WRITTEN RECAP
The Fifth Drop begins on Hellmire.
Again.
Ghost Squadron has already destroyed the hive network.
They have raised the Sovereign Alliance flag.
The scientists and civilians have been evacuated.
That leaves one major objective.
The ICBM.
Officially, it is a strategic weapon intended to liberate another section of Hellmire from the insect infestation.
Unofficially, Ghost Squadron is about to fire a nuclear missile across a planet already named Hellmire.
This seems appropriate.
The squad approaches the fortified launch facility.
The plan has three parts.
First, obtain the launch code.
Second, enter that code at another control station.
Third, survive long enough for the missile to launch.
Naturally, whoever designed the facility placed the machine that retrieves the code on one side of the base and the machine that accepts the code on the other.
Someone asks who designed this piece of crap.
The likely answer is a video game designer.
Cipher heads for the communications terminal.
The rest of Ghost Squadron spreads out to defend him.
This is not as simple as pushing a button.
The terminal has to establish contact with the ship in orbit and retrieve a six-part alphanumeric authorization code.
One piece at a time.
One round at a time.
Which means Cipher has to stand at the terminal while Hellmire does what Hellmire does best.
Send bugs.
The first portion of the code arrives.
Five remain.
Creatures begin appearing around the facility.
Ghost Squadron opens fire.
Atlas brings the heavy weapons online.
Ghost directs the defense.
Drones deploy.
Missiles and grenades begin doing what missiles and grenades do.
Cipher stays at the terminal.
The second portion of the code arrives.
Then the third.
Every round becomes a simple equation.
Keep Cipher alive.
Keep the terminal intact.
Kill everything else.
The bugs attack from multiple directions.
Some are the smaller creatures Ghost Squadron has become almost comfortable fighting.
Others are considerably worse.
The squad has already learned that Hellmire's ecosystem apparently believes escalation is a personality trait.
Heavy weapons pound the perimeter.
Plasma fire crosses the base.
Drones scout, bomb and occasionally explode.
Armor gets damaged.
Nanites begin repairing it.
The fourth portion of the launch code arrives.
Two remain.
By now the squad has developed something approaching professional confidence.
They know how to deal with the common insects.
They know where to position themselves.
They know which weapons work against armor.
They even occasionally manage to fire those weapons without hitting each other.
Progress.
Then larger creatures begin arriving.
The kind that do not die when somebody merely shoots them.
Ghost Squadron responds with the usual escalation.
Hammer of the Gods.
Skyhammer missiles.
Titanfall cannon.
More explosives.
One of the enemy creatures survives direct attacks that would have erased almost anything the squad fought during its first mission.
Hellmire is apparently building tougher bugs.
The fifth piece of the launch code arrives.
Cipher needs one more.
He makes another technical attempt.
This time, he does considerably better than necessary.
Instead of waiting another full cycle, Cipher's technical work completes the download.
He has the entire launch authorization.
Now he just has to get it to the other side of the base.
Of course he does.
Cipher leaves the communications terminal and starts running.
The destination is a control building west of the missile silo.
Between them sits the enormous circular launch hatch.
Someone proposes standing on top of it when the missile launches.
This idea receives considerably more enthusiasm than it deserves.
Cipher burns both actions moving across the complex.
The rest of Ghost Squadron continues fighting.
Eventually he reaches the launch control panel.
He enters the authorization code.
Success.
Yellow warning lights illuminate around the missile hatch.
Klaxons begin sounding.
Steam rolls from the seams.
The enormous doors slowly start opening like metal petals.
Beneath them waits the strategic missile.
Ghost Squadron has officially begun the launch sequence.
This also announces their exact location to every insect on Hellmire.
More bugs arrive.
Then the Titans come.
One of them is enormous even by Hellmire standards.
A long-legged siege creature capable of absorbing direct heavy-weapon strikes.
A Skyhammer hits it.
The creature remains standing.
This is considered deeply unfair.
The squad pours more fire into it.
Cipher's drone attacks.
Atlas brings the Titanfall cannon around.
Ghost calls in heavy strikes.
The creature keeps moving.
Then it reaches Cipher.
The Titan drives one of its massive legs straight through him.
Cipher goes down.
Not just his armor.
Cipher.
For the first time, the new near-death system becomes extremely important.
Ghost Squadron receives an alert that Cipher is dying.
The launch sequence is still running.
Bugs are still attacking.
The Titan is still alive.
And one member of the squad is currently impaled.
Cipher makes the survival roll.
One success.
He does not die.
Yet.
The squad fights to keep the creatures off him.
Atlas turns the Titanfall cannon toward anything threatening Cipher.
Heavy weapons slam into the Titan.
Ghost continues firing.
The others work their way toward their fallen squadmate.
Eventually the giant creature goes down.
Cipher is dragged clear.
His armor is destroyed and he is barely alive, but Ghost Squadron has somehow avoided losing another trooper.
At this point, anyone sensible would leave.
