Chapter 9

Survival and Sabotage

"I need everyone on the roof ASAP! Get Jones's ass up here quickly." I ran to Kerry and firmly grabbed his shoulder. Spinning him around from his perch, he seemed drawn in. I then swept the binoculars out of his hands and pointed at him. "I need you ready to treat a patient, Jones got hit badly. Make. Sure. He. Lives." I then ran to Matthews who was loosely shooting at targets down below. I slammed the binoculars into his hands and looked him dead in the helmet. "You. Targets. NOW!" He got the message.

"Fuck Cooper we've got bad guys flooding the building. Me and Sierra are falling back to the roof with Deruld!" Martinez was screaming over comms. I could hear the frantic footsteps and panting over the radio. Rushing over to the edge of the building I contacted command. "Tiger we've completed our fucking objective where the hell is our ride 'outta here!" I looked down and saw a seemingly endless horde of Covenant swarming the streets. Our roof acting as a lone island in a sea of enemies.

"We've got a Falcon enroute to your location First Sergeant, but local AA's been fuckin' everyones day up so far." The thick southern accent that I was so accustomed to seemed monotone at that moment. "Copy Tiger, just get us a ride!" I stepped back from the edge of the roof and looked back to see the rest of my team. Jones had been placed on a makeshift table as Kerry began working on him, a Brute spike was sticking out of his chest. Martinez and Sierra both fired round after round precisely down the building into the crowds below. Leaving only Deruld, his LMG in hand, covering the only entrance up here.

Mind you, Deruld was firing a lot of bullets at the door. Wouldn't be long until he'd need to reload. Figuring that I could help out I placed myself behind him, he knew the formation. He'd crouch down when he was out of ammo and reload while I took the door. The first few silhouettes appeared in its frames only to be speared through the chest by his bursts. "Onyx actual, Falcon is 3 mikes off the deck." Good, we can make that work. "I'm dry!" Deruld pivoted on his left foot out of the line of fire and leaving me to pick up. I crouched forward and began popping as many heads as I could through the door.

"He's stable!" I heard over comms. Kerry had been able to stop the bleeding by removing the spike and injecting an unhealthy amount of biofoam. I stayed focused on the door however. Another figure ran through, I squeezed the trigger and a 3-round burst shot forward. The rounds slammed into its chest, causing whatever it was to fall forward. Only for a massive fucking ape to slam into the ground through the doorway. The 3 bullet holes had struck it right in the chest, staining it's fur with blood.

I continued firing until the all too familiar click of my rifle rang out in my ear. "Loading new mag!" I pivoted out of the way and behind Deruld, who was happy to begin ring once again. My eyes wandered to the skies and that's when I saw it. The Falcon was flying in at a high altitude, low angle. Meaning it was basically planning on swooping in for a drive-by pickup. Whoever was flying that thing was ballsy as all hell. I reached into my kit and pulled out a purple smoke grenade. Popping it and shaking it violently before tossing it up near the pile of rubble that the jammer once stood at.

The Falcon seemingly got the message and began swooping in for a pickup. "Everyone get ready!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. My gravely voice overcoming the gunfire. Kerry and Martinez both grabbed Jones and began bringing him up near the LZ, and as it began flying in we could see lines of plasma from the streets below begin shooting up towards it.

Within less than 30 seconds the Falcon swept through the fire and landed on the roof quickly, the pilot gesturing for us as we began moving. The two side gunners began shooting at anything that so much as breathed at them. Our heads stayed low and we sprinted towards the Falcon under the wind of the blades in hunched over postures. I kicked one leg onto the edge of the chopper and began scanning the roof for anything the gunner failed to mop up.

As my team finally loaded up I climbed aboard and found a seat, strapping myself in and holding the edge of the seat for dear life. The aircraft then shot upwards and a sharp angle into the skies, plenty of enemy fire to be left as well. As the pilot began bringing us out of small arms distance I tabbed into comms. "Tiger I need to you to begin a strike on purple smoke, disregard all other designated targets until done so. Priority one!" I waited a moment, staring at the UNSC Tiger, the nearest UNSC vessel. The only thing being heard was that of the Falcons engines and blades, at least, for about 30 seconds.

Abruptly an archer missile pod was fired out in a single salvo. That may not sound like much, but considering that a single pod carries 30 missiles… it did the job.

