Chapter 2: Good Plans are Doomed to Fail
0500 hours, January 17, 2552
Atlas, Outer Territories,
~20,000 LY from Earth
Ten low flying aircraft soared throughout the dawn skyline in formation. A tight V formation, to be exact. With 4 aircraft in each "wing" of the formation, one aircraft in the front, and one tucked in the center. The aircraft, stealth variants of the D77-TC UNSC "Pelican," silently screeched over the dark ocean water towards a beach below a hill in the distance. As time passed, the sun rose, creating a matte canvas of orange and red reflections behind the aircraft. The sunlight soon crept up to the beachhead. The near silent aircraft were approaching the same beach. Onboard the stealth D77-TCs, (affectionately nicknamed "Pelicans") in the center, there was a whistling rush of air outside the hull. It was a pleasant distraction to the majority of the occupants. The United Nations Space Command Marines within were even quieter than the Pelicans. All were mentally preparing for the dawn invasion.
A man with a Colonel sigil on his right arm walked to the middle of the fuselage. He grasped a ceiling handle to steady himself during some turbulence before tapping a computer on his wrist. In each soldier's helmet, the radios released a low beep. Then the the Colonel's voice was heard across all ten aircraft in all the occupants' ears.
"Good morning ladies and gentlemen of the 521st Marine Battalion. Today is a very important day for us all." He paused for a moment. "Four months of planning went into this assault, and we have the honor of marching in the first wave. Our first objective, as you are all aware, is to secure a beachhead for the troops and hardware behind us. After that we will move up the hill and destroy the Covenant AA Battery that is preventing our civilians, and by extension us, from evacuating this hellhole of a planet. Those guns are our primary target." He paused again. There was a resounding "Oorah" in response. "We will take this beachhead boys and girls, and we will be victorious. There is no other option." He paused yet again. This time to let the inspiration sink in to the troops, then he went right back to business. "First Lieutenants Barker, Lachlan, Ali, Hoffman, and Amenson will each take platoons of fifty. You all know what to do. Just follow your training, and you'll all live to see earth again." He paused one more time. "Forty Kilometers to the beachhead, eta 5 minutes. 2 million lives depend on you. Be strong, rely on each other, and you won't let them down. This is Colonel Williams, signing off." Another "Oorah" followed.
The Colonel discreetly secured a football shaped device around his belt, in the small of his back. He then pressed a button on his glowing orange omnitool. A nifty little device the Omnitool is. It's standard issue for all officers in the UN Colonial Marines. Its many functions include broadcasting written, verbal, and symbolic orders to each soldier's' Heads Up Display and their helmet speakers within a fifty mile radius of the local broadcaster or from a distant broadcast via satellite, extranet connection, or radio. Colonel Williams had tapped an opaque button on his Omnitool and suddenly Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyrie" began to blare over the radio in the wake of the Colonel's speech. Most of the men and women aboard were cheering, or at least smiling and a few even chuckling, as their stressed minds eased briefly. This mission weighed heavily on all of them. If they failed, the remaining population of the planet would die as a consequence.
Onboard another Pelican, adjacent to the Colonel's craft, the half a platoon, consisting of 15 marines including their respective lieutenant, were chatting amongst themselves. Of the particularly garrulous sort were the ones along the port-side wall.
"N-n-nnno... Barker would totally win, he's got the experience." Said a tall lanky male with pale skin with a meek voice.
"Bullshit, our Lieutenant is younger and stronger...and he's kinda cute." Retorted the, shorter than average, asian female to his left.
"Piotr, Kat, shut the fuck up. The Lieutenant's right there. Have some goddamn respect." Said a tall female brunette to the right of Piotr. Her name is Rosenda-A344. She was their squad leader. She was a Spartan III, and they were regular marines straight from boot camp. And she was pointing to a man slumped in his seat, eyes closed, in the front of the fuselage. He too was a Spartan III, however, he was in charge of the platoon.
"Fine." Grumbled Kat. Piotr went silent and looked at his watch and gasped. Less than 4 minutes remaining. A panicked look streaked across his face. He wasn't expecting time to fly by so fast.
"Ha, the man's still asleep...I am inclined to agree with Kat though." Added a short stocky man of Spanish looking heritage, sitting left of Kat. His name was Roberto. "Our LT's a crazy man. Once the beachhead is secure the Barker will want to sit back comfortably, while our LT'll be charging headfirst into the Covenant." That seemed to settle the argument.
