Battletech: Biohazard (Commissioned)

[MarkWarrior]

Battletech: Biohazard

Chapter 1

Date: April 13, 3005
Location: Delos IV, Federated Suns

"It is going to be nice to have some shore leave," Jasmine muttered, looking around at the rest of her tank crew as they walked through a small town on the surface of the world. It had been a long time since they'd departed from Clan Space, and they had been granted limited liberty to go and enjoy walking around for once instead of being cooped up inside a dropship.

"Do you really think they have anything worth seeing on a world such as this?" Aleks, the tank driver, asked. "We are on the far outskirts of the Federated Suns. I doubt there will be anything entertaining to be found here."

"We will not know until we have seen for ourselves," Sen shrugged, the Goliath Scorpion not quite at odds but still an interesting addition to the crew. "Even in such places as this, much culture and history can be found."

"Look, a bar," Frank, the youngest of them, interrupted. "I do not know about the rest of you, but I have heard a great deal of talk about the local brews."

"We can go get a drink," Jasmine sighed. "Just try not to get us in trouble."

"Alas, I am wounded!" Frank clutched at his heart. "Have I not earned your trust?!"

"On the battlefield," Jasmine chuckled, shaking her head. "Not on leave."

The four of them moved together through the barely-paved roads and entered the aptly named. "Steve's Saloon". Entering, the locals turned around before shrugging and ignoring the Mercenaries. Sure, it was not exactly a common thing for newcomers to enter a bar and get some drinks. But the locals didn't seem to care.

As the four took a seat at a nearby table, the small display in the corner of the bar continued to play what looked like old news from a few years ago.

"What is she talking about?" Aleks asked the waitress when she stopped by to collect their drink orders, gesturing towards the screen.

"Oh, that?" the woman drawled. "That's just an old replay from twenty-nine sixty. First Prince Andrew Davion took the old Warrior Cabal and gave them an ultimatum. If they could take and hold Tikonov, then they'd get their wish. If they couldn't, then they'd have to submit to his reforms. Well, they should've expected the Capellans to play dirty. Half their infantry got injected with "C" before the start of things, the Warrior Cabal didn't stand a chance. They took the first city, and within a few weeks they'd been thrown back offworld."

"You seem to know a lot about this," Sen commented. "Where did you happen to obtain this knowledge?"

"I'm surprised you don't know," the Waitress shook her head and laughed. "It was the reason the Treaty of Sixty-Five was established. Not that it held the Crappies for longer than a decade, but it was still something that we're taught in schools. That, and that the Dracs ceded any worlds they'd taken from the Fedsuns and Lyrans in twenty-nine twenty-five in exchange for closed borders. We occasionally hear rumors from across the border. But not much else."

With that, she disappeared, vanishing into the kitchen area to retrieve their drinks.

"What is 'C'?" Frank asked, looking a bit pale as he turned his gaze away from the old news report. "And why did the Capellans inject their own people with it?"

"I suspect we will find out when the Wolf Brothers have finished negotiating our contract," Jasmine shrugged. "Anything else discussed should be done back at the barracks."

With that, the four decided to ignore the screens outside of making a mental note and began drinking the alcohol they'd been brought. They'd already been informed that their clan Scrip wouldn't be any good, so the Wolf Brothers had exchanged some Germanium with the Comstar representatives in order to give their people some of the local currency. Currency that the four rapidly spent on the best alcohol they'd had in their lives.

Hours later, the tank crew left the bar, staggering down the road to the spaceport and the tents that were serving as barracks for the next few weeks. The streetlights occasionally flickered and cast dark shadows throughout the town, giving it an almost sinister pall.

The closer to the spaceport they got, the darker it seemed to be. With entire sections of road being turned into areas only illuminated by the light of the stars and moons.

In one of said dark sections, Aleks doubled over and vomited, the dark red stain in the vomit hidden by the shadows, concealing the danger they were in.

