Welcome back to Brothers in arms: Blood Brothers, Please remember the OC's of Carnage are TheArizona's, While any new characters are my own, AN at the end
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The Cruiser
12th of August 2550
Outskirts of Oldtown
Sargent William Goodwin
It had been an hour and a half from the end of the firefight, The sun had begun to set behind the mountains to the West-Northwest casting everything in a dull red-orange, we had patched up the wounded, and done a damage report; seventeen Militia fatalities, another dozen wounded Militia, nearly sixty wounded civ's, mostly light wounds from far-flung shrapnel, and surprisingly one of Jay's ODST had taken a handful of rounds but they had left no major wounds.
We had also captured a half dozen of Shaw's men, Including Shaw and a pair of Skirmishers, who would answer for their actions... or at least be put down like the animals they are.
Rebekah and a few others had dug graves for their fallen, and some others had taken the time to throw their enemies into the trench, I helped with moving bodies, and with the burying, I paused when I got to the Grizzled man I had taken out, I took a second and took his dog tags and read the name "Lawrence J. Prescott" the name clicked with me, I knew him, It must have been why it felt so wrong to pull the trigger, He had saved the part of the platoon I was in during one of the first battles here on Sargasso, I slipped the tags into one of my pouches and got back to burying the dead.
After we finished burying, feeding the wounded, and made four dozen or so stretchers to carry the too wounded to walk we held a quick service to the lost, Jay and his men were ordered to take the survivors towards the closest cache base, walking at least far enough that sending a pelican or two wouldn't raise alarm at the cruiser, Something I hope the two spirits hadn't already done.
We waved the caravan off as they left, and once they were out of sight we returned to the gate to get our vehicles and leave, when we reached the gate Rebekah had rolled the Mongoose out to the two warthogs, and was waiting for us, once we got close she embarked the mongoose and gave us a look "I'm taking this one" she said as she started it up, I stopped and sent to speak, without hesitation she threw a key to me, and Roux took it from me and kept walking "The second hog was part of your care package, use it"
I jogged up to the new ride, Happily looking at the Gauss on the back, before looking back to Dmitri "I get the big gun right?" He nodded and I let out an excited "YES, finally, something goes my way!"
"You don't get to shoot it unless ordered to" Roux joked slightly, as she climbed into the driver's seat of the Gauss Hog
I let out a slight sigh "yes, Ma'am" before climbing up and grabbing the turret, I watched Rebekah tear away with the Mongoose and faded into the distance
"We should get going, let's try to get there before it gets too dark," Roux said turning the Hog on, and pulling away from the base, Dmitri's Hog loosely close behind.
The ride was quiet... the grasslands turned into a light woods, The setting sun made the tree's shadows long and warped, and as the sun finally faded each tree looked like a possible enemy, I scanned the trees, back and forth for the remainder of the trip. Roux brought us to a stop in a small valley and got the vehicles hull downed for the night, before walking a short distance and setting up our 'camp', In all honesty it was our few bedrolls tucked into the rocks and covered over in a loose branch roof, we were under 'radio silence' and 'lights out' conditions we couldn't risk getting detected, not this close to the enemies base...
The night was eerily quiet, so I had Illya play an old classical era song on a very low volume in my helmet to overwhelm the silence, it was enough to lull me to sleep, Illya said she would turn it off after I had fallen asleep.
I awoke early to a flurry of noises, I snatched up my rifle, and woke the others, before crawling out of the pit, only to find a small game fowl plucking branches just outside, Defeated; we eat a quick meal before setting off again, Roux had us move the vehicles to a better position in which to 'flee' if we got caught, we moved them to a more easily accessible area and recovered them, before starting the hike closer to the vessel that loomed ahead.
we carefully approached the vessel, we got a good look at it as we entered a small clearing, the ship must have carved her way into the mountain while also breaking her spine when she crashed, her nose was crumpled and bent 'upwards', the best way to describe it would be that she conformed to the mountains rough shape and broke anywhere that wouldn't conform. how anything survived the crash I would never know, as much as the ship was ruined, it still held a radiance to it, I nodded to myself before catching up to the group
Dmitri smugly said "That's what you get for fucking with us" as he took in the sight of the ship
both Anders and Stein agreed to that, and Roux let out a "damn straight"
As we got closer we became more 'back to basics' in how we operated, fanning out but remaining in eyesight, taking cover as we approached eyes peeled.
I got eyes on an Elite and paused, it was out of armour and was working the land, I tapped into our TeamCOM and pinged the group, sharing my view with them. I got a series of 'acknowledgement' lights as we shifted our path deeper into enemy territory, it took us easily half an hour to sneak our way into rock fall near the base of the ship, we wouldn't be able to hide here forever, the Elites likely had some sort of garrison force that would patrol around their home, it'd be foolish to assume they didn't at any rate.
