Story:Operation Intervention

Intro
"So... that's the operation you two. By the way, Colonel Etah and Captain Alimiraa won't be joining you for the mission. Something came up before they learned of this op." General Kesstik said, lacking his regular official tone.

"Dismissed."

Ahrganot and Tholker stood and left the briefing room and made their way towards the hangar.

"So, we'll arrive in orbit around the planet in a Senate cruiser leased from the Konry, and then fly down in an HV-17. After that we parachute in. Sound right?" Zhevhyit asked.

"Sounds right to me."

The two walked into the hangar and approached the activated HV-17, which they promptly entered. The doors of the helicopter slammed shut and it lifted off. The huge hangar doors slowly opened, and the helicopter flew out and up towards the cruiser in orbit.

Four hours later...

"Alright, you two. We're at optimum drop altitude of 10,000 feet. Stand up!" The pilot yelled.

An Eteno opened the side door and gestured for Tholker and Ahgranot to line up, as for normal precedure.

Dhragolon
The two looked down and could not see the ground, only a blue expanse of clouds.

"Alright, let's do this!" Tholker said. He jumped first and began to plummet towards the ground. Ahrganot stretched out his wings getting ready to jump. Fortunately, he had the moderately developed wings trait and had the ability to glide so he didn't need a parachute. Then, he leaped out soaring downwards like a Ptero-eagle from Ucharpli.

Ahrganot sped up joining Tholker who was still in free fall. Not long after, Tholker activated his parachute as they began descent into a green forest out of signal range from the nearby city. Suddenly, a strong wind separated the two of them and Tholker's parachute was torn. Ahrganot began to lose his balance and rapidly began to flap his wings.

"Oh c'mon. Not now!" Tholker said. He began uttering prayers to Marana as he rapidly descended.

Shouting over the radio, Ahrganot said, "Tholker, are you alright?"

"Not really. Wherever that turbulence came from, it was strong enough to put a hole in my chute."

"I've been blown off course. I'm not sure that I can reach you before impact."

As Tholker rapidly descended, he crashed through the crown of the trees about to hit the hard ground, but he stopped just before; his chute was caught in a tree. Ahrganot was at least a mile away.

Eteno
"Agh... oh well, nothing I can't get out of."

Tholker produced a knife from his belt and sliced the cords connecting him to the ruined parachute that was snagged on the thick forest cover. He fell several feet and hit the ground on his feet.

"Better check my bearings." He mumbled to himself.

He studied his positioning system and found that he was far from the city. If he wanted to get there before nightfall, he would need a mount. He began his trek in the direction of the city he was planned to land near. He walked for about half an hour until he exited the densest part of the forestland. Zhevhyit pulled out his radio and checked the op. channel for any interference or natives unwittingly using it. It was clear. Good.

"Tholker to Ahrganot. Tholker to Ahrganot. Do you read?"

"Copy that Tholker. What's your position?"

"That was a strong gust. I'm thirty klicks off of the drop zone. You'll have to initiate the op without me."

"Roger that."

---

Ahrganot surveyed the vast cityscape before him from the relative safety of a tall, densely-foliated tree with his binoculars. The team had to avoid bringing anything too high-tech or too much, as it would give them away to the warring factions of the planet. The city looked very pristine and there were no crumbling buildings in sight. Either the city had good repairmen, or it was untouched by the war.

"A good a place as any to start, I suppose."

Dhragolon
Ahrganot donned a mask to fit his face and hid his wings under his jumpsuit. He glued leaves to his suit with mud to make him look like a primitive tribal inhabitant. He entered the city taking his first glance at the inhabitants. They were somewhat shorter than him, yet taller than an Eteno. Immediately, he came to gate with several guards. This city must be rather peaceful, yet still aware of the war.

Ahrganot did not really know how to approach these people so he improvised.

"Greetings, I wish to enter the city."

"I need your passport, please." Then, the guard rudely said, "Now just wait a minute. What kind of wacko tries to waltz in dressed up as a dragon? Seems a bit suspicious on my part."

"What are you talking about? All I want to do is introduce myself to your people. I've never been in a city before."

"Don't play dumb with me, warmonger. I know what you are up to."

Another guard said, "You know this guy could be one of those weird Forest Dwellers."

"He's a bit tall for one, but I guess he passes for a Forest Dweller. After all, they are kind of ignorant and dress in weird costumes."