"You good?" Jasmine asked, patting her driver on the back.

"Yeah," the short man nodded. "Just the drink catching up to me, I will be fine."

With that, the four finally reached the tents and the lighting that surrounded the handful of dropships that had been allowed to make landfall. The light exposed the four, revealing Aleks's usually dark skin to have a pale look to it. His eyes seemed bloodshot even beyond the effects of alcohol, and he staggered in a way that made him look almost wounded.

"You do not look well, my friend," Sen said, helping his friend into their shared tent.

"I just need some rest," Aleks replied, sitting down on his bunk and laying down, turning his head away as he coughed.

"Then we shall leave you to it," Sen replied, sitting at the table and pulling out a deck of cards that the four had been using for the better part of a year to entertain themselves.

Three of the four found themselves so engrossed in their game that they ignored the few coughs of their driver, their laughter masking the sounds of Aleks's breathing until it finally slowed, stilled, and stopped. They were so consumed that they missed it when Aleks's body stood and began to shuffle towards the table.

"Hey, Aleks!" Frank grinned as he looked up at Aleks shrouded in the light above him. "You're up!"

Frank's smile slowly turned to horror as the man turned and lunged at Jasmine, the speed and unrestricted strength Aleks now possessed giving him enough time to begin tearing at he skin, causing her to bleed and scream before she pulled out a knife and stabbed her once-friend in the neck, dropping him and leaving him writhing on the ground.

"The hell was that?" Sen stood up, his sidearm drawn.

"I have no idea," Jasmine headed for the medkit and began drawing out gauze to wrap the long scratches and bitemarks on her arms. "But whatever it is, is is probably local."

"I'm calling the MPs," Frank muttered, moving to step over Aleks's body to do so, before his leg was grabbed. "Shit!"

Aleks didn't seem to be dead now that he was bleeding from the throat; instead, he seemingly had renewed strength that he used to bring his jaw and clamp onto Frank's calf, the usually flat teeth drawing an unusual amount of blood.

"Aleks, stop!" Sen barked, firing the sidearm into the dead man's chest, which seemed to have no effect whatsoever. Continuing to squeeze the trigger, the tanker walked the rounds up into Aleks's head, sending chunks of brain matter and brain stem through the tent and causing him to finally let go.

"Sen," Frank collapsed to the ground. "I do not feel so good."

A dark growl sounded from another nearby tent, and Sen glanced around, seeing Jasmine lying in a pool of her own blood on the ground. It shouldn't have been possible; her wounds had not been deep enough for such things. But the proof was in front of him.

Backing up, Sen turned and ran, ignoring the screams of Frank behind him as Jasmine seemed to stand back up from the dead and strike.

There was only one place where he would be safe, the dropship. Sen reloaded his pistol and began running towards the source of the gunfire he heard in the distance. It wasn't cowardice when you were faced with things that should not be possible. Running through the series of prefabs and tents. He headed for it. Safety. That was the one goal he had in mind. The Inner Sphere wasn't safe. Not for the Wolf's Dragoons, and not for the Clans.

 

[CrazedGamma1721]

I'm loving this and I can't wait to see more soon.

 

[Baldrick the Wise]

Is this the virus from Necromo Nightmare?

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 2

Sen never made it to the dropships. Despite the fact that he had felt fine, by the time he reached the emergency perimeter that had been set up by those who weren't infected, he had joined the rest of the zombified crowd.

However, he was one of the few zombies with a weapon in his hand, and when the still twitching muscles that composed his hands pulled on his hands, occasionally a shot would ring out among the zombified Wolf's Dragoons.

The vehicles, fences, and walls prevented the zombies from moving forward, and they hadn't been infected for long enough to show the 'common' mutations that occured when people were exposed to the T-Virus as of yet. Not that any of the Dragoons knew that. They were more concerned with ensuring that no one else was infected.

They were still grouped up with weapons pointed at their old comrades when a pair of 'mechs walked up, painted in an olive drab similar to that of the old SLDF, with the words ISBC on their chest.

