Unknown
Chapter One
Everything Will Change
Lance Corporal James Danton
Date: June 18, 2556
Time: 5:47 am
Location: Shanxi U.N.S.C outer colony.
1...2...3…4...5, James mentally counted trying to steady his nerves as his single occupant exoatmospheric insertion vehicle or S.O.E.I.V sped toward the small mining colony of Shanxi. The pod shook violently as it entered the upper atmosphere of the planet. The g-forces making the descent unpleasant for most. But he's been a helljumper so long that it no longer bothered him to be currently falling at terminal velocity toward the ground in what might as well have been a metal coffin. In fact, he often found himself slipping into a drowsy state only being pulled out of it when his pod would slam into the earth at ludicrous speeds giving his brain a decent scramble or when his squad leader Sergeant Buck screamed over the radio telling him to wake up and adjust his course of descent.
This drop, however, James was wide awake and focused on the task at hand. The planet below was currently being torn apart by an unknown hostile force.
The fleet he was deployed with had picked up on an emergency transmission from the colony stating that an unknown fleet came out of nowhere and had started attacking the colony. Fleet admiral Jonathan White acting fast ordered the entire 10th patrol fleet to jump to the colony.
The tenth patrol fleet consisted of just five Paris class frigates the Standtall, Jacobs, Steadfast, Atlanta, and the Desolate. The command vessel of the fleet was a Marathon class heavy cruiser the U.N.S.C Say My Name. The ship that James had been stationed on for the last few years.
When the fleet had arrived the situation was bad. The two stalwart class defense frigates that had been stationed to guard the colony was destroyed, while twelve unknown ships sat in orbit above the colony.
"Adjust on my mark." Captain Veronica Dare commanded over the team coms. James's hands gripped the two control sticks as he waited for the signal from the Captain. The team coms was unusually quiet not even Romeo dared to crack a wise-ass comment. This drop is too important we have to stay focused, he thought to himself. Unknown enemy forces had already overrun the garrison, so they were being deployed as a fast reaction force.
As the pods entered the lower atmosphere they hit a thunderstorm. James looked out the small window that the pod possessed seeing nothing but dark grey storm clouds. Water droplets collected on the glass hindering his view. "Mark!" Captain Dare finally commanded. The squad seamlessly adjusted their descent. At three thousand feet the upper exterior panels of the pod separated acting as a drag chute. The added drag caused the pod to slow allowing a "safe" landing, but it also made the pod shake a hell of a lot more.
I can't believe we're at war again. It feels like only yesterday I was slogging through the mud across earth kicking out the brutes. James thought. When he finally hit the fifty-meter mark before impact the pod's braking rockets burst to life slowing the pod down enough to make the impact nonlethal. Looking out the window again James could see skyscrapers and thick urban combat just before his pod slammed into the middle of a concrete street. The impact of the pod slammed his head against the reinforced window of the pod. James groaned in pain grabbing his helmeted head with one hand while activating the explosive bolts on the pod's door with the other.
Shaking off the pain in his head and grabbing his M7s submachine gun. He sprung from the pod onto the wet city street. He scanned the building around him for any hostiles. Seeing none he lowered his guard. Looking up to see if he could spot any other pods coming down. Raindrop's impacted his polarized visor as he looked up peering into the cloudy grey sky. James heard the unmistakable sound of an S.O.E.I.V's brake rockets activating. Turning around seconds before a pod slammed into the street twenty yards from him.
The door of the pod fell away and a fellow O.D.S.T trooper stepped out. James let a small smile touch his lips as he recognized the trooper as Lance Corporal Dutch Miles. Well at least I'm not on my own like the last drop, he thought reflecting on the mission in New Mombasa. He sprinted from his position to Dutch's keeping low not wanting to be detected by any hostiles he may have missed in his quick sweep of the rooftops. Dutch's MA5B assault rifle swept the rooftops for any threats seeing none he lowered his weapon. He turned facing James and depolarized his visor.
"Good to see ya kid for a second I thought that I'd be on my own." He said smiling toward the end. James nodded his head agreeing with him before doing another perimeter check.
"Dutch you hear me?" Buck's voice came over the squad's coms.
"Yes, sir I'm here with the Rookie what's your location?" Dutch questioned.
"Main street, listen I'm with the rest of the squad and a few marines-shit" their Sergeant was cut off by a loud explosion then static. That's never a good sign, James thought as he gripped his M7s a little tighter.
"Sargeant come in!...Buck?" Dutch tried to get a response. He shook his head and looked at James.
