No Gods, Nor Masters

Italica Part 3:Preparation

Torres looked over the edge of the wall again at the camped-out enemy, wondering just how deep the shit pool they were wading through at this very moment was. He scoped one of the archers in, watching as the man glared back at him, then sighed and lowered his M4. This really wasn't going to be the best fight, considering the bastards pretty much had'em dead to rights and surrounded.

Good fucking thing they had a tank, though. He sighed, arranging his uniform's collar and looking toward Taylor. The young man kept his SAW pointed down at the bastards, just in case they'd try to rush them. Behind them, the sun began to set, the torches of the enemy encampment being lit by the local guards patrolling the place. The Princess had, in her insanity or wisdom, asked them not to do anything that could presumably get the enemy to attack first.

One would guess she wanted to keep casualties to a minimum, especially seeing as those assholes down below were her compatriots. Torres understood the reasoning, but that didn't mean he had to like it. It was a pretty fucked-up thing to ask a Devil Dog to leash himself. And he knew Richard, at least, felt the same. Itami's troops might not have, however, considering Kuribayashi's whole shtick right now.

"Soldier!" Spoke one of the men below, looking up at Torres. Torres waved, stunned that an Imp would talk to him, before the Imperial continued, "What is it you seek from our homes? Have you not caused enough harm with the damage done to the Legion we sent through the Gate? We merely sought to bring forth civilization to your rotten world, but now you come to our lands to kill us?"

Torres snorted and planted a palm on his face, "Buddy, if you knew how fucking stupid that just made you sound, you'd be stabbing yourself in the gut... Of course, we've come over to give a nice little bit of payback for you fuckers trying to and actually enslaving a bunch of our own people. My country's born out of kicking colonialist shitheads off of our land, too, plus, we're buddies with the place you invaded through the Gate. And we honor our alliances."

"A shame, then," The man below replied, "For you will all die tomorrow..."

Torres snorted, "I'd like to see you fucking try," before he stood to his feet and marched off the place. Taylor chuckled, but kept his MG trained on the son of a bitch, while Ivanov, Richard's gunner, set up next to him with his own MG. Above them, the clouds of an early storm were gathering, cluttering the darkening sky and shielding any stars that might appear.

Itami greeted Henry downstairs, with the US Marine stating, "There's a lot of bad shit outside, man..."

"Yeah, I saw," Itami replied calmly as they walked through the city's streets, "Though word up the vine is that command's already preparing to deploy a task force to deal with this. Richard's been dealing with aligning our defenses in the meanwhile. Been considering bringing the Abrams to the northern gate. Seems to think the Imps will be coming from there."

"It'd be nice to have backup, soon," Torres murmured, "Not sure how Welkin's gonna take having to have his tank moved to the Front Lines, though..."

The two eyed the small field hospital set up in a courtyard, watching as Kurokawa and the other medics worked on treating the wounded of the city's small militia. Rosie seemed to be guarding the place, shotgun slung on her back. She was also aiding Kurokawa and the others by providing the medicine they needed from the medical supplies packs they'd brought with the Convoy.

The UNSC medic saluted them as they passed and they replied in kind, passing by.

"Where's Kurata, by the way?" Torres asked, looking around at the civilian population. The locals were a mixed bag. Some, probably the hardass Imperial nationalists, eyed them with distrust. Others, like the kids and teens, waved to them and smiled, their parents seemingly stunned by the kindness their children were showing to what was supposed to be an invading force.