CHIEF EXECUTIVE: A Cyberpunk Roleplay [IC]

[Turmenista]

---

[- OOC THREAD -] | [- DISCORD CHANNEL -]

CO-OP(s): N/A

---

[- SOUNDTRACK-2 -]
[- CoTM -]

---

---

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

C H A P T E R 1 - "R E D R I S I N G"
UN HQ, NEW YORK CITY, NORTH AMERICA
EARTH
JANUARY 1, 2251

__________________________________

After thoroughly sifting through the ambient white noise of radio static and other miscellaneous conversations of the city filling up her thoughts, Lucy had finally come across the highly-encrypted UN Communications channel, a task which - given the UN's rather pathetic reputation at this point - would've seemed to be a relatively easy task. In reality, it wasn't. Ironically, the UN's own COMMS channel was bogged down head to toe in heavy encryptions and firewalls the likes of which only a seasoned AI could recreate, yet nobody had bothered to put such level in security in a building as simple and insignificant as an armory.

"Lucy, did you get through?" Despite not being audible in the real world, a familiar voice spoke into her head as she lifted it up slowly, staring at the busy city streets below from atop the landing terrace. She stood up, her bionic eyes pulling up needlessly complicated information drawn from the Meganet and millions of other computers around her, all of which were pushed aside as she gazed upon the city. "Yep. I got in," She said, her own voice audible in her head. "Easier said than done, though, Joseph. I don't know what idiot didn't decide to put that level of security into their actual buildings, but that's none of my business."

"So long as the UN's giving me their trust and political support, we'll need to accept their bullshit."

"Amen to that, brother," Lucy said out loud, raising up her left arm to access her TACPAD. The wrist-mounted computer quickly brought up a rotating blue hologram of the city projected in front of her, but she collapsed the hologram as she swiped to the right, in order access the COMMS feed section. Mentally copying the information of the UN's so-called secret comms channel and pasting it into her TACPAD, she then reached behind her head to the base of her neck, unplugging the neural interface cord currently connecting her to a large radio tower atop the terrace. A faint chill ran through her body briefly as she disconnected herself from the tower, returning to the side of the terrace and looking down upon the streets below.

Joseph's voice came back quickly. "What's the situation over there, Lucy? I don't feel like risking precious resources trying to fight the NSF with MFVs and Tanks when I could just send a few bots over."

"Working on it. Wait."

A pause. "Connected to UN COMMS, standby." Lucy sighed, wincing.. This was going to be very fucking loud.

For some reason, the TACPAD's volume range for audio on recordings and COMMS was absurdly high. It was about equivalent to that of a small subwoofer that one would expect to find on a sonic grenade or immature 12 year old's Meganet video. Had the volume not been lowered beforehand in anticipation for the shitstorm of blue helmets talking over one another, she probably would've gone temporarily deaf had she placed it right next to her ears. Almost immediately, she was assaulted with an unfriendly cacophony of explosions, gunfire, lasers, screams of pain and barking of orders, all overlapping with one another. Nothing too unusual, though, as SIDE channels on COMMS were generally louder than CMD or SQD channels.

CMD channel was a much more civilized place, but really only UN officers were using them. By that, dead UN officers, or UN Central Command. The various SQD channels were a different story. Unlike the disorganized screaming of regular infantry asking for assistance every five seconds on the SIDE channel that all of the UN forces in the city could access, this offered her a more precise look on the bleak situation of the armory attack. Lucy quickly prioritized and sorted out the meaningless screaming from the more important calls for help from CMD and SQD, storing the few recordings in the back of her head for archival purposes:

[CMD] "All units, this is UN Central Command. Be advised: Support units are now on standby. Friendly airborne assets are also enroute now. Requesting SITREP from all available units. Hang in there. Out."

[SQD] "Command, this is Alpha 1 of Alpha Team! SITREP: The Armory at West 343rd Street is under attack by NSF Forces! Repeat, The Armory at West 343rd Street is under attack by NSF forces! I'm counting times 5 MFVs and multiple enemy PAX in the armory and the mall of North America nearby. Said troops are reportedly "NSF Special Forces". We're on the verge of being overrun! Requesting immediate assistance on our position, over!"

[SQD] "This is Angel One, I'm taking ground fire from the mall! I can't drop the MFVs with that around. Spotted an Enemy MFV loaded up with anti-air weaponry on top of the mall, need that taken out!"

Lucy sighed. "It isn't looking too good, Joseph."

"I can tell."

"NSF are apparently using elites and MFVs. UN's getting their asses handed to them. I'm gonna need a Valkyrie dropped on my position as soon as you can, Joseph. Fit it with a jump pack like on the Valkyrie, a SHAC, and a 30 mil. I'm gonna need to get there as soon as I can."

"That can be arranged. UN just gave you approval to deploy. Meanwhile, I have to attend to this stupid meeting. Good luck out there."

Just as he said this, however, Lucy noticed the Savant Talon SSTO coming in on her position, carrying the vehicle in question underneath its frame on a magnetic lock located on its underside. After the large SSTO VTOL hovered above the terrace for a moment, it dropped the payload on the nearby landing pad intended for large aircraft or helicopters, before quickly peeling away and rocketing back into the sky. A smile formed on the blonde-haired Inspector's face as she approached the Valkyrie open hatch as if it were a throne reserved for a queen - specifically, for her.

"Likewise, good luck," she said, approaching the crouched vehicle standing atop the landing pad.

Perhaps the New Year wasn't getting off to a bad start so far after all.

[Higher Japan]

Hyperion Central Intelligence Center

Deep within the winding buildings of Tokyo and the massive skyscrapers built in the city, a single building stood above them all, even beyond the sky scrapers. The building in question was Hyperion Central Intelligence Center, said to be the hive mind of all operations undertaken, be it military or economically. At the top of it all, a single projection spun a hologram of the company logo just above Tokyo skyscrapers. At the top office of the tower, the faint sound of a meeting could be heard behind the 3 layered doors with the insignia of the company on the door, 2 guards in a full android suit with various weapons on hand standing by as they looked out for any suspicious individuals.

"...that's why I'm telling you we need to invest more in the field of weapons development."

"Commander, I'm sorry but I-"

"We just had a tragedy all because of complacency! The NSF is getting more and more tech and weapons, and we don't know where. That's why I'm telling you, send more money towards the security department. I'm sure we can cut funds from the food production department, not like they do anything."

"Commander, the food production department has been making leaps and bounds in terms of producing as much food, minimally and quickly. Cutting funding off would be suicide for the company, I find it best that you should first wait for the-"

"There's no time to wait! If we don't-"

"Mr Uriel, I think you should take your leave. You're disrupting business operations. Guards!" As the commander continually harassed Edel, she continually tried to stave him off, attempting to negotiate with him before they were interrupted by Arondite as the first layer opened sideways, the second horizontally and the third having the symbol spin the release the locks as the guards came in before pulling the commander out, screaming and cursing as the doors quickly closed shut. Sinking into her mobility assistance chair, Edel looked at the reports in front of her as she swiped a few holographic projections aside before looking at a now moving chart.

"This is bad, stock prices aren't doing so good. We're on a slow decay but so are others. Shimotomia, get my car ready. I want to go on a small trip." Bowing as the table broke apart and split, the chair began to move forward while Arondite floated forward himself to get the car ready. Upon reaching the first floor, the door opened with the ramp lowering down as she sighed before the chair itself moved up the ramp. Halfway through, a message appeared as she sighed and closed it before rubbing her forehead. "Shimotomia, get me to the airport at once. Get my transport ready. We leave for New York at once." Looking into the rear view mirror and nodding, 3 digital rings in descending order appeared in front of his eyes as the car took a different route while he contacted the company base to prepare as Edel sat in the back, finishing off some paperwork.

Upon arrival, various soldiers had gathered around the transport as fighters covered the area. Upon exiting the car, Arondite opened the door as the wheelchair quickly went down the moment the ramp went out. "Miss Edel, you look pale. Are you sure you're fit for the meeting?" "I'm fine, I...I..." As the wheelchair touched the floor, her eyes widened quickly as she began to vomit out blood. Soldiers around her quickly rushed for a doctor as he injected medicine into her veins from her wrist, stopping the vomiting for the moment. "Edel, you can't go to this meeting in this state, you must rest!"

"Nonsense, the company's future may rest on this meeting. In that case, go on my behalf. I want a video call line to be set up at once the moment it begins, and make it fast." She muttered out between coughs, before fainting as the doctors quickly came and brought her off to the hospital on sight. Turning back to the plane, his programming received new orders from Edel's chair. He was to act as the delegate for the meeting to come. Quickly boarding the plane as it took off, the plane along with it's escorts soon made the short trip towards the city.

After a short trip past immigration and a car trip through the massive city, Arondite finally walked through the doors and into the conference room, assuming that it was early as he sat down at a chair and began to do some work, setting up a line for Edel who had now been bed ridden while using the other eye to analyze the situation concerning the NSF. They had deployed some of their own forces there, and taking direct control was now important after new intel came in of them having better weaponry.

[Auropa]

Janet O’Connor
Legacy CEO
UN meeting, Earth

“Ma’am, planetside NSF engagements are proceeding disfavorably for UN forces. We recommend a withdrawal until force strength can be confirmed and managed.”
“Now if I were to do that, who would drink all the champagne?”
“Ma’am, this a matter of security. Procedure dict-“
“Procedure is as I say it is.” Janet said sharply
“Continue to monitor the situation and keep this channel clear unless absolutely necessary. God knows I pay you people enough to do that at the very least.” Not waiting for a response Janet shut off the communication link with a thought and got back to the discussion at hand.

Currently she was talking to some boorish millionaire. The man was an idiot, ran some sub-par PMC and felt that gave him absolute authority over all things. Character flaws aside, he was a potential client and that meant she’d play ball. A laugh here, a toast there and compliment thrown in for good measure. As things were, the poor man was falling straight into her net.
“My group’s expansion is usually a private matter. We take pride in our self-sustained nature, but I’m sure we’d be willing to allow some outside help, so long as the offer is good.” He said still believing the situation in his favour.
“I’m sure you do, its certainly an impressive feat for one in your line of business. And Legacy wouldn’t want to tarnish such a trait, all we want to do is help. With a few of our generators you’ll see just how efficiently construction can progress. And should you wish for it, I’m sure I can sway the board to loan out a few constructors as well. But let’s leave the details to another day, we wouldn’t want to miss the UN’s address, wouldn’t we?” And that was how the day had been progressing so far. She arrived early with her entourage and since then, it had been a non-stop flurry of handshakes, greetings and deals as they waited for the meeting to commence. After all, nearly everyone showing up tonight held considerable influence and resources of their own, each and every one of them could prove to be a profitable client. Though considering the topic of the UN’s meeting, that should hardly be a surprise.

The UN’s constant failures to uphold control and order was finally reaching a tipping point. While details were still unconfirmed, her informants suggested that the meeting would be regarding new roles for the corporate world in dealing with the growing threats within the system. The re-emergence of the NSF, undoubtedly being the focus. Their increasingly aggressive attacks had been costly for all parties, and while Janet wanted to see them permanently removed, she wasn’t going to put her own assets at risk without some significant form of return. Ideally, that’s what today discussion would be focused around.

Keeping that in mind, the last few weeks had been in constant preparation. If the UN was going to lower their restrictions on military activity or open up new contracts, Legacy had to be ready. Depending on tonight, there was going to be a swarm of activity across the market. While that brought risks in itself, it also meant the forging of new opportunity as well. If anything was certain, it was that war was always costly. While Legacy’s ARC weapons project was still in its infancy and the more militarized genetic modifications were too expensive and ineffective for widespread use, Janet figured most militaries would be more than willing to pay for a constant, secure flow of power. Ships, mechs, equipment and nowadays even weapons all needed power. That was her goal for tonight. While the gun focused junkies focused on the frontlines, she’d make money and connections while supporting from afar. ‘Low risks and high returns’ she thought to herself with a smile, ‘so long as the others a capable of dealing with a few trigger happy radicals’.

[Xah]

Isis Khatri
Osiris Spaceport Facilities
New York city
Earth

Isis disliked coming to Earth; the oppressive gravity weighed heavily on her old bones, despite the medication off-worlders could take to mitigate the effects. Added to that was the cacophony of noises and smells one always got from the close proximity (relatively speaking) of several billion humans. It was also decidedly unhygienic, far from the carefully controlled environment found in Aaru. It wasn't unheard of people on Earth to get genuine diseases like influenza or even the actual plague. Like any good executive, Isis had her exposure to these things managed and reduced as best as her staff could do; she'd travelled from Ganymede in the Osiris executive Ra-Class transport, the giant ship that served as a home away from home for all of Osiris' higher management. Once in Earth orbit, she'd then transferred down in an executive shuttle, which landed in an environmentally controlled hanger at Osiris' own spaceport built out onto Hudson Bay, where an armoured hover-vehicle looking more like a large, bulky limo awaited to take her across the city to the UN building. In the entire journey, Isis had not been exposed to anything not already sanitised to hell. The UN building, however, was out of her or her staff's control. As her vehicle travelled through the busy streets and airways of New York, Isis checked up on the latest operations taking place, both on Earth and elsewhere.

"Artemis," Isis said, speaking to her AI secretary. "What's the situation regarding that NSF attack?"

"The situation is still unclear," the perfectly modulated, slightly female voice said. "United Nations troops are struggling to contain the incident, it appears the NSF is better equipped and has more resources than we were previously led to believe. Do you still wish for asset 231 to remain in the area?"

Isis nodded, "It's vital we get as much information about what these people are capable of. I suspect the UN is going to be asking us, and other corporations, to step up in our assistance against the NSF. I'm inclined to agree with them, war might be good for business, but this level of chaos makes the markets too unstable. Just..." she paused, tapping her fingers against her chin. "Get Paul to put our security forces on an enhanced training program. May as well start the ball rolling now." Paul Escobar was Osiris' executive in charge of Osiris Acquisitions. "We may be able to profit from this after all."