"Come on Rookie sounds like they need our help," Dutch concluded simply. James nodded pulling up a map of the city using his hud. We're twelve blocks over damn how'd we get that separated, he thought. We should probably avoid the main streets. James mapped a route to his Sergeants location before signaling Dutch to follow him. The two of them rushed through the back alleys of New Haven checking the streets and rooftops for any hostels.
As they ran through alleys they stepped over rubble from nearby buildings and the corpses of the human troops who lay dead slumped against walls or lying on the street. The helljumper tried to avoid the fact that all of them looked younger than twenty. After a while of running the duo stopped at an intersection scanning the streets again before moving on. About twenty minutes later they were two blocks away from Buck's last known location, and could clearly make out the sound of gunfire.
"Dutch what's your position?" James heard Buck command over the radio. Both of the soldiers breathed a sigh of relief knowing that their squad leader was safe.
"About two blocks away sir!" The large trooper from Mars responded as they slowed their pace expecting to encounter resistance. The helljumpers could see main street from their position, unfortunately, there was a squad of five unknown alien combatants blocking them from reaching main street.
The aliens looked like a cross between an insect and a bird. Given these characteristics to the helljumpers they slightly resembled a Sangheili. Fortunately, they were facing toward main street with their backs to the two elite troopers. James signaled Dutch to take cover and both of them moved into position behind a dumpster. Once in cover James detached a flashbang grenade from his harness, and pulled the pin priming the grenade before chucking it into the middle of the enemy squad.
The aliens looked at the grenade curiously before panicking once they realized what it was. However, it was too late for them as the grenade went off a second later rendering them deaf and blind. The two helljumpers popped out of cover not suffering from the grenades devastating effects due to their visors. James quickly let off a five-shot burst into one of the stumbling aliens taking off the top half of the creature's skull. Jumping to the next target the trooper pressed down on the trigger sending a burst into this one's chest cavity sending blue blood flying over one of creatures comrade. Dutch gunned down one of the aliens before the remaining two recovered from the flashbang. One shouldered his rifle and fired a burst at the troopers. The shots narrowly missed James causing him to tense a bit as the rounds impacted the dumpster. Dutch fired a long burst from his assault rifle nearly taking the head off of the fourth one which was running toward an overturned trashcan. The fifth one seeing that it was the only one left in his squad beat a hasty retreat toward main street. As he exited onto main street the helljumpers heard the unmistakable sound of an SRS99 firing. The head of the fleeing alien disappeared into a cloud of blood, brains and skull fragments nearly a split second after.
"Hello, boys! How's your day going?" you could practically hear Romeo smiling over the team's coms. James rolled his eyes at his fellow squad mates antics. The young trooper reloaded his M7s while walking toward main street with Dutch. As soon as he stepped out of the alley onto main street he might as well have been stepping out of heaven and into hell. Destroyed carcasses of four warthogs created a barricade of sorts in the middle of the street. Countless marines and civilians littered the cold damp ground staining the earth with their blood. The rain suddenly stopped leaving the area in an eerie quiet. The only sound that James could hear was gunfire in the distance and his own soft breaths. "Hey, up here buttercup!" Romeo shouted from his right. James turned seeing that Romeo was standing on top of a two story roof four buildings to James's right just to the left of the destroyed warthogs.
"Come on Rook let's move," Dutch said moving past James toward the building that Romeo was on the roof of. The younger trooper followed him into the building which clearly had been a food market due to the produce lying everywhere. There were a few battered marines keeping watch with nearly double the number lying on the floor groaning many of them having been severely wounded. "Jesus!" Dutch swore under his breath looking at the scene around them. "I thought we were past this when the war ended..." Dutch said mournfully while looking at a marine that had suffered an amputation directly below the knee. I did too, James thought grimly at Dutch's words. Unfortunately, it seems war is inescapable, the younger trooper thought.
"Glad you guys made it." a familiar voice sounded from behind them. Upon turning toward the voice James was confronted with another one of his lost squadmates. Private First Class Mickey Crespo walked up to the pair. His armor had many dents in it on top of some obvious bullet holes. He look's like shit, James couldn't help but think after seeing his friend.
"What the hell happened to you guys? And where's Buck and the Captain?" Dutch asked. Mickey gestured for them to follow him as he leads them further into the store.
"As soon as when landed we joined up with a platoon of marines heading to the main street to stop a large hostile contingent from regrouping with the rest of the enemy forces. We set up a barricade fighting them off. Then they started hitting in force. Using the alleys to flank the barricade, we lost a lot of guys pushing them back. Then Romeo reported that a scout force was moving through the alleys but he couldn't get a shot. Well, it turned out you showed up and solved that problem." Mickey finished opening the door to the manager's office. Stepping inside James saw Buck talking quietly with the Captain.
