Halo: SPARTAN-Yellow
0639 hours, January 17th, 2544 (Military Calander)\
Miradiem City, planet Miridem.
Petty Officer Second Class SPARTAN-020 Jacob listened to the music booming through the speakers of the D77-TC dropship, waiting for the vehicle to come to a stop.
He sat in the back of the transport, in the blood tray of the vehicle. Inside with him were four other Spartans, two doctors, and three UNSC Marines. Jake was the leader of Yellow Team for the upcoming mission: rescue civilians trapped within the city of Miradiem and engage against the hostile Aliens invading the capital.
The aliens were a collection of different species unified under one banner, known collectively as "The Covenant". After first coming in contact with Humans near the Planet Harvest in 2525. Ever since, the Covenant has been bent on the destruction of Humanity. And they had just come to a new world.
"We're almost there," the cool, low voice of the pilot announced, cutting out the prestine classical music that had been on the speakers. "Everyone back there, get ready. We're coming in hot." As he said this, the wall that was the back of the blood-tray opened, creating a ramp that the occupants could walk down when they landed. Through the now open viewport, Jake saw their two escorts start to edge closer, one flying directly behind while the other took point.
Jake felt a hand touch his, and he looked over to see SPARTAN-122, Sheila, wipe two of her fingers across her faceplate. She wore Mark IV Mjolnir Powered Assault Armor, as did all the Spartans inside the dropship. While wearing them, the occupants could not accurately show emotions on their faces, because they wore large helmets with faceplates that nobody outside could see through. The Spartans had adopted a customary gesture of wiping two fingers across where the mouth would be on their helmet to signal a smile.
Jake returned the gesture.
"Alright everyone, get ready-" Jake started.
A large explosion sounded nearby, which rocked Jake to the core. He glanced outside and saw their tailing escort burst into flames and spiral to the ground. Plasma torpedoes began to criss-cross the sky. The Pelican lurched sideways, then corrected itself. Jake felt the craft begin to descend.
A few moments later, he heard the voice of the pilot begin to speak. "Alright, everybody who's getting off needs to get out! I can't be a gigantic bulls-eye for everything here too long!"
Jake stepped off the craft, carrying a weapon in each hand. He clipped his SRS99C-S2 AM Sniper Rifle to a slot on his back, and held his MA5B Assault Rifle. Shiela got off the craft with a M19 SSM Rocket Launcher and her own MA5B. The others held miscellanious weapons. The three Marines took up the rear, staying close to the two doctors that walked off. Jake looked around the area where they had landed and took in everything he saw.
They were in a large intersection, where two streets met. To the east was a large courtyard, and that seemed like the best place to go. "Get to the courtyard!" he ordered, and pointed. The Pelican dropship began to rise into the air, sending heat at their backs while they ran. The sound of gunfire, explosions, and screaming filled his ears as he ran, making his lip turn in disgust. They ran from the middle of the intersection to the cover of a bullet-riddled building, stopping near the corner as they began to be shot at.
Gunfire began to kick up, and the Spartans gave covering fire while the Marines and the doctors ran to the cover behind large stone statues of the founders of the city. One of the Marines was hit in the ankle by a plasma bolt, and sent him sprawling to the ground. One of the Spartans, Danial-036, ran out and grabbed him before diving behind the cover of concrete just before a large plasma artillery shell created a crater where the Marine had been. Jake nodded to Danial, and turned to the remaining four Spartans with him, across the street from the courtyard. "Anton and Emma, you will run out from here to the courtyard in mark 30 seconds. It'll be a distraction while Shiela and I go up this alley and flank the enemy." Anton-044, nodded and stuck his head out from behind cover.
He pulled it back just as plasma began to splash off the bricks. "We have two Wraith tanks and at least a squad of Jackals. I couldn't see it all," he said. Jake nodded, and thought for a moment.
"Alright, we'll keep to the same plan, but be careful. Those tanks can create a lot of hell." Jake said.
