JACOB CARTER!
Commander Richard Simmons ignored all outside noises and distractions as he focused on the men in front of him, surveying them. Looking over his two choices, mentally marking their differences, which were vast.
"The mission is simple." He began, his droning voice cutting the silence in the briefing room. "Push though enemy lines, find the target, and ensure his silence."
From the center of the computerized table came the hologram image of an elite. The alien stood proudly, but didn't seem much different from the rest of its advanced race. The two other men in the room for the most part had remained silent, but the ODST spoke up in curiosity.
"Why is this elite so important, sir?"
Commander Simmons looked over, peering into the tinted visor of the small mans helmet.
"Quinn, is it?"
"Yes sir."
The commander typed a command into the table side computer. The image of the elite enhanced, key notes pointing to weak and strong points in his skin tight armor.
"This, is a zealot. Not only a high ranking warrior, but a courier of information."
Another image appeared beside the zealot.
"This, is what he's carrying."
The image was of a square object.
"A computer chip." Quinn mumbled, eyes fixated on the image. Throughout the whole briefing the young soldier had been carefully listening, attentively memorizing the information presented to him.
"That's it then?" A sarcastic tone rang, its British tone sharp.
Both men turned to the end of the table. There, leaning back in his chair sat Desmond. The veteran Spartan had been paying little to no Attention to the situation, but instead seemed to be occupied with his own thoughts. Commander Richard Simmons glared, not taking to the thought of not being taken seriously.
"You think this is some kind of joke Spartan? Humanity it's very self is being threatened, and you crack wise ass jokes about this"
The Spartan squirmed uncomfortably in his MJOLNIR battle armor.
"Sorry, I was just getting at the fact that I was bred for war, I just hope the ODST over here can keep up"
"Gunnery sergeant Quinn is one of the UNSC's top marines, truly if he where any better he would be a Spartan, now-"
Desmond interrupted the Commander.
"But he'll never be, I was kidnapped when I was six years old, and experimented on to become this "super solider" god damn"
"Sir, shouldn't we get back to the mission?"
Quinn murmured out with a light yet timed under tone
Commander turned to the short marine, he had forgotten about the mission because of the argument with Desmond. He coughed and went on with the mission briefing.
"Right, the UNSC is providing you men with top ordinance that is sure to get the job done, now get to the armory on floor B2 and gear up, you leave at 0500, and remember, evac is 0500 the following day, a pelican drop-ship will be waiting, dismiss"
The soldiers stood up and gave a hardy salute to their commander and exited the briefing room. The halls of the UNSC Spirit of Fire where filled with marines, some up and moving around lively like ants in an ant hole, yet others were injured and covered in bloody gauss, they screamed, but people ignored them and when on with their business. Desmond looked at Quinn
"The infirmaries all across the bloody ship must be full"
Quinn ignored the Spartan and kept on walking through the cluttered halls.
"Damn ODST's"
The doors to the armory slid open as the pair walked in. The room was covered in high-tech weapons and gadgets all at the disposal of Desmond and Quinn. Quinn's eye was quickly drawn to the 99anti material sniper rifle at the very back of the room. He picked up the elongated weapon and looked down the scope.
"a very elegant weapon none the less"
Desmond looked at Quinn startled
"…What? Ide rather be up close and personal and watch my enemy die slow and painfully"
Said Desmond as he lifted the M90 close assault Shotgun and waved it in front of Quinn's visor. Quinn pushed it away and handed him an M6D magnum.
"If you're going to have THAT close of a weapon, at least have a mid. Range backup"
Suddenly the intercom came to life and Commander Richard Simmons spoke
"Men get to your SOEIV drop pods and prepare for your drop into hell"
"You heard the Commander move!" said Desmond as he prepared for his mission. Quinn quickly grabbed about 10 clips of 14.5x114mm armor piercing rounds and headed for the Drop pods. Desmond was already in his Pod, and waiting impatiently for his ODST counterpart to get in the pod. He put his weapons in the weapon clamps of the SOEIV Drop pod. As he climbed inside, he reminisced all the times he had been in this "elevator to hell" many times before, he was deathly afraid of heights, he many times asked himself why he became a Hell jumper in the first place, but it's too late now, it's time to play hero.
