"Are you sure you want to do this?" Ariel asked.
Marcus sighed, "There are human colonists down there being attacked by an unknown enemy."
"Just wanted to make sure. You're going to need this Spartan." Marcus looked over and took the device that the Huragok held out to him. It looked like an overshield module attached to a bubble shield. "The bubble shield alone won't protect you from the heat of reentry. It simply doesn't have the endurance, but thanks to Weight of Knowledge here we were able to modify it, and attach it to the power supply of the overshield emitter. With some tweaking it should be able to last you through the upper atmosphere."
"Good job Ariel." Marcus strapped the device to his chest where it would be out of the way. He was wearing his Mk X Rouge Infiltration. It came standard with a stealth cloak and maneuvering jets. On his back he had the atmospheric jump jets with an extra-large fuel canister attached, if he was going to have any hope of landing softly he was going to need it.
With all the extra gear required for the jump, he could only carry a few weapons. He elected for the MA5X Assault Rifle, its predecessor the MA5B was the standard issue weapon during the Great War, the new MA5X was similar in design, but instead of the original gas propellant used in the 5B the 5X instead operated with the gauss acceleration system. Each clip now held sixty-four tungsten carbide rounds with a depleted uranium core. His secondary weapon of choice was the plasma pistol. The new Covenant design allowed their troops to carry extra power cells for their plasma weapons which meant that their troops could now reload their weapons at will.
The other two weapons he had were non-optional. Marcus's first tour as a Spartan had placed him in a mixed company of Marines and Sangheili. During the deployment Marcus had spent time with a couple of their sword masters. At the end of the deployment he had been challenged by three of the Sangheili swordsmen to a duel. When he won he was awarded a pair of the Covenant energy swords and was given the title of sword master. As a matter of honor the Sangheili required him to take his swords with him whenever he went into battle.
Once the UNSC brass learned how good he was with the dammed things they relented and allowed him to take them with him. Throw in a couple of grenades for good measure and Marcus was carrying enough firepower to rival a squad of ODST's.
"Alright Ariel. You ready?" He asked.
"As ready as I'll ever be."
"Just remember you're not the one doing the flying."
"Except if you burn up I go with you."
"I figured that was proper incentive to make sure that this contraption of yours works."
"Oh it'll work."
"Then you have nothing to worry about." Marcus smiled as Ariel made a "humph" sound.
"The ship is in position Marcus. Provided everything goes as planned you should be landing somewhere near the outer edges of the colony."
"Alright then here we go."
Suddenly the hanger doors snapped open and he was sucked out into space. He oriented himself so that he was facing the planet at he fell. It wasn't long before he began to skim the upper atmosphere, his shields flared as the heat of reentry began to build up.
"Marcus now might be a good time to hit that bubble shield." At Ariel's warning Marcus activated the bubble shield. Normally transparent, this bubble shield was a solid lay of golden light, cutting off his view of the planet.
"You alright?" She asked.
"I'm fine."
"Really? Because you know… most people feel a little nervous at falling through a planet's atmosphere in an uncontrolled decent."
"Don't worry we'll make it." Ariel would have smiled at Marcus' words if she'd had a body, even a holographic one. That's why she so enjoyed working with Marcus, no matter how bad things got he never gave in. He never accepted defeat. He would always fight, and he would sacrifice anything if it meant saving the life of another. It was a pleasure and an honor to be paired with him. Even here with so many unknowns, he was willing to leap feat first into the fire to save people he'd never met, like he said earlier, he was a Spartan to the core.
"Of course we will." She said.
The rest of Marcus' decent was spend in silence. The modified bubble shield held thorough reentry, when it deactivated he found himself in a cloud layer. Moister collected on his visor as he passed through the fog.
"Alright Marcus. This could get a bit tricky. When this timer reaches zero you need to activate the jump pack. You should have enough fuel to slow you down enough so that when you do make impact it won't kill you."
"Should?" He asked.
"Don't worry. I did my homework, you'll be fine."
Marcus watched as the timer clicked down. Time seemed to craw as he inadvertently entered Spartan Time, a state of heightened awareness and reflexes to Spartans it seemed as though time was passing at a slower rate.
When the timer reached zero he mashed down on the accelerator as hard as he could. His body jerked as he slammed into the harness of his pack. He was still falling fast. The ground came up to meet him. He was going to hit the ground to fast.
"Ariel!"
"Initiating Armor Lock."