"What's the game plan," I asked the group
Dmitri simply stated "we're here to scout this position out, may as well start from here"
Roux interjected "If the ships' computer survived the crash they might have used it to store any maps they made, and they might have even included any building projects they've done on those maps, making our job good as done"
Alexis laconically said "If"
"I know its a half baked bet, but if it is operational it's unlikely we'll get caught out here so we can get the hell out of here" Roux stated
Dmitri shook his hand "Us four will start the scouting run, while you two-" he pointed to Roux and me "-check for the computer"
I gave him a look that clearly stated 'why me'
He responded "because I don't want to deal with ONI any more than I have to, And I don't want to be inside that ugly piece of alien machinery unless I really have to, Plus your on Roux's good side, and have that AI from the station still, don't you, it could read through all their data much faster than you two could"
I reached for the back of my head "right, That makes sense, I'll get it done"
Roux Nodded as she hefted a large satchel over her shoulder, and handed me a smaller one, it was loaded full of ammo and a pair of cutting torches and rope, without talking she started off towards the cruiser, I did my best to keep up with her, she was dedicated on getting inside, as we got close to the ship she pulled me aside and pointed amidship to the large hole in the cruiser, "if we get inside we can use that hole as a landmark, the bridge is deeper inside, it should be intact and would get us access to everything we need"
"And if the bridge was destroyed?" I asked
she glanced back to me "then we find any old terminal and plug your... assistant in to find what we need"
"And if they can't find it, or they don't have a scan?"
"No more questions, we need to think of how to get in, It's unlikely the gravity-lift would be working, and the hangars are halfway up a mountain from here, they have to have a ground entrance" she continued
"It'd have to be in the nose" I pointed to the bulbous section only a few hundred meters from the edge of the trees "its the only part on the ground that isn't up the mountain"
She nodded, "now, just to find the way in"
"right" I said following her as she walked towards the 'front' of the ship
we walked in the tree line until we caught sight of an opening in the ship a group of unarmoured Sangheili were resting against the ship or sitting on the ground, it didn't take long for another unarmoured Sangheili to rush out of the ship and make a few arm motions, the others got to their feet and lined up shoulder to shoulder, A fully crimson-clad Sangheili pushed its way out of the hole and look to the line of the others, it grabbed the elite in front and tilted the others head from side to side, it then grumbled and have the smaller elite a shove "Back to work, All of you" the Armoured one shouted in Sangheili, Illya translated it for us, and without hesitation the line left, heading away from us, the Armoured Elite stood in the doorway for another few moments, before turning heel and storming back inside
We stood in the tree line for another couple of minutes keeping eyes on the door, and making sure the zone was clear, once It looked clear we took off towards the door, quietly we walked along the hull to the door, it wasn't a bare hole, it was covered in a bead curtain, I peered through into the darkness, and with a deep breath entered the room as quietly as I could Roux following suit, and once we were in we took up position behind a spattering of boxes, I toggled my helmets VISR mode, The night vision green bathed the room, I checked the boxes, they were empty, it looked like this was a storage room for crates for future use, Roux waved me forwards so I moved from box to box until we reached the door leading further inside, It had been pried open so a much larger creature could pass through it with ease, we entered the hall and started towards the center of the ship, after a little while each step got stepper, until the floor bent sharply upwards easily 60 to 70 degrees.
"looks like we're climbing" I said grabbing the rope from my bag, and approached the side of the hall "these panels look like our best bet of having something to hold on to" I prodded the mesh panels with my foot, they didn't look very tough, but it'd be better than trying to climb the floor panels, or just up the rope.
Roux gave me a half-hearted nod, before she tossed the hook of her rope up the shaft, I followed and tossed mine too, they both caught, and after a few tugs to check if they were secure and looping it through our gear, we began the climb, immediately Roux's satchel kept her off-kilter, but she was insistent on keeping it on her, so I climbed nearly the whole way up before looking back, she'd only made it a quarter of the way up, so I rappelled down to her.
"I'll take the bag, I know you don't want to give it up, but We both know we can's spend forever in here" She shrugged away as I reached for the bag "Just to the top, then its yours again"
She grumbled at me "I can't"
"If its a pride thing, No one needs to know-"
"Its not that..." she cut me off before trailing off herself for a moment "...It's Mission sensitive materials"
"What can be so important that you can't trust me with it, you've trusted everything else to me so far, even your own life, How can this be so sensitive that I can't event lug it up this climb"
she paused, before reaching into her bag and lifting the device out of it
"You're carrying a literal nuclear football," I said in near shock
she slipped the device back into the bag and secured it "Tactical Nukes aren't just handed to anyone, Its My Job to use it, clear this threat from the map, If it were so easy as to just hand you it I would..." I stopped her and gave her a look, her face shifted then she nodded and gave me the bag "Just to the top, ok"
"Just like I said" I slung the bag around my shoulder and tied it down and clambered to the top of my rope, and poked my head up, looking into the empty ship... I pulled my self up, and helped Roux up, we left her rope hidden next to the slope, and I handed the bag back to her
she gave me a quick look before nodding, then looking around "We should be getting close, at least there should be some sort of command center around here"
"you're saying we don't have any idea where we are, aren't you?"
