Delta's Gambit: A Mere Prologue

[Sleepy Retard]

Vanechka started to sift through all the papers that were handed to her, quietly mumbling to herself, “Jon Svarlson...Looks to be another dumb grunt, probably good he is carrying the radio crap. Right...medics, lets see what we got…” She pauses for a moment, taking a deep sigh, “Kathleen Redd, hrm. Young. Hope her parents forget about her soon. Right...Tomas Svensson? Oof. Thank god he wasn’t chosen to man the radio, Kyomi Sin’vah. Hrm. I’m pretty sure that’s the one that has a history of letting their patients die, especially when they are their best friend, another young one, too.” She closely reads the next one, letting out a low laugh, “Cliff...Campbell...Overweight by...143 pounds. Jesus fucking Christ. This guy is almost overweight by twice my weight!”

She gets up and paces around the room for a while, before pouring another shot and downing it. “Ugh. Right, let's get down to the guys who’ll shoot….First on the list...Malcolm Allister...Hrm, from NYC, lower class. Hopefully, he doesn’t hold his gun sideways. Next on the list...Huh, another Malcolm. Malcolm Holmes. Guess we always needed a token black guy for an op... Lochlann Healy, another no-helmet guy. Probably won’t like it that he has to wear a helmet this time...Ryan Steelberg, someone else who smokes cigars. Nice. Right, last riflemen...Murdoch Machowicz...Interesting. Hope his daughters are used to daddy being gone, ‘cause he probably ain’t coming back now…” she had grumbled under her breath, closely reading each application.

Flicking out a lighter, she burns all of the applications and throws them in the disposals. She walks out the door and heads down to the mess, listening to her overly loud squadmates from a distance.

“I don’t care why we’re up early, look at all this FOOD!” Cliff had yelled out, spitting out food mush from his mouth, as he shoved the rest of his pizza into his mouth and washed it down with his drink.

Kyomi wiped her face in slight disgust, retorting, “Perhaps if you stopped cramming your face for a moment, you’d be able to think. There’s a reason why they woke us up and gave us all this food. Doesn’t this seem off to you guys?”

“Aye, doesn’t seem like good news to me. Sorta feels like an execution to me, your last meal and all. Rather not know what we’re doing out of cryo so early.” Lochlann had piped in, swirling a shot of whiskey as he throws down yet another finished tub of ice cream, burping obnoxiously loud.

Cliff quickly unwrapped his chocolate bar and began to quickly eat it, “Well, guys, this is the Marine Corp. Best thing since Pizza MREs, they’re not gonna execute us!” He said, quickly gobbling down the rest of his chocolate bar, “We aren’t a part of the CLF, or like, the UPP. It’ll be fine!”

Ryan snorted at the comment, “The Marine Corp isn’t as honourable and good as you think it is, Chubs. I have no doubt that this’ll be our last meal, and to be honest - the rest of the squad agrees”

“Right...it can’t be that bad, guys, you’re just….you’re just making it be a bigger problem than it actually is, y'know.” Kathleen replied weakly, “And, even if it is a so-called suicide mission, look at us! We’re gonna do great, we’re marines after all!”

The argument raged on for a while before Vanechka decided to walk in with a mix of suppressors and extended barrels in her hand, “Alright! Listen up! We’re drawing sticks, ‘cept it’s suppressors and bigger barrels. Understand? Only attachments you’re getting, so cry some more.” she yelled out, analyzing the marines she had

Everybody turned to her and nodded, saying the odd remark. Vanechka held her hand out to Cliff, and he drew a barrel. “Damn, extended barrel,” he muttered.

Walking to the next person, Kathleen pulled a barrel out, “Extended barrel…” she remarked, figuring out how it’ll fit on her shotgun.

Pulling a barrel out, Vanechka shoves a barrel into Tomas’ mouth as he sleeps through his food coma, “Tomas has a suppressor. Right.”

