Lieutenant Wade Renolds sat calmly in his seat as the dropship flew towards it's destination. He'd been on enough drops that the turbulant ride a dropship offered it's passengers no longer phased him. Instead of worrying about 'what ifs' Wade busied himself with performing a visual check of his squad. He hadn't donned his helmet yet and wanted to relish the little bit of time left before he would, considering how the thing could get uncomfortable at times.<br/><br/>His gaze first went to the squad's sergeant, Kyle Young, the man was his own age and had been in the Corps for even longer than Wade's 10 year career. That having been said, he was a good NCO and Wade was glad to have him in his squad. Even if the man had a slight history of insubordination.<br/><br/>Next to Kyle sat Patterson, the squad's flamethrower man. And their resident pyro, Wade hadn't seen Patterson display any of the more worrisome tendencies that other men in his position sometimes did, such as watching the flames for a bit too long or laughing like a loon when they used their weapon. But that didn't change Wade's opinion that in order to even consider a job as a flamethrower man, you had to have at least one screw loose.<br/><br/>Beside Patterson was Jinx also known as Sharon Cox. She was young, and pretty damn unlucky when it came to most things, but still a productive member of the squad.<br/><br/>Next was Timothy Holt, the squad's tech head. Wade liked Timothy, the man had useful skills and wasnt totally useless with a weapon. As he visually checked Holt's gear Wade made a mental note to tell Holt to put in an order for a new combat laptop. He wanted to make sure that Timothy's tech gear was as up to date as possible.<br/><br/>After Timothy there was Dixie Reedus she was a quiet one, a Wade was often hard pressed to remember times when she'd been the member of the squad talking the loudest. He wasn't sure why she stayed so quiet but had never seen fit to broach the subject with her. He was, afer all, the squad's officer and there were certain lines that just weren't crossed as a resut of that fact.<br/><br/>'Bookie', the squad's smartgunner was seated at the end of the row of marines, he had a gambling habit that Wade turned a blind eye to. Even though officially he was supposed to discourage it. As far as Wade saw things, every marine delt with the stress of the job in their own way. And if it wasn't something that detracted from the man's ability to do his job Wade didn't have an issue with it.<br/><br/>Finally there was the squad's synthetic, Sanders, seated across from him. After the loss of the squad's last synthetic a few years ago Wade had put in a request for a combat model...And they'd gotten Sanders who happened to be designated as support. Despite this mix up the synthetic had proved itself useful on sever occasions and in Wqde's opinion had more than earned it's place in the squad.<br/><br/>At the pilot's annoucement of them nearing the landing zone Wade focused his attention on his own equipment and quickly pulled on his helmet and checked his computer for each marine's input signals. "Sergeant" he said, his voice slightly distorted and mechanical due to the hemet's speaker, I want a nice clean dispersal when we touch down. Expect the possiblity of hostile contact as soon as we are down."<br/><br/>Scant seconds later the dropship touched down and Wade was the first one out the door, just like he always insisted on being. He had thought himself ready for anything but as it turned out he wasn't quite ready for what he saw. Moving on instinct and training Wade was already through the hatch, out of the dropship, and out of the way of those behind him before he processed what he saw.<br/><br/>The landing bay they were in looked like it had been the scene of a full on battle. There was the wreckage of what was most likely some form of shuttle in one corner of the bay. The floor and walls were pock-marked with minature craters from the impact of bullets. But there were also areas that were scorched black to a level that not even a 240B flamethrower could achieve. And, perhaps strangest of all, there were no bodies to be seen at all.<br/><br/>