- "Waller, we need to retreat."
- "Negative, Flag. The mission is too important, this is a tough group, you can make it."
- —Rick Flag and Amanda Waller[src]
The Battle on the Corto Maltese Beach was a bloody battle between the Task Force X and Corto Maltese Armed Forces, in an attempt to infiltrate the island to destroy the Project Starfish.
The mission would leave several members of the first strike team killed by the armed forces, and alerting them to the mission. However this would allow the second strike team of the squad led by Bloodsport to enter with ease on the island.[1]
Background[]
Project Starfish[]
Sometime near the end of the Cold War, an alien starfish was discovered floating near Earth by American astronauts. They brought it inside the space shuttle, where it released several spores of itself, attaching themselves to the astronauts and controlling their minds. It was ultimately brought to Earth, where the United States government, hoping to weaponize it, made a deal with the government of Corto Maltese to imprison and conduct experiments on it entitled "Project Starfish" in Jotunheim, where it was experimented on by geneticist Gaius Grieves, who dubbed him "Starro the Conqueror".[1]
Execution of the Herreras[]
In 2020, the Herrera family, who had been ruling over Corto Maltese for past couple decades, were all publicly executed by hanging under the orders of Silvio Luna in a coup d'etat, in an effort to establish his regime over the country. Luna intended to take control of Project Starfish and use it to declare war against America.[1]
Task Force X[]
Amanda Waller, who had been secretly funding Project Starfish, decides to have it destroyed in order to prevent Luna from using Starro to go to war with America. Waller begins recruiting prisoners of Belle Reve to Task Force X to be deployed to Corto Maltese to destroy all traces of Project Starfish. In order to recruit Bloodsport, Waller threatened to have his daughter transferred to Belle Reve, where she would likely be killed. Waller informs Peacemaker exclusively that America has started Project Starfish, and tasks him with making sure that the truth is never leaked.
Waller has the first team, consisting of Savant, Harley Quinn, the Detachable Kid, Mongal, Blackguard, Javelin, Weasel, Captain Boomerang, and commanded by Rick Flag, sent to Corto Maltese, and has Blackguard inform the country's Armed Forces about this plan as a distraction for the second team, consisting of Bloodsport, Peacemaker, Ratcatcher 2, Polka-Dot Man, and King Shark, to enter undetected.[1]
Battle[]
- "Blackguard sold us out. He contacted the fucking Corto Maltese Army."
- ―Rick Flag[src]
The Sheba helicopter would be in charge of transporting the first strike team of Task Force X to the waters of Corto Maltese while Amanda Waller and team analyzed with streaming servers in their offices, from there, the members of the squad jumped and began to swim to the coast, however Weasel did not know how to swim, drowning in despair until he passed out and fall low into the water. So Savant would rescue him by taking him to the coast, where he would give him up for dead towards Waller when he did not feel respiratory signs.
Blackguard turns on Task Force X.
Flag would ask Savant to get into position while the other members reached the shores, the squad would begin preparing their weapons, and Flag would notify Waller of the arrival. However Blackguard would rise from his position and start walking through the sands yelling at the soldiers who were watching his arrival, immediately the squad would realize that Blackguard betrayed them by having previously contacted the Corto Maltese Armed Forces about the mission, while walking, Blackguard was killed by army soldiers with a gunshot that disfigured his face.
The soldiers of the army lit the flashlights of their weapons and began firing to search for the rest of the members who were still in position. When they were surrounded, Flag would ask Waller to withdraw the squad, however Waller would deny it by telling him that the mission was very important. Harley Quinn would quickly accept Waller's words and launch a rocket with her bazooka, while Digger Harkness killed two soldiers with his boomerangs, in response a soldier would launch a rocket near the stone that Harley and Mongal were on but missing.
T.D.K. using his detachable arms.
Harley would decide to run to another stone risking in the middle of shots, but arriving with success, Rick Flag would follow her to the same stone while shooting several soldiers. John Economos would ask Flag to send T.D.K., so T.D.K. would disarm his floating arms that attacked, however this ability was useless since it only hit the soldiers with little force, Quinn when seeing this would feel confused and Flag would be frustrated.
Captain Boomerang is accidentally killed by Mongal.
Mongal then in an attempt to help would run to the top of the stone to reach an army helicopter and crash it, Flag would tell her to stop but Mongal did not hear him. Quickly after grabbing it, Mongal was startled by how the helicopter spun, crashing on top of some soldiers but burning Mongal and severely prodding Boomerang with sharp sticks from some trees. The helicopter exploding on the ground would generate an explosion and head towards Harkness, killing him.
In that, the soldiers of the armed forces shot him in the arms of T.D.K. and he suffered from pain, while Gunter Braun was killed in an attempt to throw his javelin, Savant seeing all the failure in the mission, would be scared and try to desert, Waller seeing this would warn Durlin to return, but in an act of despair Savant would ignore him and continue to escape with a float, Waller would repeat several times for him to return, and in a final warning, Savant would not obey, so Waller would activate the nano-bomb, exploding his head.[1]
Aftermath[]
- "You... are the only one... fit to carry my javelin. Carry it for..."
- ―Javelin's last words to Harley Quinn[src]
The second strike team arrives at Corto Maltese.
Instantly after the battle with the death of Savant, Emilia Harcourt reviewed the second strike team led by Bloodsport, who arrived without difficulties through the north beach, upon arrival this faction observed a strong explosion from the battle on the south beach. Meanwhile and after having bet who died, the agents divided the money of the bets, where John Economos ended up losing by having bet that Weasel would survive and paying his companions.
Meanwhile while Harley Quinn ran to survive, she would run into her partner Gunter Braun about to die, when approaching, Braun would pronounce his last words to tell Quinn that she would be the one to carry his armed javelin, however Braun would die without finishing saying the purpose of the weapon, leaving in doubt Quinn who struck Braun. In that, the soldiers of the armed forces would arrive to arrest Harley Quinn, who would later lock her up, leaving her alive since Silvio Luna wanted to start an affair with Quinn to manipulate her.
Rick Flag would manage to flee from the battle escaping towards the jungles of the island, however he would run into the Maltese Resistance led by the rebel Sol Soria in order to stop the dictatorship of Silvio Luna, who gave him refuge, saving him. Later, the second squad would be sent to rescue Flag by Waller, mistakenly assassinating the rebels by mistaking them for soldiers.[1]
Weasel survives to the battle.
Somehow, T.D.K. survived to the battle despite his condition, being left with only serious injuries.[2] At dawn, a canary would fly to Savant's corpse floating on the water, where it would begin to chew on it. Sometime after the battle, Weasel woke up from the beach long after the skirmish spitting water that he had swallowed, confused, he decided to stand up and escape running into the nearby jungle. Unknowingly and having been presumed dead, he was no longer under Waller's orders.[1]
Gallery[]
