Doctor Salvia Martinez, Chief ONI Engineering Officer attached to Project INFINITY, ONI Command Facility 'KNOX', Reach, Epsilon Eridani System, July 24th 2552
"The Art of losing isn't hard to master,
So many things seem filled,
With the intent to be lost,
That their loss is no disaster."
She spoke, painfully aware that one wrong word in this lion's den could very well be her last. Her senior advisors had practically ordered her to keep literary flourishes and extravagances to an absolute minimum when reporting to the Office of Naval Intelligence's High Council. The five senior officers in the darkened room were arguably the most powerful individuals in the UNSC, and she feared they might not appreciate 600-year-old poetry being spouted by some jumped-up civilian contractor in an important briefing.
"The Human race has had a steep learning curve in the last three decades. We've lost time and time again, countless colony worlds reduced to glass by the Covenant. You could say that the UNSC has almost forgotten how to win military engagements." She rattled on, hoping that her reveal would outweigh the overly dramatic build-up.
She shot a glance to Admiral Walker, who responded with an almost imperceptible wink, letting her know that he was there to support her. It was the part of ONI which Walker presided over, Section Three, which had approached her about this project 5 years ago. She'd been a senior Engineering Officer at the Reyes-McLees shipbuilding yards in orbit around Mars and had personally overseen the construction of four of the Navy's powerhouse Marathon-Class Heavy cruisers. The stress of the mammoth task had damn near killed her, and it was in the wake of the last hull, the UNSC Timid, having been formally commissioned into service, that the black-uniformed ONI agent had approached her in a bar in New Austin.
At first, she had thought that the woman was flirting with her, talking about "going to the stars" and "fantastic opportunity". It was only when the operative had started bringing up her personnel files from Reyes-McLees Industries that she'd taken her seriously. The offer of a 4-figure upfront payment, 6-figure salary and the prospect of heading up the greatest engineering project of the 26th century sealed her fate, and the next day she was on an ONI prowler heading for the Oort cloud on the edges of the Solar system.
She'd spent the next five years living and working on the UNSC shipbuilding superstation Hephaestus in the employ of ONI Section 3, reporting periodically to Admiral Walker as to the progress of Project Infinity. It'd been a struggle at times. She'd had to be referred to ONI psychiatrists to help her frequent insomnia. However, now she was about to reveal Infinity to the other Section heads, and she was close to passing out.
"However, now it is time to show what Humanity can do, to regain the offensive capability we so dearly lack, to take the fight to alien shores, and prevent our inevitable annihilation." She said. "Admirals, please feast your eyes on the first ship in the Infinity-class. The key to our salvation."
She unlocked the files on her datapad and sent them to the devices In front of the Officers. On the screens, a 3D model of a warship appeared, with a barrage of information displayed next to it, outlining capabilities, specifications, crew, everything the Admirals would want to know about the enormous vessel.
The table was silent for a good few minutes, with three out of five Officers deeply engrossed in the material, occasionally raising their eyebrows or coughing. Admiral Walker sat silently, looking more at his fellow Section heads than the data before him, and Admiral Parangosky simply stared at her, her face fixed in an expressionless slate. From what she'd heard, this not-display of emotion was the best she could hope for from the CINCONI.
It was the Section Zero chief, Admiral Korobi, who eventually broke the silence. "So this is where all of our budgets have been going. Is she ready to launch?" He looked up at her, his dark complexion almost invisible in the deliberately dark lighting of the room.
"Yes sir, in theory. The Shipbuilding AI Aine is a little apprehensive, but all her systems are ready to go. She just needs a crew." She responded, highlighting the relevant data on their screens.
Admiral Sera was next. She looked up from the pad, smiling wryly. "How the hell have you kept this a secret for so long Martin?"
Walker coughed "Total communications black out from within the Oort cloud system, all contractors locked down for 5 years, like the good Doctor here."
Admiral Parangosky raised her hand slightly, drawing instant silence. She spoke in a voice that simultaneously matched her frail appearance and betrayed her wicked intellect, cool and composed on the surface with sinister undercurrents. "I've kept the right people in Fleet informed. Infinity will be a game-changer, capable of decimating even the most powerful covenant ships. Doctor Martinez, you have done exceptional work, and I will personally assure that it is rewarded accordingly. However, your involvement with Project Infinity is not over."
Salvia frowned slightly, before composing herself and nodding.
"Infinity is just the first of many. Your work on INF-101 is complete, she'll enter active service within three years, and make more difference to the war than you'll ever know. Now work starts on INF-102."
She fought for control over her emotions. One side of her wanted to run out of that room and never look back. Infinity would always be her greatest achievement, but it had taken so much of her, she wondered if she could take another one. The other side of her wanted to jump right back in. She knew that from the second-in-class ships and onwards, things became a lot easier. Maybe she could complete this new ship with her health intact. The overall feeling was one of excitement, raw passion and an almost arrogant desire for a challenge. It was her biggest downfall, her almost obsessive need to throw herself into her work. And what better work could she do?
After a few brief seconds, she nodded, breathing steadily. "Yes ma'am. When do I start?"
Parangosky's mouth twitched, the ghost of a smile. "You start in September. UNSC Engineering still has to clear up the shipyard from Infinity. Once they're done, work on INF-102 will commence. Admiral Walker will brief you tomorrow. If that's all, I think we're done here."
She cleared her throat. "There is one thing Admiral."
