In Infinitum
Chapter 10: Confrontations
Amaterasu colony, 2400 hours.
Just what the hell was going on?
This question swam through Traver's mind as he and the few remaining Amaterasu Police forces barricaded, locked and welded all the doors in the main shopping center of the colony, which was essentially a large dome with several dozen stores of all genres. Now he and the last few survivors of the colony were using it as a makeshift fort against those things.
Sighing Traver closed his weary brown eyes and tried to fight off the sleep that wanted to claim him, it had only been two days, but they felt like a week to him. Whatever these things were, they had targeted the Colony's interplanetary communications array, which effectively cut them off from the Alliance and sending out a proper distress signal which meant the Alliance would send only a repair or investigation crew to find out the problem and fix it.
They needed a whole lot more than either.
Of course, the array going offline was just thought to be a bug at first and they had sent a engineer to fix it, he didn't report back and that should have been the first sign of trouble. But no, Traver and the other police forces were just a little too late the see the signs of the growing storm, bad enough that two days prior there was a huge meteor impact that the team sent to find that thing didn't report back either.
So yes, in his professional opinion, Traver thought that this was what they got for being a little too naïve to the dangers of the wide universe. Now, if God or whatever divine deity would just take back the things and let him and the people left live, that would be swell.
"Traver! Get up man! We still have to weld the doors in the back!"
Traver opened his eyes and lazily stood, sighing he muttered. "Damnit Jiles, I'm tired! Can't you weld those things alone? Or take someone else?" he asked, but made to follow the other man, Jiles, anyways.
Jiles smiled and rubbed the back of his helmet sheepishly. "I would, but everyone else is in a worse mood then you," he said then turned and the pair moved towards the back of the large dome, passing groups of people huddled together along the way, families, friends and just total strangers looking for some form of comfort.
He didn't blame them. The enemy they were facing had so far, to Traver's knowledge, never taken any prisoners, seems the whole colony was open season to these guys. What made it worse was that the police forces were arms with only Predator sidearms, which didn't do much against the shielding the larger ones sported.
Thankfully they tore the little ones apart easily enough, and the ones who used those circular shields if you could get around them, but often those things were in the back using some sort of beam weapon that melted through both kinetic barriers and bodies like a hot knife through butter.
And Traver didn't even want to think about the larger ones that didn't have shields, but still seemed to be unstoppable, their armor had to be made of ship hull grade metal because their Predator rounds pinged off it as if they were throwing rocks and it got better, they had large cannons attached to their arms that fired some sort of large explosive round of plasma, if you didn't get hit a near miss would be enough to cook you too.
All in all, Traver didn't have much hope that he and the last forty-two officers stood much of a chance against this sort of enemy, especially since they seemed particularly effective at killing things.
Finally reaching the rear doors Traver got to work locking them down while Jiles got his welding gear ready for when they were closed, finally the door hissed closed and he turned to Jiles. "Alright, weld this thing and I'll get the other ready."
"Kay," Jiles said, moving to the door and tapping his helmet, making the visor on his APF (Amaterasu Police Force) helmet darken and then began to weld the doors top to bottom.
While Jiles did that Traver moved off to the other set of doors, pressing the keys he paused, then the doors hissed open as he was about to press the "Lock" key. Turning and then eyes going wide with terror, Traver stumbled back and reached for his Predator pistol. "Jiles! They're here!" he shouted and then wished he hadn't then the things head snapped to him, crimson black armor glinting softly in the light.
"Die you bastard!" Traver yelled, closing his eyes and firing wildly, hearing the sounds of the things shields as the round pinged off it, then there was a vice grip on his neck and he was in the air by his neck. "Gah!" he gasped and opened his eyes, meeting the glowing eyes of the things helmet. "What… the hell are you?"
The thing stared at him, it must have been easily seven to eight foot tall and very strong, seeing as it was dangling Traver off his feet with a single arm while the other held a blue weapon that fired blue balls of plasma, Traver didn't need to experience it to know that three shots from that took down Kinetic barriers, the fourth likely killed you.
Finally, the thing spoke, a rough voice coming out in English. "Your end, cur." With those words it raised its weapon to Traver's face and the man closed his eyes.
Least it will be quick… he thought, gulping despite the pressure on his throat.
