Chapter 13. Justice and Retribution

It had not taken long for the Jackdaw to touch down on Europa. They were on borrowed time, being on a moon without a lot of oxygen. They'd get some more at the FOB but for now they would have to make do. The Olympus Mons was stuck, bow lodged deep in the ice with the Titan not far away from it.

This was it, the final battle.

Lyall sighed, readying his KAP-40. He wished he had a rifle, but he had ditched it in favour of the now destroyed P-LAW. He knew he had to win, for Elsa. She had been with him through thick and thin, and it was time that he finally did something for her instead of himself. People had always called Sebastian a selfish bastard, and it was very much true. He would tell himself that he was anything but a selfish bastard, yet he knew what everyone said was true. Ships he had served on would speak of him on shore leave, the Petty Officer turned hardened Commander that did nothing for his crew but all for himself and Admiralty Board. That all he wanted was a promotion and more medals even though he knew he had far more than enough to make him a war hero. Some of the more mouthy soldiers had said that he had never shown up on missions, even in ones that he clearly had taken part on. It could not have been further than the truth, the soldiers knew he had taken part in waging war. They had seen him geared up the Sentinel CI and carrying an NV4 rifle, they had seen him beat down squads of soldiers that were trying their hardest to kill the esteemed Commander.

Perhaps it was all true, that I was. I suppose it's time to change that.

"Lyall, we're gonna get through this, right?" Nick asked, NV4 rifle in hand.

"I didn't think this was where we'd end the war." Lyall replied. "I thought it would be on Mars or Earth. Not Europa, but I suppose we can't bitch about the battlefield."

"Victory or Death, sounds familiar." Omar said, handing Lyall a Karma-45 SMG.

"Might in Flight." Kashima said, with some odd looks directed at him. "What? If we're gonna start reciting mottos I thought I'd join in."

"Didn't take you for an Air Force man, Kash." Lyall smirked. "Who Dares Wins."

"Well, we dared and we're about to win." Omar said. "Bloody Aussies, even stealing mottoes now Lyall?"

"We ain't all convicts now, Sarge." Lyall replied. "Look at us, the Lucky Sevens."

After the group had left the bridge, they had armoured up and took a Raven from the Retribution to the ground. It was like an army was down there, ready to break through the Olympus Mons metal hide and kill anyone that was inside. It had been too long since the UNSA had been on the back-foot and with an entirely new Second and Fourth Fleet on the way to Mars, it was almost time for the SDF to finally admit defeat. Yet, they would only do so with the confirmed capture and imprisonment of their dear Admirals.

"You think they'll surrender, Cap'n?" Ethan asked. "I don't take Kotch as giver-upper."

"That's because he isn't. He'll end up fighting to the death and if he can't win, he'll run off."

"Well, he ain't getting away this time, right?" Brooks asked, before the Raven finally landed on the ground.

It had seemed that it had not taken long for the forces of the Retribution and the Titan to set up a forward operating base. He could see the SCAR Jackals hovering around the Titan, all pointed directly at the Olympus. The Vultures were lingering too, guns and missiles raised and ready to fire.

Soon, a familiar face rushed to Lyall, Chief Engineer Law had passed him a holo-pad before running off to do his duties like always. He'd ended up getting heavy-duty tracks ready for a Grizzly that was refusing to budge on the ice.

Lyall took one look at the holo-pad and was more than impressed with the amount of vehicles and soldiers that were being fielded on Europa. Looking at Reyes and Omar, they were too gob-smacked by the amount of people too.

"Jesus..." Reyes said. "I know the Titan was a super-carrier but you're carrying an entire army on that thing!"

"Damn right, it's a good thing too. Can never have too much of a good thing!" Omar joked, with Kashima, Ethan and Brooks laughing with him.

The holo-pad read:

SCAR Jackals – READY

Ravens – READY

Grizzly Battle Tanks – READY

Falcon Quick Troop Transport Helos – READY

Scorpion All-Terrain Battle Tanks – READY

Vulture Heavy Gunships – READY

The list went on and on forever, detailing the amount of numbers that the Titan and the Retribution had fielded. Tanks and gunships were ready to fire on all the SDF troopers that showed their face on the battlefield.