Walker shot her a 'What the hell do you think you're doing?' look, but she continued, fully aware that if this went south she could commit career suicide, or it'd be made to look like she'd done so literally.
The CINCONI said nothing, so she carried on. "If I could, I'd like to put forward a potential name for INF-102."
Parangosky nodded "By all means Doctor, I think you've earned that right."
At this point, it was clear that the other Admirals had lost interest. Only Walker and Parangosky looked at her expectantly.
"Renovatio" She said calmly, the Latin slipping smoothly from her tongue. The word had a special meaning to her, not one she was liable to divulge to the room, but she hoped the word itself would be poignant enough to have a chance.
There was another few seconds of silence, then Parangosky nodded "Renovatio. Fitting." She waved her hand, and the meeting was disbanded, the Section heads standing and leaving the darkened room without another word. No one would ever know that they were there. Walker winked at her as he passed, motioning her to wait behind with him.
Once the others had left, he cracked a smile. "Well done Salvia. I can't believe how quickly that went." He rubbed his silver hair absent-mindedly. "I've never been in a High Council meeting that lasted less than an hour." He collected himself, straightening his dress uniform. "Anyway, looks like it's time for some much needed R&R for you Doctor, you'll be back to the grindstone in no time."
She smiled as they began walking towards the doors out of the Dark Room "I could live with some time off. Know any good restaurants in Manassas?"
Walker shook his head "I'm not local, but I've heard good things about a place on 5th street. Hungarian-India fusion or something."
She snorted "Sounds like Gastrointestinal Armageddon if you ask me." As they passed through the doors, they slipped back into official mode. Formal speech, no joking about. She'd formed a close working relationship with the Admiral, and it never hurt to have their boundaries reinforced by formalities, remind them of who they were. Admiral Parangosky was waiting immediately outside.
Walker quickly snapped to attention, and the elderly woman waved him on, locking eyes with Salvia. As the Admiral walked away, she felt more fear than when one of infinity's primary fusion drives had had a near-meltdown back in '49.
"Relax. I'm just here to formally assign you to Project RENOVATIO, congratulations Doctor." She said before handing her a datapad and hobbling away down the corridor. She looked at the screen, noticing formal relocation orders to a remote system. The whole operation was being moved to the system, another ONI secrecy technique? Or did Parangosky know something the rest of them didn't? Almost certainly.
13:50, August 15th, 2552, City of Manassas, Alfold State, Ütközet Province, Reach
"Doctor, we've got to get you out of here." Came Walker's voice over her chatter. "The Covenant are on Reach, all mobile naval assets are being evacuated ASAP."
Her heart sank into a pit of dread in her chest. She'd known this was inevitable. That they'd find the UNSC's largest and best defended colony, and burn it to ashes. Even the prospect of the second-largest Naval Fleet in the galaxy, or the array of 20 super-heavy Orbital Defence Platforms didn't change the fact that Reach was doomed.
"Where and when?" She demanded. She had been in the middle of her lunch, but her omelette now lay abandoned as she stood up from her seat, swiping her credit chip on the reader at her table to pay for the disappointing meal. The café she'd chosen was on the historical Baja Square in the centre of Manassas. The buildings around her were not the imposing skyscrapers of the city's financial districts, but low level shops, restaurants and boutiques scattered around the pedestrian precinct. People went about their daily lives, tired-looking parents dragged their children from shop to shop, teenagers loitered along the fringes of the square, and pigeons congregated in the space, their incessant cooing echoing around the marble steps and tiling. A water feature bubbled happily in the centre of the area, and it was next to this where she stood awaiting Walker's response.
"I need you to get to Tolna Tower, on the 15th floor there'll be an evac bird waiting for you. Salvia, this is serious. The Army's saying that they can't hold back the Covenant ground forces for much longer, they're going to issue a city-wide evacuation order in thirty minutes. You have until then to get to the tower before all hell breaks loose." He spoke clearly, disguising the panic in his voice well, but not completely.
"How the hell did the covenant get here without alerting the Navy?" She demanded, pushing past a crowd of shoppers, drawing stares and murmurs of disapproval.
"Section 1 hypothesise that their flagship used the recent meteor shower to slip in while cloaked, deployed an army of infantry and hunkered down under a camouflage canopy. They've only got one ship planetside at the moment, but it's a big one. CSO-class Supercarrier. Thing's 30km long, and now the camouflage generators have been disabled, they're out in the open. I heard about some Special Forces project to disable her, but nothing coming through yet." He informed her as she entered the directory, styled to look like a 20th century phone booth.
"Hang on Admiral, just getting directions." She said, and muted his feed on her chatter, quickly synching to the directory and finding the quickest route to the tower. By foot it would be 45 minutes, but if she caught a cab it would be 15 at most. She cued up their call on her chatter, the terrifying reality of the situation now sinking in, causing her to shake slightly. "Okay, I'll get a cab to the tower, what's the Army saying?"
He sighed heavily down the line "Not much at this point, which is worrying, if we assume 100% casualty rate, it'll be about 20 minutes until the city's hit. They're reinforcing the city's garrison with troops from Fort Witherson, but the 352nd Marine Division is on evac duty, touch-down in 15 minutes. Move it Doctor, and you may just ride the wave of destruction out of this place. Tolna Tower, top floor. The evac bird should take you right to an ONI prowler docked at Reach Station Gamma, the Circumference. Then it's a straight shot for Earth."
