Project: Spectre

Chapter Eleven: Rough Landing

May 5, 2098

"After the Alliance took Armstrong base, the rest of Athens III quickly followed. The BETA-3 operators were actually overlooking the Alliance's original landing zone: A canyon twenty miles from Armstrong. I'm reading a frigate currently landed there, its systems may have intel on the Exile's whereabouts." Williams informed me once we entered orbit.

"Can you land at the base?" I asked the pilot.

"Negative. The anti-air cannons are hot, and it would appear the Alliance has troops stationed there. I see landing pad with a helicopter landed near the south gate, you might be able to take it to the LZ."

"Set us down as close as you can to the base." The Eclipse had a jeep in the cargo bay that I've never had the opportunity to use. Echo drove, Psycho was riding shotgun, leaning out the side with his grenade launcher ready to fire. I was operating the mounted machine gun. After driving for a few minutes, the front gate of the base was in view. The Alliance saw us almost as quickly as we saw them, and I heard bullets hit the armored front of the combat vehicle like hail. I started shooting back. I don't know what did more damage to the infantry, my machine gun or Psycho's grenade launcher blowing open the gate. Echo started driving around the compound while I kept my fingers on the triggers. Alliance troopers were falling before they could raise their weapons. We stopped getting hit long before my radar cleared up. If the armor piercing machine gun rounds didn't hit them, they must have hit the deck and stayed really still. Echo drove next to the base's south wall until we reached the airfield. The landing pad was a raised platform that had two UAVs parked under it. "Echo, can you fly a drone?"

"Uh... I used to have a remote control helicopter collection. Does that help?" She answered. "Wait, why?"

"I might be able to fly the helicopter, and we might be able to use the drone to recon the enemy LZ." I explained. She walked over to a table set up next to the platform and opened the laptop that seemed to control one of the drones.

"I might be able to." She said.

"Do it." I ordered. She tapped away at the controls and the drone came to life. After it soared out from under the helipad, she locked its controls and carefully carried the laptop up the ramp and regained control as she sat down in the helicopter's troop bay. Psycho settled in a seat that looked out the side, grenade launcher at the ready. I hopped into the pilot's seat. All marines spend time in a flight simulator during basic, but I've never had to pilot anything since then. Of course, several years of active duty service in the corps, and then in special forces, and then spending six months in a coma doesn't help one's abilities. I sighed and pushed the thought of crashing and dying out of my mind. "Everyone buckled in back there?" I ask my new squad over the helmet com-link. After I didn't hear a response, I look back to see Psycho's armored glove sticking out of the troop bay with his thumb raised. I guess Echo got lost in flying the drone. I closed the cockpit and started hitting controls that looked familiar. The craft started to shake as it lifted off the ground. I may have forgotten to mention that the training simulator was for the AV-23 VTOL. I had absolutely zero experience flying a helicopter. I managed to keep us in the air, but it was shaking like a dog trying to dry itself off after being thrown into a lake.

We were coming up on the LZ and I hadn't heard anything from Echo. "Echo, what are the skies like near the Frigate?" She didn't answer so I repeated myself after a while. Still no reply.

I guess Psycho got tired of me repeating myself so he slapped her knee. "Huh? Oh, sorry sir. The skies seem clear." The LZ was showing up on the chopper's instruments. After about a second, I could see the octagonal hull of an Alliance frigate, landed inside of a canyon. There was a hatch on the side closest to us that was open, as well as the lift on the underside of the ship. There were multiple possible points of entry, but getting in undetected would be hard. The ship was close enough to the canyon wall that we could probably jump to the hatch if we had a running start. There was a platform extended below the hatch, but there was a machine gunner mounted on it. In theory, we could land on the hull and drop down to the platform, but the ship's crew, including the machine gunner, would probably be on alert. Before I could formulate any more plans, the frigate fires one of its point defense cannons at the helicopter. I try to evade, but they hit our tail rotor. I lost control and the craft crashed roughly fifteen feet from the canyon. I use my power armor to force the canopy open.