"Traver!" Jiles came rushed forward behind the thing, welder in hand as he rammed it into the monster's back, penetrating its shields and causing them to blink out altogether, the thing roared and tossed Traver to the side before turning to Jiles with what the younger officer could feel was a glare. "Oh shit…"
The thing bellowed before backhanding Jiles, sending the man back several feet onto his back in a daze. The officer didn't have much time to regain his sense before there was a white hot flooding his body. Mouth opening in a silent cry of agony as the thing buried a glowing blue white blade into his abdomen.
Traver groaned lightly and opened his eyes, then saw Jiles on the ground with the thing holding some sort of energy blade into him. "Kid!" he yelled, feeling rage take his body as he raised his Predator pistol and fired three quick rounds.
The rounds didn't meet the energy shields and instead, the first shot went wide, hitting the chair next to it, the other two however pierced the things unarmored side, spurting purple blood to the floor, growling the thing jerked the blade out of Jiles and turned to face Traver.
With a yell Traver tackled its midsection, taking them both to the ground, not wasting any time Traver put the Predator pistol to the things chin and hissed. "Die you piece of shit…" before firing until his thermal clip expelled, he found himself clicking the trigger afterwards a few more times before he remembered Jiles.
Getting off the creature he turned and hurried back over to the young mans side. "Kid!" Traver said urgently as kneeled next to the man and helped him sit up. "Come on man, its your third week on the job," he muttered.
Jiles coughed weakly and opened his eyes. "Hey Traver… aw man I feel like I went two boxing rounds with Shepard… and he didn't have gloves…" he joked, forcing a smile.
"You crazy kid! The hell is wrong with you? Charging that thing like it was just an angry dog…" Traver replied, almost sighing in relief.
"Hey… don't worry about me boss, I'm fine…" Jiles muttered, raising his hand weakly and patting his abdomen where the two points of the blade had entered. "See? No blood… no vitals, just a flesh…wound." Jiles' eyes glazed over and his head lulled back in death.
Traver grit his teeth and put Jiles down, closing his eyes and standing, turning to the door he moved over to it, closed then locked it. Turning he picked up the welder and returned to the door to weld it shut, after kicking the thing of course, before he slumped against the wall and closed his eyes to rest.
"Travers! Jiles! Report in, are those rear set of doors closed?"
Damnit! Traver thought as he snapped his head up and replied through the com. "They're closed Sarge… but Jiles… one of those shielded things got inside and it killed him, I got it and closed the doors," Traver made his way back. "Why?"
"We have troubles! They have floating tanks out front and look like they're about ready to full out bomb this place to hell and further!"
"Son of a bitch! Can't we get a break?" Traver yelled, taking off his helmet and tossing it to the side in frustration.
Blue Team, Amaterasu Colony. 2350 hours.
Fred, Tom and Lucy moved across the deserted the streets of the outer city, everywhere they went there was signs of Covenant, plasma scoring from small arms fire, craters from plasma mortars and grenades and bodies, mostly humans and grunts with a few Jackals mixed in. But the fact there was no Elites in the body count worried him, that meant a few things to him and none of them was good.
Pausing he raised a fist, then when the familiar humming of Covenant grav boosters reached his ears he hastily moved his hand to the building beside them, the three Spartans quickly took what refuge they could in the rubble of the destroyed household.
Just as Fred covered himself in a piece of vehicle debris a Wraith tank hovered around the corner, backed by eight Grunts, six Jackals and two Elites, a red and blue one. An armored patrol, Fred narrowed his eyes at the sight, the Jackals kept their heads moving around, searching for survivors to flush out.
Soon the patrol passed and the Spartans stepped out of their covers, there was no point in starting a fight when they were hopelessly outnumbered at likely one to one hundred odds. They needed to reengage the communications array then get a message to Hackett declaring "WINTER CONTINGENCY".
First things first, making it to the com relay at all without being spotted along the way. "Linda, what do you see?" he whispered into the com.
Linda, who he knew sat on a high area overlooking the city, replied. "A few patrols, mostly just infantry. Spotted three separate armor patrols so far, same numbers in each," she paused and watched as five banshee flyers left the city and moved out opposite of her direction. "Five banshees just left the city… doesn't look like a search pattern."
"Alright, keep us posted," Fred cut the com and nodded to Tom and Lucy. The three made their way along the back alleys of the city, Lucy watching the rear, Fred taking the front and Tom scanning the rooftops.
Three patrols later the three Spartans stopped when distant explosions could be heard, which meant survivors were fighting against the Covenant. "Double time," Fred broke into a small sprint, followed by Tom and Lucy, when they reached the area. It was a courtyard of sorts, a large dome like structure stood, bombarded by Wraith fire, metal burned and vaporized away in a flash as the large plasma rounds struck the dome.
