Pinkpower: True and goddamn it! Jun went with Dr Halsey to Castle Base on Reach. She survived and escaped with Jun and other personnel.
Monkeylikespie: There is a method to my madness.
John Brazil/GhostHornet: Maybe . . .
So my plan for the plot was to time jump to Jaune's return to Remnant, however that won't happen. Instead, I'm gonna spend a few chapters on his time with Fireteam Sealth, both to give them some more story to them as well and to show Jaune's reaction to the Covenant, however I'm not sure if the Flood will be in this story.
-Slipspace, 2875-
"So you're our new number five?" Nat asked.
"I guess I am." Jaune said.
"Well Rookie, welcome to Fireteam Stealth, we're a recon unit mostly, so get used to being quiet." Matt said.
"That's coming from the guy who loves explosives." Alfon said. Everyone simply chuckled.
"Alright, everyone settle down. Yes he's our number five till ONI says other wise. In the meantime, you're gonna earn your Spartan title and maybe newer armor." Aaron said. "Now then introductions, I'm Aaron Freitag the team's leader. This is Matt McKnight, our heavy weapons and demo expert. That is Natasha Korhonen, the local sniper. And finally our medic, Alfon Juko."
Hello. Hey" They said back.
"I'm gonna guess you already know who I am?" Jaune asked.
"Yup, and let me be the first to welcome you to the UNSC." Matt.
"Alright, now that introductions are in order, our first mission with five here." Using a holo table behind him, a terrestrial world came on screen. "This is planet Arcadia, there a crash storm Battlecruiser on the surface, we are to recon the site and guide UNSC forces to any enemy strong points left." Due to Jaune history lessons with Yoda, he was very familiar with the current state of the known galaxy, including the Covenant, before and after. Aaron turned to Jaune. "We'll be dropping via the high atmosphere. We'll be HALO jumping."
"Oh, it's a while since we done one of those." Nat said.
"We drop at 1950 hours with the cover of dark."
Just as Aaron finished an AI avatar appeared in front of them, "Aren't you forgetting someone?"
"Oh sorry Friday, Jaune this our resident AI, Friday, Friday this is our new number five." Aaron said.
"Hey, aren't the guy we picked up on Remnant?" Friday asked.
"Yup." Jaune said.
Friday smirked, "Good, I'd like see that Aura of yours in action."
"Aura?" Alfon asked.
"Yeah, just about everyone on Remnant has one. Basically an Aura is a manifestation of one's soul, and it acts like an energy shield of sorts." Jaune then went on to explain semblances and the grimm.
"Not bad, do have a semblance?" Matt asked.
"No not yet, it may take time to activate." Jaune said.
"Alright, fair enough." Alfon said.
"So this grimm, anything we need to know that you know?" Nat asked.
"Don't stop shooting till they stop moving. Same as the Covenant and flood." Jaune said. Ok was the only thing that came from them.
"Thirty seconds till slipspace exit." Friday said. As they exit slipspace they see several disabled and/or destroyed Covenant ships along about twenty UNSC ships in orbit.
"UNSC forces caught about five already damaged Storm Covenant ships exiting slipspace. It was very one-sided. They didn't stand a chance." Friday said.
"What ships did they have?" Aaron asked.
"The downed battlecruiser was their heavy hitter." Friday.
"Damn, and there's a Valiant Super-Heavy Cruiser." Jaune said, then something clicked. "Wait, there a Valiant here?! Why?! Those ships command entire fleets."
"It is command a fleet. This area is crawling with Kig-Yar pirates and Storm Covenant. That ship, the Goliath, was command about twenty-five warships and three colony ships." Friday.
"I don't see any destroyed UNSC ships, were are the other five?" Alfon asked.
"They are another planet in system. However Rear Admiral Masin is waiting for us." Friday said.
"Understood." Aaron said. After docking with Goliath, the five Spartans head to the bridge to receive mission details. The battlecruiser was downed in a prewar city that wasn't glassed. The ship broke into three pieces during reentry, on at the north end of the city was already secured by UNSC forces. The second piece landed in a large lake, since it was underwater it was useless. The third and largest piece of the ship was in the southern part of the city with the largest concentration of Covenant contacts. However their numbers are unknown, that was Fireteams Sealth's mission: how large was the Covenant force and what kind of heavy support did they have that survived the crash?
