NationStates Jolt Archive

Soldiers come and soldiers go. One soldiers time suplanted by the next. New training. New wars. New ways to die... it has been happening since man first waged war on man and will continue until Humanity is brushed aside for a new type of being, who will then find new ways to die in war.

"With the possible exception of Orcs, the Civils comprise the harshestm fiercest beings you will ever see in battle. They are strong, fast and heartless killers who will beat, maim and disfigure prisoners on a whim. I have seen them lop off appendages to feed their pet wolves. They toss around the heads of their enemies for fun. They hate their enemies. It doesn't matter who that enemy is. The excesses of their cruelty are almost beyond imagining and appeal to the Khan's darker side..."
The Colonel paused, looking over the room of seventy Marines. No... not just seventy Marines. The top seventy Marines, what the rest aspire to be... "You are weaker, slower and far less dealy in combat compared to these inappropriatly named beasts, who were created by scientists. So you will be getting an unfair advantage. Better armor. Stronger reflexes. Increased stamina. You will become something more than a Marine or an Assault Marine. You will become Imperial Commandos. Your training begins now."

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Recruit Commando 21, Corporal Samantha Laran, stood in line with the rest of the fifteen women that were in the group. They were in their underwear, awaiting examination by the doctors. The men were doing the same in three other groups. She thought back to what the Colonel had said. After a moment, she looked up and down the line of women for one face and didn't see it.
"Problem, Marine?" A Warrent Officer asked, tilting his head.
"No sir... I was just wondering where Captain Tatania Skorzeny is. She should be here, in my opinion. She was the best sniper I've ever met..." Laran answered, waiting for a response.
The WO looked at a Captain, who sighed. "Captain Skorzeny is officially MIA and unofficially presumed KIA, Corporal. I was very dissappointed... we could use her."

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Three weeks later

Master Gunnery Sergeant Marvin Mobuto, the highest ranked NCO in the group, raised his Swarm Missile Launcher and aimed. The weapon was one of teh Swarm Series of missiles, but had been dubbed 'Swarmless', since it was a single shot fire and forget weapon. He fired and the missile streaked down the firing range and impacted the target, sending shrapnel flying.
"Good hit RC6." The DI standing behind him said, "Switch to your Anti-Personel rounds and send one at the target dummies."
"Sir, aye-aye sir." Mobuto replied, treating the Staff Sergaent as a superior, even though he outranked him by three paygrades. He was the Drill Instructor and Mobuto was the Recruit. So said the Colonel and so it was. He loaded in another round and fired.
"Good hit." The DI said, nodding.
"Sir, I never miss, sir." He responded, smirking.

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Eight Months Later

The terrain was strange. After the Cloud had wiped most of the vegetation from Crimmond, it had begun to regrow in a patchwork of green that still left large swaths of land barren. Being jostled down a sorry excuse for a road didn't help much, in Corporal Laran's opinion. She gripped her weapon, the standard OICW model, and wondered where the convoy was going. Looking towards the front of the cargo truck, she spoke over the engines and the tires. "Guns, where the hell are we going?"
Master Gunnery Sergeant, Guns for short, Mobuto looked up from the PDA he held and smirked. "An R&D installation. We're getting new equipment that makes the stuff we use now look like Hockey padding." He then went back to his work, checking to make sure everything was going smooth. "And... to get augmentation."
"Augmen... what the hell does that mean?" a Marine asked, looking bewildered at the word.
"It means, Private, that we go in humans. We come out freaks of nature." Laran supplied, watching the man blanch visably. He was a combat veteran, but no one would look impassive at that.... except Mobuto.
"Not exactly. We'll be mostly human. But this new equipment wil need something more than human to run it. And right now, I need all my human attention on what I'm doing, so stow it." he answered, tone not leaving room for disobedience, though not much more needed to be said.

[OOC: I'm not much for graphic detail, surgical knowledge or any of the technobabble behind it. So I'm gonna just skip all the augmentation stuff and get to the parts I can handle. Suffice it to say, they were surgically altered to have larger and more powerful muscles, metal was grafted to their bones for added strength, several implants were added for intigration between armor and user and their were alterations made for enhancement of reflexes, eyesight and hearing. Harsh stuff.]

