S1E3
AMMUNITION CACHE
You know the music, time to dance. Your landfall on Timorius has good timing: the territorial administration of Cantenia is in the midst of a counterinsurgency conflict against insurgent forces. An ammunition cache is believed to be in the area... seize it.
FSS Admiral Halloran (SDDGN-17)
Admiral Morton-class Space Destroyer (Nuclear Powered)
Outer Space
Murmere 13, 251 AE
9:45 AM Cantenia Surface Time
__________________________________
Two days had passed since their mission to intercept the Sinican satellite, the realization of the broadcast that they had recovered still fresh in their minds as they came upon Vesta’s lonely, lavender-colored moon. Timorius truly
was tiny, and they were just barely remaining in the gravity well of the tiny planetoid—any sudden orbital movements could send them out into deep space or back towards Vesta, so movements had to be minute and precise.
A complex array of Euphemian satellites and orbital Service and Logistic Stations (SLS) formed a ring around the purple planet, lights twinkling on Timorius’s dark side. The orbital presence here wasn’t as great as that around Vesta, but it was still a sizable enough presence to reassert who was in control in orbit: Terminus.
But then, Nicole thought about the darker sides of the moon, those twinkling lights, the imposing mountains and crater-filled valleys that undoubtedly housed insurgents and other hostile colonies alike. Were they
truly in control here, or was the orbital presence just filling in the vacancy, at least for now?
“We’re just barely sticking in orbit around Timorius — you’d be surprised how ‘floaty’ things get, if you haven’t already been down there.” Lieutenant Colonel Lamar commented, looking at the purple orb on the data tank screen, the blue triangle representing their ship orbiting around the planet at a relatively stable eccentricity and speed.
“I believe everyone here has been to Timorius, sir, with Sergeant McBride being here the most.” Nicole nodded, referring to the other members of Orpheus Deatchment that were floating at ease behind them.
“To think we managed to survive on such a hardy, small, and hostile moon. Thank god the atmosphere’s breathable, but it took a while to weather the acid rain, windstorms, and the gravity...it’s barely six percent as strong as Tsion’s. A good hop’ll take you 25 feet into the air, meaning combat—and vehicles—are quite..interesting.”
Nicole raised an eyebrow. “Sir?”
Lamar nodded. “The lower gravity on Timorius, as you know, lets us use single-stage-to-orbit craft quite often for transport, logistical, and combat support purposes. One of these, the shuttle FSS
Utopia, is set to dock with us in ten minutes. Orpheus, you’ll be boarding the
Utopia, where you’ll be sent moonside to Cloud 99 and receive your briefing from the folks down there. I’d pack your regular guns along with the Vindicators, just as a personal note.”
Before long, he began for the exit hatch. “Talk to your Captain if you have any additional questions. I have to oversee this data as it is sent back to Vesta by a nearby relay station.”
McBride muttered to himself as their enigmatic overseer left. “So we’re taking a ride on the re-entry bus..”
Kairi's own mind was set on the forces they might face on the surface — and what such an affair might present. "Any clue what we're dealing with on the surface, cap?" She questioned, already halfway down the corridor to the so-called 'locker rooms' adjacent to the airlock.
Nicole folded her arms. “Word is that there’s an ammo cache of sorts under innie control, Lieutenant. Maturochi and Sinican guns present, the usual. If I were to guess, it’s the CNLM at play.”
"So is it a stand-up fight... or a bug-hunt?" Sparks joked, slipping into the locker room doors. Their EVA suits were already prepared, firearms magnetically bound to the racks within.
“Eh, I’d say the latter...but, if you wanna get specific, it’s a cowboy movie, man.” McBride commented snarkily. “Cloud 99’s a frickin’ backwater shithole you’d see in one of those Oesterran flicks. I’ve been there once, maybe Master Sar’n’t is still there.”
Kelley lazily lifted one of his arms up from its cross-armed position, firing off a quick question for Nicole. “So uh, do we got any intel about the location of this weapon cache as of yet?”
Nicole shook her head. “All they gave me was that they believe the terrorists have a cache, but the Timorius boys have a location.”
The all-too soothing sound of weapons being loaded and readied with clicks and snaps filled the room as the team suited up and checked their weapons, carrying an increased load compared to last time. AR-M36 battle rifles, pistols, grenade bandoleers, and other equipment joined the previous loadout of Vindicators, plasma cutters, and coagulator guns — McBride, in particular, grabbed a roll of olive green-colored duct tape and a large ATR-M23 Devastator AT rifle from the shelf, strapping a few of the boxy magazines to the exterior of his suit. “You never know what the innies might have — armored Kombi? Dump truck turn SVBIED? This…” He pulled the slide back of the large AT rifle and released it for emphasis. “Solves all your problems.”
---==============---
"I figure these magnetic boots'll come useful," Kairi thought aloud, loading her own AR-M36. "Wouldn't want to get sent ten feet in the air for a slip-up.."
“Gravity on Timorius is lighter, obviously, so this’ll make for a few interesting plays,” Nicole explained, diligently checking her LMG-M392, along with securing a few box magazines to her person and testing the small motion tracker on the side. “Though, I’m keeping my boots on the ground.”