"Seems your engineers have been busy, Commander." Kashima laughed.

"Seems so." Lyall replied, passing the holo-pad to another engineer. "Come on, lets find our command centre."

The group had marched through the FOB, watching as vehicles from the Titan and even some from the Retribution milled around, ready for battle. They soon found some familiar soldiers from the Retribution, who led them to the tactical command centre. Gibbs, Hamilton and MacCallum were there, activating entire legions of C12 and C6 bots from the command centre.

Slade and Winters were there too, drawing out theories and plans for the upcoming battle. Imagawa was there too, organising some of the squads of the marines and others, alongside some of the Bullfrogs. She had been made the Staff Sergeant of all the Marines on the Titan due to the death of Devereaux, and with the help of the Bullfrogs it seemed that the Marines would be at more than one hundred percent.

The Dragoons, recovering from the large losses on the Galaxius were on the Mongoose quad-bikes, coming out from scouting. The numbers were already small, especially since the Galaxius but as soon as they regrouped they looked even smaller. Lyall looked at the battlefield and he could see the familiar burning frames of Mongooses, bodies just around them. It seemed their scouting mission had also taken the lives of the Dragoons.

"It's a ground battle, definitely." Slade said. "The SDF will have minimal air support, especially since we have the Longswords and Shortswords. There is no way they can win. We've got them right where we want them, Spyglass."

"I am merely advising caution, Lieutenant Jones." Spyglass replied. "The SDF are very unpredictable. They have pulled surprises out of various bags before."

"Yeah, well, now we have our own surprise and now look where we are." Winters replied.

"We are on Europa, one of the many moons of Jupiter." Spyglass informed.

"I know that, Spyglass." Winters spat. "I can see it too, I am on the fucking moon."

"That's enough, Spyglass." Lyall said, marching up to the table.

As Lyall marched up to the table with Reyes, Omar and the marines, he noticed that Spyglass had taken his form of a C12 battle robot. It was massive and clunky and even unwieldy. It seemed that with Spyglass' AI, the C12 was a lot more intelligent due to the processing power of the Titan's AI. Lyall spared Winters the pain of an argument with Spyglass, mainly so they could finish the plan and get to stopping the SDF as soon as possible. The more time they wasted was more time that Kotch and Thies had to try and evacuate.

"Affirmative, Commander." Spyglass said. "It appears that some of the Olympus' weapon systems are still working, but not enough to make a dent in the FOB."

"I can see that, what about the Titan?"

"We managed to make a direct hit on the Olympus with the MAC cannon, destroyed a large portion of the ship. It's been sealed off completely." Pilot Merrick said, in his version of combat gear with an EBR rifle in hand.

"How many casualties did we take in the collision?" Lyall asked.

"Too many..." Winters interjected. "Mostly the robots, completely destroyed with a few left. Decks D6 to D12 were completely obliterated with almost no survivors."

"Peace to the Fallen." Lyall muttered.

The group repeated it before surrounding the table, ready to hear the new plan to finish off the SDF.

"The Olympus Mons is grounded, and they aren't escaping any time soon. Kotch is on the bridge, and I have no doubt that they have Thies with them. Those two bastards are gonna be leading from the bridge, but we aren't. We are gonna be on the battlefield with our men, fighting with them."

Two pictures popped up on the table, profiles of Salen Kotch and Caleb Thies, with a blueprint of the Olympus Mons also appearing, focusing on the bridge of the Olympus Mons. The pictures were soon pushed to the side where the battlefield was shown to them, taken from the birds eye view.

"What's the plan then?" Reyes asked. "Kill Kotch and Thies and destroy the Olympus?"

"No." Winters said. "We want everything that they have. We're gonna take all the data from the Olympus for the UNSA and capture Kotch and Thies. We're not the SDF, we won't do it there way."

