Chapter 1: The Relay Station.
June 15, 2551, Noble HQ.
"Carter, Col. Holland is asking for you." Noble 2 said as she stepped away from a console.
"Thank you, Kat." Carter replied as he stepped in front of the console. "Carter here, go ahead, sir."
"Noble 1, exactly eighteen hours ago, a communications relay station 800 miles northeast of New Alexandria was taken offline. I need you and your team to get it back up and running." Col. Holland said over the comm. To that, everyone but Noble 6 looked at the comm. channel with a surprised expression.
"Who took the station out, Sir?" Carter asked.
"As far as command knows, no one has taken responsibility for the attack. But we have reason to believe it was rebel action." Col. Holland replied.
"Why would rebels want to take out a comm. Station?" Noble 5 asked walking up from behind Carter.
"An apt question Jorge, when you get there maybe you can ask them." Col. Holland replied.
"Noble Team will get the job done, Sir, Noble 1 out." Carter said as he cut the feed.
"Nobles, grab your weapons, put on your helmets, and get ready for a combat drop." Carter ordered to the rest of Noble Team as he put his helmet on.
Yes Sir! Was heard in unison throughout the small base as Noble Team did as instructed.
Outside the base where two UNSC Hornets, ready to take them to the drop zone. In under two minutes all of Noble Team: Carter, Noble 1. Catherine "Kat", Noble 2. Jun, Noble 3. Emile, Noble 4. Jorge, Noble 5. Jason, Noble 6.; were ready for the mission.
The ride to the relay station was a long and quiet one, the team exchanged glances every few minutes or so, but no general conversation.
Jason was the team's newest addition. Having only been on the team 2 months, he didn't really know much about the team's personal work ethics. That being said, Jason still knew the team was a little uneasy about the mission.
Feeling curious, he decided to break the long kept silence of the comms. "Why does everyone look so nervous?" He asked as laid back as he could to give the team the open air he felt they needed.
"It's nothing, Six; just, some bad memories there." Jorge replied, being the only one to do so.
"Why, what happened?" Jason probed as innocently as he could.
"It's personal, Six; best to leave it at that." Emile said.
"That may be team, but he's going to that station too. He may as well know why we may be a little on edge this mission." Carter said.
"He wasn't there, sir. He has no right to know." Jun protested with anger.
"He bears the name now; he has every right to know." Carter countered with the authority in his voice he tries to maintain.
The rest of the team doesn't argue, and Carter clears his throat before he begins his story.
"It was a year ago. On Reach. Our first Number Six, Tai, was with us on a mission to guard the relay station as maintenance teams worked to finish bringing the tower online with Kat's supervision. As Jorge, Emile, and myself were guarding the entrance from local insurrection, I had Jun and Tai stationed at the scaffold bars above us with sniper rifles. They were to alert us of any and all movement in the jungle around the station. As the night went on, as it's nearing night now, Tai saw a quick figure in the trees a hundred yards out. He thought it was just some of the local animals and left it be. Ten minutes later, he saw the same figure on the ground only thirty yards out, that's when he reported it to me. I too thought is just an animal and said to keep an eye on it. Five minutes later Tai saw the animal 15 yards out. I told him that if the animal was that suspicious to just go ahead and shoot it. He did, right in the head, and he told me that all the creature did, was stumble back and then took off running into the trees. In fifteen minutes, we heard Tai screaming through his comm. Jun tried to get to him in time. But all he found was Tai's helmet, his rifle, and his right hand still on the trigger, surrounded in a small pool of blood. I ordered Emile and Jun to meet up with me in the jungle as we searched for Tai and the creature. I had Jorge go inside and seal up the station and guard Kat and the workers until we came back. For an hour, we searched for Tai, as we were about to head back to the station and radio command, we heard a distant growl. We threw up our weapons, ready to shoot whatever came out of the dense brush of that damn forest with enough bullets to make it a walking chime. But what we saw was something that made us run.
"The creature walked into a patch of grass that the moon illuminated in a perfect pentagram. It was large, laced in a light black coat of ragged fur. Muscle laced under the skin. Two legs, two arms, each ending with four long, razor-sharp claws. It's head had fur going in straight spikes behind it. It's eyes were red, dark as blood, and appeared to be staring at your very soul.
"Inside its mouth, we saw it. We saw Tai, or what was still left of him. The top right-hand corner of his head was ripped off, with a steady stream of blood pouring from the exposed brain tissue. Both of his eyes were ripped out of their sockets, the cranial cords having been ripped during the action. His right hand wasn't the only limb missing, his entire right arm and his left leg were gone. His armor was scratched and severed in many places. The worst being his abdomen, which the creature's long fangs were deeply rooted into.
"After seeing the creature for ourselves, we ran. Like cowards we ran. Never turning back to that God-forsaken beast. As soon as we got back to the station Jorge opened the door and we poured in like scared children, because that was what we were right then, scared children. We screamed at Jorge to close the door before the creature would get in and to us what it did to Thai. After informing Kat and Jorge of what we saw, I ordered that everyone remain in the station until morning, when command was to have two a Pelican ready to pick us up and take us back to Noble HQ.
"When dawn came, I was the first to exit the station, armed and ready for the creature should it be waiting for us. I saw nothing and told everybody to exit the station and board the Pelican as quickly as possible before the creature could come out. But it never did. When we got back to HQ we informed command about the events the night before. Then we held a ceremony for Tai, using the helmet Jun kept as a gravestone to mark that he served as a Spartan, and died as a Spartan. Since then, Noble Team has never set foot on that station again. Until tonight."
When Carter finished his story, he rested his elbows on his knees and placed his mouth on his closed hands as he shut his eyes to collect himself. The rest of Noble Team aside from Jason also had to recompose themselves. Kat even had to turn her comm. off as they heard her starting to cry.
Jason took the rest of the flight to think about the wounds he may have just opened, and the insensitivity he opened them with.
For the next twenty minutes, Noble sat in their seats until the pilots of the two hornets told them that they were landing and that they needed to get ready for the drop off.