A Realm Divided Act 1/Episode 1
#1 of A Realm Divided
Necron 402: Quick little disclaimer for anyone reading, for those who did not read "Meet the Black Stars" mini series I strongly recommend that you do for added back story that just gives the background for each of the main characters as it will make reading "A Realm Divided" easier. Other than that I am please to present the latest new epic storyline!
A Realm Divided, Act 1/Episode 1
"A Red Letter Day"
[Milky Way Galaxy; Inner Worlds, United Nation Special Forces VALOR Military, Artificial World; Serria, VALOR High Command, President's Office, Year 3,588 A.D, July 20th, 5:51PM]
The President of VALOR rested in his black leather chair while his two important military generals addressed the white skinned human. The rightmost high ranked officer wore full black attire; a full length black trench coat that was buttoned up covering the equally dark power armour. A military officer's cap sat on top of his full helmet that almost blocked his red visor, both of his hands were gloved in black leather that were almost visible through his crossed arms. The second general was a much older man, who was of German descent. The gruff man easily could have been twice the age of that of the president and he wore a more formal dress uniform that had the fruit salad of all of his medals included.
"The Black Stars are at full strength and ready for their first official combat deployment." The trench coat wearing officer spoke through the filtered voice his helmet had.
"Ready?" The older general laughed before making a small cough, "I have no idea what your definition of ready is Mr. Wareman but I haven't even confirmed the loyalty of half of the alien's you recruited to form this team. We are better off scrapping the whole notion."
Charles Wareman turned to the High General who he found already starring back at him, "I have no doubt that the Black Stars will not defect to the terrorists as we have all the reasons for them to stay."
The president turned around in his chair while his two trusted advisors continued to bicker amongst themselves about the integrity of the Black Star squad. The thirty-year old president looked out the large glass window into the metropolis below where many alien travelers in VALOR's expansive space territory did business. "I still don't feel right about this" The president spoke with his back still to the generals who immediately turned to face him, "The Justicar deserves to be informed about the Black Stars true purpose."
The older general took a step forward so he was almost up against the president's desk, "Mr. President, although I can easily speak highly of Arjun Fiaz who was rewarded many times for his dedication of being the Justicar, our most single greatest soldier, we just can't be certain of his ability to carry out orders. He has spent far too much time with those not of VALOR and with the growing terrorist threat along with his ability to not take orders well would be a huge risk, for now we should keep the Justicar as a public figure and war hero for now and allow the Black Stars to wipe out this terrorist threat before it becomes any larger."
"Agreed." Charles said shortly after with a small nod.
The president turned back around and folded his hands on the desk, "Charles, you are free to deploy the Black Stars." President Nolan took a heavy sigh, "Remember the secrecy of the Black Stars is of utmost important; if the Draconian Kingdom were to find out we have sanctioned the use of an elite special ops force in a time of peace they would have a field day in the diplomatic meetings."
[Milky Way Galaxy; Inner Worlds, United Nation Special Forces VALOR Military, Artificial World; Serria, VALOR High Command, Briefing room A2-32, Year 3,588 A.D, July 20th, 7:31PM]
Charles Wareman took his place at the podium on stage that all the chairs of the briefing room circled around. The Black Star squad was already waiting for their commanding officer to arrive to give them their first real assignment as a whole unit. He pressed several buttons on the built in computer on the podium to bring up a life sized hologram of a human male.
"Black Stars this is General Grey, leader of the terrorist organization called the Crimson Separatist Alliance." Charles gestured towards the almost life like image of the white skinned traitor who wore the same trench coat as Charles did but his was far more faded and torn. "As you know ever since the war against the infinite almost twenty years ago VALOR had to pull from the outer colonies in order to defend better against pirate attacks along our borders. This of course led to a massive population in the outer colonies to fend for themselves."
The squad's marksmen looked over to her right to watch Althea was already writing notes on what their commander was talking about. Before the kangaroo-like creature could finish writing her next sentence the hologram of General Grey suddenly became that of a squad of C.S.A marines.