Within the mask, Ahrganot rolled his eyes. Then, the first guard said, "Although you don't have a passport, I need to see your face. I just want to make sure you are not a spy or anything."

"Oh no! My face is all scratched up by a lion! You'll faint at the sight of it."

"Doesn't matter. Show me."

Reluctantly, Ahrganot removed his mask trying to keep his real face as still as possible and holding his breath.

The guards burst out laughing. "Ha ha! I never knew you guys wore two masks! I must say, why would you put the more realistic mask underneath the fake one?"

Putting his mask back on, Ahrganot replied, "It's one of our customs. If you let me in, I would gladly enlighten your people of our interesting ways."

"Fine. You can come in, but you are not allowed to enter any government buildings. I'm still suspicious of you."

As Ahrganot literally waltzed in he sent a secret code via radio to Tholker alerting him that he was in the city.

Karnasaur
"What the hell were you thinking, General? Sending them in with out me? How long have they been running hhi-risk ops, General? I've done it for thousands of years. At yet you'd think that just because I had to run a quick confirmation with with my superiors, you should send them in any way?"

Etah was furious. He felt he was being a bit arrogant, but he felt that he should have been at least alerted to the teams departure with out him.

"Colonel, we had to get the team on the ground with or with out you. If either side gets to orbit they'll start colonizing planets to get the edge on the other with extra-planetary resources and-"

I don't want to here it. I see your point general, but you still should have told me the team was leaving." With that, Etah turned toward the Sauran transport behind him.

"Where are you going?"

"They may've already started the op, but they aren't ending it with out me. With Sauran FTL I'll be planet side within the hour. I'll radio the team to get a sitrep when I get there."

With that, Etah sealed the transport door and gestured for the pilot to take off.

--

In a half hour Etah was in orbit around the planet. He could see smoke and fire on the surface.

"Pilot, this planet's superfactions- are they nuclear capable?"

"No sir, but one side exploits thermite explosives in every thing from bullets to grenades to long range missiles."

"Must have the advantage."

"Actually sir, the other faction has powerful shield technology. Thermite is useless against them. They only use it in small elite infantry and city defense, though. Drop time, sir."

Etah nodded and climbed into his SODP (Sauran Orbital Drop Pod). He sealed the door and "kicked the door", or punched the release switch. Next thing he felt was getting jettisoned out of the transport- hard. He was heading groundside, and fast. Only Etah did orbital drops this high, and that's because when you hit the ground there's enough force to bend impervium. When he did hit the ground, he felt a cybernetic in his leg pop out of place.

"Ah, for the love of Yetu-" Etah complained. Displaced implants are the worse. Fortunatly, it was the loose one that Etah just has to pop back in.

"Much better."

Surveying his surroundings, he heard several shouts and fotsteps headed his way.

"Natives."

Etah, using his Sauran insticts, hid in the darkness to evaluate the threat. When he saw several unclassified sentients clad in high-tech armor, he knew this was going to be difficult.

Using his universal translator, he heard one, the commander, it seems, give an order to search the pod for enemy technology. Shields especially.

"Thermites"

Etah thought to himself. Following standard procedure to prevent technology thft he snuck away to a safe distance, activated his wrist computer, and entered the self destruct code for his pod. A 3 second countdown, a flash of light, and all that was left was brown paste and ash.

"At least I know two things now: I'm in Thermite territory, and they have brown blood."

Eteno
Tholker had finally found a way to get to the city. It was a mule. The four-legged animal was wandering aimlessly, with a saddle on its back. The Eteno had brought some grain, so he knew there was a way to lead the animal on. Tholker fashioned a see-through bag with materials from his bag and a pouch on his belt. He tied the bag to a stick, mounted the animal, and held the stick over the mule's head in the direction of the city.

"Tholker Zhevhyit! Come in Tholker! This is Colonel Etah Owar." His radio blared abruptly.

After recovering from his heart attack, Zhevhyit replied:

"Colonel Etah Owar, eh? I knew there was a new team member coming. Anyway, I'm on the way to the city. Ahrganot is already in posing as a tribal crazy. Where are you?

"About two klicks North of your position. I killed a few of these creatures and destroyed my pod to prevent them from tracking me."

"On any normal occasion, I would say good job and buy you a beer, but now is not the time for killing. I'll see if I can get to your position."

"Copy that, but I had little choice but to kill them. Otherwise they would've realized something not of thier world was here. Etah out."