"Beep…Beep…Beeeep" The SOEIV pod shot quickly out of the UNSC Spirit of Fire and swiftly down do the swamps of Arcadia. The pods where cramped especially for Desmond since he is wearing bulky armor designed for Spartans. For Quinn, SOEIV's where designed for an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper such as himself, though that didn't quite make the ride down any more fun for him. Desmond had only been on a couple of OPS. Using these drop pods, but he was a Spartan and thus for trained to not feel scared. Desmond looked into the pods screen that was a two way communicator for the pair of pods.
"You don't look so hot in there ODST" he gave a slight chuckle "I thought you guys were supposed to be trained for this shit"
Quinn tried to play it cool, but the mere thought of being in an oven traveling at 1000 meters a second made him start to hyper ventilate
"I'm fine" Quinn murmured as he closed his eyes and went to his "happy place" He thought about back home on Reach, he had everything going for him, a nice paying job, a nice home, and even a beautiful girlfriend. He thought about the feel of the green grass on his feet, and the gentile touch of Lauren's lips on his. The only reason he had joined the UNSC was to be a hero and try to help humanity anyway he could.
"If only I just stayed on Reach…"
The pods where at an altitude of 3,000 feet and the upper exterior panels ejected and slowed them down like a parachute would a paratrooper. The Pods penetrated the ground quick and hard making a crater around them. "Let's do this" said Desmond as he ejected the front panel from the drop pod. He jumped out and scanned the area, it was dark, and the only light was from the pods heated exterior that gave a harsh red glow. He switched his visor mode to night vision and scanned the tree tops, there; he saw the smoke that gave away the ODST's position. After grabbing his shotgun and pistol and holstering them he sprinted off into the direction of the smoke. Running through these swamps made him remember all the times he had once ran through them before as a young boy, before he was kidnapped by the UNSC. His thoughts where all jumbled from his memories when he lived here, and having a loving family, and he was taking from it.
"It's not fair" Desmond said to himself.
"Come on you bastard!" Yelled Quinn aggravated that his pod couldn't open "I'm going to be stuck in here and die if you don't open you asshole" Quinn lifted his wrist to his visor so he could try to get a signal and communicate with the Spartan, but as luck may have it…no signal
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME" Quinn screamed with dismay. But then he heard thumps which sounded like metal hitting dirt. Quinn quickly knew it was Desmond. Desmond knew something was wrong, so he grabbed the pods door and pulled as hard as he could, he groaned as the hinges started to bend, then, he started to think of how the UNSC had taken away his childhood, he grew angry and pulled even harder. Quinn had brought his knees up and started to push with his legs to help as much as he could, the door flew off and Desmond threw it with anger. Quinn grabbed his rifle and shouldered and then said "Let's move"
The swamps where filled with noises of animals that lurked in the tree line, none where dangerous as far as they knew, the only ones that where a threat were the thorn beasts.
"Any sign of Covenant?" Quinn asked
"If I didn't know any better, ide say that the Covenant have never stepped foot on this planet, there's no plasma burns or anything"
"Right, let's keep moving, no time to waste" The pair wandered through the swamps and forest until they came upon a covenant camp crawling with unggoy, or as the UNSC call them, grunts. They were short, maybe 5, 5, the lowest rank of the covenant, there very week, some wandered around aimlessly as they patrolled the makeshift base, others sat crossed legged sleeping unaware of the dangerous that lie ahead for them.
Desmond looked at Quinn and said "Alright, there's a couple ways to go about this, we can go loud and take them on quickly, or take it quite, either way, someone's day is about to get ruined."
Quinn took a moment to think about his choices while watching the unggoy go about their business.
"It'll be easier if we took a stealthy approach on this one, no need to rattle the covenant up so early in the mission"
"Agreed, I'll take the left approach, you go right, we'll meet on the other side, if you can get by without killing one, do it, no point in alerting them. 3…2...1…go" Desmond said quietly.