"After a decade of surviving and social unrest left the outer colonies in a state of chaos, the Crimson Separatist Alliance took advantage of this moment to recruit hundreds of members to join their rebellion." Charles coughed into his right arm before continuing, "Although we don't want to admit it, we are looking at the start of a full blown civil war that will destroy VALOR if left to continue this way."
Draco Flat tail eyed the holographic projection of the handful of C.S.A marines on stage; the enemy squad varied in the many races that settled on the outer colonies that ranged from his own race of orinthors, to Althea's race of macrial and even the well known human race. The rebel marines wore a repainted version of the standard VALOR power armour from the famous white and blue paint job to the C.S.A's colors of black and red. Each of the separatist soldiers had their armour crudely repaired through the use of patchwork maintenance giving each marine their own unique asymmetrical look.
"Black Stars, your first assignment will be to infiltrate and destroy the C.S.A's head quarters located in the rim of Aegis nine within the asteroid field." Charles announced when the holographic projection turned into the small scale representation of the ringed planet. "A large scale attack would end disastrously, our cruisers would not be able to navigate safely, and snub fighters would also be destroyed by the asteroids not to mention we have confirmed the terrorists have built their base into the largest of the rocks."
Captain Wintro Highcastle shifted in his seat uncomfortably as Garok Earthblood smelled like a wet dog and the raptor like marksmen that sat on the opposite side of the human captain was more focused on taking apart then putting back together her side arm. "So a small team can take the base out because the rebels think VALOR will send in a large assault force." The captain stated.
"Exactly." Charles nodded in agreement. "Black Stars remember you must retrieve what ever information you can on these rebels to see how far they have dug their claws into VALOR's name and then you are to wipe out the rest of their forces."
[Milky Way Galaxy; Inner Worlds, United Nation Special Forces VALOR Military, Artificial World; Serria, Military Hangar Bay Two , Gun Ship "Death From Above" Year 3,588 A.D, July 20th, 8:31PM]
Var'Setta Sharp tail took her seat inside the somewhat large VALOR gun ship that was specifically modified to serve as the Black Star's personal transport and air support. She eyed Draco who placed his large assault weapon in the compartment above his seat that was next to that of hers. The platypus like alien sat down beside her and pulled the seat's harness over his chest before he saw her stare and gave the sniper a confident nod.
Althea Harth waddled her way through the ramp of the gun ship's bay door where she had her only weapon holstered on her left thigh. She moved past Garok Earthblood that stood in the middle of the gun ship's holding area with one of his claws holding the giant of a chain gun in a tight grip while holding onto the compartment area's railing with his freehand. The large grey furred creature saw Althea was struggling to pull the harness down over herself so with the hand he had on the railing Garok easily pulled down what the kangaroo like alien was reaching for and locked it tightly so she was safe.
The final occupant to enter the gun ship was the Black Star captain himself. Wintro Highcastle stormed his way through the ship until he reached the end of the holding area and pounded on the door to the cockpit to tell the pilot that the Black Stars were ready for takeoff. The captain turned sharply and took his place beside Althea and pulled the harness over his chest with one hand as he watched the boarding ramp close up.
"Hello Stars, this is your pilot speaking asking you all to make sure you keep your hands and feet in the ride at all times." The pilot spoke through the gun ship's intercoms.
Gun Ship Death From Above took off from the hangar bay with its powerful engines and past the artificial world's energy shield before with a huge burst of energy the gun ship shock jumped to its target.
[Milky Way Galaxy; Outer Colonies, Crimson Separatist Alliance territory, Planet; Aegis Nine, Asteroid Field , Gun Ship "Death From Above" Year 3,588 A.D, July 20th, 9:31PM]
Gun ship "Death From Above" hovered in spot after exiting its shock jump into the star system. The planet that was directly in front of the advance star ship was massive in scale and size with its asteroid belt equally as large. In a few short moments the gun ship proceeded to follow the largest of asteroids with its own tracking systems while keeping its own signature safe and secured. The ship entered the asteroid belt with the pilot using all of his skill and training to make sure even the smallest of the space rocks doesn't clip the wings off his pride and joy.
