The hostages of Lake Town

[Faclan]

(Anyone can join, but please let Sentinel post first as he requested this thread for some 'Salty' work.)

Keip: Here

Taking place in: 2570

Keip Eox - Ibie'Voan Mercenary
Sedna, Lake town.
Hey its a living.

One would have thought that former pirates and mercenaries wouldn't be getting jobs from the Human Juggernaut in this new galaxy. The ones who always seemed above all the 'aliens' who had been shoved under their boot once they emerged injured but quickly larger than ever before. But hey weird things happen in the galaxy. There was even talk of machines powered by dead people going around so who knows what you could believe anymore?

The female had been lucky she heard the news broadcast in the small Work Guild outpost she had been visiting. A small outpost but a well connected one so Keip had thought it would be a perfect place to find some work. And this time she had been thankfully correct! The radio broadcast had barely finished giving the location before she was out the door with a 'good luck!' squawked at her from the Ruutian Harbormaster before she was jogging with all her gear ready.

It was a short time before she arrived at the trouble building in question, well at least in visual range of it. A few Human police had arrived already and was telling people to hang back to not interfere with the 'special teams' that were arriving. Keip had to hope this time that she wasn't told to...what was it...'jump of a bridge'? Something like that. She was eager to help to have something to do and according tot he part of the report she had heard it was Human and alien hostages in there being held but what was estimated at twelve former Remnant aliens. Led by both a Jiralhanae and Sangheili. The female able to pretty easily get up to the small barrier the police had erected through the Human and few alien civilians. The police looked petrified of her and started to reach for their weapons before Keip raised up a hand in a calming gesture, grenade launcher still on her back, and pulled out her Work Guild License. The Humans barely glancing at it before nodding, Keip hopping over the barrier and slowly moving toward the location. But stopping about ten feet from the barrier, easily two hundred feet still before the building, before crouching down to look over the building. It looked like an office building of some sort, the doors and a lot of the windows broken. Many possible points of entry.

The female Kig would tap her claws on her rejigged ODST armor as she considered her options. Explosives would be out for the most part so she didn't harm the hostages. That is of course until they knew where they were, hopefully all in one spot so she could explode everything else.

Her helmet soon over her head and hiding most of her features beside her beak as she waited for the Humans 'special team' to arrive...And offering a little prayer to Aecor that she could help and get paid this time.

[Sentinel]

Lieutenant Colonel Henry "Salt" Dawes
153rd ODST, 3rd Battalion CO
Arriving at the Scene
Another day, another bunch of people to save...


    Salt sat shotgun in a transport Warthog alongside his fellow ODST, Sergeant James Gaddy. Salt had personally requested to be a part of the young sergeants mission. It had been a while since he had seen any action on the ground, and he needed to stretch his legs. All the Colonels and Generals he worked with just pissed him off. Besides, he liked helping the police. It was hard to combat giant aliens without military hardware. And that's what he was here as; hardware.

    Two other Warthogs drove behind his, carrying the rest of Gaddy's squad. The call for help had specified a force of twelve, including an ape. And Salt hated those assholes. Took too much ammo to take down; took too many marines with them. During the war, he had fought them only rarely, but when he did, it was a long and gruesome battle. They had a tendency of charging madly, bashing the marines to pieces in the process. More than fighting them himself, Salt hated sending his marines to.

    Soon, after winding through several crowded streets, the building was in sight. Police had already formed a barrier, and the scene was drawing a crowd. Salt donned his helmet, and cocked his BR55. He had kept the same one for over fifteen years, and in the stock a host of kill tallies were etched along with the phrase "Feet first into hell". He knew it was cliche, but also didn't give a shit. It was the truth. The Warthogs pulled up, and the marines hopped down, helmets on and weapons ready. He surveyed the area. Several cops, and a crowd of people that would need to be dispersed. This would get ugly quick. 

"Alright everybody, LISTEN UP!" Salt yelled, since all eyes were on him and his ODSTs anyway, "This location is now deemed a high security area. All civilian personnel are to remain at least three hundred feet from the perimeter." He motioned for Gaddy's squad to assist the police in getting the civilians back, while the Colonel himself went to speak to an officer. 

"What's the situation?" He asked the officer, helmet still on and polarized. He never cared for courtesy.

"As far as we know, there are at least twelve of those aliens in there led by a big furry one. We have hostages inside, but have recieved no demands. We figure they are just going to kill them. That's why we called you guys."

