The Federal Republic of Giad
Forward Operations Base 03, Western Front
Air Traffic Control was one of the most boring, dead-end jobs a soldier could be assigned to in the Armed Forces nowadays. Minus the usual supply aircraft that flew in at low altitude, there was nothing much to do in the tower beyond playing cards with your mates and rarely looking over the three or so monitors where the Air Radars still transmitted data. FOB 03 was one of the westernmost bases, practically a stone's throw from the Front Line with the Legion. It was also one of the most defended, currently.
An ATC Jockey was almost asleep at his station by this point. To his right and left were fellow comrades, some of which simply acted as spotters for the artillery at the back of the base in the case the Legion got too close. The place was the tallest building in the FOB by a country mile and it needed to be. With all the com equipment and radars meant to track aircraft, it had seen a lot of use pre-War, thanks to the Empire's military ambitions.
Feet kicked up on the side and a half-empty beer bottle in his hand, the lead of the ATC unit stared at his radar screen, watching the varying degrees of green shift as they usually did, with the circular perimeter of the radar pinging every time the scanners completed a full three-sixty degree run-through of the airspace several hundred kilometers around and above the FOB. Pinprick-sized dots appeared at times, flocks of birds moving through the area or even single animals, lost from their family.
While other Feddie Officers abhorred the idea of their career ending in the ATC department of the military, the man currently on the station couldn't care less. He preferred this over facing the Legion's many war machines out there in the middle of bum-fuck nowhere, the former territories of the glorious Empire. He'd lived through the Revolution and saw the Empire toppled in his lifetime after serving its military faithfully.
To him, this was tantamount to retirement and he was going to enjoy every second of it. Or so the disheveled man though as he took a swig of his beer, droplets falling onto the white undershirt of his uniform. He'd draped his panzer jacket over his shoulders rather than wear it and only buttoned it up around his neck. He looked less professional than even the most bog-standard Grunt after a binge night in one of the local clubs.
He hummed, eyes scanning the green screen ahead of him. As the scanners made a first pass, he thought he saw something pinged, though he didn't hear the confirmation noise at first. On a second pass, the object that had been at the edge of the Radar's range appeared somewhat closer, its detection confirmed by a loud, shrill ping. The man's eyes grew wide and mouth dried up as he almost fell over in his chair. Setting his bottle aside and leaning toward the screen, he confirmed it with his own two eyes.
"Shit..." he said, his breath hitching in his throat as one of his Spotter comrades turned to look at the screen. His eyes grew wide upon sighting the ping. It was flying low, emitting an IFF on a frequency that they had no response for. The Spotter once again looked to the Radar Op and watched him quickly donning his jacket, buttoning up and taking his hat. He looked to his friend and said, "Keep an eye on that thing for me... I gotta go get Lieutenant-Colonel Wenzel up here!"
He nodded, taking the man's seat and setting aside his binoculars while the other spotter currently in the tower scanned the horizon.
The operator of the station, formally a corporal, darted down the stairwell of the concrete-reinforced ten-story-high communication-and-control tower, running past several of his fellow countrymen that were sat on the steps, talking or just patrolling. He damn near tripped and fell, which would've been a very quick and painful way down to the bottom. Thankful for the steel rail that kept them from falling down ten stories to the main floor, the man continued his speedy descent, excusing his way past even a pair of soldiers carrying heavier-duty ARs.
Bursting through the door and onto the tarmac, the man ran across toward the command building of FOB-03, smack in the middle of the base. He'd made it there in under six minutes by bolting it from the base of the tower all the way across and luckily evading several obstacles like cars and AFVs that were patrolling or being moved around. He'd have taken a jeep if he had the time or the smarts to remember they existed, but this was far too important to wait for a jeep startup.
The man, unbeknownst to him, had also forgotten that they had a radio within the station to call in anything odd. He still ran and burst through the main door, into the lobby, then demanded from the desk clerk, "Where's Lieutenant-Colonel Wenzel?! I have an important report and it can't fucking wait for anything!"
"Her office, soldier," The woman at the desk, a Second Lieutenant, replied, surprised to see their ATC operator in such a hurry. He gave the woman a fast salute, then bolted down the hallways toward the woman's office. He skidded to a stop and turned a fast ninety degrees around a corner. So fast, in fact, that he'd actually felt his brains shake in his noggin as he ran again.
... Lieutenant-Colonel Grethe Wenzel was a veteran of the early days of the war against the Legion. She had belonged to the Giadian Imperial Air Force and had proudly flown fighters in combat against the many enemy nations that the Empire had decided should be conquered. Well, 'proudly' would be too high a praise. She fought as she saw fit, for herself and her loved ones. At least until the Empire dropped dead and she was forced to the ground. She'd viewed groundside service as something almost mythical, terrifying, when she was still in the Air Force, but when it all went to shit, she seemed to get acclimatized to it really quickly.
A beautiful blonde with lilac eyes, short hair and lips as red as blood, the good Lieutenant-Colonel was also one of the meanest bitches in the Giadian Army nowadays, in the sense that she was a prolific commander and leader of Armored Formations, leading her very own R&D bureau under the Hundred-Seventy-Seventh Armored Division of the Giadian Armed Forces and her own combat forces.
So, to see a Giadian ATC operator entering her office in a hurry was... Something surprising. The woman was just finishing up paperwork for an ammunition requisition when the middle-aged corporal burst through her door. "Lieutenant-Colonel, you need to see this." Called the out-of-breath Radar Operator from the mostly unused ATC Tower, sweat draping him from head to toe.
Grethe blinked in surprise. Rare was it for anything important to come out of the ATC these days, since the Giadian Airforce was practically eradicated in the early days of the war. She nodded and followed the obviously distressed man back to his station, the several-minute walk across the base letting her thoughts stew. An aircraft from one of the other nations, perhaps, breaking through the Legion blockade?
