Season Two
Jerry took a sharp breath, trying to remember what had happened. Events flashed through his cluttered mind, remembering their pelican being shot right out of the air. His mouth was filled with a metallic taste, a sort of pollution from the oxygen he was breathing. His helmet filtered the air before allowing him to take it in, but still burning his lungs because of the amount of smoke and debris. The buildings were burning all around him, explosions erupting spontaneously as the ground shook and grumbled.
Soon after, someone, or something grabbed his right arm, roughly holding him by his shoulder and dragging him through the dirt. As fires burned around him and explosions were heard nearing every moment. Feeling the earth scrape across his armor, the sound of it skidding through the dirt and sand was oddly relaxing, even the feeling made him feel safer. The object carrying him tightened its grip, snapping Jerry back into reality, a bit more aware than previously. Immediately afterwards, the sand changed quickly into small rocks and gravel.
His metallic armor scraped loudly against the new material, bringing him further into consciousness. Waiting out the ride in order to recover from the previous events, it wasn't until he was drug across an incredibly smooth surface that he had gained his suspicions on whoever has been transporting him. He could take the risk to wipe the grime and soot off of his visor to catch a glimpse of his surroundings and life forms nearby, but choosing the safer option would be to play it safe and pretend to still be unconscious, relying solely on his radar. Finally analyzing the radar, he could see himself, the one carrying him, and four unmoving signatures ahead of himself.
Nearing closer, he heard whoever it was take a quick breath before heaving him on top of some hard object. His weight moved it around a little, leaving him faced down, allowing him to quickly and quickly wipe off his visor partially. Looking down, he quickly discovered he was on top of another Spartan. A quick adjustment of his helmet and he could recognize Codfish under him. It was safe to assume Frodr, the Spartan from Noble team, and the doctor were sprawled out next to and below him.
Jerry assessed the situation, deciding the UNSC weren't the ones who had brought them aboard, their mistreatment of being drug the whole way here, and being thrown on the ground meant it could only be the covenant. Jerry continued to pretend to be unconscious, searching for some solution to escape.
Frodr opened his eyes, a surmounting pressure causing pain on his legs waking him up further. He pulled himself upward grabbing at his thigh, "Ah, crap, leg's asleep." Through his visor his attention drifted away from his leg, and toward what had been laying on it. All of the members from the pelican they had tried to escape on lay there in front of him unconscious. Suddenly alarmed, Frodr tried to turn his head to sum up where they were being held and who had brought them there, but as he tried to look around, a figure pounced on top of him, removing his helmet partially in order to cover his mouth.
Jerry was covering Frodr's mouth with his hand, lying on top of him to keep him silent so the unidentified creature across the room wouldn't know they weren't awake yet. It was futile, because the creature walked over questioningly, and as it did, it looked down at Jerry, checking him, and as he did, Jerry spun around, using his boot to kick the knee of the creature, allowing Jerry to see it was one of the larger aliens. On the floor, it attempted to reach for its weapon, but before it could find it, Jerry had his knife through its skull.
Frodr sat still, still completely astonished. Jerry took the alien's weapon and looked back at Frod, "Imma just be o'er hur makin sure none of dem scurry mansters fine us, yew done wake em up." Frodr pulled Codfish right-side up, dragging him back into reality and moved onto the Doctor and The Spartan from Noble team.
Jerry peeked around the corner, scanning for any signs of life, seeing nothing. Ahead, he saw an opening to the left on the far side of the wall. Jerry moved up, peeking again around this corner to see more aliens fiddling with the UNSC weapons of the captured Spartans.
The last of the group were fully awake now, Codfish looked at the large alien lying on the ground emitting a pool of purple blood. Halsey spoke up, brushing the dirt and dust off of her coat, "Looks like an elite, ranger class." Elite? They have names?" Frodr asked confused. Halsey looked dumbfounded and slightly disappointed. Codfish asked next, "What about the small ones? Or the hairy ones?" Halsey spoke in a bored almost angry tone "The "small ones" are grunts, the "harrier ones are jackals and the large brown ones are brutes. The dead one there, that's an elite. In case you were ignorant to that too.."
Her voice was drowned out by a small explosion coming from down the hall. Frodr ran down, looking into the room seeing two dead elites and Jerry on top of a third snapping its neck. "I gots sum guns!" Frodr returned to the others who had not followed the source of the explosion, handing each their weaponry. As each took their weapons from Frodr, the Spartan from Noble team took codfish's magnum, aiming it at Halsey's head. Codfish snapped his DMR up towards his head. "Put the gun down!" The Spartan looked back towards him, "The directive is to secure all UNSC Intel, she knows too much to be captured, I don't want to do this, but we have to."
"Bullshit. We're getting out of here."
"Are you crazy? There's no way." The Spartan looked back at Halsey, preparing to fire. Codfish fired his DMR at the hands of the Spartan, causing him to drop the weapon. "Frodr!" Codfish screamed for assistance. Immediately, Frodr dropped everything he was carrying, and tackled the Spartan. Frodr stood up, seeing the Spartan had been knocked out by a hit to the head. Codfish holstered his weapons, picking up his magnum. "Nice. You're carrying him."
