Topic challenge

Parameters:
1. Mountains
2. Lightning.
3. Wings
4. "I never saw it coming."


     This village was mostly known for its surreal sense of peace.  The people were strong and humble with the days work at the for front of their minds.  The farmers tilled the land, the shopkeepers displayed their wares, and the children always seems to find a way to get into things as children always do.
     Walking amongst the rubble told a different story.  It casted a dark blanket of despair over the eyes of those who looked upon it.  The village was gone, the villagers dead, and they never saw it coming.  Piecing through the bits of house and shop told a story of an act of God gone mad.  The blackened holes restructured the landscape in its own precise madness.  The few survivors with whom i encountered all told me about the horrors of that day.  These stories I would hear and try to piece together what happened.  This was my job, I found shit out, and the truth of today would be forever painful.
     The village elder, (the oldest of the survivors), told me that in the mid afternoon, a choir of Erin-tet had descended upon their village.  The people had come out of their homes to praise and rejoice in the visit of those to whom they prayed countless hours for.  The people would fall to their knees as the Erin-tet passed by and looked upon them from the heavens.  "It was a sign from Ur-han! (their God), we have worked hard and lived our lives to the code.  The Erin-tet were here to give us a blessing."
   Not being a true religious man, I took what the old man said with a grain of salt and asked him to continue.  I cared less about his faith and was more interested in the facts.  He then told me that the Erin-tet came at night.  The villagers were awakened by their presence and stood in awe by the confusion.  They had always come during the day, never at night.  As they passed the mountain in their usual fashion, the people gathered in the town square and waited for the Erin-tet to return as they always have.  This time it was different, this time they had brought their wrath.
     "They struck the village with bolts and bolts of lightning."  the old man said shakily.  People and houses fell where they stood while the rest of us scattered.  all we could do is run to our homes, lie down and pray.  we gathered what few we could find, and fled into the caves.  The Erin-tet began to sing, and their song was followed by destruction."  As I was listening, I began to notice a few things about his story that somehow turned on a light in my head.  Something about these Erin-tet didnt seem right to me. Its as thoug they seemed familiar.
      "How many of these Erin-tet were there?" I asked.  That should have been question one.  He told me there were 4 or 5.  He told me that the first Erin-tet, the Erin-Din, would lead the other four.  My heart began to race with the hearing of these words.  I knew exactly what he was about to tell me, and I prayed that i wasnt right.  "How were they flying?" I inquired.  He took a small stick from the ground (one of thousands) and drew a diamond with a line going vertical from the top.  I didnt need to hear anymore.  I went on anyway.  "What does Erin-tet mean in your language?"  I knew the answer.  He didnt have to say it.  "It means Man of Wings."
     I stood there for what seemed an eternity.  My head grew faint as the truth chilled my blood.  A few weeks back there was an investigation into the mishandling of a mission involving our bombers and a unit needing air support.  i wasn't involved at the time, but heard bits and pieces through the gravevine.  What I gather was that a unit was under attack and requested a bombing run.  The pilots said they knew the area well because they patrolled that area constantly.  The pilots reported back with mission success, the ground unit reported never seeing them.

The Drop

      The funny thing about living in space is that you get to break all the rules.  In space there is no air to breathe, food to eat, or water to drink.  There is no sound, no heat, and no gravity.  There is no concept of direction, no up or down.  Yet there is an endless bounty of stars and galaxies waiting to be touched and discovered.  Being the curious yet stubborn species we are, we figured out a way to beat the challenges of space, and seize that bounty as our own.  The life support station of one ship negates the infinite vast freezing vacuum of space.  Once we expanded, colonized, grew and evolved, the fascination of space life, once fearful and gripping, is soon wasted away into adjustments to gravity/anti-gravity and the occasional "Hey look, a comet.  Whens lunch?"
      Today though is different.  Lunch was skipped for a more important priority.  War.  No matter how far we advanced as a society and a race, war had a way to worm itself in, and mess things up.  The insurrectionists have reached the Esus system and have incited an all out rebellion against the local government.  The Esus system was never a prosperous planet to begin with.  The UNSC was trying to establish farms, mines and factories to employ the local populous and bring precious resources to other systems. It was a well thought out plan that had one weakness, it absolutely had to work.  Failure was not an option.  After a few years of planning and development,  things were starting to get underway.  Crops were shipped out, minerals were mined for various uses, and research stations helped expand the scientific community.  The innies however had different plans.  When they heard about the success of Esus they immediately attempted to halt operations.  Normally they carry out bombings and shootings, typical terrorist tactics, but this time they got smart.  Through propaganda and manipulation they were able to get the people to launch full scale riots against the very government that employed them.  They wanted to gnaw off the hand that fed them.
     After several bombings and murders of high UNSC personnel and engineers, the government had enough and evacuated all employees off Esus.  This wasnt without a fight.  The insurrectionists launched an attack on the holding station for the evacuees and after several hours of fighting, 20 Marines were killed and 45 people were kidnapped and are currently being held hostage.  The Marines are blocked off by the newly turned citizens, they have wounded and need evacuation, the hostages are no where to be found.  Shit has officially hit the fan.  This is where I come in.  Well, we to be specific.