Chapter 11 Spirits of War
"President Adar we have lost Caprica city." said a military advisor "This has nothing to do with the Cylons."
"I refuse to believe that." said the religious advisor "The Holy Scriptures state that…."
"Frak the Holy scriptures…we are in trouble we have gotten reports of these things landing all over the planet and the other 12 colonies." said the military advisor
"And how are our forces doing fighting off these invaders elsewhere?" asked President Adar
"Not well all cities are taken within a couple of hours but the strange thing is that they don't move once the sun goes down." said the military advisor
"Are you saying they are afraid of the dark?" asked another aid
"Or they are afraid of what is in the dark." said the military advisor
"You're talking about this UNSC group." said Adar
"Yes, our forces report that they are the only thing that helped as many of the people get out of Caprica City as possible." said the military advisor "Also they have set up a military base at a local civilian spaceport in the Herculean mountains."
"Those people lead them to us in the first place; we should just hand them over and wash our hands of it." Said the Public relations aid
"No, at the moment those people are the only thing protecting our people in the Hercules Mountain range." Said Adar as he looked up the cloak it was just past midnight. "Any word about reinforcements?"
"We are gathering the fleet at Tauron." said the military aid "They should be ready to break this blockage within a few hours."
"This is just great." said Officer Tyler Pottkutter as he sat by a fire in a makeshift camp located just outside a temple to Athena, the Goddess of wisdom. The temple was located just before an entrees ramp to the highway leading out of the city. On that highway thousands of people where using that highway to get into the mountains under the cover the night. In the background he watched Caprica, the city he had lived in his entire life, the city he promised to protect was burning.
"Here." said Tom as he handed a bottle of water to the cop.
"Shouldn't you be preparing for them to attack?" asked Tyler
"There isn't much we can to stop them advancing." admitted Tom "Besides they aren't coming right now."
"What do you mean not coming?" asked Tyler
"They have an entire army in that city and giant ships overhead!" yelled Tyler as he looked to the darkened night sky, however he could make up at least 10 ships floating over the city.
"The Covenant haven't launched a night attack since the battle on Eayn where we destroyed an entire Covenant Army in one night while they were moving." said Ian as the ODST commander walked up carrying two shovels. Tom took one in his hands as he stood up.
"Ever since then at night the Covenant have dug in and waited until first light to move." said Tom as he and Ian walked over to where the other ODST in their squad was. They were busy digging a grave for their fallen teammate.
Zack's body lied on the ground draped in a red ODST flag with an yell jump pod on it with a red flaming scull. His broken ODST helmet sat on the ground by his broken and destroyed sniper rifle. Somehow the shoulder strap that he had placed on his sniper rifle had held when the building exploded.
Tyler watched as the ODST started digging the grave. Suddenly one of them started a low song.
"He was just a rookie trooper and he surely shook with fright," sung Tom in a low voice as he kept digging.
"He checked off his equipment and made sure his pack was tight;" sung Blake as he turned over another shovel full of dirt
"He had to sit and listen to those awful engines roar," Added Ian
"He ain't going to jump no more." sung all the ODST at once "Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,"
"What are they doing?" asked Tyler as the ODST's keep singing as they dug a grave from their fallen teammate.
"They are singing an old military running song called Blood Upon the Risers dating back almost 700 years ago from World War II America Paratroopers, the forerunners to the modern ODST." said a new voice as the cop turned to see seven large armored people walking toward him. To his amazement six the seven figures sat down only one still stood.
"What are you?" asked the young officer.
"They are things that attacked us first." said a new voice as Tyler looked to see a figure sitting with his back against a large tree. He was dressed in a dirty colonial flight uniform with a pistol in his hands.
"Who are you?" asked Tyler
"Your that pilot I saw in space." said Arnold as Lee nodded his head.
"Ya, Lee Adama." said Lee "So what are you things? Giant robots?"
To his amazement the six dressed in similar armor laughed a bit as one reached for his helmet. There was a slight hiss of decompress air as the thing leafed off his helmet to show a white man with short brown hair in a military hair cut. He was human.
"Your human?" asked Lee
"Under the armor we all human. We are what you call Spartan super soldiers " said Kim as she took off her helmet letting her blonde hair out. To Lee's amazement the two of them started talking in a strange tongue he had never heard before.
"What is going on why aren't they speaking standard Kobol?" asked Lee
"They are speaking English." Explained Rose "You hear it in your language because of the translator program in our suits, even the ODST's have it in there suits."
"You speak another language?" asked Tyler
"Yes, James hook them up." ordered Rose as James hit a button on his armor to show a dozen small disk. James pulled two of them out of their holders and held them out to Lee and Tyler.
"What are those?" asked Lee
"They are like hearing aids." said James as the two colonials just looked at him "They will translate what we say in our language into yours."