"Winters has it right, Captain." Omar interjected. "Killing Kotch is what we all want to do, even the robots. Yet, we have to do it our way. We arrest him for war crimes and genocide, he goes in and he'll die in whatever hole we throw him in."

"Quiet down." Lyall said. "Spyglass, continue with the plan."

"The Olympus Mons is buried half way in the ice. The only way to escape is to get off from the chassis, like we did when the Tigris went down on Titan. They won't retreat, and Kotch and Thies will be on the bridge. We have all of our ground forces at the FOB provide artillery fire whilst our air force bombs the surface of the SDF. The Vultures and the Jackals will provide air support by destroying the remaining guns that still work on the Mons. Falcons and Ravens will drop off our troops onto the body of the Mons to infiltrate the ships.

"Once inside, Marines, SCARS and Bullfrogs will clear the Olympus Mons. Marines are on data retrieval duty and SCARS are on clearance."

"What about the Bullfrogs?" Winters asked. "We aren't being left out are we?"

"No." Lyall replied. "The Bullfrogs and the Dragoons are with me, Reyes and Omar. Ethan, Kashima and Brooks, you're with the marines."

"Are you sure about this, Commander?" Ethan asked. "We could help with Kotch and Thies."

"He's sure, Ethan." Reyes replied. "You're good with technology, and the Marines will need you. Spyglass is gonna be commanding the bots so it's up to you to get all that data."

"You know I get stage fright, right, Cap'n?" Ethan asked, his eyeflap raising.

"Yep, I know. Seems your audition on Geneva has give you our lead role."

"Damnit. I knew I was too good for Hollywood."

The group laughed, even Spyglass somehow managed to give off what sounded like a mechanical laugh and some menacing growl.

This was it.

The SDF were going to lose, either today or the next few days. If Raines was taking it to them on Mars, it meant that it was up to the Titan and the Retribution to finally finish the job and stop them on Europa. They wouldn't be able to get away, and that was good.

It meant Kotch would never be leaving the planet alive.

"This is it, guys." Ethan stated. "Are we all ready? There ain't no turning back after this."

"We're ready, Ethan." Reyes said, placing his hand on the table to confirm the operation.

"Definitely." Lyall spoke, before placing his hand on the table too. "Cofirm, operation is a go."

Operation: Black Flag was a go.

-X-

There was more to the plan, there always was. With the Taskmasters and Havoc cannons on the Olympus still operational, the UNSA had a distraction to keep the guns off of the fleet of aircraft that was coming in to drop off as many soldiers on the Mons as possible. Spyglass, due to his immense mechanical and technical gifts was able to command all of the C6 and C12 bots, using them as a ground force to distract the Havocs and Taskmasters whilst the Falcons and Ravens flew the troops in as the Jackals flew air support.

"Damn it, Kashima!" Omar yelled. "What happened to self discipline?"

"I got air-sick, Sarge, I can't help it!"

"Our ships is now in range of Olympus cannon fire." Spyglass said, one bot piloting the Falcon.

Lyall was the co-pilot, seated just above the robot in the seat behind him, readying the machine guns just in case any Skelters got the wrong idea. Omar, Reyes, Winters, Imagawa as well as Kashima and Brooks were in the passenger section. Omar and Reyes were on the side cannons, with Winters and Imagawa sitting down safely.

"All callsigns, this is King Blackbird, all wings, report in." Lyall said over the comm.

"Spider Wing, free and clear."

"Dragon Wing, free and clear."

"Scorpion Wing, free and clear."

"Bear Wing, free and clear."

"All wings, free and clear!" The main Wing Commander said.

The closer they got to the Olympus, the more often the gunfire and explosions could be heard. The robots below had piloted a company of Grizzlies to give some heavy fire to the C6s and C12s. They were peppering the Mons with heavy fire, firing SABOT and HEAT rounds. The Havocs were the first to fire, taking down two tanks right off the bat before focusing and destroying the mechanised legions that were slowly advancing on the Olympus Mons.

