Italica.
Joint UNSC-UNSPECREG Forward Operating Base
Around the same time...
The US Army Corps of Engineers and the newly-formed US Armed Forces Logistics Division-Falmart, had already begun working on expanding the defenses and battlements of Italica, not to mention the city's roadways, constructing an electrical network and providing the Troops stationed within this FOB everything from the infrastructure necessary to supply fuel to their ever-growing number of BCTs and ABCTs to the Air Force's growing presence on the site. Though technically a part of INDOPACOM, the area of operations within the Special Region and its designation as per US standard was being disputed at High-Com.
Until then, Logistics needed to be properly set up and maintained and the US Army and their Logistics Corps weren't just feeding US troops deployed to other places anymore. No, now, they shared a burden with the UNSC's Naval Logistics Office and the FALCOM, The UNSC's Falmart theater Command, that being the delivery of petroleum products, parts and gear to the troops engaged in Front-Line Combat, ranging from both their units to the JSDF, PLA and RuAF forces currently deployed within the theater. The 8th Theater Sustainment Command was already hot on their heels about providing all their allies fuel.
Thankfully, the massed cooperation of UN members and the UNSC's desire to show that they were, in fact, just humanity without all the shitty differences in opinion, meant that the UNSPECREG Task Force's Depots, be they fuel, ammo, food or other various supplies, were being set up in record time alongside the necessary infrastructure, like pipelines and vehicle-based transportation.
A single US Army Logi operator marched across a pipeline that was being built next to several armored fuel tanks. Behind him, a UNSC Marine logistician was also running checks on the pipes, making sure the lines were set properly, that there was no crack in the seals, that kind of shit. Around them, helicopters and logistics vehicles ranging from fuel-carrying HEMTTs to Pave Low helicopters of the USMC and UNSC HEMTTs rolled or flew around.
Around the city, multiple such depots were emplaced, defended by C-RAM systems attached to pre-built generators, just in case. One never knew when the enemy decided to sneak in, launch a couple mortars and then fuck right off back to their caves. Aside from that, the ACEs were already building up concrete roads and the energy stations necessary to maintain this entire clusterfuck in operation, making sure it was Civvie-compatible for later down the line.
UNSC SeaBees had also come down in Heron dropships with various pieces of equipment, including bulldozers and more HEMTTs with construction equipment loaded into the back. Farther south, on the road leading toward the UN base at Alnus, the UNSC and UN were building a joint airfield, as well as widening the highway for their vehicles to have the infrastructure to move around as they were required.
The city was practically growing twice-over every day, expanding even into the crop fields. Of course, most of the prefab structures being set up were for the Military and might be taken down once the massed force was to depart from Italica and leave it to govern itself once more. Well, not by itself, there'd still be a military presence on-site, probably, of both sides.
Watching all of this unfold from the top of the walls, another US Marine Corps General, this one going by a seemingly famous name among the Marines, from what the few Imperial Representatives within the city could find out:Mattis. Clad in the standard Woodland MARPAT uniform of the US Marine Corps, General James Mattis, also known by his moniker of "Mad Dog", watched proudly as the men and women of the US Armed Forces and their spacer allies set up everything from the logistical system to the defenses necessary for this little centralized FOB to prosper.
General James Mattis had been called up back to service by the US Military upon the realization that the situation in the Special Region rhymed a little too well with Iraq. They needed a Marine to lead, said the President, they needed a man who's seen it. They needed James Mattis. Their Mad Dog. And once he found out some of his boys from FORCE RECON had also returned to active duty, he happily rejoined the ranks to command them again.
Sighing, he arranged the collar of his uniform and his cap, then turned around toward the men and women around him. There were members of the Army Command, UNSC staff, both Civilian and Military, and various UN representative groups, including a cadre of officers from China and the wider CSTO. Everyone was pretty much upping their game in the area for the second large scale offensive set to begin within a couple of weeks from now, the one to seize the Imperial capital.