Halsey was quiet as the group set out to find an escape from wherever they were. Meeting back up with Jerry, the group ventured onward, reaching a dead end with rows of doorways covered with some kind of energy. Behind the second to third, a small unit of three or so orbital shock drop troopers (ODST's) were contained. Codfish and jerry rushed over to try and assist their escape. Codfish looked down at the panel probably used to control the door, seeing button like projections emerge as he came closer. Attempting to take down the energy field, he pushed one, and it flicked across the panel, but doing nothing. Next to him, a green projectile had hit the field as Jerry fired a charged plasma pistol cell, freeing the prisoners.
Immediately, one of the three, a woman clearly in command of the other two saluted to the three makeshift Spartans ahead. "ODST instant assault response unit, beta division. I am gunnery sergeant Nomac." Jerry and Codfish were unconcerned with what she had to say, Codfish bringing her to the point, "And we're getting out of here, know any way out?"
"Yes, but I'm not leaving this room without a weapon. Are you aware of where we are? This is a covie destroyer. There are more aliens on this ship than you will ever see before you end up like everyone else on Reach." Sighing, Codfish reluctantly handed her his magnum.
She took lead of the group, looking at the remains of her unit. She began to yell some sort of order to her troops, now catching eye of the unconscious Spartan on Frodr's shoulders. Regaining herself, she looked at them with a hard stance. "I said form up!" They quickly formed a line, afraid to defy her. Nomac led them onward through narrow hallways, occasionally reaching lone elite or at most two, duly allowing Jerry to dispose of it quickly and efficiently as if it was a task too far below her status, leading the survivors. Reaching one last doorway, she leaned against the wall, her unit mimicking every movement closely. "If I'm right this is some sort of docking bay. All we need to do here is get to a phantom." Frodr leaned in, "Sounds easy enough, you think any of those things-""Elites" she added quickly. Frodr continued, "Will be in there?" She let out a quiet chuckle. "He's kidding right?" she motioned to the other Spartans. At once, they both began to shake their heads. She looked both surprised and confused. "Probably a few dozen, far more than we can handle. " Taken back, Frodr was in silence now. She readied her weapon now, turning back to the group, she began to speak but was cut short by Jerry screaming "Ohhhhhhkkkkkaaaaaaaay, BREACH!" running into the bay firing his assault rifle wildly.
The rest of the group ran in after him, immediately caught in a hail of bullets. They took cover behind a platform nearby. "What in the hell were you thinking soldier?!" Frodr barely made it behind the platform, slowed to a crawl by having to carry the Spartan. Peeking over their cover, she spotted a phantom separated from the others. "Make a run for it on three." Jerry made a slight twitch, now in his serious personality, "No! It's crazy, just wait. There's no way you can make it." The two unnamed ODST's looked at each other, obviously deeply conflicted.
Part 2
She prepared to run, counting down slowly- "Three…"
"Jerry could see she was beyond convincing, so he moved on to changing the others minds. "Nobody could make that sprint."
"Two…" she continued counting louder. "One!" She began running at full speed towards the phantom, one of the two of her troops following. About a quarter way to the vehicle, she was gunned down, pink needles penetrating her, changing her likeness completely. The ODST following began running backwards toward cover, barely surviving the plasma and needles but taking a plasma grenade to his back, which promptly stuck on tightly. His friend reached out to grab him, as if he could help in some way. Codfish, thinking fast, used his arm to block the ODST's grasp and gave the stuck troop a swift kick, sending him backwards before exploding into a mess of gore and sparks from a console which obviously controlled the scaffolding, as it thrust forwards, throwing the alien's aim off. "Now!" Jerry commanded, as they all ran forward, Codfish now partially assisting in carrying the still unconscious Spartan, taking time to take his magnum from the deceased ODST commander. Almost on board, the aliens had regained their footing and steadied their aim, only to see the Spartans board the vehicle.
Inside, the group caught their breath, only to hear Codfish calling out, "We have a problem. How in the hell do we fly one of these things?" Jerry pushed Codfish aside, taking a seat, feeling the controls. "Time for a joyride." Neither Codfish nor Frodr could tell which of his personalities had said that, but as long as they made it out alive they couldn't care. Codfish sat in the doorway of the cockpit, motioning to Frodr. "Go find out what we're working with." Frodr stood quietly, confused to what Codfish requested. Looking back up, Codfish restated his command. "Go find out about the new guy." The ODST was sitting, looking downwards. Frodr sat next to him, removing his helmet, the ODST following by removing his own. "So what's your name?" The ODST quietly began to speak when Frodr interrupted him. "Have a nickname? Anything you go by?" His tired eyes looked up to Frodr. "My unit calls me Delta. I'm… uh… I was the medic." Frodr stood up with his helmet under his arm, positioning himself in another seat, calling out to Codfish. "Goes by Delta or something, he's a medic." "Well I'll come to you if I need a band aid." He added coldly. Delta was beginning to really question how a group like this had infiltrated a covenant destroyer, rescued a trio of soldiers, and make off with one of the covenant's vehicles. About this time, Jun started to regain consciousness, immediately checking his surroundings to locate Dr. Halsey. Frodr stood, taking the most intimidating pose he could muster. "I'm not letting you harm the doctor. We're safe now, there's nothing to defend." Jun sat up quickly. "But where is she?" This question had quickly raised it to everyone's attention she was in fact not on board.
