'How I hate the rain. It never seems to stop in this lousy jungle.' Sgt. O'Malley thought to himself, 'Three years and never a dry day, Just once I would like to see the sun.'

"O'Malley," Capt. Donnelly called and interrupted his normal morning mental complaint, "Get your squad ready, you have the honor of first patrol this fine morning."

"Aye Aye Sir," O'Malley replied with a salute, "And would the Captain honor us with his presence on the patrol this morning?" O'Malley continued sarcasticly.

"Funny, O'Malley, real funny.. Get moving." Capt. Donnelly snapped back.

'Ah, the life of a Blood Beret, up early, kill bad guys, eat, kill more bad guys, eat and go to bed late.' O'Malley mused to himself, 'It could be worse, I could be in a trench facing the Dark Legion.' He reached his squads' tents, and started to rouse the boys, "Alright you lazy bastards, get up. We got first patrol, and I want to get back in time for tea."

His squad consisted of Private MacNamara, Private Davies, Private Nickols, and Corporal Jacobs, who was carrying the Deadlockdrum they pulled off a Free Marine two weeks earlier. These men had served together for almost six months now in the jungles of Venus raiding Capitol supply lines. And for the fifth time in two days, they were on patrol. Something was going on, and Sergeant Major Robert O'Malley was not happy with not knowing the whole story.

"Come on MacNamara," O'Malley called to the young private, "We still have four clicks to go before we get back to camp."

"Hold up Sergeant-Major, I thought I saw something. Something big," MacNamara whispered back.

O'Malley gave the signal, and the squad moved into a defensive stance. Davies and Nickols on the right flank, with Jacobs near the center, and O'Malley and MacNamara on other flank. O'Malley pulled out his motion sensor, and gestured to MacNamara for the radio.

"Raptor One to Nest," O'Malley whispered into the radio, "Come in."

"Nest here, Raptor One. Report."

"Nest - we have host iles on the box, Request instructions.."

"Raptor One, engage and destroy hostiles - say again, engage and destroy. Nest out."

"Alright boys, we have our orders. Lets show 'em some Imperial lead." And O'Malley led his squad forward cautiously..

O'Malley and his team reached the edge of a clearing after twenty minutes of slow moving, and repeated checks of the motion sensor. The clearing was obviously man-made, and was large enough to handle one of the Capitol heavy transport helos. There was a command tent of some kind on the far side, but there was no one moving in the camp, but the motion sensor showed movement on the other side of the clearing. 'This is not good,' he thought to himself, 'Whatever is on the box knows they are being followed, and is leading us here to draw us out into the open, and I will have none of that.'

"Davies and Jacobs, you will move slowly and cautiously around to our left, staying in the jungle, DO NOT enter the clearing. Nickols, MacNamara, and I will move to the right. We should get them in a crossfire. Keep your com-channels open, you all understand." O'Malley stated quietly waiting for each man to nod affirmative. "Right off you go."

"Sergeant Major, Jacobs here. We have reached the command tent, but there is something odd here. In the name of the Cardinal." The communication ended, and then the sound of automatic weapons could be heard, and then silence.

"Davies. Jacobs. Come in." O'Malley commanded, and received nothing but static in return. "Come in boys." He decided to pick up the pace, and moved with less caution to the rendezvous point near the command tent. They reached the tent with little trouble, but were greeted by a grisly sight: the bodies of Jacobs, Davies and six Capitol Sea Lions skinned and decapitated. 'For the love of Serenity.' O'Malley thought to himself.

"Nickols, MacNamara, take cover, whoever or whatever did this is still nearby."

"But Sergeant, we were only separated for a few minutes.. Who or what could have..." MacNamara stuttered.

"I don't know boys, but you need to take cover NOW!!!" O'Malley stated.

"Yes, Sergeant Major," the privates replied and took up positions near large trees. O'Malley began to scout out the command tent, and found four more bodies in the same state as the ones outside. 'Must be the ground crew.' O'Malley reasoned, 'Lousy way to go, even for Capitol people.' O'Malley returned to the jungle to join the remnants of his squad, and retrieved the radio from MacNamara.

"Raptor One to Nest. Come in." O'Malley stated somberly.

"Nest here, Raptor One. Hostiles eliminated?"

"Negative Nest, two birds down and found multiple Capitol casualties, including Sea Lions. All bodies skinned and decapitated, bad news, Nest. Plus no visual sightings of hostiles, they show on the box, but we have no visual confirmation. Request further instructions."

After a long pause, "Raptor One, hold position. Send co-ordinates, we will dispatch Raptors Two and Three for reinforcement." After a short pause, "O'Malley, don't get killed. Nest out."

O'Malley then sent their coordinates to base, and proceeded to dig in with the two privates. 'It would be at least an hour before the reinforcement squads would be here, and we still don't know what did this.' O'Malley thought.

To be continued...