Chapter 333 – Unrelenting Tides

December 13th, 2499

13:36 SCT

Wasteland Evacuation Zone

"Effective immediately, the Mar Sara militia are under Confederate command, and you are under arrest for suspicion of inciting insurrection. Now, come along quietly, and no one else needs to get hurt." Colonel Duke said to her through the holographic display, one of his goons shouldering their rifle and pulling out a pair of handcuffs.

"And what proof do you have of that, Colonel? I might just be some backwater yokel as you like to call us, but even I know you don't have that kind of authority. You better have some damning evidence to try and unseat a sitting Magistrate, else your next promotion will be to private, in charge of cleaning nothing but a latrine." Aqua replied, standing her ground. She wasn't terribly worried about the cuffs; they were just regular handcuffs, not the ones they used on rogue Ghosts or unregistered psi users; she could bust out of them easily, even without using her DEN stats. 

"You sure you want to fight me on this, Magistrate? Last time I checked, I was the only one who could save all those people down there."

"And when is that exactly going to start happening, Colonel? We are getting alarms from all the outlying towns now, the automated systems sending out distress signals, then going dead. More of our convoys are under attack by these Zerg, yet you do nothing but posture and promise that aid is coming soon. Now, when we actually defend ourselves, you want to take our militia away and threaten me with jail? I should be contacting Tarsonis myself and reporting your ineptitude."

"You're testing my patience, Magistrate!"

"Good! Someone needs to keep you military types in check! You don't seem capable of doing that on your own! Now, get your soldiers out of my Command Centre, and either send us those transports you promised or just get it over with and abandon us as you already seem poised to do! Floating around in orbit with your thumb up your ass while you play kissy face with these Zerg isn't a great look for you."

"This isn't over, Magistrate. You're walking on thin ice right now."

"I'm walking exactly where I swore to be as a Magistrate, protecting the citizens of this world, just as you should be. Stop playing these games and send those transports! There are nearly 50 000 citizens here waiting for them, with more arriving every hour. The longer you delay, the more of these Zerg will be on planet and the harder it will be to evacuate them off world."

"I will take it under advisement." He said, then a klaxon sounded on his end of the transmission. He turned to the side for a moment, then turned back to her. "Men, stand down. Return to your unit. Magistrate, you and I will have words later. Duke out!" The Colonel said, and the transmission cut off abruptly. 

"You heard him. Put those cuffs away and get out of here." A welcome voice said from the doorway. She turned and saw John standing there, his armour beat to hell, but holding a rifle in a low ready position, ready to raise it and fire on the two marines. 

The two marines looked at each other, then filed out of the room without a word. She let out a ragged breath, her nerves finally showing after that standoff with the Colonel. She walked over to John and hugged the front of his armour. "That man has done exactly nothing but cause me problems since you left. He kept saying they were sending reinforcements, to just hold this position, but we have even more convoys under attack now, and other than those two marines, I haven't had a single report showing any Confederate presence, let alone aiding anyone. I'm positive now that he plans on letting everyone die. *Sigh* Sorry, are you okay? I didn't get a chance to review any reports from your convoy yet."

"Yeah, I'm fine, though this armour is junk now. You did good there; I didn't expect him to back down like that."

"He has other problems. We started receiving data from one of this world's old, defunct satellites." She said, returning to the holomap and punching a few buttons, showing a map above the planet with a bunch of blue and red dots dancing around each other, and another set of yellow dots coming in behind the blue dots. "The Protoss fleet is approaching Mar Sara, forcing Alpha Squadron to skirmish on two fronts. Never mind that, how bad was it?"

"We lost about four hundred civilians, with another two hundred injured, but we got the remaining six hundred survivors to the camp. Lost one of the men I brought with me, and two Vultures." John said, his suits fist clenching tightly. "Though I did come across this guy. Michael? This is Aqua, the Magistrate here on Mar Sara. Aqua, this is Michael Liberty, a reporter from Tarsonis."

Damn it! A reporter isn't exactly what I need right- well... maybe. 

"A pleasure, Ma'am. Though I wish these were better circumstances, do you have time for an interview?" 

"I can make some time, though if you heard that conversation, you probably already have a good idea what's going on. Just give John and me a moment, please, and you can have..." She checked the time. "The next twenty minutes, as long as something else doesn't catch on fire."

"Of course." He said, taking a few steps back. 

She guided John to the holomap, which now displayed an orbital image of the wastelands with three red Xs marked on it. "You sure that you're okay?" She asked him worriedly. She had vague memories of her time as a goddess of healing, seeing the aftermath of wars; it was never easy, especially when conflicts spilled into the civilian population.

"I'll be fine. Now, what am I looking at here?"

"We have these three convoys under attack in these locations. I've sent militia to each, but the Zerg have been testing our defences here now, so I can't afford to send anyone else away. Can you... check in on these with some... extra firepower?"

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. I'm positive Duke isn't coming now. So we need to hold out until," She said, then lowered her voice to barely a whisper. "Until the boss gets here, if he ever does. If anyone asks, we can just call them... experimental Umojan tech or something like that." 

The Umojans are known for having a lot of high-tech equipment and vehicles, and they're insular enough that anyone outside their research divisions wouldn't know whether it was true. It wouldn't be the first time the Sons of Korhal had used Umojan equipment either.

"Right... fine," John said, then opened the front plate of his armour. He struggled for a moment, trying to pull his arm out of the suit's arm, but the limb had chosen that moment to become immobile. He sighed, then looked down at her. "Right side, third inside middle pocket."