Private Roberto, PFCs Piotr and Kat, Tech Sargeant Rosenda, along with a tall dark and handsome gent, Corporal Philips, were all in the same squad. Philips was seated to Rosenda's right and was discussing something with a very muscular man across from him.
"I'm just saying we should have our own battle song, borrowing one from the old Vietnam era is kinda lame."
"Yeah, but the song is still doing its job. Hell, I'm pumped." Said the muscular, grizzly bear of a man. He was Lance Corporal Shea, and he was a Hellbringer.
"You're always pumped, flame for brains." Said Philip, referring to Shea's primary weapon, an NA4 flamethrower, which was stowed vertically to Shea's right in a small compartment in the wall.
"Hah, whatever Phil. Oy Roberto, I'll give you 5 creds if you ask the First Lieutenant about the Headhunters, aaaa-and get a straight answer." Shea dared.
"You're on!" Private Roberto accepted.
"Wait until he wakes up please." Rosenda interjected.
"Ok then. I'll wait." 'In the meantime' he thought. "Yo egghead." Roberto said, referring to Piotr.
"What!?" Snapped Piotr, visibly shaking, and clutching a small silver cross which was secured around his neck.
"Woah, chill out man. Just got a question. How come the LOKIs ain't with us in the first wave?"
"I...I d-don't know t-t-the specifics, b-but I know is that it has something to do with our c-c-combat effectiveness."
"Well, I know 'we' are badasses, but are they like third gen or something?" Piotr's silence was his answer. "Damn that means they all carry pistols, right?!"
"Yeah." Piotr's breathing was becoming slightly erratic.
"Uuuuh, umm, oh, do you know what hardware they hauling behind us?"
"Uhh, I think two Grizzly tanks, and a couple Warthogs, and the LOKI droids."
"Oh that's not too bad. The Grizzlies are pretty good."
"The-the droids and hogs aren't EMP resistant. A-and intel reports there is a small army of Grunts." Piotr's eyes widened slightly after hearing his own words. This simply meant that these droids and vehicles were models that would frequently break down, if exposed to EMP burst, which is what the Grunt weapons were capable of en masse.
"Fuck." Roberto replied. Those in the fuselage who heard Piotr sighed depressingly. A couple of the green soldiers began to panic.
"Relax guys, Grunts are weak cannon-fodder. Even if they outnumber us, we'll still fuck 'em up." Consoled Kat. It helped a few, with the exception of Piotr.
Tears seeped down Piotr's eyes. He was still shaking and squeezing his cross so tightly his fingers, appearing bloodless, turned white. Slowly, his fear grew with each ticking second. Mania soon followed, planting the seeds of a swift series of dichotomous thoughts, infesting his brain. 'Why is this happening? I can't do this, the Covenant take no prisoners. We have shit backup...They'll find us and...'
"Oh geez, Piotr, are you alright?" Kat asked in a concerned tone.
"Huh, oh, I-I-I don't know." Piotr had caved during his internal strife, and was currently sobbing.
"Piotr," she noticed his cross, "which you praying to? Neo, or Old Faith?"
"Who-whoever's listening..."
"Hey, don't worry, miracles happen everyday. Something good will…" Kat attempted to console before she was cut off.
"Piotr, harden the fuck up, you pansy. You go three Spartans in this Pelican with you, and seven more spread out throughout this battalion." Rosenda growled.
Piotr silenced.
"Yo Roberto!" It was Shea.
"Yeah?" Said Roberto
"The LT's waking up..." Signs of life were now obvious in the platoon's Lieutenant, LT Thermopa. Better known by his Spartan codename of Aeden-G212. He was the leader of the platoon, and the man currently waking up from what seamed like a peaceful nap, even amongst the turbulence.
His seat, located in the bow of the ship, was quickly unstrapped as the LT rose to his feet. Still groggy, he removed his helmet, a Security helmet optimized for his Spartan III SPI armor. He then rubbed his eyes, and then his temples.
"You ok 'A?' Head hurt again?" Said Aeden's second in command, 2nd Lieutenant Dignus, who was seated next to Aeden. He too was a Spartan III, also known as Rafi-G307. His armor being the Operator variant of the SPI armor, as Rafi found it suitable for what he called his "Combat Engineer" style.