    Salt nodded, and checked on the crowd. He spotted an odd looking space chicken, armed, hanging around near the barrier. Oh great... he thought. A merc. He approached it and asked for ID.
    

[roachman34]

Connor Lawton Trader
Sitting captive in the building

Connor sat with the rest of the captives and the first mate of his crew. He was waiting for either to be rescued or to be killed, though the latter wouldn't happen without a fight. He looked around and guessing that this is definitely the type of situation to drink in, took out the flask he had and unscrewed it taking a swig before replacing it back on his belt. Then it was back to the waiting game staying stoic and silent while some of the other hostages whispered prayers and other such things. He sighed and tapped his first mate and pushed a piece of paper over that had a tic tac toe board on it with an X in the middle.

[tento125]

SDF Colonel Chatchai Buabaisri
On board a phantom, over Lake town
Kill the bastards

"TREAM AWOOT!" (WEAPONS CHECK!) Chatchai heard Lt "Ren" Somsak call out to his commandos.

The sounds of rifles clicking can be heard as 18 SDF commandos readied their weapons. The Saensuk Defense Force had been engaged in a conflict with a well organized group of pirates, and one of their leaders had set up shop in Lake Town. Their mission today? to capture said leader.

"PRAEM NA KRUB DEK DEK!" (Ready kids?) the phantom pilot called, "60 WI!" (60 SECONDS!). Intelligence had tapped into the local net and intercepted a call for help detailing that an hostile alien force had taken a lot of prisoners hostage, with a brute leading the pack, that's their guy.

Not wanting to waste time alerting the local forces to SDF presence, Chatchai, being the CO of the SDF commandos himself, ordered the strike team to depart immediately.

"Ummm.... Pu pun krub?" (Ummm... Colonel?) the co-pilot called out. Chatchai made his way up to the cockpit. "Tam yang rai taw dee?" (Now what do we do?) the co-pilot said, pointing towards a huge crowd surrounding a particular building, local police forcing them back and had erected a barrier with what looked like a strike team of their own preparing to assault the building.

"Tam darm paen" (Follow the plan) Chatchai blatantly replied as he made his way back to the troop bay. They dont have time to negotiate with the locals. Besides, there are hostages inside, the sooner they are saved the better. Which would be a huge bonus in addition to the pirate's leader.

Chatchai then felt the pilot doing a complete fly by of the building, before all went still.

"KEAW!" Chatchai heard the pilot shout as the troop bay doors opened to reveal the roof of the building, they were about 2 meters above it. "DORD DAI!" (JUMP!)

Instantly Chatchai went first, indistinguishable to the other commandos jumping down onto the roof, clad in black armor, very similar to ODSTs. Clutching their f2000 assault rifles, the commandos took up position around the roof access door as the phantom quickly departed, it will come back when the target is secured. A commando then pulled out his tac-pad while another pulled out a small drone the size of a humming bird. With the door slightly opened, the drone went inside, its video feedback being sent to the tac-pad.

Satisfied with their progress so far, Chatchai keyed his microphone and broadcasted a message on an open frequency: "This is SDF Colonel Chatchai Buabaisri to all local forces. We are here to apprehend an enemy of the Saensuk Defense Force. Please do not fire upon us over" he ended his transmission as the 18 commandos waited.....

[Faclan]

Keip Eox - Ibie'Voan Mercenanry
Sedna, Lake Town
Heeeey cooperation yeah?

The roaring of engines signaled the arrival of more Humans. Maybe the teams or maybe more police but Keip was busy watching the building. The identity of those who arrived would soon be revealed.

And so it was when a Human started to scream and shout - the female glancing down at her wrist as the screaming was translated for her. An extra 100 feet of distance? That seemed pretty excessive. But apparently the police were going along with it because when she turned her head around they were starting to move people further back. Which soon left Keip alone with a good sized group of ODSTs. Hopefully they wouldn't get all bent out of shape about her modified armor of the same style and make. Wouldn't be the first time or the last time those jumpy Humans had jumped to conclusions.

But the apparent leader soon swaggered up to her and demanded an ID. Fair enough. The female with her arm up a bit so she could read the translation and keep him in view as she nodded and once again retrieved it. It would be clear from looking at her that the ODST armor wearing Kig was one that was skilled in destruction judging by the amount of grenades she was carrying in addition to the Human grenade launcher on her back. But she held out the ID to be taken and examined, when asked to present it. She wanted to do something today so best not to cause problems.

