A/N: Hello my fans/not-actually-fans-just-people-reading-this-story-because-they-find-it-mildly-interesting. I'll call them NAFJPRTSBTFIMI. Ok, maybe not. It's still far too long. Anyway, this time we return to Joseph in our second longest chapter yet, topped only by the opening. Joseph always gets the spotlight. I get the feeling that the other characters will get jealous.
Private Joseph Clark stood by the door to the building. This was the Innie base. He loaded his silenced MA5B Assault Rifle. He couldn't fail, not this time. Last time he did, Dillon died. If he failed again, he didn't know who would die, and didn't want to find out. He barely noticed the rain pouring down on him and the rest of Alpha Squad, and the dark clouds rolling through the sky, lightning crackling around them and striking down on the tops of skyscrapers in the nearby city, their energy absorbed and stored by the advanced antenna atop them. He barely noticed the howling wind, rushing over the ground and hurling the raindrops violently against the walls of the short, dark grey building. All he knew was him, his weapon, his squad, and the building. The squad stacked up on the door, 11 heavily armed Marines looking like shadow creatures in the darkness, visible only by the faint moonlight. To them, though, everything was bright as day, thanks to their visors. A squad member stepped forwards to the door, holding a breaching charge. He placed it, and stepped backwards. The reinforced steel door crumpled and was silently reduced to a lump of beaten metal. The Marine pushed it and it swung open. Alpha Squad moved in.
"Clear!" whispered PFC Frederic Brown over the comm, scanning the right of the dark room.
"Clear!" Lance Corporal Joanne Hook added, looking to the left, silenced MA5B raised.
"Clear!" Private Chris Kimber, the Marine who had used the breaching charge, added, rifle pointed straight ahead.
"Clear!" two more Marines, the Hayaki twins, announced in unison, aiming for the far corners.
"Warning. Large amounts of explosive compounds detected in marked locations." the Squad's new AI said, markers popping up on the Marines' HUDs; "Caution reccomended."
The AI was what was called a 'dumb AI', which was wildy innacurate. The computer program could store two thousand terabytes of data, make split-second calculations, operate hyper-sensetive sensors, and do so indefinetly. However, it lacked a name, personality, and apperance. It couldn't do anything other than it's intended functions, couldn't learn, and couldn't think for itself. It was basically an advanced computer, unlike the 'smart AIs', who were a digital human. Well, it not having a name was a lie. It's name was MAIS-3524, standing for Marine Artificial Intelligence Support Number 3524.
"Avoid the markers, Alpha." Sergeant Titus whispered over the comm.
"No shit, sherlock." muttered Frederic, having forgotten to turn off his comm.
"Pardon?" growled Sergeant Titus, walking carefully around a HUD marker.
"Sorry, sir." replied Frederic as he hopped over an explosive compound location.
"Twelve unidentified human lifeforms detected in next room." MAIS-3524 stated.
"Alright, we're outnumbered by one but have surprise and grenades. AI, bring up markers on the Innies." Sergeant Titus started.
Markers popped up all over the wall, showing the locations of the enemies. Sergeant Titus primed a stun grenade, kicked a door open, and tossed the metal ball into the midst of the largest group. 5 Innies clutched their ears and stumbled around as the rest of the Marines poured into the well lit room. Silenced MA5Bs silently cut through the Innies so soon after their wielders squeezed the triggers that the bullets' speed would've made a god jealous. Joseph kicked an Innie in his knee, bringing him down, then finished him off with a burst to the back after a slight pause. He couldn't show the mercy. It'd lead to more death. The Willis twins both aimed at the same Innie, destroying his brain and heart simultaneously. A third Innie had a line carved from his right shoulder to left hip by Frederic's gun. Lance Corporal Joanne Hook put a short burst straight through an Innie's chest, spraying her in blood. It was over in seconds.
"Second room that's been empty." one of the Willis twins said.
"Almost like they knew we were coming..." the other added.
"They're right, I don't like this." Sergeant Titus added; "Chance of a trap, AI?"
"94.71%" MAIS-3524 replied instantly.
"Scan the next room." Sergeant Titus ordered.
"Sensor blockers in the wall." MAIS-3524 announced.
"It's a trap." one of the Willis twins said.
"No shit, sherlock." Frederic said.
"You did that one already." said a Marine Joseph didn't recognise.
"No shit, sherlock." Joseph joked.
"You- Oh, wait, you didn't." the same Marine replied.
"Enough chatter. Set up a breaching position there and there. 5 men to each. One stays here just in case." Sergeant Titus ordered, creating HUD markers on the wall; "Spray the room with lead, then switch to XGR1s, tear them Innies apart with beams of energy."
"The XGR1 doesn't fire energy, it accelera-" started MAIS-3524.
"We don't give a shit, AI." Frederic snapped.
"Brown, silence." Sergeant Titus said.
Frederic obeyed, and Alpha split into their groups, and got into position. Sergeant Titus slapped a breaching charge on the wall, and Joanne did the same on the other side. They went off at the same time and Alpha charged into the room, spraying bullets everywhere, leaving dents in the walls and... There were no Innies. No mines, bombs, poison gas, anything.
"Sir?" said a Marine; "Orders?"
"Drop your weapons. Now!" shouted someone from the side of the room.
Joseph looked around and saw that tens of Innies had slipped in through hidden doors, surrounding the Marines. They all had their Assault Rifles, Shotguns and Submachineguns raised and aimed.
"That answer your question?" another Marine said through the comm.
"No. I don't negotiate with Terrorists." the first replied.
"Yes we do. Drop your weapons." ordered Sergeant Titus.
