Rosie had found herself sleeping in the base of their newfound UN Comrades. It was a place just like theirs, of concrete, armored walls and defensive positions, on the inside of which resided much of the Military and Civilian personnel that were meant to keep the place running. She watched from her seat near the window of her barracks room as Russians, Americans, Japanese and Chinese milled about, doing their duties and somewhat keeping their distance from one-another.
The base was divvied up, as it seemed, between the Yanks and Japanese and the Ruskies and Chinese. Marine Corps and Russian paratroops present seemed to have some sorta rivalry going from what she could tell. She watched one of the Blue Berets competing with their fellow Marines in the shooting range. Iron sights only, each using the other's standard-issue rifle.
It was a funny sight, honestly. Watching those grudges from about five, six centuries ago playing out in front of her in the form of a semi-friendly match of shoot'em up against steel silhouette targets with hit-reg computers. At least they weren't shooting at each-other this time around. Rosie sighed, then stood to her feet and arranged her uniform and cap before stepping out into the hallways.
USMC and even a pair of Russian Airborne greeted her with waves, a pair pf PLA Marines were playing cards and a mix of UNSC, USMC and others played billiards in the open recreation area. She found their Corpsman running a game of some sort of Tabletop far-future grimdark wargame with a bunch of the boys. One of them had lent her an 'Army' of some several thousand points.
"Since when in hell do we have a Games Workshop store in our base?" Murmured Torres as he approached.
"Ain't got the faintest idea of what that is, sir," Rosie replied, watching the Corpsman rolling her dice.
"A store for overpriced plastic miniatures used to play simulation sci-fi wargames," The man explained and arranged his cap. The Corpsman of the USMC moved a piece of a specific creature of hers, which one of the others countered. The man stated, "So, Sergeant Rosalind... What's operating in the UNSC like? I didn't get to ask Richard before he went to take a radio call."
"Last months of the Human-Covenant War were hell. UNSC operations are simple, otherwise. Most our predecessors dealt with were insurrectionists and, much later, the Covenant. Had to kick a bunch of Neo-Nazis and Neo-Commies out of the Rainforests and off the Jovian Moons back in 2100, or so my great-grandpa told me about some of our ancestors," She spoke as she turned to face Richard, who seemed surprised. He cast a sideways glance at the Russians and the Chinese, to which she chuckled and walked up to him, then whispered "Germans backed the Frieden, the Neo-nazis, up. China backed the Koslovics. The Commies."
He whistled, "How'd they get dealt with?"
"Simple. Lots of fuckin' sanctions that almost drove them into the ground," She smirked, "We only stopped when they pretty much threw out their old systems of governance and politicians, then made themselves properly democratic. Germany, ironically, was democratic, but... Ya know how things go some times with history. Leaders, demagogues and somesuch appear."
"Yeah, yeah, I get that," He nodded, "We have had our own situations like that in the past."
"Aye, I remember. History's almost shared, don't'cha know?" She smirked. The man was about to retort, but the two watched Richard walk in. Rosie turned toward him and saluted, to which Richard, his face devoid of emotion, saluted back. She turned toward him and asked, "Sir, what happened?" as her heart sank. She knew Richard's faces pretty well. That was the face of a man struggling to contain anger.
"Total mobilization," He stated bluntly, shocking Rosie, the Corpsman and Torres. He turned toward them, fury burning in his eyes, then explained, "Doctor Halsey just called to tell me about it. The Imps found out about our research base within the Dragon-born's territories. Struck at them and killed a few. Jeanne herself is undergoing medical treatment as we speak... Meanwhile, all our scientists have been captured."
He grit his teeth, then said, "Two of them were executed in front of the base... To send a message," and his words boiled with anger. He then stated, "Gather up the boys and girls. I called up a bird and am heading back to base to see what the doc wants us to do about this personally..." while walking with Torres and Rosie over to his room. Most UNSC Marines kept their kit in their rooms, just in case.
