26 Silvers and Emeralds Part I

Melanie had a throbbing headache by the time she finished dealing with Viridi's planetary ministers.

She repeatedly mentally berated herself for losing her cool, a rarity that almost never happens as she contemplated the recent turn of events.

To think that not only did she have to deal with an orkk incursion but she also seemed to have uncovered part of a conspiracy too.

Under duress, the planetary ministers revealed to Melanie all of the military assets that the American government redeployed to some unknown location. These included main battle tanks, long range artillery pieces, and most of their in-atmosphere flightcrafts.

It was very likely that the case was the same for much of the other American planets.

It was obvious to her that the true reason why the Americans only revealed the redeployment of their psionics was not because of altruistic reasons or a sense of loyalty to the Intergalactic Terran Confederation but instead actually to act as a smokescreen to cover up the rest of their military movements.

There was no doubt that the Americans were planning something with such a mass redeployment of military assets. The only question was figuring out what it actually was.

And on top of all that, she still had to deal with the orkk threat with the limited resources she had at her disposal thanks to the American government.

After all, as the deputy director of P.A.I.N. and the famed Silver Sparrow she can't afford to have a blemish on her perfect record, even if it were to just defend an unimportant planet against orkks.

But that didn't change that this entire ordeal was still what one could call a 'nightmare scenario.'

[When did things get so complicated? We were only supposed to supplement the psionic defence of this planet until the U.P.A. could afford to replace them with their own psionics not deal with some orkks.]

She couldn't help but frown as she thought about this misfortunate turn of events.

She didn't expect for the mission to transform from a simple security detail to the nightmare it is now.

She wouldn't even be here if it weren't for the fact that she had to keep an eye on ???????????????? person during the whole operation.

[What a headache].

"Madame? What should we do now?"

Melanie's train of thought was soon interrupted by the voice of Jasper Edgeworth, the hazel-haired and hazel-eyed captain of the Platinum Avenger and the ship's de-facto commanding officer whenever she wasn't around.

"We were already heading for a landing pad weren't we? Just continue on the current course as planned."

Melanie replied in a rather nonchalant manner, as if she was completely oblivious to the urgency of the situation.

"Understood madame but..."

His voice lapsed into silence as he hesitated for a moment before he continued.

"But what about your father?"

Melanie didn't respond at all to his question. Seeing her reaction, he seemed to have realised his mistake when he coughed as he hurriedly corrected himself.

"Ehem, I mean what about P.A.I.N.'s director; Arthur 'Allen' Cray?"

She would only shrug casually in response.

"What about him?"

Although he appeared to be a little bit surprised by her reply, the expression on his face exclaimed the sentence 'well, I guess this was only to be expected.' After a short moment of silence, Jasper made a resigned sigh before he proceeded to speak.

"Understood. Is there anything else that you need completed?"

Melanie paused for a short while to think to herself before she answered his question.

"After seeing to it that we can land on Viridi, summon all of the P.A.I.N. psionic operatives that are not part of the Avenger's crew to the cafeteria. I'm going to hold an emergency meeting."

...

Cynthia gathered within the cafeteria among the other psionic operatives, all of them sat on one of the available cafeteria table seats as they awaited for Melanie to explain to them why she called them here.

Because the original plan was for all of the psionic operatives to be divided into numerous separate task forces who handled different objectives once they landed, they would have been briefed at differing times and were only given information on a need-to-know basis.

Other than that, each psionic operative would have already been briefed on the basics of the planet and what kind of threats they should be expecting before they boarded the Platinum Avenger.

Not only that but it was also somewhat awkward to divulge what seemed to be important information just a mere few moments before they landed.

It would make sense if it was a secretive black ops operation but their only task was to act as a supplementary defence force until they were recalled.

As such, the only reason that Melanie would even call this meeting in the first place was if there was a critical development on Viridi that everyone needed to be aware of.

Annoyingly, that careless expression on Melanie's face made it hard for Cynthia to guess what this development actually was.

But she had a hunch.

There was only one threat that necessitated an emergency meeting like this hours before they landed.

Soon enough, Melanie while flanked by a contingent of black-suited D.R.E.A.D. crimson marines confirmed Cynthia's suspicions.

"We have confirmed the existence of orkk forces within the wastelands of Viridi."

Although her declaration immediately caused a stir amongst the psionics, her very presence and the psionics' conditioning from their repeated training drills prevented them from discussing the matter amongst themselves.

Cynthia herself, actually held mixed feelings upon this revelation. Of course, she didn't let any of her emotions show on her face.

Nevertheless, Melanie still continued on with the briefing.

"After much deliberation, the planetary ministers of Viridi and I have both agreed that these orkks must be eliminated. We also agreed on the general battle plan. More details will be given to you once you are divided into your task forces but this is the general idea of the battle strategy."