Within seconds the once lumbering tower was reduced to practical ash. Alongside any other son of a bitch caught within a stones throw of it.

"Cooper, I hate to break in un-announced but your teams being reassigned to a different in the city." The fuck!? When did the major get here. "Major, mind telling me what the hell is going on!?" My team just got their asses pulled out of very hot fire and now he wanted us sent back in. I had maybe 2 mags left at best. That's counting the loaded one right now.

"Look, I don't like it any more than you do. You're pilots been instructed to circle around and land at an FOB being set up at the edge of the city. Meet me there, I'll be your handler from here on." Well, this just got a whole lot better didn't it.

6 Hours Earlier

The bitter cold stung every part of my body, I attempted to move my limbs to no avail. The only thing going through my head was a mantra of the SERE acronym.

Survive.

I summoned as much willpower as I could from the depths of my soul and pushed myself out of that snow and onto my feet.

Evade.

I looked up to spot the Pelican, only for a dining table to come rushing down like a missle. Making a quick dash to my right and slamming my body against the hard rock of the Mountain. The rest of the mansion fell with it and passed me by.

Resist.

As I gained my balance the Stalwart winds of Devils Pass attempted to knock me over. Planting my feet in the ground I withstood the assault.

Escape.

I shot my eyes around the area, a thick blanket of snow and a whirling storm of ice blinding any possible route off the mountain.

It was around this moment I realized my helmet was shattered. The protruding front of the Gungnir helmet was cracked and chipped away beyond repair. Letting my body relax a bit I leaned against the cliff face and removed it. I flipped it over and examined for only a moment, nothing but a bucket at this point, and a bad one at that.

Seeing no reason in keeping the piece of junk I gritted my teeth, and hurled the thing off the edge of the Mountain, much against my arms displeasure. The bucket disappeared into the darkness and the blizzard seemed all too obliged to swallow it whole.

I leaned up against the rock and began following the ledge I was on, as it lead downwards. What happened? My rifle was nowhere to be seen, leaving only my sidearm and knife at my disposal.

We were extracting a VIP… 'Least we did that correctly. Then the platform came down and I dove for the Pelican, I tried to at least. I slipped and fell… Shouldn't I be dead? I peered over the edge and looked on, I must've fallen onto this small ledge on the side of the mountain. Snow might've broken my fall, whatever it was, I was alive.

I followed along the ledge and began feeling the decline. It was getting colder and I wouldn't last long against the elements. I could already feel my eyes drooping and my body withering more than it already was, maybe I should just give in? No… No not yet. I've survived worse… I think?

Just keep movi-SHIT! My foot slip as the path took a sharp decline. As my foot fell under and I lost my balance I twisted over and began reaching for something as I slid down. The top half of my body slammed into the ground as I began slipping off the edge, the same way I had in the Pelican. Not happening again!

As my hands clawed and scratched at the snow I drew my knife. Mustering up as much force as I could from my weakened appendages. Driving the blade into the ground my body came to an unexpected stop at the edge. My legs and other arm dangled helplessly in the air, I faced a 15 foot drop, maybe?

My body relaxed from the tension, only for a moment. The knife began losing its place as the weight of my body began overtaking it. I tried to pull myself up in time but the knife only came out quicker. I felt the all too familiar feeling of gravity pulling my body down. Before I could even grasp what happened I hit the rock beneath me and could hear all throughout my body the CRUNCH of bone breaking. I bit my tongue and came back to my feet against my own bodies wishes. I looked around for any sort of shelter but to no avail.

What I did find however, was a slope leading down into a clearing of rock and trees. I was getting near the bottom at least. I slid down the side of the mountain on my ass and felt each rock stab it. When I reached the clearing I was relieved to find a small indent in the rock face of the mountain. Big enough I could fit a Warthog in it. I limped over to the crevice with a hand on my side. I began feeling the wind in my hair again and stopped in my tracks.

I hadn't felt the proper wind for years now.

Maybe the occasional Pelican ride out yes, but my helmet had always remained on. It was weird actually, but forcing the thoughts out of my head I drew my SOCOM and activated the flashlight on it. I began shining it over the crevice, only to be let down when nothing was there. Damn… Was hoping for a meal maybe. I walked inside and slowly placed myself against the cave's walls. Sitting and holding my legs tightly to my chest, I wasn't going to die here. Not yet at least.

