Hello and welcome back to Phantom pain. I know, I know, it's been a month, but I've been busy and I am extremely sorry. As you will see, I made good on the Gustah Guarantee, though. You'll see a bit of a peak of future plans and there's some Rangers as well.
Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, favorited and followed. You guys are absolutely amazing. If it wasn't for you I would have given up on this a long time ago, so thank you. Also, the 100 fav mark is coming up. I might make something special when we hit that, not sure though.
I would like to note that even though there are hundreds of recorded planets on the SW wiki, I made one myself because that way I could do my own thing with it.
I sent SokeTinyTom the chapter, but he is unable to beta at this time, so I hope I got most of the spelling mistakes out of there.
Don't forget you can still submit OCs.
[IMPORTANT!] I have rewritten the first chapter, go check it out.
Enjoy!
~Chapter 11~
"So, captain, do you accept this contract?" came the nasal sounding question from the hologram on his desk. It was the senator of Radhoka who asked the question. The man was of a species called Radhok and was a short but sturdy, red skinned alien that had a face like an elephant mated with a Jiralhanea. His planet was dealing with a rebel uprising who were causing panic and chaos through terrorist actions. The worrying thing was that they were gathering a large amount of support from religious groups on the planet, so senator Mhka Calrost had decided to ask the Galactic Republic for help. Apparently, terrorists hiring the Deathwatch to do… terror-stuff was not important enough to warrant even a Jedi to go check it out.
The Republic, though, incompetent fools that they were, had dismissed his pleas for help and outright refused to send any kind of aid. "Yes, this is acceptable for me and my crew. I still don't think we'll need the other company, but extra support is never bad I guess."
"Good, the credits will be sent to your account. 500,000 with 200,000 paid upfront. Thank you, captain, for aiding my people when the Republic wouldn't, even if we have to pay for it. Goodbye, Captain Hallsson."
"That went rather well, chap. Especially if take the meeting with the Jedi Council as a reference. I see a substantial improvement in your negotiating skill, I'm certain one Master Window would agree." The green AI piped up, taking the spot the senator had just been in.
"Do you actually have anything useful to say, Ed, or are you just going to annoy me?" The young captain said in a tired voice.
"My, someone is grumpy. And yes, I do in fact have something useful to say. One of the mess sergeants was getting ingredients for this "taco Tuesday"… To be honest, sir, I don't think we should call it taco Tuesday, perhaps rubbish-in-a-shell day?"
"You were saying, Ed?" Andrew interrupted the rambling construct.
"*ahem* Yes, as I was saying, the mess sergeant was getting some ingredients and went down to the cargo area to get the taco shells. Imagine his surprise when he stumbled onto this." A picture of an open crate with some sort of armour in it flashed to life next to the green AI.
"Is that… armour?" the captain asked with a confused look on his face.
"SPARTAN grade, to be precise. There is one set of MK V Noble-class Mjolnir Armour, one set of MK VII Infiltrator armour, two sets of the MK XI Mjolnir battlesuit and one set of Mjolnir-Heavy Support armour." The AI 'grabbed' a notebook and looked through it. "I had some marines and engineers check the other crates."
"And…?"
"There is one crate filled to the brim with SPARTAN grade hard-light weaponry, bubble shields, so-on and so-forth. There is enough for a SPARTAN fireteam to take out a small army and I'm sure there's more hidden around the cargo bays."
Hallsson was fuming. Somehow someone had smuggled that equipment on his ship –which was insult enough on itself-, but his gut told him this was going to be a problem all on its own. He didn't have time for shit like that. There was still mountains of paperwork to do before they could set the proverbial sails to meet up with the Unbending Justice and those other mercs near Radhoka.
He rubbed his temples. "Edward, get to the bottom of this. I don't care how long it takes or how many rules you have to break, I want to know why there's SPARTAN grade weaponry and armour aboard my ship."
"Of course sir." Were the AI's parting words.
"So, what do you think about working with those other mercs, Orion Operations, was it?" Asked the second in command of the Shriek Hawks mercenary army, Tor Farr, to his boss. He was a human dressed in red and silver Mandalorian armour, his helmet held in the crook of his elbow.
Said boss was a merialan woman named Mesh'la Cadera. A Mandalorian in heart and mind and arguably one of the most dangerous women of the galaxy. "We'll just have to see, but as of right now I don't think it will be bad, they did liberate Naboo after all. In how long did they say they would be here?"
