Chapter 2: Heavy Metal

INSURRECTION SHIP THE INTERCEPTER

MANY YEARS AGO

"And now the moment you've all been waiting for, from the far distant system of Sanghelios – I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly – the bad boys of Grifball: TEAM HERETIC!"

The sport announcer's voice on the computer rang out across the surveillance room, almost drowning out the sounds of the other monitors that were scanning the surrounding area. The Insurrectionist soldier on duty only half-glimpsed the screens as he watched the latest game on the United Nations Sport Network, though he should be on alert.

Several months had passed since the mysterious Freelancers had invaded their city, murdered their high-ranking official Rhee Sebiel, and stolen their most important find, the Sarcophagus. The leader of the Insurrectionists had warned them that the Freelancers might attack again and told them to keep an eye out for any unusual activity, though some people had a lot more on their minds.

With a yawn, the soldier stretched his arms back, folded them behind his head and placed his feet on the desk as he watched the screen showing the players entering the Grifball field, "And your home planet favorites: Slip-"

Suddenly the screen began to buzz with static, flicking through several channels before stopping at the desktop.

Then a soft electronic voice spoke up from next to the screen, "Excuse me."

The soldier jumped upright in his seat and turned to find a glowing green figure standing by the keyboard.

The figure looked very similar to a Spartan-II super soldier only it was five inches tall and it looked very annoyed, "I hate to intrude, but you have not performed any work in the past 13 minutes and 42 seconds. That strikes me as rather inefficient."

"Oh, uh sorry," the soldier stammered, getting onto the computer, "I was just trying to, uh... yeah, how do you get a new window? You know, like the, you know, like a new window, what's the button thing for that, you know?"

"I believe the keys you are looking for are Alt-Tab."

"Oh yeah, thanks, little guy," The soldier pressed the buttons and the screen changed to show the depths of space, "Wait, who are you? You don't look like the normal holo-projection."

"That is because I am the AI designated as Delta, from Project Freelancer."

"Wait, you're from Project Freelancer? I mean, aren't those... the bad guys?"

Delta gave a puzzled frown, "There is no need for name calling. I submit that Project Freelancer is neither good nor bad, much like your own forces. We are merely two groups dedicated to obtaining different results."

"Whoa, man," the soldier breathed, "That's... that's deep. It's like, it's like there's different universes but you know there's-"

Suddenly the soldier felt something grabbing the back of his neck and pulling his head back, and he found himself staring into the visor of a full-sized Spartan in tan armor with silver highlights.

"Don't encourage him," the Spartan warned, "He's already long-winded as it is."

With that, he slammed the soldier's head into the console, knocking him out, and then flipped him off the chair.

"Thank God," he sighed, sitting down by the computer, "I thought you two would never stop chit-chatting."

"I'm not sure that was entirely necessary, Agent York," Delta scolded, folding his arms, "He seemed open to the logic I presented him. Perhaps he would have allowed us to carry out our mission."

"Sorry I knocked out your new friend," York muttered sarcastically, "Now you two will never get to have a beer together."

"I believe that would have been unlikely, regardless."

York rolled his eyes, flinching at his damaged left one, as he worked on cracking the lock. Only a short time had passed since he'd been assigned Delta. The Director of the Project, Doctor Leonard Church, had informed York that he'd been chosen to house Delta because they were both compatible. Sure, sometimes Delta's lengthy calculations bored him to tears but he had to admit that the functions in his armor, as well as his special healing unit, had greatly improved since he'd acquired the AI...

At last, he broke through the security protocols and a glowing blue light appeared in front of the vault door next to him.

With a smile, he got up from the console and approached the door, rubbing his hands in anticipation, "Show time..."

As he set to work on the lock, the radio in his helmet switched on and the gentle Southern voice of the Director called out to him, "Come in, Agent York, are you in?"

"Yes, Sir," York replied, "This guys love their holographic locks. I'll let Delta take a peek in their system while I try to disable it manually."

He glanced over his right shoulder, "You're up, D."

With a nod, Delta stepped up to the lock, placed his hand on it and disappeared, making the lock glow with a slight green tinge, "Curious."

"What's curious?" York asked, "That's code for 'bad', isn't it?"

"I have detected an anomaly inside of the system, something that is not supposed to be there. Diverting sub-routines to investigate..."

"Don't get too curious in there, I need your attention on this lock."

"Do not worry, Agent York. I have already rectified several instances where you would have tripped the alarm."

Just then, there was a loud groan behind him and York turned round to see the soldier struggling to his feet, looking very confused, "Ohhh, my head... Wait, what's going... Hey, give me back my leprechaun."

Thinking quickly, York kicked the chair back into the soldier's stomach, sending him sprawling to the ground unconscious.

"What was that, Delta?" the Director growled.

"Nothing, Sir," York fibbed, resuming his work on the lock.

