Northern Tip of Loreto Department, Peru, South America
Lush vegetation covered the tropical forest floor, the trees were so dense it could be dark as night in some areas, armored black boots stomped through the flora. Adrian glanced around at the scenery; they'd been dropped off a few klicks South of the village to avoid rousing any suspicion with the Talon troops. They'd been trudging through the almost impenetrable vegetation for a little over half an hour now, according to his helmet's HUD it was sweltering, the humidity was upwards of 80% , a fact he was blissfully aware of due to his suit's internal cooling and heating functions. Completely sealed for the possibility of space combat, he was able to not only stay in a comfortably cool environment but avoid dealing with any of the local pests. To the credit of his companions ahead of him, they slogged through the heat without a complaint, luckily the village should be just over the hill they were climbing over. McCree stopped and crouched at the crest in the hill, motioning for them to come forward, Adrian stopped next to him and aimed through the scope of his battle rifle. Immediately seen were two Talon goons guarding the road entrance to the village, it could be assumed that two more were watching the opposite entrance and a least a dozen or so scattered throughout the village among the civilians.
"Well I reckon we go in loud, if we take our time to try and off every single guard, there's not telling if a patrol will come back and ruin everything anything. We'd have better success if we secured the village as quick as possible, then if any patrol comes back, we can easily pick them off."
Adrian would've had someone provide cover for patrols while another went and cleared the village, bur McCree's plan was just as good. "Alright, but we should go in closer before we engage, the less time they have to prepare the better. I say we split up and take out both guard groups on the roads into the village, then we move our way in from the outside to prevent anyone from escaping." McCree nodded in affirmation and Adrian continued, "I'll take out these two here, you take the ones in the back, radio when we're in position and we'll go from there. Dr. Ziegler, I assume you don't carry a firearm?"
"I do, but only for do-or-die emergency personal defense, I'm a strict pacifist."
That surprised Adrian, he never figured she'd be a pacifist considering her occupation, but he quickly had to remind himself that Overwatch wasn't in a situation where even medical personal were combat trained and armed to the teeth.
"As support, I'd recommend you stay back from when the conflict erupts, but close enough to give aid if any poor bastard that gets caught in the crossfire." She frowned at Adrian's callous mention of innocent casualties but nodded. With the plan settled they split up, with Adrian sliding down a steep dirt incline to the outskirts of the village. Laying flat on his stomach he crawled a ways behind the guards, the ferns bent around him but luckily the mercs seemed pathetically lax in their guarding. Bringing himself to a crouch, he placed his battle rifle on his back and drew his M6C silenced pistol and combat knife, he inched his way closer to the guards.
"McCree, I'm in position." He whispered as he was only a foot from the guard.
"Alright, lets get it done." McCree responded, at his words Adrian stood up and kicked on the closet mercs back lack bringing him to kneel. He brought his serrated knife across the man's throat in a quick slash, tearing out his throat with a vicious rip, he then raised his pistol in his free hand and fired at the last guard. Both went down within in second, Adrian flicked the blood of his knife and holstered his weapons, once more drawing his battle rifle. The blasting sound of McCree's magnum told him that the assault on the village had started, he shouldered himself against the nearest building and began firing at any Talon mercs that came into his line of sight. Initially most were focused on McCree's position which made it easily to come up from behind a let off a quick burst into their backs. The burst fire round from his battle rifle made quick work of the lightly armored guards, the ammo made to get through Covenant armors and shields tore through Talon's armor like paper. Each shot left three gaping holes in their bodies, a burst to the skull would blast it open, blood and brain raining down like confetti. Once Talon was made aware of his presence, Adrian ducked into the nearest building, swearing to himself when he saw, a family huddled together in the corner. Peaking the door, he immediately ducked back in as a hail of gunfire peppered his cover, grabbing a grenade off his belt he pulled the pin and rolled it into the middle of the village. An explosion followed by a series of screams told him that he was clear, shouldering his rifle he popped from the door and into the fray once again.
