Where a Mercenary's Heart lays
People always liked to pretend combat was hard, that somehow you would always be left traumatized by fighting, that you were always scared. But Mira never understood that, oh she had combats that had traumatized her, and times she was scared for sure, especially as she'd watch huge paydays slip past her. But it was never combat that got to her, it was always everything before it and after. In combat everything was pure instinct or a challenge for her to think about and tackle. But before and after she was left bored and having to think about all the other things, the expenses, how to keep the men loyal, dealing with the survivors, avoiding the whiners complaining about the destruction of their homes.
Occasionally she'd get visions of her parents telling her how they were so disappointed, and how she should go back to the church,
or that she should visit more often. She really should visit them more often but finding their wrecked ship in that asteroid field and then doing a space walk out to it just was expensive, a real difficult trip, why couldn't they have died somewhere a little more convenient? But honestly her parents never seemed all that judgemental about her line of work, though they might get judgy over Matthew, thus she never brought him up during her visits, let alone to the annoying chatterbox who basically tries to sell her out every time she visits, she really should scrap that stupid computer whenever she got around to visiting her family again. Nah, she owed the hunk of junk for getting her into the Mercenary buisness in the first place, even if it wasn't what the it intended. Besides years of being alone with nothing to do but listen to radio chatter and send out a few short messages was certainly punishment enough.
But before family visits, before she could see her Matthew, came buisness. Now Mira wasn't the most subtle of mercs, but she was still very effective at gathering and using intel. And she loved to use her skills to gather intel.
So with a prep to her step Mira reach the door for the interrogation room and walked in. "How's he holding up?" The Mercenary leader asked as she walked into the chamber. Across the room one of her marines held a rope that suspended a man upside down and head first in a vat filled with some heavier than air gas. The man was grunting in severe pain as he hang, all while the marine looked on dispassionately.
"Still tight lipped, though at this rate the gas wont leave him with any lips rather soon." The marine answered, his skull mask sliding between the merc leader and their captive.
"As fun as that sounds, lets pull him up." Mira ordered and the Marine began pulling the rope raising the man up and out of the gas. Almost immediately the man began coughing, wheezing and gasping for air.
The man's skin was red, small pools of seeping blood ran down the man's flesh and his eyes were damaged and swollen shut. He looked to be in agony, and maybe delirious but Mira needed the info she wanted, the confirmation to put together the puzzel put before her on this planet. At the moment discovering Sigmaris Prime's mysterious benefactor was eating all the resources that Mira Han had on hand.
This little fleshbag was going to tell her the last peices to the puzzle. All she needed was for him to talk. "Look at this baby, I can peel the skin right off you, looks like that gas is as bad for your health as they say. So what do you say, ready to talk? Just say the name of who is dropping off your weapons, and I'll even get a nice medic in here to treat you."
"huuuak hwaaa." The man, a member of a local group called the Scavengers gasped at Mira.
"What was that, I'm afraid you're going to have to speak up." Mira stated leaning towards the man.
"Haa geb. haaaiii,...I said, Fuck You." The man eventually gasped out slowly regaining his voice and fighting through the pain.
Mira tssked at tge answer while stepping back. "Up the gas dosage and put him back in, looks like we'll have to interrogate someone else."
"Gotcha boss." The Marine started lowering the man down again.
"Wait, wait wait wait! WAIT!" The captive man started begging as he slowly descended toward the gas that was eating away at him earlier.
"Nope, I only wait for my husband." Mira announced slowly walking away her boots clacking with every step.
"It's Maja, Maja is the person in charge of the drops!" The man provided speaking quickly and in a full panic.
Mira stopped before turning in place. "And who is Maja?" The marine stopped leaving the man suspended just close enough that he could feel the gas lapping at his scalp.
"I don't know, she's the middle man, talks a lot with our leaders. Typically we don't have contact with her and have to go through the middleman but she's out supplier she's where we got the rockets and everything else.
Mira smiled, she had the supplier, this Maja, the customer, these Stavanger goons, and the middleman who could only be the Kristos Foundation. Meanwhile the marine stood holding the man's rope. "Sooo uhhhh, boss we good?"
Mira looked to their captive and thought for a moment. "No, our employers will probably want proof of our work. Keep him." The Mercenary leader stated before walking out of the room leaving her marine to pull the man to safety away from the acidic gas filled vat.
Soon Mira made her way to her desk where all her recent records were kept and sat down before opening the secure contact bridge to Korhal and specifically to the office of Matthew Horner. After a minute of ringing Matthew appeared on screen looking as close to disheveled as he'd ever looked while under Valerian, and dead tired.
"Report." The man said still half asleep.
