From the sweltering, humid heat of the jungle, to the dry heat of another planet. The Federation wasn't moving in to secure any sort of tech this time, however. They had a two-prong mission, courtesy of the new Sky Marshal Tehat Meru's updated war plans. The Mobile Infantry would clear every grain of planetary sand around Klendathu of Bugs after the 300,000 dead on that planet. They'd do it methodical, quick and deadly and they'd find the Bugs' theorized leadership, bring them out into the light, too.
Rosie stood at attention with Rico, Diz and Ace as their new Lieutenant walked in. The man with a mechanical right forearm and hand was bald, looked mean as hell and seemed sharp and focused. He walked up to the front of the unit, Rosie noting the respect the Roughnecks, their new platoon, showed to the man. He stopped in front of them, sizing all four of them up, then began to speak, his voice hard, but understanding, "This is for all you new people. I only have one rule. Everybody fights... Nobody quits. You don't do your jobs, I'll shoot you myself."
And he barked, "Do you get me!?"
"We get you, sir!" The four replied, Diz and Rico showing a hint of joy. They knew the guy, so that was somewhat recomforting. The woman felt up her newfound robotic arm and looked at Raczak, the Lieutenant commanding the eponymous Raczak's Roughnecks, with some degree of respect. Word of mouth was the man had commanded a great deal of respect out of every soldier he'd served with.
... Tango Urilla, one of the first Bug Colonies in their path, was about to test just how capable Raczak was. Rosie was knelt out among the dunes, the dozens of troops belonging to the Roughnecks spread out evenly as their stand-in for a JTAC called in the bugs' swarms around a valley dead ahead of them. She arranged her sleeveless black shirt underneath her armor vest, then wiped some sweat off her brow as the twin suns of the Klendathu system beat down on them all.
The swarm of bugs dead ahead of them chittered and skittered around like Bugs normally would. However Rosie noted their terrifying presence. The Warrior Bug, colored black, yellow and red, was a massive quadrupedal bio-tank, its outer hide a chitin that acted almost like ceramic armor plating. Its two massive vertically-placed mandibles could rip a man in two with little issue, while the smaller, extendable, dagger-like ones would quickly and accurately pierce armor. Kill or maim someone the moment they got them.
She was not afraid to admit she smiled like a maniac when she heard the roar of jets up above. She watched them come in, the Federation TAC Fighters, the only semi-capable thing in their arsenal. Almost delta-wing in design and much smaller than the Longsword, they still carried a decent-enough payload. In this case, she watched cans of sticky fire drop wildly out of their recessed bays, detonating and splashing lines of hellfire across the Bug Swarms' lines.
The burning fire stuck to the hides of the creatures, boiling them inside their own carapaces. Their screams of pain were audible, loud, terrifyingly familiar, yet oh-so-distantly alien. It made Rosie smile all the wider, honestly. She'd lost an arm to these fucking things and she'd sent a preliminary report on their capabilities to her ONI handler, meaning, she hoped, that the UNSC would be better able to dole out the punishment a bunch of non-sentient Hive-minded creatures would have.
Truth be told, she smiled. Deep down, however, she was a little sorry for the damn things. Alongside this war being actively triggered by warlords trying to keep their waning grip on power in this alternate humanity's twisted version of the UEG, they were mere 'pawns' in a way, creatures that weren't truly meant to fight a war, more-so just exist as a swarm of bugs trying to live out its life, no different from ants.
They'd still taken her arm, though, so...
Raczak raised his good hand and showed the platoon to start moving out. They formed up and started wading over the hills, Rosie noting the burning, charred remains of the creatures as she gripped her Morita closely. At least he had the luck of getting iron sights for this one. Raczak told them all, "Alright then," as a smirk formed on his face, "I want fireteams of four! Scout around, find any survivors! And if you found an untouched Bug Hole?" He paused for seeming dramatic effect, then ordered, "Nuke it!"
