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"Because we are the god damn colonial marines." Jack said giving daniel a slap on the back after putting on his chestplate.
Jack then grabbed Daniel's helmet and stuck in crookedly on his head before slipping his own on.
"But hey, look on the bright side, free guns! Hmm, you think whatever it is is bad enough that we will need to use them?" Jack asked.
He turned around to face the rest of the marines.
"What do you guys think, should I bring the Pulse Rifle, or my baby?" Jack said refering to his light machine gun, already hoping they were going to get to fight.

"The last thing anyone needs to do is give your dumb a** a gun." 'Jinx' chimed in as she carefully zipped up her flight suit. She was never afraid to speak her mind and that got her, and her squad into trouble at local bars when they were allowed a little leave.

Connor shook his head, "I don't know, but one thing is for sure, it can't be good." He finished slipping on the last of his BDUs, leaving his armor around his locker. Staring at it, he let out a deep breath and looked over at the others. "Let's get chow...we're not in a combat situation yet." Standing, Connor tucked his dog tags under his shirt and walked towards the hall leading towards the mess hall.

"The man does have a point." Tadataka said as he stood. "No sense getting ready to play without knowing whether or not we're allowed." Tadataka looked over at 'Jinx' and slapped her on the shoulder as he followed after Connor. 'Jinx' closed her locker door and followed suit. Soon everyone was walking towards the mess hall, leaving Daniel, Jack and Hank in the locker room.

"When the s**t gets hot, I want you to be fully loaded out." Hank stood and pointed at his eyes with his index finger and middle finger, then back at Jack. "Cause if it's not gonna be you watching my a**..." Hank looked over at the door, "Then I might as well have 'Jinx' doing her best to cover my a**!" A belt of laughter echoed in the halls as he smacked Jack on the back of his armor.

The mess hall was filled with laughter, chatter and all sorts of commotion as the Marines wandered around the nearly abandoned mess hall and towards a massive wall of silver doors cabinets. The food processors heated up the food and provided an array of foods for the Marines to chow down on.

Connor grabbed his metal tray and slopped on some food. He glanced at the tray and walked over towards the table, settling down along the end of the table, giving himself some room at the crowded table. Lifting a fork, he quickly rifled through the food and started shoveling.

"XT are some kind of alien or something, probably some type of dangerous primitive monster, I mean all the alien life we've encountered are like cows and things, except for those giant spider things. Man I hate them."Daniel said as he was sitting there poking his food to see if it was alive. "This food doesn't look to good, I wish we could get home to some real food, but dreaming isn't going to do anything is it"

"Right about now ladies." Lt. Ridings looked over the men and women sitting at the steel tables chowing down on the high protein meals issued to them. He looked tense and rightly so. A ghost ship, as far as anyone in the USCM, UAAC or WY was concerned, had suddenly popped up. After the crap it put them through to try and find her, she finally shows up when they have all but given up. "Seeing as most of you are finished, I'd like you all to follow me to starboard observation."

Connor gulped down one last massive mouthful of what he could take to be eggs. Dropping his fork he stood at attention and looked over at the LT. "Is there a problem sir?"

"That, and all other questions, will be answered once we are gathered at the starboard observation." Lt. Ridings eyed up his men as they began to stand up and drop their trays off at a large bin. Walking out the door, Lt. Ridings turned to fall in with his men, navigating the twists and turns of the halls of the Valkeros. The final stretch of the journey took them to a large elevator, usually used for transportation of equipment via a Power Loader. All men and women presently awakened from cryo sleep were crowded into the elevator and waited anxiously as the elevator came to a halt, it's doors opening to the starboard observation deck.

"LT, what's this all about?" Connor said, lifting his arms as if motioning that all the men and women wanted to know. "We're not here for R&R, we've at least figured that out. But what caused us to deviate from our course?"

Lt. Ridings chomped on his index finger nail before reaching over towards the large button that activated the blast shutters. Tapping the green button, the metal shudders whined and hummed to life, dropping one by one on top of each other. It was that instant that the Marines took several steps forward as the illuminated image of a Conestoga class cruiser took shape, the name Sulaco proudly displayed on her dark grey hull.

"It's not possible..." Connor was nearly speechless as he slowly approached the reinforced glass, pressing both his palms against the glass. The odds of such an event happening were incalcuable and Connor was never a numbers man. It was obvious that he wasn't the only one dumbstruck by the recent turn of events and soon the faces of every man and woman on board the Sulaco could be seen. Hicks, Apone, Drake, Vasquez, Crowe, Frost, Hudson, Spunkmeyer, Ferro, Dietrich, Wiezbowski...all of them were lost to the Colonial Marines and only Hicks and Bishop surfaced...dead and disabled.

Eventually coming to his senses, Connor faced the rest of his group and stared at their faces, burning each visage into his memory. The tale of the Sulaco was a tragedy, one that he would never forget, nor could he bear repeating.

"Wait, why arent we on there already!? For all we know there could be someone still alive there, in their cryo tube or something! We've got to rescue them!" Jack practically yelled.
Jack had a friend on the Sulaco, and was devistated when it dissapeared. You see, Jack knew Hudson, one of the marines they never found. They had met before when they were still training to be marines. They became almost like brothers. And now that there was still a slim chance for him to be alive, Jack was desperate to make sure.
"Come on you guys, lets go!"

"All of you know what it's like on board a cruiser like that. You have a family with you at all times and other members of the corps are your extended family. Therefore, we are going to board the Sulaco and find out what happened. Sensors indicate that the hull is stable and there are no pressure problems. However, an EEV was ejected from her, which means something must've happened." Lt. Ridings looked at the group, "From here on out this is a search and rescue. We are going to comb that ship for any survivors as well as an explanation was to what in the hell happened to her and on LV-426."

Lt. Ridings looked over his group. "You've got fifteen minutes to get yourselves suited up for this mission. Jinx, get your bird ready to fly. The rest of you, lock and load, we're going in to get our boys back!" A resounding 'Sir, yes sir!' filled the starboard observation deck as the group readied themselves. Some ran off towards the armory, others back to their lockers to put on the rest of their gear.

"Connor!" The Marine stopped and turned to face his CO. "I think it's time we woke Max and Yogi." Connor nodded and walked off the observation deck to make the final preparations.