As they reached the top steps of the tower, a voice echoed over the loudspeakers, tinny and slightly distorted through old systems and slightly mismatched frequencies. "Giad ATC, this is Pelican Alpha-Nine-Nine-Three Heavy requesting permission to land. We are carrying diplomatic envoys aboard. I repeat, this is Pelican Alpha-Nine-Nine-Three Heavy, requesting to land."
Grethe's breath caught in her throat. She and the ATC Operator rushed up the tower, to the radio transmitter. She looked to the man on the ops station of the ATC, then asked, "Are we able to match frequency and reply?"
"Yes, ma'am," The man replied, fiddling with the knobs on the radio.
Grethe looked back to one of the shocked guards in the tower and ordered, "Get president Zimmerman and the Chiefs of Staff on the line! They'll want to know about this!"
The man wordlessly saluted and departed while Grethe turned to face the radio. She looked to the radioman, receiving a confirmation in the form of a 'thumbs-up', before leaning forward to the radio's microphone. She tapped the transmit button, then started, "Pelican Alpha-Nine-Nine-Three Heavy, this is Giad Forward Operations Base Oh-Three, Western Front Air Traffic Control. Lieutenant-Colonel Grethe Wenzel speaking. Please confirm, did you say 'diplomatic envoys'?"
"Affirm, Lieutenant-Colonel. I have one of my superiors aboard this brick, alongside an escorting squad of infantry from our forces. We mean no harm," The pilot replied.
Grethe thought for a moment. They'd been trying to break through Legion jamming for the better part of the war, to see if there were any other nations alive out there. It'd be madness to deny Ernst and his group the only hope they'd had of maybe having the Federal Republic survive this damn war:the arrival of allies. Not to mention, these people were flying in low and fast, so they were either crazy, or real good with making survivable aircraft.
So, with a voice of steel, Grethe replied, "Pelican Alpha-Nine-Nine-Three Heavy, you're cleared to land. Watch your flight vector as you approach and safe travels..."
"Appreciate it, ma'am. Alpha-Nine-Nine-Three, out," The pilot replied. The line went dead.
Grethe looked to the ATC operator and his pals and said, "I'm going downstairs to welcome our new guests," a wide grin on her face, "You, keep an eye open and see if there are any more aircraft coming in. Dismissed," then she quickly descended the stairwell and exited onto the tarmac. The entire base had seemingly stopped for but a moment. Vehicles had halted, the Vánagandr formations, groups of their eight-legged MBT-type Feldreß, had ground to a halt and even troops came out to see what the new announcement was about.
Grethe turned toward the airstrip, marching down toward it with ad-hoc escort of about a dozen men carrying assault rifles and pistols stowed on their backs and in their holsters. A Giadian NCO with his own pair of binoculars watched the sky as storm clouds began to gather overhead. Grethe saw him point with one hand at the incoming bird, then looked to see it.
The standard dark-green of a military aircraft, but bulky and reinforced with armor plating everywhere, as well as with a mounted 30mm Chain Gun with a sensor suite in the nose and missile pods on the wings, the four-engine aircraft approached the base at high speed. Grethe murmured to herself, "That thing looks more armored than most tanks I've seen..." as she saw it swing in.
Its vectoring VTOL Engines flared, tongues of flame burning gold as the aircraft's engines fired in reverse. It slowed, gently reducing it altitude and extending its landing gears as it prepared to touch down. It spun itself about a hundred-eighty degrees, revealing the rear hatch of the transport as it opened. With a resounding clang, the aircraft touched down on the tarmac in front of the welcoming committee and the back door opened, revealing over a dozen men and a single woman, the latter of which seemed to be the leader of the formation.
Blonde hair with a non-regulation blue streak in the front, caught in a low bun and a pair of deep azure eyes greeted Grethe. She was clad in a dark-grey and black uniform with an armored vest beneath the jacket, combat boots and a short grey skirt. The rank insignias on her collars and on her epaulettes told she was a higher-up in the ranks of the force. A single scar, made by some form of blade, ran from the top-right of her forehead down to the bottom left of her face. Clipped on her black leather belt was a massive holster that housed what looked to be a black pistol of some kind.
The woman also had a strange insignia on her shoulder. A circle containing an almost three-dimensional pyramid that was split down the middle between the 'light' side and the 'dark side', within which was also contained a double circle with the outside a thick white, while the inner area was deep black. Above the weird eye were the letters 'UNSC' and below the pyramid itself, there were the words 'Office of Naval Intelligence, Section 01' written in bold.
Behind her, the soldiers that acted as her escort were men clad in jet-black armors with opaque, polarized visors and heavy weaponry. Their battle-armors covered them from head-to-toe, akin to the armors of their own troops, but they seemed far more advanced. Each looked like it had a suite of specialized electronics and extra systems. Grethe watched with muted awe as the woman, a Colonel by rank, descended from the aircraft first. Her escort filed out behind her, forming into a line of over a dozen soldiers with their weapons stowed on their backs.
There was a name written on the woman's right breast pocket, just over where a strange, small personal tablet lay. She couldn't read it from this distance, though. That wasn't a problem now, as the colonel approached them, but Grethe wasn't focused on finding out her name. She was sure she would introduce herself when the time came, but the menacing presence she felt from the woman was enough to surprise the Giadian Lieutenant-Colonel.
The corners of the woman's mouth curled into a smirk as she and Grethe stared eye-to-eye, then she spoke, her voice soft and smooth, but dangerous, like poisoned velvet cake, "Lieutenant-Colonel Grethe Wenzel, I presume. Greetings. I'm Colonel Rovinești of the United Nations Space Command. On behalf of my people and the UEG, I extend my warmest greetings to you, your soldiers and the Federal Republic of Giad as a whole."
"A pleasure to meet you, Colonel," Grete held steadfast, picking her own words despite the woman, a clear Spook, staring her down. She saw no killer intent behind those eyes, however. Rather, she saw curiosity and amusement. She extended her hand and the proverbial olive branch to the new arrival and the woman didn't even hesitate to shake it.