Ghost Squadron cannot.
The missile has not launched.
So they continue defending the base.
More creatures push through the perimeter.
Armor fails.
Repair kits come out.
Troopers shoot.
Bugs die.
Troopers occasionally shoot other troopers.
This remains an unresolved doctrinal problem.
Finally, the launch facility completes its sequence.
The squad is pulled away from the silo and resupplied.
Weapons are reloaded.
Armor receives emergency repairs.
Then the missile hatch fully opens.
The ICBM ignites.
It rises from the silo and climbs into the sky.
Ghost Squadron watches it streak north across Hellmire.
Seconds later, an enormous mushroom cloud rises on the horizon.
The Sovereign Alliance has successfully spread democracy to another part of the planet.
Someone notes that they love the smell of nuclear waste in the morning.
Mission accomplished.
There is only one thing left to do.
Leave.
The squad receives coordinates for a retrieval zone to the south.
They begin moving.
A random encounter roll is made.
It is an eighteen.
This is bad.
Apparently the bugs object to having part of their planet nuked.
Ghost Squadron fights again.
By now the entire Hellmire operation has become an endurance test.
Weapons are fired almost automatically.
Drones deploy.
Armor breaks and gets repaired.
The squad keeps moving south.
Eventually they reach the extraction platform.
For the first few moments, it is quiet.
Suspiciously quiet.
The retrieval beacon waits in the center.
Ghost Squadron takes positions around the landing zone.
They activate it.
The ship begins its descent.
Then Hellmire empties the cupboard.
Bugs start emerging from every direction.
Not one group.
Not two.
Armies.
Massive waves appear along the edge of the extraction zone.
Someone asks whether there is any end to them.
No.
That is why there is a ship coming.
The squad forms a perimeter.
Heavy weapons begin firing almost immediately.
Skyhammers fall into clusters.
Grenades explode.
Drones bomb advancing creatures.
Plasma fire cuts through anything that survives.
The retrieval ship reports that it is approaching.
This should be encouraging.
Instead, the battlefield gets worse.
Larger creatures appear among the swarm.
Boss-sized insects advance behind the smaller ones.
Smoke grenades are used to slow parts of the attack.
The squad starts backing toward the landing point.
Then the incoming ship contributes fire support.
A beam tears down from the atmosphere and slices one of the huge creatures apart.
Nobody complains.
The retrieval craft is almost there.
Now Ghost Squadron faces a new problem.
Leaving.
Under normal circumstances, this would mean walking onto the ship.
There is nothing normal about the landing zone.
Survival and panic checks begin determining who can actually disengage from combat.
Some troopers make their rolls and run.
Others freeze for another round.
Or decide they can probably fire one more missile before leaving.
This is not always the same thing.
One member boards.
Another remains behind long enough to launch another heavy strike.
Cipher's armor goes down again.
More creatures close in.
Someone asks where the damn ship is.
The answer is that it is already there.
It just is not drawn on the map.
Cipher runs aboard.
Others begin following.
Nyx throws more explosives into the swarm before boarding.
Atlas is given an opportunity to shoot one last time and then get onto the ship.
Naturally, he shoots.
Ghost keeps trying to get everyone out.
The squad is no longer trying to win the battle.
There is no winning this battle.
There are simply too many bugs.
The objective is now to survive the next few seconds.
Giant antlike creatures push toward the platform.
Acid attacks splash across powered armor.
One insect accidentally hits another.
Nobody feels bad about this.
More members of the squad reach the ship.
Ghost Squadron is almost clear.
Almost.
Cipher is still in danger.
The creatures are closing.
One of his squadmates physically overpowers him and drags him toward safety.
There is one final scramble.
One final roll.
One final push.
Then the last Drop Trooper makes it aboard.
The retrieval ship lifts away from Hellmire just as the giant creatures reach the landing zone.
Below them is a battlefield covered in insects, explosions, ruined equipment and the remains of several extremely expensive drones.
Somewhere beyond the horizon is a fresh nuclear crater.
Behind them, an SAV flag is still flying.
The hive is destroyed.
The scientists and civilians are safe.
The strategic missile has been launched.
And, somehow, Ghost Squadron is still alive.
The Fifth Drop ends with the ship climbing away from Hellmire.
Five missions into their career, the barely trained Drop Troopers from Worm Town have fought alien creatures humanity did not know existed.
They have boarded a pirate-controlled starship.
Captured the Black Veil.
Crushed a planetary uprising.
Discovered that serving the Sovereign Alliance may be considerably more complicated than the recruiting posters suggested.
And survived Hellmire.
They have been shot.
Crushed.
Impaled.
Blown up.
Nearly eaten.
Repeatedly betrayed by their own missiles.
And shot by each other often enough that the enemy may eventually decide to simply stand back and let Ghost Squadron handle itself.
But they survived.
The ship disappears into the sky.
Hellmire burns below.
And Ghost Squadron lives to drop again.