She nodded even though he couldn't see her, breathing steadily to calm herself. "Alright Admiral, see you aboard the Circumference, Martinez out." She terminated the call and hailed a green-painted taxi, getting in quickly.
"Tolna Tower." She said to the driver, who turned around in his seat to face her, his eyebrows raised. She realised that in her black ONI dress uniform that she must look a little odd. Military uniform was never in fashionable circles anyway, but Reach was the centre of clothing and fashion within the colony worlds. "Get there in ten minutes and I'll make it worth your while."
At the promise of money, the driver nodded once and sped away from the curb, driving at breakneck speed. She took this time to think what was about to happen. Reach would fall, of that there was no doubt. It was just a matter of getting as many civilians out as possible, and taking as many of those bastards down with us.
"You're ONI." The driver said in a thick Hungarian accent, ending her brooding trance. She looked up and saw the man's beady eyes staring back at her in the mirror. "I know ONI when I see them. Only one reason why a spook overpays for a fast cab to the tallest tower in the city."
They turned down a narrow street, and she spotted the imposing tower ahead. "Important meeting."
He laughed deeply, shaking his head "I've served. 13th Marines. I know Spook Bullshit when I hear it. I also know that Fort Witherson is more active than I've seen it for years. Just tell me this. Do I have enough time to get my family?" He looked at her, eyes sad and desperate.
She didn't answer for a couple of minutes, and it was no time before the car slowed to a crawl and stopped. She swiped her credit chip, paying four times as much as was normal, money meant nothing today. She cleared her throat as she made ready to leave the car.
"Yes. Go now." She whispered, slipping out of the car and onto the pavement outside the lobby. Her cab sped away, light now firmly off. She hoped he made it out with his family, but in her heart of hearts she knew it was unlikely. She pushed through the double glass doors of the lobby and strode through the security checkpoint, scanning her ID badge as she went. There was almost no one around the brightly lit interiors, just security guards and MPs. All the soldiers clutched MA5C rifles in their hands, and looked impassive, although god knows how they actually felt. She was terrified, and she was being flown out of the danger zone, whereas these men would be flung directly into it in all likelihood.
"Ma'am." A young lieutenant stepped out from behind the security desk. He was wearing a black variant of the standard Marine BDU and he carried only his sidearm. His face was haggard and bleak, and his voice was strained and tired. "Admiral Walker told me you'd be here, your bird is en route, I'll show you the way."
She nodded and followed the soldier to the elevators. As the glass door closed behind them and the small cage ascended quickly, she was almost blinded by the sudden intense sunlight, which came through the glass walls of the elevator shaft. The city was spread out below her, the tall buildings of the financial district around her blocked most of the view for the first 30 seconds, but as the climbed the peaks of the Old Town's many churches and spires peaked into view. The Malon River flowed in between the two districts, cleanly slicing the city centre in half. Boats and hydrofoils meandered lazily along the ribbon of blue, enjoying the early afternoon sun. Such peace, serenity. Boy were they in for a shock.
"Your bird is Pelican Lima Seven Niner, patching her pilot through to your chatter." The Lieutenant said, and suddenly her ear buzzed with static, broken through at points by a distorted voice.
"Doc, you read me, doc?" Came the voice, vaguely female and with a strong aussie accent.
"Yes, I read you Lima Seven Niner." She responded a little awkwardly in front of the Lieutenant, who had elected to stare blankly at the city during her conversation.
"Good to hear from you ma'am, I'm inbound ETA 30 seconds, with a whole mess of hostile air right behind me, looks like the Air Force is going to be busy with this one!"
The Lieutenant tapped her shoulder, clearing his throat and joining the call "Pilot, Air base Farragut has dispatched Sparrowhawk and Skyhawk units. The City's initiated evacuation, the Colonial Militia is setting up defensive positions and anti-air batteries all over the city. 12th Infantry and 22nd armoured divisions are inbound." He pressed his earpiece into his ear as if trying to hear the repots better "And the UNSC Kirkland has deployed its ODST contingent, they'll be dropping into the streets right about now."
As he spoke, jets of fire descended from the clouds, dozens of them, easily a hundred flaming asteroids which fell in regular patterns within the grid of roadways. "We're in this till the bitter end" The Lieutenant mumbled, fiddling with his pistol reflexively.
The long ride up to the landing pad on the top floor finally ended, and as the doors slid open, she barely had time to take in the blistering wind before her view was obstructed by the soaring nose of a Pelican Dropship as it crested the lip of the tower, performing a loop to level itself out. It was during this manoeuvre that she was able to take in the magnificent craft: at first glance it appeared to be a standard D77-TC Dropship, painted a drab olive green, the colour of all naval Pelicans. On closer inspection, it became apparent that this particular 'cart', as navy flyboys called them, had been through hell. Its rear port engine was sparking, and there were numerous scorch marks and dents to the angular metal airframe. It might have been a trick of the light, or her imagination playing tricks on her, but she could have sworn she could see the pilot grinning behind the controls.
The engines whined as the bulky ship came to a dead stop above the landing pad, and the rear door of the dropship hissed open, revealing the dropship to be full of heavily armoured Marines, who all ran out of the aircraft and across the landing pad towards the emergency stairwell on her left. Four of them carried the pieces to a mobile Anti-Air Missile Battery. She knew, because as a college graduate she'd designed the machine.
The nameless Lieutenant patted her on the back, shouting above the cacophony of the engines "This is my exit Doc, these guys'll need to know where to go. Good luck. God knows I'm envious of you getting out of here."
