AN: Sorry this one took so long to get out, it's been a while but this is on me, got Death Stranding and have tried to get 100% trophies, what a mistake that was, all I have to say is Mads Mikkelsen is glorious in that game, the pshycological twists and turns, by no stretch of the imagination is it an action game, like the ever vaunted Kojima era of Metal Gears but it has that Kojima edge to it and I love it.
As a side note I'm planning something of a Death Stranding Fanfic, its just in its infancy and I'm not in a rush to get it done, but expect an update on that whenever I make a breakthrough in the future.
Anyways, I wrote this chapter sober, shocker I know, I hope you lot like my selection of music for this chapter, it took me a while to go through my I-tunes library to find the music that got me hype to write this one.
Please Enjoy.
November 30th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.
The Capital city of Agamemnon, Pelican Echo-419.
Flight Lieutenant Carol 'Foe-Hammer' Rawley expertly flew between the capital city's multitude of skyscrapers, leading a flight of three Pelicans en-route to deliver six sections of some of the Systems Alliance's finest ground-pounders intermixed with sections from Steel Raptor Troop, alongside their Three Jackal IFV's which were underslung from the aft overhang acting as their armour support.
Meanwhile two large speakers mounted either side of the blood tray blasted Dropkick Murphy's: Rose Tattoo, as the flight of three Pelicans made a beeline for their designated Landing Zone to secure several High Value Individuals, whose bunker was under siege by a particularly vicious group of Pirates and Slavers.
The SOIS troopers who'd made landfall ten minutes ago to secure both the bunker and the local landing zone reporting in that the enemy were doing their damn best to prevent any birds from dropping of any reinforcement so the good Captain saw it fit to send his three best pilots into the jaws of hell.
"Thirty seconds out ground pounders, lock and load and ready up for a hot drop, the LZ is still contested." Foe-Hammer barked into the local troop net. "You heard the lady, Section Gunners out first lay waste to any sonofabitch stupid enough to be sticking their noses where they're not wanted, rest of you provide three sixty security." Barked the grizzled African-American Sargent Major, donning his soft cap instead of his issued helmet.
"Let's tag us some bad guys lads!" echoed a corporal, the rest of the troop barking out an oohrah in response. "Touch down in ten seconds!" The pelican dropship pitched slightly nose up as it made a rapid decent into a local park, tracers pinging off of the laminate armour as the enemy tried to bring the transports crashing to the earth, an RPG vapour trail whiffed past the three black transports as the operator was shot dead by a SOIS sniper.
"Touchdown, hit it Marines!" Foe-Hammer barked as the pelican hovered a scant foot above the earth of the Turian colony world of Agamemnon.
The two gunners operating the devastating and highly controversial M57-D were the first to jump out of the blood tray.
Their auto-targeting heads up displays highlighting hostiles with a thin red outline relaxing their upper bodies the combined six gunners let the servo-motors take over letting their belt fed weapon systems do the aiming for them with their targeting reticle centred on the enemy all six depressed their triggers.
Anticipating that their Kinetic-Barriers would provide a level of protection they never got a chance to move to cover as high velocity APE-D rounds ripped through their ineffective armour systems before detonating inside their bodies killing them through sheer shock and trauma.
"Marines focus on the big bastards first, they look like they'll be the most trouble!" The Sargent Major barked, with the perimeter in the process of being secured the three pelicans deposited their extra cargo, the underslung Jackal IFV's two armed with the vaunted and some would say antiquated M2 mark.10 Browning machine guns, whilst the last was armed with a 40mm Grenade Machine Gun.
"Alright marines I want this park locked down tighter than a nuns asshole!"
"yessir!" the Marines barked out as they pushed through cover to cover killing pirates and slavers as they advanced to the parks perimeter. "Echo flight you're clear for take-off we'll call for a priority pick up once we have the HVI's secure and en-route."
"Copy last, good luck out there Sargent. Out."
The flight of three pelicans gradually built up some momentum as they built up some altitude to clear the local rooftops where several sticks of SOIS took residence. "First, Third and Fifth sections keep my fucking LZ secure, Second Forth and Sixth Sections we're headed for that bunker, Jackal 1-1 and 1-3 stay put, Jackal 1-2 with us you're our HVI's exfil."
"Copy." The assembled marines barked out, as they made their preparations before moving out to complete their objectives.
November 30th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.
SSV Lion R-106, Combat Information Centre.
