[Story][RFC]Black Talons: Storming Georgia

[Guest]

Prologue: Landing

Miranda Petite hated orbital drops.

That was the plain truth, Miranda Petite hated orbital drops, especially into Eastern Europe, and especially into Georgia. Miranda Petite hated Georgia above all.

There were too many memories, too many bad times, too many friends dead, to ever see Georgia in a good light ever again.

"Two minutes to landing Commander."

Miranda glanced to the communications window in her VR helmet, "Understood Rocky."

She opened a channel to the rest of the team, "All Black Talons, here's the situation. An old friend has gotten into trouble and we've been hired to extract him. Be advised he's being imprisoned by some old enemies, the Ravens."

There was a general mutter of discontent as Miranda nodded, "Yeah, I know. Extreme prejudice people, anyone working for the Ravens isn't someone you can bargain with. Shoot to kill, torture for info, and loot everything they have."

The drop pods containing the Heavy Gears of the Black Talon mercenary group suddenly stopped shaking and Miranda moved the arm of her Dark Cobra, Julian, to grab the release the drop pod's door, "Let's go Talons!"

As one the pod doors blasted off and twelve Heavy Gears dropped into the dark skies above Eastern Europe.

Seconds later, the anti-air guns from their target opened fire.

[Rajvik]

interesting opening, give me a date please I would like to join in and play
 

[Guest]

Chapter 1, Part 1: It always starts in a bar.

-Marsbase Sara, September 3rd, 2018-

Miranda Petite always enjoyed coming to Mars as she stepped off the Tarantula with the rest of her mercenary team as the rest of the ship's crew got to work purchasing supplies while they passed through customs and onto the streets of the city. Miranda smiled, there was an advantage to being a small mercenary group, and the pay from their steady clients was more than enough to live comfortably without having to put on airs like the Dorsai or Roughriders about being noble white knights half the time. Plus, the Talons had a few tricks up their sleeves.

"So, the usual place Mir?" Snake, one of the other Gear pilots spoke up, bringing Miranda out of her daydream with a blink as she registered the question and then nodded with a smile.

"Let's go see if our usual shadowy corner is still available." With a shared laugh at the joke made, the group approached their usual bar. Of course, they never bothered to learn the name, just called it 'The Usual Place' and left it at that. It was a good place to go to relax after a a few contracts in the black; good food, better drinks, and while the place was well lit, the usual corner table the team shared would always be known as their 'shadowy corner' since anyone on Mars who knew about the group tended to give that area a wide berth. Which suited the team just fine as they entered and immediately a few people sitting near their usual spot moved away, giving them dark looks as Miranda gave them a one-fingered salute as they walked over, "Fuck you too."

As they took their seats, another one of the pilots, Argo, pulled out a deck of cards and began dealing them as the others began setting up the pot while a waitress came up to them, "The usual?" Miranda nodded and the woman walked off as Miranda picked up her cards and immediately took a new one, discarding a two of clubs in the process.

"Call it."

And so began their usual routine in The Usual Place, a game of cards while waiting for drinks and food, and like always, Argo was winning as Rhino suddenly groaned and shouted, "Fucking Cat-Eared Bitch! How the hell do you keep winning!" A few glares were thrown his way as he stabbed a meaty finger towards Argo, who stuck her tongue out.

"Neheheheheheheheee! Argo's a better card player, that's all! Besides, you were too busy looking at Argo's tits!" She laughed as Rhino blushed as the team joined in just as the drinks arrived and Miranda slipped a tip to the waitress as Argo grabbed her beer, "Cheers! To another group of dead people and another payday!"

The rest joined in the toast, "CHEERS!" and began drinking as the game continued. As they continued playing, laughing at some joke or statement as Argo won more money, before their good mood as soured as someone came up to them.

"Hey!" Eagle, the team's sniper pilot, turned to see some young punk, probably full of idealism, glaring at them, "Why are you celebrating killing people!"

Eagle noted Miranda smiling, "Because we're not dead! That's cause to celebrate after every contract. Geez kid, get a clue. People die out there all the time. Wild West and all that." The others nodded as she continued, "Look kid, just turn around and go back to your friends, and we'll quiet down. You start something however, and we'll finish it."