"Huh, oh, yeah, hey Raf." He pulled a tube out from his backpack, and sucked on it. Water flowed into his mouth. "Don't worry, it's just a post nap headache."
"Ok, whatever you say...sir... ha still can't get used to calling you that."
"Yeah, still confused as to why Command would put two Headhunters like us in charge of a platoon of other soldiers." Aeden stretched.
"It is odd indeed. This is the most hodgepodge army I've ever seen. Spartans, Grizzlies, FNGs, Hellbringers, androids. It's like someone just gathered every spare unit from around the system." Rafi pondered.
"Beats the shit outta me. At least we got that special gear from ONI."
Aeden yawned, then proceeded to check the straps, joints, motors, and hydraulics of his Security Variant SPI combat exoskeleton. He checked each slowly and carefully, paying much attention to detail. Then he checked the Omnitool on his left wrist. On the holographic screen a countdown timer could be seen. It showed "0h:1m:47s" on the display. He grumbled something about how time passes too fast. Lastly he put his helmet back on, and checked the speakers, microphone, the annexed Up-Armored (UA) plate on the helmet's brim, Hardened Uplink module (HUL) near his left ear, Command Network Module (CNM) near his right ear, and the figure-eight sunglass-like visor that fell from the brim of the helmet and landed near his nose. He checked each with a quick tap of his hand. His visor glowed a vibrant yellow, in contrast to his grey armor. Rafi also had the same color scheme on his armor.
"Hey Lieutenant, Sir, I have a question." It was Kat.
"Spit it out Private. Not much time till drop-off."
"Understood sir. So uh. We were wondering who would win in a fight, you or Bark...ouch!" Roberto had struck Kat in the arm, after leaning over the panicked Piotr. This was on behalf of Rosenda, who couldn't reach Kat herself, and would've severely injured her had she actually struck Kat, but was very irritated and had signaled to Roberto. Roberto now had a chance to speak and possibly claim his five credits.
"What Kat was trying to say is that we were wondering if it was true that the Headhunters spend most of their time stuck in Covenant occupied territory on suicide missions?" Roberto questioned.
"Weeks with no supplies, no backup, and only two men. Survived by raiding Covey camps for supplies, accomplishing the mission, praying for evac, and... that's all you need to know...Private." A hint of venom could be heard from the LT in those last few words.
"But, you always succeeded, right? Spartans never die!" Roberto said, ignoring the slight animosity and mention of his rank.
"You're pretty damn talkative for private ain't ya? You should try talking like that to the Covenant, kid."
"But...But, sir, is that what Headhunter missions were like?"
"Well, Private Roberto...no." He yawned again. "Actually you sort of gave me a good segway." Philip, Roberto, Shea, and Kat all looked at each other. Aeden-G212 raised his voice so that the whole shuttle could hear. "Ladies and Gentlemen of the UNSC. I'm ain't gonna sugar coat it, there will be casualties today. It's the cruel, unavoidable truth of war." He paused. "However, there are two questions you should be asking yourselves right now!" Aeden's Omnitool display showed 0h:0m:30s and dropping. "One, how well can you limit the casualties on our side by working as a strong, cohesive unit?" The Pelican began to descend rapidly. The fight was about to begin. "And two... how severe can you make 'their' casualties?" He said with a crooked smile under his helmet.
The five minute ETA passed all too briefly, much to the soldiers' dismay. The sound of the roaring engines and blaring music were abruptly halted as the Pelicans dropped down to the sand, and hovering only a few inches up. Outside the Pelican, on the ground ahead of the beachhead, dark and tall figures were scattered among the trees.
The Covenant, an alien conglomerate that waged war against humanity twenty-seven years prior, were superior technologically to humanity. They have a hyper-religious society that prioritizes religious fervor and intolerance. And they detest heretics, which is what they believe humans to be, as they also believe humans to be weak-willed and easily conquerable. Now imagine their surprise as a small human army, five platoons strong, dropped in undetected right in front of them. To say that they were taken off-guard by the human surprise attack was an understatement.
