Chapter 4: EXTRACTION

"So, Spartan" Kennedy whispered through a direct COM link "Why are you here?"

They walked side by side along the dark sewer tunnel, the Man keeping pace with the Spartan. Jake's heavy footfalls echoed off of the stone surfaces. The 300 kilo armour made loud splashes in the ankle high water. Their footsteps were joined by a dozen more, 12 civilians trudged behind them, gagging intermittently, behind them strode the other Spartan, Sabina, looming over the others by half a metre. On either side of the group were Willows and Grey, the SWAT officer and the Marine, roped into this crew by circumstance. They walked as a unit in silence, lost in thought, stunned and afraid.

"Classified Sargent" Jake responded, his tone neutral. "ONI has to keep some secrets" He turned his head towards the ODST, looking down. "Semper Vigilans isn't on the badge for nothing"

The soldier shrugged "Don't know what I expected to be straight with you, spooks ain't exactly known for their transparency" He walked on in silence, fiddling with the safety of his assault rifle, "But whatever you're here for, you got every one of us out of there in one piece, so you have my thanks." He chuckled "When I get back to my crew, they're gonna rib me so hard. Ass saved by a Spartan, I'll never hear the end of it"

Jake grinned in his helmet, shouldering his MA5D. "I'll never tell" He opened up the COM, including the rest of the group "We should be about another hour away from the ONI building, pass it on to the civvies" Willows and Grey passed the message on to the group.

Grey came up to the front to join the two men, she spoke softly into her microphone, aware that her open-faced helmet would allow the civilians to hear her. "Sir, Chief Petty Officer, what's going to happen to us now? I mean, they're here. The Covenant. They're on Earth."

"Well Private, we've got the whole of the Home Fleet waiting just outside the atmosphere, the Orbital Defence Grid of MAC Cannons, and a population of 20 billion people who refuse to resign themselves to extinction" Jake spoke, ensuring that his helmet PA was switched on so that the civilians could hear. "I can also vouch that the entire of ONI is also looking for a more" He paused "Indirect solution, we're not beaten yet private, trust me on that"

Satisfied, Grey stepped back into formation, and they passed the next hour in silence, until they reached an exit. Jake called up Sabina to the front. "This ladder should put us one block away from the compound, but there could be a whole covenant brigade above us, I'm going to check it out, I'll be on TEAMCOM"

She tapped his shoulder "Look out for ammo, I'm down to two mags and the Captain doesn't have any for the M7."

He hesitated, on gauntleted hand on a rung "I'm low on MA5 ammo as well, plenty for the 99D-S2 though" He placed his foot on the first rung. "I'll keep an eye out, be back in five" He hauled himself up the ladder, servos hissing slightly, and opened the hatch at the top slowly. Seeing nothing nearby on his thermal filter, he eased the heavy lid open and pulled himself onto the road.

The eerie blackness of a human city at night without power consumed his view. This section of town had been hit hard, all backup generators for street lighting must've been destroyed by the Covenant. He stealthily moved over to the pavement, crouching by an abandoned Hog (a civilian version of the UNSC Warthog Light Reconnaissance Vehicle). He didn't need IR filters to see, his enhanced vision allowed even the darkest of places to be sharply focused. What he did see shocked him deeply. A battle had taken place here, but he saw no human casualties.

Scores of dead Elites, Brutes, Grunts, Jackals and even hulking Lekgolo (Hunters), littered the street, plasma burned flesh everywhere. The sweet smell of blood permeated his CBD filtered helmet, reminding him of the battles he had fought. He crept over to a fallen Elite, examining the jagged spikes of crystal that stuck out from his armour. This had been a fight between Brutes and elites, he was sure of it, ONI analysts had deduced that the Sanghelli and Jiralhanae social systems could not co-exist in a society and that one would always be in competition with the other.

"Sab, you're going to want to see this. Remember when I said there could be a legion of Covvies up here?" He asked over TEAMCOM "Well, I was sort of right, bring them up, the coast is clear for now."

Sabina resisted from responding until she poked her head up from the manhole, then whistled softly, pulling herself up. "Brutes versus Elites?" She asked, quickly making the same deduction he had made. The rest of the group made their way to the surface, blind in the near pitch black. As the soldiers and the Captain heaved onto the road surface, their flashlights illuminated the carnage around them, and the civilians gasped, murmuring to each other.

"Holy shit" Whispered Willows, kicking the leg of a dead Brute "They did this to each other?" He reached down and turned the beast's head over, wincing at the sight of plasma-fire-induced damage to the alien's head. "Maybe we won't need the Home Fleet, looks like they're tearing each other apart without our help" his voice dripped with bitterness.