Frodr knew what would happen if Jun knew what really happened. Either he would force them to go back, on what is a confirmed suicide, or all of Negro Squad would be immediately arrested by the UNSC and incarcerated for treason. The entire group was completely silent for moments, until Frodr spoke out once more. "We killed her… like you told us. We were surrounded, we had no choice." Codfish had not feelings towards their objective, thinking "if she ran off, she wanted to be there. The lady's a genius. Not dumb enough to get captured, she'll blow her brains out first."
Frodr sat back down, thinking about what he had done. Failing his first and what may have been his only assignment and directive. How could he ever become a higher ranking officer like had had dreamed of since his parent's death with a record like this? Delta helped Jun up to the seats, now making conversation. "So, are you with these guys or… "No, I'm in Noble." Delta's face brightened by a small amount, showing the slightest bit of hope. "So you must know Kat!" Jun removed his helmet slowly, showing an exhausted ghost of what he presumably once was. "I knew her." His voice now became no more than a bit shy of a whisper, "She was K.I.A. defending New Alexandria. Don't know where the rest of my team's at." He looked at delta quizzically. "How'd you know her?" Delta was caught off guard by the question. "Oh, right, I was in Beta Company with her before she was reassigned. That's when we got the infamously bossy Nomac. Lucky us…" Delta looked eased to be in the company of a "genuine" Spartan.
Codfish finally spoke up "So, Jerry? Do you actually know what you're doing? Where are we going anyway?" Jerry turned his head slightly, his helmet reflecting the lights from the covenant cruiser. "We need to find the nearest UNSC base or cruiser." Frodr took his helmet off, mimicking Jun and Delta. "That shouldn't be too hard, we can get to the ONI in minutes!"
"ONI's gone, shithead" Codfish added in before resuming tinkering with his DMR.
"Then all we have to do is follow their transmission right?"
"That's what the covenant would do, there is no transmission." Jun said harshly.
"But.. where do we go?" Codfish made an audible sigh. "We're ghosts. MIA. Dead."
Jun spoke again "No, we need to follow protocol. We are supposed to hold off the covenant invasion as long as possible.
"Well what's the point now? They've already taken over, there's nothing left to fight for. We'll do no good just dying." Jun responded without a moment of hesitation, "Well i'm going to follow protocol. Take me to down. Now." Codfish chuckled quietly. 'It's your funeral, enjoy buddy." Frodr looked increasingly alarmed. "We aren't actually going down there are we?" "Well, yeah, where else duh ya think we gunna go little frod?" Jerry spoke up, "We ain't gunna survive out in space, we ain't even got food!"
Frodr sunk down in his chair mouth wide open, as Codfish began filling his magnum's magazine, then racked the slide. Delta spoke, almost in a whisper, barely resonating through the cockpit, even amplified through his helmet. "Could I have a gun? Preferably something silenced?" Codfish threw the magnum to him, Delta catching it. Delta took off his helmet to examine it, and after finding out it was just a general issue magnum, he opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by Codfish. "We'll get you something else soon enough, just don't lose my damn gun."
Their phantom sank gently to the landing pad beneath it, gently resting itself. The group exited, and began walking towards the UNSC depot they had first stopped at, save for Jun who stopped, and announced his departure. "I'm leaving now. Unlike you, I plan to follow orders. If anyone else has any sense of what you're doing, you'll follow." The group stood still no one moving to join him. "Really? Not even you?" he pointed to Delta, "you're supposed to be spec ops."
The group remained still, until finally Jun spoke out one last time. "Well, I wish you luck spartans, may humanity live on." He unholstered his sniper and disappeared into the foliage. The spartans and Delta moved into the depo, Jun's words burned into Delta's mind, " Good luck, spartans." Upon entering, Codfish sat in a chair, overlooking the weapon display, glass broken from earlier. Delta laughed and walked around the corner to a locked doorway with a glowing keypad. He punched in a quick code, causing the door to slide open, exposing a small hallway with lights now activating after a small delay. Inside were all the weapons and ordnance Negro squad was never allowed to even see. Codfish rose from the chair, entering the armory. "Holy shit, you actually are spec ops."
Delta smiled faintly under his helmet, "What position are you again?" Frodr answered for him "He's a sniper, and not too bad, either." Codfish crossed his arms defensively. "Designated marksman. There's a difference." Delta picked up a sleek black Battle rifle that looked much as usual, save for a suppressor attached to the barrel. He then picked up a nearby sniper rifle handing it to Codfish. "Here, consider it a gift." Codfish uncrossed his arms and accepted the sniper. "He's ok." Codfish grabbed as many sniper magazines as he could, loading the sniper before leaving the room.
Frodr eyed the arsenal quizzically. Jerry took notice soon after. "See anything you want Frod? You can take anything." Frodr paused while looking at an M41 rocket launcher, "I don't know how to use them, I'll just go grab some AR ammunition." Jerry took a box of shotgun shells and exited after him.
Frodr saw codfish outside behind a bush, concentrating at whatever was on the other side of him DMR scope. "What are you looking at?"
