Maritz, Tomas

Tomas “Limper” Maritz
Rank: Sergeant; SCION
Age: 28
POB: Johannesburg, South Africa
Skills: MI Drop Trooper, Heavy Exo Armor Specialist(Marauder, Grizzly, Cougar)

Tomas Maritz made his first drop with Barstow's Badgers in the Pluto campaign. After falling into an ambush, Maritz and what was left of the Badgers were rescued after a three day trek across bug infested territory. Earned the nickname Limper due to continuing to march despite a broken bug claw through one leg. Due to severe injuries suffered in the action Maritz was forced to spend the next several months recovering from his wounds. He was transferred upon his return to active duty to Wiley's Weasels, where he participated in the Halcyon's Star campaign against bug fortified positions. He distinguished himself in leading his squad after the loss of higher officers in the capture of a Skinny smuggler ship at one of the bug asteroid bases. He was promoted to Corporal and the Badgers were then moved to the Skinny front where they worked in concert with PsyCorps intelligence assets in neutralizing and capturing Skinny command elements. The Weasels were deactivated following heavy casualties including the loss of their Lieutenant and Maritz faces reassignment with a new unit. Maritz was promoted to Sergeant on the post-humus recommendation of his commanding officer.


Solo Intro: Wiley's Weasels Last Wild Ride
There is nothing more nerve wracking than a hot drop. I know that some people are able to keep their stone cold cool, or even get excited like a horse at the gate, I have always felt nothing but the hard lump of my stomach trying to roil up through my guts while waiting for the hammer to fall. My first Sargent described it as birth, only you started out clean and ended up covered in blood, a vast improvement in his book.

THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUNK!

The first stick was away. Three men and an empty, along with a full set of decoys and ECM devices. I gulped air and tried to close my eyes, not that there was much difference. The tube was pitch black, even my helmet display powered down to silence any power emissions for the Skinny AA guns to latch onto. Russian roulette on a grand scale. The idea was that between the element of surprise, the decoys in the air, and the Robert Copeland's orbital bombardment they wouldn't have much actually targeted at living breathing MI troopers. That was the idea anyways.

THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP!

Sweating in the dark, time expanded, and yet I knew that there was less than a five second delay between launches. Just enough to jolt down a notch and adjust the firing solution. Firing a very unaerodynamic capsule in low orbit and attempting to get it within a hundred klicks of its destination while evading enemy fire is just as much art as science. I'll say this much about the Navy pilots, they may not get their hands dirty but they were definitely artis-

FWOOSH!

My stomach lurched as weightlessness kicked in. Out early, and deep in freefall. Cool air flooded in as my suit started its bootup sequence, displaying the battle plan on my helmet screen. Normal doctrine called for a sweep, each squad crossing ground a klick wide and firing off enough munitions to turn the place into a disaster zone. This operation however was going to be slightly more complicated. Right now the screen was filled with green beacons indicating other troopers, too many for me to worry about right now, I had the computer filter out my seven.

The capsule jerked as the first chute opened, and then again as it blew away. It was not wise to be floating slowly and predictably, it was also not recommended to crash at full speed into the ground. The second chute deployed, and I knew that I was within two hundred meters of hitting pavement. At 100 meters the capsule broke apart, and I got my first view of the Skinny city, in all its predawn wonder. Modest skyscrapers stood lit by tracer rounds and explosive shells. A less than lovely sight, especially because I was about half a kilometer off in my landing site.

Even with the chute I crashed through two floors before hitting the ground. I thanked my lucky stars that I didn't fall through into the underground, that really screws up your day. This might have been a nice house, or small office building at one point, I didn't take the time to tell, just dropped a fire bomb and started running. A wall is a minor convenience to a power suited trooper, and it seemed to rip apart like paper as I passed through to get my bearings on the city, the HUD lit up as it reestablished contact with the Bobby Cope.

