[center][h3]DSS [I]Audie Murphy[/I][/h3][/center]
[hr]
Carver's vision was blurry as he woke up. His ears were ringing, and he could feel something pressing down on his side. He could hear footsteps and several voices, coming closer. As the voices approached him, he felt the weight lift off his sides, followed by a loud [i]clank[/i] as a piece of debris hit the floor. A gloved hand reached out to him, and started to pull him up. As Michael stood up, his vision cleared, and he saw the face of a familiar young Korean man looking at him. "Specialist Lee. You're alive."

Lee gave him a slight smile. "And, by some miracle, you are alive as well. Mostly unscathed, too, I might add. Others were not so lucky." At that, Michael looked around the room. The bridge was in disarray, with many of the consoles damaged, and piles of debris littering the floor. Several of the bridge crew were nursing various wounds, while others were crumpled up, dead. He saw the Captain lying on the floor a few feet next to him, blood staining his formerly pristine uniform. Lee was looking at him, a frown on his face. "Unfortunately, the good Captain didn't make it. Neither did a good deal of the crew."

Carver had known Captain Ramirez for a long time, and his death was sure to lower the morale of the crew. And with the Captain dead... he turned to face Lee. "This means I'm in charge, doesn't it?" 
 
"Given you were his second in command, yes, this means you are in charge, now. So, Captain, what are your orders?" Lee asked, trying not to smirk.

"Well, first off, don't call me Captain. Second off, I'm making you my second in command. If I die, you're next in line. Third off, get me a damage report." He looked around the bridge. "And...get some body bags if we have them. I'd like to give the dead a proper funeral, if we can."
[hr]
As it turned out, they had body bags. The surviving crew had all been accounted for, and the bodies of those killed in the crash were put in body bags and moved out of the way. In total, twenty-eight crew members had been killed in the crash. A few were heavily wounded, but in stable condition, and there was a slew of minor injuries. Their equipment hadn't faired much better, a good portion of it being destroyed. Half the Goliaths were wrecked, but the surviving two were in good shape. The dropship was somewhat damaged, but could be repaired in a short while. One of the siege tanks was destroyed, and the other had moderate damage, which would leave it out of action for a while. They only lost a few SCV's, and Carver was ecstatic to learn that his personal Marine suit had survived. While they had lost a great deal, it could have been much, much worse. 

Watching over the bridge, Carver and the surviving bridge crew waited as the engineers attempted to get the power core back online. The fusion reactor powering the ship had a large store of fuel left, and would last them for a long time. He pressed on his radio headset. "Any progress?"

"We're almost done, Sergeant. Almost...there!" There was a pause, then a large amount of noise as the computers on the bridge all booted up at the same time. The lights turned on soon after, and the Adjutant's mainframe began to boot up as well. Across the ship, the crew paused to clap and cheer, and Carver couldn't help but smile. [i]Well, that's that.[/i] With the power back on, they could use the ship's systems to their advantage. Michael walked over to the Adjutant, as the machine finished booting up. He always found the humanoid "body" of the machine a little creepy, but he couldn't deny its usefulness. 

As he walked into view, the machine's head stared down at him. "Greetings, Sergeant. Where is Captain Ramirez?"

He cringed. "Captain Ramirez is dead. I'm in charge now."

It kept staring at him. "Understood. Activating succession protocols." It beeped, then continued, in its synthetic female voice. "I have been able to gather a variety of useful information on the planet we have crashed upon, Sergeant."
 
"Well, tell me."

"Of course." Beep. "This planet matches no known systems in the Koprulu Sector. We may have stumbled upon a previously unknown system." Beep. "We appear to have landed in a mountainous region, near the edge of a large forest. The planet is surprisingly Earth-like, and is capable of supporting human life." Beep. "Our sensors have detected a large amount of smoke emanating from deeper within the forest. It is likely that we are not the only ones to have crashed here." 

"Not the only ones, huh? This might complicate things..." He paused for a moment. "I'm going to get my suit and head down to the vehicle bay. Tell everyone to meet down there. I'll brief them on the situation."

"Understood, Sergeant." 

And with that, he was off. [i]Let's see what we're dealing with here.[/i]