"This is Inner Sphere Biohazard Countermeasures," the Firestarter broadcast. "Remain where you are, and we'll deal with the infected. Afterwards, my associates will distribute antivirals and begin basic treatment and tests."

A wave of flame spread out from the pair of 'mechs, washing over the infected and setting them ablaze in the way that only battlemechs and the flamers powered by the raw power of the sun could.

After a few minutes of continuous fire, the pair of Firestarters shut off the flamers and began to allow their 'mechs to cool. All that remained of the Wolf's Dragoons' undead comrades was bone and ash, the results of not knowing exactly what was waiting for them here in the Inner Sphere.

While the twin Firestarters kept vigil over the flaming corpses, a bunch of vehicles with the ISBC markings rolled up. IFVs, APCs, and VTOLs began to distribute people dressed in armor with weapons. The thing that distinguished them was that all of them bore the signature cross of a medic. They didn't speak much, keeping masks over they face while they began going through each of the remaining Wolf's Dragoons and injecting them with an antiviral.

"Who is in charge here?" One of the members of the ISBC asked.

"I am," Colonel Travis King stated, holding up his hand. "Can you tell us what the hell is going on here?"

"I'm Captain Piers Nivans of the ISBC, we've given antivirals to your people, but until you've had the chance to get any of the Vaccines, we don't recommend that your people make landfall," the blond stated.

"You are going to have to explain this," King growled. "I just had a lot of my people turned into some sort of freaks!" he spat on the ground. "And then you fucking set them on fire."


"I'll explain it once everyone's been treated," Nivans sighed, pulling his mask down and leaning against a nearby APC. "It's a long story, and one that doesn't always make sense until you've gotten the full background."

"Colonel Wolf will not allow us to return to the rest of the jumpships until we are able to confirm that none of us are infected," Travis sighed, rubbing exhaustion from his eyes. "As it is, our negotiations with House Davion and the Federated Suns may be at stake due to this."


"The ISBC is not involved in the Succession Wars," Nivans replied automatically. "We're an independent organization that receives funding from Comstar and donations from people who don't want the T-Virus and Umbrella to continue to dictate how we wage war. We don't care about the war itself ending or not. I mean, we'd like for there to be peace. But honestly, we just want the viruses removed from the equation."

"I do not understand any of that," Colonel King shook his head. "I believe now would be the time to explain everything."

"Well, we can't narrow down the specific year, but our best guess put's it around twenty-eight fifty or so," Nivans stated.

—————-

"You are going to tell me exactly why a pair of Firestarters and an independent organization turned a hundred of the people under my command into ash!" Jaime growled at the Federated Suns representative, his hands making a grasping motion towards his holster as he stood up and stepped back from his chair.

"Sure," The old grizzled vet shrugged. "It all started in the Free Worlds League in the Twenty-Eight Fifties. Company called Umbrella went interstellar and started selling something called B.O.W's on the open markets. They were marketed as a replacement for infantry guys like me. Occasionally, they'd offer a deal on something called a Tyrant, but we here out on the Periphery didn't really hear any of this until years later–."

————

"The T-Virus is something unique and extraordinary in the regular sense of the word," Nivans continued. "Some of the scientists who work for the ISBC say that if given time and enough proper experimentation, they could have cured cancer, or any number of other degenerating diseases. In layman's terms, it reanimates dead tissue and causes it to start working again. I don't know why it starts changing people like this," He gestured to the flaming corpses. "That's a question for the science guys. But, I do know that Umbrell didn't stop at the T-Virus. No, they weren't content with what this was, they were after more money, more power, etc. So, Spencer and his two partners went all in on the Research and Development. Finding buyers for untested B.O.W's in every nation except for the Draconis Combine."

"So, it is a virus," Colonel King crossed his arms across his broad chest. "That means there must be some sort of cure or vaccine."