The scent of carbonized chitin and glassed sand assailed each man as they advanced, Rosie walking with a Fireteam belonging to the dark-skinned corporal whose name she didn't even bother learning. She'd hoped the Roughnecks were a bit tougher than the average Joe or Jane of the unit, but didn't hold out much hope. Short-sleeve gear and all was a bit too foretelling of maybe stupidity.
Then again, with the heat of the goddamn twin suns beating down on their heads would've been killer if they wore the standard long-sleeved grey uniforms of the Mobile Infantry. A distant thunder rumbled as she heard Rico's platoon take out a Bug Hive, before her unit advanced into a wide-open space. They stopped nearby several cliffs, only for Ace to walk up to her and ask, "You good, Rosie? You've been wearing a scowl since we landed."
"Can't believe we're down to bug busting like this is all," She lied, scanning the place.
"Could be much worse. We could be on some ass-end moon on guard duty," He shot back, smirking.
She chuckled, "Or out there, fighting those loons in the UNSC..." And she leaned in, whispering, "Did you hear they took New Brasilia and New Hawaii already?"
Ace blanked, raising a brow, before whispering back, "I don't believe that, Rose. How?"
Rosie wasn't only there to sow some form of discord via information sharing with the Office of Naval Intelligence. She would sow heavy discord among the troops by spreading ugly rumors if she could help it. She told him, "Heard from a buddy I had fighting there. Surviving Pskovian... Bastards came down like a fucking hammer on the planet, naped a chunk of the Jungle and made their FOBs before going in and systematically wiping the planet kilometer by kilometer of our boys and the Militia."
"Jeez," Ace seemed a little more worried than usual. He whispered to her, "Keep this shit on the down-low... Wouldn't wanna get tried for cowardice..." to which she smirked and nodded. Well, that was Ace 'Rumor Starter' Levi up for the work. The dark-skinned leader of the unit motioned for them to push forward into the line with other platoons... Only to pause.
The chitter of talons against the floor alerted them. The woman in the lead called out, "COMBAT FORMATION! RANK FIRE!" which had Rosie taking a knee in front of Ace and the rest of the unit, alongside several others. A small swarm of Bugs appeared ahead of them, charging headlong toward them. She called out, "ENGAGE AT WILL!" before radioing in, "We've got bug contacts! Surviving swarm coming in to try and kick our asses!"
"Alright, ramblers, let's get rambling!" Rosie grinned as she shouldered her Morita. Squeezing the trigger, she felt the bolt slam back against the weapon's recoil spring, expended casings flying out incredibly rapidly as she focused her fire on the enemy. Bullets struck the chitinous layers of the monsters, cutting into and through them, spewing emerald blood onto the floor.
The swarm coalesced in an attempt to charge as one overwhelming force, instead giving the Mobile Infantry just the biggest blob to open fire into. It had honestly been a surprise that they so easily got wiped by these Bugs on Klendathu, so Rosie thought as she put round after round from her magazine into the creatures. She watched with the corner of her eye as Lieutenant Raczak brought his fireteams around from the right and swept into the creatures, firing into them from the side. It was a crossfire, a deadly crossfire.
She considered suggesting the use of flamethrowers for the swarm, simply firing on as the beasts scrambled over the corpses of their buddies to try and gnaw at them. The leader of the group showed the platoon to form two staggered lines and engage with automatic fire as they walked. The platoon obeyed, two staggered lines of men and women shooting between each-other as they pushed into the survivors of the bombings.
Rosie felt the ground below their feet rumble for a moment, before calling out, "Might be more coming from under the ground!" which made their leader nod and form them back up with the main force under Raczak. The units' combined fire whittled down the melee-oriented creatures to a handful. She and Ace focused fire on a Warrior that came too close to the platoon for comfort, while the thunder of the Sniper Morita belonging to Sugar Watkins echoed from their left.
They turned to see the man leading his own fireteam forward, Rico and the others pushing through just as the rumbling intensified and the ground behind them broke, revealing a massive black beetle with a multitude of emerald eyes glaring at the team from behind its armored carapace. She paused, blanked, then cried out, "TANKER!" at the same time as Rico.
