"Thirty seconds! Force be with ya'!" Spouted the pilot of the dropship, the comms rasping with the rough static of the signal. The waist gunners had already begun laying into the LZ, bolts flying back and forth as the engines flared. Flak and other anti-air munitions were already bursting around them, the shrapnel pattering against the hull like rain on a metal roof, and the deck shuddered. "Ten!" A waist gunner fell to shrapnel, dragged to one of the cabin benches to be treated as a dim red light illuminated the cabin. The flak began to inch closer, more on target, and then a cacophony of explosions. A nearly direct hit as the dropship sunk further.

"Gunners cease fire!" Lukas, situated in the throng of commandos standing near the rear ramp and side doors, ordered to the uninjured waist gunner and the rear gunner, who cut their blaster fire promptly, and the red light turned green as the gear scraped stone and dirt. The ramp dropped and the cacophony of battle seeped in, a thermal detonator landing direct in the horde of ten commandos all flooding out of the dropship. Lukas dove to it, grasping the red flashing object and threw it, clearing the heads of all of his squadmates, and it sent shrapnel and heat flying as it exploded within the air, not ten feet from the dropship.

Lukas and his commandos had continued to pour outwards, and now the dropship was clear, making its ascent with ramp and doors still ajar and the engines emitting a thick grey smoke as green and blue blaster bolts flew from the waist gunner and rear gunner's positions. Lukas, now immersed among the fire which had now cut down two commandos fatally, found a thick stone of which to use as cover, and likewise the remaining seven other commandos had as well. They dared not return fire, yet still hugged the cover, before Lukas barked into the comms: [i]"Second squad is in the AO and pinned at the LZ! Requesting immediate support!"[/i]