"Pleasure's all mine, Lieutenant-Colonel," She nodded, then looked back at the welcoming party. She hummed, then said "Quite the committee that gathered behind you."
Grethe nodded, turning to face their gathered armed force too, before noting, "You'll have to excuse them, ma'am. We just... Haven't had many visitors the past few years. Not since the Legion War started..." Then she paused as she realized what the woman had said beforehand. She looked to her, then asked, "Hold one... United Nations Space Command?"
"Yes," The Colonel nodded, "I'll brief you and everyone else we're to meet soon."
"... Did the world unite while we were stuck behind the jammer curtain?" Grethe laughed, though her demeanor and tone were anything but happy. She moved nervously, tactfully, around the woman and her escorting troopers. The woman flashed her a dangerous grin, then shook her head before watching as the rest of the Giadian military within the FOB dispersed and returned to their work.
"... Want me to brief you in private?" The Colonel inquired in a more sultry voice, somewhat shocking Grethe with how blasé she'd just been.
"Christ..." The voice of a man filtered through the speakers of a helmet, somewhat distorted. The Colonel shot a glance toward the man that spoke, one of her soldiers that had approached them. He said, "Really? You gonna flirt with every chick in front of me?" then added the, "Ma'am," as an afterthought, it seemed. His visor depolarized, revealing the grinning face of a man in his early thirties, wearing a grin, a pair of dark eyes staring at both her and the UNSC Colonel.
"Just giving you an extra chance at that thing you wanted to do," The Colonel laughed, all the while Grethe's cheeks suddenly glowed red. The Colonel then turned to her and said, "I was just playing, Lieutenant-Colonel. Don't worry. Captain Pierce, can you rally everyone so we can head out? Leave two men to guard the Pelican with the pilots, too," and received a nod from the trooper. He turned to his squad, balled his fist, lifted his hand and threw a downward motion with his elbow. The soldiers rallied around him and the two Colonels, before Rovinești turned to Grethe and requested, "By all means, Lieutenant-Colonel Wenzel, lead the way."
"Right," Grethe hummed. Eccentric pair, the Colonel and Captain.
As she led them toward the command building of FOB-03, she noticed the confidence with which the woman marched alongside her. She was about a forehead taller than her, clearly a former soldier going by the way she walked and by the demeanor with which she scrutinized every soldier they passed by, some of which seemed surprised or outright enamored with the new arrival.
Something told Grethe that this woman was as much of a veteran as she was. Good, that meant they were talking to an active military woman. United Nations Space Command, though? If the world didn't unite under some global government while the Federal Republic was stuck under Legion com jamming, then what were they? A representative peacekeeping force? And why Space?
Entering the FOB's command building, the group was led down the halls that bristled with active personnel that had come to see the new arrivals before they were taken in for questioning and the proper 'red carpet' experience. Grethe pulled out a high-security access keycard and slid it into a slot the moment they got to a thicker reinforced door, then turned to the Colonel and said, "I apologize, ma'am, but you can only take one bodyguard into the meeting... Safety concerns."
She nodded, then waved captain Pierce forward, then spoke sternly to the others, "Return to the Pelican. Keep your eyes open and be ready to bug out at a moment's notice. We'll go through the talks and contact the Admiral if things go well."
"Ma'am," The Troopers chorused, saluting, then departed without the Captain and the Colonel.
As the door slid open with a hiss, the two were led inside the dimly lit, heavily reinforced briefing room. It was a large room, with walls made of some steel alloy that reflected light. In the middle, an ovoid-shaped spruce table resided, surrounded by over a dozen chairs. To the left, there was a large screen, meant for displays and briefings. The right saw the placement of a small series of cabinets and a countertop with a coffee machine and a sink. It wasn't much, but it was good enough for a meeting room, if one took into account the recessed lights that shined down on them.
Grethe offered the two seats, but the Captain refused, choosing instead to stand on his feet. The woman had now noticed that the weapon he was carrying was an auto-shotgun with a drum magazine and foregrip instead of whatever rifle or standard firearm the others carried. It looked custom-made, too, so Grethe observed. She then looked to the Colonel and watched her retrieve a flask. The woman took a swig of the sweet-scented hard liquor inside, then extended the chromed flask with the ONI emblem on it to Grethe.
"I'm okay," Grethe shook her head, then sat herself down face-to-face with the Colonel and said, "President Zimmerman and the Chiefs of Staff should be here soon..."
"Why don't we get to know each-other better 'till then? Oh, right, you can call me Maria, Lieutenant-Colonel," The woman offered, grinning. Grethe looked over to captain Pierce, who simply snorted and averted his gaze, causing the Lieutenant-Colonel to sigh. She noticed, however, that both of them wore rings of a matching pattern and type. She hummed.
"... How did you two meet?" She asked, raising a brow.
The Colonel hummed, then smirked, "Ah, right, the ring. Long story, really. Good eye."
"Thanks. And don't worry. We have a bit of time," She offered.
Maria chuckled, "Alright... I'll put it as short and sweet as I can. Dumbass back there was an Innie, an insurgent. I was a person that hunted insurgents before I was transferred to Section One. We met during a mission like... Ten years ago, when we were busting up one of the illegal drug rings on one of our worlds. I managed to get the drop on him and disarm his ass, we wrestled for a bit for my gun and then both of us decided that it was better for us to... Y'know... Not pop a cap in each-other's ass. I got him reinstated in the Helljumpers and we married about two years after that mission."
"... That sounds like something out of a bad spy flick," Grethe smirked.
"I mean," Maria shrugged, "God be concerned, may as well have been. My entire life can be summed up as 'a bad spy flick'."