I watched the tactical display on the Lion's war table, casualties had been light, so far, twelve SOIS were Dead On Arrival, four through digging their own graves, as their Single Occupant Exo-Atmospheric Insertion Vehicles [SOEIV] failed to deploy their drag-chutes or alternatively failed to fire their retro's in time if at all.
While the remaining eight went out in a 'blaze of glory' also known as hot-boxing their drop pod hatches failing to seal properly resulting in the occupants being cooked while in the process of entering the worlds atmosphere, it was a truly nasty way to go out but the men and women who signed up for SOIS knew the risks and were paid liberal amounts of hazard pay in the event that their pod failed.
Their names and pictures were already being added to the memorial wall alongside those of the crew who'd fallen before them.
"Least we forget." I muttered to myself as I manipulated the display bringing up the system wide tactical display, I watched as Turian naval elements cycled between each other to discharge their saturated heat sinks into the atmosphere of Agamemnon, a frowned upon practice unless in times of war.
"Ka'mara when are the additional reinforcements due to arrive?" Ka'mara took a quick glance up towards the wall mounted analogue clock. "Not for another six hours at least, alright stand down half of the crew, they've got an hour to get some scran down their necks, then have them rotate I've got a feeling we've not quite broken these slaver bastards just yet."
"Aye sir."
"Oh, tell the head chef to send up take-out for CIC unfortunately there won't be any rest for the wicked." And true to my words only a scant couple of hours later Admiral Nyx contacted us through the secure network.
"Captain, we've lost all telemetry from the Relay leading back to the Three-One-Four System the Hegemony is back dooring our system once more, I hope you and yours are more than ready for a second bout."
"We're more than ready Admiral, I just hope to god the patch ups on the local defence fleet hold out until your reinforcements arrive, otherwise this'll turn into a real slog."
"They'll get here Captain. Admiral Nyx out."
November 30th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.
Turian Sixth Fleet, HNV Spirit of Palaven.
Command and Control Centre.
Gavilan stood proudly at his command position towards the rear of the bridge, the primary holographic display no longer showing the status of the Spirit of Palaven, but a 3D representation of Agamemnon's capital city.
It seemed all the more obvious that Humanity was all the more capable on the ground than in space, the Garrison reports were nothing if not glowing with praise, small troop formations capable of laying waste to numerically superior forces, through a sheer weight of firepower or through superior manoeuvrability.
Innovative flanking's, superior fire and manoeuvre, heavy armour support intermixed with the marines providing both a form of mobile cover or hard point or as the humans put it bunker busting capabilities.
But what came as a shock was the level of interoperability between the whole detachment, entire sections or troops with differing orders providing wordless support to one another, Non Commissioned Officers with far more operational authority to make battlefield decisions, Human officers at the Garrison Headquarters called it Strike Operations.
"We give them an objective their one order is to win, we don't care how they do it, so long as they get it done, everyone from the most senior officer to the greenest of privates has the capability to come up with a strategy to defeat the enemy, we just provide the tools and the management to co-ordinate the whole. Innovation, adaptability and strike capability are what have won some of humanities fiercest wars, we just embraced the idea and ran with it."
The results spoke for themselves, in less than an hour from when the first SOIS troopers were dropped via drop-pods from low orbit to the marines capitalising on the beach heads provided, several Forward Operating Bases were already in the process of being built.
Gavilan's thoughts were interrupted when one of his junior officers spoke up from his post in one of the CIC's many alcoves. "Sir, I've just lost Telemetry from the Three-One-Four system Relay, we've been locked out sir." The female Ensign reported.
"Looks like the Batarian's are making their move, alert the fleet, to tighten up formation, the ships still in the process of discharging their heat sinks are to finish doing so before re-joining the defensive line." Adrianus ordered while Gavilan busied himself trying to co-ordinate with the SSV Lion.
"Lion actual, here." Captain Spruce's voice broke through intermixed with a light static.
"Captain, we've lost all telemetry from the Relay leading back to the Three-One-Four System the Hegemony is back dooring our system once more, I hope you and yours are more than ready for a second bout." Gavilan spoke into his omni-tools microphone.
"We're more than ready Admiral, I just hope to god the patch ups on the local defence fleet hold out until your reinforcements arrive, otherwise this'll turn into a real slog." Captain Spruce replied.