"Matthew, you need to get some rest. If Valerian has anything foe you to do today, or tomorrow whatever time it is there, tell him to go fuck off. You look terrible honey." Mira stated trying to encourage the uptight man to take a break for once.
"Mira... what is it?" The Dominion Admiral deadpanned while supressing a yawn.
"Well my preliminary investigation has found something I think you and the Princess might just find interesting. The Scavengers are buying from a weapons supply named Maja in a few hours. I plan to raid the deal and steal the product. I have a source of info that's suggesting that whatever is being transported is extremely volatile and extremely valuable." Mira stated with a hint of excitement and fishing for praise from her husband.
"Mira, what are you doing? We hired you to investigate the Kristos Charity Foundation, and you're waging a Mercenary war?" Matthew asked with an admonishing tone and a slight glare.
"You wanted me to investigate the Kristos Foundation, I'm doing just that. Think about it, why did that ledger I stole not include anything indicating that the Foundation is funneling supplies to rebels? Everything being in the expected margins." The Mercenary Crime-lord pessed, her own tone slightly exasperated.
"Because they're cooking the books." Matthew stated back plainly.
"Cooking the books so well that everything adds up, no extra hidden accounts, no unexplained losses? Matthew at the levels we're talking here its easier to just threaten or bridbe a politician than to try and hide such large numbers." Mira spoke from experience and a slight amount of found enjoyment, bullying administrative pencil pushers tended to be fun, especially when they were the particularly greedy type.
"Mira, I don't have time for this. What are you suggesting is going on?" Matthew demanded, clearly not willing to have fun. Sad but she could understand his impatience.
Mira started to pull up small paper files and sent Matthew image captures. "So it's all a big money laundering scheme. The Kristos Charity Foundation takes finances and provides assistance to downtrodden and war torn communities. These communities themselves are the rebels, or are already conquered by the militants threatening them. They then use the finances and supplies carefully hiding whatever they can and slide of handing the rest away to the raiders and rebels who in turn contact the benefactor behind everything and purchase larger and larger stockpiles of equipment. It just might take me some work to actually eliminate one of these rebel groups, but if I do we should be able to see the full extent of their supply. Maybe they're as hilariously undergunned as you and Ryanor were on Mar Sara."
Matthew just rubbed his eyes as if he were holding back a headache. "Of course you would try and compare that to this. What's your battle plan Mira?"
Mira just shrugged her shoulders. "We're going to rush them with Vultures, Hellions and Reapers. Use them pin the scrappies long enough for our Galleons to get in range and we'll bombard them. A standard smash and grab with a little bit of delay for the Galleons. But with the air support I should be able to pull out fairly easily."
"You don't think you might need some fighter support from the Dominion fleet?" Awww, he sounded a little concerned, she knew he cared. But she'd tease him for that later.
"No I've got plenty of my own Tac-fighters, besides this is a illicit deal. I wouldn't want such a clandestine operation put at risk by something as obvious as a warship. We're going to outgun anything they possibly have there." Mira tooknthe time to reassure Matthew, sure it was likely him being dutiful and more concerned with the success of the mission. But that he cared at all for whatever reason made Mira feel good.
"Well then, I'll just have to wish you good luck Mira." Matthew's face was flat and tired but Mira smiled at the sentiment.
"Maybe you can give me something a bit more substantial as my reward?" Mira then suggested playfully rubbing her lip.
Of course the exhausted Matthew didn't understand, but she had somewhat planned for it. "And what do you want Mira?" The over serious man deadpan asked while pulling up a coffee mug to his lips.
"Well you'd have to compensate me for all the months I'd be out of commission and certainly you would have to take care of the initial care of course..." Mira smirked looking away from the screen but nearly broke into laughter as Matthew was choking and sputtering out his coffee.
"What the hell are you saying Mira?" The man demanded in shock.
"Well between Kerrigan and Jim, and everyone else we know. Once I have the chance I'm taking it. Besides it might be nice to have a mini-me to train on how to properly break some necks and stomp some balls." Mira didn't know if she was actually teason Matthew or not at this point. She honestly was looking at the prospect of her own mortality and she didn't quite like the idea of someone else taking over the Marauders after she passes. But grooming a heir didn't seem like her sort of thing either.
Matthew sighed his shoulders slumping. "If you don't have anything else, call me once the mission is complete."
Mira raised a eyebrow. "So is that a yes? That doesn't sound like a no."
"It's a we'll talk about this later, Mira!" The Dominion's fleet admiral insisted before cutting the link leaving Mira starting at a blank holographic screen. Mira just gave a slight, somewhat confused chuckle before hitting her comms.