"Except the genders are reversed," Pierce laughed, leaning against the wall with his firearm scraping the steel. The two women snorted, with Maria looking over to Pierce and winking at the man. He gave a thumbs up to his wife, then winked back, before turning his head and listening at the door. He straightened up, with Maria taking the hint and leaning back against her chair.
The door hissed open once more and a man, under escort by a dozen military officers, entered the room. He was wearing a nice suit, fancy, clean. He had slicked-back salt-and-pepper hair and a thin mustache. Rimless glasses through which two dark eyes peered and the man's skin was fair, if a bit wrinkly. Maria stood to her feet, as did Grethe, with the latter saluting the man.
He saluted back, then smiled and said, "Lieutenant-Colonel. I apologize for my tardiness, but I've had something to deal with..."
Maria's face turned from one of amusement to one of surprise as she saw a little girl, about knee-high to the man before her and clad in a cutesy dress, shirt and shoes, staring up at her with a pair of blood-red eyes. She was adorable from head-to-toe, with the messy dark-brown hair and the cutesy little face. She seemed surprised to be staring at the woman, however.
The Colonel's smile soon returned, while Grethe spoke, "Did... Did she have to join you, President?" seemingly surprised at the kid's presence.
"I'm afraid I got the call the moment I was heading with her to a playground," The man replied. Grethe breathed a deep sigh, pinching her brow, then shrugged and showed everyone to sit down. The dozen men clad in Giad military uniforms sat beside and around Maria, with the man in the suit sitting face-to-face with her while Dunstan remained on-guard, side-by-side with a Giadian infantryman that had also joined them. The suited man looked at Maria, then started, "Greetings and welcome to the Federal Republic of Giad! I am Ernst Zimmerman, interim president."
"Colonel Maria Rovinești of the United Nations Space Command, sir. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"... Uhm, pardon me, Colonel, but you just said, Space Command..." Ernst observed.
"Yes. Like I told your Lieutenant-Colonel, miss Wenzel, I planned on explaining that the moment we were all gathered here," She offered, then eyed the red-eyed kid as she was given a chair of her own on which she could sit and listen to the conversation. She pointed to the girl, then said, "Y'all sure you wanna share a high-priority, highly-sensitive military and geopolitical meeting with a five-year-old?"
"I'm nine," The girl replied, staring the hardened woman down for a mo'.
Maria snorted, "Fair enough, kid..."
"Excuse her... She's, uhm..." Ernst sighed, a bead of sweat running down his cheek.
"Your... I'm gonna assume adopted kid," The Colonel nodded, "I understand. Still doesn't mean she should hang around where the grown-ups are talking."
"She's a bit more than that," Ernst offered somewhat cryptically, "Can't disclose anything else."
"Right," Maria sighed, then looked to the kid and asked her, "What's your name, sweetie? I gotta know what I can call you by for when I get to the ugly parts of our briefing here."
"... Frederica Rosenfort," The girl replied, a bit more conservative with how she spoke, it seemed, "And don't concern yourself. I can handle most things you'd consider issues."
"Very well... Let's begin, then," She replied, then stood to her feet and started speaking, her voice firm, hard, focused, "Ladies and gentlemen of the Giad Chiefs of Staff, my name's Maria Rovinești and I'm a colonel belonging to the UNSC, a new faction that has recently appeared over your planet. And yes, you heard me correctly, over your planet. We are a military force, made up of humans, that has achieved FTL travel and a fleet of ours, made up of over a dozen of our ships is currently situated above your home."
Before anyone could so much as jump to counter her words, the woman pulled out the same holographic device that had been used so many times and slid it onto the table. It powered on, revealing varying footage from the orbital craft currently situated in geosynchronous orbit above the planet itself, then stated, "Currently, we sit at two cruisers, three carriers, two support vessels and several frigates and corvettes. We also wield nuclear armaments and bigger guns than anything either you or the Legion currently possess."
She turned to the dumbfound, surprised folk at the table and continued, "That was more of a hint at the fact that we'd all be better off as allies, not a threat to the Federal Republic. On the contrary, the UNSC force currently orbiting your world wishes to assist you and the other surviving nations of the planet in combating the mechanical menace that is the Legion. Yes, there are survivors. Please, save all your questions for later," She then stated, noticing Grethe as she was about to raise her hand. The girl stowed it for now, while Frederica seemed to be listening far more intently than before.
The woman continued with a smirk on her face as she saw the men and women of Giad mulling over her words, "To that effect, the UNSC has already deployed to one of the surviving nations, namely the Republic of San Magnolia, to assist militarily in defending against the Legion. San Magnolia itself is something we're also allowed to brief you all on and we will do so during the run of this little event. To note, I think you must be asking yourselves about how we know of your country's name. Answer is simple:Forward scouting teams have been snooping around beyond radar range for some time, listening to radio chatter and intercepting communications so we knew what we were dealing with before we came in for a landing."
"You must also be wondering what a woman belonging to what is called the 'Office of Naval Intelligence Section Oh-One' is doing as an ambassador. I will answer that unasked-but-familiar question as best I can right now. At the orders of the highest-active superior officer currently on board the UNSC fleet, Admiral Eiko Nakano, I and a subsection of ONI's presence on the planet were asked to act as ambassadors to your people because we have the people skills necessary to do so," She offered calmly, "We were trained to act as representatives of UNSC and ONI interests on planets that necessitated a... Finer... More human approach."
"So, to end the introductory phase of this soon-to-be-very-informative meeting, ladies and gentlemen, I have to state that it's good to finally be able to start my mission proper and be your first contact with your space-faring human cousins... With the big guns," She offered them a more genuine smile to go with the line, then added, "Militarily, the UNSC has over ten thousand troops and some thousand vehicles ready to assist the Federal Republic and other nations. We will provide you a direct link to them as we establish embassies and minor garrisons and we will help coordinate the massive war against the oh-so-horrid enemy of all mankind currently on this planet... All of this, provided we can all reach an agreement on the matters of alliances."