I brought up my left hand and began tapping at the TACPAD on my wrist. It seemed to be intact, maybe I could find a way out of here? I pulled up the digital map on it and began sliding and analyzing the mountain range. I was somewhere near the bottom, maybe an hours hike down to the base of the mountain. From there I'd be able to find a path that lead to… Somewhere. When we created the map we took everything within a 10 mile radius of the range and slapped it on, when we picked up a city we didn't bother with its name.

It was a small coastal place wedged in between 2 towering rock formations. As well as a wall large enough that even we'd have trouble breaking it down. I could make my way there, might be a day's journey at best. Thank God for land nav training back during bootcamp.

Not that any of that really mattered though… Without a heat source I'd be dead in the next hour or so. I raised myself up and set out into the snow once more. A thick group of trees was less than 100 meters away, if I was lucky I'd be able to maybe find some wood that could be burned. My knife wasn't exactly equipped for chopping down trees. I eyed down a dead tree that had fallen over in the snow, a log to be more specific. It wasn't exactly big, but it definitely was sizable enough to last a couple hours. The wood was maybe about as thick as a Scorpions cannon, meaning that it couldn't weigh that much.

I gripped the rear of the fallen tree and began dragging in through the snow and towards the small cave a ways back. Eventually I hauled the thing into the cave, just barely fitting inside. Dusting off my gloves I drew my knife. The thing about standard issue knives in the UNSC was that they are FUCKING massive. From there I began hacking away at the log, stripping it of all it's branches first and then moving towards cutting bigger chunks of it.

I wouldn't use all of it for obvious reasons, I may be stuck here for awhile if this storm kept up. No way in hell I'm braving the climb down like this. In all honesty there really wasn't a way to do this efficiently, just hack at it and keep up the pressure until I could just stomp off the piece. I did so for nearly and hour, and fought through the cold overtaking my body. About three quarters still remained of the log, deciding not to waste time I got to building the fire.

Setting up the pieces typee style I threw the kindling inside of it and looked for rock or something hard at least. I found a stretched out pebble instead, one that would suit my needs. Placing myself as close to the kindling as possible and flipping my knife over to the blunt side I pressed the stone against it. I ran the blunt side of my blade down the stone swiftly causing a few sparks to fly out, and then some more, and then even more.

I repeated the process for almost a minute until one lucky spark caught the thin strips of wood and began burning. Capitalizing on the moment I began blowing into the fire, causing it to rise and settle with my breathes. It wasn't long until I wasn't needed anymore. The fire had caught on quickly and was now burning at a sustainable pace.

I let my body relax against the cold rock of my new home and looked out into the snow. Barely able to see beyond 10 feet now. Ideally, the storm would stop by tomorrow. I'd rest up and the venture out towards that city, maybe find transport back to a UNSC ground site, we'd be in Atlas for a while now so I'd assume there'd be one, right?

I let the thoughts drift as I focused on feeding the fire and staying warm, my mind wandered and soon my eyes drooped closed. I'm so tired… so, so, so… Tired. I just want to sleep.

6 Hours Later - The Present

The helicopter drowned out the sounds of almost everything at the FOB, the men, the trucks, the artillery, almost everything. As we neared a makeshift landing zone I hunched over and shuffled to the side of the Falcon. Taking the arm of Jones from one side while Kerry took the other. I looked down and saw a pair of medics with a field stretcher ready to receive him. Good… He'd make it.

The Falcon hit the concrete with a bounce and scrape of steel. We immediately loaded off and began handing over Jones to the two medics, Kerry would stick with us though. Afterwards, I rallied my team and we began navigating the camp. In all honesty the base was nothing more than a few sandbags, barricades, tents, and portable buildings. All with Pelicans flying down routinely to drop off supplies.

As we pushed past squads of Marines, Atlas personnel, and the occasional civilian we made our way to the briefing tent. The scarcely small number of civilians aside, it looked like everything was in order. I pushed past the flap of the tent to be greeted by a friendly face, the Major. Alongside him were 2 other officers, each manning a station of radio communications or map layouts. "Good to see 'ya Onyx, grab a chair. Let's make this quick." I made my way to a foldable chair in the corner of the room as the rest of the team did the same.