The C12s were firing volleys of Hellfire missiles at the Olympus, but the impacts were small and barely visible on the shell of the Olympus Mons. It was a shock to see the engines of the Mons trying to fire and light up again, but little did the engineers know that it was just plunging the SDF Supercarrier further into the icy depths of Europa. There was a familiar pounding of guns as the Scorpions and Grizzlies back at the FOB were firing their rounds, as well as the Retribution which was firing flak at the downed Olympus, putting potholes in the chassis of the SDF Supercarrier. Then there was the screech of Jackal engines, as Jackals decorated in the familiar warpaint such as warthogs and bears thundered past the fleet of Ravens and Falcons to provide close air support.

It was a moment before the flak hitting the UNSA where Reyes thought he was having a hallucination. The Jackal that Salter had owned was flying right next to them, Nick would know that jet from anywhere. It had the familiar viper decals on the nose of the Jackal. He was thankful that canopy of the Jackal was see through, and as soon as he had rubbed his eyes he could see the familiar robotic frame of E3N inside the pilot seat. He had taken the title of Fever very seriously, even using the jet that Salter had used before her unfortunate demise.

"Raider, this is Fever." E3N said. "Do you read? Don't leave me high and dry, Reyes."

"I… I read you, loud and clear, Fever!" Reyes yelled, almost smiling as well as crying. "You flying with us, Fever?"

"Maybe, sir!"

As E3N spoke, the flak began. Four Falcons went down, along with two Ravens as soon as the gun fire had began. There was a noticeable amount of blips in the air coming straight for them, and soon everyone realised that the Olympus Mons was sending as many Skelters as it could to stop the incoming UNSA forces. E3N flew off to the left, before turning round to chase one of the Skelters, destroying it as soon as he could with a spray of machine-gun fire.

"Ethan, Wing Commander, defend the Transports!" Reyes yelled, firing one of the side-cannons.

"Affirmative, sir! Bear Wing, Dragon Wing! Follow me!" E3N said. "Wing Comm, you have Spider and Scorpion Wing."

"Affirmative, sir!"

The Jackals flew off, and soon they were taking down Skelters left, right and centre. Spyglass and Lyall were making erratic movements to make sure they lived to get onto the Olympus and didn't die.

"All Falcons, take evasive manoeuvrers and keep pushing forward!"

The closer and closer they got to the Olympus, the more flak they ended up receiving. That was obvious, they should have expected it but the fire was so constant that more Ravens and Falcons were being shot down to crash down on the ice. Yet, they were so close to the Olympus, it would only be a few seconds until they were just above it.

That was until a friendly Falcon ended up crashing into the Jackdaw that Lyall and his team were in. The friendly Falcon was empty, the team inside fell out and the pilots in the cockpit had been shot to pieces. Spyglass and Lyall had tried to pull away, but the destroyed Falcon was weighing too much on the right side of their own Falcon. The more they pulled away, the more that their Falcon was tipping slowly more to the right than it should have done so. Lyall and Spyglass then tried to pull to the right, to even out the tipping so they wouldn't fall out or go crashing into the ice.

It was not meant to be, just as it happened.

Just as it seemed to even out, the Falcon lodged into King Blackbird fell out of the sky and into the ice, only to be replaced by a fiery corpse charging through the air and crashing into the air and throwing the ship into a tailspin. The left rotor was completely gone, as it had never existed before. The ship was thrown into chaos, and as they somehow managed to gain what little control they had, they realised that Imagawa had been thrown out in the crash. Omar was lying in the back, clinging onto the hand of Brooks was hanging out of the ship. The Staff Sergeant refused to let go of the Irishman, and the only reason they both had yet to fall out was due to Todd Kashima evening out the weight by pulling on Omar's leg.

"This is SCAR Wings Two, Three, Four and Five!" One pilot said. "King Blackbird, I recommend you land on the Olympus Mons now!"

"Slade, how bad is the flak?" Lyall yelled, gripping the joystick of the Falcon as hard as he could, refusing to let go of the joystick to lessen how bad the crash would be.