Sparks raised his own Verloc Dynamics MC24 Coagulator Gun, as if to bring attention to it. "Any trouble with the terrorists comes up, I got this. First aid kits, too. Just don't make my job hard, aight?"
Kelley pulled his ATL-46 Trident off the rack, giving it a brief look of everything from admiration, to excitement and joy. “Yeah, just lemme know when we gots’ta blow up some innies. Man, am I excited to fire this puppy.”
A low rumble resonated through the ship, followed by a few hollow clicks and bumps on the lower section of the
Halloran. “That’s our ride, ventral airlock.” Nicole immediately pointed out the location of the noise, grabbing her helmet as she propelled herself towards the doorway with one hand. That’s probably the shuttle docking now.”
"I don't know about you guys... but I was born ready!" Slinging her AR-M36 over her shoulder, Kairi began towards the docking port, idly waiting for the doors to open. A few more clicks came from the docking port as the doors opened to a man in a blue jumpsuit, beckoning them inside after greeting them with a salute. “Come onboard, Orpheus! Welcome to the FSS Utopia. We’ll take you down to the surface in no time!”
The overly cheery, excited demeanor of the FSS Utopia’s crew didn’t help the fact that squeezing five fully-armed, fully-suited marines inside was going to be a challenge, but it also confirmed the fact that they hadn’t seen any new souls for a very long time. A few of them just looked tired, others looked a bit depressed, but they were all excited to see the marines onboard.
It only begged the question: just how bad were things down on Timorius?
The group was pretty much shafted in the aft section of the spaceplane, a normally empty space that would otherwise used for holding satellites on civilian space shuttles. It had been transformed into little more than a specialized transportation pod, the seats enlarged and restraints modified to hold the bulkier marines in place during reentry and take off. Thus, it gave off the impression that it was some sort of messed-up, sci-fi roller coaster, if the ride took place in a relatively dark space lit up by red lights that shook violently.
FEDATOM COMMUNICATOR
[FSS UTOPIA (OV-20)] ”Disengaging dock with the Halloran. Reorient to bearing one-eight-five, full burn twenty seconds.”
“Full burn twenty seconds..” McBride muttered. “After that, it’s gonna be fun.”
FEDATOM COMMUNICATOR
[FSS UTOPIA (OV-20)] ”Alright, we’re dropping! 17,500 mph for re-entry, maybe a little slower...”
“And this is the giggle factor here. Why are we going so fast on such a small planet? I’ll never know.” McBride’s murmuring was soon drowned out by a howling sound as the ambient temperature increased. The spacecraft suddenly began to shake as the comms came back online, a bit drowned out by the noisy sounds of re-entry, beeping control surfaces, and the general clattering of the space shuttle.
FEDATOM COMMUNICATOR
[FSS UTOPIA (OV-20)] ”Slow ‘er down, keep her steady and lined up with the Cloud 99 runway. Get us on comms with the tower and deploy flaps.”
---
[FSS UTOPIA (OV-20)] ”Checkmate-Two-Zero on approach to Cloud 99 with request..”
[CLOUD 99 AEROSPACE TRAFFIC CONTROL] “Checkmate-Two-Zero say request.”
[FSS UTOPIA (OV-20)] ”Checkmate-Two-Zero, requesting permission to land with priority. Precious cargo and weary pilots onboard. *chuckle*”
[CLOUD 99 AEROSPACE TRAFFIC CONTROL] “Checkmate-Two-Zero, permission granted. Land at runway 49L and hold short to point Golf.”
The feeling of weightlessness suddenly subsided as the rumbling abruptly ceased. What came next was a blur: the landing gear were deployed, the spaceplane touched down on the runway, and proceeded to roll for what Nicole could only describe as a mile before coming to an unceremonious halt on the runway.
FEDATOM COMMUNICATOR
[FSS UTOPIA (OV-20)] ”Welcome to Timorius, or, rather, welcome back! On your right, you’ll see a very large mountain...and another mountain..and the tower.”
The feeling of the spacecraft finally coming to a halt warranted a sigh of relief from Kairi, and a few others. "Can't say I've ever been to Timorius... well, there's a first time for everything."
As the group disembarked, they would immediately be greeted by the Vestan moon's purple landscape, mountains looming in the distance. Cloud 99 was a fairly small town — the airport served more military purpose than anything, really — and most would consider it a backwater by any metric. Freshly-relaid tarmac aside, the aerospaceport itself had nothing particularly special about it. The tower wasn’t anything fancy...things just seemed…
bland. Just as bland as the lavender-colored earth that stretched off for miles in every direction, the distant white sun in the pale sky, and the lack of any birds chirping whatsoever. The closest semblance to backgrund ambient, aside from the usual bustle of the airport and the nearby small town, was that of the local flora, membraneous jaw-like structures inhaling and exhaling in unison.
---==============---
“No wonder the insurgents wanna get off-planet..” Nicole heard one of the pilots mutter as she passed him while disembarking. “This place
is the shithole of shitholes. I wanna go to the beach after this.”
