Morbach Region, Oxus, Oxus System
January 2555
Oxus was, for the most part, a wasteland. One of the many planets written off as undesirable for colonization, as it had no real natural resources worth mentioning and the climate was either blistering hot or unbearably cold. As such, the planet became a UNSC Listening Post during the Human-Covenant war, but it was abandoned after a lack of supplies. The garrison had simply left and begun to live off the land.
Of course, the civilians that were left on the world without off-world contact or support, own descended into disorder allowing for the scum of the galaxy to call Oxus home. From the run of the mill murders on the run, political dissidents, to Insurrectionist all called Oxus home. However, this planet wasn't just occupied by humans, aliens inhabit Oxus as well.
Mainly, the same kind of scum only a different species however some also came looking for weapons. Civil war ravaged the Covenant and the multitude of factions were attempting to gather anything that could be used. From scrap metal to small ships, these glorified scavengers searched every corner of the galaxy for anything of use. However, these scavengers stumbled upon the holy grail of finds: an entire CSS Carrier.
This particular CSS Carrier, the Holder of Faith had crash landed upon the surface of Oxus many years ago and had simply lay unguarded. It's crew had either died on impact or simply died of exposure and some if lucky lived to be killed by a small UNSC garrison which had been stationed there since 2545. As such, the ship was left virtually untouched, no one ever really cared where the Covenant came from, they were happy they were all dead and that's what mattered to the population.
The Holder of Faith's position was quite unusual. It had crash landed in the shadow of a mining turned UNSC outpost which had been abandoned due to lack of supplies. The climate was like the rest of Oxus, unbearably hot during the short summers and bone chilling cold during the long, drawn out winters. However, this didn't keep the Abiding Truth from it.
The terrorist cell was in desperate need of ships, and hearing that the Holder of Faith was in a relatively good condition, they sent a small scout team to investigate it. After a quick inspection, they found the ship to be in reasonable condition, however, it was not void ready. Repairs were still needed, despite that nothing else appeared to be wrong. The Abiding Truth ordered the area to be secured and informed the scout party that reinforcements were on there way. Now, it came down to the waiting game for the scouts on the world. The majority where Kig-Yar mercenaries with a handful of Sangheili to keep order. For the most part they had encountered no resistance and since this part of the planet was devoid of sentient life it was thought that no one would alert the UNSC of their presence. However, the UNSC had already knew they were there. ONI had already know about the Holder of Faith however they hadn't had the time nor the need to send some troops there to secure the carrier. Now, they had the need and they spared no expense.
The UNSC's resolve was demonstrated by their response; SPARTANs. Fireteam Jaeger was used to such complete missions like the sabotage of the Holder of Faith. Infiltrate enemy territory, gather intelligence, then torch the target. The fire team had already done step one and they decided to divide and conquer. Two SPARTANs had infiltrated the former UNSC outpost, while two more infiltrated the actual ship to both gather intel on the ship, and planet charges on the main reactor and cause a wild cat engine failure.
"Castiel," SPARTAN Ariel-200 spoke in her thick Australian accent to her squad leader Castiel-278, "I got eyes on two hinge heads to your left, say about thirty meters."
"You have a shot?" Castiel asked the designated marksmen.
Ariel checked her Type-50 SRS and then took a look at the Sangheili, "Affirmative, I can take only one boss."
"Copy, wait for my go," Castiel ordered.
Currently he and his demolitions expert Dominic B-177 had taken up cover in a crater that was no more than twenty meters from the entrance of the carrier. He'd rather not have to deal with hinge heads at the moment but it had to be done otherwise they may have a fight on there hands. He turned to Dominic who is in his grey EOD armour, his armored hands holding his MA5C which had a suppressor on it.
"Okay, you flank right, you should be able to get behind the hinge heads," Castiel ordered.
"Got it boss." Dominic said.
Dominic moved out of the carter and moved around using the defile provided by the crashed carrier as cover. He finally got behind the Sangheili, no more than about three meters from them, he heard them talking to one another. The SPARTAN didn't understand a lick of it, but figured they were probably bitching about the cold weather.
"Dominic take the one on your left, Ariel take the one on your left." Castiel ordered there was a small delay, "Now, go"
Dominic then charged out of his cover and tackled his target to the ground.
