abstract
| - Formed by the Coalition of Ordered Governments Army in A.E. 9, Squad Iota-9 served as a frontline infantry unit during the Human-Locust War. Nicknamed Ion Squad by its members, it remained active until the COG’s deformation in A.E. 16 despite a personnel attrition rate of over 50%. Ion Squad was created as the result of a Gear named Daniel McCormick being promoted to a Squad Sergeant. He was given six Gears fresh out of basic to work with, and officially put on the lines nine years post- E-Day. Within the first year, it suffered two casualties who were replaced by trainees Kloe Kaliso and William Kulm. The day the reinforcements arrived, on patrol on the outskirts of Jacinto, McCormick was shot by a Locust’s Gnasher shotgun during an ambush. Though one of his Gears exacted revenge on the Locust who killed him, he was mortally wounded and died on the battlefield. The rest of the squad was also slaughtered, except for the two recruits that managed to make their way into the underground and back to the city center by sewer tunnels. Private Kulm was promoted to replace him. It was a month before they saw deployment again, with newly graduated grunts. Ordered to evacuate a Stranded camp, they were caught in a Locust ambush similar to that of their last mission. Private James Reid was wounded, and Private Corey Lynch was killed by a Theron Guard. While the rest of the squad escaping in an APC, Sgt. Kulm and a Stranded man held out against a number of enemy troops, eventually returning to Jacinto command to have the man, Wayne Ogle, reinstated as a Gear in Ion Squad. Four years later, a month after the Lightmass Bombing, Ion Squad was stationed in Montevado when the Locust re-emerged. The squad was split during the battle and part was cut off from an evac Raven. They would spend the next few weeks in Sera's harsh wilderness attempting to return to Jacinto, aided by two of the Feral.
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