Hey there SPARTANS, Marines and ODSTs and welcome back to Halo Remnant Wars!
Four chapters in a row!? How is this happening?!
Anyway, this is the chapter that will shake things up a little bit and will have the stakes raised in Remnant's survival. Now I'd like to give a quick shout out to Ferrus Magnus for the message and thank you for your thoughts and condolences on my Dad. I know I'm late for this but better late than never right?
Also to 1740...yes, that was a RVB reference, you're welcome mate!
Alright I can tell you're eager to get to the chapter so I won't hold you up any longer.
Enjoy!
Chapter 11: …Two steps back
MISSION BREIFFING…
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Jerome-092-Captain, we're approaching the White Fang base and ready to put it out of commission.
Captain Cutter-Roger that Jerome, with that base out of commission we won't have to worry about any of them reporting back to their higher ups on what we're up to.
Staff Sargent Cortez- Captain with one of the Recon teams just disappearing I fell that both the Grimm and White Fang aren't the only things we need to worry about here. Call me crazy but I feel that bigger threats are working behind the scenes here.
Captain Cutter-I understand your concern Staff Sargent, but we have to worry about one thing at a time. Find anything useful in that base that could give us an idea on what the White Fang then level the place to the ground. I'll have Reinforcements on standby to support your position.
Staff Sargent Cortez-Understood Captain, we'll have the base taken down before you know it.
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Mission Summary-Staff Sargent Cortez and SPARTAN Red team are sent to gather any information from the nearby White Fang base that could prove useful before destroying it to secure their foothold on MT Glenn.
As the four of us reached the base we observed from a high vantage point to see the base below, which consisted of several old warehouses guarded by a large number of White Fang grunts.
"Ok any information would be stored in one of these warehouses, we'll split off and search them from top to bottom. After we have everything we need we'll place the C-12 and level the buildings and get out". Jerome stated going over the battle plan. "We just need a distraction". He said as Red team looked at me.
"Why is everyone looking at me?" I asked before sighing. "Alright, but just so ya know, I'll probably level the place before you can place the charges". I sated as I walked off and down to the entrance then hid behind a rock. I stood up and fired several grenades at the entrance causing several explosions. 'That that'll get their attention'. I thought to myself as several Grunts came out firing with weapons at me but I merely stood there and pulled the trigger on my Gatling gun and mowed them down one by one. However a few had a smarter idea and had protective shields to block my bullets, but if there's one thing I know about enemies with shields is the same thing about Jackals during the war. A grenade is a Shield's worst enemy, I levelled my grenade launcher and fired at their feet causing them to fly in the air before falling to the ground.
More shields came out and were met with the same results as before but they stopped coming and I heard a thud sound coming from a nearby shipping container. Then a Huge Atleasian Paladin came bursting out and turn its attention to me.
"SPARTANS you better have something useful by now because a Mech just came out of one of the shipping containers!" I radioed.
"Can you handle it Cortez?" Jerome asked.
"I'll see what I can do". I replied before cutting the connection. I levelled my Gatling gun at it and fired at the cockpit, the bullets seem to be doing something since it had to shield itself with its arms. I then fired my Grenade launcher at it which did some considerable damage in itself. However the Paladin fired its guns at me which knocked my shields down at two fifths integrity, I countered it by deploying the Regenerator which was instantly keeping it up no matter how many times I got hit. However I have a timer on my HUD showing how long it will last and 30 seconds is the maximum. It was enough to have me just fired my Launcher into its leg joints causing it to stumble forward and kneel. When the Regenerator ran out I ran up to it but was swatted away into a wall which crumbled around me, I stood back up and checked my suit's hull and showed it was at 89.3% integrity. I saw the Paladin then stand up but due to the damaged legs its mobility was decreased.
I waited for my shields to recharge and dashed out firing my Gatling gun at its joints again to try and get it to stop. My plan succeeded and it fell forward again, however I fired a grenade into its left arm and ran up a second time I grabbed onto it and climbed onto its back, ripped open a panel and dug my gun into it.
"Say AH!" I smirked as I fired my weapon into the vital circuits of the Mech and kept going and goin before the machine fell down, dead as a doornail. Satisfied with my handy work I jumped off the Paladin and got some distance between it and me, then fired two rockets into the Paladin before the machine exploded in a huge fireball, leaving nothing but scrap metal.
"Cortez is Douglas the White Fang has just gotten two more mechs operational and their headed your way!" I heard 042 warn me over the radio, the confirmation was that I heard the sound of huge footsteps coming my way and saw two more Paladins walk out of the far left warehouse.
"Augh crap". I groaned running for cover as the Paladins fired in my direction. There was no way I'll be able to bring these things down on my own. "I'm gonna need some help, Spirit of Fire Actual, could use a little help the base is more defended that we first thought how's that backup?". I radioed as several missiles knocked me out of my cover and out into the open, if I wasn't wearing the suit I'd probably be dead.
"Staff Sargent, this is Captain Matheus Knight. My team and I are on our way. ETA 2 minutes!" I heard over the radio. I stood up and faced the two Paladins.