"So, that simple huh?" Matt asked to no one in particular.
"Yes it is." Aaron said. After returning to the hanger, they boarded a pelican to make the HALO jump. "Hope you don't mind flying."
"I'm ecstatic." Jaune with tons of sarcasm.
"Quit your whining five, better get used to flying." Nat said.
"No prob three." Jaune said back. After about five minutes of flight the feeling of turbulence of atmospheric entry. Jaune's stomach was not happy at all.
"Here. Take these." Alfon said, giving Jaune some pills. "These are motion sickness pills."
"Thanks two." Jaune said, with his motion sickness subsiding.
"Thirty seconds! Helmets and chutes on!" Aaron yelled. Yelled after about thirty seconds of flight, the door at the back of the pelican opened. Outside, the sky was dark, however the grounds around the city was lit with the lights of both UNSC and Storm troops. The UNSC far out numbered the Storm. About fifty years ago, UNSC marines received a massive upgrade, energy shield, granted they were nowhere near the strength of Spartan shields, they could take a few plasma or needler shots. So needless to say, the Storm were fucked, and they knew it.
"So, any words of prayer?" Alfon asked.
"Well, if the covies want to meet their god, then let's them." Matt. said. "So who's gonna buy the drinks this time?"
"You ask, you buy." Natasha said. Matt simply shrugs.
"Let me guess, he bought last time?" Jaune asked.
"Nope, that would've been me." Alfon said.
"That must've sucked." Jaune said.
"Ehh, it's not that bad." Alfon said.
"I'll take your word for it." Jaune said.
"Alright cut the chatter, we jump in ten, nine, eight, seven, five." Everyone stacks up. "Four, three two, one!" Everyone jumps from the pelican and nose dives to the ground.
"I see a large and remote landing point, top of that skyscraper." Natasha said.
"Which one? The one on the left of the right?" Aaron asked.
"One on the left." Natasha said.
"Isn't that one still being repaired or something?" Alfon asked.
"Looks like some is left, but the roofs open. Nice and open too." Jaune said.
"Alright everyone, that's what we aim for." Aaron said. After another thirty seconds of falling the five Spartans deploy their chutes slowing their descent to land quietly. "Spread out, kept comms to minimum. Five and three, check the elevator shafts, we'll use them to descend down the tower."
Jaune and Alfon begin checking the elevator shafts around them, while the rest of the team looks around the landing site. "These two are no go, what about yours five?" Alfon asked.
"This one maybe, there's an elevator about halfway up. Other ones no go as well" Jaune said.
"It'll have to do. Get ready to descend. Five with me, we're going down first." Aaron said.
"Copy that." Jaune then holsters his assault rifle and grabs one the elevator cables. "What's the weight limit on one of these things?"
"About two tons each. As long the cables aren't damaged." Friday said.
"Alright, here we go." Jaune said. Internally he was praying to someone that the cables would hold his weight. Thankfully his trust was well founded, he and Aaron slide down the cables with little difficulty. Aaron then indicated to open the hatch on the top of the elevator which he did. Aaron was the first in elevator.
"Aaron come in." Natasha said.
"Go ahead."
"We have a large group of Covenant about five hundred meters away. As well as an entry point into the ship above them." Natasha said.
"Copy that, five get down here." Jaune was already behind him. "Two and three get down, four follow up."
"Got movement ahead." Jaune said.
"Find cover." Aaron said. After about ten seconds a group of civilians rounded the corner.
"You sure you heard something?" One asked.
"I'm sure man. I wanna get outta here." Another one said.
Aaron nodded at Jaune, then they revealed themselves. "UNSC Spartans, identify yourselves!" The group was clearly startled by the two spartans.
"Foreman Charles Jackson, we've been trapped here since the Covenant crashed in the city." Charles said.
"How many are with you?" Aaron asked.
"About one hundred people, most are too sick or hurt to move." Charles said. By this point the rest of the Spartan team arrived down the elevator shaft. "We were hoping to get some of the more sick and injured out."
"Well, I'm sorry, but that's not an option, we jumped onto the building. Our transport fell off." Aaron said. This clearly crushed their hopes, "We have people that need to be moved now, if they don't."
