Halo: Acts of Valor
Prologue
March 24, 2545. (Military Calendar) 1200 Hours.
Zeta Doradus System, Planet Onyx. Camp Currahee Observation post.
Lieutenant Commander Kurt-051 "Ambrose" stood beside Senior Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez inside of Camp Currahee's main observation room where he and the Chief often watched the Spartan-III teams during their training exercises and today was no different from the usual schedule for the LT. Commander and Senior Chief as the three dozen monitors tracked several teams of the Spartan-III Beta Company as they manoeuvred through the thick brush of the forest they had been deployed to for their weekly game of Capture the flag against a team of three dozen hand picked DIs made of veteran soldiers and the "washouts" from Alpha Company as they attempted to defend their flag from the three hundred and fifteen members of Beta.
So far however it had been bad for the teams Romeo, Oscar, Bravo, Alpha and Gamma had been "killed" so far by the DIs thanks to their Alpha Company leaders. Kurt had predicted this and knew it was because of the natural sense of competitiveness that he drilled into the Spartans during their training that made the Alpha DIs such a challenge for Beta as they had the same training and know-how as their opponants. It definitely showed during this test.
Kurt sighed when Charlie was ambushed and "killed" by three well placed DI teams, two of which were lead by Alphas. "Still three hundred and twenty-seven to be cut before graduation day," he muttered more to himself than Mendez. "I'm a little disappointed."
Mendez stared at the monitors before looking over to his superior officer and friend. "You can't blame them, sir," he said with a shake of his head, "This is the first objective based op they've been deployed on against the Alpha DIs and they must be caught off guard…" he sighed then. "But you are right, there are a few washouts in the litter."
The LT. Commander nodded and lifted his gaze back up to the monitors to resume his observations when something in one of the upper right monitors caught his eye. He looked at it more intently and saw several DIs get stunned by three flashbang grenades that had been laid on the trunks of trees with their trip cables tied to the trees roots…of which the second DI in the formation had tripped.
Before any of the four could recover they were pelted by stun rounds from their left flank and from the way the had collapsed Kurt guessed they had been shot at knee level where the armor was thinnest, once all the DIs were down several figures covered in makeshift camouflage suits made from grass, vines and mud emerged from the nearby murky pond with their M7 Caseless Sub-Machine Guns aimed at the writhing DIs in the grass.
Kurt blinked at the unusual strategy. No teams had ever tried to hide in the edges of the pond in that area before by covering their backs to match the edge of it, it was a new trick that Kurt would take note of for later reference. "Which team is that?" he asked.
He couldn't make out their faces due to the mud and leaves covering their front and the camera angle didn't help at all either.
Deep Winter, the Spartan-III programs "Smart" A.I appeared on the holotank as a glowing snowflake. He replied after a half second, "That is team Juliet."
"Ah, Juliet," Kurt murmured softly as he watched the team strip the DIs of their Semi-Powered Infiltration armor and ammunition. He counted only four of them however, "Where's the fifth member of their fireteam?"
His answer came in the form of a vine that fell between the group of DIs and a young boy rappelling down into their midst from the trees above. He wasn't covered in mud and grass like the others but his grey fatigues were drenched in sweat all the same while his dark hair was matted down.
"There he is," Deep Winter said with approval, "That is Juliet's team leader I believe. Should I bring up his program scores?" he asked curiously as the flake turned to Kurt.
Kurt nodded absently still watching as the boy gestured to his teammates to take the SPI suits and don them while he himself was left in his fatigues. He did however take one of the DIs MA5K rifles for himself along with two spare magazines. Once they had tagged the DIs as "dead" they moved off the camera.
Deep Winter spoke again. "I have his record, transferring it to your personal PDA for your personal browsing," he said lightly and turned to the monitors. He brightened after a moment as if proud to see the recruits doing well, even if it were a single team.
Kurt nodded. "I'll view it after the exercise."
Mendez spoke up shortly after, "I know that kid, Darius, Designation is B two, five four." He said, "He's one of the Spartans in the program who scored above excellent during the written leadership exams, seventh out of twenty-four."
Deep Winter agreed. "Ah yes, I remember. He did note in his exam that he had a flair of creativity."
Kurt hummed thoughtfully. "How old is he?"
"Eleven," Deep Winter replied easily, "Born on Eridanus. We found him in an orphanage on Reach where he signed on with the program along with fifty-six others."