"Knight you'll be scraping me up in a bucket in that time, you'd better get here quick!" I responded as I then saw the suit had another function, a familiar icon on my HUD replaced the Regenerator with a Shield inside a Hexagon. 'A Bubble Shield!' I thought to myself as the Paladins fired several missiles in my direction, I quickly activated the function and a protective dome around the suit emerged and the missiles came in contact with the shield. Leaving me unharmed.
"Bubble shields, gotta love em". I said to myself with a smirk. The Paladins fired several more missiles and their guns into the barrier, the Bubble Shield may be strong but even that has its limits. I saw the small icon on my HUD also doubled as a meter and saw it was going down the longer I held it up, and it won't last much longer if this assault keeps going. But as it was about to run out I saw a Vulture and Pelican gunships appear in the sky and began firing their guns into the Paladins, the mechs had the attention on the ship in the sky and not me. But I then looked behind me and saw a Scorpion, Mastodon which began unloading several Marines, Hell bringers, ODSTs and a Cyclops, followed by a Nightingale flying overhead.
I dropped my shield and aimed my Rocket launcher at one and fired both rounds crippling one before it was finished off by two marines with rocket launchers and the Cyclops, the other Paladin was then scrapped by the gunships as it too exploded into a fireball.
"All clear!" I called as the dust had settled. I then saw an ODST hop out of the Scorpion and walk up to me. "Glad you could make it to the party Captain". I mused.
"Well someone's gotta pull your ass out of the fire when Forge isn't around". He joked with his arms crossed.
"Like I said a thousand times before, trouble finds me". I stated shrugging my armoured shoulders. "Red team how's it looking in there?" I said through the com channel.
"It's Douglas, nothing really in here, I'm going to search up the back and join you outside".
"This is Jerome kid. Just finishing my sweep now, I'll be out in a moment. Got some shipping manifests and a contacts list while I was in here".
"Alice here, got something in here, I'm going to download everything in here. It's going to take some time".
"Alright guys, we'll wait for you Alice". I responded before Knight had gotten my attention.
"Sargent, my Air forces had reported that White Fang airships are inbound on our position carrying heavy weapons". He explained which made me curse under my breath.
"They're persistent I'll give em that. Alright marines listen up! We got some guests who want to crash this little party we're having! We're going to hold here and get what we came here for! We're going to show em what happens when you mess with the UNSC and what it means to be a marine! AND IT MEANS OUR BIG GREEN STYLE CANNOT BE DEFEATED!" I barked waiting a few seconds before responding. "AM I RIGHT MARINES?!"
"SIR! YES SIR!"
"Damn right! Get to defensive positions and be ready for a fire fight!" I ordered as all the units in Knight's team scrambled the area as Knight himself raced back to his Scorpion and drove it past me. "Red team this is Cortez, we've got White Fang Reinforcements coming our way and their pacing heavy armament as well, Alice we'll hold them off until you can get everything you intend to get in there".
"Roger that, I'll keep you posted on my progress". Alice replied as I then saw Douglas and Jerome ran out of the warehouses and join the rest of us. We then got into position with the rest of the marines and ODSTs and waited for them to come to us, I swapped to VISOR mode on my HD and saw through the trees several airships were dropping off Paladins, much like the destroyed ones our troops were using for cover and in addition they were dropping off ground troops as well.
"Here they come!" I called as I aimed my Missile launcher at the closest one and fired into its legs crippling it as the rest of the Marines and ODSTs fired at the closest Grunt and the Hell bringers forced them back with their flamethrowers while the Cyclops, Scorpion, SPARTANS and the Gunships directed their fire towards the Mechs. The White Fang grunts got some good shots onto or infantry but that was fixed easily as I deployed my Regenerator with the radius big enough to heal anyone in need of medical care.
"Alice Status!" I called over the gunfire.
"65% Complete, need a bit more time!" She replied.
"Copy that! I want hot barrels people keep it up!" I called as I mowed down more White Fang Grunts with my Gatling gun. They then started sending Mechanised infantry, those being AK-130's. Who fired back at us with more accuracy than the normal Grunt, one took out two marines in which I then fired a grenade into a group of the robots sending spare parts flying everywhere.
"Alice it's starting to get a bit heated here progress!"
"87% Complete, just hang in there!" She said saying that we were getting very close. The Mechanised Infantry seemed to be endless but with the amount of ammunition we're spending we might run out of ammo by the time we're finished here.
"Knight get the infantry ready to Evac! If we're gonna get out of here we're gonna need to be fast about it". I called to the ODST Captain.
"On it Sargent! Everyone into the mastodon! Gunships keep us covered!" He ordered as the Marines the piled inside and carried the dead and wounded inside, they then followed by the Hell Bringers and finally the Cyclops. The Vulture then fired a Phoenix Missile into the forest along with a barrage of rockets following it causing several explosions in the area giving us time to get everyone out. The Pelican got into position to pick up the Scorpion while the Captain dismounted.
"Download complete! I'm heading out now!" Alice called.
"Alright, we're getting ready to leave! Let's get out of here!" I called back to her as the Mastodon had driven off away from the battle with the Vulture supporting it from the air leaving just Knight, Red team and myself along with the Scorpion and Pelican. Alice then ran out of the Warehouse and joined us at the Pelican, everyone had boarded the dropship with the Scorpion being attached to the back.
