Liberation of a Nation

[AlphaWolf]

PROLOGUE

Sergeant John Greene
United Nations Space Command Army
22nd Special Forces Group
Airspace over Welcome Relief
Onboard Kilo 2

     John sat in the Falcon, his squad crammed into the small craft.  The two door gunners sat quietly, their chainguns spun up but not firing.  The squad was on the fast track to gate-crash an Innie bomb-making party from above.  The Falcon was flying low, not too far above rooftop level.  This part of Welcome Relief was referred to as Out, a reference to the high portion of Insurrectionists living in this area.  This area was firmly in their grip, and previous attacks by ground forces had been repelled by ambushes and direct attacks.  The 15th Cav had only just recently arrived, and the air war had begun.  15th Cav forces had seized the town's major buildings--the hospital, town hall, police department, fire department, and public works departments.  Now, Colonial Militia forces guarded them, with Regular Army forces stationed at the hospital, police station, and town hall as well as their base camp outside of the city.  He looked out over the city, bathed in early-morning light.  Hopefully, this would go well, and somewhere in the city, a man's life would be spared.

    His reverie was interrupted by a fast and steady beeping from the cockpit, followed by curses from the pilot and flares being tossed out the door by the gunners.  He saw the object of their discomfort not long after--a missile, trailed by its white contrail, was rising from the city behind them.  He yelled a curse as the missile drew closer and impacted, sending the Falcon into a spiral to crash into the streets below.

Private First Class Greg Franks
United Nations Space Command Army
Camp Welcome Relief
In the Air Traffic Control Tower

     So far this morning, the shift had been easy-peasy.  No arrivals, and no departures except for a lone Falcon around an hour ago.  He had began to drift off to sleep, actually.  His daze was interrupted by a two-tone signal from his console, followed by a rapid radio message.

"MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY!  Kilo 2 to Base, we're hit and losing altitude!  MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDA-"

    The radio message cut off, only static coming through.  Greg turned to his superior, a corporal.

"Corporal!  Distress call from Kilo 2, a Falcon that departed one hour ago!  Radar reports the craft went down in the Out section of Welcome Relief, sir."

    The corporal nodded, then picked up the red radio handset next to his console and quickly spoke into it.

Private Harry Hanks
United Nations Space Command Army
Camp Welcome Relief
Command Bunker

    This morning had been going just fine until this damn aircraft decided to go down.  Hurrying through the corridors of the underground command bunker, Private Harry Hanks sought out one of the most important people in this camp: Colonel Harold Johnston.  He was in command of the 1st Battalion of the 15th Cavalry Regiment, the unit that had just lost a Falcon.  Another signalman in the Radio Room had paged the Ready Reaction Force, and a messenger had dashed out, looking for Brigadier General Thompson, the head man in charge on-base.
    Harry finally found the Colonel, striding towards the Planning Room.

"Colonel!  There you are, sir.  I'm from the Radio Room, sir.  I'm to brief you on your way to the Room."

"Then get at it, Private."

"Yessir.  This morning at 0630, Kilo 2 departed from the camp with classified orders.  They were en route to the Out section of the city when they disappeared from radar after transmitting a mayday message at 0732.  They managed to get out that they'd been hit, but nothing more.  The Ready Reaction Force has been paged and should be airborne momentarily.  Municipal Police has received several emergency calls concerning a downed aircraft in the area, but refuses to dispatch emergency units due to the danger.  General Thompson is also on his way to the Room, sir."

First Lieutenant Adrian Meyers
United Nations Space Command Army
B Company, 1st Battalion, 15th Cavalry Regiment
Ready Reaction Force at Camp Welcome Relief
Gettin' To The Choppa

    Adrian ran for the Falcon, his platoon around him doing the same.  Jumping into the bird, a squad quickly piled in and the Falcon lifted off, three others following suit.  The four ships fell into a trail formation, with Adrian's bird being the second in line.  Just minutes ago, a page had come down from the Radio Room, reporting a Falcon down in the Out section of the city.  A contingency plan had been activated, and his platoon was being rushed to a landing zone five klicks away from the crash site while a platoon from Colonial Militia, accompanied by their fireteam of Army Special Forces advisors, boarded armored transports and headed straight to the site.  With luck, this would go down as planned.  But deep inside, Adrian knew it wouldn't.  Nothing ever did.

Corporal Kelly Mackenzie
United Nations Space Command Army
1/15th Cavalry Regiment
RRF at Camp Welcome Relief
Gettin' To The Choppa

    Jumping into the Falcon, Kelly gripped his DMR between his knees.  This was going to be a bad one--he could tell.  A Special Forces team down in enemy territory?  They'd be lucky to see noon, let alone nightfall.  Hopefully either his platoon or the Colonial Militia unit could get there in time to save the soldiers.  If not, Kelly hated to think of what they'd be put through by the Insurrectionists.  Torture, interrogation.  Likely publicly executed.  Sighing, Kelly cleared his mind at the craft lifted off.  There was work to be done.

[AlphaWolf]

Chapter One

Sergeant John Greene
United Nations Space Command Army
22nd Special Forces Group
Out, Welcome Relief
Crash Site of Kilo 2

    John woke, his vision blurry.  He could hear a crackling noise, and shouting.  He smelled smoke and masonry dust.  He felt.....sore.  He was lying on his back.  His vision blurred into focus, and he could see again.  Above him, he could see blue sky and black smoke.  A very ugly combination.  Then he remembered what had happened, and everything came back in a rush.  The mission, the crash.  His team.  Sitting up, he groaned as the world spun.  He realized he had sat up too fast, and sat there for a minute, just looking around.  Next to him were the unconscious forms of two of his teammates.  The door gunners were dead, still strapped into their bucket seats.  Fortunately, the pilots were alive, although injured.  There wouldn't be any moving far with those two.  The Falcon was resting in a courtyard, with the ship broken and caved in on itself.  John was lucky to have survived.  Rolling out of the Falcon, he discovered the bodies of his team leader and their medic.  Fantastic.  And to add, the engines were smoking.  He didn't think they were on fire, but it wouldn't surprise him if they were.  His vision blurred again as a wave of nausea swept over him.  Moaning, he fell unconscious.

First Lieutenant Adrian Meyers
United Nations Space Command Army
B Company, 1st Battalion, 15th Cavalry Regiment
Ready Reaction Force at Camp Welcome Relief
Airborne

    Adrian peered out of the Falcon as the craft skimmed along rooftops, rocketing towards the landing zone.  The craft began to slow as they neared the slums, and the ship turned, settling into an open plaza just barely large enough for the Falcon to land in.  Adrian jumped off, running towards a low wall.  Taking cover, he quickly collected his men around him as the other Falcons took their turns offloading.  The flight plan had been executed so that as one Falcon lifted out of the LZ, another was just arriving.  It was perfectly synchronized.

Corporal Kelly Mackenzie
United Nations Space Command Army
1/15th Cavalry Regiment
RRF at Camp Welcome Relief
Landing Zone Hotel

    Kelly crouched behind the wall as the last Falcon offloaded its passengers.  As the ship lifted off, Lieutenant Meyers barked a set of orders, and the platoon departed the courtyard for the road outside.  The road was relatively narrow, but the platoon trotted down it in a staggered column, with half of the platoon on either side of the road.  Kelly carried his DMR in a ready position, keeping his eyes peeled.  The street was lined with vendors marketing their wares, but no vehicles traveled down it.  Civilians jumped aside as the Army came rolling along, the soldiers not stopping.  Kelly was wary of the civilians, most of them likely Insurrectionist sympathizers.