From inside the Dome's second floor, several people fired rockets and small arms at the Covenant force, which consisted of an armored patrol and some more ground troops like Elites and Grunts, one of the men fired a rocket at the Wraith, the rocket streaked blue towards the large hover tank, impacted and exploded against the tough armor, leaving a smoking black scorch on the Wraith's purple blue hull.
The man was promptly hit by a needle in the side, not knowing any better what the needle did when it struck a target the man tried to aim the rocket for a shot of retaliation, only to cry in pain when the needled exploded while still inside him, piercing and cutting up his innards with a spay of blood.
"Alright, we have to help those civilians…" Fred said into the com, turning to Tom and Lucy. "Here's the plan."
Unknown planet, 2350 hours.
Ogrhen muttered darkly as he studied the console he had assigned to repair… for the ninth time that day! Honestly, these imbeciles give me too little credit, the Batarian engineer thought with a spike of annoyance, this console was delicate and it seemed only his delicate touch could actually repair for longer then three hours.
He sighed, this water treatment plant was small and easy to use, but the equipment that monitored it was sometimes as glitch filled as an old computer game he had played, Star-something or other, it was old… barely worth the memory of his personal Omni tool. His line of thought was cut off when a dull thud sounded off behind him.
Turning he spat. "Damnit Zevran!"
He stopped and looked at his fellow Batarian on the ground, a neat little knife at the base of his neck, blood pooling around as it left his mouth to drip to the floor. And beside the body was a large, eerily green armored figure that was about eight foot tall, and it was staring with a golden visor at Oghren, who watched frozen as the large creature reached up and took his head in its large hands and he knew what was coming.
Oddly enough his mouth found words in the final moments of his life. "Oh that's just unfair…"
Then his world went black as his head twisted violently in a 180 degree angle.
Kelly watched the Batarian drop, oddly amused at the last words he had said before she decided to twist his head around. Turning back she nodded into the darkness of the pool of water, where Zaeed and Thane climbed out of the water, even though Kelly was the largest of them, she was still the most quiet, faster and stronger of them.
Thane looked at the body, retrieved Kelly's knife and handed it back to her hilt first. The Spartan nodded and gratefully took the knife back and inserted it into its sheath, so far, she liked Thane, he was a pretty quiet guy, almost Spartan in his devotion to the task at hand, Kasumi was quiet too, but the master thief always unnerved Kelly to a degree so far and so she hadn't initiated much communication unless Thane did so and Kasumi just added her two cents.
And Zaeed? Well, he was Zaeed.
Kneeling Kelly opened a com to Mark. "We're in, any sign we've been made?"
"No, Kasumi just gave the all clear signal, we're green to go on your signal…" Mark's voice replied. "Standing by."
Kelly waited a heartbeat, turned to Thane and Zaeed who returned her look with nods and then she said. "Do it."
A deep rumble shook the walls of their building and then the sounds of alarms blaring then guards shouting muffled through the door, then there was the subtle crack of a shot from long distance and she knew Mark was picking his shots. With that thought Kelly kicked the door open, knocking the thin material off its hinges and slamming into a nearby batarian, who stilled on the ground with the dented piece of steel. Raising her Avenger Kelly sighted the first Batarian who noticed her and fired a quick burst of fire into the alien's torso.
She wasn't met with the resistance of a kinetic barrier and so the four rounds easily tore through the basic working fatigues and into the flesh of the Batarian, making him spasm and fall to the ground, coughing up blood a moment before Kelly finished him with a headshot before his coughed up blood even hit the ground.
Thane stepped out and fired his Carnifex magnum, a round sailing clean through another Batarian head, scattering blood, bone and brain matter to the ground as the body slumped down, Zaeed let out a small cry of enjoyment before he unleashed a stream of hellish flame from the flamethrower he carried and with lethal efficiency he burned three Batarians, two of which were wearing kinetic barriers that fell so quickly under the intense heat.
Kelly paid the horrid tactics no heed, these Batarians were not in any rush to get organized and she was going to keep it that way. He motion tracker had three red blips moving behind her, spinning she was met with the growl of a Varren as it tried to tackle her, raising her arm she watched as the creature opened its mouth and clamped down on her arm…
And then its teeth shattered when it tried to bite through the Titanium A plating, it whimpered and then howled in pain as Kelly buried her knee into its stomach, lifting it into the air where it fell and landed unmoving on the ground. The other two Varren whimpered at the sight, turned and headed for the fence to escape the clearly superior creature.