"Thanks to you, our air capabilities are doing a lot better, at this rate we may have the city back in a week or two." Martinez and Deruld both fist bumped each other in celebration, a simple hand motion and stern look from me stopped that. The Major's voice dropped into a condemning one. "This is no cause for celebration, we've still got a lot of plays to make and not much time to do it. HIGHCOM's losing interest in this world fast!" We all sat up straight and began listening more intently.

He sighed and looked towards the ground, before fixing his posture and preparing his thick southern voice. "A few hours ago we received the promised shipment of the new material called 'dust' from the Schnee…" What the fuck did that asshole do to the shipment, explosive maybe? "Once we began transporting the shit out of Remnant's atmosphere it became… ineffective." I stood up from my chair and placed both my hands on the holo-table. "And what exactly to do you mean, Major?!" After the mission to grab that cocksucker I was already pissed enough.

"Initial first hand experiments were conducted on the ground, showed that they had massive kinetic and specialization potential for the war. However, they got real homesick after we left, and soon they became useless. Just a bunch of sand and crystal at that point." I brought my dirt covered gloves over my eyes, temporarily staining my brow a thick brown. "Okay… Go on?" Next time I see that Schnee dickhead I'm gonna break his fucking jaw. "With no real resource to collect here, HIGHCOM is considering a full scale withdrawal, letting Remnant handle the Covenant on their own. A little payback for wasting our time." It was at this point I butted in and made my position clear on the subject. "Yes, and rightfully so, but why are we still here then?"

The Major stood up and tapped away at the console of the table, a 3D schematic of what looked to be a lab hovered above it. "They still believe that there's something useful we can take, but with the war going as it is, Atlas has completely denoted the idea of cooperating with us." My team began gathering around, analyzing the schematics as I propped half of my ass up onto the table. Crossing my arms defiantly. "Right… I see where you're going, but what does this lab have to do with anything?" He brought both his hands up to his hips and stretched out his back. "With no other way to gain access to this world's secrets… HIGHCOM has authorized us to steal EVERYTHING." My team recoiled in shock.

"About 2 hours ago we intercepted a radio communication between Atlas Command and a team of their Specialists. They're going to an underwater facility in the Northern Atlas Sea, their mission is to retrieve some 'critical' data." We stirred in our places, this wasn't sounding any better. "That same facility was just recently attacked by the Covenant, your job is to get inside, steal as much data as possible, then wipe the servers clean before they can get to it and lock us out. Or just blow that shit skyhigh after you've got what we need. Clear?" the Major let out quickly. Matthews raised his hand slowly, eyeing the schematics down.

"Sir, what exactly do we do WHEN we run into the Specialists. I doubt they're gonna just let us take their shit?" Major Grant simply swallowed a lump in his throat and pointed towards the rear of the structure. "Yes, we've already thought about that, we're inserting you via SOC boat on the opposite side of the lab. From there…" The hologram then showed a single dot representing us, moving through the facility and towards and area marked OBJ. "Our Specialists will keep the Covenant's attention, while you all sneak in, grab the intel, wipe everything, destroy anything we tell you too, and get the fuck out!"

Martinez raised his hand instead this time, spitting out a wad of chewing tobacco. "Okay boss, but that wasn't the question. What do we do when we run into them, it's gonna happen?" He took a long pause and seemed to genuinely ponder the ramifications of such a scenario. "In the event that your compromised, you are given full authority to conduct yourselves in a way that keeps our involvement a secret. For the duration of the whole thing all 'official' UNSC markings on your gear is to be removed. This is both a Covert and Clandestine op, so if you are caught we WILL throw you under the bus. 'Ya here?" The explanation was vague but I'd heard it before with ONI. If they see us in any way, we kill them. If they suspect us of being there, we kill them. If they so much as hear us breath, we kill them. We all made our way towards the door before Grant called out to us. "Be at the docks in 30 minutes, scuba gear… Gentleman, as of right now we are 'unofficially' at war with the nations of Remnant. Let's keep it that way."

We exited the command tent and made our way to the makeshift armory near the motor pool. I stepped up before the armorer and slid a sheet of paper entailing to each piece of gear we'd need. Not a word was spoken. My team began removing their helmets and BDU's until we were nothing but in our undergarments. The armorer returned quickly and handed out the black, full body scuba suits. No insignia, no patches, nothing that could even make it seem like we were UNSC except out weapons. Assuming they'd see our weapons… It'd be too late for them.