It wouldn’t take long for them to leave the airport and head into town, which obviously seemed like it was something straight out of a western flick. Centerpiece to the town's impromptu square was a barracks of sorts, adjacent to a four-story military office compound. The Euphemian flag waved proudly above as dust blew through the town. A thin film of lavender dust seemed to hang over most things in the dead-end town, graffiti here and there in alleyways and street corners.
"I 'ssume this barracks is where our guy'll be?" Kairi questioned, looking over to Nicole.
“Looks like it.” Nicole nodded, taking the lead of the formation and starting towards the building. They were given many strange looks as they entered, but were treated all the same by the personnel, who all stood at attention upon seeing the Captain enter and look around.
“I’m looking for the man in charge here,” she announced. “It should be a Master Sergeant Wyatt J. Tannhauser.”
She was met with confused looks at first. “A sense of purpose, please, gentlemen?”
Before long, a youngish man with a mustache entered the main lobby, his arms folded as he stared down the guests with a stern look. “Who’re y’all supposed ‘tuh be? Backup?” His rank confirmed that he was, in fact, Wyatt Tannhauser — three chevrons above three rockers.
---==============---
“Something along the lines, Master Sergeant,” Nicole explained. “Whaddya got for us?”
“Only a coupla leads.” Tannhauser explained. “We got confirmed reports that innies are holed up in the hamlet of Goldhowl’s Blunder, not too far up duh road from Cloud 99. If I was you, I’d capture and interrogate whoever’s in charge over there — might be useful.”
“Got any intel on defenders? Equipment?”
“Nope. Nothing on numbers, but they’s your average rank and file when it comes to the innies. We
do know there’s some NCOIC over there — Sergeant Major Ryan Kelly. Used to be some rancher or farmer but some ASSHOLE Lieutenant bombed his house, now he’s fightin’ for them innies. I would try ‘n reason with him, but the man’s a nutjob that’ll shoot at me if he even so much as sees anything with a Euphemian flag onnit.”
“It’s our prerogative to take out that enemy camp at Goldhowl’s Blunder, but he’s yours once we get him over here.” Nicole explained. “I’d appreciate your guys remain on standby while we go in, clear house, and take down that terrorist NCO. He may know a thing or two about that ammo cache.”
McLean raidsed an eyebrow. "How’re we gonna get over th—”
“Kombis!” Tannhauser chuckled. “We’ve got a few lying around that y’all can squeeze yourself into. Seats four plus one gunner.”
"I'll drive," Kairi announced, beginning for the door.
"Hold up." Sparks looked to Tannhauser, hand raised. "How close can we safely go in, 'xactly? We don't got a clue of what their numbers are, or what they're fieldin'..."
“From what I can guesstimate based on my previous raids, I’d say a platoon-sized force of innies. Typical gear you’d suspect, but I’m thinkin’ Sinican and Maturochi guns, too. I wouldn’t be surprised if those REDFOR bastards ‘r the ones sending guns to ‘em.”
"I hear they send 'em weapons with their superguns... fire the stuff into orbit." Kairi thought aloud. The concept of launching things into orbit with superguns wasn’t something new. Nations that didn’t have the existing infrastructure or funding to afford space exploration projects or launches instead invested in large superguns that could launch satellite or supplies into orbit or, conversely, hit orbital targets as a cheap form of ASAT. Few mastered such a technique, but those among the few included Zhu and Maturoch, taking advantage of the lower gravity and orbital assists to launch supply probes at Vesta that were effectively invulnerable to Euphemian orbital defenses.
“If that’s the case, there’s nothing really we can do to stop them from bein’ launched.” McBride added.
“Stay on comms, Master Sergeant, and make sure your soldiers are ready to move out at a moment’s notice to secure Goldhowl’s Blunder. We’ll clear the way, you come in — simple, really. Just don’t be late.”
He gave a salute as she turned towards the others. “Yes ma’am.”
Sure enough, there was a small motor pool outside of the barracks, more akin to a shed with some car parts around than a proper prefabricated installation. A
LTV-M246 Kombi utility vehicle was parked, an armored cupola for a gunner situated on the top of the vehicle. It wasn’t anything special, save for the paint being a lavender drab instead of an olive drab to match the wastelands, dunes, and forests of Timorius, all of which carried the same sickly shade of purple.
"Let's roll!" Stepping in, Kairi would get the engines started as the rest of the crew climbed aboard. With a roar, the engines came to life, a low purr resonating through the Kombi as the lieutenant began their drive. As expected, the vehicle handled in an almost surreal fashion, given Timorius's low-gravity environment. With a kick of dust, they departed Cloud 99, backwater scenery becoming distant as they began down the road.
Here and there Timorian wildlife flanked them, flora shifting subtly as they breathed in near-sync. It was unmistakably alien, especially for any who had spent most of their life on Vesta. As they drove on, a winged creature loomed overhead, about the size of a man. It seemed part insect, part reptile in its appearance — yet a bit of neither.
