Highly recommend playing thematic Halo music while reading, adds to the experience.

The Sacrifice Never Told

Prologue

"Message received, but not understood. Date received July 17th, 2552."

We had just touched down on our insertion point several hours back. The sound and fumes resonating behind the Falcons were long gone. The transmission we were meant to receive was too garbled to understand, so in short, we weren't getting much from Command. Last thing we heard was to "confirm whether the designated LZ was hot or not". Total bullshit. Honestly, this is something you send a forward recon team to do, not a single squad of marines. They didn't even give us ONE Warthog. ONE. That's all I would ask for, but Sarge wanted to do this clean and quiet. How is a squad of twelve supposed to trek 32 miles on foot?

"Sarge, why the hell did our Falcon drop us in miles away from our target zone? This ain't the usual run down, we makin' a detour on this op?" That's Daniels for ya. Only a Private First Class, but also the only one of us to voice what the entire squad is thinking. But all things considered, even Sarge had to be thinking the same as us. This isn't a regularity for Reicher Platoon, let alone any marine division for that matter.

"That is my concern and mine alone marine, just keep movin'. Hayward was clear with the orders and the briefing, we knew what we were getting into."

Odd. I get that he's our CO following orders, but I know for a fact that he thought this was fubar. But he's got his reasons, I'm sure.


01

After a couple hours trekking a mountain, we were finally setting up camp to rest up. No one was sore, but we were tired, that was for sure. 8 miles walked, 24 to go. Hell, what I'd do for a Hog. I checked my watch; 01:32. Early morning huh? Usually we'd walk an hour or two longer but we did start at 1300. 12 hours would put a number on anybody, even ODST's. But hell, I won't complain.

"Hey, what are you doing? Stop dickin' around and pitch your tent. We don't need you freezing to death before the missions even close to being done." Ah, Victor. Bastard is always keeping me straight, but that's not a bad thing. I looked down and noticed that there was actually snow. It was numbing the bottoms of my feet, a detail I hadn't noticed due to the march we made.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it. Leave me alone Victor, I just zoned out."

"You say that all the time. You're gonna get shot because of it one day."

"By who? Rebels? Vic, the last time we got close to some action was months ago. It's just been patrols and shit stick guard duty back at the base, which isn't anywhere close to any known rebel establishments. So get off my ass."

"Alright, damn. Just get your tent up."

My tantrum wasn't exactly justified. He was only making sure I wouldn't freeze to death, but I guess this entire op is putting me on edge. Still doesn't make any sense to me. I started setting up my tent as I sorted things out. Why would Hayward make us check on an "LZ" that is 32 miles away from our insertion point? That's something a Falcon patrol could've easily investigated, no reason to send a single squad. It's God damned redundant if you ask me.

"Shit doesn't make sense…" I murmured. By the time I finished setting up the tent everyone was eating their rations. I didn't feel hungry, so I decided to wrap up and hit it. I can eat before we head out.

"Alright boys, 15 minutes left for chow then rest up. We leave at 0800, we gotta make it to the first checkpoint before 1900." Sarge announced.

"0800? Sir, where's the checkpoint?" a random marine asked.

"12 miles out, north east. It's an old resupply post set up by a Recon team a couple years back. Command wants us to re-establish the comms uplink there."

"Comm link? What the he- sir, the Insurrection is thousands of miles south of here, what reason would they need communication up here for?" A damned good question. I unwrapped my blanket and crawled out of the tent.

"Yeah, seriously boss, there's no reasonable logic behind it. We should just try to resupply and get a move on." I added.

"You're stepping your bounds marine, we do what we're told." Sarge turned his gaze toward me.

"Yeah bu-"

"You should listen to your commanding officer marine. Command gave you orders, you follow them." It's the first time I noticed her presence. She was obviously not one of us, and that's not just because she wasn't wearing the military fatigues. She was a blonde haired woman, green eyes, cute nose and a nice clean face. Too clean. Upon further inspection, she wore a grey coat that fit snugly onto her body, giving some definition to her bosom. Her pants gave a muffin top look to each leg as her black boots came up to her knees. On the left breast of her coat a grey and black pyramid with a whole in the center rested firmly on top, like a sigil demanding attention. She was ONI.

"Captain Miller, Intelligence Officer." She proclaimed. Mild British accent. She was from the Earth colonies, as far as I could tell. Last time I heard that dialect was from another ONI officer, from Earth as well. But that was the least peculiar thing about her, the better inquiry was why she was with us.