She turned to face him, and offered her hand, which he shook quickly. "You'll get out of here too, Lieutenant…" She suddenly realised that she hadn't asked his name.
"Haverson. Elias Haverson. ONI Section One." He said with a muted smile. "Get off-planet. Go. Whoever you are, you're clearly a lot more important in this war than I."
And with that, he was gone. She turned to face the rear of the dropship, jogging over and hauling herself inside. There was a worrying amount of dried blood on the floor of the crew compartment. She now knew why Marines called it the 'blood tray'. She walked towards the cockpit door, banging on it once with her fist. The metal slab retracted into the wall, and she took her place next to the grinning pilot. She donned a flight helmet and synchronised to the Pelican's systems before shaking hands with her Pilot.
"Doctor Salvia Martinez, ONI Section Three attaché"
"Staff Sergeant Lisa Monroe, but most call me 'Bird'" The pilot replied, smiling and manually checking the instruments. "We'll be off in no time Doc, just gotta get our escort arranged. Whoever you are, you turn a lot of heads, they're vectoring two Broadswords to escort us to Station Gamma. Most I normally get is a couple of Hornets."
"How does it look out there?" She asked, straight to the point, the pilot's smile slipped slightly before replying.
"The Army's holding its own out there, but there's just too many of them. So far they've kept the covvies within the Viery Territory, but once Manassas falls, the next town is the crossing into the next province. I just thank our lucky stars that their orbital support isn't directly intervening. Plus, a buddy of mine says that Spartans are planning to take it out."
"Take what out?"
Bird shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Oh, just the bloody great big Supercarrier in low orbit. It's not done much yet, just nailed a frigate or two. I reckon they must be looking for something, otherwise they'd just glass the place and move on."
Salvia remained quiet, not sure what rumours she'd heard in the ONI grapevine were appropriate to reveal. In reality, uttering any one of them could get her killed, and there was always paranoia about Section Zero planting false info within other Sections to see who was blabbing.
"Righto Doc, escort's ready, off we fuck." Bird drawled, pushing thrust up enough to nose them gently off of the deck.
Several things happened in that next brief moment. The most jarring of all these was the brilliant flash of white light in the sky. It was only a pinprick, but it was bright enough to outshine Epsilon Eridani. What she didn't know at the time was that the singularly bright spec of Reach's sky was in fact the very same CSO-class Supercarrier being sent to oblivion by an overloaded Slip Space Drive, at the cost of UNSC Savannah and necessitating the sacrifice of a Spartan-II Supersoldier.
The next thing to register on her senses were the radar pings of two Broadsword Strike Fighters, one on either side of their flight path. They flooded her helmet with radio chatter but in that moment both she and Bird were too distracted, staring quizzically at the supernova of light on the horizon. Had they been listening, they would've heard the two pilots warning them of incoming Banshee fliers: the third and final 'thing' to happen.
Far, far too late, Bird jerked the joystick hard left, initiating a steep bank down the side of the tower. But she was too slow, and the lead Banshee's green energy cannon round struck the dropship directly on the rear left engine. The explosion flung both women around in their seats and added an almost uncontrollable spin to their movement. As they pulled away from the top of the tower and plummeted downwards, a single Scorpion Air-to-Air missile struck the lead banshee, ripping the alien machine to pieces.
While normally the destruction of a Banshee would be cause for celebration, in this particular case the aftermath of said destruction turned out to be rather… destructive. The largest lump of the metal aircraft continued on its path due to its incredible velocity right into the falling dropship, colliding with such force that it pressure welded purple metal alloy to olive grey composite.
The incredible impact knocked Salvia's head into the cabin wall, and her senses dulled. She was partially aware of the quantity of swearing and cursing by Bird next to her, and of the sickening spinning motion of the crippled dropship as it plummeted from the sky, engines screaming an awful lamenting wail. Red lights flashed all around her from various instrument panels, and screeching alarms blared, almost drowning out her own thoughts.
"Shit Doc, I can't hold her, we're going down." Bird shouted over the din, furiously wrestling with the flight controls, trying to gain some level of control. "Mayday mayday, Pelican Lima Seven Niner is hit, we're going down hard, I repeat, Pelican Lima Seven Niner is hit, I'm going to try to ditch her into the river."
There was a garbled reply, but the grating noises coming from the ruined comms system disguised the words behind them. Bird ripped off her helmet in frustration and dashed it against the dashboard. Her hands immediately flew back to the controls, pulling up to the point where Salvia could hear the metal of the stick creaking under stress.
All she could do was try not to throw up at the nauseating motion of their stricken craft and stare out of the window in terror at the rapidly approaching skyline swinging in and out of her view as they dropped.
"Doc! Brace yourself!" Bird yelled, finally giving up the ghost on controlling the dropship, assuming the commercial airline brace position by putting her head down with her fingers laced behind her head. Salvia copied her, closing her eyes and praying to the God she didn't believe in to help her. As the Ground Proximity alarm started blaring in her ears, her thoughts turned to her mother, alone in a Martian retirement community, and wondered if she'd ever see her again. Or her sisters, or nephews. Or the friends she'd met working on the Hephaestus. A single tear formed on her cheek as the dropship slammed into the side of a multi-storey office building with such force that her safety harness ripped itself from the framework, and she was thrown bodily around the cabin. She felt herself bounce off of three surfaces before finally coming to rest on the ceiling of the cabin. No pain registered, just a weary resignation as she slipped into the blackness eating at her vision.
