Peacekeeping Op:

The Second Galactic War raged on, with the Federation of Super Earth fighting on two fronts against the insectoid Terminids and the robotic Automatons. While Super Earth media showcased the war as being won by the brave efforts of the Helldivers and the efforts of the Super Earth Armed Forces, the truth on the two fronts was that the war was being fought to an effective stalemate as neither side could break through against the other. Despite this, the Helldivers continued their efforts, conducting no shortage of missions to gain the upper hand against their enemies, no matter how small it may have been. 

Such was the effort to maintain Managed Democracy. 

However, as Super Earth public announcements state on a daily basis, “Remember, it's not that Super Earth hates aliens, it's that aliens hate freedom", usually accompanied by advertisements for war bonds with a catchy jingle. 

This statement from the Ministry of Truth was, in essence, true, but one recent development was kept secret from the public and from most branches of the Armed Forces, so as to not cause an immediate panic or give rise to possible treasonous behaviour. 

In an undisclosed sector of space on the western fringes of known space, where the Automaton front raged on, a task force of Super Earth Destroyers came under assault from a sizeable Automaton fleet, resulting in a prolonged engagement with one Destroyer lost, five taking heavy damage and two taking minimal damage. The task force, outnumbered and outgunned, made a last stand in the safe confines of an asteroid field, willing to fight on to the bitter end. 

That was, until something popped up on the radars of both Super Earth Destroyers and Automaton Frigates.

Something large. 

Both fleets found themselves in the shadow of a particularly large and unidentified carrier style ship, which came under immediate fire by the Automaton fleet. Their pulse cannons, gunships and shredder autocannons were absorbed by an invisible shield that encapsulated the massive vessel. In response to being fired upon, several missile batteries, ion-based rotary cannons and two large railguns obliterated the large Automaton fleet in what felt like moments for the Super Earth ship crews, who watched with both awe and partial fear as the massive ship came into clearer view. 

It was rectangular in shape, angular and lacking anything in aerodynamics, a ship more suited for deep space travel. Its construction was oblong, with an uncharacteristic cavity situated at the front of the imposing vessel. An angular superstructure rose from the dorsal aft section, which was believed to be the bridge, complete with a small horizontal conning tower mounted to its top.

The paint scheme of the ship was completely alien and invoked a sense of terror, if the large size of the ship, which made even the biggest Super Earth ships look like bath toys in comparison, wasn't enough. Most of the ship was painted midnight black, with thin red stripes marking the edges of various sections of the broader superstructure. The vessel was armed to the teeth, but showed no sign of targeting the Super Earth Destroyer fleet, slowly passing by the fleet hiding within the asteroid belt as if unaware of their presence. 

The name of the ship, its number and an art decal was prominently displayed on both sides of the large vessel. The number 476 was prominent on the sides of the large thruster engines at the stern of the ship, painted in bold white. The name of the ship was the same style and colour, unusually in English. The name of the vessel was the GWS Arbiter of Silent Redemption, followed by a bold white and red illustration of a wolf's head side portrait, with its teeth bared and ready to fight. Before anyone could take a form of action, all ships received a rather hearty message from the alien vessel. 

“Sorry for the scare, I picked up some anomalies on radar. Been dealing with those damn bots the past few months now, but it would appear we have a common enemy. I can tow you all back to wherever ya need to go, if you want, just don't be alarmed by me or the crew, we're… well, you'll see" a man with a hard but musical accent spoke, which threw some within the Super Earth Destroyers off guard, expecting something else completely different, but the vague familiarity seemed to break the ice. 

Due to the damage the fleet received, they nervously took on the alien ship's offer, docking safely within one of the eight large pressurised deck hatches in the dorsal forward section hangar bay. Once aboard, they immediately noticed how miscellaneous hangar bay objects were massive in comparison to the small ships. Before long, members of the crew welcomed them onboard the Arbiter of Silent Redemption, with the man who sent the earlier message not lying by what he meant of seeing what they looked like. 

