No Gods, Nor Masters

Accommodating Part 2

Torres hummed, watching as the UEG Representative finished the chat with the military staff of the many greats of their world. The Russian and Chinese representatives seemed less than pleased with the news that some of their own might have been taken, while the British, Japanese and even American ones might've looked calm, but Torres could see the burning fire behind their tank force commander's otherwise-calm gaze.

Hazama himself was there, uncomfortable while talking to the UNSC's civilian rep in regards to what the UNSC was going to do next. The rep herself intended to send a message to the UN via telephone line through the Gate, with the added greeting of the UNSC and UEG when it came to meeting their alternate, past counterparts. The US, rumor had it, was considering deployment of the 82nd Airborne as a reinforcement for the UN Forces.

They watched as the civilians were being taken to the Gate. He'd heard one of the men they recovered begging them to help some girl named Noriko. The girl had been taken by the Imperials toward their capital, alongside a few of the other female slaves that some of the noblemen found to their liking. Torres scoffed, abandoning that trail of thought before his own blood would start to boil.

He felt a hand clap on his back and turned to see Itami walking up, a grim look on his face, kind of like with the rest of the base. He said to Torres, "Richard and Tyuule just came back. Looks like the UNSC's actively preparing their BCTs for immediate tactical deployments across the wider front. They wanna form an MSR toward the center of the Empire and secure several key cities satellite and orbital surveillance spotted. Time before the main force begins a concentrated assault's estimated at two days."

"Fuckin' hell..." Torres murmured, "This is gonna be another Iraq. I can feel it."

"You weren't there during the original invasion, man. You were still a kid," Itami remarked.

"No, but my dad experienced it. Platoon commander in the Corps, ran with a squadron of FORCE RECON for the duration of the fight," He replied, then continued, "He told me just how fuckin' crazy the situation got. I wonder if the UNSC's considering an Air Campaign at all. Y'know, take out the Imps' Wyverns and whatever other dangerous threats exist out there before pushing in."

"We are," Richard said, approaching them with his kit on his back. Torres and Itami turned to greet him and saw he was calmer than when he'd left. "The admiral and Colonel ordered Longswords and Broadswords to set up CAP and load up on AP and HE ammo, just in case we find ourselves facing another Dragon or two that have thicker armor than your standard little Wyvern. Aside from that, we'll have Longswords running CAS and bombing missions near Imperial cities. Precision strikes to decimate command structures, removal of obstacles, that kind of shit."

"Sky's gonna be full of UNSC Air assets, then," Torres smirked, then patted him on the shoulder, "We gonna be green for our ops, too, or will we have to take care not to get ourselves sandblasted by UNSC cluster bombs?"

"We'll be fine. Command assured me we'll be able to call air assets as we need them... If we need'em, anyhow," He smirked, "They're airlifting a bunch of Warthogs for me and my platoon to use so we don't crowd you folks up. Also, Doc Halsey upped the prep time to four days now, just to make sure we'll have a proper supply line for when we begin pushing deep into Imp lands."

"Ah, logistics, the ever-present issue of armies, no matter the day and age," Itami chuckled by the side of his fellow lieutenants, both of whom smiled. He then inquired, "You folks still gonna be with us, or are you gonna be working with the main body of the Armed Forces of the UNSC?" as he took his officer's cap off. Torres did the same, running a hand through his buzzcut hair.

"Doc Halsey said we'll be sticking around," Richard replied, hefting his MA40 onto his shoulder properly. We'll be the force recon going in ahead for the UN troops when they join and both sides' officer corps want our people to be able to work together, so they're testing interoperability by forming a company-level mixed Recce Force that combines the UNSC, US and SDF."