It had flown too low, however, and immediately it was caught in the cilia of the flytrap-like trees below. With an injection of neurotoxin it was subdued, falling into the membraneous maw of the alien plant. Timorius was far from a tamed land, no — the contrary, most of it was still untouched, unconquered by widespread industrialization.
Vast mountains, capped with snow, loomed in the distance. Cresting just above them was Vesta itself. Were one to look closely, one could note it glowed with the city lights of all civilization upon its surface... it was a reminder of home. Or was Tsion their true home? Not all exactly knew
what to believe when it came to what they were taught — how could a world none of them had set foot upon for centuries be their home?
"Eyes peeled," Kairi instructed. "I don't want to drive into this village on accident..."
“Already got eyes from above, Lieutenant,” Nicole added, referring to her wrist-mounted M3 Command Module that currently was displaying their known location on a gridded, minimalistic map. “Continue for about half a klick, then stop at the fork and dismount.”
Upon reaching the fork in question and stopping, Nicole dismounted from the gunner’s cupola, using only one hand to practically springboard off and land on the ground, feats only achievable due to the lower gravity of the planetoid. It became evident that they had stopped on a road leading into a sort of gorge, in which the small village of Goldhowl’s Blunder could be seen, proudly flying a flag — the flag of
Free Cantenia, that is.
“That’s Goldhowl’s Blunder, alright, situated in the aptly named Lavender Gulch,” McBride noted over comms.
Nicole turned away from the gulch and snapped over to the Kombi. “McBride, post!”
The red-haired scout dismounted, his helmet coming on with a hiss and a click as he jogged over to Nicole’s side. “Sergeant, what do you see down there?”
It became evident that Nicole hadn’t realized the modifications to their scout’s helmet: mounted binoculars had been added to the helmet, pivoting on a sort of hinge that could snap down over the “eyes” of the helmet. McBride pulled the goggles down and switched them on, surveying the gulch and the town with a few wide scans.
“...Not gonna lie…” McBride paused. “Can’t see shit, ma’am. I don’t see anyone down there.”
Nicole scoffed, her patience and short temper tested already. “...Are you—do you see
anything?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Fuck.” She hissed. “I’ll get on comms and tell Tannhauser to get ready. I don’t know what we’re up against just yet. Someone else try the binocs to see if you can find anything.”
“You think I couldn’t see anything, ma’am?” McBride challenged, but, too intimidated to keep trying to taunt the Captain, he snapped off the binocular modification to his helmet and handed it to Kairi. “They can be used standalone or on the helmet, el-tee. I guess you can give it a shot.”
"Let's see..." Attaching the binocular mod to her own helmet, Kairi studied the periphery of the village. It seemed empty at first, save for the occasional civilians... children playing on the street... Kairi paused. From one of the windows, she could see it — two armed Cantenian insurgents, rifle resting on the windowsill.
A third emerged from behind, and an exchange seemingly followed — they were discussing something, living their lives... no different than them, really.
"I can confirm three targets, ma'am. Bearing... 280, give or take." Kairi announced, raising the binoculars away from her visor. McBride took back the binoculars and snapped them back onto his helmet, but Nicole still wasn’t convinced, even after she lowered her hand from the side of her ear. “Copy. Tannhauser’s enroute with two squads, so we’ll have to make due with what little intel we have now.”
"We'll fire on your mark, ma'am." Sparks took point, verifying the village area ahead through the sights of his own rifle.
“Roger.” Nicole nodded, assuming a very military tone and demeanor as she unslung her GPMG from her shoulder. “McBride, set that rifle of yours up on a rock. Everyone else, pick targets and call your shots — don’t accidentally flag a civvie.”
“..I’m thinking we’re gonna have to move in, anyways. Those innies will take human shields in a heartbeat..” McBride, as requested, unslung the AT rifle from his shoulder and propped its bipod against a rock, ripping one of the bulky box magazines he had attached to his suit with the roll of green duct tape from earlier, and jamming it into the weapon. “Eyes on one of the dudes in the buildings, bearing two-eight-zero. I’ll hit his ass through the wall if I have to.”
"I think I can take the one in the middle.." Kairi added.
"..oh, y'mean shoot him.." Sparks trailed off, returning to attention. "I'll take the one on th'right..."
“On my mark..” Nicole lined up her sights with one of the enemy riflemen, flicking her rifle’s safety off with her thumb. She waited, removed her finger from the trigger guard, and took a deep breath in and out, before squeezing the trigger.
The battle rifle kicked back into her shoulder — not too much of a far cry from the utter lack of recoil seen with the laser guns they had used before — but enough to give her a little jolt as she immediately prepared for a follow-up shot. One of the gunmen flopped backwards into the house he was in, blood spraying the back wall as it became evident she had hit him through the window.
Immediately, McBride chimed in and began to fire, one deafening clap of his ATR-M23 Devastator kicking up a small cloud of purple dust as a round sliced through the house he was aiming at. The other insurgent in the house had been quite literally disarmed by the AT rifle, which comically flew up into the air alongside his arm.
