Edmund listened to all that his squad had to say, carefully considering what their next move would be. They had to get out of there quickly, before more wildlife came to investigate all the noise, but they also didn't want to generate more noise on the way out and draw in even more. He spoke in a hushed tone as he quickly went over the plan of action, "<span style="color: red">Alright, we need to keep this quiet so that we don't attract more attention than we already have. Firing gunshots will attract more hostiles to our position, which will cause us more trouble, but just staying here isn't an option either. We'll go with Dawn's idea to distract the creatures out there and draw them into the open, then she can take them out. Once the way out has been cleared I will go out and sweep the area to make sure nothing else is coming, then Arsenios can lead the squad into the...</span>" Edmund paused from his speech and looked outside, trying to decide his wording. Was it a treeline? He gave up on trying to think of a proper word for it and continued outlining the plan, "<span style="color: red">Out of here and toward the nearest shuttle. If you could keep scanning for any radio transmissions once you're out, try and pin down which pods still have survivors and which don't. We're going to want any reinforcements we can get down here, I think. If there's any other incoming hostiles I'll provide covering fire. Everyone got it?</span>" Edmund waited a few moments for an affirmative then finished with an evenly toned, "<span style="color: red">Oorah.</span>"<br/><br/>He made his way to one of the corpses hanging from the "ceiling" and started unbuckling one of them, he gave a grunt as the weight was released from the harness and the corpse fell into his arms. "<span style="color: red">Someone mind giving me a hand with this?</span>" He could have made that a direct order, but now was the time to keep morale high. Not break someone's already weakened will. Whether or not he got help, he dragged the corpse over to the entrance of the shuttle. He then knelt down next to the corpse and gave it a long stare, looking at the face frozen on the dead marine. He wondered if the man knew that he was going to die out here, in an uncharted sector of space so far from both home and his objective. If he knew that it wouldn't even be the Greys that would kill him, but simply the tumble from the sky or the sharp impact.<br/><br/>The man's ID was pulled up on Edmund's HUD as he stared at him and the lieutenant tapped a couple buttons on the side of his helmet, the green border around the man's ID switching to red and a small line that read KIA added to the bottom. He quickly turned and repeated the action for all those that lay dead in their seats. He also took the time to quickly strip the man of his weapons, claiming the ammo for his own pack. They'd need it before they got out of all of this, he was sure.<br/><br/>He then grabbed the man under his arms and heaved him up, allowing whoever, if anyone, helped him to grab the man's feet. "<span style="color: red">Alright, ready? On three.</span>" He looked to his helper, and to Dawn to make sure she was ready, and then started counting, "<span style="color: red">1... 2... 3!</span>" On the third number he released the corpse, and it flew out into the darkness, rolling once on the ground before coming to a stop in the dim multi-colored lighting of the alien world.<br/><br/>There was a series of light taps as something moved around on the top of the shuttle, and then dropped down into the dirt and scuttled with lightning quickness over to the carcass. If it were about a hundred times smaller Edmund would have mistaken it for a standard louse, but its size certainly didn't match that description. It wasted no time in starting to eat the face of the fallen marine, pausing only to savor strips of flesh it tore free from its new meal for a few moments before taking another bite.<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>