Chief Petty Officer Jacob-209, August 16th 2552, 10:50 Zulu Time, UNSC FOB WILLOW, Viery Territory, Reach
"What's the next mission Jake?" The Spartan asked, not even looking up from her sniper rifle as she expertly disassembled it and polished it.
"Rescue Op, downtown Manassas, ONI attaché." He listed, rubbing his eyes as he slumped down onto a low bunk. The room the trio of Spartan Supersoldiers were sat in used to be the Officer's mess of this Forward Operating Base. But ever since the Covenant were found on Reach about three weeks ago, there hadn't been enough officers in the building to call it that. They had taken it over as their operations room, moved a couple of beds in and moved a full-sized holographic projection table into the centre of the space. Weapons and ammo were piled up in the corner, and one fully-equipped MJOLNIR Mobile Assembly Station was placed in the opposite corner.
"Sounds boring, we've got about ten thousand covvies to kick off our doorstep, and they're sending us in for one civilian? Seems like a gross misallocation of valuable military resources if you ask me." Sabina grunted from her bunk. She was still lying down in full armour, supposedly resting from their last Op, but Jake always knew when she was actually sleeping.
"I'm with Sab." Sara agreed, stripping her rifle again. She'd already fully cleaned the gun 4 times, but she wasn't really cleaning it, it was more of a comfort thing, a ritual to put her mind at ease. "What's so special about one ONI contractor?"
He sighed "When I asked they said it was classified. All they'd tell me is that she's worked on a Project Infinity, and that she's to be considered a Tier One Asset." He grabbed his helmet from the bedside table, trying to buff off a blackened streak with his gloved hands.
"Great, so while Noble Team is out destroying Supercarriers, we get babysitting duty?" Sara scoffed, finally placing her rifle next to her and resting her head in her hands.
"Looks that way. Don't worry, should be plenty challenging." He said, getting up and moving over to the tactical map of the town. "Until 1800 hours yesterday, Army, Marine and Air Force units were doing a pretty good job of holding back Covenant advances in the area. Until an SDV-class Heavy Corvette entered city airspace and provided direct support for advancing ground forces. As of now, the city's pretty much theirs. Some UNSC forces, including our asset, are trapped behind the advancing enemy lines, and there's not a hope in hell that any evac birds can get close, that corvette's got the air covered."
Sara and Sabina both rose from their positions as he spoke, gathering around the holographic display, complete with hovering Covenant ship. He highlighted a few key areas in the city, in the Financial district and riverside apartment complexes.
"We've observed two areas of resistance, one in the Miriam Trust Banking Tower, and another in some evacuated residential buildings." He said, and recordings of the frantic distress calls played quietly through the speakers. "At the end of the day, retrieving the ONI asset is our primary objective, but Fleet wants us to have a go at that corvette while we're at it."
Sara snorted derisively "And how the hell do they expect us to do that?"
"Shiva warhead." Sabina guessed. "Corvettes are the only covenant ships not to have energy shielding, so if you were to set off a nuke from any rooftop nearby, it would get caught in the blast."
He nodded, simulating the blast on the display. The holographic corvette buckled and crumpled, falling from its vulture-like height and crashing into the nearest highrise. "Exactly. Plus, General Tulius says that the Army has evacuated all civilians, so anything still in that city that isn't UNSC is a fair target. No collateral damage."
Sara nodded "So it sounds like we've got a game plan: find the civilian and evac her, same for the squaddies on the ground, set up the nuke, evac by road seems the most feasible way out of the city, then blow the bomb, taking out the corvette and damn near anything still in the city limits."
He chuckled "You make it sound so easy, but yeah, that's the general thing. ONI is really pushing for this asset to be extracted as they've been out of contact with their attaché for over 20 hours, so we're leaving in 10 minutes by Falcon. HALO jump, SYCAMORE chutes, gear up for urban warfare." He waved his hand through the hologram, signalling its disappearance as the other two Spartans started walking over to the makeshift armoury in the corner of the room.
He joined them in descending upon the pile of ammunition and weapons, quickly selecting and customising his equipment, starting with an MA5C Assault rifle. He slid extra magazines into various holsters and pockets on his armour, strapping extra musette bags across his shoulders. He snapped the rifle to the magnetic holster in the small of his back and retrieved his M392 DMR and its corresponding ammunition, smiling slightly at the familiar feel of the weapon in his hands.
Sabina selected her staple configuration of weaponry, an M90 Combat Shotgun as her primary with a backup Assault Rifle, and Sara too picked a familiar layout, stowing her customised SRS-99D-S2 Sniper rifle and brandishing an M7 SMG, attaching it to her thigh holster.
"Ready to go Jake" Sara announced, clamping the bulky black shape of the Sycamore Parachute system into her back. Sabina gave a thumbs up, and the trio took turns inspecting each other's rigs for any errors. Satisfied, he led his team out of the Ops Centre and out into the base.
"Helmets on, Op is live, TEAMCOM channel 7." He instructed them before they left the building, and each Spartan slid their respective helmets over their heads. He heard his neck seal hiss and his HUD become live, rapidly running system diagnostics before giving him the all clear. The other's and his Bio readings flashed in the corner of his vision, showing green across the board.
He keyed TEAMCOM, sending a single burst of static to confirm that they were good to go. He received two bursts back, accompanied by a change in the icon for the two other Spartans on his HUD.
