Bandomeer: Anyone home?

[Praenuntius]

A'den:

The Volantis sat in geostationary orbit just over the planet Bandomeer. The shimmering Great Sea of Bandomeer sat off port side of the frigate. Just below would be the globe spanning gray continent. Heavy scanning had displayed the remains of Vong structures, though for the most part the planet remained just as gray and forlorn as it had the first time they had come.

Their objective was to scout out the only city this continent boasted. Hopefully the communications array was still up. So far the Volantis had been unable to establish an uplink. Commissioning the Marev, Captain A’den paced the deck as they sifted through the dense atmosphere. He had gone over the layout of the city. Life sign scans showed some thermal readings but it was hard to determine with the amount of interference. They were going in blind; it very well may be Vong down there. Not that it mattered, they were Mandalorian’s. A’den grinned at the thought and clenched his fists together.

Garbed in the same crimson splashed battle suit his older brother wore he stopped pacing and gripped one of the overhead straps, casting a glance to his second in command, Corporal Tarja. “Corporal, assemble the men on hatches three and one. You lead group three. Group three will deploy on my mark.”

A strict authoritarian voice was all she would hear over the whine of the engines. The inertial dampeners did their best to erode the choppiness as the shuttle descended rapidly. “45 seconds to touchdown,” came the overhead speaker of the pilot. A’den would notify them of the change in plans when Tarja took off to assemble the men.

Keying into his comset he turned his head back into the hatch. First out, last in, that is how it was until the day he didn’t come back and somebody else made the rules. “Bantov, I want you to swing around after the initial drop. I’ll signal when I figure out whats going on.” Hearing the affirmative he cut the link and turned around, “Come on, let’s go Corporal, get these men assembled! We’ve got 30 seconds!” Checking his rifle while he had the chance, he flipped the safety off.

Tarja:

"Yes Captain!" she shouted back to him, dropping back from the cockpit into the bay of the Marev. Her voice could be heard rallying the men, splitting apart the two teams till A'den joined them, giving further details as to what they were to do. All at once the hatches popped open, drowning them in light, her eyes narrowed even in her helmet till the readout adjusted and the transport skipped to the ground, allowing them all to spill out, taking up point around the landing zone, each spreading out with assault rifles at the ready.

A few moments later across the coms to A'den would come the, "Drop point secure Captain. Proceeding on."

Tarja was more than happy to lead the way as they spilled out of the hanger zone, down into the space port, everything destroyed, left to waste away after the Vong Invasion. Even then as they went along there were times that Tarja's visor readouts flickered, cutting out and then flashing back in again. Sensor readouts were as expected, not much, only a few meters ahead in any direction.

A'den:

The moment Tarja and the Commando’s jumped from the hovering shuttle and into the decrepit spaceport, the shuttle would take off, hatches closing once more. A’den and the remaining twenty Commando’s still inside. Scrutinizing the sensors, he brought up a holographic feed. The city was displayed in neon yellow, the Commando’s in green as they moved from sector to sector. The shuttle zipped by overhead.

“Continue as planned Corporal.” Team one was also following her lead, though they would separate off once they reached the main government building which housed the central governing apparatus they where after – mainly the network that connected all the mines. The plan was simple, push through the spaceport and onto the street. East of the spaceport was blocked off by debris and the west was looking no better.

While the shuttle circled overhead, the scanners begin picking up more and more heat signatures, turning into red triangles on the holographic display he held in the palm of his head. “Corporal, we’re picking up heat signatures just ahead of you in sector two. Proceed with caution.”

Just as he suspected the heat signatures where weapons powering up, thwomp, thwomp, thwomp, screeeeeechhh. “Captain we’ve been hit port side engine. Trying to stabilize.” The flak cannon continued to spew explosion after explosion of the deadly shrapnel.

As the shuttle began to rock back and forth, A’den motioned to the remaining men, “Form up. Whatever happens, stick together. The objective remains the same. We’re going to provide support to Corporal Sekera.” Hitting the panel next to the hatches to signal the pilot they were ready, he watched as the men formed up and checked their gear.

