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Chapter Two: Welcome to the Lost System, Recon.

I slowly came back to consciousness. When I opened my eyes, stars were all over my vision. I blinked my eyes several times and slightly shook my head to clear my vision. After my vision came back, I slowly sat up and looked around. I was still on the bridge of the Liberation. The emergency lights were on and the entire bridge was bathed in red light. I pushed myself to my feet. I quickly moved over to the Captain to check on him. He was alright, but still unconscious from when he took that spill to the deck. I moved throughout the bridge and checked everyone. A few were starting to get up but for the most part everyone was still knocked out.

"Liberty, you still online?" I asked.

"Affirmative, Lieutenant," Liberty stated.

"What's the condition of the ship?"

"Currently at drift. With some work, we might be able to get full power back, but the Slipspace drive is damaged severely. I fear that we may have to get a new one," Liberty stated, "We currently have minimal power, however that will last us for quite a while and life support is not in danger of failing anytime in the near future."

"Are the intercoms still up?"

"Affirmative,"

"Sickbay, this is the Bridge, First Lieutenant 'Wolf' RODST, temporarily in command. What's your status?" I asked as Liberty keyed the intercom system.

"Sickbay here, we're a little beat up down here, but we are ok," a voice over the intercom replied. With the size of the crew onboard the Liberation, memorizing or learning every name of every soldier on board was nearly impossible, if not actually so. I didn't even try beyond those that I work with.

"Get ready to receive casualties. If you can start sweeping the surrounding area, Something tells me your going to be quite busy soon," I said, "Engineering, you boys still with us?"

"Engineering here, where's the Captain?" another voice replied.

"Right here," the Captain's voice said from behind me with a moan of pain.

"Good to have you back, skipper, Sickbay was rattled but they're ok," I said as I held out my hand to help him back onto his feet, "I told them to sweep the area closest to them to pick up casualties, and that I would send as many as I could reach to them."

"Good work, Wolf," the Captain said as he shook his head gently, "I'll take it from here, sweep the area, and provide what help you can. That goes for all nonessential personnel, as well. Move it people we've got casualties." I ran to the door of the bridge and started looking all over the hallways for anyone that was caught in a bad place with that FUBAR jump. That was one of the reasons I like serving on this vessel. That Captain treats everyone as if they were his son. He always looks out for us, but that doesn't stop him from ripping us a new one when we need it.

I came across one regular Marine that had been out in the hall. From the dent in the wall, he was moving after we made the jump. I quickly checked him out. He was alive, but that would definitely be a major hangover when he woke up.

"Liberty, contact Sickbay, tell them I got a head injury case here and I can't move him, in case there is some neck or back injury that I can't find. Give them his location, I need to continue my sweep," I said as I moved on. It took the crew of the Liberty four hours to sweep through the ship and get all of the casualties to Sickbay. I checked through the Marine and ODST barracks and ran into four of the other RODSTs on the Liberation helping Marines and ODSTs out, First Sergeant 'Nomad,' Gunnery Sergeant 'Pyro,' Master Sergeant 'Doc,' and First Sergeant 'Tech.' All four of them were veteran RODSTs, in between ten and twenty-five missions each, and they were all ok. I joined them and we all got the Marines that were up and around sweeping through the ship, and the injured and unconscious to the Sickbay. After that, the five of us left for the Bridge.

When we got to the Bridge, the Captain was walking around, working with the skeleton crew to get the ship back up and running. The Captain noticed the five of us standing by the entrance to the Bridge.

"Captain," I said while I saluted along with the rest of the RODSTs. He returned the salute.

"Well, gentlemen, I will say that we are in deep trouble. The reactors are down, the engines are damaged, and the Slipspace Drive has been destroyed. On top of that, our communications systems are down and we have no clue where we are. The only good things are that the racks are not damaged, and the same goes for the hangers and our weapons," the Captain said as he walked us over to the Bridge's viewport, "as well as that." The Captain pointed to a planet that was nearby, about a few million klicks away. "If we can get over there, Wolf, your job will be to recon it and spot a location that we can use as a base to resupply our stores. Maybe we can extract the materials to rebuild our Slipspace Drive, and comms equipment. The rest of the RODSTs will be on stand-by, in case you run into trouble and need back-up."

"Understood, sir. When do I need to get prepped for a drop?" I asked.

"We don't even know if it is possible for us to live on that planet, Wolf. We'll do as scan of the planet before we attempt a drop. I will let you know when we are a go. Until then try and get this ship back into working order. Pyro, go to the Armory and help out there. Tech, go to Engineering. Get our Reactors back up and running. Nomad, Doc, Sickbay is overwhelmed with the amount of casualties we got, help them out. Wolf, help out with the vehicles. And when you pass Hell's Waiting Room, prep your pod for the mission. Take whatever you need from the Armory, and also prep your bike for a hot drop." We all nodded as we got our assignments. We all separated and ran to our assigned stations. I went with Pyro to the Armory.

The Armory was a mess. Weapons and ammo were thrown all over the place. Pyro immediately went to check on the explosives while the Marines that were stationed at the Armory that where still there, were gathering the weapons and placing them in a pile to be checked for damage. I walked over to a BR55HB that was still attached to the Weapons locker. I grabbed it and attached it to my back. I then walked over to two M7S SMGs that were also still in the weapons locker, and attached them to the mag-rails on my thighs. I then gathered as much ammo as I could for each weapon. I got about thirty clips for the SMGs and twenty for the BR. I also grabbed a silencer for the BR. Once all of my gear was stowed on me, I looked of the man currently in charge of the Armory. I eventually found him and signed all of the gear out. I then nodded my goodbye to Pyro and left the Armory on my way to the vehicle depot.