I started hopping inwards, low, arching jet-assisted leaps, rapidly passing from suburbs to inner city. We'd learned that being in the air was a surefire way to become a moving target, and worse, a predictable moving target, but the first 30-60 seconds of a drop were a freebie to regroup if they weren't waiting for you. There weren't any Skinnies to speak of out at this hour, but I dropped off some area denial bombs anyways. Motion sensitive, for anyone without a friendly transponder code broadcasting. An icon on my screen blinked yellow and I opened up the com to my second fireteam lead while on the bounce.

“Tex. Honshu is down, retrieve your team and hit the evac.” I said.

“Roger boss. We'll help secure dustoff for yall.” Tex's fireteam was already one man short, and in hostile territory it would take at least two to safely evac Honshu. Theoretically this was a platoon of 42, in reality, 28 souls made the drop, I didn't know how many actually made it to dirtside. The AA fire from the Skinny guns still lit up the night sky, but nobody was home. They were likely on automated response, and every few seconds a stream would cut off as they lined up in the sights of a drop trooper. I send a mini-rocket from my shoulder rack towards an emplacement as I made my last hop to the target, full powered in the vertical to clear the roof. It lit up the night sky for a moment before the roof the gun was mounted on collapsed inwards.

My team was waiting for me there, Rook and Doppler already had their shock sticks out, they were old hands, Patel the newbie was tasked with tossing the gas bombs.

“LT, we're all ready here.” I sent over the command push.

“Go for it. We'll be waiting for you.” His position with first squad holding the evac zone flashed up on my viewscreen and I knew from the plan that the other squads were forming up the perimeter. Ready to provide a corridor for us to make the evac with the target. I keyed my last rocket to a timed blast and dropped the shoulder rack. It would be too cumbersome for what we needed to do.

I secured my line to the roof and joined the rest of my fireteam, the building's structure would come apart well before the seal would break without my releasing it. Explosions lit the night sky in stark contrast, and I waved my hand as the signal to begin.

My feet crashed against the glass, shattering it inwards. Patel was beside me, and the room momentarily filled with smoke while while my visor struggled to compensate. I switched to heat vision only to be momentarily blinded by a bright flare. Patel cried out and I stepped forward, waving my shock stick in the general direction of the beam. The harsh crackle of energy followed, but I knew that it wasn't a living being I'd hit.

“Got him!” Rook's voice sounded over the squad coms. I turned off the shock prod and stowed it, waiting for my vision to return to normal.

“Patel, report!” I barked. The newbie was on his knees, and I started to pull up his biochart.

“No injury. Suit got a nasty burn but still reading full integrity.” he replied, and pushed himself back to his feet. The med readout confirmed it, a high heart rate and elevated temperature, but no damage to the flesh inside the tincan, and that's where it counts. Probably still felt like his skin was going to boil off in the split second it took the suit to disperse the waste heat.

The Skinny must have been a good seven feet tall if it were standing up. Right now it was unresponsive to the world, and Rook was already fitting cuffs around its hands and ankles. The object of Patel's inconvenience was on the ground behind it, an energy pistol, barrel still red hot and smoking from the shot. Within seconds, the skinny was trussed up like a pig and slung over Rook's shoulder. Short, sharp barks of automatic fire sounded from the broken window where Doppler had taken up station.

“Target acquired, heading to evac point.”

“Acknowledged. This is the LT, return to perimeter, evac in 10.”

I nodded to my team and we rappelled out the window, and down the rest of the building. Ideally Tex's fireteam would have been providing overwatch while we made the run. As it was, Mendez's squad was already covering, moving their positions in around us. I barely had time to notice a crowd of Skinnies before they were thrown out of the way by an explosion. Doppler sent a short burst towards a few still staggering around as we passed them. We could have bypassed them, with a jump to the rooftops, but our unarmored prisoner would likely have broken more than a few bones during the landing. Skinnies were not known for being able to take punishment.