Suddenly Marcus's armor tensed up around him, making it impossible to move. This is going to hurt, he thought. He slammed into the ground bouncing as he went, like a rock skipping across a pond. He struck a rocky outcropping and blasted through with enough force to turn the bolder into gravel, shields flaring. When he finally came to a stop he had carved a track almost half a kilometer long. He checked his equipment. His weapons and armor had made it through alright, but the jump jets had been ripped off him at some point during his landing.
"That hurt." He admitted.
"Wow I can't believe that actually worked!"
"Wait. WHAT?" Marcus yelled.
"Kidding. I knew you'd make it. Now get up Spartan. You've got a colony to save."
He sat up pulling his MA5X assault rifle as he did so "Affirmative."
"Alright team. Let's move out." Alex led her three man fire team away from the drop point. The Normandy's engines roared as the ship flew away. She motioned for Jenkins to take point as they began to make their way to the colony. They hadn't gotten very far before Captain Anderson's voice cut in over the com.
"Shepard."
Shepard motioned for the team to take cover while she talked for the captain, "What is it captain?"
"Just wanted to let you know, we got something on scanners that hit the ground not too far from your position. Whatever it is it originated somewhere in orbit and sense there're no asteroids in this system, chances are whatever it is it's artificial. Keep your eyes open."
"Roger that Captain. You get that Nihlus?"
"Copy that Shepard." The turian answered.
"Anderson out."
"Let's keep moving people." Alex waved Jenkins forward to resume point. He grinned at her and leapt from cover. He was too excited, Shepard should have made time to talk to him before the mission. Suddenly a squad of drones came out of nowhere firing on Jenkins. He hit the ground hard.
Ashley knew she was screwed. For the past hour she had played a losing game of cat and mouse with these damn drones. Somehow she had managed to stay a few steps ahead of them since she and her unit had gotten ambushed, but this time it seems that her luck had run out.
Ashley cursed under her breath as she felt the impact from the drone's mass accelerator weapons on her barriers. Another shot struck her sending her tumbling to the ground. She pulled her side arm as she fell. You can do this Ash, just like in training, she said to herself as she sighted down her pistol. She squeezed off a pair of shots and the two drones exploded, pelting her with debris and shrapnel.
Everything hurt on Marcus. Nothing had been broken during his landing, but he had defiantly torn something. His left arm responded sluggishly to his will and both of his legs felt as though his nerve endings were on fire. Then he heard small arms fire up ahead and took off.
Marcus could see the Gunny Sergeant he had seen in the distress call. She was wearing that form fitting armor that was so different from his. She tumbled to the ground firing as she went taking out both of her attackers. She's good. He thought. It was then that both soldiers, Spartan and Marine, noticed the synthetics.
There were a pair of them, they were holding a struggling man over some kind of device. Suddenly a massive spike erupted from the device impaling the man. Marcus felt his blood run cold. Not even the Covenant had been this bad.
He took off, all pain forgotten. He didn't care what these things were, if they were willing to do that to their victims then they deserved no mercy from him. He fired his assault rifle as he sprinted off.
Ashley knew she was dead. She had killed the drones, but she knew there was no way she was going to be able to outrun the two synthetics in front of her. She could feel herself slowing down, it would only be a matter of time before they caught her. Then she saw a pile of rocks to her right, now was as good a place as any to make a stand, who knows she might even get lucky. That's when she saw the blue and white blur speed past her, firing as it went.
As Marcus fired he could see the shields of his first target flare. He kept pouring his fire into the same target. He could remember the words of his old teacher Captain Mendez.
"In situations where you don't know the strength of your enemy, being quick and aggressive can keep your opponent off balance, don't give them the chance to recover. Be ruthless!"
Marcus focused on being ruthless, just like Mendez taught him. He emptied almost half a clip into the first target before its shields dropped. His bullets riddled it with holes soon after turning it into a pile of sparks and hydraulic fluid.
The two targets hadn't even been able to fire a single shot yet before he took down the first. His charge had brought him in close with the second, it raised it weapon in an attempt to get a bead on him. Marcus threw his rifle up and over his shoulder the magnetic plates there automatically grabbing it and holding it in place.
He slapped the things riffle to the side just as it squeezed the trigger, sending the shots wide. His fist shot out quick as lighting slamming into the thing's single glowing eye. The thing clicked and growled at him as his fist struck again this time in the thing's chest plate. Metal splintered under his fist as he sent the thing flying backwards into the rock face. Marcus calmly pulled his pistol from its holster and putt two rounds into its chest. The plasma seared right through turning the thing into a pile of useless slag.
"Holy shit." Marcus turned to see the gunnery sergeant looking at him. She was standing next to the rocks she had taken cove behind.
"You alright ma'am?" He asked.
"Yeah. I am now. Thanks. Who are you?"