She grabbed Ace by the collar and shoved him away, before rolling out of the way of the beast's flamethrower horn as it aimed and fired. It burned their TL's arm off, with Raczak pushing her out of harms way and barking up something about getting heavy weapons out. Rosie figured they didn't have the time, so she shouldered the assault rifle and let loose at the creature as she ran out, trying to distract it.
Rico did the craziest thing she'd seen, though. Utilizing a small hill made out of a combination of rock and sand, the man climbed onto the back of the uparmored bug while she distracted it, then aimed and opened fire into its carapace, the 7,62 rounds tearing into the beast's hide and causing the next shot of its flamethrower maw to go extremely wide, to the point it spewed and landed onto already-glassed sand, heating, then cooling.
Rico, meanwhile, almost fell, hanging on to the open wound he dug into the beast's back. He primed a grenade and tossed it into the goop before letting himself fall off right next to Rosie. She pulled his ass into cover, then ducked with him as two internal explosions splattered orange blood and guts all over the place. Rosie laughed, then patted Rico on the chest, telling him, "Good fucking kill, you absolute Argentine Psycho!"
The man let out a short laugh, then a groan as he stood to his feet with her. Both had been painted orange by the bug's innards, but were still alive, at least. Raczak ran up to them, then gave Rico a nod and stated, "Damn fine job, Rico. Where'd you learn to do that?"
"Was captain of the team, back in school, sir," He replied, "Don't you remember?"
Raczak seemed to take a moment to recall, his grin growing yet again. He turned to Rico and told him, "Rico. I need a new Corporal..." then patted him on the shoulder, "You're it 'till you're dead or I find someone better."
Rico seemed to beam for a moment. He gave Raczak a salute and said, "Yessir!" before the man left to rally up the troops. Rosie grinned and gave Rico a bump in the shoulder, to which the man gave a nod in thanks. He looked to Ace and asked him, "Hey, Ace, I need a new Squad Lead. You in?" to which Ace shook his head and waved it off, much to Rico's surprise.
"Nah, man. I blew it on Klendathu... I'm here just to fight," He admitted. Rosie gave the guy a nod and a smile, before both of them stepped away, the man picking Diz as his assistant SL for the next few days of operation. Come night, the group had set up camp on the planetary surface, the stars above glimmering on the velvet black dome above. Rosie stood alone, staring out from the top of a rock at it.
The Lieutenant called out to the group, opening dome-shaped storage containers and pulling out boxes and kegs, the boxes containing the entertainment, while the kegs contained the beer. Music played from a fiddle, while the troops threw various different-shaped balls and poured each-other beer. She saw Diz and Rico disappear into one of the tents and smiled, then sighed. He needed a break after Carmen.
It took her a moment to register she was semi-thinking of these people as her own. It would help keep her mind on the job, but she really should not be getting too close to any of them, she thought as she stared up. She saw the Roger Young, the Corvette transport that had brought them here, its light obvious, faint compared to the stars around, and mobile in the night sky.
She felt a tap on her shoulder and looked to her right to see Ace. The man had two plastic cups of beer, one in each hand. He offered one to her, which she took wordlessly, giving him a nod of thanks and taking a long sip of the piss water. She winced, then said, "Not to sound ungrateful to the El-Tee, but holy fuck, this thing must be Bud or some other crap..."
"Heh, had any better in civvie life?" He asked as he sat himself down next to her.
"Praguese stuff's usually the best," She replied.
He chuckled, then sighed and looked up, too. He told her, "Still can't believe we're fighting a two-front war..."
"UNSC and the Bugs... Least one we can take out because they do the stupid thing of swarming us," Rosie murmured, then took a sip from the beer, "Meanwhile, the UNSC doesn't seem to be slowing... Just today, I got word of them securing NB and Hawaii completely. Pskovians had to pull out with what few Corvette Transports they didn't sink..."
Ace sighed deeply, "Your bud alright?"
"He walked outta there with a few bullet wounds, but he'll be fine..." She lied, then took another sip of the beer. She turned to him and asked, "You okay, Ace? You turned down Squad Lead duty..."