Alfon then stepped forward. "Let look at some of them, I'm this teams medic."
"Go for it." Aaron said. "Link up with us near the supermarket."
"Copy that." Alfon said. The rest of the team was guided out of the building by some of the workers. While they were leaving Aaron was reporting the civilians position to command, they were going to send an armored force to get them out.
After about ten minutes of moving through the city, they arrived at the supermarket, about one meters from the ship. "Any access point from here?" Matt asked.
"Negative, two, can't see shit from here. Anything from your location three?" Jaune asked.
"Nope, not a damn thing. My spidey senses are tingling." Natasha said.
"Yeah, mine are too, though that might be my aura going off." Jaune said.
"Right, I forgot you had that thing. What can you see through walls or something like that?" Matt asked.
"No, it's more like a sixth sense. Wait movement, ten meters ahead, Covenant patrol, about ten to twenty grunts and five elites. Maybe some jackals, can't tell though." Jaune said.
"Yeah, I see the jackals about seven of them. Beams rifles, so watch yourselves." Natasha said.
"Alright everyone watch that patrol, find an entry point into the ship." Aaron said. After shadowing the patrol one of the grunts decided to turn around, at that very moment Jaune was moving into a set of cover.
"DEMONS! Demons behind us!" The rest of the patrol turned around to see the spartans.
"Kill them!" One of the elites yelled out. The firefight began with the spartans firing on the patrol killing several grunts and an elite. The remaining grunts charged forward with the elites and jackals finding cover. Natasha started picking off the jackals while the rest squad engages the grunts and elites on the ground. Jaune and Alfon take several hits but their shields were weakened while two elites were killed. Jaune turned a little to the left and fired at some grunts killing them near instantly. However he was taken back to the jackal problem when a beam of plasma zoomed right past his head.
"Another jackal, building north side, third floor."
"I see him, but he's not staying still." Natasha said.
"Five, go get him." Aaron said.
"Copy that." Jaune said as he ran into the building. As he approached the stairs leading up the jackal, he heard something behind him. When he turned around he was faced with the last thing anyone, spartan or otherwise would want to encounter at close quarters: hunters. Jaune didn't even have any time to think as he was shield bashed through the wall by one of the hunters.
"HUNTERS!"
"Fall back! Draw them out!" Aaron said.
"Easier said than done!" Jaune said, dodging another shield bash from the hunter pair. As he looked for a way out he saw the jackal trying to wisely get out. He used his spartan augments to jump up to the jackal at the same time pulling him down to the hunters. The jackal was bashed to the side and subsequently killed him. He continued to climb above the hunters with them trying to bring the building down on from under him. "Two whatever you do, don't shoot at the movement in the windows, that's gonna be me."
"Copy that, I see you." Natasha said.
"Coming out!" Jaune said as he thrown out the window.
"Welcome back five." Matt said.
"Shut up." Jaune said, he checked his shields. 'Damn, shields are at ten percent, aura took a hit to.' Inside his HUD, he had a special aura meter built into it, allowing him to check his aura levels. "So, how we gonna deal with the hunters." He looked around and saw the rest of the patrol was dead.
"We draw them out and surround them." Aaron then looked around. "Two, five get behind those cars, three stay where you are, four with me." After a minute the two hunters charged out looking for the spartan they were chasing. However seeing the two new spartans, they completely forgot about the first spartan and charged the two new spartans. Aaron and Alfon quickly dodged the two hunters. Natasha fired into the exposed back of one of the hunters, injuring it. It turned around looking for the sniper, however hit was hit in the back by the now exposed Jaune and Matt. Jaune was closing on the hunter with Matt readying his rocket launcher.
After waiting for the shot, Matt fired into the hunter exposed back, killing it instantly. The hunter instantly felt it's bond brother's death causing it to go into rage mode. After raging around for a few minutes it was finally killed. "Alright, regroup!" Aaron called out. After everyone regrouped they found an entry point. "Spread out and spread out. Our target is the bridge."
After moving through the ship for about ten minutes, they approached the ships bridge, then they heard noises. "The humans and their demons close on us, we must leave now shipmaster!"
"We cannot. They have control of the space around the planet, we lost our scrabs on entry, we don't have many wraiths left, and only some fighters and bombers." The shipmaster replied.
