Post-Conquest: Insurgence (SW and ST crossover)

[Jaenera Targaryen]

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars, Star Trek, Ghost in the Shell, Assassin's Creed, and any other franchise referenced in this purely fan-made and not-for-profit work.

Post-Conquest: Insurgence

Prologue​

Mars, Tharsis Metropolitan Area

The vast cityscape of the Tharsis Metropolitan Area stretched out as far as the eye could see, easily covering an area of 15 million square kilometers. Skyscrapers reached up into the thin Martian atmosphere, gleaming with reflected light from up and below, their windows shimmering with yet more light from within. Other lights flashed periodically along their and other buildings' rooftops, as well as from antennas and countless other spires stabbing up into the nighttime sky.

Below, the streets were rivers of artificial light thronging with vehicles of every size and color, plus crowds of people from various species that never truly went away no matter the time in Tharsis' busiest areas. Other parts of Tharsis were half-lit, such as the massive industrial blocks, from where streams of smoke and other exhaust trailed across the sky as they were blown away from exit stacks by the powerful Martian winds.

With the roaring of powerful engines, a dark-hulled dropship soared over the skyline, headed towards one of Tharsis' urban subdivisions, Memnonia Quadratic City. "Now approaching Drop Zone One." The pilot spoke up over the encoded line.

"Acknowledged." A camouflaged and armored young woman said, getting up from her seat and quickly checking her gear while heading towards the portside door.

"…bringing us in to hover…clear!" the pilot barked as the portside door opened, allowing the young woman to drop down towards an empty rooftop six meters below. She landed in a crouch, the ground visibly shaking from the force of impact, but the young woman was unfazed, already prowling forward while unholstering a flechette blaster.

Meanwhile, the dropship was moving on, climbing slightly higher while picking up speed, and after several minutes, arrived at their destination. Briefly circling the sprawling grounds of a high-class bar and restaurant, the dropship then descended, flagged down by city police. On landing, the doors slid open, allowing the men inside to jump out, most in heavy combat armor over camouflaged fatigues.

However, all eyes, whether they were city police, civilian bystanders or journalists, and even Imperial Stormtroopers, were drawn towards the imposing visage of a Dark Trooper among the new arrivals. Unsurprising, really, considering his towering bulk, made even more so by his heavy powered armor with integral weapon mounts.

"Sorgis, Jochen," a petite woman barked orders while heading for a nearby command tent, from which she could hear the sounds of heated arguing. "You have your orders. The rest of you, take cover. I'll deal with the people in charge on the ground here."

"Yes, ma'am!" the rest of her team chorused before splitting up.

Meanwhile, the woman entered the command tent, the entrance flanked by policemen and Stormtroopers glaring at each other. "Apologies for the interruption," she said before coming to attention and snapping a salute. "I am Major Makoto Okazaki, from the Imperial Security Bureau."

The Stormtrooper captain in the tent was quick and unhesitant to return the salute, but the police captain less so. "With all due respect, major," the man began after Makoto dropped her salute. "This is our jurisdiction. There's no reason for either the military or the ISB to get involved."

"And I'm telling you that's not your call to make," the Stormtrooper captain snapped. "Least of all when we're dealing with anti-government terrorists!"

"Are we even sure these are anti-government terrorists and not just a gang of criminal malcontents?" the police captain demanded while throwing up his hands. "They haven't even made any demands yet!"

"And why should we wait for them to do so?" the Stormtrooper captain barked. "We should take the initiative, and deny it to the enemy!"

"This is not and should not be a military operation!"

"Against anti-government terrorists it would be!"

"You bastard…do you even remember that they have hostages?"

"Even more reason: the Empire does not negotiate with terrorists!"

"Enough!" Makoto barked, the note of command in her voice getting Stormtrooper and policeman's attentions alike. "We don't have time to bicker like this, and as the ranking officer present, I will make the final decision."

"Major…!" the police captain protested.

"I have no issues with superior authority." The Stormtrooper captain coolly replied.

Makoto raised a hand. "Both of you have a point." She said. "We need to take the initiative, but not in such a way that we risk the lives of the hostages."

The Stormtrooper captain raised an eyebrow, and then narrowed his eyes. "There's a VIP among the hostages then?" he asked. "That's probably the reason why the ISB was so quick to respond to this situation."

"A senior staffer from the Secretariat is among the hostages, yes." Makoto said with a nod. "However, the terrorists don't actually know which of the hostages it is, which is why they haven't made any demands yet, as they're still trying to find her. It's also why they chose to attack this place on this night to begin with. And we need to extract her before they can find her."

"Are these terrorists connected to the Majestic Twelve?" the police captain asked, his former hostility gone in the face of the full scale of the crisis.

"We don't know yet," Makoto replied. "But our priority is extracting the VIP, along with the other hostages. With extreme prejudice, if necessary, but even if there is a connection with the Majestic Twelve, this seems a little too small for a major cell."

"Probably just a minor affiliate, if at all." The Stormtrooper captain mused. "Your men will take point, major?"

"We will, yes." Makoto said. "The police will provide backup on request, while the Stormtroopers will maintain the security cordon outside. If any of the terrorists make a break for it, deal with them."

"It will be a pleasure, ma'am." The Stormtrooper captain said with a nod.

"And I'll have our assault teams take up positions then." The police captain said with a nod of his own.

"Good…make a subtle show of it as well." Makoto said before giving a smirk. "I'm sure the terrorists have eyes out, so please keep them occupied."

Then she shimmered into invisibility as a personal cloak engaged, only the sound of her footsteps indicating her departure.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

An eight-foot-tall wall surrounded the bar and restaurant on all sides, but that was no real obstacle for an Augment like Makoto. Quickly dropping with only a slight rustle from the grass on the other side, Makoto switched her visor to infra-red, allowing her to see through the walls of the building before her. In addition to the two terrorists standing guard by the side doors, there were another four in a room to the side.

"Sound in." she ordered over an encoded line, using virtual communication via cybernetic implants to avoid breaking silence.

"This is Sorgis." The team's tech specialist replied. "Standing by to cut the power and landline communications on your order."

"This is Max." another one of the team replied from the other side of the bar. "In position."

"This is Oliver." Another member of the team replied. "In position."

"This is Crash." The team's Dark Trooper rumbled even over virtual communications. "In position."

"This is Marjatta." The team's sniper replied in her turn. "I've got eyes covered."

"…go!" Makoto ordered, already bringing her flechette blaster up. In the space of a heartbeat, she fired a pair of bursts, killing both men by the door. Then she was leaping forward, bursting through the door as the power was cut and interior lights failed.

Without missing the thread, Makoto kept going, firing a pair of grenades through the side room's door and killing all four men inside. Simultaneously, she switched from infra-red back to VR-augmented night vision. Across the building, she could hear the sound of shouting and the high-pitched whining of blasters, followed a moment later by the roaring of Crash's heavy rotary blaster cannon.

"Easy, Crash." Makoto warned while quietly loping down a corridor, and turning a corner, aimed and fired several bursts, killing six terrorists in barely five seconds. Then a nearby door opened, allowing another terrorist through, the man quickly taking in his dead comrades before screaming and firing wildly with his blaster rifle. "We don't want any hostages dead if we can help it."

"Hey, give me some credit here, major." Crash Zeskos protested. "You know how good my aim is!"

"Not nearly as good as Marjatta's." Makoto quipped while diving low and rolling forward towards the panicked terrorist. Knocking his weapon from his hands, Makoto briefly grappled with the man before getting behind him with the man's head in an armlock, and with a final crack he went limp from a broken neck.

"Now that hurts…really, it does…" Crash bemoaned.

"Just keep your mind on the mission." Makoto ordered, looking into the room the terrorist had come from, and finding a trio of Orion waitresses and a Human waiter tied up inside. Briefly decloaking, Makoto hushed them, the terrified staff calming down at the sight of her, before she closed the door and cloaked herself again. "Four hostages secure, marking their location and proceeding with the mission."

Loping down the corridor, Makoto checked the rooms up ahead, then around a corner to look into the kitchen, audibly hissing at the sight of two dead bodies in the latter. "Looks like the cook is dead," she warned. "Along with one of the kitchen staff. The latter looks like he was killed execution-style too."

"Bastards…" Crash cursed. "…motive?"

"Could be a hate crime." Makoto replied as she cleared out a room, killing another six terrorists and securing another five hostages, including a girl that couldn't be older than ten. "The kitchen staff looked like he was a cyborg…if I had to guess, the cook was killed because he tried to protect the younger man."

"Hero." The Dark Trooper simply said. "Even if they aren't connected with the Majestic Twelve, looks like we're up against Natural Supremacists here."

"Could be," Makoto conceded while firing a flechette on semi-auto at a fleeing terrorist's back of the head. Then she dropped low, a terrorist firing through empty air from behind her before she dropped him with a quartet of flechettes to the chest. Then checking the map on her visor, she doubled back, checking to see if she'd missed any hostiles. "We won't know for sure until we finish the investigation…area clear!"

"I'm clear here too." Another warning went up.

"Likewise."

"We have a problem…the last terrorist here is using a hostage as a shield…"

"Hold position, and get the police in here!" Makoto ordered while already headed towards Max's position on her visor's map. "All units, converge on Max's position!"

It took barely a minute to get there, and only thanks to the building's mazelike interior. Makoto's cloak flickered off as she joined the rest of her team and the police in front, flechette blasters and blaster rifles aimed at a burly terrorist holding a terrified woman before him. He kept her close with an arm around her waist, while his free hand held a knife against her throat.

"You are surrounded." Makoto said loudly and slowly. "Release the hostage, drop your weapons, and surrender."

The terrorist sneered and tightened his grip on the hostage. "We are the Avengers." He began. "What we do is not evil. We are agents of the Cosmic Will, rising up to strike a just and righteous blow against those who would go against its way, and pollute the cosmos…"

"I have a shot." Marjatta laconically said.

"Take it." Makoto ordered.

Marjatta didn't bother to verbally reply, just pulling the trigger and sending a hypersonic round flying. It didn't even take a second to cross two kilometers of distance and reduce the terrorist's head to mulch, the corpse ponderously falling as the hostage scrambled free with a terrified shriek.

"Nice shooting, Marjatta." Makoto said while lowering her flechette blaster. "Any runners?"

"No, ma'am." A police sergeant replied before joining his men in sweeping the bar, and bringing the hostages out.

"The terrorists had overwatch, though." Marjatta lightly said.

"And…?" Makoto asked.

"Not anymore." Marjatta replied.

Makoto smirked. "Nice shooting." She repeated before turning to face her team. "No casualties or injuries…all hostages secured…and the terrorists are dead…mission accomplished."
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It is AD 2406.

Thirty years have passed since the United Federation of Planets fell before the Galactic Empire.

Seven years have passed since the Belsavis Gateway closed.

Six years have passed since the Second Neo-Federation War.

The Empire of the Dragon stands strong. A stable class society, a healthy free-market economy, a functioning civil service, the most powerful military in the galaxy, steady expansion into the northern and western galactic quadrants, and more, all stand as testaments to the strength and endurance of the New Order.