Part3
"SHHHHH. They're in the goddamn ship." He took point, prepared to take the first shot. Frodr fiddled with his helmet trying to get it to enhance the magnification so he could get a better view of the phantom. "Shouldn't we wait for Jerry before shooting at anything?" Codfish looked at him for a moment watching him try his best to get the helmet to work for him. Finally, Frodr took it off and tried to complete his task that way. Seemingly to no avail, he put his helmet back on to find it was fully zoomed in and caused him to fall on his back. Codfish began laughing quietly, freezing when he heard a high pitched quick sound. Looking back down the scope, the aliens completely absent. "What the-" before he could finish, Jerry pulled him, making him stand upright. Looking over to the phantom all the aliens lay dead to the hands on Jerry and Delta. Codfish let out a sigh, walking back to the phantom. "What do we do now?" Frodr kicked a small rock, sending it tumbling forward a ways, kicking up dirt behind it.
The group walked forward to the phantom as Delta asked "Should we be following protocol? Like that other guy? We could get in some serious trouble like this…"
"Better to be in trouble than dead." Codfish chimed in. Jerry stopped walking abruptly, yelling "Shut up you two!" the rest of the group also stopped walking, watching out of confusion, surveying and assessing his motionless figure. Codfish spoke again in a undeniably sarcastic tone "Well that's certainly no way to talk to your squadmates." Jerry's pointed helmet looked directly at Codfish "I found a transmission." Jerry yelled to him, "It's UNSC. We still have a way off. There's a High Value Target located near swordbase in a bunker." Codfish lost every drop of his sarcasm, now in complete dismay. "That's fantastic!" Frodr said in an increasingly angry tone, "We only have to fight through an entire alien invasion." Delta looked at each of them, "I'm not getting the transmission… what the hell?" Pointing at the horn on Jerry's helmet, Codfish tried to hide the hope in his voice as he spoke "The horn words as both a high and low frequency satellite. He picks up what some AI's can't even catch."
"What about encoded messages?"
"All the same."
"Where can I get one of those?"
"Apparently he made the damn thing."
"That's the most impressive thing i've seen from you guys yet."
Jerry tapped the side of his helmet, ending the transmission as the others waited eagerly to be informed on what was occurring. "We need to go now. There's a HVT located on the other side of Reach and I know for a fact the liens heard that transmission so we have to be there before anything else is." As the others took in the message, Frodr couldn't help but ask "What is a "HBT?" He expected Codfish to react immediately, but to his surprise Jerry answered, "An HVT. High Value Target. we needa go save sumone." Codfish's hopes rose although he tried to suppress and glimmer of the possibility it could be Kenna. "Who is it?" his nervousness could be detected from his pitch and tone without the need to have heard anything but the first word. Jerry twitched, speaking again as his serious personality, "A scientist, that's all we know."
"where." Codfish questioned intently
"Southern glacial peaks, which is why we need to go now, we don't have time for more questions." On queue the group took off towards the phantom. They boarded one by one, Jerry taking the controls, Codfish sitting in the doorway to the cockpit and Frodr sitting with Delta in the main bay. Frodr watched Delta check his weapons wiping off each speck of dirt and dust off his sleek black BR.
The phantom cut through the air above the ocean, uninterrupting the glaciers and ice sheets living in a fragile harmony with the water on which they inhabited, unaffected by the extremities of the war raged upon the planet. Of all the lives lost, bodies burned, people disintegrated, these frozen blocks floated, almost motionless, riding the current to an unknown location to live lives of their own, while still existing as lifeless matter.
Inside the phantom, Codfish wa growing restless, "So we grab the guy and get out right? Then we get off this planet?"
"Sounds 'bout rite, we just await fur a little pick up from the unser."
"Right, but what then? Where do you think they'll send us?"
Jerry paused, contemplating the question, but forming an answer was far from reach, but having to carefully craft it to make sure Codfish wouldn't go rogue, or Frodr lose his mind was an even harder task. Just then, three large towers, in the shape of a triangle, intertwined with hallways the ran in between them to create easy access for anyone inside appeared along the horizon. It was located in a frozen tundra, nothing for miles in any direction but snow and ice, leaving it to be the only place for the HVT to be.
Jerry set down the phantom ever so gently on the rooftop landing pad on the first of the three buildings. Upon leaving the atmosphere of the phantom and having to embrace the cold, frodr began complaining immediately although their armor protected fairly well against the cold. "Your armor is much better than mine, man up frodr!" Delta said jokingly walking in front of him. Both Codfish and Jerry knew this wasn't true, but Codfish liked Delta too much to expose him, and Jerry just didn't care, because they all knew frodr wouldn't actually know it was a lie.
They walked through a door, finding it must have been abandoned because the temperature of the building was little more than the outside. It was surprising that the power was still on, lighting the room properly. There was an elevator above red carpet, and next to it a staircase. Frodr looked at one then the other, "Which one do we take?" Delta rolled his eyes under his helmet.
"We're in a hurry before the aliens come and rip us apart one by one, so which do you think? There's a staircase and an ELEVATOR."
"I… well, I'm just…"
"The latter Frod."
"There's a latter?"
Codfish turned around, taking hold of his sniper rifle, "I'm going to keep watch, if anything shows up you'll know."
