Logs from the Sevantya / #013 - "Blood Money"
02 Aug 2023Tosh Vraugen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SEVANTYA / X8F-55N -------------------------------
-------------- COMMAND BRIDGE TERMINAL - 02/08/3309 - 23:09 ---------------
Login: Tosh Vraugen
Password: ****************
Authorization Code: Bravo-5-Kilo-7
----- ACCESS GRANTED -----
Welcome commander, you have 1 unread message.
- From: [ENCRYPTED] / Received: 02/08/3309 08:23 /Subject: "Payment Authorized"
CARRIER STATUS: Nominal
LOCATION: Gubia - Orbiting planet C 1
>/ INITIATE_LOG_RECORDING
Log Title: "Blood Money"
P r o c e s s i n g . . .
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Access Granted / [Voice Recording ◉]
Alright... arghhh... ok... (deep breath) I just returned from the Med Bay, Doctor Holland patched me up, as always, but I'm not sure if its my age or... whatever... but these bullet wounds are hurting more than usual... so... about our current situation, yes... we have returned to our roots, and the Sevantya is finally an indenpendent vessel once again, there is... something unique about flying under no banners, we are free to do whatever we want and take the jobs we want, without having to concern if it will affect relationships with other factions and the whatnot, the crew seems content with how things are going and if they are happy then I'm happy too... Earlier this week we took a... ARGGHH... fuck... (deep breath) we took a job at Pirate's Lament, but this time it wasn't for Azimuth Biotech, the client... or should I say "clients" decided to remain anonymous, the job seemed like the usual mercenary war support, go to the X system, fight for Y faction, win. Pretty simple right? I just wasn't expecting the targeted faction to be my former brothers in arms.
Me and another crew of mercs hired by the same people were dispatched to Gubia... Alliance Rapid Reaction Corps controlled system... from the brief intel we got, it seemed like a war for the control of the system had started and we, the mercs, would support ground infantry into taking key settlements, each merc was tasked with commanding a platoon and attacking or defending a settlement in the system. I was tasked with leading the assault of a small mining facility called Dovbush's Reserve, we embarked on the Vultures in Noli Bastion and departed to the battlefield shortly after our arrivel in the system... the travel to the facility was quiet, you could see that many of these soldiers were just fresh recruits, from the looks on their faces they were very nervous... the guy on my left was praying, the one in front of me was checking his weapon every 5 seconds and the one next to him was shaking like a ship captured by the cone of a neutron star... I tried to calm them but I guess each one deals with these situations differently...
It didn't take long to reach Dovbush's Reserve, as soon as we entered the facility perimeter we were greeted by the fire of Anti Air Turrets placed by ARRC forces, even though the Vultures are protected by prismatic shields, the impact from the shells can surely shake everyone who is inside, and that is when folks start to get desperate, once again I had to calm these boys down so they wouldn't just panic and freeze by the time we dropped... the hatch opened below us and you could see that other squads were already on the ground fighting... as soon as the seat releases opened, the guy in front of me got hit by an anti air shell and was blown to bits, luckily the rest of us managed to drop safely, but the damned ARRC sob's had the placed locked tight, they even managed to retrofit a mining SRV for combat and that thing was shredding our boys as they dropped, the first task me and the men from my dropship did was to put that thing down, thankfully the Scarab SRV armor is very light and a few grenades and shots from ours AR-50s were enough to take it out... with the SRV and most of the Anti Air Turrets down, their forces had to retreat to the facility buildings.
Shortly after their retreat into the facility buildings, we heard a loud explosion... they sabotaged their own power reactor so our forces would have to engage them in the dark... shit... the bastards were equipped with Night Vision while our boys only had their flashlights... if fighting by the low light of a brown dwarf is already bad enough, imagine having to go into a dark building with only your fleshlight as a light source and your enemy has a complete and perfect view of the inside and your fat body walking in... the first minutes were the most intense, it was a massacre... we lost most of the initial drop force by trying to capture the buildings but in the end we managed to overcome the defenders... but the battle didn't end there, we got notified via radio that reinforcements were coming in.... now instead of attacking we were the defenders... the battle raged on for another 10 or so minutes as both sides dropships pumped troops into the ground... feeding the meat grinder... eventually we got the notification, no more ARRC reinforcements were coming and their last soldier was killed... Dovbush's Reserve was finally ours...
The battle was over for now... the soldiers were regrouping, counting the dead, helping the wounded... that sort of thing... the command at Noli Bastion warned that we would only have about 30 minutes until another ARRC assault force showed up, it wasn't much time, but for these men and women it was almost like a "divine" respite... I tried to find the guys from my dropship but I couldn't find anyone, I thought the poor sob's were all dead, it was then I found a soldier sitting by a crashed Sidewinder, it was the guy that was praying next to me when we were about to drop, I joked with him "I guess we made it eh?" he then looked at me with some very sad eyes and said "Did we? Doesn't look like it..." I decided then to sit next to him, we were both covered in blood splatters, sand and dust but now, in the calm before the storm, it was possible to see that he was an old man, maybe on his 50s or so, he then told me "I've fought in many wars... trust me when I say we didn't make it, there are no victors in this, just brothers killing brothers, as it has always been..." I don't know why, but his words hitted me like a truck, I simply had no words to answer him and we both just sat there... staring at the battlefield... waiting for the next fight and wondering if we would survive. The next assault wave arrived as command informed, once again the battle raged on the small settlement, what once was a working place, was now littered with bullet holes, blood, bodies and ships debris... after that fight we still managed to hold the mining facility, but I had to be moved to a medical unit, a lucky bastard managed to put some plasma slugs on my back, and I was too wounded to keep fighting. Before my extraction, I looked for the old man... something told me to see if he was alright, but I couldn't find him... that place was total chaos... and now here am I, recording this so I can keep my sanity... I truly hope that guy is alright... now I must rest and in a few hours I will be redeployed to Noli Bastion for a new assignment... and well (sigh) this is what we mercenaries do... and we get paid in blood money for it... Tosh Vraugen, signing out.