Unfortunately for the Marines, there happened to be a Covenant patrol right in front of their landing zone. They have now lost their element of surprise. Confusion spread like a virus amongst both sides. Initial sensor readings couldn't pick up this patrol, since these were Covenant scouts, and therefore wore stealth technology as a consequence. On the flip-side, the Covenant couldn't tell, at first, how many humans were attacking them due to the rising sun at the Pelicans' backs. They sprinted around looking for cover, others, the daring ones, ran for advantageous positions to place their anti-personnel guns. Most were blown away by the Pelican's guns, and the Marines' fire. The rest of the Covenant headed deeper the forest. Ironic, the advanced aliens species was running for cover in a primitive forest.
However, let's go back a few moments prior, before the violence began. After Aeden's quick speech was over, the Pelican that Aeden and company were riding in, whose callsign was "Oldboy," descended directly to the landing zone. Once Oldboy landed, the tree-line, soon to buzz with confused activity, temporarily stood still. The troops piled out. Aeden stayed by the door, screaming "Move-it!" repeatedly to the outgoing marines, and moving his arm in a small windmill motion. However, one marine's mind was ablaze with negative activity. 'Panic, no hope, death, give up, surrender or die, stay in Pelican, safe, Covenant kill... for fun. Staying is better.' These were the thoughts of Piotr.
"I'm not going, I can't, I'm not going, I'm not going..." Piotr repeatedly yelled out loud, whilst sobbing inside the fuselage. He had stayed seated the whole time, and was still clutching the cross in his right hand, close to his heart.
Aeden turned around after all the other troops left out the door. He marched towards the cowering man, which he couldn't help but notice.
"Not going, hah. Like hell you're not!" He said as he squeezed Piotr's right arm, yanking him out to the sand outside. Roberto happened to be their, frozen in place. As a matter of fact, all the marines that piled out of Aeden's ship, stood still. They all stared at the shadows in the tree line. Aeden, after throwing Piotr to the ground next to him, noticed what they were staring at. The lieutenant pressed his Omnitool, and all the local soldiers heard a low beep. Piotr's eyes widened at the horrific sight he had been dreading this whole time, the enemy. The silver chain part of his necklace, which he still clutched, had been broken when Aeden yanked his arm. Aeden crouched slowly, while sending orders via his Omnitool. Most orders were general to his whole platoon, some were for individual groups within the platoon, and one message was for the whole Company. "We've been compromised."
Suppressing fire was the first thing to occur. Marines like Philip and Roberto lit up the tree-line, as did Rosenda who carried a SAW. This was to buy time for the engineers to use explosives to make instant foxholes for the platoon. Oldboy too joined the fray by slowly elevating whilst firing its bow mounted machine gun, blowing several of the covenant away. All three occurrences were per Lieutenant Lachlan's orders. Amongst the craziness, a large chunk of soldiers, including Aeden, ducked down as a non-human projectile ripped by. The Covenant explosive erupted right next to the Pelican that dropped them off, aka Oldboy. Aeden was thrown back a few yards, as was Piotr, who had just gotten up and was attempting to crawl away. Luckily, both had landed in a hole in the beach. Aeden cringed as his earpiece groaned with the shrieks of the startled pilots.
"Shit! What the fuck was that?" The first pilot quickly questioned.
"A fucking Banshee, that's what!" The second responded.
"Crap, Rafi that. Lieutenant Thermopa, we are breaking off to pursue the enemy fighter."
"Copy that, good hunting boys." Aeden replied, staring at the Pelican from the makeshift foxhole he found himself in. With that the Pelican's engine's blared and Oldboy lifted and turned. The afterburners fired and the Pelican jetted away, Machine Guns blaring after the Banshee Ground support craft. 'This is strange, why were there Banshees here?' Aeden thought. Initial reports said that there should only be the AA Battery and some ground-based defenders. Some soldiers began to cheer, not because Oldboy had risen away, but because the second half of Lieutenant Lachlan's platoon had arrived. Aeden sent some more orders via his Omnitool, but something drew his attention downward. There was a small silver object in front of him.
"Got damnit Private, put your fucking cross away." Aeden said as he threw the cross at Piotr's chest. Piotr didn't say a word.