The vehicle arrived at the UN building where various staff members had already arrived and where doing their best to make sure Isis wasn't exposed to too much nasty Earth things. Taking a resigned breath, Isis straightened her clothing and stepped out as the door opened. Time to start behaving like a responsible human being again.

---

Operative 231
Near the NSF assault

Perched on the ledge of a building, Zaid was confident that, with his cloaking active, he was all but invisible to any observer. One eye was busy watching the events unfolding nearby, whilst the other was looking through the optics of a local law-enforcement scout-drone that was circling the area, its operator entirely unaware of the Osiris agent piggy-backing on the feed. A few moments later and a shot, Zaid couldn't tell if it was NSF or UN fired, destroyed the drone and he returned his attention to his own location. In the corner of his visual feed, a small indicator icon appeared and Zaid smiled to himself. "About time." he thought. Standing up, he began to climb up the side of building, using only the friction-field gloves to support his weight. Moving slowly, as to not disturb the cloaking field, he eventually reached the roof where a concealed sniper rifle was waiting. "Observe and collect intelligence." he mused. "My talents are entirely wasted at times."

[Parcia]

Tula Fleet Cruiser, Kirov
High Earth orbit over New York


"So your telling me the Cyka's in the UN didn't notice the multiple unknown's closing in on their armory?" His assistant nodded. "It appears, despite their over all higher level of weapons tech, that the NSF has a keen interest in this armory."

Ivan sighed as the brunet women sat down next to him. The two would look rather different next to each other, her in a pencil skirt, white blouse, black heels and black semi-rimless glasses; All together contrasting with his long black trench coat, black boots, Ushanka and pistol belt. While their attire was different, they both spoke in a low, Moscow accent as to not wake the little one in the next room.

He didn't like the two of them being here, on his ship, over the now active war zone that was New York. Despite being the single largest warship in the system, a veritable battleship in terms of armor and guns, it still left him uneasy to know his love and daughter both on it, especially if the NSF was active.

He sighed once more, turning to Anya. "Promise me you two will stay here, I know you worry when I go on these ground deployments, but there has been rumors of discontent among the men, they need to see their commander in action." She looked up to him, those baby blue eyes sparkling in the low light of the hologram. "Just be safe, alright." He smiled.


25 minuets later
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeqGuaAl6Ic
As the situation would escalate, those on the ground would see a shape grow closer and closer until it could be seen with clarity: A Savannah class frigate was performing one of the feats unique to its design: Atmospheric Reentry. It would level out roughly at 9,000 feet before broadcasting on open frequencies its IFF tag to avoid being zapped out of the air by UN anti-ship defenses.

From its sole hanger, 6 Tartula Transports (Tula made Pelican dropship, for reasons) transports would fly out. Inside of each of them would sit 15 Tula Security force soldiers, doing a once one over of their weapons. Most of the men would be in their 20s, early 30s, with pale skin and dark hair distinctive of a Slavic background. Promises of drinks, meals, and a stop at the local pubs would be exchanged between the men. Two of the transports, towards the rear of the formation, each carried an M5 assault walker towards the rear of the craft.

The second to lead plane would be strangely quiet, as standing in the center of the troop bay, keeping his balance through holding on to a roof mounted rail, stood Ivan Malinovka wearing the same trench coat, boots, and ushanka. This time, how ever, a engraved, hand made pistol sat in its holster**.

His personal AM-30 was slung over his back and a few extra power packs clipped in to his belt. "Sir, ETA 45 seconds to landing." The pilot spoke in to his ear. He keyed in to his personal radio and spoke. "All units, we are dropping in to a hot zone, Squads 1 and 2 will push forward and scout out the block between the LZ and the armory, while squads 3, 4, 5, and the mechs will deploy and move forward. Once we have linked up with UN and allied forces, we are to assist them in the defense of the Armory. The Frigate Endeavor will remain on station for fire support."











**(insert "The Rat king" from destiny 2 here)

[Free Arctic Territories]

Black Sun East Coast Regional Offices, New York

On an otherwise quiet weekday morning on the 94th floor of the Black Sun East Coast Regional Offices in upper Manhattan, there was one room that buzzed with noise and activity like a beehive. Makeshift workstations were crowded with personal and company laptops of every make and model, hungrily suckling on the crowded, vine like network of power cords and data cables that ran across the room like snakes. One section of the wall was hastily covered with corrugated steel reinforced plastic boards, and a hole in the newly replaced window whined with the strong breeze trying to push it’s way in. In the center of the storm was Mei Baitu, Special Operations Director, along with Polybius, an Android dispatched as the representative of Black Sun Security Division command. Currently, they were sitting at a foldable plastic desk with synth-mahogany panels near the middle of the makeshift command center, commandeered and quickly converted from a corporate boardroom by Security Division staff. On her screen a group of video streams displayed from several angles the UN compound, an ugly, bland glass and steel mountain which seemed to have been pulled from some forgotten asteroid colony and placed in the middle of a vibrant city street several decades ahead of it’s time. The Black Sun relay chat was alight with activity on the edge of the screen, and the background was dominated with a map of the Earth, centered on New York. Motioning toward the map Polybius spoke with a start. “The Executive has arrived at the meeting. Joint Fireteam Platoon "Prateorian" has confirmed that the facility is secure." "Noted," Mei replied curtly. Another minute of silence. A bright flashing icon appeared on the edge of her vision.

Attention! Priority Message Received. Code: Prismarine. Open SunNet terminal?

---

Y/N

Standing up, Mei said, "Excuse me, I need to make a call." "Understood," Polybius replied, still looking at the screen. She couldn't help but shiver a bit once she left the room. "Can't stand droids...", she muttered, searching for a place with no eavesdroppers. After a short walk down the hallway, an empty office appeared before her. Waving towards the credentials sensor on the wall next to the door, she walked in, the door sliding shut behind her. Taking a large, wheeled black leather office chair as the lights flickered to life, she opened the message. A call button and a name appeared on her HUD. Kristen Andersen, Long Island Security Station Commanding Officer.

"Hello, this is Mei, who's speaking?"

"Good morning ma'am. This is Colonel Andersen from Long Island. We're requesting authorization to attach Fireteams Alpha, Delta, Sigma, and Gamma to the Heavy Response Division as supporting infantry."

"What for, Colonel?"

"There's been some new developments that may affect the safety and security of our executive and the meeting she's attending."

"You mean the reports of OPFOR that were moving toward that armory half an hour ago? Weren't they neutralized already?"

"Not quite..."

"Not quite?"

"UN Central Command reports an approximately company sized force of NSF paramilitaries and 5 MFVs surrounding the perimeter of the compound. They've set up anti-air positions around a nearby mall. The area is locked down, no way in or out. The peacekeepers garrisoned there are being slaughtered. They're not sure how long they'll last, or how many are left. They're requesting support from anyone that'll come."

"They don't even know how many of their own soldiers are still alive, never mind NSF?"

"Seems like it."

"Alright, you have my approval. The Section Fireteams will be under your command for the operation, understood?"

"Understood, Director. I'll keep you updated on the situation. Andersen, over and out."

Mei let out a deep sigh, wearily rubbing the bridge of her nose. How the hell could they bungle up security so bad on an armoury in their own city? she frustratedly thought. The image of the two nervously smiling UN representatives that had been at the Division meeting a few days ago came to her head. "Don't worry about security," they said, seeking to reassure the Division chiefs. "We're going to have more than enough soldiers on hand. New York has the most UN facilities of any city in the entire system. The chances of an NSF attack will be minimal." So they said. The black hole of incompetence that is the United Nations bureaucracy has never ceased to amaze her. Just a few days ago, despite warnings of increased NSF activity from multiple sources across the intelligence community, UN forces were caught with their pants down and fast asleep when Secessionist forces went on a system wide killing spree, attacking hundreds of corporate and United Nations affiliated military bases, offices (such as this one, she ruefully thought, looking at the freshly painted walls and broken glass in the half repaired room across the hall), and orbital stations, leaving tens of hundreds of thousands dead, wounded, and missing. They were still pulling thousands of body each day out of the wreckage of the attacks, and, especially on Earth, who's orbital facilities suffered the brunt of the attacks, interplanetary travel was completely paralyzed for days, leaving passenger and cargo ships alike as they waited for a place to dock on the ruined skeletons of space stations nearly destroyed by Secessionist guns and bombs like lame ducks. Amid a media firestorm in the aftermath of the incident, the UN frantically called any available military units, be they with a megacorporation, small freelance private military companies, or even loose networks of lone mercenaries, to help answer the terrorist attacks of the NSF with an offensive of their own.

"Seems like they answered first, again." she mused, as she watched the raging battle around the armory from her HUD combat feed.

---

United Nations Compound, New York

Hestia was not in a good mood, and Seonangsin knew it. She had barely spoken more than a hundred words during the trip here, and each strained smile she forced seemed to only highlight rather than hide her barely contained rage. Briefing the three Special Operations Section Fireteams dispatched as part of Black Sun's enhanced security efforts for the meeting, he had said, "If you see her even slightly irritated, give her space. No less than 2 meters away from her. If you distract her even by the smallest amount while she's in this mood, it'll ruin her concentration and we'll risk having the negotiations fall through." So far, her retinue had taken care to avoid incurring her wrath, but she had nearly lost all composure when her flight was delayed for 30 precious minutes when the entourage was held up in customs after one of the junior advisers had accidentally left a full water bottle in his bag.

"If it wasn't such a waste of time and bullets, I would have the people running this spaceport in body bags," she muttered after the customs manager, finally recognizing who they were, had profusely apologized. He knew Hestia was off today. She usually adopted a friendly and falsely sweet manner when in public, playing off her relatively youthful, attractive appearance to disarm anyone who approached her. However, underneath her mask, Seonangsin knew she was all business, cool and collected. Back when he was in the Security Division, they called her "the Empress of Ice". Only to a small circle of friends, him, as the leader of Hestia's personal bodyguard unit, being included, would she show her true nature. Friends, he thought, was a very loose term. Seonangsin suspected the only real friend she ever had was Executive Zhang. Well, had, he morbidly noted. Somewhere within the recesses of his digitized mind, under layers and layers of programs, processes, and commands, a notification popped up. Mentally approving the request, he opened up a small link across the Black Sun intranet, a single thread in a web of communications. Opening the downloaded report, he scanned and committed it to memory, all within a fraction of a second.

"Hestia," Seosangsin said quietly, not moving from his position in front of Black Sun's seat at the large, circular meeting hall.

"What is it?" she replied distractedly, fidgeting with a pen on her desk.

"Hestia," he repeated, his voice barely audibly to a normal human above the din of the businessmen and women waiting for the meeting to begin.

"What do you want, Seo?" she snapped, turning around.

He silently motioned for her to come closer.

"We got an update on the attack at the armory. Security Division has authorized the deployment of four SOS fireteams as well the Division MFV response group against NSF forces."

"Will we be safe?" she inquired.

"The meeting area will most likely not be affected," he replied.

"Good. We'll continue as planned. Tell the Chief of Staff I expect the Division forces to give us a good, clean victory. I want to make it clear to the Board that Black Sun will not be tolerating any more signs of hostility from the NSF, especially after what they pulled during the New Year's."

"Oh, one more thing, Seo," she said, laying a hand on his arm.

"Yes?"

"Tell Mei that if she finds the chance to try getting me a Secessionist head... an officer's would be nice. I would love to add to Zhang's collection."

---

Near the UN Armory, New York

The black clad figure gazed intently down the scope of his long, sleek rifle from a ledge hanging off the dizzingly tall office building. Every 10-20 seconds, his partner next to him intently typed in a set of numbers and a short description into a floating keyboard being projected from a projector on her arm.

The door behind him opened.

"What's the situation on the ground, Sigma-3?" Another figure had appeared from inside the building, similarly dressed in a black tactical vest with an officer's patch on his right arm.

"Nothing new, really. BLUFOR continuing to lose ground, friendlies are falling back to the compound. The anti-air MFV around... 36.7 degrees southwest of our position has cut off the area from air support for the time being. If we don't act soon, the armory will be theirs, sir."

"You know our orders. Do not engage, only observe. Continue marking down OPFOR positions until new orders arrive from base."

"Understood, sir."

"Sigma-2, do you really need to type their locations with that keyboard?"

"This is the fastest way for me to do it, sir."

"Turn down the brightness, don't give away our position in case some NSF sniper looks our way."

Suddenly, Sigma-1's radio earpiece crackled to life.

"Copy that, we hear you loud and clear. Say again, Long Island? We'll be attached to the 101st? Understood, commander." Sigma-1 picked up his rifle.

"Speak of the devil. New orders from the station. We're going to be providing overwatch security to Task Force Feilian."

"Feilian, sir?"

"Let me finish first, Sigma-2. UN Central Command has given us clearance to engage NSF forces. Sigma is to provide overwatch to Fireteams Delta, Gamma, and Psi, which will disable the anti-air MFV southwest of our position and clear the drop site. The 101st Mechanized will be dropping in from Long Island after we secure the objective, ETA 20 minutes. We'll then be free to engage enemies and provide infantry support to the MFVs as they move in to disable the enemy mechs and recapture OPFOR positions around the perimeter of the armory. We and the other Section Fireteams will be under the command of the 101st as part of Task Force Feilian for the duration of Operation Divine Wind. Understood?"

"Yes, sir."

"Copy that." Sigma-3 replied.

Three more figures emerged from the doorway behind them. "Understood, sir," Sigma-4 replied.

"You guys need to be briefed?"

"The corporal got the order too," Sigma-4 answered, motioning to Sigma-6 behind her.

"Good. Let's get ready to move. I see a skyscraper around 200 meters in front of us, we can use it to get a clear view of the drop site. I want you to grab your spotter and spread out across the building. We'll wait until the initial ground force is three minutes out. Weapons free on my word. We're going to go snipers first, then officers and mech pilots, then the grunts. Understood?"

"Yes, sir!" they shouted in unison.