Anton nodded, patted Emma-019 on the shoulder, and ran across the street, diving to cover as the enemy snipers shot at him. Jake jogged through the alleyway he talked about earlier and emerged a block down to the south. Sheila was right behind him. He saw the blockade set up by the Covenant snipers and tanks, and ran full-speed at it. The tanks didn't have time, and he managed to jump on the nearest one, rip off the top hatch, and toss two Fragmentation grenades inside. Sheila jumped into the middle of the pack of Jackal snipers, shooting, punching and kicking her way through them. Jake jumped from the first Wraith to the second as the first exploded, propelling him further and faster than he expected. Sheila was smacked to the ground, and the final two Jackals left standing were vaporized in the explosion.
Jake landed on the other Wraith, indenting the side with his body, then fell off. After a moment, he shook his head to clear it, and looked up to see the tank begin to turn towards him.
A rocket flew through the air right above him and smashed into the tank, sending it backwards and destroying the front of it's armor. A second rocket followed the first, and finished the job: the flaming remains of the thing slid to the ground, and stayed there.
Jake looked to see Sheila walking towards him, her Rocket Launcher in her hands.
A few moments later, two of his other squadmates were at his side; Danial and Emma. Emma held a Sniper Rifle, with an M7 Submachine Gun clipped to her hip. Danial held an MA5B assault rifle and his own Sniper Rifle. Jake nodded to them all, then unclipped his MA5B from his back, and held it in one hand. With the other he pointed at a building up the street. Gunfire ripped into it, and Covenant Banshees, bulbous purple flying craft, flew by it and shot at it.
"I think-" Jake started. His suit intercepted a UNSC distress signal/transmission and patched it through to his speakers. Anton, the two Doctors, and the Three Marines soon appeared with the rest of his squad.
"-lo Two-Nine, I am trapped in a building with three squads of Marines and a dozen civilians, we are cut off from reinforcements and are pinned down by enemy fire," the voice paused to yell an order to someone else. "We need back-up, now."
"-that settles it. We're going to rescue those civilians." Jake said. "Yellow four and five," he said, indicating Danial and Emma. You'll be staying here and giving sniper cover fire for us when we move up. Doctors-"
"-We're going with you. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it." One of the doctors said. Her name was Catherine Halsey, the creator of the SPARTAN-II project, of which the Spartans were a part of. She was tall, had long, black hair, and piercing blue eyes. She was currently wearing a pair of form-fitting black pants, as well as a dark blue sweater. Her partner, a young man named Joe Schubert had messy brown hair and wore a similar sweater, but with camouflage fatigues that he must have borrowed from a Marine back on The Alexandria, the ship they all had come from.
Jake's lip curled back in anger. He was probably the only Spartan to have graduated through the program that disliked the woman. Every other man or woman that had graduated from the program held her in the highest regard, even putting her opinion and any orders she gave above that of Colonels, Generals, Admirals, or whoever else outranked them. He was the oldest of the Spartans, by a good eight months. He was the only one who still remembered the life outside of the Military, and the only one who still missed it. It was because of this that he hated her.
"No." Jake replied.
Halsey's eyes narrowed. By now, she must have known about Jake's distaste for the woman; they had been on The Alexandria for a good three months now, together, confined within the ship's space. He was as polite as he could be, as he was to every other person. But unlike the others, he didn't treat her like his mother. He didn't go out of his way for her, he didn't go through with her orders without thinking, like the others. She must have known something was up.
"Listen, you cyborg freak. We are here to study and classify how the Covenant is acting, why they are engaging in battle differently than normal, and why they are excavating large sections of the planet." Schubert said, raising one hand. "And under orders of the Office of Naval Intelligence, we are to follow your team wherever you go."
Jake smiled within his helmet. "And my team is staying here. And you are too." Dumbfounded, Schubert looked to Halsey for support. Instead, she stood as still as stone, watching Jake direct his squad. "Corporal Rogers," Jake ordered, looking at the leader of the three marines that had come onto the surface with him. "You and your squad are to stay here and provide cover for my snipers, watch their backs and make sure nothing sneaks up behind them." The Corporal saluted, and told his two teammates to get into position. "Anton, you're with Sheila and I." He looked towards the building. "Let's go."