He shrugged, "Eh... I screwed it up on Klendathu. Better Diz than me. She's got the balls to actually lead."
Rosie chuckled, "If she's got balls, I'm not sure what Rico's preferences are..." which got a laugh out of Ace. The two of'em looked to one-another and, well, some hint of guilt hit the ONI agent in the chest at that moment. She was able to properly ignore it, though, or at least stifle any reaction so it didn't arise suspicion from Ace. She lifted her cup and said, "To ending this as quick as possible."
"Hooah," He replied, gently tapping her cup with his. The two downed their drinks, then continued talking the night away. It was in the early morning, however, that the entire unit got their reassignment orders. And as the recovery boats touched down to grab them and take them back to the Roger Young, Rosie knew their next target and, more specifically, what they would meet there.
Planet P, another sandy, rocky hellscape. This one seemed to have even more rocky cliff faces and outcroppings than the previous place. They'd been dropped off in a valley, preparing to answer a Distress Call from Outpost Whiskey on the planet. The place was supposedly cleared of bugs, sans for a few stragglers. Rosie and Diz walked together, part of the same row in the platoon's advance.
And Rosie decided to be a bit of a troll and ask, "So... How was Rico?"
Diz blushed and looked to her, to which Rosie flashed her a grin. Both still continued scanning the upper areas of the cliffs for the flying bugs, Rosie couldn't recall their names. She quipped again, "Take it he was good. Heh, I'm happy to see you two finally hit it off. Took that idiot some time to notice you had an actual thing for him..." before sighing.
"Yeah, I know," Diz replied, her voice soft, "He's great..." then she chuckled, "I'm just glad he saw the truth."
"Yep. Argentine Man really did take his time..." Rosie snorted, then told her, "I'm not letting either of you idiots die, by the way. Y'all are just too sweet..." which made the girl blush again, while several of their comrades laughed around them. Rico shot a confused glance back at them and noted his blushing Squad Lead/Significant Other and shot a knowing, annoyed look to Rosie.
She smirked and gave him a wink. He rolled his eyes and smiled, too. Ace was beside him, while Watkins took a couple steps back and said, "Seems like you got'em to laugh, eh?"
"Teasing them's far too fuckin' easy, Sugar," Rosie quipped. The man snorted and gave a thumbs up, shifting the weight of his sniper Morita up to his shoulder. Rosie, meanwhile, kept her eyes up on the heavens, pausing only as the drone of massive chitin wings echoed. The entire group saw two giant, emerald dragonflies swoop in, one of them grabbing one of their troopers.
The man started screaming, begging for help as the insectoids landed, one of them starting to tear into his flesh with its talons. The Lieutenant stepped back, making a hole through the troops and grabbing Sugar's rifle, before shouldering it, scoping him in and snapping off a shot that took his helmet clean off, alongside half his head. The man went silent and the two buzzing flies left, his corpse hanging off the outcropping they'd landed on.
Raczak told them, "I'd expect you all to do the same thing for me in a similar situation. Now, move it out!" without even flinching. The platoon reformed and continued their travel toward Whiskey Outpost. The trip took them through a narrow valley that soon opened up into a wider flat area. The corpses of dozens of bugs littered the sand flats around a quick-build outpost made of various heavy metals, its machine gun towers empty.
The group entered through the main gate, scanning the place and finding the courtyard was littered with corpses, both of bugs and of the local garrison, most of them torn to pieces. Rosie took a knee beside one of the men and pushed him over, noting that his torso had been eviscerated. She murmured, "They're not wearing armor..." before picking up one of the sidearms, a strangely intricate pistol that looked more like a trinket than a gun.
She sighed and slung it to her belt, before noting a glimmer from the top of the tallest peak around them, to the immediate right of the outpost. It wasn't the glimmer of a scope, because she knew that ORACLE scopes had counters for glint. Rather, the shining light was yellow. She gave ever the slightest tilt of her head forward, to which the light flashed green for half a second, then vanished.
