<span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong>Chapter 1: Planet Fall </strong><br/></span><br/><br/>LV-6329.... a minor colony on the edge of charted space, financed by Weyland-Yutani for years it has been productive, secluded, and peaceful. A model ‘shake and bake’ colony, it has also been a secret home for a Weyland-Yutani research facility. Having achieved breathable atmosphere 15 years ago some areas of LV-6329, specifically a number of valleys and canyons, are already beginning to flourish into jungles while the remainder of the planetoid's surface is with the exception of rock formations and caves, quite barren. At last contact LV-3629  had reported an unidentified ship entering orbit, then all contact was lost. The colony of “Ades's Folly,” the only human settlement on the planet seemed to simply fall off the grid. After a week of non-responsiveness the USMC was notified and appraised of the possibility of this being an act of 'corporate sabotage.' A platoon was sent to investigate what exactly happened. This is their story....<br/><br/><hr/><br/>The formation of three US Navy starships moved silently through the blackness of space. As the USS Mitchum, USS Johannesburg, and USS Vendetta approached LV-6329 each ship began to activate it's dormant systems and slowly come fully online, first the life support, then the lights, several minutes later the cryo tube rooms came online, slowly defrosting the sleeping marines.<br/><br/>After a few more minutes the tubes opened up. FATHER, the supercomputer system in charge of and connected to all US Military computer systems had completed the resuscitation procedures and every marine’s bio-signs were reading at 100 percent. Kilo platoon has survived their journey through space and now there was scarcely enough time to eat, square away gear, and receive orders before they reached LV-6329.<br/><br/><hr/>Roughly three hours had passed since the ships had awoken their human cargo and now as the three vessels began to enter orbit of LV-6329 the mission could truly begin. Since entering sensor range the task force had scanned and re-scanned the system and the planet for any signs of enemy activity. Each squad leader had been given a brief on the information collected so that they could disseminated it to their squads as they saw fit.<br/><br/>No ships had been detected, but wreckage that matched several of Weyland-Yutani's private security ships had been identified, in addition to this brute force jamming equipment had been deployed to cover nearly all of the planet's surface preventing the ships from determining possible positions of enemies and civilians. Given this data FATHER had determined that someone or something had attacked the Weyland-Yutani security force present at LV-6329, deposited forces on the ground, and then retreated out of scanner range of the planet.<br/><br/>Each squad had been given immediate objectives to carry out in order to lay groundwork for the re-taking of the planet and the elimination of any hostiles. 1st Squad was to be dispatched to the location identified as the main source of the jamming signal with orders to identify and neutralize the device creating said signal. 2nd Squad was to be dispatched to the small arms factory in order to secure a position for an eventual assault on and clearing of the facility, while  3rd squad would secure the civilian colony.<br/><br/><hr/>In the hanger bays of each ship the marines began to board their drop ships. FATHER dutifully, counted down the time till departure, announcing as each minute passed. At the two minute mark each drop ship's engines began to run, as each ship prepared to depart from the belly of it's transport. As the final seconds passed by FATHER said, in his ever consistent monotone voice "All preparations for planet fall are now complete. Initializing combat drop."<br/><br/><br/>The ramp into the drop ships slowly closed with a precision of timing that only an operation run by a computer could achieve.<br/><br/><hr/><strong>3rd Squad APC, inside Dropship</strong><br/><br/>The drop ship's pilot's voice came loud and clear over the speakers "All right ladies and gents....lets do this!" The drop ship was slowly lowered down by it's docking arm. FATHER opened the belly of the Mitchum, "Prepare for docking release in T minus 5....4.....3.....2.....1......Release!" the pilot called out.<br/><br/>The drop ship gave a hard lurch as it pulled away from it's docking harness and began to move under it's own power. Flying smoothly for a few seconds before it hit atmosphere. "The atmo's a bit thick on this world! It's gonna be one helluva ride!" the pilot called out his voice betraying his excitement and obvious adrenalin high.<br/><br/><br/>A second later the craft began to shake, first only slightly almost imperceptibly so, but after 30 seconds it was almost as if the drop ship was jumping around in midair, jerking from left to right, up to down, and every direction in between. The drop ship's hull could be heard groaning under the stress of breaking through LV-6329s atmosphere. As it moved closer and closer to the planet's surface its trajectory began to change. The pilot did his best to keep the change as unnoticeable as possible. Just like he had been trained to, ideally the marines' bodies wouldn't even notice that they had stopped 'falling' and were moving on a horizontal path until it had already happened. The shaking seemed to get worse and worse as the ride went on until finally three minutes later the shaking gave way to a sudden stillness "Now THAT was fun!" the pilot called out. Grinning as he did "Alright I'm bringing her in towards the LZ touch down in T minus 30 seconds. You'll be about 5 clicks from the colony......once you've disembarked I'll fly a holding patter for 3 hours then head back up to the Mitchum for refueling." The pilot was a Captain and as far as he was concerned he didn't need to follow some ground pounder's schedule. "if you need evac or fire support at any time just give me a call."<br/><br/><hr/><strong>1st Squad Drop Ship</strong><br/><br/>"Orders confirmed, combat drop commencing" the pilot said into her coms head set, her attention never drifting from the controls she was checking and rechecking before the drop. She knew her orders for this mission, they'd depart from the USS Johannesburg and then she'd fly 1st Squad to within 2 clicks of their objective. Once they'd departed it would she'd be flying close air support as enemy ground forces were expected.<br/><br/>She flicked the switch to connect her to her cargo's coms system. "We'll be dropping in a minute and breaking atmo soon after. So strap in marines." She then flicked the switch off, a smile spreading across her face. This was what she lived for! This was a combat drop, and that meant there was no reason for her to do it any way but fast!<br/><br/>Throttling up the engine to full power she began to guide the dropship to it's LZ. The small craft passed through the atmosphere, also shaking and jarring like the other two ships. For some reason LV-6329's atmosphere was considerably rougher on entry than the standard 'shake and bake' colony's. And this made for a very rough ride.<br/><br/>Eventually the jarring and turbulence stopped. Roughly two minutes later all those inside the ship found their transport suddenly jinking hard to the right. G-Forces working hard on the marines' bodies. "Hold on tight!" the pilot shouted over the intercom "We're taking fire! I repeat taking fire, expect a hot LZ!" This sentence was followed by another hard maneuver this one to the left. A second later a near deafening BOOM could be heard through out the dropship and the craft suddenly began to list and tip to the left. "We're hit!" the pilot shouted, her voice betraying her nervousness at the sheer amount of fire being directed at them. "Brace for crash landing!......."<br/><br/>As the dropship impacted with the ground below the pilot realized she wasn't going to make it through this one. They were heading right for a large patch of jungle with far too many trees, one of them was sure to hit her windshield and impale her..... But she'd done her job as a pilot, and even when they'd been hit she'd managed to keep enough control to avoid simply squashing themselves on the ground. As the dropship hit the ground and practically bounced back into the air for a moment before hitting the ground again and sliding its way into one of the jungle covered valleys she saw exactly what was going to kill her, it was a large tree branch that practically seemed to be aimed right at where she'd be in less than 3 seconds. With no time to get out of the cockpit, or do anything else to save herself she simply closed her eyes... The ship slid another 30 feet before finally coming to a stop. As soon as it had stopped the emergency charges on the rear hatch blew and the door opened for those who were still alive in the dropship to be able to escape.<br/><br/>