and the ramp of the transport ship.

Several rookies, only males were able to hold their rations down. Trevor Hanken gagged violently, covering his mouth and nose. David Carlyle, arguably the hardest of the bunch barely flinched, but he was visibly affected, even from a distance.

"This is the best they could scrape up?" Sarge uttered with pure disgust, crossing his arms.

Charlie Hauser stood beside him, hands on his hips, squinting into the sun's relentless gaze. He shook his head, spitting to his left, hardly impressed by the group.

"Give 'em a chance Sarge. We were all rookies at one point in time."

Sarge lowered his head and said with disappointed defeat, "I tell ya, Haus. I'm really startin' to hate my job."

*****

Sargeant Sean Pentecost paced to and fro before twelve young soldiers standing at attention. They did their best to look as strong and focused as they could, but the heat, the gravity and that awful smell of sulfur combined with decay from the alien corpses produced by their unrelenting attacks on UNEGA bases made it hard to remain focused and at attention.

"Welcome to UHAP-1, otherwise known as Unknown Hostile Alien Planet 01," Sarge shouted out, his tone relaxed at this point.

"I don't care who you are, what rank you carry, who your daddy was," he shouted, glaring quickly at Kiera, "or what you scored on the aptitude test you wrote to find yourself in my squad!" he finished, casting his scrutinizing glare at Jonathan Rhodes.

"Up here I am your daddy, I am your aptitude test, and you are all cadets until I decide otherwise," Sarge barked, his tone growing more aggressive as he continued his speech. "And I will sculpt and mold each and every one of you pathetic sacks of meat into a well-oiled, perfectly balanced and executed killing machine, or you will be on the first transport back to earth - is that clear?!"

"Sir, yes sir!" the soldiers replied.

"I want you all to take a long hard look at the person standing next to you. Because in two months time, chances are they will not be here anymore." The soldiers looked around, reluctantly glancing at each other.

"Ask yourself if you are willing to watch them die before your eyes. If you're willing to hold them in your arms and ease their passing from this world, so far from home."

Kayleigh looked at Kiera with an expression of sadness threatening to expose her. Kiera looked away, telling herself the Sargeant was just being dramatic, trying to shake them up.

"If not... You got off on the wrong ****in' planet, soldier... and the transport's that way."

Sarge walked over to Charlie Hauser, who had been standing off to the side, listening to the speech.

"I'd say I just broke half of 'em. What do you think?" Sarge asked quietly with his back to the soldiers.

Charlie grinned. "I think your speeches keep gettin' better, Sarge."

Haus shouted to the soldiers with a loud, deep tone, "Move your asses, greenhorns! I wanna see twenty laps around the base! Move! Move! Move!"

[OutlawTorn]

Sean sat behind his metal desk pouring drink after drink, rifling through files. The day was over, and Sarge could finally get around to his favorite pastime; drinking hard liquor.

As Sean sifted through files, reading reports and studying his new squad mates, a tall, older man in full uniform approached his doorway. Looking up, he recognized the Colonel, and started to stand up to salute the man.

"At ease, Sergeant!" the Colonel barked, removing his hat and cradling it under his armpit.

Sean sat back down, smiling. "Colonel," he said with a nod, "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

The Colonel took a moment to pause, looking over the Sergeant. "I hear you're trying to break my newbies, Sergeant."

Sarge grinned. "Trying, sir? I'm gonna break 'em. Every last one of 'em," he finished with a smile, offering the Colonel a glass. The Colonel respectfully declined his offer, and Sarge refiled his own glass.

The Colonel paced around, fiddling with his hat. "You know... You've been up here so long, maybe you forgot. But there's a shortage of wars back home, soldier. We don't have battle hardened veterans roaming the streets of America in packs, just waiting to be shipped to a hostile alien planet," he explained in a point of fact tone.

Sarge slammed the drink back, pouring another. Then the Colonel continued. "Now I know you're upset, son, but a boat load of time and money was invested in bringing those soldiers here. Now your job is to train 'em to fight! Not send 'em home with the number with a good therapist."

Sarge slammed another drink back, putting his glass down on the metal surface with some force. "Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"Granted," the Colonel replied quickly.

"Why me? Why Alpha?" Sarge asked aggressively, striking his index finger against the table. "Why not shift the ranks? Give me the combat veterans, and give Delta the rookies, instead of compromising the best damn unit we got?!"

"Everybody knows there's bad blood between Alpha and Bravo. Charlie is a full unit, those men have been together for eight months now. What am I supposed to do? This wasn't my call, Sean. This was above my pay grade, son."

"And what happens when those kids die? Alpha's grounded again, while you send more boys and girls up here to their death?" Sarge asked gravely. "I need a squad, Colonel."

The Colonel *sighed, fixing his hat over his grey hair. "Do the best with what you've been given, son, that's all you can do."

He stopped before he had reached and passed through the doorway. "And besides, they're bein' trained by the best."

"Sometimes that ain't enough," Sean replied.

The Colonel turned around, examining the bottle of booze before giving Sarge a genuine look of brotherly, even fatherly concern. "It's been a long time, Sean. Eleven years is longer than anyone has given this god forsaken rock... Maybe it's time to go home soon."

He made his exit and left Sarge alone with his files, booze, and thoughts.