He scratched his chin, then nodded to the staff and showed them to follow. The UNSC Major in charge of wider theater operations greeted him at the entrance to the tower stairwell. Giving Mattis a salute, the man motioned for him to follow, stating, "An honor to have the General Mattis here, sir. UNSC Marines were built after US ones, and you and Chesty Puller remain an inspiration."
"Much as I appreciate the ass-kissing, Major, I'd be glad to know the UNSC's space marines are a good fighting force," Mattis replied sharply as they descended.
"Most of us are Human-Covenant War Vets, sir. And we're actively built after the USMC, as I said," The man replied, "You'll find us to be prim and proper jarheads."
"That's good to know, Major..." He shot back as they reached the bottom floor. Around them, infantry intermingled with Civilians. Warrior Bunnies from another newly-trained battalion mixed in with the Platoons of US Marines and Army, as well as the various UN Forces around. Mattis hummed, then spoke, "NATO forces should be in-country pretty fucking soon. The British, French and Romanians promised a BCT each, with the Romanians sending mountain forces."
"No Poles or Germans?" Inquired one of the UNSC Reps, a female Polak, clearly.
"Not yet. Though we do have a few small battalions of intermixed infantry that joined us in the shit from multiple countries, including Romania and Hungary. Some of their men have been formed into HITMAN-4 at my request, alongside a bunch of my boys from the Iraq days of FORCE RECON," The General shot back, "They'll do fine if they can follow orders. As for the Poles, they're sending in an ABCT with a Mechanized Infantry Company later this week."
"That's a lot of troopers in the shit," Quipped the Major.
"Well, we got those fucking Insurrectionists of yours out here. Command's taking it seriously and mobilizing as many forces as a UN Mission would allow. Some of our boys are gonna be stuck providing HUMAID, though," Mattis sighed. Marines and Army personnel providing cover for a bunch of Bleeding Heart UN NGOs was the last thing anyone needed. Practically painted an even bigger target on the NGOs' and their boys' backs. Mattis sighed. He wasn't one to skimp out on orders, even if they were bullshit.
"They're working with known slavers and assholes, sir. We'll put'em in the ground both at home and over here."
"Fuckin' A, Major... Show me that kinda ferocity in battle and we're green to go," Mattis replied. He aimed straight for the Formals' mansion and the strange alien artefact within. Command had told'em to check the place out as well, what with everything that was ongoing. He murmured, "Who's running your op again? Some doctor Halsey or something?" and looked to the UNSC staff around him. The Major nodded, to which Mattis huffed, "A fuckin' Civvie Egghead running what's now supposed to be a Military op... Some bullshit."
"She's not a civilian, sir," The female UNSC Polak stated. Mattis quirked a brow up and the woman explained, "She's got the rank of Admiral and is commanding the Office of Naval Intelligence as part of a change of the place's policy. And she's done a wonderful job leading this expedition for the past three years of her life. She's the reason you're here... She wants the gloves off."
"Well, least she hopefully knows her shit. The restraint I'm seeing among your troops is odd, considering you folks literally have orbital superiority," Mattis voiced, then sighed deeply. He murmured to himself as they waded through the crowds, "Though I guess it'd look bad back at home for you all if you started levelling the place with space guns bigger than a fucking Abrams, wouldn't it?"
"Pretty much the only reason Halsey didn't order Sadera flattened or nuked the moment they killed two of our Eggheads and the Dragon-born. Hearts and fucking Minds."
Mattis snorted, "Of fucking course..." And he entered the mansion. Inside, he was greeted by the sight of soldiers chatting up the local maids, playing cards or just overall hanging out. When they spotted him, however, the UNSC and US Marines stood to their feet and saluted sharply. He nodded to them, setting them at ease, before walking out through another couple of doors into the courtyard, where he saw a bunch of UNSC and UN Scientists and the massive alien structure in the middle.
He blinked and murmured, "By God..."