The ID would show her face, the female lifting up her helmet when the Human looked from it back to her, and her name next to it. Some basic information like her gender, feather color, and eye color. Below that would be her race, Ibie'Voan - an official Kig-Yar guild seal of a right to work below that, and at the bottom her signature, in Kiggle. Plopping the thick helmet back on her head she adjusted it so it was more comfortable and strapped it back under her chin.

"I hope you won't turn down help..." she started in Kiggle before scanning over the Human before spotting his rank thing on his shoulder. Damn it was shiny but...kinda lame looking? Some kind of star shaped...leaf?. "Major?" Best she could get from it. "It is not just Humans in there and it would be a good show of cooperation for us all to work together yes?" Ughhhh barrrrf. Not like she believed any of that but she needed some work and pay. The female holding out her hand to take her ID back while also holding her wrist sideways as her cheeps, clicks, and hisses were translated into English in case Shiny in front of her didn't speak Kiggle.

That was of course until she was distracted by a droning engine noise, quickly picking it out to be Covenant, and then a Phantom streak overhead heading right toward the building. Keip turning around to follow it as she was kind of shocked to see one of those in the skyline of this mainly Human dominated planet. But there it was...heading right for the problem building. Shiny Salt able to see the grenade launcher better now and see that it was indeed a Human made one, though with a few scribbles and color added to it.

Keip was even more surprised when Humans started to pile out of it on the room of the hostage building...that was sure a thing. Glancing back at Salt she made a little errr sound and a shrug before clicking out some more words. 

"Are they yours?" a bit of a pause. "They don't look official...This may go poorly."

------------------

MEANWHILE

As the Phantom was unloading the troopers the cockpit would get several message attempts beeping at it before one finally seemed to get through the general block. The voice sounded robotic, probably some kind of simple AI.

"You have illegally entered Sedna airspace in an unregistered vehicle with unregistered gear and are attempting to engage illegally with enemies of the Sedna people. Leave IMMEDIATELY."

[Sentinel]

Lieutenant Colonel Henry "Salt" Dawes
153rd ODST, 3rd Battalion CO
Preparing to move in
A family reunion...

    Salt looked at the ID that was presented and took a good look at the what was it now... Ibie'Vaoan? He hated these alien names. Too damn complicated. Why couldn't they keep it as simple as the UNSC? Space Chicken rolls off the tongue far better than Ibie'Vaoan. He noticed the ODST armor, and nearly broke the fuckers scrawny neck. He could guess where it had probably come from, but in a moment of self-control, decided to give the chicken the benefit of the doubt that it had bought it somewhere. He wouldn't like working with this one one bit. But, the ID was all in order, so he didn't really have too much choice.

    The amount of explosives and the human grenade launcher the chicken carried was enough to level the building almost, so Salt had no doubt he would have to keep this one on a short leash. He never really got over the war, and working with aliens to fight against aliens just felt all kinds of fucked up. But a job's a job, and there were civilians that needed rescue. If they weren't already dead. Then, a familiar sound triggered a reflex in Salt to look up. There, gliding in, was a Phantom. Great, he thought, more aliens. My lucky fuckin' day. As it approached, Salt heard the transmission come over comms.

"This is SDF Colonel Chatchai Buabaisri to all local forces. We are here to apprehend an enemy of the Saensuk Defense Force. Please do not fire upon us, over."

Chatchai. The same one from the war? His day just kept getting better and better. 

"Colonel," Salt said sarcastically, "I expect you have a damn good explanation for why you are landing unauthorized on my roof?"

Salt motioned to the ODSTs to keep eyes on the roof, and awaited his old friend's answer.

[tento125]

SDF Admiral "Nam" Chanachon Boonphakdee
SDF Chakri
In orbit above Sedna
Monitoring stuff

"Rai ghan" (report) Nam told his communications officer as he entered the bridge, cup of coffee in hand.

"Gong gam lang tong tin dai lawm rawp puen ti wai leaw" (Local forces have surrounded the area) the Lt. reported. "Ruar eak Kawin dai rai ghan ma wa dai rub koh kwam jak tang rataban kowng Sedna" (Lt. Kawin reported that he received a message from the Sedna government.)

"Nai doo si?" (Let me see it) Nam replied. He remembered that Lt Kawin was the one who transported the strike team down to the planet. Probably a message telling them to basically "fuck off" but Nam still wanted to be formal about it.