"Rell, get your ass in here." Rell Middleton was, Gary Crane's replacement. The speed freak was a decent choice for this type of mission he was never comfortable unless he was in his reaper suit or riding on a Vulture as it went flying over the dunes firing off a grenade launcher with impunity.
It took Rell maybe a minute to reach Mira bursting into the room and snapping off a half assed salute as he had started to do ever since they took on their contract with the Dominion. Still he was here and it looked like he was already in the process of suiting up when Mira had called for him.
"You call boss?" The man's rough voice asked as the man slowly lowered his mock salute and settled on taking a comfortable lounging pose on the chair across from the Mercenary leader.
"We're about to sortie and I need to make sure everything is going to go right. This is going to be a huge payday for us if the intel we have is good." Mira began and smirked as her Mercenary's eyes lit up like hears did when she realized just how much profit might be in the coming op.
"Ummm, how-how much are we talking about?" Mira could always rely on Rell's greed to keep him loyal and motivated. He wasn't someone who'd have a conflict of conscious in the middle of a sortie.
"We're looking at a possible stockpile of nuclear missiles on the market, combined with low end experimental tech. Then of course our contract with the Dominion. We can probably get away with claiming the rebels destroyed a good chunk of the materials. Problem is the report says the stuff is high hazard and volatile. So now shooting it to make it go kaboom, destroy the paydirt and I put you in the dirt." Mira explained clutching her fist at the end.
"Gotcha, making threats about not shooting the merch. So should I dust everyone there or are we snatching anyone again like last time." Rell asked still relaxed in his seat.
"Just one, an off planet representative going by Maja. We can't confirm their appearance so we'll need to think on our toes, otherwise feel free to scrap the rest." Mira explained, which earned a nod from Rell.
"Intel on the terrain?" Rell asked.
"Rough terrain, they chose a valley to hide their exchange in. Looks like there might be tunnels nearby. I bet their planning to use those tunnels to smuggle the supplies out, so collapsing them will be the first thing we do. After that surround them and keep hitting them until they're all dead." As Mira was giving the orders Rell's bloodthirsty grin grew, she knew he loved to hear these sort of instructions.
"There's gotta be a catch, what are we expecting some firepower there?" Rell asked growing somewhat skeptical.
"They're low grade militia idiots, these guys would be lucky to have gear or training of the quality of the Dominion Army, and we're better than any of their Reapers or Marines. They probably picked the location because they thought it looked clandestine rather than because they know the terrain." Mira explained earning a mix of laughter from herself and Rell as they thought of the unfortunate souls who made up the reserve and true bulk of the Dominion military.
Dominion Troopers were just inadequate, they might be able to police a planet, but at least until Valerian had taken over their training and gear meant that the vast majority of 'survivors' from when the Dominion Garrison Armies met the Zerg were all infested slaves of the Zerg. If the Dominion Troopers were the standard for army, then most militias might as well be unarmed civilians.
"Alright head out. I'll be commanding from the Galleon." Mira then ordered. The plan was indeed straight forward and simple, and the Galleons would be there for quick exfiltration should things go wrong as well as providing heavier long range fire support. But with all these advantages, a little good luck was always neccesary and everyone aboard the Assault Galleon flotilla were performing their own good luck rituals.
Joel Dukes lifted yet another crate off the back of one of the flatbed transport trucks the Scavengers had been using for the last several days. Honestly between the credits and the sheer amount of high value stuff he had never seen si much wealth in one place, and they were supposed to trade it all off for just a handful of weapons that he and the others probably wouldn't even see used?
Joel had joined the Scavengers for a better life, free of the Dominion and their constant wars with aliens. To achieve the dream of self government was the ideal of all rebels wasn't it? So then why were they taking this wealth that they could use to start their own independent colony and using it on weapons? These were not even ones that would win the hearts and minds of the people, let alone let them defeat any retaliation from the Dominion which was sure to happen.
But where Joel was concerned about the current trade others seemed far less concerned. "Yo Zack, check this helmet! There's a whole targeting display and it's even got the ability to help me aim my gun!"
"Emmett you know that we can't afford them gun uplinks, not for a piss poor aim loser like you." Two of Joel's fellow rebels were unpacking the equipment and already playing with the new supplies.
"Nah see man, it's already helping me aim, and I didn't need to plug the gun onto nothin', I can even make a finger gun and it's giving me a target line. It's freaking awesome!" Emmett replied to Zack while Joel scowled grabbing another box of credits to pass to these shady arms dealers.
"Whoooo weeiii! Special helmets, missiles, bet we could totally take out the entire garrison in a couple minutes if we wanted to." Zack cheered. agitating Joel even further.