Then, he noticed who was in the middle of the crowd of eggheads. Walking up to them, he stopped as he saw the young leader of this place, Countess Myui Formal, working her magic on a holographic device pulled from inside, images dancing across the air ahead of them. The young girl smiled at the UNSC staff around. An elderly scientist smiled at the girl, patting her on the head and stating, "Very well done, Your Highness..." as she looked on. She also had the patches of a UNSC Marine, though she was a retired vet and probably a nerd going by the labcoat. There were also 'Dragon-Born' guards around her, including the woman that led them all. She seemed angry.
The Doctor hummed, turned to him and gave him a small, but knowing smile, "General Mattis."
"Doc," The man nodded, walking up to her, "What've we got going on here?"
"Minor experimentation with Her Highness' help. Seems she's quite proficient at looking through the items in this Reliquary, much like most of her family," The doctor explained. She motioned to herself, then said, "I am head researcher Eleanor Cross, of the Office of Naval Intelligence Materials Group. We're usually busy with researching the items and technologies found on planets such as this to see how we can best utilize them."
"Any interesting toys in this place?" He asked, hands behind his back.
"So far? Quite a few. Though we're waiting for Doctor Halsey to return from her trip to your universe's Earth so we may begin more thorough investigations into the matter. HITMAN-3's leadership reported they met a hologram of a fairly important figure in this station, which is why we're keeping it closed for now. Risk of information falling into the hands of the Imperials and their Insurrection allies is high..." The woman explained.
"Understood," The man nodded, "Can we rely on the UNSC for support?"
"Of course, sir," She smiled, "The Major should tell you as much."
The woman then patted Myui on the head and said, "Thank you, your Highness. That's quite enough. Go have fun if you want." as she noticed the shy girl stared at the General. She was handed the strange device by the girl, who turned around and, in a cutesy display of knowhow, gave the General a salute. A few chuckles escaped the UNSC officers and even the man wore a small smirk at that. He saluted back and she beamed.
The officer then hummed as he heard footsteps behind them. He turned and saw that dust was being kicked up, but that nobody was there... Before a squad of four figures appeared out of thin air, seemingly stunning the girl. They saluted the general, all four of them proudly calling out, "Sir!" despite the different organizations they were part of. Their armors were odd, almost reflective, but resembled the same stuff Mattis had seen Blue Team wearing, if only a little bulkier.
The leader said, "Good to meet you, general Mattis, sir. We heard you'd be taking over ops for this area."
"Hazama asked for me. Couldn't let that old dog down," Mattis snorted, before nodding, "You must be SPARTANs."
"Sir..." The soldier in camouflage power armor replied, "We technically should not be here... Yet. We came to talk to Doctor Cross..."
"I see. Carry on, because I ain't seen shit," He saluted them and watched them walk away with Myui. The General murmured to himself, "They sounded like fuckin' kids as well..." and started walking. Before long, the man had realized he was, in fact, hearing another pair of boots clicking against the marble floor of the mansion behind them. Or, well, not boots. Heels. He turned around and looked down and saw the Countess staring up at him in awe, which caused him to blink.
The child looked to be tippy-toeing from one foot to the other, oddly enough. He blinked, looked up at the surrounding staff, then paused as he was handed a translator earpiece by the Major. Sliding it into his ear, he spoke, "Anything I can assist with, your Highness?" as he took a knee in front of the little girl. She stared at him, looking a little shy, but bearing determination behind her eyes.
"Can I help?" She asked and the device translated.
"... With what?" He asked.
"With your lo... Lo..." She scoffed, then blurted out, "Logi."
A few of the UNSC staff chuckled, while Mattis hummed and stared at her. He shrugged, "I'm not sure there's much a little girl like you can do to help us, Your Highness. Appreciate the offer, though."
"I'm not little. I'm eleven," She said with a straight face. Mtattis snorted and covered his mouth, looking at the Major as if he was asking when Halsey was gonna get back here. The man shrugged, arranging his standard-issue UNSC BDU and armor. Mattis sighed deeply, rubbing his face, then looked at the little girl as she stared back at him, a fire lit in her eyes.