A loud
CRACK from Kairi's own rifle quickly tore through the throat of the third man in the group, knocking the rebel soldier's lifeless body violently backwards. With the significantly reduced gravity on Vesta, the insurgent's tumble was enough to put a significant dent in the wall behind him, dust being kicked up in the wake of the takedown. Apt and well-deserved was the fate of any terrorist.
"Aw hell, I think there's a lot more than three of 'em.." Sparks murmured, scanning the village periphery. "We done pissed 'em off!"
“McBride, what do you see?” Nicole shouted.
“Times four PAX, one enemy left, near, falling back towards the inner parts of town.” He reported, folding the bipod. “If I were to guess, we’re dealing with two squads, and our NCO is somewhere in the middle of this shit!”
Nicole fanned towards the town with her free hand and advanced. “Keep moving forward! Check your targets, and check the windows.”
They moved in towards the town, with McBride taking a step back behind the group to aim at a target beyond their range. He fired again, a window shattering as the body of a gunman was roughly and aggressively slammed against the wall. As he moved up to rejoin the group, he let out a sharp howl as another shot rang out, practically missing their heads by a few inches but grazing the side of McBride’s helmet.
“Fuck—did y’all see him?!” He shouted, adrenaline taking over as he switched from worrying about his face to trying to locate the shooter. “Where thafuck did he go?!”
Nicole gave a knifehand towards the building they were pushing up towards, and McBride wasted no time in firing another shot, wooden splinters spraying everywhere as a man that had rushed for cover practically flew towards the door, ragdolling as he did so.
"Oh God DAMN it!" Sparks ducked into cover amid the foliage and rocks once more, checking the side of his powerpack. The outer layer of the suit around the power pack had been grazed, to which the medic hurriedly searched for any further damage. "..cover me, I'm putting on ducttape!"
With that, Kairi peered from cover, taking a shot at the enemy — and promptly dropping another one of the masked insurgents. As the firefight continued, bystanders were quick to flee the scene, either clearing the streets or hunkering down in their homes. Scenes like these had become all too commonplace in Cantenia with the advent of the CNLM's uprising.
Not even two seconds after Kairi dropped the insurgent, Kelley emerged from his cover, firing a single round. Blood splattered on the opposing wall as another insurgent toppled onto the ground lifeless, Kelley’s shot piercing straight through their neck.
“McBride, report!” Nicole propped to a knee and had her sights on the building their scout had previously been shooting at. McBride jogged over and knelt to a knee, pointing towards the bullet hole in the building. “Dude fuckin’ bolted inside. I think it was their CO.”
"We've got the building effectively encircled, right? I'll put some pressure, try to smoke 'em out..." Running over, Kairi took cover behind one of the rocks, ducking. In another moment, a flame seemed to emerge, floating just above her palms before it was sent careening into the side of the house.
Judging by the screams inside, she hadn't managed to kill anyone — or do much at all, really, besides punch a hole into the wall of the house, fire slowly beginning to work its way through the Timorian wood. "Didn't do jack, ma'am!" Kairi called, ducking in cover once more.
Nicole gave a grunt. “Fuck, we’re gonna have to go—”
"COME N' GET US, FED COCKSUCKERS!" The yell from within the house was enough of an indication the enemy still intended to resist, a few potshots whizzing past over Kairi's head, in the general direction of the rest of Orpheus Detachment. The accuracy of the shots seemed to degrade as they continued, the men within no doubt in a panic.
"I say there's at least two of 'em in there, judgin' by the voices!" Kairi noted, ducking as more rounds flew past. "If we want any chance of interrogatin' them, though... we gotta go nonlethal or somethin'..."
“Set your Vindicators to stun, and move in!” Nicole ordered, met with a wall of automatic gunfire from the windows.
"Th—they're puttin' up a fight ma'am— AH SHIT!" Kairi was quickly sent back into cover. By the look of it, she was checking her suit for breaches — presumably she'd been grazed. "I'm okay, it's just—
"SHOW 'EM THE WHAT FOR!!!" One of the insurgents in the building yelled at the top of their lungs.
BANG BANG BANG BANGA bullet slammed into Nicole as she advanced, almost causing her to lose her footing as her right leg took most of the damage. Nicole returned fire at the windows, practically shooting at full auto as she yelled for Sparks to come forwards with the duct tape. “Sparks! TAPE!”
"Copy that, ma'am!" Handing Nicole the roll of tape, Sparks ducked into cover once more as the bullets flew past, the insurgents making their desperate standoff.
“Hey, L-T, why not do that fire thing again, flush ‘em out?” McBride suggested, trying to find another piece of cover to put his rather unwieldy AT rifle up against. “We could really use a trump card right now!”
---==============---
As Nicole regained her bearings, so too had Kairi — and with the roar of the unnatural flames she'd brought into being around her, Kairi sent forth the ball of flame barreling into the side of the house. With a thunderous crash, the building had been breached. The roars of the flames were soon reduced to a low hiss as they practically diminished on command, Kairi peering forth to study the interior of the space.
