Chapter 3 – 'Rebel Point' Part II

0130 Hours, February 15, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Harold's Valley [Asteroid Belt/ Unclassified space zone/ Rebel Base

"The best place to make a CP should probably be located in an armory. Katy, find us a good armory." Andrew whispered as he threw away his warped and twisted SMR and pulled out his SMG.

"I'm checking." Katy replied. She connected her data pad to a nearby COM port in the cramped maintenance access room. The nine Spartans that had been sent to infiltrate the Rebel base had made it inside, now they needed to carry out the second part of the mission: establish a command post. "There are several armories located throughout this base. Seventy-five percent of them are located near hangars and escape pods. The last quarter are scattered around the inner part of the base."

"My guess is that we'd need to pick an armory near a hangar… or one near our mission objective." Kyle stated.

"Right, there is one that I say is the best. It has only three ways in or out, and it is right outside an escape pod hatch which we view as our emergency escape route. One of the entrances leads to an outer corridor while the other leads to the hanger… where three of the ships we plan to steal are docked." Katy reported.

"Let's get to it then." Andrew said.

"Hold it. Right outside this door is a fighter hangar. No doubt there is a full squad of pilots and military personnel who have been alerted to keep watch for anything strange after our tussle outside."

"Damn it!" Andrew cursed. "Smith, Monica… you guys need to head through that door first and lay down a sheet of lead at those bastards. Cody, Cameron, head through second and kill the rest with you knives or something. Make it quiet, or else the entire base will be brought around our ears quicker than planned. The rest of us will serve as backup."

Almost immediately, Cody and Cameron took up positions on either side of the door. Cody had his Saber-class bayonet drawn. It was made out of a rare alloy that had been found in an asteroid belt off the Sol system… and it could cleanly slice its way through diamond hard titanium alloy, and diamonds themselves. Along with a seemingly unlimited amount of titanium alloy daggers, a silenced pistol, a modified sniper rifle, and a very loud shotgun, Cody was prepared for a lot of fighting.

Cameron preferred to use medium to close ranged one-hit-K.O. weapons. He had a V6D pistol that acted as a mini shotgun. It fired like a shotgun and almost looked like a shotgun. Everything was the same as a shotgun except it didn't need to be pumped, reloaded one shell at a time, and was pistol sized. His other weapons were a BR55 rifle as well as two SMGs.

Smith and Monica prepared to move in. Both had extensively modified their sniper rifles and didn't need spotters. They were ace shots and could shoot an inch wide and long credit chip at over three-thousand meters. Both Spartans checked their weapons to make sure that they were loaded and ready to fire. Then, Cameron punched a button near the door… it opened. Quick as lightning, the two snipers lashed through the door and fired a volley of ten specially hardened bullets at the enemy Rebels.

They had come up in a walkway just above the hangar so they had full view of the twenty-four Rebels below. Nine Rebel's heads exploded while the last ducked behind a Pincer-class fighter. The wasted bullet ricocheted off the hardened plating.

Next, Cody and Cameron swiftly ran through the door and leaped down from the walkway. The Spartans ran through the hangar slicing through Rebels with their knives and pumping bullets into enemy bodies. Monica and Smith ran their sniper rifles through the hangar; shooting every Rebel that was about to pull a trigger of their weapon. Soon, all twenty-four Rebels were lain out across the hangar.

"Cameron, cover the entrance door to the hangar. Smith, hold your position on the walkway. Everybody else, get ready to move through that door." Andrew whispered through a COM channel. The other Spartans complied and soon they were all positioned at the door.

"We have two options. One, we head through a military training room and have a faster route to the armory but lose whatever chance of surprise we have, since there are reports of infiltration all over this place. The entire base is in threat level orange." Katy said. "Or, we head through a lot of winding corridors until we get to the armory."

"Going through the training room would be like walking into a meat grinder, and going through the corridors would mean that our supplies would slowly be depleted and we'll be chipped away from front and back… and sometimes side to side." Evan whimpered.

"We'll take the corridors. Our training room had turret emplacements in every nook and cranny." Andrew said. "Let's go."

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Cameron hit the 'open' button for the door, and Evan stepped through. Evan's head also exploded and his body completely shredded by a lethal rain of hardened bullets.

"Damn! We only got the one who always reincarnates!" A Rebel cursed… right before his shotgun was wrenched out of his hands and his head was pummeled by Philip's fist.

"Evan's… blood… got… on… me…." Philip whispered angrily. "I JUST POLISHED MY ARMOR!!!!!!!!!" The Spartan pulled the pins off two fragmentation grenades and chucked them at the manned turret emplacement on his left. But Philip didn't know about the turret on his right… as well as the two Rebels running towards him with their shotguns ready. Suddenly, Kyle leapt through the door and took a small burst of turret fire on his armor. Then, he charged towards the Rebel manning the turret and wrenched his enemy's arms off.

"AGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" The Rebel screamed as he gazed at his two bloody stumps. Kyle chuckled and started beating the Rebel with the Rebel's own arms. Finally, when Kyle got bored, the Spartan wrenched the turret out of the floor and shredded the Rebel. Then, Kyle turned towards the other two Rebels and started towards them. The Spartan barely noticed the shotgun pellets splashing over his armor because he grabbed his assailant's head and rapidly twisted it around until the head gave out.

The other Rebel was so horrified about what happened to his comrade, that he didn't even make a noise as Kyle reached out, plunged his hand into the Rebel's chest, and pulled out his ribcage… lungs and all.

"Uhhhhhhh…." Philip said as he gazed at the pool of blood Kyle was standing knee deep in. "Nevermind…."

"We'll get ripped to shreds if we travel through this place in a single group." Cameron stated. "My guess is that we need to split up in groups of three so there'll be a lesser chance of all of us getting killed."

"Good thinking, Katy and I will go on ahead and link up with Evan, wherever he respawned. Kyle, you, Philip, and Monica better head down that way while the rest of you go the other way." Andrew said. "Katy, could you upload the directions into all of our HUDs?"

"I already did." Katy replied.

"Great, see all of you at the armory." Andrew said.