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ALPHA SQUAD Created by M.J. Saulnier "In 2034 a US deep space probe discovered a planet inside the Milky Way galaxy containing alien life forms. One-hundred and twenty years later, mankind set foot on the planet for the first time... and the war has been raging ever since. Fifty years of combat later, I'm in a UNEGA transport shuttle on my way to the surface. My name is Kayleigh Dawn Mahoney. I had nothing to leave behind, because I lost everything a long time ago. I enlisted at seventeen after my mother died and my father slipped into an abusive, drunken stupor. He'd get so hammered he didn't know who I was, that I was his daughter. I'd turn into some cute little thing he figured was his girlfriend. It wasn't as bad as you might be thinking, but I had to leave, and so I did. After basic training, and a slew of aptitude tests, I was selected by the United Nations of Earth Galactic Alliance to take part in a top secret training mission for the Marines. How could I refuse? Five years later, here I am, headed for a hostile alien planet, lightyears from home, what little I had to call home. It's all so far behind me now..." 2204, The Milky Way Galaxy The shuttle rattled and shook about as it entered the planet's atmosphere. It vibrated violently, producing a loud clanging noise that suffocated the thoughts of ten rookie soldiers. They had been through thousands of intense, realistic drills and simulations, but nothing could prepare them for the real McCoy. Heated, intense combat with an alien race unknown to the regular citizens of earth. It was known that we were away fighting a foreign threat to our planet, but the details get a little mixed up over the lightyears. The truth is a luxury most governments can't, or won't afford to divulge. They didn't know the truth, and most of them weren't ready for it. Kayleigh Mahoney cast her beautiful brown gaze at her best friend Keira Smith. "Are we there yet?" she said, imitating a young child in the back seat of a car on a long trip. Keira laughed. Her medium length blonde hair spilled over her shoulders from under a forest green bandana. She chewed gum through her smile and rolled her blue eyes, looking to her left at Trevor Hanken, who was sound asleep, drooling on his own shoulder. She shook her head in shock, looking back at Kayleigh. "I don't know how he can sleep through this," Keira said. Kayleigh shook her head, laughing at Trevor before she got more serious. "I just can't wait to get there, you know? Settle in, meet this Sarge guy." Jonathan Rhodes looked up from the memo he had been reading. "Who is this guy, anyway?" "They say he's some kind of hero down there. That his men worship him, and the hostiles fear him," David Carlyle spoke up. He leaned forward, an intensity twinkling in his eyes. "They told this one story back on the base ship..." ***** "Negative Ghost 1! This thing is like the wrath of god! We need air support!" Captain Reynolds shouted into the radio over the sound of distant shouting, gun fire and grenade explosions. He sat in a poorly dug trench, screaming into a hand-held communcations device. Sergeant Sean Pentecost lay on his side to Reynolds left, awaiting orders, and growing impatient with the entire situation. The Captain shouted a variety of profane words before he stood up, keeping his head low. "This is the deal, troops! Command wants that Titan taken down, now!! Air support is a no-go on this one, gents. We're on our own!" Sarge leaped from the side of the trench, approaching one of his soldiers. He took a grenade launcher from him, throwing it around his shoulders and shouted across the line. "Cover me!" He took off over the edge of the trench and into the desolate, arid battle field. Miles of rock and dirt. Cloudy, stormy skies that only clear up a few times a month, and odd, unearthly creatures everywhere. Thousands of them marching forward toward the human front. Leading the charge was a giant. The beast was easily four, five-hundred feet tall. It seemed to scrape the sky as it charged forward, crushing any of it's own who failed to avoid it's devastating strides. They shook the earth beneath him, creating the sensation of a series of small earthquakes. Sean didn't flinch, nor hesitate. He pressed forward, fired round after round from his assault rifle. He picked the hostile alien soldiers off one by one at a distance as he ran toward the Titan. Ahead was an old human trench, evidence of a time not so long ago when they had won this battle, only to be driven back by the unrelenting attacks of the natives. He shot two of them in the trench, and three more beyond it as they threw crudely fletched spears in his direction. His shot, even on the move was deadly accurate. Ahead of him, a massive alien spike hit the ground and lodged in the loose, moist soul. The impact lifted dust and clumps of earth into the air. Sarge avoided the massive alien missile that lay in his path, striding to the left, ducking under the upper portion that protruded from the ground on an angle. He dropped his rifle at his side, reaching around his back to pull the grenade launcher around his waist. Moments before reaching the edge of the abandoned trench he took aim and fired a single grenade round into the sky toward the Titan. He pulled a grenade from his vest, pulling the pin as the explosive round hit the Titan in what would be it's face. He lunged sideways into the air over the trench, throwing the grenade with all his might before he fell safely into the trench in a fetal position. The Titan collapsed slowly, creating a massive earthquake, and a raging dust cloud that covered a two mile radius, sweeping over the human line like a sand storm. As the dust began to settle, and the men hacked and coughed the dust from their lungs and throats, the silhouette of a soldier holding a rifle at his breast emerged from the haze. It was Sergeant Sean Pentecost, head hung low, breathing heavily. He stood proudly over the trench. "Hope you pussies were takin' notes." ***** Keira popped a bubble of gum. "This guy sounds hardcore," she said plainly. Johnathan Rhodes leaned forward resting elbows on knees. "There's no fuckin' way it went down like that." "Why not?" Carlyle asked, crossing his arms. "You're tellin' me his whole unit let him go it alone?" "They were shook up, John." "Bullshit! And what kinda grenade launcher can stop something that big? What was it? The only grenade launcher on the planet at the time?" Carlyle laughed. "He's not some kind of god, Carlyle. He's probably some hard ass old man who saved a few asses and won a few battles along the way, so they gave the guy a few medals. Few years and some half-in-the-bag mess hall magic later, the guy's some sort of inhuman alien killing machine." An argument erupted amongst the soldiers, and Kayleigh began to feel like she was the only one on that ship who was focused, nervous, or even worried. She looked down at her lap, a wave of anxiety falling over her entire being. What did she get herself into?