Eleven and creative? Kurt knew that could be a good or bad combination depending on how creative he got if it meant taking bigger risks and the role of leadership he had taken up as Juliet's fireteam leader. Most interesting indeed.
Darius ducked low beneath some thick brush when he felt eyes on him, eyes that hopefully had not seen his team in their newly acquired SPI armor. He turned slightly to the blurred shifting shadow at his eight-o-clock that he knew was Kimberly-B074, "Psst," he hissed softly. The blurred head lifted to him and he gave her the "fall back" signal.
She nodded, tapped the figure next to her and slowly they fell back further into the brush as quietly as mice on a silent night and when Darius couldn't spot them anymore he turned back to the path ahead and moved into a crouch while raising his MA5K to sweep the area slowly to try and spot any signs of more DIs in their SPI armor. A difficult task to do with ones bare eyes.
He swept over the area again before lowering his weapon with a breath. "Nothing out here," he muttered and turned, "Better get back to the others." He took a step forward only to have the barrel of a weapon pressed to his back and a voice hissing to him.
"Don't move, squirt," The voice held a bit of venom. "Drop the weapon, right now."
Darius gulped once, took a breath and waited a heartbeat before he dropped his rifle to the ground with a clutter. A sharp hiss to the right that could only be a suppressed MA5K caught his ears and Darius ducked when the man holding the weapon to his back grunted in pain. Once he hit the ground he grabbed his discarded rifle, rolled onto his back and proceeded to spray the blurred figure above him with full automatic fire to the groin and stomach.
The man fell back. Two more blurred figures moved after Darius before they too went down as his positioned Juliet team fired from the right flank of their formation in short controlled bursts of fire in a repeat of the first team of DIs who had fallen for their tactics.
And like before they were rewarded with more spoils of war. Darius grinned slightly, revealing a pair of missing upper teeth from a fight he had gotten into two days before, and slid the SPI helmet over his head. The suit was loose on him but it didn't matter. "Alright," he opened a private com to his team, "Time to get that flag."
His team shared a brief laugh before they quieted themselves and proceeded to move through the thick brush and towards the DIs flag zone. Roughly seventeen minutes later Juliet arrived on the outskirts of the grassy field where the DIs had placed their flag platform in the center. Darius stared at the waving red fabric as it fluttered in the breeze as if taunting him to rush in and get it. But he wasn't about to do that now after he had come so far, he wasn't going to rush ahead.
There was a soft whistle to his left and Juliet raised their weapons to the sound. Slowly a young boy of about twelve with hands raised appeared from the brush with a nervous smile, "Whoa, calm down there, Juliet." he said as he showed them his M7.
Darius stared down the sights of his rifle before giving a nod to his team. They lowered their weapons and he asked, "You're with Foxtrot, right?"
"Yeah, I'm Min," The boy replied with a nod as he lowered his hands, "Saw you skulking over and thought I'd say hello," he paused with a thoughtful expression before adding. "And to tell you that my team leader wants to speak to you since you're one of the few teams who made it past the DIs hunter teams to get here."
Darius considered Min's words carefully since it could be a trap for his team because he knew some of the other teams weren't above using other teams as distractions or bait for ambushes if meant giving themselves an edge in the exercises. But if Darius remembered correctly then Foxtrot's team leader was a good kid named Tom, a boy with a spirit of fire and guts that scared even Darius.
The Juliet leader nodded and turned to his team. "Wait here for me, if I'm not back in five, assume they," he pointed his thumb to Min, "Set me up." His team nodded and Darius turned back to Min, "Lead the way."
Min lead Darius along until they came to the south side of the field outskirts where several others were gathered in a circle while four others stood on guard duty while the meeting took place. Darius knew most of the teams gathered, Foxtrot, Victor, Delta and another team he didn't know.
There was easily twenty-five Spartans if you added the teams together. Min gestured to the meeting circle, "Over there, I have to get back to guard duty," he gave a grin before moving off to the right flank with his M7 in hand.
Darius quickly joined the meeting circle and found out they were the fire team leaders and discussing how best to take the flag from the DI defense team, they had also been apparently waiting for one more team before they attempted to take the flag just to tip the number odds in their favor.
"So, what exactly is their defense like?" Darius asked Victor's Fireteam leader, Samantha-B010.