"Candygram asshole!" he yelled as he slashed the and stabbed the surprised Sangheili's throat.
The other Sangheili took aim at Dominic but Ariel put an end to the Sangheili quickly. Her sniper rifle spat one high caliber round which, when it hit, caused the Elite's head to fly away. The rest of it's body stood for a moment before slumping over.
"Good kills," Castiel said emerging from the carter in his dark green Mrk VI armour, "Ariel give us cover were going in."
"Roger that boss," Ariel said,
"Dominic up," Castiel said motioning the SPARTAN too follow.
Dominic moved up following Castiel toward the 'entrance' of the Holder of Faith. In truth, it was nothing more but a maintenance hatch that had been opened by the scavengers. The SPARTANs made there way through the maintenance hatch and found themselves somewhere in the ships mid section.
"Where are we in the ship boss?" Dominic asked as he made his way into the pitch black, though he could see due to his enhanced vision, hallway.
Castiel thought for a moment, "Well, guessing from the open doors," Castiel motioning to the one of the massive corridors which had once been cover by a massive blast door which was now gone, "We are near the bridge, covies always had their bridges on the inside of their ships."
"Right, so we are heading to the engine block which should be that way right?" Dominic asked pointing down a closed off hallway.
"You will, set the charges timed for one hour," Castiel ordered, "I'm heading to the bridge to secure any intel that may have be on this ship."
"Wait, firstly, why and secondly the ship is dark you can't get anything off them right?" Dominic asked confused, he was told this was a strict torch op.
"The bridge was it's own power supply for life support and to maintain their computers so they can still be able to move and send an SOS," Castiel explained, "There should be some juice left, also ONI has a hunch about this ship in particular."
"Got it boss," Dominic said beginning to make his way to the engine block.
It was no easy task either, he found himself having to pry open his fair share of doors however he found his way the engine block quickly. Along the way he meet some of the crew, well the remains. Skeletons of all species sparsely populated the ship, as if the remaining crew didn't even care about their fallen comrades enough to give them a proper send off.
Dominic came to the engine block and found that some of the scouts had already been there. This was evident by some tools and small light sources left behind. From what he could tell, they had been working on the engine. The Holder of Faith's engine was interesting in design; it was positioned in a massive cylinder that was complete sealed. However it had been opened for maintenance purposes, presumably by the scouts. Now, the cylinder had been lifted up allowing for the engine to be seen it's purple glow illuminating the room. Dominic had no engineering expertise, though he was smart enough to notice that the engine seemed intact. Dominic got to work, he took out his charge, a thermite carbon-core explosive. The idea was to cause a wild cat engine failure so that it will erase the Holder of Faith, because there was no way to actually recover the ship with the UNSC so spread thin. As Dominic got to his work, Castiel was yet to begin his. This delay was due to an unforeseen problem, bridge door was sealed shut. From what he could tell it had a special door that could not be pried open, he'd have to find another way in.
"Now this is interesting," Castiel said to himself.
He stood in front of it his rifle holstered looking for some way to get the door open. Castiel had two options; first, he could blast it open with thermite, which he did have one charge on him in case Dominic was killed getting to it, or he could hack his way in. He found one console on next to the door. From what he could gather it was probably turned on by the scouts attempting to get in as well. Where they failed he would succeed, he had a little friend.
"Skua." Castiel said knocking on his helmet, "Need you to get a door open,"
"Affirmative," the dumb A.I. said in a bland male voice.
Castiel took the chip out containing the dumb A.I. and inserted it into the console, a few moments later Skua reported to Castiel.
"Sir," Skua begun, "I have unsealed the chamber, however the reason for lock down where for quarantine reasons, I recommend you seal your suit."
Castiel then activated the seal on his suit making airtight it'd be impossible for airborne pathogens to get into his suit. He ready his rifle and pulled Skua out of the console.
"Skua, why was the bridge quarantined?" Castiel asked,
"It was not specified, it was ordered by the Shipmaster." Skua replied, "Doors are opening now,"
The first blast door came down, soon it revealed the blast door which then came down, Castiel entered the bridge cautiously. What he found was quite disturbing even for him. The room had a green-looking fog which he presumed was a product of the decomposition. As he entered, he saw that the crew had remained at their post, even the Shipmaster who was slumped over in his command chair mostly decayed. Castiel approached the helm which was positioned in front of the command chair. Castiel then inserted the Skua into the console, the console then light up enumerating the room with a purple glow.