"Agent, may I remind you that we are running short of time?"

At that moment, Delta reappeared on York's shoulder, his body glowing orange in panic, "Warning: an alarm has been remotely triggered."

"What?" York gasped, "By who?"

"They knew we were coming," the Director realized, "Agent York, abort intrusion immediately. We are moving to more direct measures."

"Wait, wait, wait, I can do this," York insisted, speeding up his work on the lock, "I can do this, just give me a moment, Sir."

Then the voice of the Freelancer Integrated Logistics and Security System spoke through his radio, "System online, Director. Awaiting your command."

"I agree with the Director," Delta said, his body fading back to green, "I have yet to see you successfully open a lock in the field, and this alarm will only hamper your progress."

"Okay, now don't you start in on me too," York warned, "You've been talkin' to Wash again, haven't you?"

"Agent York, we are out of time," the Director snapped, "I repeat, abort!"

"Target locked," FILSS announced.

At this, York paused, "Umm, what target is locked? What's the target?"

He got no reply so he switched off his radio and turned to his AI, "Delta, what are they doing?"

"Taking more direct measures," Delta replied.

"You knew about this?"

Delta just shrugged, "Possibly."

York glanced around the room in a panic then he spotted the wall on his right beginning to smoke and glow orange then red, almost as if it was being heated up by some kind of laser or...

He gasped then turned to glower at Delta who'd quickly vanished, "Why, you little green-"

Suddenly the wall exploded in a burst of flame that sent York sprawling onto the ground. Then a loud wind whipped up and he felt himself being pulled along the floor.

To his horror, he realized that all the air in the room was being sucked out through the hole in the wall into the cold harsh vacuum of space, along with anything that wasn't nailed down – including him.

"WHOA!!!"

Quickly he grabbed hold of the console and clung on as tightly as he could, "Holy crap!!"

But then the chair flew up and hit him in the chin then the soldier went right into the chair, causing York to lose his grip and sending them both tumbling into the starry, debris-strewn darkness of space...

XXX

UNSC SCRAP METAL RECYCLING STATION

The light of the closest star glinted off the pieces of wreckage and debris drifting around the space station, and off the body of an Insurrectionist soldier slumped in his seat. Then three Longsword-Class Interceptors shot out from the space station and strafed around the wreckage as they flew towards the approaching Paris-Class freighter, the Mother of Invention.

XXX

On the bridge of the freighter, the Counselor hurried over to the Director, who was standing in front of his holograph table, assessing the scene, "Sir, enemy fighters approaching."

"Fire at will, Counselor," the Director ordered, "Let's send them back to the scrap yard."

XXX

Outside, the Longswords fired their missiles at the Mother of Invention, but FILSS fired the MAC cannon and destroyed one of the ships. The others swooped around and fired at the hull, but one was shot down by the guns at the side. The last one fired its missiles again which hit the side of the freighter.

XXX

On the bridge, the Counselor stumbled as the ship rocked from the missiles' impact, "It appears we are now taking fire."

"Release the drop-ships," the Director replied, turning away from the table, "Get the team in position."

As the Interceptor took off back to base, four Pelican-Class drop-ships were deployed from the Mother of Invention. Three of them took off after the retreating ship while the last one headed towards the space station.

XXX

On board, Pilot Four Seven Niner shook her head in dismay, "Well, that went to crap quicker than we thought. Out of the frying pan, into the fire."

"We're going to need a new insertion point," Carolina ordered, "York was supposed to open the leader's hanger for us."

"It wasn't my fault!" York protested over the radio.

"We'll have to settle for the main hangar," Four Seven Niner decided.

"Which one is that?" Rhode asked.

The pilot pointed out through the windscreen, "The one with the shooting things coming out at us."

As she spoke, one of the station's turrets turned towards them and fired. Four Seven Niner hit the brakes to avoid the shots but one blast struck the side of the ship.

Carolina winced slightly at the hit, "Never a dull moment, huh?"

"I'd get your team ready," the pilot said, "We're gonna come in hot."

With a nod, Carolina leapt out of her seat and ran into the loading bay where her team was strapping jetpacks onto their backs. Rhode Island just finished putting his pack on, North Dakota was helping his twin sister South with hers, Connecticut was sitting in the corner holding her pack in her hands, and Washington had just put his pack on.

"You heard her," Carolina called, "We're going for the main hanger. Be prepared for anything."

"So much for a smooth ride," North sighed.

"What's the matter, feeling sick?" South taunted.

"Hey, I'm not the one who needed a barf bag on all our family trips."

As Carolina grabbed a jetpack from the rack and strapped it on, Rhode went up to her, "How are you feeling? Are you up to this?"

"Say what you want to say, Rhode," Carolina replied.

"It's just... giving up your AI was a big deal. I thought-"

"I'll be fine," Carolina cut in as she placed a pair of plasma pistols on her belt, "Worry about yourself."

