Message from the general: I would like to dedicate this chapter to the memory of Don Lafontaine, for those of you who don't know him he was the the movie trailer voice over guy, you were awesome, man!
Disclaimer: I don't own halo, all OCs are mine
chapter 10: engage, retreat
February 12, 2535
location: lambda serpentis system, Jericho VII
"ten years... ten years since the world changed, ten years since I changed". That was a quote from one of Kyle's favorite shows, he thought it suited him.
"We're five to dirt" said their pelican pilot, Blue team's mission was to lure the Covenant while Red team planted a HAVOK nuke behind their lines. The battle on Jericho wasn't going well on either front, in space the UNSC was getting slaughtered by hit and run attacks. Thanks to the Covenant taking out the 105th drop jet platoon, the ground forces were unable to establish a fortified beachhead for reinforcements, and their losses continued to mount as more troops were dropped into unsecured zones. The pelican touched down and the five man, Blue team disembarked. The Spartans moved toward a stone ridge and suddenly their motion trackers were filled by an enormous blotch of red dots.
"Contact" said the Chief. "All teams stand by, enemy contact my position". He slid a fiber optic probe over the ridge and he sent the feed to the rest of the team. In the valley below was nothing but grunts, there had to be at least a thousand of the little things.
"Five of us and and a thousand of them" said Kelly. "Piss poor odds for the little guys".
"Blue-two" said the Chief. "I want you up on those hills with the jackhammer launchers, take out the cannons and soften the rest of them. Blue-three and five, you follow me up, we're on crowd control. Blue-four, you get the welcome mat ready, understood?"
All the Spartans winked their acknowledgment lights.
"on my mark" said the Chief. "Mark!"
Kelly jumped to the top of the ridge hefting both of the team's launchers in one leap, and unleashed a hail of rockets as she dashed across the ridge. After expending both launchers she made a break for the fallback point. The Chief along with Kyle and Fred made their way up to the top of the ledge. Kyle and the others caught the grunts off guard ans hosed them with their MA5Bs. A few hits ignited the grunt's methane tanks and took out two or three more, but they suddenly realized what was happening and regrouped then charged at the Spartans. They fired their weapons until they exhausted their AP rounds then switched to shredder rounds.
"Come get some" said Kyle as he popped off a grenade at the mass of grunts, the grunts started firing as waves of them continued to drop.
"Inbound Covenant air support" said Linda over the comm "ETA is two minutes, Chief!"
"Rodger that" the Chief replied. "Blue-three and five, continue fire for five seconds then fall back... mark".
Kyle continued firing until the Chief threw his grenades. As they detonated, he along with Fred and the Chief jumped of the ridge and bolted for the fallback point. They reached the edge of the cliff and Kyle looked down at the plunge to the sea.
"Welcome mat is laid out, Chief" said Linda. "Ready when you are".
Kyle could see the horde of grunts making their way up the slope, this was the only time he was actually afraid of them, when they traveled in large packs.
"Roll out the carpet" the Chief ordered.
The lotus mines they'd buried earlier detonated. Normally designed for tanks they were perfect at finishing off the grunts. A few bursts from Kyle's assault rifle finished off the stragglers. Suddenly, they all got hits on their motion trackers at their two o'clock high, five banshees were screaming toward them.
"new contacts, all teams: open fire!" barked the Chief.
Kyle and everyone else gave the banshees all they had but bullets were just no good against their armor. All it did do however was piss them off, they swooped in low and began firing on Kyle's position. Kyle, Fred and the Chief dove out of the way just as the plasma bolts hit the ground, the banshees flew over them and prepared for another pass.
"Blue-three, blue-five, theta maneuver" ordered the chief.
Kyle and Fred gave him the thumbs up signal and they regrouped at the edge of the cliff, then clipped onto three steel cables dangling of the edge.
"Did you rig the fougasses with fire or shrapnel?" the Chief asked Kyle.
"Both" he replied as he retrieved the detonators, the banshees were starting their attack run and the three Spartans scattered to avoid the plasma fire. The Spartans regrouped and when the banshees were in range, they jumped backward off the cliff.
"Party favor anyone?" said Kyle as he clicked the detonators, there was a thunderous boom as the ten fougasses unleashed a fireball and a hail of shrapnel against the banshees. The covenant craft screamed over their heads, each training black smoke as they plummeted into the ocean. Kyle and the others rappelled down to the beach and headed for the fall back point. They found Kelly and Linda standing on a rock jetty.
"Red team reports mission objectives achieved" said Kelly. "They send their complements".
"Its hardly going to balance the scales" said Fred. "Not like those grunts when they slaughtered the 105th, they should suffer just as much as those guys did".
"Blue-two, get me an uplink" said the Chief.
"aye aye" said Kelly as she accessed the SATCOM system. Kyle joined Kelly on the jetty while the chief was talking to the captain.
"Its beautiful" she said looking at the pristine ocean, it was hard to believe that a war was raging right now. The scene reminded kyle of the trips he took to Norfolk, they would head to a small restaurant on the Chesapeake bay bridge and tunnel island. Kyle used to look out over the Atlantic ocean, at how far it stretched, he always wondered what kind of world lay beyond its horizon. "That it is" he finally replied to Kelly.
"The party's over, Spartans, dust off in fifteen" said the Chief.
