-Prologue-
0729 HOURS, JULY 28, 2552 (MILITARY CALENDAR) REACH, EPSILON ERIDANI SYSTEM (New Beginnings Worship Temple)"Mission time, report." Hagan mumbles.
"Thirteen minutes and forty-two seconds, sir." Yonalli replies hastily.
"Plenty of time." Hagan mumbles. "Yonalli and Tuskan, move to that structure. Limit COM usage. We don't have much intel as to the location of the defense force. They could be listening."
"Sir." Yonalli replies, nodding.
"Julian, you're with me. We're moving up to that cliff. You'll provide Yonalli and Tuskan with overwatch while I radio Hudson." Hagan orders. He is the "leader" of the Spartans. Fireteam Odysseus didn't really have a designated leader amongst themselves. They were just supposed to take order from their CO, and figure the rest out on their own. Everyone else in Odysseus, however, saw Hagan as a figure of leadership. Smart and quick thinking even compared to the augmented intelligence of the other Spartans, it comforts the rest of Odysseus a little to have someone with such high mental abilities close to them during engagement. So while Hagan isn't the official leader, he did what is expected during times of need.
Julian nods and the Spartan IIs moves quickly to their assigned sections. Hagan and Julian began their ascension atop the cliff while Yonalli and Tuskan prepare for a sprint to the temple entrance. Hagan and Julian are halfway up when Yonalli motions for Tuskan to move. The temple is large and gothic. An old church that had been constructed during the first few days of humanity's settlement on Reach. It quickly went into disuse, sitting and rotting over many years. Now it conceals covenant forces during the battle of Reach. Hagan's team is to neutralize this concealed defense force. Civis looking for a hiding place were quickly gunned down when they arrived here, and UNSC forces were constantly dropping to sniper-fire, even miles away from the church, thanks to its perch atop a tall mountain edge. It is a small assignment, but one with heavy importance. Covenant snipers didn't dick around.
Tuskan takes point to the right of the door, and Yonalli crouches directly in front of it, pulling out a breaching explosive. When he finishes fastening it to the wooden door, he looks up to the now prone Hagan atop the cliff edge. Yonalli is quick to take cover with Tuskan, and Hagan blows the charge. Plasma fire roars through the doorway, tearing and melting any remaining bits of the door-and Yonalli, if he would have still been standing there. When the fire ceases, Yonalli mutters. "Allow me to retort."
Yonalli thrusts his hand inside the doorway as fast as he can, leading an M9 frag in with it. The grenade bounces off of the back wall and the last thing Yonalli hears before the M9's deafening explosion is the screech of a jackal.
"First room clear! Moving inside the structure."
"Gotcha." Hagan confirms. "Hooking Julian up now."
With that, Hagan turns back to Julian. Julian is the team designated sniper. He is a good shot, but like every sniper, he needs a spotter. The man is an excellent engineer, and had created a camera that can detect someone through electrical output. The device could be hooked up to a Spartan's helmet, and would project a screen in the top left of the Spartan's HUD. This way, a Spartan could snipe and spot by himself. It still took a level of multitasking most could not manage, but Julian knows what he is doing. When Hagan finishes hooking Julian up, he taps on his station COMs.
"Yonalli, overwatch is in position. You're clear to go loud."
There is a second pause, and then Yonalli responds. "Understood." Gunfire in the background tells Hagan that Yonalli had already turned up the volume. The man hates stealth operations. He loves to make noise, and that's what he did. A mastermind in explosives, he could build a damn missile out of household supplies if you wanted him to. As Hagan stands up, Julian grabs his ankle. Hagan looks down at the sniper, who only points at a tall pointed rock. There is nothing there. Hagan knows better than to doubt Julian's vision, so he stares closer. Then he sees it.
"Yonalli, Tuskan, get hunkered down. Company has arrived, and our BB gun ain't gonna hold them off for long. They're using light-bending harnesses."
"Understood. Five minutes and eighteen seconds left on mission timer. We gotta go soon." Yonalli silences COMs after that, hoping they can jump the raiders for just a second.
Julian begins to fire just after that. He drops one of the wavy figures with his first shot. The elites began to move, knowing that their cover is lost. Julian can see every one of them. Their harnesses release an immense amount of electrical energy. Ironically, their cloak is making them more visible to Julian. Another thunderclap and the third elite drops. There are maybe twenty, however. And they keep coming. Hagan lifts his MA3 and rains automatic fire down like hail on the elites. Plasma fire is finally returned, and Hagan ducks quickly.