She stopped, retrieved the holographic device, shut it off, then raised a brow and asked them all, "Any questions, please raise your hands now, before we go into a brief history of the UNSC proper and why we are the way we are."
The entire room raised their hands, sans for a grinning captain Pierce and Maria herself. As she and the good admiral had expected, flaunting one's technological superiority in front of potential allies would presumably make them inquisitive, by which point the good ONI agent could draw them in with the promises of security and help in the national defense of Giad as a whole. She smirked.
Time for the realpolitik to begin.
Spearhead FOB
As nightfall came, the Marines had retreated to their new bunking areas, unloading and freeing up the motor-pool in the hangar for more of the UNSC's vehicles, namely the artillery tanks, to be settled in and kept from the elements, while Lev and his team learned what they could about them and the rest of the UNSC"s equipment so they can best tend to both it and the Juggernauts.
Shin entered the rec-room, finding it a hint wider, big enough to fit a few dozen people now and with a series of new computer terminals. Major Volkov and his ODSTs had also come down-stairs to pay them another visit, with Agnieszka currently engaged in chatting with Anju and Daiya about... Something. The trio were laughing, so that told him everything was fine there.
Mary was at one of the computer terminals, introducing Theo to what the UNSC called 'video games'. Besides that, some of the Marines had gotten comfortable with installing a minifridge in the place that was filled with drinks and unusual items. Lecca was handing out food to the others at the terminals, among which Haruto was currently sat, typing something away and, finally, on the couch in the corner, Anju and Daiya sat together, watching the situation unfold.
It was time to get a few answers, Shin figured.
Shin walked up to Volkov and said, "Good evening, major."
"Captain Nouzen," Volkov replied calmly, "What can I help you with?"
"I had a few questions, if you do not mind," The boy offered, sitting himself down face-to-face with him. Volkov nodded him along calmly. He was clearly in no rush to go anywhere, his hands holding both a beer and a chip from a plastic bag. Shin hummed, then started, "Your people are a highly-advanced, militarized society whose fleet currently stands tall above our planet. I and all of my compatriots have welcomed your help with open arms. Some of us, such as myself, are admittedly jaded and are skeptical... That's not a matter of discussion for right now, just a fact you should know before we proceed."
"We don't expect everyone to believe pretty words and promises of peace, Captain. It's why we've sent troops planetside and why we intend to help prove ourselves to Spearhead and all the other bigshot squads of the Eighty-Six," Volkov replied, staring the young man right in those blood-red eyes of his, unflinching, while their comrades all stopped to look upon the two officers. Anju narrowed her lips, looking to Kurena and Raiden, while the latter of them crossed his arms and watched the exchange unfold, hoping to god Shin knew what he was doing.
"Glad to hear," Shin nodded approvingly. The Major was not an easy man to scare, clearly, from the stare he gave. The man then offered, "... My questions are in regards to how you and your people became so thoroughly focused on helping all of humanity, of saving us and even the Alba, despite their mistakes. Because I have heard Marines speak of how your people intend to deal with the Republic's government in as peaceful a manner as possible... All rumors, of course... Why are you like this, major? Why are your people like this? What drove this humanitarian agenda, this view of mankind as a sacred enough thing to throw yourselves into a war you knew nothing about just to save us from the certain damnation of fighting an enemy created by the very hubris of mankind?"
Agnieszka stood to her feet, approaching the major and the captain. Every present member of Spearhead noticed the look the young woman had. The entire room had dropped twenty degrees centigrade in temperature and the chill could be felt. The source of it were not the veteran marines and Shock Troopers, though they definitely exacerbated it. It was Volkov, whose gaze now stretched a thousand yards and a thousand more. He seemed to stare straight through Shin. And that of all things shook the Captain Nouzen for a moment.
The major licked his lips, then narrowed them. He wiped away the crumbs in his beard, then stared Shin in the eye for another moment. Turning to Agnieszka, he asked, "Powinniśmy, Agnieszka?", his Russian accent somewhat making the Polish words seem... Off... He then waited for the young woman's response. She seemed to ruminate the thought for a moment, torn between whatever silent choice she had just been given with that question. Shin looked to Georgy, who hunched over and was avoiding looking at any of the kids.
"Tak..." She finally replied, looking to Shin, Raiden and everyone else, her face grim.
Volkov turned to face Shin again, then started, "You want to know why we espouse ourselves as mankind's defenders, then, Captain? Why we so easily risk our lives for the Eighty-Six and, hell, even for the Alba who sit behind the Gran Mur? It is because this role was thrust onto us. By our own foe... And our own war for survival."
He gazed once more at the Marines in the room for confirmation, stopping on Sergeant Mary, not one of his own ODSTs. She swallowed, giving the man a nod, then looking over to Theo and the others at the computer terminals to gauge their reactions. The other Marines in the room all went dead silent, waiting for the Major to begin his briefing and for the reactions of their newfound comrades.
He looked to Shin, watching for the boy's reaction. Once the nod of confirmation came, the man breathed a deep sigh. He'd given them an out. Now, it was time to start the chatter properly. He spoke, "Your war is not the first of its kind we've fought... And it can certainly be downplayed from our perspective in everything from number of casualties to the sheer scale of the operational theaters of the fighting, but... I will start with the beginning."
He retrieved a hologram system and set it on the table between him and Shin, square in the middle of the room, where every single one of the members of Spearhead could see it. He then removed a chip from the left side of his helmet and slid it into the machine, letting it boot up. A flat hologram appeared, visible from all angles as the same image. It was an image of a planet. The Major then began his tale.
"Humanity had been at a relatively tense peace for the better part of several centuries. The Inner Colonies prospered thanks to their Outer Ring sisters and some of the people in them felt that they were not well-represented in the United Earth Government. On many Outer Colonies, acts of terror began and mankind mobilized its military... The UNSC... Us... To combat it."