A series of high pitch beeps poked the inside of Aeden Lachlan's platoon's ears. Signifying that not only were Ali's, and Hoffman's platoons converging on Aeden's position, but the LOKI droids of the second wave were here. Another Pelican landed a few yards from Rosenda's squad. Out came 15 Droids, all wearing the same blank-white face, pouring out behind the Pelican. However, before the droids could pop out fully, a lump of plasma, about the size of a small boulder, hurled itself at the Pelican. It struck the Pelican in the cockpit, killing the pilots and several LOKI droids around the craft, and destroying all of the reamining LOKIs inside in the subsequent explosion. The remaining LOKIs all began firing into the tree line, and it seemed they mercilessly killed the hidden Fuel Rod carrying Grunt, with their sustained fire. As if in response, several pieces of plasma about the size of old earth baseballs flew toward the remaining LOKIs, killing them instantly.
Some fast-moving bird-like Kig-Yar "Skirmishers" were skipping around from tree to tree, trying to wreak havoc on any unlucky soldiers nearby. They were the ones that just killed the LOKIs. A few unfortunate marines, who were too close to the tree-line, got dismembered and decapitated by the Skirmishers' trademark - shield-like - Point Defense Gauntlets, which could be used as weapons. Another member of Aeden's platoon, Shea, sped past Aeden and Piotr and unleashed a jet-like torrent of fire over 100 meters in length. He doused most nearby Skirmishers in the concoction of volatile semi-liquid fuel from his flamethrower. Two other Hellbringers joined Shea, igniting the tree-line, also per Aeden's orders. The other Skirmishers scouts retreated into the forest to join their buddies.
"Ha, I love the smell of Napalm in the morning!" Shea exclaimed.
"It's not napalm, ya stupid pyro, its more like a mixture of kerosene and various other chemicals to compensate atmospheric and gravitational conditions, you should know this..." Shouted Phil.
"Shut up Phil, nobody asked you." Shea replied.
"Don't let those Covies escape, they'll alert the defenders of the AA Batteries that we're here." Shouted Aeden over the radio.
Back in the air, the Oldboy was now in a high speed aerial chase over the battlefield. The Banshee was fast, but it was a ground support vessel. The angular Pelican had the in atmosphere advantage, and it was using it. Swept wing, it was, with two propellers inside the wings for vertical lift, and four high powered jet engines in the sides and back for forward propulsion. Nevertheless, the first pilot, who was primarily in charge of of flying the Pelican, was pushing the craft to its limits, cutting the turns tight, and trying his best to give his gunner, the second pilot, a clear shot. The second pilot, was focusing on aiming his Machine Gun. As he looked through his gun camera, he began to stare the beachhead below him. He saw the clearing littered with soldiers, bloodstains, disemboweled and limbless corpses, burnt carcasses of the unlucky covenant forces and soldiers, men with flamethrowers, the signature muzzle flashes of the standard issue marine assault rifles, and the remnants of the Covenant forces firing at the storming humans, Spartans, and droids. The gunner snapped out of his stupor and focussed on the sky. The dogfight was on. The other Pelicans were engaged in either ground support for the other platoons or were destroyed. Now the gunner finally had alignment with his gun on the Banshee. He wished he had missiles, but they needed to save weight for the marines.
"...We need some help down here Oldboy, can you give us some air support?" Aeden asked on the comms.
"Negative, we're a little busy up here." The pilot replied.
"I got this." The gunner muttered to himself, as he held his breath. The gunner aimed at the heart of the enemy's engines. He squeezed the trigger, and unleashed thousands of angry pieces of lead that ripped through the air to its target. Smoke erupted from the round and purple enemy aircraft and it fell. A sigh of relief escaped from both pilots' mouths. This was too soon however, because over the horizon, five more Banshees appeared. It was a trap.
Six more Covenant soldiers revealed themselves in front of the treeline, and were gunning at Aeden's platoon. They had each hidden behind a tree, biding their time before erupting when the time was right. These were special, as they were not the same as the scouts that the marines had fought prior, although, Aeden assumed they must've been part of the same patrol. These Covenant, were big, bulky, heavily armored, and armed with large plasma repeaters that decimated the marines. They were nicknamed "Elites," and they were of the Zealot rank. In "Elite" society, the higher the rank, the better the armor, shields, and weapons they were given, and Zealots were equivalent to Generals.
