You can plan all you want, but once your troops are committed, it's a crap-shoot. Once they go for insertion, all bets are off, thought Major Bennett as he studied Sgt. Talmage and Private McLaughlin. Their armor halfway stripped off, the exhausted pair sat on the bench, hunched over lost in their own private horrors. Each had the classic "thousand-yard" stare. Doc Yurimoto, the Ship's psych, had told him that both men felt guilty to have survived. Major Bennett could well believe it. Eighteen marines--almost two entire squads--and three crewmembers of the dropship dead. And, if the confused, garbled debriefing was to be believed--and there was no real reason not to--probably close to a hundred members of colonial resistance gone as well. One thing was certain; these two boys were causualties as well. Bennett sighed. Talmage and McLaughlin thought they had failed simply because they had survived. It was supposed to be a milk run. The mission of the two squads had been to relieve and replace the other two squads of Delta Company, who had been on-planet for the past three local months helping to keep Athon City and its environs safe from any alien intrusions. It was good duty, the area being well back from the front. Just as the dropship left its orbit, its right engine exploded, killing three marines and the dropship's crew chief, and sending the craft 5,413 kilos into enemy territory. The crippled dropship plunged deep into the gravity well and slammed into a rugged mountain valley, scattering big sections of the craft and the bodies of the pilot, navigator, and seven more marines over the terrain. The surviving ten marines clawed their way out of the burning debris, but about half were in bad shape with burns, broken bones, concussions, scrapes, and cuts. Expecting to eat in a chow hall that evening, they barely had a day's rations among them, which they managed to stretch out for three days. After that they lived off the land; and the living was lean. Two weeks later, the marines had covered only 310 kilos and were in pitiful shape when they finally made contact with the colonial underground. In that same period, there had been three firefights with alien units. Two marines had died from the fighting, one had succumbed to her injuries from the crash, and a fourth had stumbled and fallen down the side of a ravine. The surviving six were relayed among various underground groups. The journey was easier because they often obtained transportation, but they still walked about half of the time. They frequently were ambushed. Other times, colonials would be caught and tortured to death, rather than reveal where the marines and their own cells were hidden. When the resistance ran into enemy units, they fought the aliens to the death, while other insurrgents hurried the marines away from the fighting. One by one, four more marines were killed in firefights. There seemed to be an unending series of safehouses and underground railroad connections. Two local months later, only Sgt. Talmage and Private McLaughlin safely crossed the enemy's lines. They think they're failures. Major Bennett shook his head. No, boys. Not failures. Marines to be proud of. We're gonna do our best to help you see you for what you really are, he silently promised. Credits: Spaceship wall and ceiling panels: originally a 2D texture from Jerry Walsh's "Technoupage" series that I converted to a 3d object in Bryce Terrain Editor. Floor and benches also created by me. The former is also a Bryce terrain. Figures: the officer created using DAZ's M3 with "Dorian" textures by SubTigee, Akia, & nicu1 (Renderosity); hair is ali's "Hr003" (Renderosity). Two Grunts: Also DAZ's M3 using nouschka's "Russell Updated for M3" morphs & textures (Renderosity). Clothing for all three figures: Uzilite's "Major Cache" (DAZ).