I don't own anything.

Infantry

-Chapter Nine

Shinji stared down at the suit laid out before him. He was seriously considering passing it off to the navy as scrap, but that would force him to warm up and fit another suit. He picked up his sandwich and took a bite. "God damn it."

"Something wrong Blue?" Gilbert asked.

"Nothing." Shinji pushed up his magnifying glasses and rubbed his eyes. Five days in and almost everything was done. He had managed to teach Gilbert how to do all the necessary routine checks and the younger trooper was flying through them. "I'm going to need some coffee."

"Maybe you should take a nap," Gilbert suggested.

"I'll take one soon," Shinji responded. "We're actually looking to get done pretty damn early." The door burst open and Shinji stared at his platoon leader.

"Afternoon sir."

"Morning," Ford returned. Shinji glanced at his watch. It was morning, and not so late it was morning, it was almost afternoon again.

"Huh." So, six days in. He glanced at Ford. "You have yet to burst into my armory and give me good news sir."

"Regimental commander's inspection has been postponed." Shinji stared at Ford suspiciously and took another bite of his sandwich.

"Uh, that's good, right Blue?" Gilbert ventured. Shinji swallowed and set his sandwich down again.

"Wait for it," he stated.

"You haven't been in long enough to be that cynical, Blue," Ford stated. Shinji raised one eyebrow. "Okay, you got me. Our research station on Pluto got smeared. We're going in. What's our available number?"

"One hundred percent," Shinji stated. "Thanks to Gil here, all suits are ready to go. I haven't quite finished the full run down on all physical preventative maintenance checks and services for every suit, but the computers say they're good to go. What do you mean Pluto got smeared sir?"

"Long range asteroid bombardment," Ford stated, "like BA. We have measures in place around Earth, but the civilian fucks didn't give a damn about any other planet. We're already underway. Sky Marshal is sending us in first in case the asteroid had any hitchhikers."

"You think they're invading, sir?" Shinji asked.

"Hard to say," Ford replied. "It's never wise to try and guess what the bugs are planning. They ain't us. Lock everything down. We're skipping into Cherenkov. All MI are to report to their racks for a hypno session. That includes you Blue."

"Yes sir," Shinji replied. "Did you approve Corporal Yazzie's plan?"

"He did."

"Jesus!" Ford yelped, spinning to stare at the man. "I thought you were Navajo, not ninja."

"Cute," Yazzie stated. "All scouts are now in fourth squad. You'll be directly under me and Marko is my assistant. Good to go?"

"Yes Corporal," Shinji replied. "Go rack out Gil. I'll tie everything down." Gilbert nodded and walked out, respectfully rendering the greeting of the day to Ford and Yazzie. "Why do I have a bad feeling about this sir?"

"Because we have absolutely no idea what's happening," Ford stated. "We're charging full steam ahead blind."

"Good way to run smack into something unfriendly," Yazzie commented. "You up to this Blue? You haven't exactly slept in a while."

"I'm fine." Ford swung and Shinji's arm shot up, chopping Ford's punch aside with ease. "Want to try and sneak one over on me again or do you wanna waltz sir?"

"I'm good."

(:ii:)

Shinji checked his gauges and watched as the last of the platoon filed out of the armor locker. So far, there were no complaints about anything not working right. The very last man squeezed past Shinji, a feat only possible because of the scout armor's small stature. "Everybody is armed and armored, sir," Shinji called over the radio.

"Copy that Blue," Ford returned. Shinji followed after the last man, bringing up the diagnostic for his weapon as he did. Scouts were meant more or less only for scouting. They could fight, but speed was their best weapon. Even with all the times he had been told that verbatim, there was no way in hell they would ever get Shinji on the battlefield unarmed.

Scouts, as standard issue, carried a cut down carbine version of the plasma chain gun Shinji had used in Klendathu. Sadly, he only had half the ammo he used to carry. The suit's internal stores were mostly like that; half the bombs, half the juice for his flamer, but four times the jump juice of a standard Marauder. The rest of the weight difference was in the souped hydraulics and the advanced communication/surveillance packages.

The passageway opened up into the large drop room and Shinji quickly fell in with the rest of his squad. Ford and Rotuno were already moving down the ranks, checking every trooper's armor. Ford reached Shinji first and punched him lightly. "Not a single problem I can see. Good job Blue."