The alien crew was composed of anthropomorphic animals, fifty in total, whose species were varied, from some kind of draconic creatures, wolves, deer, bears, foxes, dobermans, tigers and lions. While most of the species were familiar to the humans, it was the notable size difference between them and the crew that was the most alarming, with the crew ranging from sixty to seventy meters in height. Despite this and the crew's rough and grizzled exteriors, they were very laid back and showed no shortage of hospitality to their smaller guest crew members. 

There was seemingly no dress code and the crew wore whatever clothes were most suited to their profession or normal civilian clothing. Their captain was a large imposing grey wolf named Wolf O'Donnell, whose most notable characteristic was his black eye patch covering his left eye, giving him the appearance of a pirate to the little humans. He wore a purple striped jacket, black trousers, metal clawed boots and holstered a large pistol that was more equivalent to a portable artillery cannon from the human perspective. Otherwise, he wore a couple of rings and a silver wolf's head necklace. 

He gave them free transport back to Super Earth space while the humans repaired their damaged Destroyers. Wolf found the little hairless primates to be cute in a way, finding their otherwise veiled tyrannical politics to be rather amusing. He was caught in a long conversation with one of the Democracy Officers, a conversation that left the giant lupine preferring to pull his own teeth out with a set of pliers than speak to one of those Officers again, but he kept those grievances to himself and simply nodded along to their questions, giving them the impression that Wolf and his crew loved Managed Democracy even if none of them couldn't have cared less about politics. 

Once he got away from those particularly irritating humans, he made sure to down a whole bottle of whiskey and laugh his balls off from that predicament. Once they reached Super Earth space, the small Destroyers took flight and informed Super Earth High Command of their encounter, opening further talks with Wolf O'Donnell and his crew, much to the annoyance of Wolf who prayed to whatever deity out there that he didn't have to talk to another Democracy Officer. 

After explaining that he and his crew were a travelling mercenary band from deep space who took on jobs to sustain themselves, the Star Wolf mercenary company was hired by the Super Earth Armed Forces to assist them in their war against 'galactic tyranny'. While Wolf considered himself a relatively harmless dictator in comparison to the little hairless apes, he mentioned absolutely nothing about politics unless it was to appease the little humans, though the temptation to perform impromptu dental surgery remained. 

“God, what have I done to end up with these little rascals?" Wolf said to himself, after finally getting a moment to himself in his quarters.

“Should I get a list in alphabetical order boss or-" a sarcastic voice said, coming from an occupant on Wolf's couch. Faelen could be a right pain in the hole, but Wolf enjoyed the black and white scaled Giganotosaurus's laid back attitude.

“Fuck off" Wolf remarked back, opening another bottle of whiskey, which brought another voice to the table. 

“Good lard you'll drink the whole ship dry at this rate buck, that little guy really piss ya off that much?" another equally sarcastic voice commented, Faelan the red kangaroo had his way with words, as did most of the crew onboard the ship.

“Well, mr similar name to our ancient lizard friend here, if you fancy yakking on about the ideals and virtues of Managed Democracy and how its the true path like you're a damn tike, I am more than willing to swap places with you" Wolf said, taking a fair swig from an aged bottle of whiskey he may or may not have gained illegitimately. 

“Aren't me fault genitive cases screw up names, and I waren't aboot when this big bollocks broke the egg" Faelan remarked, the fact that he and the Giganotosaurus had the same name as each other with partial difference got the two of them slagged off a lot, but it was in good fun.

“Ya callin me owld lad?" Faelen snarked.

“Alright grey boy, well, if ya had grey fur" Faelan added.

“Fucking hell would ye two stop having a domestic for a moment? I'd rather be with Sionnach at this rate, even though he's a damn nutcase" Wolf nearly snarled, it took a lot of drink to get him tipsy and he wasn't even there yet.

“Aye, that big fox has a few screws loose but hey, he knows how to work the guns on this ship and on the ground, gotta love him for that" Faelen said, the resident fox onboard was crazier than the rest of the crew, not voices in his head crazy, just on the border of it.

“He's gonna have a field day killing these bots, that's for sure, might even get his spears out and return to his roots. Anywho, nuff blabber, we got a job needs doing" Wolf said, signalling the duo to follow him out to the bridge. 