“Bantov, set her down back at the spaceport once you drop us off. Contact the Volantis and send us reinforcements.” Switching the link back, “Corporal, see if you can get the location of that cannon, you still have hostiles inbound from the government building. Readings are bad, I don’t know how many. We will be coming in from the east. Proceed at your own recognizance.”

A few seconds later the hatches opened up to a scene filled with splotches of orange flak fire, the grayish clouds of smoke blazing with each renewed shot from the cannon. A damn fine mess this was turning into. Hopefully whoever they were facing didn’t have much time to prepare for their arrival.

Dropping down with his men he immediately took cover and began to work out his surroundings as the shuttle lifted off and into the bluish sky. Back against a crumbling wall he brought up his position on his HUD. Luckily they had dropped in over the debris of a toppled building from the looks of it.

“Corporal, give me a sitrep.” Motioning to his squad he gave the order to advance slowly. In pairs of two they would begin to work their way down towards street level. The sound of the flak cannon had ended abruptly when the Marev had gotten out of range.

[Nicole]

"Ya think?!" Tarja quipped back as A'den told her she had inbounds coming from the government building. She had already discovered that, and was finding a rain of blaster fire blanketing the area from both sides. A few lobbed grenades had little eruptions here and there, pieces of rock and debris exploding all over the area.

Tarja happened to be behind the remains of what had been a large square support pillar of a building, her back against it as she looked down the line of the broken wall towards her men that were positioned behind it, weapons raining over the tops of the wall. They certainly hadn't expected to be dropped into the middle of a battlezone, this was suppose to be a damn simple recon mission.

Sitrep? Oh she'd give him a sitrep.

"We're pinned down. Count fifteen hostiles with heavy weapons. Sector Gee-twelve. Cannons are about half a klick down the street ontop of what appears to be a warehouse. It'll take us a few minutes to get out from under these bastards."

With that Tarja nodded to each direction as they all sprang from their positions, in full Mandalorian armor a shot or two wouldn't hurt , but they had to be fast, each targeted someone, a rain of deadly fire descended upon the hostiles, stepping in behind the line of Mandalorians taking up aim came four grenade throwers which launched them over the first line and into the building behind the hostile fighters outside. As they blew the entire facade of the building detached and collapsed forward, covering the fighters in a mountain of debris and blanketing the entire street in a thick fog of dust.

There was still fighting, blaster bolts that illuminated the haze going both ways, when the haze cleared Tarja had lost two men, bastards had taken out two of the squad. Tarja paused long enough to whisper a few words of oath that they'd not be forgotten and avenged, she also switched on the two locator beacons so they could be found after the battle was done.

"Captain, we've lost Rekal and Torin. Managed to clean up the situation, proceeding on."

[Praenuntius]

Captain A’den would reprimand the Corporal later and to think he had just been about to promote her. “Corporal don’t worry about the cannons. Can you confirm the coordinates for that warehouse?” A’den was on the move with the rest of his team. They where shadows moving among the wreckage, they could see the sporadic burst of laser fire. A healthy stream of red and green, even some blue, this was no militaristic group they faced off against. Still with stealth and cunning A’den would wrestle the upper hand from them.

Having assembled at the far landing, with Tarja’s two teams having ended the struggle with a loss of two, he begin to scout towards the main objective: the Communications Tower that linked everything together. That was the main priority and the only reason it hadn’t been bombed already was because it was vital to reaching all the outlying mines, it had to be salvaged; one way or the other.

“You four, I want you to screen ahead. Screen the Corporal’s movements, keep in touch with her. The rest of you follow me. “Motioning with his fingers for a spread formation they took the last crest of the crumbled remains of the building and had a clear line of sight on the entrance of the Communication’s tower. Tarja would be approaching from the south, while their entrance would be from the west.

Shrouded fingers took up positions behind makeshift barricades of duracrete. Motioning for launchers, he pointed at the assortment of odd shapes taking shelter behind the barriers. Four specialists with plasma launchers stepped forward and knelt down, taking their precious time to get the depth of the shot down before waiting from the signal from A’den.