"What am I looking for, sir?" Skua asked.
"Everything relating to navigation, Shipmaster logs and last combat zone entered." Castiel asked,
"Understood, and done," Skua said,
"Good," Castiel then reinserted Skua back into his helmet, "Dominic do you copy?"
"Yep, charges are in place, one hour as you asked," Dominic responded as he made his back to the maintenance hatch.
"Alright, meet me at the maintenance hatch, once Ada and Jaon are done with the camp we'll fall back and get out of here before we create a massive crater." Castiel said,
During this time Jaon B-340 and Ada B-345 are clearing out the abandoned UNSC compound of the scouts. The two SPARTANs crept through the abandoned outpost like lions in the tall grass. Moving from cover to cover, pool of shadow to pool of shadow. As they did this they had one objective in mind, the scouts ships. They had come in a group of litches, a small void craft that was slipspace capable. It's small size, stealth, and cloaking capabilities made it a prime target. They didn't want the Covies getting off world before the Holder of Faith was turned to dust.
As Castiel and Dominic where getting out of the Holder of Faith, Jaon and Ada were about to descend upon their prey. A wounded Sangheili staggered attempted to escape the wrath of the two SPARTANs but he didn't make it far. He felt a bullet enter his back at an angle piercing one of his hearts. The Sangheili fell forward into the snow, now turned purple.
The SPARTAN holstered her pistol and turned to her comrade who put a Kig-Yar out his misery by crushing it's head with her sabaton. Jaon had always been very brutal toward aliens, showing very little in the way of remorse for her actions.
"Boss," Jaon said addressing Castiel, "Objective secure we're preparing to destroy those litchs."
"Affirmative, place charges and bug out, follow the waypoints," Castiel ordered,
"Understood," Jaon responded she then turned to her comrade, Ada, "Alright you heard the man, let's get to it."
Ada nodded and the two SPARTANs begun their work. The litches were not complicated machines and required little knowledge on spacecraft to see the craft's weak points. Ada and Jaon quickly planted their charges on a fuel valve that was exposed by the sloping of the blast shields near it's engines.
"Alright kid, let's beat feet," Jaon told Ada, "Boss, charges set we are heading to the rally point."
"Confirmed; stay frosty," Castiel said,
"Boss, we got a problem," Ariel said
"Talk to me Aussie," Castiel said making a point of her thick outback accent,
"To your six, got two phantoms," Ariel said, "Shit, boss one of the phantoms is carrying a revenant."
Castiel motioned to Dominic to fall back inside the Holder of Faith. He knew they wouldn't be able to outrun a revenant. SPARTANs were fast but not that fast.
"Where are the covies droppin?" Castiel asked,
"To you're two boss," Ariel said exchanging her standard issue rounds with APCR rounds, "I got eyes on a Field Marshal, two Zealots and two squads of Minors, boss. What's the plan boss?"
Castiel rapidly responded, "Take out the Marshal if you got a shot, Jaon, Ada get your asses down here and attack them in the rear, Dominic how much time do we have?"
"Fifty minutes boss," Dominic responded loading his railgun with APCR rounds.
"Plenty of time." Castiel commented checking his BR, "Jaon, Ada, status."
"Nearly there boss," Jaon responded.
"Rodger, here's the plan," Castiel begun, "Ariel take the Marshal out at least piss him off he'll be looking for you, me and Dominic will then split his forces up and Jaon and Ada will flank behind and kill of the remainder."
As the phantoms left their troops, the Field Marshal made his way toward the ship his honor guard, the two Zealots flanking him and the two squads of minors following behind they barely armored some where lucky to even have sabatons. The fire team acknowledged and got to there work. Ariel started the firefight, placing a shot into the Field Marshal's helmet, his shields glistened and exploded. The Elite was flung to the side before getting up the round imbedded in his helmet. His bodyguard turned to face Ariel's potion when Dominic and Castiel broke cover and fired on them. Dominic's railgun unleashed a hellish round into the Zealots. Both where sent flying in opposite directions; one lacking a leg. It was disintegrated by the kinetic energy of the rail guns round blasting through it. The other was down, but recovered quickly, furious and angry over the loss of his comrade. He ignited his energy sword and charged the SPARTANs only to be gunned down by Ariel. At this point, the two minor squads were in disarray, their commander was in a daze and they were being shoot from two different directions, eventually after taking shots from Castiel, who was now advancing toward the Sangheili while firing his Battle Rifle, begun to fire at the SPARTAN and maneuver to cover.