The holomap on the bridge showed the planet of Marfark, a planet primarily made up of glaciers, snow capped mountains and snow in general. The whole planet was in a perpetual ice age, owing to the fact it was distant from its star, but despite that, life in some form or another flourished on the planet, with unusual plants sustaining an oxygen rich environment despite the harsh conditions, including continent engulfing blizzards visible from space, avalanches, extreme cold and more. 

Black smoke from industrial scale fabricators belched out no shortage of new Automatons, from commissars, devastators and hulks to dropships, gunships, annihilator tanks and factory striders. It was a formidable wartime production effort, one that was planet wide and sustained distant fronts in other systems. Disrupting the supply lines would impact the automaton fronts elsewhere and give Super Earth an advantage. 

_________________

The placement of automaton bases across Marfark was extensive, but predictable. They weren't concealed or hidden in any shape or form, with tall control spires with bright red lights and black metal exteriors asking to be seen while the black fortifications surrounding fabricators made them stand out in contrast to the blue ice, white snow and frigid waters. 

The whole planet was being stripped for any and all valuable materials found beneath the glaciers, mountains and waters of the world, more materials to be converted for the front. Whole mountains were cracked open and glaciers melted, accelerating slow and gradual geographic movements and processes into mere months, with the results evident from orbit. 

At one lone fabricator, guarded by a series of black steel walls, machine gun nests, mines, razor wire and red spotlights, all adorned with their split black star symbol, the Automatons on guard looked on into the white void with their red eyes barely glowing in the raging blizzard. The conditions often turned many into scrap metal, to be recycled to make more Automatons. Most aerial movement was grounded in blizzards, unless a bot drop flare was fired by a patrolling commissar under attack by a squad of Helldivers, then dropships would fly against the harsh conditions. 

Unknown to the bots, who would expect a squad of Helldivers, were now marked within the confines of a large exclusion zone that Super Earth forces could not enter, for their own safety. The blizzard continued to rage on, with piercing snow severely limiting visibility for the bots.

Not for who was to come. 

Among the tall icebergs and rocky outcrops hidden by the blizzard, a large sniper rifle was loaded and ready. Its calibre made artillery rounds look like pistol bullets in comparison, such was its size. Wolf, adorned in winter ballistic gear complete with a titanium body vest, gauntlets, chauses and a hooded metal mask to protect his face against the elements, adjusted the scope that he had set to thermal mode, allowing him to see through the fog and better triangulate his shots. 

Lying among the natural formations and holding his breath, the bipod supported rifle let loose its payload in a flash. The force of the shot and the bullet tunnelled through the blizzard that was quickly engulfed by the snow, with the air cracking blast partially muffled. The blast was loud enough to garner the attention of the bots for a split second, before a large round hammered into the lone fabricator. The fireball came as fast as the bullet, disappearing in a flash from the blizzard, but anything that was there wasn't standing anymore.

Pulling the bolt back and releasing the spent shell casing, longer than a bus and impacting the ice with force, Wolf breathed and held his finger up to his protected ear, radioing in the kill. 

“One small base, one shot. Blizzard is freezing my bollocks off" Wolf said, grumbling slightly as he stood up. He had never seen or been in such harsh blizzards before, it tore into anything and everyone, big or small. He was a hardy wolf, but this blizzard would be his biggest test yet. 

“We'll keep the stove lit for ya boss. Blizzard really that bad?" a voice returned, hard and sarcastic with the lupine's hardship. 

“You wanna swap places Aodhan? I've heard stags work just fine with snow" Wolf remarked back, stepping out from the formations he took cover in and trudged through the blizzard in his black cleated boots.

“Maybe later, gotta make sure no one blows up the ship while you're away" Aodhan responded, humorous as ever with Wolf.

“Who, the Automatons or the crew?" Wolf added, though ground fire into orbit from automaton cannons was something to be watchful for. While not enough to break down the shields, the force of the pulse cannons hitting against Wolf's ship could knock the crew off their feet. 