Desmond went prone style on the cold muddy ground and let the mud carry him quietly down the hill. He crawled through tall grass and ferns, using them as a camouflage to keep him hidden from his week enemy. His plan was too try to go around the camp staying as far away as he could, but a couple of stragglers got in front of him unaware of his presence. The foolish grunt had his back turned to the Spartan, so Desmond took the opportunity to take him out quickly. He jumped up and slowly inched his way forward, when he was in striking distance he grabbed the grunts head and twisted quickly and effortlessly, ending the life of the worthless being. He went prone again and continued to move up without alarming any unggoy.
Quinn, on the other hand had a different approach, and tried to move through the covenant buildings using them to hide him. Of course he was aware that grunts' maybe lurking in the buildings, but it was a chance he was going to take. After running into the first building, he swiftly pushed his armored body on the purple, smooth walls. He looked around the circular room scanning for life, but to his luck, the only thing in it where a couple of plasma batteries and camping stools, he moved to the door on the other side of the room and peeked out of it, the next building was about 10 meters away, he could sprint it, but he didn't know what was outside, or for that matter what was inside either.
I made it this far, I gotta take the chance Quinn thought to himself.
He peered around the corner one last time and began to run out the door, as soon as he did though, a small being rounded the corner and looked at the human in shock. Quinn hesitated but quickly came to his senses and sprinted at the grunt and crushed his skull in with the butt of his rifle, then grabbed the bloody mass and pulled it into the building he just left
"You stay here now" Quinn said to the dead unggoy. He then made his way to the back end of the camp and waited for Desmond in shadows of the buildings.
Once Desmond found himself next to the ODST, Quinn asked
"What took you so damn long?"
"What do you mean? Why where you here so quick? I crawled the length of the camp"
"Whatever, let's get moving, I can't stand the scent of these little bastards" Quinn said as he moved up through the thick swamp.
WOOSH!
Four covenant banshees flew over the solders heads.
"We're getting close" said Desmond as he watched them fly towards their destination. "only a couple more kilos."
After about twenty-minutes, the pair found themselves on a large mountain overlooking an entire canyon covered in nice green grass and a few pine trees, at the very end of the canyon was a beautiful beach. The one thing wrong with this canyon is it was filled with life, the life of the Covenant, an entire army of aliens sent to protect the Zealot with the information of earths location.
"Bloody hell" Desmond whispered to himself
"Once this shot is taken, we need to confirm the destruction of the chip, and immediately turn around and run, these guys aren't going to be too excited about our little present for the zealot" said Quinn holding a bullet he had been saving that said "FEAR THE REEPER" engraved on the golden bronze shell.
"Nice" said Desmond as him and Quinn knuckle touched. Quinn set his sniper rifle pointing at the landing pad of a small base, predicting that that's where the Zealot will be making the exchange to the Covenant prophet.
A Covenant phantom drop ship screamed overhead, its chin turret scanning the area for any non-covenant life forms, the pair where under rock form that made a canopy overhead, so the turret did not detect them.
"Show time" said Desmond as he watched the Phantom make its way to the landing pad.
The Zealot jumped out the drop-ship to find a path through about 16 elite honor-guards along the side of the pathway. He held the chip in his hand and walked down the path. A prophet greeted him about halfway through; he lifted the chip about heads height and presented it to the prophet. Quinn looked down the scope and saw the chip, he had only one shot, and did not want to make an error, Desmond read him the wind direction and distance, he could calculate the perfect shot, but he knew now that not even mathematics could help him, his heart raced, he began to start breathing heavily, but slowly slowed it down again . Quinn gently squeezed the trigger…click he closed his eyes, he thought he missed, and knew he had just destroyed humanity.
"Good hit" Desmond said breaking the silence "Target has been destroyed, hell I think you took a finger off" Desmond gave a harsh chuckle.