"They'll get here Captain. Admiral Nyx out." Gavilan cut the communication off, watching as his crew scrambled into combat stations.
That's when it happened, the secondary channel began playing music once more. [Manowar: Sword of the Highlands.] Gavilan was about to order the to turn the song up, but the communications officer beat him to it by increasing the volume by at least twenty percent, it was a slow melody to begin with, but when the first lyrics hit their ears entire Turian crews perked up.
A song of both tragedy and triumph, a song with a cultural significance behind it.
It took a lot of them a good minute to understand the meaning of the song, but it was in essence one massive insult to the Batarian culture, how Humanity would fight and die to the last to remain a free people, it was a truly glorious feeling, inspiring one could say, Gavilan could hardly believe the fortune for the crew of the Invictus to have found such a people, a people the hierarchy could truly count upon in these trying times where it seemed the Council were as much with the Hierarchy as they were against them.
Maybe just maybe, Humanity's defiance and unpredictability was the collective kick up the ass the Galaxy needed; that was neither here nor there, for now the surviving Hierarchy forces alongside the SSV Lion had to hold the line until the two reserve fleets could bolster their forces in a scant few hours' time.
That's when the first of the Batarian Hegemonies second wave appeared in a flash of blue, frigates appearing in the dozens intermixed with cruisers followed by two dreadnoughts and hundreds of converted civilian transports, loaded with thousands if not tens of thousands of slave soldiers alongside their slaver masters.
Gavilan opened a fleet wide comm link via his omni tool, taking a breath Gavilan gave a shot speech. "Hold steadfast sons and daughters of Palaven, for our duty is not yet done, for the pride of the Spirits we fight to the last."
November 30th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.
SSV Lion R-106, Combat Information Centre.
"…. we fight to the last." Gavilan's speech finished broadcasting throughout the CIC of the Lion, I held a small smirk on my face. "CGO how are we looking on our ammunition situation?" running through his personal PADD in hand he read through and mentally calculated how dire our situation was. "Main Batteries have used up thirty percent of their entire stockpile of APAC and APACHE and fifteen percent of the KATIES in storage, our torpedo situation isn't much better, out of our original stockpile of forty super-heavy disruptor torpedoes twenty four remain and out of our sixteen Type 45 nuclear torpedoes twelve remain."
Doing another quick scroll through is PADD the officer finished his report. "seventy percent of our RAPIER salvo was used up, Lion's super computers must've calculated that not all of them were necessary to finish off the first wave, while our AM/AF batteries magazines are down to sixty percent."
Nodding at the report I looked towards the CAG. "CAG, how many of our birds are in their roosts?" CAG hadn't even turned to address me before speaking up from their post. "Red and Blue squadrons are half way through 'R and R' sir, Black and Gold Squadrons are planet side, with white and silver squadrons still in reserve." I nodded as the report was given to me. "Order Durandal and Roland to get those birds in reserve active, pull the reserve fighter pilots from their duties, they're fighter jocks until this fight is over!"
"Aye sir!"
"Ka'mara. Get your old man on the horn and have whatever fighter craft he has co-ordinating with our Vipers." Ka'mara lifted a brow plate and her mandibles twitched before nodding. "CAG tell Durandal and Roland to convert six Pelicans to Battle-Wagons, I'm authorising them to load up on Blue-Steel." Nodding his head while holding his thumb up, whilst relaying my orders through his headset, told me all I needed to know. "Sensor's what's the time until the enemy fleet is in range?"
"Best estimate is about ten minutes sir." I nodded before turning to Ka'mara before muttering. "Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war." Turning to Lieutenant Smollet. "Smollet, help set the mood for our unwanted guests." Smollet smiled. "Any particular preference sir?"
"Something classical."
[Play: Requiem, K. 626 Lacrimosa Dies Illa. By Wolfgang Mozart. Followed by: Messa Da Requiem: Dies Irae – Tuba Mirum. By Giuseppe Verdi.]
To Be Continued….
AN: Now the last two songs I've thought for a long time were so much more impactful than Ride of the Valkyries especially with the two combined its like you're providing the funeral hymn for the enemy and to be fair I think Ride of the Valkyries has been over used so why not change the norm and do something unique.
Also expect the follow on chapter to come much sooner than what its taken me to get this one out to you lot.
Any gripes or suggestions, leave me a review or a PM I'll do my best to implement them in the future, it's not a sure fire thing but I'll do my best to improve upon my writing.