Two eviscerated bodies lay groaning in agony from the grenade, he left them as he had plans for them later. The last few mercs didn't last for much longer, between being pressed from two sides by McCree and Adrian, though it was admirable that they didn't surrender, instead choosing to fight till the end. McCree finished off the last one with a series of shots to the mercs gut, leaving him hunched over before falling to the side. Leaving McCree to secure the town and contact Dr. Ziegler, he walked over to the two unfortunate souls that were still alive. Of the two alive, they couldn't have been further from opposite walks of life, one looked like a hardened veteran that'd seen his fair share of combat, the other barely looked like he was old enough to grow hair. Crouching by the hardened veteran, Adrian asked a simple question, "How many men do you have in the mines?" The answer came in a bloody glob of spit in his face, it went about as planned, standing up her drew his pistol and fired a quick shot to the man's head. Moving over to the next man, or maybe it'd be better to call him a boy, he asked the same question. To the boys credit he didn't answer…at first, but that just wouldn't do, he'd had enough experience with insurrectionists to know that torture often gave poor intel, it only worked if the person you were interrogating was naïve enough to believe that the truth would set them free. Hence why you start with the older grizzled man, when he obviously won't answer, you kill or maim him to set an example for the fresh ones.
"Listen, I admire your courage for staying silent, but obviously you don't want to end up a maimed and forgotten pile of meat like your buddy over there. You know what's probably gonna happen with him? His corpse is going to get dragged out of here like a sack of garbage, then he'll get tossed into the nearest river or more likely, into the nearest ditch where he'll get picked apart by scavengers. Now clearly you don't want that, what's more, we have a doctor with us. Dr. Ziegler, very nice and I guarantee her magic wand or whatever can heal these wounds, you'll be able to live."
The boy's eyes grew in shock, "You…you've got Mercy with you? I-I-I can live!"
Adrian had never heard of 'Mercy' nor any inkling as to why it was associated with Dr. Ziegler, but he pushed that thought to the back of his mind.
"Exactly kid, besides it'd be a shame if your last few moments were spent in grueling agony." Adrian said as he twirled his serrated combat knife into view. The young man's face twisted to an indescribable terror, his mouth hung agape, attempting to form words but unable to, it took a few seconds before a stuttering babble came out and slowly became a cohesive sentence.
"Th-th-th-theres uhmmm…like nine guys there and-"
"Like nine? Or there is nine? I want exact numbers and you want to have the same exact number of fingers you do know."
"Uhmm-uhmm," He stammered, sweat running down his face, "Nine, its exactly nine guys we sent over there…be-be-because uhmmm, twenty-three of us were sent here and fourteen of here stayed in this village."
Adrian stared at him a moment longer before nodding and standing up, "Alright kid, good job."
"N-n-now I can see Mercy, right? And she'll make me all better?" His voice trembled with earnest as his eyes stared up at Adrian's covered form.
"Yeah, we'll get right to that." Adrian turned, pulling his pistol, and firing a quick shot with practiced efficiency at the last Talon merc in the village. He began to walk over to a stunned McCree, his mouth ajar with the signature cigar barely balancing on the tip of his lip. Depolarizing his faceplate, he began to tell McCree what he'd learn from the Talon mercs when Dr. Ziegler jogged up to the two of them.
"Where are the two wounded Talon operatives?" She questioned a concerned look in her eyes.
McCree scratched the back of his beck awkwardly, "Well it seems that they uhh didn't make it. Sorry bout that." His eyes quickly flashed over to Adrian's form.
Her eyes widened in horror at the realization, "You…you didn't kill those wounded men, did you?!" Disbelief in her voice as she spoke to Adrian. Through his depolarized faceplate he gave no hint of remorse, instead only betraying the faintest confusion.
"Of course, what else what I do?"
Baffled, she struggled to comprehend what she was hearing, even McCree, the most gung-ho and rebellious of the Overwatch members still never killed any disabled Talon merc that couldn't possibly pose a threat.