* * *
Ensign Richard Lash stood on the bridge of the UNSC Frigate The Alexandria, watching through a monitor as the battle unfolded below. He was fresh out of Officer Candidate School, and this ship was his first assignment. The ship hovered a few kilometere outside of the atmosphere of the planet, still and trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. They hovered over the city of Blaire, the second largest city on the planet. Blaire was currently under control of the UNSC, but had not been attacked by the Covenant in force. Elsewhere on the planet, above the city of Miradiem, two Covenant warships hovered, feeding troops into the city. On the exact opposite side of where The Alexandria was based on the geography of the planet, eighteen UNSC ships fought against six Covenant ships, and the UNSC was fighting a losing battle.
Captain Richard "Dick" Browning hovered behind the back of an ensign elsewhere on the bridge, constantly being updated on the space battle elsewhere on the planet. If it were up to him, he would have been in the battle, fighting, losing, and dying under the banner of the UNSC. Dick was perhaps the most righteous and self-sacrificing person Lash had ever met, especially when it came to the UNSC Navy. A transmission came up from a Lieutenant on the ground, in Blaire, saying that Covenant troops were amassing a kilometer outside of the city's limits.
Not a moment later a man walked onto the bridge, and Lash and Browning both looked up to look at him. He was Sergeant Major Robert Redford, a short and stocky man who had been in rehab in the medical wing of the ship for the past eight weeks, after injuring his ankle in a recreational boxing match. "Sir, the fight downstairs isn't going that well. Requesting permission to take a Pelican down with a squad of Marines-"
"And what Marines would those be?" Dick replied. "Bob, as much as I want you down there fighting, you're probably one of the best ground-pounders I've ever seen, but honestly? Every able-bodied Marine on this ship has already been sent down, and we've lost so many birds I'll probably be discharged when we get back to Reach."
"-Then send down the non-able-bodied!" Redford said, both hands out now. "There are two dozen men in the Medical wing that are ready to get back out and fight-"
"-And most of them won't ever walk again, after the injuries they have. No. Redford, if you really want to help, get to the Hangar and help the nurses get the dead and wounded out of the 'birds. And that's an order."
Embarrassed, Redford turned on his heel and walked out of the bridge, and a few of the bridge crewmen turned to look at Dick. In every other situation involving combat, the Captain had encouraged everyone, wounded, healthly, and everywhere in between, to get into the fight and do their best. After a few moments of staring, the ship's AI, Xenophon, appeared on a holo-projector in the center of the bridge. On the pedestal, he was little over a foot tall, but he was modeled after an ancient Greek War general that had stood more than six feet tall. He had long white hair that flowed into a beard that covered nearly half of his face. Dark eyes and a large nose were his strong features.
"Sergeant Major Robert Redford has retrieved his gear from his quarters and is en route to Pelican Zulu-151." he announced.
Lash looked at Browning, who had a smile forming on his face. "Let him pass, Xeno. He could be following my orders as I said. He can still be helping with the wounded." He waved his hand and turned to a communications station, and that was the end of the conversation. Lash grinned, and turned back to the monitor he had been watching a moment earlier. It was a diagram of southern Miradiem, where the last of the UNSC forces were holding out. A green arrow represented each UNSC soldier in the city, thanks to small transponders that were present on the back of each Marine's neck, which sent vital signs back to their ship for readings. Blue arrows represented civilians, of which there were only dozens remaining. And there were five yellow arrows. He had only seen one of them, the team leader, and only his face on a picture. Before the ship had left Reach, where Lash had boarded, Browning had met with him and the rest of the bridge crew and had told them about the Spartans that were to be on board. He was given a picture of the leader, Jake-020, and told to stay away from him and any others he was with.