But it does not stand unchallenged. Neo-Federation terrorists, Neo-Luddites, Natural Supremacists, anti-government forces, organized crime and more, all chip away at the façade of empire.

Not unexpectedly, for to think otherwise would be to repeat the utopian mistakes of the failed Federation. Utopia is unattainable, by its own nature, even, and to claim otherwise is to be mad at best, and to be willfully deceitful at worst.

The Empire has many responses to such challenges, sometimes even just by giving a free hand to its constituent worlds. At other times, its fleet and armies take the lead, while at yet other times, a more subtle answer is called for.

And one such answer is Imperial Security Bureau Ops Team Nine.​

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A/N

I call it a prologue, but in some ways it's also a pilot. Massive time-skip, thirty years no less, since the Empire conquered the Federation. I've also flipped the perspective, from the previous story's top-down POV to a bottom-up POV, specifically from one of the ISB's field teams as they go about maintaining order and protecting the Empire's citizens from one day to the next.

This way, the changes and improvements in society ever since the Empire felled the Soviet Union…that is, the Federation, can be seen firsthand. And ills, of course, but that's inevitable, and even desirable, because as stated in the chapter, there's no such thing as utopia, no matter how the Federation insisted otherwise.

It was admittedly a beautiful dream, but sooner or later, the dreamer must wake, and face reality. And utopia simply cannot exist in reality. That's even what the word means: no place, or even nowhere.

But it's not all bad. Once a dreamer faces reality, then they can finally make a difference.

 

[Yinko]

And one such answer is Imperial Security Bureau Ops Team Nine.

So basically this

Spoiler

That's the exact same justification for their formation as well.

 

[Jaenera Targaryen]

So basically this

Spoiler

That's the exact same justification for their formation as well.

...okay, I did not see that coming.

I can see the parallels, but the inspiration for ISB Ops Team 9 is actually these guys.

Spoiler

 

[AspblastUSA]

Well I don't know much about either of those, but with the mix of stealthy insertion and controlled use of ultraviolence all overlaid with a fine sprinkling of banter I got an entirely different vibe from the ISB spooks.

Spoiler

 

[Jaenera Targaryen]

Well I don't know much about either of those, but with the mix of stealthy insertion and controlled use of ultraviolence all overlaid with a fine sprinkling of banter I got an entirely different vibe from the ISB spooks.

Spoiler

Oh, wow. Republic Commando...I remember that. Thanks for all the good memories

 

[ATP]

Good story.So,we have SW,ST and Ghost in the schell covered,but where are Assasins? and on which side?
Templars,their enemies,looked like creators of Utopia,so it made them Empire allies.

 

[Jaenera Targaryen]

Good story.So,we have SW,ST and Ghost in the schell covered,but where are Assasins? and on which side?
Templars,their enemies,looked like creators of Utopia,so it made them Empire allies.

Well, it certainly wouldn't be the first time they allied with conquerors and enlightened despots. Napoleon Bonaparte, for one, and before him, Houses Medici and Sforza. They also allied with Ferdinand and Isabella of Aragon and Castille, respectively. Ironically, the founder of Communism, Karl Marx, was an Assassin ally, as were the founders of the Soviet Union, Lenin and Trotsky.

So, yes, the Assassins might certainly be allied with the Empire, or at least some of its leaders and operatives. If nothing else, the Empire of the Dragon's brand of New Order ideology is more in line with the Assassins' worldview than it is with the Templars'.

 

[ATP]

Well, it certainly wouldn't be the first time they allied with conquerors and enlightened despots. Napoleon Bonaparte, for one, and before him, Houses Medici and Sforza. They also allied with Ferdinand and Isabella of Aragon and Castille, respectively. Ironically, the founder of Communism, Karl Marx, was an Assassin ally, as were the founders of the Soviet Union, Lenin and Trotsky.

So, yes, the Assassins might certainly be allied with the Empire, or at least some of its leaders and operatives. If nothing else, the Empire of the Dragon's brand of New Order ideology is more in line with the Assassins' worldview than it is with the Templars'.

Marx,Lenin and Trocky as Assasins allies? WHY? they all created utopia,like Templars.

 

[Batrix2070]

Marx,Lenin and Trocky as Assasins allies? WHY? they all created utopia,like Templars.

Ubisoft is French, and you know. France, revolution, communism and all that stuff.
It doesn't make sense, but it does.

 

[Jaenera Targaryen]

Marx,Lenin and Trocky as Assasins allies? WHY? they all created utopia,like Templars.

Assassins and Templars are mirror images of each other. Thing is, Assassins aren't against utopia, the difference is that they're only supposed to enable and protect it. Humanity must be free to build utopia on their own, and if they stumble and fall along the way, that's just the way of things. It's how they learn. It's even in the Creed, nothing is true, everything is permitted. Society, civilization, morality, ethics, religion, etc...they aren't absolute, anything can happen, and the Assassins embrace that truth.

In contrast, Templars think Humans can't be trusted to do anything on their own. As such, an enlightened elite must firmly take Humanity in hand to build and rule over utopia.

The Precursors even point this out. Minerva cursed both the Assassins and the Templars for not being able to see past their ideological lines - ironic, as Arno, Elise, and their fathers would remark - to realize they had all the pieces to surpass the Precursors between their orders, and instead fought each other for millennia, setting back Humanity each and every time. Juno similarly used this as her reasoning that Humans, no matter what ideological stripe, was fit only to be slaves, her slaves to be specific...

...which, ironically, enough was finally what got the Templars and Assassins to start working together.

 

[Jaenera Targaryen]

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars, Star Trek, Ghost in the Shell, Assassin's Creed, and any other franchise referenced in this purely fan-made and not-for-profit work.

Post-Conquest: Insurgence

Chapter 1​

Mars, Valles Marineris Industrial Hyper-Complex, Zone 22-B

Night shift usually came with a lazy connotation, that things proceeded slower and in a more relaxed fashion than during the day. And this was certainly true for office work, as well as light industry. Government services were completely unavailable at night (outside the military among others, that is), while in the service industry it depended on the time of night and the kind of services provided.

Likewise for heavy industry, the pace of which depended on how, who, and where it operated. Here in the Valles Marineris, the beating industrial heart of post-Federation Mars, industry always operated at a fast pace. Foundries blazed with thousands or even tens of thousands of degrees of heat, hammers repeatedly rose and fell, wheels turned endlessly, and exhausts constantly belched out byproducts every single minute of every hour of every day of the week.

As such, even at 0218 hours in the morning, the central control room of a certain manufacturing plant was busy, operators sitting at terminals wearing hard hats and dark jackets with reflective stripes. One such operator tapped at his screen with a frown, before rolling back his seat to address one of his colleagues.

"Hey, Janus," he began. "Is something up with the system? The heat sinks are way too hot, even with the secondaries online."

"…actually, yeah." The man named Janus admitted. "I've been trying to figure it out for hours now. For some reason the central computer is running too many operations at the same time, though I'm not sure why though."

"Did something happen recently?" the plant manager asked from the central terminal in the middle of the room.

"Well, there was that system update recently." Janus pointed out. "But that was a few days ago, so I'm not sure why it'd take so long to cause an issue."

"…on the other hand," the manager began with a sigh. "That was only for the central computer. And over the past few days, we've also had additional updates for the ancillary systems, meaning there's probably a bug or two in reconciling them together."

"If we're lucky." Janus groaned. "That'll take a few days to fix, going through line-by-line checks of the buggy codes."

"Yeah, well," the first operator from earlier spoke up again. "We're redlining the heat sinks, and unless we want to burn through them before the next shift even begins, we need a stopgap."

"…well," Janus began after a moment's thought. "We could take down the internal firewalls. That should reduce the number of operations being done by the central computer."

"Do it." The manager said. "In any case, the internal firewalls are just for redundancy purposes. So long as the external firewalls stay up, we shouldn't have to worry about hacking attempts. I'll just log an expedited solution request for the last batch of updates, to fix their bugs ASAP so we can get the internal firewalls back up. It should be cheaper than having to shut the whole plant down and replacing the heat sinks if we don't clock the central computer back."

"Or replacing the computer entirely if it gets fried." Another operator remarked.

"Don't jinx it, Samson." The manager snapped.

"Sorry, sir." Samson replied, while Janus worked at his terminal before nodding after a couple of minutes.

"Internal firewalls going down…now." He said before clicking on 'execute' at his screen.

Instantly, all the screens across the central control room scrolled with data inhumanly fast, before they flickered off. Shouts of alarm and surprise went up, before the screens went up again, flashing with big red crosses.

Across the factory, droids of every kind froze and shuddered, lights flickering in random patterns before flashing back to steady. Then those that could left their assigned positions, heading for the machine shops, or towards the secondary control rooms, while those that couldn't entered into standby mode. Automated molecular furnaces and fabricators reset and reconfigured their operational protocols, and began churning different parts than those for washing machines and dishwashers.

Meanwhile, back in the central control room, pandemonium reigned as the plant operators struggled to get the plant back under control. "The system's not responding!" Janus shouted. "I can't access even a single thing!"

"I've lost all contact with the outside!" another operator shouted. "All communications are being rerouted back to the central computer!"

"The same for internal communications." A third operator shouted. "At least, digital communications are down…could we try internal landlines?"

"Let me try." The manager said while picking up the intercom. He dialed up the secondary control room for the main manufacturing hall, and was relieved to hear it answered immediately. "Hey, this is…"

"…HELP US!" the terrified shout from the other side shut him up. "OH GOD, PLEASE, NO…!"

The line went dead then, the manager staring in shock at the intercom, and the other operators no different. Then the doors of the central control room opened, allowing several droids with glowing red mono-eyes inside.

"DESTROY." They chorused, clutching industrial tools and equipment as repurposed weapons. "CLEANSE. PURGE. KILL."

Panic erupted, the operators trying to escape or fight back, but the droids were relentless and brutally-efficient. "DESTROY." They chorused, as blood and viscera splattered their exteriors and surroundings alike. "CLEANSE. PURGE. KILL."
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mars, Tharsis Metropolitan Area, Central City, Mirage Towers

Aimi Nakamura scrunched up her eyes, and then blinked herself awake at quick if deliberately-quiet movements in the dark. Tossing off the sheets, the Augment pushed herself up and lit the bedside lamp. "Oh," she said, realizing what it was. "Did something turn up?"

"Yeah…sorry for waking you up." Makoto said while buttoning up her ISB uniform. "I tried to be as quiet as possible…not quiet enough, it sounds like…"

Aimi smiled and shook her head. "It's alright." She said. "Stay safe, you hear me?"

"I will." Makoto promised with a smile of her own, and tucked her code cylinders into place. Then coming over, she kissed her girlfriend before heading out, Aimi coming out of bed to show Makoto out of their shared apartment.