"There are some vaccines," the ISBC Captain said after a moment. "The problem is that even when we give them to you, it doesn't make a difference in most cases. Any viruses based or built off of the T-Virus adapt to every environment except for the void. Every, person, and system they come into contact with is a different reaction. Bites, modified viruses, those will still affect everyone and everything."

"How much of the vaccine do you have on hand?" The Wolf's Dragoon officer asked.

"We keep a small stockpile on every world at the HPG complex as well as the formula and required materials to manufacture more," Nivans shrugged. "We'll share the manufacturing method with you, but we used up our immediate antivirals on you and the rest of your people. The Davion's will have their stockpile as well as a stockpile of the vaccine."

"Thank you," Colonel King inclined his head. "I will be sure to credit the Inner Sphere Biohazard Countermeasures with our survival. We will repay the debt we owe your organization."

"Just don't sink to using any of Umbrella's services and we'll consider it even," Captain Nivans said tiredly. "Now, I've got a report to file, and a list of procedures to follow," he extended a hand and shook Travis King's hand firmly. "Hopefully this is the last time we ever see each other like this."

—————-
Jaime frowned, his eyes locked on the Davion Liaison who had finished giving a brief history of Umbrella and their impact on the Inner Sphere. This wasn't anything that had been reported, expected, or explained prior to their entry.

The Dragoon Compromise had a mission, that mission was different, he would have to return to the Clans for new orders.

First, though, they had to acquire more information from certain areas of the Inner Sphere. This Umbrella Corporation must be investigated while the remainder of the unit moved.

"Thank you for the information," Jaime said. "Allow me to speak to my officers and decide on whether we will continue negotiations for a contract."

"I'll let my superiors know," the Davion Liaison nodded, standing and extending a hand for Jaime to shake.

Jaime ignored it in favor of standing and leaving the room. He needed to speak to all of his officers and they needed to collect the people on the ground. The mission had Ichanged. The question was. What did the Wolf's Dragoons need to do now?

 

[Baldrick the Wise]

So much of what would become Com Guards is ISBC now? That gives them at least mixed company at each HPG compound.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 3

Date: April 16, 3004
Location: Delos IV orbit

"We cannot return to the Clans empty-handed," Colonel Jeremy Ellman stated. "We were given a mission."

"A mission that I do not believe we can fulfill while also remaining alive and not transformed by these Bio-Organic Weapons," Colonel King argued. "This is not a foe we were trained to fight. Nor is it one that any among the Clans expected us to face."

"There may be an alternative," Colonel Korsht offered. "We know our mission. However, it appears to me that any information we obtained by serving among people who are willing to use weapons such as this would be tainted. According to the reports obtained by both Travis and Jaime, the Draconis Combine has elected to remain absent from the current conflict and the use of such weapons. We can still fulfil our mission if we were to offer them our services while also learning as much about the state of the Inner Sphere as it is."

"I can leave members of the 7th Kommando behind if we are to do something like what Wilhelmina has suggested," Colonel Chayam Reis offered. "I have several that I believe would be perfect for such a role."

"Until we have something that will prevent us from potentially losing all of our people, we will not engage in any active plans," Jaime said after a moment of consideration. "However, as Travis's people were recently given an antiviral, they will be our primary use. The Davion Liaison let slip that they keep a stockpile of the basic vaccines and antivirals on each world. However, he was unwilling to part with them if we did not possess a contract. While it pains me to act like a pirate or a member of the Dark Caste, I see no other option at this point. Travis, you are to raid their stockpile and bring it back to your dropship. Upon leaving, we will have the members of the 7th Kommando as well as our other clandestine units remain behind for infiltration."

Jaime paused and waited for everyone to think about the plan so far before continuing.

"Given the state of affairs present, I do not believe that leaving our Naval forces behind was the wisest course of action. As such, we will be heading to Bristol to retrieve the equipment we mothballed there before making our way to the Draconis Combine. Chayam, you and your people will have five years to gather as much information as possible before we return to the Clans with everything we have been able to collect."