As they marched through the busy base towards the landing pad, many heads turned their way, Marines stopped their weapon cleaning to stare at the sight of three fully-armoured Commandos striding at unnatural pace through their vision. Sometimes he hated the attention they got. It always seemed to alienate him and his team from the rest of the UNSC, that somehow because they looked different from everyone else that they weren't quite human, not on the same level as 'normal' soldiers. Weren't they all fighting for the same cause? The same enemy? Some of his fellows chose to believe that ordinary soldiers were jealous of the Spartans' supreme combat ability, some chose to hide behind the mantra that they were 'special', and were chosen by the UNSC to save the Human race, and others chose to simply not care at all, just hide behind the armour, do their job and turn a deaf ear to the mutterings of others.
Personally, he found himself in a rather unique situation of feeling jealousy towards the normal soldiers, because they could have a life, socialise, get married, have children. While he understood that the Spartans had to make sacrifices for the betterment of humanity, he couldn't help but wonder every now and then, what if?
A flashing icon on his HUD interrupted his thoughts as their transport cleared the base's air space and descended towards them, the two turboprops tilting upwards as it touched down gently onto the deck. They quickly strapped themselves in to three of the five seats in the open-air crew compartment with him facing the rear of the aircraft and the other two facing him.
"Spartans, we're taking a longer route than planned, covenant air forces are closing the gaps around the city. We'll reach the DZ and Drop height of 30,000 feet in 20 minutes." The pilot came over their communications, sounding haggard.
Jake didn't respond, sensing that this pilot wasn't exactly in a conversational mood. Of all the UNSC Defence Force, the Air Force had perhaps taken the most beating on Reach, even more so than the Army or Marines. He'd read a report on Waypoint just this morning that the 32nd Air Wing had been utterly decimated around New Alexandria, with over 90% casualty rate. The statistics really didn't do the horrors justice, but it was the only way for such a massive scale of destruction to be contextualised. It was always this way: a few hundred Marines dying to defend a school; that was a tragedy, but an entire Naval Battlegroup vanishing without a trace? That was too much melancholy and loss to be dealt with by the human mind. So you compartmentalise, bury yourselves in statistics to try and comprehend the damage.
"Jake?" Sabina's concerned, Eastern-European accented voice cut through his miasma, jerking him back to the present. "You okay?"
"Yeah." He lied, turning his head slightly. "Just tired."
"Same here" Sara muttered, the sun glinting off of the non-regulation war paint striped down either side of her Mjolnir Scout helmet. "I'd kill for some downtime right about now."
Jake scoffed "Yeah, if you could tell the covenant to kindly stop invading, then I'm sure HR will get right on that."
They lapsed into silence, watching the ground fall far below them as the Falcon made the long trip up, well above the cloud layer so that the view below them was of a sea of white. He never got bored of this view. The worst part was that in a few brief minutes he knew him and his fellows would leave the peace and serenity of this heavenly landscape and descend into the chaos and destruction hiding below the deceptively passive cloudscape.
He'd always had a reputation amongst the Spartans as being a dreamer, always drifting off when there wasn't an immediate task to perform, reading too far in classes and becoming bored when the others took too long to catch up.
"Alright Spartans, we're 3 minutes out, the city's right below us. I can't make a second run, the Corvette's already trying to get a read on us." The pilot said, and Jake keyed confirmation. The Spartans unfastened their restraints and made ready to jump, attaching their weapons to secure hard points around their armour.
The engines of the Falcon changed their pitch as they finally levelled out, and the rotors shifted from being almost entirely upright, like a simple helicopter's, to forward facing, accelerating them forwards at their designated altitude.
"We're over the Drop Zone, go, go, go!" The pilot yelled, and a red light in between the three on the ceiling turned green. Jake gave the other two a quick thumbs up before he stood up from his seat and dove out of the aircraft.
His own breathing became magnified in his helmet as he left the drone of the Falcon's engines far behind. He stretched his arms out to slow his descent slightly so that his team could catch up, flipping over onto his back. The Falcon was a mere speck in the distance now, slowly continuing its journey onwards, but his attention was focussed on the two rapidly approaching dots as they broke through the thick cloud layer, obscuring his vision for a brief moment.
"Incoming two-oh-nine!" Sara called as she punched a hole through the clouds, trailing wispy vapour and zoomed closer, slowly spiralling down towards him.
"Just try and catch me one-seventy" He laughed, allowing his arms to be pushed in front of him as he fell, accelerating more.
This carried on for the next 15,000 feet, each Spartan taking it in turns to try and chase another. It might seem childish to an outsider, but Jake knew that these were the precious moments when they could afford to let their inner children out. Once they reached 10,000 feet, he buzzed them once on TEAMCOM, and as one they flipped over on to their fronts.
The city was spread out below him, but the urban sprawl below them had been radically changed since the last SATCOM imagery. The most noticeable addition was the curved red/purple shape of the SDV-class heavy corvette dominating the airspace about 7000 feet below them. Its menacing hull cast long shadows over the Financial District's skyscrapers. Many of the buildings below showed evidence of assault, the police headquarters had been all but obliterated and the town hall was pockmarked by blackened plasma scarring. As they dropped lower, Jake could even make out the masses of Covenant Infantry and armoured support crowding the streets, milling about. From the looks of things the enemy had set up some sort of command centre in the Municipal Park, a massive domed prefabricated structure around which thousands upon thousands of troops swarmed.