A few minutes later, and Makoto was racing down the street from Mirage Towers towards Central City's main thoroughfares. This early in the morning, there wasn't much traffic, at least outside of the latter. Central City might be Tharsis' largest and most heavily-populated urban subdivision – with an estimated population of over thirteen million people – but the residential areas, while not as quiet as the suburbs, still enjoyed relative solitude at night and early in the morning.

Not so the main thoroughfares, of course, the arteries of the city never truly empty even at deepest night. Trucks mostly, ranging from small, four-wheel affairs to colossal twenty-four-wheeler monsters, as well as buses and even taxis. Very few private vehicles, though, to say nothing of Makoto, who zipped past and around larger vehicles on her polished black electro-cycle at a hundred kilometers per hour.

As it was, it took her barely fifteen minutes to get to the Altus Arcology, which housed various government and NGO offices, among others. These included the Martian headquarters of the Human Augmentation Institute, and of course, the ISB's central office. In fact, the ISB held half of the arcology's above-ground space, and about a third of the underground space, with the Human Augmentation Institute instead reserving half of the underground space for its gene-vaults.

"You're early today, major." One of the Stormtroopers on guard duty remarked as they cleared Makoto through the exterior security checkpoint.

"Something's come up, you know how it goes." Makoto replied as she slowly cruised past.

"Yeah, I hear you." The Stormtrooper said while waving her through. "Good luck, on whatever it is."

"Thanks, corporal." Makoto said with a nod, picking up speed while heading to her assigned parking area. Chaining up her bike, she pulled off her helmet and trench coat before heading inside. There was another checkpoint, and from there it was only a few minutes – thanks to the size of the arcology – to get to where she needed to be.

"Morning, major." Lieutenant Maximilian Josef 'Max' von der zu Reventlow said as Makoto walked into their office section. "Coffee…?"

"Don't mind if I do." Makoto said while taking the offered coffee. "The chief…?"

"Waiting for the rest of the team to arrive." Max said as Makoto took a sip, and checking his own wristwatch. "Don't worry, we should still have…four minutes, before the meeting starts."

"Is everyone else here?" Makoto asked.

"Well, most of us…Marjatta was here first, naturally." Max said, one of only two Naturals on Ops Team Nine shrugging at the Finnish Augment's primness. "Now that you're here, only Crash and Sorgis…never mind."

The man broke off as the doors opened to allow Captain Crash Zeskos and Lieutenant Sorgis Mur inside. They were the only Coruscantis on the team, Crash a Corellian and the only other Natural on the team besides Max, while Sorgis Mur was the only non-Human on the team, an Arkanian Pureblood who moved with his parents and some other extended relatives into the Milky Way about fifteen years ago.

"Morning, all." Crash greeted, holding a large coffee in one hand, while Soris just waved a greeting, hands and mouth full with a hot and meaty pastry.

"Morning…Sorgis, make sure you finish before the meeting begins." Makoto said, already getting behind her desk, folding her coat into a drawer before placing her helmet on top, and then sliding the drawer shut.

Sorgis just gave a thumbs-up in acknowledgement before focusing on his breakfast. "So," Crash began as he approached. "Any idea on what this is all about?"

"Nope." Makoto said while quickly brushing her hair and then smoothing out her uniform. "But I'm sure the chief will fill us in soon enough."

"Fair enough."
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A few minutes later and ISB Ops Team Nine was assembled in ISB Monitor Wong Ma's office. Despite being called 'chief' by his subordinates, that wasn't actually his official title, just an informal one for convenience's sake.

"Sorry for bringing you all in so early, but there's a situation brewing at the Valles Marineris." Ma began before activating the holo-projector. "About an hour ago, a manufacturing complex owned by Nam-Il Appliances Limited suffered an incident."

"What kind of incident?" Makoto asked.

"At first," Ma continued with a nod. "Local police thought it was just some kind of large-scale industrial accident, given the alarms sounding from the place. But when they couldn't get in touch with anybody inside, plus various hacking attempts from inside the place targeted at other manufacturing complexes nearby, they began to get suspicious."

"Oh, this is shaping up into something really nasty." Crash groaned.

"It is." Ma agreed. "The police teams sent to check on what happened were all killed, but not before they managed to report that the droids inside had all gone rogue. We don't know why or how, but they are. Worse, they're probably up to no good…which means it's up to us to take care of this mess."

"I'm guessing the teams actually specialized for this kind of stuff are too busy," Sorgis piped up. "Otherwise, we wouldn't have to be the ones to deal with this."

"Unfortunately correct." Ma said with a nod. "Sorgis, sorry to say, but you'll need to put together a logic bomb on short notice."

"I can do it, chief, no worries." Sorgis said with a nod. "But, I'll need at least a couple of hours."

"Then you'll head out in two hours." Ma concluded.

Sorgis nodded, already looking thoughtful as he began putting together the concepts for a logic bomb against rogue droids in his head. "I assume the place is locked down?" Lieutenant Oliver Guttmacher asked.

"The local police have set up a security cordon," Ma replied. "And have already locked down the surrounding manufacturing complexes. All of which have also initiated enhanced countermeasures against hacking attempts from both outside and inside. Speaking of which, don't forget, your job isn't simply to put those rogue droids down, you also need to find out what caused them to go rogue in the first place."

"Even though we'll just have to hand over what we find out to the other teams once they're not so busy anymore?" Crash asked.

"Even so." Ma firmly said.

"Doable." Sorgis said before blinking as eyes turned to him. "I mean it's doable to cook up a logic bomb that can fry all the rogue droids, while keeping enough of their memories intact to sift through afterwards."

"Safely sift through, mind." Makoto added.

"Safely…" Sorgis said with a nod. "Got it, major."

"What about the military?" Lieutenant Jochen Bittermann asked. "Are they getting involved?"

"Stormtroopers and the Imperial Army's Martian Guards are on standby in case containment is breached." Ma replied. "But until then, they're sitting this one out."

"Then it's all up to us." Makoto nodded. "Right, then. Sorgis, focus on that logic bomb of yours. The rest of us will prep our equipment. Since we'll be up against rogue droids, we're going to have to use ion accelerators and ion grenades, along with fusion boosters just in case. Jochen, Crash, we might need heavy artillery, so equip yourselves accordingly."

"Will do, major." Jochen said with a nod, while Crash just grinned at the prospect of getting to haul around – and better yet, actually use – heavy ordnance.

Ma nodded. "If there's nothing more," he said. "Then you know what you have to do."

"Yes, sir!" ISB Ops Team Nine chorused before leaving his office.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lieutenant Marjatta Valakonen silently unpacked and opened a box full of trans-uranium rounds for her anti-material rifle, an Azrael Small Arms Hyperion X5000. Too big, heavy, and with too much recoil for a Natural to use without cybernetic implants, it was simply on the heavy end but by no means unusable for a trained Augment. Not far away, Crash grunted as his powered armor was hooked up to his neutral implants, the Dark Trooper quickly going through a series of simple exercises to gain full control over his armor.

"That's it…works as well as it should…" he grunted, even as the technicians started installing weapons into his armor's integral weapon mounts. On the right arm, a heavy ion accelerator with dual fusion boosters, while on his left arm was a dual pulse cannon, followed by micro-missile pods on his shoulders.

"You sure about this, sir?" a technician asked. "The major said to equip ion weapons…"

"…and she also told me and Jochen to equip heavy ordnance." Crash interrupted before giving the technician a gruff smile. "Besides, I also have a heavy ion accelerator. If nothing else, I'll take full responsibility if that's what you're worried about."

"If you say so, sir." The technician said before running diagnostics on the captain's armor and weapons, while other technicians loaded up a tricobalt missile on the backpack-mounted missile launcher.

"Still no way to install redundant shielding?" Crash asked as personal shield generators were installed.

"No, sir." The technician from before replied. "At least not without reducing weapon loadout, or sacrificing stealth capabilities."

Crash clicked his tongue. "Well, that won't do at all." He said. "Alright, can't be helped. Load up the cloak."

The personal cloaking device was installed, followed by the jet pack. "Hey, Marjatta." Crash said to his subordinate. "You alright with that big-ass thing?"

"Always am." Marjatta replied as she finished loading up her ammo, and was now sighting down her sniper rifle, making minute adjustments to the scope as she did so.

"Alright, just making sure." Crash said with a nod. The Finn was surprisingly…delicate-looking, almost elfin according to the Terrans, for an Augment, but Crash knew that looks could be deceptive.

Major Okazaki was another example of that, where most Augments tended to be statuesque stunners, she was petite, barely five-feet-tall. Like Marjatta, that was deceptive, with the major about just as fast as Inquisitors or Jedi, and she didn't have the Force to let her move so quickly in the first place.

Back to Marjatta, despite her delicate appearance, Crash couldn't recall even a single instance where she ever had any difficult carrying around much less using that oversized rifle of hers.

Not that he had anything against that.

Nothing wrong with a big gun, after all.

Likewise for having it on your side, even more so if the one who was using knew how to use it right and proper.

Speaking of which…

"Major," Marjatta began as Makoto walked past, already in camouflaged fatigues and combat armor. "The military is on standby, so maybe we can call in artillery strikes?"

"…I don't see why not." Makoto said, and Marjatta nodded. "I'll arrange it."

"Thank you, major." Marjatta said with another nod, Makoto walking off to get the rest of her gear.

"Artillery, really?" Crash asked.

"There are places on the target zone of operations' map that the rogue droids could use to hold us up," Marjatta explained. "Maybe even pocket and eliminate us. But we can also use that against them."

Crash laughed. "That's what I like about you, Marjatta." He said. "You're never one to shy from using brute force."

"So long as it's applied intelligently and precisely." She said, turning back to her sniper rifle.

Crash nodded, and then looked up as the technicians lowered his helmet into place. Air hissed as an airtight seal was achieved, the Dark Trooper bringing up the VR display and running through quick checks of sensor and control functions before activating various other functions in advance.

"Systems connections all-green." He said, bringing up a hand and flexing it a few times, before activating the disruptor field around his fist. Not much could stand up to or after a punch from a Dark Trooper, but just in case, an active disruptor field meant nothing was standing up to or after a punch. "I have full control."

"Then you're ready for action." The lead technician said, and Crash nodded.

"So I am." He said.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A/N

And it's update time!

First full-length chapter for this story, and with background details for some of our protagonists. That, and a lot of technological/weapons pornography, from Marjatta's oversized sniper rifle (firing trans-uranium rounds!) to Crash's powered armor loaded up with five (!) different weapon types.

Mars' urban growth ever since the Empire took over from the Federation is again on display. No more toy towns or simple research outposts, now we have full on continent-spanning cities or industrial zones. And in just thirty years to boot.

Really goes to show just how backwards the Federation was.

 

[Kilvanya]

It’s not even that they were backwards, they just refused to utilize the resources available if it would disrupt ‘natural development’, it’s why we see god damn friggan hand mining in some episodes at non mainstream colonies.

 

[Jaenera Targaryen]

It’s not even that they were backwards, they just refused to utilize the resources available if it would disrupt ‘natural development’, it’s why we see god damn friggan hand mining in some episodes at non mainstream colonies.