... A Spartan Strike Team was present. She huffed and wanted to smirk, but maintained her composure. Pushing forward, she joined the Lieutenant, Diz and Rico in the outpost, with Ace close behind. The domed structures with antennae that made up this place were interconnected by a series of reinforced hallways, well-prepped and with artificial lighting installed.
Entering through the right-most igloo, the girl found the team gathered around a dead communications officer, sat at a station that monitored various frequencies and kept contact with the fleet above. She blanked, however, when she saw the man was missing the top of his skull... And, when she closed in on it, she also noted that his brain was gone. She blinked and murmured, "Sir, they..." looking at Raczak.
Raczak nodded, "They sucked his brains out..." his voice rough, angry.
Something hit metal behind them. They turned, with Raczak ordering, "Flores, stay here, keep the radio on and try to get command on the horn... Everyone else..." before racking the bolt of his Morita carbine and pushing forward, "On me..." before the group moved down a hall and into the mess. Said mess had a massive hole in the middle, where the corpse of one man lay, alongside bug tracks.
Rosie noticed another thing not everyone had. Expended casings littered the table below, with footsteps that didn't match the normal human boot of the MI also on the floor. She blinked, then hid a smirk as they pushed forward the moment another thud echoed. The group surrounded a fridge, which the Lieutenant popped open the moment more noises came from the inside. Rico, meanwhile, found a massive beetle, which he lifted to check. It was dead, so he tossed it aside.
Out of it, a man with puffed up greying hair popped out. He bore the rank pins of a general on his collar and the stars on his shoulder, to the point all members of the squad snapped-to almost instinctually. The General cried out, "Oh, God, they're gonna kill us all!" before pausing as he was lifted to his feet by a pair of MI soldiers. The group gave him a quick salute as he looked to the Lieutenant, before murmuring, "God, you're all here... Amazing...!" Before grabbing the Lieutenant by the hand and shaking him, "You're all gonna be heroes!" And moving on to the next man, then the next, "God damn Heroes! I'll slot you in for medals myself! We just gotta get the hell outta here, first!"
"General, sir," Lieutenant Raczak started, "What the hell happened here?"
"What happened?! The damn bugs happened!" The man snapped back, clearly carrying a couple of loose screws. He pointed to the hole in the floor, "The bastards came in through the bottom, just as some of the boys were having chow!" and he motioned for them to follow him. They walked to the com area where Diz was trying to contact the Fleet, before he lifted the corpse and pointed at the man's head, "See this!? They got into Farley's head! They get into everyone's heads! They made Farley call command!"
The entire room grew ice-cold for two reasons. The first one, Raczak voiced, "... The Distress Call was a trap..." before he prepared to radio in.
... The second one was exemplified by the thunderous thumps of titanium boots against the steel floor. The entire group heard this, swiveling about and aiming their assault rifles all around. Rosie, meanwhile, paused. She'd thought it was only Blue Team, but she now saw them;A dozen figures decloaked ahead of them, several of which were hunchback and wielded one-handed weapons, their alien faces obscured by enclosed helmets.
Beside them, several seven-foot-tall supersoldiers, clad in Titanium plate and crystalline ballistic plating, their opaque visors of various colors obscuring their faces also decloaked, shimmering back into reality and physical presence like ghosts. They were surrounded on both sides and the lead figure among them, a green-armored giant, the number '117' written in fading white on the left side of his chest.
The leading man, his MA5B pointed right at the group... Lowered his weapon and told them, "We've got a swarm of buggers heading this way. If you want to live... We work together," And he looked to Raczak, the man staring with incredulous eyes at him. The Spartan invisibly tensed, only Rosie picking up the nigh-unfathomably small movement of the man's muscles. Around her, the members of the Roughnecks stared with the type of fear one would expect out of someone seeing the Boogiemen.
A right reaction, considering a platoon of Spartans and a Fire-team of Elite Headhunters just decloaked in front of them...
She smiled when Raczak pushed Ace and Rico's rifles down and stated, "Alright... If you have a plan, let's hear it."