"They were injured! Out of the fight, they didn't have a hope of attacking us! I could've healed them, brought them back as a prisoner!" She had always been on a tenuous relationship with Overwatch, she'd voiced her concerns over their militaristic and the blatant fallout of their actions, specifically focusing at the formation of Talon. But this was a whole new level of disbelief that she'd never expected from any member of Overwatch.
"Let them live they can make a full recovery? Escape from Gibraltar or send vital information back to Talon? Leaving them alive will only lead to problems down the line." Why would it matter that he killed them, an enemy was an enemy, if they spared the life of every injured Covenant and never finished them off, the war would've ended a lot faster. Prisoner of war wasn't a term the UNSC or Covenant were very familiar with, even for the insurrectionists only a very few high-ranking individuals were captured by the UNSC and as far as he was aware this wasn't a tag-and-bag mission.
"Because it makes us better than Talon, it means we're still human inside. What if we'd just killed you onsite instead of brining you back to Overwatch?"
"I'd shoot myself, if I were in your position and faced with an unknown and hostile force, I'd put it down. But what does it matter that you're better than Talon, what happens when Talon wins? Let's face it, Overwatch is on the losing side right, you guys lack, power, numbers, and influences to really combat Talon, and your biggest concern is over saving MORE of your enemies? You don't get to be morally righteous and win the war, you don't have to stoop to their levels, but you can stand on your righteous seat while killing others. Sure, they might've had families, but so does every person killed or maimed in their terrorist actions, how many saved Talon mercs have to be saved only to escape and commit more atrocities before the lives of innocents finally outweighs the lives of the mercs. Not saving them; doing what's necessary doesn't make you evil, it means you want to succeed in your goals."
"But who decides what's necessary? Sure, if I don't save them, I'm not on the equivalent of terrorizing cities, but how many more times do we slide our moral compass to 'do what's necessary'? Aren't the Covenant just doing what they believe is right? That they're morally justified in doing what's necessary?" With that she sighed, she looked at Adrian with a look he couldn't place, it wasn't pity but almost something worse than that…inhumanity? He shook his head as she walked off to see to the civilians.
"Listen I'm not about to get in the middle of your spat, much as I disagree with some of what was said, but we still have a mission to complete." McCree walked up to him, uncertainty lacing his words.
Breathing deeply, he spoke, "You're right…you're right. Listen we don't know who many are on patrol or if any plan on coming back, leaving Ziegler here if that happens would undo all the work we did and give the upper hand to Talon."
McCree nodded, "You suggest one of us staying here while the other handles the mine?"
"I'd handle the mine; you stay here with the Doctor."
"Nine is a lot for one person, you sure partner?"
Yeah…I'll figure something out as I go along." He the left the conversation at that, the mine wasn't that far, only fifteen minutes, but he'd still be stuck with his thoughts and formulating a plan. Trekking through the jungle, his mind kept racing back towards his argument with Ziegler, that she brought up the fucking Covenant, as if she had any god damn experience with suruving that hell. Every passing day just further emphasized that he wasn't meant for this Earth. This wasn't his world, they were in a tense struggle sure, but they had the luxury or rather, normalcy, of the world continuing on in their failures, they had morals and rules they shaped them into the organization they were today, they didn't have to stoop to the lows of ONI or even the UNSC at times to simply stay alive. As his anger subsided, he sighed to himself and decided that in the future, he'd just defer to the others, this wasn't his world to save, they'd rue the consequences for their own actions, if they kept on their righteous path they wouldn't make it, but that wasn't his problem. He still vehemently disagreed with her about saving those goons, despite that, he should make amends with Dr. Ziegler later, he didn't need to vilify himself to one of the few people at Overwatch that tolerated him. She was just doing what she thought was right, and as callous as it felt for her to bring up the Covenant…she wasn't wrong, he'd been arguing that tame point in his mind just a few days ago when he'd first been brought to Overwatch. Coming up upon the mine, he could see the industry equipment peaking up through the trees, eventually it opened up into a small clearing, several trucks were parked by the entrance to the mine with a four Talon mercs patrolling the outside. Initially he wondered why such a small number of Talon mercs would be guarding this mine, but it started to make sense it seemed to be very small, that only led to more questions. The ape -Winston- had mentioned that they were using this for economic gain, but such a small mine couldn't possibly produce that much wealth, unless the ore was exceedingly rare, or they were looking for something specifically.