It is quiet, other than the sniper fire outside. Tuskan shifts. Yonalli's breathing makes the old wooden floorboards squeak for just a second, then the wood settles and silences. It feels like hours. In reality, however, it is only a few seconds before heavy footfalls fill the entrance hall. Yonalli slowly raises his M6G sidearm and rests his right wrist on the rolled over table he uses as cover. He saw the air wobble just around the corner. He can barely make out the body structure of an elite, slowly moving, cloaked. It steps over one of the jackal corpses, and smoothly maneuvers into the dark and musty room. He raises his pistol higher, to where he imagines the elite's head is. The Spartan quietly flicks off his safety, however it sounds like an explosion during the intensity of the moment. He squeezes the trigger, locks his arms, and prepares to fire as quickly as he could if the first round misses. The magnum shouts, and the elite's cloaking harness drops faster than its corpse. The wall is painted with the violet liquid that is the Sangheili's blood. The violet seems to float in some areas as well, where other elites are hiding with their light-bending technology. The blood shows Yonalli and Tuskan exactly where the others were. Before the other elites can react, the two spartans open fire. The air roars with gun fire, and corpse after corpse drops. The elites drop faster than they can react, their corpses seeming quite comedic. Like dominos. The two spartans drop five more elites before the rest finally had the time to back off. Six down, a bunch more to go. Yonalli hastily checks his mission clock. Two minutes.
"Dammit. Tuskan, we gotta go!" Yonalli shouts through the thunder of gunfire. Tuskan turns and nods to Yonalli.
"Never liked this place anyways. Not my style. Not enough alien blood." Tuskan cracks.
Yonalli snickers slightly and begins to move. There are no other entrances, so Yonalli decides to make a new one. It is a safety hazard to only have one exit, and Yonalli considers himself an architect. Yonalli sets the last charge on the back wall and switches on his COMs.
"Hagan! We're ditching! Hudson should be firing on this position in one minute! Detonate the last charge and meet us at the secondary rendezvous point."
"We hear ya. See you there." Hagan finishes before clicking the detonator. The charge bursts, and Hagan watches the church flood with elites as Yonalli and Tuskan slip out from the new doorway created by the charge. Plasma fire chases them, but they escape untouched.
"You heard them Julian. Pack up shop and let's move. This place is gonna be a smoldering crater in about forty seconds."
Julian nods and swipes his gear against his chest. Hagan is halfway down the backside of the cliff when Julian finishes packing up. Twenty seconds. Julian catches up to Hagan, and they begin to slide the rest of the cliff. Landing hard at the bottom, Hagan looks up to see a growing light entering the atmosphere. It is a MAC round from Brasilia station, one of the many Orbital Defense Platforms above Reach. And Hudson had fired the round. A second later and the cliff above them explodes, the ground shaking and lurching Hagan and Julian to the trembling ground. They are distant enough from the round that it does not do direct damage, but they are still in range of its shockwave. Hagan looks back up from the dirt to see escaping elites being lifted off of their feet and thrown down the mountain side. The mountain shakes one more time, and begins to crumble.
"Get up Julian! This mountain isn't gonna wait for us to recover!"
Hagan hefts Julian up from the soil and they begin their sprint again. The enormous avalanche of the mountain's collapse roars, and rock, boulder, and dirt tumbles past the two Spartans. They aren't going to reach the bottom. Too far down. They just need to reach the neighboring mountain edge. They could see it now, as close as it could be. Hagan dives and lands on the jutted cliff. Julian stumbles, and then jumps as well. Hagan grabs his hand and hefts him onto the rock. The avalanche rages behind them, and the mountain crumbles like a house of cards.
"Now that is too close." Hagan mumbles, standing upright.
"I think we did fine." Julian spoke.
Before the two even had time to recover, plasma fire erupts once more. Julian points to the other side of the cliff. Yonalli and Tuskan were sprinting, being chased by a few Sangheili survivors. Hagan and Julian look to each other, and then follow after the pursuit. Hagan reaches for his MA3, and the magnets disable, allowing Hagan to pull his rifle from his back.
"Lost our weapons in the mountain avalanche! Could have taken them on our own, but Tuskan injured his arm." Yonalli informs them over COM.
"Don't worry, we'll handle 'em for ya." Hagan replies.
Hagan squeezes the MA3's trigger, and sprays the back few elites. Their shields glow at the gunfire, and they turn to face their attacker. Julian put a round into the first elite with his M6G, and its shield collapses. Hagan drops it with his rifle. The second elite is beside Julian in seconds, slashing its energy dagger at his weapon. The dagger bounces off of Julian's armour, but the pressure opens his palm, releasing the magnum to the dirt. Hagan sprays the attacker with his rifle, and Julian finishes the elite with a blow to its temple. The last elite tackles Tuskan, who is quick to slam his own head into the alien. The heavy Titanium alloy of his helmet caves the elite's shield inwards, but the helmet kept going through the energy, shoving itself into the warrior's face. The alien drops, dead. Tuskan stands back up and looks to Yonalli.
"I don't need both arms to kill these fuckers." Tuskan assures him, holding his non-broken arm out to the corpse.
"Alright. You've proven your point." Yonalli replies, nodding.
"Fireteam Odysseus, we need you back aboard Brasilia Station." Hudson's sudden voice spoke through the speaker. "We need you in New Alexandria."
"Gotcha. Heading back to the Pelican." Hagan reports, and they were on the move again.