All seemingly normal so far, the Spearheads listened on, watching as the man flicked through the images of Insurgents being fought face-to-face by UNSC forces, explaining, "Operation TREBUCHET, wars in the Outer Colonies, so on, so forth. Our predecessors had managed to restore a relative peace to the Outer Colonies after defeating the Innies countless times, though sporadic attacks still occurred, so much so that the Colonial Military Administration, one of the UNSC's arms and a sort of National Guard, if you will, was reinforced by modern UNSC vessels."
"From there, though," The man sighed deeply, then pulled up the images of one of the smaller CMA battlegroups, "Things turned worse... In the year 2525, Harvest, one of our colonies, went dark. A battle group of CMA ships containing the destroyer CMA Heracles was sent to investigate. This is what they came upon," and he thumbed the device. It split its holographic beam in twain, revealing, on the left, something the shape of a strange beast from tales of yore about the great Ocean beasts. On the right, the planet in the image, presumably Harvest...
... It was burning... The Fires were visible from orbit...
Anju audibly gasped, while Shin stared with disbelief at the two images. The man flicked to the next image. A video played as he explained, "The Heracles and Battle Group Four engaged the enemy ship that had done this after it had opened fire upon them. The CMA battle group was destroyed..." and he let the video play. Wisps of light danced on the holographic screen, lancing whips of baleful light that slashed across the hulls of the UNSC/CMA vessels. Before they knew it, two of the UNSC's ships had been destroyed, with the Heracles, the video's seeming POV, receiving a slashing hit amidships, causing her to list.
As the image switched from one of the Destroyer's external cameras to a probe or satellite, the children all watched with muted awe and the most fearful expressions on their faces as the single ship devastated the entire task force, save for the Heracles, around which blue light flared as she flew into a whirlpool, burning gashes in her wounded hull as she made her escape.
"Only Heracles escaped to bring us their footage... Humanity did not know it yet, but at this time, we had made contact with the worst enemy Mankind would face. This was a vessel belonging to an alien theocratic hegemony known to all only as the Covenant. It has several species among its ranks, many of which are infantry for the armies they sparsely deployed in what they must've thought was a crusade against the infidel," The man explained with the straightest face Shin had seen. The young man's own eyes grew to the size of saucers as he watched more footage.
Groundside combat, showing UNSC Marines and Army engaging the Covenant planetside was interspersed with footage of Covenant and Human vessels battling it out in high orbit. Magnetic Accelerator Guns, missiles and nuclear warheads met energy shielding, plasma torpedoes and energy cannons pulled straight out of science-fiction and mounted onto the hulls of purple-colored, alien vessels.
"They began a genocidal campaign after we showed a willingness to fight. Admiral Preston Jeremiah Cole led a battle group to retake Harvest and managed to do so after five long, brutal years of battle. That man has done more for humanity's continued survival than anyone would care to say, but it is a tale for a later date. The Covenant... They did not stop at Harvest..."
He pulled up another image. Helmet camera footage of a Marine whose name had been expunged, showing him and a battalion of men and tanks approaching the outskirts of a city under attack. High, above the burning skyline of the city, smaller Covenant ships hanged. Brilliant streaks of radiating heat burned from their bellies, beams of light that burned the ground and turned it to glass.
The Marine's head and the footage suddenly snapped up, to the sight of an even bigger ship. The Eighty-Sixes all gasped, while the Marines stared at the footage with malcontent, watching as a seeming swarm of angry bees poured from the belly of the vessel. When they arched down for the strike, manta-like, streamlined space fighters flew in. Plasma cannons flashed, streaming ionized gas that burned a bright azure down onto the UNSC's lines. Vehicles burst ablaze, Marines disintegrated and the footage from the soldier suddenly and violently cut under a flash of light.
The new, unnamed world burned as the Covenant's fleets flew over it, etching patterns and symbols into the soil with beams of plasma. The atmosphere itself seemed to boil, slowly being stripped away by the beams that drained oceans and turned the cities and corpses of the dead into shimmering glass. The man flicked off the device, then started, "We've done our best to help humanity survive in what is, essentially, a war of attrition... A war we're losing. Planet Reach, the biggest fortress world we had, second only to our homeworld, Earth, was burned mere weeks ago. We are the survivors of that engagement. And our fleet was heading to help in the Last Stand at Earth before we were taken here."
"This... Captain Nouzen... This is why we fight the way we fight and why we view humanity as something greater than it may be. Because we are our own people and we are facing a campaign of genocide that hasn't been heard of. We came to aid you and your folks because you remind us of us," He offered, his face, that of a tired veteran who'd seen too much. He spoke, "I must've been... Your age? Maybe somewhat older... When the Covenant came and burned the first world and killed so many. And I've been at it for the better part of this war, trying to stave off what seems to be the inevitable. And now, here I am."
Feeling the weight of the air in the room, the man continued, "We will help the Eighty-Six, San Magnolia and every other country on this planet, because we all face the same common enemy. Extinction. The Eighty-Six are brothers and sisters to us, whether you know it or not... And we will fight for them. For you. And side-by-side with you. All, to end this, or until we find a way to get home and take you with us... That is all there is to this. That is why we are here to help."
Extinction was, indeed, the most common denominator between the Eighty-Six and the UNSC and humanity as a whole. That the UNSC and Eighty-Six had found this to be their common ground seemed to shake Eighty-Six in the room awake, with several of them growing pale as bone as the footage of the Covenant's indiscriminate plasma bombardment reran through their minds several times. Shin, himself paler than before, whispered something that was, at first, inaudible to the veteran.
Volkov looked to him and asked, "... What?"
Despite his own mind telling him it was a bad idea, despite the woeful stares of his comrades and despite his better judgement, Shin repeated the question more clearly this time, "How many?"
"... Per total, you mean?" Volkov raised a brow. After Shin gave a nod, the man breathed a deep sigh and stated, "The latest estimates put the combined loss of human life, both military and civilian, at up to thirty-three billion dead."