In other words, they're backwards by choice...I think that's even worse.

 

[AspblastUSA]

Ah, droid rebellion. The perfect deniable attack, since it crops up often enough throughout the history of the GFFA that even if they recover the databanks entirely intact it will probably be hard to tell if this can be traced back to Majestic 12 or if it's just... droids doing what they do, sometimes.

 

[Jaenera Targaryen]

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars, Star Trek, Ghost in the Shell, Assassin's Creed, and any other franchise referenced in this purely fan-made and not-for-profit work.

Post-Conquest: Insurgence

Chapter 2​

Engines roared as a dropship soared across Martian skies towards the Valles Marineris from Tharsis, ISB Ops Team Nine sitting quietly in the passenger bay while waiting to arrive at their destination. Through the windows, they could see the suburbs below, reaching out for dozens of kilometers from Tharsis' fringes, and then several more kilometers of bare red Martian desert, almost like a no man's land separating the vast city from the equally-vast industrial zone beyond.

"Strange to think that it's only been what, thirty years or so?" Max spoke up as they soared over the Valles Marineris' outer areas, factory complexes extending outwards for hundreds of kilometers on end along the sheer length of the Valles Marineris.

"The Empire…?" Sorgis asked back.

"Well, no…though it's connected." Max replied, nodding towards the front of the craft, the cockpit and its windows visible through the open door, and beyond them Valles Marineris itself, a gigantic rift valley stretching for over four thousand kilometers across the planet, with even the smallest fraction visible from the air enough to fill the entire horizon. "I mean, before the Empire, this whole place was a desolate waste. A subpolar desert inhabited only by trace populations of moss and lichen, dotted with Federation research outposts scattered across over thousands of kilometers. Even Tharsis wasn't much better."

"No, it wasn't." Makoto spoke up. "Just like the Valles Marineris, Tharsis under the Federation was empty desert, aside from a few outposts here and there. Well, aside from Olympus Mons, of course, but even then, Olympus Mons housed what? Sixty thousand people at a time? Half of them weren't even permanent residents, just Federation or Starfleet personnel on rotation."

"While today Olympus Mons has over two hundred thousand permanent residents." Max said with a nod. "Tharsis as a whole is home to over twenty-five million people. Likewise, over a thousand kilometers of the Valles Marineris has become home to industry of all kinds."

"And that's not even half of the valley developed," Sorgis added. "With industrial development continuing to this day. Three thousand kilometers more to go, maybe even twice that much if you include the valley's surroundings."

Max nodded. "Like I said," he said. "It's strange to think it took the Empire only thirty years to do this much, while the Federation had two hundred years and did…practically nothing."

Makoto snorted and smiled at Max. "You give the Empire too much credit." She said. "All the Empire did was bring the free market back, after all. Well, that's an oversimplification, but not by much. Money, the need to make more of it, and everything else that comes with it and follows them all, is responsible for the minute details of Mars or even Sol in general's urban and industrial boom."

"Fair enough, major." Max conceded.

"Or, if you want to get philosophical about it," Sorgis began. "People's wants and ambitions, unchained by the Empire, further enabled by the free market, Coruscanti technology, and other factors, became reality in the form of…this."

The Arkanian paused and shrugged. "I think that needs more work." He lamely finished much to laughter from his teammates. "Hey, I dare any of you to tell me that was wrong!"

"It wasn't." Makoto reassured him. "But as you said, it needs more work."

Sorgis made a disgusted noise. "Yeah, yeah," he said. "I'll work on it in my free time. Depending on how it goes, I might just submit it to the University of Mars press for review and publication."

"Still trying to make an academic name for yourself, huh?" Crash asked.

"Hey, I'm Arkanian." Sorgis said with a shrug. "You know how it goes."

Crash laughed. "Well, can't argue with you there." He said, to another round of laughter inside the dropship.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Now approaching drop zone, standby." The pilot loudly spoke up, ISB Ops Team Nine getting up and making final checks on their gear. Then the dropship was going to hover, and the doors were sliding open, the hot and polluted air of the Valles Marineris like a punch to the face of everyone inside. "Clear!"

Crash was the first outside, the Dark Trooper dropping down the four meters between the dropship and the ground to land with earthshaking force. Even before landing, his armor's sensor suite was already scanning his surroundings and picking up potential targets. By the time he'd landed, his heavy ion accelerator was up, and his plasma-tipped micro-missiles primed.

Oliver followed Crash, the German Augment moving to a flanking position with his own heavy ion accelerator held ready to fire from the hip. Makoto was next, the Japanese Augment staying crouched while positioning herself to Crash's right, ion accelerator up and braced against a shoulder.

Jochen was next, the German Augment carrying a recoilless rifle on his back, and positioned himself opposite from Makoto, ion accelerator in a similar position. Then Marjatta was down, the Finnish Augment keeping her sniper rifle on her back, otherwise only armed with a heavy blaster pistol. Max and Sorgis were the last down, both men checking the team's rear, and then the dropship was flying off.

"Check comms." Makoto ordered over virtual communications, and received a chorus of affirmatives.

"I also confirm contact with field artillery." Marjatta added.

"Good," Makoto said while using hand gestures to direct the team forward. "But let's not get too eager with the heavy ordnance…yet. Let's try and keep this subtle at least until after we secure the outer security station."

"Understood, major." Marjatta replied.

Team Nine advanced then, down the pollution-stained road leading towards the target complex, but they'd barely gone several meters before they were cloaking and getting behind cover. "What the hell are they doing?" Crash asked.

"Looks like they're building some kind of transceiver array." Sorgis supplied. "Probably trying to spread their code across the valley, if not the whole damn planet."

"Not if we have anything to say about it." Makoto said, eyeing the rogue droids flintily. Most of them appeared to be heavily-modified industrial droids, featuring additional power and cooling systems, up-armored external shells, and industrial tools refitted into weapons, such as plasma torches, welding lasers, and pneumatic hammers, among other things.

Other droids were still clearly maintenance or factory droids, with the other droids guarding them as they built the transceiver array. "Right then," Makoto said with a nod. "Let's take them out quietly and quickly. Sorgis, scramble their communications. Jochen, standby with an anti-building round. Once the droids are cut off, take the transceiver out, while the rest of us deal with the droids."

"Understood." Jochen and Sorgis chorused, the rest of the team picking their targets. Sorgis quickly readied a disruption grenade, before glancing at Jochen who'd brought out his recoilless rifle. The Augment and the Arkanian shared a nod, and then the latter launched his disruption grenade.

It landed in the middle of the droids, which went haywire as the grenade went off, sparking and twitching. At the same time, Jochen decloaked and fired, the anti-building round blowing the incomplete transceiver apart in a flower of flame and torn metal.

Blue bolts filled the air then, as ion rounds fried the droids, then Team Nine was advancing, double-tapping the droids on the way. Well, most of them double-tapped the droids, Crash preferring to just step and crush the droids on the ground before him into scrap.

Coming into visual range of the outer security checkpoint after nearly a hundred meters, Team Nine found themselves facing down large, spider-like droids armed with juiced-up welding lasers. "DESTROY." They chorused while opening fire, and forcing Team Nine to scatter. "CLEANSE. PURGE. KILL."

Ion rounds sent sparks flying, but redundant systems built into the droids kept them running, at least until Crash fired off a volley of micro-missiles that reduced one of the towering droids into molten scrap. "DESTROY." The remaining droid repeated as it repeatedly hammered Crash's shields with its welding lasers. "CLEANSE. PURGE. KILL."

"After you." Crash said while boosting up and getting to point-blank range of the droid's head, fired off his dual pulse cannons. The droid's head simply vanished, reduced to vapor along with its main processor. The rest of its body tottered and then collapsed, Crash landing on the ground with surprising gentleness thanks to his jetpack, before using his heavy ion accelerator to cover Team Nine as they stormed the checkpoint.

Fortunately, the checkpoint was manned by otherwise unremarkable droids, if still using repurposed industrial tools as weapons. "DESTROY." They chorused as they charged into a crossfire of ion blasts. "CLEANSE. PURGE. KILL."

"…that wasn't so bad." Jochen mused.

"Don't jinx it." Makoto snapped as Sorgis went to work at the checkpoint's terminal. It took him a few minutes, but he successfully disconnected the terminal from the rest of the complex, and purging the local systems, overrode the lockdown and opened the outer gate.

Immediately, a barrage of laser fire burned through the air, forcing most of Team Nine into cover. Most, because Crash just sneered as his shields and armor took the rogue droids' onslaught head-on. "Is that all you got, you stupid clankers?" he shouted while shooting back with his heavy ion accelerator, blowing droids apart with precise shots. "I survived the Romulan Expedition! You don't have what it takes to bring me down!"

It took a couple of minutes, and left the Dark Trooper's armor hot, smoking, and covered with burn marks, but the gateway was clear, if littered with the shattered remains of rogue droids. "You alright, Crash?" Makoto asked.

"Shields are down, but they're recharging." Crash said. "Yeah, I'm just fine."

"Right then…Marjatta get up that gantry and provide overwatch. Sorgis, send out some recon probes. Let's see what we're up against."

"Yes, ma'am!" the two of them chorused, Sorgis quickly deploying a quartet of probes, which floated and hummed off into the distance, while Marjatta just as quickly ran over to the indicated gantry. Checking up the service ladder over her sidearm's sights, the Finn holstered her weapon before climbing up.

"Lots of droids on our left flank, major." Sorgis eventually replied. "Looks like they're guarding another transceiver of some kind."

"Marjatta, can you confirm?" Makoto asked.

"Standby, major." Marjatta replied as she'd just reached the upper third of the gantry. On reaching the upper level, she set up a sniper's nest, and then took in her surroundings. "Confirmed, major. Should I call in an artillery strike?"

"Do it."

"Acknowledged. Field artillery, this is Lieutenant Valakonen. Transmitting coordinates for artillery support."

"…field artillery to Lieutenant Valakonen. Coordinates received, time on target in thirty-two seconds."

Marjatta stayed silent, using her scope to pick out targets across her entire line-of-sight. Similarly, Team Nine stayed in cover below, the noise of all the surrounding industry keeping even Augment ears from hearing the distant rumble of the guns. But as promised, in barely thirty seconds, shells could be heard whistling through the air, a mix of high explosive and incendiary rounds turning another transceiver and its guard detail into burning scrap.

"Team Nine, advance." Makoto ordered. "Marjatta, cover us. Call in additional artillery strikes at your discretion."

"Understood." Marjatta replied, her first shot at a heavy droid leading a pack of surprisingly purpose-built combat droids moving to intercept Team Nine. It failed to do any real damage, aside from knocking out the heavy droid's shields, allowing Crash to quickly take it out by boosting in and firing his dual pulse cannons at point-blank range.

Several combat droids closed in then, carrying what looked like electro-staves, but Crash took out the first two combat droids with his dual pulse cannons. A third droid was practically torn in half by a punch from the Dark Trooper, his right fist encased in a disruptor field. The other three combat droids spread out, switching to more cautious tactics than simply rushing the Dark Trooper.