The closest elite- honor guard looked at the Zealot and looked into the air and opened his mandibles as wide as he could and gave a loud howl, followed by the yells of all the elite honor-guards. Then all the aliens in the canyon quickly turned around and saw the pair and started to open fire with everything they had. The sky was painted with blue and green heated plasma that was being fired from the Covenant.
"RUN" yelled Desmond as he turned and sprinted for the cover of the swamp, Quinn picked up the shell that read "FEAR THE REAPER" then quickly followed as his metal boots splashed the mud up from under his feet. Since Desmond was a Spartan, he was much faster because he was genetically altered, so Quinn had to follow his trail of muddy foot prints. After about ten minutes of full-out sprinting, Quinn found himself caught up next to Desmond,
"All right, evac is due west of our current location" Said Desmond while he took a minute to regain his breath. "We need to make a camp for the night." Quinn had just noticed it was actually starting to get dark. So he and Desmond found branches, bark, fallen leaves and mud to make a makeshift shelter for the night. The air began to chill, so Desmond took gun powder from his shotgun shells and made a fire.
Quinn took his helmet off and let his brown hair feel the cool air, as it once did before. He forgot what the air felt like, he had his helmet on for the longest time, it felt good.
"It's a beautiful planet really, once ya' get past all this death and destruction" Quinn said as he looked into the warm fire.
"Yeah, it's my home planet, born and rais- kinda raised, I remember being a young boy and playing in the forests and swamps, man I miss the good ol' days. Before I was taken into this shit"
"I never knew that Desmond, you must have a lot of mixed feelings huh?
"No, I'm a Spartan; I was enhanced to not FEEL anything, but thanks for the concern, I'm going to go to sleep, guess who's got night shift?" Desmond got up and walked to the shelter. Quinn sat and watched the fire all night, until it burned out, but he didn't know he was being watched.
0400 came and the men headed out for their evac, they headed west until they came to a clearing in the forest. The solders waited for about half an hour until they heard the familiar whooshing sound of a pelican drop-ship, but something was lurking in the tree-line. The Elite Zealot had been following the pair since they made a camp for the night. He was ready for revenge on the human scum. It waited for the human drop-ship to land, he then quickly turned on his active camo and moved silently through the field.
"GLAD TO SEE YOU TWO ALIVE" a marine yelled over the engines of the Pelican. Quinn handed the marine his sniper and climbed aboard. Desmond had his back turned to the pelican making sure nothing had been following them. As he turned to climb up, he felt a burning pain in his chest. He looked down to see two blue prongs sticking through his ribs, he instantly knew what had happened. Quinn had a look of terror as he saw his friend be killed, he cried
"NOOO!"
The Zealot pulled out the Energy dagger from his chest and looked into the ship to see A pissed off Solder's boot in his face. Quinn jumped on the Elite and pulled out a sheathed knife and repeatedly stabbed the Zealot, this was an act of passion, he had grown close to this Spartan and the Elite took him away. The elites blue blood smeared Quinn's visor almost too the point where he couldn't see. Once he had finished this act, he took his helmet off and went to his friend, he took Desmond's helmet off to see a scarred face, he had blue eyes and thick blonde hair, and he kept spitting blood out of his mouth. Desmond looked at him and with his last breath said
"Quinn, I made it full circle" he gave a light cough "I was born here, and damn it I'm going to die here, please promise to keep my planet safe"
"No…you're not. At least not this way, we're going to get you out of here, and YOU'RE going to keep it safe, I won't let you die my friend"
Desmond quickly froze and his body went cold. Quinn quickly felt nothing and closed his eyes and looked down, he then closed his friend's eyes and grabbed his dog tags, and climbed aboard the Pelican. As the pelican made its ascension, Quinn had Desmond's dog tags wrapped around his hand, and fiddled with the shell that read "FEAR THE REAPER"
The marine looked at Quinn and said
"Sorry that your friend died back there"
Quinn looked up at the marine, he chuckled and said
"Spartans never die, they just go MIA"
OPERATION: ZEALOT
By: Jacob Carter