More reassured, Jerry thanked him, and commanded the others to continue. Codfish left, the door closing with a loud bang. Delta looked over at Jerry, "Is that good? Can he actually hit anything that isn't this guy?" he pointed at Frodr. Jerry looked back for a moment. "One question at a time kid, but he really isn't that bad." Frodr mumbled after Jerry had finished and walked ahead a bit, "I'd say he's pretty good."
The elevator filled with the three soldiers, as Jerry pressed a button to take them to the lobby. Upon arriving, Jerry checked his the location of the objective on his visor. "I think we need to go lower?" Frodr shifted a little bit as Jerry pushed the button, taking them down even lower under the building. The door opened again to a long hallway, connected with many doors. "Which one do we take?" Frodr questioned. "All a em, get sturted."
On the roof codfish was looking into the distance, tracking an odd flying object coming closer. "We've got movement, no doubt Covenant, I'll do my best to stop them from entering." There was a pause in the radio before he heard the familiar voice of Jerry "okie, we's gonna find him 'n get out fast." Codfish looked down his scope watching the ship stop, releasing phantoms from its docking bay.
Part 4
Codfish readied his sniper to take out the mass of troops to be dropped off by the waves of phantoms, but instead, they began firing heavy plasma artillery into the towers, each one taking a huge chunk out of the frame and supports, damaging the integrity of the building severely.
The lights flickered and the ground shook harshly below them, Codfish radioing in explained their situation, "They really don't plan on having troops in here, they're bringing the towers down!" Jerry didn't respond but instead began running past door after door, looking for one that stood out, when he saw a large sliding metal door that said "CLASSIFIED" in large red words above it. Frodr and Delta caught up, catching their breath. "We can't get through there!" Delta exclaimed rapidly. Still silent, Jerry shot a shell of his shotgun into the locked keypad. Not even a scratch was left, leaving them no closer to entry. He loaded his shotgun with a single shell, aiming again at the keypad. Delta looked at Frodr, "This isn't working let's just go." Jerry pulled the trigger, causing multiple explosions to erupt upon the pad, obliterating it. The door slid open slowly as Jerry turned around. "Frag rounds!"
They took a step inside marveled by the masses of instruments and odd creations, which covered the room. Although the room was tiny, it was void of a anyone other than the spartans. The only sign of life was an open air vent above packed filing cabinets. Frodr jogged over to it, peering inside. "Hello, anyone home?" A moment passed and he heard something shifting around inside of the vent. Codfish radioed in, "Shit, you need to get out NOW." From the darkness, something jumped out, on top of Frodr grabbing his knife from his sheath and placing it against his neck. "You obviously aren't the best spartan around.." He stood up, fully revealing himself to the group now, Frodr still trying to regain his bearings. In front of them was a child, about nine or maybe ten, wearing a black UNSC coat. "I am-" Delta interrupted "Is this him?" Jerry was surprised to see the kid, which was shown in his voice, "Yeah, thees is heem."
The lights flickered and a long high pitched sound of the supports above them were audible. The kid began to speak again, "Like I tried to say earlier, I'm-" Jerry cut him off, picking him up and holding him under one arm, "We needa go short stuff." The kid tried to say something but was drowned out by the loud continual crashes of plasma blasts hitting the building. They all ran towards the elevator, pressing the button violently. The door closed slowly, and begin to rise. Frodr relaxed a bit now, looking at the kid he opened his mouth to speak but the elevator began to shake and they heard a transmission from Codfish. His voice was shaky, and they only heard him say "hell" not knowing the loud explosions were drowning him out or if that had been its entirety. just then they felt a huge impact on the building knock the elevator against the side. Jerry screamed "Delta!" and nodded at the door to the elevator. Taking the hint, Delta pulled it open, and pulled himself up on the floor to whatever floor they were on.
The others pulled themselves up to see they were inside of some sort of office with numerous cubicles and windows surrounding them. Looking out the window, they could see not only were they in the wrong building, the third tower came slowly falling into theirs. They couldn't take the time to watch the events unfold, so they began running through door after door, finally seeing the hall to connect them to the building with the phantom. coming closer and closer, They could see the building was tearing from the hallway, clearly falling. The group made it to the now growing crevice between them and the hall. Jerry and Delta made the jump immediately, as Frodr watched the growing crevice. He first threw his AR over, preparing to jump. Jerry set the kid down holding out his arms to catch Frodr. He ran up to it, bracing himself to jump, but stopped at the last moment. "I can't do it, there's no way!" he fear and dread in Frodr's voice, striking a cold feeling in both Delta and Jerry. Frodr put his hand up to the side of his helmet and activated his radio.
Codfish was watching the other buildings collide and collapse, helpless to do anything to assist the others. He had already wasted enough ammunition trying to disable the guns on a couple of the phantoms. His helmet radio hissed as he heard Frodr's voice and was instantly relieved. "Codfish, I'm not going to make it back up there." Codfish's heart sank, he could feel the despondency and sheer dread in his voice, "So I guess this is Frodr, signing-" the transmission was cut short by a loud cracking sound and Codfish fell to his knees and slowly removed the helmet from his head. If any more could be heard, he didn't want to hear it. Looking at his helmet his eyes watered up as he angrily formed the words "fuck you" right before noticing his reflection in the visor.