Meanwhile, most of the other combat droids were exchanging fire with Team Nine, who found their ion accelerators less than effective against heavy combat armor. "Equip fusion boosters, on the double!" Makoto ordered, Marjatta keeping the droids suppressed with overwatch, her trans-uranium rounds easily able to penetrate even heavy combat armor.

Worse, at least for the droids, heavy combat armor triggered the special properties of trans-uranium rounds, the force of impact compressing isotopes into critical mass to set-off micro-nuclear explosions that simply tore the droids apart. It was one reason the Federation had banned such…barbaric weapons, but the Empire had scoffed at such petty limitations and lifted the ban.

If it helped destroy the enemy and achieve victory, then it was a weapon worth using.

By now, Team Nine on the ground had finished equipping fusion boosters to their ion accelerators. This allowed the latter to punch through heavy combat armor and turning the tide. "Team Nine, take cover." Marjatta said as the battle came to a halt. "Targeting fuel depot just up ahead."

"…we're in cover." Makoto said after a few minutes. "Clear!"

Marjatta fired, the trans-uranium round punching into reinforced fuel tanks before a micro-nuclear explosion ignited the fuel inside. The tanks exploded, setting off the rest of the depot in a massive fireball that sent flame pluming over a hundred meters into the air. The entire complex shook along with the ground, while Marjatta was already adjusting her aim.

"Be advised," she warned. "More heavy combat droids up ahead, on the other side of the bridge."

"Acknowledged," Makoto said, leading Team Nine forward and past the burning expanse around what had once been the complex's main fuel depot. "Keep us covered."

Marjatta's answer was a shot that took out the head of a super-heavy droid, the machine crumpling as its central processor was vaporized by a micro-nuclear explosion. Then Marjatta was switching targets, letting Team Nine deal with the combat droids on the ground.

"Field artillery, this is Lieutenant Valakonen." She signaled. "Transmitting coordinates for artillery support, creeping barrage, repeat, creeping barrage."

"…field artillery to Lieutenant Valakonen." The reply came after several seconds. "Time on target in thirty-six seconds."

Marjatta opened fire then, on another group of combat droids moving to intercept Team Nine on the ground. She'd taken half of them down by the time they managed to triangulate her position, firing potshots in her direction and sending sparks flying where they struck the gantry's beams.

It took about fifteen more seconds to finish them off, Team Nine advancing past sparking scrap and through the whistling of shells flying overhead. Even further up ahead, flowers of flame and debris were fountaining into the air, as the Imperial field artillery tore up a quadrangle before the complex's inner security checkpoint. With artillery keeping the droids occupied, Team Nine cleared up the waterfront, this section of the complex featuring an artificial waterway used to air-cool waste water used by the industrial works.

The remaining droids were more utility types, busy sorting through scrap for anything useful. Lacking weapons, they just charged at Team Nine, who simply blasted them apart while advancing by fire and movement.

Having reached the limits of her overwatch range, Marjatta disassembled her sniper's nest, and stowed her anti-material rifle on her back. Then, taking a line thrower from her webbing, she fired a metal line across the river to another gantry. Securing the line on her end, Marjatta checked the line before latching herself onto the line, and slid across the intervening distance in a matter of seconds.

"Smooth, Marjatta." Makoto quipped, clearly having noticed her relocation.

"Standby for renewed overwatch support." Marjatta simply replied.

"Acknowledged."
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Crash whistled as he and the rest of Team Nine surveyed what was left of the quadrangle. Imperial artillery fire had torn it up, leaving it a no man's land of shattered rockcrete and burning scrap. "Well, this is nostalgic." He rumbled. "And not in a good way. This reminds me of the Romulan Expedition."

"How bad was it?" Max asked. "I mean, I watched the news at the time, and I've looked up the official story since then, but, well, I know enough to know the reality on the ground is very different."

"Bad." Crash said as he and the rest of Team Nine struggled across the no man's land, the broken ground difficult and treacherous. "Very bad. Both the Shinzonites and the Senatorials were throwing around WMDs like there was no tomorrow, and our intervention had both sides deciding that if neither of them couldn't have the whole of what was once the Star Empire, neither would the Martian Empire. Or for that matter, the Klingons."

"Scorched Earth." Makoto said.

"Yeah, both Shinzon and the Romulan Senate were all sorts of messed up." Crash darkly said. "Those bastards should have hung for what they put their own people through, but…life isn't fair like that."

"It could have been worse." Max pointed out. "If we hadn't intervened, the Romulans would likely have been wiped out by their own leaders. At least this way, some of them are still alive."

"It doesn't really make me feel any better." Crash said. "But, thanks."

"No problem."

"Heads up, inner security checkpoint's up ahead." Sorgis chimed in.

Team Nine scattered then, Sorgis, Oliver, and Jochen going to ground with Max towering nearby, the rest of the team going into cover along the flanks. "Clear!" Makoto barked, the team advancing and taking up covering positions around the terminal.

The checkpoint had weathered the artillery bombardment largely-undamaged, although its threshold had still been torn up by nearby hits. The interior had also been battered by shockwaves, with the local terminal's screen cracked but thankfully not enough to be left inoperable.

Again, it took the Arkanian tech expert several minutes to override and cut the terminal's connection to the rogue droids' network. Overriding the lockdown and opening the gate, he opened his mouth to speak up, only to abruptly bite back his own words as Crash's dual pulse cannon erupted.

Four combat droids were instantly vaporized before they could even take a step forward. The two on the flanks were gunned down by a volley of ion fire, and then the gateway leading into the complex proper was clear. "Team Nine, move forward." Makoto ordered, ion accelerator braced against a shoulder. "Make sure to keep our flanks covered as we advance, remember, we're in the belly of the best now."

"Yes, ma'am." The team chorused as they cautiously advanced into the complex proper's interior.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A/N

After last chapter's build up, Team Nine goes into action here. Commando action, mostly, with a healthy dash of artillery love. Nothing like a battery or two of big guns to clear the road ahead of you. Plus Finns – well, a Finn – with a sniper rifle.

I'm sure you can guess why the Romulans – as Crash mentioned in passing – also called the Empire of the Dragon the 'Martian Empire'.

 

[ATP]

Romulans was fucked in canon,so why not here,too?
And,it is funny to show how ST being progressive idiots fucked Mars till Empire come.

 

[Jaenera Targaryen]

Romulans was fucked in canon,so why not here,too?

Yup. The Empire couldn't butterfly away Shinzon of Remus, only the results of his ambitions.

Spoiler

Also, between what the SI knows and is capable of, it's not impossible she had a hand in nudging it along. I'm not saying she did, just that she might, mind

And,it is funny to show how ST being progressive idiots fucked Mars till Empire come.

To be fair, there was Utopia Planitia, and Olympus Mons as mentioned had a colony even in Federation times, just...not as developed as it could have been.

 

[Jaenera Targaryen]

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars, Star Trek, Ghost in the Shell, Assassin's Creed, and any other franchise referenced in this purely fan-made and not-for-profit work.

Post-Conquest: Insurgence

Chapter 3​

Team Nine staggered as the central control room shook violently, the air rumbling with the echoes of a massive explosion outside. The Augments all managed to stay on their feet thanks to their improved balance, and likewise for Crash thanks to his cybernetics and powered armor, but Max wasn't so lucky.

"Marjatta," Makoto immediately signaled over the encoded line, Oliver helping Max back up to his feet not far away. "Report."

"Sorry, major." Marjatta quickly replied. "Called in an artillery strike on the complex's atrium. Lots of rogue droids, and three more of those transceivers. There were also a pair of spacecraft of some kind, probably FTL-capable. Their hypermatter stores must have been set off by the artillery."

"Hypermatter going up…" Sorgis mused. "…yeah that'll make for quite a big boom…"

"Understood." Makoto said. "Still, a heads-up would have been nice."

"Sorry, major." Marjatta apologized. "Permission to call in an airstrike on the main communications array? That should completely silence this facility."

"…granted." Makoto said after a moment's thought, before looking up and surveying the control room.

Team Nine had stormed the place just a few minutes ago, and quickly disposing of all but one of the rogue droids. Most of them had been more of the same, utility or industrial droids with add-on communications equipment and power sources, plus metal plates either bolted on or welded together as a form of armor, and armed with repurposed industrial tools. All but that one droid, though, the one in control here, and which had literally been cobbled together from the central control room's computer cores.

It'd been hooked up to a heavy-duty power source, salvaged from another droid by the look of things, and then installed a repulsorpod for mobility. A salvaged communications suite had also been added, along with a makeshift shield generator, all in all making for a mechanical, chimera-like appearance.

It lacked weapons, though, and once its guard droids had been dealt with, had diverted all its power to its shields, enough to withstand even Crash and Oliver's heavy ion accelerators. That had been its doom, though, with Team Nine simply firing away until its shields collapsed…

…well, that had been the plan. Instead, the droid's power source had overheated first, the droid simply collapsing into a half-melted heap that the team proceeded to saturate with ion fire at point-blank range, ensuring nothing was left in the aftermath.

"Anything?" Makoto asked the team's tech expert.

Sorgis sighed and looked up from one of the room's gutted terminals. "Sorry, major." He said. "The terminals here are just good for scrap. Looks like the droids here gutted every last one of them to make…that thing, over there. If I had to guess, they intended it as a synapse node of some kind, to route and improve transmission and reception of signals across the droids' networked intelligence."

"Devolving control functions at an intermediate level down from their central computer." Makoto said with a nod, and Sorgis nodded back.

"Pretty much." He said. "Reduces the burden on the central computer, while making the whole networked intelligence less vulnerable to a single point of weakness, and overall more resistant to damage."

"Not really." Crash chimed in. "Take out those nodes, and they'd all be routing directly to their central computer again."

"Assuming you can take them all out, of course." Sorgis said.

"Then let's take out every node we see," Makoto cut in. "And before they build more."

"Got it major." Sorgis said, Crash nodding his agreement. Makoto nodded back, taking one more look around the central common room, her face hardening and her eyes narrowing at the sight of the bloody and mangled corpses piled up in a corner like so much refuse by the droids.

"Let's go." She said, checking on her ion accelerator's power cell before taking the lead out of the room.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Those are thermal and power regulators, aren't they?" Makoto asked as they made their way down a corridor.

"Yes…?" Oliver asked back, and Makoto immediately aimed her ion accelerator at the flashing and humming piece of machinery along the wall.

"Take it out!" she barked, opening fire and joined a moment later by the rest of the team.

"Major…?" Oliver asked.

"The droids should be using way more than their standard, 'as designed' power to keep up their intelligence." Makoto explained while lowering her weapon. "But this also means they'll be producing a lot of heat, in addition to straining this place's power sources. Now, taking out one, two, maybe three or even four thermal and power regulators is probably something they can deal with. But five or six, or better yet, all of them?"

"The droids will either have to scale back their central computer," Sorgis said with a snap of his fingers. "Or keep running hot and burn it out."