"I will gather my people while Travis prepares for the strike," Colonel Chayam nodded. "We will be prepared as soon as you give the word."

"No civilian casualties," Jaime ordered Travis. "Get the antivirals, get the vaccines, and return. I will not be locked down in a protracted campaign that causes more of us to turn into these things."

"I am not certain that this is the course of action we should take," Jeremy said after a moment, Dana McGuire nodding along with him. "However, I will see to it that your orders are carried out, Colonel."

With that, the meeting slowly dispersed, leaving Jaime alone with his brother and Natasha Kerensky.

"The Clans are going to use this as an opportunity to invade," Joshua said bluntly. "But we have our orders. Natasha, what do you think?"

"I believe that we must do what we can to survive," Natasha said, a far-off look in her eyes. She'd been one of the people on the ground with Travis King and had seen everything firsthand. "Losing yourself to something, becoming a prisoner within your own mind as your flesh rots around you," she looked at her hands. "It is not a fate I would wish on anyone, not even my most agonizing opponent. The Clans must be told, and something must be done. I will wait the five years as you have instructed," her eyes locked onto Jaime's. "But if you have not sent a report back by then, I will go myself, and I will bring the fury of them with me. What the Scavenger Lords have done is not something I cannot allow to continue."

–
–

"You figure out what we're calling ourselves?" Leon Kennedy asked Chris Redfield as they began to pull on the gear that Colonel Reis was allowing them to take with them.

"Special Tactics and Reconnaissance Section," Chris replied with a shrug, his massive frame showing the elemental stock that he came from. "We are technically much bigger than that, but it sounds good, and hopefully it will alow us to blend in."

"I just hope you are right about this," Jill shouldered her rifle before slotting in a magazine and checking it. "Because if the Colonels have legitimate intel and it is correct, then we are in for a hell of a time getting anything out of Umbrella."

"I am hoping that we can get this ISBC to assist us," Claire, Chris's sister shrugged. "But that is something that we can figure out later."

"Alright, once you are done getting equipped, run an antivirals check!" Chris ordered. "Then meet me in the loading bay. We're doing an arial insertion on this one. ETA to drop is five minutes!"

Everyone finished checking their gear and then followed after Captain Redfield.

Jill and Leon were the last ones out, following after the smallest members fo the newly named STARS branch of the 7th Kommando and Wolfnet.

Once they reached the bay of the aeryodyne dropship, they all attached themselves to the rope and waited for the crates of gear to get pushed out over the wilderness they were planning to use as their infiltration zone. Then, after they were clear, the jump leaders began to direct them out of the bay, one after another, until the bay was empty, and the members of the Wolf's Dragoons had disappeared into the thickness of night.

The militia of Delos IV weren't even looking in that direction, distracted as they were by Delta Regiment shattering them and looting their stockpiles for anything related to combating the T-Virus, G-Virus, and anything else that Umbrella might have cooked up.

By the time morning came, there wasn't a sign of the 7th Commando members, their infiltration zones, or that anyone besides Delta Regiment had been there at all, which was just how they liked it.

---

In a cave on Delos IV…

"Alright, here's the plan," Chris began, being sure to include contractions so that he wouldn't speak oddly once they reached the main living areas of the Inner Sphere's populace. "We're goign to have to depart here separately in threes and fours. Waiting for dropships offworld until we've all got the right location. According to preliminary SIGINT that was shared with us, the next closest hotbed for recruiting mercenary units or for the IBCS is Milligan. It's not a massive world, but it's got basic industry, and makes for a stopping point from people who have been fighting pirates in this area. Once on Milligan, we're going to regroup. I'll be in the first group out, so I'll be setting up the handshake protocol via our comms gear. Jill, you're up," Chris gestured to his XO.