With a yelp, Kurena dropped, barely caught in time by the Marine next to her as she passed out. Shin stared at the man with wide eyes, seeking words that he could not find to express anything. Neither disbelief, nor compassion left the young man's mouth or was visible on his face. Instead, he found himself staving off an inarticulate blurb that wanted to leave his mouth as he stared at the man, then looked to Agnieszka and the other Marines around. He simply mouthed "Thirty-Three Billion..." before standing to his feet and walking to the corner of the room, covering his mouth.
Raiden, though he, himself was dumbfound at the sheer scale of the genocide that the UNSC underwent, approached the Major and said, "I think you broke Shin, sir... I've never seen him like that."
"He's processing," Volkov spoke, "I did a double take when I first heard these numbers, too."
"Such is the life of mankind," Sighed Agnieszka, "Destined to be stuck in wars of survival."
Raiden nodded, watching as their CO stopped. His Para-RAID device lit up green, a faint something that not many would notice and Raiden immediately knew what this meant. She was calling to check up on them, as was usual for this time of night. Shin turned to Raiden, offering his friend a nod, to which the boy looked to Volkov and said, "I'd suggest patching the Admiral through, too... Shin has something to tell you, folks."
He nodded, then retrieved his Para-RAID Device from his pocket, slid it onto his face and turned it on. The other Marines and ODSTs did the same, prepping to listen in as their CO joined in on the frequency. While major Lena and Captain Nouzen spoke, the man worked to ping the Navy and get the Admiral on the line. It was going to take a bit, apparently, seeing as the Admiral was preparing for Lights Out aboard.
He sighed as he listened in to the Admiral finally tuning into the line and stating, "Apologies if I'm late, captain Nouzen, major Volkov... Everyone else."
"Oh... Hello," Lena greeted, "Are you Admiral Nakano?" and she waited. The Marines all seemed interested, as did Shin's boys and girls, about how this little meeting would play out. The two women never much spoke 'face-to-face' and, admittedly, the UNSC forces around didn't speak to her either. They just knew of each-other's existence as the bare minimum of interaction.
"Yes, hello. You must be major Milizé. A pleasure." The admiral replied cordially, seemingly ready to chat up the girl as normally as one would chat up an old friend, or a comrade below them in rank as was the case. Volkov hummed, then nodded to Agnieszka, watching as she went to assist the two female Marines, Lecca and Haruto in tending to the surprised Kurena, whose face said it all.
"Pleasure's all mine, ma'am. The Office of Naval Intelligence crew speaks very highly of you," The girl replied, probably wearing a smile, considering her jovial demeanor behind the microphone. Indeed, as expected, the spooks within SanMag must've spoken of the UNSC's command staff and the likes to their new comrade in arms in the defense and assistance of the Eighty-Six.
"Color me impressed on that one, major. We're just doing our job for the sake of mankind," The Admiral replied nonchalantly. Volkov could tell by her voice she was serious about whatever it was captain Nouzen was about to tell them. Frankly, the man waited for whatever reveal the man was about to bring to bear as well and he clearly wasn't alone, considering the Marines all tuned in to listen.
Volkov could frankly think of no better point to meet the major properly than now. She seemed kind by voice and demeanor on the microphone alone. She was well-mannered, clearly, and was ready to cooperate with the UNSC. If anything felt off, it was that Volkov heard that slight hesitation in the young woman's voice as she spoke with the Admiral, which was understandable. It ain't every day you talk to the head representative of your allied forces' fleet currently stationed in orbit.
The two girls had spoken to one-another for about five minutes, exchanging various details such as the situation currently within San Magnolia's border walls and the development of the Para-RAID device, something which somehow shook Lena. That the UNSC had moved so fast to develop the device meant that their technological acumen was clearly leagues above San Magnolia's own. Admittedly, having the basis for the device already handed out to you as if out of thin air made some things easier, god bless the Spooks on that one.
Then, the subject switched and Shin seemed content to let them go on for a while. It was only natural for their own Superior to meet the Superior of the UNSC and have a bit of a heart-to-heart in regards to the matters at hand. The Captain looked back at Volkov and the man noticed the faintest redness in the boy's eyes, almost as if he'd held back tears or something. Understandable, considering what they'd just been told.
It must've felt like one was told that they were a mote of dust in the grand scheme of the galaxy, that they were a lost people who was fighting their own war for survival, but that it was much smaller in scope to what the UNSC had been facing on a daily basis for some twenty-seven years. Still, the major had tried not to downplay their own war. Proportionally, to them, it was the same as the world-ending nightmare of the Covenant. A nightmare that a few more kids were bound to have tonight, if Theo and Mary's silent discussion in the background was anything to go by.
Shin began now, "Apologies if I'm interrupting, ladies, but I do have something important to ask the major," and he stood up, looking around the room, his expression grim. As silence fell upon the room and upon the communication line, Shin hummed and took it as his cue to ask, "Major, what do you know of the Legion as a whole?" as he tugged at the scarf he had around his neck. Volkov and his Marines had noticed the scarring on the kid's neck, like someone had cut his head of and sowed it poorly back into place, or like someone had choked him.
"... They're an autonomous army created by the Empire of Giad as a means to eliminate the rest of the armies of other nations and assume direct control over the world as a whole, but with the Empire presumably gone nowadays, they have nothing else to do but follow the last order given to them:total annihilation of the Enemy's armed forces and of their fighting capability..." Lena replied as calmly as she could.
"And the Republic believes that they have a timer, correct? That they'd shut off after their processing power failed within... I'd say two years?" He raised a brow, looking to a surprised Volkov and a bunch of the Marines. Some of the youngsters, like Mary, grew hopeful for a moment, but then saw the sad, annoyed or outright angry smiles of their Eighty-Six comrades. Volkov himself had learned not to get excited about 'prospective' victories like that. There was always some form of catch or another that threw a wrench in any celebratory plans.