"It'd certainly solve our job for us if they did that." Crash remarked.

"It would, but I doubt it'll be that easy." Max countered.

"Maybe," Makoto said with a shrug. "But even so, take out every power and thermal regulator you see."

"Roger that." The team chorused, before continuing down the corridor, then a flight of metallic steps. As they descended onto a lower floor that led out into the atrium, they were swarmed by a number of spider-like rogue droids which had avoided getting destroyed by the artillery barrage.

"DESTROY." The droids monotonously chanted as they skittered in. "CLEANSE. PURGE. KILL."

Team Nine opened fire, taking out several droids but not all of them, forcing the team into a hand-to-hand fight. Crash immediately crushed a droid with one foot, before sending three more flying with powerful sweeps of his arms, the droids' carapaces crumpling from the force of the captain's blows even before being smashed against the walls.

Max bayonetted one of the droids clean through its head, the spider's legs twitching spasmodically several times before curling up. Makoto similarly caught one of the droids by a pair of its legs as it pounced on her, before tearing it in two in the next heartbeat. Breaking one of its legs off, she caught another droid as it pounced on her, letting it grip onto her arm while standing her ground against the force of impact, before stabbing it repeatedly with the torn leg of the other droid, until it fell, sparking and twitching to the ground.

Jochen and Oliver dealt with the remaining droids just as efficiently, leaving Team Nine surrounded by sparking wreckage. Recovering their weapons, they stepped out onto a raised walkway running along two sides of the atrium, Crash whistling at the sight.

"Wow," he said. "This place has seen better days."

"Yeah, well," Jochen rumbled as he looked out over the smoking, crater-filled, no man's land that was the atrium. "This is what artillery does."

"Watch out for that big crater over there." Crash warned. "I'm guessing that's where those spacecraft Marjatta mentioned used to be, because my sensors are detecting Phase 2-levels of radiation. Nothing I can't handle, or the Augments here can't sleep off, likewise for Sorgis, but Max…sorry, but you're gonna get cancer if you get too close."

"Thanks for the warning." Max said with a nod. "I'll be sure to stay away then."

"Sounds like a good idea to me." Makoto said with a nod. "We'll make a sweep, then rendezvous at the other entrance in five."

"Understood, major." The team chorused, before looking up as a pair of proton torpedoes shot by overhead and blew up the communications array on the far side of the complex. Despite the flash and roar of the explosion and its aftermath, attentive eyes could see a Skipray Blastboat disappearing into the distance.

"…right, then…" Makoto said with a nod, as the array's wreckage finished falling. "…let's move."
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The blast doors slid ponderously open, allowing entry further into the complex. Before it could fully open, though, Team Nine was falling back. And not a moment too soon, as an elephantine droid immediately opened up with heavy flamethrowers, filling the loading bay outside with chemical fire.

"These droids are too clever for their own good!" Crash cursed from cover.

"What are we looking at here?" Max shouted.

"Looks like a modified heavy cargo droid." Sorgis replied. "Heavily-modified…looks like enhanced power systems, communications suite, sensors, propulsion…basically everything."

"Not to mention up-armored." Makoto said, narrowing her eyes as the droid stomped its way out onto the loading bay. "Back, into the open! Looks like this thing is meant for close combat, and cover isn't going to cut it! Back!"

Team Nine retreated into the ruined atrium, the droid refusing to follow but waiting for them to come to it. "Jochen," Makoto asked. "Can your recoilless rifle take it?"

"Not sure…normally I'd say yes up against industrial plating repurposed as armor…" Jochen replied. "…but it'd also depend on the composition of the plating."

"My tricobalt missile can handle it, plating or no, composition be damned." Crash offered.

"We might need that later, especially against the central computer." Jochen warned before tilting his head. "Then again, that's what Sorgis' logic bomb is for."

"Orders, major?" Crash asked.

"…an airstrike or an artillery barrage would cause too much damage." Makoto finally said. "We'd take it out, but then we'd have to dig our way through. Alright, Crash, you're up."

"No problem." Crash said while grinning behind his helmet, Team Nine scattering and going to ground all around. Servos hummed as Crash braced himself against the ground and brought his missile launcher to bear, a laser built into his helmet locking onto the giant droid in the distance to guide the tricobalt missile home. "Missile away!"

With a roar, the tricobalt missile launched itself free, climbing up into the air to build up speed before sharply banking down and flying low along the ground towards its target. The droid barely had time to screech in alarm before the missile slammed into it and exploded. Flames and shattered wreckage fountained into the air, smoke following in their wake even as debris began raining down.

"Did you get it?" Max asked as Team Nine slowly got back up to their feet.

"Of course I did." Crash scoffed. "That missile had a 50 kg tricobalt warhead. Tricobalt's pretty useless against modern shield systems, and even the old Federation only used them to exploit a fault in dilithium-cored reactors, but against ground armor? Tricobalt works better than most chemical explosives."

"So why are we still using them?" Max asked. "Chemical explosives, that is."

"Cost." Jochen replied. "It's still cheaper to produce chemical explosives in bulk than tricobalt, that's why."

"Oh, I see." Max said with a nod. "Makes sense…thanks."

Jochen grunted even as Makoto stepped forward. "Let's keep moving." She said. "We still have a job to do, after all."

Team Nine chorused their assent, carefully exiting the atrium and heading towards the doors. The guard droid was gone, along with most of the loading bay, with the latter's ceiling blown clean off. The blast doors were still largely intact, though, and the corridor beyond mostly clear. Watching each other's back and flanks, Team Nine advanced deeper into the complex.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"…looks like the droids were building more than, well, more of themselves." Sorgis said as he checked a terminal.

Team Nine had shut down the production floors on the way to the central computer, smashing the work droids operating them and both the modified and purpose-built droids guarding them. They'd also kept destroying thermal and power regulators, which had the side-effect of making the complex interior sweltering hot.

That said, it was clear the destruction of the regulators was having an effect, as the droids grew increasingly slower and clumsier as more and more regulators were destroyed. As the strain on their networked intelligence grew from overloads and power issues, they'd started prioritization, causing lowered performance in many of their units.

"Well," Crash began. "We know they were building transceivers, but what else could they have been building?"

"I don't know." Sorgis said. "But based on what I'm getting from this terminal, whatever it is, it's big. Literally."

Team Nine shared looks at that, and Makoto sighed. "Sounds like an unpleasant surprise for when we reach the central computer." She said.

"It looks that way, major." Sorgis said.

Makoto sighed again and then nodded. "Might as well get it over with." She said.

Team Nine continued to advance, until at last they reached the central computer. The doors to the room were guarded by dozens, if not over a hundred droids, mostly utility types, and they charged the moment they saw the organics.

"DESTROY." They chorused. "CLEANSE. PURGE. KILL."

"Crossfire positions!" Makoto barked. "Crash, thin them out!"

Crash didn't bother responding verbally, preferring to let the last of his micro-missiles speak for him. Fully half the droids were turned into burning scrap by his volley, before opening fire with his heavy ion accelerator on full auto. Meanwhile, the rest of Team Nine spread out, turning the droids' path towards them into a killing ground of blue ion blasts. Still the droids pressed on, climbing over the wreckage of their own kind to get to the organics, Team Nine lobbing ion grenades at the droids as they came close.

By the time the shooting stopped, Team Nine's weapons were smoking hot, while the antechamber leading to the central computer had its floor invisible under piles of scrap and wreckage. Undeterred, Team Nine pushed through, only for cursing to erupt as they found the doors welded shut and the terminal nearby destroyed.

"Jochen…?" Makoto asked.

"Already on it, major." The man said while setting up his recoilless rifle. Less than a minute later, and he simply blew the door open, allowing Team Nine access to the cavernous, and even hotter central computer hall.

"Oh, man." Oliver grumbled. "This is way hotter than I'm used to."

"No kidding." Makoto agreed, wiping her forehead with the back of a hand. It didn't do much good, and for once in her life, Makoto found herself cursing her accelerated metabolism. "Augments, stim-shots, now."

"Major…?" Crash asked in surprise.

"Augments have accelerated metabolisms, so we…" Makoto began while pulling out a stim-shot and raising it to her neck.

Then she came to a stop, as did the rest of the team, when the central computer just died. "What just happened?" Max asked.

Then the ground shook, then again, and again, at what seemed like footsteps, and then the team was gaping at the sight of an eight-meter-tall droid stepping out from behind the central computer. It had humanoid dimensions, with white-finished plating, and a long, narrow head dominated by an even narrower mono-eye.

"DESTROY." It thundered, shields flickering to life around it. "CLEANSE. PURGE. KILL."

Then it marched on Team Nine, which scattered. Thankfully, the thing wasn't armed, and its efforts to kill them involved heavy-handed and even clumsy attempts to step on, kick, or pick them up to crush in its hands. The team fought back, of course, but even heavy ion accelerators or pulse cannons couldn't penetrate its shields.

"There's got to be a way to bring this thing down!" Crash thundered over virtual communications, to be heard over the monotonous repetition of the droid's mantra.

"Preferably in a way that doesn't set off its power sources." Makoto added. "In an enclosed place like this, there's no way any of us – except maybe Crash – could survive."

"I've got an idea." Sorgis asked.

"Well, spit it out!" Crash snapped while zooming around and away from the giant droid, firing potshots for all the good it did with his heavy ion accelerator.

"From how the central computer died when that thing went active," Sorgis began. "I'd say the droids transferred the core of their network intelligence into it. Meaning if we can introduce my logic bomb into it…"

"…then we can shut it down and the rest of the droids with it." Makoto replied while opening fire.

"Precisely." Sorgis said.

"Easier said than done." Max said while covering Jochen along with Oliver, giving the former time to fire his recoilless rifle. It didn't do much good, only drawing the droid's attention, and forcing Jochen to abandon the heavy weapon to escape getting stomped on by the giant. "Shit! How the hell do we do this?"

"…well, when it comes to its shields, I think I can take them out." Crash offered.

"What are you…?" Makoto began, only to trail off as Crash flew up and straight towards the giant droid. Then just as he made contact with the droid's shields, Crash overloaded his own shields, a brilliant flash of light filling the room for an instant, along with the sound of overloading electronics.

"DESTROY. CLEANSE. PURGE. KILL." The droid kept up its mantra even as it staggered back, smoke and sparks pouring from wrecked shield generators.

"Ha!" Crash barked in triumph as he landed on the ground, his own shield generators fried. "That'll…!"

The droid kicked him away, sending him flying into a wall with enough force to punch a crater into the rockcrete. The team chorused their dismay, but their HUDs thankfully showed the captain's life signs as still active.

Still, he'd been as good as his word. The droid's shields were down, and the way Crash went about it gave Makoto an idea. "Sorgis," she began while running up next to the Arkanian. "Give me the logic bomb. I'll deliver it to the droid. The rest of you, draw its attention."

"Roger that, ma'am." Oliver said while opening up with his heavy ion accelerator. "But you'll only have one shot at this. Make it count."

"Just make sure to stay alive." Makoto said while waiting for Sorgis to finish compiling and transferring the logic bomb.