Argo smiled, "Argo thinks punk would bend in interesting ways!"

The punk spat on the ground, "I'm not scared of you."

Miranda smiled sweetly as she stood up and approached, "You should be. Fuck off, before you get hurt."

The punk glared back, but flinched at the ice in Miranda's eyes, her smile never wavering, before turning away, "Whatever."

Miranda walked back over to her seat and glanced at her cards, "What the..? ARGO!" She tackled the laughing catgirl as the the other pilots started laughing and egging on the impromptu wrestling match as cards and money went flying.

The bartender looked up from serving a drink and rolled his eyes, "Right on schedule."

[Rajvik]

"So I've noticed." the full anthro wolf biomod he was serving responded. James Bostwick paid for his drink and sipped it before picking up his tablet and practically turning his back on the ruckus. "Now, whats a four letter word for idiot."
 

[Guest]

Chapter 1, Part 2: It always starts in a bar

*BANG!* The Black Talons and everyone in the bar flinched and turned to the door at the sound of a gunshot before the door was slammed open and a bloody woman holding a revolver staggered in, wild eyes searching the bar before spotting, "MIRANDA!"

Miranda blinked as she recognised the woman and immediately shot to her feet and dashed over to grab the woman as she collapsed, "Jan? Jan!" She turned to her pilots, "Snake, get your med-kit out, she needs to be stabilised! Argo, Wolf, head out back and find out if she was followed!" She immediately lifted the limp body and carried it over to the table as it was cleared and Snake pulled out a field surgery kit as Argo and another pilot, a slender woman, vanished out the back door. Snake turned to the bartender, "Alcohol! Highest Proof you have!" The bartender nodded and tossed a bottle that Rhino caught and handed to Snake as he got to work.

Satisfied that Snake would take care of their old friend, Miranda drew her gun and took up a position covering the door, "What the hell is going on?" She muttered to herself as she took aim. She could hear the screams of people from outside, before her eyes widened as she recognised a sound and turned to the rest of the bar, "Cover!" She dived to side as a van smashed into the bar as people dove for cover. It slid to a halt and Miranda was already opening fire on the rear doors with her pistol as they were kicked open and two people stepped out armed with AK's. Miranda dove to the side as they opened fire, Rhino tackling the driver and slamming her against the side of the van, the big cyborg's frame tipping the vehicle over as patrons moved away and the two other shooters turned their AK's to help their partner, just in time for Argo to bound through the ruined front door and slash with her machete, the catgirl showing that she was stronger than she looked as the blade took off the head of her target in a spray of blood and a...shower of sparks?

Miranda shook her head and fired into the other shooter, punching holes in his clothing and spraying blood out his front, but the man didn't flinch and simply turned to open fire on her, before his head exploded in a spray of gore and Miranda saw full-wolf biomod aiming a smoking gun at the corpse, "Thanks for the assist." She said before drawing her knife and cutting open the corpse's shirt, "Now why the hell did he...the fuck?" She pulled off the jacket and shirt off the corpse and stared.

There, for everyone to see, was a cybernetic frame. An extensive array of advanced hydraulics and what appeared to be sophisticated machinery literally screwed and bolted into place across the man's body. Frowning, she cut off the clothes of the other two and grimaced further at seeing the cybernetics, "So...they finally did it." She said to herself, uncaring that everyone could hear her as she got to her feet, "Where's Wolf?"

"Here commander." The woman appeared at the entrance, "Argo and I encountered another one in the back, but he fled. We need to get out of here. Fast."

Miranda nodded before turning to the situation at hand, "Snake, is Jan stable?"

The Black Talon medic looked up from his work, "She's not going to make it. I've bought her maybe a few minutes, hopefully it'll be enough." The woman in question looked around weakly as Miranda came close, "She was hit several times. Explosive Shredder Ammo like what we use for the wetwork contracts, she wouldn't have stood a chance even if she was standing next to a hospital."

Miranda sighed, "I thought they were gone. Silus, Ilya, Nicholas, we burned that place to the ground, we thought we'd destroyed them when we escaped Georgia." The wolf bio-mod have moved closer as Snake nodded.

