Clipped Wings

"So they're good at grabbing xeno hostages?" John asked.

"Not just that, but that's probably a part of it. They specialize in taking HVT's, High Value Targets, like captains and chiefs and shit so they can be hauled off to trial."

"So what, they're after a certain guy?" It was Romeo's turn to ask.

"Don't know for sure." Alfie said. "That info is pretty hush, hush. But my guess would be that with all the traffic coming and going from there, there has to be at least a couple important people."

"Well I hope they said their prayers, 'cause there ain't nothing gonna be left of them when we're through." Neal almost scowled, his previous carefree tone replaced with a more serious one. "I don't know about you guys, but my translator tend to get fuzzy around the word 'surrender'."

The group gave a round of 'here, here's' before the conversation died off again. Some of the actions and atrocities that the Breten Hvas had been accused of, and had been caught on video doing, were in the extreme degree that even the most hardliner pacifists in humanity agreed that something, anything, had to be done.

The Breten Hvas and their affiliated pirate and slaver clans were not only a threat to Human controlled space, but to the security and borders of other species space. The Hvas didn't care who you were as long as they could sell your ship or you or rob you for anything and everything you had.

Humanity had learned that the Breten Hvas had been threatening legitimate governments, ships and planets for almost 200 years. Some governments in the past had tried to suppress or at least control the Hvas, but their efforts and progress never seemed to stick. Perhaps it was because they had been blocked by politics and bureaucracy.

Perhaps it was that they never made a combined military effort to remove them. Whatever it was, Humanity didn't seem to be having the same issues. The Breten Hvas were reeling. For the first time in their history they found someone willing to say 'No' to their bullshit and slap them down. And much to their surprise it was a bunch of primate humanoids from a planet that had only come into the galactic community less than 50 years ago.

Humanity wasn't playing around either. After the New Holland Incident and the destruction of the Commonwealth ship HMS Battleaxe, Humanity was hunting down the Hvas where ever they could. Attacking their ships and outposts. Disrupting their black market supplying. Rescuing their slaves. Even going as far as to nuke some of their outposts so that they could never be used again.

Some of the Galactic Governments had condemned Earth and Humanity for what they called 'reckless use of weapons of destruction'. Those statements were soon retracted after a human task force had been able to successfully liberate 200 slaves from a major Breten Hvas black market trading station, destroying a good portion of their ships and dropping tungsten rods from orbit on anything else that remained.

The Galactic thought now was that publicly their governments would denounce the actions, but privately supported Humanity with backroom deals and intel for their crusade. 'Hearts and minds' Neal would tell him. Whatever the reason, John was just glad to be a part of the action. The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. Neal had convinced Johan to go down to the deployment bay with him to visit/harass their ANZAC and US counterparts.

Johan had been suckered in by Neal's constant insistence that the Aussies must have 'shrimp on the barbie' down in the bay, as it was of course the only logical reason as to why they hadn't seen any of them in the mess hall. John had been able to dodge out by saying that he had some very important maintenance to preform on his service rifle before deployment tomorrow.

It wasn't quite a lie, the battery in his optic did need replacing. However instead of heading to the armory, John decided to do what he normally did before a drop. John made his way to the 105th First Company barracks, walking past the rooms of his comrades while he proceeded to his own. It was a small little hole in the wall with two lockers, two dressers and a bunk bed.

John shared his room with Johan who had claimed the top bunk the moment he saw it. That was fine with him though. If it ever came to it he would only fall 2 feet instead of 5. John moved to his locker and opened it, revealing the rather sparse contents. He had a few extra uniforms and some hygiene products, but that was about it. John never knew when he would have to move so he decided to keep things light.

The only abnormal thing he had was a small green square patterned box about the size of his hand. He grabbed it and and stuffed it in his pocket before promptly turning and leaving the room. He moved to the main common room of the barracks, which appeared to be empty. Not surprising this time of day. Most of the other troopers would probably be in one of the gyms or the mess hall, or more likely visiting with their comrades in the deployment bay.

The common room really didn't get crowded until later that night. Taking advantage of the isolation, John sat himself in front of one of the private comms terminals. Upon getting comfortable and keying in his personal access code, he grabbed the box from his pocket and opened it.