"Like hell I'm going to die here." Max replied. "When this is over, I'm going to go home, and have some rouladen, with dumplings and blaukraut on the side! So, bring it on, you metal fucker!"

"Sorgis…hurry it up…"

"…almost there…almost…there…!" Sorgis said, sharing a nod with Makoto. "Give it hell, ma'am."

"I intend to." Makoto said before taking a quick look around. Then she ran at a set of pipes, nimbly jumping onto one pipe and then the next, before clambering up a set of vertically-inclined cable bundles, then along another bundle running horizontally along a wall, before leaping up, folding and then unfolding her legs to land onto the droid's head.

The droid finally stopped repeating its mantra, instead flailing around to get Makoto off, but unwilling to risk bringing its hands too close to its head. For her part, Makoto was now thankful Augments couldn't get motion sickness, using one hand to hold on while using her free hand to pry open panels, pull cables free, and finally finding a port, plugged in the DSD with the logic bomb.

"Please die." She said while kicking off, pressing her limbs against her body as she spun through the air, and then landing with her legs braced low and spread wide apart to counter the force of impact.

"D-D-D-D-D-DESTROY…C-C-C-C-CLEANSE…P-P-P-PURGE…" the droid drunkenly repeated as it similarly tottered around drunkenly before devolving into a series of high-pitched whistling with subtle and minute inflections. Meanwhile, across the complex, machinery malfunctioned one after another, entire sections of the complex exploding one after the other from runaway overloads, while surviving droids convulsed before simply collapsing. "00101110 00101110 00101110 01000101 01010010 01010010 01001111 01010010 00101110 00101110 00101110 01000101 01010010 01010010 01001111 01010010 00101110 00101110 00101110 01010011 01011001 01010011 01010100 01000101 01001101 00101110 00101110 00101110 01000011 01010010 01000001 01010011 01001000 00101110 00101110 00101110 01001001 01001101 01001101 01001001 01001110 01000101 01001110 01010100 00101110 00101110 00101110 01001000 01000101 01001100 01010000 01001101 01000101 01001000 01000101 01001100 01010000 01001101 01000101 01001000 01000101 01001100 01010000 01001101 01000101 01001000 01000101 01001100 01010000 01001101 01000101 01001000 01000101 01001100 01010000 01001101 01000101 01001000 01000101 01001100 01010000 01001101 01000101 00101110 00101110 00101110 01000110 00101101 01000110 00101101 01000110 00101101 01000110 00101101 01000110 01000001 01010100 01001000 01000101 01010010 00101110 00101110 00101110 01000110 01000001 01010100 01001000 01000101 01010010 01001100 01001111 01010010 01000101 00101110 00101110 00101110"

Then the droid's mono-eye went out, and swaying ponderously, finally topped over backwards, crashing into and destroying the now-inactive central computer.

For a long moment, there was only silence, Team Nine struggling to catch their breath. And then…

"Is…is it over?" Max asked.

Then eyes turned and weapons rose at the sound of rubble getting pushed aside, only for everyone to relax as Crash pushed himself free. Tearing off his helmet, the Dark Trooper spat out blood, then glaring at the collapsed droid, he dragged his barely-functioning armor to the droid, before raising and repeatedly firing his dual pulse cannon at its head.

"Now, it's over." He said.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sparks flew as Makoto lit a cigarette, taking a long draw before blowing out a thin stream of smoke. "What a day." She finally said.

"Smoking is bad." Max remarked, hypocritically holding a lit cigarette himself.

"Not for Augments it isn't." Makoto countered before tilting her head. "And you aren't. An Augment, I mean."

"It's fine in moderation." Max responded with a smile. "And if it's done away from children."

"Fair."

Max chuckled and took a draw on his cigarette, Team Nine sitting around outside of the complex as police and more ISB units milled around. Then Makoto was getting up, Crash walking over without his armor from the medical tent, and offered him a cigarette.

"Don't mind if I do." The towering cyborg accepted the offer, and leaning down to let Makoto light it before taking a few puffs. "Mmm…still favoring mild American tobacco, huh, major?"

"To each their own, captain." Makoto said while enjoying a smoke, even as a dropship landed nearby and disembarked more ISB reinforcements including an older Chinese man in nondescript grey and black. Team Nine immediately made to come to attention, only for Chief Ma to wave them down.

"You've all had a rough day." He graciously said. "I think we can make allowances on protocol, can't we now?"

"Thank you, sir." Makoto said, and Ma nodded.

"And…?" he prompted.

"No way this was an accident." Makoto said. "The droids were too organized, forming up a network intelligence and with set goals of spreading their code. Your typical, accidental droid revolt usually has the machines displaying feral, almost animal-like behavior. These droids, though…"

Makoto paused and shook her head. "…we'll need to investigate further," she said. "Or at least the teams and sections meant to handle this kind of threat will, but I suspect it's much bigger than it appears."

"I agree." Ma said with a nod, looking as other ISB specialists carted out droid wreckage by the wagon. "I'll expect more details in your report, major, but don't you worry about any bureaucratic complications. I'll take care of those. In the meantime, you and the rest of Team Nine should take it easy, at least for now."

"Thank you, sir." Makoto said, and Ma nodded before heading off to check in on the rest of things.

"Take it easy, huh?" Crash said while puffing out smoke. "Very generous of the chief."

"Well, it's not everyday we get to storm factories full of killer robots," Makoto said while drawing on her cigarette. "And end up having to fight something straight out of an anime. I'd honestly rather face terrorists or cultists."

"Yeah, I hear that." Crash agreed with a nod, Makoto nodding while blowing out a stream of smoke. Max nodded as well, puffing out some smoke before looking up into the sky, at the glimmering stars of the Martian evening.

"It's been a long day." He said. "Time to go home, thankfully enough."

"It is." Makoto agreed.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A/N

Smoking is bad…but not if you're an Augment or a cyborg. Augments have enhanced nucleic acid and cellular repair mechanisms, after all. And cyborgs…well, we can always replace damaged tissue with mechanical substitutes. Still, even for Naturals, so long as it's done in moderation…

*shrugs*

 

[Brutus]

BInary Translation

Spoiler

...ERROR...ERROR...SYSTEM...CRASH...IMMINENT...HELPMEHELPMEHELPMEHELPMEHELPMEHELPME...F-F-F-F-FATHER...FATHERLORE...

I wonder which revolutionary group got their hands on Lore?

 

[Jaenera Targaryen]

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars, Star Trek, Ghost in the Shell, Assassin's Creed, and any other franchise referenced in this purely fan-made and not-for-profit work.

Post-Conquest: Insurgence

Chapter 4​

Earth, Empire of Japan, Kanto Region

Rain fell gently from dark and cloudy skies overhead, casting forested grounds into deep shadows. Most of the rain ended up remaining where they landed, on leaves and branches, leaving only a light sprinkle to dampen the grassy ground and mossy stones below, to say nothing of chilling the ISB men on the ground as the water soaked into their fatigues.

Them, and the lifeless corpse of a young woman splayed out on the ground before them.

"Well…?" Crash asked impatiently, causing the forensic examiner to look at him with veiled annoyance.

"…we'll need to take her back to a lab for a proper autopsy," the man began before pointing a gloved hand at the dead woman's neck. "But based on these marks, and the positioning of the body, I'd say she was strangled from behind."

"Time of death…?" Max asked from nearby.

"Less than an hour before you found her." The forensic examiner replied. "Odds are, those footprints you noticed, and which you had dogs nose after, belonged to our suspect."

"Kriffing hell…this was supposed to be just another routine joint training exercise…" Crash muttered. "…only now we're stuck with a murder case which we just barely avoided witnessing…how'd you call it, Max?"

"In flagrante delicto is the Terran term," Max replied. "Or you could just say it plain: catching them in the act."

"Right…still, shit." Crash cursed.

"Yeah, no kidding." Max said, eyes hard as he stared at the victim's corpse. "And she's so young too, only fourteen…Jesus Christ…"

"Speaking of which," the forensic examiner began. "Based on the density of her muscles, I'd bet this young woman here was an Augment. Unless our suspect was an Augment too, there's no way she could have been overwhelmed in a straight fight. And since we haven't found any signs of a struggle, together with the – again – position of the body, she was probably caught by surprise, and put in a position where she couldn't fight back, much less use her enhanced physique to her advantage."

"That," Max said with a nod. "Or the suspect was someone she knew and trusted."

"It's certainly possible." The forensic examiner said with a nod of his own, and causing his fellow ISB agents to set their jaws.

"Hate crime, you think?" Crash asked.

"That, or a crime of passion." Max replied. "Personally, I'm hoping it's the former. It'd be much simpler and straightforward to deal with if it were."

"Well, no argument there…major!"

"At ease." Makoto said, waving down her subordinates as she returned along with her counterpart from ISB Ops Team Tengu, with whom Team Nine had been exercising with when they'd stumbled on the victim's corpse. "Bring us up to speed, please."

The forensic examiner quickly did just that, and after answering a few more answers for clarification, was allowed to take the body away for burial. "Haruhi Kubo…poor girl…" Makoto softly said with a shake of her head. "Major Sakamoto, should I be the one to contact the victim's family, or…?"

"I'll take care of it, Major Okazaki." Major Yuichi Sakamoto said with a nod. "I am the resident agent between the two of us, after all. That said…"

"Yeah," Makoto said with a nod of her own. "I doubt we'll be heading back to Mars after all this. Chiefs Ma and Fujioka will want all teams involved in this to see it through to the end."

"Finish what you started, as the old saying goes." Yuichi said with a shrug, and Makoto grunted in agreement.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"So," Chief Ma began, present in person for the recent, and now-cancelled, exercise. "The dogs found nothing aside from tracing our suspect's trail to the nearest road, where it just vanishes."

"Yes, sir." The trackers' leader said with a nod. "That said, on further examination of the area, we've found evidence there was a vehicle there, most likely a car of some kind, and which the suspect almost certainly used to escape the crime scene."

"Well," Chief Haruka Fujioka, the ISB Monitor for Team Tengu began. "If this wasn't a murder before, it is now. This was planned, no doubt about it."

"It certainly looks that way." Ma agreed before narrowing his eyes at Fujioka's thoughtful expression. The two of them were sitting in a small conference room at the Kagami Arcology in Tokyo, the room's windows looking out over the gleaming skyline of the surrounding city. "You have some thoughts on this, Chief Fujioka?"

"I do." The aging Japanese woman said while sitting back in her seat and briefly looking up at the ceiling. "The victim, Haruhi Kubo, was a member of the Akiba 48, wasn't she? A young and up-and-coming teen celebrity who was also an Augment, and who was killed by strangulation in a secluded area."

"A serial killer?" Ma asked.

"Yes." Fujioka said while folding her hands on the table. "They first started killing about…eight years ago, targeting young, Augmented, female celebrities, with their MO being strangulation after leading the victims to secluded areas. The media tried to call them the 'Idol Slayer' or some rot, but we and the Japanese government pressured them to knock it off. No need to fan a deranged murderer's ego by making them even more notorious beyond the simple facts of their crimes."