"What the hell do you mean O.N.I gave you orders? Our orders are to hold the main street and keep raptors from regrouping Veronica!" Buck whispered/yelled at the Captain while glaring daggers at her. Some things just don't change, James couldn't help but think to himself seeing Gunney and the Captain argue.
"The situation has changed Buck! Besides we've halved their forces in this area and they're in full retreat." Veronica countered glaring back just as fiercely. Mickey coughed announcing the group's presence to the couple.
"Look who I found," Mickey said his pointing over his shoulder with his thumb. Dutch and James walked around the Private to show themselves to their squad leader. Buck visibly relaxed seeing them after he turned from Dare, who went back to talking with no-doubt O.N.I over the communicator.
"I'm glad you guys made it here in one piece," Buck said sincerely. Had some trouble though, James thought. Buck's face changed from relieved to grim as he stood before them.
"Listen the Navy's kicking ass up there for a change, so the Raptors are pulling out," Buck informed his squad. This is good news. What the hell is he so grim for, James dreaded the possibility of what it could be.
"Then why the long face Gunney?" Dutch voiced everyone's thoughts. Buck thought for a second before responding.
"O.N.I in all of its wisdom decided to have us go behind enemy lines and capture a high-value target," Buck explained simply.
"Oh lord." I heard Dutch express.
"Hey Gunny the birds here!" Romeo's voice sounded over the coms. Immediately Buck, Mickey, and the Captain put their helmets on. Well so much for a briefing, James thought sarcastically. Dutch and James stepped aside letting them out of the room. The duo followed them as they headed for the staircase leading to the roof.
"Sergeant Reynolds sorry we got to leave you like this but 2nd platoon should be arriving in ten minutes," Buck said over the coms as we jogged up the stairs to the roof.
"I understand. We'll hold down the fort and wait for the cavalry to arrive!" The Sergeant replied. When they got to the roof there was a single UH-144 Falcon waiting for them.
"Sergeant get your men on board!" came the pilot's voice from the cockpit. Romeo was already seated on the aft bench of the vehicle. The Captain and James took the two chairs that were offered while Dutch and Mickey took control of the door guns on either side of the Falcon. Buck elected to stand using an overhead hand grip to support himself.
"Were all on! Take us up!" Buck sounded. The craft slowly started raising from the roof speeding away as the engines reached full power. James examined the city from the overhead view and it looked like hell. The city wasn't that big compared to others he's been in, but it still must have had a population of roughly two hundred thousand.
He could see the vicious street to street fighting that had enveloped most of the city in fire. To his left, he saw a squad of marines pushing down a narrow street with the support of an M808 Scorpion. The "raptors" as he had heard Buck call them were being pushed back by the combined fire of the Scorpion's M512 90mm gun, and the marines various small arms. To his right in what appeared to be a massive park. Warthog's with the support of many M274 Mongoose's charged an entrenched position. James watched as the Raptors did all they could to stop the advance.
To their credit, they managed to take down two Warthogs and roughly five mongoose's before they were torn apart. James looked at Mickey as both the private, Dutch, and Romeo started firing at ground targets below. 'Must be supporting our ground troops' he thought before sitting back and closing his eyes. Well, it looks like we're going to have another war, James thought feeling a deep sense of disappointment at the revelation. Well, it can't be as bloody as the last one. After a few more minutes Buck ordered them to cease fire as we got deeper behind enemy lines. James checked his magazines and grenades to see what he had to work with and to keep him from falling asleep on the flight. The LZ was on the roof of a four-story apartment complex six blocks from their target. They would've landed closer but that would've caused unwanted building didn't appear to have taken much fire and the surrounding neighborhood seemed to be relatively intact. 'Looks like the fighting didn't reach this area' the helljumper thought.
"You get off here...good luck troopers." the pilot said as they disembarked the Falcon.
"Rookie you're on point," Buck commanded. James nodded in confirmation shouldering his M7s entering the building. The hallway they were in had no windows plunging them into darkness. James immediately activated his VISR, which outlined the world in yellow allowing him to see in low-level lighting. The team moved through the building at a steady pace weary of hostiles in the low-level lighting. After a few minutes, the troopers had moved from the top floor to the bottom floor using the staircase due to the fact that the power in the building was down. They deactivated their VISR.'s and exited immediately taking cover behind two cars that were parked outside.
"What's our next move Captain?" Romeo asked scanning the building to their front with his SRS.
