A/N: I don't own anything from Halo or Red vs blue.
Chapter 6
He was sure he was going to regret this, the last thing he needed was useless soldiers dragging them down. They just had one problem, transportation. After a short chat they made plans as to how they would make it to the locations. They had decided to take for of the warthog M831 TT, one Warthog M12 LRV, and three of the bases Mongoose's. Leonard had instructed Steve and Allison to give his orders to the Blood Gulch soldiers. The civilians had gathered with the other soldiers waiting to leave. The reds had moved the vehicles out into the area around the orchard. Leonard motioned to Grif and Simmons and then to the first warthog. After a moment of fighting Grif got in the driver's seat and Simmons took shotgun. Brandon led two of the business people to the rear of the vehicle and helped them in before hopping aboard the vehicle himself. Leonard assigned Corp and Donut to the second warthog. Corp took the wheel while Donut took shotgun complaining about how the wind was going to mess up his hair. Tricia helped two of the civilians into the rear with her. Paul moved toward the third warthog taking the driver's seat. Sister took shotgun while the last of the civilians, Professor Oran, and Douglas entered the rear of the vehicle. Andre took the driver's seat of the M12 LRV with Lorie riding shotgun and Joe manning the gun.
"Come on Tucker, Caboose, you're with me." Tex said leading the blues to the last warthog. She took the driver's seat; Tucker took shotgun, while Caboose got in the back with Steve and Allison. Leonard, Keith, and Natalie boarded the Mongooses and they readied to head out and then Leonard led them off out of the base.
As they made their way down the streets of the local city Leonard had to admit that Tex had been right. The locals seemed to ether be scared to death by the sight of the armored soldiers of have nothing but hatred for them, though the sight of the unarmored soldiers didn't seem to help. "I thought you said that they would feel more at ease with you here." Steve said to Tex.
"I said that they might. I never promised that they would." Tex replied simply. "Some of them don't like the fact that the military is here or that the refuges have been put on the planet. Some of the people feel it is nothing but a drain on their city. I guess a bunch of armored soldiers are enough to upset them. I don't think they'll do anything though."
"They better not do anything. We have to do whatever we need to in order to protect those people." Steve said shifting his rifle.
Tex let it go and she was glad that the marines let it go. They didn't stay in civilization for long though, that's not why they were there. The scenery shifted from large buildings, to refugee barracks, to forest. UNSC vehicles were never the easiest to handle but they were good off road so they weren't completely useless. The warthogs bounced across the unworn path through the trees as animals ran away from the unfamiliar objects. The soldiers came to a halt before a large pile of rocks blocking their path.
Steve jumped out of the back of the warthog and walked over to Leonard. "What do we do sir?" He asked.
"We leave the vehicles and move out on foot." Leonard rebelled dismounting his Mongoose. He glanced over at the civilians. "If we weren't protecting them I would suggest leaving them out here. This is a waste of time."
"If only, if only." Steve agreed. He then turned to the group of warthogs. "We're moving out on foot." He shouted to them.
"On foot? Does that mean walking?" Grif asked.
"What else could on foot mean? Would you rather run?" Simmons snapped at the other soldier.
"No, I'd rather stay here and watch the pumas." Grif answered using his favorite name for the vehicles.
"Quit your bell aching, soldier." Brandon spoke up. "Just get your asses out of the vehicle and get ready to walk."
"Yessir." Simmons replied jumping out of the vehicle. Grif's reply was a bit less formal but he to exit the vehicle. Once everyone was on foot the group started to walk.
"We're still a few miles away from our first target area." Professor Oran commented.
"Well then we're in luck that this place doesn't have many large predators." Tex commented. "Most of them live farther up north."
"And what about the ones that are around here?" One of the civilians asked.
"They won't mess with us. Would you with them around?" She asked motioning to the armored soldiers.