Kelly turned around again in time to catch a Batarian as it tried to ram a very big knife into her side, she was sure her black suit layer could have deflected the knife, but she wasn't about to give this pirate, the closest thing to an insurrectionist in this time, the honor of thinking it landed a viable hit on her, with her enhanced strength she snapped its arm up and rammed the knife through his mouth into his head.
She let the body fall limp to the ground and scanned the area.
Engineers were running around, either trying to find a place to hide as sniper fire kept them in disarray, the few actual armed soldiers however quickly realised that Kelly, Thane and Zaeed weren't allies, and then with the roaring of eight Avenger assault rifles firing at them the Spartan's shields pinged the rounds off as she bolted around the corner of the barracks.
When she did there was fire above that rained down on her, her shields drained to half when five struck them, snapping her Avenger up she spotted four Batarians on a high perch on top of the communications tower.
"Boom," Mark said over the com.
The Charge placed on the tower exploded, sending the four batarians spiralling into the air where they hit the ground with a dull thud, one landing on some barrels, groaning, but unlike his colleagues, alive.
Thane expertly returned fire while stepping back into cover, his kinetic barriers taking a bit of a beating to the point that he had to cease shooting. What Kelly saw next would forever go down in her books as the most reckless, and likely one that the mercenary was very used to since it seemed second nature to him.
Zaeed Messani roared a battle cry then rushed the eight Batarians while Kelly briefly watched stunned as the Mercenary's kinetic barriers failed in the barrage of rounds, then when the Mercenary took a round through the shoulder did he yell again and unleash the fire of his weapon and drowned the batarians in flames.
A few tried to back away but even as he fired the Mercenary was still advancing until he was right up in their faces spraying fire at them in near point blank range, their weapons went off as the writhed, falling to the ground and screaming to the heavens until slowly their screams died with their scorched bodies.
The display did its job, the Batarians who witnessed the act that were armed quickly tossed their weapons to the ground, placed their hands up and looked at the three attackers who had so far shown their security force wasn't quite as good as they had thought.
"Okay! We give up!" one Batarian shouted, hands raised staring at the burning corpses that the Mercenary had laid out like bonfires across the area around the water treatment plant.
Kelly stepped away from the barracks and frowned, there should have been more resistance then they what they had encountered, she found herself oddly disappointed, but that was alright, she and the had won and completed the mission, base was captured and now they had Batarians to interrogate as well.
Yes, a successful Op, she thought. Opening a com to Mark. "You got anything?"
"No, doesn't look like there's any more party left in em, should I call in Shepard and have him come dirtside?"
"Yeah," Kelly nodded and turned to Thane. "Gather up the ones who surrendered, Zaeed," when the merc turned to her she continued. "You and I got perimeter patrol, lets go."
"Lucky me," the merc grumbled, ignoring the blood dripping down his arm because of his shoulder wound as he followed the large Spartan to patrol the fence. Kasumi lightly looked over the dead, checking for anything useful.
Amaterasu Colony, 2450 hours.
Fred silently crept towards the pair of Grunts who were unloading a crate of weapons, weapons that, after some observations, Fred knew were Fuel Rod cannons and would be very instrumental to taking down those Wraith tanks and then the Spartans could focus on the infantry without the worry of being reduced to vapor from a plasma mortar.
"And I say…" The grunts babbled as he neared in the shadow of the food stand that had chosen to unload the weapons near.
Waiting a moment until of the Grunts turned away, Fred's arms lashed out, gripped the things mouth and crushed it's methane mask… and skull.
The other turned, then met the demonic gold visor of the Demon. "D-Demon…" it whispered in terror struck fear, its plasma pistol forgotten in its grip as the Demon brought its fist down on his head, killing the poor creature.
Fred looked around, tossed the two bodies into the stand then took two Fuel Rod cannons from the rack and shouldered one, it was an awkward weapon sometimes when one didn't hold it for a practiced amount of time and right now Fred found it awkward. Taking the two weapons, he glanced around once more then closed the container and stalked back into the shadows.
The Spartan leader quickly made his way to Tom and Lucy's positions on the third story building to the rear of the Covenant position, three Jackal snipers lay at their feet, broken necks all. Fred approached the silent pair. "We clear?"
Tom opened a com. "We're good."
