Rating has changed from M to T, if needs be I will change it back. This story is actually a rewrite of an older version of something I wrote a few years back, but with the release of the books Ghosts of Onyx and Contact: Harvest as well as Halo 3, particularly the way that story arch ended, meant that the original had inconsistencies and outright mistakes
Chapter 3 is here!
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0948
HOURS, SEPTEMBER 18TH, 2563 (MILITARY CALENDER)\
USNC SUPER
CARRIER - SPEAR OF FIRE – BRIDGE
TARGET SYSTEM: EPSILON ERIDANI,
PLANET: REACH
Reach was once the proudest of Earth's colonies, the UNSC had a mighty presence here. The only position more heavily defended then Reach was Earth herself; that had changed eleven years ago. Three hundred and sixteen ships of the Covenant came, and one of the most titanic battles of the Great War was fought. UNSC engaged the Covenant ships with one hundred and fifty-two ships, and an additional twenty heavy MAC cannon armed Orbital Defence Platforms, able to kill a Covenant ship with a single shot. The battle was strung out for hours, from extreme range until at close range the fifty remaining UNSC desperately tried to defend the surviving Orbital Defence Platforms, but ultimately this was futile. Although the Covenant had lost two thirds of their fleet, the UNSC was down to their last vessel, the Pillar of Autumn. The single ship fled, with half of the Covenant fleet following close behind, whilst the rest began to orbit Reach, burning all human existence off the planet with plasma fire, melting the land and boiling the seas. The Battle of Reach had signalled the last of the titanic battles of the Great War, as during the course of her escape, the Pillar of Autumn discovered the first Halo Array. Events set into action there, brought about the fracturing of the Covenant and the end of the war. Reach was now just a cold, lifeless glass orb hanging in space. The debris from that last battle, had been towed away into a high orbit by the Covenant, as they frantically attempted to find their "Holy" Forerunner relic. Since then, the debris had slowly drifted apart, dragging cold, broken war ships around the orbital lanes. Now a dust cloud had settled around the planet, an inconsistent spattering of dead hulks, twisted metal and the unrecovered bodies of countless crew members.
The bridge doors slid open, and the six Spartans walked into the room. Helmets on, the teenagers looked like any standard marine, except the armour they were wearing was far more advanced. The Hollow mark IV training armour was designed to be worn at all times. The unique design of it, allows it to be worn even as the wearer grew, stretching itself around the body. It is called Hollow because the suit has no built in components, aside standard fittings. It still increases the speed and strength of the user, and can be given extra equipment; attachable shield generators, stealth generators, field surgery kits, tactical map projectors. The helmets were originally taken from Orbital Drop Shock Trooper armour, standard gear for the hell-jumpers, an elite branch of the UNSC Marine Corps, which uses drop-pods fired from orbit, to land either behind or on top of enemy lines. Standing in a line, the Spartans looked imposing and some of the bridge crew shifted uncomfortably in their seats. All of them were wearing their helmets, only Michael spoke, "Reporting as ordered ma'am." Heart looked away from the view screen, watching as Michael removed his helmet. "We have reached our target and now I'm going to inform you of your objective." she said, walking over to the sensor wall, the Spartans following. Scan information flashed along the screen, Heart selected the planet and the image zoomed in. "Hammer, take us into an orbit, as close as you can. Bentus, found the target site yet?" she said without turning round. The ship began to move forward, turning towards the ruined planet. "It would be easier to scan the planet without all that debris floating pell mell." With white lines of code running frantically up and down his body, Bentus had his eyes closed in concentration. Suddenly they snapped open, eyes darting to the sensor screen, "Got it, behind the wreck of the Trafalgar. It's on the surface of the planet, putting it up for you now." As he uttered the words, a portion of the sensor image zoomed in, showing a large bunker embedded within the melted ground. "It looks like a standard research lab, half buried in the glass." he added. Heart contemplated the image for a moment. "Okay, Spartans. This is your objective. You are to infiltrate this facility, remaining undetected. Gather any intel you can, and withdraw." She turned to face the six, adding "It does sound like a job for Purple team, but I need Blue and Red on this one as well, just in case." Just in case, Michael thought, meaning that you might know what is in there, but either can't or won't tell us. "Understood ma'am," he said out loud, "Sarah go choose one of your team, you know them the best, meet Ricky and myself in the starboard hanger in twenty minutes." She nodded quickly leaving the bridge, as the bridge doors sealed shut behind her Michael continued, "Louise, I want you and four of your team there as well, prepping a second drop ship, if things go bad, I want you to assist." Louise stepped briskly until she left the bridge, then running to catch up to Sarah. "Carter, I want you planning the insertion, work with the ship's AI to get the most from the sensors." Carter acknowledging, strode over to the tactical station. "Cassidy, you're on standby for this one, but be ready for any possible casualties when we get back." She responded with a thumb up, clicking on her suit radio to inform her team. "Ricky, you and I will head straight to the hanger via the armoury, it is only three decks down" Michael said, snapping off a salute to Heart, turned to leave, Ricky falling in step behind him. Heart was always amazed to see Michael on duty. Whenever he wasn't in command, he seemed like a normal fifteen year old. It was hard for her to believe that he had killed numerous humans and hundreds of Remnant soldiers by the time he was nine. Heart watched them leave then returned to her seat.