That wasn't his worry however, the specifics were above him, he was just here to follow orders and clear the mine. Standing outside the mine were four mercs, that left five inside the mine itself, but these ones here would be the hardest. Inside the mine its doubtful that they were bunched up like these four, and he'd be able to use the mine's layout to pick them off, here though…it would be difficult. He could toss a grenade, he wasn't sure how volatile any of the junk around here was, it'd be a greater risk then it was worth. In the end it didn't seem like he'd need any elaborate plan, one of them seemed suspicious with his comms chatter, or more likely, the lack of it. He motioned to another one to come with him, they walked across the red clay and into one of the nearby trucks, once they pulled out it only left two left.
"McCree, its Kasporov, I just saw two tangos pullout in a truck headed in the direction of the village. You've probably got three minutes before they're there."
"Copy that, thanks for the heads up."
Backtracking just a bit, he walked further off to the side of the mine, if he could line up the two guards then he'd be able to fire off a quick double burst and be done with them. With silent footfalls he maneuvered around the foliage, careful not to disturb anything that would reveal his position. The closer to the mine he got, the redder the clay became until his black boots were covered in the reddish earth, finally find a good spot, he took a kneel and shouldered his rifle. With careful aim he waited until the two bodies lined up, with a quick double tap from his rifle both went down, one after the other. He hesitated just a second to see if anyone else would come up from the mine, with only the sound of rustling trees greeting him, he quickly jogged over toward the bodies. Their bodies would be a dead giveaway that something was wrong, and while he wasn't looking for a clean hiding spot, a few extra seconds before Talon realized something was wrong would be the best. Squatting down, he grabbed the first corpse by its armpits and dragged it away from the entrance, the blood flowed freely into the ground, only deepening the already red soil into a dark crimson. He brought the first body behind the nearest truck and followed suit with the second, with the bodies clear he took his final grenade off his belt and laid a simple wire trap at the entrance. With luck, one of these morons wouldn't be paying attention and set it off. Travelling into the mine, he noticed that the deeper he got the darker it became, the lights on the walls were faint and several flickered or were out completely. Turning on his VISR, his whole world became engulfed with a faint green tint, the walls contrasted sharper and objects of interest became highlighted in his HUD.
Talking ahead of him caused his to pause, his walking became more measured as each step hit the dirt with a muffled precision. His VISR highlighted two armed men, they stood on a balcony overlooking several miners down below. Replacing his battle rifle with his silenced pistol, he fired two shots into the upper torso of each body, the one of the right went down gurgling, but the second one turned in surprise to see Adrian's black as midnight armor poke out from the flickering tunnel. To him it must've seemed like a ghost coming out of the shadows, the man stepped back a couple times in shock before Adrian fired two more shots and set the man tumbling over the edge. The body landed with a sickening crunch; he didn't need to see the body after hearing that. Moving past the balcony, he entered another tunnel at the end, it split into a path to the left heading down and another straight ahead, the path to the left was probably for the workers, he continued moving forward. The tunnel seemed to grow larger the further in he went, there was a sharp turn up ahead to the right, but a blip on his motion-tracker told him someone was walking towards the corner. Pressing himself against the corner, he planned to surprise the enemy, but his hasty movements caused some of the lose gravel on the ground to stir. Adrian silent swore to himself and hoped that the man was an idiot and wouldn't hear it, but the blip on his motion tracker went silent. The man burst from the corner, assault rifle aimed at Adrian, he batted the rifle away and grabbed it firmly with both hands. With as much force as he could muster, he pulled the rifle and the man to the left and slammed him into the wall opposite of Adrian.