“Corporal, I have eyes on twelve hostiles. Hold position. I’m going to blow them out, take up defensive positions, I’ve sent four men to meet up with you, send them onto the warehouse. We’ll see what comes out and get them in the cross fire.”

Signaling the order to fire, he watched as two plasma torpedoes destroyed the hastily erected barricades in one volley. Everyman there was instantly vaporized in a bright blue explosion of plasma. Quickly dissipating in the thick atmosphere, A’den surveyed what little remained and then waited for the reinforcements that would more than likely come spewing out of the front door.

[Nicole]

"Confirmed on Warehouse position, holding position." Tarja radioed back to Captain A'den as her group hunkered down in one of the hollowed out buildings, rifles nudged through the windows as they held up defensively. Just then the launchers of A'dens group hit their targets, engulfing the area in dust, at least in her position. She waved her hands back and forth, clearing the air around her face before she and her group shuttled on out, taking up position just up and to the right of A'den's group, all trained on the door.

There did, infact, come an onslaught of reinforcements through that door, Tarja's group opened fire immediately, dropping them down repeatedly, those who didn't get shot were soon finding themselves tripping over the bodies that piled there, soon becoming tangled mess of the living and the dead.

[Nicole]

This whole mess could’ve been avoided if the first sensory sweeps they did with the Volantis wouldn’t of ran into so much interference on the ground. Chalk it up to all the ionite lying beneath the rubble. Two of his men lost, his prized shuttle damaged, A’den was not pleased. Keeping his emotions in check however he remained calm and well apprised of the situation. Just as he thought the reinforcements came streaming out of the building – all of which were met with a hail of laser fire from the two teams of Mandalorian Commando’s positioned to receive them.

When it became evident that the entrance to the building had become a killing ground, the enemy realized their mistake and stopped coming through the door. Nodding to his specialists, he indicated the doorway, two torpedoes. Taking up position, they kept their tubes down as A’den signaled the rest of the group to begin their descent. Within moments, several dark shapes would creep over the wall that separated Captain A’den and Corporal Tarja.

Immediately those Commando’s under Tarja’s command would shift and point in the direction of the would be intruders, A’den grinned like the boy he was in that battle suit of his. Bellowing out over the eerie silence, “Orar!” the all clear as they reinforced her position with their own numbers. Sliding in beside the Corporal he looked ahead at the door, he could still see the barrels of the enemies holed up just inside the door, no doubt erecting makeshift barricades out of whatever they could find. They would soon learn all was for naught.

“Corporal,” the big man whispered, training his rifle right on doorway, “Fine work out here. Sorry for the fucking mess, intel could’ve given us a better idea of what the fuck we were stepping into.” Hitting his transponder, he spoke to the Specialists he had left behind, “Tracyn.” Not even a second later two white hot torpedoes where launched, one landing at the threshold of the entrance to the building, the other going through. The first one took out the entire door and its adjoining wall, the other couldn’t be seen well, but judging by the blown out windows three stories up, it had done its job and vaporized the enemy.

“I’ll lead this time. Begin a sweep by sweep of each floor, I’ll be going for the power core in the hopes I can get it running. Keep me apprised of the situation and let me know once you make it to the Control Room, we’ll want to get that uplink established as soon as possible and see what else we can find out about our friends.”

A minute later the entire warehouse went up in a violent explosion, the four Commando’s he had sent the Corporal returned just as the Specialists joined the team. Sending two of them back for their fallen comrades, the Captain true to his word, led the charge into the building, what they found was wholesale slaughter. “Pirates. Their just pirates lads.” Shaking his head, he directed his men in groups of 6 and they began their slow descent to the sublevels of the structure, weeding out any resistance they came to, even taking a prisoner or two.

Meanwhile from overhead the sonic booms of a dozen shuttles could be heard as the reinforcements and the main landing force from the Volantis began to make their descent. Bolstering their numbers with Mandalorian infantry and the engineers they had brought, the building would soon be theirs and with it, all of Bandomeer.