"The Unbending Justice should arrive within the day. I'm not sure of the William of orange, but depending on the speed of their hyper-drive and the lanes they take I suspect they won't be long. Three, four days, most likely."
"Good, my blood is boiling for a fight." She said with a twinkle in her eyes that never failed to make her XO chuckle. She might be one of the most dangerous women in the known galaxy, but she was also his friend from childhood.
They stared out of the windows of the Hammerhead-class cruiser in silence until Mesh'la spoke up. "Would you have ever thought we would be leading our own mercenary army five years ago? I sure as the nine Corellian hells didn't."
"Five years ago we were both barely adults. There were other things on my mind back then."
"Like going to the strip clubs on Hutta and picking up random women from cantinas?"
"Pff, like you never slept with guys or girls you didn't know."
"Oh yeah? Name three times when that happened."
"A twi'lek male on Tatooine, another one on Hutta, a human on Tatooine again, that Togrutan women on Naboo, I guess that threesome with those two human girls on Coruscant count as one… Shall I go on?"
She grumbled something and punched his shoulder playfully, after which they lapsed into another comfortable silence.
"Ma'am, I'm picking up huge amounts of radiation 100 kilometres to our right!" Well, there goes that.
"Get me a video feed! Everybody, battlestations! Hurry the kriff up you worthless di'kuti!"
Before she could yell further orders, however, the radiation readings spiked and a blue portal swirled into life. Out of that portal came a giant dark blue ship. Fierfek, that thing must be at least five times our size!
"Ma'am, we are being hailed!" one of the frantic ensigns shouted over the bridge.
"Then connect it to the table, you di'kut."
"Language, Mesh'la, language." Tor quipped.
Just as she was about to retort, the image of a tall reptilian alien appeared on her holo-table and spoke with a calming, deep voice that sounded surprisingly feminine. "Greetings, madam Cadera. I am Kiyo' Mantakrea, Shipmistress of the Unbending Justice. It is a pleasure to meet you, especially since we will be working together."
She let out a sigh of relief. There were some videos from Naboo, but those had only shown what she suspected was the William of Orange, the same ship that had shown up at Coruscant. She was expecting to see something similar in design, blocky and utilitarian, but instead it was made up off organic shapes with a predatory look to it, it screamed beauty and danger at the same time.
This time she would get her revenge on the Deathwatch, she just knew it.
2 days later,
0623 hours, Earth Military Time,
Orbit above Radhoka
SpecOps armoury/briefing room Bravo-3
"Alright, ladies, this is going to be an infiltration mission. Rebels on the ground have been able to get their hands on a fair amount of B1-series battledroids, you know, the scrawny fucks we faced on Naboo." A Caucasian woman said, a serious look in her bright green eyes, almost daring her Rangers to say something before she was done talking.
This woman was Lieutenant Alice Graham, commanding officer of the 513th Army Ranger platoon. She looked around, her gaze softening a bit. They're still so young. It was true, a lot of fresh recruits were added to her platoon after the catastrophic mission on Aztlan a year ago. The sergeants were luckily all experienced soldiers who had flown through the gates of hell with her.
There was Halt O'Carric, callsign Greybeard, with Oaken squad, and at 73 years old he had almost 30 years on her in terms of experience. His hair was black with various grey streaks running thought it, a scruffy beard that looked like he cut it with his knife covering a hard face. How the old fuck was doing it, she didn't know. She knew he and Gunnery Sgt. Washington had some history together from fighting the Storm on some backwater colony called Araluen, but where Halt had gone to the Rangers, Mike had been selected for the ODSTs. He was in command of the Recon and sniper cover of the platoon.
Sgt. Mjr, Richard Xander, callsign Kneecap, ten years her junior at thirty-five, was in command of Demolitions and Heavy Weapons. He was an expert marksman and often joined on missions with Oaken when he wasn't needed for leading his own squad, sometimes jokingly called the Cripple Brigade, as they all had at least one prostatic limb or cybernetic implant to replace lost limbs. His Squad preferred the name Ottomans, though.
Ural squad was her regular rifleman and CQC squad. They all carried versions of the AR-500 series and a shotgun with them. They were under command of Master Sgt. Alexei Perkov, callsign Grizzly, the most stereotypical Russian she had ever met. He talked with a thick accent and drank vodka like it was water. She had once asked him why he took this job and he had answered, "In Russia, bullets dodge you." , and didn't say a word more on it.