"Friday send that to command." Aaron said.
"Already done. They're telling us to engage." Friday said.
There was wordless command, the five spartans attacked the bridge surprising everyone there. Natasha downed the shipmaster instantly with the rest of the team firing on everyone else. After not even a minute of fighting the bridge crew several response teams, mostly made of grunts arrived to the bridge. From both sides comms and the explosions outside, the UNSC forces clearly started their attack on the surviving Storm forces. What ever bridge crew could find cover and send commands to their ground forces. This didn't last long however, some well placed grenades and rockets cut communications off, throwing Storm forces in disarray.
The Storm forces on the bridge were slowly being cut down by the spartans. The response teams were all but dead with those that survived trying to flee. The spartans continued to push through the bridge, securing it. " Area secure sir." Matt said.
"Good, Friday how's the rest of the attack?" Aaron asked.
"Good, very good, Storm communications are down, so their coordination was dissolved. Only token resistance is being put up." Friday said.
"Good." Aaron then turned back to Jaune. "Not bad today rookie. Got some work though."
"He did survive a close quarters contact with a hunter pair." Natasha said.
"Crazy lucky bastard." Matt said. Now, let it be said if this was Jaune back at Beacon, he would've been embarrassed out of his mind, but now he could tell he'd changed. He was flustered or anything, just simply happy to survive his first mission.
"Alright everyone, regroup with UNSC forces, then we go back to the Birmingham." Aaron said.
After regrouping with UNSC forces, the fireteam headed back to their ship: UNSC Birmingham. A Majestic Class Prowler, designed specifically for Spartan Recon teams. Several training and sleeping areas, a mess hall and kitchen, restrooms, and a command center. Along with the necessary equipment to remove spartan armor.
After Jaune returned to the ship, he felt something off, something was gnawing at him, Jun described this as something along the lines of survivor's guilt, only this was guilt for leaving his old life and friends behind. There was one thing he had though, a picture his team and Ruby's team after they killed the deathstalker and nevermore after the initiation.
As for his armor, he would have to earn more combat experience, time in the field. He was allowed to look at current armor types, he was also researching different weapons the UNSC encountered. The assault rifle got the job done, but it felt off in his hands, he needed a different weapon. He had thought about the Saw and railgun, however as a recon, those heavy weapons are better used for brute missions. He was also no marksman, so no Sniper rifle, DMR, and wait the battle rifle?
'Maybe that could work.' He made his decision, he went to look for the ship's armoury. After walking around he found it, inside he saw Matt cleaning his Saw. "Hey Jaune, whatcha need?"
"Battle rifle."
"Battle rifle?"
"The assault rifle gets the job done, but it doesn't feel right."
Matt chuckled at that, "Most guys don't like the older assault rifle, hell even some of the newer models they still don't like. You're not the first person to change weapons." He handed Jaune a battle rifle. "Here try it out."
He took aim down the range and fired off some rounds. 'Hmm, not single shot like the DMR, three round burst actually.' After adjusting his aim, he fired down range again, he kept doing this with him getting more accurate each time. He was satisfied.
"I like it."
"Good, we could use a shorter ranged marksman." Matt said.
"I'm no marksman." Jaune said.
"You are now boy." Matt said. Both simply chuckled, then something caught his eye.
"What is that?" He pointed to a weapon on the wall.
"Oh that baby." It was a spartan laser. "Did Jun not show one of these babies?"
"No he didn't."
"Shame. Can't use it in a ship this small. It'd tear a hole in the hull."
"Damn, back home these weapons are literally next generation weapons."
"Well, we'd have more of these, but the power draw is insane. I've modified this one a little bit, but it wastes about 50 percent of the total energy." (A/N Real life lasers have an energy waste of I think 60%. So yeah, not fun) "Oh, and if want some knife fights, talk to Natasha, she's one of the best knife fighters of our class."
"How good?"
"She able to hold her own against Jun."
"Damn."
Hey guys, so yeah the next chapters finally out! So this took far longer than I wanted. So yeah, I have some ideas were the plots gonna go in the short term as well as Jaune's return to Beacon. As for his armor, well, wait and see. I've also been thinking about a semblance for him.