Jon watched curiously, furrowing his brow, “Right. What is the fuckin’ point of drawing barrels like this? No point if ya ask me, miss. What’s the idea here?” He spat out, frustrated at the situation as he pulled a suppressor.

Vanechka simply ignored him as Murdoch drew a barrel, “Well. To be frank, does it really matter? Same goal, in the end, helps us shoot. Plus, I’m not complaining, I got what I wanted.” He said as he shoved the suppressor onto his rifle

Both Malcolms pulled a barrel as they grinned, as they had both pulled suppressors. They made the odd joke and remark as Vanechka tossed the remaining barrels to Lochlann, Kyomi, and Ryan, all extended barrels. She thought to herself, “Oh, attachments. What great meaning you have right now, and the poor fools don’t know...nor can I tell them...Goddamn…”

Vanechka cleared her throat and bellowed out, ‘Right! Cliff and Jon, grab Tomas. We’re going to deploy, ASAP. There isn’t any time to lose, and I’m sure you all want to get back home….” she said, thinking to herself, “Home in a coffin…” Exiting the door, she made her way down to the hanger as her team followed her, making small talk and whispers to each other. After a while, they make their way into the hanger as they enter a relatively small dropship. As everyone piles in and buckles up, a crackle is heard as the speaker plays:

“PO here. We’re taking off now, hold onto yer butts.” it blasted out, as the ship launched with little warning. Spirits were high as everyone was bantering and making jokes with each other before they were silenced.

“Marines.” Vanechka said in a low tone, “How many of you know what we’re doing today? I’m gonna assume none of you know, right?”

“Not a damn clue, not at all.” Murdoch responded, “You gonna clue us in on all of this, or what ?”

“No. Buuuut….I can tell you about the planet, a little. We’re on what they call XZ-391. Not sure what the X or the Z means, but I can tell you it’s a weird planet. Continental, extremely docile wildlife. Lots of these weird autistic spider dog things, don’t be surprised if one comes up to you and wants a scratch. They’re fucking weird as hell. Anyways... ” Vanechka replied, looking over at Tomas, “Kathleen, you mind waking up dipshit over there?” Kathleen nodded, as she started to lightly shake him

“Vhat! Vhere am I?” Tomas sputtered out, spitting the silencer onto the ground, “… And vhy did I vake up vith a suppressor in my mouth...again?”

“We got divided into teams or something, suppressors and extended barrels. You were asleep so, Sleepy over here shoved it in your mouth.” Allister answered, rolling his eyes.

“Vouldn’t be ze virst time Sleepy's done zat..” Tomas mumbled, “... Anyways. Vell, it ist a bit ominous, ja, but at least ZIS time ve get free attachments!” He said jovially, attaching the suppressor onto his rifle

Fifteen minutes had passed, the banter continued before the back door for the shuttle opened. As the loud screams of the wind disoriented the Marines, Vanechka had got up and stood near the ramp, holding packs out. “I hope you all know how to parachute, because if not, Cliff is gonna make a soup out of your crushed gibs,” she yelled out, putting a pack on herself.

Tomas quickly unbuckled from his seat and snatched a pack and quickly wrestling it on as he was the first one to jump out the back of the shuttle. One by one they put packs on and jumped out before Kathleen hesitated for a moment. “I-I...I wasn’t taught how to parachute, Sleepy…” she said softly, a sweat working on her face.

“Guess you’ll learn now!” Vanechka said with a grin, as she pushed Kathleen down the ramp as she screamed in terror. “Chubs! You’ll have to take the special obese parachute because you have no self-control, alright?” she barked out, handing a bulky pack to Cliff. She looked to see if the dropship was clear, as she jumped out with the ramp closing behind her.

In the dead of the night, they fell through the sky, making their way to the area designated with flares. Vanechka used the time to think to herself as she dived towards the ground. “Surely they must know this is a suicide mission, right?” she pondered, “Either way, we’re here for good. I’ll be damned if I let the Corp down this time.” After what felt like hours for them, they had touched down in the vicinity of the flares, as they got themselves back up.