Five minutes after they had left the bridge, Sarah and Louise arrived in the cargo bay, ninety Spartans stood before them, snapping to attention as they entered. Louise made a bee-line for her team, all fully armoured and armed. "Bentus, can you send me the schematics for the installation?" she requested of the ship's AI, clicking on her radio. Within seconds the scan data was flashing along her retina. Flicking through the information, she made her choices, "Jessica, Marcus, Darren and Laura; breaching load out, my location, five minutes." At her words, five of the assembled troops broke formation to gather their weapons. Sarah simply looked over her team, muttering until she chose one. "Payne, you're with me on this one, you got five minutes to gear up." Payne stepped forward from the group, his blue eyes fixed on hers as he replied "Yes ma'am." Turning on the spot, he set off to collect his equipment.
A further five minutes passed, Ricky and Michael arrived at one of the ships many standard armouries. "What do you think?" Ricky asked, as he hefted a 50. calibre machine gun, pretending to sweep along a line of targets. "Overcompensating," Michael replied tartly, "This is a recon; we need to be silent, with the option to be noisy. "So basically, we need to be quick, in and out?" smirked Ricky. Michael picked up two sub-machine guns, grabbing suppression nozzles for them both. He turned, placing the small weapons into thigh holsters, and began to watch Ricky viewing the rifles with awe, the aged design of the assault rifle used through most of the Great War, the MA5B, long since replaced with a more compact version, the MA5C. Grabbing the rifle, Ricky attached a silencer, and placed extra clips along his belt. Ricky turned to him, a puzzled look upon his face, "Grenades?" he ventured, Michael raised an eyebrow, and returned with "Stun only", before walking out of the armoury, with Ricky stuffing his pockets behind him.
Ten minutes later, ten Spartans stood next to two Pelican type VI drop-ships. Designed for stealth insertions, the drop-ships were flatter and sleeker then their normal cousins. Their muffled engine ports focus the thrust, increasing speed and trapping heat, storing it within the ship's black hull. While only a temporary ability, it gave the drop ship enough time to fly through a sensor net, and enter a planet's atmosphere. Equipped with components engineered straight from Covenant Phantom transports, the ships can cloak, reflecting all light around it, rendering it nearly invisible for a short period. "Okay, we load up" ordered Michael, as he climbed into the rear hatch of the first drop ship. Sarah, Payne and Ricky followed him in. Louise and her team followed suit into the second of the ships. Sitting behind the controls, Sarah patched into the ships comm. system, watching through the front viewscreen as Jessica took the controls on the other ship, she clicked on her radio, "Spear command, spear command, this is gamma-24, requesting permission to leave the hanger, over." As she waited for a reply, Sarah fired up the engines, the ship hovering in midair above the deck. Heart replied personally, "Gamma-24, this is spear command, Spear-1 speaking. You have a go, repeat, you have a go." Gunning the engines forward, Sarah slid the ship towards the opening hanger doors. "Copy that spear command, gamma-24 out." The doors slid open, coming to an abrupt halt, and the two drop ships slid out, thrusting towards the waiting debris cloud. "Sarah, activate the camouflage. If someone IS down there we don't want to be seen until we can get close enough to do something about it." Pressing a button on the control board, the camouflage generator whined as it was fed power. Slipping past, Jessica signalled to confirm all was operational, before activating her own cloak. Sarah watched as the ship began to shimmer, slipping and sliding out of focus as if underwater. The distorted sight slowly turned transparent and eventually vanished completely, Sarah, clicking her microphone, returned the favour to Jessica. Both ships then slid silently through the empty vacuum of space, dashing ever closer to the dead world.
1006
HOURS, SEPTEMBER 18TH, 2563 (MILITARY CALENDER)\
INCUBUS RESEARCH
LAB
SYSTEM: EPSILON ERIDANI, PLANET: REACH
The room was dark, just the way he preferred. He disliked staring at the world outside his office window. Or rather, what was left of a world. The only piece of land that wasn't glass or ash was what remained of Manachite Mountain. The Covenant seemed more than willing to remove the mountain from their sights, but didn't glass what remained. What was there now was an ancient Forerunner complex, found thirty years ago by human miners, working to excavate the abundance of titanium that Reach was originally colonised for. The Office of Naval Intelligence had shut down the site, and set up a base of operations, using the mountain itself as the first line of protection. Not that the other measures had helped when the Covenant inevitably came knocking. They removed the mountain and sent troops through the network of tunnels that made up what was left of the ONI Section III CASTLE base. He had chosen to entrench his research on this world, for the debris cloud floating above obstructed the light from the distant star, Epsilon Eridani. A light began to flicker on his screen. He ignored it, but it failed to cease, so he forcibly pressed the button, a thin, tinny voice echoing through the room, "Forgive me Admiral, but I think you should know, the Spear of Fire has just arrived in high orbit..." the voice paused, waiting for a response. The man sat there for a moment, mulling carefully over his reply. "Any other activity?" he ventured. The voice instantly replied, "They opened their hanger doors, but we are not sure if any ships were launched," it told him, "two signatures were detected, but promptly vanished within seconds of each other." So, thought the man, she came alone, and brought the make-believe soldier brats with her... He waited a few more seconds, and then ordered, "Prepare for possible intruders, post guards at any and all entry points, E.V.A and otherwise." The tinny voice was about to respond, but was cut off as the man hit the button, irritated that what was about to happen, had to happen so soon. She had always been good at interrupting him, throughout their careers she had always managed to one-up him. Well not this time, now it was his turn to outshine her. "Golgotha," he said, and a holo-projector in the ceiling flickered into life, shining the figure of a robed creature, blood-red and eyes aflame with malice, "Wake them, and prepare them as a welcoming gift should our newly arrived...friends... manage to breach the compound, the fact of which I have no doubt." The burning eyes blinked, and a deep, rumbling voice hissed a reply, "It is done, they wake." Promptly, the projector died, and the visage vanished. Darkness returned to the room and, thankful for it, the man closed his eyes and continued to bask in it.