[center][h1][color=maroon]SSgt. William Jacobson[/color][/h1][/center]

[color=maroon]"Alright boys, we got the word! Strap in and get ready to fly out and save some stupid greenhorns. In a few hours, hope you guys don't get airsick, yea?"[/color] Jacobson smirked as the taskforce LT came jogging up the ramp as it began to rise up, sealing the belly of the drop ship and he moved up to the cockpit and vanished from sight. Jacobson snorted and crossed his arms over the harness that held him in place inside the dropship, half dozing. They might not get a lot of sleep in the coming days so he would have to get what he could now. He certainly wasn't the only one, either, as most of the grunts and combat support personelle were also sleeping. About the only ones awake were the taskforce LT, and the pilots and crew of the dropship. So the next couple hours should go by relatively uneventful, since the Tellosian's airforce should not have been anywhere in range yet. After all, none of the folks running the observation had noted any unusual risk in moving the taskforce by air, and they had been reliable before, so he was not concerned with sleeping a bit. Besides, not like he would be able to do much on an unarmed dropship.

[center][h2][b][i]Several hours later...[/i][/b][/h2][/center]

Jacobson awoke to the blaring alarms of the dropship having picked up on Tellosian fast movers. The Staff Sergeant scowled, any sleepiness that was in his mind already gone as combat instincts kicked in. There was a lot of panic, bitching about why they hadn't gotten any sort of escort out here, all sorts of praying, questioning, and begging to their gods of choice that they somehow live through this attack on the dropship. Jacobson kept his composure, helping those around him calm down as well. Panic and fear wouldn't help at all, and wouldn't change anything in the grand scheme of things. He did cover his left hand, which was shaking from the memory of the last time he had been shot down out of the sky. It was something he had never wanted to repeat, which included flying, let alone getting shot down again. Leave it to the Commonwealth to come up with some method of being hyper effective at shooting down fast movers and anything slower then that. The LT came over the dropship's comm, broadcasting to the entire Taskforce in the process. [b]"Brace for evasive maneuvers gentleman!"[/b]

The Dropship slammed down in a steep dive angle which, if it wasn't for the proper securing of the equipment, would have probably killed a fair number of people in the dropship from flying equipment becoming missile hazards. Then they slammed upwards into a steep up angle, trying to likely throw off a fast mover on their tail. Clearly, it didn't work, as a missile or some other ordinance slammed into the bay door of the dropship, blowing it to pieces and sending quite a few men screaming to their deaths as the dropship went into a death spiral. Jacobson screwed his eyes shut, hearing people vomit and scream as the LT went barreling by, screaming as follow on hits from autocannons tore the cockpit to pieces, sending their fearless leader screaming into the frigid beyond. Jacobson had, thank God, chosen a sturdy seat and was still hanging in there when the Dropship slammed into the ground, and as he heard the explosions the numerous concussive waves knocked the Staff Sergeant unconscious for the rest of the landing. Ironically, going limp saved him as those who braced broke limbs and couldn't save themselves as the dropship tore itself apart. From NO-36, one could clearly see the fireball that was the dropship come screaming in and fall out of sight before explosions could be heard. To those that knew, that was their reinforcements that just went up in flames.


[color=maroon]"God... Anyone left alive, respond!"[/color] The frigid silence was all the response he got. [color=maroon]"Damn it, really? Either God hates me and refuses to let me die, or loves me and refuses to let me die. I have no idea which yet..."[/color] Jacobson groaned and cut the ties on his harness loose, dropping him down onto the deck of the dropship. Checking himself, he was unharmed. That was helpful, seems his EHCS was intact too. No gear damage, so he wasn't concerned. But he had to grab some of this gear before the whole wreck went up in flames. Or the fast movers came around to make sure nothing would survive even if the landing didn't kill them. Grabbing a bloody supply bag, he emptied the majority of the contents. Mostly stuff that would not be priority in reinforcing the NO-36. Assuming it was still there, those fast movers might have obliterated it. Well, he would freeze to death, starve, or otherwise not make it back to civilization. None of those were good options, to say the least, so as he finished loading some landmines that were still stable, sensors and other miscellaneous gear that his personal tool kit didn't cover before bailing out of the dropship and thanking Ares Corporation that the Field Survival EHCS was designed for this kind of extreme climate. Any extreme, really.

[color=maroon]"Have to focus, NO-36 should be that way..."[/color] Jacobson snarled under his helmet and pushed through the snow. Just as he was out of sight of the dropship he heard the scream of missiles and threw himself down, watching the missiles dart overhead and fly into the ruined dropship and send the entire thing into a flaming pillar of debris and corpses. Jacobson muttered a curse and heaved himself out of the snow, wading out of the deeper drift he had thrown himself into as he continued moving towards NO-36. The brief included a radio channel, and backup, that should be what the base was using. So, much to his chagrin, he had to open up communications personally as he adjusted the weight on his shoulders and kept moving through the snow, hoping to raise someone before he was shot at by a perimeter guard. [i][color=maroon]"NO-36, come in. This is Staff Sergeant Jacobson, Senior NCO of the relief taskforce. Dropship is shot down, continuing on foot. Will be in visual range momentarily. Respond, over."[/color][/i]