Kiyabako Central Plaza

Forty Minutes After Drop

Kate and Ryan traversed New Mombasa on opposite sides of the street as they made their way to their objective: the rally point set up by the Superintendant AI just outside of Kiyabako Central, one of many sites that the Covenant had been using for their defensive Anti-Air network. Any pay grade above them would have said that they were insane to take on the task alone, but then again that's why they were relying on the possibility of rendezvousing with additional Troopers. In group strength of at least five, Vansen calculated, there was a good chance of bringing down the raiding the battery setup.

"Got something up ahead," Ryan called out over the comm. He had insisted on staying on either sides of the street to avoid being caught bunched up and off their guard, forcing them to use radio communication to avoid detection. Kate was beginning to think that he wasn't quite past the fact that the two were—as far as they knew—all that remained of their team.

She hunched low, shouldering her way along the walls in her side as she raised her M7. The one-way street that they were traveling along bent to the right ahead of them—most likely an exit from the plaza that was supposed to regulate traffic in the opposite direction. "What've you got?"

"Store's been smashed in up ahead. Not seeing any plasma burns though. Could be looters."

"Or it could be stray troopers," Kate added, peering up from the debris scattered across the ground and at the bite in the concrete roofing. No severe heat damage like plasma, but it took a lot of force to leave a mark like that. SEOIVs tended to leave a dent or two upon landing, she reminded herself.

"You really believe that?"

"We were pointed here for a reason," she said while approaching the corner. "Nothing wrong with going off of a little faith, right?"

Shepard crossed the street and fell in line behind Kate as she peered around the corner. The private didn't even look back as she surveyed the block. The street branched from a right-turn only lane at another intersection which, at the left from their perspective, would lead into a park circle surrounded by apartment structures; the Covenant gun emplacement would be right in the middle of it.

"Yeah? Well my faith's telling me that Super's off his rocker and giving us false intel," Ryan said, this time without using his comm. "We would've at least seen a Covenant lookout by now if they were protecting an AA asset."

"They're hiding this one right in the middle of an apartment circle to keep it protected from aerial incursion. Plus, there are only a few streets into that area. It's a good bottleneck."

It was true according to the Superintendent's navigation data: the battery was being held right in the middle of the circle but information on what was defending it was lacking, as were the locations of friendly forces that had fallen astray during orbital drop. But the IFF readings from drop pods were still present in Kate's map display, though she couldn't pin the locations of their users.

"Well then let's check it out if you're so certain."

"Not without backup. We won't last on our own."

She inched her head around the corner again. She opened the map in her HUD once, confirmed the IFFs once more, and closed it once again. They couldn't have gone far, she decided. Kate then let out a whistle. No response. She was about to try again when a hand popped out from an alcove one door down from a cafe, brandishing a gray UNSC bandanna in its gloved fingers.

"Face it, Kate—there's no one here."

"Uh-huh."

Casually, she walked down the sidewalk as though it were a regular morning stroll for a cup of coffee. Shepard muttered a curse after she refused to reply to a call—just kept walking. Kate loved collaborating with her teammates and hearing all opinions, no matter which side they were on; but when she was right, and contradicting of those opinions, she made the most of it. It was times like these where she enjoyed reminding her team that she was the logistics specialist.

With her record, Kate could've been ONI; worked at a desk, strategized field operations, got a nice promotion with her pay grade. She almost laughed when the idea was introduced to her by Tanner, of all people. That was when he first assumed command of her class after ODST Qualification Training (OQT)—apparently he didn't have high expectations for her based on performance. Either that or he was looking out for her. To this day Kate never knew, but ever since then she made it her goal to prove that she belonged with her team, not in some cushy chair.

With her M7S now slung, Vansen positioned herself at the mouth of the alcove and peered around the corner to see another ODST backed against the adjacent wall just as he was tucking his bandanna away beneath his chest plate, which read "Gomez" at the top. Kate was first to break the ice with a quizzical "Oh, hi there."