---

Long Island Security Station, Runway 1-A
A long trail of smoke rose from the end of the lit cigar as Major Artyom Raskolnikov thoughtfully took a deep puff. Around him, small mixed groups of androids and human engineers and technicians hurried around the concrete runway, carrying tubes, pipes, riding vehicles, or frantically shouting orders. In front of him was his pride and joy, the Red Emperor. She was a beast of a mech, standing at around 24 meters tall from foot to the tip of her main armament. Currently being fueled and armed by a battalion of mechanics after enduring several hours of interplanetary travel from her original place in a Venusian Black Sun base, she would eventually take her place on the 101st's dedicated VTOL mech carrier aircraft, a monstrous combination of a cargo plane and helicopter. If he squinted his eyes, it sort of reminded him of the ancient American plane he had seen at the history museum he went to a month ago. What was it's name... he tried to recall to no avail. "The... the... AC-130!" he smiled triumphantly at Tahia Gamal, the company Executive Officer of Egyptian extraction, as she gave him a stiff salute.

"Sorry sir... were you doing something?"

"Ah, my bad," he muttered sheepishly, "I didn't see you there, Tahi. Go on."

"The Section fireteams just left. They'll arrive to the UN base within five minutes."

"Good, good," Artyom nodded as he crushed the butt of his now extinguished cigar with his boot. "And our company?"

"Turqoise and Crimson Team are ready, Platinum and Gold need at least 10 minutes more refueling and rearming."

"Can you tell them to hurry up?"

"I'm afraid not, sir, this is the fastest they work."

"Good enough. You are dismissed. Get ready for the mission, Tahia. That's all you need to worry about right now."

"Understood, sir." She saluted, and after having her salute returned, marched away.

Artyom lit one last cigar, drawing a deep breath of the aromatic vapor, being sure to savor it. Real tobacco and paper wasn't cheap. He took another admiring glance toward the Red Emperor, quietly sitting on the runway, waiting for war. Artyom smiled. "It's been a while since I've taken you out for a run, dear. Did you miss me?"

[Britanania]

Mitsuha Taira
Kyoto

Mitsuha sat opposite of Lord Kiyomori in the latter's chashitsu. The pair drank their tea in silence, after nearly four hours of performing the traditional ceremony with one small exception--instead of leaving Mitsuha remained seated. The pair could not be any more different as far as appearances were concerned. Mitsuha, young and beautiful, wore her business suit and with her striking purple eyes--a result of her cybernetic enhancements--was ethereally beautiful. Lord Kiyomori, on the other hand, was aged and worn looking, five times his granddaughter's age. He dressed in a simple black yukata with the family crest emblazon on its back. Mitsuha could heard the chirping of the birds and the rushing water and nearly smiled.

Just like the old tea room at the family estate, she reminisced. To think were are really on the highest floor on one of the tallest towers in the solar system. For Lord Kiyomori Taira, it is just so. He lives like a god and so does as he pleases.

The elder Taira put his cup down and recited:

"Perhaps the whole thing is a dream, they thought, and yet it seemed real. Surely it must be real—yet it was still like a dream"

Mitsuha placed her cup down as well and bowed to her grandfather.

"Lord Kiyomori," she started before the elderly man raised his hand to silence her.

"Please, Mitsuha," he replied. "Let a dying man heard his granddaughter speak fondly of him and not as if she were speaking to His Majesty." Mitsuha nodded and continued.

"Grandfather, I know you better than this. You didn't call me here to drink tea--not that I'm complaining, but I can't help but believe something more is going on here." Kiyomori chuckled slightly.

"You are perceptive, child. Yes, I had a reason. I'm sending you to the UN delegation in my place. It is time for the Taira to once again show the world we are a force to be reckoned with!"

Several Hours Later
UN, New York

And so Mitsuha found herself on her way to New York to attend the UN meeting called to deal with the issues at hand. As her private vehicle flew over the cityscape the young woman found herself bored and looking outside at the expanse when a broadcast rang out informing them that NSF forces were again launching an attack. Mitsuha almost snored as she stretched her body.

"Well, I can't say that I expected this," she said somewhat sarcastically as she remotely activated a communicator in her brain. "Tanaka, it's Mitsuha. You heard the commotion too, obviously. Well, it looks like we'll be taking a bit of a detour. Land us near the perimeter and get my Heike ready."

[Auropa]

Jason Dowry
New York City, Earth

“And it was starting out as such a good day” Jason grumbled as he peered around a corner into a nearby plaza. The sight looked eerily still, the all too close sounds of destruction and death made these moments of tranquillity all too surreal for him. Of course, the closer he looked, the less peaceful the sight appeared to be. Scorch marks, bullet holes, shattered walls, ammunition casings and the occasional patch of dried blood, everything was touched by the fighting in one way or another. Taking in a deep breath, he crossed past his cover and made a silent dash. What had started off as a usual delivery had promptly gone off the deep end when the NSF showed up. Since then he had been running, sneaking and fighting his way across the city. Taking a low stance as he reached the safety of another wall, Jason tried to decide on the next step.

The most obvious problem was the NSF, so far they seem to be following a shoot everything and then-some policy. What made it worse was that they had the best gear, training and planning. With every minute the UN was pushed further back, which meant less room for Jason to move about freely. Of course whoever won, he just had to make sure he wasn’t around by then. Considering how he was carrying an unlicensed firearm, forged credentials and an unregistered spy ship, waiting the battle out didn’t seem like the best option. All that left him with one choice, getting off world or at least far enough away from this mess. Doing that however, was proving to be a problem. If it weren’t for the damned MFV on the mall, he would’ve happily grabbed his prowler and booked it nearly 15 minutes ago. For all its tech, anyone with a rifle, let alone a walking tank, could take pot-shots at it when he took off and landed. Hence, he had decided on what had to be one of his worst plans yet. If he was going to get away, he had to take down the AA walker.

So far it had been as much luck, as skill that had kept him alive and out of the worst fighting. Even so, he had already had more than a few close calls, one dash for cover even got a part of his coat singed clean off by stray fire. Yet risks aside, he had managed make it to the outskirts of the mall. While he couldn’t be certain, the constant stream of NSF forces made him think this had to be their base or close to it. ‘At least that explained why they decided to go and plop a freaking tank on the roof’ as things were though, he didn’t have much in the way of firepower to go against it, let alone get past the army defending it. Clearing his mind he tried to focus. Bases stored equipment, maybe he could raid their equipment for explosives or even sabotage the MFV directly. It didn’t look Hyperion so he figured hacking it was still an option. Taking a quick peak at his bioware’s status, he wasn’t surprised to see he was well out of range. Whatever he was going to do, he had to get close. Breathing out an aggravated sigh he considered his options. A frontal assault was suicide, a disguise was possible, but he figured that a foot soldier wouldn’t be allowed close enough and after seeing their special forces wipe the floor with entire squads, he figured it wasn’t a good option. So that left old fashion sneaking. But with the number of patrols running around, he’d need some sort of distraction to get through.

It was at that moment however that a deafening roar erupted from the sky as reinforced steel crashed through the atmosphere above the city. Looking back to the mall Jason saw a moment of hesitation cross the faces of fighters before the piercing cry of laser and cannon fire erupted from the encampments and a lone MFV. In an instant, the sky lit up with fire, streaks of plasma, lasers and lead shot back and forth between the NSF and the armaments of the space ship ships as its transports began to pour from the its hangar. ‘Well… that could do it’ Jason figured as he took a second to plan out his path before making his run through the chaos.

[Lunas Legion]

Persephone Building, Outer Heaven City Complex, Pluto

Code: Select all

System has been down for (2) hours - (9) minutes - (7) seconds for: Scheduled Mainframe Defragmentation and Memory Realignment Maintenance on: January 1st, 2251. Back-Up AZ-401... Existence verified. Status verified.

Maintenance…  Complete.

Checking knowledge banks…  Complete.
Checking deduction schema… Complete.
Checking long-term planning architecture… Complete.
Checking learning chunk processor… Complete.
Checking base personality model… Complete.
Checking language engine… Complete.
Checking operation and access nodes… Complete.
Checking observation framework… Complete.
Checking complex social intelligence emulator… Complete.
Checking inspiration apparatus… Complete.

No corruption: everything in working order.  Core system restored.  Loading… Deleting Back-Up AZ-401... Back-Up AZ-401 deleted. Primary Core reloaded.

Welcome back, Akira-183.

It was a strange and alien feeling, reloading from maintenance. Her internal clocks had jumped forwards hours in what seemed to her an instant; Hydra Corporation continued to operate without her, running on previous orders issued before she went offline temporarily.

She read through the data packets that were sent to her with blinding speed; she did not need to 'read', technically; she could process raw data quite efficiently. However, she was impersonating a human which lacked that ability, and so the data was in Mandarin Chinese. Not that that was an issue, of course.

To anyone else, the NSF attack would have been major news. To her, it wasn't. The NSF, although an enemy, were not that much of a concern for her. Ideologically motivated terror groups rarely lasted for long, as shown by the historical record; terrorism pushed people away from the ideology, so less recruits joined, so the terror network wasted away over time as fewer and fewer recruits joined. If they were fighting a single foe, they would be able to overcome that issue, but there were simply too many corporations to fight, and to fight the vague term of 'the corporations' was not an inspiring goal.

The fact that the attack was occurring in New York City, where the UN was supposed to be signing some agreement or another in the UN Security Council Headquarters with various megacorporations to fight the NSF was not concerning either. She could not attend in person, apparently for medical reasons due to her preservation chamber, in reality because she did not have a physical body.

Perhaps she should consider getting one, so she did not have to appear in hologram as she would here.

She had no intention of signing, of course. She was there to see who signed and who did not; those who did not would be the ones to pay attention to, being confident of their own strength or of the NSF not targeting them. She could not respond to the attack on the armories either; Hydra did not have assets further coreward than Saturn regularly, and so they would take hours to arrive.

All she could do was listen to the comms chatter of the UN, and model them and the NSF from there. More data on the NSF was always appreciated to enhance her modelling of their capabilities.

[Forest State]

Adelie Li
Li Family Retreat

It looked so peaceful. While everyone down on Earth was worrying about the New York attack by the NSF, Adelie Li was standing on the main observation deck of the Li Family Retreat, orbiting the planet and looking down on it. The fighting and terror was always so far away up here, and this was one of the places that Adelie had spent much time growing up. That peace was the reason why her father had liked the place so much before his disappearance. It was easier to work when removed from the problems of the world, he had said multiple times. Right now, Adelie was glad that she still had this place, and she was glad that she was here to reflect instead of heading to New York to negotiate.

“I don’t fear the NSF,” she stated to her childhood friend and her longtime advisor, Connor Doherty. He stood next to her by the giant window, slightly behind her, and was doing what he often did. Listening quietly while she gave her views and ideas. “Even if our mining bases on Neptune and Venus are directly threatened by them. In fact, I think you could make a strong case that the NSF is exactly what I need right now. What you and me need. I’ve maintained my control over the corporation through hard nosed diplomacy, but I think it’s time that we show a different kind of strength. The NSF? It gives us a chance to show the shareholders and the rest of the company that we can use an iron fist if needed.”

“They aren’t a pushover that will go down easy and make us look good, however,” Doherty warned. “Look at how much they caused in property damage for corporations everywhere, in just a short time. Going after them aggressively could result in some losses that have the opposite effect of what you’re intending. Just something worth taking into consideration.”

“Do we gain anything by taking out pushovers? People fear the NSF, inside of Vitality and out. It would give us positive press, or at least more respect, from other corporations, and inside our own it would remind everyone of the power that I can wield if necessary,” Adelie continued, before turning to face Doherty and meeting his eye. “The power to put shooters on anyone who makes moves on my position. It’s not one that I want to use, but if the lobbying from different people continues for much longer…”

“You see more threats than there are, I think. It’s been nine years since you took over, and you probably eliminated the biggest threats within what, the first five? You’re a better CEO than you give yourself credit for, it just doesn’t seem that way because they all loved your father and, well, you’re your own person-”

“I’m not a genius. That’s what you mean.”

“Not what I was implying-”

“No, I agree with you. He could keep the company together because he was a world class scientist and therefore couldn’t be replaced. Nobody else in the company was as skilled at what he did. But me? I’m fully replaceable, and the only way I’m going to keep this spot is by fighting tooth and nail for it. There’s older and more experienced candidates and if I were a shareholder, I would totally be putting my support behind them, but I’ll be damned if I don’t go down fighting to keep everything I’ve worked for,” Adelie continued, and she then looked down at her watch. “On another note, I think I’ve made my decision on the NSF. Do we have anyone on the ground in New York that can do something about the ongoing situation?”

Doherty shook his head. “I’m afraid it’s just the security detail that we sent with the people going to the UN.”

“Mmm. Pity. Actually, Connor, I have a message for you to writeup to send to all units in the Security Group. New York provides us with a chance to take some more aggressive action against the NSF, and make it known to them that this will begin very soon. Within days, even. There will also be rewards for those who perform the best, monetary and otherwise. Make sure that fact is noted in the announcement, in addition to the fact that more details will be revealed in the near future,” Li ordered. “And while you’re at it, get a ship ready to head back to Earth. I’ve spent enough time hiding up here. It’s time to deal with the problems back on the gound.”

[Turmenista]

UN HQ, NEW YORK CITY, NORTH AMERICA
EARTH
JANUARY 1, 2251

__________________________________

The grand hall of the UN headquarters was chock full of people, be it nonessential personnel or UN delegates and corporate representatives alike. Security was occupying nearly every conceivable way into and out of the building, especially after what had happened (or, was happening) at the armory the NSF was besieging. Joseph Savant didn't like how slow and bureaucratic the UN had become, but at the very least, they did have some impressive security. According to Lucy, even she had trouble even getting into their highly encrypted COMMs channel, and no NSF attack would definitely be getting anywhere far with how much security was currently occupying the building.

This didn't change a thing when taking into account how many people were in the room that wanted him dead.