Filled with a righteous rage the man turned on the other two rebels who were goofing off. One with a helmet on his head that looked something like a mixture of a beetle carapace and an ancient hoplite helmet with a red tinted screen concealing his face. The other stood looking over a simple rocket launcher that seemed to have a guidance system added onto it.
"Now both of you can it! We ain't here to play around, we're here to liberate Sigmaris Prime from the tyranny of the Dominion. They ain't going to lay down and say we won just because we've got a few guns, we need the people to back us up otherwise them jackbooted Dominion assholes will be handing us all our asses." Joel admonished the pair who just flipped him off before inspecting more of the gear they were supposed to be loading into the trucks.
Joel was about to shout at the pair but a new voice cut him off. "He makes a good point, besides you can play with the equipment later." Now a woman in a dark skinsuit, with red robes overtop stepped forward looking directly at Joel as she approached.
"I take it you are Joel Dukes?" The woman asked and with the courteous smile, dark hair and good looks, Joel took a little too long before he finally answered.
"Ummm, yes. How...?" She cut him off.
"Do I know your name? Your commanders spoke fondly of you. A man to escalate and prop up. Not a military leader, but a true leader of men and one of conviction and combat prowess." The woman stated with a small smile.
"Ummm, well shucks, I wouldn't say that much of myself." Joel shyly accepted the complement.
"And your modest. But maybe that's what makes you the most suitable person to lead this world." t
The woman stated causing Joel to look to her in astonishment.
"Now what are you on about? I'm a follower, I'm not the leader round here, heck these nimwits won't eve. listen to me." Joel asked, eyes still wide with shock.
"Maybe not now, but if you had some power behind your words they'd surely take anything you say as gospel." The woman stated with a grin while putting her hand on her hip.
"Listen, ummm, I'm sorry but what is your name?" Joel began before asking the woman her name.
"Maja." She easily and simply provided.
"Listen Maja, the commanders are the leaders, they're not going to let some grunt run things after all their hard work..." Joel began but Maja stopped him with a raised hand and slowly the importance of the woman before him dawned on Joel.
"No, the Commanders won't remain on this planet after liberation, they've already sworn their service to my cause, and as such they will be moving on to face off against the entirety of the Dominion. Their sacrifice will ensure no Dominion retaliation will come to this world, and when the dust settles we will have a New Order of Diplomacy that will require leaders like you to help us secure our future as a species." The woman, the arms supplier and the one person who was actually able to give orders to the leaders of the Scavengers stood before Joel confessing a grand vision even beyond his comprehension.
"Wait, are you seriously suggesting that y'all intend to take out the Dominion?" Joel asked eyes going wide as he looked from the woman to the small bunker that the Scavengers' leadership were all coordinating their future plans in.
The woman, Maja, smiled at Joel. "Establishing a new paradigm is easy. The truth is that it is the Old that is the problem. You're forced to either compromise with it or see it removed entirely. And with a monarchy as the Dominion our New Order can not compromise with it's existence." As she spoke the woman's hands outstretched and she spoke with an almost ideological fervor.
Joel however felt himself becoming skeptical. "You just plan on blasting the Dominion away, what do you have enough nukes to destroy Korhal? Destroying the Dominion has got to be the most insane thing I've ever heard." He didn't want to argue, but right now, it seemed prudent to stand opposed to this woman for the sake of everyone, let alone for his own sense of reason.
"Every state possesses vital organs that they can not continue without. A military to enforce their rules and keep the people oppressed, trade to provide for their people and keep them happy and content, media to tell the people what to think, the list goes on. The Dominion will thrash about and likely cause some to suffer as it dies, but once we do it's death is assured." The woman almost sounded cold, and logical as she spoke.
"And then what?" Joel asked, fearing for the safety of his world and himself. But if Joel was frustrating or annoying Maja at all the red cloaked woman didn't show any signs of it.
"And then the New Order of Diplomacy will be installed. Each world will join a council together and each world will work together to see to their own collective good rather than serving as slaves to a central rule. And with unification by One single Vision shared among all worlds we will serve towards One Purpose. All worlds and people's will be raised up and enlightened rather than left in the dark by a monarch's rule. Rather than being a single state, we will be a union of states, whose only dictate with be a ideology that calls for us to stand for the advancement of humanity." Maja explained, or tried to, but for Joel the vision she spoke of was still too obscure and it still felt like something was missing. Still Sigmaris Prime would be free, and that was enough for him.
Before any of that though there was still the conflict. They still needed to overthrow the Dominion Garrison here, and then they needed to somehow do the whole destruction of the Dominion plan Maja was proposing and Joel also suspected they'd need to make a new government while preparing for or even holdingnout against a Dominion counter attack. None of that was a easy proposition.