The Helljumper gave a curt nod, to her then Shepard as soon as he came into view. "I take you got the invitation?"

"Something like that."

Without another word, Gomez motioned the troopers to follow him with the jerk of his chin. Vansen cocked her head at Ryan as she made her way inside: I told you so.

"Shut up."

Following their new acquaintance inside the café, Kate and Shepard were greeted by another a three more troopers. "Greeted" may not have been the appropriate word as two from the trio looked up from a datapad lain out on a table, leaving Gomez to do the introductions.

Kate had already taken stock of the troopers by their appearances. The one in the middle—with his eyes locked on the datapad—stood out the most as the other two flanking him were little more modest with their decals; the one to her right had blue accents on his shoulders while the other one had a beige chest plate.

It was the scheme of the one in the middle though that caught her and Ryan's attention almost immediately: a red chest plate with an array of bomb symbols on one side neatly lined side by side, and a crude cartoon explosion stamped on the corner of his right shoulder guard. Kate glanced back at Ryan, who shook his head: No way that's him.

"I'm Private Raul Gomez," the trooper started, patting a hand over his chest before gesturing to the others. "On the right is Corporal Mates, the left is Walsh, and funny guy in the middle is Wierbowski."

"Oh-ho," Kate chucked, turning again to face Ryan. "I'm right again."

Shepard shifted his weight. "I'm gonna kill you. You know that, right?"

At that moment, Private First Class Paul Wierbowski pried his eyes from the datapad. "Holy shit," he said aloud, then came around the table to greet them as he depolarized his visor. "You know, this kinda luck can only happen to me—running into you two assholes again. Where's that asshole Wilks? I'm gonna punch him in the throat for sending me into the middle of nowhere."

The mention of their squad leader sent a cold surge through Kate's blood and forced her to look away, as though she were trying to avoid it altogether. Accepting the loss was something she was well past, but having to inform another teammate for the first time just reminded her of that feeling.

Ryan stepped forward and took the burden for her. "Wilks is still missing. Tanner, Dito and Hawkins didn't make it—we got ambushed upon land down."

Paul remained silent and still, though his shoulders slacked a little and his head began to lower. Kate could see the color leaving his face. His recovery was surprisingly quick however, straightening up and meeting Ryan's gaze again. "So what now? You don't think we should just—"

Ryan interrupted the private—even though the demolitionist wasn't one to pass up a fight, the lance corporal probably didn't want to risk the option of falling back to end up on the consideration table by mere mention. "Our objective still stands, and it's getting knocked over one way or the other. So it might as well be by us."

"With six people?" Mates asked. "That wise?"

Kate folded her arms. "If you want to look at numbers, six is almost a full squad," she said matter-of-factly. "Teams of four are sent to take out priority targets all the time; if four can do it, so can six."

"Mates," Paul intervened, hands raised. "It's alright. I trust Kate's word better than my own. Trust me."

Mates and Walsh exchanged glances with each other from across the table before looking back at the private. Kate laughed, which sounded more like a giggle through her helmet as she planted a palm over her visor.

"Yeah that sounded smarter before I said it."

"Good Christ, Bowski," Ryan raised his voice. "Just show her what we're up against already."

"Right," Paul said quickly, pointing to the Lance Corporal to quell his rising impatience. He then lead the two back to the table with the other troopers, removing his helmet and setting it down next to the datapad. After pulling up an overhead view of the entire plaza on the datapad, the corpsman simply backed off and scratched the back of his head. "So uh…yeah. That's what we've got."

As Kate rested her palms at the edge of the table a chuckle escaped the confines of her helmet. "That's a start."

"The main battery is here," Mates said, tapping the overhead display in an area representing the center of Kiyabako plaza. Vansen's theory was correct. "Nothing special about its placement; simple, obvious, and it makes sense. Here's where it gets complicated.