Donning his armor, vest and helmet and slinging the weapons into place, he listened to Torres as he spoke, "Wait, actual total war!? As in... You people are gonna wipe out the Empire now?!" and stared him right in the face. Richard sighed, then shrugged, to which the USMC Lieutenant replied "Fuck do you mean, you don't know?! Richard, I get it, you're all pissed, but-"
"We made a vow," Rosie started, looking at the Lieutenant, her own face grim, her voice ice-cold, "A vow to our people. That none of our civilians will die to a foreign force again without us bringing to bear everything in our available arsenal. Halsey's batshit insane enough to fill out that order to the letter... Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if our retaliatory strike may seem disproportionate to you people at first."
"Still-!" Torres started.
"Still nothing, Henry," The man replied, patting down his kit, "Rosie, gather the troops. Tell them to be ready and on high alert, just in case. And stay on the Long-Range in this place's Command Center, just in case Halsey calls us up for active duty through that..." And he started walking again, toward the exit. Just as he reached the door and opened it, Tyuule appeared behind said door.
Surprised, the Warrior Bunny queen asked, "Richard... What's going on?"
"We're mobilizing. Total War," He replied grimly. Tyuule gasped, taking a step back. Richard gave a quick rundown of what had happened. He then said to the shocked Tyuule, "I'm heading out to KINGDOM to meet Halsey directly, ask her what we can do about the current situation... Everyone else should prepare to mobilize as soon as I return. Maybe she'll need us to do work."
"I'm not sure we're gonna be able to deploy with you folks, man," Torres stated, "Unless someone gives the UN commanders a really good reason..."
"We'll figure something out," Richard replied as he walked out. Rosie turned for their rooms and prepared to rally up the team. All the while, Tyuule followed the UNSC toward the LZ, with him turning to ask. She raised her hand, telling him not to ask as the Pelican touched down. The two then marched together aboard it, with Richard stating, "No need to follow me in. I'll be back..."
"I have to see what Doctor Halsey needs my people to do in preparation for the enemy..."
"Right..." He sighed. Tyuule could see it in him. He wasn't afraid about a war against the biggest nation-state on this planet. He wasn't afraid at all, in fact. He was angry. It was a type of anger she had only seen when he talked about the Human-Covenant War. She had to guess that every UNSC and UEG life was important to them, the same way every one of her people's lives mattered to her.
When the good Lieutenant had gotten the news from the doctor, his mind played back a series of horrific images from during his first deployments against the Covenant. Reach and Earth replayed in the back of his mind even now, the images of Covenant ships descending upon the cities of their worlds, their plasma weapons tearing asunder everything they held dear. He had been young when his own home colony had been burnt to a crisp. He was one of the lucky few who escaped with a decent chunk of his family alive. Still, the death and destruction was the reason he joined.
The UNSC forces had all made an unspoken vow post-war. That if any dared threaten the lives of the innocent, of the civilians, they would respond brutally and with extreme prejudice. He expected that Halsey would not order a direct bombardment, however. Wasting MAC Rounds on primitives like the Empire didn't pay off in the long run, not to mention the major amounts of environmental damage that'd cause. No, he knew a Blitz was in order. Take as many Imp cities as fast as possible and surround their capital, maybe even hammer it with artillery.
The Pelican gently touched down, taking him out of his thoughts. He stood to his feet, gripping the sling of his rifle, then stepped off the vehicle with Tyuule close behind. UNSC Troops had begun a full rollout of military equipment in preparation. The Marine divisions present were already forming up within staging areas, alongside airborne Marine units that would take the fight to the enemy aboard Pelicans.
Richard had only seen amassed forces like this during grandstanding planetary defense campaigns where hundreds of thousands, or perhaps millions of men and thousands of pieces of equipment engaged the Covenant. Like Reach. He shifted uneasily, then hummed and turned to Tyuule to tell her to follow. He paused as he saw the girl had grown pale. She scanned the gathering armed forces with some fear behind her eyes. Engines rumbled as M808s and M850s rolled in with artillery platforms behind them.