Suddenly Marcus's motion tracker pinged a target off to his right. He was still had a lot of adrenaline coursing through his system after the short fight, he reacted instantly pushing the Sergeant back behind cover. Blind firing his pistol as he did so.
"Marcus, wait!" Ariel called, but it was too late.
Alex had to put Jenkins behind her. She hated losing people, but as unfortunate as it was it came with the territory, that's what being an N7 meant, it meant sacrificing people if it was necessary. God she hated losing people.
She and Kaiden crested a hill. They were still making their way to the colony in an attempt to reach the beacon. She saw two soldiers standing of in the distance. One was an alliance marine the other she didn't recognize.
He was massive, he had to be close to seven feet tall. The armor he was wearing wasn't standard Alliance issue that was for sure. Suddenly the big man moved, almost too fast for her to see. He pushed the gunnery Sergeant behind a pile of rocks. He raised an odd looking pistol in her direction as he did so.
Alex dove and tackled Kaiden to the ground as a pair of green bolts flashed not too far from where her head had been.
"Alliance marines stand down!" She called, and just like that the rounds stopped as soon as they came.
She and Kaiden picked themselves up and trotted down the hill. The marine and the other soldier were standing side by side at the bottom. The unknown soldier still had that odd looking weapon in his hand, but he had it pointed down to the ground in an attempt to not look threatening. An attempt he failed.
"Apologies ma'am. My motion tracker picked you up as you came over the hill but it didn't register your IFF for some reason. I should have been more careful." The big man said as he popped a parade ground salute. The woman at his side following suit.
Alex didn't know what to make of the man in the armor, normally when people shot at her she answered in kind, it was odd having someone shoot at her one moment the salute her the next.
"Just make sure it doesn't happen again." She replied giving her own salute. The two in front of her relaxed. "I'm Commander Shepard."
"Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the two twelve." The woman in white answered. Alex recognized her from the distress call that she had seen less than an hour ago.
"Petty officer Marcus Sierra-989." The big man said.
"What's the sierra stand for Marcus?"
"Spartan ma'am."
"Is that some kind of spec opps group?" She asked.
Marcus' mind reeled at her question. How could she not know who the Spartan's where? He supposed that if this was some long lost human colony, it could conceivably make sense that she hadn't heard of the Spartan's, but in order for that to be true Marcus would have had to travel very far indeed in his slipspace jump. If so he decided to err on the side of caution.
"That's classified ma'am. What I can tell you is I'm human and I'm able to help."
Alex raised an eyebrow at Marcus' answer. She was an N7, more than that she held almost all the records for marksmanship and infiltration a marine could have in the Alliance. If there was some type of secret spec opps group in the Alliance she would have known about it, more than that she would have been a part of it.
She tried to read the man in front of her, but there was nothing she could get. His posture was military to the bone there was nothing she could get from that, and his face was covered in a gold reflective visor. She wasn't happy with his response, but given the circumstances she couldn't really afford to be picky.
"Fair enough." She turned to Ashley, "Give me a status report Williams."
The sergeant's shoulders slumped, "Oh man where do I begin? We were patrolling the out skirts of the colony when the attack hit. We were ambushed, I'm. . . I'm the only one who made it. I've been running for my life ever since, I would have been killed for sure if Marcus hadn't shown up."
"What are these thing's anyway?" Kaiden asked.
"I think they're Geth." Ashley answered.
"That's impossible. The Geth haven't been seen outside the Veil in nearly three hundred years why would they show themselves now?" Three hundred years? The only alien species that humanity had ever come in contact with had been the Covenant and that had only occurred less than sixty years ago, let alone three hundred.
Ashley shrugged at the Lieutenants question, "They must be here for the beacon."
"Beacon?" Marcus asked.
Ashley and Shepard both looked at him, "That's right." The Commander explained, "A group of scientists discovered a beacon not that long ago here, it's Prothean. There's no telling what kind of information might be contained with in." She looked back at Ashley, "We need that beacon Ashley, you're both coming with us."
"Affirmative." Marcus said.
"You got it Commander, the dig site's not that far. Time for payback." Marcus couldn't help but grin at the Sergeant's comment. She's defiantly good. He thought.
As the team moved out, Marcus clicked his external speakers off. "Ariel, what have you got?"
"Each one of them seems to have some sort of personal data storage device attached to their waist. I'm attempting to initiate handshake protocols with them to gain access. As soon as I have something I'll let you know."
"Keep on it. I don't know these people, and it seems they've never heard of the Covenant before, I want to know why."
"The dig site should be just up ahead." Ashley continued.
"Alright, Marcus. You're on point."
"Yes ma'am."