Roux's shoulders dropped "Yeah..."
Illya spoke up "If you find me an access terminal, I could look for the ships deck plan"
"That's not a bad idea, Roux lets find a terminal, Our AI friend just might be able to help us out" I parroted Illya's plan
We glanced around, there was no obvious consoles or access ports, so we scoured the walls and headed down the hall to the door on the right, as we got close to the door, My fingers found a small recess that pushed in and unlatched a small terminal that was hidden behind the surface
"Well, I'll be damned, I think I found something," I said over my shoulder to Roux and when she approached Illya chipped in
"I'm able to send a probe through this one, give me a moment to send a ping" She said as the terminal blinked purple, She paused for a few seconds, before we heard Click from back down the corridor "the door should be unlocked, but it doesn't have power, you'll have to pry it open, The ship seems to be in a general low power state and all non-necessary systems are offline, and everything else is set to a power saving mode"
An objective marker appeared on the far side of the room through the door it was labelled as 'Try again here'
We walked over to the door and it was open ever so slightly as if the lock was the only thing holding it closed, A cold air poured out of the room, and Roux took a few steps back and covered her face "God that smells awful" she said in a near retch
"I'll scout it out, you stay here" I responded, taking initiative, I carefully wiggled my fingers into the crack and pulled, The door slowly groaned open with the sound of metal on metal, it took a few good pulls to get it open, as if the doors mechanism was fighting me the entire way open, Immediately I regretted what I saw on the far side of the door, the area around the door was piled high with bones, armour and weapons of at least 4 full platoons of Covenant ground forces. I glanced back to Roux who had walked most of the way back to the other door "I'd stay over there if I where you, The sight is just as bad", I watched her give me a disconcerted look.
I turned back to the mess ahead of me, I turned VISR back on to get a better sight of a clear path through
Illya's voice came to life in my ear "This room appears to have suffered a mass decompression during the ship's combat or entry into the atmosphere..." she paused as I looked for a good path "The last report holds 157 occupants in this room, this appears to be what's left of them"
"Right" I said quietly "Lets just get to that terminal" I then took my first step into the room, Pulling one of the door petals back down to better hide the internals of the room to the hallway, It took me a few minutes to cross the room as so I wouldn't trip myself up on the many obstacles between the door and the terminal, when I reached it, Illya did her job, the terminal flashed pink, and without hesitation Roux contacted me on our TEAMCOM
"whatever you just did, the door out here is unlatched, I'll wait here for you"
"Right, Be right there," I said carefully making my way back, doing my best to not disturb the dead
when I cleared the room, Roux stood up from where she was sitting and tilted her head to the door, I walked over and pulled the door open, as I did a new objective marker popped up, It was deeper into the ship
"This should be the bridge," Illya said to the two of us
"then let's get moving," Roux said beginning into the hallway, I followed suit
the hall led us to a steep corridor that we had to climb it lead to a relatively flat area, the hallways seem to be twisted and heavily bent at this point, and any door that wasn't already open wasn't likely to be pulled open, this caused us to have to backtrack half a dozen or more times until we reached a large door that was close to the waypoint
"The bridge should be on the other side of this door" Illya spoke into my helmet, the door Clicked and slid open a small amount, This one took me putting my entire weight into it to get it to budge, but With Roux's help we got it open enough to step in, Roux climbed through the door first
"Aw shit" I heard her say from the other side
I quickly clambered through myself, my eyes were focused on her "what is it?-" it took a second for the bright light to catch my attention, but when it did, I looked over to it "-oh... shit"
We both looked to the center of the room where the bridge's command terminals would be, but all that was there was a Large badly mangled whole angled through the ship, barely missing the center console platform, which was now dangling into the massive whole, Structural beams were torn and could be seen stabbing into lower decks, and deck upon deck were smashed into single digit meter thick pancakes all around the whole.