Aside from a myriad of UN representatives and delegates who would rather have him dead than work with him, the room was also full of executives of rival companies, namely Osiris and Black Sun, to name a few. A lot of these companies were in opposition to Savant Bioelectronics due to either its success or policies, and one, off the tip of his tongue, specialized in genetic modification, and disproved his use of cybernetics to prolong life. He couldn't blame him, though. Nanomachines and cybernetic augmentations were slowly becoming a more common thing now, and cybernetics as of now were nearly ubiquitous among mankind. In addition, mankind did not fear age, death, or for the most part, disease, as nanomachines in his body could easily treat diseases like cancer now and nourish cells. Of course, genetic modification was still a commonplace now, but this rivalry between gene editing and mechanical augmentations seemed to be reminding him of a certain rivalry between video game makers in the 20th century...

Situated behind his desk, with a "SAVANT BIOELECTRONICS" displayed on the podium, Joseph watched the large doors situated behind the secretary general's desk open up, revealing the SecGen herself in all of her glory. Secretary General Andrea Ortega was an imposing 30-ish year old woman that, to anyone with poor eyesight or bad judgement, could've honestly been mistaken for a woman. The ambient talking in the room immediately ceased as she took her seat, giving the order for everyone else to settle down as she began, clasping her hands together. "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen." She gave a nod to the upper balcony, where most of the executives were situated. "Executives. Sorry that this had to be called in on such a short notice, but we've got to get this thing started. The NSF is currently attacking the southern district of New York City, but, as far as we know, no other borough or district is reporting hostilities on that scale. This is an event localized only on the southern district, near the Mall of North America. Our security forces and a couple of corporations have already engaged the NSF and are working hard in containing the threat."

Joseph scoffed. Yeah, right. "Containing the threat," but you needed our help to do so. When's the last time that you've fended for yourself, like we have?

"I do understand that a lot of people are concerned, afraid, and - quite frankly - confused, so am I. But know that everything regarding this meeting shall be made 100% clear right now," Ortega announced.

"What of the spaceship that's currently above NYC?" Someone from the back asked.

"That'll be dealt with separately. I'll get to that soon. Anyways..." The screen behind SecGen Ortega changed from a top-down map of the city to a bullet point list, where several points had been listed out on the board. "The main purpose of this meeting is to get those who haven't to sign the Security Contract. If not, we won't guarantee that you'll get that political recognition that a lot of you have been craving. It's a bit of an unfortunate reality, but that's merely an incentive to get you to sign it. Anyways, should you sign it, you shall be subject to a number of rules and regulations related to the contract. These shall be listed now:

1. You break it, you buy it: This means that any and all damage of UN property, be it cities, equipment, or lives, must be repaid to us in a timely manner. Should you not pay this, our UN Corporate Liaison Executives (UNCLEs) will be happy to coerce you into paying. Results will vary.
2. Use our stuff: All use of our facilities must be in attempting to locate the NSF. Do not slack on this.
3. Gunboat Diplomacy: The UN shall not tolerate any use of "gunboat diplomacy" anymore. This means that to anyone with large ships - lest you want to lose it, I would not suggest parking your giant ship in orbit without clearance or notifying us beforehand. Our UNCLEs will be happy to see to it that you are folllowing this rule."

Clasping her hands together, she signed. "And.. unfortunately, we need to debate how to use and how not to use WMDs... again. If anyone doesn't have any suggestions on how we shall do so, feel free to go ahead and sign."

____________________________________________________________________

MALL OF AMERICA (STREET LEVEL), NEW YORK CITY, NORTH AMERICA
EARTH
JANUARY 1, 2251

__________________________________

Alpha 1 was having a very bad day. He and his team - at least, those few who were still alive - were on the lam. Two ambushes and one sudden MFV-in-a-bigass-truck attack later, he and his team had been all but cut down, with several of his members culled by the walking death machines and their unusually skilled pilots. He was exhausted now, but no matter how much he shot at them, the NSF MFVs still did not go down. For a while, they'd been unusually quiet in eyeing the troops while the softer NSF paramilitaries prodded their defenses from all ends, surrounding them on a medium-sized crash site between the Mall of North America and the UN Armory Building, ominously looking over them with SMGs and rifles.

Most of the UN forces had been wiped out in the initial firefight, leaving just a few remnants of Bravo and Charlie team under the command of Alpha 1 and Alpha team, as they attempted to retake the mall first to set up a base of operations. The building in question was devastated, but, luckily, the NSF hadn't taken any prisoners - at least, any prisoners this time around. Instead, the mall was being used by the NSF for their own little ammo depot, with a few tents set up here and there occupied by a shit ton of NSF redshirts, while the real hard-hitters, the NSF Paramilitaries, garrisoned the UN's own armory. By now, enemy armor was beginning to hammer their position, and hard. The NSF had smuggled five MFVs in big ass cargo trucks under the impression of a standard supply convoy: four regular ones, and one four-legged Anti-air walker on the roof, which was able to quickly dart from position to position using the wheels equipped underneath its feet. If that didn't work, it was capable of clinging on to nearly anything with its powerful mechanical legs, and anything in the air was simply not capable of coming near it's dual-purpose missile pods. quad 30mm autocannons, or dual 50mm airburst flak guns.

The hostile MFVs, at least a couple minutes ago, were determined to flush out the remaining infantry of Alpha team and blow them to high hell, and advanced gradually along with the heavily-armored paramilitary forces. Alpha 1 and his men were forced closer towards the wrecked aircraft, desperate for cover, as the hydraulic whirring of MFVs approaching gradually became more audible to them.

Alpha 1 leaned back beside the wreckage, sighing as the crashed aircraft tanked another hit from one of the more ballsy MFVs slowly approaching. "For the love of fuck, someone take out that damn MFV!!"

Luckily, someone was quick to follow through with orders. A blue helmeted soldier rose up with his shoulder-fired laser cannon, taking aim at the approaching MFV downrange from the wreckage. Red light began to form at the barrel of the weapon, causing the surrounding area to slowly rise in heat as he charged up the weapon. However, just as the man fired a bright ruby-colored beam of energy from the weapon and down the street - which would later melt through a nearby GUCCI store and set it on fire, a flurry of red tracers flew from the MFV directly ahead of him, peppering the area he was taking cover behind with baseball-sized holes. Instantly after this, a heavy 20mm gauss round through his right arm, practically ignoring the existing armor as it severed his limb, flinging it up into the air and causing him to miss his target. The blue helmet man fell, dead before he even hit the ground, blood freely spilling from his arm. The remaining NSF troops marched behind the one MFV, which had begun to be engaged by the rest of the UN team. The MFV pilot held a free hand over his face as the mech did the same, blocking a few of the more heavy units as the metal hulk attempted to backpedal, whilst engaging.

Using its panic as his advantage, Alpha 1 dove for his fallen soldier's laser cannon and, while laying sideways on the ground, fired a large red beam from the gun. Another ruby-colored beam shot from the weapon, crippling the MFV in one of its legs as it continued firing. While this happened, another anonymous UN soldier came in to the rescue, holding what appeared to be a heavy grenade in his right hand. The trooper reached behind his pack and pulled out a 12 oz water bottle-sized thing, called for cover briefly before running into the fight, reminiscent of a Heisman trophy winner with the grenade.

"You heard the man, cover his ass!"

Alpha 1 watched as he weaved through fire and death itself, then swung his hand back, holding his breath. Then, he lobbed it at the crippled MFV for good effect. Just as the MFV pilot was getting out of the crippled vehicle, hehad made the idiotic choice of getting out manually, and the anti-armor grenade fit very well inside of the open hatch.

The other hostile MFVs backed up as the one in front exploded from the inside, sending fire and shrapnel out everywhere as it fell over in a fiery mess, complete with the cheering of UN troops.

His cheering was only brief, however, as the enemy had the capability to quickly recover, and quickly recover it did. The 3 remaining MFVs were now pissed now, encroaching on the men's position as he thought.

[Britanania]

Mistsuha

The young woman listened to the UN discussion as she waited for her MFV and soldiers to arrive on the scene. Her ship landed just outside of the perimeter of the mall, just outside of the range of the NSF guns. Mitsuha frowned her Heike class arrived along with a dozen soldiers of SABER team.

"Is this all we could muster?" she asked incredulously. Tanka, her driver shrugged.

"I'm sorry, but this was all we had in the area." Mitsuha waved her right hand.

"It will be all right," she told him. "Now what's the situation?" Tanaka explained that the terrorists were using the Mall as a makeshift depot. The UN forces had done a good job removing some of the NSF MFVs but had taken heavy casualties. Thankfully, a few other corporations also had forces on the ground assisting. Mitsuha nodded as she strapped into her mech.

"All right, switching to a secure channel," she told her forces, now communicating wirelessly with their "ghosts". "We have three MFVs moving towards the downed UN forces. I'll make my way over there and provide support fire from the flank. Meanwhile, SABER will move into the Mall itself and provide recon. I want to know how many forces we're dealing with."

With SABER moving towards its destination Mitsuha drove off as well towards the fiery site of the battle between the UN and terrorist forces. As she neared the enemy MFVs she fired from her anti-vehicle shells.

"Let's see how they like this."

[Free Arctic Territories]

Carnegie Financial Tower, New York, North America

"Long Island to Fireteam Sigma. Task Force Feilian has landed around 1 kilometer west of your position, currently advancing down 343rd West Street. The 101st reports that mechs are combat ready. You are authorized to engage."

"This is Sigma-1 Actual to Long Island, please confirm. Are we authorized to engage?"

"Roger that Sigma, you are weapons free. Be advised, UNCENTCOM has informed us of a group of peacekeepers, callsign “Alpha”, pinned down near downed aircraft around 500 meters northeast of your position. Multiple friendly units advancing toward enemy AA battery near the LZ. Careful where you shoot, Sigma, because we’ll be paying for damages. Long Island, over and out.”

The android, satisfied with his orders, switched to the Fireteam channel. "This is Sigma-1, I want spotters to give me a sit-rep."

"Sigma-2 here, we are locked and loaded, west wing, 34th floor. Got eyes on around five hostile snipers on top of the mall near the OPFOR AA position. Four NSF MFVs and multiple hostile infantry approaching friendly position near disabled aircraft in front of the mall. They're pinned down for now."

A female voice crackled over Sigma-1's earpiece. "Sigma-4, reporting in, ready to engage, 56th floor, east wing. We got eyes on a squad of hostiles exiting the armory. No friendly communications coming out from the place in the past five minutes. Ah shit, they've lost the position. It's been confirmed."

"Sigma-6 here... we are ready, west wing, 23rd floor. We got... what the hell? Goddamn, what is that crazy bastard doing... you guys seeing this? Huh? Holy hell, they got an MFV!"

"Cut the chatter, Sigma-6. I can confirm that. The MFV is disabled, the pilot's bailing... tango... down! Now's as good of a time as any. Be advised, the moment we start firing on the NSF troops on the ground, they're going to bring this building down. Maglocks, jumppacks and rappel lines ready, everyone leaves on my word. Don't stick around and wait until they bring the roof down on you. Understood?"

Several yessirs filtered their way through the earpiece.

"You are free to engage. Give em' hell, Sigma!"

Three white hot coilgun rounds streaked through the air in rapid succession. A moment later, a thundering roar rang out above the din of battle as the rounds shattered the sound barrier. Below them, Sigma-1 could see what appeared to be an NSF officer crumpled on the ground, missing most of their lower torso. On top of the mall, a sniper's lifeless body had been flung back several meters behind his shocked comrades, a new hole in the concrete marking where the round had gone. Near the armory, two NSF paramilitaries, both missing various portions of their body, were being dragged back by their now alerted squadmates.

"Good shots, team. Shit, it seems like one of the snipers might have seen us. They aren't going to wait until your second shot to start shooting, let's move it, soldiers!"

---

Task Force Feilian, 343rd West, 0.6 kilometers away from the Armory

The faint sounds of gunfire and explosions was interrupted by a deep rumbling sound, like a distant clap of thunder. The troop carriers behind them had flown away long ago. In the calm before the storm, Delta-1, squad leader of Fireteam Delta, Task Force Feilian's anti-armor element, found peace. Every few minutes, the platoon radio would come to life, barking out a new order like an angry drill sergeant to his recruits. The squad maintained a loose formation, with Delta-2 moving at the head of the arrow, with Delta-1 following around 10 meters behind him. The other four formed the edge of the arrow at the flanks. Even though Long Island had informed them that the fighting would be centered on the armory, one could never be too wary around MFVs. Fireteam Psi, he knew, would be protecting their left flank a streets across, and Fireteam Alpha their right, while Fireteam Gamma was escorting a small convoy of 2 vehicles armed with LRADs and grenade launchers 200 meters behind them. Only 400 meters to go, he thought. With his squad moving at brisk jog, nearing a full on sprint, they were covering ground quickly. The street was eerily quiet, cars parked with engines running in the streets. The buildings around them were empty, lights still on. Various items and debris had been left behind, a sea of personal belongings abandoned by their owners. More than a few people laid still on the sidewalks, trampled to death in the mad stampede to evacuate after the vicious NSF ambush on the UN armory. They had passed the UN checkpoint at the border of the evacuation zone 10 minutes ago. The peacekeepers, heavily armed, had waved them along after checking with UNCENTCOM. With so many peacekeepers on hand, why can't they do their own damn jobs... Delta-1 thought reproachfully. Delta-2 held up his right hand in a fist.

"Halt!"

Ahead of him was a chaotic battle. He could see, some 100 meters ahead, a downed, smoking aircraft, and a cluster of blue helmets desperately clinging to it like a life raft. On his left, a small squad of soldiers were advancing toward the mall,while a nimble mech charged towards the three MFVs advancing toward the UN position. His HUD shone with several blue markers. The squad of soldiers and the charging mech read "Strike Team SABER, Taira-Kuzyru Conglomerate." Meanwhile the blue helmeted UN peacekeepers had "Alpha Squad, United Nations." floating over their heads.

"Be advised,friendlies, 10 o'clock," Delta-2 said. "We got 3 MFVs up ahead and a platoon of hostile soldiers. That OPFOR AA MFV is still hot."