Castiel used his enhanced agility and reflexes to his advantage and advanced rapidly toward the Sangheili. The revenant driver finally got into action and fired a shot at Castiel which hit near by making the SPARTAN's shields drop. The SPARTAN dove into defile and waited for Dominic. Dominic had spotted the revenant advancing and firing and loaded the rail gun with APCR and fired a shot which hit and penetrated the frontal armor of the revenant. The the speeder exploded in a fantastic display sending shards of vehicle everywhere.
Finally, the Field Marshal had gotten back to his senses, he ignited his energy sword and charged Castiel.
The Field Marshal struck first at the SPARTAN. Castiel evaded the stabbing attack by jumping back firing several shots at the Field Marshal. This only angered the massive alien and he struck again with a slash going right to left. Castiel evaded again the attack and slammed into the Sangheili. The body slam only knocked the Sangheili back. The Sangheili continued it's dogged attempt to kill the SPARTAN which was answered with shots from the SPARTAN's Battle Rifle and melee. His punches and kicks however only angered the Sangheili. Eventually, the Field Marshal lost all discipline and leaped forward leading with his energy sword, just as Castiel hoped. As the wild attack happened, the SPARTAN pulled out his combat blade and evaded the attack. Castiel dropped down which sent his blade upwards. The blade struck home entering the stomach and cutting open the Sangheili. The Field Marshal rolled after the leap one hand holding entrails the other his energy sword. The Sangheili roared and charged Castiel his blade brought upward ready to slash down onto the SPARTAN. Castiel answer with a swift leap to the side then bringing his blade into the Sangheili's side. He took it out and swiftly brought it up to the Sangheili's neck. There was a quick and soft stab before the Sangheili fell forward energy sword falling from his hands.
"I like the way you die boy," Castiel said and turned to face the two minor squads.
The squads were tied up with Ariel, Jaon and Ada laying down fire on them. Jaon and Ada advanced firing on the move Ada alone putting fierce yet controlled fire on the Sangheili with her SAW, meanwhile Jaon fired on the Sangheili with great skill and advanced some what faster. At this point only a total of five Sangheili were standing two of them were gravely wounded by a HE round fired at them by Dominic. Castiel advanced attempting the close the gap and finish off the rest Jaon made it first, however, blade drawn. She met the first with a quick stab to his exposed stomach she still firing her assault rifle at the others to keep them off her. Jaon brought her blade up stabbing one through the jaw into it's head. She brought her blade back into fighting ready two Sangheili charging her, she fired her Assault Rifle yet nothing came out. She tossed it and fired her magnum at the advancing Sangheili one falling the other being tackled to the ground by Castiel and swiftly killed. The remainder were swiftly finished off by Ariel and Ada, they attempting to escape.
"Jaon!" Castiel yelled the SPARTAN III turning to Castiel, "The fuck I say about charging like that! Do you want to be killed?"
"I thought we were sent here to kill covies not play marine!" Jaon responded.
"Boss!" Dominic said, "Time!"
Castiel then remembered they had a time limit on this one, he turned to Jaon, "Later."
"Whatever," She whispered.
"Alright Jaeger let's pack it up, pick up point is four kilometers out move it!" Castiel ordered.
The SPARTANs began to move in a dead sprint, the fast Ariel was moving at forty kilometers per hour the others where moving at relatively the same pace. As such they made it to the LZ in no time.
"Dominic, time?" Castiel asked,
"Say about thirty nine minutes,"Dominic stated.
"Good job everyone," Castiel said congratulating his team on another mission done, "Minerva this is Jaeger we are ready for pick up."
"Roger, Pelican is already in the area sit tight," the Captain of the Minerva responded.
"Jaeger this is Impala I'm inbound ready to extract you," the pelican pilot announced.