The C.S.A's head quarter's came into view and upon closer inspection showed that several of the structures that the rebels had built into the asteroid where sticking from the space rock and that many of the huge craters served as hangar bays for all the terrorist's stolen star ships. The skilled pilot found one of the crater hangar bays had their doors opened and took the luck of good fortune to land inside the rebel fortress.
The Black Stars quickly pulled their harnesses from up over their bodies and proceeded to get themselves combat ready by reloading their rifles and taking the safety off. "Var'Setta, Garok and I will retrieve the information, Althea, Draco you two stay here and defend the ship." Wintro ordered as his attention was focused on his own weapon.
Draco looked around dumbfounded, "Sir, once the rebels find we are docked here how the two of us are suppose to hold out?"
Wintro took a heavy sigh as he slammed the button to open the gunship bay door, "The pilot will cloak the ship now that we have the power as we are not flying anymore. Besides Althea here has to monitor the enemies chatter and if we do get discovered we need some one who can use a gun to hold the fort."
"Aye, sir..." Draco answered reluctantly.
"Good."
Wintro, Var'Setta and Garok both left the gun ship via its boarding ramp with the captain himself taking point. The squad's transport quickly faded away into the background when it's cloaking device was activated leaving the three marines to advance into the terrorist's stronghold.
"Althea, have the C.S.A been alerted to our presence yet?" Wintro asked as he gestured with his hand for Var'Setta to move into the next hallway to scope out the next area.
"Oh um..." Althea answered somewhat startled. Wintro's communicator was filled by the noise of the young macrial bypassing hundreds of security firewalls the rebels had set up. The captain looked all around the hallway the three man team was advancing in so he could keep both his eyes and ears focused in case the terrorist had set up a trap for them.
"Any time now would suffice..." Wintro ordered as he watched Garok Earthblood kick down the reinforced door to the next hall way that was much like the previous one with its foundations exposed to show the asteroid rock walls.
"Sorry...sorry, sir-"Althea answered before she was cut off.
"And don't apologize it makes you look weak."
"Sorry." She sheepishly replied before realizing how she just answered. "I see nothing so far, but if you continue straight and make a left you should reach the command area."
Wintro pointed forward for Garok to now lead as the large cumbersome, giant of a creature marched through the hallway taking up almost the entire path so nothing could squeeze by his large mass. Var'Setta stayed sharp in mind as always with an itchy finger on her sniper rifle's trigger as although her helmet's Heads Up Display showed nothing she knew by experience that something was not right.
Garok turned sharply around the corner with his chain gun at the ready but like all the previous areas they were in the command area had no hostile or any contacts at all.
"I'm still getting no life readings beside you all..."Althea spoke through the communication system while Draco was busy chatting it up with the equally bored pilot.
"Keep checking, if the C.S.A did abandon this place before we left then they must have been in a rush and they could have left some files not erased." Wintro answered as he himself entered the command room which was filled with computers.
"Ok sir." Althea answered cheerfully.
Var'Setta shouldered her weapon and looked around at all the computers intently; all of them seemed to be online and working and ripe for decoding. She turned to see Garok Earthblood who was trying to makes heads and tails of all the technology that still was far out of his mental grasp. Wintro shook his head as he held his rifle in one hand while typing on a computer with the other, "I don't get it why would the separatists leave all this information leaving around-"the captain asked before a holo-projection appeared from the computer terminal he was just accessing.
"You are quite right that we wouldn't leave this important information lying around" the projection answered with excellent timing. The Black Stars turned around to see the voice came from the one and only General Grey, leader of the C.S.A."
"Grey!" Wintro yelled out.
"So this is the famous 'Black Star' squad I heard so much about." Grey brought his left hand to his chin as he rubbed it with one eyebrow raised. "Odd, I was told there were five of you...but I suppose the rest of you are where the signal of the hacker is coming from."
"I knew this was all a damn trap." Var'Setta stated almost hating herself for not voicing her concerns much earlier.
