PART FOUR: "First Contact"
"The bonds of loyalty can tie one to the grave."
2300 HOURS// RALLY POINT ZULU
DATA CORRUPTED-//- SPNH// SHUTDOWN
Nicholas Harding looked at them, and laid out his plan as short and simple as possible. "We know this, they are protecting something. That is clear enough for all to see but the problem is we don't know what, and how many are between us and them."
His feet moved through the rubble, the trio surrounded him. The three got a pair to be sentries as they moved back to the main "compound".
"So we do this covertly… The sewer way in this city is extensive, so we should be able to get into their lines without a problem…" His voice trailed off as he remembered what Poles had told him about the sewer system, he mentioned it was crawling with grunts but other than that he didn't mention anything else. Harding gave an invisible shrug, grunts shouldn't be a problem.
He shouldered his MA5B, and Young spoke, her eyes looking straight into his. "So… What do you expect us to do? We can't just walk in and expect us to run and gun. There is nothing standing between us and over a couple thousand of them. I am not about to lose more men to those things for your mission Mr. Harding."
A hardened look came upon him and he growled. "I have lost more friends in this damn war than I can imagine, and if what their hiding can stop this conflict than by god I will let every single person on this planet die if I can get that to it."
They all stopped, and froze, Harding's outburst wasn't logical and he even knew and wished he could've taken it back.
Young growled. "Well, Mr. Harding than you will have to do this without the use of my men because I will not let you get them killed."
Lark looked at him as well and frowned. "Corporal, you're nuts."
The ex-Colonel glared at him but didn't say a word.
Harding was wrong, and sighed. "Look, I know you've seen your friends and family die and you don't want any more of them to but this could be the final chance to do something, I was deployed on this planet without any knowledge, my unit is most likely dead, my friend is on the brink of insanity," And he knew Poles was getting there, it could be seen in his eyes. "And I… I have nothing left to die for except for this purpose to stop the Covenant from finding Earth. That's all I can do."
Their looks of anger faded, but still lingered.
"Corporal, you are the first soldier I've seen who actually had the balls to say something like that. But I cannot let you sacrifice my men and women for something that could end up being nothing." The ex-Colonel said, his face creased into a scowl. "I want you, to get contact with your ship and I want evacuation of this planet. I don't have authority but you do, and if you can do that, I will let you have some of my men to go on this wild goose chase."
Harding nodded; looked at the others their faces were in disbelief.
"Ben are you fucking insane?" Lark shouted, Young had a look of shock and awe, with a hint of rage.
He ignored them and continued. "Get your buddy that you mentioned and meet me in front of the command tent in a five hours, get some rest while your at it, you need it. Lark you're coming with me, Young, go with the young man and give him anything he needs. That's an order."
The Colonel gave a final nod and moved in the opposite direction to a building men and women were milled around, Lark followed giving a harsh glare at Harding, and Young paused looking at them leave.
Harding frowned and watched them leave as well; he turned and moved to the last known position of Poles with the woman next to him. There was eerie quiet that he didn't like so he spoke.
"I'm sorry, Ms. Young."
Her voice was a quiver, and pain lased it.
"So am I…"
The makeshift command center was quiet, the ten men and women inside of it hovered over the lone marine who tinkered with the computer and his eyes intent and focused. He frowned silently to himself, and looked up. "Where did you find this?"
The man who came to get him was named Lucas G. Ivy, the "Sergeant" of the command center.
He replied without hesitating. "Well… We found it about two kilometers north from where, which is now in Covie territory. A dead marine." His voice blunt and cold. Poles held in a grimace.
The way he spoke about his colleague irritated him and hopefully he didn't have to deal the man for much longer. Civilians… They cared nothing for the man fighting and were the first to criticize.
"I see…" His voice trailed off. "Did you recover the body or the tags?"
"No."
Poles didn't reply, as he looked through the exposed service panel he used his free hand to open the service panel and grab the two pieces of wire which seemed to be causing the problem. They were torn and the copper could be seen.
He nodded reached in with both hands and connected the two wires back slowly, making sure not to damage anymore the key components. He smiled, that was done.
"I think…" He said. "I fixed it."
He reached up and grabbed the receiver, it was pretty basic considering everything of standards of their year, it took much from the old radios from World War 2, did have some things to amp up the range of it and keep it much more reliable.
He grabbed onto the transceiver and spoke calmly into it. "This is Hellhound zero-zero-two-one… I repeat this is Hellhound zero-zero-two-one, does anyone read me? Over?"
The cluster that stood behind him waited quietly, listening intently.
"Damn it…" Poles whispered silently to himself. "This is Hellhound zero-zero-two one, does any one read me over?" It was a broad wave code, could be picked up on any frequency so he should've been hearing a reply.