The air space was busy too, Banshees, Phantoms, Spirits, even a couple of the heavily armoured Lich assault craft lumbered around above the buildings, taking the occasional pot shot at random structures. He shifted his eyes away from the centre of town and over to their designated landing zone, an abnormally tall skyscraper in the Pomaz District where the Asset's Chatter had last been detected. The district was otherwise filled with low residential buildings, interrupted only by the mega-sized ReachMart shopping centre towards the Northern end of the area and the scattering of small green areas among the familiar dull canvas of grey and beige..
As they approached the 2000 feet mark, he buzzed once more on TEAMCOM, signalling them to pull their chutes. He didn't really need to tell them, they knew the protocol for HALO jumps perfectly, but it was more for his benefit than theirs, plus, it would make sure that if one of them messed up, he wouldn't be held responsible. Cheerful.
He punched the button on the strap to his chute, and felt the sudden jerk as the canopy deployed, releasing a jet black parafoil parachute. The toggles for directional control flopped down in front of his shoulders, and he grabbed them, testing that they worked fully, which they did. He steered himself towards the landing pad on top of the building, battling with vicious cross-winds as he approached.
The metal landing pad let out a satisfying dull thump as he touched down and pushed the parachute recall button, at which the canvas was quickly pulled back into the parachute's casing. There were similar noises made as Sara and Sabina landed on either side of him, and Sabina turned to face him as her parachute retracted.
"I spotted our Asset's crashed Pelican on the way down, looks pretty embedded in the building about twelve stories down. There's a lot of fire damage to the nearby structure." She said as she shouldered her shotgun "Anyone still inside that thing is dead."
"Slow down there Captain Optimism" Sara said as Jake took the lead towards the stairway. "We'll find out when we get there."
They walked quickly down the stairs and were soon walking towards a blackened door. He tried the handle, but found that the intense heat of jet fuel had actually welded the metal of the door to the frame. With a healthy dose of persuasion, namely a swift kick from Sabina, the door eventually gave in, and the three stepped slowly into the charred room. It could have once been an office building, but the view before them was of twisted, melted metalwork, smouldering sections of floor and scorched walls. At the other end of the open space, the warped metal hull of a Pelican Dropship poked through the open space where the window should be.
Sabina whistled "I hate to agree with you Sara, but you're right, anyone inside that thing is toast."
He shook his head, sighing "The asset isn't dead until I see a body."
He advanced towards the wreckage slowly, wary of unstable areas. Having confirmed that the floor was still good, he moved towards the plexiglass cockpit canopy, noting that most of it was missing, and that there were smooth cut marks around the edges of the major gap in the glass. He took a peek inside, grimacing as he discovered a scorched skeleton in the pilot's seat, nothing left but bones to identify whichever poor soul met their demise in this metal can.
He stood up and turned around, walking away from the crash "Only one body, most likely the pilot's. And the cockpit view screen has been cut away by something, not just shattered." He paused, drumming his fingers on his thigh in thought. "I don't think that the ONI attaché is dead. Someone came and rescued her, cut through the plexiglass and pulled her out. We can only hope that the pilot was dead and that they didn't bother trying to get them out before the ship caught fire."
Sara nodded curtly "Makes sense, but why didn't Intelligence know about this? Surely any UNSC unit pulling an ONI uniform out of a dropship would call it in?"
He shrugged "I don't know. Long range radio transmissions have been patchy at best, maybe they've tried."
Sabina cocked her head sideways as if listening to something. "Nothing on any UNSC Frequencies. Nothing at all, which is odd."
He frowned inside his helmet. Something didn't add up here. "Hold on, let's try reaching out."
He set his frequency to ALL and started broadcasting his voice. "This is Spartan-209 to Doctor Salvia Martinez, do you read me Doctor?"
Nothing.
Sara shrugged, Sabina kicked a warped piece of metal out of the missing window.
He tried again "Doctor, if you can hear me, respond. This is Chief Petty Officer Jacob-209 broadcasting on all channels."
Nothing but static for a moment. Then came a woman's voice, speaking clearly and slowly.
"This is Doctor Martinez, the Covenant is using radio broadcasts to track our locations, so you need to go radio silent. We're relocating after this transmission. Protect and Serve. Martinez out."
The radio went dead again.
"So even a hired spook is still a spook I guess." Sara grunted "'Protect and Serve'… The Police station?"
Sabina nodded, moving towards the door to the stairway. "It's as good a guess as any, plus I fear we may be about to have our hands full, we should move."
"Agreed, Sab, take point, Sara next, I'll take rear guard, get us down to street level and to the nearest station." He ordered, raising his rifle and backing up towards the door.
"Might be a bit late for that." Sab whispered, and he looked around confused. Then he spotted a swarm of covenant fliers streaming towards them, already firing plasma weaponry. The already blackened floor now took on a shiny iridescence where fresh plasma rounds struck, throwing tiny globules of molten ash up at them, flaring their shields.
They moved as one, all three Spartans bundling into the stairwell to escape the onslaught. The door behind them caught a few rounds and began to glow, but they didn't have much time to observe it as they were already sprinting down the narrow stairwell.
"Their radio tracking is fast, we need to link up with the asset ASAP." Sara commented as they descended the floors.
"No complaints here" Sabina muttered.