We slipped into the suits quickly, the rubbery material latching onto our bodies tightly. Throwing the rest of our kit on overtop we made our way to the docks. On the small wooden outreach was a crate just overflowing with the rest of our dive equipment. Flippers, tanks, goggles, everything. Next to it was a single unmarked SOC boat, and once again every single marking was gone. Doesn't get much more covert than this, it also didn't help that the sun was beginning to set as well. A small crew of gunners and a single driver stood there, unflinching, and despite the quiet nature of the mission. These guys were armed to the teeth with such heavy firepower I couldn't help but feel that the Major expected us to fail.

It wasn't long before we all loaded up, put on our flippers, attached our oxygen tanks, and slipped on the scuba masks. We conducted a quick radio check and made sure that everything was running smoothly, and like that the boat was leaving the docks. Of course though, a few Marines had gathered near the edge of the sea to investigate what was going on. Unaffiliated masked soldiers in all black hop inside an unmarked vehicle and you can only wonder what's going on. The bumpy ocean kept us moving in our seats as we closed in on the facility. By now the water was covered by complete darkness. It'd been nearly a 2 hour ride.

Even with the engine in the background I could only hear my own heartbeat. The lights on the boat were out and the crew was using NVG's to see, us included. Now these weren't the usual built in goggles we were used too, without our helmets we were going old school. Well at least for them, we had something a little more advanced built into our masks but still. That spoke volumes about how the UNSC didn't want to get caught. Eventually a bright light and the sound of wind rushing past us spooked the crew. We immediately killed the engine and began scanning the skies, and that's when we saw it.

A single Bullhead circled around a single patch of water, seemingly waiting for something. Within seconds a landing pad began rising from the ocean and the Bullhead lowered down for a landing. As the doors opened on its side a team of 6 Specialists exited the aircraft, the water being kicked up by the Bullhead as well as the light from it caused us to only make out one person. A tall woman with white hair and uniform, and a saber in her hand. The sight made me relieved slightly, for a second I thought we were facing actual soldiers.

"Big Eye this is Predator, we have a visual on target structure and awaiting go-signal." Big Eye being Major Grant and Predator being us, even with our tech we couldn't risk our signals getting hijacked and them finding out. Good old codenames as it was right now. "Big Eye copies all, you are a go, I repeat Predator, you are a go." I stood up and sat myself on the edge of the boat as the rest of the team did the same. The Bullhead had killed its lights at this point and remained on the platform, that would make leaving a little difficult.

As I secured my scuba mask and got ready to hit the water, a single hand reached out and grabbed my shoulder. I switched back on my NVG's and saw it was Matthews again. "Boss… We sure about this?" No going back at this point, might as well slam it in. "We don't pick who we're fighting Matt, their just another target." With that I fell backwards and felt the, almost forgotten feeling, of my weightlessness in the water. As the NVG's in my scuba goggles adjusted I saw 6 other figures with me in the darkness. With all of us ready and floating there I switched on comms.

"Alright everyone, keep spaced out, on me." As my head turned and my body adjusted downwards I swam towards the blackened silhouette about 100 meters or so down. Small lights lined the walls of the facility as we made our way closer. God I didn't even want to think about what terrible creatures lay in this world's oceans. As we approached what looked like a moonpool on the farthest point from the Specialis, we went under it. As expected the pool was closed off and sealed tight, and with Jones still in the med bay we'd have to brute force most of the stuff that we, ourselves, couldn't access.

"Matthews your up." We all swam to a corner of the large moonpool doors and stabilized ourselves, our weapons pointing up. As Matthews drew what looked like a small flare from his belt before twisting the top and a bright light came from it. Matthew guided the torch alongside the small line of the 2 doors, creating a small gap in between them. Finally, he brought out another item from his belt, this time a long piece of tape. He attached the 'tape' along the gap he had created and nodded a few times, before looking to us and giving the 'okay' signal and then swimming to safety.

My head slowly turned to him, my weapon still aimed at the door, and nodded. He slapped the clacker in his hands and the tape ignited immediately. The tape burned and burned before the fire spread way beyond that of the hyperbaric tape, and within less than a minute, a giant hole had been singed out of the equally massive doors. I flicked my 2 fingers forward, signalling my team to go. We approached the breach with our weapons trained upwards, slowly emerging from the water.