[Praenuntius]

Three days later the communication’s tower had been cleared of all resistance. Their leader turned out to be a rogue Vong operative. The scout ship that had been his only escape route had been uncovered before he could flee. Recovering the ship had taken backseat to establishing the uplink between the Volantis and the outlying mines and their colonies. All of them where still manned, by slaves; slaves who would be freed. The remaining days had been spent organizing the exodus of slaves that wanted to leave, those who wanted to stay.

The Captain had seen little of his Corporal, though he had lingered long enough on the shuttle to give her a promotion to Sergeant. Her rightful rank after having been demoted for gambling all their money away, the little fracas on the planet had proven her worth; not that A’den had ever doubted her.

Finally off of that cold planet, leaving a Mandalorian regiment in charge of organizing those who stayed, the freighters they had confiscated from the surface would begin running routine circuits between Bandomeer and Mandalore. While Mandalore had yet to get its industry running, it would by the time the minerals started flowing – the more precious ionite would be sent to a weapons lab secreted in the wilds of Mandalore.

The Captain resided in his lush stateroom. The walls weren’t adorned, there were no memories he needed to be reminded of. Everything he wanted to remember was in his head. Even those memories he didn’t want where there. He had a bottle of Mandalore’s finest beside him, a glass half full with the brown liquid, ice cubes floating at the top.

Receiving Zev’s message, he began typing up his report, waiting for Tarja to bring the last of the men up from the planet, along with the Vong scout ship they had confiscated. Stopping at the thought of Tarja, he lifted the glass up and placed it against his forehead, exhaling a long breath. Leaning back in his chair, it creaked under the duress of his weight. He was still partially armored below the waist. Had it been the Vong out there, they may of never made it out alive and he had sent Tarja to lead the assault. While it was his job as a Commander to stay back and observe enemy movements, it troubled to put her in such danger.

While that was her duty and doing anything less would be insulting, he could look over the mistakes made by the scouts he had originally set out. Even the scans by the Volantis had done little to see through the interference created by the ionite. No what he should have done was a series of low-level flybys using the shuttles they had and down the scanning from that level. That was the benefit of hindsight he told himself.

Leaning forward, he took a sip of the cool, searing liquid, setting the glass down with a clink, he began typing away once again.

[Nicole]

People were not perfect, a thing Sergeant Sekera was more aware of than some. Heavy boots thumped on the decking as her worn and exhausted pace carried her towards the Captain's quarters, her armor was still coated in filth, even some blood. If one needed a more poster-quality picture of a warrior returning from battle this would be it. Her eyes focused on that door, a door which seemed forever to get to, once she had, she didn't bother knocking, she twisted the handle and pulled the hatch open before stepping inside, only to close it back behind her.

Even then she did not regard the Captain for the moment, but when she did she sat her helmet to the side with one arm, her fist of her other hand battled as she extended it out towards A'den, fingers slowly unwrapping as the sigils that had been plated on each warrior were revealed, the metal clattered together, as though coins as she gave them over. Her eyes were hard, focused, she wasn't pleased, but in the end, "Four." she could barely say the word.

She sat upon the storage container, half of it open as she began to drop her armor pieces within it, piece by piece until only jumpsuit remained, one which she unzipped and wriggled from, boots were added to the container, and then the jumpsuit as she turned and collapsed onto her back on A'den's bunk, a deep exhale escaping her as she finally took a moment's rest.

"Fucking Vong."

[Praenuntius]

A’den had just finished up typing up his report, encrypting it and queuing it for transmission as priority one. Finishing the last of his drink he heard the thudding of her boots. Who else would be on this deck? The weary pace in which she traveled, the slight drag of each foot as it was swung forward all but told of her mood. Good men had been lost, all of them noted in the report. What made them good men was unique to each one. Rekal had always been the one to take care of his comrades. Never one to give up hope, even with the bleakest of odds looking at him, a man who always smiled in the face of death and never complained to do his duty.

Torin had been one the first recruits A’den had trained himself. That loss had been felt more than the others. Torin had shown promising potential as a recruit and finally as a Commando. Always quick with a joke, a clap on the shoulder, a hard man, but compassionate; that was the Torin he remembered.