"Thank you sir," Shinji stated. Ford looked him over quickly before moving onto the next squad. Shinji took the moment to reflect. This was his second combat drop. This time there was no trooper to follow him around like a babysitter. He was combat tested and was expected to pull his fair share, more actually than the average trooper.

Ford moved to the front of the formation and gave them their time for the padre. Shinji stayed where he was, but company found him. "Blue." He glanced up and grinned as he saw Chris's name on the armor in front of him.

"Hey Chris."

"So, which part are you going to loose this time?" Chris asked.

"I was thinking about loosing this parasite named Aquil," Shinji shot back. Chris snickered.

"Try to come back in one piece," he stated, "for once."

"What do you mean 'for once'?" Shinji demanded. "We've only dropped once."

"Seems like we've been around a lot longer," Chris commented. "Take care." Shinji took his buddy's offered hand.

"You too." The platoon fell back into formation.

"Alright," Ford called loudly, "here we go again folks. You know the details. This is new shit, different style. We are officially making this up as we go. The Sky Marshal doesn't know what's going down. The division commander doesn't know what's going on. The regimental commander doesn't know what's going on. I know what's going on, of course, but you'll just have to figure it out.

"Officially, we're going to move in and see if any of our R&D big heads are still alive and kicking. Don't count on it. Unofficially, we are going to make sure that Pluto does not crawl. If we find bugs, it's the same shit, different day. We wipe them out. This is our God damned solar system. I will be dead in my grave before bugs get this close to my home. Understand?"

"Yes sir!" the platoon chorused. Ford nodded, a big brutal gesture in his armor.

"Good," he stated. "Sergeant!"

"Yes sir!" Rotuno answered.

"Load them up," Ford ordered.

"Understood," Rotuno replied. "Platoon! By sections, port and starboard, prepare for launch." The orders ran down the chain and Shinji climbed up into his capsule. The last time he had done so, all he had found at the other end was blood and death. Surprisingly, the old anticipation flared up. He was dropping again, into an unknown situation, as a scout no less. Shinji was grinning before he knew it. The navy, he decided, might be on to something when they called troopers crazy.

(:ii:)

"Close that circle!" Rotuno ordered. Shinji could already see the flankers moving to do just that. Second section, under Rotuno's command, had been tasked with encircling the research station and having the scouts sweep it. First section under Ford was checking the actual impact site. "Alright, I'm not getting anything on any freak. Scouts up!" Rotuno growled.

"Let's go folks," Yazzie stated. Shinji could see the short, jerky flashes representing the scouts' beacons separate from the main body. He readied his chain gun and moved with them, forming up into a column. "Marko, take a look around the place and tell me what you see."

"Roger Corporal," the assistance squad leader reported as he bounced off to circle the building. The rest of the squad moved to the loading bay door. It was the only entrance large enough to permit an armored man and really, only a scout could fit. It took Marko less than half a minute to complete a full circle of the building.

"What'd you find?" Yazzie asked.

"Place is pretty beat to shit," Marko reported. "I can't tell if the damage is from the shockwave or what, but there are a couple of large rips in the exterior." Yazzie relayed these observations to Rotuno.

"Harris and Mars get the door. Blue on point. On three." Shinji moved into position and raised his chain gun as Harris and Mars each grabbed half the door. On three the both pulled and ripped the door off its hinges. Shinji quickly moved strait into the loading bay beyond. He swept the muzzle of his chain gun around the interior and came up empty.

"Nothing here," he reported. He flipped up his snoopers and found only darkness. "Lights are out." He flipped down his snoopers again and moved them over to active night vision.

"Right," Yazzie stated. "Divide and conquer. Marko, take Blue down to the basement and look around. Everybody else, divide and sweep." Shinji glanced back at his assistance squad leader.

"This way Blue. One of the elevators going down is accessible through here." Marko led him to a large pair of sliding doors. They wrenched them open and Marko dropped down. Shinji followed after a moment later and found that Marko had already wrenched the door open.

"No pressure integrity," Marko commented. "I didn't see any damage from the outside." Shinji looked around the massive underground storage area.

"Over there." He moved to a massive hole in the wall. "This doesn't look accidental."

"Fucking hole," Marko stated. Neither wanted to actually say what the hole was or what might have made it. "Yaz."

"Yazzie here," Yazzie replied.

"We have a tunnel down here," Marko reported.

"Shit," Yazzie grumbled. "Rotuno just relayed over that the Lieutenant found a few tunnels radiating out from the impact site. Be careful down there."

"We'll be good. Watch your backs." Marko glanced back at Shinji. "You go that way."