"I—I didn't hurt 'em, ma'am! I just knocked 'em out!" Kairi called, ducking once more for good measure. Nicole held up a balled fist as she peered over cover to inspect the damage done to the building and its inhabitants herself. She gave an “all clear” sign with her other hand and stood up, advancing towards what remained of the building with her rifle up. “I’ll take point — McBride, pull security on the exit. Everyone else, you’re with me.”
“Got it, ma’am!” As McBride went around to take cover and pull security by the door, Nicole advanced into the building, checking her corners as she immediately moved upstairs to check on the two enemy NCOs.
Slumped against the wall was a Cantenian insurgent wearing the usual violet-tinted hand-me-down BDU and respirator, trying to dress a wound on his arm and a burn on his leg, but there was also a man with a cowboy hat nearby, whom Nicole immediately pointed her weapon at: Sergeant Major Ryan Kelly.
---==============---
"Y'got me good.." He murmured between bated breaths, clutching a burn on his arm. "Never figgered Tannhauser would call up you space cowboys to deal with me... fuckin' hell.." Sighing, he lowered his head. "If y'handin' me over to that asshole Tannhauser, y'might as well shoot me thru the head."
“Your days aren’t over yet.” Nicole kept her weapon trained on the man, barely even flinching as he spoke. “And, no — Tannhauser is out of the picture. Act nice and the boys in the supermax may let you pick your own cell.”
"..y'know, y'don't know what you've got 'till you've lost it. I didn't wanna fight in this war. Left me no choice when they killed Beatrice..." Grunting, he dragged himself to rest against a wall, sighing with relief as if a weight were lifted from his shoulders. "..my boys out there. Y'killed them all off too?" He asked, as if solemnly knowing the answer.
She gave a nod. “Not like Tannhauser would do them any better. Let’s talk, Kelly.” Leaning in for emphasis, she loomed atop the man, much like the Ourielist church outside, which cast an ominous shadow over half of the town. “That weapons cache — we know you know about it. Where is it, and who sent it?”
Ryan chuckled. "I think we both know who sent it, lady... it's about forty-five klicks north o'here. The truck's out back, you sure's hell ain't gettin' there on foot. D'ywant the fuckin' keys, too? Kiss on the cheek n' some goodluck wishes? Fuckin' Fed bastards. My boys'll put a bullet in you!"
There were only two nations advanced enough to be able to send supplies from Vesta to Timorius without having to rely on spacecraft: Zhu, and Maturoch, but a gut feeling was telling Nicole that it had to be the Maturochi behind this. Their increasingly aggressive stance in Vesperanze, their foreign policy towards Terminus in recent years...whereas Zhu was passive, Maturoch was aggressive, so there had to be no other explanation behind this,.
“Fucking sand-n¥¥¥¥¥..” She whispered under her breath. “Damn it. I should’ve known.”
"We already have our Kombi waiting out, reinforcements on standby..." Kairi walked in, the sunlight casting a shadow as she entered. "We won't be needing any truck. What exactly are we lookin' at on the way there?" The flame hovered just above her palm, telling the Cantenian insurgent all he needed to know.
"..Ouriel have mercy.." He muttered, shaking his head. "Two roads lead up to the cache. Mountain path might be treacherous, but it sure's hell beats goin' thru the woods. My boys've SEEN things..."
“Yeah? What kind of things?” Nicole challenged. She had to remember that Terminus
technically had eyes and ears all over, but given the CNLM’s adoption of guerrilla tactics, simply relying upon aerial and orbital reconnaissance as a crutch wouldn’t help them for long.
Ryan scoffed. "It's Gorex matin' season. They're extra aggressive this time o'year.. I's seen 'em cut through an entire platoon like wet paper. The Yden Forest is crawlin' with the fuckers... that's why we steer clear o'there."
---==============---
"Mountain range north of us..." Sparks trailed off. "That ought to be the Epper Mountains, I figure."
"Then the cache's near the Alpha Gun." Kairi blurted out. The Alpha Gun was among the variety of aging superweapons operating on the Timorian surface. It had been vastly expanded since the days of the Vestan Wars, the ancient supergun acting as extraplanetary support. Theoretically, it could hit anything on Vesta — and was in itself one of the many deterrents in active use by the Federal States of Euphemie to maintain their grip on Vesta and its moons.
---==============---
“I’m making a route as we speak.” Nicole said, suddenly reaching up to her ear as her radio chirped.
FEDATOM COMMUNICATOR
[MSGT. W. J. TANNHAUSER] ”Orpheus-1, this is Tannhauser, we’re movin’ in on the town. Y’all got the target?”
[CPT. N. PRICE] "Affirmative. We’ve also located the cache — it’s near the Alpha Gun. I’ll get patched in with Alpha Gun security forces if needed, but we’ll be on our way."
[MSGT. W. J. TANNHAUSER] “Yes, ma’am.”
She looked back at her team. “He’s here, which means we’re leaving, and so is Kelly.
Ryan sighed in resignation. "..least I's got some brothers still out there to live for. We'll get thru this t'gether, ain't that right, Hoss?" He looked over to the other insurgent, who had removed his respirator to smoke a cigarette. The man simply nodded.