Officers ran inspections on the combat-readiness of all units in this little gathering army. Civilian contractors on the base watched the gathering forces as well, some with awe and smiles on their faces, while others seemed unfazed. Clearly, their thoughts either lie somewhere else, or they knew all-too-well the kind of punitive action the UNSC would undertake for two of their own dead. And they were afraid for the Imps.
Tyuule and Richard walked past the gathering forces and toward the Command Center, entering only to find it an active hive. Multiple WOMBAT drone operators were flying sorties now. Dozens of drones were in the air, scouting out enemy positions as the officer cadre decided on what to do as they sat around a TOPO map of the Empire itself. Red dots appeared on the map, pointing out a multitude of Imperial cities and towns, presumably.
Radio waves were cluttered, each operator responding to requests from scouting teams they'd sent out alongside the Wombats to give line-of-sight confirmation for the settlements painted in the red glow. Richard and Tyuule paused as they heard Halsey's voice, "... Yes, sir. We are actively preparing military intervention into the Empire. I understand, Lord Hood, but you know as good as I do that nobody will take this lying down. Yes, sir, full military deployment should be ready within two days. Until then, we have forward scouting elements and the SPARTANs running missions."
It was coming from her office. Halsey audibly sighed, then said, "We will not be utilizing orbital bombardment, no, sir. That would be a gross misallocation of military resources that we may need, should any Storm Covenant fleet appear in the system. We will, however, utilize the full air and land arsenal available at our disposal to show these barbarians why you do not simply get away with murdering two of our civilians and presumably enslaving the others. Yes, sir. I understand. Goodbye, sir."
Halsey sighed, appearing out of her office, barely contained anger visible on her face. She stopped as she saw Richard and Tyuule present, then stated, "You've come home early, Lieutenant... And not at the best of times."
"Third Platoon's asking what we're required to do, ma'am," He replied as he and Tyuule joined her on her walk.
"And my people wish to aid as well," Tyuule added. Halsey paused, some of her anger dissipating for but a moment.
She sighed, then pinched her brow and said, "Return to your posts within the UN base. This little... Distraction... Will not stop us from our main objective:Examining the Gate and understanding its properties. BLUE Team is already on the case of the kidnapped scientists and should be reporting soon. Everything else will be over quickly, with the Empire brought to its knees."
"I and my people still wish to help, Doctor," Offered Tyuule, "You've given us aid. The least we can do is assist you in this war..." and she seemed hesitant. Halsey and Richard understood, she was pretty much offering her people up to be soldiers for those they've known for about three years. It was not an easy thing to do for a queen that had become a close friend of the people here.
"I appreciate the thought. I will let you know where the Warrior Bunnies are required," She offered, then turned to Richard and said, "As for yours, Richard, you are needed as both security and the extra reinforcement we promised to general Hazama. I've had a talk with him just before Lord Hood called. He said they will not be able to engage the enemy without proper authorization or a Casus Belli worth their time."
"Fair enough, ma'am," He nodded, disappointed.
"That Casus Belli may be closer than we think, however... If my theories are correct, anyhow," She stated, then motioned for them to join her and the Officer cadre at the table. She continued, "I will still need to talk to the Admiral after this, but the man is busy coordinating orbital traffic between civilian and military transport ships and we are busy down here..."
"Aye, ma'am," The two replied. They stopped in front of the holo-table, to which Halsey plucked a 'chunk' of land and zoomed in on it. The holographic three-dimensional image resolved into a two-dimensional screen, showing images from the optics of a WOMBAT. The workhorse of the scouts, the WOMBAT drone continued to serve faithfully among the ranks of the Expeditionary Corps to this day, not to mention the other roles it had among the UNSC's military presence across their worlds.
Halsey spoke, "BLUE Actual, KINGDOM Actual. Status report."
