<strong>LCpl. Roman “Rome” Beneke – 1st Squad – Leaving the wrecked dropship</strong><br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">"I prefer the term fucking sweet cheeks myself."</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div>Rome had paused and glanced back over his shoulder at her, one corner of his lips curling in a near smirk.<br/><strong>"Yeah."</strong>he said, simply. He afforded her a subtle nod before turning again, leveling his weapon once more as he lead the column of marines south towards their objective.<br/><br/>Picking his way carefully through the dense foliage, Rome was really at a disadvantage with both hands on the big M56. He weaved the barrel side to side, pushing the brush aside where he could and using his size to simply trample over everything else. Sure he was clearing a path for everyone behind him, but it wasn’t his idea of a fucking good time either.<br/><br/><strong>”Hey Giz why don’t you ge…”</strong>He cut himself off, suddenly realizing his mistake of calling out to Pfc. Shaw, aka “Gizmo” or in his case, “Giz.” It had become customary for him call out to Giz, giving him a hard time whenever possible to fix anything he could find to gripe about. It was almost as if he had forgotten to be angry about Gizmo’s death for a few minutes and the mere thought of that only served to make angrier that had been before, if that were possible.<strong>”Mother fuckin’ sonsobitches. I’m gonna kill every last one of ya, so help me God,”</strong>he muttered to himself as he trudged through the jungle.<br/><br/><strong>Approaching a clearing and strange object</strong><br/>After a short time of trapsing more or less blindly, Rome came into a clearing where a strange looking device sat in the center.<strong>”Hey, Sarge… I think you’d better get up here,”</strong>he called over the squad radio comms. As he waited for Sgt. O’Shay to arrive at his position, he heard Pvt. DeSilva yell out near the perimeter of the clearing where the entire squad was now gathered.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Pvt. Angelina DeSilva:<br/>“Oh, fuck!! What the FUCK!!</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div>He heard DeSilva exclaim with trepidation in her voice. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but he didn’t like that they were bunching up and was about to say something to the fact as he followed their gaze upward. He was now second in command in the squad and it was his job to maintain order. But before he could say anything, there was a sudden, unmistakable burst of M41 pulse rifle fire from a short distance off to his right. Rome dropped low in his battle ready stance, thumbed the trigger and spun the barrel in the general direction of the gunfire.<br/><br/>The thick cords of muscles in his arms bunched, glistening with the perspiration caused by the humidity and hot temperature. He wanted to squeeze the trigger and smoke whoever it was, wherever they were, but he was in a little better control of his emotions at the moment and knew that wasn’t the best move to make. That would only serve to give away their position and blow the element of surprise. No, he would remain calm this time; waiting; watching.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote"><strong>Die you mother fucker!!  Just fucking die!!"</strong></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>Rome remained silent, glancing around briefly to the rest of his squad to make sure everyone was in position and there were no problems. He was really missing his motion tracker now, busted during the crash landing.<br/><br/>There was curious sort of sizzling blast sound and the gunfire went silent. Moments later a man wearing what Rome could only describe as a hazmat suit, burst into the clearing and crumpled to a heap. There was a hole bored clean through his chest.<br/><br/><strong>”Oh, fuck me.”</strong>Rome said to himself as he looked at the dead man.<strong>”Everyone check your trackers! I think it’s one of them hunter fucks! Fan out! Don’t bunch up!”</strong><br/>