“Whoever. Rifle working well for ya? Sionnach was telling me how much it kept jamming no matter how many times he oils it or whatever" Aodhan asked, hoping that Wolf wasn't having too much trouble with his weapon. 

“Can feel a light jam in the bolt but nothing brute force can't solve. Until I break it, should be fine, I hope" Wolf responded, holstering the rifle as he tried to make his way through the blizzard. While the mask covered his face and allowed him to see through the blizzard, it didn't make traversing through the snow any easier. He huffed with annoyance, almost stumbling through the snow a few times. 

“Fucking snow, it just had to be snow, why is it always snow?" he muttered to himself in continued annoyance.

“You're still coming through boss" Aodhan remarked, teasing Wolf ever so slightly. 

“I'll come through you in a moment. Alpha One out" Wolf said, sighing as he stopped speaking through his commlink.

“Those fuckers at Super Earth had to send me here didn't they? Hope the others are faring better than me" Wolf said to himself, sheltering himself in a large ice cave and taking his mask off to catch his breath. He and other men in his company were operating solo in different sectors across the exclusion zone, with the idea being that covering more ground allowed them to hit the Automatons in different sectors at once. 

While the bots were small against Wolf and his company, they could cause significant injury and even death if given the chance, with the pulse cannons and factory striders posing the most risk. The strategy was to utilise sniper rifles and the occasional orbital bombardment from the Arbiter, along with Wolfen strafing runs. 

“Alpha One, Wolf, you there ya big bastard?" a voice came through on Wolf's comms, a certain familiar kangaroo.

“What is it Alpha Five?" Wolf remarked back with his characteristic grin as he stayed sheltered from the blizzard.

“You getting hit by this monster of a blizzard too? Fuck, had to use up a couple grenades to make myself a cozy nest into the side of a glacier or something, not five stars but it'll do" Faelan said, about as fed up as his boss was with the blizzard.

“Yeah, found myself a nice comfy cave here. Any luck with your hunt?" Wolf said, he always liked to make missions a competition, and with how many Automatons there were, everyone was gunning for the most bots killed.

“Target rich environment, nothing I can't handle. Took a couple hits from those pulse cannon towers they have but the plate caught them. Vicious yokes those. You?" Faelan responded, panting slightly from coming through the blizzard.

“About the same, lots of those little fabricators, shot some, stepped on others, that sort of thing. Blizzard ain't gonna stop anytime soon, heading back out" Wolf said, putting his mask back on and walking out of the cave, mentally and physically preparing himself for going back into the snow.

“Good luck boss, heard Alpha Three got stuck in a crevice, but he was able to climb out, keep yer wits about you" Faelan said, cutting off comms.

“You too lad. Into this fucking snow again" Wolf said, grumbling at the end as he began wading through the blizzard again. He gradually made his way towards another automaton base, sporting a couple of industrial chimneys belching fire while annihilator tanks were on standby to be transported off-world or to defend against Helldiver attacks elsewhere on the planet.

“Let's see, four fabricators, two tanks, a couple of grounded dropships and machine gun bunkers. I'd like to see those tanks hit me in this weather" Wolf remarked to himself as he took up an elevated position atop an iceberg, climbing up with his clawed gloves and cleated boots before getting a good view, at least with thermals. 

“Alright, each shot should be about one notch, not that missing will be detrimental with each shot being a miniature nuke to these guys" Wolf muttered to himself, getting a better look at the base before adjusting the scope and marking his targets. Once he began firing, those tanks would fire into action and bot drops would be called in.

“Let's have ourselves a gunfight shall we?" Wolf said as he aimed for one of the annihilator tanks, holding his breath before and firing. The shot tunnelled through the blizzard like before, with a distant flash and a peek through the scope showing what remained of the tank, with the turret and the upper half of the body being missing while the rest was now a burning wreck. 

A commisar on site raised his flare gun up and fired off a dropship flare, calling for reinforcements from the sudden tank detonation. Other bots began firing in the rough direction of where the massive shot came from, unaware of the extent of the foe that they were facing. Wolf watched some red laser bolts strike nearby, while others were harmlessly absorbed into his armour and protective fabrics. The still active tank drove into position, aimed its cannon and fired a large shot, flying over Wolf and exploding harmlessly in the distance. Taking aim and firing off a shot, the tank popped off like a firework, with its turret launching upwards for good measure. 