"Hey, Hey Zack! Look at this beautiful thing!" Emmett shouted as other Scavengers were now unloading the missiles from Maja's cargo ship.
"Holy fuck! Thing looks like it could kill a whole base. Just what the hell is this thing?" Zack shouted in reply. And the missile was indeed an astounding sight, something that left Joel awestruck. The Missile itself was relatively large, it would need a dedicated launcher like those typically mounted on a Battleship, or a cruiser to properly aim and fire. Certainly the missile's range must have been tremendous, and more interesting the missile side panels were open revealing a glass tube in its main body that was filled with some sort of green liquid.
Beside Joel, Maja scowled at the weapon. "A single good strike and with the size of this planet's active garrison you will have Sigmaris Prime entirely under your control within hours. And with my order's help you'll have a new government established in just as much time." She seemed to both hold the weapon in a mixture of disdain and reverence at the same time, but Joel was still caught in the moment and still entirely disbelieving everything happening before him.
"You can't be serious, this... Is this a chemical weapon? Just who are you people? What the hell do you want with me?" Joel asked the pressure and disbelief of everything happening starting to strain his nerves and pushing him towards the edge.
Maja turned back to the man looking him in the eyes. "I am from the Brotherhood, we bring divination and liberation to your world. And of all the Rebels on Sigmaris Prime, you are the one best suited to take over when our militants leave this world to spread the technology of peace, the vision and purpose to more worlds."
Joel had never considered such madness when he joined the Scavengers. He hated the Dominion and wanted self rule of course, but actually achieving it, using weapons like what he was witnessing before him? None of that ever seemed even like a remote possibility, now he was thinking of what it would take to actually fight the Dominion and this woman was actually confident that her side would win.
"And what about us. You talk all these grandiose ideas but are we just your patsys?" Joel asked feeling himself nervously palming his pistol.
Maja smirked and shook her head. "No, your world will simply be a part of the Lands of NOD. We have no intent to abandon you, we're here to give you peace. First though, we are giving you the power neccesary for peace." Now Joel could feel it, a wave of reassurance wash over him, but it wasn't his own mind creating that reassurance, everything about this encounter seemed so unreal because something about it had been off the entire time.
While Joel had never met a Ghost, he had seen the show broadcasts like Ghost Bride, and Ghost in the armor, and they all always made faces sort of like Maja's when they used their powers to fuck with someone's mind. They all also seemed to wear bodysuits like the one Maja was wearing right now. And Joel found them all so hot, just like Maja. But could she read his mind? Then wouldn't pulling his pistol be dangerous because she could melt his brain before he could move? Was he really going to consider shooting an ally?
Joel almost sighed in relief when a shouting officer came running out of the bunker. Commander Daniel's normally stern, perpetually angry face now distorted into one of pure panic that swiftly unnerved every rebel who served under him. "Contact, we have Contacts! I don't know how they slipped the outer perimeter! We're surroun..."
The muscular man's panicked shouting was cut off as three streaking Polariton Torpedoes flew overhead before slamming into the bunker and immediately detonating. As they flew the Torpedoes sounded like the condemnation of hell, and the wave of pressure and fire that followed after their impact might as well have been the gates of hell swinging open. The ramshackle bunker was immediately engulfed in a fireball that left nothing of the building. Meanwhile the concussive wave tore Daniel off the ground throwing the several hundred pound man with such force his bones all shattered upon impact.
As the rebels watched in momentary shock the battle was already well underway. Though it was nearly a slaughter at this point. Reapers appeared from over the cliffs throwing explosive charges into the supply tunnel cutting the rebels off from their main route of escape and any reinforcements from their other camps. Meanwhile Hellions and Vultures flew into the camp turning corners and taking jumps that Joel was shocked none of them crashed while coming in.
But just as shocking to Joel was the sudden appearance of the ghosts. Men in red armor appearing as if from no where shooting machine pistols or full on lasers into the attacking foe. They were far too few in number and not nearly powerful enough, but soon the rebels got their bearings and came to the same realization that Joel's mind finally came to. 'We have to fight or we are going to die.'
is this absurdly late by a few years? yes yes it is, but better late than never... still not a good result but hey i got this going again yay.
Reviews:
cheerfullygrim: Well apparently I had very bad luck... but I'm back.
Pridefallen: *sniff, sniff* Such a beautiful comment. so precious and wonderful. I only bemoan that you're clearly not a Command and Conquer fan, we could have been such good friends. boo hoo, sob, cry, woe is us all.