This is a collaborative Twitfic piece written by myself (@TonyNoland) and fellow twitterer @Shadow_Wrought, at his suggestion. It was mostly spontaneous, with each of us responding to what the other had tweeted. We did very little in the way of discussion in sidebar about what direction to take the story. In that sense, it was rather like improv. FWIW, here it is in it's entirety.
TN #OIA Drop from orbit went well. Lost one guy, and a gap in my armor meant a nasty burn on my right thigh. Still, we set up the beachhead OK.
S_W #OIA No rest for us tonight. Scouts report enemy movement so we're expanding the beachhead another 10 klicks to get the 82nd inserted early.
TN #OIA Why the hell the 82nd Sustainment Brigade is dropping ahead of the Combat Brigades is beyond me. It's still pretty lively down here.
S_W #OIA Gen Noland ordered us to "help" the 82nd by "advancing their supplies to a forward position." Looks like we're going to need them, too.
S_W #OIA We've advanced to a lave field that's like wrinkled obsidian for miles. No one's sneaking up on us, but you have to blast it to dig in.
TN #OIA It'd make things easier if the recon sats were functional. Or if the locals showed up on infrared. A cold beer would be nice, too.
TN #OIA Word just came down. The new ambassador wants to come down sooner rather than later, to "send a message of strength". What an idiot.
S_W #OIA The Ambassador's grandiose arrival certainly got their attention. We can hear the damned things skittering all over the lava field now.
TN #OIA Recon says some kind of delegation is coming out from the village/hive 35 clicks north. ETA is 90 minutes after first sunrise.
S_W #OIA The talks were a ruse. The firefight's over now, but they burrowed between us and the 82nd. Our losses were light but the 61st is gone.
S_W #OIA The Ambassador thinks it was a "misunderstanding." Even though the 9th was lost too and the sappers are still destroying their tunnels!
TN #OIA Bad guys look just like friendlies, except for the swirl pattern on their beaks. Trouble is, you only see that pattern under UV light.
TN #OIA The colonel made a speech tonight. Sarge translated it: "Rumor all you like, but don't write anything down." I wonder who's in trouble.
S_W #OIA The colonel's speech makes sense now. Reinfocement's arrived, but they're local! Sarge ordered us to check each one with UV to be safe.
S_W #OIA Some enemies snuck in with the locals but they took care of it themselves. No guns, but their beaks and talons make up for it up close.
TN #OIA How will the local theocracy regard our arrival? As an indication of divine will? Sounds naive, but faith is a hard thing to parse.
TN #OIA It's hard to watch our "allies" in action. Firefights are one thing - removing the right foreleg of every prisoner seems excessive.
TN #OIA KkrAlk's convinced the CIC to flatten the loyalist village. The bugbirds can't wait for the assault. Ours is not to reason why...
TN #OIA Up close, their blood smells almost sweet, like boiled treacle. All of us humans were puking after the first house to house sweep.
S_W #OIA The village is secured but found tunnels underneath. Heading down now hoping it'll lead to more loyalist forces. It smells just putrid.
TN #OIA Radios don't work for crap down here! I hate tunnels - I've got a healthy respect for having my 6 covered, which it presently ain't.
TN #OIA Standby - did you hear that? What was
S_W #OIA They burst through the walls all around us, but the plasma throwers were ready. Their exoskeletons loudly pop before becoming charcoal.
S_W #OIA The plasma throwers are empty and our ammo's almost gone. Even if we find their nest I don't know what we're going to fight them with.
TN #OIA Cut off from the surface. At least now we know why KkrAlk wanted the orbital insertion to secure a village in the middle of nowhere.
TN #OIA The village was only a front porch for this place. There must be millions of them just in this first cavern.
S_W #OIA The tunnel ended at a deep caldera hundreds of meters straight down. We can't see them down there, but we can hear them. And behind us.
TN #OIA the bugs treatd us like theire own prisonrs. fickrs hav a lpt to learn asbout droptroops. taks more thanm losing an armn. kill for this
TN #OIA The end.
I felt that the final "The End" was necessary, since this was completely tweeted. It was an interesting experiment. More thoughts later.
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