The Eteno linguist switched off his radio and continued his ride. He adjusted the position of the stick and bag slightly so that the mule would move in the direction of Owar.

Karnasaur
After speaking with Tholker, Etah decided he should radio Ahrganot to get a sitrep on the city.

"Etah to Ahrganot, do you copy?"

"I copy. I thought you weren't coming, Colonel."

"Guess you thought wrong. Tholker informs me you're in a city, designate it Alpha Point. Standby, I'm going to run a topographic scan to get an idea of the mission site."

"Copy that."

In a few seconds Etah had a holomap in is palm showing the topography a the area within 5 klicks. There were dots representing the positions of his team mates.

"Tholker, request you join radio conversation for tactical planning."

"Copy that Etah. Ears on friendly signal."

"By the looks of things, we landed on the frontlines, Alpha Point is in the middle of a tactical chokepoint, a valley leading into faction designated Shield Faction territory. Faction designated Thermite Faction is currently laying siege to it."

"That can't be right. The city is untouched by the war, and it's probably at DEFCON 3." Ahrganot reported.

"That's because Shield Faction has powerful shield technology, artillery, ballistics, probably even land units can't phase it. Thermtie Faction employs thermite in its weaponary, and we all know incendiaries don't deal any damage against shields. Remember our primary objective. We have to determine a way to end the civil war. I recommend determining a faction and crippling its military. We knowe how we can cripple both factions: We can break the siege to let the Shields win, or sabotage the shield to let the Thermites break through. Feedback?" Etah replied.

Before anyone could respond, Etah saw several more Thermites walk into his view, a platoon. They heard the explosion and were investigating.

"Etah to team: Radio silence"

Dhragolon
Ahrganot attempted to communicate telepathically to Etah and Tholker. He was no philosopher and Telepathic Amplifiers did not work on other races, but nearly all Dhragolon had some form of telepathy. He could not get his message out in words since he wasn't fluent in Karnasaur nor Eteno language (translators would not obviously work), but he tried to imply it via emotions, a vital skill that all peacekeepers involved directly with interracial matters needed to posses. It took a while to get his message out, but he managed to.

He said, "Guys, don't use the radio to talk to me. Some of our signals are being picked up and are being deciphered. It will be awhile before they realize we are speaking three different languages, but I'm going to play it safe until the invasion is over."

Ahrganot actually received a message back once again in the form of emotions. He couldn't tell whether it was from Etah or Tholker. "What's the status of Alpha Point?"

"Nothing unusual though there's explosions just over the horizon," Ahrganot responded.

"What did you think of my strategy?" a voice said which was most likely Etah's.

"Cripple the Thermite faction's economy. They are the aggressors and the swiftest way to end this without being noticed is to sabotage them silently; we shouldn't furthur involve the Shield faction. I'll head over to the frontlines to sabotage the tanks."

Ahrganot began to prance about, preaching about the evils of war and how the Shield Faction should not fight back. He purposely did this so that the war would not escalate on the non-violent side, and it actually worked somewhat to a degree. Occasionally a tomato was thrown at him and some of even threw a few vulgar insults, but Ahrganot made his way very discretely nonetheless to where the tanks were laying siege.

Eteno
Ahrganot, defying almost all odds, managed to slip out of the city and flanked the Thermite faction's heavy tanks. He quickly sifted through his unassuming sack and produced not only the highest-quality explosives, but high-powered one-use heaters. If he planted one of those under one of the besieging tanks, it would melt the bottom of the hull and any important parts there. He scanned the two others in his team telepathically, and picked up Zhevhyit practicing Yallvus to himself.

"I didn't know you spoke Yallvus Talk, Tholker."

"Aye, I do. I'm a linguist, you know." The Eteno replied mentally in the Dhragolon's language.

"That's good. I'm about to sabotage Thermite's tanks, what is your position?"

"I think I can see Etah hiding... there are a few Thermites inspecting the bloody mess that he made. I'm gonna abandon my ride and meet up with him."

"Alright, good luck. I'm moving in."

"You too."

--

Tholker quit his metal speaking and jumped off of his mount. He took the bag of grains that he was using to lead the creature and threw it in the direction of the Thermites. The mule chased after it. This gave the Eteno the perfect opportunity to leap into Etah's hiding place.

"How's it hangin', Etah?" Tholker whispered casually in perfect Karnasaur.