"The target is one block to our left and five blocks up. Romeo, I want you to take a position on the roof of that building. It should give you a good line of sight." Dare explained pointing to an eight-story building across the street. Romeo nodded before taking off across the street. "The rest of us will proceed to the target building. Once we get there we'll infiltrate it grab the target and get to the extraction point ten blocks away." Dare finished the plan.
That's a long distance to go this deep in enemy territory, James thought frowning at the thought of possibly going all that way under fire. Everyone nodded in confirmation before exiting cover and proceeding toward the target. Ducking from cover to cover coming across many dead civilians as they made their way toward their objective.
Damn looks like our boys got them nervous, James thought as they hide from a small five-man patrol. The aliens looked on edge constantly scanning their surroundings and jumping at the slightest sign of danger. Once the patrol past the ODST's moved on to their objective swiftly and silently. The troopers finally had eyes on the target building after a short while. It was a three-story office building. From James's concealed position across the street, he could easily make out the three sentries guarding the doorway into the building.
"So Veronica any of your spook friends tell you where the target is located?" Buck asked.
"Second-floor left corner office," she replied checking her pistol making sure that it was loaded with a fresh clip.
"Romeo…you catch that?" Buck asked the teams wise ass sniper.
"Yup...I even got eyes on the top raptor." Romeo responded surprising the entire squad. "He's in the corner office like the Captain said, though he's not alone. I count three other raptors looks like they got some heavy artillery. I spot what looks to be shotguns and assault rifles well within reach." Buck looked concerned at that last bit of information.
"Captain do we have any information on how many raptors are in that building," Buck asked. The Captain shook her head no. Buck sighed as he looked at the building in deep thought. He apparently thought of a plan as he turned to face the rest of the team. "Rookie, you think you could get to the top of the roof?" Buck asked the newest member of the team. James thought about it for a minute I did see what looked to be a fire escape leading to the roof. He nodded his head in yes before shouldering his M7s and observing the area and waiting for sentries to be distracted or looking in the opposite way. "Alright the rest of us will head through the building through the exit into the alley on the right if Romeo says it's clear," Buck said before asking Romeo over the radio.
"The alleys guarded by two raptors but you should be able to catch them off guard, also Rookie watch out there's a sniper on the roof," Romeo informed the squad.
"Alright thanks for the heads up Romeo now sit tight and wait for my signal," Buck said before turning toward the rest of the team. "Alright we're running out of time so let's get this done fast," he said before Dutch, Mickey, the Captain, and he moved toward the alley on the right side of the building while James took the alley on the left heading for the roof. He ducked low sprinting across the street. Utilizing the low lighting of the setting sun he managed to reach the alley remaining undetected by the sentries. As quietly as possible James crept up the fire escape. The trooper kept his focus on the motion tracker provided by his hud. After thirty seconds he found himself on the roof of the building. Okay now to find that sniper. The roof was covered in ventilation pipes and chest high walls.
James moved toward the front of the building's roof keeping a vigilant look-out for the hostile sniper. As he neared the front of the building he found his target. The alien was leaning against one of the ventilation pipes a few feet away from him with his weapon leaning against the safety rail. His left arm was enveloped in an orange hue that reminded James of the images of forerunner hard light technology that he'd seen. The trooper started approaching the hostile making sure that he moved as silently as possible. James must not have been as silent as he thought he was as the aliens head snapped in the trooper's direction.
"Fuck." The ODST muttered as the raptor leaped toward his rifle. James quickly unslung his M7s and fired off three short burst the first two missed due to the fact that he didn't take the time to use the sights. The last burst though nicked the aliens ribcage. The alien screamed in agony as he quickly shouldered his rifle and fired. It was James's turn to grunt in pain as the bullet tore through his lower rib cage. Gasping in pain James took cover behind a wall this however also gave the raptor to gain cover. "Were compromised!" The young trooper spoke over the team com.
"Shit! Alright everyone go loud, go loud!" Buck commanded. Immediately after James heard the sounds of gunfire being exchanged. He reloaded his clip and took a deep breath before popping out of cover to engage the sniper. His M7s's stock firmly pressed against his shoulder he took a low stance constantly scanning the corners.
"Dutch I need covering fire!" Mickey shouted over the team's comms.
"Suppressing!" Dutch responded. After that, all the voices blended together over the com.
"I got two trying to flank us!"
"Frag out!"
"Two hostiles dropped"
"Moving up"
"Hallway clear"
"Room clear"
"Room clear"
"Alright, squad move upstairs check corners." Buck's voice could be heard after the confusion subsided. I need to get down there, James thought to move toward the roof-entrance to the building. As he turned around another corner he came face to face with the elusive sniper. The alien shouldered his weapon and attempted to fire but never got a chance as James fired a long burst into his torso ending its life. The trooper lowered his weapon staring into the unblinking eyes of the alien.