The sky was dark again, the AA guns had either been destroyed or fallen silent on their own. I suspected the former, Wiley's Weasels were good at their jobs. I checked the plot as we ran, Tex's fireteam had made it back to the evac zone, but the telltales showed them expending ammunition.

“Tex, what's your sitrep?” I called out jerkily between long legged strides.

“Taking sniper fire from the buildings sir. Honshu took a hit from one of their AA guns, stable but out of the fight.”

I acknowledged and signed off. The next few minutes were a blur of twisting streets and broken bodies. Short controlled bursts as Skinnies wandered into our path. Some were just fleeing their buildings, others were out to stop us with whatever they had in hand. For the former a burst above their heads or at their feet usually sent them scattering, for the latter we had no choice, with our prisoner unarmored we couldn't take chances and they ended up so many slowly cooling piles of meat.

Even with surprise and speed on our side, things were starting to turn hot. The sky was lighting up again with explosions, and one of Mendez's boys crashed down a hundred meters from us. Two other troopers from his squad quickly jumped down and pulled him into formation. Boomer and Mac, my HUD informed me, good guys.

“Rook, Patel, swap!” I wanted Rook unencumbered, I knew he wouldn't hesitate if needed. Patel was still an unknown. “Doppler, take tail end position.” Three of Mendez's troops were now out of position to protect us, I watched as they started leapfrogging us to get their wounded to the evac zone.

Then I heard it. That sweet disconnect from the death going on around us, and I cracked a smile. The soft sound of Some Enchanted Evening was playing over the coms, the retrieval boat was here. We burst into the park that was the only large, open area for miles and took up positions. Patel headed straight in with our cargo while Rook, Doppler and I turned and scanned the area for enemies while the the other squads poured in. I saw Tex moving his fireteam back to the transport, and I motioned for my own to pull back. Tracers swept out from the transport, automated guns with twenty seconds of ammunition for suppression of anything that might be following us. Weight was the arch enemy of retrieval boats, and to that fact they were thinly armored tin cans strapped onto overpowered engines, with just enough fuel to take us back to the Bobby Cope.

My visor showed the shrinking perimeter, and I set my helmet to link me for open targeting. Three fire missions showed up and I launched a stick of rifle grenades towards the closest, I let the suit calculate the right angles. They were a mix of alternating high explosive and shrapnel, firecrackers compared to what we'd been shooting earlier. If we were staying any length of time the heavy weapons squad would set up some mortars for indirect fire support, as it was these would have to do to keep their heads down as we pulled the evac. I hustled on after shooting off a second stick of grenades. The foldout composite seats were only half full, and three suits lay supine between the two rows, there was no time to check on them before I strapped myself in. The LT was last aboard and the pilot immediately lifted off, there were no windows in the troop compartment, but I knew from experience that the green park we were leaving was being quickly turned into a charred wasteland..

“Two dead.” Tex sent to me on a private channel, my helmet lit his form up halfway down the line of troopers. “Nico and Moggy bought the farm, and we've four wounded. This Skinny better be worth-”

He was cut off by a loud crackling hiss, and the screams of troopers. It only lasted for a moment, but a moment was all it took, I watched helplessly as a glowing beam slashed across the interior of the shuttle. Near the back Mendez suddenly was waving the stumps of his feet in the air, and Mac his knees. Boomer was just screaming, a red angry heat line across his lower torso, the troopers next to him was soundless. I started cursing as I jumped out of my seat, self sealing foam was already closing up the holes in the shuttle's hull. I pulled out a pressure bandage and slapped it on one of Mac's knees, Rook was there patching the other one. The shuttle jerked in the air and I was thrown about, I grabbed onto the nearest support, the LT's legs in the row across. His head, still in helmet lay perfectly nestled in his lap, face contorted into a scream.

My visor coolly updated me on the facts, seven troopers now no longer had lifesigns, and Boomer's were fading fast. Ten casualties would bring us below half strength, dispersal.
This was the second time I'd lost a unit.