Military Calendar
2542-03-17
Unknown Planetoid, Stragnil System
Time: 06:57
"That's it?" A hushed voice quizzically quarried
"That's it," replied another voice, this one calm.
"That can't be it," the first voice didn't quite squeak.
"That's it," repeated the second.
"Nah, can't be. I mean look at it." The first voice persisted. "That can't be it."
"It is, it can, it is. Now focus. Tango Charlie is headed this way." The second voice reassured exasperatedly and brought the conversation to a momentary halt as a large, armored creature walked by, each heavy foot fall thumping, sending reverberations through the immediate area, the now silent speakers and another dozen darkly dressed, armor clad men armed with various weapons of war silently watching from the corners of their eyes, trained to avoid looking directly at whatever they stalk.
As the alien, known to those stalking it and its comrades as an Elite, and to itself as a Sangheili, slowly thumped its way around a corner and out of sight, a very quietly collected sigh went through the room. The men and women were not ready for such a confrontation just yet.
"I'm telling you," picked up the first voice, "that can't be it."
"It is. Now quiet." The second voice responded, finally putting a stop to the first speaker.
Now that the Elite had been out of sight for a few seconds, the group began slowly rising from cover and softly padding their way out of the small storage room they had been hiding in. Leaving the room provided a risk they didn't want though it was necessary to get to their destination. The floor of the room they left behind was a thick glass, the view below that of a massive humming, glowing machine powering the structure that the Troopers of Special Operations had successfully infiltrated as well as unknown within devices within and without the structure itself.
Actually infiltrating the structure itself had been much easier than anticipated, the only guess that seemed plausible to the Troopers now inside the structure was that despite years of ongoing conflict, both sides are still learning tactics from each other. Regardless of why, the soldiers now within the structure were moving quietly forward through dimly lit corridors and finding hiding places in the shadows of the wide corridors. Many storage bins and other miscellaneous odds and ends waiting to be moved providing many possible areas of concealment.
The corridors were angled down slightly, delving into the ground. When-ever they came to an intersection, they chose the left hand side whenever possible until they eventually came upon a door. The door itself was not an issue. The small patrol around the corner and closing in was. Frantically they worked on the door even while several of the black clad soldiers silently moved various objects along the walls into the corridor itself, building as much cover as they could. If a fire-fight broke out now, the mission would likely fail, but with the door on one side and the patrol on the other, it looked like another inevitability.
Just before the patrol reached the corner, the door swished open and the troopers immediately ran into the room after a very brief look to make sure it was empty. Once all of the humans were inside, the door clicked shut as the patrol rounded the corner. The Humans spread out into the room, finding any advantageous position they could that was facing the door and waited for the door to open. For minutes the door stood closed, every now and then a brief bump or scuff could be heard on the other side of the door, but nothing else happened.
Slowly the Humans relaxed and exchanged looks. A few quick words were passed between them, discussing the door. It was finally agreed that they'd move some of the larger objects in front of the door and block the way out and search for another way out. At all times three guns, two rifles and a machine-gun, were pointed at the door until the first object tipped and fell over in front of the door and the first object was pushed in front of the that and pushed against the first object until it rested at an angle, the top pushed against the top of the door. With the door finally blocked the Humans relaxed further and turned from the door to investigate the room.
Not overly large, the room was longer than it was wide, with two raised platforms on either side while the middle was flat, under each platform was a series of doors and most disturbing of all, faded blood stains and several bones. At the far end of the room the soldiers gathered around a nearly full skeleton of what clearly once had been a human in an odd suit of armor and a bulky rifle-like weapon nearby.
"Shit," one of the troopers said.
"This is crazy, what do we do now?" A second trooper asked.
"Tag it and bag it. We'll take it with us. Even if the mission feels, command needs to see this." Responded a third. The others nodded and set about tagging and bagging the odd form, taking the time to discover how to remove the suit from the skeleton to bag each piece separately.
Finally ready, each human carrying a piece of the suit and the leader carrying the new weapon, the Troopers of Special Operations explored the room, tagging anything that looked interesting and picking up several other odd items before finding an unlocked door and exiting the room, and found themselves where they needed to be.