Karnasaur
Etah couldn't help but give a smirk. He had heard of Tholker's linguistic abilities when he read his dossier, but didn't think he could fluently speak such casual Sauran.

"Tholker. Took the scenic route, eh?"

"Mules don't exactly move that fast, you know."

"Hm. Now then, let's get to work. I did some picking about the radio channels and found out that the Thermites are religious zealots; They worship some kind of fire god they call Valcanoth, undoubtedly on account of thier effiency with thermite. They believe those who live and die by the flame will join Valcanoth in his great volcano, awaiting to make the final march on the infidels during a mighty eruption they call, Valcanarok. The nonbelievers and those who fail to be cremated are believed to be frozen in a ort of Hell-Tundra and-"

"Etah, no offense, but how does any of this help?" "I was just about to get there: Thier idea of a demon is a dragon of shadow who speaks in an alien tongue."

Both smiled at the idea, and Etah knew Tholker understood: Thermites were afraid of Karnsaurs.

"Here goes..." Etah said as he removed his translator.

He jumped down to another tree, and threw a loose brach when the soldiers weren't looking in the opposite direction. While they were distracted, he jumped into the hole left by his pod. He was aiming for a "Rising from Hell" approach. When the soldiers returned, he streched his wings a lttle and took a deep breath. He raised one claw and sunk into the ground above. They soldiers looked, with a frightened curiosity. he rose anothe claw and sunk it into the ground further away. He rose himself up onto the ground, slowly, growling quietly and low. The soldiers rose thier weapons, ready to fire on the strange creature. Etah rose to his hind legs, rising easily 2 feet higher than them. They gazed up in fear and alarm as one quivered:

"Daímonas!"

Though Etah couldn't understand without his translator, he knew the soldier just called him a demon. Good. They were buying it.

Suddenly, brushing with his inner beastial instinct, his low growl turned into a loud, bone-chilling, spine-tingling, heart-stopping, roar, filled with bestial vigor. The soldiers were absolutely petrified. One of them fainted. One started to run. The others followed suit, all the way shouting, "Daímonas!".

Etah couldn't help but smile his toothy smile and laugh. He saw straks of light moving across the sky, artillery bolts from the siege force. He saw them hit an invisible barrier indicating Alpha Point was near.

Etah looked at Tholker, his smile gone.

"I think it's time we let the Thermites know that playing with fire is dangerous."

Dhragolon
Not long after, Etah and Tholker met up with Ahrganot who had taken cover after Thermite Tanks breached the city walls.

"Nice costume you got there," Tholker said.

"Not really the time for compliments, but thanks. How have you been holding up?"

Etah replied, "We've discovered a way to fool these people into believing that I'm a demon."

After a brief explanation, Alagor commented, "I see. Do you think I could do something like that?"

"I suppose so. We are both dragons after all."

"It's rather tough trying to take down a tank discretely without giving away myself. I've only taken out one by only by sabotaging their engines. They quickly learned from their mistakes and I haven't been able to get close to them."

"Well, they probably assume you are a devil worshipping Forest Dweller given your costume, but I assume you can show your true identity."

"I might as well. They are going to be looking for a crazy primitive person wandering around trying to sabotage their engines again."

Ahrganot removed his costume revealing his draconic appearance. Then Etah and Ahrganot dashed straight to the tanks appearing right in front of them.

Tholker's translator read, "By Valcanoth, demons have appeared!"

Etah in his mockingly demonic impression spoke through his translators, "Your time is up, Thermites! Valcanoth has judged you!"

"Is this some sort of trick by those infidel Shield Faction?"

Ahrganot drew his energy sword and effortlessly destroyed one of the tanks which would have blew his cover as Forest Dweller.

"These are demons! All tanks, in the name Valcanoth, we must rid these horrible monsters of this realm!" Every single tank laying siege to the city turned around aimed their guns at Etah and Ahrganot. As there was no need to mask their technologies, they used all of their technologies against the army. While Etah and Ahrganot distracted the tanks, Tholker came up and attacked from behind.

Eteno
Etah and Ahrganot effortlessly weved and danced between the tanks with unparalelled agility, and sliced and diced as they went along. One of the tanks trained its sights on Etah, and prepared to fire. Mere seconds before the slug rocketed out of the barrel, the armored vehicle exploded and burst into violent flames. About ten meters away was Tholker chucking AT charges left and right. However, he soon reached into his grenade pack and grasped nothing but air.