"Yes. The Legion's central processing units are modeled upon an imprint of a human mind. That ensures it usually decays within a decade of operation. Seeing as the Legion was put into service some eight years ago, we do firmly believe that its processing power will die out and the Legion army will henceforth no longer be capable of fighting," Lena stated, rather firm in her beliefs.
Shin sighed, while Raiden hummed. Mary looked to Theo, who was shaking his head and Anju and Daiya seemed aware of what Shin was about to say. Then again, Lecca, Haruto and the other Eighty-Sixes that were in the place also knew. Shin had told them, definitely, so Volkov now braced himself for the bad news. The other ODSTs and Marines did so, too, more for the safety of their own sanity than anything else.
"I apologize, but I have to correct that misinformation," Shin sighed as Raiden handed him a caffeinated canned soda. He popped it open, letting the gas hiss for a moment before taking his first swig and letting the nice soft drink pinch at his mouth. He hummed, then inquired, "What would you say, major, admiral, if I told you that the Legio can refresh that processing power?"
"... What...?" Both women spoke at the same time, Lena with disbelief and the Admiral with a tone of anger.
"The Legion has a certain capability developed into its systems that allows it to utilize human mind matrixes to refresh its processing power. It is, however, dependent on the situation in which they discover the human brain and we have all divided them into three categories:White Sheep, which are un-augmented Legion forces that have not yet managed to scan a human brain, Black Sheep, which have discovered and scanned a decaying human brain. Depending on the level of decay, the machine's human rationality capabilities are either hindered, or available. Generally, most Black Sheep have a low human cognizance that can aid them in battle... Now, if the Legion get a hold of a fresh brain which they can scan..."
He looked over to one of the ODSTs in Major Volkov's force, then continued his terrifying explanation just as calmly as he'd begun it. "... They become Shepherds. Battlefield commanders with the full, unhindered processing capabilities of what would amount to a 'true' artificial intelligence, capable of operating independently and of commanding the Legion's armies."
"... Don't tell me this is real, captain," The Admiral voiced exactly what Lena was thinking.
"I'm afraid so, Admiral..." He replied.
"How in God's name do you know...?" She shot back, while the San Magnolian Major remained completely silent.
"... I can hear them. Shepherds active within the First Ward of the Eastern Front, all under the command of a leading Shepherd, an older one, that has been actively learning and enhancing his fighting capabilities as they went," Shin replied, "... Some of your men are among them, I believe, as are some of mine, seeing as the Republic is quite literally feeding us to them," and he looked to a shocked Volkov. His ODSTs paused at that, looking to the boy, while the Russian growled, fists clenching.
"... And what can we do, then?" The Admiral inquired, "By the time you kids are gone, those things will overrun the Republic unless we can put an end to them."
"Perhaps we can..." Lena spoke, hopeful, "Captain, when is your term in Spearhead up?"
"Within the year," The young man replied, dumfbound as to why she'd ask that.
"Then we'll just have to figure something out before that... We will figure something out before that," She stated proudly, her voice firm, "Admiral. Let me know what the UNSC needs ahead of time so I can see if I can help with it. Similarly, Captain Nouzen... Everyone... If you need anything, don't hesitate to tell me whenever we talk. In the meanwhile, I will continue providing tactical assistance to both Spearhead and to the ground troops of the UNSC to the best of my abilities. We will win, captain Nouzen... And then you and your Squad will come home. I promise you that."
On Shin's face, a smile flickered, while Theo and the others stifled laughs. Let one take it as they may, they were not laughs meant to mock the girl. Rather, they were accentuations of the surprise toward the girl that could so easily declare this kind of emotive thought so easily. The Admiral ensured that there'd be no laughter, however, as she stated firmly, "And the UNSC is glad to have you, major. Shit, you got my vote of confidence... I'll start drafting up plans and... Seeing what my own AI can do to help us in terms of finding our target. We'll set up orbital mining operations all the while, so we have the resources necessary."
Spearhead and their UNSC support units smiled. Volkov sighed, shaking his head, then said, "If our men are in those things you call Shepherds, as you say, captain, I and my strike force will be more than glad to assist in keeping them off of you..." And, upon receiving a glance from Shin, he explained himself, "I have to put them down myself. They're my men and women."
Shin hummed, then nodded. He understood that feeling.
"Wait," Agnieszka started, "Can one stop their brain from being taken?"
"Yes," Shin nodded, then sighed and his hand caressed the pistol on his thigh, "It's a simple process."
Agnieszka hummed and Mary realized, "... That's... Why they call you the Reaper."
Shin nodded. No other words needed to be spoken for the soldiers to realize why he was the Reaper of Spearhead. Volkov hummed, stood to his feet, then said, "We have Corpsmen with every platoon nowadays... There'll be no need of mercy killings with our men around unless they were actively surrounded. Nobody else in your squadron dies in the coming battles, Captain," he then declared in a hard, focused voice.
Shin hummed, looking at the men and women around him. His own squad seemed calm, looking at their new comrades as they stood at the ready, while the UNSC Marines, Engineers and ODSTs seemed eager for action, eager to prove that their words weren't just empty bravado. They stared at them, with Shin feeling faint warmth in his chest. Was that what he had missed for so long? A certain feeling that was hard to remember, lost so long ago to him.
Was that genuine hope he was feeling?
He squelched the thought for a moment. He'd wait for them to prove themselves in battle before making his final judgement, but if he were to trust even Shiden's writings, he assured himself that, perhaps, the UNSC spoke the truth and that even if his men and women got wounded in battle, they'd be able to return home, that they'd be able to live after their Juggernauts had long been destroyed. He bid good night to everyone, ordering a quick Lights Out and shutting off his Para-RAID so he could think, or do as much thinking as possible with the voices of the Legion speaking to him even now, at the edge of the Eastern Front.
The Airdrop, he remembered...
It was coming tomorrow...