As frodr was speaking to Codfish, the kid took the opportunity to take his AR he had thrown over, and shot a metal piping on the roof of the hallway, making a large "crack" of the gun firing and the bullets meeting the piping, causing Jerry and Delta to be taken back in surprise. The metal pipe fell a ways, finally meeting the other building as it began falling faster, allowing Frodr just enough time to hold on to it as the building slid away to the tundra beneath them. Frodr pulled himself about halfway up the pipe when the hallway began to lean, falling without the support of the other building. Frodr climbed quickly, slipping every once in awhile. Delta ran ahead to get to the phantom, assuming Jerry would follow and possibly leave Frod to die, the kid following, trying to get himself to safety.
Jerry got on his stomach, holding out his hand, refusing to leave him behind. They could feel the building quickly losing strength and stability, so Frodr made a last minute decision to just and try to grab Jerry's hand. As he jumped, he barely reached, but nonetheless, Jerry picked him up as they ran for the building. The hallway began leaning more and more the closer they came to the door, and when the were feet away, it detached. Jerry pushed Frodr, giving him enough force just to make it up on the building as the hallway fell away. Frodr looked over the edge as the entire building began to lean. Below he saw the hallway hit the ground violently, the ground already littered with shrapnel and the buildings that had fallen before. Barely clinging onto the side of the wall beneath him. Frodr grabbed his hand pulling him up.
Codfish and Delta were inside of the phantom trying to figure out how to start the phantom, feeling the tower below them swaying back and forth violently. The kid came up in between them, sitting in the pilot seat, and pressed a few buttons, causing the phantom to rumble and come to life. "How in the hell?" Codfish questioned, "Do you know how to fly it too?" The kid looked up at him, "No, that's about all I have. Wait, please don't tell me you idiots took one of these without knowing how to drive it." Codfish ran to the back to see if the others were close, seeing Frodr and Jerry running up to it. Upon seeing Frodr alive, Codfish was taken back. "I thought you weren't going to make it?" Frodr climbed aboard after Jerry, assisted by Codfish. "No, just late."
Jerry grabbed the controls as the tower began falling, sending them towards the ground quickly. Jerry pulled up, the phantom also responding, trying to level with the ground. As the landscape drew closer, it slid across the ice and snow on its nose before finally picking up and rising. Jerry let out a sigh as the rest of the group relaxed, their exit covered by the debris of the final falling tower. Codfish looked around for the HVT. "Shit, was he not there?" Frodr looked over, pointing at the kid, "This little asshole is him." Codfish looked at the kid, who in comparison was extremely tiny, and hardly looked special at all. "Are you… are you serious?"
He looked back at the kid noticing he was holding Frodr's AR, and tried to take it away. The kid moved from his grasp to the other side of the phantom. "I want it! I'll get much more done than that guy ever will" he said, motioning to Frodr. Delta spoke up now, "The kid is amazing at shooting stuff, really." Codfish looked back at the kid, confused. "Well how about I give you this magnum for the AR. it's more accurate and Frodr really only knows how to use that one." The kid looked quizzically at him before reluctantly turning it over. "You guys really are the worst spartans I've ever seen." Codfish handed him the magnum, taking the assault rifle. "Well welcome to Negro." Codfish took an assault rifle magazine from Frodr, reloading the weapon and setting it down on Frod's lap before taking a seat in his spot in the entrance to the cockpit. Jerry could be heard talking on the transmission, "We have the HVT, we need immediate pick up."
Below, the snow was painted in the remnants of the proud towers, now settling upon the landscape. The precedent beauty of the area was tarnished, struck and changed into a war ground, where once peace presented itself, was stricken with the plague of war. Forever morphed and altered by the littering left over, and finally forsaken by all.
Part 5
The UNSC had few surviving vessels anywhere near Reach, but immediate action was taken in response to the squad's call for rescue by a nearby cruiser. Jerry made quick work of docking, and the group was escorted to the captain. The attitude of Frodr and Delta quickly changed around the chubby gruff man, both saluted completely unsynchronised, standing straight and motionless. The others just stood despondent, awaiting for some sound to fill the awkward space of the open room.
The captain turned around slowly, shifting his gaze across each spartan, finally resting after locking eyes with the child. "Good work spartans" he again looked at each of them, "I don't know how you could have survived so long down there, but you did the UNSC proud. We'll keep you on board until we regroup with the rest of the fleet. Until then, take a well earned break." Upon his completion, Frodr and Delta unanimously chanted "Yes, sir!".
They had been escorted to their quarters, and had gone their different ways around the massive ship, and Codfish had taken to a fairly secluded hallway with a long glass window, exhibiting the endless depths of space. Distant bootsteps could be heard nearing. He focused on a tiny star burning brightly, far off in the distance, listening to the figure near. They finally came to a halt directly to his left. His stare remained on the star, but he relaxed a bit. "There's a three fourth's chance this will be interesting, and there's a one in four chance it's frodr. I don't like those odds."
His head shifted, looking at Frodr in the eyes, standing about a foot away.
"Damn." he looked back out at the same star, "May I help you?"
Frodr spoke up now, "I just thought you could use a bit of company. Jerry and Delta are off at the range, you should join them."
Codfish shifted a bit, "I'm alright here. I've got a lot to do."
Frodr looked at him staring at something, "You sure look busy."
Codfish squinted at the star in the distance. "what the hell?"