“Alright, let's do a quick roll call!” Vanechka shouted, “Jon Svarlson!”

“I landed in one piece,” Jon replied.

“Good. Kathleen and Tomas?” Vanechka continued

“Here,” Kathleen said, wiping the dirt off her uniform

“Ja! I landed!” Tomas replied

“And...Kyomi and Cliff?” Vanechka droned out,

“Mhm,” grumbled Kyomi

After a while, Vanechka sighed and started to question further, “Cliff? Where’s Cliff? I swear to god...if he got lost...I’ll kill the littl-....big bastard. Right! Everyone! Stay here, just talk amongst yourselves.”

She started to walk around for a while before hearing a faint shout, as she started running towards it. Nearing closer and closer, she could make out who it was. Cliff Campbell. She yelled out, “Hold on, Cliff! I’ll be there in a sec!”

“I uh! I uhm...I got stuck in the tree! I didn’t see it” Cliff lamented, struggling as he hung helplessly, “Goddamnit! I swear this wasn’t my fault! I can’t even reach high enough to cut it!”

Vanechka shook her head and sighed, as she started to climb up the tree. Nearing the parachute, she pulled the survival knife out of her boot and began to cut the connectors and lining, as she quietly whistled through her work.

Cliff let out a small yelp as he was cut free, tumbling towards the ground with a loud thud. Groveling in pain, he stuttered out, “O-ow...I knew this was gonna happen..”

She clambered down as fast as possible as she helped Cliff back up, “How did I know you were gonna fuck up the easiest part of the mission? C’mon, man..” she said to him, “Right. Let us get back to the others, rather not have the peanut gallery on their own for too long.” They made their way back to the landing area as they spotted everyone crowded around something. Pushing her way through the group, Vanechka stared at something singlehandedly threatening the operation: Garth Powalski

His right arm was torn off, his legs were utterly mutilated and he was missing both feet and was barely alive. His lower stomach was slashed open, exposing his intestines as he looked around weakly. Kyomi, Tomas and Kathleen were arguing if it was even possible to save him in such a state, as he grumbled quietly, “J-just k-kill me already…”

Vanechka was hard pressed for options, but she slid her M37 off her suit storage and aimed it directly at Garth’s head, “Semper Fi, Marine, Semper Fi.” she muttered, as the sound of her weapon discharging echoed throughout the forest, blood splattering over the squad from the impact. She lowered her weapon back down and piped up amidst the shock, “This is what we’re up against, boys. It’s do and die or just die on this mission, and if you have second thoughts...You’ve got a bullet and you’ve got a brain, put two and two together” she finished, as she stared around.

Many moments went by where no one said anything, just contemplating their situation. After a while, Vanechka spoke up again,“Looks like you’re all ready to die honorably then, huh? Good. God Bless the Marine Corp.” she said before the silence set in, everyone visibly shaken.

[Kerek]

Pretty good, this was a fantastic read in the car! Thanks for the read. Funny as hell.

[Helgraf]

Very good.

[Kavlo]

Noice.

Now we loot Karmac.

[Symbiosis]

Can't wait for the rest!

[spartanbobby]

I love the corps.

[XSlayer300]

Ye. Can't wait for more episodes of the squad!

[Karmac]

Surprisingly good read, and I beat the game by being dead before you guys even hit the dirt, I can tell this is just gonna get better and better

[MrMafioso]

All I can is #MalcolmSuppresorSquad and well Rest In Pieces Garth Powalski

[Whiteflicker]

Dear Kyomi "Yoghurt" Sin'va.

Don't let the bug-dogs bite.

Much love, Anna.


I am so buttblasted i didn't get to join in on this thing now, but i guess It'll be fun to read in conjunction with that other marine game that's going down. I can already tell this is going to be amusing.