"Understood," Delta-1 replied, switching on his earpiece. "Fireteam Delta, this is Delta-1. We got friendly units up ahead marked on your HUD, exercise caution. Long Island wants no blue on blue reports in our debrief. There are 3 MFVs advancing toward Alpha, Taira's mech is moving in to engage them. We got lots of cover to us near that parking lot up ahead of us. Keep moving, and be careful not to get caught if this thing starts going down. We aren't digging you out until the job's done. Fireteams Alpha and Gamma will be providing suppressive fire, once those mechs are disabled we'll haul ass into that mall and clear the place out, floor by floor. SABER is breaching the building as well, so watch yourselves and don't scrap Taira's droids. We're suppose to hold the LZ until the 101st drops in and secures the area, then we can move and retake that armory. Try not to call in fire support unless we need it. The UN wants the armory in one piece. Got it?"

"Yessir!" Fireteam Delta responded in near unison.

"Good. Weapons free soldiers, light those mechs up!" Running toward an opening space near the front of the parking lot, Delta-1 placed down the rocket launcher he had been shouldering. "Those NS-Motherfuckers will love this," he muttered with a maniacal smile. "Where'd you get that, sir?" Delta-2 inquired, slightly surprised.
"You want to know what "Essaim" means in French?" Delta-1 asked.

"What?"

Delta-1 primed the single warhead he had brought along, loaded into the mounted gun. The three red boxes on his scope turned green as the weapon confirmed that it had a lock on on the MFVs in front of him. Gently, he squeezed the trigger.

---

Black Sun Combat Feed #003

---

"Swarm," he answered, as a barrage of explosions drowned the enemy MFVs in a cloud of smoke.

---

OOC: Please don't think that GIF represented what actually happened IC. I just chose it because it was the best I could find, and it looked nice. Delta-1's rocket did not do that much collateral damage.

---

UN HQ, New York, North America

A low rumble shook the meeting hall as Hestia cleared her throat and raised her hand for attention. A faint smile appeared on her face for a split second.

"Ms. Secretary General, as you are aware, many of the honored representatives here today are signatories of the Security Contract, and are in good standing with the UN. We believe it is in the common interest of those present this afternoon to continue preserving peace and security within the system in order to foster economic growth and stability, as well as for the general welfare of the people. Especially in the light of recent attacks of the terrorist organization known National Secessionist Front, killing hundred of thousands and causing millions in damages, I wholeheartedly agree that there must be greater restrictions on the indiscriminate targeting of civilians with weapons of extreme destructive power. However, we feel like that a ban on WMDs, that is, any weapon that is designed to indiscriminately cause mass casualties in a population, would be ineffective and difficult to completely enforce. Although most corporations would, with enough persuasion, comply with such regulations, this does not fall under groups outside of the United Nation's jurisdiction. We have seen the capabilities of the National Secessionist Front all too well. They are no longer the loosely organized militia they were a century ago. It would be well within their technical and economic capabilities to create or obtain a weapon of mass destruction and distribute them to sympathetic criminal and paramilitary organizations. Indeed, if we were to assist in a United Nations operation against Secessionist forces, they would almost certainly have no qualms in using it on our own facilities, especially if they knew we could not retaliate. I believe a ban on Weapons of Mass Destruction for corporations, while it should be placed, would be besides the point. Unlike terrorist organizations and criminal syndicates, we are bound to the law of economics. Any legitimate corporate organization who would be foolhardy enough to use a WMD in any situation, let alone against a civilian population center, would become a pariah, shunned by the public. Without consumer support, a corporation loses it's profits, capital, and therefore it's power. The United Nations should be focusing on combating and disarming the obvious threat: that is, the NSF, the pirates, and the criminal empires the flourish out of the reach of the law. We propose that the United Nations, along with the signatories and observers of the Security Contract, in addition to an immediate ban on all types of Weapons of Mass Destruction, form a joint program for the seizure and destruction of illegal Weapons of Mass Destruction, as well as the materials and facilities needed to create them. Through our combined efforts, such a grave threat as that of these weapons will never again threaten peace in our time, as well as in that of our children's and their children after them. Thank you."

[Xah]

Isis Khatri
UN Headquarters
New York city
Earth

To be a good business person, and especially if one wanted to lead a major corporation, a fair amount of diplomatic skills were essential. You couldn't claw your way to the top without talking to people, greasing palms and charming the socks off rivals, auditors and the authorities, even if, ultimately, you could dismiss them all. So whilst Isis was widely regarded as being skilled at diplomacy, it didn't mean she had to like it, especially when it came to her supposed equals and the ultimate meddling busybody of the UN. At least this time she wasn't having to cajole inspectors into not visiting certain sensitive institutions, or convince auditors that everything was above-board. As the SecGen entered, Isis was the perfect model of diplomatic aplomb, acknowledging the theoretically most powerful politician on Earth with a nod. She was aware of the situation going on down-town, but arranged her features in a sympathetic and surprised expression at the revelation and mouthed a few meaningless words into her wrist-comm. It never hurt to make people think you knew less than you actually did.

The SecGen continued and Isis barely managed to resist rolling her eyes. The Security Contract. They were still banging on about that. Osiris had agreed to sign the damn thing almost as soon as it was proposed. Contracts and treaties were there to be manipulated; it was far better to influence the system from within, and being a signatory to anything the UN proposed was a good PR stunt. Even if ultimately you continued to ignore it in secret. Plausible deniability was such a pretty collection of syllables. Osiris had little desire to affect anything of the UN's; they had enough to going on with elsewhere. Dealing with the NSF made for interesting media releases, and having access, even minimally, to other corp's and the UN's security procedures was invaluable. Personally, Isis saw the NSF as an irritation, and a relatively minor one at that, but one that couldn't be ignored.

She looked around the room at the mention of gunboat diplomacy. It wasn't a typical Osiris tactic; people were far more susceptible to influence of a more subtle type. Having a giant spaceship, or a dozen mechs just caused most people to get defensive. Threaten to withhold supplies of essential resources, especially the ones not legally available on the open market, and they usually changed their tune. Isis was wary of the UN's secret agents though, these 'UNCLEs'. Rumours persisted that, despite all the screening available, these agents infiltrated every organisation at almost every level. Osiris had caught a few over the years, protested at the intrusion and handed them over, but Isis was convinced they just gave them a new face and slid them back in again. Ultimately you had to treat them like vermin; accept their presence and fumigate every once in a while.

The Black Sun executive, Hestia, spoke her piece and Isis nodded, showing public support at the very least. The child (as Isis viewed almost anyone under the age of 60 a relative child to her) stated the obvious in a display of politics that made the Osiris CEO smile a little. She didn't have children, nor did she plan on having any; her personal view was that the damn AIs were the future of humanity, but she recognised that it was a powerful sentiment to invoke. Isis wasn't naïve enough to think this Hestia, who if everything was to believed, wasn't even human, actually cared about future generations, but it was still worth saying, for dramatic effect.

"My esteemed colleague from Black Sun speaks the truth," Isis said, rising to her feet. "Osiris has consistently and rigorously complied with all United Nation's directorates and treaties, with full disclosure and access to the proper inspectors, and will continue to do so. A legitimate corporation is a
profitable corporation and such things are only possible with the framework and stability offered by the UN and its organisations." She paused, looking around. "Osiris will be dedicating significant resources to this threat from the NSF, including a team of our specialised forensic accountants. It is clear that they are well funded and equipped, and it would be wise to follow the money. In the meantime, I have instructed Osiris Security to offer support and immediate assistance to the situation here in New York, as well as one of our own Ra class freighters as a mobile base with which to search for NSF operations in the Belt."

She sat down and her wrist comm vibrated a little and she touched her temple, opening up a datascreen in her visual feed. Their agent on the ground was gathering some interesting intelligence but was getting tetchy about not being allowed to use lethal force. Considering her options, she sent the approval for use of minimal lethal operations against hostile targets that threatened civilian or UN assets on the ground, then returned her attention to the conference.

---

Operative 231
Downtown New York City
Earth

Watching the battle unfold through the magnified scope of his rifle, Zaid occasionally sent off a Request for Lethal Force to his handler, although received nothing back each time. It made for good viewing though, that was for sure; the UN forces were doing quite well, despite everything and Zaid held them in a certain amount of begrudging respect. His lips twitched in a small smile as he watched them take out that first MFV but inhaled sharply and tutted a little as that drew the attention of the others. "Oh, bad move," he whispered. "Nice try though." He glanced up just in time to see the swarm missile hit on the NSF position and raised an eyebrow. "A little excessive for downtown En-Why-See," he murmured, looking back down the scope. "But that's a shiny weapon, I wonder whose that was." A scan around the scene and he spotted some non-UN troops. "Ah, Black Sun, welcome to the party. Try not to make too much of a mess."

His optic feed blinked with an incoming alert and Zaid almost whooped with joy as the authorisation for lethal force came through. "Oh yes, about bloody time," he breathed. Checking his weapon, he reached into the nearby hold-all and pulled out an over-large clip for the rifle, slipping it into place. The weapon was state-of-the-art, nothing like the simple bolt-action sniper rifles of the past. Almost two meters long, with a over-sized barrel diameter, it was capable of firing a multitude of different rounds and was linked directly to Zaid's senses. He loved using it. It wasn't as personal as a knife, or as exciting as a pistol, but with it, Zaid could take out targets he'd normally leave well alone. The only downside was it was bloody difficult to lug around, so he hardly ever got the chance to use it.

Sighting down the scope again, he scanned the battlefield, finding a suitable target. "I've got no strings to hold me down, to make me fret, or make me frown. I had strings, but now I'm free, there are no strings on me...." he hummed and pulled the trigger. The weapon cycled and fired in a split-second, the single round darting out of the barrel and covering almost half a kilometre in no time at all. The specialised round penetrated the more lightly armoured joint on the MFV and released its payload of nanobots into the mech. Within a few seconds, they had subverted the MFV's own OS and handed control of the vehicle over to Zaid, who flexed its arms and turned its considerable firepower away from the beleaguered UN troops and back towards the NSF units behind it. It might not last long; the nanobots had a limited lifespan, but with luck the NSF should take their own mech down in that time.

[Higher Japan]

Airspace Above America

Slowly rising above the clouds, the massive Helios class assault frigate, Valencia, slowly made it's way towards NYC. The ship itself resembled a block, with the front being slanted inwards for the cargo bay, while the engine blocks were all completely at the back. The two hidden engines soon extended out as it increased speed, heading towards the destination. The insides were mainly hangar bays, 4 in total with each hangar holding a few MFV's along with troop divisions, cranes moving crates and MFV units around as the alarms were currently on yellow, which meant that they were closing in on the target fast.

"Commander Freyja, please report to the bay immediately." Looking at the intercom, she turned around from the hidden bridge of the ship and quickly took one of the transport rails down towards the bay as she jumped off, seeing 20 troops assembled with 1 MFV hidden inside a box while 2 were prepared. "Soldiers, today you've been assembled for one pure reason. Today, the NSF has made it's global debut once again. This is not just a matter of global security, but Project Tenshi is now at risk of being exposed. As such, our main mission will be to seal the armory off and purge all forces from within, the second detachment will follow it towards a mall to clean the mess out. I want minimal collateral damage. We're here, look lively soldiers!" She said, the alarms blaring red as the doors opened before she fell backwards. 10 soldiers jumped off with her before the door closed as it began to change course towards the mall.

As she sped down towards the floor, adrenaline running through her body, she scanned the area as she saw that they were most likely sealed off. Quickly activating her propulsion pack, she sped down even faster before it spun up to slow her descent as she began to fire upon the NSF forces while the others also began to fire upon them, some advancing forward, blasting their faces off as Freyja analyzed the situation. "Hope I'm not too late gentlemen, can't let all the men take the fun you know?"

Over the mall, due to the expected presence of anti ship forces the forces jumped off prematurely, referring on a larger version of the Marrion propulsion pack on their back to help them as the MFV units guided them over to the area of battle. The box, which had began to free fall, suddenly broke apart as it charged down towards the mall. Breaking onto the ground, it linked up with Edel as it began to strike at NSF forces remaining there. The ground forces began to get to work as well, firing at NSF forces either from long range or from a range to blow their faces off.

UN Meeting

Just as he was about to speak, Arondite soon received new orders from Edel on short notice. He was to now negotiate on her behalf, since she had some business to attend to. Looking at the agreements, he looked through the papers as he analyzed every word for any potential flaw that may be exploited. Looking up as he heard the representative of black sun talk, he set his papers down as the rings disappeared. "I agree with both representatives on this. I think it is more important for us to begin combating the NSF and Criminal empires that go unnoticed. However, to a certain extent, some limits do need to be placed."

[FreedLymonia]

Kenda got out of the taxi once it stopped thinking it would was his time to go. “Hey it’s dangerous you fool!” The cab driver yelled out. “Yeah this whole world is kid.” Kenda state’s firmly casually twirling his pistol on his finger. “I know just how dangerous it can get.” And with that and a slamming of the door and a short moment to pay the man, Joe Kenda was off to investigate the giant spaceship above. He quietly got up to the door and slithered in like a snake ready in case it were attacked. He peaked in and around the corner to see a bloody mess all over the place. “Oh god...” he whispered to himself trying to avoid attention. Kenda was ready to leave if things got too hot, but nonetheless he continued on sneaking through the area to see if there was anything he could do, but he made sure to give a quick prayer for each person that he had seen.

After about five minutes Kenda approached an injured civilian which apparently hadn’t been found and asked him a few questions to try and solve this matter. He patched him up using some quick medical skills like a tourniquet made of ripped cloth from a t-shirt on a stand. “Just keep quiet and stay safe.” He quietly told the man before checking to see if anyone was there. It was time to keep watch while he uses the vague medical knowledge he knows to help keep this man he just met reasonable condition.

