Hello and welcome to my newest project into the Pokemon archive. This is actually an idea that I had done back when I was actively watching the anime, which stopped around whenever the tenth movie was released. I've done a few days recently of tweaking, especially when Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire were released, thus reviving this idea.
This is an AU fic. Please refrain from telling me that this isn't Pokemon or whatever. I'm well aware of that. Pokemon will also be much less significant and their role in this AU will be just like wildlife in our world. There will be military terminology throughout this fic ever since Ash will be a soldier.
Lastly, Pokemon does not belong to me. I had forgotten to put a disclaimer on the original first chapter and I don't want to get in any trouble.
It was another warm humid summer night at the foot of Mt. Silver.
The tallest mountain in the Kanto-Johto Confederation towered at the border of the two joining regions rising up nearly twenty thousand feet. The peak could be seen for hundreds of miles, as no range or object blocked the majestic mountain from viewing.
During the wintertime, small towns around the east and west parts experienced a flare of popularity as many come to ski on the slopes with the difficulty increasing the higher up. Year-round, eager climbers are also flocking to the settlements with aspirations to scale the mighty peak and savor the view that only a few experienced.
Through a set of electronic optics, a man gazed at the summit, where it was snowy white at the very top and its highest point obscured by a few surrounding clouds. He was one who had successfully scaled the peak and enjoyed the magnificent panorama, being able to see nearly as far as the eye could.
Averting his gaze from the top, his optics functioned as a Heads Up Display or HUD. Resembling a one-lense sunglasses visor, this piece of equipment relayed information between him and his friends.
Adorning the rest of his body was a lightweight, but dense ballistic harness. The armor covered the majority of him, although his limbs and joints were instead clothed in sleek gray linings. His muscles were hard at work as he pressed himself against the cliff face.
The armor's left breastplate read: KETCHUM A. On the right breastplate was the bar of a Lieutenant along with a dark gray symbol of a Houndoom's head surrounded by the text "In defense of the helpless".
Ash Ketchum was a Lieutenant in the KJ Federation, having served in his native land for four years in the main armed forces. A particular commander in the military had found his potential to be useful elsewhere and he was eventually accepted into the Commandos, the elite Special Forces unit of the Federation. The Houndoom on his shoulder was the symbol of their packlike mentality and Commandos were highly feared and respected by both their allies and foes alike.
Lieutenant Ketchum led a force of Commandos out to Mt. Silver in an operation that had come from the top. He and his team were sitting in the briefing room in Vermillion twelve hours earlier before being deployed hundreds of miles away from the nearest settlement.
"Ketchum. Flashing you a marker."
A small highlighted point of interest caught his attention on the visor and he peered over. Next to him was a man of similar build except he had a couple of inches over his lieutenant. He had the ranking of a Sergeant with the name OAK G. over his breastplate.
Gary Oak was his second in command and a close friend of Ash's. The two had known one another ever since they had opposed one another in a middle school fight and made amends, however Gary and Ash had a teasing, but playful friendship. Ever since then, they had stuck together though middle, high school, a year of college before both had decided to enlist. However when it came to the military duty and transfers to the Commandos, all the childlike behavior was cast aside for the more serious outlook.
Gary had highlighted a small building that had a gate over a dirt road. Behind it was a larger and taller tower that preceded a metal fence. Movement was also seen, a trio of black clothed guards were idly moving about at the gate's entrance. One of them leaned against the small office, taking a drag from a lit cigarette.
The distance to that from their vantage point on the cliffs was at least a half mile so a simple guard post proved that their target was somewhere in the dense forest below. So far, nothing stood out.
"Guard shifts are erratic. They switched out within ninety minutes last time and that was nearly two and a half hours ago."
"Okay," He looked down at the place, "We strike just after the next guard shift. Let's head back over and brief everyone else."
Ash and Gary had their entire team encamped in a small cave just behind the face of the narrow cliffs they were on. Before them lay the secret compound of the notorious criminal named Hunter J.
J had been on the Federation's watch list for some time, although she was mostly convicted of laundering illegally earned money for small time criminal groups.
She had emerged as a notorious target for being a freelancer for hire on anything illegal or dirty, often supplying safe passage to outlaws and various mobs that plagued the underworld with their activities. Several of these notorious organizations had then struck out at Federation landmarks. These attacks at public events had claimed the lives of many civilians.
The military and special police had tried three times to capture J during her time in Federation territory; however she had either escaped or evaded every attempt.
A breakthrough finally occurred in the form of an undercover informant in the mercenary gang, who had fed them discreet pieces of intelligence and finally pinpointed the criminal's hideout at the foot of Mt. Silver in a rather dense section of the forest.
Ash and Gary eased over the narrow cliff edge; with about an inch of rock separating them and the side. They pressed their backs against the face, moving slowly and deliberately, well aware that a misstep could mean slipping and falling to their doom. The drop below had to be at least a hundred and twenty feet.
Five minutes later, they hauled themselves up on more solid ground and made their way over to the mouth of a small hollowed out cave.
Three more figures were at the bottom of the bowl foundation. Upon hearing their approach, they all halted whatever they were doing, giving Ash and Gary their undivided attention.
"Guard switches are at random to prevent prying eyes from striking at a switch."
"I'll contact Voltage." The smallest figure said, removing a small datapad and beginning to type in commands.
A minute later he had secured a connection with the leader of the Commandos. Lieutenant Commander Surge had been one himself for five years before he had been promoted to become their commanding officer. Standing seven feet tall, he had the build of a heavily muscled basketball player, spiky blond hair and piercing blue eyes. During his tenure as a CO, he was shown to have a very strict demeanor, giving him his nickname Surge for his rather shocking behavior when training recruits. He took a liking to people who were quite the character.