"We'll be crossin' the mountains.." Kairi noted. "This little village's pretty close, I'm sure there's a road or somethin' that leads up there. Ready to get us on the move whenever you're ready, ma'am."
“Orpheus, we’re mounting up.” Nicole announced, starting towards the exit of the building with Kelly and his henchman in tow. Outside, two Kombis and an
ASV-M250 Thylacine were outside, Tannhauser lounging on the light armored vehicle in question as the others escorted Kelly and his adjutant outside. While they were turned over to Tannhauser for transport back to Cloud 99, McBride walked up to the rest of the team, his weapon already stowed away on his armor. “Where we goin’?”
“Over the Epper Mountains, to the Alpha Gun. The cache is somewhere near there,” Nicole explained, pointing to the mountain range in question, where the gun had been cleverly hidden between the gargantuan peaks. “I’ve already got the route set. Armstrong, you’re driving again.”
"Got it, ma'am!" Hopping aboard the Kombi, Kairi got it running in no time, the engines of the utility vehicle roaring to life. A dirt road of faded violet trailed upward into a treacherous pass resting between the sharp peaks ahead. Surely this was the route the insurgent officer had mentioned...
The road was winding and treacherous, the lack of guardrails on some sections only serving to reassert the fact that the only thing keeping them from a long and dizzy fall down the mountain was their driving skill, luck, or some combination thereoef.
“Two klicks to destination,” Nicole muttered, taking the occasional glance at her wrist-mounted mini-computer as they moved through the mountains, her other hand tightly gripping the pistol grip of her LMG-M392. “Eyes peeled!”
Kairi kept her attention to the road, continuing on through the pass. Flanking them at both sides were the steep cliffsides of the mountains around them, peaks capped with snow. The treacherous path lead them on through the primordial, alien mountain range, suit displays indicating a cool breeze was coursing through the pass.
"Looks to be clear... watch your flanks." Kairi called from the driver's seat, mindful of their surroundings as they continued through the mountain range. Here and there the rusty carcasses of military convoys served as testament to the real danger posed by rebel forces in the mountains, by now months — if not years — old.
“Think that enemy arty is still here?” McBride muttered, much to Nicole’s confusion. What was he talking about, exactly?
"Hope not," muttered Sparks. "I ain't got time to end up like those convoys..."
“Enemy arty, Sergeant?” Nicole asked. “I’ve been to Timorius a few times myself - what do you mean by this?”
“Mas’sar’nt said there was some pesky mobile arty piece somewhere in the mountains, shooting and scooting. If I were to guess, it’s fuckin’ foreign advisers at it.”
"Y'mean the desert folk?" questioned Sparks.
"Maturoch's no desert.." replied Kairi.
"It was when we glassed 'em." Sparks chuckled to himself. "Figure they're teachin' these dumbasses 'bout the curvature of the moon..."
“If we get a chance — a window to find that mobile arty piece and take it out, we’ll take it,” Nicole instructed, keeping her eyes peeled as they moved through the mountains. “Kairi, 1 klick from the gun, stop at this fork in the road up here.”
Up ahead was another split in the road, the monolithic Alpha Gun cleverly hidden among the jagged peaks of the mountains. Nicole prepared to dismount as their Kombi slowed down to a crawl
"Think we've got something up ahead," Kairi said. "We're far enough from Goldhowl's Blunder... that's gotta mean something."
“I...see it too.” On the grainy satellite map function on the command module, just barely visible to Nicole, was some anomaly: some blurry, seemingly man-made feature on the map. She gave the command to halt with her free hand and dismounted from the Kombi’s gunner seat, moving into a prone among the violet-colored dirt and plants as she inspected what was up ahead.
“Counting about… fifteen men at the encampment.” Nicole said aloud. “Pick your targets.”
"Watch this.." Taking cover behind the rocks, Kairi peered ahead. Rifle in hand, she noted the targets below... before firing an automatic spray into the enemies below. Almost immediately, four of them dropped dead, Kairi swiftly ducking afterward.
“CONTAACT!!” Shouting came from the encampment as Nicole kept prone and opened fire on the site. Two enemy soldiers dropped dead as the others scattered for cover, an additional four stumbling to the ground dead or dying as she practically emptied her magazine into the campsite. “Sparks, AT man on the pre-fab!” She directed the combat medic to the prefabricated watch tower in question with a knife hand. “Take it out!”
RATATATATWith a spray of automatic fire, Sparks dropped the anti-tank operator, his corpse falling limp amidst the rebel camp. With another shot, Kairi joined in — another rebel infantryman collapsing in the killzone that had become of the encampment.
Bullets whistled past Nicole’s head as she moved towards new cover, dropping to a knee behind a rock formation adjacent to the now bullet-ridden tree.
“Sparks!” She screeched.
BANGSparks' shot had seemingly missed the remaining soldier by mere inches, practically sending the man tumbling back in surprise. Quickly composing himself once more, the rebel dragged himself into cover again, rifle in hand.
Nicole’s attention was once again fixated on eliminating the enemy shooters, so she turned to Orpheus’s resident sniper for assistance. “McBride, support!”