"You said you were the one who grabbed the stuff on their computers right? Maybe they had backups. Would make sense..." Snake started to hypothesise before Jan weakly grasped Miranda's hand.

"Mir...I'm so glad...Silus and Ilya can't help me. Silus is going down their route and Ilya...Ilya..." Miranda squeezed the woman's hand.

"I know Jan. You don't have much time left. What happened?"

Jan sniffled, whimpering in pain, "They took Alek, and Natasha, Gregori and the others!" She sobbed, "We had heard rumours, rumours about some Russian entrepreneur, some new money billionaire buying habitats in Fenspace as investment properties. Let the people living on them keep living there but he would invest money in making them better. We didn't believe it, not with the Belt Alliance enforcing their own protection racketaaah!" She hissed in pain as Snake kept working on her, but forced herself to speak, "We refused the first offer, then they asked again, and again, and again, each time getting more aggressive and hostile. Until one day...they came. People wearing combat spacesuits and armed with AK's. Those who fought back were killed, the rest were taken. I managed to flee, used the hab's only remaining ship to try and get help, but Silus and Ilya wouldn't help me. But I remembered that you were still free, that you hadn't fallen in their trap. So IAAAAAGH!" She screamed as Snake yanked out a long piece of metal.

"Shit, they had Needle Guns as well. No wonder she's in a bad way, she's been running on adrenaline and stims ever since she escaped." Snake reported as Miranda nodded.

"We'll get to the bottom of this Jan." She vowed, and Jan smiled weakly.

"We managed to save some money in a private habitat account, it's yours. Please Mir, stop them."

Miranda nodded, expression hard, "Black Talons never leave the job until it's done. We'll take the contract."

Jan smiled weakly, "Thank you...my ship...the old clunker from when you...last visited...secret compartment...all the...info...now...please...give me some...peace."

Miranda nodded and before anyone could react, drew her pistol and fired a single shot into the woman's head before turning away from the lifeless body, "Joker, Crow, police those Shredders but leave the guns. Rhino, Argo, Eagle, head the spaceport and locate a ship under the name of Martina Anastasia Stanovich, if it's the ship I remember then the secret compartment is in the engine space, behind an electrical warning panel with a kilroy painted on it. Go!" She finished with a snap of her fingers and the mercs vanished out the door as Joker and Crow started grabbing the rifle clips.

Miranda turned to the others, "We're leaving, get the Tarantula prepped for departure and the Gears ready for a combat drop." They nodded and dashed out back entrance to vanish into the streets of Marsbase Sara as Miranda grimaced and began splashing Jan's body with the alcohol used by Snake to disinfect her wounds, "Sorry Jan, I can't risk having anyone identify you." Her hand snapped up with the gun in it to aim at the wolf bio-mod, who had gotten too close, "Stay the fuck back."

"You know the cops have ways to confirm the identity." The wolf stated as Miranda smiled thinly while tossing the bottle away, before pulling out a cheap lighter and igniting it.

"I know." Her gun suddenly whipped down to press against Jan's cheek as Miranda emptied the magazine, obliterating the woman's upper and lower jaws before she tossed the lighter on the body, setting it alight, "But its not the cops or Great Justice I'm worried about. This should buy a few days at least, they shouldn't have anyone in Star Patrol or Great Justice." She grimaced to herself, "I hope."

Before the bio-mod could reply, she was already leaving, the burning and mutilated body of her oldest friend behind her as Miranda Petite snarled.

They would pay for this.

All of them.

[Guest]

Chapter 1, Part 3: It always starts in a bar

"Argo found it!" The catgirl reported happily as she opened the access ramp for the ship and sauntered inside, "Wow! Argo thinks this dates back to before the Boskone War! Might be some good stuff in here!" She frowned, "But Commander wants the info first." She smiled again, "Argo should take a look around, maybe Argo find something shiny!" She started poking around the ship, opening lockers and sniffing around, frowning at the smell of blood that permeated the interior before blinking as she picked up something interesting with her nose, "Hmm, now what is that?" She traced the scent to a box and broke the lock with her machete, opening the lid to find what appeared to be a wrapped present, "Hmm, Argo thinks she should open this." With a deft cut, the present's wrapping was removed to reveal a shoebox that had a hand-made doll inside.

