Sergeant 1st Class Tomas "Sev" Sevchenko
November 2359
Outside Visari's Palace, Helghan
"All right." I began. "Let's start this over. Scolar Visari, I am placing you under ISA arrest under Article 27 of the Stockholm Treaty: Building and amassing military forces with intent against the interests of Earth and her colonies. If you resist or try to escape, you will held accountable and executed immediately."
I walked up towards Visari's back and grabbed him tightly by his forearms. With my right hand, I reached into my utility bag and brought out the MRBs (Magnetic Restraining Bracelets), the new standard tool for arresting and capturing war criminals. MRBs weren't like the traditional handcuffs used Vektan and Terran police forces; once placed on the suspect's arms, MRBs magnetically bind together and hold the asshole's arms in place with enough force to restrain a fully-grown gorilla—a fitting choice for an animal like Visari.
"Let's go, you son-of-a-bitch." I pointed my rifle at the Emperor's head and urged him to move towards the exit where Rico was standing in wait for us. The two of us exited downstairs from the dark, empty throne chamber and entered the sea of fellow grunts stationed just below us. The other ISA boys looked basically the same as me and Rico; they wore olive-green, Earth-styled uniforms adorned with dark grey steel helmets on their heads and glowing, light blue PDAs on their torsos. Me and Rico wore essentially the same thing only neither of us wore helmets and Rico was in his old Legionnaires uniform from when he and Templar drove off the Higs from Vekta four years ago.
As we herded our prize down towards the convoy, I began to see the expressions of boredom and anxiety on our soldiers' faces turn to those of shock, awe, and disbelief. I guess it's not every day you get to see the most powerful war criminal in history get his ass kicked and handcuffed by two regular grunts. Then again, me and Rico were members of Alpha Squad, Colonel Templar's hand-picked unit of badass ISA commandoes, so I guess we weren't regular grunts.
"Holy shit!" One soldier exclaimed, "They just captured frikkin' Visari!"
"I can't believe it!" cried another. "Two fucking guys wasted Radec and Visari's personal guard!?"
"Unbelievable! We're finally gonna end this shitstorm and go home!"
Immediately, the soldiers' shouts of shock and amazement towards us became those of mocking and scorn towards Visari.
"A lot of fucking good nuking your own city did ya, asshole!?"
"So much for your 'Helghan superiorioty'!"
"Maybe next time, you'll think twice before fucking with the ISA!"
"The Vektan War Court's gonna kick your ass, Visari!"
"Your days are numbered, Visari, and the number's pretty damn small!"
"Go to Hell, you prick!"
One particularly pissed off soldier screamed, "My wife's dead and my sister's in the hospital because of you! I can't wait 'til we haul your ass back home so we can see it executed on live TV!"
When we finally passed the stairway, the commotion behind me culminated in a loud chanting of "ISA! ISA! ISA!". You get the idea. It was a bit amusing to see a bunch of grown-ass soldiers being reduced to a bunch of middle-school kids that have just won their first football game, but I didn't blame them.
Rico and I dragged Visari towards the vast Avenger Convoy parked in front of the palace, where we saw Captain Narville, our field commander and leader of the convoy, giving orders to a younger-looking grunt.
"Make sure those HAMRs are in pristine condition, Hooper. I want us to be able to take out any leftover Higs that might give us trouble."
"Yes, sir!" shouted the younger soldier.
Narville then turned his head toward us and marveled at our accomplishment. "Well, well, well," he said to Visari with pride and satisfaction. "I never thought in my life I'd get to see the 'great and powerful' Scolar Visari in the flesh. How's it feel to know that you've lost? That not even your petrusite cannons and your bitch Colonel Radec could stop us!? That the ISA's gonna end this little conquest of yours and finally give our planet the justice it deserves!?"
Visari looked into the Captain's eyes with fury and responded, "You speak of justice, but who are you to condemn us? Centuries ago, your people stole from us what was rightfully ours and banished us to this hellish planet! Does that sound like justice to you!?"
"Times have changed Visari." The Captain replied with quiet anger. "Vekta belongs to us now. It was your people who rose up against the United Colonial Nations in the first place and caused the rivalry between us. It was your people who launched an unprovoked invasion on Vekta and massacred thousands of civilians. It was your people who caused many broken, angry men and women to join the counter-invasion for revenge. You asked for this war, Visari. We didn't. The Vektan War Court will crucify you for all the crimes against you committed—not just against our planet…" He forcibly grabbed the Emperor and made him face the shattered nuclear crater that was now Pyrrhus. "…but against your own." "The difference between you and us, Visari: we don't drop nukes on our cities." Narville finished.