And Lash followed the order. At nearly seven feet tall, and built like a rhino, he was an intimidating man. With a firm jaw, dark hair, deep blue eyes and an everlasting raised eyebrow, he looked like an old movie star. But he was far from it. He was the best of the best, a one-man army.
He was a Spartan.
* * *
Jake grabbed the face of the fleeing Jackal and slammed it's skull into a nearby wall. Anton kicked a grunt to the ground and fired point-blank a trio of rounds from his MA5B into it's chest. Sheila fired at a group of running Jackals, who had arm-mounted energy shields up to block the projectiles. "They're running!" Sheila yelled.
Jake grabbed a M67 Fragmentation Grenade with each hand and tossed both at the Jackals, bouncing against the ceiling and propelling them behind the aliens' energy shields. They exploded, killing all of the things and sending blood and gore all along the walls. "Keep moving." Jake ordered, and ran ahead. He unclipped his MA5B from his back and slammed in a new magazine full of rounds. Anton followed right behind him, switching his MA5B for an M90 Shotgun that had been on his back.
"Kilo 29, this is SPARTAN Yellow team, and we are nearing your position, and are currently one floor under you," Anton said into his comm. device.
A deep voice replied quickly, "Spartans? Really? Goddamn HIGHCOM must love me. Shit! Rick, fire your goddamned weapon!" the sound of gunfire ripped through the speakers of all three spartans' helmets, making them grimace in unison. "Well can you guys hurry up? We're running low on men and ammo. And we're pinned down by a good two dozen grunts."
"We're on our way," Anton replied, and nodded to Jake, who began to run quicker.
They were in the target building, three floors up, and jogging through hallways. Dozens of Covenant foot soldiers walked up and down the building, searching for and killing any survivors they could find. The Grunts were also hungry. The three Spartans picked up speed and began to full-out-run at nearly 50 kilometers per hour. They burst down a hallway, cut through a small lobby -running right by a trio of grunts who were dumbfoundedly surprised at the sight of them- and found a flight of stairs, pounding up them to the next level.
The sound of gunfire ever closer, the Spartans slowed and stopped in a hall, with Jake at point and Anton right behind, with Shiela bringing up the rear. Jake did a series of hand signals and Anton split into a right apartment while Sheila took the left. Jake continued down the hallway and turned left-
-and tripped over a Grunt who had been running the other way. Jake collapsed on top of it, crushing it for a moment. Within seconds, Jake had kneed it in the face and crushed it's skull, then tossed it's body away. He shouldered his weapon and jogged down the hall, turned right, and found himself right behind a group of four Jackals who stood in an apartment room, firing somewhere that Jake could not see. A moment later he saw that the Jackals stood on one end, and opposite them, through three destroyed walls and many dead bodies, was the group of Marines and civilians who had been holding out together for the past half hour. Jake looked to his left, and saw that more destroyed walls were there, and Covenant reinforcements were walking through the rubble. Jake cursed once, tossed a Frag grenade and stepped to cover on the other side of the doorway.
A second later the device exploded and the wall on the other side of the doorway exploded outwards, two charred bodies and one live one caught up in the rubble. Jake stepped over, shot the live alien once in the head, and turned back to the fight. A group of Grunts began to run towards the doorway, and Jake dropped to a crouch and fired at them. He heard a muffled explosion to his right and figured out that Anton must have broke through a wall and was close to the Marines. He'd be helping them by now.
The Spartan finished off the Grunts, and stepped over a large piece of debris, moving towards the Covenant frontline, where at least two dozen Jackals stood with overlapping shields and fired plasma pistols. Jake dove to cover as a salvo of plasma scorched through the air. He swore and tossed a grenade, and hoped it would at least distract them. It did.
He jumped out and ran through the smoke and dust the explosion had created, and the confusion it caused created a small divide in the line of shields. Jake took his chance and dove through. In mid-air, he spun, landed on his feet, and fired from right to left, hitting all of the aliens in their backs, killing them in seconds. He turned around and saw two shocked Grunts. With the last eight rounds in his clip, he killed both.