"and just when I was starting to enjoy myself" said Kyle as he and Kelly got off the jetty and jogged along the beach to the pelican. They climbed aboard and the engines came to life, propelling them up into space. Kelly removed her helmet and scratched the stubble of her brown hair.
"Its a shame to leave this place" she said as she looked out of the porthole. "There are so few left".
"There will be other places to fight for" said the Chief.
"will there?" Kelly whispered.
Kyle wished he could tell her everything would turn out ok, but he knew he couldn't. It was nagging at him that he had the foreknowledge, but it only went so far. Kyle still hadn't decided what to do when reach will be attacked, if he lives that long. For now all Kyle could do was go with the flow.
--
They docked with the destroyer resolute and stayed behind for an hour to watch Jericho VII be glassed, the Chief was the only one who wanted to watch. Kyle had never seen a glassing and when he read about them it sounded kind of cool to actually see one, not any more, not when it was actually happening and actual people were dying in the most horrific way possible. The rest of Blue team went to their bunk room. When they arrived however they found several Spartans clustered around another one lying on the floor, her helmet was off and another one was knelling down. They recognized the fallen spartan as Maria-062. Kyle and Kelly bolted to her side and they recognized the Spartan tending to her as Will.
"She started complaining about chest pains" said Will. "Then she just collapsed".
"Med team?" Kyle asked.
"on its way" Will replied
"Kyle!" Kelly screamed
He looked over and saw Maria wasn't breathing, he accessed her vitals on his HUD and saw them flat lined.
"Her heart's stopped, we can't wait for the medics" said Kyle as he began to pull apart her chest armor, "Kelly, the med pack" Kyle ordered.
"On it" she replied as she got up and retrieved the emergency medkit from the other side of the room, Kyle and Will pounded the hell out of Maria's armor but they were able to get the chest plate removed in record time. Kelly returned with the kit and immediately began setting up the small defibrillator. Kyle removed a cardiac stimulant from the kit and injected it straight into her heart. After the stimulant was inserted, Kelly handed him the small pads which Kyle placed upon her chest.
"Clear" said Kelly as she activated the machine, Maria jolted around but she was still unresponsive.
"Hit her again" said Kyle.
Kelly increased the juice and administered another jolt. Maria thrashed around more violently but her heart restarted. Kyle had another look at her BIOS, They were still weak but her heart was beating, the med team arrived and Kyle helped Maria onto the stretcher. They wheeled her out of the bunk room and to sickbay leaving the Spartans there.
--
They had jumped to slipspace a few hours ago and every spartan except Kyle, John and Kelly were in cryo stasis, they were holding vigil by Maria's bedside. Kelly and John had dosed off and Kyle was feeling a wave of drowsiness come over him, but suddenly the door opened and the ship's doctor came in. Kyle nudged Kelly and John awake.
"Well how is she?" Kyle asked.
"as far as I can tell she suffered a heart attack" said the Doctor. "But I believe there may have been some damage".
"So why haven't you treated her?" John asked.
"I'm under orders from ONI not to perform any kind of surgery or run any kind of analysis of her tissue, just to sedate her and prepare her for cryo stasis".
"That's bullshit" said Kyle. "It goes against your oath as a doctor".
"you're right there, which is why I had the captain pull a few strings. We're going in to operate anyway" he said as a few attendants wheeled away Maria's bed. "They'll probably court martial me for this".
"Lets hope not" said Kyle
March 27, 2535
location: epsilon eridani system, reach UNSC military complex
The Spartans were assembled in the commissary of the base having a farewell party for Maria, the doctor on the resolute was able to repair the damage to her heart but had also discovered that her attack was caused by a degenerative condition brought on by extreme stress. She would only get worse the more she pushed herself. Because of this, she had to be removed from the Spartan program. They had offered her a new assignment but she chose instead to retire from active duty. Kyle had manged to get the party together and the rest of the Spartans seemed to be enjoying themselves.
"So what are you going to do with yourself?" Fred asked. "I hear civilian life can be pretty boring".
"I don't know yet" Maria replied. "who knows, maybe I'll start a family".
A few of the Spartans let out a chuckle at the idea of a Spartan settling down to civilian life. Kyle decided to walk outside for some fresh air, their comments had actually made him think of his own situation. A flood of memories came back to him about his life, his family and the future he never had. Kyle was most likely going to be stuck here the rest of his life, what happens when the war is over, if he was still alive what would he do?
"Thought I'd find you here" said Kelly. "Why did you leave?"
"I needed some air" he replied.
"Something wrong?" she asked. "You have that look again?"
"Well with Maria leaving and all, it got me thinking".
"About?" Kelly pressed
"well... what we'll all do when the war is over?" said Kyle.
"What makes you so sure that we'll win?" Kelly whispered.
"Lets say for the moment we do".
"I don't know" she replied. "I'm sure I'll think of something".
"what about a family?" said Kyle.
"I guess" she replied kind of awkwardly.
"lets change the subject" said Kyle, he knew this was kind of weird to ask her things like that. Kyle realized the two of them had grown close over the past ten years, she had become the closest thing to a best friend. He was starting to wonder if it was becoming more than that, she had been spending a lot of time with him. Kyle glanced over at her and her face was illuminated by the moonlight, it was the first time he'd realized how beautiful it was. "No I couldn't be... could I?" Kylethought to himself as he allowed himself another quick glance, "best not to think about that now". But Kyle knew he was only suppressing the truth, he'd fallen for her.