Two dropships flew into the developing warzone, hovering above the base and letting out a glowing red light below as they unloaded reinforcements. Scout striders, MG raiders, rocketeers, jump-pack bots, devastators, heavy devastators and rocket devastators, all of whom began firing in the rough direction of Wolf. 

“Now we are getting somewhere" Wolf remarked to himself as he fired two shots in succession, one shot for each dropship. The two dropships were ripped in half by the large rounds that sliced through them before striking the icy ground, with both dropships falling down on top of most of their former occupants. Those who avoided getting crushed continued firing, while their robotic comrades were erased by massive unavoidable rounds obscured by the blizzard. 

Loading a new magazine into his rifle, he fired off more rounds, destroying most of the fabricators, machine gun nests and guards on site. In a moment, only one fabricator remained, but Wolf had something special planned for that remaining structure. 

Hopping down from his sniping position, which would have been an impossible climb for a human, he made his way towards the base through the blizzard. Two more Automatons emerged from the fabricator, their eyes scanning the ruins around them before feeling the ground quake beneath them. They raised their guns and fired off into the blizzard as a large silhouette emerged. Wolf stared down at them for a moment, smiling as they fired up at him with what were toy guys as far as he was concerned.

“Been nice knowing ye, but I got a job to do'' Wolf remarked as he arched his leg back and swung it forward, impaling the two bots on his cleats and turning the fabricator into several small chunks of broken concrete and metal that scattered off into the blizzard like dust. The big lupine couldn't help but laugh a bit seeing that unfold before him, sometimes the size difference got to his head. 

“Alpha Eight to Alpha One, you there Wolf?" a different voice came through on Wolf's comms, a hard and gruff one, the kind who'd tell you stories while out at the bar for a few drinks.

“Nagging my trousers all of ye are. Yeah I'm here, what's going on dobie?" Wolf said, muttering the first sentence to himself before switching his comms on, responding to the doberman.

“Had a fair wrangling with a couple of those large walkers, what do those little humans call them again? Factory striders? Fuckers pack a punch, those cannons on their backs knocked me over a couple times, blew one of them up, grabbed the other and tossed it into a nice patch of water. Bit knackered and have the wind knocked out of me but I've had worse. You?" Feargal said, relieved that he got through that battle after a hard time with the Striders.

“Yeah, gotta watch for those fuckers. These damn bots will make the ice red if you aren't careful. Dealt with a base here, fucks called in reinforcements, nothing a big rifle and a boot can't solve" Wolf remarked, loading a new magazine into his rifle and checking his equipment while the blizzard continued harassing him.

“Ya don't say? I'm definitely drinking the bar dry when we finish this peacekeeping op" Fearghal said with an exhausted sigh, he and most of the crew had worked missions in harsh conditions, but this planet had brought many of them to their limits.

“You and me both lad, all of us I reckon. Good thing we'll have some spending money to refill the casks, a ship isn't a ship without some alcohol now is it?" Wolf chuckled, earning him a sarcastic laugh from Fearghal.

“That's why you're the boss aren't ya? Looking out for the lads. Alright, break time's over" Fearghal said, managing to puff up a cigarette in the blizzard through no shortage of trying.

“Smoking on the job Fearghal?" Wolf teased, he'd do the same if he was bothered to even try.

“What can I say, I'm a working dog, I'm owed a smoke or two" Fearghal bit back in his banterous tone. 

“If you say so. Keep adding more to the scrapyard, Alpha One out" Wolf said, cutting off his comms and wandering back out into the great white blizzard, jumping over crevices, climbing down the faces of glaciers and occasionally responding to team calls to get reports and have a chat every now and then.

“These Super Earth fuckers better pay us in full for this or I'll be pissed" Wolf grumbled to himself, scraping his boots off the ice before continuing to amble about the blizzard. Finding automaton outposts and structures wasn't the most difficult task, unless they were already blown up by his crew. Patrols would appear every now and then, evident by their metallic chanting that managed to echo through the blizzard. 