Inside were a couple of storage drives and more importantly, pictures of his family. He took the pictures out one by one and stuck them in the corners of the terminals screen. After the pictures were set he grabbed a drive and plugged it into the terminal.

He selected 'Create New Message' and directed the file to his drive. He spent the next minute or so psyching himself up while the terminal waited for his command to start recording. He exhaled, put on his best face and hit the record button.

"Hey Hanah, hey DJ, hey Dad." He paused. "Hope everything is well with you guys. It's uh... Sunday, March twenty-eighth at about oh-sixteen-hundred hours. That's four o'clock for you Hanah." He paused again, scratching an itch on his nose. "Going on a drop tomorrow. They found another Hvas outpost. I'd tell you more about it but OPSEC you know... Anyways I uh... just wanted to say I love you guys and I'm always thinking about you. Got all your pictures right here on the monitor." He said, tapping the screen with his index finger.

"So um, yeah. I'll see you when I see you. Hanah, good luck with your school. And DJ, good luck with your application to the Navy. I know they'll take you, and who knows? Maybe you'll get put on the Houston. Wouldn't that be crazy?" John smiled at the thought. "Dad, I hope you're taking care of yourself and I'm hoping those new doctors treat you right. If you have any problems let me know." John could hear a series of footsteps coming from behind him somewhere. "Anyways I got to go. I love you all and I'll see you soon." With that John cut the recording.

He took the video message he had just made and transferred it to the storage drive. Once it finished transferring, he ejected the drive and put it back in the box with the rest of his photos. This was his ritual. He would always make these recordings but never send them. He must have had dozens of them by now, all made in a similar preparation just in case he never came back.

After a few minutes of slowly walking back to his room, John picked up a distant sound. It almost sounded like yelling. Normally curiosity wouldn't have got the better of him, but this yelling just so happened to be coming from the same hall as his room.

Carefully John began to sneak down the hallway. The noise was getting louder. It wasn't so much yelling anymore as it was people talking very loudly with an undercurrent of something. The dormitory was fairly well insulated so the amount of sound that was filtering down was impressive. As John got closer he noticed that the other noise was... moaning? The rest clicked pretty quickly in John's mind.

He looked down the hallway and noticed that the door to Sonja's room was half open. Driven now more by morbid curiosity than anything else, John walked up to Sonja's room and peered in. Inside Sonja was on all fours facing towards him, head down buried in a pile of pillows. Behind her was a man very enthusiastically pounding away at her. The man noticed John and gave him a very curt 'G'day', without missing a beat. This caused Sonja to look up, her expression turning to an almost horrified look.

"Fucking hell Baird!" Sonja exclaimed, quickly grabbing a bed sheet and covering herself, much to her partners disappointment. "Do you not know how to knock?

"Your door is wide open, kind of defeats the purpose." John remarked, stifling a laugh as best he could. "I didn't realize you were such a screamer Ramirez. I could hear you all the way in the common room."

"Aye, she's a bit of a banshee ain't she?" Her partner said in an unmistakably Australian accent.

Sonja, who was now standing in the middle of the room, just stared at the two men. Her face completely flushed red and mortified.

"OUT!" Sonja screamed. "Both of you out, NOW!"

"But love," The Australian protested. "We were so good together. Why break up such a beautiful thing?"

"Just get out!" Sonja continued to scream, picking up the Australians discarded clothing and throwing them at John and into the hallway.

Seeing he was defeated the naked Australian raised his hands in a mock show of surrender and walked out of the room. Being hit by one final piece of clothing in the process. Sonja then slammed the door shut.

John could hear her shouting at nothing in particular through the door. He felt a pang of remorse for Sonja. A feeling that was quickly washed away when he realized he was now alone standing in a hallway with a naked Autralian Marine.

"Well then." He could hear the Marine say. "I suppose that's the end of that then." He turned towards John, not bothering to hide any part of himself. "Any chance you wouldn't mind helping a guy out?" He said motioning to himself and the clothes on the floor. "Bit breezy out here."