He watched as blue blood slowly poured from his slightly opened mouth. His own red blood swept down his leg mixing with the aliens blue creating a work of art on the floor of the roof. James was memorized by the blood only being taken out of it by his Sergeant shouting over the team's coms.
"Rookie you there? Respond!" Buck commanded.
"Yes sir, the hostile sniper on the roof has been neutralized," he informed his Squad leader.
"Alright listen there must have been a dozen of these bastards in here, but we've pushed them back into the V.I.P's room meet us there," Buck told him. He didn't respond James just shouldered his weapon stepped over the fresh corpse and headed inside the building holding one hand to his bleeding wound trying to stem the flow of blood.
General Secucus Maclin
Date: June 18, 2556
Time: 8:45 pm
Location: Unknown species colony.
Status: Boarded up inside of command room.
This whole operation had been a mess from the start, The General thought. When they had gone through the relay they had thought that they would encounter a primitive species and integrate them into the citadel council with ease.
What they found, however, was not some species taking its first steps into interstellar travel. The admiral immediately fired upon the station that was near the relay deeming it hostile and a danger to the 20 frigate patrol fleet. What he noticed too late was the colony was defended. Positioned in high orbit above what was assumed to be the unknown species home planet where two cruiser class warships. What made the situation even more concerning was that the vessels did not contain any trace of element zero. That's impossible, the General had thought. Deep down he had known to back off and wait for reinforcements, but admiral Victis was too eager for glory and to be showered with praise.
He just had to engage the enemy and win the day. The Turians had lost eight ships to those monstrosities. With another two being severely damaged. They had guns that shattered the Turians shields in one shot and gutted them in the second. Their only advantage had been the fact that their guns required a ridiculous cooldown time compared with the Turians own. They still had lost too many ships in Maclin's opinion though, and to make matters worst he had received news while waiting for the orders to proceed with landing operations that one of the two damaged frigates was beyond repair. Maclin had decided that this species would pay for what they've done. That hid losses would be returned tenfold. Almost as soon as they had landed the Turians encountered fierce resistance from the planet's military.
Their tactics were unconventional at best. They utilized fast moving light armored vehicles which caught the Turians flanks off guard, while their infantry dug themselves deep into the buildings ambushing our forces with coordinated small arms fire. Despite this, the invasion force pushed on capturing most of the city including what appeared to be there garrison's barracks, and the cities starport. What caught Maclin off guard about these primitives was that they still used magazine fed weapons. The effect it had on his troops was devastating, however. The Turians troops shields were registered to deflect their own weapons which moved at high speeds.
They had lost a fourth of their forces when they captured the city. Maclin remembers sitting in what must have been the town hall when he received word that additional hostile ships just appeared in high orbit and were tearing apart the fleet. What came next was the worst three hours of his military career. Enemy forces landed in dropships outside of the city while hostile air units decimated the Turians hastily constructed barricades. What little armor they had was quickly torn apart by the superior but slow-moving hostile armor and it only got worse. As he was trying a organize a hasty retreat. Maclin got the news that enemy special forces units had dropped in from high orbit in what resembled escape pods and that they were ambushing retreating units. He moved with his retreating men when the city hall came under fire from approaching armor. His new headquarters was an office building near the starport where evacuations were taking place.
"I swear I'm going to kill that sonofabitch" Maclin swore under his breath as he heard the firing outside the room stop. Well this is it, he thought tightening his grip on his service pistol. Maclin examined his men as they held their weapons tight, and scared looks covered their faces. They're all just young boys, he thought. I'm not going to let them die for me. "Men lay down your arms," Maclin told them letting his pistol fall to the floor.
"Sir?" One of them questioned him like he couldn't believe what he was saying.
"Drop your weapons and raise your hands in the air and hope they understand what we're doing," Maclin commanded them.
"Sir that's your best plan?" A different soldier criticised Maclin.
"Do you want to die soldier!" he roared at the insubordinate soldier. Maclin just finished his remark as the door to our command room was blown down. Black-clad soldiers stormed the room with a precision that left Maclin stunned. The very presence of these soldiers demanded that he respect them. After they cleared their sectors of the room one by one the sounded off something in their barbaric language. Maclin and his men kept repeating over and over they surrender. Before they restrained his men and him. Maclin remembered thinking. 'Whatever comes next...I know everything will change everything.
A/N: Alright so this is the revised chapter one of Unknown. I hope it reads a whole lot smoother than the original one. I'm currently working on a rewrite of chapter three and working on chapter seven now. I hope you all can enjoy the story better now that it isn't off to such a rough start.