"Hell...that was easy," Dominic said.
"Yeah, little too easy if you ask me." Jaon said.
"You didn't have to set the bomb, you got the fun part." Dominic responded.
Jaon looked to Dominic, "You blow stuff up, that's easy!"
"Easy?" Dominic responded, "Jaon demolitions isn't easy, it is an art that requires extreme amount of control and patience."
"Yeah right," Jaon said.
"Oh you don't believe me?" Dominic asked sarcastically.
Jaon just nodded she was getting a little angry, "Of course I don't, after all you never get your hands dirty." Jaon says as she shows off the blood spatters on her gauntlets.
Dominic stepped forward, "Now you-"
"Enough out of you both!" Castiel said, "I want you two behaving alright?"
"Yes sir!" the two SPARTANs responded.
"Good better stay that way," Castiel said.
The pelican soon arrived it's doors opening the SPARTANs climbed in and they soon left the blast area. They soon found themselves breaking the atmosphere eventually making it into the void. Dominic always found a certain fascination with the stars. Always said, he's been in the UNSC even if he wasn't a SPARTAN, he just wanted to see the stars.
"Should be going off in ten minutes," Dominic announced,
"What do you mean should?" Ariel asked,
Jaon interrupted, "Cause Da Vinci over here doesn't know-"
"Quiet!" Ariel said, "What do you mean soon?"
"Well," Dominic began, "It depends on the core, if it's warm then it'll blow instantly, if not it'll be a slow burn it'll go off, just not instantly."
"Interesting," Ariel said, "Cas, got any word on where we are heading?"
Castiel was reviewing a data pad which he had been doing since launch.
"We got a new assignment, from ONI section three, they want us at Earth for briefing." Castiel responded.
"What's the op?" Ariel asked.
"Not sure, says it's high priority several ships, they will tell us more,"
UNSC Pit Boss
January 2555
"What do you mean, 'come back to Earth'?" Captain Nathaniel Kent yelled at screen displaying the image of a ONI officer.
"Captain, I understand your frustration but your services are needed for a very important task." the ONI agent said once again.
Kent leaned forward in his command chair "I got that part Bennett-"
"Colonel." Colonel Bennett corrected the Captain.
"Forgive me, Colonel Bennett however if you have not noticed I'm doing something very important I'll have you know!" Kent said his vex shown clearly.
"Yes, yes I know you've been tracking stolen UNSC Shevia Nukes, that is high priority," Bennett begun until he was interrupted.
"That could wipe a colony Bennett!" Kent said,
"Colonel!" Bennett yelled corrected Kent again.
"Sorry Colonel, but as you can see I clearly have something important to do!" Kent yelled back,
"Don't make me fucking pull rank Kent!" Bennett yelled in an angry tone, "I should have your ass court martialed but the Old Bird has-"
"Wait a goddamn minute!" Kent yelled surprised, "The Old Bird?"
Bennett seemed to calm down as he had now captured Kent's interest. Getting orders from the Director of ONI was big, in fact it was up there with a divine quest in most UNSC officers books.
"Yes Parangosky herself is asking for you," Bennett said with a small smile growing.
Kent nodded "Aye, if it'd be from the Bird herself I'm coming to Earth then."
"Very well, I shall brief you on your arrival." Bennett said.
The link was then cut and Kent was left to ponder in his chair. Yes he did work for ONI but at the same time he was more regular UNSC than ONI. As such the majority of his service was spent assisting in combat operations, not spying. However the Pit Boss was a prowler so it technically belonged to ONI however it was assigned to UNSC regular command for purposes of having a scouting and quick attack craft.
He was still getting used to not having an admiral breathing down his neck for a SIT REP every five minutes, which he admitted was nice, but he still didn't like having ONI agents on his ship. He didn't like someone having the ability to have a legal mutiny on his ship.
His thoughts dwelled on the coming mission, no one got orders directly from the Old Bird, no one! So to say the least this was quite the shocker for Kent, he then looked to his helmsman, a young lad in his early twenties.
"Helmsman give me a route and head to Earth we got a meeting with the Old Bird!" Kent commanded.
"Aye captain!" the helmsman replied.
Pit Boss soon found itself turning toward Earth and then suddenly enter slipspace.