"Uhh, sure." John replied, his mind still trying to process the moment. "Let me show you to a bathroom."

"Cheers." The naked man said, picking up the rest of his clothing from the deck.

John motioned for him to follow. The bathroom wasn't far, just at the end of the hallway. Fairly close to John's room actually. The Australian was a fairly large person. John estimated he was probably 6'1" at about 250lbs which appeared to be mainly muscle. Frankly the man was jacked. John was by no means a pushover, but it was obvious that this man had put a lot of time and effort into toning his muscles.

It was all topped off with buzzed short dirty blonde hair and deep blue eyes. The two arrived at the bathroom without much delay. John held the door open and the man slipped inside. He was about to turn to leave when he heard the Australian call out to him.

"Oi, mate! Would you mind sticking around? I was kind of being lead by the dick here and have no idea how to get out." The Australian said through the crack in the door.

"Um, sure." John said supposing it would be rude to not help the guy out.

"Cheers again." The man said.

About a minute later the Australian Marine walked out of the bathroom, now fully clothed and sporting his Australian Marine camo uniform. John could see the name 'Vanderbelt' above his breast pocket.

"Ah, that's much better now isn't it?" The man said, not really addressing John. "I suppose now that the fun is over we should be properly introduced." He said, scratching his head and putting on his patrol cap. "Lieutenant Ross Vanderbelt, ANZAC Fifth Marine Expeditionary Force.

John snapped to attention, now realizing he was in the presence of a superior officer.

"Corporal John Baird, Republic of Texas One Hundred and Fifth Airborne, sir!" John exclaimed, saluting.

The Australian Marine just laughed. "No need for any of that." He said, giving John a dismissive gesture. "You've seen me naked and did me a solid. As far as I'm concerned, I'm just Ross. Is it alright if I just call you John?" Ross asked, extending his hand.

"Uh, yeah, sure." John said, standing down and accepting the offered hand.

"Well alright then!" Ross said gripping Johns hand and releasing it. "How about we get out of here then?"

"Sure, just a minute. I have to do something first." John said remembering that he still had his goodbye message box in his pocket.

Quickly he walked a few steps down the hall and hit the door release for his room. He put the box back in his locker and headed back out of his room to see Ross patiently waiting for him. John motioned for him to follow as they both walked towards the common room. He noticed Ross pause for a second as they passed Sonja's room before quickly picking up his pace to match John.

"I got to say." Ross began. "I love your Texas women. Feisty."

That garnered a chuckle from John.

"Well at least you used a condom." John replied, memory quickly flashing back to the bare naked Australian.

"Very true." Ross said with a laugh. "I have a feeling she wouldn't make a very good mother."

The two proceeded to quickly exit the dormitory before Sonja could have heard them and proceeded to throw more items at them. John decided to spend the rest of the afternoon with Ross. Showing him around the parts of the ship that he would have access to. They chatted while they went.

John told him about growing up in a middle of nowhere town in Texas with his mother, father and two younger fraternal twin siblings. He mentioned about how his mother died when he was 15 to a rare neurological disease. The unfortunate result of some random genetic mutation. He told him how his father never remarried and raised him and his brother and sister by himself until they were old enough to leave the nest.

Ross talked about how he had actually grown up in Britain and moved to Australia with his family when he was 13 to the nations capital of Canberra. Both had joined their respective services when they were 18. Ross some years before because he was older. They both enjoyed what they did and were looking forward to kicking in some 'Haves' heads tomorrow.

Ross even told John, after barely any convincing, about how Sonja had approached him, chatted him up for a few minutes and then proceeded to drag him off to her room. Barely making time to learn each others names. And by the way Ross described it, Sonja was a little freak in the sheets. John supposed that was natural when she was stuck with majority men, flying in a tin can. Nevertheless he took the information to heart, just in case he ever needed to bring it up in an argument with Sonja.

Information like that could be a mighty powerful weapon. At around 1900 hours both men decided that it was probably time to get some rest. Apparently Neal had been correct and Ross's unit was simply sleeping on mattresses with sleeping bags on the deployment bay's floor. John felt like he had made a friend in Ross. The two had definitely clicked and John was kind of looking forward to talking to him again.