They wrestled for control of the rifle until the man attempted to headbutt Adrian, but his helmet absorbed the shock, wresting control of the rifle, he threw the man to the ground. With surprising agility and speed, the man drew his knife and rolled to the side, a sharp pain flared in the back of Adrian's leg as the man stabbed it in-between his armor plates. Adrian fell to a kneel as his leg gave out, he was sent flying into the wall behind him with a crash as the man's armored knee hit Adrian in the head. His head was swimming and his vision blurry, he barely registered falling to the ground as the man grabbed his leg and dragged him to the middle of the tunnel. The man's knee pressed into his stomach as the merc brought himself down closer to Adrian, knife in hand.
"I don't know who you are, or why you've got this fancy armor, but I'm gonna enjoy making you squeal." He spoke with ravenous ferocity, a Southern drawl accenting his words.
Adrian felt the tip of the knife crack through the plate on his chest and into his side, he let out a hiss as he felt it slice deeper. Brining his right leg in towards his chest, he quickly kicked the merc in the stomach and pushed him off, using his momentary confusion, Adrian grabbed the man's knife wielding hand by the wrist and gave it a sharp turn. The sound of bones breaking at the unnatural bend caused his grip to falter and the knife to fall, Adrian grabbed the man by the collar and threw him to the ground before giving a forceful stomp to the man's throat. The sound of his windpipe cracking resounded through the enclosed space as the man futilely gasped for air. Adrian took a step back but grunted in pain from his wounds, the leg wouldn't be bad, but the abdomen could cause problems if he didn't take care of it soon. Cracking his trauma pack on his leg, he took out a small canister of biofoam and filled the wound, left alone it'd heal well enough, but he didn't have time to wait for it to fully heal. Limping down the rest of the corridor, he took him several wrong turns before he ended up in the deepest part of the mine. It seemed to be a sort of headquarters almost, it was a cavernous room, with radios, gear, and several crates of supplies, it was enough to at least stock several dozen soldiers, far more than they'd had here. Maybe this was a staging ground, they sent in a few men to secure the area and more would follow later to establish a greater hold, regardless it would be a great help to Overwatch, he made a mental note to tell McCree and Ziegler about the supplies. In the far corner he saw two men hunched after a table by the radios, intently discussing something, with one man angrily pointing towards something on the map. Limping closer towards them, he aimed his pistol and fired two quick shots to the back of their heads, the bodies fell forward with a heavy thud onto the table. Continuing his limp towards the table, he saw it was a geographic map highlighting troop movement in the area, patrols maybe or plans for the future forces? Shrugging, he unceremoniously pushed the corpses off the table, their blood-stained parts of the map but hopefully it didn't cover anything too vital. Folding the map, he tucked it under his chest piece with his ODST flag, with those two dead, that would mean the mine was clear, at least if what the Talon agent had said was true. Taking one last look around the room, he began his long limp back to the surface, it took him a good twenty minutes to eventually find his way back above ground, his breathing was haggard as the wounds took their toll. At some point on the way back up, he could feel the barely healing flesh of his wound tear once more, looking down he saw a steady dribble of dark blood leaking down his armor. Making his way to the nearest truck, he hoped in and hotwired the truck, radioing McCree ahead of time so he wouldn't get shot at, he began his slow drive back to the village. The longer the drive went on the more his vision began to blur, his breathing became more unsteady, he'd lost a decent amount of blood from his stomach wound and the added exertion was only making matters worse. By the time he reached the village, his driving was already erratic, sloppily pulling into the village, he saw McCree eye him with a humorous stare.
"What wrong? Never learned to drive stick before?"
Adrian give a light grin, fumbling to grasp the door handle, when he pulled the level he fell out as a lump of a man. He groaned with the fall and rolled over onto his back, McCree swore in the distance and he heard him call for someone, everything was losing focus around him, but then as if in a dream, it seemed as if an angel appeared above him, wings and all.