As my head poked up I scanned everything within my slice of the room, nothing but dead bodies, blood, and plasma burns. At least they'd cleared a path for us, but how the hell did the Covenant get inside? I gripped the edge of the hole we'd created and pulled myself inside, the water dripping from my gear. I quickly removed my scuba mask and flippers, clipping them onto my kit. After dumping my tank I brought my M7S up and extended the buttstock to a comfortable length. The suppressed SMG was standard for everyone on this one, it'd be close all the way through.

As my team did the same I peered over into the dimly lit waters below. The surface reflecting nicely in the ambient light of the moonpool, my black and grey facepaint hadn't lost its touch at all. Without helmets to conceal our identity we had to go old school, and frankly, we weren't going to wear a fucking ski mask underwater. Command wasn't risking the off chance of one of them recognizing us or even the cameras capturing our face. Like I said earlier, this shit was about as covert as it got.

The sounds of weapons clacking and metal hitting metal meant we were ready to go. My team approached the door that would lead us past the observation deck and into the main lab. If we were quick and the Covenant was dumb, we'd be in and out in 15 minutes. No one would even know we were here. The metal doors slid open with a hydraulic hiss and my team entered quickly and quietly. Our footprints barely audible over the bells and whistles in the distant corridors. The emergency lights breathed red into the halls, we stepped over a pair of dead scientists before getting to the observation deck.

If these Specialists fought the Covies anything like their counter-parts, we'd have a window big enough to fit a fat fucker to work with. We bounded past an adjacent corridor as I set myself up on the corner. "Set." I whispered out, no internal comm link here. Man all this ol' school spec ops shit got me thinking of old movies I use to watch when I was a kid. My team passed me by and I found myself at the rear of the formation, that was until we came to a sudden halt and 3 muffled shots came from the front, followed by a thud. The team kept moving forward and I caught glimpse of the kill we'd made. A lost Atlas guard who'd probably survived the initial attack was now squirming on the floor, trying to stop the rapid bleeding from his chest before he simply stopped moving.

He looked young, maybe mid-twenties at best. Wrong place, wrong time.

We hooked a left and found ourselves going down another large hallway, a twin set of doors on the right side however would lead us to the lab. We stacked up on both sides of the entrance, with me on point. I felt the squeeze below my leg and waited half a second before entering. Thank god the security systems had seemingly been fucked to hell or else we may of had to blow it open.

I entered the room first and cut right, following the balcony that overlooked an operating table of sorts in the middle of the room down a set of stairs. As I scanned my section of the room and found nothing but equipment and instruments. I hissed out to my team as quietly as I could while still being heard. "Clear." A few seconds later and from the opposite balcony, Sierra called out as well. "Clear." The callouts continued to come in for about 30 seconds until something different came, a panicked voice that wasn't of my team.

"Oh thank god it's Special Forces!" A single scientist in a blood stained lab coat stood up from behind the table down in the center of the room. A small group of others quickly appeared out from cover and revealed themselves. Ah shit. Martinez and Deruld moved down to secure them. Deruld kept his weapons trained on them and Martinez looked up to me. The thought of trying to get them to give us access by lying to them came into my head but they'd figure out we weren't Atlas just by our guns alone. Not to mention the device we'd been given should have no problem hacking into their shit anyways.

"Those aliens sued some type of boarding craft to get here and just started killing everyone, not even trying to steal anything, just killing!" His voice was a mixture of fear and relief, they thought they were being saved. I could see the scientists, both male and female, all hugging each other as if they'd been saved.

My team all looked to me, Deruld had lowered his weapon and looked tempted to go forward and help them.

Martinez's face said it all 'what the fuck do we do' was all that he was showing me.

In that moment I entered a stated I'd only entered a handful for times while In was working for ONI. I looked down to them and nodded. Sealing their fates. Without even fucking flinching Martinez and Deruld quickly drew their weapons and the crowd stuttered back in disbelief. A single second hung in the air before they both started blasting into them, the bullets tore through them and cut each of them down within seconds. A few of them escaped the volley and tried to make a run for an exit, only for Sierra to gun them down from the balcony above.

Despite all that was going on the only thought going through my mind was how we could cover this up. Our ammunition alone would be a dead give away, meaning we'd have to destroy this whole fucking station to do it. The smoke from their barrels dissipated and a single word flew through the air. "Clear." It was spoken as clear and concisely as possible, unfeeling.