"Havocs and Taskmasters are down! The Dragoons have made it in but..." Slade trailed off, knowing that Lyall would guess what happened.

"They gave their lives for the rest of us..." Reyes said over the radio. "Peace to the Fallen."

"Do you have clear visual on the landing sight, Slade?"

"Sending co-ordinates, bearing zero-four-zero!" Slade said, before pulling away to fight off another Skelter. "Good luck in there!"

As soon as Slade finished speaking, Lyall took one look at the co-ordinates and knew where they lead.

The bridge.

"All UNSA forces this is Commander Sebastian Lyall! Anyone inside the Olympus Mons, keep fighting but stay far away from the bridge. We are having a danger-close landing, repeat, a danger-close landing!"

Sebastian pulled as hard as he could to the left, where the right rotor completely shut off, leaving Lyall and the crew in dead air. He continued to lodge the joystick as much to the right as he could, so much he broke the joystick off and they were left completely dead. "Spyglass!"

"I am what you say 'dead-sticking' Commander Lyall!" Spyglass yelled, even he was clinging to the joystick. "I believe this may be a bad crash, Commander. Have you equipped your safety belt?!"

"Yes, Spyglass!"

As they flew through the air, Sebastian yelled as he noticed the Falcon had taken a small nosedive, missing the bridge but aiming just under it. Lyall smacked the robot body sitting in front of him, but it accomplished nothing. He left his seat and could see the chaos in the Falcon. Winters was clinging to his seat, rifle in hand and strapped in tighter than everyone else. Reyes was clinging to the outer gun, firing it at whatever looked remotely like an SDF soldier. It was when he noticed Omar and Kashima just barely holding on to the body of Brooks as he almost fell out. Lyall grabbed Kashima by the foot and dragged him into the cockpit ever so slightly, and by effect dragging Omar into Falcon too. He would have saved Brooks, but as soon as he was about to grab Brooks, he could just see Brooks fly out of the Falcon, flailing madly as he fell through the air to his inevitable death.

"BROOKS!"

Before anyone could do anything, there was the horrifying sound of metal crashing through metal. Spyglass had managed to crash the Falcon into the bridge and get them in alive.

-X-

Lyall couldn't feel anything, but he knew someone was dragging him. He couldn't see who, but they spoke in such a different dialect that at a guess they were Martians. They were shouting, but they were soon silenced by two commanding voices of the towering men in front of them. Like everyone else, they were wearing heavy winter suits, with see through masks around their heads. With a dizzying thud, they had began to tear off the black helmet of Lyall's CI armour, breaking the helmet but none of the oxygen supply. The black mask wrapped around his mouth and nose, tubes connecting into the shoulders of the suit as the internal oxygen tanks supplied the Commander with his much-needed oxygen.

"Commander Sebastian Lyall of the UNSA Titan." The balding man said. "My, my, it has been a very long time since I had the pleasure of hearing that name."

"Admiral Caleb Thies, leader of the SDF High Council on Mars." Lyall managed to sputter. "I would ask why you aren't on Mars, but I presume you knew that Raines had you fucked on Mars didn't he?"

"Aren't you ever the wordsmith, Sebastian. I suppose-" Kotch tried to speak only to be cut off by Thies.

"You know Mars would never be able to take on the UNSA without the Olympus Mons." Thies spoke. "The only reason we had you was because of fleet numbers and because Riah and Kotch's planning."

"It's a shame Riah is in prison, isn't it? That was your plan, to kill us on the Galaxius? You killed your own men, just so you could kill me? You would have killed one of your own admirals!"

Caleb kicked him in the face as he shouted. "Be quiet, and listen to me. You have lost, you cannot win now. Look at yourself, look at your comrades, you're imprisoned, with the SDF standing over you once more! This is proof that you Earthlings have no right to even try and expand off of Earth. You could not control Mars, you couldn't control the SDF and look at what happened! You lost two fleets in the space of an hour! How pathetic are you?"