"Sarge, what's an office jockey doing with us?" I asked.

"Hey, you watch your to-"

"It's alright Sergeant. I know how UNSC feels about ONI agents, this wouldn't be the first time I've gotten lip." She looked at me with blank eyes, and a blank face to accompany it.

"I'm sure lip ain't the only thing that was given to you!" One of the marines hooted. A couple of them laughed, but it otherwise felt awkward.

"Mmm… yes, I'll let you stare. This is probably the only ass you've seen in years marine. Savor it." The entire company gave the whole "ohhh" treatment. The marine that gave the previous statement hunkered down in his spot, relatively shamed. But he continued to look at her from time to time.

"Alright that's enough! Get some damn shut eye, we've wasted enough time already!" Everyone agreed to that much, crawling inside their tents. I slid back inside, just about ready to crash.

"Hey, scoot over damn it, you're takin' up the entire roll." I looked at the tents entrance; it was Hitch. He's what you'd call my gun buddy, something Reicher Platoon made up. Any time you move out alone, have a chore or have a place to sleep, you do it with your gun buddy. We didn't really have that much of a special relationship, but then again I never made much of an effort to bond with him.

"Oh, yeah. My bad man." I rolled to the left giving him some room. As he lay down next to me I closed my eyes, ready to shut down.

"This shit is fubar man. Op doesn't make sense. ONI's here. What the hell." He remarked.

God dammit.

"Yeah…" I yawned, "Let's just sleep it off."

"I'm tellin' you, something ain't right."

"Mmhmm…" I was getting a bit annoyed.

"I should go ask Sar-"

"Hitch."

"Yeah?"

"Shut the hell up."

"Oh… sorry." Finally. Some sleep.


02

It was 0730 when I got up. That was my standard routine, get up 30 minutes before rise time to do a gear check and take care of my business. It's a good thing too, since I never got yelled at by Sarge to "get the fuck up" as he would say every morning.

As I finished my business I found a rock to sit on and picked up my DMR. Standard maintenance is never a bad thing. I started to take it apart, with significant care. Each piece lined up in front of me, like military role call. After a few minutes, Daniels came to sit next to me, sniper tucked to his side. He looked asleep, a consequence of his squinty eyes, but he was wide awake. He began doping his scope on his sniper rifle.

"Sup Daniels."

"Hey bud. Just uhh, checkin' my optics. For God knows what reason."

"Mmhmm. I hear that." I looked off the cliff, and that's when I absorbed the scenery that surrounded us. It was warm and serene, but gave an empty feeling as you stared. The sun was just rising, so the shine it gave off the beach was quite a spectacle. The Cliffside we were on was facing the eastern side toward the coast, so you could see all the vibrant colors the waking sun had to offer.

Towards the base of the mountain was a lush, pseudo-tropical, mossy forest complete with trees, rocks and other denizens you'd find in a land of green. Further down you'd reach the beach. Nice dark sand with even darker waters brushing up and down. The suns reflection creeped down the "middle" of the ocean, giving a weird blue tint to the atmosphere. It was weird, back on Earth there would be a lot of fog. But here on Reach, there was none of the sort.

"What do you think of the op?" I was startled. Having looked off for so long, I forgot there was another person beside me.

"Me? Huh. I don't know. Odd. Weird. Not normal, to say the least. The things were doing, objectives and such. Doesn't add up." I didn't want to say everything I thought. Usually when I spoke to Daniels I liked to maintain an "educated" way of talking, composed you could say. Saying that this whole thing is "stupid as shit" isn't exactly professional.

"You?"

"I think this whole thing is stupid as shit." He said. Well damn, I should've said it first.

"Comms link? Out here? ONI? What the hell. We should be down south, killing insurrectionists, not doing useless shit. And since SHE is here, this is probably some stupid errand that Hayward was forced to do under orders from ONI. Best case scenario, it's a surveillance op and we're being underhanded as body guards."

"And the worst case scenario?" I asked.

"We see purple." He had a brief grim look on his face, but it reverted back to a blank stature as he returned to servicing his rifle. Seeing purple huh? If it weren't for my better judgement, I'd try to refute him. But he was probably right. Daniels was a bright soldier, always speculating, always thinking. The gears in his head never ceased to move, and the moment they do would be when a bullet frameshifts his brain matter. If it wasn't for the terrorist attacks at New Carthage, he'd be in school right now studying for something useful in his life. Not being this squad's sniper, aiming at nothing.