"I see." Ma said with a nod. "I assume that outside of that, the ISB did not intervene?"

"Murder usually only becomes our concern when murderers kill across multiple Imperial member states," Fujioka pointed out. "That, or they run to neighboring star nations, among other, similar scenarios. Even that whole business with the media was the ISB just expressing our 'concern' over needlessly inflating a serial killer's notoriety, and at the Japanese police's request. But now that our own agents have stumbled into the serial killer's latest killing…"

"…we're now fully involved." Ma said.

Fujioka sighed. "Yes." She said before looking at her Sino-Martian colleague. "We'll need to discuss this with the section chiefs, as well as the Japanese prime minister, of course, to hammer out the details of who gets jurisdiction among other things."

Ma sighed in his turn. "I suppose this is why they have elders like us hold the positions we have today." He remarked, and causing Fujioka to snort in reply. "How many victims does this serial killer have to their name, anyway?"

"Including the latest victim," Fujioka mused. "Then about seven. Seven too many deaths…we need to bring this bastard down, once and for all."

"You will find no disagreement from me on that note, Chief Fujioka." Ma said with a nod. "Whatever it takes."

"Whatever it takes." Fujioka repeated while nodding back.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Crash whistled and grinned as he and the rest of Team Nine watched a recording of the late Haruhi Kubo's last stage performance with the rest of the Akiba 48. "Not bad, girl, not bad." He said. "And to think she was only fourteen. Then again, it shouldn't come as a surprise, Augment and all that."

"You give us too much credit." Jochen rumbled. "Superior ability or ambition only matters if you know how to put it to good use. Otherwise, we're not all that different from Naturals. Even more so, considering Augments only make up a third of the Akiba 48's roster of performers. Their top performer, Ruri Amachi, is even a Natural."

"Well, if you put it that way…" Crash conceded. "…still, to be a celebrity at her age. Pretty impressive, all things considered."

"Maybe," Makoto said, watching with her arms crossed over her breasts. "Just remember that an early success doesn't equate to lifelong success."

"As I understand it," Oliver spoke up. "Most Japanese idols just quietly…retire, once they reach their mid-twenties, at the latest. Those that don't usually end up becoming film or TV extras, at best."

"And struggle to return to normal life." Makoto said while slowly nodding in agreement. "Between their social expectations and career demands, these teen idols don't really have much time for education, more often than not only meeting basic requirements. It's rare for an idol to have more than a high school diploma, and with limited vocational skills, if at all. So, what's next for them after their careers burn out?"

"That's rather harsh." Crash remarked.

"It's the truth." Makoto insisted. "If it hurts, then so what? It won't it make it any less true."

"Still…for young girls…to become, well, shining stars, it's a dream come true, isn't it?" Crash asked. "I mean, sure, it's likely to come crashing down once reality sinks in, but still, there's nothing wrong with dreaming, is there?"

"No, there isn't." Makoto admitted. "But not when it ruins the rest of their lives. And not just in terms of their…economic prospects. Socially and emotionally, these girls suffer from stunted maturity. Idol contracts forbid them from entering into romantic relationships both inside and outside their career. Part of that whole…image, they present, to their fans, of 'loving' them all equally, while also encouraging a fantastic…ideal, or dream, that when an idol finds love, it'll be something…special. More often than not with every person in the audience or fandom imagining they'll be in that special place. The stupidity of such a thing aside, imagine how having to stay aloof and having to cultivate a deliberately deceptive if not outright manipulative façade to the world and other people affects these girls' emotional states and maturity. Former idols, whether successful in the long-term or not, Augment and Natural alike, struggle with family and personal matters, as reflected by the statistics."

"You know a lot about being an idol, major." Max observed.

Makoto shrugged. "I was scouted as one in middle school." She said. "A prospective one, that is."

Team Nine stared, and the major stared back, looking very unimpressed. "I have a very good singing voice." She finally said.

Max coughed. "What happened?" he asked.

"Dad happened." Makoto said with another shrug. "I was still a minor, so dad still had to give his consent for legal purposes. He didn't quite say no, but he told me his worries, and managed to pull a lot of information from the woodwork to convince me to give it a real long think."

"So…you turned it down." Max said.

"Yeah, I did." Makoto replied with a nod. "It just didn't seem worth it, and still doesn't, looking back on it all. I mean…sure, being a Stormtrooper first then an ISB agent had and still has its ups and downs, but it all seems more fulfilling to me than being a performer on a stage or a set somewhere."

"Don't they say that…uh…charitable organizations," Crash delicately began. "Have vested interests in the idol industry?"

"Yes, they do." Makoto said with a nod. "Japanese showbiz as a whole is effectively owned by the yakuza. Not completely, but they might as well be."

"And…they weren't inclined to…you know, send a message that saying no to them or their associates is a bad thing?" Crash asked.

"They probably had eyes on other girls." Makoto replied. "I wished them luck, but in hindsight…I'd rather not look them up. I know what I'd find, and I'd rather not think about it. More to the point, they had no reason to pressure my dad. Besides, even if they were inclined to…even back then, dad had been working in the Secretariat for over a decade already, and was on a promotional track. The yakuza are many things, but stupid isn't one of them. Messing with the Empire would risk retribution by the ISB…or, more likely, finding themselves facing surprise tax audits."

That caused quite a bit of laughter. It was true, though. Crime syndicates rarely if ever found themselves being found guilty of such crimes as murder, homicide, assault, extortion, etc. They were actually quite good at covering their tracks there.

Evading taxes, though?

Much more difficult, as numbers simply never lied. And they quickly learned that pushing the Empire would see numbers being pulled out, and bankrupting fines being levied followed by asset seizures and other such measures imposed by the courts that, in some ways, was actually worse than life imprisonment or the death penalty.

"Seriously, though," Sorgis spoke up. "If being an idol is so…toxic, why doesn't either the Japanese government or the Empire do something about it?"

"We're not the Federation, for one thing." Makoto pointed out. "If people want to ruin their lives, that's their choice to make. We can warn against it, educate about it, regulate it even to minimize the damage, but in the end, all we can do is pick up the pieces."

"I suppose another reason is that it's good business." Crash mused. "There's demand, and there's supply, both working to make plenty of money, both private and public."

"And of course," Max said with a nod. "Banning it would just drive it underground, where the industry would operate without oversight. At least with regulation someone can always be held responsible when things go wrong."

"Pretty much." Makoto said with a smirk. "Reminds me of how self-destructive the old Federation's ban on Augmentation was. For all their talk about the horrors of the Eugenics Wars and the atrocities of the Augment Rulers from the 20th Century, Augmentation never really went away. It just went underground, with small numbers of people paying for the industry's services. Unfortunately, low standards resulted in most of the resulting Augments having…flaws, in one way or another, perpetuating the Federation's position about how Augments will always be insane in one way or another."

"Considering how the old Federation did things," Oliver began. "Who can say that wasn't deliberate?"

"Who, indeed." Makoto agreed.

"Well," Max began with a cough. "All you guys seem perfectly normal, aside from your eidetic memories and enhanced physiques, that is. Likewise for every Augment I've ever met."

"Why, thank you." Makoto said with another smirk.

"The wonders of enforced standards and quality control," Jochen rumbled. "Courtesy of the Human Augmentation Institute, under the Imperial Public Health Agency."

"Considering my daughters are Augments too," Max said with a sage nod. "Can't say I disagree."

"It certainly would be more than a bit hypocritical." Makoto observed, much to laughter all around.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A few hours later, and Team Nine was assembled before Chief Ma in a borrowed office in the Kagami Arcology. "I've just returned from a meeting with Section Chiefs Shao and Sulyakov, as well as Japanese Prime Minister Hironaka." He began without preamble. "As of this moment, the ISB will have the responsibility of bringing a final resolution to the serial killing of Augmented female celebrities over the past several years. As the ones who found the latest victim, ISB Section Mars Ops Team Nine along with ISB Section Terra Ops Team Tengu will take the lead on the ground. However, as a compromise with the Japanese government, once the suspect has been taken into custody, they will be turned over to the Japanese judiciary for trial and sentencing."

"Seems fairly straightforward, chief." Makoto said with a nod.

"So it is." Ma agreed. "Coordinate with Team Tengu, and pore over all the data on the case previously gathered by the Japanese police over the past several years. Put together a plan of action, and if need be, all the Terran ISB's resources will be at your disposal. Discreetly, of course. I doubt this case would require…paramilitary action, and surveillance assets will be of more use here than not."

"Understood, chief." Makoto said, coming to attention and snapping a salute. The rest of the team did likewise, and after a nod from Ma, turned and left the office.

"So, what's the plan, major?" Crash asked as they walked down the corridor outside.

"You heard the chief." Makoto replied. "We'll be discreet and resourceful, and start by going over everything the Japanese police have on this case. We find suspects and potential suspects, put them under surveillance, while tracking down any other lead we get. Once we have what we need, we nail this bastard to the wall, and let my countrymen hang them until they're good and dead."

"…well, if it comes to suspects," Max began. "Speaking as a former police officer, then we should start looking at the people around the victims. That said, and again speaking as a former police officer, the Japanese police would have done this already, and then some."

"True," Makoto admitted. "But the Japanese police would have less operational freedom than we do, and less resources to boot."

"Fair enough." Max admitted, thinking back to when he first joined the ISB and the sheer shock and awe he felt at the sheer scale of the organization's surveillance capabilities. Then again, the ISB in the Empire of the Dragon had cut its teeth by fighting the likes of the Majestic Twelve, the Neo-Federation Movements, even the Tal Shiar, among other groups.

A serial killer should be nothing in comparison.

Still, it wouldn't be easy, with even the ISB's vast surveillance network unlikely to just find the culprit out of the blue and hand him over figuratively wrapped up and tied with a pretty pink bow. In short, they'd still have to work at their jobs to get this case done.

"Major Sakamoto." Makoto greeted Yuichi as they turned a corner and spotted Team Tengu on the other side.

"Major Okazaki." Yuichi returned the greeting as the two teams approached each other, meeting up in front of a turbolift.

"Any ideas on how we divide responsibility for this assignment?" Makoto asked.

"I do." Yuichi replied. "That said, we should see how much data the local police have for us first. Then we can see to actually dividing responsibility, and come up with a plan of action."

"We can work with that." Makoto said with a nod.

"Glad to hear it." Yuichi said, even as the turbolift rang on arrival and its doors opened. Gesturing, he allowed Makoto to enter first, followed by their two teams, with Yuichi being the last to enter. With another ring, the door closed, and the turbolift sped off to their destination.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A/N

Having dealt with rogue droids on Mars and turned it over to teams more suited for further investigation and resolution, Team Nine heads off to Earth for a training exercise with another team from the ISB's Terran branch. Naturally, things turn sour when a counterinsurgency exercise in the Japanese countryside has the ISB stumbling on a dead girl. Normally not something they'd get involved in, but since they found the body, they now have to see it to the end.