Border line
Dead inside
I don't mind
Falling to pieces
Count me in, violent
Let's begin, feeding the sickness
How do I simplify?
Dislocate - the enemy's on the way
Show me what it's like
to dream in black and white
So I can leave this world tonight... - Breaking Benjamin, Unknown Soldier
As Noble Six slowly climbed down from the MAC cannon tower, The Pillar Of Autumn took off from the mooring in the boneyard, slowly climbing away from him after taking on the last of the Pelican flights. On that ship were Dr. Halsey's game changer, and for all of what had happened, Noble Six could only hope that it was worth the sacrifice. The rest of Noble team was gone, Emile being the last to fall, bravely taking the elite that had run him through with an energy blade by shoving his kukri blade through the neck of the elite. Noble Six looked down on the lifeless body of his brother in arms and could only hold out one bit of hope, that at least one member of the team had made it out. Jun, Noble Three had gone with Dr. Halsey to Castle Base, and had not been heard from since. The Covenant were about to begin glassing the planet, but as Six looked off into the distance, seeing several Phantoms heading his way, the grim determination that had made him the personal reaper of General Holland worked it's way through his system. He changed clips on his magnum and assault rifle in record time. He grabbed Emile's shotgun off the deck and down the stairs found a sniper rifle and a couple clips of ammo for it. He was loaded extremely heavy at this point, but he didn't care, as many of these bastards as he could take with him, he would...
It was then that fate intervened in the form of a very familiar voice...
"(Static)...recieving? This is...Three...anyone rec...g?
Six stopped dead and tapped the side of his helmet, the comm unit inside his head was broadcasting the voice of Noble Three, though broken and static laced. Rather than take a point near where the Covenant would drop their troops in to take him out, Six instead worked his way back up to higher ground, climbing up stairwells of the boneyard in record time. He made his way back as far as he could into the complex before working up a darkened stairwell in the back which lead to a heavy iron door. An ordinary man wouldn't have been able to open this door but with his pistol tightly clenched in his hand, Six practically ripped the door off it's hinges and checked his corners on the way through. He was out on the roof of the complex, and now Jun's voice was coming through loud and clear.
"This is Noble Three transmitting on priority channel one! Is anyone receiving?"
"Three! This is Six, I hear you! Repeat your last."
"Six? My God you're still alive. Our scanners lost track of you and Emile when you got near the boneyard, some Covenant jamming is going on there...or was until about 10 minutes ago."
"Affirmative Three, there was another super carrier in the upper atmosphere, it's not there anymore."
"Well done Six, how is Emile?"
"Emile didn't make it Three, it's just you and I left, and pretty soon it'll only be you. Give me a sitrep if you would."
Rather than Three's voice, the insistent voice of Dr. Halsey came over the air.
"There's no time for that lieutenant. I need you here at CASTLE base as soon as possible."
"Sorry Ma'am but I'm a little on the light side as far as transportation and a little on the heavy side as far as Covenant up my ass if you'll pardon the expression."
"That's not a problem, the complex you're in, proceed down to sublevel 4, there'll be a door with an access key panel, the code is Alpha Alpha 14614. When you get inside you'll come to a transport tunnel with a high speed train. That train leads directly to the underground terminal here at CASTLE, it should take you no more than an hour to get here. We need your assistance to get off Reach, and to be honest Lieutenant, General Holland would probably not forgive ONI if we didn't help his personal reaper get off of Reach alive."
In other words, General Holland wanted his prize soldier back in one piece apparently, even though the General would find another if he did in fact not make it out alive. What choice was there though? CASTLE was the biggest well of intelligence on the planet, also the most heavily fortified and damn near impossible to find. By now any and all entrances to the surface would be sealed, and the Covenant wouldn't have gotten to this tunnel that Dr. Halsey was mentioning.
"Understood ma'am. Noble Six is oscar mike."
"What was that Lieutenant?"
"It means I'm on the move, ma'am. And Three?"
"Yes Six?"
"Keep me informed of any changes to the situation there as I'm on the way, copy?"
"Copy that Six, Three out."