"Alright… Start grabbing everything from their servers. According to the schematics the systems here reach the entire facility, make it quick." As my team all moved to the already pre-assigned positions and began locking in their drives, the data transfer appeared on my TACPAD. Immediately shooting up to 25% and steadily climbing up to 30% in 10 seconds. Estimated time was at 3 minutes.

"Kerry what's our mission clock at?" He slung his SMG to his hip and checked his watch. Examining it for a full 10 seconds, yes, I counted. "9 minutes, 37 seconds. We're ahead of schedule." I nodded approvingly and checked my wrist again. "35% people, stay with it." And so we stood there, waiting for it to finish. Occasionally rocking from explosions and the sound of battle in the distance.

Until the battle grew closer and closer, and the sounds got louder and louder. At first we prayed they'd move past us but it was made very clear that they were aiming at this room. Mainly by one voice breaking through the gunfire and slashing with "Get to the main lab!" firmly and loudly.

"Boss whatta' we do?" came from Martinez, and thinking on my feet I tried to remember what Reeves told us on the rooftop when we found him.

"Put some distance between you and them and find some cover or concealment. Pick them off one by one. They don't last very long in proper gunfights."

We couldn't create much distance in hear but we could take 'em by surprise.

"Kill the lights!" Immediately 2 guns pointed towards the ceiling and the sound of glass shattering and lights flickering echoed in the room before everything went dark. The only light being that of the hallway creeping through the door. We all moved to a different part of the room, and I made a risky guess.

That pile of dead bodies in the middle of the whole fucking place was both a problem and a solution. Assuming these guys weren't as disciplined as us, they'd focus on walking down there to investigate. Putting them right in the killzone. With that thought up I hit my push-to-talk. "Everyone get positioned around the balcony, wait until their down there."

I couldn't see anyone moving in the darkness without NVG's, a bit of faith never hurt anyone eh? The sounds of battle stopped suddenly, and a single body fell through the door frame, an Elite with a saber in it's chest. Followed by a tall young woman with fair complexion. White hair and slate blue eyes. Followed by a few other young men and woman, 5 to be exact. 6 man team, got it. Beyond that I didn't bother to analyze the rest, just more targets. They all activated flashlights and began moving.

My plan almost had a wrench thrown in it as the team spread out through the lab and began moving to the balcony, their swords, maces, knives, etc, in hand. Not a single gun though, their weapons probably transformed into guns though. That seemed to be the trend here. A single female voice called out from below. "Schnee, you may want to take… Take a look at this…" The voice was that of pure disgust, must've found our little mess.

Despite the now named Schnee, by god how many people were in this family, only being called. The rest of the team broke formation and converged down there I suppose this is a little personal payback for that fucker Jacques screwing us over, to be honest I somewhat looked forward to killing her. FUCK DON'T LOSE FOCUS!

"Wha!?...Oh." She cried out before silencing herself. I could hear the sounds of their shock, and one of them actually puking. "I guess there's no turning back now 'Coop, smoke 'em?" We all moved up into firing positions, looming over them, weapons at the ready. The new Schnee bent over and grabbed a bullet casing in her shock. "A… shell?" She was catching on real quick.

She was brought out of her concentration by one of her subordinates. "Winter… I don't think was those things?" Winter Schnee huh? Interesting… The few that were clear headed looked around suspiciously in their place. The rest couldn't take their eyes off the corpses. This is why you don't send kids to do a man's work. "Alright… Smoke 'em." I whispered into comms. Immediately our spray of gunfire rained upon them, their aura only shielding them for a brief moment before our bullets penetrate their flesh.

Within seconds their bodies went limp and hit the floor, only a single one was left moving. My team reloaded their weapons and I vaulted over the edge of the balcony down to the level below. Specialists huh? They lasted 5 goddamn seconds at best. "What're you doing 'Coop, let's go!" That came from Kerry, but I said nothing in return. There was still one left, and I knew who it was. Time for some payback.

Maybe I blamed Jacques for Reeves death, but frankly this just got personal.

She layed on the floor, leaning against her forearm slightly to see me. One of the fallen flashlights illuminated her entirely, and leaving me only as a dark silhouette in front of her. Blood began spitting out of her mouth and staining her nice white uniform. Well… More than the holes in her chest already had. She looked at her dead comrades in horror. "M-My team…. YOU, WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!" She tried to reach for her weapon only for me to kick away. Her eyes gazed up to the dark slits that were visible through the face paint. In that moment I think she figured it out. "I-It's you… The ones everyone's been talking about… We never should've trusted you!" More blood oozed from her wounds rapidly. If I didn't kill her, blood loss would. Better beat it to the punch then.