Two Years Later

'Master Guns' stood at attention, in front of the Marines deemed Class One. All were enlisted. All were Commandos. All wore the new Type-B (http://usera.imagecave.com/Alpha-Zero/MarineArmor.jpg) combat armor, which replaced the old bulky Type-A and Assualt Armors. They were lighter, stronger and far more adaptable. While not as technologically imposing as the Assault Armor, which was a partial power armor, these were equiped with many systems to monitor health, facilitate communication, give several ways to view the world(IR, Visable, Radiation and a rudimentary passive rader like system).
Behind them were two fluttering banners, with the two Commando Divisions logos on them. A falcon diving on it's prey was the land and aerospace Commandos. A hammerhead shark was for the naval ship based Commandos, who were replacing other marines each and every month. These Marines were the first in both. The first Commandos. Only 3/4 of them survived the augmentations. Only half had been able to serve as commandos. The others were shells in hospitals or were in wheelchairs, serving as tactical advisors.
General of the Army Maximus Decimus Meridius, Commanding Officer of the Myer Garrison, General of all Marines in the Field and known to complain loudly that his titles are too long to fit on a door, stood in front of Mobuto, in a standard uniform. "Master Gunnery Sergeant, it's good to see you and your Marines in person. I wish it was under different circumstances. May we talk in private?" He gestured to an area about thirty feet away.
"Sir, unless you wish to speak inside, the Commandos will hear every word." Mobuto answered, unmoving.
"I see... well, perhaps they should hear this as well. I suspect that the Space Wing is getting quite upset they are losing so much power. They may attempt some sort of power grab. I don't know how or when... but your Marines will be the first to respond to any such action. Your command is the best even among the Commandos. I have full confidence in your skill, your detirmination and your luck. We need all three nowadays."
"Yes sir, General."

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CSS Juggernaut
Low Earth Orbit

Fleet Captain Erikson, sat in his office, looking at the five screens, showing the Fleet Admiral, the two Admirals, the other two Fleet Captains and the Captain making up the fleet of Drednoughts in orbit of Luna and Terra and near the Asteroid Belt. "What your proposing takes balls, Fleet Admiral. Not saying you don't have any, just because your a woman, but God dammit... the Marines control the Wet and Dry. They won't give it up."
The Fleet Admiral, a woman named Telsia Munro, leaned foward. "I appreciate your bluntness, Erikson. But this is possible. The Admirals in the Marines aren't happy. Ground Pounders get preferential treatment and only now are they looking at the Wets." She smiled. "We can take control easily and not even that blowhard Delta can stop us."
The debate ended there and the planning began...

Two months later...

General of the Army Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of all Marines in the field, Commandant of the Coastal Defenses, Commander of the Gdansk Garrison and constantly grumbling about his overly long title, looked up abruptly from his stack of papers when a deep rumble shook the foundation of the building and even through the armored glass of the Gdansk Amphibious Command, the roar was almost deafening.
People ran yelling words that were never heard, grabbing weapons and either running for a place to hide or a place to fight. The General grabbed his rifle, waved to a Fireteam of Civils and started for the roof. They followed and as the General kicked open the roof door, a blast of heat washed over the six of them, but they pressed on, into the oven of the roof and looked around for the source of the noise.... then the sun vanished and they all looked straight up.
A Specter Class of Dreadnought hung over the city of Gdansk, it's almost a kilometer long girth casting an immense shadow on the docks and the former Naval headquarters. After a moment, the color of the ship told it's name. Shouting over the din of it's thrusters, Meridius swore. "It's the god damned Fleet Admiral! What the fuck does she think she's doing?!"
Mere seconds later the city block the headquarters sat on ceased to exist as thousands of missiles poured into the building, ripping it and several apart and decimating several surrounding blocks. Fireballs rose hundreds of feet into the sky as fuel depots and ammunition dumps were hit.
Rising from the canage like a pheonix emerging from it's burning nest, the Dreadnought ignored the attacks of the Marine fighters, who barely scratched it's hull with their missiles, and climbed high into the atmosphere, towards orbit.
At the same time, every surface ship in the Crimmond Imperial Marines began painting the new sigil of the Crimmond Imperial Navy on their sides. The subs, which made up the majority of the fleet, carried no markings, so they merely updated their registry information.