Sabina looked around the scene, photographing every inch of the deserted street, which was blocked at one end by the traffic control blast door. "Blocked at this end, J"

"Got it, meet us back at the manhole" Jake said, turning to the other end of the narrow street, magnifying his vision. "Right, civvies and Willows, move up the right of the road, slowly, Kennedy and Grey, take left, be cautious. Sabina and I will take the middle"

They arranged themselves accordingly, Grey and Kennedy wordlessly moving to the row of parked cars on the left, scanning their sight-lines intently, Willows headed up the civilians, his M6 magnum now out and loaded. He and Spartan-211 moved up the centre of the road, slightly ahead of the two groups either side. They moved away from the scene of the battle, heading towards the looming 50 metre wall that surrounded the ONI building complex. About 100 metres down the road, Sabina began to recognise silhouettes in the distance, a destroyed Scorpion Main Battle Tank lay broken in the middle of the passage, still hot to the touch, no bodies though, so that was something

They turned left at a T-junction, through a set of blast doors into the triangular courtyard outside the ONI complex. Jake noticed no motion sensor contacts, but something told him that there was something not quite right about the situation. He held up a clenched fist, and their formation halted. He and Sabina scanned the view in front of them intently, searching for anything suspect.

After a minute, it was the female Spartan who spotted something. "There, up on the walkways" She whispered, gesturing towards the paths leading along two sides of the triangular area, towards the door that lead to the complex. "Visual distortions, cloaked Brutes, most likely Stalkers" These Brute units adopted active camouflage technology from their Sanghelli counterparts, and used devastating close-range weapons (dubbed 'Maulers') to kill.

"How many?" He asked, struggling to count all of the distorted shapes, "I count five in all"

"Affirmative" She replied, running a few simple tactical calculations in her head. "We can take them" She confirmed. She was never wrong about these things.

"Negative, we slot these guys, more will come" Jake said, searching their movements for a pattern. "Two patrols of two tangos each, moving around the central courtyard, one leader at the door, Maulers, Incendiaries, we can avoid them if we want" He once again tried to connect to the city's AI, and suddenly he was granted access, albeit with a dozen warning signs flashing across his visor. He had access to NAV data, and security systems, but still no COMMS.

Sabina had had the same breakthrough "Well, three-hundredth time lucky" She murmured, signalling to the others to contact the AI themselves. "We still don't have COMMS, but we may have a way to distract these inbreds" She quietly motioned for Willows to come over to them.

"What do you need?" He queried, ducking behind a nearby barricade

"The cars, can you remotely set off their alarms, or do anything to distract them, if we had the security codes?" She asked, depolarising her visor and looking him in the eye.

"Yeah, don't see why not, we use them in the NMPD to alert people if there's a perp near them" He shrugged "But I'm not Traffic, so my code won't do squat"

Sab pondered for a second, then nodded to him "Get back to them and await our signal, you're going to move quickly and quietly to the blast doors when we signal, got it?"

"Affirmative" He spoke, dodging back to the civilians

Sabina quickly set about setting her bait. She'd use her ONI omni-access code to set off some car alarms at the other end of the courtyard, hopefully they'd take the bait. Luckily the ONI sector had its own nuclear back-up generator.

Jake informed the ODST and the Marine of the hastily concocted plan, then primed himself for action. "We ready?"

She blinked in a few more codes into her HUD, finalising the distraction "We are now, give the order"

"Now" He said, as the deafening alarms of a dozen vehicles pierced the night's silence, he burst from cover and ran towards the blast doors, relieved to see all of the tagged shapes moving quickly in the other direction. He was followed by Sabina, the group of civilians and the two soldiers as the hurtled through the blast doors, down the access ramp and into the ONI complex. He quickly typed in his override code into the Blast doors as the last person made it through, and the 2 metre thick Titanium-A alloy slid smoothly into place over the existing blast doors. He'd just have to hope that the Stalkers were too distracted to remember what colour the door was beforehand.

The narrow passageway before him sloped downwards briefly, then levelled out for about 20 metres. He couldn't see it, but he knew that the road would then rise up again, past a second set of blast doors, and then across a bridge to the ONI building. He marched past the others, ducking around broken chassis of Warthogs. Two NMPD officers lay sprawled on the floor, their uniforms singed and tattered by plasma fire. He reached down and relieved the dead men of their ammunition, tossing three magazines to the Captain wordlessly. He stood up, armour creaking slightly, and carried on marching up the slope. He keyed in his access code into the blast doors' key pad, and they sighed open, revealing a sight from hell.