I snapped a chem-light in front of her, letting her see my face. She didn't know me, but I figured she might as well see the blackened and unidentifiable face of the one who'd killed her. "When Atlas… Ironwood, find out what happened here, the people you slaughtered!" I drew my SOCOM and planted it on her forehead, her breathes grew heavier as she began going into shock. "No… They won't" I pulled the trigger.

A golf-ball sized hole was left in her forehead as her brains blew out the back. Her body dropped to the metal floor beneath her and a pool around her head began to form. Job's done.

We grabbed the drives, lucky for us since this place was synched to every other system. The tech did its job and wiped the surveillance tapes, cameras, audio recordings, everything that would let them know what went down here. With most of the Covenant in here dead by our dear Specialists hands, we made our way to the generator room as fast as we could. Matthews basically just slapped a charge right on the thing like a sticker and said. "Good enough" To be honest we all wanted off this fucking thing right now.

We placed the drives in water-tight containers and threw on our scuba gear. Time to fucking leave. We all jumped through the hole and began making our swim to the surface. Along the way I radioed into Command. "Predator to Big Eye, we are exfilling now. Intel secured, we are heading out." As we broke the surface next to the SOC boat, that was still where it was originally, we got a reply. "Big Eye copies all. We'll see you back at base, out." The crew leaned over the edge and pulled each of us onto the boat. I checked my watch for mission time, we'd gotten aboard at 13 minutes, 26 seconds.

"What about that aircraft?" One of the boat guys called out to their driver. Apparently they'd been listening in on the radio traffic coming from it. It hadn't gotten a response from the Specialists and was taking off to grab another team. We couldn't let that happen. As it rises into a light hover above the platform, the boat gunners begin spinning up their turrets. We can hear the pilot over the radio. "Misfit 1-2 to Gauntlet team, please respond, this is my last hail before I dustoff." The driver, looked at me for approval to shoot this thing down. I gave a solid nod and he nodded back before giving a thumbs up to his guys. They fired the second he gave them the all clear.

The tracer rounds sailed through the air as the all-too familiar BRRRRRRT sound filled the once silent sea. We heard his surprise over the hijacked comms. "Oh fuck, where the hell did that come from!" 3 more seconds went by. "Shit, Ben they hit the left engine. I'm losing her!" 5 more seconds. "THIS IS MISFIT MAYDAY MAYDAY, OH SHI-!" Was the last thing we heard as the Bullhead spun out of control and plummeted towards the sea. I almost thought we'd have to jump back in there to make sure the pilot was dead, but the thing burst into flames before impact. Both pilot and co-pilot were dead alright.

Afterward, the engines fired back to life and Matthews hit his clacker one more time. The muffled explosion and fire were suppressed by the water but we knew it was destroyed. Any evidence left would be eaten by aquatic wildlife or taken miles away at sea. It was still the dead of night. Easily the biggest operation of this whole campaign was completed in 13 minutes and 26 seconds. I led my head lean against the cold edge of the boat, despite all that just happened I didn't have any regrets. Orders were orders after all.

No doubt HIGHCOM would have other missions like this. Until we could officially cut-ties with this place and leave we'd have to work like this. 17 Atlas personnel dead by our hands, 6 Specialists, 2 pilots, a lots of destroyed property. Maybe one of these days the truth would come out, not like that would change anything. Afterall, what could they do to stop us?

This was the right thing to do. If any of this gave us a better chance at saving our world, we had to take it. There was no choice.

We had too, and I don't regret a fucking thing.

Probably one of my longer chapters for awhile. I'm not abandoning this story, hell to the fucking no. I love this story way too much and there's so much more I want to show.

Now I know I promised a Q&A but frankly I just didn't get any questions, so until then I'll just carry on.

We finally got into some real black operations type shit here, and I'm sure I'm gonna catch flak for killing Winter but I wasn't lying when I said no one is safe. Let this be an example. The UNSC will do what's necessary and sooner or later it'll be RWBY or JNPR in their way.

Anyway, please leave a review about this chapter please. I need to know if you guys enjoy where I'm taking this story or not.

I'll write to you all in the next chapter.