Spotting a Hulk Scorcher through his scope, he took aim and fired a shot through it, splitting the large flamethrower and buzzsaw wielding robot in one go in two and making it explode. The rest of the patrol fired blindly into the blizzard as they always did, but Wolf stepped on them out of annoyance and spite. He had a particular grudge against Hulk Scorchers, they'd torn up his ankles with their saws and while not life threatening, the stinging pain left behind was unbearable. 

For a bunch of small robots, they were a vicious pair of bastards.

Throughout the blizzard, Wolf continued shooting and stomping outposts and patrols he encountered along the way, sighing with relief when he felt the blizzard beginning to finally clear up somewhat. He took off his mask and took in a breath of air, never wanting to take fresh air for granted again, fresh, cold and icy air, but it was still air. His moment of bliss was ruined when he heard a particular sound in the air, making him place his mask back on.

Gunships. 

The sound of their thrusters and the sight of their red scanning searchlights were hard to ignore. While not dangerous, they were as much of an annoyance as a fly buzzing around one's face at Wolf's size, a fly with an arsenal of laser cannons and rocket pods for good measure. Checking that he had enough rounds in his magazine, he took aim and prepared to fire, knowing he would have to find the Gunship fabricators fast after he dealt with this gunship patrol. With the blizzard cleared up and the blue cloudy sky returning, visibility was now optimal for both Wolf and the Automatons. 

Three came into view and Wolf aimed ahead of the moving Gunships to account for distance, ranging his shot before pulling the trigger. The lead Gunship disappeared in a flurry of fire and charred steel, engulfed in a fireball as the front and rear sections of the machine fell onto the snow, kicking up the snow into the air that dissipated in moments. 

The two remaining Gunships responded to the downing of their robotic comrade and turned towards Wolf, flying towards him immediately at full speed. Wolf aimed and fired, barely missing his target that managed to avoid his shot, he pulled the trigger and it only clicked, his magazine was spent. Holstering his rifle, he pulled out an eight shot revolver from his holster, ducking his head as the Gunships began firing back at him with their payloads. 

“Fuck off would ye?" Wolf grumbled as he aimed, pulled back the hammer and fired, striking a Gunship right in one of their thrusters, causing it to crash land into a patch of water and explode, sending a torrent of water flying upwards. The final Gunship was well within firing range, but Wolf wanted to mess around a bit. 

Holstering his revolver and spotting a small outpost in the distance, he burst into a sprint and leapt up into the air, grabbing the Gunship in his hand with ease. He chuckled slightly as he tore off the guns and rocket launchers, disarming the aerial bot. He stood and aimed the Gunship towards the outpost in the distance, hoping to strike it with a little surprise. 

Automatons stood watch and scanned the icy surface for any sign of SEAF soldiers or Helldivers, the single fabricator churning out new bots on occasion. Scout Striders and a couple of Devastators stood guard, it wouldn't be wise to take on the outpost without heavy weaponry. 

One automaton watched blankly as a Gunship came hurtling towards them and the outpost, spinning out of control and rapidly descending towards the ground. It crash landed and dragged itself through the outpost, digging a trench through the ground, flattening every bot that got in the way, striking into the fabricator and causing it to set off in the process. A fireball engulfed the small outpost, finishing off every remaining bot with a fireworks display.

“Worth the bother, don't care what anyone says" Wolf said to himself, reloading his sniper rifle and loading one new round into his revolver, pleased with himself that the unconventional tactic worked. If it works, it's not a bad tactic is it?

The sky continued to clear up and distant natural landmarks became visible across the landscape, complete with distant stacks of smoke and fire raging over the horizon in most directions from distant battles ongoing. It was a miracle that all of the ice in the world hadn't melted by this point. Wolf dealt with his fair share of planets engaged in war all across its surface, but they were rarely this volatile.