The ONI building was gone. Fires raged from the blast site, lighting up the clouds, making the whole world dance with orange light. The crippled steelwork and shattered stone building blazed, sending smoke thousands of feet into the air. The bridge that had once lead to the building over a large moat was also destroyed, only the stubs of the supporting pillars visible above the water. The ground around them was littered with spent casings, telling the story of a bloody battle, and there were UNSC casualties scattered about, their IFF tags blinking lights in the orange gloom.

"Sargent, Private, check the bodies for ammo, we'll regroup here in 5, Captain, look after them" Jake gestured vaguely to the 12 people, transfixed by the sight of the burning building, the fire dancing in their eyes. "Petty Officer, with me" He walked towards the security booth, Sabina at his side, two Spartans of only a handful left.

"Well then, this complicates things" muttered Sab "Who did this? It's barely been 24 hours since the invasion, and already we're employing scorched earth?"

"I know, but this was always a possibility, we'll just have to figure something out" Jake pushed open the door into the small building, searching for any sign of a comms relay control post, checking the row of instruments on the table before him.

"There's no control for the relay here, Chief Petty Officer" spoke a disembodied voice, coming from the small speaker in the desk in front of him.

Jake exchanged a glance with Sabina, before answering "And who am I speaking to?" He rested his rifle up against the wall, awaiting a response.

"This is ONI AI Cerberus, custodian of this facility, and you need my help." Came the reply, a calm, soothing, male voice.

"If you're in charge of this facility, why wasn't your core destroyed along with the rest of the building?" Jake asked, bluntly asking why the Artificial Intelligence unit hadn't been deleted.

"The demolition was poorly performed, I'm afraid, Spartan-209. It was set up by the NMPD under orders from on high, and helped in execution by a couple of ODSTs. As you can imagine, they weren't familiar with the building's systems, and so, while they destroyed all physical records of data, awakening a whole hive of Yanme'e along the way, they failed to destroy my core matrix." Came the response, and after the sentence was complete, a small holographic pad to the right of the security screen came to life, displaying a translucent figure of a suited man with greying hair and 2 day stubble.

Sabina cut in, addressing the hologram "You said you could help us, can you get a signal through the EM smog?" She glanced over at the group of people "We need evac, ASAP"

Cerberus turned slowly on his pad, looking at the Spartan "Spartan-211, I can certainly try, although my civilian counterpart seems to be suffering from memory loss. There's a viable civilian COM relay close by. Stand by" His form flickered subtly, then solidified "Yes, I've made contact with ONI, patching you through now." Suddenly, the security monitor in the desk flickered to life, and an olive-skinned woman's face filled the view.

"Jacob-209? This is Captain Serin Osman of the Office of Naval Intelligence, aboard the UNSC Overwatch, do you read?" She spoke, authoritatively

"Affirmative ma'am, reading you loud and clear, where's Lieutenant Carne?" Jake replied, sitting in the chair in front of the console.

"Sorry Spartan, I'm afraid he bought it when the Byron went down, I'm your new handler, why don't you give me the sitrep?"

Jake didn't even blink, numbed to death by 30 years of first hand experience. "Roger, sorry to hear that. We were caught off guard by the jump, our COMs have been blocked by the EM soup, we stumbled upon a group of civilians ma'am, protected by an ODST, a Marine and an NMPD SWAT officer. We've been trying to exfil ever since, trying to get in contact with our informant." He said, hesitating. "There's something else ma'am, we found the aftermath of a fight between Sanghelli and Jiralhanae. Transmitting now" He silently sent the picture and video evidence up to the Captain.

She studied the images, her face intently scanning every frame. "I'll send this on to the Admiral, thanks Spartans." She straightened herself in her chair, looking slightly off screen at another display. "I've dispatched a Pelican, should be there in 20 minutes, you are to hold position until they arrive. In addition, pull Cerberus from the system, bring him with you, can't have him falling into enemy hands. As for your target, Bravo C-7 called in an hour ago, saying that the target was preparing to leave the city, at the Grand Hotel in the Northern District." She looked into the camera "once you exfil, you'll proceed to the target and neutralise, as planned. Good hunting Spartans" She cut the link, ending the conversation.

Jake and Sabina looked at each other. "So, that's Serin Osman" muttered Sabina "she looked familiar" she turned to the AI "Cerberus, any intel on incoming hostiles?"