After making a slight hand wave to the crimson marines behind her, all of the aforementioned marines held their right arms forward in unison before a large holographic screen projected itself out the gauntlets of their right hand.

The screen itself was so large that it nearly stretched out from side to side of the cafeteria while its height was slightly off from touching both the roof and the flooring of the cafeteria.

What was actually on the screen was what appeared to be a topographic map of a sector of Viridi's wasteland. There didn't seem to be any elevation nor any vegetation on this area of the wasteland save for the occasional hills and sparse shrubbery.

The most eye catching detail of the map however, was the massive red circle at the direct centre. And at the very centre of that red circle was the green 'Warboi' emblem; a pair of two rectangles with horns and eyes that was meant to resemble an orkk head.

The emblem itself was commonly used by the orkks no matter what orkk tribe or warband they belonged to. The emblem was emblazoned in the form of metal coatings onto their tanks, armour and even their weapons, typically alongside the emblem of their respective warband or tribe.

Sometimes only the Warboi emblem was present while the emblems of their warband or tribe was completely absent. Either way, it was rare for an orkk to be seen without the Warboi emblem being inscribed onto at least one of their equipments.

The Warboi emblem became so synonymous with the orkk race that even the officials of the Intergalactic Terran Confederation as well as officials of the I.T.C.'s client nations utilised the emblem as a symbol to refer to the orkks.

It was obvious what the large red circle with the Warboi emblem was meant to symbolise.

After letting everyone silently stare at the map for a short while, Melanie cleared her throat to gather their attention before she began briefing them on the general battle plan.

"This is sector 49-C of the wastelands, where an orkk warship, predicted to be either a frigate class or light cruiser class ship, crashed no longer than ten hours ago. In that ten hour time period, they should have already 'kannibalized' their ship into scrap before transforming them into military grade weapons and vehicles.

Although that was only a prediction, the orkk race in of themselves is very predictable. They very rarely deviate from the predicted movements and when they do, it's usually due to sheer luck. Orkks are simple minded creatures whose lack of critical thinking can be easily taken advantage of."

Melanie paused for a few seconds to survey the cafeteria before she continued.

"As you are all probably thinking, yes we are planning to take advantage of their simple minded nature. An Orkk's strengths lie in their savage instincts, high physical capabilities and their countless numbers, we simply need to lure them into a fight where these advantages can be largely negated.

The most suitable location for this fight would be the 'Dardanelle Ravine' which is only a few miles away from where the orkks originally landed."

As she said this, the map moved downwards in a southwestern direction towards a long winding ravine that appeared to be situated between two ridges. However, the ridges themselves appeared to very steep and ill-suited for being used as power positions to attack at the orkks from above.

"A small strike team will lure the orkks from their encampment to this location. From there we will mount an ambush while using the topographical landscape to our advantage. There the orkks' numbers will mean nothing. All you all have to do is hold the line until all of the orkks are effectively eliminated.

As most of you can probably tell, we can only have minimal forces stationed atop the ravine's ridges due to environmental reasons. And before any of you gets your hopes up, the only ones who will be stationed atop the ravines are the mortar teams of Viridi's military.

Unless otherwise specified, no P.A.I.N. psionic will be seen on top of that ridge."

A resounding but almost indistinguishable sigh echoed within the cafeteria in response to Melanie's words. Cynthia herself remained unmoved but she did empathise with the other psionics, even if she didn't really care about them.

Nevertheless, Melanie seemed to have ignored the crowds as she continued speaking in an indifferent tone.

"I'm sure that you are all already aware of the basics about the orkks but protocol dictates that I must repeat this to all of you.

The orkks are a barbaric and crude yet terrifyingly potent species.

Their weapons and vehicles are ramshackle, ill-kempt rustbuckets yet they are horribly effective.

They are all on average physically stronger, faster and more agile than you.

They are all battle-maniacs who only seek to indulge themselves in ceaseless strife and conflict, taking joy in the pain they both inflict and receive.

The orkks operate under the complete antithesis of standard contemporary warfare.

While typical battle stratagems would attempt to gain strategic victories with as little resource waste as possible, orkks will literally throw everything they have into a single fight for the most petty of reasons if it means that they will 'have fun.'

They will never slow, they will never relent and every 'failure' that they suffer only excites them and their fighting spirits, causing them to fight stronger and harder than they previously were.

And most importantly, the two words 'peace' and 'mercy' doesn't even exist in their vocabulary so don't expect any positive outcome from surrendering or attempting to parlay with them."

She paused for a short moment to let what she said sink before she continued.

"In short, they will not hold back and they will kill you if given the chance."

Cynthia felt as if Melanie was directing her gaze directly towards the former as the latter concluded her speech.