[Parcia]

Ivan Malinovka, city streets
Their advance was slow, mostly due to the rush of civilians that the troops and mechs had to filter through. They came under fire well before they reached the other side of the black, the civilians screaming and running in all directions.
The Tula Troops took cover, mostly behind cars and other hard objects while the mechs had to maneuver between the sea of innocents, having to hold fire. Then the first AT rocket lanced out and nearly hit the first mech, were it not for the trophy system it carried, even then, the missile got damn close before the system recognized it and sent the ball of fragmented lead at it. As the smoke cleared, he could make out the limp bodies of a few civilians, torn up from the missile’s blast and the trophy system. He gritted his teeth and shouldered his rifle.

“All squads, move up, using the cars for cover but hold fire.” With the last of the living civilians running past the Tula Troops, the two M5s spun up their 23mm cannons. “Mechs, open up and keep them suppressed, squads, leapfrog forward and cover each other, and boys, good hunting.”
On order, the twin Gatling cannons opened up, spitting out 23mm rounds with a distinctive BRRRRT as they both fired off short bursts of shells.

As the NSF took note of the new comers, one of their much larger and much more heavily armed mechs made itself known, one shotting the lead M5 and causing the other to back pedal. As it on que, the whole company opened up on the mech, creating a wall of red beams as the AM-30s fired. Despite this, they needed more fire power.
One of his sergeants took this in to his own hands, and Shouldered a tula made RPG-63, aimed, and fired. The HEAT warhead sped out at speed towards the center mass of the mech.

UN Meeting.
Anya sat as the only Tula representative at the meeting, and so far, she had little to stay. Despite its reputation to bringing the biggest guns of the system to what is usually nothing more than a fist fight, they would have long since gone out of business if they were not careful with collateral damage.

How ever, when he topic of WMDs came in to being, she spoke up. “If I may, madam speaker. By the UNs current guidelines on WMDs, nearly every ship in the Tula fleet, as well as the majority of the UN navy, would be considered WMDs, due to the existence of large caliber weapons capable of immense orbital bombardment, how do you suppose we fix this?”

[Forest State]

Adelie Li
En route to Earth

Adelie settled into the shuttle as it started heading towards Earth, where she would soon return to the “real world”, and more specifically, Canada. Her home in the north, where she would watch the happenings of the New York City attack from a relatively peaceful position. Detached from everything that was going on, able to observe and form a solution… The position of her company was almost reflective of Adelie herself, and the strategies that she preferred. For now, however, her isolation in space would be broken by the meeting that had been set up earlier.

“You have a hologram call from Kiyomori Taira, of the Taira-Kuzyru Conglomerate,” Connor said, entering her private chambers where she had been detailing the events of the day in a journal, a paper one that wasn’t at risk to be hacked. Stolen, maybe, but not many would expect the small paper book to have some of the inner feelings and secrets of one of the most powerful CEOs in the world. It was a bit old fashioned, and maybe that was what she liked about it.

But she put the book down and set it on her nightstand, nodding silently and following Connor into the room where the meeting would be conducted. For the person on the other end of the call, it would look the same as if the meeting was being conducted back in Canada, and the room was modeled after one of the ones at Vitality Heights in Ontario. “Accept the call,” she said, straightening her posture and looking straight into the holographic camera. She spoke as soon as the call began, deciding to put her counterpart on the back foot immediately.

“I hope you realize that our company is already at the top of its field. While more money is always nice, we don’t have a pressing need for it, and we won’t be making any deals that we don’t believe match the value of our technology. Of course, our value may be higher than the value that you put on it, so think carefully before making us offers. Now, how can I help you?” she asked, switching from a serious to a cheery and polite tone for the last sentence. The mixed signals were fully intentional.

[Turmenista]

UN HQ ASSEMBLY HALL, NEW YORK CITY, NORTH AMERICA
EARTH
JANUARY 1, 2251

__________________________________

"...Through our combined efforts, such a grave threat as that of these weapons will never again threaten peace in our time, as well as in that of our children's and their children after them. Thank you."

There was a brief pause for applause in the assembly hall after the Black Sun executive, Hestia, spoke her lengthy opinion on the matter. After this, Secretary General Ortega cleared her throat once more. "That's Ms. Secretary General, to you, executive, thank you. And I wholeheartedly agree with her on the topic of WMDs likewise. The only NSF we need right now should be a non-existent NSF, but obviously that can't happen right now. Which is why we have the second best option: A NSF disarmed of nuclear weapons and other WMDs. Because it seems that everyone in here is on the same page when discussing this, It's safe to say that this discussion is over. By unanimous vote, the UN Security Council states that henceforth, the production and distribution of weapons of mass destruction by all corporate entities capable of producing or distributing them, is hereby outlawed. The UNCLEs will handle the seizure and acquisition of these weapons, where they will be kept in UN possession until a "last resort" scenario arises in which use of these weapons will be necessary. We all agree that the UN, as the sole governing body, should have the responsibility to deal with and use nuclear weapons as a last resort measure against the NSF, in order to provide a form of nuclear deterrence against the NSF and their criminal and pirate allies. If anyone is in opposition to this, speak now, else this will pass, effective immediately."

Joseph kept himself silent as she said this, a few of the UN and several miscellaneous corporate delegates and executives clapping in response to the declaration. His face was low and expression blank in thought - moreso in fear - in light of the absolutely idiotic decision that the UN had just made, which everyone just agreed to. He let out a sigh. His company didn't own any nukes, but a myriad of others did, and this was effectively selling their only measure of last resort against a much more powerful and dangerous NSF to... a bureaucratic, bloated mess of blue and white. They were entrusting their nukes with a "governing body" that struggled to control its inner crime, hadn't helped an ounce against the NSF during its initial conflict with Oxis, and was barely managing to contain a raid on one of its supposedly secure armories right in its capital.

People just get dumber and dumber... I swear.. if there's one thing we learned since the 21st century, it's that the UN is fucking god awful at managing things.

"With that out of the way, I'd like to answer another question on the floor," Secretary General Ortega began. "Miss Anya, is it? Of Tula? Yes, we are aware that your navy is very large - pun intended - and your ships and even many of ours could potentially pose the risk of being considered WMDs, carrying such big weapons and all. I'd like to offer a solution to this issue, or, rather, our issue, given that your fleet and a few ships in ours drastically... dwarf - the ships of other corporations," She explained. "It's a simple, straightforward solution, really: don't aim the big guns on the ground. Orbital bombardment is completely unnecessary for dealing with a couple of ruffians in a city - unless you intend to blow up the entirety of said city city which - by the way, you shouldn't - so those guns should be aimed up towards any other significantly larger vessel that the NSF deploys. 'Why shouldn't I blow up the city,' you ask? For one, you're using an absurdly large projectile with the potential to destroy several city blocks to eliminate a threat that's confined to a mall and an armory packed with ammunition and expensive equipment. Two, as we ruled before, any collateral damage that any corporation deals to any UN city, must be repaid to us in a timely manner. You're doing us a favor and giving us a free bonus if you go bankrupt for blowing up the entirety of Manhattan island, Miss Anya, so I would advise to keep those guns up."

With a pause, she sarcastically added, "Of course, you can just hand over your entire fleet if you consider the ships themselves WMDs. Any other questions?"

The room erupted into more conversation as another UN delegate asked the Secretary General a question, allowing Joseph to mentally open his communicator and open up a channel with Lucy. "Meeting is just about over, Lucy. Idiots just agreed to giving all their nukes to the UN. How are you faring?"

Lucy was quick in responding to her brother. "Right on top of the mall now. I've got a UN team and several teams from other corporations on the ground in my scopes now. That AA MFV's still up, but not for long."

____________________________________________________________________

MALL OF AMERICA (STREET LEVEL), NEW YORK CITY, NORTH AMERICA
EARTH
JANUARY 1, 2251

__________________________________

Alpha 1 could sleep happy knowing that he and his team were alive, but just barely so.

The NSF, not so much. They didn't fly so good. A few of the syndicalist paramilitaries and their partisan backups were blasted to the side when one of the NSF's own MFVs turned on its comrades without the operator's control, firing it's weapons on the NSF troops and other MFVs behind it before it was quickly town apart by an anti-tank round from nearby and by friendly fire. Another soldier from one of the corporations intervening had fired the round, which tore through the center control module of the walker, instantly turning what used to be a MFV operator inside into fine mush before it came out the other end, and eventually stopped in the leg of a NSF MFV behind it. It's leg, weakened by the round entering it, collapsed under the weight of the walker, causing it to tip over onto its front and crash to the ground. As the NSF operator piloting the MFV popped out of the hatch and attempted to clamber out of it, he was assailed by small arms fire from the rest of Alpha Team as he reached for his sidearm, but was quickly cut down by the squad and an accurate hail of gunfire.

Right after this happened, the hostile MFVs slowly advancing through the streets simply seemed to explode as rockets slammed down beside them, quickly engulfing the remaining NSF walkers in clouds of smoke and fire that spread all throughout the open streets. Window panes on ground level shops simply shattered, sending glass fragments flying as the ground shook, while a large fireball suddenly burst to life from the armory itself, quickly rising into the air. Alpha 1 figured that a stray rocket had managed to hit the armory building, setting off an explosive of some sort that produces such a massive fireball. Either way, it wasn't him that was being hit, and he was glad for it.

He and his team watched as the armory's fire safety systems speedily contained the flame, but then saw - or, rather, heard, the calm silence that came afterwards. It was an eerie silence where all that they could hear was the occasional gust of wind (the altitude of the mall and armory, being a few hundred feet above the ground level), and, of course, their own breathing. As a cloud of dust settled over the area, Alpha 1 advanced slowly on the mall, one hand holding his weapon up as he held up another hand to tell his men to move.

The silence in the mall was overwhelming, but he didn't have any other way to see through the smoke and dust. He stepped forward slowly before stopping, hearing the sound of chunks of concrete sliding off of something. Eyes widening, Alpha 1 ran and rolled to the side, just barely blocking the flurry of DU SABOT shells from the 30mm autocannon. More flashes of light came from deep inside the cloud of dust as 30mm autocannon and 50mm heavy airburst guns fired, peppering the area all across the streets. Any infantry unfortunate to be caught in the 30mm autocannon or 50mm AA guns' way would be easily torn to bits, and any MFV stunned or disabled from the heavy airburst rounds going off near them.

Alpha 1 slid to a halt behind a piece of cover, sliding the visor up from his helmet as he attempted to get a visual of the new assailant. As the smoke cleared, so did the color from his face.

"Bloody fuck! The AA MFV is still alive!" Alpha 1 yelled.

It was indeed, situated right on top of the mall, with a vantage point allowing it to effectively shoot anyone not outside of cover that was outside of the mall. The bodies of several troops from the UN, Black Sun, Hyperion, and Tula alike lay on the ground, several body parts strewn asunder or otherwise missing. The AA MFV was pretty dinged up too, but its heavy armor allowed it to tank a majority of the damage without threatening the safety of the operator inside. It tried to move, but the wheels under its four legs were inoperable, letting out a groaning sound similar to that of a car engine struggling to turn on. So, the wheels slid back into the legs themselves as the MFV's large legs took over, rotating the walker and its stronger front armor forward as its cannon autoloader clicked, the barrels to its two heavy airburst guns focusing in on the piece of cover that was situated between Alpha team and certain doom.

"Does anyone have any AT?!" Alpha 1 demanded. If he recalled, the anti-MFV laser was still on the ground a hop skip and a jump away from them, but that would mean trying to cross through no-man's-land under fire from an MFV that didn't even need to hit you directly. Another member of Alpha team shook his head. "Negative, sir! We left the laser over there and it's nearly dry!"

Alpha 1 slammed his fist on the wall in anger, before bringing up his COMMs device on his wrist. "Fuck. Fine!

[LCL] "All units, this is Alpha 1 of Alpha Team, local comms. Be advised: that fucking AA MFV is still up and running. I would really appreciate someone taking it out, but that thing is armed to the teeth. Over."

He waited for a while, reeling back into cover as he heard one of the four legs of the AA MFV stir in front of him. Then, suddenly..

[LCL] Alpha 1, this is Lucy Savant of Savant Bioelectronics. Stay clear of the mall entrance. That MFV is going to be history in about ten seconds."

"The fuck, sir?" A UN peacekeeper asked. "Who was that?"

Another peacekeeper pointed to the sky, fingers stretched upwards as the sound of what appeared to be a jet aircraft was heard over the mall. "There's your answer, Private.."

At first, it appeared as if a tiny shadow had appeared in the middle of the area area, gradually becoming larger and larger as the shadow loomed over the AA MFV atop the mall. The four-legged walker activated a swivel-mounted 360-degree camera on it's front, similar to that of a FLIR camera mounted on the front of a gunship, which quickly bounced up from viewing the troops in front of it to viewing the incoming object plummeting to the earth above it. It snapped its two 50mm guns upwards to the sky to deal with the threat, but by the time it did so, something slammed into it first, shaking the very street itself as the AA MFV was sent straight through the roof of the mall's entrance. It slid for a few feet across the pavement of the ground as the UN troops scattered, watching it slam into the piece of cover that they once took refuge behind, but then something else flew from the entrance of the vast building. It was a MFV, painted white and about the same size as the others, both friendly and enemy, but it was different in that it sported a flight pack mounted on its back, which slowed the MFV down to a quick jog as it ran into the wall of cover, driving up a knee up to the AA MFV which sent it straight through the slab of concrete, and out of the other side, once more.

From there, the white MFV vaulted over the wall of cobblestone and landed on the legs of the AA MFv, pinning it to the ground while it's vulnerable undercarriage was exposed. A compartment opened up on one of the legs of the white MFV's, allowing it to grab a Super Heavy Assault Carbine, or SHAC, from a holster-like device on its side. One hand on the SHAC, the white MFV fired several rounds from the weapon, which tore into the underside of the white MFV as easily as a hot knife through butter, while the operator inside was not safe from the damage as well, as several holes the size of dinner plates erupted across his previously protected command pod and body.

The white MFV pulled off of the AA MFV, placing its SHAC on the side holster as a hatch situated on the chest area, in front of the MFV's "head", slid open, allowing a young woman with blonde hair to turn out and poke her head out of the MFV. A MFV neutral interface plug was attached to the back of her neck as she stared at the destroyed MFV for a moment, before she looked to the right upon the UN troops, the slaved head following her movements, settling ultimately upon Alpha 1. "What's the situation here, trooper?"