The hologram looked up "Nothing on my sensors, 211. I'm breaking off contact with the system, yank me". He faded, and a small silicone data chip ejected from the holo-pad's base. Jake retrieved it and slotted it into the neural interface on the back of his helmet. Cerberus' voice played from his helmet's speakers. "I'll not dare to go further than the armour, thank you very much, I'm not one for messy biological interactions"

Jake stood up, picking up his rifle, and exited the building. Sabina met him at the door and marched alongside him as they made their way back to the group, Kennedy and Grey having already scavenged for ammo, finding plenty. There were a lot of casualties. They joined the group, depolarising their visors, and explained the situation, backlit by the orange glow.

As they explained, Sabina spotted something. Raising her M90, she yelled "DOWN", and fired, sending a spray of buckshot into the cloaked Brute that had been approaching them. The shields spluttered and faded, leaving one very visible and wounded Brute, raising its own weapon. It never made it, Sabina pushed the civilians out of her way, swinging her shotgun like a club, and drove it home into the creature's temple, snapping its head round, snapping the beast's neck instantly. As it fell, Kennedy, Grey and Willows snapped into action, herding the civilians behind the hut. Jake ducked behind a wall, scanning the area for any more Stalkers.

Sabina hurdled the wall and joined him, barely breaking a sweat, she wrestled with the pump action on her M90, realising that the immense force behind her blow had dented the weapon beyond use. She drew her M6, disengaging the safety.

Jake spotted four more shadowy blurs, making their way up the ramp towards the now open blast doors. He signalled to the others, motioning for them to wait until they reached the top of the ramp. He snapped the safety off on his own weapon, and waited the thirty tense seconds it took for the four the lumbering aliens to reach the kill zone. He primed a frag grenade from his belt, held it for three seconds, then tossed it over the wall towards them. As the grenade detonated, he and Sabina, along with Grey, Willows and Kennedy, moved out of cover and began firing, the deafening staccato of combined rifle, SMG and pistol fire echoing around the walls. The two brutes that had not been killed by the grenade were cut down instantly, but even as they crumpled to the ground, the Spartans saw multiple hostiles on their motion sensors, heading their way. All of them slotted fresh magazines into their weapons, and prepared.

Sabina looked over at the pathetic cover afforded by the security hut, glass windows and wood. It wouldn't last long under plasma fire. Jake had come to the same conclusion, and they both, without a word, vaulted over their own cover to meet their new enemies head on, hopefully drawing fire away from the vulnerable group.

Two Brute squadrons faced them, each consisting of two Jiralhanae armed with spiked projectile weapons, and a half dozen Uggnoy. The Spartans advanced, firing consistently, Jake with his MA5D, Sabina with her M6. Supported by the rifle fire from the others, they cut down the first patrol, blue blood and methane tanks flying everywhere. One Grunt caught light, exploding in a bright blue ball of death, taking out three of his comrades. The second squad opened fire, directed towards the two super-soldiers. They absorbed the plasma damage, shields depleting, almost knocked back. Needler rounds deflected off of the shields, filling the air with purple crystalline shards.

The onslaught didn't last for long though, a well-timed grenade from Grey broke the aliens' ranks, and the brutes were dispatched by Kennedy's 99S-D2 rifle, its sharp rapport audible among the screaming and gunfire. The whole exchange had taken less than ten minutes, and as the two Spartans came down from their adrenaline highs, they were, hailed by a UNSC Pilot.

"This is Pelican Alpha two-two, Sierra 209, you read me?" Came the static-filled hail.

"Affirmative Alpha two-two, we read you, the LZ is clear" Responded Jake, finishing the last grunt off with his combat knife. "Come on down"

The whine of the dropship's engines became louder as it descended, lights off. It came down to rest in the centre of the road, nose-cone dangerously close to the sheer edge, its downdraught whipping leaves and scraps of paper back and forth.

Jake started to usher the civilians into the open bay doors, but found that Willows, Grey and Kennedy were already bundling them into their seats, tightly affixing the harnesses around them before seating themselves. Sabina sat in the seat closest to the door on one side, Jake sat himself in the opposite place, angling his rifle out of the back door.

As the dropship smoothly lifted off from terra firma, bay door slowly closing, the pilot squawked over the intercom, "Welcome aboard Ladies and Gentlemen, next stop, Camp Bulverhythe, just outside the city limits" The civilians let out a collective sigh of relief, patting each other on the shoulders, relaxing in their seats. Jake could not relax yet, their mission wasn't over, but even if the target slipped away, they could both be satisfied with safely executing an evac from within the covenant lines. And that wasn't too bad, even for Spartans.