"Got it." Shinji turned and moved towards one of the two doors leading out of the main storage area. The door had been torn off its hinges. Shinji stooped slightly to make it through the doorway and frowned as he found that standing straight in the hallway beyond ground his shoulders against the walls and the tops of his head against the overhead. "Fuck."

"What's up Blue?" Marko asked.

"I'm gonna have to repaint," Shinji growled. He brought his chain gun up and started down the hallway.

"And the Regimental CO will probably still swing by in a day or two," Marko stated cheerfully. Shinji sighed. "I found the other elevator. The airlock in front of it has been torn open. It's a strait shot to the upstairs."

"Right." Shinji froze as he heard a new sound, barely louder than the grinding of his suit against the walls. He swing back over to passive night vision, but no thermal images appeared. Sometimes, if the walls were thin enough, it was possible to see through them. He made his way through the blue-colored halls. The sound got louder and Shinji found another wrenched open door. Inside was the last thing Shinji wanted to see.

A charred and blackened bug looked back at him and slowly tried to crawl towards him. Shinji raised his chain gun and put two rounds into the bug's carapace. "Marky?"

"Here," Marko stated.

"It's Blue. I've got a bug,"

"You okay?"

"It's dead." Shinji stated. He kicked the bug onto its back. Its legs twitched and Shinji shot it twice more. He glanced around and saw only a single other human. He had the signs of explosive decompression, but both his legs were also torn off. His name tape read C. Jenkins. Shinji stepped out of the room and moved further down the passage way only to find an empty, wrecked science lab of some kind. "Basement's clear on my end."

"Same here," Marko stated. "Yaz? It's Marky. Basement's clear, but Blue found a bug."

"We've found a few ourselves," Yazzie stated. "They're all half-dead. Dangerous to a man, but not to a trooper. Building's clear now. Meet back in the loading dock."

"Hear that Blue?"

"I heard," Shinji responded as he stepped into the science lab in order to turn around. "Fuck." There were bugs in the solar system.

(:ii:)

Shinji felt the retrieval boat buck slightly as it nosed up to the White Feather. There had been no War Dog casualties, but the ride up was somber. "Alright, listen up," Ford's voice cut in suddenly. "We've got orders. We get off the boat and everybody reports to the auditorium."

"Thought it was a cafeteria," Rotuno grunted.

"Depends on the time of day," Ford stated. Even their antics seemed subdued. The doors opened and everybody shuffled out. They moved through the bay to the auditorium clumsily in their armor and found that the entire navy crew was gathered there as well. "Everyone's here, ma'am," Ford reported to the Captain.

"Thank you Lieutenant," she replied. She picked up a phone and spoke for a minute. The second she set the phone down, the massive screen that took up one whole wall blinked to like. It took a minute for Shinji to recognize the man. On board chain of command trees for MI only went up to the Division Commander after all.

"Good afternoon troopers, sailors," the Sky Marshal stated. "By now, you all know what was found on Pluto. I cannot stress how important it is for there to be no mention of the arachnid presence. This is a director order." The screen blinked out leaving the entire crew of the White Feather in silence. The trooper to Shinji's left leaned over and pressed their helmets together to open a private line.

"Well, Blue," Yazzie began. "What do you think of your first black op?"

"Very under whelmed Corporal," Shinji stated.

"Yep."

-End

(:ii:)

-Author's notes. Well, Happy Thanksgiving to all. I've been pretty busy, so it's just a short one this week. I really don't like last chapter of LC. I need to rewrite it. Classes are coming to an end and I've been pretty damn busy.

Oh, I read something amusing. Statistics stated that eighty percent of fanfiction writers are female. My personal statistics say that ninety percent of that number are fangirls and they don't actually count as writers. Personally, I count them as anti-writers, the natural enemy of anyone who writes fanfiction. Disturbingly, I've seen a few pop up in the Eva section.

I know how this is going to go. Poorly. Usually Eva attracts a few decent writers because it's so psychological (what the rest of us call a mind fuck). At least Eva isn't on Cartoon Network. Nothing kills the quality of a fiction section like that show appearing on CN. Don't believe me? Have you fucking been in the Naruto section lately? If you go over there and don't see a problem, it may very well be too late for you.

Oh, and I have actually started my long awaited Naruto story. If it ever gets posted, I think you guys'll get a kick out of it.

Oh again, I have an avatar now. I call him Mister Fuck-You. That's right, he has a hyphenated name. That pissed him off.