And then there was Maki squad, her hacking and infiltration group. They were under command of Sgt. Hanna Rusé, newly minted sergeant from the old 513th platoon. She was always cheerful –to annoying levels, if you were to ask Halt- and seemed to transition from military to civilian life without any trouble, even after Aztlan.
Finally, there was Malcolm Hendricks and Joan Williams, her radio operator and medic respectively. She had suspicions of them being a bit closer than regulations allowed, but she really didn't give half a shit if they were banging.
"We will be splitting up into two groups for this one, boys. Oaken, you will be infiltrating the command structure here together with Gamma squad." A building lit up red on the holographic map. "I want you to take out the leadership and see if you can hack the droid controls, Make it a bit easier for the groundpounders and local militia. You will be teaming up with a squad of Mandalorian Shocktroopers, so be sure to say hi to our counterparts for me." The sergeants nodded, a small smile forming on his squad's faces while O'Carric's stayed as stoic as ever.
"Ottomans will sabotage key rebel positions while Ural will use the distraction to clear a dropzone for the Helljumpers here, here, and here, after which you will link up with the 14th Sangheili Ranger lance, Gamma, and oaken and wait for further orders." Three more locations lit up on the map.
"Ehm, ma'am? What of my squad, shouldn't we be going after the droid controls instead?" Rusé asked and the lieutenant let a small smile curl her lips.
"I was going to get to that, sergeant. Maki will be infiltrating the communications relays on the surface and make sure no one calls for help. You will be briefed further in your Pelican."
"Understood, ma'am"
"Good. We'll be facing off against the Deathwatch. They are highly dangerous and versatile, so watch out. We don't know much about them, so when you see them, call in help from Shriek Hawks or air support." She looked around, "What do we do, rangers?"
"Rangers lead the way!" everyone shouted.
"I didn't quite hear that."
"RANGERS LEAD THE WAY, MA'AM!"
"Good, now suit up and get to the birds."
"WE GO FEET FIRST, SIR!" sounded Gamma's reply to the classic Helljumper question before they were jettisoned out of the ship. Gus could feel the pod start to shake and the interior heating up as they entered the upper atmosphere of the planet.
He looked at the timer. Three, two, one… *Opening drag chute, landfall in fifteen seconds.* His stomach lurched at the sudden loss of velocity as both the drag chute and the thrusters kicked in. He gently fired the thrusters toward the waypoint on his HUD, that being a field not too far north of the capital city of Radhoka.
The bang and shaking of a pod crashing into the field stirred him into action. The previously polarised glass now showed a planet with a beautiful purple sky and lush green grass. He took hold of his AR-507 and mentally prepared himself. He could already see some rebels approaching the pod.
He took a deep breath before Villain finally gave the order, "Alright Gamma, fire at will upon exit. Five, four, three, two, one… engage!"
Seven pods blasted open and a torrent of hardlight rounds found their targets, cutting down the rebels quickly.
"Area clear, good work, Gamma. I think we just set a new record." the Gunny said as they regrouped, an armoured Squidward following Miranda out of her pod.
"Now to wait on Oaken." Emma said, "Of course they're late, those army types are all the same."
"Can it, Archer." Mike growled, sending the sharpshooter a glare through his visor.
Gus chuckled within his helmet and started his perimeter check along the treeline. All seemed clear on his side. Of course he wasn't hoping someone would attack him, but he really wanted to see the capabilities of the fabled mandalorians.
Suddenly a body fell limp in front of him with a throwing knife in its neck and he jumped back in surprise, instantly aiming his gun before he noticed it was dead. "You're welcome." A voice sounded behind him, but this time he whipped around and threw a lightning fast punch into… the trademark black faceplate most Ranger helmets had.
The Ranger, not having expected this was knocked to the ground, "Jesus, dude," the voice of Burton came over his helmet radio, "Great way to thank me. You'd have shattered my nose if it wasn't for my helmet. Is that how you Martians greet your saviours?"
"Will, you fucking asshole, you should know by now not to sneak up on ODST."
"Nah, it's way too funny to see you tough Helljumpers startle like little girls." The always energetic ranger said, earning him a half-hearted glare through Gus' depolarised visor.
"Shut up, Tug, let's get back to the squads."
"You just walk, trooper. I'll be off flying." Will stated with a smile before activating his jetpack and shooting away over the field.
Fucking cocky fuck.
Thank you all for reading. I know that the last bit wasn't really up to standards, but I wanted to get this done.
Next chapter you will see things… I'm not really sure what to do actually. I've got loads of ideas, but not ones for this part of the story.
May the Chief be with you.
