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Tides of Destruction (Part 7, Rolling Thunder)
Posted By: teemus<teemusligg@hotmail.com>
Date: 28 December 2003, 5:54 AM


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Jado system February 9th

Briggs pulled up his sleeve and looked at his watch; according to Earth standard it was 3:00 in the morning right now. He pulled his sleeve back down and took another sip of coffee. Briggs was about to fall asleep when he felt something on his shoulder. He jumped up, turned around and grabbed the attacker by the neck and threw them to the ground. Briggs heard a moan and realized that he had just thrown a private to the ground. He quickly ran over to the private and held out a hand, "Sorry about that, I thought that you were an Elite or something."

"Its alright," said the private as he grabbed Briggs's hand, "I'm here to take your place, you can go to bed now."

"Ohh, right," replied Briggs as he pulled the private off of the ground. The private got up, dusted himself off and gave Briggs a salute. He returned the salute and turned to walk to his tent. In about ten minutes Briggs found himself in front of his tent flap. He opened the flap and collapsed onto his sleeping bag, in ten seconds he was asleep in his armour.

Briggs woke up in a couple of hours to see a marine standing over him, "Wake up sir, your squad is ready."

"Alright, tell them ill be there in 5."

"Yes sir," replied the marine and walked out. Briggs got out of his sleeping bag to find that his arm was hurting. He rolled up his sleeve to find that the armour had dug into his arm while he was sleeping. That's the last time I sleep with armour on. Briggs thought to himself. He took off his chest and arm plates so only the shirt underneath was left. He grabbed his MA5B and left the tent. The marine had said to meet them in the temporary mess hall. Briggs didn't know where the hell the temporary mess hall was. So he just followed all of the other marines headed towards breakfast. He soon found himself in a clearing where a large tent had been set up with the words MESS HALL written above the flap. He opened the flap and found himself in a large room with tables in the middle. Off to the side were 2 tables set up in a line with pots on them. Briggs looked around and soon spotted the same marine with a few others sitting at a table near the back talking to each other. He made his way over to the two tables that had the food on them. The Sgt grabbed a pack of ready to go waffles and began making his way towards the back of the room.

He came to the table that the other marines were sitting and sat next to the one he had talked to earlier. The other marines saw him and saluted, "So, do you guys have names our should I number you off?" Briggs said.

"I'm PFC Richardson sir," said the marine in front of Briggs.

"Well Richardson, what do you do?"

"Ill be doing explosives sir." Replied Richardson

"You already know me sir." Said the marine next to Richardson.

Briggs turned to look at him and recognized him as Harlander. Looks like there not all rookies after all. Thought Briggs. They spent the next ten minutes introducing everyone. It turned out that most of them had seen almost as much combat as Briggs him self. As soon as Briggs finished the last bite to his waffle the loud speaker burst open, "All personal, you have 20 minutes to clear out, were moving out."

"Alright, you heard the man. Get up." Briggs said. He and his newly obtained squad got up from the table and made for the tent flap. Once out side Briggs spoke again, "Gather you stuff and meet me over by the vehicle bays." Each of the marines saluted and left. Briggs then turned and headed back towards his tent. He had always wanted his own squad, but now that he had one, he didn't want one any more. He was in charge of the lives of these men. They're not going to die while they're under my command. Briggs thought to himself. He quickly rolled up his sleeping bag, strapped his armour back on, dismantled his tent as was headed towards the vehicle bays with a full load on his back. The Forward Infantry was mostly all foot, but it did have a few Wart Hogs and Land cruisers. Briggs planned to grab one of the few Land Cruisers so they wouldn't have to haul their loads all over the place. As Briggs turned the corner he was almost run over by an oncoming Land Cruiser. Who the hell is driving this? Briggs thought to himself.

"Wow, Sarge are you alright?" said a voice from the drive seat. It took Briggs a while but he soon remembered the voice as Richardson's.

He learned that it was Richardson inside the vehicle when he heard Harlander yelling, "Richardson, you blind bastard. You almost ran the sarge over. I'm driving now."

Briggs walked around the Cruiser to find that Harlander and all of the others had already gotten a Land cruiser. "Welcome aboard the destroyer!" yelled Richardson, "This is why having me in you squad really pays off. Turns out, im the right full owner of this baby."

Briggs smiled and tossed his gear into the vehicle. Land Cruisers were shaped like amphibious vehicle. The differences were that Land Cruisers were not amphibious. Also, amphibious vehicles were entirely closed. The land cruisers were entirely open. The only part of the vehicle that had a roof was the cockpit. In the back on either side was a raised laag gun. Unlike the Wart Hogs, these laags were raised and had seats. Next to the drivers seat was a passenger's seat. Behind the two seats were some navigation consoles, behind the navigation consoles was the door that led to the back.

As Briggs jumped on he saw that half of the squad was inside of the cockpit while the other half was outside. He also saw that one of the laag guns was unmanned. Right now Briggs didn't want to sit on the ground so he jumped onto the laags chair. He jumped into the comfortable leather chair and pulled the straps around his shoulder. The Sgt then grabbed a leaver from under the chair and pulled it. The chair began to move forward, Briggs let go of the leaver once his shoulders fit firmly into the shoulder guards of the laag.

After about 20 minutes the entire division was ready to move again. Briggs felt the vehicle rumble to life and begin moving. AS the vehicle turned the corner it joined up with the rest of the division leaving the camp area. The marines rode for about an hour when the COM link opened up, "We are moving into position to attack the outpost, Forward Infantry move up and 10th mountain provide cover." There was a cheer from Richardson as the vehicle caught more speed. Briggs pulled the leaver back towards his chest. Its gonna be a long day. He thought to himself.

To be continued...





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