"There's an anti-air wraith in the northwest corner here, opposite to the side closest to us," he pointed to a red chevron on the plaza's display. His finger traced down the edge of the plaza, along the building, to another pair of hostile marks. "Then just a couple doors down to the east, they've got a pair of Ghosts on standby under the cover of a Shade turret at the corner. Grunts switch shifts every two rounds of patrol; the two that patrol the perimeter then switch Ghost duty, and the two watching the Ghosts switch to the perimeter."

"That's an odd protocol," Ryan muttered.

Kate simply shrugged. "Short, stubby legs and heavy methane tanks on their backs; they can't keep talking around forever. Continue."

Mates tapped the datapad then dragged his finger across the screen, pushing the virtual map aside for a NavCom page that displayed live feed from the city's street camera network, this one overlooking the plaza and all of its Covenant occupiers. "Infantry is squad sized plus in strength. So far we've counted three Elites—two minors, one major, and not including the tank pilot—all accompanied by Grunts."

"On top of that," Walsh chimed in, tapping the screen to magnify the image on one of the surrounding buildings, "The Super picked out a couple of enemy snipers. One here in the building to the west, and you can't see this on any camera feeds, but the second's in the building to the south, near the main road entrance."

Sure enough, a bird-like silhouette was perched in the window of a darkened room, the glow of its purple monocle robotically pivoting back and forth, scanning its field of fire. Kate looked at Shepard to gauge the marksman's reaction. He simply nodded, tapping his fingers calmly against his rifle's grip.

"Challenge accepted?" Kate asked. She already knew the answer, but hearing it aloud never hurt anyone's morale.

"Oh yeah," he said confidently. "What's your gameplan so far?"

Mates leaned into the table, knuckling a gloved fist against the edge to support his weight as the other hand flipped the pad back to the map display. As he spoke, he traced his finger over the map to represent appropriate support paths. "Walsh, Gomez and myself are going to advance from the west side, ground floor of the sniper's coop. Now, the tank's going to be right on top of us. So before we can even look at the big gun, Bowski, you need to cut it down."

Paul nodded. "The room housing sniper to the south should give me a good enough view, and it should draw the initial fire away from your position." The private then turned to Ryan, and with some reluctance said, "I may need you to cover me when that happens."

Shepard folded his arms. "That might be a problem. I've got a good view of most of the plaza, but that street on the east corner by the Shade is going to screw with our plans if I can't tell if reinforcements are on their way."

Kate raised her hand casually. "I could spot for you on the ground—take the alley to the northeast and keep an eye on their movements."

Ryan bit the inside of his mouth in thought, leaning over the table and trying to evaluate their plan from the top. It was risky; a team thrown together at the last minute to take on a high value target was just asinine. Bowski was the only person he could trust after having seen him in action. What troubled him most was Kate's involvement. She knew how to handle herself against infantry, but without a team to back her up she wouldn't last in a standup fight for long.

"You really think you can manage it alone?" he finally asked.

Vansen patted her comrade's shoulder. "I'll be alright. You just keep Bowski from getting shot in the ass."

"Please," Paul guffawed. "If I get shot then the whole fucking plaza's going up in flames. I've got enough SSM's to kill that tank five times over."

Gomez spoke up. "In that case, if you're gonna be on recon, I might as well go with you. Covering Walsh might be easier if we split up into two fireteams anyway."

Mates nodded. "Agreed. That'll make dealing with their sentries easier in any case." He straightened out, addressing the squad as a whole this time. "We've all got our jobs. Anyone has anything to say, now's the time."

Helmets pivoted, feet shuffled; it was as though they were waiting for someone to say something—anything. The room felt empty, void of high spirits. At least that was the case for what was left of Tanner's people. For as by-the-book as he was, he always had something memorable to say. Ryan would've loved to keep that tradition but he just didn't know what to say, and worse yet he could feel the pressure coming from Bowski as he shrugged at him from across the table: C'mon, man. Make a speech or something.

Shepard furrowed his brow and shook his head: Fuck no.

"Alright," Mates concluded. "Let's get it on."