South approached C.T. and sat down next to her, "You're awfully quiet."

"Huh?" C.T. looked up at this, "Oh, just trying to prepare myself."

"Hey, worst comes to worst, we'll just get kicked off the leader board," South said dismissively, "At least us ladies will be sticking together, right?"

C.T. just nodded.

At the front, Four Seven Niner cringed as the Pelican got hit again, "Darn it! Opening rear bay..."

At once, the Freelancers leapt to their feet and went up to the back as the rear door slid open, revealing the debris-strewn depths of space and the space station before them.

"Right, all together!" Carolina ordered, "Use your jetpacks sparingly – course correction only. You don't want to end up like Georgia."

"Wait, what happened to Georgia?" Wash asked.

"Nobody knows," South replied. "They never found him."

Wash suddenly looked very nervous, "Are you sure these things are safe?"

Behind him, Rhode cocked his sniper rifle, the spent round flipping about in the zero gravity.

Carolina snatched up a gravity hammer then turned to the front of the ship, "Now!"

At the command, Four Seven Niner flung a lever forward and the Pelican did a hard turn right, flinging the Freelancers out into space like ragdolls off a truck. Quickly they switched on their jetpacks and took off towards the space station.

XXX

On board the main hangar, the Insurrectionist troops were preparing for battle, grabbing their guns and manning their Warthogs' turrets.

At the front of the hangar, one soldier, Ian, was rummaging through a crate of shotguns then another soldier ran up to him in panic, "Battle stations! We're under attack!"

"No kidding we're under attack," the first soldier, Anthony retorted, his head in the crate, "What do you think we're doing, rolling out the red carpet?"

"No, moron," Ian yelled, pointing out the hangar door, "Look!"

His arms laden with shotguns, the first soldier turned round to see five Freelancers jetting towards them, "Aw, come on!"

Then a shotgun slipped out of his arms and hit the ground, firing on impact into the second guard's stomach and knocking him down, "Not again. Sorry about that."

Then he was shot right in the gut and fell down under a pile of shotguns.

The Freelancers swept into the hangar and began their attack. The Insurrectionists opened fire and the battle began.

North and South jumped to the floor and returned fire while Rhode swooped over their heads and barreled right through the troops. Carolina then swept over them, raised her gravity hammer and hurled it down into the middle. As it hit the ground, a wave of energy blasted out, knocking several Insurrectionists backwards. Carolina then landed, snatched up the hammer, turned it so the blade was facing out and began smashing through the troops like a female Thor in blue armor.

Meanwhile Wash landed by the control panel at the back and ran round to the computer screen, "Okay, where's that security override? Come on... Darn it!"

In frustration, he slammed his fist into the panel, and then the screen flashed up the words 'Artificial Gravity Disabled'.

"Uh oh, that's not good..." he muttered, "Hey guys, things might get a little... floaty."

Suddenly the Insurrectionists and their jeeps began to float off the ground like they were tied to invisible balloons, "Ahhh! What the crap?"

In panic, they fired randomly at the air, but only managed to hit each other.

"Everyone engage grav-boots!" Wash yelled as he clung to the panel.

North and South ran out of cover and took off towards the floating soldiers, using the Warthogs and the dead soldiers as stepping stones as they fired their guns. Carolina jumped into the air and used her hammer to smash a jeep into a group of soldiers then she whipped out her plasma pistols and leapt from Warthog to Warthog, firing at every soldier that floated past her. Rhode simply aimed his sniper and took pot shots.

At the back, Wash pounded each button on the console until at last the screen flashed the words 'Artificial Gravity Enabled', "Okay, I got it. I got it! Oh man..."

He quickly ducked behind the panel just before a jeep smashed into it and flipped over his head, "Why do cars hate me?"

Then the soldiers plummeted back to the ground. Any Insurrectionist that wasn't shot dead were either killed on impact or crushed by the falling jeeps, but Carolina, Rhode, North, and South used their jetpacks to slow their fall and landed safely on the ground.

"They know we're inside," Carolina said, "Wash, Rhode, North, secure that hallway," The guys nodded and ran towards the side, "South, see if you can access the leader's location, we don't leave without him."

"Got it," South replied, running towards the panel, "I'm already on it."

"C.T., get me-" Carolina suddenly realized that they were one short, "Where the heck is C.T.?!"

XXX

Outside the station, C.T. flew around until she spotted the hole in the side of the ship and dived through it. Inside, the hallways were dark, so she switched on her helmet's headlights and crept down the passage towards a door at the end.

Behind the door, some Insurrectionists were gathering their weapons when the door slid open and C.T. appeared in the entrance, pointing her pistol out.

"Intruder!" one soldier gasped. "Get him!"

With that, the soldiers raised their guns and opened fire...

XXX

And now to see what CT has gotten herself into. Till next time guys!