He covered his eyes with his hand for a moment from a flash in the distance, an ICBM had met its target, thankfully far away from Wolf to do any harm. A distant boom echoed from the blast and a partial blastwave kicked off a miniature blizzard, causing Wolf to cover his face until it blew over and curse slightly. The distinct mushroom cloud rose over the horizon, whatever it struck wasn't standing anymore

“Fucking hell, these little furless apes don't play around do they? Glad I'm not fighting against them" Wolf remarked to himself, noting it would be wise to not poke or prod Super Earth like he had done with some employers in the past who had double crossed him. 

“Holy shit, Alpha One, you see that?" an all too familiar voice came through on comms, one of Wolf's favourite foxes, aside from one particular Cornerian mercenary.

“Yeah, I saw it Alpha Two, those little guys are showing you up ya know" Wolf sarcastically remarked, he always enjoyed teasing the big fox.

“Ah go way and boil yer head ya eejit, I've made bigger bombs than those wee matchsticks. But I'll give them credit, they know how to make bombs" Sionnach answered, bantering away with his boss. It's something that made Wolf likeable to the crew, he wasn't a stuck up bureaucratic asshole with a stick in his arse, he was one of the lads to put it simply. 

“Maybe you can buy one off them? They seem to hand out guns like sweets in their society, maybe they have legalised nuclear bombs?" Wolf remarked further, earning him a scoff from the fox. 

“Heh, yeah, maybe I get a discount further down the line. Other than that, got a lot of dead bots here, how bout you?" Sionnach asked, doing his job the same as the other men. 

“Just dealt with a gunship patrol, gotta be a gunship fabricator around here somewhere. I'm going to knock it over" Wolf said, looking around for the tall structure in question. Another gunship came into view, he drew his revolver from his holster, fired off a shot and his aim remained on point, striking the gunship clean in its equivalent of a cockpit. 

“Nasty little yokes those. Lost a bit of blood from those things, just a graze at least. Maybe they'll have a command tower somewhere? Send a round through that and it'll come crumbling down" Sionnach suggested. It was a sound suggestion, since the surface was covered in no shortage of Automaton structures, both intact and destroyed. 

“I'll keep my eyes open. Wolf out" Wolf said, walking past some tall mountains and glaciers before the dropship fabricator finally came into view. He could fire a round through it, but he decided more fun was due. Another gunship emerged from the roof of the tall fabricator, its red searchlights activating as it began its patrol. Taking aim with his revolver, Wolf shot out one of the rear thrusters of the gunship, causing it to spin out of control before crashing against the rocky slopes of a mountain.

While Helldivers needed a hellbomb or other explosives to destroy gunship fabricators, Wolf only needed himself. It was below chest height for him, so pushing the whole structure off its foundation should be a simple task. Getting a good grip on the metallic exterior, he began pushing and pushing, feeling and hearing the metal groan as it caved under the pressure from Wolf's pushing. Partially tearing it off from its foundation, Wolf gave it a firm kick with his boot and the tower fell to the side, several internal components catching on fire and exploding, sending flaming pieces of metal flying into the air, but Wolf didn't have to worry about shrapnel damage.

“One less annoyance out of the way finally. Just a matter of finding that damn control tower, should hamper their aerial efforts. Should he says" Wolf said to himself, checking up on his gear, loading in new rounds and eventually began searching for the control tower. During his patrol, he dealt with any outposts he saw along the way, racking up the scrapheap for the bots with his aim and his boots. It was the first time in a while he felt a bit cheeky while doing his job, he didn't know killing robots could be this much fun. 

After what felt like hours of wandering, where he was not troubled by the blizzard thankfully, he could see the tall spire in the distance. The spire was surrounded by an extensive complex, bigger than any regular outpost that Wolf had seen on the planet. A frontal assault would be too risky, some heavier firepower was going to be needed for the rest of the base. 

“Alpha One to bridge, requesting an orbital strike on… Ah here, fuck the sector name, ye are tracking me on the ground, can ya see the massive base ahead of me crawling with bots?" Wolf said, not being arsed to care about coordinates or anything formal, his ship in orbit was bound to see the base with its viewing cameras.

