[right][h3]Callagher – Kourshad Delta, New Plympto[/h3][/right][hr]

MARSPEC Company 3-Gamma executed the insertion through a 0-dark hundred local Axehead drop. The ship cut thrust at two hundred klicks above sea level and glided to the surface of the Kourshad Gulf on silent, sensor-friendly repulsors. At fifteen meters above the frothing blue-green sea, jet black in the alien darkness, the boarding ramps were lowered and the skimmers were dropped. Each watercraft touched down smoothly, the swept wings cutting into the waves and the repulsors driving them forward. 

Apex Team took point, followed by Callagher and Blackrock, Condor, and then Nomad at the rear. The skimmers were dead silent and low sensor-profile vehicles, and they slipped past the lightly defended coastline with ease. Callagher and his team, their rifle’s optics projecting high fidelity night-vision images of their firing arcs, drew beads on the occasional Nosaurian on the beach, not a hundred meters away, but they maintained trigger discipline. The rebels were lightly armored, carrying light blaster weaponry and slugthrowers, and ill-disciplined. In an era when assault teams could be dropped from orbital transports directly onto the battlefield, amphibious approaches were not the most highly anticipated action. 

The Kourshad Delta, the mouth of the mighty Kourshad River that fed into the Gulf, was heavily mined, but the skimmers were light and elevated some two meters above the waterline, with only the wings dipping beneath the surface. With the assistance of underwater sensors, the skimmer operators deftly maneuvered through the hostile waters and into the river. About a klick up the river, Condor and Nomad teams broke off and went to shore.

3-Gamma had five targets in the jungles of Kourshad, which together formed a rough triangle converging some fifteen klicks inland. Condor and Nomad would handle the two southeasterly objectives, while Apex and Blackrock would advance on the two northwest from there. The company would then converge on the fifth location. MARSPEC Command, not entirely contrary to Obelisk’s orders, had passed down a weapons free order earlier that night, effective immediately upon landing. 3-Gamma was to maintain operational integrity by shooting target that was not immediately identifiable as friendly in the course of the mission. 

Callagher’s skimmer pulled up to the riverbank, and Blackrock One put boots in the water. Blackrock Two and Three followed soon thereafter, and as soon as they disembarked the skimmers turned back into the waters to find concealment upriver. The Blackrock Team’s fourteen Hosnian Prime marines, their stark white ablative plating exchanged for jungle green patterned armor, waved them off. Callagher nodded to the marine to his left, who raised his left gauntlet and pressed a button to open a comm channel.

“Ghost Command, this is Blackrock One, do you copy? Blackrock Team is in position to advance,” Specialist Calder’s voice came through the comms. 

“Blackrock One, this is Ghost Command,” Seils’s comms transmissions operator answered, “we copy. Blackrock Team is cleared to advance, weapons free per SPECCOM.”

Callagher gave Calder a thumbs up and then opened his own comms channel with the team. “Blackrock Team, we are weapons free and cleared to advance. Blackrock Two, take point.”

“Copy, Actual,” came Blackrock Two-One’s answer. The five marines that comprised Blackrock’s second element readied weapons and pushed into the treeline. Even as they disappeared from view, Callagher’s HUD kept electronic markers on each marine’s position. 

He gave the signal, and the rest of the team followed Blackrock Two into the Kourshad jungle.