We regained our composure and walked up to the edge of the hole near the consoles
"Roux, you find a place to plant your bomb, I'll get our friend into the system" I said, with Roux giving me a firm nod, I carefully started to shimmy my way out onto the hanging platform, I swear it moved with every step, It took me a few seconds to reach the platform, once I had a firm grip on the consoles, I took a second to breath before finding somewhere Illya could interact with, once I found it I felt her presence leave the back of my head
Illya's voice echoed from around the room "it will take me a few minutes to go through their data, but be warned to do this I'll need to power up ship systems, and the crew will likely figure out what's going on very quickly"
Roux looked up to me and beckoned me over
"Aye, try and be quick," I said to Illya as I quickly stepped back to the more solid part of the ship and joined Roux
"If they're bound to come to investigate, we can't just leave the bomb out in the open, but the only place I can think to hide it is... In there" she gestured to the whole
"Alright, what of it," I asked
"I'm not getting any closer to that thing if I can avoid it" she responded, my expression dropped as it clicked
"You're ordering me to do it" I raised an eyebrow
"More of a favour than an order, but if you won't do it as a favour it will become an order"
"Right, Then tie me in, I'll plant it"
Her expression lit up as I handed her my rope, she tied one end down, and then she handed me her bag, "just tie it down out of sight, and set up the activation trigger, We'll set it for a half hour timer, that should give us plenty of time to get out of range"
"Thirty minutes might 'just' give us enough time if we were already in our vehicles," I said from my braced position near the edge
"We can't risk a longer timer" she argued
"And we're likely to die with the time you're giving us" I argued back
Illya's distant voice spoke up "I could leave a subroutine in their systems to activate the ship's shields to hold in the detonation if I recall correctly Covenant shields have proven resistant to nuclear devices"
"Some reports say they don't affect them at all," Roux said disapprovingly of the AI's suggestion
"Roux, I think she's suggesting that she turns the shields on, so when the nuke detonates it will destroy the entirety of the cruiser, The shields are bound to fail from the generators melting, letting the weakened explosion rip the remainder of the camp to atomic dust" I Interjected harshly
I heard multiple happy key tones before Illya spoke again "In much the way you described it! It'd lessen the blow that we'd be well outside the blast range in our time limit"
Roux let out a small grumble, but she seemed to put the picture together "Yeah, That should work, but if my mission fails due to your meddling, I'll have your AI decommissioned and you court marshalled"
"Its a risk I'm willing to take" I said lowering myself down into the hole, It took me only a few moments to find the location Roux wanted the bomb, and I quickly tied it off and set up the activation trigger, and even ran a few tests to make sure it would work in our actual attempt, once I was done I climbed back up and gathered my things and got ready to recover Illya from her command terminal
the room fell silent for just over a minute before Illya's console chirped "Found it! Mappings from before the ship were shot down, and updated records from 'splash-down', Detailed maps of the covenants encampment"
I rushed back across the narrow path that led to her console and she returned to the back of my head, and a small data chip ejected from the terminal
"a backup," she said before pausing, "My subroutine says that the Covenant Battle Network was activated in my digging, and activity in it has spiked since its activation, I think they've caught on"
"then let's get out of here before they are crawling all over us"
"Right, just one last thing to do," I said switching my Com and hailing Dmitri
"What the hell have you two done, the bastards are scrambling around like an air raid siren is blaring" he responded
"We found our maps, but they have found out we're in here... Our spook friends have given us a surprise too, and I need you back at the hogs, like 5 minutes ago"
"What? there's no way we won't be seen if we head back now"
"I know, We need to evacuate, Now," I said calmly pressing the trigger button, and a small HUD timer came up, the box read 'HAVOC T-30:00' before it started counting down
Dmitri's tone was harsh "WHAT did you just do!"
"I'll explain if we survive, if we aren't at the hogs in 10 minutes, LEAVE"
Dmitri sounded angry "Jack will murder you if you die"
"I am aware, sir, Now get moving before its too late" I responded quickly before dropping the Com channel and un-slinging my rife. "let's get the hell out of here"
Roux gave me a half nod and readied her rifle as we moved towards the door
So... Long time no see, I'm not going to beat around the bush with this one, This chapter was nearly done back in early May, but due to the death of my Grandmother, I had put many things onto the back burner while I took my time to mourn, We knew it was coming and we had all made peace with the fact back around Christmas time, but The loss has put a hamper on my activity.
For those who know what happened last summer, it was similar to that, This time however I have refused to stop writing, I'm still doing my best to get days where I dedicate time to writing this story, because seeing people react to my content makes me happy just as much as it makes me anxious, but I love it none the less.
Please if you wish to send me condolences send them to me In my PM's, I'd rather the Reviews to be dedicated to story related reviews, tips, and suggestions, Thank you regardless for your consideration.
I hope this 1 & 1/2 length chapter is a good read, despite its setbacks.
The next chapter should hopefully be ready and out in about 2 months time, maybe sooner given my more free time due to summer, But I can't make too many promises in that regard.
I still have intentions to revamp the side story, to make it more in line with my newer style of writing, and eventually get around to updating previous chapters to neaten them up, make them fall in line as well, but this will most defiantly be a slow, irregular process.
Anyways,
As Always,
Semper Fi
LoyalODST aka William