The remaining Covenant scouts, had retreated into the forest, and Aeden could only guess they were going to report the invasion to their superiors. At this point, half of the entire marine company under the command of Colonel Williams was wiped out. Only 64 of the first wave remained. The LOKIs, who originally had around half the numbers as the marine company, due to their lack of armor had whittled down to a mere twenty, as predicted. Ducking in his foxhole, Aeden could only shoot at one of the oncoming Elites, as his line of sight was limited due to his foxhole. He told 2nd Lieutenant Dignus to lay down several deployable covers to protect the rest of the marines and Spartans. Using his engineering Omnitool, he launched a handful of small grey boxes with several small red streaks, one at a time in a line in front of the marines. These boxes assembled themselves into 9-ft high walls of plasma in front of several nearby foxholes. This allowed the designated marksmen, like Kat, take potshots at the large covenant Elites from behind the safety of cover. Aeden assessed the situation. A trench was forming, and he didn't like it. Only one idea formed in his head. Plan A failed, their surprise attack was no longer a surprise, only plan B remained.
"Oldboy, are you still in the air?" Silence. "Can you provide air support now?" Aeden asked on the comms. At first static was his response, but as he looked up at the sky, he saw explosions, from both human and Covenant aircraft. The five Banshees had thrashed the remaining Pelicans. Even though the Pelicans had superior offensive capabilities and armor, they were at the end of the day, troop transports. Of the twenty Pelicans that transported the first two waves of soldiers and LOKIs, only two remained. Of those two, Oldboy was not one of them. Twelve were destroyed in air by the Banshees, and six were destroyed by the Covenant ground forces.
"Goddamnit!" Aeden said as he rammed a fist into the sand. Suddenly, a loud boom could be heard above, followed by a steadily increasing swooshing noise. A smoking Banshee was falling from the sky, and was aimed towards the beach. To the all the soldiers' joint surprise, it crashed into an Elite east of Aeden's position, and subsequently a large fireball erupted, spewing heat and shrapnel in all directions. Aeden was firing at an Elite, but quickly turned to hide behind a deployable cover in lieu of the explosion. A Pelican quickly followed, swooped in low, and hovered in front of another Elite, guns blazing. The Elite was reduced to purple swiss cheese. The Pelican turned towards the other Elites and quickly ripped them apart as well. Aeden used this opportunity to his advantage, and ordered the elimination of the final Covenant forces. He himself personally executing the last of the Elite Zealots with a well placed headshot as it attempted to retreat. The soldiers cheered. This skirmish was over. Now the men had a chance to lick their wounds, regroup, and enact plan B.
"Hey Rafi. Can you perform some field repair on some of these droids?"
"I'll see what I can do Aeden." Rafi replied.
"Thank you Rafi."
Aeden took this chance to look around. A small silver object caught his eye.
"PFC Piotr, god-damnit, what the hell did I say…" Aeden cut himself off as he saw a body. It was a few feet away from the cross, and the sand around it was stained red. Piotr was dead, stabbed in the heart by shrapnel from the crashed Banshee. It appeared he was crawling to a foxhole. Aeden sighed as he walked over to the body, grabbing the Piotr's dog tags, and closing the man's eyes. He then turned, and walked a few steps over, and picked up Piotr's cross, with the intent of giving it to his relatives. He placed the cross in the same pocket as Piotr's dog tags, so that he wouldn't forget. Meanwhile, the deployable covers deactivated themselves and the engineers began to collect them as the marines were gathering.
"Lieutenant, sir, Tech Sargeant Rosenda-A344 reporting." Rosenda ran up.
"I remember you. Yes, what is it Rosenda?" Aeden replied.
"My squad's radio man reported to me." Rosenda took a deep breath, and she lowered her SAW below her waist. "He told me that Barker-B049 and Amenson's platoons are wiped out, Hoffman-G205 is MIA and his remaining soldiers have arrived here with us, Ali-A168 is KIA and his platoon suffered heavy casualties, and, to top it all off, Colonel Williams was hit, but he's still alive and talking."
"Ok, we're going to meet with the survivors then. See what the Colonel says. What's his position?" Aeden asked.
"One click west sir." Rosenda replied swiftly.
Aeden, then tapped a button on his Omnitool. "Ok, attention all members of my platoon, Hoffman's platoon, and any local LOKIs. We are gonna clean up our section of beach here, then move on to the Colonel's position, and receive further orders. We will link up with Ali's forces on the way. Collect as many dog tags as you can. Engineering core, I want you to report to Second Lieutenant Dignus, see what you can scavenge, and repair any droids you can."
The troops began to move out. It didn't take long for Rafi and the remains of the Engineering core to repair a few droids. Enough to make a difference, at least in Rafi's mind.