"Ooh-rah…" As I finished reassembling my DMR, I got up and went back to the tent. Hitch was already packing it up, so all I had to do was put my plating and back pack on. When I wrapped up re-quipping all my gear, that's when it happened. A giant loud noise shook the earth and sky. A bright blue and purple flash lit up the dark grey clouds over the waters. Everyone cocked their weapons, aiming at different places and directions. I looked at the cliffs edge, Captain Miller was standing alongside the perch, staring at the clouds. As I ran up to her side, rifle pointed at the forest, I looked at her face. Blank as usual, but her eyes. Her green eyes said that she had an idea of what was going on. Over the bustle and hustle of the other marines, I asked her:

"What the hell was that? The fuck is going on here?" After a minute she stopped looking at the sky and pulled out an electronic tablet out of her pack. It was an IAR; Info Assistance Relay device. She started tapping and swiping away at it. Blue and red images came and left the screen as she fussed around very quickly. For a split second I saw the title of one of the files:

COVEN-

She then noticed I was right next to her, consequentially putting the tablet away with haste and turned to address me.

"I'm, uh, sorry about that marine. What was it- did you ask me something?" Her brows were furrowed as she looked at me. What was on that tablet…?

"Yeah, I asked you what the hell is going on. You seem to know something." I accused with a stern voice. This didn't impress her.

"That was… nothing. An electro storm. Common in the northern parts of Reach. You know, satellite relays and such. Affecting the weather." She spoke briskly, avoiding the topic was obviously her objective here.

"Electro storms? What? We've been posted in the northern parts of Reach for months, THAT is not a common thi-"

"You have obviously not come north enough to see such a phenomenon." She then walked away towards camp. It seems that everyone has started to calm down.

"Electro storms…" I looked off into the clouds. "Yeah. Maybe." I started to get into formation. "I bet the rebels want to hug and kiss us too."


As the squad arrived at the base of the mountain, Sarge stood atop an oddly shaped rock, his awkward footing confirming its deformities. He ordered us to gather around him to receive new orders.

"Alright marines, it's already 1000 and we've barely broken a mile. We gotta put in a bit of a hustle, so we gon' move along the tree line by the coast. We'll follow that for a couple then trek back into the hills to reach the checkpoint. Clear and simple, any bitching?" Everyone Ooh-ra'd.

"Good. We're burning daylight, let's get moving marines."

And so we marched. It took about two hours to reach the tree line. After a 15 minute break we started walking again. Just by looking at the other marines, you could tell they were still shaken up by the loud ass noise we heard a while back. Who wouldn't be? Considering that these were new transfer troops as well, they'd probably never even heard their rifles before. One of them started to pace by my side, looking up at the sky while we walked. She was on the smaller side, shorter than the rest of us, but by the way she walked you could tell she did well in boot camp.

"Hey uhh… you ever seen or heard something like that before?" She took off her blast goggles to get a better look at me as we walked. I took off my helmet to give my head some air.

"Heh. Loud noises? Sure. Grenades, rockets, Scorpions, you name it. But like that? Nah. That's something new to all of us."

"R-really? Think it's rebels?"

"Rebels? Hell no. They can barely get their hands on Warthogs with Gauss Cannons. Something that big, no way it could be them." It's not like I didn't think it was a possibility. But those lights. The blue and purple. There's no way it's them.

"Think it's the Cov-"

"No," Victor interrupted sternly as he walked over to us, "we all know that Reach is out of the way. There's no reason for any extraterrestrial force to be interested in this planet, so just rule it out." Oh yeah… I had forgotten. Victor, one of the longest members in the platoon, was shipped here from Arcadia as a Specialist, Grade 1. His home town on the planet was decimated, or glassed if I dare say it, by Covenant only a few years ago. Reports he'd received about the planet's situation were grim at best, and condemning at worst. Among other things, his little sister was killed in the attack. Anyone would be hard pressed with persecution if they were to not advocate his anger. His hatred for Covenant was evident with just one look at him. His eyes were hard as he looked at us.

"Calm it down Vic, she's just makin' a couple assumptions, didn't mean anything by it." He grumbled and walked away. "But… that's not too far off. I guess they could be a possibility… but this close?"