Argo blinked as she picked up the doll, frowning before placing it in her pack and heading for the engine crawlspace, pointedly ignoring the blood that had soaked into the pilot seat. She shivered, a sliver of her forgotten past life flashing through her mind of a family, a crying child...

Argo shook her head, "Argo is Argo, Argo doesn't have to remember. Argo doesn't need to remember. Argo is Argo." She chanted under her breath as she reached the crawlspace and opened the hatch, finding the panel and began fiddling to remove it, mewing happily as the panel fell away to reveal a sealed box that she immediately grabbed and stuffed into her pack, "Argo has the info! Heading for the ship nyow!"

"Roger that. We'll meet you there."

Argo checked the internal spaces and smiled as she noted something, "Oho!" She fiddled with some wires and smiled as the ship's reactor began to hum, "Now for the autopilot." She crawled out and dashed to the cockpit and began programming the autopilot systems as the engines began to warm up. Laughing, she dashed down the boarding ramp before it raised and watched the ship lift off without a pilot before running towards where the Tarantula was docked. She managed to catch sight of the ship rocketing out into space and watched as something streaked up to follow it from the Martian desert, before it struck the ship and destroyed it over the desert, prompting Argo to grimace, "Argo to Tarantula, there's a missile launcher in the desert, and it took out the decoy pretty fast! Argo thinks we need to deal with that before we can leave Mars."

"We're getting the Tarantula ready now Argo. Those bastards probably are planning an interdiction to shoot down anything that tries to reach Marsbase Sara. Get back on board and we'll deal with it."

"Argo copies! Argo is on the way!" The catgirl responded as she turned a corner and leapfrogged a tourist before using the shoulders of a cyborg as a springboard to leap over a crowd, landing into a roll before rising into a sprint towards the Tarantula's docking bay, spotting the ship already warming up its engines from a cold start. Then she heard shouts behind her and turned her head to see what looked like cops approaching from the rear as the Tarantula began rising from the floor.

"Uh, Tarantula, we can't let you depart. You're needed for questioning and that missile launcher is kinda blocking any attempts to leave." The Air Traffic Controller reported as Miranda sighed and motioned for the channel to be opened.

"We know, that's why we're going to blow it up. Because unless you want to be indirectly responsible for whoever else gets shot down by that launcher, you're going to let us leave." She turned as a puffing Argo appeared to lean against the hatch, holding up the sealed box with a smile, and nodded.

There was a long pause, before the Air Traffic Controller sighed, "All right. Give 'em hell Black Talons."

"Roger that." She turned and pressed a hand to her ear, "Wolf, get a Bazooka ready, I want you ready to take out that launcher if the gun-run misses."

"Understood Commander." Wolf replied as she approached her Gear, VR Helmet in her hands as the Tarantula took off and headed out into the Martian desert, boarding her Eagle and engaging its systems as she smiled, "Hello Big Boy, are we ready to cause some damage?"

The AI chirped happily as Wolf slipped her VR helmet on and the chest of the machine closed. Taking the controls, Wolf smoothly rose Big Boy out of his crouch and strode him over to a weapon rack, grabbing a Light Bazooka from the weapons on display and an ammo clip, "Wolf to Commander Petite, I'm ready to begin the attack."

"Roger that, opening side drop door now." The door opened and Wolf positioned Big Boy with the launcher as the Tarantula screamed over the desert at low altitude, before the ship shuddered as its automatic Gauss Cannons thundered, sending a hail of shells at a distant target. Watching the distance, Wolf observed explosions as the 40mm shells struck the location of the launcher before she heard the Tarantula's pilot, High Wire, curse.

"Shit! Minimal effect on target. Wolf, get ready with the Bazooka!" Wolf nodded and waited as the ship shifted as it approached the launcher. Then she saw it, a large boxy vehicle with missiles on a turret that was surrounded on all sides by a bern of packed sand.

"No wonder..." Wolf muttered as she took aim, and fired, sending a rocket streaking towards the Launcher. She witnessed someone leaping out just as the rocket hit, and the launcher exploded, "Direct hit. The crewmember escaped but that's a problem for the authorities."

