The interior of the small, garage-like structure was brilliantly lit. So much so that Jason had to quickly deactivate his VISR. He beheld a small treasure trove.
"This is beautiful," he whispered.
He slowly wandered into the garage and inspected the cache of supplies that awaited him. A pair of fresh, new Mongeese took up most of the room, but along the walls were weapons lockers. No ammo, but fully loaded guns. Jason spent the next few moments cannibalizing the magazines from the spare silenced SMGs and pistols that he found, adding them to his personal armory.
He decided to talk to Temple while he resupplied.
"So, Temple...who are you?"
"I'm heartbroken that you don't remember me, DuPree," Temple replied with a dark laugh. "But really? I'm not much. I grew up a farm boy out on Bishop Four, found my core in the Corps when I got sick of working farm equipment. Turns out I had a real knack for putting bullets in alien heads and telling people what to do. I worked my way up to Sergeant."
"Why'd you join the ODSTs?" Jason asked, pausing and turning to stare out of the garage.
The rain continued to fall in wretched solitude, muting and numbing the world. Temple was silent for a few seconds, and, inexplicably, Jason had a flashed vision in his head. He could easily envision the lone Corporal crouched among the rain atop a broken building, staring out over a neon-saturated city of epic desolation and lonely isolation.
"I joined when my squad was ambushed on Kai Delta Prime. Covie bastards killed half my squad, captured the rest. We were tortured and interrogated for days behind enemy lines. I knew we were dead. We didn't know anything critical, and Command knew we didn't know anything critical. And we were expendable assets. We all knew that. One by one, my friends died slow and painful deaths. I was the last one...and I almost bit the bullet when the ODSTs came crashing in out of nowhere, kicked the door in to the Covenant outpost and blew everyone away. I was the only one they saved...and while I was recovering in the hospital, I swore that I'd get my revenge. I joined up with the Helljumpers because I knew I could do a better job doing it, and because there was nothing left for me in the Marines."
Temple fell silent once more. Jason wasn't sure how to respond. Temple saved him the trouble.
"Aw, shit. Look DuPree, I've got to go silent for a little while. Covies everywhere. I'll get back in touch with you when I can. Good luck. Stay sharp."
And he was gone. Jason returned his attention to his inventorying.
He managed to police up another few fragmentation grenades. Sadly, there was no heavy ordinance. No rocket launchers and no sniper rifles. But he'd make due. Jason realized that it didn't make any sense why there would be a random cache of supplies, seemingly meant for him. But at the same time he decided it didn't matter. Guns were guns and bullets were bullets. With that last thought, he hopped onto one of the Mongeese and started it up.
"Hell, yes!" he all but yelled when the engine kicked to life. From somewhere within the garage, he heard a mechanical voice state: "Satisfaction guaranteed."
He didn't let it bother him. Jason brought the Mongoose slowly out of the garage and into the street. Slowly, he made his way down it, winding between several burned out husks of wrecked vehicles. He made it to an intersection, and then discovered another gate that proudly proclaimed Route Open in bright, blinking letters. He drove up to it and hopped off the Mongoose. Quickly, he activated the gate and hopped back on.
As the gate opened, the sheer joy of simply having a Mongoose washed away in the face of the realization of the problems it would bring. Like facing down Covenant. The next area was practically overrun with a Covenant patrol. Jason immediately killed the engine and hopped off, ducking down low. He hadn't been spotted. Excellent.
It meant he could begin his elimination procedures.
First things first. He spotted a Jackal on outer patrol to his left, strolling away from him along a raised alcove above the street. He hurried over it, slipped the pistol to the back of its head and squeezed the trigger. He gripped the body and let it down carefully to the ground. The shield extinguished and the Jackal died without noise. Jason slunk past a row of pay phones to the end of the platform where a pair of Covenant supply crates resided. He ducked down behind them and scoped out the competition littering the area beyond.
The intersection below was packed with Covenant. Some Grunt and Jackal pairs strolled about, a few Brutes stood on the street corners. One Grunt snoozed softly, leaned over the controls of a plasma turret. It was like a shooting gallery. The area he was in was dark, they'd probably never find him. If his luck held. Jason brought his pistol to bear, but as he did, gently knocked the supply crate. Something inside fell out and luckily landed against him. It was a long something. He grinned with the realization of what it was.
A Covenant Beam Rifle. He gently set it aside. It would be useful for the Brutes...which probably needed to be taken down first. Jason holstered his pistol and brought the awkward beam rifle to bear. He zeroed the sights on the first Brute's head, a lazy looking bastard that was absentmindedly half-dozing against the wall of a building. He squeezed the trigger. A bright blue pulse painted the area in brief illumination as a hole was burned straight the Brute's skull. Before the corpse even finished dropping, Jason had switched targets.
One more. He squeezed the trigger again as the Grunts began crying out, the Jackals began squawking. Another squeeze, another Brute fell. He abandoned the rifle for now, pulling out his pistol and zeroing the sights one more time. The survivors were firing randomly, they had vaguely picked up his position, but most of them had been asleep or not paying attention. He first capped the Grunt manning the turret, then worked his way through the survivors. Bullets flew and corpses fell. In the end, three of them ended up getting out of sight.
