*ACTION* Desert Storm

The hatch rattled, clanking loudly as it did so. It happened a second time, again bouncing upwards before clattering back down into it's recess. A third time, only this time it broke free of it's clasps and swung open slowly on it's hinges, it's buckled steel groaning as it settled back on the hull of the escape pod. Jay's foot retracted back into the pod, having kicked the door open from the inside and he clambered out.
He took a look at his surroundings, desert in all directions, as far as the eye could see, and leading from the spot where the battered escape pod now sat smouldering from the heat of re-entry a long smooth channel had been cut into the sand as the pod had gradually skidded to a halt.
He pulled his phone out of his pocket, muttering under his breath when he realised it's screen was smashed, having obviously gotten broken in the impact. He reached inside the pod only to discover that the radio was also not working, the pods antenna having been snapped off somewhere during landing.
A loud whistling noise came from overhead, and Jay looked up, before turning and running as fast as he could away from the pod, before diving to the ground as he was knocked off his feet from the impact of a large section of the Phoenix's hull colliding with the escape pod hull at high speed.
"Looks like I'm walking...." Jay mumbled, and picking a random direction, began walking, breaking into a run when he spotted something shining, sticking out of the sand a few metres ahead.
The nuclear warhead had landed near to the pod, and half buried itself on impact. Thankfully, it hadn't gone off, Jay inspected what he could see of the casing quickly, and determining that it wasn't leaking radiation, he grabbed hold of a handhold and heaved the bomb out of the sand, it thumped back onto the ground as it got free of the sand that was holding it upright, and Jay, more determined than ever to win this war, began to drag behind him the full weight of the warhead, leaving a long trail in the sand behind him.
 
A few hours later, delirious from the heat, Jay spotted a silhouette on the horizon, it rippled, as the heat from the sand moved the air in front of it, and Jay, exhausted, battered and still dragging a very heavy thermo-nuclear device wasn't sure if what he saw was a mirage, at least, not until it spoke. "Jay! Thank god!" Jayne ran toward him. "I've been trying to radio you for hours!"
Jay let go of the nuke and wiped sweat from his brow before taking a long swig from the canteen of water Jayne was holding out to him - Jay's Q.U.I.C.K.I.E flask only containing around a bathtub's worth of alcohol, which wasn't the best thing for dehydration. "You ok?" Jay asked, Jayne nodded. "I've radioed for help" she said, pointing over toward her escape pod, which was in better condition than Jays.
"No need" Jay said "We have a mission, and we're gonna complete it"
"Are you crazy? You have no grav lift, you can't drag that thing all the way into the hive by yourself!"
"You not coming then?" 
"Well....yeah, sure but I thought..."
"Thought what? That I'd quit at the first hurdle?"
"Well...no...but..." Jayne didn't really know what to say, Jay had become obsessed with destroying the hive, sure, she, along with everyone else wanted it just as much as he did, but she feared her friend had lost sight of reality.
Her thoughts were interrupted however, as over the brow of a hill, from under the sand and from the sky, all directions, Hymenoptera soldier ants emerged, surrounding the Captain and his clone (and NOT Amber - I'm looking at YOU Onion!) and aiming weapons, pincers, fangs, and stingers at them.
"Great..." Jay said, raising his rifle that he had been carrying on his back "Just what we need"
<snip>
Efof landed close by and ran up to Jay as quickly as he could. "Jay! Jay... uh, I mean Captain!" He called. "We're right in the middle of a trap... we should go this way." He said pointing. "I don't think that's possible." Said Jay."Why?""We're surrounded." Efof turned, every direction he could see Hymenoptera. Large, small, ones that looked like ants, ones that looked like spiders, and ones that looked like massive dung beetles towering above the others. "Smeg."<end snip>
One of the massive dung beetles hurled a huge boulder into the air, which came crashing down on Efof's escape pod, rendering it useless.
"There goes ur way home!" Jayne said "What now?"
"Relax!" Jay said snatching a grenade off Jaynes belt.
"What are you doing?" she asked as she saw this, and raised an eyebrow when he used one of his bootlaces to tie the grenade to his Q.U.I.C.K.I.E flask, he pulled the pin, and tossed the flask-grenade into the air, the grenade exploded, blowing the flask to pieces and spraying a bath-tubs worth of Tequila, that had up until now been stored in a Quantum pocket everywhere, raining down on the bugs, causing them all to explode messily.
Jayne and Efof stared and Jay open mouthed (though in Efof's case this wasn't unusual).
"What?" Jay said simply, grabbing one end of the nuke "Efof...be a dear and grab the other end would you.."
 
<Tag / TBC ...onward to the hive!>