Narville then called out the names of two soldiers. "Douglas! Forrester!" They quickly rushed toward him and saluted. "Here. Get this cocksucker out of my sight on onboard an APC. Make sure he comes to no harm; he'll be getting plenty of that on Vekta."
"Right away, sir!"
"Let's go you son-of-a-bitch."
The two grunts grabbed Visari tightly on either side by his arms and walked him towards the rear of the convoy.
With Visari gone, Narville turned again to face me and Rico. "Sevchenko! Velasquez!" We hurriedly lowered our guns, stood at attention, and saluted him. "Sir!" We shouted simultaneously.
Narville let out a small, pleasant smile and chuckled, "At ease, boys. Save the formal shit for the higher-ups who'll award you your medals on Vekta." I gotta say, it was pretty damn weird to see the Captain actually smile for once. Narville was known among the ISA for being a stern, strict, no-bullshit officer to his subordinates. Just hours ago, Rico and I saw Narville yell at a squad of grunts who'd apparently lost the will to fight after our flagship, the New Sun, was destroyed. I even heard some of his troops secretly nicknamed him "Captain Hardass". When you're around an officer like that for so long, you begin to wonder if he's even capable of showing any kind of compassion.
Anyway, after we stopped saluting, Narville once again spoke. "You two have no idea how goddamn proud I am to be your commander. You've have done more than I or anyone else in the ISA could ever have asked. You came to this shithole, fought through God knows how many Helghast troops, took out that bastard Radec, and captured possibly the most notorious and dangerous war criminal in modern history! Having Visari as a hostage is gonna give us the ultimate leverage; the Higs'll have no choice but to surrender so that their precious "Autarch" won't become roadkill. Thanks to you, we're just one broadcast away from ending this operation in total victory. You've done me proud, boys. 50 years from now, the two of you are gonna be remembered as the men who took down the Emperor."
"Holy shit!" I thought. "We're receiving praise from Captain Hardass himself!" I struggled to keep my stoic, military expression from breaking into a huge, childlike smile. I looked over to my left towards Rico. He was doing a better job of keeping his cool, but I could tell he was thinking the same thing.
"I'm…ecstatic to hear that, sir!" I exclaimed like a ten-year-old at his first baseball game. "Uh…what are our orders, now?"
"I'll give you guys an easy job now, as a reward. You two are on HAMR duty." He pointed left down the long column of tanks in the convoy. "Go see Hooper and tell him to get a HAMR ready. Tell him I ordered you to do it." Finally, he saluted back at us and said, "Dismissed!"
We headed down the direction Narville pointed for us.
"Oh, and Velasquez?" Narville chirped in.
"Yeah?" Rico responded.
"If Colonel Templar were still here, he would be so Goddamn proud."
"Th—thank you, Captain."
I took a look at Rico's dark brown face. He normally wore an angry grimace towards everyone, Helghast or not, but for once, he seemed…sad. Like the "I just went to my best friend's funeral" kind of sad. Don't take my word for it, but I think I was starting to see tears in Rico's eyes, which is like seeing tears on a Hig's face. Impossible.
He quickly snapped his eyes towards me and growled "What the Hell are you lookin' at?"
"Nothing! Nothing! Just…zoned out for a second."
"Yeah, I thought so. Come on. Let's go meet this guy Hooper."
Jesus, even when he's sad, Rico's not someone to be pissed off. I wouldn't blame him for being sad, though, as he and the Colonel go way back. As we walked together, I actually did take the time to zone out for a minute and think about all the stories I'd heard about Rico's service with the courageous Captain Jan Templar and the badass Legionnaires...
Whew! Man, this chapter took a long time! The next chapter is going to be a flashback of Rico's service with Templar, Luger, and Hakha during Killzone 1, and how it led up to Templar's death in Killzone 2. I haven't decided on an exact number of chapters yet, but I'm planning the last one to be about Visari during his trial and execution on Vekta. How should I write that? YOU LET ME KNOW! Feel free to give me any ideas via E-mail or reviews, and I'll be more than happy to read them! And, as always CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM ONLY! NO FLAMES OR TROLLS!