"Pathetic enough to have you right where I want you..." Lyall murmured, garnering a punch from Kotch.

"YOU HAVE LOST!" Kotch roared. "Admit it! You lost on Deimos! You lost on Geneva and you lost on the Galaxius! How can you even say that we are where you want us, when it is fact that it is the complete obvious?"

Lyall laughed, loud enough to make it look look rather weird. He turned, and he could see Omar, Reyes and the others looking at him as if he were crazy. He definitely sounded like he was, laughing in the face of a death that could come at any moment. Lyall turned around to see the familiar barrel of his KAP-40 pointed at his head. He stopped laughing, and was staring daggers at Caleb Thies, who was pointing the gun at him. He put the barrel directly against his head, and smiled with a grin filled with sadistic mirth.

"You are going to die today, Commander Lyall." Kotch gloated, smiling as Thies placed the gun against Lyall's temple. "You will die knowing that you will lose. You will die on the same useless moon just like your brother."

"Fuck you, Kotch. You were always a fucking arrogant prick, you haven't changed."

"How dare you!"

As Kotch ripped the gun from his fellow Admiral's hand, the door behind them burst open. SCARS and Marines bolted in, firing bullets everywhere. Lyall dropped to the floor, pushing against Thies as they both fell to the floor. Kotch fired at the Marines, but he was swiftly taken care of with two shots to the legs and a rifle butt to the face by Omar as the freed English Marine charged the SDF Commander. As Lyall and Thies fell to the floor, Thies tried to grab his Oni pistol but it was swiftly batted aside by Lyall. Two marines quickly apprehended Thies before cutting off the cuffs before Lyall marched over to the downed Kotch.

He took to one knee and readied his hand. Kotch would die in the same manner as his brother, but Lyall would make it painful for the damned SDF Admiral. He punched the glass of Kotch's helmet, and slowly but surely he could see the SDF general begin to suffocate and beg for breath. As the glass began to crack and break even more, he took a spare oxygen cannister from a marine and pulled Kotch up from the floor, making him kneel before Lyall as he attached the cannister to Kotch.

Kotch coughed, and smiled as he took the oxygen, smiling at Lyall.

"Even now, you prove your weakness." Kotch gloated. "You give me mercy."

"Oh, this is mercy? I would give you mercy but after what you did to my brother, I won't show you mercy."

"What… what do you mean?"

"Death is no disgrace, Kotch." Lyall gloated smirking as he detached the oxygen cannister. "Don't you remember?"

Kotch's eyes were filled with fear as the oxygen supply left him, but he would not beg for mercy. He was a Martian, born and bred to be better than any Earthling that would ever exist. Yet now he was clutching at his throat as he fell to the floor, his lungs burning and aching for some, or any oxygen.

He wanted to breath.

He watched as the UNSA began to cheer, not bothering to even try and save them like they did Thies. Thies was worth more to them, under duress he would give up any kind of information, anything to save his own skin, like a true Martain would.

He then took one look at Lyall, who was staring at the hole left by the crashed Falcon. Lyall did not gloat, he did not scream or shout like an animal like the rest of his comrades. He just remained silent as he stared out at the Titan, which with the help of the Retribution was now back in the air.

It was very reluctantly that Kotch admitted it, but in his final breath he had come to terms with it.

The SDF had lost.

The UNSA had won.

Kotch was dead.

And Lyall was alive.

X-X-X

It's the end!

It took me so long and so many cut chapters to make this as good as it could be and I know it could still be better but like I said, this is my opinion of how it should have been if the developers actually tried to put effort into the game instead of cramming it with Modern Warfare Remastered. I hope you enjoyed this fic as much as I did writing, however long it took to write and hoped for it be put back up when I took it down. I thought I had lost the files but I found them once again and once I did, I knew I could never leave this unfinished.

I would absolutely hate myself if I did.

I thank you all for leaving reviews and favourites and following the story, and I hope to have you read many more of my fics, those of which I have completed and those I shall write in the future!

But for now, Ciao!

-The One Italian Stallion-