"There's no reason to have such thoughts marine. ONI keeps a tight leash on these matters, Covenant presence is both highly unlikely and unreasonable, I assure you. UNSC is doing a good job keeping them where they are." Miller said. Huh… is that what I saw on her tablet? Covenant?

"Just keep your eyes sharp marine, you're a soldier. No need to speculate now that I've laid the truth out for you." She spoke sharply. What a bitch. But her rank prevents me from giving her a strawman attack. The Chain of Command, a chain and ball indeed.

"Yes ma'am." I nodded. "Ya bitch…" I mumbled, then trodded on.

As I walked I scanned the surroundings. Green. Just, a lot of green. Not much to look at, which is further reason to believe this entire op makes no sense. There is literally nothing out here, just that out post apparently, which I have never actually heard of. What was it even called? And what recon team? Hell, there isn't much that goes on in the north, we'd have definitely known about things established within the last year or two. I looked up ahead and saw that Sarge and Miller had both takin' a considerable distance ahead of the squad. They were discussing something, something they obviously don't want us to know about. Maybe I should close in, try to get some info.

I started for them but a sudden sound startled me and the rest of the squad. It came from the sky, accompanied by an object flying fast and hard right over us. It was only for a split second, but I know I saw purple. Everyone's guns started aiming upwards.

"Eyes up, eyes up! What the fuck was that!?" A marine shouted. A couple others took positions at the base of a tree, two took cover at a rock. I shuffled in place, unsure of what to do. It wasn't often that we met contacts that were flying in the air. I saw Daniels sprinting for the beach, rifle shouldered. I looked around and saw Hitch crouched next to another marine.

"Hitch! On me, Daniels is goin' out alone!" I waved him to me then started for the beach behind Daniels. Hitch nodded and fell behind a couple feet, Victor also following him. As we closed in on Daniels, I waved two fingers to the right, signaling Hitch and Victor. I glanced backwards and saw both of them breaking off as a pair, mud and sticks flying behind them.

By the time I reached Daniels he was already scoped in the direction of the flying object, standing tall, and his rifle scanning the mountains.

"Got anything?" I panted. His breathing was hurried, but steadied, a niche for snipers. For at least a minute he was silent, after which he lowered his rifle and crouched, looking at the dirt.

"Nothing. Only air streaks, whatever the hell that was its gone now. But I've never heard something like that before.

"What do you mean?"

"It wasn't the sound of an engine, it was like a whine. Loud but streamlined, I don't know. It was weird." He had a hard expression on his face as he looked at the mountains. "Go tell Sarge what I saw.

"You got it." I ran into the forest, looking for Sarge.


"So you have NO idea what the hell that was?" Victor spoke with aggression. He was mad, and he decided to take it out on Miller.

"No, I don't. And even if I did, it's none of your concern Sergeant."

"Bullshit, you know something grey coat, don't even lie to us." One of the marines remarked. His voice was angry, but one look at him and you could tell he was scared. You could see he was literally shaking in his mud caked boots, his helmet resting on the floor next to them. Sweat dripped down his shaved head and onto his frightened face. His mouth twitched and fore head wrinkled.

"You're getting out of line marine, calm yourself down." Sarge ordered, but you could see he felt the same way. His visage had a concerned look, like one a father would have if his kid was doing something stupid. At this point it was obvious that he knew something, but nothing beyond what Miller knew. Being kept in the dark was something Reicher Platoon was accustomed to, we were used to it, but nothing like this. The op itself was already uncanny, but all this shit confirmed that this was fubar.

"Look, you and your squad were given orders Sergeant. You WILL follow them and stop asking these questions. This is getting us nowhere and it's already almost sun down. We still have a couple miles until the outpost, no? I suggest we get a move on." Every marine in the squad gave her the evil eye, Victor having the most malicious intent.

"That puta is gonna get us killed, I can feel it." He snarled.

"Let's just get moving Vic. If we're gonna die, I at least wanna put up a fight. The outpost will give us a good foothold against whatever the hell "might" be killing us." Everyone began lining up and started marching single file, Daniels coming up last. I stood off to the side, observing everyone. Miller stood to the right of the line, watching every marine that walked by, taking notes with those empty green eyes. She gave me a sharp look and snapped her head in the direction of the line.

"Y-yes ma'am." I fell into formation, Victor behind me.

"I didn't say that something is gonna kill us. She is gonna kill us." I turned my head towards him.

"Heh. At least I'll get taken down by a good lookin' broad."

8