"I managed to pull a list of dropships that pass through here headed for various worlds that are on the way to Milligan," Jill stated. "I'll be directing the group splits to make sure that everyone has a broad range of skills to cover everything you might need while on route. If we were just trying to get to Milligan, I'd say that you should take the fastest route. As we're not doing that, but instead focusing on trying to gather as much intelligence as possible, it may be worth stopping on the occasional world to see what's happening in the greater 'Sphere. Keep your kit in the secure containers. It'd take dedicated Star League Era scanners to be able to see what's hidden within."

After that, Chris's sister Claire stepped up, she and Rebecca Chambers were the primary medical officers among the group.

"You all have antivirals that should counteract any exposure to the T-Virus," Claire stated. "However, antivirals are no substitute for a vaccination. According to the information given to us from the IBCS, even though vaccines aren't fully effective against the T-Virus, they do enable you to survive where you otherwise wouldn't, and when combined with antivirals gives yo ua more solid chance. As such, we're recommending that everyone stop on a planet with an IBCS station and get vaccinated. They provide them for free to individuals and small groups."

After that, Chris and Jill began to call up various groups and assign them their squad leaders along with the primary plans for which dropships made regular trips to Delos IV.

Leon, Jill, and Claire were in the third wave out. Headed to a small world that was en route to Milligan. An out of the way place called Raccoon City. If only they'd known what they were getting into…

 

[MarkWarrior]

Inner Sphere Biohazard Containment (ISBC)

The Inner Sphere Biohazard Containment Services is a group whose origin isn't debated at all. Among the horrible ravages of the late 2nd Succession War, the group rose from the ashes of the dead, dying, and undead.

It's hotly debated which mercenary groups were the beginning formation of the group itself, but in the end, the results were the same. The core of the group petitioned Comstar to be registered as a neutral entity, and they also began to invest whatever funds they possessed into restoring production of the Firestarter.

While at first, people were skeptical of their intentions, after several years of their willingness to enter virus-infested worlds and search for survivors began to change opinions. After one of their raids against Umbrella turned up a vaccine that was marginally effective, the group found themselves with more funding and recruits than they knew how to handle.

Comstar, seizing on the opportunity to have a say in how the ISBC conducted business, quickly volunteered the HPG complexes as a base for any ISBC station across any world that wanted the group to have a base present.

The ISBC accepted this but also began reaching out to the now-closed Draconis Combine to see if they could purchase any of their industrial capacity to assist in combating the virus that threatened everyone.

While no official response was given, it's said that several meetings were held in secret as a modified Dragon was one of the variants that the ISBC made use of extensively in conjunction with the Firestarter.

However, while the ISBC has a positive reception across the Inner Sphere as a whole, they are often criticized for heavy-handed methods in dealing with the various Viruses, and are banned from many worlds in the Capellan Confederation due to said nation's dependency on BOWs to level the playing field against the Free Worlds League and Federated Suns.

With their primary enemy being the Umbrella Corporation. Many people wonder what will become of the ISBC should they ever manage to succeed in their quest. Will they break apart? Will they become another section of Comstar? Only time will tell…

 

[Pyro Hawk]

The Davion Liaison let slip that they keep a stockpile of the basic vaccines and antivirals on each world. However, he was unwilling to part with them if we did not possess a contract.

Click to shrink...

Someone just got so utterly fired it's not funny. More so after evidence of what the Dragoons really have gets revealed and I'm pretty sure the warships will come out even if there's minimal contact with the Draconic Combine. And there has to be, it's just minimal among minimal rather than what we'd think as minimal. Hell, once of the Draconic Combine's most active military units are likely those focused on destroying any underground or underworld groups that might be able to make contact with interstellar smugglers because of how often those are said contact vectors.

Because it is absolutely clear that the massive mercenary group that are the Dragoons went aggressive specifically because they were banned access to those supplies without a contract. Rather than given some access, with further access dependent on a contract and emergency calls to surrounding worlds to get their supplies here ASAP so as to aid them in locking down this contract.