"I'm bingo on grenades! Try to slice the barrels and shove something sharp through the hole, it'll screw up the loading mechanisms!" He yelled through his translator, not wanting to have to speak to his allies in two languages.

The Karnasaur and the Dhragolon yelled their affirmation, and Tholker grabbed a blunt, iron rod that had flown from the explosion of one of the Shield Faction's walls. He had left his broadsword in the bushes near the fight so he could be more mobile. Three soldiers of the Thermites quickly approached the short, yellow trooper and grasped their weapons anxiously. Zhevhyit charged and dove to the ground as his target swung horizontally with his sword. Tholker rolled between the larger Thermite's legs and swung the rod up and smashed his sensitive area with the cold iron. The alien yelled and collapsed as the Eteno immediately rose and pummeled another Thermite's face with the rod as he ascended. The final enemy closed in but was met with the iron rod as he foolishly charged forth. Zhevhyit heard the sickening and pleasing sound of cracking bone. Before Tholker moved on to assist his partners, he slammed the first enemy's head with his weapon.

"Try to get into a tank and kill the operators so we can use it!"

Karnasaur
"I think I have a better idea!" Etah shouted back. He was enjoying his time as a demon, and wanted it to end demonically. He reached into his belt and pulled out a transmitter beacon, the kind used to call in orbital strikes. He was thinking of a sort of, "Judgment Day" type of thing.

"I'm going to blow this siege force to hell! I have a Sauran corvette waiting in orbit capable of dropping a small High Energy Laser strike. Radio for it to teleport on board and tell the pilot to await my signal and align the HEL to central coordinates of the beacon!"

"I don't think so, Etah! I'm coming with you!" Tholker replied

"Same here!" Ahgranot agreed.

"Stubborn little..." Etah began to think, but was interuppted by a bullet lodging in his skull.

He turned around, and his cybernetics fixed on an enemy sniper 500m away. He locked on, aimed, and lodged a bullet of his own into the aliens brain. That was the 23rd bullet this year, all foiled kill shots, spoiled only by his genetic rewrites. Adamantine skeleton was just one perk he picked up rom the ELICAN program 5 Sauran lifetimes ago...

Before he sunk into thought, as so many Karnasaurs did, he began to trudge through the siege force, razing the aliens that shot at him, supressing the ones that didn't. All the while Tholker and Ahgranot were keeping him updated on enemy positions and distance from target zone. When he reached it, he placed the small beaon on the ground, and as he was gripping his radio to signal for extraction, he was knocked aside by a massive alien. No, not an alien.

A giant walker.

"Ah, for the love of Yetu..."

The walker fixated on him and charged up what seemed to be, and what Etah hoped to be, its main cannon.

"This... is gonna hurt. Alot"

And the next thing he saw was a giant explosion in front of him, and he ended up gaping. He looked back at were Tholer and Ahgranot should've been and saw a Thermite tank with a smoking barrel with Ahgranot on the MG. Tholker emerged from the drivers canopy, smiling at Etah.

He grabbed at his radio, and half-laughed the order for evac out. He was teleported inside the corvette with Tholker and Ahgranot, and ordered the pilot to drop the HEL Strike on the target. They recieved a lovely view of what undoubtedly the Thermites thought was thier god raining judgement down upon them. In fact, Etah could swear he heard one of them shout "Volcanoth's rage is upon us! Retreat!"

He laughed and looked at the holo-display. Sat-intel showed Thermite forces in full retreat from Alpha Point, with Shield military forces coming to reinforce Alpha Point. Only they didn't stop at Alpha Point. They were in pursuit of the Thermites now.

"Gentlemen, our mission is complete. I assume our superiors will want Us to return to the Bunker at once for debriefing. And, boys..." Etah started. Karnasaurs were natrually proud, and humility out of them was rare, though it came if trully warrented. Tholer and Ahgranot were staring at him.

"You did good." He lfted a glass of Sauran champaign and opened it, pouring every one a glass. He lifted his in a toast.

"To a great and successful partnership between us in the times to come. Yetu bless our times together and make them worthwhile, and when they draw to a close, as all things must, may they end in a great climax to be told for times to come."

It was an ancient Sauran prayer or sorts. It is used only to commemorate the start of a great friendship and partnership. That was the first time Etah used it in company of aliens.

It was also the last.