"Identity; Cobalt Lead." Ash said into the pad's microphone, "Password Alpha Arcanine."
The device accepted the password and the connecting screen were replaced by a feed of Surge in the command center. This was the Commandos' primary means of communicating with the unit's operations center in central Kanto's Vermillion City. As Ash and his team were well familiar with, intelligence could be worthless in a day, hour or even minute.
"Hello Voltage." Ash curtly greeted. It was better to be formal with a CO than casual. Even if the commander had been a friend of his for several years.
"Good to hear from you Cobalt Lead." Voltage smiled slightly. Beside him was a steaming cup of coffee to help keep him awake during the late hours and listening in to operations. "The intel satellite we've leased will need another ten minutes to reposition and allow new feed. I'll send up advised updates when we got them, although I'm not sure what we'll end up getting."
"That won't be necessary," Ash replied, "Oak and I did some scouting and surveying of the general area and I believe we've found the entrance to J's compound. Our contact's laid enough breadcrumbs that we'll be able to trace the compound's exact location and perhaps J's ship. Only X-factor here is that the perimeter has a motion sensing fence and the guard post at the entry has shift times of varying intervals."
"Goddamn," He cursed under his breath before recomposing. "You got a plan?"
"Our contact inside just provided us with insight that one of their trucks is inbound in T-minus twenty with some cargo that is apparently important to her. We were thinking of taking the guard post and then springing a trap there for the vehicle to get safe passage."
"Remember if you see her ship located in her compound, disabling it is also a key priority. Repairs can be costly to the business and she'll have a hell of a time of repairing it without attracting intelligence agencies' prying eyes."
"Understood."
"Remember, that you are only authorized to engage J if it is out of self defense. The Federation wants her alive. That's all I got for you gentlemen. Anything else you need to share?"
"Oak and I already formulated a plan," Ash confirmed, "So unless you want to hear the details, go ahead and sign out. We'll be keeping tabs on our IFF recorders which can be decrypted during our debriefing. Cobalt going dark."
"Roger that. Good luck gentlemen." The line clicked dead. Normally the command center would keep them company with additional intelligence, but the nature of the operation was only known to probably a half dozen people in the Federation's intelligence agency and military, so therefore it was going to minimize getting compromised. Of course, if updated information was essential, Surge would break protocol to tell them so.
Ash stood up, "Truck's arrival is in twenty minutes. Stick with the plan."
It took about two of those minutes for the team to quickly pack up their gear and prepare themselves.
The Commandos standard weapon was a SG 516, a carbine assault rifle with modular components, being able to shoot through most standard body armor with a decent rate of fire. Four of them carried such rifles, except for Brock Harrison, the team's sharpshooter who instead had a powerful Ballista sniper rifle. All five of them carried P226 pistols, a favorite of the Commandos.
"Oak, you and Harrison are taking the high ridgeline. You should have a good vantage point over the entire area. Provide overwatch on the outer perimeter areas."
"On it." The tall sniper tapped Oak on the shoulder, causing the two of them to depart.
Ash turned to his other two, "You two with me. Set up rappels. We will approach the post from the east."
The other two operators, Paul Shinji and Trip Urban nodded and approached the cliff's edge, beginning to unreel their lines and securing metal carabineers to their armored harnesses. Shinji was a hardened veteran and the only one not a member of the Federation military; instead a liaison from the Sinnoh Special Forces that had been training with the Commandos over the course of two months for this specific mission. Ash had been told that Shinji was one of the best and had a talent for both hand-to-hand and knife combat; something both men were particularly proficient in. While he was a bit gruff and cold, he always kept an eye on his teammates.
J had also been on Sinnoh's watch list as she had been responsible for supplying black market products to clients who plagued the nation for some time. He was here on Sinnoh's behalf to end the threat once and for all.
Initially he and Ash did not get along, but over time they did find at least some chemistry in working together. They weren't going to be best friends, but all the training and preparation for this op had the two men having a healthy mutual respect for one another. A man of few words and took care of business.
Trip Urban was a bit shorter than most Commandos, just shy of six feet tall. He had immigrated from Unova some time back. Also a seasoned soldier, but he had only been with the Commandos for less than a year. The fact that he was on an ultra-clandestine operation already meant that the kid had some talent. So far with exercises, he had displayed an uncanny sense of sharpness and did not display that typical gung-ho character that most rookies portrayed.
With their lines secure, the three men quietly descended down the cliff face, watching over the compound.
The most interesting thing happened. Just behind the guard gate, the forest seemed to vanish as if it was a mirage and as they continued to lower themselves to the bottom. Instead of more foliage in the distance, they saw the dark oblique shapes of machinery.
"Is that?" Trip whispered.
"Yeah," Paul finished, "A Kecleon canopy."
The canopy kept things hidden, such as places that didn't want to be found. J's ship had stealth technology, being able to nullify its signature to most radar systems. Hiding in the canopy allowed it to remain safely tucked away from both satellite and radar while resupplying for its next illegal activities. Once it was ready to leave, it would activate its camouflage and then opening the canopy, of course when the satellites were coincidentally not overlooking that particular area.
As much as he wanted to relay the new intelligence that they had recently deduced, they had a mission to carry out and gone dark. The truck was approaching, so the timing and training they had done on the base was about to finally pay off.
Reaching the ground, the three quickly unstrapped themselves from the ropes and quietly moved towards their target, weapons in hand.
So here's the pilot chapter! I know much of it doesn't really make sense right now, but I promise all of it will come together.
This will be mainly Advanceshipping, because I find that both Ash and May fit one another the best. Maybe it's because I watched the Advanced Generation when I first got interested in Pokemon, so perhaps I'm a bit biased.
Thanks for reading and reviewing, you give my writing purpose.