This was going to be interesting, at least a small division of elites, jackals, ultras, brutes and grunts stood between him and sublevel 4, if he took the conventional way and went through the building. It was then that Six's natural ingenuity kicked in and he scampered to the side of the building and looked over the edge. A lone elite, a Zealot to be specific, stood on the ground with no other support within sight. Behind him was a stairwell leading down into the ground, the entrance to the sublevels. Six took two frag grenades and tossed them straight down into the stairwell, then leapt off the building, coming down on the back of the elite and running both his normal combat knife and the second he kept hidden inside the holster for his magnum through the back of the elite's neck before drawing them in opposite directions, neatly decapitating the elite with a spray of blood. Just as he did, the grenades went off in the hole behind him, killing the two jackals he hadn't seen before but was sure were there working on the code to the base. He tried the code that Dr. Halsey gave him after stepping over their remains and to the door and it worked. Quickly, Six took a look inside, turning on his night vision before sealing the door behind him.
"Well that was fun, I give them about 10 minutes before they figure out something happened and come looking."
However Six wasn't going to give them that 10 minutes, he worked his way down through the sublevels as fast as he could, finally arriving at the huge door at sublevel 4, and he quickly punched in the code Dr. Halsey had given to him, causing the door to open. He quickly shot through the door and punched in the code on the other side. He then remembered a certain "toy" that General Holland had given him before he was moved to Noble Team. A specialized EMP grenade that, while it wouldn't effect a Spartan's systems save for scrambling his shields momentarily, it would take out any electronic circuitry in a 10 foot radius from the blast zone. He retrieved it from one of the packs on his armor and pulled the pin, setting it next to the door to short out the circuitry. Six was more than 30 feet away when the blast went off, shorting out the door, making sure that the Convenant forces would have to cut through it to get into where he was.
"Nothing like making sure to seal off the only way in."
Just then, his radio crackled again.
"Six come in, this is Three."
"Go ahead Three."
"What's your ETA?"
"I'll be there in an hour, I just got into the train, and I shorted out the door on this end so they're going to have a hell of a time getting in here. And probably an even longer walk through the tunnels."
"Lieutenant, keep us apprised of your location, when you get two thirds of the way here, I'm going to detonate that end of the tunnel and seal it completely."
So Dr. Halsey had a plan after all, seal CASTLE off from any potential way for the Covenant to get in, then pray that enough of Reach stood between the base and the Covenant's glassing cannons. Either that or something else was afoot...
The trip seemed to be taking less time than he had expected, either that or Six had zoned out somewhat. When he looked down at the monitor he saw that he was nearly three quarters of the way to CASTLE. He quickly spoke into his com-link.
"Noble Six to Dr. Halsey and Noble Three, I've passed the predetermined checkpoint, you may detonate your charges now."
"Thank you Lieutenant. Just for your information, you're going to want to get out of that train as soon as it stops in the station and haul ass, pardon the expression, upstairs before the bulkhead doors seal. Part of the tunnel was constructed underwater and any chance the sea has to populate a new area it will take it."
"Roger that, ma'am. I'll be inside the bulkhead doors before they close."
Indeed, as he stepped from the train, Noble Six could hear the distant rush of water, and looking back down the tunnel for a moment he saw the black shadow of the water rushing in. He took off like a shot as the water started to rush into the bottom of the tunnel, scampering up the stairs and diving through the bulkhead doors, 5 and a half feet thick, before they clanged shut behind him. As he landed on his back, he heard the wall of water slam against the doors and he cringed slightly but the doors held.
"Welcome Lieutenant, glad to see that you made it, and in one piece."
"Yeah Six, I almost thought you were a goner myself."
Several levels above him on the scaffold were where the voices came from, and as Six looked up he saw both Noble Three and Dr. Halsey looking down at him. Halsey had the ghost of a grin on her face and Noble Three's expression was almost unreadable until you caught the hint of the sadness at seeing that the two of them were really all that was left of the once proud Noble team.
"Lieutenant if you'd like to get yourself off of my floor, we have important work to do and we don't have much time..."
Dr. Halsey, demanding as ever, walked her way back up the stairwell and out of sight. Noble Three remained for a moment, then followed the doctor, leaving Noble Six to collect himself for a moment.
"Yes ma'am..."