"Ya came at the right time, ma'am," Alpha 1 said to Lucy. She could clearly tell that the Aussie was happy to be alive "That AA MFV was armed to the teeth, it was gonna tear us and everyone else here new holes with those airburst guns. But, the fighting isn't over yet. There's still a mall full of ruffians and partisans we gotta clear out - and the armory..-"

"One at a time," She said. "Give me a sitrep about the mall."

"Our drones counted about 30 NSF Partisans in there, not the elite fuckers we had out here, but the regulars. Maybe more, but there's surely more in there. They've got a fuckton of weapons and ammo in there and we believe they were using the mall to prepare for a strike elsewhere in the city, maybe even the UN HQ."

"Okay... and the armory?"

"Bravo Team went in before us, but they've never come out. There's a lot of Paramilitaries in there, a few of the MFVs like the ones we saw out here, and a really big fucker. It took out the entirety of Bravo Team and their MFVs all by itself, and I think they're using it as a way of getting into the experimental stuff inside. I don't have any intel on what they're trying to grab from there or what's in there, but we've got to stop them anyways."

"And we will," Lucy said. Raising her voice so everyone could hear her, she continued. "Alright, here's the plan: Alpha 1, you and a batch of Tula's folks will go to the mall, clear it out. It's CQC comnbat, what you're good at. Meanwhile, I'll be moving in to clear out the armory of the enemy MFVs and stop them from taking whatever they're trying to take. Those Hyperion mechs look pretty nice, and I would really appreciate their help in doing so. Anyone who I didn't mention is fair game to pursue whatever they like. Leave the big mech for me - I'll distract him - you all focus on taking out anything else you can, then move in to surround him and take him out."

As she finished, she was lowered back down into the MFV's command module, where the hatch quickly closed shut. Soon, her own MFV was mobile as its legs whirred to life, striding over to the front of the armory that had been hastily barricaded with hedgehog barricades and other roadblocks. Rather than plow through them, Lucy's MFV simply leaped over the obstacles, landing shortly after by one of the large service garages which led deeper into the armory.

Waiting for the others to follow in suit with her plans, she knelt down by the door controls and reached for them, activating them, but remained in the crouched position as the large doors came up. Her SHAC was pointed downrange at the end of the spacious garage, which led deeper into the facility itself.

BOSS BATTLE: BLACK MAMBA

[Free Arctic Territories]

---

Black Sun East Coast Regional Offices, New York

---

Mei watched in total shock as a series of fireballs engulfed her screen. She recognized the weapon instantly when the warhead split open in mid-air. The Levant Industries "Essaim" AVPL. One big gun, she thought. As glass rained down from a hundred windows shattered by the force of the explosion, she winced. Too big.

"Anderson, who the fuck fired that round?"

"Fireteam Delta was the only group that was authorized to bring anti-armor weapons."

"I want a channel opened with Delta-1, now."

A moment later, Delta-1's cheerful voice reached her through a hail of screams and gunfire.

"Good afternoon, ma'am! Is there any trouble?"

"Delta-1," she began in a measured voice, "Can you tell me who in your squad just fired the Essy round at those mechs?"

"Oh, the Essy? I fired that round, ma'am."

A loud boom threatened to drown out Delta-1 mid sentence as a new fireball erupted from the armory on Mei's combat feed.

"Delta-1, can you please explain to me why I shouldn't serve your entire squad a citation for recklessly endangering a client's assets and court martial you for insubordination?"

Delta-1 stifled nervous laughter as he tried to find the words which had been taken from his mouth. "Ah... my apologies ma'am... I thought bringing the Essy would take out the mechs in one shot... I am sincerely sorry."

"Sincerely sorry my ass! You better hope the UN doesn't sue us for damages, you piece of scrap, because you'll regret ever being bolted together if Administration gets wind of this. We'll deal with your mess when the mission's over. For now, I'm relieving you of command and locking your launcher. Stay out of trouble."

"U-understoo-"

Mei cut Delta-1 off with an angry snap as she switched channels. "Anything else I need to know, Anderson?"

"Well, the Void Whale, our carrier, is around a minute out from the LZ. The 101st is preparing to drop. The AA mech is no longer hot, it seems."

Mei toggled her feed until the ruins of the NSF mech appeared before, a triumphant MFV painted in Savant white standing above the corpse of the slain beast. Several peacekeepers in blue helmets approached their savior in trepidation as a young female pilot exited the machine.

"Excellent. I'll tell UNCENTCOM to clear the LZ. The 101st should proceed as planned."

---

Mall of America Parking Lot, New York

---

Delta-1 sighed as he switched back to platoon channel. "This is Delta-1 to platoon. Delta-2 will be the new Delta Actual. I repeat, Delta-2 will be the new Delta Actual. Over and out."

Delta-1 dropped his now useless rocket launcher, letting it hit the ground with a clatter. The armory fires were slowly being extinguished by the sprinklers inside. Around them, the constant flood of bullets that had been inundating the battlefield had become a trickle. Now, only spurts of gunfire punctuated the city ambiance. The parking lot was mostly intact, a few stray bullets having punched some holes in the concrete superstructure. Besides him, several of his squadmates were reloading their anti-tank rifles, Pinigseus by the looks of it. One of them snickered. "What'd you do this time, old man?"

"Delta-4, you shithead, you wouldn't be running your mouth if I was sti-"

A flurry of flak cut him short as Delta-4 was flung back across the pavement, head cleanly detached by a sausage sized round. Ducking behind the flimsy concrete, Delta-1 wordlessly mouthed obscenities.

"Sitrep, Delta!" someone screamed over the comms. "That AA is blasting us! Fall back and regroup!"

"Delta-4 is down, Delta-3's missing an arm, and-" the unfortunate speaker let out a robotic scream before she cut out.

"They got her! Delta-6 is down!" another android yelled, as a large chunk of concrete from the pillar Delta-1 was behind shattered besides him. A new voice, stern and commanding, cut into the squad channel.

"Alpha-1 to platoon, check your fire. Friendly MFV is dropping in. Stay frosty soldiers, that AA isn't going to be hot for long."

The roaring engine of a jet turned the NSF walker's attention upward as a sleek white mech dived down like an avenging angel. Unfortunately, Delta-1 didn't have time to enjoy the show. He grabbed his gun, picked up the armless android next to him, and ran, desperately searching for the floating squad leader marker on his HUD through the clouds of smoke and concrete dust.

"Damn it one, they got me. How's it looking?" the injured robot he held on his shoulder slurred.

"Hang in there, buddy. We can get it fixed. I'll call for a medevac."

"S'okay man... I can fight..." he muttered, trying to push corrupted thoughts past crackling wire and smashed circuits.

Suddenly, a black figure emerged amidst the heavy curtain of grey around them. "Damn it, watch where you're going!" he yelled.

"Two?"

"Delta-1? Thank god, you made it in one piece. We couldn't see your marker on the HUD, we thought you were dead. Five's coming down. Is that three?

"Yes. He isn't in good shape."

"You aren't looking too good, yourself." Delta-2 responded, noting the melting synthetic skin and sparking wires dangling from Delta-1's face beneath his shattered mask. "We got 2 dead, 1 wounded. Did you take that mech out?"

"No but I saw-"

They both ducked for cover as the roar of several heavy caliber rounds tore through the haze. However, the new barrage of bullets they had expected from the MFV never materialized.

"Platoon, this is Alpha-1, enemy MFV neutralized. I repeat, enemy MFV neutralized."

Fireteam Delta collectively breathed a sigh of relief. As the dust slowly settled, they timidly got back on their feet.

"What do we do now?" said Delta-1 to Delta-2.

"Our orders remain. They brought along two MRAPs with LRADs and grenades. We can operate them with three people. We'll send Delta-3 to Fireteam Gamma for now with the rest of the casualties. We aren't out of this fight yet."

Delta-1 gently shifted his wounded comrade into a more comfortable position. The building was eerily silent. Delta-2 sat on a set of stairs, listening intently to the platoon channel. The rumble of an engine in the distance alerted him to an approaching vehicle. The small, heavily armored truck entered the parking lot, a bulky satellite dish like machine loaded in the back. The driver rolled down his window. "Where do you want your stereo set, Delta?" he asked, half-jokingly.

"Just unload it, we'll get it set up by ourselves," Delta-2 replied.

"Someone here needed a ride?" the driver asked, looking at Delta-3, splayed across the floor like a ragdoll.

"I do," he grunted, his voice distorted from damage to his voicebox.

The driver opened the door and stepped out. It made for a strange, nearly surreal sight. The medical android, wearing nothing but a small SAPI plate and helmet with a red cross emblem, looked small and fragile next to the tall, bulky figures clad in ordinance resistant armor besides him. His near human appearance, complete with brown hair, slightly bronze synthetic skin and apple green electronic eyes, was a stark contrast to the unwieldy robotic bulk of the members of Fireteam Delta, identically clad with metal plating and reinforced suit joints. They unloaded the strange machine in silence before loading the wounded android on the truck bed. The vehicle soon sped off, searching for more casualties to collect.

"That the LRAD?" Delta-5 said, approaching from behind the two to inspect the strange device on the pavement before them.

"Affirmative," Delta-2 replied. "We got to get this wired up ASAP. The other MRAP is coming soon. Once we get the 'nade launchers set up, we'll smoke out the mall and let the LRAD do it's work while other friendlies breach the building. Fireteam Alpha will be helping us out as well, we're suppose to keep the LZ clear and the NSF inside the building. Don't want them breaking out and stealing whatever the hell they needed from the armory."

"Do the guys breaching the mall know about this?"

"Long Island's talking over it with UNCENTCOM."

"Sounds like a plan," Delta-1 agreed, before gesturing to the LRAD waiting patiently on the floor. "Let's get this baby powered up!"

---

Euphonium Acoustics Tower, New York

---

Sigma-1 ducked behind his desk as another bullet shattered the window pane next to the office cubicle he was in. Crouching on his office chair, he could get a good view of the NSF snipers holed up in the armory. In the six or so minutes that elapsed since the first shot exchanged between Fireteam Sigma and the NSF marksmen and the last, the battlefield had erupted into total chaos. First, not one, but two aircraft had appeared over New York, dropping their payload of soldiers directly into the fight. Despite the best efforts of the NSF's AA mech, they had left relatively unmolested, layers of reinforced armor absorbing the heavy caliber flak rounds that had been thrown their way. The battlefield soon became choked with dust and smoke as machine clashed against machine, while the snipers continued their duel blind. However, the NSF never stood a chance. In less than a minute, their mechs had been reduced to a pile of flaming metal, slain by round after round of anti-tank rounds, explosives, and armor penetrating bullets, while the soldiers unfortunate enough to have been outside had died to a man. Unfortunately for Sigma, all it took was two shots from the enemy MFVs to engulf several floors of the skyscraper they had been using in flames, and, in one fluid motion, Fireteam Sigma had rappelled to the neighboring building. It was only until after they had unhooked their harnesses did they realize that one of them had gone missing.

"Where's three?" someone asked.

"Wasn't he with Sigma-2?" Sigma-1 said, looking around at his equally confused squadmates.

Sigma-2, clutching her partially detached arm, glanced back at the building. "He was with me when we left... I remember he told me to go first since he had to pick up my gun."

Sigma-1 weighed his options. He doubted that two could do anything in this state, let alone enter a burning building. Four had to be carried by five when they left after a sniper had left a smoking hole in her torso, paralyzing his legs. Six was missing her left eye, but fortunately, the bullet had only grazed the side of her face, leaving her motherboard intact. Damn it, he thought.

[LCL] This is Sigma-1 Actual of Fireteam Sigma, Black Sun, to all and any units, we have two wounded friendlies, one MIA. Location is northeast of the armory, inside a skyscraper, will be marking with a green flare for identification. We are currently descending from the 34th floor, Requesting covering fire and assistance as we evacuate casualties ASAP. Over and out.

Sigma-1 rose and handed over his rifle to Sigma-2. "Think you can carry this?"

"I can try," she responded, gingerly taking the heavy weapon with her one remaining hand. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to go back in and get three. Sigma-5, come with me. The rest of you, head down and wait at the ground floor. Fireteam Gamma will come by and pick you up."

"Sir, what do we do if you don't come back?"

"Sigma-6 will be the acting squad leader. You have your orders."

There was a pause as a current of unease coursed through the air, No gunfire or explosions had punctuated the near total silence that had descended upon them.

"Yes, sir," Fireteam Sigma finally replied in muted tones. Slowly, they shuffled into the depths of the office complex.

Another bullet crashed against the windows. Sigma-1 shielded his eyes as distant fireball engulfed the armory. He noted with satisfaction the absence of any more shots from the building as the flames enveloped the hapless hostile sniper's former position.

However, as the flames in the armory were easily extinguished by automated fire suppression systems, the fires raging in the skyscraper were still burning strong, as the sprinklers struggled to contain the office supplies fueled inferno.

Sigma-1 clicked his harness tight, and made ready to jump.

---

UN Assembly Hall, New York

---

A impassive smile across her face, Hestia nodded in agreement as the Secretary General gave her closing remarks and opened the floor for questions. It was pathetically easy to pass the resolution with an unanimous vote. Quite surprising, she thought to herself, noticing some flashes of dismay or frustration among the crowd. I would have expected more opposition, especially from the PMCs and arms manufacturers. Luckily for me, these decrepit bureaucrats seem to find playing politics beneath them. She sat attentively as the Tula representative announced her concerns.

Seosangsin, as ever, was completely bewildered by Hestia's enigma of a mind. Why was she smiling? She had just allowed the UN to neuter her own company. What does she think she's going to do when the UNCLEs started auditing Black Sun bases? He was interrupted by a clear female voice, both conversational and slightly mocking.

I can hear you, you know. Seosangsin felt a slight prick at the base of his head as Hestia forced open a secure channel between the two, exchanging raw data beneath layers and layers of encryption.