"Jake, Anton here. We've got six walking Marines, three wounded, nine civilians, and two wounded civies. Orders?"
Jake frowned inside his helmet. It was his mission, yes, but that many wounded and only so few combat-effective men would be a problem. "Alright, arrange for some of the civilians to carry the wounded, and the Marines if you have to. I'll be over in a second. Sheila-"
A Spartan stepped out into the rubble, and Jake smiled. "Here," she remarked. She held her rifle in one hand and with the other a grenade.
"-Okay then. Anton, get ready for movement. We'll be there in a moment."
* * *
Spartan 039- Danial, sighted through the scope of his SRS99C-S2 AM Sniper Rifle, watching as a patrol of two Jackals walked on the roof of the building. He fired two shots, and killed them both.
"Dan, stop. You're drawing way to much attention to us," Emma-019 said.
Dan looked through the scope, watching the street yet again. "Just having a bit of fun, for once."
Emma brought her head up from resting against the butt of the gun and looked over at him. "Are you kidding me?" She asked. Inside his visor, Dan grinned from ear to ear. Dan lay under the wreckage of one of the destroyed Wraiths, it's right fin made an overhang that the Spartan lay under, completely melted into the shadows. Nearly invisible. Emma was in the middle of the street, with three dead Jackals laying on top of her, making it seem like it was just a pile of the dead. The two doctors huddled inside the destroyed Wraith that had been hit with the grenade, occasionally peering out to check what was going on. One of the marines was in the courtyard, with his own Sniper Rifle, and lay beside some rubble. Another sat in a car, his MA5B set up like a turret to watch the intersection that they had come in through originally. The last Marine, the injured one, lay in the cover of an alley, an MA5B in his hands, and he also watched the intersection.
"Hey, they're coming out," Emma whispered. Dan peered through his scope and saw a door open on the ground level, and saw Anton stick his head out, an Assault Rifle in his hands. He checked both ways, and stepped out, checking again. He then waved his arm and two Marines walked out, both with Assault Rifles.
"Okay, get ready," Dan murmured. One of the Marines was about to say something, but a voice cut him off, overriding everything in all of the speakers of the Spartans and Marines.
"This is Captain Browning to all ground forces in Miradiem. We were just notified that all but one of our destroyers in the space battle above you have been destroyed, and that the Covenant are going to be moving in to glass the planet. I'm sending in three of our last Pelicans to evac all survivors. Get to this-" the voice paused, and a NAV point appeared on Dan's visor, signalling him where to be. It was the intersection that they had come in on. "-location, and wait for Evac. Good luck to you all."
Dan looked back up the street and saw Anton leading a group of eight, with three running Marines, one running civilian. All of them held a wounded man or woman. They ran along the side of the buildings, shielded by shadows.
VVVVVRRRRRR
Dan looked up and saw a Covenant craft fly overhead. It was their version of a dropship, known to the UNSC as a Spirit. It was shaped like a two-pronged fork, except where the handle would normally be, it was replaced by a swiveling ball that shot large plasma bolts. The sides of each prong could open to create a ramp that the occupants inside could run out of and invade a battlefield.
It was not a welcome sight.
Anton motioned for the marines and civilians to be quiet and not move. The Spirit flew by, and moved out of sight. A few seconds ticked off of Dan's mission clock on his visor, and then Anton told the group to continue moving. They came to the end of the block, and were at Dan's 10 O'Clock position. Dan watched them run across the street and meet up with the Marine hiding in the car, and they were placed in different hiding spots. Anton ran back across the street and disappeared yet again into the shadows. A few moments later, and he was back at the target building, guiding a group of three walking marines, two walking civilians, and one injured, who was being carried by the two walking. They ran along the same path and were moved to the same place as the first group.
Dan looked back at the target building and saw Jake and Sheila run across the street together and disappear into the shadows. "Look, they even run together," Dan joked.
Emma glared at him, "Shut up, Dan."
An explosion sounded to Dan's left, and he looked over, slightly confused.