"We got hostiles coming our way!" I heard the pilot call to us.
"Get us out of here Pilot! Now!" I ordered as the ship then began taking off leaving the White Fang base, before it exploded and went up in flames leaving nothing left of it. "Spirit of Fire this is Cortez, mission completed. We're heading home". I radioed.
"Excellent work Sargent! Return to Alpha base for debriefing, this would strike a heavy blow to the White Fang's ability to listen in on us for sure". Cutter replied as the Pelican made its way back to Alpha base along with the rest of Knight's platoon.
After returning back to base I had exited the Suit given to me and I told the Technicians that it works beautifully and only took a couple of scrapes, dents and dings in the hull. Knight's platoon suffered 6 wounded and 3 dead during the battle, in all honesty it could've been a lot worse. I then made my way to the Command Centre and was greeted by Forge, Kinsano, Red team and Koota with Captain Cutter on the screen as well as Rosaline's Avatar on a pedestal.
"Reporting as ordered Captain". I saluted.
"At ease Staff Sargent". He said to me in which I dropped the salute. "Alright let's get down to business. With the Intel recovered from Red team and Cortez on their last assignment, we've uncovered a shipping manifest which shows imports and exports in the Kingdom Vale most containing Dust stolen from the Schnee Dust Company, as well as some Atleasian military hardware both old and new models and exactly where they are going and at what time giving us the drop on them when they least expect it". Cutter stated as a list of all the information was on the side of the screen next to him. "However SPARTAN Alice Rosaline discovered something else".
"We found a file labelled Project: Uprising. Unfortunately the file and its contents were damaged and corrupted, meaning it will take some time to reconstruct it and put it all back together. What I did manage to put together was this, Audio only".
"We're making progress on finding a way into the craft, however the alloy is of unknown design and is so durable that it's able to break our equipment if we try to cut through it, making it difficult to get inside. The casualties will be worth it, once White Fang get a hold of what's inside we w-," The audio cut off as it was then garbled before stopping.
"Sounds like something that must've come from the HALO universe. The unknown alloy part is kinda a dead giveaway the way I see it. Whatever it is, it can't be good if the White Fang have found it". I stated. "Rosaline were there any other ships, UNSC or otherwise with the Angel Heart when it warped dimensions?" I asked the AI.
"No, the Angel Heart's Slipspace Drive Malfunctioned and brought us to Remnant. No other ships were nearby when the event happened". She answered. "However I did find this". She said displaying an image, it was scrambled but I could see what was on it if the others could not.
"Is that what I think it is?" Koota asked as he took a step closer.
"It's a Covenant Starship". I said aloud. This is bad, if the Covenant are on Remnant it'll be the Winter Contingency all over again.
"Do we know what class it is?" Forge asked Rosaline.
"No, the image doesn't show much but it's definatly Covenant designed. The good news is that it looks like it crashed landed and it's been there for a while much the Angel Heart, so we have a chance". She answered.
"If there is another good thing out of all this, it's that it's only one ship and not an entire fleet. Unlike Reach". I stated which made all of them look at me and I sighed. "In 2552 the Covenant attacked Reach with a fleet of many ships, they never stood a chance. As of Reach's current condition. It won't be habitable until 2580". I stated keeping it short.
"Hard to grasp that Reach fell to the Covenant, but you said we won the war so that's what matters. However with the Covenant here on Remnant a lot of lives will be lost if we don't find the crash site. If any forces on the ship find any of the Kingdoms, the body count will be very high". The Captain stated firmly. "Staff Sargent I trust that you'll keep this information away from those at Beacon Academy. We can't risk this going public".
"Ozpin won't know a thing until he's ready. So lips are sealed". I replied.
"Good. Now that we have a foothold on Remnant we can start looking for the Crash site, the sooner the better. Red team, Lieutenant Koota and Sargent Forge I want all in charge of multiple scouting parties to find that ship that way we can cover more ground faster. Hopefully we can find it before it's too late. Cortez this information never leaves this room until we can find the ship, we can't have any Huntsman or Huntresses stumble upon it or worse the Atleasian Military".
"Yes sir!" We said in unison.
"Good, we'll keep you updated on any new developments. Dismissed".
Looks like the UNSC aren't the only ones on Remnant anymore. A Covenant Ship was found by the White Fang, and they're having trouble getting inside. With a new possible threat of an old enemy on Remnant, things will be shaking up soon. The crash site must be found before any action can be taken. Now I won't say what class it is until it is found, and not only that I still have several chapters that aren't centred around combat to put in. But fret not, the Angel heart has some contents that can aid the UNSC on the planet.
I'd like to thank MarineRaider77 for submitting his oc Captain Matheus Knight, I honestly didn't think I'd be adding his Oc so quickly but it really helped me getting this chapter done, thanks mate! ;)
Anyway I hope you enjoyed the chapter and be sure to let me know your thoughts on the story so far. A bit of feedback can go a long way.
So until then, I'll see ya next time!
Cronus Prime Out!