They suddenly stopped as Leonard held up his hand and slowly made a fist. The marines froze in place as Leonard moved forward a bit checking something on the ground. He turned to the others and slowly shook his head from side to side. He squeezed his fist tighter before stretching out his fingers and quickly making a fist once more. The marines moved closer to the civilians making a tight circle and readied their weapons.
"What in the name of Steven Colbert is going on?" Corp asked confused by the actions.
"There's trouble ahead." Allison answered quietly keeping her eyes on the Staff Sergeant.
Corp looked at her surprised. "You're a girl? Why the hell would they give a woman equipment like that armor?"
"Danger on this planet, what are you talking about?' Tucker asked before Allison could say anything. He then turned to Corp. "Of course she's a girl, it's obvious. Also, why Steven Colbert? Why not John Stewart."
"Because John Stewart is a liberal pansy." Corp replied.
"Sure you say that but which one has a national holiday and which one was president?" Tucker asked.
"That election was rigged." Sarge shot back angrily.
"Shut it, both of you." Allison snapped. "There's danger in the area and you two are arguing about dead people. I don't know how Church ever put up with you."
That caught Tucker's attention and Allison right away regretted it. "You know Church, and he talked about us?" He asked.
Allison didn't know what to say. She didn't know how to answer without giving away that he was their leader. "That mean you met him after we went to scary people base. That means Church is still alive." Caboose nearly shouted in joy.
"Why would it matter? Doesn't he hate you?" Simmons asked. "I mean you killed him or something."
"No we are the best of friends." Caboose corrected him. "It was Tucker's fault any way."
"Yeah, you didn't blow him up with a tank, or shoot Corp when Church was possessing him, or set off a bomb inside his robot body that sent him back in time over and over." Grif said sarcastically.
"Nope, none of that ever happened." Caboose replied dumbly.
"Great Himalayan mountain goat, do you ever shut up?" Corp asked.
"Why don't you all shut up and follow orders." Tex snapped glaring at the soldiers.
The soldiers continued to argue but Leonard had already shut them out. "So what do you have for me?" He asked Alpha.
"I don't detect any enemies near but they might be using active camouflage." The AI replied. "It's hard to detect them though with so few military satellites here."
"Then hack some commercial ones." Leonard replied as though it were obvious.
"I'm not use to working with soldiers that think like me." Alpha said rather pleased. The AI hacked into just bout ever satellite in orbit. Most of them had cameras or some sort of system to detect where they were in orbit. Alpha was more human then other AI and he was willing to admit it. Other AI would not judge people but Alpha did, and he usually heated them and he was more likely to make mistakes. Alpha was shifting the satellites so that the were all facing the marine's location when he made the mistake. It had really only been a small mistake, he just adjusted the satellite a bit too much. Where as most people consider these mistakes a fault but Alpha found them to be rather useful. If not for this mistake the soldiers would have been completely off guard. "Sir, why are these civilians here?" Alpha asked transmitting the image to Leonard's HUD.
Leonard frowned at the image that he was looking at. It had to be some kind of trick, it couldn't be real. There was no way that many loyalists could have snuck onto the planet. He was about to asked the civilians about it when he spotted the tell tale shimmer. He slowly reached up grabbing the handle of the battle knife that was attached to the front of his CQB chest plate. Alison, Keith, and Lorie all did the same, all having caught sight off the hidden enemies around them. Keith seemed to be staring out at nothing, Allison was staring past Leonard's shoulder, while Lorie quickly glanced behind her. Leonard nodded his head slowly understanding where they all were and then flashed his amber status light once. The other dropped their hands form their blades returning them to their weapons while the others continued to act as though nothing was happening and they were just listening to the unarmored soldiers fight. Leonard waited a few seconds before making his move. He drew the knife from his armor and threw it. The blade spun though the air before burying itself in the shoulder of the unarmored brute. The rest of the marines moved to cover the civilians from the danger. Lorie spun raising two SMGs and unloaded both of them into the brute killing it. Allison raised her battle rifle pointing it at a shimmer behind Leonard. Leonard ducked out of the way as Allison opened fire on the brute. The shots hit the brute's right shoulder disabling the alien's camouflage. Leonard spun around lifting his shotgun and fired one shot at the brute's head. The beast fell dead, its head nothing but torn up metal and flesh among broken bone. Keith finished his the third brute off with a few quick burst of fire strait to the creature's head. Once they were sure the brutes were dead and there was no more danger Leonard retrieved his knife. He looked at the bloody blade for a moment before turning to Lorie. "What did you not pain?" He asked holding up the cobalt blade to the soldier.