Fred offered one of the large cannons to the Spartan-IIIs, who took them and shouldered them, then aimed at the Covenant force while Fred lifted his Avenger to his shoulder and took aim, ready to fire as they had planned, watching as the Covenant forces focused solely on the defending civilians in the dome.
Which was perfect for the plan that Fred had put together. "Linda, you in position?" he whispered into the com, suddenly in his hyper alert state.
Linda's light winked green.
Fred subtly nodded to Tom and Lucy, who both returned the gesture and then they each unloaded the five rounds from their respective cannons. Fred watched the ten radioactive projectiles streak towards the Covenant position.
One struck a Wraith in the rear booster, melting the armor away then detonating with a furious green glow, causing the mortar to explode, taking the entire Wraith with it and knocking some of the surrounding infantry, bar the Elites, to the ground, the remaining struck the grounds around the infantry, vaporizing those too close and knocking the shields away from others.
A white armored Ultra turned to face the source of the Fuel Rod fire, glaring intensely at the Spartans before its head snapped to the side as Linda's precise shot snapped its neck without breaking its shields, it fell down to the ground with a thud.
The Covenant forces turned while a handful of Jackals and Grunts and the last Wraith continued the assault on the dome. Everything else was now focused on the Spartans, they moved towards the three on the building across the block, at this Fred winked Linda green three times.
The single Wraith sparked on its armor, it sputtered, then sank to the ground. The driver dead inside the vehicle.
"You have Banshee patrol coming in, three of them to try and bring down the house…" Linda reported. "Do I take em?"
Fred nodded. "Take em."
On a perch atop a fifteen story building roof Linda lay prone in the shadow of a ventilation exit, her sage green armor melding with the shafts shadow as she zoomed on the three banshees who fired their fuel rod guns at the building Fred, Tom and Lucy were in to try and bring it down on top of them.
Not while I am here, Linda thought.
Slowly, she gently squeezed the trigger of the Widow, it rang out loudly and the side of the Banshee sparked, then the engines died along with the pilot as the now inert flier hit the ground and exploded in a haze of purple and blue.
The two remaining Banshees broke off and tried to find the source of the shot, Linda tracked one, fired and watched as the bottom sparked, then it turned towards her along with the second. She narrowed her eyes and replaced the spent thermal clip.
She took a breath and fired again.
The shot struck the Banshee's left wing, shaking it off course, another shot and the front sparked and the Banshee lowered below her sight line while the second let loose with its plasma repeaters, spraying the building top with blue bolts of plasma.
Linda forced herself not to move, they knew her general location, but not the exact. With her three more shots she tracked the Banshee that was firing, then she fired once again. The round struck its side along where the pilot would be, then the Banshee fell down, its grav boosters offline with its pilot dead.
Linda scanned the area. Now, the last one, she thought as she stood and brought up the Widow. Where- her thought stopped as she heard the discharge of a fuel rod cannon, on instinct she jumped away from her position in any direction moments before it impacted and the force sent her spiralling.
She watched as blurs of movement ended when she slid across the roof of the building, her armor smoking from the fuel rod that had nearly reduced her to vapor. Looking around she saw her Widow laying a few feet away, then she looked up and saw the Banshee headed for her.
There wasn't enough time to retrieve her weapon and bring the Banshee down.
She grit her teeth and sprinted for it anyways, she would die with a weapon in her hand then empty handed, she saw the Banshee charge its fuel rod to fire, then the loud roar of a heavy machinegun brought her an instant of shock, even as the Banshee sparked from the hits, it turned and tried to fly off, but the heavy barrage was too much and it exploded mid air.
Linda landed, gripped the Widow and rolled to her feet with the weapon raised at the newcomer.
"Linda, still favoring the long rifle I see…" The voice was very familiar. "Been awhile too, how you been?"
Linda's eyes widened a fraction before her mouth opened slightly, it couldn't have been… he had disappeared, then again… so had Kurt, but…
"Jorge?" she stood slowly, the rifle lowering.
Inside the dented, scorched and customized MJOLNIR mark V armor, SPARTAN-052, Jorge, stood with his large ammo pack on his back and Heavy machinegun in his hand. "The one and only," Jorge replied with a nod. "Guessing thats Fred's tag too, huh? What, you two set off a Slipspace bomb too?"
End of chapter ten
There it is! Chapter ten of In Infinitum! Hope it was as action packed as you all had hoped, because there is more to come! Now, leave a nice little review, as they push me to write faster.