"It was a joke. Because you don't look busy, but you said that-" Codfish cut him off "Shut up. Look at that star."
"Which one? There are thousands."
"The big one"
"why?"
"Because it isn't a star"
Jerry and Delta had gathered a crowd of marines taking turns at the range, dropping moving targets just seconds after being deployed. All kinds of comments could be heard out of the crowd,
from compliments to envious remarks. Delta stepped forward for his turn, aiming his battle rifle. Taking a couple of breaths to prepare, he opened his mouth to say he was ready. Nobody but delta was quite sure if he ever actually said it, because at that time, sirens rang out across the room. The assembly quickly exited the range to see the sirens and lights were across the entire ship.
Jerry unholstered his shotgun, and over the roars of the troops, he shouted something about meeting near the operating room. Jerry was out the door before the mass of troops, but Delta was caught behind them, still trying to decipher what Jerry had requested of him. Finally, there was enough room to slip out of the room into a longer hallway. With minimal room to advance through, he squeezed through the waves of marines and technicians, unable to gain bearing of his position on the massive starship. Gaining sight of an outlet leading to a smaller hallway far less populated. Pushing through the virtually endless wave of bodies, Delta could catch his breath. Noticing a light out of the window to his left, he turned to look, but was rocked by a sudden impact on the ship.
Delta was able to stay upright by holding onto a railing nearby. Stealing a glance out the window, numerous covenant ships were circling, with more larger ships appearing slowly. Taken back by the unnerving appearance outside. Focusing on what Jerry had said, he attempted to remember the location of the control area. In the distance, even under the roar of the countless people, explosions gunfire and screams could be heard, meaning the covenant had to have boarded. Delta unholstered his battle rifle and ran towards the hallway. The people running forward before were now hastily retreating, some firing their rifles before being hit by bursts of plasma, and dropping to the floor. Delta ran back down the smaller hallway, taking a turn at the end, but just reaching a set of barracks in a large, open room.
An elite carrying a sword entered the room, scanning through the cover of the bunks. Two grunts followed in, walking through the maze of beds in search of any concealed UNSC refugees. Satisfied, the elite turned to leave the room, and exited. Taking the opportunity, Delta used a silenced pistol to assassinate one grunt, then the other in quick succession. The elite, having heard a faint sound from the entrance of the bunk, re entered and activated his energy sword. Seeing the two grunts dead on opposite sides of the room, the elite pushed forward, clearly more aggravated, looking back and forth quickly. Passing by rows of cots, it took time to check them all deliberately before continuing on to the next. Something hit the ground behind it, causing it to spin rapidly and walk towards it. Next to a cot, a grenade rolled in a circular motion, causing the elite to jump backwards just as Delta pushed his pistol into it's lower mandible and placing two bullets in it's skull. Collecting his improvised distraction, he proceeded stealthily down a hall, still focused on locating the control bay.
Outside of the control bay, Codfish and Frodr were in position on either side of the doors, prepared to breach. Codfish felt for his magnum, but met with an empty holster. "Shit, I don't have anything close range so you breach first. I'm right behind you." Frodr gave a hesitant nod, romanticizing his task mentally, ready to utilize this opportunity to prove his potential. Taking a deep breath, he prepared himself, gripping the assault rifle tighter. A loud crash, much closer than those from the outer hull of the ship rocked them both. A large slumping alien rounded the corner, its stubby grey fingers clenched the massive hammer it wielded even tighter.
Frodr was transfixed with the apish creature, frozen in place. Codfish slammed on the door controls, pushing Frodr inside, and closing the door behind them. Codfish put his back to the door, trying to formulate a plan. Coming to his senses, Frodr surveyed the room, spotting the kid they had evacuated earlier, who was preoccupied with furiously typing on a massive terminal. Frodr rushed to his side. "Where is everyone else? There's a thing out there!" He pointed at the door, but midget took no notice and continued his work on the terminal. "Jerry was here a few minutes ago, he went to go do shooting or something" Codfish walked a safe distance from the door "It's just going to break through, we need to do something" Midget spoke up again from behind the terminal "You might want to kill that thing, there's at least ten minutes left on this download, and we're not going to go anywhere without it." Frodr approached the entryway, but an immense force, ripped through the entire frame of the door, sent himself and Codfish tumbling backwards. Scrambling for his assault rifle, but unable to locate it, Frodr rolled along the floor to avoid the large hammer crashing down above him, avoiding being flattened by mere inches, the force of the weapon thrusted him across the room into a wall, disabling his shields.
Weakened, Frodr tried to rise from the floor but as he lifted his upper body from the metal flooring, the alien kicked him in the gut, hard enough to be felt through his armor, knocking him onto his back. The alien lowered its head closer to Frodr and let out a low, ghastly roar. Codfish, hardly able to stand upright after taking most of the blow from the hammer earlier at the doorway, approached the alien clumsily and slowly. Seeing he was unarmed, it let out a cry similar to a laugh and swatted him with the back of its arm. Codfish flew through the air, crashing into a set of terminals, coming to rest after falling onto the floor, completely motionless.
The alien began to lift the hammer, but before it could fully raise it, a magnum fired, and a purplish mist spouted from its jaw. It took a step backwards, surprised. Midget walked a closer, speaking to Frodr but gun raised to the creature. "Can you not even kill one? If That's the case, we're going to have serious issues, because we still have another eight and a half minutes." He fired two rounds in quick succession, resulting in the thing dropping to the floor into a pool of its own blood.