"Just be glad we didn't paint ourselves." Lorie replied only half joking. It wouldn't have surprised Church if they did that.
Leonard decided that he would let it go. There was no point in arguing with his soldiers because they had team spirit. He walked over to the civilians and slid his knife back into place on his chest plate. The civilians looked up at him as though they didn't understand why he was watching them. "Why are you really here?" He asked.
The unarmored soldiers looked up at him surprised. Leonard ignored them and continued to stare at the civilians. "We are only surveying." One of the business men replied.
"Bull shit" Leonard said. "Why would you specifically want to survey land that is crawling with covies? They are digging for something and they never dig for anything good."
"Dude, you are alive." Tucker said surprised completely ignoring the serious subject.
"Not now, Tucker." Leonard said turning back to the civilians determined to get a satisfactory answer.
"I'm afraid it's my bad. From studies of the other locations I believed this place might have something similar to Reach." Professor Oran spoke up. "I didn't know the covenant was here though."
"Wait, you think that what was found in Reach might be here?" Alpha asked.
"I believe there might be something similar at the least around here." Professor Oran replied.
"What was found in Reach?" Leonard asked feeling like he was missing something really important.
"A crystal that could bend the space around it was found. There wasn't time to really study it." Alpha replied.
"Are you talking to yourself?" Simmons asked confused by hearing both Alpha and Leonard speaking to each other and in the same voice.
"No you dumb ass." Leonard snapped not wanting to take the time to explain it. "Now be quiet and let the real soldiers work."
"If there is something like that in this planet we need to find it before the covenant." Alpha reasoned. "Something like that would give them an advantage over us."
"Then inform command of the situation. We are in no position to handle it." Leonard replied.
"There isn't an UNSC battle cruiser within radio distance." Alpha pointed out.
"Try a separatist ship." Leonard suggested. The separatist might have been covenant at some time but now they were on the good side and Leonard was willing to get them to deal with the situation.
There was a pause before the AI replied. "Nope, nothing at all. It looks like we are on our own." Alpha replied. "What will you do?" He asked sounding interested.
Leonard though it over for a moment before coming to a decision. "We can't let them have anything down there." He finally said. "Here's the plan. Allison…"He said turning to the Corporal.
"Yessir" Both Allison and Tex said at the same time. The two women turned to look at each other.
"Dude, one of your soldiers is named Allison? What are the chances of one of your soldiers and your ex having the same name?" Tucker laughed.
"Would you just shut up Tucker? Unless you are going to say something helpful just keep your mouth shut." Leonard said turning to the women. "I meant Brigs." Leonard said pointing to Allison. "You and Steel team will stay here and protect the civis with Tex and her team. Cobalt team and Sapphire team will go with me. We're going to clear out the place. When I give the signal Steel team and everyone else with them will head down to the digging sight and we'll go looking for this thing." Leonard instructed. "Understood?"
"Yessir." The marines and Tex replied.
Leonard looked to the unarmored soldiers. "I said understood?" He asked in a threatening tone.
"Dude I still can't get past the fact you are alive." Tucker replied. "Let alone the fact that you have another female soldier named Allison."
Leonard glared at him though it wasn't visible past the helmet. "Whatever, just don't get the civilians killed." He said before leading his team off.
~End chapter 6~
A/N: Next chapter will have all the more death and fighting. Please read and review.