Disclaimer- This is the first story I've ever written that I've let people read... so if you'd like to critique it, be my guest, but please only use constructive criticism. As for plot line, this is set after Halo 3. Please enjoy.
CHAPTER 1
"Go," I whispered, signaling forward. Seven acknowledge lights winked on in my HUD. The eight of us moved forward, quickly and silently, through the forest, breath heavy, hearts beating quickly. I stalked forward, assault rifle drawn. All we had was what intel had given us a few hours ago. And many things can change in an hour. We stopped at the edge of the tree line, staying to the shadows.
"Cobra, you copy," I asked, staring at him. If he couldn't hear me, he'd know I wanted to say something. His light blinked.
"Ice," I continued down the line, mentally checking off each name as I said it.
"Lynx, Razor, Hawk, Nexus, Dingo," I concluded. All of their systems were working correctly, so at the moment, I had nothing to fear. I looked at the large building, looming in front of us, imposing. Our target resided in that building, and I would be damned if I let him get out alive. SPARTANs never failed an objective unless they were dead. My group of SPARTANs was one of the elite groups. A group that had survived since augmentation and hadn't lost a single member yet, although I didn't believe all the hype that had surrounded us. Despite all the achievements we'd accomplished since the reinstallation of the SPARTAN program once the Halo rings weren't a threat anymore, we had never had a difficult mission. The odds of us succeeding were 110, compared to the average of the other teams' 50 or worse. It was only a matter of time before our distinguished past caught up with us and hit us hard. And for some reason, I had a terrible feeling in my gut this would be the mission to undo us.
"Razor and Nexus," I began, pointing out the two soldiers in question. "You stay here with Dingo and wait fifteen minutes, then infiltrate from the rear. Lynx, Hawk and I –"
"Dude, Vade," Dingo said, stepping forward. "let me come with you. You know I can fight well. And besides, I'm a higher rank then those two anyway," he concluded, attempting to pull the rank card. Personally, I hated Dingo. I didn't know how he had climbed so high in the military, since he never listened to reason or orders, for that matter.
"Austin," I began, using Dingo's real name, a tactic I employed only in dire situations, "I am your superior officer. If you disobey my direct order, I have the power to Court Marshall you, so I'd suggest you listen." There was a brief hesitation before he responded. He snapped off a crisp salute and finished with a not-so-convincing 'sir, yes, sir'.
"Are we all clear," I queried, looking at each SPARTAN in turn, my gaze lingering on Dingo the longest. They each nodded, and Lynx and Hawk stepped away from the group, preparing to follow orders as directed. I stepped up next to them, but turned to face the remaining four and give my departing orders. "Alright, fifteen minutes. No more, no less. Cobra is in charge, with Ice as second in command," I stated. Dingo began to protest, but was silenced by a swift wave from me. I returned my attention to the other to squad mates on my flanks. "Now, we run to the fence and wait there." They both nodded and broke off running as I followed suit. The first half of the open plain, we encountered no resistance, but I finally glanced at the tall tower, and that was when plasma bolts and spiker needles began riddling the ground around us.
I leapt the last fifteen feet and rolled, only stopping once I had collided with the cement wall separating us from the building to our back. Lynx and Hawk were already waiting when I finally regrouped myself.
"Sir," Hawk began, loading his gun, "who, exactly, is our target?"
Lynx did likewise, staring at me. I had neglected to tell them that. A mental mistake I had told myself I would never make.
"An Elite named Garsham Foramee. You'll know him. According to intel, he's the only Elite wearing gold armor. They both nodded. I knew they were both thinking it, so I decided to tell them. "The other team is a distraction. As cruel as it sounds, it's necessary. A strike force of three has a better chance of sneaking into a building this size than a strike force of eight." They both responded at the same time.
"Sir, yes, sir." I didn't know why I told them. The only squad member to ever question my decisions was Dingo. I hated those soldiers that went to an officer training school. They always needed to know why they were doing something, and couldn't follow the damn orders they were given.
"Lynx, start on that wall. Hawk, help me lay cover fire," I ordered, and each did as they were told. Like a good soldier. Hawk and I stood, guns already blazing. My tactic seemed to be working. The guards on the wall top were too intent on killing us they didn't notice Lynx cutting through the stone, giving us a way in. I smiled to myself. But then again, Grunts weren't the smartest enemies. After several extremely painful minutes, a small slab of rock caved inwards, allowing us entrance.