He blinked, narrowed his lips, then said, "I'll let you know if our troopers need any help, ma'am," as he stood up and gave her a pat on the head.
She saluted, beaming, "Thank you. I'll do my best!"
He chuckled, "She reminds me of some of my friends' grandkids..." and he turned to leave. The men walked further, with Mattis noting, "Maybe keep an eye on the Lady so she doesn't get herself hurt out here. It's not exactly an easy duty to help with setting up logistical infrastructure leading from Alnus all the way here and to the front. Speaking of Logi, I want several secondary off-site hubs for supplies to be set up in adjacent cities, just to make sure that, if this place gets hit, we have backups."
"Sir!" The entire crew chorused. They still had some work ahead of them, but... It'd happen for the next big offensive.
Alnus FOB
Halsey regarded the arrival of the new Brigade Combat Teams from various allied nations with a degree of respect. General Mattis had arrived not too long ago and had already set off to Italica to do the dirty business of preparing the place to become a supply hub. She hoped Her Highness, Myui, would not mind the fact that the two sides would be setting up in her town.
Transport trucks, fuel trucks and various other logistics chain-related items had been arriving daily. Indeed, the Joint Task Force's main object of duty right now was to surround and starve the Imperial Capital. ONI Teams had already told her there was a panic amongst the enemy ranks, not to mention the fact they brought a General from a campaign up North to help them.
Not a lot of good said General was really gonna do...
The woman looked to BLUE Team as they marched up to her, clad in their standard-issue MJOLNIRs and carrying the weapons they would use to guard the good doctor on her outing to the new planet. Indeed, a SPARTAN clad in their full GEN-3 MJOLNIR armor remained quite a sight to behold. She turned to greet them as Richard walked off to talk to what seemed to be HITMAN-4, stating simply, "Good to see you here, John. Ready?"
"Ready as we'll ever be, ma'am," The Chief replied calmly.
"That's good," She nodded, "We'll be going into familiar, if somewhat strange territory. We may quite literally be time travelling by going into this alternate universe. Our most important issues are to remember to behave... And, when talking to the UN, to be friendly. We are not here to cause an interdimensional incident and, honestly, I would not want to cause said incident in the first place."
"Agreed, ma'am," Kelly replied, "Even if we do, though, we've got a way out."
"Indeed," She nodded, then turned as she heard the sound of boots crunching concrete. She saw them approaching. Torres, Itami, Shino, Kurata, Rosie and Ivanov, as well as Ikari. Each had donned civvie clothing, but kept the mil-spec combat boots. They also had their concealed carries, M7 SMGs with silencers, strapped close and folded up just in case.
"I like the kit we got," Shino quipped with a grin, "Caseless SMGs are a new thing for me."
"The UNSC figured it'd be good for the escort I'm provided to have top-of-the line Armor Piercing weaponry that is easily concealable..." Halsey remarked, then looked to the Chief and his team, "A good backup for when the SPARTANs are busy securing perimeters or just scouting out areas in general, I suppose..." and she grinned. She paused, however, when the sound of heels came about to them.
They turned to see the trio of rescued girls from the Village, Queen Tyuule and even two of the ladies from Italica present. Tyuule was clad in a tighter-fitting outfit, including a sweater, considering it was apparently nearing winter in New York and Japan, and leggings. Richard returned just in time to see her out of all of them and freeze, his face glowing red.
Halsey chuckled, then greeted the two Imperial women, the Princess and her escorting blonde knight friend, "Your Highness and Lady Bozes. Glad to know you could join us on this little Clandestine outing to the United Nations... Similarly glad to see ladies Tuka, Rory, Lelei and Tyuule have managed to join us. Please. We should be receiving our vehicles and escort soon..."