In less than ten minutes, the Crimmond Imperial Navy was reborn and the Imperial Marine Corps dealt a blow they would never recover from fully. In twenty minutes, the whole Navy was coordinating with the orbiting Dreadnoughts, which had the combined computing power of every database in Crimmond. It would only take three to run the whole operation, but was dolled out evenly and all coordinated between each ship's AI, who were overjoyed at the chance to do something new.
Fleet Admiral Munro stood on the bridge, monitoring all the communications from the capital, then frowned. "What's Delta doing? He should have at least hailed us by now..."
A low voice came from behind her, so familiar the entire bridge crew jumped and looked around for the source. Telsia Munro... You have attacked your own military on it's own soil. You have killed Imperial citizens caught in the way. You have seized control of over half the Empire's military might... Munro spotted the source, or something so strange it had to be. A shadow was cast on the deck, but no one was there to cast it. It wore a longcoat and a broad brimmed hat... Delta. Somehow he was here. Munro pulled her sidearm and fired at where he should have been and instead shot out a computer screen instead. The chuckle that came infuriated her. A valiant try, Fleet Admiral. Be warned, if you ever raise your arms against the Empire again... your ships will be swept from the sky like children's toys. And then the creatures of hell will feast on your souls.
The shadow vanished and left her with the gun in her hand, a stunned bridge crew and an AI that was not too pleased about being shot, even if it was just a monitor. Munro looked at the communications officer. "Get me the other dreadnoughts. Now!"

An hour later, a Sergeant Major stood on her bridge. He was in the black uniform of a Commando and the bridge crew immediatly grew wary. There weren't supposed to be commandos on the flagship. The Fleet Admiral glared at the non-com who had posed as a normal Marine and noticed he was unarmed. That didn't mean he wasn't capable of defending himself though. She finally spoke. "Allright Mobuto. What the hell are you doing on my bridge, in that uniform, for?"
"To see the look on your face, Fleet Admiral... I know Delta was here, doing his little shadow puppet song and dance with you. But he could have saved his breath. You see... you killed my Corps greatest leader and all of his immediate succesors. And now... he can rest in peace."

The rest of the fleet watched in horror as the reactors of the flagship reached a meltdown point and as the weapons systems overloaded, hundreds of thousands of missiles detonated and as the emergency thrusters exploded, sending the crippled ship lurching towards the planet.

"Rather than a slow and painful death through radiation, from the reactors and the weapons overloads, my Commando team has rigged the ship to kill itself." Mobuto stated, keeping his footing on teh deck through most of the explosions.
Munro stared at him. "But... you're going to die yourself! You just doomed your own team..." She said, dumbfounded.
"That's right, Fleet Admiral." He said, not willing to break the chain of command, even if he was about to die. "That's what Imperial Commandos do. We pledge to sacrifice our own lives if need be, to serve the Empire." Any response Munro was going to give was cut off before she could begin, when the hull plating along the port side of the bridge ripped apart and the entire bridge crew and one Marine were blown out into the inferno of reentry.

Delta watched the wreckage tear through the night sky and turned to General Marco, his Minister of Denense. "The Marines are taking revenge. Halt it. Immediatly. I shall personally handle the settling of this squabble."
"Yes, my Khan." Marco saluted and walked off.
Two hours later, Delta read over the report. "Marvin Mobuto. Master Gunnery Sergeant. KIA. Well, Sergeant... I didn't know you, but I wish I had. You must have been one hardcore son-of-a-bitch."

Three days later. Present Day.