The white skinned human let out a small guffaw before crossing both of his arms, "A perfect trap to lure VALOR's new prodigy making this pathetic asteroid belt look like our command base. You are all going to die here Stars, as my men will send you all home...in body bags."
The hologram of Grey disappeared and without missing beat several C.S.A marines de- cloaked them selves with weapons at the ready.
Draco Flat tail felt the gun ship shake as high-powered rounds impacted the ship's hull; he entered the holding area to see Althea huddled in a corner with her arms covering her head.
"VALOR dogs!" one of the muffled voices of the separatists blurted outside the gunship
"Government pigs!" another yelled.
Draco quickly touched Althea's shoulder to have the young creature to look up at him; he pulled the macrial to her feet and he drew the pistol from her holster and handed it too her who she accepted by grasping it with both hands.
Wintro Highcastle pulled a combat knife he kept on his chest plate with a fast draw and stabbed the nearest of the rebel marines through his neckpiece and into the separatist's jugular vein. The C.S.A marine that was of the macrial race fell to fell coughing his blood into his helmet while the captain was already onto his next target.
A separatist marine charged Var'Setta with a shotgun that was of VALOR manufacture, the nimble sniper dodged the first spray of shells from the rebel's gun before firing her rifle at point blank range that sent the terrorist to the ground with a large hole in his chest.
Garok Earthblood resorted to his own close quarters skill in combat as using his powerful chain gun would risk bringing down the room around them along with injuring his smaller allies. He grabbed one of the C.S.A rebels with one hand and threw the human against two others of his own species that were about to fire on Wintro, the rebel collided with his squad mates knocking all three of them out cold.
"Althea, Draco, get the ship running we have to leave. Now." Wintro ordered as he finished off the last of the rebels in the immediate area by throwing a dagger into her helmet's visor.
Gun fire and muffled yells were all that came from the other end of the communication channel for what seemed like a life time until Althea finally answered, "Were under attack! Please get here, please!" she pleaded in fear.
"We are already on route to your position; don't give those separatists an inch. That's an order private." Wintro said sternly as he had Garok take point so the squad could quickly move forward with some level of protection.
"Yes...sir." Althea gulped.
Several C.S.A marines charged down the hallway right towards the Black Star team but Garok was quick to fire and turned the approaching rebels into bloody giblets before they had a chance to take cover. The squad continued to hurry down the hallway when the old fashion speakers that were used for maintenance workers crackled with static before the proper and clear voice of General Grey came on.
"Don't think I will let you escape so easily Stars, this will be a red letter day for the alliance as your deaths will inspire countless hundreds to join our cause." The three man team ignored the voice of Grey who couldn't be argued with the one way intercom system but the rebel leader continued, "For added insurance I have rigged for the base to enter a complete melt down, soon you pathetic lapdogs will be nothing more than space dust. Good bye Stars, this will be the last time we meet."
[Milky Way Galaxy; Outer Colonies, Crimson Separatist Alliance territory, False C.S.A HQ (Rigged to explode), Hangar Bay One, Year 3,588 A.D, July 20th, 9:56PM]
Wintro, Var'Setta and Garok entered the Hangar Bay where they helped Draco who still took cover inside the drop ship finish off the remaining separatist forces in the area. The orinthor marine waved for the team to get inside the now visible gun ship when an EMP charge hit the left most engine of the space craft disabling the transport in one blow.
The Black Stars found themselves under siege by a quad pedal mech that was almost twice the size as the mighty Garok. The reprogrammed mech had its old VALOR paint job replaced with that of the C.S.A's black and red and with a series of high pitched beeps the miniature weapons platform took aim at the squad.
The MKI Devastation-class war droid fired off a powerful rail gun shell from its primary cannon at the loose formation of the team that sent the Black Stars in the area flying in all direction from the force of the impact. Wintro groggily stood up and opened a communication channel fro his team, "Althea I want that engine repaired now! The rest of you take positions we have to destroy this devastation droid."