Joseph heard a rifle clatter to the floor, and dropped his as the rest of Alpha did the same. Except for Frederic, who leapt for the nearest door, gunning down two Innies. Another grabbed him, slammed him to the wall, and held a pistol to his head. He shouted an order, and Joseph watched, silently cursing and hopeless, as a Marine was shot in the face. A second later Frederic got the same fate. His body was tossed roughly to the ground.
"Any of you resist, and two of you die. Clear?" shouted the Innie who shot Frederic.
Joseph looked at him. He held an M6D high-powered scoped magnum and was wearing helmetless Marine combat armour painted brown with orange stripes. A bandanna and cowboy hat, both brown, adorned his head. The rest of the Innies were also dressed in brown, orange and tan Marine armour, with missing pieces and some older versions, and mostly holding older version of the standard MA5B and BR55 rifles used by the Marines. A couple were wearing average clothes dyed the colours of the other Innie's armour.
The Marines all said varieties of the word 'yes', some adding insults.
"Are you in the position to piss me off, Marines?" shouted the Innie, who Joseph guessed was the leader.
The Marines chorused 'no', this time without insults.
"Thank you." the Innie Leader said; "Now, please stay still and don't resist. It'll just make it harder."
Joseph was confused for a second, then he felt a sting in his leg. He looked down tiredly through already blurring vision to see a powerful stun dart sticking out of him. Then he fell to the floor.
Joseph woke up, and forced his eyes open. He was in a small room, with a steel door with a security camera above it. He tried to move, but he couldn't. He looked down to see that he was tied to a chair by a thin but strong steel wire. Panic filled him, as he wondered why he was tied up on his own. What did he Innies want from him? He focused, determined not to show fear to whoever was monitoring the security camera feed. Suddenly, the door burst open an the Innie leader stormed in.
"You're awake. That means we have a little chit-chat." he said.
"Then?" Joseph asked, hoping the Innie would say he'd be ransomed back instead of executed.
"We'll see." the Innie Leader replied, in a California accent.
"So what do you want?" Joseph asked, cutting straight to the chase.
"Information." came the reply; "Like how you found this base."
"I'm just a lowly Marine, I don't know shit." Joseph bluffed.
"Don't lie to me, from what I extracted from the AI, you all know a fair amount." the Innie replied angrily.
"Database corruption, dumbass." Joseph snarled, trying to act like he was telling the truth.
The Innie Leader's boot struck Joseph's chest and the chair toppled backwards, leaving Joseph facing the roof, and the simple white lights embedded in it. A knife flashed down towards him, and cut straight through the wire. Joseph was gripped by the throat and slammed into a wall. He winced as pain flashed over his back. After 4 more times being slammed into the wall, he started to cry out in pain. Delight and statisfaction flashed through his torturer's eyes before he was thrown to the floor. Joseph breathed in, realising he was dressed in only his underwear. He breathed a sigh of relief, thinking it was over, but a second later he was stomped on by the Innie leaader, right in the chest. He yelled in pain as he was stomped more and more times.
"Don't lie to me, don't insult me and don't-" started the Innie Leader, lifting Joseph by his throat and drawing his Magnum; "Call me-"
A burst of gunfire went off and the Innie leader collasped, neck torn open by bullets. Joseph fell back onto the floor as the corpse fell away from him. Joseph wiped the blood off of his face and kicked the corpse in the balls. After that, he turned to the door, seeing the Lance Corporal- Joanne Hook, was it? - standing there in Innie clothes that were too big for her and holding an MA5A Rifle. Joseph blushed and quickly pulled the Innie Leader's armour off, trying to put it on. It was a far too tight tight, so he pulled on the simple brown trousers ans shirt underneath. Luckily, they fit. He saw something in the pocket and pulled it out, revealing a pair of black sunglasses. He put them on, and it came up with a message saying he was syncing with his neural implant. A HUD popped up, showing his health status, BPM, an error message where it should show radar, AI, and COMM, and his squad's status. All were alive, and all slightly wounded. Joseph's 14 health blocks had been reduced to 10 by the beating he had recieved. He took the Magnum from the Innie's corpse and turned to Joanne.
"Thanks." he said with a slight blush.
"I owed you one. Let's rescue the others." Joanne said calmly but also strictly.
"You owe them too?" Joseph jokingly asked.
Joanne smiled slightly.
"Come on." she said, reloading the Assault Rifle she was holding.
"Yes Ma'am." Joseph replied, checking the pistol's ammo on the newly appeared HUD section.
Joanne jogged away and Joseph followed her down a long, narrow, corridor until she stopped at the nearest door.
"Them goggles got infa-red?" Joanne asked.
Joseph looked over the HUD.
"No, Ma'am." Josesh sighed sadly.
"Then be ready to shoot anywhere." she ordered, getting ready to kick the door open.
"Yes, Ma'am." Joseph replied, raising his Magnum.
Joanne kicked the door open and rushed in, sweeping the room. A bullet came from the side of the room, catching her in the hip. She collasped as Joseph burst in and aimed where the shot had come from. He saw an Innie in mismatched armour holding an M7 SMG. He hesitated for a second, but fired a split-second before the Innie would've finished Joanne off. The Innie yelled and stumbled into the wall as Joseph squeezed the trigger again. This time the shot was fatal, and blood sprayed over the wall. Joseph turned to Joanne, who was getting up, then looked over at the prisoner in this room. A tag popped up identifying him as Private Chris Kimber. Joanne limped over and cut him free, then ordered him to take the armour. Luckily for Chris, it fit him, and soon he was standing in multicolour Marine armour. He ripped off the armour on the left arm, revealing his UNSC Marine tatto. The three Marines turned to the door, and started to continue with the 'mass' breakout.
A/N: Sorry about the cliffhanger, but it was getting a bit too long, and if I finished the Innie Base section, it'd be too inconsistent with the rest.