An M12 Warthog LRV jeep came barreling down the street to his left, the one all of the runners had had to cross. It was being driven by a dark skinned marine, with a bleeding passenger and a gunner that was spraying ammunition into the air, at no targets. Dan swore in his visor and turned to attempt to give covering fire for the warthog. For a moment, the street was clear. The warthog cleared through to the intersection and turned right, driving towards the Way-point, one block down. Jake and Shiela crossed the street and continued running towards the evac-point.
Then three ghosts appeared, hovering towards him at phenomenal speeds. Ghosts were single-man craft that were shaped like the letter T, with the rider piloting it like a motorcycle. It had two small plasma cannons mounted on the front that could operate only pointing straight ahead. Dan adjusted his aim and fired once, killing the driver of the lead ghost. As he prepared to take a second shot he saw something move behind them and looked to see a Wraith tank turn the corner. Dan swore and notified all of the Spartans at the intersection. Dan was just ready to stand when he heard a familiar sound to his right, towards the target building. He looked and saw the Spirit that had flown by earlier had returned, and was dropping off troops. Dan swore and moved into a low crouch.
He saw that Emma had already moved, and looked to see her guiding the two doctors down the street, towards the way-point. Dan shouldered his rifle and fired the remaining three shots in his magazine, and killed a pair of advancing grunts. The two leftover ghosts rounded the corner and were both met with multiple shots from a waiting Anton, who held his faithful Shotgun. Dan grinned as he saw both bodies fall to the pavement, and the riderless Ghosts surged forward and crashed into parked cars. Anton and Dan both ran along the buildings on the street, running towards the main intersection.
* * *
Jake watched Anton and Danial running down the street towards him, a sniper rifle in hand. Jake was crouched behind a parked car, his sniper rifle mounted with a bipod on it. The intersection was behind and to his right, with Shiela and Emma attempting to help control the civilians and wounded Marines. The healthy marines had moved to help out the new arrival of the Warthog, taking out the wounded and grabbing the ammunition. The Marines had pushed two cars beside eachother and created a small area where the civilians could huddle together and hide.
Anton and Danial ran by to his left, and Jake readied himself. A second later, the Wraith turned the corner and Jake aimed for where he hoped the pilot's head was. If he was lucky, he could get the bullet through the armor plating and would score a headshot. If not, he could keep trying until they figured out where he was. Anton took up the street to his left, while Dan joined Emma with facing the street right behind him. The Marines had the street to his right.
A rocket passed by his head and impacted against the front of the Wraith, destroying it's front armor and exposing the grunt that was piloting it. Jake smiled, and fired, killing it. The Wraith fell from the air, and slid to a stop a few dozen meters ahead of the Spartan. Jake looked to see Shiela walking towards him, holding a smoking rocket launcher. Behind her, two blocks down the street, Jake saw six approaching Ghosts and two Wraiths. Anton yelled that another three Wraiths were approaching from the opposite way. Dan reported that a group of Banshees were flying in from his direction.
Two Pelicans began to lower to the ground, the blood trays open and ready for the survivors to pile inside.
The Wraiths from all over launched balls of plasma, which hit nearby walls and exploded, sending rubble and debris everywhere.
An overeager woman ran out from the cover that the Marines had arranged for them.
The Banshees flew by overhead, bombarding them all, killing two Marines and destroying the Warthog.
The doctor, Schubert, ran out to grab the woman.
Sheila was closest, and turned to see Schubert get hit by a piece of flying rubble.
A Wraith launched a ball of Plasma at the unconscious Schubert.
Shiela jumped into the street and grabbed him in her arms.
"NNOO!" Jake screamed.
The ball of plasma impacted on the ground, causing a bright shine of light that nearly blinded Jake, who was sent to the ground by the shock-wave. He felt something grab his chest piece and began dragging him through the street. He began to fade in and out of consciousness; he saw flashes of explosions and people falling in front of him, then he saw himself laying in the blood tray of the Pelican, and then saw the ramp closing, and the cargo bay begin to go dark.
He was done.