Draco cooked a fragmentation grenade in his left hand before tossing the live explosive to the feet of the heavily automated war machine, the blast shook the war droid but no noticeable damage was done. He followed with emptying the remainder of his clip into the side of the war droid that was busy firing a cluster of rockets towards Var'Setta who quickly fled her position before the area was vaporized.
The C.S.A base already started to collapse from the base's self destruct sequence with foundations supporting the room already started to come apart letting chunks of rocks to smash the region they fell in.
The devastation war droid braced its self to fire another round from its primary rail cannon at Garok Earthblood who was in the middle of feeding another large clip into his chain gun after expending most of his ammunition on the droid's armoured hull. Draco quickly shouldered his rifle and charged the giant war droid as it beeped to confirm the next shell had been reloaded properly, with his last frag grenade the orinthor tossed the explosive inside the barrel and leaped towards Wintro on the other side of the machine as it's cannon exploded leaving it to be useless scrap metal.
Var'Setta chambered in another one of her sniper rifle's powerful rounds before taking aim at the war droid that was turning on spot trying to track both Wintro and Draco that were trying to find a new spot of cover to take shelter behind. The droid prepared to fire one last salvo of rockets at the two when the former pirate queen fired her shot first, the round impacted the droid's leg causing the machine to miss fire straight up into the air. The explosion knocked a large chunk of the rock ceiling loose allowing for a massive boulder to come crashing down upon the devastation war droid smashing it into pieces.
"I fixed the engine!" Althea happily said but as she turned around she found the rest of the squad had already sprinted inside the gun ship where Wintro slammed on the cockpit door to signify that everyone was onboard.
"I never really liked this place anyway." The pilot smiled as he had the transport take off from the asteroid.
The gun ship at high speeds quickly fled the C.S.A's trap as the asteroid base exploded into star dust moments later that engulfed most of the asteroid belt with it. The pilot relaxed in his chair with a momentary expression of happiness when he saw his instruments were picking up two large readings; they were C.S.A battle cruisers.
The two separatist flag ships shock jumped into the star system with a huge explosion of energy. They quickly moved towards the much smaller gun ship to intercept and destroy the Black Stars once and for all.
"Looks like where not out of the woods yet! Damn 'Seps' have two cruisers trailing us...and their launching fighters!" the pilot spoke out, "I need you guys to man the turrets while I plot us a safe shock jump out of here!"
Both Althea and Var'Setta nodded to each other where the both of them quickly raced to both of the manually controlled gun turrets on the sides of the holding area. The _Death From Abov_e pilot did a series of his best tricks as a plethora of C.S.A snub fighters attacked the gun ship like a swarm of angry locusts with the two very much larger battle cruisers quickly shortening the gap between them at freighting speeds.
Althea let out a small cheer when she shot down her enemy snub fighter that exploded into space wreck, Var'Setta shook her head when the pirate had just shot down her thirteenth enemy fighter.
The pilot got ready to make the shock jump that would take them home but as he got ready to punch in the coordinates another C.S.A battle cruiser shock jumped in front of them blocking their path of escape. The large star cruiser immediately started to fire its forward cannons on the gun ship that made complicated evading manoeuvres but one of the large rail shot rounds impacted the top of the gun ship.
The pilot flew the gun ship past the hull of the cruiser as the massive turrets had a hard time trying to shoot down the small nimble gun ship. With one last barrel roll the gun ship cleared the cruiser and the pilot happily entered the set of coordinates and "Death From Above" shock jumped from the C.S.A ambush.
[Milky Way Galaxy; Outer Colonies, Crimson Separatist Alliance territory, C.S.A Battle Cruiser, "Rising Sun" Year 3,588 A.D, July 20th, 10:55PM]
General Grey watched the Black Star's escape his grasp by bypassing the third cruiser that was supposed to intercept and destroy their transport. One of his sergeants walked up to him, the kangaroo like alien had his helmet clipped at his side and his rifle attached to his backside. "Orders, sir?" the macrial asked.
Grey turned around to face the alien, "Inform the First Agent that he has new orders, he will be able to deal with these Stars."
"Sir." The sergeant nodded and left Grey to continue looking out the bridge view screen.