Something was jogging towards the collapsed entryway, causing Frodr to locate his assault rifle and position himself with his weapon pointed towards the door. Jerry strut through, looking at the damage then to the beast responsible. His armor had blood of many colours dried on, covering his legs and a portion of his chestpiece. "We gotta go now, grab the kid." Noticing Codfish positioned on the floor, Jerry checked for vitals, and flung him over his shoulder. "Yeh he's ok. Just a little shooked up." Frodr relaxed a little, reaching for Midget, who hastily had the magnum barrel pressed against Frodr's neck "We're not going anywhere until this download is done. First, because this will tell us where to go to meet the rest of the UNSC, second, if you try to leave me, or try to pick me up again, we'll all die in a pretty big explosion, because self-destruct mechanisms are a thing."
Frodr pulled back, looking back at Jerry. Taking control of the situation, Jerry incautiously dropped Codfish, equipping his shotgun. "I laik a chellenge"
"And I like surviving." Frodr said with noticeable chagrin.
Taking positions on the doorway, Frodr and Jerry waited for the sounds of incoming covenant. To Frodr's pleasure, for a few minutes there was nothing but the occasional explosions or screams for help. Finally a large force could be heard approaching, signaling Jerry to round the corner, unleashing shell after shell of explosive rounds, causing their force to momentarily draw back, allowing Jerry to safely reload and fall back to the doorway. Frodr used the cover of the corner to spray assault rifle rounds and retreat after the first plasma bolt. Jerry lobbed a grenade toward the oncoming mass of grunts, exploding near a group of suicide grunts with armed plasma grenades in hand. The resulting explosion tore through the walls, creating pockets where the larger of the enemies could take cover.
As jerry lowered his shotgun to reload, an elite with an energy sword in hand pounced from cover, receiving a burst from Frodr's rifle, dropping its shields before emptying the magazine. It slashed horizontally, Frodr evading the deadly sword by falling onto his back. Codfish was sitting upright now, and mentioned for the magnum from midget, who in turn threw it to him. Codfish positioned the iron sight over the elite's helmet and pulled the trigger, dropping it quickly. Drained of all remaining energy, Codfish lowered the magnum and threw his head back. "How much longer, kid? I'm kinda running on empty here."
Midget looked back at the monitor from the battle just yards away, "Two minutes and we're out."
Codfish studied the room, "Where's Delta?"
Frodr looked back while inserting a new magazine into his AR, "Well he has two minutes to get over here or we're leaving him."
Jerry spoke up now, "He probably made it out on someone else's ride. But I did tell him teh meet us hur."
Codfish lifted his hand to his com unit in his helmet "Delta, control bay, two minutes. Please hurry."
A delayed response came in about fifteen seconds after, delta was whispering and suppressed fire could be heard in the background, "Give me just a little more time, I think I can sneak around them."
Frodr joined in the conversation now, "You have two minutes, if you aren't here by then, we're leaving your ass." He resumed firing on the onslaught of combatants.
"Actually, now it's a minute and twelve seconds" Midget called over to Frodr.
Delta's voice could be heard audibly now, along with bursts of suppressed battle rifle fire and covenant screams, "Going loud, I'll do my best, but a minute is impossible, give me just one more."
Frodr reached for another magazine, discovering it was his last. Frodr pulled the trigger, completely unloading his rifle, and took cover again. "That was my last mag"
Jerry's head snapped to Frodr, "What were you thinking? Always save a magazine. ALWAYS."
Jerry threw his shotgun to Frodr. "Don't yew use it, jus keep her warm." Jerry dashed down the hall and lifted an elites corpse to cover his body, making slow progress forward until he could grasp two plasma rifles. Jerry dropped the body and stood up, firing both plasma rifles at once while backing away. Once back in the operating room, he took his shotgun and handed one rifle to Frodr. He examined the weapon a moment, then looked up to Jerry. "How do I know how many bullets are left?"
Codfish spoke up angrily, "It doesn't fire bullets. It's heated plasma. And unfortunately it runs off a battery, so there's no way to tell. Midget, how much time?"
"10 seconds" Midget was fixated on the screen, captivated by its contents."
Codfish stood shakily, and staggered across the room to his DMR. "We're not leaving Delta, come on." Codfish Walked around the corner and opened fire on the aliens, Jerry to his left, firing shell after shell, ripping the grunt's soft flesh apart. Frodr jogged forward, joining them, and firing the plasma wildly down the hall. The three spartans continued forward, driving the opposing force back.
Delta was faintly heard through their helmets, partially drowned out by the constant barrage of bullets and shells they expelled. "I'm behind the large group, but I'm almost there."
Delta laid down constant fire from his battle rifle, dropping elites and grunts from one direction, as the rest of Negro Squad advanced, guns heated. The last group between them was completely surrounded, grunts flailing their arms in all directions and running, and elites maintaining fire until they eventually fell. Delta saw the mass amount of bodies in the hall to the operating room, "Holy shit, that's a lot of covenant, did you do that?"
Frodr rolled his eyes under his helmet. "We're leaving now."