Miranda nodded, "Understood, lock up Big Boy and head back up to the crew deck." She turned away from the window of the cockpit, "This is Commander Petite to all Black Talons, we are now on the job. Get bunked in for a long trip."

She paused as she ruthlessly crushed the memories threatening to rise up.

"Next stop, the habitat of Haven."

-End of Chapter 1-

[Rajvik]

James watched the group leave and shook his head. "Lovi, did you get all that?" he asked his body mic picking up his words.

"Yeah boss, and I already alerted Space Patrol, MBSPD and OGJ. I started tracking the shooters and your new friends movements through the city camera's once the shooting started. Both where they are now and where they have been since landing. Facial recognition software is running on all the bodies as well as the runner that took off from the bad guys side. And I have their ships under surveillance as we speak."

"Lovi, your a treasure," James replied, "direct me to the surviving shooter so I can cut their retreat off. The boss is going to want answers." With that James took off running, following the directions of his AI partner to head off the other shooter.
 

[robkelk]

META: Even burning a body beyond recognition won't affect the person's DNA. You might want to mention something about how she didn't have a sample on file to be matched...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Rajvik]

your right, but it does make it harder to get the DNA by limiting where you can go to get it in the body. a sufficiently burned corpse, you can only get it from the Bone marrow if memory serves.
 

[Guest]

-Next Episode!-

The Black Talons arrive at Haven to find the place destroyed. In the midst of death and memories of the past, the Black Talons must fend off a deadly attack as they search for clues about their mysterious enemy!

Action! Memories! Argo being Argo!

All this and more in Chapter 2: Haven!

[Guest]

-Chapter 2, Part 1: Haven-

"So this is the Jane Doe?" The detective asked the Coroner as he lifted the sheet.

"Yep, no ID, the witnesses say she was called Jan but the destroyed ship was registered under a different name, and the body's pretty badly burnt. We can get DNA from the bone marrow, but it's going to take time to find a match, if she's on record." The Coroner held up an evidence bags, "The medic for the mercenaries pulled out a lot of bullet fragments, and several needles. Her insides would have been a mess."

The detective nodded, "All the witnesses agreed that she was badly wounded. But she could have been saved if she went straight to a hospital..." The Coroner shook his head.

"The internal damage from the bullets was too severe, she would have died on the operating table before she could have told anyone, and she likely knew it. Going to such a crowded place was a good thing actually, otherwise there would be no clues about why she came to Mars." He looked over at the gun in its own evidence bag, "She likely used the gun to stop anyone from taking her to a hospital, took the back streets to get to the bar, and knew how to get there, so she had to have visited Mars in the past."

The detective picked up the bag, "We have the ship coming in to land and we have her face, so we're running a facial recognition search now. With any luck she should come up in the records even if the genetic record doesn't pan out." He was about to say something else when his phone rang and he put the gun down, "Excuse me."

He answered it, "Detective Snow."

"Detective, we got a hit on the facial recognition, a woman called Janice Trackman arrived on Mars a few months back apparently on vacation, she's an exact match for the Jane Doe."

"Any family?"

"A sister working for the Triax Corporation, Sarah Trackman. We tried to get in contact with her but she refused to speak with us about the deceased. Her parents apparently died back Daneside a few years ago as well and the only other relatives that we found, a brother and his wife living on Venus, also refused to speak about her."

"Sounds like Janice was the black sheep of the family. Can you pass the info on to Venus, see if anyone there can get info on the deceased and what she was doing before she broke contact with her family?"

"I'll do what I can."

The detective hung up and turned to the Coroner, "Looks like the family situation wasn't exactly rosy, they're refusing to speak to the police about the deceased."

The Coroner grimaced, "A pity. But at least her last moments were with a friend."

The detective nodded, "Call me if anything new is found."

As the detective left the morgue, in space the Black Talons were on approach to a lonely asteroid floating in the Main Belt as Miranda Petite waved a hand at it, "There it is people, Haven. What was supposed to be a place where we could live our lives and forget about our pasts. Make a fresh start in Fenspace."

"It sounds like it was a nice place Commander." Hound spoke up from his seat, "I bet it was real pretty before all this happened."

Miranda nodded, "It was." She rose from her seat, the Black Talons rising as well, "Suit up and prepare for landing, it's time we got some answers."