Jason growled and hopped down from the ledge. He stalked forward, reloading his pistol and bringing the submachine gun to bear. A pair of Grunts and a Jackal had attempted to form some sort of last stand. Jason put a few rounds through the Grunts' skulls and then peppered the Jackal's position with the remainder of the magazine. He hurled a fragmentation grenade to its location, then shot it in the back of the head when it dove out of the way.
The explosion ruptured, echoing across the city. And again the silence found him. Jason turned and began walking back to his Mongoose. He kept his pace slow, staring up at the starlight and burning skyline. It was darkly beautiful. With measured movements, he reached up and took off his helmet. For the first time since landing on Earth, he caught a real whiff of fresh air. He could feel the breeze on his face, the rain on his skin, cold and bitter. Jason reached his Mongoose and turned around, his gaze drifting across the city.
"Where are you guys?" he whispered.
Losing his squad on New Jerusalem had been heartbreaking. Being the sole survivor didn't help his guilt. On the way back to Earth, alone and restless in his cabin, it had threatened to take him, to drown him in his sleep. And maybe some of him had died there, on New Jerusalem. Died along with his friends, one more tragedy in his life...he sighed. While he hadn't really gotten to know his new squadron all that well, he still felt a strong connection to them. New friends, new allies. Maybe this squad would survive. But he was beginning to worry.
At least he had Temple.
Jason shoved the thoughts aside and hopped onto the Mongoose. He needed to stay focused, otherwise he was already dead. He was aware that there was some sort of mental state that isolated soldiers got. Wander around long enough alone and you feel like you're the last one in existence. Kick starting the ATV again, the ODST began to drive slowly through the ruined city streets. Some of the paths were blocked off by large Covenant shield technology. He ignored them and kept going, following the path that came easiest to him.
He realized that he still didn't really have any idea where he was going. If only he could have raised someone on the comms besides Temple. He'd left his channel open, to the general communications frequency, but he hadn't even heard a blip. Either everyone was gone, or everyone was dead. Or maybe the Covenant had some sort of jamming device. It didn't matter. He was alone out here, Temple somewhere else in the city, and he could only rely on himself.
As Jason continued, he soon found himself in another city square like area. He scouted the area, but there was nothing alive with him. He paused, and then hopped off the Mongoose, killing the engine. Might as well search the area. There could be anything out here...he began wandering around, searching in any area he felt might hold something useful, be it information or an arsenal or maybe even a survivor.
The place was desolate. Most of the light came from another huge shield, blocking a route somewhere deeper in the city. Dark, inert buildings surrounded him. Concrete tombs, silent testaments to the war that had ripped through the city's heart. Had either side won? The Covenant had pulled out, and left some of their own behind. Who had the upper hand here? The situation was so confused that Jason couldn't decide.
Maybe he could wipe the city clean. Kill all of them. But he'd need access to more weapons, a security system and perhaps some help. It was a lofty goal, but next to finding his missing squad mates, Jason couldn't think of anything else to do. He sighed and continued his search. Something caught his eye as he approached it. It looked like one more random piece of debris among many, but for some reason, it stood out to him.
He knelt by it and studied it. It was the fighter optics of a drone. Jason glanced up, into the rainy sky. These drones had flown over the city. Maybe this one had seen something. He quickly knelt and picked up the piece of debris, studying it intensely. He flipped it over, looking for some sort of way to access its internal memory. After a few moments of careful inspection, he realized the thing was far too damaged to relay any information, if it even had any.
He let it drop. Jason let his imagination wander. Not too far away, he could see a Ghost, smashed into the side of a building. It looked as if it had picked up some fairly high velocity. He could easily picture one of his squad mates, Dutch maybe, smashing into some zoo or animal reserve. And killing his way across it, maybe linking up with surviving Marines. Hadn't that been where the cruiser had been grounded over?
Jason was pretty sure he remembered that in the briefing. Maybe Dutch had been there, trying to help secure it. Jason's eyes drifted back to the smashed Ghost, then he turned and looked high above. He squinted and activated the zoom function. He could see a break in some of the structures, high above. The Ghost crash site looked like it could have theoretically come from there...Finally, Jason shrugged and began to walk back to his Mongoose.
Whatever had happened, he would never know. It still didn't bring him any closer to figuring out what happened. All he had was speculation, his imagination. Which he always felt had never been too well developed. As he approached the Mongoose, he suddenly heard something approaching. Footfalls...he spun around, raising his SMG, and found himself staring at a de-cloaking Elite. For an instant, Jason froze.
"Human, wait!" the Elite called, raising one hand, palm out.
The universal sign to stop or wait. Jason hesitated further. Elites typically never bothered to talk to him, let alone waste a chance to kill him if he hadn't noticed them yet. The Elite was clad in dark armor, Special Ops. Its almost domed helmet and red slit eye holes were ominous. But this Elite made no moves for its weapons.
"What?" Jason asked cautiously.
"You must listen. Something of tremendous importance is happening among my people. We must-"
Whatever the Elite wanted, it never got. Because it stopped living, right then and there as a blue beam tore through its skull.
Jason cursed, diving for cover while attempting to spot the sniper.