"Sir, permission to speak freely?" Rosenda asked as the group began to march.
"Yes Tech Sargeant?" Aeden replied.
"Why...why do you think Command allocated Spartans like us to these units? And I've never even heard of the Headhunters like you and your friend, until you were given command. And I'm from Alpha company so I should be on the up and up too." Rosenda asked in a curious tone.
"I think Command did it by necessity. They probably calculated that this beach was one of few good locations we could attack from. Assessed what spare units were nearby, like us, and threw in whatever resources they had left. Maybe we were the only units around with enough experience and rank, maybe they're running low on officers. Or maybe there's something more to this mission. I know as much as you." He paused for a moment. "As for the Headhunters, I still can't tell you much, but before this mission began, I was resting quite nicely in a cryo-tube, got woken up, was told I need to lead some troops on a mission, now here I am. Heh, this is my first non-suicide mission in a while." He paused again to sigh. "Ya know. Frankly, between you and me I don't like command all that much, I prefer working alone, or in small group."
"Do you really think it was that simple, that they just grabbed the resources they could? And they just expected you to take to command well?" Rosenda asked.
"Hell, I have no idea. I'm here to do a job, and I'll do it. These questions are more for Rafi." Aeden replied in a lighthearted tone. Turning his head towards Rosenda he continued. "Please don't put my ability to lead into question. I may not like it, but it doesn't in any way mean I'm unqualified. Just ask Rafi about some of my missions." His tone changed to a more serious one.
"Understood sir, whatever you say."
"Oh, and Rose, you can drop the sir. We're both Spartans, and we're deep in the shit now." Aeden stated bluntly, his tone returning to lighthearted once more.
"Understood."
"Hear my words Rosenda, we will complete this mission, no matter what. You wanna know why?"
"Why?"
"'Cause I'm pissed off." Aeden stated, removing his helmet and looking at Rosenda with a smirk. Rosenda was taken aback by his smile, which held back a combination of blind fury and pure excitement.
She felt somewhat comforted by his words though. She looked at the way he walked. He walked in front of his men, with a posture and a strut that emanated an impossible amount of confidence. Rosenda, impressed, turned around and returned to her squad, which only had Phil, Shea, Roberto, and Kat remaining. Roberto was still alive, but he was limping, as his thigh had been scraped by a lump of plasma. Phil ran over to Roberto and held him up for support.
"Roberto, you still combat ready?" Rosenda asked.
"Yes ma'am, I don't care how many painkillers or stims you gotta give me. Just keep me in the fight." Roberto pleaded.
"Fine, just don't slow us down. We need everyone at 100%. Kat, patch him up."
"Ugh, ok." Kat said, like a pouty child. "Oh Rosenda, what was it like to talk to the Lieutenant?"
"Yeah. Ouch, watch it Kat. Did you find out anything more about the Headhunters?" Asked the injured Roberto.
"No, but talking to him was interesting." Rosenda replied thinking over the LT's words.
Back in the front of the group, Rafi had caught up to Aeden.
"Lock, reporting in from engineering." Rafi stated.
"Yes?" Aeden asked.
"We've completed repairs to 9 droids. All men and women that are walking, they're weapons and omnitools are fully functional. The deployable covers are still fully functional, and in the short timespan, I was even able to revive 12 more LOKIs." Rafi stated eagerly.
"Impressive as always Rafi." Aeden congratulated.
"Thank you 'A.'"
"All right Marines, double time it!" Aeden yelled at the remaining 36 men and women. The group of soldiers, droids, and Spartans took off at a small trot down the beach. However in the moment, their "trot" was a fast sprint. They reached a strong, upbeat pace, even though the marines had suffered casualties. They had faith in their Lieutenant. The Lieutenant, in the meantime, was trying to place faith in the plan B that command had given him. Unfortunately for Aeden's soldiers, what they would see when they reached the Colonel's group was...less than upbeat.
-Author's Notes:
Hello all,
Thank you for taking the time to read my second chapter. Chapter 6 is in the works and all will be complete by next weekend. I will try to write the most I can between work and my social life, however, college has started up again for me, it will be difficult for me to continue writing, but I will do the best I can.
If you are interested in the story I am trying to tell, show your support by leaving a helpful comment or review, and thank you for all the helpful comments I've received so far.
Thanks,
KILLERm12