"Where is your shirt?" She asked, opening his jacket. His chiselled body glistened with sweat.

"On a soldier we owe thanks for rallying that convoy's troops, preventing even more casualties. Her blouse was shredded and covered in blood, so I gave her my shirt after I bandaged her up. She's at our field hospital right now. Sadly, she is a Confederate Resoc, so I don't know what will happen once she knows that we are ignoring Duke's orders."

"Of course it was another woman- wait? A Resoc? That could be tricky... but we have people who can help with that... just like they helped me and Sarah. Just let her be for now. So what am I looking for here?"

"Suzy Q. You've got the piloting skill now, so if things get bad, feed it some mana, and you have thirty-five tons of firepower you can use. Careful if you have to fire the missiles; right now it's full of inferno rounds. Don't mind the smell; someone puked in there, and I'm not sure it's completely cleaned out yet."

"Ass. Me, I hope it's easier on my stomach when I'm in the pilot's seat." She said, pocketing the mech, then pressing her hand on his bare abs, "Damn, you're too damn tall in that thing to kiss unless I climb up."

"Nothing's stopping you."

She planted a kiss on his abs instead. "Stop fishing for a kiss, and go save those people. Then get back here so I don't need to use this thing. If you manage that, you can have all the kisses you want."

"Heh, yes, Ma'am. Once I peel myself out of this thing, I'll commandeer Bubba's Vulture and head out. It will get me there faster than anything else we got." He said with a chuckle.

"Be safe. Love you."

"Love you too, Darling." He said, closing the chest piece on his armour. "Oh, can you keep Michael close? Or under guard? I promised Emily that I would keep him safe, but I don't think bringing him along for this would be a good idea."

"So her name is Emily. Fine. I got him. Now, go." She said, then walked over where the reporter was waiting. "Now, come with me to my office, Mr. Liberty. I believe we have things to discuss."

She gave John one last glance as he left the CAC, his damaged armour squealing in protest, wondering if she made the right decision to convince him to bring his mech out. She really wanted him to stay here and support her, but she didn't want those people to die to these Zerg either. 

Well, it's not like we have any tanks here; he will be much safer in a mech than in that suit. Besides, DEN wants us to put on a show, so we might as well put on the best damn show we can. 

John hobbled back to the barracks, and after managing to get one arm out of the CMC armour, he took out his Sonic Screwdriver and quickly repaired the damage. It was an amazing little tool, literally repairing the broken hydraulics, twisted joints, and cracked armour plating in moments just by passing the crystal tip over the problem areas. 

Guess that's what 20000 points gives me. Makes me wish I dropped a little more on Equipment Gatchas.  

Once the suit was serviceable again, he was about to don it, but decided not to. The militia was low on suits, and it wouldn't have fit in the Timberwolf cockpit anyway, so he left it there and went to find Bubba, or one of the other Vulture riders. 

With a little luck, he found Bubba, Charlie, and Brian near a bunker on the northern edge of the camp, along with a handful of other militia members standing around outside and having a smoke. Their vultures idled nearby, ready to rapidly respond to any attack. 

Does everyone smoke in this world? This feels like being back in the 50s again.

"You're Ma ain't going to like you smoking, Bubba," John said, causing the man to jump up as if John had hit him with a red-hot poker.

"Ahh, Johnny! Ya scared me. Ya ain't gonna tell'er, are ya?"

"Depends. I need to borrow your ride." 

"Huh, you want my bike? I guess, but why? Where ya going?"

"Need to go check in on the boys. We have a few convoys sending out distress signals, and the Magistrate wants me to make sure the guys she dispatched ain't in trouble."

"And yer not wearin' any armour? Johnny, I know yer a tough son of a bitch, but they already nearly killed you once while ya had it on. Why don't you go get one of the techs to fix yours, and send us out to check on them instead." Brian said with a concerned tone. 

"Naw, I need ya here. I want y'all to take the other bikes out and scout the area. If you find any Zerg, come back and report it to the Magistrate."

"Alright. If you say so, Sir." Brian replied.

"Bubba, I want you to go to the field hospital. That blonde woman who was with the convoy is getting her injuries treated. Her name is Lieutenant Emily Swallow, and she saved a lot of lives today, so see if she needs anything. Oh, and if they let her out, make sure she doesn't cause any trouble. She's a Confederate after all."

"Umm... you know I don't... I don't do too well with women... they make me nervous."

"I'm not asking ya to take her on a date, Bubba. Just see if she needs water or something to eat."

"Ahh... okay... I can do that."

"I know you can. You got this. Now I need to go-"

"Johnny, what about Tim? He didn't make it back and... well, the boys and I are wondering what you have planned?" Charlie asked.

"Planned?" John said, memories from Battletech striking him like a brick. Losing all the Expendables, and most of the Blackstone Guards to Clan Wolf. He had never spoken to this Tim since he arrived here, but he did have memories of the man. "Nothing yet. Let's make sure our people are safe first, then we can mourn our losses. I'll be the first to raise a glass to our fallen then."

Damn it, James. How did you do it for 80 years? What steel did you have in your spine to deal with losing so many people too soon? I'll drink to Tim, and to anyone else we lose, but I will make sure to raise a glass in your memory. Yours, and the rest of the guards.

With melancholy thoughts, John told his men to be safe, then jumped on the Vulture and sped out of the camp at a reckless velocity only someone with his reflexes could handle. The dead could wait. He had people to save, and Zergs to introduce to the full power of his arsenal.