"P-les… That-ou?" The voice crackled over the COM, and Shane's eyes brightened. There was pause, more static, before he heard a voice again a few seconds later; it was trying to narrow his frequency down.
"Poles! It's good to hear from you again, Corporal."
"Damn straight. It's been awhile."
Ain't that the truth?
"Look… I am ordering packet zero-one-five, O-N-I… I want program Gamma-21. Am I clear?"
"I understand." The AI's voice that was full of cheer was completely neutral. "What are the casualties?"
"Ninety five percent. I need, crafts for evacuation of all civilians on this planet. Reroute everything, am I clear. We need units at my current position. Narrow down on my transmission. Send in the Package Delta Zero One Zero."
The AI voice hesitated. "I hear you Corporal. Pelicans in bound, I hope you know what you're doing." The COM snapped off, silence.
"So do I…"
2305 HOURS// UNSC FRIGATE "JOHN F. KENNEDY"
GEOSYNCHRONOUS ORBIT AROUND PLANET
His name was Captain Vince Polk, and stood at a stiff attention and the bridge crew looked on in utter silence as the ship's AI, Orion, toga and all appeared on the hollow pad. "Sir… I have received word from the men on the surface. The 210th."
The Naval Officer's blue eyes brightened up. "What did they say?"
"The Package sir. Delta Zero One Zero."
The naval officer slumped back into his command chair. "Jesus… What was the number designation?"
"Zero One Zero… Sir."
"Twenty-four hours… Are you sure?"
"Sir my programming doesn't allow me to lie."
The Polk nodded silently to himself, his eyes staring into the void. "Okay. Put the countdown up and hope that the 210th can pull off something amazing."
2310 HOURS// 210TH BRAVO "BEARS" COMPANY//
DOCKS W/ CIVILIAN SURVIVORS
The first of them, the amazing "Bear" Bravo Company of the 210th Para-Infantry Battalion were KIA, when they dropped into the war zone but the rest had made it out with relative ease. They landed, counted up the casualties, which resulted in fourteen killed, seven wounded and several others missing, presumed dead. Those were low compared to other drops that the battalion had done in months before.
"Sir we caught a broad wave message to the Kennedy… It was Corporal Poles. Most of the Battalion is dead sir… And the rest are running around with their heads cut off. He called for the Package."
The Captain of the Company, a heavy set man with devilish eyes and a mop of red hair disliked Alpha Company, and mainly first platoon since in the beginning of the formation of the battalion that Platoon had defeated his Company's best and brightest. "He called for the Package?"
"Yes, sir."
"Time?"
"I would say… Around forty eight hours by the designation… We narrowed in on their transmission. Do you want us to try and contact the rest of the Battalion and rally there?"
"Damn straight I do, get the 'hogs, up and running let's get going… I don't want to be left behind on this rock."
"What is Gamma-21 and Delta Zero One Zero?" The militiaman more confused than anything else.
"Fail safe protocol. Don't worry about it, just tell me, is there anyway for you to get into contact with the other militia men around the city?"
"Well… Yes, now that we have a radio." The man spoke with a tone of uneasiness.
"Good. Now I want you to get them on the COM and get them here, tell them to drop whatever they're doing, if they have civilians, tell them to get them here. Right now."
"Why?"
"Because in forty-eight hours this whole city is going to be a bloody smoking crater with the charred bones of ten thousand covenant. I'm and telling you to move, don't make me tell you again."
The man nodded, and Pole's eyes shifted to Ivy who stood there silently, they stared at each other, they both knew their missions would conflict in the near future, and the outcome would be something neither wanted.
Harding came into view in front of the tent flap; the Corporal stopped and looked inside. Next to him was a stunning woman, which Poles paused for a split second before standing. "Cowboy. Glad to see you're still around."
"What you expect me to run away into the night."
"Of course." Poles gave a smile, and nodded at the woman who gave a soft smile and nodded back. He held out a hand, his gaze shifting to hers. "Corporal Shane Poles. Friends call me Hound."
She accepted the grasp and gave a half smile. "Jennifer Young." She then added. "I'll wait outside." She vanished outside the tent flap and into the darkness.
"Where were you?" Poles sat back down and used an arm to motion for Harding to do the same.
"Meeting with their leader." Nicholas replied coolly, sitting down silently across from him. "She's there leader?"
"No… She's more of a 'Lieutenant.'"
"Oh."
"Anything else, Hound?"
Poles gave a look Harding had only seen a few times, once when Poles found out his home was glassed and the other when he found out his mother died an evacuation ship from that planet. "Yes. We have a problem."