And just as Halsey said that, a motorcade consisting of a long limo, plus two Humvees and two Warthogs, rolled around the corner, with the Warthogs having space for the SPARTANs to man their guns and ride shotgun. Halsey looked over to Tyuule as she and Richard started talking, then smiled and motioned to their transport, stating, "Shall we, ladies and gentlemen?"
The entire group nodded, before they all boarded the Limousine marked with the UN and UNSC flags and the vehicles started rolling forward, toward the Gate. The massive, reinforced hangar doors which were guarded by Private Military Contractors slid apart, revealing the massive Roman-like magical Slipspace portal to another realm. First to roll in was Chief and Kelly's Warthog, with Chief manning the Gatling gun, bringing up the front with a troop-carrying Humvee. In the rear, Fred manned the Gauus cannon, while Kelly rode shotgun and there was a Humvee with a fifty-cal machine gun.
Halsey watched the darkness of the Portal's slipspace wrap around them like a blanket, the only thing visible being the lights of the vehicles as they rolled forward, opposite the column of NATO and CSTO transports rolling in-country. Richard, meanwhile, was focused on the woman sat beside him. Tyuule looked so oddly different from your average civilian, especially when she was clad in that kind of clothing. He tugged at the collar of his shrt, then leaned back into his seat and noticed Rory staring at him with a grin.
The Princess was there, too, chuckling, while Tuka simply smiled and Lelei remained impassive. Itami and Torres both laughed quietly at the man. He mouthed a 'shut the fuck up' to them, before planting a palm on his face. Bozes herself seemed a bit confused, though, asking, "What is so funny?" which made the entire vehicle erupt into laughter even harder.
"Oh, my dear Bozes, you remain adorably unsure of how men work," the Princess patted her confused friend on the back, which garnered a 'HUH?' out of the woman. Tyuule giggled, then looked to Richard and looked him over, before blushing and looking away. Rory smirked, while Piña commented, "Oh, it seems Lieutenant Samuels may not be the only shy one here!"
Tyuule glared at her childhood friend, who giggled smugly. Halsey rolled her eyes, lifting up her tablet and seemingly starting to read a book. Lelei peeked over and asked, "What is it you're reading, Doctor?" as she sat herself down next to the woman. Halsey hummed, looked to the young woman with a hint of familiarity, then showed her the book itself.
"The Principles of Thermodynamics in a Vacuum. A helpful book for understanding how several important scientific processes work when in zero-gee, zero-air environments..." She offered, then told Lelei, "You can read it, too, if you want, miss La Lalena. I know those born with the tag of 'La' seek knowledge all the time, considering it is their gods' prerogative."
"Indeed," Lelei nodded, curt, "My thanks, doctor."
"I always welcome those who seek knowledge... And I would very much like to find a shrine to your gods," Halsey quipped, then turned to start explaining some of the details better than the book itself to the girl, all under the watchful gaze of Rory, who seemed a bit stunned that the Doctor was so eagerly explaining things to another servant of their planet's Gods, but then again, looking around at the people aboard? Heh, she understood that they were no simple humans. None of them.
The group then took a moment to recover as light washed over them. The vehicles exited into one of the main boulevards of Ginza, to the sight, first, of armed guards and a bunker protecting the Gate, then to Ginza itself. Tall high-rises stood above them, glass office buildings and billboards displaying images of Anime and other such things as commercials. Civilians had lined the streets, however, some holding banners, others waving. One banner read 'WELCOME TO EARTH, UNSC' in all bold, black-on-white font.
Cheers erupted across the line once the Chief was finally noticed, some of the men and women around waving banners with UNSC flags or SPARTANs drawn onto them. Some even had Marines and SPARTANs fighting together against the Covenant, which somewhat shook the crew aboard. Halsey simply smiled, however, as the vehicles rolled down their designated path toward Haneda International Airport. The UNSC would have its meeting with their alternate-world predecessor within the next 48 hours.
And soon, two famed Generals to each side would meet in battle.