The Inquisition would have done backflips had their stern nature and aura of fear permitted. As it was the Inquisitor Consular, who was in temporary command of the Inquisition, send his deepest gratitude that the Khan trusted them so greatly. Both of them knew he didn't trust the Inquisition at all, not after the last intelligence branch killed him. He knew more than the Consular about what was happening in the Inquisition and the man knew it. And it kept him in line.
But today, Delta wasn't thinking about the Inquisitor Consular so much. He was silently slipping onto one of the top bases in Crimmmond. Not even his bodygaurds knew where he had vanished to, even though he had informed them he was going to be leaving for the day. He encountered several Marines, but his affinity for the Occult made them so dazed that they didn't notice the cloaked man walk right past them.
He cautiously stepped to the window of one of the barraks and saw many marines inside, all male, socializing and cleaning their weapons. The uniforms told these were the Commandos the Corps had managed to keep beneath his notice for almost three years. The Commanod that the Corps thought were still a secret. Delta stepped silently to the doorway and kicked it open, then stepped inside with two slow, deliberate steps and gazed at them all with his void filled eyes.
Every one of them had their weapons locked, loaded and leveled on him. He heard several clicks outside. Magazines sliding into weapons. He pitied any fool that decided doing this as a prank. Sevral seconds slipped by and no one moved. They knew who he was, but weren't sure if he was a threat to them or not.
Slowly, he removed his hat and set it on the table, speaking softly. "Lower your weapons, Commandos." Nothing. "You would disobey a direct order from the Emperor?"
"Sir, how do we know you are Khan Delta?" A Gunnery Sergeant asked. He was also the closest Commando to Delta.
Delta's arm snapped up, grabbed the OICW from the Commando's hands, flipped it around and leveled it at his chest. "Because if I wasn't Khan Delta, you would have shot me dead before my hand reached your weapon. And even if it had, I wouldn't have had teh strength to forcibly take your rifle from your possesion and most certainly wouldn't have had time to turn it on you before you killed me with your bare hands and retook the weapon."
He handed the weapon back to the Sergeant, who nodded and all the weapons lowered. Delta waited a second and strode to the door, taking up his hat. "Fall in outside. Now."
It took a full eight seconds for all to fall in, male and female. "You are the only Marines that know I am here. Not even teh base commander knows. Not even the Royal Gaurd knows. I have come here in private to speak very frankly to you. Your ranking member, Master Gunnery Sergeant Mobuto, who must have been one hardcore son-of-a-bitch to take out a whole Dreadnought with only two other Commandos, made a fatal error. The AI of the Specter was still sending transmissions, even as it watched it's own body die. The Sergeant went to the bridge in full Commando uniform and spoke to the Fleet Admiral, explaining why he had done it and doomed his own team as well as the Specter's crew. He revealed himself to the enemy and spoke to the enemy civily instead of killing them wherever possible." He paused and let that sink in. "If I ever see a report on my desk where there is a Commando shown to be revealing themselves if there is any way to avoid doing so... I will personally execute them. Are we clear?"
"Sir yes sir!" the whole group answered.
"Are. We. Clear?" Delta asked again, blank eyes narrowing.
"SIR YES SIR!"
"We damn well better be. Dismissed."
The Commandos with tasks to do went back to them, but the rest stayed in the area. Delta stood impassivly, observing them, when the Sergeant stepped up. "Sir. May I ask a question?"
"Go ahead, Gunnery Sergeant."
"Why are the Civils named Civils? They're anything but... they're barbarians." He almost seemed disgusted. Almost.
Delta chuckled. "They are no more barbaric than you. They merely show it differently. They take joy in killing. You do it without emotion."
"But Sir, the things thaydo to thei-"
"The things you human warriors do to your enemies are worse. Dreadfires forces are engaging in Total War at the moment. They were gassed and are now taking revenge. A Civil will behead an enemy and throw it's head around as a rugby ball. A human gasses the enemy or nukes them or maims them. Civils are more efficient in combat as it leads to less suffering. In that way, they are more civil than you. Would you say otherwise?"

The Sergeant and his Commandos had no answer for him. He sighed, thinking that this Modern Era the world was in was quite tiresome and, though he would never admit it to anyone, was starting to erode his spirit and his hopes for mankind. The only good thing was that it was enevitable the mortals would create a global nuclear holocaust at some time and then the second Dark Ages would begin. Then he would be able to stand the mortals again. Perhaps he would manipulate the surviving members of the Church to re-ban technology.

The Commandos watched Delta and wondered what he was thinking, with that small smirk on his face, standing motionless, staring at the side of a building. Then an officer came into the area and the Commandos stood at attention and saluted until he passed. When they looked back, the Khan had vanished.