Cortana replied, "KINGDOM Actual, BLUE Actual. Chief's focusing on driving, ma'am, but we're nearly there."
"Appreciate the prompt response eitherway, Cortana..." Halsey shot back, firm, "WOMBAT-12 has Line-of-Sight on the enemy camp..." and she zoomed in again. It was a mess of tents, pens for animals and pens for people, all of it built in the middle of nowhere. Halsey brought up an old IR Tracker that the ODSTs had set up and she found it pinged from this place, "Counting several military tents. Estimate of around two to three hundred soldiers."
She then brought up the neural laces of each of the enslaved Scientists, stating, "Scientists are being kept in separate pens. Pinging them on your HUD. Engage at your own discretion, SPARTANs. Make the Imperials regret ever taking our people. No mercy to the captors whatsoever," And she flicked the image to full view. The WOMBAT's camera panned toward the left, revealing the Pelican of BLUE Team, flying at almost tree-top level. Halsey hummed, then said, "Time for you all to see what SPARTANs can do, Lady Tyuule..." which surprised the girl...
Chief tugged on the flight stick, pulling a hard left and powering his engines to cancel out the momentum of their flight. They were just behind a hill that was near the encampment itself. Touching down, the Chief stood to his feet from the pilot's console before stepping out. Kelly extended him his MA40, which he took gently, stating, "Thanks, Kelly..." before sliding it on his back.
"This is gonna be an interesting op..." Fred commented, checking his DMR. Linda hummed in agreement, racking the bolt of her sniper rifle as the back hatch popped open. The four-man SPARTAN team descended from within, forming a perimeter and scanning the surrounding area. With one hand motion from the Chief, the four Supersoldiers broke into a sprint.
Cortana linked Chief's armor with the WOMBAT drone above, providing him a bird's eye view via a small window on the top-right of the HUD. She said, "Counting a dozen soldier tents, at least five pens of slaves. Each pen has the VIPs marked," as they crested the hill. Linda paused, dropped onto her stomach and started scoping in the target. The team Sniper would wait for the Chief's signal before opening up.
The camp appeared ahead. A small city of tents with pens where slaves lay. Chief showed the Spartans to scatter, then ordered, "Ten meter dispersal. Watch your fire in the camp, we don't wanna hit the captives. BLUE Three, switch to sidearm," and looked to Kelly. The girl slung the buckshot-firing M45 on her back and drew her twin M7 SMGs. These ones had added laser sights placed just below the barrel, so she could better 'fire from the hip', so to speak.
"Contact, single target," Linda noted over the com. Her sniper rifle rang out into the hilly area around them and Chief followed the contrail of the bullet. He saw the Guard's head turn into a scarlet mist, his helmet flung high by the impact of the round and left with a pair of nasty holes. The Spartans ran past the corpse as Linda reported her kill, before bounding right into the camp.
The first man that came out to figure what the hell the whole racket had been got a fist in the face for his troubles, one that folded him and shattered his entire skull, caving his helmet in. The corpse dropped, folded like a piece of laundry, onto the floor. Chief then pushed his way past the tent flap, surprising the soldiers in the place. His rifle rang out. Bursts of automatic fire tore through the bodies of unarmored men, painting the purple tent scarlet.
After making sure the first tent was clear, the Chief pulled out and pushed forward with Kelly and Fred.
They saw an emerging group of soldiers that had barely gotten their pants on, their swords in hand. A flurry of bullets cut the four men down, with Kelly going into the tent they came from and sweeping it clear with her SMGs. Fred fired, too, popping the helmet off of what seemed to be a Centurion, one of the enemy commanders, and spattering his brain all across the dirt and his soldiers.
Cortana pinged the first pen. It was dead ahead and to the left. The Spartans continued their advance, each round killing another man or two, depending on the way the bastards came out of their makeshift bedrooms. Blood and spent casings trailed behind as testament to the Spartans' brutal, speedy attack, while smoke trails left by Linda's bullets criss-crossed the air.