"Lynx," I yelled, "crawl through. Hawk, follow next time you need to reload." Two acknowledge lights winked on, and I could barely see Lynx crawling through the gap he had just created. I kept track of my shots, calculating how many more bursts I could fire before needing to reload, and still have Hawk reload before me. I fired three shot bursts two seconds apart, picking targets carefully. On my final burst, Hawk ducked down and all but dove through the hole. I took stock of the situation before calling out "cover me!"
I dropped and crawled through the opening, hearing gunshots from the far side of the wall. Once through, I brought myself to bear on the rooftop again, reloading as I did so. I fired three more bursts before looking a the building before me.
"Hawk," I called. He glanced at me. "Break for the door," I said, while pointing off to the left. He nodded, and picked up on the ploy immediately. He broke formation and ran off to our left, not bothering to fire. Once out of sight from the enemy, he circled back around to the outside door. "Lynx," I called once more. "Follow suit," I said, pointing to the right. He nodded and he too broke formation, circling around once he wasn't being fired at. I turned and ran, following Hawk's path, and met up with them at the door.
"I opticalled the door, sir," Hawk said, not waiting for an order. "The coast is clear.
"Good Man, Andrew," I said, showing I was being sincere. He nodded, then gingerly pushed open the door as Lynx stepped in the opening, rifle leveled on the long, dark hallway. He nodded and Hawk and I followed, Hawk covering doorways we passed while I watched our six.
We reached the end of the hallway and Lynx held up a fist. He scanned down the corridors, taking in every detail. After a brief moment of complete silence, he held up three fingers and pointed to our left, then two fingers and pointed to the right.
I was just about to make a decision on which way to go when alarms and sirens began blaring all around us.
I spurted out a quiet "Beta team" before I knew I had thought it, then told my team to hide. We each ducked into a separate doorway, attempting to hide as best we could, which is hard to do when you're wearing nearly a literal ton of armor. Elites, Grunts, and an occasional Brute ran past the hallway we had just been standing in, all wearing matching armor. Hawk, the closest to the entrance, chanced a hushed 'Mercs'. I smiled. No matter how badly I felt about killing soldiers, I never felt that way about killing mercenaries. I despised them, actually. They killed for the love of it. They killed for monetary gain, and that repulsed me. Sure, I had to kill people for a living, but it was to ensure peace throughout the galaxy, not for any sort of personal profit.
"Those alarms would be beta team arriving," I commented. "And hopefully they think it was us." I waited another minute or two before I gave any orders.
"Move out team. Head for the highest floor. He's likely to be there, letting his mercs do the killing. Eliminate any hostiles." Both acknowledge lights blinked, and I took lead, reloading my assault rifle as I did. I veered right and continued down the hallway, my eyes never leaving the sights of my rifle.
"Hostile, four o'clock" I heard Hawk say, nervousness creeping into his voice. I spun on my heel and fired. I watched as three bursts hit the target simultaneously, bringing the small Grunt to his knees. He sputtered, then fell. I turned back around, frantically searching for a staircase. Every second wasted searching for our target was another second beta team had to deal with the probably increasing number of enemies.
I found an entrance, and kicked open the door, gun once again leveled. I cleared the immediate area of hostiles, and began climbing the stairs, gun barrel following the curving motion of the staircase.
Cobra's voice pierced the silence in my helmet, desperate, but calm.
"We're taking heavy fire. They're attempting to flank. Orders, sir?"
I hesitated. A deadly mistake in many situations.
"State your position, Cobra," I demanded. It wasn't Cobra's voice I got in return.
"Front doors, sir! They're coming hot and heavy. I don't know how much longer we can hold them!"
"Damn it, Dingo," I cried, "you speak when you're spoken to. Do you understand me, soldier?" There was a pause, followed by a less-than enthusiastic 'sir, yes, sir'. I turned back to my two squad mates. "Help them. Both of you, go. You may be able to come from behind and surprise them."
"No," Lynx said, without pausing to think. "With all due respect, sir, you can't do this on your own."
Now, why did I always get the feeling whenever someone said 'with all due respect', they really meant 'up yours'?
"I can and I will," I replied, maybe a bit too harshly. "Once you save beta's ass, you get the hell out of here and wait in the woods. You'll know if I go to Nana's." That was in inside joke in our team. Several of Ice's pets had died when they went to stay with his grandmother, back on Earth. Ever since then, whenever something died, we all said it had 'gone to Nana's'. It was a terrible attempt at a joke in a terrible situation, so no one laughed. "If I do, tell Cobra he's in charge of the mission. This one must be completed."
They nodded and left, taking the stairs three at a time. I stared up the remaining flights and sighed, knowing this was going to turn into a very long mission.