“Roger boss, moving into an optimal firing position. Orbital autocannon strike will be planetside in thirty seconds, enjoy the fireworks" Aodhan responded, that big tank of a stag, he had the makings of a fine recruit, being the newest addition to the crew. He could run the ship well enough in Wolf's absence and enjoyed his work, so it was a mutually beneficial relationship. 

“That's the plan buck. Everything going fine on the ship? Daddy's out getting the dosh, ya know how it is" Wolf remarked, seeing his ship up in orbit moving into position. A large cannon slowly emerged from the keel (bottom) of the vessel, angling downwards at a forty five degree angle. It could fire shells, railgun rounds, ion based ammunition and a multitude of other rounds. For demolition of a large base complex, a high yield railgun round would do the job.

“The ship isn't on fire, so that's a good sign I'd say" Aodhan responded with sarcasm, enjoying the laid back attitudes of the crew compared to other people he had the misfortune of working with. 

“Firing railgun rounds in atmosphere again? You're a dodgy bastard Aodhan" Wolf remarked, he knew the stag well in his choice of what rounds to use for bombardments of various targets. Railgun rounds were always dangerous, but in orbit, the destructive capability was dreadful if in the wrong hands. 

“They're robots boss, see if I care what they think. Payload inbound, courtesy of PMC Star Wolf" Aodhan snarked, watching the base through an orbital camera as the cannon fired off. 

A puff of smoke fired from the cannon and Wolf, taking a few steps back just incase, saw the large metal rod break the sound barrier as it rapidly descended from orbit. In a blink, the rod struck the base and an almighty explosion reverberated through the ground, causing the base and surrounding area to uproot and collapse in on itself into a sinkhole due to the force of the blast. A heavy amount of snow and shards of ice were tossed up into the sky, as well as various structures and objects from the base that had been shredded into pieces from the kinetic bombardment. The blastwave alone made Wolf's hood fly backwards and air out his uniform.

When the blast cleared, a large black plume rose from what was a large Automaton base, with much of the base consumed by a sinkhole formed by the kinetic rod. Wolf couldn't help but whistle and laugh at that display of firepower, he rarely used that cannon, mainly using it to threaten clients or enemies, but to see what it was capable of was nothing short of terrifying. The shredded remains of bots, tanks, striders and other equipment began raining down from the sky, all of them being on fire, because of course they were. 

“Steaming Christ, I think you got them Aodhan" Wolf remarked, his one eye fully opened looking at the blast in both admiration and fright.

“Aye, I reckon that's a mission accomplished boss. What say you? Can send down a dropship for you and the others" Aodhan said with a grin, before suggesting the lads wrap up the day, they'd done a fair amount of demolition and it was more than enough to satisfy Super Earth for now.

“Yeah, please do, and for future notice, I do not care if the ship is on fire, falling into orbit uncontrollably, being sucked into a black hole or being attacked by other ships, I am having a big snooze after I drink the bar dry" Wolf said, sitting down on an icy patch as he waited for the dropship to collect him. It was easier to collect everyone one by one due to how spread out they were rather than have them all assembled in one place, which would take ages.

“You'll have some competition there sir, me included. Hearing a bed calling your name? The joys of the working man" Aodhan remarked further, earning him a laugh from Wolf. 

“You know it lad, see ya at the bar so" Wolf said, cutting off comms as he looked up at his ship, the large and dark object could put the fear of whatever gods people believed in into them. It wasn't a ship to scoff at, that was for sure. He watched as the large underbelly cannon retracted back into place, disappearing beneath a set of hatches. 

After relaxing himself a bit, a white angular dropship arrived and he was more than happy to get onboard. One by one, the men were collected and after everyone was accounted for, they returned to the ship with as best a fanfare the rest of the crew could throw, which was to say, a shite one, but it fitted them. 

Keeping to their promise, the binge in the bar was as can be expected from sailors. If no one's around to look, may as well go all out and get crazy. By the time the day was done, most of the crew were left with horrid hangovers and the shakes, but they laughed it off and enjoyed some r&r.

All in a day of the working fellas. Killing killer bots, but the money was good. 

That was the Star Wolf guarantee, a job well done.