When I first thought I saw the vehicle depot, I thought that the mess the Armory was in, was spotless compared to this mess. Motor oil was everywhere, vehicle parts were scattered all over the place, even some of the vehicles had been tossed out of their ranks and thrown across the room. There even was a Scorpion that was on the opposite side of the room, and upside down! I let out a sigh and looked around for the Marines that were still in this area along with the Navy pukes that were supposed to be cleaning this area up. I suddenly noticed that the tank was getting flipped back onto its treads. Then the green armor of a Spartan walked around the tank. I then figured out who it was, by stance and how he carried himself. He was Senior Chief Petty Officer Spartan-090.

I was able to peek at the Spartan files once, and saw that his name was David. He's the quite sort of man, and when he says something, he means it. He has an almost sixth sense when it comes to the battlefield to pick out traps, ambushes, snipers, and such. I've worked with him a few times, and each time he pulled my hide out of the fire when the Covies had set up an ambush, or a trap, or even that one freaking split-lip sniper who almost punched my ticket. I swear he's a psychic.

Spartan-090 then started clearing the area around the Tank to allow it to move without damaging anything. I tried to look around for my bike, but decided to give up, as it would be near impossible to find it in the mess. I walked over to the Spartan.

"Need some help, Senior Chief?" I asked as I started to pick up some scattered parts.

-090 grunted in assent and the two of us continued cleaning of the vehicle depot. After six hours of backbreaking work, we finished. I pulled off my helmet, wiped my forehead with a rag that I had picked up, reattached my helmet, and looked around for my bike. I found it and quickly got it prepped. I stuck its weapons on it, but not attached, and took it to Hell's Waiting Room number one-thirteen.

The Liberation has 160 SOEIV racks and the tubes go for about three decks. There are 240 Hell's Waiting Rooms total, along with enough ODSTs and RODSTs to fill every pod. I stored the vehicle near one of the RODST specially designed drop pods. The drop pods that the RODST use are different from the SOEIV pods that the normal ODST use. Our pods are a little safer when it comes to the drops. They have a sturdier hull, which can take a few hits before they crack like the SOEIV pods do in one hit, and better sensor equipment than even an ODST Commander's pod. The boys in command have a name for them, but Recons just like to call them drop pods. Along with the standard drop pod that an RODST can ride down in, there are two other types of drop pods that the RODST use. One is a what we call a supply pod, which as the name says delivers whatever supplies an RODST needs, and the other is a vehicle drop pod, again like the names says it delivers vehicles to the field. The only real difference between the pods is what they carry, and their interiors. Other than that, they look like any other SOEIV.

After I got my bike dropped off at the RODST rack, I went back to the vehicle depot and grabbed more ammo for the missile pods, along with some Archer missiles with some help from -090, and placed them near a supply pod. I packed my drop pod with the supplies I had on me and then double-timed it to the Armory for more. After I loaded up on BR55HB and M7 ammo, I grabbed a S2 sniper rifle, and an M90 shotgun with plenty of ammo and a Spartan Laser with extra batteries. I then hauled all of that back to the supply pod and loaded it up. Since I didn't know what I was going to be facing down there, I wanted to cover all of the bases. After I finished packing all of the weapons and ammo, I took a trip down to Sickbay.

The place was packed. The joke, "There was standing room only," can be used in a literal sense for the state that Sickbay was in. It was packed with wounded. Most of them were not serious, as they just were knocked unconscious, however there were some more serious wounds from debris and such that got thrown around. I walked over to an orderly that was gathering some supplies.

"I need a few med kits made up for a mission," I said. The orderly didn't respond but started to gather other supplies, ones that would fit in a field medical kit. After a few minutes of standing there, he gave me five med kits, fully stocked for whatever could possibly happen on a battlefield. I grabbed them and went back to the RODST rack. I placed two med kits in my pod and the rest in the supply pod. I was now ready to drop into whatever that planet could throw at me. I went over to my drop pod and placed my weapons inside it.

"Liberty, inform the Captain that I'm ready to drop," I said.

"Wolf, this is the Captain," the Captain said over the intercom, "We are about ten mikes away from the planet, we have done enough scans to tell us that the planet should be perfectly useable for our needs. You are cleared to drop, and just a reminder that you need to find us a good base site from which we can start finding the materials that we need. Be careful down there, Wolf."

"Understood Captain, Wolf is ready to drop," I replied as I climbed into my pod. The hatch sealed after I entered it. I sat there and waited. Ten minutes later my pod jerked as it was moved into place for the drop. I then heard the familiar hiss and bang, and felt my pod rocket down to the ground. I watched through the viewport in the pod the new world I was about to drop into. I looked so much like Earth, that I felt slightly homesick. My mind started to drift back to thoughts about my family, but I quickly shook my head and focused on the mission. I started to look at the area and trying to orient myself during the drop. I didn't see any good clearings from the direction I was facing, but I did see a mountain in the distance, so I mentally logged that as a reference point to head to after a while, if I couldn't find any good base locations near my drop point. I then focused on looking at what my drop zone looked like. I then realized I had a major problem coming up at me.

"Trees," I stated plainly, completely without worry or emotion, as my pod smashed into the top of one. My whole world was shaken from impact after impact with the trees in the forest I dropped into. I grabbed onto my harness and held on for dear life, until the final bone-jarring hit that smashed my helmeted head against my pod and knocked me out.