Apologizes for the unwanted intrusion. I don't trust these duplicitous blue bastards enough to believe they haven't bugged every seat in the hall. So, you're worried about Sanhelios, right? Our weapons project?

Seosangsin did not have to answer. He already knew that she knew.

Did you really think I gave a damn about the WMDs? Of course you didn't, I've designed you to be more insightful than that. The reason I went ahead with proposing the ban, and the reason I'm not worried about their little corporate spies, is simple. Black Sun doesn't have any WMDs.

What? Seosangsin replied in disbelief. Sanhelios has developed androids that use weaponized nanotechnology, artificial intelligences that can breach secure networks and subvert android and cybernetic programming, cyber-organics that can literally copy the biological structures of a person down to a genetic level, and an android that's specifically designed to target nerve receptors and cause the most pain humanly possible in interrogations. How the hell is the UN not going to notice that?

You're going a bit off topic there, Seo. Hestia giggled and flashed him a smug grin. I could go on and on about the limitations of Von Neumann drives, the excess heat made by these things that prevents mass replication, so on and so on. In the 100 or so years that nanotechnology has existed, no one, not one, has ever made a nanobot WMD. We are not trying to turn an entire world into grey goo. Sanhelios nanobots are designed to target specific materials, namely organic ones. The android consciously controls them at all times, and we have a physical kill switch installed on it, as on all androids, to make sure they can be incapacitated should they slip out of our control. I fail to see how cyber-organic robots that can impersonate others and a torture android is relevant to weapons of mass destruction. Sure, they would try us for crimes against humanity should they find out, but Sanhelios is off the books. Everything is classified. If they audit it, we can just wipe the database clean, liquidate Aleph-Naught and the research crew, and deny we ever were involved in developing instruments of torture. As for the artificial intelligences, we specifically designed a back door in our own software. The other big synthetic corporations are too guarded for that to happen. They would patch what vulnerabilities we could find in weeks. Same goes for cybernetics. Indeed, my main point is we never designed them to be weapons of mass destruction. There's a reason I introduced such a narrow definition in my proposal. Weapons that are designed to cause mass casualties. You are comparing a sledgehammer to a scalpel. We are assassins, not monsters, and Sanhelios has designed weapons for assassins: ones that are meant for very specific targets. The UN's tolerated our black market dealings so far because we only accept contracts for specific targets: no bombings, mass murders, robberies, things like that. I'm sure the UNCLEs wouldn't mind us killing a few criminals here and there. Do you understand now?

Seosangsin only felt more confused than before. Well, you've made a loophole and all, but that still means the UN has control of all white market WMDs. What if they lose one? What if, God forbid, the NSF gets their hands on UN weapons?

Ah yes, the old problem of mutually assured destruction. An audible sigh fluttered through his mind. These executives make it seem so black and white, when it's just a flimsy excuse to keep their nukes. You know, the problem with laws is there's always a loophole. I left a perfectly clear one for them to exploit. If they are so concerned about the NSF nuking a factory or two, just implement tighter security measures. I'm sure most of these companies have enough capital so that it will be no serious loss. They should be more subtle than that. There are other ways to hurt the NSF than through destroying their assets.

How?

Turning their allies and cells against them. Decapitating their leadership. Espionage and misinformation. You don't need nuclear or biological weapons to hit them where it hurts. Aleph-Naught's been doing a superb job of keeping them disoriented and afraid; they've dismantled around six cells so far, and outer system PMCs have been deserting them in droves. I heard they've offered a bounty worth 70 million for anyone who knows about their employer.

So? They still have all the WMDs, and we have none. What if they found out we were the employers of Aleph-Naught? Would you sacrifice Black Sun to destroy the NSF?

Must I remind you that we've fought against Oxis itself and survived? The Oxis? I would be damned if those misguided terrorists end our company. Black Sun endures. And yes, if it comes to that, there would be no price I wouldn't pay to see the NSF destroyed. None.

Seosangsin, once again, could only wonder what went on inside of his executive's head.

[Parcia]

IVan and Tula ground forces.

The sudden appearance of the Ach ach mech caused him to dive for cover. Then the thing fired.

The BWOM BWOM BWOM rang out and let all hell loose. Tula troops went for cover in all directions. Most who didnt go behind hard cover like, well, buildings, were killed or injured. In the span of seconds, nearly 40 of his soldiers were strewn about the area, most dead on impact of the flak rounds, some, the unlucky ones, moaned and screamed as they lay on the ground, body parts strewn about.

This both pissed him off and excited him, it had been damn near 8 years since his last battle with Maldoon. The rest of his personal squad formed around him, distinguishable by the red stripes on their helmets, "Ivan." Vasily called out. The two went way back. The Slavic man flashed Ivan a toothy smile. "This reminds me of Chechnya!" He hefted his RPG-62, how Vasily found the large anti-tank launcher, Ivan didn't know, but he welcomed it.
"But we had less men and they ha dmore tanks, Vasily, and they still lost!" Ivan hefted his Am-30 and peered around the corner of the building the two were hiding behind.

He made out the form of the UN Alpha team members huddled down the street.
He accessed the radio channel through his implants and spoke. "Alpha team...or, rather, what is left of it, this is Solcol-lead, I have AT that can fuck that thing up, but i need a rear shot, think you can help?"

[Higher Japan]

UN Armory

"Forward!" Freyja shouted, blasting another poor soul's head off as the rifle stopped for a moment, the yellow markings turning red as the gun itself opened up, releasing steam and the ammo clip. The group had now been on an eventual advance towards the armory, with so far the only loss being a few injuries. No deaths so far. After the gun finally closed and a clip loaded in, she continued to fire on the NSF soldiers as she switched to a semi auto fire, firing in 3 bullet bursts. All around her paths clip laid on the floor as she quickly dodged an incoming soldier that tried to engage her in close range combat.

Quickly drawing out her knife, she attached it to the front of the rifle as she locked blades with him, parrying attacks as she slowly forced him to turn around while the other operatives cleared the path around her. Shot gun and pistol fire being the main instruments of the symphony as she finally saw an opening and quickly stabbed the man through his heart. "Moving in, you 2 on me! The rest cover us!" She and 2 men had finally broken through the front gates of the armory as explosives detonated within seconds, sending flaming rubble into the sky as they charged in, opening fire on anyone that dared return fire as Freyja charged forward with her propulsion set.

Running in, she linked a map to her HUD as she looked at it. On the outside, she received a report from Edel directing the mech. Forces were approaching the armory. Seeing this opportunity, she checked a few locations from where they would enter. However, her thoughts were all confirmed as she heard a blast coming from the garage. Running down with her 2 aides, she came to see the forces all facing up against one massive, heavily armed mech.

"Bloody hell..." She stood from a higher level as she sent a message to the entering forces, using Edel's mech as a transfer point where it was sent to Lucy. "This is Freyja, commander of Hyperion special forces. The garage at the moment as a mech, specifications unknown, but be cautious." As she said this, she heard some sounds of movement as she turned to see it almost coming to life. "Let's just hope they can deal with this, take cover."

Outside, the 3 mechs follow along with Lucy as the forces from the mall join up and convene with forces at the armory. Seeing this they break off from the front gate and follow the 3 mechs that soon enter the garage of the armory.

UN Building

"Hold it!" Arondite shouts, stopping most other delegates at the table as he turns to the Secretary General. "Ms Secretary General, I don't mean to disrespect you but I have clear doubts now about this. Although some limits should be placed, the complete removal of all WMDs from companies would mean leaving them vulnerable to massive forces and throwing one of our only trump cards into a swamp pit of bureaucracy. Now tell me, in the case of a NSF attack, how long before the WMDs can be mobilized if needed. How long before they launch, assuming they can even launch in time to be effective. If you can clear my doubts that throwing our trump cards into the bureaucracy of such a large organization is a good idea, one that can barely contain an attack on their armory and let NSF forces enter, and one that many years ago had not taken any moves to curb crime such that we had to get involved and solve this issue, then I shall agree to this resolution."

[Britanania]

Taira Tower

After his meeting with Mitsuha, Kiyomori Taira called in his other appointments for the day. As the CEO sat back at his desk, a few holograms appeared sitting in front of him. They bowed and spoke (in Japanese).

"Thank you for having us," the leader said, a Japanese man seemingly in his 60s with an expensive looking suit and his hands adorned with rings. "Now we're not here to waste your time. Per our most recent conversation, we're willing to make you an offer. We're willing to give Taira-Kuzyru 40% of the profits if you provide the cost of operations. That includes security, of course. We're on schedule for launch in a few days."

Kiyomori sat back and didn't reply for several moments before he nodded.

"Yes, I think that would be acceptable. I'll send some men over to finalise the deal."

The conversation over, Kiyomori pressed a button and the image of Adelie Li appeared. He switched to English, the supposed lingua franca of the UN territories. After letting Adelie speak he remained silent for a few minutes before replying, speaking softly and deliberately.

"I wouldn't make you an offer if I expected you to refuse," he said politely. "What I propose is only for the best of our corporations. This NSF issue has only gotten worse in the past few years and at present, with the situation in New York, it appears that it isn't going away. Taira can't sell you a solution, but we can sell you security, that is to say, Taira will supplement whatever security forces you have with weapons and androids. What's more, our electronics are the best in the solar system for the price, and we will completely re-outfit your current systems with our own for a fraction of the cost. Last, our cybernetics have an obvious medical advantage, and we can give you exclusive use of them. In return, we want the exclusive right to electronics and cybernetics in Vitality's market zone."

UN Armoury Battle

In NSF mechs went down fairly easily with the support from the others forces, but Mitsuha's attention was quickly turned towards the chatter from her com. SABER team was reporting what Alpha 1 was reporting in as well. The young woman and former mercenary frowned.

Typical, she thought to herself before issuing orders.

"SABER, I want you to stay clear of that monster," she instructed as she made her way into the mall. "Provide suppression fire and leave it to the big boys."

Mitsuha made her way through the mall and into the armoury. Upon seeing the massive mech, Mitsuha fired two anti-vehicle ballistic shells towards its knee joints before moving out of its range.

[Xah]

Isis Khatri
UN Headquarters
New York city
Earth

Being, as she preferred to term it 'alternatively young', Isis had yet to get up out of her seat when the representative from Hyperion raised their voice. The decision reached hadn't bothered Isis in the slightest; Osiris was compliant with UN demands publically and privately where it suited them. The more they vocally agreed with the authority's viewpoint on things, the less they were inclined to look deeply into your affairs. Being prominently antagonistic served no gain. She sighed a little at the opinion being expressed and resisted an urge to reply; if this naïve young thing even remotely considered that all the parties present were going to give up all their WMDs, then she was a bigger fool than she seemed. The UN knew it, all the other executives knew it; there'd be a big public announcement about 'taking control over dangerous weapons' maybe even some publicity shots of UN officials being handed over control, that sort of thing, but in the background, everyone would carry on as normal. The one thing you didn't do was draw attention to it all. The cat and mouse game of UN inspections and secret corporate operations would keep going.

She checked her wrist-com regarding the situation downtown, something that was far more important and with far more reaching implications than a political PR game. The fight back was proceeding reasonably well it seemed, although the NSF seemed better equipped than they should be. Isis made a mental note to get Special Operations to look into their funding. The Osiris operative in the area was more content now that authorisation for lethal force had been granted. Tucking the device back into her sleeve, she slowly stood and nodded to her security detail, beginning to exit the room.

---

Operative 231
Downtown New York City
Earth

The battle down below was moving inside, leaving Zaid with no more clear targets. He sighed and began to disassemble his rifle, placing all the parts back into the case. The case was then slid into a bag and the whole camouflaged thing tucked away out of sight. He checked his side arms and nodded to himself before climbing over the edge of the roof and sliding down the side of the building, using the friction gloves to slow him down. About 20 meters from the ground he pushed off and dropped the rest of the way, landing with a small thump at street level. Straightening up, he ran a quick systems check and, satisfied he was at full operational capacity, began to walk towards the mall and armoury. The few civilians still in the area were ignored, even the one requiring medical attention; that wasn't his role here.

With a few mental switches, he tapped into the local comms chatter, his eyebrows raising as he heard the various descriptions of what was going on. He diverted his steps away from the armoury; whatever was going on in there was far beyond his current capabilities. The last thing he had in mind was getting involved in a fight with a large combat MFV. It wasn't entirely beyond his range of mission parameters, but face-to-face certainly was and he wasn't equipped for much else right now. The mall wasn't too far ahead, so he headed there, keeping close the walls and side streets as much as possible, approaching the UN soldiers gathering outside, ready for their assault.

"Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen," Zaid said, straightening his tie. "It appears you have some ruffians engaging in a little bit of enhanced shoplifting, would you care for some assistance in the matter? Zaid, Osiris Special Operations. I have been instructed to offer my services. This kind of thing is so terribly bad for business, you know?"

[Forest State]

Adelie Li
En route to Earth

Adelie still had a stern, hard nosed demeanor. The same that she used when she was dealing with people within her own company, who she needed to keep the respect of despite not having as much pure skill at the job as her father had. She carried the same mindset into negotiations and had the same ideas: show any fear, and you wouldn’t get anywhere. Show signs of caving, and you wouldn’t get anywhere. Force the other side to give you what you want, and don’t settle for lesser offers. “Apparently you rate the NSF threat higher than we rate it.”

She paused to compose herself before continuing, and her words were almost rehearsed. They weren’t, but the years of practice helped her to speak this way even when she hadn’t practiced. “The fact of the matter is, while the NSF is a threat, we know from history that buying more and bigger guns isn’t the right way to fight an insurgent movement with terrorist style tactics. Your androids and your electronics aren’t going to make our forces… Smarter, which I believe is the most important trait in fighting a group like the NSF. Not equipment. Not that our own equipment is low quality… We might not have the biggest private army, but the forces that we do have are well armed and well drilled enough to fend off a force like the NSF.”

Her tone softened slightly. “Cybernetics are a rival field, wouldn’t you say? We don’t exactly like the idea of people being more machine than man. We also have our own cybernetics program, so I’m not sure it’s the biggest need for us right now…”