The Australians were going to be staying on the Houston for a few extra days after the operation so they could rendezvous with one of their own ships. It would give John and Ross plenty of time to get to know each other some more. The thought took him all the way back to his bunk. He made sure to make good time past Sonja's room just in case.

It seemed he had beaten Johan back to their room as his friend was nowhere to be seen. Probably still off fucking around with the Aussies, he thought. John would probably hear all about it in the morning. He stripped himself down and slid into his bed, letting the low humming and vibrations of the ship lull him to sleep.

John awoke about six hours later to the incessant beeping of the ships wake up alarm. He wasn't sure what time Johan had gotten in the previous night but he was there in their room, waking up and gathering his gear just like John. The two soldiers exchanged a few words about the previous nights activities as they headed to the armory. The majority of his unit was beginning to file into the room.

John headed to his equipment locker and begun donning his armor. It was a standard Kevlar coated ceramic and titanium drop armor. It provided excellent range of movement as well as protection at the plates up to the average non armor piercing 5.56 NATO standard round. As a bonus the armor also worked as a vacuum sealed pressure suit due to the nature of the soldiers orbital drops. When pressurized the suit held up to about 15 minutes of extra air.

The idea was that if the drop pod were to rupture the soldier inside would not die of asphyxiation as they had 15 minutes to get to the ground and unseal their suit. It had never happened to one of Johns pods, but he had heard of it happening to others. He grabbed his drop helmet and put it over his head, locking it in place and testing the pressurization of the suit. The suit read all green but as per regulations and precaution he got Johan to confirm the seal, doing the same thing for him as well.

Satisfied that it would keep pressure John removed the helmet, clipped it to his chest rig and continued with his kit. Ten magazines of 7.62 NATO, a frag and smoke grenade, an extra magazine for his side arm and a small personal first aid kit. Once he had all that stowed in his rig he grabbed his service rifle and checked his optics.

The new battery was holding up, good. The rifle was a slight drop compact version of the standard issue M-114 carbine, 7.62 NATO variant. It sported a simple ACOG sight and a side rail mounted laser/flashlight combo. A simple and effective design based on fairly low tech. The fewer moving parts, the less that could go wrong. John waited for Johan to finish his kit out before heading off to the deployment bay.

The bay was a massive bustling of activity. The Yankee unit was getting their vehicles attached to dropships and the Australians were prepping their gear. John quickly found the rest of his squad, already prepared and ready to drop. John was the leader of fireteam blue which consisted of himself, Johan their grenadier, Neal with the Squad Automatic Weapon and Private Billy Dorn as Neal's 'Ammo Bitch'. Billy basically just carried ammo for Neal and the rest of the squad.

"You guys ready to bust some heads in?" Neal asked, putting the question out the squad instead of any one person.

"Hell yeah!" Came a response from Billy. "Gonna crack em' like an egg!"

"You keep that enthusiasm up Private." Said Sergeant Miller, surveying his complete squad. "Alright looks like we're all here. On time too, well done." The sergeant said giving a halfhearted clap. "Ok," The man said continuing. "Hansen! Baird! Front and center!"

John quickly moved his way to the front of the squad, stopping beside Jamie Hansen, the squads Red fireteam leader. They both snapped to attention.

"Gentlemen, check your teams gear and meet me in the drop bay in ten minutes." The sergeant commanded.

Both men gave a crisp 'Sir!' and turned to face their fireteams. John went over every little detail of Johan, Neal and Billy's equipment. Double checking their kits and pressure suits. When he was convinced that everything was as it should be, John lead his team to the drop bay, falling in just behind Jamie's team. The drop bay was quite a bit smaller than the deployment bay.

Rows of pods were lined up, ready to receive their trooper cargo and plummet towards their destination. Both fireteams stood in a line in front of their squads pods, with Sergeant Miller standing parallel to them. He was talking on his personal radio to someone, the platoon lead most likely. John took a moment to look around the drop bay.

Just down the way he noticed Sonja. As if she could somehow feel him staring she looked at John. John just gave her a friendly wave and smile. Sonja responded by flipping him off and donning her helmet. Neal noticed the exchange.