Suddenly, the trio skidded to a halt about eight floors below the Pelican crash site. They had all felt it, the shuddering moans of the building's superstructure which resonated up the shaft, echoing off of the hard concrete walls.
"Let's get eyes on, now." He said, barging through the exit door onto a deserted office floor and jogging over to the window, knocking the floor-to-ceiling glass pane out of its housing with one swift kick. He crept up to the edge and looked directly below them. What he saw solidified an icy block of dread in the pit of his stomach: far below their position, about 50 floors down, a ring of purple and crimson covenant fliers circled lazily around the building, Banshees and Phantoms making up the bulk of the numbers. Every single aircraft was concentrating their fire on one particular floor, a stream of bright plasma connecting the floating hulls with glowing metalwork.
"They're trying to bring the building down." Sara whispered, shaking her head disbelievingly. "Clever bastards."
"Then we'll have to be cleverer. Sara, where's the Police station from here?" He snapped, rapidly formulating a half-plan in his mind.
"South West, about a kilometre. Why?" She responded, following him over to the corresponding corner of the building.
"Because this building isn't going to be around much longer. We need to leave." As soon as he finished speaking, the building around them groaned again, and they could all feel the supporting framework of the building moving slightly all around them, on the verge of collapse.
Sabina moaned. "Why can't there be an express elevator down?"
Sara stowed her sniper rifle and needlessly tightened the straps for her parachute "Because then it'd be boring. Last one down has to do all the paperwork for this Op."
At that, the 500 kilogram Spartan threw herself through the gap in the window, disappearing from view in an instant. He edged back towards the sheer drop and saw the black canopy open and unfurl directly below them, heading for the police station which had been marked by a green icon on their HUDs.
Sabina moved up next to him, checking her own parachute. "I would have tried to stop her, but we both know it would never have worked." She shrugged, an action notoriously difficult to perform in MJOLNIR. "This asset better be worth it. I hate having my feet just hanging there, drifting along in space. Give me a rifle and a solid patch of ground to fight on any day."
"I remember. First time we did a drop in Training you passed out in your harness." He said, fastening the webbing around his chest. "Let's go, I got your back. I'll make sure I'm last down too, I do all the paperwork anyway."
She laughed and he could tell from the genuine sound that she was smiling behind the visor. "Thanks Jay." Nodding, his comrade hesitantly jumped out of the open window, plummeting downwards.
He took a couple of steps back and from a running start jumped out of the building into the sky above the city, but before he could take in the view or pull his chute, his static-filled radio burst into life revealing the clear tones of Admiral Walker, the man who'd assigned them this mission.
"Chief Petty Officer, I don't expect a response, but I'm informing you that a massive covenant fleet just slipped in system and is heading this way, battlegroups are moving to engage, but it means that that corvette just got bumped a ways down our list of priority targets, so no nuke. I may be able to appropriate one MAC shot from ODP Eposz, but that's it, choose your time wisely Spartan, Walker out."
As the Admiral spoke in his ear, Jake pulled his chute and started his gentle descent away from the building, digesting the new information quickly. He didn't dare respond, and was glad he hadn't as a dark shadow crossed over him, causing him to look up. The dominating figure of the corvette hung directly above the tower, casting ominous shadows across him and the streets below.
He yanked on the steering toggles on either side of him, taking him into a steep dive. Far below and behind him, the circle of alien aircraft spewed plasma into the belly of the building, the entire storey and its surroundings glowing white hot, melting and collapsing on itself. The monolithic skyscraper groaned audibly, a low defeated sound, and the surrounding floors around the gap collapsed on the northern side, shattering the glass windows all the way up the tower, fracturing like a spider's web. At this, the flight of covenant aircraft sped away from the area. Like rats from a sinking ship.
"She's coming down!" Sabina exclaimed, and before he or Sara could respond, the lateral lines of the corvette started glowing a dull red, quickly rising in intensity until his visor's polarising filter maxed out and he was forced to look away. With an almighty crack, the ship's point defence laser weapons discharged, slicing through the tower like a hot knife through butter. He had to crane his neck to look behind him as the bisected tower toppled northwards, swatting a stray banshee from the sky as it fell.
The chunk of building, a good 40% of the total length, crashed into the ground, the higher floors connecting with the higher floors of smaller buildings on the other side of the river, pulverising metal framework and stone facades. The trailing end of the section landed in the river, the molten edge of the structure sending up a cloud of steam as it touched the clear water.
"Note to self, avoid corvette." Sara muttered, dragging his attention back to his team and their comparably gentle descent to terra firma. With their ultra-modern SYCAMORE parachutes, the Spartans could achieve a glide ratio of about 3, meaning that for every 100 metres they descended, they could travel 300 metres along the ground horizontally. Even with the high ratio, they couldn't make it all the way to the police station.
"Set down on the green, 12 o'clock" He ordered, and acknowledgment lights blinked on his display and the two other black canopies angled towards their target.
"Anyone else get the impression that the covenant really don't want us finding that asset?" Sara asked as the trio touched down, retracting their chutes and jogging out of the park and down the abandoned street.
"I'm starting to wish she'd died in the crash." Sabina grumbled, flicking a speck of debris that had fallen into a recess in her armour.
"I'm sure she'd be delighted to hear that when we find her." He huffed. Part of him was with her. The Covenant were on Reach, the UNSC was on the verge of being defeated on one of its prime military hubs, and here three whole Spartan-II Super Soldiers were mucking about rescuing some Engineer. This Dr Martinez had better be worth it.