The two colonials took the mini translators and put them in their ears. It was then that they noticed that the ODST had stopped their running song. That was then they turned to see the ODSTs had buried their teammate and now stood there with their helmets off looking at the grave which was covered with the flag that had been on the body. They had placed the sniper rife with the helmet on top as a grave marker. As commander Lieutenant Ian Tylor had the job of saying the creed of the ODST over the fallen grave. Without saying a word all the ODSTs lowered their heads.
"We cheat death from his rightful victory. No one can defeat us. We gladly plunge…feet first into hell with the knowledge that we will rise!" said Ian as he repeated lines that are said at every ODSY funeral. (It is the translated lines from the ODST live action trailer) "We cheat death from his rightful victory feet first into hell with the knowledge that we will rise!"
All the ODSTs then raised their heads and a few of them formed a strange sign with their hands. They touched their foreheads before going down to near their stomachs before touching their shoulders.
"May God have mercy on you Quincy." said the woman as the ODST put on their helmets and Ian placed the flag back in a pouch located in his chest armor. However as he took the flag he placed his hand on top of the mound of dirt which marked his friend's grave.
"You saved lives today Zack." thought Ian "I will save as many lives as possible."
"Rest in Peace Quincy." said Alec "I will almost miss you. I am only sorry I didn't get to kill you myself."
"Alec can't you let your hatred of him go?" asked Blake as Alec turned and walked away.
"I am going to go and start setting up a roadblock." said Alec "We may have only hours till sun rise and they start moving again."
"That Son of a bitch." said Blake
"Let it go Blake." said Ian "Alec is just upset he can't settle the score now."
"What score?" asked Blake
"Quincy saved Alec's life on the battle on the Jackal home world." said Tom "And Alec can't stand owing anything to anyone."
"And he Quincy saved him." said Blake
"And now he can't pay him back." said Ian
"What are they doing?" asked Lee
"What do they mean by God?" asked Officer Tyler "Don't they mean the gods?"
"No." said Rose as she took off her helmet showing her red hair and strangely young looking face. In fact all the UNSC looked strangely young for their ranks. Now all the Spartans minus the one still standing had their helmets off getting some fresh air as they took a break from battle. "They are Christian."
"Christian?" asked Lee
"We believe in one God and his son, Jesus Christ who dying for our sin on the cross." said Arnold as the oldest looking Spartan, who looked like the classic image of a boot camp instructor with graying hair and scares on his face.
"Arnold can we not get into a religious fight about what faith is right?" asked Kim
"We will not." ordered Rose
"You have more than one religion?" asked Lee
"Ya, there are six major faiths and dozens if not hundreds of other faiths and beliefs." said Rose "Freedom of Religion is one of the main principles of the UNSC government."
"Without it we would too busy fighting each other instead of the covenant." said Mike
"We better get going." said Rose "We need to set up some defenses."
"Roger that." Said the Chief as the Spartans 4 stood up and put their helmets' back on.
"Sorry about taking you away from the battlefield Master Chief, but remember we all came from the ODST squad." said Rose
"We are all human; even I need a break from time to time." said the Chief "But Spartans never take off their helmets in a combat situation and most of the time we don't take it off outside of combat."
Hours later President Adar awoke from a short nap by his military advisor.
"What is it?" asked President Adar
"Sir, we got word from our forces we are in the system and are about to launch our counter assault." said the aid as Adar sat up right away as he headed toward the command center.
"We are going to take back our world." said Adar
Meanwhile another commander was working out his plan.
"Sabrina where are our forces?" asked Captain Rook as he stood by the mobile command center.
"There are digging in along the major highway and around this mountain range as best they can." Reported Sabrina "We the Spartans, Lieutenant Ian Tylor ODST squad and a few marines is holding the highway for the civilians."
"There are still civilians in the city?" asked Rook
"Civilians can't march all day like soldiers sir." said Sabrina
"I know." Said Rook as he ran his fingers though his air, he hadn't rested since he had landed. "When is the soonest that our forces could get here?"
"If they left right away and pushed their engines to the red line they still wouldn't get here until tomorrow at the earliest." said Sabrina.
Meanwhile high above their heads hidden behind the remains of a Battlestar was a Cylon heavy raider. Its mission was simple gather information and feed it back to the confused Cylons. After filling up with all the data it could hold it jumped away to a Basestar located just outside the boarder.
"The colonials are in full retreat against these Covenant." Said a one "We need to strike at the other colonies and let these aliens finish off Caprica for us."
"What about these UNSC group?" asked a six
"Who gives a frak about them, if they are humans we will just send some raiders to find their planets and nuke them." stated the one
"Did you forget what that single ship did to us?" asked a three
"That was because we were not ready, we will be ready this time." said the one
"We should consult the guardian." Said a two
"I agree." said all but the one
"Fine, prepare to jump back to the home world." ordered the one
I hope you liked this chapter, even though there wasn't combat in this chapter. I wanted to have that funeral it let me introduce religion into the story naturally. Well I ask you to keep reading and keep reviewing. Thanks Wilkins75.