Alarm bells rang now that the entire camp was awake. Soldiers stumbled out of their tents, fumbling with their equipment or just outright ignoring it and going into battle practically naked, meaning with just their swords. Not like armors and shields would've helped much against 7,62x51mm AP ammo like the one fired out of the UNSC's weaponry. One of the men fired a crossbow at them.
He met his end when Fred blasted him in the face.
The group took the left toward the first pen. Chief said, "Secure a path. BLUE Four, keep our backs clear. We'll secure the rest of the place ASAP," before pushing forward. More enemy soldiers came out, their armors and shields on. They formed a shield wall ahead of the Spartans, but the shields themselves did little to help protect them. A barrage of rounds tore through the steel and wood and dropped the enemy soldiers.
Blood pooled at the Spartans' feet as they charged forth, clearing out a path by throwing grenades, firing their guns and clearing out the tents. They left about a hundred and twenty corpses behind while reaching the third pen and securing it. Pushing through to the fourth, the SPARTANs slammed through another Shield Wall while arrows and crossbow bolts flew over, under and around them, some even breaking off the shields of their GEN-III armors.
The fifth pen was the last and farthest into the camp. Behind the Spartans, the corpses of soldiers and the burning remnants of tents resided as they advanced toward it. Kelly and Fred pulled up rearguard while the Chief went to the pen itself, a wooden structure made up of fences laced with metal wires like those of chicken coops, so that the civilians couldn't get out.
One of the scientists stood to his feet and said, "Spartans, thank god..."
"Doctor Halsey was adamant about us retrieving you as the first phase of the war, doctor Rose," Chief explained, before tearing apart the fencing that kept the people penned. He noticed a single, bruised and malnourished man of Asian descent was being helped up to his feet by a pair of Dragon-Born captives, a male and a female. He was wearing a jet-black suit with a blue undershirt and a black tie. The pin on his chest was a square representing the flag of the country he served in Public Office for.
He looked up at the Spartans and his jaw dropped. Despite the bruises and wounds suffered and the shackles on his feet, the man found a change to gasp out a few words in Japanese. Alongside a name. Noriko. He kept begging them to get Noriko back, from what Cortana could translate, said that one of the Princes had gotten to her, taken her as his plaything...
"A Japanese national," Cortana said, surprised, "This is gonna ruffle a few feathers on the Alternate Earth..."
John huffed, agreeing silently. He also notice several other people of European descent, wearing 21st century clothes, including a Slavic-looking fellow and a Briton, from the looks of things. The Briton himself stood to his feet, dusting off his dirtied camouflage uniform, then said, "About bloody time someone came to get me and the Ambassador out of this mess. Captain Tate, British Royal Marines security contingent stationed within the Embassy in Tokyo."
"Master Chief Petty Officer 117, sir," The Chief nodded, which seemed to surprise the man as he helped up another suited European, an elderly woman this time.
He smirked, "Well, I'll be damned... Pleasure to meet you, Chief. Take it we're going home?"
"Yessir," The man replied, unfazed by the fact that Captain Tate knew him. He turned on his com and called, "BLUE Four, bring in the Pelican. FOB Kingdom, this is BLUE Actual, requesting medical support. Several wounded civilian captives... Including Alternate UN Ambassadors, doctor. British infantry that's part of the security contingent as well," And he cast a glance at two men laying in the dirt, one of them with dozens of bruises over his body.
"UN members... We copy, BLUE Actual," Halsey seemed less-than-surprised at the news. Must've been those civvies Chief read about in the ODST's reports about their scouting op over Alnus, when the Imperial Army first went in. Halsey continued, "We will let our allies in the UN base know about this development and tell them we are treating their injured captives before sending them back. RTB. KINGDOM, out."
The Spartan nodded, then looked up to see their Pelican coming in for landing...