So when she finally entered, without even looking at him, A’den would watch Tarja. A’den understood, he had been through this same bitter mood every time he led men into battle. Inevitably the best plans went awry and difficult decisions had to be made. Ultimately the blame fell at his feet, however being in the position Tarja had been in under Zev’s command, he could empathize what she was going through.

Still he gave her the distance she wanted. When she finally removed her helmet, he looked up at her through his dark, hard eyes. Taking the sigils without a word, he put them on his desk. “Ni su'cuyi, gar kyr'adyc, ni partayli, gar darasuum.” He said the name silently of those who had departed. The sounds of Tarja removing her armor could be heard as he remembered them in the Mandalorian way.

Breaking the silence with her revulsion of the Vong, A’den turned from the sigils he had taken. Looking across the room at his bunk and the collapsed form there, he knew nothing he said would make their loss any easier to bear. He slowly got up moving his partially armored body over to the bunk where he sat down and ran his hand along her back. A’den wasn’t the type to sooth, what his touch said was that he understood.

“Figures the fucks would still be crawlin ‘round this place, we should’ve cleaned them right outta the system when we forced them from Mandalore.” A’den wasn’t at all pleased, he was tense, even the alcohol hadn’t been able to drown the guilt he felt over being too confident and brash. Now good men where dead and he had been on the cusp of losing it all had that Vong escaped and brought back reinforcements.

[Nicole]

Tarja's eyes glimpsed towards A'den as he came over and placed touch upon her, attempting to sooth her feelings. Her eyes lingered on his for a moment, nothing needed be spoken, A'den might have been in command but she was their leader, and she had led them to their deaths. There would always be the question of things done differently, regardless she knew they would have the honorable warriors death, a thing all Mandalorians craved. They had died in battle, honorable.

Still the loss of a comrade, a warrior, a fighter, and damn good ones at that, the honorable deaths were bittersweet.

Her ears listened to the Captain as he spoke of the Vong, a silence upon her before she spoke, "I've had enough of death for today. Remind me what it is to be alive." she told him, her grasp tugging him as she settled to her back, looking up at the Captain's eyes as she rolled beneath him.

[Praenuntius]

All four bodies had been tagged and recovered. No man had ever been left behind. Their armor would be returned to their families. Those who didn’t have a family would have it passed on to closest friends or burned with it. A’den would oversee that minor detail, for tonight however he agreed with Tarja. Enough with death, enough with what could have been done better.

Tugged back and over her, he swung his armored legs wide, arms stretching on either side of her head to hold him up. Dark eyes peered down, “Oh is it the Cap’n you want now?” A’den chuckled, that roguish grin forming briefly as he leaned down, lips parted and took her lips in a heated embrace.

[Nicole]

"No." Tarja replied to him, looking up to his eyes as he settled above her, casting that ferocious grin down to her she inhaled him, feeling the weight of his powerful body above her she lay there for a moment, bringing her fingers up along his arm before she grinned her own.

"I want A'den, the Cap'n is a bastard." she commented, even though both were one in the same, she gave him a daring smirk before she leaned up into his lips, taking the heated lock and grasping at his sides, drawing him down onto her.

[Praenuntius]

Easing himself over Tarja, he pressed his weight into her. Taking in the scent with a deep inhale, he tilted his head to the side. Exhaling through his nose, his eyes slowly began to close, pouring his passion into the fiery embrace. Minutes passed before he leaned back, looking down at her.
“A bastard eh?” Again he chuckled, pressing his lips to the edge of hers. Drawing his teeth along her jaw, he bit her hard with a rumbling growl forming in the back of his throat. Drawing back even further, breaking the hold she had on him, he slid over the edge of the bed and onto his feet.

He began removing what was left of his armor and storing it with the other pieces, leaving him in very little as he climbed back into bed and into another passion filled embrace. He pushed at her, forcing her onto her back, pressing his body longingly along hers. Spreading her thighs with his, pressing so firmly and tightly.

Through a red nose and cheeks, face flushed crimson, tensing as he grinded his hips against her pelvis. Everything was forgotten in those tender moments. Tarja wanted to feel alive, to be reminded what it was all about while A’den just wanted to forget, to pretend to be someone else, in another lifetime far removed from this one.