CA-THOONKA visible vapor trail appeared beside Nicole as the last of the enemy riflemen jerked upwards, his body flung backwards like a ragdoll from the strength of McBride’s AT rifle. It dawned upon Nicole that the man was now missing his head, reduced to a fleshy mess of bone and other viscera that scattered elsewhere.
“Scratch one.” McBride called out, racking the charging handle of the ATR-M23 Devastator back as he slapped a fresh magazine into the large weapon. “I think I’ve got him, ma’am. How about it?”
“Push the camp! I need sectors of fire on those two tents: Armstrong,” Nicole directed towards the tents with a knife hand, making a sort of invisible wedge. “Go with Kelley and cover the left half, I’ll push middle, Sparks and McBride push right.”
On Nicole’s command, Orpheus pushed, sprinting nearly 100 meters in about fifteen seconds, a bit of a marvel to behold given the bulky suits they wore and the heavy weapons they carried, but nothing too difficult given the lighter gravity on Timorius overall. While they were running, Nicole spotted a human poke out of one of the tents, a flash filling her vision as a bullet ripped past her, bouncing off towards one of the trees behind the sprinting marines. The repeated beeping in her ears confirmed her worst: the bullet had penned the suit, but the fact that she wasn’t experiencing any excruciating pain was at least a reassurance that she hadn’t been hurt.
“I’m hit—” her callout was immediately drowned out by the deafening boom of McBride’s AT rifle, another vapor trail ripping past Orpheus and hitting the enemy insurgent straight in the chest, spraying a gory red mess on the walls of the tent as a dinner plate-sized hole appeared in his chest.
Almost immediately, the other soldier threw his weapon away and thrust his hands in the air, begging for Orpheus to spare him. “Don’t shoot! Please. I’m done with this shit — I’m through.”
A bit late, don’t you think… Nicole grumbled to herself, regaining her composure. “Kairi, restrain that guy. I’ll see who this guy here is..”
She gingerly stepped over the bodies that littered the ground, using the barrel of her rifle to open up the gore-spattered camouflage tent.
---==============---
Inside was a man whose cowboy hat miraculously managed to stay on even after his death, the faded “butter bar” insignia on his uniform, the RAID-modified violet fatigues he wore, and the respirator all confirming that he was, in fact, an enemy officer, a vice grip on his weapon even in death.
“He’s dead.” She said unceremoniously, lowering her weapon.
FEDATOM COMMUNICATOR
[LTCOL. B. LAMAR] ”I’m seeing what you’re seeing on the helmet feed. That would be ex-Lieutenant Brendan Tarr, originally a platoon leader in the Cantenia Security Forces. He and his men went rogue after they were tasked to suppress striking miners in the Collins Belt...and they themselves joined the strikers. You killed a very important man, Captain.”
[CPT. N. PRICE] "How so, sir?."
[LTCOL. B. LAMAR] ”He was one of the first organizers of the CNLM in the region, and oversaw guerrilla warfare operations in the region. Killing him will put a dent in their skill, as he was one of the only few innies that had a military background.”
-----------
[MSGT. W. J. TANNHAUSER] ”Orpheus-1, this is Tannhauser, we heard some shooting while we was on our way to give you some backup to the cache site. Everything alright?”
[CPT. N. PRICE] "Affirmative, we’ve located the camp and neutralized one hostile. We need EPW on-site for one POW...and a shit ton of casualty reports written. For the enemy, that is."
[MSGT. W. J. TANNHAUSER] “Yes ma’am. We’re Oscar Mike.”
"Think we've just found our cache, ma'am!" Kairi's voice was audible not far from where Nicole stood, and it quickly became apparent what she'd happened upon — upon an overlook viewing the alien forests stretching below, mountain ranges and Alpha Gun in view, stacks of metal crates lay about, each one bearing worn Maturochi flags, labels in cuneiform.
A Maturochi A-44 rifle rest against a barrel beside the crate Kairi sat upon, indicative of the unspoken sponsor of the rebels. Not far were a few light utility vehicles, also Maturochi-made.
---==============---
“It’s like they didn’t even bother to make it discreet,” McBride grunted, assessing the crates with curiosity.
“Guess my inkling was right..” Nicole’s voice trailed off, thus confirming her worst. Maturoch was supporting the Cantenian insurgency, likely in more ways than just sending them weapons shipments. “These guns...too elegant for Sinican hands.”
FEDATOM COMMUNICATOR
[CPT. N. PRICE] "Orpheus-1 to command: be advised, we have located the weapons cache, Maturochi in origin."
[LTCOL. B. LAMAR] ”Very well. Stick tight, we’ll pick you and the weapons up quick.”
"That a mission accomplished, I figure.." Sparks murmured, noting the weapons cache. "Don't think this'll be the first time we'll be seeing raghead meddlin' in this fight."
Nicole could only nod at that statement as she looked back at the blue orb in the sky that was Vesta. Sparks was right. With how aggressive Maturoch was posturing itself in Veris, the Tiamat subcontinent, and now Timorius, one could only wonder how deep the Maturochi were in this geopolitical game of pulling strings and pushing pawns.