"Tom can tell you, Olivia was the one who did most of the recon," She replied with a nod towards Tom, "Fill him in, I can vouch for his skill." Samantha was fourteen and one of the oldest Spartans in Beta and she commanded massive respect from others since she had single handedly beaten down two DIs in hand-to-hand training.
Tom nodded then turned to Darius. Surprisingly the fire team leaders were decked in their fatigues only so he guessed they had chosen to sneak past the DIs rather than ambush them, a clean strategy if lacking daring. "Well, Olivia scouted eleven of them positioned around the field in trees and in the thick brush, their positions…" Tom took a stick and began to draw a TacMap in the dirt.
Darius noted he was no artist.
"Here, here and here…" he listed off their positions on poorly drawn dirt map, "Olivia suspects there are also DIs hidden in the grass near the flag, but we can't be sure about that since she couldn't move into the field to check. All we know is that if you look at their positions they have good overlapping fields of fire across the field. So a direct approach would be suicide."
Darius agreed with that assessment. The DIs were dug in tight with every intent to ensure Beta failed this objective game, but Darius and the others were Beta Company and more so they were going to be Spartans. In order to do that was to pass this test and God so help him they were going to do it.
"So, what are you all thinking?" he asked.
"A three pronged attack," Samantha replied flatly as she took the stick from Tom, "My team and Delta will move in from the right and attempt to take out the sentries," she crossed out the circles that signalled hostiles on the map. "Meanwhile, Foxtrot and Victor will go right at the same time with the same objective." she looked up to Darius seriously, "And that's where your team comes in. You all have SPI armor, right?"
"Yeah…" Darius had a guess where this was going. She wanted his team to sneak up the middle of the field and when they began their assaults they were to open fire on the now pincered DI teams from their sixes.
She explained what he had thought a moment later. "I know this is a big risk for your team, but…" she stopped when he raised a hand.
"We'll do it, just make sure your teams don't screw up," he gave a cocky grin and hefted up his MA5K. "Alright?"
Tom and Samantha shared his grin. "Sure."
They bumped fists and parted ways to execute their plan of attack.
Darius returned to his team and explained the situation to them in detail. Connor was the firs to speak, "Sounds like a plan," he said logically. "But… are you sure we can trust them?"
"We're one big team, Cons," Darius replied with a nod. "Remember, our position ensure they get through the firefight quickly to get the flag, plus I can vouch for Samantha and Tom, they won't stab us in the back."
"I'm with Darius," Kimberly said from her place, unpolarizing her faceplate. "It's our best shot. I say we take it."
"Alright," Connor shrugged and slipped his helmet back on. "Lets do it."
"That's the spirit," Darius grinned behind his visor. "Lets move out, Juliet." They nodded, turned and skulked into the thicket with their armor shifting to match the scenario and turning them into chameleons armed with rifles and SMGs.
It took Juliet seven minutes to reach their position at the edge of the field in the grass without being spotted by the DIs on sentry duty. It took an additional five to hear the signal of a single M7 shot from the right followed closely by more bursts of weapons fire as the firefight began.
Darius lead his team on their bellies further into the field a good five yards before he stood and shouted, "Open fire!" He raised his MA5K and fired a burp of suppressed fire at the treeline where Tom had said two hostiles were stationed. He wasn't sure if he was hitting anything but he fired nonetheless while Juliet joined him and focused fire on the left side with Kimberly aiding him in firing at the right.
Two blurred figures lifting from the grass near the flag caught his peripheral vision and he commed his team, "Twelve-o-clock!" he shifted aim while falling to his knee to allow Kimberly to swing her own weapon over his head. They opened fire and the two DIs went down as they were peppered by stun rounds to their upper bodies.
The forest around the field slowly quieted down until one last burp of machinegun fire echoed out. Then silence reigned over the area with only the gentle rustling of the grass by the wind was the only sound that Darius heard sides his beating heart.
"Clear!" He heard Tom yell from the left flank.
"Clear!" Samantha called from the right side.
Darius grinned and put his hand to his mouth and yelled, "Clear!"
Victor, Delta, Foxtrot and Zeta moved out from the tree lines and towards the flag in loose V formations. Darius took Juliet up with them and together the five teams reached the flag, the team leaders shared a nod and they wrapped their hands around the metal pole in triumph.
They had won.
End of prologue
There it is people! My newest pet project that has been in the works since Halo 4's reveal now being publish for the first time today! Now, please review, tell me what ya think and show your support as I have a good feeling about this story. Thanks for reading and good day!