Sooner or later, a message appeared on his tac-pad, it was translated from speech to text so that means he would be spared from the voice of a probably angry/panicked government official. He opened the message to be greeted by; "You have illegally entered Sedna airspace in an unregistered vehicle with unregistered gear and are attempting to engage illegally with enemies of the Sedna people. Leave IMMEDIATELY". Pretty much what he expected.

"Har jud gamnurd kowng koh kwarm" (Find the source of the message) Nam ordered before being greeted by the sounds of key board tapping from a few consoles, before the crew managed to locate the source.

"Perd chong" (open channel)

"Chong praem krub" (Channel ready sir)

Nam nodded to the Lt before starting his message, "Attention Sedna Government. I am Admiral Chanachon Boonphakdee of the Saensuk Defence Force. There is a pirate amongst you who is wanted by us. We believe that this pirate is also the one who is currently holding hostages in......." he paused before glancing over to a map to read the name of the town, "...... Lake Town. We mean no harm to the Edna people. Once we have our guy, we will leave as requested. Admiral Chanachon out"

He switched off his mike and prayed that Chatchai didn't do anything stupid...........

-------------------------------------------------------------

SDF Colonel Chatchai Buabaisri
Lake town,
Hey how's it been???

"Colonel," a familiar voice blared over the channel, "I expect you have a damn good explanation for why you are landing unauthorised on my roof?" the voice sounded someone Chatchai knew well........ during his time as an ODST......... could it be???

"Salt is that you?" Chatchai said rushing over to the edge of the roof and scanned the scene below. He took out his gun and used the scope to scan the scene below, careful not to put his finger on the trigger and trusting that no one below would take pot shots at him. A few seconds later, his recon payed off. In the aiming reticle of his scope, he spot his target.

In the middle of a squad of ODSTs, there was an ODST officer, full bar ranks of a Lt. Colonel on, with a helmet with the words 'Feet first into hell' scratched on it. Chatchai knew only 1 guy that was crazy enough to do it.

"Oh my god, SALT IT IS YOU!" he shouted into the mic before lowering his gun "Long time no see old friend. Might want to take those bars off before an alien takes those off for ya." Chatchai said, overjoyed with being able to meet his friend again with the confused looks of every single commando he has brought with him. Overjoyment overcomed, his mind managed to snap back to the mission at hand.

"So, about your question salt" Chatchai started "My intel believes that the leader of these 'terrorists', if you want to call them that, is also the leader of a pirate faction that has been harassing my people for the past 6 years. He's a brute so if you see one, please try to keep it alive I would really appreciate it ok? Thanks"

Lt. Rem tapped him on the shoulder and took him to look at the video feed from the drone. The drone had already mapped out the top quarter of the building and is about to move on the the lower levels.

"Song feed pai hai puak nawick noi" (Send the feed to the marines) Chatchai ordered. A slight hesitation followed but Lt. Rem reluctantly followed through. Chatchai then got on the mic again to talk to Salt.

"I have a drone in the building as we speak. I already sent the feed down to you so you should be able to see it on your HUD". he said before cutting off and continued to wait.....

[Faclan]

(Feel free to keep talking Sentinel and tento125 as Keip cant do much at the moment besides stand around awkwardly as the Humans radio back and fourth.)

[roachman34]

Connor Lawton, Trader
Still waiting in the building,
Playing Tic Tac Toe...


Connor still sat playing Tic Tac Toe with his first mate, he tried to invite people to join but they mostly shrugged him off pretty terrified. Connor had faced death many times before and this was no different from those others, save for the fact that Connor was unarmed. Though he continued to wait and this reminded him of the time some of his crew got a bit hammered and got into a brawl with a Kig'yar trader and after blows were exchanged one of his crew ended up in their hands. Connor had been called to save the day, and upon talking with the Kig'yar captain was able to settle the dispute by paying a fee to release them, though when they got back to the ship the crew member caught a right hook to the jaw. Though Connor kept taking swigs from his flask at different times, he continued to wait, playing Tic Tac Toe in a very bored manner. Though as Connor played he would glance around at the other captives and the captors, a rather large Jiralhanea and several Kig'yar, though he thought he had seen a Sangheili skulking around muttering to the Kigs, the Jiralhanea had one of their shot gun pistols.

"Maulers? Right that is what those are?" Connor thought to himself. The Kig'yar had plasma pistols and needlers, pretty standard but still deadly, and there was a group of grunts they had an assortment of plasma weapons, Connor didn't really pay them any attention, though through the silence a faint whirring sound echoed through the halls. He merely went back to his game of Tic Tac Toe, though he wondered what that sound could be.